mr. carper: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. carper: madam president, good afternoon. i rise this afternoon to speak in support of this legislation that we are considering today, inflation reduction act of 2022. a little over a week ago when i heard the news that there was an agreement reached to move forward on this legislation, i could not help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief and of joy, and i am not alone in feeling that way. i felt relief in knowing that after months of negotiations and years of hard work from volunteers, from activist, from policy experts, from leaders at all levels of government and industry and so many others we finally had broken the logjam on major climate and clean energy legislation. i felt joy in knowing that we were one step closer to delivering a major victory for the american people, one that will help reduce inflation and create good-paying jobs at the same time. my belief is that this legislation is an answer to our

mr. carper: mr. president, normally at this time of the week senator capito and i are gathering in for a face-to-face meeting or maybe having a meeting by phone as she heads back to west virginia. today it looked like we weren't going to have a chance to meet, but here we are. ironically most of those conversations we have are, we're like in sync. most folks around the country probably think we never agree on anything here, but p we do, and we actually turn out to be pretty good friends. a couple of west virginia kids here made out all right. it's always a pleasure to serve with her. the right to bipartisan infrastructure legislation. last week we were here to pass not one, not two, but three bipartisan pieces of legislation, a couple of them pretty big. recycling bills, another one dealing with the water resources development act for the army corps of engineers. we had one negative vote on the army corps of -- one. the recycling legislation, one of which was your bill, i think one was mine, and we w

mr. carper: madam president, the speaker just finished speaking before he leaves the floor, he and i same -- share the same initials, trchlts c. and in -- t.c. and in this case we share the same views on an important issue. it's important to have the t.c.'s speaking from the same hymn book. madam president, on a lighter note, some of the conversation here is pretty serious. this is a serious matter, but i want to tell -- take it just a little bit lighter. i'm reminded of the words of harry truman, former president, used to say the only thing in the world is the hiss we -- the only thing new in the world is the history we forgot or never learned. and i want to take, if you will, as the presiding officer knows, every tuesday we have our caucus lunch. republicans have theirs. unfortunately we don't dine together enough. but our caucus lunch, we have a history moment or history minute, maybe a minute or two, one of the highlights of frankly the time we spend together. i want to look back a little bit in time as we take up today an issue that's right before us. as it earn its out, the first sw

mr. carper: madam president, the speaker just finished speaking before he leaves the floor, he and i same- share the same initials, trchlts c. and in -- t.c. and in this case we share the same views on an important issue. it's important to have the t.c.'s speaking from the same hymn book. madam president, on a lighter note, some of the conversation here is pretty serious. this is a serious matter, but i want to tell -- take it just a little bit lighter. i'm reminded of the words of harry truman, former president, used to say the only thing in the world is the hiss we -- the only thing new in the world is the history we forgot or never learned. and i want to take, if you will, as the presiding officer knows, every tuesday we have our caucus lunch. republicans have theirs. unfortunately we don't dine together enough. but our caucus lunch, we have a history moment or history minute, maybe a minute or two, one of the highlights of frankly the time we spend together. i want to look back a little bit in time as we take up today an issue that's right before us. as it earn its out, the first swed

senator carper and we are very proud as well so i think you are going to get a good answer. >> thank you mr. germanic first let me answer senator carper's question in part by mentioning the neighborhood home investment act. you would be disappointed if i didn't. thank you for the comments that you made. i wasn't in the committee room at the time for the cosponsorship on this and certainly senator wyden and senator crapo we have support from both branches of government. but i want to acknowledge the work mr. roberts in his organization has done with regards to developing the legislation. we developed it as a needed to deal with affordable housing. covid-19 has underscored this even greater. inflation has made it even more urgent in this regard and we are talking about the appraisal gap but the cost of building and renovating exceeds the value and therefore cannot be done under the regular commercial circumstances. this leads to the decline of neighborhoods as well as making the wealth gap in america. so, can you just elaborate as to how the current markets which is anything but a predictable

mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. the senate will be in order. mr. carper: mr. president, the amendment by our colleague, senator capito, would strike $45 million in the bill that would fund epa to use its existing clean air act authorities to address greenhouse gas emissions. our colleague sought to argue that this provision did not comply with the byrd rule but the parliamentarian ruled that it does. we're now presented with an amendment to strike the provision altogether. epa has lots of authorities at its disposal to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than mid-century. the quickest way we can jumpstart government wide climate action is to help empower agencies to use the tools that they already have. the $45 million in the bill before us would enable epa to do just that. i spoke earlier today about the urgent need for climate action. we are witnessing record heat, more extreme weather, devastating floods on an almost daily basis. we shou

mr. carper: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. i want one minute to respond to what he said. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: almost everything he just talked about came out of the finance committee. terrific leadership. thank you. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call: mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: may we please have order. are we in a quorum, madam president? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, in a moment i will move to proceed to the inflation reduction act of 2022. the time has come for the senate to begin debate on this historic piece of legislation. the inflation reduction act is a groundbreaking bill for the american people. for families struggling to pay the bills, for seniors struggling to pay for medication,

mr. carper: thank you. i yield. the presiding officer: the senate will proceed to legislative session and resume consideration of the house message to accompany s. 3373 which the clerk will report. the clerk: house message to accompany 3373, an act to improve the iraq and afghanistan service grant and the children of fallen heroes grant. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the time until 5:00 p.m. is equally divided. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: i rise to discuss helping our servicemembers exposed to toxic burn pits. for days now servicemembers and their families have been camping outside this very building in desperation. they're pleading with us. they are begging with us to pass this bill. they have been out there all weekend in 90-degree heat, sheltering themselves from thunderstorms as well as oppressive humidity. i've been down there to visit them three times now, and i can tell you they are exhausted. they miss their families, they