Coronavirus

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, let me say that I join my friend from Massachusetts in a desire to see us take up and pass another COVID-19 relief bill. I would say that so far, the House of Representatives has taken a completely unrealistic approach, including many non-COVID-19 relief provisions in the bill, including tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. They literally include, in the COVID-19 bill they call the Heroes Act, a tax cut by removing the cap on deductibility on State and local taxes on your Federal income tax.

When we did that in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we felt it was improper to force States like the Presiding Officer's and mine to subsidize the irresponsible spending practices in major cities like New York and San Francisco.

If our Democratic friends are indeed serious about wanting to get a deal, we are open, certainly, to negotiating a deal, just as we did the first four bills that we passed, especially by unanimous vote.

It seems the closer we get to the election, which is now 49 days out, that the old partisan dysfunction begins to creep back in and you hear speeches like the Senator from Massachusetts just gave, advocating things like the Green New Deal as a solution to all the world's problems. It is just completely pie in the sky and a pipedream that is obviously not going anywhere.

That doesn't stop our friends across the aisle blaming this side of the aisle or the President for everything that happens in the world, including hurricanes and forest fires, which are largely as a result of failing to undertake proper forest management that we know can prevent fires. They blame it on climate change. It is an easy argument claiming science is on their side.

We need to be good stewards about our environment, no doubt about it. I have no doubt the climate is changing and humans contribute to that, but there are smarter and better ways for us to approach it other than eliminating jobs and burdening people on fixed incomes with higher electricity and energy costs and just embracing an ideological solution, which is no solution at all and will create more problems than it solves.

I would just say, finally, on this point, that we know that the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control has evolved over time. I went back and checked. My friend in Massachusetts says the President did this; he did that; he said this; he didn't do this. I remember going back and looking at the Centers for Disease Control guidance before April. They said masks were ineffective; they didn't do anything. They came back after some additional investigation and research and said: Well, they can help. That is why we are all wearing masks, especially when we can't socially distance.

Looking at this pandemic now in September as opposed to the way it looked in March, we have learned a lot, thank goodness. Our medical professionals have saved a lot of lives. We learned how to mitigate the risks. We learned how to live with the virus at the same time we are investing heavily in therapies and a vaccine, which can't come soon enough.

Senate Republicans have made attempt after attempt to deliver another round of coronavirus relief to the American people. In July, we proposed the HEALS Act, which was a starting point for negotiations. We realized this wasn't the end-all and be-all any more than the Democrats' Heroes Act, this $3 trillion hodgepodge of an ideological wish list that we knew wasn't going to pass, but we knew we needed to start somewhere.

Speaker Pelosi didn't help when she quickly disparaged our starting proposal as ``pathetic.'' And, of course, Senator Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, called it ``unworkable.'' I guess they thought they finished their job, and they dismissed it outright and did nothing to negotiate in good faith toward a resolution. They simply have no interest in amending the bill or trying to find a common ground. They just stiff-armed it.

This August, when we attempted to narrow the scope of the negotiation to the most urgent matters--things like continuing Federal unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of July--this time our Democratic colleagues rejected what they called a ``piecemeal'' approach. Never mind the fact that the House returned to Washington to pass a bill only to help the Postal Service, which was actually bipartisan. Apparently, that kind of piecemeal is acceptable as long as it is a Democratic- sponsored and authored bill.

That brings us to September. Last week, we gave it another shot. The majority leader brought the bill to the floor to address some of the most pressing challenges facing the American people: funding schools, vaccine research, more testing, unemployment benefits, helping small businesses, again, through the extension of the Paycheck Protection Program--all of which should be and I believe, in truth, are bipartisan goals.

Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues couldn't resist that old temptation of partisan dysfunction this close to the election. They pulled out the same playbook they used all summer. Once again, they refused to engage in any meaningful negotiations. They resorted to name-calling and blocked the bill from even being debated. You can't pass a bill unless you are willing to start considering it, but they weren't willing to even do that.

Here we are battling a pandemic, which has claimed more than 190,000 Americans, and Democrats blocked every attempt to pass a piece of legislation since March. Rather than trying to negotiate or amend these bills or reach a bipartisan compromise, they seem to be content with airing their grievances at press conferences.

I agree with one thing the Senator from Massachusetts said: There are people who are hurting and need help. We should not take some perverse delight in exacerbating that pain or noting that pain and being unwilling to do anything to relieve it.

This may be a political game for some of our colleagues. It may be a way to try to score points against the President or try to gain advantage in the runup to the election on November 3, but I assure you, it is not an honest attempt to try to solve a problem; it is not a genuine attempt to try to provide relief to the American people who are hurting; and it is not moving us any closer to defeating this virus once and for all.

In the bills we passed so far--again, on a bipartisan basis, largely unanimously--we provided unprecedented support for American families, including direct payments, bolstered unemployment benefits, and provided the ability to defer student loan payments. We sent help to farmers, ranchers, and producers. We helped our schools prepare for the new school year and gave small businesses and their employees the resources to stay afloat. We have provided stability for families and communities across Texas and across the Nation

More help is needed, especially to bolster our response to the virus itself. We know we are in a global race to develop a vaccine and treatment. Our brightest scientific minds are working 24/7 to deliver those lifesaving drugs to the world as quickly as we can, safely and effectively, but they need more money to succeed.

At the same time, our communities are trying to test as many people as they can, whether it is people attending college football games or surveillance testing in communities or at colleges or grade schools. Our constituents don't care about our partisan disagreements. They just want us to do everything we can to help them and to help us defeat this virus.

During the month of August, I was able to travel around the State and to listen to feedback from my constituents on how the funding we provided so far has aided in the fight against COVID-19. Congress has provided more than $234 billion to support our healthcare response. That includes $10 billion for research and development of a vaccine through Operation Warp Speed, $16 billion for personal protective equipment, $26 billion for testing, and, of course, the $173 billion Provider Relief Fund to help our hospitals.

More than 23,000 hospitals and healthcare providers in my State alone have received more than $5.1 billion in Federal funding, allowing them to procure critical resources like masks and gloves and to cover mounting costs due to the deferral of elective procedures.

In August, I had a chance to personally thank some of the healthcare workers in Abilene, Waco, Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Lubbock, and Corpus Christi. I also had lunch and visited with the children of healthcare workers in the Rio Grande Valley who, even at such a young age, are amazed by the heroic work of their parents.

As our war against this virus carries on, we need to ensure that our frontline workers and healthcare providers have the resources they need to sustain this fight.

I also visited with the Family Health Center in Waco, which is 1 of 73 federally qualified health centers in Texas operating more than 500 sites. This is really a critical part of our healthcare safety net in my State and across the Nation.

I have always been a strong supporter of our community health centers and cofounded the Senate Community Health Centers Caucus several years ago. As I said, these facilities make quality healthcare a reality for so many Texans, whether they have Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, or no insurance. Texans can go to these health centers and receive the care they need when they need it.

The particular Family Health Center I visited in Waco was founded more than 50 years ago to address a shortage of doctors and primary care access for low-income patients and has since grown to 15 clinics across McLennan County, which provide not only primary and preventive care but dental and behavioral healthcare too.

As Family Health Center CEO, Dr. Jackson Griggs, said community- oriented primary care is difficult in any era, and it has been uniquely challenging during COVID-19. Unexpected operating costs and lost revenue created serious financial hardship, but because of the $3 million in the CARES Act and other Federal funding they got, they have continued to provide quality healthcare during this time of critical need. Because of Federal funding, they have been able to test every person who comes in with symptoms. They received the equipment, the kits, the mobile computer systems, tents, and the air-conditioning units that allows staff to test patients outdoors, even during a hot Texas summer.

During our visit, Dr. Griggs told me they conducted more than 7,400 tests, with over 1,500 patients testing positive. Of those, 53 percent were uninsured. Without legislation passed by Congress, who knows what these patients would have been able to afford or even get access to a COVID-19 test. This funding has also provided more than 187,000 pieces of PPE to the Family Health Center's doctors, nurses, dentists, social workers, and staff who are trying to stay safe and healthy while they continue to care for their patients.

On top of that, the funds have provided the information technology infrastructure to get telehealth services started in record time and nearly 11,000 hours of paid leave for healthcare workers and other staff members who become ill or need to quarantine because of the virus.

The legislation we passed has also helped community health centers, hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, and healthcare facilities throughout the State continue to serve their communities.

As we keep working to deliver the assistance for the American people, we need to continue to support our healthcare response. This means ensuring that the providers continue to have the resources needed to operate throughout this crisis. It means more resources for testing and contact tracing to stop the spread. It means an even greater investment in the race to discover a vaccine and treatment so we can finally bring this crisis to an end. It means continuing to provide healthcare coverage for those who are laid off or furloughed or lost employer coverage.

I recently introduced a bill with my friend Senator McSally from Arizona to provide some degree of certainty for folks who found themselves without a job or health coverage through no fault of their own. It is called the Continuous Health Coverage for Workers Act, which would provide premium assistance for COBRA coverage during the rest of the year. As the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on our job market, it has filled countless Texans' lives with uncertainty. By passing this legislation as part of the next relief bill, we can ensure that those who previously maintained their health coverage through their employer can continue to do so through the end of the year.

Let me just say in conclusion that COVID-19 is not a partisan issue. It hasn't been up until this point. Unfortunately, the wheels came off, at least for the time being. We need to put those wheels back on the car. We are all on the same team fighting a common enemy. I hope we can rediscover the sense of bipartisanship and common purpose that helped us pass four bills up through and including March.

During August, I was able to spend time speaking with countless of my constituents about the bills we had passed and discussing what more was needed. In addition to hearing from the healthcare workers and providers who had been on the frontlines, I also joined students and teachers for socially distanced conversations about the challenges that had been brought on by the start of the new school year. I held a video call with restaurant owners about the ongoing impact of the pandemic on their businesses. On telephone townhalls, I heard from constituents about their struggles to make ends meet after they lost their jobs and then lost the extra $600 a week in Federal unemployment benefits, which lapsed because our colleagues wouldn't allow us to take up and consider, at some level, a continuation of those enhanced benefits.

As our Democratic colleagues have continued to play games, these are the folks who have been hurt, and I am sure there are similar situations in each of their States. For these Texans whom I have described, COVID-19 isn't about political points or sound bites--it is about their health, their families' safety, and their livelihoods.

While it seems like some have yielded to the temptation of using this pandemic for political gain, I am committed to continuing to work with all of our colleagues who are willing to ensure that we don't lose any of the ground we have gained in the war against COVID-19. We are literally up against the clock, and enough time has been wasted on name-calling, finger-pointing, and political posturing. It is time for the games to end so that we can finally provide our constituents, including our frontline heroes, with the resources they need in order to sustain and win this fight.

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