mr. tuberville: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: mr. president, i want to thank senator braun and senator scott again for supporting this bill. i'm proud to partner with them in this effort to safeguard the financial privacy of american citizens. as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration s. 395 -- 2953, which is at the desk. i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there an objection. mr. wyden: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, mr. president. mr. president and colleagues, the senator's proposal, in effect, would be a game-winning touchdown for wealthy tax cheats. i.r.s. commissioner rettig, a republican appointee, came before the finance committee earlier this year and said the total amount of taxes evaded each year could be as high as a trillion dollars, cheating by those

mr. tuberville: thank you, mr. president. i think americans must look at what's happening up here in washington, d.c. and think that the democrats look like squirrels dodging cars from traffic. this is biden's america, one where the policy is is being thrown around in the hopes that one of their hairbrained ideas would stick. it would be almost funny if our country wasn't staring down multiple problems as a result of the biden administration's policy failures. and it's time the democrats face the facts. but after ten months of president biden running the country, how are ordinary americans doing? let's just take a look. take the border crisis. the complete predictable self-inflicted disaster. on his first day in office, president biden made the radical decision to open our borders by undoing many successful policies put in place by the trump administration. they were working. and we changed them. you can draw a straight line from those ill-advised policy decisions to where we are as we speak. two million illegal immigrants wi

mr. tuberville: thank you, mr. president.ou know, it's no secret that i oppose president biden's tax proposal. i think it's bad policy that would undercut growth and derail american prosperity, but one of the worst parts of the president's plan is the provision requiring financial institutions to report their customers' transactions of $600 or greater to the i.r.s. that means any time an american pays a bill, makes a deposit, transfers funds, or makes a purchase of $600 or more, their bank, credit union, or financial institution would be forced to report that data to the i.r.s. opposition to this proposal is deep and bipartisan. i don't care if you're a republican, democrat, independent. no one wants the i.r.s. looking over their shoulder every time they make a financial transaction. the i.r.s. doesn't efficiently use the data it collects now. why in the world would we give them more information? if the i.r.s. has reason to believe you're not paying all that you owe in taxes, they have the ability to audit you. they don't nee

mr. tuberville: madam president, i want to begin today by recognizing the service and sacrifice of our law enforcement officers. this past weekend americans here in our nation's capital and around the country participated in national police weekend. being a law enforcement officer is one of the toughest and most dangerous jobs that there is. i think people on both sides of the aisle in this chamber would agree with that. law enforcement officers serve as a boundary between a functioning society and a lawless one and, sadly, during the course of their vital duty to serve and protect our communities, some pay the ultimate price. alabama has lost four individuals in the line of duty to date this year. deputy sheriff william h. smith of baldwin county sheriffs office. deputy keys, corrections officer maurice reese jackson of the robertsville police department, sergeant nick risener of the sheffield police department. our state lost five individuals this year from covid. lieutenant jeff baine, police officer juan manuel gomez lopez of the pellon police department, harry buddy hutchison of the b

mr. chairman. >> senator tuberville? >> thank you, mr. chairman. general, you spoke a lot about the civilian control of the military. i appreciate the statements you made about that today. on june 10, though, i asked for formal questions for the record about bagram airfield, and i pointed out having an air base within five miles of a china base would be extremely useful. i asked about a new u.s. base. i'm still waiting for a reply. i hope you see today ignoring questions that might come up from civilian oversight sometimes, you have to understand the pattern here. i heard senator blackman say about the book, you have to see how it looks to congress, that you've had time to interview and do all these interviews, but questions aren't answered. i'm just troubled by some of those things. also on august 18, you said, quote, there is nothing that i or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of the army and this government in 11 days, end quote. i find is hard to believe that a budget of your size with 114 million taxpayer dollars that we didn't see the

tuberville? >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. general milley, you have spoken today a lot about civilian control of the military. i appreciate the statements made about that today. on june 10th. though i asked for a formal question for the record about bagram airfield and pointed out that having a major air base within 500 miles of both iranian and chinese borders would be a strategically very invaluable. i asked you about the feasibility of retaining bagram air field as a u.s. base. i am still waiting for a reply. i hope you do see today ignoring, you know, questions that might come up from civilian oversight sometimes back fires on you a little bit. you've apologized for being late for your statement today. the hearing. but you just got to understand the pattern here. i heard senator blackburn say about the book, you know, you got to see how it looks to congress that you've had time to interview and do all these interviews but questions aren't answered. so i'm just troubled by some of those things. also, on august 18th you said

mr. chair, for letting us go long. >> thank you. senator. senator tuberville? >> thank you, senator hickenlooper and senator braun for having this. this is much needed. if we had one of these hearings every week for the next ten years, it probably wouldn't be enough. i spent 40 years in education. i'm here today because of education. i ran for u.s. senate in the state of alabama because the last 20 years i've seen our education going the wrong direction. we have the best education system in the world. we could be much better. for some reason, we won't change. we won't do the things we need to do to make it better for the kids that are coming up. we are different than the kids nowadays. we had different goals. we had different opportunities. now we have cyber. we have computer science. well all those things going along with it. the main thing that we need to do in my perspective of watching over 40 years is what miss curry said earlier. we have to expose people to something they want to do. when i got every day after i graduated from college and i went to work c

mr. chairman. i yield my time. >> thank you very much, senator tuberville. we have created the first round. andcy indicated, we will break at 1:00 for lunch. so we'll begin the second round. secretary austin, you said in response to senator warren that if we stayed past august 31, we would certainly be back at war with the taliban and that you would have to reinforce yourself. should i interpret your testimony to mean that staying at 2,500 past the 31st was not sustainable at an acceptable level of risk to american personnel and that we would be seeing today casualties and could be accumulating at an unacceptable rate? >> chairman, i think the point that's been left out of a lot of the conversation is that had we stayed past that date that was agreed upon early on, that the taliban would begin to attack us, attack our forces there. and we would have to make some decisions on how to reinforce our forces so that we could continue to operate. and that would include, quite possibly, increasing the force there. >> now, in the do had an agreement, president trump agreed to leave with certain cond

mr. tuberville: thank you.resident, in the winter of 2010, american intelligence picked up the chatter of afghan fighters in pakistan. why are you back, asked the taliban leaders? you are supposed to be fighting the americans. yes, one of the fighters said, but the americans run toward the bullets. that story captures the american fighting spirit. if you ever find yourself questioning the greatness of this country, i encourage you to go talk to one of our young service members. i'm not talking about our older generals or warhorses you often see on tv or around here on capitol hill. they won't renew your faith in america. they may even worry. i'm talking about the young people. it's the doorkickers, the tank drivers, the trigger pullers. some of them are still just kids. i'm talking about the ones fresh out of college, ones hoping to pay for college by signing up for our great military. these young people are america's future. they are the americans who fought so hard for us in afghanistan over the last 20 years

mr. tuberville: madam president, after being in washington, d.c., for ten months, i've seen this town jump from one issue to another. sadly, many of the issues we face are self-inflicted, illegal immigrants on the southern border, americans who remain trapped in afghanistan and rampant inflation, just to name three. but we face a more serious threat in this nation. an issue larger than left or right, a threat that goes beyond conservative and liberal, china. china seeks to shackle the united states economically, technologically and militarily. the communist leaders of china are employing every instrument of national power to diminish our standing and influence in the world. last month president biden told world leaders during his maiden u.n. general assembly speech that the united states, quote, is not seeking a cold war. well, the u.s. may not be seeking out a new cold war, but china is. so we shouldn't give them the shovel to bury us. when asked this week if china's hypersonic missile testing over the summer was a surprise, the u.s. officials, white house, press secretary general psaki j

lankford, tuberville, kramer, senator rick scott, kennedy and wicker for joining me in this legislation. i look forward to working with them once we submit it as an amendment to the ndaa. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. tillis: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, american families are hurting, and there's no relief in sight. we're facing skyrocketing inflation and families are feeling it every time they go to the grocery store. we're facing a supply chain crisis that threatens to deny families the food and the goods that they need. we're facing surging energy prices that are literally burning holes in the wallets of hardworking americans. just this week i drove up from charlotte, and i was amazed at how much more it took me to refuel my truck about halfway from charlotte to d.c. this has gotten so bad that some families are really beginning to rethink their travel plans as a pproach the holidays. we're facing a labor shortage crisis with small businesses and farms across the country having you s&ling to fill jobs -- struggling to fill jobs. even as they raise the potential salaries, the people are simply n