>> joseph stalin had been dead for three years when his successor stunned a close gathering of officials with a litany of predecessors abuses meant to clear the way for reform from above secret speech of february 25, 1956, shattering the myth of stones infallibility. this is the way harvard university press introduces the book, moscow 1956, the silent spring authored by georgetown university professor kathleen e smith. >> author professor kathleen smith on this episode of book notes plus. listen@c-span.org/podcast or wherever you get your podcast. ♪♪ >> the senate about a gallon to work on government funding and

the debt ceiling. lawmakers were capable of motion to proceed to give the government funded through december 3. that legislation extends the debt ceiling for 2022. debate on the motion scheduled to 5:30 p.m. eastern time. live now to the senate floor. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, who makes the crooked places straight, continue to guide our lawmakers as they seek to walk with wisdom

and integrity. may they embrace your wisdom, which is pure, gentle, considerate, merciful, productive, peaceful, and sincere. lord, lead them on a path of integrity that strives to keep a clear conscience before you and humanity. inspired by your unconditional love, empower our senators to achieve a faithfulness that will cause people to glorify your name. provide our legislators with the courage to turn from evil, as you do for them more than they can ask or imagine.

we pray in your righteous name, amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

ms. hirono: mr. president? the president pro tempore: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: i'd note the absence of a quorum. the president pro tempore: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: well, madam president, after today -- i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, after today there'll be no doubt which party in this chamber is working to solve the problems

that face our country and which party is accelerating us towards an unnecessary, avoidable disaster. let me say that again without interruption. madam president, after today, there will be no doubt, no doubt about which party in this chamber is working to solve the problems that face our country and which party is accelerating us toward unnecessary, avoidable disaster. at the end of last week, i filed cloture on proceeding to the continuing resolution sent to us by the house of representatives, which, among other things, would prevent a government shutdown and suspend the debt limit so we can pay for our debts incurred during the previous administration. in a few hours, we will vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to this bill. the democrats will do the responsible thing, the right thing, the thing that's been done for decades by both parties

and vote yes. now, if republicans follow through with their plans to vote no, they will be on record deliberately sabotaging our country's ability to pay the bills and likely causing the first-ever default in american history. the consequences of a default would be in the words of secretary yellen catastrophic. the best-case scenario is the best case under this awful situation is that our country would fall into another recession, potentially erasing all the progress we have made to pull ourselves out of the covid crisis. that is, if we're lucky. otherwise, one analysis warned that default could hurt americans for generations, for generations. interest costs will be higher and not go down very quickly, and that has huge effects on so many different people, and that's only one of the effects of default. so i want my republican

colleagues to think carefully about the practical consequences of what they're doing. a default means, quite simply, the government cannot pay its bills. it means that suddenly the government is presented with unimaginable options. do they tell seniors they won't get their social security checks or veterans that they won't see their benefits or tell our military they won't be getting paid? and the consequences on main street would be equally severe. a default would very likely send markets crashing and interest rates skyrocketing, making it harder for small businesses to make ends meet, for homeowners and renters to pay the bills and for consumers to keep our economy going. all of the consequences or so many of the consequences can be boiled down into three frightening numbers. six million, nine, 15 trillion.

six million jobs lost. 9% unemployment. $15 trillion in squandered household wealth. let me say that again. those are devastating numbers on so many households throughout america. just about every household. that's six elmo jobs lost. 9% unemployment. $15 trillion in squandered household wealth. yes, that's what we're potentially looking at if republicans get their irresponsible and reckless way. none of this needs to happen, none of it. the only reason we are here, the only reason this is even a possibility is because republicans are making this a possibility by preventing the government from paying its bills. it's un -- it's an unhinged position to take, one that not long ago only the most radical elements of the republican party would have embraced. there is no scenario in god's green earth where it should be worth risking millions of jobs, trillions in household wealth.

people's social security checks, veterans' benefits, and another recession just to score short-term, meaningless political points. that's what republicans seem fixated on doing. now, there is a very simple step we can take today to guarantee the government won't default and won't shut down. both sides can come together to vote yes on today's vote and vote to pass the continuing resolution. just as democrats worked in a bipartisan fashion under the trump administration, republicans must now step up to the plate. to do otherwise is the height of recklessness, irresponsibility. republicans say they don't want to see a government shutdown. they say they don't want to see our government default on our debt. then they should vote yes, it's plain and simple. it's very clear. there is no obfuscation here. crystal clear. voting yes means avoiding default and avoiding a government shutdown. voting no says let's risk it.

let's risk it. by choosing to block today's resolution, republicans are intentionally making default more likely. by blocking an extension of the debt limit, republicans will solidify themselves for a long time as the party of default. i cannot emphasize that this isn't just another political game. we're facing a parade of horribles that will hurt every single american in this country, and it's important to remember that today's vote would also advance a number of priorities besides just funding the government and avoiding default, as important as those are. it would provide desperately needed emergency funding for millions of people affected by maryland disasters from this summer, including hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding across tennessee, kentucky, and virginia. it would provide billions to help resettle afghan refugees who risked their lives helping our troops abroad. both sides claim they support these priorities. so the easy answer is to vote

yes later today. madam president, being elected to office seems sometimes you have to do things to rise above partisan politics. it means we have an obligation to work tether when our country faces an acute crisis. tearing the barn down is easy. building it up, preserving it, keeping it standing year after year takes hard work and cooperation. at the end of the day, the only thing that matters in this chamber is how its members vote. rest assured, democrats will vote today to do the right thing. the american people lsh watching whether or not our republican colleagues choose to vote in favor of preserving our full faith and credit or vote in favor of an unprecedented default. i yield the floor. i note the -- the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration

of the motion to proceed to h.r. 5305, which the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 137, h.r. 5305, an act making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2022, and for providing emergency assistance and for other purposes.

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i'm glad to share that a few minutes ago, i received a booster vaccination for covid-19. all throughout the pandemic, i have followed the best advice from experts and especially from my own health care providers.

it was an easy decision to receive a booster. i'm a survivor of childhood polio from before vaccines. before vaccines eradicated that disease here in our country and around the world now, so i have been a lifelong champion of vaccinations. mountains of evidence tell us these shots are safe, effective, and dramatically shrink the odds of severe disease or death from covid. like i have been saying for months, these safe and effective vaccines are the way to defend ourselves and our families from this terrible virus. they're also how we stay on offense against covid as a country. all americans should speak with their doctors and get vaccinated. now, on a completely different matter, it's not unusual for a

presidency to have a rough spell. every administration faces a stretch of time where nothing seems to go their way. but what we're witnessing today is entirely different. president biden has not been dealt a bad hand by forces outside his control. this white house is not sailing through some unavoidable patch of choppy water. no, democrats have steered our country straight into a storm of serious crises, all of their own making. on issue after issue, americans are hurting because of specific policy choices that democrats have made over the objections of people who actually knew better. democrats did not inherit most

of the painful inflation that is hammering working families. their decisions have fueled it. even liberal economists warn that -- warned the president that runaway liberal spending could send costs soaring, soaring for the middle class. now working americans are paying dearly -- at the grocery store, at the gas station, practically everywhere that matters to families. and what are democrats doing today putting together another taxing and spending spree behind closed doors that would make inflation even worse. president biden did not inherit the humiliation in afghanistan either. he deliberately chose that as well. thed biden administration's own experts warned the white house that a reckless withdrawal would embolden terrorists and harm our

ability to gather intelligence that keeps us safe, but the president clung to his made-up deadline, handed huge momentum to the taliban and their terrorist friends, and broke his explicit promise to leave no american behind who wanted out. as one former democratic member of congress said last week, the way the administration executed that withdrawal has been an utter and abject disaster. democrats did not inherit this border crisis either. this security nightmare and human tragedy is yet another direct result of their own policies. president biden and his allies spent two years campaigning on the concept of big government giveaways to people here illegally. then they took office and began dismantling enforcement on the border. so what do they expect?

wave after wave of vulnerable people have been lured into hellish conditions by the mirage the democrats have set up, cruelly masquerading as compassion. untold thousands of people have simply been released into our country with which a amounts to a polite invitation to show up, show up for a hearing. even before the biden surge only about half of individuals actually showed up. one self-created crisis after another, from our unified democratic party government. the latest additions are their confusion about how to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling. for more than two months now senate republicans have been completely clear about how this

process will play out, so let me make it abundantly clear one more time. we will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown, get disaster relief to louisiana , help properly vetted afghanistan refugees who put themselves on the line for america, and support the iron dome assistance for our ally, israel. we will not provide republican votes for raising the debt limit. as we speak, democrats are behind closed doors assembling a multitrillion-dollar reckless taxing-and-spending spree. there's no chance republicans will help lift democrats' credit limit so they can immediately steamroll through a socialist binge that will hurt families

and help china. there's no particular tradition that the minority will always vote for debt limit hikes during united government. when republicans had unified control in the early 2000's, then-senators biden and schumer voted no on a debt limit increase and made the party in power handle it on their own. exactly the situation we're in now. the roles were reversed. bipartisanship is not a light switch, a light switch that democrats get to flip on when they need to borrow money and switch off when they want to spend money. the debt suspension that expired in august covered all the debt that had been accumulated to that point. this is an argument about the future. democrats want to use this

temporary pandemic as a trojan horse for permanent socialism. they have all but said so, and that is what millions and millions of americans elected 50 republican senators to fight against. for ten weeks now -- ten weeks -- democrats have known what kind of government funding legislation could pass the senate and what kind would fail. republicans are not rooting for a shutdown or a debt limit breach. we've given the united democratic government total clarity about how each can be avoided. republicans have explained exactly what kind of continuing resolution can pass the senate with our support. and late last week the house democratic leader publicly said house democrats are ready to swallow whatever c.r. the senate can send them.

so the house is ready. senate republicans are ready. we can have a bipartisan vote to fund the government today, if not for the odd tactics of the senate democratic leader. before we vote this afternoon, i'll ask consent to strike the partisan c.r. that is dead on arrival and instead have the senate vote on a clean continuing resolution that can pass this chamber easily. we'll see if washington democrats actually want to govern or whether they want to add the prospect of a government shutdown to the list of inflation, afghanistan, the border, and all the other national crises that are the direct results of their own decisions.

i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: i ask the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, you'll remember the day, you'll never forget it -- january 6. here we were in this chamber in the process of voting the electoral college votes. it was a pretty solemn occasion because this happens once every four years, and we have documents coming from the states telling us what happened in the election of last year for president of the united states. it's our job to make sure that those reports are documented and that the ordinary process of the democracy proceeds. this january 6 was not an ordinary day by any means. before we set about our task

here in the senate and the house, the president of the united states, donald trump, held a rally claiming that in fact he didn't lose the election, that he won the last election. and he alleged all sorts of fraud and misconduct on the part of democrats and others that resulted in this faulty report that somehow or another he lost the election. well, his crowd got so fired up that they decided to march on the capitol as we were counting the electoral college ballots. i can remember it well. vice president pence was sitting where you are, madam president. we were going through the regular process, and it was a little after 2:00 in the afternoon. all of a sudden that door opened over there and people came in in suits i had never seen before and literally yanked the vice president off the podium and pulled him out that door. it was only a minute or two later that a member of the capitol police, the men and women who guard us and guard the

visitors of this capitol, a member of the police stood where you're sitting and reported to us that there was a demonstration outside and we should remain in this chamber, this senate chamber because they were going to make it a safe room in the capitol. at that time i noticed staff people were being brought in, lined up along the back of the room itself. it wasn't ten minutes later until the same member of the capitol police stood up and said, change in plans. everybody leave as quickly as possible. and we all did, filing out toward the back of the room. every member of the senate. luckily the parliamentarian or some other office decided to grab the boxes with the electoral college votes in them to preserve this important piece of history from possible mob action. as we were filing out of the capitol, couldn't help but look out the window and see the mobs coming on the capitol, converging on the capitol carrying trump signs. we went to a safe location and

waited it out, and later that evening resumed our activities on the floor of the senate, counted the votes and made it official with the vice president present. it was an important part of history and you would think that would be enough of an embarrassment to president donald trump that he would drop his claims that the election was stolen. he's done just the opposite. he's intensified these false, malicious claims that somehow or another the vote was rigged or stolen or whatever his term might be, a fraud on the public, despite clear evidence to the contrary. and he pointed to a number of states that he said proved his point, where he just could not have lost. donald trump could not have lost these states. so clearly, he argues, something happened there that was criminal or wrong, and an investigation would show it. well, one of those states was arizona. joe biden carried arizona by 10,000, roughly 10,500 votes.

45 of those votes came from -- 45,000 of those votes came from maricopa county, so it was obviously crucial to his win. and so the republicans in arizona decided they were going to zero in on maricopa county and prove once and for all that donald trump didn't lose that county by 45,000 votes. well, they went to great lengths to do it. first they gathered all their right-wing groups and trump's defenders and raised $5.7 million in donations. then they hired a group with the unlikely name of -- i'm looking for it here. something to do with ninjas. i'm sure it will pop up. cyber ninjas. this group had no experience analyzing an election, and yet they turned over all the ballots from maricopa county to them to recount. well, they pursued many bizarre theories, one of which i think

was promulgated by the ever reliable rudy giuliani that somehow or another there were bamboo fibers found in these election ballots, and those are an indication of wrongdoing and contract the conspiracy maybe even to international sources. they pulled up the boxes of ballots and started the count. they were determined to prove once and for all that the result that was announced that biden carried the county by 45,000 votes was wrong, and they proved it. through all their hard work and all the money that was spent, it turned out the draft report by the company cyber ninjas, found that there were 99 additional votes for joe biden rather than the amount presented by the authorities and 261 fewer votes for donald trump in maricopa

county. just the opposite of what they predicted. you would think that president trump would be quiet or acknowledge that he was wrong. come on, you remember him. here's what he said in a statement after the review was announced. he said the review uncovered undeniable evidence of fraud, until we find out what happened, our elections will never be secure. madam president, he just won't quit. the problem, of course, is that so many americans are buying it, primarily americans, believing the big lie that the election was stolen from him. god forbid this man could lose an election. they are joining in a chorus, despite hard evidence that proves time and time and time again that he lost. it was a spirited election. joe biden, donald trump and when it was all over, the american people made their choice.

they accepted the reality of change, now it's time donald trump and his followers to do the same. i don't know if the cyber ninja turtles are going to go at it again, pick some other state to do more investigations. more power to them. they are building up the majority for joe biden, just the opposite for what was predicted. madam president, i would like to speak on a different topic in a separate place in the record with unanimous consent. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, we're going to have a vote later this afternoon and it's not an ordinary vote in the united states senate. we're voting on what's called the debt ceiling. the debt ceiling is the acknowledgment of the government's debt. it looks backwards and says over a period of time since we last expanded the size of the debt, we've incurred more debt and therefore we have to acknowledge that -- to acknowledge the new debt ceiling in order to establish that the united states

is going to pay that debt, which, of course, we want a reputation for paying just bills. these were bills for debts incurred during the trump administration. it should be a rather routine thing. in fact, one might make the argument that the senate and the house should not even be involved in this acknowledgement. it is simple accounting and should be announced to the american people. but for the time being it is subject to a vote in the house and senate and that's where the problems arise. senator mcconnell, the republican leader from kentucky, is hoping that the american public will not clearly understand the gravity and importance of this vote. he has announced that he is going to boycott this vote and not a single republican will acknowledge the true debt of the united states of america. i don't know if he will be able to keep his word, whether every republican senator will march

blindly bhaind him. they did -- behind him. they did so before under the american rescue plan when joe biden proposed to do everything we could to bring a pandemic to an end and get america back on its feet. not a single republican would vote for it. we promised cash for r mesh. we passed billions of dollars so we can administer the covid vaccine across america, we had discovered the vaccines but there's a huge infrastructure to make sure they are safely administered to the american people. that was in the american rescue plan and the republicans opposed it. there was a plan to help businesses reopen their doors. saturday night in chicago, i spoke to a restauranture and the debt he incurred and get back on

his feet. the american rescue plan helped americans. and every single republican voted against it. not a single republican member in the house or the senate would support it. we're getting same threats that the republicans will walk out of the room. this is to pay for decisions made. this is debt incurred during the trump administration. and lest you think that this fiscally conservative donald trump was a good republican when it came to debt. think again, the greatest increase of america's national debt in a four-year history. let me repeat, raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with future spending, we're paying donald trump's bills. we're acknowledging by the house

and senate what now has to be paid. this is about paying what we already owe and it's about averting an economic catastrophe. as a candidate donald trump used to beg that he was, quote, king of debt. how about that, mr. president, king of debt. he proved it. his reckless spending with america's credit card added nearly $8 trillion to our national debt -- $8 trillion. that is a third of the entire debt was incurred during the trump administration and now the republicans, his party, refuse to acknowledge that debt and the fact that we have to pay it back. he racked up all that debt in four years. $2 trillion of that, incidentally, was spent on tax cuts for the richest people in america. yes, that was the trump plan, supported by the same republicans who today are saying they will not cast a vote to acknowledge they did it and added to the deficit.

85% of benefits of the trump tax cuts supported by senator mcconnell and the republicans went exclusively to the top 10% of wage earners in america. the senate passed those tax cuts all on their own through reconciliation. i will tell you this. i didn't vote for it. no democrat voted for it. what we're doing today is paying the piper, acknowledging that this is a legitimate debt of this country. we can change policy going forward, but since we enacted those tax cuts four years ago, it's added to the national debt and we acknowledge it today and senator mcconnell and the republicans refuse to acknowledge it. during trump's one term in office, the national debt increased by almost 36%, four years, 36%. our republican colleagues voted to raise the federal debt ceiling once and to suspend it twice during donald trump. and the democrats stood with him because we understood that this is just basic requirement 101 of

constitutional government. we shared the responsibility, not because we agreed with his policies, we don't, but because we understood that defaulting on the national debt could cause real damage to america. what would the cost of defaulting on our debt be, exactly? according to some economists we would see an estimated $15 trillion of household wealth wiped out, a 9% unemployment rate. every last american would feel the pain. if it continued for any period of time, it would threaten retirement funds, social security checks, even job security. mark zandi, a pretty well-respected economist, warned that default on america's debt would trigger financial armageddon, threatening america's status as a world reserve currency all because republicans refused to

acknowledge debt they voted for and created under republican president donald trump. even toying with the notion of default would have severe consequences. back in 2011, the house republicans initially refused to raise the debt limit. america's credit was downgraded, the result, higher borrowing costs and america's confidence shaken globally. we will see if every american will fall under the dictates of senator mcconnell when it comes to defaulting on america's debt for the first time. we'll also see what the reaction will be. the measure we're going to vote on in about two hours, suspends the debt ceiling to suspend the default of the government and keeps the government open, just that basic. after we have been through and what we are going through with the pandemic, how can the republicans play with this deadly economic strategy?

without a continuing resolution, the federal government will shut down in less than four days, with the delta variant still taking 2,000 american lives a day, this is no time to shut down the federal government. with the victims of hurricanes and floods and wildfires desperate for help, this is not the time to close the doors of the agencies that could help them. with our economy still recovering, now is not the time to damage it intentionally for political reasons. right now our number one priority is keeping our nation's economy on a path to recovery, helping families through a difficult time. we need to come together and fund the government. that is our fundamental responsibility. we need to pay our bills on time. we need to provide financial relief to americans who are battling disasters, whether they are in california or oregon or louisiana or illinois or hawaii. and we need to grow our economy for future generations, kriewfg funding for -- kriewfg funding

for -- increasing funding for child care and health care and help working families. president biden's build back better plan is a prudent investment in our economic future. it includes the largest middle-class tax cut. do you know what republicans call this, socialism. i heard senator mcconnell say that. they just want to pursue socialism. the largest tax cut for working families and children in america in history. unlike president trump's tax giveaway to the rich, which senator mcconnell voted nor and doesn't want to pay for, the build back america better plan, it will have the wealthy corporations pay their fair share. no one, this is a promise by president biden to be held to, no one who makes $400,000 a year or less will pay more in taxes.

he's been pretty clear on that, hasn't he? so this notion that we're going through some socialist tax and spend scheme here isn't true. seven months after he signed his tax cut into law, donald trump told sean han itty of -- hannity of fox news said, when it tax cut kicks in we'll start to pay off the debt like it's water. quote, donald trump. that was that -- that was a con. now the bills are coming due and republicans are racing for the exits. it's time to stop this ruse and fraud on the american people. we need to pay our bills, act responsibly and actually help working families. madam president, i yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call: mr. moran: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: madam president, thank you. the presiding officer: the senate is in had a quorum call. mr. moran: thank you. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: madam president, i rise this afternoon to bring further attention to the national security crisis we see ature southern border. president biden and vice president harris' handle aing

has been incompetent as it has been inhumane. their own special envoy to haiti has resigned in protest. this administration is in denial about the scope of this crisis. migrant crossings into the united states has already reached historic levels, and as i speak, thousands continue to arrive along our u.s.-mexico border. since taking office, president biden and vice president harris have shirked responsibility for this crisis by placing blame on the historic levels of illegal crossing on everything from covid-19, climate change, to former president trump. they are hoping americans will forget that president biden's first order of business was to repeal nearly every immigration policy of the previous administration. the biden administration talking points say our borders are closed but their actions indicate just the opposite. more than 12,000 of the haitians who gathered under the bridge in del rio has been released into the country. this is not a new policy.

tens of thousands of immigrants have been released since the president took office. many were given nothing but a list of i.c.e. offices across the country with instructions to report within 60 days. it was reported in july that nearly 50% failed to report as directed. this is a clear message that if you make it to the united states, you will be allowed to stay without facing repercussions. this encourages families to make the dangerous trek north and entrust their safety to dangerous drug cartels at the risk of being murdered, assaulted, or trafficked because the reward is worth the risk. the haitian refugees who recently began arriving at the border are evidence of that. they believe the administration's actions not their words. they watched as thousands were allowed to stay in the country and they gambled that they, too, would get the same treatment.

that after living nearly a decade in countries like chile, now was the time to come. it is irrefutable that this administration's policies are fueling the crisis at the border. the historic levels of crossings at the southern border has not only created this humanitarian crisis and put an incredible strain on our immigration system but has seriously compromised our national security. in april a few months ago i visited the border and had the opportunity to visit with agents and hear firsthand how the crisis has affected their operations and the challenges it has created for them to carry out their mission to apprehend major drug traffickers. the cartels that operate in central america are sophisticated, adaptable and rulingless. not only do they take advantage of individuals attempting to trek to our southern border by forcing them to pay thousands of

dollars to fund their operations and subject them to abuse, rape, and murder, they use these individuals to their strategic advantage. they will send thousands of individuals across the border at the same time in an attempt to overwhelm while cartels industry drugs and guns undetected. just today the d.e.a. i should -- issued a public safety alert about pills containing fentanyl and meth being trafficked in the united states. thus far this year more than 9.5 million counterfeit pills basketball seized, rate that puts to 21 on a rate to more seizures than the last three years combined. this is no coincidence. mr. president, the administration -- i'm sorry, madam president, the administration's continuing to i.g. noer this humanitarian and national security crisis is allowing a horrible situation to get worse. actionsalways speak louder than

words much the biden administration must take immediate action to secure the border and enforce our immigration laws. madam president, i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mrs. blackburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mrs. blackburn: ask that we suspend the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. i've noticed over the past few months that my democratic colleagues have developed a habit of explaining away the

anger of the citizens of this country. there is anger and there is frustration, and what they do is to do a little turn in the conversation and make it the cause of the citizens. instead of blaming it on them. instead of looking at themselves as members of the senate and saying, you know, what could we do better, what i've seen is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle demand to know what is wrong with the american people? how could they not be on board with president biden's so-called transformative agenda? change it all. why won't they stand by and let us spend the country into economic oblivion while

businesses fail, main streets see shuttered businesses, and once-safe border communities are being turned into war zones? you see what they're really doing ask trying to force the american people to adjust and abandon their principles, things that they have long believed, the founding first principles of this country. they want them to abandon that, abandon their expectations, and then accommodate the miserable failure that is joe biden's first few months in office. it's been wrong -- he's been wrong about most all of it. now, madam president, i honestly believe that many of the democratic leaders have it wrong

on this. the people aren't the ones that need to adjust. that burden belongs to the democratic leadership in the senate, in the house, in the white house. no matter how they try to dress it up or change it or smile, they are fast-tracking the road to socialism. the anger bubbling to the surface didn't come from out of nowhere. contrary to popular belief, outrage is not our natural state. no, what you're seeing is beyond buyer's remorse, or even buyer's fear. it's buyer's anger, righteous anger at what they see happening. and i.t. the culmination -- and it's the culmination of almost a

year's worth of confusion, fear, frustration at the biden administration for how they have failed to lead. we can leadership. you see, the american people aren't accustomed to watching their leaders intentionally -- intentionally -- jeopardize our security and prosperity on such a fundamental level. they're looking at all that has fallen apart and realizing that things are the way they are because president biden and the democrat leadership wants it to be this way. this is intentional. on day one, president biden halted construction of the border wall and left those crossings wide open to drug traffickers, to sex traffickers, human traffickers, and gangs;

basically, he hung out the y'all come. you're welcome sign. opening that southern border. they did this knowing that hundreds of thousands of migrants were already on their way from mexico and central america. 150 countries in year have crossed that border illegally. and that the vast majority of them would pay the cartels for their passage north by serving as drug mules. as prostitutes. what is being done to women and children, it is really awful. it is a humanitarian crisis. if they wanted to, biden and the democrats could put themselves between us and that threat. they could support strong

immigration policies that protect refugees and also secure the border. it's possible, but they've refused to do it. instead, they're fineling crowds of -- funneling crowds of unvetted migrants into american communities and enabling the cartels to traffic women and children across state lines with impunity. how dare they. how dare they traffic like they're trafficking. ignoring this problem isn't humanitarianism. it's not antiracism. it's dangerous and exposes an appalling lack of wisdom on the part of the president, the vice president, who is supposed to be the border czar, and their advisors. this administration seems to believe that threats to our national security will evaporate

if we ignore them. just don't think about it, don't talk about it. what you're seeing, you're really not seek. what they're doing is creating policy in a bubble, which works well for grant seminars but fails miserably when there are lives on the line. the biden administration failed in afghanistan. now we can argue for the next decade -- and i am esure we -- d i am esure we will -- and i'm sure we will -- about lessons learn. but here's what the american people see. the biden administration gave a terrorist organization the benefit of the doubt. that is right t they trusted the words of the taliban above the words of the commanders on the ground. the commanders on the ground warned that such an abrupt

withdrawal would end in chaos and casualties. you know what? they wanted to be out by september 11. they wanted that date circled on the calendar. joe biden wanted to be the president that ended the war. but all he has done is emboldened the terrorists and the war on terror, it continues. it continues. he ended nothing. the war on terror. he came out of afghanistan, but now the families of 13 u.s. service members are left to grieve while state department officials make absurd claims about the power of diplomacy and the taliban's role in regional politics, all the while ignoring

the allies and the partners they abandoned. they still don't know how many americans, how many of our s.i.v. holders, applicants, their families, are left behind enemy lines, and the people, the people in tennessee that i talk with when i go home every weekend, they're watching this. they are astounded. they cannot believe what they are seeing the democratic party do. there is no reason, no accountability, no incentive to trust that the self-proclaimed adults in the room know what's best, especially when it comes to the economy. tennesseans can see a socialist agenda pulling the strings. right now, they are staring down the barrel of a $3.5 trillion budget that the democrats have

weaponized against personal responsibility and decentralized control. just seeing that price tag was bad enough, and now we're hearing the price tag is growing, but now tennesseans know that the democrats don't even care how much this costs, nor do they care that if all goes according to plan, american businesses will carry a heavier tax burden than communist china. that is correct. the american businesses will have a higher tax burden than those in communist china. living life as we know it will be too expensive for most, most of us to afford. madam president, no serious person could stand here on the floor of the senate and pretend

to be shocked at the level of anger and frustration that we are seeing back home. i talk to people every single week who feel betrayed, betrayed by this administration. they feel unsafe. many of the tennesseans i speak to every day who voted for president biden wish they had made another choice in the voting booth because as of yet they voted for the president, but they did not vote for this. they did not vote for the afghanistan withdrawal in the manner we came out. they did not vote to embolden the communist chinese. they did not vote for open borders. they did not vote for inflation that is skyrocketing, taxes, $2 trillion of taxes coming their way. no, they did not vote for that.

and this is what makes them angry. i hear their anger with every telephone town hall, with every conversation. i hear their frustration. they are angry at the white house officials who use -- used the full force of the united states government to cover up their mistakes and try to make it sound like it is the problem of the people because they know they have messed up, and the people have every right to be angry. the things we do in this chamber don't exist in a bubble. they have real-world consequences for real people who have real lives that they are living every day, and they know that they're beginning to live

these lives in a more dangerous setting. crime in the streets, crime on the rise, open borders, unvetted migrants coming to their communities, covid, measles outbreaks. they're angry. they have buyers' anger. i like to say as i talk to women security moms, they are back. they are back in full force, madam president. they are baucus they don't like the crime in the streets. they don't -- want safe communities. they want their children safe. they want their children who are going to college this fall to be safe. they are upset with the afghanistan withdrawal, with the continuation of the war on terror that their children are going to have to go refight

this, and they are angry. we hear their anger, and we know it is time for members in this chamber to stop playing politics with how much spending you can force out the door and address these problems that moms and dads and americans across this country are faced with each and every day. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president.

the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: are we in a quorum call? i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: thank you. madam president, later this evening, the democrat-controlled senate will hold another -- will hold a vote on another dead-on-arrival bill. this time, though, it isn't just a messaging bill designed to put on a show for their far left. this is legislation that is actually critical to the stability of our government, our economy, and the livelihood of millions of public servants. for months now, republicans have made clear, though, we will not split the ticket when it comes to democrats' reckless tax and spending spree. we will not vote to raise the debt limit just so democrats can spend another $3.5 trillion and add that to the american people's credit card in a purely partisan exercise. if this was ever a secret, it

was the worst-kept secret in washington, d.c. but our democratic colleagues simply can't resist the chance this signal, even if it wastes valuable time here on the floor of the senate. we have seen it before. the democrats designed to fail agenda practically dominated the senate this summer. there was legislation to overhaul america's election system and hand democrats a permanent governing majority. the latest version of this bill which will also fail will come up for a vote in a matter of days. senator schumer has even forecast votes on other bills that were so unpopular, as it turned out, that they didn't even make it to the senate floor. there was one that would have eroded americans' second amendment rights. another that would punish

schools and hospitals that refused to comply with woke social norms. now, this isn't an agenda to better the lives of the american people or protect the country from global threats. it's pandering, pure and simple. while pandering to the radical base is the focus of the democrat-led senate, there are a number of threats this body should actually address. the most obvious is the need to prevent another government shutdown. and let's not forget the biden border crisis on our southern border. for the entirety of president biden's term of office, democrats have refused to acknowledge any sort of problem at all with our southern border because, apparently, they don't actually believe in borders. or apparently care about -- care little about the drugs smuggled into this country that took the

lives of 90,000 americans last year alone. even as hundreds of thousands of migrants poured across our border every month, democrats showed no concern or didn't even acknowledge that there was a problem. then things came to a head. finally the news media began to pay attention on del rio. within a matter of days, 30,000 migrants, nearly 30,000, primarily from haiti crossed the border and set up camp under an international bridge in del rio, texas. early statements indicated that the administration would make heavy use of title 42, which is a public health title designed to protect the american people against the spread of covid-19. early statements indicated the administration would make use of that public health title and expedited removal to return

these individuals to their home countries. it sounded like a pretty remarkably sensible strategy. but now that the migrant camp has been cleared, we know that is not what happened. only about 2,000 migrants were returned to haiti. a small percentage of the nearly 30,000 who crossed into del rio. some 8,000 voluntarily returned to mexico, but i expect many of those migrants and their families will make another attempt to reenter the united states. another 5,000 of that number are currently being processed by the department of homeland security. in a television appearance this weekend, secretary mayorkas said 10,000 to 12,000 migrants, the ones that were huddled under the bridge in del rio, texas, 10,000

to 12,000 migrants have been released into the united states. untested for covid-19, unvaccinateed when, in fact, the biden administration has said that the public health title 42 was going to be used to exclude them. well, that number -- those numbers are likely to grow in coming days because, frankly, all the biden administration was concerned about, apparently, was the bad optics of 30,000 migrants huddled under a border bridge in del rio, texas. what the biden administration did as opposed to what they said they were going to do is an open invitation for more migrants to illegally come to the united states. individuals who were trying to decide whether to make the dangerous journey to our borders are reading the same headlines

and watching the same tv news shows that we are, and many of them are simply calling their relatives in the united states, saying should i still come and being given the green light because of the failure of the biden administration to do anything to deter or dissuade or add cost to people illegally entering the united states. in so doing, the biden administration is sending an unmistakable message to more migrants to come to the united states because if you do, there's a good chance you will be released into the american countryside and disappear into that great american heartland. migrants will ignore what president biden is saying because they know what his administration is doing, or in this case not doing, which is

not securing the borders. unless something changes, the haitian migration and the crisis in del rio that fixated the attention of the news media and all america, that unless something changes from a policy perspective, this is going to happen again. we already know that border crossings are at their highest levels in 20 years. now the administration is apparently opening the door to even more legal migration -- illegal migration. and the smuggling organizations, the organized crime syndicates that profit from charging these migrants thousands of dollars to get them into the country will continue to get rich because of the administration's unwillingness to enforce our immigration laws.

well, congress has a duty to take action and address this crisis before it grows even more out of control. democrats cannot ignore the responsibility to enforce our laws and secure our borders just because it upsets part of their political base. there's a lot of things we need to do in the senate, and this parade of dead-on-arrival bills does nothing to move us in the right direction. clearly our democratic colleagues are finding their newfound majority, they're finding a lot of trouble using this power to actually govern. they have a wide gulf between the so-called moderates of their party, what they can stomach and what the progressive left wing demands. they're up against a government funding deadline in just the next few days that could risk a shutdown during what is already

tough economic times for many americans because of the pandemic. and they're trying to use a partisan budgetary process to pass trillions of dollars of more spending, more deficit spending while also trying to get another $1 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law. to top things off, they fan the flames of the crisis at our border, struggle to defend an indefensible disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan and offended america's oldest ally. this is not what governing looks like. there's no spotlight on a party like there is when you hold all the cards, when you control the white house, the house, and the senate. the american people know who's responsible for the status quo. when the majority party all but refuses to work with the minority party, that spotlight grows even brighter.

i hope, but frankly i don't expect that our democrats will reevaluate the wisdom of this parade of failed bills and spend a little bit of time working with republicans on legislation that can actually pass and make a positive difference for our country. madam president, i yield the floor, and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: madam president, in recent days much has been said about afghanistan. i spoke about it last time

september 15. most of my colleagues have spoken on the very same subject. i come to speak more about it. today i will look at it from a very different angle. i'm going to look at it from the angle that you see through the inspector general lens. the sudden collapse of the afghan government and the afghan army drew me right back to years of oversight work and audits conducted by the special inspecter general for afghanistanreconstruction. the terminology special inspector general for afghan reconstruction goes by the acronym cgar.

cgar and its reports pulled no punches. report after report over the years exposed and documented grim allegations of weak security, systemic corruption and waste, waste of taxpayer dollars. those core problems were brushed aside and allowed to eat away at the foundation of our commitment in other words our leaders were not heeding the warnings of the inspector general, mr. john sopka. inability to solve these problems prompted sigar to send

warning signals. those warning signals said our mission in afghanistan was failing, and that's not a recent conclusion. that's things he stated over and over, over the years. this was all to the detriment of u.s. foreign policy and our national security, the fact that most sigar's advice fell on deaf ears. sigar was like a lone wolf howling out there in the wilderness. as the final scene of the afghan tragedy unfolded, as we all saw on television at the kabul airport, in those circumstances president biden cut and run. he assigned blame squarely on

afghans' shoulders, but that's not the whole truth. just pick up any sigar report. it's plain to see in those reports that something was wrong. we were the chief architect and financier for the lion's share of the construction in afghanistan that collapsed. if we're to learn from this experience, we need to begin by looking in the mirror. sigar's, quote-unquote, lessons learned report clearly indicate that security against the taliban threat was a top priority. according to sigar, security was never achieved.

based on repeated assessments of the army's readiness, sigar concluded that the afghan army lacked the capability to independently defend the country against internal and external threats. contrary to president biden's capability of the afghan military to preserve the country and defend it from the taliban. and without security, nation building was a nonstarter. now we question whether or not nation building ought to be part of the policy, but it seemed to be too often. when coupled with the systemic corruption i just mentioned and

sigar characterized that as an extensional threat that eroded army's readiness, prospects of survival of the government and the army of afghans doing their job were very dim. against advice that i've given previous administrations, the president announced the date certain for pulling out the u.s. military. and, by the way, that wasn't wise because you never tell your enemies what your plans are. so within days the taliban eliminated the afghan army with hardly a struggle. the taliban then seized u.s. military assets. the biden administration left americans and afghan allies

behind enemy lines, adding tragedy to the deeply flawed military exit, a u.s. drone strike killed ten civilians. there's clear and present urgency for accountability. to my fellow senators, pay appropriate attention to the work of the i.g.'s throughout government, maybe not often enough, but sure listening to sigar, not enough of us listening, afghanistan's collapse underscores the merits ofcy edgar's -- sigar's work out of three dozen i.g.'s. i.g.'s do important work and their work should be considered greatly and the fact that we

ignored sigar's work in afghanistan is a tragedy, particularly when the people in the executive branch of government ignored it. sigar was created to watchdog the huge sums of money pouring into afghanistan. mr. sopko, the i.g., did his job well. he issued aggressive, hard-hitting reports documenting egregious waste and brait ant -- blatant corruption on both sides, our side and the afghan side. large sums of money simply disappeared. in a recent report, sigar served up a classic case of waste and corruption, and he did it on a

silver platter. it is systemic of the rot that derailed our efforts in afghanistan. one example, it involved the purchase of 20 refurbished italian g-220 medium lift aircraft for the afghan air force. they added $449 million to the taxpayers' tab. these aircrafts were needed but unsupportable and inoperable. the squandering on this project was matched by others exposed by sigar like the command center built for $34 million but never needed and never occupied. the g-222 -- i should say 222

aircraft was just another notch in uncle sam's belt of wasteful spending. those planes were thrown in the junk heap because of crooked mismanagement, and that was on our side. the air force general who led the program while on active duty, and then as vice president for the company selling the italian aircraft, allegedly violated criminal conflict of interest statutes. sigar wanted to pursue criminal charges with the -- but the department of justice refused to prosecute. the department of justice turned a blind eye to the general's

alleged misconduct. let that sink in. a half billion dollars of taxpayers' dollars went up in smoke and no one was held to account. at a minimum, this reckless spending demanded discipline ri action -- disciplinary action, with little or no accountability, it was easy for crooks to line their pockets with schemes like the g-222 aircraft. now, sigar exposed that, it wasn't prosecuted, but sigar nailed quite a few. investigations resulted in 160 criminal convictions. corruption was found on both sides. the convicted included 42

afghans, 58 u.s. military personnel, 49 u.s. contractors, and 11 u.s. government personnel and citizens. some money was recovered but obviously you don't recover all of it. however, in such a target-rich environment, sigar's investigators barely scratched the surface. unfortunately while sigar's finger was stuck in the dike, uncle sam kept spending money, kept a spigot wide open. some estimated that nearly $2 trillion flowed through the pipe to a government and an army known by sigar to be riddled with systemic corruption.

we tolerated it and the money kept flowing. what happened in afghanistan boils down to the fundamental principle of good government. oversight is critical to accountability. sigar has more work to do. sigar will need to provide a full accounting for all the captured and aban doned weapons -- abandoned weapons and equipment. you see $185 billion of that stuff left over there for the taliban to use whatever they want to use it for. hopefully never against the united states. the i.g. will need to track down unspent dollars in the pipeline estimated at $6.5 billion or more so those tax dollars can be

returned to the treasury or allocated for other legitimate and needed purposes. the i.g. will need to investigate allegations that high officials fled with hundreds of millions of u.s. dollars in cash and were told that one of those was a former president, the most recent president of afghanistan got away with millions and millions of dollars. now, if true, this would be more proof of systemic corruption that was the country's undoing. stolen tax dollars should be recovered. the house defense authorization bill already instructs sigar to address these and other issues. i call on the senate armed services committee to adopt those same measures and authorize funding needed to finish the job by sigar.

congress needs to know why sigar's alarm bells on scrutiny, security, corruption, waste were largely ignored. they were unmistakable indicators of the impending collapse that we now know has happened to the country of afghanistan to the taliban. once the decision was made to pull out u.s. troops in early 2020, preparations for evacuations were mandatory. so then why did our president make such a panicked and haphazard exit? did no one see the warnings coming? and the signs that showed what would happen? did the military fail to develop

an orderly exit strategy and evacuation plan as alleged by secretary blinken? if true, who was responsible for that blunder? as congressional you autopsy mit help us avoid the same -- avoid the same mistakes in the future, it might help to put forward a better foot for strategic alliances. as painful as it may be, we must never give up trying to learn from our past mistakes. we still face threats from terrorist groups with the same ideology that the 9/11 attackers have, and you know where they got their training, in

afghanistan. we still have troops in many countries combating terrorism in partnership with local forces. we can't afford to sweep mistakes under the rug and just move on and forget about it. without some soul searching, america risks further humiliations like we have just witnessed which will only embolden our would-be adversaries. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: thank you, madam president. you know, these days information is only a few clicks away on your computer, and there's more

information to be consumed than there are hours in the day. it's information overload and it's overwhelming to sift through all the noise, but no matter the narrative being pushed, one thing remains, the facts. the facts don't lie. it's information overload. the facts tell the story better better -- better than anyone. facts take many forms and play out in many ways. they are the impacts of decisions made and actions taken, whether we like it or not. but it doesn't take long for anyone to see this fact, the decisions coming out of the white house have followed one overall thought, one guiding ideology. it's not a unifying ideology that protects the freedoms and liberties we hold dear as americans.

it doesn't safeguard the values of our country or promote a vision for a brighter tomorrow and a more prosperous nation for future generations. it's a big government. socialist ideology. it's a vision of transformation, it's a strategy of undoing everything done by the previous administration. even if those policies were successful. since president biden's inauguration every executive order, every regulatory rollback and every message of so-called unity, we were once promised, has been in the spirit of doing the opposite of the previous administration. with an emphasis on the woke transformation of america's founding principles. but not trump is not a strategy. it's not a policy stance.

it's a reactionary and misguided posture that has plunged our nation into domestic and international disarray. it's a backwards approach to implementing an agenda to transform the culture and the values of america. and we, seeing on the ground effects of this approach in our communities, at our borders, and abroad. when the singular driving force of your presidency is simply being the opposite of your predecessor, our country faces the consequences of that decision. we're facing crises that were preventable, crises that are a direct result of policy decisions. this is an uncomfortable and

inconvenient fact for president biden. and democrats don't seem too interested in the facts about the consequences of this administration's decision either. so let me lay them out. here are society facts. the biden administration inherited a condition-based withdrawal strategy from afghanistan. the idea was that we would have a withdrawing of forces that kept some boots on the ground to maintain stability and limit chaos and, importantly, preserve the progress our troops have made. instead of continuing this condition-based approach that would protect our service members, allies, and innocent civilians, president biden came up with a new plan, one he thought would make for a better headline rather than listening to our commanders on the ground. president trump's plan was to

roll people out strategically and maintain our assets to prevent attacks on the u.s. in the future. the plan certainly did not involve leaving americans citizens behind. instead, president biden's decision left chaos in its wake. his decision left our troops vulnerable and resulted in the death of 13 -- 13 -- u.s. service members. the average age of these service members was 22 years old. his decision was disrespected -- has disrespected the sacrifices of more than 800,000 u.s. veterans who bravely served during the war on terror. his decision gave the taliban their greatest victory to date. and it made them one of the top ten most well-equipped militaries in the world, funded

by the hardworking taxpayers of this country. his decision abandoned innocent americans in a country governed by radical terrorists, and it is clear that he ignored the best military advice given to him to by his top commanders and ordered our troops to put down their weapons and retreat. president biden's decision to withdraw from afghanistan this way gave the taliban everything they wanted, control of the region, our own weapons, and ultimately a breeding ground for terrorism. the fact of the matter is, our country will be facing the consequences of president biden's decision for decades -- for decades to come. our country was safer for the past 20 years, thanks to the bravest fighting forces in the

world, our men and women in uniform. counterterrorism is still necessary, but we've just made it harder on ourselves by not having ground forces and by closing bagram airfield. the myth from the white house is that our country had that choice, but we were beholden to a deal made before january 20. but the policy decision made by president biden emboldened the taliban, endangered americans, and encouraged our adversaries. tomorrow the senate armed services committee will hold the first open hearing hopefully one of many to review president biden's decision and what caused our time in afghanistan to conclude the way it did. the american people deserve facts, and i and the rest of our delegation will not rest until we have answers. -- from the people involved.

from abroad to right here at our own southwest border, we're witnessing the disastrous effect of president biden's play of epic proportions. the numbers do not lie. in fact, in july and august, apprehensions at the southern border surpassed 200,000 each month. that's quadruple the amount from this time last year. in fact, we've seen recordbreaking numbers of illegal immigrants at our southwest border from the day president biden has been inaugurated. over 1.3 million people have been apprehended trying to illegally cross our southwest border, and that's the only ones that we know of. hundreds of thousands more getting into our country.

in fact, all of this is a direct result of president biden's open-border policy, a reversal from those of the previous administration. this is a prime example of the biden administration putting politics over policy. on january 20, his first day in office, president biden announced a suspension of a border wall construction. now billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to cover the cost of canceling the contracts the federal government entered into building a wall. on the same day he terminated the migrant protection protocol policy. in february president biden terminated the asylum cooperative agreements with the northern eye triangle country established under president trump.

doing away with these agreements allowed car veins to travel thousands of miles through multiple countries to our southwest border, without any capacity support from our regional sponsors. these decisions have directly contributed to the unprecedented number of illegal immigrants encountered -- encounters we've seen. because of these decisions, president biden signaled to the world that anyone wanting to leave their country for ours would be admitted to the united states of america. after months of avoiding the world's crises, president biden recently said, quote, we will get the border under control. to even say he will get the border under control means he acknowledges that it is not under control. well, i guess that is one fact that hopefully we can all come

to agreement on. the facts that democrats seem to want to ignore are most that deal with our economy, the separation from fact-to-fiction for our friends across the aisle could not be starker than when it comes to the american economy. it is a fact that inflation is sky high. as high as it's been since 2010. despite rising inflation and increasing prices, the president is still marching forward with his vision of big government. a big government welfare state enacted through the democrats' reckless tax-and-spend spree, he wants to create a massive welfare state paid for by staggering -- and i mean staggering -- tax hikes that will destroy economic growth, and the democrats are his

captive audience. president biden's america is one where our businesses and job creators pay for all. that's not pay your fair share. that's wealth distribution. it's not -- he's not interested in boosting the economy and helping americans. he's interested in remaking the system with subsidies and entitlements, a welfare state to keep everyone beheeledden to the government -- beholden to the government. no work requirements, just complete government dependency. our country was founded on freedom. it was founded on opportunity. the opportunity to work hard and to achieve the american dream. that is what this country owes you, not a handout but a hand up. the programs i laid out and the

democrats' reckless tax-and-spend spree are a transparent effort at a woke transformation of the values and cultures of which our country was built. it wasn't -- if that wasn't bad enough, they're going to raise taxes to pay for them. picking from a menu of more than 30 new taxes. our businesses, small around large, create jobs and grow the economy. increasing their taxes means they can't spend and invest in their own businesses. if they can't expand, they can't create more jobs. in fact, it's quite the opposite. businesses will squeeze inward, cutting workers and wages. a higher corporate tax rate isn't paying their fair share; it's destroying the blue-collar jobs that have fueled the middle class.

why would we ever take pride in the fact that our corporate tax rate is higher than china's? when did that become a worthy goal? i have an answer for you. it's not. but the terrible proposals to offset the costs of this bill just keep on coming. the biden administration wants to require financial institutions to report account balances and transactions greater than $600 made by americans to the i.r.s., the internal revenue service. $600. any transaction you make over $600 will be reported to the i.r.s. that's every taxpayer in this country. today only transactions over $10,000, which is a lot of money, are reported.

yes, that's the same agency with a long history of data security failures. earlier this year the confidential tax information of a number of americans leaked -- surprisingly leaked -- from the i.r.s. it was published in the press. the agency also has a history of signaling -- singling out certain taxpayers for political purposes. you got a rent payment over $600? planning to buy an airplane tickets over $600? how about a new hunting rival, a wedding dress for your daughter? all of this, any transaction over $600, would be sent to the i.r.s. under president biden's plan. this is big-brother government at its worst. we're talking routine financial

transactions that americans make every day. the i.r.s. has no business monitoring these. none. the i.r.s. is intrusive enough as it is. this is something americans of all political stripes should agree on. not only would the i.r.s. be looking over americans' shoulders, but this would place a heavy burden on community banks, credit unions that play a key role in providing financial services to rural and minority communities. these financial institutions cannot afford to monitor and report all this data to the i.r.s. they can't afford it. it will put many of these folks out of business, destroying mainstream american communities who rely on all of them in the process. but don't just take my word for it. the independent community bankers of america, minority bank advisory council wrote,

quote, our primary person is that the -- our primary person is that the proposal would the undermine the critical relationship of trust we foster within the communities we serve. communities prone to distrust of institutions and government agencies. we fear that invasive and indiscriminate account reporting would undermine the priority policy of bringing people into the banking system and may drive many of those in the system to leave. i couldn't have said it better. this is one of the most outrageous proposals coming from this administration. and there have been a lot of them over the last nine months, but this is like a shakedown squad coming around to try to get every single cent from you they can. so today i introduce a bill called the protecting financial privacy act that would

proactively prohibit this. my bill prohibits any federal agency from creating, implementing, or administering a financial account information reporting regime that would require financial institutions or individuals to report data on financial transactions or account balances to the i.r.s. in excess of what is already required by the bank secrecy act. the last thing americans want or need is big brother looking over their shoulder. the president wants to run from the facts. he would rather hide behind them and point fingers. the facts for him don't fit, but it's time for the president to wake up. it's time to stop blaming president trump for disasters that are clearly his own making. it's time to stop an entitlement

state of our country that americans don't want. it's time for the president to face the facts and listen to the american people. he cannot be allowed to deflect responsibility and attempt to distract the american people from crises that were predictable and preventable. especially when the facts couldn't be clearer. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. shelby: thank you, madam president. i had hoped to be standing here today making a statement to support -- in support of the bill before us. for weeks, chairman leahy and i, along with chairs and ranking members of the subcommittees on the appropriations committee,

worked cooperatively to produce a bipartisan package. a package, madam president, that includes a continuing resolution to keep the government operating as well as two emergency supplemental funding for disaster relief and three for to support those who need rescuing following the president's hasty withdrawal from afghanistan. bipartisan support on anything is a rare commodity around here, senator leahy and i know that, but we have experienced bipartisan support with each other in the past, and it works. it's something that should be embraced, and i hope emulated. we nearly got our work done as appropriators so often do, but larger forces intervened. we're not by ourselves here. leadership on the other side of

the aisle intervened to pursue partisanship overcomity, sabotage -- partisanship over comity, sabotage over constructive engagement by, i believe, unnecessarily forcing the debt limit increase into what would otherwise be a bipartisan package. the republican leader, senator mcconnell, has been clear. we will not support any effort to increase the debt limit. madam president, the road to success was clearly marked. nevertheless, my democratic colleagues chose to drive this package right into a ditch rather than embrace a bipartisan path forward. madam president, this is not complicated. there is a simple solution. take up and pass a bill that was negotiated on a bipartisan, bicameral basis which has

support on both sides of the aisle. a bill that, one, keeps the government open. we all want to do that. two, provides much-needed disaster assistance to storm-ravaged areas of our country. and three, it delivers the aid necessary to address the afghanistan withdrawal crisis. that is, senate bill 2789, the shelby-mcconnell bill, here. madam president, if we don't take that path, i believe my colleagues on the other silo the american people some answers here. for example, why did they, the democrats, why did they choose to undermine a bipartisan effort to provide the american people with desperately needed disaster relief? yes, and why did they choose to ignore the immediate needs of

afghans who deserve our support? and why are they threatening to shut down the government now that we have an alternative that would avoid that outcome? madam president, this does not happen. we know thursday is -- is the deadline. instead of accepting victory, my democratic colleagues, i believe, are embracing defeat and creating a new crisis that we all ought to avoid. it's a perilous path they are putting the country on. but it still is not too late. today's monday. we have got a few days left. the majority can reverse course and put us back on track by immediately passing the shelby-mcconnell bill. it will keep the government open, madam president, and provide much-needed emergency funding. this is the bill we should be considering. i urge the majority to do so,

and at this point, i yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i know the speeches on the other side have gone a little longer than we expected, so i can consent that i have time to complete my statement on the continuing resolution and national debt, which will be relatively short. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, today the senate will hold a vote to allow for the consideration of a temporary stopgap measure to keep the government funded through december 3. the measure also provides $28 billion to help states ravaged by hurricanes and wildfires like hurricane ida that recently tore through the -- both the south and the northeast. it provides critical assistance to afghan refugees who fled the taliban in the wake of the u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan. finally, it will raise the debt

ceiling to december, 2022, including the $8 billion of debt that was incurred under president trump. now, this shouldn't even be a close call. a government shutdown, if we had one, would needlessly cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, billions of dollars throughout our country. it would throw hundreds of thousands of people out of work. a government default would be catastrophic. and that's all completely avoidable. yet, in the wake of the deadliest pandemic our country has seen in over 100 years, in the wake of natural disasters, they have left a trail of death and destruction. the republican leader and his party have decided to play a dangerous game of political brinksmanship. they have chosen -- and it was a

free choice on their part -- to withhold their votes and prevent this bill from even being debated, threatening to shut down the united states government, the united states government, and have it default on its debts for the first time in the history of our great country. i think that's the height of irresponsibility and callous callousness. it's also pretty hypocritical because who pays the price for this political brinksmanship? not the republican leadership careening us toward disaster, but the american people. the government shutdown has serious consequences for people just trying to make ends meet, support their families, live their lives.

important food and nutrition programs, snap and w.i.c., would dry up in a matter of days leaving millions of americans in the wealthiest nation on earth without the help they need to put food on the table. but also i look at our nation's schools that are struggling to reopen after a pandemic, assistance to those schools would be delayed. and then when i look at our public health response to the mental health and substance abuse crisis, that would be severely hampered. we cannot forget that we have an epidemic of drug overdoses in this country happening alongside the covid pandemic. and then the small business administration that provides so much assistance to our nation's small businesses and i believe believe -- i have said many times on this floor, small businesses are the backbone of

the american simply. they would be forced to close their door. more than half of the c.d.c. would be furloughed. just weeks after covid deaths passed a grim toll of the 1918 pandemic in our own country. and right before the start of the annual flu season. now, these are just a few examples of the needless pain a government shutdown would cause, and as painful as a government shutdown would be, the consequences of defaulting on our debt for the first time, first time in american history, that's even worse. when the government of the wealthiest country in the world would not have a place to operate, meet its obligations, pay its debts. the last time we even toyed with such an irresponsible idea, the credit rating of the united states government was downgraded

for the first time in history. and boy, that cost every american, directly or indirectly, money. it certainly hurt businesses all over our country. and if we were to default on our debts, then the women and men of the military would be handed i.o.u.'s in exchange for their bravery defending our country. social security checks that people have earned and rely on to survive, they would stop. the economy would take such a hit from which it would be hard to recover. the stock market would take a dive, and that would put millions of americans' lifetime savings at risk. all of this as we're still recovering economically from the last 18 months of a global pandemic. and for what? so republicans can make campaign commercials claiming they are the party of fiscal

responsibility and do that with a straight face? come on. while president trump was in office, u.s. debt increased by $8 trillion. $5.5 trillion alone since we last raised the debt ceiling under president trump, on that one because it was so important to the country, there was bipartisan support for it. republicans are responsible for a put to the wealthiest americans and that is partly to blame, but democrats still supported the trump administration that needed to raise the debt limit to account for the resulting bills because if we did otherwise, everybody in this country would be hurt. it would have been irresponsible. it would have been dangerous for the united states economy. and the argument made by my colleagues that republicans will not support raising the debt limit because they are not going to support the tax and spend

policies of the democrats, well, it's probably just as well that many people wear masks these days because it hides their smiles because that argument does not hold water. the bills they falsely claim to be socialist boogeymen have not even passed congress let alone been signed into law, and they're going to be fully paid for. but in 2017, my friend, the republican leader, chose not to take that path when the republicans passed a massive tax cut, massive tax cut for the wealthiest in this country, and that was not paid for. raising the debt limit is about meeting obligations our country has already made, and many of those obligations were made under president trump. so playing political games with so much on the line, that's as irresponsible as it is

irrational. the bill before us today provides a path out of this made-in-washington crisis, a path that could help all our country, and fund the government through december 3. it can raise the debt limit through december 22. it can provide relief to communities all over our country that have been devastated by natural disasters and provide assistance to the brave afghans who support our mission through two decades of war. we really have an off ramp from this crisis. i michigan my colleagues would take it. vote to advance this bill. stave off an unnecessary crisis. put the american people first ahead of party. actually, i think a pretty simple choice. i yield the floor.

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that senators cassidy, kennedy, and i be allowed to complete our remarks prior to the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so, madam president, the democratic leader has scheduled a vote today that he knows will fail. for more than two months, since july, republicans have been clear about where we stand. we're willing to work together to keep the government open. we're not willing to help democrats raise the the debt ceiling while they write a reckless taxing-and-spending spree behind closed doors.

democrats control the senate, the house, the white house. they intend to go it alone to slam american families with historic tax hikes and borrowing. so they will need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis as well. and they've known that for two months now. two months. just like then-senator biden and senator schumer voted no on a debt limit increase and made a unified republican government handle it alone back in the early 2000's. this has happened before. earlier this year senate democrats requested and won additional flexibility to make policy on party lines. they have every single tool they need to do their job. the democratic leader, the

speaker of the house, and the president of the united states have had ten weeks -- ten -- to plan for funding the government and addressing the debt limit. there never had to be one ounce of drama to any of this. any drama here is self-created by the democrats s. republicans continue to try to help our democratic friends avoid multiple new crises of their own making. on the debt limits, democrats have all the time and all the tools to do what they have to do and i've explained in detail how they need to proceed. because democrats ignored our warning back in july, they must amend their previous budget resolution with debt limit

instructions and proceed through the fast-track process. on the more urgent issue -- government funding -- senator shelby and i have a clean c.r. that could pass today. our bill tracks with bipartisan talks. it would keep the government open, fund disaster relief for louisiana, and fund defensive assistance for our ally israel and their iron dome, and it drops the debt limit language that democrats have known is a nonstarter for more than two months. the senate could advance this bill tonight if democrats will let us. we could take a bipartisan step tonight toward guaranteeing there will be no government shutdown. if the democratic leader lets us, the senate could advance government funding legislation with a big bipartisan vote yet

tonight. the house democratic majority leader has said they will take up whatever c.r. the senate sends them. the house is ready. senate republicans are ready. the only holdout is the senate democratic leader and his partisan tactics. so in just a moment i'll ask consent that democrats forget about the vote they know will fail and instead let the senate vote on a bill that can actually pass. it's up to the democrats. we can either move this legislation forward tonight or we can have a show vote which they know will fail and inch closer toward another crisis of their own making. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: i rise supporting my colleague's proposal. this proposal provides disaster supplemental assistance relief for southwest and southeast louisiana. it extends the national flood

insurance program. it funds the government, and it restores funding for israel's iron dome. we are three days away from government shutdown for one reason. democrats control washington. a clean vote on disaster relief and a continuing resolution to fund the government, legislation filed by senators mcconnell and shelby, passes today with overwhelming bipartisan support. we know that. but my democratic colleagues are holding this critical funding set not just to fund the government, but funding set to benefit victims of disasters in my state and elsewhere hostage to fund their planned tax-and-spend extravaganza. disaster victims need disaster relief. it's one month since hurricane ida, six months from unprecedented ice storms, six months since -- excuse me --

12 months since hurricanes laura and delta wreaked havoc on southwest louisiana. disaster assistance is long overdue. this bill gets it done. and while recovering from two years worth of storms, we can't allow the national flood insurance program to expire. many policyholders especially in louisiana are still recovering from hurricane damage. government shouldn't pull the rug of insurance from beneath them. it's critical the program is extended so homeowners are covered if there is another storm. this proposal extends an f.i.b. it also provides disaster relief. the proposal is good for louisiana, is good for the country. i urge my colleagues to support this proposal. with that, i yield. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. kennedy: thank you, madam president. i rise in support of senator

mcconnell's legislation. on august 27, 2020, just 13 months ago, hurricane laura hit louisiana. 45 days later hurricane delta hit louisiana. 19 days after that hurricane zeta hit louisiana. we got a little bit of a break -- four months. after that we were part of the historic winter storm about which we've all read. and then three months after that we had an historic rainfall event in louisiana, up to 12 inches, unrelated to a hurricane. three months after that hurricane ida hit louisiana. and two weeks later hurricane

nicholas hit louisiana. every one of these storms was over 100 miles per hour sustained winds. the wind for hurricane ida was clocked at its the highest at 185 miles per hour. if you add up all of the damages, madam president, it's about $150 billion in 13 months. now other states were impacted by these storms, but louisiana took it full in the face. this was as brutal a blow as nature has inflicted on an american state in modern history. we will be coughing up bones for years.

and this legislation is going to help us recover. in fact, this legislation does every single thing that my colleagues senator cassidy and senator mcconnell talked about that my democratic friends want to do. everything -- keeps government open, maintains flood insurance, gives disaster relief not just to louisiana but to my friends in the northeast part of our country, to my friends on the west coast. it does help my state, southwest, southeast, north louisiana, but we're not the only ones. senator mcconnell's legislation does everything except one thing. one thing -- increasing the debt ceiling. that senator schumer can do in a matter of days on his own. why are we fighting over this? you know, nature abhors a moron

it is moronic for us to be having this fight when it can be so easily solved. everything in senator mcconnell's legislation can easily pass this body with 70 votes, and we know it. and then senator schumer can come right behind by simply amending the budget resolution, and our problems are solved. nature abhors a moron. let's don't be moronic. i yield back to senator mcconnell. mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 137, h.r. 5305. i further ask that the first

amendment in order be the shelby-mcconnell amendment to the text of which is identical to calendar number 135, s. 2789, that there be two hours of debate equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, and upon the use or yielding back of that time the shelby-mcconnell amendment be agreed to. finally, upon disposition of the shelby-mcconnell amendment the bill as amended be read a third time and the senate vote on passage of the bill as amended with a 60-affirmative vote threshold required for passage. the presiding officer: is there objection? is. mr. leahy: reserving my right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: i've listened to this debate. i've heard my two dear friends from louisiana speak about the disaster recovery, and i

support disaster recovery for them, but i would just point out on the proposal of the republican leader, there would be no funds in the treasury to pay for disaster recovery or for writing a check to israel for an iron dome because it doesn't raise the debt limit. and the substitute offered by my friend -- and he is my dear friend -- the vice chairman of the appropriations committee, senator shelby, does not solve the problem in front of us. it doesn't address the looming debt crisis facing our nation. it ignores that that exists. perhaps my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to wash their hands of this. they can. much of that debt was incurred under a republican president and under a republican-controlled senate. and debt racked up by irresponsible tax cuts championed by the republican

party for the wealthiest of americans. and yet debt also occurred in a bipartisan fashion that dealed with multiple crises that faced the nation. disaster assistance in the wake of hurricanes and wildfires that come back every year. covid relief to keep this country from careening headfirst into economic disasters in the wake of a worldwide pandemic. historic levels of support and investment in our nation's military and our men and women in uniform. and to try to put this all to defeat president biden's build back better agenda, none passedl is not the law, it hasn't been passed. that's ridiculous. we're talking about debt we already incurred, not spending in the future. as my republican colleagues know, we expect to fully pay for those investments. they may not like how we're going to offset this, but

that's what the legislative process is for. at least we're willing to pay for the bills being incurred which is more than can be said for the republicans. when they pushed through a tax cut for the wealthy, it was not paid for. let's stop this political brinkmanship. let's secure the full faith and credit of the united states. let's pass the increase of the debt limit. to do otherwise puts our country and our economy at risk. the substitute also scales back the assistance to provide to afghan refugees. it was included in the house-passed bill. i was pleased we reached bipartisan and bicameral agreement at $6.3 billion in the house-passed bill for much-needed assistance for the grave afghans who supported our mission to two decades of war. it's our duty and our obligation to support them.

the substitute bill would shorten the the length of time we provide assistance to thousands of afghan women and men who fled to the u.s. to escape the wrath of the taliban. food, medical care, housing, basic things they need. the bill also eliminates their right to obtain a real i.d.-compliant u.s. driver's license. yet we want to go out and seek jobs. how are they going to do that if they can't drive? it shouldn't be a debate. i can give a dozen more reasons but i know people are waiting to vote. so i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 137, h.r. 5305, an act

making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2022, and for providing emergency assistance and for other purposes signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 5305, an act making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2021, and for providing emergency assistance and for other purposes shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 48, the nays are 50. three-fifths of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the

motion is not agreed to. mr. schumer: i enter a motion to reconsider the failed cloture vote. the presiding officer: the motion is entered. mr. schumer: now, mr. president, i want to make sure everyone understands exactly what has happened here on the senate floor. the republican party has now become the party of default, the party that says america doesn't pay its debts. our country is staring down the barrel of two totally republican-manufactured disasters -- a government shutdown and a first ever default on the national debt. the impacts of both would gravely harm every single american in this country. republicans would let the country default for the first time in history. a few moments ago the senate had an opportunity to begin solving these problems right away. democrats did their part and

voted yes, but senate republicans meanwhile voted to drive our country straight towards a government shutdown and the first default in our country's history. let me be clear, what the republicans in the senate did tonight is not normal. this isn't your typical washington fracas and it shouldn't be treated as such. it has far more severe consequences than the typical political cat fight. republicans know the consequences of their obstruction. they know a default would likely create a recession. they know that middle-class families will suffer immensely. they have heard the same warnings that we have. and by many calculations, the republican default will raise the deficit by more than the american rescue plan. and yet, republicans still obstructed tonight. it's one of the most reckless, one of the most irresponsible votes i have seen taking place in the senate, and it should

send a signal to every family, small business, market watcher about who in this chamber is in favor of endangering the economic stability of our country and who isn't. let me repeat, the republican party has solidified itself as the party of default, and it will be the american people who pay the price. social security checks, medicare benefits, veterans benefits, small business, all this and more are now on the chopping block because senate republicans are playing games with the full faith and credit of the united states. now, despite republican intransigence, this matter cannot be set aside for even a moment. before the vote, i changed my vote from yes to no in order to reserve the option of additional action on the house-passed legislation.

keeping the government open and preventing a default sl vital to our country's future and we'll be taking further action to prevent this from happening this week. now, mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 264. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: department of interior, robert t. anderson of washington to be solicitor. mr. schumer: i send a he cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the

nomination of executive calendar number 264, robert t. anderson of washington to be solicitor of the department of interior, signed by 18 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 159. the presiding officer: all in favor say aye. opposed nay. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of homeland security, jonathan eugene meyer of ohio to be general counsel. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to

bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar 159, jonathan eugene meyer to be general counsel, department of homeland security, signed by 18 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, september 27, be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those opposed say nay. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m., tuesday, september 28. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour 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 conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the donfried nomination with the time until 11:30 a.m. equally divided prior to a vote on the nomination. further, that following the disposition of the donfried nomination the senate resume consideration of the medina nomination and immediately recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for caucus meetings. finally, if nominations are confirmed on tuesday, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: for the information of senators, the first roll call on the confirmation of donfried nomination will be at 1 1:30 a.m. if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator sullivan. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: mr. president, i want to talk about transparency and i want to talk about the

need for transparency here for in the u.s. senate more than ever as the house and the senate are moving with breakneck speed to pass one of the biggest, most reckless spending social bills in u.s. history, over $3.5 trillion, a spending spree that will be the largest in a generation, which will include the largest tax hike that we've seen in peacetime and something that the majority leader himself has called the largest transformation in a generation. make no mistake, mr. president, this is trying to transform america. cradle to grave socialism, but don't take my word for it. here is the way "the new york times" described this $3.5 trillion spending bill from the house coming to the senate.

it's, quote, legislation that would touch virtually every american's life from conception to age and infirmity, from cradle to grave. that's "the new york times." in other words, the federal government will be involved in all facets of american life from birth to death. one of the biggest tax and spend programs certainly since president johnson's great society or president roosevelt's new deal. with that involvement of our government will come higher taxes, taxes on smaller businesses, taxes on the middle class and, yes, we believe our senate colleagues are planning a tax cut who live in the big cities known as the blue state bailout. chairman of the budget committee is crafting this bill, senator

sanders, who has called himself a proud socialist, is going to have tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires in this legislation. so, mr. president, one would think that a bill of this magnitude, this size, this transformational impact on every single american would be a bill that the united states senate, the so-called most deliberative body in the world, would actually hold one hearing on, just one, would actually hold a markup or two in the different committees. right now our democratic colleagues, with no explanation, are not planning on one hearing or one markup in any committee. none.

as i think anybody who knows anything about this body, they know that is unprecedented. the house, rushed, no doubt, they've already marked up this legislation. way too fast, but at least they allowed for amendments. at least they debated it. when republicans controlled the congress in 2017 with regard to the 2017 tax and jobs act, tax cut and jobs act, which went through reconciliation, we held numerous hearings in the senate committees, we had markups, we debated amendments, but this bill, $3.5 trillion, right now our colleagues aren't going to do any of that. of course the media has given them a free pass. nothing. the most deliberative body in the world, the transformational

bill of a generation, the green new deal and all the other socialist ideas, and we're not going to have one hearing, we're not going to have one markup in one committee. what's going on? well, i'd love it if the majority leader or any other senate democrat would come to the floor and say, why -- why aren't we doing that? no transparency. so, mr. president, i have a theory because we're not going to hear from the majority leader or any of my other colleagues. i'd love to hear from them. come on down, explain why we're not having one hearing on the biggest bill in a generation, $3.5 trillion. here's my theory. there's several reasons why they don't want the public to see a hearing or a markup relating to this bill. first and foremost they don't want to have to defend what's in

it. they don't want the public who is seeing skyrocketing prices at the pump, at the grocery store, seeing all the increases and prices across our country to see the specifics of al bill that's clearly going to supercharge more inflation. they don't want to have to defend a bill that will have the largest tax increase in american history. they don't want to have to defend a bill or show the american people tax rates on small businesses that will be bigger than anything in the european union or in communist china. or hundreds of billions to bail out health insurers or $200 billion for the speaker's pet project, or the tax credit for universities, whatever the heck that is.

or how about $100 billion for amnesty for illegal immigrants. they don't want to have to defend that. they don't want to have to debate that. these are a few core elements of the bill as we know it. as i mentioned there is the tax cut for millionaires and billionaires in big cities and they don't want to have to talk about the debt ceiling that my colleagues are trying to raise so they can continue their trillions of dollars of reckless spending. the majority leader just mentioned that. he doesn't mention what's in the bill. won't have hearings about what's in the bill. won't have markups for the american people to see. and on the debt ceiling, you know, just last month, mr. president, 45 of my senate republican colleagues and i signed a letter putting our colleagues on the other side of the aisle on notice that we will not vote to increase the debt limit if they continue down this

reckless path. and the reason is simple. my democratic colleagues are content to go it alone and pass their irresponsible $3.5 trillion socialist spending spree with no hearings, no markups, no nothing, just democratic hearing, which is all we had. again, when we went through our budget reconciliation, we took amendments, debated them and voted on them. they are not doing that. if they are doing this solely by themselves with no transparency, then our democratic friends should be solely responsible for raising the debt ceiling to accommodate it. they control all branches of government, the majority leader clearly knows they could fix that right now. they are creating their own crisis and they can solve it. so once again, this $3.5 trillion bill is being rushed. what's another reason? i think they are getting a

little nervous that if you had a markup say in the budget committee, you would see the author of the bill, the chairman of the budget committee is promoting a socialist aced jenda that is he -- agenda that he is proud of because he's an avowed socialist. i'm not trying to insult anyone. this is what he calls himself. so i think my democratic colleagues get a little nervous that a bill authored by a socialist in the senate would have to be defended. but, again, no hearings, no markup, and i know, mr. president, a lot of my democratic colleagues are uncomfortable with this. they are uncomfortable with the bill. they are uncomfortable with the lack of transparency. but they are not calling for transparency. they are saying, let's just move this as quickly as possible so nobody in america can see it.

so far they are being successful. but i think need to put this into context. here's a piece from the "wall street journal" from last week, mr. president, where we talked about putting this rush job on the reckless spending bill from the majority leader and the speaker of the house in historic context. it said, quote, f.d.r.'s new deal program was passed incrementally over two presidential terms with overwhelming democrat majorities. democrats created the great society over two years with supermajorities under president johnson. obamacare was hashed out over nine months before democrats enacted it into law with 56 votes in the senate. the 2017 g.o.p. tax reform bill, as i just mentioned, was debated for months and its principles

for years, before congress voted and marked it up. now with nearly 50 democrats in the senate, 50-50 here, a five-member house majority, democrats are planning to rush through the biggest tax and spending increase in half a century without one hearing in the u.s. senate. without one markup in any committee. there's no mandate for this. but for most of my colleagues, the quicker, the better to move on. don't lack, america -- don't look, america. don't look that the author of this bill is actually a socialist because of socialism. now, mr. president, this rush job is not good for the american people so here's a better idea and it comes from a senate democrat. my colleague, senator manchin, a

couple of weeks ago he very wisely called for a, quote, strategic pause. in an op-ed in the "wall street journal," he said there's another reason for a strategic pause. i'm quoting senator manchin. quote, we must allow for a complete reporting and analysis of the implications a multitrillion-dollar bill will have for this generation and the next. such a strategic pause will allow every member of congress to use the transparent committee process to debate what should we fund and what can we simply not afford? that's senator manchin. his op-ed also said, amid inflation that we're seeing, inflation that we're seeing, in the window probably

largely hauling your body will usually actually have massive increases in taxes, the vast

expansion of xiements, the -- entitlements, the cradle to grave socialism that democrats are planning for each american individual's life. the american people deserve this. my constituents back home in alaska certainly would welcome such a debate, but the american people deserve this. why are my colleagues afraid to debate and have hearings and a markup on this massive legislation? it's the american people's money, after all, that will pay for this transformational socialist bill and it's their lives that will be impacted and upended if this reckless, rushed bill becomes law. so let's do this. let's hit a strategic pause as senator manchin asked for, let's pry this bill open, hold hearings and lay out our visions for our country. let's have a debate, more taxes

or freedom? socialism versus market capitalism. do we want a fundamental transformation as the majority leader and the budget chairman have asked for or do we want commonsense legislation that helps working men and women in our country achieve their dreams? i'm hopeful that the majority leader will tbree with senator -- agree with senator manchin and do what's right for the american people, hit a pause, hold hearings, hold markups before he makes a mockery of the phrase the world's most deliberative body. which he is now trying to do with this rushed and reckless spending bill. madam president, i ask that my following comments be separated in the congressional record from my previous comments. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: madam president,

the tragic story of 22-year-old gabby petito whose body was found at the grand titon park has captured our nation. we pray for her parents and loved one and we hope that they soon will receive justice. as we watch the story unfold, we emphasize with her family. and her friends and we mourn with them and we think about how this horrible crime hurts all of them. their neighbors, their fellow citizens, the result of such a brutal murder. we think of our daughters and the daughters of others, all of our nation's daughters and all of this, madam president,

reminds some of us of another terrible tragedy in america and it's this. native and indigenous women in america are murdered and sexually assaulted at rates as high as ten times the national average. think about that. horrendous. the center for disease and control and prevention has reported that murder is the third leading cause of death among american indian and alaskan native women. however, this issue rarely if ever receives much coverage or awareness. but awareness often results in additional resources, something that is unfortunately been lacking in our criminal justice system on this issue, the issue of missing and murdered

indigenous women. according to the f.b.i.'s national crime information center, there are roughly 1,500 unsolved cases of missing and murdered indigenous women in america, 1,500. alaska has about 300 of these unsolved cases, and experts think there are many more such cases that don't make it into the federal database. there has been some progress under the previous administration, the assistant secretary of interior taris sweeney for indian affairs who did such a great job began an initiative throughout the federal government called operation lady justice. the whole point of which was to bring light to this horrible issue of missing and murdered

indigenous women and bring justice and hope and closure to their families. operation lady justice, the task force has opened up numerous offices across america, including one in alaska. and last year we in a bipartisan way here in the senate passed savanna's act and not invisible act to address the crisis of missing, murdered, and trafficked indigenous women in our country. progress is being made but we need to continue to keep this issue front and center. so as we pray for the family of gabby pe petito, we also offer r thoughts and prayers with the families of these missing and murdered indigenous americans

and commit to continue to focus on all of these issues to make our country a better place. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m.