September 9, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 155 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S5479-S5480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, anyone watching the Senate yesterday 
saw another installment in an ongoing series that has become somewhat 
familiar. Republicans roll out yet another effort to forge a bipartisan 
compromise around coronavirus relief, and Democrats reply with partisan 
cheap shots and threats to block everything.
  Republicans develop a serious plan to get historic amounts of 
additional money in the pipeline for kids, jobs, and schools, and 
Democrats just point fingers, call names, and keep blocking American 
families from getting any more help before the November election.
  In July, Republicans put forward a serious framework, but Speaker 
Pelosi and the Democratic leader refused to talk unless the starting 
point was their literally absurd $3.4 trillion far-left wish list that 
even House Democrats called a stunt.
  In August, with those talks stalled, Republicans proposed narrow 
agreements on specific urgent policies to help families, unemployment 
benefits, the Paycheck Protection Program. Democrats refused again. 
This time their invented excuse was that any assistance short of their 
entire wish list was too ``piecemeal''--too ``piecemeal''--and not 
worth doing.
  If Democrats didn't get their diversity studies for the cannabis 
industry, stimulus checks for illegal immigrants, and tax cuts for blue 
State millionaires, they would make sure millions of Americans would 
lose their unemployment benefits and PPP would close. That is what they 
threatened, and that is what they did.
  So here we are in September. Schools and colleges have gone without 
the $105 billion that Republicans wanted to give them back in July. 
That is more money than Speaker Pelosi put in her bill.
  American workers have gone without the second round of the PPP that 
Republicans proposed weeks and weeks ago. Speaker Pelosi had no money 
for PPP in her $3.4 trillion bill.

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  The race for treatments and vaccines has gone without the additional 
funding that Republicans wanted to deliver. Families have gone without 
the economic relief that Republicans wanted to put in their pockets. 
And Washington Democrats have just kept trying to run out the clock--
run out the clock--until November.
  But here is one thing: The Senate majority works for the American 
people. We fight for American families. We are not going to let Speaker 
Pelosi and the Democratic leader kill and bury coronavirus relief 
behind closed doors without putting every Senator on the record. So we 
have put together a new, targeted proposal containing several of the 
most urgent and most popular policies that would help Americans right 
now. Tomorrow, the whole Senate will vote on it.
  It will be a procedural vote. It is not a vote to pass our bill 
tomorrow, precisely as written. It is a vote for Senators to say 
whether they want to move forward toward huge amounts of relief for 
kids, for jobs, for healthcare, or whether they are happier doing 
absolutely nothing.
  That is what every single Senator will decide tomorrow. Do you want 
to do something--something--or do you want to do nothing?
  Democratic leaders know this simple choice will put the spotlight on 
their partisan antics. They know this vote will expose their 
obstruction.
  Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer were attacking our new proposal 
yesterday before they even read it, before it had even come out. I 
would normally make fun of that, but in this case it makes perfect 
sense because their position clearly is that they do not want any 
bipartisan relief whatsoever. They do not want any bipartisan relief 
whatsoever to reach American families prior to the election.
  They didn't even need to see what we were proposing. If it helped 
working families in any way--in any way--between now and November 3, 
Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer knew for sure they opposed it.
  Their red herrings and cherry-picked arguments have now given way to 
total dishonesty. Yesterday, our colleague from New York railed against 
a provision pertaining to critical supply chains, calling it some 
sinister giveaway to big business. A provision pertaining to critical 
supply chains he called a sinister giveaway to big business? That 
provision is cosponsored by his own Democratic ranking member on the 
committee. So either the Democratic leader is impugning his own ranking 
member right along with Republicans or else he simply doesn't know what 
he is talking about.
  Likewise, the junior Senator from Vermont attacked this provision as 
``corporate welfare,'' but he himself did not vote against this very 
provision in committee on two occasions.
  They are so desperate to keep working families from getting any help 
before the election that some Democrats are now attacking things they 
previously supported. At this point it is just silly season on the 
Democratic side. They have run out of excuses not to legislate, and 
even their cheap shots just backfire in embarrassing ways.
  So tomorrow--tomorrow--the Senate will cut through all the noise with 
one vote. Every Senator will either say they want to move forward, 
agree where we can, make a law to help people, and keep arguing over 
our differences later or say they prefer to do absolutely nothing.
  Every Senator will vote on this significant package, which secures 
Federal unemployment benefits, reopens the PPP for a second draw, sends 
more than $100 billion to keep kids safe in school, helps parents with 
childcare, helps families afford expenses or homeschooling, and 
rebuilds our strategic medical stockpile.
  This is not a simplistic argument over big versus small. Republicans 
want more money for K-12 and college than was in the Democratic bill. 
We want more money for PPP, which their bill forgot to fund. These are 
bipartisan priorities that Democrats left behind and Republicans want 
to take care of.
  So tomorrow--tomorrow--American families will learn who wants to make 
a law for them and who is happiest if they get nothing.

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