[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 207 (Tuesday, December 8, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, everywhere you look, there are signs 
the country needs emergency Federal relief before the end of the year. 
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are rising. COVID restrictions are 
snapping back into place in cities and States around the country. 
Economists are warning of a double-dip recession if Congress fails to 
pass another round of fiscal stimulus.
  The situation is really quite simple. There are flaring needs in the 
country, and we need to work across party lines to pass legislation to 
meet those needs. Let me say it again. We need both parties to sit down 
and compromise on legislation to help the American people. That is the 
only way to get legislation passed. But observers of this process seem 
to have lost track of this simple truth. The Republican leader seems to 
have forgotten about it entirely.
  Amazingly, it has been over 8 months since Congress came together to 
pass the CARES Act, and the leader's position has not budged. The 
majority leader continues to insist that the Senate accept one of his 
partisan Republican proposals, each one of which has been sorely 
inadequate and each of which has contained poison pills designed to 
ensure the bill's failure.
  The most conspicuous of these poison pills is the so-called ``red 
line'' the majority leader has tried to draw on the issue of corporate 
immunity. Contrary to the majority leader's dire predictions, there has 
been no flood of COVID lawsuits--in fact, quite the opposite. Almost a 
year into this pandemic, with nearly 15 million Americans infected and 
280,000 lives lost to COVID-19, there have only been 111 COVID-related 
lawsuits filed regarding conditions of employment, 23 suits for 
personal injury for exposure to the coronavirus in a public place, and 
11 COVID-related medical malpractice suits.
  Far from a pandemic of lawsuits, there has barely been a trickle. Yet 
the Republican leader continues to prevent Americans from getting the 
aid they so desperately need and deserve until he gets this piece of 
partisan, ideological legislation. Again, yesterday, while the leader 
was busy accusing Democrats of blocking ``bipartisan'' legislation that 
``everyone agrees on''--his words--other Members of the Republican 
leadership were making it clear that Leader McConnell continues to 
insist on this particular poison pill. The Republican whip said that 
any relief must have corporate immunity provisions that ``satisfy 
Senator McConnell.''
  Imagine holding emergency aid hostage--help for the unemployed, help 
for small businesses, help to pay the salaries of police and 
firefighters, help for individual Americans, funding to deliver a 
vaccine--in order to give corporations legal immunity. But that has 
been the Republican position for the past 8 months, and it is the 
leader's position today.
  For the sake of bipartisan negotiations, Republican leadership should 
forsake these hard-line positions. You can't claim to want 
bipartisanship while actively demanding the Senate accept partisan 
legislation. ``Bipartisan'' does not mean Democrats must agree to 
whatever the Republican leader wants on whatever issue he picks. 
``Bipartisan'' means both sides--both sides--sitting down and finding 
agreement to meet the needs of the country and make a law. That process 
is happening with the Gang of 8. It should continue until we get a 
solution