Vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 80, the nays are 16. The bill, as amended, is passed. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for wisconsin. Mr. Johnson mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. The presiding officer without objection. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for minnesota. Ms. Klobuchar mr. President , i come to the floor today to urge the senate to immediately take action to address the issue of elections. And specifically to address technical changes to the 400 million in electric security funding passed in the cares act and to talk about the coronavirus threat to our democracy itself. 16 states have already postponed their president ial primaries or transitioned that i primary their primaries to almost voting entirely by mail. We have seen democratic and republican governors from states like west virginia, indiana, the state of the presiding officer, new york, and kentucky issue waivers allowing all voters to cast their ballot by mail during the pandemic. This includes states that used to have requirements that you have give a reason to given get a mailin ballot to vote from only. From home. Both democratic and republican governors have weighed in. While it is important that individual states have taken action to protect voters during this pandemic, it is the responsibility of us, of congress, to ensure that states have the funds they need to make our elections more resilient and make sure that voters dont have to risk their health to cast their ballots. We must do because, as we have seen over the last several weeks, not all states are doing everything they can to protect voters. That is sad, but it is true. And whats coming before us in the fall is a national election. Just yesterday we learned that the attorney general of texas asked the Texas Supreme Court to stop county Election Officials from letting voters who are afraid of getting the coronavirus to vet by mail. He basically to vote by mail. He basically went to court and said the counties who are giving out these ballots should stop. He tried and he is continuing resolution to try continuing to strie to stop them from to try to stop them from sending out ballots. Some have preexisting condition, some are veterans who have served our country, some of them are seniors. And basically in this one state, and there are other things going on in other states, the attorney general is trying to stop them from actually voting from home. Under texas law, you have to have an excuse in order to vote by mail. This pandemic, as we know, has killed more than 85,000 americans and local officials in texas have told their voters that the coronavirus, and they looked at the law and said it is a valid excuse to request a mailin ballot. I guess it is. I would think it is. But the Texas Attorney general disgreece and has disagrees and asked the Texas Supreme Court so stop from sending the voters a mailin ballot. That, mr. President , is a disgrace. We shouldnt be playing politics with peoples lives. Even the most cynical americans believe that. They know people play politics all the time but they dont think you should play it with their lives and we know from what happened in wisconsin that people who show up to vote during this crisis are, in fact, risking their health if precautions are not taken. A little over a month ago both democratic and Republican Voters and independent voters in wisconsin stood for hours in the cold and the rain wearing garbage bags and homemade masks in order to cast their votes. There were just five polling locations in milwaukee instead of the 182 in green bay instead of the usual 30. With twothirds of wisconsins African American voters living in milwaukee. There is no question that this vast reduction in polling places without adequate time to transition to mail voting ended up disenfranchising voters and particularly in this case African American voters. At the same time we saw people trying to vote in whatever way they could. Trying to mail in their ballots even when it was at the last minute. Now Health Officials say that more than 67 people in wisconsin may have become infected with the coronavirus as a result of that election. This is unacceptable. No one should have to choose between exercising their right to vote and protecting the health and the health of themselves and their loved ones. What happened in wisconsin will be forever etched in the memory of our nation. We cant allow this to happen again. In the face of this, yesterday the wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the governors stayathome order. We should be taking steps actually forward now instead of backwards. Public Health Experts have warned of the possibility of another more serious outbreak of this virus in the fall. Congress must act now to give states the funding that they need. We know the states are strapped. Every single state in this country is strapped. And even if we did nothing here, we know that there are going to be states that are going to get humongous requests for mailin ballots that theyve never had before. We know that in the state of wisconsin, senator johnsons state, they are a state where 60 vote by mail. In the state of minnesota, it is 25 . But we know it will double and more. So even if, no matter what party youre in, and this is why the republican governors are asking for money, they may not agree with everything in my bill, but so many of them are asking for funding to be able to help them to send out those ballots, to send out the postage to be able to keep their polling places open a week, two weeks, we think 20 days in advance so that people can actually vote themselves and not congregate in one location. Thats why this is happening right now. Nearly two months ago i introduced legislation, the Natural Disaster and emergency ballot act, with senator wyden, along with 35 of my colleagues. The bill would simply ensure that every voter can cast their ballot by mail. That those who need it have expanded access to early inperson voting and that states have the funding and resources necessary to safely administer elections. This week the house introduced the covid 4 bill. The fourth covid relief package, the heroes act and it contains the election reforms found in my legislation as well as 3. 6 billion to help states protect our elections from covid19. Thats because mailin ballots mailed all over the country, we know thats going to cost some change. We know that. But whats the alternative . Having veterans who served on the battlefield in world war ii, like the one i heard about yesterday, telling him he cant vote or he has to go stand in line . Whats the alternative . Telling seniors that they have to go stand in line . No, thats not a good alternative. The alternative is to make are sure that we expand mailin ballots. I know that negotiations will occur over the coming days regarding the next relief package. I look forward to working with my democratic and republican colleagues. I see the chairman of the rules committee, senator blunt, is here. I look forward to working with him just as we have recently done on Remote Committee hearings, which have actually by all accounts gone pretty well in the senate over the last few weeks. But today im here to push for a change that we know needs to be done and that is to make some changes to make sure that the first grouping of money, the 400 million, the emergency funding in the first bill, can get out to the states because of some changes that were made to the original proposal thats made it hard for some of our state to be able to get that money out. Theres a matching requirement and we see it already playing out. Oklahoma has indicated that they will only be able to access a portion of the funding that they have already been provided because they cannot come up with the full requirement. Florida has not accessed their funding because they are looking to see if their legislature can accommodate the match funding. These are things that we have to work on not only now for this forthcoming legislation, but to also look at what we did in the first package. There are also issues with the reporting requirements in the bill. The last thing we want to do is put undue burden on the states. But what i really want to focus on right now at the end of my remarks here is the need to cast the legislation pass the legislation in front of us, and i know it will be negotiated, but to make sure that we fund and help our states fund our election. Let us dispel the notion that vote by home is somehow a partisan issue. One of the states with the highest number of mailin ballots is the state of utah. That is not exactly a bright blue state. Another state that has a very high number of people voting from home is the state of colorado. Thats a state that tends to be a purple state. Then we have blue states like oregon and washington. Then we have a state like arizona that, again, has a high number of people voting by mail. Then on the other end, the states that dont have as many people voting by mail, we have a mixture of states, too. New york is like 5 right now. Then we have a number of states like alabama that dont have a lot of people voting by mail. We dont think at least i dont think that every Single Person is going to vote by mail in this november election. So the key is to give them options, to be able to work with our states, that if we do have it funding and im so hopeful we will be able to come to some kind of an agreement here. If we do have it funding, that they can use that money to expand their vote by mail because we know the citizens are going to request it but also to make sure that voting on election day is safe and there are ways to do that, and by encouraging more people, if they dont want to vote by mail, to be able to vote early, because less people will be there on the same day. So what do we see when we look at this . Well, a recent poll, some of the key states across the country shows that both republican and democratic voters, 70 to 80 of them want to be able to vote by mail. We have governors in states like new hampshire, republican governors, maryland, ohio, who want to vote by mail. Thats the way they want to go. We have a secretary of state who is republican in the state of washington who wants to vote by mail. Her entire state basically votes by mail right now. And they are good people who can talk about why this is working for them and how we can make it work, but only if they have the funds, because we are not going to be able to give them the funds, say, in october and then be able to make sure that this has happened so in conclusion, 17 states still have president ial primaries and numerous others have primaries for other federal offices, and of course we have the general election on november 3 less than six months away. We cannot let more americans experience what we have seen what just happened in wisconsin with the garbage bag, with the homemade mask, with the people getting off work at the hospitals and standing in line. Nobody should have to choose between their health and their right to vote. I am committed to securing additional funding in the upcoming relief package, but we have fixes that we must make to the original funding that we made in the first bill, in the first piece of legislation, because we need to get that funding out to our Election Officials today. For these reasons, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of a bill at the desk to modify the provisions on funding for Election Security grants. I further ask that the bill be considered and read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for wisconsin. Mr. Johnson reserving the right to object. Mr. President , there are many things that the senator from minnesota spoke to that i think most of us would agree with. This covid crisis has created all kinds of issues that need to be thoroughly discussed and thoroughly debated. There are a number of us on this side of the aisle im just one standing up objecting to this unanimous consent request. But the good news for the senator from minnesota is in talking with those colleagues, they also agree there is there is a fair number of elements of this bill that they could probably find agreement with. And so im just rising to say and certainly extend my hand in cooperation with the senator from minnesota. Lets work on these things together. This is not a bill that comes through my committees jurisdiction, but i can say that the way we work it through my committee is we work across the aisle, staff has an awful lot of work. We come to a conclusion. If its not ready for a particular markup, we go back and get the work done, and then we frequently pass a piece of legislation on voice vote and then bring it to the floor. Its all been ironed out. There is no disagreement, there is no objection, and we pass those bills by unanimous consent. I think the problem here is this bill has never had any kind of committee markup, any Committee Work whatsoever, and so i would just suggest the senator from Minnesota Work with her committee, her Committee Chair. I see the Committee Chair is here in the chamber. Work on this, try and find those areas of agreement. And then maybe we can pass this, maybe potentially pass it by unanimous consent. But this piece of legislation is not ready, it hasnt gone through that process, and as a result, mr. President , i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Ms. Klobuchar mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for minnesota. Ms. Klobuchar i appreciate the words of my colleague that he is willing to work with me on this bill. We know we need the immediate fixes to the first piece of legislation, but we also need to look forward to what we have in front of us, and that is to make sure that we hope our states help our states to be able to conduct their election in a safe way, so democrats, republicans, or independents, anyone who wants to vote, whatever party they are in is able to safely vote. Lets remember that while people were lining those streets to vote in cyst, the president of the United States was able to in wisconsin, the president of the United States was able to request a mailin ballot from palm beach, florida, and vote from the comfort of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. Thats an image of split screen that i dont think anyone wants to see. I think what we want to see is fairness for all americans. You do that by ahead of time getting them the funding, by making sure we have rules in place that works for everyone, by acknowledging this has never been or should it be a partisan issue, and by telling all americans we worked this out, were getting the funding to the states, were working with all your states, we put in some fair rules so that no american will be denied the right to vote. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. Mr. Blunt mr. President. The presiding officer the senator for missouri. Mr. Blunt mr. President , this is National Police week. Its one of the weeks that i always look forward to. For years now, it has been an opportunity to spend time with people who protect us, who protect all of us. We get a chance each day to say thank you to the Capitol Police who work here at the capitol. As the chairman of the Law Enforcement caucus, i have lots of opportunities in our state to see officers in groups one at a time, and i always try to be thankful to them when i see them. This was a time every year when we would get a chance to see people from all over the country come to washington and get a chance for us to say thank you to them and thank you to their families. Particularly this year, chief john belmar, just recently retiring chief with the st. Louis county Police Department. Good friend. Always there for advice. Always brought a big contingent and came with a contingent of officers to police week. And so im thinking about him and not seeing him at police week in washington, as im also, mr. President , thinking about the new chief of the st. Louis county Police Department, chief mary barton. Thats a county of over a million people. It is a substantial job. Its a place to really affect how police work is done. I look forward to spending time with chief barton as she moves forward with what she can do to build on whats happening in that department over the years. Like everything else, or like so much else, this year police week is different than it has been before. Not having the sounds of hundreds of motorcycles going down the streets of washington as we celebrate the week. No groups of Law Enforcement officers or Police Vehicles from all over the country coming here. Im grateful for them. They protect our safety. This is a job where every day when you leave home, you have no idea what events may come before you that day, and frankly your family has no idea what may happen that day. I have told a number of officers thinking about their families, including the officers that serve here at the capitol, that they generally have some sense whether they are in a moment that could lead to danger or not beyond the normal readiness to serve us, but their family staying not with them when they are at work has to wonder all over and over again during the day what threat may come to the person that they care so much about as that person protects others. Each year, one of the memorable be events of police week is the candlelight vigil with the Law Enforcement memorial a few blocks from here. They gather there and gather there annually to hear the names of officers who lost their lives and to give bear witness to them, be grateful for their service. Sadly, in the past year, missouri lost three dedicated officers. Last june, lakeshire chief wayne needenberg passed away after assisting at the scene of a rollover crash in ofallon, missouri. The chi