Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, the coronavirus has been the great revealer in our country. This crisis, of course, isn't happening in a vacuum. It is layered atop a system that already was not working for a whole lot of people and that had centuries of racism built into it. Few places is that more true than in our housing system. When it comes to housing, like so many problems in this country, we have a President who makes things worse, not better. For 4 years now, President Trump and his administration have systematically undermined fair housing. I would add, since the Senator from Utah is in the Presiding Officer's chair, that I would do a shout-out for his father and what he did as Secretary of HUD in the late sixties, early seventies in trying to move this country forward. That was obviously not in my prepared remarks. I didn't know that you would be presiding, but thank you. The Trump agenda--very different from the agenda in the Romney HUD administration--turned back the clock on civil rights protections that leave communities of color, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ people behind. This week I released a comprehensive report from the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, detailing the ways that President Trump has made inequality and segregation in housing worse and the work we have to do to undo the damage. More than 50 years after Congress passed the Fair Housing Act, access to housing remains not just unequal but separate and unequal. The contours of our country are too often still defined by Black, Latino, Asian or White neighborhoods, all with very different levels of access to resources--schools, grocery stores, healthcare, clean air and water, public safety. This is not an accident; it has been done by design. For decades, the Federal Government not only condoned housing segregation and discrimination--perhaps unbelievably, perhaps not--it actively promoted it. We all know about Black codes. We know about Jim Crow, even if too many want to deny we are still living with this Jim Crow legacy today. It wasn't just the most blatant racist laws; discrimination was woven into the creation of our modern housing system from the beginning. After the Great Depression, President Roosevelt created the government-sponsored Home Owners' Loan Corporation, the HOLC, and the Federal Housing Administration, the FHA. These could have been tools for expanding opportunity for everyone. They did that for White Americans, but for Black Americans they did the opposite. HOLC partnered with local real estate agents and appraisers to make what they called residential security maps. These maps used color coding to differentiate between supposedly high- risk and low-risk neighborhoods, with green signifying the best neighborhoods and red indicating a so-called hazardous area. Neighborhoods that were home to people of color--even a small percentage--were marked ``declining'' or ``hazardous.'' That is what we know as redlining. It was despicable racism, woven into the fabric of our housing system. We still live with the results. Capital, in the form of low- cost, stable mortgages, flowed to White neighborhoods--like the neighborhood in which I grew up in Mansfield, OH--and dried up in Black neighborhoods or neighborhoods that were home to immigrants. White borrowers were able to build wealth through home ownership that could be passed down through families. Our government systematically denied Black families the same wealth-building opportunity. From 1934 through 1962, 98 percent--98 percent--of all FHA mortgages went to White homeowners--98 percent. It wasn't until Dr. King's assassination in 1968 that Congress finally passed the Fair Housing Act to outlaw discrimination and promote integrated communities. The Fair Housing Act was followed by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Community Reinvestment Act. These laws all provided powerful tools to root out discrimination and to invest in underserved communities. But for too long, those laws simply weren't implemented. Administrations of both parties ignored the Fair Housing Act's requirement that the Federal Government--this is a legal term-- affirmatively further fair housing. Minority communities, though, remained underinvested. It took decades for all courts to say that if a housing policy has a discriminatory effect, it is, in fact, discriminatory. That is pretty simple. If a housing policy has a discriminatory effect, it is, in fact, discriminatory. The government also didn't collect enough housing data to root out discriminatory housing that fed the subprime mortgage crisis. We know the 2008 crisis stripped away much of the housing wealth that families of color had fought for. Today, access to housing and all the opportunity and stability that comes with it remains unequal. The African-American home ownership rate is nearly 30 percentage points below the White home ownership rate--30 percent below. Analysts have tried to explain the diversity with income and education as factors, but it never tells the whole story. With all else equal, similarly situated African Americans are markedly less likely to own a home than their White counterparts. Black and Latino renters are also more likely to pay a larger share of their income toward housing than White renters, making it even harder to get by, even harder to save to buy a home. We know--and many of us have repeated many times--that one-quarter of renters in this country pay at least half their income in rent and utilities, meaning if one thing happens in their life--their car breaks down, their child gets sick, or they have a minor workplace injury that keeps them out of work 4 or 5 days--everything in their lives can turn upside down. They can be evicted and all that happens with that. That is the legacy of redlining and racial exclusion at work. During the last administration, President Obama made significant strides in enforcing civil rights laws that have been on the book for decades. But instead of continuing that progress, President Trump has simply choked that progress. He has turned back the clock. He has undone the progress that so many of us fought for. Over the past 4 years, the Trump administration has done several affirmative--if you will--affirmative things to discriminate--not just that it didn't get around to enforcing, but it has done things that, by themselves, have caused damage to the progress we have made. He appointed an OCC Director who undermined the Community Reinvestment Act by making it less likely that banks will provide the loans, investments, and services that these communities need. The Trump administration cut back on housing data collection, allowing lending discrimination to go unchecked. The administration tried to make mortgages more expensive and harder to get, particularly for people of color. The administration denied opportunities for home ownership to hundreds of thousands of young adults. The Trump administration forced families to choose between access to affordable housing and food and healthcare and a path to citizenship. The administration gutted the so-called disparate impact standard that helps root out policies that have hidden discriminatory effects. The Trump administration dismantled the affirmatively furthering fair housing rule, essentially telling communities around the country: Don't even bother trying to create a better, more equal housing system, and we will not help you if you want to On and on and on it goes. I invite everyone to read our report and join us to take action. We have our work cut out for us to undo the damage President Trump has done and to get to work to actually erase the legacy of redlining and the legacy of Jim Crow and build a housing system that works for everyone. Housing is the foundation of so much in life, and when people start behind because they can't get access to clean, accessible, fair--fair and safe housing, they, in many cases, simply can't catch up. We have to restore the Fair Housing Act to its full strength. This means providing the tools to help communities create more inclusive housing markets, to end home lending discrimination, to strengthen fair housing oversight. We must break down barriers to home ownership and redesign our housing finance system so that it better serves Black and Brown communities. We have to protect the basic premise that LGBTQ people seeking shelter should be treated with the same dignity and respect as every other person. I think some of these are just so obvious, so important in a society like ours. I will say that one again--the basic premise that LGBTQ people seeking shelter should be treated with the same dignity and respect as every other American. We must provide long-overdue investments in housing and community development in communities of color. Black families and other communities of color have endured too many decades of our country's housing policies failing them. The same year we passed the Fair Housing Act, Dr. King gave a speech we call ``The Other America.'' In that speech, here is what he said: Our nation has constantly taken a positive step forward on the question of racial justice and racial equality. But over and over again at the same time, it made certain backward steps. The Trump administration is that backward step. Fundamentally, we all pretty much want the same thing--a home that is safe in a community we care about, where we can get to work and our kids have a good school, with room for our family, whether that is three kids or an aging parent or simply a beloved pet. You should get to define what home looks like for you. You should be able to find it. You should be able to afford it. You should be able to do it without the crippling stress of ``Can I meet my rent payment or my mortgage every month?'' For too many Black and Brown families, that has been out of reach--to find it, to afford it, to live in it without crippling stress. Congress cannot ignore these challenges. We can't keep allowing the Trump administration to gut the tools we have to make people's lives better. If we want to make the economy work better for everyone--including communities of color that have been systematically excluded from opportunity--we cannot shrink from these challenges. That is the purpose of the report we are issuing today. When work has dignity, everyone can find and afford a place to call home. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I have my favorite Abraham Lincoln quotation. One day, he was in the White House with his family and his staff. His staff said: You have to stay in the White House and win the war and free the slaves and save the Union, and Lincoln said: No. I have to go out and get my public opinion bath. I don't think that too many people in this body are getting their public opinion baths. They are not seeing the pain out there. They don't seem to absorb that, one day in August, in my State, as an example, 600,000 people--just like that--lost their $600-a-week unemployment insurance. In Wisconsin and Rhode Island, for hundreds of thousands of people--just like that--their $600-a-week unemployment insurance expired. They couldn't find jobs. There is massive unemployment in our States. There are people who are hurting. What are they to do? If you are just getting by on that $600 a week and if the money doesn't come and if you can't find a job, what are you to do? How are you to feed your family? There is so much anger out there and frustration and futility. People are hurting. Yet President Trump and Leader McConnell refuse to do their jobs. We have asked them for weeks and months to come back here and help us open the schools safely, to help local communities and local governments, to help unemployed workers, to help people who are about to lose their apartments--who are about to be evicted. Leader McConnell says he doesn't have a sense of urgency, and President Trump just turns his back and makes another speech. Middle-class and low-income public schools can't open because McConnell and Trump refuse to do their jobs. Parents and teachers are under an overwhelming amount of stress. School districts and families don't have the resources for the additional technology for the safety precautions they need, so schools either open unsafely or students need to do distance learning. None of that works for people. State governments and local communities are looking at massive layoffs, and small businesses are closing in larger and larger numbers, but Leader McConnell and President Trump refuse to lift a finger. The stock market is back up, so they seem to think everything is fine. They are just oblivious to the families. They are oblivious to the families who are staring at stacks of bills, who don't know what to do, and who have no good options. Yet now, after months of inaction, Leader McConnell gets out of his office from down the hall, walks down here, makes a speech, and goes back to his office. He doesn't actually do anything except confirm young, rightwing judges. He doesn't do anything to help people who have lost their unemployment. He walks down here, through these doors, and doesn't do anything to help schools open safely. He doesn't do anything to prevent layoffs in State and local governments. He doesn't do anything to help these small businesses which are closing, and some now have made the decision to close permanently, but Leader McConnell is willing to drop everything and move Heaven and Earth to put another corporate shill on the Supreme Court. Leader McConnell has spent the last 6 months ignoring the pandemic, ignoring the economic crisis. Now he wants to pack the Court--a Court that is supposed to serve the American people--with another Justice who always rules for corporate special interests and always rules against workers. It will be another Justice who will take away, as Senator Casey said, Americans' healthcare in the middle of a pandemic. In my State, 900,000 people have health insurance today because of the Affordable Care Act--600,000 people because Governor Kasich, a Republican, and I, a Democrat, helped to expand Medicaid in Ohio. There are 600,000 people who have insurance because of that. Yet we know this Court will be hearing a case to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act in just a few weeks. That insurance could be gone like that. Leader McConnell and President Trump and their special interest friends are trying to do what the American people rejected over and over. They want to take away preexisting condition protections in Pennsylvania, where Senator Casey said 5.5 million people have preexisting conditions. In Ohio, 5 million people--essentially half the adult population--have preexisting conditions, and that was before the pandemic. So we know, if this Court does what it is likely to do, especially if Leader McConnell and President Trump can pack the Supreme Court the way they want to with another special interest, corporate judge, we know those people's preexisting condition protections will be gone. American healthcare is at stake. The American people deserve to have their voices heard. As Senator Peters said, people are already voting. As we speak, they are casting ballots. These ballots should count. We know what Senator McConnell and their wealthy friends want to do. They want to award more power to themselves, and they want to take it away from voters We simply can't stand by and watch a bunch of millionaires with good healthcare for all--all paid for by taxpayers--who still have comfortable jobs and paychecks, while millions are out of work, and watch them try to take away people's healthcare and take away their voices in their own government. Think about what is at stake. If President Trump gets his way and the Republican majority obediently obeys Senator McConnell, as they always do, and Senator McConnell, down the hall, obediently obeys President Trump--meaning, if McConnell and then almost all of the, shall we say, spineless Members of this Senate put in place a Justice who will take away the entire healthcare law and take away the tax credits to help people afford health insurance--then protections for preexisting conditions will be gone. Ohio's entire Medicaid expansion for 600,000 people--gone. The ability to stay on your parents' insurance until you are 26--gone. More affordable prescription drugs for seniors from closing the doughnut hole--gone. Limits on how much you pay out-of- pocket each year--gone. This will be in South Dakota, in Wisconsin, in Connecticut, in Rhode Island, in Ohio--all over. Free preventive services, like mammograms and bone density screenings, will be gone. The list goes on. That is why the Affordable Care Act wasn't repealed--because the American public knew what it did for them, and they said to their elected officials: Don't repeal it. Yet now we are going to have legislation from the bench. All of these conservatives on the Court love to talk about just being constitutional, just being traditionalists and strict constructionists. No. They want to legislate from the Court. They want to undo what this body did and then refused to undo. That is what is at stake. Five million Ohioans who are under the age of 65 have preexisting conditions--as I said, half the population of our State before the coronavirus. It is not just healthcare. It is the ability to vote. It is workers' protections on the job. We know at a packing plant in the Presiding Officer's State--at Smithfield, a plant and a multibillion-dollar company that is owned by the China Communist Party--it had 1,290-some workers who were diagnosed with the coronavirus. It was the first time the administration ever did anything to any company whose workers had gotten sick with the coronavirus. They fined this multibillion-dollar China Communist Party company, Smithfield, in the United States, and South Dakota fined it $13,000. That is $10 for every sick person, for every sick worker. Those are the kinds of people you will see on the Supreme Court. They will be protecting those companies. The freedom to organize a union is at stake. The progress we have made on equality, on civil rights, and on LGBTQ equality is at stake. Whether we can bring racial justice to our justice system is at stake. America's privacy rights in the digital age are at stake. Women's freedom to make their own healthcare decisions is at stake. Earlier today, one of my colleagues came to the floor not to try to get the $600 in unemployment for people who were laid off, not to try to pass more help for our schools so they could open safely, not to get more money for testing; my colleague tried to pass yet another restriction on a woman's ability to get safe, effective healthcare. It is pretty clear where their priorities lie, and we know what we need to do. All Americans need to speak out and share their stories. Make the people who are supposed to serve understand what is at stake for you and your family--what is at stake by Senator McConnell's and President Trump's inaction. There will be no help for unemployed workers, no help to open schools safely, no help for local communities, no help for the Postal Service, no help to run our elections safely and honestly. Tell people what is at stake. It is the public who saved the ACA in 2017, and the public can do it again. For us in the Senate, it comes back to one question: Whose side are you on? Are we going to put money into people's pockets? Are we going to help people pay their rent? Are we going to finally mobilize America's vast manufacturing talent and ingenuity to produce the tests and the N95 masks and the other equipment we need and do what Senator Baldwin advocates, which is to ``buy American'' with these products? Are we going to get support for our schools and our small businesses and our local communities or is the Senate going to follow the Trump-McConnell plan? That means to come out of your office, to walk down the hall, to open these doors, to go to your chair, to make a speech, and try to confirm another conservative lifetime judge. Yet don't worry about unemployment. There are only 600,000 people in my State and only millions around the country who don't know what to do because they have lost their unemployment. Don't do anything about opening schools safely. Don't provide any dollars for local school districts. Don't help small businesses. Is that what we are going to do? Is the Senate going to follow that Trump-McConnell plan? They do nothing there, but then they think: Let's do something. We will drop everything to grab more power for our wealthy friends. People are tired of feeling like no one is on their side. Let's actually listen to the people whom we serve. Let's make sure their votes count. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, it is pretty obvious that my Republican colleagues think that the Presiding Officer is going to lose her race and a number of incumbent Senators are going to lose their races and because it looks like there is going to be a Democratic President and a Democratic Senate and Democratic House, all of a sudden my far-right colleagues are concerned about the national deficit and the national debt. In President Trump's second year in office, Congress passed a bill that provided about $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. Between 70 and 80 percent of the tax cuts went to the richest 1 percent of the people in this country. It pushed the national debt into a whole new stratosphere. It took money we were going to use to build infrastructure--highways, bridges, water and sewer systems--and just ignored that plan. And now all of a sudden my colleagues are interested in the national debt--not when the Republicans are in control; they want to give more and more and more tax cuts. But when Democrats are in control, Democrats want to invest in infrastructure; Democrats want to save this economy right now, including providing $600 a week for unemployed workers--680,000 of them in my State, close to 400,000 of them in the Presiding Officer's State--Democrats want to invest in infrastructure and job training and protecting Medicare and Social Security. But now that Republicans think they are going to lose, it is all about the national debt and doing nothing to help workers right now. I want to talk today specifically about workers and how this President and all the President's enablers--and they are enablers. My Republican colleagues don't even speak up when the President so dishonors our fallen soldiers. They don't speak up when the President has clearly lied, his own words, about the coronavirus--lied to the American people after he was taped, in his own words, by a former reporter and absolutely failed to speak up about workers Every day we live with the horrific consequences of leadership failures in this country. So many Americans have lost jobs; they have lost small businesses; they have lost their sense of security; and they have lost much of their faith in their own government; and in nearly 200,000 American families, they have lost a loved one. All because President Trump and his enablers here--all because President Trump has failed to get this pandemic under control, he has failed to protect American workers. A few weeks ago, I was talking to a woman in Cincinnati. I was actually home; it was a remote call. She is a grocery store worker. She said: You know, they call me essential, but I don't feel essential. I feel expendable because they pay me so little, and they do so little to keep me safe at work. President Trump's administration, get this, has gotten 8,000--8,000, 8-0-0-0--complaints about unsafe workplaces since the start of this pandemic. We know how many busdrivers have died. We know how many grocery store workers have died. We know how many meatpacking plant workers have died. We know how many hospital workers have died--not just nurses and doctors, and we grieve for them and their families and applaud and are so grateful for their service--but it is orderlies who have died also, and the people who change the bed sheets and change the linens in the hospitals have died. The President has gotten 8,000 complaints about unsafe workplaces. This summer, we had President Trump's corporate lawyer, Secretary of Labor Scalia, before the Finance Committee. When I say ``corporate lawyer,'' I mean corporate lawyer. He represents the President in the Department of Labor. As a corporate lawyer, when there is a fork in the road, do I support workers or do I support corporate interests? Every single time he goes with corporate interests. It is not a surprise because the Secretary of Labor used to be a corporate lawyer who made millions and millions of dollars representing corporations against workers. That is the kind of person the President picked--if that doesn't tell you a whole lot about President Trump's betrayal of workers. He appointed the Secretary of Labor, somebody who always has represented corporations, making millions of dollars against workers. So what is he going to do as Secretary of Labor? He is going to do what the President wants him to do. He is going to support corporate interests against workers. I asked Secretary Scalia in the Finance Committee, out of the thousands of workers who have come to you for help, how many in-person inspections have you done? Thousands of workers have come to him for help. How many inspections of workplaces have they done? Zero--zero in Atlanta; zero in Savannah; zero in Griffin, GA; zero in Covington, GA; zero in Mansfield, GA; zero in Stone Mountain, GA; zero in Ohio. I don't know the Presiding Officer very well, but she took an oath to represent her State, as I took an oath to represent my State. And one of the things we do is fight--should fight for everyday people, for workers. This Secretary of Labor had done zero--zero inspections after 6 months of Americans reporting to work in a pandemic, and there were over 8,000 complaints--8,000 complaints from workers saying that my workplace is not safe. There is a pandemic. Zero inspections. Do you know what? Not one Republican member of the Finance Committee--not one Republican Senator on the Finance Committee--spoke up and pushed Secretary Scalia to do inspections or to look out for workers. Why? Because it would have made the President of the United States unhappy if a Republican Senator had questioned what the President of the United States does. They don't question him when he insults our soldiers who have died. They don't question him when he lies to the American public about the pandemic. They don't question him when he fails his leadership role to protect workers. Zero inspections--6 months, 8,000 complaints. Zero inspections to make sure corporations are giving workers the protective equipment and the other safety protocols they need. I demanded that Secretary Scalia, at this hearing, follow up and tell us about any inspections they conducted and what the results of those inspections were. He said he couldn't get that information. He is the Secretary of Labor; I am not. Guess how many fines they have issued. Five--five fines. As far as we know, President Trump's administration has only issued 5 fines out of more than 8,000 workers complaining that their employers are failing to protect them. Last week--a notable week for the Trump administration--they did something about workers, but listen to what they did. They fined Smithfield. Smithfield is a multibillion-dollar company owned by the Chinese Communist Party. They fined Smithfield $13,000, after 1,300 workers got sick at just 1 plant in South Dakota, and 4 people died. Let's do the math: $13,000 fine, 1,300 workers got sick. That is $10 a worker. They fined this multibillion-dollar company, owned by the Chinese Communist Party in the United States, in South Dakota--they fined this company $10 per infected worker, a multibillion-dollar corporation. The idea that $10 a worker will stop these guys from continuing to abuse their workers is absurd. Do you know what? Every other corporate leader around the country heard: Oh, my gosh. President Trump is on our side. He is on our side every single time. President Trump is on our side when it comes to a complaint from a worker, so we don't have to worry about making our workers safe because we know the President of the United States might fine us $10 per every sick worker. One-third of the workers at this plant got sick--one-third of the workers. They were not putting all the money they make--the billions of dollars that they pull out of South Dakota, this company, and send those dollars, probably electronically, I guess not by boat, to the Communist Party in China. All those dollars they take out of that plant, and they can't put any of those dollars to invest in protecting workers to make their companies successful. President Trump could crack down on these corporations. He is not going to do that. He comes from corporate America. He inherited billions of dollars. He has had a lot of personal bankruptcies. Forget about that. He is on their side. Politics, government--it is about whose side you are on. Are you on the President's side every single time, no matter what he does? Are you on corporations' side every single time, no matter what they do? No matter how many workers get sick, no matter how many workers they kill, it is on their watch--no matter how many workers they kill, you are going to be on the corporation's side every single time? And the answer in Trump's America is yes. Instead, he could mobilize workers. He could mobilize American manufacturers to get every American worker the masks and protective equipment they need. He could issue an OSHA temporary standard that would provide clear, enforceable requirements for keeping workers safe. He could stand up for workers. He campaigned on it. He could actually stand up for workers. But he will not. It is always the same story with this corporate President, always the same story. He wants to protect the big guys--workers' health and workers' safety be dammed. He campaigned in 2016, in my State--he surprised people how much he won by in my State. He campaigned by promising he would look out for workers. He went all over Ohio; he went all over the industrial Midwest--the Great Lake States areas--telling workers he would take care of them and would fight for them. Now we know how much these workers' health and how much these workers' lives mean to this President--about $10 each. He has betrayed these workers over and over. His corporate tax cuts--Senator Thune was talking about Democrats and taxes and the deficit in an easy-to- understand way. He betrayed these workers over and over. Corporate tax cuts: 70 percent of the benefits went to the richest 1 percent. He took away 100,000 Ohio workers' overtime pay. He took away overtime pay from workers in Savannah, in LaGrange, in Newton County, and Jasper County, GA. He took overtime pay away from my constituents in Cleveland and Mansfield and Shelby and Chillicothe. He stacks the courts with corporate lawyers. Those lawyers--now judges--will always decide for corporate interests against workers' interests. He launched a boycott against Goodyear, a unionized tire-making plant headquartered in Akron--one of the greatest companies in our State and one of the most renowned, iconic companies--because somebody made a statement about one of his ``Make America Great'' hats. He launched a boycott costing who knows how many jobs in that company. He has betrayed workers by his failure to fight for autoworkers and their jobs. He promised workers in Lordstown, OH: Don't sell your homes. This plant may close, but don't sell your homes. We are going to bring back these jobs. Then he did nothing when we asked him to help, and they shut down, costing 3,000 jobs. Most recently, he and Senator McConnell and all their minions who follow Senator McConnell's lead took away $600 a week in unemployment benefits. What are those workers to do? What are those workers to do in Georgia? What are those workers to do in Ohio? What are those workers to do in Illinois and Delaware when their $600 a week just disappears? I know there are a lot of wealthy people on both sides of the aisle. There are a lot of very wealthy people here. There are millionaire Members of the Senate. When I hear millionaire Senators and billionaire people in the administration say that $600 a week is just too much money--we can't give these unemployed workers that much money. That $600 a week is too much money. They are going to get lazy. They are not going to work. When I hear millionaire Members of the Senate say such things, it sickens me. That $600 a week is the reason that millions of Americans didn't fall into poverty during this terrible, terrible recession. But lo and behold, the administration is happy and the Republican Senators are happy because the stock market has recovered. I know a lot of you in this institution have a lot of money in the stock market. I won't even get into the conflicts of interest when you own this stock and you vote this away. Forget about that. You have a lot of money in the stock market, so I know you are really happy. I know the Presiding Officer and Republican Members of the Senate are really happy that the stock market recovered in the spring. So then Donald Trump doesn't even have to pretend to care about getting this pandemic under control. Corporations are doing fine. Never mind the workers who are getting sick. Never mind the essential workers. The essential workers are the busdrivers, food service people, custodians, security people, people who work in grocery stores and drug stores. The essential workers--who are mostly women, disproportionately people of color, who mostly are barely adequately paid--the essential workers face something most of us don't: They work all day exposed to the public. They wear masks. They are safe--most of them. They do things safely. They work all day, and then they go home always anxious. Madam President, imagine feeling every day when you go home that you might have contracted coronavirus and you might pass it on to your family. Imagine the anxiety these generally low-paid workers face every day when they go home. We don't think about them around here because corporations are doing fine and the stock market has recovered. The workers go home every night worried they will affect their families. Most of them won't; they will get along just fine. American workers are tired of this. They are sick of this. They are tired of the empty promises. They are tired of the betrayals. They are tired of feeling like no one in this government, in this Senate, in this White House is on their side. If all of you would--could actually lead when the President doesn't, we could pass a bill issuing an OSHA--Occupational Safety and Health Administration--temporary standard, protecting people. We could issue a temporary standard to protect people on the job. We could pass pandemic pay. That is what the House of Representatives down the hall did. When the House of Representatives passed their bill and they took that bill down the hall and put it in Senator McConnell's office there, I guess that bill got lost. One of the things that bill did have was pandemic premium pay. If you are one of those workers--I know this amount of money doesn't mean much to the Presiding Officer or most of my Senate colleagues, but they would get up to $10,000 pandemic pay because they expose themselves in the workplaces--essential workers--to this illness. It would actually pay these essential workers for putting their health and their lives on the line to serve us. It is time for us to step up. If you love this country, it is time we fought for the people who make it work. It is time we fought for the people who make this country work. Instead of always siding with U.S. corporations and with the wealthiest people in this society, it is time we decide in this body to actually fight for workers

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I come to the floor to first thank Senator Duckworth for leading many of us to come to the floor this week to stand in solidarity with all of the military families around the country and throughout our Nation's history who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. I hope we can all join together, not as Republicans and Democrats but as servants of the American people, in expressing outrage and disgust at the comments made by the President that were confirmed by multiple news outlets last week. A deep reverence for servicemembers, including the Presiding Officer, who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, has never before been a partisan issue in this body or in our country. These Americans laid down their lives because they loved this country, and they loved what we stand for. They understood something that President Trump never will, which is the idea of service--the ethos of giving your all for something greater than yourself. I know some of my colleagues will continue to bury their heads in the sand to pretend the President couldn't possibly have said those things, but if you don't believe it is within President Trump's character to denigrate our troops, you haven't been paying attention over the last 5 years. President Trump called our former colleague and our friend Senator John McCain--an American war hero to every one of us--a loser. He denigrated all POWs and their families when he said he liked people who were not captured. He attacked a Gold Star family, whose son paid the ultimate sacrifice for our country, with anti-Muslim bigotry. He repeatedly attacked and retaliated against LTC Alexander Vindman, who spent his entire life serving our country. Yet, as despicable and disrespectful as they are, it is not just President Trump's words--it is his actions. He diverted funding from our military bases to pay for his vanity project border wall. He has made it easier for payday lenders to prey on our servicemembers by selling them predatory loans at exorbitant rates. In Dayton, go to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and look at the payday lenders that just crop up around our military bases. The President handed out favors to foreign banks, like Santander, that illegally repossessed servicemembers' cars and illegally foreclosed on their homes while they were defending our country. He ordered the closure of the military's newspaper, Stars and Stripes, because it refused to serve as a propaganda machine for him. Under pressure, he is saying he is now going to bring it back. Now he is failing to protect our troops and our veterans from this disease. His administration used them as guinea pigs this spring by prescribing them hydroxychloroquine tablets--an unproven COVID treatment. He did that this spring while he was not telling the country about the seriousness of this disease. None of this should be partisan. I know my Republican colleagues and I disagree on a lot of things--taxes and budgets and healthcare policy--but I have never heard any of us disagree on the fact that Americans who serve our country are American heroes. Whether they fought during World War I or fought against fascists in World War II, like my father did, or are defending us today, we owe them and their families a debt of gratitude. Those who made the ultimate sacrifice were mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and aunts and uncles. They had hopes, and they had dreams of devoting careers to service. All of my colleagues have spoken to the families of the fallen. We try to empathize with the unbearable pain they go through. Some of my colleagues have been those brothers or sisters or sons or daughters. All of our servicemembers and all of our veterans and all of their families deserve better. I ask my colleagues to join me and Senator Duckworth in standing in solidarity with all American servicemembers and veterans and their families. We will never forget the debt we owe you. We are humbled by your commitment to service. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, the public health crisis and the economic crisis that are happening right now are not happening in a vacuum. All the damage caused by the coronavirus and the President's failures is layered on top of all the existing problems of our country, including the crisis we have been facing for years in the multiemployer pension system. More than a million American workers and retirees were already in danger of losing the retirement security that they earned. These are people who did everything right. They spent years working on assembly lines, bagging groceries, driving trucks, working hard to keep this economy going and to provide for their families. Money came out of every single one of their paychecks to pay into a pension system. People in Washington don't understand the collective bargaining process. They either don't understand it or don't care to understand it. People give up dollars today at the bargaining table for the promise of a secure retirement, with healthcare and a pension. This crisis affects thousands of Ohioans and people in Indiana, the Presiding Officer's State. It affects the massive Central States Pension Plan, the Bricklayers Local 7, the Ironworkers Local 17, the Ohio Southwest Carpenters Pension Plan, the Bakers and Confectioners Pension Plan, and on and on and on. It touches every single State in the country. We are talking about our entire multiemployer pension system. If it collapses, it will not just be retirees who feel the pain. Current workers will be stuck paying into pensions they will never receive. Small businesses will be left drowning in pension liability they can't afford. Small businesses that have been in the family for generations could face bankruptcy. I have seen those companies: Spangler Candy in Williams County, OH; Smucker's Preserves in Orrville, OH. We have seen these companies that have been family companies paying into this pension plan for generations, and workers lose jobs if businesses close up shop. The effect will ripple through the entire economy. It is not only union businesses that participate in these plans that will close their doors. It would devastate small communities across the industrial heartland. Small businesses in these communities already are hurt because of this virus. These pension plans were already in danger prior to February or March, or even April or May, when the President decided that this was a crisis. Now the economic emergency we are in has put them in a worse position. The House did its part repeatedly. First, they passed the Butch Lewis Act. More than 2 months ago, they passed the Heroes Act, which includes a pension solution. But under Senator McConnell, the Senate has done nothing. It is time for us to do our part. Leader McConnell has refused to do anything on pensions. We could have fixed this last year. He chose not to. He didn't address it in the HEALS Act that he introduced last week, and he didn't address it in the CARES Act that we passed back in March. There are reports the President, who has not been a friend of workers--putting it mildly--was fine with including a multiemployer pension fix in the CARES Act if Leader McConnell wanted it. But Leader McConnell stopped it, and the President wasn't willing to step in. He is supposed to lead the country, but he has outsourced his decision making to Senator McConnell. The Senate must act. If the entire multiemployer pension system collapses, it will make our economic crisis worse. We knew before this pandemic that the pension system could collapse. It is only more likely to fail now. If that happens, we know who gets hurt the most. It is not the Wall Street banks that squandered workers' money. It is small businesses. It is workers. It is employees who did everything right. Their lives and livelihoods will be devastated if Congress doesn't do our job. Workers and retirees in Ohio and around the country have rallied in the name of Butch Lewis, a great Ohioan who helped lead this fight and passed away far too soon, fighting for his fellow workers. His wife, Rita Lewis, has continued his fight and has become a leader and an inspiration to so many of us. Rita once told me that retirees and workers struggling with this crisis feel like they are invisible. These Americans aren't invisible to me. They shouldn't be invisible to this body. They aren't invisible to Speaker Pelosi or Leader Schumer. They are not invisible to Senator Smith, who is from Minnesota and has done yeoman's work on this; or Senator Peters from Michigan, who has spoken out and fought for better laws; or Chairman Neal in the House; or Chairman Scott from Virginia in the House; and many of my colleagues who worked for years now trying to find a bipartisan solution. We are not giving up. As we know, it comes back to the dignity of work. When work has dignity, we honor the retirement security people earn. When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. I urge my colleagues in this body--colleagues with healthcare and retirement plans paid for by taxpayers--to think about these retired workers and the stress--on top of the stress of the coronavirus--they are facing. Join us. Let's pass a solution that honors their work, that honors the dignity of work, and that keeps our promise. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Senator Hassan for her leadership. She speaks about State government and local government so well because she was Governor of New Hampshire. She is one of only two women in American history who has been a Governor and a Senator--a senator, a Governor, and then a Senator. Thank you for your ongoing leadership. Senator Carper, thank you for leading this effort. We know Senator McConnell's office is down the hall there. For months, we have been begging--begging--Senator McConnell, begging President Trump to do something, to actually let us do our jobs. We wanted to legislate. We wanted to do the things that Senator Hassan has just talked about. I am not really sure how Mitch McConnell has spent his summer. What I do know is that in May, the House of Representatives passed the Heroes Act. It helped local governments. It helped people stay in their homes so they wouldn't be evicted. It helped our public school system. It provided $600 to unemployed workers, and what is remarkable about that is even during this pandemic, we haven't seen the poverty rate go up in this country because of the $600 per week that millions of unemployed workers are receiving, which they have earned. The House did that in May. I don't know what Senator McConnell has done since--through May, through June, through July, now into August, and, finally, he comes up with something. We have asked him to extend the unemployment insurance for literally the hundreds of thousands of workers in my State, the thousands of workers in Nevada, the tens of thousands of workers in Louisiana. We have asked the President and the majority leader to extend that unemployment insurance. But do you know what? It is pretty unbelievable to hear of people on this side of the aisle making $175,000 a year as U.S. Senators--most of my colleagues are millionaires--and they complain that these unemployed workers are getting $600 a week. They complain that these workers are getting too much money as we earn $175,000 a year. Last week, Senator McConnell finally came up with a plan that does nothing to extend the $600 a week and that does nothing to keep people in their homes and help them pay the bills. The last thing we should want is a tidal wave of evictions so that people will have to go into crowded homeless shelters or sleep in their cousins' basements because they don't have places to live. The bill does nothing to help State and local governments. Their plan has zero dollars for communities--for Clark County, OH, or Clark County, NV. We know how hard their budgets have been hit. Ohio's Governor has already announced $750 million in State budget cuts, including for education and Medicaid, and counties and cities and towns are facing similar impossible choices. We know, with there being hundreds of thousands of Ohioans out of jobs, if they don't get the $600 a week, it will mean that more of them will go into poverty, that more of them will have trouble feeding their families, and that more of them will go into homeless shelters. It will only get worse if we don't step in. Let's be clear about what it will mean if we don't get more funding. It will mean the layoff of teachers, the layoff of firefighters, the layoff of children's services workers. It will mean less money for schools--and not just to buy new technology they need for remote learning. School costs have gone up. They have to make the buses safer and the cafeterias safer and the technology for remote learning and the classrooms safer. It will mean fewer resources for schools to expand broadband and close the digital divide. It will mean putting critical infrastructure projects on hold. It will mean property tax hikes and sales tax increases. I have talked to mayors and teachers and school board members. I spend a good chunk of my time, as I know my colleagues do, on virtual roundtables and conference calls. I talk to mayors and teachers, school board members and firefighters, chambers of commerce, county health commissioners, and university and college presidents. I was on the phone yesterday with 100 county commissioners in Ohio-- most of them Republicans. I had a call organized by the Richland County Chamber of Commerce--my hometown--with, probably, mostly Republicans. Last week, it was the Cincinnati Chamber--probably mostly Republicans-- the Ohio college presidents, and Northeast Ohio parents and educators. There was another call with Southwest Ohio parents and educators. In every one of these calls, I heard the fear in people's voices and the demand that we do something--that we don't just walk away like President Trump and Mitch McConnell are doing. They are going to either raise taxes on Ohioans who are hurting or they are going to lay off workers and cut services people rely on. One issue that comes up over and over is the fear that communities are being set back years in our fight against addiction. The addiction crisis didn't go away; it just got layered on top of this new health and economic catastrophe. If we don't get State and local governments additional funding, they are going to cut addiction services, and they are going to cut mental health services. You know that, clearly, the number of child abuse cases has gone up during this but not the reported cases. We don't know about them because kids aren't going to school and church to be able to have teachers, parents, people in the community, and ministers report cases of child abuse. Also, the social workers who go into the homes have been laid off. We need to be clear about what ``mass layoffs'' means. It means, if a county in Ohio cuts the staff for schools, it is not just the individual educators who get hurt; obviously, our kids suffer, and the economy suffers. It means a longer recession, a deeper recession. Yet Senator McConnell says 20 people on his side of the aisle are just going to walk away. They are not even willing to vote for help for schools, for unemployed workers, for people about to be foreclosed on or evicted, or for local governments. You know, the stock market is doing OK, but the stock market is not the economy. We will not have a real recovery until we invest in the real economy in communities in Ohio and Nevada and Arkansas and across this country. Ohioans shouldn't have to fend for themselves in the middle of a once- in-a-generation crisis. That is essentially what the Trump-McConnell plan--if you can even call it a serious plan--tells Ohio communities: You are on your own. You are on your own. We must pass a recovery bill, and it must include new, flexible funding. Trust the communities. Trump and McConnell don't trust local communities. They send a few dollars here and there. They attach strings to it because they don't trust local communities. I trust my local school boards. I trust my local county commissioners. I trust my local mayors. We have to get them help. They know what is best for their communities. Let them do their jobs. Senator McConnell and President Trump, let us do our jobs. I yield the floor to the junior Senator from Nevada

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I want to thank Senator Stabenow and Senator Wyden. I will speak for just 2 or 3 minutes. I know that Senator Schumer will make another unanimous consent request. Think about what Senator McConnell wants to do. Senator McConnell is going to cut $400 in unemployment insurance to tens of millions of unemployed workers, hundreds of thousands in my State alone--in Oregon, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, Texas, Florida, and Wisconsin. Thousands of workers are going to lose $400 a week. Think about what is going to happen. Around the country, the moratorium on evictions is expiring. Around the country, in community after community, a moratorium on electric and water cutoffs is about to happen. So workers are going to lose $400 a week. They are going to face eviction. What is going to happen? We know what is going to happen. What is going to happen is more people will lose their homes, more people will be in homeless shelters, more people will spend the night in their cousin's basement in the middle of a pandemic. It is cruel, and it is really stupid policy to cut their income for unemployment for the millions of unemployed workers and then provide no dollars for rental assistance, no dollars for paying their mortgage, and no help for those workers. How can we? We are the United States of America. How can we do such a thing I yield to Senator Schumer.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank Senator Capito for not letting this body and this country forget about this terrible addiction crisis that has afflicted her State, my State, and particularly our region of the country, but well beyond that, her work has been particularly important, and I thank her for doing that. I think it also points to the importance of our doing, during this pandemic, other things to support local governments that are so stretched with Medicaid dollars and with local public health dollars. That is the importance of the next round of pandemic funding--State and local governments, local communities, and local education. We know that Senator McConnell's effort--and I put the word ``effort'' in quotation marks--has fallen so short. He waited and waited and waited and waited and waited. The House passed its bill in May. This body, through Senator McConnell, would not even take it up until--would not even begin negotiations, really, until this week, when unemployment is about to expire and when the eviction moratorium is about to expire. If the opioid crisis, public health crisis, is bad now and we haven't dealt with the coronavirus, well, now imagine what will happen when people lose their unemployment or when it is reduced to $200 a week, causing mass eviction. Moratoria are expiring, and eviction courts are opening up all over the country. Imagine what will happen with the opioid addiction public health disaster and imagine what will happen with coronavirus if people lose their apartments in large numbers. I just don't think any of us can quite imagine that tragedy. It is clear that my colleagues on this side of the aisle don't get out very much, don't talk to people very much, and don't listen to people very much and see what these huge needs are for people to continue some semblance of the standard of living they had prior to the coronavirus.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, Senator Wyden is so right here. He fought back in March for $600 a week for unemployed workers, which kept our economy going, which kept us from going into a worse recession, which made all the difference in the world for all these workers. Think about this. If we were to adopt their proposal--I think they have a proposal. We haven't really seen very much yet. As Senator Wyden said, the House passed a bill back in May. It has been May, June, and almost all of July. We have waited and waited and waited. Unemployed workers know that their unemployment expires at the end of July, yet Senator McConnell sent us home, as Senator Wyden said. They wait. We wait. We wait. Then they come up with this half-baked proposal that they don't even know what it is exactly. But we do know one thing. We do know that workers who were laid off through no fault of their own, they want to work. Most Americans want to work. Those workers, their unemployment is cut from $600 to $200 a week. So we are essentially taking $400 from millions of workers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New York, Oregon, Ohio, Arkansas, and Utah. We are taking $400 a week from these workers at the same time that the moratorium on eviction expires, at the same time that eviction courts in the States open up. In Columbus, OH--my State's largest city--they are holding eviction courts in an arena because there are so many people who will be evicted if their unemployment expires. In the middle of a pandemic, we are going to evict people, and they are going to go to overcrowded homeless shelters; they are going to go to sleep in their cousins' basements--in the middle of a pandemic. What is that going to do? I know the President just doesn't think much about the pandemic. He has moved on to accusing who knows what, calling names, dividing and all that, and isn't paying much attention to this pandemic. But, in the middle of a pandemic, to cut unemployment is just unbelievable. We know that, in their plan, there is a major cut in unemployment benefits; there is no rental assistance that will help people pay their rent; there is no expansion of the eviction moratorium. There is nothing. Senator McConnell has had months to extend expanded unemployment benefits. He has had months to figure out what we are going to do on evictions. Yet nothing. I don't know, when I look down that hall--I don't really know--I see lobbyists running out of there, asking Senator McConnell to get what they get, and they do very well every time, apparently. Americans want to go back to work. People want to go to work, but they want to go back to work when it is safe. I want our schools to open, but I want our schools to open safely. President Trump, months into this pandemic, still has no plans to protect workers. There is one reason people are still out of work: President Trump's failure to get this pandemic under control. Now, as they suggest we drop unemployment from $600 to $200--it is not alarmist--people can lose their homes. A wave of evictions in the middle of this pandemic will set back millions of families. I know it is not something that Senators do very often, but try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is laid off in Akron, OH, or in Eugene, OR, or in Hartford, CT. Someone is laid off. They get that $600. They can stay in their apartments--barely, but they can. They are paying attention--sort of--to what we do here. They do know that their unemployment expires at the end of July. Then they hear of no plan. The Democrats have said: Let's extend the unemployment. Let's do protections. Let's do emergency rental assistance. Let's help our schools. Let's help our local governments. Let's make sure people have enough food on their tables. They hear nothing from the majority party, and people are now beginning to understand that maybe the Senate is not going to do its job, maybe the President really doesn't care about these unemployment benefits. Think about the anxiety a family faces, the uncertainty of: Is my unemployment going to be there? Am I going to be able to stay in my apartment? What am I going to do? How am I going to feed my kids? What is going to happen with schools? We don't know if they are going to be protected, if my kids are going to be safe at school. Essentially, the Trump-McConnell plan tells people: You are on your own. It is time that we, as a body--it is time that the Republicans work with Speaker Pelosi, work with us, that the President pays attention for a moment, and we actually take care of people in their homes; we take care of workers; we take care of people in our schools--instead of turning our backs. It is time to help families stay in their homes. It is time to get people the help they need through this pandemic. It is time that this body lead when the President has failed. Their plans don't come close to being enough. I yield the floor

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President.

Mr. BROWN. I am disappointed. I knew it was coming from Senator Crapo. He is my friend, and I appreciate the cooperation, but this is so much more serious than what we did a few months ago. We have been asking just down the hall--Senator McConnell was just in. We have asked him week after week after week--April, May, June, half of July--to do something about this impending problem we have. This is why we have to do this now. Tomorrow, millions of families face a massive cliff, and they face another one in a week. Right now, millions of Americans are in danger of losing their homes. In the CARES Act, we put a temporary moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for renters and homeowners and properties with federally backed loans, as well as for renters receiving Federal assistance. It is a good thing entirely, just not enough. This rental eviction moratorium expires tomorrow. The last thing we need--imagine this: In the middle of a public health crisis, people who get evicted roam the streets, or they go to an overcrowded shelter, or they go live in their cousin's basement--all potentially spreading the virus. We know the moratorium didn't go far enough. It only covered 28 percent of renters. We should be extending and expanding the moratorium. We should be passing my emergency rental assistance bill to get people through this pandemic, not kicking them out on the streets. We already had a housing crisis in this country before the coronavirus hit. Many of the professions we are now recognizing as essential--one essential worker, a grocery store worker, said: I don't feel essential. They call me essential. I feel expendable because I don't make much money, and they don't protect you at work. Many of those people recognized as essential aren't paid enough to afford housing. Think about this: One-quarter of all renters--one out of four renters--before the pandemic were paying half or more of their income in rent. One thing happens in their lives, and they are on the streets. Now we are seeing millions of people all at once have those same emergencies. They are facing impossible choices between rent and grocery or prescriptions or draining their savings or going to a payday lender. More than 40 percent--40 percent--of Black and Latinx renters report they are unlikely to be able to make their next payment--40 percent. Some people don't have any choice at all. Their only option is eviction. Those evictions are already happening in Columbus, the capital city in Ohio, the largest city in Ohio. In Columbus, they have turned the convention center into an eviction court--an eviction court at the convention center. More eviction filings will be coming if we do nothing. For all those renters who have been protected from eviction by the CARES Act, back rent will suddenly be due. They will owe for March and April and May and June. The same goes for the millions who aren't protected under the CARES Act but got relief from a temporary State or local moratorium or court closure. On top of that, at the end of next week, the additional $600 a week in UI benefits expires. Senator Wyden has done yeoman's work. It is incredible what he was able to do for this unemployment that kept millions and millions and millions--tens of thousands of Oregonians and hundreds of thousands of Ohioans were kept in their homes because of this $600 unemployment check that they got weekly. Now, because Senator McConnell doesn't care, President Trump doesn't care, those people are going to lose that $600. What do they do then? We know that UI didn't cover everyone, but for many people, that $600 was the difference between being able to pay their bills and skipping meals or draining their savings or having to turn to a payday lender. We need to extend the assistance to help families afford their food and prescriptions. We need to provide emergency rental assistance to keep a roof over their heads. This problem isn't some distant cliff. We are all about to go home for the week. This doesn't happen a month from now or 3 months from now; this happens starting this week. It happens when unemployment expires. It happens when these moratoria around the country expire. What is President Trump doing? What is Majority Leader McConnell doing? Nothing. Maybe going to Mar-a-Lago, maybe going back to Kentucky. I don't know. What are they doing about this impending cliff? Nothing. We asked them in March. We asked them in April, in May, and in June. Two-thirds of the way into July, they still refuse to help. Because of this President's failures, this crisis isn't getting any better, the virus continues to spread, people continue to die, small businesses continue to suffer. Why would we let up on the relief people need now? The work we do in this body to get help to people simply can't make up for the lack of leadership from the White House, but it can mitigate some of the damages. The House passed the Heroes Act nearly 2 months ago. That would have eliminated these cliffs. It would have provided $100 billion in emergency relief. But do you know what? That bill has been on the majority leader's desk collecting dust since May. For millions of families about to lose their unemployment, about to lose their homes, and not able to feed their kids, the bills keep coming, the clock keeps ticking, the stress keeps mounting. People are tired of this lack of action and lack of accountability. They are tired of being betrayed--``betrayed'' is the right word-- betrayed by this President, who is supposed to look out for them. They are tired of feeling like no one is on their side. That is why we need to do this. We are supposed to be the greatest country on Earth. The American people should not have to fend for themselves in the middle of a once- in-a-generation crisis. It is time to lead where the President has failed. It is time for Leader McConnell to let us do our job. It is time to keep families from losing their homes. That is really clear. I yield the floor to the sponsor of this other bill that is so very important, Senator Warren.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate en bloc consideration of the following bills: S. 3685, the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act, which I am a prime sponsor of, and S. 4097, Senator Warren's bill, the Protecting Renters from Evictions and Fees Act. I further ask that the bills be considered read a third time and passed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I thank Senators Murphy and Stabenow and Senator Baldwin's terrific leadership on this. I echo Senator Murphy's earlier comments about China. I see on the other side of the aisle Senators and President Trump. It is campaign season. So it is time to bash China, even though they have been in the pockets of China. I was in the other body when corporate interests came and lobbied the House of Representatives and lobbied the Senate asking for China to get all of these trade breaks and tax breaks so that American companies could shut down production in Milwaukee or in Cleveland and move overseas to China and get all kinds of tax breaks. And then my Republican colleagues were also pro-China because they wanted these American corporations and their contributors, starting with Senator McConnell down the hall, to get all of these advantages for China. Now, if you are thinking about running for President of the United States in 2024 as a Republican, you bash China. If you are in a tough reelection right now for the Senate, you bash China. If you are a House Member and afraid of being defeated, you bash China. If you want to help the cause for Donald Trump, you bash China. It doesn't matter that President Trump has been the best friend of China. It doesn't matter the Republican leadership has been in the pocket of Chinese Communist interests because of their support for American corporations. It is just good politics to bash China. So we know that, and Senator Murphy touched on that.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank the Democratic leader. I have a prepared speech I want to make, but I heard Senator Schumer talk about this. These are human beings. We in this body are Senators. We go back and forth to our States. We have the privilege of working pretty safe. We are paid. We aren't exposed to the virus all that much, mostly because we are pretty careful because we can be, and we have jobs where we can be. Think about this. You work in a grocery store, and you are exposed to the coronavirus. A grocery store worker told me one day: They tell me I am essential, but I feel expendable because I am not very safe in this job, and they don't pay me much. What if she gets laid off--that wouldn't happen so much in a grocery store because they are hiring--but in another job, they get laid off. They have to worry about potential eviction. Their unemployment will run out at the end of July. We have done nothing to help them What happens with all these people who get evicted? They end up on the streets or they go to homeless shelters that are too crowded. They go to live on their cousin's couch in the basement. What are the chances of them getting coronavirus? These are human beings in New York and Ohio and Idaho and Tennessee and all over. I can't believe we are not about to do something about this. I thank the leader for his involvement on this issue that is so important. We are 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 more Americans dying. Back in March, South Korea had 90 cases. We had 90 cases. The capital of South Korea is 800 miles from Wuhan where this virus started. They have had fewer than 300 people die. We have had 120,000. They don't have better doctors. They don't have better public health. They don't have better medical scientists. They have better leaders than we do, obviously. Their unemployment rate is under 4 percent and fewer than 300 people have died. The people who have died are our sisters, our brothers, our parents, our friends, and neighbors. The President of the United States and the Republican leader down the hall--who occasionally goes in and out of his office--have stopped pretending to care. They rarely talk about the coronavirus. The President rarely extends any sympathy to our brothers and our sisters and our parents and our friends and our neighbors who have been sick and who have died. It is not the President's rich friends who are dying; it is our grandparents. They are the people in nursing homes. They are disproportionately the Black and Brown workers who caught the virus on the job. The Trump administration and Senator McConnell, essentially, have just given up. We can't. We have to do our jobs. We need to show leadership where the President has failed and where the majority leader--the most powerful person in this body, the top elected official in the Senate, says: ``I see no urgency.'' He sees no urgency because he is not out talking to people who are about to be foreclosed on or evicted from their home. Imagine being evicted in the middle of a pandemic. Imagine the fear and anxiety a family have when they are in that position. We need to fight the health crisis and economic crisis. We can't do one without the other. Millions of Americans are in danger of being evicted and having their homes foreclosed on. The last thing we need to do is turn them out on the streets. We have a housing crisis. Many know this. Senator Menendez has joined us, who is one of the best advocates for these issues of anybody in the Senate. We knew there was a housing crisis before the coronavirus set. We know that one-fourth of renters in this country, before the coronavirus, paid more than half of their income in housing. One thing happens in their life, just one thing. Their car breaks down. Their child gets sick. They get in a car accident, and they are out of work for a week. They get evicted. They don't have any kind of margin there. We know that professions we are recognizing as essential don't pay enough to afford housing. We are 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 keep going back and back, and the interest you pay is more than you originally borrowed. In essence, they have no choice at all. It is not a choice between prescriptions and groceries and draining their savings. It is no choice at all. Far too often, it ends up being eviction. In the CARES Act, we passed emergency expansion of unemployment insurance. I appreciate my friend Senator Crapo, chairman of this committee, who supported that and so much of what is in this package. We provided funding for the most immediate needs of housing and organizations that put a temporary moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for some--not all renters and not nearly all homeowners. It is an important step but not enough. We face two huge cliffs. This is July 1. On 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--that $600 a month ends come July 31. At the end, in many cases, the eviction moratorium ends. The President and Leader McConnell don't seem to notice. They don't 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 3 months, but now you will owe for 4 months. The same goes for millions who aren't protected under the CARES Act but got relief from a temporary State or local moratorium or because their eviction courts were closed in many States. With tens of millions of people filing for unemployment, the President is 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. Forty percent of Black and Latinx renters report they are unlikely able to make their next payment--40 percent. It is not because they are not working hard. They got laid off and are in low-wage jobs. That is why Senator Menendez and I and Senator Schumer and others cosponsored and introduced--39 of my fellow colleagues--introduced the Emergency Rental Assistance Stabilization Act. It would provide $100 billion for emergency rental assistance, including help with missed rent and utility bills. It already passed the House twice. It is included in the Heroes Act that they passed a month ago, but it is sitting on the majority leader's desk because he doesn't seem to notice. For millions of families, the bills keep coming and the clock keeps ticking and the stress keeps mounting. Now a second round of layoffs are starting because this President refuses to lead and get this virus under control. Two weeks ago, they reopened eviction courts in Columbus. They opened the Convention Center to process evictions. Think of the heartache in that building. People go to court and find out they are evicted. The judge brings down a gavel, and their lives turn upside down. Reflect on that. Tens of millions of people lose their jobs. We are not using arenas to play basketball or to play indoor soccer. We are not doing that now. We are using arenas as eviction courts. Before this pandemic, President Trump and his wealthy Cabinet Members didn't realize or didn't care that behind the rosy stock market data this economy was already broken for millions of workers--especially for Black and Brown workers for whom it never worked to begin. Now the Trump administration--sort of like what happened with the Russians paying to kill American troops--the administration either doesn't know it or doesn't care that the bottom is falling 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 and lack of accountability. They are tired of being betrayed by a leader who is supposed to look out for them. They are tired of feeling like no one is on their side. We are the greatest country on the Earth, and we should act like it. American people should not always have to fend for themselves because we have an indifferent majority leader and a President who doesn't know or doesn't care in the middle of this once-in-a-generation crisis. It is time to step up. It is time to lead. It is time to think about what it would be like to face an eviction, knowing your two small children and you don't know where you are going to live. It is probably going to be in a homeless shelter or in a cousin's basement. You know your chances of getting infected with the coronavirus go up. Just 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. 3685, the Emergency Rental Assistance and Rental Market Stabilization Act of 2020. I ask that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, before turning to Senators Menendez, Cortez Masto, Wyden, Klobuchar, Reed, Schatz, and Van Hollen, who all want to speak, I appreciate the comments from my friend--and he really is my friend--from Idaho. We work well together. We want to do regular order. This last bill was passed in March. Then there was April, May, June. Now we are in July. It is not a question of regular order. We would love to sit down with Senator McConnell and start negotiating as to what is next. We have wanted that really from about April 1. No April Fools' joke there; we really wanted to do that. Instead, Senator McConnell just seemed to ignore this. I mean, go back to the human side. What happens when somebody is unemployed? We will be leaving now for 2 weeks. That is why we are doing these unanimous consent requests now. It is because we want to see action. We have asked and asked and begged and begged and pleaded and pleaded. So what happens? We will go back home for 2 more weeks. Right now, if you can't find a job, if you are unemployed and are getting that $600 a week, you start paying attention online or you read the papers or however you get your information, and you find out that this is going to expire at the end of July. You don't know what you are going to do, but you know that you haven't paid rent in 3 months because you have had an eviction moratorium. Senator Crapo talked about the moratorium. Only half of the people who pay mortgages are subject to that moratorium and are protected, and only a third of people who rent are. So, for most people, that is simply not the case. Now that the eviction courts are open and the evictions are starting, what happens to those people? Are we just going to say: Well, let's see it play out. We know what will happen. If you don't have rental assistance, if you lose your unemployment and don't get that $1,200 check, which is basically 1 month's rent for most people, we know what is going to happen to you. Your life is going to turn upside down. That is why we need to move. That is why we need to pass this. I am disappointed that Senator McConnell has shown no interest in doing anything on this other than just sitting tight and hoping that the money he raises from special interests--from tobacco, the gun lobby, 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. BROWN. Thank you, Senator Stabenow, and thank you for introducing this bill and your leadership on all issues agriculture, especially the importance of SNAP and feeding people. This is the United States of America. One specific thing Senator Stabenow said that really caught me was, it is pretty simple: People should have a roof over their head, and people should have food on the table. Think if you don't. I don't think that probably most of us know, intimately, people who don't have enough to eat and people who get evicted. I don't think we feel the anxiety they feel every night, wondering about the next meal. Today is July 1, wondering about the rent payment. Senator Klobuchar said this earlier today; that before the coronavirus, 25 percent of Americans who rent spend more than half their income in rent. So if one thing goes wrong in their life--one thing goes wrong: their car breaks down; they have a problem and their roof leaks; their child gets sick; they get hurt on the job and miss 2 weeks of pay, their life turns upside down. Do we think about them? Do we think about their anxiety? Apparently not. Today, this could have been a really, really, really good day for workers in this country--for fast-food workers, for the people who change the linen in hospitals, for custodians, for data entry people, for home care workers--people who are on their feet all day long working for little pay. It could have been a big-deal day. It could be a red-letter day for them because we could have assured them that they will not get evicted; that they will not get foreclosed on if their hours have been cut back or if they are laid off; and we could have assured them that they would get a little food on the table. But under the leadership of Senator McConnell, we don't ever do that. Senator McConnell's office is back there. I don't know if he ever thinks about people like that. One of my favorite Lincoln quotes is he said: I have to get out of the White House and get my public opinion baths. I have to see how people are living. I want to hear about people's lives. I can't imagine Senator McConnell does any of that; otherwise, he couldn't make these awful, hard-hearted decisions to eliminate unemployment when it ends at the end of this month. Maybe he will decide to compromise, but, right now, if you are an unemployed worker, and you can't find a job in Detroit or in Portland or in Eugene or in St. Paul, you wonder if your unemployment is going to just stop, and you are going to get evicted. You don't have enough food, and we don't do a damn thing about it here. This is the United States of America. Couldn't we help hard-working Americans? Instead, we see an objection to rental assistance. We see an objection to increasing food benefits. I don't get it, the United States of America, that this would possibly happen. We should take up and pass Senator Stabenow's bill right now to increase SNAP benefits. At a time when the country is finally focusing on racial injustice, we have to recognize these issues are all connected. You all know that this pandemic has been the great revealer. It has revealed income inequality. It has revealed racial disparities. It has revealed life expectancies. If you look like me, your life expectancy is a good bit longer than if you are African American or Latino in this country; that our earning power is more and that our educational opportunities are greater. We know all that. Are we doing anything about it here? No, we are not. The President of the United States has put all of that behind him. He doesn't care about the pandemic. He never mentions the 120,000 people in this country--our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers and children and grandparents who have died from this. He never mentions them. He has forgotten about that. He just doesn't want it to affect the stock market. It goes on and on and on. Increased demand at food banks, we hear it all the time. We see the stress on employees and the volunteers at food banks. Governor DeWine, to his credit--a Republican, and I appreciate that he is doing this--sent the National Guard in to help at food banks. Why? Because many, many food bank volunteers are older, and they couldn't risk getting exposed to so many who are coming in for food. The lines are hours and hours and hours long. Food insecurity rates have doubled since March, almost. We are realizing why we have a safety net in this country. We are realizing the importance of government. But, apparently, my colleagues, under Senator McConnell and President Trump, don't want to recognize that government has a role in our lives. The House did its part. It passed the Heroes Act, which has a 15- percent across-the-board increase of SNAP benefits, but, as always, Leader McConnell is standing in the way. Leader McConnell says no to rental assistance. He says no to helping State and local governments. Wait until the layoffs in Michigan and Ohio and Oregon and Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Wait until the government and the local government layoffs come. Then what are we going to do? People shouldn't have to always fend for themselves in the middle of a crisis. We should not have people starving or risking their health to get food. People shouldn't be hungry in this country--in this rich country. It is time for us to step up. It is time to lead where the President has failed. It is time for Senator McConnell to let us do our jobs-- debate this; let's pass it; and let's move forward. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I am disappointed but not surprised that we are not able to confirm the Ex-Im nominees today. There is great bipartisan support for this agency. We did a long reauthorization that was close to unanimous in its support. It is a place in which we have worked together to create American jobs. I understand Senator Toomey's discussion about corporate interests. I am a bit surprised by that when this body passes trade agreement after trade agreement that supports corporate interests and that costs workers their jobs and when this body passed a huge tax cut for the rich 3 years ago that reduced the corporate tax rate and reduced it even further for companies that shut down production in Shelby or Lima or Akron, OH, and companies moved overseas to get their tax breaks and access to low-wage workers. I am just disappointed that we couldn't actually move forward. It is the law of the land to have an Ex-Im Bank. There are two out of five slots that are empty. The President and Chairman of the Ex-Im Bank, Kimberly Reed, a Trump appointee, said very strongly that she needs more help, more boots on the ground, because she could create more jobs that way. Lastly, I was a bit surprised to hear complaints about the Democrats' slow-walking of nominees. I mean, instead of actually doing the people's business here--getting help for unemployed workers and helping people stay in their homes as courts open up and more evictions are on the horizon and as layoffs in local governments and State governments around the country loom--this Senate spends most of its time on confirming judges. My wife and I watched almost the entire rally in Tulsa. It was the first big Trump campaign rally--not that big--or the first purportedly big Trump campaign rally. We watched numbers of my colleagues with no masks in an arena in which public health officials said: Please, don't do that. I heard the President brag about all of the judges he has gotten confirmed. So when I hear any of my colleagues complain that the Democrats have been obstructionists--have tried to stop Trump nominees--just remember what Senator McConnell did with a legitimately chosen Supreme Court nominee and, equally as important, what this body has done in confirming judge after judge, many of them young and many of them far right and out of the political mainstream. The Republicans dutifully vote for them because Senator McConnell tells them to. We know how that works around here. We have so much more work to do than that, but this Senate doesn't seem to be interested. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, for a bit of good news, last year we finally provided certainty to American exporters and their workers by enacting a 7-year reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank's charter. This is a big victory after years of obstruction by a handful of our Republican colleagues. We know what happened here in this Congress. In 2015, during the last debate on reauthorizing the Bank, a small group of opponents, supported by far-right special interests, tried to kill the Bank altogether. When that didn't work, they decided to block all nominees to Ex-Im's Board, denying it the quorum needed to approve transactions greater than $10 million. Their obstruction cost us more than 130,000 jobs a year by 2018. Unfortunately, a few Republicans continue to undermine American manufacturers and our workers by preventing Ex-Im from having a full Board of Directors. It is time for the Senate to consider the long delayed nominations of Republican Paul Shmotolokha and Democrat Claudia Slacik. Today's economic damage from COVID builds, and Senator McConnell, the leader of this body, refuses to let us do our jobs and pass additional help for families and communities of small businesses. Ex-Im will be called on--it is more important than ever--to help ensure the survival of our manufacturing base and thousands of small businesses and their workers. Ex-Im, during the last crisis, added 515 new small business clients in 2009 alone. The stakes are even higher today. There are more than 100 export credit agencies. I believe President Reed, head of the Ex-Im Bank, who is doing a very good job, said 118 in committee this week. There are more than 100 export credit agencies and credit programs around the world that support foreign manufacturers. But our greatest challenge is China. China's export finance activity is larger than all of the export credit provided by the G-7 countries combined, and we can expect China to continue using export credit as a weapon to end manufacturing business in critical sectors. I asked President Reed about that in committee, and she is certain that China's threat will continue and perhaps grow. The President and many of my Republican colleagues want to blame China for darn near everything, including the virus that has taken the lives of 120,000 of our brothers and sisters and parents and sons and daughters. That is 30 percent of the world's deaths. We are 5 percent of the world's population, and we are 30 percent of the world's deaths. That is not because we don't have good doctors and medical workers and all of that. It is because of Presidential leadership. China has not been a model of responsibility, but President Trump needs to stop blaming China for his own failures to do more at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. For my Republican colleagues who profess concern about China, I wish they had shown the same concern with standing up to China during our 4- year fight to support American manufacturers. If you say you are concerned about China, then, you should support filling Ex-Im's Board so our manufacturers can better compete with China. A core role of Ex-Im Board members is educating the business community about how to use the Bank's export financing to expand sales abroad and create more jobs in the United States. Many small businesses are just trying to survive right now. Some of them don't know that Ex- Im is a tool that can help. We need a full Board that can be proactive about offering support. Mr. Shmotolokha--as I said, a Republican nominee--has been nominated as the First Vice President and was reported out of the Banking Committee more than a year ago, and Ms. Slacik was first nominated almost 4 years ago. Neither is controversial. Mr. Shmotolokha has decades of experience in the telecom industry. He deeply understands how China competes. Ms. Slacik previously served at Ex-Im and has more than 30 years of commercial banking experience. Ex-Im has an effective management team under President and Chair Kimberly Reed, but the Bank needs to operate at full capacity during this unprecedented crisis, not missing two of its five members with critical expertise. Don't just take it from me. This shouldn't be partisan. It is not an ideological question. The Banking Committee chair--my counterpart, the chair of the committee--Mike Crapo, supports filling the Ex-Im Board. The U.S. Chamber supports it. The National Association of Manufacturers supports confirming these two particular nominees. On Tuesday, Ex-Im's President and Chair, Kimberly Reed, nominated by President Trump, testified to the Banking Committee that she wants a full Board because Ex-Im is working to make small business transactions 30 percent of its portfolio, as Congress directed. She said: ``That takes a lot of boots on the ground and a lot of work.'' I agree with Ex-Im President Reed completely and Senator Crapo completely. We need a full Board. We need boots on the ground to help small businesses at Ex-Im. We also have a qualified inspector general nominee, Peter Coniglio, who is waiting for confirmation. These nominations are long overdue. I will ask the Senate to consider them immediately. If we want Ex-Im to support more small businesses and help America manufacturers compete against China, there is no excuse for more obstruction Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations: Calendar No. 128, No. 336, and No. 557; that the nominations be confirmed, en bloc; that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order on the nominations; that any related statements be printed in the Record; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate then resume legislative session.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Thank you, Mr. President. Thousands of Americans are protesting in communities across our country demanding that our country be better. The protests are an expression of grief for Ms. Taylor and Mr. Floyd and Mr. Arbery and Mr. Brooks and so many other Black Americans murdered by the people who are supposed to protect them. They are an expression of frustration and anger. It is 2020. It is the year 2020, a century and a half after the official end of slavery, five and a half decades after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and still Black Americans are fighting the same fight. They are also an expression of hope against racism. We demand that our country do better. Demanding that we live up to our founding ideals is one of the most patriotic things anyone can do. We need to listen to the Black voices leading these calls for justice and take real action. That is what Democrats want to do, and my colleagues Senator Harris and Senator Booker and the Congressional Black Caucus in the House have led bicameral efforts and have a serious plan, the Justice in Policing Act. Everybody knows it is a serious plan--everybody. It would implement real, meaningful reform. It would actually hold police accountable. It makes clear: no more choke holds, no more unchecked police misconduct, no more militarization of police. Of course, we know this isn't the only thing we need to do. Policing didn't create institutional racism; it is a product of it and often reinforces it. We have a lot of work to do beyond this, but these reforms are an important start to making policing in our country more just. The Justice in Policing Act would create real change in our justice system, and communities across the country can't afford for us to not act on this meaningful legislation. What we cannot do is pass something just called police reform that does so little to actually reform policing and then turn around and tell Black mothers and fathers whose children who have been slain: See, we solved it. Our work here is done. I respect Senator Scott, and I appreciate his coming to the table and taking on this issue. I know he is fighting an uphill battle with his own caucus. I know that. So many on his side of the aisle don't want to do anything, but they think they need to check the box. I want to work with Senator Scott and with anyone of either party on real solutions. All of us on our side do. But I am not willing to participate in a political charade to vote on something that has no chance to lead to real change. It just checks a box and provides politicians with a talking point. It is an insult to Black families who have been fed empty promise after empty promise, year after year, decade after decade, generation after generation. We need to listen to the communities that suffer the most at the hands of police violence. They all agree that the Senate Republican bill is simply not serious. It will not fix the problems. We will be right back here sooner rather than later. Virtually every major civil rights group opposes this bill: the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; the Urban League; the Young Women's Christian Association, one of the most important civil rights and women's rights organizations in the country. It doesn't ban no-knock warrants; the Justice in Policing Act does. It doesn't stop the militarization of police departments; the Justice in Policing Act does. It doesn't create a national misconduct registry; the Justice in Policing Act does. It doesn't ban choke holds; the Justice in Policing Act does. These are all steps that civil rights groups have said are critical to any reform effort. It is the bare minimum. All this bill offers is more studies of questions we already know the answers to. We don't need more studies. We don't need more task forces. We don't need, as Senator McConnell specializes in, more delaying tactics. We need accountability. The JUSTICE Act even puts us in danger of moving in the opposite direction by providing more funding for policing without adequate rules and regulations and without a similar investment in community support. The NAACP says this bill ``ignores the public demands to reimagine public safety by shrinking the purview of law enforcement and providing better funding to agencies equipped to address the critical needs of communities such as social services, mental health services, and education.'' The Urban League says this Scott bill ``dances around the edges in a show of political posturing.'' We refuse to engage in that political posturing. We refuse to act like it is just a box we check and then we can move on. We refuse to insult Black Americans by pretending--pretending--this is a serious effort. People have suffered too long for that. We have been here before. This isn't the first wave of protests or the second. In 2014, after the murders of Tamir Rice in my city of Cleveland and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, President Obama's legislation laid important groundwork for reform. They studied what reforms would be most effective. They instituted consent decrees with cities to hold departments accountable, and they created a roadmap we could follow. But President Trump undid much of the progress the Obama administration made. The Urban League put out a plan for reform around the time of the murder of Tamir Rice after Michael Brown's murder in 2014. Since then, nearly 1,300 Black men and women--think of that--more than 1,300 Black men and women have been fatally shot by the police since the deaths of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice 6 years ago. This bill does nothing to stop the practices that killed them. Black Americans know their lives are put in danger by police every day. We must listen to them. People all around the country--Black and White and Brown, in small towns and big cities, young and old--are listening, waking up, and joining the calls for change. The peaceful demonstrations and protests all over my State in Black and White neighborhoods and integrated communities and small towns and rural Ohio, in big cities, in suburbs everywhere--let's follow their lead. Let's actually hear the voices that have been silenced for too long. I urge my colleagues to vote no and, instead, to work with us on real, meaningful reform to transform our public safety system into one that actually keeps people safe I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I want to thank my friend Senator Portman and the rest of my colleagues who have been steadfast in their memory and remembrance of Otto Warmbier, a young Ohioan, as Rob said, whose life was cut short by the North Korean regime's awful human rights abuses. I take this moment to recognize--I never knew Otto, but I have gotten to know his parents and his family, and I especially thank Cindy and Fred for their advocacy in memory of their son and turning their grief into something so positive for the country and for the world. Last year, we worked together on sanctions legislation to send a clear bipartisan signal that the United States is serious about maintaining strong economic and diplomatic pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and to stop its human rights abuses. Those abuses took the life of Otto Warmbier. We must continue to shine a light on what the regime does to its own people and to others. I thank Senator Portman for his leadership on this

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Before Senator Portman and I do our unanimous consent, I just can't believe what I heard. Senator Grassley, going to the floor and talking about the media that way, when his majority--they owe their majority to Rush Limbaugh and FOX News, and they swear allegiance to a President of the United States who has lied thousands of times and then attacks the media every time they disagree with him or call him out, attacks the media as fake news, is just shocking to me.