[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 107 (Monday, June 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Madam President, on a different subject, as our Nation continues to 
emerge from COVID-19 restrictions, vaccinated Americans were able to 
gather safely this past weekend for two happy events: Father's Day and 
the first Juneteenth Federal holiday. These celebrations came at the 
end of a week that brought welcome news to America.
  After 11 years of Republicans fighting the Affordable Care Act, the 
Supreme Court finally said: Enough. Millions of Americans have health 
insurance at a time when they desperately need it, in the midst of a 
pandemic, and your theories on Constitution and law are not adequate to 
end the Affordable Care Act. Thank goodness for that 7-2 ruling.
  The administration, of course, was heartened by that and by the 
knowledge that we are fast approaching the point where 70 percent of 
the adults in America are going to be vaccinated.
  Remember when President Biden took office 6 months ago? Yes, we had 
the vaccines, but we hadn't produced them in quantity, and we didn't 
have a plan for vaccinating America. Thank goodness, now the United 
States is leading the world in the effort to vaccinate its population. 
I thank President Biden for that and the resources that we provided to 
him.
  We still have a challenge. We still have a threat. The Delta variant 
is much more easily spread than the COVID strain that shut down the 
Nation last year. It has now been identified in 41 States. For those 
who are holding back and not seeking a vaccination, they are in greater 
danger than they were a year ago if that infection comes near them. I 
hope my Republican colleagues will join the Democrats in urging 
Americans to be vaccinated as quickly as possible.