Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I have a request for one committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committee is authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, at 6 p.m., to conduct a closed briefing.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 10; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Fudge nomination as provided under the previous order; finally, that the Senate recess following the confirmation vote on the Fudge nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings.

Mr. President, for the information of Senators, there will be four rollcall votes during Wednesday's session of the Senate in relation to the Fudge, Garland, and Regan nominations.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Madam President, first and foremost, I want to thank everyone--everyone on the floor staff who worked late into the night and into the wee hours of the morning to finish reading the Senate amendment to the American Rescue Plan.

The folks who sit up here on the dais come to work every day with a very serious job to do, helping the Senate come to life and fulfill its purpose under the Constitution. I am sure you all didn't expect that part of your job this week would entail standing on your feet and reading dense legislation for more than 10 hours straight.

I can't imagine that is anyone's idea of a good time, but, as usual, our staff took their additional duties in stride and carried them out with professionalism and grace, finishing around 3 in the morning, and you are all right back on your posts this morning.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your service, your dedication. You are the unsung heroes of this place.

To all of the critical workers, not just those here on the dais--the clerks, the stenographers, the Capitol Police officers, the floor staff--to all of you: Thank you, thank you, thank you for your efforts yesterday and every day.

And as for our friend from Wisconsin, I hope he enjoyed his Thursday evening.

Madam President, a year ago this week, Congress began work on what would become the CARES Act, the opening salvo in a yearlong battle against what, at the time, was a strange and new disease. I don't think anyone could have anticipated that a year hence we would have lost more than 10 million jobs and over half a million citizens.

Even as the vaccine makes its way across the country, and hope shimmers on the horizon, millions of Americans

are still struggling with basic necessities. Folks are thousands of dollars behind on the rent and utilities. Their heat, water and power are getting shut off. More than a million Americans on unemployment insurance report that their kids aren't getting enough to eat.

Sometimes the macrostatistics get in the way because the top end is doing very well, the top 10 percent or 25 percent, but so many other people are struggling. And if you just look at a big number, you say: Oh, everything is getting a little better. It is not for the lower half of America. It is not.

I read about one of my constituents recently, Allilsa Fernandez, from Queens, who had a job as a home healthcare aide lined up at the start of the pandemic but couldn't take it because of her family's preexisting medical conditions. Her mother was in the hospital with COVID. Her income went from $3,400 a month to just $1,000.

It was a huge, huge loss--

She said.

I have medications, my electric bill, the phone bill, and

[the] other costs. Every day you . . . have to make . . .

decisions: Am I going to eat?

In America, that should not be the case. It shouldn't be at any time but particularly when an evil disease has robbed our hard-working people of their income, their livelihood.

``Am I going to eat?'' And we are supposed to sit here and do nothing? We are supposed to say to Ms. Fernandez, and so many like her, we are not giving you the help you need?

Ms. Fernandez hasn't been able to pay the rent since April of last year, over $16,000 worth. And this bill will help people like her, but it will also prevent people from getting into Ms. Fernandez's place: people who work for State and local governments who might be laid off, people who work for small businesses who might be laid off.

It is the job of this government, during this evil pandemic, to assist American families, businesses, and workers like Ms. Fernandez until this pandemic is over. It is also our job to prevent others from falling into the same awful situation that Ms. Fernandez finds herself. It is our job to hasten the day when Americans can go back to work, our country can go back to normal, our economy can come roaring back. We can reduce that awfully high actual 10 percent unemployment. That is what the American Rescue Plan will do.

It will send direct checks to American workers and families struggling with the cost of groceries, medicine, and the rent. The vast majority of Americans will get the full $1,400 we have asked for. It will help reopen schools as quickly and safely as possible. It will help the hardest hit small businesses hang on. It will keep firefighters and teachers and busdrivers and sanitation workers on the job. It will help American families stay in their homes, care for their children, put food on the table, and it will give our country the resources, the vaccination and testing, that it needs to crush the virus once and for all.

All told, the American Rescue Plan will be one of the largest anti- poverty bills in recent history, cutting child poverty just about in half. The entire country has gotten behind the bill: business leaders, mayors, Governors, from big cities, small towns, Red States, Blue States, Democrat, Republican.

The clear majority of the American people--Democrats, Independents, and Republicans--all support the American Rescue Plan. It seems the only group in America who doesn't support the American Rescue Plan are Washington Republicans.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle say $1.9 trillion is too expensive. Well, my Republican colleagues didn't think it was too expensive when they gave nearly the same amount in tax breaks to corporations and the ultrarich in a healthy economy, not one that is struggling.

My colleagues claim this bill isn't related to COVID. What hogwash. It is a strange thing to say because most of the measures in the bill are exactly the same ideas Republicans supported a year ago in the CARES Act, which passed without a single dissenting Republican vote.

Direct checks, in the CARES Act; enhanced unemployment insurance, in the CARES Act; assistance for State and local governments, in the CARES Act; funding for testing and the vaccine, in the CARES Act; aid to schools and small businesses, in the CARES Act. All of them were in the CARES Act, which every Republican voted for, and now they are saying the American Rescue Plan, which has the basic, same structure, is not related to COVID.

When we passed the CARES Act, we all thought that maybe COVID would be gone by the summer. It isn't. We need to keep at it in the same way. Every single Republican who voted for the CARES Act and those ideas a year ago, when a Republican was in the White House and Republicans controlled the Senate, is now saying no, it seems. But now that a Democrat is in the White House, now that Democrats control the Senate, those same ideas, which they supported when Trump was President and McConnell was majority leader, are a liberal wish list--same ideas. Who the heck are they kidding? They have no good answer.

But let's face it, we need to get this done. It would be so much better if we could in a bipartisan way, but we need to get it done.

We are not going to make the same mistake we made after the last economic downturn when Congress did too little to help the Nation rebound, locking us into a long, slow, painful recovery, where it was years before employment was back to where it was before that crisis.

We are not, we are not going to be timid in the face of big challenges. We are not, we are not going to delay when urgent action is called for. The Senate will move forward today with the American Rescue Plan. There will be a lengthy amendment process, as the rules of the Senate require. The Senate is going to take a lot of votes, but we are going to power through and finish this bill however long it takes. The American people are counting on us, and our Nation depends on it.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the agreement that has been reached will allow us to move forward with the American Rescue Plan, and voting will resume shortly.

Senate Democrats are completely united in our belief about how important this entire bill is for our fellow Americans; for getting the vaccine to our people; for reopening our schools; for keeping American workers, families, and businesses afloat; and for putting our country on the road to a strong recovery.

Now that this agreement has been reached, we are going to power through the rest of the process and get this bill done. Make no mistake, we are going to continue working until we get the job done.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, good morning.

Now, it looks like we have about 14 amendments left, and 1 or 2 of those may be voice-voted. So I would ask that we all stay in our seats so we can expedite the process. I would ask that we try to accomplish these votes in no more than 10 minutes so that we can move forward.

I yield the floor.

No.

Mr. President, I am pleased that we have finally come to this point. This amendment makes a series of conforming and technical changes. It strikes provisions that the

Parliamentarian advised were extraneous. It makes a series of perfecting changes on behalf of reconciled committees while preserving the will that the Senate has worked over this long day.

I call up my amendment No. 1398 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 minutes of debate, equally divided.

Mr. President, it has been a long day, a long night, a long year, but a new day has come, and we tell the American people: Help is on the way.

When Democrats assumed the majority in this Chamber, we promised to pass legislation to rescue our people from the depths of the pandemic and bring our economy and our country roaring back. In a few moments, we are going to deliver on that promise.

This bill will deliver more help to more people than anything the Federal Government has done in decades. It is broader, deeper, and more comprehensive in helping working families and lifting people out of poverty than anything Congress has seen or accomplished in a very long time.

The pandemic has affected nearly every aspect of American life. So this bill spans the gamut and provides support to every part of our country. For Americans who doubted that the government can help them in this time of crisis, you will be getting direct checks. Your schools will receive assistance to reopen quickly and safely; your local businesses will get another lifeline; and the day when you receive the vaccine will be a lot sooner.

The American Rescue Plan will go down as one of the most sweeping Federal recovery efforts in history. It is never easy to pass legislation as momentous as this, but it will all and soon be worth it.

Now, I know that on Saturday morning the American people aren't watching our proceedings here. They are probably out walking the dog or sitting down at breakfast with the kids. But I want them to know help is on the way; that their government is going to give one final push to get us over the finish line.

I want the American people to know that we are going to get through this, and someday soon our businesses will reopen; our economy will reopen; and life will reopen. We will end this terrible plague, and we will travel again and send our kids to school again and be together again.

Our job right now is to help our country get from this stormy present to that hopeful future, and it starts with voting aye on the legislation before us. Vote yes on the American Rescue Plan. Vote yes.

And before I yield the floor, one final note. Let us all express our deepest gratitude to all of my colleagues who went through a long, long period in the last day; to the staffs of the committees and the personnel in Senate offices who have worked so hard to put this legislation together, and especially let us thank the great floor staff: the clerks, the cafeteria workers, the custodial staff, and the Capitol Police.

(Applause, Senators rising.

This bill includes important support for state and local governments, allowing them to not only provide services that are needed to fight the pandemic and support the economy, but also ensuring that teachers and first responders don't need to be laid off and services don't need to be cut.

We also know that this crisis is going to have lasting consequences for State and local budgets, that many of the impacts won't just be felt this year, but going forward given how disruptive the last year was.

So in designing this funding, we split the money for localities into two tranches, half to be delivered this year and half next year. For States, the money is delivered up front, with the Secretary given the discretion to calibrate timing of payments for some States based on their unemployment rate. For States with lower unemployment rates, the bill creates a structure for Treasury to work with States to spread the funding out over the course of this recovery.

That will allow States and localities to get the money that they need, but over a timeline that will best support the economy as it recovers.

Additionally, below are names of the staff who worked tirelessly towards the passage of this bill. I want to thank them for their service, and I ask unanimous consent that their names be printed in the Record.

Many of them have worked for as many as 36 hours straight. My notes here say: ``Let's give them a round of applause.''

And, of course, one more thank-you to my great and wonderful staff. I will thank all of them by name at a later date because I want them to be awake and alert when I do.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

I just want to thank everybody. We are a great team. We are a great team.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 12.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 27.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls with respect to these motions be waived.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 15.

I send a cloture motion to the desk.