May 21, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 96 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
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Coronavirus (Executive Calendar); Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 96
(Senate - May 21, 2020)
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[Pages S2572-S2573] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Coronavirus Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I know that we are all looking forward to trying to finish our legislative work this week. The majority leader has announced that next week the Senate will be in recess for the traditional Memorial Day recess. Let me just urge our colleagues that before we leave for the recess, we need to act on the challenges that COVID-19 is imposing on our State and local governments. To me, it would be irresponsible for us to leave and go into recess recognizing that our State and local governments are so much impacted by COVID-19. They are making decisions now. They have to put their budgets together. They have to adjust this year's budget and plan for next year's budget. What is in the balance? Well, it is our municipalities, it is law enforcement, it is police, it is fire, it is emergency rescue. For our counties, it is our schools and funding of our schools. It also deals with public health for our State. It is public health and so many other different issues that are dependent upon the State having the resources in order to respond to the needs of their citizens--our constituents--as well as to deal with the challenges of COVID-19. I will give you one example on that. This week, by teleconference with representatives of our higher education, University of Maryland-- they depend very much on the revenues they get from the State and the revenues they get from their students. Both are very much in jeopardy today. The least we can do is to make sure that the States have the resources to continue these critical missions. They just don't have it. Let me give you some of the numbers so that my colleagues are aware of it. For the State of Maryland, in the revenue projections for the current fiscal year that ends June 30, the revenues will be off by as much as $925 million to $1.25 billion. Those are revenue losses. On top of that, their fiscal year 2022 revenue projection is another loss of $2.1 to $2.4 billion. That is for the State of Maryland. Those are not our subdivisions. Baltimore City is projecting a reduction in revenues by $141 million this year. That is going to require layoffs. They have already talked about layoffs and not hiring additional police officers. Those police officers are needed in order to keep Baltimore safe. We know the challenges we have in our municipal centers, and Baltimore City is [[Page S2573]] under a consent order decree. That is being jeopardized by the inability of Baltimore to deal with these costs. They have to balance their budget. The State of Maryland has to balance its budget. Baltimore City has to balance its budget. It doesn't have the leeway we have in order to respond to a crisis by pumping money at a problem. Baltimore County has a $172 million revenue projection. That is a 22- percent reduction in this year's budget in regard to income tax revenues alone. They have a 70-percent reduction in motel and hotel tax revenues. For Montgomery County, our neighbor that borders DC, there is a $250 million projected revenue loss for this year. Prince George's County has a $134 million revenue loss for this year, and that includes a reduction of $886 million in income tax revenues. Anne Arundel County anticipates a $63 million loss of revenue. They have frozen all positions. Howard County projects a $30 to $40 million loss of revenue. They normally have a growth of $25 million. That is a swing of $55 million to $65 million for a county that wasn't large enough to get direct help under the CARES Act. I mention the CARES Act because it was an important bill. When we first took it up, it did not include a robust provision for State and local. We put that in on the Senate floor, and we are pleased we were able to do that. It is limited. It is limited because the money that we made available under the CARES Act provided help to State and local governments on their direct costs associated with COVID-19. That money has been used for direct costs associated with COVID-19. I have already pointed out the revenue losses in the State of Maryland and in our subdivisions. The CARES Act doesn't provide any help in regard to making up for the revenue losses. The CARES Act went only to jurisdictions of 500,000 or more--over 500,000. Only a few of our counties were eligible for help in my State. Most of our counties were not eligible for help directly. They had to apply through the State, but they were not eligible for direct help. Let me give you one county: Wicomico County, Eastern Shore of Maryland. That is where the poultry processing plants are located. That is where the problems of COVID-19 needed to be contained. We did not provide any direct help to Wicomico County in regard to stabilization funds. That was wrong. As we all know, we treated our host jurisdiction here, the District of Columbia, wrongly by not allowing them to get the same minimum distribution as a State. The CARES Act helped, but it didn't deal with the current crisis that we now find at State and local governments. The Governors have issued a bipartisan plea. Governor Hogan, who is the chair of the National Governors Association, the Republican Governor from Maryland, and Governor Cuomo, the Democratic Governor from New York, have joined with all of our Governors in saying that they need help now from the Federal Government in order to maintain critical missions of public safety, of public health, of education and, yes, to meet the direct needs related to COVID-19. They need help now. Yes, we need to respond. I am pleased that there is a bipartisan group of Senators who have filed the SMART Act. The Governors say they need $500 billion in order to get through this immediate crisis--$500 billion more. Well, the SMART Act provides $500 billion. Two-thirds would go to the State and one-third to the local governments. That is an important start, but we could do better than that. The HEROES Act, the bill that passed the House of Representatives, provides $875 billion, and 57 percent goes to the States, meeting what the States need; that is, basically the States' needs. And 42 percent goes to local governments, half to the counties, half to municipalities over 50,000. That would go a long way to meeting the needs of our local first responders, our police, our fire, our emergency rescue, our schools. Those types of issues could be addressed under that need. We have to respond. We just can't go home and say that this is not our problem. These are our constituents. They depend upon local police and fire. They depend upon our schools being prepared to educate their children. They depend upon sanitation being collected. They depend upon the public health capacities. That is where they get those services. If we don't provide the wherewithal under the balanced budget rules, they are not going to be able to provide those essential services. My plea is that before we go into recess, let us take up at least the issues affecting State and local governments and do something to help so that they can continue to provide essential services to our constituents and they can deal with the direct costs associated with COVID-19 in their communities. As we are beginning to reopen our communities, we need to make sure our State and local governments have the resources to respond to the challenges when more people are getting together. We also need to respond if we are going to get our economy back on track. It is not going to get back on track if our State and local governments are laying off their workers. We need to respond in a positive way, and we need to do that now. I urge my colleagues to take up legislation before we go into recess in order to help the people of our Nation through our State and local governments. 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. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). Without objection, it is so ordered. (The remarks of Mr. Cruz pertaining to the introduction of S. 3835 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'' Mr. CRUZ. I yield the floor.
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