May 20, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 95 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S2520-S2524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     EXECUTIVE CALENDAR--Continued

  Mr. SASSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kennedy). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                                 China

  Mr. SASSE. Mr. President, I had not planned to make a floor speech 
right now, but I wanted to commend you on both your legislation and on 
an important point that I think you enumerated both for this body and 
for the Americans watching.
  First of all, good piece of legislation. I supported it. I wanted it 
to move out of the Banking Committee and get to the floor. It is 
important legislation. Congratulations, and thanks for your leadership.
  Second of all, as you began your speech, you distinguished between 
the Chinese people and the Chinese Communist Party. I think many of us 
are worried that the No. 1 long-term national security threat this 
country faces is the technology race with the Chinese Communist Party 
and the way that they use fake private sector companies to steal from 
U.S. public and private sector entities.
  When we talk about the problems--those of us who would consider 
ourselves China hawks--we regularly end up using a shorthand, 
``China,'' when we have all spent a lot of time in the SCIF and in 
private, and we know we mean the Chinese Communist Party, but we don't 
always adequately qualify that for people who may be entering the 
debate or new to the debate or looking to politicize the debate.
  So I think it was very important, the points that you made that our 
enemy here is not the 1.4 billion Chinese people; our opponent here is 
the Chinese Communist Party, which is only about 90 million people--6 
or 7 percent of the population--and even a lot of those people don't 
actually believe Communist propaganda and nonsense about the fact that 
so many of their people and people beyond their borders are not 
perceived by the Chinese Communist Party as actually having dignity. 
Some people just join the party because they need to for local 
reasons--to get ahead or to maintain their property or their entities.
  So the Chinese Communist Party is a tiny subset of what is happening 
in China, and our battle, our fight, our problems are not with the 
Chinese people; they are with the Chinese Communist Party.
  One of the ways I learned this lesson was by having used a shorthand 
for

[[Page S2521]]

Vladimir Putin a few times in the past, and I said ``Russia'' when I 
meant ``Vladimir Putin.''
  I think the American people stand interested not just in the future 
of the Chinese people but also of the Russian people, and both these 
countries are led by some really bad actors.
  One time I made a speech here on the floor about some of the terrible 
things Vladimir Putin was doing to oppress his people and to meddle in 
our election and other elections.
  After the speech, which I thought covered the points I needed to 
cover, Gary Kasparov, the former world chess champion, came and said: 
Can I talk to you?
  We went to lunch, and he said: If you actually want to fight against 
Vladimir Putin--because freedom-loving people in the United States and 
in Russia should be opposed to Vladimir Putin--it would be helpful that 
you not, in disparaging Vladimir Putin, say a whole bunch of bad stuff 
about the word ``Russia'' and you accidentally--he said to me--referred 
to our problem as ``Russia'' when you meant ``Putin.''
  I think I have learned that lesson with regard to Russia, but I think 
a lot of us around here don't always sufficiently distinguish between 
China and the Chinese Communist Party.
  So I just wanted to affirm and underscore your message--not just good 
legislation that is good for Americans, is good for investors in the 
United States and abroad, is good for a level playing field, but as we 
oppose the bad actions of the Chinese Communist Party--their 
intellectual property theft and their manipulation of currency and 
numbers and public health data and on and on and on--our opponent is 
not the Chinese people, and we should say that both so the American 
people understand it and so that the Chinese people understand it. So I 
commend you on the way you introduced your legislation today.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. McSally). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, I rise today to engage in a colloquy 
with Senators Cassidy, Collins, and my fellow Senator from New Jersey, 
Senator Booker, and I ask unanimous consent that they be acknowledged 
in that order and that they be allowed to complete their remarks.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                               SMART Act

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, as our Nation grapples with the COVID-
19 pandemic, our State, county, and municipal governments have been on 
the frontlines taking a leading role in responding to this crisis. As a 
result, they have been squeezed on both sides of the ledger, spending 
billions of dollars in unforeseen costs on emergency response while 
watching as revenues dry up due to necessary stay-at-home orders and 
the closure of non-essential businesses.
  The emergency protective measures have been effective at flattening 
the curve and have no doubt saved thousands of lives, but they also 
came with a cost. All revenue sources are down. Sales tax revenue has 
plummeted with businesses closed. Highway trust funds won't have the 
resources to do basic road maintenance. Downtown parking meters are 
going empty due to people observing social distancing. Building permits 
and municipal court fees have fallen.
  Unless we act soon, we will see mass layoffs, devastating tax 
increases, and a breakdown in public safety and essential services. 
Already, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that State and local 
governments laid off 1 million public employees in April. This 
challenge is true for every State, county, city, and town in the 
country.
  The State Municipal Assistance for Response and Transition, or SMART 
Act, is the bold, bipartisan, and commonsense solution we need to give 
our communities a fighting chance and stop the economy from free-
falling. It provides $500 billion in flexible Federal dollars that will 
help our communities dramatically expand the testing capacity and 
contact tracing we need to contain the virus--a necessary step in 
restoring consumer confidence and to restart the economy. It will help 
stave off massive layoffs, tax hikes, and deep, painful cuts to 
essential services. It will keep our police officers, firefighters, 
public health workers, teachers, and other essential employees on the 
job during this critical time, because it is not just about defeating 
COVID-19; we still need to keep our streets safe, our children 
learning, the trash picked up, the roads maintained, and the buses and 
trains running on time.
  I hear some of my colleagues speak from this floor, calling not for 
unity but for division. They callously ignore the pleas for help from 
their fellow Americans, comforted by the selfish but mistaken belief 
that their communities are immune to the fiscal Armageddon facing our 
communities. Let me be clear. When your revenues drop 30 percent 
overnight, it really doesn't matter how fiscally responsible or 
conservative your State budget is; no one can prepare for that.
  Moody's just reported that States like Ohio and Arizona are facing 
the fiscal shock of losing 20 percent of their entire budget, and West 
Virginia, 40 percent. This is not a red State or blue State issue; this 
is a red, white, and blue issue. It is an American priority.
  In December of 1862, during the height of the Civil War, President 
Lincoln wrote the following message to Congress: ``In times like the 
present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be 
responsible through time and eternity.''
  I believe that history will look kindly upon those who stood for 
unity and compromise over demagoguery, those who put the well-being of 
the country over scoring partisan points, those who stuck out their 
necks and took a political risk for no other reason than it was the 
right thing to do.
  I am proud of the bipartisan coalition we have built, and I want to 
thank each of my colleagues for their work and their commitment to 
rebuilding our communities--Senator Cassidy, who has led this effort 
with me, Senator Hyde-Smith; Senator Manchin, Senator Collins, and my 
partner in New Jersey, Senator Booker.
  With that, I turn to my friend from Louisiana, the distinguished 
Senator who exemplifies these qualities and has been an incredible 
partner in crafting this legislation and building this coalition over 
the past month.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, I thank Senator Menendez and return the 
compliment. We have worked through a lot of issues to find a bill that 
meets a valid, public purpose that can pass on a bipartisan basis in 
both Chambers. I thank Senator Menendez for working with me on that.
  The title of this bill is the ``SMART Act,'' but in retrospect, I 
wish we had renamed it ``the Thin Blue Line Act'' because this is about 
helping cities and States preserve essential services such as police, 
fire, and education for the reopening of our economy.
  Let's just kind of review. The Federal Government asked that State 
and local governments shut down their economy in order to control the 
coronavirus, and just like those small businesses closed at the behest 
of the government authority, so did State and local governments close, 
if you will, at the behest of the Federal authority. But what that did 
is it devastated the tax basis.
  Moody's, which Senator Menendez already alluded to, the independent 
agency that looks at the finances of cities and States, has said that 
if your State is dependent upon income tax, upon sales tax, upon 
tourism, and upon proceeds from energy, you have been hammered. Your 
tax base has fallen dramatically, and with the dramatic fall of that 
tax base comes a dramatic fall in the ability to support the thin blue 
line--the educators, the firefighters, the you name it, the essential 
services that are essential to the reopening of our economy when we 
come out the backside of this epidemic.
  Now, it has already happened. Moody's predicts that 3 million of 
these essential workers will be laid off. I am told that 1 million 
already have been. You can read about universities laying people off, 
but let's go back to the thin blue line.
  The city of Shreveport, LA, just put out a budget in which there is a 
$20

[[Page S2522]]

million hit to their city budget overall, and $3.9 million was, 
unfortunately, laid upon law enforcement and 54 positions eliminated.
  Now, I am told that some Federal dollars came through and allowed the 
restoration of some of those positions, which, if you will, is a proof 
in concept that if there is help from the Federal taxpayer to the State 
and local taxpayer--because they are one in the same--then, these 
essential services can be preserved. And we know that if those police 
positions are preserved, then, that downtown in Shreveport is more 
likely to safely reopen for commerce.
  Now, we talked about Moody's predicting loss of revenue. Louisiana is 
predicted to lose 45 percent of its revenue, but there are other States 
affected. New Jersey, Maine, Florida, Oklahoma, Michigan, Idaho, 
Alaska, Arizona, and Illinois are all predicted to lose large sums of 
tax revenue.
  So let me speak specifically about the SMART Act, or, again, as I 
call it, the ``Thin Blue Line'' bill. It is a reasonable, bipartisan, 
``this is how we go forward'' bill in both Chambers. We picked $500 
billion. Some would say: Well, that is too much. Actually, that was the 
amount of money that Moody's predicts State and local governments will 
lack over the next year and a half. So we actually kind of nail where 
the independent agency puts the need for our State and our local 
government, and it is targeted.
  One, there has been a lot of concern that this would be used to 
``bail out States,'' that those who have accumulated a large, unfunded 
accrued liability in their pension funds would use that money to 
support those pension funds. We specifically do not allow that. So if 
that is somebody's political concern, that has been addressed.
  What do we do? Well, first, a third of the dollars can go out now 
because it is based upon population. This recognizes that if California 
has 31 million people and Wyoming has 500,000, there needs to be some 
accommodation for just the population size because, inevitably, that is 
going to influence the total need.
  The next third will go out at the end of June, based upon how hard a 
State was hit in terms of health from the coronavirus. So if your State 
was slammed from coronavirus--Louisiana was, New Jersey was, and other 
States have been--then, that is where you get the help.
  Frankly, it is unfortunate that you are getting the help. It would be 
a lot better if your State had not been impacted, but if it has been 
impacted, it is there to support your State through the health aspect 
of this crisis.
  The last third will go out at end of this calendar year. That is 
based upon the financial hit that your State has taken. So if your 
State's tax base has been decreased by 45 percent, then, you would get 
additional dollars in the third tranche of money, which comes out at 
the end of the calendar year. Obviously, at the end of this calendar 
year is almost beyond the fiscal year for most States, and so that 
would place the dollars at the State's disposal for the next fiscal 
year. In that way, we cover this prolonged period that Moody's says 
that State and local governments will be out.
  There is one more concern, and that is whether or not all this money 
will go to a Governor's office and none will go to counties or parishes 
or municipalities in Louisiana. One-third of the dollars will go 
directly to municipalities and counties--those local governments that 
are on the forefront of providing services to those who are being 
affected by the coronavirus epidemic.
  We think we have something which balances the needs of stakeholders--
the most important stakeholder being the American citizen--that both 
addresses the need for fiscal accountability and the need to preserve 
those essential government services to get our economy going once more.
  Again, I am going to ask all of my colleagues to support the ``Thin 
Blue Line'' bill, otherwise known as the SMART Act. I think it is a 
smart way to go forward to make sure we don't slip into a recession, 
but we return with as robust an economy from this crisis as when we 
entered the crisis.
  With that, I will yield to my colleague from Maine.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine
  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, I am pleased to be a cosponsor of the 
SMART Act, and I want to commend Senator Menendez and Senator Cassidy 
for their tremendous leadership. Our bill would help offset the 
collapse of State and local revenues resulting from the COVID-19 
pandemic.
  The coronavirus has already claimed the lives of more than 90,000 
Americans. As the virus damages our health and deprives us of our loved 
ones, it has also devastated our communities and our economy.
  As of last week, nearly 20 percent of Maine's total civilian 
workforce had filed for unemployment. The tourism sector has been 
particularly hard hit, and this is so important to my State. But the 
fact is that no industrial sector has been immune from this disease.
  Restaurants and hotels in southern Maine face uncertainty, not 
knowing when or even if they will ever reopen. As a result of having to 
cancel nonessential surgeries, many hospitals are struggling to stay 
open. Lobstermen and fishermen have lost major markets. Potato farmers 
may be unable to sell more than $22 million worth of their 2019 crop. 
The motor coach industry has been devastated. In short, working 
families and communities across the State of Maine have been hit hard.
  Moody's forecasts that Maine may face one of the worst impacts in the 
entire country in terms of lost revenues. Eighty-five percent of 
Maine's State revenues are from income and sales taxes. They have 
plummeted. Gas tax revenues have tanked. These projected shortfalls 
threaten vital State and local services.
  One in six Mainers is employed in the public sector. These are the 
individuals who keep our communities and our citizens safe: the police 
officers, the firefighters, the EMS personnel. They provide healthcare 
and education. They maintain our roads and our bridges.
  When I visited the Orono Fire Department recently to deliver some 
much needed masks, the town manager told me that the decline in excise 
taxes has been devastating for this town.
  Maine communities tell me that they will have no choice but to either 
increase property taxes, at the worst possible time for working 
families, or eliminate first responder jobs and slash education funding 
if they do not receive help.
  The SMART Act would help to avoid the worst of these consequences by 
providing $500 billion in Federal relief to State, local, and Tribal 
governments. Unlike the CARES Act, where only big cities were eligible 
for assistance, under our bill every county and every community would 
be eligible for funding. Maine would receive at least $2 billion, 
including about $330 million for counties and $330 million for 
communities. And the $1.25 billion that we already appropriated for 
assistance to State governments under the CARES Act would be made much 
more flexible so it could be used to offset these dramatic revenue 
shortfalls.
  The fallout from the coronavirus is unprecedented. Congress has a 
tremendous responsibility to help mitigate the impact of this crisis on 
our States and our local communities and on the families they serve. We 
must not wait. We should act now.
  Thank you.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey
  Mr. BOOKER. Madam President, I thank Senators Cassidy and Menendez 
for leading on this extraordinary bill and the broad bipartisan support 
that it has.
  I know Senator Menendez and I have both been mayors in our 
communities, and when there is no crisis, we know intimately the 
challenges that so many of our public servants face. In times when we 
do not see pandemics, our firefighters put their lives on the line, our 
police officers put their lives on the line, and our teachers 
extraordinarily work above and beyond the call of duty. Indeed, our 
communities are strong because of these dedicated public workers.
  At a time of crisis, we see that our teachers are rising to the 
challenge, working to keep their students engaged, even though they are 
now miles apart. I hear stories of teachers riding around, going out to 
visit students, keeping their distance but ensuring that the students 
get the support they need.

[[Page S2523]]

  Our firefighters are out there now, putting their lives even more at 
a risk, putting themselves on the line to help their communities.
  Police officers are answering calls without hesitation, despite the 
great risk that puts on them and their families when they go home.
  So many of our other public servants are working diligently to keep 
our communities running, to keep our States strong to meet a crisis, 
and to try to help folks stay healthy and stay safe. Without 
hesitation, across New Jersey--across all of our 50 States--we are 
seeing more clearly the heroic actions of people who are leading in a 
time of crisis.
  But as was said by my colleagues, across the country, States are 
being hit by significantly declining revenues and extraordinarily 
increasing costs. We are already seeing early projections, as discussed 
by my colleagues. Even independent rating agencies like Moody's are 
talking about hundreds of billions of dollars in deficits for our State 
and local governments.
  My own Governor has estimated New Jersey's protracted gap caused by 
those declining revenues--those extremely rising costs--to be somewhere 
between $20 and $30 billion.
  Due to these shortfalls, without immediate action from Congress, 
State and local governments will be forced to make deep cuts to public 
services, including laying off folks who are not just essential in word 
but who often make the difference between life and death, safety or 
crisis in our communities. These would be the workers who would be laid 
off at a time when we need them the most.
  Not only do we need these vital public servants on the job, 
protecting our communities, educating our kids, and supporting our 
neighbors, but cuts like these actually will aggravate and deepen the 
overall economic crisis facing our country. Independent rating agencies 
and others say that cuts like these will actually prolong our economic 
crisis and the time needed for recovery. This is not the time for half 
measures. This is the time to act at the scale that the crisis demands.
  The Federal Government needs to be providing a robust, accurately 
tailored response to this crisis by funding our State and local 
governments in a way that prioritizes those areas that have been hit 
the hardest. The SMART Act does exactly that. It is a bipartisan bill. 
It is thoughtful. It is tailored narrowly to fit this crisis.
  The SMART Act is a commonsense approach that will make sure that the 
help is going to where it is needed most--to our hardest hit 
communities and States--and to help ensure that those workers whom we 
hail with our words--firefighters, police officers, and teachers--we 
support with our actions, as well, for they are out there right now 
supporting us.
  No State should go bankrupt fighting this virus, because of this 
virus. No State should go bankrupt because we in the Federal Government 
refuse to support them. No essential public worker should lose their 
job because of this crisis and because Congress was not stepping up to 
lead through it.
  There is no time to waste. As was said by my colleague, we have folks 
in my State who are putting together their budgets right now. As we 
heard from my colleague from Louisiana, they are already accounting for 
the need to make cuts. We have already seen hundreds of thousands of 
public workers being laid off. The delay has costs, and when you are 
talking about first responders, the delays can have costs that are hard 
to imagine.
  I encourage my colleagues to see this as what it is. It is an 
accurately tailored response. It is a bipartisan bill. It is what our 
Nation needs right now. I encourage my colleagues in the Senate to work 
to get this to the floor so that we can vote on it, pass it, and get it 
through Congress to the President's desk, so we can avoid the storm 
that we are in and, ultimately, overcome the severity of its ravages
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Georgia.
  Mrs. LOEFFLER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to complete 
my remarks before the 12:30 p.m. vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                              U.S.A. Rise

  Mrs. LOEFFLER. Madam President, 8 weeks ago today, the Senate passed 
the CARES Act, an unprecedented $2.2 trillion package of legislation 
aimed at providing relief as our country took steps to respond to the 
threat of COVID-19.
  Previously, we passed legislation to expand free access to testing 
and paid leave, accelerate vaccines and treatments, and to support the 
Federal agencies leading our pandemic response.
  The CARES Act was designed to support the health of our citizens and 
the economy. It included direct payments to American families, grants 
to hospitals, and the Paycheck Protection Program--forgivable loans to 
small businesses to keep their employees on the payroll. The program 
was so successful that a month later, Congress approved the additional 
$310 billion for PPP loans, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion 
for testing.
  Georgia hospitals have received over $1.7 billion, including at least 
$328 million for our rural businesses under the CARES Act.
  I worked to include provisions in the CARES Act to expand rural 
health and telehealth program. Our State has received more than 
$800,000 from these programs. They are helping Georgians across our 
State stay connected with their doctors from the safety of their own 
homes.
  In addition, our State and local governments have received $5.8 
billion to help schools adjust to online learning, to provide 
assistance for those who lost their jobs or homes, to keep our airports 
running, and to help our communities respond and serve in this 
challenging moment.
  The action Congress took has helped to meet immediate challenges, but 
it is clear the pandemic has caused significant human suffering and 
staggering economic losses.
  In the last 2 months, I have heard from hundreds suffering the 
effects of this outbreak and the response: first responders, doctors, 
and nurses on the frontline, small business owners and farmers who have 
seen the viability of their businesses threatened, families who have 
suffered job losses, children who are out of school, and food banks 
that have seen an unprecedented surge in demand.
  Before this pandemic, Americans were enjoying a thriving economy, 
with the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years. Under the leadership of 
the Trump administration, more families were on their way to living the 
American dream. Then, in late March, the day after the Senate passed 
the CARES Act, we learned that a record 3.3 million workers had applied 
for initial unemployment benefits in a single week. The total is now a 
staggering 36.5 million Americans who filed initial jobless claims. 
This is more than the combined populations of Georgia, Pennsylvania, 
and Ohio.
  In my State, more than one in three Georgians have lost their jobs. 
Watching this unfold, despite the relief of the CARES Act, I recognize 
that it is time to look beyond the immediate response and to focus on 
our recovery. As a member of the President's Opening Up America Again 
Congressional Group, I am putting my nearly three decades of experience 
in building companies and creating jobs and opportunities to work for 
Georgians. With my experience and the conversations I have had with 
Georgians, I developed a U.S.A. Restoring and Igniting the Strength of 
Our Economy plan--or U.S.A. Rise--to bring back our thriving economy. 
The four pillars of the plan are Made in the U.S.A., Grown in the 
U.S.A., Hiring in the U.S.A., and Families in the U.S.A. I started to 
introduce legislative proposals based on this four-pillar framework 
that incentivize companies to invest in America, to grow jobs, and to 
help families.
  I would like to highlight one of those pillars today, Families in the 
U.S.A.
  First, we mourn the loss of those to COVID-19. The toll of this has 
devastated thousands of families. It is also clear that with economic 
damage comes societal damage. Our country needed to take dramatic 
actions to flatten the curve, but those steps meant most Americans were 
confined to their homes. This meant work from home, school from home, 
but also, in too many instances, lost jobs, isolation, depression, 
suicide, and domestic, substance, and child abuse.
  It is timely that May is Mental Health Awareness Month. In a recent

[[Page S2524]]

Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-ed, Eve Byrd and Jennifer Olsen of the 
Cardinal Center wrote: ``Isolation is one of the cruelest components of 
the outbreak.''
  Last week, I spoke with the head of a mental health treatment 
facility in Georgia. They are seeing a significant spike in those 
reaching out for help. The waitlist is growing, and the demand for help 
is rising rapidly. An emergency hotline run by the Substance Abuse and 
Mental Services Administration in HHS saw a 1,000-percent increase in 
calls in just 1 month. That was this April compared to last April.
  I have spoken with local law enforcement officials who have seen a 
serious spike in domestic abuse calls. The nationwide Crisis Text Line 
has seen a 78-percent increase in texts related to domestic violence 
across our country.
  The millions of Americans who have lost their jobs or their 
businesses are suffering.
  Tiffany, a mother of three from College Park, GA, was furloughed from 
her steady job stocking store shelves. She said: ``It is very 
overwhelming when you have rent, when you have children to take care 
of.'' When a parent loses their job, they lose much more. They lose 
their ability to put food on the table, to pay rent, and the 
uncertainty grows for children. It is vital to help families weather 
this crisis.
  We know that Americans who have a steady paycheck are more likely to 
have stable, secure families, and children from stable families are 
more likely to do well in school. That is why I have designed the USA 
RISE Plan as an economic framework that takes the human cost of the 
coronavirus into account. Helping families and job creation today will 
allow parents to get back to work and reduce the fallout from this 
pandemic from permanently impacting an entire generation.
  Importantly, this does not mean we should expand the grip of the 
Federal Government. An American Enterprise Institute report on 
achieving the American dream, released just a few weeks ago, states:

       The power of community has become all the more poignant as 
     we retreated more to isolated lives required by social 
     distancing. Oftentimes, local institutions and neighborhoods 
     have a greater influence on economic outcomes than what is 
     occurring at the Federal level.

  Being in Washington working on behalf of our State, I see that local 
impact firsthand. Often, these organizations are at the heart of our 
communities. It is where people turn for help, for a sense of 
belonging.
  Churches and other nonprofits are doing amazing work during this very 
difficult time. They have been providing childcare, meals, and other 
support for family and children. For example, YMCAs are the largest 
provider of childcare in Georgia. Many have stepped up to provide 
childcare for essential workers. They are providing thousands of meals 
each week to help out needy families.
  That is why last week I introduced legislation, the Limiting Infant 
Fatality and Empowering Nonprofit Organization Workforces Act, or LIFE 
NOW Act. It allows larger nonprofits access to the Paycheck Protection 
Program loans. These loans will help them keep their doors open and 
continue to serve their communities while ensuring that no taxpayer 
dollars go to abortion providers.
  Yesterday, I introduced the Working Families Childcare Access Act. 
This will give more working families more flexibility by allowing 
parents to contribute more to their employer-sponsored dependent care 
cafeteria flexible spending account, or FSA. If a family doesn't use 
all their funds in 1 year, any leftover funds can be rolled over to the 
following year. This will help families make plans for childcare as 
they begin to go back to work.
  I am continuing to work on additional legislation to provide families 
with targeted relief--for example, a bill to codify the Trump 
administration regulations to help Americans who recently lost their 
jobs and their health insurance. The Trump administration expanded 
short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans after President 
Obama substantially restricted those plans just 2 months before he left 
office. These plans had previously been available for nearly 20 years. 
They are an affordable option for Americans who are in between jobs or 
who have been laid off.
  The dramatic economic numbers alone do not convey the full cost of 
this pandemic--the futures impacted, the isolation, domestic abuse, 
substance abuse, and suicide. As our country begins to look forward 
amid the coronavirus pandemic, we must support job growth and families 
to build strong futures.
  In the coming weeks, I will introduce additional bills as part of the 
USA RISE Plan aimed at incentivizing manufacturing in the United 
States, helping our farmers and small business owners, and to ensure 
that America is the best place in the world to do business.
  While I continue to do all I can to fight COVID-19, I will also 
continue to do all I can to help Georgia families and employers recover 
and prosper.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________