Business Before the Senate

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, our Nation is caught within a number of grave problems at the same time.

This week, in cities all across America, the pain of racial injustice has been compounded by violent riots that have drowned out peaceful protests and hurt innocent people. Millions of working families continue to face the historic economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, including unemployment levels not seen in decades, and, lest we forget, the actual pandemic itself is still with us. The virus continues to claim hundreds of American lives every day, challenge healthcare professionals, and paralyze schools, universities, and employers that are eager to reopen. Of course, there is also the important business we would have needed to have addressed even before the pandemic.

So, for all of these reasons and more, while the Democratic House of Representatives may be absent--with no plans to return for weeks and weeks--the U.S. Senate is here and working for the American people.

This week, we are filling more critical vacancies throughout our government. Yesterday, we confirmed the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Response. This is a brandnew position born of immediate necessity and goals shared by Members of both parties. Yet, though our Democratic colleagues said for weeks that CARES Act oversight was a top priority, our colleagues chose to delay this nomination for as long as possible. When the rubber met the road, yet again, picking small fights with President Trump took precedence over urgent work for the common good.

At the same time, we also hear from the very same Democratic colleagues that they wish the Senate would spend less time on nominations. Well, the good news is that the Senate Democrats can change that whenever they want, but as long as they continue to visit delays and obstruction on even these lower level executive branch appointments, just for the sake of irritating the White House, the Senate will continue to do our job the hard way.

Of course, in the weeks ahead, we will also tackle significant legislation for our country. We will turn to legislation to strengthen the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program for the workers and small businesses that are struggling to weather this storm. We will consider a bipartisan bill from Senators Daines and Gardner to safeguard America's abundant public lands. For the 60th consecutive year, we will also take up the National Defense Authorization Act to help guide the strategic and operational priorities of our Nation's Armed Forces in the face of evolving threats

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