Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, we learned a few minutes ago that new unemployment claims just hit their highest weekly total since mid- September. It is the largest 1-week jump since back in March, and the number of continuing claims--people struggling with joblessness on an ongoing basis--which had plateaued for months but at least not increased, just ticked back up as well.
Our economic recovery thus far has been faster than expected. Americans are tough and resilient, but our people need another dose of support as we hope to close out our battle with this virus. We should be doing everything we can to prevent layoffs, create jobs where possible, and race toward the vaccines that will end this nightmare.
While Democrats hold the Paycheck Protection Program hostage over controversial State government bailouts, family businesses are closing their doors. While Democrats resist the kinds of commonsense legal protections that we put in place during past emergencies, our reopening and recovery is threatened by, according to one estimate--now, listen to this: So far, 6,500 lawsuits have been filed and counting--6,500 lawsuits filed and counting.
Here is what one litigator told one reporter a couple of days ago. These lawsuits are ``pretty common these days. I have seen 10 like this over the last 30 days.''
The American Council on Education told Congress in May--in May--that colleges and universities need temporary but strong legal protections.
Now, our Democratic colleagues want to pretend they are bravely fighting big corporations, but they are really bullying small business owners and college presidents who have been pleading for these protections for months.
Our Democratic colleagues have not even let us pass noncontroversial money to invest in vaccine distribution--not unless the two parties settle a whole list of issues that are controversial the way that they want to settle.
So I hope our colleagues let Congress deliver more help soon. A lot of Americans simply cannot afford to wait
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