Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be withdrawn, the Capito substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to, and the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 240, S. 384.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Wednesday, August 5; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, another day has come and gone in this once-in-a-century national battle for our country. Yesterday, more of our neighbors had to say goodbye to loved ones whose lives were claimed by this virus. Yesterday, more doctors and more nurses worked long shifts on the frontlines, fighting to heal strangers and limit the national death toll that now exceeds 150,000. Yesterday, more workers brought home pink slips, and more Main Street businesses saw the end of their PPP lifelines fast approaching. Yesterday, more laid-off Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance or lay awake wondering about next month's rent. Yesterday, more school officials wondered what to tell parents, students, and teachers about September. What happened here in the Capitol yesterday? With the American people fighting all of these battles and more, what did the Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader do with yet another day of deliberations? Yet again, it was the exact same refrain. It never seems to change: We are feeling optimistic. We spoke very politely to the administration, but we are still nowhere close on the substance. It has now been more than a week since Senate Republicans released a serious proposal for another major rescue package--$1 trillion for kids, jobs, and healthcare. The Democrats are blocking it all. It is like they expect applause for merely keeping a civil tone with the President's team--never mind they are still obstructing any action for our country. Senate Republicans want to revive a Federal add-on to unemployment insurance, which the Democratic leader would not let us extend last week. We want to send another round of direct checks straight into families' pockets. We want to supply generous, new incentives for rehiring American workers and workplace safety. We want to send historic money to schools for reopening and invest even more in testing and vaccine research. We want legal protections so schools, churches, charities, and businesses can reopen. The Democrats say they want many of the same things. I certainly believe that many of my Democratic colleagues who serve as ranking members want many of the same things and could easily find common ground with our chairmen if the Democratic leader would let them talk. Instead, we have gotten a full week of the Speaker of the House's and the Democratic leader's shutting out all of their own Members and refusing to move an inch off of demands that everyone knows are outlandish. The Democratic leaders want the entirety of their massive, far-left wish list--all of it. Speaker Pelosi is still agitating for strange, new special interest carve-outs for the marijuana industry--even claiming they are COVID-related. She said that, with respect to this virus, marijuana is ``a therapy that has proven successful.'' You can't make this up. I hope she shared her breakthrough with Dr. Fauci. In the other corner, Leader Schumer is still demanding massive tax cuts for rich people in blue States or he won't let any relief become law. These are the kinds of nongermane pet projects that our Democratic colleagues are demanding--not a dime for kids, jobs, and healthcare unless the administration let's them check off every leftwing lobbyist's Christmas list 5 months early. Let's listen to what Speaker Pelosi's own House Democrats said about this bill when they passed it. Here is what House Democrats said about the bill that Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader now say is their absolute redline: One quote: ``The partisan nature and wide scope of this bill make it doomed upon arrival in the Senate.'' Another quote: ``In response to COVID-19, our relief efforts must be targeted, timely, and transparent. The HEROES Act does not meet those standards.'' Another quote: ``This isn't a plan; it's a wish list.'' Another quote: ``Partisan gamesmanship.'' Another quote: ``Some in my own party . . . have decided to use this package as an opportunity to make political statements and propose a bill that goes far beyond pandemic relief and has no chance at becoming law, further declaring the help so many need.'' Those are quotes from House Democrats' views about the so-called Heroes Act, but now the entire thing is the price of admission for giving hard-hit Americans any more aid. What worked back in March with the CARES Act were productive and good-faith conversations between chairmen and ranking members--a bipartisan process led by Members. But this time, the Speaker and the Democratic leader have forbidden their Members from negotiating at all. The ranking member on HELP cannot even discuss testing with Chairman Alexander. The ranking member on Small Business cannot even discuss PPP with Chairman Rubio and Chairman Collins. No, no; the Speaker and the Democratic leader only want themselves at the table so that behind closed doors they can say that nobody gets another dime of Federal unemployment money; nobody gets extra school funding; and nobody gets more money for testing and PPE unless they burn cash on 1,000 unrelated things. I am talking about things like stimulus checks for illegal immigrants; a trillion-dollar slush fund for States, even though States and localities have only spent a quarter of the money we sent them in March. Let me say that again--a trillion-dollar slush fund for States, even though States and localities have only spent a quarter of the money we sent them in March. In my State, the State administration only spent 6 percent of the money we sent them--6 percent--diversity and inclusion studies, a soil health program, and on and on and on. The House bill does all these things while completely forgetting a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program--no second round for PPP--and sending less money for schools than the Senate bill. This is what they will not budge from. And every day the script is the same, and the script is: We had a pleasant conversation, but we don't feel like making a deal. Maybe tomorrow. Here is the problem: Every day the Democratic leaders repeat the same act here in the Capitol, they are letting down the struggling people who need our help. Day after day, Americans are trying to stay above water--layoffs, benefit cuts, threats of eviction, the possibility of losing a family business forever, towns wondering if their Main Streets will ever come back, school principals with no idea what to tell communities. That is the reality in Kentucky and in all 50 States, and none of these people are helped one bit, not one bit, by the Democratic leaders' charade. What American families need is an outcome, a bipartisan result. Senate Republicans have had a roadmap sitting on the table for more than a week. We didn't put every Republican wish list item in history into an 1,800-page encyclopedia and insist on starting there. We built a serious starting place based on the bipartisan programs we passed back in March--unanimously, by the way--and what the country needs now. If our colleagues across the aisle would do the same--frankly, if our colleagues across the aisle were even allowed--allowed to take part in the discussions, we could get this done for our country. We did it in March. We could do it again, but both sides have to actually want it.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 645.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Senate mourns the tragedy that we now know took place Thursday, off the coast of Southern California. According to official reports, nine American servicemembers--eight marines and one sailor--died during a training exercise. These young servicemembers were all between the ages of 19 and 23. It is absolutely heartbreaking. The units involved are among our most unique and specialized amphibious forces. Their training is what allows them to deploy at a moment's notice, under the harshest conditions, in the most remote and unsupported locations. As the search for survivors turned into a recovery mission, the Nation was reminded that even what our men and women in uniform may consider to be routine still involves serious risk and personal sacrifice. I extend the Senate's sympathies to the families of those lost and our gratitude to the Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard personnel who are searching to bring their comrades home.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, this week, officials from the intelligence community, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security will brief us on foreign efforts to influence our politics and elections and how the administration is defending us. Every one of our colleagues should attend one of these sessions. Sharing sensitive threat information with Congress is just one of the ways this administration has outperformed its predecessor. The intelligence community kept Congress much more closely informed about these threats in 2018 and now in 2020 than it did in the runup to 2016. I am sure these briefings will contain details that might seem ripe for cherry-picking and partisan leaks from both sides, but it is essential that Congress remain a place where the word ``classified'' actually means something. Leaking intelligence jeopardizes sources and methods. If we learned anything from studying Russian interference in 2016, it is that our adversaries' ultimate objective is to leave America more divided and less confident in our institutions. Members of Congress must take special care not to do Putin's work for him. Foreign adversaries have long sought to interfere in our politics and elections. That didn't start in 2016, and it will not end in 2020, but this administration has put us in a far, far better position than in 2016. There is, simply, no comparison. The intelligence community is better aware of the threat. Government agencies are more transparent with Congress, the State and local jurisdictions that actually run elections, the private sector, and the public. In 2016, the Obama-Biden administration had to lean on congressional leadership to act as a bridge to the States because the States so distrusted their Department of Homeland Security. Over the last 4 years, this administration's DHS has develop its own deep relationship with State officials. In 2016, only 14 State or local jurisdictions had received high-tech Albert sensors to alert them to cyber intrusions. They are deployed in all 50 States today. There were 14 States that had them in 2016, and every State has them today. It was this administration that stood up the new Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, with participation from more than 2,600 local jurisdictions and counting. This administration has imposed real, hard costs on election interference and Russia's other misdeeds: shuttering the Kremlin's consulates in San Francisco and Seattle; kicking out intelligence officers; sanctioning oligarchs; helping European partners defend their own elections against Russia; and sending weapons to Ukraine and Georgia, which the Obama-Biden administration did not supply. This administration has also confronted China for what the State Department described as ``massive espionage and influence operations,'' including closing Beijing's consulate in Houston. As the Democratic vice chairman on the Senate Intelligence Committee stated in 2016, ``We were caught flatfooted.'' Not anymore. Congress has provided more than $800 million for States and localities to shore up election security and has passed a number of targeted new laws. Since foreign political interference is so often aimed at private sector platforms, like social media sites, we have encouraged those businesses to step up vigilance as well. Through all of this, we have also carefully avoided things that look like quick fixes but which would undermine our own institutions. In the United States of America, it is the States and localities, not the Federal Government, that run elections--period. Our lack of a one-size- fits-all national system isn't just constitutionally appropriate; it also acts as a further safeguard. We lack a single point of failure So, in closing, I urge all of our colleagues to attend these important briefings with an eye toward our real adversaries--not our fellow Americans but the foreign agents who love to see us at one another's throats. Back during the impeachment trial, a leading House Democrat asserted that, if President Trump were to win reelection, the people's vote would be presumptively invalid. Just a few days ago, it was reported that a leading Democratic strategist who was war-gaming this election decided to experiment with what would happen if Vice President Biden were to lose the election but were to, simply, fail to concede. Once again, this kind of recklessness achieves our adversaries' missions for them. So I urge my colleagues to listen to the civil servants who are defending our democracy. Let's stay united, focus on the real dangers posed by foreign intelligence, and resist the urge to politicize these vital subjects.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on one final matter, last week, the Senate Democratic leader brought an end to the additional Federal benefit for unemployed workers. The Republicans tried multiple times to extend the money, including at the same dollar level that our colleague himself said he wanted, but the Democratic leader blocked it all. This is the dynamic on the Democratic side that killed the subject of police reform back in June, and it has now jeopardized more coronavirus relief as well. The Democratic leaders insist publicly that they want an outcome, but they work alone, behind closed doors, to ensure a bipartisan agreement is, actually, not reached. We are about a week into the Speaker's and the Democratic leader's discussions with the administration--a week into the Democratic leadership's cutting out all of their Members--all of them--cutting out all of their committees, and saying that only they can participate. So how is it going? Well, the Democratic leader is still refusing to let struggling Americans get another dime unless he gets a massive tax cut for the wealthy people in blue States that has nothing to do with the coronavirus. I am not kidding. This is his position. There is nothing for schools, nothing for kids, nothing for the PPP, nothing for the healthcare fight. Nobody gets a dime unless the Democratic leader gets a massive tax cut for the rich people in New York and California. That is what he is saying. The Speaker of the House and the Democratic leader are continuing to say ``our way or the highway'' with the massive wish list for leftwing lobbyists they slapped together a few weeks ago and called a coronavirus bill--stimulus checks for illegal immigrants, diversity studies for the legal pot industry, and on and on. When they put out this proposal, even the media and their fellow Democrats pronounced this thing dead on arrival. Here was one report: ``Neither this bill nor anything resembling it will ever become law--it's a Democratic wish list filled up with all the party's favored policies.'' Remember how Speaker Pelosi's own Members felt about this absurd proposal: ``Privately, several House Democrats concede their latest bill feels like little more than an effort to appease the most liberal members of the caucus.'' Even Democrats knew Speaker Pelosi's bill was unserious. But now, with the additional unemployment benefit disappearing, with families still struggling, they are going back to this unserious position and refusing to budge. I can't imagine this is how Democratic colleagues really all want this to play out. In March, we built the CARES Act by Republicans and Democrats working together at the committee level. This time, again, Republicans introduced a serious proposal written by our own chairmen and our own Members. But this time, the Democratic leader has cut Senate Democrats out entirely. He has forbidden their committees from even talking to Republicans. He is digging in on a House messaging bill, written with no input from his own Members, that even House Democrats themselves called absurd. These are not the tactics that would build a bipartisan result. These are not the tactics that will get more cash in Americans' pockets, more help to the unemployed, more assistance for schools to reopen. It is time for the Democratic leadership to get serious about making a law--making a law--for the American people.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 4323 and the bill be referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Tuesday, August 4; further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; further, that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of Executive Calendar No. 711. I further ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the postcloture time expire at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday; further, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; finally, that the Senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly conference meetings.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the Senate. It has the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on Monday, the Republicans introduced a trillion-dollar proposal to give American families more coronavirus relief. Most urgently, the Republicans want to continue a Federal supplement to State unemployment insurance, which is set to expire, as we all know, tomorrow. If our Democratic colleagues had acted with the urgency that struggling people deserve, we could right now be finishing up a major bipartisan package for kids, jobs, and healthcare. If our Democratic colleagues had acted with urgency, unemployed Americans wouldn't be facing a total elimination of this extra help. Instead, jobless Americans are staring down this cliff because Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader have refused to negotiate. They have refused to move 1 inch from the Speaker's far-left proposal that is so absurd and so unserious that their own moderate Democratic Members began trashing it the instant it came out. This is the multitrillion-dollar boondoggle that would tax and borrow in order to provide a massive tax cut to the rich people in blue States--the SALT giveaway; that would fund diversity studies of the legal pot industry; and that would do 1,000 other things with no relationship whatsoever to the crisis. Just a few minutes ago, our colleague from Wisconsin tried to get consent to continue the unemployment assistance to prevent it from expiring tomorrow, and the Democratic leader objected unless he got to pass the entirety of the massive wish list. The Republicans want to continue this aid before it expires, but the Democratic leader says: Let them eat SALT. This is what was written about their proposal: ``Privately, several House Democrats concede [the bill] feels like little more than an effort to appease the most liberal members of the caucus.'' Yet, now, Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader have declared that unemployed Americans will not get another cent--not another cent-- unless the Senate agrees to pass the entire bill that even the Democrats say is ridiculous. This is their position: Unemployed people, schools, hospitals, and American families will not see another dime unless they get to cut taxes for millionaires in Brooklyn and San Francisco. That is what this is about. Sure, they will call the Republicans names for wanting to make sure the system doesn't pay people more not to work, but the Democratic leader gave away the game this morning. He said on the floor that he now opposes even continuing the aid at the $600 level. They want jobless aid to expire tomorrow--period. Lest we forget, just a few days ago, multiple Democratic Senators and the Democratic House majority leader were all saying they were prepared to negotiate and land somewhere south of $600. Multiple Democrats said they were open to continuing the aid at a level that didn't pay people more to stay home. Now the Democratic leader hasn't just contradicted his colleagues and refused to talk, he has gone even further and declared he will not even let the aid continue at $600. The Democratic leader has tried to rule out every option except that of leaving the Capitol today and beginning his weekend with this unemployment benefit set to expire. These aren't the actions, my friends, that would lead to any agreement. They aren't the actions that will actually make a law. I am not sure whether my Democratic colleagues really agree that hurting unemployed people is their side's best political strategy, but if that is their position, they will have to vote on it with the entire country to see. In just a moment, I am going to make the Senate vote on a privileged motion that will be a motion to proceed to legislation which would be used to prevent the unemployment aid from expiring. We have a number of views on both sides of the best way to accomplish that. The bill would be amendable. Nobody who actually wants to negotiate, nobody who actually wants a bipartisan outcome would be disadvantaged by merely proceeding to the debate. We have had enough rope-a-dope. We have had enough empty talk. It is time to go on the record. We will see who really wants a bipartisan outcome for the country and who is trying their hardest to block one.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate the message to accompany S. 178, and I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment with a further amendment, No. 2499.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.