trillion covid relief proposal. votes on amendments are expected to start in the afternoon. now live to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. almighty redeemer, today show our lawmakers your unfailing love surround them with the shield of your favor and divine protection. keep their steps on the right path, providing them with wisdom

to serve you and country faithfully. may they not hesitate to fulfill your purposes. lord, guard them with your omnipotence and fill them with the power of your spirit. arise, o lord. stand with those who seek to protect freedom. let the smile of your face shine on this land we love. we pray in your great name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting 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. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., february 4, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable catherine cortez masteo, a senator from the state of nevada, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick leahy, president pro tempore.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of s. con. res. 5, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 4, senate concurrent resolution 5, setting forth the congressional budget for the united states government for fiscal year 2021 and setting forth the appropriate budget levels for fiscal years 2022 through 2030. 1450

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, first i want to shut my phone off. but now first i want to offer congratulations to long-time senate stafferrer ann berry who will take over the important responsibilities of secretary of the senate. this is a position that dates back to april 18, 2789, two days after the senate had its first day of business. ann is the first african american and only the eighth woman to ever serve in that position. it would be an understatement to say ann knows the senate well. she brings four decades of experience in the senate to her

new office, having worked for senator leahy for many years and more recently with senator jones from her home state of alabama. she's going to do a fantastic job helping the senate through its day-to-day responsibilities, and i look forward to seeing her up here on the dais when she assumes the new title. once again, another ceiling has been broken, we welcome in ann berry as secretary of the senate. next, covid. one year ago, the united states reported 11 confirmed cases of covid-19. a few days later, a woman from california became the first american to die from this disease. today those numbers stand at over 26 million americans infected and over 450,000 americans dead. along the way, covid-19 has turned life as we know it upside

down. it triggered the greatest economic emergency since the great depression, tens of millions lost jobs, shuttered schools, collapsed businesses and the greatest health care crisis since the spanish pandemic flu. congress has come together on several occasions to pass important relief measures, measures that did a lot of good. they have saved jobs and lives and businesses. but it has not yet been enough. the crisis is still with us. the economy is weakened. everyday americans are struggling with the basic costs of living, of necessities. so today, the senate is going to take the next strong step forward in passing a rescue plan to lift the country out of the crisis and set it back on the path to normal. starting this afternoon, we begin the process of debating amendments to the budget resolution. when that process is complete,

at whatever hour, we'll vote on final passage and pave the way for senate committees to begin crafting the rescue plan itself. in coordination with house committees as well. the amendment process here today will be bipartisan, and it will be open, and it will be vigorous. democrats and republicans alike will have the opportunity to share their ideas. we welcome that. of course, what amendments our friends in the minority propose is entirely up to them. now, the republican leader hinted yesterday that his conference is preparing several messaging amendments that they hope might score political points. that's fine. that's their right. but i sincerely hope our republican colleagues approach our work today with the intention of having serious ideas considered, not using -- not using the debate over pandemic relief to sharpen

ephemeral partisan talking points. this should be a very serious, very much needed debate. we're in one of the greatest crises america has ever faced. if there are good-faith amendments from the other side, we look forward to them. what we cannot do, however, is think small in the face of big problems. we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. we cannot do too little. we cannot lock our country into a long and slow recovery. we must instead respond to the urgent needs in our country and chart a bold path back to normal. we must make sure our country and its citizens have the resources to survive the remaining months of challenge. the struggling business -- that struggling businesses can access loans and grants, state and local governments, and, yes, tribal governments are not forced to cut essential services, and millions of

essential employees. that our doctors and medical workers can administer the vaccine as quickly and as widely as possible. that's how we get back to normal. that's how we survive the months in between until we get back to normal. and that's what this budget resolution and the rescue plan is all about. now on impeachment. a few weeks ago, i laid out the agenda for the senate's opening few weeks. first, nominations. second, major legislation to rescue the american people from the continued effects of covid-19. and third, an impeachment trial for donald j. trump. the senate has made steady progress on the first two agenda items, confirming several historic and exceptionally well-qualified nominees to president biden's cabinet. tonight we'll be voting on the budget resolution, the first step in giving the congress the tools to pass a major relief

bill. and on tuesday, the senate will begin to fulfill the third responsibility that i outlined -- the second impeachment trial of donald j. trump for inciting a violent mob against the capitol on january january 6. they were right near all of us, right near all of us. it's been nearly a month since the attacks on the 6th. time will do its part to heal the scars left by that day, but we cannot allow it to dull our sense of responsibility for holding to account those who perpetrated and motivated the attack. we were all witnesses to the events that day when a group of insurrectionists, white supremacists, and domestic terrorists fed a cavalcade of lies about the legitimacy of the election by the former

president, told to come to washington by the former president, whipped into a frenzy and directed towards the capitol by the former president, invaded and desecrated this sacred temple of democracy with the intention of denying the counting of the electoral college vote, the final act in certifying the former president's defeat. the horrors of that day may have faded for some, not for others. many in this chamber, staff, senators, and house members and house staff alike still live through this every single day, every single day. so it has not faded for a lot of us. but as a country, even for those for whom it has faded, we cannot simply move on. the united states capitol complex has been militarized, patrolled by the national guard, surrounded by a fence to safeguard the people's house

from the people themselves. five people are dead. just yesterday, we held a memorial service in the rotunda of this building for a capitol police officer who was tragically killed during the attack. there cannot be any healing without truth, without accountability. the idea that we should sweep this under the rug and move on, one of the greatest acts of perfidy against this government, against the american people in our grand 200-some-odd-year history, no sweeping under the rug. so the trial will commence on tuesday. senators have already been sworn in as judges and jurors. the house managers have filed their brief. the former president's counsel have filed their answer. the constitutional objection raised by some of my republican colleagues has been completely

debunked by more than 150 scholars, representing the entire breadth of the political spectrum, including very prominent conservatives like steven calibraci, co-founder of the federalist society. we will move ahead with a fair and speedy trial. the house managers will present their case. the former president's counsel will mount a defense. and senators will have to look deep into their consciences and determine if donald trump is guilty, and if so, ever qualified again to enjoy any office, honor, trust, or profit under the united states. we will pass judgment as our solemn duty under the constitution demands, and in turn, history will judge how the senate and each senator responds. now, on student loans. finally, later this morning, i

will join several of my democratic colleagues from the house and senate to reintroduce our proposal to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt. a life-changing measure, life-changing for americans struggling to stay afloat during this pandemic and secure financial independence. for tens of millions, especially people of color, college educations represented the surest path to the middle class, but now that be often means taking on a mountain of debt that can take decades to pay off. it makes it harder to own a home, safe for retirement, and provide a better life for loved ones. in the midst of a once in a century crisis, these americans need relief fast. college has always been a ladder up. for too many, it's now an anchor, weighed down by huge amounts of debt they almost can never see repaying.

in full. so i look forward to joining senator elizabeth warren, as well as representatives adams, omar, and jones this morning to present our plan for student loan debt cancellation. and i yield the floor. and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: this pandemic hit our nation with compounding layers of crisis. the american families have faced a health crisis, a jobs crisis,

a small business crisis, an education crisis, and frankly a social and community crisis all piled on top of one another. in response congress has built the largest federal response to any crisis since world war ii. by far. in the last 11 months we've passed five, five major bipartisan rescue packages that sent about $4 trillion to fight the virus and to help american families. for context, total net spending by the entire federal government back in 2019 was $4.4 trillion. we've borrowed and spent almost as much fighting covid-19 as the federal government spent on everything in 2019. our national debt is now larger than the size of our entire economy for the first time since

world war ii. this crisis has been historic. so has the federal response. the american people deserve for the conversation about the next steps to begin with them and their needs, not partisan rush jobs, not talking points. we need to start with the needs of our country. the most recent package, another $900 billion, was literally passed six weeks ago, just six weeks ago. let's talk about then where we are right now. on the health front we've come through a terrible year. we've lost more than 450,000 americans and counting, but our health care heroes held the line. the genius of science put operation warp speed, produced vaccines in record time. the science and the operation

warp speed produced vaccines in record time. and this administration stated goal of one million shots per day is exactly the pace they inherited from the prior team. as we speak nearly half of the money congress has sent for -- has sent for testing and about two-thirds of our funding for vaccine distribution is still in the pipeline. that money is yet to be spent. let's talk about jobs. last year states had to take one of the best job markets in american history with layoffs and firings at 20-year lows and literally slam on the brakes to protect public health. we spent historic sums to soften that blow. two waves of direct pavement hit family bank accounts. multiple rounds of paycheck

protection program to help small business workers stay employed. we passed an extended extra federal jobless benefits. as a result even as an economic production fell last year, total personal income actually went up. we saw the largest annual increase in disposal income in almost 40 years. household savings have shot up. things are even looking up in the service sector where literally yesterday a key measure of optimism hit a two-year high. there's no doubt that some families are still struggling. this isn't finished. but experts agree the remaining damage to our economy does not require another multitrillion dollar nontargeted mandate. then there's education. temporary emergency measures have sadly become an enduring new normal for our students,

parents, and teachers as well. but again the horizon looks bright. evidence confirms that in-person schooling is remarkable safe, remarkable safe with smart and basic precautions. so let me say that again. the biden administration's own scientists say school can be quite safe and kids should be back in person. dr. fauci says, quote, we need to try and get the children back to school. it's less likely for a child to get infected in the school setting than if they were just in the community. the new crnchtsz d.c. direct e-- c.d.c. director says i want to be clear there is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen and safe reopening does not suggest that teachers need to be vaccinated as a prerequisite. these experts are not looking at hype net can -- hypothetical

data conditioned on congress pouring more huge sums into schools. they're describing the science right now. they're describing the science right now. just six weeks ago congress sent another huge sum to help schools. it brought the total for k-12 to about $68 billion. as of the latest update, only $4 billion of the $68 billion had been spent. 94% of the k-12 funding we have already provided is still in the pipeline unspent. so our nation stands at a turning point on all these fronts. a dark year is in the rear view mirror. brighter days are already starting to dawn, and much of the groundwork for a strong recovery is already in place. it will not serve americans to pile another huge mountain of debt on our grandkids for

policies that even liberal economists say are purely targeted to current needs. it will not serve americans to ram through a one-size-fits-all minimum wage hike that c.b.o. says would kill more than a million jobs for the most vulnerable workers, affect states unequally, and already has bipartisan opposition. this is no time to send wheelbarrows of cash to governments that don't need it. safeties and localities are already, quote, well positioned to weather the storm with additional needs that are far less than the $500 billion in the biden plan. by the way, state and local tax receipts already fully rebounded, fully rebounded in quarter three to their highest level in american history. this is no time to ignore the science on school safety in order to chase moving goalposts

from big labor and pour endless sums into school districts that unions will not athrough reopen. -- allow to reopen. if you combine the democrats' new proposal with what just became law six weeks ago, the democratic law plus this new proposal would dwarp, dwarp the -- dwarf the size of the cares act which sent the country into locks of lockdown. this is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable. let me say that again. this is not the time for trillions more dollars to make perpetual lockdowns and economic decline a little more palatable. this is the time to focus on our smart, targeted bridge to the day when we end this chapter and win this fight. notwithstanding the actual needs, notwithstanding all the talk about bipartisan unity,

democrats in congress are plowing ahead. they're using this phony budget to set the table to ram through their $1.9 trillion rough draft. last year the democratic leader kept saying we need a true, bipartisan bill. he said, quote, sitting in your own office writing a bill and then demanding the other side to support it is not anyone's idea of bipartisan. that was the democratic leader last year. well, that was then. this is now. now democrats object the bipartisan approach that built all five of our historic covid packages. all five of them were bipartisan. so let's hope president biden remembers the governing approach he promised and changes course. in the meantime, if we're to debate this phony partisan budget, we will create some clarity for the american people.

we're going to put senators on the record. expect votes to stop washington from actively killing jobs during a recovery, like terminating the keystone pipeline. that job-killing one-size-fits-all minimum wage hike and whether to bar tax hikes on small businesses for the duration of this emergency. expert votes that would help target this plan toward america's needs, issues like stimulus checks for illegal immigrants, pouring money into schools where unions are blocking reopening, and the commonsense step of delaying new spending until existing funds have actually gone out the door. we'll see what this resolution looks like on the other side and what signals democrats send to the american people along the way. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: assistant majority leader leader. mr. durbin: i ask the quorum call be suspended from ever without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, some day i'll write a book maybe, and one of the topics that i've thought of because i spent most of my adult life in the world of legislating is what motivates or inspires the idea to introduce a bill that might one day become law.

i think many people would be surprised at what the motivation could be. i've -- for example, on health issues, i have found members who were inspired because of the knowledge of someone in their family or friend who went through a challenge with a medical condition and asked them if they would help in the field of research. of course, many bills come to us from constituents who contact us and have problems or challenges and we realize the only real recourse is a change in the law. and that's the case with the bill that i'm introducing today. it was 20 years ago that we had a phone call in my office in chicago. and a woman who was the director of a music program in the city of chicago asked for some help. the program is known as the merit music program and a very

kind lady left some money to the program with the instruction that it should be used to teach students, low-income family students in public schools how to play a musical instrument and actually buy the instrument for them. it's been spectacularly successful and we learned, many students if they take up miewsks, -- music turn out to be very good students. they called and told us they had an amazing young woman who was part of the merit music program who started playing the piano at the age of 12 and was nothing short of a phenomenon. she applied for music schools she might attend and music

schools like jewel yard and -- juilliard expressed an interest. when she filled out the application form, they asked for her citizenship status. she said, unfortunately, she didn't know what it was and her mother said why don't we call senator durbin's office and that's how we got into the picture. her name is tereza lee. she is korean american. she was brought to the united states on a visitor's visa at a very early age, the age of 2, to chicago, and when the visa expired, no effort was made to renew it or to file any papers with the federal government. so she was a classic case of the undocumented alien. her parents, some of whom were

here legally and her siblings, some of whom were citizens did not spare her the problem she faced in determining her own status and that's why she called us. well, we learned even though she was 17 or 18 at the time and had been in the united states all of her life that she could remember, she did not have legal status and the law said that treeza -- teresa 3 at the age -- tereza lee at the age of 18 had to leave the country and come back and apply again. i couldn't believe it. my staff told me they didn't know what to tell her to do and i realized the only thing to do is to change the law and to give to young people brought here as infants, toddlers and babies and young kids a chance to become legal in america. that's why 20 years ago i

introduced a bill called the dream act. the dream act was for tereza lee. now i'm going to interject here part of the story because i always forget to tell the happy ending. tereza lee ended up applying to music school in new york. she was accepted and went to school because of the kindness of several families in chicago who were so impressed with her talent. she finished the four years of education at that music school. was so good that she played in carnegie hall and then married a jazz american, born, jazz musician in new york. she is now the proud mother of three children. she is a music teacher herself and an american citizen by virtue of her marriage to the other musician.

tereza was the first dreamer, but there were many just like her who didn't have as much luck. they are still in a suspended animation status when it comes to the immigration and citizenship. so for 20 years on the floor of the united states senate, i have introduced this bill and told the stories of the dreamers. i think i've gotten through to a number of people because the word dreamer now is -- really signifies more the citizenship status than anything else. i joke that when i first started this mission if you were to ask people who were the dreamers, older folks would have said, why, that's a british rock group with a fellow named freddie who is the lead singer, but stood

when you here the word dreamers, people know it is these young people and their situation in the united states. to this day, with our failure to pass the dream act, is still unresolve. they came to the united states as kids. they are american in every day. they went to our schools and they stood up every morning and put their hand over their heart and pledged allegiance to that flag, the only flag they've ever known. they thought they were just like the kids next to them and then one day their parents sat down and told them the reality. they go to school with our kids. we see them in church. we know that they stand by the beds of our neighbors and relatives who are fighting covid-19. we know that they are injecting lifesaving vaccines into the arms of our parents and loved ones and they are giving back to

america as teachers, nurses, engineers, and soldiers, but they are not citizens of the united states. today i will once again reintroduce the dream act with senator lindsey graham, republican from south carolina, as my cosponsor. i want to thank him for doing this and making it a bipartisan effort. we have a long history of working together -- though we disagree on many things, but on this issue we believe that congress has an obligation to fix our broken immigration system. it was, as i mentioned, many years ago that i introduced the bill, but it was 11 years ago that republican senator dick lugar, of indiana, on a bipartisan basis agreed to call on president obama and ask him to do what he could do to protect these young people from deportation. president obama created the daca program. the daca program meant that these young people came forward,

identified themselves, pay a fee, went through a background check and national security check and if approved were given a two-year renewable protection from deportation and two-year renewable right to work. more than 800,000 of these dreamers came forward and received the protection of daca. it unleashed their full potential. can i tell you over and over and over again, they will say to me, daca changed my life. i finally thought i had a chance to be part of america and so they became soldiers and teachers and business owners and everything imaginable. in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic, more than 200,000 daca recipients are essential infrastructure workers. that's not my term, that's the definition of the department of homeland security under president donald trump. among these essential workers are 41,700 daca recipients in

the health care industry, doctors, intensive care nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists, all of them in a suspended immigration status because the dream act is still a bill and not a law. on september 5, 2017, former president trump repealed daca. hundreds of these dreamers faced losing their work permits and being deported, last year the court -- in an amazing opinion by chief justice john roberts, the court held that president trump's attempt to rescind deferred action for childhood arrivals, known as daca, was arbitrary and capricious. in one of his first official acts, i can't thank him enough, president biden signed an executive order on january 20 to

restore daca. i want to thank him from the bottom of my heart for making daca one of his highest priorities. without daca, hundreds of thousands of talented young people who have grown up in our country cannot continue their work and are at risk of deportation to countries that barely remember, if they remember at all. but the resumption of daca is just the first step toward justice for dreamers. only legislation by congress can provide a path to citizenship for dreamers. we know now that there's still efforts under way to eliminate daca protection in the courts of america. a recent case in texas is a reminder that a law has to pass. i'm honored that i'll have a chance to serve as chairman of the senate judiciary committee in this new congress. as the child of an immigrant, i never dreamed that i would have this opportunity to lead the committee in the senate that writes our nation's immigration

laws. to all of the dreamers out there, let me tell you this, passing the dream act is still my highest legislative priority. there was a fellow named jack malenti who worked for l.b.j. years ago. and he used to say every good speech has six words in it. and so he told me those words and they are these -- let meal tell you a story. so i -- let me tell you a story. so i have come to the floor of the united states senate to tell the story of the dreamers. 128 times. today i want to tell you about anna quva. -- quava. born in mexico, came to the united states when she was 5

years old. she grew up in utah. what a student. president of the national honor society at her high school, graduated in the top 10% of her class and volunteered at local hospitals in her junior and senior years. anna's dream, she wanted to become a nurse. anna wrote me a letter and said, my mom became very sick. she required emergency surgery for a brain tumor. it was one year after arriving in the united states so her english was very limited. after her recovery she always said that nurses who cared for her were kind and patient even though they couldn't communicate very well, they touched her very deeply. anna said, i want to do for others what she's nurses did for my mom. driven by her commitment, she earned an associate's degree and

bachelor's science in nursing. thanks to daca, she became an i.c.u. registered nurse. most of her nursing career has been in her home state of utah, but during the covid pandemic, she has become a travel nurse, has worked in idaho, massachusetts and texas. here is what she said about the ongoing pandemic, she said, my soul aches. i've seen more people die in the past year than my five years before as a nurse. i've held more hands as people passed away alone and cried with families through facetime and on the phone. i became number for a short while but then i remembered with why i do what i do. i want to thank anna for her service on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. she is a health hero. she is an immigrant health hero. she is the face of daca.

she's put her life at risk and her family at risk to protect others. she should not also have to worry about whether she's going to be deported and her family ripped apart. so some people think we'd be a stronger country if anna quava would leave, go back to mexico, you're not one of us. we've got a number of immigrants we can accept each year, and you're not in that number. you're illegal, you're undocumented. what a loss that would be. if we lose anna and people like her in the middle of a pandemic, what would we be thinking? so the fight is hon for -- is on for anna and for hundreds of thousands just like her who simply want a chance to earn their way to legal status and citizenship in the united states of america.

it would be a tragedy for us to turn away these brave, talented and determined professionals in the midst of this pandemic. so we have to get to work in the judicial and on the floor of the senate. this is the year. this is the time. when we can come together and make a difference in the future of america. to anna, we need you, we want you. we want to make you part of the future of this country because you're such an important part of america today. this dream act means a lot to me. we need to make it the law. i yield the floor. i note an absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator is recognized. mr. thune: it is my understanding the senate is in a quorum call? i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, in his victory speech and in his inauguration address, president biden pledged to be a president for all americans. i quote -- he said i pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but to unify, who doesn't see red and blue states but a united states and will work with all my heart to win the

confidence of the whole people, end quote. he reiterated that sentiment at his inauguration, stating, and i quote again, on this january day, my whole soul is in this -- bringing america together, uniting our people, uniting our nation, end quote. it is a sentiment that i honor, mr. president. as i said the day after the inauguration, if president biden can truly be a president who governs for all americans and who respects all americans and who works to win the confidence of the whole people, he will have done our nation a great service. but, mr. president, it's not enough to talk about unity. it has to be matched with action. and too many of the president's actions so far have been more calculated to appeal to the far left wing of the democrat party than to unite americans. in his two weeks in office, the president has signed off on a long list of executive actions, many of which read like a wish list of leftist priorities. in a nod to the far-left

environmental wing of the democrat party, the president has issued a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and called a halt to the keystone x.l. pipeline, even though, even though we're a long way from significantly reducing or eliminating our need for oil and natural gas. domestic oil and gas production is essential to maintaining an affordable and reliable energy supply here at home. halting new oil and gas drilling could jeopardize the stability of our affordable energy supply and will definitely, definitely jeopardize american jobs that are supported by this industry. as far as the keystone x.l. pipeline, stopping this project -- which i would point out, mr. president, is well under way -- is nothing more than a symbolic jesture -- gesture. america will still need sources of oil. a modern pipeline is a cleaner way to transport it.

keystone x.l. has been through multiple exhaustive environmental reviews. and on top of that, its builder has committed to fully offsetting its operations with $1.7 billion in renewable energy purchases. the oil trains, trucks, and other pipelines still moving crude oil today aren't doing that. in fact, canadian prime minister justin trudeau, a staunch liberal, included the pipeline in canada's clean energy plan. it's also worth noting that in addition to eliminating an environmentally responsible means of transporting oil, canceling the pipeline project will cost thousands of jobs, which is particularly unfortunate, given that many jobs -- given the many jobs i should say that have been lost during this pandemic. on day one of his presidency, president biden effectively fired 2,000 pipeline workers and told another 9,000 never to show

up. then, of course, there is the president's order halting construction of the border wall on our southern border. the biden administration has plans for sweeping immigration reform but does not seem to be placing much of an emphasis on border security. instead, they have reduced the wall to a symbol of the trump administration and chosen to satisfy immigration activists by halting construction without offering adequate alternate ways to secure our borders against a flood of illegal immigration or drug and human trafficking and other criminal activity. then, of course, there is the president's decision to overturn the mexico city policy which prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions in other countries. mr. president, the majority of americans do not believe in unrestricted abortion. a new poll release last month showed that a majority of americans do not want their tax

dollars going to fund abortions, yet the president has enacted to ensure that american tax dollars can go to fund overseas abortions whether americans want them to or not. in addition, this administration has be given every sign that it intends to pursue a radically pro-abortion agenda that is out of step with the views of the majority of americans. mr. president, last week, "the new york times" published an editorial urging the president to slow down the executive orders and to embrace policy making. the "times" correctly pointed out that permanent legislation on issues like immigration is better for the country than wild policy shifts between administrations. the "times" urged the president to focus less on executive orders and more on legislating. the editorial noted the president's pledge to seek unity and that on the campaign trail he,, quote, often touted his skill at finding compromise and his decades as a legislator as

reasons to elect him over mr. trump, end quote. mr. president, now is the time for the president to show that he does really mean to live up to his inaugural pledge and to unify our nation, and that means not just talk but action. it means working with lawmakers of both parties to develop legislation, not pushing exclusively democrat measures. it means urging the democrat congressional leaders to actually negotiate with republicans instead of trying to force through an agenda that lacks the support of half or more of the country. and it means focusing less on checking off the priorities of the far left and more on actually representing the views of the majority of americans. the president has a chance to genuinely unify our nation, but he will have to decide whether or not he wants to take it

mr. president, yesterday i came down to the floor to talk about democrats' decision to pursue a partisan budget resolution designed to pave the way for a partisan covid relief measure, despite the fact that congress has produced five, five prior covid relief packages and appropriated trillions of dollars on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis. republicans have put forward several ideas to improve the measure, an amendment to protect small businesses hit hard by the pandemic from sudden tax increases, an amendment to ensure that schools actually open, especially, especially after teachers receive the vaccine. an amendment to ensure that states deal honestly and transparently with the tragic covid deaths that have happened in certain nursing homes. and an amendment to protect health care workers who traveled to other states to help during the pandemic from getting surprise tax bills from those

states as a thank you note. i'd like to think that democrats would support some of these amendments. my amendment to protect health care workers is based on legislation i advanced that has received strong bipartisan support, although it has been opposed by a handful of states like the democrat leaders that aggressively tax mobile workers. but so far democrats have not shown much of an inclination to entertain republican ideas, no matter how much they would help address the effects of the pandemic. democrats have indicated that they may allow a handful of amendments that enjoy some republican support, but that doesn't change the essentially partisan character of this undertaking, which is designed to allow democrats to pass the legislation that they want on entirely partisan -- on an entirely partisan basis. will we see political amendments on the floor during this process? sure, we will, from both

parties. democrats have chosen a political maneuver instead of seeking to replicate the bipartisan success we had with covid bills like the cares act. mr. president, we did five, five covid bills while we were in the majority at the 60-vote threshold, which is required for most legislation here in the senate, with bipartisan support. and here we are in a purely partisan legislative exercise on the floor of the united states senate. so yes, republicans will offer some political amendments, but we will also offer covid-related amendments that democrats should support if they truly want to deliver help to those who need it. mr. president, it's deeply disappointing that democrats are heading down this partisan path. if they really wanted to govern for all americans, they would

work with republicans to pass dwret yet another -- yet another bipartisan covid bill. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come to the floor today to support a budget resolution and underscore the need for us to keep moving forward on helping the american people during this pandemic. it's clear to me from the people of the northwest that we have to do more to help them, whether it's vaccines, more p.p.p. equipment, helping our small businesses, continuing to move through this process. it means helping to also understand the individuals most hard hit by the pandemic and sectors of our economy most hard hit. it means helping to put kids back into school. it means making sure that we fund the e-rate program and do more on broadband. and it also means we have to avoid more layoffs if possible

to help make sure americans have jobs to pay the bills at home. so i hope that we can find a bipartisan compromise and move forward on these. there are issues that we have been able to do in the past two covid packages to get bipartisan support. i hope that our colleagues will continue to look for those paths, but we have to keep helping the american people. within the commerce jurisdictioe of my colleagues from the committee are going to come out here and talk today -- we have really focused on the issues of our transportation sector and how hard hit our transportation sector has been. i know that people see today's headlines even about airlines that are issuing furlough notices so that part of their requirement is to do so, but when we have these furlough notices, basically what you are doing is you are disrupting our transportation delivery system. that is, people who end up getting furloughed end up having

to set retraining and reestablish before they can go back to the sector. so we want to keep our transportation sector moving because, obviously, the movement of goods and services of people are critical to delivering on the pandemic and to helping our economy not suffer even greater economic impact. we've seen how important the transportation sector is, and we've seen even recently out in the west how our dock workers, ilwu and others, have suffered major infection rates of covid and now start to threaten our delivery of goods and products through those systems, and we need to do more to get them vaccines and to make sure that we're moving americans' products through our ports as well. well, i want to talk about the fact that the aviation sector represents 5% of our g.d.p. that is 11 million jobs and

$1.6 trillion in economic activity. so the aviation sector is important to us overall and continue to maintain our competitiveness there and grow to the economy of the future is very critical, so that is why we continue to work for and look for ways to keep the aviation system going during the pandemic and why we are continuing to move the support for airlines in this -- in this package. congress has twice acted to provide critical relief to airline workers, pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, and we will continue to do so as part of this budget reconciliation. as i mentioned, avoiding furloughs keeps highly skilled pilots and crew members trained and ready to go as part of the transportation sector, and as we have seen with this economy, we are now, -- i think the sector is back to almost 40% of where it was prior to the pandemic.

so helping to preserve that commerce and trade has helped our economy and our u.s. airports who also have been impacted by this have had continued economic losses, and we want to help them with moving forward on this plan. we also want to work in a bipartisan -- on a bipartisan basis to do more to help aviation manufacturing that has been greatly impacted by this. the aviation aerospace sector has lost so many jobs, and there are hundreds of thousands more at risk. i know my colleague from kansas and my colleague from virginia, senators moran and warner, have been working on a proposal. we certainly want to continue to work on a bipartisan basis to make sure that as much of the aviation workforce that we can keep going, so as we return to the very competitive environment of aviation, that we have a workforce that is skilled there to do it.

we also have to do more to help amtrak. the revenues of ridership dropped 97% compared to the 2019 riderships. amtrak has been forced to furlough over 2,000 employees. it has had to cut essential service on long distance and state routes. trust me, my colleague from montana, senator tester and senator daines, have brought these issues up. without additional relief, essential services will be cut further and i can tell you in montana where people go to see glacier park and the wonders of that great state, having this essential service is key. so we don't want to do more damage to the economy as we continue to deal with the pandemic by underinvesting in the infrastructure that has to keep operating to help our economy. so i'm going to continue to work with our colleague senator wicker in his efforts on amtrak and continuing to move forward. and also i know that the -- also

the impact of transportation on the state budgets that we have seen. in the state of washington, for example, there's a whole list of projects that are now going to be delayed, are not finished, are not done just because of the loss of revenue from ridership and transportation. so our transportation infrastructure needs to be kept going. the workforce that keeps it going needs to be supported. and that is going to be a key aspect of the next budget reconciliation package and what we're going to work on. so i hope our colleagues can understand how important that is to our economy, how important it is to the men and women who serve in the transportation sector. and if i could just say, mr. president, there are so many people in the transportation sector that just went and did their jobs. we've lost lives in aviation. we've lost lives in transit. we've lost lives with dock workers. people have just showed up to continue to do their jobs.

and so we need to do better by passing this package, giving them the support, more vaccines, more equipment, more supportive funding so we can keep americans working in jobs but working safely. that's what this next package will be about. and i'll yield to my colleagues who are going to talk about other priorities within this particular sector. i see my colleague from new mexico on the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new mexico. a senator: mr. president, funding provided in the american recovery package is critical to new mexico students, workers, and families. among many measures important to mexicans, the budget resolution provides emergency funds to close the homework gap for k-12 schools and libraries, including those on tribal lands. mr. lujan: it provides emergency funding for our rail and air,

infrastructure, including maintaining essential air service in rural areas and passenger rail throughout the southwest. it includes emergency funding to support local newspapers and broadcasters that continue to provide fact and evidence-based reporting on local and national issues as advertising revenues plummet. new mexico faces a digital divide and the covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing disparities between the students who have broadband access and the one in four who don't. failing to address these disparities risks widening the homework gap and making it harder for students, especially those living in rural and tribal communities to catch up. the budget resolution under consideration does right by students not only by helping them survive the public health

emergency but also thrive long term. by providing emergency funding for rail and air infrastructure, it also saves jobs and communities in new mexico. our small airports and rail stations are hubs of commerce that connect rural new mexico with markets across the united states and around the world. as a new member of the senate commerce committee, i'm ready to get to work and get the job done for these new mexico priorities. mr. president, what congress is working towards today providing essential support to help fight and recover from the coronavirus pandemic matters little if those most in need do not trust in america's institutions, enough to benefit from the support. that's why i am particularly proud of the resolution's

support for local journalism. with this resolution congress has an opportunity to help our students, protect jobs and businesses, and fulfill our moral duty. the senate must do everything in our power to provide the tools for the american people to recover and to rebuild. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from the commonwealth of massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm here today to emphasize just how important this budget resolution is to

unlocking opportunity for millions of children across our country. i'm here to shine a bright light on a problem that predates the coronavirus but that has been severely exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic. i'm speaking about the homework gap experienced by as many as 12 million children in the united states who right now, today, nearly a year into this public health emergency still do not have internet access at home and are unable to participate in online learning. this is a national disgrace, and it is going to come back to haunt our nation for a generation. a child should not be missing the third grade because they are not connected. they should not be missing the fifth grade. they're going to pay a huge long-term price because of that lack of connectivity. before the pandemic, these

students were at an educational disadvantage already because they could not complete homework assignments that required internet access after class. but today the problem is exacerbated with most schools being closed, household kitchen tables have become virtual classrooms during the pandemic, and even as we try to safely reopen schools in the weeks and months ahead, distance learning is not going away. both because of the continuing health crisis and the need to make up for severe learning loss during these past 11 months. the bottom line is that if a young student has no internet connection or device, she cannot learn. and that means that those 12 million students in america right now without connectivity who are disproportionately from communities of color, low-income households and rural areas are

falling further behind in their studies every single day that this pandemic continues. there's no reason why the country that invented the internet cannot provide it to children who need it to learn and to develop. we as a society simply cannot allow an 8-year-old to miss the third grade because she does not have the internet at home. these vulnerable students are no longer facing just a homework gap. they are facing a learning gap, and it will quickly become an opportunity gap for the rest of their lives because those opportunities come from a good education. to close this gap and correct this educational injustice, we must immediately connect these students to the internet. given its history and success, it's just common sense that we use the e-rate program as a guide to connect students where they are currently learning at home. the e-rate which already

connects schools and libraries to the internet is a trusted program, deliberately designed to require an equitable distribution of funding to our most vulnerable communities, urban and rural, blue and red. i created the program more than two decades ago, and have invested more than $52 billion in the educational connectivity for children, especially in the poorest communities. and that has unleashed another $a billion -- $50 billion. so from the state and local level which is $100 billion from that e-rate program that will i authored out of the house of representatives in 1996. it's still the greatest educational technology program in the history of our country, and it led to the deployment of this technology on school desks at the same rate for poor children and rich children. that's the first time that ever

happened. but today there is a gap because many of these children, million, of them do not have it at home. that's the gap. and in many instances, it's not a digital divide. it's a poverty divide that is leading to this crisis. it's a poverty divide. and because their parents cannot afford the connectivity, because they cannot have this service for their children. we are going to have an absolute -- we are going to see an absolute disgrace which will befall our country when we look back and we see what happened to these kids. so that's why we need in this reconciliation package, we need billions of dollars which are going to be included. we have to make sure that the funding is there for every city, for every school system, for every parent to have their kid who is connected for as long as this takes.

and we don't know how long it is going to take. children are only 20% of our population, but they're 100% of our future, and right now we're leaving behind millions of them who will have a much less of an opportunity to be able to maximize their god-given abilities. so, mr. president, i am here to say that the one thing we must do which republicans forced out of the package in december is this time that we put the billions of dollars in in order to make sure that every child has access to the internet at home for their educational opportunities. thank you, mr. president. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm really honored to follow my

colleague from massachusetts, ed markey, one of the premier founders, the father of e-rate who knows better than anyone how investment in online learning and connectivity can make a cruel difference in all of our lives, in the lives of seniors, in the lives of people who live in communities of color, and other underserved areas of our country. but most important, it can make a crucial difference in the lives of schoolchildren and most crucially right now. the simple stark fact about this pandemic is that it has locked out of classrooms millions of students around the country. we need to get those students back into the classrooms. it has to be done safely. in the meantime, online learning

is going to be critical for them. and yet substantial numbers, most especially in communities of color, lack the connectivity and the devices they need to open classroom doors. in many of those households, working parents simply can't be around to supervise their children. so it's more than just the nuts and bolts and devices. it's learning about how to learn online. but at the very least the nuts and bolts have to be there, and that's why this american rescue program is so critical to the lives and learning of these millions of students. the simple fact is this homework app -- -- homework gap is no

longer a gap. it's a chasm. it has turned into a homework chasm and a homework crisis that threatens to set back students by months and even more. the fact is right now, students are estimated across the country to have lost three to five years in communities of color, that loss may be even worse. and once students have suffered that loss in learning, catching up, overcoming it, bridging that gap is very difficult and sometimes impossible to do, which is a lifelong potential setback for them. we are in effect disadvantaging american education by allowing this homework chasm to continue.

the american rescue program provides a model. it provides money but also a model in how the homework gap can be bridged and the chasm avoided. we made a promise. america makes a promise to its students that the basics of education will be provided so they can have an equal chance at the american dream. we are failing to keep that promise. now, there is really nothing mysterious about how to bridge this gap. in fact, i'm proud to say that my state of connecticut has done it very significantly. i'm tempted to say has done it but nobody's perfect. connecticut has built a program called everybody learns at the

initiative of our governor, we've used federal money from the cares act, we've used significant private philanthropy, for example from ray and barbara gallio, great citizens from the state of connecticut and their foundation which has contributed mightily, particularly in the hartford area where the leadership of mayor luke bronan has been absolutely critical. what they've done is provided tens of thousands of tablets, the kind of devices that are necessary for students to connect, and they provided hotspots so that students have that way of reaching the internet. no mystery, simply hard work and money. most important commitment.

i'm asking my colleagues today for that same commitment to our nation and to connecticut, which needs to finish the job of connecting. the secretary of education, or the nominee for that position, miguel cardona knows the importance of online working. he has championed it in connecticut. yesterday he testified about it to the health, education, labor and pension committee, and he is going to be a very steadfast advocate, a trusted champion for online learning. but he too needs the tool and the resources. think of it not as a spending item, not as a funding measure, it's an investment. it's an investment in the basics of devices and connectivity.

it's an investment in our young people. connecticut has made that investment and we should not be skimping or cutting corners on our young people. we should not be, in effect, shortchanging them at this critical time when connectivity, broadband, online learning are really the lifeline for them. let's put them online with this lifeline, give them the ability to continue their education even as the pandemic locks them out of classrooms. it may be -- they may be physically no longer in person, but online they can connect and if they are denied that online access, they are truly locked out of learning, not just locked out of their classroom, and that would be a disgrace for this

nation. i thank my colleagues for what i hope will be their commitment to continuing american teaching and education online during this unparalleled, uniquely painful and difficult time in our nation's history. we can make it easier for students. we can save them the homework chasm and the homework crisis. thank you, mr. president. and i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. blumenthal: mr. president. the presiding officer: there's a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: i ask unanimous consent that the secretary of the senate be authorized in relation to the pending impeachment trial of former president trump to print as senate documents those documents filed by the party to be made

made immediately available to all parties and that those documents be printed together as a senate document. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. coons: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. coons: are we currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. coons: mr. president, i appreciate the opportunity to address the body today about the bill we are to take up and advance this evening and about several different provisions that are of specific concern and interest to me to the residents of the state of delaware and our nation. let me remind all of us the moment we are in. there are 26 million americans who have been infected by covid-19, a dread, deadly, global pandemic. and 445,000 americans have been killed so far in this pandemic, far too many. in my little home state of delaware of just 900,000 people, we not too long ago passed 1,000 deaths and like many other states we are racing to deliver vaccines and to address the human wreckage of this pandemic

and the recession caused by the bungled handling of this pandemic by the new previous administration. i am encouraged because there's also a positive number, 34 million americans, have been vaccinated. delaware's been at the forefront of delivering vaccines quickly and safely and now with president biden and his team at the helm, they are pulling together the resources of our nation, using the defense production act to deliver needed p.p.e., testing capabilities and vaccineses to every corner of our country. they have a lot of work to do, and they are behind because of some of the failures of the past, but i am excited by the promise of the future. yesterday, i had the honor of meeting with president biden in the oval office for an hour first thing in the morning, and we talked about this pandemic and his plan, the american rescue plan. the $1.9 trillion in badly needed relief that will touch almost every american family and

move us quickly out of this pandemic and back towards growth and security, health, and prosperity. and his determination, despite all the back and forth about numbers, his determination at the very core of what we do to keep in mind the middle class of this country, the folks who have been overlooked, underserved, and most disadvantaged. he is passionate about seeing the ways in which this pandemic has revealed the deep inequities in our country and making sure in how we respond to educational needs, to housing needs, to transportation needs, and to health care needs that we combat the profound inequalities of our society and build back better. as senator carper and i were sitting with president biden going over $1,400 checks and this many months of unemployment extension and this much for housing and homelessness or this much for transit, he said wait,

wait, wait, just remember at the end of the day, keep in your mind's eye a family, a plumber and a teacher with two kids at home, one of them laid off, desperately trying to pay their rent, trying to figure out how to pay their bills, trying to figure out how they can keep a roof over their kids' head, remember the people we are trying to help and serve. i am reminded of mark from newcastle who called my office to tell me he had been laid off and he was desperately afraid that he was struggling because he was fighting cancer, a health condition, and fighting homelessness, concerned about losing his home. fighting housing and homelessness, combating homelessness and ensuring security of housing has got to be at the center of how we respond to this crisis. economist mark zandi says there are 37 -- excuse me, $57 billion in owed back rent unpaid.

one of the best things we have done as a body is to extend the eviction moratorium that the c.d.c. imposed last year. a key piece of the bill we are taking up and debating is to ensure that more americans have an opportunity to safe, sanitary, decent, and affordable housing. before this pandemic, more than 17 million american households spent more than half their money on rent or mortgage. unaffordable to any household, those 17 million households stretched to their limits. the pandemic has made the risk of eviction or foreclosure greater than ever. some know my early years were spent working around issues of housing and homelessness. i served with the national coalition for the homeless in new york and in five other states around the country, staying in homeless shelters in the late 1980's when homelessness was an explosion of crisis across this country that impacted families and

communities of all types and backgrounds. people experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable to covid-19. homeless individuals infected are twice as likely to be hospitalized, four times as likely to need critical care, three times as likely to die. and in delaware, on martin luther king day, as part of a service project, i got a chance to visit the hope center. the hope center used to be known as the sheraton. it was a hotel in foreclosure. and an innovative county executive used some of the cares act money that we provided federally to state and local government to buy it at auction and to reopen it as a source of 192 emergency housing rooms that can have up to 400 people in it. it was great to tour that center on martin luther king day, to be part of those delivering personal items and material for those who are now a resident at the hope center. but it's not just one of many

examples of how federal resources we provided last year have been used creatively to help keep people in rental housing, in emergency housing, or in their homes. the c.d.c. federal eviction moratorium was extended in the bill we passed in december, but it runs out in march, thus the urgency of our acting. and president biden's american rescue plan includes $30 billion in emergency rental assistance and $5 billion to prevent further outbreaks of covid-19 amongst america's homeless population. we need to make this a key piece of this provision, an important part of this bill, and it's my hope we can find support on both sides, but if we don't, we must move forward. let me speak to two other topics before i yield the floor, if i might, mr. president. those of us on the east coast and my colleague from maryland, my colleague from new jersey are certainly among them. travel by amtrak frequently. before this pandemic, amtrak

carried a record 32 million passengers just two years ago. but just like the airlines that when the pandemic hit lost the vast majority of their passengers, so, too, did amtrak and commuter rail all over our country. it's been a key piece of our society, our competitiveness, our interconnectedness for over a century, and there are millions who depend on it as their way to commute up and down the east coast corridor in particular. my office recently heard from ken potts, the delaware representative on the rail passengers' association about the urgent need for funding. frankly, this is a warning notice. for those of you who don't realize that i-95 right as it goes through wilmington, delaware, is about to be shut down for most of the next two years on a generational repair project. there's going to be 100,000 people deterred off of the highway, hopefully onto rail, but only if it can keep running. there is 1,200 furloughed amtrak

employees on the east coast and in other places around the country. those are the folks i interact with on the days i commute from wilmington to washington, i get a chance to talk to the staff, the conductors, the people who work at union station or wilmington, joe biden's station. 1,200 furloughed families struggling, just like the airlines, every bit as deserving of relief. the budget resolution would allow for the $2 billion over the course of this pandemic that they need. we have provided relief before. we need to provide relief with this bill and going forward. as i mentioned in my opening, mr. president, getting the vaccine distributed as quickly as possible is the most urgent thing before us. last saturday, i had the chance to volunteer for several hours at a vaccination center with dr. they are e.n.t. associates at delaware. they had over 250 people they had reached out to.

some churches i am familiar with and fond with, seeds of greatness, bethel a.m.e. but we are under pressure because there are new variants of this virus emerging around the world. what viruses do is they mutate. some of you know there is a new variance from south africa, from brazil, u.k., that are more transmissive, potentially more deadly. one of the things we have to keep an eye on is that we cannot close ourselves off from the world. something that's missing from a republican proposal and that is urgently needed that's in the biden american rescue plan, is $11 billion to help with global vaccination delivery. i recently spoke with a dear friend from africa who is leading the african union's plans for how to vaccinate the 54 countries on the continent of africa. sure, the russians have offered. their sputnik vaccine which was not fully and transparently developed and tested. the chinese are offering their vaccine. but what i believe the developing world would welcome

with open arms, if we would just fund it and provide it, is the rapid scale production and manufacturing in countries like south africa, india, and elsewhere of the tried, true, tested, scientifically sound vaccines made available by pfizer, by johnson & johnson, by moderna, by the western companies like astrazeneca and others that have shown their vaccines are safe. the united states has long been a leader in world health. we have inspired the world in the way in which we have brought our medical advances, our scientific capability, and our humanitarian commitment to the world. this should be another chapter in that long and brave history. we must remember that no one in this world is safe from this pandemic until the entire world has been successfully vaccinated. if we do not contribute to the global vaccine campaign of covid, we do not participate in the world health organization and meeting the needs of the developing world, it will simply

come back to the people of the united states. of course we must priorityize vaccinating our nation, our people, delawareans, but just as joe biden in the oval office earlier this week asked me to keep in my mind's eye that family sitting around a kitchen table, worried, struggling with finances, with their health, with their future, we have to keep our eye on the horizon. by having passenger rail available to recover when our country recovers, having housing and affordable housing options for families who are struggling with homelessness and our eye on the horizon of the potential threat to the rest of the world with a more dangerous variance, which is why we need to contribute to a global campaign to ensure that all of the world's people are safe from this pandemic. thank you, mr. president, for the opportunity to speak to these three connected concerns, all of which touch on delaware's families and our nation, and i yield the floor.

mr. van hollen: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. president. let me start by thanking my colleague from delaware for outlining the urgency of the moment and reminding us that the united states is not an island, that we have to address these issues together, and i am pleased to see president biden reasserting american global leadership on all sorts of fronts, including the health care front. and, mr. president, i come to the floor today to support the budget resolution that's before us as our country together fights the covid-19 health

crisis and the economic fallout. more than 450,000 of our fellow americans have died of covid-19. 200,000 more than the country that has experienced the next highest death toll. it's been unacceptable toll of suffering, and the economic fallout is painful as well. main street is struggling. we've seen thousands of small businesses shuttered. our students are facing an ever-widening education gap. families are contending with mounting bills and food insecurity. it's a crisis that has upended every part of american life and which has disproportionately harmed working families, communities of color, our

children, and the elderly. i'm glad that this congress has been able to come together on a bipartisan basis before to deliver important emergency relief, but now is not the time to pat ourselves on the back and say we're done and throw in the towel. we need to go big and we need to do it before it's too late so we can beat this virus, get help for those who are hardest hit, and put our economy onto the road to recovery. we must pass a package that meets the moment, and that's what the biden proposal does. beating the pandemic by accelerating the delivery of vaccines and testing, helping to get our students back into school as fast as possible and do it safely, and get our economy moving again, an economy that continues to suffer the

wounds of the pandemic that has killed jobs and ballooned unemployment. right now, mr. president, we're seeing a k-shaped recovery, a tale of two economies. some people are bouncing back just great, like a v shape, but many others are flatlined or actually going further and further under. at the very top, the wealthy are doing just great. the stock market had a good year in 2020. the s&p 500 went up 16%. but it's no secret that stock holdings are concentrated among the very elite, and that almost half of all american households have no stock holdings at all, including in 401(k) or other retirement plans. so don't tell me that the country's doing well because the stock market is up, because the

stock market conceals the whole other economy. mr. president, here is a little story that illustrates the point. which is that in wall street city, per capita income is roughly $54,000. but if last year jeff bezos moved to baltimore city, the average per capita income would be $175,000. now, people struggling in baltimore city would be no better off but it would appear that way if i simply look at the averages. and so as we look at these economic figures, let's remember that averages conceal the real hurt being experienced by so many people. in fact, over 18 million of our fellow americans are relying on

unemployment benefits right now to sustain themselves and their families, and that relief will begin to expire in mid-march if we don't act. four million americans have been out of work and looking for a job for at least six months. and the harsh reality is that the longer someone is unemployed, the harder it is for them to get a new job. and when they do, it's often at a much lower wage. and that lower pay then follows them for decades. and that is the story of countless american families holding on today against a torrent of financial hardship. so to those who claim don't worry, this is all going to blow over, let's just delay our efforts to provide urgently required relief or let's provide less. i say let's look at the hard facts. if you look at the projections

that just came out from the nonpartisan congressional budget office, they indicate that unemployment will remain above 4% until the year 2025 unless we do something different. that means that even after the last vaccine shot goes into the last arm, we may be caught in the wake of this economic downtoe for years, unless we act now. so we shouldn't get complay sent. we shouldn't lee at those overall average numbers. we shouldn't look at the stock market. we look listen to the stories of people who are suffering. and if we don't act, we'll be suffering for much longer than they have to. that's why it's been said the risk is not that congress might do too much but that we might do too little. and i would remind my

colleagues, we've been in this place before. many of my colleagues on the democratic side of the aisle have scar tissue from 2009. remember, we were facing a financial meltdown that was taking the entire economy under. and here in the united states senate, then president obama was working to get a big economic relief package through. they had plenty of democrats, at least 57 democrats were on board, a majority of this body, but needed just some republicans to join us in this effort. well, what happened was the proposal, the bold proposal got negotiated down and down and down, and then barely squeaked by the united states senate. and even after all that long bipartisan negotiating, in the house of representatives not a single republican congress

person voted for that bill. so we ended up with a divided congress, and an inadequate recovery bill. and our republican colleagues spent the next many, many years complaining that the economic recovery after the downturn had taken too long, was the longest and slowest economic recovery in history when if we had been permitted to go big and bold, we could have changed that trajectory. that's why secretary of the treasury janet yellen said now we've got to go all in. she said, and i quote, neither the president-elect -- this was her earlier testimony -- i propose this package without an appreciation for this country's -- but with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do is act big and

in the long run i believe the benefits will far outweigh the cost, especially if we care about helping people who have been struggling for a very long time. and even president trump's former top economist kevin has set supported -- hassett supported that assessment and has said if we don't act now, you could end up in a negative spiral for the economy. mr. president, the american public sees this very clearly. if you just look at recent po polls, 70% of the american public is fully on board with president biden's bold plan. that's reflected in a quinn pi ak -- quinnipiac poll that came out. data just today showed the same thing. the american public recognizes we need to act big and we need to act now so make sure we beat this pandemic and that we get our economy back on track just as soon as possible.

so, mr. president, we all would like to have our republican colleagues as partners in this effort. president biden has made that very clear. but the overriding priority must be to meet the moment and take care of the needs of the american people. that's what the american people are telling us. i hope all of us will listen. thank you and i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: i ask unanimous consent to suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lee: mr. president, the federal government has become too big and too expensive. it's been this way for quite a long time. it's not without its impact. you know, it's been borrowing and spending far too much money and doing too many things even before the covid-19 global pandemic. this emergency has really shown how badly we need to return to

some semblance of federalism, some semblance of federal restraint with respect to what it does and particularly what it spends. i say this because emergencies, national emergencies, will arise from time to time. it happens. and when those things happen from time to time, the federal government will need to expend significant resources and borrow money. that's exactly why we should not be running multitrillion dollar deficits at the top of the business cycle to begin with. during a period of significant economic expansion, not a recession, we were already spending more than what we have. it makes it much harder for us to respond and be nimble to do the things we need to do. this has been a long-term problem because washington, d.c. has been centralizing political power and political decision-making now for

generations. it has not made the federal government more effective, but rather weaker and less effective. it's made it slower, less nimble, more rigid. and inflexible. we need to start turning policy the other direction, localizing more decisions to all americans, in red states and in blue states alike, so that all americans, regardless of where they live, can live under policies that they are more likely to agree with. that's the beauty of federalism. it allows more americans to have access to more of the kind of government they want and less of the kind of government they don't want. that is the goal of the budget resolution amendments that i will be introducing this week. i will be introducing a number of amendments and i will cite a few examples here. first i'm going to propose an amendment to ensure that congress' voice and the voices

of our state governments are heard in the designation of national monuments. utah has been home to two significant massive national monument designations over the last 25 years. one thing they both had in common, they were made contrary to the express will of local and statewide elected officials and utah's congressional delegation at the time they were made. these two monument designations in and of themselves are larger than two delawares. yet they were made without any input from congress and without any input from the host state's legislature. the an particular yities -- antiquities act allowed this to happen. my amendment would propose that we allow people's representatives in congress and in the state legislature to have input. i will also be filing an amendment to ensure full funding for a program known as pilt.

now, pilt is an acronym. it stands for payment in lieu of taxes. it's something very important to public land states like mine. you see, the federal government doesn't pay property tax on land that it owns. in a state like mine where the federal government owns most of the land, two-thirds of it, in fact, it could be very difficult for many of our communities to survive, because without that property tax revenue, they find it difficult to fund everything from schools to search and rescue operations, police and fire services and so forth. the federal government makes up for some of this through this payment program that is supposed to in some ways replicate the property taxes that the taxing authority would otherwise receive, payment in lieu of taxes. the problem is they haven't accurately assessed the value of the land. my amendment would call for a more accurate assessment of the land so that these taxing jurisdictions could get what they need.

i will also be proposing a significant amendment to increase access of the american people to health savings account systems. h.s.a.'s, health savings accounts, do nothing to undermine the efficacy or the prominence of government-run health care systems. they do, however, do a lot of good for those who have them. they simply add a private option for american families who would like to make some of their own decisions about how they would like to spend their health care dollars, if they would like to spend more on nutritional supplements, they should be able to do that. if they would like to spend more on preventative care, they should be able to do that. h.s.a.'s give them the answer. one of my amendments would expand their opportunities. i will be offering an amendment to streamline the regulations under the environmental law known as nepa, the national

environmental policy act. nepa has achieved significant environmental gains in this country, but it needs to be updated and modernized so as to make it easier for us to complete infrastructure and construction projects which have become too slow and too expensive. i've got a number of other amendments, including one that would increase the child tax credit significantly in order to further diminish a little-known but pernicious aspect of our federal tax codes known as the parent tax penalty. i will be introducing another amendment to increase the recognition and the credit that americans receive for making charitable contributions, especially important during a global pandemic like this one. another amendment protecting americans' second amendment rights, one protecting religious freedom, one dealing with

gasoline tax which i don't think should be increased, especially during difficult times like these, and especially given the regressive nature of the fuel tax. i've got another amendment dealing with some legislation i've developed called the promise act. this would help to make sure that interactive online providers -- and including but not limited to social media platforms -- make clear what their standards are, what they will be doing to moderate speech on their platforms, for example, how they will be enforced, and give them incentive with possible penalties under law if they deceive their customers about what their policies are and how they will be enforced. the bottom line here is the federal government's size has not been making it stronger or more nimble or more effective. its i. size and its bureaucracy have undermined its work. from our covid response to our entitlement crisis to our

dysfunctional welfare system that while intended to alleviate poverty and make it rare have instead sometimes made it longer lasting. reform doesn't mean just doing the same exact things but spending a little bit less. it means modernizing and streamlining processes, devolving, where appropriate, certain government functions to state and local governments that are closer and more accountable to people. the way we serve the american people is not just by letting bureaucrats and politicians make decisions for them thousands of miles away in washington, d.c. the way we achieve true effective government and fair government is by giving all americans up and down the income scale and across the political spectrum the power to make their own decisions and to make them as locally as possible. thank you, mr. president.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, as we all know, over the last year, coronavirus relief has dominated our work here in the congress. to the surprise of some, republicans and democrats have worked closely together to bolster our response on both the public health and economic fronts so we can bring an end to this crisis as quickly as possible. not surprisingly, there were some disagreements along the way. there always are. but both sides understood the importance of action in reaching a bipartisan deal. part of the reason was pure function. with a divided government, every piece of legislation involves compromise. you are forced to work with folks on the other side of the aisle to reach an agreement.

that's a good thing. because that's what it requires to reach the president's desk and earn the president's signature. but the reasons for working together on covid-19 relief are more than just the practical or functional requirements. over the last year, i have spoken with countless texans who have faced incredible challenges and dealt with unimaginable hardship. there are folks who have lost their jobs and they have lost loved ones, who fought this virus on the front lines in hospitals and who have tried to support their communities throughout this crisis. i know colleagues throughout the chamber have heard similar stories from their constituents back home because every state and every community has been impacted by this virus. regardless of politics, we all

realize this virus is taking a devastating toll on the american people, and we need to remain committed to providing relief. there have been big disagreements, of course, about the best way to do that, but in the end, if we share the same goal to bring an end to this pandemic as quickly as possible and minimize the pain and suffering of the american people, we can figure out how to make this happen. that common goal has led to five bipartisan relief packages that have represented the best ideas of each party. none of these bills are perfect, but i'm sure both of us will agree -- both sides will agree that in the end, every covid package that has been signed into law has received overwhelming bipartisan support. as a matter of fact, none of the bills have received less than 90

votes, and one passed unanimously. that's spending close to $4 trillion. that's a remarkable, remarkable accomplishment. in the beginning, president biden appeared to agree that a continuation of this bipartisan approach was the best for the country. after all, his campaign was built on a theme of unity, and he's consistently talked with great eloquence about the need to heal our divisions and work together and compromise. to his credit, he has met with a number of our republican colleagues at the white house earlier this week to discuss what a compromise package might look like. ordinarily, that would be seen as an encouraging development. we've got a congress with a record of bipartisan covid-19 bills and a president who talks about the desire to broker deals

that can win the support of both political parties. but, unfortunately, what might seem like good news and a positive development really isn't because in the mix you have the democratic leader, who's not on board with the president's call for unity and bipartisanship. less than 24 hours after the bipartisan meeting at the white house and just 15 days after the president's inauguration, the majority leader laid the foundation to pass president biden's massive $1.9 trillion package with zero republican votes. they're not interested in doing the hard work it takes to build consensus. rather than take the normal legislative process, which was used for each of the bipartisan bills that have previously passed, the democratic leader is preparing to use the budget reconciliation process to pass

this controversial legislation. and please note -- we passed a $900 billion bill in december and only 20% of the money that we appropriated is even out the door yet. this is not the time to try to make political statements. this is a time to try to parse where the needs are and to target those resources to the people who need it, not a time to pass your liberal outbox agenda. so, unfortunately, this reconciliation process is designed not to encourage bipartisanship, not to encourage negotiation, not to get bipartisan buy-in. in short, it's not designed to achieve unity at all. just the opposite.

well, after spending almost a trillion dollars in december just about a month ago -- again, with only 20% of that money actually out the door and on the way to the people who need it -- our democratic colleagues are prepared to spend nearly double that amount when a huge portion of the funding -- previous funding has even reached its intended target. as of a couple of weeks ago, states had spent just $4 billion of the $68 billion we appropriated for k-12 schools. $4 billion of the $68 billion. and what do our democratic colleagues want to do? they want to continue to shovel money out the door. the c.d.c., the center for disease control, has distributed only about a third of the $9 billion we've already appropriated for vaccine

distribution, only a third. and then there are tens of billions of dollars in unspent funds for everything from covid-19 testing to paycheck protection program. so it's hard for me to see -- and i'm sure i'm not alone -- the justification for spending tens of billions of dollars more to places where previous funding is still waiting to be spent. there's also the question of whether the current funding is even serving its intended purpose. federal funding has helped k-12 schools prepare for a safe reopening and in texas these have been used to update the ventilation systems, purchase masks and personal protective equipment, and make other investments in classroom safety. but there are other school districts across the country that have gladly accepted that

funding but have zero plan to reopen their schools to in-person education. they've capitulated to the teachers' unions, who have demanded that schools stay closed. some have said they refuse to go back until all students are vaccinated. not all teachers, but all students. there's not even a vaccine approved for people under the age of 16. but that's the demand of the teachers' unions, who have shown zero interest in their students but a lot of self-interest. some of these districts have gladly accepted the funding to prepare for a safe reopening and in many cases have put their teachers at the front of the line for vaccines. but somehow the teachers' unions are appalled at the idea that schools would actually use these tools to get children back in the classroom. before we pass another multitrillion-dollar spending

bill and add to our rapidly growing national debt, we need to determine where the needs truly are and whether the teachers' unions are on board with our goal to get children safely back into the classroom. which is our goal. i will not support a covid-19 relief proposal that sends hard-earned taxpayer dollars to places where they already have billions that they haven't even spent yet. one great example is additional funding for schools. our democratic friends would provide $130 billion more for k-12 education when there's still $64 billion remaining from the money we appropriated in december. they want to spend $130 billion more when there's still $64

billion available to be spent. well, even that's a high number because the c.d.c. estimated -- the center for disease control estimated that only -- schools only needed about $22 billion. in other words, they have almost three times more than they need, according to the c.d.c., but our democratic friends want to spend another $130 billion. i'll be the first person to advocate for additional relief when and where it's needed, but this massive relief package creates more problems than solutions. i continue to believe that targeted relief bills are the most effective way to support our country without driving up unnecessary spending. somebody is going to have to pay this money back. and we shouldn't be frivolous about the way we spend it. if there's a need, let's do it. but if there's not a need, it's

reckless and irresponsible to continue to shovel money out the door. if there's a need to reinvest in critical areas like unemployment benefits, reopening of schools, vaccine distribution, or the paycheck protection program, we can and we should replenish those funds through targeted proposals. and i would hope, as before, we would be able to proceed on a bipartisan basis. while senator schumer is clearly on the warpath to get this massive relief to the senate on a partisan vote, at least one of our democratic colleagues has shown some hesitation about going along with this plan. senator manchin, the senator from west virginia, said this week he wouldn't vote for a covid-19 package that wasn't bipartisan. i hope he'll stick by his guns. congress has passed five overwhelmingly bipartisan covid-19 bills last year.

we have overcome disagreements before, and i have no doubt we could if we were to try to do so again. this crisis has affected americans in red states and blue states alike. it would be a shame for the democratic leader to shut out half of this chamber in an effort to claim a reckless win for his party. we need to remember, just like the teachers that teach our students, they need to keep their focus on the children and on their education needs and their safety. and we need to keep our attention on our constituents and what their needs are. and try to be responsive to their needs, not try to gain some partisan advantage at their expense. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. toomey: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. president, i want to address the budget resolution we're going to vote on later today and, to be clear, this is a device that makes it possible subsequently to pass this massive blowout spending bill that president biden has proposed and to do it on a strictly party-line vote.

that's -- that's what this is all about. and it's disappointing at many, many levels, not the least of which is just 15 days ago president biden made an impassioned call for unity. he said, and i quote, this is an historic moment of crisis and challenge and unity is the path forward. well, there's nothing about unity in this exercise. this is designed to be a partisan exercise. it is designed not to find common ground. it appears not to be informed by any objective measure of needs. and the only organizing principle in this bill that i can figure out is the desire to spend a massive amount of money on things that aren't required. oh, and it's worse than that. it willfully ignores the adverse impacts some of these policies are going to have. and part of what's so maddening

about this is we've demonstrated up until now anyway that we can pass major, bipartisan legislation. we've done it five times already. but no more. president biden and the democrats who control the senate and the house don't want to pursue a bipartisan -- bipartisan legislation anymore. i guess those days are behind us for now, according to them. but i would remind my colleagues of what a dramatic departure that is from what we've been doing about this covid crisis. back in march, in april when states constitute down their economies and we -- when states shut down their economies and we went into a full-blown economic crisis, we responded with massive, bold legislation, the biggest of which, the march bill, had a huge category that was designed and in fact did replace lost income for people who through no fault of their own were out of work. it had a category for hospitals,

the p.p.p. -- p.p.e., i should say, all kinds of health care-related needs. and we had a set of provisions that were designed to provide liquidity you -- liquidity, to provide loans for businesses so they could survive and people would have a place to go back to work after this was behind us. we did that. actually, we did five bills altogether. every one of them overwhelmingly bipartisan. in the senate, each of the five got over 90 votes. the biggest of them didn't have a single no vote. my point is, we've demonstrated we can pass big, bold, unprecedented legislation if people on both sides of the aisle want to work together. we did it five times last year. but our democratic colleagues don't want to pursue that anymore. because they have a different objective in mind. by the way, the last of the five was the second-largest of all time.

a covid relief package of almost $1 trillion, and it was signed into law 39 days ago, and literally hundreds of billions of dollars that money is still unspent. and yet we're told we need yet another $1.9 trillion. this is unbelievable. part of the reason senior senator so unbelievable is that the -- part of the reason it is so unbelievable is that the economy is not close to where it was back in march or april. not even close. we were in -- we were in a situation we'd never been in before. we'd shut down our economy. it was absolutely devastating, very, very scary. and, fortunately, in part because of our response, i think, we were able to avoid a depression, an extended disastrous period, and we have begun a robust recovery. consider some of the data, right? in april of last year, the unemployment rate hit almost 15%. today it is at 6.7%.

some economists didn't think we'd get below 7% until the end of this year. we have 18 states in the union that have unemployment rates below 5%. after a devastating downdraft of our economy in the second quarter, the third quarter came roaming back. the third quarter, the economy grew by 33%. that was a long way towards recovering what we had lost in the second quarter, not complete. the c.b.o.'s economic outlook for this entire year is nearly 5%. we have a strong recovery that's underway. now look, we're not there yet. we're not back to the tremendously booming economy we had just before the pandemic hit, but we do know that the vast majority of the economic pain that people are going through, it's concentrated in a

handful of very hard-hit industries. it's hospitality, travel, entertainment. we know that. so what we should be asking ourselves is have we done what we need to do for these particular sectors and the people in these sectors who are hurting. but $1.9 trillion for the entire economy. i mean, think about this statistic. total employee compensation in the second and third quarters of last year was down. that's not surprising, right. total employee compensation was down because so many people were out of work. it was down by about $215 billion. government transfer payments to individuals was up by almost $900 billion. that's more than four times the lost income. and now we're told we need another whole round of these

universal so-called stimulus checks, checks that go out to everyone regardless of whether you actually had any lost income. well, it happens that personal income is actually higher today than it was before the pandemic hit. disposable real per capita income rose last year at the fastest rate since 1984. personal savings rate is at an all-time high for most of 2020, the highest since 1974 now. rand that's all -- and that's all before the bill we passed 39 days ago that sends still more money to people. so i don't, i don't see the data that suggests we need yet another round of these universal stimulus checks. but in president biden's bill that we're in the process of facilitating today, that is almost a half a trillion dollars we're going to spend this way. this money is not lying on the

shelf, by the way. we're either going to print it or we're going to borrow it from overseas. and president biden has pretty much admitted this is about fulfilling a campaign promise. the fact is the vast majority of the 160 million americans that have received checks already never had any lost income. they never lost their job. they never lost their check. what federal employee, for instance, of the many categories i could cite, what federal employee lost their paycheck because of the covid crisis? i don't know of them. my staff continued to get paid throughout this entire period. but they all get checks. think about this. if president biden's plan passes as our democratic colleagues want to pass it and the eligibility criteria for these checks follows the methodology from the previous two rounds of checks, then a family of four with household income of

$150,000 will receive $5,600. that's on top of the $5,800 they got from the previous rounds. so a total of $11,400 that we're going to mail out to a family that had six-figure income and no income loss. how does this make any sense? consider the expanded unemployment benefits. now i was all in favor of it. i remain in favor of expanding eligibility for unemployment benefits because we, we've got a lot of folks that work in the gig economy, they're self-employed, and they have not been able historically to participate in the unemployment insurance program. i'm in favor of having made those folks eligible, but we've already done that. they're totally eligible. on top of eligibility, back in march when we passed the cares act, we added $600 a week to

unemployment checks, just to do it. well, it turns out that 70%, according to the university of chicago, their analysis, about 70% of everybody who was unemployed ended up getting paid more money not to work than they get paid to work. in what universe does that make sentence we've had unemployment insurance for decades. never, anywhere at any time, under any circumstances have we designed the program so that we'd pay you more not to work than you make working. the reason we've never done that is because it doesn't make any sense. now, president biden's is not for $600, but it's $400 of extra payments above and beyond what unemployment insurance pays. and if that happens, then over half of all the beneficiaries will be paid more not to work than they would get paid if they actually worked, and that will only slow the economic recovery as well as not make any sense. not to mention the invasion of

fraud. by the way -- the invitation of fraud. by the way, it's estimated there have been $10 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments in california alone. speaking of california, state and local governments -- now this is rich -- in this $1.9 trillion spending bonanza, there's $350 billion to go to state and local governments. now we know many of our democratic colleagues that wanted to bail out these fiscally irresponsible and insolvent states and municipalities for a long time. but here's what's unbelievable, we're told there's a fiscal crisis here. just look at the numbers. the total of state and local tax collections in 2020 were up by $21 billion over 2019. let me be clear about this. in 2019 the amount of revenue

collected by state and local governments hit an all-time record high. 2019. in 2020, they broke the record. all-time record amount of revenue collected. this, by the way, does not include the $572 billion that the federal government said to these state and local governments through the five bills that we've already passed. so they've got all-time record revenue on their own. we sent them $572 billion more, and now we're told we've got to send them yet another $350 billion. look, let's not kid ourselves. this is just a complete bailout of insolvent and irresponsible states. that's what this is. this hasn't got anything to do with a pandemic. minimum wage, that's in this bill as well. the president's proposal, another terrible idea. $15 an hour minimum wage. what this is guaranteed to do is destroy the jobs of lower-income

people. and guess what? a disproportionate number of them work in the hardest-hit industries like hotels and restaurants. this isn't just my speculation. the congressional budget office projects that if we have a $15 mandatory minimum wage nationally, which is what the president's proposal would do, we'd lose at least 1.3 million jobs, maybe as high as 3.7 million jobs. and of course this will disproportionately affect young people just entering the resource. that's the biggest category of people who are paid at the low end of the pay scale. and so we'll just take away the ladder that these folks need to step on to in order to build the ability to provide for themselves and their families. we've got a moratorium on evictions from the c.d.c. which gets extended.

this is unbelievable. first of all, it's absurd to think that the c.d.c. has the authority to impose this universally and throughout america. they just don't. it's also a terrible precedent to say that despite the fact that our unemployment rate is below 7% and we have more than replaced lost income, people don't have to pay their rent. and let's be honest about the consequence. there's only one consequence that will happen as a result of this less affordable housing and higher rents because a landlord will have to think about how high he's going to having to. he's either going to to get out of the business or raise the rent to cover that period when the government pursues this senseless policy. now health provisions is an area that is in a category unto itself here, and specifically i

think every single person in this body would agree it's absolutely essential that we get as many vaccines into as many arms as quickly as we possibly can. that's certainly my view. that, for the sake of eliminating human suffering, to prevent unnecessary deaths, and on a much lower level of importance, but also to help restore our, the vibrancy of our economy, that's what we've got to do. we've got to put as many vaccines into as many arms as quickly as we can. well, today there's around 260 million americans who are eligible to receive covid-19 vaccines. we've got an average of about 1.3 million doses actually being administered every day. it's the highest daily rate of doses being administered anywhere in the world. and i'm trying to understand what more government spending now is going to do about that. with the federal government, we already purchased 600 million doses, which is enough to vaccinate 300 million americans.

and we've got multiple vaccine candidates. some have already been approved. some are about to be approved. we've already paid for them. and we've also paid for all the other related costs of administering the vaccine. we paid for the r&d in the first place. we bought the production, as i say, 600 million doses. the federal government pays the transportation to deliver the vaccine to the site at which it's going to be administered. the federal government has paid for all the accompanying supplies, the syringes, vials, stoppers, the dry ice to keep it cold, all of that. insurance, medicare covers the cost of putting the vaccine into somebody's arm. we've even allocated money to fund the planning of the execution of this plan. it's pretty clear to me that in talking to pennsylvania health care folks who are on the frontlines delivering this and actually vaccinating people that the limiting factor now is

production of the vaccine, and we're going all out. you could take general motors and get them to produce ventilators. general motors can manufacture ventilators pretty quickly. they can do that. you can't get general motors to produce vaccines, not in anything like the time frame we would like. so i'm all ears. if someone can show me how we can spend money that will actually result in getting more people vaccinated more quickly, then i'm for it. i just haven't heard that explanation yet, and i haven't seen how it gets allocated in this bill to accomplish that. so, mr. president, president biden had a commendable call to unity in his early addresses to the nation, but this exercise we're going through today is suggesting that that kind of rings hollow. just a few weeks into office,

and the president and our democratic colleagues seem to be abandoning what had consistently been overwhelmingly bipartisan, successful, major responses to this covid crisis, and now it seems that they are on a one-party partisan track to pass a bunch of their liberal wish list items, much of which has nothing to do with the circumstances we face. the fact is what we ought to be working on is maximizing the speed of vaccinations and ensuring that we return our economy that will allow people to get back to work so that we can have the prosperity that we had before this pandemic struck. what we shouldn't be doing is using the pandemic as the excuse to pass a longing standing partisan policy wish list. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. tester: i have four requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. tester: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise today to urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support this veterans covid-19 relief package to do right by the millions of veterans across our country struggling with this pandemic. for months i have been hearing from folks back home in montana on the need for congress to put together a smart, targeted package that will quickly provide communities across the country with the resources they need to weather this storm. this includes delivering assistance and vaccines to those who have worn the uniform and sacrificed for our liberties.

if this year has taught us anything, it is that we need to secure additional resources to expand medical services, mental health care and telehealth capabilities to protect and support our most vulnerable populations. and we need a distribution plan that'll provide more predictability when it comes to administering vaccines. that way we can get more vaccines into the veterans' arms as quickly as possible. so today we're putting a bicameral proposal on the table that delivers tangible relief to veterans and their families and to all americans who need it t as we all know, proposals are rarely ever perfect. and this package is no different. but the truth is, we have good provisions in this bill that allow us to provide serious relief to those who swore an oath to protect our country, it

will slow the spread of the virus and it will help save lives. the previous package that was put forth by my republican colleagues, i would say thank you for doing that. but, unfortunately, that package didn't put as much as a dime to support our veterans and families. now, there are a lot of things we disagree upon in this body, but delivering for our nation's veterans should never be one of them. that's why my colleagues and i worked with the biden administration on this new relief package that allocated $17 billion in critical resources and assistance to the men and women who serve this country. the truth is that out of almost seven million veterans that the v.a. serves nationwide, only 638,000 veterans have been vaccined so far. and serious efforts need to be made to reach more veterans, especially those veterans who live in rural and frontier areas. additional funding under our proposal allows the v.a. to

increase vaccine distribution and outreach efforts to remote areas, including all veterans who want a vaccine can receive one. it even goes a step further in accelerating deployment of v.a. supply chain modernization initiative to improve the department's preparedness and response to emergencies. and it takes an aggressive approach in assisting vulnerable veterans by providing medical health care options, medical equipment and additional services to women vets, those at risk of homelessness, and those who face unemployment. now, make no mistake, this pandemic is taking a dangerous toll on our veterans. veterans are experiencing job losses at unprecedented rates. the veteran unemployment rate for december was roughly double what it was this time last year, up from 2.8% to 5.2%. and with older veterans continuing to face more difficulty in the job market, it

makes this package even more necessary today. our proposal helps tackle veteran unemployment by establishing a v.a. rapid retraining assistance program that will strengthen existing job opportunities and establish new resources to get veterans employed and back on their feet. and for folks burdened by health care costs, our provisions waive co-payments and debt collection. because no veteran should have to worry about choosing between accessing essential health care and providing for their family during a global pandemic and an economic crisis. when veterans elect officials to congress, they do so with the expectation that they will get the job done. so while this proposal is not a silver bullet, it is our best shot, however, at getting more

folks vaccined and our -- vaccinated and our economy back on strack. there should be no excuses. veterans and aliments are looking at us -- veterans and all americans are looking at us to do the right thing. we do need this today. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: leahy for many years and more

recently with senator jones from her home state ofalabama .

she's going to do a fantastic job helping the senate through its day-to-day responsibilities and i look forward to seeg her appear on the dais

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you. i ask that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you. i joined some of my colleagues at the white house yesterday to talk with president biden and vice president harris to talking about what it will take to make real progress against the pandemic and to make a real difference in people's lives. our country is in the middle of a once-in-a-generation crisis. this is our opportunity to deliver for them. yesterday i came to the floor to talk about the need for direct stimulus checks and for rental assistance and tax cuts for working families and to use the defense production act to get more people vaccinated more quickly. today i'm here to talk about the critical help in this plan, in the biden plan, for our nation's veterans and their families. since the beginning of the

pandemic, 9,300 veterans have died of covid-19. right now at least 9,000 veterans are sick with this virus. our plan would ensure that frontline v.a. employs have the protective -- employeees have the protective equipment they need. it would help us get more veterans and v.a. workers vaccinate. we know that nothing is more critical now than getting vaccines into people's arms, especially as we face new, more contagious variants. so far v.a. provided 800,000 initial doses of vaccines to veterans and employees, additional funding would ramp up both vaccine distribution and be covid treatments. in order to continue to meet our nation's and veterans medical needs, v.a. shifted to new methods of caring, included expanded telehealth. we know the need for expanded

capabilities will continue to grow. v.a. will need additional funding to meet veterans needs, where they are so they can stay home, so they can stay safe wherever possible, and provide them with the health care they've earned. v.a. -- in too many cases v.a. has been able to freeze bills, if you will, to veterans who accrue co-payment and fees for care during the pandemic. that was the right move and discussions with the v.a. medical center directors in ohio, i said we should use as much flexibility as possible to waive these debts. some of these co-pays and fees amounted to $2,000 for some veterans, for them to have the bill come due right after the holidays was cruel, as we were seeing cases spike and uncertainty continue. we know any large medical bill can be a shock, and during these uncertain times, we should work to lessen that burden especially to take away that stress on our veterans. that's why our plan would

provide co-payment relief to all veterans as the pandemic continues. if a vet was charged a v.a. co-pay regardless of whether the care was covid-19 related or not, that co-pay would be waived. it would reimburse veterans who have already paid their bills, who have already paid their bills to the v.a. i thank chairman tester and chairman schatz for their work on this plan. many of our nation's veterans are on a fixed income. it will mean so much to them to not have to worry about another medical bill. last week dennis mcdonough came before the veterans administration committee. i asked him about a proposed program that would require military borrowers who are coming out of covid-19 mortgage forebearance to pay back their missed payments with interest within ten years. the v.a. program would be more expensive than what other federal mortgage payments are offering. think about that. we charge veterans more than others through this program.

it makes no sense. it would make it more likely that v.a. borrowers will fall behind on these new higher monthly payments. he gave me his word that he would look into the program and work with me to ensure no v.a. homeowner is left with worse option than borrowers in other federally backed loan programs. we're about to have new leadership at the v.a., leadership that understands that the decisions made in washington bact veterans in l portland, massachusetts, in columbus, dayton and chillicothe. veterans in cleveland don't care how the senate passes this, they don't care about regular order, reconciliation. they just want the help they need. that's why we need to go big. veterans care about when they get the vaccine, when they can get an appointment with their medical health professional, whether v.a. providers have enough protective equipment so they can continue to do their jobs. i ask colleagues of both parties let's get this done. no time for squabbling over senate procedure.

the senate used these fast-tracking budget measures over and over in times far less dire, far less stressful than what we face today, mr. president. that's why it's so important that -- just go back and remember what senator mcconnell had no problem in 2017, during the leader's first term had no money pouring money into leader's coffers. there was no emergency. the only emergency was lobbyists were lined up outside of senator mcconnell's offices asking for a tax cut for their corporation. now senator mcconnell claims he can't afford to help everyone else. we didn't win world war ii by worrying about whether or not we could afford it. general eisenhower didn't call president roosevelt in early june 1944 and say do we have enough dollars for d-day. of course not. our veterans know that. they know we're in a global crisis. they know we've marshaled all our vast resources and talent to rise to meet it.

then we grew the economy after the war from middle class out, we paid down the debt with rising wages. this is a war too. americans elected new leaders because they were tired of the president and the majority leader who refused to treat this war with the same urgency. people are tired of being told we can't do it, we can't afford it, we've done enough. let's aim higher in this country. let's deliver for the people we serve. let's come together. let's pass this. let's make a real difference in americans' lives. thank you, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: that you want. i'm -- does the senator wish to dispense with the quorum call? p. mr. blumenthal: i am so sorry. i ask that the mandatory quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: i'm honored to follow my colleague, senator

brown on an issue that should be close to all of our hearts, which is strengthening our v.a. so that it can provide more assistance, more help, more support for our nation's heroes. i had the great opportunity last sunday to spend time at the west haven v.a. hospital where literally thousands of vaccines are being administered hour by hour to our veterans. around 25% of the veterans of connecticut eligible to receive it have vaccinations administered to them. that 25% is way above the 10% of the entire population of our state, and it is a great

beginning under the leadership of al montoya at the west haven v.a. and his remarkable team, our nation's heroes are receiving the vaccinations they need and deserve, more than 8,000 already. and the staff of the v.a., 2,500, have received vaccinations. not all want it, but the v.a. is reaching out to them, literally person by person to ask them to come and assure them that this vaccination is safe and effective. most assuredly it is. so the v.a. is moving forward, but much more needs to be done. and a lot of that v.a. target population is among the most vulnerable by virtue of age, by virtue of preexisting

conditions, by virtue of their service and exposure and comorbidities. and that is why this plan, the american rescue plan's distributing covid-19 vaccines to veterans is so critically important. 9,000 v.a. patients have died of coronavirus, although one million nationwide of our veterans have received vaccinations, there are many, many more who have not. and these vaccines are reaching the arms of veterans, but the v.a. system needs support and investment to do its job. likewise, this pandemic has imposed mental health burdens on our veterans. the veterans who are shut in, likewise, the veterans who have

no homes, veterans in all parts of the country have been stressed and strained just like everyone else. in fact, maybe more so. and medical health services available through telemedicine are more important than ever, but they alone are not going to accomplish this purpose. so again, what we've seen in connecticut through the cbots and through telemedicine all shows additional investment will produce even better care for our veterans. a lot of our veterans have debts, some of them medical debts. they need help. and this american rescue plan

provides assistance for them. i've been a long-term advocate of extending v.a. health care to more veterans. i'm proud this plan would allow struggling veterans to get more health care at the v.a., but relieving veterans from the burden of medical costs is not enough. we need to deliver stimulus payments, unemployment insurance, aid to small businesses so that we can lift the broader economic pain brought on by covid-19. veterans are part of our general population. those general programs are part of what we owe to them. all these programs need more oversight and more vigorous scrutiny as we go forward to prevent the kind of waste or delay that we've seen sometimes in veterans programs. that's why the funds for the v.a. would be directed in part to oversight by the v.a. office

of the inspector general. through oversight by the inspector general in combination with rigorous congressional oversight, we can ensure that these dollars are being spent effectively in accordance with congressional priorities in a way that best supports our veterans. a broader plan is also necessary. a broader infrastructure plan that will, for example, reconstruct and rehabilitate that west haven hospital. it dates from the 1950's. it has a new shell, but its structure is aging and aged, degrading and sometimes in some ways decrepit. the v.a. has done a great job of sustaining and maintaining it, but this reconstruction is absolutely necessary. the capital investment must be made. and so our v.a. facilities,

airports, roads and bridges all are in need of vital repair and reconstruction. that is part of the broader plan that must be undertaken. priority must be given to those v.a. facilities. just a few months ago we suffered in connecticut a tragic accident when two workers at that v.a. hospital were killed while they were doing maintenance. it was unnecessary, avoidable, preventable, but it demonstrates the weaknesses and defects in the construction that remains in that hospital. it must be remediated and improved, and the best way to do it is through a new building, not just a new exterior, not just cosmetic

work, but truly an infrastructure program that keeps faith with our veterans. there is no excuse for delaying this covid-19 rescue plan. delay is unconscionable. time is not on our side. we need decisive, bold, and big action to meet the needs that our veterans have and all of the american people have in this time of unique, painful, and continuing crisis. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. a senator: i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: i come to the floor today to make the case that we should invest $10 billion in the prevention and defeat of covid-19 in the foreign assistance portion of this budget resolution. for so long as covid-19 is anywhere, it can spread everywhere. directly threatening our national security, our economy, and the health and safety of the american people.

covid-19 has devastated the world. to date there have been nearly 103 million confirmed cases worldwide, more than two million people have died, including over 450,000 in the united states. the lock downs necessitated by the pandemic have triggered the worst recession since the great depression. we must join with our partners and allies around the globe to end the scourge once and for all. now, with so many americans shattered by the death, disruption, and economic devastation unleashed by coronavirus, i am sure more than a few would question why we should bother spending any resources in the global fight against covid-19 let alone $10 billion. the simple answer is covid-19

knows no borders. the pandemic didn't start here but it came here. the world is in a race against covid-19 and we cannot lose. for the longer we allow this virus to spread, the more it will mutate into new strains, and the more that it mutates into new strains, the greater the threat to the efficacy of our vaccines and our ability to rebuild our economy and restore our way of life. this $10 billion investment will ramp up american efforts to fight covid-19 and stop new variants before they reach our shores and cost more american lives. it will fund humanitarian assistance to respond to the suffering inflicted by covid-19 and channel resources to international organizations charged with and are responding to these challenges in

preventing further spread. and it will support the global race to develop new vaccines. as dr. anthony fauci publicly stated last month, we have to start work now preparing additional vaccines to deal with new and variant strains of covid-19. this will require investment both at home and abroad. in addition, we must invest in international research and development and support technology transfers so that vaccines capable of protecting us from future variants are produced and made available quickly around the world. the package also includes funding for global health programs that strengthen health systems in developing countries. as we've learned firsthand, covid-19 can overwhelm eep the

-- even the most robust health care systems. the longer we allow covid-19 to ravage health systems around the globe, the longer it will remain a threat to the united states. the resolution will also help us protect two decades worth of investments to combat the spread of hiv-aids, tuberculosis, and malaria through the global fund. specifically, the resolution ensures that lifesaving treatments for those three deadly diseases continues. it also provides resources to support the global fund's newly developed covid-19 response mechanism allowing countries to better prevent, care for, and treat this disease. mr. president, it's hard to recap the scale of the suffering unleashed by this pandemic but here's would we know.

-- what we know. the number of people facing famine-like conditions around the world has doubled. child malnutrition and death rates are on the rise. through this resolution we will be able to address the pandemic's toll on the most vulnerable, including children and refugees by funding organizations such as the world food programme and unicef. it will also enable us to fund -- dramatically increased rates of violence against women and girls, what the united nations has called the shadow pandemic of gender-based violence. it will provide urgently needed funding for the world health organization which the biden administration rejoined on the president's first day in office. we cannot forfeit our seat at the table to other countries who do not share our values or our interests. we must engage and we must lead. finally, the resolution will

support ongoing state department and usaid operations that protect americans overseas and advance our diplomatic and economic interests around the globe. we must begin to undo the damage to the state department and usaid wrought by the trump administration and ensure both agencies have the resources to deal with the effects of covid-19 including the impacts of our foreign service officers and their families, embassy operations, and loss revenue due to disruption of services, even as we look to replenish and revive these critical instruments for our national security. so, mr. president, i'll end where i began. we cannot seal ourselves and believe that we can avoid any consequences from any place across the globe. disease, including this one, knows no boundaries, knows no

borders. unclz covid-19 is stamped out globally, american lives and livelihoods remain at risk. simply put our international efforts to stop the spread of covid-19 abroad are directly linked to our national and economic security at home. so i urge all of my colleagues to support continued relief, recovery, and prevention efforts by voting in support of the budget resolution. and i yield the floor to my distinguished colleague, fellow senior member of the senate foreign relations committee mr. cardin. mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: mr. president, first, let me thank chairman menendez, the chair of the foreign relations committee, for his advocacy in getting into this budget resolution the $10 billion for the global response to covid-19. and i just want to underscore what chairman menendez said from the beginning. this global response will not only save lives around the

world, it will save lives here at home. in one year, 450,000 americans have lost their life to covid-19. 2.6 million worldwide. the united states has the distinction of having the largest number of fatalities and infections of any country in the world. this is a challenge that requires the leadership of the united states of america. if we're going to beat covid-19, america must be in the leadership to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible. so what does that require? it requires us to take the right steps at home and the budget resolution before us gives us the resources to do that with the production and distribution, fair distribution of vaccines, in dealing with the needs for testing, dealing for the needs

of those businesses and individuals that have been directly affected by covid-19. all that is dealt with in this package, but we also need to work responsibly in the global community. and that's what this $10 billion will allow us to do, to be leaders globally as well as what we do as home -- at home. president biden has already taken the initial steps by rejoining the world health organization and joining the covid-19 vaccine global access facility so that 190 countries in the world, we can join together to make sure that everyone gets access to this vaccine, particularly in low and middle-income countries that otherwise would be challenged. why? because that's our values. humanitarian concerns globally. but it's also in our individual interests because if this virus is not contained in a country,

it will get to the united states. and as chairman menendez says, the longer this vaccine goes -- the longer this virus goes globally, the more variants we're going to see and the tougher it's going to be for us to be able to control the covid-19 around the world and in the united states of america. 104 million infections globally. this is a global pandemic and requires a global response. and this budget resolution gives us the wherewithal in order to do that. and as senator menendez has pointed out, it's not only the deal with the direct eradication of the virus, which we have to do, but the consequences of the virus and world poverty and hunger and those issues that are important for the united states

to lead the global community and dealing with the aftermath of this terrible virus. so, mr. president, i just really wanted to come to the floor to underscore there are so many reasons to support this budget resolution, but the one that i just really wanted to underscore today is that we are not only dealing with the issues at home, we're being responsible citizens of the world, leading by example, and leading by engagement which will help the health care of the people in america and our national security. and with that i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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