flensr

The congressmen work very hard to make sure that money funnels through their districts and to the pockets of their financial backers. If they wrote, debated, and voted on the relief bill by itself, it would be smaller, get the relief to the people who need it faster, but those congressmen who make $250k/year salary wouldn't be able to build their net worth to several million bucks.

It's pretty simple. They'll add a line specifying $50 million to rebuild a road through a specific area where the only contractor just happens to be the guy who donated a million bucks to the congresscritter's re-election campaign, or who has a non-profit foundation that hires his spouse as a "consultant", or... That's how they get rich sitting in congress and will do anything to get re-elected, and will do anything to keep bills like this from being openly debated and passed on their own.