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WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took to the Senate floor blasting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senate Republicans for ignoring the American people who are already voting, and ramming through another corporate judicial nominee to the Supreme Court, who could vote to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act as soon as this fall. Americans are already voting and deserve to have a say on the court that will decide the fate of their health care, workplace safety, criminal justice reform and civil rights. For months now, Mitch McConnell has blocked passage of a COVID relief package to get the country through a pandemic and an economic crisis.

Brown’s remarks, as prepared for delivery can be found below:

Right now, millions of Americans are frustrated and angry. They’ve lost loved ones because of President Trump’s failure to get this pandemic under control. They’re facing impossible decisions – what are they to do without the $600 a week in UI they lost, because President Trump and Leader McConnell and my Republican colleagues refuse to do their jobs.

So many middle-class and low-income public schools can’t open in-person. Parents and teachers are under an overwhelming amount of stress. School districts and families don’t have the resources for all the additional technology or safety precautions they need.

Our state governments and local communities are looking at massive layoffs. Small businesses that are the lifeblood of local economies are shuttering, one after another.

And Leader McConnell and President Trump refuse to lift a finger.

The stock market is back up, so they seem to think everything is fine – they’re oblivious to the families who are staring at stacks of bills, and don’t know what to do and have no good options.

But now, after months of inaction, they are willing to drop everything, and move heaven and earth to put another corporate special interest judge on the Supreme Court.

Leader McConnell has spent the last six months ignoring this pandemic and economic crisis, and now he wants to pack the court – a court that is supposed to serve the American people – with another judge who will always rule for corporations over workers.

Another judge who will take away Americans’ health care in the middle of a pandemic. The Supreme Court will be hearing yet another case trying to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act in just a few weeks.

Leader McConnell and President Trump and their special interest friends are trying to do what the American people rejected over and over – they want to take away preexisting conditions protections for millions of Americans through the courts.

Americans’ health care is at stake with this seat – and the American people deserve to have their voices heard. People are already voting – as we speak, they’re casting ballots. Their votes should count.

We know what Trump and McConnell and their wealthy friends always want to do – they want to hoard more power for themselves, and take it away from the voters.

We cannot stand by and watch a bunch of millionaires, with good health care all paid for by taxpayers, who still have comfortable jobs and their paychecks while millions are out of work – we cannot stand by and watch them try to take away people’s health care, and take away their voice in their own government.

Think about what’s at stake:

If President Trump gets his way, and he puts in place a judge who will take away the entire health care law, tax credits to help you afford health insurance would be gone.

Protections for preexisting conditions – gone.

Ohio’s entire Medicaid expansion – gone.

The ability to stay on your parents’ insurance until you’re 26 – gone.

More affordable prescription drugs for seniors through closing the donut hole – gone.

Limits on how much you pay out-of-pocket each year – gone.

Free preventive services like mammograms and bone density screenings – gone.

And the list goes on.

Five million Ohioans under age 65 have preexisting conditions – that’s half the population of our state.

And it’s not just health care:

Americans’ ability to vote is at stake.

Workers’ protections on the job are at stake.

Their freedom to organize a union is at stake.

The progress we have made on LGBTQ equality is at stake.

Reforming our justice system is at stake.

Americans’ privacy rights in the digital age are stake.

Women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions is at stake.

Earlier today, one of my colleagues came to the floor, not to try to get us to take up and pass extended UI benefits, not to try to pass more help for our schools, not to get more money for testing – they tried to pass yet another restriction on women’s ability to get safe, effective health care.

It’s pretty clear where their priorities lie.

I urge all Americans: speak out. Share your stories.

Make the people who are supposed to serve you understand what’s at stake for you and your families.

You are the ones who saved the ACA in 2017. You can do it again.

For us in the Senate, this comes back to one question: whose side are you on?

Are we going to get money into people’s pockets, and help them pay the rent and the bills?

Are we going to finally mobilize America’s vast manufacturing talent and ingenuity to produce the tests and the N95 masks and the other equipment we need?

Are we going to get support to our schools and our small businesses and our local communities?

Or is the Senate going to follow the Trump-McConnell plan, and drop everything to grab more power for their wealthy friends?

People are sick and tired of feeling like no one is on their side. Let’s actually listen to the people we serve, and let’s make sure their votes count.

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