Congressman David Schweikert was home in Fountain Hills to spend the Christmas holiday with family. He is the Republican Representative to the U.S. House from Arizona D-6. He talked to The Times early Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 23, after a late Monday, Dec. 21, vote on the $1 trillion COVID relief bill. Schweikert was a “no” vote on the package.

Schweikert essentially said that the bill was too much with too little time to consider.

“This is seven different pieces of legislation,” he said. “We had no ability for procedural options, and only four hours to look at the bill.

“This is the largest bill in history in terms of both number of pages and dollar amount,” Schweikert continued. “It was a difficult decision, there are so many people hurting and trying to keep their business going.”

He also expressed frustration that by comparison, over the past two years, he has been involved in working on a bill to lower the percentage of medical expenses that can be deducted and it has not moved due to partisan infighting.

As for a $2.3 trillion COVID relief bill passed by Democrats in the House earlier in the summer, Schweikert said that was all for show.

“That (bill) was never going to get a hearing in the Senate,” he said. “There was lots of money for specific constituencies – purely theatrical.”

Schweikert said during his time in Congress there has been a small group willing to work together in a bi-partisan effort, but that seems to be a thing of the past.

“There’s nothing to stop some of the partisan game play that has taken place the past four years,” he said.

To consider the 2020 election season “tense” may be an understatement. Schweikert has been re-elected several times with comfortable margins at the polls. In November, he retained his seat with a margin of victory of just over four percentage points in a contest against Democrat Dr. Hiral Tipirneni.

On Wednesday, Jan. 6, Congress will meet in joint session to canvass the results of the Electoral College vote, which favors President-Elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump 306-232.

There has been some discussion in the media and from supporters of President Trump that Congress could use this opportunity to overturn the Biden win.

“There is a lot of bad information regarding this,” Schweikert said. “It is a very complex procedure, conceivably you could end up with (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi as president.

“At best, there may be an opportunity to at least have a presentation of evidence, but even that is tricky.”

As for the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Schweikert believes it could have been managed much better at the federal level.

“I was very interested in a model with teams built to go into communities where there was a spike in cases,” Schweikert said.

This targeted model would get people the help and information they needed to reduce the virus. He indicated there were some political reasons this was not an acceptable approach.

He said locally, even looking across his district, communities have had varying success at handling the medical and economic aspects of the virus.

“The Fountain Hills Unified School District (Schweikert’s daughter is a student) has done a pretty good job when compared to others in (his congressional) district,” he said.

As for reports members of Congress are getting the vaccine, “I will take the vaccine when it’s my turn,” Schweikert said. “I don’t want to step in front of those who need it more.”

Schweikert said he is staying optimistic about the future.

“There is an opportunity for something very good to come out of a difficult year,” he said.

He said telemedicine is something he has advocated for in Congress for some time, and the pandemic has proven its viability. He noted that this extends beyond audio visual visits with doctors, it applies to medical conditions that can be monitored with personal devices.

“The time has come to take steps to make this permanent, it is proven that people use it, like it and it saves money,” Schweikert said.

He also believes Congress should move to help entrepreneurs who are starting over after the pandemic.

“I do see a bright side after a very tough year,” he said.