[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 140 (Thursday, August 6, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5258-S5259]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, is this just another Thursday? Are things 
going along well in America, with nothing to worry about, nothing to 
keep us up at night, nothing to keep mothers and fathers up worried 
about the health of their children? Is this just another Thursday with 
America doing well, or are we here in the midst of the worst pandemic 
in a century since the Spanish flu? You wouldn't know it from this 
Chamber. You wouldn't know it from the majority leader's shutting this 
place down.
  Is it possible that we are in the worst economic implosion since the 
Great Depression? Is this just another Thursday?
  You wouldn't know that we are in a terrible economic collapse based 
on the fact that the majority leader is treating this period of time 
like just another Thursday, when everything is fine and everything is 
good in America.
  It is almost 3 months ago that the House passed a robust bill to 
address the pandemic and to address the economic implosion--3 months 
ago. Why didn't the Senate say immediately, we will act, as well, 
because we are having big issues in America? They didn't act after the 
first week after the House acted. They just treated it like another 
week, no concerns. They didn't act in the second week. We are now 11 
weeks since the House acted and still the majority leader says: Don't 
worry, be happy. It is just another Thursday. All is good in America--
no concerns, no anxiety, no worry. Just be happy.
  I can tell you what I am hearing from Oregonians. They are saying it 
is not just another Thursday. They are saying our State government is 
estimated to lose $10 billion in revenue over the next two bienniums--a 
little less than $3 billion this biennium, a little more than $4 
billion in the next biennium, and about $3 billion after that. That is 
$10 billion of lost revenue for core programs, like healthcare, 
housing, education, and transportation. That is a pretty big deal in 
terms of the foundations for the programs Oregonians count on.
  I am hearing from a whole lot of parents--moms and dads--and they are 
saying: This is not just another Thursday. We are worried about our 
children's education.
  I recognize there are a lot of rich people in America paying for 
tutors for their children, maybe two tutors for a child--maybe a math 
tutor and a reading tutor, maybe a special education tutor, who knows--
because they are rich.
  You know what, most of America are ordinary Americans who count on 
the quality of our public schools. I can tell you, a lot of parents are 
worried about how are they going to be able to have an education for 
their children given the challenge in the school if the school can't 
afford to convert the way it operates, either in the school, in a very 
altered manner, or providing workstations and computers and broadband 
so every child has the ability to work online.
  Now, we know that even that is going to be far insufficient because 
so many children are in households where there isn't going to be the 
type of full-on, all-day assistance to help them utilize that online 
access. We know that. Shouldn't we be providing the resources to 
minimize the gap between the best-off and ordinary families? Shouldn't 
we be trying to do everything for our children?
  My dad was a mechanic. A mechanic who works in the sawmill is called 
a millwright. He said it is the best job in the world. If he could keep 
the machinery humming, it meant that every worker had a job to come to, 
and it meant the company made money. Everybody was happy if he could 
keep the machinery running, and he did. He did a marvelous job.
  He was pretty disappointed when the company was bought by an investor 
and the mill was shut down overnight and the timber that the company 
had was sold to another company, a bigger company. But, in that context 
of a father with a powerful ability to keep machinery humming that 
would benefit so many other people, he loved the fact that we had good 
public schools.
  He told me: Son, because we live in America and have these public 
schools, if you go through the door of that schoolhouse and you study 
hard, you can do almost anything in our country.
  What a glorious vision for an ordinary, working American to say to 
their child: Because we live in America, you can do almost anything, in 
our country. The horizons are boundless because we have good public 
schools.
  But it is 11 weeks since the House acted. Have we acted to provide 
good public schools? All of our teachers and our administrators and our 
parents and our school boards are saying we are just around the corner 
from the ordinary start of school. It is either just before or just 
after Labor Day.
  Where is the U.S. Senate? Mitch McConnell sent us home. He shut this 
place down while our children's education, preparation for a very 
unusual and difficult year, goes untended because there aren't the 
resources.
  I can tell you, I am hearing a lot from the medical community. My 
wife, Mary, is a nurse. She is a home hospice nurse, so she goes and 
coaches families as their loved one goes through the final chapter of 
their life here on our planet. A lot of these folks that she visits, 
because they are in hospice, it, by definition, means they are quite 
ill. Often, the families around them are elderly, and they are very 
concerned about any presence of COVID, coronavirus. What she hears is 
that we need to tackle this pandemic.

[[Page S5259]]

  What do the scientists and healthcare experts say? They say a 
national investment in personal protective equipment; they say a 
national investment in a testing strategy to be able to do massive 
numbers of tests to help identify folks who are carrying the virus and 
spreading the virus but are asymptomatic, as well as those who actually 
have symptoms; and a massive national investment in tracing so that we 
can follow up when somebody is identified as carrying the virus--Who 
did they get it from? Who did they have contact with?--so those folks 
can go into quarantine and stop the chain of infection from person to 
person to person.
  The House, 11 weeks ago, passed a bill that has massive resources for 
testing and tracing, and for 11 weeks, the leadership of this body has 
said: Not needed. Let's do nothing. Let's just treat this as just 
another Thursday. No concern.
  Then I hear from folks who are really worried about the nutrition for 
our children--not just the education but nutrition. We worked hard to 
get the EBT program to help out because of school sites being shut 
down, but what about this coming year? Why aren't we helping with 
nutrition?
  The House, 11 weeks ago, acted, but here, it is just another 
Thursday--no crisis, no concern when children across America are going 
hungry. The bill that the House passed had resources for State and 
local government to help address the hemorrhaging of funds. I noted 
that Oregon predicts, just in its State government, a loss of $10 
billion over next three biennium--or this biennium and the next two. 
For them to sustain their basic programs, they need help.
  I heard today from the president of one of our public universities--
our 4-year university, Oregon State University in Corvallis--and they 
were estimating a massive loss of revenue. They need this bill, which 
would direct support for our 4-year institutions. They know that the 
State, if it is going to be able to sustain its support for the 
universities, so that the money doesn't come in the front door and out 
the back door, we need to provide help to the State government. I know 
this isn't a blue-red issue. I know that blue and red Governors are 
saying the same thing. I know blue and red county commissioners are 
asking for the same help.

  So I say to my colleagues, it is morally unacceptable to just say: 
This is another Thursday. All is well. We have waited 11 weeks to act 
after the House. What is another week? What does it matter if a family 
that has been able to pay its rent or its mortgage or its utilities or 
put food on the table because they got $600 a week extra help in 
unemployment, what does it matter if they lose their home? What does it 
matter if they are evicted?
  Well, I will tell you this: It matters a hell of a lot--a huge impact 
on that family for a long time to come. I don't know how many of my 
colleagues have worked in the area of assisting homeless families, but 
when you are destabilized, when you are tossed out, when you experience 
homelessness, when you are living in your car with your kids or it is a 
basement this week and it is a van the next and who knows what shelter 
will let you in, it destabilizes and knocks you down for a long time. 
It makes it hard to get ready to go to a job interview. It makes it 
hard to present yourself effectively in a job interview. It puts all 
kinds of stresses on the family relationship.
  Is it really OK that we shut the Senate down when families are going 
to be evicted because we shut off that $600 per week and the moratorium 
on evictions expired?
  This, colleagues, is not just another Thursday. This is a moment of 
national crisis, a pandemic crisis, an economic crisis, and we need to 
be in crisis mode. We need to be here day and night. We need to be 
working on each of these issues that were addressed 11 weeks ago in the 
House while this body sat on its hands.
  Sitting on your hands when the people of America need us, that is not 
acceptable in the U.S. Senate. Let's act boldly. Let's act decisively. 
Let's recognize that we must rise to meet this national challenge and 
do so now.
  I yield to my colleague from Michigan.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.

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