[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
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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.
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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.