[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 144 (Wednesday, August 12, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5395-S5397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, you know, as I sit and listen to my 
colleague from Virginia, I can't agree more. Now is the time, really, 
for us to come together to do what the Senate traditionally does best, 
and that is working on the best interests of the people across this 
country who are struggling right now.
  Compromise is not a bad word. It is time for us to get in a room and 
really do the job that the American public expects us to do, and that 
is looking out for their best interests at a time when we have a 
healthcare pandemic. Now, keep in mind that this is a once-in-a-
lifetime pandemic--once in a lifetime. So that requires us to come 
together and really focus on how we help Americans across this country 
who are struggling right now. They shouldn't be penalized.
  We have asked them to stay home and shelter in place because we are 
trying to address how we do the research that is necessary for a 
vaccine. Hopefully, one day, we will have that vaccine. We need to ramp 
up the testing that is needed so everybody can feel safe and 
comfortable knowing whether they have this virus or not or the 
antibody, but we are not there yet because more work needs to be done, 
particularly by this Congress.
  The American public has heard us, and they are sheltering in place, 
they are staying home, and they have shuttered their businesses. Now, 
more than ever, this country needs the Senate to act.
  The House has done its job 2 months ago. They worked a comprehensive 
package, and I say ``comprehensive'' because we can't just pick and 
choose winners and losers here. This isn't what this is about. This is 
about making sure we are bringing relief and helping those across this 
country. Everybody is impacted. We have promised them: If you do what 
we say and we help stem the spread of this virus, we are going to have 
your backs, and we are going to take care of you.
  I will say that we have failed at that. This administration has 
failed. We have failed at that promise. I know when we all go to our 
offices or we go home to our States, we are hearing from our 
constituents. We get emails, we get calls, and we get letters. I know 
you all feel the same as I do, and we read them and we listen to them. 
I don't know of one State in this country right now where somebody is 
not suffering from this pandemic who needs our help.
  I know that is why I am here, because we all took the oath. We said 
we are going to be here to work in the best interests of our States and 
this country and to make sure that those individuals across this 
country who pay our salaries--those taxpayers--expect us to do our jobs 
and work. And that is what I am asking for right now.
  You know, I have been to the floor of the Senate this week to talk 
about the struggles that I see in my State. We all get letters, and I 
do want to focus today on one. There are so many, and that is why a 
comprehensive package is necessary. Right now, I would love to talk to 
you about what I am seeing in my home State when it comes to our 
seniors and those who are in need right now with funding to help 
nursing homes.
  Let me just start with letters because I think this is how it starts 
with all of us--calls into our offices and letters coming from our 
constituents. There are two calls that I received. One of them was from 
a daughter who called in for her father, who is in a VA nursing home in 
Boulder City, NV, and because he isn't showing symptoms, he isn't 
getting tested. With so many cases there, how is this possible? Where 
are the tests? This is a daughter who is concerned for her father, 
knowing that if we just get people tested, there is that comfort in 
knowing whether or not you have this virus and whether you should be 
quarantined or how we protect you, particularly those in nursing homes.
  Then, another call I received was from a mother. She is also a 
certified nursing assistant at a nursing home, and she is telling me 
that many there quit because they don't have the proper PPE. They want 
to work, but they don't want to expose themselves. So what are we doing 
right now to address all of these needs?
  And, listen, there is so much. It is overwhelming. I know it. That is 
why we were sent here for the hard decisions, not the easy ones, to 
make sure we are all working in the best interests of the people in our 
States. I know you all feel the same way.
  I have to tell you this. There are thousands of Nevadans that know 
the anxiety that comes because there is a spouse, a parent, or a 
grandparent in a nursing home, and they are unable to visit with them 
or hug their loved ones for fear of giving COVID-19. You have seen it. 
You have heard it, and I have heard it. Too many loved ones have lost 
their loved ones because of this virus, and they were not able to be 
there.
  Do you know who was there with them in the nursing home? Those 
incredible heroes on the frontlines, who are sacrificing their own 
health to be with them, for those who passed away because of COVID-19. 
There are so many factors that raise a coronavirus risk for nursing 
home residents. The majority of the residents, as we all know, are 
seniors. Many have underlying conditions. They live in closed quarters, 
and they share common spaces. And we also know this: Residents and 
staff of these facilities shouldn't be an afterthought. They are a core 
part of our communities and our healthcare system. They are the elders, 
and they are the keepers of our stories. We have to do more to protect 
them.
  We need to protect the workers in these homes, too, many of whom 
belong to communities of color and who are struggling to provide care 
to a population with unique needs.
  The reason why I bring this up is because there is legislation out 
there to

[[Page S5396]]

do just what I am talking about and what we need in our communities. It 
is not something new. It has already been introduced. My colleague Bob 
Casey introduced the Nursing Home COVID-19 Protection and Prevention 
Act to get nursing and long-care facilities in Nevada and across this 
country more PPE, the testing that they need, and the staffing to help 
the staff and those who are in those communities.
  These homes need support to slow the spread of the virus and to 
respond rapidly when it crops up, using all we have learned from 
combating this virus so far. The bill funds teams of nurses and other 
critical staff to lend emergency help at nursing homes with outbreaks 
and to bring the best practices to bear in helping sick residents.
  This bill ensures folks in my home State and across the country are 
being taken care of and that families have peace of mind that there is 
accountability for providers and protections in place for workers.
  I am hearing from family members and loved ones with those in nursing 
homes in my State. I am hearing from caregivers and healthcare workers. 
I know all of you are as well, and one thing that comes from all these 
people is a feeling of being forgotten. No one--no one--in America 
should feel forgotten right now. It is time for us to come together.
  We need to make sure nursing homes follow guidelines and that, if 
they fail to do so, they will be held accountable. We also must arm 
them with the tools they need to face a virus that has been relentless 
in attacking seniors. We should make sure that the next coronavirus 
package that we should be negotiating and working on right now does 
everything it can to support the most fragile in our communities 
because they are also some of our most precious
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I think the President of the United States 
has done the things he can do within his authority to try to address 
the issues before us, but the truth is, his authority just doesn't go 
far enough.
  Now, I have frequently questioned the President's view of how broad 
the Presidential authority is, but in these actions he took in the last 
few days, I looked at them carefully, and I think he had the authority 
to do what he did, but he would probably be the first to admit that the 
authority he has doesn't solve the problem the way it needs to be 
solved.
  It is time that the Congress stepped up and did its job. You know, in 
this debate with the President, there is the article I view of the 
government. There is a reason that the legislative branch is article I. 
There is a reason it is our job to pass laws, and there is a reason 
that it is the President's job to execute those laws. Occasionally, the 
President has to act quicker on some emergency basis than the Congress, 
and within the fairly narrow ability he has to act on this issue, he 
has tried his best to step up where the Congress has failed to step up.
  My good friend from Virginia just said: Well, the House bill is $3 
trillion, and the Senate bill is $1 trillion. We should figure out how 
to compromise at $2 trillion. Now, I believe in compromise. I think it 
is the essence of democracy, but compromise actually has to be based on 
some principle of the issue you are dealing with. You know, if the 
House bill had been $5 trillion, I guess the logic would be that we 
compromise at $3 trillion. If they had known that, their bill would 
have probably been $5 trillion.
  When the bill was passed, it was described by more than one reporter 
as a Democratic wish list or the ultimate campaign platform having 
everything in it. It was described by a whole lot more than one 
reporter that about a third of their bill had nothing to do with COVID, 
and another third of their bill is about the big question of what we 
can do to help State and local government.

  Let's put that issue aside for a minute. It is an issue that clearly 
the House feels strongly about. Clearly, there are challenges to 
governments, particularly at the local level, I think, and that has to 
be dealt with in some way and maybe not at the $871 billion level or 
whatever they have suggested. But that is a different issue that I 
will, first of all, concede is very much part of the discussion and 
should be.
  But if you take out the third of the bill that has nothing to do with 
COVID--let's get that off the table. We could have a debate about 
whether people who are in the legal marijuana trade should get access 
to banking, but I think you have to work really hard to make that a 
COVID issue. We could have a debate about whether the Federal 
Government should require every State in the country to allow ballot 
harvesting, but I think that is very hard to make a COVID-19 issue.
  A third of the bill, according to many people who analyzed the bill 
when it came out, has nothing to do with COVID. So let's set aside the 
other third of the bill that deals with State and local government, our 
giving State and local government what we don't have to replace money 
they don't have. I am not going to say that some element of that will 
not be in a final bill, but let's talk about the things we all know 
need to be in the first bill, which, in the House bill, were about $1 
trillion.
  How do you compromise with the House when you agree with them on a 
number and they change the number?
  Getting back to school is a critical part of what ought to be 
happening right now. By the way, back-to-school money the schools get 
in December will not be nearly as helpful as back-to-school money the 
schools get in August. They need the money now. We need to see kids 
back to school, whether it is distance learning, which takes some 
assets and planning that districts need to do more on, or in-person 
learning where that is possible, where you have more expenses for 
probably more bus routes so you don't put as many people on the same 
bus, more expenses for delayed starting times, and more expenses for 
social distancing in classrooms. They need that money now.
  In their bill, the Heroes Act, for elementary, secondary, and higher 
education, the House put in $100 billion. We looked at that carefully. 
I chair the committee that does that appropriating. I think we know as 
much in our committee as anybody in the Senate about some of the needs 
that are out there. We thought the number was $105 billion. As soon as 
our bill came out, the House decided, no, we really need $400 billion. 
How do you meet somebody in the middle when they keep changing where 
the middle is?
  The Heroes Act, which Members on the other side of the aisle have 
repeatedly said we should pass and pass immediately, had $100 billion. 
We had $105 billion. You would think that would have been good enough. 
We might have argued some about the language, but there is not much 
difference on the language. The argument is that Republicans never 
spend enough, according to Democrats, and the Democrats seem to have no 
limit on what they are willing to spend, according to us.
  For childcare, there is a critical need for people to get both back 
to school and back to work. The childcare system is intensely stressed 
as part of what is going on--people who lose their jobs and take their 
children out of childcare; people who would prefer, after they have 
figured out how to do this a different way, not to put their kids back 
in childcare for a little while. I haven't talked to anybody who thinks 
the childcare system would have more than 50 percent of the kids 
willing to come back who were there before. So how do you still make 
childcare work? Do you double the childcare cost to make up for the 
fact that 50 percent of the kids aren't there? Of course not. That 
doesn't work at all.
  The House put in the Heroes Act $7.5 billion for childcare; we put 
$15 billion for childcare. Then the House decides: Well, no, we really 
need $40 billion or $50 billion for childcare. It is pretty hard to 
compromise in the middle if the middle was somewhere between $15 
billion--and I think, hopefully, our number would have prevailed--and 
$7.5 billion, and then suddenly the middle is somewhere between $50 
billion and $15 billion.
  Let's be serious here. Let's get this job done. Let's get kids back 
to school. Let's get people back to work. Let's get childcare back for 
kids. Let's do what we can to restore the healthcare system that has 
been incredibly

[[Page S5397]]

stressed during this, and let's quit acting like there is this vast 
disagreement, when the disagreement is way more apparent than real
  If you look at the third of the bill that dealt with COVID-19 that 
the House passed, we are very close. We are a little ahead of them on 
testing. Testing absolutely is essential, in my view, to get kids back 
to school and to get people back to work. Until we get well into the 
vaccine period, having the vaccine and getting that vaccine to people, 
testing is going to continue to be critical. We have money for vaccines 
and vaccine distribution that I think exceeds the House bill money. We 
could talk about what is really not a very big difference in a $1 
trillion bill or something a little more than that.
  We have said in our bill that, on testing, on vaccines, and on other 
things, we are going to set some priorities. We said the Federal 
Government priority is to be sure that everybody gets that test in 
whatever way they can get it as quickly as they can get it. We said 
nursing homes, childcare centers, elementary and secondary education, 
and colleges and universities would be Federal priorities. Employers 
are going to have to help with some of the workplace priorities, but we 
think those are the right Federal priorities, and we put it in our 
bill.
  Back to work: You have to have childcare, again, to get back to work. 
A second round of PPP: Again, something the Senator from Virginia 
agreed we need to do.
  Healthcare provider assistance: We ask our healthcare providers to do 
the two hardest things you could possibly do at the same time; one was 
stop all of the income you can possibly stop--stop the so-called 
elective surgeries. By the way, some elective surgeries get less 
elective the longer you wait until you have them, and we are seeing 
some results of that right now. I think there was some logic to stop 
putting people into the hospital, if you didn't have to, or having them 
in the surgeon's facility, if you didn't have to, until we knew what 
was happening here--and not only stop the income but stand ready for 
the worst epidemic your community may have ever had to deal with or may 
ever have to deal with at any time in the future. So maintain your full 
readiness, stop your income. We need to come back now for the third 
time and provide money for providers. Again, money now is much more 
valuable than money 90 days from now.
  Telemedicine: We finally have woken up to what the Federal Government 
should have been doing for a decade and embrace telemedicine as part of 
normal office visits that don't have to happen in the office as part of 
behavioral health.
  Our bill says that CMS, which determines how Medicare money is spent, 
can't go back on what they have allowed in the last few months, ever. 
And on some of the things they have allowed, they can't go back for a 
significant period of time to see how this works.
  Broadband: We could deal with this. If we are going to have 
telemedicine and telebehavioral health, that kind of medicine, as well 
as other kinds of medicines, you need to have access to broadband. Kids 
who are learning remotely have to have the same opportunity as other 
kids who are learning remotely and need to have access to broadband. 
They need it as soon as they can get it, whether that is assistance to 
get hooked up, which is a little easier than just access. We have been 
working hard in this Senate and in our State legislature in my State to 
get the Missourians who don't have access to high-speed broadband to 
get that access.
  There are areas here that are areas we need to be dealing with. Most 
of them, you have to really work hard to pretend there is a 
disagreement. Sure, you can decide that your education category was 
really only 25 percent of what you really needed, but I think our House 
friends know that is not right, and we know that is not right.
  This is probably not the last bill we will pass, if it turns out we 
are incorrect on our $100 billion or $105 billion, but $100 billion 
right now to schools trying to get started is worth more than what $200 
billion will be in May.
  Let's give people the help they need when they need it. Let's quit 
arguing about whether the President has inadequate tools to do what 
everybody knows needs to be done. Certainly, that is true. That should 
be true; that under the Constitution, the Congress has to do its job.
  Compromise is more than some middle number between an outrageous 
number and a number that may turn out to be not quite big enough. Let's 
get serious. Let's get back to work. Let's do our job. Let's get back 
to school, the country back to work, the country back to childcare, and 
do those things we need to do to restore both the healthcare system 
and, more importantly, the health of every American we can possibly 
help.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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