[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 127 (Monday, July 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S4252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, it has 
been half a year since the deadly coronavirus began to spread from 
China throughout the world. Now, 3.7 million cases have been recorded 
on American soil. More than 140,000 lives have been lost.
  Today, our Nation stands at a challenging crossroads. States and 
localities are trying to balance the need to reopen and foster economic 
recovery with the need to stay on offense against the virus.
  Back in March, the American people began a period of historic 
disruption and heroic sacrifice in order to stunt the spread of the 
virus. Life as we have known it was simply put on ice. Daily routines 
were reinvented, not as a permanent solution but as a short-term 
emergency measure to save our healthcare system.
  The American people stepped up. The sacrifices saved lives. Nowhere 
in the United States did hospitals suffer the fate of the medical 
system in places like Italy.
  Our Nation met new kinds of American heroes: doctors and nurses, who 
worked double shifts, washed their hands raw, and endured physical 
separation from their loved ones so they could continue to treat ours; 
essential maintenance, delivery, and grocery store workers, who kept 
clocking in to keep families, communities, and entire industries 
supplied and functioning; teachers and parents, who tried their best to 
keep school in session for our Nation's children, from virtual 
classrooms and kitchen tables all across our country.
  No generation before us had ever had to pull the emergency brake on 
national life in quite this way. This historic challenge required 
historic support so the Senate wrote and passed the largest rescue 
package in history.
  The CARES Act puts financial assistance in the pockets of American 
families. It sent hundreds of billions of dollars so that employers 
could keep paying workers. It mobilized unprecedented resources for the 
medical response. Economists and experts across the spectrum agreed 
that the Senate's bold, bipartisan policies have made a tremendous 
difference these past months.
  The question before the Senate this week is, Where are we now? Where 
are we now? On the one hand, our healthcare fight against the virus 
itself is very obviously unfinished. New spikes in large and 
economically central States show that we are nowhere near out of the 
woods. At the same time, neither economics nor our Nation's sanity 
would sustain an indefinite total lockdown until there is a vaccine. So 
even as we continue to fight the healthcare battle, cautious reopenings 
will need to proceed in ways that are as smart, safe, and data-driven 
as possible.
  This is the situation facing the Senate as we discuss and consider 
the possibility of another recovery package. It would neither be 
another multitrillion-dollar bridge loan to make up for a totally 
shutdown economy, nor an ordinary stimulus for a nation ready to get 
back to normal. The need now lies somewhere in between.
  We need to continue supporting our healthcare system and harbor no 
delusion that this virus is behind us because it isn't, while also 
taking strategic steps to help laid-off American workers get rehired 
and American families get their kids back to school this fall.
  That is why Senate Republicans will be putting forward a strong 
starting point for additional recovery legislation, hopefully, as soon 
as this week. It will take good-faith, bipartisan cooperation from our 
Democratic colleagues to actually make a law. That productive spirit is 
what got the CARES Act across the finish line unanimously, but last 
month, that spirit was absent. A political determination from our 
Democratic colleagues led them to block the JUSTICE Act and block the 
Senate from even turning to the subject of police reform, even as 
millions had taken to the streets demanding change.
  So, for the sake of our Nation, if we want to continue helping the 
American people, the next several weeks will need to look a lot more 
like March and a lot less like June. Senate Republicans will put 
forward our proposal soon. I hope our Democratic colleagues will be 
ready to work together to get an outcome.
  First, this week, the Senate will complete two other important pieces 
of the people's business. First, we will confirm the President's choice 
to head the Office of Management and Budget. Then we will finish and 
pass the National Defense Authorization Act for the 60th consecutive 
time.
  As COVID-19 captured our Nation's attention, we knew our adversaries 
around the world would not ease up. We knew that those who seek to harm 
America, our interests, and our allies would use the commotion to show 
even more of their true colors, and, sure enough, the Russian military 
has flirted even closer to the boundaries of U.S. airspace. Iran has 
stepped up its meddling in regional conflicts. China has escalated both 
its international bullying and its domestic repression, such as in Hong 
Kong.
  So I am particularly encouraged that Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member 
Reed, and our committee colleagues put forward a robust, bipartisan 
bill. It will invest in the training and technology that will keep our 
fighting forces on the cutting edge. It will strengthen our alliances 
and partnerships with shared systems for containing threats. It will 
honor our servicemembers and their families with pay raises and top-
notch services they deserve here at home. That means new investments in 
5G systems and hypersonic weapons, the establishment of European and 
Pacific defense initiatives for greater cooperation to check Russia and 
China, and improving military family housing, education, and 
healthcare.
  This NDAA will build on the success of the last 3 years in rebuilding 
and modernizing the world's greatest fighting forces. It will continue 
to advance our new national defense strategy, putting aside the naive 
resets of the past administration and continuing to invest in strength 
instead.
  I will be proud to vote to advance and pass the NDAA, and I hope all 
of our colleagues will join me.

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