maintain a moral compass. i think that's very good advice for anyone, particularly when you are an elected official that it's very important to live by the values you espouse. i think some people people are disappointed in what they see in their elected officials and particularly millennial's don't have a very high approval rating of elected officials and people to get involved in politics and i think that's part of the reason why they don't so i think it's important to live by a moral compass. >> you're here now and running for reelection but have youun given any thought to what is , next in any other glass ceilis you want to break? >> i am excited. and love representing this district. i'm working hard to make sure the promises are made on the campaign are capped andke i'm working on legislation and i think there's a lot that i can do. >> we leave the washington journal at this point to fulfill our 40 plus your commitment to live coverage of congress. you can watch the rest at c-span .org. the senate is about to gavel in. lawmakers will resume debate on

the nomination of andrea palm to be deputy house human services secretary. at 5:30 p.m. eastern senators will vote to limit debate on her nomination. later this week work is expected on the nomination of cynthia martin to be deputy education secretary. 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. eternal god, vindicate those who cling to the truth. they seek to walk on your path, to honor you with their work, and to glorify you with their lives. may these lawmakers remember that you are their light and salvation, bestowing mercy and honor on them. lord, you refuse to withhold any good thing from those who walk blameless before you.

continue to strengthen our senators, who strive to please you with their thoughts, words, and actions. empower them as they seek and pursue peace for our nation and world. 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., may 10, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable mazie hirono, a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore.

the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings -- okay. madam president, like all of my colleagues, i spent last week traveling my home state. i spoke with kentuckians about where we've come over the past 15 months, where we are today,

and the bright future we should have ahead. more than 1.8 million kentuckians have received covid vaccines. these medical miracles were created in record time by genius scientists plus operation warp speed, and they are proving the pathway back to normalcy that we had hoped for. i was happy to get to visit the baptist memorial hospital in elizabethtown to hear about their vaccination program and to thank the staff for all of their work. we should be on track for a fantastic american comeback summer, full steam ahead, from vaccinations to job growth, the new biden administration inherited favorable trends in every direction. thanks to the five bipartisan rescue packages that congress passed just last year.

but in several important ways, the decisions of elected democrats have contributed to slowing the return to normalcy. we have seen some state and local officials bow to big labor and soft pedal the clear science on school reopenings, and the big bill that washington democrats pushed through a couple of months ago did not require schools to reopen in order to receive even more extra funding. the president and his team keep sending mixed messages about gatherings and wearing masks. they sometimes break from their own c.d.c.'s guidance for vaccinated americans. again, there almost seems to be some reluctance to let go of emergency measures, even to the point of clashing with science. and what about our economic recovery? back in march, democrats rammed through their so-called american rescue plan with $2 trillion partisan spending spree. it is packed with policies that

seem designed for march, 2020, not march, 2021. for example, continue to use taxpayer dollars to pay a special bonus for unemployed people to stay home rather than filling one of the growing number of job openings around the country. republicans had this crazy idea that with vaccines flooding the country with covid-19 and retreat -- in retreat, it was time to actually reopen our country, instead of spending even more of working families' tax dollars to keep things shut down. well, a few days ago, experts were stunned by a monthly jobs report for april that came in way below expectations. it was the first full month of data collected after the democrats passed their so-called rescue plan. this bill they sold as a

fast-acting, urgent emergency measure that was going to bolster our economy right away. this report was expected to show that more than a million american workers had gotten back to the job in the month of april. instead, we added about one fourth that many jobs. now, i just spent the prior week talking with kentuckians. i spoke with workers and employers at nearly every size of business from just about every kind of industry all across the spectrum. and from big national companies to local chambers of commerce to businesses like manchester tank at campbellsville, we heard optimism but also real concerns, concerns about inflation and runaway costs, concerns about backed-up supply chains. and if washington pays works a

bonus to stay unemployed, virtually everyone discussed very real concerns about their difficulties in finding workers who are willing to come back and fill these open positions. almost every employer i spoke with specifically mentioned the extra-generous jobless benefits as a key force holding back our recovery. now, i have heard some democrats say that whatever incentives washington creates, the responsibility really falls on workers. but my friends on the other side can't use the american people to shield their own bad ideas from scrutiny. policy matters, incentives matter. it's may of 2021. vaccines are available nationwide. there are millions of jobs open. help wanted signs from coast to coast. we should not still be taxing the americans who are working to fund continued extra benefits for those staying home.

it's not march of 2020 anymore. it is may of 2021. kentuckians and all americans need our democratic friends to govern accordingly. now, on another matter, yesterday marked the beginning of national police week. under normal circumstances, we would be welcoming peace officers from across the country here to washington to share experiences and to commemorate brothers and sisters who have fallen in the line of duty. this year, i understand many of the in-person gatherings have been postponed until this autumn, but we're still remembering our law enforcement officers as we prepare for peace officers memorial day on may 15. the past year has seen the difficult job of law enforcement become even harder. they have battled the challenges of a historic pandemic. in many places, they have

grappled with increased violent crime rates and unrest. and following terrible incidences this past year, the majority of brave and honorable law enforcement officers have too often found themselves painted unfairly with a broad brush as though their entire profession should be defined by the worst examples. this year's remembrances will be especially somber here at the capitol where we're still mourning officers billy evans, howie liebengood and brian sicknick who we have lost in a matter of months. i hope peace officers throughout our country from the capitol and kentucky and all 50 states know how very grateful we are for their courage and for their service. i suggest the absence of a

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

ity leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. the last time we observed mother's day most of the country could not spend time with their parents or have their kids spend time with them. standing outside of a window and waving to mom was the closest you could get. ii remember that. so this year i was beyond

grateful to celebrate with my mother and my daughters in person. i know the same was true for americans across the country as covid-19 continues to recede, and more than half of eligible adults have received at least one shot of the vaccine, after a very painful and difficult year, it was another sign that our country is turning the corner. praise god. now as we begin this work period, the senate will continue working to help the country recover and build back stronger than ever. that includes filling vacancies in the executive branch with highly qualified public servants. this week the senate will consider the nomination of andrea palm for the deputy h.h.s. secretary and cynthia marten, a teacher of 17 years, to serve as the next deputy education secretary. there will be additional nominations on the floor as the week goes on, and at the

committee level at least half a dozen other nominees will have their markups. and there will be plenty of legislative action off the floor as well. discussions continue on a potential bipartisan infrastructure bill, gun safety legislation, and policing reform. on wednesday the senate commerce committee will begin to mark up the endless frontier act, bipartisan legislation that would invest in our scientific and techno capabilities and help the united states outcompete china and other nations in a number of emerges -- emerging industries. there have been constructive bipartisan talks over the last week and am supportive of the proct that will be considered in wednesday's meeting. in addition, a number of other senate committees are working on bipartisan legislation to improve our competitiveness and make the united states a world leader in advanced manufacturing, innovation, and supply chains. it is my intention to have the full senate consider

comprehensive competitive legislation during this work period. this week the senate rules committee will also mark up s. 1, a bill to strengthen our democracy, increase transparency in our campaign finance system, and make it easier for all americans to vote. the senate democratic majority named this bill s. 1 because it is a top, very top priority. the majority gets to name the first five bills of any new congress. we picked the for the people act to be s. 1 for a reason. make no mistake, we're moving forward with s. 1 in the rules committee this week. i will attend the markup tomorrow. and as a reminder to my colleagues, i have committed to bring s. 1 to the floor of the senate. as the rules committee prepares to amend and advance s. 1, our republican colleagues face a critical choice between working with democrats in good faith to pass a law to protect our

democracy or siding with republican state legislatures that are orchestrating the largest contraction of voting rights in decades. there is no reason our two parties can't work together on s. 1. in fact, the legislation has already been updated and approved. it now includes input from election officials across the country, including republican election officials. i am sure we'll see additional amendments at the markup tomorrow. for example, i understand my colleague from georgia, senator ossoff, will offer an amendment to ban states from restricting volunteers from giving food and water to americans waiting in line to vote. you'd think such a provision would be unnecessary, but sadly, giving voters food or water while they're waiting in long lines has just been criminalized, criminalized by the state of georgia. lord, look, we know our republican colleagues don't like every aspect of s. 1, but will

they work in good faith to improve it? will they offer revisions or new ideas to protect voting rights, or through uncompromising resistance to commonsense voter protections will they side with republican legislatures across the country that are restricting voting rights in a way that hurts african americans, latinos, younger and poor americans. the choice is theirs, and two final points on this. number one, donald trump spread the big lie. we all know it's a big lie that there was massive fraud in the elections. and instead of resisting that lie, so harmful to our democracy, because when people don't have faith in the electoral process it withers faith in our very democracy. so many republicans in state legislatures and here in the senate, unfortunately, are spreading that lie, are

spreading that lie. and second, what has been the tradition of america? it's been to improve the right to vote. at the time of the constitution, in many states, you had to be a white male protestant property owner to vote. we've approved that. we have improved on that beginning in many different ways through the years. what the republican legislatures are taking is a giant setback, a giant step back in the progress we have made to making this a more perfect union. will the republican senate in the rules committee tomorrow and later on the floor of the senate when they bring the bill forward participate in improving our democracy or in helping, aiding and abetting the big lie and the giant step backward? finally, on state and local

aid. today the treasury department launched a $350 billion program to deliver aid to state and local governments, funding that democrats in congress provided through the american rescue plan. after fighting this pandemic on the front lines, state and local governments in new york and across the country needed help, and they needed it quickly to keep frontline workers on the job and prevent brutal service cuts. thanks to the american rescue plan and the treasury department's announcement this morning, we can finally say that help is on the way to state and local governments. eligible state, territorial, city, county and tribal governments will be able to access funding directly from the treasury department in the coming days. state and local governments now need to file applications with treasury. once they're processed, money will begin flowing. let me say that again. state, local and tribal governments should prepare to

file applications with the treasury department for assistance. and i am told the assistance will be quickly forthcoming. and state and local government is not only available, it is flexible. the biden administration deserves credit for providing clear guidance and broad categories for spending the money. letting states make their own decisions about how to allocate funds to recover from the pandemic and address immediate needs, whether it's to support public health systems, small business, necessary infrastructure, hard-hit industries like tourism or premium pay for essential workers, states can use the funding we passed in the american rescue plan to help their constituents and their economy recover in a variety of ways. the treasury department's announcement today begins the process of delivering the resources our states and municipalities need to prevent layoffs, keep essential services running and boost main street businesses from one end

of the country to the other. i was proud to successly push for funding in the american rescue plan and will continue to work with the biden administration as this funding is distributed. i yield the floor. no, i don't yield the floor. i finished my speech, but i have another activity or two to do. mr. schumer: so, madam president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 108. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion.

all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, united states postal service, ronald stroman of the district of columbia to be governor of the united states postal service for a term expiring december 8, 2021. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 the debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 1088, ronald stroman of the district of columbia to be governor of the united states postal service for a term expiring december 8, 2021, 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: madam president, i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 109. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all 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, united states postal service, ronald stroman, of the district of columbia to be a governor of the united states postal service for a term expiring september 28, 2028.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on calendar number 109, ronald stroman, of the district of columbia, to be a governor of the united states postal service. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names 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 those in favor, aye. all those opposed, say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 110. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, nay. 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, united states postal service, amber

faye mcreynolds of colorado, to be governor of the united states postal service, for a term expiring november 8, 2026. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on executive calendar 110, amber faye, mcreynolds, of colorado, to be governor of the united states postal service. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to.

mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 112. the presiding officer: the presiding officer: the question is on the motion, all those in favor say aye. all opposed, nay. the ayes appear to are it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of commerce, donet graves jr., of ohio, to be deputy secretary. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on executive calendar number 112, donet graves, jr., of ohio, to be deputy secretary of commerce. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally, i ask unanimous consent that the

mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today be waived. i ask unanimous consent that the senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. 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 and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of health and human services, andrea joan palm, of wisconsin to be deputy secretary. the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. durbin: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in

morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, some economists have another name for the recession that we're living through, the one that was caused by the covid pandemic. they call it a she session because the economic hardships and job losses have fallen disproportionately on women, especially working mothers. it's ironic we're having this conversation the day after mother's day and reflecting on the current state of american families in the midst of a pandemic, but equally important, the state of american families and the state of the mothers of those families and the economic realities they face. 2.5 million american women have dropped out or pushed out of the workforce since the start of this pandemic. in a recent abc news poll, 25% of women said they are worse for economically now than they were a year ago compared to 18% of

men. the survey last fall found that almost 40% of working mothers in my state of illinois -- 40% -- lost their jobs over working reduced hours. nearly half of all working mothers of color reported the same. there are many reasons that this recession has been so economically devastating for so many women, but the two biggest reasons are these. women are overrepresented in the industries that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic, restaurants, retail, leisure and hospitality, and women are the primary caregivers. in some cases the only caregivers in the vast majority of american families. with schools and child care programs closed, what choice does a working mother have other than stepping back from work? for millions of american mothers and their families, the stimulus payments, the enhanced

unemployment checks, the increased child tax credits and other economic benefits in the american rescue plan have literally been a lifeline. it has enabled these mothers and families to feed their kids and to keep their homes during the worst recession since the great depression. so it came as a bit of a surprise that our republican colleagues would choose to start mothers day weekend by avowing to end enhanced unemployment benefits for more than eight million american workers. they cite the april job report as their justification after we added 770,000 jobs in march, a strong showing, we earned the american economy added only 260,000 jobs in april. immediately our republican colleagues cited the

disappointing jobs number that the recovery is clearly stalled and we have to do more to get people back to work. as if it justifies ending enhanced jobless benefits. they seem to think that additional unemployment benefits make american workers lazy. they imply that the americans would rather sit at home, watch nonstop netflix and eat chocolate-covered cherries rather than go back to work. they must not know many american workers. americans want to work. americans work longer and harder than their counterparts than almost every other nation in the world. we should be proud of that work ethic and what it has meant to america. the reason many workers haven't returned to the workplace isn't because they are lazy. people remain afraid of this coronavirus. they lack adequate affordable child care and may be caring for

older family members or dealing with a personal health condition. that's the reality of life in families and particularly struggling working families. taking away the enhanced unemployment benefits they need to feed their kids or pay their rent or mortgage does nothing to change that reality except make it worse. our republican colleagues will say that the april jobs report is the reason for their renewed determination to stop sending these enhanced checks to the jobless families. the truth is -- the real truth is these republicans think the federal government ought to do the bear minimum to help working families weather this pandemic. that's their credo. government isn't the solution. government is the problem. even during as once in a century health pandemic. whether the economy is adding jobs quickly or slowly, whether covid infection and death rates are rising or falling,

republicans have fought to scale back federal unemployment benefits for workers. not one of our republican colleagues -- let me repeat that. not one of our republican senate colleagues voted for the american rescue plan. remember that one? that was the plan by president biden that put more money into the purchase of vaccines, finally set up a nationwide effort to administer those vaccines, sent the $1,400 cash check to working families, a check promised by the previous administration, gave additional helping hands to small businesses to help them get through the pandemic and did, in fact, lengthen the period of it time that people would be eligible for unemployment benefits. that's a pretty important package, don't you think. when you look at what it did for america, it came in a nick of

time for many. you would think with 50 republican senators, one -- one republican senator would support those things? unfortunately that wasn't the case. well, there are things we can do to get the economy moving again. we need toe encourage more americans to get vaccinated, number one. president biden has done a remarkable job. we still have work to do. we shouldn't sit back and relax. every person vaccinated is every person protected and also the people around them are protected. the fundamental fact remains as we talk about all the economics and all the government philosophy, our government cannot recover completely until this virus is under control. in addition, if republicans want to solve the problems with our workforce, there are obvious answers. sit down and talk to a working mother who lost a job, who has a child at home, perhaps a young child. and ask them, well, how soon can

you be back to work? and their question back to you, senator, how soon can you take care of my little boy? how much is it going to cost me? that's the reality and the day care center is probably closed, the babysitter may not be available. there are lots of reasons and it just may be it's too expensive. that's the reality of for -- for american workers. that mother faces a challenge that not one of us want to see in our families, either our children or grandchildren, we don't want them to be a pawn in this whole public debate about when we're going to start or stop helping families. we need to face this workforce problem because it is really key to it, this child care crisis in this country. do we care enough about families and children to make sure that there is affordable day care? president biden does. he's talking about a program

nationwide, thank goodness, which will finally address this issue and put a goal in place to keep the cost of day care manageable for every family, regardless of their means. so what did the republican senate leader say last week? he said he was 100% focused -- 100% focused on stopping the biden administration. it's an echo of what he said in the first early days of the obama presidency. he came to the floor and instead of talking about what we can do to work together to try to find some bipartisan ground, that he hoped he would do everything he could to make sure that barack obama was a one-term president. it didn't take him long to come back with a similar statement with the biden presidency. it's not encouraging. but i am encouraged by the fact that there are some republicans who just don't agree with that.

i hope that they will step up. i hope that they will show we can still work on a bipartisan basis. this 100% stopping the biden administration from senator mcconnell cannot be the basis for a successful congressional session. senate democrats have an agenda, it's true. we're 100% focused on getting this pandemic under control and building a better future for our families. we'd like to work with our republican colleagues to do it. although they didn't join us, for example, on the child tax credit, i do believe that they really care about the children in america, particularly the poor children in america, and care enough to want to help them with day care, with early kindergarten classes, with extending the school year beyond 12th grade for skills that are needed. madam president, you know this well because we come from the same state. last week i had an exciting visit in normal, illinois.

things are not normal in normal, illinois, they are exceedingly beyond normal. i visited the rivan plant. it has an exceptional story. 1,000 workers were on the payroll at the time they lost their jobs, good-paying jobs and there sat that empty factory out on the corn fields just west of normal, illinois. the mayor of n chris koose called me a year after the mitsibishi plant had closed and said senator, i think i have a biemplet i said chris -- buyer. i said chris, what are you drinking? no, he said, i really believe there is a new company is going to make electric vehicles that's really interested in the mitsibishi plant. well, he was right and thank goodness he was. fast forward four years later

and the visit last week showed this amazing facility which is now going to be expanded because of the plans that's going to build electric vehicles. they have models on the floor that you can see of s.u.v.'s, trucks, and delivery vans for amazon. amazon is a major investor in arrivian. we're not -- in rivian. we're not just seeing it in blamington. we're seeing in our state. illinois has a chance of becoming an effort v. state. i looked up in the area, the governor was there last week, talking about help for a plant that's going to build the heavy trucks and buses that are needed, electric vehicles for the future. you go to libertyville, illinois, there is a dutch supplier of power-generating equipment that is relocating some of its facilities in our state. and at the same time argonne

laboratory has been doing research on battery technology and leading the nation in doing it for years. and we believe it's a combination that really pays off. so how will our state or any state tap into this new economy with trained and skilled workers, with families that don't have to worry day in and day out about day care. we've got to make sure that we're ready in illinois and across the nation for this opportunity. president biden does. he understands it because he understands the challenges to, working families. i can't understand the opposition of the republicans in congress to president biden. they seem to be determined to make sure that america always finishes a solid second. the biden administration disagrees and i do, too. we have the capacity to continue to lead the world and to continue to lead the world's economy but it isn't by sitting

back, patting ourselves on the back and talking about who won the last election. we have to roll up our sleeves on a bipartisan basis and get this w workforce ready and stand behind these families that send the workers into the plants that are going to create the products that will make us a success story out of the 21st century. that's what president biden is for and i couldn't agree with her more. i want to sit down and talk with any republican who is willing to be honest and serious about doing this together. and we also want to take on the other issues that we know plague our economy and our families. reducing the cost of prescription drugs, building an infrastructure for the 21st century. the truth is last year -- last week's job report is a ringing endorsement for the american jobs plan and the american families plan of president biden. thanks to the american rescue plan, more than 220 million shots have been administered and more than a hundred million americans have been fully vaccinated allowing businesses all across america to start to

reopen. we need to build on the success of the american rescue plan, not dismantle it piece by piece. we need to work together to invest in workers and families for the 21st century, not grind congress to a halt as some might prefer. the american jobs plan will enable american workers and businesses to build on those successes. it will help reduce barriers for entry to many workers. it will direct billions of dollars towards helping dislocated workers develop new skills, secure a stable, well-paying job, building wind turbines or electric vehicles or making other american made goods that will be in high demand in the years to come. another priority for democrats is throwing a lifeline to, working -- to working parents. fortunately, we've made some progress on that front with the child tax credit expansion and other provisions in the american rescue plan. those policies put more money in the pockets of middle class and

low-income and working families in the midst of the worst mick recession we've -- worst economic recession we've seen in decades. when president trump left office, 30 million americans couldn't afford to put food on the table. think about that. just one month after the american rescue plan, that number was reduced to 17 million. and we should never accept that or any number as acceptable in the future. we've cut the number of americans going hungry by nearly half since president biden took office, but we still have work to do. we need to provide more relief to parents so they with work -- so they can work a full time job if which he choose without worrying about finding a safe, reliable place for their kids. we have to ensure low and middle-income families pay no more than 7%. that's what president biden is asking, no more than 7% income on high quality child care and that's on top of billions of dollars funding the american

jobs plan would reinvest in building and retrofitting child care centers across our state and nation. last week's job report is a wake-up call. we can't just wish this crisis away. we have to act and act together. we can't reopen our economy fully until the virus is under control and then we can't wait for ten years to get back on track to where we are, where we were a year and a half ago. we can't build a prosperous economy for the future unless we address some of the systemic shortcomings that prevent too many workers from participating fully. even if next month's job report exceeds expectations, such as the one in march, we need to rebuild our economy and put working families at the center of it. make bold investments in the future right now. we can keep good jobs in america and build industries that have a future if we're ready to invest in american families. i hope our republicans will not say let's go slow, let's be

satisfied with second. you know, maybe we just can't compete with some other countries in the world. i don't buy it. if we believe in america and its workers, we need to invest in them and their future. it's time to think bigger. it's time to believe that this country has a future which is going to be bright if we come together and do our job to stand by working families and the men and women and in this moment, particularly the women, who need that helping hand. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama.

mr. tuberville: madam president, president biden promised unity, to bring the country together during his inaugural address. i was there with my 26-year-old son tucker. we listened together and hoped that president biden would live up to his words. i assumed that when he said he'd be a president for all americans, it also included the 75 million americans that voted for donald trump. i was ready and i still am to work with president biden in good faith to find commonsense solutions to problems facing the country and to ensure the voices of alabamians are heard. but so far the president hasn't neither united nor reached across the aisle. his actions have shown he is fine to play along with dweesive tactic -- divisive tactics of the progressive left rather than unite a large and diverse country. he is acting like he is the

president of new york and california, not the united states of america. the progressives can barely contain their excitement. the president received glowing reviews from leading progressive members of congress saying the president has, quote, exceeded expectations. the left has been waiting a long time for an administration to implement their vision. they need to use a trojan horse to put that vision into practice because it's remarkably unpopular with majority of the american people. their vision is unpopular because it centers around the core belief of imposing their vision on everyone. but to achieve this, that means taking away your freedom. freedom to think differently, freedom to worship differently, freedom for you and your family to live differently, freedom to spend your hard-earned money the

way you want to spend it. taking away those freedoms, freedoms that are the foundation of america is not progress. it's called socialism. when progressive talk about equity, they mean equal outcomes, not opportunities. they want a government that's so powerful, it owns everything and chooses how wealth is distributed to ensure equal outcomes. that in essence is socialism. and the folks promoting this vision are channeling the same energy as the marxists and communists of the 20th century. well, so far president biden has been a more willing partner to champion the progressive vision and export it from new york and california to every corner of the entire country. just look at what has happened lately. one of president biden's first

moves was to signal to the world that americans -- america's borders are open. the result? absolute chaos. and the administration shows little interest in finishing. it cannot have a country or we cannot have a country without borders. that's common sense. democrats were so eager to undo all the work president trump did at the border just because president trump did it. not because there was merit in rolling back these policies. because of this insane open-door policy, the american taxpayers, noted biden administration, but the american taxpayers is footing a $60 million bill a week, $60 million a week to cover the cost of housing of unaccompanied minors at the border, $60 million. in the same rush, democrats are

working to undermine the integrity of the election process through h.r. 1 and s. 1, the term government takeover of our elections. they're working to force millions of workers to join unions. they don't want to strip states of their -- they all want to strip states of their right to work laws call the pro act. democrats are using things americans desperately need, like traditional infrastructure as a smoke screen for things americans desperately don't want like the fantasy green new deal. and now democrats in both chambers have introduced legislation to expand the supreme court. and because they don't have the votes to ram this through, such an extreme agenda through the senate, many democrats want to eliminate the filibuster despite the fact that many wrote a letter asking to keep the filibuster just a few years ago when they were in the minority. the bottom line? democrats want to change the rules so they can get their way.

because they are to the point where they want to transform our country, so said some of our leaders. as concerning as each of these actions have been, even more alarming is the progressive efforts to indoctrinate our children by favoring theories over actual learning. for example, the california education, the california department of education is considering using a curriculum that says, quote, the concept of mathematics being purely objective is unequivocally false. their goal is to, quote, dismantle racism in mathematics. apparently 2 plus 2 does not equal 4 anymore because it's not politically correct. and just last year the u.s. ranked 37th in the world in

math. what a disaster. but here's the worst of all. the u.s. department of education recently introduced a rule that would direct millions, millions of taxpayer dollars to schools that promised teaching critical race theory and the 1619 project for american history and civics. put aside for a minute that these theories have been routinely debunked by historians and actively seek to divide americans on strict racial lines. critical race theory's central belief is that the law and legal institutions of the united states are inherently racist, so racist they believe that these institutions cannot be redeemed and must be completely replaced. the goal should be to have better laws and better application of those laws, not to tear them down.

for pushing this, it's not about uniting our country. it's about fanning the flames of the unfortunate human decency to divide and separate into different rules instead of uniting us around a set of common morals. shouldn't we be fighting that impulse to divide into groups against each other? i think we need to do more uniting, and that should start in our schools. why is it i cannot believe that the u.s. government is spending taxpayer dollars to teach our kids to dislike our country? how low have we sunk? these ideas are designed to drive a wedge between americans based solely on their skin color. they openly reject the united states goal of liberty and justice for all. our schools should be places

that encourage the open debate of ideas and teach important morals to our young people so that they know right from wrong. that's why i joined leader mcconnell and 38 my republican colleagues to send a letter to education secretary cardona urging him to withdraw these divisive grant programs. part of our letter reads, quote, families did not ask for this divisive nonsense. voters did not vote for it. americans never decided our children should be taught that our children is inherently evil. secretary cardona should direct these grant dollars to american history programs that teach the ideals that have made america the greatest force for good in human history. i spent my career in education, 40 years, seen firsthand how a quality education can put a kid

on the path to success in our great country, regardless of their race, religion, or economic background. when done right, education is the key to freedom. but the education we see in many schools today is suggest existing inequality rather than giving kids can the chance to escape it. we've got a clear trend here -- undermine border security, undermine the election system, undermine the supreme court, undermine the senate, undermine our education system, undermine our country. if your goal is to deconstruct and completely reshape a country, these are the steps that you would take. our country is not perfect. there is a lot we've got to work on. but here in the united states of america, citizens have freedom

and opportunities. and that is what we need to be focused on, not giving handouts, not dismantling our institutions, but creating opportunity. we have the ability to make it better. we have the rules to do so. those rules are in place so that all of us can respect, if not always agree with, the changes that are made to make this country, that's called democracy. but changing the rules to force one's vision on everyone isn't democracy. it's tyranny. my republican colleagues will now continue to stand against that. that's what america was founded on, after all. and it's what america needs now. i yield the floor.

mr. wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president and colleagues, very shortly the senate will vote on whether or not to advance the nomination of andrea palm to serve as the deputy secretary of the department of health and human services. i strongly urge the senate to support this nominee because ms. palm knows every nook and cranny at the department. i'll tell my colleagues, there is experience and then there is andrea palm experience. during the obama administration, ms. palm served in multiple senior roles at the department of health and human services, including serving as the department's chief of staff. she also served in the white house as the senior advisor on

the domestic policy council. and, very importantly, she's played a particularly strong role in looking at policies to tackle the pandemic. she served recently as the head of the wisconsin department of health services. that put her on the front lines against covid-19. there she was a coalition builder. she brought together the state government, the health care sector, public health experts, and more to protect the people of wisconsin and save lives. she led a collaborative effort to build the state's testing and contact tracing program. and thanks to her hard work, wisconsin on a number of particulars has moved ahead -- ahead -- in the country on vaccinations. ms. palm started her career in social work helping vulnerable

kids and their families during times of crisis. during her finance committee hearing, here talked about how that experience -- she talked about how that experience set her 0 on a path towards public service and how it will help her when she returns to the department of health and human services. she also mentioned a story that i thought was particularly relevant in these days of polarized government. she mentioned that former secretary burwell put her in charge of what was called the common ground agenda. secretary burwell knew that ms. palm brought people together, brought people together, democrats and republicans, to tackle big challenges. she said -- and i note a senior member of the finance committee here, our colleague from texas. she said to our committee that that common-ground agenda is the perspective she's going to bring to the department. you can sure sign me up for that proposition because there's a lot that needs to be done, as we

colleagues know, when it comes to big health care challenges. i mentioned ms. palm is going to have to hit the ground running when it comes to the pandemic response as one issue. as my colleague from texas knows, we're in the middle of a transformation of medicare. back when i was director of the senior citizens, the gray panthers, medicare was an acute-care program. if you broke your ankle, medicare was there for you. if you had a horrible case of the flu, medicare was there for you. madam president and colleagues, that's not medicare today. today medicare is chronic disease, contrary, and diabetes and hard -- cancer and diabetes and heart disease and strokes. millions of seniors have two or more of these conditions. in 2017, the finance committee on a bipartisan basis led to the passage of the chronic care act dealing with modernizing

medicare, and we're very much looking forward to working again on a bipartisan basis with ms. palm and secretary becerra because there is a lot to do here, particularly as it relates to traditional medicare. my colleague and i know together, because we've worked on these issues, that medicare advantage has really moved forward on many of these particulars. we've got a lot to do on traditional medicare. ms. palm is going to be instrumental in that effort. we also know on another issue the finance committee is dealing with is that millions of americans feel that they're getting mugged when they walk up to the prescription drug counter at their pharmacy. it is long past time for the congress to step up and act to bring down the cost of people's medicine. the senate finance committee has worked in a bipartisan way on that. there are other approaches that i support, particularly giving medicare the authority to

negotiate to hold down prices, but we can work together in a bipartisan way on prescription drugs. and, finally, there's an enormous agenda ahead of us in terms of major issues surrounding mental health care. and i was given a report by the g.a.o. just a few days ago that really highlights how we have seen so many people falling between the cracks in the mental health care system as a result of the pandemic. rural seniors, for example, young people who perhaps are facing learning challenges, they haven't taken to remote learning, and the law says that mental health care and physical health care are supposed to be treated equally, but bade on this g.a.o. -- but based on this g.a.o. report that was just given to me a few days ago, that is not the case. so that's just a handful -- a handful -- of the major issues that ms. palm will have on her

plate. it's critically important that we have all hands on deck there. this is a person who knows the department front to back, and when we vote here in a bit with respect to advancing her nomination, i hope that the united states senate on a bipartisan basis will vote for a proven health care leader, somebody who's committed to expanding and improving health care, who really understands the nuts and bolts of building health care coalitions in the united states of america. i see the senator in the chair has been helpful in her state. that's what makes ms. palm so qualified for this position. i support her nomination fully. i urge my colleagues when we vote this afternoon at 5:30 to advance this important nomination. i yield the floor.

mr. cornyn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, this has been a tough year since covid-19 became a global pandemic. there are many lessons to be learned from this pandemic. but one of them jumps out at me as being abundantly obvious, and that is the real-world consequences of vulnerable supply chains. you know, we were almost -- we almost began to believe since cheap consumer goods could be

played in china or someplace -- made in china or someplace overseas that that was the optimal arrangement, and consumers in america have benefited from low prices when it comes to a number of things that are not made in this country. but some of the things that we depend upon, whether it's for public health or to keep our economy going or for our national security, are dependent on vulnerable supply chains. perhaps the easiest one for everybody to identify with is the shortage of personal protective equipment. i remember when i called my governor in texas. he said two things you can get us -- more p.p.e. and more testing. well, we've produced so much testing capability now, you don't hear much about that. but it was true that our hospitals needed masks, gloves,

government shutdowns, and ventilators to keep our frontline health care workers safe as well as other patients. at one point the situation became so dire when it came to personal protective equipment that first responders asked the public to help boost their supplies. they welcomed donations of n95 masks from folks who had extra boxes in their garages or gloves from salons. we reached that because of our reliance on other countries to produce that essential medical gear. china, it will surprise no one, is a major supplier of p.p.e., and since much of their stock had -- was sent to hot spots in the earliest days of the pandemic, including in wuhan, we

were left to rely on the relatively small number of domestic manufacturers here in the united states. but i'm here today not to talk about p.p.e. but another supply-chain breakdown with far-reaching consequences, and this time it's semiconductors. well, semiconductors are something that perhaps most people are not familiar with. but let me put it this way -- anything that has an on/off switch involves a semiconductors. they are the underlying technology in our most used products, things like cell phones, computers, cars, televisions, dishwashers. that's right, just about anything with an on/off switch. these are the integrated circuits that keep getting smaller and smaller appeared

smaller, which means you can put them 0en -- on a device like this. where in the past, you may remember, the first cell phones that came out looked like a brick. but because semiconductors have become much more powerful, you can put hundreds, perhaps thousands of them on a device like this. these chips are necessary just for consumer products, but for other things as well, like the cell towers that keep us connected, the advanced weapons systems that support our national security, even ventilators at hospitals require semiconductors. in short, we need semiconductors for our most prevalent and critical products, but the vast majority of chips are no longer made in the united states. taiwan dominates semiconductor manufacturing, and one company, taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company, virtually controls the market.

last year, it. smc accounted for more than half of total foundry revenues. foundries are the manufacturing facilities that make semiconductors. companies in taiwan control 63% of the global market. well, you don't have to look very far to see what a supply chain breakdown might look like because currently we're getting a taste of what it's like to not have access to the semiconductors that the u.s. economy needs. right now, the demand for chips far exceeds supply. there's a global shortage of semiconductors that's creating serious impacts in nearly every industry from consumer electronics to national security. my home in texas is home to companies across a whole range of affected industries, and last week i was able to sit down with leaders from a few of those

companies in dallas to learn more about the impact of this shortage. we learned from a hewlett-packard executive about the difficulties this has created in consumer electronic manufacturing, covering a whole gamut of products. an executive from ray raytheon,a national defense company, talked about how a steady supply of chips is important to our national security. these tiny technologies, these tiny circuits helps support american war fighters around the globe. we know now that the auto industry is among the hard errs hit, and i have heard from leaders last week from general motors and toyota about how their companies are coping. chris nielsen from toyota said that when he first started with the company, you could count the number of ships -- chips on a given vehicle on two hands. that is certainly not the case today. think about all the high-tech

features in cars these days. navigation devices, blue tooth, automatic braking, backup cameras, and a variety of sensors. all of those depend on semiconductors. and that's on top of standard features like power steering, electric windows, air conditioning, and windshield wipers. this adds up to dozens and dozens of chips for the various components of a single vehicle, and that supply is getting harder and harder to come by. at the beginning of the pandemic, automaker supplies -- suppliers predicted a drop in car sales and canceled existing chip orders. semiconductor manufacturers replaced the auto chip capacity with other in-demand things like personal computers for kids learning at home or more ventilators to use with covid-19 patients, but americans kept buying cars at the prepandemic

level. unfortunately, the shortage of semiconductor manufacturing capacity and the long lead time for chip making has meant a shortage of chips that will actually last through the summer for the auto industry, and it's forced many automakers to slash production because they simply don't have enough chips and they're laying workers off. some have shifted production to focus on the most in-demand models while others removed some of the tech bells and whistles. but the impact goes far beyond the options available on a car lot. for every production or assembly line that's cut, there are hardworking men and women who lose their jobs, as i said. as a reminder, madam president, this industry reaches across virtually every business and national security company in

america. automotive, consumer electronics, everything from the f-35, our fifth generation stealth -- stealth fighter, down to your cell phone, agriculture. some of them even power children's toys. well, there is a clear problem with this vulnerable supply chain, and the question is how do we fix it, how do we solve it? when we faced supply chain shortages at the start of the pandemic, companies of all types began to shift their manufacturing to help alleviate some of the strain. distilleries in texas and across the country began making hand sanitizer, and everyone from big clothing manufacturers to entrepreneurial kids produced cloth facemasks. but with semiconductors, it's not that simple. in order to build a single chip, you need a very expensive, highly advanced piece of

equipment. you also need skilled workers, and you need a lot of lead time that can take months to create a single chip. building a newfoundary was -- a new foundry, which is a manufacturing facility, is a huge and expensive undertaking. a single foundry can cost upwards of $10 billion to $20 billion. yes, that's with a b. $10 billion to $20 billion for a single foundry. during our conversations last week in dallas, a corvo executive talked about the process of how building a new chip fab isn't just expensive, it takes a lot of time. it can take years to receive all of the necessary equipment. time is of the essence and fortunately a solution is not as daunting as it can seem. in part, because of the

dependency of this vulnerable supply chain, particularly with taiwan, senator mark warner, chairman of the senate intelligence committee and i introduced the chips for america act to help bolster our domestic semiconductor manufacturing. when we first introduced this bill, the chip shortage wasn't near as pervasive as it is now, but the writing has been on the wall for years. as our reliance on semiconductors has steadily increased, the u.s. share of global semiconductor manufacturing has decreaseed. since 2000, the u.s. has dropped from producing roughly a quarter of the world's semiconductors to only 12%. and i'm sure it comes as no surprise that as our manufacturing capacity has gone down, china's has gone up. in the same period of time, china has gone from manufacturing zero chips to 16%

of the world's supply, and it plans to invest another $1.4 trillion in semiconductor technologies. yes, america has lost ground to our global competitors, and unless we take action, it's estimated that by 2030, 83% of global semiconductor manufacturing will be in asia. this presents a huge risk to both our national security and our global competitiveness, and we need to take action now to reverse the tide. that's what the chips for america act will do. the premise of this legislation is straightforward -- create a federal incentive program to encourage chip manufacturing in the united states of america. rather than relying on foreign manufacturers or competing against other countries for the small supply of chips, let's

bolster the supply of american-made semiconductors. this way, we can secure some of our most vulnerable supply chains. we can create thousands of well-paying american jobs and boost our global competitiveness by supplying made-in-america chips to our defends and allies around the world. in the 1980's, president reagan and congress led the defense budget buildup to counter military-based geostrategic threats that contributed to the end of the cold war. this legislation fills a similar purpose by securing our critical supply chains from the ever-evolving economic and national security challenges ahead. other governments have made similar investments in semiconductor manufacturing. not only china, but south korea, taiwan, singapore, germany,

among others. including more than $100 billion pledge to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the european union. it's time for the united states not just to follow suit but to lead. the chips for america act has received broad bipartisan support, both in the house and the senate, and it became law in january. that's the authorization part. but now we have the important job of backing these programs with funding. back in february, i spoke to president biden about the importance of getting this done, and i'm glad to say that there is bipartisan, bicameral support and the administration has made this a priority as well. last month, i sent a letter to president biden urging him to prioritize funding for these initiatives, and more than 70 colleagues, republicans and democrats from the house and the

senate cosigned the letter. madam president, if we're looking for something important to do that has broad bipartisan support in both the house and the senate and is supported by the biden administration, this is it. bolstering domestic semiconductors is good for our economy, our national security, and our global competitiveness. this current shortage is a reminder of how critical it is to take action today so a lean supply of semiconductors does not become the new normal. we have a big opportunity ahead of us, and success is our only option. madam president, i yield the floor. and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. grassley: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: today i want to discuss an unfortunate trend that has grown over the last year. since march of 2020, the united states has been battling covid-19. we've lost over 500,000 americans because of the virus. but i'm talking about another tragedy today, and that's a tragedy that i call war on the cops. two months after the pandemic hit, and sparked by the death

of george floyd, cities all across the country broke out into violent riots. much of that violence has been directed at law enforcement, and it's taken a very serious toll. during the 2020 riots, more than 900 law enforcement officers were injured, including 277 officers injured while defending the federal courthouse in portland. and 60 secret service officers defending the white house. in september, a gunman ambushed two los angeles sheriffs police deputies as they sat in their squad car. in january 2020, a violent mob attacked policing defending the

capitol. last month a young man killed a capitol police officer performing his duties. police across the country are suffering from demoralization and fatigue. by the end of last summer, police officers were quitting the force in large numbers. last august, 49 officers retired from the portland police bureau in oregon. that's more than it lost in all of 2019. by the end of last summer, 140 officers had quit the atlanta police department by that point of the year. that number had been only 80 in the previous year. and in washington,d.c., over 300 officers have quit since

last june. only half of those were retirements. the other half just walked away. we must consider what does that mean for the crime in these cities. in portland, murders increased 60% in 2020 from the year before. arsons were up 95%. atlanta, murders were up 62% in 2020 from the year before. aggravated assault was up by 15%. and in washington,d.c., here, murders were up 22% in 2020 from the year before. so far this year murders are up even more. 33% so far in 2021 compared to

this point last year. professor paul kasell at the university of utah estimates that reduced policing in dangerous neighborhoods last year caused an additional 1,200 homicides in america's largest cities. but the problem isn't just with keeping police officers on the force. there's also a problem with getting new ones as well, including in my state of iowa. recently the des moines police department reported it had received half the applications they did last year. at the county level, the polk county sheriff's office usually gets hundreds of applications for deputy vacancies but recently only got 50

applications. and in the council bluffs, iowa, police department told me at one of my recent county meetings that it was having the same recruiting difficulties. this is a problem that police departments are having all over the country with hundreds of vacancies across cities like louisville, new york, philadelphia, portland. how could this be? well, for the last year there's been a lot of hatred and vitriol directed at the police. if police officers use excessive force, he or she should suffer the consequences. but it often seems like our national media would have us believe that any use of force by

police is unjustified. even members of congress sometimes join this sort of demagoguery. allege month ago -- a month ago congresswoman are a she did -- s rashida tlaib said no more militarization. it can't be reformed. end of quote. back in january, congresswoman cori tweeted defending the police isn't radical. it's real, end of quote. this sort of talk is dangerous for people in neighborhoods that depend heavily on police officers to keep them safe. law enforcement officers have to make split-second decisions that could be the difference of life

or death for themselves or someone that they're trying to protect. that's what we train them to do. sadly, we sometimes need them to use force in order to keep the rest of us safer. now we're used to seeing videos on the internet of police officers using deadly force. but if you want to see really good policing in action, i would suggest people look at another video. it's on the internet. just do a simple search of quote, unquote, los angeles deputy mercedes-benz. you will come across a video of a los angeles sheriffs deputy doing a routine traffic stop of a driver who had been using her phone while behind the wheel. in this video, the driver calls

the deputy a murderer and then mocks him for being hispanic and taunts him for supposedly wishing he were white. that video will make your stomach turn. but throughout the video, the deputy is courteous and professional. i suspect nearly all enforcement officers conduct themselves and their work in that way. they have a very hard job to do and deal with people who often don't want to deal with the police. most of them do their job very professionally and professionally. i worry that because of the threat of violence, the condemnation by the media, and

daily abuses like this one, more and more police officers won't want to do the job anymore. and i worry that more and more young adults won't want to start screers -- careers in law enforcement. we need more qualified people who want to be police officers, not fewer. we can't keep up like this. we can't keep scaring away our police officers while telling the next generation of americans that cops are evil. they're not evil. they're our friends and neighbors who make a career out of keeping us safe. when the outside world becomes a dangerous place, they show up, and we expect them to show up. and the outside world is not going to stop being a dangerous

place. let's make sure cops don't stop showing up. let's end the war on cops. on another subject, madam president, dealing with my oversight work, on march 10 of this year i came to the floor about my february 11, 2021, oversight letter to the biden administration's department of homeland security. that letter discussed the administration's withdrawal of what's been called the confucius rule, associated with the country of china and probably more closely related to the communist party of china.

now the rule that was withdrawn was proposed in the trump administration, and it would have required additional institutions to just simply disclose their financial connection to the communist chinese government, including its confucius institute. the substance of the rule is common sense, especially in light of the clear propaganda threat that the regime of china presents to us. it's common sense, so why wouldn't the biden administration continue with it? in my letter, i ask secretary mayorkas two very simple questions. one, does the biden administration of homeland security consider confucius

institutes to be an extension of the communist chinese government? if not, why not? second question, does the biden department of homeland security consider confucius institutes to be purveyors of communist chinese propaganda? if not, why not? when i took to the floor march 10, the biden administration had failed to respond. as of today, still no response. these are various -- very easy questions for the administration. the future -- the failure to answer in light of ongoing threat is very troubling. just the other week, the justice

department indicted an american professor with two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements for concealing support he received from the chinese government. the indictment tells me the administration has concerns about china and our universities or this action would not have been taken. during the course of my oversight activities, i've looked at both threats to taxpayer-funded research and threats that confucius institutes pose to our occasional institution. simply put, these are real concerns. with threats to taxpayer-funded research, we must protect our intellectual property and research.

chinese are stealing our intellectual property every day. we all know that. we spend billions of dollars and expend a great amount of effort to bring innovations to this country, and in turn, the world. we must protect our american investments from chinese espionage and threats -- theft. likewise, we must guard against the propaganda spread by confucius institutes which are extensions of the communist regime. one member of the communist regime said this, and i quote, the confucius institute is an appealing grand for expanding our culture abroad. it has made an important contribution towards improving our soft power. the confucius brand has a national attractiveness using

the excuse of teaching chinese language, everything looks reasonable and logical. end of that quote. now i want to quote the chinese minister of propaganda said to fellow ministry workers. quote, coordinate the efforts of overseas and domestic propaganda and further create a favorite international environment for us with regard to key issues that influence our sovereignty and safety, we should actively carry out international propaganda battles against issues such as tibet, taiwan, human rights. our strategy is to proactively take our culture abroad. we should do well in

establishing operating overseas cultural centers and confucius institutes. why would any american doubt china's purpose for confucius institutes based upon the quote of that minister? yet, even with this very clear threat, the biden administration is silent on the proposed rule, other than their getting caught restrct -- retracting that trump rule. what more does this administration need before they get the picture? given the administration's failure to act, i've introduced a bill, s. 1369, that would make

the rule that they -- they've withdrawn now a law. my bill, which is cosponsored by senators blackburn, tillis,ern hawley, would require united states institutions to disclose their financial connections with the communist chinese regime. my bill would accomplish these measures by requiring those schools to disclose those connections as part of their certification and recertification of student aid exchange visitors program. that program provides approvals to schools to enroll nonimmigrant students. if the schools want visas for these foreign students, they'll first have to disclose their

ties to the chinese government. the centerpiece of the bill i just described is disclosure and transparency, and we all know that transparency brings accountability. we, the people, absolutely have a right to know if our occasional institutions are tied -- educational institutions are tied to china, especially in light of that regime's using money to gain leverage over many of them, which brings me then to a greater point. american educational institutions ought to stand up to the communist regime instead of doing their bidding for the millions of dollars that they received. china is a national security threat. they are a propaganda machine, and we know they will stop at

nothing in their attempt to dominate the world. it's time for the biden administration to step up to the plate and protect our american interests and american american institutions -- our american interests and our american institutions and if they don't let that rule of the previous administration stay in place or put it back in place, i would urge my colleagues to join my transparency bill. and then on one final point, i would like to call once again for both sides to stop using elections as a partisan weapon. as i've mentioned before, the claim by some trump supporters that a certain brand of voting machine switched votes was lifted entirely from the

democrats' 2004 playbook and president trump questioning his loss in georgia was simply following in the losing footsteps of the governor the year before. she lost by over 50,000 votes and has never even bothered to prove voting irregularities. ask secretary of state brad raffensperger who got into trouble by trump supporters and celebrated by democrats for protecting the integrity of the election. he will be the first to tell you that questioning georgia's election system started not with trump but with democrats.

democrats decided to take their partisan election tact nationwide, that's what led to for the people's act. the title alone reveals it is a propaganda bill. they didn't take tt time to draft something from scratch since the purpose was partisan messaging, not enacting thoughtful reform of our election laws. they just cobbled together every election mandate bill introduced by a democrat in recent years into one giant package, taking care to make sure it all made sense together and without working with local election officials to see if it was even a practical approach. democrats have now reframed the same bill in a response to what they call the big lie that the 2020 election was illegitimate,

but it was actually written in 2019 to double down on democrats' own big lie questioning the legitimacy of the elections -- of the various elections they lost in 2018. america's elections are free and fair, that's true in iowa, in georgia, all 50 states. it was true in 2018 and 2020 and i'm confident it will be true in 2022. foreign advisors -- foreign adversaries like russia and china cast out on the soundness of our democratic system, both to weaken it from within and to justify their own repressive regimes. influence efforts to do just that have been part of the k.g. playbook for decades -- k.g.b.

playbook for decades, but foreign agents can't hold a candle to what we americans are doing to ourselves. casting doubt on elections may be good politics in the short run but it does real damage in the long run. let's all agree to stop this sort of peddling of doubts about elections. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. and i hope that you had a marvelous mother's day, madam president. i enjoyed so much being back in tennessee, and over the past week i really had the pleasure of hearing from so many tennesseans who are just celebrating having reopened businesses and music venues and

public spaces in our communities. there was a lot of happiness across our state as i was there. everywhere you looked, you could see evidence that people are ready to get back to work and they want to get back to life as normal. there's also a lot of evidence that local businesses are ready to get back to normal. you cannot walk ten feet in knoxville, tennessee, for example, without running into a help wanted sign. normally this would be an indicator of a successful economic comeback, but here's the problem. those signs are just not working, not for retail or restaurants or even for the industrial sector with small business manufacturing. some business are getting so

desperate for help that they are offering signing bonuses worth hundreds of dollars to anyone willing and able to come back to work. madam president, all year we've used a particular catch phrase to encourage people to get their vaccinations. we've said that we could only get shots in arms, then we could get back to normal. well, as it turns out, that was step one. we are getting the shots in arms. people are getting vaccinated. now it's time for step two, and that is getting people back to work, getting them to fill these jobs. and i've said time and again, i'll say it again, the best economic stimulus there is -- the very best economic stimulus there is is a job. it's a job. this holds true not just for

those pulling in a paycheck but for the businesses who are hiring. my democratic colleagues, many of them disagree with me on this point, but i firmly believe the best economic stimulus is a job. for months some have refused to discuss an end to the various emergency relief programs we all agreed were necessary to help workers and businesses survive the lockdowns. but they were never meant to be permanent programs. they were there for a time of specific need. and i think if some of my colleagues took the time to speak to the owners whose businesses are short on labor, they'd hear the same story over and over again.

their potential pool of potential employees was drained dry, at least in part by the unemployment insurance plus up that we initiated last year. because of the way that program was designed and because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle rejected our offers to amend it, potential employees are drawing in more in unemployment than they would make at some jobs. now, some of my colleagues across the aisle dispute the notion that this imbalance has led to a labor shortage. they claim that if there are people staying home and collecting unemployment, rather than taking their old job back or maybe a new job, that those examples are anecdotal. but

to that point, i would ask how many anecdotes does it take to create a trend? in tennessee there are at least a quarter of a million jobs available, but as of last week, we still have about 49,000 people receiving the $300 plusup. this means that there are five jobs, five, five jobs available for every single one of those 49,000 people. i want to make it clear that these business owners have no reason to lie about the trouble they're having finding help. their survival depends on their ability to hire a team of employees. they gain nothing by poisoning the well with false accusations.

anyone who has ever run a business knows that. they also know it's a difficult call for these potential employees to make, even when signing bonuses and higher wages are on the table. but therein lies the disconnect. while businesses are incentivized to do all they can to attract workers, the federal government has incentivized workers to hold out as long as they can before taking the leap into a new job. it's not their fault, but it is the reality that congress created. what we're seeing now isn't economic stimulus. i would offer that it is an economic stalemate. and if we don't break the ties that bind recovery to the success or failure of a

government program, we'll suffer long-term economic consequences. as i said, some of my democratic colleagues fundamentally disagree with that approach. they've made that disagreement clear to the tune of $6 trillion worth of spending that would be like nothing else that we have ever seen and making it a permanent part of our economic landscape. they gave us a covid relief package that had almost nothing to do with fighting the pan pandemic, an infrastructure proposal that dedicates 60%, 60% of its total price tag to job-killing proposals like the green new deal fantasies. and most recently, a supposedly

pro-family proposal that if implemented will enfact replace the stability -- in fact replace the stability of the nuclear family with a lifelong tether to the welfare state. talk about never letting a crisis go to waste. this isn't compassion in my opinion, and it isn't recovery. this is a power grab. they took the majority, put pen to paper, and produced a wish list they've wanted to check off items from that wish list since 2010. so their list is long. this version of economic stimulus which in reality is just a destructive cycle of spending and dependency and taxation and inflation will require more than just a general

buy-in from the american people. they're going to have to persuade people to creed authority, -- to cede authority, to cede authority over their lives, their families, their businesses, their jobs, their employment, cede that authority to the federal government. now, if this isn't true, if this isn't their goal, let the democrats dispute it. let them come to the table and listen to what these business owners are telling us. let them help figure out a way to offer a light at the end of the tunnel to the unemployed and underemployed instead of keeping them tangled in a safety net that was neither designated nor intended to be permanent. madam president, we still have a long way to go before we can

declare victory over the covid-19 pandemic. but what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle renoose to acknowledge is that we will never make it across the finish line if we don't allow the american people to hope for that victory. we need to allow them to hope that last month's terrible jobs report was just an anomaly. i certainly hope it was. and most importantly, we need to allow them to remember that a little over a year ago, we didn't have to rely on emergency supplements and direct payments from the government to survive. we had the most robust economy we had had in decades and decades. unemployment numbers were at record lows.

wage gains were at record highs. so, we've been there before. we can and we will recover but encouraging total reliance on the government is not going to be what gets us there, especially when so many businesses in this country are trying to hire workers and workers are not taking the jobs. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. 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 executive calendar number 69, andrea joan palm of wisconsin to be deputy secretary of health and human services, signed by 18 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived.

the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of andrea joan palm of wisconsin to be deputy secretary of health appeared human services shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 62. the nays are at 35. the motion is agreed to.

mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to discuss what i've seen happen now over the last 100 days of the biden administration, and that president biden seems to be doubling down on some of the failures of the obama administration. last week, as the ranking member of the senate energy and natural resources committee, i released a report, and it's called

solydras syndrome and the green solution. this 20-page report really is an in-depth look at the failed green energy policies under the obama administration. and now what we're seeing is president biden is determined, in my opinion, to repeat them on a much larger scale. in 2009, under the direction of president biden, democrats passed a partisan stimulus spending bill. the legislation included $90 billion for green job training, for green energy loans, and for high-speed rail. it also included about $3 billion for a program more commonly referred to now as cash for clunkers. well, this bill was -- the goal was to produce millions of

green-energy jobs. they wanted do it by investing taxpayer dollars in emerging green energy companies and also subsidizing new vehicles. so what did american taxpayers get for all of this money? what did they get as a return on this hefty investment? well, they didn't get the promised jobs. they got boondoggles, billions of taxpayer dollars wound up wasted on green tech companies through loans or grants. several of the companies then failed. the most famous of these was, of course, sylindra. this was a solar power company attached to the administration. it was received over 5 $00 million in taxpayer dollars. not too long after that,

headlines across the nation told the story of what happened next. in september of 2011, the company failed miserably. more than a thousand workers lost their jobs. almost all of the $535 million taxpayer dollars were lost. the leader of solyndra lied about what they could produce and it turns out they were big political donors of the obama-biden campaign and democrats. obama donors got millions of dollars of tax money and taxpayers were left holding the bag. it was a terrible green gamble that went wrong. a123 systems, beacon power, fisker automotive received loans and went bankrupt.

the waste didn't stop at private companies. the obama administration gave a $3.5 billion grant to california for a high-speed rail project. this was california's planned bullet train and it was supposed to go from los angeles to san francisco. let's fast forward ten years and see where we are with that bullet train. after skyrocketing costs, the governor of california has thrown in the towel. only a fraction of the original project is going to be completed and delays are going to be announced. you might ask why are they completing this railway, this high-speed bullet train that was supposed to go from los angeles to san francisco, well, by completing a small part of the project, california can avoid paying back taxpayers of the

nation. americans remember cash for clunkers. it gave subsidies to folks as a way to stimulate auto sales and auto industry jobs. it didn't work. one analysis found that the cash for clunkers program found that it created one job for every $1.4 million spent. quite a lot of money for a single job. the program itself was a clunker and it spent way too much taxpayer cash. well, the list goes on and on, as i outlined in this report. the obama administration frittered away billions of taxpayer dollars. they chose people close to the administration to receive the money and the economy remained sluggish and taxpayers got fleeced. there was one great economic spot during the great recession and i will tell you, mr. president, it was the oil and gas sector.

by the end of 2013, nonfarm product was 1% higher than in 2009. in contrast the oil and gas sector employment was 16% higher. while the rest of the economy was stuck in the mud, the oil and gas sector was growing and creating american jobs. that robust job growth helped make american energy independent and secure. you would think the lessons from the failed 2009 stimulus and the u.s. energy boon would be obvious and would be repeated today. but the biden administration seems blinded by the sew -- sew lynde ras syndrome. president biden wants to use the same playbook now. with a heftier price tag. the president wants to spend trillions of dollars, not just billions. included would be hundreds of

billions of dollars in green job training, increased high-speed rail, new electric vehicles. it's the same plan that failed under president obama. at the same time the biden administration is recycling far-fetched so-called jobs plan, the biden administration is attacking oil and gas jobs, good jobs that people have today. on his first day in office, president biden signed as executive order to kill the keystone xl pipeline. this eliminated the prospect of 11,000 american jobs, making matters worse, president biden pim plementd a ban on -- implemented a ban on new oil and gas production. a permanent ban on federal lands could destroy up to a million jobs across america. my report finds the biden administration is pushing expensive fantasy jobs and killing real ones at a time that

america cannot afford to lose these jobs. it is a recipe for repeated disaster. mr. president, we all remember how president -- president obamd shovel-ready jobs and then announced they weren't coming because shovel ready was not as shovel ready as was expected. we can expect the same thing it this time. the expensive job wasting solyndra syndrome is back. we are once again spending a lot more and doing that on the same bad ideas is now even worse than before. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

ms. smith: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. smith: i have one request for a committee to meet during today's session of the senate. it has the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. ms. smith: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to senate resolution 203. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 203, condemning the horrific attack in indianapolis indiana on april 15, 2021, and expressing support and prayers for all those impacted by the tragedy. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate

will proceed to the measure. ms. smith: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. smith: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m., tuesday, november, 11, and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. further, upon conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the nomination of andrea joan palm, to be deputy secretary of health and human services. that at 11:30 a.m., all postcloture time on the psalm nomination be considered -- on the palm nomination be

considered expired, that the senate recess following the cloture motion on the marten nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for caucus meetings. all postcloture debate time be considered expired at 2:30 p.m. finally, that if any of the nominations are confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. mr. president, to be clear, we are saying tuesday, may 11. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. ms. smith: for the information of senators, there will be two roll call votes at 11:30 a.m. and at least one roll call vote at 2:30 p.m. additional roll call votes are

expected during today's session. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands aunderstand until 10 -- stands adjourned until 10:30 a.m. -- until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. >> the senate is transferring for the day. in ripon to be deputy health services secretary. there this week the nomination of martin to be deputy education secretary. when sin returns, much like coverage here on "c-span2".

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