[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 140 (Thursday, August 6, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5254-S5256]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I rise to join my colleagues this afternoon 
in asking: Is this just another Thursday--is this just another 
afternoon in a week, in an average year, or in an average August--when 
it is fine for all of us to simply head to our other commitments and 
concerns?
  Sometimes here in Washington it is awfully easy to feel and be 
disconnected--disconnected from the daily concerns and grinding anxiety 
of the pressing issues that make the lives of the folks we represent so 
different.
  I want to start by reminding us of something a Senator--a Senator 
from Minnesota--once said in the 1970s. It was Hubert Humphrey who 
said: The moral character of a society can best be gauged by how they 
treat those at the dawn of life, its children; those in the shadows of 
life, the disabled, the disadvantaged; and those in the twilight of 
life, senior citizens.
  Well, if that were the measure of this place in this day and this 
time, then we are failing.
  I think every person here, every person listening or watching knows 
that we are in the midst of three crises at the same time: a global 
pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic, in which a highly transmissive disease 
has spread rapidly across the world. Many other nations have gotten 
ahead of it, have managed it, have stabilized it, but here in the 
United States, we have failed to get our arms around it, to stop it, 
and to deliver the coordinated resources and supplies needed to give 
some confidence, some positive direction in our public health 
infrastructure; in our schools, in our senior skilled nursing centers; 
in our communities. It has gotten away from us.
  More than 150,000 Americans have died so far, and States that thought 
they had it well under control are seeing it reemerge, and States that 
early on saw no impact are seeing record deaths and infections.
  And coming right on the heels of it, a recession--a recession deep 
and sharp. In the last quarter, a nearly 40-percent drop in our GDP; 
the sharpest since we began recording that.
  And then third, a renewed focus on inequality in our country. We have 
seen, because of this pandemic and recession and because of the brutal 
killing of George Floyd, a reminder of the ways in which we are unequal 
in our access to healthcare, our access to opportunity, our access to 
housing.
  So that is the environment we are in.
  Several months ago, we all came to this floor and unanimously voted--
unanimously, in this bitter and divided partisan time, we unanimously 
voted to deliver $2.3 trillion in assistance and support that sent 
checks to individual Americans and families, that sent checks to those 
who were newly unemployed, that sent support for small

[[Page S5255]]

businesses at risk of going under, that sent support to State and local 
governments, that sent support to hospitals. It was the single largest 
spending bill since the Second World War--some reminder of just the 
seriousness, the gravity, and the scale of this challenge.
  And 2 months later, the House of Representatives took up and passed 
the Heroes Act--another $3 trillion to provide support across many of 
those same areas.
  And for weeks, this body, the majority, failed to act, to propose an 
alternative, to take it up and examine it, to send something back, to 
put something on the table. It was just this Monday, the 27th of July, 
that we got to see the answer, and that answer fails to meet this 
moment.
  I am from a small State, the State of Delaware--a State below a 
million people. Our Department of Labor, since March, has received over 
130,000 claims for unemployment in a State of less than 1 million. More 
than 1 in 10 Delawareans have filed for unemployment assistance.
  We have had huge challenges delivering all over our country the 
assistance we voted on months ago. Out of that 130,000, 27,000 of them 
are still waiting to get their unemployment checks.
  My office and other offices in our delegation are helping hundreds of 
individuals and families who have called, who have emailed, who have 
texted, and who have reached out for help. And yet, this body, through 
inaction, allowed the additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance 
that has sustained so many families to expire because we can't work out 
a simple agreement on how severe this moment is, on how deep the need 
is, and on what the right path forward is.
  When I talk to my Governor, my mayor, my county executive in my home 
State, in my city, my county, one of their biggest needs is for 
additional support for State and local governments.
  There is robust support in the Heroes Act sent over by the House--
$875 billion. That is a lot of money. There is nothing in the HEALS Act 
presented this Monday. And why? So far, 1.5 million public employees, 
public servants--State, county, local employees--have been laid off. 
And some folks I hear on television talking about this speak as if they 
are faceless bureaucrats in gray buildings.
  But they are teachers; they are paramedics; they are nurses in county 
hospitals; they are the folks who administer these unemployment claims. 
They are the folks who help support small businesses. They are the 
folks who help make sure our water is drinkable, that our parks are 
mowed, that our libraries are functional, and that our schools can open 
safely
  This moment is the tale of two worlds--a world in the House of 
Representatives that says we are in a crisis and an emergency, and when 
the American people see a challenge this big, this deep, they often 
look to our Federal Government for the resources that will make it 
possible for their States and their counties and their communities, for 
their hospital, for their school to get through.
  And here there has been a resounding silence for weeks.
  I hear week in and week out from parents, from teachers, from 
paraprofessionals, anxious: How are our schools going to reopen? What 
is the plan? Where are the resources? What are the details? How do we 
get testing? How do we get personal equipment--personal protective 
equipment?
  Even now there are conversations urgently going on in my home State 
about how and when and where we will be able to reopen.
  When it comes to childcare, millions of Americans are unable to 
return to work because there isn't support for childcare.
  And when it comes to small businesses, thousands have closed their 
doors; thousands more are at risk.
  We will not get through this unless we can pull together and deliver 
a sustained and meaningful response.
  So to my colleagues and friends, I don't know where the rest of our 
colleagues are. I don't know what they are hearing, but I know what I 
am hearing from my constituents in Delaware.
  The way they make sure that we don't get disconnected from our home 
when we are here in Washington, boy, they text; they email; they call; 
they post on social media. Some even still write good old-fashioned 
letters.
  And the thousands of letters and emails and comments that I got in 
the first few weeks of this pandemic and recession motivated me--
motivated this entire body--to vote unanimously on the CARES Act, one 
of the biggest moments of Federal assistance in our Nation's history.
  So what is going on now? Why the lack of focus? Why the sense this is 
just another Thursday afternoon?
  Well, let me read to you for a few minutes from a few of the folks 
who have reached out to me from my home State.
  Christine in Wilmington lost her job, now, months ago. She is a 
single mother. She is raising a 12-year-old son. She got just one 
unemployment insurance check. She has been barely hanging on, and 
ultimately had to sell her car to buy groceries. She sent me a message, 
painful in its focus on the urgency of there being an additional $600 
in Federal aid.
  She has no job prospects in sight. The $1,200 stimulus check that 
came from the CARES Act months ago and that one unemployment insurance 
check so far has been critical to keeping food on the table and the 
lights on and a roof over their head for her son.
  She is just one of millions of Americans right now--right now, 
wondering what it is going to take to get this body to put down the 
tools of partisanship and work together.
  Some folks say: Well, why don't you just go back to work? There is a 
study out from the Department of Labor that says for every four 
unemployed Americans there is only one job that is even posted.
  And there are others who cannot work because of their family 
circumstances. A husband and wife from Millsboro who are senior 
citizens reached out to me. The wife wants to go back to work. She has 
an opportunity to go back to work, but her husband has a serious, 
chronic condition, a lung disease, and she is terrified of going back 
to work, catching COVID, and infecting her husband in a way that would 
lead to his death.
  They have also relied on this additional unemployment, the $600 a 
week, which, if it runs out, they will have to make very hard choices. 
She wants to work, but she wants to protect her husband.
  A friend of mine, Jeff, runs a small candy store on Rehoboth Beach. 
This time of year it would normally be just humming with clients and 
customers, folks stopping in for Snyder's Candy, a great small 
business. Business is down 50 percent.
  He applied for and he got one of those PPP loans in the CARES Act, 
but he received just $9,000--far too little to keep everyone on his 
payroll, to stay fully open, and he is waiting, waiting to see if we 
will work together to come up with a compromise, with a next step, with 
a next round of loans.
  Another person, a woman Shari, who runs a daycare in Wilmington, 
small daycare in her own home. She had six families whose children she 
cared for. Even if she is able to reopen fully and safely, she has 
heard from those six families. Only two of them are coming back. So she 
is going to have to close her business, which means she loses her 
wages, and the families lose childcare.
  She has seen firsthand that parents can't go back to work if they 
don't have childcare. There is funding for childcare in the House 
bill--so far none in the Senate bill.
  And Robert, a man from Newark, DE, works in the entertainment 
industry. One of the areas hardest hit is the small stages, the 
entertainment venues that are so important to the vibrancy of our 
communities and our culture.
  He has been relying on unemployment to pay his bills--that extra $600 
a week. Robert's message to me:

       When the stimulus runs out, where do I turn? Do I have my 
     vehicle repossessed? Do I not pay my mortgage or buy food? I 
     have worked my entire life and I am ready to get back to it 
     as soon as there is clear direction for society to follow. 
     Unemployment is not a choice--it is an unfortunate byproduct 
     of not taking this virus seriously enough in the beginning.

  The publisher of a storied local newspaper in Sussex County shared 
with me a story that once their PPP funds were exhausted, they had to 
lay off 20 percent of their full-time staff, half of their contract 
employees, and he said:

       The uncertainty in regard to the economic condition over 
     the next few months certainly

[[Page S5256]]

     weighs heavy on the Cape Gazette and our industry as a whole. 
     The loss of local news would be devastating to communities, 
     big and small, across the country.

  I can see that I have colleagues eager to join me in these remarks on 
the floor, so let me bring this to a close.
  One of the moments this became most real for me was when the Delaware 
Food Bank partnered with the Delaware National Guard to provide 
supplemental food for Delawareans.
  I was out at the Christiana Mall, just off I-95--huge parking lot. 
The mall, of course, closed. This was early on in the pandemic.
  We thought we would see dozens, maybe 100 households lined up in 
their cars to get some extra food, much of it from Federal sources.
  The line went all the way around the mall. Hundreds and hundreds of 
Delawareans--people who later commented either on radio or letters to 
the editor that they never thought they would be in a food line.
  Not since the Great Depression have the food banks of this Nation 
seen lines as long and made up of as diverse a background and groups 
asking for, eager for, willing to accept, hoping for support for them 
and their families.
  This year alone, 50,000 Delawareans have turned to our food banks so 
that they can put food on the table for their families.
  I don't know what my colleagues are reading, what emails they are 
getting, what calls they are answering, what texts or posts on social 
media are moving them, but I know that the Delawareans that have 
reached out to me have shared with me the pain of 150,000 Americans who 
died, have shared with me the anxiety and concern about how schools and 
businesses will reopen, and have asked: When will we do our job? Work 
across the aisle, find responsible compromise, and support our Nation 
in this moment of crisis.

  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Hampshire.

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