Coronavirus

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, shortly, the Senate will vote on the Paul amendment, and I want this body to understand why I strongly oppose it.

The Paul amendment, in its essence, has nothing to do with the underlying proposal responding to this enormous COVID-19 crisis. The Paul amendment is a poison pill that essentially focuses on an old political issue that this body has debated before and very likely is going to debate again. I just don't believe the Paul amendment has any place in a debate on an emergency coronavirus bill.

Every Member of this Senate understands our country is facing and dealing with a national health and economic crisis. The country wants us to focus like a laser on emergency measures that can help save lives and keep families from falling into destitution.

The Paul amendment says, in effect, that immigrant families with kids are going to pay for the emergency with their kids' well-being. These families, like so many others, are especially vulnerable at this moment. It is just wrong to bring misery into their homes.

I would just ask my colleagues to save the immigration debates for another time when we are not in the middle of a pandemic. Today, the focus is about that pandemic and acting in an emergency, where we come together, both political parties, both sides of the aisle. When you are dealing with this kind of pandemic, your focus is helping families and workers, small businesses, and all of those people who are walking on an economic tightrope. They are not getting paychecks, is what we are hearing, and they are trying to figure out how to pay the rent. If they pay the rent, do they have money for food? If they have money for food, what do they do about out-of-pocket healthcare? Folks want our support with those survival issues.

On the Finance Committee--I am very pleased to see the distinguished President of this body working with us on the Finance Committee. What we have tried to do is focus on modernizing unemployment insurance. I have said to my colleagues: Let's just face it--unemployment is a system that has been in a time warp.

I think we have a very important proposal that is going to help an enormous number of people from sea to shining sea. We need to do so much right now, particularly in terms of saving lives and getting healthcare to our people.

What I hear from home is people who are following this are saying: There is so much to do. Act now, then get on with the additional steps that have to be taken. But for today, get on with this. Get on with passing this bill and getting ready to move to the next bill.

Those in need of healthcare and citizens struggling to make it through these unprecedented times want action now. They all realize that there will be several additional pieces of legislation--hopefully sooner rather than later--but our job today is to make sure we pass this bill.

I urge my colleagues, when we vote on the Paul amendment very shortly, to oppose it.

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