[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 50 (Monday, March 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1753-S1760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING A 77-DAY EXTENSION OF CERTAIN AUTHORITIES FOR FOREIGN
INTELLIGENCE AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM INVESTIGATIONS
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3501, submitted earlier
today.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the bill by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (S. 3501) to provide a 77-day extension of certain
authorities for foreign intelligence and international
terrorism investigations, and for other purposes.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
Mr. McCONNELL. I ask that the bill be considered read a third time
and the Senate vote on passage of the bill with no intervening action
or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read
the third time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill having been read the third time, the
question is, Shall the bill pass?
The bill (S. 3501) was passed, as follows:
S. 3501
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SEVENTY-SEVEN-DAY EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY TO ACCESS
CERTAIN BUSINESS RECORDS FOR FOREIGN
INTELLIGENCE AND INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM
INVESTIGATIONS AND FOR ROVING SURVEILLANCE.
Section 102(b)(1) of the USA PATRIOT Improvement and
Reauthorization Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-177; 50 U.S.C.
1805 note) is amended by striking ``March 15, 2020'' and
inserting ``May 30, 2020''.
SEC. 2. SEVENTY-SEVEN-DAY EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY FOR
INDIVIDUAL TERRORISTS TO BE TREATED AS AGENTS
OF FOREIGN POWERS UNDER THE FOREIGN
INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT OF 1978.
Section 6001(b)(1) of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-458; 50 U.S.C. 1801
note) is amended by striking ``March 15, 2020'' and inserting
``May 30, 2020''.
SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Act and the amendments made by this Act take effect on
March 14, 2020.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion
to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Order of Business
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time
to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the
Democratic leader, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of
H.R. 6172. I further ask that there be 10 hours of debate, equally
divided between the proponents and the opponents of the bill, with an
hour of debate under the control of the sponsors of each amendment, or
their designees, and with Senators Leahy and Wyden controlling 1 hour
each. I further ask that the only amendments in order be three
amendments to be proposed by the following Senators or their designees:
Lee, on amicus reforms and exculpatory evidence; Paul, on rights of
Americans; Daines, on section 215 web browser/search history data
collection prohibition; and three side-by-sides to be proposed by
Senator McConnell, or his designee, on the same topics, with all
amendments and the bill subject to a 60-affirmative vote threshold for
passage; finally, that upon the use or yielding back of that time and
upon disposition of the amendments in the order listed, the bill, as
amended, if amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on
passage of the bill with no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Coronavirus
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, we are at an extraordinary moment in our
Nation's history. The President of the United States has declared a
national emergency. One has to go back to the early 1900s to the
Spanish influenza to find a similar public health threat to the United
States of America. We are in the midst of not just a threat in our own
country but a global coronavirus pandemic. There are more than 173,000
cases nationwide, and more than 7,300 people have died.
What you see today on the floor of the Senate is exactly the opposite
of what we are being advised as a nation we need to do. What you see
today on the floor of the Senate are staff people--thank you for being
here--protective forces outside the Chamber, and others who are
invisible to those coming and going who are part of the ordinary
business of the Senate. You see, we did today what the President has
told America we should not do, what medical experts have told us we
should not do. We have taken unnecessary airline flights to come here
to Washington, DC. I was on a plane this morning from Springfield, IL,
to Chicago. There were six passengers on the plane. Most people are
listening to the advice of the medical experts and avoiding unnecessary
travel.
Unfortunately, we were required to come back today from across the
United States. Some Members stayed over the weekend because their homes
are too far away. Some decided to drive this morning just to be
extremely safe. But the fact is, we were asked to take unnecessary
airline flights to come
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back here today and this week and, frankly, expose ourselves to the
possibility of some public health risk and ask our staff to do the
same.
In addition to that, we have been counseled by the leaders--both at
the State and the Federal levels--not to gather in groups of more than
10. It looks like we are breaking that rule right here on the floor of
the Senate. The obvious question is why: Why would we put ourselves at
risk? Why would we put our staff at risk and their families to come
back here?
There are two issues. The first issue is the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, which was brought up on the floor of the Senate last
Thursday, and Senator Lee and Senator Leahy offered the extension of
this act for a period of time in return for a few amendments to be
debated on the floor. That was rejected.
Just minutes ago, what was rejected last Thursday was accepted. We
made this trip back here, and it was not necessary. You have to ask
yourselves: Are we being respectful of ourselves, our family, our
staff? Are we being respectful of our responsibility as setting a model
for the rest of America? I am afraid not.
Now there is this bill remaining that just passed the House of
Representatives, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. The
coronavirus act was one that was negotiated by speaker Nancy Pelosi and
the President of the United States through Mr. Mnuchin. That went on
for a week, and the bill was agreed to and supported by both. The
President even tweeted his support for it. That shows his level of
commitment, I suppose. Speaker Pelosi supported it as well. It was a
measure that should have passed by a voice vote here in the Senate over
the weekend. Instead, we are still talking about it today.
There are measures included in it that are critical for public
health. May I gave you one example? When the State of Illinois and the
city of Chicago asked for protective masks for healthcare workers so
that they can avoid infection, they sent us an allotment of 25,000
masks. A State of 12.5 million people was sent 25,000 masks. Those
would protect the people working at one major hospital in Chicago for a
month. It is totally inadequate.
The last time we faced any kind of epidemic threat like this, we
received 1.5 million masks from the stockpile. What is holding up the
masks? What is holding up the test kits? Those are legitimate
questions.
One of the provisions in this bill that is still sitting here
somewhere in Senate limbo would authorize new masks to be released
across the United States to my State and others. So while we talk, the
masks are not being delivered.
Why, then, aren't we taking up this bill tonight? The coronavirus
bill should be taken up at this moment by unanimous consent. Let those
who object to it come to the floor if they wish and object and explain
why. If they have an amendment to offer, so be it. But if it is just to
let the ordinary course of things work their way through and maybe we
will get around to this by Wednesday or Thursday, shame on us. This is
a matter of national emergency and a public health crisis in this
country.
What kind of example are we setting by coming back to this Chamber at
risk to our staff and the people and ourselves and our families? We
have Members of the Senate going in and out of quarantine. They are
self-quarantining themselves, and we are acting like it is business as
usual. We will get around to it later this week.
What are we waiting for? This is a healthcare emergency. It is time
for both political parties to come to the floor--not this empty
Chamber--and do our job tonight. There is no excuse for it. If someone
has a substantive objection to the bill, state it on the floor. You
have plenty of chance to do it. Offer an amendment, if you wish, or
just vote no, but for goodness' sake, the American people expect us to
do our work.
We are here at risk to ourselves and others. We should do our work,
and do it quickly. If this is going to end up in some voice vote that
is quietly registered tomorrow, a number of us are going to be very
upset because we made this trip here because we had to represent our
people who elected us and sent us here thinking we would have to vote.
If we can do this without a vote, so be it. But couldn't this have
been done without exposing all of the staff people and all of the
protective forces and everyone else to the obvious pandemic that we
think is threatening our country in a massive way?
I take this very seriously because I love my family and friends. I
wouldn't want any of them to be hurt because of something I have picked
up--some virus I have picked up. I have increased my exposure today to
be here on this floor, and, tonight, we are going to quietly sneak away
and maybe come back tomorrow and actually do some work. We should do it
tonight.
This coronavirus emergency should be taken seriously by both parties
and taken seriously by the U.S. Senate. It is time for us to act. That
is what we were sent here to do. Let's do it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, will the Senator from Illinois yield to an
inquiry?
Mr. DURBIN. I am happy to yield.
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I am told that Speaker Pelosi has not sent
a bill to the Senate yet. Is that your understanding?
Mr. DURBIN. I understand the bill has been sent.
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I have a parliamentary inquiry.
Has the bill bent sent by Speaker Pelosi to the Senate yet?
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair is unaware that the bill has
arrived.
Mr. RISCH. It is probably tough for us to vote on a bill that hasn't
arrived yet.
Mr. DURBIN. Let me defer to the Senator from Idaho.
I have just had this explained by my staff. There is an enrollment
correction that was supposed to be taken up on the floor of the House
today and sent over with the bill.
Mr. RISCH. I don't disagree with you that we should take it up.
Mr. DURBIN. I understand a Republican Member of the House is
objecting to the enrollment correction at this point, and it is being
held up there because of his objection.
Mr. RISCH. Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. BROWN. I think you just watched what is wrong with this place.
Senator Durbin comes here and talks about the importance of doing
something. Last Thursday, when Speaker Pelosi and Secretary Mnuchin
were close to coming up with a deal about what we have to do to stop
this virus--keep in mind, the President of the United States first
mentioned this in an answer to a question with all the elites in Davos,
Switzerland. He first answered a question saying: Oh, this virus is
nothing. It will mean nothing.
I think it took him 8 weeks before he declared an emergency. Then,
last Thursday, we were supposed to start working on this. We should
have. I asked Senator McConnell on this floor--I opened this door, and
I pointed down the hall. I said: Senator McConnell should come back
here, and let's work on this bill.
Whether they were actually finished doing it in the House down the
hall or not, we should be working on this.
Now we have had 4 more days. Senator McConnell had to go back to
Kentucky. I don't know what he went back for. We asked him to stay and
finish this, to negotiate and do it to take care of stopping this
virus, to take care of all the people in my State in Illinois and
Senator Markey's State and Senator Coons' State and Senator Boozman's
State, to take care of all these people who are losing their jobs and
don't know what to do.
Senator McConnell went back to Kentucky and wasted 3 days--make that
4 days since today is another day we are wasting. Again, I don't know
why he went back. It is 3 more days of people being worried. It is 3
more days of people self-quarantining. It is 3 more days of businesses
in Columbus and Dayton shutting down. It is the anguish you feel if you
think one of your loved ones is sick. All of this--empty airplanes and
all the things that are happening--and we are wasting another day.
I always appreciate the Senator from Idaho bringing up a
parliamentary
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technical question, but why aren't we doing this? Why aren't we
listening to what Senator Durbin said?
It has been 3 days since the House passed the comprehensive package.
It is 3 days and counting for people worried about how they are going
to take time off from work if they get sick.
Think about this. The Presiding Officer knows all kinds of service
workers in Arkansas; Senator Durbin knows them in Illinois; Senator
Markey, in Massachusetts. I know all kinds of workers who are feeling
sick. They are making $12 an hour. They don't have any sick days. They
think: Do I go to work and maybe I will get sick and maybe infect my
neighbor? Or do I stay home and give up that $12 an hour--that $100 I
need to make my rent--and then, tomorrow, face the same question and
the day after? That is what we are forcing on people. Instead, we are
just playing games. We wasted 3 days, and now we are wasting another
day.
When a situation changes this quickly, people are scared at home.
People are looking for leadership. Leader McConnell and President Trump
have failed the people they serve. We need to get help to people today.
Let's immediately get to work on the next round of support.
Let me tell you what that next round of support is. We should pass
the bill today to help people with unemployment insurance, to help
people with sick days, to help people with Medicaid. We should do all
that. It means putting our workers first. We shouldn't be bailing out
Wall Street. That will be next. You can bet Senator McConnell will
hurry when the airlines come for their bailout package and hurry when
the banks come for their bailout package and hurry when the big hotel
chains come for their bailout package.
We have to put money in the pockets of individuals first. The IRS
needs to send an initial check of at least $2,000 directly to every
single working-class, low-income, and middle-class family who can use
it so they won't get evicted or won't get foreclosed on. We don't need
a corporate middleman to do that. We need to make sure every worker who
needs unemployment insurance can get it.
I have spoken to my Governor, who has done a good job on this. He
served here with Senator Durbin. He is Mike DeWine, a Republican. I
talked to him three times this week. He will help us speed up the
unemployment checks so that they get to workers. We need to make sure
that all workers are eligible for unemployment insurance, including
independent contractors and people who are self-employed.
Second, we need a temporary expansion of the earned income tax credit
and the child tax credit for the next several years.
Third, we need to hold any company accountable that is getting
taxpayer dollars. If we are going to help the airlines--and I think we
should--it means the airlines can do no stock buybacks. It means no
sending of jobs overseas. It means no outsourcing of jobs to
independent and usually low-paid contract workers--food service,
custodial, security workers. It means no golden parachutes for
executives. It means no using of taxpayer dollars, with which we are
bailing them out, to bust unions that are trying to organize in the
workplaces. If they want taxpayer money, you commit to using it to help
people who make this country work.
Fourth, we need to prevent evictions and foreclosures and provide
emergency rental and mortgage assistance to make up for lost wages.
Millions of Americans are one lost paycheck away from eviction or
foreclosure. You all know the number. Forty percent of Americans don't
have $400 extra to fix their cars. Also, if they lose their paychecks,
they can't pay their rent. We need to look at canceling some amount of
student loan debt. Through no fault of their own, we know millions of
Americans aren't going to be able to make student loan payments.
Canceling debt will allow people to get back on their feet.
Since January 22, President Trump has had chance, after chance, after
chance to get ahead of this public health crisis. In fact, 2 years ago,
I sent him a letter, writing: Why did you fire Admiral Ziemer? Why did
you eliminate the office of 40 people in the White House that was in
charge of surveilling the world to look for potential pandemics? Why
did you fire them? Please reinstate them.
He ignored the letter. He hasn't explained why he eliminated that
office. He would have known way before January about this potential
pandemic, and if it had still existed, he might have done something
about it at the urging of that office. The President has failed in
this. Congress can't make the same mistakes. We need to get ahead of
the crisis facing family budgets before it is too late.
Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question?
Mr. BROWN. I yield to the Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Through the Chair, I ask a question of the Senator from
Ohio.
The Senator from Idaho, who is a friend, raised a parliamentary
issue, and you have gotten to the heart of the matter with the question
of how families are going to survive in the midst of the pandemic and
what we are going to do about it. The Senator from Idaho raised a
parliamentary issue, and we are guided by rules around here.
To the knowledge of the Senator from Ohio, in the past, has the
Senate entered into agreement on bills posted in the House before the
papers actually arrived in the Senate?
Mr. BROWN. I thank the Senator from Illinois.
Yes. Sure, we have. If we want to get something done, we get
something done. We find a way, through unanimous consent, for all of us
to agree.
Who can say that this is anything but a national crisis? Are we going
to make our unwillingness to do anything contingent on some
parliamentary trick? No. We are paid to do this job. Just because
Senator McConnell has taken 4 days and not done it doesn't mean that we
shouldn't. We should work.
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the Senator.
Mr. BROWN. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I echo what the Senator from Illinois has
said and what the Senator from Ohio has said.
We have a national emergency. We should have already finished this
phase of dealing with this crisis, for there are many more phases to
deal with. As part of this debate, we should ensure that there is sick
leave for every single worker in our country. That is not in this
package that is coming through right now. We have to make sure everyone
is covered. We need unemployment insurance, and we need to ensure that
it extends to workers in the gig economy--tip workers, domestic
workers, and contractors. We have to cover people so they stay home. We
have to let them know that unemployment insurance is going to extend to
them during this crisis.
We cannot allow our inaction--our thinking through of what we have to
do--to shut down any potential for this crisis' not growing to a level
which we are seeing in other countries. We can do it, but it is the
Senate that has to be here. It is the Senate that has to deliberate on
these issues, find the solutions, and deliver them to the American
people. They are desperate for answers right now. They are being told
to go home right now. Waiters, bartenders, and contractors are being
told to just go home.
What is going to happen to them if they don't have sick time? What is
going to happen to them if they don't have unemployment insurance? What
are they going to be doing in terms of caring for their families?
We should be here this week, taking care of the package that has
already been agreed to and beginning the debate immediately on
everything else we have to do. I will give you an example.
Let's just take the hospitals of our country. For most of the major
cities in America, a high percentage of the revenue for those hospitals
comes from foreign patients who fly in from around the world and into
our major cities. That revenue stream is going to be cut off for an
indefinite period of time. Hospitals depend upon elective surgeries.
That is going to be cut off for an indefinite period of time. That is
the revenue flow that goes into hospitals that then allows them to take
care of the poorer people in each and every one of our communities. If
they don't have that revenue stream, it is going to place enormous
pressure on
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them to lay off doctors, to lay off nurses, and to lay off other key
personnel because the revenue stream will not be there.
We are the ones who are going to have to provide the revenue stream.
At this time, we cannot have a hospital system in crisis in our
country. We should be here, deciding whether we are going to provide a
fund of $100 billion or $200 billion or $300 billion to ensure our
healthcare system stays robust at this time of all times in our
history.
We are heading into issue after issue that this Senate has to deal
with. If we are here--if we are back--we should deal with it. We should
deal with it this week. We should deal with it on the emergency basis
that we are telling every family to with regard to this crisis, but
every other family is dependent upon us to provide the answers for them
and their families.
So I agree with the Senators. This is something that requires our
attention. We are here, and we are the answers for them. If we don't
give them, then there will be no answers. We know that the first bill--
the $8 billion bill--was three times larger than the White House
wanted, but we made sure that the extra funding was going into each and
every one of our States. We know that this bill that was just
negotiated with the Speaker and the President last week is just being
held up by a Republican with regard to a procedural obstacle. That is
why.
We have to deal with this on a war footing. We are at war with an
invisible enemy that is moving into every single city and town and into
every single part of our economy as we speak right now. If we don't
provide the defense for our families, then we are going to be looked at
as being those who failed the American people.
We should already have robust testing, but we don't. We should have
the protective gear in the hands of every doctor and nurse all across
our country, but our doctors and nurses are being told to reuse their
masks--to reuse them. The Senator from Illinois was already talking
about how hard it is to get that extra protective gear for his
hospitals, and the same thing is true all across our country.
We know there is a crisis. We know there is a shortage. We know there
is a huge gap that exists between what we have and what we are going to
need, but we don't have any more time. We didn't use the time in
December. We didn't use it in January, and we didn't use it for most of
February. There were warnings that were coming, but we now know it is
real. We know it is in every community already and in every State
already in our Nation.
We should stay here, and we should do this work. We should make sure
that our hospitals know for sure that they are going to have the help
they need, especially the community hospitals because they are going to
be very fragile--very, very fragile--in terms of the revenue stream
going in while great expectations will be expected from them in terms
of what they are going to do for their local communities.
So let's stay. Let's debate this. Let's make sure that the frontline
workers have the protective gear they need, have the testing equipment
they need, and have the guarantee that their salaries are going to be
paid and that they are going to be taken care of, because we are going
to need them to be putting themselves in harm's way in our country for,
potentially, months. This is the time for us to stand up and to stay
here in order to get these issues resolved this week. We shouldn't do
it next week. We should do it this week.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I agree with everything that has been
said. I agree that, basically, we should never have left here Thursday
night. So many of us could, maybe, drive home. I was able to drive home
and was able to drive back. Yet so many people were put in harm's way
when they went home on airplanes. As you might know, we don't have the
youngest crowd--I think our average age is about 62 here--so it is
putting them and their families and, basically, the people they work
with in danger also.
Let me tell you what we are talking about here. If we are going to
come to the aid of the economy of this country, I have no doubt that
Democrats and Republicans will come together to take care and help
people. I hope they realize the people who really need help are the
people who cannot make it from one week to the next, let alone from one
paycheck to the next.
I was out last week just in DC, and I talked to a young waiter--a
very, very nice, young man.
I asked: What happens if you have to go home for 2 weeks?
He said: I am finished. I can't make it. I can't make my payments. I
can't make my house payment. I can't make my rent payment. I can't make
my grocery payment.
He was done. That is how worried he was. He said no one had asked him
that question. These are the people we have to worry about.
I want to bring to your attention one more thing. As of 2:30 this
afternoon, my State didn't have one reported case. Now, that is great.
That is wonderful. I pray to the good Lord that this is the case that
we have none, but let me tell you the thing that scares me. I have the
most at-risk population base in the Nation. The Kaiser report that came
out showed the State of West Virginia as being the most in danger of
all of the States with its having the most vulnerable people.
I have over 720,000 elderly. I have over 220,000 who are critically
ill under 60 years of age. If you put all of this together, of the over
1.8 million people, I have over 1 million who could be absolutely,
totally devastated by this virus if it hits, and we haven't shown one
case yet. Of the 1.8 million people I have told you about and of the 1
million who are in vulnerable situations, we have had only 84 tests in
my State as of 2:30. Now, 80 have come back negative, and as of 2:30, 4
are unknown.
I am surrounded by five States in this wonderful, little State of
mine, West Virginia. These are the most beautiful people in the world,
and they have worked hard. A lot of them have respiratory illnesses,
and they will be the first to be attacked. If it hits my State and if
we are not prepared for it because, basically, we won't even have the
tests to identify who will be ill and who will need these treatments
and will need the healthcare, the hospital care, what will we do? I
don't have the ventilators, and I don't have the respirators. I don't
have anything available to that many people who are that vulnerable.
What do we do?
I know of all of the financial aid we are talking about and of all of
the help that we are going to need. We had better concentrate on how we
find a cure--on how we basically take care of the people who are the
most vulnerable--and that would, first and foremost, protect the people
of America. They are scared to death. I am scared. I am concerned. I am
afraid that my State of West Virginia is falling into a lapse to where
the people of West Virginia might think: Oh, we are protected. No cases
have been reported, so we are in good shape.
I pray to the good Lord that this is the case, but my gut tells me
that it is not. We just don't know.
Mr. DURBIN. Will the Senator yield for a question through the Chair?
Mr. MANCHIN. I yield to the Senator.
Mr. DURBIN. We have the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that
passed the House of Representatives early on Saturday morning, which we
could consider--and have in the past on a parliamentary basis--and
which I have called for, and others have joined me. We should move on
this and move on it quickly. The Senator from Massachusetts has
expanded it to other areas that we should be considering. While we are
here, let's get some work done.
Among the things included in this is the testing. The Senator said
there have been 84 tests in the entire State?
Mr. MANCHIN. This is out of 1.8 million people in the most vulnerable
State in America.
Mr. DURBIN. It is obvious that you cannot measure the actual rate of
infection until you have enough tests of those who are suspicious--who
have a fever or a cough.
Mr. MANCHIN. Senator, if you have seen the map of the United States,
West Virginia stands out and doesn't show anything. I think, how could
that happen?
Mr. DURBIN. We have faced the same thing with 12.5 million people. We
have tested 360 a day for the entire State. It is ridiculous.
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Mr. MANCHIN. We have tested 84 total.
Mr. DURBIN. I know.
The Governor has told me that we really don't know how many people
are infected. We don't know the rate--whether it is going up and at
what rate--and whether it is in certain areas of our State and not in
others. So, if you don't have testing, you don't have knowledge, and
you can't fight a pandemic.
I would just say to the Senator that this was the highest priority in
this bill that passed the House of Representatives on Saturday.
Mr. MANCHIN. We should have been here on Saturday.
Mr. DURBIN. We should have been here on Saturday. We should take it
up today. What are we waiting for? For goodness' sakes, we ought to do
it.
Mr. DURBIN. The other thing is food assistance, and I know your State
struggles. There are many people, as you said. It is not paycheck to
paycheck; it is week to week. Some of them qualify for food stamps, the
SNAP program.
Mr. MANCHIN. I will tell you what we were able to do on that. I sent
a letter last week immediately to Sonny Perdue, and he answered
immediately. We were able to get all of the kids--because we have so
many children in West Virginia who rely on their breakfast and their
lunch from the schools for nutrition, we are going to be delivering.
The school is doing that.
The State is taking some steps to shut things down. Schools have been
shut down. They have said no more community gatherings whatsoever. They
have done all of the things they were told to do. We just don't know
where the virus may be, if it is there, and how it is going to affect
us.
Mr. DURBIN. It starts with testing. It is food assistance, and it is
also additional Medicaid money coming back to the State. I am sure the
State of West Virginia, like Illinois, desperately needs it.
I was surprised to learn today that the capacity of hospitals in the
United States is less than 1 million patients, fewer than 1 million
patients. In a nation of 350 million people, we have hospital capacity
of less than 1 million, and when it comes to the intensive care units,
it is a much, much smaller number than that. So that is our fear. If
this goes rampant, it could overwhelm our hospital system.
Certainly Medicaid money back to your State and mine in this bill
that passed the House should be authorized tonight. We should vote on
this tonight.
Mr. MANCHIN. The economics of this whole thing right now is, first of
all, we should know who is infected, where the infection is going, and
how rampant this will be. We don't know yet.
Next of all, who is the most vulnerable economically? The people who
work day to day, paycheck to paycheck, and week to week. That is where
the relief----
Mr. DURBIN. Medical leave.
Mr. MANCHIN. Exactly. We have to do some things and do them quickly.
And if this thing doesn't come up, we should sit here and protest until
it does come up. There is no reason we can't do it tonight.
Mr. DURBIN. There is no reason. And if the President was credible--
and I believe he was when he called this a national healthcare
emergency--we ought to act like it.
Mr. MANCHIN. Well, today he recognized it and came forth and
basically said today in that press release that I listened to--he
basically acknowledged the threat of what we are dealing with and the
enormity of what we are dealing with. It was the first time I have
heard basically the concern that we have that this thing is bigger than
any of us, but all of us together can fight this.
But I would ask the majority leader: Mr. Majority Leader, we should
have stayed here. Yet we are here now. Let's do it.
Mr. DURBIN. Let's do it.
Mr. MANCHIN. Let's do it. No blame. No blame. Let's just do it.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to speak briefly about hard
decisions. There are hard decisions that have been made all over our
country in recent days and weeks--decisions by superintendents of
school districts on whether to shut down their schools and send their
children home; hard decisions made by mayors about how to provide for
first responders, for those who run the paramedic and ambulance and
police services, and the 9/11 centers and the public hospitals;
decisions by Governors about where and when and whether to declare
states of emergency. We have seen decisions made by faith leaders, by
sports leaders, by school leaders--leaders of all types at all levels.
But the most important decisions that are being made tonight are
around America's kitchen tables, where folks are looking at each other
and saying: How much longer will I have a job? How much longer will we
be able to put food on the table? How will we care for our kids who are
unexpectedly home from school or college or overseas for days or weeks?
How much longer can we stay in our home before we have to go see our
mom, our grandmom, our uncle, our father, who is in a skilled nursing
facility, who is scared and alone?
Just this afternoon, seven counties in California announced a
shelter-in-place order. We have seen counties, cities, and communities
all over our country gradually move from a very relaxed and casual
attitude, to a very concerned attitude, to being on high alert, to now,
in half a dozen communities around our country, looking more like Italy
than they do like America of a month ago.
It has been a slow-rolling response, and we should have been here
this weekend to make sure that the Senate of the United States stepped
forward and did our job and made our hard decisions.
I take some encouragement from the fact that the first round of
support--$8.3 billion--got crafted, taken up, passed, and signed into
law in just a matter of 2 weeks--long overdue, but $8.3 billion that
went out for vaccine development, for test kits, for personal
protective equipment, to put a floor underneath this burgeoning public
health crisis that is COVID-19 as it has spread now to every State in
our country.
The next package that has already been passed by the House--that
should be considered by this body--we must take up and pass
immediately, and it directly speaks to those hard decisions at homes
all over our country. It speaks to folks who are concerned that they
don't have health insurance. It speaks to folks who are concerned that
they don't have unemployment insurance. It speaks to folks who don't
know where their kids--who used to get school lunches--are going to get
their next good meal. It speaks to some of the challenges of the most
vulnerable in our country.
I don't know about my colleagues, but I took a lot of phone calls
this weekend from constituents who are concerned, who are anxious, who
are angry, who want to know what we are doing at the Federal level to
provide backup; folks who run nonprofits that are struggling to keep
their services available and to stay open under great pressure; folks
who run faith services in our community who canceled their services,
closed their buildings, but now have half a dozen organizations
communities rely on, whether it is a food pantry, a clothes closet, or
a job-training service; folks who are anxious about what will happen to
their staff and their students at their schools; in particular, folks
who are anxious about what will happen to the seniors in their skilled
nursing facilities or in their hospitals.
As you have heard my colleagues speak to, our hospital system does
not have the capacity for thousands and thousands of newly diagnosed
folks to present themselves at emergency rooms, seeking hospitalization
around our country.
We should act immediately to deliver the sorts of mobilized Federal
resources that the Army Corps of Engineers, the Veterans'
Administration, the Department of Defense, and State and local FEMA
affiliates and agencies can deliver to scale up our response in a
prompt and appropriate way.
We should not leave this building and session until we have taken up
and put together a package that will provide an appropriate stimulus
for working families all over our country, provide a floor for small
businesses and for working families who will be gravely concerned
tonight about what will happen tomorrow.
[[Page S1758]]
We have hard choices to make, but that is why people hire us. Instead
of being here in a largely empty Chamber with nothing on our agenda
tonight, we should be taking up, debating, passing, and sending to the
President for signature bold strokes that will give confidence to the
American people and address the concerns that families all over our
Nation are facing tonight, and then, for our health and the health of
our staff and our families, we should go into recess. But we should not
do so, as we just did for a long weekend, until we take up and pass
these pressing measures of national interest.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, let me associate myself with the remarks
of the Senator from Delaware and others who spoke before him.
We are here. We are all in town. We came back for an expected vote
tonight that did not occur. There is no excuse for us not to be voting
at this moment on an assistance package that is going to be dispositive
on some of the toughest decisions that many American families will make
over the course of this year or next.
Let me drill down on what those decisions are. Right now, there are
parents in my State of Connecticut who have to go to work tomorrow but
have a child who is home from school, and they have to make a decision
as to whether they are going to forgo tomorrow's paycheck and stay home
from work, possibly face termination or discipline, or leave their
child at home alone or in an unsafe environment.
There are thousands and thousands of families in my State who cannot
afford to miss a paycheck--a paycheck--that is the difference between
being able to put food on the table or not, whether or not their kids
have diapers, whether the lights stay on. That is the decision many
families are making tomorrow in Connecticut.
Here is another decision that many individuals are making in my
State: Tonight there are a lot of moms and dads who have a cough, who
are starting to feel a little fever coming on, but they have work
tomorrow, and they have a paycheck they need for their family, and they
don't have paid sick leave as part of their compensation package. That
is not part of their contractual deal with their employer. So they are
making that decision. Do I forgo a paycheck? Do I risk getting fired or
disciplined, or do I go to work even though I am not feeling well, even
though I have symptoms that I know are problematic?
They are facing those decisions tonight because we weren't here this
weekend, because a bill passed the House that had in it an answer for
many of those families--not all of those families--had guaranteed paid
sick leave for thousands and thousands of workers all across this
country who were waiting for that assurance that if they stayed home
with their child who is home from school or they decided to stay home
with the beginnings of symptoms that look like COVID-19, they would be
protected financially. That bill was ready for action here in the
Senate, and had we passed it on Saturday or Sunday, there would have
been thousands of parents, thousands of workers, who would have stayed
home today. But they didn't. They didn't.
I know this to be true. I know this to be true--that there were many,
many workers who went to work today even though they might not have
been feeling well, didn't stay home with their kids because they didn't
feel they could go without that paycheck. So this is about real-life,
minute-by-minute decisions that are being made by families in this
country.
I know sometimes it doesn't feel that important if we wait a day. I
know sometimes it feels like a bummer if we have to miss out on a
weekend. But not this weekend. Not today. These decisions that families
are making are fundamentally different if we do it a day ahead of time.
The epidemic has less of a chance at winning if we pass this
legislation tonight rather than tomorrow or Wednesday or Thursday. And
I worry about that because I have listened to some of my Republican
colleagues suggest over the last 24 hours that we are not going to pass
this bill, that we are going to change the bill, that we are going to
amend it and we are going to send it back to the House.
This bill is ready. It has bipartisan support. The President
announced on Friday night that he was for it. No reason to wait in
order to give our constituents some assurances, in order to make sure
they are making the right decisions for their family and for their
health and for all of our health rather than decisions necessary in
order to guarantee that next paycheck comes, which is essential--
essential--for their family's financial health.
Lastly, I just don't want to let the President of the United States
off the hook here. I watched yet another one of these press conferences
yesterday in which he once again sort of glossed over the gravity of
the moment, in which he hinted that young people didn't have as much to
worry about as older people, in which he once again savaged the press,
attacking them right at the moment when Americans are relying on the
media to give them information that is going to keep them safe.
I talked to several of my hospital leaders today, and they talked
about the fact that not only do they need personal protective
equipment--they are running out--not only do they need more
ventilators, but some of my hospitals don't even have the swabs
necessary to do the tests. That is not an issue today because they
can't get the tests processed, but once we get the testing capacity
ramped up, they are not sure they will have the swabs necessary to do
the tests.
It is just inexcusable that we got caught this unready. It is
inexcusable that many of us were sitting in a meeting with the
President's representatives in early February, begging for a
supplemental bill to be sent to the Senate and House then so that we
would be ready when the disease ramped up and were told by the
administration that they didn't need it, that they had enough
resources.
It is unacceptable that to this day, this President doesn't
understand the urgency of this crisis. This is a crisis of a pandemic
sweeping the country, but it is also a crisis of leadership. It is also
a crisis of leadership. And at the very least, we need to keep the heat
on this President to be accurate in his portrayal of the scope and the
danger of this national public health emergency, and on a daily basis,
he is failing even to just be honest with the American people.
I really hope that we get this done tomorrow. It doesn't look like we
are coming in tonight. For my constituents in Connecticut, they can't
wait another 24 hours, they can't wait another 48 hours to know whether
they are going to have at least some modicum of protection if they
choose to do the right thing by their family, do the right thing by
their health. We need to provide them that assurance, and we need to do
it immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am going to conclude for the sake of the
staff and yourself and others who are here, who, as I mentioned
earlier, are at risk. We are all at risk with this pandemic.
But just to summarize as quickly as I can, we returned this week when
we were supposed to be back in our States. We returned this week
because there was pressing legislative business. One of the items
before us, raised by Senator McConnell, the Republican leader, was the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. There are some
Senators who have questions and objections to the bill that passed the
House. Those Senators on the Republican side and on the Democratic side
came to the floor last Thursday and said: We will agree to an extension
of this law if you will give us a chance to actually debate our
concerns on the floor of the Senate. That request was rejected last
week by Senator McConnell.
So tonight we were going to have the showdown vote to see whether or
not we move forward on this, and, lo and behold, moments before that
vote, Senator McConnell agreed to what he refused to agree to last
Thursday. Yes, we will have a temporary extension, and we will have
debate and amendments before that extension expires.
So one of the reasons that we were drawn back to Washington, when we
were counseled by all the medical experts not to take unnecessary
airline flights, was for a matter that was resolved without a vote
tonight.
[[Page S1759]]
I came to the floor after that and said: If that is the case, then,
for goodness sakes, the only other remaining matter pending before us
is the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed by the House of
Representatives in the early hours of Saturday: free testing for
coronavirus, strengthening food assistance, safeguarding Medicaid
benefits, enhancing unemployment assistance, and establishing paid
leave. My request then was and still is, Why don't we pass that by
voice vote? Let's do it.
This was a measure agreed to on a bipartisan basis by Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. If the
two of them can come together and agree on it, are you telling me we
can't agree on it in the Senate? And if someone wants to vote no, so be
it. Place your vote on the record. But for some reason we are not going
to do that. We are going to sit around tonight and come back tomorrow.
Will we do it tomorrow? I don't know. But there is no sense of
urgency in the Senate, as there should be--first, for the people in
this country who are facing this virus and the disruption in their own
personal lives. Some of those people are losing jobs, and some are sick
and should stay away from their jobs. They want to know what this bill
says that passed the House of Representatives--that there is medical
leave for them if they are sick and can't work, and then, if they lose
their jobs, if there is going to be some assistance for their families
in this time of trouble. Those are reasonable requests by every family.
That is the highest priority. Why would we wait to take that up? Why
would we delay that decision and leave more uncertainty among the
people of Illinois and across America? There is no reason or excuse for
it. Let's get that done.
Secondly, this measure also says that we are going to continue to
work on a bipartisan basis to solve this problem. Let's take this up
tomorrow morning.
As was noted before, we raised, in the initial bill to deal with this
pandemic, the President's ask from $2 billion to $8 billion and did it
on a bipartisan basis to put the medical and healthcare resources to
work across America. We should and we did, and we did it with a minimum
of debate on a bipartisan basis.
This bill, the second bill in the package, should have been treated
exactly the same way. It should have moved through the Senate without
asking all the Senators to return, the staff to come here, the Capitol
Hill Police and others to protect us, and all the staff support that we
have. We didn't have to go through this. We should have done this.
If Senator McConnell and the Republican leadership would have reached
out, he would have found there was a lot of cooperation available on
our side of the aisle--again, on a bipartisan basis.
I don't disagree with what the Senator from Massachusetts said. There
is more to be done--a lot more to be done. We will discover it, and we
should move on it quickly. But for the time being, pass this bill. Tell
the American people we heard you and we know what we are up against,
and we are in it together, on a bipartisan basis.
Let's not dream up some way in the Senate rules to drag this out day
after weary day and expose one another to the virus that has been
rampantly crossing this country and threatening us every single day. We
need to do this work, get it done, and get it done quickly.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sullivan). The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I came here today from Connecticut,
where I have been to hospitals and local public health departments,
small and large businesses, places where healthcare is provided and
where the backbone of our economy is done. And I came here to vote. I
came here to vote on a package passed by an overwhelming bipartisan
majority in the House of Representatives.
That overwhelming bipartisan spirit should be what animates us as we
seek to save lives and livelihoods. We are literally on the cusp of an
existential crisis in this country that will transform the lives of
almost every American of almost every age and background and religious
creed. Yet, in the face of that crisis, we will have no vote tonight.
That is disgraceful. It is shameful.
In the course of traveling around Connecticut, I have visited
hospitals in Milford, Hartford, and in other places around the State
and local health departments and with local officials who have said to
me that there is still inadequate testing because the Federal
Government has still failed to fulfill its promise to provide that
testing.
There are fears that the surge of health cases as a result of
coronavirus will deplete the resources of hospitals and other
healthcare facilities because there are deficient numbers of ICUs and
ventilators, and still the Federal Government has failed to provide
them.
There is fear and anxiety about the future of our economy when
parents have to make decisions about whether to stay home now to take
care of their children because they are out of school or because their
family has one person who is ill from this virus, and they are all
quarantined.
Will they be able to pay their mortgages and put food on the table?
They are literally living from paycheck to paycheck. They are trying to
make it in real time, right now.
Likewise, I met this morning with small business owners and managers
who are fearful they will literally become insolvent, they will go
bankrupt, they will go under because they have insufficient resources
to weather this financial storm. They are receiving no revenue, but
they still have overhead expenses. If they are restaurants, they are
now, in effect, closed. If they are retail establishments, most people
are staying home. If they are small businesses, the backbone of the
economy in providing jobs, they are challenged and they have to make
real decisions in real time, right now.
The package that is available for us to vote on would provide relief
to those families and those businesses, to people who are anxious about
the future of their lives and livelihoods, who have to make those hard
decisions right now, tonight, about what they will do. It would provide
paid sick leave and emergency medical and family leave and strengthen
unemployment compensation, as well as tax credits. For our States, it
would provide a kind of expanded Medicaid support--$440 million for
Connecticut alone and hundreds of millions for other States around the
country.
We need to embark on that program of massive support and sweeping
international cooperation and unsparing truth telling about the
dimension of this crisis--no more magical thinking or happy talk. We
are about to see numbers soar, and, as Anthony Fauci said, we are about
to see Americans hunker down, as they must do, and, in that period,
what we have before us in legislation will mean, potentially, life and
death decisions. Time matters. Hours and days are profoundly
significant when families have to make these decisions. We can delay,
but it is to the ultimate profound damage of those lives, and we can
make a difference if we act now.
We could have acted by unanimous consent over the weekend. I am sorry
that the Senate went home and that there was no action. But we need to
act now--if not tonight, tomorrow morning. It should have been this
afternoon because the loss of time is a loss of opportunity that we
cannot afford.
The small business people who met with me this morning, the health
directors in New London and in other cities, such as Hartford, the
hospital administrators in Hartford and Milford, the local officials,
the mayors around the State of Connecticut, and the small business
community who were hosted today by the MetroHartford Alliance said to
me: We need action.
We have an obligation to act. We cannot allow time to pass without
action. We owe it to the people of Connecticut and the American people
that there be action to meet that surge and challenge for the
hospitals, to provide that assistance in grants, not just loans, in
this package and then in a next package.
There must be additional steps. I support the initiative that I
understand may be coming from Senator Schumer and others and join in
that initiative for hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to meet this
crisis on the homefront as well as in the economic arena.
[[Page S1760]]
Truth telling to the American people means recognizing the
extraordinary, unprecedented, historic magnitude of the challenge
before us. The scope and scale of potential suffering can be reduced.
We owe it to the American people to act. There is no excuse for delay.
The failure to act is unconscionable and inconceivable, given the
magnitude of the challenge but also given the resolute and resilient
spirit that I have seen across Connecticut. Whether it is with
Americans donating to people who need it--supplies and other kinds of
necessities--or the spirit of giving that I have seen among faith
leaders and public officials, the courage of police and firefighters
and emergency responders, and the dedication of healthcare providers,
whether it is in hospitals or clinics like Charter Oak in Hartford and
across Connecticut, everywhere that I have visited, I have seen that
American spirit coming forward--the great, positive spirit of America
and the ingenuity. That was the word that one of the small business
people this morning used to myself and David Griggs at the
MetroHartford Alliance. The ingenuity of meeting this challenge,
whether it is in research for new vaccines or devising new ways to
deliver the tests or providing for more ventilators and intensive care
units--that ingenuity is truly American. The dedication of those
healthcare givers, first responders, small business people, local
officials, and others around the State and around the country ought to
inspire us to do better and to take this vote and do our job.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________