American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Cong. Rec., March 9, 2021)
Summary
Page S1412 of the Senate section of the Congressional Record for March 9, 2021, in interleaved columns. The page lists the signers of a cloture motion and Mr. Schumer asks that the mandatory quorum call be waived. Mr. McConnell criticizes a House Democratic election bill as putting Federal bureaucrats in charge of local election rules and permitting ballot harvesting, and says Republicans will support Judge Merrick Garland to be Attorney General but oppose other nominees, which are his views. Another speaker quotes Judge Garland on his grandparents fleeing anti-Semitism and expects him to bring integrity to the Department of Justice.
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“American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Cong. Rec., March 9, 2021).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2021-03-09-crec-2021-03-09-pt1-pgs1412-3-0c0263a518/
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S1412 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 9, 2021
Duckworth, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeff This is House Democrats’ bid to put So Republicans will continue to dis-
Merkley, Christopher A. Coons, Rich- Federal bureaucrats in charge of local tinguish between qualified, main-
ard Blumenthal, Patrick J. Leahy, election rules; to undermine voter ID stream people and nominees who are
Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, Brian way outside the mainstream.
requirements with massive loopholes
Schatz, Robert Menendez, Richard J.
that undermine them; to require every I have already announced I will sup-
Durbin, Martin Heinrich, Maria Cant-
well. State to permit ballot harvesting, port Judge Merrick Garland, whose
which lets paid political operatives nomination to be Attorney General we
Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous con-
produce stacks of ballots with other will vote to advance later today, but
sent that the mandatory quorum call
people’s names on them; to overturn or we will continue to fight hard against
with respect to this motion be waived.
change hundreds of State election laws; people who are the wrong choices for
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there
and to turn our highest election au- key positions. We are going to shine a
objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered. thority, the equally balanced FEC, into bright spotlight on anyone who seems
Mr. SCHUMER. I yield the floor. a partisan majority body to crack more focused on far-left ideology than
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Re- down on speech and ideas they don’t serving all of the American people.
publican leader. like. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The as-
AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021 It is quite the recipe for rebuilding sistant majority leader.
Mr. MCCONNELL. Madam President, public faith in our democracy on all AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021
when Senators were last in this Cham- sides—a purely partisan effort to seize Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I
ber, our Democratic colleagues were unprecedented power for Washington, had a press conference this Sunday
shooting down amendment after DC, on a razor-thin majority. It is a back home in Illinois to talk about
amendment to ensure their largely hugely harmful idea at the worst pos- what the American Rescue Plan means
non-COVID-related spending plan re- sible time. to our State. It is dramatic. Dramatic.
mained very liberal and purely par- NOMINATIONS Millions of dollars will be coming to
tisan. Madam President, on a different mat- our State to buy vaccines. I can tell
Republicans proposed amendments to ter, this week, the Senate is set to con- you, all across Illinois, people are ask-
cap extra government help for wealthi- sider more of President Biden’s nomi- ing: When is it my turn? When do I get
er Americans, to ensure that direct nations. I have consistently said that my chance? And we want to make sure
checks would only go to citizens and the President should have latitude to they get that chance sooner rather
legal residents and not to people in staff their administration with people than later.
prison, and to rein in runaway State of their choosing so long as they nomi- Think about what President Biden
and local bailouts and refocus the bill nate qualified and mainstream individ- inherited just a few weeks ago. Surely
on urgent COVID-related actual needs. uals. That is why I and many other Re- they had found some vaccines—excel-
lent vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna—
But Democrats banded together to de- publicans have supported many of the
approved by then, but he came to the
feat every one of these commonsense President’s mainstream nominees.
Secretaries Austin and Vilsack were White House to find that there was no
changes. As the Democratic leader hap-
each confirmed with more than 90 plan to administer those vaccines
pily explained to reporters later on
votes; Secretaries Raimondo, Yellen, across the Nation.
Saturday, his whole conference put Vaccine is important, but it is of lit-
lockstep party unity ahead of sub- and Buttigieg with more than 80. Sen-
tle value if it is not in the arms of
stance and ahead of bipartisan com- ator Blinken got 78 votes, including
Americans. So he set out to establish a
promise. mine. Secretaries Cardona and
standard that we would be distributing
So the nearly $2 trillion partisan Granholm each got more than 60 votes.
this vaccine across the United States
spending spree that President Biden’s Even with the time spent on impeach-
as quickly as possible and the mecha-
Chief of Staff brags is ‘‘the most pro- ment, half of the nominees I just men-
nism, the infrastructure to make cer-
gressive domestic legislation in a gen- tioned were confirmed faster than tain that it was administered by pro-
eration’’ is on its way over to the President Trump’s nominees to the fessionals who know what they are
House. Already, we hear reporting that same spots, and most of them received doing. That is quite an undertaking. It
this giveaway will simply wipe out the a more bipartisan margin now than 4 is the largest vaccination in the his-
budget deficit of New York State and years ago. So this administration is re- tory of our Nation. But President
eliminate a big part of the deficit in ceiving perfectly fair treatment from Biden said he needed help to do it—not
San Francisco, courtesy of the tax- the Senate. Frankly, the President and just money for the vaccine but money
payers in Kentucky and Middle Amer- his team must be thrilled that Senate for testing, money for the genomic se-
ica. Already, we hear the administra- Republicans are proving to be more fair quencing necessary to detect variants
tion saying they want some of these and more principled on personnel mat- that might be emerging in the United
sweeping new welfare policies to be- ters than the Democratic minority’s States. That was a major element of
come permanent, like a no-strings-at- behavior 4 years ago. the bill that passed this Senate last
tached benefit that disregards all the But the fact remains that millions Saturday.
pro-work lessons of bipartisan welfare and millions of Americans elected 50 He also put money in there that had
reform. Meanwhile, it only manages to Republican Senators—an even split—to already been promised to the American
spend about 1 percent on vaccinations stand against policies and personnel people. Remember when President
and less than 9 percent on the entire who lean too far to the left. That is Trump said $2,000 for every American?
health fight. why many of us voted against con- We agreed on a bipartisan basis. The
Democrats inherited a turning tide. firming Secretary Mayorkas, who first downpayment was last December,
The vaccine trends and economic stood idly by while a major crisis ex- $600, and the remainder, $1,400, was in-
trends were in place before the bill was ploded on the border in just his first cluded in the bill that passed on Satur-
ever voted on, before this President several weeks. Rather than confront day.
was sworn in, but they are determined the problem, he absurdly claims that a I have yet to hear a Republican Sen-
to push to the front of the parade with record number of unaccompanied chil- ator come to this floor and criticize
an effort to push America to the left. dren in custody, overflowing shelters, that sum of money. All of them—I
Meanwhile, House Democrats are and catch-and-release policies during a should say most of them have publicly
wasting no time pursuing even more pandemic do not actually constitute a supported it, and others say little or
purely partisan legislation. Last ‘‘crisis’’ at all. nothing about it, but no one is saying
Wednesday, the House passed H.R. 1, Xavier Becerra, the partisan Cali- that it shouldn’t be given as a result of
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their effort to rewrite the ground rules fornia attorney general with no signifi- the promise made. We kept that prom-
of American elections and seize power cant healthcare experience, whom the ise. That was part of what we were
from States and localities. Just like President has nominated to run Health doing.
the spending plan, in both Chambers, and Human Services during COVID–19, We also had a responsibility to mil-
once again the only thing bipartisan could not even get one Republican vote lions of Americans who are still col-
about the bill was the opposition. to get out of committee. lecting unemployment. As of March 14,
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March 9, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1413
they were going to lose their oppor- under President Biden, we couldn’t get Judge Garland also has the experi-
tunity to continue that unemployment one Republican Senator to join us in ence needed to lead the Department
check. that effort. It is a disappointment, but from the first day on the job. Before he
There were arguments made on the I hope it isn’t a portent of things to served on the DC Circuit, Judge Gar-
floor here that these were just lazy come. We have a lot to do, and we need land served with distinction in mul-
people and that if you give them an un- to do it together on a bipartisan basis. tiple Justice Department roles—as a
employment check, they will just con- The American people are going to special assistant to the Attorney Gen-
tinue to be lazy and won’t go back to count on us to do it. eral, assistant U.S. Attorney, a deputy
work. I don’t buy that. I don’t believe I also might say a word about the in the Criminal Division, and top ad-
it. Are some lazy? Well, possibly. I nominations that Senator MCCONNELL viser to the Deputy Attorney General.
think the vast majority of these people referred to earlier. It is true that some We know, of course, it was Judge
are desperate. They are desperate be- of these nominees are getting votes Merrick Garland who ably and admi-
cause they have been laid off or lost that indicate a strong majority in sup- rably led the investigation and pros-
their jobs and they need to keep their port, and that does evidence Repub- ecution of the Oklahoma City bomb-
families together. lican cooperation, and I want to thank ing—the worst domestic terrorism at-
Unemployment benefits do that, and them for joining us in that bipartisan tack, to date, in modern American his-
they also give fuel to the economy to spirit. But it evidences something else tory—and he will, no doubt, draw upon
recover. We were told that by the as well. These are good nominees. that experience as the Department
Chairman of the Federal Reserve and These are good men and women who brings to justice those who perpetrated
others—to put enough stimulus back in can serve this country effectively. the hideous January 6 Capitol insurrec-
this economy so we can come out of it Given the chance, they will, and the tion and works to prevent further at-
strong sooner rather than later. I be- votes that have been cast in support of tacks.
lieve that. Yet people like the Repub- them indicate that as well. But as Judge Garland highlighted at
lican Senator from Ohio came to the I won’t go into the experience 4 years his hearing, his prior tenure at the De-
floor talking about the recovery under- ago with the Trump nominees, but partment of Justice has also given him
way and we don’t really need to do as many of them had troubled records, insight into what is vital for the De-
much as President Biden had asked for. and some of them didn’t even file the partment’s success, from the impor-
I disagree. necessary disclosures before their tance of career prosecutors and agents
All across the board, the bill that we names were submitted to us for consid- to the breadth of the Department’s re-
passed, whether it is money for schools eration. So there are a lot of things sponsibilities.
or money for hospitals or money for that have changed in the 4-year period Finally, Judge Garland has what I
clinics or money for administering this of time. Now we have a chance to ap- believe to be a characteristic that is
vaccine, was money that will be well prove a team for President Biden and often overlooked when we evaluate
spent in the State of Illinois and all to fill out his national security team. nominees: humility. He is mindful of
across the United States. NOMINATION OF MERRICK BRIAN GARLAND the Department’s history, a founding
Now what troubles me is this: Last Madam President, the last person up rooted in protecting the civil rights en-
year, we had two major bills for COVID is Merrick Garland, nominee for Attor- shrined in the 13th, 14th, and 15th
relief. They talk about five. There were ney General. He is, simply put, the Amendments—and he is mindful of just
two major bills. The first was in right nominee to lead the Justice De- how much work remains in the fight
March, the CARES Act that was worth partment. I believe that is true for for civil rights.
$2 trillion. That bill passed the Senate three primary reasons: one, his integ- He is mindful of the enormous power
after it had been engineered by Treas- rity; two, his experience; and three, his that prosecutors hold and the need to
ury Secretary Mnuchin of the Trump humility. wield that power responsibly. In fact,
administration. It passed the Senate Let me begin with integrity. he told us as much at the hearing when
with every Senator voting yes, 96 to The Attorney General occupies a he quoted Robert Jackson, the Attor-
nothing. Every Democratic Senator unique role in the Cabinet. Although ney General and later Supreme Court
voted for it. serving at the pleasure of the President Justice, in saying:
Then came the followup bill in De- and responsible for implementing his The citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor
cember, some $900 billion for more policy initiatives, the Attorney Gen- who tempers zeal with human kindness, who
COVID relief, for a temporary, first- eral is also the Nation’s law enforce- seeks truth and not victims, who serves the
quarter-of-this-year fix. When you look ment officer. law and not factional purposes, and who ap-
at the final rollcall there, it was 92 to The AG oversees a Department that proaches the task with humility.
6. All six ‘‘no’’ votes were Republicans. must remain impartial, unbiased, and He is mindful of the opportunities
Every Democrat who voted, voted for independent. To balance these two that this country has provided him yet
it—again, a Trump proposal that we roles requires a nominee who is beyond remain elusive for far too many. Presi-
supported on the Democratic side. reproach, who understands the need to dent Biden nominated Judge Garland
So then the tables turned on January separate personal preference from con- to serve with a team of senior Justice
20, and a new President came to town. stitutional principles, and who has the Department leaders.
Joe Biden said: Let me finish this and courage to stand steadfast in the face Today, we had a hearing with Lisa
do it effectively. Give me an American of political pressure. Merrick Garland Monaco, who is aspiring to be his Dep-
Rescue Plan. is such a nominee. uty Attorney General; Vanita Gupta,
How many Republican Senators As a judge of the DC Circuit for more who is aspiring to be his Associate At-
stood up and said: Well, since the than 20 years, he has been guided by an torney General; and, later, we will have
Democrats, in the spirit of responding abiding faith in the rule of law and a a hearing with Kristen Clarke, who
to this pandemic, came around and firm commitment to make equal jus- wishes to be Assistant Attorney Gen-
supported the Trump plans last year, tice for all a reality. It is no surprise, eral for Civil Rights.
we will do the same this year. The then, that more than 60 former Federal This is an exceptionally well-quali-
number—zero. Not one Republican Sen- judges and more than 150 former Jus- fied team of DOJ veterans eager to
ator supported the bill that passed on tice Department officials, appointed by serve. When the committee reported
Saturday. We passed it with 50 Demo- Presidents of both parties, have ex- Judge Garland’s nomination, I am
cratic votes. That is what it took, with pressed their strong support for Judge happy to report that four Republicans
one Republican Senator being missing. Garland’s nomination. They know that joined all the Democrats, making it a
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But what a disappointment that is, to Judge Garland will carry his integrity bipartisan rollcall. I think it is worth
think that this pandemic and the eco- and his independence with him in his quoting again. Here is what Judge Gar-
nomic crisis that followed was ad- new role, and the public will soon see land said:
dressed on a bipartisan basis with the same integrity and independence in I come from a family where my grand-
every Democratic vote in the major the new Department of Justice, a wel- parents fled anti-Semitism and persecution.
legislation last year, and this year, come change from the past 4 years. The country took us in and protected us.
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