Volume 167, No. 80, covering the 1st Session of the 117th Congress (2021 – 2022), was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“CORONAVIRUS” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on pages S2397-S2398 on May 10.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators’ salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CORONAVIRUS
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, like all of my colleagues, I spent last week traveling my home State. I spoke with Kentuckians about where we have come over the past 15 months, where we are today, and the bright future we should have ahead.
More than 1.8 million Kentuckians have received COVID vaccines. These medical miracles were created in record time by genius scientists plus Operation Warp Speed. And they are proving the pathway back to normalcy that we had hoped for.
I was happy to get to visit the Baptist Health Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown to hear about their vaccination program and to thank the staff for all of their work.
We should be on track for a fantastic American comeback summer, full steam ahead. From vaccinations to job growth, the new Biden administration inherited favorable trends in every direction, thanks to the five bipartisan rescue packages that Congress passed just last year.
But in several important ways, the decisions of elected Democrats have contributed to slowing the return to normalcy. We have seen some State and local officials bow to Big Labor and soft-pedal the clear science on school reopenings. And the big bill that Washington Democrats pushed through a couple of months ago did not require schools to reopen in order to receive even more extra funding.
The President and his team keep sending mixed messages about gatherings and wearing masks that sometimes break from their own CDC’s guidance for vaccinated Americans. Again, there almost seems to be some reluctance to let go of emergency measures, even to the point of clashing with science.
And what about our economic recovery? Back in March, Democrats rammed through their so-called American Rescue Plan with a $2 trillion partisan spending spree. It is packed with policies that seem designed for March 2020, not March 2021; for example: continuing to use taxpayer dollars to pay a special bonus for unemployed people to stay home rather than filling one of the growing number of job openings around the country.
Republicans had this crazy idea that with vaccines flooding the country, with COVID-19 in retreat, it was time to actually reopen our country instead of spending even more of working families’ tax dollars to keep things shut down.
Well, a few days ago, experts were stunned by a monthly jobs report for April that came in way below expectations. It was the first full month of data collected after the Democrats passed their so-called rescue plan. This bill they sold as a fast-acting, urgent, emergency measure that was going to bolster our economy right away. This report was expected to show that more than a million American workers had gotten jobs back in the month of April. Instead, we added about one-
fourth that many jobs.
Now, I had just spent the prior week talking with Kentuckians. I spoke with workers and employers at nearly every size of business from just about every kind of industry, all across the spectrum. And from big national companies to local chambers of commerce, to businesses like Manchester Tank in Campbellsville, we heard optimism but also real concerns–concerns about inflation and runaway costs, concerns about backed-up supply chains.
And as Washington pays workers a bonus to stay unemployed, virtually everyone discussed very real concerns about their difficulties in finding workers who are willing to come back and fill these open positions. Almost every employer I spoke with specifically mentioned the extra generous jobless benefits as a key force holding back our recovery.
Now, I have heard some Democrats say that whatever incentives Washington creates, the responsibility really falls on workers. But my friends on the other side can’t use the American people to shield their own bad ideas from scrutiny. Policy matters. Incentives matter.
It is May of 2021. Vaccines are available nationwide. There are millions of jobs open, “Help Wanted” signs from coast to coast. We should not still be taxing the Americans who are working to fund continued extra benefits for those staying home.
It is not March of 2020 anymore. It is May of 2021. Kentuckians and all Americans need our Democratic friends to govern accordingly.
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