The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will open the senate with prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Mighty god, you are the strength of our lives, our safe fortress and shelter from lifes storms. During this season of a raging tempest, speak your peace to our senators. Remind them that you continue to rule your universe through the unfolding of your prevailing providence and that your truth continues to march on in our nation and world. Lord, prosper the works of the hands of our legislators, as they strive to glorify you with their thoughts, words, and actions. May faith replace fear, truth defeat falsehood, justice triumph over greed, and love prevail over hate. We pray in your great 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 i ask one minute for morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley if reports are true that russia has been paying a bounty to the taliban to kill american soldiers, this is a very serious escalation of what russia expert edward lutkus dubbed, quoteunquote, the new cold war. Mr. Lutkus said that back in 2008. This sort of movement by russia, if its proven theres a lot of belief russia is possible to do it it demands a strong response, and i dont mean diplomat inning response. Deepic response. Weve had previous things happen like this with russia. President bush tried to play nice with russia, then talking tough when putin showed his true nature. President obama repeated this cycle. You know the word resetting relations. And despite that, russia occupied parts of our ally georgia and then switching gears, president obama did when russia invaded ukraine. Putin is the k. G. B. Guy who only understands strength. His popularity has taken a hit lately. Kind of makes him very unpredictable. That may be why hes doing these things. Even though russia has a reputation for doing them all the time. So we need to increase deterrence on natos eastern flank. We should also hit back where it hurts. Dictators like putin fear their own people and, of course, for good reason. Putin and his cronies have enriched themselves at the expense of ordinary russians. This week russia is having a referendum on waiving term limits, allowing putin to stay in power when this term is up. Of course, russia will probably be conducting a rigged election. We should point out to the American People no, im sorry. We should point out to the russian people that they dont have to accept that. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell madam president . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i suggest the quorum call be suspended. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell id planned to speak first today about the ndaa. I had planned to discuss our work to ensure American Service members can protect our nation and secure peace for the United States. But, unfortunately, the inexpoliticcable inexplicable pa sift of leaders in our country has denied some peace and security right here at home. Here we are in congress equipping our armed forces to protect the homeland. Yet some local leaders have apparently felt it would be too politically incorrect to do their jobs and keep the peace. Its now been 22 days since radical demonstrators seized control of several blocks of downtown seattle. Drove the police out of a precinct and declared an autonomous zone which the mob itself would rule. Its worth pausing to consider how the Mainstream Media and leading democrats might have reacted if Tea Party Protesters in 2009 had forcibly created a breakaway zone within a major city and barred the actual authorities from entering. Somehow im skeptical the press would have pent over backwards to find would have bent over back reasonable doubtwards to find a would have bent over backwards. But were talking about the american left in 2020. So instead what we get is a major newspaper lavishing praise prays on the, quote, liberated streets and a mayor and local government that have expressly declined to restore order and the equal protection of the law. The mob has gotten its way. There have been numerous shootings in this lawless place. About a week ago a 19yearold was shot and killed. Last weekend yet another shooting, a 16yearold is dead and a 14yearold was injured. Some reports suggest these two boys were shot by selfappointed security squad. These are miscellaneous citizens who roam the area with guns drawn after the occupiers drove the real police out. Were talking about seattle, washington, in the United States of america . Madam president , the rule of law cannot fade in and out with fashions of the radical left. No leader should have sacrificed Small Businesses to riots and mobs a few weeks back. And no leader should let threats or leftwing gar gone persuade them to tolerate occupations for weeks on end. I understand that just this morning seattles mayor finally released an order to bring an end to this. So lets hope the new law finally finally prevails. On a different mate, the senate has turned to what will be the 60th an awful National Defense act. It appears weve done so not a moment too soon. After months much threat, president xi finally delivered the punch in the mouth to the city of hong kong that theyre calling a National Security law. As i and others have warned for months, it tramples all over the freedoms and autonomy that have set hong kong apart. Today marks the 23rd verse of hong kongs handover from the united kingdom. Normally this would have occasioned peaceful demonstrations. Instead the new law has brought scores of arrests and boasts from local authorities about how many peaceful demonstrators they have jailed. New harsh penalties for hong kongers for new and vague offenses, new authorities for beijing to intervene at will. It happens to directly it appears to directly violate chinas international promises and effectively end the onecountry, twosystems policy. Ive discussed at some length the specific consequences china will face for this. Ill continue discussing them in the future. This same week we received new confirmation that chinas Ethnic Cleansing Campaign against the uighur people includes forced abortions, forced birth control, and stateenforced sterilizations on a systematic scale. All this in addition to the international provocations that china has only stepped up during this pandemic, which they helped worsen, against taiwan, against india, against the philippines, and so on. And china is not our only adversary occupying the spotlight. Recent days have intensified questions about russias role in the middle east. Ive longed that russia will exploit any american passivity or refree trade this region, whether this syria or afghanistan. The question is whether we will stand our ground and exert our influence and allow iran, russia, and terrorists to literally push us out of the region. Sadly, as the senate turns to the ndaa and the need to continue making swift progress on National Defense strategy is staring us plain in the face. Fortunately, chairman inhofe, Ranking Member reed and our colleagues on the Armed Services committee have put forward a bill that raises to the challenge. The bill establishes the pacific deterrence initiative. It lays out a clear vision for making our pacific joint force more adaptable and our commitments to regional partners more feasible. Smarter basing for forwarddeployed mens, more supplies and equipment. It will encourage more streamlined technologies so that from weapons platforms to information security, america and its allies in chinas backyard stand ready to counter aggression altogether. This ndaa authorizes full funding for the european strategic initiative, doubling down on our nato alliances. The bill will further limit the information putin gets pertaining to missile defense. Bring more focus on tracking Russian Support for terrorist proxies and despotic regimes and renew our commitment to have u. S. Forces support, train, and keep watch alongside our partners. But it isnt enough to check our adversaries today. We also needed to outrun them toward the future. So this legislation will also support Critical Research to help us secure a decisive edge in everything from Hypersonic Weapons to 5g communications. Threats to our nation are pulling American Service members in all directions. Fortunately, this ndaa has all of their backs. Now, madam president , on one final matter, while the senate maintains the serious approach that builds bipartisan successes like the cares act and the Great American outdoors act, the House Democrats appear addicted to pointless political theater. Well, our absentee neighbors have finally arrived back in the capitol. And theyve wasteed no time resuming old tricks. The speaker has chosen to spend the houses time this week on a maulty thousandpage cousin of the green new deal, masquerading as a highway bill. You dont have to take my word for t the chair of the house transportation and Infrastructure Committee said some of the he said, quote, this is the application of the principles of the green new deal. And hes right because here are the four pillars of the green new deal. Number one, spend an insane amount of money. Number two, check every farleft ideological box. Number three, propose bad policies. And, four, forget about making law from the very beginning so you can legislate in a world of pure fantasy. Pure fantasy. Well, check, check, check, check. This socalled infrastructure bill would siphon billions in funding from actual infrastructure to follow into Climate Change policies. By putting a huge thumb on the scale for mass transit and electric vehicles, it revives the old obamabiden focus on disproportionately helping major metro areas leaving less for the rest of our country. No wonder it came out of committee in the house on a purely partisan vote. No wonder the white house has declared it not a serious proposal and made clear this will never become law. So naturally this nonsense is not going anywhere in the senate. It will just join the list of absurd house proposals that were only drawn up to show fealty to the radical left. Here in the senate, well keep at the serious work of our nation. 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 s. 4049, which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 483, s. 4049, a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2021 for military activities of the department of defense, and so forth and for other purposes. Mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer are we in a forum . Quorum . The presiding officer we are not. Mr. Schumer ive come to the floor to talk about an idea to extend and enhance Economic Conditions as long as conditions in the country are warrant it and ill speak about that legislation more in a moment. But first two other issues. First, last night President Trump threatened to veto the National Defense authorization act, the bill on the floor this week, because it contains a provision to rename military bases named after confederate generals. Let me make a prediction. First, that provision will not change in this bill as it moves through the house and senate. Second, let me predict, President Trump will not veto a bill that contains pay raises for our troops and crucial support for our mill. For our military. This is typical bluster from President Trump. The ndaa will pass and we will scrub from our military bases the names of men who fought for the confederacy and took up arms against our country. Now on a second matter before i get to the main topic of this morning, all week democrats have been trying to force action on the senate floor to make progress on crucial issues related to the covid19 pandemic. As Senate Republicans continue to mindlessly delay the next round of covid relief, we have tried day after day to jolt the senate into action, and last night we made notable progress. In the late hours of last evening we were able to pass a monthlong extension of the Payment Protection Program whose Loan Authority expired at midnight with over 130 billion left in the program. We had to force our republican colleagues to act on this very simple and noncontroversial extension, a date change, to help Small Businesses across america, particularly underserved businesses, minorityowned businesses who had trouble accessing the p. P. P. Program in its early days. Throughout the day we heard, to our surprise, that our republican friends might block the legislation, but when the time came senator cardins consent request was agreed to. Its certainly something to celebrate, but i would have hoped that our two parties could have worked this out before last night, as a small part of much broader legislation to address the many challenges posed by covid19. Rather than a consent request forcing republicans to act. But Senate Republicans unfortunately seemed dead set on delaying almost any action on covid until after july, after they have had time, in the words of leader mcconnell, to assess the conditions in the country. The obstruction is deeply regrettable and impossible, impossible to explain. We have other deadlines before us, not just the p. P. P. Today is july 1, with the first of the month comes a new rent payment for millions of American Families who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Senate democrats, led by Ranking Member sherrod brown, are going to ask the senate to pass rental assistance and an extension to the moratorium on evictions. Will Senate Republicans agree to our request or leave millions of renters out in the cold . I would say to my republican friends, let the extension of the p. P. P. Program be a metaphor. Democrats are going to keep pressing for Senate Action on covidrelated issues. Let the republican response be quick and generous, not stingy and halting. Senate republicans are going to have to respond one way or the other and either support urgent and necessary pieces of legislation or explain to their constituents why theyre blocking. It would be far better to pass these measures earlier rather than later and be more generous rather than stingyer. Now on the main topic this morning, again, where im proud to join senator wyden and senator bennet. As the number of covid19 indicateses accelerates cases accelerates across much of the country, the economic toll of this pandemic continues to fall hard on American Families and American Workers. Over 33 million americans, at least onefifth of the entire workforce is applied for unemployment assistance. Democrats asked for an extra 600 a week which according to a study by Columbia University permitted as many as 12 million americans, 12 million americans from slipping into poverty. By the end of this month those emergency Unemployment Benefits will expire, but unfortunately the high levels of unemployment will not. Without an extension of enhanced benefits, americans struggling without work will have their legs cut out from under them at the worst possible time, in the middle of a raging pandemic. So i am joining with my colleague, Ranking Member wyden of the Senate Finance committee, to introduce a bill that will both, a bill that will serve as both a short term to this solution and a bold longterm strategy to keep americans working, American Workers and the American Economy afloat. And i thank senator wyden for his help and senator bennet for his help. Together we have put together a very strong piece of legislation. Our bill, the american, the schumerwyden American Workforce rescue act would do something very simple. It would tie the extension of enhanced noit Unemployment Benefits to economic data, not arbitrary political deadlines. As long as unemployment remains over 11 enhanced benefits will stay in place. When unemployment goes down, the benefits will phase out appropriately. This automatic stabilization for Unemployment Benefits would be one of the first programs of its kind. But at its core, this policy is basic common sense. When americans truly need the benefits, the benefits will be there. And when the economy gets better, those enhanced benefits will be reduced. The impetus for this legislation is common sense. We should not allow the Economic Security of the American People to depend on the political whims of the legislatures, federal or state. When we passed the cares act over two months ago, democrats knew the extra 600 in weekly unemployment assistance was only a temporary salve for struggling americans. We had ho