[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CORONAVIRUS

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, after passing five bipartisan COVID-19 
relief bills last year to support the American people through the 
pandemic, our Democratic colleagues kicked off this year with a 
different approach. They made no attempt to try to negotiate another 
consensus package, as we had done five times before last year, and 
insisted on skirting the normal legislative process so they could pass 
a purely partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill.
  Well, the problem with that is it was really mislabeled. One, it 
vastly overshot the target, and it spent less than 10 percent of the 
money--which, purportedly, was for COVID-19 relief--on COVID-19, and 
less than 1 percent of that was related to vaccines, which was clearly 
the most urgent need.
  But the money that we had appropriated last December hadn't even been 
spent yet, but, apparently, the Biden administration wanted to 
demonstrate that it could get things through but, in the meantime, 
appropriated $1.9 trillion, threatening us with something we haven't 
seen rear its head in a long time, which is inflation.
  But the bill, as I said, included a lot of unrelated and unnecessary 
partisan priorities, ranging from blank checks for mismanaged union 
pension funds, funding for climate justice, backdoor money for Planned 
Parenthood, and an exclusive paid leave program for Federal 
bureaucrats.

                          ____________________