None of this is unrelated, which y’all would know if any of you understood what the bill is actually aiming to do: provide relief for the current situation and prevent this from being needed in the future.
So let’s go through this a bit:
The elections-related stuff is aimed at reducing the risk of transmitting diseases and viruses by enacting a federal mandate for states to expand voter access to safe and secure vote-by-mail, same-day voter registration, and early voting. Increased access to both vote-by-mail and early voting is a way of decreasing the amount of people showing up at one time to vote on Election Day (and therefore providing a hotbed for germs to spread). And one of the ways that safe and secure voting is assured? Conducting election audits.
The “postal service bailout” is designed to keep our postal service working properly so people can stay home (and thus reduce community transmission of the coronavirus) while still having safe and prompt access to things they need. Having a prompt and functional postal service is ESPECIALLY important for those who have to completely quarantine and cannot leave their homes.
The pay equity clause is designed to ensure that workers/employees that come from marginalized backgrounds will not be disproportionately affected, left out, or fired as a result of the relief bill. It’s placing a CONDITION on businesses and companies (which is a part of ANY loan, relief package, or grant) to say “if we’re going to give you this money that you want, you HAVE to treat your employees fairly and equitably.”
Likewise, the corporate board demographics clause is designed to give employee and worker representation on corporate boards so that employees have a say in how the business operates (most importantly, in how they treat their workers). This is not a ridiculous condition considering that not listening to their workers when they want to be paid fairly and treated well is one of the reasons we’re in this mess in the first place.
The collective bargaining IS, in fact, designed to help people during the COVID crisis. Some of the HUGE issues that keep getting brought up in this crisis is the lack of paid sick leave, the lack of paid family leave, the refusal of companies to adequately protect their employees from harm, and the chronic underpayment that low-wage workers face. Basically: companies screwing over their employees in both wages and benefits, which leads to a workforce that CANNOT AFFORD to take two weeks off from work to stop the spread of a fucking pandemic. Ensuring collective bargaining rights gives workers some power over this situation and can help prevent something like what is currently happening from happening again in the future.
The emissions and climate-related issues are for the companies, not consumers. This is a bill that is casting a wide net and is dealing in relief for both companies AND consumers AND employees. The bill deals with families struggling to pay rent AND businesses that need to have more transparency in their business dealings. This isn’t an either-or bill. We can walk and talk and chew gum at the same time. Being more transparent about their business dealings, including how said dealings affect the climate, can help prevent solvency issues in the future. And once again, those bits are conditions for businesses receiving aid (which again, is part of any loan, grant, or relief package).
As staff of a community newspaper, I’m sorry but was Congress assuring that our potential retirement compensation is protected during a pandemic when newspapers are shutting down left and right and many of us are being indefinitely laid off because of rapidly decreasing ad revenue (due to the state lockdowns) somehow abhorrent to you?
It’s amazing how much cherry-picking people like OP will do on a massive, comprehensive thousand-page bill and not actually take into consideration what the bill is actually designed to do and engage in some basic critical thinking and connect-the-dots on how those things help those currently affected and hopefully prevent such measures from being needed again in the future.
