Sherrod Brown

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Thanks, Mr. President. I always enjoy following my friend from Oregon who has done such important work on tax and trade law and Medicare and Medicaid and everything since his career began as a young Gray Panther.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote be called immediately.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I came to speak to the Senate about Police Week as we honor the law enforcement officers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Before I do that, we know that Putin was shocked by two things. He was shocked by the amazing resistance and the strength and the resiliency of the Ukrainian people and the effectiveness of their fight back. Putin really couldn't believe that happened. The other thing that Putin was shocked by was the skill with which President Biden put together this international coalition of countries that were not part of this in the past, part of something--Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland--countries that now a couple of them want to be in NATO, and that really is the skill of the leadership of President Biden. And I know, in spite of the Senator from Texas's comments--I know that most mainstream Republicans support what President Biden has done, support his work on putting together sanctions--first, providing aid for the Ukrainian people, the humanitarian aid, refugees going to Moldova, going to Poland, going to other parts of Eastern and Central and Southern Europe, and the skill with which he has gotten and the success with which he has gotten weapons to the Ukrainian people and the skills with which he put together sanctions. The Presiding Officer, as a member of the Banking and Housing Committee, has been part of that with sanctions, and it has really made a difference in keeping these countries together at the fastest pace we could do it but keeping them together. So most Republicans support what President Biden has done. But, you know, I am not saying that the Senator from Texas is part of this, but I have heard Congresswoman Cheney, who is nothing if not a conservative Republican, daughter of a very conservative Vice President, active in the Republican Party and Republican leadership--she talks about the Putin wing of the Republican Party. Again, I am not saying that she includes the Senator from Texas in that category. I don't know if she does or she doesn't. I didn't hear her mention names, but I do know that she thinks that a number of Republicans are part of this Putin wing of the Republican Party, and it is despicable, but it is true, and it is disappointing to all of us. And I would add, too, that the Senator from Texas, maybe he missed the news as he was talking about chips, computer chips, about semiconductors. Intel made a huge announcement that they are coming to Ohio. They are going to invest billions of dollars. They are going to hire 5,000 building tradespeople--5,000 tradespeople--over a 10-year period to build these fabs. Imagine the size of that. I have never seen anything like that. So I am excited about what we are doing, and that is why it is so important what Senator Wyden and I and others are doing on making sure that we pass the USICA--the Innovation and Competition Act. It is so important to our country. It is so important to workers. We are finally putting workers at the center of our economic policy, and that is a thrill. And as President Biden said on the Senate floor, we are finally burying the term ``Rust Belt.'' We are burying it in Columbus with Intel. We are burying it in Northwest Ohio with solar manufacturing. We are burying it in Southwest Ohio with a new generation of jet fuel and jet engines. We are burying it in Cleveland with what we are doing with NASA. We are burying it in Youngstown with our manufacturing camps and all that we are doing for America Works.

Mr. BROWN. Sure.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I take back my time. I have heard no Democrat talk about--I have heard nobody talk about the Putin wing of the Democratic Party. No Democrat believes that. I hear just down the hall 100 yards, Congresswoman Cheney talk about the Putin wing of the Republican Party. I am not in intraparty fights; I am only pointing that out. I want to get to this. We expect a vote soon after 6, and I want to get back to my remarks. I appreciate the engagement of Senator Cruz on this issue

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to complete my remarks, which will be brief.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, since President Biden took office, we have made tremendous economic progress as a country. Our economic growth last year exceeded that of China's for the first time in 20 years, and Federal Reserve nominees who have come before the Senate are crucial to continuing that progress. As Americans face rising prices caused by corporate greed, a global pandemic, and Putin's war, having a full Federal Reserve Board has never been more vital. A few weeks ago, the Senate confirmed Lael Brainard to be Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Vice Chair Brainard has served as a member of the Federal Reserve since 2014, when she led bipartisan action to support families through the COVID-19 economic crisis and worked to create a better payments system that works for consumers and small banks. She has championed efforts to modernize and strengthen the Community Reinvestment Act, a landmark civil rights law to start to undo the dark legacy brought on by Jim Crow and, ultimately, redlining. We saw her tremendous efforts pay off. Last week, all three Federal banking Agencies moved forward with their new, historic CRA proposal. Earlier this week, Democrats supported the historic nomination of Dr. Lisa Cook, who is a prominent economist with years of research and international experience on monetary policy, banking, and financial crises. She is the first Black woman to serve on the Board of Governors in the 109-year history of the Federal Reserve. She has seen how economic policy affects all kinds of people in different parts of the country, from the rural South where she grew up in Milledgeville, GA, to the industrial Midwest at Michigan State University--one of the great Midwestern State universities of this country--where she built her career. Dr. Cook is a Spelman College alumna. She was a Marshall Scholar and a Truman Scholar. She studied at Oxford University. She earned her Ph.D. in economics at Berkeley. She is a tenured professor of economics and international relations at Michigan State. Last night, the Senate confirmed Dr. Philip Jefferson, one of the country's leading thinkers on the economics of poverty. He will be a critical voice on the Fed. He is the vice president for academic affairs, dean of faculty, and Freeland professor of economics at Davidson College. He began his career as a Fed economist. He grew up, as he says, in the shadow of RFK Stadium in the Southeast part of this city. He served as chair of the economics department at Swarthmore College, my daughter Emily's alma mater. Dr. Jefferson would be only the fourth Black man to serve as a Fed Governor. Both Dr. Jefferson and Dr. Cook will bring important perspectives on poverty, inequality, and racial equity to the Fed--perspectives that have been missing for most of the last 109 years. Today, we will vote on Jerome Powell, who has earned the opportunity--earned the opportunity--to lead the Fed as Chair for another term. He has been a steadfast defender of the Federal Reserve's independence, resisting unprecedented attacks by former President Trump to politicize the Fed. I know he will similarly resist those in Congress who see inflation not as a burden on American families but as a chance to blame the President of the United States for something that is complex due chiefly to things that happened before he was President and mainly to corporate greed and global events. Along with now-Vice Chair Brainard, he played an instrumental role in stabilizing our economy in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. He has been a reliable voice and a steady hand through this crisis. All of the nominees for the Fed have received an unprecedented amount of support from across the political spectrum--more letters of endorsement than I have ever seen for Federal Reserve nominees--from State regulators, economists, bankers, and former government officials, consumer groups, civil rights advocates, and on and on and on. I congratulate Vice Chair Brainard and Governor Cook and Governor Jefferson on their nominations and confirmations. I urge my colleagues to vote to confirm Chair Powell. Last point. I will continue to work with my colleagues to round out the full complement of the Federal Reserve--it has not had a full seven members in almost a decade--when we confirm in a few weeks the Vice Chair of Supervision nominee, Michael Barr. The Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Mr. Barr's nomination next week. We will move swiftly to vote. I urge my colleagues to support Chair Powell today and to support Mr. Barr's nomination as Vice Chair soon. I am confident all of the President's nominees will fiercely guard the Fed's independence and will work to bring down prices and, most importantly, put workers and families at the center of our economic policy. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I have kind of heard it all today. I am not going to engage with the ranking member when he calls her unqualified. We know this is about a history of this committee's Republicans voting against very qualified African-American women. We have won that debate; we have won it with the American people. And I was just handed--because I remembered this. I remembered hundreds, literally hundreds, of prominent people in the economics field and outside the economics field that supported Lisa Cook, they wrote letters. We got more letters, I believe, for Lisa Cook than any nominee for the Fed. The ranking member knows, and he has voted for some pretty unqualified people, and that he would decide this is one he is voting against is just kind of sad. Let me give you some examples, 35 Marshall and Truman Scholars are supporting her--35; the National Bankers Association; Ben Bernanke, a Bush nominee who was chair of the Federal Reserve; all kinds of organizations, some political, some not political, many of them bank-based. I will send these to the ranking member so he can get a look at them. I know he has already seen them before, but they seem to have slipped his mind. I urge my colleagues to support Dr. Cook. She teaches at Michigan State, the presiding officer's proud institution. She would be a historic confirmation to the Board of Governors, we know that. She understands how economic policy affects all kinds of different people in different parts of the country, from the rural south where she grew up to the industrial Midwest where she built her career. One of the things I like about her, the Federal Reserve--I mean, I understand that economic conservatives in this body--and I think the ranking member would probably define himself that way; I admire his courage in voting against-- voting for the removal of President Trump, so I admired his courage. I just think he is wrong on these kind of nominees. But I just--I look at her, and I see how--what I like--one of the things I like about her is the Fed, for years, has just practiced this top-down economic policy. The people that sit on the Fed, they almost all look like me, historically. In fact, Lisa Cook will be the first Black woman in 109 years ever to sit on the Fed, seven members of the Fed at any one time, and the terms are--usually they stay 5 to 10 years--so you can see how many people cycle in and out. But they almost all believe in this trickle-down economics that you give tax cuts to rich people and it will trickle down and the economy will be better. Well, Lisa Cook is different. She doesn't come from the coast. She comes from what some people on the coast would call ``flyover country,'' Michigan or Ohio. She grew up in a small town in Georgia. She went to college at Spelman, one of the best schools in the country. She was a Marshall and a Truman Scholar in England. She got her Ph.D. at Berkeley, and now she is teaching at Michigan State. And that tells me she has a sense of this country. And he criticized her because of her emphasis on international relations. I like it that we have somebody at the Fed that not only knows the country, knows the great industrial Midwest in Michigan or Ohio--sort of the same in some ways. I like it that she studied on the west coast. I like it that she studied abroad. I like it that she spent time overseas learning about banking in economics and other countries, instead of the cookie-cutter people we always get on the Federal Reserve. Someone very important, speaks very seriously, has a good Ivy League education, but they don't know real people. And Lisa Cook knows real people. She has years of research and international experience with monetary policy, banking, and financial crises. She has served as an economist under administrations to both parties, and as I said, she has support from across the political spectrum. All kinds of people endorsed her. They sent more letters supporting her than any Fed nom that I remember in front of this Banking Committee, and I have been on the Banking Committee a decade and a half. She has demonstrated her commitment to Fed independence, the importance of making decisions based on fact. She agrees with Chair Powell that the Fed's most important task right now is to tackle inflation. She believes: A strong and resilient financial system supports American families, businesses, and our economy. Those are her words. Take a moment again and let me go back to why this is historical: the first Black woman in 109 years to serve in the Federal Reserve. Think about that. Think about that: the first Black woman in 109 years. This country is 12 percent Black. We have had dozens and dozens and dozens of Fed noms, yet we are going to need--probably need the Vice President to come in here and cast the tie-breaking vote because every single Republican, everybody on this side of the aisle, sitting behind every one of these desks is voting against the first African-American woman ever on the Federal Reserve. Spelman College, Truman Scholar, Marshall Scholar, Ph.D. at Berkeley, tenure at one of America's great universities, Michigan State University--and they say she is not qualified? And Judy Shelton was? Really. She will protect the Fed's independence. She knows that workers drive our economic growth. She, like this President, understands you focus on workers, you put workers at the center of our economy. That is the kind of Fed governor she is going to be. She understands when everyone participates in our economy, it grows faster and stronger for all Americans. We need her on the job today. I would add the other Senator from Michigan is here who has been a strong, strong supporter of Professor Cook. I join my two colleagues from Michigan and everybody on this side of the aisle to support Lisa Cook for the Federal Reserve.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the privileges of the floor be granted to Brittany Thomas, Sneha Pandya, and Serena Baserman for the remainder of this Congress.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to Senator Sanders' motion to instruct. When America invented the semiconductor 40 years ago, we produced nearly half of the world's semiconductors. Today, we produce less than 10 percent. Look what happened: Plants shut down across Ohio. Whirlpool, Ford, GM--forced to idle plants because of the ``spread out all over the world'' supply chain. We passed the CHIPS Act 2 years ago. I thank Senator Cantwell who-- what she has done to stop this, encourage more production of these chips at home. This bill will fund--this legislation will fund the bill Congress already passed. It is not a bailout. It is critical to my State--10,000 good jobs, 5,000 building trades--union building trades jobs paying prevailing wage for the next 10 years. It is an incentive program. The EU, China, Taiwan, South Korea all provide incentives to make these chips domestically. None of them require stock warrants. Everybody in this body knows my position in opposition to the financial services industry to stock buybacks. You can count on that. I yield my final 30 seconds to Senator Wicker.

Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I rise to oppose Senator Toomey's motion to instruct against motions that undermine investments in American manufacturing and production. I urge my colleagues to oppose this motion to instruct. It supports a broad exclusion process for 301 tariffs for goods from China. These tariffs are in place because of Chinese unfair trade practices that target our industrial base and jobs in Pennsylvania and Ohio and New Jersey. The AFL-CIO opposes this motion. The USTR opposes it. The bipartisan, pro-industry Alliance for American Manufacturing opposes it. They know any exclusions need to be part of a broader strategic approach that we all support to trade policy with China. Creating an overly broad exclusion process that ties our hands would take away leverage we need to pressure China to change its behavior--behavior the steel industry in my State and other industries all over the country know too well. China cheats. We know this. It subsidizes its steel industry. It props up state-owned enterprises. It steals intellectual property. It pollutes the Earth and exploits our workers. It is costing my State and all over the country jobs year after year. We can't let China's cheating undermine the investments we are making in this bill. I ask for opposition to the Toomey motion. Vote on Motion

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask consent to speak for up to 2 minutes on the nomination.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to join me in advancing the nomination of Elizabeth de Leon Bhargava to be Assistant Secretary for Administration of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Bhargava would oversee offices responsible for recruitment and staffing, procurement, and providing administrative support for HUD employees. She will ensure the Department takes steps to retain the best talent and grow HUD's workforce to meet current and future needs. Yesterday, I came to Washington on the commercial United flight with Secretary Fudge. She is working hard every day to serve her former constituents. I live in her old congressional district. And to serve this country, she needs qualified employees confirmed like Ms. Bhargava. For more than 4 years, Ms. Bhargava served as New York State Deputy Secretary for Labor and Workforce, directly responsible for workforce policy and operations affecting more than 9 million New Yorkers. She recognizes that the program continuity depends on strong leadership at the top and meeting the Department's urgent staffing needs. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the nomination of Ms. Bhargava to HUD.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I appreciate being recognized. I want to start with a short little story. A month after--well, maybe 2 weeks after--President Biden took office, I was invited as the new chair of a major Senate Committee, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. I think the Presiding Officer was there that day, too. We met in the Oval Office with the President of the United States. We sat in a semicircle, and I saw that the painting behind President Biden was of Franklin Roosevelt. He was surrounded by busts of Harry Truman, Rosa Parks, Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, and Robert Kennedy. He asked us to go around the room and tell what interests us, what kind of things we should be doing. When it was my turn, I talked about the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and I talked about the child tax credit, which, after we passed it, it was a $3,000 tax cut to 92 percent of the families in my State and a similar percent in the Presiding Officer's State of Michigan. Families with children received a $3,000 tax cut, the biggest in American history. I spoke about housing, and then I said, at the end of my little minute and a half: Mr. President, thank you for talking about unions. He kind of smiled and said: Of course. When the meeting was over, after 45 minutes or so, the President walked toward me and said: Why wouldn't I mention unions? I said: Mr. President, I have been in this office a number of times over the last 25 years, and I have never heard a President talk about the unions the way you do. That was the beginning. We then passed the recovery act and have done so much more with the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He has always put the emphasis on workers, putting workers at the center of our economic policy and workers at the center of our country and at the center of our economy. Let me illustrate. In the last 2 weeks--I know that Senator Hassan, who is about to preside today, when she went back to New Hampshire during these 2 weeks, she was talking to families and workers, and Senator Peters, who is presiding, from Michigan, did the same--what struck me is that we had four sort of Cabinet-level people from the Biden administration who came to Ohio during these couple of weeks. I was with three of them. With one of them, we couldn't work out schedules. The head of the EPA was in Ohio. Do you know what he talked about? He talked about how we replace--Ohio, unfortunately, is No. 2 in the country in the number of contaminated pipes connecting main water lines going into people's homes, contaminated with lead. We are, because of the bipartisan infrastructure bill, going to replace those 600,000 pipes. We are going to replace them with U.S., Made-in-America iron and steel and other components, because in infrastructure, we passed the strongest--and Senator Hassan was part of this and others. We passed the strongest ``Buy America'' provisions ever in American history. If you are going to spend American tax dollars, you are going to hire American workers to do that. Administrator Regan of the EPA talked about what that means. It means thousands of jobs for pipefitters and other union trades people. It also means clean water going into moderate- and low-income families' homes in Appalachia and East Cleveland and everywhere in between. And that means healthier children. Then the Secretary of the Department of Labor came. The Department of Labor Secretary with President Biden's predecessor was essentially a corporate lawyer. I would use the word--this might sound disrespectful, and I apologize ahead of time--a hack. Fundamentally, he was a guy who spent his career making, I assume, millions of dollars a year working for a prestigious law firm, busting unions, and always siding with employers and with big corporations against workers. That was the predecessor. The Secretary of Labor under President Biden came out of Boston. He was a former laborer. He was a former union laborer. Make that contrast. Then I spent part of the time in Lakewood, a Cleveland suburb--in the city of Cleveland and in Lakewood--and then Fremont, OH, with the new Chair of the Export-Import Bank, talking about jobs, talking about workers, talking about getting help competing with the Chinese, with the Export-Import Bank, always with an emphasis on wages. We know what has happened the last 50 years. I went to high school and walked the halls of Mansfield Senior High School and Johnny Appleseed Junior High School with the sons and daughters of machinists who worked at Ohio Brass, of electrical workers who worked at Westinghouse, of autoworkers who worked at GM, of rubber workers who worked at Mansfield Tire, and with the sons and daughters of laborers and operating engineers, millwrights, carpenters, pipefitters, painters, and electricians--all making middle-class union wages that really built a decent economy for tens of thousands of families in my community. I know what that meant, and then we saw corporate leaders: First they shut down production in places like Mansfield, my hometown, or Springfield or Toledo. They moved to Alabama or Tennessee or Arkansas-- low wages, few unions, weak unemployment compensation, sort of inadequate unemployment workers' compensation programs for injured and unemployed workers. But those wages weren't low enough. So these same corporate leaders went on a scavenger hunt to Mexico and China--all over the world--to try to find the cheapest labor possible. And do you know what? Far too many Presidents and far too many people in this body helped them do that. That is why this President is so important and why this Senate is so important--that we can fight back. We are seeing now that the whole idea of this administration is to begin to bring these jobs back home and treat these workers with respect and begin, again, to rebuild the middle class. The last Cabinet Secretary to come in who I spent a full day with was in Chillicothe, OH, in southern Ohio. It is a small community hurt by globalization. There is a VA hospital. It is one of the oldest VA hospitals in the country. And these workers--there was a Commission started by President Trump that is slating the closure of the Chillicothe VA. Today, Presiding Officer Senator Hassan and I were in the Veterans' Committee asking about workers--with Senator Tester presiding and Senator Boozman, a good bipartisan team on Veterans' Affairs--what do we do to make sure these workers are whole, that we train workers, that they are not burning out by all the tension and the pressure and the anxiety they face now? In sitting with Secretary Denis McDonough, the new Secretary of the VA, the Biden Secretary of the VA, it was a pleasure watching him interact with these workers, interacting with Jessica Fee, who is the union president, at Chillicothe, the American Federation of Government Employees. President Kelley, the international president, was there. Ms. Simon, his assistant, was there, listening to these workers, listening to what do we do to train enough LPNs, licensed practical nurses? What do we do to train enough nurses? What do we do to train enough physical therapists? And how do we keep this hospital open? Because so many veterans care so deeply about this hospital. So the last 2 weeks what motivates me in this job is my job really, in so many ways, is how do you speak for those who don't have a voice? How do you fight for those--it is always whom you fight for and what you fight against. I am not interested in opposing Senator McConnell because he blocks a whole bunch of stuff that we care about. I am not interested in opposing him; I am interested in fighting against some of the things he does. But I am interested in fighting for these workers at the VA. I am interested in fighting for these pipefitters who are going to lay these clean pipes without lead contamination, making these children in Appalachian Ohio, in East Cleveland, in East Columbus, OH--making them more whole. I am interested in helping these workers who DOL finally sides with instead of siding with corporate interest. During these 2 weeks, I went to a Starbucks in Columbus, and these workers are trying to organize a union. They know that carrying a union card--carrying a union card means better wages; it means better benefits; it means more control over your work schedule. Of course, Starbucks is fighting the union, but finally we have a government that is helping these small businesses export more. And we have a government that is going to finally side with veterans and side with workers at VA hospitals. The last 2 weeks is--and for me it has been a celebration, as Studs Terkel said in an introduction of a book called, ``Christ in Concrete,'' a book written in the late 1930s about an immigrant worker. It came out the same week as ``Grapes of Wrath,'' and, interestingly, it was chosen over ``Grapes of Wrath'' for the Book-of-the-Month Club, even though ``Grapes of Wrath'' had a little bit more staying power. But Studs Terkel talked in his introduction about celebrating the uncelebrated, and that is really what we should be doing here. You celebrate those workers. It is not the corporations; it is not the President; it is not the big shots; it is really the workers who power this economy, the workers who make the VA work, the workers who will lay those pipes, the workers who are the small business people succeeding and competing with China in countries around the world, the workers at the VA. That is what the last 2 weeks for me was about. It is why the honor of having this job and fighting for these workers gets me up every day. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, for generations, manufacturing was the lifeblood of communities across Ohio and throughout the country. It was heavily unionized. The jobs paid well. It is not a coincidence that those two things go together. We know carrying a union card means better wages, better hope in retirement benefits, and more control over the workers' schedule. These jobs allowed generations of Americans to build a middle-class life. But beginning in the seventies and eighties, we stopped making things in this country. Look at places like my hometown of Mansfield, OH. I went to Johnny Appleseed Junior High School, Mansfield Senior High School. I walked the halls with sons and daughters of autoworkers from GM and machinists of Ohio Brass and electrical workers from Westinghouse and rubber workers from Mansfield Tire and hundreds and hundreds of the sons and daughters of people in the building trades-- laborers and pipe fitters and carpenters and millwrights and painters and one trade after another. Companies like Westinghouse and Tappan Stove all closed down one after another. Go to any town in Ohio and throughout the industrial Midwest and people can name a similar list. We know what happened: Corporations in Ohio shut down production in Mansfield, my hometown, or Lorain, where I was today, or Youngstown or Cincinnati or Toledo, in search of cheaper labor, in search of right- to-work States, and in search of weaker workers' compensation or unemployment benefit laws. They moved to Alabama. They moved to Tennessee. They moved to Arkansas. And then, that wasn't quite good enough. Then those same corporations lobbied Congress for trade agreements and tax treatments. So they then moved on to Mexico, and that labor wasn't quite cheap enough, and they moved on to China. Ohio has paid the price for years in the form of lost jobs and lost opportunities. Now--and I know what the Presiding Officer has seen in the State of Maine. You understand this. The whole country pays the price--higher prices, supply chain delays, losing entire high-tech industries to competitors like China. Look where we've ended up. In Ohio, Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Today, 99 percent of LED bulbs are made in China. America invented the semiconductor. Forty years ago, the U.S. produced half of the world's semiconductors. Today it is 10 percent-- about 75 percent made in East Asia. Look what happened. During the pandemic, companies across Ohio and the rest of the country shut down production lines not because there wasn't demand, they shut down production lines and laid off workers because they couldn't get enough semiconductors. Whether you are Ford in Lima, Whirlpool in Clyde, Kenworth in Chillicothe, OH, or Navistar in Springfield, you need these chips. It is why the Senate must fund the bipartisan CHIPS Act. We agreed to authorize this program. Now it is time to move and to fund it. At the end of January, Senator Portman and I flew to Columbus to join Intel to announce the largest ever domestic investment in semiconductor manufacturing. It will create 10,000 good-paying jobs. Union tradespeople--5,000 union tradespeople--for 10 years will build this facility. Think of the magnitude of that. As we were flying in on the plane, I remember sitting with the Secretary of Commerce and Senator Portman and my friend Don Graves, from Cleveland--the No. 2 guy at Commerce. I looked out, and I said: Today, in Ohio, we are finally burying the term ``Rust Belt.'' It is possible because we are on the verge of passing this historic investment. The EU, China, Taiwan, and South Korea are all for providing incentives to make these chips domestically. None of them-- none of them--require stock warrants as this motion would have us do. That is why I oppose this motion. Other countries are mimicking what we are doing. The EU, if Congress doesn't move quickly on the CHIPS Act, is already trying to attract that business there. In the history of the United States, the only time we have ever required equity warrants from private companies is during times of war or in moments of financial and global crisis. It is not a bailout; it is an incentive. This motion to instruct conferees is well-intentioned, but it won't work. It will make the U.S. program less competitive. It is likely to cause these companies to make these chips overseas where they can get the same incentives without those strings. I understand Senator Sanders' goal. It is a goal I share. I just spoke with the Presiding Officer, and neither of us has a particularly favorable attitude toward what we have seen with stock buybacks and the damage that they have done to our economy and what it has meant in the undermining of companies' investments in their workers and in new product lines. I have had--I don't know--6, 8, 10, 12 calls with the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, asking him--pleading with him--about restricting some of the stock buybacks at some of the largest American banks, especially during the pandemic. As I said, I understand Senator Sanders' goal. We have got to make sure that the jobs that are created are good-paying ones where workers can build careers. That is why, in the CHIPS Act, we require the chips funding go to the construction or to the modernization of U.S. facilities to support American jobs, require chip applicants to make commitments to workers and community investments, and require chips projects be sustainable without additional Federal funding. These are initial Federal investments that generate long-term, well-paying jobs. In both the Senate and House competition bills, we also require chips recipients to pay the prevailing wage to employees or contractors. That is why the United Auto Workers supports this position. They support chip funding. It is why the building trades support chips funding and oppose this Sanders' motion. I can tell you, from experience, if we drive these semiconductor jobs away, the alternative is not a replacement with other similarly high- quality jobs. Ohio has had that promise too often. Drive around Ohio, and you will see the alternative to low-wage, anti-union, big-box stores where workers have little control over their schedules and little power to build a better life. It is also important to remember that this investment isn't just for semiconductors. It will affect smaller supply companies and their supply chains. It will affect all of the downstream industries that rely on these chips for all kinds of productions: appliances, auto, energy deployment. Our clean energy, independent future is going to rely on American-made semiconductor chips. Mr. President, I want to talk on one other motion that will be made in the next 48 hours, on this floor, to the CHIPS Act. We need to make more in this country. We shouldn't be taking other actions that discourage domestic production. I urge my colleagues to oppose a motion to instruct that supports a broad exclusion process for 301 tariffs for goods from China. Those tariffs are in place because of China's unfair trade practices targeting our industrial base and Ohio jobs. The AFL-CIO opposes it. The U.S. Trade Rep's office opposes it, and she was confirmed here in a unanimous vote. The Alliance for American Manufacturing opposes it. They know that any removal of these tariffs needs to be part of a broader, strategic approach to trade policy with China. We can't let China undermine the investments that American manufacturers make in workers and communities here in the United States. If we do this bill right, it will mean we will finally make more in America. We will begin bringing back the supply chains to our country. It will help us bury the term ``Rust Belt'' once and for all. When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That is what the CHIPS Act is about. It is about workers. It is about good-paying jobs. It is about increasing the unionization of workers in this country. It will lift all boats. I yield the floor.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I also rise today to remember and honor the distinguished service of James Jackson. For decades, James devoted his time and talent to helping Congress understand complex international trade and economic policy issues. I am thankful to have been a beneficiary of James hard work. During the 115th Congress' when Senator Crapo and I served as chair and ranking member of the Senate committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee undertook a substantial effort to consider, and ultimately enact, legislation that reformed the process for screening foreign investment in the United States. As Senator Crapo noted, we relied on James' thoughtful analysis and expertise throughout the consideration of that important legislation. James briefed staff. evaluated proposed legislative language. and provided comprehensive. detailed analysis and reports during consideration of the bill. After it became law, the committee continued to rely on James to evaluate the executive branch's implementation of it. I join Senator Crapo in offering my sincere condolences to James' friends and family and his colleagues at CRS. They are in our thoughts during this difficult time.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. BROWN

Mr. BROWN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the Frost nomination, postcloture; further, that all postcloture time on the Frost nomination be considered expired at 11:45 a.m.; that the Senate recess following the cloture vote on the Bhargava nomination, until 2:15 p.m., to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; further, that if cloture is invoked on the Bhargava nomination, all time be considered expired at 2:30 p.m.; finally, that if any nominations are confirmed during Tuesday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.