[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 18 (Monday, February 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S210-S211]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Madam President, at the same time, the Senate this week will begin 
the important work of crafting legislation to rescue the American 
people and the American economy from the continued effects of the 
COVID-19 pandemic.
  We continue to face a crisis unlike any other in our lifetimes. Over 
the course of a year, more than 26 million Americans contracted the 
virus and nearly 450,000 have died--more than the number of Americans 
who died during World War II. Tens of millions of Americans have lost 
their jobs, thousands of businesses closed their doors for good, and 
the economy has suffered the worst year of growth, again, since World 
War II.
  Our efforts here in Congress over the past year have saved scores of 
small

[[Page S211]]

businesses and kept millions of Americans in their home and out of 
poverty, but our work is far from completed.
  As we speak, nearly a million Americans are filing for unemployment 
per week. More than 16 million Americans have reported being thousands 
of dollars behind on the rent, on mortgage, on utilities. Elderly 
Americans are having their heat shut off in the depths of winter. 
Families are having the power and internet shut off during their 
children's first year of virtual kindergarten. Small businesses we have 
done so much to help through the PPP and other bipartisan programs will 
struggle until we can vaccinate enough Americans to get the country 
back to normal.
  Facing these multifaceted challenges of a scale and scope larger than 
any event in the past hundred years, Congress must pursue a bold and 
robust course of action. It makes no sense to pinch pennies when so 
many Americans are struggling. The risk of doing too little is far 
greater than the risk of doing too much.
  Our history is full of warnings about the costs of small thinking 
during times of great challenge. President Hoover failed to react 
quickly enough to forestall a Great Depression. In the wake of our most 
recent financial crisis in 2009, Congress was too timid and 
constrained, and the ensuing recovery was long, slow, and painful.
  Treasury Secretary Yellen, who watched the most recent recovery up 
close, just told us that ``the smartest thing we can do is act big.'' 
Let me repeat that. ``The smartest thing we can do is act big,'' 
according to Treasury Secretary Yellen. So that is what the Senate is 
going to do--act big.
  Today, Speaker Pelosi and I will file a joint budget resolution for 
fiscal year 2021 totaling $1.9 trillion, which is the first step in 
giving Congress an additional legislative tool to quickly pass the 
COVID relief legislation. The resolution, if passed by both Chambers of 
Congress, will provide instructions for the House and Senate committees 
to begin work on a potential budget reconciliation bill, which will be 
the vehicle for urgent and necessary COVID relief.
  Now, I want to be very clear. There is nothing in this process that 
will preclude it from being bipartisan. We welcome--welcome--Republican 
input. Let me say that again. There is nothing in this process--the 
budget resolution or reconciliation--that precludes our work from being 
bipartisan. In fact, the Senate has used this process no fewer than 17 
times to pass bipartisan legislation since 1980, including to create or 
expand landmark programs like children's health insurance, the child 
tax credit, and the earned income tax credit, which together have 
lifted millions of Americans out of poverty.
  COVID relief, too, should be the work of both Democrats and 
Republicans. Teachers and firefighters are being laid off in red States 
and blue States. American families are struggling with the rent and 
utilities in Kentucky as well as in New York.
  We should all be eager to provide our country the resources it needs 
to finally beat this disease and return our country to normal. To that 
end, Democrats welcome the ideas and input of our Senate Republican 
colleagues. The only thing we cannot accept is a package that is too 
small or too narrow to pull our country out of this emergency. We 
cannot repeat the mistake of 2009, and we must act very soon to get 
this assistance to those so desperately in need.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.