Transcripts For CSPAN2 U.S. Senate 20240712

Quorum call quorum call mr. Sanders madam president. The presiding officer the senator from vermont is recognized. Sorry. Mr. Sanders thank you. Madam president , since last week the senate has been quote, unquote, debating the presiding officer senator, were in a quorum call. Mr. Sanders i would ask that the quorum call be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Sanders madam president , since last week, the senate ostensibly one of the great deliberative bodies in the world, supposedly, has been quote, unquote, debating the 740 billion National Defense authorization act. Its been a very, very silent debate because of the 700 amendments that have been filed to this bill. There has been no roll call votes on any of them. I do understand that in the managers amendments have been accepted, and thats fine, but weve had a vigorous debate but nobody in the world has heard that debate because theres not been one amendment here on the floor. And knowing the way the senate does business, i worry very much, and i hope i am wrong and i will do my best to prevent it, but i worry very much that we are supposed to be getting out of here for july 4 break. And light now it is a little after 2 00 on wednesday, out of here on thursday, im a little bit worried given the fact that 53 of the discretionary budget of the United States of america, im just a little worried about how amendments, significant amendments, are going to be offered. And let us be clear that over the last year we have been part of what i consider to be the biggest donothing senate in the modern history of this country. This country faces enormous crises in terms of a pandemic, enormous crises in terms of economic breakdown, enormous crises in terms of not guaranteeing health care to all people as a human right, enormous crises that in siberia last week the temperature was 100degrees which is frightening the Scientific Community because they understand this is the tip of the eisenberg regarding iceberg regarding climate. We have all of these crises and nothing is happening in the United States. I think it might be a good idead to start some real debate right here. And i have introduced six amendments, and i will discuss each of them that are significant. Other senators, democrats and republican have significant amendments. Given the fact that we have done virtually nothing over the last year, i think it is not inappropriate to have some serious debate on one of the very major pieces of legislation that we will be dealing with. Madam president , we are talking about a bill that will spend some 740 billion. That is more money in terms of military spending than the next 11 nations combined. Anybody have a problem with that . Well, some of us do. Maybe others dont. Lets debate it. Were talking about a bill that will be spending more money on the pentagon than we did during the height of the cold war and the height of the wars in vietnam and korea. Anyone have a problem with that . Well, i do. Maybe some other people do. Maybe you dont. Tell me why you think we should be spending more money on the military today in terms of inflation than we did during the war in vietnam. Lets debate it. We are talking about a bill that will provide 53 of the entire discretionary budget to the bloated and wasteful pentagon at a time when the Defense Department cannot even pass an independent audit. Weve got a huge budget for the pentagon, they cannot pass an independent audit, and the response of the senate is, well, lets give them even more money. It may make sense to some people. It doesnt make sense to me. In my view, it would be rather disgraceful for us to leave town, recess the senate for two weeks without getting a vote on a single amendment, and then come back in a couple of weeks to pass a 740 billion defense bill without any opportunity to amend that bill. Madam president , if the horrific pandemic that we are now experiencing where tens and tens of thousands of people are coming down with the virus every single day, if the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that National Security, the wellbeing of our people, protecting our people, is a lot more than just building bombs and missiles and jet fighters and tanks and submarines. Our people are in trouble today in an unprecedented way with the pandemic with an economic meltdown in which tens of millions of people have lost their jobs over the last couple of months. And we have got to focus on how we protect those people. And its not just spending money on planes and guns and bombs. Madam president , in order to begin the process of addressing some of the most important issues facing our country, i have introduced five amendments all of which i think are important and all of which i believe need to have a vote and a debate. And let me very briefly explain what those amendments are and what they would do. The First Amendment would reduce the military budget by 10 and use that 740 billion in saving to invest in distressed communities in every state in this country that have been ravaged by extreme poverty, mass incarceration, deindustrialation and decades of neglect. It is no secret to anybody that the American People are hurting. All across this country we have communities where unemployment today is 20 , 25 , 30 , where people are sleeping out on the streets, where schools are underfunded, where decreasing child care is virtually unavailable, where air and Water Pollution are rampant, and it is time that we stopped turning our backs on those communities. So what we are doing right now is focusing attention on the fact that 40 million americans are living in poverty. Half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, and maybe, just maybe, instead of investing more money in Nuclear Weapons and submarines, and god knows what else, maybe we want to invest in our own people, in jocks, in health care, in education so that they can live their lives with dignity and security. I believe right now in the midst of all of the crises that this country faces, the crisis of the pandemic, the crisis of the economic meltdown, the crisis of Racial Injustice, the crisis of 100 Million People being uninsured or underinsured, the crisis of climate change, i think the American People want real transformation. They are tired of the status quo. They want a government which represents all of us, not the 1 and wealthy campaign contributors. And i do understand that the people behind this military budget who love it so much are the military Industrial Complex and the defense contractors. They are doing phenomenally well. Its a great budget for them. Their c. E. O. s made tens of millions of dollars a year. They make huge profits every single year. Its a good budget for them. Maybe we may want to get our priorities right and have a good budget for working families and lowincome families in america, and that is what my amendment does. And that amendment is being cosponsored by senators markey and warren. It is being supported by over 60 organizations throughout this country representing millions and millions of people, organizations like public citizen, union of concerned scientists, physicians for social responsibility and the coalition of human needs. And what these organizations are saying that maybe, just maybe, instead of investing in weapons of destruction, instead of spending more money on the military than the next 11 nations combined, maybe we should invest in our people. And what this amendment would do is provide funding, again, for 1,000 distressed communities from vermont to oklahoma who would receive federal funding to hire more Public School teachers, provide nutritious meals to children and parents, offer free tuition to public colleges, universities, or trade schools. Madam president , at this Pivotal Moment in American History, we have to make a fundamental decision. Do we want to continue spending billions on endless wars in the middle east, on weapons of mass destruction, of which we have more than enough, or do we provide decent jobs and education and health care for millions of people in our country . Further, madam president , a major reason why there is so much waste, fraud, and abuse at the pentagon is, in fact, that the Defense Department remains the only federal agency in america that hasnt been able to pass an independent audit. So that deals with the Second Amendment that i have introduced. I dont think it is too much to say that the Largest Agency of the federal government that you have to pass an independent audit. There is nobody in the senate who does not believe that there is massive waste and fraud at the pentagon, defense contractor after defense contractor has pled guilty to fraud. We have massive over loss overruns, and all that that Second Amendment that im offering does, which is cosponsored by senator grassley, longtime republican leader here, senator lee, republican from utah, and senator wyden of oregon and myself, all that were asking is that there be an independent audit of the Defense Department and that that be completed no later than fiscal year 2025. Not a very radical idea. Now the third amendment that im offering, i think is one that i would hope and expect would have large support right here. And i think those have support among the American People and certainly has widespread support among the medical community, the epidemiologists of this country. Just yesterday i was participating in a hearing of the health, education, Labor Committee and we had the leading experts in this country, including several representatives of the trump administration, dr. Fauci and others, talking about the pandemic and what we can do about it. And there was wried consensus wye spread consensus. Nobody has any doubt anymore except maybe donald trump that masks are an important preventive measure. Not going to solve all of the problems but the evidence is overwhelming that people who wear masks in the public when theyre around other people are less likely to transmit the virus or receive the virus. Nobody doubts that anymore. So the question that we have got to ask ourselves is how does it happen that in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, the strongest economy in the world, we have doctors and nurses today who are dealing with people with covid19 who dont even have the personal be protective equipment that they need . How in gods name does that happen . Were spending 18 of our g. D. P. On health care, twice as much as any other country, and yet we cannot provide a 1 mask to a doctor or a nurse whose life is at stake. But its not only doctors and nurses. What a number of countries around the world are doing, which is very smart, is they are producing or acquiring large numbers of highquality masks and theyre distributing those masks to all of the households in their country. We should be making sure that every household in this country has the masks that they need. That will save us lives. Theres an estimate from the university of washington. It would save 30,000 lives in this pandemic if 95 of the American People wore masks. And it would save us substantial sums of money because its a lot cheaper to invest in masks than in hospitalization for those who have the virus. And i should mention that other countries not as wealthy as we, countries like south korea, france, turkey, austria, and others, are doing just that. And again, this is an idea that won support not only from dr. Fauci, but other leading Health Care Experts who testified before the help committee yesterday. Thats the third amendment. Making sure that we utilize the defense production act to produce the masks that our medical professionals need and the American People need. We can save tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars by doing that. The Fourth Amendment i have filed madam president would prohibit funding for military aid and Logistical Support for the disastrous saudiled war in yemen. I believe it is past time that we put an end to our unconstitutional and unauthorized participation in this war. And on this issue, i am certainly not alone. A bipartisan majority of the u. S. Senate has already voted three times not once, not twice, three times to halt all u. S. Military support for the saudiled war in yemen. It is time for us to do that again. This time not just in words, but in action. No money going toward u. S. Participation in this horrible war which is destroying some of the, a nation of some of the poorest, most desperate people on earth. So thats the Fourth Amendment that i think would be hard for anybody here to deny that that is an important amendment because its already been in one form or another passed three times, so lets get some teeth into it. And the last amendment i have filed madam president mr. President , i am sorry, would reduce the Defense Budget by. 1 . 1 , not a lot of money, and use that money to make our nation safer by reaching out to people throughout the world by expanding educational and Cultural Exchange programs. In other words, the theory behind this whole bill is that by spending 740 billion building planes and tanks and guns and the most sophisticated weapons of mass destruction in the history of the world, that will make us safer. Well, im not so sure. Maybe what makes us safer is when we break down the fears and the hatred that exists between peoples all over the world. Maybe what makes us safer is when we get to know each other, that as human beings, whether were chinese or russians or iranians or brazilians or canadians, maybe we all share the same human aspirations. Throughout history it has always been easy to demonize people you dont know. Always easy. Thats what demagogues always have done. Were fearful of jews and blacks and irish and italians and gay people. So easy to demonize people we are not comfortable with and we dont know. Theyre not in our community. We dont know anybody. Lets demonize the people that are wrong, lets demonize the people in china and russia, which is not saying that i or anybody else here is in agreement with our policies. But are weapons the only approach we toward them . Yeah, we need a strong military. I believe in a strong military. But you know what i also believe is in a believe . Is that when we have kids go to the United States from other countries and when other countries are sending their kids, farmers, doctors, to america and when we get to know each other, weve got a shot to break down the irrational hatred which foments so many problems throughout the world. I can tell you as a former mayor, and im not alone, this idea of sister cities, not a radical idea. I suspect everybody here in the senate comes from a state where sister city programs exist. You have programs with cities in other countries. In vermont we have a number of them. I started some of them when i was mayor of burlington. It was a beautiful thing to see, kids from another country coming to our country, our people going to other countries learning. All im asking for is. 1 , 7 billion. No, less than that. 700 million to encourage cultural and Educational Exchange programs. By taking this tiny fraction,. 1 , from our Defense Budget and applying it to these Exchange Programs, we will send the message about the Critical Role that these Exchange Programs which exist all over this country already, but i want to see them grow, play in supporting not only american security, but our common global security. Therefore, i listed and described five amendments. Therefore, mr. President , i ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up the following amendments en bloc Senate Amendment number 1788, number 1920, number 1789, number 1990 1919, im sorry, 1919, and number 1918. That they be reported by number, and further that there be two hours of debate on the amendments equally divided and controlled by me or my designee designee, and senator inhofe or his designee. And that following the use or yielding back of that time the senate vote on adoption of the amendments in the order listed without intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Inhofe reserving the right to object. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Sanders senator inhofe, did you have anything else you wanted to say on this . Mr. Inhofe and i will object, although i would like to have the opportunity to look at all five of these amendments to see which ones would not be consistent with the negotiation that is taking place right now. Id like to make sure that everyone understands, democrats and republicans at this very moment are looking at a lot of amendments as weve done every year for 60 years and to make sure were getting the right amendments to make the bill the best bill that we can have. Just take a few minutes for me to do this. Until then, id reserve the right to object. If we have a timing problem on this, i would object. It might be theres one id like to consider at this time. The presiding officer is there objection . Mr. Inhofe i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mr. Inhofe id like to be recognized too just to make a comment. First of all, i have Great Respect for the gentleman. I have worked with him many times. Weve really gotten quite a bit accomplished. I know that my friend is sincere in the statements that he makes. I find myself in a different position. I look and i see what has happened in previous administrations, and i saw that during the last five years of the Obama Administration when the president in his budget reduced the military by 25 at the same time that china was increasing theirs by 83 and russia was increasing theirs by 34 , im sensitive to this and this is one of the considerations we make. So i do object to this amendment, but i am going to work with the gentleman and to see which of these might be appropriate and be sellable to the majority of the people in the senate. Mr. Sanders mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from vermont. Mr. Sanders senator inhofe is right. He and i have known each other for a number of years and i think respect each other. We have very, very different philosophical meanings but that does not mean we dont respect each other. And all i would say to my friend from oklahoma is that the function for the senate is for 100 members to determine whats important, not just a few. And what may not be important to me, it may be important to you. It may be important to you, it may not be important to me. But i think especially on a big of this significance, the members, democrats and republicans, have a right to come forward and bring forth an amendment. If i dont like the amendment, you bring forth an amendment, likely there is a vote against it. Youre going to vote against my amendment, thats cool. Its called democracy, the process we go through here. But i just cannot understand why we are not voting on amendments. I would rather see a process take place when we get back where dozens of amendments are brought up and debated, voted up, voted down. That is what i think this senate is supposed to stand for. Mr. Inhofe one more comment, addressing that. Senator reed and i both are in agreement. Weve been wanting amendments. Weve been asking on a daily basis now for about two months if people would bring their amendments down so we can consider amendments. Were in the process now of seeing which amendments were able to bring up that we might have, reach an agreement. And were doing that. Its not an easy process. It does take a little bit of time. But i encourage, im hopeful that well have amendments. I anticipate we will. The presiding officer if i may respond mr. Sanders if i may respond to my friend . Jack reed is a good friend of mine. I know that you and he are working hard and well together. But you are two senators. There shall 98 others of us. What you two may agree on what is important and what is not important, others may disagree. All i am saying, senator inhofe, is let people bring up their amendments. You dont like it, i dont like it, well vote against it. But i just dont know why we are restricting amendments in a senate which is supposed to be one of the great deliberative bodies in the world. The world is supposed to look at us. Theyre not looking well at us when a few people determine what is going to be voted on or not. Mr. Inhofe i respond by saying i dont take issue with that, but i would say this, we all remember what happened a year ago. One of our members objected to all amendments coming up. As a result, no one got their amendments up. That isnt were just trying to with the understanding and the realization that things are done in the senate with unanimous consent and one person has a lot of power to stop a lot of other people. We dont want that to happen. We want to encourage amendments and were going to try to consider as many as we can. Mr. Sanders i would simply to my friend, he is quite right, unanimous consent gives everyone a lot of power. And i do not want to be objectionable but i feel very strong lip on this issue and i strongly on this issue and i hope we can work something out. Mr. Inhofe thank you. Mr. Sanders and with that, i will yield the floor. Ms. Cantwell mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Ms. Cantwell i come to the floor about the bill we are considering, i know its a general practice, but my colleague from vermont is bringing up a big, important point about amendments and that is the ndaa is marked up in a secret, closeddoor session. It is not like we have a bright light and know what is in there. They held it in there and then thrust it on the senate floor and dont want us to offer any amendments. In my state, im objecting, along with the senator from vermont, as to a major shift in policy that is in this proposal that shichts money away shifts money away from the department of energy. We didnt vote on it and members of the committee are in disagreement on this because it wasnt consulted and it is raiding jurisdiction. I want to submit a letter by myself, senator alexander, senator wyden, senator barrasso, senator risch and senator sanders from vermont. We object. Were members of the committee we are senior members of the committee. We understand the d. O. E. Budget and the d. O. E. Responsibilities and we dont think its right for somebody to mark up in a closeddoor session in the middle of the National Defense act a taking of money basically neutering the secretary of energy, basically saying, you only have half of your budget because were going to dictate over at the department of defense exactly how youre going to spend those dollars. So that is a big power grab by a very few people and certainly deserves a vote by the United States senate. It certainly deserves a bright light by the American People. Because not only are we talking about this from the perspective of the taking away d. O. E. Resource and focus from the secretary of energy, were also talking about putting into the hands of the department of defense what has been civilian oversight, civilian oversight of the production of our Nuclear Weapons. So why is this so important whos in charge of d. O. E. s budget . Well, i think the secretary of energy is. I think he comes before congress. I think he discusses with congress what that budget is. I think he talks and we talk and we review his nominees and the work that he does on this. For me, in the state of washington, we have the Largest Nuclear cleanup sight in the entire world. So cleaning up hanford from the plutonium efforts done in world war ii is a massive multibilliondollar a year cleanup. I wish it wasnt that much but it is and it has been for decades. And people constantly look at that 2 billion and think we can save some of those dollars off. Im here to tell you you cant, not with leaky tanks leaking into the groundwater and moving towards the columbia river. No, we cannot have people taking half of the d. O. E. Budget and then basically deciding that the department of defense is going to decide what to do with it. But hanford isnt the only site. There are other Cleanup Sites, paducah, theres still things to do with savannah river, theres Cleanup Sites all over the United States and to end the ndaa bill to basically preclude us from basically discussing such a major policy change that is not supported by the secretary of energy, not supported by the chairwoman of the Energy Committee or the amendment we would like to seek a vote on. So i submit to the record this letter from my colleagues on the Energy Committee also objecting to this language. The presiding officer without objection. Ms. Cantwell what else is at stake in also at stake is our National Laboratories. Our National Laboratories do incredibly hard work for us. I know what ours does in the Pacific Northwest they are an expert on cybersecurity, they are an expert on terrorism and fighting terrorism. Now all of sudden youre going to let the National Nuclear Security Agency decide what that budget looks like. Now is not the time to allow the department of defense, without our oversight that were sent here to give, to decide what this budget should look like. That is not their role and responsibility. So the fact that somebody thinks that they can stick this in this a closeddoor session and then jam us without a vote of this body to consider such a major policy change is appalling. Now, i know that people try to do this two years ago or a year and a half ago and basically got taken out by the house of representatives, but thats no secure for doing it now. People jam soole many things into this bill. The last time they jammed in the basically relicensing of a hydroelectric dam and basically written into this for the chairman was the provision that they no longer have to be regulated by the federal rght Ri Commission federal regulate Ri Commission. There are plenty of people who would like to know about that. The fact that was in a panoply of things stuffed into the ndaa in the final negotiation of the house, they couldnt get it out. So we are being held hostage one more time on the ndaa bill for bad policy that has not had the broad discussion of the United States senate. So i would say to my colleagues, if you care will Nuclear Waste cleanup, if you care about the agenda of our National Laboratories and i will tell you you think people are threatening you right now, people are threatening us on cybersecurity, people dont stick a sub into your waters taunting you or fly aircraft over your head, they put software nools your power into your power plants, into your military sites. We need them to do their job and not have the money subverted by some agency that we dont see, they dont come to us, they go to a few members, they go to the senator from oklahoma but they dont see us and talk about their ajenna. They basically agenda. They want an increase. They are trying to short circuit both appropriators and authorizers on this issue. If people are proud of that language, if they think it stands, they think its the right policy, they should let us have a vote and a discussion about who is in charge of d. O. E. s budget because i guarantee you most americans think its the secretary of energy and not a five, seven member subcabinet member. It has to stop. Mr. President , if i could, while im out here on the floor, pay tribute to one of the most Iconic Newspapers in the state of washington, the seattle p. I. , and one of its notary journalists who is retiring after 47 years writing for the organization. This newspaper which was part of the northwest history for decades finally stopped in the print edition, but is online, but joe connolly has been writing about president s for decades, writing about northwest policy, such as the outdoors, writing about the relationship on international issues, particularly with canada. But joel said it best once about the employer, the p. I. , we do our best to inform you, intrigue you, amuse you, and sometimes get under your skin. I miss those days in journalism today where someone has so much knowledge and information about our region about politics in general, about society that they help keep us informed and engaged. Joel once interviewed bill clinton on air force one and obviously interviewed many president s, both bushes, clinton, obama, he was a Pulitzer Prize runner up and covered hanford issues, which i just talked about many times and many northern border issues. But he probably was best known in his coverage of idaho governor sandress and wrote a book about him and the many fights that happened in the northwest on lands issues for many years. I cant even begin to explain what it will be like without joe connolly not being in the National Political commentary for us in the political northwest. Nobody sharper, nobody keener, nobody that struck more fear in me when i had to get on the phone with him, chances were he knew the issues better than i did and i had been pretty studied on it but thats what you get after 47 years in journalism. I wish him all the best, i hope his retirement is a call for all of us how important journalism is, that the tool and trade of those who cover these policies, understand them and give commentary in their columns and in their oversight is what helps us keep our democracy here in the United States. Joel, i know you will be up there on woodby island. I know were not done hearing the last of you, but i know we have heard the great commentary for 47 years of the p. I. And your comments, and we greatly appreciate it. I thank the president and i yield the floor. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley today the United States, mexico, and canada launched a new chapter in our Historic Partnership with entry into force of the United Statesmexicocanada agreement, usmca for short. Thanks to the decisive leadership of President Trump, the usmca will open the door for robust Economic Growth and at the same time for his decisive leadership as president , this isnt an issue just now. This is something that the president said in 2016, that the nafta was the worst trade agreement that we had and that he was going to get rid of it or revise it. Most president s run on a platform, they may not serve on that platform. This president is serving on that platform and today the usmca going into existence or into force for the first time is absolute proof of that president keeping his promises and getting the job done. But he also needs to compliment and thank ambassador lighthizer, the negotiator on this whole agreement. The usmca brings to bear then a trilateral trade agreement that will lift prosperity across north america. The usmca paves the way for freer markets and fairer trade. It replaces nafta and puts america in a better position to expand Market Access for u. S. Workers, farmers, and businesses. Specifically, the usmca modernizes rules of origin for auto, sanitary, vital sanitary standards, intellectual property rules, digital trade, financial services, customs, labor, environment, and more. And some of these issues i just mentioned werent even around 30 years ago when nafta was negotiated so modernizing nafta into the 21st century was the right thing to do. As we enter into this agreement, the world is navigating on uncertain times, as we know. The unprecedented Public Health crisis has turned the economy upside down. Now, more than ever, our farmers, businesses, and workers need and deserve certainty that they can count on to turn things around and accelerate economic recovery. As chairman of the Senate Finance committee, with jurisdiction over trade, ill be keeping a close eye on the implementation of this historic trade agreement. I want to ensure that any kinks that come up are ironed out with appropriate flexibility, taking into consideration unfor seen circumstances from the pandemic, such as auto may and others who auto may and others who were shut down, or repurposed, operations for medical equipment and that is just one example. I will keep watch to hold accountable all stakeholders and ensure full compliance with a trade agreement. Now, more than ever, north america must Work Together to harvest the fruits of the usmca. Thats how we can foster investment, innovation, and job creation for the 478 Million People that live in these three countries. The u. S. International trade commission estimated that the usmca within five years would raise u. S. G. D. P. By 68 billion forecasting 176,000 new jobs in the United States. Thats music to the ears for everyone in america who has been hard hit by the pandemic economic fallout. Farmers in my state have enjoyed one of the best planting seasons in decades. However, our livestock, poultry, and biofuel producers have faced catastrophic disruption to their operations since the virus swept across the country. Iowa is the nations number one producer of pork, eggs, and corn. Our economy depends on exports to grow and for our economy to flourish. American farmers depend on exports to pay their bills and earn a living. Farmers simply want to grow and produce for the marketplace, not for government bailouts. Todays inauguration of the usmca offers a bright ray of hope for north america to ploy forward and to plant the seeds for a robust economic recovery. And with every trade issue that comes, its always important to remember what president kennedy said in his presidency about trade legislation and the benefits of it. If it benefits one country, it benefits another. A rising tide lifts all boat. So thats a quote. A rising tide lifts all boats. Im confident the usmca will steer americas workers, farmers, and businesses to better days ahead. I yield the floor. Mr. Scott mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from florida. Mr. Scott mr. President , i rise today to recognize and honor a very Important Group of people in our nations history. The 65th infantry regiment of the United States army was comprised of United States citizens if puerto rico. The brink doors courageously fought for decades to enjoy the freedoms we enjoy today. It is the largest standing and only activity latino military unit in u. S. History. On april 13, 2016, congress awarded the congressional gold medal to the 65th infantry regiment in recognition of their numerous contributions to American History and Outstanding Military Service from world war i through the recent conflicts in afghanistan and iraq. Today im honored to join my colleagues in recognizing the brairvegry, service, and bravery, service, and secretary nice of the puerto rican soldiers and express deep gratitude for the contributions to the armed forces that have been made by hundreds of thousands of patriotic United States citizens from puerto rico. Im honored to designate april 13 as national day to make sure their legacy lives on. History will pay tribute to the sacrifices they made to gendz our defend our freedom. I ask consent to address the senate in spanish. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Scott [ speaking spanish ] mr. Scott i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of Senate Resolution 641 submitted earlier today. The presiding officer the clerk will report. The clerk Senate Resolution 41, december 641, designating april 13, 2020 as national borinqueneers day. The presiding officer is there objection to proceeding . Without objection. The senate will proceed to the matter. Mr. Scott mr. President , i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. Mr. Scott i yield the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call a senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from new mexico. Mr. Heinrich i would ask to ee vitiate the quorum call and speak as if in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Heinrich mr. President , americans are demanding an end to the persistent Racial Injustice and violence that afflicts our country. Protesters have gathered outside of the white house and the capitol. New mexicans from our biggest city to our smallest communities are marching for meaningful change. I have joined these protests in emancipation hall, in the streets of washington, d. C. , and now i am joining them from the United States senate floor. The systemic racism being called out is real, and it is all around us all of the time. Within Law Enforcement, we have seen it in the horrific videos documenting the racist violence that took the lives of black men and women at the hands of Police Officers and extrajudicial killers. As a father raising two sons, my heartaches for the parents whose sons and daughters names we now chant loudly in the streets. It is unacceptable for any american to live in fear of violent encounters when they enter public spaces or Retail Stores or just go out for a walk. The very fact that painful experiences with Law Enforcement are ubiquitous among so many in our nation should be evidence enough that our current model of policing is not working. Thats why i am proud to support my colleagues, senator booker and senator harris, and cosponsor the justice in policing act. This sweeping legislation reforms the Police System as americans across the Country Demand an end to Police Violence that is disproportionately targeting communities of color. It would address qualified immunity standards in federal law which currently stand in the way of Police Officers being held accountable in court when they violate constitutional rights. It would improve transparency in Police Departments by creating a National Police misconduct registry, requiring accurate data reporting on misconduct and use of force incidents and ensure problematic officers cannot avoid accountability by simply changing departments. It would also institute a Real National ban on choke holds and other deadly restrictive airway holds. We have seen this use of lethal force kill george floyd and eric garner before him, and earlier this year in las cruces, new mexico, when a Police Officer killed Antonio Valenzuela with a vascular neck restraint. While i hope that justice will be served for mr. Floyd and mr. Valenzuelas families, i know these men should never have died in the first place. This lethal and unnecessary type of force should not be allowed anywhere in america. The justice in policing act would put an end to the injudicious use of noknock warrants that led to the murder of Breonna Taylor in louisville, kentucky. In order to prevent future extra judicial racist killings like the murder of Ahmaud Arbery earlier this year by vigilantes in georgia, the justice in policing act would also finally designate lynching as a federal crime. The legislation would also make broad improvements in training for Police Officers. That includes implicit bias training to confront the prejudice that contributes to racial profiling and confrontational treatment of people of color. We must also make deescalation and crisis intervention techniques Standard Operating Procedures in encounters and make the use of lethal force the absolute last resort. In my state, weve seen far too many incidents in which police have killed people of color with lethal tactics or responded to new mexicans experiencing Mental Illness or addiction with unnecessary force that resulted in death. Nearly a decade ago, the department of justice began an investigation into the Albuquerque Police department. After new numerous such fatal pe encounters. In 2014, the department of justice released its report that cited chronic wiewfs of abuses of civil rights, Widespread Community distrust, and a pattern of Excessive Force across the department. For these past six years, the Albuquerque Police department has been under a federally enforced Consent Decree that has brought muchneeded changes in hiring, in training, and use of force policies. This ongoing process of changing just this one Police Departments culture is far from complete. Court hearings continue and a federally appointed monitor continues to oversee the yearslong process of completing all of the reforms in the federally mandated courtapproved settlement agreement. And we have still seen multiple Fatal Police Shootings each year since reforms began. That includes one case from just this march in which the response to a welfare check on Valente Acosta bastios, a man with documented health challenges, ended when officers fatally shoot him after he wielded a shovel he had been using to do yard work. This is not an isolated incident. The evidence is everywhere that systemic reform is needed for Law Enforcement, not just in albuquerque, but all across my state and all across this country. Since the beginning of 2015, since the nation reeled over the death of Michael Brown in ferguson, missouri, there have been more than 5,000 5,000 Fatal Police Shootings. And it pains me to say that in that time period, new mexico has had the highest rate of these shootings in the entire country on a per capita basis. And while our overall nationwide statistics on deaths in Police Custody are incomplete, which is a problem in and of itself, the data we do have makes it clear that police in the United States are killing people at a rate much higher than our peer nations. A review of mediareported arrestrelated deaths during the bureau of justice statistics found that more than 1,300 people died in Police Custody in the ten months from june, 2015, through march, 2016. During that same period, only 13 people in the United Kingdom died in or after being in Police Custody. And while we are a much larger country, even on a per capita basis, that means that americans are being killed at a rate approximately six times higher than in the u. K. Many if not most of these deaths fall are deemed justified by Law Enforcement. But i want to say in the strongest possible terms we cant keep accepting a system that justifies this level of deadly violence. The house of representatives demonstrated last week that we can take action to address this system. Answering the calls of americans all across our country, the house voted to pass the justice in policing act. The senate needs to do the same, because no one should be above the law. No one, including those in Law Enforcement. While i believe these last weeks and months of americans calling for justice have changed many hearts and minds, i am not naive enough to believe the Current Administration is either willing or capable of bringing the level of change that americans are demanding. Unfortunately, in the last three and a half years, President Trump and his Justice Department have either turned a blind eye, excused, or even openly encouraged a more Violent Police culture. Starting under attorney general Jeff Sessions and certainly continuing under attorney general bill barr today, this administration has spent much more time and department of justice resources aiding the president s own political battles and implementing even harsher penalties on americans than on holding Police Departments accountable for guaranteeing equal justice under the law. But none of this excuses us in the United States senate from our own responsibility to lead. We have a moral obligation as senators to grapple with how we can bring about necessary federal changes with better federal policies. That should start with passing the accountability measures, the meaningful improvements to police training, and the bans on excessive and lethal force tactics that are in the justice in policing act. We also need to encourage the changes that will necessarily need to come at the local government level. Advocates are calling on local governments to reassess their budgets and how much they have prioritized policing and prisons over education and housing. They are also calling on their local leaders to reimagine a world where armed Police Officers are not the responders dispatched to all crisis situations. Last week, albuquerque mayor tim keller announced a proposal to create an entirely new Public Safety department that would dispatch social workers, housing and homelessness specialists, and violence prevention and Diversion Program experts instead of Police Officers to homelessness, socalled downandout calls and Behavioral Health crises. This is the scale of systemic change that we need to be thinking about and devoting real resources toward implementing in all of our communities. We all need to carefully assess the effectiveness of continuing a status quo in Law Enforcement that is clearly not keeping all of us safe. It will not be easy to dismantle the us versus them warrior mentality that is so pervasive in far too many of our Law Enforcement agencies. If you treat the communities that he police like they are war zones, you create a relationship that de dee dee that dehumanizes the people you are charged to protect and fuel the violate and crime youre supposed to protect. Our streets in American Communities should never be treated like battlefields. Our local Law Enforcement officers should not be armed with militarygrade equipment or ar15s or mrap armored vehicles. They should not be meeting Peaceful Protesters with tear gas or rubber bullets. Police officers should not be treating any of us, whatever our race and regardless of the reason we are encountering them, as if we are enemy combatants. This militarized version of policing is simply not the way to keep the peace or create a sense of Public Safety in our communities. It has created a distrust in police and perpetuated trauma and inequities in communities across our country. I believe that we must transform this dangerous warrior mentality into a guardian and neighborhood support mentality that looks to serve all members of our communities. We should remember that Police Officers are supposed to be officers of the peace. Now i want to be careful to emphasize that the responsibility for changing this mentality must not fall entirely on the shoulders of our Law Enforcement officers because we also recognize that our Law Enforcement officers too are being impacted and harmed by this broken system. We as a society have asked them to treat the symptoms and respond to the deficiencies that all of us have allowed to persist in education, in health care, in Addiction Treatment, and in housing. On a daily basis Police Officers address the most acute impacts of us not solving those other issues. I argued that this is because the same wrongheaded us versus them warrior mentality that ive been describing has long resided within this very institution and has been baked into our country as a whole. It is the same warrior mentality that has fueled the federal governments ineffective and racist war on drugs and war on crime over the course of the last 50 years. Intentionally or not, these policies helped build what advocates label the schooltoprison pipeline in and the new jim crow. Jim crow may sound harsh, but in my estimation, it is an astonishingly accurate way to describe the Unequal Society we have created across our entire country. More than half a century since the marchers in the Civil Rights Movement called on us to create an america where we were all judged by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin, we find ourselves facing the same challenges as 50 years ago with implicit bias and structural inequities ravaging our communities of color. Thats what you get after combining militarized policing with overly harsh sentencing laws, mass incarceration, private prisons, continued institutional racial discrimination, and a decadeslong disinvestment in Public Education and Affordable Housing and Food Assistance and Addiction Treatment and health care resources. Thats the system were talking about when we talk about systemic racism. Well it will take more than nice words, kind wishes in a fleeting period of weeks to dismantle that system that has been built up in the 4000 400 years since the first slaves were brought to our shows and in the last 50 years of rapidly growing incarceration. The sooner that we finally recognize this, the sooner we can try to envision and implement effective comprehensive reforms on the scaliness to create institutions that look out for all of us. Over the last months as we have all confronted the health and Economic Crises brought on by the covid19 pandemic, ive often heard that we need to get back to normal, but that version of normal was not working for all of us. Rather than hoping to get back to that unequal and unjust normal of before, id offer this challenge to all of us. We have an opportunity, an opportunity to rebuild our country in the months and years ahead. Lets rebuild our country to create an america that includes all of us. Lets rebuild our country in a way that respects the Human Dignity of black lives and provides safety and opportunity to all of us. Lets rebuild america to become the place we all want it to be, a nation where we see each other as fellow human beings equally deserving of life and liberty. There is still so much morhard morhard more hard work ahead of us. Passing the justice in policing act is the first meaningful step on a long path forward. Mr. President , i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mrs. Blackburn mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from tennessee. Mrs. Blackburn are we into quorum call . The presiding officer yes. Mrs. Blackburn i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Blackburn thank you, mr. President. Over the past few months we have all watched the power that the Digital Community has to make someones passing thought go viral and the power that the digital mob has to make controversial voices completely disappear. Well, who is the digital mob exactly, because right now were hearing a lot about mob rule. Sometimes its hard to tell who the mob actually is. Is it the millions of users who swarm social media platforms at the very first hint of a controversy . Or is it the professional activist who provoke many of these attacks . They seem to know just when to pitch a thought, a word, or an idea. Or is it, could it be the platforms themselves who cave to the pressure and Police Speech when they dont agree with that speech . So lets drill down on this just a little bit. Today i want to focus on the googles and the facebooks of the world, because when it comes down to it, they are the ones that are in the drivers seat. They are the ones who end up calling the shots. For years Tech Companies have waged a very public war against platform users who speak out against the popular narrative, and the executives charged with defending these calls routinely struggle to explain the arbitrary nature of their content moderation policies. Every time moderators remove a post for what is called shocking content, or cause a moral panic by placing a warning label on satire, big tech asks us to, oh write it off, it was a mistake, we really didnt mean to do it, move on. But we havent moved on because the platforms themselves have provided plenty of evidence to confirm that big techs employees bring their bias to the workplace. Bear in mind all of these employees who are developing the search models, the a algorithms that are prioritizing your surge, mining your data, that are policing your speech, they are bringing their bias and their prejudice to the workplace. These fears were confirmed back in 2017 when the New York Times reported that a twitter employee intentionally, intentionally deleted President Trumps account not because of any violation, but because the employee had an ax to grind. They did not like president donald trump. This may the wall street journal revealed that facebook set up a multistep approval process for changes to its, and im quoting, integrityRanking Initiative, end quote, due to, again quoting, reasonable concerns that overzealous engineers might let their politics influence the platform. Now think about that. Facebook set up a multistep approval process for changes to its integrity Ranking Initiative due to reasonable concerns that overzealous engineers might let their politics influence the platform. Do you think . Of course they were. Of course they were. The problem . They have been doing it all along and trying to say its just your imagination when actually its not. Mr. President , i dont think anybody anticipated the digital platforms would become powerful enough to act as judge and jury over what information americans should be allowed to access online. Congress certainly didnt anticipate it when drafting legislation to keep those companies in check. But theyve overstepped their bounds. They continue to misbehave until we come along and slap their hand, and then they try to act as if they are going to solve their problems, which leads us to our current debate over section 230 reform. Big tech relies on section 230 of the Communications Decency act to shield themselves from contentbased litigation. The statute also acts as a sword that platforms can engage to remove content they judge to be obscene, violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable. In section 230 world then, the users, the users are responsible for what they post, not the platform that hosts the content. The platform, however, those platforms have the right to set their own content guidelines within limits without being sued. Sound reasonable. Section 230 is important specifically because of what it doesnt do. It does not force companies to choose between moderating every piece of content they host and letting their websites turn into the wild west. But, as i said, no legislation could have anticipated our current digital landscape. Big Tech Companies like google and facebook now have the pour to power to ruin. They can ruin content creators who step out of line, continue it is their line. And even if those creators managed to stay on the right side of the moderators, they know their online presence, and many times this is also their livelihood, that it lives or dies at the hands of employees given the near Impossible Task of remaining completely neutral 100 of the time. The dynamic between users and platforms has changed and now Congress Must change the law that guides that dynamic. Heres the problem. Is that this country has become so polarized, im not sure big tech understands what a healthy dynamic would actually look like. No longer do their choices seem to make sense to Many Americans. The compulsion to flag and report and threaten has become a reflex. When the digital mob chooses to attack on any given day, then their choices are going to change with every new cycle. And, as we have seen, this heavily influences how big tech chooses to police content on their platforms. You may have been saying or posting something for years, no problem, but then one day that digital mob, because of the news cycle, will choose to attack you. Conservatives have suffered under this mob rule. There is no denying it. And theres no denying that there is a digital mob. But reform can happen without overextending the heavy hand of federal regulation over the entire tech industry. And as someone who knows what it feels like to be censored, i get it. I absolutely understand why we need these reforms and why Congress Needs to act now, this year. But i also know that the more you rely on threats to motivate good corporate behavior, the more likely you will be to find reasons to follow through on them. Mr. President , we must stronger ways to rein in tech firms seeking to become the new speech police. We know for a fact that big techs biases are the problem. But when did more government become the solution . We already tried that approach. We called it the fairness doctrine. Guess what. It did not work. Instead of encouraging free and fair discourse, powerful parties used those rigid standards as leverage to control speech. And i will tell you, i can think of a few things more dangerous than allowing lawmakers and bureaucrats to weaponize the full force of the federal government against the private exchange of information. What we do know is this. Big techs era of selfregulation is over. It no longer works. Big tech is not a group of infant companies. They are referred to as big tech because they have grown. So this selfregulation is over. It is time for congress to take an action but punitive one size fits all standards will put these Tech Companies in a straitjacket. It would hamper innovation and eventually what would happen is it would collapse the industry. Instead we should setup and give big tech guidance that will encourage growth and will encourage innovation while also making it abundantly clear that congress will not allow big techs political bias to determine what information americans are allowed to access online. We will not allow big tech and their political bias to determine how information is prioritized through your search engine. We are not going to allow big tech and their political bias to data mine every email, every text, every search and then use that to access your information online. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the previously referenced articles from the New York Times and the wall street journal be submitted into the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Blackburn mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the following remarks appear separately in the record. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Blackburn i want to take a minute to thank Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham for adding the child exploration act to the earn it act. This bill, which i introduced with senator cortez masto would lengthen online Child Exploitation cases and assist Law Enforcement in prosecuting child predators. Once passed, the law will double the length of time we require tech firms like facebook and snap chat to preserve evidence and reports of online exploitation. In 2018 Tech Companies reported over 45 million 45 million photos and videos of children being sexually abused. Unfortunately, that was double the number of reports in 2017. This legislation will give the police more time to investigate these horrific crimes. It will put child predators in jail where they belong. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor, and i note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer are we in a quorum . The presiding officer yes. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer today is july 1, and for millions of americans, the rent is due. Utility bills dont stop either, but too many new york families, it too Many American families will be unable to make the payments amid the pandemic that is also has already hurt my city and its people. Look, the first of the month should not be the end of the financial line for working families and thats why were here. We must continue to put real pressure on leader mcconnell to pass the covid 4 legislation that would include critical rent relief to families who desperately need the help. Our working families, many of color and of other minority groups, in desperate need of this basic assistance so they can continue working, feeding their families, making ends meet. Thats our push today. Enact the emergency rental assistance and rental market stabilization act which has 100 billion promise to renters across the country. And the promise is real help during a real and unprecedented crisis. Now let me give you some background. The heroes act would authorize a hundred billion for Emergency Rental Assistance Program led by sherrod brown, the Ranking Member of the banking and Housing Committee who has just done a great job letting people know the crisis and now acting on it. And what it does is it helps families and individuals pay their rent and utility bills and remain in their homes during and after the covid19 crisis. The bill was already included in the housepassed bipartisan heroes act but unfortunately once again as he does with so many other important issues, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has refused to bring it to the floor. So senator brown has come to ask for unanimous consent. Without basic assistance even those renters who are currently shielded by temporary federal and local eviction bans may still face eviction. And let me tell you, once someone is evicted and homeless, they regress. The kids cant go to school. Health care becomes even more remote. Getting to a job through Public Transportation is so difficult. This actually is a stitch in time that saves nine. If people can stay in their homes because they cant pay the rent through no fault of their own, they have a better chance of reestablishing their lives and maybe even climbing up that american ladder. Kicked out of their homes because they cant pay the rent through no fault of their own, its very, very difficult. Theyre in a deep, deep hole. So we must, must do something for them. And senator brown with his persistence and passion has put together the right plan. We talk about numbers, sure, but behind those numbers are the faces of countless new yorkers we see etch and every day on mass each and every day on mass transit, walking the streets, working among us. These folks, theyre fine people, hardworking people. All they want is a little dignity in their lives and ability to keep a roof over their heads. They need help now more than ever. We need action on this now and that is the message to our friends on the other side of the aisle. I yield the floor. Mr. Brown mr. President . Madam president . The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown i thank the democratic leader. I have a prepared speech i want to make but i hear senator schumer talk about this. These are human beings. We in this body, were senators. We go back and forth to our states. We have the privilege of working pretty safe. Were paid. We arent exposed to the virus all that much. Most of us because were pretty careful because we can be and we have jobs that we can be. But think about this. You work at a Grocery Store and youre exposed to the coronavirus. A grocery worker one day told me, they told me im essential but i feel expendable because im not very safe in this job and they dont pay me much. Say she gets laid off not so much from a Grocery Store but another job, gets laid off. Theyve got to worry about potential eviction. Their unemployment is going to run out at the end of july. Weve done nothing to help them. And what happens to all these people that get evicted . They go to homeless shelters that are too crowded. They go to live on their cousins couch in the basement. What are the chances of getting cloans . These are coronavirus. These are people all over, madam president. I cant believe were not about to do something about this. I thank the leader for his involvement on this issue thats so important. Were in the middle of a crisis unlike anything any of us have ever lived through. That goes without saying. Every single day we hear about hundreds and hundreds and hundreds more americans dying. South korea, back in march had 90 cases. We had 90 cases. South korea is 800 miles from the capital south korea is 800 miles from wuhan where this virus started. They had fewer than 300 people die. Weve had 120,000. They dont have better doctors. They dont have better Public Health. They dont have better medical scientists. They have better leaders than we do, obviously. Theyre fewer than 00 300 people have died. The people that have died are our sisters, our brothers, our fathers, mothers. They just stopped pretending to care. They dont even they rarely talk about about the coronavirus. The president rarely extends any sympathy to our friends and neighbors who have been sick and have died. Its not the president s rich friends who are dying. Its our grandparent, people in nursing homes. Its black and Brown Workers, disproportionately black and Brown Workers who caught the virus on the job. Trump administration and senator mcconnell have essentially just given up. But we cant. We have to do our jobs. We need to show leadership where the president has failed and were and where the majority leader, the most powerful person in this body, the top elected official in the u. S. Senate, i see no urgency. He sees no urgency because hes not out talking to people that are about to be foreclosed on or about to be evicted from their homes. Imagine that, being evicted in the middle of a pandemic. Imagine the fear and the anxiety that a family has when theyre in that position. It means weve got to fight the Health Crisis and economic crisis. We cant do one out the other. Millions of americans are in danger of being evicted or having their home foreclosed osm the last thing we need to do is turn them out on the streets. We had a housing crisis. Many of us know, senator menendez has joined us who is one of the best, best advocates of these issues of anybody in the senate. We knew there was a housing crisis before the coronavirus hit. We know that onefourth of renters in this country, onefourth of renters before the coronavirus, onefourth of renters paid more than half their income in housing. One thing happens in their life, one thing. Their car breaks down, their child gets sick, they get in a car accident or out of work for a week, they get evicted. They just dont have any kind of margin there. We know that professions were recognizing is essential dont pay enough to afford housing. Were seeing millions of people have these emergencies, the ones they had before, many people have now, millions have them all at once. They face impossible choices. Between rent and groceries or prescriptions or draining their savings or going to a payday lender and you never go to a payday lender once. You go back and back and back and the interest you pay is more than you originally borrowed. So in essence they have no choice. Its not a choice between prescriptions and groceries and draining their savings. Its no choice at all. It ends up being eviction. Far too often the cares act, we passed the emergency expansion of Unemployment Insurance. I appreciate my friend senator crapo, the chairman of this committee, who supported that and so much in this package. We provided funding for the most immediate needs of housing and homeless organizations. We put a temporary moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, on some for some, not all renters, not nearly all, not nearly all homeowners. An important step but not enough. We face two huge cliffs. This is july 1. July 31 the 600 a month that has kept people in their homes and kept food on their table and kept clothes on the backs of their kids, thats 600 ends comes july 31. At the end in many cases the moratorium, the eviction the moratorium eviction ends. President and leader mcconnell, dont seem to notice. Dont seem to care. For all those renters who have been protected, back rent will suddenly be due. You may have gotten a moratorium on your rent for three months but now youre going to owe for four months. The same goes for millions who arent protected under the cares act but got relief from a temporary state or local moratorium or because the eviction courts were closed in many states. But with tens of millions of people filing for unemployment, the president still refusing to lead and do something about this virus to get it under control, we know people still need help. They still need help paying the rent. They still need help making mortgage payments. They still need help protecting themselves from evictions and foreclosures. 40 of black and latino exrecenters report theyre unlikely to be able to make their next payment, 40 . Its not because theyre not working hard. Its because they got laid off and are in lowwage jobs. Thats why senator menendez, senator schumer and others have introduced, 39 of my colleagues introduced the emergency rental assistance and stake r stabilization and stabilization act, help for rent and utility bills. Its included in the heroes act. They passed a month ago. But its sitting on the majority leaders desk. He just doesnt seem to notice. For millions of families, the bills keep coming. The clock keeps ticking. The stress keeps mount. Now a second round of layoffs is starting because the president refuses to lead and get this virus under control. Two weeks ago they reopened eviction courts in columbus. They opened the Convention Center, the Convention Center to process evictions. Think of the heart ache in that building. People go to court. They find out theyre evicted. The judge brings down they are gavel and their lives are turned upside dowfnlt reflect on that upside down. Reflect on that. Tens of millions of people lose their jobs. Were using arenas not to play basketball. Were not doing that now. Or not to play indoor soccer. Were using arenas as eviction courts. Before the pandemic President Trump and his wealthy cabinet members didnt realize or didnt care that behind the rosy stock market date tax, this economy was already broken for millions of workers, especially brack and brown black and Brown Workers for whom it never worked. Sort of like the russia, what happened with the russians paying to kill american troops, the administration either doesnt know it or doesnt care that the bottom is falls out for these families. Without emergency rental assistance, these families find themselves on the street with their lives turned upside down in the middle of a pandemic. People are tired of the lack of action, the lack of accountability. Theyre tired of being betrayed, betrayed by a leader who is supposed to look out for them. Theyre tired of feeling like no one is on their side. Were the greatest country on earth. We should act like it. The American People should not have to always fend for themselves because they have an indifferent majority leader and a president who doesnt know or doesnt care in the middle of this once in a crisis generation. Its time to step up. Its time to lead. Its time, madam president , to think about what it would be like, what it would be like to face eviction knowing you have a couple of you have two small children. You dont know where youre going to live. Its probably going to be its going to be a homeless shelter in a or a cousins basement. You know the chances of getting the coronavirus, being infected go up. Think about those people when we make these decisions. Madam president , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 30685, the emergency rental assistance and rental market stabilization act of 2020, i ask the bill be considered read three times and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator madam president . The presiding officer the senator from idaho. A senator madam president , reserving the right to object. Mr. Crapo to date congress has appropriated nearly 3 trillion to protect action strengthen, and support americans in all walks of life. To fight the covid19 pandemic and to stabilize the infrastructure of our economic system. Senator brown and i worked on a big part of that package together on a team that was put together by senator mcconnell to try to make sure that we addressed in a bipartisan fashion the way to respond to this pandemic. That cares act has been central to the effort and includes measures to help families directly, to provide aid to Small Businesses, to assist those in the medical field, and on the front lines of our response effort and to stabilize our markets. Soon after Congress Passed the coronavirus aid relief and Economic Security act or cares act, codifying and extending these protections and providing Financial Relief to renters. Yes, to renters. Title 4 of the cares act contains three housing provisions. Section 4022 imposes a 60day eviction and foreclosure moratorium for sing gamefamily borrowers with a federally backed mortgage loan. Thats for borrowers. It allows struggling homeowners up to one year of loan forbearance. 4023 extends similar relief to multifamily borrowers who are current on their mortgage payments. They can request up to 90 days forbearance so long as they do not evict a tenant or charge late fees solely for nonpayment of rent during the pandemic. Section 4024 imposes a 120day moratorium on evictions, fees, and penalties. That moratorium will not expire until august 31. As with much of the cares act, the provisions dealing with stabilizing our economy and helping to support and sustain workers, Small Business owners, homeowners, and home renters are all playing out right now as we speak. Yet the real objection here is that senator mcconnell and the republicans have said we want to work on looking at the next way, the next package of support, but we want to see how this one is playing out first and identify those places where we need to target the relief most. The objection here is the objection to waiting here is that theres a desire to go once a again rapidly into passing the house bill and not having the regular order followed in the senate as we work to approach this issue as the existing cares act plays out. All of our housing agencies have extended this eviction and foreclosure moratorium and are working to help the issues relating to tenants. H. U. D. Has expanded it to include pass through assistance support wit allows servicers to apply for assistance in meeting principal and interest payments. And the f. H. A. Has announced that no more than four months will be responsible. All of these things done to stabilize the housing markets and to assist lowincome homeownership, Home Construction and assistance. While im open im open to looking at the question of whether additional assistance is needed for renters and for homeowners and others in our society, im not willing to simply bypass the process in the senate, ignore the considerations that our leadership has called for as we look to see how our current support programs are playing out and simply jam the house bill through the senate. Without any debate or process. This was the biggest rescue package in the history of congress and we included a variety of oversight mechanisms in the legislation to enshould you are that the dallas and programs associated with it reached their intended marks. Many of the provisions in the cares and those appropriated dollars are making their way to these individuals and families and businesses and markets across the country. We must Work Together to address these Critical Issues rather than simply trying to jam one partys or one side of this congress approach to the solution, without going through regular order. And i would say, the arguments that are made that we or any of us are somehow putting giving a blind eye to the problems that exist could not be further from the truth. The reality is, as i said earlier, we passed the largest Relief Program in the history of this country. We are working to provide liquidity as well as actual dollar relief in amounts of trillions of dollars, and those programs are still playing out. We need to Work Together rather than trying to just by unanimous consent request after unanimous consent request after unanimous consent request jam one sides approach without working to find the cooperative solutions that i know we can. Like i said, im open to working on these very issues. But the way to do is not to come to the floor with a unanimous consent request, take it or leave it. We need to let proper, regular, working order operate in the senate, and we have time to do so. For that reason, madam chairwoman, i object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mr. Brown madam president . The presiding officer the senator from from ohio. Mr. Brown thank you. Before turning to senator menendez and senator cortez masto, i want to real estate spond to my colleague. We want to do regular order. Weve asked this last bill was passed in march april, may, june, now were in july. Yet its not a question of regular order. Wed love to sit down with senator mcconnell and start garting whats next. We wanted that from about april 1st. No april fools joke there. We wanted to do thatment but instead senator mcconnell just seems to ignore this. Go back to the human side. What happens, madam president , what happens when somebody is unemployed we leave knew for two we leave now for two weeks. Thats why were doing this now. Weve asked and asked and begged and begged and pleaded and pleaded. But what happens . We go back for two more weeks. If you right now cant find a job, you are unemployed, getting that 600 a week, you start paying attention online, you read the papers or however you get your information and you find out this is going to expire the end of july and you dont know what youre going to do and you havent paid rent for three months because youve had a rental eviction or more likely, senator crapo talks about the moratorium. Only half of the people that may mortgages are subject to that. Most people thats simply not the case. Now that the eviction courts are open, the evictions are starting, what happens to those people . Lets are we going to say, lets see it play out . If you dont have rental assistance and lose your unemployment and dont get the 1,2 a check, which is one months rent for most people, we know whats going to happen happen to you. Your life is going to turn upside down. Thats why we need to move. Thats why we need to pass this. And im disappointed that senator mcconnell, who has shown no interest in doing anything on this other than just sitting tight and hoping that the money that he raises in special interest from tobacco and gun lobby and banks and Insurance Companies can help his candidates get reelected and he can be majority leader again. I yield the floor to senator menendez. Mr. Menendez madam president . The presiding officer the senator from new jersey. Mr. Menendez madam president , let me thank my colleague, the ranking democrat, senior democrat on the Senate Banking and housing and urban Affairs Committee for his passion, his commitment. Hes really elevated housing, something that im elevated about, within the jurisdiction of the committee. Everybody refers to the committee very often as the Banking Committee. But housing is a critical element of what it does, and he has elevated it, and i really appreciate his passion on behalf of millions of those who rent or who are fortunate enough to own a home but want to keep it to try to be able to do so. And i would just say to my distinguished chairman of the committee and i do have the highest respect for him look, overwhelmingly the cares package, you know, when you lurch in trillions of dollars when you lump in trillions of dollars, overwhelmingly, that money went for businesses. And of course i support that. But it went for businesses. It went to sustain businesses. It went to ultimately help small, midsize and even large businesses. It went to sustain sectors of 0 you are economy, like the Airline Industry and others. But what were talking about goes to the very essence of what it is to have a home. Home is one of the most important american concepts. It is where were brought to when we are born. Its where were nurtured while were young. Its where were schooled at, where good times and bad times take place, where ultimately, you know, we build a life around our family, if were fortunate to have a home, and then its in a pandemic, weve learned that its also a place to shelter in. So what i come to the floor today is to warn of an impending storm that is brewing, and its headed order way. You know, when and its headed our way. You know, when the fund for the p. P. P. , for the business program, ran out, we didnt get regular order and see if the p. P. P. Was working well. No, there was a rush to put more billions in it. More billions in it t and its only until we said, wait a minute. This isnt working so well for small and midsized businesses. We need to make some reform. So there was a rush then. There was no regular order. We have a storm that is brewing and headed our way. It will bring with it enormous financial pain. It will threaten Public Safety. It will make fighting the pandemic that much harder. And it will set back our nations economic recovery. If the senate fails to respond to this looming crisis, americans will needlessly suffer, families will be displaced, personal fortunes will be wiped out, and the scars will run so deep it could take decades to heal the wounds. As the covid19 pandemic took hold, the one saving grace most of us have had, the one place we could take refuge to protect ourselves and our families was our home. Our leading medical experts all urged us to stay home. If youre sick, stay home. If you have an underlying condition or are immune know compromised, stay home. If youre elderly or otherwise at risk, stay home. If you can, work from home. If you are a student, go online and learn from home. So if weve learned anything from this pandemic it is that staying home can help contain the virus, flatten the curve, and save lives lives. But what if you dont have a home . What if you dont have a home . As we speak, millions of our fellow americans are asking themselves that very same question. At a time when covid19 cases are spiking across the country, the provisions that we pass in the cares act to help renters and homeowners stay in their homes are about to run out. And if we do nothing, we could face a foreclosure and eviction crisis far greater than that which we encountered during the great recession. Thats the storm on the horizon. Americans shouldnt have to fear being thrown out on the street if they miss their next rent or mortgage payment to really through really no fault of their own. They shouldnt have to fear losing their greatest personal asset or their one safe place in the middle of a pandemic, furthering exposing themselves and others to the virus. The senate can stop that if it wants to. We can make sure that every american has a safe and healthy place to call home. Thats why i joined my democratic colleagues on the Banking Committee in introducing two bills last month that will provide assistance to homeowners and renters. The Housing Assistance fund, led by senator reed, provides 75 billion in targeted assistance to keep people in their homes while they search for new employment or wait to get back to work. This money could go towards mortgage payments, utilities, or other support to prevent eviction, delinquency or foreclosure. The emergency rental as soon as and rental market stabilization act led by senator brown would provide 100 billion in rental assistance to help families pay rent and help Property Owners maintain safe and healthy housing. It will help the economic recovery by stabilizing the presiding officer the senator will suspend, please. The senate will be in order. Please take your conversations off the floor. The gentleman may proceed. Mr. Menendez thank you, madam president. The emergency rental assistance and rental market stabilization act led by senator brown with a provide 1 should billion in rental assistance to help families pay rent and help Property Owners maintain safe and healthy housing. It will help the economic recovery by stabilizing the rental market overall. But we also have to empower americans to make informed financial decisions, to help them navigate the mazempt of lenders, landlords, Government Agencies to find a sustainable path to stay in their home. We all know there is a Housing Affordability crisis in this country that jeopardizes the aspirations of millions of americans who hope to join the middle class. And just as theyve borne the brunt of the covid19 pandemic just as theyve borne the brunt of the covid19 pandemic, lowincome and minority americans disproportionately suffer during economic turndowns. Now, these provisions that the chairman talked about in the law that we passed to help, which are going to be expiring, to the extent that you know about it, you might invoke it to protect yourself against eviction ors mortgage foreclosure. But if you dont know about it and either the Financial Institution or your landlord looks the other way not following the law, well then you dont get the protection. Thats why i and 19 of my democratic colleagues introduced a bill on monday to provide 700 million in housing counseling assistance. Research shows that homeowners who receive housing counseling have Better Outcomes than those dont. Evidence that is overmany withing. Their risk of default goes down. Theyre more likely to see their Credit Scores rise and their debt levels fall. Theyre less likely to end up in default. The benefits of housing counseling flow to the community at large because when a family is able to buy a home, pay their mortgage, build equity and ultimately arizona chief the american and ultimately achieve the american dream, they are likely to thrive. Having a safe and affordable place to live could mean the difference between life and death. Its also especially important for citizens who are susceptible to covid19. Tomorrow we will provide 1. 2 billion in aid for older adults living in federally assisted housing. This bill provides additional rental assistance for senior housing, personal protective gear, and staffing to help maintain a healthy community. So, madam president , the forecasts are in. The storm is coming. The question is what are we going to do about it . The 4th of july is independence day. Its nice to have independence from the fear that i will lose the place that i call home. That would be a tremendous gift on the 4th of july. Are we going to help our most vulnerable citizens during this pandemic or are we going to just watch them suffer, lose everything, and exacerbate this Public Health crisis . Today is july 1. The rent is due. Mortgage payments are due. And the senates work is due. I remember and i will close on this personal anecdote. When i was growing up poor in a tenement in new jersey, the son of an eye at this time rant carpenter and a seamstress, there wasnt always work. Which meant that sometimes paying the rent was a real tough choice, and it was a choice of paying the rent or putting food on the table. I saw the anxiety in my mothers eyes. I saw the fear in my siblings, not knowing whether that apartment in that tenement was something we were even going to be able to keep. That wasnt in a pandemic. That was just in normal times. Imagine in a pandemic, everything your told is stay home and there is no place to call home. We can do much better than that. We can do much better than that. July 1, the rebt rent is due, the mortgage payments are due, the senates work is due. Lets pass these bills today and make sure every american can weather the pandemic in a safe and affordable place to call home. With that, madam president , i yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from oregon. Mr. Wyden i would just like, because a lot of my colleagues have been so thoughtful to i will have some brief remarks and then i would ask unanimous consent that senator cortez masto could follow me because she has a tight schedule as well. I know all my colleagues have. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Wyden madam president , i join my colleagues this afternoon in appreciation of senator brown who has been relentless, absolutely relent less in prosecuting this cause of trying to get a fair shake for millions of americans who are walking on an economic tightrope. Every single month, they balance the food bill against the rent bill against the energy bill. And senator brown, whether its supercharged Unemployment Benefits, whether its housing, whether its taking on the big pharmaceutical companies, is there again and again and again to stand up for people who dont have power and dont have clout. And i want to thank him especially for giving us this opportunity to focus on the avalanche of eviction that i believe will be headed in our direction in weeks if the senate doesnt act. Now, yesterday, dr. Fauci talked about soon possibly seeing as many as 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. You simply cannot have a healthy economy in a country suffering from mass illness and death. There are already tens of millions of americans out of work as a result of a pandemic thats only continuing to spread. And it has hit the whole affordability of rent for millions of americans like a powerful storm. According to the census bureau, 40 of black and latino renters are worried that they wont be able to make the rent this summer due to the pandemic. That in and of itself is an outrage and an injustice. And i question for our republican colleagues today involve this frightening day at the beginning of the month, the frightening day when families sit around a Kitchen Table all across this country and you can see the the anguish in their faces when you talk to them because around that Kitchen Table, theyre saying to themselves what am i going to spend our scarce dollars on this month . Is it going to be the rent . Is it going to be groceries . What about that big pile of medical bills thats off in the corner that we have to pay . And july 1, the rent is due, and our question for our republican colleagues is what is your plan . Senator brown has been leading us every day, day in, day out with a set of sensible policies that respond to what those families are saying around their Kitchen Table. We have fought for the moratorium on evictions which is included in the cares act, but it goes poof in a few weeks. Already this week my republican colleagues have blocked funding for state and local governments that could have been used to help people who are walking that economic tightrope. This morning, leader schumer and i laid out a plan that i think is a path to a dependable safety net in america, and specifically an extension of supercharged unemployment of benefits which ties the benefit, madam president , to Economic Conditions on the ground. It will be a financial lifeline for millions and millions of people. Republicans have been opposed to that. Those benefits are going to expire in a matter of weeks, and as i said to colleagues, better know what youre going to be looking at when you go home in august if there hasnt been action on our legislation to make sure that there are supercharged Unemployment Benefits so people can pay the rent and buy groceries. If they are home all august long in the heat with families and theyre going to have nowhere to turn in terms of paying for a roof over their heads and groceries, this is going to be a long, long, hot summer that will never be forgotten. So lets be clear whats at stake. Long before the pandemic hit, housing cost too much, homeless was way too common, and in my view, the rate of homelessness among children is a True National scandal. In the wealthiest nation on earth, no child should be without a home. Even before the covid crisis, 1. 5 million children were experiencing homelessness. 1. 5 million youngsters living outside, living in cars, sleeping on floors, sleeping on the ground. Madam president and colleagues, in my home state, they have said that school buses have had to go to the parks, they have had to go to the parks to pick up kids who are living outside with their families. Now, it rains once in a while in oregon. Its cold in oregon. And to think that kids in the richest country on earth are spending the night in the parks and the school buses have to come and get them while we have huge tax cuts for those who are powerful and have lobbyists shows that things are really out of whack. What i described as it relates to those kids living in the parks, those kinds of conditions exist for youngsters all over america. And that was before the joblessness crisis hit and threw so many more working families into economic hardship. The senate doesnt step up to help families stay in their homes, its going to get much, much worse, because there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of kids facing this recipe for disaster. They are out of school, they are isolated, they are more exposed to neglect and abuse. And im so pleased that my friend from nevada has been talking about those families and talking about those kids. They are hungry, their families are facing the threat of eviction. The senate just sits back and allows these children to fall into homelessness. They may never have a chance to get ahead. So what it comes down to is the senates got an obligation to help, and senator brown is on target in saying this is the time to pass his emergency rental assistance act. Im with him. I think we have got a lot of colleagues here in the queue because they, too, want to speak up for the radical idea, what a radical proposition that in the richest country on earth, the vulnerable ought to have a roof over their heads. And senator browns proposal is a vital step forward. I think we all agree that much more needs to be done. Im very interested in the proposal i call the dash act, the decent affordable safe housing for all act. I hope we will be able to get serious about that in 2021, and the step to take today is to pass senator browns bill, and i look forward to being back with our colleagues day in, day out, focused on this crisis and making sure that nobodys saying were going to skip away until a republican acts. This country faces a truly horrific eviction nightmare if action is not taken soon, and im very pleased that my friend from nevada is here, and i yield the floor to her. Ms. Cortez masto madam president , thank you. I am here today to support my colleagues and our calls to keep americans in their homes. Its very simple. The house has already passed a number of bills to do just that, and the senate needs to do the same thing. In this pandemic, housing is health care. I know that a lot of americans have had their lives upended by this coronavirus pandemic, but would like you to imagine for a moment how much more chaotic your life would feel if you found out that tomorrow youre going to be evicted. Imagine trying to make sure youre washing your hands while youre living in your car. We are in the middle of a Public Health crisis where we need people to be socially distancing, and that means they simply must have a safe, stable place to be at the end of the day. Now, we realizeed this months ago in my state. Thats why our governor put a hold on evicting residents through august 31 of this year. In congress, we passed the cares act to provide Unemployment Benefits and onetime relief. Those funds plus the ban on evictions were intended to help keep families in their homes. Were 60 days away from resuming evictions in nevada. In my state and across the country, the wave of evictions we have been holding off for months is going to come crashing down if we do not act now. Nevada has the highest Unemployment Rate in the entire country. In may, it was over 25 . As high as the National Rate during the worst of the great depression. And on top of that, some nevadans havent yet received their Unemployment Benefits or their pandemic Unemployment Benefits. Across the country, almost half of workers earning under 40,000 a year have lost income. Some people just dont have the ability to fully pay for their rent or mortgage, particularly when were asking them to shelter in place. The thing is, in nevada, we were already in the midst of a housing crisis. Even before this pandemic hit us. Almost half of nevadans are renters. Thats 45 . And of those renters, half are cost burdened in some way, meaning that they pay more than 30 of their income in rent. Now, the silver state has the biggest shortage in the country of Affordable Housing for the very lowest income nevadans. We have just 19 units for every 100 that we need. You know, ee conviction isnt just a matter of spending a few days scrambling to find a new place. The financial consequences can follow a family for years, and the effects on childrens physical and mental health, well, there is no way to undo that. Believe me, i know. The foreclosure crisis hit nevada in 2008, and i saw up close the pain that caused throughout my state. When people were evicted from their homes. Lenders took the homes of more than 219,000 nevada families during that period of time. And thats why it is so vital that we pass legislation now to help nevadans and people all over the country pay their rent and utility bills when they cannot safely go to work. I support senator browns rentaller assistance and rental stabilization act sweldz as well as other bills introduced by my colleagues. These bills provide essential stability to the rental and mortgage market. We cant expect landlords to keep shouldering the burden of missed payments. Landlords have bills to pay as well, mortgages, houses, insurance and staff. Without assistance from us many will go bankrupt or be forced to sell properties. Experts estimate nevada is going to need nearly 1 billion in rental assistance to keep families housed this year. Landlords cant lift the load and neither can state budgets already stretched too thin. Lets focus here on the essentials, the basic need for things like shelter. Lets keep people safe and off the streets. Lets pass senator browns rental assistance bill and senator reeds Housing Assistance fund bill and senator menendezs housing counseling bill, and the others that we need to prevent an epidemic of homelessness. Across this nation people are responding to the pandemic by staying home because we have asked them to do so. Now the senate needs to do its part by making sure that those homes are safe and stable so that nevadans can continue to teach their children, care for loved ones who are ill and avoid spreading coronavirus to others. In the midst of a Global Pandemic housing is health care, and we owe this to each other, so lets act now on behalf of the American Public and american families. Thank you, and i yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from rhode island. Mr. Reed i rise to support efforts by my democratic colleagues to pass muchneeded and delayed efforts by unanimous consent. It is painful obviously that the economy is in such bad shape. Families and Small Businesses continue to struggle, and theres a real need for further federal assistance. In order to get our economy back on track, this body must take action in crafting another comprehensive bipartisan covid relief package, and it must include additional help for families and communities, including eviction and foreclosure prevention assistance as well as additional help for states and local governments. Last night the Senate Annual extended the p. P. P. Application window, a needed step in recognizing the economic crisis americans are facing. Now the question before us is will Republican Leaders allow this body to work its will and provide needed, targeted, and effective rescue assistance, or will it continue to delay and deny assistance which will only prolong the pandemic, deepen the financial hole, and make the remedy costlier and the recovery steeper . Strong state and local governments are critical to our economy. Indeed, according to center on budget and policy priority, state and local governments provide about 20 million jobs and contributed 8. 5 to national g. D. P. In 2019. And it did so by not only serving as customers and clients for our local and national businesses, but also by providing the essential services such as Public Infrastructure infrastructure. The presiding officer if the senator would suspend. The senate will be in order. Please take conversations from the chamber. The senator from rhode island. Mr. Reed thank you, madam president. As i was indicating, state and local governments provide essential services such as Public Infrastructure, a strong education system, and other necessary functions that provide the business certainty that make our country attractive to businesses and investors throughout the world. We should do Everything Possible to maintain our countrys comparative advantage relative to other countries, but today as a result of the tremendous economic shock created by the coronavirus and a lack of a coherent Public Health strategy from the donald the trump administration, it is estimated state revenue shortfalls will total about 613 over the next three fiscal years not including the added cost of fighting covid19. And this is just for the states. , 615 billion. That is why i fought for 750 billion in the Coronavirus Relief fund when negotiating the cares act and introduced s. 3671, the state and local Emergency Stabilization Fund act which would provide an additional 600 billion to state and local governments to supplement the 150 billion in Coronavirus Relief funds i secured in the cares act. But, madam president , would it surprise you to learn that the Trump Treasury Department has created a bureaucratic regulation that makes it difficult for states to use these Coronavirus Relief funds . And that is a regulation that is standing in the way of what should have been an immediate 150 billion boost to our economy that even the chamber of commerce thinks is burdensome. Because of this onerous trump rule, states cant use the Coronavirus Relief funds to replace lost or delayed tax revenues in order to maintain public services. That is why neil bradley, the u. S. Chambers chief policy officer, said in an interview. Part of our conversation with republicans on capitol hill is that ironically, if your concern is big state government, the last thing you want to do is force states to replace onetime lost revenue with permanent tax increases. As the primary author of the Coronavirus Relief funds, i can tell you that is fully within the treasury secretarys authorities and the intent of the cares act for these funds to be used to replace lost or delayed tax revenues and maintain public services. To prevent the flexible use of these relief funds is a choice that is neither required nor intended by law. Unfortunately, this completely unnecessary choice has already created avoidable economic harm. Since february, state and local governments have cut a total of 1. 5 million jobs, an 8 drop that is twice the decline seen during and after the 20072009 recession. In addition, the center for Economic Policy Research Notes that job losses forced on state and local governments by pandemicrelated shortfalls will disproportionately impact the African American workforce. 14 of state and local employees were African Americans compared to 11. 7 of privatesector employees, a margin of 20 . And as the wall street journal itself reported on may 24, 2020 article titled, state and local budget woes create drag for economic recovery prospects, based on evidence from the last recession, mr. Cho do roe raissch, a harvard economy professor estimates every dollar in costs costs the economy 1. 50. He said every additional dollar in spending adds 1. 50 or 1. 50 or 2 to the economy. Madam president , of all the regulations that this Administration Seeks to cut, it should start with this one if it really wants to help the economy. With just one stroke of the treasury secretarys pen our economy could receive a direct multibilliondollar jolt today. But to be clear, this administrative fix is by no means sufficient because of the massive revenue shortfalls state and local governments are facing. Congress still needs to provide additional and flexible Fiscal Relief to our state and local governments as part of the next fiscal package, and it is my hope that s. 3671, the state and local Emergency Stabilization Fund act is included. As i indicated earlier in my remarks, keeping families in their homes also must be included in the next package. According to nicholas quemente with the new England Public Policy Center in the Research Department at the Federal Reserve bank of boston, if current Economic Activity does not improve substantially without an extension of the cares act, Unemployment Insurance or additional stimulus money or other Fiscal Relief up to 13 of homeowners and 33 of renters in rhode island are at the risk of being unable to pay their mortgage or rent payments. This represents over 80,000 rhode island households. Nationally, according to the Census Survey data, 23 of all adults reported being housing insecurely in midjune, meaning that they had missed last months rent or mortgage payment or had slight or no confidence that their household can pay next months rent or mortgage on time. We know that behind each one of these numbers is a family that could be homeless at the worst possible time in the middle of a Public Health emergency. For some, given their Current Health situations and age, there will be an additional human toll that we surely should try to avoid. We implore our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to work with us to keep our constituents in their homes so that they too can make it to the other side of this Public Health emergency. Nbltions nbltions spirit i draw your attention to the Housing Assistance fund. This legislation expands the existing hardesthit fund model and provides it with Additional Resources for each state to keep families in their homes, the utilities on, the internet connected, and the property taxes paid. As a result, landlords who are also struggling to pay their own bills would receive some assistance. Madam president , its not every day the independent Community Bankers of america and the Credit Union National association support the same legislation with Consumer Rights and Affordable Housing organizations, such as the National Housing conference, the national lowincome housing coalition, the center for responsible lending, and the National Consumer law center, among others. As we work towards the next Fiscal Relief package, i hope you and our colleagues will consider joining with us in enacting s. 3620, the Housing Assistance fund. But, madam president , we cant stop there. We must also immediately, among other needs, increase snap benefits to help the almost 150,000 Rhode Islanders who are food insecure during this crisis. Boost Public Health efforts that help keep the virus at bay from more testing and Contact Tracing to supporting our Health Care Providers to developing effective vaccine deployment systems. Help child care settings, Public Schools and College Campuses to safely reopen, and support libraries in keeping our communities connected. Provide relief for the hardesthit small and midsized businesses, many of which will continue to be shut down for the foreseeable future. And safeguard our election infrastructure as russia and other foreign actors seek again to use voter suppression, hacking, and disinformation in the 2020 elections. Madam president , what are we waiting for . Its not enough that according to a june 29, cnbc article, the employment population ratio, the number of employed people as a percentage of the u. S. Adult population plunged to 52. 8 in may, meaning 47. 2 of americans are jobless according to the bureau of labor statistics. Its not enough that 46 of Business Roundtable c. E. O. s expect employment at their companies to decrease, decrease in the next six months. Madam president , we dont need to inflict any further necessary and unnecessary economic pain and suffering. I would also urge my colleagues to consider the economic and human costs of inaction. Indeed, during april 29, 2020, press conference Federal Reserve chairman powell stated, i have long time been an advocate for the need for the United States to return to a sustainable path from a fiscal perspective at the federal level. We have not been on such a path for some time, which just means that the debt is growing faster that be the economy. This is not the time to act on those concerns. This is a time to use the great fiscal power of the United States to do what we can to support the economy and try to get through this with as little dabbling to the long dabbling to the longrun productive capacity of the economy as possible. Madam president , this week were also considering the National Defense authorization act, and every year for the last 59 years democrats and republicans have come together to strengthen our National Security and to help all americans. Weve proven that were more than capable to working together productively on the most complex and controversial issues and to service our constituents and wed like to continue that not just in the context of National Defense, but the context of Economic Prosperity and security. And one final point, we also need to extend Unemployment Compensation insurance because we know it will run out, and everyone has told us that Unemployment Rates will not drop dramatically. They will stay persistently high. People dr people will need this people will need this assistance going forward. We must do much and i hope we can do much going forward. With that, i yield the floor. Mr. Inhofe mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Inhofe i have a motion to be made but before i do that, i would like to yield three minutes to senator klobachar and senator schatz. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The senator from minnesota. Ms. Klobuchar thank you. I will give my last minute to senator brown. I thank senator inhofe for allowing me to say a few words. Today is july 1, which means that rent and mortgage payments are due. As i speak today so many families across the country are being forced to make difficult decisions about how they will make this months payment to stay in their homes. Even before the pandemic began almost onefourth of all renters or 11 million households were forced to pay halftheir incomes to housing and according to the National Income housing coalition, more than half a Million People experienced homelessness on a given night before the pandemic. And that has gotten worse. Thats why im a strong supporter of senator browns renter assistance and renter market stabilization act which will provide 1,200,000,000,000 in funding. I support senator reeds bill and the work of senator menendez. The pandemic, as we know has widened Racial Disparities in housing. We had a 30 in black and white homeownership rates before the pandemic due to discriminatory practices and it only made it worse. A mayor in minnesota reminded us means this investing in programs, section 8 housing, which is still unavailable to so many families. Yes, we need to address the shortage of Affordable Housing. We need to take action now. I thank my colleagues. We have an opportunity, the fourth of july is the beginning of july, but by the end of july, we had better have gotten something done and that means help for state state and local for state and local governments and responding to the crisis in housing. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from hawaii. Mr. Schatz today is the first of the month and that means the rent is due. But for the nine million renters who have lost their jobs, they may not be able to pay. Now in march we made sure that the cares included cash assistance, Unemployment Benefits, and suspensions on evictions and mortgage forbearance to help the people who have been hurt the most by this pandemic. Lots of states and counties have setup their own programs, either subsidies or prohibitions on evictions themselves. But we are now three months later and Unemployment Benefits stand to expire at the end of this month and moratoriums that allowed families to stay in their homes are ending. Eviction courts are ee opening. Think about that. Eviction courts are reopening. What were facing is a ticking time bomb. We are facing the fact that it is true that people got forbearance on their rent or forbearance on their mortgage, but i remember very well in march and april as i explained to the people of hawaii, you are getting forbearance, not forgiveness which means you dont have to pay your mortgage or rent this month. You do have to eventually pay your mortgage or your rent. And so what will happen is for the most economically challenged among us in the United States, they are going to face a huge back payment at the beginning of august or the beginning of september, and they are going to lose the place that they live in. Now, i am very, very hopeful that cooler heads will prevail, that we will intervene in july and incorporate the legislation that senator brown is leading because the rent is going to be due and we are going to, just as we faced this pandemic square in the eyes, were going to be facing a massive eviction crisis. We have to take action. I yield the floor. Mr. Inhofe mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Inhofe mr. President , while we continue to negotiate an agreement on amendments, i think we need to move forward and start voting on some of the amendments that we know need votes. Therefore, in just a minute i will call up the paul amendment regarding withdrawal of the troops from afghanistan. While i disagree with the amendment, the substance of the amendment, i think the senate should vote on it. So at 5 30 today, i will move to table the amendment. We have talked to senator pauls office about this. I call up the paul amendment number 2011 to the text proposed to be stricken. The presiding officer the clerk will report the amendment. The clerk the senator from oklahoma, mr. Inhofe, for mr. Paul, proposes an amendment numbered 2011. Mr. Inhofe i ask that the reading of the amendment be waived. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Inhofe as i said earlier, i will move to table the paul amendment at 5 30 p. M. Today and senators should expect a roll call at that time. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call the presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley congress the presiding officer senator grassley, we are in a quorum call. Mr. Grassley i ask the calling of the quorum be suspended. Now, mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley the congress has taken action in response to the coronavirus pandemic and its significant effects on workers, families, and the economy. And its because the state, federal and local governments shut down the u. S. Economy for the first time in the 240year history of our country. We enacted four laws in march and april which c. B. O. Says has increased the deficit by at least 2. 4 trillion. But that doesnt measure the entirety of the relief. If you add in support from programs initiated by the fed and the treasury, you would add trillions in more of relief. One of the recent pieces of legislation the cares act devoted 150 billion of direct federal relief to governments of the states, low cattleys, localities, the district of columbia and tribe. That is 50 of the 2020 state general Fund Expenditures prior to the emergency. In addition to the 150 billion, c. B. O. Identified hundreds of billions more from the various Relief Programs directed to state and local governments. From the 340 billion of emergency funding in the cares act alone, the Senate Appropriators have told me that more than 80 , or roughly 275 billion, goes to states and localities. So you can see the cares act alone provided 150 billion of direct aid to state and local governments and the emergency funding added 275 billion. That means that 425 billion in cares act is directed to governments of the states localities, territories, tribes, and the district of columbia. That happens to be 47 of the total state general revenue expenditures enacted prior to the public emergency for fiscal year 2020 and about the same percentage of enacted total state revenue. On top of that, the fed has allowed use of municipal securities as collateral for bank lending to help ease borrowing costs for state and local governments. Treasury and the fed also established a Municipal Liquidity facility, and i quote here, the purpose of it, help state and local governments better manage cash flow pressures, end of quote. The fed will buy up to 550 billion of debt in state counties and cities. As others have noted here on this very floor, a significant amount of the funding directed to states and localities and the like are still in the pipeline and remain unspent or even unallocated. Some states, as i understand it, have not even allocated any money downstream to their own local governments from the 150 billion of direct aid provided under the airs act. Despite all that, weve heard a number of calls for massive amounts of additional spending. The reason, according to most people asking for more, is that the direct aid for states and localities in the cares act is too restrictive and cannot be used to replace lost revenue. I am sim sympathetic to the idef giving states and localities more flexibility in how to use 150 billion of direct relief provided for the cares act if its not needed for the virus health issues. Beyond that, i want you to know im more skeptical until we get more solid numbers on unrelated state and local revenue and the i should have said unrealized state and local revenue and the impact of the cares dollars not yet allowed. I recently heard the minority leader here on the floor attempting to scold us republicans for not doing exactly what he wants exactly when he wants it and saying we need to immediately spend more, including more direct aid to states. Of course in his partisan political analysis, republicans are blamed for not wanting massive amounts of additional aid for state and local governments because what he believes is ideological opposition to government in general. Now, thats quite a stretch. Even for the minority leader. Republicans supported four pieces of legislation in recent months, providing hundreds of billions of dollars in relief to state and local governments in various ways. I heard the governor of california instruct congress on moral and ethical grounds saying that it is our duty to give more funding to states and localities or else First Responders will be first ones laid off by cities and counties. Its almost like the first argument when were ready to shut down the federal government if we dont finance everything, the first thing were going to do is shut down the washington monument. While that may have been a subtle threat from the governor of california to use as leverage to press your congress to provide more funds to california, it is unfortunate that state and local governments laid off so many of their workers until recent months. That doesnt seem to be much dedication by government to its workforce. I heard from associations of governors, associations of counties and cities of other local government that they need between a half trillion and a trillion more in direct aid from the federal government. Usually they cite a need to quote, unquote, replace lost revenue. Many have asked for funds to cover lost revenue as far out as two additional fiscal years beyond fiscal year 2020. And most of those requests are based on forecasts of what the pandemic and the economy will look like for the rest of the year and even in coming years. I think you have to take those forecasts with a grain of salt. Just look at what the last employment report looked like relative to the forecast, and you can tell how cloudy peoples crystal balls are right now. I heard from some here on the floor that moodys thinks state and local localities may need hundreds of billions more in direct relief. People havent been very careful, though, reading the analytics say in april that under their most severely adverse assumptions about the future state and local governments would have a budget shortfall of around 172 billion over the next 15 months and more than 450 billion if you extend out to cover the years 2022. Again, this is all based on shaky forecasts and is not at all clear that the ratings on Municipal Bonds done by the Moodys Rating Agency align with the forecasts of moodys analytics. More recently, moodys analytics chief economist mark zandy who is a regular proponent of for the democrat party, he upped the estimate of the need to about 500 billion. That number remarkably matches what weve heard from the National Governors association about six weeks ago. Dr. Zandy promises socalled bang for the buck magic to save states and local localities but the federal government would have to pony up perhaps a half a trillion more just to start that magic. So im skeptical, to put it mildly. If you remember, it was that kind of reasoning that led to the obama stimulus promising big and relatively quick unemployment reductions following the financial crisis but failed to come even close to these promised results. Finally, regarding funding requests, there is the heroes act over at the house. State and local aid in that act provides nearly 1 trillion to state and localities inside a liberal wish list in their bill. That along with what weve already done would put state and local relief at more than 75 of all combined state and local Tax Collections for a year depending on how you measure things. Thats more of a federal bailout than the partnership that were asked to finance. Mr. President , ive heard a lot of calls for massive amounts of additional direct aid to our states funded by federal debt. Yet there still is a lot of money in the pipeline that hasnt even been used yet, and future needs of states and localities are highly uncertain, too uncertain in my view to commit the federal government today to a half a trillion dollars or a trillion dollars more to state and localities. Already on top of the 425 billion or more of funding already in play and up to 500 billion of credit support. Im highly skeptical of schemes to index future aid to measures of the incidence of covid19 cases since we already have had controversy surrounding those measures and some are political controversies. I dont understand state and local budget rules and they do provide constraints. I also believe that proponents of massive amounts of additional federal aid to states and localities overstate the severity of those constraints. I think state budgets are more flexible and fungible, for example, than some would have us believe. We have seen that flexibility recently in legislation and legislators consideration of altering Police Funding or using taxpayer funds to erect barriers in occupied zones of lawlessness of just one example of that flexibility. There are also many issues about incentives associated with massive new amounts of direct federal funding of state and local governments. Sending massive amounts of additional federal funds to states that were responsible in good times and build up rainy day funds means that they are treated the same as states that didnt build much if any in rainy day funds like, lets say, illinois and new jersey as examples. Those states that actually irresponsibly then get rewarded. Since funds in state and local governments are fungible sending massive amounts in state localities means that hardearned tax dollars coming from iowa as an example can end up helping financially unsustainable pension promises of fiscally irresponsible states. And it means that federal tax revenue get channeled to states run by politicians that wont even enforce existing federal laws and who use taxpayers resources on lawless occupied zones or sanctuary cities to provide benefits to undocumented residents. There are many of my constituents in iowa who do not support those uses of federal funds. So, mr. President , as i wind down here, im highly skeptical of sending massive amounts of additional funds to states and localities since future needs are so highly uncertain and theres still unspent money in the pipelines. I am, however, sympathetic to providing additional flexibility for funds we have already provided in the cares act so the state and local communities can make broader uses of those funds. And i believe that if the pandemic and the economy worsens under those circumstances future needs can be addressed when needed. I understand that there are a range of views regarding additional funds for state and localities, and at this point i believe that it may be useful to entertain more flexibility in what has already been approved. And there may be a need to make sure that states get shares of money theyve received to counties and cities. There may even be a reasoned case for limited additional funding to state and localities in the near term though i said im a bit skeptical. But approving half a trillion dollars to a trillion of additional funds for uncertain future needs right now to core unknown state and local needs as far out as two years down the road just isnt responsible or prudent action to take. I yield the floor. Mr. Paul mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from kentucky. Mr. Paul i ask unanimous consent that the intern sean peevavar have access. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Paul i ask consent that i ab allowed to that i be allowed to complete my remarks. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Paul mr. President , senator udall and i are pleased to present a bipartisan amendment that will finally end americas longest war. Our amendment will finally and completely end the war in afghanistan. Over 4,000 americans have died in afghanistan and over 20,000 have been wounded. Its time to bring our soldiers home. I supported going into afghanistan originally. Had i been in congress at that time, i would have voted in favor. But the people that attacked us on 9 11 have all been killed or captured. Most of the people fighting us today are their successors or children or the children of their children. In fact, we now have soldiers who were born after 9 11 serving in afghanistan. The cycle shows no sign of ending. The war shows no sign of ending. It is not sustainable to keep fighting in afghanistan generation after generation. Weve been fighting in afghanistan for so long that our youngest soldiers fighting there werent even born at the time. We have spent about a trillion dollars to establish an afghan government, a government that is rife with corruption and dysfunction. We spent more to rewld a rebuild afghanistan than the Marshall Plan to rebuild europe after world war ii. We built infrastructure in afghanistan and then watched it deteriorate and watched the afghans be unable to even maintain the infrastructure we built for them, and they ask us for more money to maintain the infrastructure. Meanwhile, our roads and our bridges crumble here at home. As we rebuild the infrastructure in afghanistan. One example, several years ago we reportedly hired a local Security Consultant to help secure the roads at a cost of 1 million per year. But according to the report by the special Inspector General for afghanistan reconstruction, american officials came to suspect that the money was being funneled to insurgents to stage attacks on our infrastructure to justify the security contract. So our money was going to a guy who was paying insurgents to pretend to attack him so he could provide security for our infrastructure their infrastructure. Its crazy. We spent 43 million on a natural gas gas station. Guess how many vehicles in afghanistan run on natural gas . Zero. The gas station you cant even find it. My staff went there to see if the money had been spent. They couldnt go there because it was too unsafe. Now the report is the gas station has been abandoned. 43 million. We spent nearly 80 million on a luxury hotel. Why is the american taxpayer building Luxury Hotels in kabul . Guess what . The contractor roon off ran off with the money. Its a skeleton and people in taliban are said to climb up the structure and shoot down at our embassy. What kind of foolhardy nature of government is it that we continue to stay there . These are just a few of the many examples that have had us spending more than we spend in europe on the Marshall Plan. So we continue to pour good money after bad into afghanistan hoping that the outcome will somehow change. Hoping that maybe the first 20 years will produce better results than the last 20 years did. This ndaa, this Defense Authorization that were debating here in the senate even has a sense of the senate in it opposing a precipitous withdrawal from afghanistan. Weve been there for 20 years. How can we characterize withdrawal after 20 years after we defeated the enemy as precipitous . Its crazy. The American People say come home and this is your chance. Many people have said we should end the war. Today you get to vote. Are you for staying in afghanistan for another generation . Are you for continuing at war thats lost its purpose . Today we get to vote. Up or down. Are you for the war or against the war . Does the war still have a mission . The American People know better. They are ready to declare victory and come home. Its why President Trumps message resonated with so many. He said its time to come home and the people agreed. Not only is it time to end the war and focus on our needs at home, but its time to reward those who fought the battle. Were spending 50 billion a year over there in the savings in the first year, we will provide senator udall and i will provide in our bill a 2,500 bonus for anyone who has been deployed in the long war on terror. Thats a pretty good bonus and our soldiers deserve it but they also deserve to come home because theres no military mission left. Instead of spending another