Rob Portman: “I am here on the floor today to talk again about the need for us to pass a legislative package, which I would call an…”

“I am here on the floor today to talk again about the need for us to pass a legislative package, which I would call an emergency package, to deal with our COVID-19 crisis we have in this country. As we talk today on the floor of the Senate, there are negotiators working busily in a room nearby to try to come up with that package, and that is a good thing. I know they have run into some roadblocks, at least so I have been told. We need to work through those roadblocks. They are relatively small compared to the importance of the overall mission of helping the people we represent, helping those small businesses, helping those hospitals, helping those families who find themselves without a paycheck through no fault of their own. And my hope is that we can get there. The legislation that is being looked at today, which may be part of a larger package that we will vote on either tomorrow or the next day, is, as I understand it, informed by work that a bipartisan group of us did over the past several weeks. I appreciate my colleagues so much. I see Senator Murkowski is here on the floor today. She was one of those people. Senator Manchin was one of the people to help organize it. In fact, I think the first meeting was because Lisa Murkowski invited people to have pizza at her place.…”