Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate 20240713 : vi

CSPAN2 U.S. Senate U.S. Senate July 13, 2024

Pro forma session, we do expect Mitch Mcconnell to ask unanimous consent to pass the latest Coronavirus Relief measure. Reports are that ideal has been reached on nearly 500 billion for Small Businesses, hospitals and further covid19 testing. The House Majority leader says members are ready to return to the capital quickly to pass the measure. Likely by the end of the week. Take you cliff and after the senate floor on cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C, april 21, 2020. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable daniel sullivan, a senator from the state of alaska, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent to be recognized notwithstanding the order for a pro forma session today. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask unanimous consent that it be in order to receive h. R. 6322 from the house. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell so, mr. President , earlier today, leaders in both chambers and the administration reached a bipartisan agreement to supplement the historic cares act. At the core of our agreement is 320 billion more for the paycheck protection program, which is already saving millions of Small Business jobs and helping americans get paychecks instead of pink slips. Mr. President , this is even more money than we had first requested a while back. In the intervening time and at our request, this new money puts a special focus on Community Banks and credit unions. Separately, thanks to the hard work of senator collins and senator rubio, the bill supplies 60 billion for additional Economic Injury disaster loans, and because of senator roberts, senator daines, and our other colleagues from rural states, it will be clear that farmers and ranchers will be eligible as well. Senate republicans wanted more funding for americans paychecks nearly two weeks ago. Before the program even shut down. But in the days that our democratic colleagues delayed these urgent funds, additional federal help for hospitals, Health Care Providers, and testing became timely as well. Republicans have always supported more medical funding as soon as it was necessary, so im proud this package will provide roughly 75 billion more to fund hospitals and Health Care Providers in this crisis. Thanks to chairman alexander, chairman blunt, there is an additional 25 billion for stateled, stateled covid19 testing plans and for research, development, and other testing support from key federal agencies such as the c. D. C. , the n. I. H. , and barta. This is a significant package. It does just what i outlined when we passed the cares act in the senate in march. The senate is prepared to stand by the American People, watching the cares act go into effect and adding funding when necessary to key programs that are working well. Its unfortunate that it took our democratic colleagues 12 days to agree to a deal that contains essentially nothing that republicans ever opposed. In my view, its indefensible that main streets Small Businesses and their workers had their assistance cut off for partisan leverage. That was the word of choice for one leading House Democrat leverage. The American People cannot be political leverage. So im glad were now poised to move ahead. Senate republicans are prepared to pass the bill. Its my hope the entire senate will be able to pass it as soon as possible, potentially as soon as just a few minutes from now. Before i conclude, i want to share my gratitude for the people whose efforts allow us to produce these vital pieces of legislation on a crash timeline in these most unusual circumstances. A lot of talented people worked day and night to produce this bill. In the administration, secretary mnuchin and his staff at the treasury department. And white house chief of staff mark meadows. Here in the senate, our democrats on both sides, our committee and leadership staff on both sides, and the Incredible Team players in the office of the legislative counsel. These are nonpartisan staff who serve the institution and our country. As usual, we literally would not have this legislative text without their extraordinary help. These are unprecedented times for the entire nation, and the senate is no exception. So i want to thank everyone, those who worked remotely from their kitchen tables, those of you here in the chamber right now, the Capitol Police officers who protect the place day and night. I thank you all, and more importantly your country thanks you. Now, lets just get this done, lets move ahead and get it done for the American People. So, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that there now be up to 15 minutes of eebt each for senators schumer, paul, cardin, lee, and sullivan. Further, that the time be for debate only, and upon the use or yielding back of their individual times, i be immediately recognized with no intervening action. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The presiding officer the minority leader. Mr. Schumer thank you, mr. President. Well, in the month since i last addressed this chamber, life for nearly every american has been upended. Stateathome orders have swept across the country. The monthly toll of new unemployment claims are measured in the millions. Our Health System has been strained to the breaking point. American workers and businesses are suffering Financial Hardship not seen since the great recession. Almost 800,000 of our fellow citizens have tested positive for covid19. And most heart breakingly, america has lost more than 37,000 precious lives to this coronavirus, many, many of them new yorkers. Over the past two months, the senate has come together on three occasions to pass legislation in response to this multifaceted crisis, to rescue our Ailing Health care system, to cushion the blow to American Workers and businesses, and prepare our country for more prosperous for a more prosperous future on the other side of this pandemic. Our last legislative effort, the cares act, was unprecedented in size and in scope. The largest stimulus in american history. Remarkably, on such a large and complex bill, the senate came together 960 to pass this crucial emergency relief, getting ayes from senator sanders to senator cruz and everyone in between. It shows that even with the partisanship here, as tough and harsh as it can be, we can come together unanimously in a time of great crisis. Still, the depth of the crisis we now face meant that funding for certain programs in this bill had already been depleted. And a number of required fixes were had to be made to make sure these programs worked as intended. An interim bill, covid 3. 5 is necessary. My friend, the republican leader, tried to bypass the negotiations on such an interim measure. He tried to jam through a bill that would have increased funding for one Small Business Lending Program but not others when they were all running out of funding. His proposal did not attempt to fix the dire lack of lending to Small Businesses that are truly small, underbanked, underserved, minority or women owned. And his proposal included nothing at all for our health care system, nothing to address the National Shortage in testing, nothing to help state, local, or tribal governments who are breaking their budgets to fight this disease. All of us want to help our Small Businesses, all of us, but this emergency demands we take action on many fronts. So we have spent the last week negotiating with the administration. Treasury secretary mnuchin, chief of staff meadows, as well as Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats, with us, the senate democrats, to improve the legislation. We reached a final agreement earlier today. Now, there are plenty of disagreements between our parties these days, but once again, we are coming together to pass this legislation by unanimous consent. Not a single senator objecting. I want to thank secretary mnuchin. I spent hours and hours with him at all hours of the day. I want to thank someone i didnt know very well, chief of staff meadows, whos very good at making sure an agreement can come to fruition, even in the wee hours of the morning. Of course, i want to thank my dear friend and partner, Speaker Pelosi. And i want to thank leaders mcconnell and mccarthy who at the end of the day did not let partisan disagreement stand in the way of whats doing right for this country. Again, just like the cares act, the hard work of bipartisan negotiation paid off. Need to talk to us, not try to steam roll us once again made a huge and positive difference. This legislation is significantly better and broader than the initial proposal offered by the republican leader. Republicans asked us to funnel more money into a program that wasnt working the way it should. We negotiated a bill that not only provided support but made it more effective, more inclusive, and addressed other Urgent National priorities as well. The legislation before us contains 220 billion more, including funding for Small Businesses through Community Financial institutions, new funding for our hospitals and health care systems, and a substantial down payment on a National Testing regime so desperately needed and asked for by one and all. Let me repeat that. The legislation now includes an additional 220 billion. 120 billion for Small Businesses, 100 billion for our health care system, divided among Health Care Providers and a testing need for testing and Contact Tracing. The new money includes 50 billion in additional emergency Small Business loans and 10 billion in additional business grants. That includes 60 billion in new funding set aside for small lenders. If you dont know a banker, if youre not a relatively largesized company, you were left out. Two out of three loans in new york were ignored by the mom and pops, the Small Businesses, the restaurants and the barber shops, the hardware stores, the butchers. And small startups, both service and manufacturing. They couldnt get in. Now they will be. Because of our work. Our bill will help rural Small Businesses, minority Small Businesses, womenowned Small Businesses get the money they need. I believe every member of our caucus heard from businesses in their states who couldnt access federal lending because they didnt have a prior relationship with a big bank. So what we have done is set aside lending for smaller communitybased lenders and dedicated half of that funding, 30 billion, to Community Development Financial Institutions and minority depository institutions. We insisted that this money be separate from the competition with the Bigger Companies so the moms and pops, the restaurants and nail salons and startups and minority businesses can get some access. Unlike leader mcconnells proposal, this bill also includes 100 billion in money to fight the coronavirus itself. Were not going to cure the economic problem unless we can cure the health problem. We can give loans to Small Businesses, but if there are no customers walking the streets to is that . So we insisted that 75 billion go to our hospitals. Our hospitals are going under water. Certainly, the big ones in cities like mine that have been an epicenter of corona, but smaller hospitals in rural areas. Talk to our rural representatives. They are telling you their hospitals might go under. And mediumsized hospitals in new york state, st. Joes in syracuse, st. Peters in albany each laid off 700 people this week. Theyre going to get help because of what we did. The experts are the experts of clear, to fight this disease we need to dramatically, dramatically expand Testing Capacity and frequency. We dont have enough tests. That cry rings from one end of america to the other, urban, suburban, rural, north, east, south, and west. We dont have enough tests. Well, now help is on the way because democrats stood and fought for it. 25 billion, 11 billion to go to the states to help them test and do the Contact Tracing they need. Money to help create a manufacturing and supply chain that will have adequate tests and adequate supplies for those tests so we can finally get them going. We need them desperately. One of the last provisions secured in these negotiations nt midnight last night was a requirement that the Administration Report on a National Strategic testing plan on how it plans to increase domestic Testing Capacity, testing supplies and the disparities in all communities. Thus far unfortunately the administration has refused to accept responsibility for the sorry state of testing in our country. Under this agreement, the Trump Administration will now at last be required to report on what its National Testing plan actually looks like. Congress provided the startup fund for the testing program. Its now up to the administration to prepare a National Testing strategy and implement those funds to proper effect before it is too late. Of course this bill is not perfect. Were sorely disappointed republicans refused to work with us to strengthen food assistance. I am sorely disappointed that republicans turned a deaf ear to governors, mayors, tribal leaders, county and local officials, democratic and republican, all 50 governors who have been pleading for the federal government, with the federal government for more help. And its not about abstract government. I know we dont like government on the other side of the aisle. Its about policemen, firefighters, bus drivers, hospital workers. Theyre being laid off because the local governments and the state governments are starving and not getting their revenues. We fought and fought but unfortunately on the other side of the aisle they resisted. I hope they wont resist in covid 4 where were going to need a large amount of money to help our localities so Police Officers and bus drivers arent laid off. Republicans need to come to help our need. Secretary mnuchin committed and the president tweeted today that they will support state and local funding in the next round of legislation as well and this is very important as a provision providing flexibility to use all past and future relief dollars to offset lost revenue. The president signaled his support for this concept as well in a tweet this morning. We should have passed support for state and local governments. Democrats will see to it that it gets done in the next package. Now i finally, id remind my colleagues this is an interim measure. Theres plenty of hardwon provisions that we democrats are pleased with but its ultimately a building block. In the weeks ahead Congress Must prepare another major bill similar in size and ambition to the cares act. The next bill must be big and bold and suited to the needs of a be belee gerred country. Truck drivers, Grocery Store clerks, Police Officers, firefighters, and more. And we must make sure that our elections this fall are conducted fairly, that states have enough money to run them properly, and that every american can exercise his or her constitutional franchise safely and confidently. This is a covidrelated issue. So those issues and more will be priorities for the Senate Democratic caucus in the next bill. Yes, mr. President , its been a long few months for the American People, but even now there are signs that the sacrifices americans have made are beginning to slow the spread of the disease. Were a long way from the end, but this too shall pass. Until the day when it can, when we can begin to return to normal. It is up to congress and the entire federal government to deliver the leadership and resources that only we can provide. The private sector will not provide the aid our nation requires. The efforts of individual states or even individual citizens, heroic as they are, will not be enough. And we dare not abandon them in these dark and difficult times. The American People need their government. They need their government to act strongly, boldly, wisely. Let us do what we were elected to do and pass this bill today. I yield the floor. Mr. Lee mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from utah. Mr. Lee mr. President , its with a heavy heart that i come to the floor of the senate today. Over the last few weeks ive talked to countless people throughout utah and across the nation, but especially in utah ab

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