[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

[[Page S1754]]

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

[[Page S1755]]

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

[[Page S1756]]

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.

[[Page S1757]]

  

  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.

                          ____________________