[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 212 (Tuesday, December 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7481]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to honor and pay tribute to our 
Senate colleagues who are departing at the end of this Congress. I was 
able to work with all of them in different ways, and we are going to 
miss them.
  Before that, I did want to mention the importance of the continuing 
negotiations on end-of-the-year pandemic relief. I have been involved 
in those, and I want to thank those Members who have been at the 
forefront of this all through the weekend, all through the last few 
weeks.
  I cannot stress how important it is right now. My State just got 
through a spike in COVID. We lost so many people. We have so many small 
businesses, like so many States in this country, that are closed down.
  While we see the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine, I 
talked to a friend of mine whose husband is an infectious disease 
doctor, and she said when she saw those trucks rolling out in Michigan, 
she just started to sob just seeing it on TV. I think that is how a lot 
of people in this country feel, but it is on us right now to make sure 
we get the funding so that vaccine gets distributed as it should and to 
also ensure that our economy is in a place that when we start going 
back into the workplace--not just virtually--we will be able to bounce 
back as we should, and that means pandemic relief at the end of this 
year.