John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, just to point out, Members are clearly entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts. The facts of the matter are that this bill that I have at the desk right now includes no sanctions, none whatsoever--none, zero. This bill that we have at the desk is something that our European allies have asked for. It is not to divide them or us. They have asked for this to help them divide away from Putin. They need the energy; they need the liquefied natural gas. Some of the countries have built or are building what are called gasifiers so they can turn the liquefied natural gas, which comes in at a very low temperature, and turn it into gas that they can use for energy so they don't have to buy it and be held hostage by Vladimir Putin. This is a bill that has previously gotten bipartisan support, in this very body, with Members of both sides of the aisle supporting efforts to help our European allies--our NATO friends--break the dependence from Russian energy. Those are the facts of the matter. People are entitled to their opinions. These are the facts. Russia's actions against Ukraine emphasize just how important it is for nations--and specifically for America--to be energy independent. Under the previous administration, America was energy dominant. We became the world's largest producer of oil and gas. It was the first time we had been energy independent in nearly 70 years; yet this administration has reversed course. It has made it harder for us to use American energy, and that has empowered and emboldened Vladimir Putin. We have moved from energy dominance to energy dependence. We have American energy in the ground that this administration won't let us get out of the ground. We have energy resources that would help lower the cost and help lower the pain at the pump that the American public is living with. It would help break the dependence of our European allies and the people of Ukraine from Vladimir Putin. We were much better off as a nation when selling energy to our friends than having to buy it from our enemies. We need to expand our energy production to bring down prices for working families in this country whose paychecks can't keep up with the inflation, and we need to sell it to our allies so they can remove themselves from the clutches of Vladimir Putin. Freeing Europe from Russian energy dependence is going to strengthen both our allies and our NATO alliances. We must provide American energy resources to those countries as quickly as possible. They are asking for it; they want it; they need it. It strengthens our national security and takes money directly out of Vladimir Putin's pockets. It is this administration's energy policies that have driven up the cost of energy and driven down the production of American energy, which is what has provided a jackpot for Vladimir Putin to fund his war machine. Energy security is a critical part of our shared defense. There is a national security problem for the United States when our allies are more and more dependent on Russian gas. The world knows Vladimir Putin uses energy as a weapon. Energy is called the master resource for a reason. It powers our country--our economy, our military. It powers the world. Vladimir Putin uses his energy as a weapon to intimidate, to influence, and to coerce other nations. Energy funds Vladimir Putin's aggression, and it has been the cash cow for his invasion of Ukraine. Look, we have abundant natural gas supplies. My home State of Wyoming has amazing energy resources. We just need to be allowed to produce it. Europe's reliance on Russian gas undermines our national security. Our national security is increased by reducing the leverage that Russia holds over our allies. It is time for Congress to provide our NATO allies and defense treaty partners a better energy option than they have had under this administration, and the Senate should start by passing S. 819. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, Russia continues to engage in ruthless and unprovoked attacks against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine. I strongly condemn Russia's dangerous aggression against the people of Ukraine. Putin is responsible for the death and destruction in his wake, and he must be held accountable. The one sledgehammer that we can use against Putin is American energy resources. Reducing the amount of Russian energy going to Europe would hurt Russia's economy. The oil and gas revenues made up about 36 percent of Russia's national budget last year. In 2021, Russia sold $100 billion worth of oil and natural gas to Europe. Russia is Europe's main supplier of energy. The European Union received over 40 percent of its gas imports from Russia. Russia also has significant ownership in Europe's energy infrastructure, including pipelines, distribution centers, and storage facilities. With natural gas prices increasing and oil surpassing $100 a barrel, more of our allies' money will be lining the pockets of Vladimir Putin. Due to high energy costs, Russian oil and gas revenues exceed initial plans by 5 percent this past year, totaling $119 billion. In 2021, revenues from Russian oil and gas were almost $500 million each and every day. It is a windfall for Vladimir Putin. As a result, the amount of Russian energy going to Europe is a major problem. We must help our allies escape Russia's energy trap. American energy resources can allow Europeans to meet their energy needs and deprive Russia of the revenue it uses to fund its military aggression. Due to technological advances and an abundance of natural gas, the United States can be a strategic energy supplier to Europe. Our Nation has more than enough gas to meet America's needs and to export to other countries. We must speed up the process of getting American liquefied natural gas to our allies. That is why I introduced S. 819, the Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe Act, commonly known as the ESCAPE Act. It currently has 23 sponsors. The bill, as amended, does three things: It deems it in the public interest to export U.S. liquefied natural gas to NATO countries and defense allies. It creates a transatlantic energy security strategy focused on increasing American energy exports directly to Europe. And it directs our NATO representative to help our allies and partners improve that energy security. So, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 819 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the Barrasso amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to highlight the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park. When it was established on this date 150 years ago, Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. Today, it is still one of the most popular parks on Earth. One-hundred-fifty years ago, it was a new idea to set aside public land for public enjoyment. With the establishment of Yellowstone, Congress set the gold standard. Based on Yellowstone's success over the past century and a half, hundreds of additional national parks have been created for Americans to enjoy. Many other countries have followed our lead and have established their own national parks. Yellowstone spans over 2 million acres throughout Wyoming, as well as parts of Montana and Idaho. That is more land than the entire State of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Yellowstone's vast and varied landscapes provide some of the most spectacular views in the world, and this is just one of them. Cascading waterfalls, steaming geysers, and gaping canyons often leave visitors speechless. Many generations of Americans have enjoyed these same views. That is what Congress intended 150 years ago when it established the park, as they said, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Millions of people come from all across the world to experience the park's beauty. From hiking and biking, to boating and wildlife viewing, Yellowstone offers some of the best outdoor recreation opportunities all around the world. It also has iconic natural wonders like Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Lake. It has 25 square miles of geysers--over half of the total number of geysers in the world. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, of which the park is a part, is one of the largest and most intact natural ecosystems in the world. Yellowstone also has the greatest concentration of mammals among national parks in the lower 48 States. The bison in Yellowstone are part of America's largest and oldest free-range herd. Today, we carry on a tradition at Yellowstone that goes back not just 150 years but over 11,000 years. For thousands of years, Native Americans have hunted, fished, and used the thermal waters for medicinal purposes. The people of Wyoming are rightly proud of the culture, as well as its history. Today, the park supports thousands of jobs in Wyoming and Montana and Idaho. It contributes greatly to local economies. Cam Sholly, the superintendent of Yellowstone, is doing an incredible job. A third-generation Park Service employee, Cam goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the park delivers a world-class experience to everyone who visits. Under his leadership, the park has hosted record numbers of visitors. During the height of the COVID pandemic, when the only place to go was outside, Yellowstone set the standard on how parks should operate. Health, safety, security, and public access were always a priority. I am very grateful for the dedicated leaders and staff at Yellowstone who made it possible for people to visit and enjoy this international landmark. Recently, the Senate passed my bipartisan resolution to honor Yellowstone on this historic day. This resolution celebrates the park's 150 years of unique cultural heritage and natural beauty. It also encourages people across America and around the world to visit Yellowstone to experience its extraordinary treasures. I am proud to celebrate Yellowstone with my colleagues in the Senate, along with Senator Lummis, who is my colleague from Wyoming, as we celebrate with the people of Wyoming and with all Americans on this historic day. Congratulations to all of the people of Wyoming who work to keep Yellowstone one of our Nation's greatest treasures. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I am going to join a number of my Republican colleagues on the floor today to talk about the State of the Union. Tonight, President Biden will come to Congress to give his annual State of the Union Address. He is going to try to do his very best to paint a rosy picture of the status quo. No matter how hard the President of the United States tries tonight, Joe Biden cannot hide the fact that his policies have put America in crisis. There is a war in Europe. We have the worst inflation in 40 years, the worst violent crime in 25 years, the highest prices at the pump for gasoline in 7 years, and the most illegal crossings into the United States ever. So no matter what Joe Biden says tonight, he is the one who has created these crises. We are less secure at home and abroad than the day Joe Biden took office. Over the last 10 months, the American people have said loud and clear that inflation is a top concern, and Joe Biden has only poured fuel on the fire. He told us that the fire would burn itself out quickly. Yet inflation has only burned hotter. Yesterday, the Associated Press put it this way. The Associated Press said: ``On cusp of Biden speech, a state of disunity, funk, and peril.'' The article goes on to say: ``Today's national psyche is one of fatigue and frustration.'' They go on to say it is ``the malaise of our time.'' In March of 2021, Joe Biden signed the single largest spending bill in American history. He put $2 trillion on America's credit card, flooded the country with cash, government cash. Since then, prices have gone up faster and faster than wages. Joe Biden repeatedly said inflation would be ``transitory.'' He said it month after month after month as people felt their paychecks being eaten away. In December, Joe Biden said inflation had ``peaked.'' Joe Biden has been dead wrong again and again and again. The American people are reminded of this every time they go to the gas station, every time they go to the grocery store, and every time they pay their heating bill. It is no wonder Joe Biden's approval rating on handling inflation, which is the No. 1 concern of the American people, is just 31 percent. That means Republicans don't approve, Independents don't approve, and a lot of Democrats don't approve of how the President has handled their No. 1 concern. So tonight I expect President Biden will once again ask Congress to pass another reckless tax-and-spending spree. He will call it Build Back Better or, more accurately, ``Break Your Back'' bill. I am not sure what he is going to call it. It is going to be Build Back Better part 2. No matter what the President says tonight, the American people are going to continue to say, ``No, thank you,'' to all this additional government spending. The American people do not trust this President or the Democrats to tackle the issues that they care about. Inflation is eating away their paychecks and has been doing so now month after month after month. Millions of people are entering this country illegally. Shelves are going empty. No whitewashing by this President can cover up this painful reality for the American people. So tonight I will listen carefully to what the President has to say. The American people don't want to listen to a fairytale tonight. They are not looking for a bedtime story from the President of the United States. The American people are looking for real answers. Joe Biden can brag if he wants. The American people know the truth. America is in crisis. The American people understand that. And the American people know that the person to blame for all of this is squarely right there, the man behind the podium, the President of the United States. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the crime wave that has hit our country and specifically hit Democratic-run cities. Over the last 20 months, Democrats have aided and abetted the most dramatic surge in violent crime in American history. In the summer of 2020, leftwing mobs burned cities like Minneapolis and Portland, OR. Democratic mayors and Governors genuflected to the mob. They started a movement to defund the police in this country. Bill de Blasio in New York cut funding for the New York City Police Department by $1 billion. The Los Angeles City Council voted to cut funding by over $150 million. Nearly two dozen other cities followed suit, each of them run by a liberal mayor. What followed was a historic exodus from police departments all across the country. Police retirements skyrocketed; resignations increased dramatically among police officers; and recruitment of new officers became almost impossible. Thanks to the Democratic politicians who have run these cities, our cities have fewer police. Our police have lower morale, and these communities have higher crime. In 2020, there was a 30-percent increase in the murder rate nationwide--the fastest increase in American history. In 2021, the murder rate went up even higher. Sixteen cities broke their alltime records for homicide, and, of course, all 16 were run by liberal Democrats. Of course, these included the cities that defunded the police. Austin, TX, defunded the police, and the murder rate there doubled. Last year, the national murder rate reached its highest level in 25 years. So far, 2022 looks like it may be even worse. So what are the Democrats doing about it? They have the House, they have the Senate, and they have the White House. They are doing two things: They are making it worse, and they are trying to avoid being blamed for what they are causing. How are they making it worse? Well, just take a look at some of the nominees of President Joe Biden, people he has put in high positions in the Justice Department--radical liberals. Every Member of the Democrat body in this institution voted to confirm them. These are people who hold beliefs way out of the mainstream of the American people when it comes to their service for the Department of Justice. Joe Biden has essentially handed over Justice Department leadership to radical activists who want to defund the police. They are the people running the Justice Department. Every single Democrat voted to confirm them. The people of America were shocked to learn that last March, Democrats, on a straight party-line vote--every Republican against; every Democrat for--gave almost $1 billion in stimulus checks to 645,000 convicted criminals. These are people either still behind bars or recently released. Senator Tom Cotton, the junior Senator from Arkansas, and I introduced an amendment to block them from getting stimulus checks. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to block our amendment. In effect, they voted to subsidize criminals, convicted criminals. With Democrats in charge in America, criminals have hit the jackpot. The second thing the Democrats are trying to do is to try to avoid getting blamed for this incredible spike in violent crime. Joe Biden recently went to the majority leader's hometown, New York City. Right now, there is a crimewave in New York City, and it is on the rise. Crime is up 40 percent in New York City so far this year; car thefts are almost double. Joe Biden went to New York to meet with the mayor, Eric Adams. Now, of course, Mayor Adams is a former police officer and an opponent of the Democrat mantra of defunding the police. So Joe Biden was obviously very interested in engaging and in getting his picture taken with the mayor of New York so that he could pretend to be tough on crime. Voters aren't buying it. The American people know that Joe Biden has supported leftwing radicals who support defunding the police. There was a recent poll in New York. New Yorkers were asked if crime is a ``very serious problem.'' Three out of four New Yorkers say it is. This is the most in the 20-year history of taking a poll and asking that question. So crime is the worst now, in the minds of the people who live there in New York City, over the last 20 years. Two-thirds of all voters say they disapprove of Joe Biden on the issue of crime. I mean, Biden's numbers are in the tank anyway. Only 40 percent of Americans support what he is doing. People think the country is heading in the wrong direction under Democrat leadership in the House and the Senate and the White House. But specifically in the area of crime, as well as in the areas of inflation and the border and others, Joe Biden's numbers drop even further. Two-thirds of all Americans disapprove of Joe Biden on the issue of crime. While Joe Biden was in New York, he didn't say a word about the radical new district attorney, Alvin Bragg. District Attorney Bragg is another radical, leftwing prosecutor. What does that mean? Well, it is interesting, and I will get to that in a second. But who would support this district attorney? Oh, one of his top supporters for election was the majority leader of the U.S. Senate. On District Attorney Bragg's first day in office--first day--he told the whole world he would not prosecute certain crimes. He didn't care if they were on the books or not, he wasn't going to prosecute them. In other words, a district attorney said he singlehandedly was going to legalize certain crimes in New York City. He told every criminal in New York that they could commit crimes, not be prosecuted, go home free. These crimes include trespassing, prostitution, and even resisting arrest. Imagine being a police officer in New York City, where you know people aren't going to be prosecuted for resisting arrest, knowing resisting arrest was legal, according to the district attorney. It is no wonder so many officers are quitting, so many have retired, and why it is almost impossible to recruit. We know what is causing today's Democrat crimewave: too few police, too many criminals walking free, and too few consequences for the criminals in Democrat cities and States. All of these are the result of Democrat liberal policies. These are policies that the American people have continued to reject and reject again today. American people want the law to be enforced. They want prosecutors and judges who follow the law as written. The American people are sick and tired of Democrats coddling criminals. The American people support the police. It is long past time for the Democrats to reverse course. It is time to reverse these reckless Democrat policies before this Democrat crimewave gets even worse. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to specifically talk about Americans' need for more American energy. For the last year, the American people have been suffering from ongoing Joe Biden inflation. They are paying the price, they are feeling the pain, and it all started on day 1 of the Biden administration, when he took out his Executive order pen, and he killed a pipeline bringing energy from Canada to the United States. And as this war on American energy has continued, we are now at a point where inflation is the worst it has been in 40 years. So it is no surprise that the President's approval rating has dropped to a low of only 40 percent in America. Well, this incredible rise in prices for energy, as well as all of the other components--whether it is gas, whether it is groceries--but if energy gets more expensive, we know that it costs more to manufacture things, it costs more to grow things, it costs more to transport things from where they are grown or manufactured to market. So much of this inflation has been brought on as a result of the Joe Biden policies related specifically to American energy. When you look at the laws that he has promoted, the executive actions that he has taken from day 1, going all the way up to a speech he gave just yesterday, this is a President who is dancing to the tune of the climate elitists and wants to keep American energy in the ground. Energy prices are up overall about 30 cents on the dollar since Joe Biden took over. They have gone up 8 months in a row. Gasoline prices are up by about a dollar a gallon, if not more so, since Biden took office. I was at a high school in Greybull, WY, and started talking about energy prices. I asked if they know what the cost of a gallon of gasoline was, and the student body knew to within nine-tenths of a penny how much the cost of gasoline was in their hometown of Greybull, WY. You can see it right up there, and people know the price, and they have been watching, since Joe Biden took over, the price of energy going up; and we have also seen Joe Biden's approval going down. This isn't a coincidence. This is a direct result of the anti- American energy policies of this President and the Democrats in this body and this administration. On his first day in office, his very first day in office, Joe Biden killed the Keystone Pipeline. He blocked new oil and gas leases on public lands. He has gone after energy exploration in Alaska. And for the senior Senator from Alaska to come to the floor and go to an Energy Committee and say: It is hard to believe, but we are using more energy in the United States today, she said, from Russia than we are from Alaska, that is a result of the actions of this administration. So what has happened with all of this? What has the impact been to American families? Well, they are struggling. They are suffering. They are having to change the way they drive, the way they eat, the way they live. People can't keep up. Wages aren't keeping up with costs. They are just not. People's dreams are being crushed because they have to take the savings that they have been saving for different items they wanted to do and they have to use it to just get by, where it costs about $275 a month now, this year, to just get by compared to last year. Just to maintain a standard of living, people are having to pay $275 more each and every month, just to maintain and not to get ahead. Apparently, according to the majority leader, the Democrats finally-- finally--yesterday at their lunch were going to talk about inflation. It is now February of 2022; Joe Biden came into office January of 2021. He said inflation was going to be temporary. A month, he said, after month after month after month, and now 10 months into a very serious situation, we still don't hear any practical solutions coming from the Democrats. We do hear gimmicks. We do hear gimmicks. Joe Biden, in September, had his National Security Advisor, unbelievably, beg OPEC and Russia--Russia--to produce more oil. We are using twice the amount of crude oil now from Russia than we were a year ago. Vladimir Putin, who may any day--even this day--invade Ukraine, is still exporting 5 million barrels of crude oil a day. The price of oil is $90 a barrel, probably going to $100. The Biden and Democratic policies have been a jackpot for Vladimir Putin. So, in November, after he tried the effort to beg Putin to produce more energy and sell it to the United States, the President went to another trick in his bag of tricks--another gimmick--and he said: Let's release some energy from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. So he said how much he was going to release. The Secretary of Energy was asked in a press conference: Well, how much is that relative to how much we use in the United States? She didn't have any idea. Turned out it was 2\1/2\ days' worth, and the impact of the release dropped the price by 2 cents a gallon--2 cents. Oh, Democrats patted themselves on the back, and then prices went up again--a complete failure. Now prices are expected to go even higher, as I said--maybe $100 a barrel soon. Many experts are predicting $4 a gallon when you go to fill up this summer. And now we hear another gimmick coming from the Democrats. This time it is a temporary pause in the gasoline tax until after election day. So the New York Times had a story about it today: ``Democrats, With Eye on Midterms, Search for Ways to Bring Down Rising Prices.'' It is not because Americans are suffering, not because people at home, if the Democrats ever go home, are telling them how hard it is, not because they have an understanding of the needs of the American people--nope, none of those reasons. The Democrats, with an eye on the midterms, have introduced this legislation. When you look at the cosponsors, it is interesting that so many of them are people who are listed as ``vulnerable'' come the elections in November. This might be the gimmick to end all gimmicks. Suspending the gas tax--and, oh, by the way, bringing it back right after the election. It is all election- driven. Are we going to need less energy after election day? Is there going to be more expensive energy after election day? That is what we get. I found it interesting to see one Democrat stand up and comment on this. It is Larry Summers. He was an economic adviser and Secretary, Cabinet Member, worked with both the Clinton and Obama administrations. What did he call it? ``Short-sighted, ineffective, goofy, and gimmicky.'' Thank you, Larry Summers, for pointing out to the Democrats in this body what the American people already see--your efforts are ``short- sighted, ineffective, goofy, and gimmicky.'' Of course, the gas tax is the way that we pay in this country for roads and bridges. If the gas tax went away today, the American people and those kids in high school and grade school who can do the math, who know that the gas tax is 18 cents a gallon--Federal gas tax--knows that the increase in the cost of gasoline to what they are paying at the pump is still about $1 a gallon higher today than it was when Joe Biden became President of the United States. This newest proposal by the Democrats is not about affordable energy; it is a cheap political trick. It might sound good in a press release. The kids in Greybull, WY, know it is not going to help them. Democrats desperately want to look like they are trying to do something after ignoring inflation, denying it was even there in the first place. Yet, after months and months and months of the American people suffering, the American people know a gimmick when they see it. So Democrats have tried to spend 5 months passing their billion-dollar reckless tax-and-spending bill. The President calls it Build Back Better. That is what he called it yesterday when he gave a speech to a number of county commissioners. The bill includes electric vehicles so that they get subsidized. Of course, electric vehicles pay no gas tax because they don't use gas; they use electricity. So they don't subsidize in any way or pay to use the roads for the wear and tear on the roads that they drive. Yet the Democrats are calling for billions and billions of dollars of subsidies for those drivers. Nearly every Democrat in this body still supports this taxpayer giveaway. Nearly every Democrat in the Senate still supports Joe Biden's war on American energy. Well, the war on American energy is raising the cost to American consumers. As I said, if we are going to take 18 cents off the cost of a gallon of gas when it is already up a dollar a gallon or more, and by summer will be a lot higher than that, it is like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. And Joe Biden, once again, yesterday, talked to these county commissioners, promoting his so-called Build Back Better plan, which includes the Green New Deal, which is increased taxes on American energy, increased regulations on American energy, increased penalties on producing American energy. The American people get the fact that will raise the costs for them to drive their car, to heat their home, to grow crops, to get items to market--where shelves are still bare, and they were this past weekend at the grocery store in Casper, WY. Democrats still are delighted that we ended the Keystone XL Pipeline. The Secretary of Energy was supposed to come out with a report about how many jobs were lost by that. Well, still waiting for the report. Homework is past due. Will we ever see the report from the Secretary of Energy who doesn't want to point out this specific impact that Joe Biden has had on this country in terms of killing jobs and raising energy prices? The American people see through all of this. That is why only 3 in 10 Americans today support the President of the United States on what he is doing about inflation. That means that just about every Republican and every Independent and a whole lot of Democrats don't like the fact that Joe Biden is ignoring them, refusing to focus on the issues that are important to them and their lives and their families and their future; that their dreams are being stolen and ripped from them; that they have been using savings that they wanted to use for things they had been planning for years. And what we see is another gimmick coming from the Democrats only because their eyes are on the midterms. Their eyes ought to be on the people at home who sent them here in the first place. There is a solution to the high cost of American energy, and that is to produce more American energy. Let us make it here. We have it. Oh, we have it in abundance. We have it in Wyoming. We have it all across the country. Produce American energy. Use American energy. Vladimir Putin knows how to use energy. He uses it as a weapon, and he is using it as a weapon right now, holding Europe hostage. Germany has fallen into his trap with Nord Stream 2. He knows how to use energy. We have been in the United States an energy superpower. We are. We have the capacity to do it. We have gone from energy dependence to energy independence, to energy dominance. We need to return to the day when we are using American energy. We are much better as a country and safer as a country and stronger as a country if we sell energy from the United States to our friends rather than follow the Joe Biden route of begging Vladimir Putin to sell some of his energy to us. That weakens America. It weakens us. It weakens our future. We have the resources here in America. We have the know-how. We have the individuals wanting to work producing American energy. We need an administration which will allow us to do so, and we don't have one with the leadership in the White House and with the majority party in the House and the Senate right now. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the economy. You know, right now, inflation is at a record high. At the same time, what we are seeing is that Joe Biden's approval rating by the people all across this country is at a record low. And there is a connection. This morning, the majority leader came to the floor of the Senate and said that Democrats were going to talk about inflation at their policy lunch today--today, February 15, 2022--13 months after Joe Biden took office. Democrats have been in power for almost 13 months. They control the White House. They control the Senate. They control the House of Representatives. Ten months into this inflation crisis, what they are doing is putting forward gimmicks, not solutions. They want to get past the upcoming election. They don't want to get to long-term solutions for our Nation. On Thursday, the world found out that prices in the United States had risen at their fastest pace in 40 years, and of course that was the same day that Joe Biden's approval rating dropped to 40 percent. The American people are getting squeezed financially. They are feeling the pain, and they are furious with President Biden. Since Joe Biden became President, wages have gone up slower than prices. Prices have gone up faster than wages. People can't keep up. It is hard to even stay even. As a result, the American family today can afford a lot less than it could the day that Joe Biden took office. Over the last year, inflation outpaced wages by over $1,400. That is an over-$100-a- month differential. So who gets hurt the worst when your wages fall behind the increasing costs of Joe Biden's economy? Well, it is families who are struggling; it is young couples; it is people living on fixed incomes; it is people trying to go to work every day to put bread on the table. In other words, the people who are hurt the most are the people who can afford it the least. They are feeling the pain and paying the price every time they go to the grocery store and every time they go to the gas pump. Big price increases have occurred in energy. CNBC reports that one in five American families couldn't afford to pay the energy bill over the past year. The same number, roughly, kept their homes at an uncomfortable and unhealthy temperature because they can't afford the cost of energy to heat them. Many have had to choose whether they are going to heat or to eat. Gas prices have gone up by over $1 a gallon since Joe Biden became President. American energy production is still not to the level that it was before the pandemic. We are still producing 1.2 million fewer barrels of oil each day than we were before the pandemic. We are not producing it here, but--oh, by the way--Vladimir Putin is selling 5 million barrels a day of crude oil in the international markets. This is a direct result of the anti-American energy policies of Joe Biden and his entire administration and the Democratic Party in this country. People understand simple supply and demand. When the supply goes down and the demand stays the same or goes up, prices go up as well. It is also what happened with America's workforce. The Democrats created the worst labor shortage in American history. We have broken records for unfilled jobs in 5 of the last 12 months. So when did it start? Well, it started in March of this past year, when Democrats passed their $2 trillion spending bill, which was not paid for and added to the debt, and the bill gave a bonus payment for people to stay home from work. People were getting paid more not to go to work than they were able to make had they gone to work. What happened when the bonuses ran out? Joe Biden imposed a national vaccine mandate, saying that if you don't get the vaccine, you lose your job. The vaccine mandate took a sledgehammer to the American workforce. According to one survey, half of America's small businesses couldn't find enough workers in just this past December. If you drive around Wyoming, you will see ``Help Wanted'' signs all around my home State. What happens when you have fewer workers? It means empty shelves and higher prices. When supply goes down, prices go up. Now the opposite is also true. That is what we have seen with the value of the dollar. Last March, Democrats flooded the country with government cash. Now the dollar, in many people's wallets and pocketbooks, doesn't go as far as it did before. Democrats passed the largest single spending bill in American history. They put $2 trillion on the Nation's credit card. Republicans warned: Do not do this. It will cause inflation. Democrats didn't listen. Every single Democrat in this Senate voted for it; every single Democrat voted for it; every single Republican voted against it; and Joe Biden signed it. Since then, prices have gone up faster than wages. First, they said it was going to be temporary. Then, astonishingly, in July, Joe Biden said inflation was expected. He kind of bragged that he had seen it coming all along. Well, if he had seen it coming all along, why didn't he do something about it? All that this President has done is put jet fuel on the fire of inflation. He told us inflation would be transitory, and he said it month after month, after month, after month. He can't say it anymore. Oh, no. Inflation is here, and people are paying the price and feeling the pain. Last week's inflation report should be a blaring siren to the Democrats in Washington, and I was so happy to hear the majority leader, this morning, saying, finally, today, at lunch, February 15, 2022, that the Democrats were going to start talking about inflation at their policy lunch today. They should all be suffering from significant indigestion. This is a crisis, and Democrats are doing nothing about it. The Democrats borrowed trillions of dollars this year. This week, Democrats in the House are talking about getting rid of the debt ceiling completely--of spending more. They are talking about a blank check, unlimited borrowing, and trillions and trillions more in spending, which will only mean higher and higher inflation. Inflation will not go away on its own. Democrats need to stop the reckless spending. They need to stop the nationwide mandates. They need to stop shutting down American energy. The American people cannot afford any more records like the ones that Joe Biden is setting right now. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, first, I would like to commend my colleague, the senior Senator from Kansas, for his incredible ongoing leadership on the issue of the veterans of our Nation and his strong commitment to each and every one of those veterans and to the men and women who wear the uniform and go to battle to keep us safe and keep us free, and it is his long history of leadership for which I am most grateful.

Mr. BARRASSO

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

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the Democrats' radical agenda. For weeks now, America has been breaking records with cases of coronavirus. The scavenger hunt for tests has resulted in long lines and empty shelves. We have just had the worst jobs report of the year-- last year--with inflation at a 40-year high. Crime is out of control in big cities run by Democrats. The southern border is being overrun by hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants every single month. Our foreign policy is in shambles; our friends are endangered; and Vladimir Putin, China, North Korea, and Iran are emboldened. The American people are deeply worried about all of these issues. Yet Democrats in Washington are offering no solutions on these pressing problems. Democrats created many of these crises in the first place, often through incompetence, mismanagement, and weakness. Now, under President Biden, they are making them worse. Democrats just spent 5 months trying to pass the most expensive spending bill in American history. It was a bill nobody asked for except for the radical base of professional activists. The bill would have led to the largest tax increase in 50 years, trillions of dollars in new spending and new debt, and even higher inflation. Democrats tried to pass this on the narrowest of margins. Democrats failed. As soon as the bill was pronounced dead, Democrats scrambled to change the subject. Democrats know they can't solve the inflation crisis, the supply chain crisis, the coronavirus crisis, or any of the other disasters created by the Biden administration. By ignoring these problems, they are practically admitting that, as Democrats, they have no solutions. So what are they doing instead? Well, they have tried to manufacture another crisis. They have invented a phony moral panic about election laws. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have repeatedly lied about our elections. They got Major League Baseball to move the All-Star Game to a Democrat State. They got Hollywood stars and journalists and wealthy corporations to parrot their talking points. Now they have former Presidents Obama and Clinton getting involved. It has been a shameful effort to frighten the American people and further divide our Nation. When Joe Biden was a Presidential candidate, he said he would ``heal the country.'' He said he would ``restore the soul of the nation.'' Just 1 year into his Presidency, we have found out that that was all for show. Joe Biden has been one of the most divisive and partisan Presidents in American history, and, today, he is on track to be the least popular President in modern times. I understand why Democrats are desperate to change the subject. Yet Democrats are failing on the election issue as well. If Democrats think they can win on the idea of a Federal election takeover, they are wrong. Joe Biden is so unpopular in Georgia he couldn't even get Stacey Abrams to show up to his rally in Atlanta. She is running for Governor. She is a political celebrity. Election law is her main issue. Yet she wouldn't be seen in public with Joe Biden, and, frankly, I don't blame her. Two days later, Joe Biden came to Capitol Hill to convince Democrats to change the rules of the Senate. He failed again. Brave Democratic Senators did the honorable and courageous thing. They kept their word. They said they would not destroy this institution for short-term partisan gain. They deserve the respect of every Member of this body. Joe Biden tried to push them around, and he failed. The latest Quinnipiac poll has Joe Biden with a 33-percent approval rating just 1 year into his term in office. He has lower economic approval ratings than Jimmy Carter. Yet Senator Schumer asked Democrat Senators to follow Joe Biden over the cliff. Yesterday, in his almost 2-hour press conference, President Biden talked about taking his message on the road and campaigning with Democrat candidates. I want to see which Democrat candidates actually want to stand with him as more and more Members of the House announce their retirements because they know, and they can see the writing on the wall. Senator Schumer wanted a vote in this body on the Washington election takeover and on changing the rules of the Senate. The American people have utterly rejected both of these ideas. The vast majority of the American people support voter identification. If you want a ballot, show your ID. They support making voters show a photo ID in order to get a ballot. This includes a majority of Democrats, who think it is an important thing to do for ballot integrity and accountability and security. If Democrats want to fix our election laws, they ought to do something about what is happening in the majority leader's hometown. Just last month, the New York City Council voted to let 900,000 noncitizens vote in New York City's elections--noncitizens. This is a larger group than the margin of victory in this last New York mayoral election. In other words, this new group of voters--not citizens of the United States--could swing and determine the outcome of the next election for the mayor of New York. This is the majority leader's hometown. Where is the ballot integrity, accountability, and security there for American citizens? Before Chuck Schumer lectures the American people about our elections, he ought to fix the problems in his own hometown. Democrats are OK with vaccine passports, and they are OK with noncitizens voting, but they are not OK with voter ID, at least on the legislation that they brought to the floor. Democrats continue to fail to listen to and to fail the American people. Democrats are failing on inflation, on coronavirus, on immigration, on crime, and on national security. By voting on elections and on Senate rules, Democrats are admitting they have absolutely nothing to offer the American people on the key issues and concerns that are impacting the lives of people all across this country. There is plenty of work to do right now. We have to stop unnecessary government spending to get inflation under control. We need to support law enforcement. We need affordable energy. That is what people want. We need to make sure that our schools stay open. We need to make sure that they teach our children skills, not ideology. We need to secure our border. So, yes, there is plenty of work for this Senate to do. Republicans have been more than willing to work with Democrats on all of these important issues. The American people are looking for solutions. Yet the majority leader is giving them pointless exercises and show votes. It is time for the majority leader to abandon this political wish list. Let's get to work on the issues facing the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I often hear from people in Wyoming who are concerned about the changes being proposed in Washington, DC. When the Federal Government changes the rules, authorities, or standards, it can significantly impact critical Wyoming industries. In the ``Wyoming Livestock Roundup,'' a weekly news source for Wyoming's ranchers, farmers, and Agribusiness community, Sarah L. Falen authored an opinion editorial titled ``The Government's Word: Should We Trust It.'' She raises concerns about the Biden administration's rule revoking the Trump administration policy prohibiting prosecution for accidentally harming migratory birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. While there has been a lot of discussion about the impact on the energy industries, Sarah Falen points out how the new rule could affect the agriculture industry. It is important that Congress note these consequences and the uncertainty created by the Biden administration's rule. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the opinion editorial written by Sarah L. Falen.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the Democrats' Federal election takeover. The President just gave one of his rare press conferences. It was only the second one he actually gave on American soil. The White House seems to think that the cure for Joe Biden's poll numbers is more communications from Joe Biden. And the press conference went on for 1 hour and 54 minutes. The White House doesn't have a communications problem. It has an agenda problem. The American people understand exactly what President Biden and Senator Schumer and Speaker Pelosi are trying to sell. The American people aren't buying it. Democrats don't need a message reset. They need a better agenda for the Nation. What we are about to vote on tonight has nothing to do with the priorities of the American people. It has nothing to do with coronavirus. It has nothing to do with 40-year high inflation numbers which are biting into the paychecks of the American people. It has nothing to do with the crisis at the southern border, where 2 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border this year--criminals among them, drug smugglers among them, gang members among them. It has nothing to do with what has driven the President's approval numbers to an all-time low of 40 percent, which it is today in the Gallup poll. The Democrats' No. 1 goal, which they stated at the beginning of the Congress, is to pass a Federal takeover of elections. An election takeover bill was the first bill they introduced. Democrats are ignoring what the American people are demanding so that they can do what their radical fringe is demanding. Democrats want elections to be run by Washington, DC, instead of the 50 States. The Constitution is very clear. It says the States run our elections. Well, why do they want to take over our elections? Well, Democrats want to do things like banning voter ID laws. Now 80 percent of Americans believe people should have to show a photo ID in order to vote. Senator Schumer has already twice tried to cram an election takeover bill down the throats of the American public. This is the third time. And, so far, he has failed. So why? Why has this continued to fail? Not simply because Republicans oppose it. It has failed because the American people oppose it. The American people aren't looking for a Federal Government takeover of elections. A recent Gallup poll asked people what they think is the most important issue facing our country. Voting laws didn't crack the top 20. In fact, voting laws received less than 1 percent of the vote. It was an asterisk in the results. Democrats' scare tactics on voting laws have utterly failed. Now Democrats are so desperate to change our voting laws to their advantage that they are going to try to break the Senate. That is what they are doing now. The Senate is supposed to be ``the world's greatest deliberative body.'' Some Democrats want deliberations to end forever. Democrats claim they will change our election laws and then they will stop; one time only; claim they will only rig the game just once. Well, we all know that is not true. If they can't resist the temptation to rig the U.S. Senate once, they won't resist the temptation to rig the rest of the government either. Once Democrats change the rules, there will be no stopping them from doing everything they have ever dreamed: pack the Supreme Court, add new States to the Union, amnesty for illegal immigrants, try to take away rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment--you name it. If they can do it, sooner or later, they will. There is a bill in the Senate right now to add four new Justices to the Supreme Court. Forty-six Democrats in the Senate have signed on to a bill for statehood for the District of Columbia. It is almost the entire Democrat caucus. Democrats have also introduced a bill to give statehood to Puerto Rico. If these bills become law, Democrats know they will get four more Democrat Senators permanently. One change to the Senate rules, and America would have a permanent one-party rule. Don't take my word for it on amnesty either. Just months ago, Democrats tried to pass amnesty for 6.5 million illegal immigrants. That is greater than the population of 32 of our 50 States. Amnesty of this magnitude would permanently remake our electorate. New York City has already granted the right to vote to illegal immigrants. If Democrats break the rules of the Senate in order to change the rules, they will pass amnesty as fast as they can. Over the past year, they have gone on record. They have sponsored the bills. Yet they know they have failed to persuade the American public to support this agenda. They know they will never have bipartisan support to pass the radical amnesty for illegal immigrants; never have bipartisan support to ban voter identification; never have bipartisan support for taxes and punishing regulations that continue to drive up the cost of energy; never persuade the American people to support their radical, extreme, dangerous, and scary agenda. Yet, rather than change the agenda to comply with what the American people want, the Democrats want to change the rules. So, desperate for this radical agenda, they are willing to destroy the Senate. Democrats have a long list of partisan bills they would like to pass. All of these bills have two things in common: They have nothing to do with improving the lives of the American people, as the American people see it today, and they give more power to the Democrat politicians in Washington, DC. Let me remind my colleagues that there is an election in November. In the last election cycle, seven Democrats ran for President saying they would change the rules of the Senate. They all lost. Democrats who said they would change the rules lost key Senate races in swing States, including Montana, Maine, and Kentucky. The American people have spoken loud and clear. They don't want to see this Democrat power grab. American people want us to focus on their priorities. It is up to them to tell us what is important to them, and what we are hearing loud and clear from the American public, it is coronavirus, it is inflation, it is national security, it is crime, and it is securing the border--not a bigger power grab for politicians. The Democrats in this body seem to have forgotten the people they were elected to serve. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, first, I would like to ask unanimous consent that I be able to speak for up to 5 minutes, followed by Senator Sullivan, who is on the floor, for up to 15 minutes and then Senator Sasse for up to 7 minutes before the scheduled recess.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would hope that everyone in this body has listened to Senator Sinema's important speech on the filibuster just now. I really appreciated her clear-eyed rationale--her rationale to preserve the minority voices in this body and to find common ground in this Chamber. I thank her. Mr. President, I also come to the floor today to support the sanctions on Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. Now, I urge all of my colleagues to vote in support of S. 3436, the Protecting Europe's Energy Security Implementation Act. You know, last week, the President of Ukraine and the Prime Minister of Ukraine endorsed this legislation. The Prime Minister said the following: Nord Stream 2 is no less an existential threat to our security and democracy than Russian troops on our border. Senators shouldn't vote to protect Russia and Nord Stream 2. This is a security matter not only for Ukraine, but for the entire region. I believe the Prime Minister of Ukraine is exactly right. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is being built by Gazprom. For people who aren't familiar with that, Gazprom is the Russian state-owned natural gas company. Now, the pipeline would double the amount of Russian gas going to Germany via the Baltic Sea. This pipeline is an existential threat to our ally Ukraine. It is a threat to our allies in Europe as well. Right now, Vladimir Putin has mobilized 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine. He can afford to do this because he is flush with cash. Rising energy prices and reduced American production mean Vladimir Putin has hit the energy economic jackpot. The world is now more dependent on Russian oil and energy. If gas starts to flow through this pipeline, Vladimir Putin will get even richer, more powerful, and the world will become even more dependent on him, the dictator. Vladimir Putin uses energy as a geopolitical weapon. He uses energy to coerce our allies and our partners in Europe. Stopping this pipeline should be an area of bipartisan agreement. In fact, it was an area of bipartisan agreement in this very body until Joe Biden became President. Many Democrats in the body voted for sanctions the first time around. Even Joe Biden opposed the pipeline before he became President. Congress has overwhelmingly passed several pieces of bipartisan legislation imposing sanctions on this Russian pipeline. Yet the Biden administration refuses to implement these laws. The Biden administration has now been actively lobbying this body and actively lobbying Congress against this bill. Democrats must think it would give Putin what he wants. I don't get it. They think that if you give Putin what he wants, then he is going to play nice. That is not going to happen. Every American President must negotiate from a standpoint and a position of American strength. Vladimir Putin is cunning, opportunistic, and aggressive. He respects strength, not statements. When he sees an opportunity, he takes it. He can smell the weakness. The pipeline will mean an enormous transfer of wealth--wealth from our allies to our enemy. It will make our allies weaker, and it will make Putin stronger. If Putin gets stronger, we know he will get even more aggressive. It is time now for this body to stand up--stand up against Russia. It is time to sanction this pipeline. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor to congratulate and commend the remarks by the senior Senator from Alaska. She certainly knows from whence she speaks. I remember so well the discussion that she just mentioned with regard to the energy bill and HRCs and the effort for a cleaner environment, and it was through the process that we were able to come up with legislation that we believe--all believe--was a better result for the Nation and for the environment. It took longer than any of us wish it would have taken, but it was through that process. And had we been in a situation without the ability to filibuster, we would have never gotten to such a good result because a 50-50 Senate is--basically it is a mandate to move to the middle. So I commend the senior Senator from Alaska. She knows from whence she speaks. She is very high up in seniority in the institution. She has institutional memory, more than many, many Members of this body, and when she says what goes around comes around and the shoe is, at another time, on the opposite foot, she knows what the implications of those are and why what the Democrats are proposing now is in the wrong direction for the country. So I believe it is misguided, and I concur with her comments.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my distinguished colleague from Arkansas. I agree with everything that he has said about this latest power grab by the Democrats in the U.S. Senate--of their effort to change the rules, to rig the rules, of course, through an agenda which I see, as do so many Americans, as radical and extreme and dangerous and scary. What the Democrats are proposing right here is to muzzle the voices of half of the country. So why are they doing this? Well, it really has nothing to do with the priorities that are the priorities of the folks from my home State of Wyoming or from the previous speaker's home State of Arkansas or from the next speaker's home State of West Virginia. Oh, no, it has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with the priorities that the Gallup poll tells us are the concerns all around America: the coronavirus and the crisis we face there; the crisis at the southern border, where we are looking at almost 2 million illegal immigrants coming into the United States; crime in the cities, with murders up year after year and just amazingly up this year. Then, of course, there are the raging fires of inflation, which are cutting into people's paychecks so that money doesn't go as far. When families in home States are looking at the fact that they are going to be paying about $3,500 more next year than the last and the year before that just to keep up, to maintain the quality of living, they have a lot of concerns. What the Democrats are trying to do isn't even one of them because the Democrats are trying to take a Federal takeover of elections. That is what they are trying to pass. They want to cram through a bill that they know otherwise would not pass. So what is in the bill? Well, the Democrats want to do things like ban voter identification. You know, in my home State of Wyoming and I know in the previous speaker's State of Arkansas and the soon-to-be speaker's State of West Virginia, we know that people believe, if you want to get a ballot and if you want to vote, you should have to prove you are who you say you are. In the home State of the Presiding Officer and the former Presiding Officer and in many States, if you want to go to a restaurant, you have to show your papers to prove you were vaccinated or to go into a building or to go to a sporting event. Yet the Democrats are proposing that you shouldn't have to show anything to prove you even are who you say you are in order to vote. What about the incumbents who want to vote for this thing? Oh, did we mention there are taxpayer dollars going to incumbent Members of Congress to pay for their political campaigns? No wonder so many of the Democrats have voted for this. It is money into their own pockets. The Democrats want Washington, DC, to micromanage elections across the country. They want to rig the rules of the Senate so they can enact this unpopular bill to take over elections in America. The American people aren't asking for this. This recent Gallup poll that I alluded to asked people what they thought was the most important issue facing the country. Voting laws didn't even crack the top 20. In a list of 23, it came in as 23rd. It is the Democrats' No. 1 priority, and it is the last priority of the American public. It wasn't even an asterisk. It didn't even get 1 percent of the vote. If the Democrats take over the Senate to take over elections and break the rules of the Senate, there will be no stopping them from passing the rest of this dangerous and extreme agenda. Democrats know that there is an election coming in November. They can read the polls. They know it is not looking good for them. They know there is a very unpopular President in the White House. They know that their numbers are sinking, that their ship is sinking, and that they will soon be in the minority in both the House and the Senate. Frankly, the election for the Democrats in the election after that doesn't look so good either because it only took 1 year for the people all across the country to recognize that the current President of the United States, Joe Biden, is both overwhelmed and ineffective as the President of the United States. There is no denying that. Changing the rules, as the Democrats are proposing to do, really is their last chance to pass their leftwing, fringe ideas. It is the last chance to pack the Supreme Court. The Democrats in this body introduced legislation to pack the Supreme Court, to add four Democrats to the Court. It is the last chance to add new States to the Union. It is the last chance to give amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants. It is the last chance before Democrats lose control of the Congress. So why do they want to change the rules? It is because their agenda is so unpopular with the American people. They understand, as one Democrat said to another, that we have got to do it now because it is our last chance to force socialism on the American people whether they want it or not. Instead of changing the rules, the Democrats should change their agenda. The Democrats should focus on what the American people say is important to them. It is our constituents who determine what is important to them. They are to communicate it to us. We are to represent them. What is important to them? Well, it is getting ahead of the coronavirus, it is securing the border, and it is really to stop adding fuel to the fire of inflation when paychecks can't keep up with the costs of gas and groceries. A Wall Street Journal story yesterday was about all of the Democrats who signed a letter saying: money from New England, Members of this body--they said energy costs are so high, the government should do something about it. This is after Joe Biden kills the Keystone XL Pipeline and stops oil and gas exploration, and their own home States are blocking pipelines which could carry inexpensive energy to the people who live there. Yet the Democrats want the government to do more. The government has done enough damage already. There are lots of ideas that could pass the Senate and the House and be signed into law that would actually help the American people. Those are the things the American people are asking for. The American people are not asking for a blatant Democrat power grab to force through a very liberal agenda. People don't want to be muzzled. They don't want to have their voices silenced. They want real solutions. They don't want the Democrats' radical agenda. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

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

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the Democrats' agenda for the new year. The American people have just come back from the most expensive Christmas in our Nation's history, coronavirus cases are breaking records all around the country, and many Americans spent their Christmas with their travel plans canceled. Joe Biden now enters his second year in office with record-high inflation, record-high coronavirus cases, and a record-low approval rating. Now, Joe Biden is breaking all kinds of records, and each of these records reflects an America that is heading in the wrong direction. The American people have two major concerns right now: coronavirus and what it costs to live their daily lives. Yet these two issues are not even on the radar of Democrats in Washington, DC. In fact, Democrats have only made these problems worse. First, Democrats have unquestionably driven up the cost of living on American families. Inflation shot up after Democrats put $2 trillion on America's credit card this spring. Democrats told us inflation was transitory. They said it month after month after month. On the day after Christmas, Margaret Brennan of CBS News asked the Vice President a very basic question. She asked: Was it wrong to consider inflation transitory? It is not a gotcha question. It is a question American families have asked themselves month after month after month, as they heard Democrats say it was transitory. Well, to the American people the answer is very clear. It is obvious. Of course, it was wrong by the administration, by the President, by the Vice President to try to mislead the American people by claiming that inflation was transitory. So what did we hear from the Vice President in response to this question that has been of great concern to the American people? What we heard was 118 words of incoherent rambling. She was like a deer in headlights on a basic question on the top issue of the day. Either the Vice President is out of touch with the needs of the American people or she just didn't want to admit that the Biden administration had been wrong month after month after month, until the inflation numbers hit a 4-year high. It has gone on now for 9 months and, you know, it is only going to get worse. That is what the experts are telling us. In October, we saw the worst inflation in 30 years, and, in November, it became the worst inflation in 40 years. Prices have gone up faster than wages. This means the average American family can purchase a lot less today than they could when Joe Biden took office. And the biggest price increases, of course, have been in energy. In November, we saw the biggest energy price increase in 10 years. CNBC reports that one-fifth of American families couldn't afford to pay an energy bill this past year. Roughly the same percentage have kept their home at an unhealthy temperature because they can't afford the cost of providing heat. People who travelled for Christmas faced some of the highest Christmas Day prices in history. Gas cost $1 more a gallon this Christmas than it did last Christmas--1 year, $1 a gallon more. Many people couldn't travel because of coronavirus. Americans broke records for coronavirus cases twice last week. Ohio, Maryland, and here in the District of Columbia, all broke records for hospitalizations due to coronavirus. Now, remember when Joe Biden ran for office? He said he was the cure for coronavirus. This guy ought to be sued for medical malpractice. He came into office with two safe and effective vaccines. Millions of people have already been vaccinated. Yet more Americans have now died from coronavirus under President Joe Biden than under the previous President. From day one of this administration, this President has been inconsistent, incoherent, and incompetent. The flip-flop on masks for the vaccinated has continued. The administration kowtowed to the teachers union on mask mandates for toddlers. They flip-flopped on booster shots. They flip-flopped again on testing. For months now, countries like the United Kingdom have sent rapid tests to their citizens through the mail. On December 23, President Biden told ABC News: ``I wish I had thought about ordering . . . [at- home test kits] two months ago.'' Well, it turns out the White House did think about it. The media is now reporting that the White House turned down a plan to mail test kits in October. In early December, the White House Press Secretary was asked why the Biden administration wasn't mailing out tests. After all, the Democrats, on a straight party-line vote in March, put $2 trillion on our Nation's credit card under the guise of COVID relief. Only 9 percent of the money went for healthcare. Where did that money go? Billions and tens of billions of dollars, so-called for testing, in the bill that the Democrats forced on a party-line vote, and yet there aren't tests in the country because people are lined up around the block waiting for tests that the President wished he had thought about. That is what he told the world. That is what he said on ABC News. In early December, the White House Press Secretary was asked why the Biden administration wasn't mailing out tests. She mocked the idea. Then, just a few weeks later, it became the policy of this same administration--too little, too late, another flip-flop, another example of the hypocrisy and the incompetence of this administration. Someone in the press ought to ask Joe Biden if he still believes what he said as a candidate. So let's review what he said as a candidate. In September of 2020, Joe Biden said: ``If the president had done his job from the beginning''--he was referring to President Trump--Biden said, ``all the people would still be alive.'' ``All the people,'' he said. ``I'm not making this up''--Joe Biden once again telling the world he is not making it up. I don't know of a single doctor or public health official anywhere in the world who would agree with that statement by Joe Biden, then candidate for President. Yet Joe Biden said it repeatedly. As a candidate, Joe Biden said: ``Any President who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President.'' And to that I say: Joe Biden, you are right now responsible for that many deaths. So, maybe, you shouldn't remain as President either. Joe Biden attacked the previous administration for letting Governors manage the response to coronavirus. Yet just last month, Joe Biden admitted: ``There is no Federal solution'' to the coronavirus. Does Joe Biden still believe what he said as a candidate? Did he ever believe it? What does he know? What does he think? What does he believe? Or was he just running for President on the Big Lie? Now, even for Democrats in Washington, the hypocrisy and the incompetence are astonishing. Now the American people all across this country are suffering the consequences of the mismanagement by this administration. Flights, train departures, public events are all being canceled due to the resurgence of coronavirus. Cancellations continue today because of coronavirus under the President who said he would solve the problem, to the point that even the majority party's conference, which should have been a lunch, today was moved to be virtual because of the virus that Joe Biden said he would eliminate. Joe Biden's lies and flip-flops continue. Joe Biden said he wouldn't issue a vaccine mandate. He said it on several occasions and then he broke his word. In the process, he took a sledgehammer to the American workforce, forcing people out of their jobs. The Biden administration has also issued a mask mandate for children as young as 2 years of age, in preschool. Just before Christmas, Senator Lummis, also from Wyoming, and I introduced a bill to stop this mandate. There is no scientific basis for forcing toddlers to wear masks. This isn't about the science. It has been shown that the teachers union lobbied for mask mandates in schools. On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control issued its mask guidance for vaccinated people--for people who had been fully vaccinated. The guidance from the Centers for Disease Control said that fully vaccinated people could stop wearing masks indoors. What happened the very next day? Well, the very next day, the head of the National Education Association, the teachers union, called the Director of the Centers for Disease Control. The day after that, the Centers for Disease Control released new guidance--new guidance--saying vaccinated people should wear masks in schools. Maybe it was a coincidence. It doesn't look like it or sound like it to me. This flip-flop looks like a kind of political pandering, the pandering to union bosses that this administration has engaged in since day one. The American people have two big concerns right now: coronavirus and the cost of living. Democrats on Capitol Hill continue to ignore the two biggest concerns of the American people. What are the Democrats in this body focused on instead? Well, for 5 months now, Democrats in this body have tried to pass the largest spending bill in history. What is it focused on? Not inflation; not COVID; not crime in the cities, where murder rates are at an alltime high; not border security, where the number of people coming in illegally, carrying disease and drugs, is at an alltime high. No, the Democrats want to focus instead on climate change and new entitlements. Their bill included trillions and trillions of dollars in new taxes and trillions and trillions of dollars in new debt. President Biden and nearly every Democrat in Congress went on record in support of this socialist budget bill. Not a single Republican supports it, and not even every Democrat supports it. Now Democrats are fighting among themselves, and it is an absolute disgrace. Democrats ought to be thankful that bill didn't pass, because if it passed, inflation would get worse, just in time for elections. This isn't what the American people want. The American people have many concerns right now about the direction of this country and the direction that the President is trying to lead the Nation. The two biggest concerns are the coronavirus in their communities and the cost of living that impacts on them, on the people every day. Democrats are failing on both. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the rising crime in America and specifically in Democrat-run cities. This year, 12 American cities have already broken records for murder, and the year isn't even over. Every one of those cities is run by Democrats. Last summer, Democrat cities adopted a rallying cry, and that cry was ``defund the police.'' Joe Biden said America was ``systemically racist.'' He said police funding should be ``redirected.'' Nancy Pelosi talked about ``shuffling . . . money around.'' Kamala Harris, our Vice President, said America should ``reimagine public safety.'' Well, lots of Democrat cities put those slogans into practice. Bill de Blasio, the mayor of New York City, cut the New York City Police Department by $1 billion. The Los Angeles City Council voted to cut police funding by $150 million. San Francisco cut $120 million from police over 2 years. Nearly two dozen cities across the country defunded the police. Again, these are all cities run by liberal mayors and administrations. As a result, last year, America experienced the largest surge in homicide ever recorded. According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, 63 of America's 66 biggest cities saw at least 1 category of violent crime go up last year. Minneapolis cut police funding, and homicide nearly doubled. New York City police funding and homicide went in opposite directions: The funding for police went down, and homicide went up by half. Last year's historic increases in homicides was evident. This year, homicide has gone up even more. The number of police killed in the line of duty is also up. Here in Washington, DC, President Biden has effectively endorsed the ``defund the police'' movement. He did that by stacking his administration with supporters of defunding the police. The Secretary of Labor of the United States, confirmed by this Senate, cut funding for police when he was mayor of Boston. The No. 3 official at the Department of Justice, confirmed by this Senate, the Democrats in this Senate, testified that she supports ``calls from Black Lives Matter . . . activists to decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives.'' Joe Biden's Secretary of the Treasury called for an economics professor to be fired because the professor said he opposed defunding the police. It had nothing to do with what he was teaching. It wasn't because of a problem with his work in the classroom. But Janet Yellen said his comments against defunding the police were ``extremely troubling.'' She went on to say: It would be appropriate for the University of Chicago . . . to review [that professor's] performance and suitability. Well, Janet Yellen is not known for being a crime expert. She is a well-connected, well-known liberal. The university bowed to Janet Yellen and put the professor under investigation. This is Janet Yellen, who was confirmed to be Secretary of the Treasury under Joe Biden. In October, Joe Biden was asked if police officers should be fired if they weren't vaccinated. He didn't hesitate. He immediately said: Yes, fire them. These are officers who have been putting their lives on the frontline every day since day one of the pandemic. Joe Biden's mantra for the police: Vaccinate or terminate. This is happening all across America. For example, more than 150 Massachusetts State Police have resigned over the vaccine mandate. Joe Biden would rather see unvaccinated police sit at home than let them continue doing the job they have done all through the pandemic. The last thing we need to do right now is reduce the number of police officers on our streets. Last week, Democrats in this body gave another promotion to an anti- police liberal. Every Democrat--every Democrat--in this Senate voted to confirm Rachael Rollins as the top prosecutor in the State of Massachusetts. Why does this matter to anybody outside of Massachusetts? Well, because Rachael Rollins is the face of the rogue prosecutor movement. This is the movement led by George Soros and other powerful liberals. They have invested millions of dollars in electing radical prosecutors. They have succeeded in major cities. We have seen it in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Once these prosecutors get into office, they impose radical leftwing policies. The result has been chaos and carnage from coast to coast. As the district attorney in Boston, Rachael Rollins announced she would not prosecute 15 different crimes, laws on the books. She would not prosecute 15 different crimes, including shoplifting, trespassing, and resisting arrest. Rachael Rollins is supposed to be a prosecutor. Her job is to enforce the law. Instead, she has nullified the law. Joe Biden saw this lawlessness, and he was so impressed that he gave her a big promotion. Every single Democrat in this Senate has given her their stamp of approval. So has Vice President Harris. Every Republican voted no on this radical nominee, so the Vice President was needed to come to the Senate to break the tie. There is already talk of Rachael Rollins' getting even more promotions in this very radical, extreme, dangerous, and scary Democratic Party. Mark my words: Rachael Rollins is the first rogue prosecutor to be given a Federal job. She will not be the last. With Democrats in charge in Washington, Rachael Rollins' policies are coming to a neighborhood near you. So it is worth asking, how are these policies working out in liberal big cities? Not well, no. San Francisco followed the Rachael Rollins model. They tried legalizing shoplifting; how about that? Now San Francisco looks like a city from the Dark Ages. Here is how the Associated Press described it last week: San Francisco residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and squalor. In August, San Francisco broke city records with 3,700 reports of retail theft. Now there is a mass exodus of retail stores from San Francisco. Last year, twice as many people in San Francisco died from drug overdoses than from coronavirus. The local news reported this week about people leaving their cars unlocked in San Francisco to prevent their windows from getting smashed out. Even the Democrat mayor spoke recently about the ``rein of criminals who are destroying our city.'' San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It is the hometown of the Speaker of the House and is now a homicide haven on the west coast. Yet, in just a few years, liberal policies have turned what had been a beautiful city into a war zone. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, admitted just yesterday that ``there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country'' today. Then she added, ``It springs from,'' as she said, ``I don't know where.'' Well, Nancy Pelosi should look at her own city. It is painfully obvious. The fact that roars out from liberal city to liberal city is this: The lawlessness comes from the policies of the Democratic Party. Criminals seek opportunity, and when criminals see that opportunity, they pounce. Look at Los Angeles. This is another city with a rogue prosecutor. In just 10 days last month, looters stole $340,000 worth of goods from stores. In one case, police arrested 14 of the looters. And then what happened? They were all released. Now they are all walking free. Austin, TX, made some of the largest police funding cuts last year. This year, Austin has seen a 70-percent increase in murder. It is one of the largest increases in homicide in America. In Kamala Harris's hometown of Oakland, the city council voted to defund the police in June. Now murder in Oakland, the Vice President's hometown, is up by two-thirds since just 2019. Last month, a toddler was shot and killed while he slept in the back of his mother's car on the Oakland freeway. Even leftwing Oakland has now had enough. The city is now planning to reverse the cuts to police. For the toddler, it is too late. The damage that took that innocent life from that family can't be undone, can't be repaired. The family will never be reunited. It is time for the Democrats to wake up, to wake up before it is too late for so many others. Democrats have controlled the Senate now for 10 months. Yet they have done nothing to improve law enforcement in America. They have done nothing to reduce crime. In fact, Senate Democrats have only tried to reward criminals. Forty-nine Senate Democrats sponsored a bill to give voting rights to felons as soon as they walk out of their jail cells. The American people reject this bill and Democrats' entire agenda. Voters are speaking out. Just last month, voters rejected defunding police in the cities of Buffalo, New York, and even in Minneapolis. New York City has just elected a former police officer as its mayor who used the issue of crime and law and order as a winning issue in the campaign. People are tired of what the Democrats are force-feeding the American people. The lessons should be screamingly obvious. The American people don't want Democrats' soft-on-crime agenda. Americans want safe communities. They want Democrats and all Americans to stop coddling criminals, to stand for public safety, and to stop this reckless Democrats' war on police. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about our Nation's economy. We have come to the end of another calendar year. The American people are asking themselves a simple question: Are we better off now, today, than we were 1 year ago? For most Americans, the answer is no. In fact, a new survey from the New York Federal Reserve says just that. Most of the people surveyed say they are worse off now than they were 1 year ago. Most also said, very concerning, that they expect to be worse off a year from now than they are today, and it is easy to see why. Shelves are empty, we have the worst labor shortage ever recorded, and prices are rising at the fastest rate in 40 years. Joe Biden is breaking records, but not the good kind. Joe Biden is about to enter his second year in office with record-high inflation and record-low approval. Since Joe Biden took office, prices have gone up much faster than wages. As a result, the typical American family can purchase less today than they could a year ago. People have had to change the way they drive, they shop, and they eat. By one estimate, families are paying $175 more every month because of inflation since Joe Biden took office. This works out to be $2,000 a year--a bite out of the paychecks of the American people equivalent to a loss of $2,000. Now, some estimates are even higher. Harvard Professor Jason Furman was a top adviser to President Obama. His estimate is that it is double that number. He said there have been $4,000 more in expenses for the American families this year than there was last year. Of course, the biggest increase that we see is in energy. Gas prices are up. They are up by more than a dollar a gallon. Now, this is just in the 10 months since Joe Biden took office. It costs $20 to $30 more to fill the tank. Today, they are at a 7-year high. Natural gas prices are also at a 7-year high, while half the families in America heat their homes with natural gas. One in five American families has already been cutting expenses in other places to pay for their energy bill for the year. Last month was the biggest jump in energy prices, amazingly, in an entire decade, and winter is almost here. Some people may have to choose between whether they can afford to eat or whether they can afford to heat their homes. It is hard to believe that in just 10 full months in the White House, Joe Biden could have taken inflation to this very high level. The supply chain crisis, the worker shortage, the inflation crisis are all the direct results of the policies of the Biden administration and the Democrats in Washington. Why are the shelves empty? Well, because we don't have enough workers. More than 11 million jobs today are unfilled. We have broken new records for unfilled jobs in 5 of the first 10 months that Joe Biden has been in office. And no matter where you go, there are ``help wanted'' signs in the windows. This is no coincidence. In March, President Biden extended a bonus payment to people who stayed home from work. Millions of people made more money by not going to work than they would by going to work. Well, in September, that bonus payment ran out. Then Joe Biden announced a nationwide vaccine mandate on the American people. This mandate took a sledge hammer to our Nation's workforce. The President must have known that people would lose their jobs. It seems he didn't care because he imposed the mandate anyway. These are people who worked every day during the pandemic, showing up no matter the weather, no matter the situation. They showed up to do the job to help the people in their communities and in their States and in this country. Now, under Joe Biden, people are losing their jobs, shelves are empty, prices continue to rise. In March, Democrats made things worse by putting $2 trillion on the Nation's credit card. That bill sent inflation into overdrive. The San Francisco Federal Reserve says the Democrats' spending increased inflation. Democrats made lavish promises about their last spending bill. They said the bill would create millions of jobs. Nancy Pelosi said 4 million jobs. Joe Biden upped the ante and said 7 million new jobs. How did the predictions turn out? Not so well for the predictions of Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. Joe Biden was off by the full 7 million jobs. The most recent jobs report shows we created fewer jobs than were predicted even without the Democrats' spending bill. Those 7 million jobs Joe promised are nowhere to be found. Last month, we created less than half the number of jobs the experts predicted. Now Democrats want to do the same thing all over again. They want another multitrillion-dollar spending spree. This spending spree would cause the largest tax increase in half a century, trillions more in debt, and even higher prices. Speaking of rising prices, the price of this spending bill keeps going up. For months, Democrats claimed that they wouldn't add to the debt. Then they said the total bill would cost less than $2 trillion. Last Friday, we found out the real price tag. The Congressional Budget Office took all the accounting gimmicks, the budgets tricks-- took it all out of the bill--and they told us that the real cost of the bill is nearly triple the price that the Democrats said. The real pricetag is close to $5 trillion. It would be the largest spending bill in history. The Democrats' spending spree would add $3 trillion to the national debt. And, just yesterday, the Democrats voted--every Democrat voted--to raise the debt ceiling in the United States by $2.5 trillion. Every Republican voted against it. If you think about how much money this is, it is almost the size of the entire economy of the United Kingdom. You know, all of this spending would bring the Democrats' total to $5 trillion in new debt in just 10 months. And what does all of this spending get you? Well, the most expensive thing in the bill is something that some refer to as the Green New Deal, which is billions of dollars in new taxes on America's natural gas production. It includes an army of climate activists paid to protest American energy projects. The second most expensive part of the bill is the blue State billionaire bailout. It is a tax break for people in high-tax States. I look at it as specifically California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. The vast majority of Americans would get no tax break at all. Almost all of that benefit would go to the wealthy. Don't take my word for it. Here is what the Democrat chairman of the Budget Committee, the junior Senator from Vermont, had to say about it. He said: The last thing we should be doing is giving more tax breaks to the very rich. It sends a terrible, terrible message. But that is what the Democrats in the House under Nancy Pelosi passed and sent to the Senate for consideration and passage. The junior Senator from Vermont, the chairman of the Budget Committee, also said: ``The hypocrisy is too strong.'' Well, the chairman is absolutely right. Even by the standards of Democrats in Washington, this hypocrisy is too strong. If Democrats pass this bill, it will mean tax cuts for billionaires and tax audits for working families. It will mean higher taxes, more debt, higher prices, the highest inflation in 40 years, and it will go even higher. When the American people ask themselves, ``Are we better off today than we were a year ago?'' we know what the answer is going to be: a resounding no. If Democrats pass this bill, it will be no for years and years to come. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to honor an extraordinary public servant. It is my longtime legislative director, Bryn Stewart. He is going to be leaving the Senate after a 20-year career of working on behalf of the people of Wyoming. He served in this great institution under two different U.S. Senators from Wyoming. He and his family have deep roots within our State, and he is a third-generation Wyomingite. Bryn was born and raised in Sheridan, WY. His father Clyde was a high school business teacher who also coached basketball and the golf team. His mother Jerrie worked at the Sheridan Press, our local newspaper. Both of his parents encouraged him to work hard, to always be respectful, and, most importantly, to be himself, not to be what others expected him to be. Well, he has exceeded all expectations, I will tell you. Family means everything to Bryn. He is the fifth oldest of seven children. And while it is Bryn's career that we are here to pay tribute to today, in terms of his work in the Senate, his older sister Kendall was the first Stewart sibling to work in the U.S. Senate. She worked for Wyoming Senator Malcolm Wallop. She then came to work in my own office in Sheridan, WY, in Bryn's hometown. It is also important to point out that Bryn's brother Dow also worked in the U.S. Senate. What a testament to Bryn's parents that so many of their children were committed to public service. Bryn took a very different route to the U.S. Senate than his siblings. After graduating from the University of Wyoming with a finance degree, Bryn went on to earn his law degree from the College of Law at the university in 1985. It turns out that Bryn wasn't the only standout from his class that year at the University of Wyoming School of Law. My fellow U.S. Senator from Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, was Bryn's classmate in the law school, and the two of them remain great friends to today. After passing the Wyoming State Bar, Bryn has maintained his membership in the Wyoming Bar for 36 years. He moved to Gillette, WY, and he started his career there as legal advisor to the Campbell County sheriff and deputy county attorney. Now, I would point out that Campbell County, in Gillette, is the town where Mike Enzi, my former colleague, had been a representative in the legislature as well as the mayor. And Mike Enzi also had graduated, as has Bryn, from Sheridan High School. Ten years later, Bryn became the director of administrative services for the Campbell County Board of Commissioners. In that role, Bryn was able to balance the budget during a major economic downturn without laying off any employees. This was not an easy achievement. Now, after more than 16 years of serving the people of Campbell County, Bryn made the move to Washington, DC. He came to DC to work for my predecessor, Senator Craig Thomas, as his tax and trade counsel. The person who gets full credit for convincing Bryn to come work for the U.S. Senate wasn't Senator Thomas; it wasn't me; it was my incredible wife Bobbi Brown Barrasso who encouraged Bryn to take the job and move across the country. Bryn fondly tells the story of how my wife Bobbi, who was then the State director for Senator Thomas at the time in 2001, reached out to Bryn about the opportunity that really did change the course of his life and his career. Now, she knew that he would be a perfect fit for the job. We are all very grateful to Bobbi in so many ways but most certainly for recognizing Bryn's talent and talking him into taking a leap of faith. Although it turns out a cross-country move wouldn't be the biggest shock of the journey for Bryn--it is a long way from Wyoming to Washington--but he was officially offered the job the Friday before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Many people would have reconsidered moving to Washington, DC, after the largest terrorist attack in our country's history, but Bryn didn't think twice. In fact, it only strengthened his resolve and his commitment to serve the Nation and the people of Wyoming. It turns out he would need that resolve because during his first week in the DC office, the anthrax attacks occurred against our Nation, against our Capitol, and against a Senate office building. Anonymous letters laced with deadly anthrax arrived in congressional offices, and Bryn, like so many staffers on the Hill, was displaced for months into temporary quarters. Despite the chaos and the rocky start, Bryn was not deterred, and he immediately jumped into his legislative role at full speed. For his first 2\1/2\ years, Bryn served as counsel for Senator Thomas. He worked on numerous tax and trade bills. Most notably, he helped draft and pass legislation providing critical relief to drought- stricken livestock producers in Wyoming and across the country. Senator Thomas was so impressed with Bryn's work that he promoted him to be his legislative director in 2004. As you know, legislative directors have a very big job and lots of responsibility. They guide the entire policy staff in developing and implementing the Senator's legislative agenda. As a result, legislative directors must be up to speed on all of the issues. Bryn recalls one story in particular from his early days as legislative director directly on this point. During the 2005 energy bill debate, Senator Thomas was selected to serve on the conference committee. A week into the committee meetings, Senator Thomas's then- energy legislative assistant was diagnosed with cancer. Never one to back down from a challenge, Bryn immediately stepped in. He quickly took over the reins, and he helped Senator Thomas successfully lead the fight for Wyoming coal and other important energy resources. Bryn recounts this experience as one of the highlights of his legislative career--always ready to help, always ready to act. In 2007, when Wyoming and the Senate tragically lost Senator Craig Thomas to cancer, Bryn was central in supporting our entire staff, many of whom are on the floor today, through an extremely difficult and emotional time. And when I was selected to fill Senator Thomas's seat, I asked Bryn to stay on as my legislative director. It is a decision that I have never regretted. For more than 14 years, I have been incredibly fortunate to have his advice and his counsel. We worked together on critical issues that will have a lasting and positive impact on Wyoming for decades to come. This includes his great work in helping to pass the Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, which was signed into law in 2009. Bryn was also instrumental in securing the return of Wyoming's abandoned mine land funds to our State, which is why I have always referred to him as our hundred-million-dollar man. Now, these are just a few examples of the work Bryn is most proud of in his 20-year Senate career. Bryn's dependability and knowledge made him an indispensable member of my team. His work ethic and his dedication are legendary. He stays late; he works weekends; and he does whatever it takes to get the job done. We often joke in the office that Bryn is the first one in the ``leg shop'' and the last one to leave. It doesn't matter if it is a blizzard outside or a global pandemic, Bryn is infamous for not letting anything keep him from doing the work in the Senate for the benefit of the people of Wyoming. While I have talked a lot about Bryn's professional accomplishments, I also want to highlight the ways that he continues to give back to the community and give back to others. He makes it his mission to live his life with a purpose. It is one of the reasons he prioritizes giving back to the community as much as he can. One of his biggest passions is supporting organizations focused on providing food and shelter to those in need. He serves as a member of the Salvation Army board in his local community. He served in organizations that build homeless shelters, operate food pantries, and run low-income energy assistance programs. He is also a member of the Northern Wyoming Community College Advisory Board in Gillette that focuses on providing high-quality, postsecondary education to the people in Campbell County and around Wyoming. Bryn's departure from the Senate leaves very big shoes to fill. And while we are all sad to see him go, we are happy to know he is moving back to where it all started for him, his hometown, Sheridan, WY. He will be closer to family, also be able to spend time camping, hiking, and biking through his beloved Bighorn Mountains. Bryn, Bobbi joins me, along with our entire staff, many of whom are here on the floor--the current staff, but it is also the past staff, the present staff--in commending you on a remarkable career of service. We are grateful that you chose to dedicate your life to helping make Wyoming and our country a better place to live and a better place to work. It is with admiration, appreciation, and respect that I wish you every success as you embark on this new adventure. And we are not just saying that because today is your birthday. You will be truly missed. Thank you. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the threat that is posed by communist China. China's economy has grown sevenfold in just the last two decades. China already has a million members in terms of active-duty soldiers. China also has the largest navy in the world. That is right--it is now larger than ours, and the Chinese military is not stopping. China plans to build more than 100 new ships in the next 8 years, and in those same 8 years, China is also building about 300 missile silos and plans to have 1,000 nuclear missiles. Several times this year, China has tested hypersonic weapons capable of use around the world. At the same time, the world has witnessed increasing Chinese aggression. China's goal is unmistakable: It truly wants to become the world's one dominant power. Since day 1, the Biden administration has been caught flatfooted as President Joe Biden has been soft on China. This is no surprise given the fact that Joe Biden has been soft on China for 50 years. When he was Vice President, he said: A rising China is a positive . . . development, not only for China but for America and the world writ large. During his run for President, Candidate Joe Biden said China was not a threat to the United States. During his announcement speech when he was announcing he was going to be a candidate for President, he said: They're not bad folks. They're not competition for us. Joe Biden should tell that to the working families in factory towns who have been put out of business by communist China. He should tell that to the families who lost loved ones to fentanyl and other opioids made in China. He should tell that to the Uighurs and ethnic minorities persecuted and used as slave labor by the Communist Party. I have to tell you, leaders on both sides of the aisle here have been shocked by those comments by then-candidate for President Joe Biden. Many Democrats recognize the danger posed by communist China. Regrettably, our President, Joe Biden, is not one of them. On issue after issue, the Biden administration's policies are only making China stronger, and at the same time, that makes America weaker. I want to just mention a few. President Biden's first budget proposed to basically supersize the Government of the United States--huge budget increases in every government Agency you can think of except for two. The two were Defense and Homeland Security. His political appointees at the Pentagon seem more focused on climate change and ``dissident ideologies'' and vaccine mandates than on security threats to our Nation. While China's military is growing, ours is going broke and ours is going woke. That is the difference fundamentally today. Joe Biden has stopped America's policy of helping developing countries use fossil fuels to eliminate poverty and grow their economies. Who are these other countries turning to for help now? Well, they are turning to communist China. Joe Biden seems to be doing everything he can to shut down coal production here in America. Wyoming is proud to be America's leading coal producer, and we have been for 35 years straight. Coal is the most affordable and reliable energy source known to man. Yet Joe Biden is determined to drive down coal production and drive energy jobs overseas. China is not making this same mistake. China is acting in its own self-interest. China is producing and using more coal than ever before. China is also funding the construction of coal-fired powerplants as part of their Belt and Road Initiative. The Biden administration and the Democrats have also put a big Christmas present to China in their reckless tax-and-spending spree because the bill includes trillions of dollars in new taxes on American businesses. As a result, some of our tax rates are going to be higher than those in China. It is going to make it cheaper to do business overseas, and that is exactly what many companies will do. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, the taxes in this bill that the Senate is trying to push on the Democrats' side of the aisle and Republicans are trying to stop--the taxes in the bill will eliminate 125,000 American jobs. Democratic giveaways for electric vehicles will also send additional money directly to China. Electric vehicles use lithium batteries. A critical mineral necessary for those batteries relies on child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and slave labor in China. At the same time, Democrats' spending bill would virtually end mining on Federal lands here at home. Instead of getting the minerals we need at home in Wyoming, we are going to get them from China. More than a million Muslims in the western part of China have been put into slave labor camps. In many cases, those people are forced to make solar panels. Last week, Senator Rubio offered an amendment to the Defense bill to ban imports from Chinese companies using slave labor. This is the same legislation that this Senate passed unanimously in July. Yet now Democrats are kowtowing to an administration weak on China, and are blocking Senator Rubio's proposal. Why have the House Democrats failed to move forward on this critical issue? According to the Washington Post, it is because the Biden administration asked them to. The Washington Post reports: ``While the administration supports the legislation in public, they are asking Democrats to essentially water it down in private''--that from the Washington Post. On issue after issue, Democrat policies are only making America weaker and making China stronger. It is no wonder only a quarter of Americans approve of how President Biden is handling China. On Monday, the President announced the United States will boycott next year's Olympics in Beijing. This is a good first step, but it is not enough. Symbolism is not enough. It is time for Democrats to wake up from this threat from communist China before it is way too late. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my Republican colleagues to oppose President Biden's vaccine mandates. Last December, President-elect Joe Biden told the American people that he would not issue a vaccine mandate. Just a year ago, as President-elect, Joe Biden said: I don't think they should be mandatory. He said: I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory. Last October, as a Presidential candidate, Joe Biden said: You can't say ``Everyone has to do [it].'' Then, this summer, his Press Secretary said it is ``not a role the federal government even has the power to make''--``not a role even the federal government has the power to make.'' In July, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control said: There will be no nationwide vaccine mandate. Then, in early September, with this Nation in shock and reeling because of the disastrous collapse in Afghanistan, suddenly and unexpectedly and completely opposite of everything this administration has promised, the Biden administration broke the law, and in doing so, violated the rights of the American people by calling for this vaccine mandate. Joe Biden issued a nationwide mandate, and in doing so, he has taken a sledgehammer to the American workforce and the American economy. Because of the President's irresponsible policies, we now have the worst labor shortage in American history, and we have broken new records for unfilled jobs. As a result, we also have the worst supply chain crisis in 40 years. We don't have enough goods on the shelves. We don't have enough workers to fill the shelves. The President must have known that many wouldn't comply with his mandate. He must have known people would be forced out of their jobs as a result of the mandate. He didn't seem to care. He imposed the mandate anyway. Now people are losing their jobs, shelves are empty, and prices continue to rise. Inflation is the No. 1 concern of the American people. Now, I am a doctor. I am vaccinated, so is my entire family. I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. Vaccines work. Nationwide mandates don't work. Courts have already ruled that the President's mandates are illegal. Yesterday, a Federal judge in Georgia blocked the mandate on Federal contractors. Not only are these mandates illegal, they are ineffective. Joe Biden's mandates have only hardened people against the vaccine. They have increased resistance to getting vaccinated because President Biden has politicized the vaccines, and all the mandates have accomplished is making people lose their jobs. In the Joe Biden world, his mantra seems to be, vaccinate or terminate. What we ought to be doing, instead, is giving people information. Let them work with their doctors to make the right decision for them and their families. That is what I have been doing for decades in Wyoming as a doctor. We don't need mandates. We don't need public health officials who can give Americans reliable information, saying they have to enforce and apply a mandate. They are there to give the information and then the vaccine if the person chooses to have it. The Biden administration spent 10 months flip-flopping on this issue. President Biden ran from his basement during the campaign saying he was the answer to COVID. He is not, hasn't been. He has sent one mixed message after another, and then he has issued a nationwide mandate. It has been inconsistent, ineffective, and incompetent. When President Biden issued his mandate, he said, ``We've been patient [with the unvaccinated] but our patience is running thin.'' Well, I will tell you, Mr. President, the American people have been patient. It is the patience of the American people now with you, President Biden, that is wearing thin. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor to join my friend and colleague from South Dakota to oppose the Democrats' reckless tax- and-spending spree. There are 18 days left until Christmas. So who is on the Democrats' shopping list this year? Well, it is the same people who are on the list every year: illegal immigrants, union bosses, professional activists, and the donor class of millionaires. In the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending bill, they all get big presents from the government. The rest of America gets more spending, more taxes, more debt, and higher prices as they are already struggling and suffering under the largest, highest inflation in the last 30 years. Democrats call the bill Build Back Better. For most Americans, it is a break-your-back bill. In this bill, Chuck Schumer's hometown will get tens of billions of dollars to bail out their public housing authority. Joe Biden likes to say, if you want to know somebody's values, he says, look at their budget. Well, let's look at the budget that the Democrats are putting forth, because the second most expensive item in this bill is a tax break for millionaires and billionaires in New York, in New Jersey, in California, and in Chicago. The cost of that sole component: $275 billion, which will have to be paid by the hard-working men and women in this country. This is one of the bill's top expenses because it is a top priority for Democrat elites. Under the Democrats' bill, the bottom 60 percent of Americans would get zero of those dollars; $275 billion to the richest of the rich. In 2016, nearly half of the money went to just four States: California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey. Rural States like Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and West Virginia received the lowest amounts of tax relief. Democrats want the people in States like Wyoming and West Virginia to pay for these tax cuts for the millionaires of California and New York. Under this legislation, low-tax States would essentially subsidize high-tax States. What is this going to do to the high-tax States? Well, it will encourage them to raise State taxes, which is probably another reason that Democrats support it. Democrats also have lots of Christmas presents in this bill for people who come to this country illegally. The Parliamentarian said Democrats can't pass amnesty for illegal immigrants in a previous version of the bill, but Democrats want illegal amnesty so badly that they are going to try all over again. Let me remind you: This is a spending bill; it is not an immigration bill. Democrats know that they don't have the votes to pass the immigration bill that they would like to see. Frankly, they know they will never have enough votes in the Senate for an amnesty bill for illegal immigrants. So they are trying to cram it into a spending bill. Democrats are hoping that the American people won't notice. If Democrats have their way, this spending spree would be the most consequential immigration bill in half a century. The bill would give amnesty to 6\1/2\ million people in the country illegally. It would also give them five new entitlements. The bill includes new permanent welfare programs. There would be no work requirements--not a single one--and no citizenship requirements. This includes free childcare, free preschool, and even free money for college. Now, this is in addition to the $300 check every month for every child Democrats already send to illegal immigrants that they have sent earlier this year. So it is shaping up to be a long December for American workers and taxpayers, and people know it because we already had the most expensive Thanksgiving ever. On Friday, we saw one of the most disappointing jobs reports in a disappointing year. The jobs report says we created less than half the number of jobs that the experts predicted we would produce last month. Still, there are almost 4 million fewer Americans working than before the pandemic. At the same time, inflation is only getting worse. People in all our States are wondering if they are going to be able to afford to have presents under the tree this year; wondering if they can afford a tree at all because, of course, the cost of Christmas trees are up 30 percent--30 percent more this year than last. More and more Americans find they are heading to shop at the dollar stores. Yet many dollar stores, you have seen in the press, aren't dollar stores anymore. Dollar Tree is selling more and more items for $1.25. Dollar General is opening new stores with a $5-or-less business model. Prices are going up everywhere you look. One of the reasons for inflation in Joe Biden's economy is the rise in cost of energy. Natural gas is at a 7-year high. Winter is almost here, and prices are up dramatically. The price of gas at the pump is at a 7-year high as well. Yet Biden and the Democrats say everything is fine. It is just fascinating. Last week, the Democrats' headquarters sent out a tweet. It was a graph showing gas prices had dropped by 2 cents over a week. The caption was ``Thanks, Joe Biden.'' I actually thought it was a joke. It was serious. They actually said: Hey, good, the price of gas is up $1.25 since he took office, but it dropped 2 cents last week, and let's celebrate the success of Joe Biden. This is just another example of Democrats' bad math. It is an example also of Democratic leaders who are completely out of touch. Gas is up $1.25 a gallon since Joe Biden took office. A 2-cent drop is hardly enough. So here is my 2 cents' worth: The American people don't want pennies from Joe Biden; they want a refund from the last election. That is what they deserve. They want affordable, available, reliable American energy. Joe Biden said last week: I have used every tool . . . to address price increases. On the contrary. President Biden has used every tool to drive up prices. He has attacked American energy. He has driven up costs for all Americans. He has shut down the Keystone Pipeline. He is threatening other pipelines. He has blocked oil and gas leases on Federal land. He has threatened to raise taxes on the production of natural gas. We are now producing about 2 million barrels of oil a day less than before the pandemic. The Secretary of Transportation thinks he has a simple solution to the energy crisis. This is what Pete Buttigieg said. He said it is easy. He said last week that families who buy electric cars ``never have to worry about gas prices again.'' Well, it is simply false. You would think somebody as educated as the Secretary of Transportation would intuitively say: Gas prices affect grocery prices. Gas prices affect retail prices and the price of just about everything else. Look, even for the Biden administration, this is really out of touch with mainstream America or people who live anywhere outside the bubble of the beltway. People who are struggling with inflation can't afford to go out and buy an electric vehicle. Seniors and families just starting out aren't going to go out and buy an $80,000 electric vehicle. We know who buys these luxury vehicles. More than 80 percent of the Federal subsidies for electric vehicles go to people making more than $100,000 a year, and, unlike the rest of the people on the roads, these drivers use the roads for free. Yet Democrats make sure to include electric vehicle owners on their shopping list this year. This bill would give $12,500--$12,500--to couples making up to half a million dollars a year if they buy a luxury electric vehicle. This includes vans, SUVs, and trucks costing up to $80,000. The bill also includes $900 payouts to people who buy electric bicycles. It has already been a long December for the American people, and we are only at December 7. Yet it must be an exciting time for the Democrats' favorite groups. Democrats have always liked to play Santa Claus, and this year, they have a list of who they consider America's good little boys and girls. Who is on the list? Well, as I said a few minutes ago, it is illegal immigrants, union bosses, professional activists, and the millionaires who live in the penthouses of New York and the mansions of San Francisco and Hollywood. Working-class, Middle America, those families--they are the ones who are going to get stuck with the bill. I yield the floor.