Coronavirus (Cong. Rec., May 14, 2020)

Summary

A page of the Congressional Record for Thursday, May 14, 2020, Vol. 166, No. 91, opening with the Senate proceedings. The Senate meets at 10:30 a.m. with Mr. Grassley presiding, and the Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, offers a prayer. Under Coronavirus, Mr. McConnell says the Chairman of the Federal Reserve reports nearly 4 in 10 American households earning less than $40,000 had someone laid off in March, and describes the CARES Act. Mr. Grassley speaks on Regulatory Enforcement, urging Americans to share ideas on due process. Mr. Thune ends the page by criticizing a House coronavirus bill as a wish list, with a USA FREEDOM Reauthorization heading earlier on the page.

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“Coronavirus (Cong. Rec., May 14, 2020).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-05-14-crec-2020-05-14-pt1-pgs2431-6-523827aa78/, SHA-256 44aade6a5a48a0bc2268c86a41a030c23de5d67e723c598ecdebec90b059b4ea.

Full text

Congressional Record
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116 th CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION
United States
of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE

Vol. 166 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2020 No. 91

Senate
The Senate met at 10:30 a.m. and was their States. But it is not every day Just a few months ago, millions of
called to order by the President pro that we hear about the executive hard-working men and women were
tempore (Mr. GRASSLEY). branch of government and its bureauc- thriving and optimistic. They were
f racy making an effort to listen to the making big plans across kitchen tables.
American people. Fortunately, that is Now all of that is in chaos.
PRAYER changing under this administration. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve
The Chaplain, Dr. Barry C. Black, of- I have advised the people of Iowa, and reports that nearly 4 in 10 American
fered the following prayer: I am advising them again—and, hope- households that earn less than $40,000 a
Let us pray. fully, my colleagues will have their year had somebody get laid off in the
Almighty God, guide our lawmakers constituents take advantage of it—that month of March alone. This emergency
today to think of themselves as Your this administration in January, is very serious, so the Senate’s re-
faithful servants eager to do Your bid- through the White House, put out a sponse has been serious.
ding. May they strive less for success call to Americans who deal with Fed- In March, Senate Republicans de-
and more for faithfulness, realizing eral regulations to share their ideas on signed and the full Senate passed the
that You expect dependability from how to ensure that those who face reg- CARES Act. It pushed trillions of dol-
them. ulatory enforcement have due process lars to working families, job creators,
Lord, give them the wisdom to be- and get a fair shake. Those ideas will and medical professionals. We sent di-
lieve that though they may plant and now be used to make regulatory en- rect cash to almost 130 million Ameri-
water the seeds of our Nation’s destiny, forcement fairer. Take advantage of cans. We delivered hundreds of billions
only You can bring the harvest. As this opportunity. of dollars in paycheck protection loans
they look to You, the Lord of the har- Americans who face a burden of com- to small businesses, saving tens of mil-
vest, soothe their doubts and calm plying with regulations should have a lions of American jobs. We helped
their fears. And Lord, we thank You for voice in making the process better, and State and local governments defray
the many courageous staffers who en- I applaud this administration for lis- coronavirus costs. We funded
able the Senate to function. tening to the American people. healthcare providers and testing. Even
We pray in Your gracious Name. I yield the floor. now, its programs are still taking ef-
Amen. I suggest the absence of a quorum. fect, still coming online, still helping.
f The PRESIDING OFFICER. The The Senate took a blank sheet of paper
clerk will call the roll. and turned it into the largest rescue
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE The senior assistant legislative clerk package in history.
The President pro tempore led the proceeded to call the roll. We have taken this crisis seriously,
Pledge of Allegiance, as follows: Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, but the House Democrats have taken a
I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the I ask unanimous consent that the order totally different approach. While we fi-
United States of America, and to the Repub- for the quorum call be rescinded. nalized the CARES Act, the House
lic for which it stands, one nation under God, The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without parachuted in with miscellaneous lib-
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. objection, it is so ordered. eral demands that were completely un-
The PRESIDING OFFICER. (Mrs. f related to COVID–19—solar energy tax
HYDE-SMITH). The Senator from Iowa. credits, airline emissions. One senior
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I RECOGNITION OF THE MAJORITY House Democrat called the virus a
ask permission to address the Senate LEADER ‘‘tremendous opportunity to restruc-
in morning business for 1 minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- ture things to fit our vision.’’ One Sen-
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without jority leader is recognized. ate Democratic colleague asked: ‘‘How
objection, it is so ordered. f many times are we going to get a shot
f at a $1 trillion-plus program?’’ They
CORONAVIRUS told us exactly what they were up to,
REGULATORY ENFORCEMENT Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, so we ignored the leftwing wish list and
REFORM this pandemic is weighing heavily on stayed serious, and the CARES Act is
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, the American people. Roughly, 1.4 mil- still helping Americans bridge these
an important part of my job—and I lion Americans have been infected, temporary shutdowns.
hope for every Senator—is hearing the more than 80,000 have died, and unem- So let’s fast-forward to today. The
views, in my case, of Iowans but in the ployment has not been this high since Democratic House is still not back in

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case of my colleagues, the citizens of World War II. Washington. Its constitutional duty

∑ This ‘‘bullet’’ symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor.

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S2432 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 14, 2020
stations are still unmanned, but the Forget about making law; this thing leagues and I have made clear, strong
Democrats cannot stop salivating over even fails as a messaging bill. That is legal protections will be a hard redline
the possibilities for partisan gain. what is so remarkable. The House in any future legislation.
Former Vice President Biden says he Democrats had a blank slate to write That is what is happening here in the
sees this tragedy as an ‘‘incredible op- anything they wanted to define the Senate—serious leadership on a serious
portunity . . . to fundamentally trans- modern Democratic Party—any vision crisis like we have been doing for
form the country.’’ Biden said it is an for the society that they wanted—and months. This half of the Capitol is
‘‘incredible opportunity . . . to fun- here is what they chose: tax hikes on doing our job.
damentally transform the country.’’ small businesses, giveaways to blue f
Speaker PELOSI said: ‘‘I see every- State millionaires, government checks
thing as an opportunity.’’ for illegal immigrants, and sending di- RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME
A cochair of the Congressional Pro- versity detectives to inspect the pot in- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under
gressive Caucus said: ‘‘For me, the le- dustry. The House gave itself no as- the previous order, the leadership time
verage is that there is enormous suf- signments for 2 months except to de- is reserved.
fering.’’ ‘‘The leverage is that there is velop this proposal. Yet it still reads
enormous suffering.’’ There are 80,000 f
like the Speaker of the House pasted
Americans who have died and more together some random ideas from her CONCLUSION OF MORNING
than 20 million who have lost their most liberal Members and slapped the BUSINESS
jobs. I call that a crisis; they call it le- word ‘‘coronavirus’’ on top of it—an
verage. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning
unserious product from an unserious business is closed.
This week, the Speaker published an
House majority that has spent months
1,800-page seasonal catalog of leftwing f
oddities and called it a coronavirus re- dealing itself out of the crisis.
The House Democrats have been LEGISLATIVE SESSION
lief bill. So here we go again. It in-
missing in action for months. While
cludes a massive Tax Code giveaway to
the Senate was passing the CARES
high earners in blue States. Working
Act, the Democratic House was on the USA FREEDOM REAUTHORIZATION
families are struggling to put food on
sidelines substantively and literally. ACT OF 2020—Continued
the table, but the House Democrats are
They had already gone home. Nearly 2 The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under
prioritizing millionaires on the coasts.
months later, the Senators are back at the previous order, the Senate will re-
It would print another round of
checks—listen to this—specifically for our duty stations with new pre- sume consideration of H.R. 6172, which
illegal immigrants. Can you believe it? cautions. We have been back for 2 the clerk will report.
We forgot to have the Treasury Depart- weeks. We are holding major hearings The senior assistant legislative clerk
ment send money to people who are on the pandemic. We are legislating read as follows:
here illegally. My goodness. What an and confirming nominees. Yet the
A bill (H.R. 6172) to amend the Foreign In-
oversight. Thank goodness the Demo- House is still at home. And when it telligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to pro-
crats are on the case. does contribute, it is not serious. hibit the production of certain business
The Speaker’s bill also tries to use The House Democrats have checked records, and for other purposes.
the virus as cover to implement sweep- out of this crisis and left governing up
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma-
ing changes to election laws that the to the Senate. They even intend to
jority whip.
Democrats have literally wanted for shatter congressional history and jam
CORONAVIRUS
years, like forcing every single State through remote voting so they can con-
tinue to be counterproductive from the Mr. THUNE. Madam President, as
to embrace California’s sketchy ballot the majority leader just pointed out,
harvesting whether they want to or comfort of their homes. Let me say
that again. They even intend to shatter the Senate has been and will be focused
not. on responding to the coronavirus crisis
Then there is the cherry on top. It is congressional history and jam through
remote voting so they can continue to in this country in a way that hopefully
the bold new policy from the Wash-
be counterproductive from the comfort will enable the American people to re-
ington Democrats that will kick the
coronavirus to the curb and save Amer- of their own homes. cover and that will restore our econ-
ican families from this crisis. Here it Look, here in the real world, the Sen- omy—that will get things back to nor-
is—new annual studies on diversity and ate Republicans are working seriously mal. As he pointed out, that requires
inclusion within the cannabis industry. to help the country reopen. The crush- dealing with the health emergency as
There is not one study but two of them. ing unemployment figures, even with well as with the economic emergency
Let me say that again. The Democrats’ the CARES Act, show that no amount crisis that has been created by this.
supposed coronavirus bill includes tax- of Federal spending could substitute With respect to the health emer-
payer-funded studies to measure diver- for the entirety of the U.S. economy. gency, the leader pointed out that
sity and inclusion among the people We need to be smart, and we need to be there are literally tens of billions of
who profit off of marijuana. safe, but we have to find a more sus- dollars being spent now on vaccine re-
The word ‘‘cannabis’’ appears in this tainable middle ground. search, on anti-viral therapeutics, and
bill 68 times—more times than the This week, Chairman ALEXANDER and on testing. We believe that, in order for
word ‘‘job’’ and 4 times as much as the the Committee on Health, Education, us to get our economy fully back, we
word ‘‘hire.’’ Maybe that is just as well Labor, and Pensions heard from Dr. have to deal with the health emergency
because when their proposal does try to Fauci, Dr. Redfield, and other top ex- in front of us, so dollars have been
treat the economic crisis, it proposes perts on exactly this subject. There are made available—hundreds of billions of
stifling, anti-work policies that would at least two big things our Nation will dollars—to healthcare providers, hos-
only make it harder for Americans to need to start recovering: stepped-up pitals, doctors, nursing homes, and pro-
get their jobs back. For example, they testing nationwide and legal liability viders who are on the frontlines of this
literally propose to raise taxes on protections so that K–12 schools, uni- crisis and trying to deal with the chal-
small business and drain more cash versities, charities, and employers are lenges it presents every single day.
from Main Street during a Main Street not invaded by trial lawyers the in- That is what we have focused on. In ad-
meltdown. So maybe it is best if the stant they unlock their doors. dition, we have focused on the eco-
On testing, fortunately, the Senate nomic crisis and the impact it has had

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House Democrats focus on cannabis
studies and leave economics to the rest has already done a great deal. The ex- on our small businesses and on our
of us. ecutive branch and especially the workers.
This is a totally unserious effort. States are in the driver’s seat, but we Everything that has been included in
Even the mainstream media says: have already sent billions of dollars to the bills that have already been passed
‘‘Neither this bill nor anything resem- help scale up testing nationwide. On here in the U.S. Senate—now we have
bling it will ever become law. It’s a legal liability reform, the work lies No. 4—and have been signed into law
Democratic wish list.’’ ahead of us. As my Republican col- by the President have been singularly

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