[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 53 (Thursday, March 19, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1828-S1832]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PROVIDING EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND HEALTH CARE RESPONSE FOR
INDIVIDUALS, FAMILIES, AND BUSINESSES AFFECTED BY THE 2020 CORONAVIRUS
PANDEMIC
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, as our Nation confronts this health
crisis and the economic crisis it is spawning, Senate Republicans have
prepared a bold legislative proposal. I am officially introducing the
Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. This legislation
takes bold action on four major priorities that are extremely urgent
and very necessary: first, direct financial help for the American
people; second, rapid relief for small businesses and their employees;
third, significant steps to stabilize our economy and protect jobs; and
fourth, more support for the brave healthcare professionals and the
patients who are fighting the coronavirus on the frontlines.
Now, just yesterday, by an overwhelming vote, the Senate passed
bipartisan legislation that originated with the Democratic House of
Representatives. So I hope this bold, new proposal will find a similar
degree of bipartisan respect and mutual urgency on the other side of
the aisle and across the Capitol.
I look forward to working with our Democratic colleagues and the
administration to complete this important work and to deliver for our
country.
Here are the next steps. A group of my Republican colleagues is
standing by to explain this legislation and talk with the group's
counterparts: Chairman Crapo and Senator Toomey from the Committee on
Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Chairman Alexander from the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Chairman Grassley
and Senator Portman from the Committee on Finance; Chairman Rubio from
the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, as well as
Senator Collins; Chairman Wicker from the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation; and our majority whip, Senator Thune.
These will be our point people.
I invite all of their Democratic counterparts to join us at the table
tomorrow. These are urgent discussions. They need to happen at a Member
level, and they need to happen starting right now.
I might add that all Republican Senators, whether they are part of
this group that I just mentioned or not, have been asked to stay in
town. We are here. We are ready to act as soon as an agreement with our
colleagues across the aisle can be reached. The administration has
agreed to send the Secretary of the Treasury, the Director of the
National Economic Council, and the White House Director of Legislative
Affairs, and they will participate in these discussions, again,
beginning tomorrow.
These bipartisan discussions must begin immediately and continue with
urgency at the Member level until we have results. We know this
legislation will not be the last word. Bipartisan, bicameral talks are
already underway to act on the administration's request, in addition to
this, for a supplemental appropriation, but we need to take bold and
swift action as soon as possible.
We need to take further steps to continue addressing our Nation's
healthcare needs, and we need to help protect American workers,
families, and small businesses from this unique economic crisis that
threatens to worsen with every single day. We need to have the American
people's backs. This
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legislation is a significant next step, and the Senate is not going
anywhere until we take action. Our Republican colleagues are here. They
are in town. They are ready to act. We look forward to meeting with our
Democratic counterparts tomorrow.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, all 100 Senators are hearing from our
constituents about the urgency of our acting. If we aren't hearing
about the urgency of our acting, we are hearing about the questions
they have about the future economy, as they read about businesses being
in trouble, restaurants shutting down, and schools closing. All of
these decisions that have brought doubt to the minds of our
constituents have been caused by governmental action as a result of the
virus pandemic, the world health pandemic, that has been expressed.
We have to respond to that, and I think the leader has said how
urgently he takes the response that our constituents expect from us and
that we have a responsibility for taking action. This is an urgent time
for us.
As Americans continue to do their part to curb the spread of
coronavirus and the pandemic that it has been called, we are doing our
part here in the Senate to support Americans, and that includes their
families and their jobs.
Congress passed two bills quickly to step up the government's ability
to combat the virus and to provide greater security for families whose
incomes have been disrupted by containment efforts. Those two bills--
one signed just last night by the President--were very bipartisan in
these efforts. We need to continue that bipartisanship.
We are now working, as the leader just introduced, on a bold and
comprehensive effort to provide additional relief to Americans and our
economy in this challenging time, to respond to the anxiety that the
American people have that I previously said was caused by government--
and not just the Federal Government but State governments maybe in 50
different ways because of 50 different States and by many local
governments in different ways, as they felt they needed to take action.
I have already referred to shutting down restaurants, schools closing,
et cetera. That speaks to how it affects the individuals we are trying
to help.
I am chairman of the Finance Committee, as my colleagues know. I have
been working with my colleagues around the clock to find opportunities
in the Tax Code to reduce stress on American taxpayers and the
businesses that create the jobs and the businesses that are probably
closed now and their workers laid off.
Our small group of colleagues is working to help the American
taxpayers and the businesses so that jobs continue. We first adopted a
do-no-harm approach. We want to ensure that routine government
processes don't add to the strain that everybody has out there. We do
this by issuing recovery assistance to American families in the form of
checks that can go out the door in short order. These direct payments
could be as much as $1,200 for individuals, $2,400 for couples, with
additional assistance to families. Obviously, the purpose of this is to
provide immediate relief to folks who are facing cash flow problems in
their families as they stay home to stop the spread of this virus.
To avoid in-person meetings with tax preparers in the midst of the
pandemic, we are extending the tax filing deadline from April 15 to
July 15, and of course we all know that the administration has already
deferred collection of taxes until July or later. So this will help
families defer filing costs and avoid meetings that could put folks at
risk at this time of--who knows how far the effect of this virus is
going to be. The deadline for quarterly estimated tax payments will
also be postponed for 180 days.
We encourage those able to lend a financial hand by providing
additional deductions for charitable giving. This includes suspending
the deduction limitation for cash donations by individuals and easing
the limitation on donations of cash and food inventories by businesses.
Additionally, for those who do not itemize, a new deduction will be
available for everyone who gives, regardless of how you file your
taxes.
American businesses, as we know, are the engine of our economy, and
we stand ready to help them as well. American business men and women
are our job providers, and we need to make sure that they can keep
their doors open--or if those doors are closed today, to reopen them--
and that the payrolls they have going out to those individual workers
and families across the Nation can be maintained.
Our proposal includes items to improve cash flow and liquidity for
businesses of all sizes. Businesses, including the self-employed, will
be able to defer their quarterly tax estimates 180 days and their
employer Social Security tax payments through 2020.
We are going to increase the limit on interest deductibility. We will
speed up the recovery of the alternative minimum tax credits. We will
relax limitations on how companies use losses from previous years to
reduce their tax burdens.
These are just some of the many provisions in our proposal to
unburden businesses, particularly those that have liquidity problems,
so that they can keep employing those who are home with their families
and helping to prevent the spread of the virus.
I hope nobody tries to tell me or the rest of us that we are bailing
out business. We are in the job of preserving jobs. If those jobs have
been lost in the last 10 days because of this slowdown of the economy--
almost a shutdown of the economy--then we want those jobs to be brought
back. Workers are unemployed because of government's decisions--not the
employer's decision, not the employee's lack of hard work, but because
Federal, State, and local governments have stopped interaction among
people so that we don't spread this virus, and it is because of what
the World Health Organization has labeled a world health pandemic.
We don't see it as bad now as we do in Italy and other countries in
Europe. We hope we don't see it as bad as they have, but we just don't
know, and because we don't know, people have this anxiety. They don't
know about the future, and we ought to give some help to the future.
I described to you some of the things the Finance Committee is
working on.
I have also joined Senator Alexander and others to assist healthcare
workers and patients. This portion of the package includes several
Finance Committee provisions to help everyone fight the pandemic. For
example, we are adding additional flexibility to the health savings
accounts, bolstering telehealth services, and boosting Medicare
payments to healthcare providers.
We can contain this deadly virus without destroying livelihoods or
the Nation's economy, but right now, our constituents have doubt about
that, and this proposal the leader has put forth is to try to quiet
some of that anxiety.
These recommendations take bold steps to curb the economic fallout as
we work as a country to contain this pandemic. These proposals won't be
the end of the congressional response to the coronavirus. I think we
made clear that this is the third effort--two already signed by the
President of the United States--and there will probably be more. When
people want more than what is maybe here, there are going to be plenty
of opportunities for more.
I wish I could say we know by a certain date that this anxiety is
going to go away and we know this pandemic has slowed down enough that
we can go back to work and start interacting with our friends and
family to the same extent we always have and open up the restaurants.
I stand ready to continue identifying targeted relief as necessary to
help bridge the gap beyond this bill, but we need to take this next
step and do it quickly.
I want to thank Leader McConnell for convening our task forces to
quickly provide meaningful relief to families, individuals, and all
sectors of the economy.
The people I have been working with that I thank are Senators John
Thune, Rob Portman, Pat Toomey, Tim Scott, Tom Cotton, and Mitt Romney
for working with me on this package. Some of those Members are hard-
working Members of the Finance Committee, and some aren't on the
committee because we wanted as broad an opinion as we could get. I know
our staffs work literally around the clock, so I want to recognize
their efforts as well.
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So many Americans are working day and night to provide essential
services and efforts to combat this outbreak. We in Congress must be
prepared to do the same, and that is why you heard the leader a little
while ago saying that we are going to stay in until we get this job
done. We ought to applaud that type of leadership.
It is a commitment to keep the Senate open until we have done our
part, and I look forward to working with Democrats and the
administration to get this job done without delay. So maybe, if we work
hard Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we can get a bill to the President
next week. Nobody should be going home until we have delivered this
needed relief.
We often spoke in World War II about the United States being the
arsenal of democracy. I still remember--I was only 9 years old--
December 7, 1941. And then I remember studying history and how we
ramped up production for the war effort. Can we ramp up production of
the respirators, protective gear, and testing kits we need? Can we do
it on the same scale we did in World War II--a scale that can help us
overcome this crisis?
I suppose you all remember the cry of ``Remember Pearl Harbor'' to
help us pull the country together to win that war. Can we think of
``Remember coronavirus'' as an effort to pull this country together?
Because in those times, I remember we all pulled together to--let's
say, just one example--we all prided ourselves in planning what we
called victory gardens. We did it in unison, as we sought to defeat the
Axis powers. Can we pull together in the same way to slow the spread of
COVID-19 until our healthcare system catches up with something we never
anticipated, never could plan for?
I think this is a test of America's character, just like it was a
test of our character in World War II to pull together.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
Mr. SCHUMER. Thank you, Mr. President. I am glad now that the
Republican leader and his caucus now have a plan, and we look forward
to working with them to come up with a bipartisan product as soon as we
can, as this crisis grows worse every day.
We believe we need a bold plan, a strong plan. Our plan must put
workers--the millions of workers who are adversely affected by this
crisis--first. It includes service and industry workers, gig workers,
freelancers, bartenders, retail workers, airline attendants, and so
many others.
Our plan is entitled ``Workers First''--first and foremost. We owe so
much gratitude to the hard-working people of America, and many of them
are in trouble now through no fault of their own. This virus has
affected some of them, has required others to be quarantined, and has
caused businesses to lay off millions. We must protect them, first and
foremost.
So our plan has five basic pillars. Pillar 1 is to bolster the
healthcare system dramatically. If we don't beat the fight against this
virus, if we don't do it as quickly as possible, the economy will get
worse and worse, no matter what we do. So we must work extremely
quickly and massively to bolster our healthcare system. We need a
Marshall Plan for our healthcare system, and that is what we propose.
We need direct aid to hospitals. The larger hospitals in many cities
already have patients--many patients--in their beds. The smaller and
rural hospitals could well be in danger of closing because of this
crisis. We must bolster the hospitals. They need equipment. They need
ventilators. They need more ICU beds. They need masks. A simple thing
like a nose swab--a hospital told me that they can't do testing because
they don't have the nasal swabs. And we need the President to marshal
the Defense Production Act to get all of these materials produced on a
wartime footing--quickly, dramatically, and in large numbers.
The first plank of our plan dramatically bolsters our healthcare
system, which is being overwhelmed through no fault of the hard-working
people there in this crisis, and it entails so much. Healthcare workers
have to be able to get to the hospitals, to the nursing homes, to the
other areas. In many places, they can't if there isn't the kind of
public transit available or it is not working.
The second part of our plan deals directly with those who have lost
income through no fault of their own. It is a dramatic bolstering of
unemployment insurance. We call it ``unemployment insurance on
steroids,'' or you might even call it ``employment insurance.''
If a worker loses his or her job through no fault of their own right
now, unemployment insurance doesn't cover a whole lot of people. When
it does, it doesn't pay them much in terms of salary, in terms of the
percentage of income, and it is often hard to get and takes a long
time. Our ``unemployment on steroids''--our employment insurance--
provides a full amount of the wages that workers are not being paid,
not 20 percent or 50 percent. People desperately need it. They
desperately need it.
It is quick and easy to apply for, without all of these hurdles that
are now put in the way, and it applies to many more workers than in the
past. We have talked to business owners--large, medium, and small. For
many of them this is the No. 1 thing they need. While they can't keep
their workers on the payroll because no money is coming in, these
workers will still be there. They will be furloughed. They will be
getting a full salary, and when the businesses come back, they will be
back.
The third part of our plan is for paid leave. We must have paid
family leave. We must have paid sick leave. COVID 2 did some of that,
but too many people are not covered and too many people are not covered
in a strong, longer term way. Senators Murray and Gillibrand, working
with the House, have put together a very strong package. We must have
it in this proposal.
Fourth, I believe--no one has seen the proposal. I haven't seen it,
and I don't think anyone has seen the proposal that the leader put on.
It had virtually no input from Democrats, but we will look at it and
read it tonight. From what I am told, it provides a bailout for a
number of industries. Again, we have to put the workers first. We don't
want these industries to go under, but we certainly don't want the
dollars that are put there to go to corporate executives or
shareholders. Again, they must go to the workers first. If they are
getting a bailout, they should not cut the numbers of workers, the
salaries of workers, the benefits of workers, or the pensions of
workers.
None of this money should be used for corporate buybacks. I am
outraged that the airline industry in the last 5 years spent about $40
billion on buybacks. They are now saying they don't have enough money.
Had they not sent the money to the shareholders and had it there or
used it to bolster their workforces, that might not have happened. Nor
should the money go to corporate salaries or corporate gain.
Part four of our plan says no bailout that goes to the people at the
top. The money should go to the workers. After all, that is who we want
to protect. Every one of us knows the workers in these industries. They
are hard-working, decent, honorable people.
Fifth is help for small business. Small business has suffered--the
little restaurant, maybe it is the small manufacturing business, or
maybe it is a little service business. They need help. Their employees,
should they have to furlough them, will be taken care of by our
employment insurance, but they still have other costs. We have called
for forbearance in mortgages. That is a big cost that they will
continue to maintain if they rent space. But they will need help with
other costs, and we provide them money for those costs, with the view
that the money--those loans--could be forgiven if they rehire all of
their workers once they are back on their feet.
So there are five points, and I know that the Speaker of the House
agrees with these points, the House Democrats agree with these points,
and, unfortunately, the leader didn't want them included in
negotiations, which could only prolong the length of time before we
act. But so be it.
No. 1, a Marshall Plan for our healthcare system and our hospitals.
No. 2, employment insurance--you lose your job, you get your pay. No.
3, paid leave--paid family leave, paid sick leave. No. 4, any bailouts
must be workers first. And, No. 5, help for small businesses.
We need to act quickly. We need to act in a bipartisan way. I hope
the discussions between the various members
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of the committees will proceed quickly and in a spirit of compromise,
and I hope we can come to quick agreement with the House, whose
majority's views are much closer to ours than this document, which I
haven't read, but I have heard things about. I haven't seen it.
This is a crisis like none we have seen. We don't know how long it
will last. We don't know how many people will be affected. We do know
it is getting worse every day, and we know also that, while Americans
usually come together after a crisis--we all certainly do, as we did
after 9/11--we now must be isolated. But we will prevail. We will
prevail. We will work together. Hopefully, each side will give. We will
come up with a good plan. We will send it to the President, and we will
help to begin the long path to eradicate this awful virus that has so
afflicted so many millions of Americans, one way or another
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. WICKER. Mr. President, I agree with so much of what the
distinguished Democratic leader has just said. I was coming from one
building to the other when the distinguished Senator from Iowa was
speaking, but I know he was making the point that I would make at this
time, too.
If the distinguished Democratic leader wants to call this a Marshall
Plan for the coronavirus crisis, I will subscribe to it. I think it is
that serious.
I agree with what the Democratic leader said about this economic
crisis. It is something like we have never seen before, and it calls
for dramatic action. I think that is what the majority leader, Senator
McConnell, has proposed.
I agree with this from my friend from New York--that when we try to
rescue the large corporations, we need to put workers first and not be
concerned about the CEOs and the executives. We need to take care of
small business.
So let's do a Marshall Plan, and let's do it on a bipartisan basis,
as Americans, because this economic crisis knows no party.
You know, in some instances, when there is a crisis we are told to
carry on, and, in this case, that really isn't what the healthcare
professionals have told Americans to do. Americans have been told and
people around the world have been told: Stay at home; don't congregate.
That is the way our economy operates.
So Americans are doing what they have been asked to do. We are not
flying. We are not staying in hotels. Occupancy is down to single
digits. Restaurants are closed. Stores are closed. Americans are
keeping their children home from school. Schools are not opening in
most areas. Again, the American people are acting responsibly,
according to what they have been told to do by health professionals.
The public is taking guidance, and this is having an enormous toll on
our economy.
We hope the virus will end soon, but we need a rescue package. I am
happy to join the distinguished Democratic leader in calling it a
Marshall Plan, he would like to.
The American people bear no responsibility for this act of nature--
this act of God--that has overtaken much of the globe.
So I have come here today just to say that I have been honored to
participate in the drafting of what Senator McConnell, the
distinguished majority leader, has rolled out today--the Coronavirus
Economic Stabilization Act.
I was part of a task force that the distinguished majority leader
asked us to work on. That task force dealt with the airline industry.
It consisted of Chairman Shelby and Majority Whip Thune. We were happy
to develop a plan that involves $208 billion, giving the Secretary of
the Treasury the ability to provide loans and loan guarantees to
eligible businesses that are enduring financial hardship, including the
domestic airlines, including the domestic cargo carriers, if they can
make the case that there is a hardship there.
During this time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, it is
critical that the airlines and other impacted industries have the
resources they need to continue operations vital to the transportation
of passengers and supplies, including food and medical equipment. The
plan that I participated in drafting, which the distinguished majority
leader put forward today, would prohibit the Federal funds from being
used to increase compensation or provide golden parachutes or that sort
of thing for the leaders of these distressed companies.
So, again, I subscribe to what Senator Schumer said: Protect the
workers. This is no bailout. These are loans that we expect to be paid
back when times are flush again.
This legislation would take an important step in putting our economy
back on track for the American people. A great deal of work has gone
into the draft, and much work is going to be required in the future--
tonight, tomorrow, tomorrow night, Saturday, and Sunday. We are in the
midst of severe economic crisis, and I am determined to work, on a
bipartisan basis, with people like my friend who just spoke, and with
Senator Cantwell of Washington, my distinguished ranking member. We
have penciled in 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. I have already been on the
phone with her, and we are going to be dealing with the legislation
under the jurisdiction of our committee, the Commerce Committee, and I
think we are going to be able to work as we have on so many other
issues--as Americans, not as Republicans and Democrats--as teammates
rising to the occasion and answering this crisis as Americans have done
so many times in the past.
So I simply rise today to say: This is a time for us to come together
as patriots, as Americans, and take on the task that is before us. I
look forward to a hard weekend of work and a product that all Americans
can be proud of.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered
Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, we, in this profession, have a tendency to
hyperbole, meaning a tendency to stand sometimes and talk about how
dramatic a decision we are about to make is or how important something
is to the country because that is what we do, and it is sort of one of
the tools of this trade.
I think this is not a time in which it is possible to exaggerate the
impact of what we are confronting. I start by saying I think it is a
moment that should instill in all of us extraordinary humility and a
reminder that we are still mortal beings who cannot and do not control
all that happens in our lives or in the world.
We are facing a threat that emerges not from a human decision or
behavior but a threat that emerges from the scientific world, the
biological world, and one that I think we are blessed to live in a
modern time, in which technology allows us to solve problems faster,
but oftentimes our advances cannot prevent these things.
I think of the time when there will be plenty to look back at--the
decisions that were made by governments, by foreign governments, and by
officials. Like all things, there will come a moment of accounting when
we can decide what was done wrong and what was done right so we can
learn from what was done wrong and replicate what was done right. We
can learn from the past, but we cannot change it.
The one thing we can influence is the future. You can't entirely
control it, but we can influence it. We can influence what we do from
this moment forward. And when it comes to this pandemic, we can
influence not that it is here but how long it lasts and how impactful
it will be.
One of the real-world impacts of the crisis that now confronts us is
the impact it is having on jobs. We use that term loosely in politics
all the time: ``Jobs.'' We want to create jobs. We value jobs. It is
about having more jobs. I think sometimes we overlook the strong,
emotional, and psychological impact of jobs, of the fact that someone
wakes up in the morning and has somewhere to go, where they are
productive, and they are rewarded fairly for their productivity. It
gives purpose to your days. It gives meaning. It gives value. It is why
the absence of jobs is so toxic and damaging not just to the spirit but
ultimately to the community and then to the country. It is a
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situation we have learned in ordinary times, and these are not ordinary
times.
We are watching a pace of job loss at this very moment that is
unprecedented, even in some of the deepest economic downturns that
modern man has ever confronted. There is not a single person who serves
in the Senate, works in this building, or, I would argue, in our entire
society who does not know someone who in the last 4 or 5 days has been
told that they no longer have a job. Think about that for a moment.
People who 10 days ago had a job in an economy that by all traditional
standards was doing very well and now have been told that they do not
have a job. The people they used to work for may no longer exist, and
there is no certainty about outcomes even when this ends. It is
impossible to exaggerate that.
What we are learning through this crisis is what we all have said we
know but are now realizing how much it is true, and that is, how many
of the jobs in this country are the result of a small business and not
of the companies whose stories are featured in a magazine or a
newspaper article. It is the ones we drive by every single day--the
laundromat, the dry cleaners, the coin cleaners, the bakeries, the
coffee shops, and everything in between--hundreds of thousands of jobs
in every community that depend on their very existence, and they are
disappearing right before our eyes. It is not because they did anything
wrong but because government has had to tell them, for the reasons of
public health that I agree with, not only that we cannot go there but
that their workers can't go there, and in many jurisdictions, they
cannot even show up. So the urgency to address this, I believe, needs
no convincing.
We have, as a starting point, developed a plan that I think will
help, that will do what we can, and I want to briefly describe it. The
plan is basically this: We need to get money into the hands of small
business across this country as quickly as possible so they can keep
the workers they have on payroll for as long as possible. We aim for at
least 4, 5, or 6 weeks. This is important because if you have already
been told you can't leave your home, and you have already been told you
can't go anywhere, and then to also be told: And by the way, you have
no job, and there is no guarantee that there is a job for you to go
back to when this all ends, the trauma is extraordinary. That is what
millions of people are facing by the second.
These are not job losses that are happening by the week or by the
month; they are by the second. Right now, somewhere in America, someone
is being told: We are closing, and you have no job. And tomorrow will
be the last time you will get a paycheck for the foreseeable future.
So our plan, ideally, would involve the following: Small businesses
will be able to go to a bank in their community. Ideally, in a perfect
world, it would be the bank they normally use, the bank they bank with.
Then they will very quickly--and I am not talking about in a matter of
weeks; I am talking about in a matter of hours and days--receive an
infusion of cash, equivalent to about roughly four times their monthly
expenses on payroll and on rent and things of that nature. And then a
year from now, those businesses, if they can show that they used that
money to keep everyone on staff and hired that was working for them
before this all started and paid them what they were paying them, that
money will be forgiven. It will not be a loan.
The important point to make about this is--I am not talking about an
SBA loan. I am not talking about going to a government building
somewhere or a tent in a disaster zone and filling out a bunch of
paperwork. I am talking about going to a financial institution,
preferably the one that you normally use, filling out a few quick
documents to prove that you are a business, and receiving a cash
infusion directly into your account that you can use to meet payroll
for the next 3, 4, 5, or 6 weeks, and we have a plan that does it.
Now, on this matter, we are blessed to have partners in this endeavor
like Senator Cardin and others on the Small Business Committee who are
not only some of the hardest working and easiest people to work with on
these matters, but whom we have been working with on these matters,
along with our House counterparts, for a couple of weeks. Except for a
couple of weeks ago, we could never have envisioned how widespread and
how serious this dilemma would become.
We don't have an agreement at this very moment, but I do believe that
on the general concepts--I speak for no one but myself, but it is my
impression that on the general outlines of what we are trying to
achieve, there is substantial agreement.
So we have some work to do. I will be in the Senate and here in
Washington, DC, around the clock until we get this done because, as I
said at the outset, millions upon millions of families and their
immediate and long-term futures are being determined by what we do or
fail to do. Rarely, if ever, do we truly confront issues in the Senate
of that importance.
I will close with this: It is hard to remove politics from politics.
It is hard to ask politicians not to be political. It is tempting to
use even situations such as these for the snide remark and the potshot,
and I imagine you can never fully remove it. I would only say this: If
we don't address these issues that are before us and do so rapidly,
those potshots will appear trivial in comparison. If we don't address
the challenges that are before this country now, no one can tell you
what the future looks like because no one alive today has ever been
there, ever.
Anyone who believes that what I am saying is an exaggeration, what
was life like in America a week ago today? What does it look like now?
If this pace continues, what will it look like 5 days from now or 10
days from now? We don't know, but it will be traumatic and potentially
catastrophic, so we must act. We will have plenty of other issues and
plenty of days and weeks and months ahead to bicker about the political
issue of the day and to take shots at our opponents.
Now is no time for games. We are facing the abyss. We are facing
circumstances for which there is no playbook, for which there is no
precedent, and for which there is no way to predict what happens to a
society when you tell millions of people they can't work, they cannot
leave their homes, and we cannot tell you how you will make a living
now or for the immediate future.
This is no time for games. This is a time for those of us who are
here to be here and to work through this as quickly as possible, or we
will all pay the price, and we will all face those consequences. They
are so grave, so unspeakable, and so unimaginable that I cannot believe
that we will not be able to do so and act quickly, swiftly, and
effectively. I look forward to making strong progress.
Our people need some hope. Our people need to believe that their
institutions in a moment of crisis can still work. We have a chance to
do our part to instill at least that little bit of confidence at a time
of extraordinary uncertainty.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, I want to
particularly thank the senior Senator from Florida for the
extraordinary contribution he is making as we move toward completion of
this rescue package
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