Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, after a few weeks of working remotely to help flatten the coronavirus curve, we are back in Washington to continue our coronavirus response and address other important issues. It has been an incredibly difficult couple of months for our country and, in fact, for most of the world. More than 1 million Americans have contracted the coronavirus, and thousands have died. Our economy has taken a huge hit. Millions of Americans are out of work, and businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Americans are worried. They are worried about their own health. They are worried about the health of their families and loved ones, and they are worried about their finances.

My colleagues and I know that Americans are suffering. Our overriding priority over the past 2 months has been responding to the coronavirus crisis. We passed several major response bills and provided substantially more than $2 trillion in assistance. We have funded testing, medical care, personal protective equipment for frontline medical personnel, vaccine and treatment development, paid sick leave, unemployment benefits, direct relief payments to American citizens, forgivable loans for small businesses, and much more.

Our goal has been to provide a comprehensive response, addressing not just the medical priorities but also the economic impact this virus has had on so many American families, and there is more work to be done. Right now a big part of that work is monitoring the implementation of legislation we have already passed. We provided a tremendous amount of money, and we need to make sure it is getting to where it needs to go as quickly as possible and is being spent in the most effective way.

Monitoring the implementation of the legislation we have already passed is also crucial for informing any future legislation. As I said, we have provided a tremendous amount of money for coronavirus, equal to almost 50 percent of the entire Federal budget for 2020, and it is important that any future funding be carefully targeted. We need to make sure that Federal dollars are going only to real coronavirus priorities. Our children and grandchildren will be footing the bill for the money we are adding to the national debt.

As a case in point, the debt to GDP, which was scheduled to be 79 percent this year, is now expected to be, in the Year 2020, 101 percent. That jump from 79 percent debt to GDP to 101 percent debt to GDP is the largest jump, I am told, literally, since 1943, in the middle of World War II. So it is essential that we spend wisely.

In addition to overseeing the implementation of the coronavirus legislation we passed and gathering data to inform any future bills, we also have a number of coronavirus-related nominations to consider, something that is a role that is unique to the U.S. Senate under the Constitution. When it comes to judicial nominations, nominations to the executive branch, the Senate has the responsibility to ensure that we conduct the research, investigate nominees, hold confirmation hearings, and ultimately vote to put people into key positions in the administration and on the courts.

So the question about why we are here this week I think is a fairly easy one to answer, and that is because there are lots of really important positions that are key not only to the healthcare crisis we are facing in this country but to our ongoing national security priorities as well as to the economic challenges we are facing through this crisis.

In fact, this week, the Senate Banking Committee will be holding a hearing on the nomination of Brian D. Miller to be the special inspector general for pandemic recovery at the Treasury Department, a key role created by the legislation that we passed here in the Congress, critically important to the implementation, making sure everything is done in the right way. As we all know, inspectors general pay a key oversight role in Federal departments, helping to root out waste, fraud, and other abuses of taxpayer dollars. If confirmed, Mr. Miller will be an essential part of ensuring that the trillions we provided for coronavirus relief are spent properly.

Committees are doing other essential coronavirus work this week as well. The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is holding hearings on an initiative Senators Blunt, Alexander, and others worked to get included in the coronavirus legislation. This initiative was designed to spur innovation in private sector and public sector collaboration, with a goal of dramatically increasing our coronavirus testing capabilities. So that is going on in the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

The Senate Commerce Committee, of which I am a Member, is holding a hearing this week looking at the impact of COVID-19 on the airline industry, an industry we know is being profoundly impacted by what is happening with the virus.

Next week, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will be hearing directly from the leaders of our fight against the coronavirus--Drs. Fauci, Redfield, and Hahn and Admiral Giroir. Committee work will play a key role in any future coronavirus bill, and it is good to have committees able to meet once again here in Washington, DC.

Of course, while the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to be our priority in Washington in the coming weeks and months, there is other essential work that we have to do for the American people: appropriations bills, nominations to essential administration posts, and critical national security legislation is just some of the items on our agenda over the next couple of months. This week, the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee are holding hearings on nominees for key national security positions, including the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of the Navy.

Senate Republicans are committed to getting our country through this crisis and helping American workers and businesses deal with the virus's impact. We will be discussing a lot of ideas over the next couple of weeks, from tax and regulatory relief to support farmers and ranchers to ways to spur job creation and shield responsible businesses from frivolous litigation once the economy is opened up again. As I said, we will continue to focus on making sure that the money we provided gets where it is needed as fast as possible.

The United States undoubtedly has more tough days ahead, but we are going to get through them. We are going to come out tougher on the other side. In the meantime, we have work to do here in the U.S. Senate. People across this country are hurting and struggling, and there are many priorities that need to be addressed. So I am pleased that the Senate is open for business. We are going to be working the next few months, as I mentioned, on the national defense authorization bill, a piece of legislation that we have to do on an annual basis that deals with all of our national priorities, making sure that the men and women who defend this country, the American people, and our interests around the world have the training, equipment, and resources to do their jobs to keep Americans safe.

We have a critical water infrastructure bill that will be marked up by the Environment and Public Works Committee, also a piece of legislation that is important to the economy in this country. If you look at the long list of things and priorities that we need to deal with here in the U.S. Senate, it is important that we be about the people's business.

I know I can speak from personal experience that over the past several weeks, like my colleagues, we have worked really hard to stay connected. I worked really hard to stay in touch with people across South Dakota using technology, platforms, and apps that I never really had much experience with using in the past. From Zoom to Skype, to Google Hangouts, to Shindig, there are all kinds of interesting new apps that I think many of us became acquainted with, conducting lots of virtual meetings and staying in touch with our constituents to see what is important to them, finding out what is working and what is not working and getting feedback on what we could be doing to even better respond to the crisis that is out there. But there is no substitute, when it comes to doing the Nation's business, for being here, for committees to work, to meet, for us to be able to vote, for us to be able to deal with the important nominations I mentioned that under the Constitution, we, the Senate, have an obligation and responsibility to advise and consent on, whether that is a judicial nomination, key Cabinet post, or an important administration position that pertains to national security and the virus.

There are lots of priority items for which the U.S. Senate has a key and principal responsibility, and we need to be about that business. So I hope, in the days and weeks ahead, as we take on those challenges, that we can work together in a way that provides maximum safety for the people who work here but also gives the important priority to the items and the issues that are critical to Americans at this point, in the middle of this crisis and, hopefully, when we get on the other side of it, those important critical national security priorities, economic priorities, and other business that the American people need us to deal with on a daily basis.

I thank the Presiding Officer for the time and look forward to working with my colleagues, albeit in different circumstances than we have had to deal with in the past but, nevertheless, to have the U.S. Senate, the people's representatives, here doing the important work the American people expect us to do.

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