republican colleagues to stoke fear about the migration we're seeing at the southern border rather than work collaboratively with us to address the issue and their stated concern. for a decade now we have seen increasing arrivals at the southern border of families and unaccompanied children, many who are fleeing horrific conditions in their home country such as gang violence, drug trafficking, corruption, a global health pandemic and the devastating effects of climate change if not a multitude of these dangers. it is unsafe for many of them to remain in their countries and so they make the arduous journey to the united states to seek asylum. and heaven forbid a better

future. asylum seekers aren't just seeking a better life, they are simply trying to not die. or to not be killed. yet, too many policymakers act like as -- like asylum seekers are choosing to come here. given the hor i-cxfing conditions in their home countries, it's no choice at all. i'm deeply disappointed to see republicans in the house and senate distorting these desperate young children and families at the border into some sort of threat to our nation. responsibly addressing migration requires going beyond partisan finger pointing. we must instead thoughtfully address the root causes of migration and reform our border to ensure an orderly, secure, and well-managed process that

treats migrants fairly and humanely. i've been frustrated that despite numerous, and i mean numerous, bipartisan meetings on immigration reform, our republican colleagues seem more interested in scoring political points rairn pursuing meaningful solutions. they simply refuse to truly engage. so, this bill, this bill would create onerous, repetitive and unnecessary reporting and investigative requirements for the inspector general of the department of homeland security and require the inspector general to report on these items every 60 days for the foreseeable future. not to mention that many of the requirements in the bill are frivolous, irrelevant, or duplicative. for example, the bill would require the department of

homeland security to report on the number of migrants resettled when d.h.s. isn't even the agency that handles resettlement of migrants. and d.h.s. already has a office of immigration statistics that does report on many of the same statistics that this bill would now require the inspector general to report on. finally, much of the rhetoric from my colleagues has centered around the large increase in the number of encounters at the border. let me emphasize the word encounter at the border. however these numbers ignore the large rates of resid vism -- recidivism that we're seeing. the ongoing use of entitle 42 to block and expel asylum seekers at the southerner border has led to a increase in the number of people crossing the border more than once. under title 42 single adults are

rapidly processed at the border and sent right back to mexico without a deportation order. but this arrangement has in essence, what it has in essence don is incentivized repeated attempted crossings. according to the migration policy institute, the residivism rate is between 28 and 38%. so this entercounter statistic that is being called for is actually misleading. mr. prp, i am more than -- mr. president, i am more than willing to work with my colleague here to try to develop actual solutions to address migration at our border. but when i say solutions, i mean real solutions. solutions that recognize the fundamental humanity of the desperate children and families that simply want to live to see their next birthday. solutions that stay true to the values of our nation.

so, mr. president, yes, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. >> mr. scott: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. >> mr. scott: mr. president, the crisis at the united states southern border is raging out of control. last week, i traveled to the southern border to hear from local leaders. law enforcement and our braift boston barb border patrol agents at yuma, arizona of i saw the border at night and daylight hours with the homeland security director tim roma, leon county sheriff, and county supervisor jonathan lie lions. i spoke with border patrol from arizona and heard from them how hard this job has become thanks to joe biden's radical open-border policies. these men and women that work at border patrol are absolutely heroes. in yuma, border patrol agents are encountering illegal immigrants every day, some are dangerous criminals, traffickers, drug cartel

members, or even terrorists. others are families, victimized by the cartels. i encountered a family from haiti while there, watching them cross the border through a massive hole in the wall caused by joe biden's decision not to complete the already paid for wall. not to complete an already paid for wall. these families are victims of the cartels. once in america, many of them live a life of endangered servitude and debilitating dead in which they -- debt in which they have to send all the money back to the savage cartels. many of the children are trafficked. made to pose as children of people they don't know. and we know that so many women and children who make this jurnry are brutally -- journey are brutally victimized and raped. still, the cartel pushes the families across the border. it's all money to them. joe biden's actions is making the cartel richer. i saw it firsthand last week. dozens of migrants crossing into our country right in front of me

while i was in yuma. we can see the savage coyoteys watching from across the river. that's what the border patrol is up against each and every day. there are about 200 border patrol agents across the entire yuma sector, about you that same area saw more than 700 illegal crossings every day. it's sad how many democratic colleagues don't giver these brave agents the respect they deserve. and they certainly are not getting it from the white house. so i want to be clear. here on the floor of the united states senate, in america, we respect our border patrol, we respect law enforcement. and we are incredibly thankful for their hard work and their bravery. this is not my first time visiting the border since being elected to the senate, but definitely the worst i've ever seen it. secretary mayorkas testified in the homeland security committee that the border is closed. he said the border is closed. he's the only person in america that maybe is going to say that. no one in this country believes

the border is closed. it's clearly not. i saw with my own eyes and many of the members of this chamber have seen it also. secretary mayorkas has repeatedly lied to me and other members and must resign now. just this fiscal year there have been 1.7 million illegal border crossings. that's the highest ever on record. that means by the end of this year, about one out of every 150 people in this country at the end of this year will have come here illegally this year. in florida, we are an an great gration state and we very proud of it. we love immigration. it's helped build our state. but it has to be legal. illegal immigration threatens our safety, undermines our legal process, and hurts those who are waiting to come here through legal channels. but under biden's system of open borders and illegal immigration, we're seeing dangerous individuals trying to come too that country. of the 1.7 million people

apprehended, which doesn't include the getaways, we know that more than 10,000 have criminal records. if you're going to be apprehended and taken care of, if you're not going to be apprehended you try to get away, are you probably more inclined to have some past record that you don't want border patrol or law enforcement to know about? 10,000 of the ones apprehended have prior criminal records. nearly 1200 have prior convictions of assault or domestic violence. 2100 have prior drug convictions. 500 have prior sexual abuse offenses. the biden administration can't even tell us where they are. they can't tell us where any of these individuals are, anything what's happened to them, with they're being held, if they've been deported. nothing. i want to be clear. these are dangerous criminals who can harm our families, american families, and even one is too many. along with those border crossings our border patrol agents have seized more than

11,000 pounds of fentanyl in the last year. 11,000 pounds. that's four times as much as confiscated in 2019. now, let's think about this. two milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose. two milligrams. one pound is enough to kill nearly a quarter of a million people. if you do the math just the amount the border patrol has confiscated this year is enough to kill 2.5 billion people. 100,000 americans died of drug overdoses this year. 100,000 americans are dead because of drug overdoses just this year. that's one out of every 3,000 americans. it's hitting florida and every community across this country. floridians like everyone in this country wants to live in safe communities where that are families can thrive and prosper. with is joe biden? he's missing, hiding from the crisis he created. i heard him say recently that he

hadn't had time ■toget toth border. he didn't have time to get to the border. i hope he enjoyed his vacation in nantucket last week and had plenty of ice cream. what makes you even more angry is that while drugs and illegal immigrants are flowing in, secretary mayorkas has the audacity to come to the homeland security committee and tell us the border is closed when it clearly is not. it's shameful and secretary mayorkas should resign. but simply holding mayorkas accountable isn't going to solve this crisis. we need to do more to make sure laws are being upheld. this crisis and the administration's refusal to do anything about it is why i've introduced the upholding the law at our border act. this simple bill would require the inspector general of the department of homeland security to investigate the vetting and processing of migrants apprehended along the southwest border, ensure that all laws are being upheld. it's a simple question that this inspector general can and should answer: is the biden

administration following all the laws with respect to immigration at the u.s.-mexico border? my colleague said he wanted to change the immigration laws. in the meantime, you enforce the laws. when i was governor of florida, i had to enforce all the laws, whether i liked them or not. that's exactly what border patrol should be doing right now and the biden administration should do right now. it's the kind of question everyone in this body should be interested in: is the executive branch doing their job, following and enforcing the laws that the legislative branch passed? when the executive branch doesn't enforce those laws, they should be held accountable. this was a simple bill to find out if the department of homeland security is following all the laws. it's pretty simple. follow all the laws in place as relates to immigration and custom enforcement on our southern border. yet my colleague objected to find just this basic information. there's clearly a crisis on the border, and we all know it.

instead of ensuring that the laws of this body, that this body passed, are being enforced to do something about the influx of drugs killing american citizens and traffickers into this country, my colleague wants to hear nothing about it. 100,000 americans died of overdoses this last year. every person that dies of a overdroas impacts a family. it seems democrats in washington would rather stick their heads in the sapped and pretend nothing is wrong. i want to ask my democrat colleagues how do you explain 100,000 life lost to drug overdoses to a parent who just lost a son or daughter? who you do you explain biden's decision to open the border to the great border patrol agents? our border patrol agents have no idea why the decisions are being made that they are. i wonder if any of my. ic colleagues have talked to a family who lost a son or daughter to fentanyl overdose or member of border patrol recently. or do they have to follow the lead of the open borders biden and never object to what biden

wants and ignore laws and law enforcement. we've seen that biden's position has been a total disaster for nation. he laid out the welcome mas for traffickers and cartel members and ignored u.s. laws to keep american families safe. keep american families safe, including fully enforcing title xlii. it's clear we need help. every day that joe biden and secretary mayorkas fail to provide it, they fail the american people. secretary mayorkas doesn't work for joe biden. he works for the american people. and he needs to do his job and secure this border. it's a shameful decision to forsake the responsibility to the american public that they've entrusted to members of this body and to the executive branch. enforce the law. it's a decision to stand against our border patrol agents and law enforcement who are putting their lives on the line, on the line every day to keep dangerous drugs and violent criminals from ending this country. that's their job, and they need

help doing it. we can't let this stand any longer, because the american people deserve better than 100,000 people this last year dying of drug overdoses. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida.

>> mr. scott: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent to speak as if in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, today abortion rights are hanging in the balance at the supreme court and the threat to roe is very real.

why? because for decades extreme republicans have attacked abortion rights from every an angle, and they are continuing their nonstop efforts to build a country where patients are forced to remain pregnant and carry their pregnancies to term against their will. but i want to make it clear. that is absolutely unacceptable because the majority of americans don't agree with extreme republicans. the majority of americans want a country where everyone can choose if and when to start a family, free from political interference. so i will not sit silently while republicans try to end the abortion rights affirmed by roe v. wade. no matter what happens, i will never strap fighting for reproductive rights and that starts by passing the women's health protect act to ensure the right to abortion is finally protected at the federal level.

but that's not all. i'm also fighting for working families across the country who are struggling to balance care giving and work and who are counting on us to deliver because we cannot build an economy that works for everyone if new parents can't take the time they need to welcome a new child or if workers can't get paid leave when they or a loved one are seriously ill. he can't rebuild our communities when seniors and people with disabilities are not able to access the services and support they need to live in their homes and in their own communities. and we simply cannot put our economy back on track and can't get people back to work, we can't return from this crisis stronger and fairer if we don't at long last address our nation's child care crisis. for parents across the country, child care is unaffordable, unavailable, and absolutely

essential. child care costs more today than many families pay for rent or mortgage or even college tuition. but even for those who cannot i forward it, many can't even find it. nearly half of families nationwide, including 60% of our rural families, don't have enough child care providers in their communities. and as any parent knows, you can't go to work if you don't have any options to make sure your kids are taken care of. that's exactly what we saw before this pandemic when data showed two million parents with kids under five had to quit a job, turn down a job, or change their job due to child care challenges. and we've seen that dynamic kicked into high gear during this pandemic. and as too often the case, black women, latinos, women who are paid low incomes, and single mothers have been the most

affected. while the pandemic's underscored how essential child care is for families, it also made child care harder to get by by forcing many providers to close their doors. 20,000 child care providers closed during this pandemic. and the child care workers hurt by those closures were mostly women and in particular, women of color. and even as child care providers tried to reopen their doors now, child care workers are struggling to make ends meet. the result of all this is clear in headlines across the country. watch king 5 in my home state of washington. closures in washington's child care industry could hinder economic recovery. unquote. read the herald. quote, 13% of child care providers in washington state have closed because of the pandemic. unquote. take a look at minority west. quote, washington's child care crisis poised to get even

bleaker postpandemic. and across the country, it's the same story in paper after paper. next quote, staffing crisis at pennsylvania child care centers is disrupting families and slowing economic recovery. the jamestown sun, quote, child care shortage and workforce issues in north dakota. business insider, quote, child care deserts are a secret driver of the labor shortage and half of americans live in one. i could go on and on, but the takeaway should be pretty clear. addressing the child care crisis is a necessity, not just for families but for everyone. we have employers who can't find workers. we have parents who can't go back to work without quality, affordable child care. we have child care providers who are struggling to stay open and child care workers who are struggling to make ends meet.

fixing this is make or break for our economy. that's why build back better includes historic investments to lower families' child care costs, to help states invest in opening new child care providers, raising wages for early childhood workforce, and adding more child care openings. under build back better, working families in the country will see their child care costs capped at 7% of their income starting with those who need it the most. so what does that mean? it means in the very first year, two-thirds of our working families in this country, about 13 million children, could be eligible to get child care at a lower cost. it means by the fourth year, nine in ten working families could be eligible to send their child to a provider they choose and see their child care costs cut by thousands of dollars each year. for a single mother with three

children in my home state of washington making $53,000, it would mean paying nothing for child care. for our country, it would mean we have a stronger, fairer economy that works for working family with higher wages and better jobs and less stress for working parents, especially moms who've been doing so much throughout this pandemic -- and before. and, importantly, all this will be fully paid for by making sure the wealthiest and those at the very top finally pay their fair share. everyone republican who has said that they are worried about the workforce crisis, worried about the challenge of rebuilding our economy, worried about how families are struggling to get by should be clamoring to get this done. it's telling about their priorities that instead they are now smearing it with false bad-faith attacks pretending it somehow not paid for. not true. pretending it would cover certain child care providers.

not true. mr. president, i have heard from so many parents in my state about how important child care is. i've heard from small businesses about how important this is, and i know my colleagues across the country have heard it, too. so we are going to show families we are listening. we're going to show families that we care. democrats are going to pass build back better and get this done. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. a senator: i ask the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i come to the floor and join my colleague from washington to support a woman's right to choose and to make sure that we are making our voices heard loud and clear about the discussion that's happening before the supreme court and why it's so important to have the full reproductive health care choices for women in the united states of america. in 1973, the supreme court decided the constitution protects a woman's right to privacy and, thus, the right to have a safe and legal abortion

without excessive government restrictions. and so now that these cases are before the court, it's important for our colleagues to know that the majority of americans support roe v. wade. in my state in 1970, the people voted to legalize early abortions, and in 1991 by a vote of the people in an initiative process we supported that, quote, that every individual possesses an individual right of privacy with respect to personal reproductive decisions codifying roe v. wade in state law. that was in 1991. so it is concerning to people of the state of washington to hear now that these other states, once coming here to talk about just certain restrictions, are now coming to talk about overturning roe v. wade. women should be allowed to have these fundamental rights dependent not where they live but to make sure that they have

access, and my colleague from washington just expressed why it's so important for women and families to have access to those full reproductive rights. women across the country for 50 years have come to rely on these constitutional protections, to make decisions for themselves about their reproduction, their families, and their bodies. that is why it's important to realize that roe is based on our privacy protections in the constitution. the justices wisely understood that, that a woman's right to choose was about privacy, a personal issue, a medical choice, one in which the state had very limited roles subject to the highest standards and scrutiny of the court. but some of my colleagues believe that it is their choice to make. they believe they should decide for all women. they believe that they should not make the decision for just themselves but for other people and for other people's family

when to have a child. i know that in mississippi, legislators have decided that rather than viability after 15 weeks, the state should take the choice away from women. in texas, the legislature decided that the choice should be taken away at six weeks, typically long before a woman might know she is pregnant. why are these people who claim that they should be making decisions for women across the country now supporting efforts to take away these important rights? the court in casey said, quote, the proper focus of constitutional inquiry is the group for whom the law is the restriction, not the group for whom the law is irrelevant. but let's look at what happened in mississippi. in 2018 mississippi enacted a state law which banned abortion after 15 weeks. notably, there's no exception for rape or incest and no exception for the health of the mother.

there -- that is, that -- they say that that is their government's choice. well, i ask them,where is the right of the mother and the individual? where is the right for that family to ask about the life of the mother? to quote an amicus brief to the court on behalf of over 500 public health professionals, quote, any ban on pre-viability abortions such as mississippi carries major public health implications because it forces a woman to carry pregnancies to term under adverse circumstances marked by substantially greater increases to their health and that of their families. any ban -- continuing to read from the quote. any ban will disproportionately affect young women, women of color, low-income women, and communities who are already vulnerable to elevated health and social risks and reduce

access to necessary health care, end quote. this is what we're talking about -- a woman's right to choose. her family's right to choose. and people want to see these rights eroded. i think that these are public health concerns that we all should be concerned about. i think we should be concerned that the legislature wanted to change these laws. in 2018 some in the state legislature may have just had the objective of narrowly undermining roe, but now -- now -- they recently are changing their position and are asking that roe v. wade be overturned. so all of these are important decisions. as the casey court held, overruling precedent would come, quote, at a cost of profound and unnecessary damage. i couldn't agree more.

because of roe and casey, abortions are safe and are available. women are in control of their bodies. families can plan. these are important issues for every woman in america. these are their choices. this decision -- a very difficult decision -- can be theirs and theirs alone, and that is why it is a matter of choice. so i hope our colleagues will be paying close attention to what is happening at the supreme court. i guarantee you the people of the state of washington are, who as i said codified roe v. wade into statute by a vote of the people. the majority of americans support roe v. wade, and this is now a law that people are trying to overturn and overturn our privacy constitutional rights. i thank the president, and i yield the floor. and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

you that. mr. casey: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: i rise to speak about critically important legislation for the country. the name of this legislative proposal, which many people know has passed the house of representatives, is the build back better act which will lower costs for families in ways that i have never seen in the time i have been in the senate. it will cut taxes for families with children especially, but

for other families as well. i want to start today by talking about a pennsylvanian because i think sometimes the only way we can make sense of some of the policy that we're talking about is to talk about it in terms of its impact on individual americans and in this case my -- my case, individual pennsylvanians. this is about a mom and her son from a town in southeastern pennsylvania, not far from the great city of philadelphia. this is cole. he was born with -- mighto con con -- mitocondrial disease. he faces challenges every day. because of his condition,

victoria receives help from nurses day and night. here is what she says about the impact of those nurses on cole. she said those nurses, quote, are the keystone of our lives, unquote. she said that the nurses have, quote, become family. that's what these nurses mean to these families every day. now, in the case of victoria and cole and their family, home and community-based services allow cole to remain an active part of his community and to stay at home -- to stay at home where he belongs, certainly where victoria, as any mom, would want him to stay. so she's able to have cole at home instead of being at a place far from their home. these services keep their family together and strengthen their bonds, the bonds between a

mother and her son and the bonds between and among other family members. at its core, build back better is about helping families, but in a particular way, build back better is about care giving and whether or not we're going to meet our obligations to invest in care giving in ways we've talked about a long time here in washington but have never done. for far too long, our nation has viewed care giving as a personal problem for each family to solve on their own. madam president, care giving is an economic issue. it's not just an issue for one family to solve. it's an economic issue that affects all of us. and if care giving -- if quality care giving isn't provided to one family we're all diminished by that failure and that's why

build back better provides such an opportunity, such a bright opportunity to provide better care giving. so care giving is an economic issue and it's also a workforce issue. this is one of the problems that stands in the way -- a real impediment to getting people back to work, especially in the grip of, and we hope soon, in the aftermath of the pandemic. so care giving is about getting people back to work and care giving is about preparing -- care giving is about the workforce of the future. we know that the pandemic, as horrible as it's been, all of the death, all of the suffering, all of the suffering endured by families, either suffering by way of death or disease or suffering by way of job loss or loss of a small business, with all of that horror, a spotlight was put on some problems that,

frankly, a lot of people knew about before and we all may have pointed to or talked about, but the spotlight finally was imposed upon so many challenges. and the spotlight on the nation's care giving crisis was one of the most pronounced spotlights that we saw in the whole pandemic. american workers, but women in particular are leaving the workforce, and this is not out of choice, it's because they cannot find quality, affordable child care or they can't find quality care for an aging parent or even the option of getting quality care for a parent, a loved one in a home or community-based setting. many parents can't find the care they need for a child with a disability. many families don't have the same opportunities that -- that

victoria and other moms have boafted from. -- benefited from. now, i'm the first one to say that it was a great breakthrough when we got the infrastructure legislation passed. i could rattle off all of the -- examples of how it could help pennsylvania. build back better is one, but we're going to be able to repair a lot of bridges in our state. that's a good thing. we're going to have a lot of money to do that. but for some families, for some pennsylvanians, that bridge won't just be a physical bridge for that person to physically get to work, for other people that bridge to work will be quality affordable child care. and too often, because of where we are in america today, it's not their bridge to work, it's

her bridge to work. her bridge to work will literally be quality affordable child care, the physical bridge won't be enough. she will need, her family is going to need, for her to go back to work, quality affordable child care and too many families don't have that today. her bridge to work might be making sure or having the peace of mind to know that there's someone home with her mom providing quality care in her mom's home or in another setting. her bridge to work might be care for a son or a daughter who has a disability or might have multiple disabilities. that's the peace of mind that every mother should have, every parent who is trying to get to work every day, the peace of mind that we can provide by making the right investments. so their bridge to work and her bridge to work is care giving

and so much else. we also know that we can, in the midst of debating legislation about getting people back to work and lowering costs for families and, frankly, cutting taxes for families raising children, we can lift up the workforce. the workforce that's paid just $12 an hour, doing work for all these people we claim to care about, every politician that any one of us know, every -- every leading policy advocate will talk about how much we have to care for children, how much we have to invest in better care giving for seniors and people with disabilities. but then there's no action, or hasn't been action, until this legislation to lift up the pay of the people who are providing that care. if we really care about those

people, we'll lift the pay of those taking care of them. you have to ask yourself in america, who is taking care of the caregiver? we're not taking care of caregivers if they are making $12 an hour to do the most difficult, heroic and always essential work. so we can do that as part of this legislation. let me go to some numbers because i think these are relevant. the numbers that i'm talking about are waiting lists. you've got people on waiting lists who are technically eligible for home and community-based services, but they are waiting. they are not waiting days or weeks or months. many of them are waiting years on a waiting list. the latest number we saw, and i think this ising a big under -- this is a big understatement or undercount, but i will go with the latest number we have,

820,000 americans older americans and people with disabilities are on waiting lists. they are on waiting lists for that section of medicaid, they are waiting for a waiver from their state to have the benefit that medicaid would provide. now, if they were going to a nursing home, they wouldn't have to wait for any waiver. they would be granted that opportunity to have care in a nursing home. and a lot of families choose that and there's great care in those settings. but we should have a similar policy in place, and we don't, but we will, i hope by the end of december, that allows -- that doesn't have that -- that waiver -- i'll just say impediment or that step that -- that these families are waiting for. so here's some of the numbers across the country.

you can see pennsylvania there, about 1,600 on the waiting list. that's a big number. but here's some bigger numbers. i've got three for you. just three states tell a big part of the story. florida, louisiana, and texas. florida, they are waiting -- their waiting list is 70,000 people, 70,000 seniors and people with disabilities, louisiana 65,000 people waiting, texas 385,000 people. they make up, obviously, the largest share of that 820,000-person waiting list. so you've got three states that -- just three states, those three, that comprise two-thirds of the waiting list in the united states of america. those three states have something else in common. they are not just three states with big waiting lists, texas,

louisiana, and florida, but they are three states represented by republican senators, six to be exact, two in each state, as we know. republican senators represent these hundreds of thousands of americans who are waiting for care. so i hope -- i hope when it comes time for voting, because that's how you demonstrate what you're for here around here, it's great to give speeches, but voting is important, hi hope when voting starts on build back better the republican senators from louisiana, texas, and florida will vote in support of this legislation. the more important thing is they are voting to support those seniors and people with disabilities in their state on waiting lists. so we've got some work to do when it comes to persuading some of our colleagues, who, to date,

we have no one on the record saying they are even willing to consider this legislation. we'll see. there's still some time. still a couple of weeks for consideration. i mentioned the home -- home care workers are making $12 an hour. these essential workers that i spoke of earlier, mostly women of color, doing this back-breaking, heroic, essential work. they are long overduor a raise. so -- overdue for a raise. we have some work to do to bring it to the attention of the american people. i want to tell one final story and then we'll move to some of our colleagues who joining us here today. this story is particularly meaningful for me because i just happen to be with in this case brandon and lynn and the person on the left side of this picture is the president of the united states. he just happened to be in his --

his hometown of scranton, pennsylvania, where i still live. and we were talking about all of these issues under -- under the broad heading of either infrastructure or the build back better legislation, all the benefits that would come from passing these bills. and at the time there were individuals that were filing -- lined up in this -- in this old train station in scranton greeting the president. in many cases telling the president about their own families, their own struggles, their own challenges and how build back better would help them. and at the very end of this long line, brandon, right here sitting in a wheelchair, came -- came right next to the president and then lynn, his caregiver, was right behind him. brandon kingsmore and lin widen -- lynn wyden is his

caregiver. we talked about issues of zoom calls and other ways of getting the message out. but i knew that the president had not met brandon and i knew he had not met lynn and i knew he had not heard their story. bras it is a story of -- because it is story of two people, a caregiver and a beneficiary of that caregiving, that hereoic work. so, i knew that the event was about to end, and i knew that it would be wonderful for the president to greet brandon and say hello, but sometimes at these things there's a greeting and exchange of conversation, and then people have to move on. so just before the end of our greetings, of people coming through the line, i leaned over to brandon, because i knew his story, and i said, brandon,

before we go, we're literally ready to head out the door, i said please tell the president what you told me about what lynn means you to. what her caregiving means to you. that's what it says right there. he was talking about the importance of the caregiving that lynn provides to him. and i quoted him on the poster right here. i would not be able to live the life i have, and then he broadened it to all caregivers later on in his discussion with the president. he said they, meaning caregivers, they give us a substantial life, unquote. a substantial life. i think brandon's words more than any long speech reminds us of our obligations. if we care about people with disabilities, truly care, if we care about seniors, if we care about those workers like lynn

and tens of thousands of them across the country, we will pass this legislation. because we can help all three, and even a lot of other americans. we can help seniors have opportunities to get care in their home. we can help people with disabilities get the care they need, either in their home or in a community setting. and we can help the workers, to lift them up, to invest in them, because we claim to value them by our statements, year after year, decade after decade. we have an opportunity with this legislation to give meaning and integrity to what brandon said to the president of the united states. the president of the united states has met a lot of people in his time as a united states senator from delaware, as vice president, and now as president. all of us know when the words

spoken by one person in a setting like this has an impact on someone, and i knew brandon's words had an impact on president biden that day. and those words should be ringing in our ears, that these caregivers give someone like brandon kingsmore, in this case it's lynn who gives him this, a substantial life. that's a great american idea, that we're going to advance policy that's consistent with the values we claim to hold as americans, that we really care about seniors, we really care about people with disabilities, and we really care about those who are providing that care. so, we'll have more time a little later to cover some other topics, but i wanted to, if the senator from maine is prepared to speak. we'll come back to him, because

we have some other colleagues who are going to be here later. i wanted to tell another story, about another pennsylvanian, theo bratty. theo is another person i met because we were talking about these policies back home and we had a lot of zoom calls, and i hadn't heard theo's story until, i guess the first time was in 2020. and one of the points we've tried to make in this whole debate about quality, affordable childcare, care for seniors and people with disabilities, a whole range of caregiving issues we're trying to address, and policies we're trying to advance, one of the refrains that so many of the advocates who have been traveling the country and knocking on doors and making the argument all across the country about why caregiving is important, they have been saying over and over

again that care can't wait, that there should be an urgency to providing better caregiving. so care can't wait is a pretty good way of expressing it. and when i think of theo, i think of that phrase, care can't wait, because theo has a story that a lot of families can identify with. he's now a resident of south central pennsylvania, harrisburg, pennsylvania, our state capital, and he came before our aging committee back in june. and i heard his story then, and i've heard it more than once since then. theo was injured in a football game in the late 1970s. theo and i happened to be the same age. i think almost exactly. and that's where his story really began, with that football injury. and as he was telling this story, i was thinking about

myself. i was thinking, my goodness, he was talking about high school. and i thought, all these years he's lived with that injury. this is what it means to him. he ultimately started talking about what it meant to him years later when he was sitting on the third floor of his apartment building. he said, quote, just looking out the window for weeks at a time, unquote. looking out the window. and there are a lot of americans who have a disability, who are doing something very similar, looking out a window, hoping, praying maybe, waiting for a better day, when they're not limited to that room and that one view of the world.

that's, for many of them, the full scope and full expanse of their world, because they're limited to that one place. a lot of them want to get good care in their home or in the community, where they can be close to the people they love and still be the beneficiary of good care. so theo talked about looking out that window for weeks at a time. now, when he completed his physical rehabilitation he was still not able to feed himself or push his manual wheelchair. so even despite some help, he still had a long way to go. you know what changed his life? home and community-based services. here's what theo's life has been since receiving those home and community-based services: he was able to obtain both his undergraduate and graduate degree. he's been a professor. he's been an advocate.

he's, in essence, run businesses. he is, because he received those services, leading a full life. he's one of our best advocates for this policy, because he doesn't just talk about it in a personal way, he can talk about the mechanics of the policy. he can talk about the challenges that are in the way of so many people with disabilities. so theo has been able to, as he said, because of these services, quote, live a full life, unquote. sounds a lot like what brandon said about because of the care that lynn provides to brandon, he's able to lead, and so many others are able to lead, a life that is a, quote, substantial life. so these stories highlight why caregiving is an investment in that great american idea, a

simple idea but significant in the context of what we're talking about, the idea that we're going to have policy that's consistent with the values we claim to hold. no one would say to us we have a value in america of advancing the cause of freedom, freedom here at home and freedom around the world. that's what america's stood for all these generations. no one would say that you don't -- you only have to express that, you don't need a policy to advance it. in furtherance of that goal of promoting freedom. same is true here. if we say we care about those americans, we care about brandon , we'll help brandon and lynn, who's providing his care, with care and advanced policy that will benefit theo. thankfully, theo has already received those kinds of benefits. we'll advance policy that will help mothers like victoria have

the peace of mind to know that her son, cole, is going to get the care that he needs in the setting that she prefers and that anyone would prefer, that they have that choice. so, i talked earlier, and i want to turn to our colleagues in a moment, i talked earlier about that bridge to work, her bridge to work, the bridge of quality, affordable childcare. her bridge to work being care for her mom or care for a son or daughter who has a disability. or other bridges to work that allow her to get to work. well, this bill fortunately has so much in it that will lift up families, in addition to caregiving, that in so many ways this bill can be a bridge to the future for families, can be a bridge to the future for workers. once again, we can't simply talk around here about having the best workforce in the world.

we can't simply talk around here about outcompeting china or any country. we have to advance policy in furtherance of that goal, that value, and that's one of the reasons why this bill is a bridge to the future, it keeps our promise, the promise we claim to make, or we do make and claim to uphold, for families, for seniors, for people with disabilities, really just for families across the country. so, i think in a very real sense this legislation will advance the cause of justice, the justice that comes with knowing that you can lead a full life, you can have a substantial life because you're an american, and we have expressed these common values and we've passed legislation and moved policy in furtherance of, consistent with,

and paying allegiance to those values. so, i want to thank our democratic colleagues who are working on this bill with us as we just begin the debate over the next couple of weeks. and i'll turn first to the senator from new york, who's been a great fighter for families all the years that she's been in the senate. i know that because i remember she got -- when she got to the senate. i was only here about a year, two years, i guess, when senator gillibrand came to the senate. i want to thank her for her leadership and her strong voice for families and for caregiving. mr. gillibrand: thank you. thank you so much, senator. madam president, rise to join my colleagues in calling for the build back better bill to include provisions that will solve the problems that working people are facing every day because of the magnitude of the problems caused by the covid pandemic. paid leave is a perfect example

of this. today, nearly eight in ten workers in america don't have access to paid leave. those numbers are even worse for lower-wage workers. just 12% of whom had access to paid leave before the pandemic. but we know nearly every single worker will need paid leave at some point in their lives, whether they're dealing with another pandemic or a personal emergency. we have to recognize that workers are people first, people who get sick, have babies, adopt children, who need care for their children when they get sick, who have parents who will age and die. they work to provide for those families, but providing for your family means, first and foremost, being able to care for that family member when they need you. without paid leave, most people can't. they're forced to make the impossible choice of either providing for their family by going to work or leaving their

job to meet that need, and nobody should have to make that choice between earning a living and pro vieding for a urge the family need. we send new mothers back to work when they're literally still bleeding, while they have stitches and they're still healing, before they can even recognize that they have postpartem depression. we force them to leave their infants when they're just days old. they can't nurse their infant. they can't bring them to work with them. they can't bond with them. they can't even put them in a childcare or a day care center, because most require an infant to be at least 6 weeks old. right now, many women get less time with their babies than dogs get before they are separated from their puppies. that is how we're valuing women workers right now, less than we value dogs.

this issue extends far beyond new moms. new dads should also be able to have time with their new children. parents with sick children should be able to care for them without fear of losing their job, and workers who need to move a parent to a memory care facility or take them to chemotherapy or take them to doctor's appointments or nurse them when they're in very urgent care needs. those are choices that families are making every day, and this era of covid, it's happening far more often. you shouldn't have to risk your job or your professional future to meet those urgent needs. without paid leave, far too many workers have to make that very choice and either risk losing their job and having to quit or not meeting that family need. it's inhumane. not having a paid leave program also leaves us vulnerable to

future health crises. if we had paid leave in place before the pandemic, millions of people could have stayed home from work when they got sick limit be the spread of co covidr they could have stayed home with their children when they were forced to learn remotely limiting the number of people who had lost or had to leave their jobs whd a child -- jobs when a child had to stay home. i heard from one new yorker whose son's health and special needs were becoming significantly more complex and required his spouse full attention around the clock for weeks. at a great time of stress, they were not only worrying about how they could best ware for their son but also how they could maintain their livelihoods. luckily they were able to turn to new york state's paid leave program. he told me it saved their family. they were able to focus on being good parents without harming their ability to earn a living and be good professionals. your ability to access that kind of support should not be dependent on where you live. but right now just nine states

and d.c. have enacted paid leave legislation leaving far too many americans vulnerable. the numbers prove that paid leave keeps people employed, providing stability to their families and the companies they work for. a study in the journal of population economics found that women who take paid leave are 40% more likely to return to work after having a new child than those who don't take it. and in general workers who can take paid leave return to their job up to 97% of the time. that makes paid leave a good business investment. it helps ensure that the time and money companies invest into an employee doesn't walk out the door when the employee gets sick. furthermore, when paid leave was implemented in california, nine out of ten employers said that either did not -- it did not change or improved their profitability, employee productivity, and morale and many said it decreased turnover.

major corporations already know that offering paid leave helps them attract and retain the best talent. by making this program universal, we can level the playing field and allow small businesses to compete with them and hire the best of the best. in fact, the same survey of california employers found that small businesses were actually more likely to report seeing no change or an improvement in their productivity and profitability when paid leave was implemented. so it is not surprising to see that 70% of small business owners and operators support the creation of a national paid leave program. 70% of small business owners. state programs have also shown us that the programs are not targets for fraud. in california 91% of employers said that they were unaware of any instances where their employees abused the state's paid leave program. and in a study of new jersey

employers, none were aware of any instances of employees abusing the state's paid leave program. creating a national paid leave program makes economic sense. every year that we go without paid leave, costs american workers and their families 22.6 -- $22.6 billion in lost wages. that's $22.6 billion that could be going back into the economy, helping families get groceries, pay bills, buy homes, start families, live their lives. and it's estimated that the mass exodus of women from the workforce during covid could have long-term costs as high as $64.5 billion in lost wages and economic activity every single year. we can stem those losses now if we take action. i would also like to note for those who are worried about the price tag of this bill, that paid leave was included in the

house version of the bill which c.b.o. found essentially pays for itself. there is a reason every industrialized nation in the world has this kind of system. it has paid leave because it works. most of them offer far more leave than this bill would, and their economies are proof that it's net positive. we cannot be a global economic leader when we are not even in the game. beyond all of that, this is what the american people, the people who send us here actually want. 70% of all voters support paid leave, including 81% of democrats and 58% of republicans have said that paid family and medical leave should be included in this reconciliation bill. this is an up-to-date survey. the bill is designed to help the american people, and this is what they're actually asking

for. this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reshape the american workplace. we shouldn't squander it. to my colleagues who would say we should not proceed on paid leave until we can do so in a bipartisan manner, i say that the american people cannot afford to wait for us to have the same conversation for another year that leads us to the same result, offers of a plan that is not universal and not mandatory. a voluntary plan is not what the american people want or need. they need a plan that covers all workers for all life events. there's a good bipartisan work that can be done. and i will do that. but i believe this is a moment in time if we want to have a universal plan that can cover low-wage and medium-wage workers in small states, in rural states, in states that don't have their own paid leave plan, this is that one chance, that one chance in a generation. it is now in this reconciliation

bill. we should not miss this chance. we should include a national paid leave plan. madam president, i rise to include one additional thought into the record. and it is to recognize the life of abe schumer, majority leader chuck schumer's father and a lifelong new yorker who passed away on november 24, 2021, at the age of 98. abe grew up in utica, new york and most recently resided in queens. he was a devoted husband to selma, a wonderful parent to chuck, fran, and robert, and a loving grandparent and great-grandparent. abe schumer represented the values of service that he instilled in his son. he seived in world war ii -- served in world war ii in burma as a radar operator and planes that flew over the himalayan mountains. as a child of the depression abe knew what it meant to work hard and deal with financial struggles. when he returned to brooklyn, new york, he took over a small exterminating business from his father in order to support his

mother and younger brothers and then his own wife and three children. as senator schumer has said, abe, quote, personified the greatest generation. end of quote. we are thankful for abe's devotion to his country and his family. learning about abe's background and life, it is clear where my friend and colleague chuck got his devotion to family, his commitment to service, and his work ethic. i send my deepest condolences to his wife of 72 years, selma, and his entire family. may his memory be a blessing. with that, madam president, i yield to my colleague from pennsylvania. mr. casey: i want to thank my colleague from new york, both for her remarks about paid leave and the compelling case that she made. just as we were talking about earlier, paid leave is not only a care giving issue, it's an economic and workforce issue. so i want to thank her for her advocacy and for the fight that she's waged. and of course thank her for the

wonderful comments about the majority leader's dad who just passed away. i'll turn to my colleague from maine next. senator king has been fighting battles on behalf of the people of maine for a lot of years now, but i'm particularly grateful for his most recent advocacy for home and community-based services. he was one of a small group of senators and staff who came together week after week after week on zoom calls to plot strategy and advance the policy. i'm grateful for senator king's leadership, for his advocacy on home and community-based services as well as on so many other issues. mr. king: i thank the senator. i particularly want to thank senator casey for his steadfast dogged perseverance in the pursuit of this issue. he has stayed with it. he has advocated it. he has been persistent and

persuasive and i just want to thank you. you have really exemplified what this body should be all about. and it's -- to care about the american people and to take steps to alleviate their pain. when they're in trouble, they have a friend in pennsylvania. and people of america have a friend in pennsylvania. i deeply appreciate it. madam president, i used to teach a course in college called leaders and leadership. and i used case studies of different people. and it was a very eclectic group. it ranged from ernest shackleton to joshua claim balanceton to margaret thatcher, winston churchill and to a guy named jack welch who was the president of general electric and one of the great business leaders of the late 20th and early 21st ten -- sun turry. one of his -- sun tury. one of his favorite quotes, that the essence of leadership is to look reality in the eye and then

do something about it. look reality in the eye and then do something about it. well, i want to talk about some realities this afternoon. the reality is that we are an aging population. 10,000 people a day qualify for medicare. 10,000 people a day. we are an aging population. my state of maine is in fact the old estate in america. how old are we? our junior senator is 77. the state of maine and the country are aging. that's a reality. we can wish it away. we can act like it's not really happening. but that is an enormous demographic wave that's coming at us right now. as the baby boomers retires a -- retire and enter their 6 0s and 7 0s, -- 70's, this is a reality

we have. 10,000 people a day. another reality is that more and more of these people require care. that's in the nature of our physical being. and the older people get, they require care. so the real question is how are we going to care for these people? thousands of them, hundreds of thousands end up in nursing homes, in long-term care. and those facilities do crowmen work -- crowmen -- yoeman work and they take wonderful care of people. but 60% of people in long-term care are paid for by medicaid. 60% of the people in long-term care are paid for by medicaid. that's important because i'm going to be making the argument that the investments that we're making in this bill are in fact investments that will actually diminish expenditures in other areas.

here's another reality. it costs about $26,000 a year to provide home and community-base services for a person with disabilities or a senior who needs those services. $26,000 a year. long-term care in a nursing home is over $90,000 a year. almost four times as much. so -- let me add one more reality and then i'll come to the conclusion -- not the conclusion of the whole remarks. i don't want to get your hopes up, madam president, but the conclusion on this point. part of the reality is most seniors don't want to go to nursing homes until they have to. i used to go around maine with my commissioner of human services, with groups of seniors. how many of you want to go to a nursing home? no hands went up. not that nursing homes don't give great care and they provide an essential need, but most

people would like to stay in their houses, in their homes close to their community, close to their family as long as they can. so if you take the financial reality that it's almost one-fourth, 25%, maybe 30% as expensive to keep them in their homes, the taxpayers are paying 60% of the costs of nursing homes. people want to be home. all of that argues in favor of enabling people to stay home. every day that someone stays out of a long-term care facility, it saves the taxpayers almost $200 every day for each day. so if you can keep people in their homes longer, it's a good financial investment. it also provides preventive care and services. that's one of the realities. the other reality is, as senator casey mentioned, people with

disabilities. people who are trapped. as he was making his remarks, i was thinking about the fundamental promise of america, the declaration of independence, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. abraham lincoln once said every political opinion he had derived,the declaration of independence. in my case every political opinion i have derived from abraham lincoln. but the declaration talks about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. if you're disabled, if you couldn't walk up these stairs and you don't have some help, you don't have much of a life. and you certainly don't have liberty. all we think of is liberty to walk out your door, go to the store, go to church, interact with our children. if you can't do that you don't have liberty, and you vern die have much happiness.

so we're talking about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and it simply means giving people the help they need. and they need it through no fault of their own. it's nobody's fault that they get older and disability is not your fault. the fellow that senator casey talked about who was injured playing football in high school, he wasn't at fault. he wasn't at fault. and this kind of thing can happen to anybody. so that's really what we're talking about. the reality is that we have a demographic tidal wave coming at us, and the question is, are we going to deal with it actively and confront it or are we simply going to sit back and say, it's all -- you know, it's like it's always been? it's not like it's always been. we've never had a demographic boom in the seniors like we're going to have in the next 20

years. our generation -- my generation -- are the pig in the python of the demographics of this country. and we're going to have to confront it. so how do we confront it? we confront it is -- we confront it in a umin of ways. we confront -- in a number of ways. we confront it in several ways. the home care provisions of this bill are one of the ways to confront it and there's also a hidden economic benefit here. if people need care, they're going to get it one way or another. they may well in many cases be getting it from their children, who then can't go to work. we desperately need workers in this economy right now, but they're locked up because they can't leave home. they can't leave their elderly mom. so to have the home-based services liberates people in order to participate in the economy. what can we do about it?

we can do something about the wages of these people, of the people working in this industry who are providing this essential care and are making $12 an hour, among the lowest pay in our society. how do we know that pay is inadequate? 50% turnover in a home-based care facility, home-based care exercise in the community, 50% turnover is considered good. 100% turnover in a year is not unusual. that tells you there's a real problem in the compensation of the workforce. so this bill provides funds to improve the living standard of the people that are providing these services. it provides training. it provides a career path. it provides hope for people, not only those who are giving the services but those who are

providing, who are needing the services. i believe this is an investment, madam president. this is the right investment in the right people at the right time, and i deeply hope that our colleagues will come together to support this investment in a timely way, not wait until it's too late. why not wait until thousands of lives are restricted and constrained, but let's do the right thing now. we know what the reality is. this bill provides us a golden opportunity to meet it. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. casey: i want to thank my colleague from maine. i want to turn now to the chairman of the finance committee, the senator from oregon, senator wyden, who's been with us every step of the way in build back better, but in my case working on home- and community-based services.

this would not be possible without his leadership. can i ask consent to add five more minutes of our time? the presiding officer: without objection. mr. casey: thank you, madam president. mr. wyden: madam president, before my colleague leaves, let me just tell him what a wonderful speech he gave. that was the kind of talk we dreamed of back in the days when i was director of the oregon gray panthers. because what senator king had basically laid out much more eloquently than i could is that what senator casey's legislation is doing is giving older americans the opportunity to get more of what they want -- good-quality care at home at a price that doesn't begin to approach the alternative that senator king is talking about, institutional care. so i want to commend him for it. it reminded me of my gray panther days. that's a terrific speech. and for my friend, senator

casey, i have been so proud to be part of this effort because, as you and i have talked about, this is what we always hoped for. this was always the long-term agenda of advocates for seniors. and i just want to tell the president of the body and colleagues who are following this, senator casey has been everywhere on behalf of this cause. you have shown up at virtually every caucus meeting to say how important it is, you come to our finance committee to stress it to colleagues on a bipartisan basis, we go together to rallies. you have been basically everywhere on this, and that, of course, is one of the reasons why we're here on the floor, because it was your efforts that did so much to get it into our bill. now, madam president, i am going to turn to the legislation in just a quick moment, but i want to respond to one question i

have been asked nonstop over the last couple of days, and that is why is it so important for the united states senate to pass the build back better legislation before the end of the year? and i'm just going to respond with one sentence. with the omicron covid variant now in our country, it is urgent business to strengthen america's economic foundation. that's what build back better is all about. that's what senator casey's provisions are doing. and now i'm going to kind of turn to some of the aspects of what our effort has been all about. obviously, oregonians, americans from sea to shining sea have their hands full these days -- school, work, family, probably trying to get in a little christmas shopping as well.

so it's hard to follow day-to-day policy debates on the floor of the senate. so i'm just going to touch on some of the big-picture issues that senate democrats are focusing on here. first, we are all about breaking down barriers to good jobs that support american families. that's what this is about -- more support for families. that's how everybody in america gets the opportunity to get ahead. now, this is the second time in a decade that democrats have had to rebuild the economy after a republican president crashed it like a kid 0en a joy -- like a kid on a joy ride. this time families and businesses are still dealing with a pandemic. that's lot of upheaval to deal with. and it's why we have said breaking down the barriers to good jobs that support american families is the one-sentence

description of our effort. we want to create opportunity for good jobs in infrastructure. we want to create opportunity for good jobs in clean energy. we want to create opportunity for good jobs in manufacturing here at home. and we want to create the conditions for small businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed. the key to unlocking those opportunity opportunities for working people in america is to make sure that families start in a position to succeed. this afternoon my colleagues are on the floor to talk about the importance of investing in child care and home-based care for seniors and those with disabilities. for me, this brings to mind a conversation, a recent one, with a neighbor of mine at home it in oregon. she and i sat down in portland for a socially distant chat in her backyard. we talked about what it's been like for families like hers, not just during the pandemic but over the last several years, as costs like education and housing

and child care have just soared into the stratosphere. megan is about as impressive as anybody i've met. she's smart. she worked hard. she has a good job. but even people who seem to have the world by the tail come up against real challenges. for example, megan told me about the decision she made when her mom came down with a cancer diagnosis in 2015. she decided she had to set aside her career and move home to the midwest to help out her mom with treatment. caring for a loved one who is in a fight for their life is just about the most important work you can do. but as megan said, there's no paycheck -- no paycheck, i would say to the president of the senate -- that comes with that gig. and you still got to find a way to pay the bills. fortunately, megan's mom got better. the two of them made the

decision -- we happen to think it was a no-brainer -- to move back to portland. they wanted to make sure that their family would have a chance to get ahead. megan has now got two kids of her own. one of her kids is a wonderful little guy who's got special needs. child care is another major challenge. in oregon, as is the case in many places, it is a struggle to find child care at all, even harder to find child care that's affordable. megan told me about all the people she knows, just about all of them women, who are forced to make the hard decision of leaving their jobs in the laugh few years to provide -- in the last few years to provide day care for their kids or care for an elderly parent. that has been happening all over the country because families don't have enough support. they don't have enough support tonight. now, people always talk about motivation. what's motivating people?

i'll tell you, in oregon, what i hear at home is people tell me what they want to do is work hard. they want to contribute. they want to make sure that their kids are growing up happy and healthy, and they want their elderly family members to be happy and healthy, too. they'd also, madam president, like to be able to look forward to a vacation in the summer once in a while and a dignified retirement down the road. whodon want all that? the reality is for so many people, the sky-high costs of taking kids or family members is holding them back. that's why senate democrats want to help with child care, why we want to invest in home-based care, why we believe in paid leave. that's what the new child tax credit that so many on the senate finance committee on the democratic side worked for is that basic level of support that

helps families get ahead. people ought to be able to stay in their careers if that's what they want to do instead of handling child care themselves. theaters -- they ought to have the financial security at home to seek sought a new job with higher pay or better benefits. people shouldn't have to choose between taking care of family and starting that small business, that small business that their entrepreneurial eye always was dreaming of. these priorities that need addressing, like child care and home-based care, aren't just morally right. but as senator king pointed out, pointed out just now, they're commonsense economics. since when, senator king, did it become somehow a partisan issue to say that you ought to work for people to get more of what they want -- good care at home -- at a lower price? that's obviously not partisan.

it's common sense economics. it's what you laid out. it's what senator casey has been leading us on these last few months. it's disappointing to me that colleagues from it the other side aren't interested in working with us on these issues. by the way, it didn't used to be that, i'd say to my friend from maine. senator olympia snowe, when she was on the senate finance committee, always worked with us. my staff used to joke about bipartisan bills. they were called snowe-wyden, or wyden-snowe or one or the other. but you could almost set your clock by it. that was a constant. and, unfortunately, we're missing that on this legislation. what we're hearing from colleagues on the other side is tax cuts for those at the top. they don't do much for people like megan. we can do better. there are signs that the economy is ready to take off. covid-19 caused the biggest economic crash and jobs collapse in a century. but wages are going up.

the economy added over 440,000 jobs per month over the fall. there is no questioning the work ethic and the productivity of the american people. our job in the congress is to make sure they've got the support so they can seize those opportunities to get ahead. that's what we're going to be working on. in the weeks ahead. that's what senate democrats are doing on the finance committee. t that's what are we're doing in our caucus. and i just want to thank my friend and our colleague, senator casey, for being the spark of the cause here. he and his persistence are the reason we're here and why this legislation has passed the other body. i'm telling you, i think this is a really big moment for all those senators and all those families who are basically saying, are we ever going to see these kinds of opportunities for health care senator king

talked about? better care at a price that gerontologists for example -- you don't have to take the word of a bunch of senators. people in the field, i taught jer to ji. when i saw experts lined up, i thought senator casey has got it right. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. casey: madam president, i want to thank the senator from oregon, the chairman of the finance committee had to work obviously not simply on the better care, better jobs provisions, the home and community-based services provisions, but so many others as well, and also to work on the financing of the bill. a big job to undertake. but i want to thank him for his continuing leadership and to thank all my colleagues today for making the case for build back better, and in this case one of the component parts, mostly our discussion was about home and community-based

services. there's so much more to talk about. we don't have time tonight to get to all of it. i think what you heard from our colleagues, from senator king, from senator gillibrand, from senator wyden, and i know the presiding officer shares these concerns and has made these issues a priority, we heard it right from the, right from the mouths of americans, whether they live in oregon or maine or new york or pennsylvania, wherever they live. and i'll remind our colleagues, all those folks on the waiting lists in those three states i mentioned -- florida, texas, and louisiana, where two-thirds of the waiting list is, just three states. when you hear brandon talk about a substantive life, when you heard theo talk about the life he has because of the home and community-based services, when you hear senator king talk about the savings, do you want to pay $90,000 or $26,000 in terms of

what taxpayers will pay over time in the case of one year's care, $90,000 versus $26,000. $26,000 is what they pay for home care. when you hear it from individual americans what these services mean, when you hear about the arguments we're making on costs and that this is an investment, this is an investment in families, an investment in america, in furtherance of those values that we claim to hold, senator king spoke so eloquently about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. that says it all. that's what brandon kingsmore was talking about, that lynn, his caregiver, allows him to have a shot at life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. so we have a lot of work to do between here and there, between our advocacy and our work on a bill and passage, but we're

going to get there because this kind of care can't wait any longer. the american people have been waiting for this for all the years that senator wyden has made the case when he was a slightly younger man, making the case with the gray panthers all across the state of oregon. people have been waiting for a long time. it's about time we delivered. let's pass build back better not only because of home and community-based services, but for all reasons as well which we'll get to in the days ahead. madam president, i would yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

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