[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 33 (Monday, February 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Now, on an entirely different matter, Madam President, the year just 
behind us will be remembered for the suffering, grief, and sacrifice it 
forced on our Nation.
  Today, as our COVID-19 death toll passes 500,000, millions of 
Americans are feeling the pain of personal loss, but as we mark this 
terrible milestone, we stand here in early 2021 at what increasingly 
appears to be a crossroads. Far brighter days ahead appear to be close 
at hand.
  So far, more than 63 million vaccine doses have been administered, 
and another 1.8 million Americans are now receiving a shot every day. 
At the same time, the rolling average of COVID-related deaths has 
fallen to barely half its January high, and mounting evidence suggests 
our economy is chomping at the bit to rebuild the prosperity we lost 
last year.
  We reached this threshold because, in part, of the historic 
bipartisan work Congress built just last year--from the job-saving 
Paycheck Protection Program to Operation Warp Speed and its 
historically successful sprint toward vaccines, to cushioning the blow 
for unemployed Americans, and so much more.
  We spent roughly $4 trillion last year--the largest peacetime fiscal 
expansion in American history by far. And the five bills that passed 
the Senate passed 96 to 1, 90 to 8, 96 to 0, by voice vote, and 92 to 
6.
  That got us to the crossroads, with a truly terrible 12 months behind 
us but in a better position to move forward than many experts had 
predicted. Now the policies that Washington puts forward will help 
determine what kind of year 2021 will be for American families.
  So are we destined to spend a second year in a national defensive 
crouch? Are we going to surrender another school year to the pandemic, 
another year of elevated unemployment, another year of diminished 
social and community life or--or are we going to plant a flag and say 
this is the year that America comes roaring back? Are we going to make 
this the year we reclaim our lives and retake our country in a way that 
is safe and smart but determined?
  Washington gets a major say on this, but, unfortunately, there seems 
to be some impulse on the Democratic side to act as though we are still 
stuck back in April of 2020, and we are going to be stuck there for all 
of 2021.
  The partisan legislation Democrats are preparing to ram through looks 
like something you would pass to blunt another year of shutdowns, not 
to help guide a smart and proactive recovery. It looks more like 
another big bandage for a mostly shutdown country rather than a 
launching pad to help us get back on offense.
  Look at schools. All the facts and hard evidence show that, with 
simple safety precautions, K-12 schools can and should be reopening 
safely right now. Yet the Biden administration is going out of its way 
to avoid getting kids back in school. They have their own experts 
contradicting their own recent statements and their own CDC 
backpedaling from the hard science, all to accommodate Big Labor's 
goalpost-moving.
  Just look at the proposed money in their new partisan bill for K-12 
schools. They call it an emergency relief fund, but just 5 percent of 
the money they want would be spent in fiscal year 2021. Ninety-five 
percent of this so-called emergency relief for schools would go out in 
fiscal 2022 and beyond.
  Take the economy, experts across the spectrum say that incomes, 
savings, job opportunities, and industry outlooks are already 
rebounding. Further aid needs to be smartly targeted so government 
doesn't get in the way.
  But Democrats want to double down on bandaid policies like they are 
planning for another year of stagnation, instead of trying to set up 
success.
  Almost every part of their draft reads like Democrats took the things 
they ideologically wanted to spend money on and worked backward, 
instead of starting with the actual state of the country, the actual 
needs of American families, and working toward that--not terribly 
surprising. Remember, one senior House Democrat told everybody last 
spring the pandemic would be ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure 
things to fit our vision.''
  So I guess that is why they have gone heavy on non-COVID-related, 
liberal wish list items, like the job-killing minimum wage policy, the 
environmental justice grants, the wheelbarrows of cash for State and 
local governments, multiple times any serious estimate of remaining 
need, the attempts to expand taxpayer funding for abortions.
  They go heavy on all of that but light on practical solutions to get 
kids back in school, workers safely back on the job, and help the 
American people reclaim their lives from this microscopic foreign 
invader.
  The American people do not deserve policies that presume 2021 will be 
just like 2020. Our Nation needs this year to be different.
  If the administration were interested in policies to make that 
happen, they would find the same kind of bipartisan support that every 
historic COVID-19 package has received so far.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The senior Senator from Illinois.