[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 54 (Friday, March 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S1863]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SENATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, I want to associate myself with the remarks 
of the leader. I want to thank him for all of his efforts to pull these 
task forces together who are now working across the aisle to come up 
with this package that we should be able to start working on today or 
tomorrow.
  I appreciate his comments that we are going to work through the 
weekend. This is unusual for the Senate and for the House, but the 
Senate is here, the Senate is working, and we are trying to come up 
with solutions that will keep America moving.
  I particularly want to talk about one piece of the package because I 
have been getting calls from small businesses--small businesses that 
are saying: We have been shut down; we have been told that we can't do 
anything with our business right now.
  Now, it is not all businesses. I do know that grocery stores are 
doing very well, probably having their best year ever. That will tail 
off a little later in the year, when people are oversupplied, but right 
now grocery stores are probably doing well.
  Every other part of the economy is doing poorly, whether it is 
restaurants or shoe stores. I think I saw where they even got 
permission now to deliver liquor. Before, you had to buy it in the 
store. You couldn't get it delivered to your house. But, it is a 
concession, because of the difficulty that we are having, to keep from 
shutting down every business. That concession has been made in some 
places now.
  But my point is that small business employs most of the people in 
this country, and small business is the one that is having difficulty 
right now. Big businesses always have a little bit of leeway, a little 
bit more of a forward plan, and because of their size, they have more 
flexibility. A small business does not have that.
  What has been brought to my attention this last week are people who 
have payroll coming up. They have said: Now, we have been kind of shut 
down--shut down by the government, they like to say, but it is shut 
down by the virus, actually. The virus is what is creating this panic, 
and in order to keep people well, we have suggested all these different 
things that people ought to be doing, and I hope they are following 
that.
  But, for small business, this is disastrous. If they are not selling 
anything, they have no cash to pay their employees. If they are not 
selling anything, they don't need the employees. If they don't need the 
employees and they fire the employees, then, they go onto unemployment. 
And the unemployment lines are long.
  That is not where we want people. We want people--particularly the 
ones who are trained for a particular job--to be available for that job 
the minute that job is available again.
  One of these packages takes care of that situation. One package will 
provide for loans to small businesses, provided they keep their people 
on.
  Now, remember, these people aren't producing anything. So there is no 
revenue coming in to pay that loan off. So it also provides that, 
provided they keep their employees and when the thing is over they 
still have their employees, the payroll part of that and any immediate 
need--there are other things that they absolutely have to pay. They 
have to pay their rent, or somebody else has a financial problem. They 
have to pay for the electricity and the heat and all of the regular 
things that a business has to pay for, besides employees. But, provided 
they have kept those employees on, those direct costs will be forgiven. 
So that is encouragement for every small business out there to relax a 
little bit.
  I always say that the definition of a small business is when the 
owner wakes up in the middle of the night and says: Tomorrow is 
payroll. How am I going to make payroll?
  Believe you me. That happens to those small business men out there. 
If you have a bad week, who doesn't get paid? The owner doesn't get 
paid. He has to pay those people, and he does pay those people because 
he wants those people around.
  That is the crisis we are facing: How do we keep those people around 
so that, when the business comes back, they are available and the 
business can go forward as it did in the past?
  This package will do that. I only wish that there was some way we 
could do it faster than Monday. And don't hold your breath. We are 
talking about Congress. That doesn't mean things will get done by 
Monday. They ought to be done today, but Monday looks like the earliest 
possible time that they can get done.
  So the message that I am giving is this: Small business men, hang on. 
Hang on a little bit longer. If this passes, you will be able to keep 
your employees.
  Their employees will be paid. That is important. That is the way to 
get money out into the economy: Pay employees, and let them keep their 
health insurance that way. If they go onto unemployment, they lose 
their health insurance. We don't want that to happen either
  So this is the solution that needs to happen right away for the 
employees, as well as the employers. I had a call from one this week 
who said: I have to declare bankruptcy. If you do something, will I not 
be eligible because I declared bankruptcy? It is a reorganization 
bankruptcy, but I need to reorganize so I can find the cash to pay my 
employees.
  So I am pretty sure that the bill has a stipulation in it that, if 
you declare bankruptcy after March 1, you will be eligible for this 
plan and be able to keep your business going--not in a comfortable 
situation, because none of us knows when this is all going to be over. 
None of us knows what the residual effects are going to be on the 
business world.
  But we do need to have a vibrant business world out there providing 
for the needs of people. We have really become reliant on others. 
Hardly any of us produce our own food anymore. Hardly any of us produce 
anything that we use anymore.
  We could and we can--and people probably are--just get by, but that 
is not what we are used to. That is not what we expect. That is not how 
we live. That is not how we enjoy life. We enjoy it by being able to 
have a job and buy the things that we need to have and do the 
recreation that we want to do.
  So I am hoping that this package can go through in an expedited way, 
and I am particularly hopeful that the small business part, which is 
where most of the people in the United States work, can go through so 
that they can be paid, so that they can keep their insurance, and so 
that they are ready to do what they have been trained to do and want to 
do and like to do when the time comes that this virus has passed and 
people can be out there doing all of the things that they like to do 
again.
  So I encourage the small business men to hold on. Help is coming. 
That is pretty tough to hear from Congress, I am sure, but this is one 
where I think people are realizing the severity and the importance of 
speed and how many people there are. Well, I don't think we have quite 
grasped how many people yet are involved in this and could be saved by 
this, but we will.
  I ask that the businesses hang on while we do our job, and I thank 
the Senate for staying through the weekend to work this problem so that 
we can do it in a timely manner--hopefully, by Monday.
  Hang on out there, America. Help is on the way.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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