Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, for the first time in 12 years, an outright majority of Americans say crime has gotten worse in their area over the past year. Many Democrats have spent the last year and a half trying to defund police, smear law enforcement, and go soft on crime. As a result, innocent citizens have spent a year and a half watching murders, carjackings, and other violent crimes literally skyrocket. On Monday, in my hometown of Louisville, KY, we were stunned by what appears to have been an assassination attempt against a Jewish mayoral candidate by a prominent far-left activist who previously called for defunding our police department. This far-left Black Lives Matter activist and defund-the-police cheerleader walked into a Jewish Democrat's campaign headquarters and opened fire. Obviously, every aspect of this is still under investigation, including the suspect's mental condition. But guess what. He has already been let out of jail--already let out of jail. A leftwing bail fund partnered with BLM Louisville to bail him out. Less than 48 hours after this activist tried to literally murder a politician, the radical left bailed their comrade out of jail. This is just jaw-dropping. The innocent people of Louisville deserve better. Since 2020, a long list of prominent corporations have donated or pledged enormous amounts of money to the radical nationwide BLM parent organization. One wonders if any of their corporate money helped spring this would-be assassin from jail. Now, I am confident that if an activist claiming to be conservative tried to assassinate a politician, whatever his mental state, the media would open a 24/7 national conversation about rhetoric on the right. Somehow, I doubt attempted murder by a BLM activist will get that same treatment. I doubt we will have a national conversation about the constant chorus of powerful voices calling our society evil. I raise this double standard because it is not limited to media coverage. We have seen this extend into our legal system itself. In May of 2020, when Minneapolis was engulfed in lawless riots, one rioter broke into a pawn shop and started a fire that burned it down. His act of arson actually killed somebody. But the Federal attorneys, who were supposed to represent the victim and the people, went out of their way to push for an unusually lenient sentence. They asked for the typical sentencing guideline to be cut in half. Why? Well, because, they wrote, the defendant was an angry political protester who simply lost his cool. They wrote, ``As anyone watching the news worldwide knows, many other people in Minnesota were similarly caught up''--as if that were an excuse. This is the sentencing memo from the prosecutors. It reads like it was ghostwritten by the defense. They even tried to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to explain why this guy burned down a pawn shop. What a backward attitude. We cannot have Federal officials acting like leftwing political violence is more acceptable than any other violence. If anything, political violence is uniquely unacceptable in a democratic republic. Now, I placed a hold on President Biden's nominee to take over as U.S. attorney in Minnesota until he pledged he would keep political favoritism out of his prosecutions. Fortunately, he quickly said so in writing. He also knows Republicans will be watching. The American people need public servants to crack down on crime and defend their safety--crack down on crime and defend their safety--less pandering to woke mobs; more protecting innocent families. Energy Madam President, now on an entirely different matter, Washington Democrats' inflation is slamming consumers with the highest prices in 40 years. One of the toughest blows has been the soaring cost of a trip to the gas pump. A gallon of regular costs a full dollar more today than it did a year ago. So after triggering a historic run of inflation and hammering American producers with anti-energy policies designed to restrict supply, our Democratic colleagues are suddenly talking about gas prices. Here is their bold, creative plan: temporarily suspending the gas tax, to the tune of 18 cents--oh, and excluding diesel--a slap in the face to truckers and a further burden on the supply chain. Oh, and just to make the political games transparent, they want this to expire right after the midterms, as soon as the next Congress is sworn in. Democrats want to blow a $20 billion hole in highway funding so they can try to mask the effects of their own liberal policies on working Americans. They have spent the entire year waging a holy war on affordable American energy, and now--now--they want to use a pile of taxpayers' money to literally hide the consequences. As the senior Senator from West Virginia has pointed out, ``People want their bridges and their roads, and we have an infrastructure bill we just passed this summer, and they want to take all that away. It just doesn't make sense.'' He added that this half-baked proposal doesn't make any more sense than the President's pointless decision to take oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve last year. President Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, called this stunt ``short-sighted, ineffective, goofy and gimmicky.'' That is the Secretary of the Treasury in the Bill Clinton administration. Back in 2008, then-Candidate Obama himself said this: We're arguing over a gimmick that would save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something. Well, let me tell you, this isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer--it's designed to get them through an election. That is Barack Obama in 2008, and he was right. Look, if Democrats actually want to help the American people fill their tanks, they wouldn't have been attacking American energy every way possible for the entire year. President Biden made killing the Keystone XL Pipeline his day 1 priority. Democrats voted in lockstep to endorse President Biden's ban on new energy exploration on Federal lands. At every turn, in every way, Democrats have made it harder to produce affordable and reliable American energy. Take any form of energy, and if people in San Francisco don't find it fashionable, the Biden administration has gone after it. Three years ago, under Republican policies, the United States became a net exporter of oil for the first time in more than 70 years. From a sheer mathematical perspective, for the very first time since World War II, we were producing all that we needed and then some. Alas, a very different philosophy now controls Washington. In President Biden's first year, our own oil imports from Russia--from Russia--hit a new alltime high. But as we speak, events in Eastern Europe are reminding the entire world that energy abundance is not just about families' pocketbooks; there is a colossal strategic cost when our Nation and our allies become economically dependent on countries that don't like us very much. Some of our European allies have spent many years voluntarily winding down reliable sources like nuclear and coal and refusing to tap into their own considerable natural gas reserves via fracking. Instead, they gambled on less reliable sources and outsourced their perceived dirty work to places like Russia. Western European elites decided they wanted their energy production out of sight and out of mind, and Putin was all too happy to oblige them. Even after Russia invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014, Germany willingly signed up for Putin's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. It would negate Ukraine's own pipelines and deny the money and leverage that Ukraine needs to keep Russia at bay, but Germany backed it. Meanwhile, Berlin put off building liquid natural gas terminals, instead choosing to rely on Russian gas and refusing to diversify its import options. I am hopeful the latest indications that Germany is reconsidering this will prove to be accurate. The Biden administration is scrambling to connect our at-risk allies with some energy resources from everywhere else--everywhere else. But it should not have taken this latest Kremlin misbehavior to remind the West that self-sufficiency actually matters. It matters. And Democrats have still not flinched in their broader war against our own--our own-- U.S. production. Glitzy summits in Paris and finger-wagging climate rhetoric are one way to approach energy policy. Actually exploring and developing abundant, affordable, and reliable domestic energy is another approach, and that is the approach that will actually work.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, President Biden addressed the country about the ongoing crisis that Russia has created on its border with Ukraine. There was much in the President's remarks that I appreciated. He was right to candidly remind the Russian people that neither the United States nor NATO nor Ukraine wants a war. He was right to emphasize that the world will not shrug or stand idly by if Vladimir Putin tries to invade his neighbor or redraw the map of Europe through deadly force. We have spent much time discussing Russia's alleged security concerns and not enough time examining the legitimate concerns of Russia's neighbors, many of whom have a long history--a long history--of being invaded by Moscow. The concerns of these free, sovereign states matter as well, and the President would do well to amplify their voices and their historical experiences. So it is fine for President Biden to engage in good-faith diplomacy, provided we are skeptical about Putin's intentions. Thus far, Putin's behavior is proving how little he can be trusted and how little he is interested in diplomacy as anything other than a gambit to divide the West or a pretext for war. The United States must keep sending these strong messages, verbally and with concrete actions, both right now before any hostilities and then with devastating force if Putin does, indeed, plow ahead. The United States and our partners should waste no time in helping Ukraine prepare for war--weapons, materiel, advice, logistics, and intelligence. We should be building the infrastructure to help Ukraine sustain their resistance to Russian aggression if and when it comes. I welcome the President's deployment of additional forces to the territory of NATO allies situated along our alliance's eastern flank. I recommended he take such action months ago. And I am particularly grateful to the Kentuckians of the 101st Airborne Division who are leaving Fort Campbell this week to join NATO reinforcements in Eastern Europe. As our diplomats work to halt the train of Russian aggression, it is the brave men and women of the U.S. military who give their words added weight. I am hopeful that President Biden will rise to the occasion. As a bipartisan group of colleagues and I made clear in a joint statement yesterday, the President would have overwhelming, bipartisan support to use his existing Executive authorities for tough sanctions against Russia in the event of conflict. We should acknowledge Putin's use of energy as a weapon. If the President is serious about providing relief for Americans at the pump or blunting Putin's manipulation of energy markets, he will stop his administration's anti-energy policies that make it harder for our own producers to explore, to produce, and to export energy to vulnerable allies. While our eastern flank allies have consistently taken a clear-eyed approach to their own defense, it is time for America to invest more meaningfully in our own military capabilities and demand that our allies in Western Europe actually follow suit. Whether the administration is serious about competition with Russia and China will be clear when it submits its fiscal 2023 budget request. Our allies and adversaries will all be watching.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, at this time last year, Washington Democrats were beginning their quest to dump trillions of dollars in leftwing spending on a recovering economy that already had the preconditions for some inflation. Everybody warned Democrats to pump the brakes. Just weeks earlier, Republicans had already supported a smaller, targeted, bipartisan stimulus that had barely started to take effect. Even top liberal economists warned the Democrats' agenda could spark massive inflation. The consequences for working families have been particularly harsh. Essential goods have played an outsized role in driving up prices overall. It is harder to put dinner on the table when eggs, meat, and fish are 12 percent more expensive. It is harder to fill up cars with gas that is 40 percent more expensive and to heat a home with natural gas that has gone up 24 percent or fuel oil that has gone up 47 percent. This is reality for millions of Americans. They are living it every single day. Yet the Biden administration seems less interested in trying to solve this problem than in trying to persuade families that the pain is actually just in their heads. One recent story reported that members of President Biden's team were ``seemingly mystified'' about why the American people weren't celebrating this economy. Well, if Washington Democrats spent 5 minutes talking to a middle- class family, I am confident they would cease to be mystified. The middle 40 percent of American earners have seen their disposable incomes fall more than an entire percentage point over the last year-- entirely due to inflation. Any American who hasn't managed to secure an 8-percent pay raise in the last year has actually received a real pay cut, thanks to Democrats' inflation. The American people are reporting their lowest consumer sentiment in over a decade. Seventy-five percent say our economy is doing badly. Almost 80 percent expect inflation to get worse. Six in ten say their family's income isn't keeping pace with their costs of living. These are not statistics the White House can wave away. We are actually talking about human pain. A working mother in Michigan said: I cannot buy the food that I would normally buy for my family. In Washington State, a single mom of four who also cares for her elderly parents says she has had to take favorite family foods like frozen pizza and wings and make them ``more of a treat than just a regular meal.'' This is where Democrats' policies have left working families.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now, on a related matter, this Democrat-caused inflation has forced the Federal Reserve and its Board of Governors into a very tricky position. But while the country is carefully watching the Fed Board of Governors, the Senate happens to be considering several of President Biden's nominees to that very same Board. Later today, I will meet with Chairman Powell, whom President Biden wisely renominated to serve another term atop the Fed. Chairman Powell has proven to be a straight shooter within the mainstream of monetary policy. His creative leadership helped stabilize our entire economy through the uncertain early days of the COVID recession. I look forward to discussing inflation and the state of our economy with Chairman Powell this afternoon. Unfortunately, several of President Biden's other Fed nominees appear to have been significantly less wise selections. One nominee, Professor Cook from Michigan State University, has previously promoted partisan conspiracy theories. In 2020, she called for a fellow academic to be fired because he opposed defunding the police. The White House cites among Professor Cook's qualifications that she sits on the Board of Directors of the regional Fed in Chicago. She was appointed to that position just a few days before President Biden nominated her for this one. More troubling still is President Biden's nominee to the extremely powerful position of Vice Chair for Supervision. This slot comes with major unilateral power. But the President's nominee, Sarah Bloom Raskin, has spent recent years pressuring the Fed to stop being a neutral regulator and instead become an ideological, leftwing activist body. Ms. Raskin has argued openly that unelected Fed Governors should use their powers to declare ideological war on fossil fuels and affordable American energy. Ms. Raskin wants our banking system to start picking winners and losers in ways that would stick American families with higher gas prices, higher electricity bills, and more dependence on China. And she wants to implement this agenda from inside one of the least directly accountable institutions in our government so that voters simply have no recourse. The far left is already boasting that this backdoor Green New Deal would only be the first step. Democrats have already introduced legislation that would get the Federal Reserve into the racial redistribution business and inject racial preferences into our financial system. These unpopular ideas would completely upend an institution that Americans need to remain nonpolitical, nonpartisan, and nonideological. Fed Governors are supposed to be neutral regulators, not economic policy dictators whom voters can't get rid of. If this weren't disqualifying enough, potentially significant ethical questions have begun to swirl around Ms. Raskin's nomination. During her time out of government, Ms. Raskin became affiliated with an obscure financial technology firm in Colorado. Shortly thereafter, somehow, mysteriously, this small company became what appears to be the only nonbank financial tech company in the entire country to receive a special master account that allowed them to directly access a core Federal Reserve system. This is an obviously worrisome topic, but I understand that Senators have not even been able to get Ms. Raskin to satisfy their basic requests for information. So I would urge President Biden to find a better, more mainstream, more bipartisan candidate to serve this crucial institution.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. About 2 weeks ago, I spoke on this floor about the state of the pandemic 2 years in, about letting American families get back to normal. The current science clearly supports the 70 percent of Americans who believe we must accept this virus is here to stay, trust the science, and proceed with normal life. At the time, this was not a universal sentiment. The next day, across the river, liberals tried to shame Virginia's new Governor for forgoing a mask in an incredibly vaccinated area where cases had been falling for weeks. The top Democrat in the Virginia State Senate criticized the Governor and backed ongoing school mask mandates as ``common sense.'' But, my goodness, how quickly things can change. A few days ago, I understand the same State senate leader did a 180- degree turn and voted for an amendment to end school mask mandates. A dam had begun to break nationwide. A week ago, leaders in Democrat-run New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Oregon announced they would ax or relax their mask and/or vaccine mandates in the near future. By the end of the week, States, including California, Illinois, Nevada, New York, and Rhode Island had followed suit to varying degrees. Now, obviously, the scientific facts have not changed in the last few weeks. We have known for many weeks that this variant is significantly milder, and we have known for many months that the universally available vaccines reduce the odds of hospitalization or death down to the level of many routine risks that we all face constantly in our daily lives. The only science that has changed in the last 2 weeks is the political science. The only data that has changed in the last 2 weeks is the Democrats' polling data. The Washington Post put it like this: The ``abrupt end to mask mandates reflects a shifting political landscape.'' Ah, but there is a problem. While Democratic leaders are stampeding to finally follow the science and end burdensome mandates on adults in many places, America's children are still being left behind. States like New York and California are rolling back restrictions on adults but have yet to provide any end date or off-ramp for mask mandates in K-12 schools. This is completely backward since we have known for well over a year that COVID poses far lower risks to children than to adults. Officials in Illinois and the District of Columbia have embraced the same double standard, winding back general public mandates while leaving the schools with no end date in sight. In other words, here in Washington, the Mayor's office will be lifting mandates next week in all kinds of adult establishments, from bars to fitness studios, while keeping kids in classrooms, masked up for at least--at least--another month. Even as Democrats permit grownups to get back to normal, they are clinging onto their emergency powers over K-12 classrooms. The ultrarich, ultrapowerful teachers unions that have been antagonists of normal childhoods at each step of the pandemic are continuing to drag their heels. For 2 years now, Democrats at the local, State, and Federal levels have let a labor executive named Randi Weingarten become something of an unelected national classroom czar, holding millions of kids' fates in her hand. Science has proven over and over again that in-person schooling is safe for kids, but Big Labor has sought to move the goalposts every time, and Democrats have mostly gone along with it. Last year, Ms. Weingarten bragged publicly that the Biden administration had invited her own hyperpolitical teachers union to basically author the scientific guidelines for school reopenings. The Biden administration took the pen away from doctors and experts and handed it to Big Labor. She boasted: They asked us for language and we gave them language. Reporters found multiple instances where the union's words were copied and pasted directly--directly--into the final CDC document. Now the same Ms. Weingarten is trying to move the goalposts again on America's kids to an even more extreme and unscientific place. She asserted last week that little kids should have to keep covering their faces in schools until there is ``no dissemination and transmission in schools.'' With respect, that is completely bonkers, absolutely bonkers. There is no credible scientist or doctor in America who believes that we are headed toward zero COVID. We are not going to magically eradicate this virus; it is heading endemic. So Ms. Weingarten's latest made-up standard would have K-12 kids covering their faces literally forever. Little kids in masks forever? That is the upshot of this top Biden administration's ally's public demands. This is utter madness. Two years ago, the American people accepted temporary disruptions to their daily lives in order to prevent our hospitals from collapsing and to buy scientists time to invent vaccines and therapeutics. Check, check, and check. Our healthcare system endured. We have remarkable, safe, and effective vaccines; we have therapeutics; and we know that, thank God, none of these variants have posed a medical emergency for the vast majority of children--period. Americans who watched the Super Bowl saw rich celebrities having a grand time with hardly a mask in sight, but under the Democrats' policies, first graders who watched that big, maskless party last night had to wake up this morning and cover their own faces in order to go to school. America's classrooms seem to be the last places where local, State, and Federal Democrats will accept that cost-benefit calculations exist, and zero transmission is simply not possible. For 2 years now, the Democratic Party has allowed some of the most powerful special interests in our country to profoundly--profoundly-- disrupt children's lives. The political left has put kids last. That is simply not acceptable. American families deserve normalcy; they deserve it right now; and this side of the aisle, the party of parents, has their back. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, moments ago, the country got yet another terrible monthly inflation report under the Biden administration. Yet again, the data confirmed what working families already know painfully well: Rampant inflation and soaring prices are crushing--crushing--the American people. Experts had predicted another red-hot inflation report, around 7 percent. Even that alone would have meant we were still trapped inside the worst inflation in 40 years, but reality turned out to be even worse than that. It turns out inflation this past year hasn't been 7 percent; it has been 7\1/2\ percent. In other words, if you haven't personally gotten a pay raise of 8 percent or more in the last year, then Democrats' policies have given you a pay cut--pay cut. To add insult to injury, reporters say the worst of this inflation was driven by the most painful categories for working families: food prices, energy prices, and rent. This is not about financial inconvenience for wealthy people who can afford to stomach it; this is about massive price increases for essential goods that make up a huge share of working families' budgets. Gas is up about 40 percent since this time last year. Used car prices are up about the same. Meat, fish, and eggs cost over 12 percent more than they did just 1 year ago. The cost of natural gas for home heating has soared by 24 percent since this time last year. Fuel oil has shot up almost 47 percent. The cost of essentials has absolutely exploded since Washington Democrats took power. To be clear, the worst inflation in 40 years is not something that just spontaneously happened to Democrats on their watch. As a Pew report demonstrated late last year, it is true that countries around the world are facing inflation--they are--as a result of COVID, but America has it worse than almost everybody else in the developed world. This is a direct result of liberal policy choices. Here is how Jason Furman, President Obama's CEA Chairman, explained it recently. I will quote from the New York Times: ``The United States has had much more inflation than almost any other advanced economy in the world,'' said Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University and former Obama administration economic adviser, who used comparable methodologies to look across areas and concluded that U.S. price increases have been consistently faster. The difference, he said, comes because ``the United States' stimulus is in a category of its own.'' Obviously, he is referring to the $2 trillion so-called rescue package last year. The severity of this inflation was directly fueled by the reckless, far-left spending spree that every single Democrat in this Chamber voted to ram through at President Biden's behest last year. Even the most prominent liberal economists knew this would happen and tried to warn the Democrats. A year ago, Larry Summers warned that Democrats' binge could set off ``inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.'' Ah, but Democrats ignored their own experts. They plowed ahead, using the pandemic as a pretext--a pretext--to dump $2 trillion into left-wing policies that were overwhelmingly unrelated-- unrelated--to the healthcare fight against the virus, and we see the results all around us. Families are living with the results every day. As recently as the last few days, some of my Democratic colleagues have come here to the floor to boast about the increase in nominal wages. They want a round of applause because the numbers on many Americans' paychecks have gone up. But that is staggeringly out of touch with the reality. Yes, in an inflationary spiral, lots of people will see the numbers on their paychecks go up. The problem is that even those bigger paychecks are buying Americans less in real terms today than their smaller paychecks bought them before Democrats were sworn in. It is like this: Democratic policies have created an inflation riptide that is forcing families and small businesses to swim as fast as they possibly can just to avoid getting sucked out to sea, but Democrats are trying to call this a success because of how fast everybody's arms and legs are moving. Talk about an absurd effort to spend your way out of reality. The truth is plain for everybody to see. A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran a story with the headline ``'That raise meant nothing:' Inflation is wiping out pay increases for most Americans.'' The story explained, and this is a direct quote: [M]any [workers] said that despite considerable pay raises--as much as 33 percent, in some cases--they were still struggling to cover basic expenses. Several workers said they had taken second jobs to keep up with rising costs for groceries, gas and rent. So American workers are not buying the Democratic spin for 1 second. One year after President Biden took office with massive economic tailwinds at his back, with an economy that was primed for a roaring comeback, 75 percent of Americans say our economy is doing badly. About 90 percent of Americans say they are concerned with inflation. Ninety percent of Americans say they are concerned with inflation. A 60- percent supermajority say their family's income is falling behind the cost of living. It didn't have to be this way. This was a policy choice. This all- Democratic government was warned that their radical agenda would supercharge inflation, and they pushed ahead anyway, and our country is paying the price.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, after more than six decades as a staple of Logan County radio, Don Neagle is retiring this year. As the host of the WRUS morning show and the ``Feedback'' program, Don brings high-quality news to his community, interviewing everyone from politicians, to writers, to theologians. As one local leader put it so aptly, Don is Logan County's ``bulletin board,'' relaying all of his community's most important news in one place. Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Don in his retirement. For decades, Don arrived at his office every weekday at 4:15 am, preparing the day's news while most listeners were still fast asleep. By the time Logan County residents were on their morning commute, he was already halfway through his workday. Through his incredible work ethic and scrappy style, Don stayed ahead of breaking news and at the pinnacle of Kentucky journalism. Don is a legendary interviewer, and his ``Feedback'' show is the highlight of WRUS's entire programming lineup. Any leader in Kentucky government, myself included, knows that it's basically a requirement to be interviewed by Don when visiting Logan County. I have had the pleasure of speaking to him many times, and it is always an enlightening conversation full of informed, probing questions. Don's calm, constant voice has earned him many fans across the Commonwealth. He joined the Kentucky Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 2006, demonstrating that his influence reaches far beyond Logan County's borders. While his skill brought him acclaim from around Kentucky, he never strayed in his commitment to his Logan County home. Don's career was more than just a job; he formed a deep bond with Logan County, and even after six decades, he seems loath to give it up. Though Don is taking a step back from his expansive role at WRUS, he will remain at the station for the time being as host of ``Feedback'' and an occasional guest interviewer. In the meantime, he will have more time to spend with his two daughters, six grandchildren, and six great- grandchildren. He will also be able to pursue his favorite lifelong pastime, reading, with new gusto. In honor of Don's retirement, I would like to thank him for his service to the Commonwealth and unflagging loyalty to strong local journalism. He has delivered an invaluable service to Logan County residents for more than 60 years, and we will all miss his ever-present voice. Mr. President, Bowling Green Daily News paid tribute to Don's career in a recent article. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. While Washington Democrats spent 2021 distracted by their reckless taxing-and-spending spree, violent criminals were preying on the American people. Millions of Americans' neighborhoods descended into chaos and violence around them. After the nationwide murder rate saw its biggest jump in more than 100 years in 2020, at least 12 major cities set their own alltime homicide records in 2021. Rates of carjackings have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled in major metro areas. My hometown of Louisville set a new alltime murder record last year of 188 homicides. Twenty-four of the victims were children. At one point last year, a staggering 65 percent of our homicides were going unsolved. Louisville is now averaging one carjacking every 42 hours. Yesterday, I hosted the FBI special agent in charge of the Louisville field office for a meeting here in the Capitol. We discussed these issues at length. One survey last year found that Americans believe violent crime is the No. 1 major crisis facing our country. More citizens called violent crime a major crisis than COVID. When Americans were asked about President Biden's handling of law enforcement and criminal justice, the President polls almost 20 points underwater. The American people know this crime wave is not some spontaneous event. It has been fed and fueled in multiple ways by the Democratic Party's far-left turn. For example, liberal activists and many elected Democrats have spent almost 2 years trying to smear--smear--the entire profession of policing with the actions of a few bad actors. We know that anti-police culture wars invite more crime. It is a fact. A prominent scholar--who, incidentally, was the youngest African- American professor to ever get tenure at Harvard--has proven that anti- police outcry directly results in more crime, including homicides. Many jurisdictions have entertained financial attacks on police departments to match the rhetorical attacks. Literally just yesterday, a prominent House Democrat insisted to the press that the far left will not be dropping or diluting their message of ``defund the police.'' Meanwhile, our brave men and women in law enforcement are literally-- literally--under attack. While too many politicians take aim at our brave police officers in a political sense, violent criminals are taking aim at them in a literal sense. The number of cop killings shot up nearly 60 percent last year to a two-decade high. In Louisville, Jefferson County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Shirley was shot and killed last summer. It is believed he was ambushed while wearing his uniform. The streets of New York City were packed full with heroes a few days ago as fellow officers mourned two of their colleagues who had been shot and killed. It is not just regular citizens going about their normal days who need this violent crime epidemic to stop; our brave men and women in blue also need very badly for it to stop. But, within the justice system, leftwing activists have insinuated themselves into prosecutorial roles throughout America and are making ``soft on crime'' actually their official policy. The State's attorney in Baltimore announced last year she intended to stop prosecuting minor drug and prostitution cases. New York City's new district attorney said last month he would not pursue charges for marijuana misdemeanors, trespassing, and resisting arrest, among others. After a huge backlash, he tried to walk some of this back. Chain stores like Walgreens have had to close locations in San Francisco because constant, unpunished theft and shoplifting have become a fact of life in that city. Another example is almost too sad and ironic for words. In Wisconsin last November, a repeat offender who was out on bond drove his car into a Christmas parade and murdered six people. His victims included an 8- year-old child and a group of grandmothers. Well, one jurisdiction over in Milwaukee County has one of the most prominent soft-on-crime liberal prosecutors in the entire country. He has spent years waging a national campaign urging prosecutors to actually go easy on repeat criminals like this killer. A few years back, he even admitted soft-on-crime policies would cost innocent lives but said he was willing to make the trade. Here is what he had to say: Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into [a] treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach. These backward, pro-crime attitudes aren't just infecting local DAs' offices; they also seem to be largely defining the Biden Department of Justice. Rachael Rollins is the former Massachusetts DA who spent her last job trying to wipe entire categories of crimes off the enforcement rolls. This earned her a promotion to U.S. attorney from President Biden, which every Senate Democrat supported. There is Vanita Gupta, now an Associate Attorney General, who had previously advocated for sweeping drug decriminalization and expressed her support for efforts to ``decrease police budgets.'' There is Kristen Clarke, also confirmed by Senate Democrats to work at DOJ, who echoed calls to ``invest less in police.'' These are President Biden's picks to top jobs at Main Justice. I just had to place a hold on the nominee to be U.S. attorney for Minnesota because the person recently acting in that job recommended an unusually soft sentence below the minimum guideline to a convicted fatal arsonist because the arsonist was taking part in a far-left political riot at the time. I will need written assurance the nominee to succeed this person will not continue this jaw-dropping practice and lessen criminals' sentences so long as the political violence they commit happens to be leftwing. The modern Democratic Party has convinced itself that order--order-- is actually oppression and anarchy is actually compassion. This is totally wrong. Tolerating lawlessness and anarchy is not compassionate. It doesn't help vulnerable communities for politicians to passively watch them devolve into literal war zones. The actual residents of these communities know this best of all. Last summer, even after months of anti-police rhetoric from the left, when a poll asked the residents of Detroit about their concerns, almost five times more people said public safety than police reform. It was even more lopsided among African-American residents. They named public safety eight times more than police reform. Last summer, NPR interviewed a man who had committed terrible crimes as a young adult, served time, turned his life around, and now works with young men in prison. The reporter asked how he had gotten caught up in criminal violence. Where did his childhood veer off course? Here was the man's explanation--a direct quote. Here is what he said: It was my environment. . . . When I go outside every day, as soon as I walk out my front door, I'm entering a war zone . . . from sun-up to sundown, robberies and murders and carjacking and extortion . . . [I] became a product of my environment. So this man's problem was not an evil justice system that was out to get him; it wasn't that his neighborhood had an excess of law and order; the problem was a lack of--a lack of--law and order. It is not compassionate to let vulnerable kids grow up in war zones because Democrats feel bad putting violent criminals in prison, where they belong. Let me say that again. It is not compassionate to let vulnerable kids grow up in war zones because Democrats feel guilty putting violent criminals behind bars, where they belong. Neither is it compassionate to make innocent, law-abiding citizens across America live in fear because liberal public servants won't do their jobs. The answer to this crimewave isn't slashing law enforcement budgets, it isn't replacing cops with social workers, and it isn't far-left gun grabbers coming after the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Here is the answer: Elected officials need to drop the soft-on-crime nonsense and give innocent American families the protection they deserve. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Biden administration spent the end of last week boasting that our economy added back more jobs in January than some economists had predicted, but American families aren't buying their spin. The working men and women of this country know painfully well that the Biden administration's economy is failing them. One typical recent survey showed a majority of Americans disapprove of the President's job performance, and Democrats' poor handling of the economy is a major factor. So let's be clear. The country was always--always--guaranteed to add back jobs following the 2020 COVID recession. The Biden administration did not create the vaccines, it did not create this milder variant, and it is not owed particular credit for the fact that our economy is continuing to climb out of the crater caused by the 2020 lockdowns. Our trajectory of adding back jobs has stayed remarkably consistent from late 2020 up through today. Job growth under President Biden has just kept bumping along the trajectory that he inherited-- notwithstanding that Democrats blew trillions of dollars on supposedly job-creating policies in the meantime. There has been no noticeable acceleration in job growth relative to the baseline that was forecast before Democrats took power, but inflation, on the other hand, has absolutely soared relative to those forecasts. Consumer prices exploded by 7 percent in 2021--the worst inflation in 40 years. More than 80 percent of Americans say the cost of everyday goods have shot up, and two-thirds disapprove of the job President Biden is doing to help their wallets. Even though American workers have been earning pay raises, inflation is leaving them with less purchasing power than they had in the first place. Once you factor in inflation, the average American has gotten a 2-percent real pay cut--cut--under Democratic policies. According to one calculation, only in one single sector across the entire economy did wage growth outpace inflation last year. That was leisure and hospitality, as those incredibly hard-hit sectors rebounded from their especially nightmarish 2020. Everyone else, on average, got a pay cut. The average retail worker got an inflation pay cut; same with miners and loggers--inflation pay cuts. Construction workers, manufacturing workers, and transportation workers got inflation pay cuts, and on and on. Americans know that Democrats' failed policies are the reason.

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, this year's Winter Olympics are officially underway on the home turf of the Chinese Communist Party. Of course, Americans are rooting hard for our outstanding Team USA athletes, but this year's setting has also trained spotlights worldwide on the abuse and repression the CCP inflicts on its own people and aspires to inflict on much of the world. Unfortunately, this has also occasioned some instances of jaw-dropping tone-deafness and gullibility from American voices. I noted on this floor several years ago that as China has modernized its economy, too many wealthy and powerful American actors have seemed willing to help whitewash the CCP's many abuses or at least turn a blind eye. Hollywood self-censoring our own American films to satisfy President Xi and his cronies is just one example. Well, last week, one American broadcaster seemed to uncritically amplify the CCP's propaganda goal when they included a member of the oppressed Uighur minority in the opening ceremonies. This broadcaster called the CCP's obvious propaganda stunt ``an in- your-face response to those Western nations, including the U.S., who have called this Chinese treatment of that group `genocide.' '' President Xi couldn't have scripted it better. Also, last week, a faculty member at a Big Ten university went on TV and compared China's secret police to American police officers and China's tyranny to America's voting laws. Here was the quote: Who are we to criticize China's human rights record when we have ongoing attacks by the agents of the State against unarmed citizens, and we've got assaults on the voting rights of people of color in various States in this country? Really? Beyond absurd. The truth is, the CCP has turned Xinjiang Province into a giant oppression factory, where they enslave, sterilize, and commit genocide against the Muslim minority. The truth is, the CCP has systematically worn down human rights and democracy in Hong Kong and jailed Hongkongers for speaking up. The truth is, the CCP is an aggressive, irresponsible presence in the Pacific region and well beyond. America's national security and economic competition with the CCP is a defining challenge for our country--and not just us but for all our friends and partners around the world, anyone who values an international order built on freedom and self-determination instead of their opposites. Last year, the Senate took some bipartisan steps to strengthen America's hand in that competition. The bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act was not any Senator's or any committee's or either party's idea of a perfect bill, but this delicate compromise product made headway on issues from critical supply chains to counterespionage, to intellectual property. And the Senate passed the bill last June, and the House has done nothing for 8 months--nothing from House Democrats from last June until just last week. So a few days ago, instead of passing the Senate's careful compromise, House Democrats slapped together a partisan bill stuffed with poison pills and the kinds of things they tried to put in their reckless tax-and-spending spree that failed at the end of last year. They didn't even bother to try working with House Republicans. The whole exercise was completely unserious. House Democrats' version mentions the word ``climate'' nearly as many times as it mentions the word ``China.'' It pours billions into the U.N. Green Climate Fund so the United States can borrow money from China to give it to an international body, which can then give it to China. Their bill even goes out of its way to include provisions on--listen to this--marijuana banking. China has been steadily building up its military and economic might, and the Democrats' answer is to help Americans get high? Drug overdoses on fentanyl just became the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 across our entire country. Much of this poison pours into our country from, of course, China. And Democrats' plan to combat this is some more marijuana on the side? Needless to say, this is not a winning strategy for a global competition between great powers. So here is the bottom line. The bipartisan Senate USICA bill was itself a delicate compromise product. Any Democrats hoping to yank the bill to the far left or insert poison pills are badly, badly mistaken.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, on another matter, today President Biden will welcome Olaf Scholz, the new German Chancellor, to his first visit to Washington since taking office. Germany is a crucial ally of the United States. Tens of thousands of U.S. servicemembers reside in Germany, contributing to the collective security of the NATO alliance. According to the State Department, bilateral trade between our countries totaled more than $260 billion in 2019. Many in Washington on both sides of the aisle appreciated the increasing leadership role that Chancellor Scholz's predecessor, Angela Merkel, played in international affairs. Germany's overseas contributions in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Africa demonstrated a growing willingness to contribute to international missions that advance our collective security interests. The German people have built the largest economy in Europe and the fourth largest in the entire world. They are indeed a major player, but there is no question Germany could do more given its influential role, including within the EU and NATO, to advance our shared foreign policy and security interests. Back during the Cold War, the West German military was truly a capable fighting force, but Germany's military has been allowed to atrophy in the decades since. Today, it lags behind the state of the art and suffers from shortfalls in readiness and regular maintenance. Germany endorsed the 2014 NATO pledge to commit 2 percent of its GDP to defense and 20 percent of that defense spending toward modernization by 2024. But it has taken very few credible steps to meet that pledge. Meanwhile, threats to the alliance have only grown since 2014. Russia's and China's decades-long modernization efforts made it clear that 2 percent will not suffice for NATO to meet these growing challenges. Here in Congress, we have demonstrated our commitment to NATO and to Europe's security. We hosted Jens Stoltenberg for a joint address to Congress 3 years ago. We have included measures supporting America's presence in Europe in our annual Defense bills, including significant investments in our European Deterrence Initiative. So I hope that Chancellor Scholz will reciprocate and take this opportunity to reassure us about Germany's commitment to NATO and our collective defense. Our friends are too powerful and too prosperous not to contribute more militarily to our alliance. Of course, building military capabilities takes time. But the urgent issue of Russian aggression in Europe also demands courage and firmness, and it demands it right now. We know how such resolve works. The United States and our allies displayed such firmness again and again in standing up to Soviet pressure, and West Berlin remained a free city because of it. Chancellor Scholz has plenty of tools at his disposal to join his allies in sending a strong signal to Putin that aggression against Ukraine would carry a tremendous--tremendous--cost. So let's take one example. A bipartisan chorus in Congress has opposed the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline for years. We have viewed it as a new geopolitical tool for Putin to undermine Ukraine and divide Europe. Germany acknowledges the international community's concerns, hence German delays in moving the project forward. It would be a powerful demonstration of German leadership for Chancellor Scholz to declare firmly and simply that Russian escalation in Europe will result in the termination--the termination--of Nord Stream 2--not another pause, the end of the pipeline, period. Likewise, it would send an important message if Chancellor Scholz commits, like other NATO allies have done and like his own predecessor's national security advisor just recommended, that Germany will help Ukraine with legitimate military capabilities so that it can better defend itself against aggression. So, in conclusion, Germany has been an important pillar in NATO and a strong ally of the United States literally for decades. We welcome the new Chancellor to American soil. The time is now--now--for Germany to stand up and protect the peace and defend the stable Europe that modern Germany itself has helped construct and from which it has greatly benefited.

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, this morning, the Banking Committee is examining three of President Biden's nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The Fed is one of the most consequential institutions in America. Its decisions have massive ramifications for our citizens and for the world economy. At the same time, since its independence is paramount, the Fed's structure insulates the Governors from short-term influence and political pressure. When an institution this important is this independent, the guardrails that confine its power are extremely important. Now, Congress has given the Fed a statutory mandate that is really very clear and very limited. The Fed's dual mandate is maximizing employment and stabilizing prices. That is it. That is what the Fed exists to do. The Fed is meant to serve as our central bank. It is not meant to act as an unelected superlegislature that dabbles in broader economic policymaking should it strike its fancy. Its current leader, Chairman Powell, understands this keenly. But, unfortunately, President Biden's nominee for the powerful No. 2 slot wants to destroy this crucial distinction. Less than 2 years ago, Sarah Bloom Raskin launched a PR campaign saying the unelected Fed Governors should pursue liberal environmental goals that elected Democrats cannot get through Congress through the banking system. That bears repeating. President Biden's nominee for Fed Vice Chair wants unelected bureaucrats to financially bully the private sector into policy changes which lack enough support to become law the honest way. So let's get more specific. Ms. Raskin has argued repeatedly in print that the Fed should ideologically pick winners and losers in the energy sector. In 2020, she said unelected bureaucrats should have excluded companies that employ Americans and produce American energy from widely available rescue loans because oil and gas are not green enough for liberals' liking. Now, this is the same old Democratic war on fossil fuels and middle America being smuggled into a dangerous new forum. Washington Democrats want to raise Americans' gas prices. They want to make electricity even less affordable. They want it to cost more to keep your family warm in the dead of winter. And now they want to do all this in a radical new fashion where voters could never hold them accountable. The stated justification for this power grab is that climate change may impact the future of our economy; so therefore, it is the Fed's business--what nonsense with no limiting principle. Every major policy could affect our economy. Opening this Pandora's box would transform the Fed from an apolitical central bank into a hyperpolitical superlegislature. It would turn the venerable institution that is supposed to safeguard the American dollar into enforcers for a radical agenda that can't make it through Congress. So you had better believe liberal activists are already acknowledging this would not stop with climate issues. They have got a whole list of ideological goals they would like the Fed to literally force on our country. A year and a half ago, Democrats introduced legislation that would assign the Fed the mission of racial redistribution. They want to hardwire a kind of financial affirmative action plan into our banking system. Look, the American people don't want these wild ideas. So their elected Representatives actually don't support them. Now the far left wants to transplant these radical campaigns out of Congress and into our central bank, where American voters don't get a say. This is just another example of today's Democratic Party's refusing to work within the basic rules and institutions and, instead, trying to steamroll the guardrails to get their way. Ms. Raskin's crusade would hurt working families, kill American jobs, make our Nation less independent, and cripple the Fed's independence in the process. She wouldn't even need her colleagues' votes to do this damage. The Vice Chair for Supervision has significant unilateral powers. She might be able to do this all by herself. Here is the bottom line: Working families can't afford a nominee who is dying to jack up their bills and gas prices. Kentuckians and middle Americans can't afford a central banker who wants to bankrupt our industries and kill our jobs. The global economy can't afford for the Fed to become a partisan battlefield, and the American people will not accept their central bank acting like some woke--woke--superlegislature where citizens get no say.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, first, the entire Senate is praying for and pulling for our colleague Senator Lujan. We learned yesterday that our colleague suffered a stroke late last week and has been hospitalized in New Mexico as he recovers. It is certainly encouraging to read that our friend and colleague is expected to make a full recovery. I know that all 99 of his colleagues are thinking of him every day, rooting for a swift and smooth recovery, and already looking forward to the next time we see him.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Working Americans and their families are being hammered by the worst inflation in 40 years, and Washington Democrats own it. Sometimes it can be difficult to directly connect Washington policies to the downstream effects on our families. Sometimes it can be tricky to identify cause and effect. But not this time--not in this case. The pain that families are feeling today was not just foreseeable, it was actually foreseen by experts all across the political spectrum. Economists said this inflation is exactly--exactly--what would happen if Democrats pushed ahead with their reckless spending sprees that the economy simply did not need. Larry Summers, who was Treasury Secretary for President Clinton and ran the National Economic Council for President Obama, warned Democrats a year ago this week that Democrats far-left plans could trigger ``inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.'' Jason Furman, who chaired President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers, said the very same thing. He said the Democrat's spending binge was ``definitely too big for the moment. I don't know any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.'' That is Jason Furman, President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers. But our Democratic colleagues did not let families' actual needs restrain their radical daydreaming. They had already made up their minds. This temporary pandemic was to serve as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism. Remember, right from the start, in March of 2020, with Americans dying from this new, mysterious virus, a top House Democrat called it ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.'' So the new Democratic Party government's first major act was to start printing, borrowing, and spending money like there was no tomorrow. They managed to blow through roughly $2 trillion on a so-called COVID bill that utterly failed to crush the virus. Less than 9 percent of the money went to the healthcare fight at all. Even the liberal expert, Steve Rattner, a former Obama official, said the spending spree was Democrats' ``original sin'' when it comes to inflation. And working Americans are paying dearly for it every single day. Just look at the headlines: 2021 went down as the worst year for inflation since 1982. Higher prices seeped into just about everything households and businesses buy. There's no telling when prices will fall to more sustainable levels. Further quotes: [R]ising costs for food . . . rent and other necessities are heightening the financial pressures on America's households. Rising prices have wiped out the healthy pay increases that many Americans have been receiving, making it harder for households, especially lower-income families, to afford basic expenses. Yes, it is true that inflation is up all around the world. This is partially a global phenomenon. But the United States has it worse-- worse--than almost everyone else. Data from Pew show that America's inflationary spike has been the third worst among all countries they measure. We have it worse than any other country in the G12--much worse inflation than the UK or France or Australia or Japan. That is what this agenda has bought us. And Americans are afraid this may still just be the beginning. Seventy-nine percent of Americans now expect inflation will get even worse over the next 6 months. Now the Democratic-caused inflation has the Federal Reserve signaling they may need to raise interest rates higher and faster than they had expected. This brings its own set of risks upon the American people, and, again, it is exactly--exactly--what experts predicted. A full year ago this week, the economist, Michael Strain, testified that Democrats' spending could corner the Fed and force them to clamp down on the recovery sooner than necessary. Democrats had mainstream economic experts warning against their reckless spending plans and still decided to drive right over the cliff. Working families are paying the price every day--at the checkout counter, at the gas pump, at the used car lot, when they pay their bills, when they look for housing. And now Washington Democrats are trying again to revive talk of yet another--another--reckless bout of spending this year. American families are already hurting enough. They need that bad idea to stay buried.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Senators spent last week in our home States. We got to hear firsthand updates about the real issues facing real families that we all represent. I was especially glad to return to Western Kentucky to keep working on our recovery from the catastrophic tornadoes that hammered our State in mid-December. Kentuckians are tough. They are resilient. But many are still reeling from the impact of these storms. They have lost homes, businesses, even loved ones. I spent last week meeting with local leaders, small business owners, and Kentuckians in the hardest hit areas. We talked about our work here in Washington and the help they can expect to receive from us. Kentuckians in the affected areas have been grateful for the quick and efficient way that FEMA has begun distributing recovery aid. We know recovery will be a very long process, but my office and I will be standing with our people every step of the way. And the entire State is excited to improve our roads, bridges, railways, and broadband thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure deal that Congress struck last year. But like working people across America, Kentuckians also have serious concerns about significant headwinds. Kentucky families are feeling the pain of the worst inflation in 40 years. Our country has been hammered by 7 percent inflation over just the past year. Employers are trying hard to keep up. Even as they face inflation across all their expenses, businesses across our region have significantly upped their spending on wages and benefits, and many workers have gotten raises. But, actually, it is only on paper because the historic inflation on the Democrats' watch has more than canceled the average increase in wages. Inflation is turning pay raises into pay cuts. This is just one of the many significant problems we confront.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam 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, tomorrow, our Nation's Capital will once again host many thousands of Americans gathering peacefully to support the most basic human right--the right to life. For 49 years, the March for Life has united people from diverse backgrounds, different faiths, and all 50 States to celebrate the dignity of human life and confront the ways our society fails to protect it. This year, the marchers will arrive in a Washington controlled by a Democratic Party that has grown increasingly radical on this issue. Today's Democrats work overtime to keep our country one of just seven nations on the planet that have abortion on demand even after the unborn children can feel pain. Our shameful company includes China and North Korea. Fewer than 30 percent of Americans endorse this view, but Democrats have made it party dogma. On President Biden's watch, Washington Democrats have even turned against the longstanding bipartisan Hyde Amendment. Both parties used to agree that at least Federal taxpayers should not be forced to fund abortions. Now Democrats on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue declared war on even this. So I warmly welcome the marchers from Kentucky and across the country. This radical version of the Democratic Party needs to hear your voices now more than ever.