Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, the role of Federal funding to schools for COVID relief is to help support our schools in implementing public health protocols aligned with local public health guidance in order to safely reopen. The President has made clear that he would like the vast majority of K-8 schools to reopen in the next 100 days, but any amendment offered today attaching extraneous conditions to those funds is simply a political show. If we withhold funds and schools cannot implement health safety protocols, then we are acting counter to actually getting students back into the classroom. Making sure our Nation's educators receive a vaccine is an important step; however, vaccinations are just one piece of safely transitioning back. Safely reopening schools means providing schools the resources to implement public health protocols, physical distancing, consistent mask-wearing, ventilation, testing, and contact tracing. This amendment would prohibit schools from getting critical resources to implement those public health protocols, and, as a result, this amendment would make that much harder for schools to reopen for in-person instruction. The best way for our schools to reopen as soon as possible is to give schools the resources they need. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, reserving the right to object. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Families are struggling, and we should be doing everything we can to make it easier for them to get the care they need from providers that they trust. The title X program has been incredibly helpful to people seeking all kinds of healthcare, from cancer screenings to STI screenings, to birth control, and more. And before the Trump administration's gag rule slashed the capacity of the title X network in half by cutting out trusted healthcare providers, over 4 million patients a year turned to title X-funded providers for their healthcare. These patients are disproportionately young people, women who have low incomes, and women of color. An overwhelming majority of them have historically turned to providers like Planned Parenthood, which would be permanently kicked out of the program by this bill. We need to be tearing down barriers, like former President Trump's title X gag rule, that are jeopardizing access to care for patients, not reinforcing them. And we need to be focused on addressing the pain of this pandemic and on taking steps to finally end it, not wasting time with blatantly ideological bills that appeal to the far-right base at the expense of our families. While Republicans seem intent on keeping patients from getting the healthcare they need, I am glad we finally have a President who is listening to women and men across the country. He has made clear that he wants healthcare to be a right, not a privilege, and he has already directed his administration to review the damage of title X gag rules that have been so harmful to so many people--an important step toward rescinding the rule, as I continue to push for. So I urge my Republican colleagues to stop these attacks on women's healthcare and turn their attention to something families actually want, which is serious action to end this pandemic. I object.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the urgent challenge our Nation is facing and the urgent response that it requires. I am always willing to work across the aisle to look for common ground and commonsense solutions. I think my colleagues know this and my record shows it. I am going to keep talking to my Republican colleagues in hopes that there are areas where we can find common ground to help our workers and our families and get our arms around this pandemic. But what we cannot do is allow the possibility of further delay or weaken our response efforts. With the resources in this resolution, we will be able to reinforce our public health workforce, our community health centers, and our supply chain, all of which are stretched incredibly thin. We will be able to scale up testing and tracing and vaccination and genomic sequencing and surveillance for new strains of virus and address harmful health inequities that continue to make this crisis so much more deadly for communities of color. We will be able to provide needed support to our students, our educators, our public schools, and those in higher education as they grapple with this crisis and work towards safely reopening for in- person learning. We will be able to provide to parents in need of quality, affordable childcare and to a childcare sector staring down mass closures and layoffs. We need to help workers who are struggling today to make ends meet, who are unemployed, and who are worried about their retirement being thrown into jeopardy. We need to help families across the country who are struggling today to make ends meet, by providing them with direct financial assistance. We need to help States and Tribes and cities and communities whose budgets have been stretched dangerously thin, by providing needed funds. I see no reason why pursuing this path has to be partisan. After all, if Republicans can use budget reconciliation to give huge tax breaks to the wealthiest corporations, surely they are willing to use it to give relief to communities and families who are struggling in this economic crisis. If they can try to use reconciliation to cause a healthcare crisis by taking health coverage and healthcare protections away from hundreds of millions of people, surely they can support this process, using it to fight the healthcare crisis that has claimed over 440,000 lives in our country and counting. But if they do not, if they insist that using this process to provide relief during a historic pandemic is a partisan vote or that the amount of the relief is too much, I think they are going to have a tough time explaining what and whom they stand for. Democrats have no problem going on the record as the party that fought for people during the pandemic because, when your house is in flames, you do not argue about how much of the fire to put out or how much water to use or how many lives to save; you do whatever it takes until the crisis is over and everyone is safe, and you do it as fast as you can. This crisis is not over. Everyone is not safe--not from this virus and not from this economic crisis. There are 440,000 people who have died. We are still averaging 140,000 new cases a day. New strains are presenting new challenges. Underlying disparities are growing deeper, and we are already seeing with vaccination rates that communities of color are being left behind. We do have to take action, and that is exactly what Democrats are doing today. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have learned in my time in the Senate that if you want to get something done across the aisle, you really need the following: You need someone on the other side who is just as committed to working together as you are, and that Member needs to have the trust of Members on your side of the aisle and on his own, and you both need to be willing to set aside egos and listen and get a realistic understanding of whether the person on the other side of the negotiating table can reach an agreement with you that upholds your principles without compromising his own. Now, what I have laid out might not sound that unusual or rare, but it is actually pretty tough to find these days. I have been very lucky that the Senator whom we honor today on the floor--my colleague and friend, Chairman Lamar Alexander, of Tennessee--is someone who has managed it time and again. I don't think anyone, least of all Senator Alexander himself, would be surprised to hear me say that we are as likely to disagree as to agree on many matters. I bring my Washington State values to the table, and he brings his Tennessee values, so you can imagine how that has gone from time to time. Yet, despite our different perspectives and our different approaches we take to policymaking, we have also been able to see where our values and the interests of our States and our country converge. We both understood that the broken No Child Left Behind law needed to be fixed. Lamar listened to me, which I so appreciated, when I told him we should write a bill together rather than to amend the Republican bill that he had begun working on. With our HELP Committee members, we were able to write and pass a new K-12 public education bill that fixed the most broken parts of No Child Left Behind. It included Federal guardrails so we could understand how all of our students perform. It dedicated resources to improving the schools that needed it the most. It also allowed for historic steps forward on early education. We laid the groundwork together for new investments in lifesaving biomedical innovation and research through the 21st Century Cures Act, including the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot. We worked together to pass landmark legislation to boost our response to the opioid epidemic, to strengthen our public health preparedness programs, and to permanently fund historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions. We not only passed each of these bills, but we did so time and again with huge majorities from this Senate. Now, even still, Chairman Alexander and I, along with our colleagues in the House, are working to get legislation across the finish line to finally ban surprise medical bills. What I have just laid out is by no means a full list at all of Senator Alexander's accomplishments as chairman. It doesn't even include quite a few things he is still trying to get done as we speak. Senator Alexander's focus on working together has helped countless families in his home State of Tennessee, in my home State of Washington, and nationwide. My Democratic colleagues and I thank Chairman Alexander for the tone and manner with which he has led the HELP Committee over the past 6 years--some of them, admittedly, rockier than others but, throughout, guided by his steady leadership and commitment to working together. For myself, as someone who shares the drive to not only fight for what you believe in but also to look for common ground, I thank my colleague from Tennessee for the many opportunities to dig in and get to work that he has provided, for being willing to hear me and my colleagues out again and again when necessary, and for looking so often for common ground, for another problem we could solve, and for being willing not just to keep talking but to keep listening as well. Finally, I know none of this would have been possible without the support and strength Senator Alexander has received from Honey, his wife, and I acknowledge and thank her for her contribution as well. Lamar, you will be thrilled to be back full time in the State you love so much--I know that--but I and members of the HELP Committee want you to know we are going to miss you terribly here in the Senate. Thank you so much for all you have done.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, Justice Ginsburg was the first Supreme Court Justice I ever voted for and a North Star for me and so many others whose futures were irrefutably made possible in part by her life and her work. I pledged I would do everything in my power to honor her last wish-- that the next President fill her vacancy--not just because Justice Ginsburg was a legal giant who can never be replaced but because I understand, like she did, that making such a momentous decision so close to an election could exacerbate our Republic's challenges and spin our democracy into chaos. That is why I have been fighting so hard to push my colleagues to stop this charade and to just wait a few weeks. We should not be voting on this lifetime appointment while the American people themselves are in the middle of voting, of telling us how they want this country's future to look. This is all made even worse by the fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and instead of working with Democrats to pass serious relief our communities are calling out for, Republicans are refusing to do anything but jam this anti-healthcare judge on to the Supreme Court. Over the last 3 years, I have seen Republicans rubberstamp hard-right judicial nominees like it is all they came here to do, but watching them ignore the clear wishes of the American people, explicitly reject attempts to help families and communities get through this pandemic, and press on with this grotesque power grab--it is a new low for this body. It is a new low for our country and for the people we serve. As I have made clear, I will be voting against Judge Barrett's confirmation, just like I voted against her confirmation to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, against Justice Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and against so many other Trump-nominated judges who, whether they admit it or not, are part of a Republican strategy to roll back our hard-won progress. Judge Barrett clearly fits the same mold as the more than 200 partisan judges Senate Republicans have fast-tracked onto the Federal bench who are anti-healthcare and anti-abortion but pro-big business and pro-wealthy special interests. This was all reinforced during the sham nomination process as Senate Republicans and Judge Barrett tried to downplay their own litmus test. Judge Barrett was asked to affirm the constitutionality of the law that protects healthcare for hundreds of millions of Americans. She refused. She was asked to affirm the longstanding ruling of Roe v. Wade as a superprecedent. Not surprisingly, given her record includes a statement calling Roe ``barbaric,'' she refused. She was asked to affirm the constitutionality of the ruling that allowed same-sex marriages and opened up a new chapter of equality for LGBTQIA+ couples. She refused. She was asked to affirm that climate change is causing air and water pollution. Yet, even on this matter of scientific fact, Judge Barrett refused to answer, and that was apparently exactly what Senate Republicans hoped she would do. The lack of transparency from Judge Barrett and Senate Republicans is concerning, not because we don't know where they stand--we do--but because they are so comfortable obfuscating cold facts about Judge Barrett's record and judicial philosophy as well as their own previous statements, as if they are not real. For example, in 2016, they were adamant that when the Supreme Court loses a Justice in an election year, the people's voices should be heard before the vacancy is filled. For 8 months, they refused to hold a hearing on President Obama's nominee, Merrick Garland, but now, even as the American people are in the process of voting, Republicans are trying to ignore their voices. Not on my watch. I recently asked people in Washington State to share their personal stories about what is at stake for their families. The response has been overwhelming, and the stories have been alarming. I have heard from people whose stories show how different life was before and after Roe v. Wade and how much would be lost if reproductive rights were rolled back. I have heard from people who fear their right to marry or adopt a child or start a family could be lost. I have heard from people who are worried they will die if Republicans get their way at the Supreme Court and take away the healthcare and protections they rely on. Republicans may want to pretend the stakes are not this high, but they don't have to take my word for it; they can listen to their own constituents and look at their own records. For Republican Senators to stand here and tell families ``not to worry'' is kind of like the captain of the Titanic passing out umbrellas and telling passengers that is all they need--with one key difference. Republicans have made clear from the start that hitting the iceberg is not an accident; it is the plan. Despite the fact that climate change is an existential threat-- something the vast majority of the public understands--Republicans continue to cower to a President and special interests who insist it is a hoax. Despite the hard-fought progress for LGBTQIA+ rights, they have stood by this President who undermines them at every turn. Despite the fundamental importance of the right to vote, they have blocked our efforts to restore and secure those rights and protect our democracy. Despite what they would have you believe, Republicans have tried time and again to end protections for people with preexisting conditions and upend healthcare in our country. If the failed TrumpCare vote from a very few years ago is too painful or distant a memory for Republicans to revisit, they are at this very moment championing a lawsuit that would do all the harm of that bill and then some. Who is going to hear that lawsuit? The deciding vote could be a Justice picked by a President who vowed--vowed--he would only choose nominees who will rule against protections for preexisting conditions, who thinks that would be a ``big win,'' and who said just last week that he hopes that happens. It is no mystery why President Trump nominated and Republicans are rushing to confirm a judge with a record of hostility to the Affordable Care Act. It is no secret that a victory for them would be a disaster for families across our country. If you don't believe me, ask Mays from SeaTac, WA, who lives with sleep apnea, asthma, prediabetes, complex post-traumatic disorder, and hypothyroidism. If Republicans succeed in this lawsuit, she would lose her Medicaid expansion coverage and access to care, meaning her conditions could deteriorate, increasing her risk of diabetes, coma, or dying in her sleep. If you don't believe Mays, then ask Rhiannon from Arlington, WA, who has type 1 diabetes and could get kicked off her parents' insurance plan if Republicans win this case at the Supreme Court. As she wrote to me, ``Right now the ACA is the only hope I have of living past 26.'' If you don't believe Rhiannon, ask Madeline, who has a medical condition which makes pregnancy fatal. For Madeline, affordable healthcare coverage--coverage that includes access to birth control--is absolutely essential, as is the right to an abortion. If Republicans get their way, insurance companies would no longer have to cover birth control, even though a pregnancy for Madeline would be life- threatening. Things get even worse for her if Republicans overturn Roe v. Wade. Last year, when Madeline learned that, despite being diligent about her birth control, she was pregnant, she knew what she had to do. She had to get an abortion. It was safe; it was legal; it was totally her decision; and it was lifesaving. But if Judge Barrett were Justice Barrett, if the right to abortion were a thing of the past, Madeline's pregnancy would have been a death sentence. As she put it, ``This isn't a right vs. left issue for a lot of us, it's life or death--and knowing [that] is at stake . . . is terrifying.'' Madeline isn't the only person who is terrified. If Republicans win their lawsuit, over 130 million people with preexisting conditions like Madeline could be charged more for their health insurance, have benefits excluded, or be denied coverage entirely. Over 20 million people like Mays and Rhiannon could lose coverage for Medicaid expansion, the exchanges, or their parents' plans. Insurance companies could exclude essential health benefits countless other patients rely on, like prescription drugs or maternity care or therapy or wheelchairs or much more. Half the country could be charged more for health insurance just because they are a woman. Seniors could face thousands more in healthcare costs with the return of the age tax and the Medicare doughnut hole. Lives of people with disabilities could be upended if they lose access to home- and community-based services that help them live independent lives or if insurance providers can discriminate on the basis of disability by denying coverage or charging more. And people with expensive healthcare needs--cancer diagnosis, a medically complicated pregnancy, a fight with COVID-19--could be left with an enormous bill since insurance companies won't have to cap patients' out-of-pocket costs but will be able to place annual and lifetime limits on their benefits. And we cannot forget the communities of color who already face worse outcomes due to systemic racism in our healthcare system who would be hit hardest by so much of the damage of the Republicans' healthcare lawsuit. Healthcare isn't all that is at stake for families--far from it. Fundamental rights and protections and opportunities for workers are on the line. The fate of immigrants and refugees and asylum seekers-- families and Dreamers who came to our Nation in search of a better life and brighter future are on the line. And hard-fought victories for the LGBTQIA+ community are on the line. Matthew, in my home State of Washington, and his husband were able to marry, to adopt, and fortunate to be able to form a loving family. But that might not be possible for LGBTQIA+ couples like them in the future if the highest Court in the land turns back the clock and refuses to see them as equal under the law. The bottom line is that this Supreme Court fight is not about politics. It is about the lives of hundreds of millions of people. If Republicans don't believe my constituents, I invite them to ask their own. I encourage them to listen because I guarantee people across the country know what Republicans have been saying, know exactly what Republicans are voting for, and they are speaking up about it. I am here sharing their stories on the Senate floor, and Democrats brought their stories to the committee room so that Republicans have no choice but to hear them. When we vote, Republicans will have no excuse to pretend they do not know exactly what is at stake. Instead, every one of them will have a simple choice. Will you listen to the families who are speaking up, the people who are saying to you, in no uncertain terms, that if you put this judge on the Court, if you win this partisan lawsuit, it could kill me or will you ignore them? If Republicans truly want to reassure their constituents and want to show they are listening, the choice is simple: Vote no on this nomination. For those who choose to put this President and the profoundly lost Republican Party above anything else, to those Republicans who are capping these brutal last 4 years off with such a staggering show of fealty and partisanship and callousness, know the consequences of this vote will be felt long after this President is gone from office, regardless of the outcome of this election. People of this country will not forget and neither will your Democratic colleagues. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to be allowed to finish my remarks.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I rise to speak about three critical matters impacting families in Washington State and across this country today. First of all, I would like to say that even though the wildfires in my State are being contained, thanks to the skilled work of brave and dedicated firefighters, wildfires and health impacts of smoke are still creating hazardous conditions throughout the Pacific Northwest. Until we begin addressing the drivers of those natural disasters, like climate change, we know these crises and the suffering they bring will only continue getting worse. Judicial Nominations Secondly, I want to talk about three nominees under consideration for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC. One of these nominees is Jocelyn Samuels. She is exactly who workers need right now. As the coronavirus continues to impact workplaces across the country, workers are facing unprecedented challenges, and they need a champion at the EEOC who will work tirelessly to defend their rights. Jocelyn Samuels is that champion. With almost 20 years of experience in the Federal Government, including at the EEOC itself, she has spent her career working to address discrimination and making sure no one is treated unfairly because of their age, their race, or their disability. I am confident she will be an excellent Commissioner. I am proud to vote to confirm her nomination and strongly urge my Senate colleagues to join me in supporting her nomination. Unfortunately, the other two nominees already approved by the Senate--Andrea Lucas and Keith Sonderling--will likely have disastrous consequences for workers' rights. These are two people who have spent their careers working to protect corporations, not workers. As a lawyer, Andrea Lucas has never defended workers. Her only legal experience is defending corporations when workers tried to fight back against sexual harassment or age discrimination and disability discrimination. That is exactly the opposite type of experience and values we need at the EEOC, which is why I voted against her nomination. Keith Sonderling's record is no better. During his time at the Trump administration's Department of Labor, Keith Sonderling worked to churn out policies that hurt workers. From his joint employer rule that lets massive corporations off the hook for minimum wage, overtime, and equal pay violations to his initiative that gives companies a ``get out of jail free'' card for wage theft, Keith Sonderling's legacy at the DOL has made it harder for workers to fight for their rights and easier for companies to abuse them. For those reasons, I opposed his nomination. Finally, right now, our Nation is facing truly trying times. Two hundred thousand lives have been lost to COVID, millions are unemployed, and we just lost a treasured American hero, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So much hangs in the balance now, and people are already voting and organizing to make sure their healthcare, their rights, and their futures are protected in this election. For those nationwide who have already cast their ballots and who will vote in the coming weeks for the future of our country and to help ensure trust--trust in our democracy--the people must have a vote in this nomination. The next President should choose Justice Ginsburg's replacement as she wished to spare our democracy the painful chaos of making such a decision so close to an election. People are speaking out, and the Senate must listen, as Majority Leader McConnell insisted only a few years ago. But, unfortunately, it seems like my colleagues on the other side are content to ignore these cries, just like they have neglected the cries of our constituents for a COVID-19 relief package that meets this moment instead of shortchanging our communities because nothing--nothing is more important than pushing through their ideological agenda to jam as many partisan judges on the bench as possible, especially on the Supreme Court, and tip the balance of our Federal judiciary even further against everyday people, packing our courts to ensure we can't make progress to defend affordable healthcare and preexisting conditions protections or addressing the climate crisis or strengthening protections for workers or doing anything on the critical issues that people in my home State of Washington and around the Nation care so deeply about and that have been blocked time and again by the Republican Party. I will be doing absolutely everything I can to make sure everyone from Washington State to Washington, DC, and my Republican colleagues here in Congress know just how much is at risk if President Trump gets to appoint another hard-right nominee an unprecedented 41 days before a Presidential election. It is truly impossible to understate the consequences for families and communities across the country now and for generations to come. President Trump has made it clear he wants a nominee who will gut protections for preexisting conditions, who will take healthcare away from millions of people nationwide, and do everything they can to undermine basic rights and freedoms and protections through the Court, including crucial worker protections that Justice Ginsburg, herself, helped secure and the EEOC is tasked with enforcing. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in voting today to honor an important part of Justice Ginsburg's legacy and vote for the nomination of Jocelyn Samuels. Then let's keep fighting for people's healthcare, for protections for preexisting conditions, for workers' rights, and voters' rights, and LGBTQIA+ rights, and for the vision of a just and equal country--a just and equal country Justice Ginsburg fought so hard to advance. Thank you. I yield the floor. Vote on Hinderaker Nomination

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object. The FDA approved mifepristone nearly 20 years ago, and leading medical organizations have made clear that restrictions on it like those that are in this bill are not based on evidence or patients' best interests. This bill is not about science or healthcare or what is best for women across the Nation. It is about ideology and Republicans wanting to do every single thing they can to chip away at the right to a safe, legal abortion. Not on my watch. This is far from the only Republican effort to ignore the science and the medical professionals and overrule the personal decisions of patients across the country. At this very moment, they are gearing up to jam through President Trump's Supreme Court nominee and strike down Roe v. Wade. But as sure as I am standing here today to oppose this effort to restrict women's reproductive rights, you can bet I will be standing with women and men across the country to oppose that one too. I will offer legislation in a moment that actually does work to protect and help women and families in a moment, but for now, on this request, I object.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are in the middle of a pandemic. Two hundred thousand people have died, millions more have been infected, and this crisis is nowhere close to being over. But are Republicans are offering solutions? Not even close. We need to be prioritizing science. Instead, they are offering a bill that prioritizes partisan ideology. We need to be making it easier for people to get the care they need. Instead, they are offering a bill with the sole purpose of putting up unnecessary barriers to care. And not only are they wasting time on their partisan war against abortion with this bill--which they know is a nonstarter--they are preparing to jam through a Supreme Court nominee who would make things even worse. They are fighting to not just overturn Roe v. Wade but to strike down healthcare for tens of millions of people and strike down protections for people with preexisting conditions and to send healthcare costs skyrocketing--all during a pandemic. I can't believe I have to say this, but we need to be taking steps to make this crisis better, not worse, which is why I am going to offer a unanimous consent request that the Senate proceed to S. 4638--the Science and Transparency Over Politics Act, which Senator Schumer and myself and 32 other Democrats introduced today. Unfortunately, we have seen the Trump administration repeatedly take dangerous steps to undermine and overrule the experts at our Nation's public agencies. We have seen the President spread lies and misinformation and conspiracy theories about their work. We have seen his officials meddle with key scientific reports and apply pressure to promote unproven treatments. And we know this interference can damage public confidence in the science-based guidance our experts issue to help save lives and in their efforts to evaluate a vaccine and make sure it is safe and effective. We just can't let that happen. This reckless interference didn't start yesterday, and it is clear it is not going to stop tomorrow. So I believe Congress needs to take action to make it stop. The STOP Act would do just that by providing much needed transparency and accountability. Given how many Republicans have said we need to be listening to the experts and following the science, this bill should not be controversial. It should be common sense Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 4638, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it is disappointing that Republicans would object to a bill that simply provides much needed accountability and support for scientific decisionmaking. It is especially disappointing they would object to it during a pandemic and while simultaneously pushing for an ideological bill that would undermine patient's care and reproductive rights. Rest assured, the minority leader, Senator Schumer, and I and the rest of our Democratic caucus are not giving up, and we will continue to fight on behalf of women and families. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, the last 6 months have been among our country's most trying and pain-filled in recent history. Nearly 160,000 Americans have lost their lives--that is more than enough people to fill Seattle's CenturyLink stadium twice--and 4.7 million Americans have been infected. Everywhere, nationwide, we see the economic consequences of this virus--millions of people losing their jobs and their healthcare; millions more at risk of losing their homes; food lines a mile long. All of this as our country begins long-overdue work to grapple not just with police brutality against Black people and communities of color but also with the racial injustice imbedded in our laws and policies, which has caused COVID-19 to have vastly disproportionate impacts on those very same communities. Since my home State of Washington was hit hard early back in February, I have been ringing alarm bells every day, day in and day out, about the need for the Trump administration and this Republican- controlled Senate to act with urgency, to listen to public health experts, and to follow the science and put the health and safety of workers and families above any political consideration. So you can imagine my frustration that for months, as Democrats urged Republicans to work with us on additional relief and pass legislation to do just that in the House, Republicans have refused. As we got closer and closer to laid-off workers seeing dramatic cuts in unemployment benefits, as we got closer to the expiration of the eviction moratorium, we heard the Senate Republican leader was ``in favor of States just going bankrupt.'' That was April. We heard that Senate Republicans didn't feel any urgency to act. That was May. Now it is August, and with this virus still raging, Senate Republican leaders finally produced a so-called relief package that actually grants corporations a ``get out of jail free'' card if their employees or customers get sick. It guts jobless benefits. It rolls back critical civil rights protections for workers, including communities of color, LGBTQIA and other people, women, older Americans, and people with disabilities. It is a package that fails to keep our childcare sector stabilized for more than a month; to provide the significant funding we need to finally make testing and contact tracing fast, free, and everywhere; and to require the type of end-to-end, comprehensive plan that we need to make sure safe, effective vaccines are cost-free and wildly available. Their package will not help the millions who have lost health insurance coverage during this crisis or help people suffering from the virus afford treatment. It does nothing to address the impact of this virus on Black, Latinx, Tribal communities, and other communities of color, and it provides zero relief for State, local, and Tribal governments, which is an absolute necessity for my State and so many others. If that is not enough, one of the centerpieces of this bill is a demand, tweeted out by the President of the United States, which I, as a former preschool teacher and a mom and a grandmother, find especially insidious and harmful. This is the Republican policy to try to force schools to reopen for in-person learning, regardless of what the public health experts recommend. This policy is a lose, lose, lose. It threatens the health and safety of students and families, educators and communities. It would in particular pressure high-need school districts to reopen in person despite the risk, and it could spread this virus further and longer. Many school districts are already rejecting that policy and planning for distance learning this fall for every student because, let me be clear, no student's education, regardless of where it takes place, should falter because the President wants to pretend this virus has gone away or because Republicans in the Senate are unwilling to stand up to him If a school cannot safely reopen in person, they need the resources to ensure that every student and educator has access to a computer, to the internet, and to other equipment necessary to learn outside of a traditional classroom. So what we need to do is pass the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act, which provides K-12 schools with $175 billion to make sure schools can continue to educate students in whatever way is safest. It makes addition investments in stabilizing our childcare and higher education systems, which are facing financial crisis, and it helps ensure that students of all ages, who are disproportionately impacted by this virus, are supported through all they are facing. I know there are some who say the investments we are proposing are too much. Well, what I would say to them, as a former chair of the Budget Committee in the Senate, is that budgets are statements of our values and our priorities, and I believe that one of our top priorities at all times, but especially in a pandemic, should be making sure that students and families and educators do not have to choose between safety and quality public education. The parents and families I am hearing from are under such immense pressure right now. My question to Republican leaders is, why, when things are already so hard, are you determined to make them harder for people who are already struggling so much? This question is personal for me for a lot of reasons, one of which is because, when I was growing up, my family fell on hard times. My dad, who was a World War II veteran, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and he couldn't work any longer. That meant that my mom, who had stayed home to raise our family, had to take care of him while also working to support our family. Her job didn't pay enough to support me and my six brothers and sisters or cover the growing medical bills. For several months, we had to rely on food stamps, and then my mom got Federal support to go back to school, and she got a better job. My brothers and sisters and I got grants and student loans to go to college. The point is, I know things could have gone a far different way for us had the government just said: Sorry; you are on your own. Well, right now, families across the country have fallen on incredibly hard times. They are worried and scared because, so far, ``You are on your own'' is largely what this Republican-controlled Senate and administration have told them. We owe every worker and family, including immigrant families--so many of whom are on the frontlines of this fight--relief that reflects the depth of this crisis and helps them get back on their feet, just like mine was able to; relief that helps kids learn safely and keeps families in their homes, with food on the table, until we can get through this; relief that helps us come back stronger as a nation. It is not too much to ask. In fact, it is what we are supposed to be here to do, and it is what I and Democrats are going to keep fighting for. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, workers right now are dealing with unprecedented challenges and are making great personal sacrifices to keep the country running during this crisis. And the nominees under consideration today for the National Labor Relations Board will play a critical role in safeguarding their rights and protections. That is why I voted for Lauren McFerran to serve another term on the NLRB. She is a dedicated, qualified, and well-respected public servant who had a proven track record of fighting for workers before she joined the Board and has stood by workers in enforcing these fundamental protections during her time on the NLRB. But unfortunately, the opposite is true for Marvin Kaplan, the Republican nominee to the NLRB. Mr. Kaplan spent his career working to further corporations' interests and gut workers' rights instead of protecting them. That is why Democrats opposed his nomination in 2017, and that is exactly what he has done since joining the NLRB. He is exactly wrong to serve another term on the NLRB, and that is why I voted against his confirmation. I am also extremely disappointed we do not have the nomination of another highly qualified Democrat to the NLRB, Jennifer Abruzzo, to consider today. Years of Republican obstruction of highly qualified Democratic nominees to critical worker protection agencies like the NLRB and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission shows a blatant disregard for longstanding deference to the minority party and is a significant departure from the customs of this institution. It is unacceptable, and I will not stop pushing for Democratic nominees. I urge my colleagues to vote today to stand up for workers and their rights. I would also like to say that, after months of delay from my Republican colleagues, the COVID relief proposal Republicans put forward this week is incredibly late, profoundly inadequate, and can't credibly be considered a starting point for negotiations. It gives corporations a ``get out of jail free'' card to prevent employers from being held accountable for keeping their workers safe and a license to discriminate including on the basis of age, race, sex, and disability status. And instead of expanding unemployment benefits that have been a lifeline for workers in my home State and across the country--which by the way, are due to expire tomorrow--Republicans have slashed them. This bill doesn't get us anywhere near where we need to be on developing a vaccine that is accessible and affordable to every person and is completely inadequate in addressing our testing and contract tracing shortfalls. And while Democrats want schools to reopen for in-person learning if it can be done safely, the partisan Republican proposal would put students, educators, and communities at risk. Republicans need to abandon this dangerous one-size-fits all approach to reopening schools in-person and pass our Child Care Education and Relief Act, which would provide $430 billion to address the national child care and education crises during this pandemic. My question to Republican leaders is why, when things are already so hard, are you determined to make them harder for people who are already struggling so much? It is shameful, and we are going to keep calling you to account for it until workers, families, and communities get the support they need. Thank you.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues who will be joining me this evening--Senator Baldwin, Senator Hassan, and Senator Schumer-- to advocate for much needed action to protect workers, to provide relief to State and local governments, and to bolster our public health system. I rise to speak about the steps we need to take to invest in childcare and education. COVID-19 has upended childcare and schools in a way that truly is unprecedented. It has created chaos across our education system. Since we passed the CARES Act over 3 months ago now, Senate Republicans have not done anything to address the countless challenges that our childcare providers, our educators, our schools, and, of course, our students and families are facing. Instead, they have chosen to pretend that this crisis is over and that we should just return to business as usual, which for them means most often voting on partisan judges and not much else. As my Republican colleagues continue to delay any response, urging Democrats to pump the brakes and ``wait and see,'' we are hearing from parents who aren't sure if they can go back to work because their childcare provider closed. We are hearing from teachers who aren't sure if they will even have a job to return to in the fall. We are hearing from college students who might be forced to drop out because they desperately need financial assistance during this economic downturn. We don't need to wait and see to know we need to provide relief immediately. In our childcare system alone, we are now at risk of losing millions of childcare slots because providers across the country are struggling to keep their doors open. As Senate Republicans are burying their heads in the sand on this, our K-12 schools are now facing some of the biggest cuts to State and local revenue we have seen in a long time, all while struggling with the increased cost of dealing with how to reopen safely and to continue to provide quality education during a pandemic. We know this crisis is hitting, especially hard, students of color, students from low-income families, students who are experiencing homelessness, students with disabilities, and many other students who are marginalized in our education system. Our higher education system is under serious financial pressure as colleges across our country, especially our Nation's HBCUs and our Tribal colleges and our minority-serving institutions, struggle with the consequences of this pandemic. Many students have been forced to drop out of higher education because they lost their job or they can't meet their basic needs. To address all of these problems, we need a massive investment in our childcare system, in our schools, and in our students and families now. This is why, today, I am introducing the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act. This bill creates a Child Care Stabilization Fund, which will provide grants to make sure providers can stay open and that working families get the tuition relief they need. It will provide K-12 schools with the funds they desperately need to help students with increased academic and social emotional supports to address learning loss, to put in place public health measures to make our schools safer for students and educators, to make sure specific funding goes to support students with disabilities, and to address the other growing inequities for students of color and many others. The bill will also make a $132 billion investment in our higher education system to provide emergency financial aid grants to students for expenses like food and housing, childcare, technology supplies, and to help our colleges to confront the increased cost and financial pressures they are now facing during this COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this bill will reverse Secretary DeVos's cruel attempts to prevent millions of students, including our undocumented students and DACA recipients, from receiving emergency aid, block her from giving special favors to colleges that don't need taxpayer dollars, and stop her from taking funding that was meant for public schools to advance her privatization agenda. There is a long road ahead to fully address the education and childcare crisis, but this bill is an important step for childcare providers, our students, our families, and our educators. Our schools cannot wait any longer. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 4112, the Coronavirus Child Care and Education Relief Act introduced earlier today. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I am sorry that the Senator has objected this evening. This is an issue that is critical to every family in this country. We all want our economy to open. I assure everyone that if people can't get childcare, they cannot go back to work. Our schools are going to be looking immediately into how they are going to be opening. Without the additional resources they need, they will not be able to do it. Our kids and our families are worth this bill. I know that several colleagues will be speaking here tonight on this, but I want the Senate to know that these are priorities that we are going to be fighting for. I urge the Senate to bring up the next COVID package. I am willing to work with everybody on it, to hear what everybody has to say, but our kids, our families, and the future of this country has to have our support at this critical time. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I want to take a few minutes on the floor today to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community and their long march toward equality, as well as talk a little bit about how the actions of this President and his administration have threatened our hard-fought progress. As Pride Month comes to a close--a month that has seen communities of every size, in every State, protesting against our Nation's long legacy of police brutality and systemic racism, while also navigating impacts of a global health pandemic. I am reminded of the Black and Brown transgender women who 51 years ago, stood against the bigotry and violence of the police after they raided the Stonewall Inn and then sought to suppress 6 days of protest. I am reminded of their courage and how their struggles mirror the intersectional challenges people are facing today and the demands ringing out from protesters in the streets. I am reminded of Tony McDade, an unarmed Black transgender man killed by police in Tallahassee in late May, and of Nina Pop, a transwoman murdered in her Missouri apartment earlier in May--a fate that meets countless Black transwomen and other transwomen of color. Mr. President, a half century after Stonewall, I am reminded that while we have made some critical progress, we are still fighting so many of the same battles, and we still have so much, much more work to do. Thre is no denying President Trump and Vice President Pence have made this work far more difficult. This administration's far-reaching ideological agenda seems aimed at relegating LGBTQIA+ people to second- class citizens. Back in June of 2017, I sent a letter to President Trump outlining the multitude of ways his actions in the first 100 days of his administration had already threatened to cause harm to LGBTQIA+ people in Washington State and around the Nation. Three years later, it is sad but safe to say that President Trump has built those threats into an all-out attack on members of the community, from the administration's efforts to strip protections from LGBTQIA+ people seeking access to health care--during a public health emergency, no less--to eliminating protections for Federal contractor and subcontractor LGBTQIA + workers, to rolling back the Obama-era HUD equal access rule, allowing shelters to discriminate against transgender people now, and banning transgender servicemembers inour military. This is all in addition to this administration's proposed QUOTE ``faith-based'' rules that have allowed multiple federal agencies to begin discriminating against LGTBQIA+ people seeking access to vital taxpayer services and the parade of homophobic and transphobic judicial and executive appointments that have been jammed through with the help of Senate Republicans. I unfortunately could go on because the list of offenses is long, but let me say, in closing: As a proud ally of the LGBTQIA+ community in Washington State and across the country and as a voice for our State here in the Senate, I will never stop shining a spotlight on efforts from President Trump or any President to discriminate against our LGBTQIA+ loved ones, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, and I won't stop fighting against hatred in our laws and standing up for what is right, as well as encouraging others to make their voices heard, too, as we work to help our Nation live up to its ideals of justice and equality. So, Mr. President, this may not be the celebratory Pride we expected or one like we have ever seen before, but it is one we should take as motivation and inspiration for the work ahead this June and in the coming months and years. Happy Pride, everyone.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, it has been 17 days since Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd; 90 days since police in Louisville, KY, killed Breonna Taylor, who would have turned 27 just days ago; and 109 days since Ahmaud Arbery was killed by armed White residents in South Georgia. These are just some of the most recent examples of the senseless, repeated killings of Black people in our communities, including by police, that have led to the massive outpouring of anger and grief we have seen on display in streets across the country. We know that these protests are not only about unjust tragedies. They are also about Tony McDade, Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Atatiana Jefferson, Walter Scott, Philando Castile, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and Tamir Rice, as well as Manny Ellis, Charleena Lyles, and Che Taylor, from my home State of Washington. There are countless Black people and people of color whose vast majority of names we don't know whose lives have been unfairly taken. Even more important, these protests are driven by people, including many young people, who are justifiably sick and tired of the systemic racism behind those killings that is deeply woven throughout the fabric of our democracy and our history and rightly believe we are not moving forward nearly fast enough. I know this is true in my home State of Washington, where according to data compiled by the Mapping Police Violence database, between 2013 and 2019, Black people were more than three times more likely to be killed by police. It is beyond clear that the disproportionate impact of police violence on Black communities--as well as other communities of color--is not some accident, and it speaks to a rot that is deep in the design of our Nation. I come to the floor today because our Nation has to change, because the people are demanding it, and I believe each of us, especially those of us privileged enough to serve in the U.S. Senate, is responsible for being a part of the solution. It has been more than 2 weeks since George Floyd's murder, and we are still seeing protests across the country in towns big and small, in urban and rural areas. More importantly, they don't seem to be stopping. More and more people are getting engaged and learning and listening and signaling. We have a real opportunity to make change in our country. I believe strongly this is a problem we can start to solve today, and we have policies to do it. One major step we can take is by passing the legislation offered this week by Senators Harris and Booker. I thank them for their moral leadership on so many challenges but especially this week with the introduction of the Justice in Policing Act. Their legislation would, among other things, reform qualified immunity that is an antiquated judicial doctrine that has kept so many officers from being held accountable for violating Americans' constitutional rights. It would ban the use of choke holds and carotid holds and make Federal funds available only for State and local departments committed to codifying an end to these shameful tactics in law. It would reform the use-of- force standards to make officers clear a higher bar before using deadly force and require deadly force to be used only as a last resort. It would ban the use of no-knock warrants in Federal drug cases and provide strong incentives to State and local governments to do the same. It would strengthen transparency of policing through data, like creating a national police misconduct registry to prevent misconduct from being swept under the rug and requiring the Federal Government to finally begin national tracking of incidences of use of force. It would limit the transfer of military-grade equipment to State and local law enforcement, as well as steps to restore and build on many of the policing reform efforts initiated during the Obama administration. None of these policies should be controversial for any of us here in the Senate, Democrat or Republican. We have all seen the same egregious violence and the same abuses of power from police in the communities we represent--communities whose safety should be our priority. It is undeniable that change is not only necessary but long overdue, and there is absolutely no reason this body shouldn't be able to take up these straightforward vital steps and pass them immediately. Now, I don't think Senators Harris or Booker or any of us cosponsoring the bill think this is a panacea or a solution to all of the longstanding problems the last few weeks have laid bare, but this is action that we can start taking now to begin ensuring justice and accountability in our laws and in our law enforcement and, hopefully, help put us on a path to begin to heal our Nation's deep wounds. While we need to pass legislation to address police brutality, we can't stop there. The Justice in Policing Act is the first of many steps we need to take in Congress to help reset our Nation's moral compass. It isn't lost on me--the massive uprising of peaceful protests against police brutality we have seen in recent days--that it is happening while many of our States are still working overtime to address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to keep people safe as we reopen communities. Over the last couple of weeks, I have been in contact with Black leaders and activists on the ground back home, and I have heard over and over again about the connection between the racism at the heart of the policing of Black communities and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on them and their families, and, more importantly, how traumatizing multilayered challenges like these can be for Black people in our lives who deal with these injustices day in and day out. For instance, one Black civil rights leader in southwest Washington told me how their community has had a hard time getting vulnerable members of the Black community tested. She is fighting for more resources and support, and she is organizing car rallies to enable people to make their voices heard against police brutality while still maintaining social distancing. Another Black leader in Seattle shared with me how absolutely critical it is that Black and other underserved communities have access to COVID-19 testing and healthcare during this ongoing pandemic, that these were both important, and that it isn't an either/or proposition. That people are rushing to the streets to make their voices heard in the middle of a global health emergency underscores how serious this moment in our country is and highlights the depths of the injustices baked into our systems at every level. This means that during this unprecedented public health emergency, we must prioritize equity in our response, including ensuring that we are collecting the necessary demographic data to target our efforts toward those most in need and using this data to aggressively address disparities; making sure critical supplies like testing kits and PPEs are getting to our hardest hit communities, which is not happening consistently and is contributing to Black and Brown communities suffering disproportionately from the health and economic impacts of this virus; not to mention planning now for equitable distribution of a safe and effective vaccine. More broadly, the protests are a passionate call for meaningful change in our systems and institutions to combat the status quo of racism and anti-Blackness that stains our democracy. In order to make the right policy and resource decisions to help us change America for the better and move toward a more just and peaceful future, it is critical that we all try to stand in the shoes of those demanding change and hear what they are saying from the perspective of their life experience, not solely of our own, because like I have heard recently in my conversations with Black Washingtonians, it is not that these are new ideas or proposals, but that as a Nation we haven't paid nearly enough attention to the profound grievances Black people have been raising for a long time. What I hear is people crying out for this country to live up to its values, saying it is time for all of us, especially elected officials, to listen and act by reinvesting in supporting our communities, rather than allowing law enforcement to be an unaccountable, militarized nonanswer to perfectly understandable calls for better healthcare, better schools, and real safety. It means not only addressing the racism and police violence in our national COVID-19 response but also in how we address maternal mortality, which disproportionately impacts Black women and families; and access to healthcare more broadly for Black communities; and how we work to solve the climate crisis, which is a long-time demand of Black and Brown communities that have suffered some of the worst impacts of growing pollution; in how we work to close the gender pay gap that has Black and Latina women hardest; and in how we ensure equity of resources and opportunity and quality in our schools and our colleges and our universities; and much, much more. Now, none of this will happen overnight, but it is important that we start the work now to dismantle systemic racism if we ever want to make justice and equality realities instead of distant ideas. There is also another big piece. I would be remiss if I didn't mention it. I want to talk about something that I and so many people across this country--especially White people, who don't live every day feeling the impacts personally--are grappling with right now, which is the part of this work that isn't about our systems or our institutions. It is about looking inward. Far too often the fear of finding out that you have been wrong or completely misunderstood closes us off from honest self-reflection and growth We can't let it. Let's be clear: Change in our own hearts and our own minds and in our communities is as fundamental and essential to truly overcoming racism in our country as reforming policies and systems. Instead of letting fear of getting it wrong lead to inaction or complacency, I urge you to let it motivate you to listen and to learn because we all have more to do. I am personally committed to doing more. We all need to play a role in this work, especially our Nation's leaders, which is why it is so frustrating that next week, instead of addressing the profoundly urgent issues we are hearing about from literally all corners of this country, the Senate will be working toward confirming a personal friend of the majority leader's to a lifetime judicial nomination--and very little else. I refuse to accept this, and we all should. I also haven't mentioned the President of the United States yet. Before I do, I want to make one thing really clear: He is not the cause of all this injustice; he is the symptom. And we, all of us, are the only cure. Instead of rising to try to unify the country, the President has shown more interest in fanning the flames of divisiveness and making dangerous, unconstitutional threats to intimidate into silence and suppress these vital protests. To see this President at the helm of our country in this moment is tragic and frightening. But try as he might, the President cannot simply dismiss the legitimate anger on display in Seattle or Tacoma or Spokane or across the country at the pervasive and crushing impact of racism on Black people and other people of color. For generations, we have seen in our newspapers and on our televisions and from our cell phones the dire and unfair and too often fatal impacts of systemic racism on Black lives. Our focus must be on the painstaking work to actually address the deep, systemic racism in our country, which continues to create these moments of understandable despair. I am going to keep listening to the people who are at the forefront of these movements, including leaning on the work that has already been done to help reimagine our Nation's approach to public safety, working to redirect taxpayer dollars towards community resources that invest in the health, safety, and security of Black people and others who have been historically overlooked, and acting, not just talking, to keep our momentum and efforts on this front progressing forward. I am so glad I have been able to connect with leaders in Washington State on these issues. As an elected leader, I know I have to keep stepping up and amp up these necessary voices. Even though our country is at a crossroads--perhaps the most perilous one we have faced in recent memory--we have an opportunity for real progress right now. I feel it in the demands for change coming from the streets and on social media. I feel it in the energy, the resilience, and the courage of civil rights leaders on the ground in Washington State. And I feel it in the Justice in Policing Act. In closing, I hope every single Senator in this Chamber will join Senators Harris, Booker, and myself in cosponsoring this critical legislation and getting it signed and on the books as quickly as possible. I challenge each of my colleagues and all of us to commit ourselves to a fairer, more compassionate vision for our future. Some will say that nothing will change or can change, that we are stuck to live out this historical loop of racial intolerance in perpetuity. But, as Seattle-based writer Ijeoma Oluo reminds us, ``you don't have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist . . . [a]nti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it's the only way forward.'' As a country, let's commit to fight racism in our laws and systems. As individuals, let's commit to fight racism in ourselves and in our communities. This is the work before all of us. As a voice for my State and as someone committed to forming a more perfect union for everyone, I intend to work for justice every day until it arrives. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I was necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 89, adoption of amendment No. 1583, to remove internet website browsing information and search history from scope of authority to access certain business records for foreign intelligence and international terrorism investigations. On vote No. 89, had I been present, I would have voted yea. I was also necessarily absent for rollcall vote No. 90, adoption of amendment No. 1584, to improve the amicus provisions and require the disclosure of relevant information. On vote No. 90, had I been present, I would have voted yea.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I call up amendment No. 1559, as provided for under the previous order.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading be dispensed with.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I have been in the Senate during 9/11, for Hurricane Katrina, for the 2008 financial crisis, and I still have never experienced anything like what we are seeing today. These are truly extraordinary circumstances, and the stories I am hearing from my constituents and from people across the country are crushing. Some of the most heartbreaking stories are the ones about people who want to do the right thing in this moment but are having to choose between staying home, as public health experts say we must, and paying the rent or putting food on the table. I am hearing from workers like Cristal Westwood from Auburn, WA. She and her husband just welcomed their first child on February 7 of this year. They both have autoimmune diseases, but her husband's job is not allowing him to work from home. And she says: This is an extremely stressful situation for our family. We have the option for my husband to take leave without pay for the next month or so, but that would mean we wouldn't have any income coming in to support our family. He could use up all of his sick and vacation time, but that would mean he doesn't have any left for the rest of the year in case something happens. Both of those options don't seem right. I agree. That is not right. A pastor in Tukwila, WA, shared similar concerns from a parent in their congregation with school-aged children who worries: What if they call off school? I don't have anyone to care for the kids. Then, without a paycheck, we will get evicted. As it is, we already run close to eviction every month. Since that time, all of our schools in Washington State are closed. And then there is Chris, who lives in Seattle, works in a grocery store, and is at high risk for coronavirus. She writes: It's an awful decision: Go to work and put your life at risk, or lose your job, lose your income, and lose your insurance. I haven't committed either way at this point. I'm trying to find a way to stay home. I am not just hearing from workers but from small business owners, as well, across our State, people who own restaurants and shops. Everyone from farmers to fishers who are used to the spring being a time when the phones are ringing off the hook. Now no one is coming in the door. No one is calling. They want to do the right thing for their workers, but they don't have the cashflow to keep them on. People are scared. They feel they have gotten the rug pulled out from under them, and they need our help. Unfortunately, here is what the Senator from Wisconsin wants to do. After the House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan agreement that includes an important step forward to provide workers the paid sick leave they need in this crisis, his amendment would undo that bipartisan work by stripping any paid sick leave progress out of the bill we are voting on today. Instead of helping people keep their jobs and their paychecks by providing sick leave, Senator Johnson's amendment would force workers to seek compensation through their State unemployment system, meaning they would be on their own until they were compensated by the State, and the unemployment system in each State would be drastically overburdened at a time when workers are going to need it in the event they are laid off. Democrats are pushing for solutions through the unemployment insurance to support families and workers in the months ahead, but simply using this program now as a replacement for paid sick leave workers is unacceptable, and it is shameful. We have to do better than that. At a time when families are facing impossible decisions, my fellow Senators face a glaringly simple one. We need to be doing as much as we can as fast as we can, and his amendment would set us backward at the worst possible time. That is why I am here on the floor to offer our amendment, based on legislation I have worked on with Senator Gillibrand and Representative DeLauro, introduced yesterday. Our legislation would simply provide workers with 7 days of accrued paid sick leave, 2 weeks of paid emergency days, and 12 weeks of paid emergency leave, and it would make sure that their employers can be quickly and fully reimbursed by the Treasury Department for providing that leave. For those who may not be ready just yet to agree we need paid sick days and paid leave going forward permanently, the amended version of this bill that we are introducing today and asking for a vote on shortly would only provide this support through December 2021. My No. 1 priority right now is getting people the support they need right now for this emergency that is at hand, and this is a commonsense step. It is good for workers who need to stay home if they are sick or to take care of their family without losing a job or their paycheck, and it is good for small businesses that want to keep their workers and communities safe and that are struggling to stay afloat during this crisis. It is the right thing to do for our economy, for our public health, and we should get it done as soon as possible. If we don't do this, if we let this opportunity slip by, we are sending a message to scared people across the country that we are still not willing to acknowledge the scope of the tragedy we are seeing unfold and not listening to the stories like the ones I just shared, stories that I know my colleagues have heard as well. We must not and we cannot send that message. People need help; they need hope; and they need to see that we are willing to do the right thing and pass big solutions. So I hope all of our colleagues join us in supporting our amendment. I want to see this passed and sent to the President's desk as part of this response, and by the way, I am not going to stop fighting until that happens. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this is simple. We need people who are sick to stay home if we have any hope of slowing the spread of this virus, but, today, one in four private sector workers in our country cannot stay home from work without losing a day's pay or potentially a job. We have got to fight this virus with everything we have--every single one of us--and that means we have to have policies in place that help people make the right choices for themselves, their families, and their communities. Our bill will give all employees 14 paid sick days immediately-- today, not next week, not the week after, today--in public health emergencies like this one, in addition to allowing them to accrue 7, meaning it would help workers and communities right now. I urge Senate Republicans: Treat this like the public health crisis it is. Allow parents, families, businesses, communities to have the peace of mind to know that we are acting today and take this urgent needed step. This is nothing short of a chance to save lives and buy desperately needed time to fight this virus. Please don't waste it. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3415--this is a bill that will allow Americans to earn paid sick time so they can address their own health needs and the health needs of their families--that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration, the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business.