Floor Statements

Mr. President, today, I am introducing, along with Senator Wicker, a resolution that celebrates Romani American heritage.

As a member of the U.S. Helsinki Commission and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Special Representative on Anti-Semitism, Racism and Intolerance, I have long worked to improve the situation of Roma throughout the OSCE region. This includes efforts to advance human rights compliant policing, ending ethnic and religious profiling, supporting diversity and inclusion in the U.S. national security workforce and human rights training for foreign service officers, and supporting free and fair elections in the OSCE participating States. I also supported the appointment of Dr. Ethel Brooks to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, on which I also currently serve.

The resolution we are introducing today does four things.

First, it recognizes and celebrates Romani American heritage. Roma have come to the United States with every wave of European migration since the colonial period. In the United States, there may be as many as one million Americans with some Romani ancestry, whether distant or more recent. Romani people have made distinct and important contributions in many fields, including agriculture, art, crafts, literature, medicine, military service, music, sports, and science.

Second, it supports International Roma Day and the Department of State's robust engagement in activities to that occasion. In 1971, on April 8th, 1971, the First World Romani Congress met in London, bringing Roma together from across Europe and the United States with the goal of promoting transnational cooperation among Roma, combating social marginalization, and building a positive future for Roma everywhere. April 8th is now celebrated as ``International Roma Day'' around the world. U.S. ambassadors and our embassies across Europe are frequently asked to participate in April 8th celebrations across the region. I commend the important work they are doing as they demonstrate U.S. commitment to inclusive societies not only on April 8th, but also throughout the year.

Third, this resolution commemorates the destruction of the so-called ``Gypsy Family Camp'' at Auschwitz. It is estimated that between 200,000 and 500,000 Romani people were killed in death camps and elsewhere throughout Europe. On August 2-3, 1944, Nazis murdered between 4,200 and 4,300 Romani men, women, and children in gas chambers when the Nazis decided to liquidate this camp. A number of governments in recent years have taken important steps to commemorate the genocide of Roma, to remember the victims, and educate future generations. Germany took an important step when it opened in Berlin a memorial for Sinti and Roma victims of National Socialism. I also welcome the Czech government's decision to remove the pig farm at the site of the Lety concentration camp the role of the Museum of Romani Culture in ensuring a proper memorialization of that sensitive site.

Finally, this resolution commends the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum for its critically important role in promoting remembrance of the Holocaust and educating audiences about the genocide of Roma. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is the preeminent federal institution dedicated to serving as a living memorial to the Holocaust. I am honored to serve as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Council, and I welcome the initiatives of the Museum to ensure that Romani victims are remembered and that related scholarship is supported.

I am pleased that Sen. Wicker has joined me in introducing this resolution and urge other colleagues to join us in celebrating Romani American heritage.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be permitted to finish my remarks before we vote.

Mr. President, I rise to voice my strong support for Isabella Guzman's nomination to serve as Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Our Nation passed the 1-year mark of COVID-19's being declared a national emergency last Saturday, March 13, and, thankfully, the American people can now see the light at the end of the tunnel. Already, more than 20 percent of all Americans have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, with an average of more than 2.39 million additional doses being administered each day. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but we are not there yet.

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated American small businesses, and the worst effects have been felt by the most vulnerable small businesses, especially those in Black, Latino, Native, and rural communities, so the SBA must continue to be a lifeline in the coming months. That is why it is important that we confirm Ms. Guzman's nomination, so she can provide the permanent, steady leadership the SBA needs right now.

When we passed the CARES Act, Congress tasked the SBA with one of the most important aspects of our COVID-19 relief effort. We knew we had to support our small businesses because the public health restrictions on public gatherings, which have saved thousands of lives and kept our communities safe, have been especially challenging for small businesses. We had to help small businesses so that, when we get out of this pandemic, when our economy returns, our small businesses will emerge in a position to help our economy recover and continue to grow.

The CARES Act included $377 billion in funds for small businesses and created the Paycheck Protection Program, the EIDL advance program, and the small business debt relief program to help small businesses that had traditional SBA loans, like the 7(a) and 504. In April, we passed legislation to replenish the PPP, EIDL, and the EIDL advance grant program with $370 billion in additional funds. Then, in December, we passed the bipartisan Economic Aid Act to provide another $325 billion to support small businesses, allow for second round PPP loans, and create the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program. In total last year, Congress appropriated more than $1 trillion to the SBA for COVID-19 relief programs.

Since the passage of the CARES Act, the SBA has approved more than 7.5 million PPP loans worth more than $687 billion and more than 3.7 million EIDL loans worth more than $200 billion. These loans and grants have saved millions of jobs and prevented millions of small businesses from closing their doors.

I want to thank the SBA personnel who have worked long hours, including nights and weekends, to implement these critical programs.

SBA still has a lot of work left to do. As I mentioned, the December bill created the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program, which we expect the SBA to open in the coming weeks.

SBA also has to open a new $28.6 billion grant program for restaurants and bars, which was created by the historic American Rescue Plan.

The plan appropriated an additional $50 billion in economic relief for small businesses, including $15 billion to targeted EIDL advance grants, an additional $7.25 billion to PPP, and $1.25 billion for shuttered venue grants.

The plan also required SBA to launch a Community Navigator Pilot Program, which is designed to help small businesses in underserved and underbanked communities access the COVID-19 relief resources available to them. These programs will be key to our economic recovery.

That brings me to Mrs. Guzman's nomination. Mrs. Guzman has decades of experience working with, supporting, and founding small businesses, which have prepared her to lead the SBA during this moment.

Most recently, Mrs. Guzman was the State of California's director of the Office of Small Business Advocate, where she oversaw implementation of the State's COVID-19 Relief Grant Program.

Mrs. Guzman also helped lead SBA during the Obama administration, serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor for 3 years, from 2014 through 2017.

During her nomination hearing last month, Mrs. Guzman demonstrated her commitment to ensuring that SBA's relief programs, as well as its traditional loan programs, are implemented equitably and that they help small businesses in Black, Latino, Native, rural, and other underserved communities overcome the historic barriers they face.

She is committed to ensuring the Agency has the right systems, technology, and operating procedures in place to advance the mission and reach all of our small businesses.

And she is committed to ``ensure funds get into the hands of small businesses who have been hurt the most by the pandemic and the economic crisis through no fault of their own.''

As we learned during the pandemic, SBA has a key role to play in our Nation's effort to fight systems of inequality that prevent many entrepreneurs in underserved and underbanked communities from starting and growing successful businesses.

Mrs. Guzman will be an advocate for small businesses in these communities within the administration, and she will be a strong partner to us in Congress as we build better capacity to support small businesses through the coming economic recovery.

Mrs. Guzman's commitment to equity and her deep knowledge of the needs of small businesses and the best policies to help them are why she received bipartisan praise during her nomination hearing and was advanced by the committee by a bipartisan vote.

Mrs. Guzman has earned broad support from the small business community. Her nomination has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Hispanic Chamber, the U.S. Black Chamber, the National Small Business Association, the Small Business Majority, the National Federation of Independent Businesses, and many other small business advocacy groups.

SBA needs an Administrator who can hit the ground running, and I am confident Mrs. Guzman is exactly the right person for the job.

I urge my colleagues who have spoken with small business owners who still need support from the SBA--and I am sure everyone has--to join me and vote to confirm Mrs. Guzman as the SBA Administrator.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise to celebrate Harriet Tubman, one of the most notable individuals in Maryland's history. Congress began officially recognizing March 10th as Harriet Tubman Day in 1990 and I am always grateful to speak to her accomplishments. Throughout her life she served as an abolitionist, soldier, spy and, most famously, as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. I would like to reflect on her contributions to human rights, civil rights, and women's rights in our Nation and to renew my commitment to addressing the shameful legacy of slavery in Maryland and across the U.S.--particularly as it pertains to environmental justice.

Harriet Tubman was born Araminta Ross to enslaved parents in Bucktown, Maryland in 1822. After emancipating herself, she dedicated her life to the advancement of freedom and the fight against slavery. Araminta adopted the name ``Harriet'' at the time of her marriage to John Tubman, a free Black man, around the year 1844. Tubman and her husband continued to live in Dorchester County until her escape from slavery in 1849, at the age of 27. She would courageously return to make over thirteen dangerous trips to lead nearly 70 enslaved people seeking freedom, repeatedly risking her life in pursuit of our Nation's highest aspirational ideal.

Throughout the American Civil War, Tubman served the Union at various times as a cook, nurse, scout, and even spy. She helped orchestrate the Combahee River raid in South Carolina that freed over 700 enslaved men, women, and children. After the war's end, Harriet focused her efforts on women's suffrage. In 1908, Tubman established the Harriet Tubman Home for the Aged in Auburn, New York. Five years later, she died of pneumonia on March 10, 1913. Although she spent her final decades in New York, the marshes and forests of Maryland's Eastern Shore are where Harriet Tubman first grew spiritually and physically strong.

Harriet Tubman made an indelible impact on my State and our Nation's history and I am proud to have played a role in memorializing her story to future generations. I worked to secure the authorities and funding for the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, which tells the story of her life in Dorchester and Caroline counties, and for the Harriet Tubman Underground National Historical Park. The National Park Service administers the national historical park Congress created in December 2014 and the national monument authorized by President Obama in 2013 as a single unit. The Park Service works in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, and the State of Maryland, which owns and co- manages the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center, to commemorate and interpret Tubman's remarkable story. Visitors can access the marshlands, largely preserved since her time, at the Visitor Center and nearby Refuge. The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park centers her life's work not in physical structures, but instead through the landscape in Tubman's native Dorchester County, which we must defend against the social and ecological hazards of climate change.

While climate change is a global issue, it is felt on a local scale. Dorchester County's low-lying landscape of

tidal marshes, narrow peninsulas, and country roads linking isolated communities is threatened by sea level rise and land subsidence. Over one-half of the county lies in the 100-year floodplain, much of it in the tidal floodplain; even minor storms and routine high-tide events can flood vast portions of the county. In addition to flooding, saltwater intrusion threatens the failure of rural septic systems, and damage to roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure. Climate- driven changes to the coastal ecosystem are also making it harder to earn a living through the primary local sources of income: agriculture, forestry, and the seafood industry.

Local communities are at the frontline of adaptation, and initial social inequality causes the disadvantaged groups in those communities to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality. Dorchester County is no exception. After the Civil War, freedmen and women settled the land, which was often less arable and therefore more affordable. Today, the county has a population of 32,000, 26 percent of whom are Black. Black individuals are almost twice as likely to be unemployed or live below the federal poverty level as their white neighbors, attributable to systemic racism that has roots in Harriet Tubman's time of enslavement. The Union of Concerned Scientists developed a Climate Equity Tool to identify communities that face conditions that heighten their vulnerability to harm and are therefore high-risk environmental justice areas, including Dorchester County. UCS projects that the county will see a six-inch rise in sea level by 2030 and 13-inch rise by 2045.

Absent national or international climate policy direction under the Trump administration, cities and towns on the Eastern Shore and around the world have been focusing on solving their own climate problems. They are working to build flood defenses, plan for heatwaves and higher temperatures, install water-permeable pavement to better deal with floods and stormwater, and improve water storage and use. Dorchester County has a flood mitigation plan that identifies projects to protect resources at risk of being lost, including historic and cultural sites. However, implementation of such plans requires significant funding. It is essential that Congress enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities in Dorchester County and across the Eastern Shore--and the Nation--whose residents have been forced to manage periodic flooding and other climate impacts in relative social and political isolation. Frontline communities in Dorchester and neighboring Eastern Shore counties with strong historical and cultural ties require sufficient federal financial and technical assistance now to help plan for the future and make choices about how best to protect themselves from tidal flooding, saltwater intrusion, and coastal disasters.

Environmental justice is an essential component to carry on with respect to the anti-racist work that Harriet Tubman pioneered. The American Rescue Plan Act will provide debt relief and assistance to socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers who have faced disproportionate impacts from the pandemic as a result of longstanding discrimination, as well as $50 million in funding to reduce the air pollution that is linked with contributing to COVID-19 deaths, targeted to low income communities and communities of color. These provisions present only a small down payment on the types investments needed to address inequality, and have yet to squarely address climate change.

The local communities on the Eastern Shore that served as Harriet Tubman's training ground in resistance are rarely credited for their outsized influence on Maryland's maritime industry, culture, and environment. We must do better to enshrine their place in our historical consciousness and provide them with the tools necessary to prepare for climate change. I am grateful for the opportunity to showcase the exceptional efforts of one particular Marylander and honor her by pursuing climate and environmental justice policies.

Mr. President, I rise today to support the nomination of Merrick B. Garland to be the 86th Attorney General of the United States and urge the Senate to confirm this nomination without further delay.

Merrick Garland is a fellow Marylander, and I was proud to introduce him in a statement before the Judiciary Committee on February 22. I was

pleased that last week the committee favorably recommended his nomination to the full Senate by a bipartisan vote of 15 to 7.

Judge Garland is uniquely qualified at this moment in history to serve as the people's lawyer and restore honor, integrity, and independence to DOJ.

Judge Garland graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1974 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1977. Following graduation, he served as law clerk to Judge Henry J. Friendly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. From 1979 to 1981, he was Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. He then joined the law firm of Arnold & Porter, where he was a partner from 1985 to 1989 and from 1992 to 1993. He served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1989 to 1992 and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice from 1993 to 1994.

From 1994 until his appointment as U.S. Circuit judge, he served as Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, where his responsibilities included supervising the Oklahoma City bombing and UNABOM prosecutions. In 1997, he was appointed as judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, often seen as the Nation's second highest and most powerful court, given their review of Federal agency actions and other matters. He served as chief judge of the D.C. Circuit from 2013 to 2020.

Judge Garland has published in the Harvard Law Review and Yale Law Journal, taught at Harvard Law School, and served as president of the board of overseers of Harvard University. He served as chair of the Executive Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2017 to 2020.

Judge Garland has served both Democratic and Republican administrations in the Justice Department, including service under President Carter, the first President Bush, and President Clinton. He earned a reputation as a tough and fair prosecutor who took on complicated terrorism, violent crime, and corruption cases. He established a sterling reputation of handling cases with the utmost professionalism and is seen by his peers as a modest man who is fundamentally a decent human being.

In 1997, the Senate reviewed his record in detail and confirmed him by an overwhelming, bipartisan vote of 76 to 23 to serve as judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. I would note that many of the no votes for Judge Garland's previous confirmation had to do with a dispute over the proper size of the D.C. Circuit, as opposed to concerns over Judge Garland's qualifications or fitness to serve as a judge.

As President Biden noted in his introduction of Judge Garland's nomination, despite his busy schedule and prestigious positions, he still makes time to volunteer regularly, tutoring students in Northeast DC, as he has done for 20 years. And I agree this really shows us the true character of Judge Garland, in terms of his commitment to public service, helping others, and not necessarily seeking out the limelight.

I am hopeful that Judge Garland's appointment will shore up and improve the morale at the Justice Department, as the Department renews its commitment to uphold civil rights and voting rights laws; protect the civil liberties and equal access to justice of all Americans; safeguard our national security and combat violent crime; and rout out systemic racism in our criminal justice system and government. As the only Cabinet department named after an ideal, I am convinced that Judge Garland will follow the facts, evidence, and law wherever it leads him, regardless of political pressure or outside influences.

Let me close by highlighting what President Biden and Judge Garland stated upon announcing his nomination. President Biden said forcefully: ``You won't work for me. You are not the president's or the vice president's lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It's to the law, the Constitution.''

Judge Garland said: ``The rule of law is not just some lawyer's turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy. The essence of the rule of law is that like cases are treated alike, that there is not one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends and another for foes.''

Judge Garland noted President Biden's promise that he would have the ``independent capacity'' to decide who is subject to prosecution, based on the facts and the law. Judge Garland concluded that: ``I would not have agreed to be considered for attorney general under any other conditions.''

I again urge the Senate to swiftly confirm this nomination, so we can bring Senate-confirmed leadership to the Department of Justice as soon as possible.

Mr. President, today I rise to support the nomination of Michael S. Regan to be Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as we celebrate the Agency's 50th anniversary and the return of the United States to the Paris Agreement, which the agency will play a key role in meeting.

Reducing carbon pollution and other forms of air and water pollution has generated enormous environmental, health, and economic benefits over the last 50 years.

While the Trump administration claimed that rolling back clean air protections frees up economic activity, in fact, reducing climate emissions is critical to a thriving, sustainable economy. Fortunately, many States maintained a strong commitment to protecting air quality and addressing climate change. Maryland, under Republican and Democratic Governors, has benefitted from participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative with 10 other States. However, the EPA is indispensable: Air pollution crosses State borders and requires strong and fair Federal regulation.

I am energized by Mr. Regan's commitment to furthering progress on environmental justice. Research shows that air pollution and climate change disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color. Maryland suffers disproportionately from upwind pollution from fossil-fuel fired power plants out of State.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia's recent rejection of the Trump administration's efforts to weaken carbon pollution limits for power plants clears the way for the EPA to set thoughtful standards that will effectively slash carbon emissions from the electricity sector and create clean energy-related jobs.

Now that President Biden has returned our Nation to the Paris Agreement, the EPA has a critical role to ensure America leads by example at home. After all, this is the Federal agency the Endangerment Finding obligates to take action under the Clean Air Act to curb emissions of carbon pollution from vehicles, power plants, and other industries.

Carbon neutrality is the policy tool that may drive economic recovery and innovation for the coming decades.

This goal to achieve a 100-percent clean energy economy and net-zero emissions no later than 2050 would align us with a pathway to limit global temperature rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius and help avert the most catastrophic effects of climate change. The EPA will play an increasingly important role in climate policy, which will be a key element of economic policy, domestically and internationally.

The EPA's climate responsibilities include the phase-down of hydrofluorocarbons--HFCs--potent greenhouse gases used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners, and industrial applications that are the subject of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to protect the ozone layer. The bipartisan Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 provided authority to allow for the phase- down of HFCs and subsequent transition to the newer, better alternatives.

Rebuilding scientific expertise is fundamental to the ability of the EPA to carry out this and other climate responsibilities. The Union of Concerned Scientists recently reported that the EPA lost more than 1,000 scientists between its highest reported number of scientists in early 2017 and its lowest reported number of scientists at the end of 2019. On average, the Agency lost over 200 scientists per year between 2016 and 2020. I am relieved North Carolina Governor Cooper commended Mr. Regan for restoring morale among career staff at the Department of Environmental Quality and emphasizing a respect for science. He will need to do the same at EPA.

The Environmental Protection Agency should be the last workplace to have vacancies during a climate crisis that is undeniable. In 2018 alone, there were 14 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States, with a total cost of $91 billion. These costs will likely rise due to climate change.

Carbon dioxide released into waterways as a result of water pollution by nutrients is enhancing unwanted changes in ocean acidity due to atmospheric increases in carbon dioxide. The changes may already be affecting commercial fish and shellfish populations, according to data and model predictions published in the American Chemical Society's journal, Environmental Science & Technology. A new study by the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center also shows that oysters stressed by low dissolved oxygen and warm water--the result of extreme weather events--early in life grow thicker shells and less meat, which threatens a way of life for Maryland oyster fishers and growers.

The EPA also leads the Federal agency partners in engaging the Chesapeake Bay Program, a grassroots effort with bipartisan support to preserve and restore the largest estuary in the country. Executive Order 13508 declaring the Chesapeake Bay Watershed a national treasure established a goal of restoring oyster populations in 20 tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay by 2025.

Over the past 4 years, the Trump administration sought to undermine the Chesapeake Bay Program and roll back Clean Water Act protections critical to the restoration effort, proposing to eliminate the EPA program's budget in total dereliction of its duties as a key Federal partner. Despite these setbacks, the Chesapeake Bay Program partners have made steady progress toward achieving the nutrient reduction goals set out in 2010 in the Chesapeake Clean Water Blueprint to have 100 percent of measures in place by 2025 to achieve fishable, swimmable water quality standards.

This is significantly more likely once the EPA returns to proper levels of staffing and funding. As Administrator, I am confident Mr. Regan will respect science and the duties of the Agency to lead the Chesapeake Bay Program through this substantial milestone.

The EPA is the lynchpin in the Chesapeake Bay Program. Maryland farmers have successfully stepped up to the plate to achieve nutrient reduction goals. Their efforts will be diminished,

however, if the EPA does not act as arbiter to hold States accountable for pollution upstream. Therefore, I was particularly pleased to see that the agricultural community widely supports Mr. Regan's nomination.

Both the global effort to combat climate change and the regional Chesapeake Bay restoration effort are enormously challenging. Yet the prospect of confirming Michael Regan to be the Administrator of an EPA that produces policy based on Scientific evidence and robust community input has me hopeful that we can sustain a healthy, vibrant watershed and Nation for generations to come.

Mr. President, similar to Senator Cantwell, I want to talk a little bit about the small business provisions in the American Rescue Plan and the urgency of passing the recovery act as soon as possible. We need to act in order to deal with the recovery of COVID-19 for our Nation.

As chair of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, it is critically important to the health of small businesses that we act on the American Rescue Plan. Small businesses are critically important to our economy. I think the Members of this body understand that.

Two out of every three jobs in the private sector are created through small companies. Innovation takes place in a much larger amount in small companies. Just look at how small companies have adjusted to COVID-19. We have seen curbside pickup. We have seen the use of the online deliveries. We have seen ways in which small businesses have shown that they can figure out ways to try to stay alive under any circumstances.

But there is another factor about small businesses, and that is that they are not as resilient to deal with an economic downturn as the larger companies are. So whenever we go through any type of a recession, small businesses suffer the most. So for all of those reasons, it was critically important for us to act to help America's small businesses.

Democrats and Republicans worked together to create a way in which we could help small businesses during this pandemic. It is interesting that the very first bill that we passed removed the restrictions in regard to the EIDL Program so that those businesses that suffered as a result of the pandemic could qualify for the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan Program under the Small Business Administration. We did that because we realized that government was imposing restrictions on small businesses in their operations, and we had a responsibility to act.

And then in mid-March of last year--not this year, but mid-March of last year--we passed the CARES Act, almost a year ago. It recognized that this pandemic was having a major impact on our small businesses. We didn't realize how long the pandemic would last. We thought it would last a few months. We certainly did not think it would last a full year, and now beyond a year. We passed innovative programs in order to save small businesses.

In the one that got perhaps the most attention, the PPP program--the Paycheck Protection Program--we initially provided $350 billion. I would like to think of the CARES Act as, really, a Marshall Plan. It was a Marshall Plan to deal with COVID-19. It provided the

monies for vaccination, research, testing, and for public health, to help our States and local governments, to help schools, but it also provided money in a major way to help small businesses. So $350 billion was initially provided through the Paycheck Protection Program because we realized that rather than having to put more money into unemployment insurance, wouldn't it be better to keep people on payroll so that small businesses can retain their essential workforce? And it worked. The program was very, very popular.

But we did more than just the Paycheck Protection Program. We also expanded the Economic Injury and Disaster Loan Program, or the EIDL Program, because we recognized that forgivable loans of a limited amount of money was not enough to carry businesses over during the pandemic. They were going to need longer term loans. EIDL is a 30-year low-interest loan, up to 30 years. And we also created a new program known as the EIDL Advance Program, which was cash--it was not a loan, not a forgivable loan; it was a grant of up to $10,000--because we know for many small businesses, particularly the most stressed and the most challenged, taking on another loan was not a possibility. So we provided an EIDL Advance of up to $10,000.

We also provided for loan forgiveness for those who had existing or had recently taken out 7(a) or 504 loans under the Small Business Administration.

These programs were exceedingly popular--so popular that, within just about a matter of weeks, we started running out of resources. We had appropriated, we thought, a significant amount of funds, but we found that $350 billion went pretty quickly. So we came together, and we replenished the funds. We put more money into the Paycheck Protection Program, and we also recognized that we had to provide more flexibility because businesses were suffering, and they needed more ability to be able to use those funds. So we granted additional flexibility.

When we passed the CARES Act, we thought this pandemic would be over with by last summer. Well, that was not the case. So we came back together again and recognized we had to do more. We passed, as you know, this past December in the Omnibus legislation another round of help for America's small businesses. This time, it was $325 billion of additional help.

We provided additional eligibility for entities that had not qualified before for the Paycheck Protection Program, and we provided a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program. But we targeted that second round to those small businesses that were in underserved communities, minority communities, and the smaller of the small businesses. We helped mission lenders, such as CDFIs and minority depository institutions so that we could really try to reach the underserved communities.

And we established a program for shuttered venues. Why? Because shuttered venues were shuttered. These were institutions that could not operate because of a government order, and we recognized we had to do something special in order to deal with that.

So when you put that all together, what happened? Well, we saved a lot of small businesses, and we should be proud of that record. Seven million Paycheck Protection Program loans--forgivable loans--were granted for $678 billion. There were 3.7 million EIDL loans given for $200 billion. And we were oversubscribed for the EIDL Advance of $20 billion. So we were able to really help, but more is needed.

When we passed the Omnibus bill in December, we recognized that that would hold us until March. Well, it is now March. We need to act to complete the work.

The Trump administration, in administering the SBA programs, did things that we thought were unacceptable. They put a cap on the EIDL loan of $150,000. The statute says $2 million. Many businesses needed more help than was given by the administration of the EIDL loan program. The EIDL Advance Program was supposed to be up to $10,000, but the administration administered it at $1,000 per employee, making it far less desirable than Congress intended.

And, quite frankly, the underserved communities were not being met at the level that we had expected. I say that because Senator Shaheen and I put a provision in the CARES Act, now known as page 30, that required the SBA to make special efforts to get to the underbanked communities because we realized the underbanked communities were going to have difficulty getting loans that were forgivable. Their own inspector general of the SBA said that the SBA did not carry out the intent of Congress. So we needed to do more to reach those communities that were being left behind.

That is why action is needed. I want to compliment the Biden administration. They have taken administrative action to try to help us on this. They have opened up for 14 days exclusivity under the PPP program for those businesses that are 20 employees or less. The smaller of the small businesses are those that are having the most difficulty surviving in this climate. And they had a much more real--by Executive order or by administrative action, they now have a much more realistic formula for the self-employed as to how much they can receive under a PPP loan. They were able to do that through Executive action, and they removed the discriminatory nature against returning citizens being able to qualify for these forgivable loans.

The Biden administration has taken action. Now it is necessary for us to take action and come in with the American Rescue Plan. We need to pass it, $50 billion of additional help directly--directly--to small businesses to make the EIDL Advance really work for those in low-income communities so they can get their full $10,000 grant that we intended them to receive. So that we can make that work, we need to provide another $15 billion to the EIDL Advance Program, targeting it to the underserved communities.

We have a program to help our restaurants--why help the restaurants?--with $25 billion. Here is the fact. Even with the restaurants starting to come back, we are 2 million jobs less in the restaurant field since the beginning of COVID-19--2 million jobs less. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 110,000 restaurants have either shuttered for good or are shuttered today as a result of COVID-19. We need to direct help to the restaurant community.

The shuttered venue program needs additional support, so an extra $1.25 billion is provided for shuttered venues. I will just give you one example. The Merriweather Post Pavilion located in Howard County, MD--I have been there many times--has not operated since last March. They need help. A thousand jobs are dependent upon the Merriweather Post Pavilion.

I am sure every one of my colleagues could mention the venues in their own State that have been shuttered as a result of COVID-19 that need that help.

We provide $7.25 billion for nonprofits, expanding eligibility, and for the digital news platforms that need help. Johns Hopkins University has done a study, and it has shown that the employment level in our nonprofit community has dropped 1 million jobs since COVID-19 occurred. We know the great work that they do, how they step up and help us anytime, but particularly during a pandemic and during a national crisis. They need help, and they should be eligible to be able to receive the help under the Small Business PPP program. This bill will provide that flexibility so they can get the help that they need-- another reason we have to pass the American Rescue Plan.

Then, lastly, let me mention the community navigators. There is a modest amount of money here so we can have people who can help those who are not as sophisticated to be able to get the help that they need through a community navigator. Yes, we have the Women's Business Centers. Yes, we have the Small Business Development Centers. But we need more help. I think the record has shown that.

Then, lastly, let me say, yes, we need to pass the American Rescue Plan for the direct help to small businesses, but they also need our economy to return to some degree of normalcy. That is why there is help for opening our schools, help for State and local governments, help for families with direct payments and unemployment insurance, SNAP benefits, COBRA protection; why the vaccine distribution is so important, the Medicaid expansion, housing assistance. And I could go on and on and on.

America needs the American Rescue Plan, and they need it now. Democrats

worked with the Trump administration so that we could get help during that administration. Republicans need to join us in helping the American people.

Let's pass the American Rescue Plan, and let's do that as soon as possible.

Mr. President, I rise today to go over with our colleagues the importance of the American Rescue Plan as it relates to small businesses.

As every member of this Chamber knows, small businesses are the growth engine of the American economy. Small businesses are where jobs are created--creating two of every three new jobs and employing almost half of the Nation's private sector workforce during the years leading up to the pandemic.

Just as important as the jobs they create, small businesses are where innovation happens in our economy. They are the entities that are figuring out better, more efficient ways of doing things.

Mr. President, we are 1 week away from the 1-year anniversary of the historic day on March 11 of last year when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

In the year since, we have seen small businesses nationwide struggle, but we have also seen their creativity and ingenuity on display. We have seen the restaurants that have moved to curbside pick-up and online deliveries because it is unsafe to have in-person dining.

These small businesses are the reason why our economy is performing at the level it is, which may not be the level we want it to be, but the ingenuity of these small businesses have put us in a much better position.

But Mr. President, there is another characteristic of small businesses that I think we all understand.

We all understand that they don't have the same degree of resiliency as larger businesses, because they operate on razor-thin margins, they don't have deep pockets, and as a result, they often struggle to find outside financing. So when our economy hits a bump in the road, small businesses suffer the most.

So Mr. President, when the impact COVID-19 would have on our economy became clear last year, it was particularly important for us to respond to help our small businesses so that when we get out of this pandemic, when our economy returns, our small businesses emerge in a position to help our economy recover, and continue to grow.

We had to support our small businesses, because the public health restrictions on public gatherings--which have saved thousands of lives and kept our communities safe--have been especially challenging for small businesses.

So Congress had to respond, and we did. Our first major response was the CARES Act--a bold, bipartisan bill that was created to help small businesses, families, and create a ``Marshall Plan'' for healthcare, which put money into vaccine development, producing personal protective equipment, and put money into testing and other public health measures.

Because we recognized then, and now, that we have a responsibility as the federal government to control the pandemic.

So the very first bill we passed in response to the pandemic made small businesses affected by the pandemic eligible for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program.

Traditionally used to help small businesses recover from a natural disaster like a hurricane or a tornado, EIDL provides low interest, long-term--up to 30 years--loans to help businesses recover.

IT was important that we include EIDL as a tool in the Small Business Administration's toolkit, because we knew small businesses would need the flexible, patient capital provided by EIDL.

Next we passed the CARES Act, which provided more than $370 billion in direct aid to small businesses bearing the costs of keeping us safe.

It created the Paycheck Protection Program, a bipartisan program designed to keep employees on payroll. And we appropriated $350 billion to the program.

We did this because we recognized at the time that while a business could lay off workers who could then collect unemployment, it would be better to keep them on payroll.

PPP provided an immediate influx of aid to small businesses through forgivable loans equivalent to 2 months of payroll costs that could be used primarily for payroll, but for other business expenses as well. For small businesses that used the appropriate portion of their PPP loan for payroll, the loan would be forgiven.

To complement EIDL and PPP, we created the EIDL Advance grant program for those small businesses that were unable to take out a loan because they were struggling to pay their existing loans.

The EIDL Advance program would provide grants up to $10,000 for our most vulnerable small businesses. For many businesses, the grants were a lifesaver that provided an immediate cash infusion without having to worry about additional loans of their books.

We also created the SBA Debt Relief program to cover the monthly payments on new and existing traditional SBA loans, including SBA 7(a) and 504 loans.

Mr. President, the CARES Act was signed on March 27, and according to SBA, more than $340 billion in PPP loans were approved by April 16-- roughly 3 weeks after the bill was signed.

So we had to appropriate additional funds for the program due to the demand for the loans. We also made PPP more flexible for small businesses in recognition of the fact that our Nation would be confronting the pandemic for months to come and that we would not have the pandemic behind us by summer, as we had hoped.

PPP, EIDL, EIDL Advance grants, and the SBA Debt Relief program helped save many small businesses.

We only need to look at the numbers.

Since the creation of PPP last March, SBA has approved more than 7 million PPP loans worth more than $678 billion. Most of those funds went directly to the millions of employees at those small businesses to care for themselves and their families. SBA has approved more than 3.7 million EIDL applications providing loans worth more than $200 billion.

The EIDL Advance grant program has exhausted its initial $20 billion appropriation.

In the months since these programs have been up-and-running, Mr. President, we have learned many lessons that we must now deploy in order to finish the job of ensuring that small businesses are protected through this pandemic.

We learned that the historic barriers that small businesses in underserved communities, especially Black- and Latino-owned small businesses, do not have relationships with the traditional banking institutions that make PPP loans.

Senator Shaheen and I were concerned about this as we wrote the CARES Act, which is why we put a provision in the bill that required SBA to issue guidance to banks participating in PPP to prioritize loan applications from underserved small businesses.

Unfortunately, SBA did not do that, which led the SBA IG to issue report that found that SBA's implementation of PPP ``did not fully align'' with the Congressional intent of the CARES Act.

In response to SBA's failure to issue that guidance, a group of stakeholders advocating on behalf of minority businesses started a group known as the Page 30 Coalition, because the provision I talked about was on page 30 of the CARES Act.

PPP wasn't the only program harmed by the way it was implemented by the Trump administration.

The Trump administration hindered the utility of EIDL by capping loans at $150,000, which is far below the $2 million cap that is in statute.

And EIDL Advance grants were made less useful to small businesses due to the Trump administration's decision to provide EIDL applicants with $1,000 per employee for up to 10 employees, instead of the $10,000 grant provided by the CARES Act.

So I was pleased that we finally lived up to our overdue responsibility to pass more economic aid in December. The bipartisan $900 billion relief bill provided an additional $325 billion in aid to small businesses and included provisions to make PPP a more useful program for more of our most vulnerable small businesses.

The bill provided $284 billion for first and second PPP loans, and it set aside

$15 billion for mission lenders, as well as another $15 billion set- aside for certain smaller financial institutions, such as credit unions and farm credit institutions.

The bill also made SBA's 7(a) and 504 loan programs more affordable for borrowers and less risky for lenders; those programs helped jumpstart the economy following the Great Recession.

The bill provided $20 billion for targeted EIDL Advance grants that will be provided to small businesses in eligible low-income communities. For small businesses in these communities that already received an EIDL Advance grant, SBA will provide them with the difference for a full $10,000 grant.

And we extended the Small Business Debt Relief Program for several more months, which freed up cash flow for small businesses to use for working capital.

Mr. President, I am proud to share that the changes to PPP are already yielding results.

Data from SBA on this current round of PPP shows lower loan averages, which indicates that more of the smaller, more vulnerable small businesses are receiving loans this time than they did during the initial months of PPP.

I was very proud last week after the Biden Administration announced steps it was taking to make PPP a more equitable program and provide relief to the many of Black- and Latino-owned small businesses that were left out of, or underfunded, during previous rounds of relief.

The changes include a 14-day dedicated window for small businesses with fewer than 20 employees to apply for PPP; an improved loan calculation formula for sole proprietors, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals; and the elimination of an unnecessary restriction that prevented small business owners with a prior non-fraud felony conviction from obtaining a PPP loan.

These changes will help many small businesses secure the aid they need.

Now is the time to seize on that momentum.

The American Rescue Plan will deploy an additional $50 billion to the communities and industries that still need help, and are likely to need continuing support in the months to come.

Mr. President, this bill is necessary right now, because the industries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic are also the industries that will take the longest to resume full operations after the pandemic--some of which are reliant on large crowds to turn a profit; others because they are already struggled to access capital before the pandemic, and will only be worse off after it.

It is vital that we provide additional funding to these industries, because they have accounted for a large portion of the jobs lost during the pandemic.

According to the National Restaurant Association, as of December of last year, 110,000 eating and drinking places were closed for business temporarily, or for good, and the sector finished 2020 nearly 2.5 million jobs below its pre-COVID level. And at the peak of initial closures last year, the group estimates that up to 8 million restaurant employees were laid off or furloughed.

The live events industry also needs additional support, because they are the most reliant on large crowds to turn a profit, and businesses in the sector often support hundreds of jobs, both directly and through their relationships with other businesses.

In my home state of Maryland, for example, Merriweather Post Pavilion in Howard County supports nearly 1,000 jobs across the State.

We must also expand support to more nonprofits, because the job losses caused by the pandemic have not been limited to the for-profit entities. According to a report from the Johns Hopkins University, there are nearly 1 million fewer nonprofit jobs today than there were in February of last year, including the 50,000 jobs lost by the nonprofit sector in December. The report projects that it will take 18 months to regain the nonprofit jobs lost during the pandemic.

It goes without saying that getting these jobs back as quickly as possible will be key to a swift, robust recovery. And enacting the American Rescue Plan will help us do just that.

What these small businesses need more of however, are not loans, but grants.

That is why the American Rescue Plan includes $15 billion for targeted EIDL grants to provide hard-hit, underserved small businesses with increased flexible grant relief, which will be particularly helpful for very small businesses and sole proprietors.

This provision is especially important for minority-owned businesses, which are more likely to be sole proprietors and have fewer employees on average.

The American Rescue Plan will also create a $25 billion dedicated grant relief program for restaurants, and it will provide an additional $1.25 billion to the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which was created by the December bill.

The American Rescue Plan will expand PPP eligibility to additional nonprofits that are providing essential social services, as well as digital news services that are keeping our communities informed about the pandemic.

The plan provides SBA with an additional $1.325 billion in administrative funding to implement and scale up these grant programs.

And lastly, the plan provides $175 million for a community navigator pilot program designed to help small businesses in underserved and underbanked communities access the COVID-19 resources available to them.

If we remember from the Affordable Care Act, community navigators help get information out to hard-to-serve communities, and they will help small business owners apply for the programs that best meet their needs.

They are a good complement to SBA's existing resource partners, such as the Women's Business Centers and Small Business Development Centers.

Mr. President, President Biden promised the American people that help is on the way, and that is exactly what we intend to do by passing the American Rescue Plan into law.

It is a bold approach, because the problems we are facing are so great. We must pass this bill immediately.

With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I oppose this amendment. This is a matter of basic fairness.

When we passed the Paycheck Protection Program, it included nonprofits. We didn't have the cost estimates for all the (c)'s. Originally we only included the (c)(3)'s. We added the (c)(6)'s during the omnibus. This adds the rest of the (c)'s, other than (c)(4)'s, with the protection against lobbying activities, et cetera, that is in the bill. The standards are the same as they are for the other nonprofits. This is just a matter of fairness.

Let me just point out, according to information that we have received from a Johns Hopkins University study, we have lost over a million jobs in the nonprofit sector as a result of COVID-19. This bill is needed, and we need to be fair to all the nonprofits.

I urge my colleagues to reject the amendment.

Vote on Amendment No. 1014

Mr. President, I oppose this motion to recommit. This moves us in the wrong direction.

We have had bipartisan support recognizing that those who have been convicted of crime, once they paid their price, should be able to participate in our society.

The motion to recommit would suggest that someone who may have participated in a rally while they were in college 15 years ago and has a perfectly clear record could be prevented from participating in the SBA programs. That is moving in the wrong direction. I hope we would have strong rejection of this amendment.

Mr. President, I want to correct the record or at least clarify the record for Senator Lankford. He raised the point in regard to administrative funds being made available to the SBA. There was a small amount, $70 million, put into the program. That is additional funds.

The EIDL loan program is $200 billion worth of loans, so it is a much larger program, and that was just some additional funds that were being put into the program.

Mr. President, this month we are celebrating Women's History Month, which is a time for us to look back on history and recognize all of the barriers women have overcome, honor women's rights champions, and strategize on the work we still have ahead of us. Our country has made great strides and progress in recent decades. We cannot let previous generations' hard work and sacrifices go to waste.

Dating back to the 1800s, women's history of philanthropists, suffragists, and activists in my home State of Maryland is rich. Margaret Briggs Gregory Hawkins, born in 1887, was instrumental in the long-haul efforts of women earning the right to vote. Her dedicated efforts for women's rights and civil rights were evident at the local level in my hometown of Baltimore. Through her membership in women's grassroots organizations, such as the Druid Hill Branch of the YWCA, Civilian Defense Mobilization, and the Progressive Women's Suffrage Club, she focused on cultivating meaningful relationships, leadership skills, and advancing civil rights and voting rights for women of color. We commemorate Margaret this Women's History Month as she is inducted into the 2021 Maryland Women's Hall of Fame.

Women's History Month is a time for us to remember the fearless women who shaped history as we know it. In 2020, we lost Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Affectionately known as the ``notorious RBG,'' Justice Ginsburg paved the way for millions of women in her relentless fight for justice and equality. She was a warrior in guaranteeing women had a sound voice in the arena. Justice Ginsburg challenged us to ``think about how you would like the world to be for your daughters and granddaughters.''

While 2020 was tumultuous, it also brought anniversaries that are worth noting. In August, we celebrated the milestone of the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. The right to vote is a central to the heart of our democracy. I cannot think of a better way to ring in this milestone than by electing our first female Vice President, Vice President Kamala Harris.

It was a privilege and a joy to serve with my friend Kamala in the Senate. She has been pivotal in women's history. Aside from her groundbreaking role as our first female Vice President, she is the first woman, first South Asian American, and first African American to serve as attorny general in California's history. When looking back on her achievements, she often quotes her mother, who would tell her, ``Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.'' I could not agree more.

While Vice President Harris made history and shattered the glass ceiling with her election victory this past November, there is still work we must do. The first step in leveling the playing field between men and women, today and for future generations, is to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, ERA. Justice Ginsburg once said that if she could choose an amendment to add to the Constitution, it would be the Equal Rights Amendment. That is because she would like her granddaughters,

when they pick up the Constitution, to see that notion--that women and men are persons of equal stature--as a basic principle of our society.

To this day, the Constitution of the United States, our Nation's key document and supreme law, does not consider men and women of equal stature. For example, the Constitution does not protect equal pay under the law. Women, especially women of color, are earning significantly less than their male counterparts for the same work. Women make up a majority of the population, yet are underrepresented in our government institutions and the business world.

The ERA has reached the necessary 38-State ratification threshold for this landmark legislation to be added to the Constitution of the United States. The ERA would solidify and protect the rights of women where our legislation currently falls short. The ERA would raise the standard of scrutiny with which the courts analyze cases of discrimination on the basis of sex and send the vital message that women and men are citizens of equal stature in the United States.

I have introduced bipartisan legislation in the Senate, S.J. Res. 1, with the senior Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, that would remove the existing deadline and allow us to bring this meaningful legislation to the finish line once and for all.

Mr. President, I rise today to discuss two bills addressing oral health, which I am introducing today. These bills will provide incentives for dental and dental hygiene graduates to remain as dental school faculty and make the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) more affordable for at-risk patients and families. We rely on dental faculty to train the next generation of oral health providers, but too often, these educators find themselves pushed to work in private practice in order to pay off their student loans. The Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act will ease some of this financial burden and allow faculty members to stay where they are needed most by eliminating certain loan assistance benefits from counting as taxable income. For low-income children, the CHIP program provides access to affordable oral health care. The Ensuring Kids Have Access to Medically Necessary Dental Care Act makes oral

health more affordable by eliminating annual and lifetime dollar limits for dental care provided under CHIP and requires that CHIP wraparound dental coverage be the same as dental coverage for CHIP enrollees.

The ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has decreased access to oral health care. Though patient volumes have improved since last spring, recent surveys from the American Dental Association (ADA) indicate that since August many private practices have been operating at around 80 percent of pre-COVID-19 patient volumes while public health practices have been operating at around 60 percent of pre-COVID- 19 patient volumes. Patients nationwide have experienced restrictions throughout the pandemic impeding their ability to visit health professionals like oral health practitioners, while dental practices have experienced financial difficulties brought on by the pandemic. Increases in operating costs to enable safe operations, such as purchasing personal protective equipment (PPE), have strained dental practices' financial resources. These added costs, coupled with reduced patient volume, have led to nearly 60 percent of dental practices applying or planning to apply for small business loans under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

As patients and providers alike currently struggle with oral health access issues, it is critical that the pandemic not compound access to care inequities. In particular, these challenges are cause for concern for at-risk populations such as communities of color, who experienced oral health disparities before the pandemic began. As families and patients nationwide struggle to access care at this incredibly challenging time, I am introducing these two bills to ease the financial burden of dental professionals and promote increased access to oral health for low-income beneficiaries.

There are nearly 6,500 dental health professional shortage areas nationwide. These are areas where nearly 60 million Americans, including 835,000 Marylanders, struggle to find a dental provider, even with insurance coverage. By 2030, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) projects that the United States will have a national shortage of 16,000 dentists. We can only hope to solve this problem if we can recruit and retain enough faculty to train the next generation of dentists and dental hygienists. Crippling educational debt should not prevent our Nation from having the oral health care providers it needs, and the Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act will help address that

I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge that February is National Children's Dental Health Month. Since 1981, this month has afforded us the opportunity to acknowledge the importance of children's dental health. We recognize the significant strides we have made, but we also acknowledge the work that remains to be done. I invite my colleagues to join me to use this month to renew our commitment to ensuring that all children in our country have access to affordable and comprehensive dental services. As former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said, ``there is no health without oral health.''

Tooth decay--despite being largely preventable--is the single most common chronic health condition among children and adolescents in the United States. It is four times more common than early-childhood obesity, five times more common than asthma, and 20 times more common than diabetes. Among children in families living below the federal poverty line, 52 percent have cavities. Children with cavities in their primary or ``baby'' teeth are three times more likely to develop cavities in their permanent, adult teeth, and the early loss of baby teeth can make it harder for permanent teeth to grow in properly. If tooth decay is untreated, it not only can destroy a child's teeth; it can have a debilitating impact on his or her health and quality of life.

Many of my colleagues have heard me speak before about the tragic loss of Deamonte Driver, a 12-year-old Prince George's County resident, in 2007. Deamonte's death was particularly heartbreaking because it was entirely preventable. What started out as a toothache turned into an abscess and then severe brain infection that an $80 extraction could have prevented. After multiple surgeries and a lengthy hospital stay, Deamonte tragically passed away--fourteen years ago and just a few miles from where we gather here in the Senate Chamber.

Even in less tragic cases, tooth and gum pain can impede a child's healthy development, including the ability to learn, play, and eat nutritious foods. Recent studies have shown that children with poor oral health are nearly three times more likely to miss school due to dental pain, and children reporting recent toothaches are four times more likely to have a lower grade point average than their peers who do not suffer from dental pain. Tooth decay and oral health problems also disproportionately affect children from low-income families and minority communities. According to the National Institutes of Health, approximately 80 percent of childhood dental disease is concentrated in 25 percent of the population. These children and families often face inordinately high barriers to receiving essential oral health care and, simply put, the consequences can be devastating.

In 2009, Congress reauthorized the Children's Health Insurance Program with an important addition: a guaranteed pediatric dental benefit. Today, CHIP provides affordable comprehensive health coverage--including dental coverage--to more than 9 million children. Thanks to CHIP, we now have the highest number of children with medical and dental coverage in history. In addition, in 2010, Congress included pediatric dental services in the set of essential health benefits established under the Affordable Care Act. I am pleased to say that our actions have been working, and our numbers are improving. In 2004, nearly 23 percent of all children had untreated tooth decay. In 2016, that number had dropped to 13 percent.

I am very proud that my State of Maryland is recognized as a national leader in pediatric dental health coverage. In a 2011 Pew Center report, ``The State of Children's Dental Health,'' Maryland earned an ``A'' and was the only State to meet seven of eight policy benchmarks for addressing children's dental health needs. In addition, in the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, very qualified health plan now includes pediatric dental coverage, so families do not have to pay a separate premium for dental coverage for their children and do not have a separate deductible or out-of-pocket limit for pediatric dental services.

I am also proud to say that Maryland Medicaid does not place a lifetime or annual limit on pregnant women or children receiving dental benefits under CHIP. This ensures that preventive dental care like exams and cleanings, fillings, crowns, root canals, and dentures are not out of reach for low-income Marylanders because of cost constraints. This benefit is critically important nationwide as millions of Americans have joined Medicaid in the past year due to the pandemic.

Not every State has the same benefit structure for CHIP as Maryland, however, which means that new and existing Medicaid beneficiaries may have limits on the types of services they can access. As we know from the terribly tragic example of Deamonte Driver, no family or child should ever face cost constraint decisions for basic oral health care. This is why I have introduced the Ensuring Kids Have Access to Medically Necessary Dental Care Act, to protect access to oral health care for millions of CHIP and Medicaid enrollees and ensure that the pandemic does not reverse the progress we have made in oral health.

I urge my colleagues to join the senior Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker) and me in supporting the Dental Loan Repayment Assistance Act to help address our critical nationwide shortage of dental healthcare providers and especially dental faculty. We cannot continue to allow crippling graduate student debt to deprive the American people of the teachers and mentors we need to train the next generation of oral healthcare providers. I similarly urge my colleagues to join the senior Senator from Michigan (Ms. Stabenow) and me in supporting the Ensuring Kids Have Access to Medically Necessary Dental Care Act to improve access to oral health care for low-income beneficiaries. We must learn from the tragic example of

Deamonte Driver, and ensure that cost constraints are not a barrier to accessing oral health care.

Madam President, each February, we mark Black History Month by coming together to highlight the achievements and contributions of Black Americans to our national story and remember the centuries of struggle that have shaped our society.

At every turning point in American history, Black American achievements and calls to action have driven our Nation's cultural, economic, and social progress forward, helping to hold to account the promises of freedom and equality for all people that our founding doctrine failed to uphold.

For too long, this history and the names and faces of those who marched, sacrificed, and fought for change have been obscured by prejudice and hate. It is our charge to remember those who marched for justice and the forces they marched against.

When we ignore the injustices of our past, we cannot make amends in the present. The consequences of such inaction are grave and live on in present day: the ongoing racial and religious profiling, brutality, and killing of Black Americans by police; the high rates of COVID-19 transmission and death in Black communities; and the disproportionate impact this current economic crisis has had on Black workers and Black- owned businesses.

The unemployment rate for Black workers reached 9.9 percent, for instance--far beyond the national average of 6.7 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These issues, including the broader economic and health consequences of the pandemic, result from systemic failures in place far before the current crisis, and they threaten to worsen racial gaps in wealth, health outcomes, and opportunities for years to come.

Last year, our Nation's fight against racism gained new urgency by a police officer's callous killing of George Floyd in May. The Trump administration and law enforcement's response to peaceful protests further displayed the double standard that still exists in our society today. Protesters were attacked with tear gas and rubber bullets across the Nation and here in our capital as they organized and marched to make it known that Black lives matter. We watched on television as the National Guard forcefully removed peaceful protesters from Lafayette Park to make way for President Trump to walk to St. John's Episcopal Church for a photo op. President Trump brandished a Bible in front of the church while he continued to fan the flames of bigotry, hate, and racism.

The historic election of Kamala Harris as our Nation's first Black female Vice President serves as a reminder of the power of collective action. The Biden-Harris administration gives us opportunity to take meaningful action in government to create a more just society. In the year ahead, we must work together to advance the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to bring accountability to law enforcement and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to combat voter suppression and restore the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

It is our charge to mobilize all levels, from our communities to the Oval Office, to advance social, economic, and civil rights and justice to all Americans. It is time to expel all remaining vestiges of slavery and White supremacy that continue to plague our Nation.

As our National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman said so eloquently in her inaugural day address, ``[B]eing American is more than [just] a pride we inherit, it's the past we step into and how we repair it.'' Black History Month is a reminder to look to this past and to act on our responsibilities in the present to make our Nation a better place for all of us.

We are still fighting against the vestiges of the institutions of slavery, of targeted violence and resistance in the Reconstruction and the Jim Crow eras, and of the tactics to keep Black Americans from the polls and out of government

They are not merely footnotes in our history textbooks; they are the lineage of our Nation, the obstacles that have left millions of our citizens behind in the effort to obtain the American dream.

The realization of justice and true equality depends on our work to build a country committed to righting historic wrongs, closing gaps in the opportunity to achieve, and dismantling vestiges of inequality in our foundations. The 28 days in February must set the tone for the entire year--a continued commitment to justice, equality, and opportunity.

Celebrating Black experiences and culture contributes to the greatness of our diverse society. Such a celebration is aspirational, highlighting one of the many fundamental components that make this Nation a beacon around the world despite our flaws.

For the past 40 years, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer celebrated Black History Month by hosting a breakfast for political and civic leaders and inviting illustrious keynote speakers. Past speakers included then-Senator Barack Obama and Congressman John Lewis. Congressman Anthony Brown joined the effort to bring so many of us together for this 40th Annual Black History Month Celebration and featured Vice President Harris as the honored guest and keynote speaker.

I would like to acknowledge the planning committee for this year's event, including Jackie Rhone and the former chair, Betty Richardson. Through their hard work, the celebration is a true success that everyone who participates looks forward to year after year.

This year's event focused on the identity, representation, and diversity of the Black family. Maya Angelou once said:

I sustain myself with the love of my family.

The lasting bonds we have with our families sustain us through life. For many, our families serve as our home base through times of triumph, trial, and tragedy.

The past year was a tumultuous year, from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately harmed African Americans much more severely than others, to the resounding calls for racial justice and racial equity, which have long been overdue. Through all of the turmoil, 2020 brought us together to appreciate and celebrate the gifts of life, family, and diversity. As we celebrate Black History Month and moving forward, we can recommit ourselves to promoting and celebrating diversity and advancing civil rights in our society. Black history is American history. It is a story of oppression, struggle, and, if we are to be true to our founding premise, redemption and equality.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I rise today to honor Dr. Sean McCagh, a Marylander whom we should all emulate for his selflessness and passion for helping others. Sean touched the hearts and lives of his family, friends, coworkers, patients, and the entire community of Allegany County in the western part of my State. Sadly, Sean was taken far too soon from his family and the many neighbors who cared so deeply for him due to complications of COVID-19. He leaves behind his wife, Terri, and three sons, Mike, Cory, and Casey.

Sean was born and raised in Cumberland, MD. He graduated from Bishop Walsh High School and completed his undergraduate studies at Mount St. Mary's University. He earned his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed his dermatology residency at the University of West Virginia. He returned to the hometown he loved so well and joined his brother Mike's dermatology practice in 1996.

Sean was a man of vision who was never one to sit idly by. He volunteered his time as the athletic physician for Allegany High School for several years and later established a community fundraiser known as the Hooley Plunge to support the ice rink at the local YMCA. When the YMCA closed the ice rink, Sean redirected his efforts to another cause close to his heart, people with developmental disabilities. With Sean as its champion for 17 years, the Hooley Plunge has raised more than $1.5 million to support the Special Olympics of Allegany County and other local programs that serve individuals with development disabilities. It has become the largest single-day fundraising event in Allegany County, with hundreds of brave souls running into the freezing waters of Rocky Gap State Park's Lake Habeeb in return for donations.

A few years ago, Sean received the Community Service Award from the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce, one of numerous entities to recognize his unwavering commitment to the greater good. Sean's sister, Erin McCagh Morrissey, has fittingly called him Cumberland's George Bailey, referring to the community-minded banker James Stewart played in the classic movie, ``It's a Wonderful Life.''

While Sean loved his job as a dermatologist and was passionate about helping others, he also loved being a cattle farmer. When his middle son, Cory, graduated from college, Sean encouraged him to follow his dream to start a brewery. With Cory's vision and Sean's support and investment, they christened the 200-year-old barn on the family's farm as the ``1812 Brewery,'' which set the stage for a growing and mutually supportive family of small brewers to attract tourists and enhance the lives of local residents.

While the people of Allegany County grieve the sudden, stunning loss of a cherished husband, father, friend, doctor, businessman, and community leader, I ask my Senate colleagues to join me in remembering and honoring the life of Dr. Sean McCagh who, through his service and love for people, has left his community a better place.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I take this time to explain why I voted to convict the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, of the Article of Impeachment presented by the House of Representatives in regards to the incitement of insurrection.

Throughout his Presidency, Donald J. Trump has violated his oath of office to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. There are many examples that I can give of how he has violated his oath of office. I could also cite the basis of the first Articles of Impeachment that were tried last year as violating his oath of office. But, by far, the most egregious violation of his oath of office took place in his incitement of insurrection that occurred with the attack on this Capitol on January 6.

But it started well before January 6. The seeds were planted a long time ago and even before the November elections, when President Trump pointed out, when the polls were showing that he might lose in the election, that he refused to acknowledge that he would accept the election results if he lost. He didn't say that once before the November elections, he said it on several occasions. He talked about a rigged election. He talked about a fraudulent election. He talked about the election being ``taken away from us''--the victory--with no evidence of voter fraud.

One of the key provisions of our Constitution, of our democracy, is the peaceful transition of power. Donald Trump called that into question prior to the November 3 elections.

Then came the November 3 elections, and, shortly thereafter, Joe Biden was declared to be the winner. Why? Because he had the most votes--most populace votes--over 7 million. But he was declared the winner because of the electoral votes, 306 to 232. By the way, that is the same electoral margin that Donald Trump won 4 years earlier and which Donald Trump called a ``landslide.''

But then came the legal challenges by President Trump. He didn't accept the electoral vote or the declared elections. And he has his right to contest the elections in the court by asking for recounts or asking for challenges, but in every one of those cases, he could

not establish widespread fraud that would have changed the results in any one of the States, let alone enough electoral vote changes to change the outcome of the election.

But did he stop after he was denied relief in all of those legal challenges? The answer is no. He further contested by trying to inappropriately interfere with State election officials and State public officials, urging them to take action to change the certification results.

Now, we have many examples that during this period of time he was talking about a fraudulent election, a stolen election, all the different things about raising questions as to the legitimacy of the voices of people of this Nation. We have so many examples of his interference, but we actually have the tape of his conversation with the Georgia secretary of state that we all heard and heard how the President tried to intimidate and threaten the secretary of state of Georgia in order to change the certified election results from the votes of the people of Georgia--clear examples of how President Trump violated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

But that wasn't the end of it. He went to his Department of Justice believing the Department of Justice is his Department of Justice, not the Department of Justice of the United States of America. Now, let's remember that the Department of Justice had found no widespread corruption. In fact, they had determined this was one of the freest elections and one of the least problem elections that we have had. It didn't stop President Trump from trying to intimidate and order his Department of Justice to conduct an additional investigation to find fraud to overturn the will of the people--once again, violating his oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

He continued to do this, contrary to his constitutional obligations. ``Corrupt election,'' ``stop the steal,'' ``rigged elections,'' ``tremendous fraud''--all words that he used after the November 3 election. He knew what he was saying was a lie. He knew there was no widespread fraud, but he continued to use the Office of the Presidency and his voice to promote the big lie, and he knew his followers would believe it. He knew he could convince his loyal followers to believe that this was a rigged election--a stolen election--again, compromising our democracy and the will of the people to determine who our leaders are. And he knew his followers would be motivated to action because he knew he could motivate his followers.

He put himself before the Nation and before his responsibilities as President of the United States. He put his own self-interest above his responsibilities under the Constitution of the United States and to the people of this Nation.

And then he summoned his loyal following to Washington on January 6. He knew they would come. He knew dangerous people were in the group. He knew the Proud Boys were there, to which he had directly said: ``Stand back and stand by.'' He knew that they were ready for violent action.

And then he incited the mob to action on January 6. We know the words that he used. We saw the videos as part of the record of the impeachment trial. ``We will never surrender,'' ``we will never concede,'' ``we will stop the steal,'' ``stolen election''--all words that he had been using during the entire 2020 election cycle, particularly when he thought he was going to lose.

But the most damning part of the President's violation of his oath of office--the most serious part--is what he did and did not do after seeing the violence erupt in the United States Capitol. After the Capitol was penetrated, after we saw the violence being committed, where we knew that the Members of Congress were in danger, the Vice President of the United States was in danger, the people that work here were in danger, all the people that were in the Capitol legitimately were in danger--we all saw that--and the President of the United States knew that, and he did nothing to stop the violence. He could have called off his loyalists and told them to get out of the Capitol. He didn't do that. He could have sent in the National Guard in order to protect us. He didn't do that. And he never condemned the participants in this mob in penetrating the Capitol for what they did.

I am going to sort of summarize my feeling about that by agreeing with Representative Liz Cheney, the House Republican caucus chair, who said it on the floor of the House. Let me just quote her statement:

The President of the United States summoned this mob,

assembled this mob, and lit the flame of this attack.

Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would

have happened without the President. The President could have

immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence.

He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a

President of the United States of his office and his oath to

the Constitution.

I agree with that. President Trump violated his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He violated that.

But let's take a look at what he did do after knowing the violence that occurred--his tweet of 2:24 p.m. Now, this is after the Vice President had been removed from presiding in the Chamber, after he knew the violence that was taking place in the Capitol of the United States. He was aware of all that. He knew that we had shut down the operations of the House and the Senate, that there was violence taking place within the Capitol, and that his Vice President was the target of that attack. And what he tweeted at 2:24 p.m.--I am quoting the President: ``Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our country.'' He inflamed the group even more to violence after he knew that it was a violent circumstance.

He had known violence had taken place, and we heard put into the record of the impeachment trial today Congresswoman Beutler's report of Majority Leader McCarthy's conversation, which, again, is during this period of time. Here we are. The Republican leader of the House of Representatives gets the President on the phone. He says: Mr. President, we are being attacked. My office is being broken into. We need help. Send the Guard. Take care of us.

And then President Trump said something like: Well, it is not my supporters. It is some leftwing group.

And Leader McCarthy said: No, Mr. President, these are your supporters who are doing this.

And what did the leader say? What did the President say? I guess, Kevin, these people are more upset about the election than you are.

Here we have the Members of Congress in harm's way, and the President is talking about the support for those who are causing the violence and putting his own interest above the safety of the people whom he is sworn to protect as our Commander in Chief.

And then, at the end of the day, about 6 o'clock, he sends out a tweet that really sums up his feelings about what these people were doing. Now, these are people who came into the Capitol. They killed people. They hurt people. They stole property. They damaged property. They invaded the Capitol of the United States. They hurt law enforcement officers. They hurt all of us. They hurt our democracy. So how does the President sum up the day? His tweet:

These are the things that happen when a sacred landslide

victory is so unceremoniously and viciously stripped away

from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated

for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day

forever!

He was repeating the big lie and saying the day was a day of celebration when it was one of the bleakest days, dark days in the history of our Nation. That is what President Trump did, rather than bringing in the National Guard, rather than telling his people to go home, rather than being concerned about the safety of the Vice President and the Members of Congress as the President of the United States should have been doing.

He violated his oath of office over and over and over again--a pattern of practice that we have seen for so long. It clearly establishes that he incited an insurrection against our country--that the facts included as a basis for the Article of Impeachment brought to us by the House of Representatives have been proven.

The purpose of impeachment is not just the accountability for the President but also to protect our Constitution and to make sure this conduct never happens again. No one is above

the law, including the President of the United States. Everyone who was responsible for the insurrection that occurred on January 6 should be held accountable--from those who broke into the Capitol and caused the harm and damage to the President of the United States who incited the violence.

That is why I voted to convict President Trump of the Article of Impeachment for inciting an insurrection, and that is why I would have voted for disqualifying him from ever holding an office of trust again.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have a copy of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship rules of procedure be printed in the Record.