October 21, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 180 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Pages S6337-S6338]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, the Senate will have an 
opportunity to advance another COVID-19 relief package for American 
families. For more than 7 months now, the American people have been 
facing what one writer described as a ``health crisis with an economic 
crisis strapped to its back.''
  The Senate has stepped up repeatedly, on a bipartisan basis, to help 
our Nation through this challenge. Today, we have an opportunity to do 
it once again.
  The legislation before us is neither Republicans' nor Democrats' idea 
of a perfect bill. I think we are all clear on that. But it would move 
us past Speaker Pelosi's all-or-nothing obstruction and deliver huge 
support right now for the most pressing needs of our country.
  Republicans want to conquer this disease through testing, treatments, 
and vaccines. Democrats say they agree with us.
  Republicans want to pour money into safe schools and make sure an 
entire

[[Page S6338]]

generation of kids don't fall any further behind, and Democrats say 
they agree with that.
  Republicans want to reopen the Paycheck Protection Program so that 
Main Streets across America don't turn into COVID-19 ghost towns, so 
that millions of workers can keep their jobs and keep getting paid. 
Democrats say they agree with that.
  For workers who have been laid off, Republicans want to renew the 
Federal supplement to unemployment insurance. Democrats say they agree 
with that.
  Republicans want to cement health protections for Americans with 
preexisting conditions, including COVID-19 itself. Democrats claim they 
are all over this issue.
  And Republicans want to take our Nation's college presidents, 
nonprofit leaders, and employers at their word when they say they need 
commonsense protections so that legal uncertainty does not block their 
reopening.
  The bill on the floor would do every one of those things and much 
more. The overwhelming bulk of it are programs that Democrats claim 
they support. It turns out there is a special perk to being a Senator. 
When you actually support something, you get to vote for it. When you 
actually support something, you get to vote for it. When you actually 
want an outcome, you vote for it.
  Strangely enough, that is not what seems to be happening. Our 
Democratic colleagues have been happy to talk about further relief as 
long as it remained a hypothetical concept. But every time the Senate 
has had a chance to actually do something, they said no.
  In July, Republicans tried to continue the Federal plus-up to 
unemployment insurance before it expired. Senator Schumer blocked it. 
In August, Senator McSally fought again to restart those benefits for 
laid-off Americans. Once again, Democrats stopped it cold.
  In September, Republicans wrote a sweeping proposal to deliver 
hundreds of billions of dollars for safe schools, unemployment 
benefits, paycheck protection, and the healthcare fight. Every single 
Senate Democrat voted to kill it all, except the junior Senator from 
California, who didn't vote.
  This has been the dynamic for months now: Republicans trying to pass 
commonsense policies that the Democrats say they support and Democrats 
replying that working people can't get a dime unless Speaker Pelosi 
gets everything she wants.
  We are talking about silly stuff: massive tax cuts for rich people in 
blue States, stimulus checks for people in our country illegally, 
wheelbarrows of cash--out of any proportion to COVID-19 needs--for 
State and city governments that Democrats have mismanaged for decades, 
and removing longstanding bipartisan Hyde protections that protect 
taxpayers from funding abortions.
  Now I hear they don't want to renew the PPP unless it sends money to 
Planned Parenthood and criminals who are, literally, currently in 
prison. Let me say that again. They don't want to renew PPP unless it 
sends money to Planned Parenthood and criminals who are, literally, 
currently in prison.
  These are the kinds of far-left fringe demands over which Democrats 
have blocked kitchen-table assistance for American families and 
healthcare support to crush the virus.
  During this historic crisis, the Democratic leaders have elected to 
deny struggling people the help they need unless President Trump signs 
the entire Democratic Party platform into law.
  Today, we are providing another chance to right the ship. In a few 
minutes, Senators will vote to either advance or filibuster a broad 
package that would deliver on all kinds of urgent needs: testing, 
treatments, vaccines, safe schools for our kids, a second round of the 
job-saving PPP, more Federal unemployment benefits, the legal 
protections that university presidents and charities say they need, 
protections for preexisting conditions. There is almost nothing in 
this proposal that Democrats even claim to oppose.

  Just last week, the entire country watched our colleagues on the 
Justice Committee complain over and over about having to fulfill those 
responsibilities when they supposedly wanted to be working on a 
coronavirus relief package. We will see who walks the walk.
  I am confident the Democratic leader will repeat the same tired 
attacks he has been recycling since the summertime. He will say we 
shouldn't do anything unless we do everything. He will argue this 
multi-hundred-billion-dollar bill is paltry--$500 billion is paltry or 
meager or emaciated, a half trillion dollars? I am not kidding. This is 
seriously their claim--that a half trillion dollars for working people 
is chump change. It is not worth their time. Hundreds of billions of 
dollars targeted directly to struggling people doesn't even get 
Democrats out of bed in the morning.
  Well, perhaps, to the blue-State billionaires, who seem to be the 
Democrats' top priority, these historic sums of money do look like 
chump change. Maybe coastal elites who can practically find a million 
dollars in their couch cushions are indifferent about whether we get an 
outcome here.
  Well, believe me, working families like the Kentuckians I represent 
don't see it that way. Millions of workers have been able to keep their 
jobs and support their families because of the Paycheck Protection 
Program. Republicans want to fund a whole second round of that. Today, 
Democrats will either vote to advance it or vote to kill it.
  Students, teachers, and parents need to know their K-12 schools are 
as safe as possible. Republicans want to send a historic sum of money 
to those schools. Today, Democrats will either vote to advance it or 
vote to kill it.
  For the historic numbers of Americans who have been laid off, 
additional Federal unemployment benefits have been a lifeline. 
Republicans want to restore them. Today, Democrats will either vote to 
advance it or vote to kill it.
  Colleges, universities, charities, and small business need 
commonsense legal protections, and with cases spiking, our whole 
country needs further investment in testing, tracing, and vaccines. 
Today, the Democrats will either vote to advance all that or vote to 
kill it.
  Struggling people don't need more endless arguments. They don't need 
to keep waking up and listening to reporters speculate on whether the 
Speaker of the House is in a good mood that day, because their very 
livelihood may depend on it. The country needs an outcome. The country 
needs an outcome.
  Let's put aside our differences, agree where we can, and move 
forward. Why not get the country in a better place while Washington 
continues to argue over all the rest? If the sun sets today with no 
progress, if the Senate turns to Judge Barrett's nomination without 
having advanced another historic rescue package, it will only be 
because Senate Democrats used the filibuster to kill this aid.
  If this relief does not pass, it will be because Senate Democrats 
chose to do Speaker Pelosi's political dirty work rather than stand up 
for struggling people. Let's not go there. Let's find our common sense, 
agree where we can, and advance this legislation while we debate the 
rest. The American people deserve action.


                  Unanimous Consent Agreement--S. 178

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call 
with respect to the cloture motion on the motion to concur with 
amendment No. 2652 be waived.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.