Quorum call my colleagues are so mixed up on this, it is almost comical. The sums that we borrowed and spent through 2020, through last year, through the last administration, through the actual economic emergency were largely covered by the previous Debt Suspension that just expired. But democrats want a new debt limit increase for the new borrowing and the new spending that they willfully piled up since they took power, about 2 trillion back in march, trillions more sometime soon. So they want to unleash another reckless taxing and spending spree with zero republican input. Oh, oh, but when the bill comes, they say its time to split the check, when the bill comes, it is time to split the check, initiating another Budget Reconciliation Process in a 50 50 senate is as willfully partisan as go it alone as it gets, especially in a senate that keeps proving we can do bipartisan work. So look, if our colleagues want to ram through yet another reckless taxing and spending spree without our input, if they want all this Spending And Debt to be their signature legacy, they should leap at the chance to own every bit of it. So let me make something perfectly clear, if they dont need or want our input, they wont get our help. They wont get our help with the debt limit increase that recklessly that these reckless plans will require. I could not be more clear. Quorum call different lines to call in on for mask mandates, vaccine mandates, both, or you support neither. Tell us why and whats being proposed locally both in your city or your School System and in your state, if you are see things like that. We will get to your calls momentarily. This is the writing of the Washington Post, Aaron Blake with a piece earlier this week, americans might prefer vaccine mandates to mask mandates. It seems like ancient history right now but there was a time in which a vast majority of americans agreed on certain things when it came to the pandemic. High on that list was masks even as then president donald trump was assuring them last year americans were on a very different page. The associated Press And Orc poll in july 2020 showed that fully 75 of americans supported not just wearing masks but requiring them in public. When you were around someone else. Just 13 disagreed. Even republicans agreed with mandates, 58 to 27. Then as vaccinations took hold, health officials somewhat surprisingly relaxed those mandates and guidelines. As they attempt to ramp them up again in response to outbreaks, it is looking much tougher. A new University Poll Monday Morning shows little more than half of americans support instituting or reinstitutes face masks and social distancing guidelines in your state. Mr. Blumenthal Madam President. The presiding officer i recognize the senator from connecticut. Mr. Blumenthal Madam President , i ask that the Quorum Call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blumenthal i have seven requests for Todays Meeting of the senate, they have the approval of the Majority And Minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Blumenthal thank you, Madam President. Before i begin the remarks that brought me here today, i want to say a word about Richard Trumka, a hero to all of us who care about working people and a good friend to many of us. Im proud to call him a friend. And proud to have been with him as an ally in causes and principles that are so important to the present of america and the future of america. Im proud to have been with him on Picket Line and platform, to have stood with him and behind him in supporting the rights of working men and women to decenT Pay, fair treatment, and safety on the job. He came from america and he never forgot where he came from. His life is a lesson to so many of us who seek to emulate his devotion to the public interest. And as a leader of the Labor Movement, his life always also reminds us that unions count, that collective bargaining means something, that rights of working men and women succeed because they come together in unions and we ought to respect those unions, listen to them and champion their right to represent fairly and freely and to organize men and women on their jobs. So we will miss Richard Trumka but his legacy is going to be an inspiration to all of us, certainly to me in fighting for the great convictions, the sense of conscience, the wonderful Heart And Spirit that embraced people who disagreed with him, a Lifes Lesson for all of us. Today i was very proud to introduce, with my colleague, Senator Menendez, who is leading this effort, Senators Cornyn, Senator Grassley, the September September 11 Transparency Act. Now, members of this body have heard me talk about this issue before. It has been a repeating issue for me, but for this body as well. We passed jasta because we wanted the 9 11 families to have access to the courts and have their fair day in court. We passed a resolution in 2018 to require that the government declassify to the maximum Extent Possibility all of the information surrounding 9 11. Jasta was passed over President T obamas veto. The resolution demanding more declassification was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and signed by the president. The letters we have written, the questions that i have posed in hearing, the press conferences held, the constant effort to provide documents and information to those families so they can have their fair day in court has been a continuing and constant one and so far completely unavailable. Administration after administration, obama, trump, and hopefully not, but apparently biden, have resisted these calls for declassifying and disclosure. That information is evidence that those families need to seek justice in their effort to hold accountable the government of Saudi Arabia for its alleged complicity, its aiding and abetting, its support for the 9 11 attack. I want to hold them they want to hold them liable in an american court, which jasta enables them to do. They want to pinpoint liability so we will know, as americans, whether the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was, in fact, complicit and supportive of those attackers. The truth they seek is not just for themselves, it is for the american people. And the concealment by success of the administration denies the american people the truth they deserve and need. Today i was proud to stand with Senator Menendez and some of those families led by Teri Estrada and Brett Eagleson, as we announced our introduction of the act, the september 11 Transparency Act that would very simple require the director of the national intelligence, the Attorney General and the director of the c. I. A. To conduct declassification reviews of certain investigative documents in their 9 11 file. It is a Baby Step toward full Disclosure And Truth telling, but i was so proud to stand with these families represented by Teri Estrada, among others, when she said, and im quoting, yes, we know the kingdom played a major role in supporting and financing al qaeda, and evidence demonstrates that saudi agents who the kingdom sent here aided and abetted some, if not all 19 hijackers leading into the attack. It is an indisputable fact the hijackers were living in our country nine months before 9 11 and the f. B. I. And c. I. A. Knew about at least two of them. He further said, by keeping evidence hidden that will shed light on the brutal murder of our loved ones, our own government is not only perpetuating our continued pain and suffering, but it is also leaving the facilitators of the attacks unaccountable and our nation vulnerable to terror attacks. Her remarks were so powerful, i hope that every one of my colleagues will read them and i ask they be entered into the record if theres no objection. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Blumenthal we are fast approaching, 9 11, the 20th anniversary of that horrific, unspeakable of thousands of our fellow citizens, including Teri Estradas husband, and Brett Eaglesons father. And Brett Eagleson put it very, very starkly and simply. Im not quoting, but essentially his warning to us ought to reverberate in these halls. Public officials on that anniversary will be making speeches about how we should never forget, about how we need to commemorate the memories of all who perished in 9 11, but as he said, their words will ring shallow or hollow if their own government continues to refuse to disclose documents and evidence needed for them to seek justice, those families deserve better. And the cause is bigger than just those families. It is the american people who deserve better. They deserve and they need to know the truth about whether the complicity and other kinds of potential criminal activity can be proved in a court of law, can be used to learn about future action to be taken. And if agencies of the united States Government, including our Intelligence Agency knew about that and failed to take sufficient action, we should know those facts as well. It is incomprehensible why the united States Government has failed to provide this truth to the american people. There has been no explanation for the failure to declassify. There is no explanation for invoking the state secrets act. The courts have said that that privilege, the states Secrets Privilege could not be invoked unless it is reasonably expected there could be harm to our national security. No agency, no official of the united States Government have ever said what harm could result, especially 20 years after that attack. The idea that sources or methods could be in danger seems farfetched. Certainly there has been no such contention. The idea that maybe the saudis would be embarrassed is a possibility explanation, but it is no excuse, none for refusing to declassify and disclose this information. The fact that the saudis may be embarrassed or they may be held liable is no valid reason to withhold this truth from those families and from the american people. The administration added very least owes us an explanation. Weve demanded it again and again at the Attorney Generals confirmation hearing, at the oversight hearings for the director of the f. B. I. , at hearings for confirming lower but top ranking officials of the department of justice. And every one of them has promised to look into it. But nothing back. No explanation, no justif justification. So with our colleagues Senators Cornyn and grassley have groused the september have introduced the september 11 Transparency Act. And it wouldnt require the Declass Nation of any document, but it would require the review and it is not unprecedented because this congress seven years ago passed and President Obama signed the Intelligence Authorization Act for the fiscal year 2014. It had a similar provision requiring the director of national intelligence to complete a Declass Nation Review Declassification Review of documents collected during the Osama Bin laden raid in pakistan in 2011. This measure should have broad bipartisan support just as the resolution calling for declassification in 2018 and ive been proud to stand with my republican colleagues in favor of simple justice as Senator Schumer said today at that meeting in front of the capitol, justice, justice, justice. Thats what these families deserve. Thats what the american people should expect of their government, not Concealment Or Obstruction and obfuscation. Right now these families are in a struggle against the government of Saudi Arabia. But equally so against their own government in seeking fairness and transparency, disclosure when it counts for them and when it should count for the american people. We will continue this fight. I dont expect any single speech will persuade administration officials, certainly no single speech of mine, but theyre going to be making speeches as we go closer to 9 11 and let them keep in mind that the voices and faces of those families, Brett Eagleson and Terry Strauta and others there and many others in connecticut as well as New Jersey and New York and all around the country will be there as well. And ultimately our government must be held accountable for telling the american people the truth. Thank you. I yield the floor. Mr. Durbin Madam President . The presiding officer the assistant Majority Leader is recognized. Mr. Durbin Madam President , let me say a word of support for the senator from connecticut as well as the senator from New Jersey. I couldnt agree with them more. There is no reason why this information, full disclosure of this information is not made known first to the families but certainly to the people of this country at this moment in history, 20 years after that terrible tragedy. It is time for the truth to be known. I support your efforts completely, senator blumenthal, and ill help you in any way that i can. Madam president , on an unrelated topic, when i grew up in east st. Louis, illinois, i knew i was from a Railroad Family because both Mom And Dad worked for the railroads. I knew we had a pretty comfortable life. Ive come to learn that we werent by any means rich, but we didnt we did well enough, two older brothers and myself, and i knew that my Mom And Dad worked for a railroad and eventually all of us in the family did in some capacity. I also knew that we were a Union Family and i didnt realize until much later in life a couple of facts. Number one, there were a lot of families around us that werent that lucky. We were fortunate to be a Union Family. And secondly, with the union what the union did for our family in east st. Louis, Illinoisitt Fight alone and Haa Chance to win. I have a healthy respect for unions. I believe that more than any other force in american history, the american Labor Movement, the Union Movement, created the middle class in america. Im living proof of that. My Mom And Dad had eighth grade educations. My mother was an immigrant to this country. But hard work, a good work ethic, and the strong support of a Labor Union gave them a chance to earn a decent living on a safe job and to raise a good family. I reflect on that at this moment because weve lost one of the pillars of the Union Movement in the United States of america. Richard trumka. What an amazing biography. I used to think back. I heard he was the son of immigrants, and i knew take he worked in the coal mines, but then i know he also went to Law School and he became head of the aflcio, the largest gathering of unions in our country. And if you ever met him with his little mustache and gruff way about him, you knew he was no pushover. How could you be a Push Year and Head Pushover and head of the united mine workers union, which he was at a very early age. How could you be a pushover and be head of a national Labor Organization like aflcio. He did that and he was an amazing advocate for the women and men that he represented in the Labor Movement. I cant even start to count the number of meetings that i attended with Richard Trumka when we wanted labors voice, we called Richard Trumka. And we knew when that door was closed, he was going to be brutally honest with us. Hed spend a few minutes thanking us and then hed spend the rest of the meeting telling us how we needed to do better, that the american families of america were expecting us to stand up and fight for them. He took no prisoners when he went through the roster and the Roll Call of how people had voted and where they stood on union issues. It was an amazing performance by a man who had awfully the credentials to deliver it, a man who was part of the Labor Movement working in those coal mines and a man who had developed the skills and talents at Law School and beyond to be able to fight for those men and women. Its stunning to think that weve lost him today at age 72. Thats way too young. He did such an amazing job as the son of a Coal Miner himself. You never had to ask ever which side Rich Trumka was on, ever. Ive got to be honest with you. There are some people who are fighting if causes in washington, d. C. Because theres a paycheck at the end of the day. But there are some people who are fighting for causes that couldnt give a damn about a paycheck. Theyre there because they believe in it. Trumka was one of those people. He was fighting for working people across the united States Night and day endlessly, 24 7. He was on the side of workers who built americas roads and bridges, of men and women who were not in the Labor Movement but trying to become part of it. He fought for the men and women who kept our power plants running, our schools, homes, offices running. And he always asked one basic thing. Respect and fairness for working men and women. He was with me on the dream act. He understood as a son of immigrants that immigrants are a vital part of this country and they should be for years to me. And trumka goes on the growing the America Economyhe right way, not from the top down, not trickle down, but fro the ttom believed growing up in West Virginia and the life that he led, that it was decisions about whher or not they were gog to buy a new home, buy a new car, be able T Pay for their kids to go to college. He believed as my old Friend Paul Wellstone would say, we all do better when we all do better. He was a giant who led the Labor Movement in america through one of the most challenging periods in our history when his leadership was needed the most. Its on us now, isnt it . Those of us who think about rich and what he said to us so many times privately, publicly. The responsibility that we have is to stand up for the men and women who work in this country who dont have a voice otherwise. Our responsibility is to give those in the Labor Movement respect they deserve for fighting for the right cause. My wife and i loretta and i send our condolences to richs wife, barb, their son and family. I understand that he was with his grandson when he was stricken this morning. As a grandfather, i will tell you its a happy moment when youre with your grandkids and thats the way it should have been for rich. President trumps friends, his brothers President Trumkas friends, his brothers, to all the families to which Rich Trumka devoted his life, weve lost a true champion. America is better for Rich Trumka having lived, fighting for those who worked to make americ a senator Madam President . The presiding officer the senator from massachusetts is recognized. Ms. Warren thank you, Madam President. I am here to honor the memory of my friend and the friend of every working person in america. Rich trumka. We lost rich this morning and all i keep thinking is the kind of man weve lost and what that means to all of us. Rich was real. He was a third Generation Coal Miner who rose to become the president of the united mine workers and the president of the american federation of labor. Rich was also a hunter, and he had the patience of a hunter. The planning, the long hours, sometimes long days, but always on his target. And rich rich was a fighter. He was relentless. When rich got in a fight, rich never gave up. Might not win every one of those fights, at least not the first time out, but he never gave up. From his growl to his laughter, rich was real all the way through. He lived his heart every single day. He was always rich. Back during the financial crash in 20082009 and we were trying to build an idea for a Consumer Agency to make sure that people wouldnt get cheated next time around the way they had been in what led up to that crash. Rich was there, and he was there because he had seen firsthand what its like. He had seen his brothers and sisters in the Labor Movement who had lost their homes, had lost their jobs, had seen their pensions disappear because a handful of greedy banks and feckless regulators had permitted the rich and powerful to take over our government and to take over our economy, and they brought that economy to its knees. It fell hard on working people, and rich was determined that would not happen again. I remember the day when President Obama announced that they were ready to lay out the first first outlines of what the financial response should look like, what kind of laws we should pass here in congress in order to make sure that this didnt come again. There were a bunch of folks that were invited to the white house. I was invited. It was, like, my first time there. Im looking around, like wow. A bunch of people crowded in. All he cared about was, hand us a list. Is there a Consumer Agency on this . And we get in our assigned seats. These tiny little chairs jammed together so they could get a lot of people together. Rich, a man of considerable size, is sitting directly behind me. Were on the aisle both of us. And were furiously going through it to see whats there and, sure enough, the white house has said theres going to be a Consumer Agency or at least thats what theyre going to ask for. So im smiling. I turn around, i say, you see . , you see this . He said, yeah. You know, it makes me a little nervous for you to be right behind me here. And he leaned over and he whispered in my ear, and he said, ill always have your back, elizabeth. And i reach back and patted him on leg. And it was true. I never got in a fight for working people that Rich Trumka wasnt already there, that he was already in that fight, that he already saw what was happening to, working people on the ground and what it was that we needed our government to do by way of response. Rich fought for decades for working people. It was his true north. He never varied from that. He never wanted anything for himself. All he wanted to do was to see workers get more power so that they were playing on a level playing field, to see workers be able to work in safe conditions, to see workers get a chance to build some real security for themselves and for their families. Rich measured everything that came his way against that test. Whats it going to do for working people . And if you can show him that this is going to help working people, rich was in it all the way. During covid19, rich was here backandforth, backandforth trying to push this government to get more Worker Safety in place, more regulations that were going to protect people so people werent out there dying trying to do their jobs. Rich was there trying to protect the economic security of workers, people whod been laid off, people whod been shut out of the workplace. It was rich who helped lead the charge. Watch out for working families. He didnt need the glory. He didnt need the spotlight. But, boy, he was in there pushing in the way that only rich truck can a Rich Trumka could do it. Rich understood that when we put workers at the center of our policies, then families win. When we put workers at the center of our policies, then our economy wins. When we put workers at the center of our policies, then our nation wins. Thats how rich lived, and thats how rich died. To richs family, i am so sorry for your loss. For richs brothers and sisters in the Labor Movement, i am so sorry for your loss. Rich is gone, and that is a hard blow you to and to our whole nation. And this is the moment to honor richs legacy, not just with words but by staying in the fights that rich led us on, by staying in the fights relentlessly for workers rights. Were going to miss rich. Thank you, Madam President. I yield. Mr. Cornyn Madam President. The presiding officer the senator from texas is recognized. Mr. Cornyn i ask unanimous consent the Quorum Call is dispensed with. I gather from the parliamentarian shaking her head we are not in a Quorum Call. Thank you very much. Madam president , since last march, state and local governments have received about a half a trillion dollars in federal funding to bolster their fight against covid19. Leaders in my state have used this funding to cover the mounting costs of expenses at the start of the pandemic. It enabled them to stand up testing, Increase Bed Space for i. C. U. s and hospitals and provide grants to small businesses without the fear of cutting other critical services. As time has gone on, the battle against this virus has shifted and so have the needs of my state and our local communities. Many simply dont have the continued need or even opportunity under the guardrails congress imposed to spend this money within the set timeline. Thats especially true in some of the rural parts of my state or places where covid numbers are thankfully low. Qualifying pandemicrelated expenses are few and far between in some of those places, as strange as that may sound here in washington, d. C. Ive heard from state and local leaders who are frustrated by the strict rules on the funding. They have needs but somehow the lidges that congress has put on their access to the money are stifling their ability to deal with priorities that they have at the local level. Theyre able to use these dollars on some of what the tough financial dealings of the pandemic, but not all, and one of the greatest needs they have is to deal with infrastructure. When folks hunkered down at home to stop the spread of covid19, state and local transportation budgets took a big hit. As a result, many infrastructure projects ended up on the chopping block. In 2020, states and cities across the country delayed or canceled transportation improvement projects totaling about 12 billion. Many of these projects are still in limbo. Without sufficient funding, there is no timeline when that planned construction might actually begin. For months now, there has been a clear need to bridge the gap. Back in march, nearly three dozen organizations wrote to Treasury Secretary Yellen urging her to make Transportation Infrastructure an eligible expense. They said the pandemic had impacted every State And Community differently, and they wanted and asked for flexibility. They said that flexibility will be critical to ensuring funds are used expeditiously and with maximum impact. Ive gotten the same sort of requests from the people i represent in texas, so i drafted an amendment to this legislation to provide that flexibility. Thankfully, i found a partner in Senator Alex Padilla of california, and our bipartisan amendment will ensure that will, i believe, when we vote on it receive broad bipartisan support, and im hopeful we can vote on that amendment sometime later today. But this amendment puts decisionmaking power at the local level and gives these leaders more flexibility to invest in the most critical projects for their communities, whatever those might be. In some places, that may still mean pandemicrelated expenses. The Delta Variant has thrown us a Curve Ball to be sure and is surging in some places. Leaders in those areas are going to continue to use this funding to bolster the fight against the virus. But this change doesnt interfere with those plans in any way because with what what Senator Padilla and i have proposed is to make that strictly an option. Not a mandate but an option, so that local leaders at the state and local level can decide what fits their particular need. It simply gives states and localities that arent facing a mountain of covidrelated expenses the ability to invest this funding in you guessed it infrastructure projects, something that the bill we are currently considering is designed to do. But one of the things i have noticed since i have been in the senate is frequently we will appropriate money, and it takes not just months but sometimes years to get to the intended beneficiary. I know the presiding officer has seen with me the fact that we have appropriated 46 billion for to prevent evictions for people who canT Pay their rent, and yet that money has simply not made its way to the intended beneficiaries in a timely and expeditious way. Hopefully that will improve. But this is money that is available immediately to our local and state officials to use now. This Infrastructure Bill is is to the credit of the bipartisan infrastructure and negotiating committee, i think has some good, very positive elements to it. But the truth is what we are doing in this bill probably will not flow quickly to local jurisdictions in our states like the money that they already have but are handcuffed from using for infrastructure purposes whether its widening highways, constructing bridges, extending railways or expanding access to broadband, the list of new qualifying expenses is a long one. As i said, there is simply no requirement that you spend a that they spend a penny on infrastructure if they dont want to or if they think they hold more of this money that the federal government has appropriated in reserve. All we are doing is simply giving them the freedom to use these federal dollars on these projects if that makes sense for these communities. Senator padilla and i have worked with our colleagues to make some changes that support a vast array of infrastructure projects. We added additional Qualifying Infrastructure projects to ensure unique but no less important needs in the various states are eligible. The white house initially raised concerns about the amount of funding that we might authorize under our amendment and worried it could take away from necessary covid19 expenses. Well, Senator Padilla and i have worked with the white house and i believe we have come up with a Goodfaith Resolution of their concerns and our interest in getting this money to be available. Under our amendment, up to 30 of the unspent covid19 funds would be available to the states and local government for infrastructure projects. Its difficult to quantify exactly how much the money of the money will be spent on infrastructure projects, because as i said the states and local governments are not required to spend a penny of that money on infrastructure, but should they wish to do so and should local conditions permit, this will open up tens of millions of dollars for infrastructure projects in communities across the country. This can help critical projects that were delayed by the pandemic get back on track and put this funding for its intended purpose, the very purpose we are debating right now. To both alleviate the financial burden of the pandemic on cities and states as well as to refurbish and expand our critical infrastructure, including broadband. So this isnt just a win for our local communities. Its a win for taxpayers, too. Heres something that may be a little unexpected. The cost of this amendment is zero. Its nothing. Because the money has already been appropriated, its already been scored on previous Covid19 Relief acts. All it does is it removes the handcuffs from those local jurisdictions and allows them to meet their local needs based on their best judgment. So this does not increase the deficit. This does not add to the debt. This amendment has been endorsed by more than two dozen organizations representing a diverse set of stakeholders. The national governors association, which, as you know, is a bipartisan group of governors, have endorsed this amendment. The u. S. Conference of mayors. And a long list of organizations have thrown their support behind this commonsense change. This will give communities in texas and nevada and all other states the ability to use Pandemic Relief Funding when and where its needed most. I know the needs of they know the needs of their communities far better than we do sitting here in washington, d. C. , and i hope this amendment will be adopted to give these Leaders Greaterrer Decisionmaking flexibility. Greater decisionmaking flexibility. I want to thank senators on both sides of the aisle who have worked with Senator Padilla and myself on this amendment, and later today i hope we will receive a broad bipartisan support for this amendment. And i anticipate we will because i know the circumstances in my state dealing with my constituents is really no different when it comes to getting Flexibility And Access to those federal covid19 dollars, that the story is probably largely the same, whatever state you represent. So, Madam President , with that, i would yield the floor and i would note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call Quorum Call Quorum Call mr. Warnock madam chair. The presiding officer the senator from georgia is recognized. Mr. Warnock before i begin the presiding officer the senate is in a Quorum Call, senator. Mr. Warnock im sorry. Yes, i ask that it be vitiated. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Warnock thank you very much. Madam chair, before i begin, i want to pause and remember an effective leader in the Labor Movement and a champion for working families, Richard Trumka Richard Trumka believed in the dignity of work and the dignity of workers and that they should share in the prosperity that they provide for others. His family is in my prayers, and as we remember and honor his legacy as a vital leader in the Labor Movement and the larger quest to make us a more just society, providing opportunity for all of us. Madam president , i am back on the floor of the senate because i believe that Health Care is a human right and it is certainly something that the richest nation on the planet can afford to provide for all of its citizens. Ive come to the Senate Floor with the same Message Week after week because i think its vital and important. And with all of the incentives on the table for my Home State of georgia to expand medicaid, it is past time for georgia and the other 11 nonexpansion states to finally expand medicaid. My Home State of georgia has the opportunity to provide affordable Health Care to 646,000 people who could qualify, but instead of allowing georgians continue to suffer and be cut off from care while politicians are playing games, i introduced the medicaid saves lives act. This is legislation that would provide people in states like mine who have not expanded medicaid an alternative path to Health Care coverage. In the richest country in the world in 20021 and in the midst of a century pandemic, its both illuminated and exacerbated the consequences of longstanding disparities in Health Care. Too many georgians are still struggling to get what they deserve and whats already available if we would just expand medicaid. And for far too many access to affordable, reliable, and continuous Health Care is quite literally the difference between life and death. We do policy here but we can only do policy in an effective manner when we keep in front of us the human faces behind the policy we would create or the consequences for real people when we fail to do what we were sent here to do. So i want to share the story and remember the life of a georgian who fought to expand medicaid. As she and other georgians lived in the coverage gap. She advocated for herself and others like her. This is Lori Davis. And her husband, bob, both from covington, georgia. Lori was one of our heroes. She spent much of her life serving her neighbors as a Trauma Nurse in the memorial hospital. Ive been to that hospital time and time again as a pastor and now as a senator. Ive seen firsthand the important work that they do. She was a Trauma Nurse there at grady. And while working as a Health Care professional in georgia, lori was diagnosed with pelvic adhesive disease. And the chronic pain associated with this condition eventually pushed her to leave the nursing profession. After that while also working to manage her own chronic condition, lori struggled to maintain steady employment in the restaurant industry. Health care professional, no longer able to serve in her profession as a Trauma Nurse, working as hard as she can, as hard as she could in the restaurant industry. She believed in working. She understood the dignity of work. But while working she could not afford Health Insurance. She made too much to qualify for medicaid but not enough to afford other insurance plans. And while in this limbo, lori had to wait many years for her social security disability claim to be adjudicated and she finally qualified for benefits in 2017 but even then she was unable to qualify for medicaid because of her and bobs combined marital income. And this left lori in the coverage gap. Unable to purchase coverage because it was financially out of reach. Lori went without Health Insurance for years relying on her own medical training and free Health Care clinics to treat her chronic condition, a chronic a Trauma Nurse who had cared for others unable to receive any care. Then in august of 2020, lori began feeling ill and her condition got noticeably worse. And fearful of costs, she delayed seeking Health Care. Unable to follow the advice she no doubt had provided to other patients, seek Health Care early. Many things are preventable if you can get there earlier rather than later. She was not able to follow her own advice. I want us to think about that. She put off seeking the care she needed because she was afraid she would not be able to afford it. As members of this body, we should be ashamed that in the richest nation in the world, a country with all of our resources, with all of our medical technology, that some citizens would choose not to seek treatment even when they know better because they fear they cannot afford the Price Tag of lifesaving care. Thats Loris Story. The next month in september 2020, lori was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia and while there, she learned sadly that she had lung cancer, a treatable condition had she received an earlier diagnosis. Put together it was too much. On september 17, 2020, lori passed away. This is the human face of our public policy. These are the tragic casualties of the games that politicians play. As a pastor im praying for Loris Family as they mourn her unspeakable and perhaps unnecessary loss and the legacy she left behind. As a senator who believes that Health Care is a human right, a sacred obligation, i refuse to stop fighting until georgians like Lori Davis have access to the care that they need when they need it. Madam president , like lori who advocated members of this body for Health Care during her lifetime, im committed to gaining ground in this fight to improve access to Health Care for georgians in every corner of the state. She can no longer speak. We must be her voice. Shes not the only one. There are millions of hardworking people all across our country who went to school, mailed by the rules, and they dont have access to lifesaving care costing them their lives and costing us more money. So we need to pass the medicaid saves live act. Its not just the name of a bill. Its actually true medicaid saves lives. Until we get this done, im going to keep lifting up Loris Story and the stories of others who would benefit from this lifesaving legislation. Thank you, Madam President. I yield the floor. Mr. Toomey mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Toomey thank you, mr. President. I want to the address an opportunity that we have in this body to fix a flaw in a provision in this Infrastructure Bill. I want to the thank my colleague from oregon and our colleague from wyoming. The three of us have been working on this. And i really hope we get this done. Im going to insist on having a voten this. Let me just give a little context here. So were all aware of this new category of assets some would describe as currencies which are also called cryptosceneses. And this is a crypto currencies. Theyve come into the public eye in a much bigger way in recent years. While sometimes we think of this as some kind of unit of value that is traded and has some pretty spectacular volatility. Sometimes for me, while thats very interesting, whats much more interesting is the underlying technology and what that might make possible. Im still trying to understand. Im still on a steep Learning Curve about all the possibilities of the distributed ledger technology, the methodology by which cryptocurrencis can be exchanged without an intermediaries. The transaction becomes i am muteabled and there is a permanent record in some cases. There are other models where it is different. This is an amazing technology. It has tremendous we had a hearing. The chairman agreed to a hearing where we talked about some of the use cases for this underlike technology. And we heard some amazing things. So the most common activity now is trading in these digital currencies, whether it is bitcoins or etherium or others. Theres many of them. And thats the single biggest activity. But there are several usings for them. One is the potential to have this dispersed mechanism for validating ownership. Think of all the amount of time and Money And Effort that we spend on all kinds of transactions where were trying to validate someones ownership, the title to someones house, the title to their car, the ownership of the stocks you bought from your broker. Weve developed very expensive actually and sometimes timeconsuming processes by which we do this. This can all be done on blockchain. This can all be done almost instantly, at almost no cost. I think this is the direction that were going to be heading in. Thats just one example much theres another whole category fascinating to me, what people refer to as programmable money. Think about it. Programmable money. What is that . Heres a great example that we heard at our hearing who works for a company that actually provides these kinds of services. Hereby is here is an example. One of things thats always been a challenge is how do you ensure that a person who has a copyright is properly compensated what that copyright is used . I used to have a restaurant of the when we played restaurant in the background to create a certain am beans in our Restaurant Ambiance in our restaurant, how do you make sure the people who wrote those songs get paid . It is arbitrary. There is no way to monitor t how about an idea where you have a programmable capability where if i listen to a Music App on my iphone, for every second of a particular Artists Music i listen to, it automatically sends a corresponding fraction of some currency to the person who owns that copyright. That is completely doable in the context of this kind of technology. Mr. President , i just mention these two things just to provide a little tiny glimpse and illustration of the kinds of amazing things that i think this underlying technology is capable of and is likely going to change the way we do an awful lot of things in the coming years. Society i say that so i say that as background because in this legislation there is a very reasonable intent, but i think the drafting doesnt get it quite right. The intent is to say, for those exchanges, for those places where people go to buy and sell cryptocurrencis and there are centralized exchaplains where that happens every day on a huge, huge volume we want to require these exchanges to have the same kind of Reporting Requirements that a conventional broker would have when a security is bought. So, in other words, we want the folks who run the exchange to report the name, some identifying number maybe it is a social Security Number the dollar amount. All of this is because people buying and selling these cryptocurrencis are generating Capital Gains and losses. If you sell it and have a gain, you should have to pay a Capital Gain on the asext if you lost money, then you ought to be able to take the loss against gains you may have elsewhere. So it is completely reasonable to have a provision that requires the reporting of the transaction. That, i think, is the intent of this legislation. But, unfortunately, the way it got drafted, it, to my reading and to im certainly not alone. I think this is almost unanimously acknowledge odd. The language would impose this Reporting Requirement on people involved in the Cryptocurrency World who dont even have the information about the person making the purchase or the sale. So, for instance, it might very well be interpreted to impose this Reporting Requirement on the minors, the people who are involved in the Arithmetic Process by which you validate transactions. They dont even know the names. Theyve got a numerical representation of the transaction. They dont know who is buying it. They have no way of knowing. So it is not an even slightly reasonable burden to impose on them. Thats one little example of how badly flawed this language is. It wasnt intended that way. The good news is, it can be fixed. And Senator Wyden and Senator Lummis and i have come up with language that fixes this problem. It would make sure that the Reporting Requirement on a centralized exchange, the folks running that who have this information would in fact have to report it. They dont right now. Floss regulation that requires that. This would require the reporting. And industry is fine with that. They recognize that they should have to report this. But they also recognize that it should only be imposed on people for whom it makes sense, right . People that actually have that information. So our amendment addresses this. It fixes this. It solves this problem. I think it achieves the intent, and were having a little trouble getting the ability to offer this as an amendment here on the Senate Floor on this bill. I am not here to ask that we simply adopt it by acclimation. I welcome debate and welcome a vote, but we ought to be able to have a vote. We absolutely should have this debate and have a vote before we go ahead and impose this requirement. And if we were not to adopt this amendment, then we could be doing a lot of damage. We could be have a very chilling effect on the development of this technology, and thats what i am most concerned about. Thats what i want to avoid. This technology is very, very exciting, has tremendous potential. The last thing we should do is allow a flawed Drafting Exercise to have this chilling effect on the further development of this technology. I see the senator from oregon is here on the floor, and i want to thank him for his leadership in this effort, for his work. He and i, i think, have a very similar way of viewing this. And if hed like to make some comments, i will yield some time to him. Mr. Wyden i thank my colleague. And i will be brief. As Senator Toomey has indicated, he and Senator Lummis and i have an amendment to the Infrastructure Bill dealing with cryptocurrencis and taxes. And im going to go into some of the philosophical underpinnings of what we are doing. But i with aens but i want to note something at the outset. The presiding officer the senate will be in order. Mr. Wyden our amendment is bipartisan, ought to be accepted when the author of the underlying provision has said publicly he will vote for it, if the senate gets a chance to vote, as Senator Toomey and i have indicated. So let me just outline a couple of fundamental propositions about our proposal and start with one that ought to bring the United States Senate together. People avoiding taxes they owe on money through cryptocurrencis is a serious issue. Its fundamentally unfair to every working person whose taxes come straight out of their paycheck. Now, my view is the senate needs to make sure that new rules addressing this Tax Avoidance ensure that its possible to run down the crooks, have strong Tax Enforcement, while leaving a clear field for an innovation here at home. We want that innovation here. The fact is, when you dont innovate someplace, it goes somewhere else. We want it here at home. Without our amendment, this bipartisan amendment, it seems to us that essentially the whole notion of dealing with Tax Avoidance somehow is going to get lost in approaches for the brickandmortar rule. As i said, those rules run the very real risk of chilling innovation in the digital economy and driving the core innovations in cryptoto places far behind in crypto to places far beyond the reach of the u. S. Treasury and other u. S. Law enforcement. So, two sentences about what we do in our amendment we want it stated that Tax Enforcement rules should focus on the companies that deal with buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencis. These rules dont need to sweep up other uses of blockchain technologies that have nothing to do with Tax Avoidance. Senator toomey and i serve on the senate finance committee. Im the chair. Senator toomey, a senior member. Weve been struck by how many people in that space, the various aspects of blockchain technologies, dont even have the documents, the tax documents that they would have to file normally if they were one of these big cryptoexchanges. Now, the fact is, making changes in both Tech And Tax policy is hard work that takes time. When i wrote the internet tax nondiscrimination act that ensured that the rules online and the rules offline would be the same, we had hearings, we had debates, we focused on the issues and produced bipartisan legislation. The senate is going to debate these issues further in the months and years ahead. As the chairman of this committee, i am open to working with anybody who wants to show that tough, effective Tax Enforcement and promoting innovation, thats not mutually exclusive. Smart policy, smart, targeted policy will get you both. Our amendment simply says that nobody can use crypto to avoid paying the taxes they owe. And anybody acting as a broker in the Cryptocurrency Industry must comply with Reporting Requirements the same as brokers in every other industry. Thats because they are brokers. They are not the people that Senator Toomey and i have been concerned about would kind of be swept up in this treatment of crypto exchanges and the like. So we advocate a smart, targeted approach, and we make sure that Reporting Requirements, just like brokers in every other industry are complied with. Thats the kind of policy in the crypto area, mr. President , that lays the foundation for future debates. What Senator Toomey and i are doing is very focused in one specific area, making sure we come down hard on Tax Avoidance by brokers and people on crypto exchanges, but we also make sure were not discouraging innovation in other areas. So this is going to be a debate thats going to play out over the years, but when the author of the provision in the bipartisan proposal on crypto, the author of the underlying provision in the legislation in front of us today has publicly said in the last few hours he will vote for what Senator Toomey, Senator Lummis, and i have developed. We certainly ought to get a vote and my own view is it ought to be accepted by this body and with that, mr. President , i yield the floor. Mr. Toomey reclaiming my time. I want to thank my colleague from oregon for his thoughtful work on this. I believe the senator from wyoming, Senator Lummis, is on her way down. She has been an integral part of this effort to correct this. This is a big deal in a number of respects, mr. President. I want to point out i want to stress right now there is no statutory requirement in this whole space. There is no regulatory requirement. I dont think there could be a regulatory environment without a statute. This is a big deal. It would require the companies operating these exchanges to report this financial information so that it dramatically enhances the likelihood that Capital Gains taxes increases. It increases the likelihood of compliance. This i dont know why anyone would object. In fact, im not aware of any objection of the substance of this on my side of the aisle. I know that Senator Wyden has likeminded folks on his side of the aisle. But its really important that we not overreach, that we not do this wrong. Now, we have not gone through the ordinary process of developing tax legislation. Tax legislation is notoriously complicated and difficult to get exactly right and prone to unintended consequences. And so normally wed have hearings in the finance committee. Wed get input from all kinds of experts. Wed make drafts, wed circulate the drafts. I mean, its a long process to get everything right. This has gone through none of that, zero. So what were trying to do is to say, lets restrict this to where it belongs, lets clean this up the best we can and, you know what, this space is changing. In a year from now there will be new innovations that we havent thought of that nobody has thought of and well have to go back to this, but what we shouldnt do is have an overly broad mandate so People Cant comply with it because they dont have the information. We wouldnt want to impose that and have a stiefing impact on the development of a really, really exciting an potentially powerful new technology. Thats what this is about. As i said earlier, im going to insist on having a vote on this. I dont know why we wouldnt win by a big margin since, after all, were just ensuring that we get the intent of this legislation rather than a miscarriage of it. As the senator from oregon pointed out, senator portman, from ohio, who has worked so long and so hard on this Infrastructure Bill, he supports us getting a vote on this. He supports the amendment that we have we have drafted. So i am hopeful that that this is going to pass, but im going to be insistent that we get our vote and Thats Something that we ought to do. With that, mr. President , i will yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call a senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from New Hampshire is recognized. Mrs. Shaheen thank you. Mr. President , i ask that the Quorum Call be lifted. The presiding officer without objection. Mrs. Shaheen thank you. I had intended to come to the floor earlier today with Senator Grassley so that we could talk about our legislation that we are introducing this week that would build upon our efforts to protect the survivors of sexual assault in the criminal Justice System. Unfortunately i got delayed but Senator Grassley was here on the floor and i just want to recognize all of his efforts to address this critical issue and appreciate, again, his willingness to work with me. The effort to extend rights for sexual assault survivors across the country is critically important and im hopeful that when the bill that weve introduced gets to the floor that all of our colleagues will join us in passing this bipartisan legislation. I first became involved in the precursor to this legislation in 2015 when a young woman named Amanda Nguyen of the Rise Organization contacted my office. She had been traveling from office to office here in the senate trying to find somebody to listen to her story. Amanda is a survivor of sexual assault and she is a fierce advocate for the way that the criminal Justice System treats survivors. When she detailed her harrowing story of sexual assault, it was clear something had to change. Amanda described a system that further traumatized survivors and provided scarce protections for their rights. Evidence of assaults was being destroyed without survivors even knowing about it and survivors were forced to a periodically follow up with Law Enforcement to preserve evidence of their assaults. The broken process that survivors were forced to endure resulted in a system where they were often revictimmized. This system forced survivors to confront the assault. Working with amanda, i introduced the sexual assault survivors right act. The legislation created the first legally recognized set of rights for survivors to enforce in a court of law. And im so grateful that Senator Grassley worked on this effort with me and he included the legislation in the Adam Walsh Reauthorization act so that it could be resigned into law. The legislation that we passed back in 2015, 2016, provided survivors with greater protections in federal cases with a focus on notice, access and the preservation of sexual Assault Evidence Collection kits. By creating this set of courtenforceable rights at the federal level, congress established a model for all states to adopt similar legislation to protect the rights of survivors. And thats happened in many states, including in my Home State of New Hampshire. States have adopted legislation to guarantee survivors certain basic rights in the criminal Justice System. Unfortunately, we have a lot of other states that have not followed suit and dont have legislation that protects survivors. Thats why the bill that Senator Grassley and i came to the Floor Today to discuss is just so important. The Survivors Bill of rights in the States Act would establish a Grant Program accessible to states that have in place a law which guarantees the rights contained in the sexual assault survivors rights act. States could then use the funds to implement survivors rights, reduce the backlog of kits and provide support for victim services. Legislation. Ime to pas this the risk of sexual aault and domestic violence has increased during this coronavirus pandemic. Can look at the statistics and they shows that. Weovide the same level of protection for these survivors as they receive at the federal level. To bear the indignity ofelled petitioning Law Enforcement merely to ensure that they are given a fair shake in the criminal justice process. Its my hope that this legislation will lead to an increase in states passing bills that protect survivors rights. Lets again show survivors that congress is behind them and that we will stand up for their rights. Lets pass the Survivors Bill of rights in the States Act. Again, i want to thank Senator Grassley for all of his efforts and i hope that together, with the support of other sponsors in this body that we can get this bill across the finish line. Thank you very much, mr. President. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from Rhode Island is recognized. Mr. Whitehouse mr. President , id like to ask unanimous consent to speak as if in Morning Business for lets say 22 minutes. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Whitehouse thank you, mr. President. Speeches on the y dark money interests to seize control of the supreme court are designed to describe it in all its repulsive intricassidy. My last speech discussed this scheme within the federalist society. This speech will take you literally down the hall from the federalist society to something called the judicial Crisis Network or j. C. N. They share the same purpose, the same hallway, and likely the same controlling donors. Remember david kochs disastrous bid for Vice President on the libertarian Party Ticket that showed how unappetizing his rightwing extremism was to normal people. And remember the Louis Powell Playbook which advised quote, strength lies in organization and in the political power united through organizations. No One Organization needs to get too far out in front and make itself too visible a target. End quote. Let intermediaries do that work. Big tobacco and the Fossil Fuel Industry have for a long time used coordinated webs of national front groups in their plots to fend off accountability for the dangers of Tobacco And Carbon emissions. These front group webs grew and multiplied and specialized all while concealing their true interests and funders. They got more numerous and they also got smarter and more strategic over time, polishing up frontgroup names like the not too subtle Tobacco Institute to names like the more wholesome sounding heartland institute. Its quite a web. They created science groups to counter real scientific research on public health and climate change with fake science. Think tanks to churn out papers and hire sound bite friendly fake experts. Legal organizations to challenge and delay Government Regulation of harmful products. Academic hot houses in which to grow donorfriendly whitewing judicial philosophies. Identity laundering screens to hide the true donors and controllers and their interests. And political attack groups to pressure elected officials. People who study this have reported these Groups Numbering in multiple dozens and their backers play the front groups like keys on a piano. Apply this method to the scheme to capture the court and you see that the dark money donors needed more than just the nominations turnstile that they ran out of the federalist society. They also needed a bare knuckle political brawler. One night in early 2005 at an upscale italian dinner with special Guest Justice Antonin scalia, major donor and corporate lawyer Ann Corkerry, california real Estate Tie Scoon Robin Arkley and executive Vice President len in Order Leo got together and celebrated george w. Bushs second term. The political importance of the supreme court would have been on Everyones Mind there as it was the five republicans on the supreme court would gave george w. Bush his first term. According to reporting by open secrets and the daily beast, this dinner linked to the creation of a 501c4 dark Money Group then called the judicial confirmation network. By the end of that year this group would spend money, lots of money lots of big donor money. And they would spend it anonymously. First to boost John Roberts as chief justice and then Samuel Alito as associate justice cementing rightwing corporate control over the court and shifting its decisions further in big donors favor. There are a few things to note about the judicial confirmation networks early days. One it began work fast. Just months after starting j. C. N. Ads hit the air in support of bush nominees. Two, it had lots of money. Beginning in 2008 Ann Corkerry took control of something called the well spring committee, a dark money Identity Laundering group seeded with funding from charles and david kochs donor network. Thereafter well spring funneled seven or eightfigure dark money donations to j. C. N. Every year. Millions of anonymous dollars. Three, they brought on a lawyer with heavy rightwing chops to run. Wendy long became chief counsel and mouthpiece. Thus in just a few months, j. C. N. Appeared and became a polishes, powerful, anonymized campaigner for the big Donor Scheme to take over the court. And then came the election of Barack Obama and j. C. N. Had to go from offense for nominees to defense against nominees. That c in j. C. N. For confirmation no longer made much sense. And the scheme now faced a crisis. The crisis for it, of a president nominating judges who had not been screened by them, judges whose fealty to the corporate right wing could not be confirmed, judges who might even rule against the rightwing donors agenda. So they quickly rebranded j. C. N. As the judicial Crisis Network. But even in the obama years, the republican 54 majority on the captured court delivered big things for j. C. N. And its secretive backers. In the administrations first term, the Roberts Court handed down citizens united and other decisions opening donor pipelines to 501c4 groups like j. C. N. This caused the tsunami of slime we saw in our politics and corporations and rightwing donors rushed to the feast. Anonymous money flooded in. Annual donations laundered through wellspring to j. C. N. Rose from millions of dollars to many millions of dollars. J. C. N. Even expanded the scheme to seek Influence State supreme courts and state Attorney General seats. The scheme was flourishing. Then on a 2016 all expenses paid trip for Justice Scalia to a Luxury Hunting Ranch in texas the justice died leaving a supreme Court Vacancy with the better part of a year left before the president ial ele election. Now there really was a crisis. The big donors suddenly faced the prospect of a democratic president appointing scalias replacement. Shifting the balance of the Court 54 against them taking away their precious majority, undog the scheme undoing the scheme. So the donors swung into action. Within days Mitch Mcconnell quickly pledged to hold the seat open and within days republican senators uniformly lined up behind that decision, a decision very possibly explained by the overlay between dark money do donors to the scheme and dark money donors to Republican Senate political operations. History will have to judge the extent of that overlay. In any event, dark Money Funding of j. C. N. Hit Escape Velocity during this period. According to tax records obtained by open secrets and others, j. C. N. Received big donations in fiscal year 2015 to 2016. One single anonymous donation alone totaled 17. 9 million. Wellspring separately channeled 23. 5 million in dark money to j. C. N. In 2016. Then another 14. 8 million the next year. When wellspring dissolved in 2018, big slug, of dark money continued to flow through other conduits. J. C. N. Received four separate individual anonymous donations, each of 15 million or more following Justice Scalias death. We cannot say for sure because the donors hide behind the dark money screen, but these don donations, over 60 million in all, could well have all come from the same donor. And one wonders what are the odds that someone willing to spend 60 million anonymously to influence the makeup of the supreme court is someone who has business before the court. Pretty high i would say. But dark money scheming keeps this information secret. How did j. C. N. Spend all this money . Attack. Leonard leos federalist Society Operation had handed trump a list of approved nominees. J. C. N. Spending poured into tv ads pressuring senators into media blitzes to sell the federalist society list. The group spent 7 million to attack Merit Attack Merrick garland, 10 million to boost neil gorsuch, 10 million or more to prop up brett kavanaughs deeply troubled nomination with its now, we know, fake f. B. I. Tip line. And 10 million in under two months to support Amy Coney Barrett. On its own, this anonymous 37 millibar raj million Dollar Barrage smells terrible. But its only part of the operation. J. C. N. Has a corporate twin, the judicial Education Project. Each group backing up the actions and finances of the other. Let me walk you through this setup because it is a Capsule Summary of how political scheming is accomplished in our corrupted dark money era. First, you pair a 501 c 3 and a 501c4. The judicial Crisis Network was charted as a 051c4 social welfare group. The judicial Education Project as its allied 501 c 3 nonprofit organization. Under a perverse reading of the law, the 501c4 organization is allowed to operate as a dark money political attack group. We see this arrangement commonly now in the clandestine world of dark money politics. In fact, the recent supreme Court Case about dark money was brought by a group called americans for Prosperity Foundation which was the 501 c 3 associated with americans for prosperity which is the Koch Brothers 501c4 that spent millions of dollars to help Amy Coney Barrett get her seat and yet she didnt recuse herself from the case involving the 501 c 3 . So second, you operate the two as one unit. Judicial Crisis Network, judicial Education Project are connected by staff, by dollars, and by location. According to the most recent tax records, longserving j. C. N. Staffer Kerry Sabrino is the officer of the you guessed it Education Project. Shes not listed on j. C. N. s Tax Form but serves as chief Counsel And Policy director. J. C. N. And j. E. P. Tax records both list the same address in washington, d. C. Which, by the way, is right down the hall from the federalist society at the same address. And both groups share daytoday staff. There is a doctrine in the law called piercing the corporate veil. In this case the corporate veil between these two is a web of holes. Whats the next thing you do . You soak up dark money together its hard to know much about these two groups dark Money Funding. Thats why thee keep it dark. But we know the wellspring committee has funded both groups. Both have also paid money to something called b. H. Group which is a mysterious l. L. C. That Leonard Leo once disclosed as his employer. And that made a 1 million Mystery Donation to trumps inaugural. It seems to do no other business. They used the 501 c 3 and the 501c4 Status precisely because it lets them hide their donors and controllers. And the last thing is that you get to play Shell Games with your name. A couple of years ago those two organizations formally changed their legal names in virginia. Now follow this for a minute. Iecial Crisis Network judicial Crisis Network changed its name and it became the Concord Fund. Judicial Education Project changed its name and it became the 85 fund. The Concord Fund then registered its old name, judicial Crisis Network, as whats called a fictitious name, a kind of corporate alias under Virginia Law, and continued to operate as the judicial Crisis Network. Heres the Virginia Law that allows them to do that. A fictitious name is a name that a person, individual, or Business Entity used instead of a persons true name, usually in the course of transacting or offering to transact business. It also registered the name honest Elections Project Action as an additional fictitious name to carry out a new Voter Suppression project. The 85 fund, likewise, registered its old name, the judicial Education Project, as a fictitious name, and it separately registered as the honest Elections Project as an additional fictitious name. And it gets even better than this. Because, as ive said before, when the Washington Post exposed the 250 million scheme that Leonard Leo was at the center of to pack and control the supreme court, to capture it like a captured agency, he wasnt much use any longer. He was like a blown agent in a covert operation. He had to go someplace. Where did he hop to . He hopped from the federalist society to the honest Elections Project so he could get to work on the presiding officers favorite cause, Voter Suppression. The same guy, same corporate network, a new name and new purpose Voter Suppression. As if this werent enough, both of these groups have now filed new fictitious names. So this is to help them wade into the rightwing fuss over what the right wing likes to call critical race theory. So the concord name has now add the fictitious name free to learn action, and the 85 fund has now added the fictitious name free to learn. Again, you see the pairing of the 501 c 3 and the 501 c 4 as part of the basic structure for dark money political influence operations. And, by the way, the same person filled out all these forms for both organizations and is adviced with various titles and is listed with various titles on each. So now we have one group that calls itself the Concord Fund that operates simultaneouslials the judicial Crisis Network, the honest Elections Project, and the free to learn action, and we have its sister organization, the 85 fund, that operates simultaneously as the judicial Education Project, the honest Elections Project, and free to learn all with overlapping staff, locations, and funding. And, by the way, when you are the funder of these groups, you are their controller. Now, imagine this level of complexity multiflied many times over multiplied many times over because that is what the Washington Post disclosed. And i borrow a photograph from their video of their investigation. That Washington Post expose on the covert Courtcapture Operation exposed the judicial Crisis Network as one part, just one part of a massive there it is, judicial Crisis Network one part of a massive group, a web of groups that took in over 250 million in dark money between 2014 and 2017. This effort to capture the supreme court, theyre not kidding around. Spending 250 million in dark money is a serious investment that demands a serious return. And guess what . Expert testimony before my Senate Court Subcommittee has since raised that number to 400 million through 2018. Through all these allied and coordinated front groups the keys on the dark Money Piano that the dark money donors can play dark money donors can covertly channel tense, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in Anonymous Money toward the Schemes Court Capture goals. Colleagues, this is a scheme akin in Complexity And Tradecraft to an Intelligence Agency covert operation, only this one is not being run by one country against another. This one is being run in and against our own country by a handful of creepy billionaires and their foundations trying to impose their Selfserving Ideology on the rest of us through our least democratic branch, the branch that doesnt care if normal people hate this stuff because theyre in robes for life. Thats our federal courts, and particularly its our supreme court. And the big dark money donors have pretty well pulled it off, too. Following lewis powells old admonition to use strength in organization and united action of all of this complexity, theyve just made it all clandestine, which is why im going to keep digging. To be continued. I yield the floor. A senator mr. President . The presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray thank you, mr. President. I rise today to join my colleagues in saying i am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of my great friend, Richard Trumka. To say rich was a champion for workers is really an understatement. He dedicated his life to fighting, to secure and strengthen workers rights. Everyone who knew rich knew just how deeply committed he was to that mission. He understood how hard people in this Country Work for their families. He understood the dignity of work. He grew up understanding it. His grandfather was a Coal Miner. His father was a Coal Miner. And so was he. And its because he knew how hard people across the Country Work that he was driven to work so hard himself to hold washington accountable and make sure our country was looking out for working families. For decades, rich led the charge in creating a country that treats all workers with the Dignity And Respect that they deserve and where every worker had the right to join a union, including by fighting to root out systemic inequities and racism in this country. Rich once said and i want to quote it there is a evil thats inflicted more pain and more suffering than racism, and its something we in the Labor Movement have a special responsibility to challenge. Unquote. And he worked to live up to that challenge and to push others as well. And this country is better because of it. I have worked with rich for years and seen firsthand how hard he fought every day to make sure workers had a seat at the table on Health Care, education, taxes, climate change, whatever the issue, you could expect to hear from rich because of how these issues affected working people. I will always remember working together to develop and draft the pro act, which embodied our vision to give workers and their families a fair shot in this country, something rich not only fought for every day but, in my mind, will always be remembered for on this floor, in the halls, and all across our country. And if you didnt hear him at a meeting, youd hear him over the bullhorn sure enough because he was as comfortable in a Picket Line as he was in a boardroom or the halls of copping, if not more comfortable. Even as rich shaped national policy conversations and led one of the nations biggest unions in the country through some of the most trying names its history, including a recession and a pandemic, his legacy stretches far beyond his legislative accomplishments and beyond his leadership of the aflcio, and it was stretch onward still as we continue his lifetime work of fighting for our workers. That is how we can honor richs legacy. Rich may have become a recognizable face on television, especially with his mustache. He may have met with President S regularly. He may have changed the history of our nation for the better. But perhaps the most remarkable thing is, even at his tallest, he never talked down to people. Even at his biggest, he fought for the small. And even after all that he accomplished, he never stopped fighting to do more, which is why we must not either. My heart goes out to his wife, barbara, and his son rich, jr. , during this tragic time. Thank you, mr. President. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from New Jersey is recognized. Mr. Menendez mr. President , i come to talk about the process that were in here. First of all, the process that brings us the legislation that is before us. Now, i respect my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have come together to draft the legislation that we have been debating on and off, voting even less, but that process is short shortchanges i think the senate and the american people. It is a process that our colleagues, wellintentioned and working incredibly hard, but had no geographic diversity, had no ethnic diversity, had no racial diversity, and thats consequential. Its consequential in the legislation that we are dealing before us. For example, this legislation does very well in taking care of dealing with abandoning mines, but it doesnt do all that well with dealing with superfund sites, the sites that most americans who happen to be from disadvantaged communities ultimately reside along. This legislation does much to help with the challenges of wildfires in our country, which i support, but doesnt do very much but doesnt do very much for the questions of flooding, flooding that takes place along the mississippi, flooding that takes place in louisiana, flooding that takes place in my Home State of New Jersey and along the atlantic coast. So that lack of diversity is not only consequential in terms of the legislation, geographic, ethnic and racial, its also consequential to disadvantaged communities. For too long our Infrastructure And Transportation system has often been used to divide communities, split communities, where a highway goes through it and ultimately divides the community into the, quote, right side of the track, quote, wrong side of the track. This was an opportunity to actually change that dynamic. This is an opportunity to create equity in our infrastructure system. To make sure that those divided communities no longer were divided and that all of them had a highway to opportunity. To make sure that Transit Access to minority communities struggling for employment could be realized, and even though, you know, there is a transit provision, its 9 billion less than what we were originally told. But other elements are much, much higher. Those provisions not only have a consequence to the communities for which Transit Mobility is a critical element in order for employment, it often deals with minority communities that find themselves disadvantaged in terms of mobility to minority from minority communities to opportunities for employment. I look at the payfors. The payfors, you know, its pretty remarkable. One of them particularly ends a rebate as opposed to ultimately end up for consumers at the prescription drug counter. Now, i often hear from people across the spectrum we need to ultimately ensure that the cost of prescription drugs are lowered, but then here we have a payfor that has absolutely nothing to do with lowering the cost of prescription drugs. And then i hear that, well, were waiting for amendments. Well, i had bipartisan amendments, amendments on flooding, amendments on our national Ferry System that many parts of the nation depend upon, amendments about eligibility for bus terminals, and they are bipartisan. But the gatekeepers are keeping us away. So here we are, its 5 30 in the evening. We have yet to vote on one single amendment. We have yet to vote on anything today. And so this cannot be the process by which the worlds most deliberative body operates under. And i just want to serve notice that as it relates to this senator, this senator has no intention of supporting legislation that comes to this process against and that ultimately does not have that diversity of geography, of ethnicity, of race. It doesnt have the Committee Process which provides for that diversity to be represented and those points of view. I may not win, but id like to have my point of view and those of the community that i represent have a shot. After all, thats what the american dream is all about, having a shot at it. So 5 30, no votes. This is a fantastic process, but one that i can serve notice on i have no intention of supporting in the future. I yield the floor. Mr. Peters mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from michigan is recognized. Mr. Peters mr. President , i rise in support of two nominations to critical positions within the department of homeland security. Robert silverst to be and Jonathan Maier to be general counsel. Both nominees are well qualified for these important roles, and both of them have strong bipartisan support, including from former national security officials who served under both democratic and republican President S. Mr. Silvers public service includes several senior holes at the department of homeland security, including Deputy Chief of Staff And Assistant secretary for cyber policy during the obama administration. As a lawyer in the private sector since 2017, mr. Silvers has been a leader on cybersecurity, data privacy, and artificial intelligence issues. As under secretary for strategy, policy, and plans, mr. Silvers will help the department take a strategic and coordinated approach to address challenging policy areas, including domestic terrorism, border security, and cybersecurity. Jonathan meyers previous Government Service spans 17 years and includes senior roles in the department of justice, the United States Senate, and as deputy general counsel for d. H. S. During the obama administration. Since returning to private practice in 2016, mr. Meyers legal work has continued to focus on cybersecurity, technology, and homeland security. D. H. S. Needs qualified senateconfirmed leaders in place to effectively carry out its critical mission of safeguarding our nation, and i urge my colleagues to confirm these qualified nominees today. Mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following Nomination Calendar Number 158, that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order, the nominations, that the president be immediately notified of the Senates Action and the senate then resume legislative session. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator i object. Mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford mr. President , i do object. Mr. President , may i be recognized . The presiding Officer Objection is heard. Mr. Lankford reserving the right to object then. The presiding officer the senator from oklahoma. Mr. Lankford thank you. Id say this is a complicated issue as we walk through the issues of immigration, and there are a lot of questions i would hang out there. Secretary mayorkas was in front of our committee on may 13 to be able to walk through the issues that were facing. Just as a quick review, we had a Record Number of people that illegally crossed our border in march. That record was beaten in april, that was beaten in may, that was beaten in june, that was beaten in july. In july, we had 210,000 people illegally cross our border that we know of. D. H. S. In a recent Court Filing actually filed in a Court Filing where they made this statement. Based on current trends, the department expects that total encounters this fiscal year are likely to be the highest ever recorded. The department also expects that these numbers will climb even higher if the c. D. C. Order tiled 42 is enjoined. There is a real issue thats going on. So when mayorkas was in front of our committee, our committee has direct jurisdiction for oversight of whats happening in homeland security. There have been a lot of changes that have been done this year and how were enforcing or not enforcing the border. We had Record Numbers of individuals crossing the border. The Border Wall in that whole infrastructure as well as the technology on our southern border, all the construction has stopped on that. The best we can tell, we have spent 2 billion this year not building the wall. Currently, its not getting better. It continues to be able to get worse. We have 10,000 migrants in the Rio Grande Valley currently being held right now. That is 783 over capacity in the Rio Grande Valley right now. And on the Interior Enforcement side with i. C. E. , we have 6,000 i. C. E. Agents, and the last number that we saw, last month, they did 3,000 deportations. Among 6,000 i. C. E. Agents in a month. The standard for them to actually interdict, detain, or deport an individual has now reached such a high standard that they have to contact regional leadership and ask permission by name to be able to interdict someone. That has dramatically slowed down what is happening. In Interior Enforcement, whats happening in our border area, and as we continue to be able to watch the number of individuals cross our border that are covid positive, we have this odd situation where the nation and the president is talking to companies and telling companies you need to mandate vaccines and you need to mandate masks when at the whole time we are literally bringing people from all over the world across our southern border and releasing them into the United States. We have legitimate questions that need to be answered. May 13, when Ali Mayorkas was in front of our committee, there were multiple questions that i had. It was a very cordial interchange and very frank going through the issues. I asked him very specific questions for specific numbers. He said i will follow up with that. We wrote him a list of questions and asked for specific answers for that. To their credit, two months later, two months later, we got a list of answers to the questions that i had asked. That was 24 hours ago. Its a very specific answer on the issues. I asked about the Volunteer Force from d. H. S. The humanitarian exceptions to title 42 including the policy documents, they were very commendable on how they actually answered those. D. H. S. , i asked specific questions on how they are handling sex offenders because i. C. E. Agents have told me over and over again sex offenders are not being interdicted in the numbers they were in the past. They gave us very specific answers on that. But the problem was half of the questions they gave us answers to and half of it they did not. For instance, we asked about the study that they started january 20 on the Border Wall. That study was supposed to be 60 days. Its now been more than 200 days. We just asked for the status of that study and if we could see any of it what were the findings. Instead, i was sent a Press Release that they had put out. That is not what i need. In fact, that Press Release was copied in multiple places in the document to say this is responsive. Thats not responsive. There is a new process that has been put in place by this d. H. S. Called notice to report where literally there is a large number of people crossing the border at once. They are taking those individuals out, doing biometrics and Background Check and releasing them into the country with a statement of turn yourself in at an i. C. E. Office somewhere in the country. No administration has ever done that. As far as we can tell, 55,000 people this year have been released into the country under a notice to report. That is a new process. That is undefined. The questions that we asked about that were completely unresponsive. The supreme court made decisions on whats called a notice to appear just this year that should change the process from how d. H. S. Handles notice to appear. We asked very specific questions on how d. H. S. Is handling this issue based on the supreme Court Decision that was made a few months ago. They were completely unresponsive on that. We asked about Cost Analysis for the border construction, whats happening on imminent domain in those issues in areas where they are choosing not to do imminent domain. They were completely nonresponsive on that. So literally, half our answers they answered completely. Half our questions, they sent us fluff. I am the only one thats holding this up, im very aware, but its also my committee of jurisdiction that specific has border management. I am the one that is supposed to ask these questions, and im asking these questions. And they are not unreasonable questions. Were just asking to be able to get an answer to the question so we can figure out what is the process and whats happening. As recently as today, i learned that i. C. E. Is currently looking at a facility in western oklahoma to do what they are calling a Surge Overflow Tempory facilit that Surge Overflow Tempory open in western oklahoma to move people from the border, process them in western oklahoma, and oklahoma. It i not annfair qstn for me to ask what is this facility . At is its purpose . And will individls that not legally present in the country be released in western oklahoma . This is the same question thats been asked by mayors and leaders in arizona that have had a facility like this in arizona where processing was done there and then they were released from there and mayors and individuals there have asked the question why are individuals that are not legally present in the country being brought from the border to my town and then released in my town . Its not unfair for me to be able to ask that as well. I have already had that conversation with the secretary of d. H. S. I do not have an answer. So yes, i object because we need to get some straightforward answers to some very straightforward, very fair questions. I object. The presiding Officer Objection is heard. The senator from michigan is recognized. Mr. Peters mr. President , i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following Nomination Calendar Number 159, that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervther motions be in order for the nominations, that the president be immediately notified of the Senates Action, and the senate then resume legislative session. The presiding officer is there objection . The presiding Officer Objection is heard. Mr. Peters i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, Calendar Number 158. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of homeland security, Robert Peter silvers, of the District Of Columbia to be under secretary for Strategy Policy and plans. Mr. Peters mr. President , i ask consent that the Senate Vote on the nomination, and if confirmed, the nomination be confirmed and laid upon the table, that no further motions be in order to the nomination, any statements related to the nomination, be printed in the record and the president be immediately notified of the Senates Action and the Senate Resume legislative session. The presiding officer is there objection . Without objection. The question is on the nomination. All in favor say aye. All opposed, no. The ayes appear to have it. The ayes do have it. The nomination is confirmed. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from texas. Mr. Cruz mr. President , i rise today to discuss the mammoth 1. 2 trillion Infrastructure Bill before the senate. On sunday night, we finally got to see the 2,700page Infrastructure Bill that we will be voting on sometime tomorrow or saturday. And what we saw is that democrats want to give billions of dollars to unelected bureaucrats in the biden administration to spend however they please. This bill spends 21. 5 billion to create a new office at the department of energy called the office of clean energy demonstrations which would give president Bidens Secretary of energy the power to use taxpayer dollars to invest in whatever green Energy Initiative she likes. Reminiscent of Sill Indiana Rea Sill Indiana Rea silnydra, we could have the same benefits at taxpayers expense. This spends money to preserve the water in the san francisco bay, and the long Island Sound would receive 106 million in taxpayer dollars. As the New York times reported, quote, climate resiliency programs would receive their largest burst of Government Spending ever from this bill. And the Wall Street Journal rightly called it, quote, a major down payment on president bidens green new deal. Thats exactly what this bill is. Furthermore, this Bill Institutes a new tax on 42 chemicals that will raise prices for everyday consumers. Texans will bear the brunt of these higher prices because 40 of the manufacturing plants that this new tax will hit are in texas alone. But this tax will also hurt Louisiana And Michigan and Pennsylvania And Ohio and other manufacturing states. Indeed, this provision will also likely make many of the raw materials used in infrastructure projects more expensive. I filed an amendment that would strike this harmful provision. Not only will manufacturing plants in texas be hurt by this new tax, but for some of these plants, the new taxes will exceed profit margins. Leading to plant closings and more and more manufacturing moving to china. In effect, the loss of these plants would result in lower Tax Revenue to the federal government, not more. Imports would rise. U. S. Exports would fall. And production in the United States would fall as well. Ironically, this Infrastructure Bill also tries to grow more critical minerals manufacturing and personal protective Equipment Or P. P. E. Manufacturing in america, but it places a Brandnew Tax on both of these things. P. P. E. Is made with many of the 42 chemicals this Infrastructure Bill now wants to tax. And four of these chemicals are on the biden administrations own critical minerals list. The old saying was if it moves, tax it, and if it stops moving, subsidize it. Well, this bill taxes the things that were trying to get moving in the first place. This bill is also a liberal spending wish list. The fact of the matter is this bill spends too much money, and its not paid for. Were told that this bill would in part be paid for with 205 billion in repurposed Covid Relief funds, but when the Bill Text was released, magically those funds werent there. It became apparent instead only about 50 billion in covid funds was being used to help pay for this bill. Some have claimed that the bill is paid for but by any measure the payfors are, quite simply, gimmicks. This is a bait and switch, and the bill is not paid for like we were promised. At a time when we spent trillions of dollars already to combat a deadly pandemic, at a time when were seeing rising inflation across the country, we cant responsively responsibly be spending yet another trillion dollars. This bill is part of a much broader problem were having with reckless federal spending. Furthermore, suppose this socalled bipartisan 1. 2 trillion Infrastructure Bill was being offered in exchange for the democrats massive 3. 5 trillion reckless Taxandspend Bill. In that case, i could understand the logic of doing the smaller bill instead of the massive bill. But its not being offered in exchange. The democrats have made it clear that theyre going to pass this Infrastructure Bill, take every penny of the spending, and then turn around and try to ram through their massive 3. 5 trillion Taxandspend Bill right on top of this. Which means were looking at about 5 trillion of spending in just those two bills. That means trillions of dollars in new taxes. If you pay taxes, they are going up. It means corporate taxes are going up. It means individual taxes are going up. It means small business taxes are going up. It means Capital Gains taxes are going up. It means the Death Tax is going up. All while debt is going through the roof, and inflation is rising across the country. Republicans shouldnt play a part in this. We should say enough is enough. Look, the american people want good roads and good bridges. I want good roads and good bridges. But what this bill does reminds me of the old swindler who says over and over again, i want to sell you a bridge. Im going to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge because the proponents of this bill are selling the same bridge over and over and over again. They go on tv. They say bridges are popular, roads are popular. You want roads and bridges. Therefore, we have got to do this. Lets see what the actual spending looks like to understand the Shell Game thats being played. This bill has about 100 billion for roads and bridges. You know what . If the democrats want to pass just that, 100 billion for roads and bridges, i bet you we could get 90 senators to agree with that. We could be done and go home this evening. And let me remind my fellow senators, 100 billion is a lot of money. We arent talking about 5 at a Soda Machine in the hall. We arent talking about 100. Were talking 100 billion, which in history is massive spending. But compare that to the 1. 2 trillion in this bill. Its not monopoly money, its not makebelieve money. Its taxpayer dollars, and its money were borrowing from China And Debt that were putting on our kids and grandkids. And the roads and Bridges Part of the bill in the context of the larger spending free for all in washington is about 186th the explosive spending going on. Lets compare that to the overall spending going on in this bill and the total spending so that its not in a silo or a vacuum. Its all together. The 1. 2 trillion Infrastructure Bill today is roughly 12 times the new spending on roads and bridges. So theyre selling the roads and bridges but the bill is 12 times bigger. But that aint it. A few months ago the democrats ran through a massive socalled Covid Relief bill, only 9 of the bill actually went to Health Care spending for covid. That was 1. 9 trillion. So that was roughly 19 times larger than whats being spent on roads and bridges. Mind you we keep being told roads and bridges are good. That bill was 19 times that. And then the massive 3. 5 trillion tax and spend bill that is coming right after this that the democrats intend to ram through, that is 35 times the spending on roads and bridges. And when you add up the spending from december 2020 to now with the biden budget request, with the democrats tax and spend reconciliation proposal, with this Infrastructure Bill, with the socalled Covid Relief bill, and with the Emergency Spending in december, you hit a whopping 9. 5 trillion. That is 86 times the new spending on roads and bridges. Thats hard to wrap your mind around. These numbers all seem ab tract. Millions, billions, trillions. Its hard to know what youre talking about. Lets see if we can make it a little more real. To understand the comparative size, lets take a look at the average american Home Right here. Average american home is about 20 feet tall. Compare that to a giant sacoya tree. Its about 240 feet tall, ten times as much. Thats a lot. But compare that to big ben, 380 feet tall. Compare that to Trump Tower in new York City its 700 feet tall. Compare that to one Shell Plaza where i used to work in houston, texas, or compare that to the Sears Tower now called the willis tower. I dont know why. I liked sears. Compare that to the Sears Tower at 1,400 feet tall. The Sears Tower is 70 times as tall as the average american house. The democrats reckless spending is more than 70 times whats being spent on roads and bridges. So when you see politicians going on tv saying isnt it going to be great to have a new freeway, isnt it going to be great to repair a bridge . Yes, we should do that. Theyre selling this. Thats what theyre selling, this tiny little bit. But understand that what theyre ramming through is this. Theyre ramming through trillions of dollars. To give you a sense of what 9. 5 trillion means, if the democrats get their way, congress will be spending 28,563 for every single american. So i ask you at home. Youve got 28 grand sitting around . The democrats think you do. They want to spend it. Ive said more than once dear god, please let nobody tell the democrats what comes after a trillion. These numbers are real. To put that in perspective, indexed for inflation, the united States Government spent 4. 1 trillion to win World War ii. 4. 1 trillion to win World War ii, the greatest generation scaling the cliffs of normandy, beating the nazis. The democrats in seven months are spej more than are spending more than double what we spent to win World War ii. This is reckless and its unprecedented. As Admiral Akbar said in star wars, its a trap. This is a trap. This is a trap. Now listen. For democrats its what they campaign on. If youre a democrat, you want to raise taxes and raise spending, you want more debt from china, thats what democrats do. But for republicans, come on, guys. Were like Charlie Brown with Chuck Schumer being lucy and the Football And Youve got republicans happily running going hes going to keep the football. Hes going for keep the football. And every time lucy pulls the football back and we go up in the Air And Land on our rear. It would be nice for republicans not to fall for it again. Senate Minority Leader is fond of saying theres no learning in the second kick from a mule well, there are a whole lot of republicans that seem eager to get kicked a second time from a mule. The spending that were looking at, i want to repeat again, is more than double what the United States spent to win World War ii. In seven months. If you care about your kids, if you care about your grandkids, thats irresponsible. And let me tell you something its causing. Its causing inflation across this country. You know, families at home in texas and virginia, across the country, families, they go to the Grocery Store and they buy food for that week. They buy milk. They buy cereal. They buy fruit. Theyre noticing the cost of groceries going up and up and up. You get to the Cash Register and gosh, that costs a lot more than it cost a month ago and it costs a lot more than three months ago and it costs a lot more than a year ago. Then you go out and fill up your car with gas. You know the cost has gone way, way up. And then maybe you go with your daughter to Home Depot to buy some lumber. And you look at the prices of the lumber and you think, is this a typo . How did these prices go so high . Then maybe you go to buy a new house and you see the prices of a new house, the average new house going up 20,000 to 30,000. Last decade or so weve been living in a little bit of a holiday from history. Inflation has not been a major factor for many people, particularly many young people dont know what inflation is. Mr. President , you and i are both old enough to remember the 1970s. We remember the jimmy carter presidency. We remember doubledigit inflation. We remember 20 Home Mortgage rates. Inflation is a cruel tax. Its a tax on the middle class. Its a tax on working men and women. Its a tax on anyone with a fixed income. And its a tax in particular on seniors. Millions of seniors across this country on social security struggling to make ends meet, their Income Isnt going up. But thanks to the democrats reckless spending and endless printing of money, their expenses are going up each and every month. This is wrong. This is harmful. The Inflation Bomb we are facing is hurting americans. In a perfect world i would ask my democratic colleagues to reconsider. How about we spend just what we spent on worl World War ii, note as much. In a perfect world that might seen like a reasonable proposition. A perfect World Anyone would say youre out of your mind to say what you spent on World War ii. Im not naive enough to think democrats are s suddenly going o see the light. I hope at least some republicans will. If you vote for this montross city, it will monstrosity, it will open the door to trillions more. Thats harmful for our country. And if youre being told its all about roads and bridges, just remember the one little house we saw. Roads and bridges are 186th of the total spending thats being rammed through. These trillions are 86 times more. We cant afford it. Its irresponsible. And i urge every senator to say enough is enough. Stop the madness. I yield the floor. The presiding officer the senator from pennsylvania. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I would ask consent to speak as if in Morning Business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Casey thank you, mr. President. I rise this afternoon almost the evening now to reflect on the sad news that we received today that Rich Trumka, the president of the aflcio passed away today. I wanted to try to provide some perspective at least from my Vantage Point as a pennsylvanian because he was a son of pennsylvania. Born in southwestern pennsylvania in Greene County, Greene County for those who dont know where it is in the furthest southwestern corner of our State Right where the the corner where pennsylvania, ohio, and West Virginia meet. Rich trumka was a man who fought his whole life in the cause of justice, fighting on behalf of working men and women. He served as before he became president of the aflcio, obviously a national position, he also as a very young man i think he might have been 32 at the time served as the president of the united mine workers of america, that union. And that was during a very difficult time for Coal Miners and their families and then in that position and so many others he fought for workers everywhere. Literally the world over. Not just leer in america but workers in here in america but workers in South Africa and other parts of the world. So to sum up what he meant to this country is difficult, but i think it can be said of Rich Trumka that he spent every day of his adult life advancing the cause of justice, the cause of justice for workers, the cause of economic justice, social justice, and racial justice. He dedicated his life in service to american workers and their families. I wanted to reflect a little bit about two parts of his of his life. First of all his roots and then secondly, his work and his contributions. I mentioned that rich was a native of Greene County, pennsylvania, southwestern pennsylvania, a coal county. He was not just a miner himself as a young man before and actually overlapping really, getting a degree at Penn State and eventually getting a Law Degree at villanova university. But he worked in the coal mines himself. But he was a third generation miner. Both his father and grandfather, uncles, just like any Coal Mining Community, virtually everyone was working in the mines. The town that he was born in and raised in is goes by the name of nemacolin, pennsylvania in Greene County, right on the Greene Countyfayette county border. And it was that kind of community, a Coal Mining Community as was most of Greene County in those days. I think of this community from the perspective of my own Ancestors Background i come from the other end of the state, all the way up in the northeastern part of the state, scranton, northeastern pennsylvania, also a coal community. Lackawanna county, war bon carbon county, susquehanna county. They were the main counties that were producing anthrocite, hard coal. Where rich and his family were