July 29, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 134 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S4563-S4567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to address the impact that the 
coronavirus pandemic is having on rural America.
  We know that it affects every area of this country. In the urban 
areas of our country, we have seen what this has meant to the people 
who are in crowded housing and to the people who work every day in our 
urban hospitals. We have seen it in the suburban areas with small 
businesses and with moms who are trying to figure out how to handle the 
summer with their kids, but the rural areas sometimes don't get as much 
attention. The Presiding Officer knows of this in his home State of 
Oklahoma. He understands this.
  There are a lot of rural areas in our country that have suffered as 
well. They have suffered not only because of spikes in the virus, like 
we have seen recently, but also because of the economic implications--a 
farm economy that was already in trouble because of the price of 
commodities, because of world trade barriers, because of weather 
events. You name it. It has affected rural areas in a big, big way.
  According to several recent reports, as of July 14, one-third of all 
rural counties are now considered red zones, places that in the last 
week of testing added 100 or more new cases per 100,000 people. Between 
June 13 and July 12, the number of new cases in rural counties 
increased by 150 percent. That is why we must take immediate action to 
provide the critical support that the rural areas need.
  They are areas that may not have easy access to hospitals or that may 
have smaller hospitals. That is why the issue of funding for State and 
local governments, as long as we make sure the rural areas are able to 
share in this funding as well, is so important for the rural hospitals, 
for their equipment--all of this.
  This is beyond what we all know already of the food supply chains and 
our nutrition programs. We certainly don't want a situation in which 
one can't get homegrown American food. Just as we have learned with the 
medical equipment supply chain, we can't always get the swabs that we 
need for so much of our testing and the like.
  I just want to make clear that people sometimes see rural areas as 
though they are out there, doing fine--all of these idyllic pictures. I 
don't think they understand the struggle, the fact that rural poverty 
for kids is often higher than it is in urban areas, and this was before 
the pandemic. To me, the pandemic has just put a big magnifying glass 
on some of these disparities that we knew already existed.
  There is a more senior population in rural areas, so you have people 
trying to keep themselves safe. They are isolated in seniors' homes or 
in areas of smaller assisted living, where they are very, very 
isolated, even more so than they might be, but where they have their 
families nearby who can at least visit them through a window. That is 
even harder. So, really, all of these challenges conspire to make this 
a topic that we must discuss.
  The operation of public hospitals, long-term care facilities, and 
first responder services during a public health crisis requires a 
significant mobilization of resources, and this relief package that I 
am pleased we are debating now--I would like to see more movement, but 
at least the negotiations are ongoing--must include the funding for 
rural area hospitals as well as for State and local governments. Local 
governments in rural areas are facing both falling revenues and 
increased emergency expenses. They have smaller margins under which 
they operate, which threatens their ability to provide essential public 
services and their ability to continue paying teachers and first 
responders.
  The public health crisis is putting incredible pressure on our public 
health system, and many rural hospitals and health systems already have 
limited ICU beds and resources. The disproportionately low number of 
healthcare providers across rural America has been brought into sharp 
focus by this crisis. We have already heard stories of the hospitals 
that were once delivering babies but that lost one OB/GYN doctor and 
could no longer deliver babies. Then the family has to go miles and 
miles and hours and hours just to have the delivery of a baby in a safe 
situation. That is why we need to do much. It is the funding.
  There is a bill that Senator Grassley and I have that will actually 
allow some of the smaller hospitals--this was prepandemic--to exist in 
different circumstances, like emergency room circumstances, so they 
don't entirely close down. It is why I have led the reauthorization of 
the Conrad 30 Waiver Program, which has brought in over 15,000 
immigrant doctors to fill the gaps. We also know there are issues of 
personnel in these hospitals--nurses and doctors. This is a program 
that allows for immigrant students who have

[[Page S4564]]

gotten degrees from American medical schools to be able to serve out 
their residencies in underserved areas in America, which sometimes 
means in urban areas that don't have enough personnel and which, lots 
of times, means in rural areas. That is why, in fact, the initial 
author of this bill was Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota. It is 
because of the problem North Dakota had.
  As I have traveled through the country in the last year, I have 
continued to hear about all of the problems we have in our VA hospitals 
and the like. They want to have these physicians who have been trained 
in America and have degrees from America to stay and not have to go 
back to their home countries when, in fact, they want to stay in 
America.
  Helping rural hospitals also means ensuring they have vital 
protective equipment, like masks, gowns, and gloves; and medical 
supplies, like ventilators.
  That is why I have urged the administration to deliver supplies from 
the Strategic National Stockpile and to protect consumers' access to 
medical and hygiene products.
  It also means delivering additional resources for testing and for 
contact tracing, like the $75 billion that the House passed in the 
Heroes Act, and it means expanding telehealth services, which my bill 
with Senators Casey and Capito--the ACCESS Act--would do.
  I recently had the experience of my own dad, at age 92, with 
coronavirus. He ended up at age 92 surviving it, with just having lost 
10 pounds and a very poor appetite, but he came out of it as strong as 
he went into it. But I didn't know that was going to happen, and I will 
never forget that moment of our family standing outside the window 
because, of course, we couldn't go in. We are standing out there en 
masse while he is in his room--or in a room that they had given him, 
because he got coronavirus--and they put the telephone on so that he 
can hear us on speaker phone, but he cannot figure out what is going 
on. He doesn't really understand, with his disease, why we are wearing 
the masks and we can't even hold his hand. And you don't know if that 
is the last time you are going to see your loved one at that moment. As 
it turned out, it had a happy ending for him, and he is doing fine, but 
not for everyone else that was in his home.
  That is why these services, where maybe he could see us on a big TV, 
instead of maybe on the little iPhone when we do FaceTime, would make 
such a difference, not just to people in his situation who are in a 
small assisted living, with the need of services, but if people are 
there because they wanted to have a living situation where they could 
hang out with their friends and play bridge and the like. We are going 
to have to think of those senior facilities and the access we can give 
not only to doctors to consult with patients, but also for them to be 
able to see their families.
  This means broadband. That is why I introduced the Accessible, 
Affordable Internet for All Act--comprehensive broadband legislation 
led by Representative  Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. I was honored 
that he asked me to carry this bill in the Senate. It would invest $100 
billion to build high-speed broadband infrastructure in underserved 
areas. Underserved areas, a lot of times, as he knows from his State of 
South Carolina, include a lot of rural areas and rural farmers. In his 
case, there are so many African-American communities that are 
underserved by broadband, and it would make a big difference all over 
the country.
  Senator Cramer of North Dakota and I introduced the Keeping Critical 
Connections Act, which, again, is another way of focusing on low-income 
and on rural areas to help our small broadband providers who, in my 
experience, have tended to really put their money where their mouth is 
and actually build out in these areas so that people get high-speed 
broadband.
  Our bill now has 34 cosponsors--half Democrats, half Republicans--and 
I keep working to ensure that students in low-income families, 
regardless of their ZIP Code, are connected.
  I don't want to hear another story like I heard of the high school 
student who had to take her biology exam in the liquor store parking 
lot in town because she didn't have high-speed access; or the doctor 
who can, yes, see the x rays at his rural hospital, but if he wants to 
do work from home, as so many of us are doing in the pandemic, he has 
to go to the McDonald's parking lot to be able to view these x rays.
  Iceland can do this. They have volcanoes. They are covered at times 
in ash, and they have been able to get high-speed internet to every 
person in their country. We should be able to do the same.
  Farmers. I spent the morning on a number of Zoom calls with our 
farmers in Minnesota--our soybean farmers and others--and I have to say 
that they are in hard times right now. They are in hard times because, 
as I said, before this pandemic, we were having problems. Our food 
supply chain has been hit--from the farmers who grow our food, fuel, 
and fiber, to the workers in the processing plants, of which I have 
many in my State.
  I was just in Worthington, MN, which is the home of one of biggest 
food processing plants that was hit hard by the coronavirus. They have 
put in place some better safety measures, and they are now operating.
  There are the truckdrivers and barge operators, who deliver products 
to stores and export terminals and the families who may be struggling 
to put food on the table due to sudden unemployment.
  When many businesses began shutting down in March, commodity futures 
prices tumbled, given the lower demand for food and fuel. At the 
beginning of the pandemic, dairy producers estimated that milk prices 
would drop by $2.85 billion in 2020. Cattle ranchers and hog producers 
saw the value of their livestock drop by 30 to 40 percent, and the 
futures price for corn and soybean fell 10 to 15 percent per bushel.
  These losses occurred as farmers were still recovering from weather 
conditions that delayed or prevented harvest last year. Many farmers 
were barely breaking even as it was, and they began this spring 
planting season behind, and then they confronted the pandemic.
  In March, we passed the CARES Act. It was not perfect. We all know 
that, but it provided $23.5 billion in disaster assistance for farmers 
and livestock producers impacted by the pandemic. The Department of 
Agriculture began making payments in June, and, as of yesterday, they 
had processed over $6.5 billion in payments to more than 473,000 
producers.
  But there is still money that has been unspent. That is $14 billion. 
In addition to funding for the next package, it must reach producers of 
all sizes. This has been particularly hard in my State, waiting for 
that help.
  The House has already taken action to provide additional direct 
assistance for farmers and dairy and livestock producers. I met with 
Representative Collin Peterson, who heads up the House Ag Committee, 
this weekend, when we were both here, marooned in Washington, and went 
through the work that he had done, and I am very hopeful that we can do 
something similar in our bill here.
  While farmers and livestock producers need emergency relief, we also 
must recognize that the pandemic has placed a significant strain on 
workers and consumers. We cannot slow the spread of the coronavirus 
when tests can take as long as 12 days to provide results.
  A friend back in Minnesota, just a week ago or so, got a test. He 
felt sick, didn't want to get his family infected, and spent 6 days in 
the basement not being able to see his family, and it took that long to 
find the result. And then he found out he didn't have it. Those stories 
are just as similar but, of course, much more fortunate--but similar to 
people who wait when they are sick, and they need to know if they are 
sick. And not everyone has a basement to stay in. So the point of this 
is that these delays in testing are very, very difficult on our 
economy.
  That is why, in May, I joined Senator Debbie Stabenow, the ranking 
member of the Agriculture Committee and my Democratic colleague on the 
Senate Agriculture Committee, in introducing the Food Supply Protection 
Act. The bill would provide support for food banks to upgrade their 
infrastructure to handle additional demands, strengthen food 
partnerships to prevent food waste, and protect workers through 
grants--and here we get to

[[Page S4565]]

what I was talking about--for protective equipment, test kits, and 
cleaning supplies.
  Also, last week, I joined Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas in 
introducing the Requiring Assistance to Meat Processors for Upgrading 
Plants Act, or the RAMP-UP Act, that we are doing together
  The closure of meat packing plants highlighted the need to provide 
consumers with more choices and farmers with more flexibility when 
marketing their livestock.
  Our bill would help small and medium-size meat packers make 
improvements to their facilities so they can meet the standards 
necessary for Federal inspections. This will allow them to make sales 
across State lines and increase market opportunities.
  These two important pieces of legislation--the Stabenow bill I 
mentioned and the one that Senator Moran and I just introduced--should 
be included in the next relief package.
  Another critical component to the rural economy is our Nation's 
biofuel industry. In the first quarter of 2020, biofuel processing 
plants purchased an estimated 1.3 billion bushels of corn and supported 
over 350,000 jobs.
  Many of them are based, of course, in rural communities. In fact, a 
lot of our farmers own the plants. In fact, a lot of our local people 
depend on these plants for one of the major businesses in their small 
towns.
  Even before the pandemic, the misuse of small refinery exemptions 
under the renewable fuel standard by the EPA had led biofuel plants to 
shut down.
  I will never forget visiting a biodiesel plant in Iowa that had been 
shut down, and there was one worker left. His job was to maintain the 
plant, and he took me on a tour of the empty plant and then pulled out 
a coat rack that contained the uniforms of the people--his friends--who 
used to work there. And embroidered on the uniforms were the names of 
the workers, with names like Bob, Joe, Salvador. A tear goes down his 
cheek, and he said: I kept these uniforms. I keep them pressed on this 
coat rack because I hope they will come back and work here.
  That was before the pandemic, and that is what we have seen because 
of some policies by this administration that claim that they wanted to 
help the Midwest but instead granted wholesale a bunch of exemptions, 
not just to the refineries. It is in there for a good reason--to help 
struggling refineries--but they, literally, granted those exemptions to 
Exxon, to Chevron, to dozens and dozens and dozens of companies. And 
that is before the pandemic.
  That is why Senator Grassley and I have taken this on in a big way. 
These losses--this is, again, prepandemic--have resulted in over 100 
biofuel processing plants nationwide idling production or closing 
altogether. It is combined, prepandemic and during the pandemic.
  That is why in May I introduced legislation with Senator Grassley to 
support biofuel producers during the pandemic. Our bill involves 
reimbursement for their feed stock or commodity purchases through the 
first quarter of this year.
  It is also why I led a letter with 19 Senators urging the EPA to deny 
52 petitions for waivers that would enable more billion-dollar oil 
companies to receive small refinery exemptions.
  The approval of these retroactive exemptions at this moment would 
only worsen the unprecedented economic challenges facing the biofuel 
industry. Competition is good in America. That is why we have the 
renewable fuel standard, because it is a nascent new fuel, and it had 
to really get into that market in a big way against Big Oil, which gets 
many more subsidies than the biofuels do. And this is not a time to go 
backward and shut down every biofuel plant in America, and that is 
where this administration is headed, if it keeps up these practices.
  There is much more we must do to help our rural communities. I would 
note that one of the emerging issues I have heard about a lot in my 
State is these childcare deserts, and that is that rural families are 
seeing unavailable childcare. This is, again, prepandemic. It was a big 
problem, where you would have so many people who wanted to work but 
were unable to get childcare to be able to do that work.
  That is not just in my State. It is all over the country. That is why 
Senator Sullivan and I introduced the Child Care Workforce and 
Facilities Act prepandemic, which would address the national shortage 
of affordable, quality childcare in these rural areas to help them 
expand their childcare workforces.
  Right now, the economy is slowly but surely starting to reopen, and 
we know that for families who have been at home and the parents are 
still working, this has become harder and harder for moms and dads to 
figure out what they are going to do about childcare.
  So this should be a time where we step back and say: OK, how are we 
going to deal with this, not just with the threat moving from the 
pandemic now, today, but the day after tomorrow? And I mean that as a 
metaphor for next year. How are we going to make this work for rural 
areas?
  And I have gone through everything I think we need to do to get 
there: the healthcare, making sure that we have healthcare available in 
rural areas; the broadband, making sure that something we can do is 
available; the childcare deserts; and the ag economy.
  I will say that there is a big argument for rural America right now, 
as we have seen that people are able, with the right connections, to 
work from home, and we need new ideas and new startups, and it is 
actually less expensive to start new companies in the rural part of 
this country, where the cost of living is lower.
  We know that there are farmers that want to keep farming their small 
plot of land in places like South Carolina and in places like Oklahoma 
and in places like Minnesota. But if we just allow rampant 
consolidation in the ag industry and the tech industry--where there is 
a hearing going on, as I speak right now, over in the House that maybe 
a few more people are watching--the point of it is this: We have to 
also take on consolidation during this pandemic and look at our laws 
next year. And I am not just going to wait for a bunch of judges to 
make decisions when they have been going against the antitrust laws now 
at the Supreme Court level for years--one loss after another. It just 
so cries out for a change in our antitrust laws. We have adapted these 
laws over the years.
  I will end with one story involving that. I was at a small cafe a few 
years ago in Albert Lea, MN. A woman was there with her farmer husband 
and her brother-in-law.
  She turned to me and she said: ``I just saw you on TV.''
  I said: ``Was it about Russia and the elections?''
  The Presiding Officer and I were doing a lot of work at the time 
nationally on protecting our elections from foreign interference.
  I said: ``Was that it?''
  She said: ``No. That wasn't it.'' She said that it was on the local 
station. It was about States. It was about how things are getting too 
big, and it makes it hard for us.
  We want to maintain our rural spaces. It is not just a romantic 
vision of the past. We want to maintain our rural areas for America. It 
is about having food that is ours, having it made in America so we are 
not dependent on foreign foods. It is about having our own energy 
supply, which can be varied and vast. It is about having our own 
technology and developing the next new idea and the next new iPhone. We 
are not going to be able to do that if we shut out a big swath of our 
country. That is not going to work. We actually want to encourage 
development in rural America. That is what I think we need to do.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, just 75 days ago today, the Democratic 
House passed the Heroes Act. The Heroes Act was a comprehensive and I 
think very bold bill that addressed the very real needs that face this 
country as we struggle to contain the coronavirus.
  During the 75 days that passed, we Democrats pressed the Republican 
leadership to take up the Heroes Act in the Senate, and for 75 days, we 
have been told no. The point was simple:

[[Page S4566]]

Bring it up, vote for it or against it, amend it if you want, but let's 
have some real action.
  For 75 days we have watched the virus spread. We saw the death toll 
rise as President Trump stood by, denying the severity of the crisis, 
attacking the science, and assuring the American public that the virus 
would just go away on its own. For 75 days we watched as critical 
deadlines bore down on us for programs that offered a lifeline to the 
American people, including the expiration of Federal unemployment 
benefits and a moratorium on evictions.
  This week, on Monday, after 73 days of waiting, Senate Republicans 
finally unveiled their proposals to address the coronavirus pandemic, 
and even some Republicans have said it is disjointed and in disarray. 
One has to ask, what has been done all this time?
  Instead of one bill, it is a collection of eight different pieces of 
legislation, introduced by eight different Members. Instead of a 
cohesive package to address the needs of the American people and to get 
the virus under control, their proposals prioritize corporations over 
people. They put business interests ahead of society.
  It is unclear whether the White House has blessed this package. It is 
even less clear whether it has the support of the majority of 
Republicans in this body. One thing that is clear: The priorities are 
completely misplaced.
  My friends on the other side of the aisle seem to think they can fix 
our Nation's problems by simply forcing a reopening of the economy, 
forcing people back into the workplace, and forcing children back to 
school as if the virus isn't still spreading like wildfire. It is a 
terrible approach and would make us less safe.
  Everybody wants to get the economy on track. We want schools to 
reopen, and we want to return to the workplace. But the only way to 
accomplish that is to contain the virus, slow the spread. That is the 
only thing that will give people the confidence to emerge from their 
homes and reengage in society and our economy. To do that, there are 
certain things we have to do.
  We have to have quick and efficient testing and contact tracing. We 
need a vaccine, but we will have to have a way to mass-produce that 
vaccine, once we have it, to the people. We need to support unemployed 
Americans until we get through this crisis. We need to keep people from 
being evicted and losing their homes. We need to create safe working 
environments and safe learning environments for our children. Where 
children must learn from home with parents working from home, we need 
to make investments in the infrastructure they need to be successful.
  The Republican bill fails on all these points. It has insufficient 
funding for testing and contact tracing. It has insufficient funding 
for a mass-vaccine campaign once we have a vaccine. It underfunds 
education programs. It uses the money as a stick to force school 
districts to open even if the locality and public health agencies say 
it is not safe. It fails to provide much needed investment in broadband 
and internet access for rural areas to allow for distance learning 
where it is needed.
  One teacher said to me: If you force us to open, what happens when a 
week after it opens, two children and two teachers have COVID-19? The 
school closes down for a period of time. Let's be realistic.
  There is no increase for SNAP benefits even though more people are 
going hungry today in America. There is no new funding for State and 
local governments that are laying off teachers and healthcare workers 
and first responders as revenues dry up.
  The Republican proposal inexplicably cuts Federal unemployment 
benefits to millions of workers. They insist this incentivizes people 
to go back to work. Where are they going to work? Where are the jobs? 
People want to work, but jobs are hard to come by. All this does is 
make more people destitute, put people more at risk of not being able 
to put food on the table or pay the rent.
  To show why this proposal is a nonstarter, let me share a few stories 
from Vermonters who have written or called or come into my office as I 
have been around Vermont this past weekend.
  One man wrote to me because he is concerned he will be evicted from 
his home in the next few days. He has been out of work since March, 
only able to survive because of the Federal unemployment benefits in 
the CARES Act, which in this bill have been callously stripped away. 
His wife is taking classes at the local community college in the hopes 
of one day getting a better job. In just a few short days, they could 
face eviction because they can't afford to make their $750 rent 
payment. Instead of inching ever closer to achieving the American 
dream, that dream is being snatched away through no fault of their own. 
Homelessness is now a real possibility for them.

  He writes:

       I hope that you and your fellow Senators can find a 
     solution as soon as possible, because we are all affected by 
     what happens in the Capitol.

  He is right. Whatever is done here affects him and his family and all 
other families. What are the solutions being proposed? Unemployment 
benefits slashed, no rental assistance, and the expiration of the 
eviction moratorium. When is the last time anyone in this room 
struggled to make rent? Who are we to tell this man he does not deserve 
continued help from his government in the middle of a pandemic?
  Another voter contacted me over the fate of her 98-year-old mother. 
Since March, her mother and the other residents of her nursing home 
have been confined to their rooms, unable to join each other for dinner 
and unable to participate in activities. The nursing home staff lack 
the necessary personal protective equipment and testing capability. She 
has not been able to even hug her own mother since the pandemic 
started.
  She writes:

       We can't just have a single-state or single-country 
     response to this pandemic. We must all work together to take 
     action now to support the most vulnerable members of our 
     society.

  I couldn't agree more. We need to work together. We need to protect 
the most vulnerable among us. We need to prioritize the most urgent of 
needs, but the Republican proposal doesn't do that.
  Across our country, children are going hungry because their parents 
are out of work and the cost of food is on the rise. The Republican 
proposal includes nothing for SNAP and nothing for child nutrition. But 
there are multibillion-dollar giveaways to the defense industry. 
Republicans say they want 5 years of immunity for large corporations so 
they will not be sued if they force their workers back to work if they 
get sick, but they have no money in there for the protection of those 
workers. They protect the owners of the company who probably don't even 
come in the company. They protect them but not the workers in the 
company.
  They take money to replace money that the White House basically took 
away to build a wall that Mexico was supposed to pay. Then, when I saw 
this in the proposal, here was $1.7 billion for an FBI building that 
was going to be built either in Virginia or Maryland--$1.7 billion to 
protect the aging building and prop it up. Why? Because if it were 
gone, somebody might build a hotel there. There would be potential 
competition with Donald Trump's hotel across the street. They are going 
to put $1.7 billion of taxpayers' money in there to protect his hotel 
from any competition, but there is no money in it to ensure people can 
safely vote in our upcoming elections. What is going on? This is 
``Alice in Wonderland.''
  In the absence of a President who takes this virus seriously or is 
able to lead this country through the crisis, the American public needs 
Congress to step up. The Republican proposal fails to do this. It 
leaves people behind and our country and our economy even more 
vulnerable.
  Let's stop playing partisan games and offering solutions only one 
party can get behind. Let's get something we can all get behind. Let's 
start bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on a bill that can be sent to 
the President by the end of next week. Let's make priorities of those 
programs that help us contain this virus and help us protect the 
vulnerable families like those I have seen the past several days in 
Vermont--a bill that puts us on the right track to reopening our 
economy.
  Frankly, the American people can't wait any longer. The Vermonters 
who call and write into my office and stop me in the street to talk 
with me, they are pleading for help. They can't wait

[[Page S4567]]

any longer. And to do nothing--to do nothing is an abdication of our 
sworn responsibility to serve our constituents.
  But to advance this patchwork series of bills offered by the 
Republican majority is worse. It is a disservice to the thousands of 
Americans who have died and the millions of Americans who have 
contracted this virus and the hundreds of millions of Americans who are 
looking to their government to do something so they can have their 
country back.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). The Senator from Virginia.
  (The remarks of Mr. Kaine pertaining to the introduction of S. 4349 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.''
  Mr. KAINE. With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll
  Ms. ERNST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

                          ____________________