mr. portman: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. ohio, sorry. mr. portman: close enough. thank you, madam president. i'm here on the floor of the senate this evening to talk about our shared national priorities for addressing the nation's infrastructure needs and my concerns, really deep concerns, about the plan the biden administration has outlined and specifically the way they intend to pay for it. i don't think there's a single member in this chamber who does not recognize the need to invest in america's infrastructure. our net wherebis of roads, bridges, ports, and railroads have played an integral role in our economy and yet according to a 2019 report, the most recent one we have, the us in only ranks 13th in the world on infrastructure based on factors like the quality of our roads, how efficient our trains are and access to electricity and water. so we can and should do more to improve our infrastructure. particularly as competitors like china make substantial investments in their own infrastructure every year. and we can do so in a bipartisan

mr. portman: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio is recognized. mr. portman: madam president, i appreciated the thoughtful comments of my colleague from oklahoma regarding the need for us to have an imed judiciary -- independent judiciary. i'm on the floor today to talk about a different issue, and it's the latest, very troubling information that we are receiving regarding the addiction epidemic and specifically drug overdose deaths in the united states. and i'm also going to talk about some of the steps we can take right now to address that reality. one of the top pray yorlts i've had -- priorities i've had in this body and the house is drug addiction and it's a moment of frustration because we were making progress and then covid-19 hit. unfortunately, this drug epidemic has hit my state of ohio particularly hard. the latest data from the centers for disease control, the c.d.c., shows that it's a pretty grim picture right now and it should be a wake-up call to all of us. overdose deaths rose nearly 30% nationwide from september 2019 to september 2020.

mr. ahuja and thank you for your opening comments. prior to moving to our other nominees in their opening statement ranking member portman wishes to make an opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman i appreciate that i apologize for being way. we have two hearings going on at this time and three or four other things so i will keep my opening statement shored. i enjoyed talking with all four of you and i appreciate your ouwillingness to serve as i told you in. our conversations. i think you're coming forward and a consequential time and we talked to ms. ahuja about the issues that affect management right now and we talked about your work previously and the cyber attack than information and privacy issues as well as the need for us to deal with what is identified every are consistently is one of her huge challenges as the country in our federal workforce to be motivated and improve morale. the opm role has everything to do with human resources and you are also providing technical guidance and support to agencies on a number of issues including performance evaluation and development of workers in overseeing the benefits program for mil

mr. portman: thank you, madam president. i'd like to start by thanking my colleague from wyoming and my colleague from iowa about where we are as a country 100 days into the biden administration. it's been discouraging we haven't seen more bipartisan work, and with regard to the border, having been down there a couple of weeks ago, particularly discouraging that we can't come up with a bipartisan solution that deals with the obvious crisis on the border. of course it's a crisis. everybody knows that, including the biden administration. the question is what are we going to do about it. and some of us have laid out some proposals that we think would be very sensible, that could be done on a bipartisan basis, and yet we are not getting the kind of cooperation from the white house or the other siefl, frankly -- the other side of the aisle, frankly with regard to dealing with a clear crisis. in my time here in congress i've tried to work to bring republicans and democrats together on issues. i think that is the best thing for our

mr. chairman. >> thank you ranking member portman. our second nominee is antoine azar to be governor of the u.s. postal service. mr. azar has dedicated has life to the law he currently serves on the counsel of the american law institute where he advises ass an expert on employment law, corporate governess, contracts, and property. he has prangted and held leadership roles at the firms murphy anderson o'donnell schwartz an anderson with a strong record of fighting for workers. includingg hardworking dedicated men and women of the postal service. his public service includes work on the national labor relations board as a merchant seamen with a sea lift command and early in his career as a customs inspector welcome to the committee you may proceed with your opening comments. >> thank you chairman peters ranking member portman honorable necks of this committee. thank you for the privilege of appears before you in connection with my nomination to be governor of the u.s. postal service. at the outset if i want to extend gratitude to my wife

mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator menendez. next in the queue, senator thune asked if we wait, with the senator carper on the web. [inaudible] >> excuse me. in person. and then he will be followed by senator portman. i didn't see you, senator carper. you are next. >> good morning, mr. chairman. the ranking member and my colleagues who deceive you. commissioner, last time you were forced, i think you're -- before us i think your wife was with us. she's a native of south vietnam, told her we say thanks for sharing you with us. especially during trying times. colleagues, an army doctor think is on his way to fort benning. >> just promoted to major. we are very proud. >> tell him we say navy salutes the army. >> thank you, sir. >> we been talking colleagues about the need at the irs for resources. they include people, technology, money. we've heard several of my colleagues have said for every dollar we provide in additional resources to the irs, a payback to the treasury is something like seven dollars. when i was elected to the house of representatives and building years ago i think chuck grassley had just been elected to the u.s. senate. i think senator wyden and ai served together for a number app

portman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we tend to have a little higher percentage of people in nursing homes than other states, but 40%, this makes it really the focus and really the worst part of our crisis, 7,000 nursing home residents in ohio lost their lives over the past year. it has improved recently druimaticly because of vaccinations and i'm excited about that, but in the meantime it's been a huge problem. long-term care of course is really important to ensuring seniors and people with disabilities can live meaningful lives. and while nursing homes are essential to our country's long-term care system they're not the only ones that offer this care. for years i've championed this push where we can offer long-term care in residential settings that are more personalized and allow beneficiaries to live in their own homes near to their family and friends and familiar surroundings. this is what we know about hcbs care. it costs less than nursing home care, produces similar or better outcome and people are happier at it. f

portman. i didn't see you, , senator carr nicu our next. >> good morning, mr. chairman. did you see you all. >> good morning. >> commissioner, last time you will be forced i think your wife was with us. she's a native of south vietnam, place where i served in southeast asia in the vietnam war. however we say thanks for sharing with us especially during trying times. >> just better to major. repress. >> the navy salutes the army. >> thank you so. >> we've been talking, colleagues, about the need at the irs for resources that include people, click technology, include money. we have heard several colleagues who said for every dollar that we provide additional resources to the irs, the payback to the treasure something like seven bucks. when i was elected to the house of representatives 1 million years ago i think chuck rousey just been elected to the u.s. senate, and i think senator wyden and i served together forr a number of years in the house, and those are years when we were measured the federal deficit in terms of tens tens of billf dollars a year. tens of billions of

portman. >> thank you for inviting so many ohioans to join us, and mr.timmons, and we have had good successes with cooper tire, and most recently cleveland cliffs saved a bunch of jobs, and your support for our made in america bills with the legislation introduced because it's an opportunity, and our level playing field act as well and the new bill we are working on with leveling the playing field. this is a really important issue, and i want to back up and talk about how to make sure we can be competitive, and there has been discussion about the tax laws, but i think there's a new emerging consensus that we need to think about competitiveness in terms of what is called the industrial comments where you have manufacturers, suppliers, inventors and skilled workers altogether, and although as a republican i'm hesitant to talk about the government being too involved in our market, which ultimately has been very successful in making us a strong economy, and a lot of people envy that, and those industrial convents that have all those together, and here's an i

portman. senator cardin on the web. >> thank you mr. chairman and commissioner thank you for your service and your service to our committee. we have been talking about the tax gap and obviously it's a concern to every member of our committee. i've a question from the other end and that is those that are entitled to benefits under the tax code but don't have access to those benefits. some are tax repairs and some are having a hard time getting through the requirements in order to get beer and income tax credits more challenging that it was before. i regret that we were not able as the chairman and i worked this ticket you'd back the regulatory power. can you share with us your concern as being able to protect some of our most vulnerable taxpayers without the ability to regulate the tax preparer's? >> we absolutely need the ability to regulate tax prepares and to talk in terms of the most vulnerable taxpayers. the fcc recipients and individuals in different amenities and also the ethnic commute these individuals were challenged with engli

mr. chabot: thank you. i don't think we have any speakers on our side so i'll close by saying this is a really good bill. i want to thab rob portman for -- i want to thank rob portman for his leadership when he was here in the house and over in the senate. we have been working on this for years. a lot of democrats and republicans working together. this is bipartisan legislation that really does benefit the whole world. i wish we did more tough stuff -- more stuff like this around here. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. castro: i reserve as much time as i may consume for the purpose of closing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. castro: madam speaker, h.r. 241, introduced by mr. chabot, is a bipartisan bill that re-authorizes the tropical forest and coral reef conservation act. the debt forenature swaps -- for nature swaps created by this program has been highly successful in generating support for tropical support or coral reef conservation activities in exchange for relieving debt owed to the united states government. this bil

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: mr. president, i welcome the vice president, the president of the senate to our chamber this evening. i'm here this evening to discuss the infrastructure plan that's been proposed by president biden and the plan along with it for massive tax increases. the biden infrastructure plan totals a $2.3 trillion but only 20% of it actually goes toward funding anything that members of either party have ever considered infrastructure. i support more infrastructure investment as do, i believe, most if not all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. the question is, what is infrastructure and how do you pay for it? roads and bridges as an example in this proposal are only about 5% of the plan. in fact, it provides more money for long-term care than it does for roads and bridges. more money for electric cars than it does for roads and bridges. more money for schools and day care than it does for roads and bridges. many of these noninfrastructure ideas are worthy ones and they should be debated an

mr. portman: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, i'm here to join my colleague and friend from west virginia -- the presiding officer: i'm sorry. we're in a quorum call. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent to not have a quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: so my friend and colleague, senator manchin from west virginia and i are on the floor today to talk about this issue of fentanyl. this is a deadly synthetic opioid that is killing more people in our states than any other single drug, and unbelievably, congress only has 15 days to act, and if we don't, some of these illegal fentanyl products are going to be legal again. this is exactly the wrong thing for us to do right now as sadly we're seeing a big increase in overdoses and overdose deaths because of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. so we want to have bipartisan legislation that we've introduced passed that simply says let's not allow these illicitly manufactured and deadly synthetic opioids to suddenly become lega