Vote vote the presiding officer are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote . If not, the yeas are 65, the nays are 28. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 655. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, department of defense, victor g. Mercado of california to be an assistant secretary. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of victor g. Mercado of california to be an assistant secretary of defense, signed by 17 senators as follows mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 652. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is disagreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The presiding officer nomination, department of the treasury, brian d. Miller of virginia to be special Inspector General for pandemic recovery. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of brian d. Miller of virginia to be special Inspector General for pandemic recovery, signed by 17 senators as follows mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 656. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is agreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, department of defense, james h. Anderson of virginia to be a deputy under secretary. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of james h. Anderson of virginia to be deputy under secretary of defense, signed by 17 senators as follows the presiding officer i ask consent the mr. Mcconnell i secretary the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to legislative session. The presiding officer all those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. Mr. Mcconnell i move to proceed to calendar number 644. The presiding officer question is on the motion. All those in favor, say aye. Those opposed, say no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The motion is disagreed to. The clerk will report the nomination. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, drew b. Tipton of texas to be district judge for the Southern District of texas. Mr. Mcconnell i send a cloture motion to the desk 789. The presiding officer the clerk will report the cloture motion. The clerk cloture motion we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of drew b. Tipton of texas to be United States district judge for the Southern District of texas, signed by 17 senators as follows mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell i ask consent the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blunt mr. President . The presiding officer the senator for missouri. Mr. Blunt mr. President , weve seen things in the pandemic crisis that nobody in living memory has dealt with. In so many ways, were writing the book and trying to read the book at the same time, trying to figure out how we get to where we need to be. Clearly, theresen about an incredible strange clearly, theres been an incredible strain on the American Economy and an incredible strain on the American Health care system and everybody involved with that. Public Health Experts have told us we have to flatten the curve, and the Economic Cost of flattening the curve was pretty great. On the other side of that equation, the impact on hospitals was significant in that many of them have been ready and waiting for whatever they needed to do. And because we flattened the curve, the worstcase scenarios didnt occur, and in most cases they were prevented. And we had plenty of hospital beds, and before it was over with, we had ventilators and all those things we will have later. But the crisis, because of flattening the curve, has certainly lasted longer and will last longer than it would have otherwise. Im not saying thats a bad thing. Im just saying, measures like closing businesses and sending people home from work, practicing social distancing, putting people on the unemployment rolls have really created Serious Problems for people that have caused that have cause to have challenges really to their mental wellbeing. I think nearly half of the adults in the United States say the that the coronavirus has impacted their Mental Health. This is on top of the statistic where we traditionally believe that the National Institutes of health and other places, that one out of four or one out of five adult americans has a diagnoseable and id i wouldnt hesitate to add, an almost always treatable Behavioral Health problem, a Mental Health problem. But coming through the coronavirus again, one half of all adults say that their Mental Health has been impacted by that, whether that was social distancing or everybody trying to do everything that youd normally do at other places at home. Maybe it was economic uncertainty. That along with the isolation can certainly create depression and anxiety. Its, in almost all cases, likely to be worse for people that had a prior Mental Health problem or prior Mental Health diagnosis. But those are the only people that have been affected addiction issues have become a bigger problem again than they were six months ago. People that dont have access to their support system, people that were moving with great focus on the part of the federal government and many state governments away from opioid addiction are in a situation where theyre isolated, theyre depressed, theyre concerned about job or family or health and beginning to think what was that one thing that really made me feel good. Maybe i could just do that one more time and have that great feeling, and i wouldnt get addicted again. It turns out addiction doesnt work that way. So, you know, we see people with unprecedented challenges as this almost perfect storm impacting Mental Health hits us. Last month the Substance Abuse and Mental HealthServices Administration reported nearly a 900 , a 900 increase in the number of calls to its disaster, distress hotline over this time last year. Nine times as many people calling that distress hotline, that disaster distress hotline that were calling a year ago. Practitioners in Behavioral Health see the impact issues every day. Theyre certainly warning that this could produce its own second wave of impact that lasts well beyond the time we have treatment for coronavirus because people, even if theyve had the vaccine, even if theyve stopped worrying about the coronavirus, have found themselves in a place with their Mental Health issues that they dont want to be but might not be able to figure out how to get out of. If we dont respond quickly and we dont respond forcefully, we could certainly lose more lives to this pandemic. The new study from the wellbeing trust estimates that 75,000 more people will die from things like suicide and Substance Abuse because of the pandemic. Were already seeing evidence that that may be a place where were moving. My hometown newspaper, the springfield news leader reported this week that green county, my home county, the first place i was elected as a county official, has already received a 25 uptick in suicide and Overdose Deaths in the last couple of months. Mr. President , may is Mental Health awareness month. I think its appropriate for us to talk about the ways that coronavirus has widened the gap in the medical system between access to physical Health Issues and access to Mental Health issues. This is the month and the time, we need to realize that you cant separate those issues. We need to realize that those issues are of equal concern and need to be treated equally. As i mentioned before, the estimate generally is somewhere in the neighborhood, one in four americans have a diagnosable Mental Health issue, but the other estimate is that less than half of them seek any help for the care they need. As that number has grown now to one in two saying that they have concerns about their Mental Health or their Mental Health is not where it was before this all started, we see coming together factors here that weve got to figure out how to deal with. We need to take steps on how we address it. We need to realize that more needs to be done. We need to continue to work toward the normalization of treating all health the same. In the cares act, the congress did provide 425 million for Substance Abuse and Mental Health services. That includes more than half of that, 250 million, to Certified CommunityBehavioral Health clinics, 50 million for suicide prevention, and 100 million for Emergency Response grants to address substance and Mental Health disorders. Federal resources are critical, but, mr. President , most of the response and most of the important work will be done at the local level. And so the Congress Also unanimously agreed in the cares act to extend the excellence in Mental Health and addictive Treatment Demonstration Program through november 30. We added two states. I talked to c. M. S. This morning about moving forward in adding those next two states, of the 19 states that originally applied. Weve expanded this program, it was First Authorized in 2014 in some legislation that senator stabenow from michigan and i had sponsored at the time. It created the whole concept of Certified CommunityBehavioral Health clinics that care for patients regardless of where they live or their ability to pay. 24hour, sevendayaweek access. It was necessary if youre going to be part of that program you can get preventive screenings, you have Health Coordination with your other providers. By the way, mr. President , if youve got a Behavioral Health issue, it clearly has impact on what other Health Issues you might have. And if youre dealing with that Behavioral Health issue in the right way, youre going to save a lot of money and a lot of caregiver time in most cases as you deal with your other issues. If youre doing what you should be doing, if youre feeling better about yourself, if youre taking your medicine, eating better, sleeping better, showing up for appointments, your other health costs are going to to go down. So not only is this the right thing to do, but it also, in my view, will turn out to be a moneysaving thing to do to invest money where it needs to be invested. In the eight states that have the Certified Centers under the excellence act, those patients have reported a 62 reduction in both hospitalization and emergency room visits. That one statistic on its own may have offset whatever investment we made in this Mental Health program. People not going to Emergency Rooms obviously means youre less likely to come in contact with people that have covid19 or some other virus. We need to be sure using telehealth to connect you with your health care provider, whether thats a Mental Health provider or another provider, critically important. People who are struggling with Mental Health or addiction are particularly challenged right now. We need to let them know that they are not forgotten, and no matter how alone they feel, they are not alone. And the congress is paying attention to this, but we need to Pay Attention to the people on the front lines who are assuring that the right things are done in the right way at the right time. I yield, mr. President. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from noorld. Mr. Hoeven i want to associate myself with the words of mr. Blunt. I want to say thank you. My real purpose of coming to the floor today is to generate my support for Scott Spelman of the United States army corps of engineers. He is up for promotion to attorney general and been nominated to replace general semonite as he retires. Mr. Cramer since coming to the senate general semonite and i have become acquainted with each other. While we dont always agree, i appreciate his hard work and access ibilityd especially during accessibility especially during this covid19. I wish him well. As a member of the Armed Services committee and the environment and Public Works Committee i serve on two of the army corps committees of jurisdiction. It is a rare occasion that i compliment the corps. It is an agency that is the epitome in many cases of cumbersome bureaucracy. Mr. President , im not unique in my frustration. During our last e. P. W. Hearing with the corps, criticism was bipartisan and tangible. From rhode island to north dakota to oregon each of us expressed frustration with a seemingly tonedeaf bureaucracy which either does what it is not to do or what it is supposed to do. Throughout this process ive worked closely with general spelman on issues important to north dakota and other Western States. Early on i spoke with him regarding the snake creek embankment. The corps was going to move forward with a water control plan that could potentially devastate water supply and irrigation needs in eastern parts of my state. As per usual the corps precision matrix was overly complicated and did not reflect needs and realities of rural america. General spelman promised to take a fresh look and reassess the economic impacts. He worked with me to craft legislation supporting his efforts which was added to the Water Infrastructure legislation we unanimously passed out of e. P. W. Not too long ago. He listened to the problem and is working with me to help solve it. I also challenged general spelman on Western State water rights, a problem thats plagued Western States who operate under the prior appropriation doctrine. On a bipartisan basis, democrats and republicans from Western States have been frustrated by an army corps which either ignores states and tribes or needlessly inserts their extra bureaucracy and decisions that are really not theirs to make. Once again, general spelman listened intently to the concern and provided thorough, honest responses to be used as a guidepost for corps policy moving forward. Of equal importance, mr. President , he acknowledged the flaws within his own organi