Coronavirus (Cong. Rec., Dec. 29, 2020)

Summary

This is S7958 of the Congressional Record, Senate, December 29, 2020, with interleaved columns. Under the heading Coronavirus, a Senator whose name is not printed in the text read says over 330,000 people have died of COVID-19 and that a payment of $2,000 is the most direct form of economic relief, noting that 44 House Republicans voted for the $2,000 payments. The Senator asks that the Senate proceed to H.R. 9051 after the vote on the veto override, and Mr. McConnell objects to the request for modification. Mr. Sanders objects to the original request, and the Senate then goes into a period of morning business, with the views attributed to the speakers.

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., Dec. 29, 2020).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2020-12-29-crec-2020-12-29-pt1-pgs7958-2-c15c9aef66/, SHA-256 b75c3296ea9883a6971b3062a7abf446df660a546f1ee7680c4196360ebbfda2.

Full text

S7958 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 29, 2020
this terrible, unprecedented pandemic, suffering across our country. We can cans lost their benefits, and that is a
over 90 million Americans are unin- see how desperate people are. We can tragedy.
sured or underinsured. In the midst of see how during this holiday season, the A $2,000 check is the most direct and
a pandemic, they are not sure whether people are looking at the prospect, in effective mechanism for delivering eco-
they can afford to go to a doctor. the words of Tony Fauci, where the nomic relief right now to those who are
We are coming to the close of one of worst may be ahead of us for these barely holding on throughout this cri-
the most terrible and painful years in families. The worst may yet to have sis, particularly low-income Ameri-
American history. That is a tragic fact. been actually inflicted upon families cans, immigrant communities, and our
Over 330,000 of our people have died of and our country. Yet the Republicans gig and service workers—our essential
COVID–19, and, as we speak, we are see- are refusing to allow for a vote on giv- workers. They need help. They have
ing recordbreaking numbers of new ing each individual $2,000 in order to been helping our families, and we need
cases, and hospitals around the coun- make it through the rest of this pan- to help their families. Right now, these
try are being overwhelmed with new demic. checks would help 158 million people
admissions. Senator SANDERS today speaks for across our country pay for housing, put
During the last year, the education the millions of Americans who are suf- food on the table, and make sure that
and well-being of tens of millions of fering through a devastating health grandma and grandpa have their diabe-
our young people, from childcare to crisis, an unemployment crisis, an tes or heart medication.
eviction crisis, a hunger crisis, and a That is why Senator SANDERS, Sen-
graduate school, has been disrupted.
ator KAMALA HARRIS, and I introduced
The terrible emotional isolation this crisis of faith—faith that their leaders
legislation to provide every person in
pandemic has caused, where people are in this country will stand up and pro-
our country, regardless of immigration
unable to spend time with their fami- vide for Americans in their hour of
status, with $2,000 monthly recurring
lies and friends, has resulted in a huge need.
Meanwhile, we here in Washington payments in order to help weather this
increase in mental illness, drug addic- storm. We knew then, 7 months ago,
tion, and even suicide. must confront a moral crisis: Why
that a single $1,200 relief check was not
As I mentioned, the House has done can’t we keep working families from
going to be enough to help families get
the right thing. By an overwhelming starving even as we stand ready to ap-
by, and the $600 payment in the latest
vote, Democrats and Republicans voted prove a massive defense bill?
That is why I am here with my col- coronavirus package is a crumb to the
to increase that $600 direct payment to working people who have faced eco-
$2,000. A recent poll came out, and 78 league BERNIE SANDERS to call for a
simple vote to provide $2,000 in direct nomic hardship through no fault of
percent of the American people think their own. It won’t even cover a month
that was the right decision. They are cash payments to Americans across our
of rent, let alone heating bills, food
hurting. They want help. The leaders of country. It is this simple. Just like
bills, Wi-Fi bills for students who are
our country—President Trump, Presi- they did in the House of Representa-
learning from home, and all of the
dent-Elect Biden, Minority Leader tives, the Senate should have a vote—
other expenses that are piling up for
CHUCK SCHUMER, the Speaker of the up or down, yes or no—on providing
these families.
House, NANCY PELOSI—are all in agree- these increased cash payments to des- Now, some of my Republican col-
ment: We have to raise that direct pay- perate Americans. We can get this done leagues have said that providing $2,000
ment to $2,000. quickly and before the holiday if Lead- would be too expensive. Well, here are
So that is where we are right now in er MCCONNELL will simply agree to do some other costs they seem to have
this historic moment. Do we turn our it. They already had this vote in the forgotten. If our proposal to increase
backs on struggling working families, House, and 44 Republicans voted for it. stimulus checks to $2,000 is soaring,
or do we respond to their pain? Give the Republicans in the Senate the the overall cost of the stimulus bill
So, Madam President, would the Sen- same opportunity to vote. We already would go from $900 billion to $1.36 tril-
ator modify his request that imme- know that many of them have already lion. Yes, that is a $464 billion increase
diately following the vote on the veto said they will vote for the $2,000 if they over what we were currently projecting
override, the Senate proceed to the get a chance to vote. It is this simple. for this bill, but it is only a fraction of
consideration of H.R. 9051; that the bill We can do this because a simple vote the $740 billion Defense bill that this
be considered read a third time and the will just say that you want to provide Chamber stands ready to approve again
Senate vote on passage of the bill with a grand total of $2,000 to Americans this week.
no intervening action or debate; fur- who need it to pay the rent, to keep I hate to say this, but my Republican
ther, that, if passed, the motion to re- the electricity on, to buy diapers, to colleagues seem to be more interested
consider be considered made and laid pay for lifesaving medication—just to in funding defense than in funding the
upon the table? survive this devastating pandemic. defenseless, and that is what this de-
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- There are 44 House Republicans who bate is all about. What do we do to help
pore. Is there objection to the request voted for the $2,000 checks. I believe these defenseless families? In this mo-
for modification? that the Republicans in this Chamber ment of national crisis, we were able to
Mr. MCCONNELL. I object. will do so as well, and President Trump afford spending three-quarters of a tril-
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- has already made it very clear that he lion dollars on a bloated defense budg-
pore. Objection is heard. will sign the bill. So we can see where et—spending that was supposed to pro-
Is there objection to the original? the opposition is. It is with the leader- tect our country yet did nothing to in-
Mr. SANDERS. I object. ship of the Republicans in the U.S. oculate against the most profound pub-
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- Senate. lic health emergency in a century—but
pore. Objection is heard. People across our country are falling we can’t give hungry and suffering
f ill and falling behind on their bills, and Americans $2,000? That is a moral fail-
for the families of the hundreds of ure for our country. Give Americans
MORNING BUSINESS thousands who have died from this money.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- coronavirus, the medical and funeral Most of my colleagues support this
pore. Under the previous order, the expenses are compounding their grief. defense budget. They got to vote on it
Senate will be in a period of morning They need money in their pockets. a few weeks ago, and I know they stand
business, with Senators permitted to In Massachusetts, this past Sunday, ready to override President Trump’s
speak therein for up to 10 minutes we hit 100 deaths in a single day—the racist, belligerent veto. We are here
each. highest death toll our State has seen in today, asking the same thing for $2,000

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
The Senator from Massachusetts. a 24-hour period since the very begin- payments—a simple up-or-down vote.
f ning of this pandemic. In the week be- Let’s bring the House bill up for a vote.
fore Christmas, 21,000 new people in our Leader SCHUMER is committed to bring-
CORONAVIRUS State applied for unemployment bene- ing it forward. We can get this done be-
Mr. MARKEY. Madam President, this fits just as Donald Trump let these pro- fore the holiday. We can do this for
is our historic moment. We can see the tections lapse before millions of Ameri- Americans before the year is out.

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:00 Dec 30, 2020 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G29DE6.004 S29DEPT1
December 29, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7959
We must remember that what makes and we should do this before the end of Was there some other event happening
America the envy of the world is not this year. that evening? Why all the cars?
simply the strength of our defense and I yield the floor. He told me: The cars started pulling
military but the strength of our peo- The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem- into that lot hours ago. They got wind
ple—people like Ahmed Jaya, a parent pore. The Senator from Connecticut. we were handing out food, and they got
of three, who was laid off from his job f here early to make sure they didn’t get
as a doorman at the Omni Parker left out. We have enough food for 300
CORONAVIRUS
House in Boston this past March. people, and there were 300 cars in that
Ahmed receives $400 a week in unem- Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, lot before I even got here.
ployment benefits, but it is not enough America has 600 billionaires. Now, $1 That is what has happened during
to cover the bills that keep rolling in billion doesn’t sound like a lot of this pandemic. Millions of families all
as he now faces expiring health cov- money these days. President Trump across this Nation, through no fault of
erage as well. It is people like Tanya just signed a bill, begrudgingly, that their own, have lost their jobs or have
DiStefano, from Spencer, MA, who has $900 billion in it. But trust me—$1 had their hours dramatically cut back.
gave birth to a beautiful baby boy on billion is still a whole lot of money. It They have no savings because work
Halloween, to return from the hospital is actually so much money that it is doesn’t pay in this country anymore.
to find an eviction notice taped to the really hard to find words to describe They spend everything they earn each
front of her door. These are the stories what it looks like, but let me try. month.
that should be driving our fights. These If you are, for instance, one of the So when the economy collapsed, vir-
are the people who need relief now. And half a million Americans who make the tually overnight in the spring, they got
these checks will go right back into minimum wage in this Nation and are desperate—really fast.
our economy because people will spend lucky enough to work 40 hours a week, I want you to think about what it is
this money. They need it for the neces- guess how many years you would have really like on an hour-to-hour basis
sities that are confronting their fami- to work in order to get $1 billion. Five when you don’t have enough money for
lies right now. hundred years? A thousand years? Ten food for your family. The decisions you
Last week, Donald Trump used these thousand years? No, you are not even have to make every single day are
people as political pawns. He stalled close. If you make minimum wage in practically animalistic. Do you make
signing the coronavirus relief package, America today, you would need to your kids go hungry during the day,
claiming that he wanted to give $2,000 work for 75,000 years in order to make when they need the most energy, or do
checks to every American. By delay- $1 billion—75,000 years. Neanderthals you skimp on dinner and force your
ing, President Trump may have stiffed were roaming the Earth 75,000 years kids to go to bed with hunger pangs?
unemployed Americans out of $300 this ago. Those guys, if they had made min- There are hundreds of thousands of
week in unemployment benefits—bene- imum wage, would have had to have mothers and fathers who, right now, as
fits that they will not get back. So worked up until present day, every sin- I am speaking, are making that deci-
let’s now hold Donald Trump to his gle day—that is, of course, if they sion today. That is the reality of this
word. Let’s bring this to a vote, and hadn’t spent a dime of the money they pandemic.
let’s pass $2,000 relief checks for every had made in order to accrue $1 billion. But here is another reality: Those 600
person in our country and put that bill One billion dollars is a bananas billionaires in this country? As it turns
on Donald Trump’s desk. amount of money, and there are 600 out, as a group, they lost nothing—
This pandemic has laid bare the trag- people in America today who make at nothing—during this pandemic. No, ex-
edy of two Americas—one in which bil- least that amount of money or have actly the opposite. They got richer.
lionaires have grown their wealth by that amount of money to their names. The wealthiest 600 Americans collec-
$931 billion over the course of this pan- That is crazy. With $1 billion, you are tively added $1 trillion to their bank
demic, an America where the rich con- leading a life that, frankly, none of us accounts. Let me say it again. The
tinue to get richer, and the other can really imagine, right? You have richest 600 Americans gained $1 trillion
America that has seen unprecedented private planes. You have yachts. You over the course of 2020.
economic uncertainty, Great Depres- have household staffs in the dozens. Let’s be clear. That is not money
sion-level unemployment rates, and You have enough money to make sure that grew in their money tree or-
devastating losses. It is one in which that your children and your grand- chards. Yes, we are printing some more
Blacks and LatinX workers suffer dis- children and your great-grandchildren money these days, but wealth isn’t far
proportionately higher rates of unem- and your great-great-grandchildren away from a zero-sum game still. So
ployment and their families suffer never have to work a day in their lives. when we allow for 600 people in the
higher rates of coronavirus infection Generations of your offspring can just country to control 50 percent of the
and death; where workers get laid off live lives of indolent luxury, without a Nation’s wealth, that is coming out of
while CEOs get raises and companies care, if they so choose. your pocket.
engage in stock buyback plans; and Do you know where I was 2 days be- Six hundred people in a country of
where residents get evicted or their fore Thanksgiving this year? I was at 328 million isn’t a lot of people. But do
electricity shut off but major corpora- Hamden Middle School, in my State, to you know what is a smaller number
tions barely pay taxes. help hand out free food for the unem- than 600? Fifty-two.
For those workers and families and ployed, the poor, and the disabled There are 52 Republicans in this
struggling households in America—for ahead of a long holiday weekend. Those Chamber—52 people who are going to
the very vast majority of America— long weekends can be really hard, espe- have a decision to make about what to
$2,000 is a lifeline, and it is time for cially the ones that fall at the end of do in a country where millions are lit-
Leader MCCONNELL to bring this legis- the month when the SNAP benefits erally starving as we speak, while 600
lation to the floor for a vote. The have long run out. I got there as dark- billionaires count the $1 trillion in ad-
American people have a right to know ness fell but right at the beginning of ditional wealth that they have accu-
where every Member of the Senate the event. I noticed that down the hill mulated during this period of national
stands on this issue. They now know from the roundabout at the school at calamity.
where President Trump says he stands, which they were handing out the food, The question before these 52 Senate
and they now know where every Mem- there was usually an empty parking Republicans is simple. It is simple:
ber of the U.S. House of Representa- lot. That night, at that moment, at the Should we give $2,000 to low- and mid-
tives stands. The American people have beginning of the event, that parking dle-income Americans right now to

dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
a right to know, in this desperate time lot was lit up by hundreds of sets of help them survive this crisis? That is
that we are living through, who was on headlights of hundreds of cars that the decision Senate Republicans have
their side to give their families the were just sitting there, idle, in that to make right now. Time is running
help they needed. parking lot. out.
Senator SANDERS is right. We should I asked the organizer of the event Six hundred billionaires got $1 tril-
have a vote—it should be yes or no— what was going on in that parking lot. lion richer this year, and the question

VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:00 Dec 30, 2020 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 4637 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G29DE6.007 S29DEPT1

File and source

File: CREC_crec-2020-12-29_crec-2020-12-29-pt1-pgs7958-2.pdf
Size: 204,178 bytes
SHA-256: b75c3296ea9883a6971b3062a7abf446df660a546f1ee7680c4196360ebbfda2
Our copy: CREC_crec-2020-12-29_crec-2020-12-29-pt1-pgs7958-2.pdf
Original: www.govinfo.gov