Coronavirus

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on another matter, COVID-19, yesterday, the House of Representatives unveiled legislation to provide $2.2 trillion in emergency funding to help the American people in the fight against COVID-19.

The proposal includes a number of crucial provisions that families, businesses, local leaders, and hospitals desperately need, including $600 in weekly emergency unemployment insurance, funding for our schools, support for State and local governments, assistance for renters and homeowners, additional resources for testing and contact tracing, and measures to strengthen the post office and complete the census.

It includes important aid for transit systems, by the way, vital to our Nation's economy. It includes crucial support for economic drivers like restaurants, music venues, independent theaters, and more that we have named in our Save Our Stages Act, and it includes critical workplace standards and protections for our workers.

Is this new bill everything that Democrats want? No, but it is an honest attempt to provide the relief our country needs and reach an agreement by moving closer to our Republican colleagues who want to provide much less relief, if they want to provide any at all.

Once again, the bill demonstrates the willingness on the part of Democrats to compromise. COVID-19 remains the No. 1 issue in America. Weekly unemployment claims are still through the roof. Schools are struggling to adapt. Over 200,000 Americans have died. We are a long way from putting this crisis in the rearview mirror.

But none of this seems to concern the Republican majority in the Senate. As countless businesses are going under, as thousands continue to get sick, as millions of Americans are waiting for the Senate to do its job, Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans are moving at a lightning pace to jam through a Supreme Court nominee--a nominee who could rip healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans in the middle of a pandemic.

Leader McConnell chose to put the Senate on pause for 4 months while COVID devastated our country. Now Leader McConnell has the Senate on fast-forward to rush through a partisan nomination to the Supreme Court. It goes to show you the priorities on the other side of the aisle.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source