This morning is speeches from senators laying out their positions. Senator Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell started up the process starting to vote to advance the measure, but that vote hasnt been scheduled. Now to live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The chaplain let us pray. Almighty and everlasting god, mercifully look upon our infirmities, and in all our dangers defend us. Away. We cry out to you and seem to only hear our echos of laments. As our lawmakers reach out to you night and day, enable them to connect to your matchless power. May they find in you a sure refuge, a shelter in the time of storms. Lord, strengthen the weakness of our faith, and give us trust for our trembling and hope for our fears. Give us patience and cheerful endurance and serenity of mind. And, lord, place your Healing Hands upon john bessler, senator rand paul, and others who need to feel your touch. We pray in your great name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the majority leader the presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley id like to address the senate as if in morning business for one minute. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley every american is facing a very uncertain future that the virus has brought to our country and to the world. Our daily lives have become transformed for right now and maybe for some to some extent for ar longer period of time. Grocery stores have been open in fact one of the few businesses that need to stay open. While it may shock some living in large cities, food does not come from Grocery Stores, food comes from farms. So today we celebrate national ag day. Let me assure you American Farmers and ranchers are up to the challenge of producing food to fill the shelves of every Grocery Store and the fridges and cupboards of our households. Farmers are only 2 of the population, but we will provide for the other 98 . When you eat today, thank a farmer as i will thank the 88,000 family farmers in iowa. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell for weeks now the American People have been contending with the coronavirus pandemic thats spreading across our country and the massive massive disruptions to daily life it is creating for all of us. They are grappling with Small Business closure, mass layoffs and uncertainty for their families. But that isnt all, madam president. For the last several days, madam president , in the midst of all of that theyve also had to watch the United States senate spin its wheel. As we convene this morning, roughly 40 of our population is under stay at home orders from state leaders. Employers across america are wondering how theyll keep the lights on. Doctors, nurses, and Health Care Professionals are literally crying out for support. We literally have Army Field Hospitals on the way to being set up in our major american cities. In the space of just a few weeks this has become, unfortunately, our new normal. This is a national crisis. Its the most serious threat to Americans Health in over a century and quite likely the greatest risk to americas jobs and prosperity that weve seen since the great depression. Hundreds of thousands of americans have already lost their jobs because so much of our commerce has been put on pause. Families are wondering how they are going to pay their rent or mortgage. In eight days rent is due on april 1. People dont know how they are going to pay bills or make their car payment. Any other many other hardworking americans are still employed for now but fall asleep every night wondering if it will be there when they wake up to that email or phone call tomorrow. American seniors have seen decades of savings cut down in the space of days as markets literally tumble. Our National Life has literally and transformed in less than a month. The urgency and the gravity of this moment cannot be lost on anyone. Every day, every hour the congress delays in passing a significant package, we risk more american livelihoods and the safety of more Health Care Professionals. Thats why right after i fasttrack the democrat house relief bill in the senate, i immediately turned the senate toward developing an even bigger and bolder relief package for the American People. Nine days ago i laid out the key objectives of our work. We had to send direct Financial Assistance to americans direct . Assistance to americans. We had to help main street Small Businesses. We had to act to stabilize the foundation of our economy for workers and we had to send more resources to medical professionals and our Health Care System. Five days ago Senate Republicans released our initial framework for the cares act. We put forward bold policies like sending cash directly to americans. Pouring money into Small Businesses, lending to National Industries to prevent mass layoffs and surge resources to doctors, nurses and patients. We knew we need a proposal to address our nations pain at literally every level. Now, in the past few days some voices have tried to pit some americans against other americans and argued that directly helping workers and strengthening businesses are somehow conflicting priorities. That is utter nonsense. American workers need paychecks. They need jobs. The working men and women of this country do need direct relief from government in this crisis, but for goodness sakes, they also need their paycheck. They need to be able to resume their lives and their jobs once this is over. The two things cant be separated. Theres a term for when you separate employees from employers. Theres a term for that. Its called unemployment. Let me say that again. Theres a term for when you separate employees from employers. Its called unemployment. Thats what were trying to avoid. So this is no time to point fingers or stoke these culture wars. This is a time to unify. Perhaps now more than at any moment in living memory, all of us americans are in this together. This pandemic is not the fault of the American Workers who make this country run. Its not the fault of Small Business owners. Its not the fault of Major National employers. Everyone needs help. Were all in this together. We need an alloftheabove approach, and thats what our framework put forward, help for workers and families and employers and Health Care Providers. As soon as republicans put out a draft proposal to treat every aspect of this crisis, i immediately called for bipartisan talks. Thats not something you see often in washington. As soon as i released our first draft, i immediately invited the other side, these folks over here, to make their suggestions. Thats what you call urgency. We set up bipartisan working groups. I asked negotiators to Work Together to turn our rough draft into something that could pass the senate with overwhelming bipartisan support. Republicans and democrats traded ideas. Democrats asked for many changes to the initial draft and received many. The updated text released a few days ago included proposals from the other side. And, of course, as our colleagues have dragged out the last several days, even further changes have been made at that request. This majority has gone out of its way to out of its way to make this as bipartisan and open as possible. The administration has bent over backwards to work with democrats and address their concerns. Now, at least i believe were on the 5yard line. Its taken a lot of noise and a lot of rhetoric to get us here. And, of course, that, of course, sometimes happens in this country. At different times we received democrat counteroffers that demanded things like new emission standards or tax credits for solar panel. We saw the speaker of the house release an encyclopedia of demands as though it were like a coronavirus proposal somehow. In spite in spite of all of that, we are very close. We are close to a bill that takes our bold republican framework, integrates further ideas from both parties, and delivers huge progress on each of the core priorities i laid out a week ago. So today, madam president , today the senate has a chance to get back on track. Today we can make all of the washington drama fade away. If we act today, what americans will remember and what history will record is that the senate did the right thing. That we came together, that we took a less sorn from the way lesson from the way that americans are uniting and working together all across the country that we combined ideas from both sides and took a bold step to help americans and protect our nation through this crisis. Im not sure how many ways to say it, madam president , but the clock has run out. The buzzer is sounding. The hour for bargaining as though this were business as usual has expired. The American People need our democratic friends to take yes for an answer. Now i hope that will happen today. Doctors and nurses need masks. Families need help. Small businesses need cash. Hospitals need funding. Their Senate Majority is ready to deliver those things. Weve been ready to deliver those things for awhile. I hope today is the day this body will get it done. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h. R. 748, which the clerk will report. The clerk motion to proceed to h. R. 748, an act to amend the Internal Revenue code of 1986, to repeal the excise tax on high sponsored Employer Health coverage. The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Thune madam president , this very minute across the country, families are wondering how theyre going to survive financially now that mom or dad is out of a job. Our workers whose businesses have closed temporarily are praying that theyll still have a job to go back to when this is over. Small businesses are facing agonizing decisions about whether theyll have to lay off employees or close their businesses altogether. And democrats, madam president , democrats have been focused on fuel emissions standards and early voting. Thats right, madam president. In the midst of an Unprecedented Health and financial crisis, democrats have been delaying a major relief bill in hopes that they can include a laundry list of their pet projects, projects that have absolutely nothing to do with providing Financial Relief to americans or ensuring that medical professionals have the resources they need to fight this virus. Madam president , republicans developed this legislation in con junction with democrats, and it was teed up, being written up saturday, saturday evening, ready to vote sunday morning, when it democrats voted to block even getting on the bill, even getting on the bill. They said we need to block it now because we may not be able to block it later, not of course acknowledging that there is yet another 60vote hurdle that we would have to get over before we got to final consideration of the bill. But its been teed up and ready to go now since saturday night. And weve made a lot of changes since then, the legislation, to address the democrats priorities. And, madam president , i thought we were very close to agreement on a final bill. Of course then the democratic leadership of the house and senate stepped in and apparently decided this was a perfect opportunity to implement a bunch of democrat pet projects that have nothing to do, nothing to do with fighting the coronavirus or helping the American Families who are suffering financially at this very minute. Madam president , i know my democrat colleagues have come to regard bipartisanship as a bad word over the past three years, but i had hoped, i really sincerely had hoped that in this hour of serious need the democrats would be able to put aside their prejudices and work with republicans to pass this critical legislation. But apparently that was too much to hope for from the democrat leadership. Madam president , neither my colleagues nor i have given up on reaching an agreement. Were still working and im still hoping that we will arrive at a final bill sometime later today. But we should have already passed this legislation three days ago, and the blame for not passing it lies squarely on the democrat leaders shoulders. I really hope that theyll rethink their decision to hijack this relief bill for their political purposes, because the American People deserve better. The bill before us is filled with resources to help struggling families, provide relief to workers, and enable businesses to retain their employees during this crisis. Madam president , americans need this bill today, not tomorrow, not next week, not when democrats are finally satisfied that theyve scored enough political points. Today. And i hope that my democrat colleagues will urge their leadership to come to the table and pass this legislation. American workers and families need relief, and they need it now. We cant afford, madam president , to let them down. All we need is a few Democrat Members who are willing to go against their leadership and vote with us to pass legislation that addresses all the fundamental issues that i just mentioned assistance to families, displaced people who need cash, people who need to pay bills, assistance to those who are unemployed in the form of Unemployment Insurance, increasing the states uninsurance that people already get by 600 per week for three months, 2,400 checks for married couples and 500 per child on top of that to go out immediately upon passage of this bill. For Small Businesses, 350 billion set aside to pay payroll, to keep employees working, hopefully to keep those those there so they dont go away, and then when this thing is over, those jobs are still there for those people. Those are all provisions in this bill that are designed to help working families, employees keep their jobs and keep their livelihood until we get to a better place, which moly will be very soon. And in the meantime, deal with the Health Care Crisis, which this also addresses. Look at this. This is over 240 billion in relief in this bill dealing principally with the challenges that our Health Care Community has. 75 billion directly for hospitals, another 25 billion would come in reimbursements under medicare to hospitals, so 100 billion for hospitals. 20 billion for Veterans Health care. 11 billion for vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics. 4. 5 billion for the centers for Disease Control. 1. 7 billion for the Strategic National stockpile. 12 billion for americas military, also an important component in this fight. 10 billion for block grants to states. 12 billion for k12 education. 6 billion for higher education. 5 billion for fema disaster relief. 10 billion for airports. And 20 billion for Public Transportation emergency relief. In all, just in this particular provision of the bill, 242 billion in assistance. 186 billion, i might add, which would run through and be administered by the states. So all told, between the amount thats going to families, workers, employees, Small Businesses about 1. 1 trillion to 1. 2 trillion that could be on the street today helping address the health care and economic crisis thats being felt and experienced by the American People. But, no, were still here. Were still here waiting for the democrats to conclude at some point we hope that all these political games that theyre playing and it does seem like a big transaction for them, political winners and political losers, and the only loser we know is the American People in all this, because the longer this goes on, the harder it becomes for them to get back to where they were, the harder it becomes for that Small Business to stay open or to keep those employees employed. Every single day is costing the American Economy and American Workers jobs, resources, wages that they could be putting forward to take care of them and their families. Now, the democrats have said that they want more money for hospitals. Thats goshable. They want thats negotiable. They want more conditions on the loan fund that larger businesses would be able to access in order to keep their businesses afloat. Thats a negotiable thing. There are many of our members here who support those very things. They say they want more money for state and local governments. Probably, too, something that can be negotiated. And i keep having rankandfile Democrat Members come up to me and say, this is the list of things we want to negotiate on and get into this bill. And i say, those are all things we want to negotiator on and many of our members would support what some democrats want to do. So whats the hold up . Well, i dont think rankandfile democrats even realize what their demanding just past those d