March 18, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 52 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S1797-S1798]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, I want to start my remarks by saying to 
the people of Massachusetts and families all across the country: Many 
of you are making big sacrifices--quarantining yourselves, postponing 
or canceling major events, dealing with closed schools and daycare. We 
are grateful.
  Right now, our primary goal needs to be to slow the spread of this 
virus, and we all share in that responsibility. So we thank you for 
everything you are doing to keep your loved ones and everyone else's 
loved ones safe at this time.
  We are at war with the coronavirus, and we need a massive wartime 
manufacturing mobilization for coronavirus testing kits and personal 
protective equipment for medical personnel and emergency responders. 
That is why, last weekend, I was the first to call on President Trump 
to immediately use existing authorities under the Defense Production 
Act to bring all of the power of the Federal Government to bear in 
mobilizing industry to meet this crisis. It is why I authored the 
Senate resolution calling on him to do so. It is why I spoke directly 
to Vice President Pence yesterday to urge the administration to take 
this critical action, and I am glad they are doing so.
  The Defense Production Act allows the Federal Government to direct 
supplies of critical materials and equipment that our hospitals and 
first responders need. It allows us to mobilize industry to expand 
production and gives us the power to coordinate industry to respond to 
this crisis. We need to fully use all of those powers that are provided 
under this law.

[[Page S1798]]

  That is why I am so glad President Trump has today invoked the power 
of the Defense Production Act to respond to the coronavirus crisis. I 
am glad he is exercising it. I am glad that after my conversation 
yesterday with Vice President Pence, they decided to put this on the 
agenda for our country.
  We need to massively increase private production of the lifesaving 
personal protective equipment, medical supplies and devices, and 
diagnostic testing supplies we need to combat this viral enemy. We need 
to activate our capable and talented domestic industry and bring the 
full weight of the Federal Government behind this effort.
  We are talking about gowns, gloves, face shields, surgical masks, N95 
respirators, ventilators, disinfectant wipes, and hand sanitizers. We 
do not have nearly enough of this lifesaving equipment.
  For instance, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 
estimates that the United States could need up to 3.5 billion 
respirator masks. Let me say that again. Our own Department of Health 
and Human Services says that we could need upwards of 3.5 billion 
respirator masks. But our strategic national stockpile, the country's 
emergency medical supply bank, holds only a tiny fraction of that, just 
12 million respirator masks--not 3.5 billion but 12 million.
  The medical community calls this personal protective equipment 
``PPE,'' but ``PPE'' also stands for a ``promise to protect everyone,'' 
and this is a promise we should make and keep for our hospital 
personnel, first responders, and patients. Invoking the powers of the 
Defense Production Act will help ensure that we can keep this promise 
to our American heroes who are on the frontlines of battling this 
epidemic.
  I have been in regular contact with the Massachusetts Health and 
Hospital Association and the Massachusetts Nurses Association, and both 
have issued a terrible alarm: There are insufficient medical equipment 
and supplies to test and treat affected individuals and protect 
healthcare workers and first responders. For example, the Berkshire 
hospital told me that they required 3,500 respirator masks a day. That 
is 35,000 in just 10 days for the Berkshire hospital, which is in the 
least populated part of our State--for just that one smaller hospital. 
Yet the entire State of Massachusetts recently received only 70,000 of 
these respirator masks. That is not nearly enough. We do not want our 
nurses and our doctors reusing or rationing masks.
  Additionally, hospitals and labs across the Nation are trying to ramp 
up testing capacity but face shortages in test kits and supplies. But 
we need to dramatically scale up testing and ensure our continued 
ability to test. Our Nation must be able to conduct tens or hundreds of 
thousands of tests daily, ultimately testing millions of people over 
the course of our response. That means producing swabs, which we are 
now running short of, and other testing materials.
  We have used the Defense Production Act before--during the Korean 
war--to mobilize defense infrastructure and during the Cold War. Make 
no mistake, we are facing an equally deadly enemy in this virus, and we 
need to bring all of our authority and resources to bear to defeat it.
  All of us owe a debt of gratitude to our frontline health and medical 
care workforce. They don't have a roadmap for what is happening right 
now. It is unprecedented. They just have skills, a commitment, and the 
hearts of heroes. We owe them the resources they need to be protected 
in order to do their jobs.
  Sadly, this pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better. I 
had been calling for the President to declare a national emergency, 
which he finally did last week. Now that he has done so, we need 
Massachusetts to get all of the funding that is due. I have been in 
regular contact with Governor Baker and Mayor Walsh, and I will support 
their requests for Federal resources.
  As the Senate works on an economic relief package that matches the 
scale of this crisis, we need to ensure that we put people and family 
first--no half measures, no hidden bailouts and giveaways just to big 
corporations: paid sick time for all workers; unemployment insurance 
for all workers, including for tipped workers, gig workers, 
contractors, home workers; expansion of SNAP, WIC, and other food 
security programs; no evictions, no cutting off of utilities, no 
cutting off of Wi-Fi; halting all deportations and releasing of 
detained immigrants who pose no threat to public safety; provide free 
Wi-Fi to low-income households with students who cannot afford it but 
are going to be at home because of school closures so that we don't 
have a huge homework gap that now explodes in our country, as poorer 
children don't have access to the Wi-Fi technology at home, so they can 
learn at the same pace that kids who just happen to live in wealthier 
families will have. We cannot allow that to happen. These kids should 
be able to learn at home, regardless of their income. We need free Wi-
Fi for those kids. We have to reimburse our States and cities and 
Tribes. They are bearing the brunt of this crisis, and they need 
resources immediately.
  My commitment to protecting the health professionals, ensuring the 
consumers, workers, and families of Massachusetts get relief from the 
impacts of the coronavirus is my No. 1 priority. We have to protect the 
small businesses in our country. We have to make sure they receive the 
resources they need. Millions and millions of small businesses right 
now are feeling enormous stress. We have to make it possible for them 
to receive the relief they need, the help they need in order to 
survive, and we have to put upfront whatever the capacity is to make 
sure they get the resources they need. If that system in our country, 
where 48 percent of all workers are employed--small businesses in our 
country--and they are living on the margin, then we are going to have 
an economic catastrophe by August or September where millions of these 
small businesses will just declare bankruptcy. That is the bottom-line 
economic fact of the matter. We have to give them help, and we have to 
make sure we have the resources inside the Federal Government--the 
personnel--that will ensure we can deliver that relief too.
  To the people of Massachusetts, I want you to know I am here for you, 
and I will help any of you individually who need any assistance during 
this emergency. This current moment may call for distancing and 
isolation, but we cannot and should not sever our basic human 
connections to one another because we are all in this together.
  I want to end with the most important remark. We must continue to 
listen to the guidance of scientists and medical professionals. This 
pandemic is unprecedented and will require an unprecedented 
mobilization and response at every level of society. We can get through 
this, but it will require a commitment from every single one of us. We 
are one big family in the United States. Many families are going to be 
suffering. It is going to be our job to make sure that we protect those 
families, and it is the job of this institution to do so. We are the 
legislative first responders. We are the ones who have to provide the 
resources that then allow the first responders, the families in every 
community across our country to have the resources to help everyone in 
our society. That is our goal.
  A pandemic should know no partisanship. Let us come together and 
produce the big package our country right now so desperately needs.
  With that, I yield back.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas

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