Coronavirus

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, yesterday drugmaker Moderna filed for an emergency use authorization from the FDA for its COVID vaccine. The FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee is scheduled to discuss Pfizer's COVID vaccine next week and is expected to review Moderna's shortly thereafter.

That means that it is entirely possible that by the end of December the FDA will have authorized not one but two COVID vaccines that have so far shown more than 90 percent effectiveness in preventing the disease. This is very hopeful news, and it is a tribute to the innovative power of the private sector and the efforts of Congress and the Trump administration to expedite the development of COVID vaccines.

The light at the end of the tunnel looks like it is on the way. At the same time, it is essential that we not minimize what is happening with COVID right now. Cases are surging and are likely to surge further, and doctors and hospitals are struggling.

It is essential that we maintain key safety measures until those vaccines arrive. Now, more than ever, we need to keep wearing masks, wash our hands, and maintain social distance. The more responsibly we act, the more we can protect vulnerable members of the population and keep our doctors and hospitals from being overrun. Acting responsibly can also help avert further economic shutdowns, which would be a devastating blow to a lot of struggling businesses.

I know that it has been a long, hard year and that everyone is tired of the additional safety measures we have had to take, but the beginning of the end is in sight, and we need to hold on for a few months longer and keep doing everything we can to prevent further virus spread.

At the same time, it is important that State and local governments use their authority responsibly and think carefully about the impact of the health and safety measures that they are putting in place. It is also essential that elected officials ensure that they are respecting our constitutional rights--notably, the right of assembly and the free exercise of religion--when imposing coronavirus restrictions.

I was pleased to see the Supreme Court uphold this principle in its recent decision suspending draconian New York measures targeting houses of worship. New York City is not the only place where churches have faced disproportionately strict restrictions. Earlier this year in Washington, DC, for example, the mayor celebrated mass protests that vastly exceeded recommendations for gathering size, even as she maintained strict restrictions on houses of worship.

I was pleased to join an amicus brief to the DC district court in support of Capitol Hill Baptist Church's lawsuit against the DC government asking that the church's constitutional right to free exercise of its faith be respected in the same way as the protesters' rights to freedom of speech.

Throughout this pandemic we have, unfortunately, seen a significant degree of hypocrisy from many on the left who have called for or imposed strict restrictions on activities that they deem nonessential while celebrating activities that they approved of but that posed a significant risk of coronavirus transmission.

The First Amendment cannot be applied selectively, and when imposing coronavirus restrictions, lawmakers need to exercise the greatest respect for our first freedom--the free exercise of religion--and ensure that churches are not subjected to disproportionately severe measures.

More than that, politicians should do everything that they can to ensure that religious worship is supported as far as possible during the pandemic. Worship is an essential activity, and it should be accorded the same respect and deference that governments have accorded to liquor stores, bike shops, and nail salons.

In the next couple of weeks, Congress will be passing key legislation, including a bill to fund the government. I am hoping that we will be able to add a COVID relief bill to that list. While the money Congress has already invested in COVID relief has gone a long way toward meeting the country's needs, there is more that we need to do.

Republicans put forward an additional targeted relief package months ago, but Democrats spent the fall delaying additional COVID relief by insisting on bloated legislation filled with unrelated and unreasonable demands. It has been impossible to negotiate with Democrats for the simple reason that Democrats have made it clear that compromise is not an option. ``It is our way or the highway,'' Democrats have said. It is either a multitrillion-dollar bill or nothing at all.

Democrats have to know that they don't have a chance of getting their bill through both houses of Congress and to the President's desk, so the reasonable thing for them to do, if they really want to help Americans, would be to work with Republicans to pass a bill that delivers at least some of what they want. Republicans and Democrats agree on a number of things, from more money for schools, testing, and vaccines to another round of Paycheck Protection Program relief for the hardest hit small businesses.

We should be able to arrive at compromise legislation that both sides can agree to, and we should pass that compromise legislation before the end of the year. I was encouraged to hear that a few Democrats are looking to develop bipartisan coronavirus legislation, and I hope we will be able to convince the Speaker and the Democratic leader here in the Senate that working with Republicans--really working with them--and not pretending to negotiate while refusing to actually compromise is the right thing to do for the American people.

It has been a rough year for the country.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), the Senator from Georgia (Mrs. Loeffler), and the Senator from Arizona (Ms. McSally).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source