[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 215 (Friday, December 18, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7650-S7651]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. President, there is not much activity on the floor of the Senate 
today. I hope there will be before the end of the day. The leaders in 
the Senate and House--Democrat and Republican--as well as the White 
House, with Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, are fast at work, we are told, 
establishing a COVID-19 relief bill.
  I was part of an effort, which the Presiding Officer also shared in. 
It was a volunteer activity that involved about 3 weeks of endless 
telephone conferences and Zoom calls. Staff supported us all the way or 
we couldn't have done it.
  But it started off with eight of us eating dinner one night and 
deciding to come together as a group to see if we could break the 
logjam. The whole notion of COVID-19 relief was dead in the water for 
some reason--no action, no activity.
  We remember back in March when Congress--particularly, I remember the 
Senate, by a vote of 96 to 0, passed, on a bipartisan basis, the 
largest relief bill in the history of the United States. It was over $3 
trillion in the CARES

[[Page S7651]]

Act, which was for addressing and fighting the pandemic as its first 
priority, but, secondly, trying to rescue our floundering economy.
  Thank goodness we did that, and we came together. We hoped that it 
would be a short-lived requirement, but it turned out to be much 
longer. Many of us anticipated that by the middle of this year things 
would have come under control. We know, sadly, that is not the case.
  There has been a call ever since to step back into this theater of 
confrontation with this pandemic and the weakening economy. But for 
some reason--and I won't point fingers--we have been unable to reach 
any bipartisan agreement.
  Well, eight of us willful Senators--four Democrats and four 
Republicans--set out to try and get the conversation started and see 
what we could agree on. It was a great experience. Even though there 
were parts of it where we could not agree, and there was a lot of 
frustration, there was also a lot that was constructive and 
encouraging.
  At the end of the day, we produced two documents. One of these 
documents was a $748 billion consensus document, which spelled out the 
things that we thought were essential as part of any COVID relief 
package--extending unemployment benefits for 16 weeks, including for 
about 160,000 people in my State who claim the pandemic unemployment 
assistance and 248,000 who claim pandemic emergency unemployment 
compensation. Millions of Americans--12 million Americans will lose 
their unemployment compensation on the day after Christmas. Imagine 
that.
  We also, in this bill, provided assistance for small businesses, 
including the second round of Paycheck Protection Program loans for the 
hardest hit businesses; extended the eviction moratorium through 
January 31, 2021, providing emergency rental assistance to help 
families stay in their homes; provided funding for hospitals and 
clinics for testing and to quickly and fairly distribute vaccines, 
including $500 million to Illinois for testing and vaccine distribution 
and $1.5 billion for Illinois hospitals and healthcare providers.
  We provided $82 billion nationwide for education--$54 billion for K-
12, $20 billion for higher ed. We extended the Federal student loan 
forbearance from its current expiration, January 31, 2021, through 
April 30, 2021.
  We provided $10 billion nationwide of much needed support for the 
struggling childcare sector.
  We addressed hunger by increasing SNAP benefits for nearly 2 million 
individuals in my State and millions more across the United States and 
by providing funding for food banks and senior nutrition programs, 
serving more than 1.5 million people in Illinois.
  We provided billions for transit, including hundreds of millions of 
dollars for Illinois transit agencies and help for Amtrak as well. We 
provided billions for airports, including millions of dollars for 
Illinois airports and airline relief as well. We provided more than $1 
billion in funding for Amtrak to prevent further furloughs, provided 
millions in payroll support to protect jobs of thousands of Illinois 
airline workers, and provided funding to help struggling Illinois bus 
companies keep their workers on the job.
  That is not the end of the list, by any means. Part of the money we 
put in here was for the logistics of the vaccinations which are now 
taking place across the United States. We provided some. I think the 
negotiators are adding to the amount, and I applaud them for that.
  What we left out of this, I think, was significant too. We did not 
provide any direct assistance to State and local governments. This 
morning, I got on the telephone with a group that has been kind enough 
to volunteer for many years to consider the applications of individuals 
in Illinois who want to attend our service academies. Some of these 
people have been doing this for 20 years. I really respect them and 
thank them for doing it. I tried to take myself out of that 
consideration so no one can ever claim political consideration was 
taken in any way.
  One of the persons who did part of the meeting this morning was Skip 
Lee. Skip is the mayor of Sterling, IL. He said to me: Senator, can you 
provide any help for COVID relief for towns like Sterling, IL?
  I said: Skip, there will be some help, I think, but it won't be the 
kind of help that I wanted.
  I do believe we should help State and local governments. I have been 
reminded by the Presiding Officer and others that every State is not 
the same, every locality is not the same. Some have suffered real 
losses in revenue directly related to COVID-19 and some have prospered. 
It just depends on your circumstances.
  In my circumstance, the State of Illinois has paid a heavy price as a 
State and in the localities as well. We do not include the direct 
relief for State and local governments, which I hoped would be part of 
this agreement.
  I hope we can return to that issue soon, very quickly--after the 
first of the year, perhaps, with the new President--and find a way to 
provide this relief.
  The alternative is awful. I know what is going to happen to a lot of 
the local budgets. Police officers are going to be furloughed--
firefighters, teachers, healthcare workers--just at a moment in time 
when we need them the most. Many of these communities will be unable to 
continue providing those very fundamental services to keep us safe. I 
hope we can get back to that as quickly as possible.
  Finally, let me say that we are all anxious to fund this government 
at midnight tonight when the continuing resolution, which we passed 
several months, ago expires. It would be a real tragedy if we saw this 
government come to a close for any reason at any time. And certainly, 
at this moment, when our economy is so tenuous and our worries are so 
large over the healthcare of our Nation, we shouldn't allow this to 
occur. I pray that the negotiators will be able to spend good time 
today and report to us soon that they have reached an agreement. It is 
time for us to get our work done.
  And like Senator Inhofe, who is going home for his 61st anniversary, 
many of us are anxious to return to our homes and families. We won't 
have the expansive Christmas this year that we have had in the past. We 
won't be reuniting with children and grandchildren who really make the 
holiday, but we are looking at the long run. The long run is we want to 
be around for next Christmas. Instead of one tree, we are going to have 
two to make up for this year.
  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.
  Mr. CRUZ. 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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