[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 135 (Thursday, July 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4625-S4626]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               HEALS Act

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is Thursday afternoon, and normally I 
come down to the Senate floor to talk about the Alaskan of the Week--
what I call that person. It is one of my favorite things to do in the 
Senate. But I just witnessed something so remarkable and disturbing 
that I actually want to come down to the Senate floor and explain what 
just happened on the floor because I think a lot of people probably 
missed it, if they are watching at home, and maybe didn't understand 
it. There was a lot of discussion going on here. Let me just say that 
the Senate minority leader from New York just objected to extending the 
current level of unemployment insurance in the CARES Act--$600 a week 
to help American workers who had been laid off due to the pandemic. He 
just objected to that and stopped legislation that was moving on the 
floor to extend unemployment insurance for another week. Let me repeat 
that: The Senate minority leader of the U.S. Senate, when we are moving 
in good faith, as we are discussing and negotiating bills here, one 
element of CARES that is going to expire at the end of this month, 
unemployment insurance in the CARES Act, the Senate minority leader 
just blocked that from happening. Who knows why, but there will be 
millions of Americans, in 2 days, who will lose that benefit, and the 
Senate minority leader just blocked it.
  I sure hope our friends in the media write this story because that is 
exactly, exactly, exactly what happened.
  Let me describe in a little bit more detail. As you would expect in a 
democracy, in the U.S. Senate, we have been debating, working on, and 
negotiating a new relief package due to the pandemic. In March, we 
passed unanimously in this body the CARES Act to try to bring relief to 
our fellow Americans whom we knew were going to be hurting from this 
pandemic. We didn't have a crystal ball on how long relief could last 
or should last for unemployment, for businesses, for small businesses, 
for families, for hospitals, for schools, or for fishermen. So we are 
now working on, as you expect in a democracy, what we view as the 
appropriate next level because this has extended longer than any of us 
thought, and the impacts are very significant. That is what we are 
doing here.

[[Page S4626]]

  The Republicans put forward the Health, Economic Assistance, 
Liability Protection, and Schools Act--HEALS. I think it is a good 
bill. It is not a perfect bill, but it has very significant--very 
significant resources for schools, for hospitals, and for families.
  When I was home in Alaska and taking calls with my fellow Alaskans 
and heard what their priorities are and heard what they said was really 
important for them to have in any kind of the next relief package, part 
of my job is to listen and try to work hard to get that done.
  There is a lot in the HEALS Act that is exactly what my constituents 
have been pressing for, what they need, and what I believe they need.
  Let me give you a couple of examples: more flexibility for States and 
local governments on how to use the CARES Act funding that they already 
have, a very high priority; additional funds for our fishermen. The 
Presiding Officer knows how important that is, being from Florida. The 
original CARES Act had $300 million. That was a provision I got into 
the CARES Act for fishermen. It is not enough but something important 
to this really critical part of the Alaskan, American, and Florida 
economies. The HEALS Act has $500 million in it because they have been 
hit so hard. There is economic assistance in terms of another round of 
paycheck protection for small businesses whose revenues have been 
crushed, like in the tourism industry. Again, that is something my 
constituents have been asking about. Allowing 501(c)6s to access the 
PPP, that is in there. Allowing certain PPP borrowers, like fishermen 
and seasonal businesses to request an increase in loan amounts due to 
the changes that were in the interim final rules that came out of the 
Treasury Department, that is in there. Dramatic expansion of testing, 
more funding for vaccine development, everyone wants that. Securing 
supply chains for crucial medical equipment and critical minerals, many 
of which we have in Alaska, that is all in there. It is a pretty good 
bill. It is not perfect, but it is a pretty good bill.
  The competing bill, you may have seen, you may have read in the paper 
a couple of months ago, came from the House--the so-called Heroes Act. 
It is a behemoth in terms of the pricetag, and it has some things that, 
actually, are similar to the HEALS Act: school funding, hospitals. It 
has other things that aren't in the HEALS Act, some things that I think 
would be completely unnecessary: a huge tax break for some of the 
richest Americans in the HEROES Act. Yes, that is in there. Economic 
impact payments for illegal immigrants--I don't think that is a 
priority right now, at least not for my constituents. An overt attack 
on Alaska Native organizations, dozens and dozens of them, Alaska 
Native corporations, stripping them of any Federal funds they receive 
in the CARES Act, that is in the House-passed Heroes Act. Trust me, 
that will never pass on the Senate floor because I will not allow it. 
But that is in there. It is a highly inappropriate attack on 20 percent 
of the population in my State.
  But here is the point: These are starting points. This is what 
happens in the Senate--or at least I thought these were starting 
points.
  But I guess I was wrong because, when my good friend from Arizona 
came down and said we are having negotiations on these bills, we are 
having negotiations on how and to what degree to extend unemployment 
insurance from the Federal Government--she put forward a bill that we 
all agreed to that said, because we are negotiating right now and the 
one thing in the CARES Act that expires at the end of this month is 
unemployment insurance, let's extend it--at the current level.
  It is right now. Let's extend it so the people who are relying on it 
can have something for the next week while we continue to negotiate and 
debate. That is very reasonable. That happens all the time here.
  The Senate minority leader came down, and he blocked it. He blocked 
it. If you are not going to be receiving a check next week, there is 
one person you can blame. What did he say when he blocked it? 
Remarkably, he said, in essence, if the other side doesn't accept the 
entire Heroes Act--that bill that I just talked about that attacks 
Alaska Natives--then I am going to block everything. That is what 
happened on the Senate floor like an hour ago.
  No, that is not working in good faith. I am sure that the minority 
leader believes that the national media will not blame him. He is 
probably right, but it should. But it should.
  If you are one of the millions of Americans who are worried about 
this issue because you are out of work, we just put forward a very 
simple compromise: As we continue to negotiate, we will continue the 
unemployment levels paid to Americans that were in the CARES Act for 
another week, at the levels that currently exist.
  It was blocked by the Senate minority leader, without a real 
explanation, essentially saying take our Nancy Pelosi $3.5--actually, 
$4 trillion bill or nothing. I sure hope the media reports on what just 
happened. I don't have faith that they will, but that is exactly what 
happened.
  We are facing a national crisis. We don't always come together in 
immediate agreement on everything, but what we have seen in the last 
several months is that we have come together in the Congress. These 
bills haven't been perfect. The bills I just described--the HEALS or 
Heroes--aren't perfect, but what they require is compromise and working 
together.
  When you can't get to a spot in a certain amount of time, you look at 
areas where, OK, this is going to expire right now--that is pretty 
important--so let's extend it for a week or two. That happens all the 
time here. People do it in good faith.
  What we just saw was bad faith. What we just saw, in my view, was the 
Senate minority leader taking hostage this issue, hoping that his 
friends in the national media will somehow blame us. I think, if you 
are telling the truth and you just watched what happened on the Senate 
floor, that is going to be hard to do. My view is we have to come 
together in good faith to help our fellow Americans, my fellow 
Alaskans, many of whom are still really, really hurting. We have a 
Senator from Arizona who tried to do that just an hour ago on the 
floor, and it was rejected.
  There are going to be a lot of people next week who are going to be 
hurting because of this, and I hope they accurately report why they are 
hurting, what just happened, and that is not the spirit of compromise 
that we are going to need to get through this pandemic.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.

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