Marco Rubio

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, in December of 2019, as a new virus was emerging on the opposite side of the world, I spoke at the National Defense University, and the title of the speech I gave was called ``American Industrial Policy and the Rise of China.'' The reaction of many people to that at the time was skepticism--from Wall Street investors who, frankly, saw no problem with the status quo on China; from these think-tank experts who mocked my claim at the time that our country relied too much on China economically in our supply chain; and from tech giants in Silicon Valley obsessed with access to the Chinese marketplace. But the problem I pointed to at that time in that speech, almost 2 years ago--a year and a half ago--was that for over a quarter century, our economic policies have been mostly about one thing: how American investors and companies can make money by doing business with China. In that vein, it didn't matter if making money meant allowing China to steal our intellectual property, it didn't matter if making money meant stable American jobs kept disappearing, and it didn't matter if making money meant investing in Chinese companies developing technologies to help defeat our country in a future war. Finally, Americans are waking up to what a mistake that was. It was a bipartisan consensus that was flawed. The 21st century will be defined by the relationship between China and the United States. Frankly, I believe that this is our last chance to make sure that it is a balanced relationship. What we do not have time for are China bills or a China bill that is a collection of half-measures and studies. Instead, an actually meaningful China bill is what we need. I believe most Members here want it, and I believe we can get to it in a bipartisan way. But, to do so, I think it has to have six things. If you want a meaningful bill on China, it must touch on six things. The first is like I said in December of 2019: We need to identify industries which are critical for our future, and we must spur investment in these key industries. We have to remember that we are not in a strategic competition with foreign Chinese companies. We are in a strategic competition with the world's largest and second wealthiest nation-state. There is no way to compete with China by relying only, solely on private investment, not while the Chinese Communist Party subsidizes and cheats to boost its favorite companies. From industrial corporate giants to small businesses that make up our supply chain, the private sector is the most important area of this competition. We can encourage them to step up, just like we did for semiconductors with the CHIPS Act. Frankly, the way we developed the vaccine with Operation Warp Speed is an example of a targeted industrial policy in which government partners with the private sector to solve a big problem. You can say what you want about America's response to COVID, but we have done vaccines better than anyone else in the world--not even close--and it is due to that partnership. But an essential part of our strategy has to be, as a result, to build a strong foundation through targeted and sustained Federal funding for American research and development. The bipartisan Endless Frontier Act is a nod in that direction. Right now, that bill makes the National Science Foundation the lead Agency in directing $100 billion in government investment. The problem is that is the same Agency that, time and again, has had the research we fund stolen by professors and graduate students who are on the payroll for China. DARPA and other advanced research Agencies within government have a much better record of protecting research and, I believe, would be a far better choice to administer these investments, instead. The second thing a real China bill must do is communicate that while we do not seek an armed confrontation with China, we will confront any military aggression, we will maintain our defense commitments with our allies, and we will win any conflict China starts. We must never do anything that leads Beijing to doubt our commitment to Taiwan, and we must never accept the Chinese Communist Party's illegitimate claims on the world's most important shipping lanes in the South and East China Seas. The Strategic Competition Act we recently passed out of the Foreign Relations Committee is largely silent on this topic, but Chairman Menendez has pledged to work with me to include my South China Sea and East China Sea Sanctions Act in any final bill that we take up here on the floor. The third thing a real China bill must do is fix broken international and domestic trade laws. The World Trade Organization is failing miserably, and it must be reformed. And China's flagrant intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, and massive subsidies to Chinese companies can no longer be ignored and they must be addressed. My Fair Trade with China Enforcement Act would help protect critical industries in America from Chinese influence and possession and recover the lost value of secrets and technologies that they have stolen. The fourth area of focus of any real China bill must be making sure China doesn't control our medicines and/or our medical technology and patient data. Last year, panic over masks and ventilators was a wake-up call for our medical dependence on Beijing. From blood thinners to acetaminophen, which is the ingredient in Tylenol, we have allowed China to dominate the pharmaceutical manufacturing market. It is dangerous leverage over America and Americans. We should be able to make medicines here. This will not only make us safer; it will create well-paying, stable jobs for American workers. My Medical Manufacturing, Economic Development, and Sustainability Act would do exactly that and should be included in any real China bill. As I said in September of 2019, we must immediately enact stricter guidelines to make sure that public funding never contributes to Chinese genomics efforts and beats them in that R&D race. If we allow China to dominate genetic data and that field of medicine, Americans will one day find themselves begging Chinese companies, and even the Chinese Communist Party, for access to future lifesaving treatments. The fifth area a real China bill must address is our capital markets. Our stock market is the most open, liquid, and profitable in the world, and it is being used by the Chinese Communist Party to fund its military and to fund their companies. Any meaningful China bill must cut off the tap and prohibit American money from being invested in communist China's military companies. We need to start requiring more transparency from Wall Street when it comes to investing in China and Chinese Government-controlled companies. My American Financial Markets Integrity and Security Act needs to be part of the solution How can we claim to be dealing with Chinese manipulation of our capital markets if we don't ban Chinese companies exploiting our own stock market to hurt us? Beijing long ago figured out how to get rich and powerful Americans to use their influence in American politics. Allowing Wall Street and Big Finance to enrich themselves by hurting Americans may make a lot of money in the short term for those individuals, but it is hurting America in the long run. It is national economic suicide. The sixth area any real China bill must address is genocide. Today, in China, nationless corporations, cooperating with the Chinese Communist Party, force Uighur Muslims to make clothing and shoes and even solar panels. Sadly, without knowing it, you may have very well purchased a product made partially or entirely by slave labor in Xinjiang. These companies partnering with China are complicit in these crimes. The Chinese Communist Party's reduced labor costs mean increased profits for these corporations. While they lecture us about social justice in America, these companies are making billions off of slavery in China. My bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act has almost half the Senate as cosponsors. We must take it up and pass it out of the Foreign Relations Committee as soon as possible. Last year, we saw companies like Nike, Apple, Coca-Cola, and even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying against this bill. Well, soon we are going to find out what holds more power in our country: corporations making billions off genocide and slavery or our basic sense of right and wrong. The good news is that, today, we have finally awoken to the reality of how wrong the old consensus on China was. But we woke up almost too late. We don't have time for half-measures. We must address the dangerous growing imbalance between America and China comprehensively, decisively, and swiftly, or we will live to see a future in which the world's most powerful nation is a totalitarian, genocidal, communist dictatorship and our country is relegated to the role of a once-great nation in decline. No part of our lives will go unaffected in a world like that. We can see the shadows of it even today. American movies today are free to portray their own country here, the United States, as racist, as bigoted, anything they want, but they automatically self-censor their own movies to make sure they meet China's standards so they can show those films there. American corporations threaten States whose democratically elected leaders pass laws they object to. They have every right in our democracy to object, but they will fire American employees and ban messages that risk getting their corporation kicked out of the Chinese market. And American teenagers are already turning over valuable personal data to the Chinese Government on an hourly basis in exchange for the ability to watch what I will admit are clever videos on TikTok. Yet, this is nothing compared to the world that awaits if we do not take action, and on this the lessons of history could not be clearer. Athens emerged from the second Persian war a great power, but their greatness made them decadent and complacent. They thought nothing would ever change, that they could ignore important problems, that they could focus on the trivial. So when conflict finally came, initially they used their superior navy to attack Sparta and retreat behind the safety of the city's walls. That worked for a little while. Then a plague decimated the city, and more enemies of theirs sensed their weakness and joined the fight against them. Then Athens fell. Like Rome and Britain later, the end of Athens' golden age came as it always does for a great power. It doesn't come from the outside in; it always comes from the inside out. Now, from across the centuries, the lessons of history cry out for our attention. Our politics are broken. We fight over the trivial because we think the past is irrelevant, because we think our place in the world will never change, and because we think the future will always belong to us automatically. We hide behind our own version of the walls, two vast oceans, believing, ultimately, we are safe from everything outside. We should not repeat the errors of the great powers of the past. My friends, we don't have time for studies and strategy statements. We need big changes and decisive action. We need to prove that our democracy can work again, that our system of government can function, and that it can solve big problems in big ways. If we succeed, I truly believe a new American century lies ahead. If we fail, it is a century of humiliation that awaits us. I yield the floor

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I recognize Jim Cameron, who served Volusia County and its residents, as the senior vice president of government relations at the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce. After 38 years of service, I thank Jim for his years of work and wish him well as he retires. In its 101-year history, Jim holds the longest tenure at the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce. As Vice president of government relations, he understood local, State, and Federal economic issues facing Volusia County. Throughout his tenure, Jim's professional relationships with some of Florida's most influential political and business leaders bettered his community. In 1985, Jim's was working to receive approval from the State legislature to utilize hotel bed tax revenues towards financing a county-run convention center. After a span of 5 years, Volusia County opened the Ocean Center Convention Center in Daytona Beach Center due in part to his efforts. This is just one of many career highlights that Jim is proud of. Jim's more recent community accomplishments include advocating for SunRail's extension in Volusia County, helping the Hard Rock Hotel establish a resort in Daytona Beach, and working with Space Florida to recruit aerospace manufacturing to Volusia County. Simultaneously, he was also instrumental in important State legislative matters and advocating for pro-job policies. Jim is fond of the professional relationships he has formed throughout his career, with many evolving into close friendships. His personalized approach to government relations is best seen on his guarantee to pay $1,000 if he does not return your call within eight business hours. Jim grew up in Montgomery, AL, graduating with a double major in history and political science from the University of Alabama. After graduation, he was appointed to the Calhoun County Chamber of Commerce in Anniston, AL, to oversee industrial and public affairs. He later moved to Daytona Beach, where he began working at the Daytona Regional Chamber in 1983. I am grateful for Jim's decades of faithful and dedicated service to our State and for his work with my office. I extend my best wishes to Jim, his wife Rita, and to his family on a well-earned retirement.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I just want to state that we are not changing the formula. There is an extra zero, and it is literally a typo, the kind of typo people make every single day in the Senate. Instead of saying ``.025,'' it says ``.0025.'' Everyone knows what it was intended to do. That is the way we talked about it. That has been objected to. The Senate is now a place where you cannot amend a typo by unanimous consent. That is unbelievable. It is unreal. I, frankly, find it unacceptable.

Mr. RUBIO. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, this amendment No. 1471 is our amendment, and it would modernize the formula by which this money is distributed. This formula is 34 years old. It privileges a handful of States over the vast majority--I think the number is 15 over the other 35. And it is not just me saying it; the EPA issued a report that stated that the current formula does not meet the wastewater needs of all of the States and recommended that it be updated regularly. Notably, from the EPA's report, it says that the EPA does not know how the current allotment formula was developed. It says: The weighting and factors that were used to establish the formula for the original allotment are not known. My home State of Florida is one of many that are disadvantaged under the current formula, and the result has been obvious over the years. I think most of my colleagues would agree that distributing funds-- let alone $14.4 billion--to States without rhyme or reason is not beneficial and isn't fair. It is not just States, by the way. This amendment, if passed, would secure more equitable allotments to Native American Tribes and territories. Unfortunately, I made--in our drafting of this amendment, there was a small technical error in which, instead of stating that it should be 0.025 in the distribution for Native American Tribes, it says .0025. So I ask unanimous consent to further modify amendment No. 1471 with the changes that are at the desk so that the right number is on there.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, in my remaining time--

Mr. RUBIO. I ask unanimous consent for an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1405 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, the very reason we even have to do an extension is that the new administration has unfairly and unnecessarily restricted eligible businesses and nonprofits from applying. It has created confusion. People haven't been able to get in by the deadlines, and unless we put in more guardrails, there is little assurance that this is not going to continue. In particular, the one thing that would undermine this popular, bipartisan program is if people came to the conclusion that it was being used arbitrarily to give priority to politically favored groups. So all this amendment does is prohibit the Small Business Administration from setting up any new set-asides beyond those that this Congress, on a bipartisan basis, already created last year when we passed this at the end of 2020. What were those priorities? Smaller businesses, businesses in low- income areas, community financial institutions. All it says is, if you want to change those priorities, Congress has to do it, not the Small Business Administration.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 1026 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 2 minutes of debate equally divided.

Mr. RUBIO. This is important to the intelligence community. I ask that no one be a fly in the ointment here.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I think we can all agree we have kids in America who need to be in school who haven't been in school over a year now, in some cases. The science is clear that you can open up schools safely. Now, I know different districts have different challenges about opening up. This bill provides money for everybody to open up. We don't want to change that. We want to help every district. Under my amendment, every district in the country would get money, but the more days of the week you are open, the more money you are going to get, which makes all the sense in the world. If you are going to open 4 days a week, you shouldn't have as much money as a district that is going to open 5 days a week. The purpose of the money that is being provided is so that schools can fund the cost of opening safely. All this amendment tries to do is create an incentive for these districts to open up more days because we do have unions--to be fair, not all, but we do have teachers unions in this country that are saying they are not going back until next year, even if they are vaccinated, even if all the measures are put in place. We have a crisis in this country. We have seen now a surge in mental health problems, with young people showing up at hospitals, and across the country, it is a terrible situation, not to mention the year of lost learning. This amendment incentivizes us to get our kids back in school.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, just minutes after the attack of January 6 began, I said it was not only unpatriotic, it was un-American. I do not need to be convinced that what happened on that day was the disgraceful work of a treasonous criminal mob. But seeing images of that attack stirred up anger in me, anger that our Nation was embarrassed in the eyes of the world by our own citizen; anger that Capitol Police officers that my family and I know personally had to deal with these low-lives; anger that janitorial and food service staff I have gotten to know--many who came to America to get away from countries with political violence--had to clean up the mess left behind by these cretins. But, if we have learned anything this week, it should be how dangerous it is to allow anger to influence actions. The lead House Manager argued today that this trial isn't about Donald Trump, that it was about our country, and that those who refuse to vote to convict are condoning the actions of a violent mob and failing to defend the honor of our Capitol and the people who work here. This is a ridiculous and insulting argument. Impeachment is not a way of sending a message or taking symbolic action. Impeachment exists for one principal reason: to remove from office an officeholder guilty of wrongdoing. And claiming that anyone who doesn't vote to convict someone no longer in office is the equivalent of supporting a criminal mob is nothing but hyperpartisan politicians masquerading as highminded prosecutors trying to smear their political opponents. The Senate does not have the constitutional power to convict a former official, and even if we did, we should be very reluctant to use it. In the 244-year history of our Republic, we have never convicted and disqualified a former official in an impeachment trial. Doing so now would create a new precedent, and it would weaponize impeachment in a way we will come to regret. The day will come when a future Congress, one with a new majority in the House filled with new Members elected on the promise of holding accountable leaders of the opposite part, will give in to these passions and impeach a former official. The Senate will then find itself conducting a trial of that former official, a trial justified by the precedent we are asked to set here today, and a Senate tempted to convict by the tantalizing opportunity to disqualify that official from future public office. My fear of creating dangerous precedents is not new. Two years ago, I was accused by some in my party of being a traitor because I opposed using an emergency declaration to fund a border wall that I supported. I warned then that a future Democratic President would do the same thing to fund a Green New Deal. And now, just 2 years later, leading Democrats are calling for that very thing. The lead manager admitted today that, for the Democrats and their enablers working in the legacy media, the purpose of this trial was not to hold the former President accountable. The real purpose of this trial was to tar and feather not just the rioters, but anyone who supported the former President and any Senator who refuses to vote to convict. I voted to acquit former President Trump because I will not allow my anger over the criminal attack of January 6 nor the political intimidation from the left to lead me into supporting a dangerous constitutional precedent. The election is over. A new President is in the White House, and a new Congress has been sworn in. Let history and, if necessary, the courts judge the events of the past. We should be focused on the serious challenges of the present and preparing our country to confront the serious tests it will face in the future.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I send a question to the desk.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. I thank my colleague from Florida. I recall so vividly that day on February 14, 2018. It started like it does most days with people across the country. They take their children to school, drop them off, and, in this case, maybe some of them drove themselves. And within hours, the lives of 17 families had been changed forever. It was a horrible tragedy: 17 students and faculty members who lost their lives; another 17 that were wounded in the attack. And it shocked the country. It was shocking because they went to do what so many people do on a regular basis in a place where you never think that something like that could happen. And as my colleague pointed out, there is no resolution in the Senate or words that we can say that will restore the lives that were lost, erase the pain still felt by those victims, the families, the friends, those who loved them. But even as we continue to grieve, we must also work to prevent something like this from happening anywhere at any time. I was proud that in the early days after this tragedy, within just a few weeks, together, working across the aisle, we passed the STOP School Violence Act, which provided Federal grant money for school safety. And that has been ongoing now for 3 years. We passed the Fix NICS Act, which helped patch some of the holes that existed in our background check system. Since that day, I have had the honor of getting to know and working with the parents of many of those who lost their lives at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And I will say that their grace in the face of the most traumatic loss that any parent, any sibling, any cousin, any grandparent, anyone can imagine--working with them has been humbling in the face of the grace that they have shown. The commitment to ensuring that no one else has to go through what they did is inspiring. There are so many I can point to who have made a difference in their own way. They have all sort of focused on different aspects of what we should be doing, and I just want to take a moment today to recognize one individual, Max Schachter. I know many of you have gotten to know him here. This man works tirelessly. He lost his son Alex on that day. But his commitment has actually produced significant progress, thanks to his leadership, and I must say his leadership--and I spoke to him again last Friday, and he continues to work on these issues. And thanks to that, last year, the Federal Government created a Federal clearinghouse on school safety best practices--a place that any district, any school can go to and something that is constantly being updated, that puts an essential location for best practices and offers access to an array of resources for schools across our Nation that are looking to protect their students. And this is important because in the aftermath of this, everyone was trying to figure out, well, what should we do? And there was no central place where you could go to and find that out. And recently, as my colleague from Florida has pointed out, I, along with my colleague from Florida and Senator Ron Johnson, we reintroduced the Luke and Alex School Safety Act, named after--partially after his son Alex, which would make this clearinghouse permanent. It was put in place by the Agency, but this would make it permanent. And I just think of parents like Max, who have poured so much of their own lives into this work and continue to do so, and he is always churning out new ideas. We spoke this last Friday about data that is now available, that a lot of people don't even know is there; data that shows you which schools are having suspensions, which schools are having fights, which schools are having arrests and violence as a way of finding anomalies in the data. I mean, he is constantly--and Max has become a subject matter expert through this tragedy, but he is constantly looking for improvements that can be not just done in Florida but across the country, and he is tireless all across the country. There is something else we took that was successful in Florida, and today we have reintroduced, along with Senator Reed and Senator King and my colleague from Florida--that is reintroducing the Extreme Risk Protection Order and Violence Prevention Act, to encourage the passing of these laws that allow you to identify someone who is a danger to themselves or others, to go to a court, provide them due process, and potentially prevent a suicide or a senseless act like what we saw on that day 3 years ago. And this bill would not mandate it, but it would dedicate the Department of Justice funds to incentivize more States to adopt similar measures. It will encourage the rest of the country to follow the lead in Florida and to save lives. We know it has prevented suicides and we know it has prevented potential attacks in Florida and in States where it has been implemented. And we can't force more States to do it, but we can try to incentivize them. So it is my hope and my prayer that as we continue to work together that we can achieve this and other things so that no family, no community, no State, no one will have to go through what the incredible families of Parkland endured on that day and the 3 years that followed. Today, as we remember the lives that were lost, let us pledge to honor them by continuing to move forward toward safer and more secure schools and communities in our work here. I yield the floor.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 69 and ask it be reported by number.

Mr. RUBIO. Madam President, this amendment simply says you can't raise taxes on small business during the pandemic, and I hope everyone can support it. I can't imagine anyone being against that idea. I yield the floor.

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. I call up my amendment 651 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, starting 7 days ago, if you arrived at the border of the United States with children, you were allowed to stay in the country on a notice to appear. I have tremendous compassion for the extraordinary challenges and horrifying conditions in which people live in the Western Hemisphere and Central America and the like. There is nothing compassionate about this policy. What this is doing, what is happening right now--and I have seen it, and I have talked to people; you can talk to the government officials in these countries--is these evil traffickers who take money from these people, who push them through the jungles, who abuse them, who sometimes kill them and do horrifying things, are now out there marketing this. They are going around telling people throughout the Western Hemisphere: You can now get into the United States and come with children because, if you do, they are going to give you a little piece of paper, and they are going to let you go on a Greyhound bus anywhere you want in the country, and you never have to show up again. This is going to create chaos on the border, and it is inhumane to lure people to this country with a policy that is encouraging these traffickers to go out and do this to them.

Mr. RUBIO

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

Mr. RUBIO

Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, our Nation was founded on an incredibly powerful and truly audacious idea. The idea was that every single human being was created equal, with rights that come from your Creator, from God--not from the government, not from the laws, not even from the Constitution or your leaders. You are born with those rights. Inherent in that is our powerful national commitment that I think remains to this day, the belief that everyone should have freedom and that everyone--because freedom comes with those rights--and that everyone be treated fairly. For 244 years, our story has been that of a nation on a continuous and a steady march to live up to those ideals. Tomorrow, thousands will come to Washington once again for a different march but one that I believe is tied directly to this Nation's ongoing quest to fulfill the promise of its founding. Almost half a century ago, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that within our Constitution, there was the implicit right to end the life of an unborn child. Since then, every single day in this country, unborn human beings have had their life ended before they even drew their first breath. They are, in essence, denied the freedom to live, not because they did anything wrong; they are denied this most basic of rights unfairly because of circumstances they have nothing to do with and do not control. That this occurs here is shameful enough, and I believe that is how history will regard it; that we use taxpayer money to promote it and export it abroad is outrageous. Before we even passed a bill to deal with the pandemic or to bring back good jobs to the United States or any of the other major issues confronting our country, in one of his first acts as President, President Biden decided to prioritize tearing up the so-called Mexico City policy--a policy that rightfully bans our taxpayer dollars from being sent to organizations that use them to perform or promote abortions overseas. Abortion is a very difficult and uncomfortable topic. No one can pretend that if some 15-year-old girl is pregnant and afraid--afraid of her parents, afraid of what others might think, afraid for her future-- that she faces an easy choice. It is not. It doesn't feel fair, it doesn't feel like freedom to have laws that tell people what they can or cannot do with their body, but in this case, the challenge we have is that it is a case that puts the fundamental rights of two people into direct conflict--the right, as most definitely exists, of a mother to choose what to do with her body versus the right of an unborn child to live. It forces us to decide which one of these two rights wins out in those circumstances. I personally, for one, and those who march tomorrow have chosen life--not because it is an easy choice but because, to me, it is a clear one because the right to live is the one right upon which all the other rights we claim depend. Without life, there is no speech to protect, and there is no religion to practice. Without life, frankly, nothing else matters. I would point out that being pro-life is not just about the right to be born; it also means the right to live and to thrive. Once a child is born, that child depends on their parents or whoever their guardians are who are raising them, and they have a moral and legal duty to care for them--not just to feed them, not just to clothe them, not just to house them, but also to promote a safe and stable home and the chance at a good education and a better future. That is why I deeply believe that pro-life must also mean being pro- parent. Being a parent is the most influential role anyone will ever have. It is the most important job any of us will ever have. That is why I worked to and we were successful in expanding the child tax credit 2 years ago. That is why I stand ready now to work with President Biden to expand it even further. I am concerned about some of the details of the policies he has outlined. For example, his proposal appears to unfairly benefit parents who send their children to commercial childcare over stay-at-home parents or grandparents or other caregivers. But this is an area where we have a common goal and one where I believe we can find a way to work together. It is also why I support creating the opportunity for every parent in America to have access to paid family leave, because no one should be thrown into welfare or debt or bankruptcy because they got pregnant, because they had a child. It is also, by the way, why I support school choice. In America, rich parents can afford to send their kids to any school they want, and they do. Upper middle class parents can move to neighborhoods with good public schools. But it is unfair that the only parents in America who are forced to send their children to the school the government tells them--even if that school is failing their children--are the parents who don't make enough money to have another option. For 21st-century America to move closer to fulfilling our founding principle of equality, of freedom, of fairness, every child deserves the right not just to be born but also the right to live and to thrive, the right not just to exist but the right to pursue and fulfill their potential. I believe that what is at stake is nothing less than our identity as a nation. If we become a place where your right to be born and your ability to succeed is determined by who your parents are or by the circumstances of your conception, then we may remain, indeed, a rich and a powerful and an important country, but we will no longer be a special one. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. RUBIO

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