congressional_record: CREC-2020-12-30-pt1-PgS7974
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| granule_id | date | congress | session | volume | issue | title | chamber | granule_class | sub_granule_class | page_start | page_end | speakers | bills | citation | full_text |
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| CREC-2020-12-30-pt1-PgS7974 | 2020-12-30 | 116 | 2 | UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 9051 AND H.R. 6395 | SENATE | SENATE | SCONSENTREQUEST | S7974 | S7976 | [{"name": "Edward J. Markey", "role": "speaking"}, {"name": "John Cornyn", "role": "speaking"}] | [{"congress": "116", "type": "HR", "number": "6395"}, {"congress": "116", "type": "HR", "number": "6395"}, {"congress": "116", "type": "HR", "number": "9051"}, {"congress": "116", "type": "HR", "number": "9051"}] | 166 Cong. Rec. S7974 | Congressional Record, Volume 166 Issue 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020) [Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)] [Senate] [Pages S7974-S7976] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 9051 AND H.R. 6395 Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise to echo the sentiments of the Senator from Vermont. He is right. The Republicans are wrong on this issue. On every single part of this debate, Senator Sanders is right; the Republicans are wrong. We are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis in our country. We have a healthcare crisis, we have an unemployment crisis, we have a hunger crisis, we have a housing crisis, we have an addiction crisis, and we have a moral crisis in this country. The U.S. Government should be responding to the needs, to the desperation of families in our country at this time. There is a crisis of faith that the American people have in its government's ability to respond to human suffering. Well, this institution has been created to respond to human suffering. That is our job Tony Fauci has made it very clear that the worst of the pandemic is ahead of us, not behind us. We know what is coming, and yet we are not responding. We know this is not going away soon, and yet we are not responding. A program, Operation Warp Speed, was created to create a vaccine, but because for 7 months the Republicans have refused to fund the public health [[Page S7975]] system of our country at the State and local level, we have ``Operation Snail Speed'' to put the vaccinations in the arms of the American people. It was anticipatable. Tony Fauci and others were warning us back in May and June and July that there would be a second wave and the second wave could be bigger. We got the warning. The Republicans refused to heed that warning. And here we are now, without the public health infrastructure to deal with the overflow capacity in emergency rooms, in ICUs all across the country, while simultaneously asking those same medical institutions to put vaccinations in the arms of healthy people, without the resources provided by the Federal Government to help those States and local communities to deal with that crisis. Sometimes Daniel Patrick Moynihan would say that when you deal with an issue you deal with it with benign neglect if you don't want to help or you don't want to hurt--deal with benign neglect. What has happened with the Republicans this year is that they created a program which is designed neglect. It is an actual plan not to provide the funding, not to provide the help for those families, for those communities, for those institutions that are now being overwhelmed, and asked, on top of that, to put this extra burden of putting vaccinations in people's arms, but without the extra resources. And what do they do on the Republican side? They throw out these red herrings--so many red herrings that you would need to build an aquarium in the well here of the Senate in order to deal with all of them--that gets away from the central issue: Yes or no, up or down, will you provide $2,000 to Americans who are going to need it through what Tony Fauci is saying will be the worst part of this pandemic? Yes or no, up or down, where do they stand on this issue? Here is what we do know. Republicans seem more focused on funding the Defense Department than they do on funding the defenseless in our country, and Americans are becoming more defenseless as each day goes by. The headlines are screaming that this panic, which is absolutely understandable and based upon fact, is sweeping our country. There is protection that the Federal Government should be providing to these families. We hear it. They are hungry. They could be without their homes. The addiction crisis is rising. They need help in their families. So from my perspective, we have a moment in time, and Donald Trump happens to agree with us--even though a broken clock is right twice a day. And we do agree with him. He is right. We do need this help, which we should be providing to these families. As we watch more and more of our American loved ones fall sick and die, families are facing a new and unprecedented hardship. They are having to make impossible decisions as to whether to put food on the table or keep the heat on through the cold winter months, and the U.S. Government has an obligation to help working people who, through no fault of their own, are seeing all of the things that they care about, all of the success that they have worked for, and all the financial security they have earned be washed away. And yet the Republicans want to put another ``Operation Snail Speed'' in place. The damage to these families is anticipatable. We can see what is unfolding. Dr. Fauci is telling us that we are at the worst part of the pandemic and it is going to continue. So let us act in anticipation. Louis Pasteur used to say that ``chance favors the prepared mind.'' That is what Dr. Tony Fauci is telling us. Let us prepare. Let us help families prepare for what is about to arrive. Just in Massachusetts alone, 21,000 new people applied for unemployment insurance in the week before Christmas. Food banks across Massachusetts and across the country are seeing double-digit increases in demand with families who never faced food insecurity before. People are literally starving, cold, and without homes. Meanwhile, the majority leader and Republican leadership would rather head home for the New Year and ignore the financial and health crises that are taking a toll on our families. For millions of Americans, this will be a New Year holiday where they won't know if they can put food on the table that night. Republicans are claiming that giving $2,000 in direct cash payments to working Americans would be too expensive, that it would inflate our national deficit, that our budgets are already bloated. I have to ask, though, where was this outrage when Republicans blew up our national deficit to give a $1.5 trillion tax cut to billionaires and corporations? These are the crocodile tears from the right, as Americans are shedding real tears thinking about where their next meal will come from, the eviction notice on the front door, or losing healthcare in the midst of this crisis. Americans are actually tired of being told that $600 is ``sufficient'' as an amount of money as relief, as billionaires receive their tax breaks and grow their wealth by the trillions of dollars during this crisis. The rich get richer, and the rest are there left suffering. They have had enough of being told that there just isn't the money for support for the well-being of their communities when they can see tax breaks going to those companies that are actually laying off workers. Americans are tired of being let down by their government time and time again, as Donald Trump and his Republican allies have abandoned them during this response to the pandemic. Americans need support. They need to be able to trust their government, and they need $2,000 now. So that is the issue: Yes or no, up or down, on providing $2,000 to Americans to help them make it through the worst part of this crisis. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 31, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 9051, a bill to provide a $2,000 direct payment to the working class; that the bill be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of that bill without intervening action or debate; further, that if passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table; and that immediately following the vote on H.R. 9051, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the veto message on H.R. 6395; that the Senate immediately vote on passage of the bill, the objections of the President to the contrary notwithstanding, with no intervening action or debate. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection? The Senator for Texas. Mr. CORNYN. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, Speaker Pelosi's second bite at the apple, just after we voted on a $900 billion bill that has now been signed into law by the President of the United States, is not the way to send relief to the hardest hit Americans. Under this legislation, a family of five with an annual income of $350,000 would receive a stimulus check. This is reminiscent of the Heroes Act that the House passed, which cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires. This isn't about helping the people that need it the most. This is about helping millionaires and billionaires and people who frankly have not suffered the hardships economically that others have during this pandemic. The median household in my State is $60,000, and the Speaker wants to send taxpayer-funded assistance to folks earning nearly six times that much. Even the Washington Post editorial board agrees this is bad policy. It doesn't differentiate between people who have been receiving a paycheck during this pandemic, such as government employees, and people who, simply by virtue of their job, have been put out of work and are not receiving any income or maybe at best unemployment compensation. The Speaker's bill isn't about targeting folks who have lost their jobs or have seen their income reduced. It is a far cry from the additional assistance President Trump requested for the hardest hit Americans. The reality is, this bill would spend roughly $300 billion more on folks who aren't even experiencing a financial strain from the pandemic. We need to focus on the people who have been hurt. That is what our COVID-19 relief bill, which was just recently signed into law, is designed to do, and I dare say this is not going to be the last time we visit this topic. If there is more we need to do, I am confident we will do it. But today, in this [[Page S7976]] way, is not the right way to do it. I object. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard. The Senator from Illinois. ____________________ |