Coronavirus briefing with vermont governor phil scott to keep longterm commitment to coverage of the us senate. You can watch the remainder of this briefing on cspan. Org. Senate lawmakers are completing work on the third coronavirus economics to me was plan, final vote on the bill is expected today. Now live coverage of the u. S. Senate on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. O god, our father, we lift up our hearts in prayer because we trust in you. Lord, we know well the weakness and the insecurity of our hold upon this life. Comfort those who have lost loved ones during this Global Health crisis. When we wrestle with sad memories of mortal loss, give us all the glorious hope of life eternal. Lord, provide our lawmakers with the confidence that your allsufficient grace and power will enable them to become more than conquerors during this time of trouble. Remind them that no one who trusts in you will ultimately be disgraced. Mighty god, our forebears trusted in you and you delivered them. Be not far from us, for you are the source of our hope. We pray in your great name, amen. The president pro tempore please follow me in the pledge of allegiance. 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 senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask to speak for one minute in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley as chairman of the finance committee and head of the task force, i want to highlight a few areas of bipartisan Economic Relief we will be voting on today. Recovery checks to give americans needed cash to provide for their families and get through our Current Health crisis look like this. 1,200 for individuals, 2,400 for married couples, 500 for each child. Theres no minimum, no phasein. It starts out at the lowest level. Anyone with a Social Security number who is not dependent on anyone else should be eligible for a check under the income caps. We also have a very strong Unemployment Compensation additions to the present program in this bill. We also have incentives to help charities because they play a very Important Role in this recovery. My colleagues across the aisle said last week that the business tax issues were corporate bailouts. That couldnt be further from the truth. I think my democratic colleagues now agree. This is about helping our workers keep their jobs, our Economic Relief package to recover this economy has provisions to help businesses so that they have the cash to keep the doors open and keep making payroll. We all worked hard, along with the administration, to get this job done. Now its time to vote on this bill and deliver relief for the American People and to recover this economy. Get the Strong Economy back that we had. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader of the senate. Mr. Mcconnell its only been 65 days since the First American tested positive with the new coronavirus on our soil, and barely and in barely two months, this pandemic has upended our nation. As of this morning, more than 175 million americans have been advised to remain in their homes. More than half of our people are effectively sheltering in place. Hospitals in major cities are pushing capacity. Doctors and nurses are exlawsing crucial supplies. Are exhausting crucial supplies. And if that were not enough for americans to fight to stay healthy, theyre also fighting to keep their paychecks, to keep supporting their families. Combating this disease has forced our country to put huge parts of our National Life on pause and triggered layoffs at a breathtaking pace. This strange new reality has forced our nation on to Something Like wartime footing. A fight has arrived on our shores. We did not seek it, we did not want it, but now were going to win it. Ten days ago, i laid out four urgent priorities for new Senate Legislation to help our nation through this crisis. We had to get direct, direct Financial Assistance to the American People. We had to get historic aid to Small Businesses to keep paychecks flowing, stabilize Key Industries to be prevent mass layoffs, and of course flood more resources into the Frontline Health care battle itself. One week ago, Senate Republicans laid down an initial proposal that tackled each, each of these emergency missions. Our members put forward bold plans to send cash to households, stand up historic emergency loans for main street, stabilize key sectors, and put the full might of congress behind our doctors, nurses, hospitals, Health Care Providers, and the race for treatments and vaccines. I couldnt be prouder, mr. President , of our colleagues. Our nation needed us to go big and go fast, and they did. The creative policies our chairman crafted in just a couple of days time remain the Central Building blocks of the proposal we will pass today. But republicans knew the nation had no time, no time for conventional political gamesmanship, so the instant we released our first draft, i created a series of bipartisan working groups, i asked republicans and democrats to Work Together around the clock, literally around the clock to make the bill even better. By sunday, we had an updated proposal that was Even Stronger and contained even more ideas literally from both sides, both sides. Republicans and democrats had worked together to dramatically strengthen and rework Unemployment Insurance during this crisis. We had worked together to make sure lower income families could receive the full cash assistance , and on and on. Mr. President , i will leave it to others to compare the bipartisan sunday bill to the final version we will pass today and determine whether the last few changes really required or merited three days of delay. Three days of delay. In the face of this worsening crisis. But that washington drama does not matter any more. The senate is going to stand together, act together, and pass this historic relief package today. Struggling americans are going to go to their mailboxes and find fourfigure checks to help with their bills. Why . Because the senate stepped up. Many American Families who have poured everything into a restaurant or a shop or a Small Manufacturer are going to keep making payroll and keep their businesses alive because this senate stepped up. Hundreds of thousands of workers in key sectors who might well have been laid off through no fault of their own will instead get to keep their job and continue their career because this senate stepped up. And for the Health Care Heroes who leave their own sleeping children and drive to the hospital for an allnight shift, who spend hour after hour healing the sick, comforting strangers, and literally battling this disease, there will be more masks in their supply closets, more funding for their hospitals, and soon more new treatments to administer to their patients. Because this senate stepped up. So today, mr. President , the senate will act to help the people of this country weather this storm. Nobody thinks legislation can end this. We cannot outlaw the virus. And no Economic Policy could fully end the hardship so long as the Public Health requires that we put so much of our nations commerce on ice. This is not even a stimulus package. It is emergency relief. Emergency relief, thats what this is. No, this fight is not going to be won or lost in washington. Its the American People who will beat this virus. Americans will keep making sacrifices to slow down the spread. Americans will keep pitching in and looking after each other. Americans will keep finding creative ways to stand united, even if they have to stand six feet apart. We will win this fight because of people like amy jean tyler, a stayathome mom in kentucky who is leading a drive to sew cotton masks for a local childrens hospital. Well win this fight because of people like grant hasty in sterns, kentucky, who has gathered volunteers to distribute more than 550 homecooked meals. We will win this fight because of people like peg hayes who runs a distillery in christian county, kentucky, and is temporarily converting her bourbonmaking facility to churn Hand Sanitizer. Well win this fight because National Companies are switching production lines to make medical supplies, because our largest hightech companies are partnering with the government to throw supercomputing power right into the race to provide vaccines. Well win this fight because of families, neighbors, and Church Communities that cannot even worship together in person, because of Small Businesses, big businesses, Public Health, ph. D. s, and local entrepreneurs. Its been 18 years since every american was united in amazement and prayer as firefighters and First Responders rushed into burning buildings on september 11, 2001. In the coming days and weeks, our nation is going to meet new heroes. Many may be police, firefighters, and e. M. T. s once again. Many others will be Truck Drivers, Grocery Store clerks, and pharmacists who literally keep our supply chains running. Utility workers and delivery drivers who leave their homes so everyone else can remain in theirs. Teachers who somehow manage to keep educating their students over the internet while looking after their own kids at the very same time. And most of all, were going to meet a whole lot of american heroes who wear scrubs and masks and gloves. Heroes who rush toward the sick and wash their hands until they bleed and work around the clock to heal our friends and our families. When our nation comes through this and takes fight, when our nation comes through this and takes flight again on the other side, it will be because american heroes won this fight. All the senate can do is to give them the resources to do it and thats exactly what were going to do today. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the Senate Majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the provision of rule 22, the cloture motion with respect to the motion to proceed to h. R. 748 occur at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the democratic leader during todays session. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Durbin mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin you have an announcement . The presiding officer the senate is in a quorum call. Mr. Durbin i ask the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. 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 highcost employersponsored health coverage. Mr. Durbin mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from illinois. Mr. Durbin mr. President , america has never seen anything like this before. To think that half of the people who live in the United States are under some order to either stay home or at least avoid contact with others, unheard of. This is an enemy, this virus, the likes of which weve never faced as strong and determined our nation is when it comes to these challenges, this is uniq unique. And it calls for unique leadership. There are a lot of critics of the United States congress for good reason, but i think what weve demonstrated in the last several weeks since weve addressed this coronavirus is that there is a capacity for commonsense bipartisan work and a timeliness that is essential. First two measures were passed in record time, one for 8 billion that really opened the door for more medical resources. The second for 100 billion which tried to guarantee to people they would never have to pay to be tested for coronavirus, that there would be adequate Food Supplies during this calamitous time, that we would have resources sent to the states for medicaid reimbursement at new levels, that we would also engage people with family leave if necessary so that they could stay out of the workplace if they felt badly, and that wed also have an idea that we would come together as a nation to move Unemployment Insurance with dispatch. That passed again in a timely way with a bipartisan vote. And then we came to the third challenge, a challenge the likes of which ive never seen in my time in congress and i dont imagine anyone else has. Because we decided in a span of about seven days to come up with a package of authorizations and appropriations which is larger than the annual federal budget for domestic Discretionary Spending in america. In seven days we did what usually takes 12 months or longer, but we knew we had to because the need is that great. And america was watching and wondering if we could rise to that challenge. There was some bumps in the road and its no surprise. An undertaking of that magnitude with this kind of pressure to get the job done quickly and properly is bound to create differences of opinion and it did. There were moments of anxiety on the floor of the senate and those who have followed cspan have watched many speeches that reflected the emotional levels that were reached in this chamber. But the emotions in this chamber were not that different than the emotions in most Homes Across America as people worry about whether this illness will touch their families and if so, will they be able to conquer it. That emotion on the senate floor led us to further negotiations in an effort to try to make a bill presented to us on sunday better three days later. And that brings us to this moment. History will judge as the senator from kentucky noted earlier as to whether theres an improvement thats been made to this bill over the last 72 hours. Ill just stand up and tell you i would testify definitely, definitely because just consider the First Priority. We have to make sure that hospitals and clinics and Health Care Providers at every level in america are proposed to rise to this are prepared to rise to this challenge, and we know this is a challenge the likes of which weve never seen. When the governor of new york suggests that the hospitals of that great state expand their capacity by 50 as quickly as possible to take the incoming patients from this covid19 virus and be prepared, he said, to expand it by 100 , we appreciate the magnitude of the challenge. On the democratic side our leader senator schumer has called it a Marshall Plan for hospitals and health care. I dont think thats an exaggeration. The bill that was presented to us on sunday envisioned some 75 billion for that purpose and many of us felt that was not adequate as large as that number may be. So today well bring a bill to the floor that will increase that allocation for health care from the 75 billion in the bill just three days ago to 130 billion. Is it enough . Probably not unless god spares us from the spread of this disease even further in the United States. But it says to those who are anxiously expanding their resources, expanding the number of beds, bringing in retired medical personnel as the governor from illinois j. P. Pritzker is doing, that we hear them and were providing them the resources to go to work to fight this challenge that we face at every corner of the United States. The second thing we set out to do when the bill was presented sunday was to expand the opportunity for Unemployment Insurance. Some have criticized on the floor and said dont get into structural changes. Well, you couldnt expand Unemployment Insurance without getting into a structural change because the system which affects only a small percentage of americans is not adequate in most cases to keep a family together. If you lose your job and try to live on take unemployment check on that unemployment check, its hard to do. People lose their homes over that, their cars. They cant pay their utility bills. And so what weve done, its been described as putting Unemployment Benefits on steroids. The amount of money which is going to be sent to families who are furloughed, laid off, or unemployed is dramatically bigger than it would have been if we hadnt restructured Unemployment Compensation. At the same time, the president and white house suggested direct Cash Payments. We never argued against those, but said its just a downpayment. Its just a singl