[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 14 (Monday, January 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S114-S115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, our Nation has spent nearly a year 
locked in this terrible battle with COVID-19. This virus that spread 
from China around the world has taken more than 400,000 American lives. 
It has effectively cost many children an entire school year. It made us 
slam the brakes on one of the best job markets in modern history and 
threw millions of families into financial chaos.
  But thanks to a lot of hard work in 2020, the dawn of 2021 has 
brought a turning point. The genius of science and the support of 
Operation Warp Speed produced vaccines in record time. And in December, 
after months of delay, Democrats finally let Congress move ahead with 
another major rescue package. The light at the end of the tunnel is 
getting closer, and both Republicans and Democrats are going to 
continue working together to accelerate victory.
  Curiously, the President's candidate to run the Department of Health 
and Human Services is the famously partisan attorney general of 
California. His recent experience in health policies seems largely 
limited to promoting abortion-on-demand and suing groups like the 
Little Sisters of the Poor, which dare to live out their religious 
convictions.
  In an interview just yesterday, Mr. Becerra compared the current 
state of vaccinations inherited by the Biden administration to an 
airplane in a nosedive--a disaster. He contrasted the status quo with 
the new administration's stated goal of 1 million vaccinations per day, 
which he called ``ambitious.''
  There is a problem here. Even the press has repeatedly pointed it 
out, which said our Nation is already meeting that very pace--already 
meeting that very pace. That is not a big new goal. It is exactly what 
they inherited from the Trump administration in Operation Warp Speed.
  Inauguration Day, Thursday, and Friday, each topped 1 million 
vaccinations. As of today, we are averaging 1.16 million shots per day 
over the last

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week. They are claiming the exact same number can either be a total 
catastrophe or a smashing success. I guess it depends on whether 
Democrats are in power. So much for science without politics.
  Here is how the Washington Post put it:

       The accelerating speed of the [vaccine] program undercuts 
     assertions by some Biden advisers that they were left no plan 
     by the Trump administration, and suggests they need only to 
     keep their feet on the pedal to clear the bar they set for 
     themselves.

  Yesterday, Mr. Becerra was asked about increasing vaccinations in the 
months ahead. Here is what he said: ``I first have to be sworn in to 
give you a timeline.'' Perhaps that is like the time the Speaker of the 
House famously said she had to pass a bill before the public could 
learn what was in it.
  The new administration campaigned heavily on having a new master plan 
to fight the pandemic. Well, now they are in office, President Biden 
has said: ``[T]here's nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the 
pandemic in the next several months,'' and his administration is 
apparently content to maintain the same vaccine pace they actually 
inherited.
  Let's talk about Congress's role in the pandemic relief. Our 
Democratic colleagues spent last summer and fall using the legislative 
filibuster to delay the next rescue package until after the election. 
Now, that would be the same tool that some Senate Democrats now 
suddenly say they oppose, as if they hadn't leaned on it liberally over 
the last 6 years.
  But, finally, last month, they let us act. We passed another package 
totaling nearly $900 billion in urgent relief. We provided more than 
$80 billion to help K-12 schools, $280 billion for the Paycheck 
Protection Program, billions more for Federal unemployment insurance 
supplements, nutrition and rental assistance, and direct cash aid and 
massive new investments in purchasing and distributing vaccines. Some 
of that money has already gone out the door. Other portions are still 
unspent--a massive, historic, almost trillion-dollar package that was 
passed into law just 5 weeks ago.
  Since last March, Washington, DC, has spent a historic amount of 
money standing up one of the most enormous policy responses by any 
government to any emergency that the world has ever seen. Nobody thinks 
the support has been perfect--far from it--but it has been historic and 
strong.
  For example, a nonpartisan study in November showed that because of 
the historic emergency legislation passed through Congress, American 
personal income was actually--listen to this--higher in September than 
it had been before the pandemic.
  Last month, Larry Summers, President Clinton's Treasury Secretary and 
President Obama's NEC Director, confirmed that relative to our 
underlying economy, our multiple rescue packages have brought American 
household income all the way back to a level that equals or even 
exceeds what he would expect if we weren't in a crisis.
  So, to be clear, nobody thinks our bipartisan work fighting this 
pandemic is completely finished. Nobody is arguing that. And we all 
understand that overall national statistics do not explain away the 
terrible struggles facing many families. But experts and economists 
from the left to the right agree: Any further action should be smart 
and targeted, not just an imprecise deluge of borrowed money that would 
direct huge sums toward those who don't need it.
  That is why the new administration's first draft of their sprawling 
proposal misses the mark, and press reports make clear this is not just 
a Republican view. Multiple Democratic Senators agree that it is not 
the right path forward.
  So as the $900 billion package from 5 weeks ago continues to come 
online and as the remaining needs continue to come into focus, 
Republicans will be ready and eager to continue bipartisan discussions 
about smart steps forward for the American people. Bipartisan action 
helped our Nation endure the last year. Bipartisan action helped us 
turn the corner, and it will be smart, bipartisan actions that help us 
finish the fight

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