At First Hearing, Summer Lee Blasts Republican Attack on Relief Programs that Kept Hundreds of PA Families out of Poverty 

“This Isn’t politics for Me. It’s the difference between life or death for my community” 

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Today, Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12) spoke at her first Oversight and Accountability Committee Hearing on COVID-19 relief spending, where Republicans attacked the pandemic relief programs that experts estimate reduced the poverty rate in 2021 by more than 12 million people and reduced child poverty by 56%.

Congresswoman Summer Lee said, “This isn’t just politics for me. 

“Every single day as a state legislator during the pandemic I heard over and over and over the desperate calls of folks unable to access food banks, people facing the risk of homelessness, folks literally contemplating suicide, unable to eat or work. Every call was a real Pennsylvanian, a real person whose literal lives relied on the same benefits my colleagues see fit to criticize this morning. 

“When these programs were ended in September 2021, there were 174,572 people receiving the pandemic emergency and 387,932 people receiving the pandemic unemployment assistance in the Pittsburgh metro area. The pandemic relief was literally the difference between life and death for my community and for communities across the country.”