Publish its monthly jobs report for april. Some experts are projecting that it could show well over 20 million job losses in the past four weeks. The preliminary report today suggests that will be over 30 million newly unemployed americans over the past seven weeks. Thats a tenth, one out of ten people losing their job. A tenth of our population. We are looking at what seems to be the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Small businesses have shuttered. Some larger businesses have filed for bankruptcy. Millions of workers, through no fault of their own, are being laid off or furloughed or losing their paychecks. They are worried about keeping their homes, feeding their kids, accessing health care. Once this crisis is over, we cant snap our fingers and have everything return to normal. 20 million to 30 million newly employed americans newly unemployed americans wont immediately return to their old jobs. Hopefully, many can, but many jobs just wont be there. The disease has washed over our nation like a flood. Once the waters have receded, there will be a great deal of damage left in its wake. We need a big, bold answer to this. We need to marshall a broader spirit of action. The American People need an active and engaged and forceful government to lift them up and carry them through these dark times. Speaker pelosi and i are working on a big, bold plan that will deal with the magnitude of the problem. So i am appalled today that republican congressional leaders and President Trump are saying that we should delay more assistance to the American People. A week ago, the republican leader, leader mcconnell, said, quote, we need to push the pause button. Tell that to someone whos losing his job. Tell that to someone who has worked so hard to create a Small Business over decades and sees it falling apart. Tell that to the family who has a member thats sick with covid or Something Else and cant get Adequate Health care. To say that we should wait and see whats happening, as leader mcconnell has said, that maybe we dont need to do anything more is ignoring whats going on around us. Over 30 million unemployed and certain Republican Leaders are saying lets hit the pause button on future government support. The republican leader of this chamber called us back into session, despite the obvious health risks, not to consider new relief or respond to the covid pandemic, but to process nominations. He has been coming to the floor, drawing red lines in the sand, pledging not to support another emergency relief bill unless it extends legal immunity to big corporations. Today he gave a very long speech on national security. Now, thats very important, but the number one immediate crisis facing us is covid. And this speaks as sort of a metaphor for what Senate Republicans are doing this week on covid, virtually nothing. Senator cardin and i and senator shaheen went to the floor and simply asked for a simple bill to pass that would require accountability and in p. P. P. , and it was blocked by the majority. So this is just amazing. There has been large support in congress to stabilize the big financial markets, support larger industries, and keep Capital Markets from crashing. There will be 4 trillion available when the fed and treasury are through with it. We must do the same if not more for average people. Workers, families. The contrast is glaring. The contrast is glaring. Larger Companies Know they have a floor, the big markets know they have a floor. An unemployed worker has no floor until we do things for them like we did with pandemic unemployment insurance. There are many more people, average americans, who need the same kind of health, a greater degree of help, a different kind of help, and many of these average folks are in worse shape. Democrats have strived to make as much of our congressional relief effort flow to workers and average American Families as much as possible. Its still not enough. State and local governments, that means teachers and firefighters and Police Officers and bus drivers who might be laid off still need help. Our essential workers deserve hazard pay. Minorityowned and womenowned businesses still need more access to lending. Renters and homeowners need relief. And millions of working people need enhanced nutrition benefits. Thousands and thousands of people are overwhelming our local food banks. But now that overwhelming the local food banks. But now assistance has gone out the door leaders say lets wait and see. The unemployed worker doesnt want to wait and see the Small Business doesnt want to wait andr see. The mom and dad to feed the hungry children does not want to wait and see like Republican Leaders seem to be. Now is not the time to wait and see. Now is the time tord move forwar forward, our history is replete with examples of what happens when the federal government doesnt rise to the occasion and a time of national emergency. The earlybe days of the Great Depression president hoover was reluctant to use natural resources, his failure to act contributed to the length and severity of the depression. If our republican colleagues and President Trump respond with the same timidity as president hoover our nation could suffer the same consequences as it did in the past and many economists agree. If we do nothing more like the republican colleagues seem to feel they should a good number believe we will have the second Great Depression. On the republican side when President Trump, leader mcconnell and leader mccarthy said lets wait and see. But all of a a sudden to be worried about it with families keeping a roof over their head and food on the table. We need a fourth congressional relief bill and with those previous relief efforts working people truly Small Business takes the brunt of this on thee chin and we cannot and must not leave them behind. There are plenty of things the federal government can do in the interim even before another round of legislation w. I will mention one idea. Cl several big publicly traded companies have started to sheepishly return the money to the Treasury Department rightly sell. They have much greater assets the nation not crowd out the businesses secretary on secretary for nguyen told me 10 billion of loans have been paid off or returned by the large companies. That happens to be the same amount we asked the Treasury Department to set aside exclusively for Community DevelopmentFinancial Institutions and minority diposit institution so this morning i like to urge the Treasury Department are really set aside the money returned by big publicly traded companies of the ppp for loans to businesses that are truly sesmall with under ten employees and other underserved minority and women owned businesses. Too many Big Companies rushed in to secure Small Business lending of the ppp program while smaller ones were shut out. The administration should have been far more careful to put out stronger guidance to the banks in the early days. Something they are trying to correct now. We should write those disparities of treasury word redirect those loans to truly small and underserved businesses using communitybased lenders i hope the secretary will agree to this. Another issue that cannot wait is tech. That is the key to finally feeding this disease and to safely reopening the country. President trump promised on march 6, anybody that want to test can get a test. Two months ago still not even close to being true he things by saying something it happens he thinks it was a hoax to say it will go away he thinks it will go away. Covid19 does not listen to President Trump false words President Trump, when it comes to testing what is the plan . Where are the test . South Korea Germany new zealand and australia could flatten the curve much more quickly than we have with rigorously testing their population with Contact Tracing and isolating confirmed cases but as it spread initially unfortunately the us lagged far behind tar. Some experts believe we need to be doing 2 million test per day we have less than 300,000. For the administration to pressure states and businesses ton reopen without a plan for a dramatic increase of testing like sent them out of the door with a blindfold. It is dangerous congress has required the administration to have a National Strategy by mayh instead of wasting