[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 161 (Thursday, September 17, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5696-S5698]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. KING. Mr. President, I am sure you and I and all the Members of 
this body remember that night in late March. It was late at night. I 
remember standing in the back of the Chamber to see one of the truly 
historic votes. It was a unanimous vote of the U.S. Senate to pass the 
CARES Act. It was an amazing achievement to see the Senate and the 
Congress come together in that way with the White House, with the 
President, to help meet the needs of the American people.
  When we passed that bill back in March, September seemed a long way 
away. We thought we had provided enough aid for small businesses. It 
turns out we didn't. We thought we had provided enough aid for people, 
unfortunately, who have fallen into unemployment through no fault of 
their own but the fault of this dreaded COVID, but we didn't provide 
enough.
  We hoped that we had provided enough for first responders, for 
schools, for healthcare professionals, for testing, and for all the 
things that were necessary to get us out of this terrible pandemic. It 
turns out that wasn't the case. Here we are in September facing a 
renewed version of this virus that is now spreading in parts of the 
country that weren't affected back in March.
  I want to address, No. 1, that we must do something. We have to 
respond to the needs of the American people just as we did in March. I 
don't understand why this time it seems to be a partisan issue; why 
this time we can't have the same spirit that we had then of 
negotiation, of give and take, of compromise to reach a bill that all 
realize now was a really significant accomplishment.
  For some reason, now it just seems to be much harder. I understand 
the concern about the debt and the deficit. I used to be a Governor. I 
know about balancing budgets. States have to balance their budgets, but 
now is not the time. If we don't take further action to shore up the 
economy and protect the

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people who are being impacted by this, the fiscal cost in the long run 
will be worse. The revival of the economy will take longer. The cost to 
the Treasury will be greater than what we are proposing to spend now.
  I believe and I hope that we are moving slowly toward some kind of 
agreement that will allow us to provide the support to the American 
people and the American economy that will make such a difference in how 
we are able to cope with this terrible disease over the next several 
months--at least through the end of the year. That is really the 
mission that is before us.
  The Democrats made a proposal back in May. They passed the Heroes Act 
of over $3 trillion. They have moved. The Speaker and the minority 
leader here have moved $1 trillion. They made a counteroffer a few 
weeks ago of about $2 trillion. The White House apparently, over the 
last couple of days, has said we are now talking about something at 
$1.5 trillion to $2 trillion as a solution. The parties are moving, and 
I hope today that they will continue to discuss and that the table will 
have people sitting at it trying to find a solution. I think there is 
hope that we can do that.
  I deeply hope that we can come to an agreement. Schools across the 
country are seeing, unbelievably, additional expenditures in all areas 
to try to get back to normal, to try to get back into the classroom. If 
they are going to do that, they need more buses. They are going to need 
more teachers. They are going to need more people. They are going to 
need more cleaning materials. They are going to need all kinds of 
additional expenditures they weren't anticipating.
  Small businesses are continuing to teeter. I hear awful stories about 
small businesses that between now and the end of the year are in danger 
of closing their doors forever. That would be a tragedy for our 
country.
  We are continuing to see people lose their jobs. We are continuing to 
see people on unemployment. We are continuing to see people who can't 
put food on the table because the aid that we provided in the CARES Act 
in March ran out at the end of July
  I am urging, No. 1, discussions. That is pretty obvious. I hope that 
the representatives of the two parties and representatives of the White 
House can come together and reach an agreement. Part of this agreement 
has to contain within it support for States, towns, and cities. They 
are suffering, too, and they are providing the very services that the 
people need in this pandemic.
  States can't borrow money the way we can. They have to balance their 
budget on a year-to-year basis. If they are being clobbered by the 
effects of this disease, not only in expenditures but in loss of 
revenues, they only have two choices. I have been there. They only have 
two choices. One is drastic cuts, and the other is raising taxes, 
neither of which is an acceptable alternative in the midst of a 
recession, and neither of which makes any sense for the American 
people. They have either to cut or raise taxes. Those aren't good 
options.
  By the way, I can only speak for the Maine budget. I don't know how 
other State budgets work. But in Maine about one-third of our budget--
between 25 percent and 35 percent of our State budget--goes back to our 
communities. It goes to the capital city of Augusta, makes a U-turn, 
and goes back into the towns and cities across Maine, mostly in the 
form of general-purpose aid to education, also in the form of revenue 
sharing, and in other kinds of grants and contracts.
  When we talk about the State, it sounds like we are talking about 
these big, impersonal entities, but we are really talking about towns--
small towns--and school districts. That is where a lot of this impact 
is going to fall.
  It is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways. It is hurting 
people--the people who are being laid off, the people who are going to 
have to be laid off, whether they are in a town or city, a county or 
the State. That hurts the economy. Those are people who are buying 
things in the stores, going to restaurants, and going to grocery 
stores. They are going to places to buy clothes, and if they can't do 
that, then, the entire economy is pulled down.
  If we don't help the States and the cities and towns in this 
situation, the estimates are that it is going to hit GDP by 2 to 3 
percent. That is huge. That is a huge economic loss that is going to 
translate into a fiscal loss for us and a tragic loss for the American 
people.
  The estimate in Maine is a $1.4 billion shortfall of our State budget 
over the next 3 years--a half-billion dollars in this fiscal year that 
we are in right now.
  Towns and cities across Maine are already starting to furlough first 
responders. Who is it that works for the towns? Who is it that works 
for the cities? Police and fire are the biggest components. They are 
not hiring people. I think we need to face the fact that those who are 
opposing aid to our cities and towns are the people who are defunding 
the police. That is who is defunding the police because their budgets 
are going to be cut if they don't get some assistance from this body 
and this government.
  Let's be real. Let's talk about facts. Let's talk about the real 
impact of our lack of attention to this issue. This is a personal 
tragedy for these families, and it is one more blow to the economy.
  By the way, this is not a blue State issue. Here are some States 
whose budgets have been hit by more than 10 percent by the loss of 
revenues caused by the COVID: Alaska, which is not much of a blue 
State; Indiana; Kansas; Kentucky; Montana; Oklahoma; and Iowa. Those 
States are hurting, too. This blue State-red State stuff bothers me.
  I don't know how many emergency appropriations for natural disasters, 
wildfires, floods, and hurricanes I have voted for. It never occurred 
to me to ask what color the State was. It never occurred to me. We are 
a community. This is one country. I don't ask how Florida voted if 
there is a hurricane that strikes that State or Georgia or Alabama, 
which is being hit right now. If they need help, we should provide it.
  But what we are seeing now is a slow-motion fiscal hurricane that is 
hitting many, if not all, of the States of the United States. We should 
come together and help them. As for this business about that, well, we 
don't want to bail out somebody's pension program, look, this is an 
easy calculation. The Treasury Department is capable of making the 
calculation. What were your revenues last year? What were your 
projections before COVID? What is the difference? That is what we are 
talking about.

  Make no mistake, we are talking about real, concrete, on-the-ground 
losses of jobs and losses of the services that those jobs provide. 
Whether they are public health workers, first responders, firefighters, 
or police--yes, police--they are who are being impacted here, and it is 
we as citizens who are the customers of those services who need the 
protection and who need the services they provide. They are who are 
being hurt.
  I hope that we can come to an agreement and that we can get over this 
nonsense that this is somehow a blue State-red State thing and that we 
are bailing out States that were not prudent. I am tired of hearing 
that. We are talking about people's lives here. We are talking about 
the protection of public services. We are talking about teaching our 
kids. We are talking about people who are providing the basic 
protections that we all take for granted in our daily lives.
  Really, I have two simple messages: One, let's make a deal. Two, that 
deal should include support for those people and institutions in our 
States, in our cities, and in our smallest towns so that they will have 
the wherewithal to be able to help us all get through this thing 
together. That is what this is all about, and those are the people on 
the ground who are helping us get through this together.
  We can do this. We proved in March that we could do it. I think we 
must and can and will do it again.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  (The remarks of Mr. Lee pertaining to the introduction of S. 4608 are 
printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and 
Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. LEE. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

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