[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 213 (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S7527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, last week, I came to this floor on two 
separate occasions with Senator Sanders to talk about the need for 
direct assistance to working families in my State--in the State of 
Missouri--and all across this country. I said that I was willing to use 
every tool at my disposal to make sure that this body acted to give 
direct assistance to working people in need as part of COVID relief. I 
said then, and I say it again today, that working people should be 
first in line for COVID relief, not last. They should be the first 
consideration, not some afterthought.
  I am pleased to report that we were told today, as negotiations are 
ongoing about a COVID relief bill, that direct assistance to working 
people and working families is in the bill, that working people will be 
getting assistance.
  I want to say once again here on this floor, as that package 
continues to take shape, how important it is that working families be 
able to count on some relief and how important it is for this body to 
prioritize working people over government, over big businesses, over 
government programs, and to give assistance directly to the people 
themselves.
  Look, people know how to spend their money and what is best for their 
own families. The quickest way to help people in need is to give them 
direct assistance and let them make the choices for their own families, 
for their own kids, not to have to wait in line for some program, not 
to have to talk to some bureaucrat but to be able to make their own 
choices direct, with assistance that comes direct to them. That is 
going to be in this bill, I understand.
  I am sure as heck going to continue to fight to see that it is in the 
bill and that any relief that is passed by the Senate prioritizes 
working people with direct relief.
  Some have questioned whether this is really necessary. Some have 
said: Well, it is not an emergency, and this bill is only for 
emergencies, and direct assistance isn't an emergency.
  To that I say: Is it not an emergency that working people are having 
to line up for food--literally, line up for food--in this country, in 
this day and age, because they don't have enough money to go purchase 
nutrition for their own children?
  Just think about what is happening in my own State.
  Let me tell you about Monark Baptist Church in Neosho, MO, down in 
Southwest Missouri. They had a food distribution program. They have 
done this for years, by the way, but as COVID intensified this past 
year, they stood up their efforts. Neighbors came together and donated. 
They got all the food that they could. They went out there in Neosho, 
MO--not a huge town. Monark Baptist Church went out and started 
distributing food.
  Do you know they distributed food to hundreds of families for hours. 
When they had run out of the food, there were over 50 cars--not 
individuals, cars. Fifty cars were still in line, as far as the eye 
could see, having driven miles and miles around from neighboring 
counties to come for the help.
  These are working people. These are not folks who want some handout. 
These are working people. These are proud people. These are people who 
don't want government to do stuff for them. They want to be able to get 
back up on their own feet and provide for themselves.
  Government shut down their businesses and took away their jobs this 
past year and put them in this position of, in some cases, outright 
desperation.
  Let me tell you about a gal from Kansas City, 22 years old. Her first 
name is Mars. I won't share her last name just for her own privacy. You 
know, she has talked to me and told me about her plight. She moved to 
Kansas City earlier this year, right around the time the pandemic 
started. She got an apartment. She was getting set up and getting 
going. Then, the pandemic hit. Then, the shutdown hit. Then, she lost 
her job. Then, she lost her plumbing. The water wouldn't work. She 
complained to the landlord. They wouldn't do anything. The ceiling 
collapsed. The landlord wouldn't do anything. Then she didn't have 
enough money to make rent, and, the other day, she woke up with a 10-
day eviction notice out on her front door.
  These are people who need help, not because they don't know how to 
work but because they do know how to work and the government has put 
them in the position that they are facing today. This pandemic has put 
them in the position they are facing today. What they want is the 
ability to get back up on their own two feet and to provide for 
themselves by the work of their own hands. That is what direct 
assistance to working families will do.
  So to those who say it is not an emergency, I urge you to open your 
eyes and to look around at the people who are hurting, who are 
struggling, who are desperate for help.
  I have heard that it is said: Well, it is not stimulative. What a 
word--direct assistance isn't stimulative, as if the American people 
are knobs and dials to be twisted and turned around to get a desired 
outcome, as if the economy is something to be micromanaged in 
Washington, DC.
  I am not interested in stimulus. I am interested in helping working 
people survive. I am not interested in micromanaging this economy. I am 
interested in getting working people back up on their feet so they can 
manage their own lives. That is what this is about. That is why the 
need is so great. That is what we are trying to accomplish.
  We have a chance to do this, to get this done, to get accomplished 
here something that we can be proud of before Christmas, to send a 
message to the American people that they matter, to send a message to 
working people in my State and in every State in this Country that they 
matter and that we are here fighting for them; that we look forward to 
the day when they are back at work, ready to work, able to support 
themselves and their families, and that we are on the path to getting 
there.
  That is the message that we can send. That is the message that we 
must send. I will not leave this body until it is accomplished.
  I promise you this. If I have anything to say about it, we will not 
be leaving here before Christmas until direct assistance is on the way 
to the working people of this Nation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.