Brown says Biden’s first moves as president should be COVID relief, voting rights

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D- Ohio) said on Sunday that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s first priorities as president should be passing coronavirus relief legislation and a new version of the Voting Rights Act. 

Lawmakers have been unable to send a new coronavirus relief measure to the White House since the end of March as Democrats and Republicans battle over the size of the package and its contents. 

Brown in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” called the relief package “the first really big thing” that should be done, adding that it should provide funding for rental assistance and to improve the country’s infrastructure, and allow schools to reopen safely. 

“It’s ending this pandemic and getting the economy back on track which Donald Trump has not only failed… Donald Trump doesn’t even have a plan for a second term, having no idea what to do about this pandemic,” Brown said. 

Brown also said the John Lewis Voting Rights Act should be a priority “to restore voting rights that the Supreme Court has taken away.”

The Supreme Court in 2013 struck down a key part of the Voting Rights Act that required election officials in certain states to get federal permission, from the Justice Department or the courts, before they were allowed to make changes to state election processes. 

The bill named after Lewis, a Civil Rights legend who died earlier this year, would restore requirements for these saes.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnunchin are negotiating a coronavirus package that could land between $1.8 trillion and $2.2 trillion. 

Senate Republicans have said they oppose a package that large, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)  said on Tuesday that if they reached an agreement, he would bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.