Thousands were affected. Now almost every country in the world has infections. We have hundreds of thousands of people that have had contact with this virus and we have lost thousands of people worldwide. The United States, numbers continue to increase we are increasing the number of people we can test. Fortunately the vast Authority People who get this virus have little to no symptoms, cold, mouth, flew to them. Were vulnerable or elderly population, there are heart issues and lung issues, smokers, diabetics, it can be a serious thing. The challenge we face in our healthcare is for every person that walks into get tested, they are facetoface with one of our healthcare workers especially in rural areas of our state, that may be the only healthcare professional for the entire county. If that person who has not been vaccinated as well because there is no vaccine yet, if that person is not able to serve the rest of the population, bad Health Situation becomes even worse because of diminishing care. Americans are taking this seriously as we should. We are paying attention. Younger population spending time trying to get away from other individuals, to self isolate, self quarantine, get social distancing is the new term, find some way to not be close to someone else you dont accidentally pass the virus on. Although the virus may be within them and they are not physically affected much, the effect of someone else could be pretty dramatic. Out of respect for others try to manage that distance and the attentive to that. There have been multiple actions from the government over the past several months. The travel bands we know very much about starting with china and in multiple areas of the world, lots of encouragement to be able to limit gatherings, first of 250 50, now ten. Now a series of keep social distancing and make sure you are aware of that. Emergency declarations of been done. Cms has changed coverage as recently as yesterday on dealing with telehealth, making sure individuals that may have other care needs dont go into a healthcare professional for their fears who else is sitting in the waiting room but get access to telehealth, a muchneeded change. The fda has been aggressive in giving access to different states to do their own testing regimens. The cdc has been active in getting to a point they get a testing system that can get out to the entire country. The challenge was early on many countries did tests and developed tests with a high false positive rate. The cdc was focused on being as accurate as they could. It took longer and we dont have the tests out. The tests are more accurate, but we dont have the numbers we need at the moment we need it which was last week. So we are struggling to catch up on testing all over the country. Multiple labs and universities are coming on board. It is in multiple other countries also developing their own testing processes. In the days ahead we will be able to catch up on testing that any american could be gets tested but for now it is limited. In states like oklahoma where the virus is beginning its acceleration, now the virus is there, it starts to accelerate. Testing is exceptionally important to us as it is to everyone else. The department of transportation is engaged in waivers of service to allow the movement of goods all over the country dealing with livestock and food. Theres been a push from every retailer in the country to make sure they are cleaning facilities more and being open and accessible, doing hours early in the morning or those in the most vulnerable population, so they are not shopping with people who may have a virus and dont know it. There has been a shift around the country to encourage people to telework or find words that is ways to separate out in their place of work. All of these things have occurred in the last few months. Beginning again to say three months ago none of us knew this term or this virus existed. All this is happening extremely rapidly. Three weeks ago congress and the president agreed on a proposal, a wide bipartisan proposal to deal with additional funding for testing, additional vaccine developing, additional funding for state and local departments of health to make sure they are taking care of that. My own state in oklahoma received 7 million to help in what is happening in our county and we are in desperate need of those dollars to get that done. Vaccine development is in human trials now. It is in phase i. You take multiple month to get that done but we have already begun that process and that is important to us. The bill that was on the floor today dealt with multiple helpful things. It expands snap, what some call food stamps, supplemental nutrition assistance for those families. And expansion of that. It deals with Unemployment Insurance benefits, make sure those are staying consistent and get extended to people who are going to need it. In the past week unemployment has the medically increased all over the country. In the days ahead when we see the numbers we will see the difference in what is happening this week versus the week before versus the week before that. The struggle is my phones have been filled with one other element that is in the bill that deals with a mandate on Small Businesses for sick leave. Small businesses in my state are closed. Many retailers and restaurants, many Small Businesses are really struggling with how they are going to pay for this when they have no income coming in right now. They are hearing promise of a federal reimbursement coming to them that they dont know when that is coming and they are teetering on the edge right now and their struggle is please dont do something that pushes us over the edge. We need help but we dont need a bureaucracy that is going to be slow to respond or away that will get us some help the comes to us too late. In these terrifying words i have heard from multiple employers, i cannot make it with that structure. Im going to have to lay people off and hope to be able to hire them back when this all ends. Those families that are laid off and on unemployment this is a different day for them. My fear is some of what push those individuals over the edge into unemployment was a nudge to say we are going to add one more mandate to you at your worst possible economic moment. The first principle we should have as congress is do no harm. We need to step in and help those folks that need help. This lots of ideas being bounced around in the senate and house. From both sides of the aisle, to figure out how to get help as rapidly as we can to as many people as we can. This is a moment unlike what we have seen before. Not that the economy is crashing because of an Economic Foundation that is not there. We are struggling with what if and the cdc and our own government saying to employers it would be best if you close for a season and they being good citizens and Good Neighbors quite frankly are complying with that for fear of their own business and their own employees. I finished my day late last night talking to a Small Business owner in oklahoma. Who relayed to me what he is going through right now and the struggles he is having keeping the doors open. Quite frankly he was blunt with me to say the things that are being passed in the bill tomorrow will affect me, but my competitors that are big companies, it doesnt affect them. It is already hard enough for me as a Small Business to compete with them. I have a new mandate on me that is not a new mandate on them and it makes it even harder and i dont think i have the cash flow to make this work. Towards the end of the conversation he paused and literally began to cry and he pulled himself together and said i am having to call people and tell them i dont have hours for you next weekend these are people i care about. We need to take action but we need to take action that helps people keep their jobs, help people stay employed, and to help them pull back out. My fear is we didnt do that just now. We might have made it worse. There are important things for us to do and many things we are working on this week. We have to get help to as many people as we can as fast as we can. It is my hope the senate will continue to stay in session until we come to some proposals where we have wide bipartisan agreement that can get help rapidly to people who need the help the what most, workers, individuals that are struggling, folks that are hourly, folks that are waiters and waitresses, folks that work at the coffee shop, folks in Retail Locations that are shutdown. They need us to stand with them and this is our moment to do it. Lets do it together. With that i yield the floor. From massachusetts. Madam president. I want to start my remarks by saying to the people of massachusetts and families across the country many of you are making big sacrifices, quarantining yourselves, postponing or canceling major events, dealing with closed schools and daycare. We are grateful. Our primary goal needs to be to slow the spread of this virus and we all share in that responsibility. We thank you for everything you are doing to keep your loved ones and everyone elses loved ones safe at this time. We are at war with the coronavirus and we need a massive wartime mobilization for coronavirus testing kits and personal protective equal and for medical personnel and emergency response. That is why last weekend i was the first to call on donald trump to immediately use existing authorities under the defense production act to bring all the power of the federal government to bear in mobilizing industry to meet this crisis. It is why i had authored the Senate Resolution calling on him to do so and why i spoke directly to mike pence yesterday to urge the administration to take is critical action. I am glad that they are doing so. The defense production act allows the federal government to direct supplies of Critical Materials and equipment that hospitals and First Responders need. It allows us to mobilize industry to expand production and gives us the power to coordinate industry to respond to this crisis. We need to fully use all the powers provided under this law and that is why i am so glad donald trump invoked the power of the defense production act to respond to the coronavirus crisis. I am glad he is exercising it. After my conversation with mike pence, they decided to put this on the agenda for our country. We need to increase private production of lifesaving personal protective equipment. Medical supplies and devices. And diagnostic testing supplies. We need to combat this viral enemy, we need to activate our capable and talented domestic industry and bring the full weight of the federal government behind this effort. We are talking gowns and gloves, face shields, surgical masks, respirators, ventilators, disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizers and we do not have nearly enough of this lifesaving equipment. The United States department of health and Human Services estimates the United States could need up to 3. 5 billion respirator masks. Let me say that again. Our own department of health and Human Services says we could need upwards of 3. 5 billion respirator masks, a Strategic National stockpile, emergency medical supply bank holds only a tiny fraction of that, just 12 million respirator masks, not 3. 5 billion, 12 million. The medical Community Calls this personal protective equipment ppe but that also stands for a promise to protect everyone and this is the promise we should make and keep for hospital personnel, First Responders and patients. Invoking the powers of the defense production act will help ensure that we can keep his promise to our american heroes who are on the frontlines of battling this epidemic. Other than regular contact with Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association and massachusetts nurses association, both have issued a terrible alarm. There is insufficient medical equipment and supplies to test and treat affected individuals and protect Health Care Workers and First Responders. For example, the berkshire house told me they required 3500 respirator masks a day, 35,000 in just ten days for the berkshire hospital in the least populated part of our state. Just that one smaller hospital, yet the entire state of massachusetts only received 70,000 of these respirator masks. That is not nearly enough. We do not want our nurses and doctors reusable rationing masks. Additionally hospitals and labs are trying to ramp up Testing Capacity but face shortages in test kits and supplies. We need to dramatically scale up testing and ensure our continued ability to test our nation must be able to conduct tens or hundreds of thousands of tests daily, ultimately testing millions of people over the course of our response, that means producing swabs which we are running short of, and other testing materials. We have used the defense production act before, during the korean war to mobilize defense infrastructure and during the cold war. Make no mistake, we are facing an equally deadly enemy in this virus and we need to bring all of our authority and resources to bear. All of a sudden of gratitude to our Frontline Health and medical care workers. They dont have a roadmap for what is happening now, it is unprecedented. They just have skills, commitment and the hearts of heroes and we owe them the resources they need to be protected in order to do their jobs. This pandemic is going to get worse before it gets better. I have been calling on the president to declare a National Emergency which he finally did last week. Now that he has done so we need massachusetts to get all of the funding it is due. I have been in regular contact with governor baker and mayor walsh and i will support his request, a request for federal resources. As the senate works on an Economic Relief package that matches the scale of this crisis we need to ensure we put people and families first, no half measures, no hidden bailouts or giveaways just to big corporations. Paid sick time to all workers. Unemployment insurance for all workers including tip workers, gig workers, contractors, home workers, expansion of snap and School Lunches and other Food Security programs. Now cutting off of utilities, no cutting off halting all deportation and releasing detained immigrants who pose no threat to public safety, provide free wifi to lowincome households for students who cannot afford it but are going to be at home because of School Closures so that we dont have a huge homework a gap that explodes in our country as poor children dont have access to Wifi Technology so they can learn at the same pace as kids who happen to live in wealthy families will have. We cannot allow that to happen. These kids should be able to learn at home regardless of their income. We need free wifi for those kids. We have to reimburse those who are bearing the brunt of this crisis and need resources immediately. My commitment to protecting health professionals, to ensuring consumers workers and families of massachusetts get relief from the impact of the coronavirus is my number one priority. We have to protect Small Businesses in our country. We have to make sure they receive resources which they need, millions of Small Businesses i feel enormous stress. We have to make it possible for them to receive the relief they need, the help which they need in order to survive and we have to put up front whatever capacity is to make sure they get the resources which they need because 48 of all workers are employed, Small Businesses in our country, and they are living on the margin, then we are going to have an economic catastrophe by august and september when millions of Small Businesses will just declare bankruptcy. That is the bottom line economic fact of the matter. We have to give them help and have the resources inside the federal government, the personnel that will ensure we deliver that relief to them. People of massachusetts, i want you to know that im here for you and i will help many of you individually who need any assistance during this emergency. The current moment may call for distancing and isolation but we cannot and should not sever our basic human connections to one another because we are all in this together. I want to end with the most important reminder. We must continue to listen to the guidance of scientists and medical professionals. This pandemic is unprecedented. It will require unprecedented mobilization and response at every level of society. We can get through this but it will require a commitment from every single one of us. We are one big family in the United States. Many families are going to be suffering it is going to be our job to make sure we protect those families have a job of this institution to do so. We are the legislative First Responders. We are the ones who have to provide the resources that allow First Responders, families and every Community Across the country to have the resources to help everyone in our society. A pandemic should know no partisanship. Lets us come together and produce the big package our country so desperately needs. With that i yield back. Madam president. Senator from kansas. Thank you very much. This has been a trying and difficult challenging time in our country, in my home state of kansas lots of conversations, care and compassion going on, we cant give anybody a hug these days, cant extend a hand, at least literally. But we are extending a hand to all of our friends and neighbors, those cross the community, the state and the country. I am troubled by what circumstance of americans find themselves in. There are those in poor circumstance in which they can recover from the circumstances we face. I want to make sure kansans know that we hear their cries, we know their problems and that work is afoot to try to make a difference. Just a couple of examples, things that in the overall scale of where we are perhaps dont seem significant enough but can make a difference in individual lives and families wellbeing. Successful to this point of getting the School Lunch Program available for students whose are no longer in session, dont go to classroom and arent in the School Lunchroom and usda and the School Food Program are available for those who are at home because classes have been canceled as a result of the virus. I hope kansans know in the veteran community we had success passing legislation on the senate floor waiting for house consideration that allow those veterans who are no longer in the classroom, in a university or a Technical College and are now learning by distance education, by technology to receive their g. I. Educational benefits. That requires a change in the law so those benefits continue even though the student is not as now required in the classroom itself. We are trying to make certain that the parts of Veterans Affairs has the resources to meet the needs of our veterans. As a vulnerable population because of age and existing condition of many of our veterans, we are in Constant Contact with the directors of Veterans Affairs and veterans themselves and our veteran hospitals and clinics and other Healthcare Providers in kansas. Today we are dealing with Economic Relief for those who are losing their jobs, fearful of losing their job are already lost their job. Much of lifes meaning comes from our employment, from what we do. A job is certainly something that helps put food on a familys table and provides security for an individual but also provides meaning and no one can understand unless they are without a job how devastating that can be. I am pleased by the number of businessmen and women who told me, to tell me the last thing they want to do is lay off anyone who works in their business. The circumstances at home in kansas. We have been through economic difficulties before. We have seen the cycle of the economy, the ups and downs, but this is something totally different than that. The price of oil, keeping our oil and Gas Producers in business is a real challenge. Aviation manufacturing is an important component of the kansas economy and Textron Industries which manufactures cessna aircraft announced they are pulling 7000 a 9000 workers. That is on top of other challenges in the Aviation Industry in which Spirit Aerosystems headquartered in kansas has already laid off 2800 employees. From the oil and gas industry of southeastern kansas to the manufacturing hub of wichita and southcentral kansas, the consequences of the coronavirus are real and felt in the pocketbook. Felt in the brain and felt in the heart. Our restaurants and hotels, car rental agencies, those who serve others, have been in circumstances this week, visiting with a person who works, the people who work at a restaurant, who work in a cafe, who work in washington dc at the cafeteria where i had breakfast this morning, those who have jobs wonder if they will have jobs tomorrow. Those that have lost their jobs wonder how they are going to pay the bills. This morning a conversation with an optometrist telling me the circumstances of no longer being able to care for patients except in emergency setting which means the business in the optometrist office, an important healthcare provider, the dental office that has been curtailed and necessity of considering laying off the clinical workers is front and center in that conversation. It is troublesome situation across kansas. Doesnt matter what city or town you live in. If you are a farmer, the cattle prices are significantly depressed despite the fact that it is still pretty expensive. At the grocery store. I think about my hometown and the loss of a business. There arent many businesses in communities in kansas. Many businesses dont really earn much of a living or profit. It to be a family circumstance, it could be this is what they did, this is what their parents did lose the be of service to the community and they live on a lot less because the business is important to a Small Community but this kind of challenge is such that if that business closes, chances are that it doesnt reopen. The financial circumstances of smalltown america are such that there is little likelihood of recovery and reopening. I hope the legislation we passed today is on its way to the president. It included a few things that i was troubled by, and think will create significant difficulties for some. We need to continue to work to change the provisions that are troublesome and cause problems but it was important in my view to make certain that the things that were wrong in that bill didnt prevent us from passing something to help those with the things that are right. None of our economic efforts that we make to make certain people feel more secure economically will work until they feel more secure in the health and wellbeing of themselves and their families. Even though you may get some assistance a person may get some assistance, a family maybe relieved of the financial burden they now face, laid off worker may get Unemployment Benefits but your mind is always going to be on the issue of your health and wellbeing of your children, your parents, your grandparents, those we know in the nursing home and those we know in the nursery. As long as we are troubled by what may happen to us and our health, no amount of economic stimulus can overcome the fear of ones wellbeing and particularly the wellbeing of their spouse, their children and their parents. So clearly, Economic Relief in and of itself is insufficient. We need to make certain our Healthcare Providers have the necessary tools to meet the Health Care Needs of american citizens. Front and center in that regard is testing. We are woefully inadequate and undersupplied in what we need to test the necessary number of kansans and americans to know what they face, to know what their circumstances are, and to respond in a medically required way. We are working to make sure there are more tests across the country, working to make certain those tests are distributed in a way that kansans, their Healthcare Providers can access. Most recently we were successful in getting cdc to undo a problem that kept the problem from the health of home and environment in my home state. We are pleased to see that the fda has modified the necessary steps for a manufacturer of these test kits to be certified, to be qualified to manufacture them. The amount of tests, test kits that are being produced, the manufacturing has increased and we are expecting significant improvement in the next couple weeks. I wish they were here earlier but can we fix the problem we face now and get them here soon, immediately . I said in the desk of senator bob dole, a predecessor of mine in kansas. His name is etched in this desk drawer now known for his bipartisanship and held in Great Respect not only at home in kansas but across the country. I stand at the desk that is here in the place of senator john mccain. Two people who demonstrated the desire to Work Together and while i have outlined a few things i think are important and that i want kansans to know, my mission and my remarks today may be the most important, to ask my republican colleagues and my democrat colleagues to set aside the usual bickering is political posturing that takes place in the United States congress. No american can feel well, no american can feel that things are going to be okay if they dont see leadership and cooperation. We are preparing for the presentation of new legislation dealing with challenges that businesses, employers and employees face trying to relieve the economic and financial burden any americans are experiencing and more will experience in the future. Could americans please see that me and my colleagues are taking every step not to make this a political exercise but demonstrate our care and concern for those we represent. I mentioned a moment ago about veterans. This is the point that if you take a walk on the National Mall as i have often done to go to the lincoln memorial, i walk by the world war ii memorial, i will walk by the vietnam wall. Or the korean war memorial. We should hold those veterans, military men and women honored he does in those settings as role models. Could we please do it over the next few weeks, the next few months and into the next year as we try to address the challenges that america faces today. Now person memorialized in those settings fought and sacrificed their lives for a republican or democrat. They sacrificed because they believed they could make life better for the folks back home. Their family members, their neighbors, people they didnt know. They sacrificed because they believed they could make the world a safe and secure place. I pledge myself to see that i do the things today, tomorrow and into the future that Means Congress has come together on behalf of the American People just like those who served our country did and now rest in peace. The democrat colleagues in the senate, please consider me open to their suggestions and republican colleagues, please know that im an ally of things that we believe in but we all may need to give a little so that america can return, americans can be safe, americans can be secure. Our health is protected our economy flourishes. I would ask god in this circumstance to bless this country, to bring us together, hold us in his arms in a way that we cant do today and make certain that this congress represents the will of the people, not the will of any political party. I yield the floor. Madam president. Senator from tennessee. I ask consent to speak as much time as i require. Without objection. I congratulate the senator from kansas on his eloquent remarks expressing feelings that are certainly mine and virtually every member of this body that we are not here is democrats or republicans but to Work Together to do whatever we can to address concerns that are literally unprecedented, this is an unprecedented time in our country. I cant for member of time in our history when the government has literally closed down the country in order to contain a disease. That is what we are doing whether it is the federal government by its travel restrictions or the state governments suggesting that schools be closed or whether it is mayors saying restaurants must be closed, we are closing down the country to contain a disease. Because the government is doing that on behalf of all of the people we are going to have to pay the cost of closing down the country to contain this disease. Today the news is that the Auto Industry across the country is closing down at least temporarily. I have watched over the last 40 years in tennessee, almost no auto jobs to calling itself in many ways the number one auto state. 140,000 tennesseans work in auto jobs in tennessee, that is one third of our manufacturing jobs, through 88 counties and over 40 years, textiles and other industries move out of our state, the Auto Companies moved in virtually into every county and our family incomes went up. So if we are in many ways the number one auto state, then we are the number one state to be hurt when the auto plants begin to close. We are also hurt if citizens in every state, when restaurants shutdown. 50 million americans work in restaurants. One of our Largest Industries if not our largest industry. Almost all of those workers are being laid off in tennessee and many other places in the country and even more will be and not all of those affected are working for big Auto Companies are mediumsized restaurant. I received an email yesterday from friends in tennessee who run a kennel. You might say that is not so important. It is important to a lot of us. They say we are suffering a massive drop off in our business as a result of the coronavirus. I fear we may have to close our doors for a month or two, hopefully not that long as our wonderful customers are forced to curtail travel. Im trying to secure 50, 000 in loans to supplement windowing reserves to see us through until may or june. Im applying for an sba disaster relief. This precipitous drop in business comes on the heels of major flood damage to our fencing caused by the recent floods. Our Flood Insurance refuses to cover this. We are not seeking charity, just a Business Loan for 3050, 000 to secure our business until it passes. We always pay our way. This couple has two Young Children and a couple employees in their kennel. They are awfully good people, salt of the earth tennesseans, like Many Americans suddenly confronted with this disease that came out of the blue and has caused our government to shut our country down. What shall we do about it . A couple weeks ago congress reacted and the president with 8. 3 billion to help keep up our Public Health system. We have the best Public Health system in the world and we wanted to help it get started. Today we passed a bill that some people estimated 100 million which includes a variety of other steps from democrats and republicans that includes encouraging more testing, encourages, creates a new system of paid leave for business is less than 100 employees, family leave. As senator mcconnell said, we are going to stay this week until we take step 3, step 3 according to the president s proposal would include direct financial payments to americans. It would include support for essential businesses that need stabilization like the airlines. It would include loans to Small Businesses so that they can keep their employees working. Perhaps that proposal would be good for a small kennel that i talked about. That is set to cost another trillion dollars, a lot of money even in the United States. Our close to mystic product is 22. 3 trillion. We have 25 all the money in the world in this country, 5 of the people but the idea that we would have to spend 1 trillion or more to contain a disease would be unthinkable a few weeks ago but we have learned quickly that we have to pay the cost of containing the disease because the way we are containing it is the government is shutting down major parts of our economy. I dont believe what we do today or propose to do later in the week will be enough because as i look at the number of people being laid off in this country, our state unemployment agencies are not going to be able to deal with it. In tennessee for example where unemployment has been very low and people have been found it easy to find a job, only 2000 applications for Unemployment Insurance last week but already this week by 2 00 pm wednesday in the middle of the week there are four times that many applications, 9177. If you are successful in Unemployment Compensation in our state, to give 275 per week for 26 weeks, we are going to have to do even more than the congress has done, more than the president has done. We have to recognize that the president was wise on january 30 first when we only had six cases of coronavirus detected in the United States to impose the strictest travel bans on people coming into the country and 50 years. Anthony fauci said we havent done that we would have many more cases but still we have a disease that is causing the government, this one, state governments and local governments to shut major parts of their economy down. That is why i voted for the legislation that was phase 2 in our effort to respond. The u. S. Senate is back in session, and yesterday lawmakers past pays 2 a bill that includes two weeks paid leave for second quarantines workers, extends state unappointed Insurance Programs and provides free coronavirus testing. In the meantime house of representatives tested positive for the coronavirus causing several members including representative steve scalise, wagner and Stephanie Murphy to self quarantine. Now live coverage of the u. S. Senate on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Our father, we place our hope in you. May our lawmakers find wisdom in your trustworthy precepts