[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 132 (Monday, July 27, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4497-S4499]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Unanimous Consent Agreement

  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that following the 
remarks of my Republican colleagues, Senators Brown, Murphy, and I be 
permitted to speak for up to 7 minutes each and that the previously 
scheduled votes occur following the remarks of those listed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from South Carolina
  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, it is my pleasure to introduce the 
Restoring Critical Supply Chains and Intellectual Property Act.
  China looms large in this debate about the coronavirus. That is where 
the virus originated. The lying and deceptive behavior of the Chinese 
Communist Party has brought this pandemic to the world. It is the third 
pandemic to come out of China. I think it is now time for us to get 
serious about our dependency on China.
  What does this legislation do? It has four components.
  The protective equipment that our nurses and doctors and all 
healthcare workers use to protect themselves on the frontlines--90 
percent of it is made in China. We are going to try to bring it back 
home. We have a ``Buy American'' requirement in this bill--a $7.5 
billion tax credit to reenergize American production of PPE equipment.
  We are trying to get PPE under the Berry amendment of the Defense 
bill. We require our uniforms for our military to be made in America to 
the extent possible. We are going to try to create PPE in the same 
category as a national security item.
  There will be a $7.5 billion tax credit to jump-start this industry. 
A lot of good jobs will come from this, and we will be less dependent 
on China when it comes to protective equipment.
  I will discuss Senator Portman's legislation, Safeguarding American 
Innovation Act, which is included, Senator Cornyn's CHIPS for America 
Act, and Senator Murkowski's American Mineral Security Act very 
quickly.
  Senator Cornyn's CHIPS for America Act creates tax incentives to 
return and grow a domestic semiconductor industry. A Taiwanese firm 
made a big

[[Page S4498]]

decision to come to America--I think in Texas--a Taiwanese 
semiconductors company. We are trying to incentivize their relocation 
into the United States and jump-start a semiconductor industry that has 
left the country. It is very important for the future of our economy.
  Senator Portman's Safeguarding American Innovation Act creates a 
Federal research council and institutes penalties for bad actors who 
come to the United States or are here to steal important intellectual 
property. I think we all know who we are talking about here. China 
leads the pack there, and you saw what happened in Houston.
  Senator Murkowski's American Mineral Security Act promotes secure and 
robust domestic supply chains of critical minerals by streamlining the 
permitting process for extraction and emphasizing R&D into critical 
mineral recycling and development.
  These four things together will protect our supply chain. It will 
bring it back to the country at a time when we need to have more say 
about our destiny. The pandemic has been a wake-up call all over the 
board. There is nothing more important to me than relocating the 
medical supply chain and protecting the innovation that we are known 
for as a country.
  With that, I yield.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, Senate Republicans and the White House have 
finally come forward with an unemployment insurance proposal. The 
Republican proposal is not just misguided; the Republican proposal is a 
punch in the gut and a slap in the face for the 30 million Americans 
relying on lifeline unemployment insurance benefits. It adds insult to 
infection.
  Unemployment benefits--the ones we developed that ensure that people 
can pay the rent or buy groceries--are already expiring. The last 
payments went out Saturday. Senate Republicans and Donald Trump sat on 
their hands for months instead of working with Democrats, so now it 
appears that a lapse in benefits is inevitable.
  Republicans apparently have a proposal that is just unworkable. You 
don't have to take my word for it; the nonpartisan experts who run the 
State workforce agencies have told the Finance Committee that any 
changes, even simple ones, can take months to implement. Now 
Republicans are talking about cutting those lifeline benefits--the ones 
that actually made it possible for folks to make rent and buy groceries 
and cover the cost of medicine and car insurance. They are talking 
about cutting those benefits by two-thirds. They want States to make 
complicated changes to the unemployment insurance program that could 
hold up benefits until 2021. Some States are indicating that it is 
almost impossible to manage this altogether.
  The Republican proposal is cruel. In my view, it is legislative 
malpractice. For the life of me, I don't know how anyone could possibly 
look at the state of our economy and decide that what is needed is even 
more economic pain for 30 million Americans. It is especially insulting 
to America's unemployed workers that Republicans want to cut their 
economic lifeline in the same bill that is going to give a taxpayer 
subsidy to power lunches for lobbyists.
  My colleagues have been warned that State unemployment systems are 
already struggling to keep up. Some people who were laid off months ago 
are still waiting to receive benefits. I read about one today who is 
following all of this from their hospital bed, where they are suffering 
from COVID-19. There are news reports about people sleeping in their 
cars just to have a shot at being at the head of the line at the 
workforce agency.
  Now Senate Republicans come forward with a proposal that throws even 
more sand in the gears. They have been warned that this kind of 
proposal will be a disaster to implement. I know because I was in the 
Senate Finance room when they were told about it.
  My colleagues on the other side also are arguing that the biggest 
problem in America now is that there are all these lazy workers sitting 
at home collecting unemployment checks instead of going back to their 
jobs. There is no evidence--not a shred--that this is happening in 
large numbers around the country. Come to me with one single story 
about somebody turning down work, and I will tell you about a dozen 
out-of-work Oregonians I have spoken to, folks who cannot wait--cannot 
wait--to get back to work, Oregonians and Americans who believe in the 
dignity of work.
  There was a nationwide townhall meeting on Thursday last, with people 
who were unemployed, and people who were unemployed volunteered that, 
if they were told in the evening that they could work the next day, 
they would be there at the crack of dawn. It is insulting to American 
workers to suggest they are a bunch of lazy freeloaders looking for a 
handout, but we have been hearing that time and again from those on the 
other side of the aisle who were simply unwilling to write any proposal 
at all.
  I believe the Republican proposal is also a prescription for disaster 
for our economy. Supercharged unemployment benefits may be the single 
most impactful program that Congress passed in response to the 
pandemic. What does it mean to cut it? The Republican plan cuts 
unemployment benefits by more than $10 billion per week. That opens up 
a terrible economic wound. It will be a huge setback right when the 
recovery seems to be stalling, even going in reverse.
  One new analysis says cutting benefits down to $200 per week is going 
to lead to a loss of 3.4 million jobs. And Senate Republicans want 
Americans to believe that it is unemployed workers holding back the 
economy.
  I will close by saying it is long past time for my Republican 
colleagues to get serious about working with Democrats on a proposal 
that has a pathway to actually becoming law and to helping people. This 
Republican plan doesn't do that.
  Just as I said on Thursday, we have been ready for months. The other 
body, the House of Representatives, passed a bill 2 months ago ensuring 
that Americans have those funds to make rent, pay groceries, and pay 
for essentials. Leader Schumer and I introduced our plan: the American 
Workforce Rescue Act.
  So we were all set over here to go to work with Republicans before 
the majority leader sent everybody home on a 2-week recess, when we 
thought it was important to be here and to work on these crucial 
economic issues I have mentioned.
  Benefits have lapsed. Tens of millions of Americans now walk an 
economic tightrope every single week, balancing the rent bill against 
the food bill, the food bill against healthcare costs.
  There is no time to waste. Senate Republicans need to work with us 
now on a proposal that ensures that Americans do not face yet another 
economic hit, as I mentioned, with some of them actually sitting in 
hospitals suffering from COVID-19 and wondering how they are going to 
pay the bills.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio
  Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Senator Wyden is so right here. He fought 
back in March for $600 a week for unemployed workers, which kept our 
economy going, which kept us from going into a worse recession, which 
made all the difference in the world for all these workers.
  Think about this. If we were to adopt their proposal--I think they 
have a proposal. We haven't really seen very much yet.
  As Senator Wyden said, the House passed a bill back in May. It has 
been May, June, and almost all of July. We have waited and waited and 
waited.
  Unemployed workers know that their unemployment expires at the end of 
July, yet Senator McConnell sent us home, as Senator Wyden said. They 
wait. We wait. We wait. Then they come up with this half-baked proposal 
that they don't even know what it is exactly.
  But we do know one thing. We do know that workers who were laid off 
through no fault of their own, they want to work. Most Americans want 
to work. Those workers, their unemployment is cut from $600 to $200 a 
week. So we are essentially taking $400 from millions of workers in 
Connecticut and Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Oregon, Ohio, 
Arkansas, and Utah. We are taking $400 a week from these workers at the 
same time that the moratorium on eviction expires, at the same time 
that eviction courts in the States open up.

[[Page S4499]]

  In Columbus, OH--my State's largest city--they are holding eviction 
courts in an arena because there are so many people who will be evicted 
if their unemployment expires. In the middle of a pandemic, we are 
going to evict people, and they are going to go to overcrowded homeless 
shelters; they are going to go to sleep in their cousins' basements--in 
the middle of a pandemic. What is that going to do?
  I know the President just doesn't think much about the pandemic. He 
has moved on to accusing who knows what, calling names, dividing and 
all that, and isn't paying much attention to this pandemic. But, in the 
middle of a pandemic, to cut unemployment is just unbelievable.
  We know that, in their plan, there is a major cut in unemployment 
benefits; there is no rental assistance that will help people pay their 
rent; there is no expansion of the eviction moratorium. There is 
nothing.
  Senator McConnell has had months to extend expanded unemployment 
benefits. He has had months to figure out what we are going to do on 
evictions. Yet nothing. I don't know, when I look down that hall--I 
don't really know--I see lobbyists running out of there, asking Senator 
McConnell to get what they get, and they do very well every time, 
apparently.
  Americans want to go back to work. People want to go to work, but 
they want to go back to work when it is safe. I want our schools to 
open, but I want our schools to open safely.
  President Trump, months into this pandemic, still has no plans to 
protect workers. There is one reason people are still out of work: 
President Trump's failure to get this pandemic under control.
  Now, as they suggest we drop unemployment from $600 to $200--it is 
not alarmist--people can lose their homes. A wave of evictions in the 
middle of this pandemic will set back millions of families.
  I know it is not something that Senators do very often, but try to 
put yourself in the shoes of someone who is laid off in Akron, OH, or 
in Eugene, OR, or in Hartford, CT. Someone is laid off. They get that 
$600. They can stay in their apartments--barely, but they can.
  They are paying attention--sort of--to what we do here. They do know 
that their unemployment expires at the end of July. Then they hear of 
no plan.
  The Democrats have said: Let's extend the unemployment. Let's do 
protections. Let's do emergency rental assistance. Let's help our 
schools. Let's help our local governments. Let's make sure people have 
enough food on their tables.
  They hear nothing from the majority party, and people are now 
beginning to understand that maybe the Senate is not going to do its 
job, maybe the President really doesn't care about these unemployment 
benefits.
  Think about the anxiety a family faces, the uncertainty of: Is my 
unemployment going to be there? Am I going to be able to stay in my 
apartment? What am I going to do? How am I going to feed my kids? What 
is going to happen with schools? We don't know if they are going to be 
protected, if my kids are going to be safe at school.
  Essentially, the Trump-McConnell plan tells people: You are on your 
own.
  It is time that we, as a body--it is time that the Republicans work 
with Speaker Pelosi, work with us, that the President pays attention 
for a moment, and we actually take care of people in their homes; we 
take care of workers; we take care of people in our schools--instead of 
turning our backs.
  It is time to help families stay in their homes. It is time to get 
people the help they need through this pandemic. It is time that this 
body lead when the President has failed.
  Their plans don't come close to being enough.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, when people talk about this body being 
fundamentally broken under Republican leadership, this is exhibit A. 
This is exhibit A.
  This body has had 2 months to consider legislation that would stand 
up a national effort to squash this pandemic once and for all and to 
make sure that people don't die, don't go hungry, don't get pushed out 
into the street at a moment when unemployment is higher than at any 
time in this country's history since the Great Depression.
  We didn't consider any legislation for all of the last work period. 
We went on recess for 2 weeks. Now we are 3 days before unemployment 
benefits expire--the additional unemployment benefits--and we are now 
getting the introduction of what appears to be a dozen different pieces 
of legislation from Senate Republicans tonight.
  We still don't have the details, but it looks as though there is not 
one bill being introduced but that there are about 13 bills being 
introduced. We don't have enough time before the expiration of 
unemployment benefits to negotiate 1 bill--1 bill--never mind 7 or 10.
  We wasted months of time when Democrats and Republicans should have 
been talking together. Instead, Senate Republicans were talking amongst 
themselves and have now waited until the zero hour to come out with a 
piece of legislation which calls for a $400-per-week cut in 
unemployment benefits for people who are out of work.
  That is the economic stimulus plan: a $400-per-week cut for families 
in this country who have been relying on unemployment benefits because 
the economy is not coming back.
  But I come to this floor tonight to tell you why the economy is not 
coming back. It is not because we haven't appropriated enough money. It 
is because we are losing the fight against the virus. In 15 days, this 
country has gone from 3 million cases to 4 million cases, and there is 
not enough funding in these proposals that were just outlined in order 
to help States beat the virus.
  We are, once again, experiencing a PPE shortage in this Nation. 
Doctors at Memorial City Medical Center in Houston are using single-use 
N95 respirator masks for 15 days before throwing them out.
  Schools are, right now, planning to spend $25 billion in order to buy 
masks and cleaning supplies that are escalating in cost.
  There is nowhere close to enough money in this legislation to help 
schools get ready. There is nothing in this bill that requires the 
operationalization of the Defense Production Act to make sure that we 
are producing enough PPE in this country.
  There are still States in this Nation that are refusing to open up 
the health insurance systems so more people can get access to health 
insurance. There is nothing in these proposals to require open 
enrollment periods in States, to make sure that everyone who is 
contracting this virus has the chance to get health insurance.
  The reality is that the States are the ones on the frontlines, 
standing up these responses. My State has done pretty well, but we are 
going bankrupt in the process. From what I can tell, listening to these 
speeches tonight, there is nothing significant in this package of bills 
to help States like mine stand up responses.
  So I grieve for families who are going to listen to the news tonight 
and hear that Senate Republicans' stimulus plan is to cut their 
unemployment benefits by $400 per week. I also grieve for this Nation, 
knowing that nothing in these proposals is significant enough to allow 
States and hospitals and healthcare systems to turn around this 
damaging trajectory on the virus, to produce enough PPE necessary to do 
the job, and to fix the dangerously broken testing system in this 
country.
  I plead for my Republican colleagues to finally come to the table 
with Democrats in the House and the Senate so we can craft something 
together that does the job for families and does the job to fix this 
very, very broken healthcare system amidst an advancing pandemic.