he gets his social security. i'm paying for that and so is everybody else, somebody who hasn't even worked a day can gethalf their husbands social security area i work for 40 years . i contributed to social security and also to a pension. when i went in for my social security, they cut it by 60 percent. because they said i got a pension. but i said both of those were my money. now on top of all those, all those monies that i'm paying our government is letting in hundreds of thousands of people now under biden and we're paying billions of dollars for them. why areyou not addressing that ? if you find there's a problem that we should be getting more free childcare and mark the way i see it is the more free you get the more free they want. >> host: that is sicilia in illinois. >> guest: i grew up in schaumburg illinois leave this part of the program for

our commitment to live gavel to gavel coverage ofcongress . what's the rest of this at c-span.org. the senate about to return with lawmakers holding a confirmation vote for don graves to be deputy secretary of congress. live now to the senate floor. >> the clerk will call the role.>>. >>

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the presiding officer: the yeas are 89, the nays are 7. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table. and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action.

a senator: mr. chairman. the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: i ask we move to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. ms. cortez masto: i ask unanimous consent that it be in order to file cloture on the motion to proceed to calendar number 58, s. 1260. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection. ms. cortez masto: i move to proceed to calendar number 58, s. 1260. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar 58, s. 1260, a bill to establish a new derek at that time for technology and innovation in the national science foundation, and so forth and for other purposes. ms. cortez masto: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the 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 motion to proceed to calendar number 58, s. 1260, a bill to establish a new directorate for technology and innovation, and so forth and for other purposes. ms. cortez masto: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cortez masto: i have six requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate, and they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. ms. cortez masto: i yield the floor.

mr. portman: mr. president?

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio is recognized. mr. portman: mr. president, p i'm here on the floor today to talk about the economy, what's going on in the jobs front and where we go from here. last week the department of labor issued their most recent jobs report. it showed that we added 266,000 jobs in april. that was about one-quarter of what was predicted. it was disappointing. it shows that job growth coming out of the pandemic has now slowed. it's a question as to why because there are so many jobs out there. how is there can be so many jobs available and yet have such a disappointing april jobs report? the demand for workers is certainly high. the other thing going on out there is that we have creeping inflation. we learned this past week that the consumer price index rose 4.2% between april 20 and april 2021 -- so the year april to april, that's the highest

increase going back to the summer of 2008. this whole debate going on about whether there is inflation or not, i would ask you to talk to your constituents because they'll tell you there is ace inflation. there is inflation at the gas pump, at the grocery store. there is inflation throughout the economy right now. that should concern every american. and it is because of policy choices. it doesn't have to be this way. what this argument boils down to with regard to jobs and inflation real lay are -- really are two different approaches, how to increase jobs, how to increase wages. the biden administration believes the government needs to spend more to prime the pump. this is despite us being told by every economic analysis, including our own nonpartisan congressional budget office, that without any new stimulus at the beginning of this year, we were going to see the economy come back, come back strongly. in fact, all the studies showed

that the rate of growth in year was going to be 4% or more without any new stimulus or spending. and that by midyear we'd be back to the prepandemic economy and economic growth. and yet the biden administration insisting on priming the pump, putting more money out there, the $1.9 trillion spending package was all about that. some of us raised concerns about it and warned about this h by the way, one of us who did this was larry summers, secretary of treasury under a democratic administration and is a prominent economist on the other side of the aisle. but he said this and he was right. that this risked overheating an economy that was already growing and would result in inflation. unfortunately, the massive stimulus seems to have exactly done that. unfortunately now there's another wave of spending that's being projected, over $4 trillion is being proposed in new spending in addition to the $1.9 trillion, two new packages president talked about in his

address to the congress last week. so it's interesting because even though inflation is going up, even though the jobs market is disappointing, it seems like the administration isn't changing course. one thing they're not changing course on is they want to continue -- they want to continue to pay people a substantial amount not to work. now, in my view, during the covid-19 crisis, at the heat of it, we needed to do something to help people who had lost their jobs through no fault of their own and the state unemployment system was a place to do that. so we added a federal supplement on top of the state unemployment benefit. in ohio, the state pays about $350 a week on average. it's about half of whatever your salary was, whatever your income was. we added $300 on top of that. $660 per week on average. that means for 42% of people on unemployment insurance -- a national figure -- they've

making more on unemployment than they were at work. more on unemployment than they were at work. so a lot of people have made the logical decision to say, why should i be going about a being to work? unfortunately, when the president has been asked about this he says, quote, i know there's been a lot of discussion that people are staying home rather than going to work. i don't see much evidence of that, end quote. i hope the president will talk to some of the business owners i'm talking to, particularly small businesses. the numbers tell a different story. according to the latest data released this week, at the end of march, we have 8.1 million job openings in america. that's 8.1 million jobs opened. we all know that because we're back in our states, as we will be later today or tomorrow, and we'll see the help wanted signs. that's the highest number in history. we've never had eight million jobs open in earthquake in.

the -- open in america. 185,000 openings in restaurants and hospitality. we've got the people coming back but we can't find workers. 155,000 in state and local education. 81,000 in entertainment. with that demand for workers and the covid-19 pandemic substantially improving, the employment numbers should be skyrocketing. we should be seeing so many people going back to work. this is an opportunity for people to go back, to get into their careers and get back to the dignity and self-respect that comes from work, the fulfillment that comes from work. but it's not happening. if you ask business owners in my home state of ohio and across the country, they said that business is booming but we can't find workers. one said, it's crazy. we're busier than we were pre-covid, end quote. but they can't find staff to keep up with demand. the dayton, ohio, chamber of

commerce did a study. 78% of members say they can't find workers to fill the job openings they have. 78%. so why is this happening? i think there are a few reasons. one is it's true we still have a skills gap in our country. that's something i have been working on, along with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. it is the reason i offered what called the jobs act to make sure we have this connection, don't have a skills gap but instead have the right skills being taught to match the work needs we have. but honestly, those numbers i just talked about werer to entertainment -- with regard to entertainment jobs and state and local jobs, most do not require a specialized skill. so the skills gap needs to be addressed, particularly in manufacturing where i was told today by the national association of manufacturers, there are 700,000 manufacturing jobs open right now. but, again, many of the jobs that are open do not require advanced skills. they just require you to show up and to be willing to do the work. it's also understandable to me

that some people may be hesitant to go back to work because of covid but we now have these three effective vaccines that are doing the hard work to try to get us back to a normal lifestyle, back to school, back to church, back to synagogue. our nation's researchers and scientists have helped us to get back to that point. we're turning the corner. i also realize that for some people child care is an issue. there is a he no question about that, a the cost of -- there is no question about that the cost of child care. it's true that it's dispro-nationally women. i agree that's as -- it's true that it's dispro-organization in portion nationally women. in many cases the kids are not back in school. that's a solvable problem. it is time for our children to go back to school. follow c.d.c., follow the science. 54% of k-8 public schools were offering full-time classroom teaching in march.

the rest were not. i got to he will it -- i got to tell you, none of of these were the problem. there are jobs and folks qualified to do them. they just aren't looking for work because of the way the government has chosen to pay people not to work. wages are up, by the way. so for those who say, well, employers need to raise wages, they are they are up h that's one reason we have inflation because wages are going up. it is not a bad thing even though it will count for some of this inflation debt we have. but the wages going up is not going to make the difference here because even though wages have gone up, on averagend 4% or 5%, still people are not coming to work the way you would expect. jimmy johns is offering hiring bonuses. the mcdonald's where i live is offering a $500 signing bonus. chipotle is offering free

college tuition. there is a $900 signing bonus or certified trug drivers. by the way, with regard to truck drivers, you know about the colonial pipeline and cutting off gas to the people of the united states and people concerned about going to the gas station and not having fuel available, including states is all over the east and southeast. so the answer that some people came up with and made sense is to have trucks deliver that fuel to those gas stations so the tax reduction could go to the plays where the pipeline would normal lay take it and move that fuel to the gas stations. problem? no truck drivers. they can't find drivers to move the fuel from the depots to the gas stations. this is a real problem. i have a constituent back home who contacts me yesterday. she is offering a $1,000 signing bonus. she can get nobody to step

forward. she's got 30 jobs in new york, 60 jobs in ohio. about 250 jobs total. she can't find anybody. when they talks to her people, they tell her, as soon as the u.i. ends, i'll be back. businesses can't compete where more than 40% of the workers are making more on the unemployment supplement than they would in their jobs. it's a problem, by the way, that states themselves are now starting to deal with because they realize this is a huge problem for their economy, for their small businesses and for their workforce. as of this afternoon, just in the last week, 15 states a have said, you know what? i'm not going to accept the $300 supplement because i want to get people back to work. and it's already making a dips. someone just told me from the state of montana, one of our colleagues from there, montana was the first to do this about a week ago, a hotel owner told him that he was in desperate need of

people. when he would put the help wanted sign out, he could get one person to show up a week. this week 60 people showed up. why? because the unemployment insurance is running out. people are now looking for work. so these states i think are going to continue to do this it. i think it'll be more than 15 by the time we stop speaking here. states realize this is a competitive advantage. if new york doesn't do it -- and ohio is one of the states that just decided to do in this afternoon. that will help ohio relative to a state that wouldn't choose to move on beyond the $300 supplement. unemployment insurance is important and it's still going to be therement but it will be the state benefit that it's always been. the other thing is the work requirement. in ohio this is about 50% of whenever your wages are. you if if you get an offer, you

can't stay on unemployment. under covid, states accepted waivers not to have to require people to look for work. about 30 states now just in the last few weeks have decided to get rid of that waiver e it's not helping anybody. it is not helping the workers the small businesses, and it is certainly not happening the taxpayer paying tens of billions of dollars for these supplements. when i debated this on the senate floor, the amendment was amended but we tried to end the unemployment insurance sooner given the economic numbers that were out there. one of the democrat colleagues on the other side said that, do i think that ohio workers somehow are -- don't have worker ethic or are lazy that's not what i think at all. i don't think they're lazy at all. i think they're logical. and i think common sense dictates that when you're offering to pay somebody more not to work than to works, you're likely to get bad result. so again it was needed when peoe

losing their jobs through no fault of their own to covid-19. devastated, ravaged so many sectors of our economy. a lot of sectors are coming back and coming back strong, but they need workers, and they need them desperately. the stakes couldn't be higher. let me illustrate why. if workers don't go back to work, some businesses will actually close and these jobs will go away permanently. that is a reality. take jordy's restaurant in columbus, ohio. jordy's shut down a couple of weeks ago because they couldn't find enough job applicants to keep the lights on. period, they shut down. this is a restaurant that made it through the worst of the pandemic when our restaurant and hospitality industry was in tough time. but its owner said himself, and i quote, we fought hard to get through covid, but covid didn't kill us. the stimulus did. the covid didn't kill us. the stimulus did. that's a quote from a business owner. that's the difference again between the philosophy that the

biden administration seems to be taking and frankly reality and the philosophy that we're encouraging, which is let's get people back to work. let's get this economy moving again. the president is committed to spending an unprecedented amount of tax dollars to try and get what it takes to get the economy back on track. but spending more tax dollars isn't a prescription to what ails our economy today. getting people back to work certainly is. if we don't, again, businesses will close, careers cannot be continued, people won't get the fulfillment that they get from going to work, and many of these jobs will not return. instead of following this path, let's change course. let's follow common sense, get our country back to work so we can all enjoy the goods and services that we work to provide to help each other. let's help the small businesses which is the lifeblood of so many of our economies. let's help people currently on unemployment get started doing lasting careers that they enjoy, make a living, find long-term stability so they can realize their american dream. that's what this country's all about. so today i'm urging the biden

administration to take two simple steps to encourage people to move past the pandemic and to get back to work. first, we need to reimplement the federal requirement that people must actively be searching for work if they are going to receive unemployment. again, ohio has made that decision as have about 30 other states, but let's make this the national standard that it was prior to the pandemic. long-term unemployment doesn't benefit anyone and will ensure the people are able to get off unemployment insurance more quickly. second, we need to draw down the federal unemployment supplement funded by covid-19 that passed in march. it's time to look at ending this not on september 6 as it's currently slated to end but now while the economy is strong and growing and we're trying to get people back to work. it's a rational decision now for many people to collect the unemployment check that effectively pays you up to $15 an hour to not work and stay home and makes no sense. the focus is on shifting toward getting the economy back up and running. my own preference is that some of this fund be used to pay

people a bonus to go back to work. i know that's controversial on my side of the aisle. but i'll tell you i think it works. montana's doing it. it's working for them. how about 100 bucks a week instead of the $300 supplement, 100 bucks a week for six weeks as a return to work bonus. to me that makes a lot of sense. that would be something i think we could get some bipartisan support for around here. and that would help the workers, the small businesses, and our economy. through these two steps, we can create the disincentive to work that was a by-product of our response to an unprecedented pandemic, we can stop that disincentive to work. now that we are beating covid-19, we should focus on getting back to normal. i urge the biden administration to focus the on getting the economy back up and running and getting folks off the sidelines and back to work. i yield the floor.

mr. lankford: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma is recognized. mr. lankford: i want to be able to comment on my colleague, senator portman, and some of the comments he has made about unemployment. my state is not one of those states yet that has made the decision to be able to end the additional unemployment benefits that are coming from the federal government, and it's harming workers and it's harming jobs and it's harming businesses in my state. and i hope in the days ahead, my state will be one of those states to be able to step up and say -- and i believe my governor will -- will be able to step up and say let's actually make sure we're benefiting families long term. there is a whole group of folks that believe that if you only give people enough money, that's going to help them rise out of poverty. people need a job. people need a purpose. people need a plan to be able to

do that. folks don't need long-term government benefits to be able to help sustain that. they need a way to be able to help earn a living, to be able to pass it on to their family. to set a job record for them and to set a path for their kids and their grandkids after that. that helps people rise. every study we've seen on how to help people rise out of poverty, graduate high school, wait until after marriage to have kids, and have a job of any type. that's how people rise. that's how people are employed and engaged. that's a helpful thing. as i think about some of the things that are happening even today. secretary mayorkas was in front of our committee today. it was shocking to me to hear the secretary of homeland security talk about how much more efficient they have become at processing people at the border and getting them into the country. it used to be our evaluation for how we were managing border

patrol and customs and border protection was how many people we were stopping at the border and returning to their home country. he literally over and over again articulated how much faster they are now at processing people at the border and releasing them into the country. even at one point when i challenged him and said i understand people are being released in the country without even a notice to appear, that they're just being released in the country and told to go to a place somewhere in the country, self-report themselves to an i.c.e. office and say i'd like to get a court order to be able to have a notice to appear. at that point, i said how many people have been treated that way? he said i'm not sure. i already have looked up the record on it. it's 19,000 just in the past couple of months that have been brought across the border, released into the country, and told just self-report yourself to whatever i.c.e. agent you see somewhere in the country. i asked the simple question, how many people have already done that? not only could he not answer the

number 19,000, which we have confirmed, but he didn't know how many people had actually turned themselves in and actually done it. but we continued to do this. it was all about speed of moving people that are crossing the border into the country rather than actually managing our border and even something as simple as just the gaps in the fence that they are still, as he said to me, studying whether they are going to close the gaps in the fence. we have a gas pipeline that has gone down due to a ransomware attack. it reminded me again of how important gas pipelines are all over our nation. and it's interesting to me that on day one, one of the first things that president biden did was he stepped in and ended the keystone pipeline moving through here and is now actively working to be able to shut down all pipeline construction around the country. can i remind americans, especially americans on the east coast, what it means to lose a pipeline? when the president says we're not going to do more pipelines,

that means we have no redundancy. that if a pipeline goes down, there is not an additional backup one in construction to be able to get there. it's better to have multiple pipelines in an area so if one goes down, you still have other fuel supplies. what if this pipeline had actually been a larger scale issue, even a ransomware attack as bad as that is. this whole fight we are having about pipelines suddenly makes sense to folks on the east coast that can't get gasoline. pipelines are not evil. pipelines are moving energy across the country. it's the least expensive, safest way to be able to move that energy across the country. and this week, of all weeks, it has been interesting to have a dialogue about senate bill 1. a long markup in the rules committee to be able to talk about voting in america. now, i was at the white house several years ago when the first step act was signed.

it was a remarkable bill dealing with criminal justice reform. as i was at that white house signing ceremony and the gathering of all these different folks that had been engaged, it was interesting to me to stand in that room with president trump and to have folks from the heritage foundation and folks from the aclu in the same room shaking hands, smiling, and saying this is a good piece of legislation. in fact, it's the only time that i can remember sitting at a signing ceremony watching people from two different perspectives say they both support something so strongly. that was the first step act. i have now seen my second time that that's occurred, when both the heritage foundation and the aclu both opposed senate bill 1 and h.r. 1. they both have come out in opposition to this. well, that's an interesting gathering of folks to be able to gather together from both political extremes to be able to look at a piece of legislation, all 880 pages of it, and to say that's a bad idea.

why would they say that? well, let me count the ways of why they would say that. in my state, in oklahoma, we have great voting engagement, good. we want to make it easy to vote. we want to make it hard to cheat. we want as many people as possible to be able to vote and as many people as possible to be able to engage in the process. it's the nature of a republic like ours. you need people to be able to be engaged. but we also want to be able to follow up on that process as well, to be able to make sure if someone's actually breaking the rules on that, we follow up. and in our state, we do. recently, i followed up with our state leadership for voting to be able to find out what happened in our last election, what are we doing. we found 57 people as a state that voted twice in my state. all 57 of those names were turned over to local district attorneys, and they will start following up with those individuals because that's a violation of the law to be able

to vote twice in our state. 57 names is not very many, but it's because we continue to enforce the law in our state to be able to make sure that we have as many people voting as possible but also accountability for people that want to be able to cheat in the system. the interesting thing about senate bill 1 and house bill 1 is that they make it much easier to cheat in the process. they set up a different system where you can actually have no voter i.d. on it. it's not just no voter i.d. it's no voter i.d. and same-day registration combined. so you can literally walk into a polling place that you're not registered for, not show an i.d., and say i'm not registered, i'd like to vote, and not show an i.d. and also vote same day in that spot. there is no way to be able to verify then one way or the other if this person's voting twice because no one knows. in my state that has great voter i.d. laws, it would gut that and

would take it away from our state. although no one's complaining about voter i.d. in my state. you can show an i.d., you can show a library card, you can show a utility bill, you can show anything in my state just to be able to verify that's actually you, because we want people to be able to vote but we want to make sure it's that person that is actually voting. that used to be a common accepted practice. say why would we want to create an environment where we would make it easy to be able to cheat? senate bill 1 also creates ballot harvesting, forces it around the entire country. folks may say i have no idea what that is. let me set up what it is. ballots are mailed to your house. if you haven't mailed it back in yet, you may have a knock at the door to come to your door. as they come to the door, it would be a political activist from one of the campaigns. they would say have you filled out your ballot yet? they got mailed out yesterday. have you turned it in yet? you haven't? bring it out to the front porch

and i will help you fill it out on or front porch. i will also turn it in for you. you don't have to mail it. i will deliver it for you. that's ballot harvesting. in most states, that's legal. they want to make that legal in every single state. that is an invitation to fraud. there is a difference between i want to help facilitate everyone to be able to vote and to be able to protect their rights to vote and actually creating opportunities for fraud where everyone doubts every election. that's not the right way to be able to go. i want to make sure that we all look at an election at the end of it and to say we can trust that. one of the ways we can trust it is through a federal election commission that actually is bipartisan. we have a federal election commission, even number of republicans, democrats. they want to change that to where it's five members -- not six -- and the last member that's the tiebreaker, someone selected by the president that would be,, quote-unquote,

independent. i'm sure that's not going to be a partisan individual. in my state all the ballots are done ahead of time, all of them. if you do a mail-in ballot, those ballots are opened up early on. there's republican and democrat, poll watchers that are watching it, all the evaluation for the quality of that ballot are tested before election night. that's all finished so when election night is done, by 10:30 in the evening all the ballots have been counted, election results are out. no, that won't work. my senate democrat colleagues want to give an additional ten days nor ballots to continue to be able to trickle in. literally what we had in this last election where it was for days no one even knew how many ballots were coming in, and the uncertainty that creates in the process, they want to make sure that exists in every state, not just in a few states. i'd rather have every state be like mine to say everyone has to turn their ballot in early. it's not like election day is a

shocking day no one knew about. in fact, the majority of states around the country are like my state. this is not just a partisan issue. vermont has the same rule that we have in oklahoma. this is a straightforward way to be able to protect the integrity of the ballot that you can turn in the ballots early, that you can evaluate all of them so the ballots aren't trickling in for days. if you love all those rules, let me give you one more quick one. remember that campaign speech, or that campaign commercial that you really, really hate, that you're sick of it by the time the election comes? get ready for a whole lot more of them because senate bill 1 gives federal dollars six to one to be able to fund more campaigns to make sure campaigns have even more money. so if someone raises $100,000, they're going to get federal tax dollars, $600,000 to that candidate, even the candidate

you didn't vote for. they raise $1 million, they'll get $6 million of federal tax dollars. i don't want to pay for campaigns i don't agree with with. i don't think that's the right way to go, and i don't bump into many people in my state that get real excited about paying for someone else's campaign that they disagree with. i think that this bill was the result of the 2020 election, that they pulled it out and said that election was such a shambles, we need to be able to put a bill out there to do that. but you'd be incorrect. actually this bill is exactly what they pulled out in 2017 saying russia took over the election in striks -- 2016 so we need a big bill to fix it. now they pulled it out again and say we have to be able to do this. it's the same bill. it used to be the bill to fight russia.

now it's the bill to fight whatever now. listen, let each state make those decisions. and when there's a challenge for that, take it to federal court. that's why we have the court system. allow those federal courts to be able to process through those challenges. we want every person to be able to be protected to be able to vote. and if some state is suppressing the vote, take that to federal court and let's solve that and to be able to make sure that does not occur. but don't, don't tell everyone in my state, washington, d.c. knows better. we have republicans and democrats that have worked very hard on election law in my state. in fact, there was just an expansion of additional days for early voting in my state. it's been a nonpartisan issue in my state. let's not make it a partisan issue now and tell everyone across the entire country d.c. knows best. let's put this bill aside and not pass senate bill 1.

with that, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama is recognized. mr. tuberville: thank you, mr. president. if there's one thing i've been hearing from my constituents lately is this, we've got to get people back to wor so our economy can thrive and our people can make a living. this isn't a new sentiment. i've heard this for months, and i've traveled around the state. but what is is the fact that we can't find people to work. and that's what i'm here to talk about today. before the pandemic hit, we had the best economy in decades. the unemployment rate in january 2020 was 3.6%.

wages were up, blue-collar wages were rising and white-collar wages for the first time were at a record pace. unemployment for african american, hispanic americans and asian americans were at the lowest rate recorded, all thanks to president trump's pro-growth policies and republicans' tax reform law. there is no debating that the coronavirus pandemic hit our economy very, very hard. my companies and businesses in alabama included family-owned, small businesses have spent the past year hanging on by a thread as the pandemic held us tight, in a tightly grip around the country. some state opened with a skeleton crew, making the difficult decision to lay off workers in order just to keep operating. and some were forced to shut down entirely. either way, american workers

lost out. few industries were spared, and the unemployment numbers shot sky-high. but a year later, as vaccines became widely available, we better understood what we need to do to keep americans safe. many job creators thought, okay, this was the tight grip that was loosening up, and here's the light at the end of the tunnel. as more and more people are feeling safe, safe to go places they used to go and do things, businesses are eager to open and respond, but today, even as vaccinations go up and cases go down, the biden administration is incentivizing people to sit on the sidelines instead of encouraging them to join the workforce. it's the opposite of what the federal government should be

doing. do the right thing now. and it's the opposite of what job creators want to do for millions of american workers. there are roughly 8.1 million opening, job openings around our country as we speak, but the democrats would rather discourage folks from seizing opportunity to go out and earn a living. that's exactly what the current unemployment payments do. as part of their partisan stimulus bill, the democrats extended the $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit. a monthly payment in addition to the state benefit that folks already get. in alabama, people could choose to receive with no strings attached, up to $678 per week. that comes out to $16.95 an hour, even more than our democrat colleagues job-killing $15 minimum wage proposal just a

few weeks ago. the result has been disastrous for small businesses across my state. and throughout the country, who are already, ready to hire to meet the boom in dpmed for product and -- demand for product and services. on the national level here's what the national federation of independent business reported, quote, unfilled job openings continue to mount as april is the third consecutive month setting a record-high reading of unfilled job openings. record job openings. the april job numbers released last week weren't much better. the unemployment rate went up by .1%. economists thought we would add one million jobs, but we only added a quarter of that amount. small business owners all across alabama have been able to reopen, and customers are coming back. now they need people to fill the

jobs to keep the doors open. across america, businesses are no longer competing against other businesses. now they have to compete against the government. government versus the private sector, and the government is stacking the deck on all our small businesses and manufacturers. businesses in alabama are no exception to anybody else across the country. case in point, al cason is the president of bud's best cookies in hoover, alabama. his father bud owns the company, has been in the industry for 65 years. normally they get four production lines with two shifts. but because so many, so many of their would-be workers are staying home, they can only run two lines and they are cutting their production in half. we can't get enough to come to

work, al wrote me. the government is taking away workers from our business, and it's been in business for 65 years. wesley everett from enterprise health and rehabilitation center in enterprise, alabama, wrote that his long-term care facility is, quote, unable to find help they need due to the severe negative impacts in stimulus and unemployment payments are having on the alabama workforce. then there's sandra walker from lake haven assisted living in laverne, alabama, who said, quote, our salaries are competitive, but we can't compete with stay-at-home, no-strings-attached handouts. business is back open, but we can't survive without our workers returning to work. these are both health companies, mind you, that they are the ones helping some of our most vulnerable citizens. and here's what anita hillyard

in courtland, alabama told me. the company she works for employs people in convenience stores throughout northeast alabama. she wrote, quote, we have to shut down some of our shifts just because we can't get enough people to work, and sometimes we have to shut down completely. but here's what really stuck with me in her letter. i'm working and paying taxes to pay others more than i make myself. that's sad. this must end or we will lose the america that we have grown to know and love. i couldn't agree with anita any more. america is built by hard workers. people like anita, people like wes, sandra and millions more across the united states. but we'll never jump-start our economy if we keep going with this bad policy incentivizing people to stay at home and sit and not work rather than take

employment opportunities when they're offered to them. our businesses need workers to meet customer demands. this is truly a great thing after such a hard year. our job creators have started to hope and see opportunity gain. they've hung the now hiring signs on the door. they posted the job openings. but we need to encourage folks to rejoin the workforce, to get back to work job creators are creating the opportunity. we just need folks to reach out and take it. it should be easy for us to offer encouragement to folks to fill open positions. all we've got to do is kick the ball through the uprights this time around. but democrats in d.c. want it to go alone. they wanted to go alone a few weeks ago. and with the recent stimulus bill that we passed -- and this is what ended up with a workforce shortage due to the

inflated in an economy of the cusp of recovery that needs available workers. getting these folks back to work isn't just about the now. it's about helping them to see the future again. it's been more than a year for many who have been out of work. taking the leap to get back in sometimes is scary, but we've got to help the people take that leap. if we wait, these businesses and jobs they are now offering right now may not be there in september. companies and small businesses are going out of work and going out of business. that's why i join my colleagues senator crapo to sponsor the back to work bonus act. this bill will give back to work bonuses to workers who are safely able to return to work. this would be a one - time payment of $1,200 for those returning to full-time jobs. $600 to those returning to part-time jobs.

employers would verify the earnings and hours of those receiving the back-to-work bonus. that sounds much more like an actual stimulus to me. the back-to-work bonus act is a win-win-win, good for workers, good for employees, and great for our society. i'm sure each of had my colleagues have received similar pleas from small business owners across their state. the biden-backed unemployment benefits are crushing their hopes of getting back to a pre-pandemic high. we're even seeing some states take matters into their own hands. i was glad to see alabama is one of the first states to stop accepting enhanced federal unemployment benefits. as of today at least 16 states have announced they won't accept the benefit to help employers and encourage folks to get back to work. this is a commonsense move to

encourage folks to make -- to take the many job opportunities available. well, i, for one, think we should listen to the folks on main street. we can them, we can help millions of the unemployed. one way to do it, that is by passing the back to work bonus act. i urge my colleagues to support this practical bill and get our country back to work. we need to remember opportunity through work is the foundation of our country. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president, every year the senate unanimously passes a resolution honoring each law enforcement officer who died in the line of duty during the previous year. mr. crapo: their names are also added to the national law enforcement officer memorial in

washington, d.c. currently this memorial contains more than 21,000 names. and this year one more idahoan will be added to this memorial. wyatt christopher mazel was born in wyoming. after growing up in casper, wyoming, wyatt joined the united states air force, serving as a senior airman from 2015 to 2018. after returning to his home and marrying the love of his life, paige, he moved to hide who -- o falls, idaho and graduated from the idaho law enforcement

academy in 2014. before graduating he and paige welcomed a beautiful baby daughter, morgan emily. he served as a sheriff's deputy with bonaville county sheriff's office for 13 months. at the graveside service honoring his life, his career was characterized in two words, friendship and service. it takes a special person to serve in our nation's armed forces and an even better one to continue to serve one's community after leaving the air force. by all accounts, wyatt was that person, befriending everyone he met. on may 18, 2020, while attempting to help a woman in mental crisis in the middle of bone road, he was struck by another deputy's vehicle and was

pronounced dead at eastern, idaho medical center. wyatt left behind his wife paige, young daughter morgan, mother and stepmother, sandy and bill around, his father and stepfather, chris and cheryl maizar, and sisters, coal, and alexus and grandparents and uncles and pets galore. the law enforcement officers memorial preserves wyatt's name in stone, yet deputy maizar was so much more than a veteran and law enforcement officer. an avid hunter, he -- were building a hunting blind for disabled hunters to help those with limitations enjoy the

pastime he loved so much. that blind is still being completed and will be named the mazier mind in his memory. deputy mazier, your memory will not be forgotten. to paige and morgan, i am so sorry for our loss and thank you for the opportunity to join in honoring wyatt. the book of isaiah, chapter six, verse eight states, and i heard the voice of the lord saying, whom shall i send and who will go for us? then i said, here am i. send me. sheriff's deputy wyatt christopher mazier answered that call with the ultimate sacrifice, and for that, we say thank you. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senior senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on commerce be discharged from further consideration of s. 593 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 593, a bill to restrict the imposition by the secretary of homeland security of fines, penalties, duties or tariffs applicable only to coastwide voyages and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. ms. murkowski: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the murkowski amendment at the desk be agreed to and the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

ms. murkowski: madam president, i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. ms. murkowski: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: madam president, we are at a much better place at this moment in time for the people of the state of alaska who have been anxious. we've all been anxious throughout this time of covid, but we have been particularly anxious as we have watched our tourist sector just be decimated. and when i say decimated, i mean in the sense that when you have

such a significant portion of one economic sector, the tourist sector, come to your state by one means, by one mode and for us and the state of alaska, that's cruise ships. we have had an extraordinarily robust tourist economy growing over the years. people want to come and see the beauty and splendor. for many they want to be on the comfort of a ship and watch the views go by, see the glaciers, the whales come on up. it's a great place to visit. but for the past year ships have not been sailing to alaska. this is due to not only the c.d.c. and the no sail orders that the c.d.c. has imposed but also because of the limitations that have been put in place by

canada in terms of no sailing through the canadian waters. and so there has been an effort to as we try to regain our footing to rebuild a tourist sector. but you can't just flip a switch here. you just can't get an industry back on its feet this quickly without everybody pulling together. and this has been a struggle to get everyone pulling together. but i think we are at a place where there is a glimmer of hope for alaska's tourism industry. we were -- we were here on this floor just a couple of weeks ago. senator sullivan and myself, talking about how significant cruising is as an element to alaska's economy.

at the time i shared a chart with colleagues that showed that in 2019, we had 1.3 million visitors come to alaska on a cruise ship. in 2020 we had 48 come to alaska on a cruise ship. and i said at the time that's 48 passengers, not 48,000. so you can just guess what that did to our economy. statewide unemployment rate rising from 6.2% to 11%. municipal and state revenues dropping significantly. and every day, every day that passes are more lost revenues, more lost salaries, more economic distress. and so the effort that we have made to, again, try to get ships back in the water, try to get

them heading north has been -- has been considerable. we've heard from so many in our -- not only our coastal communities but really communities around the state about the economic impact and the hit that they have taken. the indian affairs committee, we had a hearing just yesterday about the impact on native tourism due to covid. and we had the c.e.o. of a corporation, russell dick, describe to the committee the profound -- the profoundly -- excuse me -- the profound disruption of our local economy. 80% of our local tax base comes from tourism, he says. consequently, leadership -- leadership from the city of hoonah, from the community, the icy strait point all are eager

for cruise ships to return. consider that, 80%, 80% of your local tax base comes from tourism. and if you don't have passengers coming in, if you don't have visitors coming in, you basically have nothing. so we needed to address this. we needed to fix this. we've been working aggressively not only the alaska delegation here working with the congressmen, but working with all members of the administration. we've got the secretary of homeland that is literally on speed dial. the director of c.d.c. who really doesn't want to hear from us anymore because i think we've been so constant. we have been engaging with the secretary of commerce. we have taken this to the -- the head of the canadian government as well with letters to trudeau and to his cabinet, to his parliament. so the effort that has been

under way has been considerable. we had an opportunity on the floor a couple of weeks ago to discuss this very issue. we heard concerns raised by senator blumenthal about some consumer protections provisions. we heard concerns from senator lee about the passenger vessel security act, the pvsa. and we weren't able to come to a resolve at the time, but i think what was good at that time was a commitment to keep working on this. and we kept working on this, and we are now to the point where we have successfully passed this temporary pvsa fix through the senate. i want to state, though, this is not a fix for the cruise companies, if you will. this is help. this is a fix, if you will, for the communities in southeastern alaska, the communities around alaska for whom opening up some semblance of a cruise season

this summer is literally going to determine their future, not just whether or not they're able to open this year but whether they're able to open at all going forward. to tell people that you've got to hold on through 2022, hold on for yet another 14 months, that's just not possible because it's already been the 15 months, the 19 months that these communities have been so severely and so significantly impacted. so the timing of this is key. it is critical. it is literally every day -- counting every day that matters so that our communities can get the folks back in, in the little store. get your teams hired up to take the tourists out on the

attractions. get us back to a place where again we can be more stable from an economic perspective and with regards to the benefit to alaskans and the employment. we're ready to go back to work. we've been working hard on the vaccine. we have advertised ourselves as we're a state to be coming to if you're looking for your travel adventure and do so in a safe place. but we have been tied, our hands have been tied in our ability to get the season back up and running and in a way that's going to provide for a level of safety for all. we're continuing to make progress with c.d.c. i think that that's an important part to add to because that has been -- that has been an

impediment to us. the c.d.c. has been slow, tortuously slow in laying down their guidance. but i am optimistic that we are very close -- hopefully we're going to have the necessary certainty for cruise companies to ramp up their operations to again prepare to cruise to alaska. with the c.d.c. paving the way over there and the pvsa issue that we are very hopeful, very, very hopeful that we will be able to advance over in the house working with our colleagues over there, to be able to provide this certainty for a very short season that will allow alaskans to have some -- some glimmer of hope here. but i want to end with a comment and a statement that came from

mr. russell dick, again the c.e.o. of huna totem. mr. dick is indigenous, from the huna region. huna was his community, his village that a. grew up in. and he reminded us of the situation that canada has really placed us in. he said, you know, the reality is he's got a community where they may have literally no economy this summer, if you can't get cruise ships in. 80% of the employees that work there are local and native-hire. but his comment was, we're dealing with this because congress, in his words, hasn't dealt with the pvsa. and he says, this is not

canada's fault. this is the federal government's fault. and he says, quote, let me be clear. the pvsa right now is preventing us from hiring americans in an american community that desperately needs those jobs. the u.s. congress is responsible for this problem. i think russell made it very, very clear to us that we have to address this. we have to address this. what we've done just now is we've shown that when canada is going to make some tough decisions, we're not going to stand by, we're not just going to say, pretty please, wither, on the vine here, until canada catches up with our level of readiness. it should be up to us to be able to restore our economy, and we will take the first steps to do just that a so i want to thank -- i want to thank senator sullivan, absolutely, for his leadership throughout all of this. but i also want to recognize senator lee, senator blumenthal,

senator cantwell, and senator wicker and their teams for helping us get to this place today, where we can be in a spot where we can tell alaskans the light is coming on. so with that, madam president, i will yield to my friend and colleague, senator sul sullivan. mr. sullivan: madam president? the presiding officer: the junior senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: thank you, madam president. i want to thank senator murkowski for her hard work, for the alaskans that are watching, the united states senate just passed our bill, the pvsa suspension act that is going to give our tourism season and the thousands of alaskans in that industry, in the hundreds if not thousands -- and the hundreds if not thousands of small businesses who are hanging by a thread, a fighting chance for

this summer. a fighting chance for this summer. so that just passed the united states senate. it's going over to the house. so again i want to thank senator murkowski for her leadership on this and, of course, the senators that she mentioned that were very engaged -- senator lee, senator markey, senator blumenthal, senator cantwell, senator wicker. you know, madam president, this, to me, is an example of the united states senate working at its best, at its best. what was going on here and what we did for the last several weeks is we went to all of our colleagues and said, look, we have a unique problem right now. the great state of alaska -- we're so proud of how we've done in terms of getting through the health aspects of this pandemic. but our economy is getting crushed. for a whole host of reasons i've talked about here on the floor many, many times, in one of the huge areas, the tourism sector, the unique challenges we have with the borders being closed by

the canadians -- not helpful, the cruise ship not being able to move in the millions -- and the millions of passengers that we expected to come to alaska on cruise ships. so we were going to each senator saying, look, we know you have big philosophical differences on things that relate to this issue. but this right now this issue is very narrow. help us help our constituents. that's it. it's not going to impact any other state. and to our colleagues' credit, all of them, they said, okay. senator murkowski, senator sullivan, we'll help. and that's the good spirit of cooperation. we went to them and said, hey, if your state had a problem uniquely focused on just your citizens, we'd help you. took a little while. that's okay. nothing moves fast in the united states senate. but so that's a step forward, an

important step forward. but we still have work to do, as senator murkowski mentioned. this bill right now is going to be heading over to the house -- right now. and we certainly hope, with the great leadership of the dean of the house, congressman young, and all his relationships in the house, that the house is going to show the same cooperative spirit that we just witnessed here on the united states senate floor. so we're hoping for that. that's the next step. but as senator murkowski earnings in -- but as senator murkowski mentioned, we're working all different kinds of angles. plan a, plan b, plan c. we need the c.d.c. to provide detailed guidance to operationalize their lifting of the no-sail order and, as senator murkowski also mentioned, we're going to continue to work with our

friends in canada. o canada. in alaska we have one neighbor. we don't have any one of our wonderful lower 48 states as neighbors. we have canada. so i would say that alaska is probably the most pro--canadian, pro-knowledgeable about canada issues than any delegation in the united states congress. we work to help them out on issues, big issues, small issues, trade issues, norad, military issues, mining. we have a great relationship. the alaska-canada relationship. but, to be frank, we're not getting a lot of help right now. border is closed, fully closed. we think that's pretty draconian, to be honest. alaskans are having a hard time even driving home to get through

canada. we put forward a number of very reasonable suggestions to try to accommodate what we are hoping will be a fighting chance for our touringism season, for our -- for our tourism season, fora small businesses that have been so decimated to our colleagues in canada. reasonable compromises. in the event we don't make progress here -- we're making progress here in the united states congress. that's good, again, that we can have a fighting chance for somewhat of a tourism season this summer. but, madam president, up until now all of these suggestions by our -- they're not really even neighbors to the north. they're neighbors to us to the east. we haven't gotten a lot of cooperation. so this is not the cooperative spirit that has defined the alaska-canada relationship for decades and quite frankly we've been disappointed by it. so, to our house colleagues --

democrats and republicans, you've just kind of witnessed two examples of cooperation. what happened here on the senate floor just a couple minutes ago is really good cooperation. all 100 senators slings had to agree -- essentially had to agree to move this bill forward and they just did. that's what just happened. we haven't had such good cooperation from our canadian neighbors, disappointing, but, look, my own view is, we need to start making sure that the alaska economy is not held hostage to another country. and we're going 0 start working on that. but until then, to our house members, please, if you can look at what just happened in the senate, listen to congressman young, who you all know is a great advocate, we can get this done in the next 24-48 hours. our state, your fellow

americans, we're, woulding hard like everybody -- we're working hard like everybody else to get out of this pandemic. we'll have a fighting chance. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senior senator from texas. mr. cornyn: thank you, madam

president. this week america celebrates national police week. it's a time for us to stop and pay tribute to those who've died in the line of duty defending our communities and to thank those who continue to serve our communities. law enforcement is a calling answered by a select few. these men and women have chosen a difficult and often dangerous life, dedicated to keeping our communities safe, defending our civil liberties and protecting our neighborhoods. these jobs obviously require tremendous courage and sacrifice, not just from the officers themselves but their families, too. and i'm grateful to those who have selflessly serve -- who selflessly serve our communities every day. under normal circumstances shall the events of this week bring tens of thousands of uniformed officers to the washington, d.c. -- from across the country.

through laying wreaths, candlelight vigils, church services, they ordinarily gather in remembrance of their fallen brothers and sisters in person. in previous years i've had the pleasure of welcoming a number of texas families and officers who travel to washington, d.c., for this national police week observation. but as in so many other ways, this year is not like previous ones. over the last year our country has faced unprecedented heartbreak and turmoil, which have made a career in law enforcement even more challenging. first came the pandemic. while millions of americans hunkered down at their homes to slow the spread of the virus, law enforcement personnel continued to lace up their boots and go to work every day. with the spread of covid-19 and the lack of proper personal protective equipment in the

early stages of the pandemic, even simple interactions with the members of the community carried risks. at the same time, the stresses of the pandemic led to a surge of drug overdose deaths and an increase in family violence. and across the country we saw a dramatic increase in the number of homicides. when a deadly winter storm hit texas in february, police officers took on even more responsibility. they worked around the clock to help folks without power or water, often while worrying about the safety of their own families. for all the ways the last year has taught us to appreciate the unique role that law enforcement officers play in our communities, it mass also put these men and women -- it that is also put these men and women at the of a tough but necessary conversation about racial justice. the killing of george floyd schoen a spotlight on issues in our -- shone a spotlight on issues in our justice system

that must be rooted out and led to a national conversation about the need to do so. there's no question we need to take action to improve transparency and accountability within our police officers. and we need to strengthen the relationship between police and the communities they serve. i believe everybody can agree on those points. but as a country, we need to remember the actions of a few do not define the masses, the rest of us. the vast majority of police officers are honorable, dedicate ed public servants who go above and beyond the call of duty to keep us safe and are committed to improving accountability and trust in police. there's a saying that nobody hates a bad cop worse than a good cop. last summer, police officers in dallas hosted a rally to show their support for the efforts to stop police brutality and racial injustice. we need to remember that except

for these occasional outliers, we're all on the same team, fighting for a justice system that keeps our communities safe and treats every person with dignity and respect. for some, this movement has led to radical calls to defund or even abolish the police, two very dangerous ideas. over the last year, we've seen an increase in violent crime in our country. last year, major cities experienced a 33% increase in homicides. 33%. and the early data shows that things aren't getting any better this year. in fact, in too many places, things are getting worse. this simply isn't the time if there ever was a time to strip local police departments of funding. rather, it's time to provide them with the resources and the policies they need to safely and

justly protect our communities. i know we're having a lot of discussions across the aisle on the most effective way to do that, and i hope this year, unlike last year, we'll be able to make progress. a job in law enforcement, as i suggested, is never easy. these men and women put on the uniform, leave their families, and never knowing what the day ahead may entail. and in the back of their minds, they have a question. whether this is the last time they will ever see their loved ones. stopping a violent crime, helping a neighbor in crisis, you never know what a police encounter could bring. four months ago, capitol police officers certainly didn't anticipate what their jobs would require on january 6. this building was stormed by a violent mob that tried to threaten the very foundations of our democracy.

that day, as we know, this building was filled with members of congress, our staff, journalists, and countless men and women who we count on to keep congress running every day. fortunately, that also includes the brave men and women of the capitol police force. while protecting the people inside this building, capitol police officers were assaulted, threatened, and subjected to the violence of the mob for hours on end. in the wake of this tragedy, the capitol police lost two of their colleagues -- officer brian sicknick and officer howard liebengood. and last month, capitol police officer billy evans was killed while protecting this institution. i'm grateful for the sacrifices law enforcement officers make every single day, and this week we honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. one of the most emblematic

remembrances of that sacrifice is the national law officers -- national law enforcement officers memorial which sits along the national mall here in washington, d.c. it's a beautiful tribute to the federal, state, and local law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty and features marble walls filled with more than 21,000 names. each of these names represents a hero, and sadly, this year we added the names of 55 texans who were killed in the line of duty last year. these officers gave their all in service to our communities and to our country. of course, there is nothing we could do to adequately thank these heroes and their families for their sacrifice, but we can take action to protect their brothers and sisters in blue.

in recent years, we have seen brutal, inexcusable attacks on police officers around the country, including one in dallas that completely rocked our entire state. in 2016, a man killed five officers and injured nine others. it was a sobering reminder of the dangers these officers face every day and a call for us to take action and do more to support them. yesterday, i reintroduced the back the blue act to make clear our support for the public servants who have dedicated their lives to protecting our communities. this legislation sends a strong message to more than 800,000 law enforcement officers in our country that they are supported and that violence against them will not be tolerateed. the back the blue act adds stiff mandatory penalties and it makes it a federal crime to kill or

attempt to kill a law enforcement officer, a federal judge, or a federally funded public safety officer. it also makes it a federal crime to assault a law enforcement officer. these men and women put themselves in harm's way every day, and we must make it clear that violence against them will never be tolerateed. right now, there is a serious need to improve the relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve, and this legislation will help there, too. it will allow grant funds to be used for efforts to help foster more trust between police and the communities they protect. in light of the national conversation over the past year regarding the need to improve these relationships, this could not be more important. so i hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this legislation and show law enforcement across the country that we stand shoulder to

shoulder with them. i was also pleased, madam president, this morning a bill that i'm leading with my colleague, senator coons, called the jaime zepato and victor abula federal protection act passed out of the judiciary committee. that bill came in response to an appellate court decision that reversed the convictions of cartel members who murdered a federal agent and attempted to murder another one while those agents were fighting the cartels in mexico. an appeals court held that the united states did not have jurisdiction to try the cartel members for the murder and attempted murder, but this bill closes that loophole and states unequivocally that we can and will try and will convict those who murder our law enforcement officers, even those serving outside the united states.

i'm grateful for the law enforcement officers who courageously and honorably serve our communities every day. so this week, we honor them and the generation of officers who came before them. in particular, we pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. madam president, i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the junior senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: it's thursday. it's that time of the week i get to come down to the senate floor and do one of my favorite things for the whole week. i get to recognize a special alaskan, someone who we call our alaskan of the week. but before i talk about our alaskan of the week, my good friend from texas, senator cornyn, just talked about the importance of supporting our police and leaders in the police forces and it's national police week. it's very appropriate that the alaskan of the week this week is

outgoing anchorage police chief justin dahl, and i'm going to tell you a lot about chief dahl's great career in alaska. i want to first begin by just giving a quick update. i know people who watch the alaskan of the week always want to know hey, what's going on in alaska right now? such a great place. a special place. so right now, it's approaching midnight sun time in most places across the state. let me give you one example. in anchorage, the sun officially rose at 5:16 a.m. and will set at -- at 10:37 p.m. so a lot of daylight. twilight actually starts around 4:00 a.m. and ends around midnight. so we're getting to that midnight sun time, summer solstice time. a frenzied energy hits the state at this time of year. all the more so because the state is opening up, like so

many states across america. now after a long year of hunkering down. late-night walks, softball, yard work, gatherings. if you're watching, if you have never been to alaska, it's a great time to be in alaska. i urge everyone in the gallery, at home, come on up to alaska. you may have seen some of the action on the senate floor a couple of minutes ago. it's looking more and more like we're going to have a -- hopefully at least a part of a cruise season, but we are welcoming everybody to come to alaska this summer. you will love it. heck, you can even get vaccinate ed if your state's not doing that for you, so come on up. but we all know, madam president, what makes the state truly great is not the hours of sun it gets or its salmon-choked streams and rivers, or the magnificent wildlife, moose, bear, caribou, the soaring mountains, all of

which, of course, in alaska we have in spades. nothing makes our communities, our state, our country strong like the people who live in our communities, and none are perhaps more important to community strength and cohesion than our brave first responders. who wake up every day determined to protect others. i know there is a movement across the country. senator cornyn just talked about it. in my view, a dangerous movement that is a call to defund the police. it makes zero sense, by the way. you want your communities safe and you're going to get rid of your police. it makes no sense. but here's the thing about police officers like chief doll and first responders. these jobs are not only important, in my view they are sacred. now, every job in america is an

important job, but there is something special. there is something even sacred about a job -- first responders, police, firemen, our military. whose job it is literally to go lay down their life for their fellow citizens, if called to do that. that's sacred. so, madam president, i think it's important for all of us here in the senate to be very clear how much we support our police, our first responders, all across the nation, especially during this week. that's why i am so honored and thrilled in many ways to be able to recognize our alaskan of the week this week who is outgoing anchorage police department chief justin doll who has served with a.p.d. for 25 years and who has been the chief of the

department since 2017. justin has worked with, supported, and oversaw more than 600 members of the a.p.d., brave men and women who keep about 300,000 residents in the anchorage area, my hometown, safe. roughly 200 square miles. so let me tell you a bit about justin, who also happens to be a marine corps brother of mine, a man of service, a man of honor, courage, and commitment. born and raised in oregon, he moved with his family to anchorage in 1985 when he was just 12 years old. the country was in a recession recession -- coming out of a recession. alaska was doing well. his parents saw opportunity, so they packed their u-haul, drove up the al-can. his mother ended up wowrg in an orthodontist's office, and his

father worked for 22 years at the famous hotel captain cook, one of the great locally owned hotels in all of alaska. justin graduated from west anchorage high school, and after a few years in college, he joined the in a reason core reserves. now, he didn't just join any marine corps reserve unit. he joined the fourth recon battalion, the premier cold-weather recon unit in the united states marine corps, reserve or active. how do i know? because i was serving in that unit with chief doll for five years. as a matter of fact, i was justin's platoon commander. now he laughingly describes himself as my marine corps disciplinary challenge. i don't remember him as a disciplinary challenge. i remember him as a fine marine, a great n.c.o. who did a really good job with the

company. in 1996, still in the reserves, he was in the reserves at that time. he got a job with the a.p.d. a lot of marines in alaska join our law enforcement, which is another great path into service. he didn't grow up wanting to be a police officer, but when presented an opportunity to serve his community as he was serving in the marines, he jumped at it. and, madam president, he excelled. throughout the years he served as a patrol officer, an academy instructor, a motorcycle officer, a swat team member, a patrol shift commander. he was on the bomb squad and the commander of the homicide and robbery assault detective units. he did it all, and he did it all well. here's some of the way his colleagues and his bosses have described him throughout his years in his fitness reports,

quote, outstanding performance, proactive leadership. he gives credit where credit's due. genuine concern for his fellow officers, earn the respect of everybody, leadership philosophy is to help guide and train leaders to rise up, committed to excellence. those are his reviewing officer remarks. his executive assistants courier talks about how when people would meet chief doll, community members, young kids, didn't matter, he never introduced himself as chief. he would just say, hey, i'm justin. she said, quote, he makes me proud to work at a.p.d., and i'm grateful to have had the opportunity to work and learn from him. madam president, it should be noted here that in the meantime meantime, in 2000 he married fellow police officer monique,

and in so doing, like many of us, certainly lick me, he married -- certainly like me, he married up. like justin, monique rose through the ramptions -- ranks to become one of the a.p.'s top detectives. she was the lead in catching one of the most sickening killers in alaska's history, israel keyes, and we are grateful for her dedication and service to our state and our community. we have a very unique community in alaska, in anchorage. we have earthquakes. not too far away we have volcanos. we have 100 miles-per-hour wind storms. our moose charge, our bears attack sometimes. once when he was at a national training event with big-city police officers across the country, he was talking to his fellow police chiefs over beers

about bears and what was going on in their respective cities. he told the group how just the day before a brown bear had charged, mauled, and tragically killed an alaskan resident. terry monahan, at the time the police chief for new york city, said, quote, what? in the city? how do you deal with that? by the way, i'm pretty sure justin, when he was telling that story to us, cleaned up the language from the new york city police chief, when he recounted that story. but these are the many things that a police chief in alaska has to deal with, has to be ready for, has to be able to lead on. like all cities, we have had serious problems with crime. as a matter of fact, in 2017, right when justin took over as the chief for the anchorage

police department, we were going through, my hometown of anchorage was going through a very serious, major crime spree. violent crime was way up. homicides were breaking records. property crime, vehicle crime way, way up. justin got to work. he focused on making sure his officers had the training they needed to do their jobs. his goal was, quote, to set them up for success and let them be successful. his motto -- one team, one mission. it sounds a lot like a marine. one team, one fight. he put a focus on engaging with the community. he organized the beats so that the officers got to know the people in their areas and patrolled those same areas during the course of their time. he brought back walking beats in

the downtown area. he and his officers attended community council meetings and joined the communities throughout the entire city in smaller gatherings. now, madam president, as i mentioned, anchorage is a big city in terms of area but in a lot of ways it's really a small town. word gets around, when you get to know your police officer, you trust your police officer and you begin to work with that person to make your community safer. that was justin's philosophy and that's what started to happen. at its heart, community policing is not more complicated than that, according to justin, chief doll. getting to know one another, respecting one another, trusting one another, that's how communities become safe. he also worked on forming partnerships with the department of justice, the attorney general's office, and the

f.b.i., which doesn't always happen in other localities across the country. but again, anchorage is a by city in a small town. federal agents were also having their cars stolen. they had friends whose houses were getting broken into. this crime spree became personal for everybody, and everybody started to work together with chief doll in the lead to solve it. and again, word got around, all of it, training, empowering police officers, working with the feds, community engagement, all of it started to work. we still have challenges, no doubt, in anchorage. but from the time justin doll started, homicides are down by almost 50%. the rates of property crimes and other violent crimes have also come down.

that's a win. mostly it's a win for the people of alaska, for the people of anchorage. so justin is leaving the department a winner, and he's also leaving the department with good memories. that was important to him. but there are challenges, and he recognizes those. burnout, he said is a problem, particularly these days. he didn't want to get that, and he hopes his fellow officers don't get that. but, quote, according to justin, quote, he said the world is a little insane right now when it comes to law enforcement. he sees himself what that does for the morale of his officers. he has experienced how disheartening it is to have a whole force not just in alaska, but across the country, hundreds of thousands of good

police officers across our nation who have very, very stressful jobs being disparaged because of the horrific actions of a few. across the nation he said, quote, we have completely lost sight of the fact that there are so many good people doing a good job, keeping communities safe every day. these are people who really want to do a good job and take care of the people and citizens around them. madam president, we should remember that, especially during this week, national police week, where we remember the sacrifices of so many of our frontline heros. justin and his wife monique will be leaving the force permanently in june. kenneth mccoy, also a very impressive officer and we're all

rooting for chief mccoy. of course we're rooting for justin and his future endeavors. as we are all for our police officers across the country, we are thankful for their service. we are thankful for chief doll's service, fulfilling his sacred duty, keeping us safe, keeping our communities whole. so, justin one more time, congratulations on a great job. congratulations on being our alaskan of the week. semper fi. the presiding officer: the junior senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: madam president, i ask that my following remarks

be placed in the "congressional record" in a separate section. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: madam president, i'd like you to hear a quote. quote, you know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you clearly. you know, if you drive an electric car, this would not be affecting you, clearly. unquote. that was our secretary of energy, jennifer granholm, yesterday as she told reporters all about the cyberattacks on the colonial pipeline and the ensuing gas shortages and price spikes. think about that, america. of course the media just let her go. they didn't ask her if she knew

that just as meat doesn't come from a grocery store, energy just doesn't come from a wall. it just doesn't appear like magic when you plug into it, that it comes from many sources, including natural gas, including oil. the media didn't ask that natural gas, yes, and oil, they need pipelines. the media didn't ask her if she knew that all energy, including alternative energy, requires transmission lines, lines that are also subject to being attacked like the colonial pipeline. they didn't ask her if she knew that the average electric car, average price is more than $55 ,000. maybe that's a bargain for her, but for the people who the biden administration are putting out of work in the energy sector, that's a huge price tag. and the media certainly didn't

ask the secretary of energy how this cavalier, condescending attitude once again about our energy sector, one of our country's huge strengths, employing hundreds of thousands of hardworking americans, is received by the average american who is being hurt right now. madam president, there are so many questions that weren't asked, so many questions aren't being asked about the colonial pipeline issue, so many that continue to not being answered by the administration, when it comes to this specific situation and how this administration's energy policies threaten to make this short-term disruption of our energy supplies into a long-term reality across the country. the intiesh attack on the colonial -- the cyberattack on the colonial pipeline is a warning for america not just from a cybersecurity

standpoint, but from a broader energy perspective standpoint. i participated yesterday in the briefing of u.s. senators by the secretaries of energy, transportation, and homeland security on this cyberattack that is creating disruptions in energy supplies across the country, particularly on the east coast. and here's the advice i gave these members of the biden administration. respectfully, i said that i fear this is going to be commonplace, this kind of disruption not just from a cyber standpoint, but if we don't change the biden administration's energy policies for america. what was i talking about?

they're restricting the production of american energy. it's one of the great competitive advantages of our country, producing more oil, more natural gas, more renewables than any other country in the world, they're restricting the production of oil and gas. you have senior administration officials going to wall street saying don't invest in energy companies. you have federal agencies either killing pipe liebs or slow -- pipelines or slow rolling pipelines. none of this is good for the country. here's the advice i gave them. pipelines are good. we need them as this colonial pipeline shutdown certainly demonstrates. importing more oil from our adversaries like russia is bad. by the way, that's what's happening with the biden policies. so we need a change. we have plenty of oil and gas

for measures many we should produce it, as we do with the highest environmental standards, for the benefit of our own citizens and not restrict it, or, mr. president, this issue, this kind of disruption is going to be much more commonplace in our country. i yield the floor. ms. baldwin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from the state of wisconsin. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, calendar 116, jewel harrison

brono, to be deputy secretary of agriculture. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of agriculture, jewell hairston, bronal, to be deputy secretary. ms. baldwin: i know of no further debate. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on the nomination. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. they do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the presiding officer: balanced. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that no further motions be in order to the nomination and any statements related to the nomination be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action and the senate then resume legislative session rsm. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business with

senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 214, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution, 214, supporting the designation of may 13, 2021, as national senior fraud awareness day and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. breeb. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 215, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk

will report. the clerk: senate resolution 215, designating the week of may 9 through may 15, as national police week. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes completes its business today, it adjourn until 3:00 p.m., monday, may 17. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and 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 resume consideration of the

motion to proceed to calendar 58, s. 1260. finally, that the cloture motion on the motion to proceed filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. ms. baldwin: 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 adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on monday.