unemployment assistance program. we are trying to pick up on some ofthe principles of disaster , unemployment insurance. i would note that the finance staff that i did look into the history, this would be based on everything we've picked up. the first time unemployment insurance has been expanded in response to a public crisis. and it's in my view one of the most central things we can do to help working families. we have the unemployment numbers across the country but weekly, families that are hurting get a few hundred dollars. we can do better by them. >> the senate is dabbling in today, lawmakers worked on president trumps nominee of republican james hanley to the number of the military commission later this afternoon confirmation vote

for his nomination. in the house democrats filed a bill to providefunding for the federal government's response to the coronavirus pandemic . livecoverage of the senate on c-span2 .

may they not fear anything that may assail them on every side. help them to remember that there is none holy like

you, and nothing can compare to your majesty and might. we pray in your great name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa.

mr. grassley: i ask to speak in morning business for one minute. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: iowa has had 14 presumptive positive cases of covid-19. my staff and i remain in constant communication with federal agencies to ensure that the federal government is properly managing emergency threats to the public health. i'm also on regular touch with the iowa department of public health which is meeting daily with its partners to share information with all iowans. while each day brings updates regarding covid-19, what remains constant are the prevention efforts that we've all heard about. just to name a couple, washing your hands often and covering your cough. define further updates and guidance about the covid-19,

please visit my website at grassley.senate.gov. on another matter, in november of 2017, bejon gasar was shot and killed by two u.s. park police officers. that person was unarmed and in his vehicle. the national park service oversees the u.s. park police and still hasn't responded to a letter that senator warner of virginia and i wrote to the park service last november. now, we all know that park service officials are very concerned about the cherry blossom season. they just had a press conference to announce the peak dates of this year's cherry blossom season. acting director vella needs to take his agency's obligations to

respond to senator warner and my letter and other inquiries from congress as seriously as he takes the weather updates. i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: this morning, the senate and house sergeants at arms announced the suspension of public tours and nonofficial access to the capitol complex beginning at the close of business today and running through the end of march. their decision was made in close consultation with the attending physician of the united states congress dr. brown monahan.

i fully support the decision of these nonpartisan officers. it follows new guidance from the washington, d.c. department of health encouraging that all nonessential mass gatherings of more than a thousand people be postponed. the capitol complex welcomes many times that many visits on a typical day. particularly at this time of year. congress will continue to do our work. offices will be able to welcome constituents and visitors for meetings and official business by appointment, but in deaf -- deference to the experts and protect the health of the many americans that travel to our nation's capitol, tourism and nonofficial access to the capitol and the complex will be put on pause. this is challenging our nation in ways that feel unfamiliar to us, but our great country is

strong. we are equipped. and we have overcome far greater challenges before. i know the entire congress will look forward to welcoming all americans back to visit their beautiful capitol as soon as possible. in the meantime, we continue to encourage everyone to follow the facts, listen to the experts, and take smart and calm precautions as appropriate. every american can access up-to-date recommendations for their own personal circumstances at www.coronavirus.gov. last night president trump addressed the nation on the broader ongoing effort to slow and mitigate the spread of the virus here on american soil. as i've noticed, -- as i've noted before, the administration's early proactive measures to repatriate u.s. citizens and restrict travel from china bought more time for public health professionals to prepare our response.

and the funding measure that congress passed last week is sending an infusion of new funding into laboratory research, front line medical care, and everything in between. with those critical steps already taken, this week brought a further opportunity to help communities and families face the economic effects of the virus spread. but unfortunately, it appears at this hour that the speaker and house democrats instead chose to produce an ideological wish list that was not tailored closely to the circumstances. one is reminded of the famous comment from president obama's first chief of staff, you never want a serious crisis toll go to waste -- to go to waste. instead of focusing on immediate relief to affected individuals, families, and businesses, the house democrats chose to wander into various areas of policy

that are barely related if at all to the issue before us. so instead of working within existing law and within existing systems to deliver targeted relief as officially and effectively as possible, the speaker's proposal would stand up a needless thicket of new bureaucracy. they would task offices like the social security administration withstanding up brand new bureaucracy that would delay the delivery of aid to those who need it as currently drafted the proposal appears to impose permanent unfunded mandates on businesses that could cause massive job losses and put thousands of small businesses at risk. the administration was ready to collaborate. the senate was ready to seriously consider a compromise product. but it appears that over in the house, left-wing political messaging may have taken priority over the needs of our

country. certainly this is disappointing. i want to commend secretary mnuchin for his efforts and continued conversations at a minimum i hope that senate democrats will not block potential requests from our colleagues today to pass smaller noncontroversial pieces of legislation right away that would bolster particular aspects of the fight against coronavirus. but the good news, mr. president, is that our nation's economy remains strong. the president is continuing to take action himself. we just passed billions, billions in urgent funding just last week. and the senate will continue to stand ready and willing to work toward further bicameral, bipartisan actions when the house democrats decide to get serious. now, on another matter, yesterday the house of representatives did come together around a bipartisan agreement to renew some critical

national security tools. the u.s.a. freedom reauthorization act of 2020 will reauthorize key authorities granted to intelligence and national security professionals under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. first and foremost, this means ensuring that the men and women tasked with rooting out espionage and stop be terrorist activity on u.s. soil are equipped with the powers they need to be successful. today the threats these professionals confront are as serious and diverse as ever. terrorist groups continue to wish us harm. major hostile powers like russia and china remain committed to undermining the integrity of american institutions from our infrastructure to our elections. the targeted powers reauthorized by this legislation are a vital part of the efforts to protect american communities. that's a fact. it's a fact that's been

reaffirmed time and time again by attorneys general and by the numerous reauthorizations granted by congress. so this time it's no different. we can't mistake the safety and security that fisa authorities have helped preserve for evidence that they're no longer needed. at the same time, we cannot mistake a vital process for a perfect one. the 2016 election showed us perfectly clearly that the authorities granted under fisa are in need of targeted reforms to improve accountability. that was backed up by the findings of the department of justice inspector general. that's why this legislation contains a number of specific reforms to address the kinds of failures that embarrass the system -- embarrassed the system in 2016. more oversight over the practices of the fisa court, more declassification, and more compliance practices, higher level approval for certain

sensitive applications, and more. so, mr. president, our responsibility here is tofold. we -- twofold. we have to continue equipping our national security professionals and the intelligence community to anticipate, confront and eliminate the threats facing our country, and we also have to respond to the failures of 2016 with real reforms that ensure the public trust is handled appropriately. this legislation passed by a bipartisan majority in the house and endorsed by the attorney general strikes the right balance. so i'm confident this will pass the senate as well. it's not a question of if this passes but when. i hope that our colleagues who may not choose to vote for this legislation will not deny this body the opportunity to renew these authorities today to prevent any lapse. i hope none of our colleagues choose to force these important national security tools to

temporarily lapse for the sake of making a political point which will not change the outcome. in fact, i hope we can renew these authorities today. but if we cannot, if some of our colleagues choose to object, the lapse will only be temporary, similar to passed short lapses between reauthorizations. these national security tools should not lapse. they do not need to lapse. and i hope none of our colleagues choose to unilaterally force them to lapse just for the sake of making a point. but at least it would only be temporary because this bill is going to pass. these authorities are getting renewed. and that's a great thing for the security of our nation and the safety of the american people. i hope it can happen today. now, mr. president, i understand there's a bill at the desk due a

second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for a second time. the clerk: h.r. 6172, an act to amend the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978 and so forth and for other purposes. mr. mcconnell: in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provision of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding. the presiding officer:  objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. the presiding officer: under the previous order, leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, federal energy regulatory commission, james p. danly of tennessee to be a member.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, yesterday, madam president, the world health organization officially declared covid-19 known as the coronavirus a pandemic. saying that it was, quote, deeply concerned both by the alarming spread and severity and alarming levels of inaction by the nations of the world. let me repeat that. they were deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and alarming levels of inaction by the nations of the world. in my home state of new york,

members of the national guard have arrived in new rochelle this morning to clean institutions and deliver food to the more than 120 sick residents within the three-mile containment area. here in the capitol, public tours will be suspended. and by the end of the week, the capitol complex will be restricted to official business only. and today the house of representatives will take up and pass several measures that the speaker and i called for earlier this week to alleviate the economic pain felt by american workers and families that are impacted by the coronavirus, including extension of paid sick leave, food security insurance, and an expansion of unemployment insurance. the legislation will also provide much needed help to states like new york that are overburdened by medicaid costs, by temporarily modifying the

fmap formula, it gives the states the flexibility and money they need to fight this problem. i've long fought for an increase in fmap funding and this is welcome and needed for new york. i'm glad it's in the bill that democrats in the house and senate put together. now, many of the policies that i've mentioned have been enacted by other countries dealing with the coronavirus. the policies are targeted at workers and families that are directly impacted by the virus which is exactly where the focus needs to be. not on bailing out oil and gas companies or the cruise industry or deregulating banks, some of the ideas under discussion at the white house by all reports. but on helping the american people cope with the crisis. that is job number one. we can come back and pass

additional targeted measures that deal with other economic problems at a later date. but in the need si -- immediacy of today, the policies that the house will pass will provide much-needed help to those who need help. it will provide significant economic relief by pumping money into the economy, and it will provide some flexibility to the localities, the states, and to the american people. the senate should pass this bill immediately following the house before the end of the day. i plead, i plead with my republican senate colleagues to pass this bill now. it has been carefully thought out. its programs are directly aimed at people. they're not ideological. and it is desperately needed to show the american people that we can do things that actually benefit the people who are in

trouble and actually help move the american economy. to not pass this bill today would be a dereliction of duty, and i plead with senator mcconnell, put the bill on the floor. let there be a vote. it will pass in my judgment. put the bill on the floor. do not let this legislation that the house passes at a time of crisis be just another tombstone in your legislative graveyard. now, of course, the central problem remains contending with the spread of the coronavirus itself. our testing regime has been completely inadequate. we still lag far behind other countries, in both the number and percentage of the population we are testing for the virus. there is still not enough kits distributed to hospitals and medical labs. and the results of those tests are not processed fast enough. from one end of the country to the other, those on the front

lines, whether they be health care workers, mayors, county executives, governors, are crying out for more testing, more speed in bringing the results of the tests back immediately. the president didn't mention it in his speech. now, i heard from the mayor of new rochelle now overseeing a three-mile containment area. what is the number one thing you need? he said testing. he told me that one of the reasons that the state of new york had to impose the containment area was that it couldn't be determined who was safe to walk on the street and who wasn't because of lack of testing. if they had the test, they know who had the virus, they could quarantine at home, and others could go out and about with their lives and shop in the stores, go down the streets and

there through their -- and go through their normal activities. the lack of testing has forced many in containment areas to quarantine themselves when they may not have the virus at all. the administration must expedite the approval of labs who are ready to provide testing. it must support the use of automatic testing to increase the speed and volume. and it must do a better job of communicating to hospitals and localities about the number of testing kits available. the administration needs to get a handle on this now. it has been well over a month since the first case of coronavirus was confirmed on our soil. and most places around the country were not able to test for the coronavirus at the necessary capacity or speed. the most glaring emission in this administration's long list of problems in the way they approach the coronavirus is the

lack of testing. we need it now. the failure of the administration to anticipate problems with testing has put us weeks and weeks behind. and last night, president trump gave his national address about the coronavirus, and testing wasn't included. it was amazing to me. the number one problem ignored. i welcome that the president stressed the need for high regime, instructed americans to stay home if they felt sick, something he questioned in the past. i was glad he is no longer calling this a hoax, and at least in his speech not blaming the press or democrats or somebody else for the problem. blame isn't going to solve anything. but sadly and regrettably, the president's speech fell far short of what americans needed to hear. the speech was almost robotic, lacking any empathy. the president seemed to show little concern for americans

impacted by the virus or for allies around the world fighting it. the president did not say how his administration will address the lack of coronavirus testing kits, nor did he call for a national emergency to free up federal resources to fight the virus. calling for a national emergency under the stafford act would free up lots of fema's resources to help states and localities. why he hasn't done it is a mystery. we need him to do it and do it now. and so many of the president's statements in his speech were inaccurate and required no fewer than three corrections by the white house in the hours after. the president was not clear or accurate in describing the ban on travel from europe to the u.s. that it did not apply to u.s. citizens or to cargo. the president's claim that health insurers have agreed, quote, to waive all co-payments

for coronavirus treatment was also apparently inaccurate. at a time of crisis, one would think that the president could give a speech that at least had the facts right, that there would be that care and focus, but unfortunately it wasn't so. and i don't bring this up to play gotcha. it's very serious. there are many americans who watched the president but may not have seen the white house correct his error-laden speech, and as a result, many americans got bad and confusing information. this is very, very unfortunate. at all times, but especially during a time of crisis, the president must be clear and accurate about his policies and guidance. we need leadership that is steady and above all else competent. these weren't off-the-cuff remarks. this was a prepared speech. in this moment, with lives in the balance, americans must have confidence that their president knows what he's doing and knows

what he's talking about. to his detriment and to the nation's, sadly, sadly president trump failed to inspire that confidence last night. i had hoped that the fact that the president delivered a national address was a sign that the administration was finally beginning to treat the coronavirus with the seriousness it needs. that's why it was so discouraging that only a few hours later, the president was back to his old tricks, attacking democrats, when we all know that's not going to solve the problem and we all know it's a time to bring us together. congress has already passed major emergency appropriations to ramp up our response to the virus. the president's early number, $2 billion, was fortunately increased significantly by democrats and republicans, house and senate, to $8.3 billion. congress is now working quickly

on a second package. it should get the same quick response from our republican senators and pass. on ferc, today the senate will vote on the nomination of james danly to serve on the federal energy regulatory commission. less than a decade out of law school, mr. danly lacks the experience of past nominees, and it seems his major qualification is his deep ties to the energy industry. the process behind his nomination has been extremely partisan, unfair to the senate minority. i have tried to work with the republican leader to pair mr. danly's nomination with a democratic nominee so both would pass the senate. that's what we have always done until leader mcconnell started his ways, until president trump became president. by law, ferc has seats reserved for both democrats and republicans. democrats sent our recommendation for ferc to the

white house over a year ago, long before the administration selected danly. but while the white house sent danly's name to the senate for confirmation, they have held the democratic nominee and given no reason or explanation why. rather than work with my office and the white house to fix this problem, as every other republican leader has done, and maintain the process of pairing nominees which has always been the tradition whether democrats or republicans were in the majority, leader mcconnell, in his very partisan, pro-energy industry way, is moving forward with only the republican nominee. now, leader mcconnell has been in the minority before. he knows that the only way bipartisan boards and commissions across the federal government are filled fairly with considerations for both parties is through cooperation. if the shoe were on the other foot, i'm sure the republican leader would be furious with the

game the white house is playing with our nominees. our preference would have been to clear danly alongside our democratic nominee, but now for the sake of fairness and parity, i urge my colleagues to vote against his nomination and yield the floor. .

the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, i come to the floor this morning to speak in support of the nomination of james danielly to serve -- danly to serve on the regulatory commission many he will serve through june 30, 2023, and for a seat that has been open since former chairman kevin mcentier tragically passed away from brain cancer.

ferc is an independent agency within the department of energy. it regulates electricity, natural gas and oil pipeline industries. ferc is one of those really, really important entities. ferc plays a critical role in keeping the lights on and ensuring reliable, safe, and affordable energy to american homes and businesses. he has an impressive background. he served two tours of duty in iran and iraq. he played a key role in counterinsurgency efforts during the surge. he chose to pursue a very different career as a ferc attorney. first practicing at a major law firm and most recently serving as ferc's general counsel for the past two and a half years now.

mr. danly's time at ferc has been productive and has my strong support to be a commissioner. this is the type of individual that knows his stuff, has a great grasp and a keen understanding of these energy-related matters. he is well qualified, deep understanding of the issues that will come before him. he understands ferc's mission as an independent an impartial regulator. now, despite mr. scandaly's very -- mr. danly's impressive qualification and experience, i'm disappointed that some of my colleagues will oppose his nomination simply because he isn't nominated alongside a democratic candidate. so they will acknowledge that he has strong qualifications, that he has the expertise and the experience, but they are opposing him because they are saying he needs to be nominated alongside a democrat.

to me, opposing nominees on that basis alone is troubling. it is also incorrect to compare ferc nominees as the norm. i think members should recognize that ferc is set up first and foremost to set up to avoid the need for pairgs. -- pairings. we passed a law in 1990 to stagger the five commissioners' terms by one year each. so if nominees are september to the senate in a timely manner and stay in office, we would never need to pair them. now, also contrary to what some have suggested, bipartisan pairings are not actually the norm. more often, we have confirmed individual commissioners or had unbalanced pairings, like collette honorable or the two commissioners we confirmed in 2017 after the obama administration refused to nominate any republicans in 2015 or 2016. i also encourage the senate to

recognize that this seat has already been paired. in 2017 we paired mr. mcintyre with rich glick, who will continue to serve through mid-2022. so the slot we are now considering is to fill the remainder of mr. mcintyre's term through mid-2023. the fact of the matter is, we have one nomination for the senate right now, not two. we have one nomination to consider, and this position has been open now for some 14 months. it is not fair to tell a qualified republican nominee that he has to wait, especially with the seat now having been open for more than a year and the term expiring in mid-2023. that doesn't change. i would also remind my colleagues that nominations are the responsibility of the president. it's not on me as the chairman of the energy committee. it's not on leader mcconnell. it is the responsibility of the

president. the much more recent democratic vacancy at ferc, which was the choice of the democratic leadership in this body, is for the democratic leadership to work this out with the white house, send to the white house that nominee that can be advanced. for those who are concerned about the democratic vacancy, i will just share this with you. there will be an opportunity for a pairing later this year. commissionert mcnamee has already announced that he will not return to the ferc for a second term. so there will be a vacancy in just a matter of months here. i have encouraged the administration to send us both nominees at the same time so that the senate can restore ferc to a full compliment of five commissioners. we give them a lot of work. there is a lot of responsibility. they need a full compliment. but right now, mr. president, our opportunity is to confirm mr. danly. that's what we have in front of us. he is the only ferc nominee that

we have. he is well qualified for the job. he has served our country in uniform. he now wishes to continue that service in a ditch capacity -- in a different capacity, and i hope, i hope, that no one will vote against him on partisan grounds. so i would certainly urge the full senate to support mr. danly's nomination with that, i yield the floor.

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ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: mr. president, the alaska state senate yesterday passed a bill that would establish march 12 -- today -- as ashley johnson barn day to be held each year. ashley johnson barr was a 10-year-old, beautiful little girl. and ashley was probably one of those happy kids who loved purple -- thus, my purple scarf

and purple jacket today -- and just one of those beautiful, young children growing up in katzebeau who would gone on to have a productive life, but ashley johnson barr is remembered now because at the age of 10 years old, she was brutally raped and murdered. she was literally taken from the kids' playground there and taken to a location not too many miles outside of the community. and her death, the tragedy around the circumstance of how she left this world is one that is an open and a raw and hurtful

and horrific scar on alaska, alaska communities. it is a reminder that in my state, a place that is a place of extraordinary beauty, with beautiful people, there is a darkness that is very, very difficult to talk about, and that darkness is reflected in the statistics that we see when it comes to sexual assault, domestic violence, and more brutal acts of murder inflicted, unfortunately, in a disproportionate way on you are a native women and our native children. yesterday here in the senate, we passed two measures that i've been working on for a period of time now. savannah's act is legislation that was initially brought about through the good work of my friend, the former senator from north dakota, senator heidi heitkamp.

we worked on savannah's act for a period of time. it is designed to improve coordination among all levels of law enforcement, increased data collection and information-sharing, empower tribal governments with access to necessary law enforcement databases, in cases involving missing, murdered, indigenous women and girls wherever they occur, whether they are in a small, remote village or in our population centers. savannah's law was passed through the senate in the last congress, got stalled out in the house, and so i took this back up along with the help of my friend from the -- the senator of nevada, senator cortez masto. and so working with her, we have now been successful in again moving that through the senate. it also traveled with another measure, a bill that was cosponsored by senator cortez -- or sponsored by senator cortez

masto and sponsored by myself, the not invisible act. it improves the engagement between law enforcement, tribal leaders and service providers. we also designate an official to coordinate efforts across agencies and establishing a tribal and federal stakeholders' effort to make recommendations to the department of interior, department of justice on how we deal with this, how we combat this epidemic of disappearance, of ham side, violence crimes, and trafficking of native americans and alaska natives. them is something we have been trying to shine the spotlight on. we have made significant progress and headway in alaska thanks to the efforts of attorney general barr. we have seen federal funds come our way, we have seen commissions and a coordination

among stakeholders that is truly unprecedented, but we have much, much, much work to do. on this day in alaska when we are loiging the -- recognizing the very short life of a beautiful child, ashley johnson barr, i thank my colleagues for working with us on these matters, helping to move savannah's act and not invisible act and working together to dmor as we deal with those who are trafficked, those who are assaulted, those who are violently murdered in -- in their homes and in their hometowns. we have much work to do, but good coordination and good corporation moving forward. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: i move we vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of james p. danly of tennessee to be a member of the federal energy regulatory commission, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that the debate on the nomination of james p. danly of tennessee to be a member of the federal energy regulatory commission shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll.

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unfortunately that means patchy coverage for energy sector employees under our current whistle-blower protection laws. federal workers are covered under the whistle-blower protection act, but other workers have to rely on state and local laws for protection if they exist. for many on the frontlines, these whistle-blower protection laws don't exist. just last year, according to a news report, power company employees raised concerns about equipment introduced to improve efficiency that they believed

posed a threat to starting wildfires. and i hope we all remember the fires in california. i think one and two years ago or two and three years ago, but terrible destruction, terrible loss of life. 85 employees -- 85 people in california, i think, lost their lives because of that type of fire. one of these employees raised his concern about the threat of this equipment starting wildfires. reported that he was fired for simply blowing the whistle. if it turns out that the employee was fired for blowing the whistle in the interest of public safety, that should be unacceptable to all of us.

as a country, we should be encouraging whistle-blowers who know the threats to the security of our electric grid. we want them to come forward. we want them to report what they know. we owe it to them to ensure that when they so do, they'll be protected. in other words, not lose their job. isn't that kind of common sense? and that's exactly what my amendment does. my amendment makes it clear that power sector employees who report threats to our electric grid are protected from retaliation. and so then if they are fired, they can file a complaint with the u.s. secretary of labor. in that regard, this amendment brings whistle-blower protections for energy sector employees in line with more than

a dozen other whistle-blower laws established by the congress in recent years. and i've been involved in a lot of those whistle-blower protection laws. now next week is sunshine week, a time when we celebrate the importance of transparency and accountability in government. because with transparency, you get accountability. and the public's business ought to be public. and the protection of our citizens from forest fires as a result of bad equipment that electric companies are using, and if you report that unsafe conditions, you shouldn't be fired for it. when we think about securing or electric grid, sunlight and transparency brings

accountability. but they also bring attention to potential risk to our public safety and to our national security. they can potentially save lives. that's something that i'm certain we can all get behind and should be behind. and i have to be very thankful to senator markey for cosponsoring the amendment and for his support of this amendment. i strongly encourage all of my colleagues to support this amendment as well. i yield the floor. i think we have an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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mrs. blackburn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. on tuesday -- the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we waive the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. my colleague and i introduced the sam-c act to encourage an increase in american manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients, these are termed a.p.i.'s. we did this because china dominates this portion of the pharmaceutical manufacturing. and given last night's news, i

wanted to come back for a moment and highlight the important work that is being done in tennessee and across the country to support our nation's response to this coronavirus pandemic. many americans are concerned, as they ought to be, about the availability of testing. and as you all know, this virus is novel, which means that we did not have test kits on the selves before the outbreak started. the test that we do -- the tests that we do have are not instanlt. when people -- instant. when people think of an instant test, they think of a flu test or pregnancy test and the test requirement are not available for this. we have top scientists at

vanderbilt university and other institutions developing faster techniques. but for now any test offered must be sent to a lab to be processed and analyzed. although these tests provide important information, we must continue to focus on preventing transmission where we can. now, some of the other work that is being done will help lead us to a faster path for antivirals and for vaccines. and there is work in east tennessee, right outside of knoxville, at the oak ridge national lab. researchers have been using cutting-edge technology to identify drug candidates for targeting the novel coronavirus.

what they are doing, mr. president, is they are using summit, which is the world's fastest super compute. and what they have done -- computer. and what they have done is feed it information about the coronavirus' mers and sars and h1-n1's and they crunched it down and identified 77 drug candidates for targeting the novel coronavirus that we know as covid-19. enabled by the screening of this database of more than 8,000 known drug compounds, the researchers accomplished in days what would have taken years for scientists to do in the lab. in my remarks on the floor yesterday, i went into detail about the decade's long effort

by vanderbilt's university dennisson lab to study coronaviruses. i wanted to reiterate one important point, that all across the country scientists, just like at our friends at vanderbilt, are developing the antivirals and the vaccines that will eventually be used to combat the multiple strains of coronavirus, not just this particular outbreak, but in addition to this outbreak. the u.s. is leader in research and development of pharmaceuticals. our lab's talent for innovation are the envy of the world. but right now we depend heavily on chinese and foreign companies to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients. when this happens, we lose control of our supply.

so while we have all of this great work done in oak ridge, tennessee, we have this wonderful work done in the dennison lab at vanderbilt. we need something like the samc act to enable us to have access to these drugs and these compounds that they are identifying that we need. now, the samc act will not solve our immediate problem. once passed, it will incentivize companies that specialize in development, manufacturing and workforce training to bring those operations back to the safety of u.s.-based labs and institutes of learning, and it will expedite having the antivirals and the vaccines that are needed to prevent this.

i encourage all of my colleagues to think ahead and offer their support to senate bill 3432, and let's commit to securing our pharmaceutical supply chain. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. kennedy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. kennedy: i'm sorry, mr. president. the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. kennedy: i would ask that the quorum call be suspended, mr. president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kennedy: thank you, sir. i would like to talk for a few minutes today about my favorite subject which is louisiana.

and i could talk the rest of the day and through the entire weekend about the good things about louisiana. but today i want to talk about one of our problems and it's not just a problem for louisiana, it's also a problem for the united states of america. it's also a problem for the american people. it's also a problem for energy independence for our country. louisiana is drowning. it's drowning because, mr. president, we are washing away. our land is washing into the

gulf. i live about 250, 300 miles north of the gulf of mexico. sort of in the toe of the boot if you think of louisiana as a boot. if things continue as they are going, i may not be alive then but the home -- my home, whoever lives in it after i'm gone, will be gulf-front property. and, remember, my home's 250 to 300 miles from the coast. now why is that snapping -- is that happening? why is our land washing away into the gulf? a number of reasons.

i'll mention two in particular. the sea levels in the gulf of mexico are rising. now, we can have a rigorous debate about the reason for that, and i know many smart people think it's for this reason and others disagree and think it's for that reason, but we can't deny the fact that sea levels are rising, whatever the cost. in fact, the gulf, as it meets the southern part of my state is rising about 12 to 13 inches every 100 years. we have another reason though. as to why my state is the washing away. our land in southern louisiana

is sinking. why is that? the mississippi delta, of which louisiana is a part, is an ecological and hydrodynamic masterpiece. what god did in creating our state is just breathtaking. used to be the mississippi river, which runs right through my state, would overflow every year. it would deposit its sediment in south louisiana. the water would recede and go back into the river channel, but the sediment would remain. and after thousands and thousands of years, the land was built up. we have leveed the mississippi river. i'm not saying we did the wrong

thing by leveeing the mississippi river. we have increased the quality of life for a lot of americans and enhanced our economy. but when we leveed the river, we prevented it from overflowing. so it no longer deposited sediment -- so it no longer deposits sediment. and the sediment that was already there before we leveed the river is slowly sinking. so we have sea levels in the gulf rising 12 to 13 inches every 100 years. we have the land sinking. and you don't have to be a senior at caltech to figure out we've got a problem. that's why our land is washing away. now, why is this important?

it's obviously important for the people who live on the land that is washing away. but it's also important for america's energy independence because underneath the land that is slowly being washed in the gulf, chris crossing that land -- crisscrossing that land, extending over into alabama are 26,000 miles of pipelines that carry oil and natural gas, that heat american homes and generate american energy. when that land washes away, those pipelines are going to be exposed. you know what the saltwater is going to do to those pipelines? it's going to corrode them.

when that land washes away, those pipelines, now exposed, are going to be exposed to ocean currents, and they're going to burst. not all at once, but they're going to burst. and this country's energy independence is going to be undermined. do you know how long and how much money it will take to move those pipelines? i don't know. i'm not sure there are enough digits to quantify it. now, let me shift gears and talk about the solution. we are helping ourselves. in many cases -- i'll give you an example -- the moganza to the gulf project.

that doesn't mean a lot to some of you, but, trust me, it's a big deal to the people of louisiana and to the american people who are familiar with it. we've been attaching ourselves -- we've been taxing ourselves for 20 years to pay for that project, which part coastal restoration, part hurricane protection. we also got help from the american people -- and thank you -- thank you, american people, for coming to our aid. in 2006, this united states congress passed what we call -- we call it gold mesa. it stands for gulf of mexico energy security act. so that's what i mean when i talk about gomesa. it was a pretty straightforward bill. it said that for all new oil and gas drilling in the gulf of

mexico, the federal government and the state government are going to share the oil royalties. the government, as you know, owns the seabeds, and we lease them to oil companies, and they drill and produce oil and natural gas. in fact, off of louisiana's coast, we have wells that produce about 16%, 17% of the nation's oil and about 3% of the natural gas. and those oil companies pay royalties to the federal government. and they pay royalties -- the royalties flow through the federal government to the state government. and under gomesa, the american people, through their representatives, said, okay, on all new wells drilled after 2006, louisiana gets 37.5% of the money that the federal government gets. but not just louisiana.

we didn't want to be greedy. we asked to have texas included. we asked to have mississippi included. and we asked to have alabama included. so they get 37.5%, too. fair is fair. and the federal government gets the rest. louisianans put their money where their mouth was. we dedicated every single penny, every single penny of that gomesa money, to coastal restoration, to try to build up our land faster than we're losing our land to the golf. -- to the gulf. it is a losing battle, but we're holding our own. to i have go you an idea of how dramatic it is, since 1930 -- i

think 1932 -- louisiana has lost land the size of delaware. i believe, if you run the numbers in terms of square miles, we've lost land the size of two rhode islands. i think we lose a football field a day. and, remember, this doesn't just hurt louisiana. this hurts america, and it hurts our energy independence. but we put our money where our mouth is. we said, thank you, american people, for passing gomesa. we appreciate the 37.5% of the oil royalties that we're going to get out of the federal government's share, and we're putting every single penny into coastal restoration. but there's still a basic unfairness, because 20 other states get 50%.

now, these states aren't coastal states. these states -- and i'm happy for them; don't misunderstand me. these are inland states that have federal ants. -- federal lands. and when oil companies drill on those lands and hit oil or hit natural gas, those states don't get 37.5% of what the federal government gets. they get 50%. and that's just not fair. everybody ought to be treated the same. louisiana and alabama and mississippi and texas, we are not asking for any extra. we call that lanyap. we're just asking to be treated like everybody else. and in louisiana, we're dedicating every single penny -- i don't know if i mentioned this or not -- but we're dedicating

every single penny to solving the coastal restoration problem that is not just louisiana's problem but also a problem for the united states of america. we have a bill, mr. president. it's called the coastal act. the full name is conservation of america's shoreline terrain and aquatic life act. we call it the coastal act. and all the coastal act would do would be to say, treat all the states the same. everybody gets 50%. 50-50 split. louisiana doesn't get more or less than any other state. alabama doesn't get more or less than any other state. mississippi doesn't get more or less than any other state. texas, same rule.

all the states get 50%. it would also make one other change, mr. president. when gomesa was passed, it capped the amount of money that louisiana and mississippi and alabama and texas could get each year from that 37.5% at $500 million a year. out of basic fairness, we're asking that the cap be removed. and if we can pass this bill, mr. president, the coastal act, the quarterback on the bill is the senior senator from louisiana, senator bill cassidy. i'm helping him all i can. so are the senators from texas and mississippi and alabama and other states. and all we're asking is for equality. i don't want to end on a

negative note by just talking about our problems. if you haven't visited louisiana, please come. i've lived in five states and a foreign country. i've never -- i've just never lived in a place like louisiana. it is my home and i know i'm biased. god blessed. when you playbook at our location, we're at the -- when you look at our location, we're at the gulf coast. we have more oil and gas than most nations do. my people are experts in things like agriculture, aquaculture, petrochemical manufacturing, oil and gas exploration, food, timber -- i could keep going -- health care. our people, they're hardworking, they're god-fearing, and they're

fun-loving. i tell my friend friends senatoz and senator cornyn how much i love texas, and i do. texas is a great state. every day it seems like they win an award. but i tell senator cruz and senator cornyn, in jest of course, i say, look, fairfax is five and a half times bigger than louisiana. but give us credit. we're ten and a half times more interesting than you are. we are just a fun, extraordinary, diverse state. but we need some help, mr. president. we're not asking for extra. we're just asking for equity. i hope this senate in its wisdom will pass the coastal act. mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. braun: are we in a quorum call? -- mr. brown: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. brown: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, mr. president. president trump has had chance after chance -- , oh, mr. president, i'd ask to suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you. sorry. mr. president, had chance after chance after chance to get ahead of this coronavirus pandemic in the united states. he failed. congress can't make the same mistakes. senators should not leave town -- i just saw senator mcconnell on the floor. it is his decision, one senator from one state can make this decision to walk away, to fail to take care of the $12-an-hour

worker who's sick, who has to choose between going to work and perhaps getting circum, perhaps -- getting sicker, perhaps getting infected, perhaps stay home and give up their $12-an-hour job. we've put in that position. senator mcconnell, whose office is down the hall, can make that unilateral decision on whether we stay and actually do the right thing. congress has no business leaving. we shouldn't leave town until we pass the house package to help workers and support our communities. and president trump needs to sign f we need to do our jobs, take care of the workers who are going to need help paying their mortgage, paying their rent, taking care of their children, if schools closed or they get sick. it is really, really simple. it's why we need to pass paid sick days now and shore up unemployment insurance funds immediately. we know that hundreds of thousands of -- who knows -- millions of people are going to

get laid out, the airlines, restaurant, hotels, communities where they depend on these businesses to pay property taxes. we know there are going to be lots of layoffs. i'm not an alarmist. i'm not panicky. i think we're going to deal with this right but we need the majority leader, senator mcconnell, who sits right here and runs the senate, who makes the decisions on whether we work or don't work, whether he sends us home or keeps us here working, senator mcconnell needs to make the decision to bring us -- to keep us here as soon as the house passes this bill, that the senate takes it up. paid sick leave is one of the most important things we can do to stop the spread of this virus. we know already that our economy is going to get hurt. we know the president of the united states judges the economy by the stock market. we know -- the first president i've ever seen do that but that's beside the point. but we also know that the stock market is up and down and mostly down and investors are uneasy at best. they want more predictability.

they're not getting it. but we know the most important thing, mr. president, is to deal with the spread of the coronavirus. if we can't contain that, if we can't do anything about that, if we can't -- if we can't stop the spread of this virus, the other stuff just doesn't matter as much. people should -- but you start -- so you start with the spread of this virus. the best way to stop the spread of the virus is to say to people if they're sick, you can stay home and you can get sick pay. every other country in the world, every other -- every other rich country in the world provides sick pay for people who can't go to work because they're sick. it's as simple as that. and if we don't -- if we don't pass the sick day policy, if we leave town right now, even if we come back next week which we're not scheduled to, again senator mcconnell's decision, even if we're only gone a week, that's five more work day, of sick people going to work when they shouldn't, getting sicker, infecting others with

coronavirus or the flu or anything else or staying home and giving up their pay which they need to meet their rent payment. the house package takes care of this. senators shouldn't be leaving this building until we get this help to the people we serve. people in ohio, in indiana and the presiding officer's state, people are scared. they're angry and i'm angry. many of us have been sounding the alarm for years warning president trump and leader mcconnell who always does president trump's bidding as if he doesn't even represent a state, he represents the president in this body. we've been sounding the alarm warning the president that he's made us less prepared to handle a crisis like this one. president trump tried to gut the centers for disease control and national institutes for health. think about this. the united states of america as recently as ten, 15 years ago, we had the best public health -- public health infrastructure, the best public health safety net in the history of the world. we had the centers for disease

control. we had the national institutes of health. in cincinnati we have the national institutes of occupational safety and health, only one of its kind in the world. we have our county public health departments in each of ohio's 88 counties and all over the country. we had the best in the world until president trump began to try to gut the c.d.c. and the n.i.h. he refused to fill key public health positions. most importantly, this is just unbelievable when you think about it and i know senator young, the presiding officer, had concerns about that. he got rid of the white house's entire global health security team two years ago. let me repeat that. for two years president trump left us without the team that's supposed to manage pandemics. now, you know what that means? it means -- there were about 40 people at the white house led by an admiral who is an m.d. and also a doctor. his job was to survey the world and look around for potential illness outbreaks, to look

around for potential pandemics. it might have been sars. it might have been ebola. it might be resurge ens of -- resurgece of polio. we do this. we care about the world. protect our own people. if we don't, we see what happens. his job was to continue to look rn a the world and look -- around the world and look out for these kind of pandemics. the president fired him. the president fired the whole office. the president has never replaced him. i sent him a letter, more than 600 days ago back in may of 2018 telling him to stop dismantling our health care infrastructure. now we're all paying the price for president trump's decision. we see the real time consequences. this was unilateral disarmament. we disarmed. we unilaterally disarmed against the world's infectious diseases. we know that international tuberculosis is a problem. we know that international hif aids is a -- hiv-aids is a

problem. we work against those. you know what? when i think about -- one of the things i'm proudest about in our country is what we've done about public health. we led the harnlg to eradicate smallpox. smallpox killed hundreds of million, of people over time in this world, hundreds of millions. we led the charge to eradicate smallpox, this country did. then we led the charge to eradicate polio all over the world. i'm old enough to remember children, not children anymore, children i went to grade school with who had had polio. they were -- they were recovered but they still limped. they still had signs of polio, not crippling signs but signs of polio. we did that. we took on tobacco in this body. senator durbin and senator blumenthal and senator merkley and i and others went -- 50 years. people smoke at half the rate today than they did 50 years ago. it's starting to go back up because of e-cigarettes but we've had huge public health victories in this country. you know what? we have a president of the united states now and we have a

senate republican leader, mitch mcconnell, who -- well, he certainly tried to help tobacco but i won't even talk about that. we have a president and we have a senate majority leader that simply aren't -- they dismantle, they did all they could to dismantle the centers for disease control and n.i.h. they left us prepared when the president fired the global security team at the white house that looked out for illnesses. and now what? we have a global pandemic on our hands. president trump needs to stop pretending he can lock out a disease by putting up walls at the border, that he's already allowed to spread and start making up -- he needs to start making up for all the lost time he's wasted and so does senator mccon. we need to make sure we -- mcconnell. we need to make sure we don't end up with a financial crisis on top of the public health crisis. for some of us it feels like deja vu. we've been in moments like this before. we have seen the markets drop. we bailed out the banks but didn't do anything for the workers. that's what this body always

does. i'm certain senator mcconnell will get around to and president trump helping corporations that have been hurt. there have been corporations that have been damaged badly. hotel chains, transportation companies, particularly airlines. they've been hurt badly by this. that part is going to get worse. i'm sure that they will open the public checkbook to make sure their billion, of -- there are billions of dollars for these industries but we shouldn't do it until we take care of the workers. if we're going to give x number of dollars to the airlines as we probably should, we better -- most of the money better end up in the pocket of the flight attendants and the pilots and ticket a littles and -- ticket agents and mechanics, baggage handlers and all the people that work for the airlines that this body forgets about. they serve us when we fly. we don't even know their names. we probably know the c.e.o.'s names and we always help them but we ought to be helping the workers. right now we have a chance from stopping -- to stop this if spiraling out of control. we don't have another 2008 on our hands yet but we have to act

now. we don't go home for a week or two or three because senator mcconnell has some whatever it is that would send us home. we need to act now. we need to make sure we focus our efforts on preventing this virus from spreading and we don't have one crisis, the health care crisis stacked on top of an economic crisis making the health care crisis worse. we know that job is harder because of all the ways that president trump and leader mcconnell have undone the many protections we put in place after the last crisis. they backed away from wall street reform safeguards. the president had a chance to get ahead of this virus and other public health threatses and he failed. he had a chance to get ahead of the financial risk and he failed. but luckily, senator mcconnell and the president haven't succeeded in getting rid of all of our wall street reform protections. they haven't succeeded in repealing the affordable care act. because of that, because of the work we did a decade ago with president obama, we're in a better position now than we're in in 2009.

but we have to come together. we have to rise to this challenge. corporate america needs to, too. one way we can do that is to suspend these stock buybacks. now, congress gave a huge tax cut to the wealthy in this country. three years ago -- two years ago. 70% of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1%. i sat in the white house with the president and about ten senators. the president said everybody -- everybody's pay is going to go up $4,000. some as much as $9,000. those were the book end numbers he used. and he said that if we do this tax cut, the corporations are going to -- it's going to trickle down and workers are going to get these raises. well, it doesn't exactly happen that way but you know what did happen? after they got this tax cut, the executives started to do stock buybacks. we need to suspend -- taking money that should have been invested in workers, taking money that should have been invested in technology and upgrading their company, but it went to executives. not exactly a shock to most of us. that's what happened. banks need to invest in their

communities, not investing in their c.e.o. stock portfolio. right now j.p. morgan is in the milling of an ongoing$30 billion in stock buy wakes. their executives in all of their criminal naturalty and bad decisions, as if they've earned it, it would be better spent in small businesses and medical research and relief for people who need help. the reason big banks are supposed to have that money is so that they keep lending and keep communities afloat when we have crises like n. it's time for all of us to come together in the senate, in the white house, in the communities across the country and yes, on wall street. that means, mr. president, we don't leave this building until we've done everything we need to do to put this epidemic under control, to get this epidemic under control, to get our communities the testing capacity and tools they need to manage this crisis, to support the workers who are going to get hurt. and leader mcconnell, his

responsibility -- i don't care how he votes in the end but make the decision to put the house bill on the floor so we can vote on it. and president trump, the day he gets it needs to sign it. let's get help to the people we serve, not next week, not two weeks from now, not tomorrow. let's do it today. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call: