Congressional Record, Volume 166 Issue 139 (Wednesday, August 5, 2020)

[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 139 (Wednesday, August 5, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4904-S4911]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

BROADBAND

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about a focus
subject, which is access to broadband.
I will say that I know the negotiations between the House and the
Senate and the White House are continuing. I think it is very important
for the American people that we do this in good faith.

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I disagree with my colleague from Texas on a few of the descriptions
of the bill that came over from the House, which I think the fact that
the bill that was first introduced here in the Senate had only 20
percent of the funding for testing that the House bill had is very
concerning, when you look at people waiting to get test results, the
fact that there was no money to keep our elections safe. You can just
go through line by line on the issues and the differences in the bill.
But my interest today is not actually emphasizing those differences;
it is how can we come together, what are the things we can agree on,
and the fact that we cannot just pass a bandaid for the American people
when we have learned that the GDP annualized is going to be down 30
percent, when we learned that so many people are losing their homes or
being evicted, and so many are filing for unemployment. This is the
time for action.
Broadband, I would say, has been an issue, especially in rural
America, for a long time, and having once traveled to Iceland and
having seen how the Icelanders have high-speed internet at every corner
of their country, despite the fact that they are a country of lava and
volcanoes and volcanic ash, we can certainly do better.
The problems I was hearing about for years that we tried to get at
slowly but surely with access to internet have become very clear to
parents who are simply trying to make sure their children are able to
participate remotely in school. While other kids of other parents who
happen to have high-speed internet are able to fully participate,
others aren't. Sometimes it is because of equipment, but oftentimes, in
my State, it is because of a lack of access to high-speed internet.
Stories of one girl in Southern Minnesota who had to take her biology
test in a liquor store parking lot because that is where she could get
the high-speed internet; the doctor--this is prepandemic--who could,
yes, access x rays in the hospital, but if, late at night, he had to
help a patient in a remote area, he had to go to the McDonald's parking
lot, drive in from his home, because he did not have access there.
I thank Senator Van Hollen for bringing us together this afternoon
and for his work in organizing this time to focus attention on the
pressing education priorities in the relief bill.
Access to broadband, as I just noted, has become more critical now
than ever, as schools and workplaces are closed in an effort to limit
the spread of the coronavirus, where teachers, many with preexisting
conditions, simply cannot put themselves at risk, and where we know,
going forward, we will continue to have a substantial number of kids
learning remotely.
As I said, even before the pandemic, one study found that about 42
million Americans nationwide lacked access to broadband. Reports have
also found that only 66 percent of Black households, 61 percent of
Latino households, and 63 percent of rural households have broadband at
home of the quality that would allow them to work and to conduct their
business and to participate in school and host a meeting in healthcare.

In rural areas in my State, about 16 percent of households lack
broadband even at baseline speeds. That means we have 144,000
households that don't have access to the internet. One of the saddest
stories I remember was a household in one of our Tribal areas that got
and paid for their own high-speed internet and the parents looked out
the window and saw all these kids in their lawn, and that is because
they were trying to get access to the internet from that one household
to be able to do their homework. That was a story from Leech Lake
Reservation.
Many students have shifted to online and will continue distance
learning, and we need to make sure that all kids can learn. That is why
I wrote a letter to Senators Peters and Tester, urging the FCC to
ensure that all K-12 students have internet access to continue learning
from home during this pandemic. Following the announcement of school
closings in Minnesota and the remote learning, I worked with Senator
Smith to urge the FCC to ensure that Minnesota students have access to
high-speed internet.
I am grateful for Senator Markey's leadership in ensuring students
have the connectivity they need. I was proud to join him and 43 of our
Democratic colleagues in the Senate to introduce the Emergency
Educational Connections Act, to establish a fund at the FCC to help
schools and libraries provide Wi-Fi hotspots or other connected devices
to students without home internet access. This bill, in fact, as I
think of the comments of my colleague from Texas--this bill was
included in the Heroes Act that was passed by the House, and it is
incredibly important that we have broadband capabilities in the bill
that we pass in the Senate.
It is not just K-12 students who need help connecting to the internet
during this crisis. Colleges and universities across the country have
also moved classes online, and many low-income students who rely on
campus resources are struggling to continue their education from home
and are at serious risk of falling behind.
I know for quite a while the White House was hoping this crisis would
magically go away, with false claims of improved situations and false
claims of chugging bleach and the like to make it go away, but, in
fact, I would say the President was accurate a week or two ago in one
way when he publicly said that this is going to get worse before it
gets better.
So the thought that we would allow these disparities to continue,
where households cannot get high-speed internet, they are at a complete
disadvantage, not just for a month--that might be OK--not just for 3
months but for a year and beyond when it comes to education. Little
kids, first graders and second graders, when they are supposed to be
learning to read, they can't be apart from teaching for that long a
period of time without it having a major impact on their education.
Again, that also includes higher education. Not every kid in a college
or community college can afford high-speed internet.
That is why I introduced the Supporting Connectivity for Higher
Education Students in Need Act in May, with Senators Hirono, Peters,
and Rosen, that creates a fund at the National Telecommunications and
Information Administration to help ensure that college students with
the greatest financial need can access critical internet services and
equipment like laptops and tablets.
Our bill prioritizes Historically Black Colleges and Universities,
Tribal colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, and
other minority-serving institutions, as well as rural-serving
institutions. As we continue to confront this pandemic, ensuring that
students get internet from kindergarten and preschool on through
college and the like is really important.
I have spoken with small broadband providers and superintendents
across my State who have been working with school districts to connect
students to the internet, going that extra mile to help, including
providing free internet services and installing public Wi-Fi hotspots
in their communities. They helped our kids, but we know we need better
long-term solutions.
That is why Senator Cramer and I introduced the Keeping Critical
Connections Act to create a fund at the FCC to help small broadband
providers continue to provide critical internet services. It has been
my experience after many years in my State that many of these smaller
providers on the ground are much quicker and do a better job of keeping
their promises and building out as opposed to some of the big telephone
companies--or maybe they don't see this as economical to reach these
rural areas. I don't think it is a surprise. So many of my colleagues
have had the same experiences listening to people in the rural areas of
their States that our bill will now have 34 cosponsors, half Democrats,
half Republicans. It would put $2 billion in to work with small
providers to give them the funding they need to expand immediately out
to these areas.
I don't want to hear another story like the high school student
taking her biology exam in the liquor store parking lot simply because
she doesn't have internet.
We also need to make sure people know about existing resources that
can help them connect to the internet. Due to job losses or reductions
in income during the pandemic, millions of Americans are newly eligible
for nutrition benefits and Medicaid and can also get

[[Page S4906]]

help connecting to the internet through FCC's Lifeline Program to help
low-income people connect. Some of these people have never been low
income and because of the pandemic they now are. According to FCC
Commissioner Starks, only about 7 million of the 38 million households
that were eligible for the Lifeline Program were enrolled. That is why
in April I wrote a letter to Senator Durbin and Representative Marcia
Fudge of Ohio and Anna Eshoo of California, along with 140 Members of
Congress, urging the FCC to work with the USDA and HHS to ensure that
the millions of Americans who are now eligible for SNAP are informed
about their eligibility for the FCC's Lifeline Program. As we work to
bring high-speed internet to communities across the country, it is
simply critical that we have a clear understanding of where broadband
is available.
My bipartisan bill with Chairman Wicker and Senators Peters and Thune
to improve the accuracy of the FCC's broadband maps was, in fact,
signed into law in March. It was not soon enough for this pandemic, but
we simply just hear: Hey, we have high-speed internet in our area,
which I know Senators Wicker and Thune heard, just like I did, and in
fact you go there and that isn't true at all. That is why having these
updated maps, as we look at not just what we are dealing with today but
the day after tomorrow--which is a metaphor for next year when the
vaccine starts coming out, when things start going back to a place
where people are out and about freely--well, we have to make sure that
if we haven't expanded to everyone with broadband at that moment, that
we do it then, and to do that we need accurate mapping.
The last bill I wanted to mention is a bill that has passed the
House, and that is Representative Clyburn's investment of $100 billion
to build high-speed broadband infrastructure in underserved areas,
including rural areas, to expand affordable high-speed internet to
everyone. I am the lead on the Senate version of that bill, and given
that it has passed, it is a part of another piece of legislation, and
it is something else we must be looking at as we move forward the next
few months.
We all depend on reliable broadband, and we must make sure that we
get reliable broadband to all. I always believed that when we invest in
broadband, we invest in opportunities for every American.
If we could bring electricity to everyone's home, even the smallest
farms in the middle of areas with very little population, we can do
this in the modern era. Otherwise, we are going to continue with the
haves and have-nots. It shouldn't depend on your ZIP Code whether your
kid can learn to read. It shouldn't depend on where your ZIP Code is to
figure out what their homework is the next day. It shouldn't depend on
where your ZIP Code is to find out whether you are going to be able to
virtually visit your mom and dad in the senior center because some
places will have high-speed access that will allow us to do that and
others won't. It shouldn't depend on your ZIP Code to figure out if you
could actually have your doctor show you an x ray instead of going into
a medical setting that maybe you don't feel comfortable going into.
All Americans should have access to high-speed internet. This
pandemic has put a big magnifying glass on what has been a problem for
many, many years, and it is time to act now
I yield the floor, and I again thank Senator Van Hollen for bringing
us together and thank Senator Hassan from the State of New Hampshire
for her leadership in bringing us together.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.
Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Klobuchar for her
leadership in this area, and her capacity to understand not only the
policy that we need to address and change but also the practical
impacts it will have on not only her constituents but people all over
the United States of America.
I want to thank Senator Van Hollen as well for gathering us all this
afternoon to focus, as we need to, on the needs of our young people,
our students, their educators and their families in these coming
months.
(Mrs. BLACKBURN assumed the Chair.)
Ms. HASSAN. Madam President, in New Hampshire and all across the
country, school supplies are lining the shelves of stores, but school
board members, teachers, and parents are still wrestling with the
decisions about what exactly this school year will look like.
No matter if schools open fully remote, fully in person or a hybrid
of both, we have to do all we can to ensure that young people receive a
quality education while also keeping students, school faculty, and
their families safe.
Just as schools are trying to make decisions, just as administrators,
educators, and families are trying to figure out what this school year
will look like in their communities, they have been met by a lack of
resources and clear guidance from this administration and from my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
We have known for months that schools would face enormous challenges
this fall, and Federal delays have only made the situation more
challenging across the country.
For months, the Senate majority leader stalled action on an
additional COVID-19 relief package, saying that he felt ``no urgency.''
But school districts across this country have felt plenty of urgency.
Instead of giving them time and appropriate resources to plan, Senator
McConnell kicked the can down the road. Now he has released a
completely inadequate and unacceptable proposal that provides too few
resources to schools and would actually withhold aid if schools don't
fully reopen in person.
My Democratic colleagues and I have focused on an approach that would
actually help schools navigate the year ahead. We proposed $430 billion
to help schools implement public health protocols, address the
challenges of students who have fallen behind, and provide quality
education to all students regardless of how schools reopen. This
proposal would help address some of the most pressing issues facing our
students.
When I talk to educators back home in New Hampshire, a common theme I
hear from students and educators is that they need more and better
high-speed internet access to support online learning. This is a
challenge both for remote and also in-person learning. For instance,
last week, Kevin Carpenter, principal of Kennett High School in North
Conway, told me that part of his school's reopening plan requires
expanding broadband capacity at the school. This would enable students
to access online materials in every classroom and minimize the risk of
spreading COVID-19 by minimizing physical transitions from class to
class.
Other educators have noted that in many areas of our State, families
are still having trouble accessing an adequate broadband connection and
devices that can support online learning throughout the day at home.
Just as Senator Klobuchar referenced some of the conversations she has
had in Minnesota, in a discussion I had in New Hampshire earlier this
summer, a teacher in the Gilmanton School District said that some
parents were taking their children to the parking lots of their school
to do their schoolwork from the car because it was the only way they
could access a Wi-Fi connection.
Too many students are at risk of falling behind because they lack
broadband access. Our proposal includes $4 billion in funding to help
ensure that all K-12 students have adequate home internet connectivity
and devices during the pandemic, which is a priority that I have been
fighting for throughout the last several months.
I urge my Republican colleagues to support this proposal and to work
with Democrats to deliver sufficient relief without any further delay.
As we approach the upcoming school year, our families and educators
are facing unprecedented, heart-wrenching uncertainty. Even in areas
where the infection rates are low and schools are well-resourced, the
lack of testing capacity and the lack of clear guidance from this
administration, for example, on what to do if a teacher or a student
tests positive for the virus are exacerbating the effects of this awful
pandemic. Inaction and ineptitude are making a truly difficult set of
challenges much, much worse, and at a certain point, inaction and
ineptitude are indistinguishable.

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Congress must address these needs so that our educators can overcome
these immense challenges and do what they do best--help our children
learn and grow.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam President, I thank my colleague from New
Hampshire, Senator Hassan, for the important points she made about what
is happening in New Hampshire. In listening to her, I think each of us
could say that that holds true for our State. Certainly, what she says
holds true in my State of Maryland.
In Maryland, we are just weeks away from the opening day of school.
In other parts of the country, schools have already reopened.
I think all of us can remember back to when we were going back to
school during our K-12 years. We had a mix of excitement and anxiety.
And those of us who are parents with children shared the excitement and
anxiety of our children as they went off to school.
This year, we are facing a sense of emotions and realities that none
of us has ever experienced before. I think all of us agree that we
would like all students to be able to return to actual classrooms as
soon as safely possible. I hope we would all also agree that we want to
make sure that in returning, we don't put at risk those children,
students, teachers, or others in the school community.
We all agree that in-classroom instruction provides the best learning
environment for students, but we should also agree that students should
not be returning to classrooms if it will put them at greater risk to
their lives or their health or the health or lives of their teachers or
others in the school community.
We know that in order to reopen schools safely, we have to do two
things: We have to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in those communities
where it still exists and is still spreading, and we need much more
rapid testing capacity so that we can quickly detect and isolate
somebody who has COVID-19. We need to be able to quickly detect an
outbreak of COVID in a school, whether that be a student or a teacher,
so we can make sure that others do not get infected
In so many places, such as the majority of major school systems in my
State of Maryland, the reason they have not been able to plan to reopen
the classrooms on opening day is that the spread continues in so many
areas, and we don't have rapid, comprehensive testing. That is the
result of a failed and botched policy at the highest levels--the fact
that this administration, this President, has not put in place a
comprehensive national strategy to slow and then stop the spread.
Even today, you have to wait days and days and days to get the
results of a test. That dramatically reduces the usefulness of that
test when it comes to identifying an outbreak, doing all of the
following up to figure out who else has been in contact with that
person, and preventing the spread.
That is why so many schools, including so many in the State of
Maryland, will not be able to return to their classroom's opening day.
It is not because they don't want to--of course, they want to--but
because they don't want to put students, teachers, and the community at
risk. That is the reality we are facing at the moment.
In order to ensure that our kids, our students, get an education
beginning on the first day of school, we need to dramatically scale up
our ability to provide distance learning to those students. It is
simple common sense that distance learning for our students requires
two things to happen: No. 1, teachers need to have the necessary
equipment and training to connect via the internet to their students;
No. 2, students need to be able to connect to the internet so they can
receive the lessons from their teachers. That is simple logic, and that
is common sense.
In our country, right now, we have a major problem, a major gap, a
major inequity, and that is that millions of students, as we prepare to
begin the first day of school, don't have access to the internet. That
means they will be cut off from that form of distance learning, and
that is unacceptable, given the fact that that is the approach we have
to take at least for some period of time in many schools around the
country.
I think we should agree--and I hope we agree--that every child in our
country, regardless of his or her ZIP Code or their family's income,
should receive a high-quality, top-notch education that allows each of
those students to achieve their full potential. They can't even connect
to the internet if they can't even connect to their teachers. That,
obviously, can't happen.
In many ways, what we have seen from the coronavirus is,
unfortunately, not anything new. It is the magnification of deep,
systemic inequities that existed in our country before the outbreak of
the pandemic and have been amplified since then--inequities in our
healthcare system, inequities in various social systems, and,
certainly, inequities in our social system.
Those inequities have put students--many students--at an increased
disadvantage, primarily students from lower income families and
neighborhoods and, especially, students of color.
Before the pandemic, we used to refer to this distance learning gap
for students as the ``homework gap.'' What do we mean by the homework
gap? Well, when I was at school and we were given a homework
assignment, we pretty much needed our textbooks, and we needed our pens
and paper. But now the overwhelming majority of homework assignments
given by teachers require access to the internet to do your assignment
and to do your research.
Before the pandemic, we had millions of American students who
couldn't access the internet for the purposes of doing their homework,
and that was a serious problem. We called that the homework gap. But
now what we call the homework gap has become a full-blown learning gap.
It is not just a question of not being able to access the internet to
do our homework assignment; these millions of students can't access the
internet at all for their learning.
This is not an isolated, small problem, and it is not just relegated
to certain parts of the country. It is everywhere.
In urban communities, 21 percent of students do not have access to
adequate internet. In suburban areas, it is 25 percent. In rural areas,
it is 37 percent.
There are three reasons for this lack of access. One is lack of
access to a device, a computer device. Obviously, you need to have a
device to get on the internet.
Here is a letter I received when schools had to shut down earlier
this spring as a result of the pandemic. I received a letter from an
11-year-old Marylander who shared that his family has one computer,
which he needs to share with his sister, who is in fourth grade, while
his mom, who is a single parent, has to work full time using that same
computer. He said that his family hadn't gotten any other help with
additional electronics and that his mom, who ``is the most supportive
and strongest mom . . . can only do so much.'' That is just one example
of a student who doesn't have access to a device.
What is another reason you can't connect? Well, if you don't have an
internet connection either because you don't have a hotspot for your
cell signal or you are not otherwise connected through a wire, then you
obviously can't get the signal. So we need to make sure that we have
more hotspot devices available for more students and do our best to
build out the infrastructure to reach those who cannot be reached by
hotspots. That is a second reason: You just can't connect to the
internet and get the signal.
A third reason is that in some places, internet access is available,
but it is unaffordable. It just costs too much. We should not have any
situation where a student, during this pandemic, can't get on the
internet because his or her family cannot afford to pay for it.
Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this problem, in the
spring, 50 million K-12 students were trying to access the internet
from home for their lessons. But 15 to 16 million of those students
either did not have access to high-speed broadband or they did not have
a device. Nine million of them lacked both access to high-speed
internet and did not have a device. This is

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not a small problem, and it is not an isolated problem. It is a problem
we need to address now, since schools are opening in a few weeks in
Maryland and schools have already opened in parts of the country.
Here is a note I received from an elementary schoolteacher--someone
who has been in the classroom for over 20 years--during the spring when
they were trying to get their students connected:

Like thousands of my colleagues, I rose to the occasion in
transitioning to distance learning and engaging with all of
my students who had access to devices. What was disheartening
was the students whose faces I did not see--a high number of
which were my African American students.

This does hit communities of color disproportionately, but it does
hit students in every geographic area in every part of each one of our
States.
To give you an example of the disparity based on race and ethnicity,
you have 18 percent of White students who lack access to the internet,
26 percent of Latinx students, 30 percent of Black students, and 35
percent of Native American students.
I hear some people say: Well, we are going to do distance learning,
so that is not so expensive. Why do we need to provide schools with
additional help during this period of time?
The reality is, transitioning to a viable distance learning system
that helps every one of our students costs money. In fact, it is an
average of $500 per student.
In Maryland, schools are already struggling to try to connect their
students, trying to purchase these devices, trying to make sure that
they sign up families who qualify for the Lifeline service, but we are
falling short, and they need help.
That is the students. We also have learned that 400,000 teachers are
currently unable to connect to the internet because they lack
connections. School superintendents have reported to us stories of
teachers who are going to the school parking lots to access the school
hotspots to do their teaching and provide their lessons. So we have to
act urgently to address this issue. This should not be a political
matter. There should not be a debate about the need to make sure every
student can get classroom instruction via distance learning during this
pandemic.
That is just for starters. We also have schools who have to make sure
that they provide education to the special ed students. We need to make
sure that students who receive nutrition and lunches continue to be
able to receive those, and we need to make sure that community schools,
which in many of our States provide essential wraparound services, have
the resources that they need.
So let me just end by listing the key steps that we need to include
in this next emergency package that we have been working hard to do.
One are the resources to close this distance learning gap, including
the Emergency Education Connections Act which I, along with Senator
Markey and many others, have introduced. We need $4 billion to make
those connections.
I see Senator Cortez Masto on the floor, and I want to thank her for
her leadership here, as well as Senator Blumenthal and Senator Reed.
Two, we need to provide $12 billion for additional help for the IDEA
program for special ed. Three, we need to make sure that we continue
the flexibility for school lunch programs and increase the SNAP benefit
by 15 percent. Four, we need to provide the $175 billion to help all of
our K-12 schools, including our community schools.
I will end with this. Childcare facilities are really feeling
stretched and going under. If we want to have a safe and calibrated
reopening, we need to make sure that those childcare centers remain
open to parents so that they are able to go back to work--as they are
allowed to safely--and make sure that their kids are well cared for.
We have got a lot of work to do. We have been trying to have these
discussions for over 2\1/2\ months, since the House passed the Heroes
Act. This is long overdue. We hope these negotiations will conclude
quickly because many of the protections that are in place right now are
expiring.
As we do that, let's make sure that our kids, who are going back to
school in a matter of weeks in my State of Maryland--that all of them
can connect to the internet so all of them can learn.
It is simply unacceptable that millions of American kids are going to
be going back to school, just like we all remember doing at one point
in time, but they are not able to go in the classroom, and their only
way to learn is by connecting to their teachers via the internet. We
need to solve that problem and do it now.
With that, Madam President, I yield the floor to the next Senator who
is going to speak on this issue.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut
Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I am proud to follow my very
distinguished colleague from Maryland after those very powerful and
eloquent remarks, and I subscribe to literally every point that he has
made in representing Maryland. We are joined by Senators from all over
the country, Senator Reed, and Senator Cortez Masto. This issue is
truly national in scope.
It occurred to me as I was listening to Senator Van Hollen: We would
not ask students to go through an education where they had no books,
where they had no desks, where they had no writing instruments, where
they had no teachers. The internet is as fundamental to education today
as the basic building blocks of desks and teachers and books. They are
our future. Our students are our future, and the internet is part of
their present and future.
I want to bring this issue home to Connecticut. I convened a
roundtable--as I have done in many parts of the State--in Hartford a
week or so ago with the superintendent of schools, the mayor of
Hartford, and parents and community groups to talk about the digital
divide--or the homework gap, as it is now known so widely and
colloquially.
The stories they told me about attempting to connect during this time
when their students were learning remotely were absolutely
heartbreaking. Students who wanted to learn and sought to participate
did not have that basic opportunity because either they weren't
connected or they couldn't afford it or they didn't have the computer
or, in some instances, their parents couldn't connect, lacked the
expertise. Many of us have been there.
It is about connectivity, written broadly, but it is also about the
affordability of that service; it is about the mechanical instruments,
the computers, necessary to do it; it is about parents having the
expertise; and it is also about the learning habits of sitting in front
of a screen and absorbing knowledge in that way--not playing video
games but absorbing knowledge through distance learning.
In the absence of a robust and adequate governmental response,
private groups and philanthropists are filling some of the gaps. I want
to cite one in particular because it arose during that meeting. The
Dalio Foundation--specifically, Barbara and Ray Dalio--along with the
Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, have provided computers to
schools in the Hartford area.
In fact, Barbara and Ray Dalio have provided thousands of computers
to schools all around Connecticut, filling that gap through their
enormous generosity. They are people of vision who know that students
need this basic instrument of learning. It is about access to the
building blocks of education.
They are providing it, but private sources of funding and
philanthropy go only so far, and that is why we are here today to talk
about this really urgent issue. It is urgent for Connecticut but,
literally, for every State. There should be nothing political about it.
We have the wherewithal. We need the will. It is not a red State or a
blue State issue. It is the United States that has to come to the
rescue of American education and provide broadband connectivity.
The COVID-19 pandemic has literally exposed deep inequities--and one
of them is in education--in connectivity. There are inequities in
housing; redlining still exists. There are inequities in healthcare,
which is the reason why the burden of this pandemic has fallen
disproportionately on communities of color. In Connecticut, if you are
Black, you are 2\1/2\ times more likely to die of the coronavirus, but
one of the most pernicious injustices are the barriers that prevent
access to virtual learning and online education.
Schools in communities across Connecticut and the country are
grappling

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with this unprecedented question: When is it safe to reopen? That
answer will depend on local circumstance, the opinions of scientists,
public health experts' views. Listen to the epidemiologists and the
scientists, not to the politicians. Undoubtedly, there will be, in some
cases, virtual learning and, in others, a hybrid of virtual and
physically present learning.
We have to recognize that the internet is going to be essential in
many, many communities in Connecticut and around the country, and some
communities will choose virtual learning in order to keep their
students, their teachers, and their parents safe, but the digital
divide will plague it, and it will plague almost every community.
We have this notion that somehow it is limited to rural areas or it
is limited to some States. It is, in fact, endemic to almost every
community in our Nation that some students are isolated and divided and
that some of our young people experience this homework gap.
As my colleague Senator Van Hollen said, one-quarter of all students
nationally are at risk of losing months of education because their
homes still lack adequate home internet.
We take broadband for granted. We rely on it every day in this
building and in many others around the country, in office buildings and
in many schools; but for some parents and children, it is absent, and
that is why the measures that we have suggested are so vital.
As with far too many of our divisions, the weight of these inequities
falls disproportionately and dangerously on communities of color. In
fact, at least 30 percent of African-American students lack access to
broadband, as well as 35 percent of Native Americans. We are leaving
behind those students who most need the help, and in this time of
national reckoning over racial justice, these barriers to education and
opportunity are even more dramatic, more profound, and more lasting.
We have to take the kind of significant steps now that we took after
Hurricane Katrina. The FCC took sweeping action to make sure that
individuals whose lives were upended by disaster were connected. Within
1 month, the FCC dedicated more than $200 million to fund connectivity
efforts and aggressively expanded Lifeline and E-Rate programs. We are
not even close to matching that commitment.
Remember, the bold plan in that instance was from George W. Bush and
from the FCC majority he appointed. This time, again, we must take
bold, bipartisan action. We can help bridge this divide and close the
gap.
I have joined my colleagues in pushing for emergency funds for
broadband access, for the Lifeline program, for E-Rate; yet, when I
asked the chairman of the FCC at a most recent Commerce Committee
hearing, he was unwilling to commit to the billion-dollar program that
I have suggested in various proposals, along with colleagues, is a
minimum that we should set forward. These proposals should be a first
step toward congressional action, a kind of rubric.
I was proud to introduce the Emergency Broadband Connections Act with
Senator Wyden to provide families with assistance so they can afford
broadband connections and to reinforce the Lifeline program. I am also
proud to work with Senator Markey and others on the Emergency Education
Connections Act to ensure that the FCC's E-Rate program can help all K-
12 students obtain broadband and devices.
As a country, there have been so many sacrifices made by so many and
so much heartbreak and hardship. This absence of broadband should not
be one of those sacrifices that we impose on our children.
We have the opportunity and the obligation to act now. I urge my
Republican colleagues to take this stark reality and include funding to
address the Homework Act within the long-overdue COVID-19 package. We
need to take this obligation seriously. We need to seize this moment.
It is a moment of reckoning, and we cannot fail to meet the challenge.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Madam President, in a couple of weeks, students in
Nevada and around the country are going to begin their studies again. I
want what every parent in America wants--a safe school year that allows
schoolchildren to thrive in mind and body. To make that happen,
students and parents need the flexibility to make decisions that are
best for their families. They need school systems that can afford the
technology, the equipment, and the resources to keep students and staff
safe. They need access to the internet and the devices that will
support education as well as allow parents to work from home and
supervise their kids.
I have been working to bridge the digital divide for Nevadans as part
of my Innovation State Initiative, which helps Nevada develop
groundbreaking solutions to 21st-century problems. That is why last
month I held a statewide conversation about broadband. I heard local
officials in rural communities talk about the challenges they faced
getting high-quality internet access to their communities.
A 9-year-old student told me how she struggled to do schoolwork
because she only had her mother's cell phone for internet access. I
also heard stories about how libraries in my State are stepping into
the digital breach through the FCC's E-rate Program, which subsidizes
internet access for schools and libraries.
Most of all, we talked about how widespread the issue is in my State.
The FCC's own figures show that half of rural Nevadans and 6 percent of
people statewide can't even get high-speed wired internet. That is not
counting people who can't afford services or devices or those who can't
get reliable wireless services. We are talking hundreds of thousands of
people in the Silver State without the ability to stay connected to one
another during a time of social distancing.
Students in Nevada need internet access not just to attend class
remotely but to submit homework online. Between 12 million and 16
million students across the country can't complete their homework
because they lack access. It is not just families with school-age kids
who need better broadband access; businesses need it, too, to reach new
customers and offer new services, particularly during a time when we
are dealing with a healthcare crisis and asking people to shelter in
place.
That is why we must build on the $2 billion the CARES Act included
for various broadband technology investments and allocate funds in this
next coronavirus package to make access to broadband more affordable in
every ZIP Code.
With my colleagues, I introduced the Accessible, Affordable Internet
for All Act to invest over $100 billion in things like E-rate support,
including Wi-Fi on schoolbuses, and digital literacy training. That
investment can fund vouchers to offset broadband costs for those who
might not otherwise be able to afford it. It can go toward establishing
a one-stop clearinghouse of Federal broadband program information for
communities and organizations that need it and offer the ability to
track funds, through my bipartisan ACCESS BROADBAND Act. Fundamentally,
it can help a confused high school sophomore watch a video explaining
her geometry homework, while her parents video-conference with
colleagues in the next room and her little sister talks with her
grandparents.
It is our job at the Federal level to ensure that Americans across
this country have the resources and tools they need as local districts
so that those districts can decide what is best for their communities
as we move forward. To do that, we need to set aside those proposals
that force schools to make decisions they are uncomfortable with. We
need to listen to local teachers on the ground who know what is best
for their school districts, not legislators in Washington trying to
mandate what schools must do. Local districts are in touch with their
leaders and are monitoring the actual spread of the virus in our local
communities
Yet, unfortunately, some of my colleagues want to withhold two-thirds
of schools' funding unless students are physically present at school.
It makes no sense to make schools all over the country move in
lockstep. We need to listen to local school boards, to parents, to
teachers, and to our public health experts about the safest way to
teach in our local communities.
Back home in Nevada, I am listening to my school districts, to
parents and

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teachers. I am fighting to get the resources and support they need so
that everyone can feel safe and learn in an environment that is best
for them right now. I want to make sure we get our families and school
districts alike the resources and tools they need for the safest
possible year ahead. I want to let them do it on their terms, whether
that is in person or online. But that requires Congress and this Senate
to ensure we are doing everything in the next package to put funding
into broadband so that we can ensure every student has equal access to
the opportunity to learn and no one is left behind.
I encourage all of my colleagues to come together in a bipartisan way
so that we can fund the necessary relief when it comes to broadband and
any other relief that is necessary for our families and our students
and our teachers and our staff during this healthcare crisis.
I yield the floor to my esteemed colleague, the senior Senator from
Rhode Island.
Mr. REED. Thank you very much, Senator, for those very thoughtful
remarks.
Twenty-one days--that is how long one Florida public school teacher
was on a ventilator after contracting COVID this spring. Plasma
transfusions and anti-viral medication ultimately saved her life. And
now she is being asked to return to the classroom--a job she loves,
teaching kids she loves. She wants to go back but is afraid to go back
while the virus is surging, while more people in her community are
being sent to the very same hospital.
In Arizona, a small school district lost a teacher to COVID despite
following all the protocols. The superintendent called a safe reopening
a fantasy, saying: ``Kids will get sick or worse. Family members will
die. Teachers will die.''
Yet children will be denied needed education funding unless classes
are in person, according to the President.
Should the majority, which has failed to take action on the House-
passed Heroes bill for months--should the Trump administration itself
have done a better job making it safe for kids and teachers to return
to school? Absolutely. And the continued failure to act, to lead, to do
a better job of containing COVID will cost people their lives and
children their education. What is the Republican plan to avert this
catastrophe? ``OPEN THE SCHOOLS!!!'' the President tweets in all
capital letters. The Republican plan is to open the schools for in-
person learning--or else. Open the schools even when the transmission
of the virus is not contained. Open the schools even if testing and
contact tracing are inadequate to manage the spread of the virus. Open
the schools even if your facilities do not have adequate ventilation.
Open the schools or we will privatize the public school system. Open or
else.
We know what happens when things reopen when community transmission
remains high, when proper public health safety measures are not in
place, when we do not have the rapid-result testing and contact tracing
necessary to contain the virus. We get outbreaks. People get sick.
Hospitalizations and deaths increase. What is the President's response?
He said: ``It is what it is.''
What has Senate Republican leadership prioritized? Shielding
businesses from liability and being sued for negligence. In other
words, if reopening too quickly results in more sickness, ``it is what
it is.'' This approach is appalling and unacceptable and must be
rejected.
School is a lifeline for children in the communities hit hardest by
the pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout. The Federal Government
must step in with a comprehensive plan and the resources to make sure
that school is there for these children, the teachers, the custodians,
the parents, the family.
We know this school year will be like no other. School districts will
need to redesign the school day and be prepared to switch to distance
learning, as necessary. There will be new protocols for sanitization,
transportation, and staffing.
Teachers need training on how to stay safe in the classroom. You will
recall that many in this body wanted to add firearms training to the
list of teacher duties. It is disheartening to note that many of the
same Members who wanted to equip teachers with guns and firearms
training are now unwilling to provide them with basic cleaning supplies
and personal protective equipment. They are denying them the resources
and training they need to keep themselves and their students safe from
a very clear and present danger: COVID-19.
Schools will have to reengineer the use of space in and around the
school building and reconfigure classrooms to ensure that social
distancing can be maintained. With the recent Government Accountability
Office report showing that over half of school districts nationwide
need to update or replace multiple systems in their schools, such as
heating, ventilation, air-conditioning--HVAC--and plumbing, dedicated
funding for infrastructure is needed as well. In fact, we need
significant money for school infrastructure. We needed it before COVID.
We need more of it today.
More critically, schools will need to increase their capacity to
support children's well-being--including nutrition, health screening,
and mental health support--whether in person or at a distance.
The first step in any reasonable plan to reopen schools starts with
robust, rapid-result testing and contact tracing to contain the spread
of the virus. There is no path for safe in-person schooling without it.
That is step one, and the President has not taken that step yet.
A comprehensive plan for schools would also stabilize State and local
budgets, ensure equity and access to technology and broadband, enhance
nutrition services, and provide support for our broader educational
ecosystem, including afterschool programs, museums, and libraries. For
example, without a robust investment in our public libraries, we will
continue to struggle to close the digital divide and the homework gap.
Many, many, many, many school systems today are beginning their
classes on a remote basis. The children need an electronic device--some
type of laptop, something--and they also need access to Wi-Fi. Many
families don't have that. And unless we step in with the resources to
support the localities and States in providing those capacities, those
children will be denied an education.

One way, as I suggested, to do that is through our public libraries.
As I have gone through Rhode Island, it was encouraging to see in the
afternoon, throughout the State--in small libraries, everywhere--young
people doing their homework. They don't have Wi-Fi at home; they have
it in the library. This is just part of what we have to do, and
libraries can be at the heart of that.
We have to put the resources, the commitment, the plan, the
leadership, the force, and the momentum behind this effort, and we have
seen none of that in the administration. The most fundamental aspect of
all of this is that it does come down to the resources--the
substantial, dedicated resources that have to go to our public schools
to meet these additional costs, to meet these additional demands, to
serve this generation of young Americans who, if they are denied these
services, will be denied an education. And that is not just a momentary
loss; that is a cumulative, lifetime effect that will not only deny
them a chance at opportunity, it will deny this Nation their talent.
These are the issues that we are struggling with at this moment.
These are the issues we must confront. We--the Democratic caucus--have
been calling for $175 billion to support our public schools, to put
education in a place in which this generation of students can learn, to
make this country or continue to keep this country what we always
thought it was: a special place in which anyone with the ability and
the desire to learn would have the opportunity to do so. And that would
mean their success and our community's and our country's success.
We are counting on schools being able to deliver for students despite
the challenges caused by this pandemic. Yet the Senate majority and the
Trump administration are unwilling to commit the resources necessary to
avoid a potential generational catastrophe. State and local governments

[[Page S4911]]

are reeling from the loss of revenue due to the economic shutdown
caused by the pandemic. There is no Governor in this country--
Republican or Democrat--there is no county administrator or city leader
who I think would stand up and say: ``We are fine. We don't need any
help. We are in great shape.''
No. They all have one message, and it has been coming through from
the National Association of Republican Governors and the National
Association of Democratic Governors: You must give us resources and
flexibility to use these resources to fulfill our obligation to the
people of our States.
That is the message. We are seeing school districts across the Nation
starting to lay people off in anticipation of budget cuts. Even if they
are able to maintain current levels of staffing and financial
resources, it would not be enough to meet the upcoming challenges. Even
if they could keep their staff in place, where do they get the extra
money for the infrastructure repairs, for the traditional Wi-Fi, for
the additional teaching changes that have to take place, for the
different approaches to education one must take in order to be
effective in social distancing?
The School Superintendents Association of the United States estimates
that the average traditional COVID-related cost per student will be
$490. We need at least that.
We must go forward with a package that includes provisions of the
Childcare Educational Relief Act, the Library Stabilization Fund Act,
and the State and Local Stabilization Fund Act to ensure that this
generation of Americans can overcome the pandemic and reach its full
potential.
This is a generational crisis. Just as Americans of previous
generations have been called upon to sacrifice and to commit themselves
to the young of this country so that they could have a better future,
we are being called upon to do that, and we are waiting for an answer.
Thank you.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cramer). Without objection, it is so
ordered.

____________________