[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 17 (Thursday, January 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, on the subject of bipartisanship, I am 
disturbed by the rumors that Democrats plan to use reconciliation to 
force another COVID bill through Congress on partisan lines before even 
giving good-faith effort to bipartisan negotiations.
  Republicans are more than willing to work with Democrats on 
additional targeted COVID relief legislation.
  Now, I won't pretend that we don't have reservations about some of 
the measures that Democrats have proposed. For instance, I don't think 
an emergency COVID relief bill is the place to push through a change 
that would more than double the Federal minimum wage and directly 
increase expenses on businesses that have been decimated by the 
pandemic. That is a policy with a lot of economic consequences, and it 
shouldn't be pushed through Congress in a hasty fashion.
  Republicans are also concerned about the enormous amount of money 
that Democrats want to spend. We have already spent more than $4 
trillion to address this pandemic, and we need to be very careful--very 
careful--about additional spending and appropriate only what is 
necessary to respond to this pandemic and with an eye to the burden 
that we are putting on the economy and on young Americans as we 
increase our national debt.
  The higher our national debt, the greater the drag on economic growth 
and the more likely it is that young Americans will face increasingly 
burdensome tax bills in the future to meet our debt obligations.
  But let me be very clear. While Republicans certainly have concerns 
about some of the Democrats' proposals, we are committed to defeating 
this pandemic and to getting Americans vaccinated, and we are ready to 
work with Democrats on any necessary COVID relief legislation that 
would achieve that objective.
  It would be very disappointing if Democrats decided to shove a 
partisan bill through Congress without even attempting to work with 
Republicans.

                          ____________________