Floor Statements

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 11.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The clerk will call the roll.

The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that on Tuesday, March 9, at 5:30 p.m., cloture ripen on, one, Executive Calendar No. 12, Marcia Fudge, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Executive Calendar No. 27, Merrick Garland, to be Attorney General; that the Senate proceed to vote on cloture on the Fudge nomination; that if cloture is invoked, postcloture time expire on Wednesday, March 10, at 12 noon; further, that notwithstanding rule XXII, following the cloture vote on the Fudge nomination, the Senate vote on cloture on the Garland nomination; that if cloture is invoked on the Garland nomination, postcloture time expire on Wednesday, March 10, at 2:15; further, that cloture on the Regan nomination ripen following disposition of the Garland nomination.

Mr. President, today's legislation takes a very important step in providing financial assistance to multiemployer pension plans, particularly those plans that have already had to suspend benefits in order to save the plans from going insolvent. That has been a very painful step for some plans in New York because it resulted in retiree benefit cuts of as much as 60 percent.

This legislation will allow those plans to restore painful cuts and ensure others on the brink do not have to take similar steps.

I will be watching how the administration implements this new program very closely to ensure plans receiving financial assistance under the new program are not placed in a worse long-term funding position than they are today or are projected to be into the future. This new program is intended to be a long-term solution for these ailing plans, a solution that protects retiree benefits as well as the health of the plans themselves.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Fudge nomination, as provided under the previous order; finally, I ask that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Regan nomination be waived.

Mr. President, for the information of Senators, the Senate will not be in session on Monday, March 8. On Tuesday, there will be two rollcall votes at 5:30 p.m. The first vote will be on the motion to invoke cloture on the Fudge nomination to be Secretary of HUD, followed by a cloture vote on the Garland nomination to be Attorney General.

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.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 11.

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

Mr. President, as the Senate prepares to take up the American Rescue Plan today, I want to remind everyone why we are here. This country is in the midst of a once-in-a-century crisis--not once in a decade, not once in every 50 years--once in a century.

It is a crisis that is still very much with us, and it is deadly-- deadly--serious. It has claimed more than 515,000 precious lives across every part of the Nation.

For the better part of the calendar year, businesses have had to close their doors and entire industries teetered on the brink of collapse. The economy has lost 10 million jobs since this time last year. Millions of Americans are thousands of dollars behind on the rent and

on the utilities. Folks are facing eviction. American families have had their water shut off, their heat shut off in the depth of winter, and the power cut during their kids' first days of virtual kindergarten.

Even as the vaccine is quickly making its way into Americans' arms now that President Biden has taken the helm, tens of thousands of Americans continue to get sick every week, and we are racing against the clock to defeat the pandemic and to save American lives.

Now, Congress has come together on several occasions to pass emergency relief in this time of extraordinary crisis. In each case, we saw our economy recover, briefly, before worrying trends took hold again, showing the depth of the economic crisis. It is not going to be quick and easy to get out of.

After the CARES bill passed, our economy stabilized before dipping deeply again in the summer. After we passed another emergency bill in December, the January numbers looked positive before once again slipping in recent weeks. Trusted economists--Treasury Secretary Yellen and Federal Chair Powell, both cautious, careful people--are telling us, plain as day, that the economy is not yet ready to stand on its own; that our recovery is deeply uncertain; that the risk of doing little is far greater than doing too much.

We have also arrived at this moment, about to take up the American Rescue Plan, because we remember what happened the last time our country faced a significant economic downturn. Congress was too limited and constrained in its response to the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, and, as a result, the country suffered a long, slow, painful recovery--a lost decade for many American families, creating anger, pessimism, a sourness in the land that discombobulated our politics.

We are not going to make those same mistakes again. We are not going to condemn millions of working Americans to another lost decade of tepid recovery. We are not going to abdicate our responsibility to help the American people just because we have started to see the first hint that things aren't as bad as during the very worst days of the pandemic.

Our mission--our mission--is to crush the virus now, get our country back to normal, lay the foundation for our economy to come roaring back--roaring back.

That is what the American Rescue Plan is designed to do, and the entire country has gotten behind it. Hundreds of the Nation's top business leaders support the plan. More than 400 mayors and local leaders from both parties--Democrat and Republican--support the plan. The American people support the plan, including a clear majority of Democrats, Independents, Republicans.

It seems the only group that opposes the bill are Republicans here in Washington, and it is confounding. When Donald Trump was President, they were willing to vote for a total of over $3 trillion in aid. Now that President Biden is President and the economy is in the same pickle, generally speaking, they don't want to vote for a nickel. I wonder why. I wonder why.

And I have to say, a few of my Republican colleagues are going to some pretty ridiculous lengths to showcase their opposition to a bill The Economist has called ``one of the most popular bills in decades,'' a bill supported by a majority--a majority--of Republican voters, not Republican Senators, but voters.

Yesterday, the Republican Senator from Wisconsin--the same Senator who last summer proudly declared he would oppose even a dime more in COVID relief, the same Senator who spent a Senate hearing on Capitol security reading conspiracy theories into the Record and saying that January 6 wasn't an armed insurrection--decided to make himself the face of the Republican opposition to the bill by vowing to force the reading of the Senate amendment to the American Rescue Plan, in full, before we can proceed with the bill.

We all know this will merely delay the inevitable. It will accomplish little more than a few sore throats for the Senate clerks who work very hard, day in and day out, to help the Senate function. And I want to thank our clerks profoundly for the work they do every day, including the arduous task ahead of them.

Still, we are delighted that the Senator from Wisconsin wants to give the American people another opportunity to hear what is in the American Rescue Plan. We Democrats want America to hear what is in the plan. And if the Senator from Wisconsin wants the clerks to read it, let everybody listen because it has overwhelming support. We want them to hear about the direct checks they will get, as promised, to help them keep up with the cost of groceries, medicine, and the rent; about funding to expand testing and support the vaccine; about the resources for schools to reopen quickly and as safely as possible; about the money to keep firefighters, teachers, busdrivers, and first responders on the job; about the dollars to provide rental assistance to keep Americans in their homes; about the help for the hardest hit small businesses to hang on until brighter days return.

Oh, yes, when the clerks read, the American people will get another chance to hear about the tax breaks for low-income workers and assistance for American families struggling with childcare--two measures that help make the American Rescue Plan one of the single largest anti-poverty bills in recent history.

And then, once the American people have heard all over again about the provisions that make this bill so popular, about the support that is going to lift the country out of the crisis, provide millions of vaccines in people's arms, and set it on a path to strong recovery, the Senate is going to move forward with the bill.

No matter how long it takes, the Senate is going to stay in session to finish the bill this week. The American people deserve nothing less.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, in a moment, I will move to proceed to the Senate's substitute amendment to the American Rescue Plan. This legislation will keep America's families, businesses, and workers afloat and hasten the day when our country can return to normal and our economy can come roaring back.

The United States is facing a once-in-a-century crisis that has sapped millions of jobs from our economy, left millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet, and stolen more than half a million American lives. The time is now to move forward with big, bold, strong relief for the American people; to send checks as promised to American workers and families; to help reopen schools as quickly and safely as possible; to help the hardest hit small businesses hang on; to help families stay in their homes, care for their children, and put food on the table; to keep firefighters, teachers, and busdrivers on the job; and to crush the virus with testing and vaccines once and for all.

We are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past. We are not going to be timid in the face of a great challenge. We are not going to delay when urgent action is called for. We are not going to quit before the race is won. We are going to sprint through the finish line.

It is time to move forward with this legislation, which will be one of the largest single anti-poverty bills in recent history. It is time to lift this country out of crisis and set it on a path to a strong and swift recovery. It is time to tell the American people that help is on the way.

Motion to Proceed

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 10,

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, I have an amendment at the desk, and I ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading.

Regular order, Madam President.

Mr. President, now on the American Rescue Plan, as early as tonight, the Senate will move to take up the American Rescue Plan, a bill designed to immediately deliver help to American families, workers, and businesses struggling under the weight of the pandemic and to lay the foundation for our Nation's recovery, so needed.

Every day, we see signs of hope and signs of caution in our fight against the COVID pandemic. As of today, in good part because the Biden administration is really doing a good job, over 78 million doses of the COVID vaccine have been administered in the country and over 100 million have been shipped--well ahead of the rosiest expectations at the start of the year. Just yesterday, President Biden announced that there will be enough vaccines for every adult in the United States by the end of May--by the end of May--far sooner than most had thought. Again, President Biden and his team are doing a great job in moving the vaccine out quickly but fairly.

Still, the United States averages 66,000 cases of COVID per week. That exceeds anything we saw last summer during the worst months of the spread. So we cannot relax, and the need for the legislation that is before us is stronger than ever before.

It is a similar story with the economy. There are green shoots, but unemployment is still over 6 percent and 9 percent for African Americans. The economy has lost 10 million jobs compared to a year ago. Tens of millions of Americans report being thousands of dollars behind in rent and utilities. As Treasury Secretary Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Powell have repeatedly warned us, our economy and its recovery remain deeply uncertain.

There are bumps but mainly because of the stimulus bills we have done. We did a bill in March, and the May and June numbers looked pretty good but then sunk again over the summer and fall. We did a bill in December, and the January numbers looked pretty good. But that is not evidence that the economy is able to sustain things on its own; that is evidence that the Federal Government needs to continue its role to get us back on track.

We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. The American Rescue Plan is designed to build on our early progress and finish the job, to help our country get through the final months of the crisis and then, equally important, bring our economy roaring back.

We cannot go through the situation we did back in 2009, where the stimulus wasn't strong enough and we stayed in recession for years. So just because the numbers are not as bad as they were doesn't mean we don't need a continued strong push to get us out of this ditch and go upward and forward.

Now, we had always hoped that this very important work would be bipartisan. Regrettably, it seems that too many of our Republican colleagues are resorting to the same predictable objections they raise about nearly every proposal supported by a Democrat. It doesn't matter what is in the bill; everything my colleagues oppose is ``a liberal wish list''. That is what many of them call it.

Let me tell you, this bill is not a liberal wish list; this is an American wish list. When people want checks to help them get out of the morass, that is not a liberal wish list; that is what the American people want. It is an American wish list. When people want resources to open schools quickly and safely, that is not a liberal wish list; that is an American wish list. When people want assistance for the hardest- hit small businesses, that is not a liberal wish list; that is an American wish list. Funding to keep teachers, firefighters, transit workers, first responders in Red States and Blue on the job, it is not a liberal wish list; it is an American wish list.

So many of the people affected by this bill are not liberals or Democrats. They may be Republicans, they may be Independents, they may be conservatives, but they are Americans who want some help to get out of this morass.

Money to expand the testing and speed of the distribution of vaccines, the cornerstone of ending this crisis once and for all--that is not a liberal wish list; that is an American wish list. Everyone wants the vaccine out there. Direct checks, as I mentioned, as promised to Americans struggling to keep up with expenses, to buy their groceries, medicine, to pay the rent and utilities--that is not a liberal wish list; that is an American wish list.

I would ask my Republican colleagues to go ask their constituents which of these things their constituents oppose. None. That is what the data shows.

The American Rescue Plan will be the single largest anti-poverty bill in recent history, with crucial assistance for American families, particularly those struggling with the cost of childcare. It will give tax breaks for low-income workers, so when they work hard, they can afford the necessities of life.

So these things are ``the liberal wish list'' that Republicans are talking about--support for schools and jobs and families and workers and the vaccine? No way.

Ironically, the ``liberal wish list'' includes a whole bunch of bipartisan amendments that were accepted, including provisions to help restaurants, sponsored by Senators Sinema and Wicker; a vaccine public awareness program, sponsored by Senators Cardin and Portman; and a provision to better target direct payments, sponsored by Senators Manchin and Collins.

Make no mistake, the American Rescue Plan is a very, very strong bill that will move our country forward in amazing ways. It should come as no surprise that support of the American Rescue Plan is coming from all over the country.

Hundreds of business leaders--not the most liberal bunch--have urged Congress to pass this bill. More than 435 mayors and State leaders, Democrats and Republicans, have said the same: They want the bill. As one Republican mayor from Michigan put it, ``The need is real, and not just in Democratic communities.'' He went on to tell his fellow Republicans in Washington who oppose the bill to ``talk to some of the Republican mayors.''

But if my Republican colleagues here in the Senate don't want to listen to the words of their fellow Republican mayors and Governors, they can look at the polls, which show the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, support this bill.

It seems like the only people who are dead set against this bill are Republican Senators--not Republicans out in the country, not Republican mayors, not Republican businesspeople, not Republican small businesses.

I guess all of this should be expected. COVID-19 is not a Red State or a Blue State crisis. Our Republican friends should know that. It is not a Democratic or Republican concern. They should know that too. COVID-19 is a menace to all of us, and we should be banding together to fight.

The economic crisis has affected all of us, and the plan that we are going to vote on this week is going to provide real, robust relief for all of us.

Whatever our Republican colleagues decide to do, the Senate majority is intent on going forward and helping the American people with bold action quickly.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 1, S. 11.