Continue off the floor and the republicans 1 trillion economic aid plan in response to the covid19 pandemic. Senators have been staking out their positions with floor speeches. Now, live to the floor of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will open the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. O god, our refuge and strength, give us reverence for your greatness. Guide our senators around the pitfalls of their work, enabling them to have hearts sustained by your peace. May they surrender their will to you, as they trust you to direct their path. Remind them that leadership can work miracles with cooperation, but rarely accomplishes much with conflict. Inspire our lawmakers to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. Help them to strive to live with such integrity that they give you the honor do your 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 id like to speak for one minute in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley motor coach industry has been particularly hard hit by the covid19 pandemic and the economic turndown as a result of it. Iowa has many motor coach operators, several of which are really family owned and some of them for two or three generations. Ive been in frequent communication with these iowans, and im learning that they are quickly coming to the point of making a decision of whether or not they can even stay in business. Motor coaches provide transation services to all americans, providing over 600 million passenger trips annually across the country. By comparison, airlines provided service for 925 million passenger trips in 2019. While most other modes of transportation have received specific funding to help through the pandemic, the motor coach industry has not. What they are really referring to when they talk to me, they seem to feel that theyve been left out when weve given several tens of millions of dollars to help the airline industry. So i spoke with senator mnuchin about this matter and have relayed the concerns from these Iowa Companies to committees here in the United States senate. The government relies on Motor Coach Industries to help move troops and also ee evacuate peoe to safety during our national disasters. However with passenger bookings being nonexistent and few charters being scheduled, this leaves little hope of rebound this year. The industry may not survive to provide this service in the future if they dont receive support. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell on monday Senate Republicans released a starting proposal for another major pandemic rescue package the heres what we want to do. Continue a federal supplement to Unemployment Benefits that is otherwise about to expire. Send thousands of dollars more in cash to american families. Keep funding the Payroll Protection Program to prevent more layoffs. Subsidize rehiring to get laid off workers their jobs back and create new incentives for workplace safety. Give k12 schools, colleges, and universities funding to reopen safely, more money than the House Democrats have proposed. Support Health Care Providers in the latest hotspots and keep supporting the race for vaccines. Provide commonsense Legal Protection so that schools, hospitals, and other employers can reopen without being buried in lawsuits. Thats what we put forward, a trillion dollars for kids, jobs, and health care. A framework that is more generous in key areas than House Democrats totally unserious proposal. A framework that could have kept the federal additional payments to workers flowing instead of expiring this week. But theres a fact of life here in the United States senate. It takes 60 votes to legislate so the American People cannot get any of the additional relief that republicans want to give them unless democrats at least come to the table. Either our democratic colleagues come to the table or the American People wont get the help they need. Thats why i said this week we come down to one key question. Will the country get the democrats who showed up back in march to pass the bipartisan cares act or will the country get the democrats who showed up in june to block plimple and keep that issue a Police Reform and keep that issue alive through november. Unfortunately, three days in it hasnt been a close call. The speaker of the house and the democratic leader refused to let anyone speak on their side. The democratic leader has forbidden his own members from talking and negotiating with their republican counterparts who are spearheading the different components. So you see, madam president , bipartisan memberlevel discussions might actually generate some progress and progress does not appear to be something the leaders on the other side want. On monday the speaker of the house claimed she could not wait to start negotiations, but then on tuesday she said her discussion with the administration, quote, isnt a negotiation, and then the speaker said the appropriate thing for the senate to do is pass a bill and then we can negotiate with them. Meanwhile the democratic leader is over here making sure that cannot happen. This is quite the partnership, madam president. The House Speaker moves the goalposts while the democratic leader hides the football. They wont engage when the administration tries to discuss our comprehensive plan. They wont engage when the administration floats a narrower proposal. They basically wont engage, period. The speaker and the democratic leader are playing ropeadope with the health, welfare and livelihoods of american families. With benefits expiring, with the paycheck Protection Program winding down and millions unemployed. The democrats are saying my way or the highway with a socialist wish list that was laughed off by everyone from journalists to economists the instant they introduced it. This is what reporters had to say about Speaker Pelosis proposal back in may. Quote, the more than 1,800page bill makes a long wish list for democrats. Quote, neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law. Even the speakers democratic members knew it was a choke. A joke. Privately several House Democrats feel it is to apiece the most liberal members of the caucus. End quote. Yet, this is what they are holding out for. This is what what they are holding out for. Lets recall some of the specific items. These are the things over which democrats are blowing up negotiations enforcing a lapse in extra Unemployment Benefits. Tax increase on Small Businesses, tapefunded checks for illegal im taxpair funded checks for Illegal Immigrants and their ongoing obsession with something called the local tax or salt which would be a massive giveaway for high earners in blue states. In other words a tax cut for high earners in blue states. So let me say that again. Democrats are holding up help for struggling people over special tax breaks for rich people in blue states, an idea thats been criticized by economists from all sides. Republicans want to get more help to families right now, but Speaker Pelosi says, let them eat salt. Let them eat salt. They also want to spend another trillion dollars bailing out state and local governments that have only spent, listen to this, 25 of the money we sent them back in march. State and local government have only spent 25 of the money we sent them back in march. And the speaker and the democratic leader want to send them another trillion dollars. This is silly stuff, madam president. None of it should be stopping negotiations and none of it would be if our democratic colleagues actually wanted to get an outcome. Lets talk about Unemployment Insurance. Both republicans and democrats agree that in these extraordinary times it makes sense for the federal government to provide historic additional help on top of normal unemployment. Republicans dont want this aid to expire. Our plan continues it, but the speaker and the democratic leader say they wont agree to anything unless the program pays people more more to stay home than to work. Prominent democrats have publicly said they agree with our position, the democratic governor of connecticut said he wants to continue the benefit at a more targeted level. Multiple members in the senate and the majority leader of the democrats said they are open to negotiating this. But the speaker and the democratic leader have cut all their colleagues out. They are standing alone saying our way or the highway and so people are going to suffer. I understand the democratic leader said he felt offended when i noted that some people are suggesting democrats strange behavior is explained by politics. Yet, some people think that democrats are behaving Like National suffering would only help President Trump. Now the democratic leader pointed that accusation at republicans during the Obama Presidency on multiple occasions. I know memories can be short around here when its convenient. But more broadly, madam president , actions speak louder than works. Democrats said that the senate should act on Police Reform. But when it came up, they blocked action. And now so far the sequel. Democrats talked a big game about wanting to provide more assistance but now its go time, they show zero appetite for any bipartisan outcome at all. This is personal for me, madam president. Kentucky is not finished fighting with the coronavirus and the federal government must not be finished helping kentuckians. Laidoff kentuckians need more help. Kentucky schools need more help. And under our proposal kentucky alone would receive 193 million for testing and Contract Tracing to fight the sprefd of the disease. This should be just as personal for every single senator. None of our states deserve the democrats ropeadope. No American Family deserves it. Dont my distinguished Ranking Member democratic colleagues want to be involved with our chairman like back in march and not watching from the sidelines as their leader shuts down talks on tv. Do they really think the Democratic Leaders tactics are serving the common good of their states . Republicans have put forward a framework that would do huge amounts of good for huge numbers of american families. If democrats ever come to the table, well be able to bridge our differences and actually make a law. The presiding officer under the previous order, the speakers time is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, executive office of the president , derek kan of california to be Deputy Director of the office of management and budget. 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 , the senate will soon acknowledge a moment of silence for the 150,000 americans who have now died from covid19. More lives than our country lost in world war i. This National Tragedy is more keenly felt because it has not and cannot be properly mourned. One of the most deaf stating consequences of devastating consequences of this disease is that it keeps us apart, even in death. There is no final clutching of the hand of a loved one, no funeral to remember them by, grandchildren wrapped in protective gear wave goodbye from across the hospital room. 150,000 americans have died. More than any other nation on gods green earth. More than our allies and more than our adversaries. More than the most populous nations and those with mere fractions of our wealth and power. And more, so many more than the nation where this virus originated. We will debate the reasons for this ugly truth. We must, if we are to avoid compounding our errors and keeping sorrow and heaping sorrow upon sorrow as the virus continues to rage throughout our country. But now we spend a moment to acknowledge how much our country has suffered already. We have lost friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons. A beloved professor at howard university, a civil rights pioneer, a renowned psychiatrist, a brooklyn doctor 62 on the verge of retirement who in the early weeks of the crisis in new york worked day shifts at the i. C. U. And night shifts at the Hospital Center across the street before finally succumbing to the disease himself. We have lost so many in so short a time. Unable to grieve them in the manner they deserve, we respect this moment of silence, this moment of sorrow. So, madam president , i ask unanimous consent that there now be a moment of silence to recognize the more than 150,000 american deaths from the novel coronavirus. The presiding officer without objection. There will now be a moment of silence to recognize the american deaths from the novel coronavirus. Mr. Schumer thank you, madam president. Now, mr. Schumer as the coronavirus as covid19 continues to spread through dozens of states, our country is dealing with multiple crises at this time. Today we learn that the most recent quarter was the worst on record for our economy. The problem is not new or surprising. Millions of newly unemployed americans cannot go back to work, cannot afford the rent, cannot put food on the table. Small businesses are waiting to see if the federal loan program that kept them alive will be renewed. Parents are worried sick about their kids returning to school in the fall. State and local governments who fought this disease on the front line when the Trump Administration refused to give them help are deep in the red and slashing public services, teachers, firefighters, and more. And throughout america, people wait days and days, even weeks, for the results of their tests, rendering the tests almost useless because we dont have an adequate Testing Program at the national level. This is the greatest Public Health challenge in a crisis and the greatest economic challenge in at least 75 years. We need to confront all of these crises. Senate republicans hardly want to address any of them. They dithered for months and then produced a halfbaked, halfhearted proposal of half measures, a proposal that their own caucus and their own president doesnt fully support. Just last night, the republican leader confirmed that 20 republican senators want to do nothing in the face of the historic problems we face, and because Senate Republicans couldnt get their act together, two weeks have now gone down the drain, and three months before that, because republicans are wedded to a twisted ideology that the federal government shouldnt help people even in a time of national emergency. As the country is about to careen over several cliffs as a result of the republican delay, dithering, and disunity, our friends on the other side are now scrambling. Its dawning on them now, not a week ago, not three weeks ago, not two months ago, that were facing a cliff on unemployment, although we have faced cliffs or issues as well right now. Today i understand that a few of my colleagues on the other side will ask the senate to pass a reduction of the enhanced unemployment benefit from 600 a week to 200 a week, or even worse, a smaller percentage of a workers wage than republican proposed in their bill earlier this week. An already stingy republican proposal has gotten even stingier as the week has gone on. I have made it very clear why the proposal by the senator from wisconsin is terrible policy for four main reasons. First and obviously most, first and most obviously, it would hurt the unemployed. 1. 4 million americans filed new claims for unemployment last week. The number is going up again. Our economy is still shedding jobs. Americans are losing their paycheck through no fault of their own. And republicans want to take 1,600 out of their pockets every single month . Give people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own a 24 pay cut . Shocking. Inhumane. Wrong. Second, it would exacerbate poverty. Our enhanced Unemployment Benefits have prevented nearly 12 million americans from slipping into poverty. Republicans want to slash and burn that povertypreventing policy. Lets have more people go into poverty. Thats what this amendment would do. Third, it would devastate our economy. One of the few bright spots over the past few months has been Consumer Spending in no small part because of these Unemployment Benefits go to those americans who need to spend it as soon as they get it. No wonder respected Economic Forecasters project that the republican policy on Unemployment Insurance would cost us over a million jobs this year and three million more next year. And finally, we know that this policy is impossible to implement. When our office called state unemployment offices to ask them about the republican proposal, they said their imp