Rick Scott

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 265, submitted earlier today.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be discharged from further consideration of S. 1605 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, there is clearly an urgent need for the United States to address the growing threat posed by Communist China. In so doing, we can't forget the commitment we all made to American taxpayers to be responsible stewards of their tax dollars. America is in a nearly $30 trillion debt crisis. We can't afford to spend more than $250 billion on a bill that doesn't pay for itself. Worse, it would add to our national yearly deficit in dramatic fashion, which is what triggers the point of order I am raising today. In 2018, we agreed not to pass spending bills without a way to pay for them, but there is no plan to pay for this. We are completely ignoring our own rules to advance this spending. Spending beyond our means has consequences. There will be a day of reckoning. The pending measure, Senate amendment No. 1502 to S. 1260, would violate the Senate pay-go rule by increasing the on-budget deficit. Therefore, I raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71 to the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I join my colleagues today to make a simple request: Let the people see the bill. Too often, this body acts without due time given to hear from all of the ones we represent: the American people. That has absolutely been the case this year as Congress has rushed through massive, 1,000- or 2,000-plus-page bills, spending billions or trillions of tax dollars without valuable input. Now you ask us to vote on a massive bill compiled just this evening. That is wrong, and the American public know it is wrong. We haven't had the time to read this. No one has, in fact. This entire bill as it sits here before us has only been under consideration for a little over 2 weeks, with thousands of pages, and it has been amended numerous times, including many times today. It spends hundreds of billions of tax dollars. As my colleagues know well, I am as vocal an opponent of Communist China as anyone. America must take decisive action to protect our interests and combat the threats posed by China's Communist regime. If the purpose of this legislation is to address that urgent issue, it should do that with input and feedback from the public. We should table this vote, let the Members return to our States, hear from constituents, and then move forward in a timely manner with the legislation after we have heard from our constituents. This is a simple and reasonable request. Therefore, I ask the Senator to modify her request to delay further consideration of S. 1260 until the week of June 7.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I want to thank my colleagues for their concerns about this bill. You know, I have been up here a little over 2 years. I originally ran for office because I had the same concerns about where the State of Florida was going as I have concerns about where our Federal Government is going. I ran for Governor in 2010, and in the 4 years ending at the end of 2010, the State of Florida had lost 832,000 jobs. Home prices dropped in half. We had I think close to a million people on unemployment, and we had I think a little over 1.1 million homes in foreclosure. If you looked at all the articles, they said that opportunity for the Sunshine State was over. And I didn't believe it. I believe that if you run government in a responsible manner, you have unbelievable opportunities for individuals. The reason I believe this is, it is the life that I have had the opportunity to live in this country. I grew up in the--I was born in the great State of Illinois. We lived in public housing. I had a single mom, and she told me that I could be anything. She said: If you will study hard, if you will go to church all the time, if you are an Eagle Scout and you go figure out how to work, there is no limitation. You can build a company. You can do anything you want. I actually believed her, and I had the opportunity to do that. I built companies, employed a lot of people, and had a lot of opportunity. So I ran for Governor in 2010 with the belief that you could turn around the State of Florida. At the time, I believe there was--you know, the way the country and the State of Florida were going, it was not a great place for families like mine growing up. So I ran a campaign of 7 steps to 700,000 jobs over 7 years. You know, all the economists said, well, we couldn't get 700,000 jobs in 7 years. It was not doable. Most of them said we couldn't even get single-digit unemployment in 7 or 8 years. People wouldn't move to the State. So I shocked everybody, and I won a primary and I won a general election, and I set about to do exactly what I said we could do. We reduced taxes. Every year, we watched how we spent the money. We allocated our dollars where we could get more jobs. We added 1.7 million jobs--not 700,000 jobs; we added 1.7 million jobs. When we did that, what happened was, our revenues grew, and we were able to have record funding for education, for the environment, and for transportation. We ended up becoming No. 1 in higher education; I guess generally about the top five in K-12 education; 47-year low in our crime rate; and record funding for things like the Everglades. So I believed you could do the same thing up here, and that is why I came up here. I came up here with the belief that if you start looking at how you spend the money--and the way we did it in Florida was, we had--there are about 4,000 lines to the budget, and we went through every line in the budget every year, and we said: Do we get a return? What do we get for that? If we didn't get a return, then we didn't do it the next year. So my goal is to do the exact same thing up here. Now let's look at where our country is right now. We have almost $30 trillion of debt. We are running multitrillion-dollar deficits. That is not sustainable. And, by the way, who are we going to hurt long term? It is not going to be the rich. It is going to be the poor. It is going to be the people on fixed income. You can look at the numbers. Look at inflation numbers right now. Inflation is caused by reckless spending. That is what it is caused by. The spending we have done this year is unbelievable--$1.9 trillion. It was supposedly for COVID, but it has very little to do with COVID--less than 10 percent--and 1 percent for vaccines. Let's look at what has happened to inflation. In the 12 months that ended in April, the Consumer Price Index was up 4.2 percent. It is pretty surprising that we are up over 6 percent. Milk in 12 months, up over 5 percent; bread over 7 percent, and gas over 51 percent. Now, if you have a lot of money, that is not going to change your life. But if you are struggling for food or you are struggling to put food on the table, a 5-percent or 7-percent increase has a pretty big impact. When you see that when the cost to fill up your gas tank to go to work dramatically increases, it has a pretty big impact. All this is caused by government spending--reckless government spending--excessive government spending. You can't run trillion-dollar deficits. You can't have a Federal Reserve that continues to buy treasuries every month without ending up with inflation. And that is exactly where we are. The only way out of this is to start watching how we spend our money. In this bill, there might be some good things in this bill, but we are spending money recklessly. So, I have a real concern. Why are we rushing through this? Why don't we take the time--take the time so all Americans have a chance to read it, know what is in it, tell us what they like, what they don't like? Why rush through it, where nobody in this Chamber knows everything that is in this bill? It is impossible. It has gone way too fast with all these amendments. There is no way this could even happen. China Mr. President, the other thing I want to talk about is China. Communist China is an adversary. They are not a competitor. They have become an adversary, and we have got to learn how to stand up. Just putting more money in a government program is not how we are going to compete with China. How we are going to compete with China is to build up American companies. Government doesn't do that. I have run a company. It is not what government does. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Winston Churchill's speech to Westminster College, where he famously declared: ``From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an ``iron curtain'' has descended across the continent.'' For many, these words were seen as some of the first announcing the start of the Cold War. Today, the threat of communism is once again spreading across Eastern Europe. The malicious and oppressive government of Communist China has shown it is eager to assert its power across the globe, undermine democracy and human rights, violate U.S. sanctions, and prop up dictators. We have to do something to figure out how to compete better against Communist China. The United States has to recognize that a new Cold War is upon us and, with our allies, confront this threat and defeat this spread of tyranny using every diplomatic and military option at our disposal. Communist China's intentions for world domination are clear in its recent $400 billion, 25-year deal with Iran to provide the Ayatollah with a steady military partner, investment source, and oil customer. Communist China has now secured a pathway to further extend the reach of its Belt and Road Initiative into the Middle East, while strengthening its relationship with the world's greatest state sponsor of terror. This dangerous development comes as Communist China continues its assault to destroy the democracy in Hong Kong, shows increased military aggression toward Taiwan, and furthers its embrace of Cuba's abhorrent and oppressive Communist regime--not to speak of what they are doing down in Venezuela. The position we find ourselves in today is due to decades of appeasement by Washington politicians and corporate America, an attitude that is carried on by many of President Biden's Cabinet members. Throughout the confirmation process, nominee after nominee failed to show a true comprehensive comprehension of Communist China's threat to American security. Meanwhile, we continue to see American corporations put profits over people, ignoring Communist China's horrible human rights abuses and the genocide it is committing to preserve their forced labor-driven supply chains. While I have no faith that Biden will be tough on China, I have welcomed and my colleagues have acknowledged the need to comprehensively combat the influence and power of Communist China through legislation. Sadly, we are squandering this opportunity. I want to be very clear. Any plan that tries to broker a compromise on issues over and above the needs of American national security, American jobs, or human rights will do nothing more than perpetuate the status quo. Since being elected to the U.S. Senate, I have sponsored and supported more than 40 pieces of legislation focused on addressing the security of our supply chain, holding communist China fully responsible for disgusting human rights abuses and genocide against Uighur Muslims, enhancing our ability to innovate and develop new technology, and countering Beijing's unfair trade practices. This is where our legislative efforts must begin. We need to cut Communist China off from the American economy that it relies so heavily upon to feed its Communist oppression machine. There is no point in sacrificing our interests for the hope of compromise with a country that will never live up to its end of any agreement, is openly committing genocide against millions of Uighur Muslims, and continuously threatens not only America's security but that of our allies in the Asia-Pacific region. Communist China is focused on one thing--world domination through oppression and Communist rule. We must not be naive in thinking that Communist China wants to operate in the modern world order and cooperate with other world powers. General Secretary Xi wants to reshape the world order into his image and is willing to strong-arm anyone who refuses to give in to his interests and those of the Chinese Communist Party. If Communist China wants to enact a plan of world domination, the United States must respond appropriately. The United States must demonstrate America's strength and resolve, and our commitment to our allies. In this new Cold War, we have the chance to prove once again that the American style of government, free enterprise, and civil society remain the best system in the world As the world's greatest beacon of freedom and democracy, the United States must do everything we can, in conjunction with our allies, to curb Communist China's reach, counter their policies, and punish those who are guilty of the ongoing genocide against the Uighurs. Whether we like it or not, we are in a new Cold War with Communist China. I urge my colleagues to join me in actions that display the true resolve of the United States in addressing Communist China's destabilizing actions. Here is what I am talking about. For too long, the United States has foolishly enabled Communist China's oppressive dictatorship, which is now the greatest national and economic security threat. Today, Communist China's Belt and Road Initiative actively undermines America's standing around the world with a strategy to dominate militarily, economically, and technologically. It has become clear that strategic decoupling from Communist China is the most effective way to limit General Secretary Xi Jinping's power and protect American jobs and security. However, our politicians in Washington and business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce still argue that decoupling from Communist China hurts American businesses. They are wrong, blind to the plans of General Secretary Xi and the pain of his citizens, and are more concerned with short-term profits than the future of our country. As we chart a new course to advance American trade and interests, I believe we must adopt a bipartisan ``freedom-first'' strategy which protects freedom around the world from Communist China's growing power and aggression, restores our country to global leadership, and keeps American interests first. What I am proposing is straightforward and achievable. First, we must acknowledge what has worked in our efforts to ensure free trade and keep policies in place that will hold Communist China accountable. Next, the United States has to take decisive steps to strategically to remove Communist China from our supply chain while supporting the return of critical industries to American shores and promoting ``buy American'' policies. Third, we must engage the international community and secure the full support of our allies to create a maximum pressure campaign with Communist China until it comes into compliance with all U.S. and international trade laws. Finally, the United States must lead the world and take bold action to shine a light on and demand an end to Communist China's horrible human rights abuses and the horrific genocide it is committing on its own people. The Trump administration took unprecedented action to thoroughly investigate Communist China's trade practices and found it had long been committing forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft, and espionage. The United States took action over the past 4 years to prohibit Americans from investing in Chinese companies that support Communist China's military, added those companies to a trade blacklist, banned imports of cotton from China's Xinjiang region over forced labor and protected American universities and research labs from Chinese government spying and IP theft. In Congress, I have fought for more than a year to prevent the U.S. Government from purchasing technology like drones with American tax dollars from Chinese companies backed by their government. We must keep these and other proven policies in place. It is time we acknowledge the fact that when American families buy products made in China, they are supporting this Communist regime. We must get Communist China out of our supply chain. We can do this through simultaneously separating ties from companies backed by the Chinese Communist Party and rebuilding American-made products. By properly labeling products with country-of-origin information and encouraging businesses to return home, we can end our trade inequity with Communist China and create countless American jobs that support families and communities across the Nation. While decoupling must begin now, we know it is not a process that will be completed overnight, and supply chains must readjust to remove themselves from the grasp of the Chinese Communist Party. Knowing that Communist China needs to live up to its agreements, the United States must lead the world in demanding the full enforcement of all U.S. and international trade laws. Organizations like the World Trade Organization can no longer sit in the pocket of Communist China, and the Biden administration must insist that the WTO enforce trade practices fairly. This will require a coalition-style approach and the United States is well positioned to lead this important work to create increased accountability and real consequences for the abusive trade practices that Communist China has relied on for too long. Finally, the freedom-loving nations of the world must ban together to say that Communist China's egregious human rights violations won't be accepted. General Secretary Xi is taking away the basic human rights of the people of Hong Kong and leading a brutal genocide of Uighurs, imprisoning more than a million in concentration camps. The State Department cannot back down from officially designating this as genocide, and other countries must follow this example. That is why I led a bipartisan effort to demand that the International Olympic Committee move its 2022 Winter Games out of Beijing unless Communist China addresses these human rights abuses. The world is counting on the United States to stand firm against the use of slave labor in manufacturing and trade. With regard to the Olympics, there are 180 human rights organizations around the world that have asked for the Olympics to be moved. The Parliament in Canada has asked for the Olympics to be moved. The International Olympic Committee has done nothing. It is despicable that international Olympics hasn't already asked the Olympics to be moved or has not moved the Olympics, and I have asked for all the sponsors of international Olympics to work to try to make sure the Olympics gets moved. But American companies have to do their part to rid their supply chains of such abuses. The United States and so many countries around the globe stand for freedom of democracy for all people. Now we must unify and lead the important effort to accomplish this common goal, put American jobs and workers first, and counter the harm and unfair trade practices of Communist China that have been ignored for decades. But surrendering America's strategic position to Communist China isn't the only failure of the legislation we are considering today. The other equally significant dangerous issue is the additional deficit spending this bill includes, driving America even deeper into debt. Since first being elected to represent Florida, I have fought hard to call out wasteful spending and offer solutions to make our government accountable to the taxpayers. This should be the foundation of our work and service to our constituents. We can't forget that every dollar the Federal Government spends is borrowed from the American people. Sadly, over the past 2 years that I have been in Washington, I realized that while many politicians make promises to uphold these values, few put their words into practice. It is no wonder, then, that our national debt continues to grow and grow and grow. In 2020 alone, the United States increased its debt by more than $4 trillion. Today, as we know, it is headed to $30 trillion. America is clearly in a debt crisis, and we need to start talking about it and take decisive action to reverse course. That is why every time I am faced with the question of spending taxpayer dollars on government programs, I ask myself some simple, yet important, questions: What is the plan to pay for it? What is the return on investment for American families? Are there other programs already doing the same thing? When was the last time this program was reviewed for its effectiveness? Does the proposal include measures to prevent waste and fraud and ensure accountability? Are there unnecessary regulations making this more expensive than it needs to be? Asking these questions isn't a novel idea. It is the same process I went through every day when I was Governor of Florida. That is what most Americans go through when making financial decisions at home or for their businesses. Families do it every night at their kitchen table. No family would needlessly spend money without a plan. No business can afford to not get a return on their investments. But here, there is no focus on return on investments. The bill we are talking about, we have no idea how much money we are going to spend. Spending without consequence isn't how things work in the real world. It is not how things should work in government. Congress's decades of failure to think and act responsibly has led to enormous deficits, insurmountable debt, and out-of-control spending. Right now, our country is spending out of control. And even before the pandemic, when the economy was booming, the Federal Government was running trillion-dollar annual deficits. This has got to stop. We need real reforms. That is why I proposed amendments to the U.S. Constitution requiring a supermajority vote in each House of Congress to impose or raise any tax or fee and provide line-item veto authority for the President of the United States. I have also led the charge to set a ``No Budget, No Pay'' policy in Federal law so that if Congress doesn't pass a budget on time--its most important constitutional responsibility--Members don't get paid. It is simple. You don't do your job; you don't get paid. During our vote- arama, we voted on this, and unfortunately my colleagues on the other side of the aisle all voted against it. With America in such desperate need of leadership to fix our spending and debt problem, you would think that the first thing President Biden would do is to set a plan and work hard to make things right. Well, think again. Four weeks after Congress spent $900 billion to address the economic impacts of COVID, Biden began his Presidency with a call for Congress to spend another $1.9 trillion. Then the Democrats passed it by themselves, despite the fact that we didn't know how much of the $4.9 trillion stimulus funding already allocated had been spent. Today, President Biden is--soon President Biden is going to propose it sounds like a $7 trillion budget. It will take the United States to its highest sustained levels of Federal spending since World War II. This is on top of the $7.1 trillion in new spending Biden has proposed in his first 4 months in office--$7.1 trillion. You can't make this stuff up. I think we are only going to collect about $3.5 trillion or so in revenues. How can we keep spending money like this? No family can do it. No person can do it. I have been warning about the danger of reckless spending for years, and now we are seeing it play out in real life. President Biden's liberal dreams of big government, big debt, and high taxes are no longer speculation. Now he is rolling out his plans for systemic socialism plainly for all to see. He has already proposed $7.1 trillion in spending in just 4 months, and now another $6 or $7 trillion of American taxpayer dollars on top of that, all while holding back needed funding for our military. By the way, as we added those 1.7 million jobs when I was Governor of Florida, we paid off a third of the State debt--over $10 billion--and cut over $10 billion in taxes. Everything we should be doing up here, we did in Florida, and we can do it here if we will start looking at how we spend our money. Biden wants to redistribute wealth, making everyone dependent on government while asking our brave men and women in uniform to go without. It is systemic socialism, and it is already hurting American families. America is in a nearly $30 trillion debt crisis, but that won't stop Biden's tone-deaf march toward socialism. As the President plans to spend our Nation into oblivion, 83 percent of Americans are already tightening their budget due to inflation pressures, and 87 percent of Americans already believe that we have significantly overspent money, and they know that the Federal Government's spending is causing their inflation I grew up poor, and I know what it is like to watch my family struggle with inflation because of failed government policies and reckless spending. I watched my mom struggle to put food on the table and watch her as food prices went up. She struggled to put food on the table, and that is what we are doing to families right now all across this country. Washington can't spend like this anymore. Debt has consequences. Massive spending has consequences. Tax increases have consequences. It all hurts America's poorest families the most. And something else to think about: This summer, Congress and President Biden will face a critical choice of raising or suspending the debt ceiling. Congress has made a habit of maxing out America's credit card with no plan to pay for it for decades. Failure to rein in deficit spending will inevitably cause--and it is already happening-- high inflation, devastating the purchasing power of all Americans, and disproportionately impacting low- and fixed-income families. Since the Biden administration doesn't have a plan to address this crisis, I hope they will join me in fighting for fiscal restraint and the adoption of sustainable and responsible debt reduction measures like we did in Florida and passage of reforms that produce concrete, enforceable limitations of deficit spending. Americans understand they can't spend without consequences. It is time for government to embrace this same mentality. We did a poll earlier this year--I saw a poll earlier this year--80 percent of Americans are worried about the Federal debt, and they are concerned it is going to lead to financial problems for our country. We have to scrutinize every bill we have, including this bill. Are we spending this money well? No one has had time to read this bill. Too often, lawmakers in Washington pass bills without having time to read them before they vote. These are new laws that impact American families and businesses and sometimes even authorize billions or trillions in tax dollar spending, and we don't have time to read these things. It is complete Washington dysfunction. It needs to end. This bill is thousands of pages. It spends hundreds of billions of dollars. Growing up, my family lived paycheck to paycheck. My mom and my adopted dad struggled, but my mom instilled in me the value of counting pennies--a value I utilized as a businessman for four decades before I thought about running for office. I had to make payroll. I had to make sure there was money in the bank to make sure everybody got paid. I had to make sure we never ran out of money. First 10 rules of business: Don't run out of money. My employees counted on me every time to make sure we never ran out of money. And if you look at what the Federal Government is doing, people are scared to death of what is going to happen to their Social Security, what is going to happen to their Medicare as this country racks up unbelievable deficits and unbelievable debt When I ran for Governor, I just said: We are not going to do this. We are going to figure out how we can live within our means, and we did it. You know, we watched the pennies. As Governor, I had a line-item veto, and we went through every line every year, and, again, if we didn't get a return, we didn't do it. When I took over Florida, it was like a failing business. I was worried about what it was going to be like for my children and my grandchildren in the State that I enjoyed living in. I wanted to make sure everybody had the same opportunity I had. We did it in Florida. We turned around the State, and we can do the same thing here. You know, I was the first Governor in 20 years who actually paid down debt. Actually, for 20 straight years, the State of Florida increased its debt over $1 billion a year, and we paid off over $10 billion in 8 years. So we can do it here, but we have got to start, with this bill, taking our time and looking at it line by line. Do we need to spend this money? Do we get a return for this money? Is this good for our taxpayers? Is this good for the families of our country? And if it is not, we have got to stop doing this. I want the next generation to have the same opportunities I had to live their dreams in this country. If we continue down this path, that opportunity is going to be lost. At some point, the bill is going to come due. You know, Robert Baden-Powell's famous plea to ``try and leave this world a little better than you found it'' has actually fallen on deaf ears here. We are not clearly leaving this country in a better shape. You would never do this to your kids and grandkids, leave the debt that we are leaving our kids and our grandkids. The Federal Government takes in a little over $3 trillion. I think this year it is $3.5 trillion and it is spending trillions more. You just can't keep doing that. Right now, the interest alone on our nearly $30 trillion national debt is over half a trillion dollars a year. That is just interest. What are we getting for that? We get nothing for that. It doesn't do anything to help with our families. It doesn't help us build our military. It doesn't pay for Social Security. It doesn't pay for Medicare. We know Medicare is running out of money. What happens when Medicare runs out of money? Doctors and hospitals are going to have to be paid significantly less or Medicare recipients are going to have to get less care. I don't want any Medicare recipient to get less care. Social Security is running out of its cash reserves by 2034. There is an automatic cut in Social Security. That is not fair. People who are paying into their Social Security plan, they are not being told that there is not going to be enough money there. In this country, Medicaid costs are increasing by about 5 percent a year--5 percent. I mean, our revenues are not growing 5 percent a year. And these programs are called mandatory programs, so we don't have any control over them. I was shocked when I came up here that we don't even look at the cost of those programs. We don't even pass a budget with regard to those programs. I mean, it makes it convenient that we don't have to vote on it, but it is not fair to the American taxpayer. We see what is happening when debt rises. I mean, if you look at what happens with a company--when a company, when its debt rises and they can't pay their debt, what happens? They go bankrupt. And who gets hurt? All the employees who work there, they get hurt. Their customers get hurt; suppliers gets hurt; and everybody gets hurt. It is just a fact that is what happens. We have to think the same way here. We have to think how do we reduce the debt, not how do we increase the debt. Just this week, I held a press conference showing how the Democrats' reckless spending has increased the cost of groceries and gasoline. Inflation also raises rent; not to mention it makes it hard to get a student loan or loan to start a business when the interest rate goes up. It is just like I mentioned, 83 percent of Americans already tighten their belt. They are worried, and they know that it is caused by what we are doing up here. I have been shocked that President Biden has been completely silent about inflation. He has not said a word about it. And if you listen to Secretary Yellen, all she says is we need to spend more money. I mean, they are not looking at what is happening with inflation. Next week, we get the CPI numbers and PPI numbers, and we will see what they are. But you watch what is happening to families. The poor families and those on fixed incomes are getting hurt while all these prices go up. We have got to stop this. The April consumer price index rose by eight-tenths of 1 percent. That is almost 10 percent on an annualized basis. Annualized basis inflation rate for the past 3 months has been 7.2 percent and 6.2 percent for the first 4 months The core inflation rate, excluding food and energy, on an annual basis, grows in April by 11 percent--a rate not exceeded since June of 1982. While these price increases are significant, broad, and accelerating, are they temporary effects? We don't know. We don't know if it is temporary. Some people say they are temporary, but who knows. But are they going to go back down? As traditionally understood, inflation is too much money chasing too few goods, and where does that money come from? It comes from reckless Federal spending. While it may seem old-fashioned to ask in this brave new world of monetary theory, where Joe Biden declared last year that ``Milton Friedman isn't running the show anymore,'' is there reason to be concerned that the broad money supply, M2, grew by 24 percent over the last year, a postwar year high? Never, in the history of this country have you seen money supply grow like that without having significant inflation. And if you go back to what happened, the only way they stopped the significant inflation in the past is significantly higher interest rates, which hurts every family but especially the family on a fixed income and the poor families because their wages are not going to go up like that. So 24.6 percent, that is more than twice the rate it grew--on inflation, it is more than twice the rate it grew before inflation reached 13.4 percent in 1979 and almost three times the rate it grew amid the guns-and-butter spending surge during the Vietnam war. And what about the extraordinary stimulus spending of the past year? Larry Summers, the highly respected former Treasury Secretary and economic adviser to Presidents Obama and Clinton, warned that the Biden stimulus would create purchasing power ``at least three times the size of the output shortfall'' and would be ``the least responsible macroeconomic policies we've had in the past 40 years.'' We need only look at the Bureau of Economic Analysis comparison of the first quarter of 2021 to a year earlier to confirm Mr. Summers' concerns. Wages and salaries are already significantly larger in the first quarter of 2021 than they were before the pandemic. Transfer of payments have almost doubled, and personal savings have surged an extraordinary $4.1 trillion from $1.6 trillion a year ago. The end of the pandemic isn't only unleashing the pent-up demand of the tremendous shutdown economy. It is opening the floodgate to a torrent of spending fueled by fiscal and monetary stimulus not seen since the Civil War. When inflation happens, first off, you end up with a mindset of inflation. Somebody stopped me the other day and said: I know car prices are up. Should I buy now because car prices are going to be up even higher in a year? With that mentality, that is what causes inflation to continue to go up--when Americans start believing it is going to go up, it is going to keep going up even as a result of reckless spending. But once they get in that mindset, it is very difficult to stop it. The U.S. economy clearly has the power to iron out the natural problems of restarting production, but the very nature of the subsidies in the $6 trillion Biden administration stimulus relief and the infrastructure bills constrain production. You know, you look at what is happening with trying to get jobs. There are about 8 million job openings in the State. A year ago, I was here speaking on the Senate floor saying that you can't pay people more not to work than to work. I mean, people are going to make a logical economic decision, and they are going to do the right things for their families. So now what we are seeing is we have job openings all across the country. In my State, we have restaurants--we have a lot of small businesses that can't find workers. I talked to an individual who has a cement company today. He couldn't get truckdrivers. What we have done to ourselves makes no sense. In its modern incarnation, socialism denies that government incentives and constraints have anything to do with people's decisions to work, save, and invest, but we all know that is not true. These Federal supplemental payments to unemployment have just caused--it has caused a catastrophe for our small businesses. The Congressional Budget Office found that the Affordable Care Act would cut the number of hours worked by as much as 2 percent. So how can expanding ObamaCare in the recent stimulus not affect employment? It does. The same applies to expansions of COBRA, the monthly child credit, and other income supports. Historically in America, the best housing, healthcare, transportation, nutrition, and childcare program was always a job--that is what our parents always told us--not some government program. If you give people things they typically get from a job, don't be surprised when they don't take the job. The Biden administration claims that it hasn't seen evidence that its unemployment bonus is keeping people from work, but we know that is not true. I have talked to people who work in the Biden administration. While Joe Biden will say that, they acknowledge it is not true. With the Labor Department reporting record job openings and the National Federation of Independent Business detailing a record number of small businesses offering jobs but finding no takers, that claim is not credible. Since the War on Poverty began, government transfer payments have risen to provide more than 90 percent of the income of the bottom 20 percent of income-earning households, and the labor force participation rate among work-age households has collapsed to 36 percent from 68 percent. How is that good for those families? You get a lot of satisfaction out of having a job. We need to have safety nets, but we don't want to put ourselves in the position that people become dependent on government payments. The Biden administration also asks Americans to believe that they can raise income, corporate, and death taxes, smother the private sector with regulations, kill the fossil fuel industry, and fill the regulatory Agencies with activists fundamentally hostile to the Nation's economic system, and it is not going to have any effect on economic performance. We know that is not true. Back in the real world, much of what the President is doing will impede the recovery, reduce economic capacity, and fuel inflation. And who does it hurt? It always hurts the poorest families, always hurts the person who is struggling to find work, always hurts the person on a fixed income. That is who gets hurt. If Congress sees inflation as a real threat, it should stop spending. Unfortunately, right now, Congress doesn't think that way. We can see what is happening in the real world. Any unobligated balances in the Biden stimulus or previous stimulus bills can no longer be justified using current economic circumstances and should be rescinded, or if we are going to spend new money with, hopefully, a way to get a return on it, we should still spend it with unspent stimulus money. Rescinding the stimulus authority in the Biden stimulus at the end of the fiscal year on September 30 would save over $700 billion--$700 billion--according to the CBO. Rescinding authority sooner and including all previous stimulus bills would save us $1 trillion. Congress should repeal the enhanced unemployment benefits and reinstate the Clinton-era work requirements for welfare. Work requirements should be applied to all unearned benefits to anyone except the elderly, the disabled, and students. Congress should adopt a real, enforceable budget that funds infrastructure and the other functions of the government without further expanding the deficit and debt. The debt ceiling, which expires on August 1, should be used to set into place a long-term, binding program to stop the Federal debt from growing beyond 100 percent of gross domestic product. If the inflation of the 1970s and 1980s has returned, it is the ``Gods of the Copybook Headings'' that have returned once again to teach us that water will wet us, fire will burn, and the government can't give us something for nothing. Debt also has an impact on interest rates. As interest rates go up, the interest on the national debt will increase faster and faster. It is going to be a debt spiral, and it is going to be very hard to deal with. We have low interest rates now. If you look at the 50-year average of the 10-year Treasury, it is significantly higher than it is now. If that happens, it will be very difficult to fund any program we care about, whether it is Medicare, Social Security, or fund the military. When interest rates go up--and interest rates historically have always gone up when you have significant deficit spending, when you have significant inflation--then we are going to have a very difficult time funding the programs we care about. I hope we don't end up having a sovereign debt crisis, but we are staring right at it right now. None of this is to say I don't have hope for our future. I have clear hope for it. We can do it. We did it in Florida. Every time our country is faced with a challenge, we have shown our ability to rise above it, but if we don't acknowledge it, it doesn't happen. So as long as I am a Member of the Senate, I am going to fight to rein in the out-of-control spending that is putting our country's future at risk. I have to. I have seven grandkids. I am going to do my best to leave this country in a better position than when I started. But if you just look at the last 20 years, at the unbelievable increase in debt--I think when Ronald Reagan got elected, the national debt was under $1 trillion, and now it is close to $30 trillion. So we have to get focused on this. We can't just do something like this--rush through a bill that nobody has had the opportunity to really understand and spend hundreds of billions of dollars, not knowing whether we are going to get a return. So, look, I want to figure out how to do good things. When I was Governor, we invested $85 billion in roads, bridges, airports, and seaports. I believe in investing. We invested in our universities. But we can't just keep spending money like this. With that, I think I will yield to my colleague.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I rise today in remembrance and recognition of the tremendous sacrifice of America's fallen military members who have given their life in service to our Nation and defense of our freedoms. As we commemorate Memorial Day this year on Monday, May 31, we honor and remember the brave men and women whose lives have been lost in defense of the freedoms we hold dear. Without their incredible sacrifice, our Nation and the very ideals of democracy, freedom, and liberty we so proudly represent would not have endured. On this occasion, as we express our Nation's gratitude to our fallen heroes, we remember the words written by President Abraham Lincoln to Mrs. Lydia Bixby following the loss of her five sons. In his letter, dated November 21, 1864, President Lincoln wrote, ``I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.'' Our Nation can never fully repay the debt of gratitude owed to these fallen heroes and their families. Each year, on Memorial Day, we pledge that their service and sacrifice will never be forgotten. We also take this opportunity to thank the many men, women, and organizations that work every day to support our military and veteran community, as well as the families of fallen heroes. I especially would like to recognize the work of American Legion Post 135, in my hometown of Naples, FL. The work American Legion Post 135 and the many other veterans and military organizations do to support our families and communities is greatly appreciated. I ask that all Floridians and all Americans join me today in pausing for a moment to reflect on the sacrifice of America's great heroes and all who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to us and this great Nation.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I am proud to stand today in support of our great ally Israel. Israel is a vibrant democracy that supports capitalism, champions human rights, and holds free and open elections. Since its reestablishment in 1948, the United States has been Israel's most fervent supporter, and my home State of Florida has maintained a strong relationship with Israel throughout these years. As Governor, I took a stand against discrimination and prohibited State agencies and local governments from contracting with companies boycotting Israel. I also signed legislation to ensure the State of Florida will not support those who participate in the BDS movement. I traveled to Israel three times as the Governor of Florida to support our strong economic partnership and celebrate the opening of the new Embassy in Jerusalem. Israel's economic strength is key to its ability to defend itself and our common interests. Last Congress, I was proud to cosponsor a bill recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights and also supported the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act to promote security and energy partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean. While I visited Israel numerous times, my most recent trip as Senator gave me a clear perspective on Israel's proximity to its enemies Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and Iran. For decades, the people of Israel have endured unyielding attacks from terrorist groups, like Hamas, which with Iran's support and funding wish to destroy the Jewish State and its people. Now, as thousands of rockets rain down, our resolve to stand with Israel must be stronger than ever. I want to be clear: Israel has every right to defend and protect its people from terrorist attacks and to do whatever is necessary to stop the murder of its citizens and foreign nationals residing in Israel. No country--certainly not the United States--would allow the murder of its citizens. The terrorists blasting these rockets into Israel are the same terrorists that chant ``Death to America.'' They don't believe in democracy, and they want Israel wiped off the face of the Earth. As our great ally and the only shining example of democracy in the Middle East, Israel deserves our full support. Today and every day, the United States must align with those fighting for freedom and democracy, clearly denounce terrorism, and stand up against those who do not respect human rights. The Trump administration made tremendous efforts to facilitate peace and prosperity between our great ally Israel and neighboring Arab nations, but we see the Biden administration trying to unravel this progress and appease illegitimate Palestinian leaders, demonstrating once again the Democrats' reckless disregard for the security and prosperity of Israel. The Palestinian leadership, which has been operating as a dictatorship for 15 years, had their last election for President in 2005. Biden has restored U.S. aid to the Palestinians, who openly support terrorism, wage war against Israel, and do not recognize its existence. I am disgusted to see the anti-Israel agenda being pushed by the radical left. The Biden administration can't go down this path. They need to stop trying to rejoin the horrible Iran deal. Biden needs to stop his weak and misguided strategy and keep maximum pressure on the Ayatollah until Iran is no longer a threat to U.S. national security. Israel deserves our full support; Israel deserves the right to peace and security; Israel deserves the right to protect its people from reprehensible terrorist attacks; and Israel deserves the right to take whatever means are necessary to stop the murder of its citizens and foreign nationals residing in Israel. Because we have no greater ally in our efforts to preserve peace and secure our interests in the Middle East, I am proud to lead 29 of my colleagues today to condemn the escalating attacks by Hamas against Israel and thank them for joining me on this effort. The resolution reaffirms the unwavering commitment of the United States to Israel and its right to take whatever means necessary to stop the murder of its citizens and foreign nationals residing in Israel. It is time for the U.S. Senate to say that enough is enough and unanimously adopt this resolution to make it clear that the United States stands with Israel. These terrorists need to know that acts of aggression toward Israel will never be tolerated. President Biden should take immediate action to remind these terrorists and the world of the strong and unwavering support of the United States for the Israeli people, and we should stop cowering to the anti-Israel radical left. I look forward to my colleagues joining me today to stand with Israel. I ask unanimous consent that the Senat proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 226, submitted earlier today. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, today is a sad day for the U.S. Senate, and one we will not forget. No one in this body supports the loss of innocent lives--no one. But let me be very clear about what we just witnessed. We just saw the Democratic Party completely abandon the sovereignty of Israel in support of a terrorist organization. The radical left is fully embracing the lie of false equivalence and refuses to plainly state: Israel has the right to defend itself, period. The resolution I offered today simply reaffirms our support of Israel, one of our greatest allies and our most important ally in the Middle East. And it condemns the escalating terrorist attacks against Israel. This isn't controversial. In fact, it is in line with everything America has stood for, for generations. It is actually in line with what my colleague just wrote in his op-ed for the New York Times. He said: ``No one is arguing that Israel, or any government, does not have the right to self-defense or to protect its people.'' So why is he objecting to this today? Does he agree with the radical left that the United States shouldn't follow through with a critical arms sale to Israel as it continues to face attacks? It was not long ago that the Senate, including my colleague, stood with Israel on a bipartisan basis. In fact, in 2014, when Israel was again subject to a barrage of rockets targeting innocent Israelis, then-Majority Leader Reid offered a resolution supporting Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas. The 2014 resolution even acknowledges the simple truth that ``Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.'' It also said: ``Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.'' It says: ``Hamas uses rockets to indiscriminately target civilians in Israel.'' It says: ``Hamas intentionally uses civilians as human shields.'' And it resolved to ``condemn Hamas's terrorist actions.'' The Senate, including my colleague, unanimously supported then- Majority Leader Reid's resolution supporting Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas and never said at that time that the resolution would embolden Hamas. Yet, today, something has changed for my colleague. You are seeing a growing and dangerous anti-Israel agenda permeate the Halls of Congress. Israel is a country surrounded by nations and terrorist groups that want it wiped off the face of the Earth. And as rockets rain down in Israel, my colleague refuses to stand with our ally. I will say it again. Today is a sad day for the U.S. Senate and one we will not forget. I will never accept a weakened position on Israel-- never. I will never stop fighting to support Israel and ensure the Biden administration upholds the longstanding and special partnership between the United States and Israel. I yield the floor Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 225

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, the COVID-19 pandemic was devastating to our Nation and Congress came together in a bipartisan fashion to provide unprecedented relief for 2020. Unfortunately, Democrats ditched that bipartisan approach in their so-called COVID bill, the American Rescue Plan, which was full of wasteful spending which has nothing to do with the crisis. It didn't receive a single Republican vote. Only 10 percent of the funds in the American Rescue Plan are related to COVID-19 and spending for vaccines is less than 1 percent. With our Nation nearly $30 trillion in debt and rising inflation, this spending is irresponsible and reckless. One of the more ridiculous examples of waste was $350 billion included for State and local bailouts, even though our States are doing just fine. In fact, California just announced it will have a $75 billion surplus. Reckless spending has consequences, and we need to be fiscally responsible in every use of taxpayer dollars. This amendment would simply pay for the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act and all provisions of this bill by using unobligated, unnecessary funding for the American Rescue Plan. I ask for your support.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, reserving the right to object, my colleague is wrong for trying to boil this down in an attempt to distract from the reality we are seeing here today. The radical left is fully embracing the lie of false equivalence and refuses to plainly state: Israel has the right to defend itself, period. My colleague's resolution offers nothing supporting Israel's rightful efforts to stop this repeated cycle of violence. No one in this body welcomes the loss of innocent life--no one. But we cannot and I will not accept the left's ignorance of the evil and devastating role Iran plays in funding and supporting Hamas, the terrorist organization responsible for taking innocent lives. My colleague's resolution offers nothing to condemn Iran, the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism. My colleague's resolution offers nothing to condemn Hamas. Here is the difference between Israel and Hamas. Hamas uses its rockets to kill innocent Israelis. Israel uses its rockets to defend its people. It should not be difficult for the Senate to simply reaffirm our support of Israel, one of our greatest allies and our most important ally in the Middle East, and condemn the escalating terrorist attacks against Israel and its right to end the murder of its citizens. It wasn't difficult to get that done in 2014, when my colleague and every other Member of the Senate unanimously supported then-Majority Leader Reid's resolution supporting Israel's right to defend itself against Hamas. The same resolution also said: ``Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.'' It says: ``Hamas uses rockets to indiscriminately target civilians in Israel.'' And it says: ``Hamas intentionally uses civilians as human shields.'' And it resolved to ``condemn Hamas's terrorists actions.'' So what does my colleague believe has changed about the facts on the ground since then? Here is what has changed. The Democrats now have a powerful and growing anti-Israel caucus in their party who defend terrorism against Israel. The Democratic Party has abandoned American values, and now they are abandoning American allies. And, as I said earlier, we can't allow this dangerous anti-Israel agenda to permeate the Halls of Congress. We can't allow a blatant blind eye to be turned to Israel. Israel is a country surrounded by nations and terrorist groups that want it wiped off the face of Earth. I will never accept a weakened position on Israel--never. And I am not going to stop fighting to support Israel and ensure the Biden administration upholds a longstanding and special partnership between the United States and Israel. Therefore, I object.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today in recognition of National Lupus Awareness Month. This is an important time to pause to reflect on what more we can do to solve the cruel mystery of this disease, while providing caring support to those across our Nation who suffer from its impact. Lupus affects around 1.5 million Americans and 100,000 Floridians, including men, women, and children of all ages. It is a chronic autoimmune disease that is difficult to diagnose, and there is no known cause or cure. I want to recognize the hard-working Americans fighting to understand, educate, and find a cure for this disease, and I want to thank the Florida Chapter of the Lupus Foundation of America for their work to raise awareness, support research, and conduct education programs so every Floridian affected by lupus can have an improved quality of life. I also want to thank the volunteers that generously give their time throughout the year to educate and help patients with lupus, including two outstanding Floridians: Anne Bright and Denise Brown. Anne Bright, who suffers from lupus herself, is one of the founding members of the Florida chapter and has dedicated her life to growing the organization and providing help to so many Floridians struggling with lupus. Anne leads the Butterfly Bash committee, which has raised over half a million dollars over the past decade. As a spirited lupus advocate, she touches countless lives, providing hope, resources, and comfort to those affected by lupus. Denise Brown lost her 18-year-old daughter, Brooke, to lupus in 2017. Brooke had been diagnosed with lupus at the age of 12, and her courageous battle with lupus inspired her dreams to become a nurse. Unfortunately, Brooke never got to pursue those dreams. Denise honors Brooke's memory every day by dedicating her life to raising awareness of lupus and its effect on people of all ages, especially children, and helping those going through the unimaginable stress and hardship of this disease. This Lupus Awareness Month, I thank the brave and hard-working volunteers like Anne and Denise and the wonderful organizations in Florida and across the Nation working hard to improve the quality for those struggling with lupus and getting us closer to a cure.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I rise today to commemorate the life and legacy of Dr. Malcolm Dorman. I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Dorman for nearly four decades. He was a dear friend, whose kindness and compassion was felt by all around him. He loved his family and friends deeply and would do anything for them. He was a man of great faith, served his synagogue faithfully, and steadfastly supported many Jewish causes. In 1995 he was awarded the Man of the Year Award by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and in 2006, he was awarded the Distinguished Guardian of Israel Award by Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of the State of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Dr. Dorman was a spectacular surgeon who saved many lives and exuded compassion and love for his patients. For 25 years, he served as the chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery and cochairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Miami Heart Institute. He then moved to the JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, FL, where he was the medical director of cardiac surgery and established and directed the Valvular Heart Institute. Along with the countless patients he helped heal, Dr. Dorman invested in the growth of students as a member of the Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees and FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine Advisory Board. He selflessly gave his time and effort to serve others and help them grow into all that they could be. Ann and I are praying for all of Dr. Dorman's family, friends, and loved ones. He exemplified what it means to love and to serve and was a dependable friend I looked up to. We mourn this very heavy loss, but we are blessed to have known Dr. Dorman and to call him a friend.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. The content and conclusions of these meetings and working groups have not been disclosed or been made available to the public. While privately worrying about the same issue I have been sounding the alarm on for months, the Biden administration continues to mislead the American public and ignore the threat of inflation. Over the last 2 months, I have asked the National Economic Council about its plans to fight inflation and protect American families. I have written a Federal Reserve member, asked him what can be done to help families who are seeing skyrocketing gas prices and increasing mortgage rates. I have called on President Biden and Federal Reserve Chair Powell to lay out their clear plan to address inflation and rising prices that threaten American families. I have yet to get a straightforward or acceptable response. I have yet to hear them acknowledge this very real threat or propose a solution to protect families. So today Senator Braun and I are making a simple request that the Biden administration share with the Senate all of its notes, memos, and reports regarding their discussions and plans to mitigate and prevent growing inflation. Inflation is a very real threat to the well-being of already struggling families, and the last thing American families need is to be misled by this administration. Right now, Democrats in Washington are living in a fantasyland where debt doesn't matter, spending has no consequences, inflation is impossible. But the reality is that inflation does have consequences, and it is the duty of everyone here, especially the President of the United States, to be open and transparent with the American people about what is happening with inflation. There is no reason the Biden administration should be hiding this information. Americans deserve to know the consequences of massive government spending, and they deserve leadership that will show some fiscal responsibility when it comes to their taxpayer dollars. I look forward to all my colleagues supporting this effort to increase transparency. Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 185, submitted earlier today. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, Americans are worried about inflation. New polling shows that 87 percent of Americans are concerned about the rising costs of household items, like diapers and gas and groceries. That is up from 77 percent just last month. They have good reason to feel that way. Right now, reports show that a third of American households making less than $50,000 in annual income are buying less because of increasing prices, and more than one-quarter of all households report that rising prices on goods are causing them to purchase less. Just this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, over the last 12 months, food prices have gone up, and gas prices have risen 23 percent. That means, since Biden was elected, gas prices have increased about 70 cents per gallon across the Nation. Year over year, consumer prices increased 2.6 percent in March. That is up from an annual 1.7 percent increase in February. This is all in addition to statements from some of America's largest corporations, like Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark, which recently announced that they are increasing prices on a number of their products. That includes essential household goods, like toilet paper and diapers. The evidence of inflation is right in front of us. Just look at these numbers that show the percentage change in average unit prices versus last year: groceries up 2.6 percent; household goods up 5.2 percent; baby care up 7 percent; general merchandise up 7.1 percent. Wages never go up this fast. So who does it hurt? It hurts the poorest and those on fixed incomes. Businesses are also expecting price increases to continue. According to data from FactSet, 47 S&P companies have mentioned inflation on their earnings calls for Q1 2021. That is more than during any other quarter in the last 10 years. On its most recent earnings call, Procter & Gamble's chief financial officer, Andre Schulten, said: The commodity cost challenges we face this year will, obviously, be larger next fiscal year. Who gets hurt the most when inflation rises? Not the rich. It is working families, especially those on low and fixed incomes. I grew up poor and watched my parents struggle to put food on the table. I know just how much a slight rise in prices can hurt a family, because I saw it while I was growing up, and that is what is happening right now across our Nation. We know that those in the Biden administration are worried about this. They know that rising costs caused by their massive spending are bad for Americans, but they won't say it. While they are reportedly worrying in private about the effects of their spending plans, they have had a different message in public. On April 13, the New York Times reported that officials and aides at the White House and the Department of the Treasury have been holding private meetings for months to discuss inflation and have conducted indepth internal analyses for senior officials and President Biden. The article goes on to read: Mr. Biden's aides are sufficiently worried about the risk of that spending fueling inflation that they shaped his infrastructure proposal, which has yet to be taken up by Congress, to funnel out $2.3 trillion over eight years, which is slower than traditional stimulus. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this New York Times article, dated April 13, 2021

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, the decision by my colleague to block this resolution is clearly disappointing. Let's remember what this was about. This was about transparency. They just blocked the Senate from requesting basic information that is going to help all Americans. And just look at these numbers again. Just in the last 4 months, grocery prices are up 2.6 percent; household care is up 5.2 percent; baby care is up 7 percent; general merchandise up 7.1 percent. We are clearly seeing inflation. Senate Democrats just objected to transparency. That means they are against getting the facts, against ensuring accountability, and against getting the American people the information they need to make smart decisions as prices keep rising. Eighty-seven percent of Americans are worried about the rising costs of goods. Apparently, so is the White House. So don't the American people deserve the same information about what is happening with the economy? Floridians deserve to know the truth about inflation and so do the people of Ohio. Why does my colleague want to keep them in the dark? This administration is telling the American people one thing but saying something else behind closed doors. That is wrong. The American people deserve the truth. Inflation is real. It is happening. It is hurting American families. It is time President Biden does something about it, and I am extremely disappointed my colleague is actually today helping the President mislead the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the nomination of Colin Kahl to serve as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Our Nation needs leaders at the Department of Defense who are not driven by a partisan agenda and are committed to making sure our troops have all the resources and support they need to succeed. We need leaders who understand that our adversaries are regimes like those in Communist China and Iran and that our friends are countries like Israel and its partners in the Middle East. That is not Dr. Kahl. I have grave concerns about Dr. Kahl's lack of support for one of our great allies, Israel, weakness toward Communist China and desire to rejoin the disastrous Iran Deal. The Undersecretary of Defense for Policy serves as the Defense Secretary's top national security adviser, a position that requires sound judgement and an even temperament. Dr. Kahl's history of partisan rhetoric makes him unfit for this position. For all these reasons, I oppose Mr. Kahl's nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, I do want to compliment my colleague. He comes from a beautiful State. While I would like all of the tourists to come to Florida, Alaska is a great State to take a vacation. I have had the opportunity to do that a few times, and it is a beautiful State. I thank my colleagues Senator Sullivan and Senator Rubio for working on this bill that is so important to all of our States but, for sure, Florida and Alaska. Many States rely on the success of our ports, our cruise lines, and our maritime industries. Throughout my time as the Governor of Florida, we proudly welcomed more than 100 million visitors every year and shattered annual tourism records each year. Every visitor to our State supports small businesses, fuels job growth, and boosts tax revenue, helping to create State and local investments in the environment, transportation, public safety, and education. And it is not just Florida and Alaska. Tourism, including our all- important cruise industry, has huge impacts for States across our Nation and the thousands of jobs that rely on its success. On the chart you can look at this. So, first off, the cruise industry shutdown is just killing a lot of jobs--jobs all across this country. Before the COVID-19, we had 450,000 jobs--450,000 American jobs--and $55 billion in GDP every year in our economy. Unfortunately, due to the suspension of cruises caused by the CDC inaction, more than 300,000 American jobs have been lost. So this is all across our country. As we continue to work to recover from the coronavirus and get our economy back on track, I remain committed to doing everything I can to support our tourism industry in Florida, Alaska, and all across the country in a safe manner. Unfortunately, while many sectors of the economy have been safely operating for months under CDC guidelines, Floridians and those across the Nation who rely on the cruise industry for work, continue to wait, wait, wait, wait for updated guidance from the CDC. For months, I have heard from small business owners who have shared just all their stories about how important tourism is to them and, specifically, that the cruise industry is to their livelihood and how much the CDC's decision here has hurt them. Let me give you an example. Omar Otero, founder and owner of VOK Protective Services, says: As a business owner, I've been dependent on the cruise industry for my livelihood for 20 years, and this pause has been devastating. What many people don't see behind the scenes is that cruising has a significant impact on many small businesses, and employs hundreds of thousands of people in America. Resuming cruising is critical to my business and would allow me to work again and support my family. Jeannette Pineiro, president of Cruiseport Destinations, says: The uncertainty we've been living with the last year is probably the most devastating mentally for a business owner. I have former employees that are still unemployed. They want to get back to work, and there has been nothing I could do. The cruise industry needs to be treated on par with other sectors of the travel industry, and this legislation would provide a plan to safely resume cruise operations. The CDC's refusal to properly address this shutdown is wrong. It is time to get the cruise lines open, and it is going to create jobs all across the country. That is why I am proud to join my colleagues Senator Sullivan and Senator Rubio in introducing the CRUISE Act, which says we are not waiting on the CDC any longer. In March, President Biden announced the effort to vaccinate all Americans--his plan to vaccinate all Americans by July 4. As of this week, all adults will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines. Our Nation has made enormous progress in fighting COVID-19. Yet the CDC has continued to act like we are still in March 2020. Meanwhile, as my colleague from Alaska said, there is cruising all over the rest of the world. My colleagues and I are simply asking the CDC to provide a timeline of when the cruise industry can begin to reopen, like so many other sectors, and the CRUISE Act ensures they can do that in a safe manner. The CDC is treating the cruise sector unfairly, while other industries are open for business. There is no reason why America's cruise industry and the thousands of jobs that rely on its success should continue to suffer. Cruises can and should resume, and we are going to do everything we can to bring back cruising safely. I yield to my colleague from Alaska.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, well, I am clearly disappointed that my colleague from Washington would object to this commonsense proposal. The cruise industry impacts thousands of jobs, not just in Florida and not just in Alaska but in the State of Washington. Everybody here I know wants to make sure that we can start cruising again in a safe manner. Let's remember what my colleague was talking about. She was talking about what was going on in March and April in 2020. But today, hotels are open, airlines are flying, beaches are open, restaurants are open, tourism sites are open, and amusement parks are open. They are all open, but for whatever reason, the CDC has made the decision to not allow cruising to happen, and they have singled out this industry and cannot tell any of us why they singled this out. All we are asking is for the CDC to provide a timeline of when the cruise industry can begin to reopen. The cruise industry wants to do it safely. It is a lot of American jobs, including--I think it is--23,000 jobs and a billion dollars in economic impact in the State of Washington. So I know everybody says they want to get this done, but the only way this is going to happen is if we make sure that we force the CDC to finally make a decision and allow the cruise industry to get open again in a safe manner.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the 60th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs operation. Today, we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs operation and pay tribute to the brave and courageous members of Brigada de Asalto 2506, Assault Brigade 2506. On April 17, 1961, a group of Cuban patriots landed at the Bay of Pigs to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist dictatorship. We remember the sacrifice made by these brave individuals, and their memory lives on in the fight that continues today. There is no doubt that where we see instability, chaos, and violence in Latin America, we also see the fingerprints of the Castro regime. The Cuban people have suffered decades of oppression under Castro's regime. So many courageous individuals have dedicated their lives to the freedom of Cuba, and their commitment and sacrifice have kept the hope of liberty alive. It is time to show Castro that his era of influence in Latin America is over. The United States must always support those fighting for freedom and democracy, and I will never stop fighting to bring a new day of freedom to Cuba and all of Latin America.

Mr. SCOTT of Florida

Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, the United States is a beacon of democracy in the world, and our Nation was founded on free and fair elections, but if the American people don't have confidence in our elections, we don't have a sustainable democracy. What we saw this past election was confusion and chaos caused by inconsistent standards and last-minute changes to established election laws by State officials and activist judges. Yet it is not just the chaos from this past election that troubles Americans across the country. For more than a decade, growing numbers of Americans have become less confident that their votes were accurately cast and counted. If we want to continue as a thriving democracy, we have to reverse this trend and take action so Americans trust in free and fair elections. There is no other option. That is why I have joined my colleagues in introducing the Save Democracy Act to restore faith in our Federal elections and guarantee that voters decide the outcomes of elections, not the courts, and that is why I am here today to ask my colleagues to join me in passing one specific section of the Save Democracy Act--the Promoting Election Integrity by Proving Voter Identity Act--to require voter ID. It is pretty simple. If you want to vote in person, you will need to bring your current and valid ID. If you want to vote by mail, you will need to provide a copy of your ID. Like I said, it is pretty simple and straightforward. We want 100 percent participation in our elections and zero percent fraud. We want it to be easy to vote and hard to cheat. Voter ID helps us to meet that goal. Of course, the Democrats will do anything to fight against these commonsense reforms. It is absurd. You have to have ID to drive a car, board a plane, open a bank account, and pick up a prescription. Do they object to that? Of course not. These are much needed, commonsense reforms to our election systems. Just look at what is happening in Georgia. Two recent news articles show that President Biden and the Democrats spread lies to pressure companies to boycott Georgia over commonsense voting laws even though the Washington Post gave President Biden four Pinocchios for his lies about the Georgia law. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the two articles I have with me today which outline how much the Democrats have been grossly misleading the public