mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. the presiding officer: mr. president, i'm here on -- mr. portman: i'm here to talk about the steps congress should take with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. i'm start with the legislation that majority leader senator mitch mcconnell introduced yesterday, one of the aspects of it that hasn't gotten much attention and i think is very positive and an effective way to get the economy moving in a safe way is some tax legislation. these are tax credits and tax deductions that help to encourage the hiring of new workers but also to do so in a safe way. these are the kinds of things that make a lot of sense and have a lot of bipartisan support and appeal. so i think it should be part of whatever final package we end up with. the goal of these tax incentives is to say that we want people to reenter the workforce but do it in a safe and sustainable way. for example, in the mcconnell proposal is legislation i introduced called the hea

mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i'm on the floor today to talk about the annual national defense authorization act to support service members and their families. this is one of the few things actually that the senate usually passes and does so on a bipartisan and i'm hopeful we'll do it again. it's because republicans and democrats alike know it is imperative to give the men and women in the armed services to give them the resources they need to carry out their critical missions. i am here to ensure that they get compensated for the hard work and sacrifice they make. it has an across the board 3% increase. as we celebrate 244 years of freedom, i think it's appropriate that we demonstrate our support for the brave men and women in uniform whose sacrifices have ensured the liberty we are celebrating. i'm pleased there's a lot in here important to the people i represent in ohio. at wright patterson air forces base in ohio, the bill authorizes $23.5 million for impo

mr. portman: mr. president, the legislation that senator alexander just talked about probably is something that we will look at in connection with this legislation that we are likely to pass here in the congress in the next week or so regarding the covid-19 crisis that we face. i'm here on the floor today to talk about that, talk about what the next steps ought to be and how we should be responding as congress to this unprecedented challenge we have of the pandemic. we're now about five months into it. for much of april and certainly in the month of may, we were seeing pretty good progress on the coronavirus pandemic. the situation was improving. many of us thought we were turning the corner. unfortunately, as we have moved into june and july, we're now trending in the wrong direction in much of the country. over the past week, the number of hospitalizations, for instance, has risen in many of our states. and there is concern that the situation could worsen when the weather begins to cool. today in oh

mr. portman: we've already had this debate once today when the democratic leader chose to offer this motion knowing that of course it's not serious. what he's talking about here, just after having rejected a very commonsense proposal, which is a one-week extension for the unemployment insurance -- by the way, at $600, which is exactly what the democrats say they want. they want to keep it at $600 even though, as we know from numerous studies, that means that for many people, in fact 68% of the people on unemployment insurance based on the university of chicago study, for 68% of those folks they're making more on unemployment insurance than they can make at work. and i think all of us here in this chamber want to be sure that folks are taken care of. in fact, we just voted on legislation to provide the ability to be able to debate this very issue and other issues. but to say that people should be making substantially more for not working rather than working is something that i think even a lot of my democratic colleagues do not find acceptable. but instead the majority leader is once again o

mr. portman: mr. president, i want to thank senator ernst for putting this colloquy together and what she said the importance of having reliable sources here in america is absolutely right and the supply issue is one i hope we address in the covid-19 package with regard to our personal protective gear, the p.p.e. if we can't rely on having masks and gowns and other p.p.e. made here in america, it's tough for us, particularly during an international pandemic like this to build and rely on countries like china. some of the products that come from china have not been reliable itself. i appreciate what you're doing and the work you're doing to encourage us to be more resourceful here at home to ensure we do what we have to do to protect ourselves from foreign influences, including china. part of our issue with china i think is a lot of us point fingers at china and we're not pointing the fingers at our own internal problems. we need to get our house in order and protect ourselves better. we have legislati

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate your having the opportunity to let us talk to the secretary of state today. this has been very helpful, very informative. i would say with regard to china and developing technologies with our allies we have a lot to do right here in the united states to get our own house in order. we're pretty good at pointing fingers at china and it's usually appropriate but we also aren't doing much here to protect ourselves. and i want to thank you because you have provided some great help from your career professionals with regard to our efforts to push back against china taking our technology. and in particular china has these programs. you mentioned you've been doing it for a while. you've been doing it for two decades where they come over here and find promising research and researchers and systematically target them and take that research up in china. and it is economic, health care, it's everything. and over the last couple of years we've worked hard on this with an investigation,

mr. chairman. >> senator portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. appreciate your having the opportunity to let us talk to the secretary of state today. this has been very helpful, very informative. i would say with regard to china and developing technologies with our allies we have a lot to do right here in the united states to get our own house in order. we're pretty good at pointing fingers at china and it's usually appropriate but we also aren't doing much here to protect ourselves. and i want to thank you because you have provided some great help from your career professionals with regard to our efforts to push back against china taking our technology. and in particular china has these programs. you mentioned you've been doing it for a while. you've been doing it for two decades where they come over here and find promising research and researchers and systematically target them and take that research up in china. and it is economic, health care, it's everything. and over the last couple of years we've worked hard on this with an investigation,

mr. chairman. >> are you there, senator portman. >> i am here. can you hear me okay. >> thank you for being with us today. you're last year and we appreciate that challenges you facthe challenges youface and ht professionally. over all let me say that i'm pleased you got them out as quickly as possible with one data point that was in the testimony it took us ten weeks to get the first adult into his 90 to 95% and i am hearing where is my check and i do think that that was one of the areas needed best in terms of the legislati legislation. where do you do to address some of the problems encountered in the particulars of a it is a priority for the internal revenue service. we tried to get these payments out as quickly as possible and we put together the portal it was marched on april 15 and the 14 million successfully used it. the 6.1 million successfully used and 192 million successfully for their payment so we have moved forward with that information but the focus if the people who added them to try to get payments to a. we are taking the payment

portman: i am here, mr. chairman. can you hear me ok? sen. grassley: i can. sen. portman: thank you for your service. your last year as commissioner must feel like 10 years of service. we appreciate the challenges you face and how you have handled it professionally. i will ask questions about some concerns i have. but overall, let me say that i am pleased you got the checks out as quickly as possible. there has been a lot of discussion about that this morning. one data point in your testimony in 2008, it took us 10 weeks to get the first check out, 10 weeks into this when we had 90%-90 5% of the checks out. i heard from my content -- my constituents about, where is my check? i think that was one of the areas we did bad in terms of the legislation we passed in congress and getting help to people. it was needed. we may do it again. i think these questions are appropriate to ask. one is what are you doing to correct some of the problems that were encountered, in particular those who did not have a bank relationship, were unbanked and have had a tough time getting thei

portman it? senator paul? senator young? senator cruz? senator purdue? >> i'm here, mr. chairman. thank you for your work on this. your work has been very instrumental in moving the entire issue forward. it is greatly appreciated. all moveis can forward. thank you, senator cardin. senator cardin: i would agree with your assessment. this is been an excellent panel and i thank them for their contribution. observations that you've said, country, you a won't be safe unless all countries are safe. u.s. leadership is indispensable. the united states pulling out of who during the middle of this pandemic made no sense whatsoever, recognizing it needed to be reformed. we need to recognize the united states must lead by example. when we live in a country where we have the continuation of the cases,ave and escalating we are not an example the world is going to look to. those are facts we have to deal with. the foreign relations committee has a strong record of the independence of the congress leading our nation. you've mention the fact that we need to provide greater resources. we need to provide resources and congress has

senators king and burr and rubio and merkley and portman and warner, wicker, manchin, shaheen, and collins. all of these have suggested these concepts. and, mr. president, while we're simplifying the student loan repayment system, i propose we also finish the job of reducing the federal loan application of grants and loans which everyone calls fafsa. from about 108 questions to 20 to 33 questions. this is an enterprise that a number of us, both democrats and republicans, have been working on for years, including senator murray, bennet, jones, king, collins, whitehouse, gardner, cornyn, stabenow, tillis, and hassan. so you see there is an unusual amount of bipartisan support for both of these ideas. experts before the senate education committee have testified that simplifying the fafsa this way would remove obstacles that would make it easier for low-income americans to attend colleges and would increase the number of pell grants each year. last fall, congress and the president took the first step in simplifying the fafsa while allowing the i.r.s. to answer 22 questions for which applicants for grants and loans had already answered on their t

mr. president, i'm going to read the entire list so that each member knows the status of his or her amendment. moran 1694, hyde-smith 1881, romney 1883, peters 1753, warner 1803, coons 1808, portman 1891, kennedy 1987, warner 1907, romney 2018, sullivan 2391, tester 1968, bennet 1977, johnson 2077, smith 2058, wicker 2178, cortez masto 2186, king 2215, merkley 2251 , fishcher 2251, gardner 2241, hirono 2269, portman 2243, menendez 2270, inhofe-reed 2248, peters 2275, toomey 2277, inhofe 2204, cantwell-manchin 2417, jones 1797, lankford 1825, loeffler 1878, tester 1966, tester 1971, kennedy 1991, markey 2053, cruz 2138, durbin 2168, feinstein 2217, heinrich 2220, rounds 2235, brown 2257, sasse 2287, boseman 2298, harris 2317, klobuchar 2319, inhofe 2326, young 2327, shelby 2331, wyden 2341, blackburn 2370, blackburn 2378, moran 6789 sanders 2419, lee 2084, van hollen 1849, hassan 2103, and rubio -- excuse me, rubio 2422. the presiding officer: is there objection? the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: mr. president, i am reserving the right to object. this amendment list does not include my amendment 1932, a bill you, mr. president, and i worked on, a bill the majority leader