{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=2F285D9C-A8A2-4D7C-9D75-E8B83501D01A", "McConnell Issues Update on COVID-19 Relief and Senate Schedule", "2020-10-13", "2020", "2020-10", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.  U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) issued the following statement today regarding the upcoming Senate schedule:\r\nSecretary Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Meadows are right: There is no excuse for Democrats to keep blocking job-saving funding for the Paycheck Protection Program while other conversations continue.\r\nThe PPP is a popular program that has saved tens of millions of American jobs. It is so bipartisan that its first round was replenished and extended several times by unanimous consent in both the Senate and the House. But it has become yet another casualty of Democrats' all-or-nothing obstruction.\r\nLast month, 52 Senate Republicans voted to pass hundreds of billions more dollars for priorities like testing, healthcare, safe schools, unemployment benefits, and economic support. That included legislation from Chairman Rubio and Senator Collins that would provide a second round of the PPP for the hardest-hit small businesses while streamlining the program and strengthening oversight.\r\nRepublicans had the votes to pass all this relief. But Senate Democrats chose to filibuster it dead.\r\nDemocrats have spent months blocking policies they do not even oppose. They say anything short of their multi-trillion-dollar wish list, jammed with non-COVID-related demands, is piecemealand not worth doing. Speaker Pelosi frequently says she feels nothing is better than something.And she has worked hard to ensure thatnothingis what American families get.\r\nWhen the full Senate returns on October 19th, our first order of business will be voting again on targeted relief for American workers, including new funding for the PPP. Unless Democrats block this aid for workers, we will have time to pass it before we proceed as planned to the pending Supreme Court nomination as soon as it is reported by the Judiciary Committee.\r\nRepublicans do not agree thatnothingis better thansomethingfor working families. The American people need Democrats to stop blocking bipartisan funding and let us replenish the PPP before more Americans lose their jobs needlessly.\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=2F285D9C-A8A2-4D7C-9D75-E8B83501D01A"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.878804225474596, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}