mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: thank you, mr.resident. mr. president, i just want to echo what was said by my colleague from alaska, because what we're now hearing from the administration are ideas that they think will help ease the pressure on gas prices in this country, but they're all gimmicky. it's all, you know, rebates, gas card rebates, or doing away with the gas tax temporarily, until september. like that's going to do anything meaningful long-term to address this supply-demand crisis that the senator from alaska just alluded to. and i have to say that this administration, from the time they came into office, has demonstrated an open hostility to oil and gas production in this country, energy production more generally. the senator from alaska was talking about the oil pipeline. we have one in south dakota, the keystone x.l. pipeline which was killed the first day in office by the biden administration, and again sent sig nals to those who produce energy in this country that we are not interested in what you have to offer.

mr. thune: mr. president, the white house has apparently decided to spend june focusing on the economy. president biden kicked things off with an op-ed in "the wall street journal" entitled my plan for fighting inflation. before he gets to the actual quote-unquote, plan, though, the president spends the first part touting his economic successes, as usual he takes credit from the recovery from covid's woes even though it happened before that. he touts job creation figures without mentioning that businesses are struggling to have workers find jobs. he tawts the applications of small businesses in 2021, without mentioning that small business optimism is at the lowest level since the 2020 level. he said that millions of americans getting jobs with better pay. end quote. while leaving out the fact that wages are outstripping wage growth. in all, he spends multiple paragraphs attempting to convince americans the economy is thriving, which i have to think feels pretty meaningless to the millions of of amer

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, before i begin, i'd like to express my dismay at house democrats' decision last night to block legislation to provide enhanced security for supreme court justices and their families. due to the unprecedented leak of an early draft of the supreme court's dobbs decision and the result and hysteria from members of the pro-abortion left, the supreme court asked congress for additional authorities to protect justices' families. thapped four weeks ago -- this happened four weeks ago and an arrest of an armed man near justice kavanaugh's home, and has been charged of attempted murder, made clear how important that 0 protection is. the supreme court security legislation in question passed the senate unanimously four weeks ago, but has faced inexplicable delays in the house of repr

mr. thaoupb, a republican from south dakota -- thune, a republican from south dakota, a congressman from california, pete defazio, democrat from oregon, and the committee chair's rankings members who supported this critical legislation. and you did it so quickly. thank you, thank you, thank you for working across the aisle. and for getting this done so quickly. and i've said many times, tackling inflation is my number one priority. inflation, inflation is higher around the world, it doesn't matter. it's much too high here. this bill is going to help bring down inflation, at least marginally. for farmers and businesses all across america. and more than that, the bill is proof of what we can achieve when we work together on common ground. democrats, republicans and independents. farmers, families in this country, businesses, all sizes. we've identified the problem, we identified the solution and we fixed it together. in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way. with a vote of the house, very close, 369-42. [laughter] i remember those good old days, man. [laughter] and no objection in the senate. i

mr. secretary. >> thank you very much. next, we have senator kaine. -- thune. >> mr. secretary, welcome.nice to have you here. i appreciate the committee turning its focus to the challenges our farmers and ranchers and rural communities are facing, among those high inflation, market volatility, and supply chain constraints, all of which have been referenced at some level today, coming out a time when producers are working to address global food shortage concerns. in south dakota, we have producers dealing with difficult weather conditions this spring including drought, severe drought, excess moisture, and significant storm damage. i would urge usda to provide expedited assistance to those affected producers. many of the commodity prices are high. inflation has sent expenses skyrocketing. to make matters worse, some producers might have had recent storm damage to their property. there is a deep concern about replacing these critical elements of their operations and how expensive it will be given the soaring costs we are experiencing. what is usda doing to address inflation and its effect

mr. secretary. >> next we have senator thune, senator fisher, senator booker. >> thank you madam chair. mr.ec., welcome. nice to have you here among those highat inflation costs. with the soaring costs that we are experiencing what is the usda doing to affect its agriculture and what can the usda do to help mitigate the sharply increasing costs? >> the primary focus is to makee sure the disaster assistance programs that are in place that have been funded and financed or made available as quickly as possible. the way the program operates to get resources out as quickly as possible making it much easier and simpler to apply for the resources. that's going to continue. we continue to look for ways to utilizee. some of the challenges i thinksu there's an opportunity here for us. it's going to be allocated and there is going to be a great interest in that effort. we think there's research suggesting that perhaps some are potentially over fertilized. a lot of the programs you mentioned are programs with previous farm bills. in the times we need them like right now. with wildfires across the west

mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i understand we are in a quorum call. the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be sus pended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: i would further ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak up to 15 minutes, senator moran up to seven minutes, senator tester ten minutes prior to the scheduled roll call votes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. before i begin, i'd like to take at that brief moment to wish the united states army a happy 247th birthday. i had the special honor this morning to fall in with secretary of the army warmuth, army chief of staff mcconville, sergeant major of the army grinston, many other leaders and soldiers for some morning p.t. i appreciated the opportunity to join in the army tradition a birthday formation run. it was especially humbling to run through the hallowed grounds of arlington national cemetery. anytime are you

mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: three weeks a federal judge blocked the biden administration from lifting covid-19 restrictions. it was a welcomed addition that will hopefully stave off illegal immigration at our border, but it is the only good bit of good news on the front. the situation on the southern border is out of control. in april customs saw 234,88 attempting to cross the border illegally. that is the highest number ever recorded. the border patrol stretched thin. a recent article reported that around 60% of b.p. agents have been processing migrants taking them away from field work. detention facilities are overflowing and massive numbers of illegal immigrants are being released into the country, many of whom will never report to an immigration office as ordered. in short, our southern border is in chaos. if title 42 is lifted

mr. thune: mr. president, former google chairman eric schmidt, writing with jared cohen once said, and i quote, modern technology platforms are, quote, even more powerful than most people realize, and that, quote, our future world will be profoundly altered by their adoption and successfulness in societyies -- in societies everywhere. end quote. there's no question that big tech plays an ever-increasing role in our lives. i imagine most of us wouldn't even be able to count the number of times a day we interact with technology platforms, from checking our e-mail to spending time on social media to searching on google. and the pandemic only accelerated that trend, as our reliance on technology from everything from social connection to food increased. 0 i don't need to tell anyone that technology platforms offer lots of benefits. they are sources of information. they make it easier to stay close to distant loved ones. they allow us to shop, to conduct business, and to connect with friends and to advoca