[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5620-S5622]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Workplace Safety

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, it is pretty obvious that my Republican 
colleagues think that the Presiding Officer is going to lose her race 
and a number of incumbent Senators are going to

[[Page S5621]]

lose their races and because it looks like there is going to be a 
Democratic President and a Democratic Senate and Democratic House, all 
of a sudden my far-right colleagues are concerned about the national 
deficit and the national debt.
  In President Trump's second year in office, Congress passed a bill 
that provided about $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. Between 70 and 80 
percent of the tax cuts went to the richest 1 percent of the people in 
this country. It pushed the national debt into a whole new 
stratosphere. It took money we were going to use to build 
infrastructure--highways, bridges, water and sewer systems--and just 
ignored that plan. And now all of a sudden my colleagues are interested 
in the national debt--not when the Republicans are in control; they 
want to give more and more and more tax cuts. But when Democrats are in 
control, Democrats want to invest in infrastructure; Democrats want to 
save this economy right now, including providing $600 a week for 
unemployed workers--680,000 of them in my State, close to 400,000 of 
them in the Presiding Officer's State--Democrats want to invest in 
infrastructure and job training and protecting Medicare and Social 
Security. But now that Republicans think they are going to lose, it is 
all about the national debt and doing nothing to help workers right 
now.
  I want to talk today specifically about workers and how this 
President and all the President's enablers--and they are enablers. My 
Republican colleagues don't even speak up when the President so 
dishonors our fallen soldiers. They don't speak up when the President 
has clearly lied, his own words, about the coronavirus--lied to the 
American people after he was taped, in his own words, by a former 
reporter and absolutely failed to speak up about workers
  Every day we live with the horrific consequences of leadership 
failures in this country. So many Americans have lost jobs; they have 
lost small businesses; they have lost their sense of security; and they 
have lost much of their faith in their own government; and in nearly 
200,000 American families, they have lost a loved one. All because 
President Trump and his enablers here--all because President Trump has 
failed to get this pandemic under control, he has failed to protect 
American workers.
  A few weeks ago, I was talking to a woman in Cincinnati. I was 
actually home; it was a remote call. She is a grocery store worker. She 
said: You know, they call me essential, but I don't feel essential. I 
feel expendable because they pay me so little, and they do so little to 
keep me safe at work.
  President Trump's administration, get this, has gotten 8,000--8,000, 
8-0-0-0--complaints about unsafe workplaces since the start of this 
pandemic. We know how many busdrivers have died. We know how many 
grocery store workers have died. We know how many meatpacking plant 
workers have died. We know how many hospital workers have died--not 
just nurses and doctors, and we grieve for them and their families and 
applaud and are so grateful for their service--but it is orderlies who 
have died also, and the people who change the bed sheets and change the 
linens in the hospitals have died.
  The President has gotten 8,000 complaints about unsafe workplaces. 
This summer, we had President Trump's corporate lawyer, Secretary of 
Labor Scalia, before the Finance Committee. When I say ``corporate 
lawyer,'' I mean corporate lawyer. He represents the President in the 
Department of Labor. As a corporate lawyer, when there is a fork in the 
road, do I support workers or do I support corporate interests? Every 
single time he goes with corporate interests.
  It is not a surprise because the Secretary of Labor used to be a 
corporate lawyer who made millions and millions of dollars representing 
corporations against workers. That is the kind of person the President 
picked--if that doesn't tell you a whole lot about President Trump's 
betrayal of workers.
  He appointed the Secretary of Labor, somebody who always has 
represented corporations, making millions of dollars against workers. 
So what is he going to do as Secretary of Labor? He is going to do what 
the President wants him to do. He is going to support corporate 
interests against workers.
  I asked Secretary Scalia in the Finance Committee, out of the 
thousands of workers who have come to you for help, how many in-person 
inspections have you done? Thousands of workers have come to him for 
help. How many inspections of workplaces have they done? Zero--zero in 
Atlanta; zero in Savannah; zero in Griffin, GA; zero in Covington, GA; 
zero in Mansfield, GA; zero in Stone Mountain, GA; zero in Ohio.
  I don't know the Presiding Officer very well, but she took an oath to 
represent her State, as I took an oath to represent my State. And one 
of the things we do is fight--should fight for everyday people, for 
workers.
  This Secretary of Labor had done zero--zero inspections after 6 
months of Americans reporting to work in a pandemic, and there were 
over 8,000 complaints--8,000 complaints from workers saying that my 
workplace is not safe.
  There is a pandemic. Zero inspections. Do you know what? Not one 
Republican member of the Finance Committee--not one Republican Senator 
on the Finance Committee--spoke up and pushed Secretary Scalia to do 
inspections or to look out for workers. Why? Because it would have made 
the President of the United States unhappy if a Republican Senator had 
questioned what the President of the United States does.
  They don't question him when he insults our soldiers who have died. 
They don't question him when he lies to the American public about the 
pandemic. They don't question him when he fails his leadership role to 
protect workers.
  Zero inspections--6 months, 8,000 complaints. Zero inspections to 
make sure corporations are giving workers the protective equipment and 
the other safety protocols they need.
  I demanded that Secretary Scalia, at this hearing, follow up and tell 
us about any inspections they conducted and what the results of those 
inspections were. He said he couldn't get that information. He is the 
Secretary of Labor; I am not.
  Guess how many fines they have issued. Five--five fines. As far as we 
know, President Trump's administration has only issued 5 fines out of 
more than 8,000 workers complaining that their employers are failing to 
protect them.
  Last week--a notable week for the Trump administration--they did 
something about workers, but listen to what they did. They fined 
Smithfield. Smithfield is a multibillion-dollar company owned by the 
Chinese Communist Party. They fined Smithfield $13,000, after 1,300 
workers got sick at just 1 plant in South Dakota, and 4 people died.
  Let's do the math: $13,000 fine, 1,300 workers got sick. That is $10 
a worker. They fined this multibillion-dollar company, owned by the 
Chinese Communist Party in the United States, in South Dakota--they 
fined this company $10 per infected worker, a multibillion-dollar 
corporation.
  The idea that $10 a worker will stop these guys from continuing to 
abuse their workers is absurd. Do you know what? Every other corporate 
leader around the country heard: Oh, my gosh. President Trump is on our 
side. He is on our side every single time. President Trump is on our 
side when it comes to a complaint from a worker, so we don't have to 
worry about making our workers safe because we know the President of 
the United States might fine us $10 per every sick worker.
  One-third of the workers at this plant got sick--one-third of the 
workers. They were not putting all the money they make--the billions of 
dollars that they pull out of South Dakota, this company, and send 
those dollars, probably electronically, I guess not by boat, to the 
Communist Party in China. All those dollars they take out of that 
plant, and they can't put any of those dollars to invest in protecting 
workers to make their companies successful.
  President Trump could crack down on these corporations. He is not 
going to do that. He comes from corporate America. He inherited 
billions of dollars. He has had a lot of personal bankruptcies. Forget 
about that. He is on their side. Politics, government--it is about 
whose side you are on. Are you on the President's side every single 
time, no matter what he does? Are you on corporations' side every 
single time, no matter what they do? No matter

[[Page S5622]]

how many workers get sick, no matter how many workers they kill, it is 
on their watch--no matter how many workers they kill, you are going to 
be on the corporation's side every single time? And the answer in 
Trump's America is yes.
  Instead, he could mobilize workers. He could mobilize American 
manufacturers to get every American worker the masks and protective 
equipment they need. He could issue an OSHA temporary standard that 
would provide clear, enforceable requirements for keeping workers safe.
  He could stand up for workers. He campaigned on it. He could actually 
stand up for workers. But he will not. It is always the same story with 
this corporate President, always the same story. He wants to protect 
the big guys--workers' health and workers' safety be dammed.
  He campaigned in 2016, in my State--he surprised people how much he 
won by in my State. He campaigned by promising he would look out for 
workers. He went all over Ohio; he went all over the industrial 
Midwest--the Great Lake States areas--telling workers he would take 
care of them and would fight for them.
  Now we know how much these workers' health and how much these 
workers' lives mean to this President--about $10 each. He has betrayed 
these workers over and over. His corporate tax cuts--Senator Thune was 
talking about Democrats and taxes and the deficit in an easy-to-
understand way. He betrayed these workers over and over. Corporate tax 
cuts: 70 percent of the benefits went to the richest 1 percent. He took 
away 100,000 Ohio workers' overtime pay. He took away overtime pay from 
workers in Savannah, in LaGrange, in Newton County, and Jasper County, 
GA. He took overtime pay away from my constituents in Cleveland and 
Mansfield and Shelby and Chillicothe.
  He stacks the courts with corporate lawyers. Those lawyers--now 
judges--will always decide for corporate interests against workers' 
interests.
  He launched a boycott against Goodyear, a unionized tire-making plant 
headquartered in Akron--one of the greatest companies in our State and 
one of the most renowned, iconic companies--because somebody made a 
statement about one of his ``Make America Great'' hats. He launched a 
boycott costing who knows how many jobs in that company.
  He has betrayed workers by his failure to fight for autoworkers and 
their jobs. He promised workers in Lordstown, OH: Don't sell your 
homes. This plant may close, but don't sell your homes. We are going to 
bring back these jobs.
  Then he did nothing when we asked him to help, and they shut down, 
costing 3,000 jobs.
  Most recently, he and Senator McConnell and all their minions who 
follow Senator McConnell's lead took away $600 a week in unemployment 
benefits. What are those workers to do? What are those workers to do in 
Georgia? What are those workers to do in Ohio? What are those workers 
to do in Illinois and Delaware when their $600 a week just disappears?
  I know there are a lot of wealthy people on both sides of the aisle. 
There are a lot of very wealthy people here. There are millionaire 
Members of the Senate. When I hear millionaire Senators and billionaire 
people in the administration say that $600 a week is just too much 
money--we can't give these unemployed workers that much money. That 
$600 a week is too much money. They are going to get lazy. They are not 
going to work.
  When I hear millionaire Members of the Senate say such things, it 
sickens me. That $600 a week is the reason that millions of Americans 
didn't fall into poverty during this terrible, terrible recession. But 
lo and behold, the administration is happy and the Republican Senators 
are happy because the stock market has recovered. I know a lot of you 
in this institution have a lot of money in the stock market. I won't 
even get into the conflicts of interest when you own this stock and you 
vote this away. Forget about that. You have a lot of money in the stock 
market, so I know you are really happy. I know the Presiding Officer 
and Republican Members of the Senate are really happy that the stock 
market recovered in the spring. So then Donald Trump doesn't even have 
to pretend to care about getting this pandemic under control.
  Corporations are doing fine. Never mind the workers who are getting 
sick. Never mind the essential workers. The essential workers are the 
busdrivers, food service people, custodians, security people, people 
who work in grocery stores and drug stores.
  The essential workers--who are mostly women, disproportionately 
people of color, who mostly are barely adequately paid--the essential 
workers face something most of us don't: They work all day exposed to 
the public. They wear masks. They are safe--most of them. They do 
things safely. They work all day, and then they go home always anxious.
  Madam President, imagine feeling every day when you go home that you 
might have contracted coronavirus and you might pass it on to your 
family. Imagine the anxiety these generally low-paid workers face every 
day when they go home. We don't think about them around here because 
corporations are doing fine and the stock market has recovered. The 
workers go home every night worried they will affect their families. 
Most of them won't; they will get along just fine.
  American workers are tired of this. They are sick of this. They are 
tired of the empty promises. They are tired of the betrayals. They are 
tired of feeling like no one in this government, in this Senate, in 
this White House is on their side.
  If all of you would--could actually lead when the President doesn't, 
we could pass a bill issuing an OSHA--Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration--temporary standard, protecting people. We could issue a 
temporary standard to protect people on the job. We could pass pandemic 
pay. That is what the House of Representatives down the hall did.
  When the House of Representatives passed their bill and they took 
that bill down the hall and put it in Senator McConnell's office there, 
I guess that bill got lost. One of the things that bill did have was 
pandemic premium pay. If you are one of those workers--I know this 
amount of money doesn't mean much to the Presiding Officer or most of 
my Senate colleagues, but they would get up to $10,000 pandemic pay 
because they expose themselves in the workplaces--essential workers--to 
this illness. It would actually pay these essential workers for putting 
their health and their lives on the line to serve us.
  It is time for us to step up. If you love this country, it is time we 
fought for the people who make it work. It is time we fought for the 
people who make this country work. Instead of always siding with U.S. 
corporations and with the wealthiest people in this society, it is time 
we decide in this body to actually fight for workers