[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 217 (Sunday, December 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7863-S7864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, after weeks of intense bipartisan 
negotiation, the leadership of both Chambers, as well as the White 
House, have reached an agreement on an emergency Federal relief 
package. The agreement on this package could be summed up by the 
expression ``better late than never,'' although I know many of my 
Republican colleagues wished it was never.
  After a long and arduous year, after a year full of bad news, 
finally, we have some good news to deliver to the American people. Make 
no mistake about it, this agreement is far from perfect, but it will 
deliver emergency relief to a nation in the throes of a genuine 
emergency.
  It should have the votes to pass the Senate, the House, and reach the 
President's desk to become law. We should make that happen as soon as 
possible--as soon as possible--even tonight, if we can.
  By all rights, a bill of this urgency should have passed 8 months--
should have passed months ago. The country needed it.
  But we all know what happened. The Republican majority caused more 
than 8 months of delays and gridlock. Twenty Members of the Senate 
majority wanted no money. And what the Republican leader simply 
forgets, for months, he said: Let's examine the crisis; let's put it on 
pause, while Democrats were demanding more action.
  And then when he produced legislation, it didn't have what was needed 
and had poison pills, a provision that would give all corporations--no 
matter how egregious their behavior--immunity and nothing to help the 
unemployed, no direct checks.
  So the idea that this delay was caused by Democrats is ``Alice in 
Wonderland'' history. It was caused by a Republican majority that 
didn't want to vote for the moneys desperately needed by the American 
people. The significance of this package, even though it is not as 
large or robust as it should be, should not be underestimated. We will 
deliver the second largest Federal stimulus in our Nation's history. 
Only the CARES Act will have been bigger--only the CARES Act, which I 
was proud to negotiate with Secretary Mnuchin.
  In size and scope, this bill will exceed the Recovery Act passed in 
the aftermath of the financial crisis. And once this Federal relief 
bill is signed into law, Congress will have allocated well over $3 
trillion in relief this year alone. That is a historic figure to match 
a historic crisis. It will give the new President a boost--a head 
start--as he prepares to right our ailing economy. The economy is in a 
deep, deep hole because of President Trump and the Republican Senate's 
failure to act in a timely manner.
  But this, at least, begins us getting the relief the American people 
need so that when President Biden takes over, he can do more and help 
us dig out of this deep hole.
  And the good news, too, the poison pills that so stopped any progress 
put in by the majority leader are not in this bill. It won't include 
any provision to limit the legal rights of workers who were put in 
harm's way or any provision to gratuitously limit the authority of the 
Fed.
  Now, it is remarkable how far we have come. As I mentioned earlier, 
this summer, the Republican leader admitted 20 Members of his caucus 
didn't want to vote for another dime of COVID relief. Before 
negotiating with Democrats, the majority offered a package of $500 
billion that contained poison pills designed to doom the thing from the 
start. That way, Republican Senators wouldn't be forced to approve any 
new spending. Here at the end of the year, reason has prevailed--sweet 
reason--and we will now deliver a package of almost a trillion dollars.
  That matters not for any one party. It matters for the American 
people because we increased the size of this bill, expanded its reach. 
More Americans will receive assistance before the holidays. For 
Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own, this 
bill will throw out a safety net.
  Initially, Republicans were ready to let enhanced unemployment 
benefits expire. They were ready to move on without help for renters. 
They opposed another round of direct payments. Their starting offer for 
UI and rent relief was zero, zero, and zero again.
  The good news that transcends any of the obstacles that we faced is 
that in the final agreement, we will extend all three Federal 
unemployment programs created under CARES. We will provide $300 in 
weekly Federal unemployment benefits for the next 10 weeks. For 
families struggling to make ends meet, this bill will cushion the blow.
  A new round of survival checks will soon be on the way--$600 per 
adult, another $600 for every dependent in the household. Many of us 
would have liked that to be higher, but at least this is the quickest 
way to get money into pockets of the American people, sending their tax 
dollars right back where they came from. Of course, as I said, it is 
not as much as many Democrats and some Republicans would have liked, 
and we hope that next year the same bipartisan support that emerged 
behind $1,200 stimulus checks will provide even more assistance to 
working families.
  For the first time ever during this pandemic, Congress will provide 
$25 billion in direct rental assistance to help reduce the burden on 
Americans who have fallen behind on their rent. We also extend a 
moratorium on evictions to give our fellow citizens more time to get 
back on their feet.
  For small business owners, we are providing businesses the 
opportunity to take another draw of the popular

[[Page S7864]]

Paycheck Protection Program. Crucially, this bill will provide $12 
billion for minority-owned and very small businesses that struggled to 
access financing during the earlier rounds of PPP. Local newspapers and 
local broadcasters will have access to this assistance as well as 
nonprofits--I worked very hard to see that this happened--and our 
nonprofit religious institutions. Our churches and our synagogues and 
our mosques--no collection plate, no income, but so vital to social 
services and so needed during a time of crisis--will, once again, get 
the help they need--something that I authored in the CARES bill.
  I am especially pleased that this bill will provide money for bars 
and restaurants and $15 billion in SBA grants for theater operators and 
small venue owners through the Save Our Stages Act. These venues are so 
important to my State and many States across the country. They are the 
lifeblood of our communities. They were first to close and will be the 
last to open. This bill gives them a fighting chance.
  Of course, today's agreement will give a major boost to our battle 
against the disease itself. There will be more than $30 billion to 
support the procurement and distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, 
ensuring that it is free and rapidly distributed to everyone.
  Today's agreement includes all this and more--support for childcare, 
food assistance, agricultural relief, the Postal Service, and funding 
to help families gain access to broadband. So the American people have 
a great deal to celebrate in this legislation, but, of course, the 
agreement we reached is far from perfect. It leaves out direct State 
and local assistance. Despite desperate pleas from Governors, mayors, 
and economists across the spectrum, the Republicans stubbornly refused 
to provide direct aid to State and local governments. Over a million 
public employees have already lost their jobs. It doesn't matter if you 
are working for a small business and get laid off or if you are working 
for a government and are laid off; you still need to feed your family. 
So why is there such a difference on this side of the aisle between 
these same people--flesh and blood? Because some work for the 
government, they don't get help, but because some work for a small 
business, they do. Both should get help.
  State revenues, of course, are significantly down across the country 
in States red and blue. The continued opposition to State and local 
funding from the Republicans remains deeply irresponsible. It will 
force States to make painful decisions to cut jobs and potentially 
raise taxes on working families, and it will hurt the economy of the 
entire country as millions more government workers are laid off at a 
time when we are struggling to recover--hurting us all.
  Still, the Democrats refused to let State and local governments be 
completely left behind. Today's agreement does include aid for specific 
State-level expenses--$82 billion for education funding, $27 billion in 
payments for testing and State healthcare programs, $45 billion for 
transit systems. I am very proud of the fact that New York's MTA will 
receive the money it needs to keep going. It is so vital to our city's 
economy and something I worked very hard for.
  Make no mistake--these funding sources are not a replacement for 
direct aid to State and local governments, and we Democrats will 
continue to fight for those in the new year. But in this case, a rose 
by any other name smells not quite as sweet, but at least it brings 
some relief. State and local governments will receive assistance in a 
number of different ways.
  When this Chamber gavels back in in 2021, we must pick up where we 
just left off. We have given the administration a vital headstart, but 
make no mistake about it--our economy is in a deep, deep, deep hole, in 
part, because of the Trump administration's lack of policy in fighting 
the coronavirus. Now we will have to help them. This is a good start, 
but a lot more needs to be done. We must continue to protect people's 
jobs whether they work for a company or a local government. We must do 
so much more, and we have to start building and stimulating our economy 
so it gets out of the hole with things like infrastructure and wiring 
every home with broadband and improving our healthcare and education 
systems and so much more--so much more.
  Let me be very, very clear about one thing. Once this deal is signed 
into law, it cannot be the final word on congressional relief. There is 
more to do in the new year with a new administration that has a much 
more favorable attitude toward giving the American people the help they 
need. The bipartisan agreement is simply a downpayment. It will 
establish a floor, not a ceiling, for coronavirus relief in 2021.
  Over the course of this challenging year, tens of millions of 
Americans have been pushed close to the breaking point. They have lost 
their jobs. They have lost their homes. Many can't feed their families. 
Many have lost neighbors, colleagues, friends, and family to this 
vicious, vicious disease. They have such great pain--a pain that we can 
only distantly empathize with because it hasn't happened directly to us 
here.
  As the pandemic enters its worst phase, we will continue to be 
isolated from one another, but behind closed doors, desperation mounts 
for millions and millions of our fellow Americans. This bill is for 
them--for them--to carry them to a brighter day.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hoeven). The Senator from Ohio
  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, first, I am delighted that we are finally 
at the point at which we are passing legislation to deal with the 
COVID-19 crisis that has gripped my State and our country. We have a 
healthcare pandemic, and we have an economic crisis. I am pleased to 
say that, on a bipartisan basis, we are now coming together as we did 9 
months ago with the CARES Act. It shouldn't have been 9 months, but we 
now have a targeted bill that focuses on providing a bridge between now 
and the time at which the vaccines will be widely available. We need 
the help. The economy is faltering, as was just said, but also the 
healthcare crisis in my home State and in so many other places has 
gotten worse. So it is past time.
  I am told I have given 21 speeches on the floor about the bipartisan 
nature of this. There are so many areas of common ground, and I was 
pleased to be part of the 10-person bipartisan group who put together 
our own package over the last month. I think that helped to encourage 
leaders on both sides to see that there was a lot of common ground, 
that there were ways for us to come together.
  One of my colleagues is on the floor with me now, Senator Stabenow of 
Michigan. She is one of those Democrats whom I spoke to over a month 
ago about this bipartisan process, and we talked about the common 
ground and the ability for us to find ways to move ahead to help those 
small businesses that truly are struggling; individuals who, through no 
fault of their own, lost their jobs because of the economic crisis that 
was precipitated by the pandemic; and to help our schools and to help 
our healthcare providers and to help ensure that we are doing what we 
can here to help at the local level to respond to this crisis.

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