After Exhausting Themselves Doing Nothing, Tillis and Burr Head Out for a Three Week Vacation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

August 14, 2020

After Exhausting Themselves Doing Nothing, Tillis and Burr Head Out for a Three Week Vacation

Tillis and Burr Hadn’t Had a Vacation Since Their Two Weeks Off in July

Raleigh, N.C. - Yesterday, without addressing a permanent legislative fix for $600 federal unemployment payments, desperately needed state and local aid, or any other economic  stimulus, Senator Thom Tillis and Senator Richard Burr took off for a three week vacation until after Labor Day. This will be a much-needed respite for North Carolina’s senators who haven’t had time off since the Senate’s two week vacation in July.

During the few days they did work this summer, Tillis, Burr, and their Senate Republican allies managed to propose a stimulus bill that slashed enhanced unemployment payments by $400, watch that bill crash and burn in the face of bipartisan opposition, let $600 unemployment payments expire altogether, and then hide behind executive orders that are a “short term stunt” that provide “little meaningful aid to workers.”

Thanks to Tillis’ work in the state legislature, North Carolina has some of the worst state unemployment in the country, and North Carolinians are now exhausting their unemployment faster than residents of other states.

“While Senators Tillis and Burr take the next three weeks to relax and recharge, struggling North Carolinians will be wondering how they put food on the table, avoid eviction, and pay for prescription drugs,” said Piedmont Rising Executive Director Casey Wilkinson. “Tillis and Burr are completely detached from North Carolina’s economic reality if they think that after doing nothing to prevent federal unemployment insurance from expiring, they deserve a second summer vacation. Instead, they should call on Mitch McConnell to bring the Senate back on Monday and get an economic relief bill done for struggling North Carolina families.”

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