[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 59 (Wednesday, March 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2021-S2022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it has only been 65 days since the 
first American tested positive with the new coronavirus on our soil. In 
barely 2 months, this pandemic has upended our Nation. As of this 
morning, more than 175 million Americans have been advised to remain in 
their homes. More than half of our people are effectively sheltering in 
place.
  Hospitals in major cities are pushing capacity. Doctors and nurses 
are exhausting crucial supplies.
  And, if it were not enough for Americans to fight to stay healthy, 
they are also fighting to keep their paychecks, to keep supporting 
their families. Combating this disease has forced our country to put 
huge parts of our national life on pause and triggered layoffs at a 
breathtaking pace.
  This strange new reality has forced our Nation onto something like a 
wartime footing. A fight has arrived at our shores. We did not seek it. 
We did not want it. But, now, we are going to win it.
  Ten days ago, I laid out four urgent priorities for new Senate 
legislation to help our Nation through this crisis. We had to get 
direct--direct--financial assistance to the American people. We had to 
get historic aid to small businesses to keep paychecks flowing, 
stabilize key industries to prevent mass layoffs, and, of course, flood 
more resources into the frontline healthcare battle itself.
  One week ago, Senate Republicans laid down an initial proposal that 
tackled each--each--of these emergency missions. Our Members put 
forward a bold plan to send cash to households, stand up historic 
emergency loans for Main Street, stabilize key sectors, and put the 
full might of Congress behind our doctors, nurses, hospitals, 
healthcare providers, and the race for treatments and vaccines.
  I couldn't be more proud of our colleagues. Our Nation needed us to 
go big and go fast, and they did. The creative policies our chairmen 
crafted in just a couple of days' time remain the central

[[Page S2022]]

building blocks of the proposal we will pass today.
  But Republicans knew the Nation had no time--no time--for 
conventional political gamesmanship, so the instant we released our 
first draft, I created a series of bipartisan working groups. I asked 
Republicans and Democrats to work together around the clock--literally, 
around the clock--to make the bill even better.
  By Sunday, we had an updated proposal that was even stronger and 
contained even more ideas, literally, from both sides--both sides. 
Republicans and Democrats have worked together to dramatically 
strengthen and rework unemployment insurance during this crisis. We 
have worked together to make sure lower income families could receive 
the full cash assistance, and on and on.
  I will leave it to others to compare the bipartisan Sunday bill to 
the final version we will pass today and determine whether the last few 
changes really required or merited 3 days of delay--3 days of delay--in 
the face of this worsening crisis. But that Washington drama does not 
matter anymore. The Senate is going to stand together, act together, 
and pass this historic relief package today.
  Struggling Americans are going to go to their mailboxes and find 
four-figure checks to help with their bills. Why? Because the Senate 
stepped up.
  Many American families who have poured everything into a restaurant 
or a shop or a small manufacturer are going to keep making payroll and 
keep their businesses alive because this Senate stepped up.
  Hundreds of thousands of workers in key sectors who might well have 
been laid off through no fault of their own will, instead, get to keep 
their job and continue their career because this Senate stepped up.
  And, for the healthcare heroes who leave their own sleeping children 
and drive to the hospital for an all-night shift, who spend hour after 
hour healing the sick, comforting strangers, and literally battling 
this disease, there will be more masks in their supply closet, more 
funding for their hospitals, and, soon, more new treatments to 
administer to their patients because this Senate stepped up.
  So, today, the Senate will act to help the people of this country 
weather this storm. Nobody thinks legislation can end this. We cannot 
outlaw the virus.
  No economic policy could fully end the hardship so long as the public 
health requires that we put so much of our Nation's commerce on ice. 
This is not even a stimulus package. It is emergency relief--emergency 
relief. That is what this is.
  No, this fight is not going to be won or lost in Washington. It is 
the American people who will beat this virus. Americans will keep 
making sacrifices to slow down the spread. Americans will keep pitching 
in and looking after each other. Americans will keep finding creative 
ways to stand united, even if they have to stand 6 feet apart.
  We will win this fight because of people like Amy Jean Tyler, a stay-
at-home mom in Oldham County, KY, who is leading a drive to sew cotton 
masks for a local children's hospital.
  We will win this fight because of people like Pastor Grant Hasty in 
Stearns, KY, who is gathering volunteers to distribute more than 550 
home-cooked meals.
  We will win this fight because of people like Peg Hays, who runs a 
distillery in Christian County, KY, and is temporarily converting her 
bourbon-making facilities to churn out hand sanitizer.
  We will win this fight because national companies are switching 
production lines to make medical supplies because our largest high-tech 
companies are partnering with the government to throw supercomputing 
power right into the race for vaccines.
  We will win this fight because of families, neighbors, and church 
communities that cannot even worship together in person and because of 
small businesses, big businesses, public health Ph.D.s, and local 
entrepreneurs.
  It has been 18 years since every American was united in amazement and 
prayer as firefighters and first responders rushed into burning 
buildings on September 11, 2001.
  In the coming days and weeks, our Nation is going to meet new heroes. 
Many may be police, firefighters, and EMTs once again. Many others will 
be truckdrivers, grocery store clerks, and pharmacists, who literally 
keep our supply chains running; utility workers and delivery drivers, 
who leave their homes so everyone else can remain in theirs; teachers, 
who somehow manage to keep educating their students over the internet 
while looking after their own kids at the very same time. And, most of 
all, we are going to meet a whole lot of American heroes who wear 
scrubs and masks and gloves--heroes who rush toward the sick and wash 
their hands until they bleed and work around the clock to heal our 
friends and our families.

  When our Nation comes through this and takes flight again on the 
other side, it will be because American heroes won this fight. All the 
Senate can do is to give them the resources to do it, and that is 
exactly what we are going to do today.

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