[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 36 (Thursday, February 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S873-S874]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now, the Senate is laser-focused on 
confirming President Biden's impressive Cabinet while paving the way 
for another round of urgent COVID relief. The two tasks will remain the 
top Senate priorities over the next several weeks.
  By the end of this week, the Senate will have confirmed three 
Cabinet-level officials--the U.N. Ambassador and the Secretaries of 
Agriculture and Energy--and will have set up confirmation votes early 
next week for the Secretaries of Education and Commerce and the Chair 
of the Council of Economic Advisers.
  This week, Senate committees also held confirmation hearings on 
scores of other nominations, including the President's candidates for 
Attorney General, HHS Secretary, Interior Secretary, CIA Director, 
Surgeon General, and U.S. Trade Representative
  At the same time, Democrats are preparing to proceed with the 
urgently needed President Biden American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion 
lifeline that will lay the foundation for economic recovery and a 
return to life as normal.
  We have come a long way in our fight against COVID, but we still have 
a long way to go. Over 60 million vaccinations have now been 
administered across the country. Death rates are finally, finally 
declining. But while the trends are headed in the right direction, more 
Americans are still dying per day than at any point during the worst 
weeks of last summer.
  The same goes for our economy. While there are green shoots, our 
country remains 10 million jobs short of where we were last February--
10 million jobs short. That is nothing to trifle with or pass over. 
Today's report on new jobless claims was the 49th week that the number 
was higher than at any point during the great recession.
  Let me repeat that. Today's report on the number of Americans filing 
for unemployment benefits for the first time was the 49th week during 
the COVID pandemic that new unemployment claims were higher than at any 
point during the great recession. In the words of Fed Chairman Powell, 
hardly a big liberal, ``The economic recovery remains uneven and far 
from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain.''
  That is from a very serious, staid man not prone to any hyperbole at 
all. But what he is telling us is simple: We cannot take our foot off 
the gas. We cannot slow down before the race is won. We must proceed 
boldly and decisively.
  Senate Democrats will move forward on the American Rescue Plan as 
soon as possible. The bill will erase any doubt that the American 
people, businesses, families, workers will have the resources that they 
need until we can defeat the virus and our economy comes roaring back. 
The American people should expect nothing less.
  Just yesterday, over 150 executives from the Nation's business 
community said that taking action on the American Rescue Plan is the 
right thing to do. The business community is firmly lined up behind 
this plan. Earlier this month, 400 mayors from both parties, Democratic 
and Republican, sent a letter to Congress supporting the plan and the 
help it provides to keep teachers and firefighters and other essential 
public employees on the job.
  In poll after poll, the American public overwhelmingly supports 
congressional action on a bold COVID relief package, a majority of 
Democrats and a majority of Republicans. As many as 7 in 10 Americans 
support the American Rescue Plan. There is a clear, bipartisan, 
nationwide mandate to act, and that is just what the Senate is going to 
do--a clear, bipartisan, nationwide mandate to act, and that is what we 
will do.
  Now, from the start, we had hoped this effort would be bipartisan. As 
I said before, there is nothing about the budget process that precludes 
bipartisanship. The same process has been used no fewer than 17 times 
to produce major bipartisan legislation. But it seems that despite the 
historic nature of the crisis, despite the clear and pressing needs of 
the country, despite the support of mayors and Governors and economists 
and business leaders from across the political spectrum, and

[[Page S874]]

despite the popularity of the legislation with the American people, my 
Republican colleagues are organizing to oppose the next round of COVID 
relief.
  A report in CNN suggested that Republican leaders were 
``maneuvering'' to keep every single Republican from supporting the 
American Rescue Plan, an exercise in pure partisanship. We have started 
to hear the same predictable objections in almost the same exact words 
that Republicans use in response to nearly every piece of Democratic 
legislation: ``a liberal wish list''; ``socialism.''
  One Republican Member said that the American Rescue Plan was ``to the 
left of Lenin.'' Seriously, to the left of Lenin? Money for schools, 
vaccines, direct checks to struggling American families--checks that 
nearly every Member of the Senate supported just a few months ago--now 
it is to the left of Lenin?
  This kind of reflexive partisan opposition is not going to wash with 
the American people. It wouldn't wash at any time, but it especially 
doesn't wash during this time of crisis. The American people have all 
heard it before, and they know the country needs help.
  All week our Republican colleagues have been raising concerns about 
school closures. Well, I will tell you what, we all want to open 
schools. We all want them to reopen. We are all concerned, though, 
about the cost of remote learning on children and parents. So are the 
teachers. So are the children. So are the parents.
  But how about we actually give schools the funding they need to 
reopen as quickly and safely as possible? That funding is in the 
American Rescue Plan. While our Republican colleagues are cynically 
attacking teachers--something they have done for decades--the school 
districts in their States are telling them they need more funding. 
Their school districts are telling them they need more funding to hire 
extra teachers and reduce class size, to change the infrastructure of 
their schools to increase social distancing, to hire tutors for summer 
school and the fall to help our children make up for lost time.
  The education commissioner for the State of Nebraska, hardly a 
Democratic stronghold, put it simply: ``There's a lot of damage to 
repair.'' Our Republican colleagues want schools to reopen. So do we. 
But what about actually doing something to make that happen as safely 
and as quickly as possible?
  It seems my Republican colleagues have even taken issue with the tiny 
amount of funding in the bill that goes to a bridge in New York. They 
say: Look, a pork-barrel earmark from the Democratic leader, totally 
non-COVID-related. The truth is, this is one of the only bridges 
operated by the Federal Government. Its revenues for operating expenses 
have collapsed because of COVID. No one is using the bridge.
  Ironically, the bridge is located in a district represented in the 
House by a Republican. And the request for this funding wasn't made by 
me or any Democrat, for that matter. It came from the Trump 
administration 5 months ago. I learned about it being in the bill when 
I read about it in the newspaper.
  That is how silly the talking points of the other side have gotten. 
Republicans are not happy about a small provision in the bill requested 
by the previous Republican administration, so they are going to oppose 
direct checks to struggling families, another round of assistance for 
small businesses, and money for schools and vaccinations. The argument 
is absurd and, we know, a total excuse.
  Look, we Democrats would prefer to work with our colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle to pass this bill. We had an open, bipartisan 
amendment process on the budget resolution. We have already included 
many bipartisan amendments the Senate adopted into this new 
reconciliation bill. The first amendment we put on the floor for the 
restaurants was bipartisan, and that was the first amendment I put on 
the floor as majority leader, showing my intent to be bipartisan.
  But, at the end of the day, we cannot let obstructionism stop us. At 
the end of the day, the American people sent us here with a job to do.
  The bottom line is simple: We are still in a historic crisis of the 
health of the economy. The American people know we are in a historic 
crisis. And the Senate will soon take action on our plan to solve this 
crisis, a plan with overwhelming public support. Our Republican 
colleagues will have to decide whether they will work with us to 
approve the legislation or obstruct it to the bitter end
  I yield the floor.

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