Bernie Sanders

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. I yield back my time as well.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, President Biden is right. He canceled the Keystone Pipeline because he is listening to the scientists, and what the scientists are telling us is that we have a small number of years-- 5, 6, 7 years--before this country and this world face irreparable--I underline the word ``irreparable''--harm because of climate change. My friends here talk about creating jobs. Well, we all want to create jobs. Do you know where the jobs are? The jobs are in energy efficiency. The jobs are in sustainable energy. That is where the jobs of the future are. If we love our kids and if we love our grandchildren and if we want to leave them a country and a planet that is healthy and is habitable, yes, this country is going to have to lead the world, work with the world, in transforming our energy system away from fossil fuel. I urge opposition to this amendment. Point of Order Mr. President, I raise a point of order that the pending amendment is not germane and therefore violates section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

Mr. SANDERS. I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise in support of the technical amendment and in very strong support of the overall bill, the American Rescue Plan. Let's be clear. This bill that we are completing now is the most significant piece of legislation that benefits working people in the modern history of this country. Not only are we going to go forward to crush this pandemic, to rebuild our economy, and to get our kids back to school safely, we are going to do something even more important. We are going to help restore faith in the U.S. Government among the people of our country. The people are hurting, and today we responded.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment. There are some people here who do not understand the crises facing the American people. Sixty-three percent of our people today are living paycheck to paycheck. Every day that we do not vaccinate somebody, there is somebody unnecessarily dying. Our kids are not in school. We are suffering a mental health epidemic. This country is demanding that Congress act now and stand up for the working families of this country. People are tired of obstructionism. They are tired of delays. They want action. Let's do it. I yield. Vote on Motions to Commit

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, my colleague, the ranking member, Senator Graham, says: Why?--$1.9 trillion, a lot of money. We have spent money over the last year. He is right. Why did we spend the money? The answer is because we are facing a series of unprecedented crises and because the American people are reaching out to us, and they are saying: We are hurting. We are in desperate condition, and we need help from the Federal Government. That is why we are responding. Half a million people have died in this country from COVID, and many millions more have been made ill. And what the long-term impact of those illnesses are nobody at this point knows, but certainly no one will deny that we have a pandemic crisis. Our job is to make sure that we produce the vaccines that the American people desperately need and that we develop an effective mechanism to get it into the arms of the American people. And the truth is--I want to thank the President and his team--we have made progress in the last month, but we still have a long, long way to go. To produce the vaccines, to hire the people who will make sure that people get those vaccines, inject people with the vaccines, it is going to take money. Everybody in this Senate and, I assume, in the country wants our kids to get back to school. Well, you just can't open the schools unless they are safe. Parents are not going to send their kids back to those schools. Teachers are not going to teach. Childcare workers are not going to provide the care that the little ones need. And do you know what? To make those schoolrooms and school buildings safe is going to require resources, but, for the sake of our children, we need to reopen the schools as quickly as possible and do it in a safe way. There is money in this bill--Senator Graham didn't mention it--to make sure that, this coming summer, school districts all over this country have the resources to provide strong, well-staffed summer programs so kids who have missed significant amounts of school can make up some of what they have lost, in addition to getting some recreation and associating with their fellow young people in a way that is safe. There was a poll that came out just last week. It was rather shocking at what it said. It said that 63 percent of the American people are living paycheck to paycheck. Senator Graham says: Why are we spending all of this money? The answer is we don't believe that children in America should go hungry. We don't believe that working people should be evicted from their apartments or lose their homes. We don't believe that, in the midst of a pandemic, people should not be able to afford to go to a doctor. So making sure that people have those direct payments, yeah, we believe in that. We believe that if a family is struggling today through no fault of their own, having lost their income, yeah, we are going to get them a check for 1,400 bucks and a family of four a check for $5,600. There are a lot of people in this country who are doing very well, and they are wondering: What is this big deal about $1,400? That is not a lot of money. You go to a corporate lunch, a bunch of people come in, and they can spend $1,400 on a lunch. But if you are struggling to put food on the table for your kids, that $5,600 for a family of four is life and death; it is dignity or desperation. People are wondering: How am I going to pay the rent that I owe after the rent moratorium, the eviction moratorium expires? How am I going to feed my kids? How am I going to take care of the basic necessities of life? So, yes, we are providing $1,400 per working-class family because that is desperately needed. So when the Senator says: Well, why are we spending all of this money? The answer is because we are living in the most difficult moment in the modern history of this country and, arguably, even a more difficult moment than the Great Depression of the 1930s. People are hurting, and, in a democratic society, government is supposed to respond to the people who sent us here. Now, I know that there is controversy, and Senator Graham raised this issue. Democrats have a majority, a bare majority with the Vice President--51 votes. Why are we not working with our Republican colleagues? We have reached out time and time and time again. The President has reached out: Work with us. But you have got to understand the severity of the crisis, and they have not done this. Using reconciliation, by the way, as the Presiding Officer well knows, is not a new idea. When our Republican colleagues had the majority, they used reconciliation. What did they use it for? They used it for massive tax breaks for the rich. That is what they used reconciliation for. They used reconciliation in order to try to throw 32 million Americans off the Affordable Care Act, something that Trump was fervent about. And by one vote--Senator McCain--we prevented 32 million people from losing their health insurance through the reconciliation process. So our response is, you want unity? Well, do you know what? We probably have more unity today in America around this package than anything that I can remember. The polls vary: 65, 70 percent of the American people understand the crisis we are facing. They want us to respond. This legislation is enormously popular, not just from progressives, not from moderates, but from Republicans, as well, depending on the poll. Forty, fifty percent more Republicans support it because they can't afford to pay their rent. They can't afford to go to the doctor. They understand that government has to help. So the real question here--and President Biden has raised this issue--is, we believe in unity, we believe in bringing people together. How does it happen that when 40, 50 percent of Republicans support this legislation, we can't get one vote from Republicans here? What is going on? And the answer is, I am afraid, that my Republican colleagues have moved so far to the right that they have lost contact with the needs of working families. As I said earlier, this legislation is not just about dealing with the pandemic and healthcare. It is not just dealing with the severe economic downturn that we are facing. It is not just dealing with the disruption of education in America and so much more. It is not just dealing with the worst moment in the modern history of this country. This amendment, this legislation, has everything to do with restoring the confidence of the American people in democracy and in their government. And if we can't respond to the pain of working families today, we don't deserve to be here. Senator Graham said it is going to be a long night. Bring it on. We are ready. But at the end of the day, we are going to do what the American people want, what the American people need. We are going to pass the American Rescue Plan.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, later today or tomorrow, as part of the American Rescue Plan, which we will be discussing in the next few days, which I happen to believe is the most significant piece of legislation to come to the floor of the Senate in decades in terms of addressing the crises facing working families--as part of that piece of legislation, I will be offering an amendment to raise the Federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour, which I believe is a starvation wage, to $15 an hour over a 5-year period--5 years. I think there has been some miscommunication around here, and there are people who are saying it is going from 7.25 to 15 bucks an hour in 1 year. Not true. It goes from 7.25 to 9.50, to 11, to 12.50, to 14, to 15 dollars an hour. So anyone who says we are raising the minimum wage in 1 year, in the midst of a pandemic, to $15 an hour is simply not telling the truth. This amendment is similar to a bill which I have brought forth, the Raise the Wage Act, which I am proud to say has been cosponsored by some 38 Members of the Senate, and this is also similar to legislation which has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. And I thank them, and I thank my friends in the Progressive Caucus in the House for doing a great job in pushing this legislation. I should also add, for my Senate colleagues, that this legislation raising the minimum wage is supported by some 300 national organizations, including the 12 million members of the AFL-CIO and virtually every major union in this country. This is something that unions like the SEIU, one of the largest unions in this country, have been fighting for, for a very long time. I should also add here that while raising the minimum wage is going to impact every low-wage worker in this country--because African- American and Latino workers often are earning poverty wages--it significantly impacts the lives of the minority communities as well. That is why, among so many other organizations supporting this amendment, it is supported by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; it is supported by the National Organization for Women because, again, when we talk about low-wage workers, we are talking about the minority community, we are talking about women; and that is why it is supported by groups like Unidos, the American Association of University Women, Indivisible, Justice for Migrant Women, the National Domestic Workers Alliance, and the National Women's Law Center. So, once again, this is legislation that will increase wages for 30 million American workers. And if you ask me what the great economic crisis in our country is today, it is not just high unemployment; it is not just income and wealth inequality; it is that half of our people today, and before the pandemic, were living paycheck to paycheck. Their wages were so low that if they had a problem with their car or their kid got sick, suddenly they were in financial crisis And in the richest country in the history of the world, half of our people should not be facing economic desperation when their car breaks down. The reason for that is, significantly, that many millions of workers are earning starvation wages--and I underline that, starvation wages--in this country. I would love to hear anybody get up here and tell me that they could live on seven and a quarter an hour, they could live on 8 bucks an hour, they could live on 9 bucks an hour. You can't. And I have been all over this country, and I have talked to workers who are making 10, 11 bucks an hour, with tears streaming down their cheeks, telling me what it is like to work for starvation wages and try to raise your kids. So the time is long overdue. The last time this Congress passed an increase in the minimum wage was in the year 2007--2007. It is time to raise the minimum wage. It is time to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of 15 bucks an hour. Now, later on today or this evening, as part of my support for this enormously important piece of legislation--and, as chairman of the Budget Committee, I will be speaking more about why we need to raise the minimum wage, but I want to focus on one part of the minimum wage bill that I have been hearing a little bit about in the last couple of days from some of my colleagues, and that is the provision to raise the tipped wage. Now, the tipped wage, so everybody understands it, is the Federal minimum wage that applies to waiters and waitresses, barbers, hair stylists, parking attendants, and others. Fellow Americans, do you know what that Federal minimum wage today is for that person who waits on your table at a restaurant? It is $2.12 an hour. Yeah, you heard me correctly: $2.12 an hour. And the proposal, as part of the minimum wage bill, the amendment that I will be offering, is that tipped minimum wage would go up from $2.12 an hour to $14.95 over a 7-year period, longer than the overall national minimum wage would go up. And this is something that clearly is desperately needed. Now, I know that, here in Washington, anytime we bring forth serious and important legislation for working people, the Big Money interests get to work, and all of their lobbyists, who make their six figures or seven figures a year, they get to work on Congress and tell you why you can't do anything to protect the most vulnerable and hard-hit people in this country. So the National Restaurant Association, they are a very powerful lobbying organization. I guess they have been enormously successful because we have not raised the Federal minimum wage since 2007. So the powerful lobbying organizations are going around, and they are telling Members of the House and the Senate that raising the tipped wage is opposed by restaurant workers and it would be harmful to the interest of waiters and waitresses and other people. That is not true. That is what lobbyists say, representing Big Money interests. That is what they are paid to say, but that is not what workers who wait on tables are telling us. One Fair Wage, a grassroots organization representing service employees--waiters, waitresses, and others--has just delivered to the White House a petition with 140,000 signatures on it from service workers who are demanding that they receive the same minimum wage as every other worker in this country. And polling among service employees and nonservice employees also supports the reality that Americans want our waiters and our waitresses and other service employees to get a fair and equal minimum wage, similar to what other low-wage workers are receiving. Now, I have heard from some who tell me that people who are waiting on tables--and, by the way, I was one of the worst waiters in the history of the country, but I was a waiter a long time ago. I know a little bit about it. I am hearing from some that waiters and waitresses, they are doing really well, making a whole lot of money, and they don't need an increase in the minimum wage. Let's be clear. When you talk about the restaurant and the hotel industry, you are talking about mass discrepancies in the kind of incomes that people receive. I will not deny it for a second. My daughter worked in a fancy restaurant. She did quite well. So if you are working in a hotel in a fancy restaurant where you have a menu that is quite expensive--you have got a $100 meal and your 20 percent is 20 bucks, you are waiting on three or four tables--you are doing OK. I don't deny that for a second, and I wish those waiters and waitresses who work so hard continued success. But let us be clear. Not everybody works in a fancy restaurant or a big hotel which has a high-priced menu. You have got a whole lot of people working in diners, working in working-class restaurants where the menu is not that fancy, and maybe it is $10 for lunch or $8 for lunch. Twenty percent of that is $1.60, on an $8 meal. Let us be very clear that, when we talk about waiters and waitresses, some 70 percent of tipped workers in this country are women, who suffer from three times the poverty rate of the rest of the U.S. workforce. In other words, women who are waitressing have a three times higher poverty rate than the rest of the U.S. workforce. Their tips are not keeping up with their needs. These women waitresses use food stamps at double the rate of other workers in this country. And, importantly, and increasingly so--amazingly, during this pandemic--waitresses suffer from the highest rates of sexual harassment of workers in any industry because they are forced to tolerate inappropriate customer behavior to feed their families through the tips that they get. We are hearing stories where people in a restaurant, guys in a restaurant say: Well, take your mask off. You want a tip; let me see how you look. And, clearly, this is unacceptable behavior. I also want to point out that the idea of moving tip wages to the same level over a period--in this case, 7 years--moving it to the same level as the overall minimum wage is not a radical idea. It ain't a Bernie Sanders idea. It already exists. I don't know if people know this. It already exists in seven States. So in seven States, right now, people who work in the service industry--waiters, waitresses, and others--are getting the same minimum wage as all the workers in those States. And those States are California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Montana, Alaska, and Minnesota. Seven States already pay their service industry workers the same wages as they pay other minimum-wage workers. And I should point out that all of these States experienced a growth in the number of small businesses and restaurants after they abolished the tip minimum wage. So they abolished the tip minimum wage; it did not drive restaurants out of business. In fact, in those States where the tip minimum wage equaled the general minimum wage, we saw a growth in the number of restaurants. And, furthermore, to respond to another piece of misinformation, waiters and waitresses in these States received more in tips, not less. So the mythology that is going around here is that if we raise the minimum wage for waiters and waitresses, when somebody walks into a restaurant, they are going to be thinking, ``Oh, my goodness, this person is making 10, 12 bucks an hour; I am going to leave less of a tip,'' ain't the way the world works. Let me also say a word about how the pandemic, which has impacted workers in every sector--but how it has impacted tip workers. In many States where the tip minimum wage still exists, tip workers--and this is rather unbelievable--tip workers did not even qualify for unemployment. So we are talking now, in this bill, of substantially increasing unemployment--a $400 supplement--and we are talking about extending it to late August. But tip workers, whose minimum wage is so low, do not even qualify for unemployment. In an industry where more than 6 million workers have lost their jobs--and, obviously, we all know the restaurant and hotel industry have been terribly hard-hit by the pandemic--more than 60 percent of subminimum wage earners could not get unemployment benefits because the State and Federal Government denied them benefits for not making enough earned income. You all got that? So we are talking about the need--and I certainly agree with that--to expand and extend unemployment benefits, but you have a whole lot of workers who are earning starvation wages who are not going to be eligible for unemployment. At the same time, as restaurants reopen, the CDC has declared restaurants as the most dangerous place to work. We all know that. It is obvious. You are coming face-to-face with your customers. And now servers, in the midst of that, are responsible--you are a waiter, you are a waitress, and you are now responsible--for telling somebody who walks into your restaurant that they must socially distance themselves or wear a mask. It is not necessarily a comfortable position for a worker dealing with a hostile customer. I would also add, as all of us are increasingly aware of sexual harassment in general in this country, that the restaurant industry has some of the highest rates of sexual harassment. In a workplace where 70 percent of the workers are women and where they rely on their customers to determine their wages because of tips, women are often expected to withstand sexual harassment in order to get those tips. In States where the subminimum wage has been eliminated, sexual harassment has been cut substantially because women no longer have to take that. It is not an all-or-nothing proposition. If you ask me again what the major economic crisis facing this country is, we know unemployment is sky-high, we know income inequality is unacceptable, and so many other factors are out there about the economy, but at the top of my list is the fact that tens of millions of workers in the richest country on Earth are barely making it. They are having a hard time feeding their kids. They are having a hard time paying their rent. Many of them get inadequate or no health insurance at all. Now, year after year, the American people--I think, correctly-- perceive that this Congress bows to the wishes of the rich and the powerful, gives tax breaks to people who don't need it. We deregulate companies that should be regulated, et cetera, et cetera. In this moment of economic and health crisis, now is the time for us to stand with working families, and the most important thing that we can do is to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. This is what Joe Biden believes. This is what the Democratic platform stands for, and this is what at least 38 cosponsors of the Raise the Wage Act also believe. So here we are at a pivotal moment. The working class is being decimated. People are struggling to feed their kids. We have to raise wages in this country, and we have to raise the wages of tip workers. I will be back later for more on this. I yield the floor.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record a letter dated February 22, 2021, about tip wages, signed by hundreds of organizations

Mr. SANDERS

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

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I ask to have printed in the Record some of the finalists' essays written by Vermont High School students as part of the 11th annual ``State of the Union'' essay contest conducted by my office. The material follows: Finalists

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, I ask to have printed in the Record some of the finalists' essays written by Vermont High School students as part of the 11th annual ``State of the Union'' essay contest conducted by my office. The material follows: Finalists Emily Borrazzo, South Burlington High School, Sophomore Supporting Our Veterans Every day, men and women in the military risk their lives for the protection of their fellow citizens. The ideology of our nation depends on their service. Yet every day, veterans across the country face issues regarding claim approvals, mental health, and post-service employment. The lengthy claim approval process and 36% claim granting rate is something that many veterans encounter. The issue is not the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' generous budget, but how the money is spent, and the efficiency/availability of the benefits being offered. The VA should hire more people to process claims in order to shorten the processing time, which is currently four months or longer on average. Hiring veterans in these positions would also address unemployment issues. Additionally, more guidance should be given on how to file a claim. This includes identifying the quickest claim type and specifying what medical information should be given. Lastly, the VA only approves claims for illnesses and injuries which they deem to be a direct cause of service. Extending this to all serious illnesses and injuries throughout life, or at least partial financial and medical support, would be extremely beneficial to veterans and could even improve their mental health. Studies have shown that veterans have a higher risk for alcohol/drug abuse, and suicide. One in five veterans suffer from mental health problems like PTSD, depression, and severe anxiety. Veterans account for 13.8% of the suicides in America, and for over a decade 17-18 veterans have died daily from suicide. We cannot take away their experiences, but offering more support in their recovery is the least we can do. Many veterans with mental health problems are not aware of their condition, or are too embarrassed to ask for help. Educating veterans (especially while serving) about signs and effects of mental health problems, and the care and treatment available to them, could save lives. Additionally, implementing a mental health scan for veterans every few years could be very effective in identifying these issues early on, and opening thousands of veterans' eyes to the care available to them. Enforcing quality-of-care standards for treatment in all mental health care facilities would also benefit the nation. American veterans receive very effective military training and preparation, but are rarely prepared for post-service employment. Studies suggest the unemployment rate for veterans is considerably higher than their civilian counterparts. This can be attributed to the rarity of higher education and the numerous mental health issues among veterans. Increasing accessibility and lowering costs for college education would broaden the post-service career opportunities for countless veterans. Lower tuition rates for veterans could be paid for by the VA, with the extra money resulting from having to offer less veterans unemployment benefits. Our nation cannot forget the selfless sacrifices our soldiers and military families make. Brave women and men have been taking care of this nation for almost 250 years. It's time we start taking care of them.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, since 2010, I have sponsored a State of the Union essay contest for Vermont high school students. This contest gives students in my State the opportunity to articulate what issues they would prioritize if they were President of the United States. This is the contest's 11th year, and I would like to congratulate the 319 students who participated. It is truly heartening to see so many young people engaged in finding solutions for the problems that face our country. To my mind, this is what democracy is all about. A volunteer panel of Vermont teachers reviewed the essays and chose William Taggard as this year's winner. William, a junior at Brattleboro Union High School, wrote about the State of our Nation's democracy. Emilia De Jounge, a sophomore at Burr and Burton Academy, was the second place winner. Emilia wrote about gun control. Simon Rosenbaum, a junior at Vermont Commons School, was the third place winner, with an essay on democracy. I am very proud to enter into the Congressional Record the essays submitted by William, Emilia and Simon. The material follows: Winner, William Taggard, Brattleboro Union High School, Junior In the wake of the Watergate scandal of 1972, author and journalist Frank Herbert remarked that ``good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to those who administer that machinery.'' The current administration has overseen an unprecedented undermining of trust in our government, the scale of which is scarcely rivaled in our nation's history. The subsequent damage leads us to Herbert's inevitable conclusion: ``The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.'' Our democracy has been under unprecedented pressure in recent months, culminating in the insurrection in our nation's capital. Fortunately, democracy and the truth have prevailed. However, our current system leaves ample room for improvement: namely the electoral college. We face a fundamental problem that puts at risk one of the most essential assets of our great nation. We need to review the merits of the electoral college and determine how best to protect our democratic process. Two of the last three Presidents elected have failed to secure a majority of the popular vote, suggesting that while the Declaration of Independence states we are all created equal, our current democratic system makes some votes more impactful than others. A select number of ``swing states'' hold a disproportionate amount of power in determining the outcome of a race. A short term solution to the flaws of the electoral college system is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). This is an agreement between states to award all of their electoral votes to the candidate that wins the national popular vote. To become effective, its signatories must control at least 270 electoral votes. Currently, they hold a total of 196 votes, with another 67 pending. By eliminating ``swing states,'' the NPVIC would spread voting power equally, regardless of which state you live in. This change would force politicians to campaign not only to ``swing state'' voters, but to everyone. Long term, it is in the country's best interest to consider alternate methods of voting. Our current system forces voters to pick between two popular candidates rather than support their true favorite, but this dynamic only arises from our pick one voting system. Methods such as approval or instant runoff voting can combat polarization, legitimize third parties, and eliminate spoiler candidates; forms of proportional representation can transcend gerrymandering and incentivize cooperation through coalition building. These practices allow voters to voice their conscience without worry of ``wasting'' their vote and fix many of the problems our current system has. The importance of choosing good leaders has perhaps never been more apparent--divisive rhetoric dominates the political sphere, suffocating any chance at productive discourse. As President-elect Joe Biden cautioned, ``the words of a president matter.'' We would be wise to ensure that those words come from a leader whose authority derives not from the exploitation of the electoral system, but rather from broad consensus and a commitment to the growth and prosperity of our nation. Second Place, Emilia deJounge, Burr and Burton Academy, Sophomore Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland . . . every parent's worst nightmare, yet what has America done to prevent another? A study by the American Journal of Medicine in 2016 found that Americans are 25 times more likely to die from gun homicide than people in other wealthy countries. Our futile attempts at gun control have seen little success, as gun violence rates are still steadily rising, increasing almost 25% from 2019 to 2020. The right to bear arms is in our Constitution, yet that does not negate the need for sound and rational policies around the sales of firearms. Currently, nearly 400 million guns are privately owned in the US, more than the country's population, with sharp increases in recent years. Gun violence needs to be recognized and addressed as a top priority public health issue. ``It is much easier to be a legal gun owner in the US than it is to be a legal driver,'' says David Hemenway, director of Injury Control Research at Harvard. A first step to prevent gun violence is to make it more difficult to purchase a gun through safe gun-owning training programs and requiring registration of all gun purchases. According to the State Firearms Law project, just seven states require a permit to possess a gun of any kind. A 2014 study in the Journal of Urban Health found that Missouri's 2007 repeal of its permit- to-purchase handgun law was associated with a 25% increase in firearms homicide rates. Another important step to combating gun violence is investing in research. According to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, gun violence research should have received $1.4 billion from 2004 to 2015, based on mortality rates and funding levels for other leading causes of death, but only received 1.6% of the projected amount. According to Dr. Elinore Kaufman, chief resident in surgery at New York-Presbyterian, ``we know far less about gun violence as a cause of injury and death than we do about almost every medical problem.'' In 1996, the NRA pressured Congress to pass the Dickey Amendment mandating that no CDC funds could be spent on research that promotes gun control, which has impaired our ability to make informed legislation. We can look to other nations to see that gun control works. Germany has been successful in upholding the rights of its citizens, yet preventing unnecessary deaths. With one of the highest weapons-per-head rates in the world, Germany maintains one of the lowest gun homicide rates in Europe: a death rate of 0.05 per 1,000 people, compared with 3.34 in the US, and the rate in Germany is decreasing. This accomplishment is due to strict gun laws which include psychiatric evaluations, random spot checks, and limits to numbers of guns per person. The US can enact its own version of these laws while upholding the rights of citizens. Gun violence is a widespread disease plaguing our country which can be prevented through more effective control policies. Third Place, Simon Rosenbaum, Vermont Commons School, Junior This past year terrified me. It was not just the carnage and isolation of the pandemic. I wasn't afraid of war in Iran. I was afraid because a United States Senator said it was okay to assault peaceful protestors in front of the White House for a photo op and negate the constitutional right to assembly. I was afraid because the President of the United States is fighting to subvert the cornerstone of our democracy: our election process. I was afraid because the America I love and believe in felt like it was on the brink of collapse. The most pressing issue that we as Americans face today is the preservation of our democracy. Before and after the November election, people on all sides of the political spectrum have carried on about policy and rhetoric, conspiracy theories and misinformation. No one seems to understand the gravity of the situation. What makes America special is our belief in a functioning democracy and an uncompromising defense of our constitutional rights. My ancestors came to America to grant that to me. Our predecessors built that for all of us. The one inheritance bestowed upon every American is the dignity of being American. This year, our democracy was pushed to the brink, our rights were subverted, and the dignity of America was cast aside. To me, this felt like the end. Of course, it was not the end. We Americans kept fighting for a more equitable, democratic union and it looks like our democracy will survive. My concern is for next time. What happens if next time, the system is assaulted by a savvy politician, someone who understands the systems they hope to destroy? This year, we saw that people in positions of power would do anything to keep it. To preserve the union and our nation, we must eliminate the possibility for a President to wield unitary executive authority. Diminishing the power of the Executive Branch will mitigate the damage that an unfit executive could cause. We must also depoliticize judicial appointments, and instate a nonpartisan federal oversight commission independent of the executive branch to ensure that political leaders are working for the people. Additionally, we must rebuild our demoralized, undervalued federal public service. These patriotic, nonpartisan public servants have been caught in the crosshairs of this attempted coup, and we must put them first as we rebuild from this sabotage of the framework of our country. They are the ones who put their careers and in some cases their lives on the line to save America. Now we must repay that priceless debt. Increasing protections for whistleblowers, creating a federal public service academy similar to our military academies, and simply paying public servants more for the invaluable work they do will make great strides in strengthening the system against assault next time. This past year, the great American experiment almost came to an end. The most pressing issue we face now is how do we make sure this never happens again?

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, S. Con. Res. 5, the fiscal year 2021 congressional budget resolution, included an instruction to the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to file enforceable levels in the Senate in the event the budget was agreed to without the need to appoint a committee of conference on the measure. On Friday, February 5, 2021, the Senate passed the budget resolution, and the House of Representatives passed it without changes later that day. As such, today, I submit the required filing. Specifically, section 4001 of the fiscal year 2021 congressional budget resolution allows the chairman to file an allocation for fiscal year 2021 for the Committee on Appropriations and an allocation for fiscal years 2021, 2021 through 2025, and 2021 through 2030 for committees other than the Committee on Appropriations. In addition, section 4005 of S. Con. Res. 5 provides authority for the chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to adjust the allocations, aggregates, and other appropriate budgetary levels to reflect changes resulting from the Congressional Budget Office's updates to its baseline for fiscal years 2021 through 2030. On February 11, 2021, CBO released ``The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2021 to 2031.'' The figures included in this filing are consistent with the spending limits set forth in the Budget Control Act of 2011, as amended by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, P.L. 116-137, as well as with the levels included in S. Con. Res. 5, as adjusted pursuant to section 4005 of that budget resolution. For purposes of enforcing the Senate's pay-as-you-go rule, which is found in section 4106 of the fiscal year 2018 congressional budget resolution, I am resetting the Senate's scorecard to zero for all fiscal years. All years in the accompanying tables are fiscal years. Finally, this enforcement filing supersedes the filings made pursuant to section 205 the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019. I ask unanimous consent that the tables detailing enforcement in the Senate be printed in the Record.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Mr. Stephen Bates, who was Vermont's first Black sheriff and chief of police. Mr. Bates was elected sheriff and chief of police of Vergennes, VT, in 1879, where he served as a public official until his death in 1907. Mr. Bates faced many obstacles on his journey to his elected positions in Vergennes. Born in Shirley, VA, in 1842, historical records show that he and his family members were enslaved on the Shirley plantation. In August of 1862, Mr. Bates successfully escape from the Shirley plantation. Several months prior to the Emancipation Act of 1863, Mr. Bates courageously helped many other enslaved people escape to freedom. After the Civil War, when Mr. Bates was in the service of officers at Harrison's Landing, Mr. Bates was employed by U.S. Representative Frederick E. Woodbridge, of Vergennes, VT. Mr. Bates worked as Congressman Woodbridge's coachman and moved with him to Vergennes in 1866. In 1871, Mr. Bates married Frances Mason of Elizabethtown, NY, and had two children, Rose and Fredrick. The Bates family lived on North Street in Vergennes until 1880, when their home was destroyed by a fire. The residents of Vergennes showed much support to the family following the fire, rallying to raise money to help them during that difficult time. During his time as chief of police, Mr. Bates was responsible for some notable arrests, including ``Brooklyn Slim'' and ``Ottawa Red,'' two members of a gang of post office burglars. He also had in his custody Oliver Curtis Perry, an infamous New York train robber of the time. Newspaper articles describe Mr. Bates as the arresting officer in murder, grand larceny, check forgery, and vagrancy cases in Vergennes and the surrounding area. In 1897, Mr. Bates was awarded $100 by the Assistant Attorney General of the Post Office Department for his extraordinary work in arresting two people involved with robbing post offices in Morrisville, Glover, and Windsor, VT, in 1894. Though Mr. Bates dedicated his life to his community, he still faced many challenges as the first Black sheriff in Vermont. During one incident, a man tried to kill Sheriff Bates while he was responding to a call. And while the man was charged with attempted murder, he was found guilty of obstructing, beating, and wounding an officer. Vergennes community members stated that Mr. Bates ``was almost entirely a self-taught man, and in the discharge of the duties of his office was cool and self-restrained, rarely if ever acting hastily.'' Despite this, Mr. Bates was not well-compensated for his work and was required to work a number of other jobs to provide for his family. As he was skilled at handling and caring for horses, he managed a horse company owned by Congressman Woodbridge's son. He also worked as a trusted night watchman at a local bank, as well as a custodian. Uniquely dedicated to his community despite the hardship he faced, Mr. Bates also served as an appointed agent for the Humane Society, and he and his family were active members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Vergennes. Mr. Bates died from cardiac arrest while milking a cow on June 10, 1907. I am proud to honor the life and work of Mr. Stephen Bates. Though he remains relatively unknown by many Vermonters, it is encouraging to know that Vergennes and its residents came together not long after the end of the Civil War to elect Vermont's first Black sheriff and chief of police, who was an exemplary public servant and community leader. It is a remarkable American story that I am glad to honor and celebrate.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of Dr. Jack and Lydia Clemmons of Charlotte, VT. The Clemmons family's positive impact on Vermont is powerful every single day, but I am especially pleased to recognize them during Black History Month. The Clemmons family has been instrumental in preserving and promoting African-American farm heritage in my home State of Vermont, and for that, I am extremely grateful. In 1962, Dr. and Mrs. Clemmons moved to Vermont, where Dr. Clemmons joined the University of Vermont's department of pathology and became the second African-American on the faculty of the College of Medicine. Dr. Clemmons is nationally recognized for his ground-breaking work in perinatal pathology and cytogenetics. He has long advocated for universities to implement recruitment strategies that attract and retain more students and faculty of color. Mrs. Clemmons was the first African-American nurse anesthetist at the University of Vermont Medical Center. During the same year that they began their careers in Burlington, VT, Dr. and Mrs. Clemmons purchased a historic farm in Charlotte, which was in need of significant repair and improvement. They raised five children on their farm, while working hard to restore its many buildings and working lands. For the Clemmons family, as 1 of only 17 Black-owned farms in Vermont, the work was always about more than one farm; it was about the massive loss of Black-owned farmland in Vermont and across the Nation. To that end, Dr. and Mrs. Clemmons have worked tirelessly to ensure their farm can continue under African-American ownership for generations to come. They, along with their family, have also dedicated themselves to fighting for racial justice and creating opportunities for Vermonters to learn about Black arts, farming, heritage, and culture. The arts are a particular passion of Mrs. Clemmons, who ran a shop in their town of Charlotte, which featured sculptures and other artwork imported from Africa. Additionally, the Clemmons farm is now 1 of 22 official landmarks on Vermont's African-American Heritage Trail, also serving as a multicultural arts center, with a gallery and programming for all Vermonters to enjoy. I am grateful to Dr. and Mrs. Clemmons for their enormously important contribution to Black farming and cultural heritage in our State. I wish the entire Clemmons family all the best today, and for generations to come.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the rules of the Committee on the Budget for the 117th Congress be printed in the Record.

Mr. SANDERS

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

Mr. SANDERS. I did. Mr. Counsel VAN DER VEEN. My judgment is irrelevant in this proceeding. It absolutely is. What is supposed to happen here is the Article of Impeachment----

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. Madam President, there are no tax increases on small business in this. We support the Rubio amendment.

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

Mr. SANDERS. Let me thank my colleague from South Carolina. And I look forward to working with him. He is going to be the ranking member of the Budget Committee. We have a lot of work to do, and I look forward to working with him. As Senator Graham indicated, in a few moments, at the end of my remarks, we are going to begin the vote-arama process, where Senators can offer amendments, with debate limited to 2 minutes--1 minute for the proponents and 1 minute for the opponents. The last time I checked--I may be a little behind the times on this-- my Republican colleagues had filed over 550 amendments, which, theoretically, means that we will be here for days, but I think not. I have a feeling it will be a very long night, but I assume we will get out of here at some point. Unfortunately, many of the amendments being offered have absolutely nothing to do with COVID relief, which, after all, is what this budget resolution is all about. My Republican colleagues have filed amendments to make President Trump's tax breaks for the wealthiest people in our country and the most profitable corporations permanent, which would provide a massive windfall for the top 1 percent and the billionaire class who have already seen their wealth go up by over $1 trillion during this pandemic. In my mind, it is not exactly the kind of policy that we need right now. Republicans have filed amendments to exacerbate the xenophobia, the xenophobia which exists in this country, despite the fact that many undocumented workers are doing some of the most essential and dangerous work in our country. They are working in meatpacking plants; they are preparing our food and working on the frontlines, often with very low pay. We should not be attacking them. We should not be dividing this country up. We should be bringing our people together. We have had 4 years of efforts to divide us up. Now is a time for unity. Members of the Democratic caucus have made my life easy in this process because they have filed zero amendments. Republicans, 550 amendments; Democrats, 0. I think that speaks to the strong desire of our entire caucus to pass President Biden's $1.9 trillion emergency COVID relief plan as soon as we possibly can. The reason we have got to pass that plan as quickly as possible is that the American people are suffering one crisis after another, and we have got to address those crises as quickly as we can. Let me briefly--I know there is a lot of media talk about $1.9 trillion, and this, that, and the other thing. Sometimes we forget to look at actually what is in the proposal. What are we trying to do? What are the problems that we are trying to address? So let me just, very briefly, touch on some of the provisions of this budget resolution. First, and perhaps most importantly, it will enable us to aggressively crush the pandemic, which has already taken over 450,000 American lives. That is our top priority: crush the pandemic and allow people to get back to work as we reopen and strengthen the economy, and we get our kids back to school. That is an essential part of what this resolution is about. This resolution will allow us to provide the funding to establish a national emergency program to produce the quantity of vaccines that we need. We don't have enough vaccines now. We need more. And then we need a process, which we don't have right now either, to get those vaccines into the arms of people as quickly as we possibly can. At a time when so many of our people are hurting, have gone through the worst year in their lives as a result of this pandemic, this budget resolution will allow us to keep the promises we made to the American people and increase the $600 in direct payments for working-class adults and their children to $2,000. That means $1,400 for every working-class adult and child in this country, an additional $5,600 on top of the 600 bucks that we sent out a few weeks ago. Do you know what that would mean t millions of families who are worried about whether they can pay the rent or put food on the table? They will understand that maybe, just maybe, we are one country, and the government and this Congress has heard their pain. Passing this budget resolution will give us the tools we need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of $15 an hour and provide substantial help to struggling small businesses to help them cover the cost of these wage increases. We do understand that restaurants and small businesses are hurting, and that is why we will provide billions of dollars to help them cover the cost of increasing the minimum wage. But let us be clear, the minimum wage in this country has not been raised since the year 2007. It now stands at $7.25 an hour. That is a starvation wage. That is an embarrassment, and that minimum wage must be increased so that we can give a pay raise to some 32 million workers. Moreover, this pandemic has caused tens of millions of Americans to lose their jobs through no fault of their own. For 45 consecutive weeks, unemployment claims have been higher during the worst week of the great recession in 2008. The budget resolution that we are considering this week will provide the funding to provide 18 million Americans with $400 a week in supplemental unemployment benefits until the end of September. So we are saying now to the millions and millions of unemployed workers in this country, who, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, we are there for you. We are going to extend unemployment benefits to September and add another $400 on top of the benefits that you normally would receive. One of the disgraces that we have allowed to go on for so many years, and not talk about it, is the fact that in this country--the richest country in the history of the world--we have one of the highest childhood poverty rates of any industrialized country. And they are all over America. You have got single moms and couples, people trying to take care of their kids, trying to pay for childcare, trying to do all of the things that good parents want to do, and they are unable to do it. This budget resolution will provide the resources necessary to provide childcare to 875,000 kids in America. This resolution will expand the child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,000 and $3,600 for kids under the age of 6, which we believe will cut the child poverty rate in America in half--something we should have done 20 years ago. That is what is in this resolution. This budget resolution that we are debating today would provide $350 billion to prevent mass layoffs of public sector workers in State and local governments. We have lost well over 1 million jobs--talking about teachers, firemen, cops, municipal workers. This resolution will give States and local governments the resources to not lay off workers, to bring those workers back so they could provide the services that their communities and States require. We are the only major country on Earth not to guarantee healthcare to all people as a human right. And, right now, over 90 million Americans are either uninsured or underinsured. Imagine being uninsured in the midst of a terrible pandemic. That is the case for 90 million people. This budget resolution will enable the Senate to substantially increase access to healthcare for many millions of Americans, including, very likely, a significant expansion of Medicaid. This budget resolution will allow more Americans to receive the primary healthcare they need through community health centers. It will address the serious shortage of doctors and nurses in rural areas and inner cities by expanding the National Health Service Corps. And it will make sure our veterans receive the healthcare they have earned and deserve by increasing funding at the VA by some $17 billion. In addition, in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, I don't think it is saying too much that people should not go hungry. I get emotionally wrought when, in my own State--and this is true in every State in this country--in my own city of Burlington, VT, hundreds of people line up in their cars to get emergency food packages. Many of them never, in a million years, would have thought that they would be in that position. We are looking at the highest rate of hunger in America in decades. And if this country means anything, if this government means anything, we are not going to allow our fellow Americans to go hungry. This budget resolution will provide nutrition assistance to tens of millions of hungry families with children, the disabled, and the elderly by providing billions of dollars for SNAP, WIC, and the pandemic nutrition assistance program. One of the outstanding crises this country faces is the fear of many millions of our people of being evicted from their homes or their apartments. Today, over 14 million Americans owe an average of $5,800 in back rent. We have a moratorium on eviction right now. But the day that moratorium ends, I fear that many, many people all over this country will face eviction. That is why this budget resolution will provide the funding for rent relief, utility assistance, and mortgage relief to millions of tenants and homeowners who are in danger of eviction or foreclosure. In addition, this budget resolution allows us to address the terrible crisis of homelessness in America where, a few blocks away from here, in bitter cold weather, Americans are sleeping out in tents. Not only is this $1.9 trillion emergency COVID relief package the right thing to do from a moral perspective and a public policy perspective, it is exactly what the overwhelming majority of the American people want us to do. They understand that if we are one country and they are hurting, now is the time to come together and to address that pain. So many of our people have given up on democracy. They have given up on their belief that government can work to help them. Now is the time to try to reaffirm people's faith in government. People want us to go forward. According to a recent poll, over 70 percent of the American people support President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 plan, 83 percent support boosting direct payments from $600 to $2,000, 64 percent support raising the Federal minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour, and 62 percent support additional unemployment benefits. In other words, what we are doing is the right thing to do, and what we are doing is what the American people want us to do. So now is the time to reaffirm the faith of the American people that their government listens to them; that, in fact, we are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as Lincoln talked about in the midst of the terrible Civil War. So now we can show who we are, and that is, instead of listening to wealthy campaign contributors and all of the lobbyists who flood Capitol Hill, let us stand with working families today, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the poor who want us to stand with them. Let us pass this budget resolution, and let us then finish the job by passing a reconciliation bill so that we can get it to the President for his signature as soon as possible. With that, I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SANDERS. Yes. We yield back time. We support a voice vote.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following amendments be called up in the order listed: Wicker-Sinema No. 261, Tim Scott No. 53, Rubio-Scott No. 69, Blunt No. 48, Thune No. 52, Young No. 54; further, that there be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form prior to each vote.

Mr. SANDERS

Mr. SANDERS. I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment.

Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I have been advised that inclusion of this amendment in the budget resolution would be corrosive to the privilege status of the resolution. Since this amendment contains material inappropriate for inclusion in a budget resolution, its adoption could jeopardize the privilege of this resolution, which would completely halt our efforts to provide critical pandemic relief. Additionally, this amendment is not germane to the budget resolution as required by law. Accordingly, I raise a point of order that the pending amendment violates section 305(b)(2) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.