[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4616-S4617]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               HEALS Act

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on Monday, the Republicans introduced a 
trillion-dollar proposal to give American families more coronavirus 
relief. Most urgently, the Republicans want to continue a Federal 
supplement to State unemployment insurance, which is set to expire, as 
we all know, tomorrow.
  If our Democratic colleagues had acted with the urgency that 
struggling people deserve, we could right now be finishing up a major 
bipartisan package for kids, jobs, and healthcare. If our Democratic 
colleagues had acted with urgency, unemployed Americans wouldn't be 
facing a total elimination of this extra help.
  Instead, jobless Americans are staring down this cliff because 
Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader have refused to negotiate. 
They have refused to move 1 inch from the Speaker's far-left proposal 
that is so absurd and so unserious that their own moderate Democratic 
Members began trashing it the instant it came out. This is the 
multitrillion-dollar boondoggle that would tax and borrow in order to 
provide a massive tax cut to the rich people in blue States--the SALT 
giveaway; that would fund diversity studies of the legal pot industry; 
and that would do 1,000 other things with no relationship whatsoever to 
the crisis.
  Just a few minutes ago, our colleague from Wisconsin tried to get 
consent to continue the unemployment assistance to prevent it from 
expiring tomorrow, and the Democratic leader objected unless he got to 
pass the entirety of the massive wish list. The Republicans want to 
continue this aid before it expires, but the Democratic leader says: 
Let them eat SALT.
  This is what was written about their proposal: ``Privately, several 
House Democrats concede [the bill] feels like

[[Page S4617]]

little more than an effort to appease the most liberal members of the 
caucus.''
  Yet, now, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader have declared that 
unemployed Americans will not get another cent--not another cent--
unless the Senate agrees to pass the entire bill that even the 
Democrats say is ridiculous. This is their position: Unemployed people, 
schools, hospitals, and American families will not see another dime 
unless they get to cut taxes for millionaires in Brooklyn and San 
Francisco. That is what this is about.
  Sure, they will call the Republicans names for wanting to make sure 
the system doesn't pay people more not to work, but the Democratic 
leader gave away the game this morning. He said on the floor that he 
now opposes even continuing the aid at the $600 level. They want 
jobless aid to expire tomorrow--period. Lest we forget, just a few days 
ago, multiple Democratic Senators and the Democratic House majority 
leader were all saying they were prepared to negotiate and land 
somewhere south of $600. Multiple Democrats said they were open to 
continuing the aid at a level that didn't pay people more to stay home.
  Now the Democratic leader hasn't just contradicted his colleagues and 
refused to talk, he has gone even further and declared he will not even 
let the aid continue at $600. The Democratic leader has tried to rule 
out every option except that of leaving the Capitol today and beginning 
his weekend with this unemployment benefit set to expire.
  These aren't the actions, my friends, that would lead to any 
agreement. They aren't the actions that will actually make a law.
  I am not sure whether my Democratic colleagues really agree that 
hurting unemployed people is their side's best political strategy, but 
if that is their position, they will have to vote on it with the entire 
country to see.
  In just a moment, I am going to make the Senate vote on a privileged 
motion that will be a motion to proceed to legislation which would be 
used to prevent the unemployment aid from expiring.
  We have a number of views on both sides of the best way to accomplish 
that. The bill would be amendable. Nobody who actually wants to 
negotiate, nobody who actually wants a bipartisan outcome would be 
disadvantaged by merely proceeding to the debate.
  We have had enough rope-a-dope. We have had enough empty talk. It is 
time to go on the record. We will see who really wants a bipartisan 
outcome for the country and who is trying their hardest to block one.

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