Coronavirus

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, late last night the news flash was: Senator McConnell, Republican leader of the U.S. Senate, opposes COVID-19 relief bill and informs the White House.

Supposedly, it was a statement made by Senator McConnell at his Republican lunch yesterday, and it was later confirmed by four Republican Senators who attended that that is what occurred.

Finally, it becomes public one of the things that has been suspected for a long time on this side of the aisle. You see, most of us have been paying close attention to the speeches by Senator McConnell to try to gauge his interest in really coming back to help the American people.

We remember on March 26, when 96 to 0--96 to 0--the Senate voted for COVID relief in what was known as the CARES Act. It was a bipartisan measure responding to a national pandemic that was just starting to surface and an economy that was just starting to collapse.

Many people thought at the time that that would be the end of our journey, that we would do what is necessary, and put it behind us. And so the unemployment assistance, for example, ended on July 31 of this year. The PPP--the Paycheck Protect Program--ended in the middle of August. We were wrong.

The pandemic got dramatically worse, and the economy slumped even further. Millions more were out of work. Thousands were dying. More were infected. And we still are in a terrible battle now against this deadly virus.

So the obvious solution was for Congress to come back and help again. The first measure was good and I think helpful, but it wasn't enough. We needed more.

So Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House, 5 months ago--5 months ago--in May passed a COVID relief bill to follow on from the original bill. She sent it over to Senator McConnell 5 months ago, and he did nothing.

What he said was: I want to see if I feel a sense of urgency about the need for this bill--a sense of urgency.

Well, today 220,000 Americans have died. Americans are dying at a pace from this coronavirus that is unimaginable. Do you understand that the death rate from COVID in America is 2\1/2\ times the death rate in Canada? Do we realize the infection rate in the United States is five times what it is than Canada or Germany? Do we understand that with 4.5 percent of the world's population, we lead in COVID deaths than anywhere in the world?

The efforts to deal with COVID-19 have failed, and the American people know it. They are tired of this way of living, with these masks, but they know if they don't, they risk their health and the safety of others. They want this economy to come back to life. They want the kids to go back to school. But we can't move forward unless we have leadership, No. 1, and that is what an election is all about; a plan, No. 2; and the resources to implement it.

What are the resources that Senator McConnell believes are necessary to deal with this? When it comes to testing, $16 billion for the Nation--$16 billion.

We are currently testing 1 million people a day across the United States. We should be testing 14 million people a day if we are serious about contact tracing, if we are serious about reopening the economy.

So the Senator from Kentucky comes to the floor this morning and talks about the obstructionism of Nancy Pelosi. Obstructionism? Five months ago, she passed the COVID-19 relief bill and sent it to his desk, and he never once brought it to the floor for debate or a vote-- not once. He mocks it and criticizes it day after day. He is afraid of voting before the U.S. Senate. So he comes up with an elaborate procedural scheme, which we will see in just a few minutes here, that basically wants to put together his package for COVID relief, but his package is missing so many key elements that we know will not respond to this national crisis. It is the old story of a man 30 feet from shore drowning, and someone stands by the shore and tosses him a 5-foot rope. It doesn't work. It doesn't reach. It doesn't save him.

The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, has told us that if we don't do something, there will be a tragic result in the American economy. If we pass a bill of the magnitude suggested by Speaker Pelosi, we have a chance of recovering by the end of 2021. If we don't, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve warns us--and others, as well--that we will slump into an even worse recession, even more unemployment, and even more businesses failing.

That appears to be what Senator McConnell is prepared to accept, but we are not. Those of us set to deal with the real problems and challenges for Americans realize we need more than an effort of throwing a 5-foot rope to a man drowning 30 feet from shore. That is the McConnell approach.

As we take a look at the elements that are missing in the McConnell approach, they are lengthy. Virtually every State and local government in the Nation has seen a downturn in revenue because the economy contracted. We want to help these State and local governments survive to be able to overcome the need to layoff healthcare workers, teachers, firefighters, and police. That is what we believe, and that is what we include in our bill, not in the McConnell bill.

Housing. There is no funding for housing or rental assistance in the McConnell bill that he brought before us.

Economic stimulus. Remember the $1,200 checks? There are no direct stimulus checks in the McConnell proposal. He says that we are holding out to help the coastal elites. News flash, Senator McConnell: Coastal elites don't qualify for these checks, nor should they. Ordinary people do, and your bill doesn't help them.

On unemployment, Senator McConnell's bill cuts the benefits in half-- the Federal benefits for unemployment. Then he puts in this provision-- an incredible provision--that gives large companies immunity from liability if they do not take the necessary steps to protect their employees and customers. That is a high priority. The big shots do pretty well in Senator McConnell's bill.

When it comes to testing, Senator McConnell is prepared to spend $16 billion, as I mentioned earlier. The bill we support has over $57 billion for hospitals and healthcare clinics and $75 billion for testing.

Nutrition. Senator McConnell says we are just trying to help the blue-State billionaires. I have news for him: They don't qualify for SNAP benefits. And there is no SNAP benefit increase in the McConnell bill. We believe there should be. People are standing in line at food banks. America can do better.

Money to help the schools--we put more money into that than Senator McConnell does.

There is help for the Postal Service, which has been hard-pressed by the current state of the economy.

We also have the Paycheck Protection Program, which we all agree needs to be there for small businesses.

I will just conclude by saying this. We have our chance now to work together on a bipartisan basis to help people who are counting on us. Senator McConnell's approach has to be rejected. It is just an effort to find some cover politically so people can go home and say: Well, I voted for something. Let's do something that makes a difference in the lives of people and helps them. Let's deal with this coronavirus directly and let's help those who are suffering from job loss and struggling to make ends meet get through this crisis themselves. That is the responsibility we face, and it is one that I think we should face honestly.

I listened as my friend and colleague, Senator Thune, said that we were holding America hostage with our position on the Democratic side. We are not holding them hostage. It was Senator McConnell who refused to participate in the negotiations and still does. We have a bipartisan effort between the White House and Speaker Pelosi to solve this problem and come together again as we did in March. It is time for us to do it.

The President may say he is tired of COVID, but America can't be tired of COVID. We have to face it every single day and fight it every day. The Senate and Congress should help.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source