[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 91 (Thursday, May 14, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2431-S2432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this pandemic is weighing heavily on 
the American people. Roughly, 1.4 million Americans have been infected, 
more than 80,000 have died, and unemployment has not been this high 
since World War II.
  Just a few months ago, millions of hard-working men and women were 
thriving and optimistic. They were making big plans across kitchen 
tables. Now all of that is in chaos.
  The Chairman of the Federal Reserve reports that nearly 4 in 10 
American households that earn less than $40,000 a year had somebody get 
laid off in the month of March alone. This emergency is very serious, 
so the Senate's response has been serious.
  In March, Senate Republicans designed and the full Senate passed the 
CARES Act. It pushed trillions of dollars to working families, job 
creators, and medical professionals. We sent direct cash to almost 130 
million Americans. We delivered hundreds of billions of dollars in 
paycheck protection loans to small businesses, saving tens of millions 
of American jobs. We helped State and local governments defray 
coronavirus costs. We funded healthcare providers and testing. Even 
now, its programs are still taking effect, still coming online, still 
helping. The Senate took a blank sheet of paper and turned it into the 
largest rescue package in history.
  We have taken this crisis seriously, but the House Democrats have 
taken a totally different approach. While we finalized the CARES Act, 
the House parachuted in with miscellaneous liberal demands that were 
completely unrelated to COVID-19--solar energy tax credits, airline 
emissions. One senior House Democrat called the virus a ``tremendous 
opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.'' One Senate 
Democratic colleague asked: ``How many times are we going to get a shot 
at a $1 trillion-plus program?'' They told us exactly what they were up 
to, so we ignored the leftwing wish list and stayed serious, and the 
CARES Act is still helping Americans bridge these temporary shutdowns.
  So let's fast-forward to today. The Democratic House is still not 
back in Washington. Its constitutional duty

[[Page S2432]]

stations are still unmanned, but the Democrats cannot stop salivating 
over the possibilities for partisan gain.
  Former Vice President Biden says he sees this tragedy as an 
``incredible opportunity . . . to fundamentally transform the 
country.'' Biden said it is an ``incredible opportunity . . . to 
fundamentally transform the country.''
  Speaker Pelosi said: ``I see everything as an opportunity.''
  A cochair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said: ``For me, the 
leverage is that there is enormous suffering.'' ``The leverage is that 
there is enormous suffering.'' There are 80,000 Americans who have died 
and more than 20 million who have lost their jobs. I call that a 
crisis; they call it leverage.
  This week, the Speaker published an 1,800-page seasonal catalog of 
leftwing oddities and called it a coronavirus relief bill. So here we 
go again. It includes a massive Tax Code giveaway to high earners in 
blue States. Working families are struggling to put food on the table, 
but the House Democrats are prioritizing millionaires on the coasts. It 
would print another round of checks--listen to this--specifically for 
illegal immigrants. Can you believe it? We forgot to have the Treasury 
Department send money to people who are here illegally. My goodness. 
What an oversight. Thank goodness the Democrats are on the case.
  The Speaker's bill also tries to use the virus as cover to implement 
sweeping changes to election laws that the Democrats have literally 
wanted for years, like forcing every single State to embrace 
California's sketchy ballot harvesting whether they want to or not.
  Then there is the cherry on top. It is the bold new policy from the 
Washington Democrats that will kick the coronavirus to the curb and 
save American families from this crisis. Here it is--new annual studies 
on diversity and inclusion within the cannabis industry. There is not 
one study but two of them. Let me say that again. The Democrats' 
supposed coronavirus bill includes taxpayer-funded studies to measure 
diversity and inclusion among the people who profit off of marijuana.
  The word ``cannabis'' appears in this bill 68 times--more times than 
the word ``job'' and 4 times as much as the word ``hire.'' Maybe that 
is just as well because when their proposal does try to treat the 
economic crisis, it proposes stifling, anti-work policies that would 
only make it harder for Americans to get their jobs back. For example, 
they literally propose to raise taxes on small business and drain more 
cash from Main Street during a Main Street meltdown. So maybe it is 
best if the House Democrats focus on cannabis studies and leave 
economics to the rest of us.
  This is a totally unserious effort. Even the mainstream media says: 
``Neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law. 
It's a Democratic wish list.''
  Forget about making law; this thing even fails as a messaging bill. 
That is what is so remarkable. The House Democrats had a blank slate to 
write anything they wanted to define the modern Democratic Party--any 
vision for the society that they wanted--and here is what they chose: 
tax hikes on small businesses, giveaways to blue State millionaires, 
government checks for illegal immigrants, and sending diversity 
detectives to inspect the pot industry. The House gave itself no 
assignments for 2 months except to develop this proposal. Yet it still 
reads like the Speaker of the House pasted together some random ideas 
from her most liberal Members and slapped the word ``coronavirus'' on 
top of it--an unserious product from an unserious House majority that 
has spent months dealing itself out of the crisis.
  The House Democrats have been missing in action for months. While the 
Senate was passing the CARES Act, the Democratic House was on the 
sidelines substantively and literally. They had already gone home. 
Nearly 2 months later, the Senators are back at our duty stations with 
new precautions. We have been back for 2 weeks. We are holding major 
hearings on the pandemic. We are legislating and confirming nominees. 
Yet the House is still at home. And when it does contribute, it is not 
serious.
  The House Democrats have checked out of this crisis and left 
governing up to the Senate. They even intend to shatter congressional 
history and jam through remote voting so they can continue to be 
counterproductive from the comfort of their homes. Let me say that 
again. They even intend to shatter congressional history and jam 
through remote voting so they can continue to be counterproductive from 
the comfort of their own homes.
  Look, here in the real world, the Senate Republicans are working 
seriously to help the country reopen. The crushing unemployment 
figures, even with the CARES Act, show that no amount of Federal 
spending could substitute for the entirety of the U.S. economy. We need 
to be smart, and we need to be safe, but we have to find a more 
sustainable middle ground.
  This week, Chairman Alexander and the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions heard from Dr. Fauci, Dr. Redfield, and other top 
experts on exactly this subject. There are at least two big things our 
Nation will need to start recovering: stepped-up testing nationwide and 
legal liability protections so that K-12 schools, universities, 
charities, and employers are not invaded by trial lawyers the instant 
they unlock their doors.
  On testing, fortunately, the Senate has already done a great deal. 
The executive branch and especially the States are in the driver's 
seat, but we have already sent billions of dollars to help scale up 
testing nationwide. On legal liability reform, the work lies ahead of 
us. As my Republican colleagues and I have made clear, strong legal 
protections will be a hard redline in any future legislation.
  That is what is happening here in the Senate--serious leadership on a 
serious crisis like we have been doing for months. This half of the 
Capitol is doing our job

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