[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 145 (Thursday, August 13, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5404-S5405]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, here we go again. Another day has passed. 
Nothing has happened--no incremental progress, no compromise. To some 
it might just be one day, but for too many Americans, another day 
fighting for your health or how you will pay your rent or how you will 
feed your kids is a brutal and terrifying thing.
  What is one more day to an average American? It might be a day closer 
to the rent being due without having money to pay it. It might be 
another day with insufficient unemployment benefits while bills pile 
up. It might be another day closer to possibly needing SNAP assistance 
or help from a food bank.
  One more day could mean constrained testing supplies don't pick up as 
many cases of COVID-19, so the carriers can isolate and protect others. 
One day today means for one of my staffers--it was move-in day for his 
oldest daughter at college, but because she couldn't get her test 
result back quickly enough, that experience, which is an exciting one 
for a young person, could not happen.
  These are not simple legislative days while we follow a negotiation 
strategy. These are days when Americans are struggling and suffering, 
and we are not responding.
  Democrats are here. We are ready to compromise any day. In fact, we 
have already offered to meet the White House halfway on the size of the 
relief effort. Our meet-in-the-middle offer was rebuffed Friday, and it 
was rejected by the White House again yesterday.
  I have heard the majority leader today and on other days characterize 
the Heroes Act in his remarks as a Democratic wish list. So what I 
would like to do is walk through the Democratic and Republican 
proposals side by side. At every step I hope listeners will ask 
themselves: Which of these agendas is oriented to helping Americans 
through hard times?
  The Democratic proposal includes this: continuing expanded 
unemployment benefits for the duration of this

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crisis; cash assistance for struggling families to avoid eviction and 
foreclosure rather than just delaying bills and piling up debt; 
sufficient funding and flexibility for State and local governments so 
that we don't have a second wave of job loss when those governments are 
forced to cut their budgets, and so they don't have to cut vital 
programs and lay off first responders during a global health pandemic; 
sufficient childcare funding both to help working families and to allow 
childcare providers to reopen so that we can get back to work; 
providing K-12 schools with the funding they need regardless of how 
they choose to reopen so that they can effectively educate students; 
ensuring every American can have access to free treatment for 
coronavirus; helping families keep food on the table by giving an 
increase in the SNAP benefit plus additional funding for nutrition 
programs; continuing support for America's small businesses; protection 
for the integrity of our elections during a period of uncertainty and 
fear. Those are the proposals that are contained in the Heroes Act.
  The Republican proposals, combining both the HEALS Act--the Senate 
GOP proposal--and President Trump's Executive orders, include this: 
$1.75 billion to keep the FBI headquarters in DC so as to prevent 
potential hotel competition for the Trump International Hotel; expanded 
corporate tax writeoffs for business lunches--another top priority for 
the White House; sharp cuts to unemployment benefits for workers who 
are suffering and out of work; broad immunity for large corporations 
even if they are not taking any actions to protect their workers; the 
effective elimination of State rules, including a rule in Virginia 
designed to facilitate the safe reopening of businesses and the 
economy; undermining important protections and enforcement of 
longstanding civil rights and disability laws; punishing public schools 
that choose to follow public health guidance but still want to provide 
their students with an education by reopening virtually; pushing a tax 
credit program that would make donations to private school scholarships 
already deductible as charitable contributions--that would make those 
now preferred over any other charitable contribution, likely draining 
money away from other charities and hurting government funding, as 
well; and finally, stopping payroll tax contributions into the Social 
Security trust fund, creating huge uncertainty for employers and 
employees but also threatening to undermine the fiscal future of Social 
Security retirement benefits.

  These are elements of the Republican HEALS Act and President Trump's 
Executive orders.
  Equally important is what is not in any of the Republican proposals--
either that offered in the Senate or implemented by the President's 
Executive orders. Food aid for hungry kids and families? Nothing. 
Rental assistance? Nothing. Mortgage assistance? Nothing. Aid to the 
States and localities where Americans live and work? Nothing. Funding 
to ensure the integrity of the upcoming elections? Nothing.
  So I would ask anyone, which of these proposals seems more likely to 
help Americans who are experiencing hard times? If anyone is in doubt--
and I don't think any are--about what kinds of hard times people are 
in, yesterday I shared some stories from Virginians who have shared 
them with me, just as they are sharing them with all Senators. Here are 
a few more of the constituents who have reached out to me.
  The owner of a small business with 18 employees in Northern Virginia 
wrote me: ``My business is struggling, my employees are suffering, and 
we need further assistance.'' He went on to describe how his business 
was completely shut down in the crisis. Even now that they are open, 
they will be operating at less than half their normal revenue for the 
foreseeable future. Their PPP and EIDL loan funds--they were glad to 
get them--have run out, and they need Congress to act to prevent the 
business from shuttering and those 18 jobs from disappearing 
permanently.
  A woman from Henrico County, which is right outside of Richmond, 
wrote:

       As I watch the news, it gets harder and harder. We 
     desperately need help. . . . My son had COVID, he is still 
     struggling with health issues and cannot work.

  A woman in Springfield, here in Fairfax County, has been waiting for 
information that she needs mailed to her so she can get access to 
unemployment benefits, but the delays in the Postal Service have left 
her without the benefits she earned and is entitled to. She is a single 
mother of five and said: ``At this point, I am struggling to feed my 
family.''
  A woman from Dumfries in Prince William County said:

       I'm asking for help with the aid for the unemployed workers 
     like myself that Covid has affected. We are a family of 4 and 
     I have lost my unemployment that we depended on for 
     groceries. My husband's salary covers the bills but I worked 
     for groceries and any extras. As of now I may be able to get 
     $190 a week from the state if they reevaluate my claim. 
     Please, I'm asking for bipartisan support on an unemployment 
     package that will help families like mine to make it through 
     this pandemic.

  Finally, a woman from Alexandria--just across the Potomac--wrote:

       I would like to request consideration for more emergency 
     funding for daycare and preschool facilities. My 14 month old 
     little girl attends daycare 5 days per week. Her daycare is 
     wonderful, but it's at risk of closing in the very near 
     future because it only has 1/3 of the minimum number of 
     enrollees that it needs to be able to afford to stay open. 
     I'm an essential worker in healthcare, specifically in 
     pediatric care, and my husband is an essential Department of 
     Defense employee. If I have to stay home with my daughter, I 
     can't take care of the children of others, and I'm honestly 
     very worried about the prospects of eventually finding a new 
     job, as healthcare facilities are also suffering a large 
     reduction of daily patients. I ask this from the bottom of my 
     heart. Please provide funding for our daycare and preschool 
     facilities, so they can be here for us through and after the 
     pandemic, so parents in Virginia will be able to continue 
     work now or return to work when it is safe to do so.

  It is not about politics. It is not about credit. It is about coming 
through for Americans when they need it. It is the case that, 
yesterday, Democratic leaders reached out again to the White House and 
repeated what they had offered last Friday. Let's meet in the middle. 
Let's meet halfway between the Republican proposals laid out in the 
HEALS Act and the President's Executive orders and the Democratic 
proposal passed by a sizeable majority in the House nearly 3 months 
ago.
  That is what Americans want--negotiate, compromise, meet in the 
middle, and find common ground, just as we did in the CARES Act. The 
White House response was, no dice. They refused the Democratic proposal 
to meet halfway. They said that is not going to happen.
  We need to get serious. Days continue to tick by as families face 
hard decisions. Democrats are here, and we are ready. The White House 
must stop its ``no compromise'' position to meet the needs of American 
families. Let's buckle down, make a deal, and get this done. The 
American people can't afford to wait any longer.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Roberts). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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