[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 137 (Monday, August 3, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S4654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               HEALS ACT

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, last week, the 
Senate Democratic leader brought an end to the additional Federal 
benefit for unemployed workers. The Republicans tried multiple times to 
extend the money, including at the same dollar level that our colleague 
himself said he wanted, but the Democratic leader blocked it all.
  This is the dynamic on the Democratic side that killed the subject of 
police reform back in June, and it has now jeopardized more coronavirus 
relief as well. The Democratic leaders insist publicly that they want 
an outcome, but they work alone, behind closed doors, to ensure a 
bipartisan agreement is, actually, not reached.
  We are about a week into the Speaker's and the Democratic leader's 
discussions with the administration--a week into the Democratic 
leadership's cutting out all of their Members--all of them--cutting out 
all of their committees, and saying that only they can participate.
  So how is it going?
  Well, the Democratic leader is still refusing to let struggling 
Americans get another dime unless he gets a massive tax cut for the 
wealthy people in blue States that has nothing to do with the 
coronavirus. I am not kidding. This is his position. There is nothing 
for schools, nothing for kids, nothing for the PPP, nothing for the 
healthcare fight. Nobody gets a dime unless the Democratic leader gets 
a massive tax cut for the rich people in New York and California. That 
is what he is saying.
  The Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader are continuing to 
say ``our way or the highway'' with the massive wish list for leftwing 
lobbyists they slapped together a few weeks ago and called a 
coronavirus bill--stimulus checks for illegal immigrants, diversity 
studies for the legal pot industry, and on and on.
  When they put out this proposal, even the media and their fellow 
Democrats pronounced this thing dead on arrival.
  Here was one report: ``Neither this bill nor anything resembling it 
will ever become law--it's a Democratic wish list filled up with all 
the party's favored policies.''
  Remember how Speaker Pelosi's own Members felt about this absurd 
proposal: ``Privately, several House Democrats concede their latest 
bill feels like little more than an effort to appease the most liberal 
members of the caucus.''
  Even Democrats knew Speaker Pelosi's bill was unserious.
  But now, with the additional unemployment benefit disappearing, with 
families still struggling, they are going back to this unserious 
position and refusing to budge.
  I can't imagine this is how Democratic colleagues really all want 
this to play out.
  In March, we built the CARES Act by Republicans and Democrats working 
together at the committee level. This time, again, Republicans 
introduced a serious proposal written by our own chairmen and our own 
Members. But this time, the Democratic leader has cut Senate Democrats 
out entirely. He has forbidden their committees from even talking to 
Republicans. He is digging in on a House messaging bill, written with 
no input from his own Members, that even House Democrats themselves 
called absurd.
  These are not the tactics that would build a bipartisan result. These 
are not the tactics that will get more cash in Americans' pockets, more 
help to the unemployed, more assistance for schools to reopen.
  It is time for the Democratic leadership to get serious about making 
a law--making a law--for the American people.

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