[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 108 (Thursday, June 11, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2903-S2910]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                  TAXPAYER FIRST ACT OF 2019--Resumed

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of H.R. 1957, which the clerk will report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 1957) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 
     1986 to modernize and improve the Internal Revenue Service, 
     and for other purposes.

  Pending:

       McConnell (for Gardner) amendment No. 1617, in the nature 
     of a substitute.
       McConnell amendment No. 1626 (to amendment No. 1617), to 
     change the enactment date.
       McConnell amendment No. 1627 (to amendment No. 1626), of a 
     perfecting nature.
       McConnell amendment No. 1628 (to the language proposed to 
     be stricken by amendment No. 1617), to change the enactment 
     date.
       McConnell amendment No. 1629 (to amendment No. 1628), of a 
     perfecting nature.
       McConnell motion to commit the bill to the Committee on 
     Energy and Natural Resources, with instructions, McConnell 
     amendment No. 1630, to change the enactment date.
       McConnell amendment No. 1631 (to (the instructions) 
     amendment No. 1630), of a perfecting nature.
       McConnell amendment No. 1632 (to amendment No. 1631), of a 
     perfecting nature.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  (The remarks of Mr. Thune pertaining to the introduction of S. 3938 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. THUNE. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                                Protests

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it has been 17 days since Minneapolis 
police murdered George Floyd; 90 days since police in Louisville, KY, 
killed Breonna Taylor, who would have turned 27 just days ago; and 109 
days since Ahmaud Arbery was killed by

[[Page S2904]]

armed White residents in South Georgia.
  These are just some of the most recent examples of the senseless, 
repeated killings of Black people in our communities, including by 
police, that have led to the massive outpouring of anger and grief we 
have seen on display in streets across the country. We know that these 
protests are not only about unjust tragedies. They are also about Tony 
McDade, Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Atatiana Jefferson, Walter Scott, 
Philando Castile, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and Tamir Rice, as well as 
Manny Ellis, Charleena Lyles, and Che Taylor, from my home State of 
Washington. There are countless Black people and people of color whose 
vast majority of names we don't know whose lives have been unfairly 
taken.
  Even more important, these protests are driven by people, including 
many young people, who are justifiably sick and tired of the systemic 
racism behind those killings that is deeply woven throughout the fabric 
of our democracy and our history and rightly believe we are not moving 
forward nearly fast enough.
  I know this is true in my home State of Washington, where according 
to data compiled by the Mapping Police Violence database, between 2013 
and 2019, Black people were more than three times more likely to be 
killed by police. It is beyond clear that the disproportionate impact 
of police violence on Black communities--as well as other communities 
of color--is not some accident, and it speaks to a rot that is deep in 
the design of our Nation. I come to the floor today because our Nation 
has to change, because the people are demanding it, and I believe each 
of us, especially those of us privileged enough to serve in the U.S. 
Senate, is responsible for being a part of the solution.
  It has been more than 2 weeks since George Floyd's murder, and we are 
still seeing protests across the country in towns big and small, in 
urban and rural areas. More importantly, they don't seem to be 
stopping. More and more people are getting engaged and learning and 
listening and signaling. We have a real opportunity to make change in 
our country. I believe strongly this is a problem we can start to solve 
today, and we have policies to do it.
  One major step we can take is by passing the legislation offered this 
week by Senators Harris and Booker. I thank them for their moral 
leadership on so many challenges but especially this week with the 
introduction of the Justice in Policing Act. Their legislation would, 
among other things, reform qualified immunity that is an antiquated 
judicial doctrine that has kept so many officers from being held 
accountable for violating Americans' constitutional rights. It would 
ban the use of choke holds and carotid holds and make Federal funds 
available only for State and local departments committed to codifying 
an end to these shameful tactics in law. It would reform the use-of-
force standards to make officers clear a higher bar before using deadly 
force and require deadly force to be used only as a last resort.
  It would ban the use of no-knock warrants in Federal drug cases and 
provide strong incentives to State and local governments to do the 
same. It would strengthen transparency of policing through data, like 
creating a national police misconduct registry to prevent misconduct 
from being swept under the rug and requiring the Federal Government to 
finally begin national tracking of incidences of use of force.
  It would limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to State and 
local law enforcement, as well as steps to restore and build on many of 
the policing reform efforts initiated during the Obama administration. 
None of these policies should be controversial for any of us here in 
the Senate, Democrat or Republican. We have all seen the same egregious 
violence and the same abuses of power from police in the communities we 
represent--communities whose safety should be our priority. It is 
undeniable that change is not only necessary but long overdue, and 
there is absolutely no reason this body shouldn't be able to take up 
these straightforward vital steps and pass them immediately.

  Now, I don't think Senators Harris or Booker or any of us 
cosponsoring the bill think this is a panacea or a solution to all of 
the longstanding problems the last few weeks have laid bare, but this 
is action that we can start taking now to begin ensuring justice and 
accountability in our laws and in our law enforcement and, hopefully, 
help put us on a path to begin to heal our Nation's deep wounds.
  While we need to pass legislation to address police brutality, we 
can't stop there. The Justice in Policing Act is the first of many 
steps we need to take in Congress to help reset our Nation's moral 
compass. It isn't lost on me--the massive uprising of peaceful protests 
against police brutality we have seen in recent days--that it is 
happening while many of our States are still working overtime to 
address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to keep people safe as 
we reopen communities.
  Over the last couple of weeks, I have been in contact with Black 
leaders and activists on the ground back home, and I have heard over 
and over again about the connection between the racism at the heart of 
the policing of Black communities and the disproportionate impact of 
COVID-19 on them and their families, and, more importantly, how 
traumatizing multilayered challenges like these can be for Black people 
in our lives who deal with these injustices day in and day out.
  For instance, one Black civil rights leader in southwest Washington 
told me how their community has had a hard time getting vulnerable 
members of the Black community tested. She is fighting for more 
resources and support, and she is organizing car rallies to enable 
people to make their voices heard against police brutality while still 
maintaining social distancing. Another Black leader in Seattle shared 
with me how absolutely critical it is that Black and other underserved 
communities have access to COVID-19 testing and healthcare during this 
ongoing pandemic, that these were both important, and that it isn't an 
either/or proposition.
  That people are rushing to the streets to make their voices heard in 
the middle of a global health emergency underscores how serious this 
moment in our country is and highlights the depths of the injustices 
baked into our systems at every level. This means that during this 
unprecedented public health emergency, we must prioritize equity in our 
response, including ensuring that we are collecting the necessary 
demographic data to target our efforts toward those most in need and 
using this data to aggressively address disparities; making sure 
critical supplies like testing kits and PPEs are getting to our hardest 
hit communities, which is not happening consistently and is 
contributing to Black and Brown communities suffering 
disproportionately from the health and economic impacts of this virus; 
not to mention planning now for equitable distribution of a safe and 
effective vaccine.

  More broadly, the protests are a passionate call for meaningful 
change in our systems and institutions to combat the status quo of 
racism and anti-Blackness that stains our democracy. In order to make 
the right policy and resource decisions to help us change America for 
the better and move toward a more just and peaceful future, it is 
critical that we all try to stand in the shoes of those demanding 
change and hear what they are saying from the perspective of their life 
experience, not solely of our own, because like I have heard recently 
in my conversations with Black Washingtonians, it is not that these are 
new ideas or proposals, but that as a Nation we haven't paid nearly 
enough attention to the profound grievances Black people have been 
raising for a long time.
  What I hear is people crying out for this country to live up to its 
values, saying it is time for all of us, especially elected officials, 
to listen and act by reinvesting in supporting our communities, rather 
than allowing law enforcement to be an unaccountable, militarized 
nonanswer to perfectly understandable calls for better healthcare, 
better schools, and real safety.
  It means not only addressing the racism and police violence in our 
national COVID-19 response but also in how we address maternal 
mortality, which disproportionately impacts Black women and families; 
and access to healthcare

[[Page S2905]]

more broadly for Black communities; and how we work to solve the 
climate crisis, which is a long-time demand of Black and Brown 
communities that have suffered some of the worst impacts of growing 
pollution; in how we work to close the gender pay gap that has Black 
and Latina women hardest; and in how we ensure equity of resources and 
opportunity and quality in our schools and our colleges and our 
universities; and much, much more.
  Now, none of this will happen overnight, but it is important that we 
start the work now to dismantle systemic racism if we ever want to make 
justice and equality realities instead of distant ideas.
  There is also another big piece. I would be remiss if I didn't 
mention it. I want to talk about something that I and so many people 
across this country--especially White people, who don't live every day 
feeling the impacts personally--are grappling with right now, which is 
the part of this work that isn't about our systems or our institutions. 
It is about looking inward.
  Far too often the fear of finding out that you have been wrong or 
completely misunderstood closes us off from honest self-reflection and 
growth
  We can't let it. Let's be clear: Change in our own hearts and our own 
minds and in our communities is as fundamental and essential to truly 
overcoming racism in our country as reforming policies and systems.
  Instead of letting fear of getting it wrong lead to inaction or 
complacency, I urge you to let it motivate you to listen and to learn 
because we all have more to do. I am personally committed to doing 
more. We all need to play a role in this work, especially our Nation's 
leaders, which is why it is so frustrating that next week, instead of 
addressing the profoundly urgent issues we are hearing about from 
literally all corners of this country, the Senate will be working 
toward confirming a personal friend of the majority leader's to a 
lifetime judicial nomination--and very little else. I refuse to accept 
this, and we all should.
  I also haven't mentioned the President of the United States yet. 
Before I do, I want to make one thing really clear: He is not the cause 
of all this injustice; he is the symptom. And we, all of us, are the 
only cure. Instead of rising to try to unify the country, the President 
has shown more interest in fanning the flames of divisiveness and 
making dangerous, unconstitutional threats to intimidate into silence 
and suppress these vital protests.
  To see this President at the helm of our country in this moment is 
tragic and frightening. But try as he might, the President cannot 
simply dismiss the legitimate anger on display in Seattle or Tacoma or 
Spokane or across the country at the pervasive and crushing impact of 
racism on Black people and other people of color.
  For generations, we have seen in our newspapers and on our 
televisions and from our cell phones the dire and unfair and too often 
fatal impacts of systemic racism on Black lives. Our focus must be on 
the painstaking work to actually address the deep, systemic racism in 
our country, which continues to create these moments of understandable 
despair.
  I am going to keep listening to the people who are at the forefront 
of these movements, including leaning on the work that has already been 
done to help reimagine our Nation's approach to public safety, working 
to redirect taxpayer dollars towards community resources that invest in 
the health, safety, and security of Black people and others who have 
been historically overlooked, and acting, not just talking, to keep our 
momentum and efforts on this front progressing forward.
  I am so glad I have been able to connect with leaders in Washington 
State on these issues. As an elected leader, I know I have to keep 
stepping up and amp up these necessary voices. Even though our country 
is at a crossroads--perhaps the most perilous one we have faced in 
recent memory--we have an opportunity for real progress right now. I 
feel it in the demands for change coming from the streets and on social 
media. I feel it in the energy, the resilience, and the courage of 
civil rights leaders on the ground in Washington State. And I feel it 
in the Justice in Policing Act.
  In closing, I hope every single Senator in this Chamber will join 
Senators Harris, Booker, and myself in cosponsoring this critical 
legislation and getting it signed and on the books as quickly as 
possible. I challenge each of my colleagues and all of us to commit 
ourselves to a fairer, more compassionate vision for our future.
  Some will say that nothing will change or can change, that we are 
stuck to live out this historical loop of racial intolerance in 
perpetuity. But, as Seattle-based writer Ijeoma Oluo reminds us, ``you 
don't have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist . . . 
[a]nti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, 
including in yourself. And it's the only way forward.''
  As a country, let's commit to fight racism in our laws and systems. 
As individuals, let's commit to fight racism in ourselves and in our 
communities. This is the work before all of us.
  As a voice for my State and as someone committed to forming a more 
perfect union for everyone, I intend to work for justice every day 
until it arrives.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Scott of Florida).
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                              Coronavirus

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, yesterday, our Senate Education 
Committee held a hearing on going back to school safely--a subject on 
the minds of tens of millions of American families--since today two-
thirds of married parents both work outside the home, and they have 
children. The children are ready to go back to school, and the parents 
are even more ready for them to go back to school.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
following my remarks this morning my opening statement from that 
hearing
  The commissioner of education from Tennessee--and I know that the 
Presiding Officer, while he is a proud Senator from Florida, also knows 
a little bit about Tennessee, having lived there--was one of our 
witnesses there. She said: We want children to do things. We want them 
to be safe, but we want them to thrive.
  That is the sense I got from all of the witnesses yesterday, which 
includes the Denver school superintendent; a national representative of 
education, Dr. Benjamin; and it included the commissioner of education 
for the State of Nebraska, who is also the head of the Chief State 
School Officers.
  Anyone who looks at the children in America today knows they need to 
go back to school. They have been out for 5 to 6 months now. This is a 
time when we are especially concerned in our country, and our attention 
is focused on racial injustice, on problems that minority families and 
minority children have. The single best thing we could do to help 
minority children and minority families is to help them go back to 
school safely in August and September.
  Any teacher can tell you and most parents can tell you that 
emotional, intellectual, and physical damage to children has been 
caused by being out of school since March, and that will continue to be 
the case until they reopen in August. Articles have talked about 50 
percent learning deficits. We have that every summer when children are 
away from school. Teachers in the fall know they have to catch back up.
  It has also shown us the limits, as well as the benefits, of remote 
learning. My daughter has three young sons, two of them in school. She 
said they have had it about up to here with remote learning, even 
though they are in a very good public school system. There are limits 
as to what you can learn remotely. Teachers aren't trained to teach 
remotely. In many parts of our country, broadband isn't sufficient to 
allow students to learn remotely. Teachers haven't made lesson plans to 
teach remotely, so they have to change the whole way they go about 
teaching.
  So much of the children being home affects homeschooling. 
Homeschooling is a good thing for parents who are able to do that, but 
homeschooling is hard. It takes a lot of time. If you are in a family, 
as two-thirds of married families are, where you are both working

[[Page S2906]]

outside the home, how are you going to do the homeschooling 
appropriately so that your child doesn't get far behind?
  For the benefit of the children, for the benefit of the parents, and 
especially for the benefit of low-income children--many of whom get one 
or two meals a day at school--we need to go back to school as a 
country. When we do--when 100,000 public schools and 36,000 private 
schools, 55 million children go back to school and 20 million students 
go back to the college--that will be the surest step toward regaining 
the rhythm of American life that we can have. That would show we are 
actually going back toward normal.
  It will be another year before we get to normal. I think we all 
understand that. We are going at warp speed to find a new vaccine. We 
are building manufacturing plants for vaccines before we even know that 
they work. We have never done that before. In fact, there has probably 
never been a time in our history where we had more scientific 
brainpower in this world devoted toward a specific target than we do 
right now at trying to increase the number of fast, rapid, accurate 
diagnostic tests, the number of treatments to reduce the effects of 
COVID-19, and a vaccine for COVID-19. We probably have never had so 
many scientists in the world working on a single project like that. We 
will probably have good results, but it will take a while.
  All of the plans that are being made--and we heard about them 
yesterday--will take a whole year. In the next semester, we will have 
more tests, we will have more treatments, we will have more contact 
tracers, and there should be, hopefully, the beginning of vaccines, but 
our plan should be for a year.
  How do you make sure the schools are safe? The formula is pretty 
simple, although it is not as simple in its application. The things 
that we know work are, No. 1, staying apart some distance; No. 2, 
washing your hands; and No. 3, wearing a mask.
  In colleges, that will be easy because colleges have more space. In 
fact, they are big wasters of space. They usually don't teach in the 
morning or in the evening or on Saturday or in the summer, and colleges 
can spread out and create smaller classes. There are more lectures. You 
can do lectures more easily.
  You can have a culture of mask-wearing--as President Mitch Daniels of 
Purdue University testified the week before--at colleges. I think 
colleges will have an easier time than schools.
  In addition to that, we know that, unfortunately, COVID-19 affects 
older people. In Tennessee, for example, 5 percent of the cases of 
COVID-19 are in nursing homes, and nearly 40 percent of the deaths are 
in nursing homes. The same is true in other States. COVID-19 affects 
younger people a lot less. Dr. Fauci has warned us not to be cavalier 
about that, but the truth is, younger people seem not to be as affected 
by COVID-19.

  We have a population that is not as affected. We have a population 
that is in a smaller, controlled setting. You can shut a school if 
someone gets infected and keep other schools open. We do that with the 
flu. We have children, who are more subject to being told what to do. 
So we have a setting where we should be able to create communities--
there are 100,000 public schools, as I said--little communities that 
are among the safest in our country. On the other hand, little children 
may have a difficult time wearing masks. They aren't the best at 
hygiene. Children go home every day; they may come back and forth 
bringing germs with them.
  We have those basics that I talked about--plus, testing. What we know 
about testing is that we have the capacity to do about 10 million tests 
a month this month, according to Admiral Giroir, the Assistant 
Secretary of Health. He says we will have a 40 to 50 million test 
capacity by the time we go back to school in August, September. That is 
four to five times as many as we have today.
  What is going on now is that in Florida and in Tennessee--every State 
is making its plan for the tests that it needs and sending it to the 
admiral. They are working on it together. If the State has needs the 
State can't deal with, the Federal Government helps with that. In our 
second month of that kind of relationship, that seems to be working 
pretty well.
  I know that in Tennessee, which is 11th among all the States in terms 
of testing per capita, the Governor's motto is, if in doubt, get a 
test. You can go to the local public health department and get one in 5 
minutes. It takes 2, 3 days to get the result, but there are no delays. 
Anybody who wants it can get it. That has created an environment where 
everybody feels more comfortable. If they are worried about COVID-19, 
if they don't want to go home and see their older relatives or their 
spouse, if they wonder if they are sick, they can go get a test.
  So tests should be available for the schools.
  We will have to be careful and recognize that the way schools open 
will vary by community. There are many counties in Nebraska, the 
commissioner of Nebraska said yesterday, where there is not a single 
case of COVID-19. So on his dial of green to red in terms of school 
opening, they would be very green and wouldn't have to do much in 
response to the COVID-19 in terms of changing the way they operate. On 
the other hand, in Omaha, NE, it might be different. In Nashville, it 
might be different. In New York City or Phoenix, it might be different.
  The Denver school superintendent talked about perhaps having children 
come for 2 or 3 days a week on alternate days in order to have smaller 
classes and about having extra time for disabled children or children 
from homes where they have less support, more vulnerable children 
needing more help in our schools.
  My hope would be that we can find ways for children to come back to 
as normal a school day as possible. It will take some flexibility. Some 
of those that will need to be flexible are the States, the Federal 
Government, and the unions with their rules and regulations. Colleges 
have a lot of flexibility in rearranging class schedules, class sizes, 
and class times. Schools have a lot less because they have State rules 
and union rules that restrict what they can do. They need some 
flexibility so they can reschedule.
  Then there is the question of money. Just as we say we want children 
to be safe, we want them to learn, there are two arguments on behalf of 
more money from the Federal Government. One would be Federal spending 
to help them learn. Generally, that is the responsibility of State and 
local governments. They spend about 90 percent of that.
  In our first COVID-19 bill, the Federal Government was generous with 
schools, recognizing that we shut down the economy, and then that shut 
down the schools, and that caused a lot of expensive problems. The 
Federal Government supplied $23 billion, and Tennessee got about $260 
million for just K-12 schools. There was another slug of money for 
colleges, and then there was $150 billion for States. As the Presiding 
Officer knows, a big part of the State budget--30 to 40 percent--goes 
to education. So my thinking is that a part of that $150 billion--$23 
billion we have already allocated for K-12 and the $25 billion that we 
allocated to testing, which could include contact tracers, some of 
which could be a part of schools--should help pay for keeping schools 
safe enough to reopen.

  If there is more money, we need to be open to that, I think, here in 
the Federal Government, but not before we see whether it is really 
needed.
  The Tennessee commissioner--and I put a lot of stock in her thinking. 
Because Tennessee is a conservative State, it doesn't spend a lot of 
money, has no debt, a big rainy day fund, low taxes--a lot like 
Florida. She estimates that it will cost about $1.5 million per school 
district, with the average school district being about $3,500, in her 
words, to provide the things the school districts need to reopen 
safely. Those are things like more sanitizing equipment, barriers that 
separate children in the lunchroom or maybe even in class, extra money 
for busing because when you create a lot of new classes, a lot of new 
schedules, you may have to change the bus schedules, and that will cost 
more than most things. So it is about $1.5 million.
  I will be very interested to see how much of the money we have 
already appropriated or how much of the money that we have appropriated 
that is very inflexible and might be made more flexible for Governors 
to use just for opening schools safely and whether we need to add any 
more.

[[Page S2907]]

  I think it is in our interest to make sure that principals and school 
boards know that they will have sufficient funds to open 100,000 public 
schools safely, because school administrators, with all respect, 
sometimes are a little bit conservative and reluctant to take risks. If 
there is the excuse that ``We don't have enough money to open safely,'' 
they may just say ``Let's keep up with remote learning.'' I think we 
are about up to here with remote learning in most places in the 
country. It is especially not good for the youngest children and for 
children who are from disadvantaged families or low-income families. I 
think it is important to get the country going. It is good for the 
children and it is good for the parents to make sure that schools have 
sufficient funds to reopen safely.
  It was a very good hearing yesterday. I thank the witnesses for their 
participation. It was all remote, even for all of the Senators.
  We will have another hearing next week on telehealth. We have had to 
cram 10 years of experience into 3 months to learn about telehealth, 
telework, and telelearning. While this has been a very painful way to 
learn a lesson, we should take advantage of these lessons because, as 
we will find out in our hearing next week on telehealth, we have gone 
from almost none of it to seeing that 40 or 50 percent of the 
physician-patient visits are done remotely. If that were to turn out to 
be, over the long term, 15 or 20 percent, that would produce a massive 
opportunity for change in the way we deliver medical services in the 
country.
  The one other thing I would mention is that I heard about liability 
yesterday. Colleges and the schools I have talked to want to be 
included in whatever the Federal Government does to make sure that 
teachers and administrators and schools and universities are 
appropriately protected from lawsuits as a result of the COVID-19 
epidemic.
  As long as they meet a standard of care that is reasonable, they 
should not have to worry about being liable if a child who is 8 years 
old forgets to wear a mask, coughs on another child, and that child 
goes home and makes Grandma sick and Grandma sues the school.
  Teachers are always worried about liability. The teachers' unions 
often use liability insurance as one of the major incentives to join 
the unions. Many States, like my State, provide tort liability for 
teachers.
  I think we need to make sure that here in the Senate, as we consider 
any additional legislation that has to do with COVID-19, we include 
colleges and we include schools. We received a letter from all of the 
colleges from the American Council on Education specifically asking us 
to do that. Otherwise, we might discourage schools and colleges from 
opening. If we discourage schools from opening, that leaves children 
sometimes home alone, sometimes home without being educated, some of 
them being left with remote learning that doesn't help and developing a 
learning gap that will leave them at a disadvantage for the rest of 
their lives.
  As we look at all of the issues we have to deal with, I hope we 
include appropriate steps to put limits on liability, at least as a 
result of the COVID-19 experience
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                            [June 10, 2020]

                 COVID-19: Going Back to School Safely

       A May 28 story in the Memphis Commercial Appeal about 
     schools planning for the 2020-2021 school year included a 
     bittersweet image--a young girl reaching her hand out to 
     touch a teacher, who is standing in line to welcome students 
     to the first day of school in 2019. As the Commercial Appeal 
     reporter writes: ``The first day of school in August 2019 
     would flunk 2020's course on social distancing.''
       Today's hearing is about how we reopen schools safely this 
     fall--that means teachers welcoming students back without 
     hugs or high fives.
       The opening of schools in 2020 is not going to look like 
     2019.
       But today's witnesses will talk about their work to help 56 
     million students from kindergarten to 12th grade go back to 
     the 100,000 public schools and 34,000 private schools in the 
     fall as safely as possible.
       In doing so, they will help our country take its surest 
     step toward normalcy.
       Witnesses:
       Dr. Penny Schwinn, Commissioner of Education, Tennessee 
     Department of Education, Nashville, TN
       Dr. Matthew Blomstedt, Commissioner of Education, Nebraska 
     Department of Education, Lincoln, NE
       Ms. Susana Cordova, Superintendent, Denver Public Schools, 
     Denver, CO
       John B. King, Jr., President and CEO, The Education Trust, 
     Washington, DC
       The question for governors, school districts, teachers and 
     parents is not whether schools should reopen--but how.
       Any teacher can explain the risk of emotional, intellectual 
     and social damage if a child misses a school year.
       Schools need to assess how this year's disruption has 
     affected our children and get student learning back on track.
       At our hearing last week on the reopening of colleges, we 
     heard about a variety of strategies that colleges are using 
     to help keep classrooms and campuses safe, including keeping 
     class sizes small so students can stay 6 feet apart, creating 
     campus-wide policies for wearing masks, and rigorous hygiene 
     improvements.
       As with colleges, k-12 schools' plans will vary for each 
     community and will also depend on the prevalence of the virus 
     in the fall.
       The goals for schools working to reopen are fundamentally 
     the same as the colleges we heard from last week: social 
     distancing, aggressive hygiene practices, face masks where 
     appropriate, and then a system of testing and contact 
     tracing.
       In order to accomplish those goals, it's clear that school 
     boards, superintendents and principals need to be focused on:
       Creating an environment where students and teachers can 
     socially distance
       Making modifications to the school year calendar and daily 
     schedule
       Preparing to integrate more distance learning
       Restructuring classrooms and extracurricular activities
       Providing meal services in a safe way
       Making sure the school has gloves, masks, and other 
     protective equipment
       Protecting students and adults in the school buildings who 
     are at a higher risk.
       To accomplish this, schools will also need to create a 
     strategy for testing and tracing students who may have been 
     exposed. You want your school's testing needs to be in your 
     state plan.
       The availability of widespread testing will allow schools 
     to identify teachers and students who have the virus or have 
     been exposed to it and trace their contacts.
       Widespread testing not only helps contain the disease; it 
     builds confidence that the school is safe. Fortunately, U.S. 
     Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir says 
     there will be 40-50 million tests available per month by 
     September. That is 4-5 times today's number--and today's 
     number is twice as many as any other country.
       Dr. Francis Collins, who led the Human Genome Project, now 
     leads a competitive ``shark tank'' enterprise at the National 
     Institutes of Health to discover new ways to conduct tens of 
     millions of additional accurate tests with quick results.
       Schools' COVID-19 plans should last for at least a year: 
     The government is pursuing vaccines at warp speed, but no one 
     expects one by August.
       In the second half of the school year, schools should be 
     able to provide more tests, more treatments, better contact 
     tracing and we should have vaccines. It will likely be the 
     Fall of 2021 before school life approaches normal.
       There are several reasons schools have an advantage in 
     providing a safe environment for students and faculty:
       The first reason is that younger people have been less hurt 
     by COVID-19, although Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned against 
     ``cavalierly'' assuming that young people are not at risk. 
     The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is 
     ``investigating reports of multisystem inflammatory syndrome 
     in children (MIS-C) associated with coronavirus disease.''
       Second, schools are generally small communities that are 
     closely supervised and monitored. Third, outbreaks can be 
     traced--if a child becomes sick, that child's classmates can 
     be tested. Fourth, individual schools can close to control 
     the spread of the virus--while other schools remain open. 
     Schools are not unfamiliar with outbreaks of flu and other 
     illnesses that have resulted in the temporary closure of 
     individual schools to prevent further spread.
       But school environments pose challenges as well:
       First, there's not much extra space in a k-12 school to 
     enable distancing--whereas there's a lot of extra space on 
     most college campuses.
       Second, school administrators face more rigid rules as a 
     result of state and local regulations and contracts with 
     teachers' unions, so making changes to the academic calendar, 
     class times and class sizes are more difficult.
       Third, creating a mask-wearing culture is harder with young 
     children. Seeing facial expressions is also important for 
     young children--they learn to socialize and self-regulate, so 
     obscuring faces with masks prohibits some learning for early 
     elementary school-aged children.
       Fourth, rigorous hygiene isn't always easy with children.
       Fifth, children go home at night, potentially exposing 
     older adults.
       Sixth, even systematic testing of children is a lot of 
     tests.
       Today 91.3 percent of families with children have at least 
     one parent employed, and

[[Page S2908]]

     among married families with children, 64.2 percent had both 
     parents employed, according to the Bureau of Labor 
     Statistics.
       And many children live in environments where the school is 
     the safest place they'll be all day.
       It's also the place where almost 30 million students 
     receive a school lunch--more than 70 percent of those 
     students qualify for free or reduced-priced meals.
       Administrators have a responsibility to make our schools 
     among the safest small communities this fall.
       In doing so, they will help our country take its surest 
     steps toward normalcy.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DAINES. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Fischer). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. DAINES. I would suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. YOUNG. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                          Endless Frontier Act

  Mr. YOUNG. Madam President, on a recent Saturday afternoon, the world 
watched as SpaceX's Falcon 9 lifted off from American soil, streaked 
through the sky, and sent the Crew Dragon capsule beyond the Earth's 
atmosphere.
  By Sunday, its crew was successfully docked at the International 
Space Station. The following morning, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & 
Company announced the start of human testing of a potential treatment 
for COVID-19.
  Falcon 9, the first rocket to send men to space from America in a 
decade was traveling at 10 times the speed of sound, and Lilly's COVID-
19 therapy is moving nearly as fast. It often takes a dozen years to 
develop a drug. This one could be available in just months.
  Neither happened spontaneously, though. They are the result of years 
of savvy, technological, and scientific investments, of partnerships 
between private industry and government. Such investments, such 
partnerships open new horizons in space exploration and disease 
fighting, and they show us the endless frontier into which American 
imagination and ingenuity can carry us.
  We Americans have always been drawn to the frontier--yes, the natural 
frontier of wildernesses and unfamiliar territories from which States 
such as mine spring, but also the frontier that bounds what we as 
humans were once imagined to be capable of accomplishing after our 
forbearers settled across this great continent.
  Americans see the heavens and don't simply wonder what they hold. We 
see loved ones grow sick, and we don't just resign ourselves to the 
prognosis. We create cures. Americans would always rather build a 
rocket ship than a rest home. We are driven by a deep need to lift one 
another, to discover breakthroughs that will lead to the betterment of 
all of mankind.
  And among the most powerful allies we have in accomplishing this are 
science and research and the innovations that they fuel.
  In the 20th century, Vannevar Bush beautifully captured the essence 
of the American culture of discovery and innovation. He first coined 
the memorable term ``endless frontier.'' Bush, you see, was a 
visionary, an unsung hero of World War II. He was the man who saw the 
importance of science and discovery in defeating the Axis Powers.
  As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's unofficial science adviser, he 
initiated the Manhattan Project and ensured that it received top 
priority from the highest levels of government.
  Later, in his 1945 report to the President, entitled ``Science: The 
Endless Frontier,'' Bush called for an expansion of public support for 
science and paved the way for the creation of the National Science 
Foundation. He believed that America's security and prosperity depended 
upon premarket investment in science and technology. Basic research, in 
his words, was the ``pacemaker of technological progress.'' ``New 
products and new processes do not appear full-grown,'' he said. ``They 
are founded on new principles and new conceptions, which in turn are 
painstakingly developed by research in the purest realms of science.''
  Bush was right. The years that followed proved it. The National 
Science Foundation was created, a space age was ushered in, a space 
race was won, and an evil empire was defeated--all in an era of 
historic prosperity that was only possible because of America's 
economic and technological supremacy, itself built on government-funded 
premarket research.
  Bush originally articulated the importance of science to the Nation's 
fortunes in a time of peril. While the challenges we face today are of 
a different nature, we are again in such a time. A mysterious virus 
with no known cure has spread across the globe, killed thousands of 
Americans, and crippled our economy. A new power competition is now 
underway, and America's predominant challenger is an unscrupulous 
authoritarian regime whose values are the inverse of our own.
  For proof, witness Beijing's leveraging of COVID-19 to further its 
goal of global dominance and authorship of this new century. To meet 
these new challenges, we must once again--once again--show the entire 
world the resiliency and dynamism of the American people, the American 
economy, the American spirit, and the American project itself.
  And to do this, we must not simply advance again toward the endless 
frontier but accelerate into it.
  The Endless Frontier Act, authored by Senator Schumer and me, will 
provide the rocket fuel for America's innovators and visionaries. Let 
us resolve here today to pass it so that this generation of American 
doers and dreamers and their children can propel us forward and win the 
21st century.
  Here is how and why we should act.
  The Endless Frontier Act would bolster U.S. leadership in science and 
tech innovation and boldly increase premarket investment in emerging 
tech.

  It will provide $100 billion in strategic investment in the National 
Science Foundation to bolster science and technology research and 
development.
  It will deliver $10 billion to establish regional tech hubs across 
the country to launch innovative companies, revive American 
manufacturing, and create new jobs to jump start our local communities. 
And in the coming years, it will strengthen American power, increase 
American prosperity, and carry on America's never-ending quest to 
continuously improve the world through innovation.
  Let us pass this act. If we do, another endless frontier will be 
before us, and with it, a stronger, freer, more prosperous nation, and 
a world in which free men and women author this new century.
  Dating back to the Cold War, after China had developed military 
might, its leaders focused on science and technology as a means to 
reorder the global balance of power.
  Since then, Beijing has aimed to overtake America, not with weapons, 
but with innovation. Offensively, China is investing in 5G, quantum 
computing, artificial intelligence, advanced energy systems--all of 
which have the potential to fundamentally change this century's 
economic and security environment for good or for ill.
  Defensively, China is shoring up domestic industries while exploiting 
our economic downturn and cynically using the pandemic to play the part 
of concerned global citizen to further its position in the world. And 
that is not a conspiracy theory. It is public knowledge.
  A new report from the Chinese Academy of Sciences bluntly observes: 
``It is possible to turn the crisis [of COVID-19] into an opportunity--
to increase the trust and the dependence of all countries around the 
world in `Made in China.' ''
  Tellingly, for China, the search to find treatments for COVID-19 is 
not simply a race to stop the virus but a race for bragging rights and 
global superiority.
  The CCP is dedicating millions of dollars to research into drug 
development. Five out of the 10 top vaccine candidates are coming from 
China.
  As they have in other fields of research, China has recently ramped 
up spending on pharmaceutical research, no doubt with an eye on 
surpassing America in yet another field. The first COVID-19 vaccine 
could be the key.

[[Page S2909]]

  If all of these trends continue, China's overall investments in 
research and development will surpass our own within 10 years--just as 
their economy becomes larger than our own.
  Until now, we have primarily focused on defensive countermeasures to 
thwart the aggression of the CCP: blocking Huawei, tightening export 
controls, and improving foreign investment rules. These are important 
and must remain in place.
  But if America is to lead the world in the 21st century, it is 
neither realistic nor practical to build an economic iron curtain 
around China.
  We are not in a 20th century cold war, but we can learn and apply 
lessons from that Cold War. Just as we did in the 20th century, we must 
not simply contain a competitor but instead outinnovate and outgrow 
them.
  Something else is in the balance here too. China longs to become the 
world's leader but lacks the attachment to human rights and dignity 
required of those that seek to fill that role. What becomes of liberty 
in a world led by such a power?
  However imperfectly, every American generation, from the founding 
forward, has labored to preserve and pass down the blessings of freedom 
here and wherever its friends may be found, and this current generation 
must carry this on and provide the world with a choice--a choice 
between a great power that defends freedom or one that tramples upon 
it.
  But we will be powerless to offer this alternative if we don't keep 
pace with China, and we will not have a shot at this unless we invest 
in ourselves. Implementing the Endless Frontier Act will provide that 
investment. It will prevent us from being outflanked, and it will pave 
the way for a second ``American century.''
  One of the primary reasons why the 20th century was America's rather 
than Russia's was because we produced more prosperity. You see, wealth 
is a crucial weapon in global competition. Bold investment in premarket 
research, like that proposed in our Endless Frontier Act, will generate 
more of it and make us a wealthier nation. The connection is undeniable 
and historic.
  When human beings began to apply science and technology to industry 
and in pursuit of new goods and services, of greater efficiency and 
output, human wealth grew by historic bounds. Cognitive scientist 
Steven Pinker charted this progress, and it is staggered. Human wealth 
barely advanced in the millennium after the year 1 A.D., and had only 
doubled a half millennium later.
  Then the industrial revolution arrived. Between 1820 and 1900, the 
world's income tripled. Fifty years later, it had tripled again, and 
again in 25 years, and again 30 years after that. This represents a 
100-fold expansion of the world's gross domestic product since the 
industrial revolution, thanks to advancements in science and 
technology.
  And the technologies that ushered in this era were the result of 
curiosity, experimentation, failure, and ultimately, discovery. This is 
the formula for innovation, and it is something Americans are 
particularly familiar with.
  We are a creative people with a penchant for plunging ahead when we 
have an idea and searching for a solution when we see a problem.
  You know, it takes courage to be creative, and in America, we 
encourage and honor that courage. We celebrate those who try and fail 
and courageously get up and dust off their trousers and try again. We 
venerate our inventors--Bell, Edison, George Washington Carver, Jonas 
Salk, the Wright brothers, Tesla, Einstein, Page and Brin, Jobs, Musk.
  We know and remember their names, and we benefit daily from their 
contributions. Their life's work is a monument to human potential and 
American greatness. Their work would not have been possible without a 
hallmark of American culture: breathing space--yes, breathing space. It 
is space for the creative process--the very process required to connect 
things that already exist, that no one ever thought of connecting, and 
to take new discoveries and turn them into new products and services.
  When we join research with American creativity, we do more than 
produce faster cars and TVs with clearer pictures, and we do more than 
generate material wealth. You see, our innovators are part of something 
far more profound. It is an endless pursuit of human knowledge and 
progress and a quest that fulfills our deepest human needs as a people. 
That is what they are a part of. In the words of my friend Water 
Russell Mead, it is our ``built-in human belief that through change we 
encounter the transcendent and the divine.'' Passing the Endless 
Frontier Act will keep this quest going, and the quest will make our 
lives richer in so many ways.
  That image of a Falcon 9 taking off and the orange streak of its 
engines cutting the blue sky sparked a memory dear to so many 
Americans. Over 10.3 million people worldwide watched that launch. For 
many, it was no doubt a reminder of an era--that era when rockets 
regularly setting out for space from that very same station was an awe-
inspiring symbol of American optimism and accomplishments.
  There were images, too, from Indianapolis. There, Lilly's scientists 
rushed cases containing the company's potential COVID-19 treatment to 
the airport and sent them on their way to patients for trials. For 
those who saw these images, they inspired hope and amazement--hope that 
we can soon stop this virus and amazement that our innovators have 
moved so quickly to find remedies.
  These are both inspiring moments for all Americans, ones that 
transcend so many of the differences that threaten to divide us. They 
show us and they show the world what America is still capable of. They 
reveal the endless frontiers still before us.
  Let us come together now. Let us accelerate boldly into the endless 
frontier. When life resumes as normal, this generation of Americans 
must not be content with merely recovering our losses. Instead, we must 
push ourselves to lead.
  Now is the time to pass the Endless Frontier Act, to strengthen U.S. 
leadership in science and tech innovation, and to dramatically increase 
public investment in emerging technologies. Let us choose to lead for 
ourselves and for our children.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. COTTON. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.


                             Cancel Culture

  Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, ``cancel culture''--we hear that in the 
news a lot these days--the idea that we all need safe spaces from mean 
words, trigger warnings on op-eds, or TV shows that might constitute a 
microaggression.
  This is the language of the campus social justice seminar, but 
increasingly it is the language of our workplace and our culture.
  We saw an instance of it just last week at the New York Times. I 
published an op-ed there that said simply, while we respect peaceful 
protesters, we can have zero tolerance for looting and rioting, and if 
the police are overwhelmed or outnumbered, the National Guard and, if 
necessary, Federal troops have to restore order.
  It has gotten support from a large majority of Americans, if you 
believe the polls. The New York Times published it. The editorial page 
editor defended it publicly. The publisher defended the decision 
publicly. But a woke-child mob at the New York Times rose up and 
demanded heads on pikes. They demanded that the op-ed be taken down. 
They demanded that the grownups--maybe I should say the supposed 
grownups--who run the New York Times apologize, and that is exactly 
what happened. In what could only be called a struggle session from the 
Cultural Revolution, in the greatest traditions of Mao, the publisher 
of the New York Times fired the editorial page editor, and he 
reassigned the deputy editorial page editor. He apologized--prostrated 
himself--in front of the woke-child mob, and he said: ``We will do much 
better.''
  The new editorial page editor has told everyone at the Times: If you 
see anything that gives you the slightest pause, please contact me 
immediately. If you have any trigger warnings, don't worry; I will find 
a safe space for you.

[[Page S2910]]

  The New York Times has made itself a laughing stock, but this is no 
laughing matter because the cancel culture threatens the very 
principles of free inquiry and open debate upon which our society is 
based.
  You see other manifestations of the cancel culture all across the 
country today. In many cases, they have adopted the spirit of a Jacobin 
mob in the French Revolution. In a reign of terror, they are trying to 
completely erase our culture and our history. Unfortunately, many 
Democrats are vying to be the Robespierre for this Jacobin mob.
  Look at what is happening in Seattle. Revolutionaries, anarchists 
have taken over city government buildings. They have taken over 
neighborhoods. They have declared themselves an autonomous zone. They 
put up a sign that says ``You are leaving the United States'' when you 
enter this autonomous zone.
  The Democratic Party today, I suppose, is still the party of 
secession.
  It is not just in Seattle. Look at what is happening to statues and 
monuments all around our country. In several cities, statues of 
Christopher Columbus have been pulled down, or they have been defaced 
or destroyed--statues that in most cases were put up by Italian 
American immigrants who were proud of their part in the great American 
story. This was not done in accordance with law. It was not done after 
thoughtful debate in city councils or State legislatures. It was done 
by mobs. Just last week, the Lincoln Memorial--a temple to the great 
emancipator--was defaced. The World War II Memorial--a memorial to 
those who fought and liberated the world from fascism--was defaced. 
Now, across the Atlantic, the ideological kin of this Jacobin mob 
defaced statues of Churchill. Wait until they hear about what the other 
guy did on the other side.
  But, you know, history is not the long suit of these woke children. 
They didn't take history classes, apparently, in high school and 
college. They were too busy taking social justice seminars. You can see 
that, too, in Philadelphia, where the statue of Matthias Baldwin was 
defaced. Matthias Baldwin was a committed and devoted abolitionist who 
funded education for freed African Americans. He gave them jobs, and 
they defaced his statue.

  Even more amazing, in Boston, the Shaw Memorial was defaced. The Shaw 
Memorial honors the 54th Massachusetts Regiment--the first African-
American regiment formed after the Emancipation Proclamation, whose 
bravery and valor in battle on behalf of the Union cause was 
memorialized in the movie ``Glory.'' Yet it was defaced by these mobs.
  It is not just our history; it is pop culture and entertainment too. 
You may have seen the news that ``Live P.D.'' and ``Cops'' television 
shows were canceled. ``Paw Patrol'' was on the cutting board too. You 
may know that Chase is the police cop in ``Paw Patrol.'' There are 
calls to euthanize the police dog on social media. I wish I could say I 
am joking, but I am not.
  Legos has announced they are not going to advertise any of their 
police Lego sets for the next year. They are not going to take them out 
of distribution. They are not going to recall them from stores. No, 
no--woke capitalism only goes so far. They are still capitalists. They 
are just not going to advertise police sets anymore.
  HBO announced they are not going to run ``Gone with the Wind'' 
anymore--``Gone With the Wind,'' for which African-American actress 
Hattie McDaniel won the first Academy Award, the first Oscar ever given 
to an African-American women. HBO says: ``No, we are going to cancel 
it.''
  If you think it is just limited to statues or TV shows or toys, you 
would be wrong. This woke mob could very soon be coming for any one of 
you.
  At UCLA, a college professor has been suspended and is under police 
investigation because he declined to postpone final exams so students 
could apparently go out and participate in protests.
  Another professor is being investigated for reading aloud from Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham jail because it uses 
offensive language--Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter from a Birmingham 
jail.
  A professional soccer player, Alexander Katai, was fired for his 
wife's tweet--not his own, his wife's tweet.
  Multiple different business executives and editors at newspapers and 
magazines have been fired.
  If you think this is only for people who are not powerful and not 
rich, you would be wrong. Ivanka Trump was scheduled to give a 
commencement speech last weekend at a Wichita technical school. The 
speech was canceled because she was being too controversial. It was a 
speech about workforce training and women's opportunities in our 
economy, and Ivanka Trump was canceled.
  Where does this cancel culture take us? What is the logical 
conclusion? What is the end of the cancel culture? I will tell you what 
it is--it is right here in this city, Washington, the District of 
Columbia. That is where it will end if we don't put an end to the 
madness now. Just up the Mall is the Washington Monument. Are we going 
to tear down the Washington Monument? Are we going to rename it the 
``Obelisk of Wokeness?''
  Up the hill is the Washington National Cathedral, where so many times 
we have gathered as a nation over the years to mourn our great leaders, 
to pray for God's protection and deliverance in moments of national 
strife and struggle. Are we going to rename the Washington National 
Cathedral the ``Temple of Reason,'' as the Jacobins did to Notre Dame 
during the French Revolution?
  What are we going to call this city? We can't call it Washington. We 
can't call it Columbia. We have to come up with new names all around 
because--I will say this--the cancel culture, whether in its malice or 
its Jacobin forms, ultimately is animated by a single ideal: that 
America at its core is fundamentally irredeemable and wicked.
  I reject that claim fully and wholeheartedly. America is a great and 
noble nation. It is the noblest Nation in the history of mankind that 
has struggled throughout our history, imperfectly but ceaselessly, to 
live up to our founding creed that all men are created equal--the 
single greatest defense against tyranny, against racism, against 
oppression. That is the stake of this debate.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida

                          ____________________