and berkeley team or something to respond. mr. secretary, two quick comments and then an advocacy. in tampa structure built is the monarch highway act and came from l'amour alexander in tennessee to use highways to create insecticide free pollinator plots to help maintain the strength -- >> we're going to break away from this event to take you live to the u.s. senate part of our over for your commitment to bring you live coverage of congress. today, the senate will continue work on the house passed legislation to reform the u.s. postal service. lawmakers will also consider senator roger marshall joint resolution disapproving the centers for medicare and medicaid services covid-19 vaccine mandate for almost all healthcare workers. a final vote on the resolution has been scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

eastern. this is live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. mighty god, help us. protect us and preserve lives. be a shield for the nations of our world. do not abandon those who put their trust in you.

lord, provide our senators with a durable faith that will cling to you even during a raging tempus. thank you for being the god of our salvation who refuses to permit evil to triumph. be merciful to us, dear god, and grass us your peace for we find joy when we take refuge in you. we pray in your mighty name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the president pro tempore: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. a senator: mr. president? i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

class historic bipartisan, bicameral long-overdue reforms that will help ensure the stability and reform and long-term success of the united states postal service.

the postal service is one of our nations oldest and most trusted institutions. it serves as a critical lifeline for millions of americans including seniors and veterans and rural communities who expect the postal service to deliver vital mail including supplies and medications. however, for more than 15 years , this public service and its dedicated workers have been hindered by burdensomefinancial requirements . as a need to quickly pass these balanced reforms which are broadly supported by the american people has become increasingly urgent. one persistent burden that has been a requirement to pre-fund every single sense of healthcare benefits that every postal workeremployee will use and when they eventually retire no matter how far off that maybe . this is something no business in america is required to do.

and for good reason. it has imposed an enormous cost on the postal service that has threatened their ability to supply timely delivery. in recent years we've seen how burdensome policies have driven the postal service to resort to harsh measures to cut costs and as a result compromised delivery service. we must act now to set this critical institution on a sustainable financial footing by passing the postal service reform act. this bipartisan common sense legislation will save the postal service more than $49 billion in the next 10 years by eliminating the aggressive pre-funding requirement for retiree health benefits and integrating postal retirees healthcare with medicare.

these changes will help ensure the postal service which is self-sustaining and does not receive taxpayer funding can continues the people and avoid making severe cuts down the line that would impact millions of americans . these reforms will require the postal service to deliver six days a week so it can serve as a critical lifeline for immunities who need timely delivery of their essential needs. this legislation will also make the postal service more transparent and accountable to the american people by weekly local performance data publicly available online. enabling every single community to see exactly how the postalservice is performing in their area . i and introduced this legislation in the senate last year and have worked hand-in-hand with ranking member rob portman from ohio. as well as chair maloney ranking member coming on the house committee on oversight

and reform to craft this bill . last month, the house passed this legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support and last night we saw this body advantage with significant bipartisansupport once again . now the senate has a historic opportunity to move this legislation forward. and i'm proud to have felt secure significant bipartisan support or arsenic companion bill with a total of 14 democratic and 14 republican cosponsors backing the legislation. together we can finally after more than 15 years pass this common sense bipartisan legislation to set the postal service on a stable financial front and bring it into the future. we can support our dedicated and hard-working postal employees as well as customers they serve. we can set the postal service up for success so that

families and small businesses, veterans, seniors and all americans can rely on this critical public service as they have for generations. we can show the american people this body can set aside partisanship and work hand-in-hand to improve their lives. every single day that we delay will just hurt postal service. we must pass these urgently needed reforms and i heard all of my colleagues to support this legislation and passed it swiftly so that we can ensure the long-term success of this treasured institution and the essential role plays in the lives of every single american. >> i yield the floor. >> senator from ohio.

>> i rise today in support of the legislation my colleague from michigan talked about. this is hr 3076 postal service reform act but what it really is is insuring the post office works for the constituents i represent and people around the country. unfortunately right now the post office is in trouble. and it's in direneed of reform. and if wedon't do it , we're going to have big problems . those have just had its 15th annual consecutive net loss in 2021 and have projected their going to be insolvent in the next few years unless we make these reforms.and other reforms as well that can be made by the post office itself. in fact they project a 10 year loss of $160 billion if we justcontinue with the status quo . the reality is the postal service is delivering less and less first-class mail. where online, not sending as many letters as we used to and yet there are more addresses because people want to get the mail they do deliver, the packages, the direct mail and so on.

it doesn't work. it's a recipe for ruling if we don't adjust to the new reality and make necessary changes. last year senator peters and i introduced legislation with 26 cosponsors evenly divided between republicans and democrats. i would say we tried to keep it nonpartisan. what can be more nonpartisan than trying to save the post office? everybody cares about the post office want to be sure it's working efficiently. it's not a partisan issue. it's of importance to all americans, young, old, everybody. i hear a lot about it back home from my constituents, a constituent wrote me and said my father a veteran of the vietnam war and has copd and is 70 years old. he receives his life-saving medication through the mail. my father can't breathe without his daily inhaler. we've got to be sure the post office works for him. constituent from montgomery road as a disabled veteran i

need to vote by mail. we have the ability to vote by mail in ohio with no-fault absentee but it requires the post office towork . it doesn't work well if the balance does not count it. constituent from michelin county wrote the post office is essential to millions of americans including seniors and veterans who dependent on it for medications, small business owners who are struggling, everybody . putting the postal service on sound financial footing cannot be accomplished through an act of congress alone. so this is not just about passing along here, we're going to do that we made a good vote last night and we will get more people supporting it as it goes through the week but it's also about reforms the post office will make itself . and the current postmaster general lewis d joy has embarked on an ambitious plan to transform the post office by finding efficiencies including transforming

existing capabilities to more efficiently meet the needs of the american people so he's taking on a 10 year plan to make certain changes to make the post office moreefficient but he's made clearto us he needs the financial space to do that. he needs headroom here by us making important changes in congress we have a role to play two . this is what we do . first we eliminate a burdensome andunique pre-funding requirement for retiree health benefits . congressman did this in 2006 for current employees regardless of age. that has crippled the post office financially. pre-funding of retiree health benefits is not something anybody else has to do. it's really uniquely post office, federal government does not do that. the private sector. >>

an honor in my time in public service to meet with judge jackson for the

first time since her nomination to the supreme court. before the meeting, i said judge jackson is brilliant and beloved. but now that i met her, i'll add another word, belongs. she is not only brilliant, but she belongs on the supreme court. i believe she merits a good number of votes from both parties and i hope we see that as we move forward in the process. i am certain that when other senators have a chance to meet with judge jackson they'll understand why she is beyond qualified to replace justice breyer on the supreme court. for one, if confirmed, judge jackson would have one of the most i did verse professional backgrounds. she has been a federal defender, worked in private practice, sat on the u.s. sentencing commission, served as a district judge and as a circuit court judge on the d.c. circuit.

and, of course, she was a clerk to justice breyer, the very same justice whose seat she would fill. she rendered more than 550 rulings and rarely reversed by higher courts, illustrating her application of the law and facts. and when you meet with her, mr. president, you see, because -- she has brought that broad experience and adopted it into her being. she empathizes with people. she emphasized to me that as a judge, she should try to understand both sides and you could tell when you met her that she really believed and since has sort of integrated all of her experiences into her being. she was incredibly phenomenal interview as well as with an amazing record. so for all of these reasons, judge jackson's nomination has already won support from

individuals and organizations across the political spectrum. she is supported by civil rights advocates, she's supported by conservative judges and lawyers, she is supported by the fraternal order of police. someone who was a public defender now supported by the fraternal order of police. you can't get much better than that. and she's supported by scores of men and women who had the honor of working with her over the years. i went through her record. you can hardly find a single person whose she met as she walked through life have a single bad thing to say about her and when you see her, you can see why. america will be much better off with a judge like judge jackson on the supreme court. we need someone whose elevation as the first black woman justice signifies a long overdue step toward protecting our union.

i'm grateful to have had a chance to have met with the judge. i thank her for her time this morning and i look forward to work with my colleagues to elevate this outstanding nominee to the supreme court soon. having met her and studied her record, she deserves support from members on the other side of the aisle and i'm hopeful she'll get a good number to support her. noun on the state of the union. last night president biden made a case to the nation and the world that in the face of immense challenges, the united states remains strong. in a chamber much fuller than last year, president biden demonstrated the kind of leader he has been for all of his life, optimistic, unifying, and decent, and honest. i applaud president biden for laying out a bold, strong and

comprehensive vision that will resonate with the vast majority of americans. in particular, i was glad the president focused on three important things. first, he united the parties in supporting ukraine and against putin. second, he showed how under democratic leadership, america has turned the corner on covid and, third, he confronted the urgency of lowering costs for the american families, something our caucus has been focusing on. first, i was glad that president biden united the room, the country, and the world in opposing vladimir putin and his savage assaults on ukraine. it's obvious that the president's done an incredibly good job unifying the europeans and the west as a united front against putin. and that was felt by people on both sides of the aisle. when the president called on the chamber to stand up and applaud

oksana markaroffa, it reminded me of the unity we felt in 9/11. that unity comes with the sober recognition that the scale of putin brutality is worsen. more than 2,000 civilians, men, women, children -- children have now been killed as a result of putin's savage brutality. what is happening in ukraine is carnage and the blood of every one of those innocent people falls in the hands of vladimir putin and his crony oligarchs. in an important step, last night the senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that will protect america, our government, and our critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, finally, the

holds were lifted from the other side of the aisle and we wafd unanimous -- and we passed, unanimously, it these cyber legislation. it is more important now than ever before because putin is brandishing a cyber weapon. cyber warfare is one of the dark arts of putin's regime. it employs it around the world. when we know about these attacks, we can prepare against future attacks, they will know who is attacking, where they are attacking and where. they will allow us to develop defenses against future cyberattacks. the urgency of the moment, the need to protect ourselves from cyberattacks, finally the senate rose to the occasion. so i thank senators peters and portman for getting this bill

done. the passage of this bill was little noticed because it came right before congress adjourned for the state of the union. but it's a giant step forward to protecting ourselves and i'm glad that we got it done last night. but, of course, with we must do more. the senate must keep working on a bipartisan basis to pass a robust aid package in the upcoming omnibus, so we can send an unmistakable signal to ukraine that we stand with them and that we stand against putin. the omnibus needs to get done next week, so i'm glad that we seem to be having bipartisan support to get that done. second, i was also glad president biden showed how the country, under democratic leadership, is turning the corner fighting covid-19. by passing legislation to fund vaccines, expand testing and support our health care workers,

we are beating this disease. what the president said last night was absolutely correct. we cannot -- we cannot have covid control our lives anymore, but neither can we let our guard down. right now as cases are dropping across the board, congress must pass more funding for vaccines, testing, and therapeutics. therapeutics is a word for medication that helps alleviate the virilance of covid. people who take it rarely have to be hospitalized and we need to be sure that our health care workers are prepared in case another variant comes this way so that we can stay as close to normal even -- sorry, so we can stay as close to normal as possible even if another variant arrives. we have to have an ample supply of vaccines, of therapeutics, of testing ahead of time.

we can't wait. some of our republican colleagues seem to be saying, oh, we don't need this now. we do need it now while we still have the chance. if congress waits until another variant arrives, it will be too late. so let me say that again. even as cases drop across the board, we cannot be complacent against covid. congress must pass more covid funding now so we can be ready by funding vaccines, testing, therapeutics and supporting our health care workers. if congress waits until another variant arrives, it will be too late. so we need our republican colleagues to join us in a bipartisan way, just as they are joining us on ukraine. finally, i'm glad that president biden zeroed in on cutting costs for american families. a year into the president's first year, the economy is surging and creating an unprecedented number of jobs.

but people are struggling because costs are also going up. your wages are going up but if the costs keep going up, it eats up those wage increases. now why are costs up? costs are up because of supply chain disruptions stemming from covid and pent up demand as people in covid didn't buy things. all the while americans watch incredulously as some of our largest corporations are raising prices despite growing profits. in some cases executives are seen -- seeing lavish pay increases and in the end americans are footing the bill. senate democrats will not stand for this, and we're working with the president to lower costs and build upon the wage growth we've seen over the past year. we're laser focused on reducing america's costs from lowering the cost of insulin so no one pays more than $35 a month to lowering the cost of all prescription drugs, to lowering the cost of meat at the grocery store, to fixing our ocean

shipping lines so the bottlenecks don't raise their costs. shipping costs have gone way up, as the president mentioned. and you know what else we could do to lower costs? we can innovate. congress should continue working to finalize our bipartisan, bicameral jobs and supply chains bill so we can boost american manufacturing, solve our chip crisis, and make our country less dependent on foreign tech companies. in short, despite everything the world faces, president biden reminded supporters and critics alike why the american people entrusted him with the presidency. he didn't shy away from our challenges but rather advanced an optimistic and unifying plan for how to meet the moment. senate democrats will continue working with the president to precisely to move our country forward on lowering costs, on addressing covid, and defending our democracy in this hour of peril. i thank the president for his leadership. let us continue in our work.

i yield the floor. the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of h.r. 3076 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 273, h.r. 3076, an act to provide stability to and enhance the services of the united states postal service and for other purposes.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: last night president biden gave his state of the union address that might have worked okay for a popular

administration that had been successfully tackling america's problems and actually earning high marks. but that's not the reality in which we live. democrats spent the last 12 months making major and painful policy errors. the public overwhelmingly disapproves. president biden didn't need to stay the course and rehash a scattered wish list. he needed to make a dramatic -- but he chose not to. the president first discussed ukraine. everyone agrees with the sentiments president biden expressed, but the sentiments are not enough. the president articulated no meaningful new steps, no specific plan. he made no explicit commitment

to keep flowing weapons, intelligence and advanced capabilities into ukraine as long as the ukranians need them. nor did he explain why his administration was slow to provide lethal assistance in the first place. instead the president focused on trying to claim credit for the remarkable european and worldwide response that his administration did not foresee let alone orchestrate. apart from ukraine, the president's other remarks on our dangerous world were not just insufficient, they were basically nonexistent. the president spoke for over an hour but only mentioned china twice. neither time had anything to do with national security or military modernization.

the president only mentioned iran one time, and it was literally by accident. zero mentions of north korea, zero mentions of the botched afghanistan retreat the administration originally boasted was a, quote, success, end quote. our 13 servicemembers who lost their lives completely unmentioned until governor reynolds took the microphone. and zero mentions of rebuilding the defense budget that president biden actually tried to cut last year. meanwhile, the president's speech tried to skate by the serious kitchen table concerns that are actually keeping families up at night. the president talked about made in america but keeps fighting against energy independence. democrats want us to buy american but not american oil or

gas. on president biden's watch, we've set a new record for importing russian oil and we're begging opec to produce even more. and his energy vision is to dump huge subsidies into supply chains that are dominated by china, borrowing from our grandkids to build back beijing. the president tried yet again to revive the spending plans which the bipartisan majority of senators have already killed and baueryed -- buried because they would make inflation even worse. he tried to brag about fancy technology on our southern border as if we hadn't just seen a new record for illegal crossings on his watch. the president's address was not responsive to the country's concerns. he needed to pivot but he didn't. cnn conducting an instant poll. as you might expect it

oversampled democrats. even so, the percentage who gave the president's speech high marks was the lowest they'd seen in 15 years. now, kim reynolds offered the clearest possible contrast. she spoke for the working families who are suffering under democrat policies. she outlined a commonsense republican vision of stability at home, strength abroad, law and order in our streets, and sanity in our public schools. november is just months away. if president biden does not correct course sharply and quickly, the american people may correct the course for him. now, on an entirely different matter, one of the occupational hazards of senate service is having to say goodbye to truly markable staff professionals -- remarkable staff professionals.

i've already been through this rodeo with angie schulte all the way back in 1988. the dedicated case worker left my office for the nonprofit sector. but back in 2010 i leapt at the chance to hire angie back as my state office manager and her second tour of duty has been a huge success. i've known angie for 40 years now. i've watched her master a wide variety of roles. she's an integral part of my state office. she keeps all of us on task and on time. but unfortunately, tomorrow her second tour of service will end with a second farewell. angie is retiring after decades of hard work and phenomenal public service. for 12 years angie has been the steady rudder steering my in-state team.

if there was a complicated problem, she'd fix it. a scheduling conflict? she'd resolve it. a new staffer needed help going into her role? she provided it. angie combines meticulous efficiency with a totally charming and cheerful demeanor. my relationship with angie predates my time in the senate. her mother worked for me. i was a newly elected republican who needed all the smarts and all the help i could get. ang any's mother -- angie's mother proved valuable. i quickly pro promoted her not once but twice.

when i won statewide in 1984 -- when i won statewide in 1984, angie was one of my first state hires. with the ability to settle parking piewnts piewts and parking -- disputes and parking tickets, she helped to get through the red tape. angie grew into the consummate public servant. our team is overjoyed to welcome angie back after working for one of the commonwealth's largest nonprofits. angie is famous for humming and whistling while she works and for throwing extravagant birthday parties for her colleagues. she has a permanent positive

attitude and boy, does she get results for kentucky. as you can see, it has been an honor to have angie's talent on our team. when her sterling 40-year career ends tomorrow, i hope our friendship does not. i wish you every happiness when you spend more time with steve and with your grandkids. i'm eternally grateful for our outstanding good work. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

>> is how this law was crafted to meet the needs of different states. different states having different needs. and in arizona, one top priority is funding the strength in our states internet highways. arizona is different from many other states. when the interstate highway system was designed in the 1950s and 60s, arizona was a small population state and their infrastructureneeds looked a lot different . compared to other regions arizona state highways are not designed to meet the needs of a growing state and growing southwest. right now interstate 10 which connects phoenix and tucson, the two largest metropolitan areas of the state still to this day just as two lanes and sections, long sections.

and a single accident can cause traffic jams for hours. i've spent 6 and a half hours on that highway stuck in a traffic jam when the normal drive is about 90 minutes. these traffic jams happen every day onaverage . and despite being two of the fastest growing cities in the country, another issue we have is phoenix and las vegas . phoenix and las vegas are still not connected by an interstate highway and that's why i worked in this committee and on the floor to support the creation of the new national infrastructure project assistance program which we are calling the megaprojects program to fund major transportation projects with national or regional economic mobility and safety benefits.or in other words, projects like the icann expansion between phoenix and

tucson for construction of i 11 between phoenix and las vegas would be these megaprojects. mister secretary, would you agree that arizona and other fast-growing states have different roadway infrastructure needs and other states and how do you believe the infrastructure law can help states like arizona fund for long overdue interstate expansion projects ? >> thank you for the question and the example you raise is a great one of how the infrastructure needs of our states differ . i come from a community that lost about 30 percent of its population in the 60s, 70s 80s until the time i was there so we built for more roads and we had taxpayers or drivers to support them and found in some context some of our roads needed to go on a diet although i'm pleased to say my hometown is going again but some of the fastest-growing or in places like arizona and the needs are an example of why for

example in federal highways internal guidance there was an effort to point out none of that would stand in the way of a capacity expansion where it's appropriate and you've raised both the need for our division for an entirelynew stretch of highway with 11 or capacity expansion on i can . there are many sources of funding in the formula funds potentially megaprojects and others that could go towards this infrastructure law. i had one thing i've admired in arizona is the funding and support that's wanting to transit including across unity lines, party lines, county lines and that can serve to take pressure off of congestion even while capacity expansion is being considered at the same time. it's. >> is there anything youcan share about the timing for the makeup projects program ? >>

spree, the so-called american

rescue plan act helped create this crisis. the american rescue plan helped working people and left no one behind the president said in his speech last night. it worked. it worked, he said. well, mr. president, if president biden believes that, i've got some oceanfront property in south dakota to sell him. americans are suffering in large part due to the american rescue plan. it was not a targeted covid relief bill. it was a massive, unnecessary spending spree that sent too much government money into the economy, and predictably the economy overheated as a result. now, i'm glad that democrats are starting to acknowledge our inflation crisis, but it would be nice to see them recognize how it came about and commit to

not repeating their mistakes in the future. mr. president, inflation is the to this the only domestic crisis that we've been facing on democrats' watch. america is experiencing a border crisis that has resulted in security enforcement and humanitarian nightmare. almost from the day the president took office we have seen a massive surge in attempted illegal immigration across our southern border. in january, 150,000 individuals were caught trying to cross our border, the highest january number in more than 20 years. these, numbers, of course, only reflect individuals the border patrol has been able to apprehend. a department official said that more than 200,000 people evaded apprehension since october and

have disappeared into our country. more than 200,000 individuals. well, it's not surprising, mr. president, the border patrol is stretched then and lack of resources to deal with this never ending border surge. but it is deeply concerning. there are 200,000 people entering our country without any security check or vetting, raising the risk of drug traffickers, criminals, or even terrorists finding their way into our communities. but perhaps the most concerning thing is that a full year after this massive surge began, the president generally continues to act as if this border crisis doesn't exist. he's apparently unaware of or can't be bored to deal with the real security -- the real security risk this represents for our country. the president did allude to

securing the border last night, he does that periodically, but given his track record, i'm not holding my breath. and when it comes to the world stage, things are a little better. the president's first year in office was distinguished by his disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan, which weakened our national security, diminished our standing with our allies and resulted in our abandoning to his of after fans who worked -- afghans who worked with us and who we promised to protect. we are facing another crisis, russia's unprovoked invasion of ukraine. proab was -- president biden was slow to move weapons and resists sanctions before russia's attack. i hope the president will stand strong against russia's

aggression and not impose additional sanctions. the united states is not thriving under democrat control and a big reason for that is because the president and congressional democrats have had one thing on their mind since taking office and that is implementing a wide-ranging, far-left socialist agenda. democrats lack of leadership on the big issues facing our country and our world has been striking, and i think the truth is that democrats have seen those big issues as distraction from their real goal in taking office and that is implementing that far-left agenda. so while inflation spiked and then spiked again, democrats were awol. they were focused on passing a massive tax and spending spree that would unquestionably make our inflation problem even worse. when that failed, they turned to a federal focus of a take over

of the election laws. this week, as vladimir putin continued to pursue his apparent dream of reconstituting the soviet union by pushing further into ukraine, democrats took a vote on of all things, legislation to remove virtually all state-level restrictions on abortion. yes, that was the big vote this week. legislation to remove nearly every state-level restriction on abortion despite the fact, i might add, that the majority of the american people support restrictions on abortion. that doesn't matter to democrats. if the planned parenthood wing of the party wants a vote on unrestricted abortion on demand, that's what it gets. yet another example of just how far the democrat party is run to the left and just how disconnected democrats have become, last week john kerry who

serves as president biden's climate chief expressed his hope that war with ukraine would be averted because of the carbon emissions. such a war would create, and how the war might distract from climate change. you can't make it up, mr. president. at the time of his remarks, russia was on the verge of invading a sovereign nation and possibly condemning an entire country to soviet oppression, and a key member of the president's administration was worried about how the war might distract from climate change. mr. president, i'm a long-time supporter of clean energy, but we have a big problem when members of our country's leadership are looking at the imperialist takeover of a sovereign nation, and their biggest concern is not human life and human freedom but

carbon emissions. it's another sign of just how ideological the democrat party has become. nothing, nothing is allowed to come between the democrat party and its far-left agenda. mr. president, president biden made some nods toward some bipartisanship last night, but it remains to be seen whether democrats and the president are capable of setting aside their far-left agenda to address the priorities facing this country. and given some of the measures the president proposed last night, i have my doubts. but i hope, i hope for the sake of our nation that democrats rethink their ever more rigid allegiance to the far left and instead to work with republicans in a bipartisan fashion. the american people deserve better than what democrats have given them over this past year. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i suggest the absence of a

quorum. the presiding officer: will the senator withdraw? mr. thune: i withdraw. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to the consideration of s. j. resolution 32 which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 291, s.j. res. 32 providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 united states code of the rules submitted by the centers for medicare and medicaid services relating to medicare and medicaid programs omnibus covid-19 health care vaccination. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 2:30 p.m. is equally divided between the leaders or their designees.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. are we in a quorum call, mr. president? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, as i speak here today on the united states postal service reform act, russian president vladimir putin is waging a cruel, unjust, and barbaric war of choice financed by a global addiction to fossil fuels, an addiction which russia is only too happy to exploit right now. and the most effective way to reduce the long-term security threat to ukraine and europe and the united states and the whole world is to say that we are going to empty vladimir putin's oil and gas-funded piggy bank setting ourselves and our allies

on the course to a future powered by domestic clean energy. we can use the power of our federal government to not only apply sanctions but also destroy putin's dirty energy business model. the united states government had 700,000 vehicles in its fleet. 160,000 of the united states government's vehicles belong to the united states postal service. our postal service could play an important role in destroying the putin business model by committing to clean instead of dirty energy to fuel its fleet. and it should start by reversing postmaster general louis de dejoy's short-term decision to buy dirty new postal trucks,

energy inefficient postal trucks, gas guzzling postal trucks. as we import oil from russia, we don't need a new fleet of gas guzzling postal vehicles in the united states because if we don't get a truly next-general ration electric fleet of postal trucks, we need the next generation of postal leadership delivered express to the american people. this is just the latest stop in dejoy's disastrous postal route, and it's time for him to resign. this is just a leftover agenda from the trump years, this commitment to inefficiency, to the consumption unnecessarily of

oil and natural gas in our country. the postal service board of governors and the biden administration just can't let this bad business, bad for climate, bad for health decision to stand. if dejoy won't get rid of this decision, the united states postal service should get rid of him, especially at this moment where russia is fueling an unconscionable invasion of ukraine with oil money from the united states. it's the american people who have been paying $20 billion a year for russian oil coming into our country to put in the gasoline tanks of the united states. and then he takes that money and uses it to buy tanks and planes

and weapons to invade the ukraine. a new fleet of electric postal trucks would receive a stamp of approval from the american people as it would lower costs, reduce pollution, and provide public health benefits while backing out the russian oil that comes into our country every single day. louis dejoy wants to claim he doesn't have the money to go electric, but that fault statement should be marked return to sender. one study found that full electrification would save the united states postal service $4.3 billion over the lifetime of the fleet. in other words, going all electric saves money for the

american taxpayer because going all electric is cheaper than going all gasoline or all diesel. we just save money but we don't have to send any money to putin to run our postal service because that just doesn't make any sense in 2022. since taking office in 2020, louis dejoy has tried to pinch pennies at the united states postal service. so why is he now proposing a fiscally irresponsible plan that leaves $4.3 billion on the table instead of in united states postal service budget? if our new postal fleet is made up of vehicles that get less than ten miles to the gallon, no better than the vehicles already in use, we're going to be tying our mail delivery system of the future to the dirty oil,

inefficient oil, inefficient vehicle strategy of the past. we shouldn't be proposing the postal service use the same energy from the time of the pony express and these vehicles that we're using today move at about the same speed as the pony express. it's time for us to just think smarter and not harder. that's all electric. that's backing out oil. that's just saying that we can have an infinity sign next to the efficiency of these vehicles which we are driving, and not this ten mile a gallon 1930's, 1920's view of how efficient the postal vehicles in our country should be. so this is simple. electric postal trucks are cheaper. electric postal trucks are cleaner.

and this isn't charity. it's business. and you don't have to take my word for it. ask some of our most successful companies in the mail delivery industry. these are the competitors to the postal service. the postal service is constantly coming up here and saying we need more subsidies, we need more help to compete against these private sector competitors. well, ups just placed a 10,000-vehicle purchase order for electric trucks. fedex is moving to achieve a fully electric fleet by the year 2040, and amazon is purchasing 100,000 new electric delivery vehicles that's 20 times more than our united states postal service is planning to get under louis dejoy.

these trucks also would work for ups' routes today. 96% of usps routes are compatible with electric postal routes. electric vehicles aren't the future. they work for us, for our budgets, and for our energy security right now. we need to protect our planet. and having all-electric vehicles just dramatically reduces the greenhouse gases that we emit. but we also have to protect our national security. we have to be teaming russia -- be telling russia we don't need your oil any more than we need your caviar. and the only way to do it ultimately is for the united states to just find a way to break our addiction. and the way to break our addiction is to just move to the kinds of transportation, automotive, united states postal service vehicles that don't need

oil and still get you just where you want to go. so that's our challenge right now. and we need to protect everything, everything. our health, our environment, our economy, our national security, and our own morality by ensuring that we move in this direction. and we need to protect our planet and our postal service by putting a forever stamp on our transportation future, a fleet of battery operated electric vehicles that will usher in a clean vehicle revolution in america and destroy the demand for oil and gas so that the business model of russia is destroyed. this is the weapon that we can be using. this is the message we should be sending to the rest of the world. so i urge the white house, the united states postal service, the congress to take any and all

possible steps to right this wrong decision from louis dejoy. the united states postal service needs to tear up this deal and buy a clean fleet. and if it doesn't, it needs to get a clean start without louis dejoy who's looking at the world in a rearview mirror. you have to look straight ahead to this all-electric vehicle future. let's ensure that the postal service next generation vehicles create a livable world for the next generation, not only for americans, but as a model for what the rest of the world has to do. when i hear -- what i hear from my republican friends and from the petroleum industry is, well, the biden administration should open up more leases to drill for more oil, to drill up more -- to

open up more leases. here's the problem with the american petroleum institute, the american giants have horded thousands and thousands of leases on public lands all across the united states and they have not drilled on them. i've introduced legislation for years saying use it or lose it. you want the lease, you say it's imperative, you're going to pay for that lease and then you don't drill on it. you know what they are doing, they just horde all of that land and it is the size of huge states in our country. that's how much land they have right now that is owned by the american people and leased to the oil companies. so they want to start drilling,

why did you bid for all those leases in the years gone by? you want to know why? they want to use this whole russia situation as an opportunity to get even more leases that they won't drill on. and to get them cheap and to create a false sense of emergency here when if they want to drill, they've already got all of the leases they would ever need. they have a backlog of 20 years they haven't even started on. when you hear these crocodile tears from the american petroleum industry, that's what it's all about. if they wanted to drill, they'd be drilling right now, onshore, offshore, they've got the leases. all they want to do is just get more and more and more and cheaper and cheaper and cheaper from the american people while fighting to stop an all-electric

vehicle revolution. stopping a wind and solar revolution in our country. that's what their agenda is. that's what the american petroleum institute is all about. it's stopping an all-electric revolution, it's stopping a wind and solar revolution, it's stopping a battery revolution because it destroys their business as well. not drilling on leases and coming in here that we demand -- and demanding in a lot of ways that we give them more leases that they are not going to drill on it, they will hoard it. it is a sad take on american corporate greed. but that's where we stand right now. be prepared to hear more lies on the american oil industry, lies that go right to the heart of

what we really have to do as americans for the next generation, and that's to stand up to those oil companies, stand up to the russian oil oligarchs and say, we're moving away from you historically. that's what young people in our country want. they want us to unleash our technological innovation genius in order to solve this problem, and it's wind and solar and all-electric vehicles and battery storage technologies. and it's a moral challenge first, it's an environmental challenge for us, it's an economic challenge for us. we can already see what the impact is of this oil control of the global economy has upon ordinary consumers in america and the rest of the world. inflation is spiking, oil.

russia is invading ukraine. oil. a new u.n. report says that we now have an ever-more dangerous warming of our planet. oil. and what do they do? they continue to lie. they continue to try to control our agenda so that we cannot pass the legislation to unleash our technological genius. that's our greatest strength. their greatest strength are their natural resources, but ultimately our greatest renewable resources are the brains of the american people, especially the younger people. because if they were unleashed to invent and deploy all of these new technologies, it would revolutionize not just our country but revolutionize the rest of the world. we gave our young people in the

1990's and early 2000's a chance to do that with the telecommunication system, it's called the internet, it's called broadband. our young people did that. we need to give the opportunity for young people to do the same thing so we back out the oil, we revolutionize the way in which we transport ourselves and we give hope to the rest of the planet that the united states is going to use all of its resources to accomplish that goal. so, mr. president, i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president.

mr. president, last night, of course we all listened to president biden's prime time opportunity to explain what his administration is doing to address the many challenges that our nation is facing. here at home we know family budgets are being plundered by the worst inflation in four decades. we're paying higher prices for everything from food to gasoline. we also know that there's been spikes in violent crime that have created public safety concerns in communities across the country. and after a year of hearing folks on the democratic side of the aisle, the progressive base of the democratic party calling for defunding the police, it was welcome to hear the president say last night we should fund the police. it's long overdue. and, of course, there's the humanitarian crisis at the

southern border. as i said before, texas has 120d thousands are coming into the interior of the united states given a notice to appear for that future court hearing which in all likelihood will never occur. the human smugglers and drug cartels have figured out the weaknesses in our own laws and policies and they are exploiting them to the detriment of the american people. on drugs alone, 100,000 american s died of drug overdoses last year, an overwhelming amount came across the border into the united states. the cartels are smart. they figure if you flood the

border with people, that will keep the border patrol busy and here come the drug cartels moving drugs across the border. the precipitous withdrawal from afghanistan without any kind of warning or consultation with our nato allies has caused the world to doubt the future of american leadership. and then the chinese communist party over in the people's republic of china continues to commit genocide against the uighurs and threaten attacks against a democratic taiwan. of course, very much on our minds today is the fact that vladimir putin is attempting to seize a sovereign nation and redraw the maps of europe and testing the resolve of the united states and other democracies around the world. i, of course, like many attended

the president's address last night and listened closely as he spoke about each of these challenges, beginning with the conflict, or i should say war, in ukraine. when it comes to russia, our allies are not strong enough on their own to deter vladimir putin or the russian federation. they are looking to the united states as part of nato, north atlantic treaty organization, for leadership. i was pleased to hear president biden deliver a clear message to the world that we stand with the democracy in ukraine and we will do everything we can to help the ukrainians deter putin and to defend their country. the president said we will continue to send military, economic, and humanitarian assistance to ukraine and it's clear that there is bipartisan

support for that. but the fact of the matter is most of our allies in europe have been the ones who stepped up to the threat, of course it's in their neighborhood, and we could, but did not, impose sanctions before putin invaded rather than after the fact. i was disappointed that the president did not speak about what is at stake in ukraine. it's something i talked about here on the floor a few weeks back. with so many challenges in our own backyard, it's easy for folks in texas or colorado or new jersey or anywhere else around the country to wonder why should i care about what's happening in ukraine? americans want to know what -- what difference does a war or military conflict on the other side of the globe, what relevance does it have to me?

and if it is important, how can we best help? well, we know the answer to that question here in the house and the senate. we know that this conflict is key to preserving our rules-based international order. that if putin can get away with this, he can get away with anything and if putin gets away with this, president xi is waiting for his opportunity to unify taiwan with mainland china. so this is a global geopolitical crisis. we know china and iran, as i mentioned, and other adversaries are paying close attention. if texans want america to stay out of another world war, then we better slam the door on vladimir putin now. president biden had a window to remind the american people and our allies around the world what's at stake in this conflict. vladimir putin even put his

nuclear forces on active reserve. he is rattling the nuclear sabre in order to threaten and intimidate nato and the united states and the rest of the world, but he's also finding an incredible amount of courage and resilience and leadership by president zelensky and the ukrainian people by their effort to resist this russian invasion. so this is a very serious and very dangerous moment. many of the things that vladimir putin has done are eerily similar to what happened in nazi germany in the late 1930's and 1940's. on another topic, the president alluded to inflation last night but he didn't instill much confidence that he had a

confidence -- of what was the mistake or what the problem was. when he said he had a plan to address inflation, we said we need to cut our expenses and overhead. i talked to some of the cotton producers in texas last week when i was home and they told me one of the biggest problems they have is increasing the cost of their inputs, things like diesel and energy, fertilizer and the like. they don't have any room to cut their overhead unless they go out of business entirely. so the president did not inspire much confidence when it came to dealing with the scourge of inflation. but one thing we can do is quit making it worse by trying to continue to shovel more and more money out the door chasing fewer and fewer goods and services. the president did try to recycle some of the elements of the build back better, or as i like to call it, the build back broke

bill, but that bill -- that policy is dead and buried. the president couldn't even get support among his own political party, but he did try to rebrand it and respond to it in a way -- reband it in a way that it appeared to deal with the concerns that everybody has with increasing costs and inflation but it just did not make any sense. the president repeated the same line that's already been shot down a number of times. he talked about raising taxes on the american people, and he says no one earning $400,000 a year or less would pay a penny more under his plan, but of course this is the same president who said that the price of the $5 trillion build back better bill was zero. i think the president has lost a lot of credibility when it comes to talking about taxes and spending. what the president talked about

last night was really a laundry list of his liberal agenda. this isn't a new plan. this is the same old plan with a new name broken down into smaller pieces. none of this is going to address what is confronting the american people today when it comes to inflation or crime or the border or regaining america's leadership and credibility in world affairs. i mentioned crime -- when it doms crime, the president did affirm that defunding the police is not the answer. i see our friend, the senator from new jersey on the floor of the senate. i think he led an effort for us to have a vote on funding the police rather than defunding the police. of course this is a complete reversal from what we've heard from many of the president's nominees, including those at the department of justice,

people like vanita gupta, who for months, if not years, chanted this mantra of defunding the police and criticizing the men and women in law enforcement who are the thin blue line between us and chaos. but there are some shining examples that i think the president could have pointed to. one is dallas, texas. it's a shining example of how supporting our police both financially and with moral support and with smart plans can make a difference. in most major cities across the country today, crime is up in all categories. in dallas, texas, violent crime is down by 8.5%, and that's no accident. it's thanks to the great leadership of dallas' mayor eric johnson and chief garcia, chief of the dallas police department. i asked chief garcia yesterday

in a hearing in front of the senate judiciary committee, i said is there any reason, chief garcia, why the plan that you've implemented in dallas couldn't work elsewhere around the country? and he said, no, there's no reason. of course every plan needs to be adapted to local conditions, but what the dallas police department and the city council and mayor have done is something that could be replicated in other parts of the country. they also -- chief garcia and other witnesses also testified to the importance of project safe neighborhoods, which is a federal program designed to go after gun criminals, particularly people who are felons in possession or people who use firearms for carjacking, drug transactions or the like. the fact of the matter is the federal law with its mandatory minimum sentences for using a firearm illegally in violation of federal law, is a huge

deterrent. and if you can't deter people from using firearms, you certainly can lock them up for an extended period of time, which i think sends a strong message that this sort of activity will not be tolerated and will deter future criminal activity. so there's a lot we can do when it comes to crime. we can also make sure that people who are suffering from mental health challenges aren't diverted to jails and denied the treatment that they need that can help them on the road to recovery. those are the kinds of things that i wish we could have heard more about from the president last night. i was shocked when the president said we need immigration reform last night. i've been in the senate for quite awhile now, a member of the judiciary committee. i'm the ranking member on the immigration subcommittee. when my party's been in the majority, i've been the chairman of the immigration

subcommittee. for the president to say immigration reform is something we ought to do struck me as a throw-away line, and the reason i say that is because he has done nothing, zero, zip, nada to stop the flood of migrants across our southern border. together with the illegal drugs that come right behind them. i've tried to do my best on a bipartisan basis, working with people like senator sinema, a bored -- border state senator from arizona to come up with modest suggestions for the administration to deal with the crisis at our border. unfortunately we've not heard a peep out of the administration, at the same time that the president's poll numbers when it comes to border security and immigration are in the cellar, you would think they would be looking for some sort of

bipartisan opportunity to register a win and make some progress, but that would be wrong. mr. president, i was hopeful that we would hear more about the president's plan to work with republicans in a 50-50 senate to build consensus for bipartisan solutions. other than the bipartisan support for ukraine, we didn't hear much about that last night. what we heard was a long laundry list of partisan legislation that's been tried and failed during this last year. the biden administration needs to do more to address inflation in a smart way, in an effective way. they need to do more to support our men and women in uniform who are the thin blue line between us and criminals. and they need to do something,

anything to address the humanitarian crisis at the southern border. i was hoping this could be a reset moment. we all make mistakes in life, but the real test is whether we learn from those mistakes. but from the comments the president made last night when it comes to these failed policies, it appears that he has learned nothing. the american people elected a 50-50 senate expecting to force us to work together, and we should do that. we should put the tried and true formula of building consensus and passing positive legislation to help the american people, we should use that formula again. it just simply blows my mind that the president and his party , with the prospect of an evenly divided congress, has tried to do so many things on a purely partisan basis. and as you might expect, has

failed to do so when he's been unable to unite even his own political party. we need a stronger and a safer and more prosperous country. as governor kim reynolds said yesterday evening, we can't project strength abroad if we're weak at home. and we can't support our allies if nato and our own military to deter authoritarian thugs like putin if our economy isn't strong here at home as well. so, mr. president, i continue to be an optimist and hope for the best, but last night's message was not encouraging. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i come to the floor to ask unanimous consent request -- and i'm going to state the reasons for that before i ask for the request.

and i appreciate my friend from new jersey coming over to help me at this particular time. so today the issue is fentanyl. today's vote on this bill as amended should be a yes for every member of the senate. this measure extends the lifesaving authority placing fentanyl drugs in schedule 1. in fact, a 15-month extension of this authority, similar to the bill that i offer right now, passed the senate and it passed the senate unanimously in 2020. in case you've not read the headlines for the past few years fentanyl and its analogs are killing tens of thousands of americans each year, and it

happens that fentanyl and analogs are now the number-one cause of deaths for americans ages 18 to 45, the most productive years of a person's life. the drug enforcement administration placed fentanyl analogs in schedule 1 in the year 2018. congress has already extended this authority like i'm seeking today, five times in four years. now we're on the verge of extending it for a sixth time before it expires on march 11. during the biden administration, these reauthorizations have gotten shorter and yet shorter. the periods of extension have been as short as just a few weeks. this has created constant doubt

about whether fentanyl scheduling will even continue. i received calls from families of people who have overdosed on fentanyl. i've received calls for law enforcement seeking our help for them to enforce the law. for the last ten months, these families and these law enforcement people have been in terror that this authority will disappear, that thousands then would die from the fentanyl overdoses. we've extended fentanyl scheduling five times in four years, but four have been in the last ten months alone. while extensions preserve a lifesaving authority, this kind of legislation by extension is

neither sustainable nor reflective of the great gravity of keeping fentanyl drugs in schedule 1. a permanently scheduled solution is the best answer, but unfortunately a permanent scheduling action isn't feasible right now. no why would that be the case? because some members of congress don't support keeping fentanyl analogs in schedule 1 or maybe at all. some reject our criminal drug laws altogether. that seems unbelievable, but that's what i sense from some of my colleagues. fortunately this is a fringe opinion and not very representative of the majority of congress. republicans and democrats alike have voiced support for

permanently scheduling fentanyl analogs, including even president biden. but until congress agrees on a bipartisan and a permanent solution, we must maintain the authority by extension. for years i've been leading the fight to extend this authority in hopes of finding a permanent solution. i've urged leader schumer to support measures that extend fentanyl scheduling as long as possible. i've asked president biden to engage with bipartisan congressional leaders on a permanent solution, and i've requested that chairman durbin hold a hearing on this issue in the judiciary committee. all these requests have obviously gone unanswered and ignored, or i wouldn't be here today asking for unanimous

consent. scheduling fentanyl analog matters, and why does it matter? it can save lives. congress has the power. congress has the responsibility to act, so we ought to do that in just a few minutes. but we can't make meaningful bipartisan change unless we have enough time to do it. so let's pass a long-term extension and finally then lead the way to a permanent solution. so, mr. president, this is my unanimous consent request, that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 45, s. 1216, further that the grassley amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered a

third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. booker: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: i appreciate that. i have too preface all my remarks because of my deep respect for the senator from iowa, the senior senator from iowa. i respect him not just because he slays it on twitter. i remember him because we have a great working relationship, because we have worked together to deal with the drug crisis in america. we've worked together to make the judicial system more just, and what you hear from the senior senator is passion that comes from the crisis, as he said. i've traveled his state considerably, and the opioid crisis is a crisis from new jersey to iowa, all over our

country. he gave grievous statistics, but you could hear from his heart these are families he knows, people who have -- i've seen the tremendous loss of young people through opioid overdoses. and so we cannot in this country tolerate one more overdose. i agree with the senator's sense of urgency. we cannot tolerate one more death. we have to address this public health crisis. but with this goal in mind, i cannot support the bill as it is offered today because extending the temporary scheduling of fentanyl analogues alone is a failed experiment. we have seen scheduling, this temporary scheduling. we're in it right now. class-wide scheduling has not curbed the overdoses. in fact, overdoses have increased during the period that fentanyl analogues have been

scheduled by nearly 40% from june 2019 to may 2020. now, here's what makes is even worse. as a result of just blanket class-wide scheduling, this broad sweep approach, the f.d.a. recently testified that there is a potential lifesaving anecdote to these fentanyl analogues called -- basically a stronger version of naloxone. this has been placed -- that stronger version has been placed because of this blanket scheduling has a schedule one. the f.d.a. knows that this could actually endanger more people. why in the midst of a public health crisis are we criminalizing the next naloxone instead of rushing it to the hands of researchers for study

and evaluation? when you put something at schedule one, it's a declaration that doesn't even have any health benefits. this is bad science, and, therefore, bad policy. this bill, as it is now, would not prevent the steady increase of fentanyl-related overdoses that we are seeing nationwide. it wouldn't achieve that because we've had temporary scheduling, and it's still going up. it will not prevent the losses of one loved one that we see happening right now. or the pain that motivates my friend and senior senator from iowa. this is a public health crisis, and our strategies should be informed by the science, as a public health response. it requires a response that's dictated by science and evidence-based interventions. temporary scheduling, again, is not simply that.

class-wide scheduling impedes scientists. it impedes researchers' ability to develop solutions needed to overcome the fentanyl crisis and deal with these fentanyl analogues. look, right now temporary scheduling, it's given this false impression that congress is doing something to deal with fentanyl analogues. while the death count goes up. but what it has done really is allowed government to neglect the deeper calling for us to really deal with the challenges as they are. there is a lot of evidence-based intervention strategies, things we know work, that we are not investing in. there are things that could help these crises in our communities and fundamentally research by the f.d.a. has confirmed that what is being proposed,

class-wide scheduling, has improperly scheduled substances with therapeutic promise and low abuse potential. we need to submit all fentanyl-related substances to the same scientific evaluation that we've done for other controlled substances. we need to test for their dangerousness. we must identify those that might be lifesaving overdoses. but all we've done for nearly four years now is schedule these substances without thinking about the scientific and medical evidence. and kicking the can down the road by temporarily scheduling these substances yet again now, without making any effort to follow the science, to follow the scientific process, it's irresponsible. we are preemptively criminalizing substances that may not be harmful and may actually be antidotes, that

might be the answer to help curb these horrific overdoses and these horrible deaths. temporary scheduling of fentanyl analogues without testing for farm logical effects means that people will be convicted and incarcerated for substances that may have no pharmalogical effect. i am committed to ending this pandemic. i carry a picture in my wallet of someone that died from an overdose, that was given to me as i crisscrossed this country to never forget the everyday emergency. as the president mentioned in his speech to this body yesterday, confronting the opioid epidemic is something that republicans and democrats united can get behind. it should be bipartisan. but, at the same time, our response should not be guided by the same old drug war ideologies that didn't stop the overuse of

drugs. it should be guided by the scientific evidence. it should be guided by compassion. it should be guided by what works, and class-wide scheduling ignores the scientific and medical guidance. it sets in place dangerous precedent. it repeats mistakes we've made too many times in the past. i've seen the drug war go awry. i've seen this body act in ways that have compounded problems and not helped people. i've seen people with addictions that are diseases with nothing but jail and prison. we can get out of this crisis if we follow science, if we follow what works, but it means democrats and republicans coming together. i have tremendous respect for my colleague. i know we can find a way to move forward together. i know if we continue to work together, we're going to find a

way forward, and i know because of my experience with the senior senator and his grace, i know if we dedicate ourselves to working together, we can get good things done for this country. we've done it before. in this case, i think we can do it again. so i, with the deepest respect to my colleague, i respectfully object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. grassley: mr. president, i'd like to add just a short rebuttal. i thank my friend for being kind in his remarks about me, and i know that he and i worked together on a lot of pieces of legislation. i want to express my disappointment that my bill to extend fentanyl scheduling by 14 months cannot proceed at this point, but i won't back down from trying to extend this authority in a meaningful and long-term way. there's more than one way to advance this bill. today's vote is just one of

those ways. like history shows us, this short cannot included in funding legislation or move as a bipartisan unanimous bill. i'll continue my efforts for its inclusion in the upcoming omnibus appropriations bill and urge my colleagues to support it. and i'm going -- unless the senator from new jersey has something to say, i'd like to proceed on another issue. mr. booker: no. mr. grassley: mr. president, can i proceed? the presiding officer: yes. the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: thank you. there are 1923 nations -- there are 192 nations on the face of this globe. not one of those 192 nations, including ukraine, is a threat

to russia. now, regardless, the russian military is continuing to wage a full-scale war on the nation and the people of ukraine. i'm not sure of the reasons because i don't know putin. the highest i've been in the leadership of russia was once or twice in my life having a meeting with mr. lavrov, the foreign minister. but i think when it comes to putin, he's got to satisfy his ego, or he's sick, or maybe both. the ukrainian military and civilians are fighting for their homes, and obviously they want to be an independent nation. they have our moral support and even some of our weapons. and they probably need a lot more.

-- and they probably need a lot more help from the united states, short of putting troops in that country. i wish we'd gotten them more defensive weapons before this invasion, and i still think there's more that we can do. i'm an original cosponsor of the nyet bill. nyet is the word for no in russia, and it's literally this legislation that goes by this acronym, nyet act, literally says no to russian aggression with tough, targeted, and support for ukrainian resistance efforts, even if that turns into a war and a number of other bills to crush the putin regime. russia, as we know, is a major oil and gas producer, so putin's

actions are hurting not just ukrainian and russian citizens, but americans as well. just think of the $1 or more increase in the price of gasoline we're paying today compared to one year ago. this situation comes at the same time americans across the country are already paying more for the gas than at any time since 2014, and that dollar adds up -- or it comes from aaa data. last night i was encouraged to hear president biden pledge to, quote, use every tool at our disposal, end of quote, to limit gas price hikes after he imposed sanctions on russia. so it is time for congress and the white house to rethink

policies that threaten our energy independence and at the same time our national security. that's why already this week i've helped to introduce the american energy independence act with senator hawley that would reverse the president's shutdown of the energy sector and return to full protection. so we could have energy independence, like we did until 12 months ago. last year the president talked about buying american products. last night, i should say, he talked about that. yet it seems like oil and natural gas -- very major components of our economy -- were excluded from his rhetoric. when it comes to oil, the united states imports nearly 700,000 barrels of oil a day from russia.

that's why i introduced legislation yesterday with senator marshall that would ban purchases of russian oil. i'll also backing a new bill by senator rubio to make american oil companies sever ties with russian state oil and gas companies, as many of these companies already have done. i support harsh sanctions that hit putin where it really hurts him and, in turn, you affect the entire russian people. which they're innocent of this dictator's running their country, all the harm he's causing them right now. but we ought to free the world from russian energy blackmail and keep gas affordable here at home with american-produced energy. some of my colleagues are looking to lower prices at the

gas pump by pushing for a gas tax freeze. that would be a very short-term, unsustainable move that would blow a hole in the highway trust fund. instead, i hope colleagues on both sides of the aisle can work with the president to reverse decisions that have increased the price of domestic fuel production. you remember on the first day in office, president biden decided to shut down the keystone pipeline. president biden should restart and expedite that pipeline. also in january 2021, president biden issued an executive order pausing new oil and gas leases on public lands and federal waters. in july 2021, the entire -- the interior department halted

all oil drilling on leased land within the arctic national wildlife refuge. take all these actions, signal to capital investments that the heavy hand of the federal government will work against fossil fuels investments at every turn. you know, you read about bank regulators all the time discouraging banks from making loans to energy fossil fuels. this hostile regulatory environment has crippled investment in sphools -- fossil fuels which in turn is the reason we have the high price of gasoline. instead of more red tape, the president and congress should work to cut regulations and federal permitting that slow down and has slowed down

domestic energy production. we were, as you know, energy independent 12 months ago. now we are energy dependent. we have the president begging opec and russia to ship us more oil. policies that encourage investment in fossil fuel production will increase domestic production, and the result would be lower gas prices, just like we can look back in the last 12 months and all the action that's been taken has driven up the price of gasoline. but instead of focusing on domestic energy independence last fall, as i've already referred to, president biden instead asked opec to pump more oil. the opec cartel, of course, did not honor that request. in 2000, when he was a

senator, now-president biden acknowledged that anticompetitive behavior from opec harms american consumers and called on president clinton to consider legal action against opec. opec is an organization which blatantly concludes -- colludes to raise the price of oil. i have introduced the bipartisan bill entitled no oil producing and exporting cartels. it goes by the acronym nopec, which would allow the department of justice to hold opec accountable for anticompetitive behaviors that artificially inflate global oil prices. i ask again for president biden to publicly support the passage

of nopec and work with congress to pass this legislation into law. besides focusing on fossil fuels, we know that ethanol makes up 10% of the gas sold in the united states. when oil prices are high, it gives higher blends of ethanol a clear competitive advantage. historically gas prices gradually rise in the spring and peak late summer when people are driving more frequently. but last fall the supreme court rejected the e.p.a.'s regulation allowing year-round e-15 sales. congress must move quickly to ensure that e-15 can be sold this summer. e-15 is a cleaner, higher-acting type of gasoline that contains more homegrown

ethanol and less petroleum. both biodiesel and ethanol are proven domestic supplies of fuel that enhance our energy independence and at the same time lower our greenhouse gas emissions. domestic biofuel producers are ready to step up and to give consumers lower gas prices that increase our national security and provide jobs in the heartland, good-paying jobs. most americans do not care where the oil was produced when they fill up their gas tanks. they just want to fill up their gas tanks without taking out a loan to do it. but when conflict occurs in oil-producing regions around the world, americans quickly realize the importance of your gas being a mix of west texas

crude and iowa ethanol. in just over a year we can see how u.s., the united states is losing energy independence. instead of focusing on domestic fuel production, the president and his administration have caved to the most radical environmentalists in shaping our energy policy. it's time to reverse course. i'm taking the president at his word when he said in his state of the union address last night that he wants to use every tool at his disposal to limit gas price hikes. so i have just given several ways that we can use every tool that the president is talking

about. and of course it's time to get to work. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, i want to thank my colleague who just spoke about some real important issues. senator grassley from iowa talked about the fentanyl crisis that's facing our country. unfortunately this synthetic opioid is now killing more and more americans. we're back to record levels of overdose deaths and probably two-thirds of them are caused by fentanyl. he's absolutely right, we need to be sure it's scheduled clearly as an illegal drug as well as all the variants of it. i'm coming on the floor today to talk about another issue that is real important to our country, and that is protecting us from cyberattacks.

last night i commend this body because the united states senate passed legislation called the strengthening american cybersecurity act of 2022. what does that mean? it means that we took the time to do our homework, had hearings, and reported out legislation that helps protect our government data, including personal data of american citizens, but also our national security data and other sensitive information from cyberattacks. also we put in place provisions to help protect the private sector, particularly critical infrastructure. and what's going on right now around the world, particularly with regard to russia and ukraine, incredibly important that we put up better defenses here in this country as well as helping ukraine and other countries to fight against these cyberattacks. in recent years we have seen this time and time again. i'm sure you remember the colonial pipeline. remember they shut down gasoline

distribution to the eastern part of the united states. these were cyberattacks. you probably heard of some of these other cyberattacks like solarwinds, or ones where these criminal gangs demand a ransom using so-called ransomware. this is happening increasingly. and again, my concern is, particularly with what's going on today in our volatile and dangerous world, it will continue to happen and even become much more dangerous for us. the house of representatives now has a chance to take up this legislation and pass it. they have been working with us on this all along on a bicameral basis, the house and senate, republican, democrat. this hasn't been a partisan issue. it's been one of those issues where we've worked together. senator peters, the chair of the homeland security security and i'm the ranking member, we worked together on this and so did a lot of members across the aisle -- senator rubio,

senator warren, senator collins and others. they represent the intelligence committee, which also has a strong interest in this. in my role as the ranking member in homeland security, we spent a lot of time focused on the oversight of this issue, how to respond to things like solarwinds we talked about or the colonial pipeline or other cyberattacks. what we have found is that these cyberattacks are increasingly sophisticated and that our own government doesn't have the tools that they need, and that's why this legislation is so important. russia's invasion of ukraine is an atrocity. it must not stand. but one of the things they have done in ukraine for the last eight years, and really before that as well, but particularly the last eight years, since 2014, when ukraine decided to turn to the west, to turn to us, is russia has done these cyberattacks relentlessly in ukraine, and they are stepping them up right now along with the horrible scenes we see of the

bombings of innocent civilians in their apartment buildings. i saw today that not only have hospitals and child care institutions been bombed, but also the holocaust memorial in kiev has been damaged. so what the russians are doing is appalling, and the entire freedom-loving world needs to stand up to it and we need to help ukraine more. but one thing they have also done is they've launched these cyberattacks against the ukrainian government and against the private-sector infrastructure in ukraine. that too is a place where we can help. but again, we need to be sure that we have our own house in order here to be able to be more helpful, to be able to provide the best practices and to help ukraine be able to deal with these attacks, both kinetic attacks, military attacks, and also the cyberattacks. many times the cyberattacks are also mixed with disinformation attacks because they are also, the russians are flooding the zone and trying to take their

disinformation and their lies and spread it around to the ukrainian people. by the way, not many people are believing it anymore because it's so outrageous. in china, we see another sophisticated cyberadversary ramping up their rhetoric and their encouragement into taiwan's air defense zone. all these threats make enacting this legislation we passed last night all the more important. legislation has three complementary bills combined into one. first it will protect our critical infrastructure better from cyberattacks by increasing our visibility as a country into these cyberattacks and building the government's ability to warn potential victims and mount a nationwide defense and provide best practices to our critical infrastructure. it will strengthen the government's own response and recovery capabilities protecting sensitive data as well. and finally, it will make government acquisition and use of cloud services more secure, more accountable, more efficient, and significantly

keep countries like china and russia from being able to access the cloud. all of these bills were passed out of the homeland security and governmental affairs committee with strong bipartisan support and passed the senate overwhelmingly last night. the first of these bills that i mentioned is called the cyber incident reporting for critical infrastructure attacks, attacks against critical infrastructure whether foreign governments like russia and china or organizations are a national security threat. today no one agency has visibility into all the cyberattacks occurring against critical infrastructure on a daily basis. we need that. we need to know what's going on to be able to warn other infrastructure to be able to respond quickly. right now if russia initiates a cyber campaign against u.s. critical infrastructure there would be nothing to ensure the u.s. government is notified of that so it can mount a nationwide response and warn other critical infrastructure operators similarly situated. this bill would change that,

enabling a coordinated, informed u.s. response to cyberattacks against the united states. the cyber incident reporting act will require operators to report substantial cyberattacks within 72 hours and ransomware to within 48 hours called the cybersecurity agency called cisa. they have done an effective job in the donald trump now, in the biden administration, but they need these tools to be able to do a better job. cisa, having this information would be able to use the data to immediately contact the f.b.i. and other appropriate law enforcement, but also to help with best practices to mitigate the damage and to warn other critical infrastructures of threats, help these victims recover, analyze trends and enable a whole of the nation defense and response to these attacks. it's a cyberattack. it's not soldiers with guns, but it can have some of the same

horrible impacts and damage to our economy and to individuals. again, think of the oil pipeline, colonial pipeline being basically shut off to the whole east coast of the united states. the second bill that's part of this package is called the federal information security modernization act. or fisma. fisma is the acronym for the way in which we protect our federal agencies. and unfortunately we know that federal agencies, government agencies have failed to protect americans' data, our data, personal data. last august i released a report with chairman peters detailing the significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities of eight different key federal agencies -- homeland security, state, transportation, housing and urban development, health and human services, agriculture, education, and the social security administration. the social security administration. where a lot of our sensitive information is kept. this report that we issued followed a report

just a few years ago in 2019 that i issued with senator carper when i was chair of the permanent subcommittee on investigations, and we investigated all eight of these agencies to determine how they were doing in terms of pushing back against cyberattacks. last year's reportst report, only the department of homeland security had an effective cyber program. we found that government-wide, the average cybersecurity grade in pushing back was a c-minus. not the grade i would have wanted to take home to my parents. but that's the truth. we're just not prepared. the report identifies several common agency vulnerabilities including the failure to protect personally identifiable information -- again, think about some of these agencies, h.h.s. or social security, that's a big issue. second, maintain an accurate list of the agency's i.t. equipment, so they know what

they have. third, install security patches quickly. and, fourth, replace vulnerable and insecure legacy technology. a lot of these agencies have technology that needs to be updated that's isn't working together, and that makes it difficult for them to push back against these cyberattacks. in the seven years since it was updated, federal agencies have had the same problem year after year putting america's data at risk. so this legislation takes the steps to remedy this. it incorporates recommendations from my bipartisan supports with senator peters and senator carper and will adopt a risk-based approach to cybersecurity budgeting, position the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, cisa, we talked about earlier. there needs had to be accountability, that's missing now. we need to have agencies

identify americans whose personally identifiable information is compromised during a breach. if you have personal information that's been breached because a government system has not been properly protected, you ought to be told about that so you can particular your own steps to protect yourself -- so you can take your own steps to protect yourself. ensure that federal agencies and contractors also contact when they suffer a breach. and finally, update the requirements for congressional notification when an agency suffers a major cyber incident. we have an oversight responsibility here. we need to know if there's been a major cyberattack. finally, this legislation includes a third part which is called the fed ramp authorization act. this is the one that will authorize the federal risk and authorization management program that deals with cloud computing and protecting the cloud. fed ramp is a government-wide program administered by the government services

administration that provides agencies and cloud service providers with a standard ha pproach to evaluating and authorizing services. when a federal agency wants to use cloud simplifyings, they have got to go threw this process. in the first four years of fed ramp, they authorized only 20 cloud service providers. now there are more than 230 cloud service providers, 30% of which are small businesses. this bummeds on the success -- this builds on the successes by addressing existing costs and processing times. but it also includes measures to strengthen the government's response to foreign interference in our cloud systems. supply chain experts have warned us about the weaknesses in fed ramp that leave our cloud services vulnerable to countries like russia and china, north korea, iran. the reforms in this bill will allow for increased

transparency. for example, it requires an agriculture to review an an interagency basis government standards to identify and assess the origin of software and code to provide the transparency and accountability needed into the fed ramp-approved systems that are developed and maintained by foreign engineers in countries like russia and china. this bill also requires private-sector third-party assessment organizations to clues any information they have in regard to any foreign interests, any foreign influences, any foreign control or ownership, and to report a change in foreign ownership or control to g.s.a. within 48 hours. we've had instances like this where we're using cloud-based services that then become bought by a foreign entity and that is not reported so they continue to provide these services, which is something we need to stop. i commend the hard work of so many of my colleagues in crafting this broader legislation, including chairman

peters, chairman warner, ranking member rubio, senator collins of the intelligence committee, as well as so many other colleagues. i also want to thank our colleagues in the house, particularly representatives clark and katco, because this has been a truly bipartisan exercise. by the way, this legislation is strongly supported by those in the administration who are responsible for dealing with cyberattacks. they need these tools, and they want these tools. we are not done yet because it's just passed the senate. it's not passed the house. but we need to move quickly to enact these changes to modernize our cybersecurity posture a i urge the house to move quickly, to be sure we can protect ourselves from cyberattacks, particularly in this

increasingly dangerous environment. i would hope we could send this legislation to the president's desk for signature very soon and be sure we're doing all we know to do to be able to better protect our country and our citizens from cyberattacks. mr. president, i now ask unanimous consent to have my remaining comments be in a separate part of the journal. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, we're also on the floor today talking about the postal reform legislation. i know we're going back-and-forth trying to determine how many amendments will be offered and which amendments are germane or relevant to the legislation or not. but let me say we already had a strong vote to move to this legislation. we had a vote of over 70 members, which is rare around here, a strong bipartisan vote, saying let's move forward with this postal reform. and it's really important we do

it because the post office is in deep trouble. and if we don't act, it's going to get a lot worse. we're going to have big problems. in looking at this issue, again, in my oversight responsibilities on the homeland security and government affairs committee, it looks like the post office would probably go insolvent. none of us wants that. if that happened, a there would probably be a big government bailout. this legislation is intended to avoid that problem. it's intended to ensure that we can get this under control before there is an insolvency. right now the post office is projecting a ten-year loss of $160 billion if we just continue with the status quo. the reality is the post office is in a tough business situation. think about it. how many first-class letters have you sent recently? and how many did you send five years ago or ten years ago?

probably more. increasingly, we are relying on sending things by e-mail and not sending them by first-class mail. that changes the post office's business model. they're also delivering to more and more addresses because everybody wants to be connected to the post office, to receive packages, toseech other kinds of -- to receive other kinds of mail, advertising, newspapers, bills. people who are reliant on getting their prescriptions through the mail are very eager to see the post office be strong and, of course, be a post office that addresses their universal service requirement; in other words, goes to every single mailbox around america. so the math doesn't work very well when you've got more and more addresses and not as much first-class mail to be sent out. that's one reason the post office is in trouble. we need to address that new reality. the current post office general,

by the way, his name is louis dejoy, came and talked to us yesterday and talked about an ambitious plan he has worked on with the support of the previous administration and this administration to ensure that we can transform the post office by finding more finish sis. he has a ten-year plan to make the post office more efficient, but it us will continues to have this universal service obligation where everybody is going to be getting their mail. in fact, under our legislation, there's also a six-day-per-week mail delivery requirement. not just that everybody's post office box or mailbox or door is being serviced by the post office but that it's done six days a week. but he needs help to do that. in particular, he's made it very clear to us that he needs the financial space to be able to

put these reforms in place, to be able to take away some of the huge liabilities that they currently face at the post office. that's what we do in this legislation. first we eliminate a burdensome prefunding requirement for retiree health benefits. this has really been a problem for the post office. it's made their lives much more difficult. we mandated this in congress back in 2006 for current employees. this has crippled the post office financially. you should know, by the way, prefunding of retiree health benefits is something that no other agency has to do. it is also something the private sector does not do. it is something that the post office has to uniquely deal with and again it has been a financial burden for them that has really made their financial statements extremely difficult. second, we require post office employees who are retiring, who have been paying into medicare

their entire career by the way, to join up with part b and part d of medicare. in other words, go into medicare and instead of having the federal employees' health benefit plan be their plan, to have that be the backup and have medicare be their primary payer. some postal employees are not enrolled in part b and d. about 75% are enrolled. that saves money for the post office because medicare is not as generous a program. third, we require the post postal office to maintain its current six-day-a-week delivery program. the status quo ought to continue so that you can delivering packages and letters at the same time. that the would be incredibly inefficient. you are going to have a separate system for packages and a separate system for letters.

in addition, the congressional budget office estimates that the bill is going to save money. it's going to save $1.5 billion a year to the american taxpayer. i'd also like to note what the bill does not do because there's been some misinformation out there, including one editorial i saw recently. one, it doesn't appropriate any new funds to the united states post office. two, it does not change the accounting for cost structure for packages and letters. so it does not disadvantage private-sector carriers. it is the status quo. that's very important to me. third, it does not impact the solvency of the medicare hospital trust fund. that's the part a trust fund that's going broke in a short number of years, and that's a big focus of a lot of us to make sure it doesn't happen. it doesn't affect the part a trust fund at all. it also does not affect the

medicare part b or part d premiums. that's important to a lot of us. it does not allow the post office to enter into new services like postal banking, which i believe would be a big mistake. the legislation received strong bipartisan support in the house of representatives a couple weeks ago. it passed by a vote of 342-92. not much gets passed in terms of major legislation along those lines, and i'm proud of the people who worked hard on this on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the capitol, to come up with a bipartisan bill. it's not the bill any one of us would have written, but it's the right bill to save the post office. i think republicans and democrats alike in the house looked at this and said, we've got to do something here. we do not want the post office to go belly up. some say that this is a whole lot better than the alternative. i agree with that. i think that's one of the reasons we need to pass this. it does get the postal office back on track, again with the

reforms being undertaken internally at the post office. we're providing them some space to make the financial reforms. i encourage my colleagues to join this legislation. let's put the postal service in the position to succeed, to continue to provide essential services to small business, veterans with regard to healthcare, rural constituents, absolutely needing the post office to be there to service them. they rely on this. and that's why so many, again, of my colleagues both sides of the aisle strongly support this legislation. i want to thank my colleague, senator peters, for working with us over time to find a con consensus on this ill before let's pass it, and sewer sure that the portfolio service -- and ensure that the postal service, the post office, remains viable for years and years ahead. nothing is more torn to my rural constituents who talk to me

about this quite a bit, ensuring that the post office stays healthy. it's important to veterans i represent who get needed medication through the mail. it's important to our voting system in this country, because a lot of voting is by mail, including in ohio, where for many years we've had absentee voting, no-fault absentee, and we rely on the post office to get the ballots delivered on time. this is an opportunity for us on a bipartisan basis to ensure the post office remains strong. i hope we take advantage of it and pass this legislation and have appropriate amendments in the meantime and get this done in short order. i yield back my time. >> is an honor, a truly rare

honor in my time in public service to meet with judge jackson for the first time since her nomination to the supreme court. before the meeting i said judge jackson is brilliant and beloved but now that i've met her i'll add another word belongs. she is normally brilliant and beloved but belongs on the supreme court. i believe her nominations certainly merit a good number of votes from both parties and i hope we see that as we move forward in the process. i am certain that when other

senators have a chance to meet with judge jackson will understand why she is beyond qualified to replace justice breyer on the supreme court. for one, if confirmed judge jackson would have one of the most diverseprofessional backgrounds of any sitting justice . throughout her career she's been a defender, worked in private practice, sat on the sentencing commission, served as a district judge and was a circuit court judge on the dc circuit and of course she was a clerk to justice breyer, the very same justice whose seat she would now fill. as a district judge judge jackson rendered 550 rulings and was rarely reversed by higher courts illustrating her evenhanded application of the law and facts. and when you meet with her mister president you see that she just because of her, she has brought that broad experience and adopted it into her being. she empathizes with people.

she empathized to me that as a judge she should try to understand both sides and you could tell when you met her that she really believed it and since has integrated all of her experiences into her being . she was an incredibly phenomenal interview as well as with an amazing record so for all these reasons judge jackson's nomination has already won support from individuals and organizations across the political spectrum. she's supported by civil rightsactivists , conservative judges and lawyers. she is supported by the fraternal order of police, someone who was a public defender now supported by the fraternal order of police? you can't get much better than that and she's supported by scores of men and women

who have the honor of working with her. you can hardly find a single person she's met as she's walked throughand met people who say a bad thing about her and when you meet her you can see why . when you meet her you can see why. america will be better off with someone like judge jackson on the supreme court. our country deserves someone deeply experienced, broadly supported and someone who's elevation as the first black woman justice signifies along overdue step to perfecting our union. i am grateful to have had the chance to have met with the judge. i thanked her for her time and i look forward to working with my colleagues to elevate this outstanding nominee to the supreme court's very soon. having met her and studying her record she deserves the support ofmembers from the other side of the aisle and i'm hopeful she will get a good number of them to support her. on the state of the union . last night before a joint session of congress president biden made the case to the nation and to the world that

in the face of immense challenges the united states running strong and steady to meet the test of our time and an hour-long speech delivered for a chamber that was much for last year president biden demonstrated yet again the kind of leader he has been for all his life. optimistic, unifying , decent and honest about where we are today and where we must go. i applaud president biden laying out a bold, strong and comprehensive vision that will resonate with the vast majority of americans. in particular i was glad to present focused on three important things. first, he united the parties in supporting ukraine and putin. he show that under democratic leadership america has turned the corner on covid and third, he confronted the urgency of lowering costs for american families.

something our caucus has been focusing on. first i was glad president biden united the room, country andthe world in opposing vladimir putin and his savage assaults on ukraine. it's obvious the president has done an incredibly good job unifying the europeans and the west as a united front against putin . and that was felt by people on both sides of the aisle when the president called on the chamber to stand up and applaud, oksana markarova, it reminded me of the unity with after9/11 but that unity comes with a silver recognition that the scale of putin's brutality is worsening . ukraine's emergency service reported this morning that more than 2000 civilians , 2000 men, women and children have now been killed as a

result of putin's savage brutality. what is happening in ukraine is carnage and the blood of every one of those in the innocent people falls on the hands of vladimir putin and on his band of cronyoligarchs . this evil man must be stopped and in an important step last night the senate unanimously passed bipartisan legislation that will protect america, our government and the critical infrastructure from cyber attacks . finally holds were lifted from the other side of the aisle and we passed unanimously the cyber legislation. it's more important now than ever before because putin is brandishing a cyber weapon. cyber warfare is truly one of the dark arts perfected by putin's authoritarian regime. it's a weapon he's happy to employ around the world. when our authorities and government know of these attacks they can prepare against future attacks.

they will know who is attacking, where they are attacking, how they're attacking and that will allow them to strengthen our defensesagainst future cyber attacks . many in the industry at times even the chamber of commerce is not for this legislation but the urgency of the moment , the need to protect ourselves from cyber attacks, finally the senate rose to the occasion. i think senators peters and portman for getting this bill done. the passage of this bill was little noticed because it came right before congress adjourned for the state of the union but it's a giant step forward to protecting ourselves and i'm glad we got it done last night. of course we must do more. the senate must keep working on bipartisan pay basis to pass a robust aid package in the upcoming omnibus so we can send a signal to ukraine that we stand with them and to putin that we stand against him.

the quickest way we can ensure aid reaches ukraine is through the omnibus which needs to get done next week . so i'm glad that we seem to be having bipartisan support to get that done. second i was also glad president biden showed how the country under democratic leadership is turning the corner in the fight against covid-19. by passing legislation to fund vaccines, expand testing and support our healthcare workers we are beating this disease and what the president said last nightwas absolutely correct . we cannot have covid control our lives anymore but neither can we let our guard down. right now as cases are dropping across the board congress must pass more funding forvaccines , testing and therapeutics. therapeutics is the word for medication that helps alleviate the virulence of covid. very few people who take the

therapeutics have to be hospitalized and we have to ensure our doctors and nurses and healthcare workers are prepared in case another variant comes this way sothat we can stay as close to normal , even as, sorry. so we can stay as close to normal as possible even if another variant arrives. we have to have an ample supply ofvaccines , of therapeutics, of testing. i have time. we cannot wait. some of our republican colleagues seem to be saying we don't need this now. we do need it now. while we still have the chance. if congress waits until another variant arrives it will be too late. even as cases drop across the board, we cannot be complacent against covid. congress must pass more covid funding now so we can be ready by funding vaccines, testing, therapeutics in supporting our healthcare workers.

if congress waits until another variant arrives it will be too late so we need our republican colleagues to join us in a bipartisan way just as they are joining uson ukraine . finally i'm glad president biden zeroed in on cutting costs for american families. a year into the president's first year the economy is surging and creating an unprecedented number of jobs . but people are struggling because costs are also going up. their wages are going up but if the costs are going upin each of those wage increases . why are costs up? costs are up because of supply chain disruptions stemming from covid and pent-up demand as people from covid didn't buy a lot of things. all the while americans watch incredulously as some of our largest corporations are raising prices despite growing profits. in some cases executives seem

lavish pay increases and in the end americans are putting the bill. senate democrats will not stand for this and are working with the president to lower-cost and build upon the wage growth we seen over the last year. we're laser focused on reducing america's costs, lowering the cost of insulin though no one pays more than $35 a month to lowering the cost of all prescription drugs to lowering the cost of meat at the grocery store to fixingour ocean shipping lines so bottlenecks don't raise their cost . shipping costs have gone way up as the president mentioned and you know what else we could do to lower costs? we can innovate. congress should continue working to finalize our bipartisan jobs and supply chains bill so we can boost americanmanufacturing . saul our chip crisis and make our country less dependent on foreign tech companies. in short, despite everything

the world faces president biden reminded supporters and critics alike why the american people and trusted him with the presidency. he didn't shy away from our challenges but rather advanced and optimistic and unifying plan for how to meet the moment. senate democrats will continue working with the president to move our country forward on lowering costs in addressing covid and defending our democracy in this hour of peril. i think the president for his leadership. let us continue in our work. i yield the floor. >> the republican leader last night president biden gave a state of the union address that might have worked okay for a popular administration. that had been successfully tackling america's problems and actually earning high marks. but that's not the reality in which we live.

democrats spent the last 12 months making major and painful policy errors. the public overwhelmingly disapproves. president biden didn't even stay the course and rehash a scattered wish list. he needed to make a dramatic pivot but he chose not to. president first discussed ukraine. everyone agrees with the sentiments president biden expressed but the sentiments are not enough. the president articulated no meaningful new steps, no specific plan. he made no explicit commitment to keep advanced capabilities into ukraine as long as the ukrainians need them. nor did he explain why his

administration was slow to provide legal assistance in the first place. instead, the president focused on trying to claim credit for the remarkable european and worldwide response that his administration did not foresee let alone orchestrate . apart from ukraine, the president's other remarks on our dangerous world were not just insufficient , they were basically nonexistent . the president spoke for over an hour but only mentioned china twice . neither time had anything to do with national security or military modernization. the president only mentioned around one time and it was literally by accident. zero mentions of north korea, zero mentions of the botched afghanistan retreat. the administration originally votes to that it was a

success. our 13 servicemembers who lost their lives were completely unmentioned until governor reynolds took the microphone. and zero mentions of rebuilding the defense budget that president biden tried to cut last year. meanwhile the president's speech tried to escape all the seriouskitchen table concerns that are keeping families up at night . the president talked about made in america that keeps fighting against energy independence. democrats want us to buy american but not american oil or gas. on president biden's want to set a new record for importing russian oil and we're betting opec to produce even more. and his energy vision is to dump hugesubsidies and to

supply chains that are dominated by china , learning from our grandkidsto build back . the president tried yet again to revive the zombie spending plans which a bipartisan majority of senators have killed and buried because they would make inflation even worse. he tried to brag about fancy technology on our southern border as if we had just seen a new record for illegal crossings on his watch. the president's address was not responsive to the country's concerns . he needed to. but he didn't. cnn conducted a poll as you might expect, it oversample democrats. even so, percentage who gave the president's speech i marks was the lowest they've seen in 15 years. now, i was usually successful

governor kim reynolds offered the clearest possible contrast. she spoke for the working families suffering under democrat policies. she outlined a commonsense republican vision of stability at home, strength abroad, law and order on our streets and sanity in our public schools. november is just months away. president biden does not correct course sharply and quickly, the american people may correct the course for him. on an entirely different matter, one of the occupational hazards of senate services having to say goodbye to truly remarkable staffprofessionals , i've already been through this rodeo with angie sheltie all the way back in 1988. this dedicated caseworker left my office with a nonprofit sector. but back in 2010, i leapt at

the chance to hire angie back as my state office manager and her second tour of duty has been a huge success. i've known annie for 40 years now. i've watched her master a widevariety of roles . she's an integral part of my state office. she keeps allof us on task and on time . but unfortunately tomorrow her second tour of service will end with this a second farewell and he's retiring after decadesof hard work and phenomenal public service . for 12 years and she's been the steady runner stirring steering my team. it's a complicated problem, she fix it. a scheduling conflict, she'd resolve it. a new staffer needed help rolling into her role, she provided .

patty combines mimic meticulous efficiency with a cheerful demeanor. my relationship with angie predates my time in the senate. her mother jeanette was my personnel director for my county is fish. i was a newly elected republican and a heavily democratic republican who needed all the smarts i could get. angie's mother jeanette proved invaluable. in 1982 her daughter angie came on board as office receptionist. i quickly promoted or not once but twice. she served as office manager of my neighborhood response office. when i want statewide in 1984 , when i want statewide angie was one of my first tires. with the same vigor that helped settle property disputes and parking tickets

angie began helping kentuckians across the state navigate federal government red tape. her expertise and i for detail, and grew into the consummate public servants. our whole team was overjoyed to welcome angie back after her tenure with metro united way, one of the commonwealth's are just nonprofits. now, angie is famous for humming and whistling while she works in for throwing extravagant birthday parties for her colleagues. she's unfailingly upbeat. she has a permanent positive attitude and boy, did she get results for kentucky. as youcan see it's been an honor to have angie's talents on our team . i'm just grateful we're going to for her at sterling 40 year concludes tomorrow, a 40 yearfriendship will not .

so angie, i wish you every happiness as you spend more time with steve, withkathleen and with those grandkids , grant, logan andelizabeth . i'm eternally grateful for your outstanding work. >>

weighed in citing the congressional review act, taking the cue from here in congress. there are still mandates remaining. it has to do with the biden administration's pandemic policies that have just gone too far. and millions of workers are dealing with the consequences. you cannot make these arbitrary decisions especially when it was clear we were coming do some type of resolution, some type of different dynamic with the covid

saga and then drop these kinds of mandates upon any entity at the worst possible time. in this case we're talking about the c.m.s. vaccine mandate health care workers. ten million of them affected. the very same frontline workers who have been heroes and served their fellow americans during the pandemic were given a choice -- your careers or a vaccine. with all the logic that went into the supreme court's ruling on employers with employees down to 100, it should apply to health care entities as well. it's no surprise that you see health care workers leaving at the highest rate, leaving their profession in over 20 years. it's worse in rural areas like the state of indiana, and that

compounds other problems that places rural are contending with. it also fails to acknowledge evidence-based science that clearly tells us stuff now that we didn't know before. like gnarl infection has -- like natural infection has more durability. common sense doesn't make any difference, and now we've got this. he's robbed these health care workers of the freedom to make their own choices, added to the challenges patients have had to access the health care system. and today the senate can overturn this mandate, another example of government in overdrive getting into individual decisions it was

never intended to do. i urge my colleagues to correct this later today and let's base this on science, not political science, that seems to drive so many of the decisions here. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. a senator: i ask unanimous consent to use a stethoscope as a prop during my remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. marshall: thank you, madam president. last year i put my sport coats

and ties away and broke out some scrubs, donned my stethoscope on the front lines of fighting covid in wyandot county kansas and seward county kansas. this is a picture of some of the heroes i worked with. i think it's important to note this is a time when none of us knew how bad this virus was. it reminded me as a medical student working on h.i.v. patients, myself geared up from head to toe with patient protective equipment, personal protective equipment, nurses, respiratory therapists, radiology text, all of us not knowing how bad this virus was and how easily it could be spread. today these heroes are being punished. these heroes came to work every

day, covid from head to toe in personal protective equipment with each one knowing that they could contact covid-19 from any one of their patients at any given time. this particular setting, an i.c.u. an i.c.u. with 8 beds and 13 patients. despite the risk to them, to their families -- think about that. think about having children at home or a spouse that you were not only risking your own life, but the fear of taking this virus home with you. but they threw themselves into the fire, so to speak, all in the effort to save kansans from a pandemic that was raging across our communities. in the earliest months of this pandemic and still to this day, our health care heroes have displayed sacrifice and dedication to the american people. it's a reminder to all of us how essential these people are in ensuring the safety of our communities, and they weren't left unscathed. between burnout and suicide, the pandemic took a heavy toll

on their physical and mental health. doctors, nurses, all the supporting staffs in these hospitals, in the nursing homes, in the emergency rooms. the resulting exodus of fatigued and demoralizeed workers is exacerbating a labor shortage which already existed across rural kansas, across rural america long, long before the pandemic occurred. since february of 2020, roughly one in five health care workers have quit their job. one in five, according to a poll published late last year. in september, the american nursing association sent a letter to h.h.s. secretary becerra urging the agency to declare the nursing shortage a national crisis and to take immediate action to confront the issue. i can tell you, i don't talk to any doctor back home, any hospital administrator, who is not going to grab me and say we've got a huge nursing shortage. you have to do something about

it. the nursing homings, the rehab centers all suffering huge, huge nursing shortages. the nursing colleges now have a huge shortage of teachers. nearly a third of the country's 15,000 nursing homes reported a shortage of nurses or aides. hospitals have been forced to recruit foreign nurses and national guardsmen have had to fill in as nursing assistants to ease these problems. these shortages are particularln kansas. quote endemocrat nick staff shortages of almost all kinds of health care providers and suppliers. despite this acknowledgment, president biden and his public health officials went forward with this vaccine mandate knowing it could and would lead to more firings. firings like those we saw in new york, where 33,000 health care workers were fired.

33,000, they were fired, retiressed or placed on -- retired or placed on unpaid leave. labor shortages at health care facilities will impede access for the elderly and the poor. those are supposed to be cared for under medicare and medicaid. in addition to the impact this would have on the workforce, this puts additional burden on hospitals and state surveyors. the rule requires covered entities to comply with red tape by requiring them to implement to ensure compliance with the mandate taking nurses away from contact with the patients who need the attention. c.m.s. estimated the cost of this mandate on private sector entities would exceed $158 million. following guidance issued by c.m. required state surveyors to enforce the mandate by verifying compliance at health care

facilities. this will take, again, limited resources at the state level and prevent them from fulfilling their traditional surveying and certification duties, not to mention multiple states have laws on their books prohibiting vaccination as a condition of employment for state agencies. as a physician, i'm confident that the vaccine has saved lives and i'm so grateful for the vaccines. however, whether to receive it or not is a personal choice between individuals and their doctor, not mandated via unconstitutional executive actions. i still believe in the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship. make no mistake, this federal vaccine mandate is not about public health or science and fails to account for changes in data and the circumstances of the virus. if it were, we'd recognize natural immunity as a highly effective way to combat the

virus. mountains of evidence shows that those who achieved immunity through natural infection, many of them being on our front line, health care heroes from yesterday, are highly protected against reinfection. the mandate was also crafted when the delta variant was the dominant strain in the united states. omicron is now the dominant strain. it's much are milder and has a 91% lower risk of death than delta. additionally, research shows through traditional covid dosing regiment provides little protection against transmission of the omicron variant, basically said that natural immunity is at least as good, if not better, than vaccination from the original vaccines. and as noted by dr. fauci, omicron, with its extraordinary unprecedented degree of transmissibility, will ultimately find just about everybody. and i end quote.

and even those who have received the initial vaccine and subsequent booster will get infected. we saw that play out. we all saw that play out. many, many people who had gotten the vaccine again ended up with the omicron virus, and certainly we also found out that natural immunity was much better than the original vaccines against omicron. most absurdedly in late january the c.d.c. issued guidance that allows covid-positive health care workers to return to work work. let me say that again. the c.d.c. issued guidance that allowed covid-positive health care workers to return to work even if they're still testing positive. how many people in america would want a covid-positive respiratory therapist intiew baiting their loved -- intubating their loved one in an i.c.u.? these examples show how flawed the science is behind the vaccine mandate. as previously stated, that's because this vaccine mandate is

not about public health or science. the biden administration's mandate is about fulfilling their desire to control every aspect of our lives. and it's a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women who never took a day off in the frontline fight of the covid-19 battle. these are real people with real families. they're working to feed their families, and they have mortgages to pay. and these are smart people. these are well-educated people, people who thoughtfully consider the vaccine and then decided it was not best for them. these are my medical school classmates, successful physicians working at medical centers, experts in their fields who had looked at the data and had deeply either religious reasons or scientific reasons for not taking the vaccine. each day we hear from kansans faced with the difficult decision of taking the jab or losing their job. we even surveyed dozens of health care providers across the

state that are already citing shortages and other staffing issues due to the mandate. in fact, 87% of the surveyed oppose the mandate or cited numerous concerns with it. these jobs can't be replaced overnight. and with the march 15 deadline for nearly all health care workers who haven't received two doses looming, we are about to witness a government-induced labor shortage and in turn a health crisis we can't afford. and that health crisis will affect every american, whether you're waiting for your elective hip to be replaced or you're waiting to get your loved one moved from a hospital setting into some type of a nursing home or assisted living facility. you all, every one of us will be it impacted. one respondent put it best when he told us, and i quote, we are concerned that the execution of the mandate will exacerbate an already dire workforce crisis in long-term care. a hard deadline with no

resources for providers or glide path for unvaccinated workers is likely to push too many out the door and ultimately threaten residents access to long-term care. i know some here will say that the supreme court ruled to uphold this mandate earlier in year and this is settled. but that's not the full story here. the supreme court opinion which lifted the stay on the rule focused primarily on the secretary of of h.h.s. statutory authority to impose conditions upon health care facilities participate in medicare and medicaid. this does not mean it's a good rule or it's a beneficial condition to a place on those facilities giving everything i've laid out here today. in fact, it's a hardship to those facilities, and it's a hardship for the families of the loved ones who are in those facilities. this fight against the harmful rule continues here on the senate floor, and i'm going to keep fighting along with all those throughout this nation's

federal judicial system. quick update, 16 states have joined together in a new filing last month to once again block the federal government from enforcing the mandate in their respective states. 16 states think the c.m.s. has got this wrong. they think the white house has got this wrong. additionally, the attorney general in my home state of kansas, derrick schmitt is leading the fight. he along with nine other attorneys general have asked a separate court to reopen litigation. no, we're not even close to stopping this fight. it's been an incredible tough time these past couple of years. we've lost over 950,000 americans to covid-19. we've seen mental health issues skyrocket. suicides on the rise and substance abuse increase. if there's one thing that's for sure, though, it's that americans will keep fighting to get through this. frontline workers in hospitals,

doctors offices, community health centers and beyond will fight even harder. that is what -- that is if we remove the burden of the vaccine mandate and our health care heroes aren't forced to leave their jobs. just this week england terminated their covid vaccination requirement for all health and social services. we must do the same. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution of disapproval to invalidate president biden's overreaching and harmful vaccine mandate for our health care workers. this is a major element of the government's overreaching covid-19 response that must begin to be scaled back. not only is it coercive and unconstitutional, the mandate does not take into account the fact that natural immunity is as effective as the vaccines and that vaccines do not prevent transmission of the omicron variant. additionally, we all know, we all see it. we have a massive labor shortage

in our health care industry and must do everything in our power to fight for americans who ran to the sound of the battle. for niece are the true heroes -- for these are the true heroes of the pandemic and deserve our up most respect. thank you, madam president. i yield back. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: madam president, as you saw at the state of the union address last night, a number of pandemic restrictions in congress have seemingly ended, thanks to the c.d.c.'s convenient decision to update its guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing earlier this week. some democratic politicians in the room were cheering, chanting, embracing, and crowding, though many of them continue to publicly condemn those who have chosen not to wear masks or socially distance. they were maskless and were not distanced themselves. so why the immediate change? well, perhaps it's because they simply couldn't waste the political opportunity for

partisan theater with which they could raise the curtain on their big government aspirational new normal. sure, president biden can attempt to hide behind c.d.c. guidance, but the very same c.d.c. guidance that crafted a complex system to provisionally grant americans permission to live as free citizens. but he fell into a perpetual pitfall of the left. he forgot that americans are a lot smarter than perhaps he thinks they are. americans can see through the political theater and the constructive political timing. they see the hypocrisy. they know that the only science that has changed is the political science. they saw the powerful elite gathered to praise their own playacted benevolence forget and

leadership, all while countless americans who are suffering from the real failures of president biden and his party, are losing their jobs because of draconian federal vaccine mandates. what a sorry state of affairs. what a sad set of conditions. americans see and feel the hypocrisy. the people of utah and the united states do not want the false freedom pushed by a political class that refuses to relinquish control over citizens' lives. they want real freedom, the kind promised by the declaration of independence and protected by the constitution. they want to be able to live their lives, to raise their families, and make their own medical decisions without a "mother may i" from president biden or the vast throngs of nameless, unaccounted, unelectable federal bureaucrats. they want to be able to provide for their families without the threat of being fired if they

don't submit to a medical procedure that they don't want. i'm honored to join my friend and colleague, senator marshall, in standing for american workers. today we stand for the millions of health care workers who are some of the heroes of this pandemic. they came to work and cared for the sick before vaccines were even available. they should not be forced to submit to a procedure or risk their livelihoods. this isn't our first effort to end these federal mandates. i've tried dozens of bills, dozens of times to end this draconian overreach. i'm proud to continue this fight. we will not stop until freedom is restored. we will not stop until american moms and dads can provide for their families without kowtowing to president biden's vaccine mandates.

and without submitting to presidential medical orthodoxy in this or any future administration. thank you. mr. wyden: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent that i be allowed to speak for up to 15 minutes, followed by senator marshall for up to one minute prior to the scheduled roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. wyden: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the following members of my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the congress -- maya hammon, bonny millon, felicia chow, ragev irwal, sarguny, nadia laninun. officer without objection. mr. wyden: as my colleague

from utah just noted a minute ago, he has been asked for votes on this matter repeatedly, and today he and others seek to invalidate a regulation issued by the centers for medicare and medicaid services that require most health care providers to be vaccinated. and suffice it to say, madam president, this is something that the supreme court has ruled on. the supreme court has actually taken this up and agrees with our position that, in effect, this is an area where there is a strong public interest. and i believe what my colleague is proposing is just far outside the mainstream of opinion regarding vaccinations in

america. there simply is a point where an anti-mandate agenda becomes a dangerous anti-vaccine agenda. and my colleagues on the other side, in my view, have crossed that line quite some time ago. so i'm just going to take a few minutes to describe why i thinkness such an extreme -- i think this is such an extreme position outside what the vast majority of americans agree and in contrast to what the supreme court has said. americans support a vaccine provision and requirement for health care workers by a 20 or 30-point margin. no surprise about that. everybody is concerned about sitting in a room with a doctor or nurse who may be contagious, who's been unvaccinated.

and i want to particularly emphasize the people affected here who are the most vulnerable based on what we've seen during the pandemic. we're talking about those with chronic illness and seniors. three-quarters of the americans who've died of covid-19 were seniors. 200,000 of those covid deaths were americans living or working in long-term care facilities like nursing homes. many others recent in and -- many others were in and out of doctors offices repeatedly. it is about a commonsense policy designed to keep seniors -- people i worked with for seven years before came to the congress; i was director of the

gray panthers. i think we all believe we want vulnerable people to be safe. so i'm going to start by quoting a ruling by the roberts' court, hardly at this point, colleagues, some kind of radical left judiciary. recently they allowed the vaccine requirement for health care workers to go forward. and i'm just going to quote here. ensuring that providers take steps to avoid transmitting a dangerous virus to their patients is consistent with the fundamental principle of the medical profession -- first, do no harm. it would be the very opposite of efficient and effective administration for a facility that is supposed to make people well to make them sick with covid-19. this vaccine provision -- the

requirement -- is about keeping our health care workforce safe. doctors and nurses in you are a country are overwhelmed -- in our country are overwhelmed. that's what they just told me as i went about my state, going to hospitals, vaccination sites and other health care programs. these providers have been working nonstop for years under extraordinary stress. what they're all about is honoring that hippocratic oath trying to save lives. at times in this pandemic, our hospitals have been jampacked with covid patients. if lots of doctors and nurses are out during a big covid wave,that's got an impact on the standard of care for everybody. it drops for covid patients, for stroke patients a, for people hurt in car accidents. our country desperately needs to protect our health care workforce. now, right at the heart of my

colleagues' case -- and as my friend from utah said, we've had a number of debates about this subject -- my colleagues say every person is unique and there needs to be flexibility when it comes to vaccines. colleagues, i'm just fine with that. the fact is the, the administration is allowing for medical and religious exemptions. flexibility is written into the rule because that's just plain, old common sense. vaccine requirements aren't anything new for health care workers. flu shot requirements have been common for a long time. when you go into health care, it's understood that a vaccine requirement can be part of the job. furthermore, the center for medicare and medicaid services has already pushed back the deadline for health care workers in several states to have their first vaccine dose. originally, the deadline was in

march -- excuse me, was in december. now it is in march. the idea that this is somehow an inflexible and unreasonable mandate coming from nowhere is just plain wrong. i would just close by way of saying, mr. president, it's time for the senate to move past these battles that i think regrettably continue to make this pandemic, which strikes me as having nothing to do with politics, such a political hot button. it's good news that the omicron wave has receded. with any luck, that'll be the last major covid wave that threatens to overwhelm our health care system. we all want our lives to get back to normal and the way to do that is with smart public health policies. and smart public health policies, we know, consistently get broad support from the

american people. that's what the vaccine provision requirement for health care workers is all about. that's why the supreme court upheld it. i would urge that we oppose this joint resolution and do everything we can to make sure that health care workers are going to be vaccinated. and as i said to my constituents when i was home this weekend, when what i wanted to make sure is that everybody who could get vaccinated as quickly as possible. madam president, i yield the floor. mr. marshall: madam president, i appreciate the comments of my colleagues from the great state of oregon. but his arguments all rely upon one assumption, and that's that the vaccine works to prevent transmission. but the vaccines don't work to

prevent transmission. the supreme court's ruling was not a ruling on merit. the medicare and medicaid vaccine mandate will impact every family, every person across this great nation. we already have a dire shortage of doctors, nurses, ultrasound techs, kitchen staff, custodians in all these hospitals and nursing homes. this mandate will result in more staffing shortages and firings. the science behind this mandate is quite outdated. natural immunity is stronger than immunity acquired through vaccination at this point. last night president biden said, let's stop looking at the covid-19 as a partisan dividing line. let's take him at his word. let's make our actions be consistent with his words. let's repeal this divisive mandate today. i urge all my colleagues to support our resolution. thank you. i yield back.

the presiding officer: all time is expired. under the previous order, the clerk will read the title of the joint resolution for the third time. the clerk: calendar number 291, s.j. res. 32 providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5 united states code of the rules submitted by the centers for medicare and medicaid services relating to medicare, medicaid programs, omnibus covid-19 health care staff vaccination. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the passage of the joint resolution. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: