[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4614-S4615]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               HEALS Act

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, if you want to know what is wrong with 
Washington, take a snapshot of this day. Take a snapshot of where we 
stand at this moment.
  In the midst of the worst health crisis in American history in 100 
years and in the midst of the worst economic setback in 75 years, we 
have reached the point in the U.S. Senate where we are going to adjourn 
until next week, leaving in doubt whether 30 million unemployed 
Americans will continue to receive support from the Federal Government. 
How have we reached this point?
  Well, in anticipation of this moment, 10 weeks ago, the House of 
Representatives passed a rescue package that not only addressed 
unemployment benefits but a score of other major concerns we have at 
this moment in our history and at this moment in our economy--10 weeks 
ago.
  Since then, the burden has been on the Republican leader in the U.S. 
Senate, Senator McConnell, of Kentucky, to pick up the challenge and to 
produce his own approach, whatever it may be, representing his caucus--
the Republican caucus--on what to do with the economy and what to do 
with the pandemic. We stand today, preparing to leave for 3 or 4 days, 
with nothing--nothing.
  The situation is so bad that an individual Republican Senator decided 
to come to the floor and see if he could fix it. I disagree with his 
approach completely, but I respect the fact that he is as frustrated as 
we all are waiting on Senator McConnell to come forward.
  Here is the reality of what we face and the reality that Senator 
McConnell should face. Any solution coming out of the Senate needs to 
be bipartisan. Democrats and Republicans need to agree, and we did on 
March 26. The vote was 96 to nothing for the CARES Act--96 to nothing. 
I went home to Illinois and people would come up to me and say: I can't 
believe you did that. I didn't think you agreed on anything in 
Washington, but you all agreed on one thing, the most significant 
economic rescue package in the history of the United States.
  Well, we were challenged to do it again, and we have failed miserably 
in the Senate. Under the current leadership with a Republican majority, 
they cannot produce a bill to bring to conference or at least to a 
conference table between the House and the Senate.
  I would like to address directly some of the arguments being made. 
Here is one that you have heard over and over. I think it is an urban 
legend, and I want to say a word about it. Here is how it goes: $600 a 
week? At $600 a week, at that level, individuals will not even take a 
job. They will sit home on the couch and watch another round of 
Netflix, binging, and they will not even want to go back to work. How 
many times have you heard that $600 is just too much money? I can tell 
you that $600 is the equivalent of $15 an hour, which many of us 
believe is at least a minimum living wage. It is certainly not a luxury 
salary for anyone. If you have lost your job, that $600 Federal check, 
together with whatever the State sends your way, has to pay for a lot 
of things: rent, mortgage, car payments, utilities--did I mention 
health insurance?--food, clothing for the kids, the debts you have 
already incurred leading into this, and your credit cards. All of a 
sudden, $600 a week tends to evaporate.
  What if you had health insurance where you worked, and they laid you 
off or fired you and said it was over, that they are closing down? If 
you tried to pick up the employer's share of your health insurance, the 
average cost is $1,700 a month. So $600 a week, $2,400 a month, and 
$1,700 of it is just going to keep the health insurance you had on the 
job?
  Then there is this abiding notion that people who are unemployed just 
aren't trying hard enough to get a job. They say: You know, the jobs 
are out there, and these folks are just saying: I would rather not.
  Let's take a look at the facts, and here are the facts. For every job 
that is available in America today, there are four unemployed people. 
So it isn't as if it is the other way around, one job for every four 
unemployed people. It is four unemployed people for each job that is 
available.
  And to the argument by some employers that, well, I just can't get 
them to come back to work, it turns out that employers are filling jobs 
faster now than at any time. There are people prepared to go back to 
work. I happen to believe that many of these people see returning to 
work as the right thing to do for them economically. Unemployment 
cannot last forever; they know that. Secondly, it may not be meeting 
their needs, as their family requires of them. Third, the job itself 
may be something they had invested part of their life into and want to 
continue. Fourth, there may be benefits in that workplace that aren't 
available, even through the unemployment system available today. So I 
reject the notion--this urban legend--that $600 a week is so much that 
people are turning down the opportunity to go back to work. It is not 
an urban legend; it is an urban lie.
  Yale University just came out with a report from their economics 
department this week. I put it into the Record yesterday. You can find 
it, if you wish. It proves the point I just made. They looked at the 
statistics. This is just not a viable complaint against the 
unemployment system.
  What Senator McConnell has led us to is this moment, where, when we 
return next week, there will be no Federal unemployment benefit--none. 
It will have expired. What do we say to these millions of family 
members who are struggling at this moment? Try harder. Go take 
anything. That is what the future is for you.
  I don't believe that. I think we are a better nation than that.
  Facing the worst public health crisis that we have seen in a century, 
realizing what it has done to each and every one of our lives and 
families, understanding how devastating it must be to lose a job in the 
midst of this, that sometimes people for the first time aren't working, 
realizing how desperate

[[Page S4615]]

these families are to keep things together, are we really going to walk 
away from them? I think it is time for Senator McConnell to sit down 
with the Democratic leaders. There is no alternative to this.
  Steve Mnuchin, the wandering messenger on Capitol Hill, can do his 
job--and I wish him well--but it is no replacement for grown-ups to sit 
at the same table, to sit down and work out a compromise. We did on 
March 26. We can do it again. We need to do it for these families.
  I will tell you something else. When we get reports about the state 
of the economy--and I have heard numbers back and forth--that on an 
annualized basis it is contracting from 29 percent to 33 percent, that 
is a big amount. It is one out of three businesses. A third of the 
goods and services in this country--think about that--going away and 
disappearing. We have already seen evidence of that.
  What do you do to put life back into an economy? Don't take my word 
for it. Listen to the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. 
He said it again yesterday: We have to deal with this pandemic; that 
means more testing.
  The Republican proposal that is floating here and has not been 
offered, is $26 billion more in testing. We are at $100 billion. I 
think we need at least $100 billion. Why do we need it? So it is 
generally available, easily available to every person and family in 
America; so that it is affordable--and I hope that means free--and, 
most importantly, so that it is timely.
  To people who say, well, I took a test, I ask: How long did it take 
to get the results on your COVID-19 test? They say: Oh, 6 days, 7 days. 
That is not a timely test that you can use to make a plan. It is a 
piece of medical data. It is a piece of history. If we are going to 
hope to open this economy in a responsible way, to get to contact 
tracing that really works, if we hope to open our schools so they are 
safe for the kids and the teachers and the administrators and everyone 
else, we need testing available, and we need a system of testing that 
is timely.
  We have failed in addressing this pandemic. Why do I say that? It 
sounds like an outrageous political statement. Because the United 
States has 5 percent of the population in the world and 25 percent of 
the COVID infections. Twenty-five percent of the COVID infections in 
the world are in this country and 5 percent of the population. Other 
countries have handled this better. We know it. We should learn from 
them.
  This President has to get away from the medical quackery which he 
spreads around on his Twitter account and in his speeches. He has to 
stop looking at these medical gurus, which he discovers in the weird 
corners of the internet, and peddling their goods for the rest of 
America. He has to show some guts and wear a mask more often so people 
understand that even Trump Republicans need to take into consideration 
what they are doing to the people around them. That, to me, is the only 
way to get out of this mess and do it quickly. Otherwise, we are going 
to face this more.
  We should have done better. By this time, we should have had an 
alternative to what the House did 10 weeks ago. We do not. By next 
week, we have to do it.
  I will just say flat out that there is no point in considering going 
home at the end of next week unless we have solved this problem. There 
is no excuse.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator for South Dakota.