Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Today marks exactly 1 year since President Biden became our fourty-sixth President. This all-Democratic government has had 365 days to start delivering on some of their core promises. So what were those promises, in their own words? ``Crushing the virus,'' ``strengthen[ing] our alliances,'' and, above all else, ``lower[ing] the temperature'' and reuniting a divided country. Remember, upon taking office, this administration had historic tailwinds at its back. President Biden inherited lifesaving vaccines and a distribution system that was already up and running. He inherited a string of bipartisan rescue packages, including one that was only just a few days old. He inherited an economy that was prime for a roaring comeback. Those were the promises. That was the inheritance. So let's take a look at the progress report. Last spring, against expert advice, the Biden administration dumped another mountain of borrowed cash on an already white-hot economy. As a result, we are now being hammered by the worst inflation in 40 years. Practically everything families need and want have gotten much, much more expensive. Constant shortages disrupt family shopping. Households are being hit with soaring heating costs if they stay home and soaring gas prices if they go out. Our economic trajectory looks shakier today than it did when Democrats were sworn in. Of course, we have continued adding back jobs from COVID lockdowns. That was certainly going to happen. But job creation has massively underperformed Democrats' own projections for job creation with their super costly springtime stimulus package. When 2021 was said and done, the country had added roughly the same number of jobs that we were on track to create before Democrats implemented one policy or spent one dime. They managed to literally blow $1.9 trillion but only barely beat the starting trajectory they inherited. They call that spending a COVID package, but less than 10 percent of the money went to the actual medical fight, and that certainly shows. Americans are entering their third year of this pandemic with too few tests, too few treatments, too many new cases, and too many school closures; muddled guidance on boosters that caused FDA experts to resign in protest, and needless divisive vaccine mandates that were not even constitutional. One year in, the coronavirus is decidedly uncrushed. And COVID wasn't the only epidemic sweeping American streets. Take violent crime. Far-left rhetoric and anti-law-enforcement local policies have led major cities to set all-time records for homicide in 2021. Or take fentanyl. This deadly imported poison was the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45, last year. The No. 1 killer of Americans in their prime--fentanyl. So why aren't Democrats treating this like an emergency? When was the last time President Biden even talked about this? And drug deaths are not the only consequence of our weak borders. Candidate Biden's rhetoric incentivized a historic flood of illegal immigration, and then President Biden's weak policies lit the fuse. The result? The biggest surge in illegal border crossings in 60 years--60 years. All these issues are priorities for American families, but the Biden administration spent most of 2021 focused on none of those. Washington Democrats spent months chasing a reckless taxing-and-spending spree packed with far-left policies that citizens never wanted. We spent half of 2021 trying and failing to blow $5 trillion on windmills and welfare. When that effort faded, Democrats abruptly pivoted and started shouting that American democracy was on death's door. They propagandized that some evil anti-voting conspiracy was sweeping America, and the only solution to this grand crisis was a gigantic partisan election takeover bill that Democrats had conveniently written years before the events which they say now prompted it. The American people didn't buy the fake hysteria. One-half of one percent of the country thinks election laws are our top issue. In fact, more Americans believe voting laws are too loose than too tight. Oh, but Democrats went all in on this obsession. A few days ago, the sitting President of the United States called millions of Americans his domestic enemies and analogized--analogized--U.S. Senators to Jefferson Davis. Well, last night, the fake panic drove 48 Senate Democrats to walk the plank on a failed effort to shatter the Senate itself for short- term power. And now Washington Democrats appear to be launching an absurd and reckless campaign to delegitimize the next election in advance, in case they lose it. Sound familiar? Yesterday, the President told reporters that he might not accept the 2022 election results as legitimate if his election takeover bills do not pass Congress first. It all sounds eerily familiar. This morning, the House majority whip followed suit. He was asked if the legitimacy of our elections is contingent on Washington Democrats passing these bills, and he replied: ``I am absolutely concerned about that.'' The Democrats who preached countless sermons about accepting voter decisions are now saying the midterms may be illegitimate, unless they win. So America, after all of this, do you feel unified? Do you feel healed? Do you feel like our core institutions are being protected? Now, Senate Republicans have met this administration more than halfway. In 2021, the Senate built and passed a major infrastructure bill. We passed bipartisan legislation on competing with China. But beyond that, this administration deliberately chose to build their whole governing strategy around the party-line reconciliation process. So the President cannot deflect blame for his disappointing first year. The American people know where the buck stops, and if our Democratic friends do not change course, before long, the buck will stop somewhere else. Now, on a related matter, President Biden also campaigned on strengthening America's partnerships and renewing our global leadership. Well, how has the administration done? The administration that campaigned on restoring alliances abandoned a coalition of loyal partners with its disastrous and fatal retreat from Afghanistan. The Biden administration green-lit Vladimir Putin's Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and the Democrats blocked us from sanctioning it. This pipeline will help Putin gain even more leverage over Western Europe and, of course, further isolate Ukraine. As we speak--right now--Putin has amassed more than 100,000 Russian troops along the border of Ukraine. If these forces cross into Ukraine, it will not be a new invasion or a ``re-invasion.'' It will represent a major escalation of an ongoing occupation. Ukraine has been fighting a Russian-backed war on its own now for 8 years. Eight years ago, I tried to warn President Obama that Putin is only deterred when the world imposes real costs--real costs--on his misbehavior. But the Biden Administration sent Ukraine nonlethal support, and the sanctions it imposed and coordinated proved not to be as tough as advertised. The Obama-Biden administration failed to end Putin's invasion or compel compliance with the Minsk accords. Now the Biden- Harris team must not repeat the Obama-Biden grave mistakes. But yesterday, on live television, President Biden telegraphed passivity--telegraphed passivity--and weakness, exactly when our allies can least afford it. Our President seemed to state--and, I pray, unintentionally--that he expects Putin to escalate in Ukraine, and, in any case, Putin can do what he wants. Here is what the President said: ``That decision is totally, solely, completely a Putin decision. . . . I suspect it matters which side of the bed he gets up on.'' What on Earth does that mean? Further, the President said: ``My guess is he will move in.'' The President said: ``My guess is he will move in. He has to do something.'' So President Biden thinks Putin has to do something. What does that even mean? Why is our President speculating like a passive observer on the sidelines? He isn't a pundit. He isn't Putin's psychoanalyst. He is the President of the United States. So will America hold Russia accountable if it escalates? Here was the message from our Commander in Chief: ``It depends on what Russia does. It's one thing if it's a minor incursion''--a minor incursion--``and then we end up having to fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.'' ``It is one thing if it is a minor incursion''? Does this mean President Biden will not actually authorize the tough response that his own administration officials have spent weeks--weeks--promising? This was a moment to deliver a powerful warning to the Kremlin that Ukraine's sovereignty is inviolable; that we would stand with her people; that the cost of escalation would be devastating. It was a moment to reassure our partners in Kiev and our allies along NATO's eastern flank that America had their back. It was a moment to call for NATO's unity, not to expose and appear hamstrung by NATO's divisions. It was a bizarre and devastating performance--especially, I would add--for our friends on the frontlines. President Zelensky's Defense Minister has already shot back. This is from Ukraine's Defense Minister: We should not give Putin the slightest chance to play with quasi-aggression or small incursion operations. This aggression was [already] there since 2014. This is the fact. I suspect our own Secretary of State, who is in Europe to meet with our allies and the Russian Foreign Minister--was also shocked by what the President had said. Minutes later, White House staff put out a frantic statement laying out a completely different position than what President Biden had just expressed. By then, of course, significant damage had been done. But, alas, the damage can be undone. The President of the United States is never powerless. President Biden needs to clean up his remarks. He needs to clearly state American resolve and clearly demonstrate American leadership. He should call President Zelensky and NATO's allies most threatened by Russian aggression. He should rally allies and partners around the world to defend Ukraine and the international system that is being threatened by Putin. His administration should be using every waking moment right now-- right now--to expedite our delivery of real defensive capabilities to Ukraine. The President must cut the indecision and redtape that has slowed us and our partners down. President Biden should finally, at long last, get around to nominating an Ambassador to Ukraine, a position he has left empty for 12 crucial months. He should send U.S. forces to shore up NATO's eastern flank--not if-- not if and when Putin escalates, but right now, before it is too late. He should encourage our treaty allies to do likewise. But while alliance unity is important, the lowest common denominator of NATO's most nervous members cannot be allowed to restrict American action. Whatever course other nations choose to chart, we cannot afford to let Moscow underestimate our resolve to impose serious--serious-- crushing costs in response to any further incursion against Ukraine. Our friends and America's reputation deserve nothing less.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, well, I think we can all agree on one thing: It has been a long day. Almost everybody has had something to say, and the reason for that is this is an important day in the history of the Senate. It could be argued it is the most important day in the history of the Senate as an institution. This very day that we are just wrapping up is, in all likelihood, the most important day in the history of the Senate as an institution. This evening, fewer than 60 Senators voted to advance a piece of legislation so it didn't move forward. It is pretty common around here. It happens frequently. In fact, it happened less than a week ago, as we know, when our Democratic colleagues used the 60-vote threshold to block sanctions against Putin's pipeline. In 2020, the Democrats used the filibuster multiple times to delay the CARES Act, kill Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill, block bipartisan protections for unborn children. Senate minorities can apply the brakes to small majorities. Senate minorities can apply the brakes to small majorities. This institution makes major changes earn major buy-in. This institution requires that major changes receive major buy-in. For decades, Americans on all sides acknowledged this. Believe it or not, 15 years ago--several of us were here 15 years ago--there were 180 civil rights organizations--180 civil rights organizations--that weighed in in support of the filibuster because, at that particular point, the filibuster was being used to stop judges appointed by Bush 43. So over 100 civil rights organizations wrote us a letter saying the filibuster is indispensable. It served their purpose at that particular time. For decades--literally, decades--Senators on both sides agreed. We have quoted each other back and forth here, eloquent filibuster defenses from colleagues across the aisle when it benefited them to make those speeches. But, colleagues, a leader's true colors are not revealed when long- term principles and short-term power line up together. That is easy, when what you are trying to achieve lines up with the tactics. The measure of a leader is not what he or she chooses; it is what they choose when those two paths diverge, go in a different direction. Now, half of us, on this side of the aisle, just spent 4 years--4 years--when we were in the majority and we had a President of our party asking us to do what they are trying to do tonight, and we had a one- word answer: No. No. We are not going to fracture the institution to achieve some short-term advantage. And actually, astonishingly enough--Grassley was here then--in 1994, the best Republican off-year election, arguably, in American history took the House for the first time in 40 years, got the majority back in the Senate. Tom Harkin--Chuck Grassley's colleague from Iowa, the Democrat--on day one of that session, through the regular order, offered a rule change to lower the threshold to 51. So who would have benefited from that? This brand-new, enthusiastic majority just having swept the country would have been the principal beneficiary of lowering the threshold to 51. Not one single Republican in the new majority voted to give themselves an advantage that would break the Senate--not one. So we have been consistent on this side of the aisle in support of this institution as long as I have been here. They face the same decision now. They have a choice. They could break the institution to achieve what they want or defend the institution. And so they pivoted. And that is why so many of them look so foolish because they have been on the opposite side of this, not a long time ago but quite recently. And so they tried to carve out a special category here that somehow this issue is different from all the other issues and should be treated differently. Well, on the merits, as we have discussed ad nauseam here, this is something they have been trying to do for a long time. The rationale for it has changed periodically, depending upon what seemed to make sense. But dial it up any way you choose to, this is a plot to break the Senate--a plot to break the Senate. Over the issue they have chosen, one-half of 1 percent of the American people say election law is their most pressing concern--one-half of 1 percent of the American people. Actually, Americans, as a number of you have said during the course of this long day, believe voting laws are actually too loose, rather than too strict, and as you have said over and over and over again, Georgia's new law is arguably more progressive than New York or Delaware. All of you have said that all day long. And this? This is the basis upon which the President of the United States calls people like us racists, traitors? Over this? Over how many days of early voting you are going to have? Really? This is the basis on which 40-plus Senate Democrats want to not only break their word but break the Senate. Now, the so-called talking filibuster proposal is smoke and mirrors, just smoke and mirrors. There is really only one question we are dealing with here, just one. It is not complicated. Will it take 60 votes to pass massive changes or a simple majority to ram them through? That is what is at stake here, nothing else. Will slender majorities need to build coalitions across the aisle or not? Will huge chunks of Federal law reverse themselves whenever gavels change hands? We have talked about this all day long. That is what this is about. But, colleagues, something even more fundamental is at stake tonight. Everyone in this Chamber knows that factional fires are burning hot all across our country. As I look around, I don't know if this many of us have actually gathered in this Chamber since January 6 of last year. We were all in here then. I stood up that day, and I said self-government requires shared respect for basic ground rules. I said we couldn't keep drifting into two tribes and delegitimizing the few institutions we still share. Yes, the divisions run deep. Compromise is certainly challenging. But it would not serve a divided country if two factions take turns ruling over one another with an iron fist. Here is a solution for a divided country: Thoughtful compromise everywhere we can agree, and, when we can't agree, it just doesn't happen. The American people are closely divided. We are reflected here with a 50-50 Senate, for the longest time in American history. There is not a mandate to fundamentally transform America into something it has never been. It is not what the voters voted for. We have a narrow majority trying to jam through, one after another, proposals to fundamentally turn us into something we have never been. Well, here is the good news: The Framers custom built--custom built-- the Senate to stop this kind of thing. That is why this institution was constructed in the first place. We are sitting in the place designed to stop this kind of thing, and we have an opportunity to do it here tonight. This is the first time in history that a Senate majority leader, who is supposed to safeguard this institution, has convinced--convinced-- nearly all of his party to attack the institution. That hasn't happened before. Tonight, for the first time in history, almost an entire political party will write in permanent ink that they would shatter the soul of Senate for short-term power--shatter the soul of the Senate for short- term power. But the brave bipartisan majority of this party is about to stop them--about to stop them. We will stop the Democratic leader from silencing the voices of millions upon millions of Americans who have a right to be heard in this Chamber, many of them represented by us who come from small States. They derisively look down on us as a flyover territory, a place nobody wants to stop. The Senate was designed to represent those people. Every State gets two Senators. Some States have only one House Member but two Senators. We are here to protect middle America, and the supermajority threshold in the Senate makes that even more possible. So they can't run roughshod over us. They can't run roughshod over us and the people we represent. When our country needs leaders to fight the fires of factualism, almost half the Senate over here wants to literally dump more gasoline right on top of it. When our institutions needed defending, a sitting President and a majority leader have made smashing the Senate an unofficial part of their party's platform. The President of the United States and the majority leader of the Senate have made breaking the Senate a central part of their plan for America. Thanks to the courageous position of at least a few of their Members, they will not succeed. This country will be shielded from their radicalism tonight. And make no mistake about it, this is radicalism designed to fundamentally change America in every conceivable way, to the disadvantage of virtually all of the constituents represented by people on this side of the aisle--and theirs as well, if they were willing to admit it. So the Senate will be safe tonight. The Senate will be safe tonight. America can breathe a sigh of relief. This radicalism will have been stopped, and it is a good day for America. I yield the floor.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Democratic Party has had control of Washington for exactly 364 days. Tomorrow will mark exactly 1 year since President Biden was inaugurated on the West Front and promised to ``unit[e] our people,'' ``lower the temperature,'' and brin[g] America together.'' But today, the President and his party will try to use fear and panic to smash the Senate, silence millions of Americans, and seize control of our democracy. Now, there is no shortage of real crises Democrats might consider tackling: the worst inflation in 40 years, the seemingly endless pandemic, soaring homicides, the border crisis, and Russia flirting with war in Europe. But the administration and this Senate majority are focused on none of that. Instead, they have been consumed by a fake panic over election laws that seem to exist only in their own imaginations. So let's put a few basic facts on the table. Fewer than one-half of 1 percent of American adults believe that election law is our country's most important problem. When polls ask people what new Federal election laws they want, the most popular response is ``none of the above.'' Actually, more Americans believe current voting laws are too lax than believe they are too restrictive. Let that sink in. You could have taken in hundreds of hours of leftwing rhetoric and media coverage over the past year and had no inkling of this basic fact. Significantly more Americans believe current voting laws are too loose and insecure than believe are too restrictive. Professional liberals have spent 3 straight years talking down our democracy, except a short period after they liked an election result and questioning elections was, at least briefly, off limits. But the American people are not buying that. Democrats have spent years stoking fear and panic over voting laws and the American people simply do not buy it. But while Washington Democrats' fake panic has failed to persuade the country, it could still deal permanent damage. Today, the Senate will need to prevent this factional frenzy from damaging our democracy, damaging the Senate, and damaging our Republic forever. First, our democracy. Professional liberals' fake hysteria over State voting laws is literally collapsing before our eyes. Even normally friendly media outlets are asking Democrats why a law like Georgia's is supposed to be outrageous when it is objectively more open than rules in blue States like Delaware and New York. President Biden's false statement about one State law earned him--listen to this--``four Pinocchios'' in the Washington Post. That is not easy to get. There is no factual standard by which any State in America is creating a civil rights crisis, not compared to their own prepandemic baselines, not comparing across with other States. What is more, Democrats' own paper trails refute the notion that this is about new State laws from 2021. Three years ago, in 2019, Leader Schumer was already giving interviews about supposed voter suppression. The same conspiracy theories were being pushed back then. The same ominous buzzwords were in vogue. And 3 years ago, in 2019, Democrats had already introduced their first version of the legislation they will be pushing today. This party-line push has never been about securing citizens' rights. It is about expanding politicians' power. That is why their bill tries to weaken voter ID laws that are popular with Americans of all races. That is why their bill is stuffed with strange policies that have zero relationship to ballot access, new powers for bureaucrats to police citizens' speech online, new schemes where the Federal Government would directly fund political campaigns. This is not some modest bill about ballot access. It is a sprawling takeover of our whole political system. It was never even intended to attract bipartisan support. This partisan Frankenstein bill that the House Democrats slapped together was intended to do one thing, just one thing only: Give the Senate Democratic leader a pretext--a pretext--to break the Senate. Later today, this Chamber will host a sad spectacle that has not been seen before in living memory. A sitting majority leader will attempt a direct assault on the core identity of the Senate. Our colleague from New York will try to kill the character of the institution he is supposed to protect and to serve. Now, the Democratic leader once said that breaking the rules to kill the filibuster would turn the Senate into a ``rubberstamp of dictatorship,'' make America a ``banana republic'' and trigger ``a doomsday for democracy.'' Several years ago, with no connection to this particular issue, he began talking about shredding minority protections if--if--he ever got power. And now he wants to press that doomsday button. The legislative filibuster is a central Senate tradition. It is the indispensable feature of our institution. It makes the Senate serve its founding purpose--forging compromise, cooling passions, and ensuring that new laws earn broad support from a cross section of our country. The Senate is not supposed to be a duplicate House of Representatives with fewer Members and fancier desks. This body is not supposed to amplify huge swings in Federal law with every election. It exists to slow those swings and to bring stability. The legislative filibuster is the only reason the Senate provides what James Madison called a ``complicated check'' on ``improper acts of legislation.'' It embodies Thomas Jefferson's principle that ``great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.'' Killing the legislative filibuster--any way it happened--would hugely damage the Senate, but doing so by nuking the rules would destroy the Senate. As I have explained at some length, this is true on the most practical level. A Senate in nuclear winter would not be a hospitable place for either side. As then-Senator Obama explained a decade and a half ago, ``If the majority chooses to end the filibuster, if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate, then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse.'' Please note that, even in the Democratic leader's manufactured case, even when he presumably wanted the most persuasive theater he could possibly muster, the Senate will have only spent about a day and a half on this bill before he tries to ram it through. Since when does the Senate pass any significant bill in a day and a half, much less a gigantic elections overhaul? Our colleague is not trying to conclude an unending discussion that he cannot stop; he is trying to short circuit a debate that he cannot win. This is just the kind of shortsighted power grab this body was actually built to stop. The case that most of our Democratic colleagues are making this week boils down to a claim that everything is somehow broken. The Senate is broken because they can't get everything they want. Our democracy is broken because Democrats sometimes lose elections. Entire States are broken because voters vote the wrong way, and so their voices in this Chamber should be totally silenced. Millions of American voters should be denied any say whatsoever in this Chamber. Really? Really? Our Democratic colleagues claiming our entire Republic is broken? That is what their anger and pessimism boils down to. They say that we are hopelessly divided; that governing institutions that have served us for centuries need to be smashed and steamrolled; that we are fated to keep escalating brute-force battles with no end in sight. This is exactly the kind of toxic world view that this President pledged to disavow, but it is exactly what has consumed his party on his watch. You can literally hear it in their voices. In the last few days, our President and his top allies have been reduced to shouting angrily at reporters and at the American people. They are so certain they know best. How dare the rules, how dare the facts, the Republicans, and millions of voters all obstruct their unique wisdom? Well, the good news is that the fear is false. The rage is misplaced. And today, factional fevers will not carry the day. The Senate is not broken. We have passed major, bipartisan bills this year, and we have stopped partisan bills that lack support; exactly-- exactly--the mixture the Framers imagined and Senators on both sides praised--praised--until the last few months. Our democracy is not broken either. Citizens across America have ample opportunity to vote and say so to anybody who will listen to them. Our Republic is not broken. Even with all the crises that Democrats' policies have created, we remain fellow citizens who are blessed to live in the greatest country on Earth. Today, it appears that a narrow, bipartisan majority of Senators will vote to save the Senate. With hope, with confidence, we will stand up and say that our institutions are worth protecting; that rules matter; that no American deserves to have his or her voice in this Chamber silenced. Ah, but a partisan minority will do the opposite. They will try to smash and grab as much short-term power as they can carry. For both groups of Senators, this vote will echo for generations. Before we part ways tonight, all 100 of us will have marked our legacies in permanent ink. Who will vote with hope and confidence in our people, and who will vote from anger, fear, and fake panic? Who will vote to protect checks and balances, and who will try to purchase power at any price? Who has the courage to protect every single American voice in this Chamber, no matter their home State, no matter their politics, and who will vote to silence millions of citizens for the sin of voting for the wrong team? The American people deserve to know, and from this day forward, they will.

Mr. McCONNELL. Excuse me. No.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, very few people find the time to lead their city's largest law firm, serve on a university's board of trustees, represent their country at the United Nations, and remain active in civic life in their hometown. Even fewer can accomplish these things before the age of 40. But Jennifer Barber of Louisville, KY, has managed to do all this--and more. Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Jennifer for her recent career milestone and for her years of service to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Jennifer, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, grew up working alongside her parents in the family's restaurant, learning to value sacrifice, ambition, and effort. She became the first member of her family to graduate college, earning both her bachelor's degree and juris doctorate from the University of Kentucky. From there, she developed a specialty in tax law, taking her expertise to Frost Brown Todd in 2013 and working her way up the corporate ladder. Jennifer's professional and academic successes only tell half the story of her remarkable career. She has also dedicated her time, energy, and talent to a range of important Kentucky organizations, from the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, to the Kentucky State Fair Board, to the Kentucky Bar Foundation. In 2020, she took a brief break from her law firm to take her talents to the global stage, serving as a special adviser to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and a U.S. Delegate to the United Nations where she helped advance American priorities on human rights and foreign aid. Jennifer's professional accomplishments are so exciting because she achieved them at such a remarkably young age. Jennifer has done incredible work to improve Kentucky and serve our Nation, and I am confident her recent promotion is just the first in a long list of successes yet to come. Louisville Business First highlighted Jennifer Barber's new role in a recent article. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

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, late last week, our Democratic colleagues briefly paused their quest to destroy the Senate's 60-vote threshold just long enough to use the 60-vote threshold themselves to block a bill. Republicans supported sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline that would give Russia even more leverage to bully Europe. Most of our Democratic colleagues bowed to the furious lobbying from the Biden administration to protect Putin's pipeline. There were 55 votes to pass the bill that our friends, like Ukrainian President Zelensky, desperately wanted passed, but Democrats blocked it by denying 60. Now, many of these same colleagues have spent weeks thundering-- literally thundering--that the Senate's 60-vote threshold is an offensive tool of obstruction, a Jim Crow relic, declaring that simple majorities should always get their way. Ah, but late last week, they literally wielded the 60-vote threshold themselves--a useful reminder of just how fake--fake--the hysteria has been. We already knew Washington Democrats didn't have any principled opposition to Senate rules. Democrats repeatedly filibustered the CARES Act in March of 2020, while insisting on changes. Democrats filibustered and killed Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill. You only have to go back a few years to read vigorous defenses of the filibuster from our Democratic colleagues and their allies. The Democratic whip, Senator Durbin, put it this way: We need to protect the right of debate in the Senate, preserve checks and balances so that no one party can do whatever it wants. We need to preserve the voice of the minority in America. Dick Durbin. The Democratic leader himself said in 2017 that we need to ``find a way to build a firewall around the legislative filibuster''--build a firewall around the legislative filibuster. Then, in a letter that same year by 32 Senate Democrats, our colleagues demanded--demanded--that the 60-vote threshold stay right where it was. Until the last couple of years, Senators on both sides have understood the Senate is not here to rubberstamp massive changes by thin majorities. This institution exists to do exactly the opposite--to make sure major laws receive major buy-in and have major staying power, and, historically, Democratic allies outside this Chamber have recognized this as well. Let's go back about 15 years ago when Republicans controlled the Senate. A leftwing organization called The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights published a lengthy statement defending-- defending--the filibuster, including--listen to this--its relationship to civil rights. Here is what they had to say when Republicans were in the majority here in the Senate: On behalf of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation's oldest, largest, and most diverse civil and human rights coalition, with more than 180 member organizations, we urge you to oppose-- oppose-- any efforts to eliminate the 216-year-old filibuster in the United States Senate. That is a coalition of 180 member organizations called The Civil and Human Rights Coalition. They went on. The elimination of the rights of the minority as embodied by the filibuster is contrary to the founding fathers' vision of the Senate as a body of equals designed to protect against the tyranny of the majority. This statement continued. The civil rights community has recognized and accepted the value-- The value-- of the filibuster even when it frustrated efforts to advance civil rights legislative goals. During the 1950's and 1960's, countless civil rights bills were filibustered. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was not passed until it survived 75 days of the longest filibuster in history and the Senate voted 71- 29 to end debate and finally passed the bill. This legislation was enacted because of long, hard work to build support across partisan, ideological, and regional lines. We worked to bring Americans together--not to push them farther apart. They concluded: We never demanded the end of the system of checks and balances. In the end, we won the battle by changing votes and not-- Not-- by breaking the rules. These were leftwing activists writing less than 20 years ago. So let's spell this out. Democrats want the American people to believe the filibuster was not a Jim Crow relic in 2005; it was not even a Jim Crow relic in 2020; just miraculously became a Jim Crow relic in 2021; briefly stopped being a Jim Crow relic last Thursday, but it is now back to being a Jim Crow relic this week. Now, to be clear, the partisan election takeover bills that Democrats want to ram through this week are not--not--in any way successors of the civil rights legislation from the mid-20th century. It has been, is today, and will remain illegal to discriminate against voters anywhere in America because of their race--period. That is the law now. Targeting Americans' online speech and sending government money to political campaigns is not about civil rights. It is about tilting the playing field. Weakening wildly popular voter ID laws and making it harder to produce accurate voter rolls is not about making voting easier; it is about making cheating easier. Changing the laws so that our partisan Attorney General can rewrite voting laws without even having to win in court is not about promoting justice; it is about short-circuiting justice. This is about one party wanting the power to unilaterally rewrite the rule book of American elections. Now, interestingly, the Biden administration staff has gone out of its way lately to highlight my--my--long, strong record on real civil rights and real voting rights. The President's Press Secretary explained that I have ``a pretty strong record of supporting voting rights.'' She is right about that. And that is exactly why I have no patience--none--for the unrelated partisan takeover that some Democrats are trying to rebrand with that banner. The Democratic leader argues that his proposed elections takeover and his efforts to break the Senate are last resorts because of new State laws that passed in 2021. He says it is irrelevant that 2020 saw record turnout and--listen to this--94 percent said voting was easy because this debate is exclusively about what happened in 2021. But Democrats have been pushing these same policy charges in the same Chicken Little rhetoric since 2019, a year and a half before 2020 election, which Democrats now call a high-turnout success. The Democratic leader gave an interview claiming that evil Republicans were trying to attack voting and disenfranchise people. Of course, when Democrats went on to win the White House, the 2020 election went from presumptively illegitimate to exemplary and unquestionable overnight. Around the same time, mid-2019, Senator Schumer began floating a nuclear attack on Senate rules. It is completely untethered from the elections issue. He just thought breaking the rules would make for a livelier stint as majority leader. Washington Democrats have wanted the power to rewrite the rules for political speech and election laws long, long before the events that are supposed to justify it, and the Democratic leader's effort to break the Senate long predates the latest pretext. We have strong disagreements about the substance of these bills, but, even more broadly, we see decreasing trust in our democracy among both political sides. We have a sitting President of the United States shouting that U.S. Senators are on the side of Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis for refusing to shatter the Senate. Was the Senate created to make these kinds of factional fevers worse or to help break the fevers? Does the Senate exist to help narrow majorities double down on divisions or to force broad coalitions to build bridges? This fake hysteria does not prove the Senate is obsolete. It proves the Senate is as necessary as ever. Republicans have supported this limitation on the majority's power both when we have been in the minority, which these rules protect, and when we have been the majority, which they inconvenience. And last week, some of our colleagues across the aisle reconfirmed that they have the courage and the principle to keep their word and to protect the institution as well. But too many of our colleagues across the aisle still want to respond to a 50-50 Senate with a rule-breaking power grab. Voting to break this institution will not be a free vote or a harmless action, even if their effort fails. An unprincipled attempt at grabbing power is not harmless just because it fails. Voting to break the Senate is not cost-free just because a bipartisan majority of your colleagues have the wisdom to stop you. It is amazing that our colleagues are this in thrall to radical activists. We have inflation, a pandemic, rampant violent crime, a border crisis, and possibly a war on the European continent. But rather than work on any of that, Senate Democrats want to march their own legacies with a reckless--reckless--procedural vote they know will fail. A faction this desperate for unlimited short-term power is a faction that must be denied it.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, a recent survey asked Americans for their view of the most important problems facing our country. Of course, we know what Washington Democrats view as their top priority. President Biden and Senate Democrats have been shouting--actually shouting--at the American people that an evil, racist, anti-voting conspiracy will destroy democracy forever unless Democrats get total one-party control of the entire government, starting next week. But are the American people buying any of it? Is this what working families want prioritized? So let's take a look. In a recent survey, Gallup asked citizens for their priorities, what they thought we ought to be doing. Do you know what share of Americans said election law? Less than one- half of 1 percent--one-half of 1 percent. Nobody in this country is buying the fake hysteria that democracy will die unless Democrats get total control. Here is what people do care about: The top response at 21 percent was poor government leadership. About a year into the Biden administration, the American people's single greatest concern is bad leadership. And when you dig into the other issues, you can see why. Some of the next largest concerns were either general economic problems or inflation and rising costs, in particular, and no wonder-- no wonder. New figures, just yesterday, show our country continues to experience the worst inflation in 40 years--40 years. Gas prices are nearly a dollar higher than a year ago; grocery prices are up 6.5 percent; and across the economy, inflation has exceeded 5 percent every month for 7 straight months. There is no working family who has not been hurt directly by this. Another huge chunk of Americans said their chief worry is the coronavirus--certainly no surprise there. A year into the administration that promised it would shut down the virus, well, what do we have? Record-setting new cases. Shortages of testing. Shortages of important treatments, in part, because of the Biden administration's decisions. We have reports of multiple States potentially limiting or excluding patients from lifesaving treatments on the basis, believe it or not, of their ethnicity. And still, 2 years into this, notwithstanding abundant vaccines and a milder variant, we have Big Labor bosses in big cities being permitted to lock vulnerable kids out of the classroom. Oh, and when kids are in the classroom, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice try to persecute concerned parents who dare ask what their kids are learning. So these are just a few examples of real problems. These are the kinds of places where the American people need this dramatically unpopular administration to entirely refocus. Yesterday, a new poll indicated that 33 percent of Americans approve of the President--33 percent. When he was inaugurated and pledging to govern for all Americans, to heal and unite the country, this White House enjoyed impressive approval ratings. But as the far left has been handed the reins, the support has cratered. Now, there is a path forward for my Democratic colleagues to respond to the country they have so badly disappointed, but it isn't to try to break the Senate and rewrite election laws. It is to actually start tracking the issues that American families need tackled. Now, there are also countless other issues which may not make national headlines but matter hugely to those who are affected. For example, next week, I will again travel to Western Kentucky to visit some of the areas hit hardest by last month's devastating tornado outbreak. The national news cameras may have left, but families in this part of the Commonwealth are still trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after losing homes, businesses, and loved ones. I am profoundly grateful to everyone contributing to the recovery process. Our utility workers are taking on the herculean task of restoring public services. The Kentucky National Guard has played a crucial role in distributing supplies. Private individuals have donated food, clothing, and blood. The Kentucky General Assembly just approved a State-funded relief package, and Kentucky's entire Federal delegation joined together to advocate directly for increased Federal aid. This is going to be a long process. It will require consistent support on the local, State, and Federal levels. Rebuilding will take literally months and years--not days and weeks. Well, I will be with these communities every step of the way. Finally, beyond our shores, there remains no shortage of forces that wish to harm America and our interests. Senators will vote today on a measure to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2. We can send a strong warning to Putin that he won't be allowed to use energy as a weapon. We can signal strong support for Eastern and Central European partners that have long opposed Putin's pipeline. Even Democratic Senators who now oppose the sanctions they used to support acknowledge the pipeline is ``a tool of malign influence of the Russian Federation.'' Really, the Government of Germany should have shelved this project itself a long time ago. Berlin can still make the right call. These sanctions, like the prior Nord Stream 2 sanctions that had overwhelming bipartisan support here in Congress, are not about driving a wedge in Europe. The pipeline itself is the wedge. That is the whole point. That has been Putin's goal--decoupling Ukraine from Europe and making Europe even more reliant on Russian gas. So for Senators who seem more concerned about standing with Berlin than with Kiev, this bill includes a waiver. We expect President Biden would actually exercise the waiver. But a clear bipartisan message would still be sent, just like when 98 Senators voted to enact CAATSA in 2017, just like when Democrats signed off on the previous bill to sanction Nord Stream 2 in the 2020 NDAA. So I hope each of our colleagues will support Senator Cruz's measure. The Senate must show we are focused on real-life threats to democracy, to security, and to our friends. As we speak, Russia is literally preparing to escalate its military assault on Ukraine. It has amassed more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border. Deterring Russian aggression and preparing for the very real threat of a major war on the European Continent will take far more than these sanctions. It will take urgency and seriousness from the administration. Time is of the essence. Our delays in getting emergency assistance to Ukraine approved do not inspire much confidence. The administration cannot move at the speed of bureaucracy. That won't cut it. Humanitarian and military support to Ukraine cannot wait. Reinforcing American and NATO positions in Europe cannot wait. We must not pull our punches out of some fear of provoking Putin. What will encourage Putin is if he senses American weakness. Ukraine and our eastern flank NATO allies deserve our support. They are on the frontlines of a much broader war that Russia and China are conducting against the democratic international order itself. This order helps America. It benefits our national interests, and it benefits our allies, but it is not going to enforce itself. It will not defend itself. And our allies will not act if America fails to lead. Our Nation's contest with China and Russia is the biggest challenge we face. It will entail significant risks and perhaps, God forbid, serious sacrifice. Meeting these challenges and preventing the worst will take the kind of unity and bipartisanship that President Biden promised--not the outrageous--outrageous--and divisive partisanship he has embraced.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 12 months ago, a newly inaugurated President Biden stood on the west front of the Capitol, and here is what he had to say: My whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation. Yesterday, that very same man delivered a deliberately divisive speech that was designed to pull our country further apart. Twelve months ago, this President said we should see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. Yesterday, he called millions of Americans his domestic ``enemies.'' Twelve months ago, the President called on Americans to ``join forces, stop the shouting, lower the temperature,'' but yesterday, he shouted that if you disagree with him, you are George Wallace. George Wallace? If you don't pass the laws he wants, you are Bull Connor. And if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled one-party control of the country, well, you are Jefferson Davis. Twelve months ago, this President said ``disagreement must not lead to disunion.'' Ah, but yesterday, he invoked the bloody disunion of the Civil War--the Civil War--to demonize Americans who disagree with him. He compared--listen to this--a bipartisan majority of Senators to literal traitors. How profoundly--profoundly--un-Presidential. Look, I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years. I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday. American voters did not give President Biden a mandate for very much. He got a tied Senate and negative coattails in the House--the narrowest majorities in over a century. The President did not get a mandate to transform America or reshape society, but he did arguably get a mandate to do just one central thing that he campaigned on. Here is what that was: Bridge a divided country; lower the temperature; dial down the perpetual air of crisis in our politics. That is the one central promise that Joe Biden made. It is the one job citizens actually hired him to do. It is the one project that would have actually been consistent--consistent--with the Congress that voters elected. Ah, but President Biden has chosen to fail his own test. The President's rant--rant--yesterday was incoherent, incorrect, and beneath his office. He used the phrase ``Jim Crow 2.0'' to demagogue a law that makes the franchise more accessible than in his own State of Delaware. He blasted Georgia's procedures regarding local election officials while pushing national legislation with almost identical language on that issue. The President implied that things like wildly popular ID laws are-- listen to this--``totalitarian.'' Totalitarian? Ironically, on the same day, Washington, DC's Democratic mayor told citizens to bring both a photo ID and a vaccine card anytime they leave the house. The President repeatedly invoked the January 6 riot, while himself using irresponsible, delegitimizing rhetoric that undermines our democracy. The sitting President of the United States compared American States to ``totalitarian states.'' He said our country will be an ``autocracy'' if he does not get his way--if he does not get his way. So the world saw our Commander in Chief propagandize against his own country--his own country--to a degree that would have made Pravda blush. There was no consistent standard behind anything the President said. He trampled through some of the most sensitive and sacred parts of our Nation's past. He invoked times when activists bled and when soldiers died, all to demagogue voting laws that are more expansive than what Democrats have on the books in his own home State. Georgia has more days of early voting than Delaware or New York. Georgia has no-excuse absentee voting, which Delaware and New York do not have. If Georgia or Texas presents Jim Crow emergencies, then so do a whole lot of Democratic-run States. The Senate Democratic leader has gone on cable TV saying Georgia ``is greatly restricting or eliminating early voting.'' That is a lie, provably false. Georgia has more early voting than New York. The Democratic leader has tried to fearmonger about one rural Georgia county that condensed multiple voting locations into one--one rural Georgia county. Well, the county is overwhelmingly red. They were clearly not involved in trying to suppress Democratic votes--70 percent Republican in that one county in 2020. So take a step back for a minute. President Biden's story is that democracy is on death's door, but he spent 9 months chasing a reckless taxing-and-spending spree before addressing it. It must not be that much of an emergency. Citizens are meant to believe a return of Jim Crow is on the table, but this was only President Biden's sixth priority after he was blocked from spending $5 trillion on windmills and welfare. Democrats' own behavior refutes their false hysteria. Twelve months ago, the President said that ``politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.'' That was just 12 months ago, but yesterday, he poured a giant can of gasoline on the fire. Twelve months ago, the President said every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war, but yesterday, he said anyone who opposes smashing the Senate--smashing the Senate--and letting Democrats rewrite election law is a domestic ``enemy'' and--listen to this--a traitor like Jefferson Davis. One week ago, President Biden gave a January 6 lecture about not stoking political violence--1 week ago. Yesterday, with the world's largest megaphone, he invoked the literal Civil War and said we are on the doorstep of ``autocracy.'' He talked about domestic ``enemies''-- rhetoric unbecoming of a President of the United States. In less than a year, ``restoring the soul of America'' has become this: Agree with me or you are a bigot. Agree with me or you are a bigot--from lowering the temperature to invoking totalitarian States and the Civil War. This inflammatory rhetoric was not an attempt to persuade skeptical Democrat or Republican Senators. This whole display--this whole display--in fact, you could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than a President abandoning rational persuasion for pure demagoguery. You could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than what we have just seen: a President abandoning rational persuasion for pure--pure--demagoguery. A President shouting that 52 Senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants is proving exactly why the Framers built the Senate to check his power. This whole display is the best possible argument for preserving-- preserving--the Senate rules that extend deliberation, force bipartisan compromise, and let cooler heads prevail. Nothing proves it better than this episode. It offers a perfect case study in why Senator Biden was right about the filibuster and President Biden is wrong. One respected scholar explained it this way: The smallest majority we've ever seen in our politics is trying to change the rules for how people get elected in every [single] state. . . . That's just about the best argument for the filibuster you could possibly imagine. The citizens of the greatest country in the world deserve for their elected officials to treat them like grownups. The adults of America deserve to hear from the adults in Washington, DC. I will close with some basic truths. Obviously, our country is more divided than it should be, no doubt. In recent years, I have vocally criticized people across the political spectrum who have sought to legitimatize elections when they win and delegitimize democracy when they are polling badly or when they lose. I criticized the top Democrats' hysteria after 2016, when their rhetoric had 66 percent of Democrats across America falsely convinced that Russia had hacked our voting machines and changed the tallies. Sixty-six percent of Democrats thought that after 2016. I criticized Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats who spent the runup to 2020 hyping conspiracy theories and suggesting the election would presumptively be illegitimate if their side lost. In December 2020 and January of last year, our side of the aisle defended our constitutional process despite political pressure, and we had, of course, a literal mob. But now it is President Biden and Leader Schumer and other Washington Democrats who don't like their poll numbers. So they are reversing their tune yet again. The people who spent November 2020 through January 2021 preaching sermons about the strength and the sanctity of our democracy are now undertaking to delegitimize the next election in case they lose it. We have a sitting President--a sitting President--invoking the Civil War, shouting about totalitarianism and labeling millions of Americans his domestic enemies. We have a Senate Democratic leader who now frequently calls American elections ``a rigged game.'' Look, this will not be repaired with more lies, more outrage, and more rulebreaking. Unfortunately, President Biden has rejected the better angels of our nature. So it is the Senate's responsibility to protect the country. This institution was constructed as a firewall against exactly-- exactly--the kind of rage and false hysteria we saw on full display yesterday. It falls to the Senate to put America on a better track. It falls to us. So this institution cannot give in to dishonorable tactics. We cannot surrender to this recklessness. We have to stand up, stand strong, protect the Senate, and defend the country.

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, something disturbing is happening in Washington this week. A group of politicians are trying to set aside election results, overrule American voters, and break--break--our institutions to get a political outcome they want. I am speaking, of course, about the Senate Democratic leader and the radical left. The Senate Democratic leader is trying to bully his own Members into breaking their word, breaking the Senate, and silencing the voices of millions of citizens so that one political party can take over our Nation's elections from the top down. In January 2021, a mob tried to intimidate and change the Senate, and they failed. In January of 2021, the Senate stayed true to itself, and it stood strong. But in January of 2022, some of the Senate's own Members want to permanently damage this institution from within. They want to shatter its central feature. The Democratic leader is using fake hysteria--fake hysteria--about 2021 State laws to justify a power grab he began floating actually back in 2019 and an election takeover that was first drafted in 2019. President Biden has spread so much misinformation about the basic facts of State voting laws that he was called out and debunked by-- listen to this--the Washington Post. A sitting President of the United States who pledged to lower the temperature and unite America now invokes the brutal racial hatred of Jim Crow segregation to smear--to smear--States whose new voting laws are more accessible than, for example, Delaware. Ten days of early voting and excuse-only absentees in Delaware is just fine, but 17 days of early voting and no-excuse absentees in Georgia is racist Jim Crow? The Senate Democratic leader pretends it is a civil rights crisis that Georgia has enshrined more early voting and more absentee balloting than his own State of New York has ever allowed. This is misinformation. It is a Big Lie designed to reduce faith in our democracy, justify a top-down election takeover, and justify smashing the Senate itself. Some years back, a veteran Democratic Senator explained: [The] nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power . . . [it] would transform the Senate from the so-called cooling saucer our Founding Fathers talked about . . . to a purer majoritarian body. That was then-Senator Joe Biden. He continued: At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it is about compromise and moderation. Now, before President Biden abruptly reversed this position he held for decades, he was actually in very good company. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the legendary Senate institutionalist, was this crucial tradition's fiercest defender. The current Democratic leader has tried to invoke Senator Byrd in support of this push to vandalize the Senate. This is more misinformation. Senator Byrd went out of his way to rebut Leader Schumer's arguments, years in advance. Here is a direct quote from Senator Byrd: Proponents of the so-called nuclear option cite several instances in which they inaccurately allege that I blazed a procedural path toward an inappropriate change in Senate rules. They're dead wrong-- Said Senator Byrd-- Dead wrong. They draw analogies where none exist and create cockeyed comparisons that fail to withstand even the slightest intellectual scrutiny. That is how Senator Byrd felt about it. Down to his final public statements before his death in 2010, Senator Byrd was completely consistent: I oppose cloture by a simple majority, because it would immediately destroy the uniqueness of this institution . . . minority rights would cease to exist in the U.S. Senate. Senator Byrd, shortly before his death. That Democratic leader knew how to serve and protect the Senate. This Democratic leader wants power so badly he will misrepresent his own late predecessor if it helps him get it. Senator Byrd's successor, the current senior Senator from West Virginia, has eloquently restated the very same points. Our colleague Senator Manchin published an op-ed explaining why ``there is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster''--Senator Manchin. He pointed out that finding compromise across party differences and differing regional interests was ``never supposed to be easy . . . but it is the work we were elected to do.'' He noted that current rules guarantee ``that rural and small states and the Americans who live in them . . . always have a seat at the table.'' Our colleague also pointed out that the 60-vote threshold keeps Federal law durable and predictable: If the filibuster is eliminated or budget reconciliation becomes the norm, a new and dangerous precedent will be set to pass sweeping, partisan legislation every time there is a change in political control . . . our nation may never see stable governing again. This has been a key point for Senators on both sides going back generations. In his farewell address before retirement, our former colleague, Lamar Alexander, put it this way: The Senate rules exists to ``force broad agreements on controversial issues that become laws that most of us will vote for and that a diverse country will accept.'' In other words, major changes need major buy-in. Otherwise, every policy would ping-pong wildly whenever the gavels change hands. This is a point which our colleague, the senior Senator from Arizona, has explained powerfully. As Senator Sinema wrote just a few months ago, ``the 60-vote threshold . . . compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings . . . and radical reversals in Federal policy.'' Sometimes the effect of the filibuster is to block bills outright. Republicans are using the tool to stop one-party election takeovers. In 2020, Democrats used it to kill Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill. But as President Biden argued decades ago, the filibuster is about more than what gets blocked. It shapes almost everything the Senate actually does pass. It gives all kinds of citizens and all kinds of States a meaningful voice in nearly everything. By breaking the Senate, this Democratic leader wants to silence the voices of millions and millions of Americans. He wants to throw whole regions of the country into a political power outage because those voters don't agree with his radicalism. We will see which Senators have the courage and the principle to put a stop to it. Finally, on a more practical level, I want to make something very, very clear. Fifty Republican Senators, the largest possible minority, have been sent here to represent the many millions of Americans whom Leader Schumer wants so badly to leave behind. So if my colleagues try to break the Senate to silence those millions of Americans, we will make their voices heard in this Chamber in ways that are more inconvenient for the majority and this White House than what anybody has seen in living memory. Last year, the Senate passed major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, on hate crimes, on government funding, on competing with China. Last year, Senators helped speed through noncontroversial nominations. So what would a postnuclear Senate look like? I assure you, it would not be more efficient or more productive. I personally guarantee it. Do my colleagues understand how many times per day the Senate needs and gets unanimous consent for basic housekeeping? Do they understand how many things would require rollcall votes, how often the minority could demand lengthy debate? Our colleagues who are itching for a procedural nuclear winter have not even begun to contemplate how it would look. Our colleagues who are itching to drain every drop of collegiality from this body have not even begun to consider how that would work. If the Democratic leader tries to shut millions of Americans and entire States out of the business of governing, the operations of this body will change. Oh, yes, that much is true. But not in ways that reward the rulebreakers, not in ways that advantage this President, this majority, or their party--I guarantee it.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week on this floor, we are poised to witness something that has never happened before in living memory: an attempt to attack the core identity of the Senate by a sitting majority leader. The senior Senator from New York once said nuking the filibuster would ``turn what the Founding Fathers called the cooling saucer of democracy into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.'' He said it would ``make the country into a banana republic . . . a doomsday for democracy,'' he said. Now, he wants to trigger that doomsday himself. When I was majority leader, some of my own party urged me to break the Senate for our own party's short-term gain. My answer was a simple word: ``no.'' Less than 4 years ago, the senior Senator from Illinois said nuking the legislative filibuster ``would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers.'' Now, he wants the Senate to end on his watch. The last time Senate Democrats were in the minority, 32 of them signed a letter demanding the legislative filibuster stay in place. Now, many of them say they want to break this institution. The excuses put forward for this behavior are entirely fake. The supposed justifications are simply false. The Senate Democratic leaders are trying to use a big lie to bully and berate their own Members into breaking their word, breaking the rules, and breaking the Senate. We are going to spend all week sounding the alarm on the radical takeovers that some Democrats want to pull off. They want to silence millions of Americans and take over the Senate so they can take over elections so they can take over America. Leading Democrats say they want to break the Senate because of the sinister anti-voting plot that is sweeping America. Of course, this is totally fake. It does not exist. The current control of Congress and the White House were decided in 2020 by the highest turnout in 120 years. Ninety-four percent of voters said voting was easy. More Americans say current voting laws are too lax than say they are too restrictive. Confronted by the facts, the Democratic leader says they are, of course, irrelevant. He says the entire nuclear push is occasioned by what a few States did in 2021. This is utter nonsense. The Senator from New York has been publicly laying groundwork to nuke the Senate rules since back in 2019, before the 2020 election. More than a year before the 2020 election, the Democratic leader was openly flirting with nuking the Senate rules if he got the power so he would be able to ram through bigger changes. Now, none of this was occasioned by what State legislatures did in 2021. This is actually a yearslong quest for power in search of a pretext. Their hysterical attack on State laws are fake as well. The State of Georgia passed a voting law providing for more in-person early voting than New York provides. It allows for no-excuse absentee voting, which New York prohibits. If there was not a voting crisis in Democrat-run New York 6 months ago, there is no crisis in Georgia now. If Georgia is a banana republic today, then New York has been and still is a banana republic. There is zero logic here, zero consistency. In the State of Texas, Democrats are hysterical because the State rolled back some unusual COVID-specific exceptions to their prior procedures, such as universal drive-through voting and 24-hour voting. So if the bar for voting rights now requires the possibility of voting in person at 3 a.m., how many blue States in America meet that bar? Neither of these things existed in Texas before 2020, and neither widely exists in blue States. Every hysterical claim that our democracy is in crisis rings hollow. More Americans today say that President Biden's election was legitimate--now listen to this--than said the same thing about the prior President in late 2017. More Americans today say that President Biden's election was legitimate than said the same about the prior President in late 2017. Yet Democrats are trying to use their fake hysteria to justify breaking Senate rules so they can seize control of elections in all 50 States. That is what they are up to. Historically, the Senate has taken up elections legislation on a careful, bipartisan basis. We have made sure not to trample on the rights of voters and the proper roles of local officials. In 2002, we passed the Help America Vote Act by a vote of 92 to 2--92 to 2. Chris Dodd and I authored that bill. Interestingly enough, the only dissenting votes came from then-Senator Hillary Clinton and the current Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. Ninety-two to two. Well, that is how you pass election reform if there are actual issues that need tackling. You do it carefully; you do it thoughtfully; bipartisan committee work; regular order. Our colleagues aren't doing anything like that. They are trying to ram through a sweeping, partisan legislation that they first drafted and introduced in its first iteration back in 2019. Democrats say they are concerned about efforts to disempower the appropriate local elections officials. Well, it is actually their bills that would disempower local officials, by Washington Democrats appointing themselves the entire country's board of elections on steroids. Democrats say they are concerned about overturning election results. Well, it is their bills that would overturn election results, overruling the commonsense voting laws that citizens across the country pick for their own States. A case in point: The Democrats' latest bill would force the entire country to adopt two practices--same-day registration and no-excuse absentee voting--that the citizens of New York State had as ballot measures last November. Deep-blue New York rejected them both. So you have to ask yourself, why are Washington Democrats refusing to accept the decision of New York voters? Why are they trying to set aside these election results and overturn the people's will? Our Democratic colleagues also talked about a so-called voting rights bill. This is a bill to turn the partisan Attorney General into a national elections czar. The Attorney General would no longer have to sue States to win in court; he could end up doing an end run around the legal system and push States around without having to persuade a judge first. I am sure our Democratic colleagues would have reacted well if Republicans had tried to break Senate rules so that Bill Barr could micromanage elections in blue States. I am sure that would have gone swimmingly on their side of the aisle. But, ultimately, the issues at stake this week run even deeper than this fake hysteria, even deeper than voting laws. Breaking the Senate itself and nuking the filibuster would cause a massive political power outage for many millions of American citizens, for entire States. So the filibuster is not just about what bills are blocked; it is also the sole feature that gives millions of Americans any voice at all in the legislation that does pass whenever there is one-party control. Annual appropriations, government funding bills, the NDAA, rescue packages like the CARES Act--all of them could be done on a one-party basis, thereby eliminating the influence of every State in America represented by a Member of the minority. For decades, both Senators and citizens have been able to take for granted that everybody gets a voice, even when they don't have divided government. If this unique feature of the Senate is blown up, millions and millions of Americans' voices will cease to be heard in this Chamber--a radical Senate takeover, for a radical elections takeover, for a radical takeover of our Nation's future. What the Democratic leader wants to do would not protect our democracy or our system of government. It would destroy a key feature of American Government forever, and the Senators on both sides know it.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, when Jack Brammer interviewed me in 1984 for one of the first profile pieces of my political career, I quickly saw the high quality of his reporting. He was even-handed, fair, and honest--and has remained so throughout his 43 year career as the Lexington Herald-Leader's statehouse reporter. Jack has always been among the best journalists in the Commonwealth. Today, in honor of his retirement, I recognize him for standing at the pinnacle of Kentucky journalism for over four decades. Jack Brammer is a lifelong Kentuckian. A native of Maysville, he joined the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1978 and has covered State politics ever since. We met in 1984 during my initial race for the U.S. Senate. Though many considered me an underdog, facing off against an entrenched incumbent, Jack took extensive time to interview me for his Herald-Leader profile. He even visited my parents in Shelbyville, sitting with them for hours to discuss my background and upbringing. In today's era of journalism, when so much reporting takes place via text, tweet, and email, Jack's methods might seem startlingly old- fashioned. But he kept up his same dogged style, always going above and beyond to deliver the complete, unabridged truth to Kentuckians. He is a journalist in the best mold of the profession: unafraid to report the facts, presented without editorializing, and allowing his readers to come to their own conclusions. I will miss Jack's steadfast commitment to the truth, which can often seem sorely lacking in today's fast- paced, cutthroat media industry. In his 43 years on the statehouse beat, Jack covered nearly every major moment in Kentucky politics. Like me, he has a deep passion for our Commonwealth's history and has made critical contributions to the historical record through his reporting. He had a front-row seat to 10 gubernatorial administrations, dozens of legislative sessions, and countless significant political events. His deep, hard-won understanding of Kentucky politics sets him apart from nearly every other journalist in our State. I know everyone in the statehouse, from other journalists to legislators, to the general public, will miss him. During Jack's retirement, I feel confident he will continue to share the wealth of wisdom he acquired over his legendary career. Jack has always been an enthusiastic mentor for younger journalists, taking generations of reporters under his wing to teach them the ropes of Kentucky State politics. As a graduate of the University of Kentucky and a member of their Journalism Hall of Fame, he has also spent time imparting his knowledge to the Commonwealth's future communications professionals. Even in retirement, he will continue to make a mark on our State. I will miss Jack's reporting dearly. He represents the best of the journalistic profession, and Kentuckians have been fortunate to read his writing for more than four decades. I wish him well in his upcoming endeavors and look forward to learning what his future holds. I would like to express my personal gratitude for Jack Brammer's many years of service to the Commonwealth and encourage my Senate colleagues to join me in congratulating him on his well-earned retirement. Madam President, Jack Brammer recently wrote an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader reflecting on his career. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I object.

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, as 2022 gets underway, working Americans and their families are facing a steady stream of significant challenges: the fastest growing inflation in almost 40 years; violent crime rates continue to rise, with many of our largest cities setting new alltime records for murders; a southern border that remains in crisis; a new highly contagious variant of the virus that President Biden promised he would personally crush; too few tests and too slow new treatments on this administration's watch; and another rolling wave of school shutdowns, as Big Labor bosses continue to make hostages out of children's futures over a virus that leaves children largely-- largely--unharmed. Late last year, one poll asked Americans about the most important problems facing the country. Some were most worried about the high cost of living. Others said, not surprisingly, the pandemic. One-fifth of respondents, the most by far, said the biggest issue was poor leadership--at a time when the Democratic Party controls the entire government. But do you know what wasn't on the list of concerns? It wasn't there at all--the fictional, scary stories the liberal activists keep repeating about how democracy is at death's door. The November 2020 election had the highest turnout in 120 years. Ninety-four percent of voters said voting was easy. Only 33 percent of Americans say it is currently too hard for eligible voters to vote. And a larger number than that actually say current laws are too loose--too loose. The American people are not buying this nonsensical talk of ``Jim Crow 2.0'' or a voting rights crisis. Everybody, apart from leftwing activists and the press, understands this emperor has no clothes at all. A few months ago, even voters in blue New York rejected multiple ballot measures to soften up election laws the way liberal activists prefer. This fake outrage is just a predicate for Washington Democrats to do something they have sought to do literally for years: appoint themselves a nationwide board of elections on steroids. This is the takeover that Democrats have sought for multiple years, using multiple different justifications. It is not a voting rights bill. It is a sprawling, sweeping takeover of our democracy. Our colleagues' bill would do things like forcing all 50 States--all of them--to legalize corrupt ballot harvesting. They would have the government send public funds directly to political campaigns. The same Attorney General who has frivolously sued Texas just to placate the White House, whose Department of Justice tries to intimidate parents, would be handed new power to micromanage election law. Some early drafts of this bill tried to literally, openly turn the Federal Election Commission into an outright partisan body. Talk about tipping your hand. These changes wouldn't bolster faith in our democracy or in our institutions. It would do exactly the opposite. It would be a civic wrecking ball. And, listen, that is before you consider that Senate Democrats want to destroy our own institution to ram this through. The current Senate Democratic leader once said that nuking filibuster rules would be a ``doomsday for democracy.'' Just a few years ago, more than 30 Senate Democrats joined a bipartisan letter supporting the legislative filibuster. President Biden defended the principle in long, passionate speeches throughout his entire career. Just last year, as President, he repeated that destroying the filibuster would ``throw the entire Congress into chaos.'' He certainly was right about that. There is no partial or limited nuclear option on the table. As the Senator for West Virginia put it yesterday, whenever you start talking about carving things out, you end up eating the entire turkey. No party that would trash the Senate's legislative traditions can be trusted to seize control over election laws all across America. Nobody who is this desperate to take over our democracy on a one-party basis can be allowed to do it. Finally, it is beyond distasteful for some of our colleagues to ham- fistedly invoke the January 6 anniversary to advance these aims. Washington Democrats have been trying to seize control over elections for years. Their first draft of the legislation at hand was introduced in January of 2019. The fact that violent criminals broke the law does not entitle Senate Democrats to break the Senate. It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to justify--listen to this--to justify breaking rules to grab outcomes they have not earned. I am going to say that again. It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to justify breaking the rules to grab outcomes they have not earned. It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to argue that institutions can be trampled because they would like a different result. A year ago, the Senate didn't bend and it didn't break. We held strong. It is jaw-dropping for colleagues to propose to commemorate that by breaking the Senate themselves in a different way. A year ago, there was a lot of talk on this floor about protecting the norms and institutions of our democracy by putting long-term bipartisan traditions ahead of short-term partisan power. Someday soon, it appears, we may learn which of us, actually, really meant it.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, a week ago, the Senate lost a distinguished former colleague and the State of Nevada lost an unparalleled advocate. Senator Harry Reid's path to this Chamber was a quintessentially American story. His incredible path from childhood poverty, to the boxing ring, to leading the U.S. Senate took both toughness and tenacity. And in this Chamber, just like everywhere else, Harry left it all in the ring. As leaders of our respective parties, the two of us disagreed energetically and often. We had sharply different views, goals, and philosophies on everything from public policy to the institution of the Senate itself. But through all the heat and light, I never doubted that Harry was doing what he earnestly believed was right for Nevada and for the Nation. Elaine and I were grateful to enjoy a joint friendship with Harry and Landra, the light of Harry's life, his beloved high school sweetheart. The Senate's thoughts and prayers continue to be with her and the entire Reid family.

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, few Kentucky creations have had as much impact on American culture as Bluegrass music. It is the spring from which all other country music flows and one of our State's most world- renowned exports. Owensboro, KY, has played an important role in maintaining and promoting Bluegrass history, style, and heritage and, in recognition of that work, was recently named the Bluegrass Capital of the World. Today, I honor Owensboro for earning this title and helping preserve Kentucky's proud Bluegrass culture. Owensboro's deep connection to Bluegrass music dates back to the genre's earliest days. Bill Monroe, widely recognized as the ``Father of Bluegrass'', was born just outside Owensboro in Ohio County, KY. His musical group, the Blue Grass Boys, adapted the unique style of music they found in Scotch-Irish communities in Kentucky's Appalachian foothills and popularized it for a mainstream audience. Listeners, entranced by Blue Grass Boys' soaring melodies, jaunty rhythm, and homespun style, started a craze for Bluegrass music that brought national fame to generations of Kentucky artists. Owensboro's leaders have recognized their unique role in Bluegrass history and sought to capitalize on that connection. City officials ushered in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum in downtown Owensboro in 1991, inviting both tourists and locals to learn about and enjoy Bluegrass history. The city's annual ``River of Music Party'', or ROMP, welcomes more than 20,000 visitors to the banks of the Ohio River to celebrate Bluegrass artists and help sustain this proud Kentucky tradition. And just recently, Owensboro Mayor Tom Watson signed the official proclamation naming his city the Bluegrass Capital of the World, cementing Owensboro's important place in Bluegrass history. Owensboro's leaders have also initiated a strong campaign to educate and popularize Bluegrass among the next generation of Kentuckians. The Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum features rotating exhibits highlighting key parts of Bluegrass history and hosts artists that promote the genre. The museum offers lessons in musical instruments like the mandolin, banjo, and fiddle, helping ensure the survival of their unique sounds and style. The museum's Bluegrass in the Schools program has introduced Bluegrass music to nearly 10,000 elementary students, including in 24 Owensboro-area schools, connecting young Kentuckians with their State's culture and history. Bluegrass music is the soundtrack of Kentucky. From the first pluck of the banjo, strum of the guitar, or drone of the fiddle, the genre is immediately recognizable. Owensboro's leaders have done incredible, extensive work to preserve and promote this unique Kentucky music and are incredibly deserving of their city's recent designation as Bluegrass Capital of the World. Mr. President, the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer highlighted the city's new title in a recent article. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in eastern Kentucky, one man has been at the center of efforts to expand eye care for nearly 40 years. Dr. Jerald Combs, who passed away last month, played an instrumental role in modernizing and extending access to optometric care across Kentucky's Appalachian region. Today, I recognize Dr. Combs as an outstanding Kentuckian whose work made a vast impact on the lives of his patients. When Dr. Combs began his practice in Martin, KY, in 1983, optometry in eastern Kentucky was an underdeveloped practice. Many residents lacked access to the eye care they needed, leaving far too many without good vision. Dr. Combs made it his mission to change that status quo and improved many lives in the process. His clinic served the entire eastern Kentucky region, attracting patients from far and wide who needed his care. Perhaps Dr. Combs' greatest legacy will be his efforts to increase optometry training opportunities in his community. Because of his work in this area, the University of Pikeville named their college of optometry in his honor. The school's Jerald F. Combs Endowed Scholarship gives students of all backgrounds the ability to study the subject, providing expertise to those who will stay in eastern Kentucky and help develop the field further. Throughout his life, Dr. Combs was committed to serving his community and our Commonwealth and earned many awards for his efforts. The Kentucky Optometric Association lavished him with praise, granting him both their Optometrist of the Year Award and Distinguished Service Award twice. He also served as president and a board member of the association for many years. Outside of optometry, Dr. Combs helped his community through the Knott County Youth Foundation, the Knott County Little League, the Kiwanis Club, and the Hazard Lions Club. He served on the University of Pikeville Board of Trustees, steering the school to success. I knew Dr. Combs personally and was saddened to learn of his passing last month. Few Kentuckians play as big or instrumental of a role in their community as he did. While we all mourn his loss, we can also be confident that his legacy, expanded access to eye care among Kentucky's most vulnerable communities, will last for many years into the future. I would like to express my personal gratitude for Dr. Combs' decades of service to the Commonwealth and encourage my Senate colleagues to join me in sharing condolences with the family, friends, and colleagues.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Western Kentucky is still reeling from last weekend's devastating storm, but support is rolling in from around the Commonwealth, our region, and the country as well. Yesterday, I spoke with the CEO of LifePoint Health. They operate 10 hospitals in Kentucky, including one in hard-hit Mayfield. Miraculously, their Jackson Purchase Medical Center survived the tornado mostly intact. Now it is offering much needed medical services right there in Mayfield. Nurses and doctors have worked literally day and night. LifePoint Health shipped water tankers to their facility to bolster local supply, and the company has pledged a million dollars to help Kentucky rebuild. Across our region, individuals and companies are opening their hearts, homes, and wallets to help. We have received important assistance from here in Washington as well. Yesterday, the President announced the Federal Government will fund the entire cost of debris removal and emergency protective measures in the eight counties hardest hit by the storm for the next month. Local officials won't need to worry about overstretching budgets. They can just focus on rebuilding. My team and I are working hard to continue connecting Kentuckians with the resources they need. I have set up a portal on my Senate office website to help my constituents access government assistance. It has a full list of services provided by our disaster response Agencies. Because of the Federal Government's swift action in the past week, victims of these tornadoes can access housing assistance, legal aid, crisis counseling, and more. I recommend every impacted Kentuckian take advantage of these resources, and my office is here to help you navigate. I will travel back to Kentucky tomorrow to visit several of the communities that were hit hardest and meet with local leaders who are spearheading recovery efforts. I will listen to their concerns and bring their stories back to Washington to ensure that they get the help they desperately need. The scene on the ground in Western Kentucky is still devastating and quite discouraging. For far too many families, this Christmas will be tragically abnormal. But we will continue to work together to provide Kentucky with the resources it needs to recover, bigger and better than before. Build Back Better Act Now, Madam President, on an entirely different matter, two in three Americans want the Federal Government to ``cut back on spending and printing money.'' That is two out of three Americans want the Federal Government to cut back on spending and printing money. But our Democratic colleagues spent the last several months trying as hard as possible to do exactly--exactly--the opposite. Washington Democrats have spent months trying to borrow, print, and spend trillions more dollars, right into the teeth of the worst inflation in almost 40 years. They have sought to turn their monthly welfare entitlement with no work requirements from a temporary COVID measure into a permanent policy--cash welfare with no work requirements, literally forever. Seventy-six percent of Americans say these handouts haven't helped their families at all. Yet Democrats want to dump many billions more. Just step back and look at all the ways their leftwing wish list could hurt a young family in middle America. First, they would need to cross their fingers that the private or employer-sponsored insurance they chose to meet their family's specific needs isn't shoved off a cliff in Democrats' latest lurch toward more socialized medicine. And they will have to hope their war on the medical innovation sector doesn't prevent the development of lifesaving cures their family might have relied on some years down the road. Say the family has one or two young kids. Maybe their ideal arrangement is a church-based daycare. They would need to say a prayer their faith-based center isn't sued and chased out of business thanks to Washington Democrats' toddler takeover. Their plan would give nothing to full-time parents, grandparent caregivers, nanny shares, or neighborhood co-ops. It would push faith- based providers out of the public square by design, and it could inflate daycare costs--listen to this--by up to $12,000 or $13,000 per child per year. If Democrats get their way, let's hope neither parent is one of the many Americans who work in our domestic energy sector. Our colleagues' bill has a huge pile of new redtape aimed at putting their industry literally out of business. But no matter where they work, they will face inflated prices to heat their homes and fill up at the gas pump. For all of these bad ideas and many more, our colleagues wanted to spend trillions upon trillions more dollars right into the teeth--into the teeth--of runaway inflation that they have already caused. Yesterday, we got indications the far left's slapdash sprint may be hitting the pause button. Well, that would certainly be great news for the American people. The best Christmas gift Washington could give working families would be putting this bad bill on ice. Senate Rules Madam President, now, on another matter, as cracks keep forming in the Democrats' reckless taxing-and-spending spree, some of our colleagues seemed to channel their frustration into even more radical attempts to attack our government institutions. In the span of a few hours, one Senate Democrat had renewed calls to ``nuke'' the Senate and break the rules, and another published a national op-ed arguing that Democrats should attack the rule of law and pack the Supreme Court--two frontal assaults on two branches of government proposed in the space of about 2 hours. Entire generations of statesmen would have seen either one of these unhinged proposals as Armageddon for our institutions. Ah, but apparently today's Democrats try both at once and just call it Wednesday. We have heard false claims that the Senate obeying our rules to address the debt limit somehow paves the way for radicals to break the rules. Madam President, I would ask unanimous consent that an additional statement on that subject be printed in a different place in the Record. Elections Madam President, so, look, we have discussed over and over again why Democrats will not be allowed to federalize our elections and lord over all 50 States like a self-appointed board of elections on steroids. My colleagues across the aisle have pushed absurd bills that would do things like neuter voter ID laws; make every State legalize ballot harvesting; turn the Federal Election Commission into a biased, partisan body; and even send taxpayer money to political campaigns. It isn't about ``voting rights''; it is a naked power grab. Democrats have been pushing the same kinds of bills literally for years, even as their stated justifications have changed wildly. When Republicans win elections or start polling well, Democrats and the media say our democracy is badly broken, on death's door, and needs a radical overhaul. The answers presented are these policies. When Democrats win elections, Democrats and the media say our democracy is sterling, beyond reproach, and just needs modest safeguards to protect the status quo, but, again, the answers presented are the very same policies. Lately, their pretext has been demagogic attacks on State voting laws and proposals. If any State scraps any of the temporary pandemic procedures that Democratic operatives favor, the radical left says the sky is falling. But outside of the liberal bubble, nobody buys this nonsense. The country is not buying the hysteria. On election day last month--listen to this--even in deep-blue New York, voters rejected liberal ballot measures that would have liberalized no-excuse absentee voting and loosened up the rules on voter registration. Both those were voted down in New York. Not even blue New York wants these policies to weaken their elections. But some Democrats want to break the Senate and trash its rules to force these sorts of things on all 50 States? It is beyond absurd. I understand my colleagues are frustrated they may not get to spend $4.9 trillion on the way out the door for Christmas, but, believe me, lashing out at our democracy, at the Supreme Court, and at the Senate itself is not going to solve anything. Senate Rules Madam President, last week, bipartisan majorities in the Senate and House passed S. 610 and the President signed the bill into law. This law prevented painful Medicare cuts and established a one-time, expedited, simple-majority process to make Senate Democrats raise the nation's debt limit with only Democratic votes. This week, some far-left activists and Senate Democrats who have spent months agitating to ``nuke'' the Senate are pretending that S. 610 represented some novel watershed for the Senate that gives them license to attack the institution. These are factual claims, and they are false. First, S. 610 needed to clear and did clear a 60-vote threshold. Sixty-four Senators voted to invoke cloture on the motion to concur in the House amendment. The Senate's consideration and passage of the bill fully obeyed the Standing Rules of the Senate. By contrast, ramming through a different fast-track procedure--or any other piece of legislation--with 50 votes over the objections of Senators requesting the 60-vote threshold would mean ``going nuclear,'' shredding the rules, and destroying the filibuster. Last week, the Senate followed the rules. The far left wants Democrats to break the rules. There is no comparison. Second, there was nothing novel about S. 610 establishing a new, limited, expedited, simple-majority Senate procedure via statute. The Senate has passed many such laws creating many such procedures. Examples date back at least to the 1930s. The much-used budget reconciliation process--with its limited, expedited, simple-majority Senate procedure--is a statutory creation of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 and its amendments. Other examples include the Trade Act of 1974, the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990, the Congressional Review Act of 1996, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015. In all these instances, the Senate passed laws that set up new, limited, expedited, simple-majority Senate procedures for considering specific issues within specific parameters. In this historical context, the one-time Senate process that S. 610 created was notably limited and minimalistic. It could only be accessed once, during a narrow stretch of time, for one specific purpose, with no other provisions or amendments permitted. In sum, the Senate's recent action on the debt limit did not change the filibuster any more than BRAC, TPA, or the Budget ``Super- Committee'' changed the filibuster--which is to say, not at all. As the widely admired and acclaimed expert on Senate procedure Marty Gold summarized last week, ``this expedited procedure will be created in accordance with the Standing Rules of the Senate, through passage of a regular order bill. The entire process must begin with 60 votes. [And] if it becomes law, it will be the narrowest expedited procedure ever passed.'' Last week's episode did not give radicals any pretext to wreck the Senate. Just the opposite. The Senate's functioning confirmed again that the current Senate rules generate bipartisan compromise when the country needs it. Tribute to Sara Schwartzman Madam President, now on one final matter, when the Senate does adjourn for the holidays, we will also bid farewell to a talented Senate staff leader who has kept our institution running. Sara Schwartzman is one of the Senate's finest. Sara has been a familiar face around the Senate and on the dais for more than a decade, and the most visible parts of her work as the Senate's bill clerk have certainly made her ``C-SPAN famous.'' For years, she was among the foremost experts on the pronunciation of ``Mr. Alexander.'' More recently, she has become well practiced in the delivery of ``Ms. Baldwin.'' But Sara's speaking role barely scratches the surface of her crucial responsibilities as the bill clerk. Day in and day out, she and her team are the traffic cops for mountains of legislative text and amendments. Sara tracks the paper and the records. Before the Senate can formally pass anything, it has to make a stop at her desk. As if these core duties weren't enough to keep even the most meticulous multitasker busy, Sara has generously made herself available to folks throughout the institution as an informal resource. Bill status? Procedural hurdles? Sara's encyclopedic expertise has been just a phone call away. It is safe to say her colleagues will miss this other sort of Senate hotline. As for Sara, one might worry that someone whose job is a part of every late-night vote and weekend session would struggle to fill her newfound free time, but I understand that, in this case, the Senate's loss is another storied institution's gain. Sara is leaving Washington but staying in public service, working in an exciting role with NASA. So, Sara, thank you for your years of service, and good luck in the exciting chapters ahead. (Applause.)

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in the aftermath of Western Kentucky's devastating tornado outbreak, I have maintained close contact with State and local officials. My staff has been on the ground since the outset of the crisis, helping residents access Federal resources and keeping me up-to-date with any developments. Toward the end of the week, I will travel back to Kentucky to meet with my constituents and visit the areas affected. The stories coming out of Kentucky are harrowing. But in recent days, we also heard about the generosity, the hard work, and the hope that are helping our State recover. Kentuckians desperately need help to rebuild, so our universities, normally bitter rivals on the court, are rallying together to raise money and gather supplies for relief efforts. This Christmas is shaping up to be exceptionally difficult for children all across Western Kentucky, so churches are organizing toy drives to help make the holidays a little bit brighter. Western Kentucky community organizations are stretched to the limit, so businesses based in the Commonwealth, from distilleries to car manufacturers, to insurance companies, have stepped up and donated literally millions. Remarkable stories of survival and resiliency have trickled out of the disaster zone. Last weekend's storm destroyed much of the First Christian Church in Mayfield, but the congregation discovered their communion table and altar cross fully intact while picking through the rubble. A symbol of hope and rebirth survived amid so much pain. Across town, the Mayfield Health and Rehabilitation nursing home was physically devastated when it took a direct hit from the tornado on Friday night, but all 74 of the facility's elderly residents survived with only minor injuries. As one staff member said, this was ``truly a miracle.'' And in Bremen, KY, when a man visited the wreckage of his home on Saturday, he discovered his grand piano mostly undamaged--undamaged-- despite the storm. Amid the surrounding devastation, he sat down to play and to sing hymns. His songs, shared on social media, warmed the hearts of thousands. These stories of hope have ricocheted across the Commonwealth, bringing smiles and strength to communities that need them most. And they give me faith that Kentucky will recover from this crisis stronger than ever.

Mr. McCONNELL

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