[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1744-S1745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Gun Violence

  Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I want to also just thank my colleague 
from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall.
  I can see that he meant a lot to you and was a great public servant. 
So thank you, Senator Leahy.
  Madam President, in a year of so much heartbreak and grief and death, 
it almost escaped notice that we had gone in this country a year 
without a mass shooting in a public place.
  But now we face the grim reminder of our American reality. In the 
space of a week, two separate mass shootings stole the lives of 18 
people. And just weeks ago, we suffered a mass shooting in a health 
clinic in my home State of Minnesota.
  So here we are again, thrust into a familiar cycle of collective 
grief and frustration and anger. Our hearts break for the families and 
loved ones of those whose lives were stolen. Our voices cry out for 
change to end the scourge of gun violence. And our anger grows as our 
voices are ignored and we are told by Republican leaders that there is 
nothing that we can do to protect American lives from gun violence.
  Colleagues, it is our job to protect American lives.
  Today, I want to share with you the voice of Veronique de la Rosa. 
Her son Noah, just 6 years old, was murdered in his classroom at Sandy 
Hook Elementary, and she delivered this eulogy for her son at his 2012 
funeral.
  I am going to read it in its entirety so that it can be included in 
the Record, the Congressional Record, and can serve as a reminder of 
the human toll that our gun culture has taken.
  Veronique said:

       The sky is crying, and the flags are at half-mast. It is a 
     sad, sad day. But it is also your day, Noah, my little man. I 
     will miss your forceful and purposeful little steps stomping 
     through our house. I will miss your perpetual smile, the 
     twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that 
     would be the envy of any lady in this room.
       Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future. You 
     wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, a taco factory manager. It 
     was your favorite food, and no doubt you wanted to ensure 
     that the world kept producing tacos.
       You were a little boy whose life force had all the 
     gravitational pull of a celestial body. You were light and 
     love, mischief and pranks. You adored your family with every 
     fiber of your 6-year-old being. We are all of us elevated in 
     our humanity by having known you. A little maverick, who 
     didn't always want to do his schoolwork or clean up his toys, 
     when practicing his ninja moves or Super Mario on the Wii 
     seemed far more important.
       Noah, you will not pass this way again. I can only believe 
     that you were planted on Earth to bloom in heaven. Take 
     flight, my boy. Soar. You now have the wings that you always 
     wanted. Go to that peaceful valley that we will all one day 
     come to know. I will join you someday. Not today. I still 
     have lots of mommy love to give to Danielle, Michael, Sophia 
     and Arielle.
       Until then, your melody will linger in our hearts forever. 
     Momma loves you, little man.

  Veronique should not have had to eulogize Noah, her 6-year-old son--1 
of 20 children killed at Sandy Hook.
  So I ask my Republican colleagues to think of her when you suggest 
that families exaggerate their anguish for political gain.
  Just yesterday, one of my Republican colleagues dismissed this grief 
as ``theater.'' No. This is life and death.
  So I am angry. I am angry because I know that we have the power to 
stop this violence, and yet our Republican colleagues stand in the way. 
They refuse to work with us. They continue to put the demands of the 
NRA above the demands of the people we are elected to serve--that we 
stop this horrific gun violence, that we protect the people we are 
elected to serve.
  Madam President, we need universal background checks. We need to ban 
assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need to end this cycle, 
and we need all of us in Congress to find the strength and the humanity 
to take action.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.


                       PPP Extension Act of 2021

  Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, small businesses and their employees 
are the backbone of our economy, particularly in States like those of 
the Presiding Officer and the State that I am privileged to represent, 
the great State of Maine.
  Later today, the Senate is slated to vote on cloture on the motion to 
proceed to H.R. 1799, the PPP Extension Act of 2021.
  As a sponsor of the Senate companion bill, along with my colleagues 
Senator Cardin and Senator Shaheen, I urge my colleagues to support the 
cloture motion.
  We are also delighted that several of our colleagues have joined us 
as cosponsors of the Senate companion bill.
  The Paycheck Protection Program continues to be a lifeline for small 
businesses. It has made the difference between their shutting their 
doors and laying off their employees and their being able to remain 
open, survive the pandemic, and most important of all, send paychecks 
to their employees.
  Since the program was created last year, more than $718 billion in 
forgivable Small Business Administration loans have been approved, 
securing tens of millions of jobs in this country.
  The program has also been responsible for bringing approximately $3 
billion to the State of Maine in forgivable loans that have allowed our 
small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry, to 
survive the pandemic and continue to send paychecks to their employees.
  The current application deadline for the PPP is March 31. That is 
just days away. I continue to hear about the urgent need for more PPP 
assistance from Maine's small businesses and to hear from others who 
are eligible for assistance but whose financial institutions are 
getting error messages from the Small Business Administration's 
computer system.
  Originally, the SBA had used the E-Tran system. For some reason, it 
switched computers for this round of PPP, and we understand that there 
are more than 190,000 applications that are pending for approval that 
are likely eligible for assistance but are held up because of computer 
glitches or other errors.
  The bill before us today mirrors the legislation that I introduced 
with Senators Cardin and Shaheen in that it provides for a clean 
extension of the PPP application deadline. It would simply extend the 
application deadline for PPP loans from March 31 to May 31, just 2 more 
months, and then it would provide an additional 30 days for the SBA to 
process pending applications.
  So if a small restaurant, for example, applied for a second PPP loan 
for which it is eligible because its revenues are down by 25 percent, 
comparing similar quarters in 2019 and 2020, it would not lose out 
because it applied in May and the SBA did not get time to process the 
application.
  Our bill has been endorsed by more than 90 organizations, including 
the Nation's largest small business advocacy group, the National 
Federation of

[[Page S1745]]

Independent Business, which is key voting this vote. It has also been 
endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Hotel & Lodging 
Association, the International Franchise Association, the National 
Restaurant Association, the U.S. Travel Association, and the 
Independent Community Bankers of America.
  The House passed this clean PPP extension last week by an 
overwhelming margin of 415 to 3.
  With the House now in recess and the Senate leaving this week, 
advancing a clean extension through the Senate ensures the continuation 
of this vital relief for our small businesses and their employees. We 
simply have to get this done.

  I agree with my colleagues that there are further improvements that 
could be made to PPP, such as addressing an issue facing certain sole 
proprietors. Unfortunately, the new administration changed the rules, 
so sole proprietors who applied early when the program reopened in 
January were treated differently than sole proprietors who are applying 
now. That obviously doesn't make sense. We should have the same rule.
  I have talked with the new SBA Administrator about this problem. She 
agrees that it is unfair and needs to be fixed and has committed to 
working with all the sponsors and with the House and Senate Small 
Business Committee to find a solution to ensure that the program is 
implemented as Congress intended.
  But in order to ensure that there is adequate time to develop and 
implement these improvements, we must first, without delay, pass H.R. 
1799 to keep the PPP open for another 2 months.
  I urge all of my colleagues to support cloture and passage of this 
important bipartisan legislation. It truly is bipartisan.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Murray and I be permitted to complete our remarks prior to the vote for 
up to 5 minutes each.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.