Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICE. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Washington Democrats' reckless spending has embedded painful inflation deep in our economy. Runaway prices are making families' monthly budgets harder to balance. And as interest rates rise, the financial markets where millions of Americans invest their life savings are becoming literally more volatile. Short-term bond yields are trading at their highest levels since the precipice of the Great Recession in 2007. Indications of expected stock market volatility appear to be actually on the upswing. But with Americans' retirement accounts already in jeopardy, Democrats have gone looking for still more ways to put workers' savings at even greater risk. The Biden administration is trying to enact a radical new regulation that would help liberals use Americans' very own retirement savings as financial muscle for political causes they may not even support. The Labor Department's proposed new rule would water down financial managers' fiduciary obligation to get the best return for their clients. This administration wants to let the fund managers prioritize extraneous factors--from companies' carbon footprints to various HR policies--when deciding where to invest hard-working Americans' savings. The Biden administration wants to let Wall Street use its workers' hard-earned savings to pursue leftwing political initiatives instead of trying to maximize the returns for their clients' retirements. Democrats want to let money managers making these unrelated ideological goals a higher priority than getting their clients, ordinary American workers, the best returns for their own retirements. Not surprisingly, studies suggest that investment funds where the managers put a political thumb on the scale in this particular fashion tend, not surprisingly, to underperform normal investments. When you put ideology ahead of seeking the highest returns, well, the returns, of course, suffer. And if the Democrats have their way, the losers will be ordinary American workers who have spent their whole careers putting money away for their retirement. In effect, we are talking about letting financial companies garnish the retirement savings of workers, without their permission, in order to pursue unrelated liberal political goals. The Biden administration wants to put American workers in a position where portions of their potential returns on their retirement savings could be effectively donated away to leftwing political causes without their consent. What a disastrous way to pile onto the pain they have already caused millions of American families. I am grateful to my colleague from Indiana, Senator Braun, and to my friend and fellow Kentuckian Congressman Andy Barr for leading a bipartisan resolution in both Houses to make sure that Americans' retirement accounts are about one thing: maximizing returns on investments. I will be proud to support this commonsense measure later this week.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on another matter, crime in our Nation's Capital is literally out of control. Washington, DC, has already seen about three dozen homicides in just the first 2 months of the year. This is a 35-percent increase over last year's pace. There have been more than 1,300 thefts from autos--a 25-percent increase over last year's pace--and more than 1,100 thefts of motor vehicles, including carjackings, more than doubling last year's pace for a shattering 109-percent increase. At best, the liberal city politicians who have presided over this ongoing collapse in law and order are doing basically nothing. The Mayor recently announced that the city will hand out free steering wheel locks to residents who own certain kinds of vehicles. But some local officials are not content with doing nothing and have set their minds to making the situation actually worse. The city council just passed a new criminal code designed to go even softer still on crime, reducing penalties for a number of violent offenses and property crimes. To a unique degree, unlike any other city in America, Washington, DC, issues are national issues. The District of Columbia doesn't belong to a handful of local politicians; it belongs to more than 330 million American citizens. The people need their government to function in safety. Families and school groups need to be able to come tour the Capital, which their own tax dollars help finance, in peace of body and peace of mind. This is why the Constitution entrusts our seat of government to a Federal district. It is why Federal law gives Congress the ability to step in and help govern our Nation's Capital City if local politicians fail to take care of basic business. Now, amazingly, the same Washington Democrats who have spent the last several years trying to steamroll localism and federalism in every way possible are now, all of a sudden, indignant at the notion that Congress might toughen up penalties for violent crime here in the District. Just last year alone, Democrats, right here in this Chamber, tried to break the Senate rules so they could micromanage every county in America's election laws. They tried to ram through a bill that would have swept away State and local laws and forced every community in America to adopt radical abortion laws on par with China and North Korea. Over the last 2 years, Democrats have passed bill after bill that spent trillions of dollars to interfere in American families' lives and put more of our society under the thumb of Federal bureaucrats. So when it comes to radical far-left priorities, Washington Democrats have no qualms whatsoever about this city steamrolling 50 States and local communities. They vote for that outcome 8 days a week. But now, when public safety is in free fall in our Federal city itself, now Washington Democrats pretend they have become small government federalists and they want Congress out of the picture. This is a desperate attempt to change the subject, and it could not be less persuasive. Democrats want Washington, DC, to take over every State law, even small business decisions and every family's financial choices. But we are supposed to believe that cleaning up violent crime in Washington, DC, itself, would be a bridge too far. Really? They are just trying to duck the real debate. Democrats want to debate anything and everything beside violent crime itself because the modern Democratic Party and its coalitions have decided it is more important to have compassion for serial violent felons than for innocent citizens who just want to live their lives. That is the issue here--a binary choice. Should we be softer on crime like Democrats want at the State, local, and Federal levels, or should we be tougher on crime like Republicans and the American people want? That is the debate. I want to thank Senator Hagerty for spearheading the commonsense resolution that would nullify the DC Council's insane pro-criminal legislation and bring at least an ounce of common sense back to the American people's Federal city.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, like a number of Senators on both sides of the aisle, I spent the first part of last week meeting with our NATO allies and our European partners in Munich. In Munich, we met an array of world leaders, including a bipartisan meeting with German Chancellor Scholz. It is clear from our meetings in Munich that Europe is moving in the right direction, but more must be done across the alliance to rebuild our defense capacity and to give Ukraine the weapons they need to defeat Russia's aggression. After the Munich Security Conference, Senators Tillis, Ernst, Budd, Britt, Ricketts, and I continued on to meet with more American partners in both Europe and the Middle East, where we met up with Senator Mullin as well. We met with both President Herzog and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Israel, with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, with the President of the UAE, as well as the President of Finland. We had the pleasure of meeting some of our own American diplomats and civilian personnel who were on the ground advancing our Nation's interests in each of these places. I was especially happy to meet some of the men and women serving in our Armed Forces who are onsite at installations in these countries or stationed protecting our Embassies. It was a great honor to run into some fellow Kentuckians serving in the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing at Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE. Here in Washington, you hear American leadership in the world discussed and debated like it is some fuzzy concept or abstract principle, but let me tell you, when you travel to Europe, when you travel to the Middle East, when you meet with the civilian and military leadership in those nations that are America's friends and wish us well--well, there is nothing unclear about the importance of America's leading role in the world. Our friends in Europe know beyond any doubt that peace and prosperity depend on a strong and involved America. Our partners in the Middle East know without a doubt that security and stability rely on a strong and involved America. We are the indispensable Nation. Our superpower status is paramount-- not just for these other countries but even more importantly, for our own interests here at home. Putting up our drawbridge and pretending we can go it alone as ``Fortress America'' will not cut it--will not cut it--in the 21st century. It would put the future of our economic security, energy security, and national security at enormous risk. The need for American leadership is palpable. My colleagues and I will have much more to say on this subject in the coming days.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a growing share of American citizens across the political spectrum say tackling rampant crime must be a top priority. And it is certainly no mystery why they feel that way. Just take my own hometown. One neighborhood in East Louisville just endured more than 30 burglaries in 30 days. Last year, Washington, DC, saw 203 homicides. Those victims included 18 children, a huge increase over the prior year. And 2023 is already off to an even worse start. Homicides and carjackings are already ahead of last year's pace. Last week, the city's crime wave touched Congress directly. A Congresswoman from Minnesota, Representative Angie Craig, was attacked in the elevator of her own apartment building right here in the District. It turns out the Congresswoman's attacker had been arrested and convicted no fewer than 12 times before, most recently for assaulting a Metropolitan police officer. But there he was, this career criminal, just out roaming the streets. As the Congresswoman herself put it afterwards: We have to get these repeat offenders off the street. You are darn right we do. Unfortunately, the radical local government here is doing precisely the opposite. The DC Council has responded to the crime wave--listen to this--with a new bill to make the city even softer on crime. It lowers maximum penalties for violent crimes and creates new ways to shorten the sentences of incarcerated felons. Well, the good news is the Constitution actually gives the U.S. Congress final say over issues in our Nation's Capital. And when the soft-on-crime local government has become completely incompetent; when Members of Congress can't go about their daily lives without being attacked; when families cannot come to visit our capital in safety, then it is about time the Federal Government provides some adult supervision. Senate Republicans, led by our colleague from Tennessee Bill Hagerty, are leading an effort to use the rightful authority of Congress to address this emergency. Last week, the Republican House passed their companion bill as well. And things have gotten so undeniably bad that more than 30 House Democrats crossed the aisle to support it. So I hope the Senate Democratic leader will put partisanship aside and turn to Senator Hagerty's measure quickly when we reconvene. The safety and security of our citizens simply cannot wait.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on one final matter, yesterday, President Biden and the Senate Democratic leader took time to boast about their judicial confirmations. There was something interesting, strange, and telling about their statements. Both the President and the Democratic leader focused their comments overwhelmingly on identity politics and demographic box-checking. The President's statement spent literally one part of one sentence paying lip service to the question of legal qualifications. The remaining five paragraphs were devoted solely to these new judges' demographic characteristics. It was really quite bizarre. President Biden informed the American people that a particular District Court in Puerto Rico will now have its first judge who is not heterosexual. He pointed out that men have been a small minority of his judicial nominees; that certain percentages of his nominees fit into certain demographic categories. He went on and on and on like this. Most Americans want our country to keep moving forward in a direction where people's physical characteristics do not define us. Do you know what share of Americans believe race or ethnicity should be a major factor in university admissions? Seven percent. Do you know what percentage believe that gender should be a major factor in university admissions? Four percent. But when these Democrats talk about our sacred legal system, they sound like the HR department at some liberal university. The White House statements singled out three judges by name. In all three cases, the President belabored some aspect of the judge's identity. In zero--zero--of the three cases did the President have anything to say about their knowledge, intellect, or professional distinction. It is offensive to all Americans who have a President seeming to view our judiciary as some kind of crude sociological math problem. This is just the kind of thing our Constitution cuts against. Ironically, when it came to how these new judges actually think, both the President and the Democratic leader went out of their way to celebrate the lack of diversity in their thinking. They bragged about their coordinated and deliberate effort to stuff the judiciary with an unprecedented volume of former criminal defense attorneys. Democrats have long said they want judges to have empathy. Well, that is good news if you happen to be the party for whom the judge has a special bias; not so good, however, if you are the other party and you are looking for a fair trial. Now, Democrats are helpfully telling us whom they want judges to empathize with: accused criminals, not innocent victims. Now, nobody is saying we shouldn't have any public defenders on the bench. But even the New York Times admits the Democrats' sweeping effort to tilt the playing field in one direction is ``a sea change in the world of judicial nominations.'' When Republicans held the Presidency and the Senate, we spent 4 years confirming staggeringly qualified and incredibly brilliant men and women to the courts, from widely diverse professional and educational credentials. Back then, even the very liberal outlet Vox.com reported: Based solely on objective legal credentials-- Objective legal credentials-- the average . . . appointee has a far more impressive resume than any past president's nominees. That was then. So where are we? These days, things are different. To name just one example, significantly smaller shares of this President's nominees have attained prestigious clerkships at the Supreme Court or the appellate level. To name another example, one person President Biden has put up for a lifetime appointment could not even tell the Judiciary Committee what is in article II or article V of the Constitution. Look, our courts uphold the rule of law and protect our citizens' rights. The American people deserve a judiciary that contains the smartest, most formidable, and most qualified legal all-stars in our country. And they deserve a President who takes this seriously. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, the longest serving female Senator in American history announced she plans to retire at the end of her record fifth full term. My good friend Dianne Feinstein made major history in 1992 when she became the first woman to represent California in the Senate. But, of course, both her knack for notching historic firsts and her commitment to her fellow Golden Staters were very well established by the time she arrived here in Washington. Dianne's career in politics began where many do: at the local level. But for Dianne, that happened to mean shattering glass ceilings in a major metropolis. She was the first woman to serve as president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. While in office, she endured a failed attempt to bomb her home. Then her predecessor as mayor was assassinated. That is when Dianne became the city's first female mayor. And then she handily beat an attempted recall. By the time this trailblazer became Senator Feinstein, there was practically nothing that could faze her. Dianne has been the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Judiciary Committee. For decades, she has been one of our country's most formidable legislators across numerous subjects. And, somehow, amid it all, this battle-tested veteran stateswoman has maintained a genuine warmth and collegiality that cuts through even the tensest debates. Elaine and I have been fortunate to count Dianne a friend for many years. Elaine and Dick served on a board together in the private sector years ago. Frequently, when Dick was in town, the four of us would go out to dinner. We had a genuine friendship. So as you can imagine, we hated to lose Dick recently. But the good news is Dianne will be here for 2 more years as our colleague. And that is very, very good news for Elaine and for me.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, last week, President Biden spent part of his State of the Union Address celebrating what he seemed to think was a victory over inflation. Yesterday, however, another wave of official figures confirmed what working families already knew: The President was simply wrong. The Democrats' football spiking was premature. The American people are hurting badly. The CPI rose another half a point last month, even faster than predicted, for an overall price hike of 6.4 percent year on year. Now, mind you, that is not 6.4 percent inflation since President Biden was sworn in. That is an additional 6.4 percent just since February of last year--since February of last year--a baseline that already had an entire previous year of historic and unacceptable inflation already baked into it. The overall Biden inflation rate is 14.4 percent. The overall Biden inflation rate is 14.4 percent from January 2021 to today. Rents are up 12.7 percent since President Biden took office. Grocery prices are up 19.6 percent. Energy prices are up 38 percent after 2 years of total Democratic control here in Washington. Prices are still rising out of control. And, even worse, the rate of increase is speeding back up again. This past month was the hottest for inflation since last October. We have now had 21 straight months above 5 percent annual inflation-- a mind-boggling policy failure. And what does the White House have to say about it? Well, yesterday, the President's press secretary claimed: The President's economic plan is indeed working. So I guess the official White House position is that Democrats caused all of this crushing inflation on purpose. This is the kind of insanity that has left just 16 percent of Americans saying they are in a better financial position than they were 2 years ago. That has nearly two- thirds of Americans saying they are living literally paycheck to paycheck. So much preventable pain, because Democrats gambled away families' security on their radical plans and their reckless spending.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this approach has met our needs for five of the past six Congresses, and I, too, would like to see it continue. In addition, special reserves have been restored to its historic purpose. We should continue to fund special reserves to the extent possible in order to be able to assist committees that face urgent, unanticipated, nonrecurring needs. Recognizing the tight budgets we will face for the foreseeable future, it is necessary to continue to bring funding authorizations more in line with our actual resources while ensuring that committees are able to fulfill their responsibilities. I look forward to continuing to work with the majority leader to accomplish this.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, our colleagues on the Commerce Committee will hear from someone they already know very well. Our Democratic colleagues have scheduled yet another hearing for a radical nominee they have already twice failed to get through the Senate. Now, the far left is betting the third time will be a charm. The problem is Gigi Sohn is no more qualified to be installed on the FCC than she was back in 2021 or 2022. The Federal Communications Commission is an important and sensitive regulatory body. It is charged with regulating a huge amount of our communications with each other as American citizens: our radio and television, our cable and satellite, our broadband internet. They are unelected people who exercise enormous power in areas that directly intersect with the American people's First Amendment rights and free speech and free expression. The country needs our FCC Commissioners to be thoughtful, sober, nonpartisan referees, not activists and ideologues who want to bend our airwaves to their agenda. This nominee, Ms. Sohn, has spent her entire career proving she is totally--totally--unsuited to this sensitive job. She is a hardcore liberal activist who has literally said the FCC should consider revoking the broadcast licenses at news stations that she disagreed with. That is completely disqualifying and then some. This is America. We don't pull journalists and broadcasters off the air because unelected bureaucrats disagree with them. And this only scratches the surface. She has a record of siding with criminals over law enforcement. She has deep, longstanding ties to a radical organization that opposes law enforcement's lawful access to data and information--an organization connected to, among other people, the leaker, liar, and fugitive Edward Snowden. Among the strongest supporters of her nomination are groups who have called American cops ``agents of white supremacy.'' The same people who want to defund the police, who oppose laws against online sex trafficking--they want this woman in this position of power. And they want it badly. The Fraternal Order of Police wrote our colleagues Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell to explain that putting Gigi Sohn on the FCC would be a disaster for law and order. They said confirming this person would ``show a complete disregard for the hard-working men and women of law enforcement.'' And even unrelated to her radical views, this nominee is also swamped with serious ethical questions. Seven years ago, when she was advising a past FCC Chairman, the Commission was closing in on a bipartisan deal she thought was too moderate. So she leaked nonpublic information in order to gin up outrage from the radical left, pressure the Commissioners, and tank the compromise. In another instance, she was a board member of an organization that stole copyrighted content and illegally put it online. Every American who watches sports on TV knows that familiar disclaimer--that you can't rebroadcast television programs without express written consent. Well, this nominee helped run an entire organization whose very mission--very mission--was violating copyright law in that sort of way. And it gets even worse. Ms. Sohn's organization was supposed to pay a huge fine to the broadcasters, over $30 million. But at just the same time that she was nominated by the President to regulate and oversee these broadcasters, they all magically reached a new settlement that just so happened to reduce the fine by 98 percent--from $32 million to a few hundred thousand dollars, just like that. When Senators have asked for more details about these questionable settlements, she has been less than forthcoming. The fact pattern makes one wonder if she thought she could start cashing in favors from the people she is supposed to regulate before she even got the job. Oh, and by the way, this nominee made personal cash contributions to the campaigns of multiple current sitting Senators while her own nomination was pending before them. She sent money to four Democratic Senators even as a pending nominee--a pending nominee--before the Senate. The latest reappearance of this nomination is a case study in President Biden's refusal to pivot, moderate, or find common ground. They are tripling down on extremism that even a Democratic Senate has already rejected twice. I urge our colleagues on the Commerce Committee to push for answers. The Senate must say no to a radical activist controlling our airwaves. And the American people should ask why--why--the Biden administration is this desperate to control what citizens can see, hear, think, and say.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled rollcall votes.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President: Losing a child is the hardest thing that can ever happen to a parent. It's out of the natural order. Those are the words of a grieving father in Bowling Green, KY. After struggling for years against opioid addiction, his son was killed by a lethal dose of fentanyl in 2021. That year marked the second straight year in which overdose deaths in the Commonwealth set a new, alltime record. Thousands of lives are now claimed each year by a scourge of deadly drugs. Last week, I met with narcotics officers from across Kentucky who work on the frontlines of this crisis. They told me that rampant flows of illicit drugs had driven the price of a pound of fentanyl down to less than a third of what it cost dealers in 2020. That is right. Working families are paying more for just about everything on President Biden's watch, but drug dealers, with unprecedented access to massive flows of foreign drugs, are literally making out like bandits. The one thing that has gotten cheaper under this administration is the last thing we want Americans buying. The officers were crystal clear on the bottom line: They won't be able to beat the fentanyl crisis until Washington decides to do something about the southern border crisis. Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended 14,700 pounds of fentanyl, and just a third of the way through the current fiscal year, they have already seized another 12,500 pounds. But the growing death toll from fentanyl-related overdose tells us that more than enough of this lethal drug is still flowing unchecked. Kentucky isn't the only State losing thousands of its people to lethal drugs produced by China and shipped in by Mexican cartels. Since the Biden administration has ignored a functionally open southern border, every State in America has faced border-State problems. Last fiscal year, Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 2.7 million illegal immigrants. That was far and away the highest annual count they had ever seen. Without a coherent, coordinated response from the Biden administration, frontline States from Florida to Texas to Arizona have had to take the response to catch-and-release into their own hands. These States have dealt with soaring arrivals by busing illegal immigrants to so-called sanctuary jurisdictions in the interior. Colorado's Democratic Governor followed suit. But setting aside the record-shattering numbers of illegal immigrants who are met and processed at the border, CBP estimates that 1.2 million more people crossed the border and got away since President Biden took office--1.2 million ``got-aways.'' That is two times the population of my hometown of Louisville, just disappearing into our country. Ninety-eight of the illegal immigrants CBP apprehended last fiscal year were watch-listed terrorists. Ninety-eight of them were watch- listed terrorists. Thousands were convicted criminals. Along with them, as Kentucky's narcotics officers understand all too well, came millions upon millions of lethal doses of fentanyl. I am proud of the Commonwealth's first responders who are fighting back against this truly devastating killer. But until the Biden administration decides to address the border crisis unfolding on its watch, my fellow Kentuckians will continue to fight a steep uphill battle.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 13 percent of the American people believe the state of our Union is strong--13 percent. Just 16 percent say they are better off financially today than they were 2 years ago. But on Tuesday night, it took President Biden the most words in the history of the State of the Union to declare that everything is actually going swimmingly and he doesn't plan to change a thing. To working families, who have been crushed by historic inflation because of his policies, President Biden offered to cut a few dollars off the fees of concert tickets and hotel stays they can't afford anyway. To Americans who are worried that he just let a Chinese spy balloon surveil our country from coast to coast, the President described his slow and unsteady reaction as a big success. To a country that is already teetering on the brink of recession because of him, President Biden proposed even more gigantic new tax hikes. To the American people who are frightened and curious about surging violent crime, President Biden took aim at the Second Amendment rights of law- abiding citizens and implied that taxpayers need to pay for even more welfare spending before we can expect people not to commit murder. The President paid lip service to the obscene quantities of foreign fentanyl that flow across our open borders and kill our people, but his main border proposal was to dangle the prospect of amnesty for people who come here illegally. He repeated his broken promise not to sign tax hikes that hit the middle class when he has already hiked taxes on American jobs and American energy. The country got to hear a lecture about treating political opponents with respect from the President who lied about State voting laws and compared half the country to Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis and a lecture about our democratic institutions from the President who endorsed permanently breaking the Senate so that his party could grab more power. President Biden expressed not one ounce of contrition or accountability for the failures that have hurt families, cost his party the House, and left only 16 percent of Americans better off financially now than they were on Inauguration Day. And the President's thin and paltry discussion of his failing foreign policy was downright alarming. Europe is in the grip of the continent's worst violent conflict since World War II. China is gaining as the largest strategic threat to American security since the Soviet Union. The Taliban has reinstated their oppressive regime and safe terrorist haven that America and our allies chased out more than two decades ago. North Korea continues to modernize its nuclear and missile programs, making steady progress toward the leader's goal of being able to deliver Armageddon to our doorstep. The Iranian regime continues to advance its own WMD programs while sponsoring terror campaigns all across the Middle East. Make no mistake, this radical regime is willing and eager to kill Americans if it is not deterred. And while the Iranian people protest nationwide against a brutal theocracy, President Biden couldn't even muster one mention of their struggle. This is the state of the world on President Biden's watch. This is the state of America's interests under his leadership. But President Biden did not even mention the grave and growing challenges we face from abroad until the tail end of his lengthy remarks. The President downplayed the threat posed by the People's Republic of China and claimed without any evidence that the United States was in its strongest position to compete with China in decades. I am not sure in what universe those remarks apply. Here in the real world, China's intelligence services just got a closeup look of the entire U.S. mainland. Reports indicate Chinese hypersonic weapons and land-based ICBM launchers exceed our own. And President Biden's last budget proposal tried to cut our national defense funding after inflation. The Commander in Chief seems more preoccupied with hidden ``resort fees'' than hidden Chinese malware in our phones, computers, and high-tech infrastructure. Then there is Ukraine. President Biden said Putin's invasion of Ukraine has been a test of America's and our allies' resolve. That is certainly true, but, like the Chinese balloon, the Ukraine crisis was also a test of the Biden administration's response time, and they fell quite short. Republicans tried to push the administration to better equip Ukraine to defend itself before the tanks rolled and to act more quickly and decisively in the early weeks to try to prevent a protracted stalemate. The indecision, hand-wringing, and sluggishness have carried a heavy price indeed. The President can't even get the bully pulpit right. There is an overwhelmingly persuasive case that aiding Ukraine strongly and directly serves our core American national interests, but President Biden seems incapable of articulating any of it. It is top Republicans who are filling the leadership vacuum, connecting the dots, and making the case. Yet again, Presidential leadership is missing in action, and it is Republicans filling the void. So let's hope President Biden's upcoming defense budget request will treat our national security challenges more seriously than his speech did on Tuesday night. With fewer than one in five Americans calling the state of our Union strong, President Biden needed to pivot, but he failed to. He spent the wordiest State of the Union in American history making excuses, doubling down, and spinning alternate realities. But if Washington Democrats will not pivot, the American people will pivot away from them. It is already starting. Seated behind the President Tuesday night was the new Republican Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and following him on the airwaves was the youngest Governor in America, Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas--part of a whole wave of Republican Governors who are laser- focused on fighting crime, improving education, and lifting more working families into prosperity. The American people know which principles and solutions will bring our country back, and they are seeing which party actually provides them. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this evening, President Biden will begin the back half of his term with his State of the Union address to Congress and to the American people. But the White House's attempts to script the message for this week have been upset by recent events. Over the last several days, the country learned that on President Biden's watch, the state of our Union is apparently under Chinese surveillance from our own skies. It is ludicrous to suggest that Canada and the United States had no choice but to let this thing traipse across the continent from coast to coast. President Obama's own Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, says, ``We should have acted earlier.'' The administration's handwringing and indecision, finally downing the balloon only after it had toured the length of our country, was typical of how President Biden and his team have conducted our foreign affairs. Our top military commanders and civilian experts all say that our broader strategic competition with China is our most serious challenge. But this President's last budget request tried to cut funding for our military after inflation, while Beijing keeps investing in their own capabilities. The commander of our U.S. Strategic Command just told Congress that China now has more land-based intercontinental ballistic missile launchers than we do. The administration's reckless retreat from Afghanistan blew past the expert warnings, cost the lives of 13 American servicemembers, let thousands of terrorists waltz out of prison, and incentivize others to challenge an America that looked cowardly. Its hesitating, indecisive, self-deterred approach to helping Ukraine before Putin invaded and in the earliest days right afterwards left freedom's friends flat-footed and are making the substantive fight more difficult than it ever had to be. And now the Biden administration apparently has pivoted from chasing another bad nuclear deal with Iran to trying to let terrorists out of Guantanamo Bay. These are just some of the reasons why 41 percent of Americans say the state of our union is weak--weak--and only 13 percent say it is strong. Of course, this administration has also created problems for American families closer to home. A nationwide poll published last week revealed that just 16 percent of Americans say they are in a better financial situation today than they were 2 years ago when the President and his party assumed total control of government. For 84 percent of Americans, one-party Democratic control of Washington either failed to live up to its promises or actively made life worse. Two years ago, over the objections of their own party's top economists, Washington Democrats misinterpreted a narrow election victory as a mandate for an unprecedented spending spree. When President Biden took office, inflation was at 1.4 percent. From Inauguration Day to today, inflation is over 13 percent. Working families have seen grocery prices jump 18.6 percent, used car prices rise 26.2 percent, and energy prices soar by 33.9 percent. Millions--millions--of Americans have earned pay raises at work, but runaway inflation has left them with less purchasing power than before. Our southern border is in crisis, shattering all-time records for illegal immigrant apprehensions. Streets and neighborhoods are being swallowed up by violent crime--after local Democrats have cut police budgets, liberal prosecutors have turned jails into revolving doors, and national Democrats spent years amplifying the kinds of anti-police rhetoric that result in more crime. And President Biden is helping the radical left go on offense and bring a culture war to the doorsteps of normal American families-- trying to squeeze Catholic hospitals and faith-based daycares out of business; trying to take school choice and curriculum transparency away from parents--and on and on and on. President Biden campaigned on being the adult in the room. But he is not even calling the shots in his own party. Over and over on issue after issue, this President hands the car keys to the radical left and turned himself into a passenger. That is why working families across the country have voted for change. They elected a Republican majority in the House of Representatives to put the emergency brakes on runaway liberal spending. They reelected all-star Republican governors in places like Texas, Georgia, and Florida. And they elevated a talented new generation of leaders, including the youngest serving governor in America--Governor Sanders of Arkansas--whom the American people will hear from tonight. Our country may still be struggling to understand what on earth Washington Democrats think they have actually accomplished in the past 2 years. But they can be absolutely sure where Republicans stand.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on an entirely different matter, today, Ranking Member Capito of the Environment and Public Works Committee will introduce an important resolution on behalf of millions of American farmers, ranchers, and builders. Two years ago, the Biden administration picked up an Obama-era crusade to micromanage the small businesses that help feed, clothe, and power America. Literally, on President Biden's first day in office, he signed an Executive order that began tearing down the regulatory certainty that Republicans had worked hard to restore for American workers and entrepreneurs. And in December, this crusade yielded a new rule from EPA that enacted a dizzying new definition of which temporary, tributary, and upland waterways fall under the Federal Government's authority. There is a case before the Supreme Court on this very subject right now. The Court's ruling in Sackett v. EPA will provide new clarity on just how far Federal bureaucrats can stretch their powers to meddle in working Americans' business under the Clean Water Act. But instead of waiting to see whether a massive expansion of the regulatory state would be legal, the Biden EPA went ahead with their new rule. Can you imagine why Washington Democrats would be in such a rush to get ahead of the law? So what does this latest power grab by Washington Democrats mean for working people out in our country? Well, for starters, it means that cattlemen, contractors, and all sorts of folks have now had to put up with three--three--major changes to Federal regulation on the lands where they do business in just the past 8 years. Democrats' relentless attempts to step on State and local authorities in their own backyards has left small business owners across America chasing moving goalposts. The Biden administration's latest rule means it will be harder for farmers in Kentucky to figure out which ditches on their property are subject to the whims of Washington bureaucrats. It will create new headaches for builders in West Virginia trying to make sure they dot every ``i'' and cross every ``t'' on much needed development projects. It will mean ranchers out West may discover that every ditch and low-lying puddle they own--even ones that only hold water when it rains--is now the business of EPA. And as every American who has tried to create jobs or build something knows, redtape doesn't just cost valuable time. Legal experts project the Biden administration's latest overreach would raise the cost of development and infrastructure projects near waterways by--listen to this--a million dollars an acre. So while President Biden takes a victory lap on infrastructure projects made possible by bipartisan work, this latest salvo in Washington Democrats' war on working Americans would devastate the sort of small businesses that actually build the infrastructure projects. But it isn't going unanswered. Twenty-five Governors, representing fully half the States in our country, have condemned the EPA's waters of the United States rule. And here in the Senate, West Virginia's own Senator Capito has consistently led our efforts to cut the overreaching regulatory state back down to size. She sponsored the legislation that would have codified the last administration's commonsense fixes. She spearheaded Congress's brief to the Supreme Court as it considers this issue. And today, she will introduce her Congressional Review Act resolution to give every one of our colleagues the opportunity to protect the future of transformative infrastructure, energy, and agriculture projects in their States. West Virginia should be proud that one of their two Senators is committed to reforms that get more of Washington's messes out of their way. I am proud to support Senator Capito's resolution. I would urge each of my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at this time 1 year ago, the Democratic Party was in the middle of a hysterical meltdown over a new voting law in the State of Georgia. The President of the United States declared that the State's modest changes to election procedures were ``Jim Crow 2.0.'' He said the law was about ``voter suppression and election subversion.'' He said citizens should doubt ``whether your vote counts at all.'' The sitting President of the United States said lawmakers' positions on this bill would define--listen to this--whether we were ``on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace . . . John Lewis or Bull Connor . . . Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis.'' The Senate Democratic leader said his fellow U.S. Senators who are Republicans were ``supporting the reenactment of those Jim Crow laws.'' My colleague from New York, as the Senate majority leader, is supposed to safeguard and steward this institution. Instead, he tried to destroy the Senate and ``nuke'' the 60-vote threshold so that Democrats could take over all 50 States' election laws on a partisan basis. And, believe it or not, 47 of the other 49 Democrats went right along with him. The liberal hysteria spread to the press and the private sector. Woke activists started talking about boycotting companies like Coca-Cola and Delta Airlines. Major League Baseball caved and moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta, directly harming the local economy, all for the sake of symbolism. Republicans said this was unhinged, phony outrage over a commonsense law that would make it both easy to vote and, of course, hard to cheat. Democrats said the new voting rules were evil and racist and the literal death of democracy. Well, the facts are now in. We have hard evidence. After the new bill took effect in early 2022, the State of Georgia held a primary election. Do you know what happened? Record turnout for a primary. Then, last November, Georgia had a general election. What happened? A new record for ballots cast in a midterm. Oh, some might say: But that doesn't tell us anything about the voting conditions. Maybe there were terribly long lines. Maybe there were sinister road blocks, and voters persevered in spite of them. Ah, but alas, except an academic research center at the University of Georgia spent weeks--weeks--conducting a major survey of Georgia voters after the election. Let's take a look at what they found. Seventy-two percent of all Georgia voters--and 73 percent of Black voters, specifically--said their voting experience was ``excellent.'' Ninety-two percent of all voters--and 92 percent of Black voters, specifically--said either that voting had gotten easier since the prior election or that there was no difference. Ninety-two percent of all voters in Georgia said that voting had either gotten easier or that there was no difference between that election and prior elections. More than 70 percent of Black voters in Georgia said they waited less than 10 minutes to cast their ballot. This is all with the supposed ``Jim Crow'' law in action: record-high turnout, lightning-fast voting lines, a supermajority of African- American voters rating their experience under the new voting rules as ``excellent.'' Ah, but here is the icing on the cake. The same Democratic Party that cheered Major League Baseball from moving the All-Star Game out of Atlanta--listen to this--now has Atlanta on the short list for the next Democratic National Convention. Here is what happened. We were right, and they were wrong. But it goes beyond that. These people actually lied. They invoked our darkest history and slandered half the country because they wanted more power for themselves. Some of the most powerful people in our entire country, including the President of the United States, staked their personal credibility to these claims. President Biden screamed from a podium that the bad old days of Jim Crow were back. Over this? The majority leader from New York tried to destroy the Senate. Over this? The American people were subjected to months of baseless, pointless, media haranguing. Over this? And the country is supposed to go on pretending like nothing happened? We are all supposed to take the President, Vice President, and Senate Democrats seriously the next time they start shouting and waving their arms about the next supposed crisis? I don't think so. I don't think the American people will forget who kept their credibility and who lit theirs on fire.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later today, the Speaker of the House and the President will begin bipartisan discussions about the future and trajectory of our government's borrowing and spending. It is right, appropriate, and entirely normal that our need to raise the debt limit would be paired with negotiations regarding Democrats' runaway printing and spending. The American people changed control of the House because the voters wanted to constrain Democrats' runaway, reckless, party-line spending. The voters of this country looked at the trillions of dollars of party- line spending, the runaway inflation, and the mountain of debt, and last November they hit the brakes. We just experienced 2 years when Washington Democrats got to set policy without negotiating, and the American people put an end to it. Some Democrats are trying to rewrite history and pretend that Republican demands for negotiations are unusual, but that, of course, is just false. Back in 2017, the Senate Democratic leader said the debt ceiling gave Democrats ``leverage'' in broader talks. As the New York Times explained back in 2017, then-Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic leader ``began formulating a plan to apply pressure, jettisoning the idea of backing a straightforward or `clean' debt limit measure . . . as a way to gain muscle in coming negotiations.'' That was the Pelosi-Schumer playbook for the debt limit: Demand negotiations. Here is how the Democratic leader put it himself at the time. He said the debt ceiling ``gives another ample opportunity for bipartisanship, not for one party jamming its choices down the throats of the other.'' So I trust Democrats will be consistent with their past positions and the White House will waste no time beginning the customary bipartisan negotiations with the new Republican majority over in the House. The President of the United States does not get to walk away from the table. The same President who happily signed off on trillions of dollars of needless party-line spending needs to begin good-faith negotiations on spending reform with Speaker McCarthy and do it today.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, finally, today marks a solemn anniversary for the people of Burma and for all of us around the world who spent years--literally years--rooting for them to make progress toward greater freedom and democracy. Two years ago, their hopes of a stable democracy were wrenched away by a brutal military coup. To date, this takeover by the Tatmadaw, which is their army, has displaced 1.2 million people, including many thousands who have been forced to flee the country altogether. Inside Burma, more than 16,000 people have been taken as political prisoners. At one point, the military was detaining American journalist Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung; the Australian economist, Sean Turnell; dozens of innocent children; and, of course, my friend Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest conviction and a sham trial leaves her facing the possibility of life in prison. Expert observers count the coup's death toll at 19,000. That includes people this illegitimate government simply executed outright, like the activists Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zeya Thaw. Now the leaders of the Tatmadaw coup are laying out plans in broad daylight to stamp out Burma's pro-democracy movement once and for all. The military is shedding any last ounce of legitimacy it pretended to have and is now conducting airstrikes against innocent civilians. The junta's new regulations for this year's election are designed to make viable opposition virtually impossible. No wonder the illegitimate Tatmadaw rulers rolled out the red carpet for Putin's Foreign Minister to visit Burma. Thugs recognize other thugs. On the second anniversary of the coup, with a potentially devastating sham election on the horizon, it is absolutely vital that the United States continue our assistance to the National Unity Government and other key groups working inside Burma to protect the innocent and advance the cause of democracy and increase cross-border humanitarian aid. By our example, America should rally our partners to raise the international stakes for the Tatmadaw's continued brutality. In December, the National Defense Authorization Act instructed the Biden administration to take several more concrete steps to bulk up American support for the people of Burma. It made sanctions on senior junta officials mandatory. It required more targeted and precisely timed sanctions against state-owned enterprises like MOGE, M-O-G-E. Finally, the NDAA also notably authorized funding for programs to strengthen federalism in and among ethnic states in Burma and for technical support and nonlethal assistance to Burma's ethnic armed organizations and People's Defence Forces to strengthen communication, command and control, and coordination of international relief and other operations between and among those entities. So, Mr. President, the people of Burma are fighting for the sort of future that citizens of democracies like ours enjoy: the right to self- determination. I am proud to stand behind them in this effort. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on a related matter, there are lots of egregious ways that President Biden has wasted taxpayer money trying to buy up his low approval ratings, but the Democrats' proposal for student loan socialism is really one of the worst. It is like the Democrats paid scientists in a lab to invent the most unfair government handout that could possibly, possibly exist. Democrats want to take the graduate school loans of doctors and lawyers and white-collar professionals making six figures and put their debt on the shoulders of Americans who didn't take out loans at all. To the middle-class families who saved, sacrificed, and skipped vacations to pay for more of their kids' college, the Democrats want to turn you into suckers. To the plumbers, firefighters, checkout clerks, and auto mechanics who made career choices to avoid taking on debt, the Democrats think dentists and the lawyers deserve extra handouts at your expense. To the patriots who volunteered to serve our Nation in uniform as part of a plan to attend college debt-free, the Democrats want to change the rules behind your back. President Biden and his party wake up every day looking for ways to transfer money and power away from the working class toward elites. But even for today's Democratic Party, this one is especially galling. This is ``reverse Robin Hood'' policy: Democrats stealing from the working class to reward people who are comparatively better off. It just isn't fair on a personal level. It is also staggeringly reckless fiscal policy. Remember, this whole undertaking was first set up as a short-term emergency measure at the very start of COVID--those earliest weeks when the entire economy seemed to be in a free fall. That was almost 3 years ago. Shortly afterward, thanks to the bipartisan CARES Act that came out of the Republican-led Senate, the economy rebounded. Household savings actually went up. Many white-collar professionals spent months, if not years, working remotely from the comfort of their living rooms. Any legitimate reason for pausing loan payments evaporated just a few months after it began, but the Democrats have kept it going, year after year. Now they want to magically wave away people's debts altogether. Needless to say, this would be enormously expensive for the country. If you add up the cost of three things: the nearly 3-year-long ``pause'' thus far, the mass jubilee the Biden administration is trying to defend in court, and the Democrats' proposal to turn the income- driven payment program into permanent socialism, the total cost of these three measures is projected to hit $1 trillion--$1 trillion. This estimate is from our colleague Senator Cassidy, who is shining a bright spotlight on these terrible policies as the incoming ranking member of the HELP Committee. On top of all the reckless inflationary spending the Democrats have pushed through, they want to redistribute up to another trillion dollars away from working-class Americans toward college-educated people who already earn higher salaries on average. The Democrats want to squeeze even more money out of cashiers, welders, first responders, janitors, and cosmetologists and send it to a group of people who already outearn those people on an average basis--more reckless spending, more debt inflation, and no fairness for American families.