March 31, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 63 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E339-E341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. PRAMILA JAYAPAL

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, March 27, 2020

  Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 748, the 
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. On 
Thursday, the United States gained the unfortunate distinction of being 
the country with the largest number of known COVID-19 cases in the 
world. As people across the country struggle to stem the COVID-19 
pandemic, this bill is an urgently needed $2 trillion disaster-relief 
package that delivers immediate support to individuals, families, and 
small businesses across the country, while also providing worker-
centered relief for some industries.
  My home state of Washington has been reeling from the spread of 
COVID-19, with over 3,200 cases and 147 deaths as of last night. I am 
so proud that we have one of the finest public health systems in the 
country, but it is under siege--as are our healthcare institutions, our 
economy, and my constituents. I have been focusing my efforts wholly 
and completely on ensuring that we in Congress do everything in our 
power to deliver a response from the Federal government that matches 
the enormous scale of this crisis.
  This bill is an important step in that direction, though we will 
certainly need to do even more. The CARES Act puts $100 billion into 
ensuring hospitals and healthcare providers can cover COVID-19-related 
costs and $200 million to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in nursing 
homes. Importantly, after years of disinvestment in the Strategic 
National Stockpile, the CARES Act adds $16 billion to the Stockpile to 
provide essential personal protective equipment for our frontline 
workers and emergency responders.
  This bill also includes a critical priority for me: the largest 
expansion of unemployment insurance in decades to ensure that most 
workers get nearly 100 percent of their pre-layoff wage without 
traditional restrictions. It also creates a special Pandemic 
Unemployment Assistance program to provide relief to those who may be 
ineligible for regular unemployment benefits, like gig workers and 
people who are self-employed.
  Because people are suffering right now, I believe we must include 
direct cash support to individuals. I had advocated for double the 
amount that is in the bill, for monthly instead of a one-time payment, 
and for everyone to be included. We were not able to get that. However, 
the CARES Act delivers $1,200 per adult and $500 per child in cash 
relief to the vast majority of everyday people to immediately help put 
cash in people's pockets to pay those mounting bills.

[[Page E340]]

  To keep people in their homes, the bill provides $3 billion in rental 
assistance. It enacts a 120-day moratorium on evictions for properties 
receiving federal assistance as well as a 60-day foreclosure moratorium 
on federally backed mortgages and up to 180 days of forbearance. The 
bill also includes crucial funding to the Emergency Services Grant to 
ensure we are providing care to people experiencing homelessness. 
However, we still need a real response to the surge of homelessness in 
this time of crisis. My Housing is a Human Right Act, introduced last 
week, puts important measures on the table to ensure that we address 
homelessness in the short and longer-term.
  One of the most important things I heard from my district was the 
pain and suffering of small business owners and non-profits of all 
sizes. The CARES Act creates a Payment Protection Program that helps 
businesses keep workers on payroll, through $350 billion in forgivable 
loans that can also be used for payroll, rent, utilities, and other 
necessary costs that will help small businesses weather the crisis. 
Small businesses will also have some opportunity to receive direct 
grants of $10,000 as an emergency bridge loan. The bill creates 
safeguards to protect against employers gaming the program. It also 
recognizes that some employers will be forced to do temporary 
furloughs, but then bring their employees back on. This is a pro-worker 
provision that will incentivize employers to avoid layoffs. It is 
crucial that we in Congress ensure that these loans are carefully 
managed and scrutinized to prevent predatory lenders from taking 
advantage of desperate times to force unfair or exploitative loan terms 
on small businesses, and to prevent bundling or repackaging in ways 
that would create expanded economic inequality or lead to the unstable 
market conditions that caused the last major recession.
  On education, the bill invests over $30 billion for states, school 
districts, and institutions of higher education to help alleviate the 
challenges educators, students, and families are struggling with in 
light of school and childcare center closures. This is especially acute 
for students with disabilities, English language learners, and students 
experiencing homelessness. However, as state budgets decline due to the 
pandemic response, it will be critical for Congress to step in and 
ensure equity for our nation's students. Specifically, Congress must 
take further steps to address the ``homework gap'' and ensure the tens 
of millions of students at home have the technology they need to ensure 
they do not fall behind.
  The CARES Act also helps borrowers facing insurmountable student loan 
payments during the pandemic. It suspends payments for all federally-
held student loans through September 30, 2020, during which time 
interest will not accrue, and borrowers will continue to receive credit 
toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Income-Driven Repayment 
forgiveness, and loan rehabilitation. It also prohibits forced 
collections such as garnishment of wages, tax refunds, and Social 
Security benefits, and negative credit reporting during this time 
period. While the bill does require the Education Secretary to keep 
borrowers apprised of when normal payments will resume after the 
pandemic ends, Congress will need to exert strong oversight over 
servicers and Department of Education to ensure that students aren't 
penalized for taking advantage of this program. I am disappointed that 
millions of borrowers holding over $300 billion in private student 
loans, federal Perkins loans, and commercially held federal student 
loans are left out of the relief this bill provides. There is no doubt 
that Congress must take significant additional steps to expand student 
debt relief during this pandemic to avoid another crisis that followed 
the last financial meltdown. Adopting pieces of my College for All Act 
and, at a minimum, cancelling student loan debt for the duration of 
this crisis would not only provide enormous relief and avoid fiscal 
cliffs for student loan borrowers, it would also contribute to 
stimulating the economy as we move into recovery. I will be pushing for 
this in the next package.

  It is critically important that we immediately address the unique 
funding delays that Native American tribes have faced in the COVID-19 
response and supports chronically underfunded programs in the Indian 
Health Service. I'm proud that this bill begins to do that. It ensures 
Native American Tribes, Tribally owned businesses and Native American 
owned business have equal access to federal COVID-19 economic recovery 
resources by establishing an $8 billion Tribal Coronavirus Relief fund 
and ensuring parity in access to other crucial programs to help Native 
American communities across the country.
  There is no question that this bill is not perfect. There are many 
things in our Democratic House bill that reflect the urgency and scale 
of the crisis that did not make it into this bill. There are also 
things in the bill that Republicans insisted on--such as a $500 billion 
``slush fund'' for the Treasury Secretary--that allow for giant 
corporations to get enormous amounts of taxpayer dollars with little 
oversight or accountability. We must immediately work to strengthen 
those accountability provisions and ensure that there is real authority 
for the Oversight Panel that was established as a last-minute 
concession to Republicans. We should use the kinds of worker-centered 
conditions that we were able to include in the provisions on airline 
industry assistance as a model: ensuring that funds go to support the 
payroll and benefits of employees, prohibiting stock buybacks and 
dividends, as well as real limitations on executive compensation for 
corporations that receive taxpayer assistance. That will ensure that 
corporations and CEOs are not getting blank checks while millions of 
people remain unemployed, without paid leave or health care during this 
crisis and the subsequent recovery period.
  Nor is this package sufficient. Unfortunately, the scale of this 
crisis is enormous and we are only beginning to see the devastation it 
will wreak on our families, communities, and economy. I will 
immediately begin drafting priorities for the next package. These will 
include: more money for states and localities, our health care system, 
and a strong and robust safety net that includes everyone. We must 
ensure health care--from testing to treatment to recovery--for everyone 
without costs. We have to immediately fix the fact that too many 
immigrants--including those who are working right now to guarantee food 
is put into food banks and on tables across the country--are excluded 
from any relief we have passed, simply because they are undocumented, 
DACA and TPS recipients, or legal permanent residents who have been 
here for less than five years. This is immoral. COVID-19 does not 
discriminate based on country of origin or immigration status and our 
relief packages cannot discriminate either.
  Our next package must include strong protections against price-
gouging, including a specific mandate that the Federal Trade Commission 
prioritize and proactively prosecute cases of COVID-related price 
gouging, and safeguards to prevent large corporate mergers from taking 
place while oversight bodies are distracted by this pandemic. And all 
federal agencies must temporarily halt all rulemaking that is unrelated 
to COVID-19 as our states and municipalities struggle to respond to 
urgent community needs.
  In addition, we must ensure that robust paid leave provisions apply 
to all workers in this time of crisis, including at companies that 
employ 500 or more workers. These large companies are best situated to 
implement leave policies that will be most impactful in preventing the 
spread of COVID. It is vitally important that they play their part 
during this pandemic and meet, at minimum, the paid leave standards we 
laid out in our second relief package for small businesses. We also 
must protect seniors and people with disabilities who rely on homecare 
and direct care workers to live independently by continuing to add 
Medicaid FMAP increases that specifically allow for higher wages, paid 
leave, and safety equipment for this crucial workforce. In this time 
when so many working parents are struggling to both care for children 
and work, we must also ensure that the childcare providers funded 
through Childcare Development Block Grants are paid living wages and 
have access to paid leave. Further, large on-demand companies that 
benefit from the labor of low-wage workers, but classify those workers 
as independent contractors, must pay their fair share and put money 
into the unemployment insurance state system.
  Our next package must immediately enact strong OSHA emergency 
standards to protect our frontline health care workers. This was 
stripped out by Republicans and that is unconscionable. Failure to 
include these protections will devastate our frontline workers in 
health care and other critical functions that we need to keep our 
communities functioning even during Stay Home orders. As our nation 
depends on health care workers and other essential employees to help 
and protect all of us from the spread of COVID-19, the very least we 
can do is require employers to take the necessary steps to mitigate 
hazards that jeopardize worker safety and health.
  Finally, we must also protect the health and safety of people in the 
criminal justice and immigration detention systems. These people are 
dependent on the government for everything; and it is incumbent on us 
to ensure their safety. People should not have to go on hunger strike 
to get soap simply so they can follow public health guidance and wash 
their hands--one of the most basic protections to guard against the 
spread of COVID-19. These jails, prisons, and detention centers are so 
crowded, it is nearly impossible to practice social distancing in 
congregate settings. We must immediately take basic steps to reduce the 
risk of what would be a catastrophic outbreak in institutional 
settings. First, we must release as many people as we can, starting 
with those who are most vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, such as 
people who are age 50 and over and people with medical conditions. The 
criminal justice and immigration

[[Page E341]]

detention systems have a broad menu of alternatives to detention to 
facilitate release--we have a duty to use them. Second, for those who 
remain in custody, these facilities must do the essential work to 
prevent the spread of COVID-19 in close consultation with public health 
officials.
  I am proud of House Democrats who fought very hard to include many of 
these protections and issues in our House bill. It is unfortunate that 
Republicans fought us on so much. However, at the end of the day, this 
is still a bold, bipartisan, and urgently necessary bill to deliver 
critically timed relief to individuals, families, businesses, and 
communities across the country who are suffering and I am proud to cast 
my vote for its passage. This is a crisis of epic proportions and we 
must continue to do everything we can to respond with the scale 
sufficient to address the suffering of people across our country. I am 
also proud to represent a district and a state that has responded with 
so much compassion, caring, and commitment, and I will continue to 
fight for all my constituents as we weather this together.

                          ____________________