[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 93 (Monday, May 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2470-S2471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, for the third week in a row, the 
Republican majority in the Senate has no COVID-related business on the 
agenda. For the third week in a row, Leader McConnell has scheduled 
zero votes on legislation having to do with the crisis.
  Senate Democrats have had to relentlessly pressure our Republican 
colleagues to secure even the most routine oversight hearings on the 
pandemic. If we had not pressured them, I doubt there would be any 
hearings at all, and they are few and far between. The hearings will be 
the only work we will have done in the Senate on COVID-19 in the entire 
month of May, and the Republican majority has had to be pressured into 
doing even those. There are now more than 35 million Americans out of 
work through no fault of their own. Almost 1.5 million Americans are 
sick, and nearly 90,000 have died. Yet Senate Republicans have decided 
to take the month off from the coronavirus.
  The American people may be wondering: What is the Republican-led 
Senate doing instead of addressing this urgent national crisis? What 
could be more pressing? What is the Republican Senate doing in the 
midst of the crisis?
  Well, Leader McConnell has scheduled five rightwing judges for the 
floor of the Senate, and the Republican chairman of the Homeland 
Security Committee will be holding a hearing designed to slander the 
family of the President's political opponent. Is the chairman of 
Homeland Security calling in FEMA to find out if our hospitals have 
enough PPE? No. He wants to echo Kremlin-backed conspiracy theories in 
order to go on a fishing expedition to smear Joe Biden's son.
  We all know this is what the President focuses on instead of the 
COVID crisis, but must our Republican colleagues gamely follow such an 
absurd, diversionary, and untruthful agenda? I guess so. It is a shame.
  Even more shameful, the company that the Senator from Wisconsin wants 
to issue a subpoena for is voluntarily cooperating and providing 
relevant documents to the committee. Did you hear that? They want to 
make a big show of subpoenaing, but the company says it will cooperate. 
It is a show. It is a sham. It has nothing to do with COVID and 
everything to do with Kremlin-backed rumors that they want to use to 
divert attention from the President's poor showing on COVID. The 
subpoena is just for show. It is not necessary because the company will 
cooperate. It is a way to kick up dirt for exclusively partisan 
purposes.
  It would be bad enough if they were doing this when COVID-19 wasn't 
raging, but with COVID-19 raging, to spend time doing this instead of 
focusing on the way to get relief to people--unbelievable. It is a low 
point for that committee, a low point for the Senate.
  This is what is on the Senate Republicans' agenda in the midst of 
historic unemployment and a national crisis: five rightwing judges and 
the exploitation--a show, mock hearing for partisan mudslinging. 
America is in crisis, and Senate Republicans are rearranging the 
Nation's deck chairs and trying to put them in a political assembly.
  The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, appointed by 
President Trump, said last week that we are looking at the worst 
recession since World War II. Yesterday, Mr. Powell warned that layoffs 
would continue for several months and that unemployment could reach 20 
or even 25 percent. He said:

       If we let people be out of work for long periods of time, 
     if we let businesses fail unnecessarily, waves of them, 
     there'll be longer term damage to the economy. The recovery 
     will be slower. The good news is we can avoid that by 
     providing more support now.


[[Page S2471]]


  Mr. Powell went on to encourage policymakers to provide greater 
assistance to families and implement measures to keep workers in their 
homes. He also pointed out if State and local governments don't receive 
additional aid, they will be forced to lay off public employees and cut 
back on public services at the worst possible time.
  Mr. Powell is spot-on, and tomorrow, in the Senate Banking Committee, 
my Republican colleagues will have a chance to hear this critical 
message straight from the horse's mouth, with Mr. Mnuchin and Mr. 
Powell set to testify only after Senate Democrats had to push and push 
and push for such a hearing. We asked for it 3 weeks ago. It should 
have happened 2 weeks ago because the country is calling out for 
action. Trump appointees are calling out for action. Governors across 
the country--Democratic and Republican Governors--are calling out for 
action. When will my Republican colleagues hear the message? After all, 
there is no shortage of action the Senate could take.
  Millions of Americans are having difficulty receiving the expanded 
unemployment insurance benefits that Congress recently passed. Why 
aren't Senate Republicans holding a hearing on why millions of our 
citizens aren't getting the aid we intended to provide instead of these 
sham political show trial ``gotcha'' hearings?
  Testing continues to be a major problem. A blockbuster report in the 
Washington Post last night says we are ``far short of the [testing] 
number that most independent analysts say will be needed to avoid 
another wave of death and illness.'' The report described a concerning 
shortage of PPE, nasal swabs, and reagents in nursing homes and other 
frontline settings. The report outlined another problem: There is a 
startling lack of awareness in many communities about the need to get 
tested.
  Why aren't Senate Republicans focusing on these issues? These are 
life-and-death issues. They relate to people's health and people's 
lives, and they relate to our economy getting well. Why isn't President 
Trump leading a nationwide push to increase testing capacity and 
frequency and awareness?
  President Trump is so desperate to reopen the country as quickly as 
possible, but he refuses to roll up his sleeves and do the work that 
would allow us to do it safely. There is an anomaly here. He demands 
that people get back to work but doesn't do his work to make sure we 
have testing, to make sure there are guidelines, to make sure this 
works correctly so that we don't have a crisis a few months from now.
  House Democrats have put together a major bill that would provide 
urgent and necessary relief to the American people. My colleagues on 
the Republican side don't have to like everything in it. They could 
easily say: Let's sit down and negotiate. Let's find some common 
ground.
  Instead, Leader McConnell has said that Republicans have yet to feel 
``the urgency of acting immediately''--Herbert Hoover redux. Instead, 
his party is slowly preparing legislation to give legal immunity to big 
corporations that put workers in dangerous situations. Is that the No. 
1 problem on every American's mind? Is that the No. 1 problem of people 
who are losing their jobs, people who have small businesses that are 
going bankrupt, people who can't feed their kids--protecting 
corporations from liability?
  This Republican Party is so, so out of touch with America. It is so 
off-kilter, so in obeisance to the hard right that they can't even 
focus on a crisis when it is right before their eyes.
  We are confronted with a period of prolonged economic misery for 
millions of American workers and families--Americans who, for the first 
time, are waiting in staggering lines at food banks, Americans who, for 
the first time, don't know if they will be able to keep a roof over 
their heads, put food on the table or pay the rent. How long will it 
take--how long? How much economic hardship--how much before Republicans 
feel the urgency to act