And the vote is set for 11 eastern advancing nomnation for the u. S. Court of International Trade. Live Senate Coverage is here on cspan2. Thpresiding officer the senate will come to orde the chaplain dr. Barry black will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray holy god, continue to be our strength and shield. Extend your powerful hands to aid and deliver us. Lord, inspireur senators to bieve that you continue to work for the good of those who love you. Let your favor shine upon our lawmakers, and sustain them with your unfailing love. Lord, release to them the pleasings you have stored for those who honor you. You are our god, and our future is in yourands. Remind us al to seek first to understand before we stri to be understood. We pray in your sacred name. Amen. The presiding officer 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 one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The esiding officer the clerk will read a communication to t senate. The clerk washington d. C. , november 18, 2020. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable key loeffler, a senator from t state of georgia, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed chuck grsley, president pro tempore. The presiding officer uer the previous order, leadership time is reserved. Morning business i closed. Under the previs order the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the flowing nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, the judiciary, stephen a. Vaden of tennessee to be a judge of the United Statesourt of inteational trade. Mr. Mccoell madam president . The presiding officer the majority leader is recognized. Mr. Mcconnell yesterday something extremely rar happened here in this chamber. Something so unusual that only a few of us currentenators had ever seen it before. A roll call vote that did not include the name of o president pro tempore and distinguished colleague from iowa, senat Chuck Grassle before yesterday the senior senator of iowa had not missed a single vote in this body since 1993 when he was in iowa helping with historic flooding. Since then across 27 years and 8,927 votes, senator grassley has shown up for every single one. It is by far t longest such streak in senate history. Senator grassley broke the previous record back in january of 2016. And obviously continued to exnd it for almostive years. This show of diligence and dedication is remarkae by any measure but because of who senator grassley is, it hasnt seemed remarkable atll. That incredie commitment to serving iowans and working around the clock is just who our colleague is. That devotio is just his daily routine. This is the senator who manag to visit all 99 counties in iow every single year. We call it the full grassley. Nearly 9,000 consecutive senate votes must have seemed like a cakewalk back by comparison. But yesterday o colleagues stak had to be temporarily placed on hold. On the advice of doctors after close contactith someone who had lat tested positive for the coronavirus, senator grassley began selfquarantining yesterday morning later in the dayur colleague let us know he h tested positive himself undergoing underscoring why his good jument to follow doctos orders while awaiting his test resu was the right decision. So our colleagues historic run has been put on pause for the same reason it was compiled in the first place. Leadership, rvice to others, and a determination to set t right example. On monday in his floor remks our colleague reminded all americans of our duties in this moment. Quot although promising vaccines for the coronavirus are the horizon, it is more important than ever to stop the surge. Wash your hands, limit your activi outside your household, social distance, wear a mask, were all goingo get through is together but we need everyone to do their part. Alall of the senate thoughts ae with our colleague. He reported yesterday evening he still feels fine. We hope that will remain the case. Certainly if any member of this body has the good health and stamina to kick the virus to the curb, its senator grassley. So wellook forward to seeing him soon. Now, madam president , on an entirely different matter, Senate Republicans have spent months, months trying to get other bipartisan rescue package passed and signed into law for the American People. For monthsur position has been entirely consistent. We want to Reach Agreement on all thereas where compromise is well within reach. Send hundreds of billions of doars to urgent and uncontroversial programs, and let washington argue over the rest later. Theres no reason why doing right by struggling families should wait until we resolve every difference on eve issue. But unfortunately, both Speaker Pelosi and the democratic leader have bee equally consistent and they dont think cgress should do anything at all. Anything unless they get the cash out a farleft ideologic wish list including this with zero relationsp to the present crisis. They have continued to inis insist that Congress Pass their socalled heroes act or do nothing at all. The problem is that their proposal is a multitrillion dollar laughingstock that never had a chance of becoming law. Lets recall what Speaker Pelosis own membersaid when she first released this proposal. Quote, i think the heroes act went too far. It got loaded up with a bunch of political wish list things. Quote, this is washington politics at its worst, a partisan wh list. Quote, its a middle finger to the American People. These are all reactions, madam president , of house demrats. And no wonder because here are just some of the demands the speaker will not drop. A massive tax cut specifically for wealthy people in blue stat. A colossal slush fund for consistently mismanaged state and cityovernments with no linkage to actua pandemic needs. These things are included but they managed to completely leave ou listen to this leave out entirely any new funng for a second rou of the jobsaving Paycheck Protection Program, something we made sure to incle in every republica offering. They want to spend 3 trillion but couldnt find one cent, one cent of new money for the jobsang program that have kept Small Businesses afloat from coast to coast. Oh, and by the way, because the far left cided in the summertime, they didnt much like the m and women of Law Enforcement anymore, between the first and second versis of this proposal, the speaker literally took out listen to this took out hundreds of millions of dollars for hiring, equipping, and training local Law Enforcement. I guess by their account, the police dont count as heroes any nger. By playing all or nothing hardball with a proposal this radical, our colleagues have thus far guaranteed that American Workers and families get nothing a all. The pace of our economic recovery and the promise of vaccines on the horizon give us reasons forajor hope, but we are nowhere near, nowhere near out of the woods yet. Vooks will need to b distributed nationwide and quickly. Republicans targeted proposals provided blions of dollars to make that happen, but democrats blocke it. The p. P. P. Has helped millions of American Workers and Small Businesses hang on thus far, but now in the homestretch, they need more help. Republicans targete proposal would have renewed that lifeline for the hardest hit Small Businesses, bu again democrats blocked it. So think about it, madam president. We moved hean and earth and spent mountains of money to help workers keep their jobs and help Small Businesses keep the lights on from the springtime all the way up to now, but now, but now after all that, with the end seemingly in sight, we might lose the hardestit Small Businesses in the homestretch because democrats have refused, refused to let us continue helping. We kept Family Businesses alive for months and months, only to see some of them fail now. With vaccines on the horizon, beuse democrats have blocked another round of p. P. P. Well, its not too late to make a difference. Republicans stand ready to deliver this urgent aid. Lets not fund all the programs where there is no real disagreement just the ones where there is no disagreement and lets do it now. We just need democrats to finally get serious abouthis. I suggest the absence of a quor. The presiding officer the clerk will cl the roll. Quorum call quorum call mr. Schumer mam president . The presiding officer the senatorial. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer , would. Mr. Schumer first, madam president , let me join all of my colleagues in wishing the senate pro tempore, the senior senator om iowa, senator grassley, a speedy and quick recovery. We know hes a strong man, and we havevery confidence he will beat this back, as he has beaten many other adversities back in the past. Now, its been nearly two weeks since every Major News Network calledhe president ial election for joe biden. Preparations for the Incoming Biden Administration are well under way and still still President Trump refuses to accept reality. This morning brought a fresh series of president ial delusions on twitter. President trump declared, sometimes in capital letters, that the election ras a fraud, a joke, even unconstitutional. Imagine that, an constitutional election. Thats because trumps ego is such, when you doesnt win, everything is wrong, false, et cetera. President trump, get out of your bubble. You lost. Joe biden will be sworn in as the next prison january 20. Theres will be sworn in as the next predent of the United States o january 20. Theres nothing you can do about it. Last night President Trump fired our chief Election Security officer, chris krebbs because he confirmed that our elections were secure, reinforcing the numberone rule of working for donald trump you can never tell the truth. But no matter who he fires o how many times he tweets, President Trump cannot change reality. He lost the president ial election. Joe biden will be the next president of the United States. And its time for President Trump to quit the nonsense, admit the truth and move on. Anytime tie republican colleagues want to tell him that would be fine by me. Now, on another matter entirely, this country the country is facing the worst phase of the pandemic. As the number of new infections d hospitalizations threaten once again to overwhelm the capacities of our Health Care System, we need to make shoe that our nurses and doctors and all of our Health Care Professionals have the p. P. P. They need to protect the p. P. E. They need to protect themselves and their patients. Remember the early days of the crisis when Health Care Professionals were asked to injury rig masks. The recent surge in cases might bring this all back to or beyond what we saw earlier this year. We must do everything in our power to avoid a repeat of the wide p p. E. Shortages. So i am joining senators murray, peters, baldwin and murphy. And we are introducing now new legislation that authorizes 10 billion for the Strategic National stockpile to purchase large quantities of p. P. E. Including n95 respirators, gloves, masks, face shields and surgical masks. N95 masks dont need to be worn by every american on a daily basis. But they provide a much higher degree of protection to our Health Care Professionals and frontline workers who are exposed to the virus more regularly. Thats why we need the defense production act and get those n95 masks in the hands of any Health Care Professional who needs it. We are calling once again for the defense production act, grossly underutilized by the current administration, to be invoked in order to expand industrial capacity to meet surge in demand. Our bill will create a 1 billion Grant Program for Small Business to retool their facilities to assist in the production of p. P. E. For months, our communities have been held together by the quiet heroism nurses, doctors, caregivers and essential workers. We call them frontline workers because theyre like our soldiers putting their own lives at risk to protect the lives of others. Just as we would never send our troops into battle without helmets or bulletproof vests, we must never leave our frontline workers without the equipment they need. Like gloves and government shutdowns that serve as their armor. So our bill to, the protect our heroes act of 2020, should be part of the bipartisan discussion on the next covid reef bill. Our bill will allow frontline workers to get the n95 masks they neeand deserve. We urge bipartisan support for this proposal. Great urgency to get somethinga done here in congress to defeat the virus, save american lives, and forestall even greater pain for our workers and businesses. Speaker pelosi and i have negotiated for months in goo faith with the Trump Administration to find an agreement on aovid relief bill. Democrats lowered our proposals by 1. 2 trillion to move closer to our republican counterparts. Meanwhile, leader mcconnell and Senate Republicans refuse to take part in those negotiations. Instead, the republican leader has asked the senate to accept several inadequate partisan proposals, and in every version of the covid relief legislation that the republican majority has put on the floor, there have been poison pills included to ensure the bill will fail. Many members of the Republican Senate caucus want to spend no dollars, so leader mcconnell ha to terrorist himself twt himself in pretzels to put any bill on the floor. The only way he can get support of his caucus is to put poison pills in so he can wink at them and say, hey, this wont pass. So republican Senate Republicans are seein this pandemic as an opportunity to try and make it harder to hold corporations accountable when they put their workers at risk. I heard the republican leader this morning give the same long, tired speech that prends as if democrats havent been trying to negotiate with our colleagues, that we havent been trying over and over again to get our republican colleagues to talk with us. The leaders position hasnt changed over the past few months. He said it again this morning. Its the republican proposal or nothing at all. I would remind the republican leader, the house has passed a bill. The senate has not. And the only senate bill that the leader brings to the floor gets zero democratic support. And yet the Republican Leaders sition . If you dont take my bill, get nothing, when you knows his bill cant pass cant pass the senate, cant pass the house. Its a feeble position, as the pandemic rages. And it just doesn fly. We democrats have lowed our proposal by over 1 trillion to move closer in negotiations. And what did Senate Republicans do . They didnt move in our direction. They moved further away. By cutting their alreadyinadequate proposal in half, making compromise even more difficult. So, look. We need to reset the conversation here. The country is in desperate straits, maybe more than it has ever been. The consensus view of economists and experts is that the country requires a substanal injection of aid, meaning relief to our schools, Small Businesses, the unemployed, state and the local governments, our Health Care System and other things. These are not frivolous. These are not someones whim. These are the despera needs of people crying out for help. Almost none of them covered adequately in the Republican Leaders bill. This morning new yorks m. T. A. Announced a cut to subways and buses, a flashing warning sign about how desperate we need transit relief. We a going to fight hard for transit relief. None of it is in leader mcconnells bill. The two vaccines in Development Must be produced and distributed on a massive scale, and they must reach underserved and minority communities. The house heroes bill goes much further inest going that done in getting that done than the mcconnell bill. So its time for our two parties to sit down together and hash out a compromise on a bill that meets the needs of the American People. Weve been going around in circles, the republican leader in particular, for if a too long. For far too long, with nothing new added to the conversation. So Speaker Pelosi and i have formally invited the republican leader and our Senate Republican colleagues to join us in bipartisan talks. Our colleagues face a simple choice they can put the election behind them and work across the aisle to get something done or they can remain in their partisan corner defending the poisonous lies of a flailing president refusing to do the peoples desperately needed business. I yield the floor. Thune madam president . The