{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2020-12-30-pt1-PgS7974", "2020-12-30", 116, 2, null, null, "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)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 222 (Wednesday, December 30, 2020)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S7974-S7976]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n           UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 9051 AND H.R. 6395\n\n  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I rise to echo the sentiments of the\nSenator from Vermont. He is right. The Republicans are wrong on this\nissue. On every single part of this debate, Senator Sanders is right;\nthe Republicans are wrong.\n  We are in the middle of an unprecedented crisis in our country. We\nhave a healthcare crisis, we have an unemployment crisis, we have a\nhunger crisis, we have a housing crisis, we have an addiction crisis,\nand we have a moral crisis in this country.\n  The U.S. Government should be responding to the needs, to the\ndesperation of families in our country at this time. There is a crisis\nof faith that the American people have in its government's ability to\nrespond to human suffering. Well, this institution has been created to\nrespond to human suffering. That is our job\n  Tony Fauci has made it very clear that the worst of the pandemic is\nahead of us, not behind us. We know what is coming, and yet we are not\nresponding. We know this is not going away soon, and yet we are not\nresponding.\n  A program, Operation Warp Speed, was created to create a vaccine, but\nbecause for 7 months the Republicans have refused to fund the public\nhealth\n\n[[Page S7975]]\n\nsystem of our country at the State and local level, we have ``Operation\nSnail Speed'' to put the vaccinations in the arms of the American\npeople.\n  It was anticipatable. Tony Fauci and others were warning us back in\nMay and June and July that there would be a second wave and the second\nwave could be bigger. We got the warning. The Republicans refused to\nheed that warning.\n  And here we are now, without the public health infrastructure to deal\nwith the overflow capacity in emergency rooms, in ICUs all across the\ncountry, while simultaneously asking those same medical institutions to\nput vaccinations in the arms of healthy people, without the resources\nprovided by the Federal Government to help those States and local\ncommunities to deal with that crisis.\n  Sometimes Daniel Patrick Moynihan would say that when you deal with\nan issue you deal with it with benign neglect if you don't want to help\nor you don't want to hurt--deal with benign neglect.\n  What has happened with the Republicans this year is that they created\na program which is designed neglect. It is an actual plan not to\nprovide the funding, not to provide the help for those families, for\nthose communities, for those institutions that are now being\noverwhelmed, and asked, on top of that, to put this extra burden of\nputting vaccinations in people's arms, but without the extra resources.\n  And what do they do on the Republican side? They throw out these red\nherrings--so many red herrings that you would need to build an aquarium\nin the well here of the Senate in order to deal with all of them--that\ngets away from the central issue: Yes or no, up or down, will you\nprovide $2,000 to Americans who are going to need it through what Tony\nFauci is saying will be the worst part of this pandemic? Yes or no, up\nor down, where do they stand on this issue?\n  Here is what we do know. Republicans seem more focused on funding the\nDefense Department than they do on funding the defenseless in our\ncountry, and Americans are becoming more defenseless as each day goes\nby. The headlines are screaming that this panic, which is absolutely\nunderstandable and based upon fact, is sweeping our country.\n  There is protection that the Federal Government should be providing\nto these families. We hear it. They are hungry. They could be without\ntheir homes. The addiction crisis is rising. They need help in their\nfamilies.\n  So from my perspective, we have a moment in time, and Donald Trump\nhappens to agree with us--even though a broken clock is right twice a\nday. And we do agree with him. He is right. We do need this help, which\nwe should be providing to these families.\n  As we watch more and more of our American loved ones fall sick and\ndie, families are facing a new and unprecedented hardship. They are\nhaving to make impossible decisions as to whether to put food on the\ntable or keep the heat on through the cold winter months, and the U.S.\nGovernment has an obligation to help working people who, through no\nfault of their own, are seeing all of the things that they care about,\nall of the success that they have worked for, and all the financial\nsecurity they have earned be washed away.\n  And yet the Republicans want to put another ``Operation Snail Speed''\nin place.\n  The damage to these families is anticipatable. We can see what is\nunfolding. Dr. Fauci is telling us that we are at the worst part of the\npandemic and it is going to continue. So let us act in anticipation.\n  Louis Pasteur used to say that ``chance favors the prepared mind.''\nThat is what Dr. Tony Fauci is telling us. Let us prepare. Let us help\nfamilies prepare for what is about to arrive.\n  Just in Massachusetts alone, 21,000 new people applied for\nunemployment insurance in the week before Christmas. Food banks across\nMassachusetts and across the country are seeing double-digit increases\nin demand with families who never faced food insecurity before. People\nare literally starving, cold, and without homes.\n  Meanwhile, the majority leader and Republican leadership would rather\nhead home for the New Year and ignore the financial and health crises\nthat are taking a toll on our families. For millions of Americans, this\nwill be a New Year holiday where they won't know if they can put food\non the table that night. Republicans are claiming that giving $2,000 in\ndirect cash payments to working Americans would be too expensive, that\nit would inflate our national deficit, that our budgets are already\nbloated.\n  I have to ask, though, where was this outrage when Republicans blew\nup our national deficit to give a $1.5 trillion tax cut to billionaires\nand corporations? These are the crocodile tears from the right, as\nAmericans are shedding real tears thinking about where their next meal\nwill come from, the eviction notice on the front door, or losing\nhealthcare in the midst of this crisis.\n  Americans are actually tired of being told that $600 is\n``sufficient'' as an amount of money as relief, as billionaires receive\ntheir tax breaks and grow their wealth by the trillions of dollars\nduring this crisis. The rich get richer, and the rest are there left\nsuffering. They have had enough of being told that there just isn't the\nmoney for support for the well-being of their communities when they can\nsee tax breaks going to those companies that are actually laying off\nworkers.\n  Americans are tired of being let down by their government time and\ntime again, as Donald Trump and his Republican allies have abandoned\nthem during this response to the pandemic.\n  Americans need support. They need to be able to trust their\ngovernment, and they need $2,000 now. So that is the issue: Yes or no,\nup or down, on providing $2,000 to Americans to help them make it\nthrough the worst part of this crisis.\n  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at 12:30 p.m. on\nThursday, December 31, the Senate proceed to the immediate\nconsideration of H.R. 9051, a bill to provide a $2,000 direct payment\nto the working class; that the bill be considered read a third time and\nthe Senate vote on passage of that bill without intervening action or\ndebate; further, that if passed, the motion to reconsider be considered\nmade and laid upon the table; and that immediately following the vote\non H.R. 9051, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the\nveto message on H.R. 6395; that the Senate immediately vote on passage\nof the bill, the objections of the President to the contrary\nnotwithstanding, with no intervening action or debate.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?\n  The Senator for Texas.\n  Mr. CORNYN. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, Speaker\nPelosi's second bite at the apple, just after we voted on a $900\nbillion bill that has now been signed into law by the President of the\nUnited States, is not the way to send relief to the hardest hit\nAmericans. Under this legislation, a family of five with an annual\nincome of $350,000 would receive a stimulus check. This is reminiscent\nof the Heroes Act that the House passed, which cut taxes for\nmillionaires and billionaires. This isn't about helping the people that\nneed it the most. This is about helping millionaires and billionaires\nand people who frankly have not suffered the hardships economically\nthat others have during this pandemic. The median household in my State\nis $60,000, and the Speaker wants to send taxpayer-funded assistance to\nfolks earning nearly six times that much. Even the Washington Post\neditorial board agrees this is bad policy.\n  It doesn't differentiate between people who have been receiving a\npaycheck during this pandemic, such as government employees, and people\nwho, simply by virtue of their job, have been put out of work and are\nnot receiving any income or maybe at best unemployment compensation.\nThe Speaker's bill isn't about targeting folks who have lost their jobs\nor have seen their income reduced. It is a far cry from the additional\nassistance President Trump requested for the hardest hit Americans. The\nreality is, this bill would spend roughly $300 billion more on folks\nwho aren't even experiencing a financial strain from the pandemic.\n  We need to focus on the people who have been hurt. That is what our\nCOVID-19 relief bill, which was just recently signed into law, is\ndesigned to do, and I dare say this is not going to be the last time we\nvisit this topic. If there is more we need to do, I am confident we\nwill do it. But today, in this\n\n[[Page S7976]]\n\nway, is not the right way to do it. I object.\n  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.\n  The Senator from Illinois.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2020-12-30-pt1-PgS7974"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 48.014383064582944, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}