quorum call:

the presiding officer: the assistant democratic leader.

mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: last year i made my first trip to venezuela just one month before the presidential election by all accounts was about to be rigged by the incumbent maduro. his criminal regime was increasingly isolated by its neighbors and the world. the venezuelan people are suffering horribly. malnutrition, hyperinflation, levels of disease seen only in war zones around the world, and as a result three million venezuelans have fled the country. neighbors in colombia and ecuador showed and continue to show incredible compassion to the hundreds of thousands of desperate venezuelans that are pouring across the borders. in fact, my staff was just in cacuta, colombia, on the venezuelan border and my staff saw firsthand the humanity and patience of the colombian people helping their venezuelan brothers and sisters showing up

desperate for food and safety all amid the stark cruelty of barricaded bridges deliberately blocking aid trucks. i might just add parenthetically, what a sharp contrast, the suffering in venezuela and the people in colombia, their neighbors who are trying to help and what we are doing on our southern border when it comes to those who are suffering in honduras, el salvador and guatamala. what a contrast. during my visit to venezuela last year, i told maduro that if he went ahead with his stolen election, he'd find himself isolated in the eyes of the world and the venezuelan people would suffer even greater hardship. i told him that in washington both political parties didn't agree on much, but they do on venezuela. tragically, he ignored me and proceeded with this discredited election. as a result with the region's governments on left and right decided to recognize the venezuelan national assembly president juan guaido as the country's interim president as

provided for under the country's constitution, i promptly agreed. in fact, i called juan guaido immediately and called to the senate to offer my support for his ascendancy as a leader in venezuela. i met him in caracas last year at a dinner that was kind of a secret dinner since he was in the opposition. i remember at that dinner that five members of the national assembly said if you come back here in 2019 and look for the five of us, two of us will be exiled, two will be in prison and one will disappear. that's what happened in venezuela. the courage they showed at that meeting and afterward should not be ignored by the american people. as president trump made his case that the world needed to act in venezuela in part because of the horrible situation and danger the venezuelan people found themselves in, i joined in bipartisan agreement. and the danger and fear are well placed and well documented. armed vigilante groups, some motorcycle gangs that harass and

beat innocent civilians, extended power outages leaving already desperate medical care more perilous and arbitrary arrest and torture for those peacefully demonstrating against the maduro regime. just the other week interim president juan guaido's chief of staff was arrested by the maduro regime. it is fear he's enduring torture at this present time. judge maria affioni already cruelly jailed at a previous time and assaulted for making a judicial ruling against the chavez regime has now found herself facing another five-year sentence under the maduro regime. five dual u.s.-venezuelan citizens and a u.s. permanent resident who are citgo employees have been held hostage in a basement prison for more than a year after being tricked to come to venezuela for a business meeting. so amid the administration's accurate description of the misery and the danger that

venezuelans face, this administration still refuses to grant to the estimated 72,000 venezuelans on visas in the united states, some students in my home state of illinois, temporary protected status. this would be an obviously humanitarian move that would allow them to stay here until venezuela is safe and stabilized. in l illinois, where many venezuelans are studying in our colleges and universities, i've heard repeatedly of their desperation. their visas are about to expire, and unless the president, and he has the power to do it, extends their protected status in this country they'll be forced to go back to venezuela, a country our government warns people to stay away from. i held a town hall meeting in illinois with my venezuelan friends. they are heartbroken and worried about their families that are still in venezuela to this day, and they worry about the danger and violence they are going to face. is it any wonder then that many of them who are students or

visitors here want to stay is in the safety of the united states until this stabilizes? i would say to the president i know your opinion of immigrants, i know your opinion of refuges did you don't give a speech one day telling us how dangerous it is in venezuela and then the next day to refuse to allow these people who are here to stay safely. temporary protected status is not permanent. it's a short-term humanitarian measure. we ought to do it. this temporary protected status can be granted to nationals of another country who are in the united states if returning to their country would pose a serious threat to their personal safety. you know what the official line is of the are trump administration about americans who want to visit venezuela now? let me read it to you. here's what the state department says. do not travel to venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor health infrastructure, and arbitrary arrests and detention of u.s. citizens. violent crimes such as homicide, armed robbery, kidnapping and carjacking is common. there are shortages of food,

electricity, water, medicine and medical supplies throughout much of venezuela. that's the official line of our government warning people not to go to venezuela, and yet even weeks after senator rubio and i have requested, the administration still refuses to give the venezuelans in the united states protected status so they are not forced to face the same thing. recent power obligation left the country even more desperate for basic water. look at this photograph here. it shows people collecting water falling from a leaky pipeline along the banks of the river in caracas. that's the desperation these people face. how can we force people to return to venezuela when our own state department says it's too dangerous to travel there? in fact, last month senators rubio, menendez and i, 21 other senate democrats sent a bipartisan letter to president trump urging him to take the obvious step that would match his rhetoric on venezuela. i've also raised this directly with vice president pence, the

national security advisor bolton. let me urge here on the senate floor that president trump take action to grant t.p.s. status to the venezuelans here in the united states. this would be a concrete measure that president trump could take this afternoon, with the strong of a pen, to protect tens of thousands of innocent people. at a time when some have questioned america's intentions, real intentions towards venezuela, this action by president trump of granting t.p.s. status to venezuelan visitors in the united states would demonstrate that our true focus is on the safety and well-being of these innocent people. this is not only the right thing to do, it would fully align the president with his speeches. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa.

ms. ernst: mr. president, as we approach tax day, america's roaring economy keeps on speeding ahead as we continue to see the positive impact that the tax cuts and jobs act is having throughout iowa and the rest of our country. last week yet another outstanding jobs report was released showing that the economy added 196,000 jobs in march, well above expectations. just think, since tax reform was passed, 3.2 million jobs have been created. and year over year wage growth remains strong at 3.2% in march. after years of stagnant wage growth, we have now had eight

consecutive months in which it exceeded 3%. under the leadership of our governor kim reynolds, iowa's unemployment rate is the lowest in the country and is tied for the lowest rate ever recorded in our state. i've seen the effects of tax reform firsthand in my home state, and they are paying off big time. thanks to senate republican pro-growth tax reform, a business owner in pella, iowa, has saved tens of thousands in taxes, allowing her to increase the wages of her employees, purchase new semitrailers and upgrade her facilities. a small brewery in central iowa has been able to hire a new full-time employee and purchase an additional ter meanter, increase -- fermenter, increasing their production by

17%. in a survey of iowa businesses last month, 87% of folks said they plan to make capital expenditures this quarter and the vast majority expect sales to grow over the next year. by lowering tax rates and doubling the standard deduction and child tax credit, the tax cuts and jobs act has also helped families throughout iowa keep more of their hard-earned dollars. in 2018 alone, iowans saved an estimated $1.8 billion in federal taxes. a single mother earning $30,000 a year is saving over $1,000 in taxes. iowans earning between $40,000 and $80,000 are receiving an average tax cut of $1,028.

these savings are certainly not pennies, as some of our democrat colleagues have suggested. these tax cuts are allowing families to get ahead and save for their future. iowans are feeling the strong effects of the pro-growth tax cuts that republicans passed. folks are keeping more of their own money and at the same time the rising tide of our economy is lifting wages. a couple of years ago we were in the midst of the most sluggish economic recovery in our history. folks, it wasn't much of a recovery. today, thanks to tax reform, americans are able to keep more of their own hard-earned money. our economy is booming.

wages are finally rising. and unemployment is at a near 50-year low. tax reform has created a more competitive tax system while providing much-needed relief for hardworking iowans and job creators of all sizes. and, folks, this really is only the beginning. thank you very much, mr. president. i will yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: mr. president, as we said as we begin to talk about tax reform, months ago now, the purpose of tax reform was stronger families and expanding

opportunity for every american. i think the facts are clear that that's exactly what happened. over the past year, most people have seen bigger paychecks. many of those people saw bigger paychecks because they were having less money taken out of their check. 90% of middle-class americans received a tax cut. pay increases for lots of other americans set new standards in recent years. i think the pay increases of slightly less than 4% in the last year are higher than any time in recent memory. under the tax cuts and jobs act, the child tax credit doubled from $1,000 to $2,000 per child. that credit was available to many more families than before and obviously was twice as big as before. people are able to keep more of what they earn. we have an economy right now where people actually believe

for the first time in a decade that the chance that they're going to get a promotion is greater than the chance that they're going to lose their job, and they have also stopped worrying about their neighbor losing their job or their -- someone else in their family losing their job. this is a time when we have an economy where people who want to go to work go to work with confidence. unemployment last month was at a 49-year low. more jobs were available than people were looking for work for the first time around a year agd before. in keeping these statistics where there were more jobs available than people looking for work. when it happened the next month, it was the second month in a row it had ever happened because it never had happened ever before the first month. now we're, i think, 11 months into that statistic where there are more people -- more jobs than people looking for work.

we have had the strongest economic growth in 2018 than we have had since before the financial crisis about a decade ago. according to the department of labor, average hourly earnings increased by 3.4% year over year. that's the largest increase in a decade. job openings increased to 7.6 million at the beginning of the year. that's the third highest job opening number in a long time. and for the 12th straight month, as i said earlier, the number of job openings has exceeded the number of job seekers. there is no doubt the tax cuts and job act have been a part of the economic turnaround and will continue to be. one of the ways it will do that is by promoting new investment in areas where they need it most through what we call in that tax bill opportunity zones. in missouri, there are 161 areas that have been designated as

opportunity zones, making them eligible for the investment incentives under the new tax cut and jobs act. i want to thank my friend from south carolina, my colleague from south carolina, senator scott, for all of his hard work in making that provision not only make sense to people but making sure we fought hard to see that it was included in the -- in the tax bill. the majority of these zones were required to have an average poverty rate of at least 20% and a median family income of no more than 80% of the statewide median income, so obviously there are areas where something needs to happen to improve those areas. it's predicted that $100 billion of private capital will go into those opportunity zones. these are places where even unlike, mr. president, the 1031 exchange, you can take an asset that is no longer working for you or you're no longer excited

about having and you can get rid of that asset and you can put it in an opportunities zone. it doesn't have to be a like kind exchange. it's a difference in focus and focusing where people need it. attracting new investments to distressed urban and rural communities with high poverty rates and slow growth is a challenge. this is one of the things that the tax cut is beginning to do -- that the new tax bill is beginning to do, bringing that investment, making more opportunities for families. just recently, housing and urban development secretary ben carson came to st. louis to highlight opportunity zones. here's what the secretary of housing and urban development said. he said the opportunity zones present an incredible opportunity for people to take unrealized capital gains that would normally be invested in more traditional vehicles and focus them on areas that are traditionally neglected. the opportunity zones are another example of how tax reform is working to benefit

missourians, it's working to benefit all -- people all over the country, and i think our goal of a tax plan that would benefit families and benefit individuals is clearly being realized as we approach the day none of us are ever excited about, tax day. not the most popular day in the year, but over the past year, people have been able to keep more of the money they earned and maybe just as importantly they have been earning more money than they earned before, even if they didn't benefit directly from the -- from the new tax system. and so, mr. president, this is while not the most favorite day of the year, a year that's been better for american families than this day has been in a long time and hopefully it will be even better a year from now, and i would yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. young: i rise today to talk about our booming economy. with tax day just around the

corner, i'd like to briefly highlight the many benefits american families, workers, and job creators have experienced as a result of lower tax rates. since republicans passed the tax cuts and jobs act, 3.2 million new jobs have been created. our 3.8% unemployment rate is near a 50-year low. the unemployment rate for women in particular matches the lowest rate since 1953. 90% of middle-class workers have experienced a tax cut. in jobless claims have recently dropped to the lowest level since 1969. additionally, in 2018, manufacturing job creation was the highest that it has been in over 20 years. as the most manufacturing-intensive state in the nation, indiana particularly benefits from this tax cut bill. last year, in conjunction with tax day, i spoke on the senate floor about the many stories

that had already poured into my office. from indiana businesses who are paying their workers more and constituents who are earning more, this year i'm proud to say these stories continue. my guest to last year's state of the union, chelsea hatfield, is a prime example. when tax reform was signed into law, chelsea, a young mother of three, was working as a teller at a rural bank, a first farmers bank and trust company in tipton, indiana. she received a raise and a bonus as a result of tax reform, and this additional income helped chelsea go back to school to earn her associate's degree. it enabled her to put money away for her children's future college education. now, i'm proud to say that this summer, chelsea graduated with her degree, and she has been promoted to a commercial loan administrative assistant position. what a powerful story.

i recently had the opportunity to visit with a third-generation small business owner in fort wayne. dan parker is the owner of parker towing and recovery. he was able to purchase several new trucks thanks in part to tax reform. this means more trucks will be available to assist hoosiers who have been in a car accident or have had their cars break down. parker also recently expanded the company's office space and gave his staff raises. and as a result, says parker, quote, we have less turnover now, unquote. another indiana employer, cardinal manufacturing company in indianapolis, rewarded its team members with bonuses and pay raises. and albany's confectionary, a canady manufacturing company in merrillville provided bonuses that it said will happen annually, as long as the tax

reform bill stays in effect. lastly, i would note that this new tax code incentivizes new investment into distressed rural and urban communities to help the least among us through the creation of tax-advantaged opportunity zones around the state of indiana. the bottom line is that hoosiers continue to benefit from the tax cuts and jobs act. workers are taking home more of their hard-earned money, and businesses of all sizes are expanding, hiring, and investing in their employees. i look forward to working with my colleagues to continue supporting policies like tax reform that have our economy booming. thank you. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: i want to join several of my colleagues today referencing that we are approaching tax day. it's not a day that americans look forward to, but it's part of our responsibilities. the old joke about the two things that are certain, death and taxes, are still certain for all of us. it is interesting this year to be able to approach this tax season under the first year of everyone filing under the new tax law. i have been fascinated to be able to see some of the stories and to read some of the print stories about what some of the media is saying and the national media in particular about the tax law. they are so desperate to be able to find anything to be able to criticize, it's fascinating to me to be able to read the headlines versus the stories. this story in particular. the headline was this is going to wipe us out in reference to the new tax law. when you read through the story and find out this is who they say is going to get wiped out, here is their illustration of the person. a person moving from a $400,000 house this past year to one

valued at $1.1 million concedes he has a first-world problem of his taxes going up, but he says owing more in taxes is a little disheartening. as he moves from a $400,000 house to a $1.1 million home. now, again, i'm excited for him in his home. i'm sure that it's beautiful. but that was their illustration of who is going to get hard hit by the tax changes on it. this partly from a national source said is a tx federal fund ahead for you in 2019? some taxpayers received a tax bill instead. you go to the middle of the story and they make this one little note. only about 5% of taxpayers are expected to pay more under the new law. or, in other words, 95% of americans, even in this story that's a negative story about the taxes, they hide the simple fact that 95% of americans will

pay the same or less. the vast majority of those will pay less in their taxes for the next year. or how about this one? here is another national story that came out. small business owners struggling to understand trump's new tax law. and when you get down to literally the last line of the story, it ends like this with this same small business owner -- i don't know yet if it's going to impact my cash flow the way i have to put money back aside for this year because i'm not sure. i may even do better under the tax law. i don't know yet. that was their whole story to say that people are struggling under this new tax law, it was just the uncertainty. what am i finding in oklahoma? i'm finding more jobs and more opportunity across the state. this is not some accident of history. this is the direct result of a change in the tax law. and i am quite confident that my liberal colleagues have all been very excited to be able to find

something to be able to complain about through this process, but they have failed to overlook the simple fact that this one story buries 95% of americans do the same or better under this tax law, and the vast majority of those are doing better under the tax law. it was interesting, though, as a box tweet that came out from a news source from one of the reporters that made this one comment this past week saying nobody likes to give themselves credit for the kind of messaging success, but progressive groups did a really good job of convincing people that trump raised their taxes when the facts say a clear majority got a tax cut. or my favorite, the left-leaning tax policy center had to begrudgingly study the tax cut and what's actually happening and say middle-class taxes actually went down. families kept almost $1,000 more than what would have previously gone into government coffers.

what happened as a result of that, as a result of people keeping their own money and the withholding tables changing this past year so that each month peach are actually keeping more of their own money? well, here is what happened. our g.d.p. grew at 3% a year. a dramatic he increase from the past. 215,000 new jobs have started, on average, every month since the tax cut change -- 215,000. those are very strong numbers across the country. unemployment has gone to 3.9% since the enactment of the tax reform. beginning in april of last year, the number of job openings in the national economy has exceeded the number of unemployed americans, something that's not been recorded prior to april since records have been kept. so starting this past year,

there are literally more people searching to be able to find other opportunities than there are opportunities out there because there are so many jobs open. so many companies are still trying to be abe to hire and looking for -- to be able to hire and people looking to stay at their same job, get better pay or switch to a new job and get more opportunities. that's more opportunities for more people to transition to a new job or make more money at their own job. what about wages? as a result of the economy, wages have gone up 2.9% just since the tax cut. that's individual wages have gone up. what happens to income during that time period? let me go back to the obama time period. when president obama was president, on average, income went up 1.8%, that's total take home. since the tax reform, income has gone up 4% for each american.

that is double the amount during the obama administration. again, this is not an accident of history. this is the result of the tax reform. this is what happens when people are allowed to be able to keep more of their money and to be able to spend it. more companies are doing better, there's more investment happening, more job opportunities, more opportunity to get a different job or to get a raise at your current job and take-home pay has increased. what happened to people's taxes? early on, the stories, as i referenced before early on this year were about how tax returns were down and they searched out anyone who had tax returns were down and all those stories disappeared in late february when the i.r.s. brought out the numbers from february and march and said actually tax returns are up this year from what they were in the previous year. as of the latest number, april 5, tax returns for individuals are almost dead even exact as they were last year.

so the stories disappeared from headlines that their tax returns changed. actually the returns are almost exactly what they were from the previous time. what happened to how people in the paying of their taxes. i asked some of my team in oklahoma, just ask people around, when you're traveling around the state and visiting people ask them how their taxes have gone. what's happening? people are filing now, find out what is happening. one of the dry cleaners in enead let one of our team members know he is doing better in taxes and will be able to put a down payment on new equipment. another person we talked to who is in his early 30's, married, he and his wife both work, they said they saved enough on their taxes this year from last year they will be able to start to pay off student loans and pay down faster their car loan.

also spoke to another person in their 30's, they said they saved enough in their taxes from the previous year that they are going to be able to take care of some health care costs that they have and they are going to set aside money to allow his wife to start a roth i.r.a. account, starting their savings for their retirement in their 30's where you should start savings for your retirement they are able to do this year because of the change in the tax cut. when another gentleman that we talked to that works in oklahoma city, he reported that his withholding changes that happened that he is now actually in -- he was in the 25% tax bracket that now has moved to the 22% tax bracket and he is using his savings to be able to take care of some of the issues that he had in his only personal debt. we have a married couple in davis, oklahoma, down in south central oklahoma, their income went up $4,000 this year, when they finished all their tax payments, their tax payments

decreased by $700 from year to the next even though their income came up. another couple from sulfur, oklahoma, they own a small farm, their income went up and they were panicked about what would happen on their taxes, well, their taxes actually decreased $1,400 from the year before. we have a police officer in norman, oklahoma, south of oklahoma city. he and his family, after they finished filing all of their taxeses, he said this, i now bring home more in my check every two weeks because of the change in the tax code. it's making things so much simpler for us to able to make ends meet. there was a teacher at an elementary school. she noted, as simple as this may sound, that she has received $10 more every single time a paycheck came out and that made a difference for her as a first year teacher just getting are started. there was a farmer with two kids.

he was able to use the new child tax creditses, and although -- tax credits, although his income was higher, his tax burden was $3,000 less. there's a pilot who is married to a nurse and their income increased, but they said because of the child tax credit, their tax burden decreased by $1,000 from the year before. all of this is real life stories about what is happening in the state. as i hear all the different stories coming out, people lose track of what is really happening. while some of my colleagues have been focused on trying to find some way to be able to damage the effects of tax cuts, families in my state know the difference. one of the families that we encountered this past week made a comment that they had a child to be born in 2018. that child was born in 2018, but actually very premature.

their medical bills racked up pretty quickly because the child was in the i.c.u., but then they started filing their taxes this year as the medical bills were coming in. by the way, the chieltd is doing -- child is doing well and healthy. as they started filling out the forms and thinking about bills to cover the deductible, their tax bill came back in and they saw their taxes lower and they are using their higher return this year to be able to offset the medical costs from the early delivery of their child. this is what tax reform looks like. some of my colleagues try to spend all of their time saying tax reform is all about big corporations and wall street. interestingly enough, most of the high-income folks in my state have said, actually, their taxes went up a little bit this year, not down. they are part of that 5% of americans that didn't end up with a tax change. but for the vast majority of

americans who are working and putting ends together and taking care of their family in my state and in other states, they are finding that tax reform is not some theory to them. it was real help to their family, and paying off debt, starting retirement, taking care of medical costs, taking care of their family, and getting going on with life. as the police officer in norman said, just making things a little simpler. tax reform is determined to be able to help our economy and to get us growing and to get us going as a nation and provide more opportunities, and i'm grateful, even in all of the complexity of filling out tax reforms, is showing a real result in pragmatic ways to americans. this past weekend, i stopped and filled out my tax information. going through all the details and gathering all the forms and filling everything out. it's still a pain and it's still

not the most pleasant experience in all of life filling out your tax forms. but at the end of it, i reflected on some of these direct stories and realized there are people who feel the reeffects going on and the frustration of filling out taxes, there is some real benefit this year versus the year before and i hope for some years to come. with that, i yield the floor. mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, you have heard the quote in this world nothing is said to be certain except death and taxes and that was from benjamin franklin in 1789.

asking benjamin franklin predicted, tax day comes on monday. our booming economy remains an incredible boon for u.s. workers. employers added 196,000 jobs last month. it beat all expectations. u.s. unemployment is right now at historic lows. it's remained at or below 4% now for over a year. weekly jobless claims have fallen to a 50-year low. 50 years, never been lower. and the unemployment rate for women is now the lowest since 1953. wages have increased by more than 3%, the fastest growth in a decade. and it's worth noting that in recent months the biggest pay increases have gone to lower-income workers. bigger paychecks mean a higher standard of living, bigger paychecks mean the median

household income continues to rise and is today at the highest level ever in the united states. there are currently 7.6 million jobs open. we actually have more open jobs in america than we have people to fill them. small businesses recently set hiring records. 60% of small businesses have additional plans to hire more people. and you'd have to go back 20 years, two decades, to find as many new manufacturing jobs as we have added last year. so this solid jobs news, it reflects an american economic renaissance brought about by republican tax reform. republicans reduced tax rates across the board, done it for individuals, done it for businesses starting in 2018. we lowered toks rates for small businesses and family farms and family ranches, which is a big

thing for me, mr. president, in wyoming. we nearly doubled the standard deduction. we cut our excessively high corporate tax rate as well so u.s. companies are able to compete better globally. we made it easier for business owners to recoup the cost of their investments because we want them to invest and hire for people in the process. as a result of republican leadership, americans have abundant opportunities. "the washington post" reports that due to the strong labor market economists now foresee, quote, almost no risk of an imminent recession. according to "the washington post" article, quote, as long as hiring remains strong and wages continue to climb, the economy will continue to grow. experts say because people typically spend more when they are not worried about losing their job of our economy is strong, our economy is healthy, our economy is growing. the u.s. g.d.p. has risen 3%

year over year. now lower tax rates have -- they've freed job creators giving companies the confidence to invest, to grow, and to hire. employers have created more than three million jobs since tax reform passed. 5.5 million new jobs since president trump took office, and with faster job growth and better profits, businesses can invest more in their workers. last year a thumb of wyoming employers boosted pay and benefits due to tax reform. darden restaurants with locations nationwide, including in cheyenne and casper, invested $20 until in its workforce -- $20 million in its workforce. groceries store with more than 1,000 employees invested $ 5 million to boost pay. kroger's plans to add more jobs. many other companies have made

similar investments. i hear about them every weekend. and our utility company in wyoming, rocky mountain power, well, mr. president, they have rewarded our customers as well. it decreased its electricity rates last year by 3%. and they say, as of course other utilities have across the country, it is a direct result of tax reform. now, democrats, on the other hand, are threatening to reverse these gains and dramatically increase taxes with their extreme socialist agenda. democrats want to take over all of health care in this country and eliminate insurance from 180 million americans. that bill was introduced today by the senator from vermont and cosponsored by it seems just about every democrat running for president as a member of the senate. medicare, for all, let's be clear, is government-run health care. it has been estimated 10-year price tag of over $32 trillion, meaning massive tax hikes for

american families many democrats also want to control our energy sector. it's called the green new deal. it's estimated ten-year price tag, $93 trillion. this is unaffordable, unworkable plan. it would destroy our economy and of course dramatically increase taxes. far-left democrats are touting tax the rich plans that would punish success. these include raising the top marge tall rate to 70%, imposing a 2% annual wealth tax, and raising the top estate tax rate to 77%. farmers and ranchers and business owners. republicans dramatically reduced the estate tax or the death tax as part of tax reform. this unfair tax is double taxation. it's a tax on money that is previously been taxed already. it hurts family-owned businesses. it hurts ranchers. it hurts farmers. and it should be fully repealed.

clearly democrats have taken a sharp left turn. their policies will send our strong healthy and growing economy careening over the liberal cliff. mr. president, republicans pro-growth tax relief has produced a booming economy with millions of new jobs and larger paychecks. we free job creators to hire more. we put americans back to work. we raised the strdz of living. -- standard of living. thanks to republican tax reform, america is back in business. and so i say, mr. president, we must come together. we must do it now. we must embrace commonsense policies that will continue our progress. republicans have provided successful solutions. democrats are now promoting the failure and the horrors of socialism. i thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. carper: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, thanks very much. before i talk about the auto industry, the strength of our economy and climate change, i want to say a word about socialism. i'm a democrat. i'm not a socialist. i was a flight officer and a midshipman. three tours, last veteran standing. no interest in supporting a socialist agenda, none at all. none at all. in frankly, i don't know many of

my colleagues that feel that way here either. i do know this, though. i know an election was held in november 2008 during the worst recession since the great depression. banks stopped lending money. unemployment rate reached 10%. banks were not lending money to people to go to school, start businesses, buy cars. it was a terrible time. we had an election. voters decided to change horses and barack obama succeeded george w. bush. joe biden was elected to vice president. they started -- it hadn't been that bad in terms of our economy since the great depression. eight years later we had another election.

and the new administration inherited the longest running economic expansion in the history of this country. i'll say that again. the trump administration inherited in january of 2017 the longest running economic expansion sings -- expansion sie great depression. add to that the tax bill that pumps up the economy and now we're ten years into an economic recovery. that's the good news. it's been ten years. unemployment is low. i think one of our earlier speakers said the g.d.p. growth for the last year was 3%. it was actually little under 3. hadn't been that low for a long time. i think it was low as recently maybe the last year of -- at least a couple quarters of last

year of the obama administrati administration. you know what? what i was concerned about, two things. one, a lot of the money that goes to businesses through the tax bill, a lot of it is being used for stock buybacks. it pumps up the value of stocks. pumps up the value of the stock exchange. and gives us a feeling of elation, jubilation. but we need to temper that a little bit with something else and it's called deficit. we actually had four years of a balanced budget. we hadn't been able to balance our budget from 1968 to about 1999, 1998. couldn't balance our budget. last four years of the clinton administration, we had four balanced budgets in a row. we also had a great recovery from an economic recession inherited in 1993 the beginning of the clinton administration and turned over a strong robust economy to the george w. bush

administration in january of 2001. also turned over to him a balanced budget. in fact, four of them in a row. eight years later we didn't have a balanced budget anymore. we had a huge deficit. and we are in the worst recession since the great depression. sometimes we reimagine history. i just want to set the record straight. and the -- i used to be the treasurer of the state of delaware, elected -- we couldn't balance our budgets for nothing. we were tied with puerto rico. people in puerto rico were embarrassed to be in the same shoes as us in terms of our credit rating. and so i have some idea of what it's like to be in debt and some idea of how to get out of debt. we're looking at detroit now in this country coming off a deficit last year, last fiscal year $750 billion, billion

dollars. this year the deficit is expected to reach $850 billion, billion dollars. next year the deficit is expected to reach almost $1 trillion in one year, in one year. that's no way to run a business. no way to run a government. and as a guy who's a senior member of the homeland security committee, the senior democrat, given what's going on at the department of homeland security which we worked for so long on a bipartisan basis to stabilize that department, to enable them to do their job, have the resources that they need, and to see the kind of turmoil that's going on at that department, it breaks my heart. breaks my heart. that's the bad news. the good news is we had a mockup in the environment and public works committee. my colleague sheldon whitehouse was there. we pass three -- passed three pieces of legislation. one is called the diesel

emission reduction act. what it does, it reduses emission from the diesel engines. they're in cars, trucks, vans, in boat, locomotives. there are probably several million diesel engines in this country and they last a long time. a lot of them are really old. a lot of them put out a lot of pollution. you ever watch a diesel truck at a stoplight, the light changes. the diesel truck pulls out and that big -- plumes of black smoke come out of the exhaust of the diesel truck. it's called particulate matter and some of that matter is called black carbon. what does black carbon do? it's about a thousand times worse for our climate, our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. well, there's actually american made technology that will reduce

emissions from those diesel trucks by as much as 90%. 90%. if we're serious about doing something about climate change and reducing the impacts of climate change, extreme weather and all kinds of things, if we're interested in doing that, we can reduce black carbon and again unanimously our committee supported legislation, bipartisan legislation to do just that. we've been doing this since 2005 using american technology, creating american jobs, to do good things for our planet and our atmosphere. that's the kind of thing we can do and ought to do. that's the kind of thing we can do and ought to do. it shouldn't all be blaming one side or the other. let's find ways to work together. for me the holy grail, mr. president, in terms of public policy as the senior democrat, senator whitehouse and others on the environment and public works committee, and our chairman, how do we clean up our air, how to clean up our water, how to do

good things for climate change, reduce the threat of extreme weather, how do we do those things and create jobs? well, by doing those three things, we do create jobs. and today in this country, about 157 million people went to work. 157 million people went to work. three or four million went to work on jobs that have something to do with sustainable energy, clean energy, climate change, holes in the ozone prohibiting them, fixing them. three million people, four million people went to work on those kinds of jobs. that's the good thing. so again the point i'm trying to make here is it possible to do good things for our planet? president macron france spoke to congress and said these words. we only get one planet. he says, there's no planet b. he was right. this is our planet.

some day it will belong to these young people, the pages sitting here in front of me this afternoon. it will be your planet. it is already. we want to make sure we turn it over to you in better shape than we found it. now, let me talk a little bit about climate change and why it might be of some interest to us in delaware. delaware is the first state to ratify the nation, december 7, 1787, before any other state was ratified. we became the first state for one whole week delaware was the entire united states of america. then we let in maryland. we let in pennsylvania. about 47 others. i think it's turned out all right until now. we'll see. hopefully it will turn all right for a much longer period of time. but the first state is also the lowest lying state in america. think about that. it sits right along the atlantic ocean. not quite -- maybe halfway between maine and florida.

and our state is sinking. the oceans are rising. it's not a good combination. especially if you're as small as we are. so we have a personal interest in climate change, global warming, sea level rise. we don't believe it's esoteric or scientific dogma. we think it's real. it faces -- maybe not my generation so much, although we are seeing bad things happen because of sea level rise and climate change, but for my kids and their kids some day, the chickens will come home to roost. they're going to come home to roost. the question is can we do anything about it and the answer is yes, we can do a lot. and where should we start? there are a lot of places where carbon comes from. for me one of the things to do is make sure we protect, if you will, the carbon-free sources of electricity generation to the extent that we can.

as it turns out, 60% or 70% of the electricity in this country that's generated without creating carbon are nuclear power plants. and there's technology, there's research going on, advanced technology or advanced nuclear reactors to see are there ways we can build on nuclear power, reduce the amount of spent fuel. some people call that waste. i call it spent fuel rods. what can we do through new technology. and there's actually reason to be encouraged there's a lot we can do and we need to do that. what else can we do? well, we can pass our diesel emission react act and build on the legacy of the last 13, 14 years. and i'm encouraged that we're going to do that. we have nation technology -- i think they are further ahead on this in europe than we are. but the ability to take not just carbon dioxide out of a smokestack, say a coal-fired plant generating electricity but

to take -- literally pull carbon dioxide out of the air, out of the air. ambient ca carbon dioxide out of the air and turn it into something useful. those are while i think promising technologies, there's something else that's right before us that's a lot more effective. and that is our cars, trucks, and vans. our cars, trucks, and vans. why do i mention them? the greatest source of carbon dioxide emissions comes from our cars, trucks, and vans, our mobile sources. it wasn't always that waip. that way. long ago it was coal-fired plants. could have been cement plants and others emitted emissions and carbon dioxide. today the largest source of co2 on our plan net are mobile source, car, trucks, and vans. that's the bad news. the good news is we can actually

reduce that. i was -- been going to the detroit auto show for a long time. there was a time not that many years ago, a decade ago when delaware actually built more car, truck, and advance per capita than any other state. we had a huge interest in making sure our chrysler plant stayed in business and our g.m. plant stayed in business. i worked real hard to make sure that those plants stayed in business. we had 3,000 or 4,000 employees at each of those plants. at the bottom of the immigration, g.m. and chrysler went into bankruptcy and we lost them just like that. but, in any event, i still have a huge interest in ought motives. one of the reasons is because carbon dioxide emissions, the largest source, are from cars, trucks, and advance s i went up

to the detroit auto show just this past january and the january before. i was there 11 years ago. 11 years ago the car of the year was the self-ly -- chevy volt, v-o-l-2. it got about 38 miles on the charges, fully charged bat rhode island fast-forward ten years, the car of the year was the chevy bolt. all electric, not a hybrid. from 38 miles on a charge 11 years ago, chevrolet volt, ten years later, the chevrolet bolt, 130 miles. pretty good progress. guess what i saw this year. i saw close it a dozen different vehicles from manufacturers in this country and around the world that actually have electric -- all-electric powered

vehicles and they're getting about 240 miles on a charge, 250 miles on a charge of think about that. 11 years ago chevrolet volt, 38 miles on a charge. a year and a half ago, chevrolet bolt, 150 miles. and it is only going to get better. we also have the ability to create propulsion for our vehicles by using hydrogen in conjunction with fuel cells to create electricity to power our vehicles. and what is the waste product? met me see. water. -- let me see. water. the waste product of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles is h2o. so clean you can drink t that's where the future is for automotive transportation in this country.

battery-powered vehicles and those that are powered by hydrogen in conjunction with fuel cells. we are working on our committee, beginning to work -- senator barrasso and myself and our colleagues are working on the next what we call the highway bill. it is really roads, highway, bridges. it is transit. we do this about every five years and we're starting to work on the next follow-on reauthorization of the transportation bill which the current bill expires in september 30 of next year. we're getting a head start on it this year. we want to make sure that as we prepare for the next five years in transportation that we build the roads, highways, bridges, transit systems that ways that realize we have a real challenge on this planet with too many carbon in the air and make sure that we build into our roads, highways, bridges the ability to recharge batteries.

come 2030, half the vehicles expected to be built and sold in this country will be battery-powered electric vehicles or they will be hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles, half. if we're smart about it, when we take up and legislate and build -- pass legislation to build roads, highways, bridges, transit going forward, we'll do it in a way that it creates quarters, people traveling -- that's got to be part of our legislation. because much of our carbon dioxide is coming from mobile sources, we've got to make schauer when we build roads, highways, bridges, we do it in a way that will reduce emissions, just reduce it in smart way, so if you will, the infrastructure is more sustainable. these are some of the things that we need to do. the other thing i want to say is

i love for me the holy grail of public policy right now, given the threat we face from climate change, extreme weather, and the extreme -- i'll just give you a hint. we've had too much rain in delaware. we raise a lot of soybeans, a lot of corn, a lot of lima beans, and a lot of chickens. and if you ask a lot of farmers in southern delaware last year how things went, they tell you they got a whole lot of rain. we got a whole lot of rain in last spring. you don't want to have too little. but you don't want to have too much. a lot of our farmers planted their crops last spring and it rained, and it rained, and it rained. and the crop did not come up. they replanted and it rained, and it rained, and it rained. and too many of our farmers didn't get a crop. the folks in the midwest, nebraska and other places are

going through -- southern south dakota, even more than that. they're getting a lot of rain all at once. i talked to one of our colleagues here in the senate about his state this morning, and it's happening i think maybe this week. that he can extreme weather is caused by -- that extreme weather is caused by too much carbon in the air. and there's a need to do something about t the good news is we can do something about it and create jobs. how would that work in the automotive area? right now our friends in the automotive industry would like to build a lot more fuel cell powered vehicles. they want to make sure when we do that, they're on the roads to highways across the country. people get their electric vehicles recharged, hydrogen vehicles refueled. we need to put on our transportation legislation provisions that make that a reality, those chargings

stations a reality. our auto industry needs predictability. right now the current administration is not interested in unfortunately in providing the certainty and predictability that folks need in the auto industry. there's a 50-state deal here to be made in terms of fuel efficiency standards going forward. and it looks something like this. the trump administration wants to have almost no increase in fuel is standards between 2021 and 2025, almost nothing, almost flat-line. and then absolutely nothing between 2025. the current regulation in place by the last administration, the obama administration, calls for between 2021 and 2025 annual increase in fuel efficiency standards by roughly 5%. pretty steep. pretty steep. doesn't sound like much, but if it is, if you put it five years

in a row, it is a big increase. the auto industry is saying they would like to have some near-term flexibility between 2021 and 2025 in fuel efficiency standards and they're ready to ramp it up going forward. i think the current administration maybe might be willing to agree on a compromise of fuel efficiency standards going up 1% a year between 2021 and 2025 but they don't want to do anything after 2025 when we're going to be making a bunch of vehicles that get maybe 200, maybe 300 miles on a charge of i think there might be a number between 1% fuel efficiency standards and a 5% there may be some middle ground between is% a year increases and a 5% increase is what the obama rule calls for. maybe it is 3%. and so rather than, like, making no progress in fuel efficiency standards, 3% increase.

what i've heard is the auto industry is maybe not crazy about it, but they can live with that. but they can live with a good deal more than 3% after 2025. we ought to do that. we ought to do that. if we do that kind of thing, we will make sure we don't spend the next five, six years with the auto industry in court legal battle with california and 13 other states including delaware, including rhode island. the auto industry has a certain predictability they need. they build these vehicles. we'll be competitive on the world stage. and may have a stronger economy as a result and we've done good things for our planet. why wouldn't we do that? really, why wouldn't we do that? my dad was a big commonsense guy. we can probably all remember things our parents said to us from time to time, maybe again and again and again. among other things my dad would say to my sister and me after we did some bone-headed stunt, he'd

say, just use some common sense. he did not say it that nicely, but he did say, just use some commonsense a lot. doing that, we'll create a urge of jobs, it will make us competitive as a nation on the world stage in one of the most important industries we have and that's building, design, development of vehicles and we'll do good things for our planet. those -- and those who are going to inherit this planet from us. that's pretty much what i wanted to say today, mr. president. i just want to take a minute just to say something. as a bigger state talking to a -- an also big state, i like to tell people delaware is the 49th largest state. we're just like a couple acres larger than rhode island. but these are two states that i think my friend from rhode island would agree -- i don't know if you've ever heard. i will a he say this to the

pages. i don't know if you've heard the term in boxing, you have a smaller fighter anden this a big fighter fighting against a smaller fighter. and you say that the smaller boxer punches about his weight. when it comes to climate change and trying to figure out the right thing to do for our planet, country, people. rhode island -- and i would like to say delaware, too -- we punch above our weight. and this is a -- maybe not a heavy weight title bout, but this is a big one. this is a big one. they're going to have, like, world championships. in terms of issues, this this is a world championship issue and this is one we can win. i just want to thank my friend, senator whitehouse, for taking great leadership roles in all of this, including today because he knows, as we -- most of us here on this floor and i think on our planet know that it's time to wake up, or at my friend, lisa

rochester says, stay woke. i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: it is not often that the distinguished ranking member on the e.p.w. committee gets to say, from a bigger state and give his advice in those terms. i appreciate that we were able from rhode island to give him this moment. i also want to thank him for his leadership trying to fight for a strong fuel economy and greenhouse gases standards for our automobiles. the story of what is going on cannot be properly understood without understanding the oil industry's role in all of this. they are up to their usual mischief. our office obtained a draft letter to the deputy administrator of the national highway traffic safety administration urging her to weaken the auto emissions

standards. well, we were able to look at the metadata on this document and guess who wrote it? it was i think weren by one of marathon petroleum's in-house lobbyists. so marathon shopped this letter that their lobbyist wrote around to members of congress and, sure enough, several sent similar letters in favor of weakening the standards. we took those letters and we ran them through plagiarism software, and this is what we got. the red text is the text that is identical to the language of the marathon lobbyist's letter. the black is where in this case members of the pennsylvania delegation added a little local information about pennsylvania. it's an 80% match in the plagiarism software to the letter written by the marathon

oil company lobbyist. marathon and the oil industry weren't just recruiting members of congress to copy their lobbyist language into letters to the trump administration, they got their trade associations involved as well. the american fuel and petrochemical manufacturers association lobbied, for instance, to weaken the standards, according to their lobbying disclosure reports. it's always better to have your trade association do your dirty work. what company really want the public to know it lobbied to lower fuel economy standards so that consumers could pay more at the pump? not a good luke. -- not a good look. in addition to cranking up its trade associations, the fossil fuel industry also cranked up its constellation of front groups that it has developed and funded over the years to kill laws and regulations that would reduce the carbon pollution

driving climate change. and the industry launched those front groups against the fuel economy and greenhouse gas emission auto standards. these front groups provide a veneer of fake public support for the oil industry's anticlimate campaign, take americans for prosperity, for instance. it's a lovely, benign sounding name. who could possibly be against prosperity? but in reality americans against prosperity is a front group funded by the fossil fuel billionaire koch brothers whose company, by the way, also lobbied against the standards. americans for prosperity doesn't disclose its donors. it's a secretive organization. so what little we know about its funders comes thanks to the hard work of a few muckraking investigative journalists. but we do know that both exxon

mobile and the american petroleum institute give a.f.p. money and they give them big money. since the citizens yew nighed decision a.f.p. spent about $70 million on federal elections. it is throwing its weight around. to oppose the auto standards a.f.p. created an elaborate online deception campaign centered on this petition against the standards. unfortunately for them, the public was not buying their nonsense. despite an onslaught of online advertising, only 231 people signed up. it looks like no one wants to spend more on gas and no amount of fossil fuel lies could convince them otherwise. freedom works is yet another front group that has received millions in funding from the koch brothers and fossil fuel interests like the american petroleum institute. they also started an online campaign against the standards,

and that too bombed. there's a word for this stuff. it's called astro turf. it's fake grassroots. real grassroots organizations don't need tens of millions of dollars from fossil fuel front groups. real grassroots organizations thrive on the engagement and the passion of citizens, not on millions in special interest dark money. having flopped at astro turfing, the oil industry organized its front groups to write directly to trump administration officials lobbying them to repeal the standards. here is one of these letters. a dozen phony front groups signed it. like i said, they built a constellation of these phony front groups and a dozen signed this letter. together these groups have received a minimum, like i said, it's secret money mostly, but they've received a minimum of $196 million from fossil fuel industry interests,

including the koch brothers, a.p.i., exxonmobil, and chevron. $196 million does a lot of talking, and this letter found its way to an eager audience in the trump administration which is stuffed with fossil fuel lobbyists and flunkies, so they gave the oil industry exactly what it wanted, a proposal to freeze the auto emission standards and to challenge california and other states like mine, our authority to set our own standards. what's strange about this is that this proposal isn't what the auto industry says it wanted. once the oil industry jumped into the fray, the auto industry let big oil take over or got shoved aside by big oil. big oil barged in and got exactly what it wanted. weakened standards that would allow it to sell -- hold your breath here -- up to $1

trillion in extra gasoline. for a mere expenditure of $196 million through these 12 phony front groups, they got to sell $1 trillion in extra gasoline. that's how you make big money by renting out the u.s. government. that, by the way, is $1 trillion that comes our consumers pockets and into big oil, so no wonder they're hiding behind front groups. in the press, unnamed auto industry lobbyists have complained that the proposed freeze isn't what they asked for. well, that is not good enough. auto industry executives need to step up and tell president trump and secretary chao and administrator wheeler that their oily proposal is not acceptable. this car rule saga that we have seen play out is a microcosm of the climate change problem that we face. the fossil fuel industry through

its armada of phony front groups fights to defend its own massive sales and massive, massive tax payer subsidies for its products. the i.m.f. estimated fossil fuel receives a $1 billion annual subsidy in the u.s. alone so it has every incentive to spend whatever it takes to control things in washington, like $196 million though these front groups -- to these front groups. meanwhile the rest of corporate america including car companies claiming to support reducing carbon pollution just don't show up. one side lobbies congress against climate action, the other side doesn't show up. one side spends tens of millions on attack ads who support climate action. the other side doesn't show up. the one side spends tens of

millions of dollars on phony front groups. the other side doesn't show up. the other side is predictable. money talks unfortunately around here and big money commands. things will change a the bit if the rest of corporate america would challenge fossil fuel industry money and influence to help our colleagues on the other side get something done on climate change. i'll close by pointing out that democracy and the free market are the twin pillars of our american example. what does it say for them as institutions when one industry, the fossil fuel industry, can simultaneously capture our democracy and pervert the free market with its massive subsidies? it is not a good story. america's strength hats always been our -- has always been our example. our inaction on climate change, one of the foremost challenges

of the world, sullies our american example. so for the good of our country, for the good of those institutions, for the good of our american example, it is time, mr. president, to wake up. with that, i -- with that, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president, i know of no further debate on this motion. on this nomination, excuse me. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, the question is on the nomination. mr. moran: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

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