Rob Portman

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m., Wednesday, December 9; 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; finally, that following leader remarks, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Dickerson nomination.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the provisions of S. Res. 797 as further mark of respect for the late Paul Spyros Sarbanes, former Senator for the State of Maryland.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 3325 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. PORTMAN. I know of no further debate on this bill.

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 569, S. 4138.

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5663 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there be printed as a Senate document a compilation of materials from the Congressional Record in tribute to retiring Members of the 116th Congress and that Members have until Friday, December 18, to submit such tributes.

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

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am on the floor today to pay tribute to friends and colleagues who will be leaving the Senate at the start of the new Congress. I consider Lamar Alexander, who spoke yesterday, to be a friend and a mentor. He is an institution around here. He is what I would consider an old-school Senator in the best way. He not only takes the time to learn the issues, but he also understands how to explain the importance of the policies that we work on up here to the people back home. By embodying the principles of collegiality and bipartisanship, he has accomplished a lot for the people of Tennessee and all Americans. In the Senate, you need 59 other Senators to say ``That is a good idea'' to get anything accomplished. It is critical, then, to get to know your colleagues, learn about how to work with them constructively to get things done. Lamar Alexander is masterful at that. We have accomplished a lot under his leadership on a lot of important issues. In the interest of time, I will mention two recent examples where I worked with Lamar and watched him make a difference in the lives of all Americans. First, his 21st Century Cures Act, which passed back in 2016, provided needed authorization for investments in the National Institutes of Health and other research institutions to help create new breakthroughs in treatments and cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, and other diseases, as well as advancements in developing medical treatments tailored to each person's individual genome. It was groundbreaking work. It probably got less notice, but it also authorized an unprecedented amount of funding in the State opioid response grants to combat opioid epidemics that have hit almost all of our States. Certainly, it has hit Ohio and Tennessee hard. This has served as an absolutely exceptional complement to what is called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which we passed earlier that year. Without the 21st Century Cures Act, we would not have made the progress we have achieved in the past few years in turning the tide of this deadly disease, and I have seen it firsthand in my State and around the country. We also could not have accomplished the landmark Restore Our Parks Act without his help. This bill, now law, will help to rebuild our national park infrastructure by helping to address that backlog of $12 billion now in maintenance projects. Over 100,000 jobs will be created in the next 5 years due to this legislation. Lamar didn't care about getting the credit for this historic bill, by the way--probably the most important bill for conserving lands in 50 years. He just wanted to get it done. I saw that as he worked tirelessly in public and behind the scenes to ensure we got it across the finish line. Jane and I have cherished our time together with you and Honey, Lamar, and we hope that will continue. Here in the Senate, we will miss your experience, your wisdom, your spirit of bipartisanship, and your perseverance and determination to advance our country's priorities and get things done. Another colleague who has focused on results is Senator Mike Enzi, a true son of Wyoming, who has represented his home State with class in this Chamber for nearly a quarter of a century. Mike is someone I have gotten to know and respect over the past decade as we have served together here in the Senate. In his time here on the Hill, Mike has accomplished a lot for Wyoming. As chair of the HELP Committee, he helped lead the way on crucial pension reforms--complicated stuff but really important. He promoted greater access to education and affordable healthcare and pushed for improvements to workplace safety. He was always willing to reach across the aisle. Over the past three Congresses, he has embraced his past life as an accountant and used his position as chair of the Senate Budget Committee to push for smarter spending here in Washington. That is a perspective we will really miss in this time of exploding deficits. I have to say, I am a bit envious of Mike's post-Senate career plans. As he tells me, he is going back to Wyoming to spend time with Diana and his wonderful family and to spend more time on the rivers of Wyoming with his fly rod. Mike, I hope sometime soon I will be able to come out to Gillette to join you and Diana so you can show me your favorite fishing spots. Congratulations on a well-deserved retirement. We are saying goodbye to another giant of the Senate this year when Senator Pat Roberts leaves us. I saw Senator Roberts on the floor here a moment ago. I see him now. I view Pat Roberts as the Matt Dillon of the United States Senate. Matt Dillon, for those of you who know who he was, was a resident of Dodge City, just like Pat, and like Marshal Dillon and the marine he is proud to be, Pat knows how to lay down the law. But he does it with humor and smiles and a wink, and he does it in a way with that dry Kansas sense of humor that is very effective. By the way, he is always looking for Miss Kitty. He has used that combination of toughness and hard work and humor to accomplish a lot here in Congress. Pat's focus has always been on the people of Kansas. He has done a lot for the people of Kansas, but his work went far beyond Kansas. It turns out he is the only person in America to have chaired the Agriculture Committee both in the House and in the Senate. His tireless work to pass farm bills over those years to help growers and ranchers has made him a friend to farmers everywhere, even in Ohio. Just as important was his work as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Some may not recall this, but he is the one who spearheaded the reforms to our intelligence services after 9/11 to avoid another such tragedy. Pat, I hope you and Franki get a well-deserved retirement, and I look forward to continuing to stay in touch. We are also going to be losing a relatively young and energetic Member of our caucus here, who is also an accomplished bipartisan legislator, when Cory Gardner leaves next year. With only a few short years in the Senate here, Cory has proven he knows how to get things done, using his background in the House and his friendships to be effective for Colorado and the country. He is a smart guy, and we have worked together on a lot of critical issues to address some of the biggest issues facing our country. Like almost all Coloradans, he loves the outdoors. His work for conservation in the outdoors is something that I have had an opportunity to work with him on, including the historic Great American Outdoors Act, which was signed into law recently by the President. It includes the Restore Our Parks Act, but also a passion of his was the permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has been a long-sought goal of the conservation and environmental community. Frankly, it could not have been done without Cory's involvement--period. Cory, we are going to miss your sunny disposition. He may be the most optimistic Member of the U.S. Senate. He always has a smile on his face. Even when things seem bad, he manages a way for them to look good. I will miss working with you on some of these important projects. I wish you the very best as you start the next stage of your career. We are also sad to see Martha McSally go. I have appreciated getting to know her over the past couple of years. In a short period of time, she was a passionate advocate for Arizona as a member of the Armed Services Committee. She used her own trailblazing path as the first female fighter pilot to have flown in combat to advocate for our men and women in uniform. We worked together on bipartisan legislation, as an example, to end cosmetics animal testing. She was involved in a lot of different issues. We want to thank you for all you have done in the Chamber, and I look forward to staying in touch. Senator Tom Udall has joined us here in the Chamber. I call Senator Udall ``Cousin'' because of his cousin Mark Udall and our friendship. Tom Udall has now served for 12 years in the U.S. Senate for the people of New Mexico. I have gotten to know him over that time through our work together on a number of different legislative projects. Most have been around conservation and the environment. We have had a lot of success in that regard. We have been cochairs together of what is called the International Conservation Caucus. There is legislation called the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, which we have been able to work together on to get reauthorized. This has been incredibly important legislation. Probably the No. 3 or 4 source of CO2 emissions in the world is the burning forest, and this has managed to save many millions of acres from the burning by simply saying to these countries: We will do a debt-for-nature swap with you. If you owe a debt to the United States-- which, by the way, many are unlikely to ever pay anyway--we will let you use that in exchange for protecting your forest. It has been remarkably successful. At a time when we seem to have a lot of partisanship and fights around here about global warming and climate change, this is one area in which we have been able to find common ground, and that is because Tom has been willing to step up and be a great partner in that. He has also helped me pass legislation that requires that the U.S. Postal Service use its inventory of the Save Vanishing Species stamps to help protect the rich wildlife and natural resources that we have and protect endangered species. This has resulted in $5 million to $6 million a year going toward that effort. Unfortunately, we have had to convince the Postal Service to continue allowing that great source of funding to be there for our vanishing species. Again, Tom has been very helpful in that. Even in these past months, we haven't stopped our work on environmental issues. Earlier this year, we introduced the bipartisan REPLANT Act to help the U.S. Forest Service address the growing reforestation backlog across our country. This is supported by the Trump administration. It is also supported by Tom Udall. Therefore, we are hoping it can get done. He leaves the Senate with a legacy of tirelessly working to protect the natural beauty of his State and our country for future generations, and we wish him well in the future as he and Jill continue to work on those issues together. Finally, our colleague Doug Jones is going to be departing after serving the people of Alabama for the past couple of years. I have gotten to know Doug through our bipartisan efforts that have focused on standing up to unfair trade practices. Our Trade Security Act to reform section 232, I think, is the right approach to be sure we hold those accountable who violate our trade laws but to also do it in a way that protects American jobs and strengthens our U.S. economy. I will miss Doug as a bipartisan partner in that effort, and I appreciate his working with us on those trade issues and other things. The Senate is a body that is really driven by personal relationships between 100 Members. Senators Alexander, Enzi, Roberts, Gardner, McSally, Udall, and Jones have been key and valuable Members of that 100-person group, and we are going to miss them. They have all served this body well as legislators and as people. They are of high character. They are the kind of folks with whom you want to work, and they have been effective because of that. They will be missed, and I wish them all well. I yield the floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum be waived.

Mr. PORTMAN

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

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the postcloture time on the Hauptman nomination expire at 11:45 a.m. tomorrow and the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination; further, that if cloture is invoked on the Davis nomination, the Senate then vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the Waller nomination. I further ask that the postcloture time with respect to the Davis nomination expire at 2:05 p.m. tomorrow and the Senate vote on confirmation of the nomination and that the confirmation vote with respect to the Waller nomination occur at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Democratic leader on Thursday, December 3; finally, that if any of the nominations are confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to, once again, talk about the need for this Senate and this Congress to pass legislation to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. I think we have to do this now before the end of the year--certainly, before we leave the Congress to go back home for the holiday recess. We just got back from a weeklong recess for Thanksgiving, and all the Members of this body--all of them--had to have seen what I saw, which is an up-close look at the crisis that is upon us. In Ohio, our daily new cases are four times what they were just 1 month ago--four times. I see the numbers every single day, and they are discouraging. And it is not just new cases. It is more people hospitalized. It is more people in the ICU units. It is more people, tragically, who are counted among the fatalities. This morning, I tried to call a friend of mine who is in the hospital in Columbus, OH. He is there because of COVID. And I am just thinking probably of the people watching tonight, most either have had COVID themselves or have a friend or a family member who have had COVID. This friend was unable to talk to me because he had taken a turn for the worse. His organs were starting to malfunction. He had slipped into unconsciousness. I was able to speak to his wife. I told her, of course, that he is in our prayers. But I also told her that he is in my thoughts as we look at whether we should do something more here at the Federal level to help with the coronavirus pandemic. Of course, we should. It has been a long time since we took action. You really have to go back several months. The last big package was passed in March, about 9 months ago. It is time for us to act again. And there is some good news out there. With all of the negative news about the cases and hospitalizations, ICUs, and, tragically, the fatalities increasing, the good news is that there is hope on the horizon, and that is the vaccines. I have been a big supporter of providing the Federal funding for the vaccines. And I applaud the administration for the work they have done on this Operation Warp Speed because I believe that while masks are critical--and I wear mine, and I hope you are wearing yours--the social distancing is very helpful; the work that people are doing on the therapies is really important; and we need more testing, and that is good to know where we stand, but nothing can take the place of these vaccines. Think about the other diseases we have tackled with vaccines--measles and small pox and polio. My dad had polio as a kid. It was fairly common. Today, we don't even think about it. These vaccinations, if they work well, can be amazing. And guess what we learned over the past several weeks. We learned that the early results from some of these vaccines, including the early data we have from the Moderna and the Pfizer candidates are incredibly effective. We are talking over 90 percent efficacy or effectiveness. I am participating in one of the trials. It is the Janssen-Johnson & Johnson trial. That vaccine shows promise also. I joined the trial, by the way, for a few reasons: One, because I really want to understand better how this system is working, and I had received a briefing from a company that manages trials around the world, and they indicated to me that they were having trouble getting people to sign up. So another reason I entered was because I asked them: If I sign up, will that help? They said: If you are willing to go public, yes. So I did, and I am. But I also joined the trial because I am concerned about the numbers I see about people's concerns about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines--because, I know, through Operation Warp Speed, that the science is calling the shots; that these scientists, the best in the world here in America, are working around the clock to get these vaccines out as quickly as possible, and we have to be sure people actually use them, that people are willing to get vaccinated. When I joined the trial only a few weeks ago--several weeks ago, maybe 4 or 5 weeks ago. This is before the election--Gallup had recently come out with a survey which said that only 50 percent of Americans were willing to be vaccinated. That is not good. Again, this is a vaccine that is very effective. The flu vaccine is probably about 30 percent effective, and I have friends who say: I am not going to take the flu vaccine. I took one last year, and I got the flu anyway. Well, that is because it is about 30 percent effective, on average. That is not true with these vaccines. From the early indications, again, 90, 95 percent, 94 percent effectiveness or efficacy. So I urge people to do their own research, to look at what the scientists are saying, look at what Dr. Fauci is saying, look at what those who are the professionals are saying. They are saying that corners are not being cut here. In fact, it is going quickly, but they are being more careful than ever to get this emergency use authorization, which is what the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine candidates are trying to get right now. They actually have to go through more hoops than normal. So my hope is that this willingness to be vaccinated changes. By the way, there was another Gallup poll 2 weeks ago, and it didn't show 50 percent, it showed 58 percent are willing to be vaccinated. That is good. That is progress. I think that is because we are beyond the election, and the irresponsible people who were saying publicly: Gosh. I don't know if I trust this because it was during the Trump administration, if they were Democrats, perhaps, have stopped saying it. I hope they have because this is not something that is political. We should never politicize this. This is about saving lives. It is about getting our economy back on track. It is about dealing with a virus that has caused so much devastation and dislocation in our families, in our communities, in our businesses. So my hope is that everyone will be encouraged to, again, look at it yourself, do your own research but get yourself and your families vaccinated because it is going to help you protect you and also protect the community. It is the only way we are going to get to the kind of community immunity rather than community spread that all of us hope for. Leader McConnell spoke on the floor here yesterday, the Republican leader, the majority leader. He said that we need a new COVID-19 bill to continue investing in the distribution system for these vaccines so we can get them in circulation as soon as possible. I couldn't agree with him more. That is part of why we need another COVID-19 bill. We actually need more money for ensuring that we are going to have these vaccines broadly available with a distribution system that makes sense, that is fair but also gets this out as quickly as possible. You know, this Operation Warp Speed did something extraordinary. It is a public-private partnership. I think it is very innovative. They said: The government is going to subsidize your production of these vaccines, and while you are going through the approval process, which takes several months, you can go ahead and start producing what you think is the right vaccine that you are testing, and then, if you get the approval--boom--the vaccine is ready to go; as compared to getting the approval and then waiting several more months for the vaccine to be produced. That means we are going to probably end up discarding some vaccines that don't work, that don't get the approval. That is OK because the benefit is that much sooner we are going to have a vaccine out there now in record time. Unprecedented. This has never happened in the history of the world that one has been created so quickly and will be distributed so quickly. I expect we are going to have vaccines circulating in our communities within a few weeks, and I suspect that they will go first to, as the CDC will determine--and they are meeting next week to talk about this, as I understand it--but it will probably go first to our healthcare providers, to the healthcare workers who are on the frontlines. It will probably go first to people who work in nursing homes because so much of that problem in our long-term care facilities comes from people going in and out of the facility. Those people should be vaccinated, the residents of those long-term care facilities. And I believe our first responders need help as quickly as possible because we are putting them in impossible situations. And then the most vulnerable among us--those who are immunocompromised or have other healthcare problems that are preexisting, those who are older and out in concentric circles from that to the point that, by March and April, we would hope that everybody would have the opportunity to step up and become vaccinated. That is something all of us want to see--Republicans and Democrats alike. A COVID-19 bill passed now will help make that happen. It will also help us to get over the valley. The valley, to me, is between now, where we have this surge in the virus that has not abated--in Ohio, I am told by the experts, including talking to our public health officials and our Governor, we do not believe that we have peaked. I don't know about your State, but I believe the same thing is probably true. So there is a valley here between now and the March-April timeframe. During those 4 months, we have to have a bridge, in my view. It is not forever. It is a bridge between now and March and April, when the vaccinations are broadly available, and we can have the kind of community immunity we talked about earlier. That bridge is going to be extremely important to the people I represent and the people whom every Member on this floor represents. We had some earlier successes coming together to pass legislation around here. When the coronavirus first hit, we were all together. In fact, the CARES Act that passed in March, 9 months ago, passed unanimously--not a single negative vote. We got together, actually, for four or five different bills that were bipartisan, and we were all together. Then something happened. We started to sort of split apart. But when we were together, we did some great things. Was every penny spent exactly right? Probably not because it was a lot of money, but we saved so many small businesses. I know of them because they are all over Ohio, and I talk to them. The PPP program was a great success. Again, did some get it who shouldn't have? Of course, but, overall, it was extremely successful in keeping the doors open in these small businesses that otherwise would have closed and keeping these employees working and connected to work rather than on the unemployment lines. That was very important. CARES Act funds also were critical to those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. You remember, we had a lot of shutdowns in the March and April timeframe. People were just out of work for the first time in their lives. I have friends who lost their jobs for the first times in their lives, and they had to go to unemployment insurance. They had never done that before, but it saved them. They could make their car payments. They could make their rent or pay their mortgage. There were other important steps that were taken at that time to be sure that we didn't have a more devastating impact. I am proud of the way we came together, but, again, that was 8 or 9 months ago. And I have been frustrated that that sense of urgency and that willingness to sort of set aside the partisanship or whatever our specific concerns were to come together for the good of the country seems to have dissipated. It, particularly, seemed to disappear as we got closer and closer to the election. There seemed to be more and more politics finding its way into the discussion. Well, the election is over. Republicans here in the Senate have offered a responsible, targeted bill focused on funding our healthcare response, supporting our small businesses, making our schools safe for students to return to class, helping those unemployed through no fault of their own. We have actually twice had a majority of this Senate, in the last month and a half, stand up and vote for such a bill--a targeted, focused bill on COVID-19 response--52 Senators. (Thereupon, Mr. SCOTT of Florida assumed the Chair.) Unfortunately, here in the Senate, that wasn't enough because you need 60--a supermajority--in order to pass it. So although we had 52 out of 100, we didn't get to 60. Democrats opposed it but didn't offer an alternative here in the Senate and didn't even allow us to get on the bill to debate it to come up with alternatives. Instead, they supported the House-passed bill, which is called the Heroes Act, which not only is a lot more expensive--the original version was probably $3.5 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the most expensive legislation ever passed by any body of Congress--but also it included a number of provisions that had nothing to do with the coronavirus. That was not something that a lot of us could support. There are immigration law changes, tax breaks for wealthy individuals, and other provisions unrelated to COVID-19. My hope is that now, the election behind us, the crisis upon us, the year-end looming, the vaccines coming online, now we can provide that bridge on a bipartisan basis. And I am not just hopeful; I am encouraged. We have made some recent progress towards what I think could be a good COVID-19 relief package. This morning, a bipartisan framework was put forward by what is called the Problem Solvers Caucus, with four Members on the Democratic side and four Members on the Republican side. Their proposal--we have all had a chance to look at it now, during the day, and I think it is the basis for getting something done before the end of the year. I have been in discussion with those eight Members as recently as this afternoon. I have been in discussion over the past several weeks with many colleagues on both sides of the aisle about, how do you come together on this? And I think what was proposed today by this Problem Solvers Caucus is a good start. It is not exactly what I would write. I have some ideas that I think are really good that aren't in there, and there are some things in there that I wouldn't support. It probably is not what any individual Senator would write. In fact, I am confident in that. But, again, it is a good starting point. It has about $300 billion to help bolster the PPP program, to keep it going and to help struggling small businesses. A lot of them are on the edge right now; I can tell you that. There is $16 billion for the vaccine distribution we talked about and also for more testing and more money for therapy. There is $180 billion to help Americans who have lost their jobs during this downturn in the economy, in addition to a lot of other important provisions for our schools and for our healthcare providers. It doesn't do everything Republicans want; it doesn't do everything Democrats want; but it does what the American people need. I hope this starting point will result in our getting the same kind of broad bipartisan support that we have had for previous bills that have been offered here on the Senate floor. Again, I would like to add some things to it that I think make a lot of sense. Specifically, there are some tax incentives to boost our economic recovery, like the healthy workplaces tax credit to help businesses reopen and stay open with the current safety and social distancing guidelines. I would like to expand and repurpose the employee retention tax credit and the work opportunity tax credit from the CARES Act into something that is more encompassing for companies that don't qualify for PPP but that are willing to retain their employees, again, keeping them connected to work, which I think is so important. Again, we need to act soon because I am concerned about some of the new reports coming out on the economic impact this pandemic is having, especially on certain sectors of the economy and particularly on middle and lower income Americans. After the initial economic shutdown that created the record unemployment numbers we saw in the early weeks of this pandemic, unemployment claims began to fall. The Paycheck Protection Program helped small businesses stay open and keep employees on payroll, which was good. As more businesses found ways to reopen and reopen safely, hiring picked up, and as of October, national unemployment was moving in the right direction--not near where it was prepandemic but still in the right direction. But then we have seen more troubling signs as the pandemic--the healthcare crisis aspect of the pandemic--has increased. One problem is that the partial economic recovery we were seeing was not evenly distributed across different sectors of our economy. That is pretty obvious to people. If you are a manufacturer in Ohio that closed your factory floor this spring, you were able to figure it out--reconfigure the workspace, perhaps, allow for social distancing--and demand started to go back up, and it looks like our manufacturers are in pretty good shape now. But if you are in the hospitality business, travel business, personal care business, you have been hit really hard. Our restaurants, bowling alleys, music venues, coach companies, and many more have had a much tougher path to reopening their doors in a safe way. I had a very sobering call with members of the Ohio Restaurant Association last week. It is troubling to me that more than half of all Ohio restaurants say it is unlikely they will be in business 6 months from now in the absence of more help. So without a new PPP and other help, half of them said they are going to close their doors. I am in the restaurant business. It is a tough business. People are hanging on. We have to do something to help the economically disadvantaged also. At the start of 2020, thanks to consecutive years of strong growth in the pre-COVID economy, under the Trump administration's Republican proposals--tax cuts, tax reform, regulatory relief, allowing our energy resources to be used in this country--things were going pretty darn well. The national poverty rate over the last few years--before COVID started in February of this year, the national poverty rate had fallen to the lowest rate since the government started tracking this statistic 60 years ago. Let me repeat that. The poverty rate had fallen to its lowest level since it was recorded--10.5 percent. The economy was good--not just low unemployment but also higher wages. We actually had in February the 19th straight month of wage increases of 3 percent or more. That was compounded. People were saying: My gosh, if I work hard and play by the rules, I can get ahead. Things were good particularly because that wage increase was primarily focused on lower and moderate-income Americans. But that all changed as we hit COVID. The early economic stimulus actually helped drive that poverty rate lower that I talked about in the March-April timeframe. But since then, a lack of Federal action and this sluggish economic recovery we have seen have reversed that process, with nearly 7 million Americans falling into poverty since May. That means the poverty rate has now risen 2 percentage points to 11.4 percent. That represents 7 more million Americans who have fallen into poverty. So people say: What has the coronavirus done to the economy? There it is. Among other things, it has driven the poverty rate back up after we had so much success. What is worse, the longer these individuals stay in poverty, the harder it will be for them to get out of poverty. That is one of my concerns--long-term unemployed, long-term problems with regard to the poverty rate. A big part of the problem is that those who are most vulnerable to sliding into poverty--these low-income Americans we are concerned about--have been the hardest hit by the waves of layoffs that started in the spring. Nearly half of all lower income adults now report that either they or someone else in their household lost a job or took a pay cut as a result of the economic slowdown--half. In comparison, only about one-third of higher income Americans report being affected in this way. Maybe that is obvious to you, but the woman who works in the kitchen for that restaurant who lost her job, maybe making $15, $16 an hour, compared to maybe somebody who works in a factory making $25 or $30 an hour--those restaurant workers have been more affected. That has been played out through so many different industries around the economy where lower income individuals, often who cannot work mobile--they can't virtually work, unlike someone, say, who is in the financial services industry. They have been some of the hardest hit. Another economic slowdown caused by our failure to act here in Congress would only exacerbate those real hardships being felt by those who can least afford it. Do we have a magic wand here? No. We can't solve all the problems, but we can help. With so many challenges to contend with, it is concerning to me that the Senate will be in session for only 11 more days before we adjourn for the holidays. We have to act, and we have a very short window to do so. By the way, we should not leave Washington without acting. We should not leave Washington for the holidays without passing a COVID-19 response bill. If we do, we will be risking even more devastation from the virus and even more economic impacts, where millions of Americans could lose their jobs, their homes, their cars, and more. We can help avoid this if we provide the necessary resources to continue to combat the ongoing pandemic as well as addressing a lot of the important provisions created under the CARES Act way back 9 months ago that were set to expire at the end of this year. Of these provisions, one of the most concerning to me is the cliff that we face with regard to unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19. Both the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program will expire at the end of this month. These are supplementary Federal programs designed to help the self-employed, gig economy workers, and those who need extra support while on unemployment during the pandemic. I know some of these people. I have talked to them. They are nervous. They are looking at this year-end and thinking: My gosh, I am on unemployment now. Even though I am self-employed and I wouldn't have been on it under the State system, now the Feds are going to pull out, and I am left with nothing. Even with the economic rebound we have had since the spring, we are still down 10 million jobs in this country since February. Think about it. Again, the economy was going great, the policies we put in place were working, and we are still down 10 million jobs. A further slowdown of the economy is going to be tough for those long-term unemployed, and my concern is that some of them may never reenter the workforce. So we need to act and act quickly to get them back in the mix. With the latest round of stricter social distancing measures and closures in some States in order to counter the coronavirus, more jobs will vanish. We are seeing that already. Look at the States that are doing shutdowns--higher unemployment, more people without a job. Losing that unemployment insurance lifeline will be devastating for lots of those Americans. Let's not let that happen. The end of 2020 also means the end of other important COVID-19 response programs. Many individuals who had their incomes affected by this pandemic are also renters. The current national moratorium on evictions has allowed these individuals to keep a roof over their head while they look for work and try to hold their lives together, but this moratorium expires at the end of the year. So you will see a lot more people losing their apartment, losing their home, and ending up without anyplace to go. We need to act here in Congress to make sure that doesn't happen. Same goes for the millions of individuals who are currently relying on student loan deferrals to free up money to cover expenses during the pandemic. Come the start of next year, these student loan payments will be due if we don't act. A lot of people relied on this. It is not that they won't have to pay, but it has been deferred. That ends at year- end. My hope is that laying out everything we stand to lose in just a few weeks at year-end will encourage Congress to act on targeted coronavirus legislation to serve as that bridge--just as a temporary bridge between now and when we have widespread vaccine availability next spring. Failure to act could mean further economic suffering that puts millions more Americans in a tough spot. In the face of a virus that seems to be getting more and more out of hand every day, it just seems like common sense to me that we should act. We should come together to expand and extend these important programs. Again, I agree with Leader McConnell, who spoke on the floor yesterday, talking about the importance of providing support for, as an example, our hardest hit small businesses by having a second round of Paycheck Protection Program targeted at those companies that are actually losing money, year-to-year showing this month as compared to a year ago or this quarter as compared to a year ago that they are seeing a significant drop in the revenue. These are the ones that need the help the most. In addition, we should consider other important provisions, again, to provide funding to keep our kids safe in school--we want them in school; it is a good thing for them, but we have to be sure they can be safe--facilitate vaccine distribution, support our healthcare providers, and funding and flexibility for State and local governments that truly need it. They have to show the need. American lives are at stake, and we are in danger of losing whatever ground we gained on the coronavirus as this third wave threatens my home State of Ohio and the States of so many of my colleagues in this Chamber. Let's not wait any longer. Let's come together and get something done that is good for the American people before the end of the year. And let's stay here. I am committed to staying here. Let's stay here until we do that. I yield the floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 540, S. 2216.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 776, submitted earlier today.

Mr. PORTMAN. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to; that the preamble be agreed to; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, November 18; 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 and resume consideration of the Vaden nomination; finally, that notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the remaining cloture motions filed on Thursday, November 12, ripen at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam 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. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to consideration of S. Res. 775, submitted earlier today.