logical reason that this administration would detain more pregnant women. it's got to stop. there's no evidence that says you should care for children in detention facilities. that's got to stop. there's no reason not to have a plan to reunify the 2300 children who go to sleep tonig tonight, torn from their parents, and alone, there's no reason and it's got to stop. this is not reflective of who we are as a country. we are better than this. mr. president, i yield the floor. >> and in a moment we'll take you live to the u.s. senate which today could finish up work on a 2019 spending bill funding energy and water projects. the legislative branch, military construction and veterans group. now to live coverage.

u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer : the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. our father in heaven, thank you for the light of your truth that provides a lamp for our feet and illumination for our paths. give strength to our senators. provide them with courage to live a life that honors you, faith to believe that all things are possible, and reverence that

brings wisdom sufficient for give them the grace to receive with gratitude the many blessings you richly bestow upon them daily, empowering them to serve you with active zeal and humble confidence. may they wait with patient expectation for the triumphant unfolding of your powerful providence. we pray in your mighty name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. the president pro tempore:

i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., june 21, 2018. he sate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i here by appoint the honorable dean heller, a senator from the state of nevada, who will perform the duties of the chair. signed: orrin g. hatch, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order the leadership time is reserved.

morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 5859, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 449, h.r. 5859, an act making appropriations for energy and water development and related agencies and so forth and for other purposes.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. mcconnell: this week we've been considering a regular appropriations package and voting on amendments.

many of us wanted us to return to regular order and appropriations for quite some time. it didn't happen overnight. we owe thanks to chairman shelby and ranking member leahy for the transparent, bipartisan process that produced this bill. and thanks to the leadership of our colleagues at the subcommittee level, more bills will be on their way to the floor for prom -- prompt consideration. this will css three important items off the senate's to-do list. funding for military water for military construction and for the v.a. and for the legislative branch. as i discussed on the floor this week, the first set of funding measures attend to many issues. the water will help with the readiness of our nation's nuclear arsenal, will deliver cutting-edge scientific research

and will protect shorelines and upkeep for the inland water ways like those that support 13,000 jobs in my home state alone. the military construction and v.a. title offers targeted resources to causes that are near and dear to service members and their families. upgrades to military housing and school systems, improvements to training facilities, reinforcement of overseas partnerships and alliances, maintenance of veterans health facilities. there's so much important work contained in this package and it is just the first step in this year's regular appropriations process. with additional cooperation today we will continue to process amendments from both sides of the aisle and complete work on these bills. now mr. president, on another matter, yesterday marked six months since congress passed our overhaul of the tax code. tomorrow is six months since the president signed it into law. i remember debating the tax cuts

and jobs act in december. there were two different philosophies on display. republicans believed that working families should keep more of what they earned and send less to the i.r.s. we believe you don't build a healthy society or growing economy by piling up money and power here in washington, d.c. you need to leave more money and power in the hands of individuals, families, and small businesses. our democratic friends put forward a different view. they seemed to think that government knows best, so higher taxes, regulations, and more restrictions on free enterprise are the way to go. as a result, they stood in lockstep opposition to these historic tax cuts, and i mean opposition. the democratic leader in the house said it was, and this is a direct quote, the worst bill in the history of the united states congress. the worst bill in the history of the united states congress. so republican majorities in the house and senate passed the tax

cuts with zero democratic votes, not one. six months later, who was right? what's happened in america since this major policy shift began taking effect. just ask the men and women this law is affecting. mark in louisiana said that the tax cuts is bigger than crumbs like the politicians were saying. i plan to pay down some credit card debt. or brent lacy in ohio, he has a 1-year-old son, grayson. he said, due to the extra take-home pay in my paycheck, it's about $125. we've been able to move him into one of the better day cares in our area and it is just fabulous. in addition to the tax cuts themselves, the business side of tax reform has helped employers raise pay and benefits for employees. chelsea hatfield works at first

farmers bank and trust in indiana. she has been taking college courses online. she said that the pay and bonuses she received will help her paper for her tuition now and save for her kids to go to college. she said that these steps taken with tax reform are specifically affecting me and small communities like my hometown. bonnie brazil from missouri received a bonuses too. she works at a cafeteria at the college of the ozarks. she said, quote, i put mine in savings for my retirement, she said. families are immediately benefiting from this law. but what about the long-term impact? we designed tax reform to lay the foundation for more investment, business growth, job creation, and higher wages for decades to come. it's already doing just that. in my home state of kentucky,

novellus is pushing ahead with a factory in guthrie. they said their decision was caused b ts favorable economic environment reinforced by the significant, positive impact of tax reform. it's a national trend. just yesterday the national association of manufacturers released data showing that optimism among american manufacturers is above 95%, the highest level ever -- ever recorded. small business owners agree. industry surveys show that more of them are looking to hire than at any time since the year 2000. no wonder the job market is already better than it has been in years.

unemployment at an 18-year low, more than two-thirds of americans saying it's a good time to follow a quality job, the highest in 17 years. here's a remarkable mact fact. there are now more job openings across the country than there are americans looking for work. it's the first time that has ever happened since we started tracking the relevant data. and the optimism and prosperity unleashed by tax reform are part of the reason why. the worst legislation in history? armageddon? our friends across the aisle should get their crystal balls checked. historically, tax reform has been a bipartisan priority. in 1986, the last major tax 100-vote margin. it sailed through the senate.

madam president, my, how times have changed. this time, unlike 1986, this time our historic proposal let americans -- to let americans keep more of their own money faced complete partisan opposition. not one democratic vote, not one. republicans had to go it alone, but the people's republican senate, republican house, and republican president got the job done for the families that were counting on us.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. schumer: mammogram? the presiding officer: democratic leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum call?

i ask that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: we are. mr. schumer: as the senate continues to appropriations bills here on the floor, i want to thank leader shelby and ranking member leahy for their hard work. the republican lder and i have both committed to work through appropriations in a bipartisan way, through regular order, something the senate hasn't achieved in sometime. chairman shelby and ranking member leahy are leading the way. we want to -- we want to continue along in a cooperative way where what we bring to the floor has approval from both sides of the aisle. now on immigration. let me address the humanitarian crisis at our southern border. the separation policy has resulted in 2,300 children being

separated from their families. i've seen the pictures of these tiny little girls with forlorn looks on their faces and they are being placed into what is called tender-aged facilities. that is an orwellian term if there ever was one. others have been shuttled to foster homes. a 5-year-old sent hundreds of miles away from his or her parents. what kind of country are we? now, yesterday the president signed an executive order which made it 100% clear what democrats have been saying, that the president can fix this problem on his own, and that's correct. the president vindicated everything we have been saying and undid everything he has been saying when he said only congress can fix this problem and, of course, he made it

partisan. it is a relief the president reversed himself and recognized the cruelty of his policy of separating children from parents. i would like to believe he found it in the goodness of his heart. we certainly know there was tons of pressure to do this and he didn't look like it was going to happen. convening all fact and all reality. i hope this represents a turning point with the president. i hope it means this president will stop blaming others for problems he kroats and start -- creates and start fixing them himself. i hope when the president says something it doesn't make it so. sop often, more than any president many times over, what he says is outright false. made up. pops into his head, he says it. but this executive order raises several questions and that means the president must continue to act to deal with these problems,

which, again, he can do on his own. first, the way the executive order was drafted means that it will not go into effect until the court rules on its legality. what is the president's policy on family separation in the meantime? will he continue to insist these heartbreaking separations continue? second, the executive order allows for indefinite detention of families apprehended at the border. the united states government cannot be in the business of indefinitely detaining minors. third, the executive order is silent on the more than 2,300 families that have already been split apart. will the president and his administration work to reunite those families? we believe he must do that immediately. what exactly is the president's plan to accomplish this? leader pelosi and i are sending a letter to the president this morning demanding that he use all the necessary resources to

reunite the separated families. now, at his rally in minnesota last night -- he thinks because he can gather 10,000 people together in a state of five, six million, he's a hero with everyone, that's the way he thinks. at the rally last night the president acted as if he had taken care of the border crisis as if all the problems were in the rear-view mirror. he said, i signed an executive order to keep families together because i think that's probably a very important thing to be doing. unquote. the only thing is we in congress and the american people have a whole bunch of questions listed above, and i will repeat them, that the president hasn't answered. how many kids are in these facilities now? what's their condition? what hasn't the media been allowed to come in and see and verify the conditions are humane? the department of defense has

been asked if it can house 25,000 unaccompanied children between now and the end of the year. how will that work? is it even feasible. how is the administration keeping track of the families who have already been separated and what are their plans and timetable for reuniting? president trump hasn't taken care of the problem, not by any stretch of the imagines, but he has certainly admitted that his administration does have the power to take action. he, in a sense by what he did yesterday, increases the burden on himself to solve these other problems. i urge him to continue to use his power to address these serious, unresolve issues. -- unresolved issues. legislation in congress remains unlikely and far more difficult to achieve than the simple corrective actions that the president can take immediately and administratively. let us not forget, administration has opinion the

graveyard for legislation -- of legislation for years in this congress. saying congress to act and getting congress to act are two different things, particularly on the house side we have a group of congress members on the freedom caucus, way out of the mainstream by any polling standard, any real standard on immigration that insists on poison pills be added to immigration and speaker ryan has shown no ability or desire to resist them. so congress getting it done, it's not going to solve the problem, unfortunately because immigration is such a contentious and divisive issue. the president has to do it himself, and let us hope he does. on our trade relationship with china, for too long china has taken advantage of america's unwillingness to confront its rapacious trade policies. for too long china has dumped

cheap products into our markets, stolen the intellectual property of new companies and denied our companies to access to its market so it can steal the know how of how to do it and then compete with us. china alone by its rapacious, unfair trade policies has accounted for the loss of millions of american jobs and the decline in pay of millions of other american jobs. so i am heartened that president trump, after making a debacle of the deal on z.t.e. has taken a tougher approach to china in recent days. his instincts to be tough on china are right on the money. as i said before, on china my views are closer to president trump than to president obama or

president bush's, both of whom let china get away with economic murder. now president trump needs to stay strong fvment he backs -- strong. if he backs off at the first sign of trouble after the first company calls to complain, after president xi calls to complain, they will think we are weak and not serious. china is waiting to see if we're tough enough to ride this out. we need to show china america means business because the stakes are too high. business relocations to china have cost too many american jobs, the theft of our intellectual property has been called the greatest transfer of help. the lifeblood of the american economy is on the line. so i urge president trump to stay strong on china. at the first sign of complaint,

we turn, china will know they can push us over and the number of jobs that we will lose -- the amount of wealth that we will lose will far exceed the kinds of damage that these tariffs might do. don't mistake my support for -- but don't please don't mistake my support on this for the president to be reckless offer as an endorsement of what the president is doing to our allies, the tariffs against our european and canadian allies are poorly timed. we should rally them. china is our number one economic trade enemy. we have to -- i use the word enemy advisedly. we have to, we have to, we have to have the whole world on our side and these other actions are

poorly timed at best. tax. six months ago in the dead of night, the republican majority jammed through a partisan tax bill that lavished tax cuts on big corporations and the wealthiest few. the old theory of trickle down, which the republican party emprayed -- embraced -- my friend from pennsylvania is one of the few who will say that is what he actually believes, which i appreciate even though i strongly disagree. it is time to look back on how the tax bill is faring. while the republican leader celebrates vague statistics about consumer confidence, here are some hard, cold facts. since the beginnings of 2018, corporations have announced to repurchase $750 billion in stock

buyback. in the past week, "the washington post" reported that wages aren't just flat, they are falling for a strong majority of american workers. according to a recent analysis by just capital only 7% of the capital allocated by the tax bill savings have gone to employees, 57% have gone to shareholders. just what we democrats predicted. when the vast majority of the tax cuts go to the very wealthy, the largest and most powerful corporations, the average worker sees very little gain, trickle down, certainly a smaller proportion of the gain than the cut. the kind of plan we would advocate, which would help the middle class predominately, not the wealthy, would have been far better for average workers. remember what president trump promised the american people? he said the republican tax bill

would give a $4,000 raise for the average american family. in reality american families are not seeing close to that figure. a recent "washington post" headline sums it up best, quote, the republican tax bill's promise of higher wages and more jobs just hasn't materialized. unquote. the truth is the tax law has failed to deliver for american workers and american families. the american people are realizing it. the polling data shows it is becoming more unpopular. ittarted out popular with many -- all of those publicity bonuses, but now it is declining again. american families know that they are not -- that they are getting the short end of the stick in this tax bill. corporations are reaping record profits as a result of the tax bill, and they refuse to pass much of those savings on to

their workers. and whatever benefits american families are getting from the tax bill, if they are getting benefits at all, are starting to get wiped out by skyrocketing health care costs, the result of republican sabotage, some of which was in the tax bill itself. the number -- there are millions of american families now whose tax break is far exceeded by the increase in premiums they are paying for health care. all in all, that's why today, just six months over -- six months since it passed, the republicans' signature legislative accomplishment is so deeply unpopular with the american people and republican repundits are saying we better go over to the area of immigration, this tax bill thing isn't working for us. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: madam president, i appreciate the majority leader teeing up my comments today and introducing what i'm going to be speaking about, which is a topic he addressed briefly, and that is the six-month period of time since we passed tax reform. this week six months ago that we had an historic vote, the biggest tax reform in over 30 years, and we're beginning to get some data that is really worth discussing and analyzing. i would strongly disagree with the characterization of the minority leader. i was home in pennsylvania recently traveling around the state, as we all do when we're not in this town, and on one

recentccasion i was talking to small business owners in bloomsberg, pennsylvania, and one of the companies is a small business and the owner was there and he was really enthusiastic about how this tax reform is helping his small business. and i mentioned him, it's actually a very typical story that i'm hearing across pennsylvania, but i mentioned him because, as it happens, his company is in the carpet business and they happen to make the very carpet that i'm standing on now. they provide the carpeting for the floor of the united states senate. we talked about how the fact that our reforms, because our tax reform really totally redid the rules especially on the business side but on the individual side as well, it allows him to purchase new capital, new equipment, the equipment that he needs to expand his business is more

affordable under our tax rules now. and so that's exactly what he's doing. he's expanding his business. he is very enthusiastic about it. this, of course, is not an anomaly and it's not specific to pennsylvania. it's across the country. you know, already we have had companies, over 600 businesses employing over 4 million american workers have announced that they will immediately start paying bonuses, increasing wages, making larger pension contributions, but directly sharing their tax savings with their workers. this started within days of passage, and it has continued. so -- and by the way, these companies are those -- i'm only counting those companies that specifically cited the tax reform as the reason that they're able to do this, and this is only companies that are so big that it gets picked up by the press when they make these announcements. there is thousands and thousands of smaller companies who have done the same thing, but we'll

never hear about it because "the washington post" and "new york times" doesn't report when sal's pizza shop makes a change in its compensation policy. but the fact is it's happening. also, there is another not so widely reported benefit that pennsylvania families are enjoying, and that is, again, directly as a result of our tax reform and the lower tax burden that we now have on our utilities, electric and gas companies, rates have declined. there has been a very significant rate reduction. in fact, $320 million at an annual pace in pennsylvania, and that means these families and every family has to buy electricity and a way to heat their homes, they're experiencing the savings as well. so those are kind of anecdotal facts, but what's the big picture result so far? the facts and the data are

unambiguous and really overwhelming. the economy is on fire. that's what's going on right now. this economy is growing at a tremendous pace, and it's really on fire by any meaningful measure. one of the most important is jobs, right? that's the whole point of a booming economy, isn't it, really to create opportunities for individuals and families to earn a living and support themselves and improve their standard of living. their most recent jobs report that came out in may posted a 3.8% unemployment rate. unemployment was 3.8%. that is the lowest level we have had since april, 2000. it remains a mystery to me how our democratic colleagues and senate minority leader can somehow think it's a bad thing when the unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in more than 18 years. and it's not just the overall unemployment rate. the african american unemployment rate in may was

5.9%. 5.9%. that is the lowest rate ever recorded since we started breaking out different ethnic groups in the unemployment numbers. the hispanic unemployment rate very close to an all-time record low at 4.9%. another amazing statistic that came out in this may jobs report is we now have more job openings in america, 6.7 million, than all of the unemployed people. this -- i'm not sure this has ever happened before, certainly not in decades, but there are more job openings, there are more help wanted signs, there are more job possibilities than there are people seeking jobs. that's just a fact of our economy right now. so what does that mean? that means there are a lot of opportunities for people. if you're unemployed right now, there is a chance to go to work today because that's the amount of demand for workers, which is exactly what we said would happen if we would encourage the kind of economic growth that we're seeing.

and completely contrary -- i must say i don't know where our colleague from new york, the minority leader, gets his data from, but completely contrary to what he said, all of the data consistently shows that there are increases in hourly earnings, wages. wages are going up. we have waited way too long for this to happen, but it's happening now. a 2.7% increase in hourly earnings in may. now, mind you, that is in real terms, in other words the nominal increase is more than that, but when you take out that amount of increase that only covers inflation, there is still above and beyond that 2.7%, much better than any numbers we have been seeing recently. 2.8% among people who are in nonsupervisory work, so wage earners who are working on an hourly basis in a nonsupervisory capacity. they are seeing an even somewhat faster acceleration in their wage growth. and that means workers are going to have a better standard of

living. that's what it means. you know, when we passed our tax reform, we had too big goals. one of them was toowhe tax burden on individual americans. how well did we do on that? well, 93% of all the individuals and families filing owe less in taxes this year than they would have if we hadn't reformed, 93%. most of the 7% who don't have a savings, it's because they live in very -- they are high-income people who live in jurisdictions where they pay very high state and local taxes, and we have diminished the ability to deduct that. so they are wealthy individuals, a handful that are paying a little bit more. and it's also a fact that wealthier people pay a larger percentage of the total tax bill now as a result of our tax reform, because we made sure that folks at the low and medium end of the wage spectrum would get the biggest percentage benefits, and they have. and we also wanted to be make

sure that we were making american business competitive and encouraging investment in the united states instead of somewhere else in the world. so one of the standard measures of whether that's working is how is our economy growing overall, what's our g.d.p. number looking like? well, it's been amazing. after year after year where we were happy if we could get to 2% growth and we had our friends on the other side suggesting that, well, you just have to accept the fact that america can't grow very fast, not anymore. you know, the boom years are behind us. now we just have to accept that we have got this secular stagnation. this whole theory about how it's inevitable that america will have slow and meager growth and fewer opportunities in the future. some of us said that's nonsense. if we have slow growth, it's our fault because we don't have the policies that will allow the natural entrepreneurial energy and spirit of americans to invest and encourage excellent growth. so that was the debate. we said the tax reform will encourage that growth. well, what's been happening? we're on track to have over 3%

growth this year. it will be more than 50% above the kind of growth we have been -- we have been getting. the the atlanta fed tracker, the g.d.p. tracker at the atlanta fed, they're projecting that for this quarter, growth would couls high as 4.7% which would be absolutely stunning. the c.b.o. is projecting that for the full year, growth will be 3.3%. this is an economy that we were told can never really manage to eke out better than 2%. we are proving that wrong. the american people are proving it wrong. another aspect of our reform was we said it didn't make sense to create the dynamic where a company's overseas subsidiaries, after they earn a profit and pay that profit in the local jurisdiction in which they are operating, if they return that money home, they pay another tax on it. we say we have to get away from that system. nowhere else in the world punishes multinationals that

way, and it discourages investment in the united states, because companies will try to avoid that second layer of tax. they can avoid it by just leaving the money overseas. well, the money sitting and piling up overseas doesn't help create american jobs, so we made the reforms that we said we would, that we thought we should. and lo and behold, what's happening? the foreign earnings that have been retained abroad are coming home. it's already happening. there is now more money being shifted from overseas subsidiaries of american-based multinationals, more money coming into the country from those subsidiaries than the money they're earning. it's because not only are they shifting back home their profits, but they're taking their past profits and they're sending that back home as well. dividends received from abroad, money taken from overseas and invested back in america were $340 billion in the first quarter of this year alone. that was an all-time record.

huge amount of money being invested back in the united states. so why is all this happening? why are we getting all this onomic growth, this return of money? i would say that i think of two big categories that are contributing. one is just the overall optimism about theinesus environment, the economy's strength. you know, businesses -- why are businesses making the decision now, today, in 2018 to invest more than they did before, to hire more, to increase wages more, to bring back this money? well, it's because we have lowered the cost of investing and hiring and bringing back this money, and we've created an environment that is just more conducive. so optimism about our economy, the belief that this is a good time to invest in america, to grow a business, the numbers are off the charts, right? the national federation of independent business. this is a small business organization across the country,

represents, gosh, i don't know, probably hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of businesses, including really small mom-and-pop operations, but also some more substantial businesses. they are measures of confidence in our economy, in our ability to continue to grow and thrive. it's off the charts. the index of overall confidence in may was at 107.8. that's the second highest reading in 45 years. that's what we are talking about. that's like unprecedented optimism. we have an 18-month streak now of what the nfib, the national federation of independent business calls unprecedented optimism. we're at an all-time high for small business owners reporting that they are increasing the wages of the people that work for them. all-time high. there has never been a time when there has been a higher number of small business owners actually raising the wages of their workers. sales trends. the growth in sales for small

businesses is at the highest level since 1995, 23 years ago. the expansion plans or plans to build new factories to open up new facilities, to increase the capacity that they have now, the most robust in the history of the survey. never before have we seen stronger numbers than this. the top concern, the top worry that small business owners have now used to be the burden of taxes and regulation. it's not anymore. now it's whether they will be able to find the workers they need to fill the openings that they have in their companies. 58% of firms are actively trying to add workers right now. right now they are out looking to employ more people. 58%. it's really amazing. by the way, this optimism isn't just small businesses. it's also consumers. retail sales in may were up 5.9% above a year ago. almost 6% growth from one year to the next in retail sales.

that's consumers. that's all of us going to the store and buying whatever we buy. the university of michigan consumer confidence index, it was the highest it's been in years in may, and the highest out in march was the only recent time when it's been even year -- even near to this level. that's because workers are seeing, they are seeing an increase in their paycheck, they are seeing less money withheld, they are seeing wage increases, and they are feeling good about their economic future. that's really important. so optimism is a really important part of it. i think an attitude that the government isn't hostile to business, the regulatory environment isn't in gotcha mode but it's rather in a cooperative mode and a tax code that is contributing to investment contributes to optimism. but let's go down to one of the biggest drivers of this economic

growth, and that is business investment. when we decided to make the reforms to our tax code on the business side, we said one of the things we've got to acknowledge is business investment, the investment in new equipment, in capital. that had really dropped off badly. and without new equipment and capital, workers don't become more productive. if workers aren't more productive, they can't get higher wages over time. we felt like that's the heart of what's holding back our economy back under the obama era and even to some degree before. so we said we can lower the cost of investing more in your business, investing more in equipment spending, deploying capital. we can lower the cost by treating it more rationally from a tax poially allowing full expensing in the year in which the capital is deployed. well, cap expending has

responded even better than i hoped. to be honest, i can't tell you how thrilling it is to see the kind of growth we're having. so let's start with -- i'm going to start with the broader measure of this. and the broader measure of this is business investment. this is a broader category that includes -- includes things like equipment but it also includes things like structures, like a new building. and y -- and it's really amazing. c.b.o. said that the first quarter of this year. they said the first quarter of 2028 before tax reform, they said maybe you'd get to 4%, 4.4 i think was their estimate. after tax reform maybe you could get that up to 6.8%. what's really amazing is the celebration we've seen. this was the quarter-over-quarter changes in business investment during the latter part of the obama years, right? the last year of the obama administration -- 2016 -- it is

negative. that means every quarter business is actually investing less than they were investing the previous year, the same quarter of the previous year. our capital pool was shrinking. the amount of investment was going in the absolute wrong direction. look what happened. now the tax reform wasn't passed in these first two quarters. you might say, well, why did it improve then? i think that's because of confidence. i think that's because people realized we've got a new government, a new administration and we're going to be -- we're going to work hard on trying to get tax reform done and we're going to begin lowering the regulatory burden, and look what happened? we got a total turnaround from a lack of investment, a decline in capital spending, to an increase. and then when we passed tax reform, look at how higher it surged, still. these overall business investment. now, the second chart, we can

drill down into what i think is the subset of business investment, the category of business investment that's probably most responsive to our changes in tax policy. and that's equipment. because this is where a small business business owner or a big business can really turn the dial. they can decide to buy a new piece of equipment, buy another machine, buy another truck, buy the equipment that they need to grow. that's an easier decision to make than building an entirely new plant, right? so let's look at this subset. these are tools, machines, technology, trucks, computers. the on-the-ground spending of capital that goes into the hands of workers so workers can become more productive. what's happened to this? again, look at what was happening. the spending from one year to the next in the latter part of the obama administration was going down. these are negative numbers because the capital being spent on business equipment was

actually declining. and then look what's happened since. we changed the environment, changed theulor environment, changed the mood and it turns positive, and then when theax reform kicks in -- and, mind you, it's true that we didn't pass the tax reform until the end of december, but we wrote in from the beginning. we made it clear we would make the expensing provisions retroactive until earlier in the quarter. saw that and -- people saw that and this has taken off. so i think the picture illustrates extremely well the tremendous change, the tremendous acceleration, the growth in equipment investment. but the reason i want to underscore this is because this is a very strong indicator of future growth. this isn't some sugar high that the economy just got some -- a lot of cash thrown on it and so there is a little temporary

blip. this is the kind of stuff that allows an economy to continue to grow and create more, because what we're doing is we're expanding the productive capacity of our economy. we are building new plants. we are deploying new equipment. new tools, new machines, new software, new computers, new vehicles -- all of those things allow us to produce more goods and services. so not only do you get the surge from when you actually build and put to work those items, but those items continue to be used by workers for years. you know, a new piece of equipment at a factory is is going to be there for many years to come. a new truck lasts for a number of years before it has to be replaced. so this kind of growth, exactly the growth that we were hoping for, is what's really, really the powerful driver and the reason that we can be optimistic. i think this is the reason that businesses and consumers are increasingly opt must stick about the future. they see a strong economy and

they get -- intuitively they understand that the -- this strength is real and it's likely to be enduring. and again the important thing about this -- i can't stress this enough -- when a business goes out and decides invest more in its business to buy more eipment, to buy new equipment, what happens is the workforce becomes more productive. a company doesn't go out and invest capital to make their workers less processive -- less productive. that never, ever happens. you invest so your workers produce more. and it is more producte workers that get higher wages. the example i like to use is if you ever go to a construction site and when they're digging the foundation for whatever i would abouting they're building, you might very typically have somebody who's operating a backhoe and you might very typically have somebody who's got a shovel and he's doing some of the work, too. so they're both digging a hole

in the ground. who's getting paid more? it's always the guy operating the backhoe. because he's much more productive than any human being can ever be swinging a shovel. and he's got a set of skills that allow him to be productive. so when we are encouraging this kind of investment, we're creating more opportunities for people to earn more. so this is very, very encouraging news about this first six months of this year, the first six months after the tax reform. i think it's going to continue to get better. by the way, there's good news on the federal revenue side as well. revenues for the first five months -- so we have numbers through the end of may. we don't have -- june is not finished yet. but for the first five months of 2018, the tax revenue equity willed by the federal government -- the tax revenue collected by the federal government in the environment of our tax reform was $26 billion more than the same period last year. so we lowered rates. we reformed the tax code and we're collecting more revenue

than we were collecting before we did the tax reform. by the way, april was just like off the charts. april numbers came in -- the actual tax revenue came in $30 billion more than what c.b.o. was projecting. it was the biggest revenue -- it was the biggest surplus month in the history of the country. okay, it's own june. we have to see how the rest of the year plays out. but the fact is, we have wages growing. we have employment growing. we have businesses growing. and that means all of the above are paying taxes and they're going to paying more -- this is exactly what we said to our colleagues. we said, look, if we can create the incentives for stronger economic growth, we are going to have a bigger emy. when it is a bigger economy, you can tax it at slightly lower rates and still get more revenue because of the added size of the economy. this, folks, looks to be exactly what is happening. this is what is so exciting.

what it means for my constituents, it means if you're out of work, you've got choices. as i said, there are more job openings now today in america than they are unemployed americans. so there are opportunities. if you've got a job, wages are probably moving up. that's what the data shows. over all wages are rising and at an accelerating pace. business is as confident as it's ever been. that means they're likely to continue to invest and continue to create more opportunities. so, madam president, i would just -- so, mr. president, i would just say that six months into this our tax reform is working. it's working for our constituents. it's working for our economy. american business is more competitive. american workers are more competitive. the benefits are widely shared. i am very enthusiasc about this and i am looking forward to the data that's continuing to come in in response to the most dramatic tax reform in over 31 years. i yield the floor.