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calendar number 811, 888, 889, and 890, that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's actions and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question is on the nominations en bloc. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en bloc. ms. stabenow: thank you, mr. president. i understand that there are four bills -- let's see here. i understand that there are four bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the time. the clerk: h.r. 3540, an an act within the department of homeland security, the department of justice and the federal bureau of investigation to analyze and monitor domestic terrorist activity and require the federal government to take steps to prevent domestic terrorism. s. 4261 is a bill to suspend duties and other restrictions on the importation of infant formula to address the shortage of infant formula in the united states and for other purposes. h.r. 7688, an act to prevent consumers from price gouging of consumer fuels and for other purposes. h.r. 7790, an act making emergency supplemental appropriations to address the shortage of infant formula in the united states for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2022, and for other purposes. ms. stabenow: in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule have, i would object to further

proceedings en bloc. the presiding officer: objections having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that the junior senator from washington be authorized to sign duly enrolled bills of joint resolutions from may 19, 2022, through may 23, 2022. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: and i would ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 645 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 645, to authorize testimony and representation in united states v. hail kook nellie. -- -- cusanelli. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: i would ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection.

ms. stabenow: mr. president, i have six requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and the minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. ms. stabenow: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn to then convene for a pro forma session only with no business being conducted on the following date and time -- monday, may 23, at 1:45 p.m. i further ask that when the senate adjourns on monday, may 23, it next convene at 10:00 a.m. tuesday, may 24. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed.

that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the linden balm nomination. further, that the senate recess from 12:30 p.m. until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. stabenow: if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of senator sullivan. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. mr. sullivan: thank you, mr. president. and to the fans of all the costa rican of the week -- alaskan of the week series, i regret this is not going to be an alaskan of the week speech. stay tuned. we'll have more. sorry to the pams. i know this is their favorite speech of the week. actually, i unfortunately, regrettably, mr. president, this is what i'm referring to as an

anti-alaskan of the week speech. and you're going to understand why here in a minute because i want to talk right now in the senate about what everybody else in america is talking about. when you actually leave the bubble of the beltway and you go home -- i was home last weekend, try to get home almost every weekend, what are people talking about? they're talking about inflation. they're talking about the high cost of everything. they're talking about formula and, of course, mr. president, they're really talking about the high cost of energy that is crushing working families in our nation. certainly in my state, but all over the country. a few stats on that. we've now had ten days in a row of record-high gas prices.

in alaska, we hit $5 a gallon for the first time ever at the pump. remember, at the end of the trump administration, gas was $2.39 a gallon. during the biden years -- not even a year and a half -- it's up 91%. 91%. the price of natural gas in america doubled last year. mr. president, this is having a devastating impact on americans across the board, but particularly working families, middle-class families, people on fixed income. now the president keeps saying that he's doing all he can to address this problem of high energy costs in america. and the secretary of energy today testified in front of the

armed services committee. she said that the administration is doing all it can to increase supplies of oil and gas in america. respectfully to the president, the secretary of energy, the secretary of interior, none of this is true. it's not even close, and i see it on a daily basis back home in alaska. and, mr. president, here's the thing -- the american people know it's not true. the american people know it's not true. i was home -- this wasn't last weekend when i was home. this was about four weekends ago. i was filling up my truck. actually it was three-quarters empty. so my truck was on one-quarter full, an f-150. it cost me lp -- almost $110 to

fill that up. had the truck been empty it would have been $142. by the way, now that we've had increases at the pumple since since -- pump since about four or five weeks ago, it's about $150 to fill up your truck. now, mr. president, this is the meter that i filled my truck up with. you see this little sticker, that's joe biden, and it says i did that. i did that, america. i made these prices really high. these stickers are spontaneously showing up everywhere in america. every state in the country, when you go to gas stations, has that, i did that. for anybody watching on tv, i encourage you to keep doing that

because the american people are wise, mr. president. the secretary of energy, joe biden, they keep claiming we're doing all we can to make sure you don't get crushed by energy increases, and it's not true, and this jus shows that people get it. joe biden did that, and we know it. the american people know it. so we all know this, day one of the biden administration there was a focus on shutting down oil and gas production. certainly in my state, but across the country. limiting the ability to actually transport energy -- keystone x.l. but oil and gas pipelines, going to financial institutions strong-arming them not to invest in the american energy sector.

mr. president, all those things have been happening since the beginning of this administration. so but now that you're seeing that the whole country knows that the responsibility of these high energy prices are from this administration and this president -- i did that, there you go -- you might be thinking, all right, people are really hurting. this is driving up inflation. the biden administration is probably saying, let's do a course correction. let's try to really increase the supply of energy, not strong-arm financial institutions to get rid of energy or to make it harder to invest in. so has there been a course correction? is the secretary of energy, as she testified today, and the president, we're doing all we can to increase production? well, the answer is no. the answer is no. let me give you three examples

just in the past few weeks that demonstrate this 100% that their goal continues to be to shut down energy production and still make it hard as heck to produce and build energy infrastructure. two are very close to home for me, unfortunately. last week the federal government, the biden administration, at the last minute canceled a lease sale for oil and gas leases in a place we call cook inlet in alaska. i was actually on the kenai peninsula where cook inlet is last weekend. the people were furious. they were furious. this is a lease sale. we have state leases, federal leases and cook inlet. this is the original major hydro carbon basin in alaska still producing oil and gas. we had a federal lease sale canceled. none of this is controversial. we have them all the time.

the biden administration canceled it. so much for wanting to increase production, canceling lease sales. let me give you another one, mr. president. the national petroleum reserve of alaska set aside by congress decades ago, probably the most prolific basin in the world right now for oil and gas, when you explore there, explorers are finding billion-barrel fields. not controversial. it's been set aside, like i said, for decades for oil and gas production. three weeks ago the biden administration announced in an executive order they were going to take half of that massive petroleum reserve off the table for any exploration or development. just three weeks ago. that's the biggest oil and gas

reserve in the country by far, the most prolific producing energy basin probably in the world, and they took half of it off the table. and they claim they're trying to increase production, increase supply? not true. the third one, again just in the last three weeks, mr. president, the council of economic, or environment quality at the white house issued new rules on how to implement nepa, the permitting that goes into any infrastructure project. by every measure, by every measure she is new rules are -- these new rules are meant to delay the building of american infrastructure, especially oil and gas infrastructure. mr. president, i have here two

editorials from the "wall street journal" i'd like to submit for the record. one is called "how to kill american infrastructure on the sly: the white house revises nepa rules that will scuttle new roads, bridges, and oil and gas pipelines." the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: and the other is called a bipartisan energy deal overriding biden's new nepa rules blockade is essential for fossil fuels and solar and wind power development. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: thank you, mr. president. the labor is international, led by great american terry o. sullivan. these came out. these are the largest construction union in the country. these are the nuclear weapon who bid thiks -- these are the men and women who build things in

our country. they came out against these nepa rules saying they would delay the building of american infrastructure, particularly energy projects -- wind, solar, oil, gas. the biden administration issued that three weeks ago. so those are just three examples, mr. president. but it's not just they're still very focused on shutting down the production of energy and the people of our great country know it. they know joe biden did that. but they're doing it in a way that is not transparent, and to be perfectly blunt, is dishonest. let me give you two examples. again, unfortunately, directly impacting my state, my constituents. when the biden administration leaked to the press by gina mccarthy, by the way, somebody who is really hostile to alaska and really hostile to

energy development, when they leaked to the press last week they're going to cancel the cook inlet lease sale, they scam belled to crom -- scrambled to come up with a reason. they hate oil and gas production, especially in my state, but they tried to come up with something. they later put out there was no industry interest in the lease sale. they were actually basing that on interest almost two years ago. but i know, senator murkowski mentioned in a hearing today with deb haaland, that we know for a fact there was interest in this lease sale. there was industry interest in the cook inlet lease sale. so the administration was spinning a falsehood. here's the other thing, mr. president. i used to be the d.n.r. commissioner in alaska. we did all kinds of oil and gas lease sales on state land. the fact of the matter is you almost never know who's interested until you actually have the sale.

companies don't say, yeah, we're coming. they keep that really close hold for competitive reasons. and it wouldn't cost the federal government a dime to hold the lease-sale. you find out if there's interest by actually holding the lease-sale. but the biden administration was spinning that there was no interest. that's a falsehood. we know that of the let me give you another wub, plt. let me give you another one, mr. president. when the administration three weeks ago took half of the natural petroleum sea off the table, which, by the way should why you set every mesh, -- set aside every american. the secretary of interior was actually in alaska. she was holding a listening session with the native leaders in the north slope burough where the npra actually is.

every single one of these leaders, with the exception of one said to secretary haaland, madam secretary, please no more restrictions on the development of our natural resources up here. it undermines economic opportunity. it takes away from development that we need in our native communities that most americans take for granted -- roads, bridges, schools, clinics, flush toilets. please, madam secretary, no more restrictions. the secretary comes back from alaska, and 72 hours after her visit to the state, she and her department issue 100-page record of decision saying we're going to take half of the mpra off the table. the very place she was with the native leaders who said don't do it. and the real audacity is there's

a section in the record, a decision which was clearly written before her visit to alaska, her listening session -- it wasn't a listening session at all because she had a predetermined outcome that she did not let the people of alaska know about or the native leaders of alaska know about, and there was a section in that record of decision that said we're doing this in part because the native people want it to protect subsistence. when the native leaders just told her the opposite. like i said, dishonest, nontransparent, not truthful. now, mr. president, i will admit there are a few places in the world, if you are lucky enough to live there, that the biden administration actually is doing all it can to increase the

production and supply of energy. two places, as far as i can tell. let me talk about those two places. the first is new mexico, the state of new mexico. close to half of all the oil and gas permits issued by the federal government last year went to one state. every state in the country like mine, trying to to get permits, guess which state got 2,286 oil and gas permits in 2021? new mexico. alaska is being crushed. no lease-sales in cook inlet, mpra, half of it off the table, probably about the size of new mexico. and in in many is getting special -- and new mexico is getting special treatment.

who's from new mexico? oh my goodness, the secretary of interior is from new mexico. isn't that interesting? i think that's interesting. i wish the media thought that was interesting. could you imagine if that was a republican secretary of interior favoring his state over every other state in the country for more oil and gas production? "the new york times" and "washington post" would have a field day. if this were ryan zinke, this would be a front page story every day. but not if it's a democrat. almost half the oil and gas permits issued by the federal government last year 2022 one state, new mexico. the senior senator -- i gave a speech about all that he is doing -- that i'm still very

riled up about -- to shut down oil and gas production. the senior senator from new mexico spends a lot of time writing learns to banks, writing leshts to -- letters to insurance companies on how to shut down oil and gas development in alaska. why would he care about alaska? i don't really know. but in his letters he says we need to shut down no investment in alaska banks to, quote, achieve america's climate goals, unquote. that's one senator trying to crush my state to, quote, achieve america's climate goals. i'm still not sure why that senator cares so much about crushing my state. but like his new mexico colleague, the secretary of

interior, they're doing a pretty good job of hurting my state, especially the native communities. and today in the e.n.r. committee, the senior senator from new mexico with secretary holland testifying, new mexico's oil and gas production is up 400%. it is good for the country and good for new mexico oil and gas workers. 400%, he was bragging about that, while still writing letters to shut down oil and gas production in alaska. that's not the way the senate operates. can you imagine if we attacked each other's states in it wouldn't work well around here. here's the thing about this, mr. president, new mexico's production has gone up more than alaska and their carbon

emissions are through the roof. where is the concern about, quote, achieving america's climate goals in new mexico -- from new mexico, from the senior senator of new mexico or secretary holland. so here's the bottom line on that. you want to shut down alaska to, quote, achieve america's climate goals, but you're free to go with cranking it up in your state and not mentioning climate goals at all. we call this hypocrisy in alaska, but i guess not show in new mexico. it's wrong, mr. president. we all know it's wrong. even the senior senator from new mexico knows it's wrong and it's harmful to my constituents. so new mexico is a place that the biden administration, second holland, are clearly trying to dramatically increase oil production. i guess they're lucky. the increase in carbon emissions a lot too.

they don't talk about that. so what's the other place that the biden administration is trying to really help in terms of increasing oil and gas production? it's foreign countries controlled by dictators who don't like us. you heard the story several months ago about the biden administration reaching out to iran, the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the word trying to lift sanctions so they could produce more oil for the world. let's shut down oil in alaska but let's go to the iranian terrorists to get more oil. well, this past week there is another story that happens to be true that the biden administration is loosening sanctions on another wonderful leader, the dictator in venezuela so they can produce more oil. let's help the dictators who hate our country produce more

and then we'll go shut down alaska who are great americans trying to produce energy. and, oh, by the way, mr. president, senator barasso did a great job in the e.n.r. hearing today saying guess who has the most dirty polluting oil in the world in terms of production and carbon footprint. 18 times more dirty and polluting that oil production in america. guess. venezuela. so we're going to get terrorists who don't like us who are the dirtiest polluters of energy when they produce it and get them to produce more and we're going to shut down oil and gas production in the great state of alaska that has the highest environmental standards on the planet. so, in conclusion, mr. president, president biden is not doing nearly enough to address the energy crisis in our

country. to the contrary, he is still undertaking policies meant to limit supply, limit infrastructure and make it harder to build that transports energy and shut down production in america. i just gave flee examples -- just gave three examples. america knows these prices are this guy's fault. but there is the biden exception. there is the biden exception. if you produce in new mexico, maybe because the secretary of interior is from there, maybe because the senior senator from new mexico is from there, or you're a dictator who really hates this country and really pollutes a lot when you produce energy, the biden administration wants you to produce more. mr. president, this has to

change. the american people know exactly what's going on. they know exactly what's going on. and these policies are hurting working families, they're making it so energy workers in my state get pink slips. they're doing nothing for the environment and they are empowering dictators. and that's why the american people know the blame is right there and until there's a course correction, unfortunately, the suffering that we're seeing all across this great nation in terms of high energy prices and inflation everywhere is going to continue. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until