[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 3, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2670-S2672]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       Unanimous Consent Request

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, I came to the floor of the 
Senate to ask for consent on the simple, timely Senate resolution 
sponsored by nearly half of the Members of this Chamber. What did the 
resolution call for? Well, it urged the United States to join global 
coronavirus vaccine and treatment efforts. That doesn't sound like a 
radical idea, does it? In the midst of a global pandemic that is 
causing so much suffering and so many deaths, it would seem that asking 
the United States to join other countries of the world in searching for 
therapies and vaccines is just common sense.
  We don't know where or when a vaccine will be discovered. We don't 
know if an effective treatment will be discovered in the United States 
or in some other place. Certainly, with the respected medical and 
scientific leadership in the United States, you would hope that it 
would be here, but let's be honest. If a safe and effective vaccine 
against the coronavirus is discovered in some other country, the United 
States would want to be there and be part of the discussion about its 
production and distribution. Wouldn't we? That is all this resolution 
says.
  Why not team up with allies around the world since we are all looking 
for the same thing--a safe and effective vaccine. Whether that vaccine 
is stamped ``Made in the USA'' or is made in some other country is 
secondary. Is it safe? Is it effective? Will it save lives? Do we 
really want the American people to be left out of such an effort? It 
was a global effort to eliminate smallpox, Ebola, polio, and so many 
other deadly diseases we took for granted. We were all in it together.
  These viruses and diseases don't know any boundaries. People around 
the world have the same fears and concerns that we have in the United 
States about what we are paying in price of suffering and death until 
we find a way to avoid it. This resolution would just call on the 
United States to be part of a global effort to find a therapy and a 
vaccine, but this resolution was blocked here in the Senate. Since 
then, since the 2 weeks that have passed, we have lost over 100,000 
American lives. Sadly, the number still grows. This has been 100,000 
lives in just a few months--the same number of American casualties in 
the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan combined.
  What was President Trump's response? Was there empathy or a message 
of national unity or healing during this tragic moment? No. Once again, 
President Trump refused to take any responsibility for leadership 
during this crisis. Sadly, he has cast blame in every direction and 
ignored his own responsibility amid a deadly global pandemic that has 
had devastating consequences for the American people.

[[Page S2671]]

  Sadly, we lead the world in infections and death, but President Trump 
has decided that now is the moment in history for the United States to 
pull out of the World Health Organization--the same body that is 
heading the global pandemic response. What is he thinking--that we 
would walk away from the organization that has called to the table 
countries from around the world in an effort to find a safe and 
effective vaccine? Here we are, on the 40th anniversary of the World 
Health Organization's historic achievement in eradicating small pox, 
stumbling along with a President who is more interested in settling a 
score, casting blame, and finding ways to divide us. Once again, the 
majority of his party here in the Senate is not chiming in and joining 
us in this effort to pass this resolution.
  While we continue to have some of the world's best researchers and 
experts, it is plausible that a vaccine will be found and developed 
elsewhere. In a rush to research and validate a vaccine, ramp up 
production, address global allocation and supply needs, ensure 
affordability and access worldwide, and make sure the United States 
gets its fair share of any safe and effective vaccine, where will we 
stand if the President insists on being on the sidelines, unengaged? 
When the United States pursues this Trump go-it-alone approach while 
the rest of the world is working together, where does that leave us? 
Pride cometh before the fall.
  Just as with the smallpox effort, a global, collaborative approach 
makes obvious sense, and it will save American lives. Joining forces 
with other countries around the world will help to speed the 
development and eventual distribution of the coronavirus vaccine we 
desperately seek.
  Do you want to know what one Republican Senator from Tennessee said 
about this? He said: ``I disagree with the President's decision.''
  Withdrawing U.S. membership from the WHO could, among other things, 
interfere with clinical trials that are essential to the development of 
a vaccine. No one knows where this vaccine will eventually be perfected 
or produced. God willing, it will be soon. Yet why shouldn't we be 
joining in this global effort? Why? Why, at this moment in history, has 
President Trump said we are stepping away from the organization that 
leads this effort?
  Given this President's--sadly, I hate to use the word--``obsession'' 
with blaming everyone but himself for mishandling this situation, maybe 
his dereliction of duty should come as no surprise, but what a bitter, 
bitter disappointment it is.
  I return to the floor to ask unanimous consent on a straightforward 
resolution--a simple resolution that should have passed without any 
fanfare by a voice vote unanimously in the Senate. This resolution 
calls on the United States to join in the global effort to find a safe 
and effective vaccine--something that we have done consistently 
throughout our history until this President took office.
  Ultimately, let's remember that this is a pandemic that affects the 
world, and any solution has to be a worldwide solution as well. We 
cannot isolate ourselves from the international ways of finding 
treatments and the development of a vaccine. Doing so not only wastes 
time but risks there being a loss of life.


                 Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 579

  Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Committee on Foreign Relations be discharged from further 
consideration of S. Res. 579, a resolution encouraging the 
international community to remain committed to collaboration and 
coordination to mitigate and prevent the further spread of COVID-19 and 
urging renewed United States leadership and participation in any global 
efforts on therapeutics and vaccine development and delivery to address 
COVID-19 and prevent further deaths; that the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration; that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble 
be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and 
laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Romney). Is there objection?
  The Senator from Idaho.
  Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, reserving the right to object.
  First of all, let me commend my good friend from Illinois for 
bringing this. I know he is frustrated, as all of us are, with what has 
happened with this pandemic that came out of China and swept the world 
and caused all the grief that it has for America and for every other 
country on the planet.
  It is important to note, I think, as we start, that the United States 
has been the single most generous donor of global health assistance 
around the world. We do hear people, from time to time, criticize the 
foreign assistance that America gives out. Probably the pandemic that 
we have just gone through, with this COVID-19 from China, is the best 
indication that there is for why certain foreign assistance is so 
crucial. This foreign assistance we give in the healthcare area is 
given, amongst other reasons, to keep those things from spreading to 
the United States.
  Last year alone, we, the United States of America, we American 
taxpayers, provided over $9 billion in global health assistance through 
the State Department and USAID. That $9 billion does not account for 
the amount that the CDC spent in global health efforts. So it is well 
over $9 billion that we Americans have put out there.
  We strengthen health systems; we train health workers; we build 
supply chains; we connect health networks; we support cutting-edge 
research and innovation; and, yes, develop and expand access to 
therapeutics and vaccines, which is what my good friend from Illinois 
is addressing here when it comes to vaccines. I am going to talk about 
that in a minute.
  We led the international efforts to combat AIDS, malaria, 
tuberculosis, polio, Ebola, and other viruses that came out of China. 
We are the single largest donor to the Global Fund and U.N. agencies, 
including UNICEF.
  I hope that there isn't a suggestion that we are withdrawing from 
collaborative efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine because we did not 
directly participate in the EU pledging conference. In reality, leading 
partners in that effort include the Global Fund and Gavi, where we are 
the major donors, so we will be participating in the collaborative 
effort to develop vaccines for COVID-19.
  I think it is also important to note that the President has made a 
historic--a historic 3-year pledge and is strongly supporting Gavi's 
COVID-19 efforts. Gavi stands for the global alliance for vaccines. It 
was essentially the brainchild of Bill Gates. He and Melinda, of 
course, in my judgment, are on an equal level with Mother Teresa for 
what they have done with global health. We are participating with Gavi 
and, like I said, the President has made a historic 3-year pledge to 
that.
  I appreciate the feelings the good Senator from Illinois has about 
the President of the United States, and he did indeed put the brakes on 
WHO because he felt there were shortcomings with WHO when it came to 
WHO's work with China and their failure really to get after China at 
the very beginning of this to do what it really should have done.
  I am going to object to this resolution not because the effort by the 
good Senator from Illinois isn't well-taken. It is well-taken. We had a 
similar one 2 weeks ago and they came out here and objected to it and 
the Senator is frustrated because he feels we should be doing more.
  First of all, during the 2 weeks--we obviously were gone for 1 week--
but let me tell you what was going on during that week and the 
subsequent week. I promised, at that time, that the Foreign Relations 
Committee was going to take this issue on because it is of such 
importance that we don't go through this again, and there is a lot more 
that we can do than simply pass a resolution.
  It is my ambition to create a very significant piece of legislation 
that will be bipartisan, that creates a vehicle to address a fast-
moving virus like this. We can all argue about the WHO and what they 
did or didn't do, their connections to China and that sort of thing, 
but that is not going to help us as we go forward. What we do know is 
that WHO has done good work in the past. They were a really good 
partner with us, as the Senator knows, when it came to implementing 
PEPFAR and doing great things in the battle against AIDS. They were 
very helpful with Ebola and very helpful with smallpox, but this was a 
different virus. This was

[[Page S2672]]

a house on fire. WHO is simply not, at this time, geared to be a 
fireman. When the fire bell rings, we need a vehicle to address a 
virus.
  This is going to happen again because in the Wuhan district, there is 
a vast bat population, and they are carrying about 2,000 different 
species of virus. Unfortunately, and frighteningly, we don't know what 
all those viruses can do. Heaven help us if we get one out of there 
that is worse than COVID-19 that we have had, but we need a fire 
department that can address this.
  I hope we are going to be able to engage China. If not, we are going 
to have to find ways of dealing with this. Where is that vehicle going 
to be carried? Is it going to be a new part of WHO? Is it going to be 
part of the CDC? Is it going to be a new international organization? I 
can't answer that, but I can tell you this. On a bipartisan basis, 
Senator Murphy, who is also on the Foreign Relations Committee, and I 
have introduced a bill to address a number of these things, including 
the vaccine question and including working on getting a vehicle to do 
what I have described.
  I think everyone is working on this in good faith. The bill that will 
be introduced is written on paper. It is not written on stone. We are 
wide open to suggestions as to what kind of a vehicle it is that will 
address this like firemen and not in a slower fashion like other health 
challenges have presented.
  Senator Murphy and I have had a number of discussions on this. We are 
both committed to reach the goals that I know Senator Durbin and that I 
think this whole body wants to reach. We are going to hold a series of 
hearings as to how to do this, how best to do it, how it should be 
funded, how it should be organized, and how the management should take 
place. What it is not going to focus on is the finger-pointing for what 
happened after COVID escaped from a bat into a human being in Wuhan, 
China, and what happened after it left Wuhan, China, and went around 
the world. We have really good information on that already.

  There is going to be a lot of other investigations and hearings and 
that sort of thing. We want to talk about, what do we do when this 
happens in the future? How can we create an agency that just like the 
fire department, when the bell rings, they pull their boots on; they 
slide down the pole; they get on the truck; and they go put out the 
fire.
  I guarantee Senator Durbin that we will continue to work on this. My 
staff tells me--and I am glad to hear that Mr. Durbin's staff is 
working with them on the language on this particular resolution, and I 
thank the Senator for that and I invite him and commit to him that we 
will work with him as we develop this new legislation and as we go 
through the hearings.
  So, again, please don't take this as combative. It is not. It is 
intended, in the best spirit, to help us all move forward to get to a 
piece of very significant legislation that will hopefully take us 
forward like PEPFAR did and as some of the other monumental pieces of 
legislation did that can address this incredibly difficult situation 
and hurtful situation not only for America but for the world.
  And I state to the Senator that I invite your participation, 
encourage your participation, and assure you that we will work in good 
faith to try to reach these goals.
  With that, I object for the reasons stated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have respect for my colleague and thank 
him for his positive statement about the work to be done in the Foreign 
Relations Committee. There is nothing in this resolution that preempts 
or tries to impact on anything he mentioned. The operative language is 
a few words, ``urging renewed United States leadership and 
participation in any global efforts on therapeutics and vaccine 
development and delivery to address COVID-19 and prevent further 
death.''
  How we do that, whether we create an agency or not, this is simply an 
expression of policy that I hope we can embrace. I will be back if we 
don't move forward with alternatives. Lives are at stake, and we should 
be part of the international conversation to avoid it.
  Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, would the Senator yield for a few moments?
  Mr. DURBIN. Certainly.
  Mr. RISCH. Thank you. I appreciate these comments. There is nothing 
that the Senator just stated that I disagree with. One point, in 
passing, and I say this in the spirit of trying to get to the objective 
that I laid out, and that is, it is my intent to engage the second 
branch of government, not only the agencies that are responsible for 
this--Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, the State 
Department, USAID--but also the White House. The President has to have 
a role here. He has obviously undertaken the role. I have already 
spoken to him about this. I intend to have other lengthy conversations 
about this. I am engaging the President to assist us. This is not a 
partisan issue.
  As Mr. Durbin has pointed out, and rightfully so, this virus doesn't 
care whether you are a Republican or Democrat; it doesn't care whether 
you are an American or not an American. It doesn't care if you are a 
President of the United States or, in the case of some countries around 
the world, a member of the highest authority there is in that country. 
The virus just doesn't care.
  In order for us to accomplish this, it is going to be a bill--it is 
not going to be a resolution--and it has to be approved by the second 
branch of government. They fully understand what we are trying to do 
here. They have committed their resources and their input to this, and 
I am convinced they are working in good faith, just as everyone here 
is, to try to reach these goals of doing something better in the future 
than what we have experienced just recently.
  Senator, again, thank you for your attention to this. Thank you for 
your input, and I commend to you that we will work together on this as 
we go forward
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.