Usa Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2020
Floor Speech
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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, this has been a busy week, walking through a lot of issues that are COVID-19 related, a lot of individual meetings, committee meetings, walking through what we can get done in preparation for the next step.
I met with Francis Collins very early yesterday morning, and we were able to walk through where is vaccine development, what is happening in this current timeline with different treatment options. We are very optimistic on some of the vaccine developments with multiple different lines of vaccines and very hopeful that we will have a vaccine in place by this fall.
That is, we could have hundreds of millions--or at least tens of millions of different vaccines that would be ready--well over 100 million that would be ready by Christmastime, it looks like. So we are continuing to push in that direction.
I have had an untold number of conversations with the Secretary of the Treasury over the last 5 days, talking through the Paycheck Protection Program, trying to settle this issue of forgiveness. This has been a very big issue with small businesses and not-for-profits in my State and, quite frankly, around the country.
There is no closing information on how the Paycheck Protection Program ends. They were very grateful to have the help in the beginning, but it is set up to be a loan unless you qualify for it. A lot of these folks took that loan that will then transition to a grant with the hope that everyone would be treated fairly, but the rules were not set in place.
I spent a lot of time this weekend and through early this week with the Treasury Department. They released that finding today in a very simple statement; that if you are a truly very small business or not- for-profit--that is, your total loan was $2 million or less--you will be in what they call a safe harbor. You are not going to have to worry about audits or worry about followthrough at the end of it. It is going to be a very straightforward process for those very small businesses and small not-for-profits, if that loan is $2 million or less. Now, remember, that loan covers their total payroll for 2 months, so that is a truly small entity.
Once you get into larger entities, they may have a loan from $2 million to $10 million to cover their entire payroll expenses for 2 months. Those folks will have a good-faith process that is also outlined that is a very fair process that has come out today as well. That is helpful.
When I spoke to Secretary Mnuchin earlier today, I thanked him for getting this done. As we have worked through this process, I thought that was the most reasonable solution to provide the greatest clarity and simple paperwork for those very small businesses that don't have to worry about having to pull together a ton of documents for them. So, for $2 million or less for the loan, they will all be in safe harbor. Ukraine
Mr. President, I even have worked on some non-COVID-related issues this week. Senator Rosen and I made contact with the Ambassador from Ukraine to talk about--in one town in Ukraine, some law enforcement sent out a letter to every person in the town saying, if you are Jewish, we need you to register to make sure that we can deal with crime in our community.
That is appalling, so we contacted the Ambassador for Ukraine and said: Help us understand why there is leadership in one of your towns that is trying to register every Jew in your town, saying that it is because of crime issues.
They are immediately pulling that back, doing an investigation, and I am grateful to the nation of Ukraine, which has been a very close ally and friend of the United States--especially in our pushing back against the aggressive Russia that is to their east--that Ukraine is continuing to speak out immediately for the basic freedoms of individuals to live their faith and not have to be registered by a local government. We are looking forward to an explanation on that in the days ahead Coronavirus
Mr. President, the vast majority of the things I have worked on this week have been related to COVID-19, as we try to walk through the issues of my State, Oklahoma, in reopening. And multiple States around the Nation are slowly trying to find ways to reopen, as we see other nations doing as well. Italy, which was exceptionally hard hit, is in the process of reopening right now. Germany, which was also very hard hit by COVID-19, is in the process of reopening. Spain--now fully half of Spain is in phase 1 of reopening for them as well. South Korea, exceptionally hard hit, is not only reopening, they have already had an election and have had record-high turnout physically at the polls because they set up a social distancing process to do in-person voting. They had a record 65 percent turnout, the highest turnout that they have had in 28 years, in the first election post-COVID-19 outbreak in the country. So that is a very hopeful sign not only that they are returning to life, as we are, but they have also worked out a process to be able to have voting and safe voting processes.
The White House has announced a tremendous increase in testing again--last week, with 2 million COVID-19 tests that were done, and the target for May is to do 13 million tests just in the month of May. So it has been a dramatic increase, as we are seeing a doubling of things here.
There are now 79 different diagnostic tests that have been authorized. There have been 12 different serology tests that have been authorized. The FDA has granted 92 emergency-use authorizations, so there is pretty fast work to go through the process, knowing that this has only been a few months.
So far, a total of $11 billion has been brought in to States and Tribes to offset the cost of testing for them. In fact, Oklahoma has received $87--almost $88--million just to deal with the testing issues in our State as we continue to see a rapid acceleration.
In fact, my State is due to receive 90,000 swabs just this month to continue to do the testing there. So we have seen a pretty dramatic increase of engagement on testing, and that is exceptionally helpful for us.
For the Treasury, they have made a lot of progress in getting out the economic impact payments to people. They have now sent out 130 million of those. Just in my State, 1.5-plus million of those economic impact payments have been made, totaling about $2.8 billion. That is coming as direct assistance to folks in my State. It has been a significant help to people who need to get it.
The Paycheck Protection Program continues to help the smallest of businesses. The economic impact payments have gone out, even as the State is finally starting to come back alive, little by little, as we have worked through phase 1 of reopening and now are headed carefully toward a phase 2.
I continue to encourage my fellow Oklahomans to continue social distancing; to wear a mask, which I do, in public; and to continue to keep a good attention to your own hygiene and take care of people who have other health issues or people who have, especially, heart issues or diabetes issues. They know to stay home and to keep themselves protected, and I encourage them to continue to do that.
Now, while we are working through all of these things in the Senate and trying to find practical solutions and trying to work through things in a nonpartisan format, which is what we should do right now, taking on COVID-19, I was rather shocked yesterday when the House of Representatives released the details of the bill that they hope to vote on, on Friday.
This bill that they hope to vote on, on Friday, is a $3 trillion bill. That is larger than the previous four bills that we have voted on combined. It is a pretty dramatic expansion of a lot of issues that are not COVID-19 related.
As we said in the previous conversation just a month and a half ago, what we focus on right now should be COVID-19 related, not trying to say it is a COVID-19-related bill and then stick a bunch of other stuff into it.
It is over 1,800 pages. In fact, just the summary of it--if people want to see the summary document of it--is 90 pages long, just to get the summary of it. And it deals with a lot of issues that are certainly not COVID-19 related, and I think a lot of Oklahomans and a lot of other Americans would say: ``Why did they want to stick that in there?'' And they just think, look over here at this big number we are going to give the States and look over here at this big issue and don't pay attention to these other issues.
For instance, I understand there are legitimate issues on trying to protect voting and to make sure that the voting this year can go off safely and can go off in a way that we can have great credibility on. That is what South Korea just did with record-high turnout with in- person voting, but that is not what this bill that is coming from the House plans to do this week.
What they plan to vote on, on Friday, radically changes voting for the entire country, not for this year--permanently. It prohibits States, from here on out, from imposing any conditions or requirements for eligibility for voting. It gives absentee ballots mailed to every single person. It also breaks down any voter ID laws that are in any State and authorizes something called ballot harvesting, which has been exceptionally successful in California for Democratic candidates.
It basically allows someone to come to your door and say: Have you voted yet absentee? If it is no, they can vote on the spot, and the person at your door can then take the ballot from you and say, I will go turn it in for you.
Well, obviously, there are lots of moments for fraud in that. This would make that mandatory nationwide. That is a major issue, to change how we do voting forever and to break this down. This is not the time to try to cram this into a bill that is supposedly about COVID-19 and do a permanent change on that.
It also does some things that I was rather stunned by, even for some of my colleagues on the House side. It changes the economic impact payments, and it takes away the requirement that they have to have a Social Security number. Well, if you take away the requirement that it has to have a Social Security number, what it allows, then, is for people who are noncitizens to be able to get the economic impact payments--up to $6,000 per household for any individual who is in the country.
Well, that is a pretty dramatic shift in what we are doing. It allows people who are not legally present in the country to actually end up with economic impact payments as well. I don't think most people in my State would be someone who would agree with that, and they would want to know why we are trying to stick that in.
It also does some pretty massive changes to how immigration is actually handled. It frees a lot of people who are currently under ICE custody right now. It enforces the release of those individuals. It awards Federal funding specifically to sanctuary cities. It prevents the deportation of anyone who is not legally present in the United States. It provides deferred action and work authorization for anyone who is working in a job here, regardless of legal status into the country, so it literally takes everyone who is not legally present here and gives them legal status during this time period.
It changes the unemployment insurance in a way that is pretty dramatic. Currently, the unemployment insurance is greatly plussed-up during this time period. There is an additional $600 per week, per person, for anyone on unemployment insurance. That allows an individual in my State to make about $48,000 a year on unemployment assistance.
The challenge is, there are many individuals who don't make $48,000 in their normal job, but they are making $48,000 now on unemployment assistance. This bill coming from the House changes that because that extra $600 per week expires at the end of July. It changes the expiration of that deep into next spring of 2021, regardless if your State is open for business or not.
So, in my State, in Oklahoma, literally, it would encourage people who make less than $48,000 a year to not go back to work because they could make more by staying on unemployment insurance--not just through July but all the way through the rest of this year and through half of next year--regardless if your State is open or not, regardless if we have a vaccine or not.
If we have a vaccine, let's say, in November, as Francis Collins states, you would still get this unemployment protection to be able to make $48,000 per year past your vaccination and deep into next year. I think that is a continual problem. I think that is an issue.
In the bill itself, it actually sets up a series of changes in our Federal cannabis laws, at which point I immediately thought, OK, how much information is in this bill about cannabis?
Cannabis is actually mentioned in this bill 68 times. I am not sure why that is in a bill dealing with COVID-19, but it does dramatic changes in our Federal cannabis laws. There is a section where it gives tax breaks to teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement folks--OK, that is great, but stuck right in the middle of that section is a tax break for billionaires, which I was shocked. It is an almost $100 billion tax break for the top 1 percent. It is stuck right in the section quietly in there, in the middle of the section for teachers, firefighters, and law enforcement.
The student loan section was also interesting to me. It provides $10,000 of loan forgiveness to every single student around the country. I am sure every student would be grateful to have that, and I am sure every family would be grateful to have this, but it was not needs- based. It wasn't anything else. It was just $10,000--a blanket loan forgiveness for every single student across the entire country.
Of course, there is no liability protection that is anywhere in it. The Paycheck Protection Program that has been exceptionally important to a lot of small businesses wasn't increased. Some things that are really needed at this time are not even addressed to help small businesses again or to help with liability protections, which so many businesses and educational institutions and nonprofits are asking the question: How do I reopen? What do I do? And how do I deal with the liability issues? That was not addressed at all.
I have a lot of concerns about this bill, beginning with just the basics of: Why didn't they even try to negotiate with Republicans and Democrats. It was a straight Democratic bill in a time we desperately need to focus on not putting out a partisan thing and saying look: We are trying to be able to help, but don't look at all these hundreds and hundreds of pages of things that are not related to COVID.
Let's try to actually solve the problem that is in front of us. It is serious. The issues we face dealing with health and the individuals who are on the frontlines right now at grocery stores and healthcare facilities and hospitals and truckers and convenience stores and folks who are doing carryout food--those folks are doing remarkable work, and they should be encouraged, not discouraged with a partisan bill that is coming out here that everyone knows is not going to go anywhere.
Let's keep working together. What is happening in the Senate to try to establish bipartisan agreements on things, we should continue to be able to do. But flying in to do a messaging bill worth $3 trillion that changes voting in America and changes cannabis laws and does all kinds of other things is not what we need to do right now. Let's keep working, though, because there is plenty that does need to be done.
I yield floor
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Mr. LANKFORD. Absolutely.
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Mr. LANKFORD. You know what, in a colloquy with my colleague from Delaware, I do know someone who is a Senator--
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Mr. LANKFORD. The Presiding Officer, the Senator from Arkansas, I believe his birthday is today, Senator Cotton.
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