[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 156 (Thursday, September 10, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5526-S5527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 S. 178

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on an entirely different matter, 
Congress has spent months talking--talking--about whether to give the 
American people more relief as they continue grappling with this 
pandemic.
  Today we are going to vote.
  Today we are going to vote. Every Senator will be counted. Should we 
move forward with the floor process to deliver hundreds of billions of 
dollars more for kids, jobs, and healthcare? Should we at least vote to 
move forward and have this debate out in the open? Or do our Democratic 
colleagues prefer to hide behind closed doors and refuse to help 
families before the election?
  Well, we will find out in a couple of hours.
  Republicans have tried repeatedly to build on the CARES Act and get 
more help out the door to American families. Democrats have blocked us 
at every turn. They have invented different excuses each time.
  A few months ago, Speaker Pelosi wrote a massive multitrillion-dollar 
liberal wish list that even her own House Democratic Members said would 
never become law.
  ``The HEROES Act went too far.'' A ``political wish list.'' These are 
quotes from House Democrats.
  But in July, when the Senate Republicans put forward a serious offer, 
Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader said they would not even 
talk--not even talk--unless we started with that unserious bill. No 
help for families unless they got to pass the absurd bill their own 
Democratic Members have ridiculed.
  So, in August, Republicans tried something else. We proposed breaking 
off some of the most urgent, most bipartisan policies and agreeing 
wherever we could: unemployment insurance, the Paycheck Protection 
Program. But Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader blocked that too. 
They said they didn't want to do anything ``piecemeal.'' ``Piecemeal,'' 
they said.
  Then, just a few weeks later, Speaker Pelosi completely contradicted 
herself and rushed back to Washington to pass a total piecemeal bill 
that only helped the Postal Service and did nothing for working 
families--contradiction after contradiction, excuse after excuse, while 
working families have suffered and waited and wondered whether 
Washington Democrats really care more about hurting President Trump 
than helping them through this crisis.
  My Democratic colleagues should stand up and tell the American people 
which elements of our multihundred-billion-dollar proposal they 
actually oppose.
  Let me say that again. They should stand up and tell the American 
people which parts of the proposal we will vote on later today that 
they are actually against.
  Today, we are going to vote to extend the Federal unemployment 
insurance. Will Democrats vote against that?
  Thanks to Senator Collins and Chairman Rubio, we are going to vote on 
a whole second round of the PPP for hard-hit businesses. Are the 
Democrats against that?
  Thanks to colleagues such as Senators Ernst, Daines, Gardner, and 
Sullivan, we will be voting on help for small businesses like farms and 
fisheries. Thanks to Senator Cornyn, we will be voting on commonsense 
legal protections that universities and nonprofits have been asking 
for. Who are the Democrats excited to vote against--the farmers or the 
university presidents?
  Thanks to Chairman Alexander and Senator Blunt, we are going to vote 
on an incredibly robust package for education and healthcare to get 
kids back in school safely and then defeat this virus through science. 
We will be voting on $105 billion for education, more than House 
Democrats put on their bill; billions on testing and tracing; and even 
more support for vaccines.
  Thanks to a number of our colleagues, including Senators Ernst and 
Loeffler, there is new support for childcare, plus other arrangements 
like homeschooling, thanks to Senator Cruz.
  Are Democrats going to vote against childcare and education during a 
pandemic because they are afraid the Republicans might get some credit? 
Really? They are going to vote against finding and distributing 
vaccines because they are afraid the breakthrough that our Nation is 
praying for might possibly help President Trump?
  These are the policies that every one of us will be voting on in a 
couple of hours--these and many more.
  Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader can keep up their frantic 
political spin. They can keep trying to make this an abstract argument 
over leverage or an infinite set of things that aren't in the bill or 
whether the White House Chief of Staff has been polite to them or 
whatever new excuse they will settle on today. But none of that is what 
we are going to vote on. We are going to vote on policy.
  Today, every Senator will either say they want to send families the 
relief we can agree to or they can send families nothing--nothing.
  Reporters asked the Democratic leader yesterday if his stonewalling 
was making the perfect the enemy of the good. He replied--listen to 
this--``Republicans are the enemy of the good.'' ``Republicans are the 
enemy.'' That is what he said.

  We have all heard the saying that a gaffe is when a politician 
accidentally says what he really thinks. That is a Washington gaffe, 
when a politician actually says what he really thinks. Well, the 
Democratic leader just told us how poisonous his thinking has become.
  The Americans we represent, however they vote, know that Republicans 
aren't our enemies and Democrats aren't our enemies. The coronavirus is 
the enemy. The coronavirus is the enemy.
  My home State just passed a sad milestone yesterday. More than 1,000 
Kentuckians have lost their lives to COVID-19. These families I 
represent are not burying their loved ones because Republicans or 
Democrats are the enemy. They are burying their loved ones because of 
this virus. That is what we are fighting. That is what families are 
dealing with. We are not each other's enemies. We are all in this 
together, just like we were back in March and April.
  So, today, every Senator is going to vote. Every Senator is going to 
vote. Senators who share the Democratic leader's toxic attitude, who 
think the

[[Page S5527]]

real enemies are their political opponents, I assume, will follow his 
lead and vote no. They can tell American families they care more about 
politics than helping them.
  But Senators who want to move forward will vote yes. They will vote 
to advance this process so we can shape it into a bipartisan product 
and make a law for the American people. That is what working families 
need. They need us to act. They need us to legislate. Today, they will 
see exactly who has their backs.

                          ____________________