Coronavirus
Floor Speech
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me say a few words on the coronavirus relief package that is now being negotiated. In my view, this bill of roughly $900 billion has a number of enormously important provisions in it which will do a great deal of service and help for the American people.
We are talking about funding for vaccine distribution, which is a no- brainer. We have got to get that vaccine out to every State in this country if we are going to finally put an end to this horrific pandemic. We are talking about, in this bill, in this proposal, increased funding for education, healthcare, childcare, nutrition, housing, transportation, and many other very important areas.
I agree with all of that, but the problem is that, while this proposal addresses some of the major crises facing our country and the families of our country, there is simply not enough money in the proposal to deal with the unprecedented crises that we now face.
It is no secret to anybody that right now, at this moment in America, we face the worst set of crises that this country has seen for perhaps a hundred years. The pandemic is surging throughout America. More and more people are being diagnosed with the virus. More and more people are ending up in hospital. More and more people are dying.
But it is not just a public health crisis that we are addressing; we are dealing with a terrible, terrible economic meltdown, where many, many millions of people have lost their jobs; they have lost their healthcare. People are working, in many cases, for fewer hours. Rather than 40 hours a week, they are working 30 hours a week--less income coming in.
So this bill has a lot in it that is good, but given the enormity of the crises that we face, it simply does not go anywhere far enough.
As the Presiding Officer may well remember, in May, in response to the crisis, the Democratic House passed a Heroes bill calling for $3.4 trillion in new money to address the kind of crises that we are facing. And while that bill did not have everything that I wanted in it, it was a serious, serious step forward in addressing the multitude of crises facing our country. It was a $3.4 trillion bill, passed in the House in May.
In July, the House came back and said: Well, we are not going to spend $3.4 trillion; we are going to reduce it to $2.2 trillion, and they passed what was called a Heroes 2 bill, which called for $2.2 trillion in new money. Again, it did not go as far as I would want but was a very serious effort.
Among other things in that bill as well as the first Heroes bill, there was a provision to extend unemployment benefits for another 4 months and provide a $600 supplementary check. And there were provisions in it to provide a $1,200 direct payment to adults and $500 to their children. That was the Heroes 2 bill for $2.2 trillion.
Just a few months ago, the Trump administration, represented by Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin, proposed a $1.8 trillion bill--$1.8 trillion.
Today, the bill that is being negotiated calls for all of $348 billion in new money. This is a $900 billion bill, but most of the funding is carried over from the CARES Act--$348 billion in new money. In other words, this is roughly 10 percent of what Democrats in the House passed in the first Heroes bill.
Now, I was a mayor for 8 years. I know a little bit about negotiating. I, frankly, don't know how you negotiate from $3.4 trillion down to $348 billion. You got 10 percent of what you originally started with.
This is not just numbers. What this is about is whether, in this moment of unprecedented crisis, when families are struggling to feed their children, when a half a million people are sleeping out on the street, when in the midst of this awful pandemic over 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and can't go to the doctor in the midst of a pandemic, when they are sick, at a time when many, many millions of families are worried about getting evicted from their apartments or their homes because they no longer have the income to pay their rent or pay their mortgage--that is the crisis that we are in right now. And, unfortunately, this proposal does not address that crisis to the degree that it should.
Now, that is the bad news. My hope--very sincere hope--is that when the Biden administration comes into office in late January, their very first priority will be to address the deficiencies and the inadequacies in this bill.
The American people today, the working class of this country today, are struggling in a way that we have not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s. People are desperate. I will never forget, in my State, in my community, in my neighborhood, a few months ago-- Burlington, VT--they shut down--the State shut down a highway, and hundreds and hundreds of automobiles lined up, one behind each other, in order to get emergency food distributed by Vermont National Guard-- in my community.
That is going on all over this country, where States are in worse shape than the State of Vermont. People who have never, ever gone to an emergency food shelter are now lining up for emergency food packages in the United States of America, in the richest country in the history of the world, at a time, by the way, when a number of billionaires are doing phenomenally well.
So this bill, in my view, does not go anywhere near far enough in terms of addressing our crises, and I hope that as soon as the Biden administration comes into office, they will address those deficiencies.
Now, the good news--there is some good news, and I am happy, as we enter the holiday season, to say something that I think the American people are wanting to hear. And that is, when you ask the American people--and the pollsters do that. They say to the American people that we are in the midst of this terrible crisis; what do you think should happen?
Overwhelmingly, some 80 percent of the American people-- overwhelmingly, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, they say that, in the midst of this emergency, we need the U.S. Government to respond to our pain because we don't want to get evicted; we don't want our kids to go hungry; we don't want to be saddled with incredible debt. The government has got to do something.
Eighty percent of the American people--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--understand that.
Then, when you ask them, ``What is the most important thing that can be done?''--there is a long list of things--what they say is the most important thing that can be done is, in this moment, help my family out. Get me some money so I can pay my bills, so I don't get evicted, so I can feed my kids, so I can go to the doctor when I get sick. Get me a direct payment.
As you know, the CARES Act provided $1,200 for every working-class adult in this country; that is, for an individual earning less than $75,000 a year; for a couple, $150,000; plus $500 for their kids. That means, for a family of four--husband, wife, and two kids--that is $3,400.
Now, you don't get rich with that, but when you get a check for $3,400 for a family of four, it means that maybe you can pay your bills; maybe you can breathe a little bit easier; maybe, come Christmastime, you might actually be able to buy your kids a few gifts; maybe the fear of eviction is lessened just a little bit.
That is what we did in the CARES Act, and that is what I wanted in this bill. Now, a week ago, 10 days ago nobody here was talking about the need for direct payments, help for working families, despite the fact that that is the issue, the program that the American people most wanted. There are a lot of other important things that we are dealing with. That is what the American people wanted: Help us out. Let us make a decision. Get us some money in this time of need.
I am happy to say, working with people like Senator Hawley of Missouri; working with the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives; working with Senators Gillibrand, Warren, Merkley, Markey, and Wyden; working with Pramila Jayapal and many others in the House, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Ro Khanna, and many others who have stood up in the House and said ``We have to have direct payments,'' I am happy to say that, as of now--and we are going to fight for more because this process is not over--the proposal, as I understand it, provides for a direct payment of $600 for every working-class adult and $600 for their kids. That means for a family of four, that would be $2,400. That is half of what I wanted, but it is a step forward. I am going do my best to make sure that we come as close to that $1,200 as we possibly can.
Millions of our people today are living in desperation. Half of our workers are living paycheck to paycheck, while one out of four American workers today is either unemployed or making a starvation wage of less than $20,000 a year. During the holiday season, over one-third of Americans expect to lose income--one-third--and are having a difficult time paying for basic household expenses. In America today, hunger is at its highest level in decades. More than half a million Americans are homeless, and over 30 million of our people are on the brink of eviction. By January 1, 12 million Americans will owe an average of $5,800 in back rent.
As bad as this crisis is for the whole population, from coast to coast, it is worse for the African-American and Latino and Native American communities. During this pandemic, nearly 60 percent of Latino families and 55 percent of African-American families and many, many, many Native American families have either experienced a job loss or a pay cut.
All across this country, working families are standing up and saying: You know what, we have served in the military. We are doing our best to raise our kids in this unprecedented moment in history. We need help.
I want to thank not only my friends in the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives--Jayapal, Tlaib, Omar, Ocasio- Cortez, Ro Khanna, and many, many others--I also want to thank the millions of Americans who have stood up and demanded that the government respond to the needs of working families.
I want to thank the over 60 groups representing millions of working families, progressives, the elderly and young people, including Public Citizen, the Center for Popular Democracy, the Sunrise Movement, Social Security Works, Presente, and People's Action, for pushing a progressive agenda forward and for demanding that this government respond to the needs of our people.
So here we are, as this proposal continues to be negotiated. As I said earlier, it is my hope that not only do we make sure that unemployment benefits are extended for another 16 weeks at $300 per week, it is my hope that we can see some light here and get to the $1,200 direct payment that adults in this country desperately need. I am going to do my best in the coming days to make sure that happens. I hope the American people will join with me and get on the phones and call up their Members of the House and Members of the Senate and say that in this unprecedented moment in American history, government has to respond to the needs of working families.
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