Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it is a pleasure to be with Senator Schumer to advance the Schumer-Wyden legislative proposal today, and I am very pleased that we are joined by Senator Bennet, a particularly valuable member of the Senate Finance Committee, who has worked on these issues for many, many years.

As Senator Schumer outlined, we are talking about a fresh approach as we look to extending supercharged unemployment benefits for as long as our economy suffers under the COVID-19 pandemic. As the ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee that produced the $600 extra benefit each week until July 31 and the breakthrough to cover for the first time gig workers and the self-employed and part-timers and others, I am going to take a few minutes to explain why this next step to create a dependable safety net in America is a no-brainer.

We know that tens of millions of Americans are out of work due to COVID-19. The pandemic is, in fact, getting worse. Dr. Tony Fauci yesterday talked about the prospect of having 100,000 new confirmed cases per day nationwide. We don't even want to imagine what the unemployment situation is going to look like with 100,000 new coronavirus cases every day. You cannot have a healthy economy in a country suffering from mass death.

I know the President got up in the Rose Garden and celebrated the last jobs report like it was the greatest news since the end of World War II, but you have to be living in a country club fantasy land to believe this economic crisis is anywhere close to ending.

Tens of millions of Americans today are out of work in States with COVID hotspots. There are reports that people who went back to work in the spring are getting laid off for a second time. The numbers show that it disproportionately harms Black and Hispanic people suffering in this crisis, and the layoffs are hitting those Americans especially hard in industries that pay modest wages. This is a recipe for injustice and for long-term economic hardship. Our proposal is desperately needed because the country is not on a straight line to recovery.

Democrats demanded the supercharged unemployment benefits because workers are not to blame for the crisis. Doctors don't yet have a cure for COVID-19, but the Congress does have a way to address the financial strain of joblessness. That is why Democrats demanded full wage replacement during the negotiations on unemployment benefits in the CARES Act.

Secretary Scalia told those of us negotiating this issue that State UI systems--unemployment systems--were too outdated to make it work anytime soon. These are Federal benefits, but under employment law, the States administer the program and get the benefits out.

We knew that there would be some challenges, and we proposed a simple solution: $600 extra per week across the board, adding up to full wage replacement for the typical worker. It was clear that was the only possibility of getting the supercharged benefits out to millions of workers quickly.

It hadn't been easy. In a number of States, the unemployment systems run on Bronze Age technology. In some other cases--and Leader Schumer and I are inquiring into these right now--it is a case of Republican sabotage. That is why, for the long term, it is certainly worth looking at a Federal approach for administering unemployment benefits as a better strategy.

But in today's economic conditions, dealing with the suffering we are seeing right now--the suffering that Tony Fauci talked about yesterday that could hammer this country from sea to shining sea--if you are dealing with today's conditions and you want to get full-wage benefits out on time, there is no alternative to $600 per week across the board. Furthermore, there is no good argument for cutting or eliminating benefits as long as the pandemic is raging and getting worse.

On the one hand, we heard Secretary Scalia and other Republicans repeat the old line. They have been talking against unemployment for ages, and they always say the problem is lazy workers dependent on government are going to drag the economy down by collecting unemployment instead of going back to their jobs.

On the other hand, Republicans have repeatedly said the economy is roaring back to full employment so there is no need for extending benefits any longer. You can't have it both ways. You can't have it both ways, that these workers are dragging the economy down and then talk about how everything is booming.

Regardless of how these arguments conflict, neither one holds any water to begin with. I believe it is an insult to American workers to say they would rather sit at home than work hard and earn their pay. Our workers have a strong working ethic, and how could anybody believe in the greatness of America, as the President is always talking about, and think so little of its workers?

Second, it is time to quit pretending to know whether the crisis is anywhere near over. The number of people filing new unemployment claims every week, even now, is two and three times higher than the worst single week of the Great Recession.

Senators have a right to stake out whatever ground they want on this issue. I will tell you, the American people overwhelmingly support extending supercharged unemployment benefits. You see it in polls-- polls done by centrist organizations. But more importantly, you hear about it when you are home.

Americans don't buy Secretary Scalia's line about lazy workers or dependence on the government. I can tell you, based on the conversations I had with Oregonians, they don't want any handouts. They understand the country is facing a severe historic crisis of joblessness, and they want the Congress to act. You cannot have a healthy economy in a country suffering from mass debt, particularly in the middle of a pandemic.

It would be an act of sabotage and, I think, unthinkable cruelty to slash these benefits and send all these jobless families into destitution. That is why Senator Schumer and I have outlined this proposal to extend these supercharged unemployment benefits in a manner that is tethered to economic conditions on the ground.

We always hear our colleagues talk about policies and the need for policies that really mirror what is going on in the real-world economy, in the private sector. That is what this proposal does. This proposal says we are going to tie the economic benefits; we are going to tether them to economic conditions on the ground.

I saw our colleague from South Dakota, a Member of the Republican leadership, Senator Thune, say that maybe the benefits ought to taper down when unemployment goes down. I looked at that, and I said that Democrats share that view. That is what our trigger proposal is all about. You have to have them in a way that is going to make sure people can pay rent and groceries, which is what the $600 benefit made possible and will in the future.

But when unemployment tapers down, then, under our proposal, we make an accommodation for that. What we are going to do is common sense. It provides certainty and predictability for American workers, but it will also send a message across the country that there is a policy that will make a more dependable safety net. Yet it will also do what the head of the Federal Reserve just said, which is to make sure that family budgets, which are the ones that drive the American economy, are ones where people can pay the rent and buy groceries.

The bottom line is we have a moral obligation to not turn our back on those who are suffering. I am telling you, the Senate is going to go home here in a day or so for several weeks, and Senators are going to hear loud and clear that workers are concerned about whether, after July 31, they are going to be able to pay the rent and be able to buy groceries. I think they are worried, and I hear it from all parts of my community--about a tsunami of evictions and people simply not being able to feed their families. I think those who disagree with the Schumer-Wyden proposal ought to come out here and say what they going to offer those people who are hurting.

Influential objective thinkers about the economy, like Jerome Powell, are saying that these kinds of benefits are absolutely key to making sure that the family budget, which drives the American economy, is going to be positioned to pay the rent and buy groceries.

I gather from Leader Schumer's remarks that I can yield to our Senator from Colorado, a particularly valuable member of the Finance Committee, who has been working on safety net issues for many, many years.

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