[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 54 (Friday, March 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1870-S1872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. JONES. Mr. President, I appreciate the opportunity to speak today 
in the wake of what is going on.
  I appreciate my colleague from Tennessee talking about supply chains. 
I completely agree with her. It is something that we are going to have 
to seriously look at as we get through this process. We have become too 
dependent. I appreciate her efforts in that regard.
  I want to talk today--I know we have a lot going on up here. For 
those who are watching and the American people, you need to understand 
that while this Gallery may be empty and this floor may be empty, there 
is a lot going on in the Senate right now. There is a lot happening to 
try to make sure that we save this economy, that we do those things 
necessary to try to make sure our businesses, our workers, and our 
economy from all sectors are saved.
  Again, I want to go back to the thing you can do as Americans, and 
that is to stop the spread of this virus. Do social distancing. Do 
those things we have talked about now for several weeks to try to get 
folks to do their part because we are trying to do our part. We are 
doing this in an incredibly bipartisan effort. I think you will see a 
lot of things coming out of the Senate and out of the House, along with 
the administration, to try to make sure we do those things for 
Americans.
  Over the past few weeks, I have talked with countless business owners 
and local and State officials. I have heard from a lot of folks who are 
scared to death, working folks who are now at home. They are not 
telecommuting because their jobs are not like that. They are alarmed 
about where we are today and where we are going to be tomorrow and next 
week and over the coming weeks and even potentially months.
  Businesses are having to lay off folks. They are having to furlough 
workers, sending a surge of folks to the unemployment line. We have 
seen that in just the last few days, which is something that, as we 
were moving, we thought we would not see.
  Small businesses, like restaurants and Main Street retailers, will go 
bankrupt if we are not careful. They are going to go bankrupt without 
customers, as folks stay home and practice the social distancing that 
we know we have to do and as States start enacting forced closures of 
schools and events. Those businesses will shutter. Hopefully, it will 
only be a temporary shutting.
  First and foremost, there are steps we can all take to stop the 
spread of the virus and begin to get the economy on the right track. It 
is up to us individually. In the meantime, we, as Members of Congress 
and public officials across this country--from local county officials 
and city officials to the Governors and State legislators and Members 
of Congress--we have to do all we can to make sure our businesses, 
particularly the small businesses, which make up an overwhelming amount 
of business in the State of Alabama in particular, can continue to meet 
payroll and keep workers paid so that they can then continue to meet 
their obligations. That is where my proposal comes in that I talked to 
a number of colleagues about.
  In addition to providing the same kind of direct assistance payments 
that are being kicked around now--whether it is through checks or in 
some form or another that people are widely talking about right now--I 
would also like to see a new fund that is created to quickly get cash 
into the hands of small businesses so they can make their payroll and 
not have to lay off workers. I am calling this the small business 
lifeline fund. It would provide a no-interest bridge loan for up to 3 
months, to be paid back over 5 years with no interest. This is a work-
in-progress, so there are even proposals to make sure that this loan 
can be forgiven in certain circumstances. It could be administered 
through the Small Business Administration. It would offer loans up to 
75 percent of a business's last 3 months of payroll, with no one 
employee receiving more than $5,000.
  I want to repeat that because it would affect so many people in this 
country. It would offer loans up to 75 percent of a business's last 3 
months of payroll, with no one employee receiving more than $5,000 per 
month.
  The key to this fund is, it would pass directly through the payroll 
companies. Payroll companies around this country are used by about 40 
percent of American businesses. They mostly cater to the small 
businesses with fewer than 500 employees. Payroll companies are in the 
best position to do this because they already have the infrastructure 
in place. They are a smart choice because they have payroll history. 
They have the employee data that makes this quick. It makes it 
efficient. It uses the infrastructure and the pipelines that already 
exist without having to go back and reinvent or create a new whole set 
of dynamics that may or may not work. We know the payroll company 
system in this country works. Again, 40 percent of folks use it.
  This process would help to alleviate the strain on our unemployment 
program. It would be a seamless way to continue to pay workers, while 
also ensuring that payroll taxes can continue to fund important 
programs, like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
  I want you to think about this. What we are talking about doing is 
not just a one-time $1,000 check or two-time $1,000 check; it is 
literally funding payroll the way it exists--maybe only 75 percent of 
it. But people who are used to getting those payroll checks through a 
payroll processor have their taxes deducted, they have their Social 
Security deducted, and they have their Medicaid and Medicare expenses 
deducted. Those things would still come in. It is just that we have 
created a fund from the Federal Government to do that. Part of what we 
are fronting comes right back to the Federal Government.
  As part of this, we would also like to offer assistance to folks who 
are self-employed or run microbusinesses. According to IRS data, in 
2017, there were some 26 million sole proprietorships in the United 
States. That is a lot of folks out there working hard, hustling every 
day to make their businesses--their little piece of the American 
dream--successful, but they don't have the cash reserves to fall back 
on in times like these. We could carve this out and make sure they are 
taken care of in the short run.
  This is not the time, in my view, to shortchange the economy. This is 
not the time to send out just a check here and a check there--
especially for those who are the most vulnerable to the cataclysmic 
shocks we have seen in recent weeks. We have to be bold. We have to

[[Page S1871]]

be big. We need to act fast. We need to cut the bureaucracy. That is 
why using these payroll companies makes so much sense.
  Again, I want to emphasize that this is only one piece of this 
overall puzzle. It doesn't cover everyone. It will not cover folks in 
the gig economy. We have to do other things to make sure unemployment 
insurance and other things are available to them in a similar fashion. 
But this is a big piece of the puzzle that can get money directly to 
folks. Their wages can get to folks--their wages can get to them right 
now so that if we also have to do things like forbearance on mortgages 
and rents, we don't have to do it across the board because these folks 
will have the money to pay those mortgages and pay those rents and help 
those businesses stay afloat as well. The ripple effect of doing 
something like this, I believe, would be enormous.

  With this small business lifeline fund, we can send a message to 
folks on Main Street, who are the lifeblood of our communities. We can 
take this idea up and keep them afloat so they can get right back on 
track as soon as we get things back to normal.
  Right now, they need us. They need us in Congress. They need us at 
the local level, and they need us at the State level.
  I urge my colleagues to look at this very seriously--at this package 
that we are putting together and that we will, hopefully, get done in 
the next day or, hopefully, in hours--so we can all get back to our 
States and our families and do those things that are necessary. Keep in 
mind: I think folks will understand that whatever we do in the next day 
or so will only be the next step.
  I mean, I don't want anybody who is listening to anything any of us 
has to say to think that this is the end of it and that we are just 
going to finish our work and go home. We are going to have to monitor 
this constantly. We don't know what the future holds in some aspects. 
So we will be back, if necessary, and, if necessary, we will do things 
differently.
  There are two other things I want to mention before I yield the 
floor, one of which I have talked about with regard to my State for a 
long time, and that is the need for Medicaid expansion.
  Alabama is one of those few States--I think out of 14 or 15 States--
that did not expand Medicaid. As part of the package we are talking 
about now, we increase the Federal Government's portion of that and add 
additional Medicaid funds. For those States like Alabama, we will get 
the extra benefits for sure, but we will not get as much as we should 
because we will not have expanded Medicaid.
  Senator Warner and I have a bill. It is called the SAME Act, or the 
States Achieve Medicaid Expansion Act. It is not mandatory. It does not 
make the States that haven't achieved Medicaid expansion do that, but 
it gives them the same incentives they had a number of years ago. In a 
State like Alabama, some 300,000 people could get access to Medicaid 
who do not have insurance right now and cannot get it but who are 
wondering in our rural communities and everywhere in the State of 
Alabama: What in the world am I going to do if I catch this virus? 
Where am I going to go?
  Ultimately, with our hospitals, our doctors, and our safety nets that 
we are putting in as part of this package, we are going to have to 
cover it anyway. We all know that, sooner or later, we are going to 
have to cover it. So I would love to see the SAME Act, or the States 
Achieve Medicaid Expansion Act, get out there and be a part of this 
package. Let States have the opportunity. It is a States' rights issue. 
Not a single State would have to expand Medicaid if we pass this bill, 
but we would at least let those local leaders decide for themselves 
whether it would be time to give this opportunity to so many of the 
people in our States who are caught between Medicaid and jobs in which 
they are eligible for health insurance benefits. It would be a quick, 
easy way to make sure we are doing our part, and I urge that this be 
put in there.
  Finally, I have heard from so many people today who are in our 
underserved communities in Alabama--the African-American community, the 
poor communities in Alabama. The preachers are calling, and the mayors 
are calling. I have been on the phone all day because they are 
concerned. It is not just that they are concerned because they don't 
believe the State has them in mind, for I have talked to State 
officials in Alabama, and there are plans.
  The fact of the matter is that in this country, across the 50 States, 
we still don't have enough tests, and we don't have enough personal 
protection equipment for my hospitals, for my testing labs, and for 
everybody in Alabama. It is just like in every other State. We are 
hurting, and we need those supplies. We are giving them money, and the 
States are doing a good job. Yet I want to make sure that, in Alabama 
and across this country, we don't leave out the poorest of the poor; 
that we don't leave out the underserved communities; and that we just 
don't put testing facilities in the big, urban areas--at the mega 
churches or the big hospitals, like I have in Birmingham, which are 
awesome. We have to make sure that we have these clinics set up around 
the State, such as in the Black Belt of Alabama--the poorest of 
Alabama's counties--wherein people can't drive an hour and a half or 2 
hours to get tests. We have to make sure that we spread this out, 
because this disease is going to spread out. This disease is not just 
going to be concentrated in our urban areas. It is going to continue to 
spread.
  In these underserved areas in particular, families live together. 
Grandmothers take care of their grandchildren. Aunts and uncles take 
care of their nieces and nephews. They are all there together, and we 
have to figure out a way to protect them. We have to figure out a way 
to get those tests to them and to make sure that they are treated just 
as if they were part of our urban areas that have easier and ready 
access.

  I end with what I talked about the other day and with which I have 
ended so many of my talks, and that is back to the people of Alabama 
and the American people.
  I can assure you we are doing a lot up here. I see my friend from 
Alaska, who is presiding today. I know she has been working. I have 
watched her back here as she has worked the phones and talked to 
different people. Everywhere I go, I do see that Senators--most of us--
are doing things by phone and are doing things remotely. Everybody is 
working the phones back in their States to make sure we do the right 
thing.
  Yet, at the end of the day, this is about you. This is about the 
people of America. Everyone in this country--to use a phrase from the 
old civil rights days in Birmingham, AL--is a foot soldier in this 
movement. Everyone can do his part. We can appropriate money, and we 
can designate, and we can give tax breaks. We can do those things that 
are necessary that we as the Federal Government can do, but we can't 
stop the spread of this virus. A U.S. Senator cannot stop the spread of 
this virus. We can only stop it among ourselves. We can't stop it 
across this country. Only you can do that.
  Only the foot soldiers in America--the hundreds of millions of people 
we have in this country--can stop the spread of the virus by heeding 
the warnings and by doing the things that are necessary with social 
distancing and washing their hands. I think my hands are just about raw 
since I have washed them so much. We are the foot soldiers.
  You are the foot soldiers. You can stop the spread. The other day, 
when I was here on the floor, I pulled out a picture of my old friend 
from my childhood, Smokey Bear, who said that only you can prevent 
forest fires. I talked about the fact that the coronavirus, the COVID-
19 virus, is a forest fire across the country, and you can help to stop 
the spread.
  I want to be a little bit more patriotic about it today. I invoke one 
of my heroes who used this desk at one point, John F. Kennedy. It was 
59 years ago when John F. Kennedy was sworn in as President of the 
United States and uttered the famous words that sent such an emotion 
throughout America and that really got so many in this country to be 
patriotic and stand up for what we do.
  He said: ``Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can 
do for your country.''
  That is what all Americans have to ask themselves today: What can I 
do for my country?

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  It is not like a day when we have a tornado that has ripped through, 
and you can go out and get a chain saw and help your neighbor. It is 
not like a day when a hurricane has come through, and you can go get 
bottles of water and diapers to send to folks. What you can do for your 
country today is to stop the spread of this virus. What you can do for 
your country is to try to stay home as much as you can--social 
distancing. Work those things. That is what you can do for your 
country.
  If you do that, yes, businesses are going to have problems. We know 
it. That is what we are trying to work on--making sure we provide that 
safety net and making sure we provide the necessary tools so that, if 
we can blunt that curve--if we can get past this--then we will come 
back even stronger.
  To get there, we have to have you. We have to have you stand up and 
speak out to everyone--to do your part, to do those things that are 
necessary to make sure you do for your country what you should be 
doing. Help everyone in this country, and help everyone around you. 
When we do that, we will blunt this curve. We will make this the least 
severe as possible, and we will move forward and be stronger and better 
because, at the end of the day, we are the United States of America.
  I yield the floor.
  (Ms. MURKOWSKI assumed the Chair.)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). The majority leader.

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