[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 201 (Monday, November 30, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7104-S7105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GOVERNMENT FUNDING

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, on another matter, the Senate has, of 
course, returned for a last end-of-the-year legislative dash, and we 
have a lot of work to do before we cross the finish line.
  As we know, government funding will expire in less than 2 weeks, and 
we have to reach an agreement, as the senior Senator from Vermont 
mentioned, before the December 11 deadline of the current continuing 
resolution. With millions of Americans already facing economic 
uncertainty, a government shutdown is, surely, not an option.
  We need to pass the National Defense Authorization Act to support 
America's brave servicemembers and ensure that our military leaders 
have the ability to plan and operate with certainty and provide peace 
through American strength. Also, as we move into the winter months, 
which the experts have told us will present new challenges in our war 
against the COVID-19 virus, it is time to cut the partisanship and 
deliver another round of relief to the American people.
  It is worth recounting--because people have short memories, 
apparently, in Washington, DC--that, over the last several months, our 
Democratic colleagues have consistently talked about the need to 
bolster our support in the fight against COVID-19. Yet, despite the 
repeated rhetoric and calls to action, they have unapologetically stood 
in the way of each and every attempt to make real progress.
  This summer, we proposed something called the HEALS Act--as the 
Presiding Officer knows, for he was instrumental in that work--as a 
starting point for negotiations on a new relief package. It was a 
starting place, a place to begin bipartisan negotiations in the hope of 
crafting a package that could get the requisite number of votes. 
Unfortunately, before the election, our Democratic colleagues had 
simply no interest in amending the bill or trying to find any kind of 
common ground. I think they thought it was to their political advantage 
for the American people to be experiencing the anxiety and the pain 
before the election. I can't imagine holding them hostage, but that is 
what appeared, to me, to be the case.
  Instead of trying to find common ground--in particular, the Speaker 
made the amazing statement that nothing was better than something when 
it came to COVID-19 relief, which is just the opposite of what I have 
always believed--she demeaned the bill of half a trillion dollars in 
spending as ``pathetic.'' The minority leader called it ``unworkable,'' 
but then they didn't lift a finger to try to get anything done.
  So the next month we took another shot. We attempted to narrow the 
scope of negotiations to the most urgent matters--things like 
continuing Federal unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of 
July. This is last July. This time our Democratic colleagues rejected 
what they called a ``piecemeal'' approach.
  Well, never mind the fact that the House returned to Washington to 
help pass a bill that supported the U.S. Postal Service. We all believe 
in supporting the Postal Service, but apparently they thought that 
piecemeal bill was acceptable as long as it was a Democratic-authored 
bill and didn't provide any additional relief to the American people.
  Well, being unsuccessful those first two times, we tried again a 
third time. So in September the majority leader tried to bring a bill 
to the floor to provide $500 billion for our shared bipartisan 
priorities. There weren't any real differences in what was in the bill. 
The only difference was that our Democratic colleagues wanted to spend 
multiples of that for unrelated activities. We wanted to concentrate 
the effort on helping small businesses keep their employees on payroll, 
giving schools the resources they needed to keep their students and 
teachers safe, strengthening testing nationwide, and investing in the 
continued success of Operation Warp Speed, which is going to deliver an 
FDA-approved vaccine before the end of the year--not just one, maybe as 
many as two or three, and more, perhaps, to come.
  Anyone who has spent time watching C-SPAN over the last several 
months has heard both Republicans and Democrats talk about the 
importance of every single one of these things, but when legislation 
that includes all of these priorities came up for an initial vote, our 
Democratic colleagues wouldn't even allow us to get on the bill. In 
other words, here in the Senate you have to vote to get on the bill 
before you can then offer amendments and try to make it better.
  So they killed it. Without batting an eye, our Democratic colleagues 
voted in lockstep to block the bill and unanimously oppose legislation 
that would have invested an additional half-trillion dollars in our 
fight against COVID-19.
  When the majority leader tried to bring the bill to the floor again 
in October, we saw exactly the same thing. It was the same bad movie 
all over again. Our Democratic colleagues refused to let us even 
debate, much less to amend, the bill.
  It is not just these targeted packages that have been blocked by our 
Democratic colleagues. They stood in the way of our commonsense 
proposals, like the one from the now-former Senator from Arizona, 
Senator McSally, which would have extended unemployment benefits for 1 
week while we negotiated a larger compromise.
  Our friends on the other side of the aisle have repeatedly said that 
Congress needs to act, but the reality is their own actions have 
prevented us from doing so.
  Month after month, they have demonstrated it is either the House's 
multitrillion-dollar, leftwing-policy grab-bag wish list or nothing. 
They have consistently told the American people: It is our way or the 
highway. You don't get an extension of unemployment insurance unless we 
get tax breaks for blue-State millionaires and billionaires. You don't 
get vaccine funding unless we get diversity studies on the marijuana 
industry. You don't get funding for schools unless we get permanent 
changes to hijack and take over our election laws and run them out of 
Washington, DC.
  Well, even rank-and-file Democrats have now understood and criticized 
this sort of bogus approach to legislating. It has been the same song 
and dance month after month--fiery speeches, press conferences, tweets, 
and letters calling for action. But each time our Democratic colleagues 
have been given an opportunity to actually do something--to do more 
than spout off some meaningless, vapid rhetoric at the nearest 
microphone--they have simply stood in the way.
  The fact of the matter is our Democratic colleagues have blocked more 
COVID relief bills than they have passed. Yet they continue to feign 
outrage over Congress's failure to pass a bill--we heard it again here 
today--as though they aren't the ones responsible for the impasse.
  Our jobs here in the Senate aren't simply to vote against imperfect 
bills. If that were the case, no bill would ever pass, because none of 
them is perfect. But this body is built on making imperfect legislation 
better through a debate-and-amendment process--two processes we haven't 
seen much at work this year.

[[Page S7105]]

  So the bottom line is Congress needs to act. The American people want 
Democrats and Republicans to come to an agreement on the things our 
country actually needs to make it through this crisis.
  It won't be the last piece of legislation we pass, but we do need to 
do this next step, and we need to do it soon--as soon as possible.
  It is time for our Democratic colleagues to realize the election is 
over and the only real people being hurt by their intransigence are the 
people they represent in their various States.
  So it is time to start getting back to work for all the American 
people on a bipartisan piece of legislation and to quit the partisan 
games. I can't say it any more directly than that.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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