[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 134 (Wednesday, July 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4567-S4572]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALS ACT

  Ms. ERNST. Madam President, 4 years ago, Jill Larsen opened Crayons 2 
Pencils Early Learning Center in Norwalk, IA. This state of the art 
childcare center offers full day, before and after school care, and 
preschool-only programs for children from 6 weeks old to school age. 
They have even expanded to include a learning center and recreation 
center. It truly is topnotch. But when COVID-19 hit, Crayons 2 Pencils' 
enrollment dropped from 150 children to 32. And it was only through the 
Paycheck Protection Program that this childcare center was able to stay 
afloat and keep their workers paid.
  Jill Larsen's story is not unique. Without the help of the Paycheck 
Protection Program, so many of our small businesses and childcare 
programs across the country would have gone under. Ninety-nine percent 
of Iowa's businesses are small businesses, and the Paycheck Protection 
Program has been a critical lifeline for so many of them.
  I hear it time and again on my 99-county tour--most recently on a 
Main Street tour in Albia with some outstanding female small business 
owners. Nearly 60,000 small businesses in Iowa have received PPP loans, 
saving hundreds of thousands of jobs. But, folks, there are more funds 
left in the program, and many of these folks need additional help. That 
is why we should allow our most distressed businesses to receive a 
second PPP loan--so they can continue to keep workers paid and their 
doors open. The HEALS Act would make that possible.
  While the Paycheck Protection Program helped the Crayons 2 Pencils 
daycare center keep their employees paid, as folks are getting back to 
work, these critical facilities are facing new challenges--making up 
for losses from decreased enrollment, trying to expand to accommodate 
more kiddos due to school closures, or acquiring critical medical 
supplies or PPE to create a safe and clean environment for these 
families.
  Just recently, I held a telephone townhall, and I was joined by 
Iowa's director of health and human services, Kelly Garcia. We heard 
the concerns of Iowa parents and talked about the solutions we are 
working on at the State and Federal levels when it comes to childcare 
access and affordability.
  Our working parents are anxious and concerned about what lies ahead. 
Do they have to quit their jobs to stay at home with the kids? How much 
will childcare cost? What happens if childcare providers can't open 
back up?
  This is the reality for so many. That is why I made it a top priority 
to provide additional resources for our childcare programs and our 
families. Included in the HEALS Act is my bill to create back-to-work 
childcare grants, which would give providers the resources they need to 
make it through this crisis. It would also help them access PPE and 
other medical supplies so they can adhere to the safety guidelines and 
provide a clean and safe environment.
  But it doesn't stop there. I am also working to assist our lower 
income families, those who rely on the child care and development block 
grants and those who simply need access to clean diapers.
  Just a couple of weeks ago, I was in Davenport, IA, where I got to 
take part in a diaper distribution with the Hiney Heroes of the Quad 
Cities--yes, Hiney Heroes. As a result of this visit, the folks over at 
Huggies and the National Diaper Bank donated 25,000 diapers to this 
important diaper bank. We know that during this pandemic, the diaper 
supply has run short. I have teamed up with Democratic Senator Chris 
Murphy on this effort to include additional assistance for our diaper 
banks.
  COVID-19 has also created challenges for our farmers. These hard-
working folks are facing new challenges while working around the clock 
to make sure Americans have adequate access to food and fuel. I was 
visiting with some farmers at the Bloomfield Livestock Market in Davis 
County not long ago, and they described these hardships firsthand. I 
hear the same from our ethanol and biodiesel producers. That is why I 
helped ensure more aid for our farmers and producers, including our 
ethanol producers and so many other important commodities in Iowa.
  In our rural communities--like Montgomery County, where I live--
COVID-19 has only amplified existing financial pressures on our 
healthcare centers. Most rural hospitals rely on services such as 
elective surgery to keep them financially afloat, but because of the 
pandemic and the response to it, many hospitals have had to cancel 
these elective surgeries as protective measures due to the pandemic.
  Additionally, the need for PPE and other equipment has significantly 
increased.
  Lower revenue combined with higher expenses has made it incredibly 
difficult for these rural hospitals to stay afloat. We absolutely can't 
leave these folks behind. We need our hospitals to keep their doors 
open so that quality healthcare is accessible to all Iowans, whether 
they live in the big cities like Des Moines and Polk County or small 
communities like Red Oak, where I live, in Montgomery County.
  As I have toured Iowa over the last several weeks, I have also 
visited with many of our essential workers. Our nurses, grocery store 
clerks, truckdrivers, childcare providers, and so many more have been 
working on the frontlines of this pandemic, rising to the challenge to 
care for and protect Iowans. That is why I am pushing hard to allow 
these essential workers to keep more of their hard-earned dollars by 
suspending Federal income and payroll taxes. These folks deserve a 
reward for their tireless efforts.
  No amount of financial relief will make this virus go away, but 
Congress has a role to play in helping families get back on their feet, 
but it is also every single one of us doing our part--wearing our 
masks, washing our hands, and social distancing as much as possible. 
Together, with the help of every individual and all levels of 
government, we will get through this.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I want to talk about the portion of the 
bill that we have made available to our colleagues and the country this 
week after lots of input from our colleagues on the Labor, Health and 
Human Services, and Education part of the bill. It is about 25 percent 
of the bill, almost $250 billion. That money would be used to get us 
back on track toward vaccines that work, toward treatments that work, 
to provide additional resources for testing, for treatment, for care, 
to get us back to school, to get us back to work, and to get us back to 
childcare. These are all things that are critical for our economy and 
families to return in the way they want to.
  For those things to work the way we would want them to work, our 
colleague Senator Alexander put it very succinctly: All things run 
through testing. If you are going to go back to school, if you are 
going to go back to work, if you are going to go back to childcare, if 
you are going to be in a nursing home between now and the time we have 
a vaccine, we need tests that are easy to take and quick to respond. A 
test that you can take and have the answer in 10, 12, or 15 minutes

[[Page S4568]]

will make all the difference, and we continue to push for that in this 
bill.
  In fact, there is about $9 billion in a fund that maybe should have 
been designated a little more specifically, but it hasn't been spent. 
It was designed to be a testing fund. We should combine that with 
another $16 billion and make testing available for those priorities--
for nursing homes or in that State-Federal partnership.
  In this bill, we say that a priority for the Federal Government in 
that partnership is tests that work in nursing homes, tests that work 
in childcare centers, tests that work in elementary and secondary 
education, and tests that work in colleges and universities, that allow 
people to get back into those situations, including a residential 
campus, to know that when you are there, you have a way to not only 
test people quickly but get an answer quickly.
  Frankly, President Trump is right when he says that the way current 
testing has been working really doesn't do much but measure how many 
people had the disease. It doesn't even say how many people necessarily 
have the disease but how many people had the disease. If you have a 
test and you don't get an answer for 5 or 6 or 7 days, what good did it 
really do you to take the test? It certainly didn't do you much good in 
terms of not infecting others because you didn't know that you had it--
particularly if you are in that high percentage of people who don't 
have symptoms but are still able to spread the disease.
  That is why a test that gives you an answer in 15 minutes makes all 
the difference in the world. If you are on a college campus and take 
that test and in 15 minutes you have the answer, and if the answer is 
that you have this, your next place to go is somewhere by yourself.
  I think almost every campus returning to residential campus living is 
setting aside some of their dorm space--on some campuses, all their 
dorm space is single-student dorm rooms--but for every campus I talked 
to, some rooms are set aside just so the student has a place to go.
  If you show up at the nursing home as a worker and in 15 minutes you 
find out you have COVID, the last place you need to be is that nursing 
home. But if you don't know for 5 or 7 days whether you have COVID, it 
doesn't help out very much.
  I think what the President has said on testing makes a lot of sense. 
But it doesn't mean the tests aren't good; it means better tests. We 
have put a lot of money and effort behind those tests. Sometime in the 
next few days, I think the National Institutes of Health will be 
announcing tests that are moving forward that will do just what I 
suggested.
  We put another $26 billion toward a vaccine. Our colleague Senator 
Daines has been very helpful in looking at this organization called 
BARDA, which was designed a decade ago to be able to respond to a 
pandemic and never has been effectively used in that way, in my view. 
This time, we are using it and intend to continue to use it to form 
those partnerships with the private sector early on to begin to produce 
a vaccine, even when we don't know absolutely for sure that it is going 
to be FDA-approved. But we do know that if it is FDA-approved, we want 
it as soon as it can possibly be available. If it is not FDA-approved, 
it never gets used, but if it is FDA-approved, the difference between a 
vaccine that is available January 15 and a vaccine that is available 
May 15--it is worth the loss if it doesn't work out. Let's say you went 
forward with five of these vaccines, and three of them worked. Then you 
have vaccines--maybe 300 million doses on January 15, and you have to 
destroy a couple of hundred million doses because that didn't get 
through the full safety requirement. That makes all the difference in 
the world. Lives are saved, and the economy is restored. And we are 
moving forward with that. We are putting another $26 billion behind 
that.
  We also have language in our bill that requires an effort that was 
announced yesterday, which is for a group of scientific ethicists to 
start talking about what the priorities should be for that vaccine when 
we have it. Who should get it first? What should our priorities be? How 
do we distribute this in a way that seems fair and equitable? How do we 
distribute this in a way that somebody who can't get in a car and drive 
100 miles to a doctor and pay for the shot has the same chance to get 
the vaccine as somebody who could do all of those things? Our bill 
requires that.
  All of our discussions on this bill, plus our public discussions in a 
hearing we had a month ago, have said we want the administration to 
have a plan as to how to distribute the vaccine before we have the 
vaccine. Everybody thinks we might have a vaccine available by the end 
of this year or early next year. There is no reason to wait for that to 
happen to have a plan. I would like to see a plan on October 1. I told 
the Chief of Staff of the President that again yesterday.
  This bill provides money to be sure that people who go to places like 
community health centers are going to have a community health center 
that can respond to what they need. There is $7.6 billion for community 
health centers.
  There is another $25 billion for providers that lost income--which is 
almost every provider--during the last several months as our hospitals 
and our doctors and our surgical centers and other places were told: 
Here is what we want you to do. We want you to stop your income. We 
want you to stop all the elective things you can possibly stop. At the 
same time, we want you to be ready for the greatest healthcare crisis 
your facility will ever meet.
  So fully engaged in spending money and being ready to meet a crisis, 
but because you stopped income that you would normally have, we are 
trying to do what we can--not to exceed the income they would have 
normally had but to replace some of that income. There is also money 
for rural clinics that would step up and do that.
  Senator Capito and Senator Collins were particularly vigorous in 
making sure we had the money needed for people who have mental health 
challenges, many of whom have gotten worse during this isolation period 
and this job-loss period, or if you or somebody in your family is sick.
  The opioid deaths, the substance abuse deaths have gone back up for 
the first time in about 3 years. That is totally logical when you think 
about it. Had this headed in another direction, you would have a 
support system working that keeps you from returning to that habit, 
that dependency. Then you are suddenly by yourself. Maybe you are not 
only by yourself, but you are by yourself and you lost your job. Maybe 
you are by yourself, and your mother is sick with COVID, and you can't 
see your mom or dad or somebody in your family, and you are thinking: I 
wonder--surely I can do that thing that made me feel so good just one 
time and not be addicted. We know it doesn't work that way.
  Our Nation continues to face challenges, and with those challenges, 
we have asked the National Institutes of Health to look one more time 
and more closely at people's underlying conditions that might put them 
more at risk for COVID-19, see what has happened with minorities, with 
pregnant women, with children, and begin to drill down and figure out 
what we can do.
  As I have said before, bipartisan priorities should include school. 
Frankly, they also need to include childcare. If you are going to get 
America back to work, you are going to have to have a childcare system 
that works, and that is not going to happen on its own. About half of 
our childcare facilities have been closed since the 1st of March. The 
other half that has been open has struggled to stay open. Many have 
benefited from the PPP program, but at the same time, when they stay 
open or when others reopen with social distancing and the reluctance of 
people to send their kids back to a place where there are lots of other 
kids, there is probably no more than 50-percent occupancy. You are not 
going to make up for that by doubling the amount that families pay for 
childcare. You need to make up for that with the kinds of grants and 
assistance that are in this bill. It is about getting students back to 
school, getting people back to work, and getting childcare facilities 
working.
  Senator Ernst, who was just on the floor, and Senator Loeffler have 
both been big advocates of what we need to do to make childcare a 
priority.

[[Page S4569]]

  Schools need to reopen safely based on State and local criteria. This 
bill includes money for schools to do that. There is about $70 billion 
for elementary and secondary schools. Frankly, we are a little bit 
ahead of where the House was with the Heroes Act. If you get into a 
bidding war with the House, you are never going to win. You need a 
realistic discussion. Only 90 days ago or so or 60 days ago, the House 
felt it needed $100 billion to reopen schools. We suggested $105 
billion. In some report, I read that the House then decided, well, 
maybe it should be $400 billion if the Senate were willing to spend 
$105 billion.
  We should be able to figure this out and figure this out quickly, 
with some of that money being available only if you go back to school 
in person and some of it being available if you go back to school 
virtually, as others will do, depending, again, on their situations 
locally.
  We are ready to move forward. Answers to these important questions 
are in this bill. I look forward to talking about it not only with our 
Democratic colleagues in the Senate but with our colleagues in the 
House.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the relief that the 
HEALS Act will provide to those in farm country and rural America as 
they weather the challenges of COVID-19.
  It is so important, for they are out there for us every day, 
producing that food supply. They had incredible challenges before this 
COVID-19 started. The Presiding Officer is from an ag State. He knows 
the kind of challenges we are facing. Obviously, we need to be there 
for them as we go through this coronavirus fight.
  I want to start by thanking them. They provide us with the lowest 
cost, highest quality food supply in the world. Think about it. Every 
single American benefits every single day from what our farmers and 
ranchers do with food, fuel, and fiber. Just the food piece alone means 
that Americans have the highest quality, lowest cost food supply in the 
history of the world. This is thanks to our farmers and ranchers. 
Rarely, if ever, has there been a more appropriate time to say thank 
you to the men and women who provide us with that food supply, and the 
resilience of our ag producers, in the face of tremendous hardship that 
has been caused by the global health pandemic, serves as a real 
testament to their grit and to their determination.
  That is why we have worked to provide additional support for farmers, 
ranchers, and processors in this HEALS Act. The legislation includes 
$20 billion in direct appropriation, which will be used for our farmers 
and ranchers, along with other funding that we were able to secure in 
the CARES Act. We are trying to also do it in a cost-effective way. In 
recognizing that we have a debt and deficit we have to be mindful of, 
what we are trying to do is to actually utilize funding that we put 
together in the CARES Act for the CCC, or the Commodity Credit 
Corporation. We are taking $14 billion of that and combining it with 
the $20 billion from this legislation to make sure that we have 
adequate funding--a total of about $34 billion--to address the needs in 
farm country.
  Prior to the coronavirus, farmers entered 2020 after 7 years of rural 
recession caused by low commodity prices, trade disruptions, and some 
really tough weather and natural disasters. Yet our farmers and 
ranchers are the eternal optimists--they have to be--so they go into 
every year with that grit and determination and continue to provide 
that food supply that we all rely on.
  Now, of course, you add COVID-19 into the mix. Storefronts have 
closed. Restaurants have shuttered their doors. Processing plants have 
limited and, in some cases, shut down operations. Of course, ag prices 
are also down. Farmers and ranchers came into a tough situation and now 
face further challenges with the pricing and the other challenges 
created by COVID-19, as I said. Though it will take some time to really 
quantify those losses, the reports we have right now indicate that 
losses in the ag sector could be near $42 billion. For example, losses 
in the cattle industry alone could total as much as $13 billion.
  We need to be there for them because, again, they are not only out 
there producing the food; they are doing other things to help out as 
well. For example, there are a couple of stories about our farmer 
groups that are making an effort to help others.
  In May, R.D. Offutt Farms, which is one of our Nation's premier 
potato growers that is based in Fargo, ND, donated 37,000 pounds of 
frozen potato products to the Great Plains Food Bank. The North Dakota 
Stockmen's Association and its foundation donated $20,000 to the same 
food bank to purchase beef from North Dakota ranchers. The North Dakota 
Farmers Union and Farmers Union Enterprises teamed up to donate 30,000 
pounds of pork ribs to the Great Plains Food Bank as well. Those types 
of stories go on.
  So while the farmers and ranchers of America are out there, fighting 
their own challenges, they are helping others at the same time, and I 
think that it is truly, truly remarkable
  In the CARES Act, we took the first important step by providing $9.5 
billion to the USDA, the Department of Ag, along with the $14 billion, 
which I just referenced, to replenish the CCC. As I mentioned earlier, 
we have utilized some of that funding to provide assistance, but now we 
are going to take that additional $14 billion and combine it with the 
funding here of $20 billion to make sure we can get that assistance off 
to the farmers.
  Again, we are working to do this in a way that is prudent with our 
taxpayers' dollars in recognizing the challenges we have with debt and 
deficit. We have to be mindful of it, but at the same time, we have to 
make sure we are getting adequate assistance out to those great farmers 
and ranchers across America who are getting it done for all Americans 
every single day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I rise to discuss the HEALS Act.
  As we continue to confront this coronavirus pandemic, we have to 
ensure that our schools and our employers can safely reopen. Our 
healthcare providers must also have the resources they need to continue 
to provide essential care to all Americans to fight this virus and to 
help this Nation return to some semblance of normalcy as quickly as 
possible. We have to also provide liability protection for those 
schools, businesses, and healthcare providers while they do their very 
best to operate safely during this unusual, once-in-a-generation, once-
in-multiple-generations pandemic. The HEALS Act will help to provide 
these protections.
  The HEALS Act also includes several provisions that I have been 
championing, including legislation to address unemployment insurance 
system reform.
  We note that there have been a lot of challenges associated with the 
legacy computer systems, and we should never ever have to endure this 
again.
  Financial assistance to help childcare providers reopen has also been 
another priority of mine. I recognize that our childcare providers play 
an essential role in not just caring for our children and ensuring they 
remain educated and in a safe environment when their parents aren't 
around but in also being critical to our broader economy. If your kids 
aren't taken care of, you can't go to work, and Hoosiers want to go to 
work.
  Finally, we have telehealth legislation that has been included in 
this HEALS Act that will lead to greater affordability and access, 
especially as many of these authorities are made permanent in the 
future. This is a way to bend the cost curve down and provide a higher 
value for each of those healthcare dollars in our moving forward.
  It also includes the TRUST Act, which is something that I helped to 
introduce in order to establish a bipartisan national plan to finally 
begin tackling the long-term drivers of our national debt once we get 
through this coronavirus pandemic. I have been talking about this and 
have sometimes been criticized for talking about fiscal responsibility 
and the largest drivers of our long-term national debt. I am 
unapologetic every time I talk about it. This TRUST Act would establish 
a bipartisan national plan to finally begin tackling this, and I hope 
it will remain in the package as negotiations continue.

[[Page S4570]]

  Most importantly, I am glad the HEALS Act includes some really 
important features of my RESTART Act, which is a bipartisan piece of 
legislation that I introduced with Senator Bennet. We now have 
somewhere north of 42, 44 bipartisan cosponsors. We have 50 national 
groups--and growing--that are supportive of this legislation. It is 
very important that these features remain in the HEALS Act.
  Like my RESTART Act, the HEALS Act recognizes the need for having 
long-term working capital loans and targeting that relief toward 
businesses that have suffered significant revenue decline. We don't 
want more examples of businesses that are doing just fine in the wake 
of the pandemic getting access to moneys that, frankly, they don't 
need. Instead, we want to target our resources toward the hardest hit 
businesses that will not survive this pandemic. That is what the 
RESTART Act does, and I am proud of those features that were included. 
However, I have to say, in order to truly assist the hardest hit small- 
and medium-sized enterprises that have fallen through the gaps of 
previous programs, more of the RESTART Act is going to have to be 
included throughout this negotiation process.
  Last night, I received a text from a longtime friend of mine. Her 
name is Sheila. Sheila is a resident of Dearborn County, IN. Gosh, 
Sheila is an incredibly hard-working person, and she texted me the 
following:

       Todd, I saw you on C-SPAN today. I really appreciate how 
     you bring up the Hoosiers. When you are writing this next 
     bill, please consider small businesses like my husband and I 
     have. Pat is the lone legal owner of our catering business. 
     We invested all of the revenue made over the few years into 
     our business, buying equipment, et cetera. Because of this 
     investment, we had an impressive schedule of events this past 
     spring, summer, and fall lined up. This time of year gives 
     our barbecue business our greatest exposure and opportunity 
     for financial gain. We were ineligible for a PPP loan because 
     we did not show a profit. When composing the next PPP, please 
     consider single-person business owners like our barbecue and 
     catering business. God bless you.

  Well, God bless you, Sheila. It is hard-working people and couples 
and partnering Americans who help build this country. It is innovators 
and entrepreneurs and doers and dreamers and workers like Sheila.
  If we don't provide this much needed relief now, I am really 
concerned that we are going to be in a far worse position in the weeks 
and months to come.
  As more businesses close permanently, they go bankrupt; they are no 
longer paying payroll taxes. Then there is greater damage done to the 
economy and to our Nation's balance sheet.
  I am also concerned about our ability as a country to fully recover 
once there is a vaccine available. It is our small and medium-sized 
enterprises, which you disproportionately find in States like Indiana, 
the heartland of the country, where so much innovation occurs. It is 
not always in these large businesses; it is the smaller enterprises 
where the innovation occurs. Then, ultimately, it is the big businesses 
that acquire these innovative businesses.
  So we want these engines--these incubators of innovation, these small 
businesses, medium-sized businesses that are innovative and 
entrepreneurial--to survive this difficult time.
  They are also pillars, frankly, of Main Street, America. We take 
pride in our small businesses, many of which have been so hard hit. We 
don't want to hollow out Main Street America on the back end of this. 
The most fiscally irresponsible thing we could do here at the Federal 
level of government is to fail to respond to the needs of these small 
and medium-sized enterprises.
  So the additional assistance that I am calling for is critical to, 
for example, the more than 500,000 manufacturing employees in the State 
of Indiana, the most manufacturing-intensive State in the country.
  It is also critical to the 200,000 Hoosier restaurant employees laid 
off or furloughed since March. We have been able to provide them some 
short-term assistance, but this virus and the challenges associated 
with it have lingered on much longer than all of us had hoped, and we 
are going to have to help out these employers so that they have a place 
to go back to work once we figure this thing out.
  This assistance is critical to the small music venues that enrich our 
local communities throughout the State of Indiana and across our 
country, which are facing permanent closure, too, and the countless 
restaurants, gyms, salons, boutiques, hotels, retailers, and other 
small businesses that are essential pillars of our community.
  I grew up in a small business family. We had our up years; we had our 
down years. We had some rough Christmases. My dad, my mom--they took 
great pride in that family business. They made it. They worked hard. 
But they saw nothing like this virus. We need to help these businesses. 
These businesses are in dire straits not because any bad business 
decisions were made, but, instead, because this virus came from 
overseas, disrupted our lives, and in the interest of public health, 
our employees had to stay home. People stopped buying the same things 
they were buying. Our shopping patterns changed.
  At some point we will resume some semblance of normalcy. We are 
getting there. But in the meantime, we need a bridge to the other side 
of this virus. We need to make sure that all of the provisions of the 
RESTART Act make it into the HEALS Act.
  Since Senator Bennet and I introduced the RESTART Act in May, our 
legislation has received support from more than 40 bipartisan Senators. 
I am proud of that. There is a lot of hard work going on in the U.S. 
House of Representatives to get Members of the House to sign up as 
well. It has also been endorsed by roughly 50 national organizations 
and more than 50 Indiana businesses, and these are prominent national 
organizations, including, for example, the National Association of 
Manufacturers.
  Given the widespread support for the RESTART Act, I will continue to 
work with my colleagues to ensure that more of it is included in the 
final coronavirus package. I hope we get all of it included. We have to 
ensure that we are caring for those who have suffered the most.
  To Sheila and to Pat, you have my word--you have my word, as you did 
the first day we met, that I would do everything I could to fight for 
the people of Indiana, to fight for what is right, to fight tirelessly 
on behalf of my customers--you and the millions of Hoosiers I 
represent--answering only to my ultimate bosses: God and the 
Constitution.
  I will fulfill that pledge and continue fighting for all of you 
during this difficult time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CRAMER. Mr. President, first of all, I want to associate myself 
with the message delivered just a little bit ago by my senior Senator 
from North Dakota, Senator Hoeven, and echo his words about the 
importance of farmers and ranchers, all of our agricultural producers--
those who produce the food and the fiber and the fuel for our country.
  They need assistance, and I am really grateful that Senator Hoeven 
has played such a lead role in getting them assistance in the HEALS 
Act. It is critical
  I want to join the rest of my colleagues today in discussing the 
HEALS Act and demonstrating our support for the merit of this important 
bill. The ultimate answer to the problems that we face as a result of 
this virus, of course, lies in the healthcare industry and in our 
healthcare in fighting against this enemy, the virus. That is why we 
are calling for more funding for testing and treatments and, 
ultimately, a vaccine, hopefully, and hopefully soon.
  As we do so, we also have to make sure that our economy is healthy, 
that our economy survives, and that our education system remains 
available and accessible to our students in the classroom.
  Jobs, kids, and healthcare, students, parents, and patients--these 
are what Senate Republicans are fighting for.
  I have introduced bipartisan legislation to further this goal. I 
believe we should include it in the HEALS Act in its entirety. Many 
pieces of it are in, but I think we can do more.
  The Paycheck Protection Small Business Forgiveness Act would offer 
streamlined forgiveness for any borrower of a Paycheck Protection 
Program loan of $150,000 or less who fills out a simple one-page form 
attesting that they spent the loan dollars the way they are supposed 
to.

[[Page S4571]]

  With the expected forgiveness guidance from the bureaucracy, 
businesses and lenders will have to spend billions of dollars to 
receive the forgiveness that was promised them. In fact, we estimate 
that each borrower would have to spend $2,000--and each lender $500 per 
loan--just to comply with what the bureaucracy comes up with. That 
doesn't even include the dollars we have to spend on the bureaucracy 
itself.
  We created the PPP to help small businesses and their employees 
survive, not to create a bureaucracy that will bury them in paperwork.
  So who are these borrowers of PPP loans of $150,000 or less? Well, 
loans of this size make up--listen to this--85 percent or 4.2 million 
of the loans but only 25 percent or $132 million of the loaned amount. 
Imagine that: 85 percent of the loans are in this category--4.2 million 
of roughly 5 million loans. So that means 15 percent of the authorized 
PPP loans make up 75 percent of the borrowed money.
  In North Dakota, the average loan was only $91,000, but under current 
law, the bureaucracy would, regardless of loan size, seek to 
indiscriminately verify and approve forgiveness applications, and they 
haven't even come up with the form to do it with yet.
  This would require a significant growth in the government and in the 
bureaucracy that we cannot afford, only to make small businesses and 
lenders spend time and money they can't afford to spend to comply with 
this bureaucracy. It makes no sense.
  Lest we forget, when the Senate unanimously passed the CARES Act, we 
made our intent clear: PPP loans would become grants for the businesses 
that spent the money properly, and the banks were there to help guide 
them. There was no caveat that the loan would come with unnecessary 
bureaucracy. In fact, quite the opposite was true. The implication was 
that it would not come with additional bureaucracy.
  The bipartisan bill that I introduced with Senators Menendez, Tillis, 
and Sinema--and now has 25 Senate sponsors--would fulfill our original 
intent and the promise we made to lenders and applicants by creating a 
simple, accountable process for loan forgiveness.
  Our bill also includes a provision which makes sure that the lenders 
will not be held responsible for improper actions of the borrowers, 
while still ensuring proper enforcement action can be taken if 
necessary. In fact, the accountability structure is intact.
  When we passed the CARES Act, we literally encouraged businesses to 
apply for PPP and urged the bureaucracy and the lenders to get the 
money out the door fast. We were in a crisis. We were trying to keep 
people from being laid off and let go.
  Largely, we were successful, but that success could be undone if we 
do not take the next steps properly. We shouldn't backtrack on the 
guidance we gave lenders by holding them accountable for the decisions 
the borrowers made.
  Fraud is a concern, for sure, which is why my proposal keeps all 
audit authorities intact. If a borrower falsely attests to using the 
funds correctly, the Federal Government is able to investigate and hold 
them accountable. If this sounds like a commonsense approach, that is 
because it is.
  This bipartisan measure was popular from the start, and it is gaining 
support still, with a quarter of the Senate, a sizable number in the 
House, and now close to 200 business associations and groups from the 
entire political spectrum supporting it.
  Why wouldn't it be popular? It aligns with the very same principles 
we are fighting for right here today--jobs, kids, and healthcare.
  No small business owner figuring out how to safely send their kid to 
school should have to worry about unnecessary red tape. No employee of 
a shop on Main Street should have to live in fear of being laid off 
because their employer might not perfectly comply with the arbitrary 
requirements put forth for them by a bureaucrat in Washington. No 
brother, sister, son, or daughter should have to sit down and crunch 
the numbers to make sure they have enough money to apply for loan 
forgiveness while supporting their family at home.
  The fear they face is real. ``Small business'' is not just an 
arbitrary designation. They are the backbone of America. They are the 
employers of the vast majority of people in our country, and their 
anxiety is our anxiety.
  Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin told the House 
committee that this is an idea we should consider, and I agree. We 
should consider it in bipartisan negotiations and add it to the HEALS 
Act in its entirety. It will give our small businesses the peace of 
mind they need, like the rest of us, while they fight for their 
livelihoods during this pandemic.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be allowed to 
complete my remarks before the rollcall vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, first, let me say I concur with the 
comments by the Senator from North Dakota. I think he makes wonderful 
points about what is being done in terms of pandemic relief and the 
issues that we as a nation are facing.
  As his State and mine are similar, with so many small businesses, and 
we see the impact and the success related to the Paycheck Protection 
Program, I just want to associate my beliefs with those that we have 
just heard expressed from the Senator from North Dakota.


                                Protests

  I come to the floor today to talk about another epidemic, and that is 
the epidemic of violence that is sweeping our country.
  Monday's Washington Post headline warns: ``Protests explode across 
the country; police declare riots in Seattle and Portland.''
  Tuesday's Wall Street Journal editorial is headlined: ``A Weekend of 
Urban Anarchy.'' ``A weekend of Urban Anarchy.'' In Seattle, on 
Saturday, rioters blew a hole in a police precinct. They hurled 
explosives, and they injured 53 police officers. In Portland, rioters 
threw Molotov cocktails Friday night. Several officers were hit with 
heavy explosives. The rioters returned Sunday and attacked the 
courthouse.
  In spite of what the Democrats say when they call these ``peaceful 
protests,'' these are not peaceful and they are not protests. This is 
active violence. This is organized violence, and it is meant to destroy 
and to intimidate.
  Portland has now endured 60 days of senseless destruction. These 
violent protests are a powder keg for our entire Nation. The rioters 
threaten entire communities. They are ruining lives, and they are 
ruining neighborhoods. They are wrecking public property, and they are 
wrecking private property. They burn, they loot, and they kill.
  Across the country, a number of police officers have been killed. 
According to the New York Times report, murder rates in our big cities 
are now up 16 percent compared to last year. In New York alone, murders 
are up 24 percent. In Atlanta, murder is up 31 percent. In Chicago, 
murder is up 51 percent. In Chicago, last week, 15 people were shot 
while attending the funeral of a victim of gang violence. Children are 
being hurt and killed. A 7-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were 
among those shot and killed in Chicago over the Fourth of July weekend.
  This is a crisis of leadership in our liberal cities. Where are the 
Democratic mayors? They have surrendered to the mob. Where are the 
Democratic Governors? They have surrendered to the mob. Instead of 
leading, they are turning their backs on the safety and security of the 
law-abiding citizens of our communities. In these liberal cities, mob 
rule has replaced the rule of law. We are seeing in realtime--in 
realtime--the result of the radical ``defund the police'' movement that 
is embraced by many Democrats.
  We should defend, not defund, the police and law enforcement. 
Americans do not want to defund the police. According to a recent 
Rasmussen poll, two out of three Americans oppose cutting police 
funding. A majority say that they want the Federal Government to help 
fight crime in these cities. One thing is clear: The violent rioting 
plaguing our cities cannot continue. The police are being targeted for 
doing their job, and their jobs come at great personal risk. At the 
same time, elected Democratic mayors and city

[[Page S4572]]

council members and Governors refuse to condemn the rioting and the 
coldblooded murder.
  It is time for local leaders to restore law and order. It is time to 
make sure our communities are safe again. The death and destruction 
lies at the feet of elected Democratic leaders. Each must be held 
accountable for their leadership failure.
  I yield the floor.


                             Cloture Motion

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant to rule XXII, the Chair lays before 
the Senate the pending cloture motion, which the clerk will state.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination 
     of Marvin Kaplan, of Kansas, to be a Member of the National 
     Labor Relations Board for the term of five years expiring 
     August 27, 2025. (Reappointment)
         Mitch McConnell, Joni Ernst, John Thune, Cindy Hyde-
           Smith, Roy Blunt, John Cornyn, Marsha Blackburn, Deb 
           Fischer, John Barrasso, Shelley Moore Capito, Todd 
           Young, John Boozman, Lamar Alexander, David Perdue, 
           Kevin Cramer, Tim Scott, Michael B. Enzi.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum 
call has been waived.
  The question is, Is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the 
nomination of Marvin Kaplan, of Kansas, to be a Member of the National 
Labor Relations Board for the term of five years expiring August 27, 
2025, shall be brought to a close?
  The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Texas (Mr. Cruz).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Markey) is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote or to change their vote?
  The yeas and nays resulted--yeas 52, nays 46, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 148 Ex.]

                                YEAS--52

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Daines
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Loeffler
     McConnell
     McSally
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Paul
     Perdue
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Romney
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--46

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Jones
     Kaine
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Manchin
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Cruz
     Markey
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas are 52, the nays are 46.
  The motion is agreed to.

                          ____________________