[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5429-S5430]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Our Nation has spent the last 6 months fighting the 
medical, economic, and social effects of this pandemic. The Senate's 
historic rescue package from back in March, the CARES Act, has gone a 
long way to help American workers and families endure these incredible 
challenges.
  It delivered the extra Federal unemployment benefits that helped 
laid-off workers make ends meet. It created the Paycheck Protection 
Program, which has helped millions of small businesses keep their 
lights on and keep employees on the payroll; it sent resources to the 
frontlines of the healthcare fight; and it invested billions in the 
race for treatments and for vaccines.
  But this relief was never going to last forever. Today, enhanced 
Federal unemployment benefits are only still available because of 
action by President Trump. The Paycheck Protection Program has closed 
to new applications, and the funds it has delivered are being 
exhausted. This last month has brought a whole new challenge: how to 
get teachers and students safely into a new school year. These are the 
challenges that people I represent are facing every single day. 
Kentuckians and all Americans know this unprecedented crisis is not 
through with us yet, and so they expect that Congress isn't through 
helping yet either.
  Senate Republicans have been fighting for months to deliver another 
round of COVID-19 relief. In July, we proposed the HEALS Act, a 
sweeping package totaling more than $1 trillion that would have led 
right to bipartisan talks, but Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader 
said no.
  They said they would block our trillion dollars for kids, jobs, and 
healthcare unless we doubled the cost to accommodate an endless wish 
list of non-COVID-related liberal priorities such as tax cuts for blue-
State millionaires.
  So Republicans tried another way to break the logjam. In August, we 
proposed narrowing discussions to some of the most urgent, most 
bipartisan subjects that seemed especially ripe for agreement, but 
Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader blocked that as well. Now they 
claimed it was too ``piecemeal''--too piecemeal, they said--to get any 
help out the door until Democrats and Republicans had settled every 
disagreement on every front.
  The Democratic leaders have spent months playing these ``Goldilocks'' 
games. They have complained about every single thing we put forward but 
produced nothing of their own with any chance whatsoever of becoming 
law.

[[Page S5430]]

Meanwhile, after all their blustering that Congress should never do 
anything ``piecemeal,'' Speaker Pelosi came rushing back to Washington 
to pass the most piecemeal bill you could possibly imagine--legislation 
that solely helped out the U.S. Postal Service and did nothing at all 
for American families. When Republicans tried to help American workers 
keep their jobs, Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer said it was 
``piecemeal,'' but when House Democrats' fears about mail-in voting 
made them think maybe their own jobs would be in jeopardy, that 
argument suddenly disappeared.
  That is the score. Democrats are all for piecemeal bills when they 
concern their own reelections, but when it comes to bipartisan aid for 
kids, jobs, and schools, Democrats say it is either their entire wish 
list--all of it--or nobody gets a dime.
  Well, Republicans see this quite differently. We don't think this 
crisis cares about partisan politics. We think people are hurting and 
Congress should do its job. We want to agree where a bipartisan 
agreement is possible, get more help out the door, and then keep 
arguing over the rest later.
  That is how you legislate. That is how you make law. You find 
agreement where agreement is possible and keep arguing over the rest 
later.
  So Republicans are making yet another overture. Today, we are 
releasing a targeted proposal that focuses on several of the most 
urgent aspects of this crisis--issues where bipartisanship should be 
especially possible. I am talking about policies such as extending the 
additional Federal unemployment benefit for jobless workers; providing 
a second round of the job-saving Paycheck Protection Program for the 
hardest hit small businesses to prevent layoffs; sending more than $100 
billion to help K-12 schools and universities open safely and educate 
our kids; dedicating billions more for testing, contact tracing, 
treatments, and vaccines; on-shoring manufacturing capacity for 
critical medical supplies and rebuilding our national stockpile; giving 
all kinds of families more choice and flexibility to navigate education 
and childcare during the crisis; providing legal protections for 
schools, churches, charities, nonprofits, and employers so they can 
reopen; providing more help for the Postal Service. Our proposal would 
do all this and more.
  Now, here is what our bill is not. It is not a sweeping, 
multitrillion-dollar plan to rebuild the entire country in Republicans' 
image. It does not even contain every single relief policy that 
Republicans ourselves think would help in the short term. I am 
confident the Democrats would feel the same way.
  But the American people don't need us to keep arguing over what might 
be perfect. They need us to actually make law.
  So Democratic leaders are perfectly free to come out here and keep up 
their playbook from these past months. Just blast away--blast away--in 
bad faith, call names, and complain about the infinite number of things 
this proposal does not do. Maybe they will bring back their 
``Goldilocks'' act and say our multihundred-billion-dollar proposal is 
too small or too skinny, even though Democrats just passed a piecemeal 
bill for the Postal Service that ignored everything else--a piecemeal 
bill for the Postal Service that ignored everything else.
  Democrats can do all that if they want to. I understand they have 
already been criticizing this bill today before they even read it, 
before it had even been put out. More of this would just reinforce that 
only one side of the aisle seems to want any bipartisan outcome at all.
  It is easy to tell in Washington whether somebody's end goal is 
political posturing or getting an outcome. One way or another, what 
Democrats do will be revealing.
  The Senate is going to vote on this targeted proposal. We are going 
to get the stonewalling of Democratic leaders out from behind closed 
doors and put this to a vote out here on the floor. It is going to 
happen this week. Senators will not be voting on whether this targeted 
package satisfies every one of their legislative hopes and dreams. That 
is not what we will do in this Chamber. We vote on whether to make 
laws, whether to forge a compromise, whether to do a lot of good for 
the country and keep arguing over the remaining differences later.
  A few weeks ago, more than 100 House Democrats spoke out publicly. 
They asked Speaker Pelosi to stop stonewalling and let the House vote 
on targeted COVID relief short of--short of--her entire wish list. The 
Speaker ignored them--ignored her rank and file, just like her 
piecemeal postal bill ignored American families.
  Over here I will make sure our Democratic colleagues get a chance to 
walk the walk. Every Senator who has said they want a bipartisan 
outcome for the country will have a chance to vote for everyone to see. 
Senators will vote this week, and the American people will be watching

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