S2432 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 14, 2020 stations are still unmanned, but the Forget about making law; this thing leagues and I have made clear, strong Democrats cannot stop salivating over even fails as a messaging bill. That is legal protections will be a hard redline the possibilities for partisan gain. what is so remarkable. The House in any future legislation. Former Vice President Biden says he Democrats had a blank slate to write That is what is happening here in the sees this tragedy as an ‘‘incredible op- anything they wanted to define the Senate—serious leadership on a serious portunity . to fundamentally trans- modern Democratic Party—any vision crisis like we have been doing for form the country.’’ Biden said it is an for the society that they wanted—and months. This half of the Capitol is ‘‘incredible opportunity . to fun- here is what they chose: tax hikes on doing our job. damentally transform the country.’’ small businesses, giveaways to blue f Speaker PELOSI said: ‘‘I see every- State millionaires, government checks thing as an opportunity.’’ for illegal immigrants, and sending di- RESERVATION OF LEADER TIME A cochair of the Congressional Pro- versity detectives to inspect the pot in- The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under gressive Caucus said: ‘‘For me, the le- dustry. The House gave itself no as- the previous order, the leadership time verage is that there is enormous suf- signments for 2 months except to de- is reserved. fering.’’ ‘‘The leverage is that there is velop this proposal. Yet it still reads f enormous suffering.’’ There are 80,000 like the Speaker of the House pasted Americans who have died and more together some random ideas from her CONCLUSION OF MORNING than 20 million who have lost their most liberal Members and slapped the BUSINESS jobs. I call that a crisis; they call it le- word ‘‘coronavirus’’ on top of it—an verage. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Morning unserious product from an unserious This week, the Speaker published an business is closed. House majority that has spent months 1,800-page seasonal catalog of leftwing f oddities and called it a coronavirus re- dealing itself out of the crisis. The House Democrats have been lief bill. So here we go again. It in- LEGISLATIVE SESSION missing in action for months. While cludes a massive Tax Code giveaway to the Senate was passing the CARES high earners in blue States. Working Act, the Democratic House was on the families are struggling to put food on USA FREEDOM REAUTHORIZATION sidelines substantively and literally. the table, but the House Democrats are ACT OF 2020—Continued They had already gone home. Nearly 2 prioritizing millionaires on the coasts. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under months later, the Senators are back at It would print another round of the previous order, the Senate will re- checks—listen to this—specifically for our duty stations with new pre- sume consideration of H.R. 6172, which illegal immigrants. Can you believe it? cautions. We have been back for 2 the clerk will report. We forgot to have the Treasury Depart- weeks. We are holding major hearings The senior assistant legislative clerk ment send money to people who are on the pandemic. We are legislating read as follows: here illegally. My goodness. What an and confirming nominees. Yet the House is still at home. And when it A bill (H.R. 6172) to amend the Foreign In- oversight. Thank goodness the Demo- telligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to pro- crats are on the case. does contribute, it is not serious. hibit the production of certain business The Speaker’s bill also tries to use The House Democrats have checked records, and for other purposes. out of this crisis and left governing up the virus as cover to implement sweep- The PRESIDING OFFICER. The ma- to the Senate. They even intend to ing changes to election laws that the jority whip. shatter congressional history and jam Democrats have literally wanted for CORONAVIRUS years, like forcing every single State through remote voting so they can con- tinue to be counterproductive from the Mr. THUNE. Madam President, as to embrace California’s sketchy ballot the majority leader just pointed out, harvesting whether they want to or comfort of their homes. Let me say that again. They even intend to shatter the Senate has been and will be focused not. on responding to the coronavirus crisis Then there is the cherry on top. It is congressional history and jam through in this country in a way that hopefully the bold new policy from the Wash- remote voting so they can continue to will enable the American people to re- ington Democrats that will kick the be counterproductive from the comfort coronavirus to the curb and save Amer- of their own homes. cover and that will restore our econ- ican families from this crisis. Here it Look, here in the real world, the Sen- omy—that will get things back to nor- is—new annual studies on diversity and ate Republicans are working seriously mal. As he pointed out, that requires inclusion within the cannabis industry. to help the country reopen. The crush- dealing with the health emergency as There is not one study but two of them. ing unemployment figures, even with well as with the economic emergency Let me say that again. The Democrats’ the CARES Act, show that no amount crisis that has been created by this. supposed coronavirus bill includes tax- of Federal spending could substitute With respect to the health emer- payer-funded studies to measure diver- for the entirety of the U.S. economy. gency, the leader pointed out that sity and inclusion among the people We need to be smart, and we need to be there are literally tens of billions of who profit off of marijuana. safe, but we have to find a more sus- dollars being spent now on vaccine re- The word ‘‘cannabis’’ appears in this tainable middle ground. search, on anti-viral therapeutics, and bill 68 times—more times than the This week, Chairman ALEXANDER and on testing. We believe that, in order for word ‘‘job’’ and 4 times as much as the the Committee on Health, Education, us to get our economy fully back, we word ‘‘hire.’’ Maybe that is just as well Labor, and Pensions heard from Dr. have to deal with the health emergency because when their proposal does try to Fauci, Dr. Redfield, and other top ex- in front of us, so dollars have been treat the economic crisis, it proposes perts on exactly this subject. There are made available—hundreds of billions of stifling, anti-work policies that would at least two big things our Nation will dollars—to healthcare providers, hos- only make it harder for Americans to need to start recovering: stepped-up pitals, doctors, nursing homes, and pro- get their jobs back. For example, they testing nationwide and legal liability viders who are on the frontlines of this literally propose to raise taxes on protections so that K–12 schools, uni- crisis and trying to deal with the chal- small business and drain more cash versities, charities, and employers are lenges it presents every single day. from Main Street during a Main Street not invaded by trial lawyers the in- That is what we have focused on. In ad- meltdown. So maybe it is best if the stant they unlock their doors. dition, we have focused on the eco- House Democrats focus on cannabis On testing, fortunately, the Senate nomic crisis and the impact it has had studies and leave economics to the rest has already done a great deal. The ex- on our small businesses and on our of us. ecutive branch and especially the workers. This is a totally unserious effort. States are in the driver’s seat, but we Everything that has been included in Even the mainstream media says: have already sent billions of dollars to the bills that have already been passed ‘‘Neither this bill nor anything resem- help scale up testing nationwide. On here in the U.S. Senate—now we have bling it will ever become law. It’s a legal liability reform, the work lies No. 4—and have been signed into law Democratic wish list.’’ ahead of us. As my Republican col- by the President have been singularly VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:04 May 15, 2020 Jkt 099060 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 4624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G14MY6.002 S14MYPT1 SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE May 14, 2020 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S2433 focused on trying to assist people and page bill, they mention ‘‘cannabis’’ Every day, our law enforcement and get them through this time as a bridge way more times than they mention intelligence personnel are engaged in to hopefully get the worst of this be- ‘‘jobs.’’ The amazing thing about this— the difficult and, at times, dangerous hind us and get us to a time at which and they will come here and argue that work of tracking terrorist threats. We the economy begins to open up again. the Republicans’ proposals benefit the need to make sure they have the tools Clearly, the focus was on helping wealthy, benefit the rich. As I just they need to do their jobs and to keep families directly, making sure those pointed out very clearly, it is the oppo- Americans safe. The bill before us com- families who particularly needed the site that is true, for it has been di- bines extensions of these key anti-ter- help the most got some additional fi- rected directly at families and work- rorism tools with new accountability nancial assistance.