Georgia Republicans Ask Perdue and Loeffler to Stand with Georgia Over McConnell

Republican leaders of Georgia’s appropriations committees formally request federal help after McConnell said that states should have “an option” to “use the bankruptcy route” instead of receiving federal aid

ATLANTA — Today, a new report revealed Republican leaders of both the State House and State Senate appropriations committees formally asked Georgia’s congressional delegation to secure needed federal relief for Georgia as the state faces a multi-billion dollar budget crisis from the coronavirus outbreak. But still no word from Senators David Perdue or Kelly Loeffler if they’ll stand with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell instead, who thinks that states should have “an option” to just “use the bankruptcy route.”

Rather than siding with his fellow Georgians, Perdue has already proclaimed that “we don’t want to bail out” states, and last week even joined a conference call hosted by his Koch network backers that called for rejecting “handouts” for state governments. And Senator Kelly Loeffler has already pledged to stand behind McConnell and Republican leadership “100%,” even if McConnell still struggles to stand behind her after her stock trading scandal.

Yet despite Georgia already facing “the worst fiscal crisis…since the Great Recession” before this outbreak, both Perdue and Loeffler supported Republican efforts to block $150 billion for state and local governments from the last coronavirus relief bill. Now, with members of their own party calling out for federal help and 200,000 Georgia state workers on the line, Perdue and Loeffler still can’t stand up for Georgia over McConnell. 

“With Georgia facing a multi-billion dollar budget crisis as a result of this outbreak, it’s time for Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler to listen to Georgians, not Mitch McConnell,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Elected officials on both sides of the aisle know our state needs federal relief — even if Perdue and Loeffler are too afraid to stand up for Georgia.”

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