mr. toomey: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i'm here because i am absolutely shocked at what happened on this floor a little while ago and i'm going to try to convey to my colleagues a sense of the urgency that i think this moment demands, and they apparently don't understand because our democratic colleagues all voted to prevent us from considering this legislation. so let me start with the context that we're operating in, mr. president, because it's unbelievable. i -- i wouldn't think i would need to go through this but just to be clear, we've been invaded by a potentially lethal species, a virus that is infecting americans, now by the tens of thousands, growing numbers every day. it's killing americans, including in my state. we have infected people in every single one of our states and the numbers are growing rapidly. in response to this threat, we've been t

mr. toomey: thank you, mr. president. and i want to thank the senator from wisconsin for leading on this effort. i rise in strong support of this amendment, mr. president. the two of us, and i expect most everybody in this chamber, fully support the idea, the goal, the need to provide relief to workers who have been affected by this pandemic. that's not what's in dispute here. there is a legitimate and serious concern about the mechanism that is provided. the house bill imposes a very significant administrative burden on the very small businesses struggling to survive. weefer all taking these phone calls from all across our states, men and women who are operating a business, and they are on the edge and trying to figure out out how do we stay alive? how do we keep this business alife until we come out the other side? they are struggling with tough decisions that they are having to make for the first time ever in completely unchartered waters. and then this legislation comes along and says, by the way, now you're going to