On the recordMarch 2, 2021
Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the $1.9 trillion spending bill that we expect we will be considering probably starting tomorrow. The COVID-19 pandemic has deeply impacted our communities, causing heartbreak and grief for hundreds of thousands of families who have lost loved ones. At the same time, it has turned our economy upside down, and it has shuttered small business, as well as schools and churches. Without a doubt, it is during a pandemic that we here in Congress should be coming together and working to provide relief for those who are struggling, and it is for that very reason that I am proud that Republicans and Democrats have worked together. We worked together over the past year on a very bipartisan basis--a bipartisan basis--to pass five different pieces of legislation to address the pandemic. In March of 2020, we passed the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act by a vote of 96 to 1. We passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act by a vote of 90 to 8, and the landmark Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or the CARES Act, which is the one I think most people are very familiar with. That provided $2.2 trillion in relief, and it passed the Senate unanimously. It got every Republican and every Democratic vote.…





