Quorum call quorum call quorum call quorum call mr. Mcconnell mr. President. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are. Mr. Mcconnell i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell mr. President , as our nation dpronts this health confronts this health crisis, Senate Republicans have prepared a bold legislative proposal. Im officially introducing the coronavirus aid relief and Economic Security act. This legislation takes bold action on four major priorities that are extremely urgent and very necessary. First, direct financial help for the American People. Second, rapid relief for Small Businesses and their employees. Third, significant steps to stabilize our economy and protect jobs. And, fourth, more support for the brave Health Care Professionals and the patients who are fighting the coronavirus on the front lines. Now, just yesterday by an overwhelming vote the Senate PassedBipartisan Legislation that originated with the Democratic House of representatives. So i hope this bold new proposal will find a similar degree of bipartisan respect and mutual urgency on the other side of the aisle and across the capitol. I look forward to working with our democratic colleagues and the administration to complete this important work and deliver for our country. Here are the next steps. A group of my republican colleagues are standing by to explain this legislation and talk with their counterparts. Chairman crapo and senator toomey, from the banking committee, chairman alexander from the help committee, senator chairman rubio from the Small Business committee as well as senator collins. Chairman wicker from the commerce committee, and our majority whip, senator thune. These will be our point people. I would invite all of their democratic counterparts to join us at the table tomorrow. These are urgent discussions. They need to happen at a member level and they need to happen starting right now. I might add all republican senators, whether they are a part of this group that i just mentioned or not, have been asked to stay in town. Were here. Were ready to act. As soon as an agreement with our colleagues across the aisle can be reached. The administration has agreed to send the secretary of the treasury, the director of the Economic Council and the director of Economic Affairs and they will participate in these discussions again beginning tomorrow. These bipartisan discussions must begin immediately and continue with urgency at the member level until until we have results. We know this legislation will not be the last word. Bipartisan, bicameral talks are already under way to act on the administrations request in addition to this for a supplemental appropriation, but we need to take bold and swift action as soon as possible. We need to take further steps to continue addressing our Nations Health care needs and we need to help protect american workers, families, and Small Business from this unique economic crisis that threatens to worsen with every single day. We need to have the American Peoples backs. This legislation is a significant next step. And the senate is not going anywhere the senate is not going anywhere until we take action. Our republican colleagues are here, they are in town, they are ready to act. We look forward to meeting with our democratic counterparts tomorrow. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley all 100 senators are hearing from our constituents about the urgency of our acting, or if we arent hearing about the urgency of our acting, we are hearing about the questions they have about the future economy as they read about businesses being in trouble, restaurants shutting down, schools closing. All of these decisions that have brought doubt to the minds of our constituents have been caused by governmental action. As a result of the virus pandemic, world Health Pandemic that has been expressed. We have to respond to that, and i think the leader has said how urgently he takes the responsibility that were getting from our that our constituents expect from us, and we have a responsibility for taking action. This is an urgent time for us. As americans continue to do their part to curb the spread of coronavirus and the pandemic that its been called, were doing our part here in the senate to support the americans, and that includes their families and their jobs. Congress passed two bills quickly to step up the governments ability to combat the virus and to provide greater security for families whose incomes have been disrupted by containment efforts, and those other two bills, one signed just last night by the president , were very bipartisan in these efforts. We need to continue that bipartisanship. Were now working then, as the leader just introduced, on a bold and comprehensive effort to provide additional relief to americans and our economy in this challenging time to respond to the anxiety that the American People have that i previously said was caused by government, and not just the federal government, but state governments maybe in 50 different ways because of 50 different states, and by many local governments in different ways as they felt they need to take action. And ive already referred to shutting down of restaurants and schools closing, et cetera. That speaks to how it affects the individuals that were trying to help here. Im chairman of the finance committee, as my colleagues know. I have been working with my colleagues around the clock to find opportunities in the tax code to reduce stress on american taxpayers and the businesses that create the jobs and the businesses that are probably closed now and their workers laid off. Our small group of people or small group of colleagues working to help the american taxpayers and the businesses so the jobs are continued. We first adopted a do no harm approach. We want to ensure that routine government processes dont add to the strain that everybody has out there. We do this by issuing recovery assistance to American Families in the form of checks that can go out the door in a short order. These direct payments could be as much as 1,200 for individuals, 2,400 for couples, with additional assistance to families. Obviously, the purpose of this is to provide immediate relief to folks who are facing cash flow problems in their families as they stay home to stop the spread of this virus. To avoid inperson meetings with tax preparers in the midst of the pandemic, were extending the tax filing deadline from april 15 to july 15. And of course, we all know the administrations already deferred collection of taxes until i think july or later. So this will help families defer filing costs and avoid meetings that could put folks at risk at this time of who knows how far the effect of this virus is going to be. The deadline for quarterly estimated tax payments will also be postponed for 100 days. We encourage those able to lend a financial hand by providing additional deductions for charitable giving. This includes the spending deduction limitation for cash donations by individuals and easing the limitation on donations of cash and food inventories by businesses. Additionally, for those who do not itemize, a new deduction will be available for everyone who gives, regardless of how you file your taxes. American businesses, as we know, are the engine of our economy, and we stand ready to help them as well. American business men and women are our job providers, and we need to make sure that they can keep their doors open, or if those doors are closed today to reopen them, and the payrolls that they have going out to those individual workers and families across the nation can be maintained. Our proposal includes items to improve cash flow and liquidity for businesses of all sizes. Businesses including the selfemployed will be able to defer their quarterly tax estimates 180 days, and their employers Social Security tax payments through 2020. Were going to increase the limit on interest deductibility. Well speed up the recovery of the alternative minimum tax credits. And well relax limitations on how Companies Use losses from previous years to reduce their tax burdens. These are just some of the many provisions in our proposal to unburden businesses, particularly those that have liquidity problems so that they can keep employing those who are home earning for their families and helping to prevent the spread of the virus. And i hope nobody tries to tell me or the rest of us that were bailing out business. We are in the job of preserving jobs, or if those jobs have been lost in the last ten days because of this slowdown of the economy, almost a shutdown of the economy, then we want those jobs to be brought back. Workers are employed because of governments decisions, not the employers decision, not the employees lack of hard work because federal, state, and local governments have stopped interaction among people so that we dont spread this virus, thats because of what the World Health Organization has labeled a world held pandemic. We world Health Pandemic. We dont see it as bad now as we do in italy and other countries of europe. We hope we dont see it as bad as they have, but we just dont know. And because we dont know, people have this anxiety. They dont know about the future. And we ought to give some help to the future. So i describe to you some of the things that the finance committee is working on. Ive also joined senator alexander and others to assist Health Care Workers and patients this portion of the package includes several finance committee provisions to help everyone fight the pandemic. For example, were adding additional flexibility of Health Savings accounts, bolstering Telehealth Services and boosting medicare payments to health care providers. We can contain this deadly virus without destroying the livelihoods of nations economies. But right now, our constituents have doubt about that, and this proposal that the leader has put forth is to try to quiet some of that anxiety. These recommendations take bold steps to curb the economic fallout as we work as a country to contain this pandemic. These proposals wont be the end of the congressional response to coronavirus. I think we made that clear that this is the third effort, two already signed by the president of the United States, and there will probably be more. And when people want more than whats maybe here, theres going to be plenty of opportunities for more. I wish i could say we know by a certain date that this anxiety is going to go away and we know that this pandemic has slowed down enough that we can go back to work and start interacting with our with our friends and family to the same extent we always have and open up the restaurants. I stand ready to continue identifying targeted relief as necessary to help bridge the gap beyond this bill. But we need to take this next step and do it quickly. I want to thank leader mcconnell for convening our task forces to quickly provide meaningful relief to families, individuals, and all sectors of the economy. The people i have been working with that i thank are senators john thune, rob permanent, pat rob portman, pat toomey, tim scott, toomey for working with me on this package. Some of them are hardworking members of the finance committee and some arent on the committee because we wanted as broad of an opinion as we could. I know our staff has worked literally around the clock, so i want to recognize their efforts as well. So Many Americans are working day and night to provide essential services and efforts to combat this outbreak. We in Congress Must be prepared to do the same, and thats why you heard the leader a little while ago saying that we are going to stay in until we get this job done. We ought to applaud that type of leadership. Its a commitment to keep the senate open until we have done our part, and i look forward to working with democrats and the administration to get this job done without delay. So maybe if we work hard friday, saturday, and sunday, we can get a bill to the president next week. Nobody should be going home until we have delivered this needed relief. We all often spoke in world war ii about the United States being the arsenal of democracy. Still remember, i was only 9 years old, december 7, 1941. And then i dont remember at the time but studying history, you remember how we ramped up production for the war effort. Can we ramp up production of the respirators, protective gear and testing kits we need . Can we do it on the same scale we did in world war ii, a scale that can help us overcome this crisis . And i suppose you all remember the the cry of remember pearl harbor to help us pull the country together. To win that war. Can we think of kind of remember coronavirus as an effort to pull this country together . Because in that in those times, i remember we all pulled together to, lets say just one example. We all prided ourselves on planning what on planting what we called victory gardens. We did it in unison as we sought to defeat the axis powers. Can we pull together in the same way to sow the slow the spread of covid19 until our Health Care System catches up with something that we never anticipated, never could plan for . I think this is a test of americas character, just like it was a test of our character in world war ii to pull together. I yield the floor. Mr. Schumer mr. President. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer thank you, mr. President. Im glad now that the republican leader and his caucus now have a plan, and we look forward to working with them to come up with a bipartisan product as soon as we can. Because this crisis grows worse every day. And we believe we need a bold plan, a strong plan. Our plan must put workers, millions of workers who are adversely affected by this crisis first. It includes service and industry workers, gig workers, freelancers, bartenders, retail workers, airline attendants, so many others. Our plan is entitled workers first. First and foremost. We owe so much gratitude to the hardworking people of america, and many of them are in trouble now, through no fault of their own. This virus has affected some of them, has required others to be quarantined, and has caused businesses to lay off millions. We must protect them, first and foremost. And so our plan has five basic pillars. Pillar one is to bolster the Health Care System dramatically. If we dont beat the fight against this virus, if we dont do it as quickly as possible, the economy will get worse and worse, no matter what we do, so we must work extremely quickly and massively to bolster our Health Care System. We need a Marshall Plan for our Health Care System. And that is what we propose. We need direct aid to hospitals. The larger hospitals in many cities already have patients, many patients in their beds. The smaller and rural hospitals could well be in danger of closing because of this crisis. We must bolster the hospitals. We need equipment. They need ventilators. They need more i. C. U. Beds. They need masks. A simple thing like a nose swab. A hospital told me they cant do testing because they dont have the nasal swabs. And we need the president to marshall the d. P. A. , the defense production act, to get all of these materials produced on a wartime footing quickly, dramatically, and in large number. Our first plank of our plan dramatically bolsters our Health Care System which is being overwhelmed through no fault of the hardworking people there in this crisis, and it entails so much. Health care workers have to be able to get to the hospitals, to the nursing homes, to the other areas. In many places they cant if there isnt a kind of Public Transit that is available and not working. The second part of our plan deals with those who have lost income through no fault of their own. It is a dramatic bolstering of Unemployment Insurance. We call it either Unemployment Insurance on steroids we call it Unemployment Insurance on steroids, or you might even call it employment insurance. If a worker loses his or her job through no fault of their own, right now, Unemployment Insurance doesnt cover a whole lot of people. When it does, it doesnt pay them much in terms of salary, in terms of a percentage of income, and its often hard to get and takes a long time. Our unemployment on steroids. Our employment insurance provides a full amount of the wages that workers are not being paid. Not 20 or 50 . People desperately need it. It is quick and easy to apply for without all these hurdles that are now put in the way, and it applies to many more workers than in the past. We have talked to business owners, large, medium, and small. For many of them, this is the numberone thing they need. While they cant keep their workers on the payroll because no money is coming in, these workers will still be there. Theyll be furloughed, getting a full salary, and when the businesses come back, they will be back. The third part of our plan is for paid leave. We must have paid family leave. We must have paid sick leave. Coindividual 2 did some of that. Senators murray, gillibrand, working with the house, have put together a very strong package. We must have it in this proposal. Fourth, i believe no one has seen the proposal, or i havent seen and i think anyone has seen the proposal that the leader put on. It had virtually no input from democrats. But we will look a