John Barrasso

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Carolanne for her hard work as an intern in the Senate Republican conference. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Carolanne is a native of Colorado Springs. She is a student at the University of Wyoming, where she studies communications and public relations. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Carolanne for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Julia for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, D.C. office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Julia is a native of Story. She is a student at Loyola Marymount University, where she studies political science and Irish studies. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Julia for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Gabe for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Gabe is a native of Casper. He is a student at Belmont University, where he is studying politics and public law, and music business. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Gabe for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Bridger for his hard work as an intern in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Bridger is a native of Cheyenne. He is a student at the University of Wyoming, where he is studying economics and political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Bridger for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Reba for her hard work as an intern in my Cheyenne office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Reba is a native of Nebraska. She is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, where she studied physiology and molecular biology. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Reba for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

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 to talk about the need for integrity in our elections. On Monday, the Democrats on the Rules Committee took a field trip. The Democrats went to Georgia. They continued their efforts there to start a panic about election laws. Now, I am sure they will take more field trips in the months ahead. Taking over State election laws seems to be the Democrats' No. 1 priority. It was their No. 1 bill in the House, H.R. 1. It was their No. 1 bill in the Senate, S. 1. The Democrats claim that they are only responding to reforms passed in the States, and they say it is just the reforms passed in the States this year. Yet the election takeover bills that the Democrats have introduced were first drafted years ago. It is not in response to anything. Don't let the Democrats kid you. It is an attack on States' rights and an attempt to stack the deck. After Democrats took over Washington, they rushed this takeover bill right through the House of Representatives, with Nancy Pelosi at the helm. Then they tried to rush a similar bill through the Senate, and they failed. Senator Schumer continues to say the Democrats will try again. At the State level, most recently in Texas, the Democrats are obstructing the democratic process in order to block election reforms from becoming law. Rather than allow an election reform bill to pass, Texas Democrats fled the State. They took private jets to Washington, DC. They hobnobbed with the Vice President, and they hobnobbed with the Speaker of the House and with many Democratic Senators. They sent out a lot of fundraising emails in the process, and they did a lot of television interviews. They took a lot of pictures of themselves, published them on social media, and told everyone they were making a heroic effort. They said it was a sacrifice. Well, six of the Democrats became infected with the coronavirus. Then they spread the virus. It wasn't enough they infected each other; they spread the virus to staffers at the White House and here on Capitol Hill. It was a political stunt, and it turned into a coronavirus superspreader event, and I am sure they still consider themselves heroes. The hypocrisy is astonishing. In the name of the democratic process, they actually blocked the democratic process, disregarded the will of the voters, and shut down the function of State government. They took a joyride on a private jet and endangered the health of many others. They believe in winning at any cost, and they put democracy in second place. This whole stunt is not about voter rights; it is about power. The Democrats are going to keep trying to keep the panic alive. President Biden went to Philadelphia last week, and he spread even more falsehoods about the law. Now, I can understand why President Biden is doing everything he can to change the subject from the failures of his current administration. We have an open southern border that Americans are very disturbed about; we have surging violence in Democratic cities in the streets; and we have rising inflation that is hitting every family in America. Of course, President Biden doesn't want to talk about his one failure after another after another. So, instead, he throws rhetorical grenades at the Republicans, and he tells stories. The Democrats' scare tactics on State voting laws are not going to work. Their claims are false, and they have been repeatedly disproved. The American people are finding out what is in the Democrats' election bills, and they do not like it. It is not pretty. It is ballot harvesting, which people reject. It is automatic voter registration, which many, many reject. It is taxpayer funding of political activities and campaigns, which Americans reject. It is giving the vote to felons on parole, which Americans reject. It is 800 pages of mandates, which Americans hate, and it is banning voter ID laws nationwide at a time when voters across the country from both parties, all political persuasions, think voter ID laws are critical to ballot integrity and security. The more the American people find out what is in these bills, the more they oppose them. You know, it has never been easier to vote in the United States. You take a look at the statistics from this past election year, never been easier. The American people know it. American people support commonsense laws, which make it easier to vote and harder to cheat, but they do not support the Democrats' radical election takeover. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Cassie for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Cassie is a native of Casper. She is a student at the University of Utah, where she studies business management and international relations. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Cassie for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Brian for his hard work as an intern in the Senate Republican conference. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Brian is a native of New York. He is a student at Providence College, where he is studying history and political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Brian for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Rudy for his hard work as an intern in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Rudy is a native of Cheyenne. He is a student at the University of Wyoming, where he is studying mechanical engineering. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Rudy for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Kayla for her hard work as an intern in my Casper office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Kayla is a native of Casper. She is a student at Casper College, where she is studying general studies and political science. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Kayla for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Sabrina for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office as well as to the State of Wyoming. Sabrina is a native of Laramie. She is a student at the University of Wyoming, where she studies economics, math, and honors political science. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Sabrina for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose Democrats' latest multitrillion-dollar spending spree. It has only been 4 months since the Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion spending bill, and it was done through Congress on a party-line vote. Not a single Republican voted for the bill. The Democrats put the whole thing on a credit card. The bill is going to be paid for by our kids and our grandkids, and they are going to have to pay for it with interest. To me, that bill was completely unnecessary. It was a big payoff to the people who run the Democratic Party--$86 billion for union bosses, hundreds of billions for bankrupt blue States, and free vacation time for DC bureaucrats. There was a big expansion of Medicaid. There was an even bigger expansion of ObamaCare. Millions of dollars went for so- called climate justice. The bill flooded the country with cash, and it did so without adding goods or services to the country. So what happens? Well, prices go up. It is no wonder that prices have gone up since Joe Biden took office. Experts from both parties warned that the so-called stimulus bill would actually cause inflation, and that includes President Obama's economic adviser Larry Summers. Critics also included former Obama economic adviser Jason Furman. I want to make sure I get the quote right. He said: ``I don't know any economist that was recommending something the size of what [we passed].'' Didn't know a single economist who recommended it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said we don't need any stimulus funding. Well, that didn't stop the Democrats. The Congressional Budget Office said our economy would be back to normal, they said, this summer without a dime of additional spending. Democrats, of course, ignored the experts. They got their hands on America's credit card, and they just couldn't resist using it. One measure of inflation is now the highest it has been in nearly 30 years. Filling up a pickup truck in my home State of Wyoming--and I was there again this past weekend--is now about $25 more expensive than it was the day Joe Biden was inaugurated. For 3 months in a row, prices have gone up faster than wages. In effect, the American people, because of the inflation exceeding wages and growth, have taken a pay cut. Two things I hear about every weekend in Wyoming: one, the cost of things, and then I hear from small businesses trying to hire people, trying to get people back to work. We know, nationally, nearly half of all the unemployed people have been making more money by staying at home than they would have by going to work. That is because Washington Democrats continue to pay them unemployment bonuses on top of the unemployment earnings that they make in their own State. States have unemployment programs to compensate people who are out of work, but Washington Democrats said: Not enough. We are going to pay everybody a big bonus on top of that. At the end of June, a poll estimated that 1.8 million people were staying home from work because they were making more money not working than they would make by working. These people aren't lazy. They are logical. They see what the incentives are. Democrats are printing money, and people are not going to work because they are getting paid to stay home. No wonder that we have inflation combined with a record number in this country of unfilled jobs. Both inflation and worker shortages were created by this Democratic spending bill. It seems the Democrats still haven't learned basic economics, and now the Democrats are getting ready to make the same mistake all over again. This time, it is even on a bigger scale. The Democrats are spending taxpayer dollars like it is Monopoly money. Democrats are getting ready to cram another bill through Congress on another party-line vote, ignoring all the warning signs. Even the Treasury Secretary, the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, admitted last week--she said ``several more months of rapid inflation''; ``several more months of rapid inflation.'' Democrats see the inflation and say: Don't worry about it. We will just send you another government check. Democrats seem to want the entire country getting a government check. The latest spending spree massively expands ObamaCare, just like the last one. This new spending spree would lower the age of Medicare even though life expectancy has gone up since Medicare was created. This reckless spending spree would also give amnesty to millions and millions of illegal immigrants. The amnesty includes nothing to strengthen our borders. That is where the work needs to be done. It just creates more incentives to come here illegally. No wonder we are seeing the highest numbers of illegal aliens in 20 years, right now. Many illegal immigrants have admitted they came here because Democrats promised to give them government benefits: free healthcare, plus the assurance that they could stay in this country. The spending spree is larded up with giveaways to the Democrats' favorite groups: union bosses, trial lawyers, leftwing professors. It includes taxpayer funding for full-time professional climate activists. So this morning, this very morning, Representative Ocasio-Cortez of New York and 80 other Members and Democrats sent a letter to Senator Schumer demanding funding of these activists. Senator Schumer went straight to the floor, and he said he would include it. Now, these full-time climate activists would get a government paycheck, free healthcare, free childcare, free college tuition, free housing--part of the Democrats' goal of replacing middle-class jobs with government checks. The majority leader came to the floor and talked about hiring hundreds of thousands of climate activists--a climate corps. Think about all the activists against the Keystone Pipeline, against drilling in the Arctic. They would now be paid by the Federal Government. This bill that we are going to be considering, the budget that the Democratic Party is bringing forth, also includes supersizing the Internal Revenue Service. In total, the bill is the single most expensive spending bill in the history of this Nation. It costs almost as much as America's entire role in World War II. It might not be infrastructure, but it is a bullet train to socialism. This new spending bill raises taxes. Yet it gives carve-outs to rich people in blue States and owners of electric vehicles. Let me be very clear. Not one Republican is going to vote for this budget bill--not one in the House, not one in the Senate--not for this loaded, reckless spending spree with all the taxes included. That is why all it takes is one Democrat in the Senate or a handful in the House to stop this freight train to socialism. This means all eyes will now be on the Democratic caucus. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi want absolutely every one of them to walk the plank. One Democrat could stop this sprint to socialism, stop this massive amnesty, stop these crippling tax increases. If none do, every single Democrat will be held responsible for the consequences of their actions. The consequences mean more inflation, with higher costs of gas, goods, groceries, more worker shortages, and more debt for our Nation. Democrats did enough damage with their last spending blowout. The new spending spree is twice as big, and the timing is even worse. I yield the floor

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the crisis at our southern border. We have the humanitarian crisis there. We have a healthcare crisis there. And we also have a national security crisis there. Over the last 2 weeks, as I traveled the State of Wyoming, I heard from people all across the State about the condition of the southern border, and not surprisingly, the people of Wyoming recognize that there is actually a crisis at the southern border, and there is chaos at our border. People across the State of Wyoming are shocked--shocked--at the way the Biden administration has been acting deliberately to weaken our national security and security at our border. We need to strengthen our southern border. Leaving the border open is like leaving the door to your home open; maybe some good friends will come through the door, but sooner or later, the wrong people will enter your home. An open border is an open invitation, and it is an invitation to the whole world. Now, this includes drug dealers, sex traffickers, and it includes gang members, and it even includes terrorists. When President Biden took office, he flipped on the green light, and he rolled out the welcome mat. He sent a message to the world. The message was received: The border is open. Since President Biden took office, 600,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested crossing the border. This is more than the entire population of my home State of Wyoming. Border arrests have gone up every month since President Biden has been in the White House. Last month, a deputy Commissioner of the Border Patrol retired after 27 years in that office. His name is Robert Perez. Since leaving office, he has had a few things to say. He said: ``What [Border Patrol is] seeing since February . . . is absolutely unprecedented.'' He said, ``It's a crisis unlike anything I've ever seen. . . .'' Right now, we are on the pace to 2 million illegal immigrants. That is what we are looking at, 2 million illegal immigrants crossing the southern border into the United States this year alone. That is the most in two decades, and those are just the illegal immigrants that we know about. In addition, tens of thousands of additional illegal immigrants are coming across the border and are not being stopped. At the same time, we are seizing more fentanyl at our border than ever before. The numbers are astonishing. This drug is so powerful that a fatal dose is the equivalent to just a pinch of salt. In the last 6 months, Border Patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in America. Some experts will say that the amount they have captured, in terms of the synthetic drug fentanyl, is a small fraction of the amount that is actually getting across the border every day. This would mean a quarter-million pounds of fentanyl is likely to flow into the United States this year alone, and it is not just staying at our southern border. It is in every State of the Union. Look, this just didn't happen. Six months ago, the border was nearly secure. Then Joe Biden was sworn into office, and he undid the successful policies of the previous administration. He stopped building the wall even though it has already been paid for. Under the previous administration, asylum seekers had to remain in Mexico until their day in court. President Biden stopped that. He ended that policy, basically saying to everyone: Come in. It does seem that anything the previous administration did that was done successfully, President Biden has chosen to do the opposite. This isn't policymaking; this is knee-jerk partisanship. President Biden has had 6 months to fix the crisis that we are living with today. He is only making it worse, and he is doubling down on the mistakes he has already made. It wasn't enough to end the Remain in Mexico policy, which was successful and which Border Patrol agents tell me needs to be put back in place if the goal is actually to secure the border. Now, the Biden administration seems to be actively looking for people who had to wait in Mexico under President Trump and let them into the United States. He is inviting them into our country, and he is not stopping there. He is going further. Now, it seems like President Biden is going to open the door even wider. Last year, at the start of the pandemic, the previous administration closed our borders to people from coronavirus-impacted areas. This was a decision made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They did this under title 42 of our laws. This is a section of our laws related to public health. Well, it is likely to have saved thousands of American lives and protected our public health. It has also helped our Border Patrol. They will tell you that. They will tell you that this has helped them to stem the flow of illegal immigration over the past year. But now, President Biden, I understand, wants to end that policy--at least that is what the White House is telling the press. That means the crisis at the border is going to get even worse. You don't have to take my word for it, listen to what Democratic Congressman from San Antonio, Congressman Henry Cuellar, had to say. He represents a district in Texas right on the border--lives there, goes home every weekend, talks to the people, and knows the situation on the border. He recently said ending the title 42 order is ``going to provide another incentive.'' He said, ``The drug cartels are going to start saying you can come in.'' That is Congressman Cuellar, of Texas, and I believe he is right. President Biden has removed almost all of the policies protecting our border. Title 42 is the last one standing. Now, he is going to take this one down as well. Well, if he does, it will open the floodgates. I would expect tens of thousands more illegal immigrants coming into the country. It would create even more chaos from criminals all across the land--not just from Mexico, but from all across the world, coming across our southern border. As a physician, I am concerned about this decision from the fentanyl standpoint and also from the standpoint of the disease, the coronavirus and the new variants we are all dealing with. We know that people are coming from all over the world. When I was at the border this spring, at the Donna facility near McAllen, TX, the border agents said they had arrested people from more than 50 different countries coming across that southern border from Mexico into the United States. Now, this includes lots of places where the vaccination rates are much, much lower than they are in the United States and in some places where vaccines aren't even available. At the same time, we are seeing new variants of coronavirus rapidly spreading across the world; variants that are coming from other places; variants that are deadly; variants for which the vaccines that we have here in the United States may not be as effective as we had thought or as we would hope. So the country's threat for all of us is real. Since the pandemic began, more than 8,000 Border Patrol agents and officers have tested positive for coronavirus, and 32 of these agents have died of coronavirus. When I visited the border, I saw firsthand how unaccompanied children were routinely exposed to coronavirus. When I visited, roughly 1 in 10 of these young people who had tested, tested positive for coronavirus. And they were all together in these holding pens, crammed in like sardines, one exposing the other and the other after that. These holding facilities packed 7,000 young people into one facility the day we were there, and they have exposed everyone in the facility. And, of course, after their time in the holding facility, they are released--many of them released while positive. So as new variants spread around the world, this puts our Nation in serious danger. That is why Republican Senators are sending a letter to President Biden. Our message to President Biden is this: Leave the CDC protection under title 42 in place. The American people need it. We need it from a public health standpoint. It protects our public health. It protects our border agents. It strengthens our border security. There is enough chaos at the border already--too many drugs, too many criminals, and they are already crossing the border. We need to stop this knee-jerk partisanship. And we need to get back to the policies that we know work; the policies that the Border Patrol tells us work; the policies that the Border Patrol advised the Biden transition team, prior to Joe Biden's getting sworn in and inaugurated as President of the United States, to keep in place. We need to finish the wall that has already been paid for. We need to bring back the Remain in Mexico policy. We need to enforce the law. We need to close the loopholes. We need to slam the door shut on the drug cartels. It is time to secure our border once and for all. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I rise today to submit for the record a column written by Mr. Jim Magagna, executive vice president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, entitled ``Magagna: The Real Challenges of Ranching.'' The article was published on June 2 of this year. I recently spoke at the 2021 Wyoming Cattle Industry Convention and Trade Show, ``Positioning Wyoming's Beef Industry for Success,'' hosted by the 149-year-old Wyoming Stock Growers Association in Sheridan. This convention focused on both the challenges and the opportunities that producers have before them. Jim says it best: Some of these are just simply challenging opportunities. I urge my colleagues to stand with ranchers like Jim Magagna and the ranchers that he represents. Stand with those who understand the land best and not with extremists who do not know how to run a farm, a ranch, or a small business.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Thune.)

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Nadia for her hard work as an intern in the Senate Republican Conference. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming. Nadia is a native of Maryland. She is a student at American University, where she studies psychology and communication: film and media arts. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months. I want to thank Nadia for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It was a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her next journey.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, the Senate will be voting tomorrow on the nomination of Tommy Beaudreau to serve as the Deputy Secretary of the Interior. If confirmed, he will play a critical role in managing our Nation's public lands, our natural resources, our national parks, our wildlife areas, and the Outer Continental Shelf. He will oversee the management of the largest water supply in the West, and he will also oversee our Nation's trust responsibilities to American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives. He will be responsible for the multiple uses of our public lands. One of the most important roles that he will fulfill is overseeing the development of traditional and renewable energy supplies on public lands and waters. Energy production on public lands is the engine of Wyoming's economy. It creates good-paying jobs. It provides tremendous revenue for the State, and we use the essential services of the State funded by this, like public education. Mr. Beaudreau has extensive experience at the Department of the Interior. He served in a leadership position during the Obama administration. As an attorney in the private sector, he regularly handled matters relating to the Department. He is an expert in his field. His qualifications are clear. It is also clear from his nomination hearing that he understands America's needs for an ``all of the above'' energy strategy. That strategy must include coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and renewables. I appreciated his commitment to working with members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The Department needs to listen and collaborate with the people of Wyoming and the West. These are the States that rely heavily on energy production on our public lands. We are the States that power America. We are the ones that will be hit the hardest by President Biden's punishing Executive orders. This administration has unleashed a barrage of Executive actions that threaten to destroy the livelihoods of oil, natural gas, and coal workers in the West. It is critical that Mr. Beaudreau keep those Americans at the forefront of his mind as he works at the Department. He can serve as a voice of reason in an administration that is waging a war on American energy workers. My goal is to hold Mr. Beaudreau and the Biden administration accountable to the commitments that Mr. Beaudreau has made to our committee, and I will support his nomination

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need for integrity in our elections. As I stand here, you know, prices are rising at the pump, and prices are rising at the grocery store. Inflation is the highest it has been basically since the financial crisis 13 years ago. The number of unfilled jobs is at a record high for our Nation. Small businesses, certainly in my home State in Wyoming and all across the country, have ``help wanted'' signs up; they can't find workers. Some are worried they may have to shut down forever. We also have a crisis at the southern border. There is a lot happening in America today. Half a million illegal immigrants have crossed our border since Joe Biden took the oath of office to become President of the United States. Now, these are just the illegal immigrants whom we know about. Since Joe Biden became President, we have seized over 3,200 pounds of fentanyl at our southern border. That is enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child living in America today. That is just one category of drugs, and these are the drugs that we know about. Just imagine what has come into the country that we don't know about. Yet, despite the critics and the crisis--President Biden has created a crisis, and Democrats, certainly in this body, refuse to raise a finger to bring the crisis to an end. Instead, it seems that the Democrats are focused on only one thing and one thing alone, and that is seizing more power. We are told Democrats are going to bring a bill to the floor next week on election takeover in America. Now, the majority leader already knows that this bill cannot pass the U.S. Senate. It will not pass because he doesn't even have the support for the votes in his own caucus, and that is because the bill is radical, it is extreme, it is dangerous, and it is scary. It is actually a Federal takeover of elections in America. Under the Constitution, the times, places, and manner of holding elections is generally up to the States. This bill would flip the constitutional order and flip it upside down and put Congress and Washington in charge of elections, not each of our individual States. It would effectively repeal the election laws in all 50 States. This Democratic takeover attempt is over 800 pages in length, over 800 pages of mandates. Every page of the bill has one thing in common: makes it easier to cheat. Makes it easier to cheat in elections. For example, the bill would register people to vote automatically, whether they wanted to be registered or not. Automatic registration. Take everyone they have in databases throughout a State and sign them up. Now, under this bill, anyone who interacted with a State government would then be registered to vote. Well, this includes a lot of people who aren't legally entitled to vote because they are not U.S. citizens. So these are obviously people who would not be eligible to vote. Doesn't matter to Democrats--register them anyway. Maybe it is just a coincidence that Democrats opened our border before pushing this election takeover, where everybody in a database in a State is registered to vote. Maybe it is not a coincidence. The bill also endorses something called ballot harvesting. That is where paid political operatives can go door to door and collect hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of ballots--other people's ballots--and then they get to decide which ballots they are going to turn in. No supervision. No accountability. None. These activists could destroy, tamper, or lose ballots. These activists could do just that. No one would ever know. Additionally, the bill would force taxpayers to pay for political campaigns. For every small political donation, taxpayers would pay and kick in an additional $6--$6 kicked in by the taxpayers for every $1 of small-dollar donations raised. Much of it is raised online. This is an invitation to money laundering. Activists could spread out donations to get free taxpayer money. One of my colleagues in the Senate on the Republican side of the aisle looked at this and said: ``Gee.'' Based on fundraising that he has done online, he would be entitled to a check from the government for $30 million. Taxpayers don't want to put that kind of taxpayer dollar behind any candidate, whether they are Republican or Democrat. Democrats sit here and they claim they want less money in politics. Yet every several years--every 2 years, they outspend the Republicans. Now they want taxpayers to add to the money they are spending. Well, political activists have plenty of money already. They don't need additional taxpayer dollars. Finally, this bill would ban voter ID. That means when you go to vote and you ask for a ballot--this is what voter ID is. You go to vote, you ask for a ballot, and you have to show an identification card that proves you are who you say you are. Democrats have been trying to eliminate that one for a long, long time. Democrats claim that asking for identification is racist. The idea that people can't get an ID is absurd. It is condescending. ID is required to check into a hotel. It is required to order a beer at a bar. It is required to buy a pack of cigarettes. It is required to get on an airplane--any airline in America. Voting is a lot more important than any of these things. It is the foundation of our entire system of government. We ought to make it safe, and we ought to make it secure. During the committee process, Democrats had a chance to fix the bill. Senator Hyde-Smith from Mississippi said that she would like to take a look at this bill and use the campaign funding instead to help rural hospitals, instead of this matching money of 6 to 1 to candidates. Oh, no. Democrats didn't want any part of that. They want the money. Senator Fischer and Senator Hagerty said that we should delay the date the bill would go into effect. That would prevent a conflict of interest for the Democrats who vote for it, because, in a sense, the Democrats who vote for it would be getting the money themselves. Democrats said: No. No. We want the money. Senator Hyde-Smith and Senator Cruz also tried to remove this ban on voter ID from the bill. Democrats said: Nope. People can show up, say whoever they want to say they are, and get a ballot. Democrats deny the existence of voter fraud. They claim no irregularities ever happen--not in their elections. So then why are they trying to repeal or eliminate or take over every State voting law in the country? Truth is, there is a problem with our elections today. Yet the Democratic bill would make these problems even worse. A majority of the public says they don't want future elections to look like the last one--special situation, a pandemic. They don't want future elections to look like the last one. The American people want security, and they want integrity. We want to trust that our elections are fair. That is why I have joined Senator Scott of Florida, Senator Hyde- Smith, and Senator Lummis to introduce a bill specifically to give people more confidence in our elections. It is called the Save Democracy Act. Our bill bans vote harvesting. It bans automatic registration. It requires at least a Social Security number to register to vote. Under our bill, States can't just send out ballots in the mail based on old information. People could still vote by mail, as they do in my home State of Wyoming; they would just need to request a ballot. They wouldn't get a ballot automatically in the mail; they would have to request a ballot so that we know their information is up-to-date. These are the kind of commonsense protections that our elections need. Our bill makes it actually harder to cheat, not easier. The Democrat's bill makes it easier to cheat. At a time like this, when prices are too high, hiring is too low, the U.S. Senate has important work to do, the things that we hear about when we go home on weekends: What does it cost for gas? What does it cost for groceries? What does it cost to fill up your car? The American people want us to work on these bread-and-butter issues that affect their daily lives. They don't want this partisan power grab that is going to be voted on in the Senate next week. They also don't want the Senate wasting time on bills that cannot pass. It is time for the Democrats and the Democratic leader to focus on what the American people are asking us to focus on: bring down inflation, stop paying people more to not work than they would make if they were working, secure our southern border, and leave our elections alone. That is what I hear at home, and I know that many of the Members are hearing the exact same thing as we work here to focus on what should be the future of a better, more prosperous America, not a one- sided America, with a domination of elections based on a law to make it easier to cheat. I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about our economy and link that to the budget that the President has introduced for our Nation going forward. On Friday, the Department of Labor published its monthly jobs report. Just like the April jobs report, the May report is a cause for concern. There really wasn't any cause for celebration. Yet President Biden did exactly the same thing that he did in the previous month after that disappointing jobs report--he declared victory. He gave a speech in Delaware, and he called it ``historic progress.'' Even the President of the United States is stretching the language of our Nation right here. Let's look at the facts. What is Joe Biden calling ``historic progress''? Over the last 2 months, about 850,000 fewer people were hired than the economists had predicted. In the month of May alone, 160,000 people left the labor force. The percentage of Americans in the labor force actually went down. Another month, another weak jobs report. It is disappointing but not surprising. We know why it has slowed down. President Biden and the Democrats have committed to paying millions of people more to stay home from work than to go to work. If you pay people more to not work than to work, that is what you are going to get. That is what they are being encouraged to do. In fact, I would say that these people are not being lazy; they are being logical with the incentives that the Democrats have put in front of them, which is money in their pockets to stay home from work. There are 9.3 million jobs that are unfilled right now in the United States, a record high. As a result, small businesses--and I heard about it this weekend in Wyoming--are struggling to find people to work there. They are having a hard time finding people to take jobs. They have signs up: ``Help Wanted.'' ``We Need You.'' ``Offering Incentives.'' If people are getting paid more to not work than to work, that is what they are going to do. At the same time, prices continue to rise. That is what I heard about as I was sitting, waiting to have my oil changed. It was a longer line than usual in Casper, not because we didn't have good workers but because we didn't have enough of them in a place that changed oil that had two bays set up but was down to one. They have to do that several days a week because they don't have the workforce. They can't find the people to change the oil. So it was a good townhall meeting as we sat around there, waiting for our oil to be changed, talking to people about their concerns. That is what we heard about: trouble finding workers, inflation. Last week, the White House Press Secretary was asked about high gas prices--and I had heard about that in Wyoming as we were sitting around, waiting to get the oil changed: You know, it costs about $15 or $20 more to fill a tank than it did a year ago. People not only pay attention to how many dollars and cents it costs for a gallon of gas but how much it costs to fill the tank and how much less they have to spend for other things. The White House Press Secretary said that gas prices aren't very high if you account for inflation. If you account for inflation? It is inflation. Gas prices are high because it is what happens when prices go up. That is inflation. This should be a news flash for America. Inflation is the problem. The White House Press Secretary didn't seem to see the connection. It is caused by this administration. Gas prices have gone up about 70 cents a gallon in the last 4 months--since Joe Biden took the oath of office. It is no surprise when the President, on the day he takes the oath of office, paints a target on the back of American energy and pulls the trigger, which makes us more dependent on foreign sources of energy. As the senior Senator from Alaska said in an Energy Committee hearing, we are, at this time in the United States, using more energy from Russia than we are from her home State of Alaska. That is a comment on the policies of this administration. Summer is almost here, and the pandemic is almost over. What is going to happen with regard to the demand for gasoline? It is going to continue to go up. There is a moratorium on the exploration of oil and gas in the United States, and we are making ourselves more dependent on foreign sources. What is the President doing? Imposing more taxes on American energy. Last week, he put more restrictions on the production of energy from Alaska. Now what does he want to do? Well, we have seen it in the Finance Committee right here. He wants to impose the increase of taxes on oil and gas producers. That is going to hurt the people who work in that industry, and it is going to make all of us pay more at the tank. This is basic economics. If you restrict the production of American oil and gas and if you raise the taxes on oil and gas, the prices people have to pay at the pump--the prices they pay to fill up their vehicles--are going to go up. President Biden keeps declaring victory and keeps doubling down on policies that are slowing down the economy. Two weeks ago, he introduced his budget request for next year. To me, it is a blueprint for bankruptcy. He is proposing $6 trillion in Federal spending for next year. During the pandemic, the country hit about $4 trillion in annual Federal spending for the first time ever. This was during a national emergency, and we passed it in a bipartisan way with over 90 votes in the Senate. In five different coronavirus relief bills, we were able to deal with what needed to be done for our Nation at the time. The pandemic is behind us, and the President now wants to spend $2 trillion more than that every year even after the pandemic is over. This is only the beginning. The Biden budget doesn't even include some of the most expensive campaign promises he made when he was running for President. According to one estimate, the Biden budget is missing about $1.5 trillion that he had promised to spend. It is not even included in the budget. What happens with all of this additional spending? Of course, it is going to cause inflation because more money will be out there to chase the goods and services that are available. President Biden also wants to bring back the death tax. This would be devastating for farmers and ranchers who want to keep their farms in their families. I heard about it this past weekend in Sheridan, WY, with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. As for the families who have had the ranches or the farms in their families for over 100 years, we call them centennial families in Wyoming, and we celebrate them every year. They have all said, if this happens--if the Biden administration does this with what it wants to do with the death tax-- when Grandma or Grandpa passes, every one of them is going to have to sell the farm just to pay the taxes. They have been able to keep them within the families for 100 years. Joe Biden is going to take the ax to them. Get this. He wants to hire 87,000 more bureaucrats at the Internal Revenue Service. The Internal Revenue Service is the least accountable and most powerful Agency in the Federal Government. The Biden goal is to collect $700 billion more from taxpayers. What does he want to do with the money? Use it for additional socialist spending. We have seen the list. Under the Biden agenda, working families are going to be paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and they are going to end up paying more as well through taxes. They are seeing it now. Our jobs reports, our inflation reports, our gas prices have all been disappointing to all Americans. This is a direct result of the policies that are coming out of this administration and out of this White House. It is time for the President to stop the attacks on American energy, to stop paying people more to not work than to work, and to stop this irresponsible spending spree as outlined in the budget. We know what works. Let's return to the policies that work, to the policies that have been giving us the best economy in a half a century. Just 16 months ago, we had low taxes, reasonable regulations, and more American energy. The economy was booming until the coronavirus hit. We need to get back to that again I yield the floor.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to talk about the crisis that is occurring at our southern border. Joe Biden has been President now for about 4 months. In this time, illegal immigration at the southern border has more than doubled. We are now on a pace this year--this year alone--for the most illegal immigration in two decades. The numbers that we see, based on last month, we are talking about 2 million people coming to America this year illegally. It seems to me that, on the first day in office, President Biden signed Executive orders that flipped on the green light that said: Come to America. He rolled out the welcome mat, and he sent a clear message that our borders are open. He shut down construction of the border wall, a wall that we have actually paid to have done, to be constructed. I have been there. The parts are lying on the ground and the workers stopped, on inauguration day, from putting up portions of the wall to close down the gaps. He stopped all deportations for 100 days. He brought back the program known as catch-and-release. And since he took these actions--and I have talked to the Border Patrol on the ground, and they say the border has been overwhelmed. Now, illegal immigrants are coming from all over the world. People say: Well, it is an issue between Mexico and the United States. The people coming here are coming from all over the world. At the time I was there, we heard that over 50 countries have been represented in the people who have been captured, including Romania, Armenia, Bangladesh. People are flying to Mexico who can't come to the United States because of paperwork, who they are, what their intentions may be. They aren't allowed to get tickets to come to the United States so they fly to Mexico to come into the United States illegally. The entire world knows that the border is open because that is the message sent out by this administration. And that, of course, includes criminals. Border agents have already arrested 95 convicted sex offenders. Border agents have arrested 95 convicted sex offenders coming into the country illegally, and this includes the last number of months. And I will tell you, the sex offenders include a man from El Salvador who was convicted of raping a child in Washington State. We are talking about people who have been convicted in the United States, who are now out of the country, coming back in--conviction in Washington State. It also included a man from El Salvador who was convicted of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl. This abuse took place in New York City, which is a sanctuary city. This is what happens when our borders are open and the message is sent out around the world. And for the open borders crowd who like this sort of thing, some of whom are Members of the Congress of the United States, this is just collateral damage. It is all part of a political agenda. It has been more than 2 months since President Biden put Vice President Harris in charge of the border. She has found time to make it to the Canadian border but not time to make it to the border between the United States and Mexico. This week, and right now, the Vice President has been on her first overseas trip in the role as Vice President. She is going to Central America and to Mexico but not to the border. She has announced new gifts of American taxpayer dollars given to people from other countries. When reporters asked her--and she did; I saw the sitdown interview and the video of it--if she was going to the border, she actually laughed. She thought it was a joke. It was very disappointing to see the Vice President acting in that way. She said: ``I haven't been to Europe either,'' like it didn't matter. She hadn't been to Europe; there are a lot of places she hadn't been. The place the American people know she hasn't been is to the border between Mexico and the United States. In reality, she knows. She knows that if she goes to the border--she knows that if she goes to the border between the United States and Mexico, she knows that the news cameras will go with her. She knows that the media would broadcast the crisis that they see at the border to the whole world. She knows that, then, more and more Americans will see firsthand the truth for themselves. That is why the Vice President is not going to the border between Mexico and the United States. The White House refuses to say it is a crisis. They refuse to say those words. They just want to use the word ``challenge'' instead of the reality of the crisis that I saw when I was there at the border with a group of Republican Senators. That is why they are doubling down on policies that caused the crisis. Two weeks ago, the President released his budget for the coming year. It is the biggest budget proposal by any President in American history. It would nearly double Federal spending over the next decade. Yet the President's budget for the Department of Homeland Security, the Department that is supposed to keep our Nation safe, is flatlined. The President likes to say--and he has said it time and time again. He said it when he was in the Senate; he said it as Vice President of the United States; and now he says it as the President. He said: If you want to know somebody's values, just look at their budget. Well, we have seen Joe Biden's budget, and we know his values. And his values are not those of supporting and promoting the security of our Nation through border security. The President's budget includes $800 million in aid for Central America. I don't know if Joe Biden thinks you can bribe people with our own tax dollars to not cross the border. It is an absolute surrender, and it leaves our borders wide open. Our southern border is in crisis, but the crisis isn't limited to the border itself. President Biden has also tied the hands of our immigration officials all across America. The Washington Post came out with a story, and they put it this way. I want to make sure I have it absolutely accurate so I am going to read it to you. It says: Under President Biden, ICE--Immigration and Customs Enforcement--``is an agency on probation.'' This is the Washington Post. It says: Biden has placed ICE deportation officers on a leash so tight that some say their work is being functionally abolished. That is the Washington Post on the President of the United States and what he has done with regard to our borders and our immigration authorities with his very flatlined budget for the Department of Homeland Security. The article goes on, and it says: ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month. The agency's 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months. One arrest every 2 months. Hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens have court orders for deportation. Yet, despite these enormous numbers, deportations have never been lower, never been lower. No wonder the crisis is getting worse. I heard about it all last week over Memorial Day as I traveled around the State of Wyoming. People are very concerned about this disregard for our borders and for the support that our Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers need. So it is no wonder to me that the people of Wyoming are concerned, and I imagine that people all around the country are concerned. My colleagues heard it as well, as they traveled their home States just in the last week. The border really is one of the top issues that I am asked about every weekend in Wyoming. I will be heading home again tomorrow night for the weekend, traveling the State, and I expect to hear more and more about it this coming weekend. The American people want to keep the borders secure, and they want to be safe at home. We know what to do. We know what works. The border agents told President Biden's transition team before he was inaugurated what we needed to do to keep the border secure, what works, what wouldn't work. They say enforce the law, close the loopholes, the loopholes that encourage illegal immigration. They say finish the wall, the wall that we have already paid for. And they say bring back the policy known as ``Remain in Mexico.'' Until we take these basic steps, the crisis is going to continue, the border is going to remain open, and the American people will continue to come to us to say there is more that can be done and should be done and must be done because the American people know that when the border is not secure, that people of America continue to be at heightened risk. Thank you. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I rise today to recognize a significant anniversary for the Natrona County Meals on Wheels Program. On Saturday, June 19, 2021, this wonderful organization will celebrate its 50th anniversary. Meals on Wheels is dedicated to providing healthy meals, a friendly smile, and a watchful eye to seniors across the Nation. As a doctor, I understand the importance of balanced nutrition but also companionship and care. The hard-working employees and volunteers deliver all three by offering tailored meals and home visits. In 1971 Casper resident Mabel Marvel founded the Casper branch of Meals on Wheels. Mabel was on a trip to Colorado to visit family when she ran across a similar service. The volunteers for the Colorado organization were delivering hot meals to elderly residents from a church kitchen. Mrs. Marvel realized that Casper did not have such a program. Soon after, she formed an office in a Salvation Army coat closet and requested that the Natrona County Memorial Hospital, now Wyoming Medical Center, aid in providing meals. This was the beginning of the Natrona County Meals on Wheels Program. When Natrona County Meals on Wheels began initial operations, they were preparing 20 meals a day. By 2001, the number of meals delivered increased to over 500 per day. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the need for home-delivered meals exploded. This Casper-based organization rose to the challenge and served clients who were forced to quarantine and unable to leave their homes. In Natrona County, they delivered over 650 meals each Monday through Thursday and an average of 1,550 meals on Fridays to cover the weekends. Their hard work resulted in senior citizens in Natrona County receiving nearly 207,000 meals in 2020. Serving so many people at once is challenging, especially when many of these meals are prepared with special dietary needs in mind. Meals on Wheels prepares healthy food for community members requiring specific diets including diabetic, celiac, and vegetarian. The volunteers with Meals on Wheels also make home visits to check in with members of the community who may not have enough social interaction or are not as mobile. The giving nature of this organization presents its members with a balanced meal and quality time spent with others. Ensuring the needs of community members allows seniors to preserve their independence at home. Meals on Wheels continues to find new ways to enrich our community. Jamie Loveall has been leading the charge as the Executive Director of Natrona County Meals on Wheels for more than 17 years. She has written grants, planned community events, and helped prepare meals in order to keep clients fed, staff members engaged, and the community aware. A favorite community event is their Bubbles, Baubles 'n Beans fundraiser. It is a chili and soup tasting experience to raise money for annual operating costs. The strength of an organization is determined by the dedication of its leadership, staff, and volunteers. The full-time staff are responsible for preparing the meals, managing the financial aspects, and writing the delivery routes. In addition to Executive Director Jamie Loveall, staff members are Katrina Lorenzen, Foundation Development Director, Andrea Trout, Route Coordinator/Administrative Assistant, Debbie Cardinal, Receptionist/Volunteer Coordinator, Ashley Woodward, Client Services Coordinator, Mariah Bokhari, Bookkeeper, and Shelley Blake, Kitchen Manager. Current board members are Jim Browlee, President, Joe Moss, Vice President, Vickie Ujvary, Treasurer, Don Smith, Secretary, and members Wendy Elmer, Bob Thunselle, Ed Chase, Jennifer Deurloo, Peggy Porter, Kelli Carmichael, Paul Rhodes, CJ Lovato, Dane Grace, and Stacia Hill. The volunteers deliver the meals, partake in home visits, and spend quality time with clients. Eighty-five percent of the volunteers with the Natrona County service are seniors themselves, using their time to help friends and neighbors. About the volunteers, Jamie Loveall says, ``Without these individuals, our program would not exist.'' It is my great honor to celebrate the incredible work of this organization. Every day, the staff and volunteers of Natrona County Meals on Wheels work to make our community a better place to live. My wife Bobbi joins me in wishing the Natrona County Meals on Wheels another 50 years of success.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the ongoing crisis at our southern border. Over the past few weeks, the Biden border crisis has been overshadowed by several other crises facing our country under this administration. Inflation has surged. The price of gasoline across Wyoming and likely in the home State of the Presiding Officer as well is now over $3 a gallon. Democrats have been on another spending spree. It is a trillion-dollar spending spree. Hiring has plummeted across the country. Terrorists have attacked our closest ally. The response from the Biden administration actually on that attack has been to treat both our closest ally Israel and the attackers of Hamas as equals. I could go on and on. The most serious challenges facing our Nation have escalated ever since President Biden has taken office, but you can't forget the border crisis that we have now under President Biden. Over the last several months, basically since President Biden took office on January 20 and he changed our border policies, the crisis has only gotten worse. President Biden flipped on a big green light and said: Come to America. That is the message that people heard all across the world. He sent a clear message that the border is open. On his first day in office, President Biden shut down construction of the southern border wall. He stopped all deportations for 100 days. He brought back a program basically known as catch-and-release. Now those policy changes have led to a dramatic increase in illegal immigration. In March, our border agents caught 170,000 immigrants crossing our southern border illegally. In April, they caught even more: 178,000 illegal immigrants in just 30 days. The numbers have gone up and up. I heard a report yesterday that we are now at half a million people coming in illegally ever since President Biden has taken office. Half a million--that is the population of the entire State of Wyoming coming into the country illegally since January 20. This year we are on a pace for illegal immigration to hit a 20-year high. Our border agents are overwhelmed. Two-thirds of the Border Patrol are too busy to actually be out there enforcing the law. They are too busy either taking care of kids, unaccompanied minors, or adults who have come across with families and have done so illegally. So only about one-third are out there trying to stop the bad guys who are coming into this country--human traffickers, drug traffickers--some even, we know, on the terrorist watch list. In fact, they are so overwhelmed that they are doing something now they have never done before: They are releasing illegal immigrants directly into the country without even giving them court dates. Instead, they are telling them to report to ICE facilities, oh, sometime in the next couple of months. This is unprecedented. This is worse than catch-and-release. This is an absolute, total surrender by the Biden administration to people coming into the country illegally. This is in addition to the tens of thousands of immigrants who simply escape. Border Patrol calls them getaways. They got away. They got into the country without being stopped. We saw these folks doing this when a number of us went to the border a month or so ago, chanting across the Rio Grande River: ``You cannot stop us now.'' The top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, Senator Portman, revealed last week that there were 40,000 of these ``got- aways'' just last month. Well, how many of them were drug smugglers? How many of them are human traffickers? How many are on the terrorist watch list? We will never know. Over the same month, deportation hit a record low. The crisis might have disappeared from the headlines, but it hasn't gone away. And the people living near the border are being impacted dramatically. It is only getting worse Fifty thousand unaccompanied children have crossed the border since Joe Biden became President. Unprecedented. At a time of a global pandemic, these children are not social distancing, let me tell you. That is what we saw when we saw them crammed in like sardines into the Donna facility at the southern tip of Texas. The media reports that the Department of Health and Human Services has left some kids on buses overnight. This is a humanitarian crisis: nowhere for them to sleep, nowhere to bathe. One teenager named Joel said he was left on a bus for 3 days. That is how President Biden and his administration are handling the situation. I know Democrats love to lecture Republicans about humane immigration policy. This is not humane. This is not humane. The White House is now boasting that they are transferring the kids out of Border Patrol facilities. Nothing to brag about there. That is what the law mandates. They are just sending them from one overcrowded government facility to another overcrowded government facility. It seems like they are playing a shell game with these kids so they can play with the numbers. But the problem hasn't been solved; no, sir, it has not. Thousands and thousands of children keep showing up, and the crisis keeps getting worse. The Biden White House has told the world: Anyone under 18 can cross our border; we will let them in. And they are coming in record numbers. So it is not a surprise that tens of thousands of families are taking President Biden up on the offer. Not just families--criminals are taking advantage of these children. Criminals know that Border Patrol is overwhelmed. Criminals know, if they use kids to distract our agents, they will be able to make an end run via got-away, get-around, and bring drugs into the country. Border Patrol has come to the Congress and has told the Appropriations Committee in the House that they are seizing four times as much fentanyl this year as they seized last year. They are not sure how much they are missing, but we do know that this is a drug that killed more than 30,000 Americans in 2019. Border Patrol has already seized more fentanyl over the last 7 months than they did over the previous year. They have seized enough fentanyl at the border--people trying to move it into the country illegally--the volume that has been seized at the border is enough to kill more than a million people. That is just the drugs that we know about. Imagine the drugs we don't know about. Well, how are Democrats going to deal with this border crisis? Many are ignoring it. Neither the President nor the Vice President has been to the border since taking office 4 months ago--neither one of them. Many Democrats are trying to distract people from the issue. So why are the President and Vice President not going? Because they know, if they go, TV cameras will go with them, and it will attract more attention to the crisis--the humanitarian crisis, the national security crisis--that they have created. Now some Democrats are actually proposing that we make the crisis worse. Last week, the Senate had an opportunity to finish the border wall. Remember, the border wall has already been paid for. Only one Democrat voted to complete the wall. Every other Democrat voted to block it. They voted against finishing the wall even though we have already paid for it. I have been there. I have seen areas of the wall. The materials are there lying on the ground, just needing to be lifted up and connected to other portions of the wall, and that construction stopped the day President Biden took the oath of office. The Border Patrol officers say it would make a huge difference in their lives, in their jobs of protecting our Nation, if they could just put up and place that final spot of the wall. Some Democrats are actually encouraging even more illegal immigration. Democrats in Washington just sent $26 billion in taxpayer money to the Governor of California. Now, what does he want to do with the $26 billion that was sent to the Governor of California? He wants to give some of that money to illegal immigrants. Eight Senate Democrats have introduced a bill to give free healthcare to children who are here illegally. They introduced a bill this month, knowing full well about the child migration crisis at our border. This bill would only make the crisis worse. The Democrat promises of government benefits are a magnet to illegal immigrants. Democrats talk a lot about compassion. This is not compassion. The compassionate thing to do is to stop the crisis. We know how to do that. We know what works. Democrats don't like to admit it, but President Trump was historically successful in controlling our border. Democrats say that the system was dismantled. This is the exact opposite of the truth. Democrats are dismantling it today. Democrats need to stop giving our taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants. Democrats need to turn off this magnet that is drawing 50,000 children to risk their lives and take a very dangerous journey, many paying those to traffic them, to bring them up to the border and carry them across. We need to go back to the policies that make our borders secure: Enforce the law, close the loopholes that encourage our illegal immigration, finish the wall that we paid for, bring back the Remain in Mexico policy. This crisis might be overshadowed by the other crises that are hitting us now in this Nation, ones for which Joe Biden is responsible; yet the crisis at our Southern border will not go away until we take action. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that both Senator Sullivan and I be allowed to complete our remarks--me for up to 12 minutes and Senator Sullivan for up to 5 minutes--before the vote.

Mr. BARRASSO

Mr. BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. President. President Biden should remember that by 1980, the American people had had enough. We changed course. We thought it was enough of Jimmy Carter, and we elected Ronald Reagan President. It is time to change course again. Let's create more American energy. Let's set down the taxpayer's credit card. Put it away. Cut up the credit card. Stop the reckless spending. American families have been paying the price. The people in the middle are being squeezed. The American people expect and deserve better. Thank you. I yield the floor. Vote on S.J. Res. 13