Necessary vote. Vote on the reauthorization bill continues today with the final vote on legislation this afternoon. And now live to the senate floor. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Almighty god, guide our lawmakers today to think of themselves as your faithful servants, eager to do your bidding. May they strive less for success and more for faithfulness, realizing that you expect dependability from them. Give them the wisdom to believe that though they may plant and water the seeds of our nations destiny, only you can bring the harvest. As they look to you, the lord of the harvest, soothe their doubts and calm their fears. And, lord, we thank you for the many courageous staffers who enable the senate to function. We pray in your gracious name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Grassley madam president. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley permission to address the senate in morning business for one minute. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley an important part of my job, and i hope for every senator, is hearing the views, in my case of iowans, but in the case of my colleagues, the citizens of their state. But its not every day that we hear about the executive branch of government and its bureaucracy making an effort to listen to the American People. Fortunately thats changing under this administration. So ive advised the people of iowa, and im advising them again, and hopefully my colleagues will have their constituents take advantage of it, that this administration in january, through the white house, putting out a call to americans who deal with federal regulations to share their ideas on how to ensure that those who face regulatory enforcement have due process and get a fair shake. Those ideas will now be used to make regulatory enforcement fairer. So take advantage of this opportunity. Americans who face the burden of complying with regulations should have a voice in making the process better and i applaud this administration for listening to the American People. I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell i ask that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell this pandemic is weighing heavily on the American People. Roughly 1. 4 million americans have been infected, more than 80,000 have died, unemployment has not been this high since world war ii. Just a few months ago millions of hardworking men and women were thriving and optimistic, they were making big plans across kitchen tables. Now all of that is in chaos. The chairman of the Federal Reserve reports that nearly four in ten american households that earn less than 40,000 a year had somebody get laid off in the month of march alone. This emergency is very serious so the senates response has been serious. In march, Senate Republicans designed and the full Senate Passed the cares act that pushed trillions of dollars to working families, job creators and medical professionals. We sent direct cash to almost 130 million americans. We delivered hundreds of billions of dollars in paycheck protection loans to Small Businesses, saving tens of millions of american jobs. We helped state and local government defray coronavirus costs. We funded Health Care Providers and testing. Even now its programs are still taking effect, still coming online, still helping. The senate took a blank sheet of paper and turned it into the largest rescue package in history. Weve taken this crisis seriously. But House Democrats have taken a totally different approach. While we finalized the cares act, the house para chuted in withs miscellaneous demands completely unrelated to covid19. Solar energy tax credits, airline emissions. One senior House Democrat called the virus a tremendous opportunity to refit our vision. One Senate Democratic colleague asked, how many times are we going to get a shot at a trillionplus program . They told us exactly what they were up to so we ignored the leftwing wish list and we stayed sear and the cares act is still helping americans bridge these temporary disowns. So lets shutdowns. Last fast forward to today. The Democratic House is still not back in wash. Their constitutional duty stations are still unmanned, but democrats cannot stop salivating salivating over the possibilities for partisan gain. Former Vice President biden says he sees this tragedy as, quote, an Incredible Opportunity to fundamentally transform the country. Biden said an Incredible Opportunity to fundamentally transform the country. Speaker pelosi said, i see everything as an opportunity. The cochair of the congressional progressive caucus has said, quote, for me the leverage is that there is enormous suffering. The leverage is that there is enormous suffering. 80,000 americans have died, more than 20 million have lost their jobs. I call that a crisis. They call it leverage. This week the speaker published an 1,800 page seasonal catalog of leftwing odd itties and called it a Coronavirus Relief bill. So here we go again. Here we go again. It includes a massive tax code give away to high earners in blue states. Working families are struggling to put food on the table but they are prioritizing millionaires on the coast. It would print another round of checks specifically for, listen to this, illegal immigrants. Another round of checks for illegal immigrants. Can you cleveland it, madam president . Can you believe it, madam president . We forgot to have the Treasury Department send money to people illegally. My goodness. What an oversight. Thank goodness democrats are on the case. The speakers bill tries to use the virus as cover to sweeping changes in election laws that democrats have wanted for years. Like forcing every single state to enforce the ballot harvesting whether they want to or not. And then, madam president , the cherry on top, the bold new policy from washington democrats that will kick the coronavirus to the curb and save American Families from this crisis. Here it is here it is new annual studies on diversity e within the canibus industry. Not one, but two of them. Let me say that again. The democrats supposed coronavirus bill includes taxpayerfunded studies to measure diversity and inclusion among the people who profit off of marijuana. The word cannibus appears in the bill 68 times. More times than the word job, and four times as many as the word hire. Maybe thats just as well because when their proposal does try to treat the economic crisis, it proposes stifling antiwork policies that would only make it heartedder for americans to harder for americans to get their jobs back. For example, they literally propose to raise taxes on Small Businesses, drain more cash from main street during a main street meltdown. So maybe its best if House Democrats focus on cannabis studies and leave economics to the rest of us. This is a totally unserious effort. Even the Mainstream Media says, quote, neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law. Its a democratic wish list. A democratic wish list. So forget about making law. This thing even fails as a messaging bill. Thats whats so remarkable. House democrats had a blank slate to write anything they wanted to define the democratic party, any vision for the society they wanted, and heres what they chose. Tax hikes on Small Businesses. Giveaways to blue state billionaires. Government checks for illegal immigrants. And sending diversity detectives to inspect the pot industry. The house gave themselves no assignments for two months except developing this proposal. Yet, it still reads like the speaker of the house pasted together some random ideas from the most liberal members and slapped the word coronavirus on top of it. An unserious product from an unserious House Majority that has spent months dealing itself out of the crisis. House democrats have been missing in action for months while the senate was passing the cares act, the Democratic House was on the sidelines, substantively and literally, they had already gone home. Nearly two months later, senators are back at our duty stations with new precautions. We have been back two weeks. Were holding major hearings on the pandemic legislating and confirming nominees. The house, they are still at home. And when they do contribute, its not serious. House democrats have checked out of this crisis and left governing up to the senate. They even intend to shutter to shatter congressional history and jam through remote voting, remote voting so they can continue to be counterproductive from the comfort of their homes. Let me say that again. They even intend to shatter congressional history and jam through remote voting so they can continue to be counterproductive from the comfort of their own homes. Look, here in the real world, Senate Republicans are working seriously to help the country reopen. The crushing unemployment figures, even with the cares act, show us that no amount of federal spending could substitute for the entirety of the u. S. Economy. We need to be smart and we need to be safe, but we have to find a more sustainable middle ground. This week, chairman alexander and the help Committee Heard from dr. Fauci, dr. Redfield, and other top experts on exactly this subject. There are at least two big things our nation will need to start recovering. Steppedup testing nationwide and Legal Liability Protections so that k12 schools, universities, charities, and employers are not invaded by trial lawyers the instant they unlock their doors. On testing, fortunately, the senate has already done a great deal. The executive branch and especially the states are in the drivers seat, but we have already sent billions of dollars to help scale up testing nationwide. On legal liability reform, the work lies ahead of us. As my republican colleagues and i have made clear, strong Legal Protections will be a hard red line in any future legislation. So, madam president , thats whats happening here in the senate. Serious leadership on a serious crisis. Like we have been doing for months. This half of the capitol is doing our job. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h. R. 6172, which the clerk will report. The clerk calendar number 440, h. R. 6172, an act to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to prohibit the production of certain Business Records, and for other purposes. Mr. Thune madam president. The presiding officer the majority whip. Mr. Thune madam president , as the majority leader just pointed out, the senate has been and will be focused on responding to the Coronavirus Crisis in this country in a way that hopefully enables the American People to to recover, to restore our economy, to get things back to normal, and that requires dealing, as he pointed out, with the Health Emergency as well as with the economic emergency and crisis created by this. And with respect to the Health Emergency, the leader pointed out there are literally tens of billions of dollars being spent now on vaccine research, on antiviral therapeutics, on testing, and we believe that in order for us to get our economy fully back, we have got to deal with the Health Emergency in front of us. So dollars have been made available. Hundreds of billions of dollars to Health Care Providers, hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, providers on the n front lines on the front lines of this crisis and dealing to deal trying to deal with this challenge every day. We have focused on the economic crisis, the impact this has had on our Small Businesses, on our workers, and everything that was included in the bills that have already been passed, number four here in the United States senate, which have been signed into law by the president , have been singularly focused on trying to assist and get people through this time as a bridge to hopefully get the worst of us behind us and get it to a time when the economy begins to open up again. So the focus clearly was on helping families directly, making sure that those families who particularly needed the help the most got some additional financial assistance. So checks went out. 1,200 per individual, 2,400 per married couple, 500 for each additional child. Direct assistance that goes into the into the pockets of families across this country. And then with respect to workers and Small Businesses, there was the Paycheck Protection Program which, by all accounts, has been very, very successful. I think the reason for that is that businesses across this country who recognize that they, too, want to keep their employees employed. They, too, want to keep those jobs hopefully until that time when the economy starts to open up again, heavily subscribe to this program. And interestingly enough, there had been a lot of talk on the other side, as there usually is, the demagoguing about how this helps rich people and all that. The average loan in the meese recent round of p. P. P. Funding is about 80 the most recent round of p. P. P. Funding is about 80,000 on a payroll of about 28,000. So businesses can use that principally for payroll. 75 has to be used to be able to keep their employees employed, to keep their workers employed, to keep those jobs there. And 25 used for some fixed costs. Might be utilities, might be rent, might be debt service, those sorts of things. But the whole purpose, madam president , of that program is to keep workers employed. It is a proworker program. It was from the very beginning. And then also for those who through no fault of their own have lost jobs and been laid off, a significant plusup in the Unemployment Insurance accounts to the tune of 600 per person per week for individuals in this country on top of what their state might already pay, but a significant amount of dollars put out there for people who have lost jobs through no fault of their own. So this is a these are proworker pieces of legislation. These had prounemployed people pieces of legislation, proSmall Businesses, keeping those Small Businesses working out there and obviously very much a proHealth Emergency trying to drive dollars toward the things, the solutions, the cures, the vaccines, the antiviral therapeutics and the testing thats necessary to help us get through this. Thats what republicans here in the senate have been focused on for the past several months and will continue to be focused on in the future. As the leader pointed out, remarkably, the House Democrats who are not here but from afar, evidently, have put together this fantasy wish list of things that they would like to see accomplished, and if you can imagine an 1,815page bill, they mentioned cannabis way more times than they mentioned jobs. The amazing thing about this and they will come in here and argue that republican proposals are benefit the wealthy, benefit the rich. As i just pointed out, very clearly, the opposite is true. Direct the directly directed directly at families and workers, everything that we have done is designed to be projobs, to benefit the worker. But the democrats in the 1,815page proposal that they have out there have a couple of tax proposals, one of which would deliver 56 of that tax cut to the top 1 of wage earners in the country. 56 of the benefit of a proposal under the democrat House Democrats fantasy wish list would go to the top 1 of earners in this country. Now, madam president , that doesnt sound to me like something that is very proworker, trying to help people who are in the lower income categories who are suffering the most economically as a result of the Coronavirus Crisis. It seems to me at least like something thats sort of a payoff to some of their big donors and to the the big blue states. But nonetheless, that is a feature of the 1,815page bill that the leader just described and talked about, one of many features, part of a permanent agenda that has nothing to do with solving the crisis in front of the American People right now, but entirely to do with a an ideological wish list, all of which are things that have been on their agenda for a really long time, none of which should ever be considered seriously in terms of dealing with the crisis thats in front of us right now. Madam president , as i said, responding to this Coronavirus Crisis has been and will continue to be at the