March 22, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 56 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed--Resumed; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 56
(Senate - March 22, 2020)
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[Pages S1895-S1897] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019--Motion to Proceed--Resumed The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 748, which the clerk will report. The senior assistant legislative clerk read the following: A bill (H.R. 748) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee. Coronavirus Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, in a few minutes, the majority leader will begin a process that will permit the Senate to act for the third time to deal with this unprecedented healthcare crisis that we are facing. Our message to the American people is this: This is about your paycheck. This is a collection of the best ideas that Democratic Senators and Republican Senators have that we believe will generate trillions in economic support that will, No. 1, keep payroll checks coming; No. 2, relieve the financial burdens on Americans; and No. 3, begin to contain this COVID-19 virus. The legislation we will be voting on will contain about $1.7 trillion in Federal spending, and it will authorize the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department to generate trillions more in liquidity and credit support for companies of all kinds to try to keep payrolls checks coming to workers. In the end, the only way to end this crisis--and the only way to get the American economy moving again--is to contain the disease. This will require, as soon as possible, adopting a new goal. That goal should be to test every American who needs it for COVID-19 as soon as possible, and then isolate and care for the few who are sick and fast-track treatments and vaccines so that Americans can go back to work and go out to eat and resume a normal life again. This legislation will make all COVID-19 tests free. The government has shut down the economy to fight this disease, and the government has to help pay the cost of the suffering that this disease has caused, but the sooner we make more tests available and stop telling Americans not to get a test, the better. Just yesterday, a California company announced a 45-minute test that could be taken in a doctor's office while also getting a flu test. Expanding tests like this will do more to get the economy moving again than spending trillions stabilizing businesses and supporting employees. Yesterday, I spoke with the chief executive officer of the company that makes that test. This is a well-established company that makes millions of flu tests. He said they could make 45,000 tests available by the end of the month and 2 million tests by the end of June. More instances of expansion of tests that you can get at the same time you visit a doctor's office is what we need. The legislation the Senate will be considering has three goals: one, keep the payroll checks coming as much as possible; two, relieve financial burdens on Americans; and, three, contain the disease. Keeping the payroll checks coming means $300 billion for loans to small businesses. If they use the loans to pay the wages, the loans will be forgiven. It authorizes the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department to create trillions more in financial credit support for States, cities, and large businesses so they will be able to stay in business and pay their employees. It expands the emergency paid sick and family leave passed by the House and then the Senate last week--to workers who were laid off and later rehired by their employers. The second goal is to relieve the financial burden on Americans. That section of the bill includes checks to individuals and families: $1,200 for individuals, $2,400 for a couple, and $500 for each eligible child. Federal income taxes don't have to be filed until July 15. Estimated taxes can be delayed until October 15. It will make it easier to use retirement savings without penalty. All student loan payments will be deferred for 6 months. There are 43 million Americans with student loans. There is priority on both sides of the aisle for more Federal funding for State unemployment insurance programs, so States can increase benefits, waive the waiting week, and expand eligibility to self-employed and independent contractors. There is money for block grants for States for K-12 education, for higher education, and for children and families, including the child care and development block grants, which will provide immediate assistance to childcare centers. Finally, containing the disease is the third goal. It makes all COVID-19 tests free. There is nearly $100 billion for the public health and social services emergency fund. That is at least $75 billion for hospitals and $10.5 billion for accelerating diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. [[Page S1896]] We are probably a few months away from a treatment for COVID-19. This would accelerate the efforts that are being made now to determine if these treatments work and if they are safe. We are even further away from a vaccine, but if there is any way to accelerate that vaccine, this $10 billion will help to do that. There is another $1.7 billion for the strategic national stockpile, which has the purpose of buying the equipment that our medical personnel especially need; $4.5 billion for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for State and local preparedness and response grants and to improve public health; $80 million for the Food and Drug Administration, again, for diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines; $1.32 billion for community health centers. There are 1,400 centers with 12,000 sites. They are the hospitals for probably 28 or 30 million Americans across this country. And there is $20 billion for veterans healthcare. The goal of the legislation we will be considering has these objectives: keep the paychecks coming as much as possible, relieve financial burdens on Americans, and, most importantly, contain the disease. Senator Thune mentioned that now one of our Members, Senator Paul of Kentucky, has tested positive for the coronavirus. That reminds us of what every family in this country is going through today and worrying about. It also should remind us of the urgency of moving ahead. We have been working together for several days with our counterparts on the other side. This is a collection of ideas that will keep the paychecks coming, relieve financial burdens, and contain the disease. It is time to vote on it, approve it by a big margin, and send it to the House of Representatives so we can intensify our efforts. I yield the floor. Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 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. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. Unanimous Consent Agreement Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to H.R. 748 occur at 6 p.m. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). The Senator from West Virginia. Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I would like to just say a few words about what we are going through and what we are experiencing. I can only give you my experiences back home in West Virginia. I have been on conference calls because we are social distancing, as we all are. I have talked to the nurses' association, the medical association, and the hospital association. The main concern we have right now is of our medical providerships' being stable enough and protected enough so, if need be, they can continue to take care of us. Right now, they are scared to death because they are not getting the protective equipment they need. They don't have the personal protection equipment, such as the masks or the shields or the gowns--all of the equipment that a first responder or a medical provider should have. That is what we are fighting for right now. Also, we have rural hospitals and rural clinics throughout all of America--West Virginia is mostly all rural--and they are all scared to death that they are not going to have the finances with which to stay afloat. The proposal that we have right now, that they are working on--that both sides are working on--is inadequate and insufficient. Mitch McConnell's proposal falls short of delivering the protection the medical providerships need. They talk about the economy and the recovery of this economy, but we need to find a treatment for the virus as we know it. For the people who do contract it, they will know they have a treatment that can cure them, and then we must find a working vaccine as quickly as possible. We have been told that this could take 12 months or longer. The treatment is the most important thing, and protecting our healthcare workers is the most important thing. Keeping our hospitals and clinics and all medical providers vibrant right now and able to survive this economic downturn is the first and foremost thing, and it is the thing that didn't get the attention that we needed. I am hoping that between now and before we vote, at 6 o'clock, the two sides can come together. I implore of my colleagues on the Republican side to basically express their concerns to their leader, Mitch McConnell, that we need to have a balanced approach. I am concerned about the economy. I am concerned about the workers. Through no fault of their own, we have had workers throughout West Virginia who have been laid off. They have done nothing wrong except to have been in professions, basically, because of the health concerns of our country, that had to lay them off. The businesses they worked for had to stop--cease and desist. They had to stop. It was through no fault of their own. Basically, for the health of this country, it was best if they closed. These people have no control whatsoever over their destinies except to ask: When can we get this thing cured? When do we get ahead of this cycle, or ahead of the curve, so we may get back to normal? Wall Street will not return, I can assure you, no matter how much money we throw at Wall Street. It is not going to have confidence built into it is as long as the virus is out there without any type of a treatment or a vaccine coming down the pike that is going to cure and protect us. That is what this is all about. Don't you think we should be putting the resources on the front end to help these providers, to give some assurances to the American public, to the people in West Virginia that we have found and we have a treatment now that will work? God forbid if you contract the disease, and the virus attacks you, but we can help you. You are not going to perish from this. But with that being said, it doesn't make any sense to me that--the proposal that Leader McConnell from the Republican side has put forth is absolutely, totally worried about Wall Street at this time. I am worried about the people in rural West Virginia and all over Main Street. Those are the people we are worried about, and Wall Street is going to do just fine. It has always rebounded real well. They always come back strong. But the market has to have stability to it and it has to have confidence in it and the people have to have confidence. So that is where we stand. Let's take care of the people whom we are asking to take care of us if we need them. Let's take care of our healthcare workers, our nurses, our first responders, all of our doctors. Let's take care of the facilities that they are keeping open for us, which is the hospitals and the clinics--everything that we possibly can to protect them. Let's make sure that our workers and these healthcare providers don't go down because if that system goes down, I can assure you, you can't print enough money for Wall Street to rebound. If the healthcare system in this country is not able to take care of the people of America, that will not happen. And if West Virginians can't count on our hospitals and clinics to take care of them, and if the workers who work there--the nurses and all of the different people who work within that system--aren't able to go to work because they might have contracted the virus, we have done nothing special to help them with their childcare and everything because they will be working extraordinary hours. This is where our emphasis should be right today. This is what we should be talking about. Yet we are miles apart now because Wall Street is not maybe taken care of to the likes of what they would like. I can't understand it at all. I really don't. I want them to succeed, and they will succeed. I want them to have a generous loan program--not a gift but a loan program--and I want to make sure that people who have lost their jobs and the business has closed down due to no fault of their own have the backing of this great country of ours and the government right here. That is whom I am worried about. The proposal that is on the table today does not do that. If we had to [[Page S1897]] vote today at this time, I would vote no, not to proceed. We will stay here all night long. They are worried about what happens when the markets open in the morning. We will work around the clock. I am fine. I can stay here until 7, 8 o'clock. We can all work around the clock, but there has to be a balanced approach and putting healthcare first. ____________________
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