Marsha Blackburn

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask that we waive the reading.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I have a motion at the desk.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, as I was reading through this reckless spending spree that my Democratic colleagues are in such a rush to get this thing passed so that they can get it signed into law--I was reading it, and I thought, you know, we have been through this exercise before. We have before us a bill that is too expensive to afford. It has been thrown together behind closed doors, in secret, perfectly branded to prey on the struggles, the fears of the American people because after all, fearful people are easier to control. And what do we know? The Democratic Party, they are all about control and they are all about power. Now, I remembered that this isn't the first time in the Schumer Senate that the Democratic colleagues have tried to turn a crisis into an opportunity. A little over a year ago, they pulled the exact same bait-and-switch with a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. Senator Graham talked about this before. It was to bring, oh, so much prosperity. It was to solve all of your problems, help was on the way. But it was a big government blowout in the form of $350 billion in the slush fund for blue cities, a State tax cut ban, a $60 billion tax hike, subsidized government healthcare, and a union pension bailout. Now, it is pretty clear who the Democrats were trying to rescue with that bill. And it was not hard-working American taxpayers. They got the shaft on that. And they know it. And then, of course, we considered the infrastructure package that had almost nothing to do with infrastructure, but it served as a very useful vehicle for a lot of the Green New Deal. Remember, Build Back Better--they couldn't get it across. They had to break it into parts. So you have seen parts of it in different bills. Part of it was in that infrastructure package. To Tennesseans, this was a missed opportunity because they desperately need meaningful improvements to broadband infrastructure and access to high-speed internet connections. It was a missed opportunity for all Americans seeing crime and drugs that are in their communities because of that open border. And it was a missed opportunity for the Keystone XL Pipeline and for support for American energy. Missed opportunities continue to be their thing. Just a few short days ago, we passed a CHIPS and Science bill. Sounds really good and constructive. But over the course of a few years, this ballooned from an emergency investment in semiconductors into an almost $300 billion gateway to industrial planning and, of course, more of the Green New Deal. My Democratic colleagues took an opportunity to unravel our dangerous relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and squandered it on a tee-up to seizing more control over the manufacturing and upstream suppliers we should be empowering. Fast forward to this month, and here we go again, sifting through a package that costs nearly a trillion dollars, yet is somehow still marketed as the Inflation Reduction Act. And I will say to my Democratic colleagues and Senator Schumer and Senator Manchin, the American people are laughing at the name of this bill. They are laughing at this. They know better than this. They can see right through what you have done. They know what is going on. And they know that your priorities do not line up with their priorities and their concerns. In reality, this bill provides no pathway to reduce our current inflation. It will, however, put pressure on the economy, raise taxes on just about everyone, kills jobs, stifles innovation, weaponizes the regulatory state against small businesses and private enterprise. Now, all these things have the potential to devastate the economy and make life harder for hard-working taxpayers. I want to focus on how Joe Biden and the Democrats are using regulators to overrule the will of the people and to seize more control over the country because this tactic has truly been a favorite of the Democrats. They expand the regulatory state. They issue mandates. They institute lockdowns. And, there is that word again: ``control.'' They are after the control. If you need an example, look no further than the dozens of newly arrived rules and regulations that they have used to gut American energy. Radical climate activists in the environmental lobby won big when those went into effect. But everyone else lost. If you were an energy consumer, a truckdriver, someone who was traveling, and workers who had their jobs just regulated out of existence, that is what the Democrats did for you. Here is another. In April, the Biden Border Patrol announced that they were holding up construction on the border wall so that they could do an environmental assessment. Now, if you recall, this is one regulatory barrier that President Trump eliminated when he took office because he understood the danger posed by our lack of border security. He was listening to the American people and the Border Patrol and people that lived there. He knew what was happening. Well, under President Biden, the open borders advocates won. But the ranchers, the border communities, small-town law enforcement--they lost. The Biden administration loves to use the regulatory hammer so that they can pick winners and losers that they want. They will punish you. They will punish you. It is what they are doing with the bill that we are considering tonight in the middle of the night, on the weekend, when people are at the lake, when people are out with their children, having fun, enjoying the summer. Here we are. It is so interesting that they have married the strategy they used last March by catering to--you guessed it--blue States, unions, and climate justice warriors. Here is just one example of one of the regulatory schemes contained in the bill that will benefit the usual Democratic allies but wreak havoc on everyone else. Right now, manufacturers that burn fossil fuels can earn a $35 tax credit for every ton of carbon dioxide they capture and store. The bill cuts that tax credit down to $17. But there is a catch. A business can earn an $85 tax credit if they comply with labor standards that are laid out in the bill. This, of course, means that in order to survive, manufacturers and fossil fuel companies will be mandated to use union labor. Nuclear power plants will have a similar hit. If this legislation passes, they will earn $12 more per ton in tax credits if they go to the unions instead of letting the free market determine who they hire. Now, the problem here doesn't only have to do with unions versus right-to-work policies. The problem is that the base tax credit reductions in this bill were designed to kill companies that don't want to play along with the left's green crusade and funnel money to Chuck Schumer's political allies. Hear me out. If, for example, you are running a utility in a right- to-work State and you want to keep taking advantage of tax credits, you are going to be in a very tight spot. When this bill becomes law, you will be stripped of your practical ability to hire right-to-work employees and mandated to use union labor instead. The kowtowing to union demands is also part of a pattern. Just a few days ago, my Democratic colleagues killed my amendment to the PACT Act that would have given toxic-exposed veterans expedited access to community care. Now, why did they do that? To protect union employees in VA facilities, of course. We can't take a step like that; it might privatize VA, they seem to think. Now, instead of the healthcare that they deserve, these veterans are left with nothing but false hope--access to the queue but no access to the care. Over and over again, it never stops here in the Schumer Senate. The Democrats say one thing; they turn around and do another thing. The bill also increases renewable tax credits but only for projects located in the so-called environmental justice communities, wherever they are. That is a very creative way for my Democratic colleagues to tell us they are using this increase to funnel money to the cities and States they deem worthy of support. The measure is simple: You comply or you go bankrupt. Then, again, you might go bankrupt if you do comply. Doing so will increase project costs and labor costs, which will, in turn, increase costs on everything. Everyone loses except the Democrats and their political allies. Joe Biden and the Democrats have become famous for saying one thing and doing another. They promise inflation reduction, then raise manufacturing costs. They promise economic relief but then raise your utility costs and your grocery bills. They assure the American people, time and again, that Big Government can solve your problems, and then they use Big Government to absolutely beat the living stew out of private enterprise. My Democratic colleagues have touted this latest disastrous version of their ``Build Back Broke'' agenda as progressive. And I do hope the American people are figuring out what ``progressive'' means: tax increases, massive transfers of wealth, ideological conformity backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. If you want to be broke and grovel to the government, this bill is for you. These hundreds of billions of dollars will serve a purpose but not to reduce inflation or bring relief. Blue States, unions, radical activists will once again come out on top. Meanwhile, families working hard to make ends meet, workers, business owners, local leaders are still on the verge of losing everything. I think my Democratic colleagues know this, but they have decided that the pain and the suffering is worth it. After all, they continue to tell us we need to be transitioning. We need to be transitioning. I don't think people like what they are going to have to transition to. When I am home in Tennessee, they certainly don't like it. I will be back Monday doing meetings across the State, and I will have to tell them that, once again, the Democrats have taken advantage of their desperation and their exhaustion with what is going on. And, once again, the Democrats have sold them a bill of goods that ignores our current crisis, prioritizes the pet projects the Democrats have, and the American people are once again getting the shaft. I will tell them that, for the Democrats, this isn't about service; it is about control. It is about power. And to Tennesseans, this is all frightening. They think that this is a reckless, manipulative, dangerous abuse of power. There is very little, if anything at all, that is pro ``we the people'' in this bill. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, this is the amendment that will allow our veterans to immediately move into community care. Our veterans need to be able to have access to the care, not just access to the queue. The VA will have a problem getting this implemented because the current wait time to see a primary care doctor is 100 days. So let's not make them wait. Let's give them access to community care so that they have the care they have earned and they deserve.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, late tonight, the Senate will vote on my amendment No. 5185 to the PACT Act, and as my colleague from New York was just saying, it is time that we deal with the issues of toxic exposure. As a member of the VA Committee, this is something I have worked on for the last few years. Tennessee has a large population of veterans, and we have talked a good bit about this issue and how they receive their care. One of the concerns that we had discussed in committee, in our hearings--we have discussed it with our VSOs, and we have discussed this issue as we have talked with veterans who have come to us and to our meetings--is their frustration with having access to the queue but not getting access to the care. I think we have to look at this and say: Those are very different. Now, I join our veterans in being frustrated with the fact that there is access to the queue to get on that wait list but not getting that care. So the amendment I am offering is not political. It is not controversial. It is a simple but much needed improvement to the PACT Act that will allow toxic-exposed veterans to gain access to community care to ensure they have a speedy process to care. The amendment is critical to the success of this program, and we all want the program to be successful, but what we know is that the VA is not capable of implementing the PACT Act as it is written. They have neither the infrastructure nor the personnel to do that. What we have learned is that the VA cannot deliver what is promised because it does not have the capacity to handle the increased cases. Secretary McDonough said as much in testimony submitted to the VA Committee in March of this year. Right now, the claims backlog at the VA sits at 168,000 cases. The PACT Act as written will increase that backlog by more than 1 million cases. Right now in Tennessee, this is the practical effect of this in Tennessee: Veterans who come to me are telling me they are waiting about 100 days for a primary care appointment at the VA. For many of our veterans, that is just step 1--getting that primary care appointment so they get on the list. So after they call, they are waiting 100 days to get that first appointment, and then they get a referral to someone else, a specialist. Now, for our veterans in Tennessee, once they get that referral, it is 39 days to get to mental health care, 44 days to get to a dental appointment, 33 days if they are trying to see a cardiologist, 28 days to see a gynecologist, and 30 days to get to someone who can help them with pain. That is the amount of wait. To me, that is unacceptable, completely unacceptable. My colleagues on both sides of the aisle know that many, if not most, of these veterans who have toxic exposure are deteriorating rapidly. They do not have time to wait while the VA decides how they are going to implement this. They deserve access to care as quickly as they can possibly get it. We are so close to getting these veterans the care they deserve, but if the PACT Act is going to work for veterans, we need to step up and give them access to community care. My amendment will open up that access. It will make that an option so they don't have to struggle through waiting in the queue. They can go to a physician in their community for that primary care appointment so that they can get this process started. This will help them to avoid the long wait times and the arbitrary hurdles, and it will let them seek that care in the community if they can get it faster than making that trip to the VA. As I said, this is not controversial. There is no political scandal on it. It is a simple fix that will ensure that this promise that we are going to make in the PACT Act will be made to every single veteran who has experienced toxic exposure so that we are certain that the PACT Act does not end up as a false promise or a false hope. These veterans have given so much. They have served honorably. It is imperative that we provide them not access to the queue but access to the care they have earned. Thank you. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the amendment when it comes up for a vote later this evening. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask the reading be dispensed with.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I move to concur in the House amendment to accompany S. 3373 with amendment No. 5185.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, Joe Biden and the Democrats have ushered us into what will be remembered as one of the most cynical and dangerous periods in our Nation's history. For 18 months, they have wreaked havoc on the economy, welcomed drugs and crime into their own backyards, and enabled the rise of the new axis of evil, which is my term for Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Last week was really a particularly bad week for the Biden-Harris administration, but it was even worse for the people watching it play out, sitting at home in their communities. Inflation hit a 41-year high, consumer confidence hit a historic low, and we confirmed that the American economy is indeed in a recession. But rather than taking responsibility, my Democratic friends decided they would go on an all-out campaign and redefine the word ``recession,'' and they insisted that the economic ruin that they have rained down on us all is in our imaginations. The economy is in great shape, they say. It is better than ever, they say. But Tennesseans sitting at their kitchen table, trying to figure out how to make ends meet, they know different. If ever there were a time to listen to what the American people are telling each and every one of us, it is now. Yet here we are facing now what is possibly the Democratic Party's most cynical and dangerous move to date: a trillion-plus--a trillion-plus-dollar spending spree. It is full of tax increases and policies so unpopular that its negotiators had to hide its existence from our own colleagues. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have dubbed this secret plan--I guess is what it was--they have dubbed it the Inflation Reduction Act, which immediately brings to mind one simple question: How out of step can you possibly be with where the American people are? You are so out of step. And do you truly think that the American people are so stupid that they think raising taxes is going to bring a reduction in inflation? If the situation weren't so dire for people back in Tennessee, I would assume this was some sort of joke, but it is not. The American people are drowning, and Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin have thrown them a cinder block instead of a life preserver. People cannot believe this. They absolutely cannot believe this. This bill represents the worst elements of a radical socialist agenda that Americans have already rejected: a multihundred-billion-dollar tax hike that will kill tens of thousands of jobs, sabotage energy producers, and make it even more expensive to heat homes and fill gas tanks; a multihundred-billion-dollar payday for climate activists and the environmental lobby; innovation-killing price controls on prescription drugs; and tax breaks, but only for the wealthiest Americans. Nothing in this bill will make life easier. Nothing in this bill will lower gas prices or reduce inflation. But it is exactly what Tennesseans were afraid would happen if Joe Biden and the Democrats took control of the Federal Government. This week, every Member of this body has a choice to make: Will you stand with the American people, or will you make their life harder every day because of more spending, more tax increases, and more Green New Deal? Will you ease their pain, or will you make their pain worse by supporting this bloated, foolish spending spree? I hope that my colleagues will come to their senses because this is a breaking point between Congress and the American people. I cannot tell you how many times I heard that very statement this weekend from Tennesseans. They cannot even believe another trillion dollars in spending--another trillion. Money does not grow on trees. If you, as an individual who has a vote on this bill, if you choose to support this bill and tax and spend this country into oblivion, that is a road that you are going to have to go down alone because the American people cannot afford to go down this road with you.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Now, the reason I have paid so much attention to this backlog is because every single week the team that works with me in Tennessee handling these issues with our VSOs--our veterans service officers--keeps track of what we hear from the veterans. Right now in Tennessee, I have veterans telling me they are waiting almost 100 days for a primary care appointment at the VA. Now, for many vets, this is just step 1. So once they contact the VA, it is 100 days. Think about that: 100 days before they get that primary care appointment, and that is if the appointment doesn't get canceled or it has to be rescheduled. So that is an average to get to step 1--first step. Across Tennessee, veterans are waiting yet another 39 days to get mental healthcare. Now, if they are needing dental appointments, dental surgery, or dental care, that is 44 days. If they go for that primary care appointment and they need to go see a cardiologist, that is 33 days; 28 days to see a gynecologist; 30 days to go talk to someone about chronic pain. Look at what is happening. The VA cannot meet the load in front of them. Our veterans--our veterans who have defended our Nation's freedom--cannot get the care they need in a timely manner. Now, we have done a lot of work over the years to help the VA help itself. We have given them support for hiring. We have given them support for retention. But, Madam President, it takes 90 days for this Agency, the VA, to hire one person--90 days. And think of the number of caseworkers they would have to hire to implement this. Throwing money at the problem isn't going to make these wait times and backlogs disappear. It is imperative that we fix the PACT Act so it is not a false promise, so it is not false hope. If the PACT Act is going to work for our veterans, then the VA needs to embrace community care. I proposed an amendment to the bill that would have eliminated arbitrary bureaucratic hurdles for toxic-exposed veterans who will inevitably face these long wait times. It would allow them to seek care in the community right there where they live if they could get it faster than they could from the VA. I offered this amendment based on my conversations with Tennessee veterans who are chronically ill but cannot get in to the VA to see a doctor and get that primary care appointment so they can move on to specialty care. Many of them are deteriorating at an alarming rate, and they deserve access to care as soon as they can get it. The only way that access to care for them is going to happen is if we allow them community care. They have fought for this country. They deserve to have access to that care, but right now, they cannot get it. Madam President, I know you more than most understand how imperative it is for veterans to have access to the care they need, that this government make good on its promise to our veterans, that we stop these long wait times, that we stop the delays, and that we allow them that access that they have earned and that they deserve. There is a way to fix this bill. I know there are some who say: Well, we are afraid this will privatize the VA. That is their fear, and I understand that. But at some point, veterans want us to take that action to put them first--not the bureaucracy first, put the veterans first--allow the veterans to make that choice if they cannot get to the VA in a timely manner. If the VA can't get them in for an appointment, let's open this up and let the veterans out into community care so their needs can be met in a timely manner. A promise in a piece of legislation ought not to end up as a false hope when it comes to our Nation's veterans. The best way we can fulfill our promise to toxic-exposed veterans is to give this bill the time it needs for an amendment that will allow our veterans to access the care they need without having to wait on the VA to figure out how to implement this bill. Surely, surely, we can do this. Let's have a vote on these amendments and fix this bill before it is signed into law. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, on rollcall vote No. 273, I voted no. It had been my intention to vote yea. Therefore, I ask unanimous consent to change the vote since it will not affect the outcome.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, my colleague from Texas was just talking about how taxes go up and spending seems to increase. This week, we have had before us a bill that was going to be about 30 billion and then 52 billion and then 72 billion. Now it comes out, and it is almost $300 billion. This is a piece of legislation that has had a variety of different names, and I have found it so interesting that it has had so many different names. Let's see. It has been called CHIPS, CHIPS+, CHIPS and Science, USICA, Endless Frontier, and ``China COMPETES.'' You know, it seems as if there was a name that was given whenever there was an occasion that you thought you could rename something and make it fit, and I know DC is just famous for having these bills with the acronyms and the fancy-sounding names. But when I talk to Tennesseans, it is so apparent they are tired of that. What they want are the facts. They want someone who is going to tell them the truth. What they know is that China is an adversary; they are not a competitor. They know that we have to work diligently to stay competitive with China and not let them get the upper hand. But when we talk about these issues, sometimes we lose sight of that big picture. I do feel that as we talked about the CHIPS bill and semiconductor supply chains, this is something we lost sight of. You know, there are some of us who have worked on the issues of dealing with China going back into the early years of this century, looking at IP theft, looking at reverse engineering, looking at the way the Chinese Communist Party would dip in and grab up great ideas from American innovators and then off to the races they would go. We have a lot of companies that learned a lot of tough lessons trying to manufacture in China. And then we come up near the pandemic. When I was over in the House and before that period of time, we had an issue and realized that our active pharmaceutical manufacturing was where? In China. We couldn't get penicillin. Why was that? It was because there was one factory in China that made that, and the factory had an explosion. So we had a shortage on that. Then we had an issue with Heparin, and we had some deaths that were caused by a tainted product that was coming out of a factory there. So Senator Menendez and I had a piece of legislation that would have incentivized returning active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing to the United States. Then we got into the issues of the pandemic, and then everyone was saying: Critical supply chains--we need to bring them back. Indeed, that is something that is important to do. Chips are an important part of that. Our laptops, our electronics, our automobiles all need chips, and there was a shortage. People began to realize that our military aircraft, our radar systems, our major defense systems all needed the chips. But, likewise, we needed active pharmaceutical ingredients. We needed our telecommunications supply chains. We needed polysilicon. We needed ag chemicals. All of these are critical supply chains. Personally, I was optimistic about the possibility that we were finally going to begin to unravel this relationship we have had with the Chinese Communist Party. I see it as a dangerous relationship. But, like many pieces of well-intentioned legislation, it became a victim of some of the same compulsion to squeeze money from the American taxpayer and put it into a very narrow silo. So after more than 2 years of working on these issues and multiple failed iterations, what we have is a bill that spends about $300 billion and is a gateway to industrial planning. I know that many of my colleagues have read some of the postmortems on this, and people realize this wasn't about chips. It wasn't 72 billion. There was authorization language in there that was going to balloon this. There was beefing up of the National Science Foundation, and we have National Labs that do a lot of that work. There were protections for U.S. manufacturing, some anti-China provisions, security provisions, that, guess what, poof in the night, a line drawn through them. They are out. Wasn't that to be the purpose of this legislation? Of course it was. Let's bring the manufacturing back to the United States. And that is what we should have done. We should have looked at ways that we could bring manufacturing back across the range of critical supply chains. We all know that China's control over our active pharmaceutical ingredients and other pharmaceutical products--that is a problem. Control over our telecom equipment--yes, that is a problem. Huawei equipment that we are having to rip out and replace in this country; telecom equipment that is part of our critical supply chain; control over our supplies of minerals and chemicals--for the Chinese Communist Party to control that, that is a problem. So many who worked on this have spent 2 years looking at and working on supply chains and competition, and now what they have is legislation that invests billions of dollars in one industry, one industrial sector, and promises hundreds of billions of dollars more to the NSF that will duplicate many of those efforts that are already in progress at our National Labs and other DOE facilities. So we are 2 years and $280 billion into this, and about $80 billion of that goes into one industry. Honestly, it does not add up. We could have spent that time and a lot less money so much more wisely. We could have used tax credits to incentivize multiple industries to come home, to set up shop in business-friendly States like Tennessee and create thousands of jobs for American workers. This is what you call a missed opportunity. And, unfortunately, the new axis of evil--they are watching, and I think they like what they see. I think they like it. I think they like it when we don't appear to be focused, when we don't appear to take the steps to challenge them across the board. We are running out of time to truly unravel ourselves from the influence of the Chinese Communist Party. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns in my office be granted floor privileges until July 28, 2022: Alex Vogel and Katelyn Wall.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I appreciate so much the comments of my colleague. I think this shows you that whether you are talking about Wyoming and the people who are there or Tennessee, my State, the economy is one of the top issues people are discussing. Joe Biden addressed the Nation just over a year ago, and he had all of these bold claims about how he expected the economy to respond to his what I thought were reckless taxing-and-spending sprees. He made this statement, and I am going to quote him because he was trying to make the point that inflation was transitory, that it was going to be temporary. Here is what he said: I want to be clear: my administration understands that were we ever to experience unchecked inflation in the long term, that would pose a real challenge for our economy. While we're confident that isn't what we're seeing today, we're going to remain vigilant about any response that is needed. Well, let's fast-forward a year from that very bold, brash statement, and we know that it was a falsehood that was meant to distract ``we the people'' while the President and the Democrats worked overtime to make things worse. Now, this week, economists expect to confirm what we have known for a long time and, as Senator Barrasso was saying, what people are feeling in their personal economy--that the U.S. economy isn't just struggling, it is shrinking. Buying power for households is shrinking. Options and choices are shrinking. If the numbers say what we think they will, we will see the second consecutive month of a shrinking GDP and another month of runaway inflation. Just a few hours ago, we learned that consumer confidence dropped again this month. Expectations are down again. These are the warning signs of a recession. The White House doesn't want us to say it. The pundits don't want to say it. But that is the reality that Joe Biden has created. Do you know who is saying it? Thousands of Tennesseans because they are living it every day. Now, I would suggest to my colleagues that if they find themselves questioning this reality, they should get out of the city and spend some time talking to people who live in their State--people who don't exist in the political bubble, the people who are having to make a choice between filling up the gas tank and filling up the grocery cart. Go talk to the farmers and the truckdrivers and the small business owners, and listen to them when they tell you how very difficult life is right now. Talk to the moms and the grandmoms in those smalltown grocery stores and listen to them when they tell you how hard it is to keep their household running. One of the many reasons this is so frustrating for Tennesseans is that under President Trump, economic success was pretty much a given. The country was recovering from the pandemic. We had a plan to repair our supply chains. The American people were starting to have hope that the dystopian nightmare they had been living through was finally over. But it is clear to them that if we ever find any sort of success under President Biden, it is going to come as a pleasant surprise because right now they are not seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Every week, it is harder, whether you are trying to find baby formula or you are trying to find basic staples or you are trying to make some of those pre-back-to-school purchases for your children. I talk to people every day. They worry about what is coming next because they cannot believe how fast the change has come about under the Biden administration. One of the things they mention is that Joe Biden and the Democrats have eliminated predictability and replaced it with certainty that whatever this administration comes up with next is going to be something that makes their lives worse. When I go home and I talk to my friends at church or at the store, people ask me: Why is this administration doing this? How could they possibly be making such terrible decisions? The answer is really quite simple. They don't believe that the purpose of the Federal Government is to serve ``we the people''; they believe its purpose is to control our lives from the moment we get up in the morning until we put our head on the pillow at night, 24/7, 365. They have a long history of using their power to incentivize dependency on the government, but this administration has taken it even further. What they perceive is happening is that they are being punished-- punishing families, small businesses, and local governments that speak out by forcing them to pay for a socialist agenda that picks winners and losers. And who loses? Families. Small businesses. Local governments. They lose every single time. At every stop so far on my 95-county tour, county mayors and other local leaders have described to me how this agenda has made planning for the future virtually impossible. Those are their words, not mine: It is impossible. A few years ago, they were focused on improving their communities, and now they are just praying that they will be able to keep providing basic services. Fuel is too expensive. Construction supplies are too expensive. And if they are available, utilities are breaking the budget. In McNairy County, a 3-year supply chain delay on a new firetruck has frozen the flow of much needed grant funding. Local leaders were counting on that money to finish a few projects, get more first responders on the road, and lower the cost of living for the 30,000 people they are responsible for, but now they are stuck. It is the same story for hundreds of small businesses and farms all across the State. We have farmers who decided not to put their crops in the ground this year because the cost of diesel, fertilizer, chemicals, and pesticides is just too high. Now think about that. The people responsible for maintaining our food supply are no longer able to supply food because this administration had other priorities. Retailers and other small business owners aren't faring any better. Because things are more expensive for them, they are more expensive for each and every one of us. More and more often, Tennessee families are finding too much month left at the end of their paycheck rather than paycheck that is left at the end of the month. This has led to some hard choices, not just about the little luxuries they once enjoyed but about the essentials. Will they cook a balanced meal or will they pay the electric bill? Will they put gas in the car or do they need to send that money to school for their kids' lunch? No one should have to make these choices, but this is the reality for millions of families. But President Biden and the Democrats aren't worried about that. It doesn't appear they have ever been. Once they took control of the Federal Government, they immediately started spending money on things that sounded great to their base but that the American people did not vote for and still simply do not want. They knew this would sabotage our economic recovery, it would drive inflation, but still they found plenty of money to start chipping away at their wish list. They couldn't bring themselves to let America stay energy independent, so they canceled the Keystone Pipeline, and they sent the regulatory state after domestic energy producers. Indeed, 42 of the 69 regulations that this President has put in place have been focused on the energy sector. Time and time again, President Biden and the Democrats have made it clear that their priorities do not align with the wants and needs of this country. They gave a green light to the Green New Deal, to critical race theory in public schools, to an open border, and to force decimating vaccine mandates on the National Guard and the Reserves. Meanwhile, the American economy has stopped dead in its tracks. This has to end. We are not just losing money; we are running out of time. The American people are beginning to feel this administration has abandoned them, that they are being punished. But they also want you to know that in spite of all that, they are not ready to submit to this agenda. They are concerned about their families and their communities. It is time to move away from this reckless, destructive agenda and choose the American people. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns from my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Isabella Andrews-Zachry and Eliza Roddy.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, America is facing a perfect storm of inflation, unsustainable energy costs, and supply chain chaos. Russia and Iran are circling the wagons. Joe Biden is still finding new ways to put the American people last. In fact, when it comes to getting gas prices under control, he has chosen to unleash a China-first policy rather than unleashing the power of American energy. I have spent the past 18 months laying out in great detail how Joe Biden and the Democrats have damaged our credibility and enriched our adversaries. They undermined our economic recovery. They abandoned the border. They destroyed American energy independence. The list goes on and on, unfortunately. It appears that everything they have done makes life worse for ``we the people.'' Unfortunately, it is emboldening the axis of evil--Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. Under normal circumstances, Vladimir Putin's trip to Iran this week would be a cause for concern, but with the Biden administration in charge, it appears it could be just the tip of the iceberg because although Russia and Iran are competitors, especially in the energy sector, they are absolutely united in their hatred of the United States and in their desire to undermine Western interests. When they look at the United States, they see a country whose President got a head start undermining those interests on day 1 of his administration, and you better believe they are ready to take advantage of this. They are ready for it. This week, look at what they have done. You had Gazprom, which is the Russian energy giant, and the National Iranian Oil Company come together and announce a $40 billion agreement to work together on oil and gas development and pipeline construction. They are reading the writing on the wall, and what they see is hesitation from the U.S. President to move us back to energy independence, where we were on day 1 of his administration, so they are making plans as to how they will work together and dominate the energy sector. Meanwhile, Joe Biden has also sold about a million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the Chinese Communist Party. When I have spoken with Tennesseans about this, they are furious. They cannot understand why he would make a choice to do this. The left has done their best to provide cover for the President, claiming that a million barrels is really nothing to worry about, but you know it is something to worry about. Our SPR has about 750 million barrels in it. We are drawing it down at about a million barrels a day. Plus, the President is now selling to our adversaries--selling it. We did a little bit of research into what China can get out of a barrel of oil, and here is what we found: That gives you 20 gallons of gasoline; 12\1/2\ gallons of distillate, which is what we use for diesel fuel; and about 3\1/2\ gallons of jet fuel. To Tennesseans, this makes a big difference. I really agree with my fellow Tennesseans about this. When they look at this picture and they think about the President's big sale to Hunter Biden's friends in Beijing, they don't see a gallon of gas here and there. What they see is 20 million full tanks of gas. They see diesel fuel that our farmers need. Right now, with the price of diesel doubling, we have farmers in Tennessee who cannot get crops planted. They chose not to plant crops because of the cost of diesel, fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides. They see sabotage of their hopes and their dreams and their plans--their plans--for their family, for their business, for their farm. As I have been out and about around the State and talked to Tennesseans, they have a message for this President, this administration, my Democratic colleagues. This is more than just a political disagreement. In their minds, and I agree, this is a national security risk--a national security risk. We are making ourselves vulnerable. Giving any aid or advantage to our adversaries is wrong, and this has got to end. Joe Biden and the Democrats must abandon this China-first energy policy and return to an America-first policy. Restart the Keystone Pipeline. Approve more energy infrastructure. Hold more lease sales. Approve drilling permits that are waiting for approval. Let's get the regulators out of the way. Stall some of these 42 regulations that the President has put on the oil and energy sector this year. Let's do this. Let's advantage ourselves with American energy before it is too late. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, in its mission statement, the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center in Chattanooga, TN, highlights the values of patriotism, citizenship, courage, integrity, sacrifice, and commitment as central to the character of every Medal of Honor recipient. When put into action, these values culminate in uncommon acts of heroism. Today, I have the privilege of recognizing two heroes whose valor on the battlefield earned them the Medal of Honor and the admiration of their countrymen: Charles H. Coolidge of Tennessee and Hershel W. ``Woody'' Williams of West Virginia. We lost Charles last year and Woody just a few weeks ago, but their legacies remain a celebration of the sacrifice, resilience, and service of the 16 million men and women who served in the Armed Forces during World War II and saved the world from the horrors of authoritarianism. The Senate came together and rallied around one final tribute to the era's Medal of Honor recipients, and on July 14, Woody Williams became just the seventh American to lay in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. It was a lovely, fitting way to show our gratitude not only to Woody, but to all the World War II Medal of Honor recipients we lost before him. I can think of no better way to keep this spirit of camaraderie alive than to put their legacies to work on behalf of younger generations who are just beginning to understand that the preservation of freedom for all humanity will require much more than bold words. Liberty is not an act of sheer will, but a reflection within a people of the same values that prompted Charles and Woody to put themselves between their brothers in arms and enemy troops. On behalf of all Tennesseans, I thank these brave men for their commitment to the common cause of freedom and pray that all our Nation's leaders will endeavor to follow in their footsteps.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, when we look back at the many failures of the Biden administration, what I believe is going to stand out is really their commitment to doing things that sound good to other Washington Democrats but really are not serving we the people well. In fact, after spending another weekend working with local leaders back in Tennessee, I will take it one step further and say that all Joe Biden and the Democrats have managed to do is find new ways to frighten we, the people. Yes, indeed, they are afraid of what this administration is going to do next because everything the White House has done over the past 18 months seems to make their lives worse each and every day. And the thing that is so interesting, as I talk to Tennesseans, this is something where there is bipartisan agreement, whether it is crime in the streets or the drug situation--much of that caused by this open border that is out of control--inflation, the price at the pump, the price at the grocery store. It is quite a stunning record on how to make the lives of the American people worse. Joe Biden and the Democrats have spent us into 9.1 percent inflation, and now, they want to tax us into a recession. The latest scheme is terrifying. Democrats are proposing a trillion dollars in new tax increases. This includes a crippling new tax on small businesses as well as a tax increase on low- and middle-income Americans, which, if you recall, is something that President Biden said he would never do. The Democrats are prepared to push the economy off a cliff on behalf of a radical and radically unpopular agenda that the American people have repeatedly said they did not vote for and they do not want. According to recent polling by the New York Times, 77 percent of Americans believe that the country is heading in the wrong direction, and only 33 percent of Americans approve of the way Joe Biden is doing his job. If that is not an indictment of this latest inflationary spending spree, I do not know what is. The American people understand that one man and one party are in full control of the Federal Government and that Joe Biden and the Democrats are responsible for the uncertainty and fear that is now driving their decisions. Thank God Tennessee has strong, smart local and State leaders who take their jobs seriously, who work hard every day to represent the people of our great State. I am about to wrap up my annual 95-county tour, and I can tell you that none of the county mayors and city managers that I have spoken to are worried about methane or proper pronoun usage. They just want to know what we plan to do about inflation, energy costs, supply chains, crime, drugs, and the open border. Jackson Mayor Scott Conger recently described for me the nightmare that is planning for the future of a midsize city in Joe Biden's America. Healthcare costs for police and firefighters are up half a million dollars. Between public works and public safety, fuel costs alone are projected to beat last year's total by $450,000. And utility and sanitation costs are already 10 percent over budget. Now, Jackson and other cities in Tennessee don't operate like Washington. They are very conservative with how they spend the taxpayers' money, and they budget for the worst-case scenario. But even when they do have money to spend, Joe Biden's supply chain crisis gets in the way. In Jackson, delays on new orders of police cars, trucks, construction supplies have put growth on hold. They even have had to delay and scale back plans for a new homeless shelter. City officials in Dayton told me that the cost of a foot of pipe has gone up $10 in a year, from $4 to $14 a foot. I would ask my Democratic colleagues how they expect local government to handle a 200-percent increase in something as basic as pipe. We know that is a trick question because there is no planning for instances like that. Covington Mayor Justin Hanson also had a message he wanted me to pass on for the record. Here is what he said: The rising cost of goods and services is really hitting municipal pocketbooks, especially at the gas pump. The rapid inflation combined with supply chain issues are really hurting cities like Covington. Parts, chemicals, fleet vehicles . . . the list goes on. Some items ordered over a year ago still aren't in our inventory. But I think the most shocking example of how localities have suffered under these reckless policies is happening right now in McNairy County. Now, McNairy County is a rural county, and it has fewer than 30,000 people. But the county still had to pad their budget by $700,000 to cover fuel for the sheriff and other county-owned vehicles. That is almost a million dollars just to keep the police on patrol and the potholes filled. We used to have such bright prospects. When Joe Biden and the Democrats took power, the economy was recovering. We were energy independent. And there was a plan to protect our supply chains. Now, instead of planning for the future, local leaders are working overtime just to keep their budgets from imploding. Just a few short years ago, these same Tennessee leaders were focused on innovation and growth. Now, they are focused on survival. They know that the only way we will pull this country back on track is to halt inflationary spending, prioritize supply chains, and ramp up an Operation Warp Speed for energy independence. But Joe Biden has taken us backwards. So, yes, the people are fearful of what this administration will do next. But they continue to say they will not be frightened into submission. I would urge my Democratic colleagues to remember that. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, it is my honor to congratulate Coach Lamar Rogers of Clarkrange, TN, on winning the Fred Russell Lifetime Achievement Award and joining the distinguished ranks of the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame. Over the course of his long career, he has enriched the lives of young female athletes by helping them reach their highest potential. For 46 years, Coach Rogers has served as the architect of one of the most impressive and well-respected girls basketball programs in the Volunteer State, boasting a 1,289-290 record and eight Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association State championships. He is also revered--and feared--as the winningest high school girls basketball coach in Tennessee. But more importantly, he is a mentor, a friend, and an inspiration to the next generation of athletes and educators, and I consider it my privilege to recognize him for his leadership. Congratulations, Coach.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, it is so interesting being home for July 4 and talking with Tennesseans, and it sounds like Senator Ernst heard some of the same things from her constituents there in Iowa. But what came up a lot in our conversations was the feeling and the awareness that the Democrats and the media have spent the last few months trying to convince the American people that oil companies are to blame for Biden's energy crisis. At one point, they even tried to blame the people running the local gas stations, all the moms and pops, but Tennesseans know whose fault it is. Tennesseans are smart. They are watching very closely. And they know that President Biden became responsible for their pain the moment he chose a radical, environmental agenda over the fully realized vision of American energy independence. That is right, we were energy independent the day he took office. So President Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline. He canceled leases and energy infrastructure, and he got behind dozens of regulations that have made it almost impossible for American energy producers to do their job. At the time, Democrats claimed this was all for the greater good. It is temporary. It is transitioning to the liberal world order. But I think any reasonable person would agree that what has happened is things have gotten worse--terribly worse. If you don't want to take my word for it, talk to the local leaders who are responsible for keeping the lights on in their communities. City budgets are stretched thin. School budgets aren't doing any better. Parents want to know if the buses will keep running and what will happen in August if the schools can't afford to turn the air- conditioning on. Everyone wants to know what will happen to public transportation, to emergency services, and to law enforcement if the price of a gallon of gas gets too expensive. They have no idea how far the Biden administration will allow this to go, and that is what concerns them the most. Joe Biden hasn't just failed ``we the people,'' he has sabotaged the pocketbooks of millions of Americans and given our adversaries a huge advantage. The Democrats gambled on the Green New Deal. It is evident they lost. Their gas holiday was a gimmick, and that failed. Energy prices are through the roof, but they still pulled a million barrels of oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and they sent it to communist China. Now the President of the United States has gone hat in hand to Saudi Arabia so that he can beg for oil. He is even trying to cozy up to the Iranians with a new Iran nuclear deal, begging for oil. Our hard-fought energy independence is gone, along with our Nation's credibility on this issue. The world is watching Joe Biden. They are watching the Biden blackouts that are really taking a toll on American energy and American consumers, and you and I both know that all the wrong people are seeing this as an opportunity to profit. If the Biden administration continues to squander our country's resources, we will lose even more ground to the axis of evil. Russia still has a stranglehold on European energy. American supply chains are still hopelessly entangled with China. Iran is ready to steamroll Biden for that new nuclear deal. North Korea is deploying hackers to the West at an alarming rate. I don't think a Civilian Climate Corps has a chance in this match-up. I would admonish the President to remember that the new axis of evil is playing by a different set of rules. Their only goal is to find our vulnerabilities and exploit them to try to take us down. I would remind my Democratic colleagues that Biden's energy crisis is a vulnerability, and it is your duty to help lead the country out of it. Don't be complicit. Restart the Keystone Pipeline, open up those leases on Federal lands, get the regulators out of the way, and unleash American energy before it is too late. I yield the floor.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, each year, the Ellis Island Honors Society recognizes individuals who have proved their commitment to our Nation through outstanding achievement in industry, education, entertainment, and the arts. Today, I have the honor of congratulating my friend and fellow Tennessean Igor Babailov, one of this year's recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Igor has earned a very special place in American culture through his work in philanthropy and the arts. A celebrated portraitist, he has immortalized on canvas Presidents, dignitaries, royalty, and even three Popes, and earned the trust of the world's most important curators. His philanthropic endeavors have changed the lives of veterans and helped children realize their full potential. On behalf of the State of Tennessee, I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Igor and thank him for using his talents to make America a more diverse, innovative, and beautiful place to call home.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following interns in my office be granted floor privileges for the remainder of the Congress: Elizabeth McAlindon, Jordan Rupli, Steven Szucs, Alexis Vance, Mark Fraenkel and Boaz Campbell.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, for over a year, officials in the Biden administration have operated under the assumption that if they keep repeating their far-left propaganda, they will be able to trick the American people into believing that everything is OK. Don't believe what you see. Don't believe what you are reading. Don't believe what you are hearing from friends and neighbors. Just believe us. Everything is fine. Prices aren't high. Crime is not high. The border is not open. Everything is just fine. The problem is, Tennesseeans know better than to believe this. They have figured it out. They know the economy is not in a good place. They know high gas prices are not Putin's fault. They know that spikes in crime and drug overdoses--this is not normal. But most importantly, they know that standing aside and letting the country fall apart is not what a normal Presidential administration does; it is far from it. The White House has worked overtime trying to convince the American people that reports of the chaos along our southern border are exaggerated. This is one of the most dangerous falsehoods the Biden administration has tried to sell, and here is why. In May--May, this month of May--this year, Border Patrol encountered more than 177,000 unique individuals trying to cross the border. Border Patrol doesn't have the manpower or the resources to control this wave of illegal immigration. I know it. I think my Democratic colleagues know it. Certainly the ones who have taken the time to go to the border know it. And, no doubt, the Biden administration knows it. As I said, in May of this year, 177,000 different individuals were encountered trying to cross that border. Now, Tennesseeans are very worried about this, and they want to know why the President is not worried about this. For goodness' sake, he has never taken the time to go to the border. He has had five decades to go down there and look at the border, and he has never taken the time to do it. It really is pretty simple for ``we the people,'' the citizenry of this country--the issue of whether the Democrats wish this country well is no longer up for debate. They know that the left has abandoned them, the people. They know that. They are seeing it every single day, whether they are shopping for groceries, filling up the car. They see it. They see it by the crime in the streets, the gangs. They know it. They see it with the human trafficking and the suffering and the drugs that are killing precious American lives. Now, unfortunately, President Biden lost the opportunity to persuade the American people otherwise on day 1 of his administration when he chose to turn the American Southwest into a free-for-all. Since then, things have only gotten more dangerous. During the first 4 days of this month, law enforcement officials arrested 3 members of MS-13, an 18th Street gang member, and multiple convicted sex offenders as they tried to enter the country. On July 6, they seized more than 1,000 pounds of meth from one single smuggler-- that is right, one smuggler. Do you think the drug dealers are emboldened? Think about that--1,000 pounds of meth. So far this year, they have seized almost 8,000 pounds of fentanyl, which is enough to kill a small country. Here is the question I would pose to the President: How many people and how many pounds of drugs made it in while Border Patrol agents were busy with the smugglers and criminals they managed to catch? Where did the ``got-aways'' go? What did the ``got-aways'' have with them? Well, that is a rhetorical question. We know exactly where they went, and we know what they have with them. Do you know what, Madam President. They are coming to our own cities, communities, towns, our own backyards. My Democratic colleagues may be happy to ignore the problem, but on behalf of Tennesseeans, I will not ignore the problem. The threat is too great. If you ask any law enforcement officer--any--they will tell you that this issue of the southern border is a matter of life and death. Not just on the border but in each of our 95 counties in the State of Tennessee--in each of our towns and cities--this open border is a matter of life and death. In Tennessee, our sheriffs and police chiefs want the border secured. I have got to tell you, to so many Tennesseans, it is laughable-- laughable--that a White House spokesman would stand behind that podium and look at the people and say: ``The border is secure.'' Who do they think they are talking to? Do they think that people are not watching the footage? Whether they are watching it on TV or streaming it or looking at it on social media, they can see that this border is not secure. They are talking to friends and relatives who live in a border State, who live along that border, and they are telling them some of the horrific stories that they are witnessing every single day in their communities. We know for a fact that the cross-border drug trade is alive and well. Who is getting rich off this open southern border? Take a guess. It is the drug cartels--the drug cartels--with enormous profits growing into a global organization. That is right--global. So far this year, people from 150 different countries have come across our southern border. Chinese nationals are not trying to come in here on a visa. They don't wish us well. The Chinese Communist Party is hard at work. The Chinese Communist Party is paying the cartels $50,000 a pop to get people into our country that they want to by bringing them across the southern border. The Tennessean, which is our newspaper in Nashville, TN, recently reported a truly horrific story about a multimillion-dollar crime ring that is operating right out of Middle Tennessee. That is right. The drug cartels are not fearful because Joe Biden has the welcome mat out: Border open. The kingpin was working directly with the Sinaloa drug cartel. That is the one that primarily has the Arizona border. That is the one that is bringing a majority of the drugs through Arizona. They like to focus on fentanyl. The traffickers who are working underneath this hoodlum are as brutally violent as their friends down in Mexico. We know they are responsible for multiple horrific assaults, kidnappings, at least one murder, and the mutilation of a 22-year-old woman. They are also linked to a local gang who terrorizes the streets of Nashville. That is right, a drug kingpin working directly with the Sinaloa cartel. That is what they are doing in Tennessee. The violence does not stop at the border. The violence in this country increases because of that open border and because of the unwillingness of this administration to do anything about it. This violence is bleeding into every town, every State, and it will not stop until we have leaders in the White House and an administration who are willing to put themselves in between these monsters and the American people. The fact that we can't talk about this without provoking hysteria in the ranks of the Democratic Party tells me we are heading in the wrong direction, but don't take my word for it; just read a number of polls that are out there. I hope the President takes to heart that 33-percent job approval rating that the New York Times reported on today. That is about as significant a message as could be sent to this administration. Only 33 percent of the American people approve of what this administration is doing. This administration has normalized things that even 5 years ago would have shocked the conscience of your average Democrat. We talk about spending in trillions of dollars now--a trillion here and there, $6 trillion for COVID, and let's spend another $2 trillion on ``Build Back Broke.'' The numbers just keep piling up. We talk about apprehending 170,000 people at the border in a month--not in a year but in a month. We talk about drug seizures in measures of pounds, not ounces. I was talking with one of our sheriffs in Tennessee, and we were talking about this issue. He said: You know, Marsha, we used to apprehend drugs, and it would be in grams or it would be in ounces, and now nearly every seizure is in pounds. That is the change. The drug cartels are not fearful of being caught or stopped at that border. They have figured it out. Sadly, this is life in Joe Biden's America, but none of this--none of it, nothing, not one part of what you are seeing in Joe Biden's America--is compatible with an optimistic vision for the future, with that phrase ``a more perfect Union,'' ``equal justice,'' ``equal opportunity''--none of it. Why? When Tennesseans look at what Joe Biden and the Democrats are doing, what they are seeing is a political machine acting like they are on a deadline. They are burning through an agenda that the American people did not ask for and they definitely do not want. Do they want higher taxes? Absolutely not. Do they want an open border? They have said time and again, no. Do they want higher crime? No. Do they want drugs--fentanyl--killing 71,000 Americans in a year? No. No. Do they want the highest inflation that we have had in 40 years? No. Do they want a foreign policy that doesn't work? We have a disaster in Afghanistan. We have the Chinese Communist Party, after we have Russia and Putin out here, acting like they are in control. We have the axis of evil--Russia, China, Iran, North Korea--out trying to recruit friends and allies into their axis of evil to not wish us well. Is that what the American people want? No, it is not. Do they want mandates? Do they want lockdowns? No, they do not. That is not what they want. The people of this country still have a vision for the future, but it is hard to keep hope alive when the people in control of the government have, obviously, lost control of this country. I love going around Tennessee, and I love having great conversations with people who will tell you they are Democrats or Republicans. They want to know if the Democratic Party is delusional. Are they obsessed with a socialist agenda? Are they out of touch with what it feels like to not have money to fill up the gas tank, to not have money to buy that full bag of groceries? The idea that their President would allow our border to be open to drug cartels and smugglers to take advantage of us, the people, terrifies Tennesseans, but it is also something that makes them angry because they know Joe Biden could do something about this if he wanted to. They know that the Democratic Party, which runs everything in this town--the House, the Senate, the White House--could do something about this if they chose to. Law enforcement, Border Patrol, and advocates who work with drug addicts and the victims of human smuggling are in almost unanimous agreement on a few points. First, what I have heard from them is this President, President Biden, must keep title 42 in place until there is a plan for how they would replace it. Title 42 is essential. This President must embrace a Remain in Mexico policy, and this President must do what the Border Patrol has asked to be done for three decades, and that is to build the wall and give them the tools they need to get their job done. These are all of the things that President Biden could choose to do right now. So why is he refusing to take action? If you know, the American people would really like to have an answer because they look at the chaos coming from this administration, the chaos at the border, and the chaos on our streets, and they know that this country deserves better. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.