administration's covid-19 vaccine mandate for employers. live coverage of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. come to us now, gracious god, as we seek your presence. shine your light into the hearts of our lawmakers, empowering them to work for your honor and glory. lord, give them the wisdom to

strive for integrity in every area of their lives, staying true to you regardless of the consequences. remind them that because of you, they are never alone. let their lives be examples of people who are passionate about loving you. we pray in your faithful name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., december 8, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable ben ray lujan, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. under the previous order, the senate will be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each.

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, i said the senate had a lot of hard work to do in order to address several critical priorities before the end of the year. when the month began, america knew we had to avoid a

government shutdown. we had to approve our annual defense bill. we had to preserve the full faith and credit of the united states and take action on build back better before christmas. as well as deal with voting rights. it is now december 8, and the senate is making very good progress in all these priorities. it was a big, big agenda, and we're clearly not through with it, but we are making good progress, and there is clearly light at the end of the tunnel on debt ceiling and the defense bill, based on the agreement leader mcconnell and i came to and the house's action last night. it is -- last night, met me go -- let me go over those details. the house sent us twa pieces of legislation, one is a compromise version of our annual defense bill which i expect will earn

bipartisan support in the coming days in this chamber. i want to thank my colleagues, especially senator reed and ranking member inhofe, and all of my colleagues who worked to shape this legislation for helping us make sure we pass a bipartisan defense bill this year. as we have done for decades. the second bill they sent us will enable the chamber to swiftly address the debt limit, sparing our country from the calamity and a calamity it would have been, of a first-ever default on our national debt. if this fast-track process was included in a bill that will also provide critical protections for medicare funding and preventing slashes in that very important funding to so many seniors, and waive the paygo rule-to-a void harmful cuts, last night i took the first procedural step to advance this legislation, setting up a

cloture vote to take place as soon as thursday. once our proposal is approved by the senate, we'll be able to address the debt limit in this chamber with a simple majority vote, which is exactly what democrats have been seeking for months, what i've been asking for at this podium time after time after time. i want to thank the republican leader for his help working with us to find a responsible path that avoids partisan brinksmanship. democrats have always said that the senate should be able to raise the debt limit without resorting to a convoluted, lengthy, and risky reconciliation process, and under our plan we won't have to do that. democrats have also said repeatedly that the responsible thing to do is raise the debt ceiling, both democrats and republicans voted for the spending increase.

so we've said repeatedly that we're ready to shoulder this burden, even if our republican colleagues are not going to be able to. it now looks like we'll be able to do that, to have 50 democrats vote responsibly doing what's good for the nation, avoiding catastrophe, by raising the debt ceiling to pay the debts we have already incurred, just like any household must do. this agreement we've secured is the responsible path forward. no gamesmanship on the debt limit means no default on our sovereign debt and the calamity, the calamity that would cause. and, again, i thank my republican colleagues and leader mcconnell. we have had fruitful, honest, and good discussions over the last several weeks to come up within this proposal. -- up with this proposal. we're not over the finish line yet, but i want to thank all my completion for working in good -- colleagues for working in good faith to move forward on this responsibility that must be addressed in the coming days.

soon we'll be able to cross off another item on our december to-do list. we have more to do to roll up our sleeves on and get done. they are so important. build back better. so in the first few days of december we successfully avoided a government shutdown. we've cleared the path hopefully for addressing the debt limit, and as i mentioned, i'm optimistic that ndaa will soon be settledment none of these are easy appreciates. but we're -- easy accomplishments. but we are clearing the path to turn to our biggest priority of the year, passing president biden's build back better act before christmas. later today four senate committees will release the final text of their portions of build back better, along with c.b.o. scores for each, as required by the reconciliation process. those four committees are commerce, small business, banking and housing, and veterans affairs.

in the meantime, i continue to hold daily conversations with my democratic colleagues, with the white house, with the speaker, and house colleagues. we continue to make good progress, and we are still on track to vote on a final product before christmas. the sooner we can pass build back better, the better off american families will be, as we start the new year. this bill has always been about a simple goal -- cutting costs for working and middle-class families. people are complaining about higher costs. they're right to do that. this bill actually lowers costs in many different areas and will help families who are trying to make ends meet and stretch those dollars. met me give you some examples. families are still struggling to pull out -- themselves out of the a once-in-a-century economic crisis brought about by covid. they want to pay less for things

like health care, prescription drugs, child care, some of the biggest costs average middle-income and working families have. they want us to find ways to make that happen, and that's exactly what build back better does. america, you want lower costs? tell your senators to vote for build back better. if we invest in american families, then we make it easier for them to work, to be productive, to flourish in society, and that makes our country stronger and lowers costs in the long term. one of the great problems, we're told, is shortage of workers. one of the greatest reasons for the shortage of workers is lack of good child care. people can't go to work if they have to look after their kids. and in this post-covid era, a lot of the patterns that used to happen don't happen anymore. making child care affordable will help bring people back to

work, get our economy humming along again, and deal with some of the bottlenecks in certain areas, in certain industries, which is creating inflation. helping families afford child care, of course, saves parents money, but it goes a long way to alleviating our labor shortage. if parents don't have to worry about how they'll keep their kids safe during the day, they'll have greater flexibility to reenter the workforce and increase the country's output. that lowers inflation. in the long term, everyone wins -- kids, parents, employers, and the entire economy. this single investment alone is enough to keep pushing build bill. but -- is keep pushing build back better. one of the greatest costs we face is prescription drug costs. this bill goes a long way to making prescription drugs cost

less. another great cost people are complaining about, the rising costs of housing, this bill puts more money into housing to both rehabilitate housing that is deteriorated, putting them back into the marketplace in a real way, and creating new housing. it will reduce the dramatic increase in housing costs. so you want to talk about inflation, you want to talk about people having to pay more, this bill is an antidote in so many areas. i mentioned child care, health care, and housing just to name a few, but there are many others as well. so we're going to keep working in getting this bill done. it is so important to working families and to america. to working families, less expenses, easier to make that dollar stretch when they sit down friday night after dinner and say how are we going to pay the bills this week. to america, relieving bott bottlenecks and making sure that our economy hums along at a

rapid rate where people are getting good wages, but the bottlenecks caused often by covid are reduced. one more issue. the upcoming vaccine c.r.a. on another matter, reports this morning indicate that getting vaccinated and boosted offers significant protection against the omicron variant. as we learn more about omicron, it's an important moment for national leaders to double and triple down on encouraging all eligible americans to get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible. but as soon as today, our republican friends are going to come to the floor to push an antiscience, antivaccine proposal to overturn the president's vaccine requirements for businesses with more than a hundred employees. my friends, america, we are in the middle of a public health crisis. everyone sees the damage it

causes. to themselves, their friend, their communities. and the way to solve this is be driven by science. we've had hundreds of years of scientific advancement. it's helped us live longer and live healthier. my dad just lived until 98. that didn't happen in a vacuum. and it certainly wouldn't have happened when there was scientific advances if people said let's not listen to them for political, ideological, or for whatever reason. we cannot go back to the days when people were driven by wild theories. some of the anti-vaxxers here in this chamber reminds me of what happened 400 years ago when people were clinging to the fact that the sun revolved around the earth. they just didn't believe science. or 300 years ago when they were sure -- or 500 years ago when

they were sure the earth was flat. it's just like that. the science is here. and what does the science show? the more people get vaccinated, the greater chance we have to eliminate and certainly greatly reduce the virulents and widespreadness of this disease. and people are resisting. it's -- is it political? is it fueled by lies on the internet? is it just because people fear vaccines? we never had this outcry when we had to give our kids, my kids, mumps, measles vaccines before they went to school. we never had this outcry as people lined up to get flu sh shots. and all of a sudden something has happened here. it's wrong and it's bad for the country, and it's not based on

any scientific evidence whatsoever. i know wild stories on the internet, lies sometimes get in people's heads but we can't listen to lies. we're a fact-based society. we always have been. the biggest thing standing between us and the end of the pandemic is americans who have refused to get vaccinated. too many americans believe wide -- wide range of conspiracy theories about vaccines. and even those who seem to encourage those crazy theories often get vaccinated themselves and don't tell anybody. we've had so many of these hard-right leaders admitting oh, yeah, i did get vaccinated, even though they're telling people they shouldn't have to take one. oh, yeah, i'll get vaccinated but you shouldn't have to. if the only damage was to the person, him or herself who didn't get vaccinated, maybe

some people would say that's okay, but it's not just to them. because when there's a large pool of people unvaccinated, even if it's not the majority, that allows the covid virus to spread, to mutate, to create new variants, and create stronger new variants. it's a pool of people. if you greatly reduce that pool, you greatly reduce the chance of a new variant, particularly a virulent variant from afflicting us in the months ahead. it's crazy. the internet has had a role in spreading this and so has the far right. the same people in the far right who want to tear down government and hurt working people in so many other ways are here doing the same thing. the same thing. even though as i said, a good number of them get vaccinated themselves. hypocrisy. there should be one message and one message only coming from

this chamber to the american people. get vaccinated. get boosted. stay safe yourself. keep your families, your communities, and our country safe. the worst thing we can do is tie our own hands behind our backs and let this -- let these new variants spread and grow and new ones after omicron and so many others. but that is what republican-pushed antivaccines would do. i would strongly vote against this -- with strong feels about what's good for this country and about fighting antiscience and theories that seem to, as i said, come from the same place that the flat earth theory came from, that the theory that the sun revolves around the earth came from. antiscience, nonscience, fictional belief comes from there. we ought not give it a stamp of

approval in this chamber. i yield the floor.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: for washington democrats, 2021 will have one major theme. ramming through inflationary spending on a partisan basis that hurts american families and actually helps china. that's how this all democratic government began the year, jamming through a wasteful excuse for a stimulus bill that drove up prices, made supply chain problems even worse. not a single republican supported it.

and democrats now want to end the year with another passive spree that would make it even worse. the whole country understands that democrats own this mess. they have seized one-party control of the economy so you better believe they'll have one-party accountability for the resulting nightmare. the president and his allies are badly upside down and overall approval ratings -- in overall approval raifting. upside down on the generic ballot. upside down on the economy. and the more the men and women of this country learn about the reckless taxing and spending spree that democrats are planning next, the less they want it or anything close to it. democrats have wanted to transform the country alone. they want to print and borrow trillion after trillion on their own. they want to create even more

inflation on their own. so as republicans have made clear for months, they will have to own a debt ceiling increase as well. this week the house and senate have reached a bipartisan agreement to make that happen. as the democratic leader said yesterday, the democrats are, quote, willing to carry the burden -- and so they will. we've reached an agreement on a one-time, one-shot statutory process that will enable democrats to raise the debt limit at a fixed dollar amount, which they will specify. much like the vote on an arms sales resolution that occurred yesterday and the congressional review act vote that will occur today, this will be a standard expedited process that a simple majority threshold established by law. democrats will get one shot at this. they won't be able to add any other amendments. and every single senate democrat will have to put their name to

the gigantic dollar amount of debt they're prepared to pile on the american people. now you mr. president, on another matter, for the past two years, as the country has battled covid-19, i've been a strong and consist tent advocate of following the science and taking precautions. that's included strong support for the safe and effective vaccines that have helped millions of americans substantially lower their risk of death or serious illness. i took advantage of these modern medical miracles as soon as i could. i've received a booster, i've encouraged kentuckians and all americans to take full advantage as well, i've recorded public service announcements, i am a survivor of childhood polio, i've watched vaccines obliterate polio in our country in my entire lifetime. trust me there is no bigger

proponent of vaccination than i am. but here's the thing -- the united states of america is a free country. the federal government, elites in washington cannot micromanage citizens' personal choices without a legitimate basis in law and the constitution. and that goes double for presidents going far beyond the bounds of their office and their authority. president biden's absurd private-sector vaccine mandate is blatant overreach. it is illegal. the administration has already lost in federal court and had it blocked. washington democrats have latched themselves to a mast that is very simple. unvaccinated people should be fired. that's what they want? they don't trust individuals, families, doctors, employers, and customers to sort things out for themselves? they want every worker that a

medium-sized business and up to -- to either get the shot or get fired by president biden. and buried in the illegal mandate is a call to explore whether it should expand to all businesses. this is not how things work in our country, period. workers are not happy, medium-sized businesses are not happy, especially not in the middle of this worker shortage, and frankly nobody who understands our system of government is happy. i've heard from so many kentuckians who are affected by the administration's suite of several unwise vaccine mandates. here's one quote. my wife was notified that if she doesn't get fully vaccinate add by january 4, then she would be terminated and lose her job without severance or unemployment. she's been there for 17 years

and has nothing but exemplary reviews. here's another. i will lose my job at the paducah gas fusion plant. i very much enjoyed my work there and had every intention of retiring from the plant. however, due to joe biden's forced vaccine mandate, i will be terminated. please let a man who wants to work go to work. here's another. my firm of 103 employees will either lose about 25 to the mandate or lay off four to get to 99. which one should we do? remember, personally, i'd encourage each of these kentuckians to get the vaccine. but for the purposes of this conversation, that really isn't the point. you better believe i'm going to

stand up and fight for their freedom. i want to thank the junior senator from indiana for spearheading this resolution to overturn the biden administration's illegal mandate. i'm a proud cosponsor. i'll proudly vote for it and urge every senator to do the same. now, on one final matter, the national murder rate just recorded its biggest jump in more than a century. in some cities, homicides have set all-time records. from albuquerque to milwaukee to memphis to des moines, city officials reported more murders last year than in any prior year. in my hometown of lou i develop, homicides this year -- in my hometown of lou i haveville, homicides this year have broken last year's record. activists made absurd and false claims about law enforcement. here are some of them.

we need to completely dismantle local police. here is another one. policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist. a left-wing messaging campaign has spent a year and a half trying to chill law enforcement and policing. a network of liberal district attorneys around the country are matching their rhetoric with incredibly soft-on-crime practices behind the scenes. and the predictable result of all this has been a collapse -- a collapse -- in public safety. for example, last month a man killed six people and injured dozens more hat a christmas market in wisconsin, just weeks after he was released, listen to this, just weeks after he was released on bail for another set of violent charges. this criminal had already been arrested and locked up in

neighboring milwaukee county, but he was let out by a liberal d.a. who remarked several years ago that, quote, is there going to be an individual i divert or i put into a treatment program that's going to go out and kill somebody? well, you bet. guaranteed. it's guaranteed to happen. it does not invalidate the overall approach. stunning. that's now a whole bunch of grieving families in this wisconsin city who have strong feelings about that, quote, approach. here's a headline from new york city just this week. quote, man busted for assault set free, allegedly beats two random new york city women, then cut loose again. smash-and-grabs, mob thefts and

car jackings are increasingly facts of life in multiple major cities. but against this backdrop, democrats just want to keep getting weaker on crime and softer on one safety. we expect to vote today on the nomination of rachael rollins to be u.s. attorney for massachusetts. she has spent year in her current job as a d.a. pushing the idea that the state should wipe entire categories of crimes off the list of things worth prosecuting. she had aide rather her office not go after trespassers, shoplifters or even those found possessing drugs with intent to distribute. this soft soft-on-crime advocate earned the nominee a pink slip. inch stead, president biden is giving her a -- instead, president biden is giving her a promotion. i would urge all senators to vote no. law-abiding americans should want prosecutors who refuse to

prosecute. they don't want city jails equipped with evolving doors -- revolving doors, and they need leaders who will defend the rule of law. mrs. murray: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. already already thank you, mr. president. i rise today, as i have done too many times before and as my colleague senator murphy did just last week, to reiterate what people across my home state and the entire country have been calling for for years now. mrs. murray: calling for us to take action here in the senate to end the crisis of gun violence that we are seeing in our schools, in our neighborhoods, and across our country. last week we mourned the deaths of four high school students following the tragic shooting at

oxford high school in michigan. my heart goes out to those four students' families and friends, and my heart goes out to every student at oxford high who is now carrying the trauma of that experience. my heart breaks for everyone who grows up thing this will eventually happen to them at their heart and my heart hurts for every parent who worries every time they send their kid off to school because, let's face it, school shootings are a very real threat. as a parent and grandparent and a former preschool teacher, i know school supposed to be a place where our children feel safe, where they can go to learn and grow and see friends, where they can be kids, but after weeks like last week, that feeling disappears. following school shootings like the one we saw in michigan, or threats to schools like we saw last week in my home state of

washington, just last week my hometown high school was shut down over concerns about a threat of violence. ferndale high school was in lockdown wednesday because of a threat of a gun on campus. and that same wednesday, the day after the shooting in michigan, threats were made targeting three schools in another district, forcing local law enforcement to mobilize resources and personnel. all of that in just one week. and while luckily none of those threats we saw in my home state escalated any further, thanks in large part to the quick work of local officials, in the same week, seattle saw six shootings in just over 24 hours. from january through october of this year, seattle has already seen more than 500 shooting incidents. it's already the most shootings the city has seen in the last decade.

i'm not the only one who thinks this cannot continue. i know, because for years i've heard from students and teachers and parents from my state who want major federal action to finally end the gun violence epidemic in this country. people want an end to these school shootings, an end to shootings at our churches and places of worship, an end to the shootings at our malls and stores, and an end to the gun violence that doesn't always make the news but happens on our streets and in our neighborhoods. as senator murphy said last week, we can the only high-income nation in the world where this happens. but it happens because we let it happen. because despite how many times my democratic colleagues and i have come to the floor with commonsense, popular legislation to help prevent gun violence, our republican colleagues block us from even debating those

bills, let alone voting on them. think about that. they won't even allow a debate on this legislation that could save lives. so i ask them, how many times are we going to go through this cycle? what will you tell parents in this country when they ask you what you did to stop the next school shooting? how many times will you refuse to even debate commonsense steps to keep our communities safe? it is past time republicans either get on board with taking action to stop these shootings or at least get out of the way. like so many parents or grandparents, i want to stop worrying if our kids are safe in school. and like so many americans, i am done with my republican colleagues blocking commonsense gun laws at every turn. at this point, you're either in favor of taking action to help put an end to these shootings or you are against them. washington can and should continue to build on its gun

safety laws. the administration can and should continue to invest in community violence intervention programs. but here's a the deal -- we can't address the full scope of the gun violence epidemic in this country without taking major federal action. universal background checks, an assault weapons ban, a patchwork of gun safety laws is simply not adequate. we need federal laws in place in order to protect our families. and the fact that one party has listened to the voices of parents across the country and taken to the floor once again to call for an end to gun violence while the other listens to the gun lobby and stays silent in the face of repeated tragedy speaks volumes. simply put, our kids and grandkids deserve to be safe from gun violence in their schools and on our streets. i refuse to let republican obstruction continue to get in

the way of commonsense measures that will save lives. all options need to be on the table. it's time we restore the senate to make sure this institution can actually serve the interests of the vast majority of the american public. so i promise all the parents, all the grandparents, everyone in washington state that despite the obstruction and silence from my republican colleagues, i will not stay quiet, and i will keep pushing for change. and i hope the american people will do the same. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the republican whip.

mr. thune: mr. president, americans are currently dealing with the worst inflation in more than 30 years. high grocery prices, high rent prices, high gas prices, high car prices, increases in the price of household goods, and the list goes on. inflation is so bad that it has outstripped wage growth, resulting in a de facto pay cut for many americans. mr. president, one of the price hikes hitting americans hard is the increase in the price of gas. gas prices have risen 40% since president biden took office. 40%. that takes a tremendous toll on family budgets. of course, high gas prices and other energy costs contribute to price increases on a whole host of other goods. manufacturers facing higher transportation costs thanks to high gas prices, for example, are likely to pass on at least some of those increased costs to consumers in the form of price hikes. in my home state of south

dakota, families are facing an increase in home heating costs as high as 50% to 100%, depending on how severe of a winter we face. nationwide, concerns over high heating costs this winter have been tempered by mild weather so far, but predictions of huge home energy bills could return with a period of sustained harsh weather. and that would be another financial blow for families whose budgets are already severely stretched by our current inflation crisis. it's easy for, say, a wealthy democrat politician to dismiss the consequences of inflation, but for families living paycheck to paycheck, an increase in the grocery bill or heating costs or the cost of a tank of gas can mean tough decisions, like choosing between adequately heating the house or filling the car to get to a job. so what has president biden been doing to help alleviate rising energy prices and inflation?

well, the answer is not much. first, he pleaded with the opec cartel to increase oil production and increase global supply, which is the single-most influential factor when it comes to gas prices. opec was unmoved. then the president recently announced the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, a move congress had in part already mandated. this is nothing more than a short-term relief measure, if that, as it will do little to give our energy sector the certainty it is seeking to bring production and american energy jobs back on line. mr. president, while democrats helped create the inflation crisis that we are experiencing by flooding the economy with unnecessary government money earlier this year, the president is not solely to blame for high energy prices which

have also been driven up by covid-related issues. however, the president is certainly to blame for the hostile attitude his administration has displayed toward conventional energy production. and he is certainly to blame for the reckless tax-and-spending spree he is pushing which would further drive up energy prices for american families. the president made clear that his attitude toward conventional energy production on day one of his administration, when he canceled the keystone x.l. pipeline, an -- a project already underway and would have delivered more than 10,000 construction jobs and increase regional energy supply all while being offset with a $1.7 billion investment in renewable energy. the president also almost immediately band new oil and gas leases on federal land sending a clear signal to oil and gas producers that his administration would be reluctant to work with him to

increase american energy production. then of course there was the release of the first outlines of the president's reckless tax-and-spending plan which displayed a clear hostility to conventional energy. given this record, it's no surprise that many energy producers have been less than enthusiastic about coming fully back online as we emerge from the pandemic. the market signals to increase production are being muted by this administration's burdensome policies and clear intent of sidelining american energy development. then there's the current version of the reckless tax-and-spending spree which democrats are pushing to pass in the very near future. this legislation will not only likely worsen our current inflation situation, it will also make our energy less reliable and more expensive. if democrats succeed in passing their legislation, american families will have to brace themselves for even higher energy bills. one major driver of those higher energy bills will be the bills'

new fee or tax on methane, which is targeted at crippling the natural gas sector that spurred america's recent energy renaissance and has actually been the largest driver of coal displacement. the american gas association says the proposed fee could add as much as 34% to natural gas bills. and that's on top of any increases americans may already be facing. as i mentioned earlier, home heating bills are already projected to rise as much as 50% to 100% in my state this are winter, and that's without the reckless tax-and-spending spree piling on. and if progressive democrats have their way, democrats tax-and-spending spree could also penalize our oil and gas sector by ending long-standing tax provisions like the percentage depletion production

which underpins an overwhelming number of independent producers representing roughly 90% of wells drilled in the united states. simply put, this administration wants to make it more expensive and more difficult to develop our abundant energy resources in favor of their preferred energy technologies and electric vehicles with predictable consequences for americans' pocketbooks. and just a word about those electric vehicles, mr. president. the president's transportation secretary recently suggested that families feeling the pinch of high gas prices could l solve their problem by buying an electric vehicle which would allow them to, and i quote, never have to worry about gas prices again, end quote. well, i have news for the president's transportation secretary. a lot of americans can't afford to replace their car with an

electric vehicle, not to mention that electric cars and trucks are still not a practical option for many americans for other reasons. secretary buttigieg's statement shows how far out of touch democrats have become with ordinary americans. mr. president, i know democrats are deeply invested in their green new deal fantasies of an instant, mostly electric energy regime, but the reality is that american consumers will need to use liquid fuels and electricity and heat from natural gas well into the future. and punishing or discouraging responsible energy development in oil and natural gas will do nothing, nothing but drive up energy prices for consumers and force our nation to rely more on oil and gas imports for an unstable -- from unstable areas of the world. we should be encouraging

american energy development of every kind -- from oil and natural gas, to wind, solar, and biofuels. not artificially picking winners and losers and discouraging essential energy production. and with american consumers struggling with long-term inflation, the last thing we need to be doing right now is passing legislation that will drive up energy prices. unfortunately, if democrats have their way and succeed in passing their tax-and-spending legislation, americans will soon be able to add even higher energy bills to the list of challenges that they're currently facing. so much for building back better for the american people. mr. president, while i'm on the topic of energy, i'd like to briefly comment on yesterday's announcements from the e.p.a. and usda concerning biofuels. to put it simply, the administration can't have it

both ways on the renewable fuels standard, something agriculture stakeholders in south dakota know all too well. yesterday the e.p.a. announced a proposal to take the unprecedented step of calling back previously set biofuel blending targets. 2020 volumes would be reduced by 2.5 billion gallons, and 2021 would see a reduction. now the e.p.a. is trying to sell this by simultaneously proposing an increase in the 2022 blending volumes which on its own would be favorable, but it's far from enough to make up for the lost gallons. and keep in mind that the e.p.a.'s proposal pulls back blending obligations from a final rule giving stakeholders little confidence that this promised 2022 increase won't meet the same fate. again, not every component of

yesterday's announcement is bad on its own. signaling an end to the out-of-control small refinery exemption program is long overdue, and it is consistent with the renewable fuels standard and a tenth circuit court ruling. it's also good to see the department of agriculture moving forward with assistance funds for biofuel producers, but this was funding signed into law last december. it's almost as if it was withheld from our producers for months so the usda could help the e.p.a. sell our ag stakeholders a bill of goods. mr. president, i urge the administration to make good on its commitments to our farmers and to finally leverage american biofuels for the energy and environmental solution that they can provide. i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. much has grown on -- much is grown on kansas plains. crops stretch as far as the eye can see. mawbl --. mr. marshall: grain elevators substitute traffic. what truly makes it unique is the people of the plains. kindness and resilience defines kansans. churches that seem entirely too big for the tiny towns they tower over are filled on sundays, and neighbors are checking on each other, sharing food, sharing laughs, maybe sharing a cup of coffee, and

even a few beers. and perhaps this is why senator bob dole reminded me every time i saw him, roger, always remember where you're from. and every speech i ever heard him give, he always say always remember where you're from. i thought a lot about that this week. what was senator dole saying? why was that so important? and i think reflecting, he always wanted to make sure that he remembered his kansas values and that the people of russell, kansas, shaped his life, to pay honor to them and respect. this week kansans lost a great friend and neighbor. senator bob dole, a personification of the gentle toughness cultivated in the rural midwest, aning advocate for the disabled, the hungry,

veterans and our way of life, a genuine once-in-a-generation from the greatest generation american hero has been called home. it was to these same plains that a young robert dole returned from a war critically wounded from injuries sustained in 1945 on a battlefield in italy. the people of russell had chipped in money, $1,800 to be exact, into a cigar box on the counter of dawson's drugstore where a young bob dole once worked as a soda jerk. these funds were used to help offset the costs of his recovery. and it was a grueling recovery. are during his three-year hospital stay, he spent time in a body cast, he fought horrible infections that shot his temperature to over 109 degrees, which forced the doctors to pack him in ice. he literally underwent dozens of

surgery on his shoulder, his arm, and even to remove a kidney. bob dole was once a strapping, muscular, three-sport varsity athlete at russell high school as well as a k.u.j. hawk athlete. dole -- dole was now paralyzed and dropped to 122 pounds. all the while recovering in the hospital, he listened to one of his favorite new songs, a source of inspiration, "you will never walk alone." i quote from that classic, walk on with hope in your heart and you will never walk alone. walk on with hope in your heart, and you will never walk alone. americans know of bob dole's record of public service, whether passing the reagan agenda through the senate, fighting hunger in the united states and abroad, the americans

with disabilities act, his work for veterans that includes the construction of the world war ii memorial and so, so much more. americans know of his time at the helm of the republican national committee, the united states senate, and the party's presidential ticket. they may even be aware when in 2014, re regained -- regained the strength to travel and visited all 105 kansas counties and say thank you, thank you for the life they had given him. most saturdays of the past decade, senator dole quietly sat on the south side of the world war ii memorial to greet and thank veterans as the honor flights came to washington, d.c., and it was only fitting that kansans gathered there this morning to pay homage and respect and remember our hero. he did it with charm and famous wit that made him so likable and so effective and so kansan.

as we in the capitol honor senator dole, i remember the days that followed his famous salute of george h.w. bush in the capitol. when he, with the help of his caretaker and fellow veteran nate, stood up from his wheelchair and showed his reverence for his once rival and friend. he, of course, didn't understand what the big deal was. he wanted to honor a fellow veteran and public servant. it was a reflect to show that respect in his humility and in his wake was his classic style. and i remember the morning, earlier this spring, when senator dole called me to tell me that he had stage four lung cancer. he wanted to make sure that my wife and i knew before the press did. but all the while what i remember from that conversation,

how upbeat he was, how positive he was, worried about me, not himself. he again beat the odds and spent more quality time with all of us and every time i saw him, even up to a couple of weeks ago, he was always cracking jokes, imparting wisdom and spending time with all of our friends. i'm so grateful for the blessing of each moment spent with him, before and after that call, and i can't express what i would give for another one of those moments. as i know is true for his wife, our friend, senator elizabeth, and his most steadfast supporter and advocate, his daughter robin, the same goes for his devoted staff who are like family to the doles. whenever you visited the doles, they were all family members, rita, mo, and so many more. you are in our prayers. there are so many friends from

all ages, all walks of life. so many people reached out to me this week to say we're thinking of you, we're praying for you, give the dole family our condolences. as an incredible work here is done, and i will miss my friend, the boots i have are very large, but fortunately he left me with some good advice foil those boots. it was in 2017, shortly after i had been elected and i was facing my first tough vote and senator dole and myself were able to have a late-morning brunch. and i had my notes prepared and i was going to discuss this in great depth, and i was prepared for his questions, as i started the conversations, he asked, what's going on the hill? and he took a sip of his soup

and he looked to me, and said, go back to kansas. the people of kansas will tell you. he set a tremendous bar for us to reach and while senator dole is gone, the lessons we can learn from his life will be lived out and passed on. certainly his spirit, the spirit of bob dole, hope, honor, loyalty, respect, service, and genuine kindness and concern for others will never fade. one of the best days of my time in congress was watching senator dole receive the congressional gold medal in 2018 in our nation's capitol rotunda. it was a special honor. and as a freshman congressman, i had to kind of fight my way to the front row or near the front row and i was surrounded by other members of congress as well. as the senators recited bob dole's story, they would look at

me, you know the nod you would get, it was a nod of respect. i was so proud to be a kansan, my chest puffed up full of pride. it made me so proud to be a kansan, to see this is what a congressman, a senator is supposed to look like. for months, as we led up to that event, his family, friends, and staff watched, he struggled to gain his strength as he had several more health setbacks. many of his family didn't think he would be able to attend. much like the bob dole of of the past -- of the past, he recovered. he got to hear the gratitude of a nation, the song, "you will never walk alone," was played. i was close enough. i could see him mouth the words to the president. this is my favorite song.

and i was close enough that i could hear his voice, a voice we were all familiar with, sing along, softly sing these lyrics. when you walk through a song, hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark. at the end of the storm, there's a golden sky and the sweet silver song of a lark. walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain. though your remains be tossed and blown, walk on, walk on with hope in your heart and you will never walk alone. you will never walk alone. for so many of us, kansans, veterans, the poor and hungry around the world, farmers, the disability community, and more, we never walk alone. we thank you, senator dole, for

walking beside us, always giving us hope. we love you. we miss you. and we thank you. god bless america. i yield the floor.

brawn. mr. braun: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. braun: i move to proceed to s. j resolution 29. the presiding officer: the motion is on the motion to proceed. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the joint resolution.

the clerk: calendar number 178, s. j. res. 29, a joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, united states code of the rules submitted by the department of labor relating to covid-19 vaccination and testing, emergency temporary standard. the presiding officer: under the provisions of 5 united states code, there will be ten hours of debate, equally divided.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. rubio: i ask unanimous consent that senator cassidy be allowed to complete his remarks before the next scheduled vote. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. rubio: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. cassidy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: mr. president, we have a crisis here in the united states which we cannot keep ignoring. after the pandemic hit, we took our eyes off the issue of opioid and other drug overdoses. we made tremendous progress over the previous four years. the trump administration made it a priority. congress had made it a priority. we had funded multiple programs, and we had seen that the incidents rate of drug overdose was decreasing, and for opioids in particular. but with the lockdown and the personal stress this led to, we have seen an uptick once more in these opioid deaths. from april 2020 to april 2021,

we saw over 100,000 overdoses linked to opioids and other overdoses beyond that, and fentanyl causing 64% of them. now, we talk about statistics, but we sometimes in those statistics lose the human dimension. i remember a 911 call i once heard, and in it there was a frantic woman calling because her husband was overdosed, please come help. and that's tragic. but you almost become used to it. what brought tears to your eyes was in the background you heard the baby crying. now it's easy to imagine, one, what that child's life is now, the child of an addict, but it's also easy to imagine what the child's future is with a single parent having to deal with the death of a father and

all that means. it is not just the opioid death, it is the opioid family that has to bear the burden of the loss first to addiction and then secondly to death. there's a unique role here for the country of china. we don't know it's the chinese government but we know it's the country of china. fentanyl is a synthetic poison that is taking the lives of so many of these who die from opioid addiction. certainly true in my state, louisiana. china's role, the country of china's role in this opioid crisis is by providing the chemicals to the mexican and south american cartels who take those raw chemicals and make it into the fentanyl that then comes into our country. and this is what is causing the

addiction. now, by the way, opioid addiction is incredibly powerful. another story from when i was a practicing physician, the emergency room 3:00 in the morning, where the grandmother was there with the addict daughter, and the child, grandchild of the grandmother, child of the addict, was crying because the grandmother was taking the child away from his mother. the mother didn't care. and it struck me that if something is so powerful to disrupt the relationship between a mother and her child, the power of that cannot be ignored. so when we look at these drugs that people are addicted to, we have to understand the hold they have upon their physiology, their emotional life, their

psychology, in a sum, their whole life. so what could we do? we can't just give up. we've got to make a pushback for the sake of those who are in addiction and the family members that they have. so we need to modernize our customs process. i have a customs modernization act which will crack down on the illicit trade, if you will, the way that the cartels are financing and moving drugs across the border, if we can address that, we can address the supply and we can decrease the number of people who have access to these drugs. today introduce the halt fentanyl act to make permanent temporary schedule 1 of fentanyl analogs. what this means is that in an effort to evade our laws -- in an effort to evade our laws, shall the cartels will make some

analog a little bit different from fentanyl which is regulated but nonetheless has the addictive poangs -- potential and ability to kill regular fentanyl and this will allow us to combat criminals and hold the companies in china responsible. we have to start closing down our southern border. it's not just the migrants that are coming across, but tens of thousands of pounds of drugs. we're now seizing more fentanyl and meth than we ever have before. even the d.e.a. administrator, ann milgrim, agrees that drugs flowing across the border are fueling the opioid crisis. she said this on national tv, and i quote, the real problem are the criminal drug networks in mexico, she says. fentanyl and meth are being, quote, mass produced in mexico, sourcing chemicals mostly coming from china, and they are, quote, driving the overdose

deaths. mr. president, we have a responsibility to our fellow americans. perhaps i feel it more acutely as a physician who's been with those patients and their families who are fighting addiction. but we should all feel the pain of that child crying as her mother was calling for 911 to come assist the father who was, who had stopped breathing from an offender. so let us redouble our efforts. i hope others will join on the customs and modernization act and the halt fentanyl act in order to in one more way protect americans from the deadly scourge of these drugs coming from china through mexico, across our border, and unfortunately into the bodies of those who are dying. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in

accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 585, rachael rollins of massachusetts, to be united states attorney for the district of massachusetts, signed by 16 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of rachael rollins of massachusetts to be united states attorney for the district of massachusetts 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 vice president: this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 50. the senate being evenly divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of justice. rachael s. rollins of massachusetts to be united states attorney for the district

of massachusetts. mr. cornyn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i want to take just a few moments to go back to march of this year, after a very tough year fighting covid-19, the american people had many reasons to be optimistic about the future. millions of people were being vaccinated every day.

the winter surge was fading away, and travel was slowly ramping up. families were able to get back together, who hadn't seen their loved ones, particularly those who were the most vulnerable to the virus. people were able to visit face to face to resume their lives, gradually discovering what i'll call the new normal. we knew the war against the virus was not over, but our communities were well resourced to keep up the fight, thanks to the five bipartisan bills that were signed into law in 2020. yes, it's true ... this last year we passed five bipartisan relief bills with broad bipartisan support, in some cases unanimous support. my, how quickly things changed. after president biden was sworn

into office, our friends on the other side of the aisle began to view things quite differently. where republicans saw progress, democrats saw, as one house member put it, a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit their vision. democrats tried to capitalize on the pandemic to check items off their liberal wish list. they crafted a nearly $2 trillion bill that included some of the far left's highest priorities and tried to brand it as pandemic relief. backdoor funding for planned parenthood, a blank check for mismanaged union pension funds, money for climate justice, whatever that is. less than 10% of the money for covid-19 was directly related to the pandemic, and less than 1% was supported -- supported vaccination efforts.

in addition to being wasteful and irresponsible, this level of spending has brought with it serious risks. leading economists who are democrats, like larry summers, steve rattner, they warn this level of spending could trigger inflation. most of the young people who were not alive during the 1970's during the tremendous inflation in the country, never experienced anything like that or even like what we're experiencing today. but larry summers presciently warned that this level of federal spending could set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation. still, our democratic colleagues couldn't be persuaded to change course. they moved forward with their nearly $2 trillion spending bill and, lo and behold, guess what happened?

well, playerry summers was right, and the federal -- larry summers was right and the federal reserve that called inflations transitory was wrong. we're now experiencing inflation at a level we have not seen in a generation, exactly as larry summers predicted. in october, inflation hit a 31-year high. consumer prices jumped 6.2% compared with a year ago, making this the highest inflation rate we've seen since 1990. if you were to ask the average texan if they were surprised by this news, they would say, well, not at all. month after month families have adjusted their budgets as priced ticked up. they're now paying more for everything from gasoline to groceries, from cars to christmas gifts. and our democratic colleagues seem to think the only solution

is to add more fuel to the fire. they put together a second partisan spending spree which will cost approximately $5 trillion. that's already passed the house of representatives. taxpayers will be disappointed by what they get for so much money. tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, that's in the house bill. cuts to health care for low-income and uninsured patients, special favors for organized labor and union bosses, and taxpayer-subsidized electric vehicles for the well off. our colleagues have worked diligently, i must confess, on this bill all year, and this is what they've come up with. meanwhile they've ignored some of the most basic responsibilities of governing. so far the senate has not passed any regular appropriations bills. there's 12 of them that routinely we pass.

they are deliberated in the appropriations committee, voted on in a bipartisan basis, and ultimately come to the floor and pass as part of the most basic function of governing. we haven't done that this year. our colleagues have delayed the national defense authorization act, and we're just one week away from a deadline that secretary yellen has given us for potential debt crisis. our colleagues have failed to do the bare minimum. why on earth are they pouring every ounce of their time and energy into this damaging partisan spending spree when they can't even cover the fundamentals of governing? one thing's for sure -- it's not because of a lack of opportunities to advance bipartisan legislation. in fact, over the last year i've been proud to work with a number of our democratic colleagues on legislation to address some of our biggest

challenges. so it's not impossible. for example, senator warner, the senator from virginia, and i have partnered on the chips for america act, which became law earlier this year. and now we're working together to build, to provide the funds to fund the programs that the bill created. then there's senator sinema, the senior senator from arizona. she and i teamed up on legislation to deal with the crisis, the humanitarian crisis and security crisis at our border and to make sure that migrants are treated fairly and humanely. senator padilla, the junior senator from california, and i have worked together on legislation to make big investments in infrastructure projects across the country without increasing the deficit by a dime. earlier this year state and local governments received huge sums of covid-19 relief money,

more than they could use, and they found themselves with more cash than they did eligible expenses. so the idea behind our bill was pretty simple. give state and local leaders more flexibility to invest in the most critical projects for their communities. largely, infrastructure and disaster relief. in some places this still means pandemic-related expenses. we don't require them to do anything. we just merely give them an option. cities can continue to use federal dollars to expand hospital bed capacities, increase staffing or support vaccination campaigns. the flexibility granted by this bill wouldn't interfere with any plans to bolster the fight against the virus. it simply gives states and local governments the ability to invest excess funding in infrastructure projects. constructing bridges, extending railways, modernizing ports,

expanding broadband. this particular bill includes a long list of qualifying expenses. state and local leaders know their communities best, and they should be able to use excess covid-19 relief funds in a way that makes the most sense for their state and their community. senator padilla and i were happy to work with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to make changes to the bill to gain bipartisan support. we added additional qualifying infrastructure projects to ensure unique but no less important infrastructure projects in some states where eligible. and we placed a cap, working with the white house, a cap on the amount of funding that could be used. because of the white house's concerns that it would take away from necessary covid-19 expenses. in october, this bill passed the senate with unanimous support. now nothing passes this senate

with unanimous support without a lot of hard work and a lot of input from a lot of people on both sides of the aisle. at a time when something as simple as k-12 curricula are controversial, the full senate supported this legislation. local officials, highway safety groups, and the transportation infrastructure construction industry all support this commonsense legislation. leaders from three dozen organizations representing these groups sent a letter to house leaders earlier this week encouraging the bill's passage. as i said, providing state and local leaders with flexible resources is the surest way to see that our nation's preparedness and responseivity continue. and it's important to note that this money had already gone out the door, so all of these projects, all of this new infrastructure could be funded

without increasing the deficit by a dime. as i said, all 100 senators supported this legislation, and the bill currently has more than 120 bipartisan cosponsors in the house. so we would encourage our house colleagues to delay no longer and take up and pass this commonsense, bipartisan bill. so, mr. president, my point is even at times when we seem irreparably polarized, where some colleagues decide it's my way or the highway when it comes time to pass legislation, in a 50-50 senate, which is admittedly very hard to do, the truth of the matter is there are real opportunities to address some of the biggest challenges facing our country in a bipartisan way. but none of these opportunity are contained in the democrats' partisan spending bill. this legislation would, as

larry summers predicted, continue to fuel the red-hot inflation that's already burning the american people. it will harm our energy security. it will give massive tax breaks to the wealthy while increasing taxes on the middle class. it cuts funding to our safety net hospitals that provide charity care and care for medicaid payments. and it will drive our national debt to unimaginable heights. and it will also hand the government control of decisions that should be made by families on everything from child care to health care, basically hand those decisions to the federal government. this is not the type of legislation that should be on our citizens' agenda at all, let alone at the top of the list. there are plenty of opportunities to work together, to notch big bipartisan wins for

the american people. it's a shame, though, that our colleagues across the aisle have chosen not to do that and that this partisan l spending spree has be the prevented real progress from being made in so many other areas. mr. president, i yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. a senator: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. merkley: thank you. few things are harder in this

job than when you have to say good-bye to a member of your team. it is impossible not to grow close to the men and women who make up that team. they become our colleagues, our friends, our families. i'm here on the floor today to recognize and bid farewell to a valuable and integral member of my senate family who after more than five years is ready to start the next chapter of her career. she is my state communications director, sarah hoffman. during her time on team merkley, sarah has not only helped communicate my message to the people back home in oregon about the work i'm doing on their behalf in d.c., but she has used her well-connected ear to the ground to help keep me in the loop on issues back home.

i have come to depend on her to keep me on the right track. she never shies away from delivering hard truths when needed. she has used her vast resources as a communicator as head of strategic communications for the oregon zoo to help deliver our message to the people of the state. it doesn't hurt that in her spare time, sarah is a prolific kickboxer, so when she tells me something, i listen. she has been a real leader on our team, including her participation in our inclusion steering committee she has done an amazing job putting together state events. we traveled all across our sizable state for events that included press conferences to

announce policies, press conferences to hear from stakeholders in our state, for example, roundtables with nurses and medical professionals who are on the front lines of fighting the pandemic. and our events included town halls, that gathering with community leaders in every county every year followed by a public town hall with people able to ask any question that they want. and our events included tours of state disasters. she expertly organized every event, ensuring media exposure and successfully striving to bring together a wide variety of expert and local voices to ensure that i was always learning more insights and perspectives on the issues that face us. and at the end of the day as we

prepared to overnight around the state in preparation for another long day, she always knew the perfect local waterhole to reminisce on how things had gone and how to prepare the day that follows. when something went off the rails unexpectedly, she found a way to turn it into an opportunity. when i was surveying damage to a town incinerated by the 2020 labor day fires, i became so emersed in examining the fire damage, that the rest of the delegation went on to the next event and suddenly i realized we were left behind. she didn't miss a beat. she used that time to gather more local community members who had been so impacted by the devastation, losing their homes, she managed to find a reporter who had also been left behind

and arranged an impromptu one on one exclusive, so i uselized that opportunity to learn more and to communicate more when it could have just been a misstep. well, that's what she does, turn missteps into opportunities. cool and calm under pressure, she has a way of making everyone feel important and seen. she connection with folks everywhere she goes. thinking back to one town hall we did in early 2020 before the pandemic had shut things down. it was a small gathering in a classroom of a local school. but in that group was a young girl who was simply entranced by sarah and throughout the town hall she was following her around, imitating when sarah would take photos, asking questions of sarah and sarah,

being the person she is, let the girl ask questions and all the while -- that is the charming ability to connect with folks. and to stay calm in unexpected situations that have made traveling around the state, long, busy travel days a real joy for the entire team. and when the pandemic turned our world upside down in march of last year, she used her leadership and organizing skills to help me and the entire team transition to the virtual world we were suddenly thrown into. she turned our town halls and weekly sessions with local reporters and television stations into virtual events so i could continue to provide information and connect with constituents during this

extraordinary national crisis. she led the charge in updating our website to provide a one-stop shop resources for residents and local businesses for information on how to get the help they needed. to say that sarah will leave a large hole in our team when she heads off to her new responsibilities would be an understatement. every member of our office, whether in washington, d.c., or back home in oregon is going to miss her bright smile, her sharp wit, her infectious energy, her brilliant mind, not to mention we will also miss her border collie license who has been a therapy dog for all of us. sair -- sarah, if you were watch -- if you are watching weeks and the extended merkley family wish you well.

thank you for all you have done these past five years and thank you for all you will continue to do to help build a better world for the people of oregon and the people of our nation. thank you, mr. president. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. cotton koonlt i ask -- mr. cotton: i ask consent to end the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cotton: 20 years ago this week the china became a member of the world trade organization and there was great rejoicing across washington by lobbist and bureaucrats and among wall street bankers and most of all for the communists. but for americans out in the heartland like in arkansas, china's entrance into the w.t.o. was nothing to celebrate. that is when they were left

exposed to the chinese communist party. millions of americans lost good-paying blue collar jobs to the china trade and the years that followed, countless small towns and working-class neighborhoods were gutted. michigan lost 24% of its manufacturing jobs, ohio loss 27% of its manufacturing jobs and my home state lost 26% of all manufacturing jobs since china joined the world trade organization. the opioid crisis then killed thousands of those left behind. 20 years ago was nothing less than a great hollowing of our industrial base, economy and working class. it's worth recalling what our leader said and what they promised as they unleashed this disaster. during the years-long lobbying

campaign for china, then-president bill clinton said it's ironic that so many americans are concerned about the impact on the world of a strong china. from an economic standpoint he said, quote, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. it was all upside for america, if only those knuckle draggers opposed the china world trade organization joining would get out of the way. it was in both parties, to be sure. four years after china joined the w.t.o., republican u.s. trade representative bob zellick said that, quote, our policy has succeeded remarkably well. the dragon emerged and joined the world. it turns out not surprisingly this dragon and fangs and claws

and it is sitting on top of a vast pile of a lotted wealth -- a lotted wealth. those creators have created a monser. let's review some of the numbers, sis 2001, china's economy has grown by 1,200% transforming a third-world backwashington water -- backwater into the largest industrial power in the world. the p.r.c. makes one out of four automobiles in the world. more than the united states, japan, and south korea combined. combined. it makes one out of every three merchant ships. in the united states we make basically none. in addition china produces 40% of mobile phones, 70% of televisions and 96% of shipping

containers on which global commerce moves. equally worrisome china has gained a stranglehold over the production of essential materials. china produces more than half of the world's steel, two-thirds of its active ingredients in active drugs and processes 85% of rare earth elements which are used in everything from the smart money phone in your pocket to advanced fighter jets. china is also making strides in technology. the space agency sent the world's first quantum communications satellite into orbit. it already possesses 200 of the word's 500 fastest supercomputers and chairman xi jinping has pledged an astounding $1.4 trillion over six years to help china take the lead in cutting edge fields like semiconductors and artificial intelligence. the stark fact is that china controls nearly a quarter of

global trade, a stunning 70%, 70%, seven out of ten countries in the world trade more with china than with the united states. now trks would be one thing -- it would be one thing if china got rich and powerful through the honest way, fair competition and trade with other countries. instead china has gotten rich through a spree of intellectual property theft, industrial espionage. strong arm trade agreements and illegal subsidies and protection. or as the office of u.s. trade representative wrote, china has continued to embrace a state-led nonmarket and mercantilist approach to the economy and trade despite w.t.o. members' expectations. and china's own representations, that china would transform its economy and pursue the open market oriented policies endorsed by the w.t.o.

despite w.t.o.'s members' expectations. w.t.o. members are stupid if they expected china to change its ways. but in other words, china lied and the rest of the world has paid the price. china is the world's most prolific i.p. thief, stealing the equivalent of arkansas' economy two times over every year, year after year and that's just the beginning. the chinese government recruits its citizens working and studying in our country to act as spies, infiltrating our research laboratories and companies and college campuses to steal valuable secrets. chinese nationals are the subject of nearly half, half of all f.b.i. counterintelligence cases involving economic espionage. the chinese communist party also uses illegal subsidies and trade practices, like dumping to help its national champions offload their stolen goods below market

prices. the chinese government has poured tens of billions of dollars into its steel industry encouraging overcapacity to flood foreign markets with cheap chinese steel. as a result, china's production of crude steel rose from 15% of the world's total to 50% between 2000 and 2017 while 64% of america's raw steel producers were totally wiped out, two-thirds of them gone. of course, the world trade organization exists supposedly, allegedly to curb these kinds of abuses. but as utterly -- has utterly failed to get china to change its ways and live up to its promises. if anything under chairman xi, china has dropped eep the pretense, even the pretense that it's on the path of fraying its economy in society. 20 years after china entered the w.t.o., it's clear that china has betrayed our trust and is waging an economic war against

us. we didn't seek out this conflict but now that it's started, we have no choice but to finish it. congress can start by passing my bill, the china trade relations act to terminate china's permanent normal trade relations status. we ought to acknowledge that there is nothing normal about our trading relationship with china and we cannot afford for the state of affairs to be permanent. we should return to the pre-w.t.o. status quo that recognized china as a nonmarket communist country to which i would add now committing genocide against its own people. if we do this, we can begin to fix the historic mistake that our leaders made 20 years ago when they welcomed china into the w.t.o. with open arms and open wallets. and unleashed that dragon on the world. mr. president, i yield the floor and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: mr. president, i ask for averbiation of the -- a vitiation of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mark markey: thank you. i rise today in opposition to the latest effort by republicans to undermine americans' health and safety. covid-19 remains a grave danger. we have lost more thannen --

more than 775,000 americans to this virus, and cases are rising yet again. despite this clear and present danger, millions of workers across this country have been showing up to their jobs every day since this pandemic began. essential workers -- nurses, doctors, janitors, security guards, retail employees, and countless more. we're never able to work remotely. we can't zoom to the cash register checkout or the driver's seat of a bus. but these workers faced and continue to face on-the-job exposures, and the hazards those exposures entail. we are lucky to have tools to mitigate these dangers for workers, testing works, vaccine works, booster shots work, masks work, and as these new variants begin circulating around the globe, and as vaccine effectiveness begins to wane,

for those who were among the first vaccinated, especially for older americans and immune compromised, it is incredibly important that everyone get their boosters now. let me just say that again. if you are eligible, don't wait. get your booster shot now. if you have two shots already, and you got them six months ago, you are not fully vacks naped. if you don't have your third shot right now, you're not fully vaccinated, if you have two shots already, and it's more than six months after you got those first two shots. understand that, when you say i'm vaccinated. is not -- it's not accurate. you need the third shot. not only do the vaccines work, but vaccines requirements work. they increase vaccination rates and improve worker safety. weaver seen in massachusetts as the state government implemented vaccine requirements, vaccination rates approached 95% of state employees. we aren't just the bay state,

we're also the brain state. we listen to what scientists and medical experts are telling us. so, to protect workers, the occupational safety and health administration, or osha, at the department of labor, published a rule known as an emergency temporary standard. an emergency temporary standard. or ets. that emergency temporary standard will keep employees safe by requiring large companies to ensure that each of their workers is fully vaccinated. and if employees cannot or will not be vaccinated, they simply must test negative for covid-19 at least once a week before coming into work. it's as simple as that. get vaccinated, or get tested. the e.t.s. also requires that employees protect their coworkers by wearing a mask in

the workplace. this requirement is not onerous. in fact, it is flexible for workers to require employees to provide paid time off to workers to get vaccinated. it ensures that paid leave is provided for recovery from any side effects of the vaccinations to keep employees from being able to work. these are simple, common sense rules that will save lives -- testing, masks, vaccines, boosters. osha estimates that its emergency temporary standard will prevent 6,500 people from dying, and 250,000 people from having to go to become hospitalized over just a six-month period. but while democrats and the

biden administration are doing everything possible to maintain an economic and health recovery, republicans are doing everything they can to undercut science and confidence in this administration. this latest attempt, trying to overturn the osha emergency temporary standard and threatening to undermine the health and safety of millions of workers, is outrageous. and the worst kind of political stunt. we mandate vaccinations for our children so that they can be healthy and go to school. we mandate vaccinations so our servicemembers are protected in the line of duty. let's protect our workers and our workplaces so that they can stay healthy and stay on the job. but mr. president, there is a terrible irony here from my republican colleagues. at the exact same time that the grand old party is bemeaning this osha worker protection

effort as a so-called mandate, they are celebrating mandating government control over women's reproductive freedom at the supreme court. they would rather mandate government control over a woman's body than mandate worker safety. if we want to end this pandemic, we need to get as many people vaccinated as we can. unfortunately, republicans see a political benefit to prolonging the pain and the suffering from the virus and preventing vaccinations where possible. this is wrong. this is immoral. and i urge my colleagues to support the osha emergency temporary standard. i urge my colleagues to support that emergency temporary standard and oppose this effort by republicans to overturn this critical, life-protecting regulation which is on the books

if we can keep it there. so we need to ensure that we are saying to every family, we have your back. we are going to be protecting you. we're going to make sure those safeguards are in place. mr. president, with that, i yield back and i question the presence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cruz: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cruz: mr. president, i rise today to strongly oppose the confirmation of rachael rollins to be u.s. he were to in massachusetts -- to be u.s. attorney in massachusetts. many americans have probably never heard of rachael rollins, but they are becoming very familiar with the kind of lawlessness and dangerous crime that radical left-wing district attorneys like her have generated. under their watch, we've seen looting and larceny and violent crime rates rise in cities all over the country the past couple of years. ms. rollins is part of a web of left-wing district attorneys across the country who see it as their job not to prosecute

crime. rather, to protect criminals. there's ms. rollins in boston, chesabubine in san francisco, larry crasser in in philadelphia and -- -- krasner in philadelphia. what's happened with these prosecutors who refuse to prosecute crime? well, all too predictably, crime rates have skyrocketed. last year the murder rate went up nearly 30% overall, and it went up 40% in cities with populations between 100,000 and 250,000. we've seen horrific crimes and tragedies that could have been prevented if these d.a.'s had simply done their jobs. take john chisholm.

the d.a. in milwaukee who released darryl brooks, a repeat and dangerous criminal on $1,000 bail. what was the crime he was charged with? using his vehicle, a red s.u.v., to run down a woman, the mother of his child. released on a thousand-dollar bail. what happened? brooks, as we all know, drove that same red s.u.v. through a christmas parade, murdered six people, including an 8-year-old boy. that man should not have been on the street, should not have been behind the wheel. the d.a. knew he was a violent criminal who used that s.u.v. as an instrument of violence, and

for a thousand dollars, the left-wing d.a. let him go. had brooks not been out on such a low bail, this horrific tragedy wouldn't have occurred. that 8-year-old boy would still be alive. our communities don't need prosecutors who endanger the very communities they're supposed to serve by refusing to prosecute or detain criminals. they don't need left-wing prosecutors who let violent criminals walk the streets. the damage that these so-called prosecutors can do has, thankfully, been somewhat limited by the fact that when they choose not to prosecute criminals, the federal government has the ability in many instances to step in and charge criminals federally. but joe biden and senate democrats are working to change

that. by elevating one of these radical soft-on-crime leftist attorneys rachael rollins to be u.s. attorney in massachusetts, a the chief federal prosecutor in the entire state of massachusetts. let's talk a bit more about what exactly rachael rollins believes prosecutors should do and what her record is. rachael rollins has been vocal and aggressive against prosecuting crime. she has been very clear that she came into the job of district attorney as a crusader. she has said -- and these are her words -- if you want to change the criminal legal system, become a prosecutor [because they have the] power to determine charges, what crimes to decline to prosecute or

divert, [and] how to fashion bail hearings. she's been quite open in what her intentions are. ms. rollins tells us that what -- that's what matters about a prosecutor. it's not taking bad guys off the street. it's not seeking justice for the victims of crime. no, it is the power to say i won't prosecute these crimes. and with ms. rollins, it's not hypothetical, because she is a district attorney. and as the boston d.a., she went so far as to write down and quote the rachael rollins policy memo, a list of 15 crimes whose