[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 218 (Monday, December 21, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7890-S7893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, first, I heard the remarks of the Senator 
from Illinois. It is a hope that we can change the way the Senate 
operates and do more amendments and do more debating on the floor. We 
haven't seen much give from some of our colleagues on the other side of 
the aisle, but hopefully that could and will happen.
  Now, about remarks here, every day, it seems, for the past week or 
so, I have come to the floor ready to talk about the merits of 
bipartisan legislation we have been drafting, not wanting to be 
critical at all. Then I listen to the Republican leader. The leader's 
remarks just about every day this week as he has opened the Senate have 
been so nastily partisan and in so many ways false that I have no 
choice but to correct the record as the Democratic leader.
  The Republican leader's accusation that the blame for this bill's 
delay lies totally on one side is just ridiculous. It is ``Alice in 
Wonderland'' thinking. It defies all the facts as to what we have seen. 
Then his comparison--that the agreement we are voting on today and the 
most recent Republican offer are so similar--is absurd. The two bills 
are nothing alike, and I had to point that out several times.
  I have a chart here.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have this chart printed in 
the Record
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 BIPARTISAN EMERGENCY COVID RELIEF LEGISLATION SIGNIFICANTLY IMPROVES ON
                     McCONNELL'S INADEQUATE PROPOSAL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 New Bipartisan        December 1 GOP
            Item                Relief Agreement          Proposal
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unemployment Insurance......         $300 per week    $0 enhanced UI and
                                   enhanced UI and    program extensions
                                     other program    end on January 31,
                                extensions through                  2021
                                    March 14, 2021
Direct Payments.............   Additional round of                    $0
                                    payments--$600
                               individual, $1,200/
                               married couple, and
                              $600/child dependent
Corporate Immunity..........              Excluded      McConnell/Cornyn
                                                      Corporate Immunity
                                                            ``Red Line''
SNAP........................           $13 billion                    $0
Rental Assistance...........           $25 billion                    $0
Transportation..............           $45 billion                    $0
Support for Small Businesses        $284.5 billion        $257.7 billion
 (PPP)......................
Support for Community                  $12 billion                    $0
 Development Financial
 Institutions and Minority
 Depository Institutions....
SBA Grants..................           $20 billion                    $0
Debt Relief Payments and              $5.5 billion                    $0
 Enhancements for SBA
 Lending Programs...........
SAMHSA Funding for Mental            $4.25 billion                    $0
 Health and Substance Use
 Disorder...................
NIH COVID Research..........         $1.25 billion                    $0
Broadband...................            $7 billion                    $0
------------------------------------------------------------------------



  Mr. SCHUMER. I am just going to read from it, comparing the new, 
bipartisan relief agreement to the December 1 GOP proposal of Leader 
McConnell.
  How about direct payments? This bill has $600 per individual, $1,200 
per married couple, $600 child dependent. Many of us didn't think that 
was enough, but it is in the bill. Do you know how much was in the 
Republican leader's proposal? Zero.
  Unemployment insurance. This bill that we are voting on has $300 per 
week of enhanced UI and other program extensions through March 14. What 
does the Republican leader's bill have? Zero enhanced UI. Program 
extensions end January 31.
  This bill has $13 billion in SNAP; the Republican leader's bill, 
zero.
  This bill has $25 billion in rental assistance; the Republican 
leader's bill, zero.
  This bill has $45 billion in transportation for airlines and mass 
transit and buses and airports and highways. What does the Republican 
leader's bill have? Zero.
  This bill has, very importantly, money for community development 
financial institutions and minority institutions, $12 billion. What 
does the Republican leader's bill have? Zero.
  SBA grants, $20 billion this year; Republican leader's bill, zero.
  Debt payments and enhancements for SBA. This bill, $5.5 billion; 
Republican bill, zero.
  SAMHSA funding for mental health and substance use disorder. This 
bill, $4.25 billion; Republican leader's bill, zero.
  NIH COVID research, $1.25 billion; Republican bill, zero.
  Broadband so homes can get broadband. This bill, $7 billion; 
Republican leader's bill, zero.
  The list could go on. There is a complete difference between the two 
bills.
  We all know as well that the Republican leader, who blames Democrats 
for delay, said for several months that the Senate should be on pause. 
As Democrats were demanding more action, the Republican leader was 
unmoved. The Republican leader's answer was that 20 Republican Senators 
wanted to do nothing more at all. When he finally proposed legislation, 
it was completely partisan, insufficient, and littered with poison 
pills.
  I forgot to add one thing that was in the leader's bill but not in 
this bill--the broad corporate liability immunity provision, which the 
Senator from Illinois tried to straighten out. Another huge 
difference--a poison pill.
  So when the leader finally proposed legislation because of public 
pressure to do something, it was partisan--no Democratic input, zero--
insufficient, much too little in so many areas, as I mentioned, and 
littered with poison pills designed to ensure the bill would fail. Most 
notably was a provision to give corporations, no matter how egregious 
their behavior, sweeping immunity from legal accountability. Leader 
McConnell said on the floor that for Republicans, corporate immunity 
was a red line.
  And he blames the Democrats, as he did again today, for why this bill 
is being debated now? It is just turning truth on its head. It is like 
``Alice in Wonderland.''
  Even in the recent negotiations, the Republican majority made an 
eleventh hour demand that had nothing to do with helping people during 
this pandemic but, rather, sabotaged the incoming Biden 
administration's recovery effort and restricted the Federal Reserve's 
ability to save jobs and right the economy in a time of crisis.
  Thankfully, the agreement we reached contains neither the leader's 
corporate immunity provision nor Senator Toomey's last-minute provision 
to handicap the Fed's authority to stabilize the economy in a crisis. 
And it will do a whole lot of good, besides, some of the programs I 
mentioned.
  Look, after months of tense and difficult negotiations, we have this 
agreement. It is not as large as Democrats want. It is certainly larger 
than what many Republicans want. That is the nature of compromise. It 
does us no good to end the year with the kind of bitter, partisan 
fighting that has defined too much of the year. In a new session and 
under a new administration, we can and should do better because our job 
is far from over.
  The bill today is a good bill. Today is a good day, but it is 
certainly not the end of the story. It cannot be the end of the story. 
Anyone who thinks this bill is enough doesn't know what is going on in 
America. Anyone who thinks this bill is enough hasn't heard the 
desperation in the voices of their constituents, has not looked into 
the eyes of a small business owner on the brink of ruin.
  By all rights, there should be direct assistance in this bill for 
State and local governments. The checks should

[[Page S7891]]

be larger. While this agreement includes a new and larger forgivable 
PPP loan for restaurants, we need to do much more for restaurants. We 
have bipartisan legislation to deliver the relief that is truly needed, 
the RESTAURANTS Act, which, regrettably, did not make it into this 
legislation. We must do all we can to save restaurants, and I will not 
stop fighting until we pass the RESTAURANTS Act into law. This bill 
cannot and will not be the final word on congressional relief from the 
coronavirus pandemic. This is an emergency survival package.
  When we come back in January, our No. 1 job will be to fill in the 
gaps left by the bill and then get the economy moving with strong 
Federal input. Still, the significance of this package should not be 
underestimated. It will be the second largest bill--the second largest 
Federal input--in the history of our country. It will be the second 
largest amount of Federal dollars going to the people ever. The times 
demand it. Even some of our conservative Republican friends will vote 
for it, and it is good we have it. For much of the year, it looked 
unlikely that it would ever get done, and our success today, our 
ability to pass this bill today, should give us confidence we can do 
more. We can end the year on a rare note of optimism.
  Now, Queen Elizabeth, every year, gives a talk to her subjects about 
the status of the monarchy and the British royal family. In a very 
challenging year, she called the year annus horribilis--a horrible 
year. Unlike in 1992, which was the year Elizabeth referred to the 
problems with Charles and Diana, this year has been an annus horribilis 
not just for Great Britain and the royal family, which she was talking 
about, but an annus horribilis for the entire world.
  The global COVID-19 pandemic has infected more than 70 million people 
across the globe. Another 500 million have gone, likely, undiagnosed. 
There are 1.6 million people who have died, 20 percent of whom have 
been Americans, more than 315,000--more than the entire population of 
Pittsburgh or St. Louis, more than all of the American combat deaths in 
World War II. The September 11 attacks to my fair city shaped much of 
the first decade of this century. In 2020, our dear country has 
suffered the equivalent of a 9/11 attack every day for 106 days in a 
row.
  We have lost so much. We have missed holidays and reunions, 
retirements and graduations, bar mitzvahs and confirmations, weddings 
and funerals. Trapped in our homes, our companions were isolation and 
loneliness and the faint glow of tiny screens. The image of seeing 
people on the screen, watching their loved ones pass away when they 
couldn't be with them, will stay with us forever. Doctors had to stack 
iPads in waiting rooms for end-of-life conversations--how tragic, how 
awful. There were cars lined up, bumper to bumper, for food assistance. 
Grandchildren, wrapped in protective gear, waved goodbye to 
grandparents from across the silence of a hospital room.
  It has been a horrible year--annus horribilis. Yet here, at the very 
end, finally, there is hope--not just one, not just two, but three 
strong beacons of hope. One, soon many Americans will have the vaccine. 
Two, Joe Biden will become President. He has the experience and the 
empathy to handle the COVID crisis and will replace a man who has shown 
no capacity or even interest in doing so. And, three, we are on the 
verge of passing another historic, bipartisan relief bill to deliver 
emergency assistance during a time of national emergency. So there are 
three beacons of hope: the vaccine, a new administration, and a bill 
that will help in an emergency.
  Very soon, our country will close the book on the most chaotic 
President in recent history. Joe Biden, an experienced leader and a 
person of fundamental human decency, will become the 46th President of 
the United States. Kamala Harris, my good friend and hard-working 
colleague, will become the first woman, the first Black person, and the 
first Asian American to ascend to the Vice Presidency of the United 
States. Together, they will return competency and compassion to our 
government after 4 long years of division and demonization, which far 
too many people have tolerated and gone along with.
  Even though this disease has not been vanquished yet, there is light 
at the end of the tunnel in the form of a vaccine. Everyone should 
appreciate how miraculous that truly is. It usually takes between 5 and 
10 years to develop a new vaccine--5 to 10 years. It took American 
doctors, biochemists, and medical researchers less than 10 months to 
produce not one but two viable vaccines for the coronavirus. The 
discovery of a vaccine in a single calendar year is the crowning 
scientific achievement of the 21st century--the medical Manhattan 
Project of our times. It is a reminder that, when we work together and 
persevere and sacrifice for one another, nothing--nothing--is beyond 
our capacity as a nation.
  The same resilience and innovation and fortitude that saw our country 
through its darkest hours has emerged once again. COVID-19 has changed 
our country, but it has not changed our character. America is the 
night-shift nurse fashioning protective equipment from shoelaces and 
sheets of vinyl. America is a restaurant owner who sent meals to 
frontline workers for free. America is the home-stitched mask sent to 
friends and families. It is the metallic clang of pots and pans that 
celebrates essential workers. America is the grocery store clerk and 
the busdriver and the plasma donor and the lab technician, late at 
night, poring over the results of a clinical trial. It is the Brooklyn 
doctor, 62, on the verge of retirement, who, for 2 straight weeks, 
worked day shifts at the ICU and night shifts at the nearby hospital 
before finally succumbing to the disease himself.
  Last week, the first American--a nurse in Queens--was vaccinated 
against COVID-19. Many millions will soon follow. Eventually, our 
businesses will reopen, our economy will reopen, and life will reopen. 
We will travel and worship and send our kids to school and see our 
friends and be together again. It won't be tomorrow or next week or 
even next month, but it will happen, not because we merely waited long 
enough, not because we were patient, but because we persevered.
  Our job right now is to help the country get from this stormy present 
to that hopeful future, to survive this dark winter until spring thaws 
the ice. Our job is to do what is necessary--pass this bill, pass 
another stronger bill next year--whatever it takes to hold our country 
together until we eradicate the awful scourge of this disease.
  At the end of this annus horribilis--this horrible year--let us give 
the American people another reason to hope
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I am, like many of my colleagues, very 
pleased that we have reached an agreement on a final COVID relief 
package and none too soon.
  Last week, we celebrated what will, hopefully, be a turning point in 
the COVID fight--the first coronavirus vaccinations. We need to build 
on that momentum and make sure that vaccine distribution goes swiftly 
and smoothly so that we can vaccinate as many Americans as possible as 
quickly as possible. The COVID relief package will help us achieve that 
goal by providing important funding for vaccine distribution. It will 
also provide critical support to Americans to help them weather the 
rest of the pandemic, including a second round of paycheck protection 
funding for the hardest hit small businesses, money to help schools 
reopen safely and operate so that our kids aren't left behind, and more 
money for coronavirus treatment and other frontline medical priorities.
  I am very pleased that the final package includes my Paycheck 
Protection for Producers Act, which will help more farmers and ranchers 
benefit from the Paycheck Protection Program. The bill also includes 
funding to allow the Department of Agriculture to provide additional 
assistance to farmers and ranchers. Ag producers were dealing with a 
challenging agricultural economy even before the pandemic hit, and the 
coronavirus has only made things tougher. I strongly advocated for 
including additional funding for farmers and ranchers in this 
legislation, and I am very glad that the final bill includes this 
support.

[[Page S7892]]

  The final package also explicitly makes biofuels, like ethanol and 
biodiesel, eligible for USDA assistance at the discretion of the 
Secretary of Agriculture. Biofuel producers have suffered from a drop 
in fuel demand during the pandemic, and I hope the Secretary will 
ensure that they are able to receive assistance, which will further 
help our ag economy recover.
  I am very happy that the COVID relief package includes an extension 
of the Thune-Warner Employer Participation in Repayment Act. The Thune-
Warner bill allows employers to make tax-free contributions to their 
employees' student loans of up to $5,250 per year. This is a win for 
employees, who get help in paying off their student loans, and it is a 
win for employers as they look to attract and retain talented workers. 
Our bill was included in the CARES Act--the major coronavirus relief 
legislation we passed in March--but it was scheduled to expire at the 
end of the year. Under the coronavirus relief package, however, our 
legislation will be extended for an additional 5 years.
  The COVID relief package also includes Senator Cornyn's Small 
Business Expense Protection Act, which I cosponsored. This legislation 
will ensure that small businesses that qualify for forgiveness of their 
Paycheck Protection Program loans can still deduct their ordinary 
business expenses on their taxes.
  The relief package also includes legislation I introduced this summer 
with Senator Enzi that will establish antifraud measures within the 
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program so that we can ensure that 
beneficiaries are truly eligible for the program.
  We have addressed a lot of coronavirus priorities in this relief 
package, and I am very pleased that we are finally getting it out the 
door. Republicans spent months pushing for additional, targeted 
coronavirus relief, and I am glad the Democrats finally decided that 
they were ready to work with us in a bipartisan way to arrive at this 
legislation.
  The Senate Democratic leader was just here, once again, attacking 
Republicans over their failure--the Democrats' failure--to work with us 
to get a coronavirus relief bill sooner. We brought up multiple times 
on the floor legislation that could have passed if there had been a 
little cooperation from the Democrats. He pointed out that this bill we 
are going to be voting on today looks nothing like the Republican bill, 
which isn't the case. There are a lot of similarities between the bill 
that we put on the floor in September and again in October--about $600 
billion in targeted relief that addresses the most fundamental needs 
the American people need right now. One is an unemployment insurance 
extension for those who are unemployed. The very amount that is in the 
bill that we will vote on today was in the Republican bill that we 
brought to the floor in September and again in October and voted on 
here.
  The vaccine money--the money that is out there to help with the 
vaccines that are going to be so effective in trying to get this 
pandemic under control--was also in the bill that was on the floor both 
in September and in October.
  The relief for small businesses that have been hit hard by this 
pandemic and have seen their balance sheets and their income statements 
get depleted by its economic impact also would have been funded with 
additional Paycheck Protection Program relief in the bill that we 
brought before the Senate both in September and again in October. That 
very assistance is included in the legislation that we will vote on 
today.
  Money for schools, as I mentioned earlier, to help them reopen 
safely--something that was in the legislation that we voted on in 
September, again in October--is in the legislation that we will vote on 
today.
  The only things that are different, really--substantially different--
from what we brought up on the floor back then are the assistance 
checks that are included in this legislation. That is something that 
was a priority. It was a priority for Members on the Republican side; 
it was a priority for Members on the Democratic side; it was a priority 
for the White House, so it ended up being included in this and, 
hopefully, will provide some much needed relief to people across this 
country who have been struggling with their personal finances and their 
family finances through the pandemic.
  So those are all things that we have discussed and debated 
previously, and I would point out that, contrary to the assertions made 
by the Democratic leader just now, there were numerous attempts to try 
and move this legislation previously.
  Now, it is fair to say that the House of Representatives did send the 
Senate a $3.4 trillion package, which was bloated and included lots of 
nonpandemic, noncoronavirus relief-related items--things that were on 
their liberal wish list. That wasn't realistic, and they knew it. That 
was a campaign document designed to try and help them, at the time, win 
an election.
  But I am glad they have decided to get down and negotiate in a 
serious way because the number that we are going to be passing today--a 
little under $1 trillion, about $900 billion--is very close to what 
Republicans put on the floor in September and again in October.
  It is a far cry from the $3.4 trillion bloated bill that the 
Democrats sent over from the House and the Democrats here in the Senate 
tried to advance and suggested that that should be what the Senate 
should vote on.
  We have said all along that we need to address this in a targeted 
way, a fiscally responsible way, a way that recognizes the most 
critical needs out there, both on the healthcare front and also on the 
economic front, and we have moved aggressively to address those needs 
not once, but twice.
  Legislation, a real bill brought to the floor, which received a 
majority vote in the U.S. Senate--52 U.S. Senators in September and 
again in October voted here on the floor of the U.S. Senate to do the 
very things that I just mentioned--but it was blocked from even being 
considered by the Senate Democrats.
  We all know here in the Senate it requires 60 votes to invoke 
cloture. It is a procedural motion to get on a bill. The Senate 
Democrats gave us no support to even get on the bill.
  So, as a consequence, even though there was majority support--52 U.S. 
Senators voting in favor of getting on and debating the bill--because 
the Democrats blocked it, we didn't even have an opportunity to 
debate--not even to get on it, let alone offer amendments and have a 
discussion and a conversation and work on legislation. If they had 
objections to it or things they wanted to improve or things they wanted 
to make better, they would have had an opportunity to do that if we had 
simply been able to get on the bill.
  So we are where we are today at this late hour in the year--December 
21, Christmas week--doing this now because they didn't want to do it 
earlier, and some have publicly acknowledged that one of the reasons 
they didn't want to do it earlier is that there was a campaign 
underway, and they had hoped that there would be a new President, an 
opportunity to do it their way later.
  But, nevertheless, we have before us now, finally, at long last, a 
piece of legislation that addresses the most critical needs that are 
out there, and it is very similar in many ways, in terms of the 
substance, the content, and the features of the bill and the overall 
pricetag, to what Republicans have brought on the floor of the U.S. 
Senate previously.
  So I am glad that we are finally going to get this done, but I 
absolutely disagree with the statements that were made earlier by the 
Democratic leader, because they don't reflect reality. In fact, they 
don't reflect anything close to reality about what has been happening 
here in this Chamber over the past several months when it comes to 
trying to provide much needed relief to the American people who are 
suffering from this pandemic.
  There are a couple of things that I would just mention briefly that 
aren't included in the bill, and I wish they were.
  I have a bill called the Remote and Mobile Worker Relief Act, and I 
am sorry that was not included in the final bill.
  This bipartisan legislation would have prevented unexpected tax bills 
and tax complications for medical professionals who traveled to other 
States

[[Page S7893]]

to help during the pandemic and for Americans who worked from home to 
help slow the virus's spread.
  It is unfortunate that opposition from a handful of States with 
aggressive taxation policies--like the Senate Democratic leader's home 
State of New York--has so far prevented legislation like mine from 
getting through Congress. But I will continue to fight for tax relief 
for remote and mobile workers
  It has been a difficult year for our country. There are way too many 
virus infections, way too many hospitalizations, way too many people 
who have lost loved ones from this dreaded virus. It has affected 
people in so many ways--their health, their confidence, their economic 
standing and status, their mental health. There are just so many--so 
many--effects of this, and this winter is likely to be very 
challenging.
  But the encouraging news is that there is light at the end of the 
tunnel. There is a vaccine out there that will get more widely out 
there, and thanks to the resources that we put into the first 
coronavirus bill--the CARES Act that passed last March--those vaccines 
have been moving forward at record speed--five times faster than any 
vaccine in history.
  Light is at the end of the tunnel. The vaccines are coming. They are 
going to be proven to be very effective, and there is additional 
funding in this particular legislation that we will vote on today to 
make sure that it gets distributed as quickly as possible.
  We are going to make it through this, and I look forward to sending 
the additional relief that is included in this legislation that we will 
move through the Senate today and put on the President's desk, where he 
can sign it into law. I look forward to seeing that additional relief 
get out to the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Barrasso). The Senator from North 
Carolina.

                          ____________________