Safe and conducting what we believe is essential work for the American People. Additional of Coronavirus Relief is on the minds of lots of our members. You have spoken to probably senator collins, senator romney and others meeting with democrats about a possible way forward. Proposal through a pelosi and speaker senator schumer last night. Let me tell you where i think we are. Leader mccarthy and i have been in discussions with the secretary of the treasury and the president s chief of staff to ascertain what the president would actually sign into law. I think we have a sense of what that is. A call we hadt in just a little while ago. We will send that out to all the offices and get some back to see how our members react to a proposal we can say for sure would be signed into law. I think the one think we agree on is we dont have time for messaging games. We dont have time for lengthy negotiations. The issue is do we want to get a result . I would like to remind everyone the way to get a result is you have to have a president ial signature. I felt the first thing we needed to do was find out what the president would in fact sign. We believe we have the answer to that. That on ourng side and we will let you know if we think there is any way forward. Certainly we know we can say, i hope, this is something that would be signed into law by the president. Be done quickly. Deal with the things we can agree on now. I think we all know after the first of the year there is likely to be a discussion about sizeional package of some next year depending upon the new administration. Between now and the end of the year we have to wrap up a lot of unfinished business. We have a number of nominees to important agencies and judgeships we will need to be acting on and filling. We have to find the government. We have to pass the Defense Authorization bill as well, all of which we have to try to get done hopefully next week or two depending on how much cooperation we have. The issue of Coronavirus Relief is also subject of discussion and i think in terms of the be,end negotiations could if there is an agreement, wrapped up and considered part of a spending bill or perhaps separately. In any case it would have to get a president ial signature, 60 votes in the senate, and a majority in the house of representatives. What does that look like and will there be enough Movement Among democrats to enable us to get an agreement . Far, note have seen so gottent twice, passed or 52 republican votes in the senate, a majority. For a bill that provides funding for vaccines and schools, provides additional assistance for unemployment insurance, and also replenishes the ppp program that helps a lot of Small Businesses who are struggling. And the workers who work there. Those are things the democrats say they agree upon but they have insisted, at least until now, on a bloated messaging bill on the order of a couple of 2. 5 trillion which is not something that would pass the senate. What can we get through the house, 60 votes in the senate, and a president ial signature on . I would hope in the next couple of weeks as we debate the yearend issues that we can get some agreement on something that fits those basic parameters. We had all but one republican who have now voted not once but twice for the bill that addresses those critical needs and things both sides agreed need to be addressed. It will require a level of cooperation from the democrats we have not seen or witnessed in order to get that done. I am hopeful. I think the American People need help, Small Businesses need help, frontline workers need help, schools need help, debbie want to make sure we are investing everything we can into the vaccines and therapies to help us defeat this virus. Those are areas of agreement, bipartisan agreement. The question is whether or not democrats will come to the table in a meaningful way and help us get something across the finish line. Nancy pelosi has been shebornly dug in since passed her bloated messaging bill about six and a half months ago. Stubbornly dug in against Coronavirus Relief bill in a cooperative way. Right before the elections, she said she would not budge. She has been dead set for using the pandemic as a way to push a farleft agenda because she was going to pick up 15 to 20 seats for democrats in the house. What happened . As a result of her actions republicans picked up 10 republican seats in the house of representatives. Why . The democrats refused to address the number one issue on the minds of the american voters, really for coronavirus in dealing with the disease. Here we are at a point where we have been increased number of cases around the world. What is the house of representatives doing this week . I looked into it. They have a bill that will be taken up in the rules committee act. Row called the more i researched it. This is pelosis priority. Marijuana opportunity reinvestment act. That is the priority of the house right now. I dunno if it has to do with decriminalization, legalization, making it easier for our kids to get marijuana in our neighborhoods. Whatever it is, that is todays priority of the incredibly shrinking nancy pelosi run house of representatives. That is not what i heard about in wyoming this weekend. I heard the good news about the vaccine. People looking forward to having that available to them. The republican relief bill has money for distribution of the vaccine. The pelosischumer approach, they really do shortcut the vaccine. The republican bill has money for paycheck protection, the senate bill we are working on. That is what Small Businesses are asking for. Money to help get kids back to School Safely so they dont fall further behind. This is the path forward for our country. The republican bill is sizable. It is significant and the path the American People want to follow. [indiscernible] [laughter] say senator safe to shelby said we were making Real Progress on the omnibus spending bill. I know on the part of the labor Education Bill we are down to discussing report language with the full committee help. We will close that out before they worked through the bill over the last couple of weeks now. We are getting to a good place. I hope we are with the rest of the bill. The other topic i want to talk thet was the arms sale, f35 sale to the uae. It appears sometime this month theres a congressional vote on that issue. My personal view is it would be a big mistake not to move forward with that arms sale. Israel is supportive. Netanyahuonly thing has agreed on is the sale should go forward. They say understanding it would be a qualitative difference between the uae f35 and the israel f35. Another distance between what we have. For 20 years now, three administrations, we have increasingly worked closely with the uae on defense issues, on the ground together, in the air together. At least six different extended deployments, the uae has been there. Clearly the abraham accords, but happened with our rain following rain following cooperation weve had with the uae for three different administrations. That will come up. It will not successfully be stopped by the congress, i dont believe, but its a debate we should be thinking about. I think we should continue with the arms sale. First i want to welcome back my senior senator Chuck Grassley to the United States senate and our work schedule. Whether chuck is working from his iowa farm, working from his office here in the United States senate, or whether he is teleworking because of the virus, Chuck Grassley works. He is always working. Many of you heard chuck norris jokes out there. The dark is afraid of chuck norris. We have our own Chuck Grassley jokes. Right now the covid is afraid of Chuck Grassley. We are very thankful to have him back and in good health and continually working for islands. Iowans. He is a tremendous asset to our state and we wish him continued health. As we are approaching the end of our congressional session we have a number of things that need to be done. I want to address two of those that some of my colleagues have mentioned. One is making sure we have a coronavirus bill that is done. Earlier today park governor of iowa kim reynolds did state that Congress Needs to come together and get a bill done. We have people across the state of iowa and across this nation that are hurting. We want to keep a stronger economy. We want to keep citizens safe and healthy. Finally we have the national Defense Authorization act that is hanging in the balance. We need to Work Together to ensure we get this completed. We have done this for many decades now in a bipartisan fashion. We need to do it again. It includes a lot of provisions that are very good for our servicemen and women. Things as simple as body armor for females. A body armor that conforms to the size and shape of a female. So simple. Thats included in this national Defense Authorization act. It is vitally important we are putting our service members, their safety first and getting that over the finish line. I am encouraging our democrats to come back to the table. Lets work through these issues and get the ndaa done and get this coronavirus bill done. Welcome everybody back. Hope you had a pleasant thanksgiving. It is december 1. We still have a Coronavirus Relief package that has been passed and signed into law by the president and providing relief to the American People. People are hurting. They are beyond frustrated with this whole exercise. Republicans have been forwarded package that, as the leader emphasized, can be signed into law. One that provides assistance to schools and students, provides assistance to hardhit Small Businesses. One that provides Additional Resources for testing. Why dont we go ahead and pass what we all can agree upon . What we know can be signed into law . And then debate and negotiate and get further consideration to additional measures. As it relates to Small Businesses, hoosier Small Businesses have been hammered and so many others around the country. Said 75 nfib survey of members would either consider or go ahead and apply for a second round of ppp assistance, the sort that is included in the senate package. Whether it is ppp assistance or inclusion of the restart act, the legislation, bicameral, bipartisan i put together with senator bennett of colorado, it now has 58 cosponsors with the addition of senator perdue of georgia in the u. S. Senate. 180 in the house of representatives. Again bipartisan. I will continue to push on this Small Business front and on the other fronts i mentioned to provide relief to the American People. Unfortunately, it seems that house is focus on other priorities. They are focused on something pertaining to marijuana. Toing more consideration Marijuana Policy before years end. That can be debated. The farleft is to cool their jets right now as we deal with the Serious Business and the of ourff request constituents around the country. [indiscernible] relief on covid relief, have you had it chance to look at that . Since you are talking about the importance of the president signing thing, why wouldnt they bipartisan proposal that could also pass in that body be a better way to go . Sen. Mcconnell we just dont have time to waste time. We have a couple of weeks here. Requirey it does bipartisan support to get out of the congress, but everywhere as a president ial signature. This government is in a place for sure for the next month. I think the place to start is are we actually making a law or are we just making a point . I think the way to make a law for sure is you know you have a president ial signature. We will see how it goes forward. The one thing we all agree on, as i said, is waiting until next year is not an answer. We need a targeted relief, including things we can agree on. Reporter the House Majority said House Democrats [indiscernible] do you have an opinion about that . Sen. Mcconnell say that again. Reporter i have not given any real thought to that. I did hear that was said. That is the decision the majority decides to make and it will be interesting how the republicans respond. Does it ride on the government funding bill . What should we expect on the horizon when it needs to come to fruition . First, we are working hard to finish up this other bill. Challenges of moving floor across the center floo se that would be a vehicle to add on whatever Coronavirus Relief bill will get a president ial signature. Obviously, as we discussed earlier, you have democratic votes to get to the house. I think it will likely come in one package. People have talked about the electoral integrity. Why have you not spoken out and it is implied that the president claims the election has been stolen . As i have said repeatedly we have this government for the next three weeks for sure. What i am focusing on and trying to accomplish, as much as we can during this three week period, which requires dealing with the government we have the future will take care of itself. We are going to go through these processes. The Electoral College is going to meet december 14. There will be an inauguration january 20. You keep saying you want to build the covid relief bill with a president ial signature. Willing to go as high as 1. 3 trillion. [indiscernible] maybe i was not clear about it. Im talking to secretary mnuchin who is been deputized by the president to indicate what he is willing to sign. Leader mccarthy and i went over with meadows and minutia in this morning, for sure, well get a president ial signature. That is where we begin the discussion at lunch today. I am sending that proposal to all offices. It has probably been done by now. We are going to get feedback about how our members feel about it and determine the way forward. [indiscernible] recall there was a motion to reconsider. We are going to reconsider it in the future. Thanks a lot, everybody. [indistinct chatter] announcer coming up, Charles Schumer will speak to reporters and answer questions on the Pandemic Recovery plant as well as other issues facing the fed. We will have live coverage when that starts. Host dr. David
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