CORONAVIRUS; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 160
(Senate - September 16, 2020)

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[Page S5617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Republican Senators, like working 
families all across the country had hoped--hoped--the Senate would be 
spending this week completing more bipartisan pandemic relief.
  We proposed another package with hundreds of billions of dollars to 
make schools safer for our kids, to help American workers keep or 
regain their jobs, and to invest more in testing treatments and finding 
and distributing a vaccine. But alas, Democrats filibustered it all, 
apparently intent that working families cannot receive any more relief 
until election day.
  Across the Capitol, Speaker Pelosi's excuses and Goldilocks games are 
even wearing thin on our fellow Democrats. A few weeks ago, more than 
100 House Democrats publicly--publicly--asked Speaker Pelosi to stop 
blocking action on any coronavirus legislation besides her 
multitrillion-dollar, far-left wish list. She ignored them. She 
completely ignored them.
  Yesterday, a number of House Democrats tried again. They released a 
new proposal they had written to some Republicans and pleaded with the 
Speaker to allow a vote on it. Again, she shot down any notion 
whatsoever of compromise. Now, bear in mind, the Speaker had explained 
she will block any compromise for kids, jobs, and healthcare because--
because--passing anything short of multiple trillions of dollars would 
make her look like ``a cheap date''--a cheap date.
  The money that K-12 schools need, that unemployed workers need, and 
that we need for the race toward vaccines, Speaker Pelosi is blocking 
all of it because, apparently, to the San Francisco far left, anything 
short of multiple trillions of dollars would make her ``a cheap date.'' 
So, apparently, for the sake of the Speaker's personal ego, working 
families continue to suffer with no bipartisan help from Congress.

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