Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. Senate Senators Reaction To Stimulus Vote 20240713

That my colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose to vote no on even the ability to move forward with debating this legislation tonight. And to my colleague, the democratic leader who said this is a highly partisan bill, thats just not the case. Lets put the partisanship aside. Lets do whats best for the American People. I will tell you that over the past several days, through a bipartisan process, we sat down democrat and republican in four Different Task forces and put together the elements of this legislation. As a result, the bill before you tonight, the one were talking about, reflects republican priorities and democratic priorities. And im going to take the time to walk through it and to talk about some of those who people understand whats in this legislation. I was pleased to see the democratic leader say at the end he believes we can figure this out over the next several hours. He said 24 hours. I hope its not 24 hours. We cant the way that long. We need to move and move quickly. We see what the markets are doing globally. We know what the markets are going to do here. Weve seen what the futures are. Weve seen the impact in our states for our citizens. The democratic leader said more money needs to be put to our states and workers. There is an unprecedented amount of money for that. We are in a crisis. But to say theres nothing here to help hospitals, oh, my gosh, im going to talk about this with specificity, but 100 billion 100 billion, a pretty good start, 75 billion of which goes to hospitals. To say theres nothing for workers, the Unemployment Insurance provisions in here come from the democratic side of the aisle. Its the most generous Unemployment Insurance plus up by far ever in the history of our country. It actually adds more money to Unemployment Insurance than the Current System has. By the way, it adds eight times more funding into the unemployment system for the rest of this year and that is currently being spent. Think about that. Thats not generous . And, by the way, we republicans also agree that those who lose their job through no fault of their own should be able to get a generous unemployment check while we work through this coronavirus and get our economy back up and going again. Let me walk through some of this. This coronavirus is something that is urgent for us to address. Its closed businesses, its closed schools, its changed every aspect of our daily lives. Its left us uncertain and for many americans, its left them isolated, literally, selfisolated. Its put tremendous strain on our Health Care System, and thats why this legislation addresses that. Our amazing first responders, our e. M. S. , our Police Officers are doing their part as well as our physicians, our nurses, other medical professionals on the front lines combating this disease. God bless them. It has done damage to a strong and growing economy. Only a few weeks ago we had unemployment numbers that were at a 50year low. We had nine straight months of unemployment decreases. Now now we see businesses shuttering. We see thousands, and now millions of americans, unemployed through no fault of their own. The purpose of this legislation is to allow people to get back on their feet, to allow us to get back to normalcy. Extraordinary times like this requires that we unify. I see it in my state of ohio and around the country. Everyone has a role to play. Everyone needs to practice social distancing. Being safe, using hand sanitizer. Part of the strategy of flattening the curve as you see when you see dr. Fauci and others make presentations is we need to reduce our overall risk for exposure so we dont overwhelm the health system. It will help save lives of our Family Members, of our neighbors, of our friends and people we never meet but come in contact with and the most vulnerable in our society if we follow the guidelines by the c. D. C. , were going to be safer. Were going to save lives. It always depends on us. All of us doing that. But it also depends on what we do here in the United States congress, both in slowing the spread through the legislative efforts ill talk about tonight, but also in getting this economy back on its feet so people can get back to work and get a paycheck and begin to make ends meet. In ohio weve been taking the lead on this. We had been pretty aggressive at saying people need to social distance, that restaurants and bars need to close. We were one of the first states to say that. Schools needed to be closed, dr. Amy atkins and the department of health have done a good job in responding to this unprecedented crisis. As of this morning we had 247 confirmed cases and three deaths. By the way the first person to die in ohio was a man i know. I knew him and i respected him. His name was mark wagner sr. From toledo, ohio. He contracted this disease and succumbed to it. Unfortunately were going to see more cases, were going to see more deaths, but were doing the things to begin to contain this, to begin to slow the spread and that needs to happen at every level, including here and thats why this legislation is so important to pass tonight. Two weeks ago congress started this effort by passing the first major relief effort called phase one which was 8. 3 billion to address the Health Care Needs associated with this pandemic. Ohio has received 15. 5 million from the first phase one legislation. But, of course, much more needed to be done. By the way, one way to find out what needs to be done is to listen to the people most affected by it and weve been doing that. I was joined by an Infectious Disease expert from the university of cincinnati on a Facebook Live town hall to answer questions from ohioans about this crisis. He told us what the Health Care System needs. We know what it needs and were responding in this legislation. Last week i hosted Conference Calls while i was here in washington with a number of heavily impacted groups, including the hospitals back in ohio and other people in Health Care Health care providers with our food banks, with our Small Business owners, with workers, with nonprofits from all around the state, the charities who were out there on the front lines doing all they did to help. We spoke to employers of all sizes, conferences with hotels, strawnts, restaurants and more, this helped us to understand their needs are and this legislation reflects what the needs are in our communities. Weve got to continue to listen to people because things are changing and as there is an evolving threat out there, Congress Needs to be evolving as well. So last week, we passed the second major bill called the phase two package which provides federal funds to individuals to the virus can get healthy. As an example, if you want to get tested for the virus, that is now free. Our hospitals needed more resources to combat the Health Crisis so we provided more care, for funding for the health care network. Im glad the president signed that bill immediately into law. We also provided Additional Resources to state Medicaid Programs for hospitals concerned about losing revenue with no elective surgeries and concerned about being overwhelmed by individuals suffering from the virus. Phase two provided more masks, more gowns, other protective gear and more funding for the antiviral therapies that are coming. Thats incredibly important that people know if they get the virus they can have Something Like tama flu for the regular flu, that giches them a lot of re gives them a lot of reassurance and comfort is necessary to protect our citizens. It puts more money to getting the vaccine going. It will not be here soon. It takes a while to get the vaccine. It will be done at unprecedented speed. It provides for expansion of emergency food assistance, including children who relied on the school for free lunch from the school cafeteria, it provided paid sick leave and family leave benefits because of a Family Member who has to leave because of coronavirus can now pay the bills. This paid leave is provided 100 from the federal government dollar for dollar, not on the Small Businesses. Thats really important. Larger businesses tend to have paid leave, but now we have a way for everybody under 500 employees to be able to get that paid leave through the federal government reimbursement. Its good we acted on phase one and phase two, as i talked about, but its clearly not enough. Things have not gotten better in the meantime in the last few days. Theyve gotten worse. A lot more has to be done to contain this virus to help people weather the storm in the meantime. The crisis is unprecedented. In the best interest of Public Health we have effectively chosen to pump the brakes on our economy. We decided to do that as a country because it is in the best interest of our Public Health, but unfortunately that means that businesses of all sizes, small, medium, large are having to either shutter their doors or slow down their production letting people go, so many parts of our economy now are feeling the pain of this rapid slowdown. Applications for unemployment in ohio this week as compared to last week increased 20 fold, that means there was a 2,000 increase in ohio on claims for unemployment. Obviously, thats overwhelming the system. Ive worked with my colleagues nonstop over the past three days to put together this phase three package that will provide some relief to the millions of American Workers and Small Businesses who have made our country and our economy the strongest in the world. Our goals are simple. First, slow the spread of the virus. Again, if that doesnt happen, Peoples Health is at risk, and the negative Economic Impact that is hurting so many families will continue. So slowing the spread of the virus is not just about the virus, its also about our economy. Second, we need to help employers to continue paying their employees through this crisis. Our objective should be to keep people at work, keep them connected to their employer as much as possible. Thats where they get their health care. Thats where they get their retirement for the most part. That enables us to be able to ensure that as we ramp up our economy, it can ramp up more quickly because people will be there at work. There wont be the process of hiring and retraining. So one of our objectives in this legislation is not just to slow the spread of the virus but also keep people at work to the extent possible. And third, recognizing that not every employer is going to be able to keep employees, even those who have some business going dont have enough business. We want to be sure were providing the resources to help those individuals. These are the people who are falling between the cracks. They cant stay at work because their work no longer has any revenue. We need to assist those people. Again, as we have talked about, ohios unemployment claims have skyrocketed, but so have Unemployment Office claims all around the country. The bottom line is that our country is not going to be able to come back until we slow the spread of this virus. Im pleased to say the phase three package we have negotiated by the way accomplishes all three of those objectives, all three. We do it through four major policy areas. We do it now, right away, to bring relief to the people were representing, which is why weve got to pass this legislation and pass it now. First in terms of helping people, this phase three package provides direct payment. These are direct payments, checks to individuals. 1,200. Per person. If youre a couple, its 2,400. And then its 500 per child. That check getting out to people will give people some extra dollars to make the difference in being able to pay bills, paying a car payment, paying rent, being able to put food on the table. It will give people some comfort to know there is at least a little help coming directly and quickly. For those who are out of work, these checks also serve as a bridge to getting into the new Unemployment Insurance system ill talk about now. Because the checks are going to be necessary. In most states, its going to take a couple of weeks, a few weeks, in some states several weeks to set up this new system. In ohio, they say two weeks. This is the most significant expansion of our Unemployment Insurance system in history by far. Its going to significantly expand the number of individuals who are eligible to receive benefits, particularly selfemployed, so it broadens those who qualify for Unemployment Insurance. These folks, by the way, have never been covered by Unemployment Insurance before. Whats more, it provides a flat increase of 600 per week per person in the Unemployment Insurance system. This means that for low and low, medium income folks, lets say 40,000 to 50,000 a year, they will essentially have wage replacement now through notre dame insurance. This is a big difference. In ohio, unemployed insurance is onethird of your wages for those same individuals. Now it will be topped up. So to the point earlier that this is a highly partisan bill, im sorry. This legislation reflects the priorities of democrats and republicans, and this is an example of that. And we have to acknowledge it. Is the bill perfect . No, no bill is perfect, certainly not when were trying to respond to a crisis like this and were pumping out more of our federal tax dollars and borrowed federal treasury dollars than ever in the history of our country through this process when you add up phase one, phase two, phase three, but this is a bill that represents ideas from both sides of the aisle. Are there some things that might need to be adjusted by the democrats in order to support it . I guess so because thats what we have heard tonight from the democratic leader, but we cannot start over, folks. This legislation does exactly what so Many Democrats have called for, and republicans, to be able to help people, to have the Financial Security to pay their bills and to stay afloat. By the way, we also provide funding to the state employment offices so that they can have federal funding to deal with their administrative costs as they shift to this dramatically new system thats being provided through this legislation. So thats for people directly. Second, the stimulus package is going to provide relief for Small Businesses that are trying to stay afloat by ensuring they are going to have access to credit and liquidity needed to adapt and retool their businesses to weather this storm. Were going to accomplish this in a couple of ways. One is through a major expansion of whats called the Small Business administration 7a loan program. This is going to go through businesses that are currently providing funding to Small Businesses, so its a community bank. Its the savings and loan. Its the credit union. Its the regional bank. Wherever people are banking, they will be able to get these loans directly. Specifically, were providing hundreds of billions of dollars in loans to small and mediumsized businesses that they can use for a variety of expenses, including payroll. Including paying rent, paying mortgages. By the way, if they use it for that, the loan is forgiven. It really converts into a grant. If they use it for payroll again, let me repeat to keep workers, because thats one of the objectives here, if they use it for rent, if they use it for mortgage payments, the loan is written off entirely. It essentially is a grant to those Small Businesses. This is why the Small Business community is excited about this because they want to keep their employees. They want to keep their doors open, but they are waiting, and they are waiting. They are on the edge of their seats seeing what we do tonight and tomorrow. Ive talked to many businesses back home who are saying i can wait until monday, but i cant wait any longer. Im bleeding cash. I have no revenue. I want to keep my people. I want to try to keep the doors open. Youve got to give us some help. S a i said before, the best way to protect workers to get our economy back up and running is to enable employers to keep paying their employees. This new program for small and mediumsized businesses does just that. For businesses that might not be eligible for these s. B. A. Loans, phase three stimulus helps provide immediate liquidity through a number of different ways. These are larger businesses, say over 500 employees. One is through the tax code, specifically our bill includes provisions that allow businesses to put cash in the hands of companies so they can even their workers employed and be ready to get back and running when the crisis is over. By the way, these tax incentives are things like not having to pay the employer side of the payroll tax, a 6. 2 fica tax. Thats incredibly important to these businesses. They told us that, give us a break on that for this year, 2020, and we can keep more people, keep our doors open. That is probably the biggest single one here. But guess what . In 2021 and 2022, they have to pay that back. So the best part of these tax incentives is that a large majority of them are simply timing changes meaning that while there are direct reductions in taxes now in 2020 when they need it, much of that reduction is going to be paid back in coming years. These tax provisions could provide up to 500 billion in immediate cash flow increases, again with more than half of that paid back to the federal government during the budget window. Third, the phase three package takes precise and targeted measures to relief particularly Distressed Industries that are at risk of hemorrhaging jobs and closing down if we dont. I know the democratic leader said he doesnt think help should go to businesses. I understand the democrats actually want to give more help to some businesses, so i guess they will pick and choose the businesses, but in this case, these are the businesses we all know are unfortunately facing the possibility of shutting down unless we do something. Think of the airline industry. Think of the airlines that right now have seen their passengers be reduced by 80 , some say 90 . Think of the airports that are closing. Think of the hotel businesses. Think of the other travel and tourism businesses, entertainment businesses. So these folks will be able to access whats called the Exchange Stabilization fund to be able to get a loan. And by the way, they will have to pay back that loan, but it is the federal government stepping in and providing a backup so that they can get that loan and be able to stay in business. So thats the three aspects that help workers, that help Small Businesses, that help with regard to all businesses, and then finally and i think most importantly perhaps in this legislation is funding and policy changes to slow the spread of the virus. Frankly, as i view this, this is the to buy time. Its to buy time for us to be able to increase the capacity of our Health Care System. This phase three package ensures that the men and women on the front line of this epidemic every day get more support. It increases funding, which we have already increased once, but an additional 4. 5 billion for the center for Disease Control. That 4. 5 billion, 1. 5 billion of it has to go to the states. This is going to ensure we can continue to monitor and respond to this virus as this pandemic continues. I think this is incredibly important. It also sends more money out to ensure that we can get these antiviral therapies going. Think of tamiflu for influenza, something that is key to dealing with this crisis as we begin to turn things around is going to be having an ability to keep people healthier, should they contract the virus. To me, maybe the most important parts of this legislation, because i believe in order to get our great country back on track and get people back to work, we need to have some sort of metrics in place. So maybe the most important part is to get better data on the agriculture Public Health risk thats out there, and this legislation does that. It enables us to know, now that we have more and faster testing out there finally and we needed more testing earlier, but now that we have that, how many new infections are there . Thats probably the best measurement we have out there. How many new cases are there . This legislation provides the funding and provides the direction to support the Public Health officials at every level to get better and more acceptable results every day, report it to the c. D. C. From your local health authority, from your state department of health. Those should be reported publicly every single day, but also all that data needs to come to the National Centers for Disease Control every day so that we can no truly whats going on out there because we dont have that data now. And to have that data is going to give us a better understanding to be able to measure both the crisis as it stands and the Health Care Risk we all face but also measure success as it starts to happen, because we need to be able to measure that success to get people back to work, to get people back to their families, to get people back on track in their lives. So this bill provides an increase in funding for health care, a major increase in addition to what i have just talked about. About 100 billion for hospitals and all health care providers, with 75 billion being appropriated to h. H. S. In order to be able to support our Health Care Systems in a more flexible manner. About 30 billion in medicare payment increases for hospitals that are directly treating patients with coronavirus. This is what theyre asking for. Finally, we have a couple of key proposals that we have championed over the years to support people with disabilities, particularly in institutional settings, that are at increased risk of contracting the virus. Thats in this legislation. We have the money pilt to Person Program which supports transitioning medicaid beneficiaries from dangerous settings, which some of them are in where there is a lot of activity, into homebased longterm care. Thats important, too. As i said earlier, these are exceptional times. Not since the influenza epidemic of 1918, 102 years ago has the United States of america been so swept up by a Health Care Crisis like this. Im pleased with some of the steps we have taken so far at the federal level to respond to this pandemic. We talked about them tonight. Phase one, 8. 3 billion, focused on health care. Phase two, beginning the process of helping workers and helping people get back to work and helping health care more. Now phase three, which is an unprecedented amount of support from american taxpayers to ensure we can get people through this, help them weather the storm. And again, these are republican ideas and democratic ideas through a process where we have forecast forces that were bipartisan, we worked long hours. I was part of one of those task forces. Now we need to get this legislation passed. The American People deserve it. They deserve a congress that does everything in its power to minimize the damage caused by the coronavirus. So lets put the partisanship aside, lets get to a vote on this package as soon as possible. Not 24 hours. Lets do it now. Lets do it now. We owe that to the people we represent. I yield back my time. Mr. Thune mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from yes, the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin thank you very much, mr. President. Before my colleague leaves from the state of ohio, i would like to note one issue that he did not raise which we have in common, and that is the issue of voting on the floor of the United States senate in times of national emergency. Senatorial portman and i have cosponsored legislation to address this issue, acknowledging in our introduction of it a few days ago that we would face something as we did this evening where five of our Senate Colleagues were unable to come to the floor of the senate and vote because theyre in selfquarantine at this moment. This could grow. Lets be very honest about it, and the numbers could grow to the point it could reach an extreme where theres a question of an actual quorum on the floor of the senate. What senator portman of ohio on the republican side and what i have introduced with him on the democratic side is an effort to establish a Verifiable Technology and procedure so that members can vote, once the decision is made that were in a time of emergency so that members can vote and not be physically present on the floor of the senate. There are some members, if you noticed tonight on my side and even on your side, who came to the floor quickly and left. They are genuinely concerned about social distancing and about contagion, and i understand that very much. I share their concern. So i would just say to my friend from ohio, were certainly not going to call this measure tonight, but i hope we call it soon. Its time for us to have this conversation about how to protect members and their families, staff and their families in the way that we vote on the floor of the senate when were facing a public Health Crisis such as the one that we have at this moment. Id be happy to yield for a question through the chair. Mr. Portman i appreciate your yielding for a question. My question is a comment, to thank you for your support of this on the other side of the aisle. This is a bipartisan effort to ensure that we can be able to do our duty, as the legislative branch, article 1, we have responsibilities here. This is our duty station. And yet, if we cannot be here, we still need to be able to do it remotely. And with the technology we now have, we have the ability to do that, as my colleague from illinois has said, in a safe and secure way. So i thank him for his advocacy of this. And my hope is that we can have this as a possibility should we not be able to gather. I think whats happened in the last several hours as weve learned about our colleagues who are selfquarantining, one who tested positive, as i understand it, its very important that we have that ability. So i thank my colleague. I yield back. Mr. Durbin i thank the senator from ohio. This is a bipartisan measure as it should be. It affects both sides of the aisle. Were all vulnerable. If we can find a practical solution which respects the integrity of the voting process of the United States senate, lets do it. This, as weve drawn it up in the earliest version, has to be agreed to by both leaders, democrat and republican, to go forward and do it for 30 days at a time, renewable for another 30 days with a vote of threefifths of the members to go forward an additional 30 days. So this is not a permanent change but its a change that may be necessary if we face a Public Health emergency or a terrorist threat, god forbid, or something of that nature. So i thank the senator from ohio. I know hes preparing to depart, i thank him not only for his remarks but the tone of his remarks. Because what i sensed from the senator from ohio was a general feeling that we can achieve this goal of coming up with this critical third piece of legislation and do it with both sides of the aisle working together. The American Public has a very low opinion of those of us who serve in congress as much as we respect the institutions and many of us have given so many years of our lives to them. But i think they have been pleasantly surprised in the first two measures that were passed, they were done on a timely basis and bipartisan basis. When we address the issues of the resources to fight this covid19, when we talked about providing free testing and medical leave and Unemployment Insurance being accelerated and food and medicaid reimbursement to states, it was done quickly and it was done with both the house and senate together on a bipartisan basis. I think that should be the standard. Im sorry today we stumbled. I wish that the senator from kentucky, the majority leader, would have withheld calling this vote this evening because i do believe that there are serious negotiations underway even as we meet here on this floor in another part of this building those conversations are taking place. I heard a lot of speeches on the floor and if you listen carefully to the comments of the democratic leader, senator schumer, they were positive. He really, i if he felt gave mee impression in the last several hours there have been steps forward. There are key elements that still need to be resolved but i feel confident we can reach that point and we must. The first and highest priority from our side of the aisle, we share, you said it, we all would say it, weve got to slow down and stop the spread of the covid19 in the United States of america. Unless and until we do that, theres nothing that we can do to repair and restore this economy that has any promise. We have got to reach the point where we have crested and start to see a decline in infections in our country so we can start envisioning the moment when we can get back in business in america. That moment couldnt come any time too soon for me or for all of us across the United States. Thats why we said a Marshall Plan thats what senator schumer kept referring to a Marshall Plan for health care and hospitals was our highest priority. I will concede the bill that youve described has substantial resources, but i must add for my point of view, just listening to my hospital administrators in illinois, its not enough. It isnt going to be enough. Were going to quickly see our Health Care System overwhelmed if we dont invest now and invest dramatically. Many of these hospitals in my state have said to me, and they said it publicly as well, that their Revenue Sources primarily outpatient treatment and elective surgery have been pushed aside because so many patients are coming through the emergency room door complaining of symptoms consistent with covid19. They have to take them as priority and cant schedule elective surgeries, so the revenue coming to many of these hospitals not just in chicago but across the state have been compromised. From the financial viewpoint lets make sure this third bill were debating puts an adequate amount of money in for these hospitals. They are our first line of defense against the spread of this virus across america. And i think we all agree that should be done. I continue to be frustrated, and i know my governor, j. B. J. B. Pritzker shares this, that all of the talk about testing kits heading our way have not born fruit. We dont see it. Were waiting for evidence of it. Were not testing nearly enough people in our state, a state of 1. 7 billion million people, im sorry, 17. 17 million peoplea state that needs more than just 350 tests a month. What we need to do is to make sure that we do this and have the testing kits available so we can map the increase or decrease in infections and we can chart specifically the spread of the disease in our state which i hope is moderated very, very soon. The equipment, the protective equipment, we have people who are volunteering to make masks at home, were so desperate to supply the needs for protective equipment at all levels. Its not nearly enough, and it needs to be done. Let me also say a moment about the role of the speaker in this. I listened to the Republican Senate leader speak in somewhat questionable terms, to be kind, about the role of Speaker Pelosi in this conversation about this third bill. I must say its pretty obvious that if were going to pass this measure and do it with dispatch, we need to have cooperation on both sides of the rotunda, not just a bill acceptable to the senate but to the house as well. So when Speaker Pelosi comes to the table, its important that she be there along with leader mccarthy, the House Republican Republican Leadership so that all four corners are represented. That is what senator schumer suggested at the earliest stages that we have the four corners of leadership come together with representatives of the white house and reach a l truly p bipartisan agreement that way. The fact that Speaker Pelosi is interested, she should be. She should be more than interested. She should be at the table and involved in making a decision on this. Let me tell you the Cash Payments are important. We have never opposed them. We have said that we want to extend Unemployment Insurance. There is a proposal for that, the duration of this extension is important to our side. It is a critical element which i hope we can quickly reach an agreement on. When it comes to the loans that are going to be made to Small Businesses, senator rubio, senator cardin have worked on this for a long time. I think they are very close to a measure, a bipartisan measure that we can agree on. The phase three effort that senator mark warner and others have focused on really takes into account certain corporations with more than 500 employees who definitely need a helping hand. When it comes to the largest corporations, i hope you can understand the reservations which some of us have. We want to make certain that the money going to these corporations isnt paid out in dividends or in stock buybacks, so that someone ends up getting rich at the expense of a truly bipartisan effort to help the workers at those corporations which are our highest priority. We can have restrictions so that these moneys are not abused and misused, and i hope that we can do that as part of this agreement. Let me close by saying that i do believe we can close this deal. I dont know if it can be done tonight. I pray that it will be. If there are people of good faith on both sides of the table it will be. If it is truly bipartisan, i believe we can reach the goal were all seeking. Lets get this done. Lets restore the confidence of the American People in this congress that we can act on a bipartisan basis, on a timely basis to respond quickly to what is one of the greatest challenges ive ever lived through in this nation. The American People in our neighborhoods and towns and cities across america are proving every day that they have the courage and determination to see their way through this challenge. First and foremost, our health care workers, god bless them, at every level, the doctors, the nurses, the Laboratory Technicians and those working with our elderly, they are risking their lives every day in their mission to deal with this crisis. We should do no less when it comes to our responsibility here in the United States senate. And a word about our first responders, whether its the police or the firefighters or those in medical professions, those too are doing their job regardless of the threat to them personally. So we should in that spirit resolve this matter and resolve it quickly. I believe we can do it. I believe there is a feeling of goodwill and determination on both sides of the aisle here in the United States senate, and i hope that it can even be accomplished this evening. I stand by what senator schumer said earlier. There is a light at the end of this tunnel. Lets try to pursue it, both parties, and get it done as quickly as possible. Mr. President , i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senior senator from south dakota. Mr. Thune mr. President , we dont have the luxury of time here. I think we all know that. Certainly the American People know it. They can see it sort of just unfolding right in front of them. Weve got Small Businesses that are shutting down which, of course, affects the people who work there. Weve got Health Care Systems that have tremendous needs and obviously theyre on the front lines of fighting the coronavirus. We continue to try and make progress on a piece of legislation that really should have been proceeded to today. The vote we had earlier today was a procedural vote. It was basically are we going to get on the bill. What you saw was the democrats object to even getting on the bill. Obviously as the leader pointed out, once youre on the bill, you have 30 hours if you choose to use it in which to continue to discuss and debate, and if there are things that they are continuing to work on, certainly they could have that opportunity to do that. But the vote today which you saw the democrats oppose was simply whether or not were going to get on the bill, a bill that is desperately needed by our country right now. And i would argue that the American People are looking to us for action. And, frankly, as i said, we just dont have the luxury of time. And the democratic leader got up earlier and said that this is a, this is a partisan bill. Thats just false. Thats just flatly untrue, mr. President. This has been negotiated for the past few days now between democrats and republicans. Leader mcconnell appointed several task forces and the democratic leader appointed representatives from his side to serve on those task forces. They have been negotiating elementsth bill now for the pasl for the past few days. What you see, the legislation in front of us reflects that work. There was a tremendous amount of bipartisan content in this bill. The democrats had ample opportunities to make their case and to try and get things included that they said they wanted. And just to sort of highlight again when, what the democrats said their priorities were in this legislation, phase three, if you will, it was to, it was about workers, it was about Small Businesses, it was about Unemployment Insurance. They called it Unemployment Insurance on steroids. It was about hospitals. I have to say that i see in this piece of legislation all of that. What they just voted to even debate includes all those elements. In fact, if you look at what this bill includes, if youre talking about providing help to families and people who really need it in this country, immediately 1,200 checks to individual taxpayers. 24 00 to a couple who filed jointly, and that runs through income levels, if youre a single taxpayer, 75,000, phases out at 95,000. A couple filing jointly, 150,000, phases out. This is something that the president supported. That was a bipartisan priority that ended up in this legislation. It will bring immediate relief, get dollars back in the hands of American Families to enable them to deal with their daily needs and as best they can with the crisis we have unfolding in front of us. And then you had, of course, a priority, a huge priority for the democrats, which was the socalled u. I. On steroids, the Unemployment Insurance program. And i have to say my colleague from ohio, senator portman, did a terrific job of laying out all the elements of this legislation, but as he mentioned, Unemployment Insurance was a big priority for the democrats. Well, there is a big commitment to plussing up, topping off the unemployment accounts that the states maintain. 600 per week for three months into those unemployment accounts. So if youre unemployed in this country and you go down to the Unemployment Office in your state, what you would normally receive in terms of a benefit would be increased by 600 per week per person for three months. That was a huge priority for the democrats and one that republicans as well believed was important. So we have not only the checks going out immediately that will benefit families but we also have now an Unemployment Insurance program delivered through the states that will provide assistance to those who have lost jobs. And then, of course, we had another priority the democrats mentioned was they wanted to provide assistance, muchneeded assistance to Small Businesses. If you look at whats in this bill for Small Businesses, there is basically a loan program operated under the Small Business administration in which participating lenders, and that could include commercial banks, community banks, credit unions, as we mentioned earlier, where Small Businesses could go to get loans 100 guaranteed which if used to pay payroll, if used to keep their employees employed over this period would be forgiven at the end to the total tune of 350 billion total as part of this package. Thats what it adds up to. But that, again, is a benefit that would go out for the next eight weeks to Small Businesses, and if used, to keep their employees employed, in other words keep them connected to their jobs and when this thing passeses that those jobs will still be there. 350 billion there, 300 billion for checks that would go out to families, as i said earlier, and 250 billion to plus up the Unemployment Insurance accounts that the states maintain. Those are all benefits that will go out to workers in this country, to employees to keep people afloat, if you will, until we get to a better better time, hopefully not too far ahead of us. And so those were all priorities that both sides had and thats just what democrats voted against. We had the vote earlier about whether even to get on the bill. Whether to debate the bill. They voted no. They voted know en bloc, and as you saw shortly after that, a significant drop in the futures market and i think the markets, in addition to the American People, are looking to us to provide confidence, to provide a shot in the arm to suggest that we get whats at stake and how important it is that we respond not only swiftly but in a bold and big way. And so those are just a few of the things that were included in there that are democrat priorities and represent the work of a Bipartisan Task force. Now, the democrats have argued that perhaps, you know, theres too much in here in the form of bailouts. Well, there is a provision in here through the Federal Reserve that would allow loans to be made to companies who need cash flow, who need liquidity, and obviously those are loans that would be paid back. So i dont know how you can argue something as a bailout when people are getting loans, businesses are getting loans that ultimately have to be paid back. But thats a provision in the bill. But if you dont have that in there, a lot of those businesses that through no fault of their own have been shuttered or asked to shut down. I used some good examples, notable examples, the airlines basically are not operating. 10 , maybe 20 , but more likely from what im hearing 10 of their normal loads. I mean, they are going to have huge hits to their balance sheets. And other Companies Like those across this country right now who are feeling a tremendous amount of economic harm, and the reason thats important, mr. President , is because those people, those companies, those businesses employ thousands, millions of workers across this country. And if we want to keep people employed in this country, we have to keep those businesses functioning and operating in a way that will enable them to continue to make payroll. And so, yes, theres a provision in there that helps businesses sort of get liquidity, loan capital, if you will that will bridge to hopefully a better time, but those loans eventually, obviously would be paid back. And so the democrats were very insistent there not be any corporate bailouts, not any bailouts for big businesses, and i dont know how you could argue that what this includes is a bailout for big businesses. There is a mechanism, a Credit Facility that would allow businesses to have access to loans to keep their businesses up and operating. And so those are just a few of the features in the legislation that was just voted down or even whether or not to debate it or not was voted down by the democrats. And i want to mention one last thing here, mr. President , that the democrats also voted against even debating when they came out here and all voted against this is a significant amount of money going to those entities that we know are on the front lines of fighting this virus. And weve all said that the best way to get the economy back on track, the best way to see things restore to normal in this country is to defeat the virus. Well, there are significant resources in this legislation that are designed just to do that. 75 billion going to hospitals and another 20 or 25 billion that will go to other hospitals, mandatory spending, this comes through the appropriations bill so these are discretionary funds. About 100 billion in there for hospitals, 20 billion for Veterans Health care, veterans hospitals and Health Care Facilities are really critical to caring for a Critical Group of people in this country, those who have defended and fought for our freedoms. 11 billion for vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other therapy needs. Gloves, masks, vernts ventilators vernts and those sort of things. 11 billion in there for that. 4. 5 billion for the centers for Disease Control which was also plussed up significantly, the last two bills we passed earlier this week, had Additional Resources for the c. D. C. , 1. 7 billion for the Strategic National stockpile, 12 million for the military. National security is always an issue that we pay a lot of attention to, particularly in time of crisis. 10 billion for block grants to states, just directly block grants to states, 12 billion to k12 education, another 6 billion for higher education, 5 billion for fema Disaster Relief fund, 10 billion for airports, and obviously airports are very much impacted by this complete dropoff when it comes to air traffic in this country. 20 billion for Public Transportation emergency relief. That adds up to, mr. President , 242 billion on top of all the things that i just mentioned, going to things that we think are really strategic when it comes to defeating this virus and combating it and making sure that those resources are available to those who are on the front lines and doing that. So all told of that 242 billion, 75 or 186 billion goes through the states and the democrats have said we need more money for the states, we need more money for the states. Well, this is a pretty, i would think, significant amount, 186 billion out of the 242 billion that i just described runs through the states. And so there is a tremendous amount of support for those who are on the front lines trying to fight and defeat this coronavirus, mr. President. So i just point all that out to say, again, that it is it is a complete misnomer to say, as the democratic leader did earlier, that this was a partisan bill. This is a bipartisan bill and i participated in one of those working groups and i sat across from my democrat counterpart at times, more than one, and with staffs and we came to the table with a set of priorities and they came to the table with a set of priorities and what this represents is not everything they wanted, probably not everything we wanted but things that we could find that we could agree upon. And so this was a very bipartisan process which incorporated the ideas of both republicans and democrats. It is truly unfortunately, frankly sad a sad day i would argue here in the United States senate and for our country that the democrats opted just a moment ago to vote not even to get on this bill. Not even to proceed to it to give us the opportunity to have that continue that discussion and that debate. They indicated there are still discussions going on. I hope thats the case because i said this before, we dont have the luxury of time, mr. President. We need action. We need action now. Not later, now. The American People need to see relief. They need to see confidence in their elected leaders and a willingness to work in a bipartisan way on a solution, perhaps Many Solutions hopefully, included in this legislation to the challenges they are facing in their every day lives. I would say its unfortunate were not going to be on this bill right now. I hope and pray for the sake of our country and for the people who are not only suffering from the coronavirus, those who have loved ones, those are exposed to it, those caring for them, but also for every worker, every Small Business in this country, that the democrats will reconsider and allow us to get on this legislation and move forward in a bipartisan way on a bipartisan bill which they helped fashion, which they helped craft that is critical to the challenges that we are facing in the days and the weeks ahead. Mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Wicker mr. President. The presiding officer the senior senator from mississippi. Mr. Wicker thank you, mr. President. The senator from south dakota has said it well, and i just want to come down here today to echo that weve had so many misstatements made by people on the other side of the aisle this afternoon and this evening, i just think it cries out for explanations. Senator thune is correct. This is a bipartisan bill that were asking for consideration on. Were asking that a vote be taken so that we can have the final 30 hours of debate and get to it tomorrow. Americas crying out for this. The Financial Markets are watching us, and our economy is is teetering on the brink. We need to get this done. I too was in one of the working groups, mr. President , and we had equal numbers of democratic and republican senators in this working group with their satisfies with their laptops, and much of what is in the bill was hammered out with the input of democratic and republican members of this working group, and there were a few issues, yes, that we couldnt resolve and so we kicked it up to the democratic leader and the majority leader to be hammered out perhaps in consultation with the administration. But far and away most of this legislation is is bipartisan in nature and it just pains me for somehow the accusation to be made that this is nothing but a bipartisan bill written by the the republican leader. What is this about . The American People need to understand this, mr. President. This is about getting money to average workers so that they can pay their bills and so that they can stay employed. It involves enhanced and lengthened Unemployment Insurance, and it is a provision given to us and designed and and and conceived by our democratic friends. We felt it was worth doing and we put it in the bill. Also there is as the distinguished gentleman from south dakota said, there is 350 billion to Small Businesses to keep workers from ever being unemployed in the first place, to keep them on the job. So Small Businesses will have an opportunity to receive a cash infusion and this could happen as early as this coming week. And they would be able to use this money to pay the salaries, and those people would never have to go on Unemployment Insurance because they would still be on the job. Thats whats in this bill. Thats what we need to get to a conclusion about and send on over to the house of representatives tomorrow morning. It of course involves checks from the government, massive checks, a massive amount of checks to middleclass americans to just give them a Little Something in their accounts so that they can pay the bills in response to this economic downturn that weve had. And then it involves loans to keep americans working, and this is something that i in particular was working on with my republican colleagues and with democrats on this working group. The Airline Business in this country is about to shut down. Passenger rates are single digits. They cant stay afloat with this. And so it pains me to hear our solution to this problem, to keep Airline Workers working, it pains me to hear this described by my democratic friends as a bailout. Thats what would happen if we were just going to hand over cash to the airlines to keep them afloat, but thats not what were doing. What were doing is offering to pay loans, quick loans to the Airline Companies so that they can continue to pay their employees and keep them on the job and not put them on the unemployment rolls. These loans would be made at market rates. There would be no loan forgiveness. And they must be paid back. Not a grant, not a bailout. Its just offensive to me to hear some of my friends that perhaps have not read the bill and are not as thoroughly versed on its provisions as as we are that actually wrote the bill to describe this as a bailout for corporate america. Nothing could be further from the truth. There were some people asking us to make grants to the big Airline Companies. We rejected that on a bipartisan basis, mr. President. We said no, these must be loans. Once the airlines get back on their feet and once this coronavirus outbreak has subsided, they will be in good shape again. And they will be able to pay it back, with market interest rates, just like any other business that has to take out a loan. But weve got to get this money to them in a hurry. And so i just object and have to come down here and say that perhaps they are confused, perhaps they havent read the bill as i have, but it makes available loans to the airline industry, and to other related industries that are critical to national security. And if i might, mr. President , let me just read a sentence or two from the bill itself. This is bill language that im quoting. The secretary may enter into agreements to make loans or Loan Guarantees. To one or more eligible businesses. The applicant must be a business which is for which credit is not reasonably available. Then you go out and borrow money from banks. This doesnt apply to them. Our airlines are going to need more money than that, and so this says that they must be paid back. The loan or Loan Guarantee must be sufficiently secured. Again, im reading from bill language, the duration of the loan or Loan Guarantee is as short as practicable. Now, my friend from illinois, i appreciate the tone that he and my friend from ohio used in their Exchange Just a few moments ago, and i do think there is a real possibility that minds of goodwill can come to an agreement tonight. The realities on the ground in our Country Demand that and cry out for it, but again, i must take issue with with my friend from illinois saying that there were no restrictions on the loans that were giving to the Airline Industries that were going to allow the secretary of the treasury to give. And he mentioned specifically we need to prohibit stock buybacks. These Airline Companies are going to get these loans. We need to have a provision in the law that prohibits stock buybacks. As a matter of fact, mr. President , that is in the bill that we wanted to take up and we were unable to get a vote on unable to get the requisite number of votes just an hour or so og. We prohibit in the bill an hour or so ago. We prohibit in the bill loans being used by the company to buy back their stock. Here is bill language. Subparagraph e, except to the extent required under contractual obligation in effect as of date of the enactment of this act, the agreement prohibits the eligible business from repurchasing any outstanding equity interest while the loan or Loan Guarantee is outstanding. So no corporate buybacks. We have answered one of the concerns that the democratic whip mentions in his remarks. None of this money can go to increased executive salaries. It must be repaid and it must be repaid with interest. Our bill has explicit prohibitions against any loan forgiveness for any of the loans in this entire section. This is hardly a bailout, mr. President. We are offering a lifeline again, this is bipartisan language hammered out by republicans and democrats, offers a lifeline to critical companies who would probably not survive, and we do it by providing carefully crafted and restricted loans to protect the taxpayers. Without these loans being available in the very next few days, some of these companies will file bankruptcy. Many thousands of these employees will lose their jobs. And we are trying to pass this bill to keep that from happening. 128,000 workers in one company. 92,000 workers in another company. 79,000 workers in in yet another. And so i i would just say to my friends lets negotiate these last few details and get this done, but dont misrepresent this as a big giveaway to corporate america. This is designed to help average americans who are suffering and threatening the loss of their jobs. Now, the majority whip mentioned the appropriations portion of this, and again, this is money thats needed. Americans need to know what is in the discretionary appropriated part of this bill, and so let me just tell you. More than 75 of it, 186 billion in the total will go to state and local governments to help them get over this over the hump in this terrible crisis. I was i have been contacted by by officials from state and local government, and i had told them that this bill has 186 billion to help them get through this crisis. I thought i was going to be able to tell them that that they that this would be enacted in the next day or two. Unfortunately, i was a little overoptimistic on that. But 186 billion for state and local government, 75 billion for hospitals. Clearly they need it. 20 billion for the veterans administration. 11 billion for vaccines, therapeutic, diagnostics and other preparedness needs. Now, if there are larger needs, come and tell us that and well work with people, but this is a generous bill. 4. 5 billion for the centers for Disease Control. 1. 7 billion for the Strategic National stockpile. 12 billion to assist the military in in addressing this coronavirus. 12 billion for k12 education. 6 billion for higher education. 5 billion for fema Disaster Relief funds. There is 10 billion in it for airports. My colleagues have heard from airports, and 20 billion for Public Transportation. This is an injection of appropriated money to keep this economy going until this virus subsides. It is an injection of long loan money to Large Businesses and also an opportunity for the Federal Reserve, within their discretion under a program thats been established for decades and decades, to loan money not only to Big Companies but Medium Sized Companies and Small Companies under a Federal Reserve program commonly known as section 13, subparagraph 3. So i would just say to my colleagues, mr. President , before we come down here and make inaccurate statements, read the bill. Understand what were doing. Understand that this is to get money to workers who need to stay on the job. This is a bill to get Unemployment Benefits to workers who are already off the job. And an injection of cash into our economy and a propup on a loan basis with interest that could be repaid to keep the airlines and related businesses afloat. I hope we pass it. I know americans are hoping and praying for this tonight, and perhaps by the early right of light of morning, well have good at the end of Sundays Senate session, Mitch Mcconnell and Chuck Schumer spoke about the next steps of the Economic Relief package. During the exchange, senator schumer had an objection which caused senator mcconnell to change the start time for the session with no agreement on when the vote would be