[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 56 (Sunday, March 22, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1895-S1897]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MIDDLE CLASS HEALTH BENEFITS TAX REPEAL ACT OF 2019--Motion to
Proceed--Resumed
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.R. 748, which the
clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read the following:
A bill (H.R. 748) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 to repeal the excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored
health coverage.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Coronavirus
Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, in a few minutes, the majority leader
will begin a process that will permit the Senate to act for the third
time to deal with this unprecedented healthcare crisis that we are
facing. Our message to the American people is this: This is about your
paycheck. This is a collection of the best ideas that Democratic
Senators and Republican Senators have that we believe will generate
trillions in economic support that will, No. 1, keep payroll checks
coming; No. 2, relieve the financial burdens on Americans; and No. 3,
begin to contain this COVID-19 virus.
The legislation we will be voting on will contain about $1.7 trillion
in Federal spending, and it will authorize the Federal Reserve Board
and the Treasury Department to generate trillions more in liquidity and
credit support for companies of all kinds to try to keep payrolls
checks coming to workers.
In the end, the only way to end this crisis--and the only way to get
the American economy moving again--is to contain the disease. This will
require, as soon as possible, adopting a new goal. That goal should be
to test every American who needs it for COVID-19 as soon as possible,
and then isolate and care for the few who are sick and fast-track
treatments and vaccines so that Americans can go back to work and go
out to eat and resume a normal life again. This legislation will make
all COVID-19 tests free.
The government has shut down the economy to fight this disease, and
the government has to help pay the cost of the suffering that this
disease has caused, but the sooner we make more tests available and
stop telling Americans not to get a test, the better.
Just yesterday, a California company announced a 45-minute test that
could be taken in a doctor's office while also getting a flu test.
Expanding tests like this will do more to get the economy moving again
than spending trillions stabilizing businesses and supporting
employees.
Yesterday, I spoke with the chief executive officer of the company
that makes that test. This is a well-established company that makes
millions of flu tests. He said they could make 45,000 tests available
by the end of the month and 2 million tests by the end of June. More
instances of expansion of tests that you can get at the same time you
visit a doctor's office is what we need.
The legislation the Senate will be considering has three goals: one,
keep the payroll checks coming as much as possible; two, relieve
financial burdens on Americans; and, three, contain the disease.
Keeping the payroll checks coming means $300 billion for loans to
small businesses. If they use the loans to pay the wages, the loans
will be forgiven.
It authorizes the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department
to create trillions more in financial credit support for States,
cities, and large businesses so they will be able to stay in business
and pay their employees.
It expands the emergency paid sick and family leave passed by the
House and then the Senate last week--to workers who were laid off and
later rehired by their employers.
The second goal is to relieve the financial burden on Americans. That
section of the bill includes checks to individuals and families: $1,200
for individuals, $2,400 for a couple, and $500 for each eligible child.
Federal income taxes don't have to be filed until July 15. Estimated
taxes can be delayed until October 15. It will make it easier to use
retirement savings without penalty.
All student loan payments will be deferred for 6 months. There are 43
million Americans with student loans. There is priority on both sides
of the aisle for more Federal funding for State unemployment insurance
programs, so States can increase benefits, waive the waiting week, and
expand eligibility to self-employed and independent contractors.
There is money for block grants for States for K-12 education, for
higher education, and for children and families, including the child
care and development block grants, which will provide immediate
assistance to childcare centers.
Finally, containing the disease is the third goal. It makes all
COVID-19 tests free. There is nearly $100 billion for the public health
and social services emergency fund. That is at least $75 billion for
hospitals and $10.5 billion for accelerating diagnostics, treatments,
and vaccines.
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We are probably a few months away from a treatment for COVID-19. This
would accelerate the efforts that are being made now to determine if
these treatments work and if they are safe. We are even further away
from a vaccine, but if there is any way to accelerate that vaccine,
this $10 billion will help to do that.
There is another $1.7 billion for the strategic national stockpile,
which has the purpose of buying the equipment that our medical
personnel especially need; $4.5 billion for the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention for State and local preparedness and response
grants and to improve public health; $80 million for the Food and Drug
Administration, again, for diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines; $1.32
billion for community health centers. There are 1,400 centers with
12,000 sites. They are the hospitals for probably 28 or 30 million
Americans across this country. And there is $20 billion for veterans
healthcare.
The goal of the legislation we will be considering has these
objectives: keep the paychecks coming as much as possible, relieve
financial burdens on Americans, and, most importantly, contain the
disease.
Senator Thune mentioned that now one of our Members, Senator Paul of
Kentucky, has tested positive for the coronavirus. That reminds us of
what every family in this country is going through today and worrying
about. It also should remind us of the urgency of moving ahead.
We have been working together for several days with our counterparts
on the other side. This is a collection of ideas that will keep the
paychecks coming, relieve financial burdens, and contain the disease.
It is time to vote on it, approve it by a big margin, and send it to
the House of Representatives so we can intensify our efforts.
I yield the floor.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Unanimous Consent Agreement
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that
notwithstanding rule XXII, the cloture vote on the motion to proceed to
H.R. 748 occur at 6 p.m.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). The Senator from West Virginia.
Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I would like to just say a few words
about what we are going through and what we are experiencing. I can
only give you my experiences back home in West Virginia.
I have been on conference calls because we are social distancing, as
we all are. I have talked to the nurses' association, the medical
association, and the hospital association. The main concern we have
right now is of our medical providerships' being stable enough and
protected enough so, if need be, they can continue to take care of us.
Right now, they are scared to death because they are not getting the
protective equipment they need. They don't have the personal protection
equipment, such as the masks or the shields or the gowns--all of the
equipment that a first responder or a medical provider should have.
That is what we are fighting for right now. Also, we have rural
hospitals and rural clinics throughout all of America--West Virginia is
mostly all rural--and they are all scared to death that they are not
going to have the finances with which to stay afloat.
The proposal that we have right now, that they are working on--that
both sides are working on--is inadequate and insufficient. Mitch
McConnell's proposal falls short of delivering the protection the
medical providerships need. They talk about the economy and the
recovery of this economy, but we need to find a treatment for the virus
as we know it. For the people who do contract it, they will know they
have a treatment that can cure them, and then we must find a working
vaccine as quickly as possible. We have been told that this could take
12 months or longer.
The treatment is the most important thing, and protecting our
healthcare workers is the most important thing. Keeping our hospitals
and clinics and all medical providers vibrant right now and able to
survive this economic downturn is the first and foremost thing, and it
is the thing that didn't get the attention that we needed.
I am hoping that between now and before we vote, at 6 o'clock, the
two sides can come together. I implore of my colleagues on the
Republican side to basically express their concerns to their leader,
Mitch McConnell, that we need to have a balanced approach.
I am concerned about the economy. I am concerned about the workers.
Through no fault of their own, we have had workers throughout West
Virginia who have been laid off. They have done nothing wrong except to
have been in professions, basically, because of the health concerns of
our country, that had to lay them off. The businesses they worked for
had to stop--cease and desist. They had to stop. It was through no
fault of their own. Basically, for the health of this country, it was
best if they closed. These people have no control whatsoever over their
destinies except to ask: When can we get this thing cured? When do we
get ahead of this cycle, or ahead of the curve, so we may get back to
normal?
Wall Street will not return, I can assure you, no matter how much
money we throw at Wall Street. It is not going to have confidence built
into it is as long as the virus is out there without any type of a
treatment or a vaccine coming down the pike that is going to cure and
protect us. That is what this is all about.
Don't you think we should be putting the resources on the front end
to help these providers, to give some assurances to the American
public, to the people in West Virginia that we have found and we have a
treatment now that will work?
God forbid if you contract the disease, and the virus attacks you,
but we can help you. You are not going to perish from this. But with
that being said, it doesn't make any sense to me that--the proposal
that Leader McConnell from the Republican side has put forth is
absolutely, totally worried about Wall Street at this time.
I am worried about the people in rural West Virginia and all over
Main Street. Those are the people we are worried about, and Wall Street
is going to do just fine. It has always rebounded real well. They
always come back strong. But the market has to have stability to it and
it has to have confidence in it and the people have to have confidence.
So that is where we stand. Let's take care of the people whom we are
asking to take care of us if we need them. Let's take care of our
healthcare workers, our nurses, our first responders, all of our
doctors. Let's take care of the facilities that they are keeping open
for us, which is the hospitals and the clinics--everything that we
possibly can to protect them. Let's make sure that our workers and
these healthcare providers don't go down because if that system goes
down, I can assure you, you can't print enough money for Wall Street to
rebound. If the healthcare system in this country is not able to take
care of the people of America, that will not happen.
And if West Virginians can't count on our hospitals and clinics to
take care of them, and if the workers who work there--the nurses and
all of the different people who work within that system--aren't able to
go to work because they might have contracted the virus, we have done
nothing special to help them with their childcare and everything
because they will be working extraordinary hours. This is where our
emphasis should be right today. This is what we should be talking
about.
Yet we are miles apart now because Wall Street is not maybe taken
care of to the likes of what they would like. I can't understand it at
all. I really don't. I want them to succeed, and they will succeed. I
want them to have a generous loan program--not a gift but a loan
program--and I want to make sure that people who have lost their jobs
and the business has closed down due to no fault of their own have the
backing of this great country of ours and the government right here.
That is whom I am worried about.
The proposal that is on the table today does not do that. If we had
to
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vote today at this time, I would vote no, not to proceed. We will stay
here all night long. They are worried about what happens when the
markets open in the morning. We will work around the clock. I am fine.
I can stay here until 7, 8 o'clock. We can all work around the clock,
but there has to be a balanced approach and putting healthcare first.
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