[inaudible conversations] good morning good afternoon. Thank you for coming i am proud to be joined by my colleagues new covid19 cases are accelerating at an alarming rate throughout several states and the economic threat continues to hound American Families and businesses across the country. Even in the popular ppe program runs out of lending starting today while so many Small Businesses in our communities continue to struggle they may have been rejected in the past and Small Businesses can no longer apply for these funds after today and like Everything Else when it comes to covid our republican colleagues are doing nothing. So i along with the Small BusinessCommittee Ranking member and senator shaheen will attempt to pass simple legislation to extend the Loan Authority of the ppe we will tell them they are leaving Small Businesses hanging out to dry the republicans are missing in action with the crisis we have had the largest and generations the greatest economic crisis since the depression and republican colleagues are not to be found for leader mcconnell to say he will assess the situation then decide what to do with record unemployment huge numbers of illnesses and deat death, businesses going out of business and uncertainty about the future is one of the greatest derelictions of duty he has had so there are so many priorities and Unemployment Insurance expired and the republican attitude is to twiddle their thumbs. That is no good. Where is President Trump . Fixated on things about himself not on what America Needs spending the past few months working with democrats on legislation to address the health and economic crisis that republicans have completely ignored the problem first he said the states should go bankrupt then he would do something in june now not until july 20th. And again he says that legislation will be written is that what we have learned . You need bipartisanship to get something done here in the senate. The republican majority seems terrorized by the enormity of the situation the American People mine action so Senate Democrats are foreseeing action on the issues last night they asked colleagues to pass emergency funding and Senate Republicans drop the bill and then to pass legislation on and then to extend the ppe. If they block and then they have to go home to their constituent constituents. Republicans are missing in action and then get something very real done in the midst of this huge crisis. We are here talking with the democratic leader who recently have. Its great to have you back. If you listen to the Opening Statement on the floor of the senate he was criticizing Speaker Pelosi for not working hard enough for getting down to business. On has senator mcconnell forgotten . Senator stab and output the list together. 400 pieces of legislation passed by the house deemed ignored by senator mcconnell he wants the house to produce more legislation 400 and what is included in this package . About the urgency of the Current Health care crisis and the urgency of the current economic crisis. The kentucky hospital association, hospitals in kentucky have lost 1. 6 billion since march. Only 53 out of 118 hospitals in kentucky have received enough federal aid to cover the losses. 18 hospitals are financially vulnerable and at risk of closing. You know what would help them, the heroes act that passed the house of representatives on monday go would provide 100 billion in relief for hospitals. That would help my hospitals in illinois. It would also help in kentucky. How about the aid to state and local governments. As thats needed in kentucky . They expect to lose between ten to 17 of the revenue because of this crisis. Without help from the government, the governor admits, quote, the recession would be a longer and unemployment would be greater. The department of labor announced that more than 24,600 people filed new unemployment claims in kentucky for the week ending on june 20. A nearly 700 increase over the last year. You would think a senator reading those numbers but feel a sense of urgency. Its long overdue. The unemployment assistance that we pass expires at the end of july. On august 1 millions and millions of unemployed workers will lose their federal assistance. I hope that by then the senator from kentucky but feel the sense of urgency. Even before then we ought to be addressing this. Why have we wasted all this time we should give the families peace of mind and businesses that support they need to get back in business. Its time for us to move in the senate. I dont know what senator mcconnell is waiting for. I want to thank you for your ongoing leadership and to underscore what the senator said of the 400 bills he was talking about, 90 are bipartisan. 90 are bipartisan and senator mcconnell will not bring these bipartisan bills to the floor. The fourth case was reported on january 20. Since that day nearly 2. 6 million cases have been reported, and shockingly more than 125,000 americans have lost their lives. The administration and Congressional Republicans chose not to take this pandemic seriously for months while every other country were taking actions to protect their citizens out of schools and childrens education have been profoundly impacted by the pandemic and how we need to act immediately we need to act immediately this week. In fact today senator murray will be on the floor asking that we do that. This is the latest in the reports that highlight how the republicans have cost peoples lives and their livelihoods. People are sick, people have died because the administration failed to develop a National Testing strategy. Community is our coping not just with outbreaks of a lack of Healthcare Resources to address issues. Making the Racial Disparities that already existed much, much worse. Already under strain its been pushed to the breaking point. Still the local services are struck for the people who depend on them. The central workers have proven themselves heroes and a thank you or maybe a little applause isnt going to put food on the table or pay their rent. Poor families and lower wealth americans were already starting to get ahead and now they feel they are falling even further behind. There is so much we can do to manage this pandemic and we are committed to doing that right now today. We can save lives, prevent additional economic harm, the house passed the act over a month ago. Its now a part of the graveyard. The legislative graveyard senator burr been talked about over a month ago. Now the Senate Republicans are looking to head into the july break without acting on any of the things that would help people and businesses in that bill. Weve offered solutions and simply need republicans to work with us and act. It is time for senator mcconnell to act. Questions on this subject first. No one on this subject, then we are going to leave. We thought it was exactly right. Its about 960 billion, 500 million for the states in 460 billion for the localities. [inaudible] but about the people that are unemployed and cant get back to work . We need generous Unemployment Benefits during this time. He didnt want it to be excessive, whatever that means. We believe in what is the medicare bill we should extend the profession past december 31 and there are ways we can strengthen it as well. [inaudible] i havent been briefed on it and that is why i requested every senator gets briefed directly by the cia and the dni. There is a bigger point. His number one job is to protect americans, to protect the men and women who fight for us overseas. Instead of what he knew or didnt know, he should have a plan. Above all, go after putin. This president has been played like a fool by president putin. Every time we negotiate, he is afraid to talk to putin. One can wonder why but the bottom line is we need tough action against putin and in the bill we will seek to get it. [inaudible] we have asked, we have stated we want to sit down and do a bipartisan bill, then bring the bill before the Judiciary Committee and then bring it to the floor. If we start with a bass basic bipartisan bill we can actually get something done. Maybe they are in disarray among themselves or maybe they dont want a bill to begin with. I dont know the answer to that but we are ready right now to sit down and appoint a few members. And they should start talking. We support and one of the amendments we want will get put on the floor of the bipartisan amendment by Chris Van Hollen and marco rubio about sanctions against russia if they interfere. But they also are exploring more specific language that would deal with the issue. I dare president of trump to veto against this. It has bipartisan support and it will stay in the middle. The bottom line is what is in the bill will stay in the. Thank you, everybody