[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 22, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4425-S4427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTION

      By Mr. KAINE (for himself and Ms. Murkowski):
  S. 4269. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to improve 
maternal health and promote safe motherhood; to the Committee on 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President. There are significant racial and ethnic 
inequities in maternal and infant mortality rates in the U.S. According 
to the CDC, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women in 
2018 is more than 2.5 times higher than the maternal mortality rate of 
non-Hispanic white women, and the infant mortality rate of non-Hispanic 
Black women is more than 2.3 times higher than the infant mortality 
rate of non-Hispanic white women. Any pregnant woman choosing to have a 
child should be able to do so safely without regard to income, race, 
ethnicity, employment status, or any other socio-economic factor.'
  This is why Senator Murkowoski and I are introducing the Mothers and 
Newborns Success Act, which aims to reduce maternal and infant 
mortality, ensure that all infants can grow up healthy and safe, and 
protect women's health before, during, and after pregnancy. Our 
legislation supports innovation in maternal health delivery and 
improves data collection on maternal mortality and maternal deaths. The 
bill will help ensure that women are matched with birthing facilities 
that are risk-appropriate for their particular needs to improve 
maternal and neonatal care and outcomes. The legislation strengthens 
support for women during the critical postpartum period, the year after 
birth, and will help ensure pregnant women get the vaccinations they 
need and are aware of maternal health warning signs. The bill promotes 
maternal health research and the use of telehealth to help high-risk 
expectant mothers in geographically-isolated areas. The Mothers and 
Newborns Success Act is a significant step toward reducing racial, 
ethnic, and geographic inequities in maternal and infant health. I am 
glad that my colleague Rep. Terri Sewell will be introducing companion 
legislation in the House of Representatives.
  Given COV1D-19's disproportionate impact on communities of color and 
recent research from the CDC which finds that pregnant women with 
COVID-19 are more likely to be hospitalized and admitted to the ICU, 
this legislation is especially timely.
  No woman should fear for her or her child's health because of her 
race. We need to ensure more women of color and their children, 
particularly Black women and children, receive equitable care. COVID-19 
and its impact on pregnant women has only underscored the need for 
urgent action. By advancing evidence-based policies to improve maternal 
and infant health outcomes, this bill will work to reduce and eliminate 
preventable maternal and infant mortality in the United States. I'm 
calling on my Senate colleagues to support this bill and include it in 
the next coronavirus relief package so we can enact positive systemic 
changes to make sure more women and newborns thrive and have the 
maximum chance for success.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. THUNE (for himself and Mr. Enzi):
  S. 4275. A bill to require recipients of Pandemic Unemployment 
Assistance to provide employment documentation, and for other purposes; 
to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of 
the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be 
printed in the Record, as follows:

                                S. 4275

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Pandemic Unemployment 
     Assistance Integrity Act''.

     SEC. 2. PANDEMIC UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE.

       (a) In General.--Section 2102(a) of the Relief for Workers 
     Affected by Coronavirus Act (contained in subtitle A of title 
     II of division A of the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136)) is 
     amended--
       (1) in paragraph (3)--
       (A) in subparagraph (A)--
       (i) in clause (i), by striking ``and'' at the end; and
       (ii) by inserting after clause (ii) the following:
       ``(iii) provides documentation substantiating employment or 
     self-employment or the planned commencement of employment or 
     self-employment not later than 21 days after the date on 
     which the individual submits an application for assistance 
     under this section or is directed by the State Agency to 
     submit such documentation or has shown good cause under the 
     applicable State law for failing to submit such documentation 
     by the deadline, in accordance with section 625.6(e) of title 
     20, Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto, 
     except that such documentation shall not be required if the 
     individual previously submitted such information to the State 
     agency for the purpose of obtaining regular or other 
     unemployment compensation; and''; and
       (B) in subparagraph (B)--
       (i) in clause (i), by striking ``or'' at the end;
       (ii) in clause (ii), by striking the period at the end and 
     inserting ``; or''; and
       (iii) by adding at the end the following:
       ``(iii) in accordance with section 625.6(e)(2) of title 20, 
     Code of Federal Regulations, or any successor thereto, an 
     individual who does not provide documentation substantiating 
     employment or self-employment or the planned commencement of 
     employment or self-employment under subparagraph (A)(iii).'';
       (2) by redesignating paragraphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs 
     (5) and (6), respectively; and
       (3) by inserting after paragraph (3) the following:
       ``(4) Documentation substantiating employment or self-
     employment or the planned commencement of employment or self-
     employment.--The term `documentation substantiating 
     employment or self-employment or the planned commencement of

[[Page S4426]]

     employment or self-employment' means documentation provided 
     by the individual substantiating employment or self-
     employment and wages earned or paid for such employment or 
     self-employment, or such information related to the planned 
     commencement of employment or self-employment.''.
       (b) Applicability.--
       (1) In general.--Beginning not later than 30 days after the 
     date of enactment of this Act, each State shall require that 
     documentation substantiating employment or self-employment or 
     the planned commencement of employment or self-employment (as 
     defined in section 2102 of the Relief for Workers Affected by 
     Coronavirus Act (contained in subtitle A of title II of 
     division A of the CARES Act (Public Law 116-136)) be 
     submitted by any individual who applies for pandemic 
     unemployment assistance under section 2102 of the Relief for 
     Workers Affected by Coronavirus Act (contained in subtitle A 
     of title II of division A of the CARES Act (Public Law 116-
     136)) on or after the date of enactment of this Act.
       (2) Prior applicants.--Any individual who applied for 
     pandemic unemployment assistance under section 2102 of the 
     Relief for Workers Affected by Coronavirus Act (contained in 
     subtitle A of title II of division A of the CARES Act (Public 
     Law 116-136)) before the date of enactment of this Act and 
     receives such assistance on or after the date of enactment of 
     this Act shall submit documentation substantiating employment 
     or self-employment or the planned commencement of employment 
     or self-employment (as defined in such section 2102) not 
     later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act or 
     the individual will be ineligible to receive pandemic 
     unemployment assistance under such section 2102.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. SCOTT of South Carolina (for himself, Mr. Alexander, and 
        Mr. Cruz):
  S. 4284. A bill to provide for emergency education freedom grants, to 
amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to establish tax credits to 
encourage individual and corporate taxpayers to contribute to 
scholarships for students through eligible scholarship-granting 
organizations, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, today, Senator Tim Scott of South 
Carolina and I have introduced the School Choice Now Act, which does 
two things: It protects students who have been attending private 
schools from the heartbreaking loss of scholarships, and it gives 
families more options for their children's education at a time that 
school is more important than ever.
  I have been working to find ways to help parents pursue the education 
that best meets their child's needs for a long time, since 1979, when I 
began to be the Governor of Tennessee.
  In 1986, we Governors got together in something called Time for 
Results. I was chairman of the National Governors Association. The vice 
chairman was the Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, and we devoted the 
Governors' attention for an entire year to one subject--education.
  There were six points. One of those points way back then was to find 
ways to give parents more choices of schools for their children.
  Then, later on, in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush was in 
office and I was Education Secretary, I helped the President develop 
something we called the GI Bill for Kids, which was Federal funds for a 
$1,000 scholarship to work with cities and States, like Milwaukee in 
Wisconsin, that were trying to give low-income families more choices of 
good schools for their children.
  Then, my last act as Education Secretary was to notice what they call 
start-from-scratch schools in Minnesota, created by the Democratic-
Farmer-Labor Party. There were about a dozen of them, as I remember, 
and I wrote every school district in the country and asked them to 
start one of these start-from-scratch schools, which were the 
forerunners of today's public charter schools. Today, we have 7,500 
public charter schools.
  Then, in 2004, I tried something I called the Pell Grant for Kids, a 
$500 scholarship that would follow every middle- and low-income child 
in America to an accredited program of their choosing.
  Some people said: Wait a minute. You can't call the Pell grant a 
voucher.
  I said: That is precisely what the Pell grant is. The Pell grant is a 
voucher that a college student can take to any accredited college--
public, private, or religious. Why can't we do that for elementary and 
secondary schools?
  In 2005, we had a hurricane named Katrina, creating devastation on 
the gulf coast, and Senator Ted Kennedy and I and Senator Landrieu and 
others worked together to provide 1.2 billion Federal dollars in one-
time emergency assistance for the 2005-2006 school year so students 
enrolled in public or nonpublic schools--children who were displaced by 
the hurricane--could enroll in public or private schools while their 
families recovered. They got scholarships of up to $6,000.
  And, more recently, I suggested a Scholarship for Kids Act. I said: 
Why don't we give a State like Tennessee, Ohio, or North Dakota, the 
opportunity to take most of the Federal dollars and turn them into 
scholarships for the lowest income students in their State? That 
scholarship would amount to $2,100 if we just took the existing money 
we had and spent it that way.
  So that is the strategy that we followed in this country for many, 
many years, ever since 1944, with the GI bill for veterans.
  We all remember what that was. The veterans came home and a grateful 
nation gave them a scholarship and said: Take it anywhere you want, to 
any college or accredited school. Take it to Notre Dame, take it to 
Yeshiva, take it to a historically Black college, take it to Ohio 
State, take it to Tennessee, take it to the Presbyterian school.
  And they have done that, and the GI bill may be one of the most 
certainly successful pieces of legislation ever enacted.
  Last year, there were over $28 billion in Federal Pell grants and 
more than $91 billion in Federal loans that followed students to public 
and private colleges of their choice.
  Now, the Federal Government also provides vouchers to help pay for 
childcare. The Child Care and Development Block Grant was negotiated by 
John Sununu when he was Chief of Staff for H.W. Bush in 1990, and what 
that does is basically give money to States, and States then give 
vouchers, just like Pell grants for college, but they give them to 
working moms, and they can go pick the childcare center that is best 
for their child.
  The Federal Government, in 2019, provided $8.7 billion and States 
another $1.2 to provide vouchers to 1.3 million children.
  So I think you can see where I am going with this. It is that the 
idea of giving parents choices of schools is not a new idea. We have 
done it in colleges since 1944. We do it with childcare. We do it in 
community colleges. Why not do it for elementary and secondary 
education? Why not give low-income families more of the same choices of 
good schools that wealthy families have?
  Now, during COVID-19, children in all K-12 schools have been affected 
by the disease. There are 100,000 public schools across our country 
serving 50 million students. That are another 35,000 private schools 
serving 5 million students. Many of those schools, public and private, 
are choosing not to reopen in person this fall.
  Many schools are failing to provide high-quality distance learning. 
The students who will suffer the most from this are the low-income 
children--the children from families where both parents work away from 
home every day or where the only parent works away from home every day, 
children with no internet, families who can't afford to put a child in 
a private school if the public school is not open.
  These are the parents who have the greatest need and the children who 
have the greatest need. We should address that need as we think about 
how to deal with COVID-19.
  Just as more families need more options, there are fewer scholarships 
available to help them choose private schools because there has been 
less charitable giving as a result of the pandemic.
  So for low-income students attending private schools on a 
scholarship, that can mean a heartbreaking end to their time at school 
and a transfer to a new school that may not meet their needs at all.
  That is why Senator Scott and I and others of us recommend that 
Congress first provide sufficient funding for all of our schools--
100,000 public schools and 35,000 private--so they can safely open this 
fall with as many students physically present as possible.
  I have suggested that the cost of this to the taxpayers could be as 
much as $70 billion. The House of Representatives has appropriated $58 
billion.

[[Page S4427]]

  If Congress were to agree on the higher number, $70 billion, that 
would be about $1,200 for every one of the 55 million public and 
private school students in the country
  The School Choice Now Act that Senator Scott and I are offering is 
about the 5.7 million of those 55 million children who attend the 
35,000 nonpublic, private, or religious schools. It provides 
scholarships to students to have the opportunity to return to the 
private school they attended before the pandemic and gives other 
students a new opportunity to attend private school by doing two 
things: One, providing one-time emergency funding for scholarship-
granting organizations. These are nonprofits that do the important work 
of helping students attend private schools in each State. These 
scholarship-granting organizations will use this one-time funding to 
provide families with direct educational assistance, including private 
school tuition as well as homeschooling expenses.
  No. 2, this act would provide permanent dollar-for-dollar Federal tax 
credits for contributions to those scholarship-granting organizations. 
What this means is that any American taxpayer who makes a charitable 
donation to one of these nonprofits that provide scholarships to 
students will receive a credit on their Federal taxes equal to the 
amount the taxpayer donated. The same goes for private companies that 
make donations to these organizations.
  The School Choice Now Act is not a Federal mandate. States are free 
to create their own tax credit scholarship programs that work for the 
unique needs of students in their States. States that don't want to 
support scholarships to private schools are not required to accept 
these funds. They can be returned to the Secretary, and the funds will 
be redistributed to States that want the funds.
  This bill is about one of the great principles of what it means to be 
an American: the principle of equal opportunity. For me, equal 
opportunity means creating an environment in which the largest number 
of people can begin at the starting line. When everyone is at the 
starting line in America, anything is possible. Giving children more 
opportunity to attend a better school is the real answer to inequality 
in America

                          ____________________