now with the low yield treasury bonds? >> yes, sir. >> how much better? >> but zillions of dollars. >> we are all familiar with the investment strategy of federal government and social security investment strategy as that has been long debated and you give up risk for a price? that's a whole another discussion that you all have had for years. >> finally, mr. dejoy, you're a political appointee, holdover and no one knows. >> we leave this hearing here as the u.s. senate is about to dabble in. as part of our over 40 year commitment to bring you gavel to gavel coverage of congress. you can see the postal service hearing later on our website. coming up, the u.s. senate will begin debate on energy secretary nominee jennifer granholm. live to the floor of the 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. precious lord, you delight in those who have integrity. lord, your word describes integrity as always trying to maintain a clear conscience before you and everyone else. inspire our lawmakers to obey the voice of conscience, focusing on pleasing you by being true to duty.

lord, provide them with the determination to do what is right and leave the consequences to you. may they receive the smile of heaven's approval because of their striving to be faithful. help them to ignore the shouts from the shadows and focus on glorifying you. we pray in your great name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. 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 clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., february 24, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable john w. hickenlooper, a senator from the state of colorado, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, 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 proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of energy. jennifer mulhern granholm of michigan to be secretary.

mr. kennedy: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: thank you, mr. president. i want to talk for just a few minutes, mr. president, about the need to open our schools. i think you would agree with me, mr. president, because i followed your career with

admiration, by the way, that our country is only as good as its dreams, and we are only as valuable as our children. and, in my judgment, we are doing immeasurable damage in this country to our children. we all know that we had to close down our public schools and our parochial schools and our private schools pre-k to 12 because of the coronavirus. but i think most fair-minded americans understand that we need to open them. the future of this country is

education. it's not the level of the stock market. it's not the unemployment rate. it's not who the president is. it's education. and we know that. so why aren't we opening our public schools? when we know it's safe to do so. i'm very proud of our efforts in louisiana, mr. president. 70% of our public school students are back learning in person, 70%. and i want to thank every teacher, every parent, every school board member, every maintenance worker in our schools, anyone who directly or indirectly influenced this result. they're heroes, in my opinion.

73%. i'm 10 -- 70%, i'm so proud of that. i especially want to thank our teachers. ist been a volunteer public schoolteacher in louisiana for -- i don't know -- 20-plus years. i do it three times a year. and i'm a real substitute, none of this go for an hour and talk about how a bill becomes a law. i'm a real substitute. 6:45 to 3:00, do your lunch duty, do your bus duty, get worn out. so i have some appreciation of what if takes -- of what it takes to teach. but that 70% figure that i'm talking about the number of our public school children in louisiana that are back to in-person learning is only 40% nationwide. and that's an embarrassment. that's a disgrace. we are doing immeasurable

damage, immeasurable damage, to a generation of children. now, i don't need to tell you, mr. president, we've been struggling with elementary and secondary education for the last 40 or 50 years. and it's very frustrating. because americans can do extraordinary things. we can unravel the human genome. americans can take a diseased human heart and relays it with a new one and make it beat. americans can send a person to the moon and bring him back. or her back. but we struggle to teach our kids how to read and write and understand the meaning of their

diplomas when we have 18 years to do it. now, there are a lot of reasons for that. and i'm sure not blaming anybody. and i don't want to digress. but my point is, we were struggling before the coronavirus. that should tell us that now more than ever, given our circumstances before the coronavirus, we need to take meaningful steps to get these schools back open. we know that it is safe. the c.d.c. director under president trump has said it was safe. the c.d.c. director under president biden has said it is safe. vaccination across america is -- we started out a little rocky, not unlike our testing program, but it is getting much better. i read an article the other day

in "the wall street journal" written by johns hopkins researcher, physician, who said in his opinion about six or seven times more americans have had the coronavirus than we know of. therefore, they do have immunity. and he said coupled with the number of people who have had and survived coronavirus and our vaccine program, which is getting more aggressive every day, we could have a substantial reduction in the number of coronavirus cases by march and april. indeed, we've seen the decline in the number of our cases now, today, starting in -- from early january. they have declined dramatically. and people smarter than me have suggested it's our vaccines, it's the approach to herd immunity, and of course it's oue

developed in terms of social distancing and masking and good hygiene. but my point is that the experts, the science, all tell us that it is safe. and i have to tell you, -- i don't mean to be unfair, and i don't -- because i know it's complicated or can be, and i don't mean disrespect, but i have been very, very disappointed with president biden. he has flipped and flopped on this issue like a banked catfish. he has said we need to follow the science, but he refuses to follow the science in terms of opening our schools. we know it can be done because we're doing it in louisiana, we have done it. if you look nationwide at the number of private schools that are open, back with in-person education, the number of parochial schools, the number of catholic schools, they're doing it. why can't we do it in our public

schools? it's not money. through our first five coronavirus bills -- i'm not counting president biden's proposed bill. through our first five coronavirus bills, we have appropriated between $70 billion and $80 billion to our public schools to get them back open. our public schools have spent 58d, 58d out of $70 billion to -- they have spent $5 billion, out of $70 billion. i think it's $70 billion. it's not a matter of money. i'm not sure what it is. i don't want to be a cynic and say it's a matter of will. but here is what i am asking president biden to do. here is what i would do if i were king for a day. i'm not -- i don't aspire to be, but here is what i am hoping president biden will do this afternoon, is -- is call a press conference.

and look the american people in the eye. and look our school board members in the eye and our teachers and our parents and our maintenance workers and say we need to open up. if we really believe we're only as good as our dreams or we're only as valuable as our children, then we need to act like it. and i think president biden needs to call that press conference. he doesn't need to talk about the science, although that's important, or the politics, or nibble around the edges. he needs to look the american people in the eye and say by god, open the schools. open the schools. our kids deserve no less. there's not much i agree with former congressman and mayor rahm ee manual -- rahm emmanuel

on, even though i think he is a bright guy, but politically we approach the world differently, but he said when he was mayor kids drop out not in the 12th grade. they drop out in pre-k and kindergarten and first, second, third, and fourth grades. we're going to lose a whole generation of kids here. thank you, mr. president. i see i have some additional time. awaiting on -- waiting on senator schumer. i think i'm going to take my additional time. i will cut it short if senator schumer is here. to talk about another issue. i want to talk about the european union's approach to russia.

we know, mr. president, that in february, the russian government sentenced alexi navalny, a very prominent opposition leader to mr. putin to almost three years in prison. and shortly afterwards, mr. putin directed that thousands of mr. navalny's supporters who were protesting be arrested. what was he, what were his supporters arrested for? criticizing mr. putin. navalny's imprisonment comes in the wake of his near-fatal poisoning, about which we have all read. what happened to mr. navalny should be a wake-up call to our friends in europe. it's certainly a wake-up call to the american people. this isn't the first time that mr. putin has tried to get rid

of a dissident. unfortunately, it probably won't be the last. for years, russia has been making trouble, both at home and abroad. mr. putin has made trouble here in america, about which we all know. domestically, opponents of mr. putin have been arrested, they died in prison. in some cases, they have been murdered. we all know that. now, if this is how mr. putin is going to treat his own people, imagine how he would and has treated foreign countries, particularly our friends in europe. russia has launched an unjustified invasion of georgia. it still controls large parts of georgian territory. in 2014, mr. putin invaded ukraine. he illegally annexed crimea. he started a war in eastern ukraine. it cost about 14,000 lives.

but russia's aggression, mr. putin's aggression -- and let me say, i'm not impugning the people of russia. they are wonderful people. i admire them deeply. but their leadership, their political leadership is lacking. and mr. putin's aggression begs the question, if nato troops did not stand in the way, what else would russia do? who knows what would happen to poland and the baltic states and other countries that were once part of the soviet sphere. the "economist" puts it this way. i will quote. russia's gangsterism has become impossible to ignore. russia's gangsterism has become impossible to ignore. but our friends in europe seem to be doing a pretty good job of it. the navalny case shows that

criticizing the kremlin comes with a cost, but it's a cost that we and the european union can and must bear. because the price of appeasement is too high. and our european friends can do it, taken as a group. senator schumer knows this. the e.u.'s power surpasses russia's, by far. the e.u. is a bloc of 450 million people. its g.d.p. is nine times larger than russia. russia's economy is only slightly bigger than spain's, and it's smaller than the economy of italy. a lot of people don't realize this, but -- but russia -- i will concede them this. they have got nuclear weapons and good spies, but the economy of russia is smaller than the

economy of new york state. so why is europe so content to be bullied? i'm going to give you a quick case in point. josette burrell visited russia following navalny's imprisonment. mr. burrell is the e.u.'s top foreign affairs official. he allowed, stood there and allowed russian foreign minister navrov -- i know mr. navrov, perhaps you have met him, mr. president. i understand his personality. he doesn't exhaust himself trying to win friends. but mr. burrell, representing the e.u., its top foreign official in foreign affairs, stood there and allowed foreign minister navrov to push him around shamelessly. the russian foreign minister insulted the e.u., he called it

an unreliable partner while burrell stood there and said nothing. nothing. another example, mr. president. germany. germany is still supporting construction of the in nordstre2 pipeline, a pipeline that will make the e.u. even more reliant on oil and gas. this will make the e.u. even more vulnerable to russian influence because we know that a more dependent europe becomes -- the more europe becomes dependent on russian energy, the more reluctant it will be to defend itself against its neighbor's bullying. i don't want to beat this point to death. america is ready to do its part. we have imposed sanctions on mr. i support president biden's

attempt to -- to engage our friends in europe and our effort to try to convince china to become a stable part of the world order, but we shouldn't get to do the same thing with respect to mr. putin. mr. putin's aggression should teach us something. what you allow is what will continue. mr. president, i yield the floor to the distinguished senator from new york. mr. schumer: i thank my friend from louisiana for his erudite remarks, and much of which, at least the last part i heard, i agree with. now, mr. president, even as we continue to confirm president biden's nominees here on the floor, the senate democratic majority is busy working on the american rescue plan. the country has just suffered

from a once in a century event that shuttered thousands of businesses, sacked more than 10 million jobs, and according to c.b.o. left a $17 trillion hole in our economy. as the distribution of the vaccine finally begins to accelerate under the biden administration, there is certainly hope on the horizon, but we're a far way off from a full recovery, and it is our job, our job to help millions of americans, struggling americans through the next several months of difficulty, and hasten the day when our country can finally return to normal. the american rescue plan is designed to do just that. keep american families and businesses and schools and workers afloat until they can get back on their feet. and there is a broad consensus that our country needs more support to get through this crisis. mayors and governors from both parties support the plan. the republican governor of west virginia told congress we need

to go big. economists from across the political spectrum say that our economy needs further support. the chair of the federal reserve appointed by president trump just told us that, quote, the economic recovery remains uneven and far from complete, and the path ahead is highly uncertain. chairman powell, hardly a raving liberal, concluded there is a long way to go. and it has broad support in america. seven in ten americans approve of the american rescue plan in in -- and in some polls i have seen, a majority of republicans approve of this plan. republican voters, not republicans here in the senate. now, it's easy to see why there is such broad support. the covid pandemic is the worst public health crisis our nation has faced in 100 years, but our republican colleagues say all these groups demanding the $1.9 trillion american rescue

plan, business leaders, government officials from both parties, economists from across the spectrum, and seven in ten americans, republicans say all of them are wrong. according to a report in cnn, republican leaders are maneuvering to get every single republican member to oppose the emerging legislation, every single one. make no mistake, republicans oppose the american rescue plan, to the detriment of the country, and they do so at their own political peril. if our republican colleagues want to oppose direct checks to struggling families, food assistance to hungry americans, keeping teachers, firefighters, and essential public employees on the job, providing another round of support for small business, helping schools reopen as quickly and safely as possible, speeding vaccinations around the country, well, if congressional republicans want to oppose all that, my response

is good luck. the country needs this final push. it's overwhelmingly popular. the new analysis this morning showed another vaccine produced by a u.s. company is safe and effective which only underscores the need for federal dollars to accelerate its distribution. it will help millions of american families survive the ongoing crisis, recuperate from the economic hardship of the past year, and set our country on a firm path to recovery. that's why senate democrats have made it the first legislative item on our agenda. by stark contrast, the first action item taken by the republican senate majority when they got the majority in 2017 was an attempt to repeal our nation's health care law and rip health coverage away from millions of americans. republicans followed it up with a giant tax cut disproportionately aimed at big corporations and the uber rich. the democratic senate majority

is going to start on a much different note. this week the house and soon thereafter the senate will start working on president biden's american rescue plan to deliver desperately and urgently needed assistance to the american people. one final note on this topic, the minimum wage. as it has been reported widely, the senate parliamentarian is hearing arguments today on the $15 minimum wage policy included in the house version of the bill. according to the congressional budget office, raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour has a significant budgetary impact which should make it permissible under the senate's reconciliation rules. and i want to thank all the hardworking senate staffers, on my staff, senator sanders' staff and many others in participating in these arguments today. now on another matter, everyone knows our country and our economy faces daunting challenges beyond covid-19. and while our two parties don't

agree on a whole lot, both republicans and democrats know that one of the main challenges of the 21st century will be competing with and confronting china. the roots of this challenge go back decades. when i was first elected to the senate, visiting all corners of new york, i saw entire industries going under as a result of unfair chinese competition and the manipulation of the currency by china. for decades china has effectively cheated and stolen its way to economic growth, engaging in brazen theft of american intellectual property via cyber operations, the dumping of cheap goods in our economy and for awhile the pernicious manipulation of its currency. american workers, academics and businesses of all sizes have paid the price to the tune of millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of wealth. more recently china has a

directed its energy and mercantile policies towards beating the united states and like-minded countries to the poll position on all leading technologies in the 21st century. when i say china, i mean the chinese governmentened -- government and the chinese communist party. i've made no secret of america's failure to hold the chinese government accountable, and that has been a failure of both parties, both parties in the past. after another bout of tough talk, we're not much closer to reining in china's predatory behavior than we were four years ago. that is why yesterday i asked the chairs and members of our relevant senate committees to begin work on legislation to enable the united states to outcompete china and create american jobs. at the core of this effort will be the endless frontier act. this is bipartisan legislation that senator young and i have

sponsored, have drafted together over a year ago that would surge resources into the national science foundation and the department of commerce to advance american innovation in a number of critical technologies. we must also consider significant investments, even through emergency appropriations, to rebuild the capacity of the u.s. semicon semiconductor industry, a bipartisan effort that senators cot ton and warren joined to replace the original legislation in the defense bill. right now semicongress -- semiconducting legislation is a dangerous weak spot. this is a technology the united states created. we ought to be leading the world in. the same goes for building out 5g, the next generation telecommunications network.

there is bipartisan interest on both these issues. overall, the new legislation must achieve three goals. one, boost american competitiveness by investing in our economy and our workers. two, leverage our alliances abroad. and, three, stop once and for all china's predatory practices. a number of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have strong bipartisan ideas, ideas on these issues, including senators menendez and risch, brown and toomey, cantwell and wicker. i hope we can work together to craft a bill that meets that moment. it is my intention to put this legislation on this topic on the senate floor for a vote this spring, and i urge the committees to continue their work in a bipartisan way so we can have strong legislation before us. it so happens that today at the other end of pennsylvania

avenue, significant work will be done on the same issues. president biden has invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the white house to discuss concerns with the u.s. supply chain, particularly the semiconductor short and will sign an executive order aimed at plugging the holes. i applaud both the meeting and the executive order. the new administration is taking a strong first step in shoring up america's critical supply chains and putting a spotlight on america's competitiveness. finally, mr. president, i want to commend the rules committee and the homeland security committee yesterday for holding an important hearing examining the attack on january 6, the horrible, horrible attack. it was the first of what will be many examinations of the events on january 6 and how we can prevent such an attack from ever happening again. the hearing revealed several security and communication failures that must be addressed going forward and followed up on

in future investigations. regrettably, the hearing also revealed that there are still members of the senate republican minority who are willing to continue the campaign of misinformation, deception, and conspiracy that helped fuel the attack on january 6 in the first place. so let me be very clear, blaming the january 6 attack on provocateurs and fake trump protesters is mindless garbage. it has no basis in fast-track. perpetuating and giving a platform to those lies is a preposterous contribution to a senate hearing devoted to capitol security. everyone, everyone needs to move forward by sticking to the facts and engaging in a very serious discussion about the security of the capitol complex. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: yesterday i discussed the k-12 crisis facing american families. the science shows that in-person schooling can easily be made safe. private and religious schools and schools in europe have been open for months, but washington democrats have brought, have apparently bought into big labor's myth that schools cannot reopen without even more federal funding, even though their own plan would only spend about 5%, 5% of the money this fiscal year. this is just one illustration of how democrats started with

preconceived ideological goals and actually worked backwards. instead of starting with the actual needs of american families. let's take a look at the economy. when we had to stall our economy to protect our health system, the senate wrote the bipartisan cares act, the biggest rescue package in american history. it spent $2.2 trillion to save the health care system, find vaccines, and support families. and we refilled many of those programs with another $920 billion just last december. today we stand at a very different kind of crossroads. more than 13% of americans have received at least one dose of a vaccine. manufacturers expect vaccine supply to keep ramping up dramatically in the weeks ahead. the trillions we spent on rescue policies in 2020 have the

economy prepped to come roaring back as health conditions keep improving. unemployment today is already lower than where at one point in this crisis the federal reserve predicted it would be by the end of the year. in some blue collar sectors total employment is higher than before the pandemic. retail sales smashed experts ' predictions. many manufacturers can't keep pace with demand. remarkably, even as economic output obviously shrunk in 2020, overall household personal income and personal savings actually went up. that's because of the relief congress delivered. there's no question that some american families are still struggling. nobody thinks our health or economic fight is finished yet.

but on a broad national scale, households are sitting on an historic pile of pentup cash, waiting for the economy to reopen. the former head of president obama's head of economic advisors says, quote, we have no historic parallel with anything like this level of excess savings -- savings. he says, we've never seen this much dry powder. even mainstream liberal economists believe that our country does not need another massive fire hose of borrowed money. this is not april of 2020. this is a different chapter. washington should focus on practical policies to finish the fight, accelerate vaccinations a, get kids back in school, help the families and small businesses that actually need help, and get laid-off americans matched with job openings asap.

unfortunately, the democrats' partisan proposal would not just be wasteful but in certain ways actually counterproductive. it would have washington go out of our with a i to discourage hiring -- go out of our way to discourage hiring, discourage a return to work and actual lay keep things shut down longer. take the minimum wage policy. the c.b.o. says this abrupt one-size-fits-all change would kill about one and a half times as many jobs as the number of workers it would lift out of poverty. or take their proposal for another long-term extension of a big federal supplement to unemployment benefits. even in the middle of last year it was questionable policy to pay people more to stay home than essential workers were earning while actually on the job. now, another long-term flat supplement would make that --

make even less sense. here's how one leading economist puts it -- in an expanding economy that is putting the virus behind it, paying people more in unemployment than they could receive from working is an act of substantial economic self-harm. it would keep workers on the sidelines, stop the unemployment rate from falling as rapidly as it would otherwise, and slow the overall recovery -- end quote. then there's the $350 billion bailout for state and local government oz, many of whom have already seen revenues and receipts rebound. it's several multiples of any sober estimate of the actual need. apparently even senators on the democratic side are trying to pare back this absurd request. just one more way this proposal seems to be stuck back in april

of last year. i haven't even talked about the hundreds of millions of dollars for pet projects without a shred of relevance to the pandemic or the recovery. money for, quote, climate justice, end quote? transportation earmarks for the democratic leader's home state? all kinds of liberal wish list items that would do nothing to help american families put covid behind them. just about one percent of the money is for vaccines. so either the new administration has completely taken their eye off the ball or they were not actually starting from scratch at all, like they claimed. only 5% of the education funding would even go out this fiscal year. five percent of the education funding would go out this fiscal year. our own senate democratic colleagues are reportedly admitting parts of this are poorly targeted.

liberal economists on "the washington post" editorial board are saying americans deserve more bang for their buck. a predictably chilly reception for a bill that started with an outdated ideological wish list instead of the current needs of american families. now, on a completely different matter, i have spoken -- i've been outspoken and clear about the crimes that were committed here on january 6. in my discussions with judge garland, the president's nominee to be attorney general, i specifically raised the need to continue investigating and prosecuting anyone who broke the law that day. i'm glad he's repeatedly emphasized this would remain a priority. everyone agrees that today's events must occasion a serious review of the specific institutions and security procedures within congress that proved so insufficient.

that process is already under way. as we saw with the joint hearing conducted yesterday by two senate committees. the speaker of the house proposes even more investigation through a new commission. she cites the precedent of the 9/11 commission. but her draft bill fails to track with that precedent in key ways. the 9/11 commission was intentionally built to be bipartisan. the 50-50 bipartisan split of the commissioners was a key feature. it both helped the effectiveness of the investigation itself and helped give the whole country confidence in its work and its recommendations. this time, however, speaker pelosi started by proposing a commission that would be partisan by design. seven appointments for democrats, just four for republicans.

the 9/11 commission also built consensus by requiring bipartisan support for subpoenas. the speaker's bill would vest subpoena power in one appointee chosen by the democrats. both the democrat and republican leaders of the 9/11 commission are speaking out against this bizarre partisan concept. let me say that again. the leaders of the 9/11 commission -- one republican, one democrat -- are speaking out against the way this proposal is crafted by the speaker. lee hamilton, the democrat vice chairman of the 9/11 commission, says, quote, that does not sound to me like a good start. it sounds like a partisan beginning. that was the democratic chairman of the 9/11 commission. tom kaine, the republican chairman pointed out what should be obvious. unless you have equal representation, the report won't

have as much confidence from the american people h it needs a to be fair and needs to be evenhanded. that really shouldn't be controversial, and it goes beyond just the makeup of the panel. for example, the speaker's proposal imagines something more than just an investigation into specific security failures that occurred here at the capitol. it sets the stage for a somewhat broader inquiry into domestic violent extremism beyond just that day. but the partisan panel wouldn't get to decide which other incidents are and are not relevant. rioting and political violence are abhorrent and unacceptable no matter what the cause. these are not forms of political speech. for almost a year now we've seen political violence and riots become an increasingly normalized phenomenon across our

national life. none of us should accept that. january 6 was uniquely grave because the intent was to interrupt a constitutional duty of congress, but if this new commission is to go beyond a targeted after-action analysis of the security failures here at the capitol complex, if congress is going to attempt some broader analysis of toxic political violence across the country, then in that case we cannot have artificial cherry-picking of which terrible behavior does and which terrible behavior does not deserve scrutiny. we could do something narrow that looks at the capitol or we could potentially do something broader to analyze the full scope of political violence here in our country. we cannot land at some artificial politicized halfway point. don't take it from me. take it from the democratic and

republican leaders of the 9/11 commission. an inquiry with a hard-wired partisan slant would never be legitimate in the eyes of the american people. an undertaking that is uneven or unjust would not help our country. mr. durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the assistant majority leader. mr. durbin: last week i was home, as most members of the senate were, but i was asked to participate in a zoom call with two people i highly respect, dr. anthony fauci and dr. collins with the national

institutes of health. sitting at my dining room table in springfield, illinois, there were about a dozen of senators who had the access to zoom to be part of that conversation. i felt like i was privileged to really hear some information which most americans wanted to hear, and i knew it had to be important for them to ask for the briefing in the middle of the week. what they were talking about during the course of that hour was variants. what's happening to this coronavirus as it replicates over and over and over again millions of times. and what they told us -- and i'm a liberal arts lawyer, so i don't profess any special medical expertise here. what they told us was there were dominant variants that were starting to emerge, and they told us the shorthand description that they used in the laboratories. i just remember the first one was the u.k. -- united kingdom

variant. they said by the end of march, that's not that far away -- four weeks-plus -- by the end of march, it will be the dominant strange of coronavirus in the united states. i was taken aback by that to think that a variant could become that dominant that quickly. but it was fair warning that that is about to occur. and then they talked about the south african variant, which is just starting to appear. the good news is they've done enough testing to believe that the major vaccines we are now using across america -- moderna and pfizer -- both of them are effective against the u.k., united kingdom variant. the jury is still out when it comes to the south african variant. and there is a third variant, and i won't venture into trying to remember exactly what that was about. but i remember it had some

origin in south america. i heard that news, and i thought to myself, this is an ongoing battle. we haven't run up any kind of score against this coronavirus. we can't sit back and relax. we're in a very busy third quarter trying to vaccinate america and watching for each and every new threat. so in that circumstance, if you were president of the united states, what is would you do? -- what would you do? well, joe biden -- president joe biden -- said toed that we needed to be aggressive. we needed to face reality, not only the half million americans that have died, but we need to put together the tools to fight this coronavirus as we know it and as it is likely to evolve. he needs an army to do that. it's that big a war. and he came to us with a

proposal to start that effort in a substantial way under his leadership. he calls it the american rescue plan. and i hear my colleagues come to the floor and really raise the question as to whether this is needed. i just heard the speech. minority leader, senator mcconnell. but what president biden wants to do to deal with this pandemic as we know it and as it is likely to evolve is to provide $20 billion for a vaccination program. does anyone doubt the need for that? i don't. i think it's the key to getting america back into business. $50 billion for testing, lab capacity improvements, and genomic sequencing of this virus mutation. again, i am not an expert in science, but it seems perfectly reasonable to me after listening to dr. fauci and collins to make that investment right now.

he wants to invest -- president biden asked to invest in 100,000 community health workers to help with the vaccinations and contact tracing. 100,000. it seems like a lot in a nation of 350 million, i'm not sure it's that overwhelming a number. fund the community health centers so that they will be able to tackle this issue and particularly address the issue of health disparities. use the defense production act and provide $10 billion for america's manufacturer of the key equipment we need to fight this pandemic and the next one, god forbid, whenever it may be. to expand health care coverage for americans in this time of the pandemic by subsidizing cobra coverage. what does it mean? you had health insurance with your job. you lost your job, you lost your health insurance. we allow people to buy that health insurance that they are

employer offered, but this he have to pay for the whole -- but they have to pay for the whole ride, both the employer and employee side of it. and it turns out to be prohibitive. it doesn't work unless we give a subsidy for that coverage to be extended into your unemployment situation. and then $4 billion, which sounds small when we're talking of trillions, but $4 billion for community health -- pardon me. behavioral health and addiction services and counseling services. i learned the hard way over that break as well that we are ignoring the opiate crisis in america that is not ignoring us. it is dramatically increasing, primarily because we are not devoting the resources to it, and the mental health situation of many americans is aggravated by isolation and social distancing, and addiction is even worse. so i have just described for you the health side of president

biden's american rescue plan. i'd like to hear any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle argue with me. i'm ready to take them on, that that is not needed. of course it's needed. it's needed now, and it needs to be an investment we make because if we don't break the back of this pandemic, we're not going to get this economy reopened again, we're not going to get our kids back in school, we're not going to get to see our grandkids the way we want to, our children or grandkids, and we're not going to see america return to what we all desperately want it to return to. the reason i raise that this morning is because i heard the senator from kentucky raising skeptical observations about this plan, i thought back. it was a year ago, it was a year ago on the floor of the senate, nothing short of a political miracle, that the first cares act under president donald trump, the first cares act passed this senate with an overwhelming vote of 96-0.

that doesn't happen much around here, even more resolutions on motherhood. but 96-0 bipartisan support for a relief bill proposed by president trump and the congress in march of last year. it was a good feeling. and we knew we had to do it. we were in it together, and we knew we had a challenge. then came last december, just a few weeks back, and again under the trump administration, a proposal for a $900 billion relief bill for covid-19. it passed the senate with 92 votes. 92 out of 100 senators. it just showed the bipartisanship that we mustered, thank goodness, when we needed it because the nation needed it, and we did it together. 96 in march, 92 senators in december. we stood behind that plan, even

though it had the blessing of a president of a different party at a controversial moment in history, we stood behind it because the american people needed it. now comes president joe biden, five or six weeks into his presidency, and says let me take my leadership opportunity and responsibility seriously and let me come with a $1.9 trillion american rescue plan. where is the bipartisanship that we saw last year? and i do want to dispute the conclusion of senator mcconnell when it comes to the state of the economy. i did take a few economics courses. i don't profess to be an expert. let's listen to someone who is. federal reserve chairman jerome powell, testifying on capitol hill. what did he have to say? well, he told us that we're in a situation that is far from over. we have an economy that's still challenging. here are some things that were left out of the rosy analysis by

the senator from kentucky. there are still 10 million more unemployed people than before the pandemic began. 10 million unemployed american workers. while many parts of the economy have recovered, chairman powell said, the unemployment rate for the lowest paid quarter of the labor force is probably above 20%. above 20%. there is a long way to go, chairman powell said. economic activity rebounded in the summer after much of the economy reopened from spring shutdowns, but that momentum slowed substantially, in the words of chairman powell, with sectors that rely on person-to-person contact like hospitality, entertainment, enduring the worst blows. that burden is also -- has also largely fallen on low-wage workers, black and hispanic americans and other minority groups, powell said.

i don't believe we're out of the woods yet. i belief we've got a long way to go. the american people believe that, too. and president biden believes it. and when he starts talking about getting us back on our feet, he is suggesting extending unemployment insurance programs that expire in just two weeks. march 14, unemployment programs will start to expire, and he wants us to move quickly to make sure that doesn't happen. and i support that. for two reasons. first, it is humane. we are talking about fellow americans out of work through no choice of their own. and secondly, putting money into unemployment benefits for unemployed workers is the single best investment when it comes to revitalizing the economy. they do not turn to the "wall street journal" when they receive those checks. they turn to the mailbox and try to figure out how they're going

to pay the rent and pay for the food on the table. they spend the money. that's what unemployment is all about. and so to have the other side question president biden's proposal to give unemployment benefits beyond march 14 really says that they're turning their backs on millions of americans who have no place else to go. oh, there is a fear on the other side we just may be paying people too much, you know. if you give them a little too much money in unemployment, they just might sit home and binge on netflix and chocolate covered cherries. well, i suppose that's always going to happen, no matter how you write the laws, but i think a lot more of the american workers. i believe they want to get back to work anywhere near the salaries that they left behind. and i think they are desperately looking for those opportunities, and we ought to help them in the meantime keep their families together. emergency paid leave is still an absolute necessity in light of this coronavirus and the way it deals with this, and i want to

also make a plea here for the minimum wage. i know there is some controversy associated with it. mr. president, you're -- glad to have you. you're new to the senate. back at that desk there, a fellow named ted kennedy used to stand. i used to love to come to the floor when senator ted kennedy of massachusetts would give his speeches. when he got into it, he was amazing. his booming voice could be heard all over the senate chamber, and i never heard him more energized than when he argued for increasing the minimum wage. and oftentimes, he was a lonely voice. there were no proposals before us and none likely to appear, but he never failed to come to this floor and remind us on a regular basis of how we have failed year after year after year to increase the minimum wage. and he would tell the story of people in america getting up and going to work every single day, sometimes two jobs a day, to try

to keep their families together, and still qualify for food stamps and assistance from our government. and he would ask us when we were going to give them the dignity of passing an increase in the minimum wage. i can still hear him thundering across the chamber. you wouldn't want to be in a place if he was arguing a different position than the one you held because he took it over. i don't have that skill. i wish i did. i'm glad to have seen him use that skill so effectively to help people who are just doing their best to get by and struggling. how many times do all of us give speeches about inequality in america and why we have got to do better for the working people? we do it all the time. and everybody knows it's a fact. wages in america, salaries have not kept up. people at the top have gone quite well, thank you, but those at the bottom have struggled to get by. try to make it on $7.25 an hour. i was trying to do a calculation

earlier just what that was. is that $14,000 a year? is that $1,200 a month? is that $300 a week? could you make it $300 a week? i'm talking about everything now. i'm talking about rent and mortgage and car payment, food, utilities, the basics. i couldn't. i don't know how anyone can. and most can't. they fall deeply into debt and into despair. so when president biden talks about us reopening the conversation about our federal minimum wage, it is long overdue. long overdue. and i am -- it's an easier issue for me than some because our governor, j.b. pritzker when he took over in the state of illinois, set us on course to reach $15 an hour as a state. over the same period of time that joe biden has suggested, by 2025. i just want to say that those people that are really struggling with the notion of

increasing the minimum wage, in all fairness really ought to think about the people out there who are struggling to get by week to week and month to month. there's another proposal that's in this bill that is currently being debated, and it's the $1,400 addition to the cash payment for many families. i put it in the same category. in order to restore equity and opportunity to a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't have it. this is the second installment, the first was $600 in the bill we passed last december. this $1,400 payment will help many families. i want to add one element, too, that was debated a few weeks ago. and senator todd young of indiana, whom i respect and who is a friend, had offered an amendment in what was known as a vote-a-rama as to who would qualify among children who would receive this $600 child's payment. i think the payment amount has

been increased in the latest biden proposal. but the point i tried to make, and i think he and i agree on, although i won't speak for him, is that if a child legally in america, a citizen of this country, with a social security number lives in a household with parents who are undocumented, they may be working and paying taxes with something called an i-10, but that child should not be discriminated against or at a disadvantage because of the parents' immigration status. if the children qualify, the children should be receiving those payments. i believe the house bill, reconciliation bill does that, and i hope that any measure we consider will do the same. so let me close. i see a senator on the floor who is asking for an opportunity to speak. yes, i support the american rescue plan. is it possible that i would have written it different? yes. are there provisions i would change? yes. but i want to tell you when we passed the cares act and the

measure last december, that was true as well. we are at a time of a national challenge and a national crisis. we have a president who is facing it squarely, taking it on, accepting responsibility, and asking for our help. can we do anything less? mr. president, i yield the floor, suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted.

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: mr. president, earlier this month, 16 democrat senators introduced a resolution calling for president biden to forgive $50,000 of federal

student loan debt per borrower. $50,000. mr. president, there's no question that student loan debt is a problem for many americans. college costs have risen to unrealistically high levels, and many students or their parents take out unrealistic amounts of debt in response. but the answer to this problem is not to have the president or congress simply step in and forgive a large chunk of student loan debt. to start with, the democrats' plan is incredibly fundamentally unfair. right now, there are individuals around this country who have just paid off the last of their student loans. they have been working hard, making payments, sometimes for a couple of years, sometimes for a couple of decades, as was the case with me. what happens to these individuals if the president steps in and forgives $50,000 of student debt?

well, i'll tell you what happens. nothing. these individuals who have worked hard for years to pay off their debt will see no benefit from the democrats' blanket loan forgiveness. meanwhile, other americans who have made no more than a month or two of payments will see their student loans entirely disappear. that is incredibly unfair. in addition to being unfair, forgiving student loan debt does absolutely nothing to address the problems that created this debt crisis in the first place. in fact, democrats' solution is likely to make things worse. what possible incentive will students have to take a responsible approach to borrowing if they think the federal government will step in and solve their debt problem? what incentive will colleges have to restrain tuition growth if they think they can rely on the federal government to subsidize their students' tuition fees through loan

forgiveness? forgiving $50,000 in student loans would also set a terrible precedent on the sanctity of contracts. while it may sometimes be ill advised students freely enter the agreement they made when they take out a loan. should we be teaching that agreements and contracts mean nothing, that people can incur debt and then not have to pay it off? and about that not paying it off, mr. president, the phrase student loan forgiveness carries with it a suggestion that these debts will just disappear, that $50,000 can be wiped off each american's slate and vanish into the ether. but of course we know that's not the case either. this is money students have borrowed from the federal government, and if the government doesn't get that money back, the government will be facing an unexpected debt. now some people, especially some democrats, tend to talk as

if government draws on an unlimited pot of money, but of course we know that's not true. government funds aren't anywhere close to being unlimited, and government coffers aren't filled from a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. they're filled by taxpayer dollars. and sooner or later it will be taxpayers who foot the bill for any loan forgiveness program, including the many taxpayers who opted not to attend college or chose a debt-freeway of doing so. there are a lot of americans, mr. president, out there who saved up to get a degree or went part time to avoid incurring debt. are they really supposed to foot the bill for other americans' student loans? mr. president, while you might think that democrats' plan is largely targeted at low-income or disadvantaged individuals, that's not actually the case. under the democrats' plan, an american making $20,000 and an

american making $120,000 would receive the same loan relief. in fact, since more loan dollars are held by those in higher income brackets, higher-income americans could end up benefiting the most. and that brings up another thing that we need to remember. yes, a number of americans carry a significant amount of student loan debt, but some of those americans have incurred that debt for a career that will bring significant financial rewards. plus a substantial portion of student loan debt is not for undergraduate degrees, but for graduate and professional degrees. under the democrat proposal taxpayers could be subsidizing not just bachelor's degrees but ph.d.'s as well as law and medical degrees. mr. president, instead of putting taxpayers on the hook for billions, we should be focused on exploring ways to

drive down education costs and educate students on the dangers of taking on excessive debt. we should also be highlighting affordable education options like our nation's community, technical colleges. these colleges, like the outstanding institutions we have in south dakota, provide students with associates' degrees, certificates, apprenticeships, opportunities to learn a trade, and more. there are also things we can do to help students pay off loans without putting taxpayers on the hook for such massive amounts of money. in december, congress passed a five-year version of legislation that i introduced with senator warner to allow employers to help employees repay their loans. our employer participation and repayment act amends the educational assistance program to permit employers to make tax-free payments on their employee student loans. previously employers could make tax free contributions to their

employers tuition if the employees were taking classes but couldn't make contributions to help employees with education debts they had already incurred. our bill allows them to make tax-free contributions with employees already existing student loan debt. that is a win-win situation. it's a win for employees who get help paying off their student loans, and it's a win for employers who have a new option for attracting and retaining talented workers. mr. president, our bill is not a silver bullet, but it will certainly help ease the pain of paying back student loans for a number of americans. i'm pleased that it was enacted into law for a five-year period, and i hope congress will act to make it permanent. another big thing that we can do is make sure that graduates have access to good-paying jobs. this is key to enabling people to pay off their debt, and we should resolve to build on the economic progress that we had

made pre-pandemic and focus on policies that will allow our economy to grow and to thrive. mr. president, high college costs and student debt are a problem, but blanket loan forgiveness is not the answer. i hope that president biden will resist democrat calls to put taxpayers on the hook for literally billions and billions of dollars in student loans. mr. president, i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: i ask permission that the quorum call be rescinded. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, in recent days the biden administration has backed away from its original goal to reopen most schools within the first 100 days. this comes despite new centers for disease control and prevention research recommending that schools can safely reopen in-person instruction. arkansas schools reopened their doors in august 2020. currently the arkansas department of education reports that 67% of k-12 are attending school in person full time. almost 13% have a hybrid

schedule. and 20% are entirely remote. natural state school districts invested in cleaning spliez, barriers, retrofitted classrooms. educators thought creatively and found solutions to these new problems. and although every school and community has different challenges, they moved ahead with the same goal -- finding the best and the safest way to get and keep children and teachers in the classroom. i had the opportunity to visit several school districts last fall. i was so is impressed with their daily efforts to keep their doors open, keep their staff healthy and provide the learning children desperately need. these heroes need our support. over the course of this past year congress has delivered $113 billion and over $686 million to arkansas to support education through the covid-19 pandemic,

including nearly $68 billion to help bring k-12 students back into the classroom. that money is already hard at work. however, much of it remains to be spent. parents can see that virtual learning simply isn't working. if you need more evidence of the unbalanced impact of 100% virtual learning, a study by the rand corporation in the fall of 2020 highlighted tremendous areas of concern. researchers surveyed educators across the country and concluded that state and federal governments needed to prioritize making schools safe to be -- safe to attend. one particularly shocking result of the survey found that principals at america's highest poverty schools reported only 80% of their students had adequate internet access at home. when schools are virtual, we are knowingly failing 20% of

those students without even getting to the question of how effective the instruction is or addressing the negative effects on students' social needs and development. this crisis in education also means families are falling behind. women in particular are shouldering an incredible burden during this pandemic. in february 2020, women held the majority of non-farm payroll jobs. they outnumbered men in the workforce for the first time in american history. today the number of women in the workforce is at a 33-year low. much of this is attributed to the outsized role women are playing in balancing their families' financial, education, and care-giving needs. of all the challenges we face through the covid-19 pandemic, the mission of educating children continues to be one of the most critical and complex. it's been rewarding to see

educators receive their much-needed covid vaccine. these heroes are essential to our recovery. arkansas is setting the example. the natural state can be proud of the teachers, the administrators, and elected leaders who continue to find ways to keep schools open and provide critical services children deserve. it's time that students in other states have the same opportunities. and with that, mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

mr. blunt: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: mr. president, i move we suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blunt: mr. president, a year ago schools began to close due to the coronavirus, teachers quickly scrambled to find out how to teach students who weren't there, they set up the

intelligent, parents set up activities to keep their children activated. it didn't take long to figure out that kids at home are different than kids at school. an even before that, many parents had to start accommodating their schedule to try to figure out how to deal with the new and unanticipated schedule. congress stepped up on multiple occasionings we -- occasions we passed emergency legislation to get money to schools, to clean classrooms, to buy laptops for students, to do anything else that schools might need at the elementary and secondary level. what started as what i believe everybody thought was a stopgap certainly no longer until the weather got hot in the summertime as we finished up the last school year has become in

many place as permanent full-time now where students for a year have not been in school. that's despite a lot of widespread consensus that both scientists and medical experts think kids can be back in the classroom. science on studying appeared learning when schools are closed, students suffer. there's been a lot of studies that show prolonged, remote learning puts kids at higher risk for falling behind, for failing classes, for suffering from mental health problems and in many cases deciding not to show up. the one thing about virtual is it's pretty easy to not virtually be there as well. the risk on all of those areas of mental health problems, falling behind, failing grades,

even greater for students with disabilities or more minorities or people who live in generally underserved areas. a study by mckenzie looked at the toll prolonged remote learning has taken on students. it estimated that when it comes to mathematics, students, on average, are likely to lose five to nine months of learning by the end of this school year. said students of color, this is according to mckenzie, could be six to 12 months behind. think about that. one year of remote learning could leave students one year behind where they should be in math if you look at these expert studies. in addition to the academic damage, remote learning has led to an increase in mental health challenges facing students. a report by the centers for disease control and prevention found that mental health problems accounted for a growing proportion of student visits to

hospital emergency rooms, visits are up 31% for kids between ages 12 and 17 and 24% for kids between ages five and 11. and according to the c.d.c., many of those visits had based on a mental health challenge than some other kind of health challenge. the reason to keep kids at home are significant, what's worse, they are unnecessary by the growing number of people who are looking at this. dr. lawenski, who is the head of c.d.c., recently appointed by president biden, she began there on february 21, this is a quote from her, increasing data that schools can safely reopen. that ends the quote, but she went on it say even if teachers

aren't vaccinated for the virus. dr. fauci echoed that point. he said i would back the c.d.c. recommendations because what they are really based on is data. we need to try and get the children back to school. that ends dr. fauci's quote. he went on a step further by saying it's not even workable to wait for every teacher to be vaccinated before schools reopen. if you think about that, if every teacher had their first vaccine today and the double vaccine while we're still in, it would be the end of march before every teacher had their second vaccine and you're so far down the line before you know it that school -- the school might not be able to reopen in that circumstance. dr. david rosen, a professor of pediatric infectious decideses at a university in washington said there is no situation in

which schools can't be open unless they have evidence of in-school transmission. the biden white house actually immediately said they didn't agree with the experts on this, even the ones in their own administration. the president's press secretary said that dr. wolenski was speaking in her personal capacity when she said you can go back to school even if teachers weren't vaccinated even though she was speaking at an official coronavirus briefing. how she speaks in her personal capacity as an official white house briefing on this topic, i don't know, but that's what happened. the white house just keeps repeating these points that teachers should be a priority for vaccination. i don't have a problem with that. i think that would be a great

thing. it would make teachers more comfortable, it might make parents more comfortable. in fact, when we were debating the budget resolution just a couple of weeks ago, i offered an amendment that would have incentivized school districts to get students back to school after teachers had been vaccinated. that is more stringent than the president himself has said, more stringent than the c.d.c. has said, but my amendment was blocked on a party-line vote. every single member of our friends on the other side voted against an amendment that would say that we should incentivize financially getting students back to school when teachers have been vaccinated. a couple of my friends on the other said walked up and said, we need to work with this language a little bit because all of us who have kids know how important it is that we get our kids back to school. democrats say we need emergency legislation to help the schools.

i've been part of five bills that did that and we provided $67.5 billion for k-12 schools to reopen safely. so far states have spent just under $7 billion of that $67 billion. so clearly money is not the obstacle to getting back to school. the new plan would give an additional $128.6 billion for schools according to the c.b.o. and, again, only 5% of that money would be spent by the end of this fiscal year, only $6.5 billion, the rest of the money would be available over the next seven years. hopefully that money is not money that's designed to get kids back to school. we don't need to be waiting seven years to get kids back to school. schools -- if they need money right now, they, first of all,

should spend the money that congress has already provided. there's no reason to have over $60 billion still waiting to be spent if that's what it takes to get kids back to school. this probably isn't about funding. it's really a discussion about whether the schools should reopen and what else do we need to do with money that might be available right now because of this coronavirus legislation. we need to be sure we get back to school. our goal should not be to keep the schools closed. if it is, why are we providing all of this extra money so that schools can reopen even though it will be a long time before that is spent. i started out my career after college as a high school history teacher and then later i was a university president. i know the challenges educators face every day and the

well-meaning policy experts miss what is needed in the classroom. i know that teachers are used to big challenges. they see them every day. they meet them every day, they do their best every day to overcome the challenges in front of them. teachers want to help kids learn and they don't know what to do when they don't be -- they can't have the contact they need to have with the kids. they know that kids won't be doing as well as they need to do and more cases than not until they are back to school. in a recent axious poll, teachers said they would return back to school and are ready to do that. it's really time for a commonsense appraisal of what needs to be done to get kids back in school. this should not be something that we wait until next fall to do. it is something that needs to

happen right now. the c.d.c. guidelines are helpful but they need to be more flexible the we need to constantly look at all the data as people are working hard to get kids back to school, we need to be sure that we understand where that's working, why that's working, how that's working, and we're getting that information out to school districts all over america. it is time to go back to school. and i would yield the floor.

ms. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. ms. ernst: okay. thank you, mr. president. mr. president, the experts, the health officials and the data have made it clear, we can and we should safely reopen our schools. the parents, students, and even

some teachers are asking the question, why have we failed to do that? there's a pretty simple answer. politicians are putting political interests ahead of the livelihoods of our kids and of our families. according to the science presented by the centers of disease control and prevention, c.d.c., schools can dust off their books and safely open up classrooms to students with commonsense precautions. transmission of covid among students is relatively rare and classrooms have not been a significant source of community transmission, according to the c.d.c. furthermore, the c.d.c. says, quote, it is possible for communities to reduce the

incidents of covid-19 while keeping schools open for in-person instruction. end quote. so, mr. president, what is the holdup? despite his c.d.c.'s own advice, president biden's administration continues to play games to ig nor the science and to send mixed messages to the american people. their lack of clarity and their reluctance to get students back in the classroom is a detriment to our children, our working families, and our economy. just recently, president biden's own c.d.c. director stated that the vaccination of teachers is not, not a prerequisite for safe reopening of schools.

and that there is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely reopen. but shortly after her statement, the white house press secretary moved the goalpost once again claiming that the biden administration's aim is to have more than 50% of the schools offer some teaching in person, quote, at least one, one day a week. end quote. by the 100th day of joe biden's presidency. one day a week, folks. yes, you heard it right. have kids in school only one day per week and no sooner than the end of april. just days after this, after coming under immense pressure

from the american people, including folks on the left, the president moved the goalposts again and threw his communications staff under the bus, a school bus, for the one-day-a-week goal. folks, our young estrogen ration is -- our youngest generation is falling behind. virtual learning does not give them the attention they need to be successful. and the isolation it creates has had an enormous impact on their mental health. but it's not just impacting our kids. the closure of schools and child care centers has disproportionately impacted women, most notably our moms. analysis from the national women's law center found that

275,000 women left the workforce in january alone, with many staying home to care take their kids and often becoming their de facto teachers and tutors. women across the country make enormous strides in all fields of service, and our moms shouldn't be forced to put their careers on hold because our schools at the direction of this administration are failing to do their jobs. in iowa because of governor reynolds bold leadership, many of our kids have safely been back at school since august. the iowa general assembly passed and the governor signed legislation to require safe in-person learning in our

state's public school system. now, the rest of the country needs to follow iowa's lead and get our kids safely back in the classroom. at the federal level, i'm helping lead an effort that would require schools to offer a safe in-person learning option to students by april 30, 2021. mr. president, it's increasingly clear the biden administration, one that prides itself in following the science, is actually more loyal to left-wing special interests than the well-being of our kids. science, not special interests, should be guiding these decisions. and that means washington should not be locking students out of the classroom. this type of meddling is precisely why i have always been

leery of the overinvolvement of the federal government in education. so to get our bureaucrats and special interests out of the way and to put students first, i'm helping lead that effort to require schools to offer safe in-person learning to our students by april 30 of 2021. to guide us through this pandemic, i suggest we follow these revised and updated three r's of education. first, respect the science. second, reopen our schools safely. and third, return students, teachers, and learning to the classroom. it is long past time schools across the country follow the science and the data. let's do the right thing by safely getting our kids back in

the classroom and help get our parents back to work. the well-being of our children, our working moms and dads, and our nation's economy depend on it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. i want to thank my colleague from the great state of iowa for bringing forth her three r's. i think they are very succinct and they're the message that certainly i want to convey with my colleague from the great state of florida here today. respect the science, reopen the schools safely, and return students, teachers, and learning to the classroom. a year ago we were only just starting to realize what covid-19 was about. almost a year to this date practically. yet no one could have foreseen

that many children would leave their classroom in 2020 and still not have returned in march of 2021. fortunately during these past few months, we've come a long way in our knowledge of covid-19. we knew little about how the virus spread when most schools closed last march. but now experts have had the opportunity to learn more about the spread of the disease, specifically as it would spread in a k-12 school environment. at the end of january, the c.d.c. centers for disease control and prevention published data showing that in-person learning for k-12 students with limited in-school covid-19 spread is indeed possible. the schools studied adhered to the public health practices many of us have followed. wearing a mask, social distancing, washing hands, avoiding large groups and quarantining after exposure to the virus. since this data was released,

c.d.c. has gone on and issued additional guidance for reopening our schools. this guidance focuses on many of the same public health strategies as well as cleaning facilities and additional ventilation. in addition to the improved knowledge of how covid-19 affects our schools, we also have safe and effective vac vaccines. by enabling our teachers and other education professionals to have the vaccine in a priority measure, we continue to forge ahead with reopening our schools. yesterday dr. clay marsh who is our state's coronavirus czar and has done an incredibly great job, he has also led our efforts in our successful vaccine efforts. i want to remind the nation that west virginia is number one in vaccine distribution per capita. we've done a fantastic job. dr. marsh said yesterday, quote, the classroom is a safe place to be. he continued by saying, the k-8

classroom, there is a tremendous amount of really good data to suggest that it is even a safer place to be than staying in your community. following these comments, our state's board of education voted in favor of our students, kindergarten through eighth grade returning to a full five-day in-person learning. they had some blended smrks in class -- some in class, some at home. while data we've seen makes a very compelling case why we can get children safely back into the classroom with the right mitigations, other realities make it even more necessary. with the option of remote learning at home, there are still many children and especially in states like mine in west virginia who struggle with connectivity. despite robust funding from congress to attempt toll address these issues, the digital divide is very real and it begins to exacerbate the have and have not phenomenon. as a result these children can be affected for years. i hear concerns from parents all over my state. last year i had a mercer county

principal tell me that many of the students in their class had to -- parents had to drive their students to a, paing lot -- parking lot, a fast food restaurant so they could get some wi-fi and do their homework. a constituent recently wrote to my office expressing her frustration with balancing her work and remote learning her children are doing. they can't get on the internet at the same time in their home. another parent from berkley county wrote to me with the heartbreaking story about how her daughter had cried -- cries at the computer because she requires extra help on certain assignments. parents helping their children on school work can only go so far. in-person attention is absolutely necessary and something that the internet can't solve through a zoom meeting or a video meeting or what a lot of this is go to a certain assignment on your computer where there's no -- nobody to interact with whatsoever. there are very real concerns

that parents have that fear their children will fall behind and are falling behind without access to their school work. even more disturbing are the concerns i've heard from child abuse advocates throughout our state. the heightened stress, school closures, loss of income, social isolation is resulting -- from this pandemic has increased the risk of child abuse and neglect. yet without the safe space of the school and the watchful eyes of our teachers and other caring professionals, i fear too many children are falling through the cracks and have nowhere to turn. last week our west virginia dhhr deputy secretary said there were 8,000 fewer referrals to child protective services this year in our state. sadly we know it's not because it's not occurring. it's because teachers and school employees aren't there to notice the abuse and neglect to be

reporting it. this is where our teachers are so incredibly caring and invaluable. according to data from the c.d.c. between april and october of to 20, emergency departments nation wild have experienced a rise in the share of total visits from children with mental health needs. in my state of west virginia, our state board of education has reported a spike in attempted suicides in cabal county. in addition, parents have had to make hard decisions as they attempt to balance their careers with their children's education. especially more difficult for those younger children -- those parents of younger children who can't leave their child at home for any period of time as they are doing their school work. as more workers are being asked to physically return to their workplaces, the lack of in-person learning and adequate child care is hindering many from returning to work. this is especially true for many women who work outside the home.

in fact, many women are having to quit their job as a result. according to data from the bureau of labor statistics, the january jobs report showed that some 275,000 women left the workforce while about 71,000 men left the workforce. overall, approximately 2.4 million women have left the workforce since last february. this has been a common and unfortunate trend we are seeing as a result of the pandemic. and i know for certain it has -- it is definitely tied into the fact the schools have not reopened. west virginia state superintendent said recently, quote, there is absolutely no substitution for a teacher in the lives of a child. he continued by saying, there's no subtiewtion for what that means to the community and the families, not just for the academics but for the social, emotional, and physical

well-being. he's absolutely right. and this is just another reason why it is so important for our children to return to school safely. at the same time, i know there is no one-size-fits-all solution. state leaders, local government, school administrators, and parents must take this data and these recommendations and apply them to the realities they see in their own communities. congress has provided $68 billion in resources for k-12 schools that they can use in -- could use last year, school could use to implement these strategies. for these this may mean continuing some form of remote learning. for others, including my state of west virginia, it means bringing every k-8 student to a five-day work week -- five-day school week in school. before i conclude, i want to take a moment to thank the teachers, the parents, and the students who have adjusted and readjusted over the past years. despite the many challenges, whether they're technical,

logistical, or emotional challenges, you've tried to make it work the best you can. and for that we are all very grateful. but now, we've got to do the three r's. we must look at the data, listen to the stories, and look at the realities in our classrooms and in our communities. get our children back to school. respect the science, reopen the school safely, and return students, teachers, and learning to the classroom where it should be. i yield back. thank you. mr. scott: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: first i want to thank my colleague from west virginia and my colleague from iowa on their focus on getting kids back to school. i respect the science, reopen our schools safely and return our teachers, our chish to our classrooms. mr. president, it's listen almost a year when schools first

shuttered due to covid-19. unfortunately many schools remain closed. the consequences are devastating. being forced to stay at home has taken a significant emotional toll and impacts our children's future. continuing to subject kids to this unnecessary virtual learning system is not backed by science or markets. i applaud my state of florida for getting schools open quickly and safely. it's safe and it's necessary for the well-being and the future of students. the c.d.c. confirmed last month that in-person instruction does not pose an increased risk of community transmission. schools can and should be open and they could do so safely. we need to be honest about why we're even having this conversation today. the only reason schools across the nation remain closed is because my democrat colleagues

and the biden administration are standing with teachers unions instead of standing up for our children. for months we heard democrats preach about following the science, but now democrats don't don't want to acknowledge that school openings are safe. they are blindly following the teachers unions because they are afraid of losing campaign contributions and. here's the truth, the funding they claim is absolutely necessary for schools to reopen would not even be allocated for two or three years. according to the congressional budget congressional budget office, biden covid spending bill would distribute only $6.48 billion to k-12 schools this year. the remaining $122 billion would be spent between the years 2022 and 2028. here's another fact, congress has already provided $68 billion for k-12 schools, but so far states have spent just $4 billion of that money.

schools don't need more money to open safely, yet the biden administration keeps clinging to the lie and doing everything possible to keep the schools closed. last week speaker pelosi said we want as many kids to be back in school. for this to happen, it will take money. vice president harris would not answer if it was safe for teachers to go back to school if not vaccinated des spiet clear -- despite clear c.d.c. guidelines that is not necessary. democrats voted against students returning to classrooms even after teachers have been vaccinated. we all agree that teachers should be table to receive vaccinations. i -- i'll work with any of my colleagues on a way to get vaccines to teach pers more quickly. we all agree teachers should have safe, clean, and healthy classrooms and we allocated

$68 billion to do just that right now. but keeping schools closed doesn't make sense. and it's hurting our children and america -- and america's poorest family the most. i grew up in a poor family that had struggled to make ends meet. every student in this nation deserves the option of in-person learning. it's time for the biden administration to acknowledge that the best place for children to learn in the classroom and it is time to stop putting union bosses ahead of america's students and families. let's get our schools open now. thank you. i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed

to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 8. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of commerce, jeanna marie romondo to be under secretary. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on

executive calendar number 8, gina marie raimondo of rhode island to be secretary of commerce. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask consent the mandatory quorum call for the motion be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: madam president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 13. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, executive office of the president, cecilia

elena rouse of new jersey to be chairman of the council of economic advisors. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of cecilia elena rouse of new jersey to be chairman of the council of economic advisors, signed by 18 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum call for the cloture motion be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i note the absence of a quorum -- hold that. mr. barrasso: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: we are not. the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you,

madam president. i ask unanimous consent that i am allowed to conclude my remarks before adjourning. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. i come to the floor today as i have done twice before over the past month to sound the alarm about the new administration's attacks on american energy. yet there is still more to talk about. president biden has continued this assault on american energy as well as the american economy. now he is taking that attack further. he is taking the attack on energy around the world as well as an attack on the needs for energy of a number of our allies around the world. president biden signed an executive order to cut off all loans for coal, oil, and gas projects in some of the poorest nations in the world. now, some of these nations are our friends that we work with and we try to help.

and these are people who desperately need affordable energy. and they don't have it. democrats close to the administration have reported that what the administration of president biden is trying to do is to isolate the chinese communist party. the biden administration thinks that by refusing to make these loans to folks around the world, that the chinese communist party will be shamed for using fossil fuels for energy. and will shame the communist party of china for loans that they make to countries to develop coal-fired power plants, natural gas plants and other projects that use fossil fuels. madam president, let me tell you, the chinese communist party will not be shamed. china has a totalitarian regime.

china puts uighurs in concentration camps, so i'm not sure what makes president biden and his administration think that the chinese communist party will be ashamed of using an affordable, reliable source of energy -- coal. in reality, president biden, by this executive order, is giving china a gift. president biden is giving china another advantage on the world stage and putting ourselves at a disadvantage, if you think about it. if the united states and those that we fund through the world bank refuse to provide loans to those countries to build the power plants that they need, that's going to leave a vacuum. they're going to need the resources to use the resources that they have -- if they have plenty of coal or natural gas -- and the chinese communist party is going to come in and make the loan.

china already funds seven out of ten new coal plants around the world, and thanks to president biden's misguided effort, that's likely going to soon be close to ten out of ten. just like president biden's other energy orders, this new policy will make china stronger, it will make america weaker, china will have more influence, and the united states will have less. now this order is not going to hurt china at all. the people that it will hurt are those who look to the united states for help and for friendship. it's going to especially hurt the 840 million americans around the world who don't have access to electricity today. developing countries desperately need the electricity. they need it to be affordable, they need it to be reliable. so you help developing countries in terms of helping them get a stable supply of energy, it is one of the best things we can do

to help people around the world in their fight against poverty. in many parts of the world, countries with abundant energy resources just need our help around turn to us for -- and turn to us for our help so they can use the resources that they have. let me give you a good example, madam president, because you and i have traveled to various places around the world and have a chance to see men and women in uniform and thank them for their services, as we have done and gone into battlefields as we've had family members who have served in the military and defended this country and our freedoms, and it's been a pleasure to be able to do that with you and share that with your family because of our united heritage of fighting and our family history of fighting for the country. a good example of what i'm talking about is kosovo. i've been there on three separate occasions, specifically to visit members of our troops, the men and women in uniform, people from wyoming who are serving in kosovo. i've been there three separate

times. i was there last year, was there in 2019, was there previously on thanksgiving, was there on easter sunday, one time to be with the troops. kosovo is one of the poorest nations in europe, but it has vast energy resources. despite being physically smaller than the state of connecticut, kosovo has the fifth-largest reserves of coal in the world. small geography, massive resources of coal. so the world bank has cut off kosovo's funding for a new state-of-the-art coal-fired power plants. they have old coal-fired power plants. they're burning cole now. i talked to the leaders of the country and they said we need to build a new coal fired power plant and need the money to do it. so this is what kosovo's minister of economic development has said. he said in a poor country like kosovo, we don't have that

luxury, the luxury of focusing only on renewable sources when they don't have that much access to renewable energy, the wind doesn't blow that much in terms of sunny days, not at all during the winter, and they have this incredible resource of coal. well, the minister of economic development is absolutely correct because i've been there in the spring, i've been there in the winter, i've been there different times throughout the world. developing countries cannot afford elitist environmental agendas of presidents who become climate elitists, especially those being, who put in charge of those issues, former secretary of state john kerry. let me repeat myself. i want to just make this absolutely clear. we, the united states, have peacekeeping troops in the country of kosovo. we have them right there in kosovo. and we, the united states, are driving the government of kosovo

into the clutches of the communist chinese party because of a holier than thou attitude of the climate elitist in the white house. we put our troops on the ground and then we say go to china if you need help providing power to your country. madam president, people need affordable, reliable energy. traditional energy projects are still the most affordable, still the most reliable. if we really care about the people in developing countries, then we ought to help them turn on the lights. so i urge the l biden administration to reverse course, to rethink this, to look at all the implications of the decisions they're making. we need to stop this senseless attack on energy jobs. we need to is to be this reckless attack -- we need to stop this reckless attack on developing nations. we need to stop pushing our allies into the waiting arms of

the chinese communist party. the american people and our friends around the world, we're better than what we're getting right now from this administration and we need to reverse course. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: i note the absence of a quorum. under the previous order, the senate stands in recess until senate stands in recess until

on the supply chains. other topics covered include a nomination for white house budget director relations with saudi arabia. good afternoon.