[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 57 (Monday, March 23, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1919-S1920]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the eyes of the Nation are on the 
Senate. For days now, we have been engaged in intense, bipartisan talks 
to build emergency relief legislation on a historic scale, to push 
resources to our healthcare heroes and American workers and families.
  Democrats and Republicans sat down together. We crafted this version 
of a proposal together. This compromise package would push tens of 
billions of dollars to hospitals and healthcare providers. It would 
send direct checks to millions of American households--direct checks. 
It would massively expand unemployment insurance in this crisis. It 
would stabilize industries to prevent mass layoffs. And, crucially, it 
would deliver historic relief to small businesses to help Main Street 
employees from being totally crushed--crushed--by this pandemic.
  But, yesterday, when the time came to vote on these urgent measures, 
our Democratic colleagues chose to block it. So why are the American 
people still waiting? It is a good question to ask. I hear the markets 
are not doing well today. They would like to ask the question of us: 
Why not move? Why are Democrats filibustering the bipartisan bill they 
helped write?
  It is an appropriate question to ask this morning as the country 
waits on us. So let me give the American people a taste of the 
outstanding issues we woke up to this morning. Here are some of the 
items on the Democratic wish list over which they chose to block this 
legislation last night: tax credits for solar energy and wind energy, 
provisions to force employers to give special new treatment to Big 
Labor, and--listen to this--new emissions standards for the airlines.
  Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that 
have nothing whatsoever to do with this crisis? That is what they are 
up to over there. The American people need to know it.
  Democrats will not let us fund hospitals or save small businesses 
unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal. I would like to see 
Senate Democrats tell New York City doctors and nurses who are 
literally overrun as we speak that they are filibustering hospital 
funding and more masks because they want to argue with the airlines 
over their carbon footprint.
  I would like to see Senate Democrats tell small business employees in 
their States, who are literally being laid off every day, that they are 
filibustering relief that will keep people on the payroll because 
Democrats' special interest friends want to squeeze employers while 
they are vulnerable--squeeze these employers while they are vulnerable.
  I would like to see Senate Democrats tell all the American seniors 
who have seen their hard-earned retirement savings literally melt away, 
as the markets track toward their worst month since 1931, that they are 
continuing to hold up emergency measures over tax credits for solar 
panels--tax credits for solar panels
  Even with the Federal Reserve announcing even further extraordinary 
steps today, the markets are tanking once again, as I said, because 
this body can't get its act together, and the only reason it can't get 
its act together is right over here on the other side of the aisle.
  So these are just a few of the completely nongermane wish list items 
that they are rallying behind, preventing us from getting this 
emergency relief to the American people right now, eleventh-hour 
demands the Democrats have decided are more important than Americans' 
paychecks and the personal safety of doctors and nurses.
  So remember what one of Speaker Pelosi's top lieutenants in the House 
said a few days ago--and this is a direct quote: This is a tremendous 
opportunity to restrict things to fit our vision--to fit our vision. 
That was the Democratic whip in the House, just laying it out there. It 
reminds me of the definition of a Washington gaffe: when a politician 
in Washington tells you what he really means.
  We heard something similar here on the Senate floor last night--just 
last night. Here was one of our Democratic

[[Page S1920]]

colleagues: ``How many times are we going to get a shot at a trillion-
dollar-plus program?'' Right here on the floor last night: ``I don't 
know how many trillion-plus packages we are going to have.'' In other 
words, let's don't waste this opportunity to take full advantage and 
get our whole wish list done.
  They ought to be embarrassed. In fact, I have heard from some of them 
who are embarrassed, talking like this is some juicy political 
opportunity. This is not a juicy political opportunity. This is a 
national emergency.
  We had days of productive, bipartisan talks to get to this point. 
Senate Democrats sat down with Senate Republicans and negotiated 
furiously to get to this point. The bill now contains a huge number of 
changes that our Democratic colleagues requested, including major 
changes. We were this close--this close.
  Then, yesterday morning, the Speaker of the House flew back from San 
Francisco, and suddenly the Senate's serious bipartisan process turned 
into this leftwing episode of ``Supermarket Sweep''--unrelated issues, 
left and right.
  I will tell you what would really lower our carbon footprint. If the 
entire economy continues to crumble, with hundreds of thousands more 
Americans laid off because Senate Democrats will not let us act, that 
will lower our carbon footprint all right. Every single American 
outside of Washington knows this is no time for this nonsense.
  A surgeon in Fresno, CA, says: ``We are at war with no ammo.'' ``We 
are at war with no ammo.'' That is a surgeon in Fresno. An intensive 
care nurse in New York City says: ``If we don't get the proper 
equipment soon, we're going to get sick.''
  Democrats are filibustering more masks and aid for hospitals. Every 
day, more Americans wake up to the news that their jobs are gone--their 
jobs are gone. Democrats are filibustering programs to keep people on 
the payroll, and they are filibustering a huge expansion of 
unemployment insurance, which they themselves negotiated and put into 
the bill. Hundreds of dollars extra per week for laid-off workers on 
top of existing unemployment benefits, and Democrats are blocking it?
  This has to stop, and today is the day it has to stop. The country is 
out of time--out of time. When the Democratic House passed their phase 
2 bill, even though Senate Republicans would have written it very 
differently, we sped it through the Senate and passed it quickly 
without even amending it. I literally told my colleagues to ``gag and 
vote for it,'' for the sake of building bipartisan momentum, because 
Republicans understand that a national crisis calls for urgency and it 
calls for bipartisanship.
  It is time for that good faith to be reciprocated. It is time for 
Democrats to stop playing politics and step up to the plate. The small 
businesses in their own States deserve it. Their own States' emergency 
room doctors deserve it. Their own constituents who have lost their 
jobs deserve it.
  In my home State of Kentucky, the Governor has effectively paused 
commerce across the State, and our unemployment system crashed due to 
demand. Kentuckians need help now, and we aren't alone. I have heard 
the pleas from healthcare workers in New York and Seattle. I have 
listened to the small business owners crying out in Brooklyn and 
Chicago.
  Why does only one side understand that this is urgent? Why are these 
hard-hit cities' own Senators happy to keep this slow-walking going on 
indefinitely? Is that really something these folks on the other side 
are comfortable with--indefinitely slow-walking all of this? How can 
half the Senate not rise to the occasion? At a time when everybody else 
in the country is pulling together, they are pulling us apart.
  The examples are all over the country that we ought to look to: 
healthcare heroes, to neighborhood volunteers, to national industries. 
Everybody is unifying and pitching in. What about here in the Senate?
  It is time to get with the program. It is time to pass historic 
relief that we have built together. The country doesn't have time for 
these political games. They need progress.
  So we are going to vote in just a few minutes, and I assure you the 
American people will be watching.
  Mr. DURBIN. 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. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Yes, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The assistant Democratic leader objects. 
Objection is heard.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.

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