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.
“Gun Violence (Executive Session)” mentioning Susan M. Collins was published in the Senate section on pages S1744-S1745 on March 24.
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:
Gun Violence
Ms. SMITH. Madam President, I want to also just thank my colleague from Vermont for that lovely tribute to Judge Hall.
I can see that he meant a lot to you and was a great public servant. So thank you, Senator Leahy.
Madam President, in a year of so much heartbreak and grief and death, it almost escaped notice that we had gone in this country a year without a mass shooting in a public place.
But now we face the grim reminder of our American reality. In the space of a week, two separate mass shootings stole the lives of 18 people. And just weeks ago, we suffered a mass shooting in a health clinic in my home State of Minnesota.
So here we are again, thrust into a familiar cycle of collective grief and frustration and anger. Our hearts break for the families and loved ones of those whose lives were stolen. Our voices cry out for change to end the scourge of gun violence. And our anger grows as our voices are ignored and we are told by Republican leaders that there is nothing that we can do to protect American lives from gun violence.
Colleagues, it is our job to protect American lives.
Today, I want to share with you the voice of Veronique de la Rosa. Her son Noah, just 6 years old, was murdered in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary, and she delivered this eulogy for her son at his 2012 funeral.
I am going to read it in its entirety so that it can be included in the Record, the Congressional Record, and can serve as a reminder of the human toll that our gun culture has taken.
Veronique said:
The sky is crying, and the flags are at half-mast. It is a sad, sad day. But it is also your day, Noah, my little man. I will miss your forceful and purposeful little steps stomping through our house. I will miss your perpetual smile, the twinkle in your dark blue eyes, framed by eyelashes that would be the envy of any lady in this room.
Most of all, I will miss your visions of your future. You wanted to be a doctor, a soldier, a taco factory manager. It was your favorite food, and no doubt you wanted to ensure that the world kept producing tacos.
You were a little boy whose life force had all the gravitational pull of a celestial body. You were light and love, mischief and pranks. You adored your family with every fiber of your 6-year-old being. We are all of us elevated in our humanity by having known you. A little maverick, who didn't always want to do his schoolwork or clean up his toys, when practicing his ninja moves or Super Mario on the Wii seemed far more important.
Noah, you will not pass this way again. I can only believe that you were planted on Earth to bloom in heaven. Take flight, my boy. Soar. You now have the wings that you always wanted. Go to that peaceful valley that we will all one day come to know. I will join you someday. Not today. I still have lots of mommy love to give to Danielle, Michael, Sophia and Arielle.
Until then, your melody will linger in our hearts forever. Momma loves you, little man.
Veronique should not have had to eulogize Noah, her 6-year-old son--1 of 20 children killed at Sandy Hook.
So I ask my Republican colleagues to think of her when you suggest that families exaggerate their anguish for political gain.
Just yesterday, one of my Republican colleagues dismissed this grief as ``theater.'' No. This is life and death.
So I am angry. I am angry because I know that we have the power to stop this violence, and yet our Republican colleagues stand in the way. They refuse to work with us. They continue to put the demands of the NRA above the demands of the people we are elected to serve--that we stop this horrific gun violence, that we protect the people we are elected to serve.
Madam President, we need universal background checks. We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. We need to end this cycle, and we need all of us in Congress to find the strength and the humanity to take action.
I yield the floor
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine.
PPP Extension Act of 2021
Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, small businesses and their employees are the backbone of our economy, particularly in States like those of the Presiding Officer and the State that I am privileged to represent, the great State of Maine.
Later today, the Senate is slated to vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 1799, the PPP Extension Act of 2021.
As a sponsor of the Senate companion bill, along with my colleagues Senator Cardin and Senator Shaheen, I urge my colleagues to support the cloture motion.
We are also delighted that several of our colleagues have joined us as cosponsors of the Senate companion bill.
The Paycheck Protection Program continues to be a lifeline for small businesses. It has made the difference between their shutting their doors and laying off their employees and their being able to remain open, survive the pandemic, and most important of all, send paychecks to their employees.
Since the program was created last year, more than $718 billion in forgivable Small Business Administration loans have been approved, securing tens of millions of jobs in this country.
The program has also been responsible for bringing approximately $3 billion to the State of Maine in forgivable loans that have allowed our small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality industry, to survive the pandemic and continue to send paychecks to their employees.
The current application deadline for the PPP is March 31. That is just days away. I continue to hear about the urgent need for more PPP assistance from Maine's small businesses and to hear from others who are eligible for assistance but whose financial institutions are getting error messages from the Small Business Administration's computer system.
Originally, the SBA had used the E-Tran system. For some reason, it switched computers for this round of PPP, and we understand that there are more than 190,000 applications that are pending for approval that are likely eligible for assistance but are held up because of computer glitches or other errors.
The bill before us today mirrors the legislation that I introduced with Senators Cardin and Shaheen in that it provides for a clean extension of the PPP application deadline. It would simply extend the application deadline for PPP loans from March 31 to May 31, just 2 more months, and then it would provide an additional 30 days for the SBA to process pending applications.
So if a small restaurant, for example, applied for a second PPP loan for which it is eligible because its revenues are down by 25 percent, comparing similar quarters in 2019 and 2020, it would not lose out because it applied in May and the SBA did not get time to process the application.
Our bill has been endorsed by more than 90 organizations, including the Nation's largest small business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business, which is key voting this vote. It has also been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, the International Franchise Association, the National Restaurant Association, the U.S. Travel Association, and the Independent Community Bankers of America.
The House passed this clean PPP extension last week by an overwhelming margin of 415 to 3.
With the House now in recess and the Senate leaving this week, advancing a clean extension through the Senate ensures the continuation of this vital relief for our small businesses and their employees. We simply have to get this done.
I agree with my colleagues that there are further improvements that could be made to PPP, such as addressing an issue facing certain sole proprietors. Unfortunately, the new administration changed the rules, so sole proprietors who applied early when the program reopened in January were treated differently than sole proprietors who are applying now. That obviously doesn't make sense. We should have the same rule.
I have talked with the new SBA Administrator about this problem. She agrees that it is unfair and needs to be fixed and has committed to working with all the sponsors and with the House and Senate Small Business Committee to find a solution to ensure that the program is implemented as Congress intended.
But in order to ensure that there is adequate time to develop and implement these improvements, we must first, without delay, pass H.R. 1799 to keep the PPP open for another 2 months.
I urge all of my colleagues to support cloture and passage of this important bipartisan legislation. It truly is bipartisan.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator Murray and I be permitted to complete our remarks prior to the vote for up to 5 minutes each.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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