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.
“AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on page S1510 on March 15.
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:
AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, now on the American Rescue Plan, late last week, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. The most significant Federal recovery effort in decades is now underway as $1,400 checks are heading out the door to 85 percent of American households. Relief for schools, businesses, families, and State and local governments is starting to arrive. Shots are going into the arms of Americans from coast to coast. More than 135 million doses of the vaccine have now been delivered, and over 100 million doses have now been administered. That is one-third of the population and much more quickly than had been previously projected.
And our economy is poised for its own shot in the arm. As the American Rescue Plan begins to take effect, economists are projecting that American economic growth could more than double as a result of this bold, strong legislation.
Already, Americans are more optimistic about businesses being able to reopen, jobs coming back, and the national economy taking off. As one headline read over the weekend, ``Americans see better days ahead in pandemic and economy.''
After the American Rescue Plan passed through the Senate, a little over a week ago, I have been highlighting parts of the bill that may have escaped notice, and there are so many. We all know about the
$1,400 checks. We all know about the shots in the arm. But, today, I want to take some time explaining how it helps our Nation's students.
First of all, the American Rescue Plan provides substantial emergency relief to colleges and universities, weighted toward those colleges and universities without million-dollar endowments. Fully half of that funding must be used for emergency financial aid grants to students--at least $20 billion nationwide. And, of course, many students will benefit from the $1,400 checks. Any student with a young family will benefit from the historic expansion of the child tax credit. But these emergency financial aid grants are another way that students with exceptional need can access relief.
That is not all. The American Rescue Plan also sets the stage for President Biden to deliver incredibly meaningful student loan forgiveness by making all types of student loan forgiveness tax free through December.
At the moment, debt cancellation is usually treated as taxable income. So without this provision, forgiving a student's debt would stick them with a tax bill--giving with one hand and taking away with the other. This would apply to more than 100,000 students who are already in repayment programs that offer some student loan forgiveness. Crucially, this tax provision would apply to future efforts to forgive student loans as well.
I believe the current administration has the legal authority to forgive up to $50,000 in Federal student loan debt, a life-changing policy decision that would boost our economy and help close the racial wealth gap.
Twenty years after starting college, the median White borrower will owe 6 percent of their debt, while the median Black borrower owes 95 percent of their debt. Canceling up to $50,000 in student debt would close the racial wealth gap by 28 percentage points among those households. That is just one of the many reasons Senator Warren and I have been advocating this policy to cancel $50,000 of student debt. And, as I mentioned, it has become an issue of racial justice as well.
President Biden, to his credit, has already proposed some student loan forgiveness--up to around $10,000. But now, one of the objections that some in the administration have had, that students with forgiven debt will have to pay taxes, is gone, gone, gone because of the ARP.
I particularly want to thank Senators Menendez and Warren for their work on these provisions. For much of American history, education has been the ladder up. For too many these days, student debt has become the anchor weighting them down, making it harder to start a family, buy a home, plan a career, and so much more. The pandemic has stressed student finances even closer to the breaking point.
Thankfully, the American Rescue Plan not only delivers short-term relief but clears the way for long-term relief for American students by saying: When we forgive your debt, you don't have to pay taxes on it.
American students collectively bear more than $1.7 trillion in student debt. When you think of young people and they are starting out their lives, and there is so much excitement and enthusiasm, and then they have $1.7 trillion of debt on their shoulders weighting them down, that is not the American way of sunny optimism and can-do. This system sprung out of control in many ways. Going after the for-profit colleges, making sure they don't take advantage, is one way we are trying to curtail it. But for the students who have this debt, future actions won't do any good in terms of changing the way we finance colleges and how we deal with the for-profits. The best way is canceling $50,000 in student debt, and the good news is that the ARP makes sure no taxes are owed on any of that cancellation.
So no matter how their team performs during March Madness this weekend, the American Rescue Plan gives every student something to cheer about.
Go Syracuse.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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