[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 51 (Tuesday, March 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1772-S1773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CORONAVIRUS
Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, first of all, I want to thank the
staff here in the Senate. Even in these difficult times, they answer
the call of doing the work of the American people, and I want to
appreciate their being here so that the Senate can conduct its work.
They are essential to being able to do that. So I want to acknowledge
that.
I come to the floor today as our country grapples with a global
pandemic that, tragically, has claimed the lives of thousands of people
around the world, including dozens throughout the United States and
three in my home State of New Jersey.
I come to the floor because I hope that people understand the fierce
urgency of ``now''--the fierce urgency of ``now.'' This is a public
health crisis, and we can't wait to act.
The rapid spread of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, has
disrupted our daily lives. It has destabilized our economy and has
imposed an enormous strain on our healthcare system.
I think many failed to grasp the scope of this threat--the lack of a
national response just as the virus began to reach America's shores.
But I am not here to talk today about where the administration went
wrong; I am here to talk about how it can start making things right.
If there is anything we have learned in recent weeks, it is that you
have to be proactive. In the past week, the number of confirmed COVID-
19 cases here in the United States jumped from around 1,000 to well
over 4,000. While other countries were testing thousands of people, the
United States was testing mere dozens. While other countries were
staging makeshift hospitals, we were overloading ours. While other
countries implemented aggressive social distancing measures to limit
the spread of COVID-19, our government sent mixed signals to the
American people about the sacrifices they must make in order to save,
maybe, their lives and, if not, the lives of others.
State leaders like my own Governor, Phil Murphy, stepped in to fill
the leadership void. Earlier this week, he, along with the Governors of
New York and Connecticut, imposed new restrictions on restaurants,
shops, and other public gathering spaces. These are tough,
unquestionably, but we need every New Jerseyan, as well as every
American, to take Federal and State recommendations about social
distancing seriously, avoiding gatherings of more than 10 people,
washing your hands frequently, and if you feel sick, staying home and
calling your healthcare provider immediately.
We all need to be part of the solution or we can become part of the
statistics. We all need to be part of the solution. This is one time in
which we all must come together as Americans and be part of the
solution so that we are not part of the statistics.
Already families are feeling the impact, whether in lost wages,
smaller paychecks, school closures, restaurant curfews, or outright job
losses. That is why I am calling on the Senate to act today--today--on
legislation that will provide paid leave and unemployment assistance to
impacted workers, food assistance to children and seniors, more funding
for Medicaid. We cannot leave families alone to weather the storm.
We also need to do more to help restaurants and shops and other
businesses struggling with the economic fallout of the coronavirus from
mandatory curfews to supply chain shortages, to decreased demand for
their services. They need help. At the end of the day, we want them to
be able to survive the crisis in order to offer the employment that
will be necessary to revive the economy.
But we must remember that this is first and foremost a public health
crisis. The wealth of our Nation will ultimately depend on the health
of our Nation. Nothing economically will be solved without dealing with
the health of the American people, and we cannot ignore the demands
that COVID-19 will make on our healthcare sector and, especially,
hospitals in the days and weeks to come.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, has
projected that between 160 million and 214 million people could
contract COVID-19 in the United States and that between 2.4 million and
21 million of those infected could require hospitalization. As a means
of comparison, our hospital system has less than 1 million staffed
beds, which would be inadequate even under the CDC's most optimistic
projections.
Hospitals must also have the resources and equipment available to
treat the expected influx of patients. There is a significant concern
that the Nation's supply of mechanical respirators and ventilators is
inadequate to meet the exponential need we will likely experience in
the coming weeks and months. The latest data indicates that there may
be only 62,000 hospital ventilators in the entire nation. Even
[[Page S1773]]
if only half of those hospitalized require ventilation, our supply
would be wholly inadequate to fill the demand.
Healthcare workers also need protective gear to do their lifesaving
work without risking infection to themselves. Unfortunately, there have
been multiple reports of shortages of personal protective equipment
even during the opening days of this outbreak. Failure to protect our
healthcare workers and support staff would cause a cascading effect
that would cause our entire response to collapse.
Simply put, we need the Federal Government to step in and provide
real leadership. In the midst of a pandemic, State and local
governments should not be left on their own, scrambling to find or
purchase ventilators for patients, personal protective gear for
healthcare workers, and other critical medical supplies. The Federal
Government has a tremendous obligation and an opportunity to help save
lives by assisting State and local governments in locating resources,
using existing authorities to increase manufacturing of ventilators and
other critical equipment, and preparing for the staging of temporary
hospitals and beds, and more.
Let's look at military facilities that have been closed. There is one
in my State. Let's open them up. Let's construct MASH units. Let's not
wait. Let's rent out hotels that are closing. These are some of the
many actions that can be taken if we are decisive in our work. That is
why I am calling on the President to immediately exercise the powers
authorized by the Defense Production Act to defend the health and
safety of the American people in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
While the administration's response has so far lacked the energy this
crisis calls for, invoking the powers vested in the Defense Production
Act will enable the Federal Government to step up and take the types of
aggressive steps needed in this time of uncertainty. It is that act
that can give the Federal Government the power to say: We are going to
become your partner. We want to infuse massive amounts of money to
create the ventilators that we need, the personal protective gear that
we need, and if we can't get you to produce it, we are going to produce
it.
We need to use the power of the Federal Government to have the type
of response that this moment calls for, that this crisis calls for.
That is what government in its most significant moment is supposed to
be all about. That is really what the Federal Government is supposed to
be all about. What States cannot individually do or individual
communities cannot do, it is the power of the Federal Government that
can do it. We must be willing to mobilize that power.
It is time the United States of America live up to its history of
defeating extraordinary challenges and prevailing in the face of great
uncertainty. It is time to harness the ingenuity of our people, the
might of our manufacturing base, and the wisdom of our healthcare
experts to confront COVID-19 to protect our families and our
communities, to slow the spread of the virus so we don't overwhelm our
hospitals so that we can save lives.
I have seen some of the projections. I hope, for God's sake, they are
wrong. But we will lose many people unless we all take this seriously
and unless we act. This is a moment for action and to show the world
once again that there is no challenge too great for the American
people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.
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