[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 2, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S972-S973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. President, I come to the floor today because the Senate will 
likely vote soon on the Biden stimulus bill. I think all of us in this 
Chamber agree that we want to get relief to the American people. That 
was our objective when we passed the CARES Act last year, which 
allocated $2.2 trillion for the relief effort. It was our objective 
when we passed four other COVID relief bills in 2020--and these brought 
the total up to $4 trillion. All of these measures were the result of 
bipartisan cooperation and negotiations--Democrats and Republicans 
working together.
  But right now, the President and congressional Democrats are pushing 
a completely partisan product through a totally partisan process to 
promote their progressive agenda. They call it the American Rescue 
Plan, and the pricetag is $1.9 trillion, more than double what we spent 
after the financial crisis starting in 2008.
  When combined with the five COVID packages we have already enacted, 
the total cost to the American taxpayers would be close to $6 trillion, 
more than the GDP of every country other than China and the United 
States. And as of the end of January, hundreds of billions of dollars 
from these bills has yet to be spent.
  December's relief bill dedicated $284 billion to the Paycheck 
Protection Program, but only a quarter of those funds had been 
obligated. That same bill provided $20 billion for Economic Injury 
Disaster Loans, none of it had been spent by February 1. The same is 
true of the CARES Act spending for community planning programs, for 
which hundreds of millions of dollars remain unspent. Over 90 percent 
of these bills' combined funding for mental health programs was sitting 
idle as of late January as well.
  The White House calls this bill ``emergency legislative package to 
fund vaccinations, provide immediate, direct relief to families bearing 
the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis, and supporting struggling 
communities.''
  Each of these things is important, and support for them should 
absolutely be part of any package we pass. But when you look somewhere 
other than the White House website to find out what is actually in this 
bill, you see that many parts of it don't belong in a package that is 
meant to help us recover from our fight against this virus.
  Let us start with what will make the biggest difference for working 
families: the direct payments to individual Americans. For months, I 
have supported sending these checks. I went on the record in December 
to say that people are hurting and that we should help them with more 
aid in the form of direct payments.
  I think these payments are a good idea, but they should be targeted 
to those who truly need them, not sent to people who haven't been 
affected in the same way as the millions of Americans who have lost 
their jobs.
  If this once-in-a-century pandemic hasn't put you out of work at one 
point or another, you have been lucky. But this plan would give you a 
check even if you have never lost your job and struggled to pay your 
bills. That is not right.
  This administration had time to work with Republicans to make sure 
those who need help get it. They didn't do that. Instead, people who 
never lost their job get a check. People who were never furloughed get 
a check. And financially stable families who earned as much as $200,000 
last year--well, they still get a check too.
  If so many Americans are hurting, as we all know they are, our only 
focus should be getting this aid into their hands, not using their 
insecurity as a chance to pass a bunch of wish list items from this 
progressive agenda.
  The White House wants Congress to spend billions of dollars on things 
that no COVID aid bill should be addressing. Many other Senators have 
expressed similar concerns. We believe that every cent of any COVID 
relief bill needs to go toward recovery from the effects of COVID on 
families and on communities.
  The new administration has a chance to show that they really are 
interested in ``bipartisanship'' and ``unity''--two words President 
Biden uses just about every day. They could prove that today by 
reaching out to Republicans in good faith, but, so far, any effort by 
the administration to do so has only been to provide an appearance of 
working together, not to make any actual progress on any kind of 
bipartisan product. Instead, they are focusing on filling this package 
with progressive priorities.
  So let's take a look at some of the items on that list: giving $30 
billion to public transit authorities, even though President Biden only 
asked for $20 billion and several major Agencies have said the December 
relief bill would get them through at least until summer; spending $50 
million on family planning programs that wouldn't have Hyde 
protections, meaning that our tax dollars would pay for elective 
abortions; allowing Planned Parenthood to receive the small business 
funding from the Paycheck Protection Program; dedicating another $50 
million to the troubling vague goal of ``combating the climate 
crisis''; sending $12 billion overseas in aid--this does not belong in 
a domestic COVID response bill--and spending over $100 million on a 
subway system near Speaker Pelosi's district in the Bay area. I will 
leave it up to my Democratic colleagues to explain how expanding a 
subway in Northern California would help all Americans ``build back 
better'' in this pandemic. So far, they are silent.

  This is supposed to be an emergency rescue plan for the Americans who 
have been hit hardest by COVID, but, instead, the Biden stimulus plan 
doesn't make any of the tough decisions we need to make, and it uses 
Americans' hard-earned tax dollars as a blank check.

[[Page S973]]

  This proposal also pays lipservice to the importance of getting 
students back into the classroom, while asking this body to vote for 
things that would do exactly the opposite.
  Even though almost $70 billion of the funds dedicated to schools in 
December's relief bill still hasn't been spent, this American Rescue 
Plan would give them nearly $170 billion more. My colleagues on the 
other side of the aisle say this money is necessary for a majority of 
K-8 schools to safely reopen in the President's first 100 days, but 
their bill would reserve 95 percent of that new money for the years 
2022 to 2028. How does that help families today who want their kids to 
get back to school? They want them back in school now; so how does it 
help?
  This bill goes even further than that. It would treat schools that 
choose to open and schools that remained closed the same way, which 
does nothing to incentivize them to get their kids back in classrooms.
  This plan would also give $350 billion to States, cities, and 
localities. A big chunk of that money will be used to bail out States 
like New York and California, which have kept people away from their 
jobs and their children out of schools for months on end.
  Even worse, this bill tallies States' and localities' level of 
funding based on raw unemployment numbers, not their unemployment rate. 
That would punish both red and blue States that have handled this 
pandemic well. It leaves behind States like mine--like Nebraska--which 
has the lowest unemployment rate in the country because we have 
succeeded in balancing safety and reopening where other States have 
failed. It would also hurt Minnesota, Vermont, and New Hampshire--three 
blue States that have kept their unemployment numbers low.
  When you look under the hood, this bill is more about passing that 
partisan wish list than getting the United States through the worst 
public health crisis that we have faced in over a century.
  At best, the name ``American Rescue Plan'' is misleading. At worst, 
it is deceptive.
  I stand ready to work with the administration and my Democratic 
colleagues in Congress to address these issues and to give Americans 
the help they need in a targeted, reasonable, and productive way. We 
did that with the CARES Act, and we could do it again if our colleagues 
on the other side are willing.
  That is the way the Senate is supposed to work--in a bipartisan way. 
It is how we reach consensus and deliver the policies that the American 
people need and that the American people deserve.
  I know I share the sentiments of many of my colleagues when I say 
that I am disappointed in how this process has been conducted. Without 
an effort to compromise and to make major changes in the stimulus 
package, I will be voting no.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.