Marsha Blackburn

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I so agree with the comments that the Senator from Wyoming was just making, and I hear them repeated every day in Tennessee by my constituents. I thank my colleagues who have asked me this week how Tennessee is doing. You know, we had another terrible storm. It was our third this year. We have had two tornadoes, and we had lots of power outages and damaged trees that were down in Middle Tennessee. The tornadoes, the storms on Sunday evening, and COVID are a lot for anybody to handle, but I think the Senator's point is so well taken. Wyoming and Tennessee--these are States that are saying: We can do this. We are going to use the resources that are there for us because, yes, we want to get back to work, and we want to get back to normal. What is normal is a question and the right question for people to be asking because what is it going to look like and how is that daily routine going to be reshaped? How do we give up these worries that we have about health and wellness and safety and protection for ourselves and our families, our employers, our employees, and healthcare workers? All of this goes into the shape of a new routine for the day--the things you worry about, the things you are focused on, about your jobs, about businesses, about the future. Another point that comes up regularly from Tennesseans was well made by a Wall Street Journal article that ran on Monday, and it was discussing that the U.S. Government would borrow $4\1/2\ trillion this year for this fiscal year. Now, that is something that I think legitimately could be added to the worry list for those of us who are fiscal conservatives, and we are looking at $25 trillion in debt. We are looking at this debt load and thinking about that in relation to our GDP and thinking about the importance of federalism. We are very concerned about this. We are going to have--CBO says our annual deficit is going to be the highest it has been since World War II. When we think about that, we have to think about the fact that the ``greatest generation'' looked at that, and they said: Let's get in behind this, and let's get that debt down. They were good about that. I think about the parents and relatives and grandparents, and what did they say? If there is a task to be done, let's go do it. That is why they lined up and they fought in World War II, and they reshaped the way our communities worked. They planted victory gardens. They changed their daily routines, and they went to work. They said: Let's get in here, and let's get this job done. They then put their focus on economic growth when they came out of the war, and look at what they accomplished. So while we think about the economy shrinking and jobless numbers growing and our vulnerable citizens, we have to think about the high price that is being paid there. We also have to think about what it does to our children and our grandchildren because our forebears certainly thought about that for us, and our children and grandchildren deserve no less. When I am talking with Tennesseans who are stuck at home, and they are watching the news every night and they are listening to what we are saying--they are in on Zoom meetings, and we are communicating with them daily--they have a tendency to say: How did we get here with a situation that is this bad that occurred this quickly? Should we not have seen this coming? In February, we had some of the best numbers we have ever had economically, and now you look at what has happened in this short transition. And what they will ask is, what kind of breakdown took place in our international order that could have allowed COVID-19 to spread beyond China's borders and into our neighborhoods and our communities? I have to tell you, they are upset about this. They are angry that lives have been disrupted. I had a call from a lady who has high school children, and she said: You know, Marsha, I have to tell you, I went to the grocery store, and I looked at where every product was made before I put it in my cart. The reason she is checking where products are made--she said: I am so angry with China. I am angry with the lies, the deceit, and the lack of information. I am angry that lives have been lost and livelihoods have been lost, and I am angry that my children have missed class days, field days, school sports, graduation, prom, summer camp, and summer jobs. It is a season of their lives that they are not going to recover. It is a loss of life and livelihood. The order that we had is the reason that Tennesseans are turning to us and they are saying: We expect you to investigate what happened, to review it, to oversee it, and to make certain that our preparation is better and that more forethought is given to how we are going to address this--addressing all of these Federal agencies and making certain that the bureaucracy doesn't get in the way of the decisionmaking. At this point, we do know that there are a lot of unknowns, but what we do know is this: The Chinese Government--the Chinese Communist Party--the Chinese Government spent the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak destroying testing samples, intimidating doctors, expelling journalists, hiding information, and lying to the world. You know, it is so interesting that they still have not let the scientists from the CDC into that Wuhan virology lab. They still don't want anybody in there. They lied to everybody about how dangerous this was, and they did that on purpose. Think about it--an intentional act of deception, repeated acts by the Chinese Communist Party to hide something that was an outbreak and try to keep it from the world. This seems inconceivable, that a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a former and likely future member of the Human Rights Council would be so careless with the lives and livelihoods of billions of people, but they did it. If you consider their track record, it does start to make sense because China is not a new problem; it is just a newly recognized problem. I fear America has forgotten the lessons we learned as we watched the Communist dogma burn its way through Eastern Europe, Russia, and Asia, twisting the minds of ambitious men who leveraged political mass murder as a messaging tool, killing tens of millions of innocent people in the process. During the Cold War, the divide between the Soviet bloc and the West was pretty clear. We could see that alignment with the Soviets would derail our global fight for democracy. We also caught glimpses of Mao's China, where upwards of 30 million people died of starvation and disease directly at the hands of party officials--not an appreciation for the sanctity of life--one of our first principles and tenets. Today, the Chinese Communist Party is still following that Soviet playbook, and it is time for the world to remember what that means before time runs out. Although Xi Jinping and the CCP have modernized their methods--they are all about cyber, and they are all about technology--here is what we have to remember: Their philosophy and their goals are exactly the same. They want to dominate the world militarily, economically, and politically. They are wanting domination, and they will step over and run over whatever gets in their way. What we have to do is to remember that China is capable of funneling mass amounts of cash, equipment, and physical support to developing countries. They are doing it all in exchange for loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party's agenda. For example, debt diplomacy schemes--that is their new thing--debt diplomacy schemes have ensnared Sri Lanka and Djibouti and other countries in Africa and Asia. Those countries have in turn opened doors to strategically important ports and waterways and granted access to valuable natural resources. To be clear, these are not aid programs; they are tools of manipulation offered to nations in desperate circumstances. For nations not in desperate circumstances, Beijing has to work a little harder, but they still are working to get the job done. They count on the promise of cheap labor and production and low cost products to open doors with nations that normally are not going to work with somebody with such an abysmal human rights record as China has. The world is recalling some very hard lessons right now, but there is a path forward. We must secure our supply chains, and we must begin to return these critical infrastructure supply chains to the United States to make certain that we can bolster ourselves and that we are not completely dependent on China for some items that are essential for us. The pharmaceutical supply chain is one on which I have focused, with Senator Menendez, with our SAM-C legislation. This week, Senator McSally, Senator Daines, and I introduced the Stop COVID Act to hold China legally liable for the damage caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Our colleagues have other pieces of legislation that have the same focused accountability for China and making certain this doesn't happen to us again. I encourage all of my colleagues to look at those. I also encourage my colleagues to accept that our relationship with China is broken right now and that it was never that great to begin with. But right now, it is broken. It is time for us to realize that we have to treat China as an adversary and we have to protect ourselves as we move forward I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, you know, I have to say that last night was an unusually late night here in Washington, and we were all impatient and our staffs were impatient. The press was impatient. As we talked to people across the State, what we realized was they long have been running out of patience, and I talked about that some on this floor. But for every factory worker and hourly worker and small business owner and songwriter and gig worker--they have all been telling me that they are running out of time, and they have really just been very anxious about what was going to come out of this Chamber. I know that in the days and weeks ahead, as we work through getting relief to communities and individuals and small business owners and large companies, there is going to be a lot of blame that is going to be thrown around. There is going to be some who are going to blame politicians. There are others who are going to blame the way the economy is structured. There are others still who are going to blame the healthcare system. But I will tell you, I think there is a necessity to have a discussion about why we do have this current crisis, and it is because of the leadership of the Chinese Government, the People's Republic of China, that leadership in Beijing. We have gone around and around with activists and media on the point, and I shouldn't have to point out that when I say China is to blame for the spread of the novel coronavirus that we call COVID-19, we do not mean the Chinese people as a whole. Yet we have some who do not want to say that is where it came from. I think we should stop that, and we should move forward with decisions based on fact and with decisions that are based on data. We need to begin to collect those facts and data as they pertain to this disease. That is how we get to the antivirals. That is how we get to having a vaccine. That is how we look at lessons learned so that we don't go through this again, so we plan to tackle some of the unexpected occurrences that will come our way. As we talk about facts, we do know that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. From there, it spread rapidly, and it has had devastating consequences. The economy is crumbling. We are working desperately to shore it up. Innocent people have been in the hospital or sick. I talked to one Tennessean this morning who said: I am happy to report my husband is coming back around. He has been suffering for the last many days with COVID-19. We have the world's healthcare professionals, and what are they doing? They are working to the point of exhaustion. What we have is Beijing's reckless Communist dogma, and they are trying to blame everybody else. Today we are going to move forward with the rescue package. This is the phase 3 package. It is the fourth tranche of money. I am including in that the President's emergency declaration, which put about $50 billion toward fighting this. As we do this and as we find our way forward on addressing this, what we have to do is realize that our relationship with China is going to need to change and change for the better. There is no denying that the way they have conducted themselves has put that relationship on dangerous ground. Today, I invite my colleagues to support the bicameral S. Res. 553 and acknowledge that Beijing intentionally spread misinformation to downplay the severity of COVID-19 and baselessly denied the risk of person-to-person transmission of the disease. They refused to cooperate with international health authorities, including the CDC. During the early days of the outbreak, they censored doctors and journalists. We all remember what happened with the late Dr. Li when he tried to give us the warnings. On top of everything else, they maliciously ignored the health and safety of ethnic minorities. This is the easy part. The facts are there. All we have to do is acknowledge the facts that are there and use this as a beginning, because this resolution is, as I said, bicameral and bipartisan in the House. We have no reason to not push it forward and send the message that we realize what happened to cause a global pandemic. After we acknowledge Beijing's gross malfeasance, we are going to adjust the way we think about China in the context of the economy, our national defense, technology, human rights, and pharmaceutical manufacturing. When you think about it--the fact that Beijing intentionally downplayed the deadly nature of COVID-19--it should come as no surprise. For decades, China has made it a business. It has been their business to search out our vulnerabilities, exploit those vulnerabilities, and then what do they try to do? They try to use that as leverage against us. It is time for us to say: No more. Another component I have talked about this week on the floor is our pharmaceutical supply chain. On February 27, 2020, the FDA announced the shortage of a drug used to treat victims of COVID-19. Imagine that. There was a drug shortage. They attributed the shortage to difficulties obtaining the active ingredient in this pharmaceutical. The active ingredients are called APIs. They couldn't get it from the site in China that manufactured it because that site had been affected by COVID-19. So here we are. We need this component to go into a pharmaceutical, and we cannot get it because the factory that produces it has been affected by COVID-19. This is not the first time this has happened. In 2016, we saw a shortage of an important antibiotic when the sole source of its production--the only place on the globe that produced this antibiotic-- was in China. That factory was shut down. We couldn't get it. Our vulnerability is not limited to one drug or even just a handful of drugs. In 2007 and 2008, 246 people died after taking a contaminated blood thinner that came directly from a factory in China. They died-- 246 people--just like that. Routine inspections didn't catch the contaminant, and the drugs flowed right into our medicine cabinets. In 2010, regulators have also found serious problems with batches of thyroid medication, muscle relaxers, and antibiotics. This week I got an email from a Tennesseean, and he said: I saw what you said on the floor, and I want to let you know, I take a heart medication, and it was just recalled because it contained a carcinogen, and it was made in China. Think about this. These are the pharmaceuticals we take to return ourselves to health and wellness and to manage chronic conditions. Here we have example after example of things that are contaminated and are not what they are intended to be. These are basic, common medications. In 2018, the FDA recalled several blood pressure medications made in China that were contaminated with cancer-causing toxins. Now, I would imagine there are a few people who come to work every day in this building, who take a blood pressure medication. What if you had been taking one for a period of time, and it contained the cancer-causing toxins? Americans deserve better than this from their pharmaceutical supply chain. If we allow this to continue, we are going to do so at our own peril. I encourage my colleagues to support the bipartisan Securing America's Medicine Cabinet, or SAM-C Act. Senator Menendez has worked on this legislation with me, and I am grateful to him for his support. The Presiding Officer is working on legislation that would address some of these issues. Bring this pharmaceutical manufacturing back into the United States of America. We need to end Chinese control over our health and wellness in this pharmaceutical supply chain. This may seem like something that is too large or too risky an undertaking, but we have already paid dearly for our reliance on Chinese drug manufacturers, and it is not going to stop, because that vulnerability is leveraged in the hands of madmen in Beijing who seek nothing but power and will go to any lengths to acquire that power. They don't care whom they hurt. That is clear with this global pandemic. They don't care if it is innocent people who are sick or maybe even lose their lives. And they defy us--they defy us--when we try to stop them. It is time that we rise to the challenge and that we return the supply chain. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, as we are all facing this, we are hearing from our Tennesseans; we are hearing from small businesses; and people are trying to hang on to every piece of information they can get. It helps them to stay informed, and we encourage everyone: Stay informed. Stay up to the minute. Talk to us. Be on our websites and social media. We all want to get to you the information you need as quickly as we get it because that is how we are going to defeat this--by realizing that we are all in this together, and it is going to take every single one of us doing our part to get past it. In my family, we had this mantra that we grew up with, and it was kind of my mother's way of saying: Don't sit around and wait. Do things. And it was--there were two things she would always say: Leave things in better shape than you found them. In other words, always be helping to improve a situation. Leave things in better shape than you found them. She would always say ``Give back more than you take,'' stressing to us the importance of being a giver to our community, to our family, to our society, and not being a taker, sitting around feeling like you are entitled and you want people to bring things to you. So in our family, as we approached situations that may have been less than wonderful or if there had been a hurricane--I grew up in South Mississippi--or a terrible storm or some other event, we would always look at it and say ``Leave things in better shape than you found them'' and ``Give back more than you take.'' It was important that action be a part of the solution, not only for our family and our community but right now. Taking the right actions, exercising good judgment, is something that is important for our entire Nation, and Tennesseans are hard at work helping to address this coronavirus--COVID-19--crisis that we are under. Right now, there are 166 members of the Tennessee National Guard who are training to provide support to the Tennessee Department of Health. All together, the State currently plans to activate 250 guardsmen to help out at clinics across the State. They will be helping with assessments and screening. To these National Guardsmen, Guardswomen, to these members and their families who are going to activate in this crisis, bless you--God bless you--and thank you for once again stepping up to help defend our Nation and to meet our Nation's needs. The Tennessee Air National Guard assisted in transporting 1 million testing kits. They put these on the C-17s that are housed there in Memphis and flew them from Aviano Air Base in Italy to Memphis, and then those kits were divided out and sent to healthcare providers all across the Nation to get testing into communities where our citizens are fearing they may have contracted COVID-19. In finding solutions, our scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are working hard in participation with other labs to find a vaccine for this, the Denison Lab--and I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Denison last week. We know that, in conjunction with other labs, they are expediting the testing that is necessary and finding therapies, anti-virals, vaccines. This is something they are focusing on, and they are working as hard as they possibly can, around the clock, to find these solutions. Of course, we do know if China had been more forthcoming, if they had not tried to keep this a secret--imagine trying to keep this a secret, which is exactly what they tried to do-- we would be further along in this process, but we are so grateful--so, so grateful--for these brilliant minds that are researching this and are building off past research from coronaviruses and from SARS, and they are whittling down what can be used to fight this. Indeed, the supercomputer at Oak Ridge and the team of scientists there, working with the supercomputer, the Summit, were able to put in a lot of information and distill down to 77 drugs that could be effective in this fight against COVID-19. You may remember that just as we identified our first case of COVID- 19 in Tennessee, that was the week that West and Middle Tennessee were struck by a devastating series of tornadoes. TEMA, our emergency management agency, and all of the volunteers who have worked on this have done an unbelievable job in the midst of dealing with unprecedented devastation. Again, we thank President Trump for his attention to this, and the people of Tennessee are so grateful for his attention to the concerns of those hit with the tornado and his visit to the State and FEMA and TEMA working together to address that. So our State has had a full plate, and I say thank you to every Tennessean who has looked at the situation that we are in and decided that they are going to do whatever they can to help. We have a lot of distillers in our State, and, God bless them, they are stepping up and instead of distilling whiskey, they are moving to sanitizers. And, yes, to those distillers, we know there is an excise tax problem, and we are on it, trying to resolve that for you. I have to give a shout-out to our singers and our songwriters, our musicians. While they cannot go fill the audience at one of the clubs on Lower Broad or one of the concert venues in so many places around our State and up in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, what they are doing is hosting virtual concerts on their own Instagram and Facebook, and they are doing this every single day, trying to bring a bit of joy to lift our hearts during a time when we are quarantining and staying separate and apart. How wonderful that we have this technology that will allow us to walk through this entire process of this pandemic together. Here in DC, we are doing our best to be as positive as we possibly can and to be productive because we know, as I said on this floor yesterday, that this is a very difficult time for small businesses, and it is why I have worked so very consistently and diligently through this process of negotiating our legislative solution to be sure that it includes a small business definition that is going to include the self- employed and the sole proprietors and the independent contractors so that they are not left in the lurch. We are continuing to do that. We are hearing from people every day. I heard from the manager of a YMCA that is outside of Nashville, and they have 65 part-time employees who work in that facility. This manager is concerned about how nonprofits and small businesses are going to end up being treated in this legislation. He is certainly wanting to keep those people on the payroll. And do you know what? I agree with him. We want people to stay on the payroll. When we get past this 15-day period--we are about halfway through it right now, 15 days to slow the spread that the President and Vice President have put in place--we want people to be going back to work. I heard from another business owner. It is a family-owned business, and they do maintenance services like plumbing and electrical work, and they have employees who have been with them since 1993. They have never had to lay off one single employee, and they are concerned about where uncertainty is. We have retail--fabulous, homegrown retail--entities in Middle Tennessee, around Nashville. One of those employers has five stores. They are headquartered in Franklin, TN, right outside of Nashville. He is keeping people working even though they are barely bringing in revenue, and he needs us to pass this bill, this rescue bill, so he can keep those employees on the payroll. Then a company that has stood itself up in the last several years--and they are a valuable asset in working with the vulnerable population, moving people from poverty to work--is wanting to keep people working. We are hearing from all of these about the importance of having this bill that will be a bipartisan bill to address the concerns of businesses, large and small, and to address the concerns of workers who are working for those businesses, large and small. What we have had in the bipartisan bill--and hopefully this will move forward--is $350 billion in loans for small businesses, and if people stay working, those become grants; $500 billion in emergency relief through low-interest loans that could go to businesses and hospitals; $242 billion in emergency appropriations across Federal agencies. Seventy-five percent of that money would go to State, local, and Tribal governments, which are much better at managing their affairs than the Federal Government. There is $250 billion in increased and expanded unemployment benefits. I talked about this yesterday. If you normally are going to get $300 in unemployment, with the $600 plus-up, you are at $900 a week. These are all things to keep the economy going. There is an additional $75 billion for hospitals and our healthcare workers. So there is much that is in there. Imagine a bipartisan bill including this--including tax rebates for Americans, $1,200 for individuals, $2,400 for joint filers, $500 per dependent child. There are student loan deferments for those who are affected by COVID-19. All of that--all of that is in a bill. It is so incredibly disappointing to know that we had a failed vote--not once but twice--to get cloture to move forward to get on this bill. With all of these good-faith negotiations, I have just been appalled, as I said yesterday, with the comments to restructure this bill to meet the progressive vision. You know, there is a season for everything. There is a time and place for everything, and this is neither the time nor the place to have a debate about things like collective bargaining powers for unions and making our airlines meet emissions standards--the Green New Deal emissions standards by 2025. For goodness' sake, let's keep the airlines flying right now. Wind and solar tax credits have nothing--nothing--to do with COVID-19. Come on, I say to my friends across the aisle, let's set these aside for the appropriate season to discuss this, but it is not now. Election assistance funding? That has nothing to do with COVID-19. Corporate board diversity? It has nothing to do with COVID-19. Same-day voter registration? The list goes on and on. There is a time and a place, there is a season, and right now, dealing with the crisis in front of us is what should be the center of our attention. I think that yesterday my fellow Republicans and I made it abundantly clear. We do not have time. At this point in time, we do not have time for political games and antics based around a progressive policy wish list. It is disrespectful of the American people. It is hurtful to those who are directly affected by COVID-19, which, indeed, is everybody. It is important for us to move forward. I didn't get everything I wanted. I would have preferred a payroll tax holiday. I would have preferred rebating income taxes that have been paid for businesses and for individuals. I would have even liked to have seen more of my bipartisan SAM-C Act, Securing America's Medicine Cabinet. But adults realize you are not going to get everything you want, and reasonable people realize you are not going to get everything you want. This is a time where we should be respectful and we should be reasonable and we should apply common sense. We know the American people are expecting our best efforts, and they are looking forward to a solution. As I said yesterday, I had talked to someone who said: You know, I am scared to death. This is a small business owner who struggled. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allowed them to move forward with growth. There are teenagers in the house, and homeschool is starting today. She said: I am screaming inside silently. I do not want the kids to know that I am afraid. So I encourage my colleagues to lay down your progressive policy wish list. Lay it down. Set it aside. There is a season to everything. There is a time, there is a season, and I encourage you to realize that this is neither the time nor the season. Let's address the critical issues in front of us. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, it is so interesting to sit here and listen to our colleagues because the thing that touches me the most is that we are all talking to, talking with, and listening to our constituents, and certainly Tennesseans are talking with us and expressing some of their fears. Earlier today, I had a call from a small business owner who is in Tennessee, and she said: I am going to throw one of your lines back at you. I said: Well, what is that? She said: I have heard you say before that sometimes so-and-so was on your last nerve. I said: Yes, you have heard me say that. She said: Well, you people in Washington now are on my last nerve. I said: Really? She said: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You know, I don't want my children to know that I am afraid. I don't want them to hear me be fearful. But inside, I am screaming in silence because I need you all to get something done. See, this is a typical small business owner. She and her husband started a business. They struggled until the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act came along. What happened? They saw growth. This Main Street business became their embodiment of the American dream. They were excited. Things were good. Today she is saying: I don't know if we should hang on to our employees. I don't know if we should close the doors. I don't know what we should do, and you all can't make a decision. I told her I fully understood where she was because it makes me anxious too. It disappoints me tremendously. I think there is a lot to be said about negotiating in good faith and exercising good faith and honesty with the people whom you want to work with. And certainly, the majority leader and the task forces felt that they were working in good faith. What they had structured sounded really good to a lot of Tennesseans. You had a bill that basically was healthcare assistance, food assistance, and financial assistance--different pockets. But most importantly, they were components that would meet the needs. We discussed some of these. For small businesses and independent contractors and sole proprietors and the self-employed--and I do thank Marco Rubio and Susan Collins for working with me on making certain that we included those entities. You are talking about $250 billion that would be there through unemployment insurance. These sole proprietors and small businesses would be able to go into that and stand themselves up by drawing that money down, keeping people employed, and then having it serve as a grant. Also for our rural communities, for telehealth and for our hospitals, there is $75 billion. It was a good thing. Let's take healthcare to the person instead of the person having to move to the healthcare. Great. That is the common sense in this bill that our friends across the aisle walked away from. They walked away from it. They said no to the unemployment benefits, no to small business, no to telehealth. There were also additional funds that would be there for employers to keep people working so that these jobs would be there. I will tell you this. Most folks, like the small business owner whom I talked about today, are offended when they hear about backroom negotiations and private negotiations. What they want to see is action. They want to see us on this floor. They are probably a little bit amused that there is not one single Democrat coming down here to defend their vote--not one. They are not down here. They are not speaking up as to why they do not want to help. What are they willing to do? The House is gone. They have been gone now for 10 days. They are not here. They are not working. Speaker Pelosi came back. Nancy came right back into town and threw a grenade into the negotiations. She wants to write her own bill. That bill is something. I have to tell you, I looked through it before I came down here because I thought, surely, they are not as far off the reservation as I was beginning to hear. Yes, they are. They want tax credits for solar energy and wind energy, which has no place in negotiating a package to address the issues from COVID-19. It has zero connection to that. Tax credits for solar energy is one of their big wishes in the Green New Deal. They have been all about it. This is where they are going to put their emphasis. They had one of their Members of leadership say the global coronavirus pandemic is a ``tremendous opportunity to restrict things to fit a progressive vision.'' There they go. There they go again. Don't let this crisis go to waste. Let's load this up. This is the vehicle that is moving. Here we go. This is a way we can get the Green New Deal. This is how we can realize our socialist dreams. This is how we go for government control. You got it, baby. This bill is moving. Let's load this up. Also, they have provisions in here to force employers to give special treatment to Big Labor. That has nothing to do with solving this crisis that we face right now. It has nothing to do with the small business owner figuring out if they are going to lay people off or they are going to be able to meet payroll. Since I have been down here on this floor, I have had two phone calls. One was from somebody in the hotel business and another from somebody with a real estate firm saying: Help me. Help me with this. Should we lay them off? Are you all going to get something done? Is this going to be something that will help us? Another of her dreams is early voting. She wants to have early voting and day-of voting. Yes. Let's pack the ballot box. Here we go. And all these States, by the way--California, Illinois, New York-- States that cannot manage their affairs; States that are running up their State income tax; States that have more debt than revenue--come on, let's bail them out. This is the vehicle. We can go ahead and help these blue States. Send them the money because they have been reckless with the taxpayers' dollar. Bail them out. New emission standards for the airlines. Let me tell you something. Wanting to make the airline industry carbon neutral by 2025 is a debate to have another day. I want to tell you something right now. You have heard people talk about being the only person on the plane or 1 of 14 on the plane, 1 of 5 on the plane. Right now, keeping the planes flying is the issue because until we have answers for this health crisis, people are not going to go back to work and planes are not going to fly. Common sense would go a long way in these discussions. They also want to micromanage corporate boards. They want total and complete student loan forgiveness. They wanted $20 billion to bail out the Postal Service. I could go on and on. It is the socialist progressive wish list. Throw it all out there and then blame it on us when they don't get it. Try to force some of it onto the bill. There were Democratic Senators that helped to negotiate this bill. They got many provisions in this bill that they wanted. I didn't get everything I wanted. I thought, my goodness, I prefer to see that we would refund all of the income tax you paid this year for individuals and businesses. The system is set up, and money could be backed out. I like the payroll tax holiday. That is something that, as a conservative, I have supported for quite a while. Why should anybody have to pay the Federal Government for the privilege of hiring somebody and why should an employee have to pay the Federal Government for the privilege of working? It is common sense. I also would have liked to have seen us use the employment security system for getting money to employees. It is set up. It is coordinated with the States. These are all things I would have liked to have seen. I knew I wasn't going to get everything I wanted. But I will tell you this. When I read that there is a letter, a ``Dear Colleague'' letter that has gone out in the House from Speaker Pelosi, and she has boasted that the majority leader had to postpone the vote on the motion to proceed and thanks to the minority leader, they didn't get the 60 votes required--I look at that, and I think, what kind of joy do you take in that? Here was a measure that had bipartisan support in the Senate. It was a measure that would bring relief to small businesses and to families and to friends who are receiving a diagnosis--a positive test for COVID-19--and people who are worried about how they are going to be payrolled this week, workers who are worried if they are going to have a job, small business owners who are crying inside because they do not know what we are going to do. Yet our colleagues across the aisle are absent from the floor and the colleagues on the other side of the Dome have been away for 10 days, and they are not offering a rational solution. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, it has been so interesting talking to our Tennesseans as they have faced these issues we have with coronavirus and what is happening, our response to it, and how we are going to fight it. And yes, we are going to win this war, and we are going to defeat this, but we have to look at it as our health, food, and financial assistance. Last night, a couple of my Tennesseans and I were discussing this-- what their thoughts and their questions to me were about the relationship we have with China and how can we trust that we know what China knew, that we know when they knew it, and their lack of transparency around what happened with COVID-19. As we have gotten a couple of months past the start of this, these questions are unanswered. As I was telling our Tennesseans on the phone last night, even as this virus that came out of Wuhan, China--they had it in December. It has now touched six continents, and we know people are dealing with containment. They are dealing with mitigation. They are dealing with going through the process of getting the anti-virals, getting the vaccines that are necessary to deal with COVID-19. The questions that people have around this are compounded by the growing realization of how China has chosen not to be honest and not to be transparent in their dealings with the rest of the world. The way Beijing handled its initial response to the coronavirus was nothing new. In fact, deflection and lies meant to protect the Communist Party is part of their standard operating procedure. They have defied norms governing the protection of human rights. They embrace innovation by incursion, defy property rights, and steal intellectual property as a matter of course. We have U.S. companies that have suffered for decades from what China has done to steal their intellectual property, to infringe on their intellectual property. They defy the sovereignty of other nations and territories, and they defy what should be their role as a leader in the global economy. Certainly, they want to be a market economy or so they say, but look at their behavior. It is this act of defiance that makes them incredibly dangerous. I have to tell you, this has been something that has been going on for quite a while, but we only need to go back a decade to place a flag marking our awareness of what has become a very familiar story. Over the decades, as China started to manufacture and started to pull U.S. manufacturers there and then started to mistreat their intellectual property rights, people became aware of what was going on. It was right at 10 years ago, when I was a Member in the House, that we were doing much of the same work that we are doing right now in the U.S. Senate; we were preparing a defense authorization bill. Even then we realized the threat that China and Chinese state-owned companies posed to our national security. We drafted amendments to that year's NDAA, blocking the purchase of Huawei-supplied equipment. Indeed, we are still hearing about the need to block the purchase of Huawei equipment not only for us but for our allies. That action was 10 years ago, but China's influence has continued to grow. What we have done is pretty much our part in the Senate to expose those bad actions, even as the rest of the world has allowed Beijing to co-opt the trappings of capitalism to perpetuate totalitarianism. Last year, we saw the people of Hong Kong rise up on behalf of democracy and self-determination. Indeed, to this day, that fight goes on even though the threats and fears of COVID-19 have caused those protesters to have to protest in a different way. I cosponsored the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act and sponsored legislation prohibiting the commercial export of covered munition items to the Hong Kong police force. But the world moves on, even as that standoff in Hong Kong continues. The Senate was forced to pen a resolution asking the International Olympic Committee to rebid the 2022 Winter Games to a country that respects human rights. That was really quite a bold move. It leaves me to wonder, why was China given this honor in the first place? I have to tell you, nobody seems to really know the answer to that question. The aggression they display toward Taiwan and Tibet and the outright repression of the Uighurs--this is something that has gone unchecked many times due to fear of economic retaliation. I have addressed this body several times on the subject of Huawei and China's leveraging of the impending 5G rollout to create national security vulnerabilities in our network. Their efforts to undermine our sovereignty are not limited to high-tech espionage. Indeed, their goal is to place their equipment everywhere. That is why it is so incredibly affordable to so many countries and so many of our allies. In placing this equipment, they are seeking to establish their own high-tech cyber spy network. We know what they are up to. This month, I introduced a bill to temper the influence of China- backed Confucius Institutes on American college campuses. We all have read the stories lately of how they have infiltrated some of our institutions of higher learning and how they have co-opted some of the staff or professors. This is something that needs our attention. It is followed on the heels of the Stop Higher Education Espionage and Theft Act--another effort to prevent Beijing from increasing its hold on the minds of our younger generations. Time and again, we have called Chinese tech companies like Tik Tok onto the carpet for their censorship, their data collection, and their privacy practices--or lack of privacy, we should say. Yet content from their popular apps still dominates social media headlines. China's hold on the global economy has never been more apparent. Now there are reports that Beijing used the media and keyword censorship to suppress information about the coronavirus. Yet Beijing remains defiant, attacking President Trump in tweets and accusing everyday Americans of racism for daring to suggest that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. They are, as many younger people like to say, gaslighting us, and it is madness. It brings us to ask, when will enough be enough? We must not let our present concerns about the response to coronavirus deter us from thinking long term. This pandemic will change our relationship with China in every single way. It is inevitable. Starting now, we must take advantage of this knowledge. As we think about an exit strategy from the coronavirus crisis, we have to think about this. As we think about a way forward to bring manufacturing back to the United States, we need to remember this.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I have spoken several times about the vulnerabilities in our pharmaceutical supply chain and again encourage my colleagues to support the bipartisan Securing America's Medicine Cabinet Act--or SAM-C Act--which I am sponsoring alongside my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Menendez. Without intervention, the FDA expects the pharmaceutical industry will continue to rely on Chinese companies to make the active pharmaceutical ingredients--or the APIs--that are necessary for so many of our prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The threat it poses to our supply chain is real. On February 27, 2020, the FDA announced the shortage of one drug that is used to treat patients with coronavirus. They attributed the shortage to difficulties obtaining the API from a site in China. That site has been affected by--guess what--coronavirus. We do not need to remain vulnerable. We need to realize that we are dealing with someone who has not been transparent. They have hidden information from us. They are causing shortages of drugs and vaccines and antibiotics. It is time for us to learn from these lessons. If we ignore them, we do so at our own peril. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, we are continuing to roll out our response to the coronavirus and to this pandemic, and I want to encourage my colleagues to begin to think about how we move past this immediate crisis that we are in and begin to look toward what is going to happen in the future with our supply chains and our healthcare delivery systems. As we talk about the problems that are before us today, let us not forget that 3 months from now, 6 months from now, a year from now, we need to be looking at today and say: Here were the lessons learned, and these are the steps that we have taken to make certain that it doesn't happen again. What we have learned and what many Americans know is something that some of us started working on a couple of years back. It was looking at the fact that Americans and American drug manufacturers rely heavily on Chinese companies to produce active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, as they are called. We also know that bad actors in China are poised to use that vulnerability as leverage and to use it as a way to disrupt and interrupt the supply chain of those active pharmaceutical ingredients coming into our country. This is an issue that we cannot wait to address. This is something we need to do right now. That is why my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Menendez, and I introduced the Securing America's Medicine Cabinet Act, or the SAM-C Act, as a way to encourage and increase American manufacturing of these active pharmaceutical ingredients. Here is what it would do. It would expand upon the Emerging Technology Program, which is housed within the FDA, to prioritize issues related to national security and critical drug shortages and bring that pharmaceutical manufacturing out of China and back into the United States, not in 5 years or 10 years but now. It is something that we need to do right now. In addition, the SAM-C Act authorizes $100 million to develop centers of excellence for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing in order to develop these innovations. These centers will be partnerships between institutes of learning and the private sector. Certainly, we have talked a lot about public-private partnerships and the necessity of them to move us through this crisis, and we have cheered as the President has brought private sector companies into the White House to work with him on addressing these issues. One thing we have to realize--and why this is important that we do it now--is that the number of API manufacturing facilities in China is still growing. China has found a vulnerability in our system, and it is continuing to exploit that vulnerability. Although we don't yet know down to the precise percentage how dependent we are on these Chinese APIs, we do know that the more Chinese products that flow into the United States, the more potential there is for trouble and the more vulnerable our supply chain is. The bottom line is that, if we continue to rely on the Chinese to stay healthy, we will be doing so at our own peril. So I am asking my colleagues to join Senator Menendez and me and support this legislation as a part of these coronavirus response efforts that we are making. The spread of the Chinese coronavirus has put considerable strains on our healthcare delivery system. Primary care physicians are overbooked, and potential patients are afraid of going to clinics at all for fear of putting an elderly or a vulnerable person at risk. I am in daily contact with physicians' offices and nurses' practices. I am hearing from those who care for the elderly and from caregivers for those who have complex medical conditions, and this is a primary concern. For that reason, conversations here on Capitol Hill have turned toward boosting telehealth services in order to free up in-person appointments for those who need them the most. I am so grateful that the Vice President and the coronavirus task force have made this a priority. We appreciate that. The coverage of these efforts has made telemedicine feel, to many, like a new concept, but thank goodness we started building the foundation to support healthcare technology years before COVID-19 spread beyond China's borders. As just a little bit of history, back in 2015, when I was over in the House, I introduced the SOFTWARE Act, which was to eliminate redtape that was preventing innovation in healthcare delivery. The bill ended up being rolled into a piece of legislation called the 21st Century Cures Act, which we passed through the House in late 2015. In 2016, it cleared the Senate. The SOFTWARE Act directs the FDA to come up with a more efficient way of approving healthcare software so it will not discourage innovation because, at that point, that is what we were beginning to see. The redtape would just pile up on the new concepts in delivery, and by the time one would get approved, a new generation of technology would begin to emerge. SOFTWARE's provisions made it possible for regulators and the private sector to bring us a lot of new innovations. We have Teladoc, Noom, Fitbit, and hundreds of other healthcare applications that we carry on our mobile devices. We have also seen many hospitals conduct post- operation care to patients once they go home. They are entering their data on iPads that are specific to their surgeries, and those physicians are monitoring their care and recoveries. This push for responsible tech policy has gone hand in hand with efforts to bring broadband to rural and unserved areas. Last year, I introduced the Internet Exchange Act, which enables these communities to support the high-speed internet connections that the telehealth software requires. Now, we all know that you cannot have access to 21st century healthcare or emergency response without having access to high-speed internet. These concepts go hand in hand. At a time when we are facing a global pandemic and the impact that this has on our country and our citizens, we know everyone needs that access and should be able to go in and access this care. Last year, as part of a rural health agenda that my team and I developed in working with our State and local electeds, I introduced the Telehealth Across State Lines Act so that we could bring healthcare to the patient rather than always taking the patient to the healthcare. I am so appreciative that Administrator Verma, of CMS, is paying close attention to this and is working carefully to relax some of the rules Telehealth Across State Lines would lead to the creation of uniform national best practices for the provision of telemedicine across State lines. Second, it would set up a grant program to expand existing telehealth programs and incentivize the adoption of telehealth by Medicare and Medicaid--two things that are needed. We have seen these gaps in access to care. This is one way we can make certain that everyone, during these times of a pandemic, has access to care. Anyone who has ever videoconferenced into a meeting-- and I will tell you that my staff has been doing that with employers and with organizations and with citizens around our State--knows this is a game-changer during a time when people are not able to go in for meetings. My support for telemedicine has been grounded in more than just convenience. The forethought behind this push for telemedicine was to ask: How do we make it more accessible? How do we make certain the care you are able to receive does not depend on the ZIP Code in which you live? Right now, as we are talking about testing and communicating with doctors and being curious as to if we have symptoms and how to treat symptoms, accessibility is so important. What we have learned from the dangers posed by fears of the Wuhan, China, coronavirus and the spreading of this virus is that it has made us realize that, actually, telemedicine and access to telemedicine makes accessing healthcare safer in so many instances--for the elderly, for those who are homebound, for those with complex medical situations. My colleagues will recall, during the first meeting that our conference had with the administration regarding the coronavirus response, I specifically asked officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to push for the temporary relief of section No. 1135 regulations, which would prevent patients from taking advantage of telehealth services. Aren't we grateful that this has been lifted? I thank President Trump for green-lighting that. It is what you call a win for consumers who have a difficult time in getting to physicians' offices. It is time for Medicaid and private health insurers to get on board and cover these telehealth services. For our private insurers, it will make it easier for those who are covered under their insurance plans to get to the care they need in a timely manner. For our State Medicaid officials, this will involve rethinking some of their licensures and other procedures. For insurance companies, it will involve making complex but responsible business decisions. Let's remember we are all in this fight together against the coronavirus. We are in this fight together. It is up to us to find solutions as to how Americans are going to be able to access the care they need when they need it. We need to address these things immediately because this is no longer our just talking about convenience or our being able to call in to a meeting. The coronavirus has evolved into a global threat. Technology that can spare people from the risk of exposure should not be seen as a luxury or only available to a few. We have the tools we need to suppress the transmission of COVID-19 in the United States, and we have a plan to secure our pharmaceutical and our healthcare supply chains. It is time to get it done. We are the United States of America. We can come together and respond to this attack by this virus. We can defeat it, and we can make certain there is a way to provide access to healthcare for all Americans regardless of the ZIP Codes in which they live. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I have so appreciated the comments of my colleagues today as they have come to the floor and they have talked about how they are approaching what is happening with this coronavirus pandemic and what they are hearing from the citizens of their States. I know each of us is spending our day listening to the people in our States and listening to their concerns and hearing them say: As you look at how you are going to address this, don't forget about us. Don't forget about us--whether it is independent contractors who are working in the music industry or television producers--I was talking to one last night; they lost $9,000 worth of production work this week--or theme park owners who are trying to figure out how they are going to work through this or the CEO of one of our Nation's airlines earlier today. People are looking to us to make certain that we address this situation in a way that is going to stabilize it and that is going to provide assistance. As we have worked through this, one of the things I think sometimes is just a really good thing to do is to stop and kind of take stock of where we are and how it is going to be best to move forward. I think it is important to realize that we have already directed resources to the coronavirus pandemic. There is the coronavirus supplemental, which was an $8.3 billion piece of legislation. That may seem like a lifetime ago to some of those in our States. It was a couple of weeks ago. That money is already making its way out. Tennessee received $10 million this week in order to work on public health needs around the coronavirus. We also had our President move forward without hesitation to do the national emergency declaration. That freed up $50 billion of resources. That is money that is going to our States and our localities to help with the response for this, to get those resources where they need to go. Of course, there was legislation that passed today, and in that, I supported the Johnson amendment. I do fully believe that working through this with our unemployment insurance and our employment security system is the way to go. I have supported the payroll tax holiday. I am one of those who have always said: Why should we have to pay the government to hire somebody? So the payroll tax holiday made sense to me. The Johnson amendment that I cosponsored makes sense to me, that we could do it because we could more quickly get resources to individuals, from the Federal Government to the taxpayer, to the individual. That is what we need to do at this time. Tennessee is very blessed. We have had a very low unemployment rate. But what we have seen in the last 2 or 3 weeks is that unemployment claims have quadrupled, and we expect this is going to continue as workers, independent contractors, sole proprietors, and small businesses see their income stream or their revenue stream go from something healthy to zero. That has happened literally overnight, just within a few days as the economy started to shut down. What we hear from people is, look, this is not something we have done, it is something that has been done to us, and we are being asked to close our doors and to change the way we operate. So they repeatedly say: Don't forget about us, and do not give us mandates we cannot afford, because what we need is assistance to bridge that gap. When we talk about mandates that you can't afford, Tennesseans are very concerned about the paid family leave provisions that are in the legislation today. What I have heard repeatedly--repeatedly--whether it is someone who runs a nursing staffing company or a furniture store or a small manufacturing company, is that the tax credit provision is not going to work with cash flow. They mention that repeatedly. So my hope is that we can come together on a bipartisan basis and we can address the concerns that are there around that because we want our small businesses to keep those doors open and to return to health and vitality. We need to listen to what they are saying, which is, help to stabilize, to assist us and to help us bridge this divide so that we can come back. We also need to be listening to our nonprofits that are saying the same thing about the family leave provisions and their concerns there. You know, we have to bear in mind that all of these employers really care for and value their employees. They want to do right by them. They want to do right by their communities. And certainly they want to do right by the country. But they need our listening ears, and they need our attention. Another thing that has come up that is of concern that was in the legislation that cleared the Chamber today is the Medicaid expansion provisions and the way it affects the non-expansion States. It adversely impacts States like Tennessee that were non-expansion States. There are some definitional changes that need to be made in that provision so that we are not adversely impacting these States. For our Tennessee business owners and employers, this is a very tedious and emotional time. I talked with an employer last night who laid off 20 people at a small business. They had to do it in order to keep the doors open. But what they all tell me is that they are really very grateful that the President, the Vice President, and the task force are focused on getting the virus under control, getting the response from our country under control, and making certain that we address the economic and financial impact of this. They know that it is going to be a long way back on this one, that there isn't a quick fix. They realize that the way this all happened had to do with China and China knowing in December that they had a virus, that they had a problem. Knowing that China has lied to us; they kept hidden information; they have not been forthcoming; they did not make the viral sample available to us in a timely manner; and that lack of transparency is something that they point to and they say that we are all in this fight together, we want to make certain that China does not have the ability to take down our economy or take down our healthcare system. It is one of the reasons--two of the provisions that I have that will come before us are provisions that are focused on, one, bringing our production of pharmaceuticals back to the United States. Senator Menendez has joined me in this provision, and it is the SAM-C bill-- Securing America's Medicine Cabinet, the SAM-C legislation. What this would do is incentivize returning pharmaceutical production to the United States, allowing our colleges and universities to access funds from a $100 million grant pool to partner up with pharmaceutical companies so that we never find ourselves in the position of not being able to get the active pharmaceutical ingredients--they are called APIs--those ingredients that are necessary to make vaccines and antivirals for viruses like the COVID-19. Right now, China is saying they may not let us have one of the products that we need. We commend our scientists and our companies and people like the Denison Lab at Vanderbilt University for the work they are doing to find that vaccine and to test that vaccine. We commend these labs for the work they are doing to find the right antivirals to help people fight this so that we are able to slow the growth, and we are able to cap the growth in this. Now, we know also that as we go through this, telehealth is vitally important. This is something that I have discussed. As you know, I have discussed it with our conference, I have discussed it with the White House, and with the President, and the Vice President, and I am grateful to see the changes that we have in telehealth that is making it more available. I was talking with a physician from another State--not Tennessee. I was talking with him yesterday, and he said: Well, our insurance company, which kind of is the only big insurance provider in this State, had decided they would allow telehealth through the end of the month. It is vitally important that we move these medically complex patients and the elderly--especially elderly who have comorbidities and have complex medical situations--to telehealth. It is important that CMS provide specificity and clarity on how this is going to be paid for these Medicaid and Medicare enrollees. We commend CMS for moving forward through the 1135 waiver system-- that section of the code with Medicaid--for making some adjustments, but it is imperative that for these private insurance companies, that we allow more specificity so we can utilize them. We have a situation. We know that this virus came out of Wuhan, China. We know they knew about it in December. We know that the rest of the world found out about it about 6 weeks later. We know it has caused a global pandemic. We know every life is precious, and we grieve the loss of those lives, the inconvenience, and also the loss of the ability of so many people to have their businesses and be able to run their businesses, and families who are not able to experience what they had planned for this year. So we know that we are going to be working ahead. We are going to stay here until we get much of this addressed and answer some of the questions that our constituents have. We do know we have done some work, but there is a lot more work to do, and we fully realize we can rise to this occasion. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, on Tuesday, my colleague Senator Menendez and I introduced the Securing America's Medicine Cabinet--or SAM-C Act--to encourage an increase in American manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients. These are termed APIs. We did this because China dominates this portion of the pharmaceutical manufacturing and given last night's news, I wanted to come back for a moment and highlight the important work that is being done in Tennessee and across the country to support our Nation's response to this coronavirus pandemic. Many Americans are very concerned, as they ought to be, about the availability of testing. As you all know, this virus is novel, which means we did not have test kits on the shelves before the outbreak started. The tests that we do have are not instant. When people think of an instant test, they think of a flu test or a pregnancy test. The test that is required for this virus is not an instant test, but this is in the works, and we do have top scientists at Vanderbilt University and other institutions who are developing faster techniques, but, for now, any test offered must be sent to a lab to be processed and analyzed. Although these tests provide important information, we must continue to focus on preventing transmission where we can. Some of the other work that is being done will help lead us to a faster path for antivirals and for vaccines. There is work in East Tennessee, right outside of Knoxville, at the Oak Ridge National Lab. Researchers have been using cutting-edge technology to identify drug candidates for targeting the novel coronavirus. They are using Summit, which is the world's fastest supercomputer. What they have done is feed in information about the coronaviruses, MRSA, SARS, and H1N1--the different viruses--and they crunched it down, and they have identified 77 drug candidates for targeting the novel coronavirus that we know is COVID-19. Enabled by the screening of this database of more than 8,000 known drug compounds, the researchers accomplished in days what would have taken years for scientists to do in the lab. In my remarks on the floor yesterday, I went into detail about the decades-long effort by scientists at Vanderbilt University's Denison Lab to study coronaviruses. I want to reiterate one important point-- that all across the country, scientists just like our friends at Vanderbilt are developing the antivirals and the vaccines that will eventually be used to combat multiple strains of virus, not just this particular outbreak but in addition to this outbreak. The United States is a leader in research and development of pharmaceuticals. Our labs, talent, and capacity for innovation are the envy of the world, but right now we depend heavily on Chinese and foreign companies to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients. When this happens, we lose control of our supply. So while we have all of this great work done in Oak Ridge, TN, and we have this wonderful work done in the Denison Lab at Vanderbilt, we need something like the SAM-C Act to enable us to have access to these drugs and these compounds that they are identifying that we need. The SAM-C Act will not solve our immediate problem. Once passed, it will incentivize companies that specialize in development, manufacturing, and workforce training to bring those operations back to the safety of U.S.-based labs and institutes of learning, and it will expedite having the antivirals and the vaccines that are needed to prevent this. I encourage all of my colleagues to think ahead, offer their support to S. 3432, and let's commit to securing our pharmaceutical supply chain. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, for over 100 years, Australia and the United States have enjoyed a mateship made possible by our mutual commitment to democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. After signing 1951's Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty, or ANZUS, Treaty, our two nations entered into a new level of cooperation on military matters; and for the past 15 years, we have shared our firefighting resources with one another. In August 2018, over 100 Australian firefighters rushed to our aid as wildfires threatened to destroy communities in California, Oregon, and Washington. When our Australian friends asked for support last year as they struggled to contain devastating bushfires, we were happy to return the favor. I am especially pleased today to honor two Tennesseans who heard the cries for help and, in spite of the danger, asked, Where do I sign up? Janan Hay Sharp, who serves with the Forest Service, and Tommy M. Barnes, who serves with the National Park Service, embody the values that set Tennesseans apart: bravery, compassion, and an eager willingness to lighten another's load. This month, I was happy to support S. Res. 527, a resolution led by my friends Senator John Barrasso and Senator Ben Cardin recognizing the longstanding partnership between the United States and Australia and honoring firefighters like Janan and Tommy, who rushed toward the flames to save a friend in danger. They are a rare breed indeed, and today, I encourage all Tennesseans to take a moment to reflect upon their bravery and their commitment to a very special ally.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I will have to tell you and all of my colleagues, as they probably know, this has been a fairly tough month for my fellow Tennesseans. As you know, last week, a tornado tore through eight counties. This started in West Tennessee and exited through Middle Tennessee up on the plateau of our great State. This left multiple communities absolutely devastated. We have mourned the loss of life and livelihoods and property. I want to, again, thank President Trump for coming to Tennessee to offer his support and for listening to those who were so adversely impacted by this storm and for being there to encourage the emergency management officials, the volunteers, and all of the elected community officials. We have been encouraged that our Tennesseans have been joined from volunteers all across the country who have shown up to help. They have donated their time, their supplies, and their money to our restoration and rebuilding and recovery and cleanup efforts. To all of those who have volunteered and offered their support, you have made such a difference in the lives of so many Tennessee families. We know this is going to be a long and difficult recovery. After all of this occurred, on Wednesday of last week, Tennessee health officials confirmed our first case of coronavirus. It was in a patient just south of Nashville in Williamson County. With all that said, that is a lot to handle in any given week, but Tennesseans and all Americans should be encouraged that there is a lot of good work that is taking place. As I said, the rebuilding efforts span all of those counties in our State. And then, of course, right there in Nashville are efforts to combat the spread of the 2019 novel coronavirus. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Denison Lab is one of the top 20 labs in the world that is studying this disease. For over 25 years, they received Federal grants for their research into how these viruses make us sick, and they are currently helping with the development of treatments, anti-virals, and vaccines to deal with coronaviruses, and especially the COVID-19. I am just so pleased with the progress they are making. Today I want to draw attention to a threat that has, again, been highlighted because of this coronavirus outbreak. Pharmaceuticals are no different from other products in that they are usually manufactured in pieces--the active ingredients in one place and the inactive ingredients in another place and so on. Currently, only 28 percent of the facilities producing active pharmaceutical ingredients--and you will hear these referred to by the acronym APIs-- only 28 percent of the facilities producing these APIs are in the United States. What this means is that American consumers rely heavily on foreign-sourced drugs in order to stay healthy. Meanwhile, the number of Chinese facilities producing these APIs has more than doubled since 2010. Think about that. Only 28 percent of all the facilities globally are in the United States. China has doubled the number of facilities in China that are producing these APIs. Why does this matter? Last year, experts at the FDA testified before Congress that while the United States is a world leader in drug development, we are falling behind in drug manufacturing. We do all the R&D here. We have the great scientific minds here. They are creating these products. They are manufactured primarily in China. Their testimony identified the cessation of American manufacturing of APIs as a key health and security concern because it created vulnerabilities in the U.S. supply chain. The FDA is not alone in their concerns. In its 2019 report to Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission revealed ``serious deficiencies in health and safety standards in China's pharmaceutical sector.'' That is not something that somebody just read on the internet. It is not an assumption. That is the 2019 report to Congress from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review. The coronavirus outbreak is drawing much needed attention to the possibility of a global health crisis. Indeed, today the WHO classified it as a pandemic. I have to tell you, I think awareness is not enough. If the Congress does not act, our dependency on China for medications will continue to put American lives at risk. Yesterday, alongside my friend, the Senator from New Jersey, Mr. Menendez, I introduced the Securing America's Medicine Cabinet, or the SAM-C Act, to encourage an increase in American manufacturing of APIs. The act would expand upon the Emerging Technology Program within the FDA to prioritize issues related to national security and critical drug shortages and bring pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs back to the United States. In addition, the SAM-C Act authorizes $100 million to develop centers of excellence for advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing in order to develop these innovations. These centers will be partnerships between institutes of learning and the private sector. The number of API manufacturing facilities in China is still growing. It grows every single day. Although we cannot yet quantify our dependence on China's APIs, we do know the more Chinese products flow into the United States, the more potential there is for trouble. In 2007 and 2008, 246 people died as a result of adulterated Heparin, a widely used blood thinner. An investigation by the Centers for Disease Control determined that batches of Heparin manufactured in China had been contaminated. The contaminant, which is very cheap, was similar in chemical structure to Heparin and went undetected in routine tests. Since 2010, regulators have also found serious problems with batches of thyroid medication, muscle relaxers, and antibiotics. In 2018, the FDA recalled a number of blood pressure medications made in China that were contaminated with cancer-causing toxins. To be perfectly clear though, adulteration isn't the only concern. In 2016, an explosion at a Chinese factory resulted in a global shortage of an important antibiotic because that factory was the drug's sole source of production. Think about that. The factory exploded, and there was a shortage of an important antibiotic because they were the only people who were making it. Without intervention, the FDA expects the pharmaceutical industry will continue to rely on Chinese companies to make these active pharmaceutical ingredients, the APIs. On February 27, 2020, the FDA announced the shortage of one drug that was used to treat patients with the coronavirus. They attributed the shortage to difficulties obtaining--guess what--the active pharmaceutical ingredients from a site in China that has been affected by the disease. The status quo has made us vulnerable, but the fix is sitting right in front of us. If we fail to act, we are placing our future in the hands of unregulated foreign countries we know to be bad actors. We have a lot of work to do before we will be able to call our supply chain and our healthcare delivery systems secure. But if we are learning anything, we are learning we need to bring this production back into the United States where there is proper oversight, where we know we are not going to have contamination in this supply chain for these active pharmaceutical ingredients. We must embrace telehealth, especially across State lines, and halt the breakdown of care in our rural areas. I have introduced bills that will help support those things, and I welcome additional cosponsors. The door is always open. All of this activity is here to secure our supply chain and our ability to access the healthcare that Americans need. Today I specifically ask that our colleagues support S. 3432, the SAM-C Act, Securing America's Medicine Cabinet Act. That is a first step in securing this pharmaceutical supply chain and securing the health and wellness of American consumers. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN

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

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, as I begin my remarks today, I express my thanks to my colleagues here in this Chamber and, certainly, all across Capitol Hill who have extended their thoughts and their prayers and have asked ``How are you doing?'' when it comes to talking about Tennessee and our citizens and those who have been so adversely impacted by the tornadoes this week. The damage is absolutely indescribable. Even though, on early Tuesday morning, when the news broke and I started watching some of the local TV stations that had put drones up there around Nashville and Putnam County and over in Wilson County, I could not appreciate the extent of this damage until I walked these neighborhoods. That is something I did yesterday. You can see the damage. Communities are now debris fields. It is just indescribable the power of this storm--an F-2, an F-3, and an F-4. These tornadoes ripped through Tennessee--through Carroll County, Gibson County, Humphreys County, Benton County, Davidson County, Wilson County, and Putnam County. The damage that they have seen on the ground is sometimes for 50 miles. It is just absolutely indescribable. What we have seen are many families who have been left homeless. Their homes are now piles of rubble. We have seen over 100,000 Tennesseans initially without electricity, but because of the good work of the TVA, which is the power generator, and our local power distributors, we have that number worked down to 23,550. So that is beginning to improve, and the lights are, indeed, coming back on. Yet the damage is still there and the loss of property. It is going to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Those estimates are beginning to take place, but there is a lot of work to do. The loss of life is, indeed, the most tender as 24 individuals have lost their lives--18 in Putnam County. We have children who have lost their lives. We have dozens who have been injured and who have been hospitalized. We still have some individuals who are unaccounted for and are missing. So there is a long way back to normalcy as we look at this situation. I will tell you that I give a lot of credit to our Governor and the leadership that he has shown as we have worked through this. He did get a formal request submitted to FEMA today. He has asked for President Trump to issue a major disaster declaration. This is going to include individual assistance for Davidson, Putnam, and Wilson Counties; public assistance for Benton, Carroll, Davidson, Gibson, Putnam, and Wilson Counties; and hazard mitigation statewide. He has also requested Small Business Administration loans for several counties. This is catastrophic damage. As our teams worked together to assess the situation and as I worked yesterday with our State's insurance commissioner; with Director Sheehan of TEMA, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency; with General Holmes, our Adjutant General for the National Guard; and FEMA, with its regional Director, one of the things that was so significant was that the debris field went on for miles and miles and miles outside of the areas that were hit. So we know this is going to take a little while. I do have some information that I want to share. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency has taken the lead in organizing the shelters and the command centers on the ground in order to get this information out to individuals in the State and to the individuals around the country who have family who live in these areas. There are three contact points that I want to bring attention to: the home and property cleanup hotline, the statewide crisis phone line, and then, for individuals who are trying to figure out how to access help for recovery, the website TN.gov/TEMA. There is a resource directory-- an aggregation--of where to go to find help and information. The crisis phone line is a mental health phone line because the impact of this kind of tragedy just cannot be understated. So, as I said, two important phone numbers--one can help you if you need emergency cleanup, and another will connect you to trained mental health professionals. Individuals should be encouraged to call if they have need there. On the website, you will find shelter locations, emergency accommodations and transportation, and just some practical information on that cleanup and then kind of next steps as you go about filing claims and rebuilding. So we do look forward to individuals having access to this information and using it because we know that we want to be there and help them to recover during this terrible time. Tennessee is a State that is known for its volunteer spirit, and as you look through some of the social media posts that were coming out during this storm and after the storm and you see the horror of what was transpiring with the tornadoes, you also see hope, and you see how the elected officials--those local officials in these communities--have stepped up and have taken the lead. Our mayors and our sheriffs are to be commended for the work they are doing and also our emergency response personnel, all of our first responders, for the way they have shown up and they have worked through. Some of them worked through 36, 40 hours without a break in order to respond to this. I was at the State Emergency Operations Center, and in Tennessee we have, at our National Guard facility, the TEMA response facility, and individuals would be so encouraged to see this working because you have representatives from the highway patrol and from the TBI and from the Red Cross and from so many different State agencies, and they are working there together to meet the needs of Tennesseans. On Tuesday evening, when I landed, I went straight over to the operations center, and there was one gentleman, and he had his puppy there. So of course that was the first thing I wanted to do, was meet his pet. He was there working with him. And I found out that this employee, Brandon Ward, actually had slept on a cot there at the facility because he had lost his home. So what did he do? The storm hits. His home gets hit. He heads over to work. He has his pet with him. He was staying there, helping others even though he had experienced loss. We were at a shelter, and there was a nurse, a paramedic, who was there, and I found out she was from Bowling Green, KY. I asked why she had chosen to come. She said: We knew you needed help. So she came from Bowling Green to fill in until someone could get there and handle a shift. Helping people. Meeting their needs. We have seen Tennesseans by the thousands show up. Big smiles. They have got water. They have got food. They have brought along chainsaws and tractors and bulldozers and four wheelers--everything needed to clear these debris fields, to move into these communities where houses once stood, and to help these individuals who are seeking to push forward in rebuilding their lives, cleaning up the damage that has been left by this storm, sifting through what was once their home and finding those precious mementos. That is what is happening in Tennessee this week. We know this is going to be a long road back, but we also know we are getting special attention with FEMA being on the ground. Tomorrow, we are going to welcome President Trump to the State, and he will be able to see firsthand what has happened by an unprecedented storm that swept through this State on the ground for 50 miles--an F-4 tornado--and he is also going to see Tennesseans working together. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I come to the floor today to say that we have gotten some good news this week from our Southern border. We are making progress on the wall that President Trump has fought so hard for, and that progress will be further supported by billions of dollars in new appropriations funding to reach the President's goal of 450 miles by 2021. Think about it--450 miles that have been secured. What we do know is that as a result of all of these ramped-up security efforts, border apprehensions are down 78 percent from last May's high of over 130,000. We have had falling--falling--numbers every single month for the last 8 months. This is a very good thing. It shows the word is getting out that we are serious about our sovereignty, about securing our border, about ending the access that traffickers-- human traffickers, drug traffickers--have had on that border. That is a good thing. This good news is clouded a little bit by the reality that all is still not well. Border Patrol officials estimate that nearly 1 million migrants--I want you to think about that number: nearly 1 million migrants--crossed our border illegally and evaded apprehension in fiscal 2019. That is the severity of this problem. Think about it--1 million people, additional people. Think about the size of a population of 1 million people. That is the number that moved into our country. We do not know who they are. We do not know where they have come from. We do not know if they are traffickers. We do not know if they wish us well or their intent for coming into our country. While things are trending in the right direction, I think it is fair to say we are not out of the woods yet on this issue of illegal immigration. Until we get this influx of illegal aliens under control and manage the fallout of allowing so many people to come into this country and live illegally, this is what we have. Every town is a border town and every State will remain a border State because of the problems they have to face every single day. Let me give an example. On December 29, 2018, Knoxville, TN, fire chief D. J. Corcoran and his wife Wendy's lives were changed forever, and their happy, healthy family was brutally transformed into a grieving Angel Family. On that day, an illegal alien in Tennessee struck and killed their 22-year-old son, Pierce Corcoran. It was a head-on car crash. Pierce died that day. A few months later, that illegal alien was deported to Mexico. I have to tell you, for me, as I have worked with the Corcorans since this time and shared their grief, this is an unsatisfying end to a tragic series of events that never should have happened because the man responsible for Pierce's death never should have been in Tennessee in the first place. That story is heartbreaking. Unfortunately, it is not unique. In 2019, another Tennessean, named Debbie Burgess, was killed in a hit- and-run accident caused by an illegal alien with a lengthy criminal record. Just last week in Sevier County, TN--and this is something that has shaken the entire community--two elementary school children walking to school were hit by an illegal alien who fled the scene. Tragic. Every Member of this body is well aware that our country's permissive attitude toward illegal immigration has real-life consequences. Our constant debate over policy and funding does not exist solely in the abstraction of politics. Starting right now, we must look internally and ask ourselves what changes we can make to disincentivize illegal entry into the United States. What can we do? It seems so easy to people: Come across the border illegally. You might be able to get benefits. You can have access to education. You can work. There is a way to do this and live in the shadows. How do we disincentivize this? While Tennessee, along with a majority of States, prohibits driver's licenses for illegal aliens, a growing number of States are moving in the opposite direction and allowing dangerous, open-border-style policies. This month, I introduced the Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act, and its purpose is precisely what the title of this bill says it will do. You can see from the poster, there are some States in red. If you live in one of those States, your State--your State--has agreed to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Let me tell you a little bit more about this. Once it is signed into law, the bill will halt certain Department of Justice grant funding to States that defy Federal immigration law, noncomplying States--that means those States that say: We are not going to comply with Federal law. Oh, no, not us. We are going to be a sanctuary for those who are illegally in the country and are choosing to break the law. They decided they are going to be a sanctuary for illegal aliens. That is what you call a noncomplying State. Those States will no longer enjoy access to the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. This is a program that was created to fund local law enforcement and criminal justice initiatives. In 2019, States that issued driver's licenses to illegal immigrants received over $50 million from this program, so their choice to defy the law will result in no small sacrifice. It is their choice. They can choose, if they want to, to say: We refuse to comply with Federal law. They can make that choice, but they are not going to get taxpayer money through law enforcement grants. This is common sense. I want to encourage my colleagues to think back to the fear and confusion that we all experienced in the weeks after 9/11. I am sure you remember that time. I remember that time. I remember that feeling of, what can we do? Not only had we known tremendous loss, we had discovered that we were not nearly as secure as we thought we were in this country. One of the loopholes we discovered came about because people said: How in the world could these terrorists, hijackers, have so easily obtained a State-issued driver's license that allowed them to board those planes and carry out those deadly attacks? People said: How could this have happened? How could they have done this? We found a loophole. What did we do? We closed that loophole. We passed the REAL ID Act. This isn't done as a form of repression; it is a practical way of managing a vulnerability that was found in State agency paperwork. The REAL ID Act is something we are all complying with now. You have to take a Social Security number. You have to take proof of residence. You have to take other documentation that shows you are who you claim to be. Less than 20 years later, look at where we are. Thirteen States and the District of Columbia have regressed into more lax policies--pre-9/ 11 policies. Often, they only require a passport or a consular card as proof of identity. Here is the kicker: If you do not have the right documents--meaning you don't have a passport, you don't have a birth certificate, you don't have a Social Security number, you don't have proof of residency, you don't have proof of employment--these States are saying: Never mind; doesn't matter. We are going to let you sign an affidavit--an affidavit--to say you are not able to secure a Social Security number. What are these States doing? They are creating, again, a vulnerability in the system. There are people who will go sign an affidavit. Guess what. All of a sudden, they have a REAL ID. These States say: Oh, we are going to stamp it for State-use only. I think they say that with a wink-wink, nod-nod because they know they are putting a vulnerability in that system. They are letting people that-- we do not know who they are, we do not know their intent for being in this country, but they are going to allow this reckless policy to go into effect. And it is reckless. It goes hand in hand with other broad sanctuary rules that increase crime and that frustrate the efforts of our local law enforcement officials. Here is another bit of good news: The courts are coming down on the side of security. Yesterday, a Federal appeals court--the Second Circuit Court in New York--upheld President Trump's authority to enact anti-illegal immigration, anti-sanctuary policies similar to what would be codified in my legislation. It would allow for those funds to be restricted for those entities that are making a choice, taking a vote, and deciding they don't want to comply with Federal law. I will tell you, I should not have to stand on the floor of the Senate and beg our colleagues to support policies that stand with the rule of law and prevent tragedies like the deaths of Pierce Corcoran and Debbie Burgess. I ask my colleagues to join me in this effort, join me in standing with the rule of law. Join me in standing with these Angel Families who know grief that I wish no one had to know and experience. Join me in supporting the Stop Greenlighting Driver Licenses for Illegal Immigrants Act. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I object.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I would like to articulate the reason for the objection to the legislation brought forward by the minority. You would think that, after spending weeks in this Chamber litigating the finer points of their disagreements with the President's foreign policy, our friends in the minority would be weary of picking another partisan fight. But here we go again. They are attempting to bypass this body's Rules Committee on behalf of various bills that will seize control over elections from the States and take it from the States. And where do they want to put it? They want it to rest in the hands of Washington, DC, bureaucrats. As I have said on this floor before, I served on a local election commission. I know how hard our friends and neighbors and our local election commissions and our State election commissions work to ensure the integrity of the ballot box. What would these bills that are going to be brought forward this morning do? They would centralize control over the vote, and what we have seen is big centralized out-of-control government. We would end up having a less safe electoral process. It would be more vulnerable to attack. It is absolutely baffling to me that the minority would fight so hard for such a disastrous vision, but, as I said, here we go again. Their actions show complete contempt for the progress that Congress, the intelligence community, and State-level authorities have made to protect our elections without resorting to a Federal power grab. Since fiscal year 2018, Congress has invested $805 million in protecting the vote. This is the largest investment in elections since the 2002 Help America Vote Act. And do you know what? It is making a difference. It is making a difference. Why, then, would the minority continue to demand changes that would redirect that investment to support groups like the Iowa Democratic Party, whose mishandling of their own caucus ended in what has been termed by everyone as an unmitigated disaster? They know it is not necessary, and yet time and again they are trying to force this issue. They feel like only the bureaucrats in Washington, DC, can handle this. So in response to this gross hypocrisy, today I am filing my own bill directing the Government Accountability Office to look into the debacle in Iowa. I send a bill to the desk, and I ask that it be appropriately referred. This is not an attack. This is a recognition that any complex process comes with the risk of mistakes or mismanagement. We are all vulnerable. We must recognize this. We must investigate allegations of fraud and mismanagement, and, of course, there should be lessons learned from the past. To ignore these problems is to resign ourselves to a fatally flawed democratic process. On that note, I do object to the motion, and I ask my colleagues to remember that we have reached a bipartisan consensus on the importance of securing our elections. We are all against election interference. We are all against foreign interference in elections. We are all for free and fair elections, and we are all for protecting the ballot box. So I hope my Democratic colleagues do not resort to sending out more fundraising letters saying that the Republicans are opposed to a secure election process, because that is a falsehood. We are not. We are for a fair process. We do not believe federalizing that process and taking the power away from local governments and State governments is the way to do that. So let's focus on the bipartisan consensus, and let's not throw that away in the name of having another partisan grudge match. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I object.