The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The clerk will read the communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C. , april 9, 2020. I hereby appoint the honorable roy blunt a senator from the state of missouri, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask to be recognized, notwithstanding the previous order, for a session today. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell our nation continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic. More than 400,000 americans have tested positive. Nearly 15,000 have lost their lives. Nurses, doctors, and e. M. T. s are fighting this disease literally day and night. An important public and important Public Health measures are creating an economic catastrophe. This morning, we learned that 6. 6 million more americans filed for unemployment in just the last week. That means, mr. President , more than 16 million americans have lost their jobs in only the last three weeks. A tragedy that is hard to even comprehend. As one journalist put it, were facing a Health Care Crisis with an economic crisis strapped to its back. That is why two weeks ago, the Senate Passed the largest rescue package in american history. The bipartisan cares act funneled more than 2 trillion into bold programs to help households, fund hospitals and Health Care Providers, and keep paychecks coming. Before we adjourned, i said the senate would stay nimble and prepare to react quickly as the legislation came online. So, mr. President , thats why we are here today. Much of the cares act is still being implemented. But one key program, one key program is already up and running. Its the Paycheck Protection Program from chairman rubio, chairman collins, senator cardin, and senator shaheen. It gives Small Businesses emergency capital so that workers can keep getting paychecks instead of pink slips. Just a few days after the program opened for business, 100 billion in loans have already been committed. That is 30 of the total funding spoken for in just the first few days. I say thats very good news. It means this jobsaving program is attractive to Small Business, employers can access it, but it also means we need more funding, and we need it fast. Soon i will ask unanimous consent to increase the funding for the Paycheck Protection Program to a new total of 600 billion. Im not talking about changing any policy language that both sides have already negotiated together several weeks ago. I am literally talking about deleting the number 350 and writing 600 in its place. Let me say that again. Were not talking about making any policy changes. Were literally changing the number 350 to 600. Thats all that we are suggesting here today. That by definition is a clean bill. I want to add more money to the only part of our bipartisan bill that is currently at risk of running out of money. So i was surprised to see this simple proposal met uneasily by the democratic leadership. The distinguished democratic leader and the speaker of the house sought to use this Crucial Program to open broader negotiations on other topics, including parts of the cares act where literally listen to this, mr. President literally no money has gone out the door yet. No money has gone out the door yet. The democratic leadership has suggested they may hold americans paychecks hostage unless we pass another sweeping bill that spends a half a trillion dollars doubling down on a number of parts of the cares act, including parts that have not even started to work yet. The country cannot afford unnecessary wrangling or political maneuvering. Treating this as a normal kind of partisan negotiation could literally cost americans their jobs. We are in a situation right now where passing a bill means either unanimous consent or a voice vote. Everyone knows, everyone there is zero chance that the sprawling proposal that our democratic friends have gestured towards could pass either chamber by unanimous consent this week, no chance. And the president has already indicated he would not sign it. The country needs us to be nimble, nimble. To fix urgent problems as fast as we can. To be able to have focused discussions on urgent subjects without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything. Without turning every conversation into a conversation about everything. We need to patch holes as we see them and keep moving forward together. Everybody in the senate voted to send historic funding to hospitals and Health Care Providers. Everyone supports funding hospitals. Im in favor of even more funding for hospitals and providers down the line. I have been talking to a number of them, as im sure our colleagues have, over the last couple of weeks. But certainly we need to see that fixing the existing funding begin to work before we know what Additional Resources may be needed. I have been urging secretary azar to push this money onto the front lines as soon as possible. Im glad tens of billions are going to go out tomorrow. Theres only one part of the cares act that is already, already at risk of exhausting its funding right now. Only one part of the cares act is at risk of exhausting its funding right now. The Paycheck Protection Program. Were asking Small Business owners across america to place were asking them to keep workers on payroll because congress, the treasury, and the s. B. A. Will have their back. We must not fail them. My colleagues must not treat working americans as political hostages. This does not have to be, nor should it be, contentious. We dont have to divide along the usual lines so soon after we came together for the country. To my democratic colleagues, please, please do not block emergency aid you do not even oppose just because you want something more. Do not block emergency aid you do not oppose just because you want something more. Nobody believes this is the senates last word on covid19. We dont have to do everything right now. In fact, our posture of needing unanimous consent does not even permit us to try to do everything right now. We cannot play games in this crisis. Lets pass more noncontroversial funding for americans paychecks. Lets do it today. And then lets continue to Work Together with speed and bipartisanship. We will get through this crisis together. Now, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the bill at the desk. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Cardin reserving the right to object. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Cardin thank you, mr. President. Let me just clarify some of the issues that the majority leader pointed out. Im afraid that this unanimous consent is basically a political stunt because it will not address the immediate need of Small Businesses in the legislation that we have passed. And let me clarify that. The majority leader indicated that the p. P. P. , the paycheck protection plan, has run out of money. It hasnt. 30 has been committed. It hasnt been yet released. But there are programs under the cares act that have run out of money. The idle program, the emergency Disaster Relief loan program, which provides funds for businesses, and we have allowed businesses that have been affected by the coronavirus to follow those claims, that has run out of money. And i will give you numbers in a few moments. And the Grant Program thats included in cares. Up to 10,000 where a Small Business can get a grant from the Small Business administration is out of funds. They need money today in order to process applications. The s. B. A. Doesnt mean money today to process the Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program was negotiated in good faith by senator rubio, senator collins, senator shaheen and myself, and were very proud of that program. Its working very well. Its a good program. We strongly support it. Its bipartisan. But this unanimous consent request was not negotiated. There was no effort made to follow the process that we could get this done. So it wont get done. Its not going to be enacted. The majority leader knows that. So what democrats are prepared to make clear and support, every Small Business that wants the paycheck and protection plan, were going to support that applicants are fully funded to make sure every Small Business can participate thats eligible in that program. The u. C. Does not affect that today. But what the u. C. Leaves out is where Small Businesses need help today from the United States congress. So yesterday we had an opportunity to find out the numbers. As the majority leader pointed out, weve got to get this right. There are 6. 6 million more uninsured today as we learned from the current numbers. Weve got to protect Small Businesses to protect their payroll, and thats what our plans do. So yesterday we were informed by the s. B. A. That as the majority leader indicated, we have about 100 billion that had been processed that has not been distributed yet, mr. President , hasnt been distributed in large numbers because of documentation problems and know your customer rules have prevented a majority of these funds to be released. But today applications are being processed. Tomorrow applications are going to be processed. The day after that applications are going to processed because we provided 350 billion. At this moment were at about 100 billion. Were probably going to have to provide more money. Were all for that. But where is the urgency as far as the Small Businesses are concerned . Then we go with those. One, the emergency Grant Program, this is a program thats, where grants are offered by the Small Business administration. You dont have to have a banking relation with a commercial bank in order to get these loans. They are very popular. 3. 8 million requests have come in in regards to these loans. 3. 8 million, representing 372 billion of loans. But heres the problem. Weve only authorized 7. 3 billion of loans under the program. Thats why we are suggesting that if you add another50 billion dollars, you can authorize another 300 billion of loans under the emergency relief, Disaster Relief program. Because today if youve requested that loan, today if you requested, the average amount thats being requested and you have to show need in this program. Youve got to document the need, that the disaster has affected your viability as a business. The average loan is 200,000. Thats what theyre requesting. Guess how much money the s. B. A. Can issue today . 15,000. Thats an urgent need that we should deal with today. And were prepared to deal with it. But theres a second program. By the way, Small Businesses participate in these programs more so than the p. P. P. Program. Theres a second program. Its a Grant Program up to 10,000. Our working group, Bipartisan Group recognized that there are some businesses that are in desperate need of cash immediately. These loans are processed within three days. And weve had so far requests for the Grant Program, 3. 5 million Small Businesses have requested funds totaling the request for 11 billion on a sliding scale. It doesnt give every Small Business 10,000. How much money did we appropriate . 10 billion. The s. B. A. Cannot release those funds in three days because they dont have the money to do it. The u. C. By the majority leader does not provide that money so that those Small Businesses can get that cash. Thats not provided. We got that information yesterday. Maybe the majority leader didnt have it, but we can tell you, they cant issue those grants, and thats under the cares act, and that is out of money. So i will also tell you stories weve heard in maryland and heard all over the country. Ive heard from Small Businesses that they went to their bank in order to participate in a p. P. P. Loan and they were told that they didnt have a credit card so the bank wasnt going to write the loan or they hadnt had a previous loan with that bank so the bank is not going to write the loan. Weve heard from some Community Banks that they only can handle existing customers. They cant do additional customers at this point. So weve heard from rural banks, rural Small Businesses, they cant find lenders who will write these notes. Weve got to do a better job. What did we find out yesterday . Of the total 7a lenders that are out there today, about 90 were certified before the cares act. Weve only increased the numbers by about 10 . Thats not enough. We cant reach these underserved communities. Weve got to do a better job in reaching these underserved communities so that a Small Business that doesnt have that type of relationship with a bank can stil participate in the paycheck protection plan. This u. C. Does nothing at all about that issue. Nothing at all about that. The urgent issues are not dealt with in this u. C. So thats why the process of negotiating, allowing us to come together and figure out whats the best way to move forward will result in us actually getting something done to help the Small Business community. And there are other urgent needs and my colleague senator van hollen is going to talk about some of these. But the health care issues, my colleague and i participated in numerous Conference Calls over the last two weeks. Im sure my other colleagues have done the same. And weve heard from our Health Care Providers that theyre ready to close the doors. They need immediate help and a lot more than the 100 billion provided. We talked to our governor yesterday, head of the National Governors association, they requested 500 billion. They need money, their revenues are down. We know we didnt do right for the district of columbia, we didnt do right for smaller communities. We need to correct that now because they cant stay in business today. Its urgent. And the u. C. Does nothing to help in that regard. So, mr. President , if i could, id like to allow my colleague from maryland who i believe has a reservation also, and then as a u. C. Request of his own. The presiding officer the senator from maryland. Mr. Van hollen thank you, mr. President , reserving the right to object. This is an unfortunate moment for the United States senate. You know, we came together on a bipartisan basis just a very short time ago to pass the cares act. It passed here 960. That followed two other bipartisan efforts that came out of the house, passed the senate, were signed by the president. Again, overwhelming support. And yet today we see from the majority leader a complete political stunt here on the floor of the United States senate, something that does not have bipartisan support, something that is go it alone, take it or leave it, and totally violates the spirit all of us have been working on during this crisis, where we were able to come together in the United States senate and the house of representatives with the white house to on three prior occasions pass legislation in a way that addressed the issues that are important to this country. And yet today we have this situation where the majority leader knew full well that there was not agreement and consensus on moving forward with this proposal. Thats why were here today. This was in fact designed to fail, designed as a political stunt. Its actually not the first time weve seen this. You may recall that just before we came together and passed the cares act 960, the majority leader came to the floor of the senate back then and tried to ram through an unfinished product while negotiations were going on between secretary mnuchin and democrats in the house and senate to try to finalize the bill. And that actually caused unnecessary delay. But the majority leader came to the floor then, tried to ram it through. It didnt work then and its not going to work today. So i would ask the majority leader, i think all of us would to go back and try to address these issues the way we addressed them in a successful manner before. And im going to shortly propose an amendment that addresses some of those concerns, an amendment to the majority leaders proposal. But id like to address some of the issues first, and my colleague senator cardin has addressed many with respect to Small Businesses. First of all, he pointed out that the one program to help Small Businesses is actually really run out of money is the emergency loan and Grant Program. But but lets talk about the pz pz pz program. This is a really important program. To insent advise Small Businesses and nonprofits, to keep employees on the payroll and allow them to keep the lights on, pay fixed mortgage, whatever the rent may be, so they can emerge on the other side of the storm without having had to fold. Many of us anticipated long before the cares act passed that this program would need more money. I was part of a group that proposed 600 billion for a program like this, recognizing the demand would be huge. As it is on other programs. But its not just in need of more money. It needs some important fixes which i dare say would have bipartisan support as well. I dont know if the majority leader saw the letter just this morning from the National Restaurant association. Here is what they say. The p. P. P. Is funded at 349 billion, and we expect that lenders will reach that ceiling shortly. We appreciate the bipartisan calls this week to provide prompt additional funding for the program. Then they go on to say, however equally important, equally important is the need to address the limitations of the program that do not recognize the unique and evolving changes of the Restaurant Business cycle and our path to recovery. This is not a Republican Group or a democratic group. This is a group that represents Small Businesses, restaurants and what they say to us this morning is yes, we do need additional money. We know that. But equally important, lets fix some of the kinks, and there are kinks in this program. I got a letter around 12 44 a. M. This morning from a Small Business owner who had been banking with wells fargo. Then, of course, wells fargo hit the cap. We thought we had dealt with that in recent days, but hes not sure he is still going to be able to get that loan through wells fargo, and he says i have also now looked at more than 100 websites of 7a lenders in the greater d. C. Area and have found none, capital letters, none that will accept a p. P. P. Application from any Small Business that did not bank with them before february 15, 2020. Heres some other headlines in recent days. Baltimore area Small Businesses complain of continuing problems gaining access to federal lending program. Nightmare. Three Small Business owners describe process of applyig for p. P. P. Coronavirus loans. The journal, Community Bankers frustrated with p. P. P. Rollout. Another headline. This one from this is another part of the country. This is p. P. P. Loan plan a mess so far for Small Businesses riding out coronavirus crisis. Billions disbursed through Paycheck Protection Program, say not yet. Wall street journal, big banks favor certain customers in 350 billion Small Business loan program. Another article, many Small Businesses are being shut out of the new loan program by major banks. So, mr. President , what were saying here today is yes, we know we need more money for this program. Many of us predicted this before we passed the cares act. But for goodness sakes, lets take the opportunity to make some bipartisan fixes to allow this program to work better for the very people its designed to help Small Businesses, nonprofits. Thats what they are asking us to do. Its what the Restaurant Association is asking us to do. Thats what they want us to do. And we could do it probably just as quickly if the majority leader took a moment to sit down with us and negotiate that piece. But there are also other major demands on the system right now that we should address at this moment. And one of them is something i know were all hearing about every day, which is to protect the Health Care Workers on the front lines. After all, if we want to address the economic crisis, we need to address the Health Crisis that precipitated that. We need to flatten this virus out, bring it down, and thats the best way to get on the road to economic recovery. So im sure all of my colleagues are hearing from their nurses and doctors and front line Health Care Workers about the urgent need for Patient Protection equipment. We provided funds in the original bill, but we know today that that will be exhausted quickly. We know it because we can add up the requests coming from around the country. So lets address that issue. Were hearing from it every day. Just yesterday in our delegation, our region, senator cardin and i and other members of the maryland delegation, we wrote to fema just yesterday, to the administrator of fema, and we pointed out that in our most recent requests, virginia, maryland, and the district of columbia received just a small percentage of the equipment that we have requested from fema. The district received no hospital ventilators. And i would point out for all of us who are following this, its predicted that this area, maryland, d. C. , and virginia, is going to be one of the next hot spots. Zero ventilators. Zero safety goggles. We asked for 663,000 gloves and over one million respirator masks. We got 4,000 of one. So that is one problem we need to address on an urgent basis just as urgently as we need to address needed to address the Small Business situation. Testing. My goodness, look. This virus, we all know, got an eight to tenweek head start on us because we were flatfooted when it came to testing. We need a National Rapid testing system so that we can ensure that people will get the tests and find out whether they have the virus. That not only helps us fight the virus, but it will also help us as we try to get the country back to work on the other end of this. I would propose that those are real needs as well. And that we can address those here now. In addition to that, as senator cardin said, we just spoke to marylands governor yesterday who in addition to being marylands governor is the head of the National Governors association. He and Governor Cuomo have worked very closely together. We have a bipartisan request from the National Governors association to help states and local jurisdictions. We havebeen on the phone nonstop with our local officials. They are running out of equipment. We have got firefighters who need help. We have Emergency Responders who need help. All of these requests are urgent, and i believe could be dealt with on a bipartisan basis. If the majority leader would just take a moment, instead of trying to rush this through, would take a moment, we could actually get it done, as we were able to do before with the 960 vote. So at this time, mr. President , i have the amendment at the desk. I know people are anxious to get out of here. We didnt have to come in at all if it hadnt been for the decision to try to ram this through. I just want to make that point. Mr. Majority leader, we knew this wasnt going to get through. So i see people are frustrated and want to leave, but lets get it done and lets get it done right and lets have another 960 vote here in the United States senate. So i ask that the majority leader modify the request and ask that the amendment at the desk, which is the text of the interim emergency covid19 relief act be agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time and passed, with no further intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection to the modification . Mr. Mcconnell i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Is there objection to the original request . Mr. Van hollen i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i would just repeat all the amendment i offered would do is change the amount in the bill. Thats all. To respond to the obvious emergency we have with the Paycheck Protection Program. With that, i ask unanimous consent that the senate stand adjourned in accordance with the order of march 26, 2020, for previously ordered pro forma sessions. The presiding officer without objection. Under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 10 00 a. M. On monday, april 13, 2020. The senate gaveling out after a brief pro forma session which theyre holding every three days while theyre in recess. We use Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell try to bring up a funding bill for Small Business loan program in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Pandemic. The provision providing funding for workers on the payroll during the health emergency. Leader mcconnell was seeking to have the bill approved by unanimous consent but democrat senators objected. Senator van hollen offered an alternative. Both house and senate are scheduled to return after the easter and passover holidays and monday, april 20 but that could change because of covid19. Follow live Senate Coverage here on cspan2. Television has changed since hes been begin 41 years ago but our Mission Continues to provide an field of view of government. Already this year we brought your primary election coverage, the president ial impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus but you can watch all of cspans Public Affairs program on television, online or listen n our free radio app and the part of the National Conversation through cspans did Washington Journal Program or through our social media feed. Cspan, created by private industry, americas cabletelevision company, as a Public Service and brought today by your television provider. Weeknights this month were featuring booktv programs showcasing whats available at a weekend on cspan2. Tonight we will feature bestsellers. Watch booktv this week and every weekend here on cspan2. Thank you all for coming. You are in the panel called microbes, viruses, and destiny. This is a discussion in which we will reveal how microbes are our secret puppet masters. As the sites where i should start up by point out viruses are microbes
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