[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 38 (Monday, March 1, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S908]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       BUSINESS BEFORE THE SENATE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President pro tempore, now, on Senate business, the 
Senate will have a busy week ahead of it. Today and tomorrow, the 
Senate will confirm two more members of President Biden's Cabinet: Dr. 
Miguel Cardona to serve as Secretary of Education and Governor Gina 
Raimondo to serve as Commerce Secretary.
  The Senate will also confirm Dr. Cecilia Rouse to serve as the Chair 
of the Council of Economic Advisers, another history-making pick who 
will be the first Black official to head that Department.
  All three nominees are exceptionally well qualified. All have 
received bipartisan support in their respective committees, including a 
unanimous vote in favor of Dr. Rouse.
  As we continue the fight against the pandemic on all fronts--in 
particular, the damage it has caused our schools and our economy--these 
nominees will have a difficult and important task ahead of them. It 
will be very good news once we have them confirmed and on the job.
  The Senate will then return to the American Rescue Plan, 
comprehensive legislation that will help us crush the virus, recover 
our economy, and get life back to normal.
  (Ms. HIRONO assumed the Chair.)
  Defeating the pandemic is national priority No. 1: getting our 
schools to reopen as safely and quickly as possible; helping small 
businesses hang on until the economy can come roaring back; keeping 
teachers and firefighters and other essential employees on the job; 
providing aid to the jobless, food to the hungry, direct cash payments 
to millions of Americans struggling--struggling--for the cost of rent, 
groceries, medicine, and utilities; speeding the distribution of the 
vaccine, which is the cornerstone to ending this awfully dark chapter 
in American history.
  That is what our country needs, and that is what the American Rescue 
Plan will achieve. To paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, we must do the 
first things first.
  Last week, the legislation passed in the House of Representatives. 
This week, the Senate will take up the measure. Let me say that again. 
The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week.
  I expect a hearty debate and some late nights, but the American 
people sent us here with a job to do: to help the country through this 
moment of extraordinary challenge; to end, through action, the greatest 
health crisis our country has faced in a century. And that is just what 
we are going to do.

                          ____________________