[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 52 (Wednesday, March 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1786-S1787]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CORONAVIRUS
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, here in the Senate, we are continuing to
move forward with the next installment of coronavirus relief
legislation. I expect, later today, we will pass the bill that was
passed by the House earlier, and we are looking beyond it to a third
bill that will provide additional relief to the American people.
As the leader has said, we have three priorities: providing direct
assistance to American workers and families, many whose lives have been
disrupted and dislocated in jobs, who are feeling a lot of economic
harm, economic pain; giving our economy, especially our small
businesses, the necessary support with which to weather the storm; and
most importantly, providing medical professionals with the resources
they need in order to fight this virus. The House bill addresses these
priorities to some degree, but it is not a comprehensive bill, and
additional legislation is going to be needed.
We especially need to ensure that the worker benefit requirements the
House bill places on small businesses are accompanied by sufficient
support. Small businesses are at the most risk economically during this
time, and we need to ensure they have the resources they need to get
through this. I am looking forward to continuing to work with my
colleagues of both parties on the House bill and on additional
legislation.
This is a time for all of us to come together to ensure that medical
professionals, American businesses, and American families have what
they need to combat the coronavirus and to deal with its effects. I
can't think of a time at which we have seen schools and businesses
close on such a mass scale. It is a challenging time for our country,
but if we pull together, we can get through this and come out even
stronger.
All of us have roles to play in combating this virus--washing our
hands regularly and thoroughly, practicing social distancing, staying
at home as much as possible, listening to advice from healthcare
officials. All of these things are essential to our flattening the
curve and limiting the number of infected Americans.
It is vital that we keep as many people as possible from getting
infected so that our hospitals and medical professionals are not
overwhelmed with cases. Our medical professionals are putting their
lives on the line every day to care for coronavirus patients. Let's
make sure we do everything we can to keep the number of cases they are
dealing with as low as possible.
In difficult times, Americans rise to the occasion, and I am
confident that is what we will do again.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I walked outside across the Capitol
grounds, and it is such a beautiful day. The cherry blossom trees are
blooming. There were mothers with young children, 3- and 4-year-old
children, playing on the grass, and it seemed like just so idyllic, so
perfect. It seemed like nothing could be wrong in America.
But, in fact, so much is wrong in America. Our everyday rhythm of
life has been shattered. We are facing a medical pandemic and an
economic collapse: K-12 schools, closed; universities, shut down;
grocery stores, empty; restaurants, locked; gyms, movie theaters, music
venues, closed for business.
The reverberations of so many core businesses and core retail being
shut are affecting virtually every family and every small business
across this country. So many forms of commerce are grinding to a halt.
The economy is imploding, and it is touching the workers and it is
touching those small businesses. Workers are experiencing the reality
of reduced hours, lost shifts, layoffs; and they don't know when they
are going to be able to pick up that work again.
Then, they are not sure how they are going to pay their utilities.
How are they going to pay their rent? How are they going to pay their
mortgage? And when will America and the economy start to heal, and when
will they be able to go back to work?
So the American people are anxious and worried, rightly, about the
threat of the disease and worried, rightly, about the collapse of the
economy.
Coronavirus is marching on America. As of yesterday--or, actually, as
of this morning--we have almost 6,000 cases here in our United States
of America--5,881 cases as of this moment. Compare that to a week ago.
We are talking about 1,200 cases a week ago. That is a five-fold
increase in a week.
We now have more than 50 States affected--all the States, Puerto
Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Then, we can ponder the fact
that the number of deaths has gone up--51 deaths compared to in the
thirties a week ago.
So the coronavirus is marching on America and marching on the
economy. It is a double hammer affecting families and small business,
and it is particularly appropriate at this moment to share with all of
you the stories of small businesses in my home State that are being
impacted.
More than 40 businesses sent in their stories, and I am going to
share 6 or 7 of those stories. But as we think about how we proceed, we
need to recognize that this recovery needs to be one where we invest in
the foundation of our economy, we invest in the families, we invest
with sick leave, we invest with unemployment insurance, we invest by
covering the health costs of getting tests and the cost of getting
treatment, and we invest in our small businesses.
Not so long ago we had a bailout that favored big business, and big
business went on to make billions of dollars and then get a massive tax
break in 2017.
Right now, the airlines are asking for a $50 billion bailout, but
they have spent almost $50 billion in stock buyouts over the last few
years because they were so profitable. And why did they do stock
buyouts? Because it increased the value of the stock options of the
corporate executives in that industry.
This is a version of private gain and public pain. When a business
says, ``During the good times I will keep all that money; thank you
very much for not charging me any taxes to maintain our infrastructure
or our military or our medical care system, and then, when we hit a
hard time, we will ask to be bailed out''--so we will have
conversations about that strategy for big business.
How about, instead, we focus on the families and the pain they are
feeling, and focus on the small businesses and the challenges they are
facing?
We need a Main Street recovery, not a Wall Street bailout. We need an
economy rebuilt from the bottom up, not from Wall Street down--small
businesses, like Bargaritas, a small Mexican restaurant in Ontario, OR.
It is a great place for people to gather for a meal, and unlike nearby
fast food restaurants, they aren't known for their takeout.
But to combat the virus, the State of Oregon has shut down sit-down
restaurants and asked them to go to takeout only. Well, that is taking
a toll on Bargaritas. When a couple came recently in the door and sat
down for a meal, the restaurant staff had to explain that they could
make their meal for them, but they would have to make it to go. The
couple got up, and they didn't order to go. They walked out the door.
The owner of Bargaritas notes that they are just struggling to keep
their restaurant open, that business is not coming in enough to pay the
workers. So if things don't pick up quickly, he is going to have to
close and ask his employees to file for unemployment.
Or how about the Paddington family of stores in Ashland, OR, in
business since 1973? In recent years they have endured all kinds of
challenges, including a couple of summers in which wildfire smoke
created major challenges for the businesses in Ashland, OR. But things
were looking pretty good this year. Business was going OK.
Now, however, the owner says they ``felt [their] world crumble in
March with the threat of the coronavirus changing our world.'' They
have laid off eight staff members just this week. That is 30 percent of
their staff. In a single day, their sales dropped 50 percent. As things
are going now, they will need to lay off more staff within the next few
weeks if the business climate does not change.
And the story is much the same for the retailers throughout the town
of Ashland, OR.
[[Page S1787]]
The story is similar in Portland, where Betsy and Iya, a company that
has designed and manufactured jewelry for the past 12 years and
regularly employs about 17 workers, had to downsize. They had to ask
three of their workers to be let go
This is a business that has gone out of its way to promote other
local businesses, but sales have dropped off very quickly. I would
presume that in this sense of crisis, families are buying essentials,
and that means those in the jewelry industry are seeing their sales
drop. The sales have dropped very quickly, and they are seeing the
virus's huge economic impacts, and they are expecting to have to lay
off more people soon, and they are looking for help.
Ultrazone Laser Tag--now, you might think that, with folks being out
of work, they might go to a place to get some exercise and have some
recreation, and a sense of separation might be OK. Maybe laser tag
would see an upsurge in sales--not the case. Lee Sturman, of Ultrazone
Laser Tag, in Milwaukie says:
My name is Lee Sturman, and I am the owner of Ultrazone
Laser Tag, a family entertainment center Located in
Milwaukie, Oregon. As the founder, I have successfully
operated for 26 years. During this time, like all small
business owners, I have battled competitors and overcome
other challenging obstacles. On a level playing field, I have
managed to survive and thrive. But, unfortunately, my
business has been upended by an invasion of tiny microbes.
COVID-19 has struck fast and struck hard. In a matter of two
weeks, Ultrazone has gone from busy crowds to near emptiness.
Steve and Kristi Ball operate Basin Indoor Gardening in Klamath
Falls, OR. In response to the Klamath County Chamber of Commerce
collecting stories of the financial impact that COVID-19 is having on
local businesses, they submitted the following and appreciate the
opportunity to share, and I appreciate the fact that they responded and
are sharing. Steve and Kristi note:
[They have] owned a small retail business in downtown
Klamath Falls for nearly 11 years so have experience with
seasonal fluctuations and customer trends that affect the
cash flow and overall revenues of my store. Things have been
shockingly slow since the beginning of March but especially
this last week where customer traffic has almost halted.
Based on last years total for March and daily sales compared
to this years same time frame my store gross sales are down
to about 36% of normal, indicating 64% loss in revenues. I
hope this is a short lived situation and business can go back
to what is normal, more than a month like this will force
some difficult decisions for the future of my store.
April Severson of Portland writes:
I've owned my event production company for 20-years. My
business has always had it's ups and downs but this is the
first time I've had all of my contracts cancelled. I am the
sole employee of my company however, my cancelled contracts
have also cancelled the work for my associates and vendors in
audio-visual, entertainment, decor, furniture rentals, floral
and catering. Since most of my vendors are small and emerging
businesses as well this has had a spiraling effect on our
ability to pay for bills, insurance, mortgages and to take
care of our families.
Amy Baker is the owner of Thread Bare Press in Eugene, and she notes:
My screen printing business relies primarily on schools,
restaurants and events to keep our T-shirt presses running.
On Friday March 13th as the stock market tanked and major
cultural centers shut down across the country, I saw a third
of our monthly revenue vanish in one day. In the five days
since, my email inbox has remained empty as our client base
struggles to shore up their expenses. I have laid off half of
my six staff this week and have let the rest know that next
week they will temporarily not have a job. It's hard to feel
like so many people depend on me for their paychecks, let
alone my own children that depend on me for our own
livelihood. I have helped my staff apply for unemployment,
but there is no unemployment for business owners. We are a
small business that essentially lives week to week based on
our clients. In a perfect world there would be money to pay
my staff paid leave or savings to sustain myself while we
close our doors for what I estimate to be a month. However,
we are not in that position. What I'm hoping for is to ride
out this storm with forgiveness on my own bills and expenses
that will not get paid next month. I'll need emergency, low
interest capital to get back to work and bring my staff back
on.
Then we have all of our State's music venues, like Mississippi
Studios and the historic Liberty Theater in Astoria and the Ashland
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. All of them are in danger of going out
of business. With social distancing and prohibitions on large
gatherings and a sudden cancellation of musical acts, the venues are
experiencing a sudden and total loss of income.
Those stories are representative of things happening all over my
State and I know in every State of the United States of America. The
economy is imploding, and with each and every small business that can't
pay its bills, it affects other small businesses and other larger
businesses. It affects those who have rental housing and those who have
mortgages. All of us are going to be touched.
That is why it is going to be so important that we turn to this third
stage of response by the U.S. Senate. The first stage was to shore up
the healthcare industry. The second stage was some immediate help with
sick leave and unemployment insurance and food assistance and free
testing for the coronavirus. That bill inexplicably has been sitting
untended in this Chamber. Why aren't all 100 of us here debating it
before the American people and voting on it?
I am told now that maybe, possibly, the bill may come to the floor
this afternoon; that some deal will be worked out. Wouldn't it be
better that we actually be on the floor talking about it, discussing
it, and voting on amendments, if necessary? In a perfect world, I would
like to pass it just the way the House sent it to us and get it into
law immediately. The President has signed on, the House has signed on.
You have Republican leadership and Democratic leadership. Why is this
Chamber not acting?
Then we must immediately go to this broader strategy--the stimulus to
support our economy through this collapse to try to keep the collapse
from being as severe and shortening the period before it can be
restored. That period is going to depend a lot on how successful we are
at interrupting the course of this disease. That is why this is so
important--social distancing is so important. We have to stop the
disease from moving from one person to another. The disease is on the
march against America, and we have to interrupt it. We have to bring it
to a standstill.
Meanwhile, we have to help those families and businesses being so
profoundly affected across America. Let's rebuild this economy from the
bottom up, paying attention to the impact on families and the impact on
our small businesses. As John F. Kennedy once put it, ``In a time of
domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite
regardless of party or politics.'' That is what we did after 9/11. That
is exactly what must happen today.
Let us not be moved by the powerful and the wealthy to give yet more
wealth and power to them. Let us be moved by the fact that we are all
Americans in this together. Let us tend to the fundamental needs of
healthcare and housing and education and, most importantly, good jobs
as those jobs disappear across America.
Let's pay attention and work together to shore up small businesses
with low-interest loans and with grants to see them and their employees
through this difficult time.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia
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