Of smoky stuff was in the already couldnt see very well my swim googles fogged up. I didnt feel any burning. Those without respirators began leaving. Huge explosions were going off in front and behind us. S linked arm and stood together suddenly all of these big officers in riot gear with about atons trying to push us off the steps of the justice center. We tried to holdd but then one mom was pulled group of officers and they started to drag her away. She must have said something inflammatory but she was linked r officers who said, pull her down, get her on ground. They pulled me to the ground and grabbedac someone from the moms said, lets go. They are surrounding us, we cant do anything now. Bu swim goggles had leaked and my eyes were burning and tearing and i couldnt crouched on the ground in a ball and put both hands up. Then i if i was okay, if i could stand. I couldnt because i couldnt see. At least one of them said, im trying to help you. The crowd was yelng leave her alone and c from behind me and coaching me to stand still. Stood there shaking getting my bearings and finally i asked if i was being detained. Heard back and forth conversations from officers about, shees r away. Someone elsed, if shes willing to leave let her go. I scoot back on my butt and some kind soul asked me if he could help me get away from the gas and walked park. Some other kind soul asked if we needed maalox for our it helped a felt sorryicers, actually who were doing what they were told byher ups that is to disperse nonviolent force. As my experience last night some to maybe because im white im and im wearing yellow to i got away with some knees and some metallic taste but worse heart. S senseless out there. I dont have answers and amnger convinced that showing helping anything, however i am pretty ift beenhis would have as productive about the actual issues police brutalitocialnequities for people of color now look at we look at these protesters who are justice for policing t equally that doesnt fro file, doesnt provide Public Safety protection to ignore others, thatsn v some citizens a the centizens ast, that doesnt change theirl actions when they group with white skin versus black skin andnversation byhe p america. s trying to replace that argument forrica that treats people with respect and honors the civil rights of all with a different america where secret police are deplo to beat thelk Peaceful Protesters and then put up campaign ads say hell it. We cannot let this go unanswered. At a collectively us should say no secret police. Identifiers for identifiers, and dont gts of our city. They stay to protect the federal propertyed to protect. They d protesters with and tear gas and pepper spray and rubber bullets and about atons. We dont do that in america. I hopell stand yes very simple amendment that i. D. Uniforms, it theres no secret police, and yes to staying near your property so dont have folks on unrestricted mission of grab being p an intoans like we have in portland. Im asking this senate to job, address this issue hold the debate,ong or short as my colleagues would prefer, and vote. Its important we raise our voice. Its important we vote. Its important that we have accountability and its important that defend thes and theu, president. Mr. President. The presiding officer the senator mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the following called up en bloc and on adoption of the amendments en bloc with no intervening action or before i read the names, which i will do, i make thated requestanimous consent for the following amendments to be called up en bloc and the sen l of the amendments so t no misunderstanding. Reason this, we talked about this last night. These hotlined. These are a total28 amendments, and i recor that asking consent 21880 rubio 2305, grassley 2399 fischer 4431, perdue 2449, perdue 2459, tlis, 2484, r 1 2421, 1752, cardin 1876, heinrich, 2221, klobachar, 2225, udall 2407, schumer 2410, booker 2412, king king 2439 grassleyan 24 of 46 asodified, 2453, 2430,fied klobachar 2437, warne 2471pxneenn . Without o the presiding officer thenator f oregon. Mr. Merkley dent rese woulous consent an amendment toeral law fas tteetweenxi opponents, e he amendme interveningin senator so mr. Inhofe the right issue that we4c tim owe tre objection to the from m reservinglvng our. We have one largest capita populatio extraordi to represent ourur s veyh ortierrlio ® t or nt0q sr eon n, t fh8[um votee 60. Is agreqln, theliam ofed states district judct massachusetn, ask unanimous consent pized to correctluctobje. A r fp imoaihe emergencyistance antae]ponsor of4957 wil t and ss motionsponle therebjection. A senatopresiding office fenngough t discussionnt f the cares ÷ requen. I tomndeal iueg he mridm sappointed. I kn it wasiniend, senator o. Didco week after lf somethingen roabou w t why weve got totoeloienph of. Mpusgyde n h . Vignn. Alysaxirofsrett ejon ; unemplmeut work and the of a 40hour workweek, down to an average of about hour being abl of their reguloesnal mts than they they actually now, fact has b been newsrchers and administration trea secretary tim geithncil on economic p on top of unemploymt insurance thro cross my time. Ple who runam. They tell me people areh more than ifed where you have employe there hoping, looking foro pay people more to not work than to work. Of trying to address this identifiable and correctable pro payments and untargeteon m pelosi, speaker of the hli these the way until mi would b wetconomy. People back to e its likely wouldrillion 1sident and much of that were talkingo not wor in toint doesntn not working than they would makee working upon a plan now to providl the÷f unemployed. If they cant go back to work there isnt availablehey cant go out a being to work, but do it in way that the democrats hav mr. President , that they proposed. And we much more closelyages. So were going to be i mr. President. I hope m engage with us in that effort. For these reasons mr. President , i object. President . The presiding officer objection is heard. The senator fromgoing to get into the substance colleag arguments in a moment but just want to be clear to a in america, the 30plus wh making rent having problems buying groceries, who in just twoe a positio theyreli kids, hey you probably have to eat a unemployment is ending. So that folks would be able rent buy groceries. On this the democratic leatroduced legislation tie the befits to economic ground. Theenefits oughtd if unemployment goes what our bill does. That it0 are on an economic tightrope this weekend side of the aisle been ready go for weeks essentially months to have bipartisan negotiations to w this iss as of this afternoon benefits expiring in two days on offer. Let mepeaton on t aisle they write lots of bills to help multinational lots of bills to help the powerful a special afternoon there is not help those folks to be saying we to make rent in a few days, were not going to ba able to feed our families going to be able to pay for the car insurance. People arent spending this money on luxuries. It onto a gre th months. The other point i want to tha happen. Not only do we have legislationto discuss with our co incorporate some of theiraching again mitch took all of jul off when he could have been getting thif legislation together, those big two weeks the together, basically by osmosis actively gave shrihe unemployed and made no whatever, even though we continually republicans saying that this weekend, and the pain that working families have this weekend didnt have to happen, and we wanted to do everything we can working wit our colleagues to prevent it. For purposes fergget discussion, i want to for purposes of this discussion i want to make sure people really means workingntry. I was out at home with food banks and the like, lines for blocks mr. President people who had never neede a pantry or a food program were waiting in line because they have been hit by this economic wrecking ball. There a worried about losin their fill andut whatave to tell your kid you ought to eat less becausew cash to stock the pantry next month. I said, republicans response to this over the last weeks i went to School Basketball scholarship, and i remember when you could basically go into four corners offense basically run down the clock. And then at the end as my distinguished colleaguerom wyoming tried to do, say well, its the fault of the poor people. R people. And imo touch on what this reall about. Now, mr. Gan the negotiations and i was the point person for the democrats, in the finance room i offered basic wage as our position for dealing with this issue. Secretary oftz labor scalia cant be the states cant administer it. Western civilization is pretty much going t if we try to do this. And then he folded arms and for days basically refused to negotiate about alternatives. So understand that we started approach of basic wage replacement. Secretary scalia said cant be done. Statesck i didnt disagre t gave 1 billion to the states to help them update but i said were not going workers were not going t workers to pounce sand. So i basically said were going to average the benefit. 600 sa bit more than they would some people are going to get a bit less. But families are going to to have a chance based on what the state employment offices told to actually get benefits. Now i know that it hasnt worked out too well in the state of florida. The president of the senate, and im so t this in the debate. But at least millions in this country got a chance toe rent buy medicine because we said were going to take a sum of money that the states told us they could actually for the most part administer. Now the finance Committee Held a hearing on Unemployment Insurance this summer, and i particularlyow we might look at administering these benefits in the future because i knew that we would all want to hear if there have been reforms and what the case might be during that hearing just a few weeks ago the National Association of state workforce agencies the experts on this re to the administered, said that their words any reduction or change in will absolutely lead to lapse benefits. Now you other side would say my goodness we dont want that to happen. These state workforce agencies said that there in benefits the amount, d last a weekentially up to a well ive been pointing out to senators you cant eat retro activity. And yet everything ive heard about what colleagues want to do now remember, they a bill. They do not have a bill. They are taking the weekend off. Weve got a bill on this side. De leader, myself, supported by our caucus, weve got a bill. Were ready to talk. They dont have a bill to do anything for those people who are going to be weekend. But after that hearing, you would have thought people republican senators on the other side would say you know, weve got to figure out what to do. Weve got to make sure people arent going to fall between the cracks, through no fault ofq their own. Remember so many of them are at home because policies of quarantine. And of course the pattern is particularly ominous now because folks who were furloughed at the beginning then got brought back and now with the spike theyre getting laid off but there you have it. The association of state Workforce Agency says that any change can lead to lapse in benefits. And i guess my colleagues on the other side walked out of there and said no big deal, its just a few weeks. Well tell that to the people who arent going to have enough make rent and buy groceries next week. Tell that to face rather than just leave town and say well talk about it another time and well see about twor weeks and what people are going to have to do without this lifeline. I believe its going to to be a disaster. The lapse that is being forced on thisntry right now is because Senate Republicans would not step up at along way, after the hearing, during the july break, they did not step up. The lapse is going to lead to evictions, its going to lead to hunger, its going to lead to desperation for millions of americans. And the only way to avoid it is by acting now by passing the American Workforce rescue act that senator schumer and i introduced. We just tried to passif our bill had passed, the people who are going to be hurting this weekend who arent going to be able to make rent and arent going to be able to buy groceries would have some sense security. They would be able to go to bed night this weekend had our bill passed knowing that there would be an opportunity to work with the other body and get this resolved and get it resolved quickly. Now people know one thing, thatu better plan for yet more uncertainty and more pain. As my colleagues on the other side of the aisle say well maybe it will get worked out in a few wtheyre talking about working out remember there is no bill. Weve never of paper. But theyre talking about cutting the lifeline over 50 . Thats their proposal, cutting it more than 50 . Now at a minimum at a minimum i believe that what the republicans are now looking at is some kind of approach that after secretaryca s the senate that the states cant do fullwage replacement for individual workers that theyre not capable of doing it the technology is too old it cant get the math, it cant get individually tailored benefits out in timely way apparently my colleagues are using that model for their socalled idea that ey talk about. ve already mentioned the fact that they believe the for this is that it could be done people hurting for tho nobody has an answer to that. But everybody ought to understand that i was the first one to offer full wage replacement, i would say to the president and it was secretary scalia whot couldnt be administered and has never changed hisind obltions point. So my view is thatle lot of complexity to the unemployment system is a proposal designed to fail. That apparently is what Senate Republicans are talking about. So at minimum this delay in the senate is going to cause a lapse in benefits. On top of that, its beenrted the republicans could attempt to cut the b by well over 50 i just ask, how can anybody look at the state of the country powerful people and special interests can be doing so well and then decide to cut the economic lifeline for working families by well over 50 when the country is in the middle of a pandemic, when there are 60,000 or 70,000 new covid cases every day and climbing when there are 800 900, 1,000 case cass covid cases every day and climbing, when the number of new unemployment claims which before this year never crossed 1. 3 million or in fact, the number of cl First Time Since april an that the recovery is going in reverse. And as i mentioned what im hearing about businesses that reopened in may and jun off their workers for a second time. A third of americans couldnt make their last parents who lost their jobs are wondering how theyre going to feed their children. And i just says who may be following this, t an unthinkable level of pain and suffe and unc needlessly inflict on 30 million americans. And its not just about those who work. Its about the millions of others who are worried that their pink slip might come in august or september or october. They nrt too. And in fact the papers are full of businesses closing and and mr. President closing permanently. And i expect allf those people are worried that o laid off pink slip may be coming their way in aep or october can have a word or two forir senators who are going to find plenty of time to write bills to multinational corporations but cant find the time to stand up for unemployed folks who are hurtin is afternoon, mr. President , i want to touch on this argument that republicans have flogging away on for now thatmployment benefits are generous and somehow theynced that it makesnse to insult the American Worker and say that all these around lazily at home instead of going back to that argumentot pass the test. And im going to be very specific about why that argument trotted again by my friend from wyoming is way off base. First of all same republicans whoy and june josh reports are now may and june job reports are talking about how lazy workers are by refusing to go back their you simply cant have it bh ways. Second, not one of my republican to suggest turning done work. These antidotes dont hold recent analysis, workers went back to jobs that paid less than supercharged Unemployment Benefits. Third its an insult to workers to say t home t pay work. If anyone of my colleagues were to meet the oregonians that i have spoken to and were laid during the pandemic, they desperately want to go back tots the dignity of work, people who want to provide for their families and its an insult to lazy. Mr. President want to kind o notef reality into this because my republican colleagues have been so fixated on this are argument. Ive talked to a lot of unemployed workers and i said, you know back east the Senate Republicans say all unemployed folks are lazy and they dont want to work and all the many of unemployed look at mncus and they say, d ron how in the world have they coatomy idea. And they usually say if im given a choice between chance to have a job in the private economy where i have a future build upward economic mobility, they usual say, tell those republicans in washington, d. C. Its a nobrainer. Its a nobraine the opportuni work in the p the ladder economic mobility. Im going to take tha time ratr than unemployment that certainly uncertain. So thats my response to the offbase kind of argumentesented by senator barrasso and if republic home this weekend the millions of americans who believe in the dignity of work,heir constitutional right. The country obviously is nowhere near the end of this pandic. Businesses are going to keep closing, some temporarily others permanently. Were looking at the worst Unemployment Crisis since the grea depression, and put together initially, the supercharged Unemployment Benefits and im especially that we said that the law which really hadnt been updated since 1930s, that we would modernize the law and allow gig workers and the selfemployed and independent contractors and part be brought into the s those supercharged benefa the finance Committee Room which way were signed off by secretary mnuchin. This was not the dead only one side going along with the effort. These we negotiated with secretary mnuchin who actually endorsed it at terence. These s been the one thing that has kept millions oons of families from a position where they couldnt feed their fami rent, andd of fear that has made, mr. President the number of requests for Mental Health services go throughhere because people are so worried and this question of their Economic Future is just one reason. Supercharged