Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, we are going to complete 3 weeks of Senate activity, called together by Senator McConnell at a time when the House of Representatives, under the guidance of Dr. Monahan, who was just praised--and I join in that praise--was not in session when the Senate came to session.

I said at the time that it was our responsibility to be here. That is why we ran for office. Important things need to be decided, and we need to be part of it for the good of the Nation.

We are about to complete 3 straight weeks without one measure on the floor of the Senate relating to the national public health emergency-- not one. There have been hearings in some committees, yes, but activity on the floor of the Senate, no. No bill was brought to the floor.

In fact, there was an attempt yesterday to bring a resolution that said the United States should be involved in the global international effort to find a vaccine. It was objected to on the Republican side. The reason the Senator objected to it--the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee--is that he wants to take up the measure in his committee at some later date. I encourage that Senator to do it quickly.

I think there is a sense of urgency across America in terms of this national health emergency that we face. Yet there is not a sense of urgency on the Republican side of the aisle, despite the fact that for 3 weeks we have not considered one measure on the floor related to this COVID-19 virus, which is unexplainable and indefensible.

Senator McConnell, of Kentucky, has told us that he doesn't sense the urgency for us to take up the measure passed last week by the House of Representatives. This was a bipartisan measure that was brought to the floor of the House of Representatives, which attempted to move us forward from the original CARES Act, the $3 trillion of cumulative spending that we have focused on the economy and the public health challenge facing our Nation.

Is there any urgency to it? Well, I sense that urgency every time I pick up the phone or read the newspaper in my State of Illinois. I am on conference call after conference call with groups across our State that are concerned about economic issues, as well as public health issues. There is truly a sense of urgency where I live. I cannot believe that Senator McConnell doesn't sense it in his own State of Kentucky.

Kentucky hospitals and healthcare providers have received $900 million in CARES Act funding. I don't question whether they were deserving or needed it; we received funds, as well, in the State of Illinois. But the Kentucky Hospital Association tells us that the hospitals in Kentucky are expected to lose $1.3 billion in March and April alone.

You know, we are next door to Kentucky, and my hospitals in downstate southern Illinois, right next to Kentucky, have told me the same thing. They are losing money right and left. Do they think this is an urgent problem in Illinois? You bet they do, and I will bet the hospitals in Kentucky do as well.

This is what the vice president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, Carl Herde, said: ``Since there is no clear path to recoup these losses, the hospitals are left with no choice but to look at their own operations to cut as much cost as they possibly can.''

The University of Kentucky is projecting a $160 million loss for its healthcare system. It has furloughed 1,500 employees. Jenny Stuart Health in Hopkinsville, KY, has furloughed 248 staff members. Appalachian Regional Health in Lexington will furlough 500 employees. St. Claire Health in Morehead is furloughing 300. Pikeville Medical Center has furloughed 200.

Is there a sense of urgency in these communities, when many of these hospitals are the largest employers in town and hundreds of people are being furloughed because of the COVID virus, because of the fact that they cannot resume ordinary hospital operations with this shadow of infection hanging over them?

The bill that passed the House of Representatives last week, which we did not consider or even discuss, to my knowledge, in the Senate this week, the HEROES Act, called for more than $100 billion more in relief to hospitals. How important is that?

I know how important it is in Illinois; I can tell you flat-out. As a downstater, when you take a look at the rural and smalltown hospitals in my State, they are struggling.

One hospital administrator told me that she had scheduled four elective surgeries last Monday, a week ago, and only one patient showed up. The other three called in and said they were too frightened to go to the hospital and run the risk of being exposed to the COVID virus. I cannot imagine there is not the same situation going on in Kentucky.

Isn't there a sense of urgency in Kentucky, as in Illinois, for us to move and move quickly to help these hospitals before they furlough more people and ultimately face closure--a disaster in any community that we want to urgently avoid?

State and local governments are struggling now to pay teachers, first responders, and healthcare workers as they face record revenue losses and increased costs of fighting the virus. The measure that passed the House of Representatives last week had almost $1 trillion to help these State and local governments--not just in Illinois but in every State, including the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

In States around the country, red and blue--the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that States will lose $650 billion in revenues by next summer. By the end of the year, Kentucky is expected to lose between 10 and 17 percent of its annual revenues. Without help from the Federal Government, Kentucky's Governor announced that Kentucky's ``recession will be longer or unemployment will be greater.''

Congress appropriated $150 billion in funding for State and local governments in the original CARES Act, but that funding is not enough to make up for the enormous losses that are being faced by State and local governments across the United States. These Governors, these mayors, these leaders have a sense of urgency in making up this revenue. They face the reality of cutbacks in police, firefighters, first responders, paramedics, nurses, doctors, and teachers

The HEROES Act which passed the House of Representatives last week and which has not been considered this week in the Senate included $875 billion in fiscal relief for State and localities to help cover the shortfall to make sure communities can continue to pay frontline essential workers.

Understand the deadlines that were built into the CARES Act. The first deadline is June 8. That is the date by which small businesses that borrowed money under the payroll protection part of that act need to have spent the money in order to have the loan forgiven--June 8.

Who among us believes that small businesses will be in a position to recover and get back to business as usual by June? I pray that is the case, but I know better in my home State and I will bet you in the State of Kentucky as well.

How about unemployment? We came through in the CARES Act and did something dramatic and unprecedented. We said that we were going to give an extra payment, a Federal payment, to those who were unemployed so that they could weather this storm as their families try to adjust to no breadwinner in the house--$600 a week on top of whatever the State benefit of unemployment might be. For some families, it was just enough to get by.

Understand, though, that benefit--that unemployment benefit of $600 from the Federal Government each week--is going to end at the end of July. That is not that far way. We are talking about 10 weeks at the most. Do we honestly believe the unemployment crisis, with 36 million unemployed Americans, will be behind us by the end of July? I wish that were the case, but we know better. In my State of Illinois, I know better.

We are hoping to start reopening the economy in a safe, responsible, careful way and to give these small businesses a fighting chance to open their doors again and survive, but it is going to be a struggle, and many of them won't make it.

Earlier this month, 69,000 people filed new unemployment claims in Kentucky--a 4,000-percent increase from last year. Do those families who are now unemployed feel that this response, this Federal assistance in unemployment benefits, is urgent? Well, you bet it is. How many of those in Illinois or Kentucky believe they won't need this help after the end of July this year? July--the same month the $600-per-week unemployment benefits expire--the unemployment rate in Kentucky has been projected to be 16.3 percent--the 10th highest in the Nation. Yet the Republican leader says there is no sense of urgency in moving on this measure that was considered by the House of Representatives and passed last week.

The IRS has sent out almost 2 million economic impact payments to that State of Kentucky, worth more than $3 billion, helping families put food on the table and pay their rent and their mortgage.

When you take a look at that economic impact payment, understand that the measure that passed the House, which we did not bring to the floor this week in the U.S. Senate, calls for $1,200 more for each adult and $1,200 for each child. Do families need it in Illinois? You bet they do.

Even though it was originally proposed by President Trump, politics had nothing to do with the support that it received from both political parties--the support that this measure that just passed the House should receive from both parties here in the Senate as well. There is a sense of urgency when it comes to these cash payments to people who are struggling to make ends meet. The bill that passed the House includes a second round of these critical payments and makes sure that we extend the unemployment benefits beyond the end of July.

According to the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, tens of thousands of Kentuckians have lost their health insurance as a result of this pandemic. What a moment in life to lose your health insurance-- in the midst of a pandemic, with people facing hospitalizations, treatment in and out of the hospital and in some cases ICUs, to think that you would be without health insurance?

The measure that passed the House of Representatives last week, which was not brought to the floor by the Republicans this week in the Senate, includes a provision to ensure that people who have lost their health insurance as a result of becoming unemployed can remain on their employer healthcare plan without paying any premiums. In other words, we want to make sure that people have health insurance rather than lose it. Was that brought up this week for debate and consideration in the Senate? No. No, it wasn't. Is it a matter of urgency if you are facing the loss of health insurance in the middle of this coronavirus epidemic? Of course it is.

The Paycheck Protection Program still has funding left in it to provide some loans, but businesses have to spend the money within 8 weeks of receiving the loan or it won't be forgiven. Many small business owners across the United States are facing a June 8 deadline, struggling to spend the money due to the fact that they still haven't been able to open their doors.

The HEROES Act, which passed the House of Representatives and was not brought up for consideration in the Senate this week, which it could have been, would extend the deadline an additional 16 weeks, providing small businesses 24 weeks to spend the money they were loaned by the SBA, and it would authorize the Paycheck Protection Program through the end of the year to ensure that we can continue to help small businesses through this difficult time.

Is there a sense of urgency in small businesses in my State to extend this period that you can spend the money as a small business and have your loan forgiven? Of course there is a sense of urgency in Illinois, in North Carolina, in Georgia, and in Kentucky--across the United States. Why the Senate Republican leader does not feel a sense of urgency on this measure, which ultimately ends on June 30, is beyond me.

I have heard from farmers across my State who are struggling to survive, asking for help. I have heard from the Census Bureau about the need to push back its response deadline to October 31--measures also included in the HEROES Act that passed the House of Representatives.

Three weeks have ended here on the floor of the Senate, and, but for a few speeches on this floor, if you read the record of legislative activity, you would wonder if the leaders in the Senate even realize we are facing a pandemic. We have spent our time on nomination after nomination. We have spent our time in hearings on friends and those who pass political muster who want lifetime appointments to the Federal court. But somehow we have managed to miss the biggest story in America--the pandemic.

I would say to Senator McConnell and the Republican leadership: We have wasted an opportunity--a 3-week opportunity--to move forward, and we have particularly wasted this week when we could have taken up the measure that passed the House of Representatives last week.

Are we prepared to negotiate a compromise? Of course we are. We have done that every time we have brought up a measure related to the pandemic. It should be bipartisan in the end. But to say it is ``dead on arrival'' and there is no sense of urgency among the Republicans in the Senate to take up this measure is to ignore the obvious. Whether it is $1,200 payments to American citizens who are struggling to get by, whether it is an increased period of time for qualification to receive unemployment insurance, whether it is loans to small businesses so they can survive, these are the urgent needs of America.

When we have hospitals furloughing employees in Illinois, in Kentucky, and around the Nation, we run the risk of losing these great hospitals that are needed for the future.

Is it urgent that we take up this matter? Of course it is. Yet this week we have done nothing, zero, when it comes to this measure.

We are going to leave now for the Memorial Day week, which means it will be about 2 weeks before we return. I can just about guarantee that the sense of urgency across America will be palpable at that time. The question is whether there will be a sense of urgency felt by the Republican leader from the State of Kentucky.

The other day, my friend and colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn, came to the floor, as he has before, to discuss the issue of liability and immunity as part of the conversation on the next measure of relief and rescue for our economy.

For weeks, Senator McConnell and Senator Cornyn have said that unless Congress gives broad legal immunity to corporations, they would block emergency aid to help States and local governments avoid massive layoffs of policemen, firefighters, and teachers. The logic behind this position is hard to fathom.

There has been no flood of COVID-19 lawsuits. There is a website maintained by the law firm Hunton Andrews Kurth that tracks all the lawsuits filed in America based on COVID-19. Senator McConnell has cited this tracking. That tracker updated its numbers as of yesterday. It reported that out of 1.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 90,000 deaths, there have been 2--2--COVID-19 medical malpractice cases filed in the United States in over 1,000 complaints that have been filed and 26 cases alleging workplace exposure to COVID-19. The Senator from Kentucky has called this a tidal wave of lawsuits, a windfall for trial lawyers--2 cases of medical malpractice and 26 cases for workplace exposure?

The other cases that mention COVID-19 relate to prisoners in prisons and jails, who are questioning whether their rights are being violated because of the health circumstances in the prisons. There are lawsuits against insurance companies as to whether the policy covers a business that has suffered losses because of the COVID virus. There have been lawsuits as well between businesses as to responsibility for it. But this notion of a tidal wave of lawsuits being filed--2 medical malpractice cases across the United States of America and 26 workplace exposure cases.

Keep in mind that if you do get sick and you want to file a lawsuit, a good lawyer will advise you: Be careful. Proving where you were infected is not an easy thing. And they also look at the standard of conduct of the business or individual who could be the defendant. Did they act reasonably?

We had a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on liability during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have quoted this before, but it is worth repeating. One of the witnesses called by the Republicans was a very good man, very thoughtful. His name is Kevin Smartt, and he is the chief executive officer and president of Kwik Chek Foods in Bonham, TX. He went through a litany of things that he had done in his workplace to make it safer, not just for his employees but also for the customers who came in. It was impressive. If the statements he made to us were accurate--and I believe they were--he is doing his part to try to make his workplace safer.

Here is what he said:

This was a challenge because the guidance provided by the CDC, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as state and local governments, often conflicted with one another in addition to being vague and difficult to follow. Yet, despite many uncertainties, including the constantly fluctuating public health guidelines, we began to adjust to the pandemic.

The point I am making--and I see our Democratic leader on the floor; I am going to wrap it up quickly--the point I am making is this: We should establish reasonable standards through the Centers for Disease Control and OSHA so that conscientious businesses can in good faith know what needs to be done to protect their employees and their customers. When they follow those guidelines, I believe they have absolved themselves of liability. They certainly have a valid defense to any claims of wrongdoing. But this notion that comes before us on the floor from the Republican side goes to an extreme--asking for government immunity from the conduct of businesses in the midst of this pandemic without holding them to any standards. We are still waiting for an explanation. Why would we allow the workplace to be more dangerous for employees? Why would we allow the business place to be more dangerous for customers?

If the owner is willing to live up to reasonable standards established based on science and health, in my mind, that is a good defense, and that is the way it should be. To do otherwise is to give a green light to businesses that don't follow standards, endangering their workers, their employees. It means more people are going to get infected and sick in America--the last thing we need.

Recognition of the Minority Leader
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