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mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. mcconnell: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, as our nation dpronts this health -- confronts this health crisis, senate republicans have prepared a bold legislative proposal. i'm officially introducing the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act. this legislation takes bold action on four major priorities that are extremely urgent and

very necessary. first, direct financial help for the american people. second, rapid relief for small businesses and their employees. third, significant steps to stabilize our economy and protect jobs. and, fourth, more support for the brave health care professionals and the patients who are fighting the coronavirus on the front lines. now, just yesterday by an overwhelming vote the senate passed bipartisan legislation that originated with the democratic house of representatives. so i hope this bold new proposal will find a similar degree of bipartisan respect and mutual urgency on the other side of the

aisle and across the capitol. i look forward to working with our democratic colleagues and the administration to complete this important work and deliver for our country. here are the next steps. a group of my republican colleagues are standing by to explain this legislation and talk with their counterparts. chairman crapo and senator toomey, from the banking committee, chairman alexander from the help committee, senator -- chairman rubio from the small business committee as well as senator collins. chairman wicker from the commerce committee, and our majority whip, senator thune. these will be our point people. i would invite all of their democratic counterparts to join

us at the table tomorrow. these are urgent discussions. they need to happen at a member level and they need to happen starting right now. i might add all republican senators, whether they are a part of this group that i just mentioned or not, have been asked to stay in town. we're here. we're ready to act. as soon as an agreement with our colleagues across the aisle can be reached. the administration has agreed to send the secretary of the treasury, the director of the economic council and the director of economic affairs and they will participate in these discussions again beginning tomorrow. these bipartisan discussions must begin immediately and continue with urgency at the member level until -- until we

have results. we know this legislation will not be the last word. bipartisan, bicameral talks are already under way to act on the administration's request in addition to this for a supplemental appropriation, but we need to take bold and swift action as soon as possible. we need to take further steps to continue addressing our nation's health care needs and we need to help protect american workers, families, and small business from this unique economic crisis that threatens to worsen with every single day. we need to have the american people's backs. this legislation is a significant next step. and the senate is not going anywhere -- the senate is not going anywhere until we take action. our republican colleagues are

here, they are in town, they are ready to act. we look forward to meeting with our democratic counterparts tomorrow. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: all 100 senators are hearing from our constituents about the urgency of our acting, or if we aren't hearing about the urgency of our acting, we are hearing about the questions they have about the future economy as they read about businesses being in trouble, restaurants shutting down, schools closing.

all of these decisions that have brought doubt to the minds of our constituents have been caused by governmental action. as a result of the virus pandemic, world health pandemic that has been expressed. we have to respond to that, and i think the leader has said how urgently he takes the responsibility that we're getting from our -- that our constituents expect from us, and we have a responsibility for taking action. this is an urgent time for us. as americans continue to do their part to curb the spread of coronavirus and the pandemic

that it's been called, we're doing our part here in the senate to support the americans, and that includes their families and their jobs. congress passed two bills quickly to step up the government's ability to combat the virus and to provide greater security for families whose incomes have been disrupted by containment efforts, and those other two bills, one signed just last night by the president, were very bipartisan in these efforts. we need to continue that bipartisanship. we're now working then, as the leader just introduced, on a bold and comprehensive effort to

provide additional relief to americans and our economy in this challenging time to respond to the anxiety that the american people have that i previously said was caused by government, and not just the federal government, but state governments maybe in 50 different ways because of 50 different states, and by many local governments in different ways as they felt they need to take action. and i've already referred to shutting down of restaurants and schools closing, et cetera. that speaks to how it affects the individuals that we're trying to help here. i'm chairman of the finance committee, as my colleagues know. i have been working with my colleagues around the clock to find opportunities in the tax

code to reduce stress on american taxpayers and the businesses that create the jobs and the businesses that are probably closed now and their workers laid off. our small group of people or small group of colleagues working to help the american taxpayers and the businesses so the jobs are continued. we first adopted a do no harm approach. we want to ensure that routine government processes don't add to the strain that everybody has out there. we do this by issuing recovery assistance to american families in the form of checks that can go out the door in a short order. these direct payments could be as much as $1,200 for

individuals, $2,400 for couples, with additional assistance to families. obviously, the purpose of this is to provide immediate relief to folks who are facing cash flow problems in their families as they stay home to stop the spread of this virus. to avoid in-person meetings with tax preparers in the midst of the pandemic, we're extending the tax filing deadline from april 15 to july 15. and of course, we all know the administration's already deferred collection of taxes until i think july or later. so this will help families defer filing costs and avoid meetings that could put folks at risk at this time of who knows how far

the effect of this virus is going to be. the deadline for quarterly estimated tax payments will also be postponed for 100 days. we encourage those able to lend a financial hand by providing additional deductions for charitable giving. this includes the spending deduction limitation for cash donations by individuals and easing the limitation on donations of cash and food inventories by businesses. additionally, for those who do not itemize, a new deduction will be available for everyone who gives, regardless of how you file your taxes. american businesses, as we know, are the engine of our economy,

and we stand ready to help them as well. american business men and women are our job providers, and we need to make sure that they can keep their doors open, or if those doors are closed today to reopen them, and the payrolls that they have going out to those individual workers and families across the nation can be maintained. our proposal includes items to improve cash flow and liquidity for businesses of all sizes. businesses including the self-employed will be able to defer their quarterly tax estimates 180 days, and their employers' social security tax payments through 2020. we're going to increase the limit on interest deductibility. we'll speed up the recovery of the alternative minimum tax

credits. and we'll relax limitations on how companies use losses from previous years to reduce their tax burdens. these are just some of the many provisions in our proposal to unburden businesses, particularly those that have liquidity problems so that they can keep employing those who are home earning for their families and helping to prevent the spread of the virus. and i hope nobody tries to tell me or the rest of us that we're bailing out business. we are in the job of preserving jobs, or if those jobs have been lost in the last ten days because of this slowdown of the economy, almost a shutdown of the economy, then we want those jobs to be brought back.

workers are employed because of government's decisions, not the employer's decision, not the employee's lack of hard work because federal, state, and local governments have stopped interaction among people so that we don't spread this virus, that's because of what the world health organization has labeled a world held pandemic. we -- world health pandemic. we don't see it as bad now as we do in italy and other countries of europe. we hope we don't see it as bad as they have, but we just don't know. and because we don't know, people have this anxiety. they don't know about the

future. and we ought to give some help to the future. so i describe to you some of the things that the finance committee is working on. i've also joined senator alexander and others to assist health care workers and patients this portion of the package includes several finance committee provisions to help everyone fight the pandemic. for example, we're adding additional flexibility of health savings accounts, bolstering telehealth services and boosting medicare payments to health care providers. we can contain this deadly virus without destroying the livelihoods of nations' economies. but right now, our constituents have doubt about that, and this proposal that the leader has put forth is to try to quiet some of that anxiety.

these recommendations take bold steps to curb the economic fallout as we work as a country to contain this pandemic. these proposals won't be the end of the congressional response to coronavirus. i think we made that clear that this is the third effort, two already signed by the president of the united states, and there will probably be more. and when people want more than what's maybe here, there's going to be plenty of opportunities for more. i wish i could say we know by a certain date that this anxiety is going to go away and we know that this pandemic has slowed down enough that we can go back to work and start interacting with our -- with our friends and family to the same extent we

always have and open up the restaurants. i stand ready to continue identifying targeted relief as necessary to help bridge the gap beyond this bill. but we need to take this next step and do it quickly. i want to thank leader mcconnell for convening our task forces to quickly provide meaningful relief to families, individuals, and all sectors of the economy. the people i have been working with that i thank are senators john thune, rob permanent, pat -- rob portman, pat toomey, tim scott, toomey for working with me on this package. some of them are hardworking members of the finance committee and some aren't on the committee because we wanted as broad of an opinion as we could. i know our staff has worked

literally around the clock, so i want to recognize their efforts as well. so many americans are working day and night to provide essential services and efforts to combat this outbreak. we in congress must be prepared to do the same, and that's why you heard the leader a little while ago saying that we are going to stay in until we get this job done. we ought to applaud that type of leadership. it's a commitment to keep the senate open until we have done our part, and i look forward to working with democrats and the administration to get this job done without delay. so maybe if we work hard friday, saturday, and sunday, we can get a bill to the president next week. nobody should be going home until we have delivered this needed relief.

we all often spoke in world war ii about the united states being the arsenal of democracy. still remember, i was only 9 years old, december 7, 1941. and then i don't remember at the time but studying history, you remember how we ramped up production for the war effort. can we ramp up production of the respirators, protective gear and testing kits we need? can we do it on the same scale we did in world war ii, a scale that can help us overcome this crisis? and i suppose you all remember the -- the cry of remember pearl harbor to help us pull the country together. to win that war.

can we think of kind of remember coronavirus as an effort to pull this country together? because in that -- in those times, i remember we all pulled together to, -- let's say just one example. we all prided ourselves on planning what -- on planting what we called victory gardens. we did it in unison as we sought to defeat the axis powers. can we pull together in the same way to sow the -- slow the spread of covid-19 until our health care system catches up with something that we never anticipated, never could plan for? i think this is a test of america's character, just like it was a test of our character in world war ii to pull together. i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. i'm glad now that the republican leader and his caucus now have a plan, and we look forward to working with them to come up with a bipartisan product as soon as we can. because this crisis grows worse every day. and we believe we need a bold plan, a strong plan. our plan must put workers, millions of workers who are adversely affected by this crisis first. it includes service and industry workers, gig workers, freelancers, bartenders, retail workers, airline attendants, so

many others. our plan is entitled workers first. first and foremost. we owe so much gratitude to the hardworking people of america, and many of them are in trouble now, through no fault of their own. this virus has affected some of them, has required others to be quarantined, and has caused businesses to lay off millions. we must protect them, first and foremost. and so our plan has five basic pillars. pillar one is to bolster the health care system dramatically. if we don't beat the fight against this virus, if we don't do it as quickly as possible, the economy will get worse and worse, no matter what we do, so we must work extremely quickly

and massively to bolster our health care system. we need a marshall plan for our health care system. and that is what we propose. we need direct aid to hospitals. the larger hospitals in many cities already have patients, many patients in their beds. the smaller and rural hospitals could well be in danger of closing because of this crisis. we must bolster the hospitals. we need equipment. they need ventilators. they need more i.c.u. beds. they need masks. a simple thing like a nose swab. a hospital told me they can't do testing because they don't have the nasal swabs. and we need the president to marshall the d.p.a., the defense production act, to get all of these materials produced on a war-time footing quickly, dramatically, and in large number.

our first plank of our plan dramatically bolsters our health care system which is being overwhelmed through no fault of the hardworking people there in this crisis, and it entails so much. health care workers have to be able to get to the hospitals, to the nursing homes, to the other areas. in many places they can't if there isn't a kind of public transit that is available and not working. the second part of our plan deals with those who have lost income through no fault of their own. it is a dramatic bolstering of unemployment insurance. we call it either unemployment insurance on steroids -- we call it unemployment insurance on steroids, or you might even call it employment insurance. if a worker loses his or her job through no fault of their own, right now, unemployment insurance doesn't cover a whole lot of people. when it does, it doesn't pay

them much in terms of salary, in terms of a percentage of income, and it's often hard to get and takes a long time. our unemployment on steroids. our employment insurance provides a full amount of the wages that workers are not being paid. not 20% or 50%. people desperately need it. it is quick and easy to apply for without all these hurdles that are now put in the way, and it applies to many more workers than in the past. we have talked to business owners, large, medium, and small. for many of them, this is the number-one thing they need. while they can't keep their workers on the payroll because no money is coming in, these workers will still be there. they'll be furloughed, getting a full salary, and when the businesses come back, they will be back.

the third part of our plan is for paid leave. we must have paid family leave. we must have paid sick leave. co-individual 2 did some of that. senators murray, gillibrand, working with the house, have put together a very strong package. we must have it in this proposal. fourth, i believe -- no one has seen the proposal, or i haven't seen -- and i think anyone has seen -- the proposal that the leader put on. it had virtually no input from democrats. but we will look at it and read it tonight. but from what i'm told, it provides a bailout for a number of industries. again, we have to put the workers first.

we don't want these industries to go under. but we certainly don't want the dollars that are put there to go to corporate executives or shareholders. again, they must go to the workers first. if they're getting a bailout, they should not cut the number of workers, the salary of workers, the benefits of workers. the pensions of workers. and none of this money should be used for corporate buybacks. i am outraged that the airline industry in the last five years spent about $40 billion on buybacks. they're now saying they don't have enough money. had they not sent the mo into the shareholders and had -- had they not sent the money to the shareholders and had it there, that might not have happened. nor should the money go to corporate salaries or corporate gain. part four of our plan says, no

bailout that goes to the people at the top. the money should go to the workers. after all, that's who we want to protect. every one of us knows workers in these industries. they're hardworking, honorable people. and, fifth, help for small business. small businesses suffer. the little restaurant, maybe it's the stall manufacturing business, maybe it is a little service business -- they need help. their employees, should they have to furlough them, will be taken care of by our employment insurance. but they still have other costs. we've called for forebearance in mortgages. that's a big cost that they will continue to maintain, if they rent space. but they will need help with other costs. and we provide the money for those costs with the view that that money could be -- those loans could be forgiven if they rehire all their workers once they're back on their feet.

so five points, and i know that the speaker of the house agrees with these points. the house democrats agree with these points. and, unfortunately, the leader didn't want them included in negotiation, which can only prolong the length of time before we act. but so be it. one, a marshall plan for our health care system and our hospitals. two, employment insurance. you lose your job, you get your pay. three, paid leave -- paid family leave, paid sick leave. four, any bailouts must be worker first. and, five, help for small business. we need to act quickly. we need to act in a bipartisan way. i hope the discussions between the various members of the committee will proceed quickly

and in a spirit of compromise. and i hope that we can come to quick agreement with the house, whose views are -- the majority's views are much closer to ours than this document, which i haven't read, but i've heard things about. i haven't seen it. mr. president, this is a crisis like nonwe have seen. we -- like none we've seen. we don't know how long it will last. we don't know how many people will be affected. we do know it is getting worse every day. and we know also that while americans usually come together after a crisis -- new yorkers certainly do, as we did after 9/11 -- we now must be isolated. but we will prevail. we will prevail. we will work together, hopefully each side will give, welcome up with a good plan, we will send

it to the president, and we will help to begin the long path to eradicate this awful virus that has so afflicted so many millions of americans. -- in one way or another. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mr. wicker: p mr., i agree with so much of what the distinguished democratic leader has just said, and i was coming from one building to the other when the distinguished senator from iowa was speaking, but i know he was making the points that i would make at this time, too. if the distinguished democratic leader wants to call this a marshall plan for the coronavirus crisis, i will subscribe to that. i think it's that serious. and i agree with what the

democratic leader said about this economic crisis. it's something like we've never seen before, and it calls for dramatic action. and i had think that's what the majority leader, senator mcconnell, has proposed. and i agree with this from my friend from new york -- when we try to rescue the large corporations, we need to put workers first. not be concerned about the c.e.o.'s and the executives. we need to take care of small business. so let's do a marshall plan, and let's do it on a bipartisan basis as americans, because this economic crisis knows no parties. you know, in some instances, when there is a crisis, we're told to carry on.

and in this case, that really isn't what the health care professors have told americans to do. americans have been told and people around the world have been told to stay at home, don't congregate. well, that's the way our economy operates. so americans are doing what they've been asked to do. we're not flying, we're not staying in hotels, occupancy is down to single digits. americans are keeping their children home from schools. schools are not opening in most areas. again, the american people are acting responsibly according to what they have been told to do by health professionals. the public is taking guidance, and this is having an enormous toll on our economy.

we hope the virus will end soon, but we need a rescue package, and i'm happy to join with the distinguished democratic leader in calling it a marshall plan, if he'd like to do it. the american people bear no responsibility for this active nature, this act of god that has overtaken much of the globe. and so i come here today to say, i've been honored to participate in the drafting of what senator mcconnell, the distinguished majority leader, has rolled out today, the coronavirus economic stabilization act. and i was part of a task force that the distinguished majority leader asked us to work on. that task force dealt with the

airline industry. it consisted of chairman shelby and the majority whip, thune. and we're happy to develop a plan that involves $208 billion, giving the secretary of the treasury the ability to provide loans and loan guarantees to eligible businesses that are enduring financial hardship, including the domestic airlines. including the domestic cargo carriers, if they can make the case that there's a hardship there. during this time of unprecedented economic certainty, it's critical that the airlines and other impacted industries have the resources they need to continue operations vital to the transportation of passengers and supplies, including food, including medical equipment,

mr. president. the plan that i participated in drafting in which the distinguished majority leader put forward today would prohibit the federal funds from being used to increase compensation or provide golden parachutes, or that kind of thing, for the leaders of these distressed companies. so, again, i subscribe to what senator schumer said, protect the workers. no bailout. this is jobs, this is loans that we expect to be paid back when times are flush again. this legislation will take an important step in putting our economy back on track for the american people. a great deal of work has gone into the draft and much work is going to be required in the future, tonight, tomorrow -- tomorrow night, saturday, and

sunday. we're in the midst of a severe economic crisis, and i'm determined to work on a bipartisan basis with people like my friend who just spoke, with senator cantwell,, the senator from washington, my distinguished ranking member. we have penciled in 10:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, and i've already been on the phone with her and we are going to be dealing with our -- with the legislation under the jurisdiction of our committee, the commerce committee. and i think we're going to be able to work, as we have, on so many other issues, as americans, and not as republicans and democrats, as teammates rising to the occasion, answering this crisis as americans have done so

many times in the past. and so i -- i simply rise today to say this -- this is a time for us to come together as patriots, as americans and take on the task that is before us. i look forward to a hard weekend of work and a product that all americans can be proud of. and, with that, i yield the floor, mr. president. mr. wicker: mr. president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

mr. rubio: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: i ask that the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. rubio: mr. president, we in this profession have a tendency to hyperbole, meaning a tendency to stand sometimes about how dramatic a decision we're about to make is or how important something is to the country because that is what we do and it's sort of one of the tools of this trade. i think this is not a time in which it is possible to exaggerate the impact of what we are confronting. i start by saying i think it's a moment that should instill in all of us extraordinary humility, a reminder that we are still mortal beings who cannot and do not control all that happens in our lives and in the world. we are facing a threat that

emerges not from a human decision or behavior but a threat that emerges from the scientific world, the biological world. one we're blessed to live in a modern time that technology allows us to solve problems faster, but oftentimes we cannot prevent these things. i think the time, and there will be plenty to look back at the decisions that were made by governments, by foreign governments, by officials, like all things, there will come a moment of accounting when we can decide what was done wrong, what was done right so we can learn from what was done wrong and replicate what was done right. we can learn from the past but we cannot change it. the one thing we can influence is the future. can't entirely control it, but we can influence it. we can influence what we do from

this moment forward and when it comes to this pandemic, we can influence not that it's here but how long it lasts and how impactful it will be. one of the real-world impacts of the crisis that now confronts us is the impact that it's having on jobs. we use that term loosely in politics all the time, jobs, we want to create jobs, we value jobs, it's about having more jobs. i think sometimes we overlook the strong emotional, psychological impact of jobs. of the fact that someone wakes up in the morning and has somewhere so go and they are productive and they are rewarded fairly for their productivity, it gives purpose to your day, it gives meaning. it gives value. it's why the absence of job is so toxic and damaging, not just

to the spirit but ultimately to the community and then to the country. it is a situation we have learned in ordinary times and these are not ordinary times. we are watching a pace of job loss at this very moment unprecedented, even in some of the deepest economic downturns that modern man has ever confronted. this is -- there is not a single person who serves in the senate, works in this building, or i would argue in our entire society who does not know someone who in the last four or five days has been told that too they no longer have a job. think about that for a moment. people who ten days ago had a job and an economy by all traditional standards was doing very well and now have been told that they do not have a job. the people they used to work for may no longer exist and there's

no certainty about what comes even when this ends. it's impossible to exaggerate that. what we are learning through this crisis is what we have all said we know but are now realizing how much it's true and that is how many jobs in this country are the result of a small business? not of the companies whose stories are featured in a magazine or newspaper article, with article, -- but the ones we drive by every single day, the laundry matt, the -- laundromat and everything in between. hundreds of thousands of jobs in the community that depend on their very existence and they are disappearing before our very eyes and not because they did anything wrong but because government has had to tell them for the reasons that i agree with, not only that we cannot go

there, but their workers can't go there and in many jurisdictions that they cannot even show up. and so the urgency to address this, i believe, needs no convincing. we have, as a starting point, developed a plan that i think will help that will do what we can and i want to briefly describe it. the plan is basically this -- we need to get money into the hands of small business across this country as quickly as possible so they can keep the workers they have on payroll for as long as possible. we aim for at least four or five or six weeks, and this is important because if you've already been told you can't leave your home, you've already been told you can't go anywhere to also be told, by the way, you have no job and there's no guarantee there's no job for you to go back to when this all ends, the trauma is

extraordinary and that's what millions of people are facing by the second. this is not job losses that are happening by the week, by the month, by the second. right now somewhere in america someone is being told we're closing and you have no job and tomorrow will be the last time you will get a paycheck for the foreseeable future. and so our plan, ideally, would involve the following -- small businesses will be able to go to a bank in their community, ideally in a perfect world, the bank they normally use, the bank they bank with. i'm not talking about a matter of weeks or -- i'm talking about a matter of hours or days, their payment equivalent to their monthly expenses on payroll and on rent. a year from now, those

businesses, if they can show they kept everyone on staff and hired that was working for them before this all started and paid them what they are paying them, that money will be forgiven. it will not be a loan. i'm not talking about an s.b.a. loan, i'm not talking about going to a government building somewhere or a tent in a disaster zone and filling out paperwork. i'm talking about going to a financial institution, preferably the one you normally use, filling out a few quick documents to prove that you're a business and receiving a cash infusion directly into your account that you can use to make payroll for the next three, four, five, six weeks. and we have a plan that does it. now, on this matter we are blessed to have partners in this endeavor like senator cardin and others on the small business committee who are not only some of the hardest working and busiest people who have been working on these matters and

have been working on this for a couple of weeks. except a couple of weeks ago we could never have envisioned how widespread and serious this dilemma would have become. we don't have an agreement, but i do believe on the general concepts, i speak for no one but myself, but it's my impression on the general outlines of what we're trying to achieve there is substantial agreement. so we've got some work to do. i will be in the senate and here in washington, d.c. around the clock until we get this done. because, as i said at the outset, millions upon millions of families and their immediate and long-term future are being determined by what we do or fail to do, and rarely, if ever, do we truly confront issues in the senate of that importance. i'll close with this. it is hard to remove politics

from politics. it is hard to ask politicians not to be political. and it is tempting to use even situations such as these to the snide remark and the pot shot. and i imagine you can never fully remove it. i would only say this -- if we don't address these issues that are before us and do so rapidly, those pot shots will appear trivial in comparison. if we don't address the challenges that are before this country now, no one can tell you what the future looks like because no one alive today has ever been there. ever. and anyone who believes that what i'm saying is an exaggeration, what was life like in america a week ago today? what does it look like now? and if this pace continues, what will it look like five days from now, ten days from now? we don't know, but it will be traumatic and potentially

catastrophic. and so we must act. we will have plenty of other issues and plenty of days and weeks and months ahead to bicker about the political issue of the day, take shots at our opponents. now is no time for games. we are facing the abyss. we are facing circumstances for which there is no playbook, for which there is no precedent, for which there is no way to predict what happens to a society when you tell millions of people they can't work, they cannot leave their homes, and we cannot tell you how you will make a living now for the immediate future. this is no time for games. it is a time for those of us who are here to be here, to work through this as quickly as possible, or we will all pay the price. we will all face those consequences. what they are are so grave, so

unspeakable, so unimaginable that i cannot believe that we will not be able to do so and act quickly, swiftly, and effectively. so i look forward to making strong progress. our people need some hope. our people need to believe that their institutions in a moment of crisis can still work, and we have a chance to do our part to instill at least that little bit of confidence in a time of extraordinary uncertainty. mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: before he leaves the floor, i want to particularly thank the senior senator from florida for the extraordinary contributions he is making as we move toward completion of this rescue package. i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until

12:00 noon friday, march 20. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. finally, following leader remarks, the senate be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator braun. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from indiana. mr. braun: first i would like to thank you for sparing me not having to be in the seat indefinitely, and i promise i will keep this short. what a day we have come through. senator cramer and i have been here a little bit over a year, and i can't imagine a little over a year being more filled with making this responsibility

as a u.s. senator worth every effort it took to get here. it finds us in an interesting place. i'm from main street america. i spent 37 years building my own company, a company that three of my four kids, along with a great young executive team, run now. and here we are. we're confronted with coronavirus now in a sequence of h1n1, sars, mers, even a threat from ebola. this looks like the one that we have heard about a long time that could really test the mettle of our country. well, we're going through it. we've listened to the experts, and i think that idea of hitting this as hard as we can makes sense. you hear about flattening the

curve. yes, we need to do that. in the process, everything that we are doing has now been thrown in front of probably the strongest economy that you could ever imagine. look how flail it can be when something comes along that you don't understand and that you fear. we are going to be wrestling with over the next two to three days something that probably is going to be as tough as anything we have confronted as a country. i thought at first, well, we would get through this, especially if it wasn't going to be a real tough thing to get rid of. it's not the case. this is going to take everything we've got. and what we're doing this weekend ought to be based upon the commonality that all of us believe we should take care of the hardworking individuals that

have been displaced by this and small businesses. we have got that nucleus to start from. of course it begs the question, what do you do about other parts of the economy? well, my feel is that what we do tomorrow is not going to be the last that we do to make sure we take this on with a full head of steam. i am getting input from middle america, from my home state, from people that i really trust their judgment is yes, we want to make sure that we do everything and throw the kitchen sink at it. we want to make sure that we protect the most vulnerable, the people that have a preexisting condition, mostly elderly impacted in the state of washington and other places. i'm increasingly getting the question asked do we want to keep plowing forward regardless of what the results are if the

economy is starting to show what it's showing, which it's got so much fear and anxiety built into it, how long can we put up with it? what we're going to do this weekend is the first major effort at restoring confidence in the economy. i'm sure we'll come back again soon because, like i said earlier, it's not the end of it. at some point, we need to carefully measure the progress we're making against the cause of it in the first place and make sure that that is working the way we intended it to work, which is to make sure that we take care of the most vulnerable, protect them from the ravages of the coronavirus. so ten days, two weeks down the road, i think we're going to be at a pivotal point. we're going to see if the early effort has worked, and we all pray that it does. we're going to see what our

efforts are going to yield and generate here this weekend. and then i want to make sure that at that pivot point when we need to look at this again, do we keep doing what we're doing or do we do what seems to make sense, maybe make some adjustments, maybe focus on a different approach that does not systematically take the patient down of a healthy economy. i think we all want to accomplish the same thing. we're going to start this weekend. and please, both sides of the aisle, don't quibble, don't bicker about some of the details because this is urgent, the american public expects us to do something. and then here in another ten days to two weeks, we need to look at it again and make sure we make the right decisions that really are in the long-term interests of tamping down the

coronavirus and not killing a very healthy patient, our economy, that now looks like it's hurting. thank you. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate previous order, the senate every u.s. adult and child, the remainder would be part of the loan program to give small businesses afloat. and loan guarantees for industries of importance who are in crisis due to the virus such as airlines. this is the third aid package being considered by congress.