Coronavirus (Cong. Rec., May 20, 2020)
Summary
Senate pages of the Congressional Record for May 20, 2020, beginning at page S2518. A senator speaks on coronavirus legislation before a vote, saying the four bills passed so far total almost $3 trillion and describing the House bill as 1,800 pages long with $3 trillion in new spending. The cloture motion on the nomination of Anna M. Manasco, of Alabama, to be United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama is read to the Senate. The roll call records yeas 72, nays 20 (Rollcall Vote No. 97 Ex.), and Mr. Durbin announces that certain senators are necessarily absent.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Coronavirus (Cong. Rec., May 20, 2020).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-05-20-crec-2020-05-20-pt1-pgs2518-e8c32dc872/
, SHA-256 877e338d416ae47318539d76e698eb77af5e7b2ff1a14c6af2f39e75d0c3cf77.Full text
S2518 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 20, 2020
The 5G future is here. Let’s make viders, and nursing homes, much of The legislative clerk read as follows:
sure that the United States is ready. which hasn’t been spent yet. Of course CLOTURE MOTION
CORONAVIRUS we have the Paycheck Protection Pro- We, the undersigned Senators, in accord-
Madam President, before we vote gram, which we are burning through ance with the provisions of rule XXII of the
here in just a few minutes, I want to fairly quickly but hasn’t run out of Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby
just make a couple of remarks with re- funding yet either. As I said, those are move to bring to a close debate on the nomi-
spect to coronavirus legislation. We all the things—the almost $3 trillion— nation of Anna M. Manasco, of Alabama, to
have heard some of our colleagues on that have been disbursed and distrib- be United States District Judge for the
Northern District of Alabama.
the Democrat side come down here and uted already to address this crisis.
Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, Joni
attack Republicans for not wanting to What Democrats did last week in the Ernst, John Barrasso, Deb Fischer,
do more legislation and more spending, House of Representatives is that they John Cornyn, Roger F. Wicker, Roy
which is, as they know, completely not came in with a philosophical, ideolog- Blunt, John Thune, Rob Portman,
accurate. Republicans are prepared to ical wish list—a fantasy, if you will—of Shelley Moore Capito, Steve Daines,
do whatever it takes to help America all of the things they would like to get Lindsey Graham, Pat Roberts, Cindy
recover from the coronavirus effects done, very few of which actually deal Hyde-Smith, Richard Burr, Mike
and to deal with the health emergency, with the crisis at hand, so much so Crapo.
which is why we have invested tens of that their bill—1,800 pages long, $3 tril- The PRESIDING OFFICER. By unan-
billions of dollars in vaccines and lion in new spending, again, without imous consent, the mandatory quorum
antiviral therapeutics and testing—all knowing what the effect is of dollars call has been waived.
the things that are necessary to get already spent or what the need is out The question is, Is it the sense of the
this healthcare crisis dealt with in a there for additional spending—included Senate that debate on the nomination
way that would allow Americans the things like funding for studies on di- of Anna M. Manasco, of Alabama, to be
confidence to get back out in the econ- versity and inclusion in the marketing United States District Judge for the
omy. of cannabis. Is that really something Northern District of Alabama, shall be
Secondly, dealing with the economic that is relevant to fighting and bat- brought to a close?
impacts, which have been many, the tling the coronavirus? They included in The yeas and nays are mandatory
bills that we passed so far—we passed there tax increases for small busi- under the rule.
four—and the combined amount of the nesses. The one tax cut they included The clerk will call the roll.
spending in those four bills are almost in their bill dramatically cuts taxes for The legislative clerk called the roll.
$3 trillion. It is focused on families, millionaires and billionaires. In fact, 56 Mr. THUNE. The following Senators
getting direct assistance into the percent of that tax cut would go to the are necessarily absent: the Senator
hands of American families. It is fo- top 1 percent of wage earners in this
from Tennessee (Mr. ALEXANDER), the
cused on workers, keeping workers em- country. Those are the types of things
Senator from North Carolina (Mr.
ployed. This Paycheck Protection Pro- that were included in that bill. It real-
BURR), the Senator from Alaska (Ms.
ly was an ideological wish list—noth-
gram has clearly been one that has al- MURKOWSKI), and the Senator from
ing more, nothing less, and nothing
lowed a lot of small businesses to con- South Dakota (Mr. ROUNDS).
else.
tinue to operate and to continue to So for Democratic leaders to come Further, if present and voting, the
keep their workers employed. It is fo- down here and suggest for a minute Senator from Tennessee (Mr. ALEX-
cused on those who, through no fault of that what the House did somehow ANDER) would have voted ‘‘yea.’’
their own, have lost jobs, with a sig- ought to be something that the Senate Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the
nificant plus-up in unemployment in- contemplates or considers doing here is Senator from Ohio (Mr. BROWN), the
surance accounts, supported at the just completely missing the point of Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. MAR-
State level but significantly increased what the American people need in this KEY), the Senator from Vermont (Mr.
in terms of funding from the Federal crisis, and that is certainty. They need SANDERS), and the Senator from Rhode
Government. to know that we are dealing with the Island (Mr. WHITEHOUSE) are nec-
Of course, as I said earlier, it is fo- health emergency. They need to know essarily absent.
cused very directly on those healthcare that there is going to be support there The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr.
professionals or healthcare workers on for our small businesses, for our work- SASSE). Are there any other Senators
the frontlines, to make sure that they ers, for people who are unemployed, in the Chamber desiring to vote?
have PPE and ventilators, all the and for our families. They need to The yeas and nays resulted—yeas 72,
things not only to protect themselves know that we are committed to seeing nays 20, as follows:
but to care for the patients whom they that we have the vaccines in place, the [Rollcall Vote No. 97 Ex.]
are entrusted to care for. As I said be- therapeutics in place that will enable YEAS—72
fore, investing heavily in those things us to fight and win this battle against Baldwin Fischer Perdue
will help us fight and win and beat the the coronavirus. That is what we ought Barrasso Gardner Peters
coronavirus—the vaccines, the to be focused on, not this crazy wish Blackburn Graham Portman
antiviral therapeutics, and the testing. list of things that the House, in a short Blunt Grassley Reed
Boozman Hassan Risch
Those are all things that we have done amount of time—24 hours—came in Braun Hawley Roberts
already. here to vote on and, as I said earlier, Capito Hoeven Romney
Now, what you saw last week was the much of which was focused on an agen- Cardin Hyde-Smith Rosen
House of Representatives blow into Carper Inhofe Rubio
da—a more permanent agenda—rather Casey Johnson Sasse
town for a 24-hour period to pass a than the task at hand, which is ad- Cassidy Jones Scott (FL)
massive $3 trillion bill filled up with dressing the crisis in front of us. Collins Kaine Scott (SC)
all kinds of goodies in a gift bag for I hope my Democratic colleagues will Cornyn Kennedy Shaheen
special interest groups that they care Cortez Masto King Shelby
work with us in a constructive way and Cotton Lankford Sinema
about but that have little to do with in a bipartisan way to deal with the Cramer Leahy Smith
addressing the fundamental challenges very real challenges that are being Crapo Lee Sullivan
facing this country with respect to the faced by the American people and not Cruz Loeffler Tester
Daines Manchin Thune
coronavirus. continue to come down here and advo- Duckworth McConnell Tillis
I would argue that not only do they cate for an ideological wish list that, Durbin McSally Toomey
not know what the need is but that one, can’t become law, and two, doesn’t Enzi Moran Warner
many of the dollars we have already deal with the task at hand. Ernst Murphy Wicker
dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
Feinstein Paul Young
pushed out are still in the pipeline and I yield the floor.
haven’t been used. We don’t know what CLOTURE MOTION NAYS—20
our State and local governments need The PRESIDING OFFICER. Pursuant Bennet Coons Hirono
in terms of revenue replacement, and to rule XXII, the Chair lays before the Blumenthal Gillibrand Klobuchar
Booker Harris Menendez
we have lots of dollars that are still Senate the pending cloture motion, Cantwell Heinrich Merkley
going out to hospitals, healthcare pro- which the clerk will state.
VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:18 May 21, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G20MY6.008 S20MYPT1
File and source
- File
- CREC_crec-2020-05-20_crec-2020-05-20-pt1-pgs2518.pdf
- Size
- 205,930 bytes
- SHA-256
- 877e338d416ae47318539d76e698eb77af5e7b2ff1a14c6af2f39e75d0c3cf77
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov