Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to ask our Democratic colleagues to join us Republicans in providing immediate relief--relief in the fight against coronavirus and economic relief for the people of this country.
Americans don't ask much of their government, but they are asking us for something right now. No. 1, they are asking to help control the spread of the coronavirus, and, No. 2, they are asking to help with an economic recovery.
America and Americans shouldn't have to choose between staying open and staying healthy. We need both, and Congress needs to provide a path beyond the pandemic.
A path forward, as the Presiding Officer knows, is something Republicans have been proposing now for a long time. We have done it, first, with the CARES Act, and we need to do it right now with additional coronavirus and economic relief legislation.
Our bill is practical. It supports our neighborhoods--men and women working on Main Street in our small towns and communities all across the country. We also need to provide unemployment help for those who, for no reason of their own, happen to find themselves out of work as a result of the pandemic. We need to get the vaccine to as many Americans as we can as quickly and safely as we can, especially during this holiday season, when we are really looking at a medical miracle.
Now, what we have seen from the other side is gridlock--no path forward on the economy, no path forward on coronavirus. We have seen them play politics with the pandemic. House and Senate Republicans have tried now 40 times--40 different times--to get something accepted that can be sent to provide that relief for the American public. The Democrats, each and every time, blocked it. The gridlock must end today.
Mr. President, I would like to spend just a moment on this historic vaccine discovery. It is, to me as a doctor, comparable to insulin, comparable to the vaccine for polio, and comparable to penicillin as an antibiotic. It is going to be that dramatic in terms of the change in the world.
As we gather on the floor today, planes, trucks, UPS, and Federal Express are all taking vaccines across the country to many, many locations--over 636 this first week. So it is not just a scientific triumph. It is also a logistical triumph.
Every newspaper in the country yesterday, I believe, had a picture of somebody receiving the vaccine, receiving the shot in that local community. It is a remarkable time for our Nation. As Christmas packages are being delivered, so is this great hope for people receiving the vaccine.
All told, this week, there were 3 million doses distributed to people around the country, in 636 sites. In my State alone, Wyoming, there are 5 different locations where the vaccine has arrived and over 5,000 people being vaccinated this week. By the end of the year, there will be 15,000. I am sure in the Presiding Officer's State of Indiana, there are more locations than that, more people being vaccinated. The frontline workers are getting it first, and that is the way we need to do it.
As part of the CARES Act--the Presiding Officer and I voted for it-- $10 billion went to help develop the vaccine and money spent to distribute the vaccine. But we need to do more. About $6 billion is additionally needed to help in a full distribution of the vaccine.
Well, I am ready to vote for that. I want to make sure we have that money so the vaccine, which has been amazing in terms of the speed of development, can also be deployed similarly to what was done.
This vaccine was done in an unprecedented scale--the number of people who are going to be vaccinated, the success, the timeline. A safe, effective, and powerful vaccine is truly astonishing. Never has a vaccine been developed or distributed faster.
It truly is this Senate, under the CARES Act, and this administration, under Operation Warp Speed, which stood this operation up and made it successful. So we are seeing the real effects as people are getting the shot.
When you think about it in the big picture--and you know this, Mr. President, from your background in business and contributing in your community--this is what we talk about when we talk about American ingenuity. It is why people around the world look to America for answers, because when things that are critical occur, it is America that finds the solutions, as we have done right now with this vaccine.
We have come together, public as well as private, over the last 8 months--the FDA--to approve a vaccine. It is interesting: Who should get it first--the doctors, the nurses? I know firefighters are getting it here in the District of Columbia. Firefighters have been getting it at home in Wyoming, and people like the healthcare providers, and then, of course, those who are most vulnerable, people who are in our nursing homes right now and in assisted living facilities, people who are most vulnerable. That is who ought to get it first.
I know when the time comes for me, I am going to get it. My wife is going to get it. We will be saying yes because I believe it is safe, I believe it is effective, and I believe it is the solution that gets us through this. It gets us through the disease, and it gets the economy back on track.
I talked to one of the doctors who runs the intensive care unit at Wyoming Medical Center. The healthcare personnel are exhausted. They have been working double shifts. If one gets sick, others have to pick up the workload, as more and more people show up in the hospitals and the emergency rooms with coronavirus. This is very welcome relief.
I talked to a physician who works in the emergency room. She is going to be vaccinated on Friday. So this is what we need.
It is so interesting. The pundits talk about the dark winters of the coronavirus surge, but for the healthcare providers in our home communities, they have to keep the doors open every day and keep the lights on and take care of these patients, one after another after another.
Once the first one came--and the wave hit different parts of the country at different times--once the first patient came, they continued to come, and they are still coming today. That is why this vaccine is such a welcome relief and why, for the healthcare providers who have done such remarkable work, we can say this is their finest hour. They have kept us going, kept patients, offered of themselves, and now the vaccines have arrived.
We need to do more in this body. We have healthcare workers leading by example. We have folks in assisted living. Close to half of all the people who lost their lives because of coronavirus were residents of assisted living. But of those millions of healthcare workers, we need to make sure that the vaccines continue to flow to them and to all of society and to all people in this country.
It is by doing that, that we will put this disease behind us. We will be back to our strong, robust, and growing economy. Our kids will be back full time in school. The universities will be returning to the robust future that we know is ahead of them.
It is because of the work of this body, months ago, with the CARES Act.
But our work is not done. As we approach the Christmas holidays, there is more work to be done. I turn to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and say: Please, join us this holiday season to make sure that the American people, who don't ask for much, are able to continue to keep their lives on track, get back on track, and move forward into the year 2021 with a vaccine available to everyone and for a much better new year.
Thank you.
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