No deal has been reached on the next cove in 19 relief bill despite talks on capitol hill last week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell says lawmakers will get 24 hours notice to return to vote if a deal is reached. You are watching coverage of the senate on cspan2. Dr. Barry bla, will open the senate with prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, who rules the raging of the sea, we seek your face in these turbulent times. Lord, help us to so live that the generations to come will know of your mighty acts. Today, give our lawmakers the hearts to seek, find, and follow your will so that their legacy will be exemplary. Guide them in the path you have created, inspiring them with the potency of your powerful presence. May they trust your laws of sowing and reaping, knowing that they will receive a bountiful harvest if they persevere. Keep them from underestimating the power of 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 mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley one minute for morning business, please. The presiding officer the senator may proceed. Mr. Grassley today our National Public health and economic crisis continues without additional legislative action. Reports over the weekend indicate that the Senate Minority leader believes that he can hold out for a massive, unwieldy bill that even includes unrelated policies yet refuse to consider action where there is already consensus. The New York Times reported that the speaker said, quote, believes she has the upper hand and does not intend to lose it, end of quote. The other side refuses to support even the relief measures where there is broad bipartisan agreement, such as providing additional funds for Unemployment Benefits, the Paycheck Protection Program, education, state and local governments, recovery checks, and hiring and Employee Retention incentives. This shows us where their priorities are politics, not people. I yield the floor. Thats a shame. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President . The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell id hope that this week the senate would be busy providing more coronavirus aid. The chairman and rank member would be working overtime across the aisle to finalize other relief package for the American People. After all, there are so many important ways in which American Families need help and which democrats say they see as big priorities, just like republicans do. Priorities like continuing a federal addon to Unemployment Insurance, more tools for schools to safely reopen, more access to testing and diagnostics, more resources to develop vaccines and treatments, a new round of checks to push to put cash in families hands asap, another round of the hugely successful Paycheck Protection Program that Small Businesses have relied on, which was left out of the democrats proposal. All of these things and many more were in Senate Republicans trilliondollar proposal for another coronavirus rescue package focused on kids, jobs, health care, and Legal Protections to help our country reopen. So id hoped the senate would be spending this week turning a major agreement into law, but sad lid for the country, sadly for struggling americans, the speaker of the house and the Senate Democratic leader decided we would not deliver any of that none of it. For weeks Speaker Pelosi and democratic leader in the senate stalled and stalled in backroom negotiations with the administrations team. For weeks, weeks they held up important aid over noncovid19related demands. They stayed true to their comments from very early on in the pandemic. This is the way they looked at it. They saw this pandemic as, quote, a tremendous opportunity to structure things to fit our vision. That was the House Democratic whip. Speaker pelosi herself put it this way. This is an opportunity every crisis is. Working families call this pandemic a crisis. They call it a nightmare. But leading democrats call it an opportunity. Just listen to some of their demands. These are the democrats demands that stood between all of this help and the americans who need it. Heres one. Democrats say nobody gets another dime of relief unless state and local governments get about a trillion dollars in extra money. Let me say that again. Democrats are saying nobody gets another dime of relief unless state and local governments get a trillion dollars in extra money. Lets put a few facts on the table. Number one, state and local governments have only spent about onefourth onefourth of the huge sums we sent them back in the springtime 150 billion. Number two, the economists who calculated the likely covidrelated shortfalls for state and local governments have mostly produced estimates that are entire multiples less entire multiples less than what democrats are demanding. Number three, in our heals act, republicans try to give states and localities extra flexibility around the unspent funds they already have. Extra flexibility around the unspent funds they already have. In my state, elogy, 94 of the men we sent them has not been spent. And we wanted to send huge sums to help with schools, which are one of the states biggest expenses, typically in a state budget, the two biggest items are education and medicaid. But forget all that. Democrats are demanding that we send state and local governments a colossal amount of money with no actual relationship to need, while theyve only spent a quarter 25 of the money theyve already gotten. Clearly, this isnt about covid. Democrats think they smell an opening they have wanted for years, to make uncle sam bail out decades of mismanagement and broken policies in places like new york, new jersey, and california. And so theyve decided that no working family anywhere in america can get another cent not one cent unless they get to create a trilliondollar slush fund for mismanaged states completely and totally out of proportion to pandemic needs. Heres another one of those farleft demands. Nobody gets another dime unless we indefinitely pay people more to stay home than to go back to work. Now, mr. President , republicans agree we ought to continue additional federal jobless benefits during this extraordinary time. Senate republicans tried several times to stop them from expiring. The democratic leader blocked us. Our view, which a majority of americans share, is simply that it disincentivizes rehiring and reopening to pay people to more to stay home. A statement of the obvious. It disincentivizes rehiring and reopening to pay people more to stay home. Plenty of democrats said they saw the point and were happy to negotiate on this. Speaker pelosis own number two, the House Majority leader, said, quote, its not 600 or bust. That was the numbertwo democrat in the house. The senior senator from merrell said, quote, we certainly understand. We dont want to have a higher benefit than what someone can make working. Oh, no, but the speaker and the democratic leader overruled them. No deal. No deal unless we pay people more to stay home. Thats not about covid. Its not about a real reopening. Its about farleft ideology. They preferred for the jobless benefits to go down to zero zero unless they could pay people more to stay home. Does anyone in this country really believe that relief for americans should be totally contingent on bailing out states for mismanagement that predated the pandemic by decades . Does anyone really think it was better for jobless benefits to completely expire unless we pay people more not to work . And does anyone really think that congress should walk away from countless subjects where a bipartisan agreement should be possible over these fringe positions . Do americans think democrats should walk away from school funding, testing, cash to households, preventing a spike in seniors medicare premiums, legal reform, and more over this . I think almost every family in america would answer these questions the same way, but, unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi and the democratic leader have answered them the opposite way. They think they have political leverage over the president of the United States, and so theyre willing to personally increase the pain for vulnerable families unless they get their way on matters not related to covid. Republicans wanted to agree on the things we could agree to. Democrats said, our way or the highway. Republicans wanted to send cash now right now for schools, testing, and Unemployment Benefits and argue over state bailouts later. Democrats said nobody gets a penny unless texas and florida bail out new jersey. Thats their position. Nobody gets a penny unless texas and florida bail out new jersey. So this is where we are. The previous u. I. Benefits expired. The p. P. P. Closed its doors. Over the weekend, President Trump took steps to soften the blow of the democrats hostage tactics on American Families who need help most. His decisions will help spare some americans some of the pain from the democrats hostage taking. From the beginning, from the very beginning, mr. President , our side has tried Everything Possible to find Common Ground and deliver more help, but the democrats have said no. At least the American People know the score. At least they know the score. Now, on a totally different matter, this weekend brought more unsettling news in the ongoing struggle for hong kong to preserve any shred of its Civil Liberties and selfgonance. One of the regions most prominent prodemocrats advocates, jimmy li, was arrested yesterday for alleged violations of the socalled National Security law imposed by beijing. Last year, after an historic election that saw millions flock to the polls to overwhelmingly reject president xis preferred candidates, the Chinese Communist party moved quickly to choke hong kongers free expression. Mr. Li has been at the van guard of the vibrant Hong Kongbased media and publishing world. Hes devoted much of his life to advancing precisely precisely the sort of values that the c. C. P. Finds most repulsive. The freedom of thought and freedom of speech. The senate, the country, and freedomloving nations across the world stand with mr. Li and with all the peaceful demonstrators who have met the business end of the c. C. P. s repression. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. Mr. Mcconnell i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call . Quorum call 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, mr. President , over the weekend the United States achieved a milestone. Five million americans are confirmed to have contracted covid19, by far the most in the world. Our country went from four million americans having had the disease to five million in 17 days, only 17 days. One million americans were infected in just 17 days. Weve lost american businesses, american wealth, and an unbearable number of american lives. A number that will inevitably increase as the number of infections continues to rise. The brutal economic effect of the pandemic has spared no corner of our country. Were living through the greatest economic crisis since the depression, and the greatest Health Crisis since the spanish flu in 1918. So it should not be hard to convince republicans in the white house to provide urgent and necessary relief to the American People. The 3. 4 million in the heroes act was based on the countrys needs which are so large and so diverse. Its not a political position. Its what our country needs, its schools, its businesses, its renters, its homeowners, its post offices, its elections, state and local governments, our health care system. Leader mcconnell doesnt seem to understand this. He sees everything through a political lens, but we democrats are looking at the real needs of people, and they are large. There are in many different places, and that is why we called for a large bill because it was needed. Because the American People demanded it, and at this point the American People are on our side. Twothirds, by survey data, support thedz democratic plan, not the republican plan. After days of arduous negotiations, Speaker Pelosi and i continued to run into republican intransigence. They didnt see peoples needs the way we did, they didnt see the depth and breadth of this crisis. So, like in any normal negotiation, we offered to move in their direction if they would november in ours. Lets move in our. Lets meet in the middle, we said. In the middle. Thats how negotiations occur, thats how you get something done. The white house said no. It was difficult for us to offer that compromise. The democratic position is that we want to devote enough resources to defeat the virus and see the American People through this crisis. The republican position is to give much less than whats needed. Democrats dont want to leave large portions of the country and the economy to fend for itself. But the reason we want to meet in the middle is that getting major legislation through congress is the only way to achieve something significant for the American People. Rather than compromise, our republican counterpart said take a hike, quite literally, they said virtually this in the room. No, its going to be our way or no way. Were not going to meet you in the middle. Why . Why wouldnt they when the needs are so great, when there are so many people suffering and so many more who will suffer if we dont act . Well, its because this Republican Party is tied so tied in a knot that it cant agree to anything. It can only spew the same political speech every day. The republican leader mcconnell has admitted that 20 republican senators wont vote for anymore relief for the American People. The senate bill that the leader keeps refer to, the republican leader, lacks the support of Senate Republicans. He cant bring it to the floor because so many of them will vote against it. The president himself called the republican bill semiirrelevant, one of the few things that had some truth to it that he said about this crisis. It was not some possibility that democrats blocked. Senate republicans spiked it the moment it came out. Why . Maybe they thought these executive orders would be a way out, so tied in a knot they cant legislate or even join us in the to meet us in the middle. They were clinging to the hope that the president could do something on his own through executive orders. But as we have seen, executive orders in general arent going to get the job done, especially the incompetent ones issued over the weekend. President trumps recent executive orders are so unserious in terms of meeting the large needs of america as to be pathetic. Take, for example, the payroll tax deferral. It makes no sense. Even republican members of congress, and according to reports, some members of the administration, oppose a payroll tax deferral because it would do next to nothing to help our workers or the economy. Remember, the president did not cancel payroll taxes, he cant. He just deferred them. Most employers will continue to with hold the payroll tax so that their employees wont be hit with a very large tax bill in december when the deferral expires. An a. D. P. , a nonpolitical Payroll Processing company, said, quote, it may take months to implement the president s new policy. It feels like forever ago but candidate trump promised he was different from republicans and would never touch Social Security or medicare. Well, guess what. Deferring the payroll tax is a backdoor way of weakening Social Security and medicare in case the president s intentions werent clear, he said that after the election he may permanently cut the payroll tax, which would deplete the trust funds and destroy Social Security and medicare as we know it. If youre a senior or paid into Social Security or medicare and are waiting for it, watch out. Watch out. Seniors throughout the decades since weve had Social Security have jeaously regarded the trust fund and now donald trump says, well, now, maybe we should get rid of it because we should defer we should get rid of the payroll tax all together. So this executive order is an example of many false promises that donald trump has made. And just as importantly, it is so put together with spit and glue, that in all likelihood many states wont implement it at all, some have said so, and many more even if they want to implement it will take months, several months, while people will not get their Unemployment Benefits. The easiest thing to do for the good of the economy for keeping millions out of poverty