[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.
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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
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