a cbs poll found that 87% of americans supported more spending on roads and bridges, a poll found that 80% favored plans for increasing -- pipes that supply drinking water. of course it's popular because it affects their lives and they know it. and we need the investment right now. the american society of civil engineers gives our infrastructure a c-minus and projects our economy stands to lose more than $10 trillion in g.d.p. by 2039 should we fail to invest in repairs. we have fallen to 13 in the world in a report card on infrastructure while china continues to spend much more than we do as a percent of their g.d.p. on infrastructure. why they want to have a more efficient economy. we want to be able to compete and win the global competition. we too should be sure our infrastructure is up to speed. the need for fixing and

repairing our nation's infrastructure is clear. it's no surprise, again that these presidents, through the modern times including donald trump, have suggested it. frankly, i believe donald trump's advocacy on the infrastructure helped change the way many in the republican party view these kinds of investments. this investment in repairing and upgrading our infrastructure will also have a real and lasting impact on our economy long term. there is a lot of discussion about inflation right now. again, making the economy more efficient, more productive, growing the economy. that's what economists would call by investing in hard assets and jobs the supply-side. these are supply-side investments. this is why economists have said including michael strain of the conservative american enterprise institute, this will be counterinflationary. that's important to note, too. by the way this money is not going to be spent next year. it's not going to be spent hardly at all the next year. it's going to be spent over the next five, ten, 15 years on these long-term projects. there was one repeat study by

the association of equipment manufacturers finding that this legislation will create about half a million new jobs by 2024, so it's also about new jobs. in industries ranging from construction to plumbing to electrical engineering to software development. importantly, it accomplishes these goals while avoiding the tax hikes that will kill our economy, destroy jobs, and undermine our competitiveness around the world. that's why i started talking about the $3.5 trillion package that is wrongheaded in my view. in part because of the spending but in part because of what it would do to our economy at a time when we are trying to get back on our feet postpandemic. we're going to provide billions in funding for some of our most pressing hard infrastructure needs, like the $110 billion in new spending over the next five years to construct rebuild and maintain our roads and highways. i heard one of my colleagues say well only 24% of this money goes into roads and bridges and ports. that's just not true.

the number actually is about 42% into roads and bridges alone. it's going to make a big difference in my home state of ohio. we have 123,000 miles of roads. traffic congestion costs motorists an estimated $4.7 billion each year in lost time and wasted fuel, according to the american society of civil engineers. the same group the society of engineers, says there are currently more than 46,000 bridges in our country that are considered structurally deficient and in poor condition yet 178 million trips are taken on these deficient bridges every single day. ohio's number two in the nation in the number of bridges. we have got a lot of them. but nearly half of those are not in good condition. that's why i'm pleased this legislation does provide for new funding for our bridges. it will award competitive grants to improve the bridges that would help with all of our bridges but particularly a huge problem in ohio which is the

spence bridge. the dangerous bridge i talked about. there are no shoulders. it is bearing twice the number of vehicles it was constructed to do. it was considered structurally obsolete for two years for two decades. it's time to fix it. we also do something here that is very important to stretch that federal dollar and to take out some of the inefficiency in the way we product our roads and our bridges and our other infrastructure. we make needed reforms to the federal permitting process and give project sponsors more certainty to help them create more jobs and develop our nation's infrastructure with less cost. this is a priority of the trump administration. it was never codified into law. but in this bill, we actually expand and improve what's called fast 41 which was in the last highway bill. not the one currently but before. but it has a sunset on it, and these permitting reforms have worked. they have lowered the amount of time. they have saved billions of dollars for key permitting projects. we make this a permanent part of our law.

also the surface transportation bill itself has additional permitting reform in it. this frankly is better permitting reform than we have been able to get for years. even when we had a republican president, republican congress. i'm very pleased that that's part of this legislation and it should be. all americans should support that. taking the average from two years -- from currently six seven, eight years down to two years for a project why doesn't that make sense? everybody should be for that. we also make necessary investments in the future of our economy on the digital side by increasing access to broadband services. in ohio, that's really important. we've got a bunch of counties, about 18 of them are unserved. we have got probably another 20 that are underserved. in appalachian ohio, we need internet, we need it fast enough so people can start a business, so kids can use it for school, so veterans can use it to get their health care and not have to drive into the big city. these are only a few highlights, and i could go on, but the bottom line is we are dedicating

this $548 billion in infrastructure spending over the next five years toward a wide range of projects that will collectively have a positive impact on our economy and on the american people. this has been a different sort of process. i acknowledge that. and frankly a lot of this i think should have been done directly through committees, particularly with regard to transit, with regard to broadband and other areas. we simply picked up the work of the committee infrastructure transportation as an example. much of the work by the commerce committee, the e.p.w. committee and others. the e.n.r. committee energy and natural resources committee. many of us worked hard to ensure that this was a truly bipartisan project but also that we got the best input from all the experts here in the congress. i would have drafted this bill a little differently if it had been just me. i'm sure everybody feels that way about it. it was a true bipartisan

project. and therefore there were concessions made on both sides. but i'm proud of the broad support this has received in this chamber. i'm proud of the broad support it's received from the outside. more than 100 industry associations unions, trade groups have already come forward to endorse the infrastructure investment and jobs act. among them, the u.s. chamber of commerce the business roundtable, the national association of manufacturers the afl-cio building trades council, the american farm bureau the conference of mayors the national governors' association, on and on and on. they comprise advocates for businesses of all sizes workers, farmers governors mayors engineers conservationists truckers. i think it's safe to say we've got an impressive coalition that once this legislation -- that wants this legislation passed for all the right reasons. they want to see this investment in our country. they know it's the right thing to do for our economy and our future. i thank all the stakeholders who have endorsed this legislation for their support. because of all these combined efforts, tomorrow i believe

we'll be getting it right for the american people, for our economy, and for the future of our great country. i look forward to seeing this legislation pass the senate tomorrow, and i urge the house to pass it soon so that it can move to president biden's desk for his signature. i yield the floor. a senator: thank you mr. president. mr. toomey: we had a big controversy in the infrastructure bill about how to go about reporting requirements on crypto exchange brokers. i am very pleased to report that a group of us reached a bipartisan agreement democrats and republicans the biden treasury, the administration is on board. i want to thank the cosponsors

of the amendment that brought everybody together on this, senators warner, senator lummis, senator portman and senator sinema all in agreement on this. and i should point out i appreciate senator ron wyden's work throughout this entire process. let me just give a little bit of context here and then i'm going to yield to some colleagues and then ask consent that we adopt this commonsense change. so to start off we had very broad agreement probably unanimous agreement that centralized digital asset exchanges when they behave as brokers should be required to report transactions of their customers just like ordinary brokers do, stockbrokers, bond brokers. the problem is that the underlying text of this bipartisan infrastructure bill, while it attempts to do this, i think it's very significantly flawed in how it goes about it. the unintended consequence of the current text is that it will

ensnare people and companies and impose this transaction reporting requirement on those to whom it shouldn't apply and in some cases people who couldn't even possibly comply. for example the underlying text of this bill would impose this kind of transaction reporting requirement on crypto transaction validators. these are the people that are building out the block chain by validating a transaction. they would be obligated to report things like a name and a tax i.d. number associated with a dollar amount. they don't have that information. for them, the transaction is just an anonymized number. it doesn't make any sense at all. also people who write software code and then have no further involvement in any transactions, i think they would be captured by this language in the underlying bill. and certainly that doesn't make any sense. it would apply to anybody who is providing a service that effect

effectuates these transactions. think about the parallel in the ordinary securities brokerage business. think about merrill lynch. we require merrill lynch to report the information about me if i give them my money to buy stock. that makes sense. but we don't require the electric company that provides electrical service to merrill lynch to make any such reporting because that would not make sense. so what happened, once a group of us came together to clarify the rules of who are the actual brokers of cryptocurrency, who should be responsible for the transaction reporting requirement. we're not proposing anything that's the least bit sweeping or radical. our solution just makes clear that a broker means only those persons who conduct transactions on exchanges where customers are buying and selling and trading digital assets. we make sure that the bill does not sweep in software developers, it does not sweep in

crypto transaction validators, regardless of which of the various methods they use for the validation. it doesn't switch in note operators or any other nonbrokers. but anyone who owes any tax from a cryptocurrency transaction should pay their tax obligation. if you are actually a crypto broker you would be required to turn over that information under our approach. our amendment would do that. but it's important that the reporting requirement only apply to those kinds of intermediaries. now, i don't think any one of us cosponsors thinks that our solution is absolutely perfect but it is a big improvement over the underlying text. i would also point out that this face is changing, it's changing fast. in a year from now people will have come up with innovations and applications that we can't even imagine that nobody has probably thought of yet. what i don't want to do is impose a burden that's going to stifle that kind of innovation. what we shouldn't do is have ago

overly broad mandated reporting requirement on people who can't even comply. we shouldn't favor or punish any particular methodology or platform design or validation mechanism. and we shouldn't we shouldn't mr. president, stifle innovation. so there's time to do this. there is an agreement. it's bipartisan. the white house is on board. we can get this done. we can do it right now. i'm going to yield to my colleague from wyoming before making a unanimous consent request. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. ms. lummis: mr. president i'm pleased to join with my colleagues in urging the senate to allow this widely supported bipartisan amendment to move forward. i want to thank ranking member toomey senator warner, senator portman, senator sinema, and chairman wyden. chairman wyden in particular, thank you for your early commitment to me to get this right. and for your partnership. the amendment before us specifies that persons who

validate distributed ledger data including digital asset miners and stakers and those who provide hardware and software wallets are not required to report customer information to the internal revenue service. this is essential because those persons would not have access to the customer information necessary to comply with this requirement anyway. equally important in this amendment are clarifications to the definition of broker that will ensure that software protocol developers will not be swept up in i.r.s. reporting requirements. developers are the lifeblood of innovation and subjecting them to reporting would have far-reaching implications on privacy and on the evolution of technology in this country not to mention that most developers would not have access to useful data. this bill is very likely going

to become law and it's important that these changes become law along with the bill. that's why i urge my colleagues not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. i recognize there is dissatisfaction on both sides of the aisle with the lack of opportunity to offer amendments and to expedite debate. however, i ask you to weigh those concerns against the importance of providing millions of americans with additional clarity on the scope of their coming obligations to the i.r.s. america is a country of innovation. right now our financial system is evolving before our eyes. in much the same way that the internet first began to find a foothold in the mid 1990's. distributed ledgers digital assets and other forms of financial technology are in the

early stages of tran -- transforming the way we share and store value. this amendment started the debate on many difficult questions related to financial technology that the senate must address over the next few years. we're reacting to what was put before us. i wish that we were implementing from the get-go, but that's not where we find ourselves today. so let's get this broker definition as good as possible now and then move forward this fall with other definitions that will be important to producing a regulatory sandbox for digital assets that allow innovators to keep innovating. we're in a difficult space right now. we're transitioning from the industrial economy to the technology. and it's a bumpy ride. it's disruptive for all of us, especially those of us who grew

up in the end of the industrial age and are so new to this technology age. but we can adapt, we can be helpful, and we can help forge a very reasonable place for the innovators to work from. there's a proverb that says a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. mr. president, this amendment is the very first step in a long journey, and we're all going to take it together. this journey is about america renewing its commitment to innovation and retaining its role as the leader in the global economy for future generations. i look forward to working with each of you to make sure we get there, and i promise to be a partner to anyone willing to listen and learn. i urge my colleagues not to object and to allow this amendment to proceed to

adoption. thank you and i yield back to the senator from pennsylvania, mr. toomey. mr. toomey: mr. president, i want to thank the senator from wyoming for her very constructive leadership in this area and i'll yield at this time to the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i just want to say briefly to my colleague from wyoming and my colleague from pennsylvania and also to our other colleagues who have worked with us over the past week or so to come up with a good approach to this issue that is vexing that we need to figure out how to get this into this legislation. so i support the amendment, of course. i think there's a general consensus that information reporting is a good thing and that particularly for our constituents who every day holders of digital currency, they want to have that reporting in order to be able to pay their taxes properly. the vast majority of them are good hardworking taxpayers who want to get what their basis is or what their information is from a broker just as they would from a stock or bond. what we have done here through this language is ensure that while doing that we're not

putting a sweeping provision in place that includes people that shouldn't be included. as an example and my colleague from pennsylvania said it very, very well, we're not trying to bring in people who are involved in invalidating distributed ledger transactions through work commonly known as minors. we're also not trying to bring into proof of stake validation or stakers. we're also ensuring that we're not bringing in people who are involved with hardware and software selling to, for digital wallets. they wouldn't be subject to these rules as well. and i think it was very important to make that clear. i think the language needed clarification. i'm pleased with the amendment. i would hope that we'd be able to get it passed because i think it's very important to have it as part of this legislation. and i want to thank again my colleagues from pennsylvania, from wyoming, as well as senators warner, sinema, ossoff wyden and others who worked with us on this project. and thank you for bringing this amendment to the floor today.

mr. toomey: i thank the senator from ohio for his very constructive cooperation on this and let me yield briefly to our colleague from texas. mr. cruz: thank you. i want to thank the good efforts of the senators who have led the work in finding a compromise in this regard, in particular senator toomey and senator lumps -- senator lummis who worked very, very hard on this issue. bismarck said many years ago there are two things you don't want being made -- sausage and legislation. when it comes to particularly ugly legislation this component, the regulation of crips may take the prize -- of cryptocurrency may take the prize for the ugliest we have seen. moments from now i expect we'll see objections to this compromise legislation that was negotiated. if we do in fact see objections and if the underlying language in this bill goes into effect, it will have devastating effects. there is a new and exciting

industry in the united states of cryptocurrency whether bitcoin or otherwise, that are generating jobs, entrepreneurs who are creating new values, new hedges against inflation new opportunities and it is fast moving. it is dynamic. and this infrastructure bill, a bill being sold to the american people as let's build some roads and bridges has one little portion in there designed to obliterate cryptocurrency. i fully understand that there's some bureaucrats of the treasury department that have never seen anything they don't want to regulate the life out of. but if the underlying language in this so-called infrastructure bill becomes law, we will be destroying billions of dollars worth of industry in the united states. we will be destroying jobs in the united states. many of those jobs are in my

home state of texas. and we will be sending them overseas. this isn't complicated. cryptocurrency isn't tied to any particular piece of dirt. so the grand efforts of the united states senate will be to say we don't want those jobs in america. we don't want those resources in america. go somewhere else. the ugly truth with which bismarck understood and which is particularly true on cryptocurrency there aren't five senators in this body with any real understanding of how cryptocurrency operates. we have had no hearings on this. the senate has had no hearings on this. the house, as far as i know, has had no hearings on this. and yet this body is prepared to obliterate an industry willy-nilly, or for that matter the compromise -- and listen the compromise that would, was put forward would be a meaningful improvement.

it would do much, much less damage. but even the compromise would essentially kick the can down the road and allow bureaucrats at treasury to do massive damage and the bureaucrats at treasury don't understand this any better than the united states senate. the right outcome, i think is an amendment i introduced. strike the whole damned thing. if we want to legislate on this do our jobs. hold hearings, have witnesses understand the consequences. know what we're doing. that would be the reasonable, rational thing to do. don't just put out a rule of massive taxes and regulations with no understanding of the consequences and jobs and real people that would be hurt. for whatever reason, the senate doesn't seem to want to behave reasonably or rationally and i think the consequences are going to be long-standing of this foolish legislation. i think senator toomey and

senator lummis have worked hard on a compromise to brunt the worst aspects of this legislation, and so i hope the proposal they put forward or are about to put forward is adopted. but if it is not i'm going to predict that every one of the 100 senators here is going to come to regret that this body took apart in -- took a part in destroying jobs and a budding industry that will provide billions of dollars of new opportunity. and if the senate keeps on this course we're going to send it instead overseas to our competitors. that would be a tragic mistake. thank you. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding adoption of substitute amendment 2137 the toomey are warner, lummis sinema amendment number 2656 be agreed to.

the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: reserve the right to object i ask that the senator from pennsylvania modify his request to include my amendment number 2535 dealing with defense infrastructure to this bill and that it be agreed to. the presiding officer: does the senator from pennsylvania so modify? mr. toomey: i do. the presiding officer: is there any objection to the request as modified? mr. sanders: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: mr. president, as i understand it, the senator from alabama is interested in increasing military spending by some $50 billion. you know, there's a headline in "the new york times" today and it doesn't talk about the fact

that the united states now spends more than the next ten nations on the military. it doesn't talk about the fact that the pentagon is the only agency major agency of government that has not submitted successfully to an independent audit. it doesn't talk about the fact of huge profits among defense contractors. what it does talk about is a hotter future is now inevitable a u.n. report says. scientists urge immediate switch from fossil fuels to avert greater peril. i would say to my from from alabama, if we're going to invest $50 billion let us in fact invest in transforming our energy system so that we can save this planet for future generations and prevent the kind of unhealthy deterioration that

we will inevitably see if we do not act. so mr. president i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the option of substitute amendment number 2137 the toomey amendment 2656 be considered and agreed to. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. shelby: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: reserving the right to object again i ask that the senator modify his request to include my amendment number 2535 and that it be agreed to. the presiding officer: does the senator from delaware so amend? mr. carper: i do not. the presiding officer: is there objection to the original request by the senator from delaware? mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. toomey: so for people who have been watching this and aren't familiar with the bizarre practices in this body, i want to just explain briefly what just happened here. because there's a difference of opinion on whether or not the senator from alabama should get a vote on his amendment because that is not agreed to, the body is refusing to take up an amendment that has broad bipartisan support that we all know fixing something that badly needs to be fixed. this isn't like a whim of the senator from pennsylvania. there is like nobody who disputes that there's a problem here. you want to know the specifics of the problem? here, according to the underlying bill, this is what's going to pass, this is what's going to get sent probably ultimately to the president's desk. it's a reporting requirement a transaction reporting requirement including name, taxpayer i.d. number, dollar

amount date. it's imposed on any person who for consideration is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person. well look, i'm not even a lawyer but i can read. it sounds to me like any service effectuating transfers, that would include validators. i don't know how that doesn't include miners, stakers probably includes hardware and software wallets software developers across any kind of platform. we're going to ask these people to provide information that they don't have and they can't get. in what universe does that make any sense at all? all i want to do is have a vote on an amendment that fixes this in a way that has bipartisan agreement, in a twhai constrains -- in a way that constrains this to apply narrowly to the people who actually are the

intermediaries running a centralized exchange who have this information. but apparently we're not going to be able to do that, so we'll be back on this because we're going to do a lot of damage. who knows how much innovation we're going to stifle. who knows what kind of new apps just never emerge? it's hard to predict what kind of completely impossible mandate results in. but it's not good and it's going to bring us back here having to try to clean up a mess which we could have prevent. i yield.

mr. cruz: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: mr. president unfortunately we just saw the senator from vermont object to a compromise solution negotiated by senator toomey and senator lummis that would have mitigated some of the harm from the devastating new regulations on cryptocurrency in this so-called infrastructure bill. because the senator from vermont raised that objection the status quo right now is these new regulations are going into effect and billions of dollars of value are going to be destroyed. right now today about 106 million people are using cryptocurrencies around the world, according to at least one recent report.

the average annual income in the united states for a blockchain developer is $136,000. that represents a steady career, a good income for someone to own a home, to raise a family, to live a good and comfortable life. and texas is helping lead the way. texas is taking the lead this past year as a major hub for cryptocurrency businesses and is even being hailed as the cryptocurrency capital. but all of this is under threat. regulatory uncertainty is the number-one barrier to blockchain adoption according to 48% of respondents in a recent report. and they're right to be worried. the current bill widens the definition of broker, those who would have to collect information on cryptocurrency consumers and report this information to the i.r.s. it would force every single

participant in the cryptocurrency structure to operate as a financial institution, which would mean they would have to provide consumer information to the i.r.s. even if they don't have access to the information. this overly broad definition of the word broker will block rapid innovation in cryptocurrencies, and it will endanger the privacy of many americans in cryptocurrencies. this is wrong. so i applaud my colleagues for trying to find an incremental approach. unfortunately, because the senator from vermont objected, that incremental approach hasn't been adopted. so let's exercise a brief shining moment of common sense and let's recognize if we gathered all 100 senators in this chamber and asked them to stand up and articulate two sentences defining what in the hell a cryptocurrency is that you would not get greater than five who could answer that question.

given that reality the barest exercise of prudence would say we shouldn't regulate something we don't yet understand. we should actually take the time to try to understand it. we should hold some hearings. we should consider the consequences. we shouldn't destroy people's lives and live layhoods -- and livelihoods from complete ignorance. my amendment is very simple. doesn't add anything new to this bill. it just strikes these provisions. says let's not do anything until we know what we're talking about. let's be cautious. let's be reasonable. let's not be the number-one economic developer for the chinese by sending cryptocurrencies over seas to our competitors because we've made it impossible for them to succeed here. accordingly, i ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding aoption do of substitute amendment number 2137, that the

cruz amendment number 2466 be agreed to. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. shelby: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: i ask that the senator from texas modify his request to include my amendment number 2535 dealing with defense infrastructure in this country and that it be agreed to. the presiding officer: does the senator from texas agree to so amend? mr. cruz: reserving the right to modify my request, i would share with the senator from alabama that i have the deepest respect for the leadership of the senator from alabama. but i understand the senator from alabama has a profound commitment to the fighting men and women of our commitment, as -- of our military, as do i. that the senator's desire to support our men and women is laudable. i would commit to the senator

from alabama that i am more than read and eager to partner with him to press through in this body flew any avenue that is available investing sufficient funds in our military, in our sailors, in our soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines and in the weaponry they need to defend this nation, but sadly we know in this context that our democratic colleagues are going to object to funding for the military. they have decided that is not within their priorities, even as they are spending trillions of dollars on everything else defending this nation is is not a priority for the democratic members. so if your amendment is added to my amendment the effect will be what we just saw a moment ago which is a democratic senator standing up and objecting and claiming the reason for objecting is they don't want to fund the military anymore. i believe it is in the interest of this body to have a clean vote on do we destroy

cryptocurrencies yes or no, without any other issues. because as much as i would like to join the senator from alabama in investing more in the military -- and i am committed to working with him to doing so -- i also don't believe we should be destroying jobs and billions of dollars of value in this country. accordingly, i do not so modify my request. the presiding officer: is there objection to the original request? mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: by the senator from tennessee -- excuse me texas. mr. shelby: i object. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama objects. objection is heard.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. sinema: mr. president i rise today as we approach a vote on america's infrastructure, a bipartisan proposal that will make america stronger and safer creating good-paying jobs and expand economic opportunities across the country. after months of negotiations, the senate has now debated our bipartisaninfrastructure and investment jobs act. we've considered 22 amendments from both sides of the aisle and voted to adopt many of those amendments. in the coming hours the senate will have the opportunity to approve legislation that meets the needs of everyday families,

employers, and communities. for decades american infrastructure has been crumbling. for decades american families have asked congress for infrastructure investment. and for decaded, congress was blocked bipartisan disagreements. now as the senate proposes for a final vote, what will this historic legislation actually mean for the people we serve? our bill will mean better roads by investing an historic $110 billion to repair and upgrade our roadways, bridges and other major transportation projects. it will mean faster internet for people in more places by investing $65 billion to deploy high-speed broadband and help families afford internet service. it will mean cleaner more reliable water sources by making the strongest investment in ink doctoring water and wastewater infrastructure in u.s. history including water storage and recycling and drought

contingency plans throughout western states like arizona. it will mean fewer power outages and stronger, more reliable electricity grids by investing $65 billion in power infrastructure. it will mean better protections against wildfires by investing in fire suppression and recovery and the removal of hazardous fuels. it will mean stronger water and sanitation systems and better broadband access in tribal communities, as well as full funding for all currently authorized indian water settlements. in arizona that includes the infrastructure for the southern arizona indian water rights settlement with the tonahodo nation community the indian water rights settlement. our legislation will mean safer and more convenient airports, by investing $25 billion to repair and upgrade terminals runways taxiways and air traffic

control towers. it will mean the strongest investment ever in american public transit by expanding transit networks, improving accessibility, and funding the nation's transit repair backlog of thousands of buses railcars, stations and thousands of miles of track signals and power systems. and it will mean the largest investment in clean energy transmission and electric vehicle infrastructure in u.s. history. electrifying thousands of school and transit buses boosting critical material supply chains, and building out a national network of electric vehicle charging stations. and we achieve all of these goals without raising taxes on everyday americans. strong, reliable infrastructure represents more than pipes and pavement. it represents the opportunities for americans to visit loved ones for new businesses to open and compete globally, for veterans to access tellly medicine and -- telemedicine and

children to learn in safe ways. that's why our legislation has earned the support of such a wide cross-section of americans from the united states chamber of commerce to the afl-cio from agriculture producers to clean energy producers from health care providers to transit advocates to local mayors, a the list of experts and organizations that have endorsed our infrastructure investment and jobs act is long enough to take an entire speech just to list them all. but don't worry, mr. president. i won't. rarely does federal legislation directly address issues that matter to all our constituents and where does historic legislation earn broad support in both parties? how many times have we heard in recent months that bipartisanship isn't possible anymore? we've been asked to accept a new standard by which important policy can only come together on a party line. and while americans are more united than our politics would have you believe we certainly face divisions.

and unfortunately it's now commonplace and by some even expected for elected leaders to feed those divisions on a daily basis with extreme and hyperbolic read rick, all or nothing policy demands and toxic partisan attacks. in washington, palace intrigue and insider drama often steal the spotlight from important policy issues. but i promised arizonans something different. i chose instead to follow the example of the late senator john mccain who as the arizona republic recently recalled refused to demonize the opposition party and worked to reach bipartisan agreements that tried to bring the country together. this infrastructure effort is a perfect example of how i work to deliver results for arizona. it's the easiest thing in the world for politicians to stay in their partisan corners, to line up on their respective sides of every partisan battle, and declare that bipartisanship is

dead. but what's harder is getting out of our comfort zones and forming coalitions with unlikely allies that can achieve lasting results. lasting results rather than temporary victories destined to be reversed undermining the certainty that americans depend on. ask just about any constituent in any of our states about our country's political divisions and you will hear a desire from america's citizens for all of us to find ways to bridge our differences and work together to address the issues that actually matter to their daily lives. our bipartisan senate group that negotiated this historic legislation and those we've partnered with to strengthen the bill throughout this process provide an example of how to achieve that goal. in a demonstration of how the senate was designed to work, the senators in our group effectively represented the needs of the regions we represent. senator cassidy in the deep south and the gulf coast.

senator warner in the miffed atlantic. senator manchin in appalachia and senators romney and tester in the west. and with senator portman representing the midwest the northeast and alaska each with unique infrastructure needs were represented by shaheen collins and murkowski. what should not be a surprise to anyone. those women and our bipartisan group brought a no-drama work ethic, policy expertise, and a knowledge of our regions' priorities that earned my designation of them as the wonder women. i sincerely thank my coleader in partnering together on this effort, senator robb portman of ohio whose knowledge on issues ranging from permitting requirements to the federal budget is matched only by his steadfast commitment to delivering on this priority for our country. i'm just not sure how we or our teams will manage daily schedules without the endless meetings sciewls and dooms --

calls and zooms negotiating the nuance and funding of c.b.o. scores. actually just kidding. well manage just final. our group grew to 20 senators including my fellow home state senator from arizona mark kelly. and a significant portion of our legislation is made up of the surface transportation reauthorization which was painstakingly assembled in serious bipartisan committee negotiations led by senators carper capito, cantwell, wicker brown toomey, and many others. our proposal is a historic deal for communities across the country because of their hard work and expertise. we've also worked very closely with u.s. house leaders and the problem solvers caucus whose support will be absolutely crucial as our legislation moves to the house. through every step in these negotiations, president biden and his team as well as majority leader schumer stood firmly behind us helping navigate the difficult challenges.

and i'm honored that we've also earned the support of republican leader mitch mcconnell as well. i would like to especially thank my legislative director michael brownley for his hard work and my entire policy team who worked incredibly tirelessly over countless hours along with our other senate staff and president biden's team at the white house to help turn our negotiated framework into this legislation. and what we have here today is what it looks like. when elected leaders set aside their differences shut out the noise and distractions, and just focus on forging common ground around our shared values. and this is what it looks like for elected leaders to ignore the extreme rhetoric and the cheap political attacks and put energy instead into delivering lasting results that matter to everyday americans. this is what it looks like when elected leaders take a step

toward healing our country's divisions rather than feeding those very divisions. and with those shared values in mind i urge my colleagues in both parties to support the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act and help show the world that our democracy still works and that we still lead the world in innovation and competitiveness and that americans can be confident that their government is working for all of us and is indeed worthy of all of us. thank you, mr. president. ms. murkowski: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i'm pleased to be able to follow my friend and colleague, the senator from arizona and while she is still on the floor i want to thank her personally for the herculean efforts that she has made throughout this process. it has not been easy. it has sometimes been

challenging. and sometimes it takes somebody who just exudes optimism and enthusiasm and a deep hearted deep-seated belief that what we are doing is good and it's right for all the right reasons. we have acknowledged here on the floor each and every one of us this infrastructure bill is not the perfect bill, but i am waiting, mr. president, i am waiting for the day when we here in the united states senate can come to a place where all 100 of us agree that we have the perfect bill. but what we have, what we have for the senate to consider is a product that is really built around core fundamentals, core principles that a group of senators equally divided came together months ago to work through knowing that the work was going to be hard.

this is probably one of the most consequential bills that i have been involved with in my senate career in close to 19 years that i have been here. what we are presenting to the senate is truly historic in its proportions. it's historic in its impact going forward. this is truly legacy infrastructure that we're speaking about. yesterday was a little frustrating. we've had some frustrating days where colleagues were sitting and waiting hoping for things to move more rapidly than they were. and that's challenging. we have a process here in the senate that is hard for those on the outside to understand and oftentimes hard for us on the inside to understand. but it is a process that after a

period of time yields the results. and so as i was visiting with fellow senators, i overheard somebody say i'm not really sure how we got here. how did we get to this point? well, i'll tell you, mr. president, it wasn't magic. it wasn't magic that produced a legislative package that again is historic in its funding for roads, rails bridges ports ferries, waterways. it was certainly not an accident that negotiated this 2 1kwr-700 page -- 2,700-page document that works to meet the broadband needs of americans particularly in unserved or underserved parts of the country like my state in alaska. mr. president also it wasn't inevitable that this infrastructure deal would come together and yet that's all following what we have learned in this past year and a half

dealing with the covid pandemic and the reality that we have true disparities when it comes to basic infrastructure, like clean water sanitation facilities energy. it was not inevitable that this infrastructure deal would come together. in the age of cynicism and punditry, we kind of grow accustomed around here to believing that it's hard to get good things done in washington, d.c. that's not good for any of us. those of us here in the senate, we signed up to do a job. we were sent here to do a job. we were sent here to work. and, mr. president that's that's it. that's how we came to be where we are through work, through hard work, through compromise.

so it wasn't magic. it wasn't accidental. it wasn't inevitable. we went to work and for a time i think we really banished the demon of faction that cast his scepter all too often. alexander hamilton warned us of this polarizing temptation. and as the champion of infrastructure or they called it internal improvements in the days of the founding fathers i'm hoping that he's looking favorably on us today. but again this has not been an easy road, this infrastructure project. every morning those of us that were involved in these negotiations we'd wake up not surprised to read in the paper or see on tv that something had happened outside our control that was designed to kill this package. and every day instead of taking in those headlines, we saw our

constituents. we heard from them. we heard from the people across this country urging us to continue. people like carl, mario chris connor, they pen how important it is for industries, for the jobs, for alaskans for folks all over the country for health, the future. and they reminded us we have an opportunity to do something that actually matters in their lives and in their communities. and the other thing that i heard, mr. president, they wanted us to do it together. figure it out you guys. work together. when you look at the survey data that is out there it's pretty resounding. several different polls show 87% of americans overwhelmingly support for fixing infrastructure. the list of organizations that support it, everyone from the american wire rope fabricators

to the institute of manufacturers of explosives to the national governors association to the steel manufacturers association technic. this bipartisan infrastructure package proves that good things can happen in washington d.c., but that it takes work. and it takes a majority of us in this chamber deciding that it's better -- it's better to get some of what our constituents want rather than none of it. it's better to make progress and actually deliver results to your constituents rather than just delivering a message. we do a lot of messaging around here and as my friend, the senator from west virginia, reminds us, the message doesn't fix a pothole. now, i have been disappointed that we haven't been able to be

get some of the amendments that we have heard about today. we've heard senator shelby from alabama talk about defense infrastructure. we've heard the senator from texas, senator cornyn, talk about flexibility to the states. we've heard the senator from pennsylvania, senator toomey, working with senator wyden and senator lummis on the crypto currency issue. so again is this perfect? no. but is it -- is it a process that has delivered us to a place where we are delivering results to the people who have sent us here. mr. president i was on the floor late last week outlining many of the benefits that alaskans will see from this measure, but i want to take a few more minutes this afternoon to highlight just a couple of more in perhaps some detail. because as i mentioned and

everyone knows part of the role or the view that i offered in our bipartisan working group was to make sure that the needs of rural americans were met and this bill addresses some of the greatest infrastructure needs that again we see in rural america, but also in urban and everyone in between to connect them in ways that we haven't before. southeast alaska this is the region of the state that i grew up in. it's an island in arcipelico, it is not possible to travel by road from one city in the southeastern part of the state to the other for the most part. our capital is not accessible by road of our reality is that we either travel by airplane or we are traveling on the water so a

strong ferry system, the alaska marine highway system is essential to local economic development, to quality of life, to community well-being. there are 35 different ports along the alaska marine highway system. this spans an area of 35,000 miles. i'm only looking at my colleague from delaware because we've been working on the ferry initiative and he's proud of the ferry system that he has there but i've got a lot of water that i've got to cover and it makes it challenging and it's no different from delaware in terms of the significance these small ferries can offer to people as they are moving families around, as they are moving the basketball team as they are going from costco to juneau and delivering them elsewhere and those going outside the state they've got to move their families and all their goods and the dogs and the trucks and they've got to get out of town

and they get out by way of the ferry. it's easy to compare alaska's ferry to an urban bus or subway system or other form of transit that receives operations of support. until now because alaska's communities are rural and not urban, we have not received federal support for its operations. we have had allocation from the grant program to the ferry system but now ferry operators will be able to use funding for construction maintenance repairs and operations costs. in so many parts of alaska the marine highway system is the only highway. it is the only highway so it is truly an essential mode of transportation. when you come from a state where over 80% of your communities are not connected by road, again you figure it out. it's air it's on the ocean

it's in the rivers. but more often than not our transportation is not roads. so to make sure that -- that we are addressing this essential sector of transportation, we included lake wages that -- languages that establishes a program for ferry services to support our communities. through this program the department of transportation will be able to provide funds to the states to provide for essential ferry service. we're also looking forward as we think about -- as we think about how our -- our ferries move, how our school buses move, how our vehicles move, and we know this administration has moved that very aggressively when it comes to e.v.'s. there's language in this bill that helps to facilitate that. but, again when you're thinking about what is on the roads

electfication of our vehicles or our school buses or city buses let's not forget what i just referred to and that's these -- these effectively buses that are on the water. so what are we doing to electrify or to look to alternative fuels for our ferries? this is not a new concept. in the scandinavian countries where, again hydropower is in great abundance as it is in southeast alaska, an electric ferry system makes sense. so we're kind of pushing out on this to build out this notion, this concept that we can reduce emissions with our ferries by using alternative fuels or on board energy storage systems or other infrastructure again to

produce emissions. so the folks in skagway and haines are looking at this with great interest. diesel doesn't come cheap there and that's what moves communities around, this community, skagway is powered by hydro. so let's pull this together. i mentioned the potential for e.v.'s and low-emitting hydros. we're going to need to continue being an energy super power as we're continuing to advance as a society we're going to be using more energy, we're going to be using more electric and yeah, we're going to need to continue to produce much of it in the good old fashioned way for a long time to come, but electricity is increasingly important, it's vital to so many facets of modern life and this

legislation takes that into account. looking at the different ways it enhances the broader community system by investing in the next generation clean energy production. there are three examples that is pertinent to alaska. there is advancement for clean nuclear reactors, including microreactors. it holds great promise for deployment in certain rural and remote areas. we also provide for funding for hydropower and marine energy research. we've got a great high droa connect -- hydrokinetic center, we provide for geothermal. we have pioneered in this and got the secretary of energy who will be visiting the state shortly and who will have an opportunity to look specifically at the low temperature geothermal as well as promising opportunities that we have.

more energy production from more types of energy means greater resilience greater affordability and greater access. let's consider the ways that the bill impacts the electric grid and the power sector. three areas pertinent to alaska and rural areas. we have included a measure that i had introduced, the protect act, which authorizes funding to improve our cyber defenses in smaller communities. i think we recognize we have a big focus on the bigger communities but your utilities in your smaller communities still have to provide for the cowboy protection -- cyber protections. we need to enhance resilience, hardening of the grid. this will help in wildfires that could be affected. we are talking about

weatherization installing equipment underground maintaining utility poles and power lines. we provide support for rural and remote areas in many communities in the state for -- for the modernization for generation for transmission an distribution. so this will help with cost effectiveness, it will help with energy efficiency, microgrid as we shift to cleaner sources of energy. so again i think it's important to recognize that we are -- we are working to not only address the transmission but distribution, generation, and what we're really looking to do is look towards the future, a future in which we'll need more energy production, more electric more -- more electricity, more batteries and a more secure grid and as we are doing this, as we are building all this out i want to make sure -- we do ensure that all americans are included in this

energy and infrastructure transition and i speak specifically now to our alaska indian american indian, our native peoples around the country, this bill, this infrastructure investment and jobs act is really an historic achievement for all of us who are concerned with american indian alaska native tribes and villages. i'm the vice chair of the the senate indian affairs committee and i have worked hard to make sure that indian voices are heard. we are talking about water and waste water things that most of us take for granted. we provide $3.5 billion for american native indians to provide for all of the sanitation projects. these are projects that have been on the books for way way too long.

i -- i'm reminded by my friend, val davidson, she testified before the indians affairs committee about both the funding needed in native communities an sanitation's really significant impact on health and she shared her own personal story and also a statistic that one in three infants in communities from her region without adequate sanitation are hospitalized in their first year simply because they lack basic water sanitation services. and it's not just a visit to a hospital as an infant that is scary but so many then develop long-term health problems, which are absolutely unacceptable. any infrastructure bill has to live up to our federal government's trust obligations to our tribes. this is vital to allowing tribes

access to water for their health and for their livelihood. to within the bill we provide $2.5 billion to provide indian fund water settlements. outside the legal world most people know indian water settlements by the term water rights, but it includes the amot white mount apache, navajo utah and the arizona water settlement act. so this funding is going to complete the balance of each and every one of these settlements. we also provide $250 million for the bureau of indian affairs to help build and repair irrigation power and sanitation systems. you have to move clean water from one place to another and keep it clean and use it productively. we provide grants for resilient transportation infrastructure, a native youth land corps

adaptation projects and funding for a new program to provide indian tribes grants to clean up orphan wells. there's more included in this. there's $110 million set aside for tribal bridge investments there's a tribal transportation program, eligibility for grants under advanced energy and battery management an recycling programs. we are looking to ensure that we are prioritizing infrastructure needs in tribal areas. i haven't mentioned broadband but absolutely significant. we know that broadband deployment on tribal lands has lagged far behind the rest of the nation, so to address this, the bill includes an additional $2 billion for tribal broadband connectivity grants. we know -- we've heard it on this floor by all of us, republicans and democrats urban and rural we know that broadband is vital to education health care, economic

development, self-governor unanimous, it apply -- self-governance, it applies across the board when it concerns the needs of the indian country. i know that the dollars going forward is significant but we also know it's not just about the funding it's about making the programs work better so we do things like requiring expedited environmental review for tribal transportation safety projects streamline cat cat -- categorical exclusions, by empowering tribes. within the middle-mile grants, there's consultation with the tribes on a process to designate underserved and unserved areas. so there's so much that we really have focused on ensuring that alaska natives american indians, those are native people around the country are included

in these many provisions as they relate to infrastructure, including grid infrastructure resilience and reliability. so, madam president i've spoken for a while now on three specific areas where i have chosen to highlight certainly within marine transportation, the benefits that places like alaska will see the significance of energy production and what this infrastructure bill will provide there and -- and benefits to our native peoples around the country. and, madam president i want to conclude my comments by ending with where i began which is to acknowledge the efforts of so many who have really got us here today, not through -- not through a miracle not through an accident, not through inevitability but just through hard work.

i am very pleased to have been part of this group really honored to work with such hardworking people and their teams led by senator sinema who just spoke and senator portman. their leadership has been, in my view really extraordinary. the work that they have put behind managing us all to this point deserves -- deserves recognition. i also want to acknowledge the good work of -- of the chairman and the ranking member on the energy and public works committee, senator carper, and senator capito, who really laid the base for so much of this bill. so to the g-10 and the broader g-22, all those who have contributed so much, i -- i convey my thanks. i also want to acknowledge colleagues on the other side of the capitol here, those that are

known as the problem solvers over there. they really have jumped in, rolled up their sleeves and helped us in solving problems when it comes to this infrastructure package and i'm looking forward to being able to move this legislation, this package from this body tomorrow, send it over to the house so that they can then pick up those efforts. but i'm -- i'm pleased that we have come to this place after a long process, after a tough process, but one where we were really able to focus on common goals that we identified at the outset and we really held true to. that we were going to be dealing with core infrastructure, core infrastructure. they agreed that we were not going to impose new taxes. we agreed that we needed to ensure that the spending pay-fors were true and

legitimate. we agreed that long-term spending on infrastructure needed to improve our nation's efficiency our productivity, our g.d.p., and our revenue and not increase inflation. and, madam president, we have achieved that. we have set out these parameters, and we achieved it, but we did it with a lot of give and a lot of take. and so while the end product is not something that any one of us individually would have written i am very proud to be able to support what we have -- what we have worked to bring to this body again with the help and hard work and collaboration of so so many members. i am disappointed, madam president, that immediately after we advance

this bill tomorrow, the infrastructure package that we will turn to a wholly partisan exercise, one that in my view taxes and spends without limit a wish list that really knows no limit. but for now let's move to this infrastructure bill. let's get it to the house. let's do what people in alaska, what people in illinois, what people around the country have asked us to do, and that is to address our nation's competitiveness our nation's efficiency and our nation's advantages by securing and ensuring that we are able to move to connect and to provide

for our country's needs. and with that, madam president i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: madam president, i rise to urge my colleagues to support the budget resolution immediately after the infrastructure vote tomorrow. i am particularly glad to see the presiding officer in the chair today. earlier i spoke on this floor about the infrastructure bill and her efforts senator duckworth from illinois, her efforts to ensure disabled access. transit stops we still have far too many transit stops in this country. in big cities like hers in chicago and mine in cleveland and philadelphia and new york and all over that are not -- that are not accessible, and that's got to be our mission. i chair the banking housing

urban affairs committee. most people call it just the banking committee. in reality it's the housing banking, and transit committee and that's our responsibility to move in the right direction and we are moving there rapidly and i thing senator duckworth for her work on that. i want to talk not long. i know that senator cardin is awaiting and has been patient and i believe that senator inhofe might be here, too. this week, we have moved forward on a bill to provide critical investments in transportation infrastructure. i'm glad we're doing that. the next step is to address housing. nothing is more important than housing. as chair of the banking housing committee, i have held hearings about housing needs across the country. this committee called banking housing, and urban affairs most refer to it as senate banking. it has been mostly about wall street in the past, not nearly enough about housing. those issues are changing. i know senator cardin, not just in baltimore but in western maryland everywhere, as in

urban ohio and rural ohio, how important housing is. we hear repeatedly about the shortage of affordable housing about wide disparities in access to homeownership. this isn't just about a few coastal cities. we heard from mayors in akron ohio in bozeman montana in tempe, arizona about their housing needs. their market -- in bozeman, home prices are up 50%. it's almost impossible for young families to find a place to live. in akron home values are sometimes too low to find financing, and banks tell us they can't make a profit on making a -- on selling a $60,000, $70,000 -- a mortgage on a $70,000, $80,000 house. their issues are different but all three mayors told us they need the federal government to be a better partner in helping to invest in their housing and in their communities. without housing investment, there cannot be economic growth. it's because housing by any real definition isn't the structure.

where you live determines so much about your life, where your kids go to school, how far you have to go to work, what kind of job you get. it determines where you do your grocery shopping, do you have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, whether your kids are exposed as they are in far too many old neighborhoods whether it's appalachia, southern illinois, in ohio, or whether it's cleveland or chicago, kids are exposed too often to hazardous lead or mold. we saw over the past year that housing certainly affects our health. people's paychecks have not kept up with the cost of living, particularly the cost of rent. senator sanders earlier today -- and this was before the pandemic what he was talking about that 25% of american renters pay more than half their income in rent. one thing goes wrong in their lives. their car breaks down, their child gets sick. they miss three days of work because of a minor injury and everything turns upside down for them. this is even more of a problem of course, for black and latino

renters. little left over each month for food and medication, let alone saving. it's not just renters. today more than one in five homeowners still pay more than one-third of their income in rent. the black ownership rate -- this is pretty unbelievable. the black ownership rate is as low as it was when in 1968, this body finally passed open housing, finally passed fair housing. the first secretary of h.u.d. after we passed the fair housing law was senator romney's father, george romney. as hard as he tried partly because of president -- the president, his boss, followed a southern strategy, that they little in the end could accomplish very little for housing equal. we're the wealthiest country in the world. we have a half a million people, including 100,000 children, without a place to stay on a given night. the budget resolution on the floor tomorrow will finally make the investment we need to help more families find and afford a place that they can call home.

think of the word home. it helps us provide funding to make critical repairs to our nation's public housing to make it more sustainable to save families' money to reduce harmful effects on our climate. it helps provide affordable places for families and seniors to rent, including in rural areas, helping more families become first-time homeowners. it will help communities invest in their neighborhoods including brown and black communities who have been left out of our nation's recovery, who have been -- it will make their homes more resill epidemic in the face of changing climate. it will make communities -- communities will have housing and transit investments that work together to bring down the cost of daily commutes to reduce harmful effects on our climate. with the resolution before us tomorrow, we have an opportunity to make people's lives better, to give local economies the chance to grow. we can expand access to affordable rentals. we'll make it easier to purchase a home. we'll put tradespeople to work

in good-paying often union jobs, building housing making it safe and making it resilient. i urge my colleagues to support this long overdue investment in our homes and our communities and in our workers. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. be inhofe: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. inhofe: madam president, i know we have all been talking about what's going to happen in the next two days, and it's very significant things that have to take place but i want to remind some people out there that it doesn't mean that everything else stops. we have a couple of issues that are major issues but not to really large numbers of people, but they are issues that are meaningful -- very meaningful to a few. and it happens that there has

been progress in both of these. now, one of them is an issue that has to do with western sahara. and i know a lot of people are not really familiar with that or what the issue is, but it's an old issue that has been around since 1966. it's a very significant issue where it's one that you have heard me talk about for quite some time, but we have made some great progress. first of all it bears repeat repeating. the people from western sahara, they are kind of a voiceless people. that's why i am here because nobody else is here on that. so how we got here. as west africa was being decolonized, western sahara was clear and declared an independent nation despite morocco attempting to claim it as a territory. in 1966, the u.n. general assembly resolution agreed that

the referendum of self-determination should be held. that's the u.n. general assembly. there was no disagreement at that time except from morocco. everyone was in agreement. in fact, at that time morocco was even in agreement. this is 1966. we are going to have a determination in the form of a referendum that would be taking place in 1975. it's 1966 playing for 1975. self-determination is just merely letting the people decide for themselves the imperative principle of action, the right to judge for themselves independent or to be a part of morocco. now, this is just the first promise of a referendum. to date, none has been kept. the international court of justice opinion from 1975 also agreed that morocco did not have any sovereignty over the land and that the referendum of

self-determination should be held. so we have an international court of justice. they agreed with this. the united nations general assembly all in agreement. morocco maintained its unlawful claim to western sahara, and after decolonization attempted to annex the country by force. western sahara officially the arab democratic republic defended their rights to the land. after more than a decade of violence from morocco the united nations finally intervened in 1991, and both sides agreed to a cease-fire and a path forward. that was 1991. it was called at that time the settlement plan. it solidified morocco and western sahara agreed to hold a referendum.

that referendum created a united nations mission to a referendum to solidify it. those were keeping -- if you are keeping track, that was the third promise. it's worth noting the u.n. regularly reaffirms the 1991 commitment to a referendum for self-determination. now, self-determination is something that people assume there is not opposition to. self-determination is something that's very meaningful to us in our history in this country and this is something that at that time was accepted. i can remember talking several times with previous administrations going back to the reagan administration, and people were at that time knowing that this was going to happen but just didn't know for sure how it was going to happen or when it was going to happen, and here it is now decades later and it hasn't happened yet. the referendum for 1992 never took place and the process

stalled through a cease-fire that was held in morocco that just wouldn't hold up its end of the bargain. former secretary of state james baker -- i remember when the previous administration came in james baker read some place that i was concerned be about this issue and he called me up. he said i want you to know i spent a lot of years with three different presidents trying to get this done. we were unable to do it. let me work with you. this is an issue, one of these rare things where everyone agrees. anyway, they had a special envoy to the western sahara. baker worked in multiple plans with morocco and western sahara. came close many times but it never happened. most notable the houston agreement was signed by morocco and western sahara and recommitted to a referendum of self-determination plan for

1998. that would have been the fourth time. morocco recognized they would likely lose a vote quickly tanked all the negotiations in the next year by declaration they would never accept a referendum that included independence as an outcome despite years of promise otherwise. the conflict stalled then, leaving us with, in what is called frozen conflict for more than two decades. in the end of last year, november to be precise morocco tried to violently crush peaceful protest in the gugaret area. the western is a har raines were peace -- saharans were protesting the cease-fire agreement by using the road in this direction.

the international community did nothing. then truly the worst thing that happened, there was a change in policy of the united states that had been a policy for some three decades where they actually were recognizing morocco's sovereignty. that decision was wrong and reversed decades of the united states policy, but the policy held until 1966. it was a shocking announcement and deeply disturbing to all who valued the individual rights of self-determination. that's why earlier this year senator leahy and i led 25 of our colleagues in a bipartisan letter to president biden urging him to reverse the harmful policy and to recommit to a policy of self-determination. and this is something that i know he recognizes. i actually personally talked to him about this in his first week in office. it hasn't been done yet and it should be done.

many of our colleagues and i are not alone in our push for western sahara to have the right for self-determination. so does the african union which comprised of 55 member states. we have most of the european community who support the u.n. efforts on our side. the european court of justice also ruled that the western sahara is not a part of morocco and that the e.u., economic agreements can cover western sahara. anyway this has happened over and over again for a long period of time and just fairly recently the sawtana hiya had a cnn -- and i'm actually going to wind up with an agreement with my friend from maryland. and that is the statement that

she made. she said, and this is a quote morocco's repression of sawari people and the sawari human priets -- rights defenders is well documented. they have struggled under moroccan occupation since 1975, and this repression will continue until occupation has ended. and while the united nations security council supports giving of the people of western sahara the chance to determine their own future through the referendum morocco has refused to allow the referendum to take place, depriving us of the chance for self-determination. so she concluded by saying that i cannot find the words to describe the endless suffering that i personally and the sawari people more generally have endured under this occupation. they are resolute, and we should be too. with this, i would like to offer my friend from, since he

has been waiting for a long period of time to use the remainder of my time if he will then yield the floor to me at the conclusion. mr. cardin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i thank my friend from oklahoma. the two of us arrived in the house of representatives on the same day. we've been friends for all this period of time, and i thank him for his generosity. madam president, i take this time to talk about legislation we'll be considering tomorrow which will be the budget resolution. it gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity. i would just like to pause for a moment because it's part of president biden's build back better that we can have a more competitive nation and we can create the jobs that we need for the future. i was with secretary blinken

earlier today in college park, and he talked specifically about the challenges our nation faces. we go back a generation ago america was clearly in the forefront of creating jobs, of taking advantage of all innovation in new emerging fields. we were the envy of the world. today the rest of the world has caught up, in some cases exceed us. and this once-in-a-generation opportunity to build back better gives us an opportunity to do what we need to do for america's future and show the world that our free market democratic society is the best way to take care of its people. this is an incredibly important part to deliver on president biden's build back better. we already did with the american rescue plan. that gave us the opportunity to get the covid-19 vaccines distributed so we could get that behind us. it helped our state and local governments. it took half of our children out of poverty in maryland 52,000

maryland children were taken out of poverty. 40 million families nationwide benefited from the child credit and earned income tax credit. we took a major step forward in building back better with the passage of the american rescue plan. and then tomorrow and the passage of this bipartisan infrastructure package we'll take the second step in building back better. and there's a lot to be celebratedment legislation that we will pass tomorrow. i was proud to work on the transportation and water infrastructure issues along with my colleague who is presiding to make sure that we provided the building blocks necessary for a modern infrastructure, for transportation for roads bridges, transit systems and our water infrastructure which is critically important. so we've taken the second -- we'll take a second step to build back better with the passage of the bipartisan bill. but there's a third step that is critically important and that's the budget resolution

that we will be taking up starting tomorrow. the budget resolution takes us beyond covid-19. yes, we have to rebuild from covid-19 but we also need to rebuild our nation to make it modern and to provide the needs that americans need. and the budget resolution will provide america more competitiveness, better prepared for the future, create jobs millions of jobs, lower the cost for americans in dealing with their everyday needs. and we're asking the wealthier people to pay their fair share. first of all to pay their taxes and then pay their fair share of taxes. we tackled the climate crisis and we develop the workforce to meet the jobs of the future. i'm very excited about the opportunity of taking up the budget resolution. let me just comment on a few specifics as chair of the senate small business and

entrepreneurship committee. i expect we'll be given budget instructions to deal with those issues. madam president, you are part of that group. we need to look at access to credit investment and markets, particularly in the underserved communities those that have not had the opportunities in the past. i'm talking about women-owned small businesses, minority-owned small businesses veteran-owned small businesses and entrepreneurs from other underserved communities. we're going to take a look at government contracting. the united states is the largest purveyors of goods and services in the world. how can we c improve that in building back better to make sure all are included in that opportunity? we're going to look at innovation and growth. small businesses are the innovator of our economy. they create a better way to do things. we saw that during covid-19. we get more innovation from small businesses than from the larger companies. but as we look at emerging markets, there has been a real separation between the underserved communities not being able to participate in new

emerging markets. when we take a look at the amount of venture capital that go to minority small businesses or women-owned small businesses it's a small fraction of their demographic numbers. the last time i checked 93% of venture capital went to companies owned by white males. now i'm all for everyone participating, but that's not a fair p division and opportunity for emerging markets. so we need to take a look at emerging markets incubator and accelerator programs. and then access to capital. we need direct help through the small business administration to help small businesses, because we know we have a better chance for the underserved community to get a fair shake with s.b.a. controlling the loans. we also need to have partnerships with the private sector as we see in the programs like the sbic program and other programs. so we're going to work as a committee to try to deal with

the needs particularly of those small businesses that have been left behind in the past. i also serve on the environment and public works committee and chair the subcommittee on infrastructure working with the presiding officer. i mention this because both of us have been directly involved in creating new programs to help underserved communities. there's a program that i was involved with that deals with water affordability a l pilot program that will allow those that cannot afford clean water bills, help from government as we do for utility costs. that was included in the bipartisan package but not the funding. so i'm hoping that we'll have the opportunity to fund that program and to fund other programs that we deal with in underserved communities for water projects that we'll be able to do that in the environment and public works committee in the budget resolution. we're going to deal with climate, and we need to deal with climate. investments in jobs and growth in dealing with the environment

go together, and we're finding that america is not -- is far ahead internationally as other countries such as china investing in interest vehicles than america is electric vehicles. we're going to work with the environment and public works committee, the agriculture committee to deal with coastal resiliency which is important to my state the chesapeake bay the iconic symbol of maryland in our region, the largest estuary in our hemisphere. it has challenges. and this once-in-a-generation opportunity gives us the opportunity to do things beneficial for our environment and help us deal with climate change. for example the beneficial use of dredge materials. we want to keep our channels dredged for commerce, very important. where do we put that material? in the chesapeake bay we want to put it into storing wetlands,

creating wetlands which will help our environment issue. in the agriculture issue we're going to look at conservation programs all that are important. i was pleased to see in the explanation of the budget resolution a specific reference to the appalachia regional commission, important to two western counties in maryland. we need to do more to help them and their economy and grow back better and we're going to have an opportunity in the budget resolution to do exactly that. as i mentioned earlier lower costs for americans. child care, we need to bring down the cost so americans can afford child care. extension of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit because we want to make sure that the progress we've made in lifting families out of poverty, that we do that on a permanent basis. let's get that a longer period of time for providing that relief. help for higher education the cost of higher education is way out of line here in america.

this bill will give us a chance to deal with the cost of higher education, community colleges, hbcu's pell grants increases. i was listen to senator brown talk about affordable housing and homeownership. i was with secretary fudge this week in prince george's county maryland as we talked about tools available to help with affordable housing and homeownership so families can afford a home today. i'm proud to cosponsor a bill with senator portman the neighborhood reinvestment act so that communities can do the investment in their community and where there's a difference between market rate and the cost to do the renovation or building. we have a credit so that communities can have the type of housing commensurate with their needs. we can do a lot more. paid family medical leave we're one of the only countries that don't have that. an opportunity in the budget resolution for us to be able to accomplish that.

and the expansion of medicare. i've been trying to get medicare to cover dental care for a long time. seniors need that type of protection. we have a chance to do that in this budget resolution, along with eyeglasses and hearing aids, which are essential. they should be included in medicare. we have a chance to do that. then on climate issue we're going to have an opportunity to really deal with one of the greatest threats we have, and that is our planet is burping up. we know that -- is burning up. we me that. and we need to take dramatic action in order deal with the realities of climate change. we see it all around us. we see it in flooding, in maryland h we see it in wildfires out west. we'll have a chance with electric vehicles, we'll have a chance with the tax codeto reduce carbon emissions. we'll have a chance with public

buildings, we'll have the opportunity for weatherization programs. all that is contemplated in the budget resolution. i can't contemplate what the committees will be doing in the coming weeks but to make this a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring -- to deal with job training and job preparedness. this is a responsible package that will help working families and have the wealthy who are not paying their taxes pay their taxes and pay their fair share of taxes. winston churchill remarked, the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. i agree with sir winston churchill. together we can meet the most formidable challenges our nation faces, and the build back better budget is the next step in that process.

i look forward to our taking this resolution up, moving it forward and fill in the blanks and get this done in order that americans with meet the challenges of the future, create the jobs we need in the future, and get the cost relief that they need to deal with life's essential needs. with that, i want to thank my friend from oklahoma allowing me to give me remarks and i would yield the floor. mr. inhofe: i thank my friend, and we've worked on a lot of bills on infrastructure together since we were both elected the same year many years ago. and we've accomplished a lot together. now, what i want to do is complete my remarks that again a few minutes ago -- that i began a few minutes ago. before i do that i want to ask a unanimous consent request that during the course of the remarks i made concerning western sahara

that the speech that was made by sultana hiya that was published in cnn be made a part of the record during the course of my presentation. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. inhofe: thank you, madam president. let me repeat what way said in the beginning of my previous remarks. that was we're all talking about the same thing. right now we're getting down to the last -- conceivably the last two votes that we're going to be having. and so all of the concentration has been on those. but i wanted to mention two of the other issues that are being made -- very popular issues and they're making great progress right now and so let me go ahead and do that for a short while. and that is to provide an update

on thely gatt tow issue the ligado issue. the spacebeat memo is designed to focus on space and satellites. so this is their inaugural first of ever newsletter with a great rundown -- they chose the lagago issue. that's ligado, the ligado order was a spectrum sale approved back in april of 2020 that would let ligado use the l-band or the spectrum -- that's a spectrum close to the g.p.s. -- for commercial use. why is that a problem? it's a problem because ligado signals are about two billion times as powerful as g.p.s.

signals, so they would cause interference do, to all -- according to all unbiased sources, to the g.p.s. now, here's one way to put the interference into perspective. because g.p.s. signals travel from satellites in spain -- in space, by the time those signals get to the earth's surface, they are low-power. because the f.c.c. order allows ligado to repurpose spectrum to operate in the terrestrial-based network, ligado's signals on earth's surface will be much more powerful than g.p.s., causing substantial harm and interference. now, we know that basically everyone in government opposes this. i've talked about this now since the last time, just june 23, down here on the floor shortly after the ligado order was announced in april of 2020.

the nt at this moment a filed a petition -- the ntia filed a if he fission to reconsider the petition asking them to reconsider their decision again giving the negative impact it would have. this was signed and on behalf of some 15 governmental agencies. the ntia is the national telecommunications information administration. they are an agency within the department of commerce that serves as the president's primary advisor on telecom policies. as i announced on june 23, i recently received a letter from secretary of commerce gina raimondo confirming that -- and i'm quoting now -- there has been no change to the department of commerce's or ntia's opposition to the f.c.c.'s ligado order unquote.

that's a direct quote. that's the new administration. we know that the last administration believed the same thing, and this administration is following on this cause. and it is a very significant one. she also pledged that the ntia will continue to pursue the petition for reconsideration. the petition that represents the departments of commerce, defense, interior, justice homeland security, energy, transportation nasa, f.a.a., and more. this is primarily the entire government. now, this is huge. it showed once again that there is a bipartisan opposition to the ligado order that is continuing into the biden administration. that's not all i'm doing. i'm also introducing the retain g.p.s. act, which would ensure federal agencies, state government and all others

negatively impacted -- all that is negatively impacted by ligado's activities, by actions of a private actor and are not left holding the bag when the costs start coming in. and worse are not put in a position where they have to push the cost to the american consumers. the house has introduced the legislation as well, led by representatives cooper, mike turner frank lucas and others. it is just common sense and only fair as david grossman, the executive director of g.p.s. innovation alliance, said to "politico." the retain act talking about the act that i've introduced, is just extending those protections that the f.c.c. recognized were critical for federal agencies, g.p.s. systems on a civil scale.

in other words if you're going to protect government, protect individuals, too if it's done through the negligence or bad operations of ligado. so the g.p.s. innovation alliance is just one of more than a hundred -- more than a hundred we're talking about; this is a large number of people -- companies and industry groups that support my retain g.p.s. act. and why is it so popular? because g.p.s. is essential to everything we do. you know, people had thought when this thing first came on, they were just concerned about the air industry, the airlines and others. but these are some of the day-to-day things. now, i don't really have to read this but i think it's important that people know that it's important to others than themselves. because i don't know anyone who isn't really concerned about g.p.s. and its safety and working ability. a big one -- using the credit -- or debt card. every time you use a credit or

debt card when you're making a purchase you use the a.t.m. or financial systems rely on g.p.s. timing to work. another -- making a phone call. cell phone networks rely on g.p.s. to synchronize cell towers so calls can be passed seamlessly. if they experience interference, your call could drop when moving from tower to tower. here's one most people don't expect and that's energy. when that is -- filling up your tank at the pump or managing electrical grids to light our homes, we rely on g.p.s. timing to safely operate underground pipelines and our electricity grid. farmers and ranchers -- you don't think of them as being involved in this, but in this day and age when they're planting their crops when they're applying fertilizer, during harvest operations moving large, critical machinery with precision, they depend on g.p.s.

to do it. working out -- all these healthy people doing what they're supposed to be doing and i'm not doing -- that is, running and keeping in good health, 20% of those use a fitness tracker or smartwatch the majority of which are g.p.s., to count steps and track distances. taking a flight. commercial and civil aviation relies on g.p.s. to navigate safely. just driving around each day countless americans rely on googlemaps waze, apple maps and other navigation systems to get them from point a to paint b. while no one hopes there would be any kind of a problem in remains it of a fire or ambulance or injury, the 911 opters and others use g.p.s. to

locate a caller and gaffe debate as quickly as possible. we had a group that documented indications of lives that have been saved. and there's more. weather forecasting moving goods on our highways, and the rest. and it goes on and on. so that's why everyone agrees we need to protect g.p.s. usage from being damaged by the ligado order, and who is on the other side? just ligado and people that they pay to support them. that's a whole lot of lobbying firms. so the "politico" article highlighted that they are staffed up with their lobbying and public relations so far this year the virginia company has enlistinged a powerful roster of lobbying firms currently numbering some 15. so again on the side of g.p.s. and satellite communications are members of the house and the senate 15 federal agencies and

over 100 companies organizations. the other -- ligado -- is is really just a lobbying group. i'll just leave with one reminder. we know that the ligado order would damage g.p.s. the f.c.c. said as much when they approved the order. the f.c.c. said, quote ligado showed expeditiously repair or replace as needed any u.s. government g.p.s. devices that experience or are likely to experience harmful interference from ligado's operations. but if ligado believes that -- as their press states a -- that they won't cause interference with g.p.s., then why should they be afraid of my retain act? hmmm? and while they ponder that, i yield the floor.

mr. schatz: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: thank you mr. president. you know, this is a very important week in the united states senate. our infrastructure bill is big. it's bold, and it's bipartisan. and it reflects the needs of a population especially important to me, native communities and indian country across the united states. as chair of the indian affairs committee, i've made it my mission to support these communities. this legislation contains more than $11 billion in direct

investments for native communities, including $3.5 billion for clean water access and delivery, $3 billion for safe roads and bridges, $2 billion to close the digital divide for american indian, alaska native, and native hawaiian families. this bill will have a direct and long-lasting impact and i'm proud to support it. since taking the committee gavel, i've worked with president biden with the presiding officer, with the members of the committee and my colleagues in both chambers to ensure that native voices are always at the table. our tribal provisions in the american rescue plan and the infrastructure investment and jobs act were the two largest investments in native communities in american history. the two largest investments in native communities in american history. both bills contain resources and policy reforms that were long awaited and desperately needed. and they're already paying dividends. but our work has to continue, and this historic budget

resolution is the next step. at its core, our budget is about restoring the middle class and giving more americans the opportunity to get into the middle class. it cuts taxes for millions of american families. it creates millions of american jobs while tackling the climate crisis and it's paid for by the wealthy paying their fair share. no one who makes under $400,000 will see an increase in their taxes. mr. president, i used to hate charts. i used to not be a chart guy. i have a rule in my office if you're coming in to present to me no power points. i just don't like charts. but i'm making an exception right now because it is really important that the public understand what we're about to do. we are going to lower costs for all americans. we're going to cut taxes for american families. we're going to create millions of jobs while tackling the climate crisis. and it is going to be paid for by requiring the wealthy to pay

their fair share in taxes. the budget also addresses native communities specifically. for far too long historical underfunding of federal programs serving native communities and tribes has left them vulnerable. today one in three native americans live in poverty. in just 19% of native american students are attending college. native americans have a life expectancy of five and a half years, lower than the general population. native americans are on the front lines of the climate crisis. this budget reverses these systemic injustices through a $20.5 billion targeted investment. the budget makes significant investments in climate resiliency for native communities and gives them the tools that they need to mitigate the impacts of climate change, deploy their own clean energy solutions on their own terms and restore and protect their homelands. it ensures that native students and families have more access to

native language programs, early childhood education and college. it also includes historic investments in health and education programs to provide much-needed support to native people across the country. we have already made the biggest investment in native communities in american history and we're not done yet. the responsibility of the united states government to american indians, alaska natives and native hawaiians isn't just for democrats and republicans to live up to. it's a commitment that we all share. this budget resolution will empower these native communities like never before. and it will make our country stronger safer and more resilient. i will be proud to move it forward. thank you. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i request consent to turn to a colloquy with senator warner of virginia. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i rise today to clarify the provisions in the underlying bill text that we're working on this evening. as we know, cryptocurrency is a digital asset that more and more people are investing in. and we should want that to continue in a healthy and sustainable way. i'd like to discuss the provisions in the bill that address information reporting requirements for digital asset brokers. under i.r.s. rules sales or exchange, of assets like digital assets give rise to gain or loss in the same manner as sales of securities. taxpayers who sell stocks or other securities through a broker receive an information return. i.r.s. form, 1099b that provides information on the gross proceeds and the basis of those sales. the information returns are

prepared by their brokers orcus toadians or -- or custodians or other agents involved in the sale. today there is a lack of clarity of how the reporting rules apply to digital asset transactions. the underlying bill has two simple provisions to address that. the cryptocurrency in the bill makes it clear as to who counts as a broker within this market. under the bill a broker is defined as, quote any person who for consideration is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person. end quote. for tax purposes, this means the sale on behalf of someone else. the concern has been expressed by some in the cryptocurrency industry who are not brokers that who are not brokers would be caught up in this definition. the treasury department, the nonpartisan congressional joint committee on taxation, and others believe that the current language is clear enough that the reporting requirements only

cover brokers. the purpose of this discussion is to further clarify that is the actual intent of the underlying bill. i think that's important. that's the goal we had in our discussions over a compromise amendment but unfortunately we've been able -- been unable to consider and adopt that amendment thus far in this debate. some of us were on this floor today, including senator lummis, senator warner, senator toomey, myself to try to get that amendment passed and we were not able to do so. the purpose of this provision is not to impose new reporting requirements on people who do not meet the definition of brokers. for example, if you're someone who is solely involved with validating distributed ledger transactions through proof of work commonly known as miners, if you're solely mining, you will not be considered a broker. the same would be true for proof of stake validation and other validation methods now or in the

future associated with other consensus mechanisms that are developed and might come into the market as the technology evolves. if you're solely staking your digital assets for the purpose of validating distributed ledger transaction, you will not be considered a broker. we want to be sure that miners and stakers and others who play a key role in validating transactions now or in the future or hardware or software sellers for dij fall -- digital wallets will not be subject to the rules for those activities. again you will need to provide the information reporting only if you are functioning as a broker. it is my understanding that that is true and i ask my fellow finance committee member and colleague from the bipartisan working group senator warner if this is his understanding as well. mr. warner: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: i thank my friend, the senator from ohio, who's been such a leader on the

underlying bill and who i have been proud to work on this clarification on this critical issue around cryptocurrencies. i thank the senator who is correct in his understanding. i would also like to add some additional clarifications. the bill ensures that digital asset market players who provide a platform to facilitate digital asset trades by taxpayers will be required -- will be considered brokers required to report information to the i.r.s., and taxpayers about those transactions. reporting entities may be digital asset exchanges or hosted wallet providers often called custodians or other agents involved in effectuating digital asset transactions. the bill recognizes that digital assets are different from stocks and bonds. for example some taxpayers regularly transfer digital

assets between digital asset exchanges or to an off exchange wallet and then back to an exchange. those taxpayers need information returns that link the steps in those chains so they have the complete information they need to prepare their tax reforms. this bill treats digital asset businesses that for consideration in effect money regularly affect transfers of digital assets as brokers and provides for reporting of digital asset transfers to or by a broker, including in cases where transfer is not directly from one broker to another. senator portman, do you have anything further to add on this item? mr. portman: first of all i appreciate the clarification to my colleague from virginia and senator warner, you are correct in your understanding. i would also ask senator warner to clarify the intent of the proposal with respect to the

application of the bill to persons solely engaged in the business of validating distributed ledger transactions through proof of work. often called miners. am i correct under our provisions it is our understanding that treasury and the i.r.s. will not treat these miners as brokers? mr. warner: the senator is entirely correct in his analysis of the application of the bill. and further i believe at the -- that the treasury has indicated that this would also be true for individuals engaged in staking their digital assets for the purpose of validating distributed ledger transactions, proof of stake which we know would be much more environmentally sustainable. it would also be true for other validation methods associated with other consensus mechanisms, some of which are just coming to market while others are still in developmental stage. people who solely act to validate transactions will not be treated as brokers for those

validation activities. mr. portman: i would ask senator warner to clarify the intent of the senate in this legislation with respect to persons solely engaged in the business of selling hardware or software that allows people to access their private keys. am i correct that these persons would not be treated as brokers under the underlying legislation? mr. warner: i think the senator asked a question that has been qeried by a number -- queried by a number of folks in the media and elsewhere. the senator is entirely correct in his natural decision of the application of the bill. those persons who do not effectuate transfers of digital assets and therefore would not be treated as brokers. if you are selling hardware or software for which the only function is to permit persons to control private keys which are used for accessing digital asset assets on a distributed ledger, you will not be considered in the business of being a broker.

i also want to say a word about the bipartisan amendment that i worked on with senators portman sinema toomey and lummis. i am pleased that we were able to file it today. i had hoped we would have gotten a vote but i thank them for their diligence and hard work to clarify. in concert with the treasury department this critical section of the bill, we want to ensure that taxes legitimately owed are paid. and full and accurate transaction reporting is a proven way to make that happen. we don't however want to place reporting requirements on individuals who shouldn't have them. the amendment memorializes the common understanding that the requirements are to apply only to persons who regularly and for consideration effectuate transfers of digital assets.

persons solely engaged in validating distributed ledger transactions will not be covered for those activities. whether they use proof of work, proof of stake or some other new consensus mechanisms. nor will they apply to persons solely engaged in selling hardware or software with the sole function of permitting someone to control private keys used to access digital assets. of course, if these entities provide additional services for consideration that will qualify as brokerage the rules would apply to them as any other broker. this is an exciting new technology that in theory could help bring services to the underserved and reduce costs for everyone. we need, however, to strike the appropriate balance between capturing the promised benefits and guarding against the potential for serious abuse and creation of a shadow financial

system beyond the reach of established rules to combat illicit finance and tax evasion. mr. portman: i thank my friend and colleague from virginia for those comments. our provisions are designed to bring more clarity and legitimacy for the cryptocurrency industry by more closely aligning the reporting requirements with those of more traditional financial services. we believe it does just that. and in doing so will help provide more certainty for people looking to invest in digital assets. i thank my colleague senator warner for coming to the floor to discuss this important provision. and i yield back the floor.

a senator: mr. president i would ask for suspension of the quorum call. the presiding officer: we are not in a quorum call. ms. stabenow: thank you very much. thank you, mr. president. i rise today to speak about michigan families. our families are a lot like families in every other state. families in michigan worry about

making ends meet. something that keeps them up at night. a lot of times. parents of young children wonder how they will be able to pay for quality child care. the costs may be as much or more than their rent. i know for my daughter and her husband, it's more than their mortgage payment for their three children. a mom who wonders how she will feed her kids healthy meals in the summer when there are no school meals. parents of older children worry about how they will be able to pay for their college tuitions. seniors in michigan wonder why their hearing aid or their glasses or their trips to the dentist aren't covered by medicare right now. they should be. and with our budget, they will be. and they want to know why their medicine is so expensive. in addition, we have michigan

farmers diligently planning -- planting cover crops for healthier soil while directly battling the effects of the climate crisis and the destruction of their crops and they need to support them and help them do more. all of our families wonder if we will be able to tackle the climate crisis in time to save lives and land and jobs. their worries are our worries. that's why democrats are committed to passing the build back better budget. let me also say that i congratulate all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have through their hard work and leadership brought us to this point of passing part one of president biden's build back agenda, which is the bipartisan infrastructure bill. i'm enthusiastically supporting it. so the build back better budget

is the second piece and it's focused on keeping historic economic growth going and it's a game changer for our families. it really is. it's a game changer for our future. and it does four things simply. it lowers costs for americans those things that keep folks up at night when they're trying to figure out how to juggle all of the costs coming in for themselves or their families. it's going to cut taxes for american families continue the biggest maybe ever tax cut that's gone to american families that we passed in the american rescue plan. it's going to create millions of jobs while tackling the climate crisis. and as we saw the report today it said what we knew, but we have to be very serious about what comes next here in tackling the climate crisis.

and the great news, mr. president, the great news is that we can cut costs and cut taxes and create millions of jobs and tackle the climate crisis and pay for it, pay for it just simply by saying that the wealthy will pay their fair share. it's only fair that everybody be contributing to america everybody be contributing to building back better in our country. the build back better budget will cut costs for the things that keep families up at night. the cost of food, child care, home care, price of medicine college tuition. for the first time, seniors will be able to have their hearing aids their glasses their dental care that they need covered by medicare. i know a lot of folks think it already does cover those things. it does not yet but we want

that to happen. and families will have paid leave when they need it. that's really important because no family should worry that a birth of a child an illness or the need to care for aging parents will leave them in a financial hole that they can never get out of. speaking of support for families about a month ago michigan families began to receive monthly help based on the number of children in their family. this is for families across the country. it's a tax cut that was made possible by the american rescue plan passed by democrats in congress and signed into law by president biden. our families today are receiving up to $250 a month for each child aged 6-17, up to $300 for each child under age 6. it's estimated that around 92%

of michigan families, of michigan children will benefit from this tax cut that we passed in the american rescue plan. and the tax cut and other parts of the american rescue plan are now beginning to cut child poverty in half. let me say that again. child poverty in half this year. not five years from now not ten years from now. this year. what a great thing that we should all be excited about and it not only helps children and families being lifted out of poverty, it helps the whole economy, it helps strengthen us as a country. unfortunately, when republicans are in the majority, tax cuts always seem to go to the people who need it the least the wealthy and the well connected. this tax cut is going to people who need it most, american

families and the build back better budget doubles down on this tax cut extending this, resulting in one of the largest tax cuts for american families ever cutting taxes for american families. the build back better budget will also create millions of jobs including in agriculture and rural communities. the build back better budget will ensure that the u.s. will not only compete but will lead the world's race toward a clean energy future, and i know, mr. president, our presiding officer cares deeply about that and is a leader in that, and it's exciting to see what we can do through this budget. currently, chinese companies produce 60% of the parts for wind turbines, 80% of solar cells, 80% of battery cells and it's time to bring those jobs home. and there is no reason that we can't through the right support

and incentives, we can bring those jobs home. investing in technology will ensure that these parts are made in america and will create good-paying american jobs. nearly two million jobs per year over the next ten years. two million then two million then two million then two million over the next ten years. and it will help us address the climate crisis head on through critical policies and incentives that will reduce u.s. carbon emissions 50% by 2030 that is essential. investing in farmers who want to keep leading the charge to combat the climate crisis. we're making sure we have the resources to restore our forests, make them more resilient in the face of climate-driven wildfires. we're fulfilling the promise of a climate-smart future by

investing in research at land grant and agricultural universities like my own alma mater, michigan state university. the build back better budget will lower costs for families. it's going to cut their taxes. it's going to create millions of good-paying jobs while we are tackling the climate crisis. and we simply just have to make sure the wealthiest people in this country step up and are paying their fair share. folks in michigan work really hard to provide for their families. it's time to reward that hard work not just wealth. it's unacceptable that some of the world's most profitable companies and billionaires pay little or no tax at all. that's just what their profits and fortunes growth every single year. under the build back better budget no one who makes under

$400,000 per year will see their taxes go up. let me say that again. no one under $400,000 in income will see their taxes go up. instead the typical american family will see their costs and their taxes go down. for too long, far too long when republican colleagues have been in charge, the wealthy and huge corporations have come first receiving special treatment over and over again. i think it's about time we put the american people first. and, by the way mr. president, i've heard so many colleagues on the other side of the aisle come to the floor over and over again lamenting that we are going to increase taxes. so for the record, let me just say that i don't think it's increasing taxes to tell a

billionaire they have to pay more than zero. and that's what we're talking about here, just people paying their fair share for the majority of americans in this country who are working hard, they have a fair shot to work hard and to make it and to know that somebody's going to have their back. and that's what the build back better budget is all about. so let me just say again it's time to lower costs for the big things that keep families up at night. it's time to cut taxes for american families. it's time to create millions of jobs which we can do. this is the great news. we can create millions of jobs while tackling the climate crisis which we must seriously tackle. and it's time for the wealthy in this country to pay their fair share. michigan families, families

across the country have been waiting long enough. they're ready for us to build back better. i yield the floor. thank you.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor today first to talk about the build back better budget. this is an opportunity for this country to get it right.

for far too long millionaires and billionaires, corporations in this country have accrued more and more wealth, have paid less and less taxes. well average americans have seen the cost of living rise their lives get more difficult and washington do virtually nothing about it. we're going to make a huge down payment in fixing that imbalance. the build back better budget which we will begin considering tomorrow it's going to lower costs for americans. we're talking about the cost of medicare making sure that seniors get a benefit for things like vision and dental, lower the cost for families like child care costs. the presiding officer and i are amongst the few parents of relatively young school-age children. we know the cost of child care today can bankrupt families that

don't have the incomes that we do. it's going to cut taxes for american families, but the right american families, people that are making $30,000 $60,000 a year, that's who needs a tax break. not the millionaires and billionaires. millions of jobs while tackling the climate crisis. come to connecticut. we have renewable energy companies building jobs all over our country but they're having to compete with other nations that are making big investments in climate which are creating their own renewable energy economies. somebody is going to capture millions and millions of jobs in wind and solar and geothermal and electric cars. it should be the united states. and lastly, we're going to pay for this by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share. not mores a a percentage of income than anybody else, but their fair share. we've got corporations, some of the biggest in america that are paying virtually no taxes today.

all of the wealth that's being accumulated by the c.e.o.'s of these massive internet companies virtually untaxed. that has to change. that has to change. i'm excited to be a part of this process. as i said, we have the chance to tackle the climate crisis and create millions of new jobs. we can and have to do both. you saw the new report challenging us. the facts are dire with respect to what is has already happened as this planet has warmed. what the report says is that the next eight years are critical. the decisions we make in this decade will determine whether there is a livable planet for our children. that's our obligation, but here's our opportunity --

create millions of new jobs. in connecticut, we have solar companies, advanced battery companies, fuel cell companies that are just waiting for the u.s. government to create a market for their technologies in the way that so many other countries around the world are doing. we have the chance to invest in community violence intervention programs and save lives. this is part of the build back better agenda. president biden has made it clear that if you want to tackle the epidemic of gun violence in this country then you have to invest in communities in need. if you take at that look at what drives violence and exposure to violence in this country the number-one cor lay correlation factor is income. the poorer you are the more likely you are to be the victim

of violence. by investing in communities that have high rates of violence and not coincidentally high rates of poverty you are reducing violence in this nation. we have so many examples of this pragget like project longevity in new haven and bridgeport connecticut, that show when you wrap service around young people you can dramatically lower the rates of violence in this country. by the way that puts people to work too creating these investments in anti-violence programming. then we have a chance to transform our rail system and create jobs, speed up our commutes and address the climate crisis. we're making a big down payment in the bipartisan infrastructure bill $66 billion for rail. i hope to see an additional down payment in the budget reconciliation process.

but investing in rail, it's kind of the holy grail because it creates short-term jobs as we rebuild our decrepit rail lines. it speeds up commutes for people. that makes their lives better, more time with family. it creates economic development potential. companies want to locate here when they can get their people faster from point a to point b. boston to new york, boston to d.c. is about half the distance as beijing and shanghai, but it takes twice the amount of time to get from those two spots in the united states as it does in asia. we're way behind the curve in investment in high-speed rail. that's hurting us economically. but of course an investment in rail is also about addressing the climate crisis because the only way to make a dent in transportation emissions is to move people out of cars,

especially during the period of time in which we're ramping up the deployment of electric vehicles and get those individuals in to trains, get people out of planes and into trains especially in a corridor like the northeast where the trains are electrified, where these are cleaner trains than in other parts of the country. we have a real opportunity if we get more people on the trains by investing in them to address the climate crisis. so mr. president, i want to just spend a moment really telling my colleagues the both responsibility and opportunity that we have. millionaires billionaires, and corporations are doing better than ever before in this country. regular people are hurting. they want a government that's responsive to that. we need to address the huge costs people are having to pay today. we need to cut taxes for regular

people. we need to create jobs, solve the climate crisis and ask those that are doing very well, the top .1% to pay their fair share. mr. president, i want to make a few remarks on the situation in afghanistan, and i would ask unanimous consent that they appear in the record as separate remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. president. as the taliban continues this rapid advance into territory that had been controlled by the kabul-based afghan government, there's going to be a lot of hand-wringing in washington, especially among those who cheered our open occupation of afghanistan for the last 20 years. those that opposed president biden's plan to leave are going to engage in a battery of i told you so's and blame the president for the taliban's march on kabul. but the taliban's surge isn't a reason for the united states to reverse course and put massive

troop presence back into the country. no. the taliban surge is actually a reason to stick to the withdrawal plan, because the complete utter failure of the afghan national army absent our hand holding to defend our country is a blistering indictment of a failed 20-year strategy predicated on the belief that billions of u.s. taxpayer dollars could create an effective democratic central government in a nation that's never had one and a western model army structure populated by troops that are willing to die to preserve a government. staying one more year in afghanistan means we stay forever. because if 20 years of laborious training and equipping of the afghan security forces had this little impact on their ability to fight then another 50 years wouldn't change anything. if we choose to keep spending trillions of dollars in

afghanistan until that nation is a fully functioning democracy and their security forces can by themselves repel extremist attack then we are never ever leaving. i went to afghanistan four times in six years from 2007 to 2013. and each time what struck me most was the heroism the patriotism the capability of our soldiers. too many of them never came home. too many others came home with injuries that changed their lives. many of them were from my home state. but also each time i went to afghanistan, i also met with a new, impressive american general who had just recently arrived in country for his 12-month tour. each walked me through a power point presentation detailing how the previous general hadn't made that much progress in training the afghan security forces and how this general would change course and finally get it right.

this cycle of failure readjustment and continued it failure must have played out over a dozen times in afghanistan between our arrival there and the beginning of the biden administration. and the taliban took full advantage. president trump made a little-noticed decision to stop publicizing the estimates of how much territory the taliban controlled because the news especially in the last five years, got worse and worse. yes, the taliban is moving quickly towards regional capitals right now but they have been gaining territory for nearly a decade. that trend is just accelerating now. one repeating mistake was our belief that we could create the afghan national army from our own mold. our country's sense of nationalist patriotism, which inspires americans to put their lives on the line for the flag and what it represents, it does not have a corollary in

afghanistan. but we didn't get that. we had no sense of how competing tribal and ethnic affiliations made creating this common military purpose difficult. and each time our military leaders and our on-the-ground trainers they started to learn about these local nuances and started adopting their methods they were sent home as their deployment was done and a new deployment arrived to start from scratch and start making a the same mistake again. our military leaders are incredibly capable but we gave them an impossible task. our presence in afghanistan also created a deadly feedback loop where terrorists it eagerly scooped up trainees chomping at the bit to fight the americans. research shows that in the northwest of pakistan where the taliban and allied groups organized, our drone attacks actually led to increased not decreased, numbers of taliban

fighters. bombs falling from pilotless flying machines, more often killed innocent civilians instead of enemy combatants, and this simply caused more anger against the united states and our afghan government allies and more interest in locals to join the fight against us. now, as the taliban begins to quicken the pace of their assault on afghan forces, hawks in the united states they're going to lead the charge for biden to reverse course and continue these failed policies of the last 20 years. but to what end? if the afghan national army was so willing to stand aside after 20 years of u.s. investment, why would anything change if we stuck around longer? of course the answer is nothing would change. i know that that's hard to hear and to accept. staying longer would just be to admit that american taxpayers

have got to foot the bill for a permanent occupation of afghanistan, to shore up the government and keep the taliban at bay. and this isn't wise. mostly because my constituents understandably have little interest in putting that much money in afghanistan when they can't afford groceries or college for their kids or their monthly rent. the taliban are bad guys, but so are the leaders who ruled turkmenistan or ecuadorial guinea or, kazakhstan or others. but we can't afford to evade and displace every brutal regime? the world. now what my constituents do care about is preventing another attack on american soil. which is why thousands of our brave men and women in uniform made the ultimate sacrifice fighting in afghanistan. that's why we went there in the first place. and so if spending trillions to fight the taliban was vitally necessary to this project then

the american public would probably back the investment. but right now it isn't necessary. u.s. officials believe al qaeda in afghanistan is no longer capable of carrying out attacksence go the united states. we're talking about 200 to 400 al qaeda fighters in afghanistan today. this is likely because the taliban is seeking a less contentious relationship with the united states, and therefore, has promised to deny al qaeda a safe haven. now, i get it. assurances from the taliban are of very limited value but our intelligence collection on al qaeda is good enough to be able to monitor the taliban's compliance and adjust accordingly. now, i understand how difficult it is to watch the afghan national army refuse to defend its territory to watch the taliban move so quickly into provincial capitals. i understand how infuriating it must be for families who lost loved ones in afghanistan to see

these gains be eliminated so quickly. but let's understand finally what would have happened if president biden had chosen to keep 2,50 troops in afghanistan. 2,500 troops is not a sufficient number to repel this offensive. our military leaders have been crystal clear that a minimum of 8,500 troops are required to prevent any modicum of support necessary to keep the taliban's gains to a crawl. that's how many troops were there at the beginning of trump's term, but as part of his agreement with the taliban he drew down the numbers to 2,500 a force size completely inadequate to stop any taliban advance. and the only reason why those 2,500 soldiers didn't get overrun by the taliban is, as part of the taliban-trump agreement, the taliban promised to hold off on are atax

deduction -- hold off on attacks, until our troops had drawn. so president trump would have had to surge troop levels back to 8,500. every troop in afghanistan costs over $1 million a year. never mind the complete unwillingness of the american public to support yet another afghanistan troop surge. the cost of this escalation would have just been indefensible. the afghan military on paper is far superior a fighting force to the taliban. the afghan national army has approximately three times of the number of soldiers. the afghan national army has an air force. the taliban doesn't. the afghan national army's equipment and weapons thanks to the united states, are much more sophisticated and deadly. the united states trains that force. we pay their salaries. we support them. but despite this advantage despite 20 years and trillions of dollars of investment, they are losing to the ragtag

taliban. badly. this isn't a reason for the united states to reescalate. this is evidence of the wisdom and courage of president biden's decision to withdraw. our counterterrorism mission in afghanistan is is going to remain but we should refuse as a nation to remain in forever wars that don't make our nation safer. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, madam president. i rise to speak about the $3.5

trillion budget resolution that will cut costs for american families provide our seniors with comprehensive health care, and finally take the much-needed and long overdue action to protect ourselves our future, and our existence from the climate crisis. our urgency in action must be as fierce as the crisis on our shores in our cities, and in our states across america. the climate deniers are out of excuses, and we are out of time. the united nations intergovernmental panel on climate change issued its sixth assessment report. the new warning from the u.n., from the ipcc, is actually code red. they are saying that the planet is in great danger, that our

country is in great danger if we do not respond to the climate crisis. and now the challenge for this senate for this country is whether or not we are going to respond -- and we are. the code red warning from the united nations is going to have a code green response from the united states senate in the $3.5 trillion package. we will invest in the technologies that will make it possible for us to respond to this dire warning from the united nations a warning that reaffirms that what we are seeing and suffering right now across our country, climate change is going to continue to cost us lives and livelihoods if we don't respond with the scope and the scale that this moment demands. the report says our

responsibility is unequivocal. the effects of the climate crisis are unprecedented. and we have an undeniable need to act. from increasing intensity and frequency of extreme heat to catastrophic precipitation and devastating droughts, no community will be able to hide from the most dire impacts of our human-driven climate crisis. this report must be the final warning that we must respond. and right now we are preparing as senate democrats a budget resolution that will be our best opportunity to respond to the code red warning we have received today from the united nations, from the climate

experts of the planet. that is our challenge. but we're going to have resistance. we have to basically sweep away this rising tide of cynicism that we hear from climate deniers, from the fossil fuel industry and from too many republicans. senate democrats are ready to forge ahead. this budget resolution is our opportunity to prevent the most alarming consequences of the climate crisis and equip ourselves to survive the climate impacts we cannot avoid with policies to drive deep cuts in emissions, protect communities provide equity and justice to overburdened communities. we can respond to overwhelming evidence and take the necessary action to save our people and our planet.

we've received a final warning. we now have the best opportunity any congress has ever had to respond. that legislation will be on the floor of the senate in the next two weeks -- the next two days. at chair of the clean air climate, and nuclear safety subcommittee of the environment and public works committee, i am ready to get to work and turn this budget resolution into legislative action, this vital investment will build on what we've already done, adding on climate equity and even more good-paying union jobs. we can save all of creation by engaging in massive union job creation. we can fund the clean energy accelerator that uses innovative flexible financing to lower our emissions and

create jobs with public dollars that can deploy and leverage private investment. this accelerator will unleash clean energy generation, energy-efficient retrofits and opportunities in communities across our country. we can fund environmental justice, mapping efforts to understand the burdens of affected communities and direct our investments in our programs accordingly. we can provide the funding and support to monitor and to address the dangers of extreme heat toxic chemicals and polluted air. we can create a civilian climate corps and put millions of people to work on projects to protect our communities from climate impacts, support local projects, and get trained and get to work in i would abouting our clean energy economy. we must ensure that these jobs have high standards prevailing wages, and just recruiting and hiring practices and in this

legislation that responds to the code red climate threat, we will have the tax breaks for the oil gas, and coal industry for a hundred years have had their control over tax breaks coming out of this congress. well in this bill, we are going to have the tax breaks for wind and for solar and for all-electric vehicles and for battery storage technologies. we are going to have the tax breaks for the solution to the climate crisis. this is the moment. this is what the world is waiting to see from our country. if we are going to lead, we cannot preach temperance from a barstool. we have to step up and do the right thing. and create the innovation economy that will save our country and save the world. and we can kick start a clean

energy revolution and not only that we can ensure that we have a revolution that is made in america. jobs here. union jobs here. good-paying jobs here in the united states. we are going to have a domestic manufacturing revolution that we have not seen in a generation. and we're going to do it in the green budget resolution that we are going to bring out on to the floor of the senate in the next two days. the answer to our clean future is blowing in the wind. this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to save our people and our planet by going bigger and bolder than ever before. senate democrats are going to deliver real results for americans, for our seniors our children our families, our working family across our

country. as massachusetts own ralph waldo emerson said the first wealth is health. and this budget makes sure americans' health care and futures are a priority second to none. under our budget resolution, every child regardless of their zip code will have the opportunity to attend prek pre-k. every teen will be able to reimagine their future with the ability to enroll tuition free in community colleges across our country. and i'll be fighting to provide critical broadband connectivity support to ensure educational success for all students at home especially poor children, black, brown immigrant children in our country. and thanks to this budget, medicare will now cover essentials like hearing aids, eyeglasses, and dental care for our seniors for the first time

ever covered by medicare. millions of women will be brought into the workforce when we provide accessible and affordable child care for american families. and we will expand the child tax credit and make the child independent care tax credit permanent in our country. permanent tax relief for every family with a child in our country. and we'll do all of this by paying for all of these investments unlike republicans who put tax cuts for the wealthy on the american taxpayers' dime. we'll do this without any american making under $400,000 paying a single cent more in taxes and asking instead for the ultrawealthy and the big corporations including big oil and big gas to pay more of their fair share like worsers and --

like workers and small businesses have always done in our country. these are the investments that will restack the deck in our country, level the playing field, and set in motion a more just future where every child every family has the opportunity to achieve the american dream. the second train is finally about to pull into the station. progressive champions in the house of representatives are doing an incredible job holding the line to ensure that this resolution is passed alongside the bipartisan infrastructure bill. but as we recover from the multiple crises we face, we cannot accept a return to the status quo a status quo that has left too many people behind in our country. over the last several months, we have worked tirelessly to deliver for americans. covid relief and expanded child tax credit, support for students and families and much more.

now we need to pass this $3.5 trillion package and not a cent less to push forward and create a more just and livable future to every person in our country needs. this is what this moment demands. and i look forward to working with all of my colleagues on this budget resolution this week and taking the first steps to ensure this future is guaranteed for every child and family across our country. we can do it for families. we can do it for our planet. that is what our agenda has to be for the remainder of this week, and i think if we respond we will have become one of the greatest congresses that has ever served in the history of our country. madam president i yield back to you.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from mitch began. mr. peters: madam president, i rise today to highlight the incredible opportunity before us to build on the strong foundation laid in the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act through the build back better budget. the bipartisan infrastructure bill will make historic investments that will help create good-paying american jobs upgrade our roads and our bridges, improve access to the high-speed internet and so much more. with the build back better budget, we have the opportunity to go beyond these initial long overdue investments and take strong action to help secure our future for generations to come. this budget will provide crucial tax cuts to hardworking american families and tackle some of the toughest challenges they are facing, like the cost of child

care, prescription drugs, and the lack of family leave that is paid. this budget will create good-paying american jobs by incentivizing the development of new clean power sources that simply cannot be outsourced. we will finally confront the very serious and very real threat posed it our economic and national security by climate change. as chairman of the homeland security and government affairs committee, i'm working to ensure that the budget resolution makes critical payments to electrify federal government's vehicle fleet, including the u.s. postal service's delivery vehicles. not only will this set us on a path to a more sustainable future, it helps grow america's domestic manufacturing sector. thanks to these investments american workers and companies will have greater opportunity to build and assemble the battery

cells, electric drive trains and other auto parts right here in the united states. in addition to creating great jobs we will strengthen our domestic supply chains, reduce our dependence on foreign producers, and lead the world in advancing clean electric vehicle technologies. this is especially an important investment at a time when we are seeing the effects of climate change ravage communities all across our country. from devastating wildfires out west to severe flooding in michigan and across the midwest to destructive hurricanes along the gulf and east coast we simply cannot wait any longer to address the impacts of climate change. just today the united nations climate panel released a landmark report on climate change calling it, quote code red, a situation for the survival of our planet. this budget will help limit further harmful pollution from

greenhouse gases and fossil fuels that are contributing to this worldwide crises by making important downpayments on clean energy. while we invest in transformative technology to help secure our future, we also need to deal with natural disasters that communities are facing right now. we must protect american families and businesses from the consequences of increasingly severe storms, floods, and fires by making important investments in disaster mitigation efforts. we must help communities reduce the impact of severe disasters by addressing rising water levels improving flood prevention and storm water management efforts and strengthening wildfire mitigation efforts. these climate change driven threats are destroying homes small businesses, and communities in every corner of the united states.

and this budget will ensure that we take swift action and better secure our future and limit further destruction. finally, this budget will also make historic investments to tackle one of the fastest growing threats to our national security cyberattacks from foreign adversaries and criminal organizations. we must secure critical infrastructure, support state and local governments in their efforts to increase cybersecurity and overhaul outdated and insecure federal networks. over the past year we've seen time and time again how vulnerable information networks can be. attacks on everything from k-12 schools and small businesses to major oil pipelines and agencies across the federal government have played out on the front page of newspapers across our country. whether we're talking about our critical infrastructure or our federal government, we simply

cannot wait any longer to fix these serious problems. targeted investments in new information technology will not only improve our cybersecurity defenses but will also help increase efficiency, reduce energy consumption and save taxpayer dollars. cybersecurity investments will help defend our information networks against further intrusions and breaches, protect our national security, prevent americans' personal information from being stolen, and help reduce attacks that could threaten our very way of life. these are just a few of the critical downpayments we will be making with the build back better budget. now is the time to take on some of the biggest challenges that are facing american families. whether it is working to lower costs, improving access to health care, or ensuring our communities can weather the next major storm or major

cyberattack, the build back better budget will help ensure that we're securing the future that we want for future generations of americans. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. merkley: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: i'd ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you, madam president. i'm here on the floor today to talk about climate chaos. it's a monumental crisis that requires immediate and bold action. the reason i'm speaking about -- climate crisis at this moment is because several things are happening today that create this connection. the one is that the ipcc, the international panel on climate change has released its 2021 climate report, and the second

is we're in the middle of talking about infrastructure for our nation and the investments in climate infrastructure are going to be critical to take on the crisis that we are facing. we're in pretty big trouble. this report that came out today -- five big finds from ipcc's p.2021 climate report. it lays how the our dramatically things have shifted in just a few years. it notes that the concentration of carbon dioxide is now higher than it has been for two million years, and we've made that happen over just the last hundred or so years, but particularly the last 30. that the glacial retreat is unmatched for the last 2,000 years, that the last decade warmer than any period for

125,000 years that the summer arctic ice coverage is smaller than any time in the last thousand years that ocean warming is faster than at any time since the last ice age that ocean acidification is at the highest level in the last 26,000 years. these things would not have been true a few years ago and it's because of the massive buildup in carbon dioxide from our burping of fossil fuels to power -- from our burning of fossil fuels to power our energy economy and it's from the massive methane gas from our use of natural gas. we collect methane gas and we have accelerated that through fracking. a tremendous amount leaks out through that drilling and fracking system, a tremendous amount more leaks out through the millions of miles of pipes that carry it to its destination, and then when we

burn it, it creates carbon dioxide, also a global warming gas. so we don't need to really get this report to know we're in trouble. because we just have to look at the effects on the ground from our home states right now. oregon is aflame. we have so many fires burning simultaneously and the largest fire is over 400,000 acres. 400,000 acres. think how long it would take if you were on a hike to pass through 400,000 acres. you know, a few years ago we had a group of homes that were burned out in john day oregon, some 24 or so homes. we thought that was a big deal. then last summer we had six towns burnt to the ground, completely incinerated. and now we have these massive

massive fires -- as does idaho and montana and washington state and california state and colorado and utah and new mexico arizona. the west is aflame because the temperatures are so much higher. what else is happening in oregon? well our snowpack is disappearing. average snowpack decreasing. it is affecting the amount of irrigation water we have. it is affecting the fact that our streams are now smaller and warmer than they were before, affecting our trout on the one hand our salmon. and the ocean is acidifying. now we've got some 30% more acid in the ocean. it affects first the reproduction of our oysters sow now we artificially -- it is now starting to affect the dungeness crab.

so we're seeing the impacts in every possible way. and i know as i travel rural oregon people emphasize that this is a huge impact on rural oregon and rural america because it's affecting our farming. it's affecting 0 you are fishing, and it's affecting our forests. we're engaged here in two-part plan. the first plan is an infrastructure bill that addresses water transportation, and broadband. well all well and good. but if part one sails away from the dock and leaves part two stranded what's left behind? housing, massive investment; education, a massive investment; and two years of preschool and two years of community college. foundations for families are

left behind and the child tax credit which is lifting half the children in poverty out of poverty in america the most massive tax cut ever envisioned for middle-class america. and what other thing is left on dock? the investment in climate the transition from burning fossil fuels, the fossil fuel economy to the renewable-energy economy. we cannot let part one sail away of the infrastructure bill without doing part two and the report from the ipcc today emphasizes how absolutely important it is that we act and we act boldly. that report said, it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed atmosphere, the ocean, the land. and the report crafted by 200 global scientists concludes as one of the report's coauthors

summarizes, there is no uncertainty language in this sentence because there is no uncertainty. global warming is caused by human activity and the burning of fossil fuels. and the report goes on to say that we are now on an irreversible course towards a hotter planet. that if we do the severest cuts in carbon emissions right now the severest cuts, we are still going to see temperatures rise one and a half degrees celsius or about 2.7 degrees fahrenheit. that was the goal of the paris agreement. we'd have to massively cut our carbon emissions and our methane emissions right now to meet the paris target. and the report goes on to say that extreme weather events, which were rare or completely unprecedented, will now be

common and more and more common as we approach the new normal or it becomes a new normal because of climate change. i think the u.n. secretary-general, antonio guterres summed it up when he said, this report is a code red for humanity. a code red for humanity. so that's why all hundred of us here in the senate should be on the floor discussing how to respond to a code red for humanity. wow, we have got a lot of work to do, but that first part of the package has nothing in it or almost nothing in it -- a little bit of money for charging stations a little bit of money for electric buses a little bit of money for improving the electric grid, but nothing like the massive investment that is

required to respond to a code red, a code red for the planet. now, clearly as the planet gets hotter and it is affecting our forests and our farming and fishing, forest fires destroying towns, more powerful hurricanes affecting the seashore, more intrusion of saltwater into fresh water supplies, cities are having to basically build dikes around themselves in order to keep the sea water out i heard one member of the senate say you know, here's the thing. we shouldn't do anything about this because the investments required to take on climate change will be disruptive. well i'll tell you what's disruptive. forest fires are disruptive. the loss of the snowpack for our winter sports and our irrigation water and our healthy streams --

that's disruptive. sea life being damaged by ocean acidification. that's disruptive to our economy. forests with pine beetles thriving and trees dying that's disruptive to our forestry. lack of rain such that the ground water is not recharged is disruptive to our farmers and ranchers. what's disruptive is doing nothing and the damage will far exceed the costs of taking an honest effort to transition quickly to renewable energy. so failing to act means failing our future generations. we cannot allow that to happen so that's why i'm so pleased that on the same day that the ipcc released the report, we also saw the budget resolution

released. now the budget resolution is the second half of the package, the part that addresses families, that addresses forests that addresses housing that addresses children and yes addresses climate. so there is hope. and what does it do? it funds the civilian conservation corps to put americans to work in good-paying jobs to help conserve our nation's public lands and waters and bolster community resilience and to advance environmental justice. it establishes a clean efficiency and clean electricity -- energy efficiency and clean electricity standard that my colleague from minnesota who is presiding over the senate right now has been so instrumental in laying out for the senate to act on. and that clean electricity standard will have an enormous impact because to escape the

fossil fuel energy economy we have to electrify everything on the production end. we take the power off the grid. but we have to put renewable energy on to the grid. so it is the key it is the centerpiece, the centerpiece of how we act. and there's a lot of subsidies yes, for things like electric buses and also for electric vehicles. and i think it's so exciting that we now are going to have an f150 electric. and the f150 electric goes from zero to 6 on miles per hour in 4.4 -- 60 miles per hour in 4.4 seconds. try that with your fossil fuel car, my friends because you will fail. but you get the new forward f -- ford f150 and it will press you back in the seat like you've never experienced when you take off and you can still do your industrial work with your

pickup. and then there's the ford mustang coming on electric. that's going to be a hot item, an exciting item as well. so it's kind of neat that what's good for the environment is also going to be good for all of us to have a good time driving. so all of these pieces that are in the second half, the second half of the infrastructure package, that has to get done and it should be absolutely bipartisan. because these investments in families are desired by democratic families and republican families and independent families. these investments in housing affordable housing in our country are needed by republican and democratic and independent families. and you know what? it's going to be completely paid for, completely paid for by having the mega rich pay their

fair share. and as you all know from all the reports, they've been jumping and diving and ducking their taxes. many of them paying zero. billionaires who are putting themselves into space on a joy ride paying zero in taxes. billionaires using tons of the products of what we pay for of our road infrastructure and our water infrastructure and our education infrastructure. they're employing employing all kinds of folks that are -- they're paying zero in taxes. why are billionaires paying less than you and me? why are they paying less than the person bagging your groceries? why are they paid less than the secretary? why are they paying less in taxes, the billionaires? good question. it shouldn't be the case. and so the responsible thing is to pay for the package with tax

fairness for all americans everyone doing their fair share including our companies, some of which have posted tremendous astronomical profits while paying absolutely zero in taxes. madam president if we turn the clock back to enter david thoreau who said many interesting things in this book, on walden pond, and one of the things he said, what is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? well his question was kind of looking towards the future and we -- and that we are now in, where the ravages of a heated planet are destroying our forests, our fishing and our farming, undermining the foundations of our rural

economy, creating storms that have stalt our shores, creating fires that have burned down houses and towns as well as trees. it's time for us to act and to act boldly because we are under a red alert for the planet and we need to act. thank you, madam president. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. a senator: as i said earlier in this debate, i agree that working to shore up our infrastructure is a worthy cause. mr. hagerty: it is a wise investment in america's future and in our long-term

competitiveness. but that's not what we're being asked to vote on here. rather we have a package with some infrastructure, good for our economy yet it's riddled with big government massive deficit spending, over a quarter of a trillion dollars in the hole. and we want to rush through this as quickly as possible? there's a right way and a wrong way to pursue noble goals. and let's be clear. the democrat leadership has tied this infrastructure bill to their effort to use their 50-vote reconciliation process to fundamentally move america toward western europe style socialism which as anyone can see today brings with it limited opportunity, less innovation, crushing taxes a blow to government bureaucracy and cradle-to-grave government dependency. right on cue democrats have introduced a $3.5 trillion part of the plan this morning.

the democratic leader promised the senate will turn to it just as soon as this bill is passed. i wish this wasn't the case. and all it would came for it not to be the case is for just one of my democrat colleagues to say they won't support the $3.5 billion part of this plan. i'm still hopeful but i remain concerned given the statements by democrats just like my colleague who just spoke a minute ago from oregon. president biden and speaker pelosi have been clear that this bipartisan deal on infrastructure won't become law unless all of the socialist big government items that got excluded from the so-called track one infrastructure deal are later tacked on to it in track two of their plan. the democrat leader is saying this quite clearly using the consistent refrain of a two-track plan. they're doing this because the far left has pushed the democrats over the edge. whether the subject is court

packing, election takeovers or government dependency, it's clear that the far left is calling the shots in the democrat party today. sadly democrats view this infrastructure bill as an important tool to advance the far-left agenda. democrat leaders have promised to link it to trillion dollars more in taxing, spending dependency programs that this body will take up later this week. this smoke and mirror charade is the kind of thing that makes americans shake their heads. i've negotiated deals my whole career and often what's negotiated out of a deal is just as important as what's in it. there's not a deal if at the last minute the other side uses a side deal or different program to put everything in it that you never wanted. that's why when we consider this infrastructure bill, we must also look to the multitrillion dollar tax and spend path to socialism that the democrat

leaders have promised will be part of the total package. so members of this body and the american people need to listen carefully to what's expected to be in this second part of the plan. and try not to let your jaw hit the floor in the process. just listen to what democrats are promising to stuff into this reconciliation bill. it will enable the green new deal. it will crush the american fossil fuel industry. never mind the fact that the industry is continuing to become ever more industry clean on its own. this will cost millions of american jobs. it will sacrifice the energy independence we've already achieved and it will make us more dependent on foreign adversaries. ultimately democrats would rather placate the far-left's near religious fervor for subsidized electric cars and windmills even if it means hallowing out american communities that provide our independence today. it will jeopardize our national security in the process. it's a great deal for the green

energy lobby which supports democrat politicians but it's a terrible deal for our nation and for our national security. it will drastically increase taxes on job creators which will cost untold number of jobs and reduce wages. get ready to see more jobs shipped out of the united states and into the welcoming arms of china. don't worry though. democrats are proposing to create a civilian climate corps that will hire some of the people who lose their jobs. to do what? proselytize the virtues of clean energy? it will impose one of the largest tax increases on american capital resulting in america having one of the highest tax rates on investment and capital in the industrialized world. capital investment creates new jobs and innovation and this will crush that process in america. it will expand the death tax that americans must pay on savings and property of their loved ones that pass away. it will make it much harder for small businesses and farms to

pass on to the next generation. it will move america closer to a european socialist model for health care with less choice, longer wait times and less quality. if we've learned anything during the coronavirus pandemic, it's that we have the greatest health care system and health care workers in the world. the last thing we need to do is try to make our health care system weaker. it will nullify the state right to work laws and ensure american workers don't have a choice but to submit to union bosses. it's impossible to say how many good-paying jobs this will cost states like tennessee states that have experienced enormous growth and prosperity in recent decades by passing laws that put workers first by allowing them to choose whether or not they want to join a union. but union dues are used to fund democrat political campaigns. so rather than make unions earn the support of workers democrats want to mandate it. at a time when america small

business are desperately looking for employees this legislation will provide even more incentives for american workers not to work. small businesses and american consumers will suffer as a result. it will provide more handouts to teachers unions who have refused to open schools in much of the country for the last year and a half. teachers unions provide a great windfall benefit to democrat political campaigns. it will provide more handouts to green unions and green energy interests which conveniently fund the campaigns of democrat politicians. are you noticing a trend yet? in addition to taking more american taxpayers' hard-earned dollars, it will be debt financed and not paid for. at least not by our general indication -- our generation. it may be convenient for today's politicians but our children and our grandchildren will be left footing the bill. it will be so large that it will likely be the -- it will likely be beyond the capacity of congress to even oversee it to prevent the waste fraud and

abuse that are sure to come. we should all be deeply concerned. ultimately this package is designed to create a permanent state of government dependency and reliance for everything from jobs to your choice of doctors to fueling your car. that way you'll have to turn to the institution democrats have captured most, government and the bureaucracy that controls it for virtually everything. in the short term this is a reckless multitrillion dollar step towards socialism. again, several trillion dollars. that's 13 digits, a number that many calculators don't even have room for. this step will likely add further fuel to already ram participant inflation. -- rampant inflation. as we know, inflation is a hidden tax on all americans decreasing our earnings and hurting our retire years most of all. over the longer

term, this will slow job creation and productivity. it will reduce wages. it will ship jobs overseas. it will harm small businesses and workers freeze investment right here in america. drastically increased taxes will hobble innovative industries and technologies in which america was poised to lead. and green new deal mandates and regulations will crush industries where we currently do lead such as the energy industry. with this massive expansion of inefficient government, bureaucratic involvement in our day-to-day lives will increase. it's as if democrats' goal is to emulate the totalitarian central planners of the chinese communist party. rather than competing against china by creating a free market-driven environment for innovation and job creation -- which, by the way is how we won the cold war -- democrats seem to want to copy china's model. this tax and spend spree by democrats will also burden our children and grandchildren with even more debt. sadly, this isn't a pig in a

python moment. the harmful effects of this spending spree will last for generations. america is nearly $30 trillion in debt. $30 trillion. $30 trillion is significantly more than the total value of what our economy produces annually. and as democrats impose policies that will limit economic growth and productivity, our ability to pay our debts will become much more difficult. and as the debt payments we owe continue to increase and become a larger and larger share of the annual federal revenue pie, we are going to leave our children with some really tough choices. so while i support hard infrastructure and working to find a right way to invest in it joining at the hip with a vision for america is a socialist utopia isn't it. the stakes are too high. it's time to get serious about the path we're heading down. we must think beyond a day and our short-term interests. we need to stop endangering our children's and our grandchildren's future while we

still can by getting our spending under control and developing a plan for paying down our debt, not by making it far worse. this multitrillion dollar path to socialism threatens the future of our country. it not only threatens to leave our children with an unpayable debt but it also limits their ability to pay it off by smothering our economy with massive government bureaucracy that stifles the private sector innovation that has until now led the world. america has always been a beacon of hope to the world because we are exceptional. we provided more freedom opportunity, and prosperity than any other nation. we have been proud of this exceptionalism and have carefully safeguarded it through generations. the strength of america is our unique system, our spirit, our work ethic our companion the communities we create. this multitrillion-dollar current plan which increases government control and decreases

freedom and opportunity threatens the system at our core. our government exists to preserve the freedoms that allow the american people and our communities to flourish, not to control the american people. and the american people will flourish if permitted to do so. in this sense the only thing that can stop america is america's government. by limiting our own people's opportunity and our prosperity. i'm asking my colleagues to fight to ensure that the america we know endures for our children. the greatest generation gave us the most just and prosperous country in the history of the world, the country that won world war ii and then the cold war. and we must fight to preserve it. not throw it away. because the president and democrat leaders have bound this infrastructure bill to a plan that will dramatically weaken america and produce opportunity and prosperity for our people, i will be casting a no vote and urge my colleagues to do the same.

madam president, i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: well, it's taken quite a while there have been a lot of bumps in the road, but in a few minutes, i will announce

that we have come to an agreement for final passage of the bipartisan infrastructure proposal. let me say this. it has taken quite a long time, and there have been detours and everything else, but this will do a whole lot of good for america, and the senate can be proud it has passed this. and as we move forward we're proceeding on both tracks, the track of the bipartisan infrastructure proposal, and the track of the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions. on our side of the aisle, we know we need both tracks, one dealing with traditional infrastructure one dealing with climate, and the problems american families face as they move into the new global transformational 21st century. so this is a very good day. we have come to an agreement.

after all the long, hard negotiating, the stops and starts, we're here, and it's a good thing a very good thing for america. now i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc -- calendar 266 269 325 343 316, and 326. that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: question -- the presiding officer: question is on the nominations en bloc. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the nominations are confirmed. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the following nominations -- calendar 302 0303, 30 had 305 306, 307 308 309 30and have all nominations on the secretary's desk in the air force, army, and foreign service, that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations that any related statements be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate then resum legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that committee on banking housing and urban affairs be discharged from further consideration and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of

h.r. 3642. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 36 4,an act to award a congressional gold medal to the 369th infantry regiment known as the harlem hell fighters in recognition of the bravery and outstanding service during world war ii -- world war i. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the committee is discharged. and we will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president just a word. i was proud to be a cosponsor along with senator gillibrand of this legislation. the harlem hell fighters are an example of bravery and courage under fire. and even though this regiment was consigned to racial segregation, they still loved america and fought hard for

america and died for america. they are brave they did a great job in world war i. it's unfortunate that it's taken so long for this country to recognize their bravery because so many of our soldiers of color were not recognized for their service, but this brings us to a wonderful, wonderful moment where the harlem hell fighters will get the congressional gold medal. i am very proud that we have done this. now, madam president i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to senate resolution 202. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 202, designating may 7 2021, as united states foreign service day and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: madam 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: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration, the senate now proceed to senate res. 285a. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 285, honoring the lives and legacies of the radium girls. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the menendez substitute amendment at the desk to the resolution be agreed to, the resolution be amended and agreed to, the menendez amendment at the desk to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble, as amended be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that the help committee be discharged

from further consideration the senate now proceed to senate res. 319. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 319 expressing support for the designation of july 2021 as national sarcoma awareness month. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the johnson amendment to the preamble be agreed to, the preamble, as amended be agreed to or and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to consideration of senate resolution 346. submitted he recall letter today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 346, designating september 2021 as national workforce development month.

the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the resolution. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all those in favor, say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolution is agreed to. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of senate res. 348 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 348, recognizing the importance of independent living for individuals with disabilities made possibility by the americans with disabilities act of 1990 and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to

the measure? without objection. mr. schumer: is is there further -- i know of no further debate on otoresolution. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not the question is on the resolution. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolution is agreed to. mr. schumer: i ask that 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. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today. senate res. 347 349 350 and 351. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measures en bloc? without objection the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preambles be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en

bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, the schedule for tomorrow. long awaited. on the bipartisan infrastructure bill -- i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 9:30 a.m. tuesday august 10. 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. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate resume consideration of h.r. 3684. finally -- and finally is the right word -- that all postcloture time on h.r. 3684 expire at 11:00 a.m. on tuesday august 10. the presiding officer: is the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of senator wyden and senator whitehouse.

and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president as we have just heard thankfully, construction is almost complete on the infrastructure bill. once infrastructure passes, it's on to the budget resolution, which lays the foundation to pass build back better this fall. the senate finance committee is immersed in this effort. for several months, we've been working with members of the committee on a host of proposals that are included in the resolution. these proposals stem from essential american priorities, making it easier to support a middle-class family, lowering the cost of health care, and addressing the climate crisis. when you focus on those key

priorities you build a stronger more fair economy and create good-paying jobs. there's going to be a lot to say about these issues in the hours and days ahead. tonight i'll take just a few minutes to discuss the finance committee's work and why the policies are so important. i'll begin with support for american families. for decades typical working families in oregon and across the land have felt that it's gotten harder and harder for them to climb the economic ladder. the cost of housing and education have shot into the stratosphere. yet wages have large lay been stuck on the -- largely been stuck on the launchpad. despite being the best-educated

generation in history young people in america today earn less on average than their parents did at the same page. it ute -- it ought to be usier to raise a family in america. that's why democrats created the monthly child tax credit expansion as part of the american rescue plan. the new program as our colleague from ohio, senator brown, has said, is social security for america's children. too many kids have been growing up in poverty or very, very close to it. expanded child tax credit is cutting child poverty by more than half, but so far it's only been funded for a year. with this resolution, democrats are going to lock in the longest extension possible. children and parents need help, and they need the certainty and

predictability of a long-term extension. together with the help of the help committee the finance committee is also leading the way for a comprehensive national paid-leave program. this sort of program is long overdue and there will be a special focus on our efforts -- the help committee and the finance committee -- on making sure it is equitable so workers of modest incomes can afford to take paid leave too. now, every family in america needs reliable income and a roof over their heads. tragically affordable housing is in short supply, and as the pandemic proved, it takes just one big economic jolt to put millions and millions of americans out of work. as part of this resolution, the finance committee is working on financial support for america's renters as well as funding for

new, affordable housing. the challenge of affordable housing is no longer just an issue for a handful of big cities. it is a nationwide concern that's -- that needs creative, big solutions. the finance committee is also zeroing in on worker training and making america's unemployment insurance more reliable and resilient for those in america who are laid off through no fault of their own. having enough affordable housing, job training, and support for those workers is an economic win-win. good for families, good for businesses who rely on the strength of the american workforce. i'm going to turn now to health care. democrats have promised to allow medicare to negotiate a fair

price with big pharma. as the chairman of the senate finance committee i intend to make good on that promise. americans have been getting clobbered at the pharmacy window because big pharma holds all the power over drug costs. with the help of republicans big pharma is now engaged in classic hostage taking a. they say we decide the prices you pay or the pipeline for innovation gets shut down. that is just not a reasonable proposition. big pharma doesn't need to treat medicare and american taxpayers like their own private a.t.m. and we don't need that in order to develop the next blockbuster drug. we also intend to build on the bipartisan work the finance committee has already done in the last congress, fighting back against drug company price gouging, strengthening the medicare prescription drug benefit, protecting seniors with an out-of-pocket maximum for

their medications. lifesaving medications, madam president, shouldn't be sending anybody in america into bankruptcy. we're also going to be updating the medicare guarantee for the modern era. the finance committee has already put a lot of work into updating the program particularly to helping seniors with chronic conditions. that now makes up the bulk of the program -- cancer, diabetes, strokes, we've made a lot of headway there. the next update is giving seniors access to a dent that will vision, and hearing benefit, because those also are crucial to the health of america's elderly. back in the days, madam president, when i was a codirector of the oregon gray panthers, we said medicare was just half a loaf. it didn't address those concerns.

now we've got the opportunity to make sure those essential benefits are available for seniors. now president biden has called for major investment in home and community-based care. this is another priority for the senate finance committee. we've been led in this effort by our colleague from pennsylvania, senator casey and i have been pleased to assist him with that effort and i believe the distinguished senate majority leader has a question that he would like to pose. mr. schumer: i would just ask the gentleman to yield for 30 seconds so i might inform the members. so i've been getting questions. after we finish on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, we will move immediately to proceed to the budget resolution with reconciliation instructions and expect to move to vote-a-rama shortly thereafter. i yield the floor. mr. wyden: i thank my colleague

for that timely information. madam president as i was saying the better care, better jobs act led by senator casey really fulfills another dream that goes back to those gray panther days. we know that america's most vulnerable would always prefer to get quality care at home where they can be with loved ones. and yet this country really hasn't fulfilled that dream and our legislation for seniors for those with disabilities will give those individuals a long overdue opportunity to get good quality care at home and raise the work wages for the crucial workers who provide this frontline care. in this resolution democrats will also push to expand on the success of the affordable care act. already this year the congress expanded middle-class tax credits for health insurance on

a temporary basis. we wish to make that permanent. finally, more than a decade after the affordable care act became law there are still holdout governors who've chosen to deprive vulnerable people in their states of access to medicaid. finance committee democrats are leading the effort to close that coverage gap. now, madam president, i want to briefly touch on our work on energy and climate. life for oregonians this summer and virtually every summer has become about record high temperatures and record breaking wildfires. over one weekend last month temperatures outside my house in southeast portland were at 108 110, and then up to 116. and unfortunately, madam president, i just learned that we're headed for another big severe hit in terms of weather

starting tomorrow and going through saturday. madam president it has gotten so bad that i've been spending time on the phone over the last few days trying to use a section of our chronic care act which allows medicare advantage plans to cover services essential for the elderly that didn't used to be considered health care, like air conditioners. and we're getting a good response from the plans. they know because we're seeing story after story just another one yesterday about seniors -- often seniors who own their own homes but haven't been able to get the air filters and air conditioners and the like. that's what we're faced with now this week in my home state. that's on top of a severe drought. and that kind of heat adds fuel

to the mega infernos that we've been seeing. now, the congress has to act to prevent the worst most catastrophic outcomes of climate change. and the linchpin of the finance committee's effort to tackle climate is the clean energy for america act. the finance committee passed this earlier this year. and for the finance committee this is the most dramatic proposal passed from the committee in more than a hundred years, more than a hundred years. what we do. and i'm pleased to see climate's most vigorous champion on the floor here, our friend from rhode island. what we did with the senator from rhode island's help is we took the 44 tax breaks in the federal tax code for energy, and we put them in the dust bin of history, gone, over, lights out.

and we substituted instead one for clean energy, one for clean transportation fuel, and one for energy efficiency. and then we said for america going forward we will have a kick neutral free market system for energy tied to one very clear measure. and that is if you're a renewable energy program or you're a fossil fuel program if you reduce carbon emissions that one standard, reducing carbon emissions you are eligible for the tax reductions in the senate finance committee's proposal. the proposal also makes electric vehicles more affordable to middle-class families and boosts clean energy manufacturing and everything from semiconductors to solar components.

an independent analysis of the finance committee's energy plan said it would help create more than 600,000 jobs and i just believe it would be a catastrophic mistake to pass that up in order to protect the status quo, madam president the status quo is an outdated system that basically cuts special taxpayer funded checks every year to these powerful interests, these oil and gas firms. so we're going to talk a lot more about climate in the days ahead, and i think it's very fitting that senator whitehouse is here. i'll close by way of saying that the proposals that i have just outlined, madam president would be paid for under what we have focused on by restoring fairness to the tax code. i know there's already been some discussion on the floor of the senate about how these proposals will be paid for.

we'll have a lot of discussion about it, but it sure takes chutzpah for the members who spent $2 trillion on the tax handouts for corporations and the wealthy to come to the senate floor and say it's the democrats who are fiscally irresponsible. senate democrats and the biden administration have been working on a number of changes that can help pay for the proposals in this resolution. that includes making sure mega corporations who are paying less today than they have in decades are required to pay a fair share. it includes legislation to close the carried interest loophole for private equity executives and legislation to close other loopholes abused by wealthy investors. and democrats made a promise that nobody who earns less than $400,000 per year pay more in taxes. and we're going to stand by that. in fact, the expanded child tax credit is the largest tax cut for working class and

middle-class families in decades decades, and we have proposed as well to cut taxes for main street small businesses from one end of the country to another. now, the republican position has been something else. their position is that mega corporations and those at the very very, very top of the economic system basically shouldn't pay one penny in taxes taxes. that's unfair. it's wrong. and the american people know it. we're going to have a lively debate on the resolution. and i'm pleased to be able to stand up with colleagues to make the push, to make the fight for making it easier to support a middle-class family, lowering the cost of health care, addressing the climate crisis, and building a stronger, more fair economy. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president

i'm delighted to follow my distinguished chairman on the finance committee as he gives assurances about our important work on climate change. the majority leader has announced that the final vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package will be tomorrow at 11:00 and we will then roll into the rather ig ma mouse skeptical of the senate known as the vote-a-rama. what it does, however is allows us to go to budget reconciliation which allows us to pass measures with a simple majority. and we should do that bearing in mind what just came out. the latest ipcc report on climate change. it is getting increasingly dire. the ipcc report uses words like unequivocal, unprecedented irreversible. unequivocal is the link between fossil fuel pollution and the

climate damage we're doing to our oceans and our atmosphere. unequivocal. unprecedented? we talk about unprecedented around here if it -- as if it's -- it hasn't happened in a decade. we talk about unprecedented across many centuries or many thousands of years. we are undoing the basic operating systems of our planet as humankind has come to know them. irreversible means for some of this there's no going back. we were warned and warned and warned. we ignored it and ignored it. and now we're in it. we can make it less bad but parts are ir reversible. as one united nations spokesman said this is red alert for humanity. and it doesn't take the ipcc or the u.n. or the universities in our home states or our environmental community to tell

us this. all we have to do is look around. look at the wildfires that are tearing through the west. senator padilla was here earlier today talking about what's going on in california. here's a report from california from the head of the national forest. its supervisor. we're seeing truly frightening fire behavior. i don't know how to overstate that. we have a lot of veteran firefighters who have served for 20 30 years and have never seen behavior like this especially day after day. and the conditions we're in. so we really are in uncharted territory around some of these extreme, large fires and the behavior we're seeing. that's the report from the front of the wildfires. but we're not just in uncharted territory of wildfires. we're in unchampted territory with -- uncharted territory with respect to flooding. here's what we're predicting in rhode island right now. this is the northern part of my state. everything you see here that's this bright blue color that's

land right now. people live there. people have businesses there. people have recreation there. there are things that people do that are part of their lives there and it all disappears under current predictions of sea level rise. it disappears. this is a place called warick neck. it becomes warick neck island. this is a place called poppasquash point. it becomes two little islands off of bristol. and bristol becomes its own island. and barrington gains sort of the barrington great salt lake in the middle of it. and now you have an island along what is now barrington's southern coast. we stopped being rhode island. we've become the rhode island archipelago. that is a big change. and if i can stop it, i am going

to. drought. you've seen the pictures of the western lakes at all-time lows. and the dependence of those western states on water is acute. the hurricane cycle we're already in warnings about how serious the coming hurricane season is going to be. if you stepped down to god's creatures, you've got manatees that are dying in unprecedented numbers in florida. often northwest coast in the pacific ocean you've got the humble pteropod, a tiny oceanic snail that is at the bottom of the ocean food chain and half of the pteropods sampled have shell damage because of ocean acidification which is happening because the ocean absorbs the carbon dioxide and it turns it acidic when it happens. i've proven that experiment from this desk early in the morning once. our atlantic fisheries are all

in flux, all moving. our connecticut and rhode island and southern massachusetts lobster fisheries pretty much collapsed. species that farmers didn't used to see are now turning up in our waters. there were these horrible stories about the heat that chairman wyden spoke about. small birds got so disoriented in the heat as fledglings that they jumped out of their nests to get away and then of course become prey and incapable of getting back to their nests on the ground. and bird general and insect populations generally are crashing. we think about this very often in terms of looking back at what we've been through. and we're told over and over again and we know from our own experience that this past year has been the worst in the last ten years or the last 20 years

across all of these measures. but i want you to think about this. yes, it has been the worst year in the last ten 20 years. here is what the i.p.c. report warns us. it's the best year of the next 10 or 20. this is getting worse period, end of story. we can slow down it getting worse, and we can slowly turn it around but the disasters we're seeing now are child's play compared to what is coming. so action is now necessary and thankfully our timing is such that we have a reconciliation measure starting tomorrow that gives us the tools to take action. we have to do this now and unfortunately we have to do this alone.

there are three sad facts about our predicament. one is we can't count on republicans. if we lose the house next year, as people are predicting, to gerrymandered states, we're done on getting serious about climate. because we know perfectly well that since the citizens united decision, no republican has gotten on a serious climate bill in the senate, not one. it used to be bipartisan. john mccain ran for president on a climate plan that was very good. there were three or four different serious climate bills kicking around before citizens united but then citizens united came unlimited money came, the fossil fuel industry used unlimited money and they should down the republican party on climate. they said we're tolerating no dissent any longer. you're all going to line up and do what you're told. if you don't do what you are told, we are going to do what we

did to bob inglis, take him out in a primary. we're going to throw boat loads of dark money to send to your elections in super pac's. you have a party that's hip deep in fossil fuel money and has a decade a lost decade in which it would do nothing serious about climate. so unfortunately and to the great sorrow of my friend john warner who passed away recently and john mccain and others who worked hard before this when the republican party was less dependent on fossil fuel money unfortunately we have to do it alone. and we can't count on the fossil fuel industry to mend its way. they have been at a decade of alliance. they built this, an entire web of phony baloney front groups, all paid for with fossil fuel

money, in the hundreds of millions billions of dollars to put out fake science. they hide who they are behind the dark money behind these front groups. they ran an enormous, corrupt scheme to fool americans and block progress here in this building so that they could keep polluting, and now we're supposed to count on them? no way. they still haven't come clean about their years of funding denial and they won't come clean. guess why. because they're still at it. their sea's -- c.e.o.'s will say one thing at a press conference, but this machine is still funded and it is still rolling. so you can't count on the fossil fuel industry to change its ways. and third unfortunately -- and i really hate to say this -- you

can't count on corporate america. they're full of great statements. c.e.o.'s go to the business roundtable and the climate business roundtable, and they talk about their support for climate and how it's urgent and they support carbon pricing but when it comes to the levers of power here in this building, forget about it. they have built the most powerful lobbying and electioneering apparatus in our country's history. trade association after trade association, business group after business group not one has been switched on to do anything about climate. by the way when it's a c.e.o. giving a press conference in new york but that trade association is saying nothing or don't do it guess who people listen to here in washington. they listen to that trade

association. they know what greenwashing is, and they know when corporate america is serious and at this moment no major trade association is taking any interest in climate action. the chamber of commerce, nothing. they're embroiled in a long conversation with members of theirs who were fed up with their climate denial, but they have done nothing. the national association of manufacturers, also nothing. they were recently the two worst climate obstructors in america. have they changed their direction? no. now they are just climate obstruction lite. climate obstruction 2.0. look at the american petroleum institute. this one is pretty funny. they come out and they say they support carbon pricing. they are going to support putting a cost on pollution on

a greenhouse gas. and then we come out of the budget committee and we announce as leader schumer did we announce that we're going to actually price methane another greenhouse gas an even more potent greenhouse gas and actually kind of a dangerous one. so uh-oh. suddenly it looks real. somebody might actually price methane. and what did a.p.i. do? came out against it. now, you tell me how you can be for pricing a milder greenhouse gas in order to help address climate change but against pricing an even more toxic chemical to help solve climate change. it makes no sense. the only way you can reconcile those two things is with the

statement of the exxon lobbyist that the only reason the industry is talking about carbon price something because it doesn't think it's going to happen. it's another fake. it's another scheme. it's another denial and obstruction. in this case, probably 5.0. the american bankers association, you read from central banks around the country warnings about the economic crash that's going to happen if we don't get ahead of the climate problem. those are the central bank's warnings. what did the american bankers association have to say to us? nothing. insurance companies are screaming about the risks that they are facing now from worse hurricanes, worse flooding, worse droughts, worse fires claims going up, difficulty anticipating what risks are hard to price insurance. and yet where is the american insurance association?

silent. freddie mac has warned us that there is going to be a coastal property values crash as those sea levels rise and as you can predict that that home is going to be literally under water in the 30-year mortgage period, not just figuratively under water. so no mortgage, no insurance no market. hence, a property values crash. and where is the realtors association? where are the american home builders? silent. the american beverage association. oh coke and pepsi talk a really big game. what is the american beverage association doing on this? nothing. and all those big barons out in silicon valley are represented by a group called technet. a year ago they didn't even mention climate change in their lobbying materials. they didn't even mention clean

and renewable energy, and they have clean and renewable companies in their membership. so we cannot count on corporate america to take climate change seriously here where a solution is needed. so this is on us. and i will tell you we intend to i intend to meet the moment. and there are those out there who will grouse and complain, and to you i say too damned bad. you have had years to help, and you did nothing or worse so you have lost your right to complain. but under pressure of the facts and the realities of what is going on around us, under pressure of the warnings about this being irreversible, unequivocal, and unprecedented we're going to act. we're going to act.

and i don't want to hear your complaining because you had a decade to come in and try to do something about this, and you shirked your responsibilities for a decade, you funded trade associations that were doing nothing, you funded these creepy front groups that were attacking us on climate change so you lost your right to complain. and in the next six or seven or eight weeks as we go through building this reconciliation instruction, you're not just going to address climate change. we're not going to do more than had ever been done before. we're going to get on a safe pathway for this country and for the planet. because i will tell you more than we have ever done before on climate is a pa threatically low bar, because for a decade, things to the fossil fuel industry and its web of denial and its control over the republican party, we have done

nothing on climate. we have got a lot of catching up to do. reconciliation gives us the chance to do it. i pray to god that we meet the moment. and i yield the floor. i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 107, s. 1917. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 107 s. 1917, a bill to establish a page 312 cybersecurity initiative, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding? without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: with that, we are concluded. the presiding officer: under the previous order the senate stands adjourned until 9:30 a.m.

tomorrow. >> $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. a final vote is expected tomorrow. senators also spoke about the next bill on the agenda, a $3.5 trillion budget plan. more live senate coverage when lawmakers return here on c-span2.

>> students from low income families the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast supports c-span2 as a public service. >> tonight we are thrilled to have with us chris bayles with us. chris is a professor of sociology and pluck policy at duke -- public policy at duke university a leader in the emerging fields of computational science, examines fundamental ilquestions of social psychology, political polarization and technology using large scale social media platforms in-depth interviews and the latest advances in machine learning. he hasnt written for "the new york times," "the washington post" n and cnn regularly lectures audiences in the government and nonprofit sectors. his award-winning book, "how

anti-muslim organizations became mainstream," was among the first to explain how we use the tools of data science. jonathan hines received his ph.d. from the university of pennsylvania in 1992 and taught for 16 or years in the department of psychology at the university of virginia. he is the author of "the happiness hypothesis" and the new york times bestsellers the righteous minds and the coddling of" the american mind: how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up a generation for failure. co-or authored. he's written more than 100 academic articles.

in 2019 he was inducted into the american academy of arts and sciences and was chosen as one of the world's top 50 thinkers. a few housekeeping notes we will bee doing an audience q&a so if you have questions for chris, you can drop them in the chat or add them to the feature at the bottom of your screen. and with that, please join me in welcoming jonathan and chris to the stage. >> okay. thank you so much.