Heavens that bring blessings to our earthly pilgrimage. Today, guide our lawmakers with your glorious wisdom. In the greatness of your majesty, fulfill your purposes for their lives as you order their steps. Show them such unfailing love that they will walk before you in wholehearted devotion. Lord, place your Healing Hands upon our nation and world, delivering us from this Global Health crisis. We pray in your powerful name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting 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. Mr. Grassley madam president. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley permission to speak in morning business for 90 seconds. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley my iowa offices are located in cedar rapids, council bluffs, davenport, doims, sioux city and waterloo. My state staff serves as my eyes and ears in communities from one side of the state to the other. So from the mississippi to the missouri rivers, i expect my staff and they do have their fingers on the pulse of iowans. And this pandemic is no exception. Theyre working tirelessly to trouble shoot problems iowans are facing related to the Public Health emergencies and the economic fallout. No matter the concern, the problem, or circumstances thats affecting a farm, a business, school or local hospital, my staff is on the ground ready to help. So in the early weeks of the pandemic, they helped trouble shoot for iowans who were overseas to get back home to the United States. One example, in peru, several young people stranded and wanted to come home. Didnt get home very fast but theyre home now. Since Congress Passed the cares act, my staff have answered countless questions from iowans about the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury disaster loans, and Economic Impact payments. Whatever the question or red tape may be, my staff goes the extra mile to serve iowans. They do whatever it takes to track down an answer and help make government work for the people as the government should work for the people. As always, theyre in the trenches during this pandemic, working to help iowans get through this and get through it together. I yield the floor. 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 veto message on s. J. Resolution 68 which the clerk will report. The clerk veto message to accompany s. J. Res. 68 a joint resolution to remove United States armed forces against the hostilities of the republic of iran that have not been authorized by congress. Of mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell the United States is battling the worst pandemic in 100 years. Our nation has poured unprecedented resources into defending Americans Health and blunting the damage to our economy. The senate will continue to work on this front. Well find more ways to keep strengthening our Health Care Response and pivot the nation toward recovery. That will include strong Legal Protections to defend health care workers, Small Businesses, and other institutions against the trial lawyer feeding frenzy as they work hard to keep serving their neighbors, but, madam president , amid the pandemic, we cannot lose sight of the other threats we still face as well. The challenges that we face before covid19 began to spread from wuhan, china, are still with us today alongside this awful disease. There are terrorist cells, hostile Foreign Service authorities and those and the world who would love nothing more than for us to apply socials to our presence the on the world stage as well. Iran has not let popular unrest, a mismanaged economy or even covid19 slow their aggressive meddling from yemen to the mediterranean. Tehran and its proxies are still undermining the sovereignty of iraq and lebanon, aiding and abetting assads mass murder in syria, sowing regional unrest, threatening israel, and targeting american troops in our interest. A regime that chooses to spend its scant resources on exporting violence or a socalled Space Program does not need relief from sanctions. We must maintain the measure of deterrence we restored with the decisive strike on soleimani. That starts today with upholding the president s rightful veto of a misguided war powers resolution. Meanwhile an apparent repudiation of the trump administrations efforts to help end the civil war in afghanistan, taliban attacks against the countrys government and its people have actually spiked. And isis, al qaeda, and other terrorists continue to operate from afghan territory. Over in moscow, putins regime continues to threaten american interests along with interNational Security, from bullying incursions in these states that used to rule to influence peddling and mercenary adventurism and a power vacuum in syria and libya to spreading information and undermining democracies all across the globe. And russian intelligence is not alone in targeting america. Chinas efforts to steal government industry secrets are unmatched. Countering these kinds of hostile activities is the key job of our intelligence community, so is stopping terrorist attacks against our homeland. So next week the senate will turn back to reauthorizing the critical authorities in the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. The housepassed legislation well take up is not a blanket reauthorization of fisa. Its a careful update designed to provide greater accountability for the ways these authorities are exercised. It will increase transparency in the fisa process and respond to the shameful abuses of 2016 while preserving the toolbox that professionals use to defend us. I hope the senate will pass it next week free of amendments that would jeopardize important tools that keep america safe. And then, madam president , there is the matter of the peoples republic of china. This coronavirus pandemic originated in china. Whether the virus escaped from a lab or was transmitted at a socalled wet market, we do not yet know for sure. The Chinese Communist party leads probably do know Party Leaders probably do know and they owe it to all the nations suffering from this virus to be truthful and to be transparent. The world deserves the facts, all of the facts. Heres one fact we do know, the virus spread was exacerbated by chinas unconscionable efforts to cover it up. The communist party reprimanded and threatened to jail the doctor, the heroic whistleblower, who tried to warn the world about covid19 and later died from it. Within hours of his death, by the way, the wave of outrage over c. C. P. s treatment of dr. Li spread on chinese social media until the government censored that as well. At the peak of the outbreak the Chinese Communist party was reportedly wielding its own people inside their own houses, welding them inside their own houses. And today you Better Believe the party come comisars are training sights on the activists and lawyers who dare to seek the truth. Outside the borders, chinas leaders seem to think they can either charm, cajole, or threaten the world into submission. They supposedly donated medical supplies to Foreign Countries that quickly proved faulty and unusable. They threatened to boycott australian beef. They even threatened to cut off pharmaceutical exports to the u. S. So that we would, quote, plunge into the mighty sea of coronavirus, end quote. Its galling but not surprising. This is the same authoritarian regime that brutalized the uighur people in modernday gulags, that have spent years of cheating its way through International Commerce and stealing industrial secrets. Now it is exploiting the Global Pandemic that it helped exacerbate to further its crackdown on hong kong. A few weeks ago the government arrested peaceful democracy activists including my old friend of almost three decades, martin lee. I suppose they thought the rest of the world might be too distracted to notice. They were mistaken. Madam president , alongside our friends and partners around the world, the United States is going to be asking tough questions about our relationship with the Chinese Communist party. I expect the senate will soon look to pass senator rubios uighur human rights policy act, a bipartisan bill that will bring more attention to the plight of this mistreated minority, and i urge the president to use targeted sanctions against those responsible for their repression. And while we and our allies already saw the risks from letting critical supply chains become too dependent on china, the Chinese Communist partys recent behavior hammered this home. Im confident we in washington will be examining these strategic vulnerabilities as well. Well be looking for the best ways to strengthen our dynamic and Innovative Private sector, keep america on the cutting edge, and work closely with friends who share our values and interests to build a fairer, more Resilient International market. Notice, madam president , that china is not retrenching or drawing back within its borders. Quite the opposite. So we want to preserve a world built on our Democratic Values and principles, if we want to protect american workers, american interests and American National security. All of these things will take more Global Leadership and more coordination with our allies, not less. Tomorrow, may 8, is the 75th anniversary of v. E. Day. If we ever needed a reminder that americas strength is a force for good in the world, there it is. Thanks to the tireless work of our colleague, senator pat roberts, tomorrow is meant to be the dedication of the new eisenhower memorial. Its been postponed due to the virus. It almost seems fitting that 75 years after world war ii, a celebration of president eisenhower would be delayed by a Global Crisis that will take american strength and American Leadership to resolve. He certainly knew something about that kind of a situation. Now, as then, the American People do not want to retreat from the world, and they do not want to see us slide into second place. They want us to be smart and strong and safe, and they want the United States of america to lead. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer now, madam president , tomorrow the bureau of labor statistics will publish its monthly jobs report for april. Some experts are projecting that it could show well over 20 million job losses in the past four weeks. The preliminary report today suggests that will be over 30 million newly unemployed americans over the past seven weeks. Thats a tenth, one out of ten people losing their job. A tenth of our population. We are looking at what seems to be the worst economic crisis since the great depression. Small businesses have shuttered. Some larger businesses have filed for bankruptcy. Millions of workers, through no fault of their own, are being laid off or furloughed or losing their paychecks. They are worried about keeping their homes, feeding their kids, accessing health care. Once this crisis is over, we cant snap our fingers and have everything return to normal. 20 million to 30 million newly employed americans newly unemployed americans wont immediately return to their old jobs. Hopefully, many can, but many jobs just wont be there. The disease has washed over our nation like a flood. Once the waters have receded, there will be a great deal of damage left in its wake. We need a big, bold answer to this. We need to marshall a broader spirit of action. The American People need an active and engaged and forceful government to lift them up and carry them through these dark times. Speaker pelosi and i are working on a big, bold plan that will deal with the magnitude of the problem. So i am appalled today that republican congressional leaders and President Trump are saying that we should delay more assistance to the American People. A week ago, the republican leader, leader mcconnell, said, quote, we need to push the pause button. Tell that to someone whos losing his job. Tell that to someone who has worked so hard to create a Small Business over decades and sees it falling apart. Tell that to the family who has a member thats sick with covid or Something Else and cant get Adequate Health care. To say that we should wait and see whats happening, as leader mcconnell has said, that maybe we dont need to do anything more is ignoring whats going on around us. Over 30 million unemployed and certain Republican Leaders are saying lets hit the pause button on future government support. The republican leader of this chamber called us back into session, despite the obvious health risks, not to consider new relief or respond to the covid pandemic, but to process nominations. He has been coming to the floor, drawing red lines in the sand, pledging not to support another emergency relief bill unless it extends legal immunity to big corporations. Today he gave a very long speech on National Security. Now, thats very important, but the number one immediate crisis facing us is covid. And this speaks as sort of a metaphor for what Senate Republicans are doing this week on covid, virtually nothing. Senator cardin and i and senator shaheen went to the floor and simply asked for a simple bill to pass that would require accountability and in p. P. P. , and it was blocked by the majority. So this is just amazing. There has been large support in congress to stabilize the big financial markets, support larger industries, and keep Capital Markets from crashing. There will be 4 trillion available when the fed and treasury are through with it. We must do the same if not more for average people. Workers, families. The contrast is glaring. The contrast is glaring. Larger Companies Know they have a floor, the big markets know they have a floor. An unemployed worker has no floor until we do things for them like we did with pandemic Unemployment Insurance. There are many more people, average americans, who need the same kind of health, a greater degree of help, a different kind of help, and many of these average folks are in worse shape. Democrats have strived to make as much of our congressional relief effort flow to workers and average American Families as much as possible. Its still not enough. State and local governments, that means teachers and firefighters and Police Officers and bus drivers who might be laid off still need help. Our essential workers deserve hazard pay. Minorityowned and womenowned businesses still need more access to lending. Renters and homeowners need relief. And millions of working people need enhanced nutrition benefits. Thousands and thousands of people are overwhelming our local food banks. But now that assistance to Big Industries has gone out the door, Republican Leaders are saying lets wait and see. The unemployed worker doesnt want to wait and see. The Small Business that might go under doesnt want to wait and see. The mom or dad who needs to feed their hungry children does not want to wait and see. Like our Republican Leaders seem to be. Now is not the time to wait and see. Nows the time to move forward. Our history is replete with examples of what happens when the federal government doesnt rise to the occasion in a time of National Emergency. In the early days of the great depression, president Herbert Hoover was reluctant to use Natural Resources to combat a national crisis. His failure to act contributed to the length and severity of the depression. If our republican colleagues if President Trump responds with the same timidity as president hoover did, i fear the nation would suffer the same consequences as it did in the past. And many economists agree. If we do nothing more, like some of our republican colleagues seem to feel we should, a good number of economists believe we will have our second great depression. Unless we do something. If President Trump, leader mcconnell, leader say lets wait and see. Republicans werent worried about the deficit when they sp