Washington – Wyoming Congresswoman and House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the House floor before the passage of the CARES Act, which was approved today by a voice vote. 

Watch the video here, and see the transcript below:

REP. LIZ CHENEY: Mr. Speaker, 67 years ago yesterday, Dr. Jonas Salk announced that the United States had successfully tested a vaccine to prevent polio, a dreaded virus that afflicted tens of thousands of Americans. Mr. Speaker, we have beaten terrible diseases before, and we will again.

When we were attacked on 9/11, our heroes were the firefighters and police officers who ran towards the burning buildings. The citizens who stormed the cockpit of Flight 93 who put their own lives at risk. Mr. Speaker, we have those same heroes today. Today, they are the thousands of nurses and doctors and countless other health care professionals, and their staff who work in our hospitals and clinics and provide the greatest care anywhere in the world. We owe them our deepest gratitude. But Mr. Speaker, we also owe them every tool, every piece of equipment, and every resource they need to save lives.

Mr. Speaker, we also have a duty to our parents and our grandparents. In this greatest nation on Earth, we protect the sick and the most vulnerable. We owe all we have to our mothers and our fathers, to the generations who came before, and we must do all we can now to protect them.

All of us, Mr. Speaker, are called into the service of this blessed nation at this time of challenge, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans. This pathogen does not recognize party lines, and no partisan solution will defeat it. Neither will the government acting alone. It will take all the ingenuity and innovation of the American private sector working with our federal, state, and local governments. This is not a time for cynicism or invective or second-guessing. This is a time to remember that we are citizens of the greatest nation on Earth, that we have overcome every challenge we have faced, and we will overcome this one.

We are one nation, Mr. Speaker. We should all be rooting for our President to succeed, for New York Governor Cuomo to succeed, for California Governor Newsom to succeed, for Wyoming’s Governor Mark Gordon to succeed. Indeed, we must do everything we can to help every state and every governor in our great union. The bill we are voting on today is a crucial step.

On the Sunday after 9/11, my family worshiped at Evergreen Chapel at Camp David with the families of cabinet officials and service members who were assigned there, many of whom would go on to serve overseas in the following years. That morning, as our nation faced another time of testing, the chaplain urged us to work as though everything depends on you, because it does, and pray as though everything depends on God, because it does.

We will defeat this virus. We will restore our economy. We will heal our nation. We are Americans. I yield back.