[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 154 (Tuesday, September 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5430-S5432]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, as we all know, we are in the middle of a 
public health crisis. The American people are hurting, from every State 
in our country. Nearly 190,000 people--our fellow citizens--have died. 
Millions have lost their jobs, and they are struggling to make ends 
meet. People are being evicted from their homes, and they are 
struggling to feed their families.
  The virus is still not under control. We know there is a need for 
another emergency funding bill. The need to address the COVID crisis is 
clear. This is something, actually, we could have done in July if we 
had been willing to actually do our job and vote on the appropriations 
bills after the House of Representatives had already shown the way, but 
4 weeks ago, the Trump administration and the Senate Republican 
leadership walked away from the negotiating table. Democrats had 
offered a compromise. Republicans said ``My way or the highway'' and 
left town. They just walked away from the Capitol when we had all these 
things that needed to be done.

[[Page S5431]]

  Here we are. We are back 4 weeks later. Is the situation better? Of 
course not. Across the country, families are sending their children 
back to school without the necessary resources to ensure they are safe, 
and still more students are learning from home but often without 
reliable access to the internet. Evictions are rising. Families are 
struggling to find childcare. Unemployment is at the highest level I 
can remember--certainly unacceptable levels. States are preparing for 
November's elections without the resources they need to make sure 
people can safely vote. The Postal Service needs a serious injection of 
funding to deliver mail in a timely manner. It actually has 
consequences.
  I am for the right to negotiate. I was 4 weeks ago. I have been 
throughout the time the Senate has been out of session. I have been 
prepared to come back and negotiate. But now we find that, no, 
Republican leadership will not negotiate.
  Senator McConnell says he has prepared a so-called skinny COVID bill 
to put before the Senate. He will put it before us on a take-it-or-
leave-it basis--no amendments, no debate. This proposal is not skinny; 
it is anemic.
  Why are they afraid to vote? Let's have amendments and vote them up 
or down. Is there any question as to why the American public wonders 
what is going on when the Republican leadership will not even allow a 
vote? What are they so afraid of? It is democracy. Vote up or down. The 
Republicans have a majority. If they don't like the amendments that 
come up, vote them down, but at least vote on them. Don't hide behind 
platitudes, tweets, and campaign ads, which you can do because you 
never actually have to take responsibility. You ought to vote.
  The bill hasn't been made public, but details are beginning to 
emerge. The details that have emerged show it is woefully inadequate to 
meet the needs of the country. In fact, it provides even less relief 
than the smaller, trillion-dollar package the Trump administration put 
forward before the Senate adjourned a month ago.
  I don't know where Republicans spent the last month, but I know where 
I was. I was all over the State of Vermont talking to Republicans, 
Democrats, and Independents, hearing what is on people's minds--not 
lobbyists, not special interests, but the people who have to pay the 
bills and who have to pay the consequences. I became even more 
convinced, not less, that we have dire needs in this country because of 
the coronavirus pandemic, and we have to address them, and soon. How 
any Senator went back to his or her home State and returned convinced 
that even less assistance is needed than when we left last month is 
baffling to me. That is why I am saying that every Senator can say 
where they stand, but the way they prove where they stand is to vote.
  Let's have the courage to stand up and vote yes or no, not a take-it-
or-leave-it package that will be decided by one person, and nobody else 
would be able to vote anything differently. What are we? What are we--a 
bunch of ducks in a row, or are we U.S. Senators?
  Adding insult to injury, we now find that the bill ultimately 
provides sweeping liability shields for corporate bad actors who fail 
to do their part to keep consumers, employees, and patients safe. It 
tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of this 
Republican package--big corporations come ahead of struggling American 
families.
  Instead of the person who is trying to pay the bills and send their 
children back to school, who is making out in this bill? The lobbyists 
for multibillion-dollar insurance companies. They are already making 
billions of dollars. They don't have to worry about paying the bills. 
They don't have to worry about their children going back to school. 
They don't have to worry about jobs. And this bill gives them one more 
gift? How can we possibly say we support that and then go back home and 
say we are on the side of our people?

  If the majority leader wants to put this so-called skinny bill--
including a giveaway to the multibillion-dollar insurance companies--
well, do it the right way. Bring it here. Set up a real debate on the 
bill--debate that the country deserves and that I think a majority of 
the Republicans and Democrats would want. Open it to amendment--no 
limits. Let the process work--not a process that only rewards highly 
paid lobbyists for multibillion-dollar corporations, but allow Senators 
on both sides of the aisle to say: Here is where I stand with the 
people in my State who have to pay the bills, who have to send their 
kids back to school, who are trying to keep their jobs or keep their 
farms going, or whatever it might be.
  Let Members raise issues important to their constituents from any of 
the 50 States, and then vote on those issues: funding for State and 
local governments that are facing the brunt of the COVID response; 
money for schools so we can safely educate our Nation's children; 
rental assistance and eviction protections to help keep people in their 
homes; food assistance for hungry families so they don't go hungry in 
the wealthiest Nation on Earth; funding for our elections so we can 
ensure that people can safely vote and we can trust the results of the 
vote; big investments in testing and contact tracing because we know we 
can't begin to do the amount of testing and contact tracing we need to 
do today.
  Our economy is only going to come back when the American people are 
confident the virus is no longer a threat. I know the President said 
last winter that of course the virus will go away in the spring. 
Everybody in this Chamber, Republican and Democrat, knows he wasn't 
telling the truth on that. Of course it didn't go away.
  We are not going to have a recovery until we have confidence that the 
virus is no longer a threat. My friend Senator McConnell's skinny bill 
doesn't provide that confidence.
  So I say put these issues up for a vote. Take each one of these 
issues and vote it up or down. Let the American people see where each 
Member of this Chamber stands. I know where I stand. Do as Republican 
leaders in the past have done. Howard Baker, Bob Dole, and others are 
the great leaders. To my knowledge, with some of the amendments, they 
would say: OK, we will vote them up or we will vote them down. Why 
don't we do that? That is the way the Senate was designed. But this 
majority leader will not do what his predecessors have done. Why? 
Because on many of these issues, he knows he would lose. Not too many 
would be willing to vote for his giveaway to the lobbyists for the 
large insurance companies.
  A vote simply to move to this bill is just for show. It doesn't 
provide us an opportunity for real debate. It doesn't solve the 
problems facing the country. Show votes do nothing to combat the virus 
or give the American people the confidence to reopen the economy. In 
fact, I suggest just the opposite. The American people, seeing us doing 
just political showboating votes here, are going to have even less 
confidence that things will come back.
  Absent a real debate in the Senate, which clearly the other side of 
the aisle is afraid of, Republicans have to come back to the 
negotiating table. Restart bipartisan and bicameral talks on a 
comprehensive COVID relief package that can pass both Chambers.
  I hear Senators say, well, we can't vote on this or we can't vote on 
that because it might not be popular at home. My response in a case 
like that is, why do you want to be here?
  We have had nearly 2,000 Senators in this country. The Senator who 
voted the most in the Nation's history was Senator Bob Byrd, one of the 
longest serving Senators. He voted around 18,000 times. He was willing 
to stand for his vote. Out of those 2,000 Senators, the Senator who 
comes in second with the most votes is this Senator from Vermont. That 
is not just for longevity; that means I voted for things that I knew 
would hurt me politically, but I thought it was the right thing to do. 
I was willing to state to the people of Vermont: Here is where I stand. 
You can agree or disagree with me, but you know where I stand.
  One of the reasons the Senate is held in such disfavor in this 
country is that we don't vote. We don't have real debate. It is all one 
way or that way alone.
  Absent a real debate in the Senate, which clearly the Republican 
leader is afraid of, why don't the Republicans come back to the 
negotiating table and restart bipartisan, bicameral talks on a 
comprehensive COVID relief package that can pass both Chambers?

[[Page S5432]]

  We actually were prepared to do this in July. I remember saying: Why 
don't we bring up all the appropriations bills? The Republicans have 
the majority. They can vote them down if they don't like them, but 
let's bring them up and have a vote on them, one way or the other. No, 
we couldn't do it.
  Now Senator McConnell says he wants to do this process piecemeal: 
Pass a little bit now, a little bit later. Trust me, we can do that.
  Well, as Ronald Reagan would say, ``Trust, but verify.'' Let's have a 
real vote. Let's vote on all of it because we know that the majority 
leader will adjourn the Senate later this month to go home and 
campaign. It appears all he wants is a show vote on a woefully 
inadequate bill that he knows can never become law and then to get out 
of here.
  That is not a plan for action. That is not a real plan to pass a bill 
for the American people. It is unacceptable.
  Why don't we admit that the most important thing before us is what is 
happening with COVID and how we address it? Now, I know a lot of 
Republicans who have some very good ideas, and I know a lot of 
Democrats who have some very good ideas to address it. Let's bring them 
up. Let's vote on them--vote for them or vote against them.
  Don't say we are not going to allow a vote because we don't have 
time. We have plenty of time. We have plenty of time. Let's just stay 
here every day, go through weekends if need be, and just vote, vote up 
or down.
  We are running out of time. Right now, the majority leader intends to 
adjourn the Senate in just a few weeks. Well, the American people don't 
have that luxury. They can't just go home for a few weeks knowing their 
bills are being paid, their salary is being paid. They need our help. 
Why don't we do our job and vote these things up or down?
  Have the courage to say what you stand for. We could have, easily, 40 
to 50 amendments--realistic amendments from both Republicans and 
Democrats--vote them up or down, and then have a bill that can go to 
conference. Every one of us knows we should have done that in July. We 
didn't. We could have done that in August. We didn't.
  It is September. Let's at least now do our job, uphold our oath of 
office, and pass the bill. Let's not be afraid of how we vote. I know, 
in my own votes, those 16,000-plus, somebody can find votes they 
disagree with. So what. I have the courage to vote.
  I call on my fellow Senators: Have the courage to vote. We are 
supposed to be the conscience of the Nation. Let's try to be. I see 
other Senators on the floor, eagerly awaiting their chance to give us 
their news.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi