Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the weekend, our Nation lost an outstanding public servant, and I lost a dear friend of nearly 40 years. Janet Gardner Mullins Grissom was a proud daughter of Louisville, a trailblazing government leader, and my very first Chief of Staff here in the Senate. She passed away at the age of 73. I believe Janet was a 29-year-old single mom when she and her young daughter Shannon arrived here in the Nation's Capital, determined to start a new chapter. To give you a sense of Janet's spirit, here is what she would later say about her first job interview: I told them I could take dictation, which I couldn't, but I figured I could learn. Janet had smarts. She had tenacity. And she had a communication style that one might delicately call direct. Our hometown newspaper would later report that she had ``a salty tongue.'' Well, that was putting it mildly. She was a riot. She was a force of nature. And those qualities fueled a meteoric rise. By the time I met Janet at some parent-teacher function at both of our daughters' school back in 1983, she had already ascended to the top rank of Senate staffers and actually left Washington to go back home to Louisville. As you can imagine, I had to cajole Janet into heading up my long- shot first Senate campaign. I understand Shannon only permitted her mom to take the job and the potential return to Washington that winning might entail because Janet had assured her there was virtually no chance we would pull it off. Surprisingly, we did pull it off. We packed our boxes for Washington. I believe Shannon at least got a new puppy for a consolation prize. Janet's veteran know-how helped me hit the ground running and make an impact from the start. She could ask for sensitive meetings, explain detailed policy issues, and curse a blue streak at some unruly reporter--and that she would all do before lunchtime. You couldn't imagine a better friend to have in your corner. I believe she was the first woman to serve two different Senators as chief of staff. After my office, Janet's next stop was the political operation of then-Vice President Bush. That is where she met James A. Baker after he left President Reagan's Cabinet to oversee the Bush campaign in 1988. Apparently, while the other campaign staff greeted the famous newcomer with the awe and deference one might expect, Janet marched down the hallway barefoot and said: ``Hey, Jim, nice to meet you.'' Everyone else recoiled, but Jim Baker laughed. When he became Bush 41's Secretary of State, Janet went with him and served as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs. When Baker became White House Chief of Staff, Janet went with him and became an assistant to the President. And when Janet left government for the private sector, she kept on blazing trails. She spent a decade helping steer the Ford Motor Company as a senior officer. So Janet Mullins Grissom built a prototypical Washington, DC, powerhouse resume by being a thoroughly untypical Washington person. Brilliant and accomplished, yes, but tough as nails and a little rough around the edges in the best ways. That same spine of steel helped Janet hold a serious illness at bay for a number of years. Up to just a few days ago, she was still in the fray, still tweeting up a storm on politics and media criticism, relishing the good fight right to the end. Janet lived to see her most lasting legacy come full circle. Her older grandson, Harry, has a startup business. Her younger grandson, Sam, has gone into political communications himself. He even spent a couple of years in my office as an outstanding speechwriter and press aide. I know Janet was thrilled to see the boys thriving. Elaine and I send our deepest condolences to Janet's husband Tom, her beloved daughter Shannon, and her grandchildren, Harry and Sam, and all the family members, friends, and colleagues mourning this tremendous loss. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee).

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Braun), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Lee), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in the last several years, Democrats have given many dramatic speeches about our country's norms and institutions, about the rule of law and the health of democracy. But the sad irony has been this: The same political left that shouted so loudly about norms, institutions, and the rule of law has kept trying to steamroll these principles themselves. Look at recent events at the State capitol buildings in Tennessee and Montana--angry liberal activists in shoving matches with law enforcement, shouting down proceedings. I myself am on the record as a firm critic of rioters and disrupting legislatures, across the board, no matter who is doing it. Why can't the left be as consistent? And look at their side's growing hostility to the very independence of our judicial branch. A few weeks ago, when one Federal judge issued a ruling with policy outcomes that Democrats didn't like, they started suggesting that politicians should just openly disobey--just openly disobey--the judge's rulings. Those suggestions are toxic and, frankly, anti-American. It was wrong when President Andrew Jackson tried to ignore the Court way back in the 1830s, it was dead wrong when Governor Faubus defied the Court on civil rights in the 1950s, and it is wrong also when today's Democratic Party brings all of that back. The attacks on the judiciary don't stop there. In 2020, our colleague the Democratic leader stood on the very steps of the Supreme Court and threatened Justices by name--by name--with a ``whirlwind'' of retaliation if they failed to rule the way he wanted. Then, after top Democrats encouraged mob outrage over a leaked draft opinion, President Biden's Attorney General failed to enforce clear Federal law and put a stop--a stop--to illegal protests that sought to intimidate the Justices at their private family homes. Recently, a number of Senate Democrats have gone so far as to propose defunding security needs for the Justices and their families if Chief Justice Roberts doesn't reorganize internal matters the way Democrats would prefer. So after fanning the flames of violence against an equal branch of government, Democrats now want to defund the Justices' ability to protect themselves and their families if certain Senators don't get their way. They are trying to turn impartial judges into partisan hostages. This is really beyond irresponsible. And then, of course, there are the desperate and never-ending attempts to smear and defame Justices appointed by Republican Presidents, going back years and decades. Over the last few weeks, two Justices have been particularly subjected to a carousel of character assassination. I am sure it will be another Justice's turn again before too long. This is simply how the far left treats the rule of law. Let me just repeat that I have total confidence in Justice Gorsuch, Justice Thomas, and all seven of their distinguished colleagues, no matter who appointed them--no matter who appointed them. Just yesterday, all nine Justices explained in a statement their joint approach to maintaining their high ethical standards. Unlike the activists and elected Democrats trying to tear them down, the Justices have proven their sobriety and judicial temperament over their long and distinguished careers.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for over 2 years, the Biden administration has failed to attend to some of the most basic governing duties. Stable prices, secure borders, and safe streets are three of the most fundamental responsibilities that any government owes its people. But Washington Democrats neglected the basics for their pet priorities. They spent trillions of dollars on government goodies that nobody asked for, triggered the worst inflation in 40 years, and turned a blind eye to the border crisis and a crime wave, all occurring on their watch. They caused the damage on party-line votes, without any input from the Republican side. In response, the American people flipped the House and chose a closely divided Senate. The voters dialed up the checks and the balances. The people went to the ballot box and demanded the Democrats start negotiating and compromising. But the President is refusing to engage. Even as his own advisers say the debt ceiling is approaching fast, the White House is totally MIA. His position has been no negotiation, no reforms. It is such an absurd position that even fellow Democrats are not buying it. The senior Senator from West Virginia, a Democrat, has publicly called on the President to sit down with Speaker McCarthy and negotiate. Listen to the House Democrats: ``Get to work and get it done for the sake of the country,'' says one. ``They've got to do it soon,'' says another. Just a few years ago, the Democratic leader said debt limit talks were an ``opportunity for bipartisanship.'' And what about President Biden himself? Here is what then-Vice President Biden said about the debt ceiling back in 2011. ``Some of them are still unwilling to budge . . . taking an absolute position: my way or no way. . . . That's not governing,'' said the Vice President in 2011. My goodness, that is harsh criticism for the 2023 version of President Biden from the 2011 version of Vice President Biden. The Democrats' reckless policies have already dealt far too much damage to our country. This administration's inflation has hammered working families' budgets. Their anti-energy policies have raised gas prices and utility bills. Their attempt to reinvent cash welfare without work requirements hurt small businesses by worsening labor shortages and hurt families by promoting dependence. So the working people of this country have already paid a heavy enough price for Democrats' failures. We should not even come within a mile of flirting with a Democratic debt default on top of all the rest. It is time for President Biden to stop the partisan stubbornness, join Speaker McCarthy at the grownups' table, and get talking. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill 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, well, the Biden administration's reckless economic policies have hurt American workers and families right from the beginning. Right from the start of their one-party government, Democrats used party-line votes to light trillions-- trillions--of dollars on fire and supercharge inflation that is still hammering the country right up to the present. After 2 years of reckless policies and human pain, the American people voted for checks and balances. They elected a Republican House and a narrowly divided Senate to literally pump the brakes on this radicalism. But there is an old saying in Washington that ``personnel is policy.'' So while the American people put a stop to reckless legislation last November, President Biden continues to send reckless nominations to the Senate. They want to accomplish through Big Government regulations what the voters have stopped them from doing here in Congress. This morning, for example, the HELP Committee is hearing from Julie Su, President Biden's nominee to run the Department of Labor. Ms. Su has a lengthy track record for all--all--the wrong reasons. Before entering the Biden administration, she presided over a disaster as head of the State labor department out in California. Tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent payments went out the door on her watch. The State auditor found Ms. Su and her department were totally asleep--totally asleep--at the switch on antifraud efforts. Even the Los Angeles Times had to label her performance--listen to this--an ``epic failure.'' Our supply chains are already in enough peril, due in part to high- stakes labor negotiations. Think about the negotiations to keep open the ports on the west coast. Think about the ripple effects. Our national economy cannot afford a track record of ``epic failure'' leading our Department of Labor. She also supported and helped implement a controversial new California law that essentially--listen to this--declared war on independent contractors and tried to give Big Labor special interests veto power over the entire gig economy. In essence, these far-left Democrats want every ride-share driver, hairdresser, or personal trainer to be reclassified and handled more like a corporate employee, all so that part of their paychecks could be vacuumed up and donated to leftwing political causes. The same partisan inflexibility has defined Ms. Su's time here in Washington as Deputy Secretary of Labor on the national level. From the powerful No. 2 job, she helped President Biden try to force that California model into our entire economy, a giant gift for Big Labor bosses at the expense of workers and consumers alike. She also signaled that she wants to help lead the far left's crusade against the current joint-employer rule, yet another effort to give big-money union bosses even more power to squash innovation and skim money from workers' paychecks. What they can't get through legislation, they fully intend to push forward through regulations. So it is no wonder that an unending parade of small business leaders, independent contractors, and other job creators have written the Senate literally begging us--begging us--to demand a fairer and more mainstream Labor Secretary. Confirming this nominee would compound the economic pain the Biden administration has already caused. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, if I may say to our colleague from Washington, I remember, as you certainly do, that 1992 was declared the ``Year of the Woman,'' and a number of women were elected to the Senate. But you were the leader of the group, and you have had an extraordinarily successful career, and I wanted you to know that people on both sides of the aisle admire your service. And congratulations.

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Braun) and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley).

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, we are 2 years into the latest chapter of Washington Democrats' war against our own domestic energy. America spent decades working toward affordable, reliable energy independence, and Democrats have tried to reverse it all, turned it all around: less exploration for American oil and gas, more dependence on immoral Chinese supply chains. Even as the left wants Big Government to gamble our whole grid on less reliable new technologies, they don't even want to let us mine here in America on our own soil for the rare earth minerals those technologies actually require. The Democrats have fundamentally misunderstood both the economics and the geopolitics of American energy. So the result is going to be fewer jobs for our workers, bigger bills for our families, less security for our country, and more vulnerability to foreign actors who don't like us. Just last week, the Biden EPA announced it will try to slap a radical and unprecedented new mandate on our country regarding electric vehicles. The same people who can't handle inflation and can't secure our border want to stick their noses into Americans' garages and our driveways. The administration's radical plan would cut down the marketplace of affordable and reliable vehicles that most Americans actually want to drive. It would massively increase demand on already highly taxed electrical grids with no workable plan to grow capacity, and it would force rich liberals' lifestyle choices onto the whole country. Good luck--good luck farmers, ranchers, rural Americans. California wants to dictate what you drive. See, California is the proving ground for these bad ideas. They have already set their own punitive targets for electric vehicle sales, and--surprise--the math actually doesn't work. At the same time Governor Newsom is mandating his citizens buy electric vehicles, he is telling people not to plug them in--don't plug them in--for fear of blackouts. California expects to see 15 times more electric vehicles on the roads and on their electrical grid by 2035--the same California that already had to spend last summer begging citizens to turn down their air-conditioning because their grid can barely survive as it is right now. Democrats want less American energy, less production, and, of course, less reliability. Republicans want more, more, and more--more production, more independence, more affordability, and more security. The House Republican majority's landmark H.R. 1 goes right at this very issue. It would be a huge shot in the arm for American energy. But here in the Senate, the Democratic leader controls the floor, and he has declared the bill ``dead on arrival''--dead on arrival here in the Senate. It is the clearest possible contrast. Republicans are fighting for cheaper and more reliable power, stronger supply chains, and a stronger America on the world stage; and Democrats, they are actually fighting us. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt) and the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton).

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I want to address an extremely unusual request that our Democratic colleagues have made with respect to the Judiciary Committee. Our dear friend Senator Feinstein is a titanic figure and a stateswoman. Elaine and I have been honored to count the Senator and her late husband Dick as close, personal friends for many, many years. We miss our colleague. We wish her the very best for a speedy recovery and a smooth return. In the meantime, our colleague's temporary absence has really not ground the Judiciary Committee to a halt. So far this Congress, the committee has reported out 40 judicial nominees--listen to this--more than half of them--more than half of them--on a bipartisan basis. Let me say that again. More than two dozen judicial nominees have been reported out this Congress on bipartisan votes. There are more than a dozen article III judges already waiting on the Executive Calendar, and a whole bunch of the nominees currently in committee are likely to receive bipartisan support as well. So the administration does not face any obstacle to moving nominees who are remotely qualified for the job. People who are mainstream and qualified have a path forward. Yet some of the same far-left voices who have attacked Senator Feinstein in the past are now suggesting that the Senate move her off the Judiciary Committee indefinitely--indefinitely. The stated reason, the supposed emergency, is that Senate Democrats are unable to push through the small fraction of their nominees who are so extreme--so extreme--and so unqualified that they cannot win a single Republican vote in Committee. Let me say that again. The far left wants the full Senate to move a Senator off a committee so they can ram through a small sliver of their nominees who are especially extreme or especially unqualified. There are four main nominees whom our Democratic colleagues are currently unable to move. One of them threatened an underage abuse victim while representing her prep school. One of them didn't know what article II of the Constitution says. One of them didn't know what a Brady motion is. The fourth one argued that the sex offender registry-- listen to this--does not help keep children safe. Those are the four they are having a hard time moving. They are not on track to get bipartisan support. It is purely the Democrats' political choice to hold relatively more reasonable nominees hostage so the unqualified ones can move in a pack. So even though they could move a number of less controversial nominees right now--right now--they want to sideline Senator Feinstein so they can ram through the worst four as well. I understand our Judiciary Committee colleagues report they cannot find a single past example where their committee let a Member be temporarily replaced in this fashion that some Democrats are advocating. So let's be clear. Senate Republicans will not take part in sidelining a temporarily absent colleague off a committee just so Democrats can force through their very worst nominees.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I would like to recognize a beloved family business, native to Kentucky, that celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Reid's Orchard started in a similar fashion to most entrepreneurial success stories in this country: an immigrant who journeyed to America in search of a better life for himself and his family. Allan Reid left his little village in Scotland in 1873, setting up shop in New York City with his two brothers in the tobacco industry. Allan started out bookkeeping, but the young and ambitious Scot quickly realized that it wasn't bookkeeping or tobacco that interested him, it was peaches, which he found wildly outpaced the quality of fruit available back in Europe. Allan soon left New York City to set up a peach and apple orchard in Daviess County, KY--where the business is still run today. His orchard quickly became a well-run enterprise and a leader in agricultural production and technology. In admirable fashion, Allan gave back to his community in more ways than just his delicious fruit. This peach pioneer would go on to serve two terms as a Kentucky State Representative and play an instrumental role in the construction and expansion of roads throughout this region of the Commonwealth. Allan's sons, Robert Reid, Jr., and John, would later join the family business with this same sense of community until Allan's great-grandson, Billy, would enter the business and form Reid's Orchard, as it is known today. Since taking the helm, Billy has brought the orchard to new heights, expanding his family's business into a successful year-round operation, a popular community-gathering point, and a local staple of Owensboro. Today, Reid's Orchard caters to Kentuckians across the Commonwealth, offering a wide array of delicious produce and seasonal favorites that include apples, cider, strawberries, flowers, pies, pumpkins, and my personal favorite, peaches. My staff will tell you, amusingly, that peach-picking season is a highly anticipated event for me. Every August, I look forward to sampling Billy's peaches. To the delight of many, the orchard's success has allowed the family to expand beyond its farm business. Each year, the orchard puts on an annual summer festival, hosting some of country music's biggest names-- an impressive feat for a family-run business in Western Kentucky and a further testament to Reid's widespread popularity. For 37 years straight, the orchard would also host its popular Apple Festival. In fact, this festival is so popular locally that the Owensboro community plans to carry on the tradition each fall. When it is not hosting popular community events, Reid's Orchard regularly welcomes families who have traveled far and wide to pick produce in the orchard, learn about farm life, and let their kids roam free across its 250 acres. Billy's impressive stewardship of the family business and commitment to his local community have earned him the admiration of Owensboro locals, as well as Kentuckians across the Commonwealth. I am proud to call Billy a long-time friend, a friendship that extends beyond his delicious peach deliveries and spans over 20 years. From Allan Reid's early love for peaches to Billy's thoughtful expansion of his great-grandfather's legacy, the story of Reid's Orchard has been defined by hard work and ingenuity. It is an American story, a story that renews our gratitude for this Nation, its opportunity, and its promise. On behalf of the Senate, I would like to recognize the Reid family for their countless contributions to the Bluegrass, and congratulate Reid's Orchard for 150 years in operation of the American Dream.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is good to be back. I want to thank all of my colleagues for their warm wishes shared over the past few weeks. Suffice it to say, this wasn't the first time that being hardheaded has served me very well. We are truly lucky and blessed to get to serve in this remarkable institution, represent our home States, and serve our country. Needless to say, I am very happy to be back. There is important business for Congress to tackle. We should be working to undo this administration's mistakes. We need to secure the border, reduce crime, fight inflation, and invest in America's strength and our security. On an even more basic level, President Biden and his administration are literally ``on the clock'' to negotiate a debt ceiling solution with Speaker McCarthy and the Republican majority over in the House. The President's economic advisers say the deadline for a solution is not far off, but his political advisers apparently think the White House's position should be--listen to this--no talks and no reforms. This extreme position is not even holding up in their own party. Even Washington Democrats are breaking ranks from the administration's position of no talks and no reforms. One of our Senate Democratic colleagues wrote an entire Washington Post op-ed calling on the President to sit down with Congress and reform spending. Reports indicate that a whole group of House Democrats are already talking about negotiations and about compromise. Just a few years ago, the Democratic leader, Leader Schumer, said this about the debt ceiling: [It] gives another ample opportunity for bipartisanship, not for one party jamming its choices down the throats of the other. So President Biden does not get to stick his fingers in his ears and refuse to listen, talk, or negotiate, and the American people know that. The White House needs to stop wasting time and start negotiating with the Speaker of the House.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan), and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch) would have voted ``nay'' and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, there is a regrettable and un- Presidential thread that has been woven throughout the whole Biden Presidency. Whenever this President finds himself facing bad headlines, he tries to change the subject by fearmongering about civil rights and voting rights and pretending we are in the 1950s or sixties. Remember early last year when the full impact of the Democrats' inflation was coming into focus? That is when President Biden flew to Georgia, screamed that Jim Crow was coming back and our democracy was on death's doorstep, and compared Republicans--listen to this--to Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis. He compared us to Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis. Well, here he goes again. Last weekend, down in Alabama, the President suggested that the right to vote in America is ``under assault'' today, on par with Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge nearly 60 years ago. Nobody believes this. Nobody seriously believes that race relations or voting laws or any of these issues are anywhere near--anywhere near--where they were back in the 1960s. This is utter nonsense. President Biden again referenced the Republican State's voting laws that he last year called Jim Crow 2.0, as if all of that hysteria had not been completely disproven in the meantime. Last November, the exact same Georgia voting law that the Democrats called evil and racist and the death knell for democracy created record-high turnout, lightning-fast voting lines, and a supermajority of African-American voters reporting that the voting experience was-- listen to this--excellent. Do you know the share of Black voters in Georgia who described their voting experience under the new Republican law as poor? Let me say that again. Do you know the share of Black voters in Georgia who described their voting experience under the new Republican law as poor? It is zero. Zero. President Biden said this law was the second coming of segregation, and zero percent of Black voters said they had a poor voting experience. Ah, but here he goes again with the same lies, the same hysteria. We are back in this bizarre, bizarre twilight zone where the President of the United States periodically says these utterly absurd, apocalyptic things with zero basis in reality, and everybody just carries on like it really didn't happen: Well, there goes the leader of the free world, shouting unhinged--unhinged--and false things about the end of democracy one more time. Oh, you know, just another day. What else is on TV? It is utterly surreal and, frankly, embarrassing, the President walking on stage every couple of months, shouting angry things and appearing confused--confused--about whether it is 2023 or 1963--utterly confused. And nothing happens. The world keeps turning. The Republicans keep passing popular, commonsense laws that make it easy to vote and hard to cheat. Voters of all races continue having good voting experiences. The President, his advisers, and a few radical activists are the only people stuck--stuck--in this fake parallel universe. Our democracy is in fine shape no matter what a few extreme voices are shouting. It is this White House's grip on reality that is truly concerning.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 1 month ago, the Biden administration published an official statement opposing Republicans' bill to block a disastrous new soft-on-crime law right here in our Nation's Capital. The administration was on the record against it. Then the overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted against our commonsense resolution when it passed the House. The proposition behind our bill is simple. It goes like this: The answer to skyrocketing violent crime in the District of Columbia is not--not--to reduce criminal penalties even further. On what planet should this even need to be said in the first place? The murder rate in Washington is 34 percent higher today than it was at this time last year. Auto thefts are up 110 percent right here in the Nation's Capital. Longtime DC residents are locking their car doors at every red light. Tourists visiting their own capital are worried about walking the streets. Just yesterday, the chief of the Metropolitan Police lamented that the average homicide suspect that his department encounters has already been arrested--listen to this--11 times before, 11 times. Here is what the police chief said: What we've got to do--if we really want to see homicides go down--is keep bad guys with guns in jail. Because when they're in jail, they can't be in communities shooting people. That is the police chief here in the Nation's Capital. But the radical politicians who run the city tried to do exactly the opposite. The liberal city council cooked up a soft-on-crime overhaul of the Criminal Code that would have made it even easier for repeat offenders to get back out on the streets. It would have brought the mandatory minimum sentences for crimes like robbery and carjacking down even lower than they already are. And it would have gummed up an already backlogged and dysfunctional criminal justice system by massively expanding jury trials--listen to this--for misdemeanors. It is like these local Democrats have never met a single criminal they actually want locked up behind bars. It is truly remarkable. This is exactly why our laws give Congress the final say--the final say--over how our Nation's Capital is governed because we can't have the craziness and dysfunction of a few local politicians jeopardizing the basic public safety in the Federal district that houses our national government. So Republicans wrote a resolution to overturn this nonsense. But bear in mind, this limited resolution would not even toughen criminal penalties. At this point, we are talking about keeping things where they are and stopping even further--even further--backsliding. The first step is to use this legal tool to stop the unhinged local politicians from making the totally unacceptable status quo even worse. But even so, this is a bridge too far for the vast majority of Washington Democrats. Just a month ago, the White House issued an official statement opposing House Republicans' commonsense resolution saying: Congress should respect the District of Columbia's [authority] to govern its own local affairs. And listen to this: 82 percent of House Democrats fell in line behind the Biden administration and voted no. But then something amazing happened. I think somebody at the White House may have shown the President his latest poll numbers on this issue--fewer than one in three Americans approve of the way he is handling crime--because Washington Democrats started panicking and reversed themselves on a dime. The President came here last week, pulled a 180, and told our Democratic colleagues he won't veto the resolution after all. Now there appears to be a different kind of jailbreak brewing right here in the Senate, and a number of Democrats may jump ship at the eleventh hour, trying to act like they have been tough on crime all along. But our colleagues will not be getting off the hook that easily. It is not an act of heroic political courage for Democrats to help Congress do our basic minimum job and stop the DC Council from making an unacceptable status quo even worse, and none of our colleagues get to erase their entire records with this one vote. Remember, just last summer, every single Senate Democrat went on record against a proposal to redirect a portion of their massive taxing-and-spending spree to fight surging crime. Let the record reflect what actually gets Washington Democrats' attention and what does not. It did not get their attention when rates of violent crime in America's major cities were accelerating this time last year. It did not get their attention that compared to prepandemic levels, homicide nationwide are up 34 percent. It hadn't gotten Democrats' attention when the streets of our own Federal district are where repeated offenders are driving spikes in carjackings and murder. But now that even the mainstream media are beginning to hold them to account for their negligence, now Washington Democrats are finally trying to change their tune. Innocent citizens getting shot in our streets didn't do it, but when Democrats take political shots in the press, that finally gets their attention. So, look, we will welcome any of our Democratic colleagues who can recognize basic sanity and want to be on the winning side for our Republican resolution later this week, but local, State, and national Democratic Party officials will not be getting off the hot seat as quickly or as easily as they have got convicted felons getting back on the streets. Washington, DC is only 0.2 percent of our Nation's population. What about New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia, even Louisville? Don't these citizens deserve some sanity as well? Don't the families and children and elderly people and young women of these communities deserve to walk their streets with safety and security too? We cannot only have public safety in this country in exceptional cases when a Republican House and a narrowly divided Senate can force Democrats to do the right thing against their will. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

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

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this past weekend, the people of Kentucky endured significant severe weather. The storms that ripped through the Commonwealth on Friday caused mass power outages, localized flooding, and high winds that reached up to 75 miles an hour. At least one tornado was recorded in west Kentucky. Sadly, the storms have taken the lives of five Kentuckians. Elaine and I send our deepest condolences to the families who are grieving their lost loved ones. My office has been in close contact with Governor Beshear's team and local officials across the State. Emergency response efforts are working overtime to ensure those impacted have the resources to make a rapid recovery. At peak, there were more than half a million households without power. I am grateful to the linemen and chainsaw teams that have tirelessly worked around the clock to restore power throughout the State. A number of school districts remain closed today as power restoration efforts continue. So thank you to all the first responders who have graciously deployed without hesitation. The generosity and resilience on display in the on- the-ground operations have been truly inspiring. Throughout the Commonwealth, Kentuckians are rolling up their sleeves to help where they can, whether it is assisting clean-up efforts with chainsaws in hand or opening their homes to those in need. Kentuckians have both big hearts and hard knuckles, and together, we will get through. My prayers are with all the storm victims and their families, and I stand ready to assist with our swift recovery in the days ahead.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the American people are deeply concerned about the collapse of law and order in our country. Thirty- nine percent of New York residents say they feel less safe than they did 1 year ago. Last month, 63 percent of likely voters in Chicago said they felt personally unsafe from gun violence and crime. By the way, on Tuesday, those Chicago voters tossed out the incumbent mayor. Americans see this problem going from bad to worse. More than 70 percent of the country expects we will see crime rates rise even higher this coming year. Unfortunately, my fellow Kentuckians know this as well as anyone else. In my hometown of Louisville, youth homicides tripled between 2018 and 2021. In fact, since the onset of the pandemic, Louisville has seen the second worst increase in youth homicides among more than a dozen similar U.S. cities. Total homicides have slightly subsided from their record high in 2021, but they are still sitting in the triple digits. One Louisville couple whose 19-year-old son was murdered by a convicted felon in 2019 summed up the way everybody is feeling. Here is what they said: [Homicides] may be down, but it's not down enough. Of course, crime is not limited to the most callous acts of murder; there is also a literal rash of brazen theft. Just 2 days ago, the town of Somerset in my State was stunned when their local car dealership was robbed point-blank. A group of masked thieves stormed the showroom and drove no fewer than six high-end cars right off the lot. The nationwide decline in law and order hasn't been happenstance. Today's Democratic Party has made a deliberate decision to make public safety and innocent citizens a lower priority than repeat criminal offenders. This has happened at the Federal level, where prominent Democrats have spent years amplifying anti-police rhetoric that tangibly and provably hurts law enforcement and certainly leads to more crime. It has happened at the local level, where liberal mayors and city councils around the country have waged rhetorical wars against their own police departments and sometimes actually followed through on cutting funding. The left's ``soft on crime'' campaign has even infiltrated the legal system itself. Far-left political donors have worked to get radical district attorneys elected in and around major cities. Many of them have promptly instituted what amount to blanket amnesties to whole classes of crimes. For example, in Los Angeles, the district attorney's refusal to go after major misdemeanor offenses has brought his office prosecution rate down to half of what it was under his predecessor. The Commonwealth's attorney over in Fairfax County has repeatedly declined to pursue justice against perpetrators of child sexual assault. The former district attorney in Boston who made headlines for declaring that charges involving 15 different serious crimes would be ``outright dismissed'' was actually rewarded by President Biden with a promotion to be the U.S. attorney for her whole State. To make matters worse, in the midst of the violent crime surge that Democrats' actions have helped cause, their administration's Department of Justice has focused on many of the wrong things. A year and a half ago, Attorney General Garland instructed the Department, including the FBI, to go sniffing around stories of concerned parents voicing opinions at local school board meetings. In the middle of a violent crime wave, the administration's priority was extra security for moms and dads exercising their First Amendment rights. Just last fall, armed FBI agents were sent to rural Pennsylvania to arrest a father at home in front of his young children because the man had defended his son during an earlier minor altercation outside an abortion clinic. Apparently, under this administration, the crime of protesting while conservative can bring FBI agents to your house with guns drawn. Then just a few weeks ago, a memo leaked from the Bureau's Richmond, VA, office that talked about needing to put informants in church pews so the FBI could spy on Catholic Americans whose religious views they deemed overly traditional. Our major cities are beset with murders and carjackings, but these Democrats are focused on subjecting God-fearing Americans to this junior-varsity J. Edgar Hoover act. It is nonsensical. And don't think for a minute they have simply turned up the security evenly, across the board. In fact, it has been quite the opposite. While the Biden-Garland DOJ seems fanatically overzealous about harassing conservative citizens, they are currently asleep at the switch when far-left activists are flouting actual Federal laws. When fringe activists advocated for violence against sitting Justices of the Supreme Court, when crowds spent months picketing outside Justices' private family homes in direct contravention of Federal law, the Attorney General didn't lift a finger. The Biden administration simply refused to enforce black-letter Federal law that prohibits picketing and protesting at judges' private residences. That is the law. This willful failure to enforce the law effectively made the President and the Attorney General willing partners in the improper pressure campaign that the leak of the draft opinion was surely designed to spark in the first place. Get this--as the senior Senator from Utah has pointed out, there have been more than 80 recorded attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers since the start of last year and 130 attacks on Catholic churches. Do you know how many of the offenders Attorney General Garland's DOJ has managed to charge? A grand total of two, just two. Suffice it to say the Attorney General had a lot to answer for at his oversight hearing before the Judiciary yesterday, but, unfortunately, Senators saw no evidence that a course correction is coming. For example, the Attorney General wouldn't give Ranking Member Graham a straight answer on designating Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. He wouldn't give a straight answer about whether we should expand mandatory minimum sentencing laws to address the fentanyl crisis. He seemed to imply the status quo is OK, and the DOJ already has the tools it needs to address the problem, which I would add, if true, would make the administration's failures all the more galling. He also couldn't satisfy questioning from Senator Cornyn about whether the Department is deliberately not charging drug traffickers with offenses that would already entail mandatory minimums under current law; in other words, basically cherry-picking their way around existing penalties to make current law even softer on lethal drugs. Look, the American people want and deserve law and order. Getting murderers off our streets and foreign poison out of our neighborhoods are among the most basic governing responsibilities you could possibly think of. Evidently, the Biden administration either does not agree or just cannot deliver.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, Senate Republican colleagues and I visited our allies and partners in Europe. We both reassured them of America's commitment to strength and leadership but also urged them to invest and engage more in security and the transatlantic alliance. Our allies are coming around to the realization that security assistance to Ukraine is not just helping one nation's citizens defend their sovereignty. It is also degrading Russia's ability to further threaten Europe or threaten America and sending a powerful deterrent signal to other potential aggressors. From our own perspective, much of the money that is being described as American aid to Ukraine is actually being invested in our own defense industrial base here at home. We are procuring new versions of munitions and weapons for our own military to replace often decades-old versions that we have sent over to Ukraine. And, after an ill-advised ``holiday from history,'' European allies are now following America's lead. NATO members are making historic investments in defense that will keep paying dividends long after Ukraine defeats Putin's aggression. The West is priming the pump of the industrial capacity that will ensure we are prepared to meet the larger military challenges posed by systemic rivals like China. The recent press reports that Beijing is considering providing weapons to Russia should not come as a surprise. China has plenty of reasons to fear a Russian defeat and plenty of reasons to hope Russia gets away with forcibly seizing another country's territory. Yesterday, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony from Keith Kellogg, a former adviser to President Trump and cochair of the Center for American Security at the America First Policy Institute. Like the vast majority of Republican Senators, he complained that the Biden administration had been actually too slow in providing military assistance to Ukraine. He noted that the best way to end the conflict was to ``enable Ukraine to defeat the Russian army in Ukraine.'' And what about the claim that the West supporting Ukraine is somehow distracting us from the threats posed by the PRC? Here is what Kellogg said: Make no mistake: weakness against Russian aggression is weakness against the Communist-Chinese threat . . . Russian victory in Ukraine today almost certainly means war for Taiwan tomorrow. Likewise, in Japan, senior officials are spelling out the clear link between the response to Putin and the prospects of deterring President Xi. They have taken historic steps to invest more in their own defense, and during our trip last week, Prime Minister Kishida announced that Japan plans to direct $5.5 billion in assistance toward Ukraine. Other reports indicate that citizens of Taiwan are volunteering to fight alongside Ukrainians against Russia. Let me say that again. There are reports that indicate citizens of Taiwan are volunteering to fight alongside Ukrainians against Russia. The very people most threatened by the ambitions of the PRC tomorrow understand the importance of Ukraine prevailing today. Our friends and partners in the Middle East know the score as well. They have had to contend with Russia as an influential force in the region ever since President Obama failed to enforce his redline in Syria and Putin came rushing in to that conflict. Now our partners see the same Iranian missiles and UAVs that have struck their own cities being used by Russia to attack Ukraine. They know Moscow will repay Tehran soon somehow and that a victorious Russia will be less constrained in providing advanced capabilities to Iran. So we have seen senior Israeli officials showing up in Kyiv. We have seen Saudi Arabia vote against Russia in the United Nations, pledge $400 million in assistance to Ukraine, and send its first official delegation to Kyiv in 30 years. Clearly, America's friends all around the world know that the way we respond to today's threats will determine our readiness to face tomorrow's. They know it in Europe, they know it in the Indo-Pacific, and they know it in the Middle East. And, here at home, Republicans know that the safest America is a strong--strong--and engaged America. That is why we will continue to push President Biden and his administration to move faster to exert our leadership, invest in our own defense, equip our friends, and keep America safe.