I thank amanda for that. I thank amanda for the work shesing to and trying to do sthees doing and trying to do, but in too many instances, members of congress are not aware of the reality out there. The stories go on and on and on. Now that the 600 a week in Unemployment Benefits has expired. Now that the moratorium on evictions has also expired, this crisis is only to get worse and worse and worse. In my view, we need to extend the extra 600 a week in Unemployment Benefits for the 30 million measures who have lost their jobs. I think that is a nobrainer. People are hurting. People are desperate. People cannot feed their kids. People are going to be evicted from their homes and their apartments. We have got to respond to that pain and extend that 600 supplement to normal unemployment. I would go further. I believe that we need to make sure that every workingclass person in this country receives 2,000 a month until this crisis is over so they can have the security that they need, that they and their family are going to survive this crisis with dignity. And we cannot continue to ignore the reality that 92 million americans today are uninsured or under insured. And while i, of course, agree in medicare for all, and will continue that fight at least during this crisis, we should make sure that all of the 92 million who are uninsured or under insured get covered by medicare for their out of outot expenses. It is not asking too much that during this crisis people who have private insurance or medicare or medicaid not have to pay outofpocket expenses. We need a coronavirus bill that helps the lower income and not the wealthy. Mr. President , what i think many people do not fully understand it hasnt gotten a whole lot of attention is that during this pandemic not everybody is hurting. Not everybody out there needs the senate to act. While over 30 million americans have seen their 600 a week in Unemployment Benefits expire, thanks to the emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve to prop up the stock market, 467 billionaires in this country have seen their wealth go up by over 730 billion since the pandemic has begun. Let me repeat that. 467 billionaires have seen their wealth go up by over 730 billion in the last several months of this pandemic. Millions of people are unemployed, struggling to put food on the table, but 467 billion 467 billionaires have seen their wealth go up by over 3 r by over 700 billion. Meanwhile, during the last four months while the very, very wealthy have become much richer, american households have seen their wealth go down by 6. 5 trillion. In all likelihood, in the midst of Everything Else that we are experiencing, we are currently looking at what is likely the greatest transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the very rich and in the modern history of this country massive transfer of wealth, working class, middle class, poor, getting poorer, the people at the very, very top becoming phenomenally richer. In other words in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of an economic meltdown for working families, in the midst of the great struggle regarding racism and Police Brutality and in the midst of Climate Change and in the midst of a president undermining democracy and moving this country into an authoritarian direction, in the midst of all of that, we are also seeing a massive increase in income and wealth in equality and the movement in this country toward oligarchy. Let me just give you a few examples of the incredible growth in inequality that is taking place right now as we speak. While amazon is denying paid sick leave to its employees, while they are denying hazard pay and personal protective equipment to 450,000 of their workers, jeff bezos, the owner of amazon, has increased his wealth by over 70 billion. Yes, one person during the pandemic has seen his wealth increase by 70 70 billion dollars. While u. S. Taxpayers are suffering the wages at walmart by affording housing and medicaid, the walton family, the owner of walmart has made over 20 billion over the pandemic and now has a net worth of over 200 bdz. While 40 million americans face ee viks, ee lon eviction, elon musk has a net wealth of 70 billion. While some are lining up for food, mark gluckerberg has zuckerberg has increased his wealth to over 70 billion. Mr. President , in a time of massive wealth and income inequality, when so many people on our country in our country are hurting, it is morally obscene for billionaires to use a Global Pandemic as an opportunity to make outrageous profits and to very substantially increase their wealth. And that is why, mr. President , i will be introducing legislation tomorrow to tax the obscene wealth gains billionaires have made during this Public Health crisis. According to americans for tax fairness, if we taxed 60 of the windfall gains these billionaires made from march 18 until august 3, we could raise over 420 billion. Thats enough revenue to allow medicare to pay all of the out of pocket Health Care Expenses for every man, woman, and child in this country over the next 12 months. So thats the choice that we have to make. Do we have a tax on the obscene increase in wealth that has taken place for a few00 billionaires for a few hundred billionaires during this pandemic, or do we have a fair tax on their wealth and say to every man, woman, and child that during this crisis you will no longer have to pay anything out of pocket for the health care you and your family needs. Mr. President , by taxing 60 of the wealth gains made by just 467 billionaires, so in a nation of 330 Million People, were talking about a tax on 467 of them, a tiny, tiny, tiny fraction of 1 . Just by doing that, we could guarantee health care as a right for all people in this country for an entire year. And, by the way, if anybody out there is very worried about the impact of this tax on the billionaires, on the people who are being taxed, how will they survive a 60 tax . Mr. President , thats a high tax. Do you think they are going to make it . Well, we have left them more than 310 billion to survive with. That is a 310 billiondollar increase in their wealth. Thats what we have left them. In my view, mr. President , above and beyond this circumstance, above and beyond the pandemic, this nation must address the obscene level of income and wealth inequality which exists. It existed before the pandemic and it is even worse now. In my view, we can no longer tolerate three people in this country owning more wealth than the bottom half of our nation at a time when 30 million americans have lost their jobs and 92 Million People are either uninsured or underinsured. We need to reconsider our value system and to make it clear that so few cannot have so very much such obscene wealth, which is exploding during the pandemic while so many of our people are living in economic desperation. Mr. President , now is the time to set a new develop a new set of priorities and a new set of moral values for this country. Now is the time to tax the winnings of a handful of billionaires to improve the health and wellbeing of tens of millions of americans. Mr. President , the time is lock overdue for the senate to act on behalf of the working class of this country, the people who are hurting like they have never hurt before, not in our lifetimes and have the courage to tell the billionaire class who are doing phenomenally well that they cannot have it all. Mr. President , with that, i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Casey mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Casey mr. President , i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I rise tonight to talk about a couple of issues that i know well be considering at least i hope all will be considered in the negotiations that are under way. I know later in this hour well be joined by three of my colleagues, senator whitehouse, senator blumenthal, and senator duckworth. Each of us will be talking about these issues from a different perspective, but all focused on those in our society who are most at risk in the midst of this worldwide pandemic, in the midst of this economic and jobs crisis that were confronting right now. We know that this is the most difficult Public Health crisis in a century and one of, if not in the top two job crises that we ever faced. When we talk about americans who are most at risk, Older Americans, and tonight i will talk about Older Americans in Nursing Homes who are at risk if we dont take action, people with disabilities, as do many Older Americans, need the benefit of home and communitybased services. Third, americans who are in communities of color who need the benefit of medicaid, among other programs that we should be focused on. Let me start with Nursing Homes. We know that in the context of Nursing Homes, the care that is provided there is the highest level of care for an older american or sometimes a person with a disability and thats skilled care. We also know that thats care thats provided to men and women who have done so much for the country. Americans who have fought our wars, worked in our factories, built the middle class, built america in so many ways and gave us life and love and all that they ask and all that their families ask is when they are in a longterm care facility, especially a nursing home, and that they are receiving skilled care, that its quality care and that in the midst of this crisis that were taking every step possible to protect them from the virus and to keep them safe. Unfortunately, that hasnt happened in america today. As we speak tonight more than and just a couple of days ago the number was lower than this, but now its more than 62,000 americans have died in longterm care settings. Most of those in Nursing Homes. When you add up the residents who have died, contracted the virus and died, with the workers who have died, 62 more than 62,000 americans. Thats about 40 of all the deaths in america. We have to take steps to get those numbers down, both the death number as well as the case number. And, of course, the two are directly related. A number of months ago now senator whitehouse and i and he joins us on the floor tonight introduced senate bill 3768, which was the Nursing Home Protection and prevention act, which was a 20 billion proposed 20 billion investment in best practices. The tragedy here is that we know what works to get the death number down in Nursing Homes. We know exactly what works. And those Nursing Homes that were instituting, implementing these best practices months ago, way back in early march or early february, are the ones that had lower numbers, fortunately, of death and case numbers of we know that you have to invest in a series of best practices. That means having enough personal protective equipment for everyone in a nursing home, but especially the residents and workers. We know that that is essential to keeping people safe. We know that testing is part of that, of course, in having the capacity to and having the capacity to test, to test frequently and to have results transmitted very quickly. We know that cohorting, and its not a term that we hear a lot about, but its a very simple concept. Cohorting means you separate the res. Debts with covid19 residents covid19 from those who dont have it. Although it is easy to say, it is difficult to do in a nursing home. Sometimes you have to retrofit. Sometimes you have to take other steps that funding is needed for. But cohorting works. It stands to reason, but we know it works after having experience with the virus. We know that surge teams are critically important as well as part of these best practices. If you have an outbreak in a nursing home, and we had so many examples of that in my home state of pennsylvania and so many other states, when that happens, when the virus is spreading and there is a crisis in that nursing home because of the virus, you might need more help, you may need more doctors or nurses or certified nurses assistants or so many other critical personnel in that nursing home. So 20 billion is a good down payment on protecting americans in Nursing Homes. So our bill would do that and im grateful for the help of senator whitehouse as well as so many other members of the senate who joined in that bill. Unfortunately, the bill proposed, i guess it was july 27, some of the last days of july, the bill proposed by the majority has no meaningful investment in these best practices. And we have to ask ourselves, i guess, is this what america is going to settle for, the greatest country in the history of the world is just going to throw up our hands and say there is really nothing we can do, its ar pernicious its a pernicious virus and the virus is spreading in settings in settings like Nursing Homes and there is not much we can do . That is a defeatest antiamerican attitude. We know we can feet these numbers down if we make the investment. The america that we claim to be would have a fullcourt press, a pulloutallthestops effort to make sure we get these numbers down. So i dont think most americans believe that we should throw up our hands and surrender to another 62,000plus deaths a couple of months from now, which is where we could be headed if we dont take these steps. Now, no one no one would assert that we can get these numbers down to zero or theres some magic wand that will allow us to remove this threat from those we love so much in these Nursing Homes. But, my god, in america were not going to take steps that we know will work to get the case number down and the death number down . I think america is ready for an action plan that has been developed here in the United States by smart people who know how to attack this problem. So thats issue number one among the most atrisk americans. Second, in terms of atrisk americans, Older Americans and people with disabilities, they need the benefit of home and communitybased services. Again, the republican bill proposed by the majority here in the senate, doesnt mention medicaid. In order to attack the nursing home issue, the nursing home death problem or to invest in home and communitybased services, we need to invest in medicaid of we must stabilize and strengthen home and communitybased services to keep older adults and people with disabilities both safe and healthy. And to do that, you have to pay the workers more. The workers should be paid a living wage and those workers, when they are going into a home to provide that critical care, should be provided the personal protective equipment that they need to keep themselves safe but also that person with a disability or a senior needs if someones coming into their home. Without sufficient dollars Human Service organizations cannot recruit and retain the direct service i should say the direct support professionals and personal care attendants who provide essential health care and Community Inclusion services for seniors and people with disabilities. Just one example among many, a picture an enlarged picture of marissa, shes from allegheny county, pennsylvania. And you can see by the picture, you may not be able to see it from a distance. On the tshirt she has, proud to be your neighbor and the words giant eagle. Thats one of the great supermarket chains in the pennsylvania area. Marissa uses services to live voluntarily. She works at one of the giant Eagle Grocery stores and shes done that work for 19 years, all these years later she is one of the beneficiaries of this program where she can get services in the home and in her community. The key to this is without dedicated dollars agencies like achieva, one of the many agencies that does this work, that provides these services, these agencies will not be able to provide services for people with disabilities like marissa and families like hers need. Pennsylvania, like so many states, have centers for independent living. They told me last week in a phone call, helping people move from a nursing home or a care setting where the risk is higher with the virus, moving people from that setting who want to go into a home or apartment, often their ability to move those people is fully dependent upon the dollars that they have, the funding that they have. Theyve been able to move some people, but very, very few because they dont have the funding to move them. Another implication of this concern we have is that direct Service Providers have scaled back these services. Most dont have enough cash reserve for longer than a month. Just imagine that, because of the lack of funding. Now, i introduced a bill four months ago, senate bill 3544, 3544, which provided dedicated dollars to respond but it wasnt until the heroes act passed by the house, not yet passed by the senate, but passed by the house ten weeks ago included provisions of my bill which was supported here in the senate by 27 senators. Mr. President , i have just two more issues, one is medicaid and the other ill address is on the liability debate. Medicaid, of course, we know what that program is. Its been around since 1965. Medicaid is the program that helps 75 million americans. If you add up the children in medicaid, about 31 million children, people with disabilities, another nine million, you have roughly 40 of the 75 million. So medicaid is not just a program, its a program that saves lives, maybe ever more so in the middle of a Public Health emergency that weve been in all these months. Medicaids also, i believe, a reflection of who we are as a nation. It reflects, i think as well whom we value, and thats why medicaid is so critical to seniors living in Nursing Homes, sometimes from relatively middleclass families who could not afford longterm care. So Many Americans with disa