[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 204 (Thursday, December 3, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7193-S7194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I rise today to talk a little bit 
about what is happening in Nevada. Last week, I had the opportunity to 
be home, and I went to one of our mobile food banks in East Las Vegas 
just before Thanksgiving. The mobile food bank is one of our food 
pantries throughout the State of Nevada, and this particular one is run 
by Three Square. I arrived around 8 a.m. in the morning to a line of 
cars waiting at the site. That line sometimes gets so long, police have 
to direct traffic around it. Literally, they lined up at 3 a.m. The 
food pantry doesn't even open until 7 or 8 in the morning, but they 
were there at 3 a.m., around the block, in their cars to stay safe from 
the COVID-19 pandemic. There were over 350 of them throughout that 
morning. That is not unusual with what is happening in Nevada right 
now. That is not unusual, and it should be, but because this pandemic 
has hit Nevada and so many States so hard, we are seeing the 
consequences of inaction by this body in the Senate.
  As I got there that morning, I imagined those people in the middle of 
the night with their lights and power off in their cars to save fuel in 
the cold desert night. And they waited patiently. They were quiet 
because they knew assistance would be there when morning came. And 
sometimes that food runs out for those many people who are waiting, and 
then they have to come the next day. But because of the inaction in 
this Chamber, most Nevadans who are hurting don't have that reassurance 
that there will be immediate, swift relief for them because they don't 
know when Federal help will come. Lifeline organizations like Three 
Square, which are working tirelessly to help families fill the gaps, 
are running out of resources.
  It has been 223 days since the Senate last approved funds to help all 
Americans endure this once-in-a-lifetime catastrophe. Meanwhile, too 
many people in Nevada are languishing in the dark, hoping for economic 
assistance that still hasn't arrived
  In Nevada, we continue to have the second highest unemployment rate 
in the country at 12 percent. That is almost twice the national rate. 
Unemployment is so high in Nevada because of the coronavirus pandemic. 
It has stopped conventions, entertainment, hospitality, and travel 
operations in the Silver State and across the country. In August, in 
Nevada, employment in travel and tourism was down 25 percent over last 
year. Nationwide, spending on travel has declined by 42 percent 
compared to 2019. As a result, there are 60 percent fewer travelers to 
McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas and 50 percent fewer 
travelers to Las Vegas itself. The American Hotel and Lodging 
Association estimates that without more funding, nearly 70 percent of 
hotels may close by the end of this year.
  Because of the devastation to what had been a thriving hospitality 
industry in Nevada, many of the jobs aren't there right now, and too 
many workers in Nevada can't pay their bills. More than 175,000 people 
in the Silver State continue to claim unemployment insurance. People 
without jobs are struggling right now to pay rent or mortgages or 
healthcare.
  Let me tell you, housing assistance from the CARES Act helped tens of 
thousands of Nevadans and millions of Americans keep a roof over their 
heads. That was legislation we passed immediately in a bipartisan way--
one of four. But those funds have run out. They are gone, and they need 
to be replaced. When the limited CDC eviction moratorium expires on 
January 1, Nevada is bracing for 250,000 to 400,000 possible evictions. 
That is more than 20 times the national number of evictions in 2019.
  Families and seniors can't get enough to eat. In August and 
September, 234,000 Nevadans said their households were experiencing 
food insecurity. That is 11 percent of Nevada households going hungry--
the second largest share in the country. One hundred and twenty-nine 
thousand said that the children in their homes didn't have enough food.
  The longer we delay passing additional economic relief, the more 
jeopardy we create for our entire economy, nationwide. Don't take my 
word for it; just listen to Chairman Powell of the Federal Reserve, who 
has been saying this over and over again--most recently in a hearing in 
the Banking Committee, which I am a member of.
  The Senate must do more to help people not just in my home State but 
across the country, especially now, as case counts are climbing. We are 
only months away from being able to give the population at large 
immunity to this deadly virus. We have to do everything we can to help 
people get to that time, to ensure that for the coming months, Nevadans 
can stay in their homes, they can take care of their kids, they can 
keep their businesses running, knowing that they will have an 
opportunity to open them in the future, and they can protect themselves 
from this virus. The only way to do that is to get them the relief they 
need now.
  That relief simply has to include more money for State, local, and 
Tribal governments, which have had to cut back on critical services in 
the middle of a pandemic.
  It should include extended unemployment benefits and pandemic 
unemployment assistance, as well as more loans for our small businesses 
and for PPP.
  It must have housing assistance to prevent a wave of homelessness and 
illness.
  It should do more to protect workers, fund education, and stave off 
hunger for families.
  It also needs to include billions that States have asked for to help 
with vaccine distribution. We are going to be rolling out millions of 
doses of vaccines, all of which will need to be stored, handled, and 
tracked across 50 States. Healthcare workers not just in Nevada but 
across the country will

[[Page S7194]]

need training to administer the vaccine, and the public needs education 
about vaccine safety and access.
  We have witnessed an amazing feat of human ingenuity in developing a 
vaccine faster than we have ever done it before, but the Federal 
Government and this Chamber still haven't set money aside to make sure 
that vaccines get to those who need it.
  It also has to include money for testing and tracing so that we can 
contain spread of this virus and get more people back to work.
  Nobody should be standing in the way of a comprehensive, bipartisan 
relief package to help Americans hold out until they can get the 
vaccines we know are coming. They need relief now. That is why I 
support the bipartisan proposal that our colleagues in the Senate put 
together just recently.
  That proposal, which they look at in a comprehensive way for all of 
our States, includes money for State, local, and Tribal governments. It 
includes additional unemployment insurance. It supports funding for 
small businesses, including the Paycheck Protection Program, EIDL 
disaster loans, restaurants, stages, and deductibility. What I mean by 
stages are the live events in the hospitality industry that have been 
so devastated and have not received any relief during the time we have 
appropriated funds to address the pandemic. It includes CDFI, community 
lender support. It includes transportation--our airlines, our airports, 
our buses, our transit, Amtrak--and our workers there. It includes 
vaccine development and distribution and testing and tracing. It 
includes money for healthcare provider relief. It includes money for 
education, for student loans, and, yes, housing assistance and rental 
assistance that is needed now. It also includes money for nutrition, 
for the food insecurity that I just talked about that I witnessed that 
morning in Las Vegas and that we hear about constantly, not just in 
Nevada but across this country. It includes money for childcare, for 
broadband, for the U.S. Postal Service--so many things.
  It was well reasoned and compromised and thought out, and it was our 
colleagues coming together--Republicans and Democrats coming together--
for the best interests of this country.
  I will tell you, we do not need unanimous support for this proposal. 
What we need is a vote on the floor of the Senate. That is why I am 
asking Mitch McConnell to allow this proposal to come to the floor of 
the Senate for a vote. If some of my colleagues don't want to support 
any more relief, then they don't have to vote for it. But I would 
guarantee and I would suspect that there are more than enough of my 
colleagues on both sides of aisle who want to pass relief for the many 
Americans across this country in our States who are suffering right 
now, but they have to be given the opportunity.
  I get that right now, there is only one person who gets to decide 
what goes on the floor of the Senate. I don't agree with that, but that 
is the way the rules are set. Mitch McConnell decides every single day 
what legislation comes to the floor of the Senate, what can be debated, 
what amendments can come. I have watched this for years as Mitch 
McConnell, instead of including the Democrats in bipartisan negotiation 
on some of these important bills, puts them together behind closed 
doors, with only Republicans and maybe the current administration, and 
then puts them on the floor of the Senate for the first time; bypasses 
our committee hearings, where there is bipartisan support, usually, for 
bills; bypasses that and puts it on the floor of the Senate without any 
compromise, without any of the Democrats' involvement, and expects us 
to vote for it, and then holds the Democrats accountable--accountable--
because we didn't have the opportunity to fight for our States and put 
important funding in there for State and local government, for 
broadband, for our healthcare workers, for our hospitality industry--
you name it. That is not the way the Senate should be operating. You 
know that, and I know that.
  We have to get back to a time when we compromise, when we all come 
representing our States. We all have equal votes. There are two of us 
from each State. We are fighting for our constituents and our States, 
and we should be able to have that debate, that conversation, on the 
floor of the Senate in a fair manner. That is why I ask Mitch McConnell 
to allow a vote on this proposal.

  I had the opportunity to watch one of my colleagues talk about this. 
I absolutely agree with him, Senator Angus King. He said: I sit in 
these committees, in these bipartisan committees, and I vote for relief 
for disasters, hurricane disasters, fire disasters--fires in the 
Western States where I come from and where you know so well that the 
fires are devastating our Western States. But for the hurricanes that 
happen in Texas, Florida--you name it--I vote for relief because I know 
those constituents in those States are suffering. I don't look at them 
as blue States or red States. I look at them as Americans who are in 
need right now, and I am going to support that relief.
  Why are we doing that with this coronavirus relief package? I do not 
understand. It is not what the American people expect of us. It is not 
what they want, and it is not what they deserve. I cannot stress this 
enough: It is time for the Senate to get back to work on behalf of the 
American public. That means that we are willing to compromise. That 
means we are willing to do what is right and what is needed in our 
communities because I can guarantee you, any one of us who goes home to 
our State--we are all suffering; we all see it. That is what the 
American people expect of us.
  I hope Mitch McConnell allows a vote on the floor for this bipartisan 
compromise that the Senators have worked on.
  I yield the floor.