ensure that needs to act now to fix the major flaws played out by both republicans and democrats in this package. i stand ready to work on these fixes, just a few minutes ago i left one of the working groups and it was a very positive two sides were sitting down for the red for the dark, had to continue my we can rise to the challenge both parties. >> .. this third measure that may reach a trillion dollars in cost is a challenge for sure but one

that we can meet again on a bipartisan basis. we owe america desplinter history nothing less. i yield the floor and suggest the absence of the corn. >> the coronavirus continues to challenge our nation, extraordinary and unimaginable. things that were unimaginable a few weeks ago. a public public-health systems are coming under enormous strain our hospitals and other medical facilities lacked the necessary supplies and resources and its measures to isolate the public broaden workers are filing for unemployment and unprecedented rates. small businesses are on the brink of collapse. american families are in desperate need of support until they can resume their normal lives. i've heard from these people. the people are isolated grade i've heard from people in nursing homes and he i've heard from small business people who

struggle their whole life to build a small as those and it finally looks like it's beginning to succeed and they may be wiped out. the urgency of doing something now is so, so, so important. both parties in congress must work together as swiftly as possible to get something done that is as big and bold as possible. this is one of the worst crises america hasth faced. the american people need help fast. senator mcconnell has proposed what is now the third phase of legislation to confront the coronavirus. we are all eager to work in a bipartisan way to creep we get another will the president's desk. but at the moment the mcconnell bill is inadequate. leader mcconnell's proposal does not do nearly enough to address the public health crisis in terms of hospitals, medical

supplies, beds.jars, nurses, measures to ensure that americans can accept that afford coronavirusvi treatment. the bottom line is very simple. we will dealth with the health crisis. nothing we do willr. make the economy any better so number one it's not anywhere helpful for hospitals. many small ones are going to close in rural ones will close. the big ones will have real trouble. they must do something and get there is nothing in leader mcconnell's bill to help hospitals. now we are told we may do it in the a supplemental later. later is no good. we need a marshall plan for hospitals right now, right now. we need local government also on the front lines to get dollars

in their pockets so it doesn't go broke. leader mcconnell's proposal is also skewed in favor of corporations rather than the workers and families who much more urgently and acutely feel the pain of unemployment and reduced hours. leader mcconnell's proposal includes a few ideas that should be included at all such as tax cuts for multinational corporations and restrictions on paid sick leave that congress just expanded. democratic ranking member's committees met with republican chair and correspondingtt committees to hear the rationale behind the mcconnell bill and to begin a bipartisan dialogue. democrats will soon respond to policies we believe must be included in the legislation and things that we don't think belong in this legislation. our goal is to focus and address the public health crisis now and

put workers first as we do it. democrats want to do as much as possible to prepare our health care system in the growing storm of faces and we want to help the working americans who are most immediately affected by the economic slowdown in significant ways. in that respect democrats have five important priorities that i will speak about now among others. we have many other priorities as well and we are sending all of our priorities over to the republicans soongh enough. americans need a marshall plan number one. america needs a marshall plan for hospitals and our public health infrastructure. a few weeks hospitals could be overrun with patients and there will still be a great shortage of loves and masks icu beds and ventilators even and especially.

to cite one example the two biggest hospitals in albany, albany medical center in st. peter's health partners have announced they are suspending te few they have for health care workers in high-risk patients. access to care continues to be a problem throughout my state as well. there is a great shortage of equipment, a story that rings in my ear that certain places that have to test don't have the swabs so they can undertake the testsup. we are short of supplies up and down the line and masks to protect clothing and gear. it's not just the nurses themselves. we have to do more. we need a marshall plan right now for health care system. two weeks ago, three or four weeks ago many t of us were talking about the problem of te.

we said three weeks ago, four weeks ago we don't have these tests and it's going to go down the drain. no one listened. we are saying now in two or three weeks or hospital situation will be the same. it will be massive and deeply deeply in trouble or that's why we need to act now, not later in a supplemental but now. we also need to dramatically increase unemployment insurance. what we are calling employment insurance. it's really unemployment insurance on steroids for people for love in their jobs that we call it employment insurance and why do we need it? so many workers have been forced home and it prevents them from working regular hours. the work and restaurant are there no customers you aren't going to work or the people

you've worked so well with for years can afford toou pay you. existing unemployment insurance won't work. it doesn't cover a whole lot of people and furthermore it does not pay back workers full wages they were earning. we need to change all three of those things. one, every worker who is unemployed gets a paycheck equal to what they were earning before this crisis. paid for by the federal government. that way the business small medium and large can put them on furlough and then when the crisis is over they are back with money in their pockets. no worker, no family, no one should lose a paycheck or go into financial ruin as a result of the coronavirus. this is a very important provision. i talk to people across my state in the country. when they hear about it they love it.

it's not giving money to everybody. there are some people thank god that are still employed but there are many many many who have lost their job and one check and they may be out of there job for three, four or five months isn't going to be enough. unemployment insurance gives money the whole time the crisis exists at the salary level and covers just about everyone. it makes the most sense of any program that i have heard in dealing with those who are losing their jobs and in terms of dealing with stimulating the economyas. we will get the economy back to where it was. all these unemployed people will be paid the same amount of money. now second paid sick leave is a must. we need to be expanding paid sick leave not restricting it as

the current proposal suggests. in working in conjunction with their colleagues congresswoman delauro has put together a bill in this big proposal. fourth we need to put our workers first. if we are going to consider bailing out industries they cannot then be allowed to turn around and cut jobs cut wages and cut that affects. they cannot be allowed to use theor money for stock buybacks. they cannot be allowed to give salary increases to executives. they need to n put workers first period. these are our values and finally we need to rescue the small business. many of them have been asked to close their doors in the sake of public safety. we need to help businessesac access the necessary liquidity to pay their insurance bills and to pay their rent and mortgages to pay their expenses over this

crisis and they can rebound stronger than ever. democratic ranking members are already discussing these priorities with their republican counterparts and of course there are many other priorities. it would take too long to highlight all of them but they are all in the white paper we have centiliter mcconnell and the republican chairs. in almost all these cases democrats already have prepared and drafted the legislative language on theseit priorities. we are ready to go. about two hours a ago i spoke wh president trump about these five priorities. i mentioned them all in president trump told me he was open to these ideas. in fact the president explicitly told me he would oppose companies using a lot money on buybacks even though such is not

a mcconnell's bill. a i also urge the president to immediately employ the reduction act in get ventilators and other critically needed medical equipment to those who need it. he told me he would do so and then sing saying it to someone who must have been in the oval office, i think we in the road but we can't waste a day in terms of getting the vpa going. congress will make whatever resources are needed available to the defense department very quickly to implement this act. more broadly i told the president we need to come together and cooperate in this time of a national crisis. he agreed. we need to work with uncommon speed and make this bill what it needs to be. we need it to be workers first with a marshall plan for hospitals. democrats are already at work with their republican colleagues

to get this done. now it's been 20 days since the first covid-19 was detected in new york.rs today 20 days later, 7000 cases, more than one third of the total number in our country. in a time of public emergency new yorkers have been asked to make extraordinary sacrifices. the governor is just mandated accepting essential services 100% of new york's workforce must stay home. the city that never sleeps is for the moment dormant. to all of my fellow new yorkers, we will beat this back and on the other side we will come back stronger. to the thousands of new yorkers across the country of volunteered to help sick patients, thank you. god bless you. the nation owes you a paid debt for your courage and willingness to answer the call to serve. their medical workers are already performing the task.

it will only get more daunting in the days to come but know this workers, the country is with you. we support you, we respect you, we love you and we are already working on policies that will help you as much as that can be achieved in family to my senate colleagues what we must do in the next few days is unlike anything any of us have ever done in our time in congress. this is a crisis without modern precedent. we will have to flex muscles that manufactured feed incorporated in ways we may not be accustomed to. we are going to have to work across the aisle in the span of this capitol capitol to produce momentous legislation in the span of a few days. we will do it because we must do it. the american people are suffering while businesses are shuttered while workers are without