[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2513-S2516]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Coronavirus
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, we are going to complete 3 weeks of
Senate activity, called together by Senator McConnell at a time when
the House of Representatives, under the guidance of Dr. Monahan, who
was just praised--and I join in that praise--was not in session when
the Senate came to session.
I said at the time that it was our responsibility to be here. That is
why we ran for office. Important things need to be decided, and we need
to be part of it for the good of the Nation.
We are about to complete 3 straight weeks without one measure on the
floor of the Senate relating to the national public health emergency--
not one. There have been hearings in some committees, yes, but activity
on the floor of the Senate, no. No bill was brought to the floor.
In fact, there was an attempt yesterday to bring a resolution that
said the United States should be involved in the global international
effort to find a vaccine. It was objected to on the Republican side.
The reason the Senator objected to it--the chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee--is that he wants to take up the measure in
his committee at some later date. I encourage that Senator to do it
quickly.
I think there is a sense of urgency across America in terms of this
national health emergency that we face.
[[Page S2514]]
Yet there is not a sense of urgency on the Republican side of the
aisle, despite the fact that for 3 weeks we have not considered one
measure on the floor related to this COVID-19 virus, which is
unexplainable and indefensible.
Senator McConnell, of Kentucky, has told us that he doesn't sense the
urgency for us to take up the measure passed last week by the House of
Representatives. This was a bipartisan measure that was brought to the
floor of the House of Representatives, which attempted to move us
forward from the original CARES Act, the $3 trillion of cumulative
spending that we have focused on the economy and the public health
challenge facing our Nation.
Is there any urgency to it? Well, I sense that urgency every time I
pick up the phone or read the newspaper in my State of Illinois. I am
on conference call after conference call with groups across our State
that are concerned about economic issues, as well as public health
issues. There is truly a sense of urgency where I live. I cannot
believe that Senator McConnell doesn't sense it in his own State of
Kentucky.
Kentucky hospitals and healthcare providers have received $900
million in CARES Act funding. I don't question whether they were
deserving or needed it; we received funds, as well, in the State of
Illinois. But the Kentucky Hospital Association tells us that the
hospitals in Kentucky are expected to lose $1.3 billion in March and
April alone.
You know, we are next door to Kentucky, and my hospitals in downstate
southern Illinois, right next to Kentucky, have told me the same thing.
They are losing money right and left. Do they think this is an urgent
problem in Illinois? You bet they do, and I will bet the hospitals in
Kentucky do as well.
This is what the vice president of the Kentucky Hospital Association,
Carl Herde, said: ``Since there is no clear path to recoup these
losses, the hospitals are left with no choice but to look at their own
operations to cut as much cost as they possibly can.''
The University of Kentucky is projecting a $160 million loss for its
healthcare system. It has furloughed 1,500 employees. Jenny Stuart
Health in Hopkinsville, KY, has furloughed 248 staff members.
Appalachian Regional Health in Lexington will furlough 500 employees.
St. Claire Health in Morehead is furloughing 300. Pikeville Medical
Center has furloughed 200.
Is there a sense of urgency in these communities, when many of these
hospitals are the largest employers in town and hundreds of people are
being furloughed because of the COVID virus, because of the fact that
they cannot resume ordinary hospital operations with this shadow of
infection hanging over them?
The bill that passed the House of Representatives last week, which we
did not consider or even discuss, to my knowledge, in the Senate this
week, the HEROES Act, called for more than $100 billion more in relief
to hospitals. How important is that?
I know how important it is in Illinois; I can tell you flat-out. As a
downstater, when you take a look at the rural and smalltown hospitals
in my State, they are struggling.
One hospital administrator told me that she had scheduled four
elective surgeries last Monday, a week ago, and only one patient showed
up. The other three called in and said they were too frightened to go
to the hospital and run the risk of being exposed to the COVID virus. I
cannot imagine there is not the same situation going on in Kentucky.
Isn't there a sense of urgency in Kentucky, as in Illinois, for us to
move and move quickly to help these hospitals before they furlough more
people and ultimately face closure--a disaster in any community that we
want to urgently avoid?
State and local governments are struggling now to pay teachers, first
responders, and healthcare workers as they face record revenue losses
and increased costs of fighting the virus. The measure that passed the
House of Representatives last week had almost $1 trillion to help these
State and local governments--not just in Illinois but in every State,
including the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
In States around the country, red and blue--the Center for Budget and
Policy Priorities estimates that States will lose $650 billion in
revenues by next summer. By the end of the year, Kentucky is expected
to lose between 10 and 17 percent of its annual revenues. Without help
from the Federal Government, Kentucky's Governor announced that
Kentucky's ``recession will be longer or unemployment will be
greater.''
Congress appropriated $150 billion in funding for State and local
governments in the original CARES Act, but that funding is not enough
to make up for the enormous losses that are being faced by State and
local governments across the United States. These Governors, these
mayors, these leaders have a sense of urgency in making up this
revenue. They face the reality of cutbacks in police, firefighters,
first responders, paramedics, nurses, doctors, and teachers
The HEROES Act which passed the House of Representatives last week
and which has not been considered this week in the Senate included $875
billion in fiscal relief for State and localities to help cover the
shortfall to make sure communities can continue to pay frontline
essential workers.
Understand the deadlines that were built into the CARES Act. The
first deadline is June 8. That is the date by which small businesses
that borrowed money under the payroll protection part of that act need
to have spent the money in order to have the loan forgiven--June 8.
Who among us believes that small businesses will be in a position to
recover and get back to business as usual by June? I pray that is the
case, but I know better in my home State and I will bet you in the
State of Kentucky as well.
How about unemployment? We came through in the CARES Act and did
something dramatic and unprecedented. We said that we were going to
give an extra payment, a Federal payment, to those who were unemployed
so that they could weather this storm as their families try to adjust
to no breadwinner in the house--$600 a week on top of whatever the
State benefit of unemployment might be. For some families, it was just
enough to get by.
Understand, though, that benefit--that unemployment benefit of $600
from the Federal Government each week--is going to end at the end of
July. That is not that far way. We are talking about 10 weeks at the
most. Do we honestly believe the unemployment crisis, with 36 million
unemployed Americans, will be behind us by the end of July? I wish that
were the case, but we know better. In my State of Illinois, I know
better.
We are hoping to start reopening the economy in a safe, responsible,
careful way and to give these small businesses a fighting chance to
open their doors again and survive, but it is going to be a struggle,
and many of them won't make it.
Earlier this month, 69,000 people filed new unemployment claims in
Kentucky--a 4,000-percent increase from last year. Do those families
who are now unemployed feel that this response, this Federal assistance
in unemployment benefits, is urgent? Well, you bet it is. How many of
those in Illinois or Kentucky believe they won't need this help after
the end of July this year? July--the same month the $600-per-week
unemployment benefits expire--the unemployment rate in Kentucky has
been projected to be 16.3 percent--the 10th highest in the Nation. Yet
the Republican leader says there is no sense of urgency in moving on
this measure that was considered by the House of Representatives and
passed last week.
The IRS has sent out almost 2 million economic impact payments to
that State of Kentucky, worth more than $3 billion, helping families
put food on the table and pay their rent and their mortgage.
When you take a look at that economic impact payment, understand that
the measure that passed the House, which we did not bring to the floor
this week in the U.S. Senate, calls for $1,200 more for each adult and
$1,200 for each child. Do families need it in Illinois? You bet they
do.
Even though it was originally proposed by President Trump, politics
had nothing to do with the support that it received from both political
parties--the support that this measure that just passed the House
should receive from
[[Page S2515]]
both parties here in the Senate as well. There is a sense of urgency
when it comes to these cash payments to people who are struggling to
make ends meet. The bill that passed the House includes a second round
of these critical payments and makes sure that we extend the
unemployment benefits beyond the end of July.
According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, tens of
thousands of Kentuckians have lost their health insurance as a result
of this pandemic. What a moment in life to lose your health insurance--
in the midst of a pandemic, with people facing hospitalizations,
treatment in and out of the hospital and in some cases ICUs, to think
that you would be without health insurance?
The measure that passed the House of Representatives last week, which
was not brought to the floor by the Republicans this week in the
Senate, includes a provision to ensure that people who have lost their
health insurance as a result of becoming unemployed can remain on their
employer healthcare plan without paying any premiums. In other words,
we want to make sure that people have health insurance rather than lose
it. Was that brought up this week for debate and consideration in the
Senate? No. No, it wasn't. Is it a matter of urgency if you are facing
the loss of health insurance in the middle of this coronavirus
epidemic? Of course it is.
The Paycheck Protection Program still has funding left in it to
provide some loans, but businesses have to spend the money within 8
weeks of receiving the loan or it won't be forgiven. Many small
business owners across the United States are facing a June 8 deadline,
struggling to spend the money due to the fact that they still haven't
been able to open their doors.
The HEROES Act, which passed the House of Representatives and was not
brought up for consideration in the Senate this week, which it could
have been, would extend the deadline an additional 16 weeks, providing
small businesses 24 weeks to spend the money they were loaned by the
SBA, and it would authorize the Paycheck Protection Program through the
end of the year to ensure that we can continue to help small businesses
through this difficult time.
Is there a sense of urgency in small businesses in my State to extend
this period that you can spend the money as a small business and have
your loan forgiven? Of course there is a sense of urgency in Illinois,
in North Carolina, in Georgia, and in Kentucky--across the United
States. Why the Senate Republican leader does not feel a sense of
urgency on this measure, which ultimately ends on June 30, is beyond
me.
I have heard from farmers across my State who are struggling to
survive, asking for help. I have heard from the Census Bureau about the
need to push back its response deadline to October 31--measures also
included in the HEROES Act that passed the House of Representatives.
Three weeks have ended here on the floor of the Senate, and, but for
a few speeches on this floor, if you read the record of legislative
activity, you would wonder if the leaders in the Senate even realize we
are facing a pandemic. We have spent our time on nomination after
nomination. We have spent our time in hearings on friends and those who
pass political muster who want lifetime appointments to the Federal
court. But somehow we have managed to miss the biggest story in
America--the pandemic.
I would say to Senator McConnell and the Republican leadership: We
have wasted an opportunity--a 3-week opportunity--to move forward, and
we have particularly wasted this week when we could have taken up the
measure that passed the House of Representatives last week.
Are we prepared to negotiate a compromise? Of course we are. We have
done that every time we have brought up a measure related to the
pandemic. It should be bipartisan in the end. But to say it is ``dead
on arrival'' and there is no sense of urgency among the Republicans in
the Senate to take up this measure is to ignore the obvious. Whether it
is $1,200 payments to American citizens who are struggling to get by,
whether it is an increased period of time for qualification to receive
unemployment insurance, whether it is loans to small businesses so they
can survive, these are the urgent needs of America.
When we have hospitals furloughing employees in Illinois, in
Kentucky, and around the Nation, we run the risk of losing these great
hospitals that are needed for the future.
Is it urgent that we take up this matter? Of course it is. Yet this
week we have done nothing, zero, when it comes to this measure.
We are going to leave now for the Memorial Day week, which means it
will be about 2 weeks before we return. I can just about guarantee that
the sense of urgency across America will be palpable at that time. The
question is whether there will be a sense of urgency felt by the
Republican leader from the State of Kentucky.
The other day, my friend and colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn,
came to the floor, as he has before, to discuss the issue of liability
and immunity as part of the conversation on the next measure of relief
and rescue for our economy.
For weeks, Senator McConnell and Senator Cornyn have said that unless
Congress gives broad legal immunity to corporations, they would block
emergency aid to help States and local governments avoid massive
layoffs of policemen, firefighters, and teachers. The logic behind this
position is hard to fathom.
There has been no flood of COVID-19 lawsuits. There is a website
maintained by the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth that tracks all the
lawsuits filed in America based on COVID-19. Senator McConnell has
cited this tracking. That tracker updated its numbers as of yesterday.
It reported that out of 1.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 90,000
deaths, there have been 2--2--COVID-19 medical malpractice cases filed
in the United States in over 1,000 complaints that have been filed and
26 cases alleging workplace exposure to COVID-19. The Senator from
Kentucky has called this a tidal wave of lawsuits, a windfall for trial
lawyers--2 cases of medical malpractice and 26 cases for workplace
exposure?
The other cases that mention COVID-19 relate to prisoners in prisons
and jails, who are questioning whether their rights are being violated
because of the health circumstances in the prisons. There are lawsuits
against insurance companies as to whether the policy covers a business
that has suffered losses because of the COVID virus. There have been
lawsuits as well between businesses as to responsibility for it. But
this notion of a tidal wave of lawsuits being filed--2 medical
malpractice cases across the United States of America and 26 workplace
exposure cases.
Keep in mind that if you do get sick and you want to file a lawsuit,
a good lawyer will advise you: Be careful. Proving where you were
infected is not an easy thing. And they also look at the standard of
conduct of the business or individual who could be the defendant. Did
they act reasonably?
We had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on
liability during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have quoted this before, but
it is worth repeating. One of the witnesses called by the Republicans
was a very good man, very thoughtful. His name is Kevin Smartt, and he
is the chief executive officer and president of Kwik Chek Foods in
Bonham, TX. He went through a litany of things that he had done in his
workplace to make it safer, not just for his employees but also for the
customers who came in. It was impressive. If the statements he made to
us were accurate--and I believe they were--he is doing his part to try
to make his workplace safer.
Here is what he said:
This was a challenge because the guidance provided by the
CDC, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as
well as state and local governments, often conflicted with
one another in addition to being vague and difficult to
follow. Yet, despite many uncertainties, including the
constantly fluctuating public health guidelines, we began to
adjust to the pandemic.
The point I am making--and I see our Democratic leader on the floor;
I am going to wrap it up quickly--the point I am making is this: We
should establish reasonable standards through the Centers for Disease
Control and OSHA so that conscientious businesses can in good faith
know what needs to be done to protect their employees and their
customers. When they follow those guidelines, I believe they have
absolved
[[Page S2516]]
themselves of liability. They certainly have a valid defense to any
claims of wrongdoing. But this notion that comes before us on the floor
from the Republican side goes to an extreme--asking for government
immunity from the conduct of businesses in the midst of this pandemic
without holding them to any standards. We are still waiting for an
explanation. Why would we allow the workplace to be more dangerous for
employees? Why would we allow the business place to be more dangerous
for customers?
If the owner is willing to live up to reasonable standards
established based on science and health, in my mind, that is a good
defense, and that is the way it should be. To do otherwise is to give a
green light to businesses that don't follow standards, endangering
their workers, their employees. It means more people are going to get
infected and sick in America--the last thing we need.
I yield the floor.