John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis). Further, if present and voting the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis). The result was announced--yeas 75, nays 20 as follows: [Rollcall Vote No. 393 Leg.]

Mr. THUNE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr) and the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, it is hard to believe that my friend Richard Burr is leaving Congress. He is someone I have known since my days in the House of Representatives, and we have been friends from the very beginning. So it is difficult to imagine serving in the Senate here without him. We came to the Senate in the same year as well. Our wives are very close friends, and we have had many wonderful times with the Burrs. In fact, I have enjoyed hosting Richard in South Dakota on a number of occasions. Richard is an outdoors guy, as I am, and he fits right in in my home State of South Dakota--perhaps except for the fact that he is the only guy not wearing socks. Although I will say, I have found occasions which have required him to get the socks out of his suitcase. During one of our trips to South Dakota to hunt pheasants, we landed in Sioux Falls. We got off the plane and it was 7 degrees and I noticed at the next stop he had socks on. So there are limitations to his practice of not wearing socks. But anyway one of our favorite pastimes, of course, in South Dakota is pheasant hunting, and I have had Richard out there a number of times during pheasant season. He is a great shot, I will say. He has a favorite place to eat. It is Al's Oasis in Chamberlain, SD, which is known for, among many things, homemade pies. I discovered when Kimberly and I visited Richard and Brooke in North Carolina, he is also a great handyman. Apparently, he thinks his guests should be as well, since he put me right to work on a new door that he was installing. We hung a door at his house. I was the grunt labor. He was the architect, the designer, and just said: Hold this and that sort of thing. So that was my job. But I was well paid for my trouble because Richard also, in addition to his assets and his attributes of being a handyman, is also an excellent cook. Many of you probably perhaps here don't know that. But one of the privileges that I have enjoyed in visiting Richard is getting to enjoy his cooking, and he really can make just about anything--breakfast, lunch, dinner. I am not saying he ought to open a restaurant in his retirement, but if he did, I would certainly be the first in line at the opening. Richard has certainly left his mark on Washington. His car, a 1974 Volkswagen Thing, often parked outside the Russell Building with the top down no matter the season and adorned with his colleagues' campaign stickers, I think everybody knows is a fixture here on Capitol Hill. Richard, who as well as being a handyman is a capable mechanic, could often be found working under the Thing's hood to keep it running, which has become a true labor of love, particularly here in the last few years. But I would say that in this Chamber, of course, Richard is best known and really known for being an outstanding legislator. And I have to say thank you as he did to his outstanding staff. I mean there isn't anybody here who works here who doesn't know that the heavy lifting in this place gets done by staff. And so we appreciate your many years of service to him and making him such an effective and accomplished legislator. He mentioned the Capitol staff, the Capitol Police, who are here on a daily basis protecting us, just saying how much we appreciate everything you have done. Richard has always been someone who knows how to get something done. In addition to building a great team and staff around him, he knows how to build coalitions. He knows how to get legislation across the finish line, and that is evident in his record of accomplishment here in the Senate. He talked a little bit about that. Promoting medical research and innovation has been a passion of his; supporting veterans, changing the way student loan interest rates are set to save families money; working to ensure that childcare settings are safe and high quality; establishing ABLE accounts for individuals with disabilities to help better their lives, and the list goes on. Long before COVID, Richard was working to prepare our Nation to respond to the threat of a disaster or a pandemic; and since COVID, he has worked to ensure that our Nation's future pandemic response reflects the lessons that we have learned. Of course, as he mentioned, his longtime work on the Intelligence Committees of both the House and Senate and as chairman here of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the number of hours I know he sat in padded rooms in classified settings making sure that our country was prepared, working with our intelligence community, as he mentioned, to protect Americans from the threats that we face here at home and around the world. Richard has been a strong advocate for his home State of North Carolina, particularly for veterans. He has worked to bring new VA facilities to North Carolina to ensure that veterans and their families who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune receive VA medical care. I think all of us get into this life in the hope that we can one day leave Congress knowing that we have done something to make life better for our fellow Americans. Richard can leave Congress with that assurance. I am going to miss him. It is a privilege and a blessing that you are able to serve with a friend for so long. I will miss our daily interactions. But I know that in Congress or not, our friendship will endure, and I look forward to seeing all that Richard is going to do in his next chapter in life. I want to thank, as he said, Brooke, his sons and daughters-in-law and now grandkids for the many sacrifices that they have made through the years. I think we all know that this doesn't work unless you have got a partner, and Brooke has been a partner for all these 28 years to Richard and a part of everything that he has been able to accomplish here. So I wish him and his family many more happy hours in the years ahead and congratulate him on his retirement and on a farewell speech that I think we all ought to take to heart. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), and the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last Tuesday, President Biden was asked why he wasn't taking the opportunity to visit the border while traveling to Arizona. His reply? ``Because there [is a] more important [thing] going on.'' ``[A] more important [thing] going on.'' Mr. President, no offense to new investment, but if President Biden thinks that visiting a plant to celebrate new investment is more important than the security and the humanitarian crises raging at our southern border, then his priorities are seriously out of order, but, of course, we already knew that. This is hardly the first time the President has made it clear what he thinks of the crisis at our southern border--as just an annoying distraction from what he would rather be doing as President. In fact, he has shown a remarkable ability throughout his Presidency to ignore or minimize crises that he isn't interested in dealing with. ``There [is a] more important [thing] going on.'' I venture to suggest that for overwhelmed border communities struggling with an apparently never-ending influx of illegal immigration, there isn't anything--anything--more important going on, and the President's trivializing of our border crisis is a serious betrayal of the responsibility he owes to these Americans and to all Americans. The situation at our southern border is out of control and has been that way for most of the President's administration. Over this past weekend alone, Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 16,000 individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally. That is an average of 8,000 per day--higher than the daily average in May, which posted the highest number of attempted illegal crossings ever recorded. October saw a staggering 230,678 attempted illegal crossings along our southern border. All told, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered nearly 2.4 million individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally during fiscal year 2022. That is the highest number ever recorded, exceeding the previous record set the year before by roughly 640,000. Of course, these numbers just refer to individuals the Border Patrol actually apprehended. There have also been almost 1 million known ``got-aways'' over the past 2 fiscal years and an untold number of unknown ``got-aways.'' President Biden's comment doesn't just trivialize the scope of this crisis; it also trivializes the human misery that has resulted. At least 853 migrants died crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2022--the highest number ever recorded. It is hard to imagine that that number wouldn't have been smaller if President Biden had gotten serious about addressing this border crisis instead of inviting illegal immigration with his lax border policies. I mentioned overwhelmed border communities. I should also mention the incredible strain the past 2 years have placed on the Border Patrol, which has been forced to divert agents from border enforcement to the overwhelmed humanitarian mission. Then, of course, there is the very real danger represented by unchecked illegal immigration, including the risk of dangerous individuals entering our country undetected and the potential for increased drug trafficking. Illegal drugs are flowing across our southern border and contributing to violent crime not just in border communities but in communities around the Nation. And that is not even to mention our Nation's fentanyl crisis, which is being fed by drugs that are trafficked across--where else?--our southern border. Our current border crisis is an open invitation to increased illegal drug activity, but the President has more important places to be than the southern border even though, I should point out, he has never actually visited the southern border--not once. The closest he got was literally driving by the border on the way to a campaign rally in 2008. For border communities and strained Border Patrol agents, I venture to say that there is nothing more important than getting our Nation's border crisis under control, but I guess we will just have to keep waiting. After all, the President has more important things to do. Inflation Mr. President, in other tone-deaf comments from the Biden administration last week, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said: Fiscal responsibility is very important to us in the Biden administration. We're very well aware that we have to stay within our means economically. I think . . . you see that in everything we've tried to do these past two years. That was from the President's Chief of Staff. Well, when I read that, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry or just be angry on behalf of the millions of Americans who are currently suffering as a result of the Democrats' lack of fiscal responsibility over the past 2 years. We are currently in the midst of the worst inflation crisis in 40 years. My daughters, who are married and have their own children now, weren't even alive the last time inflation was this bad. November's inflation numbers came out this morning, and they just confirmed what we already know: that we are still very much in the midst of this crisis. Currently, inflation is up 13.8 percent since January of 2021, when President Biden took office. Even if our inflation crisis ended tomorrow, the inflation we have already experienced will cost the average household more than $9,000 over the next 12 months--$9,000. Now, for a lot of families, that is the difference between prosperity and just getting by. For many others, it is the difference between just getting by and not being able to get by at all. How did we get here? Well, in substantial part, it is thanks to the President's and Democrats' fiscal irresponsibility. When Democrats took office in January 2021, Congress had just passed a fifth bipartisan COVID bill that met essentially all of the current pressing COVID needs, but the Democrats just wanted to keep spending. So, despite being warned that the size of the package they were contemplating risked overheating our economy, under the guise of COVID relief, the Democrats passed a massive and partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill filled with unnecessary spending and payoffs to the Democrats' interest groups. The economy, not surprisingly, overheated as a result. Inflation began climbing and climbing and climbing again. But what is almost worse and what makes the White House's claim that they care about fiscal responsibility so incredibly ludicrous is what the Democrats and the President did next. Even as it became clear that their massive spending spree had helped set off a serious inflation problem, the Democrats and the President kept pushing for more spending. In fact, their goal, which they were, fortunately, prevented from achieving, was passing another massive spending spree in the neighborhood of $5 trillion. Even after that plan was foiled, the Democrats and the President kept right on pursuing more fiscally irresponsible legislation. In August, the Democrats passed legislation, their so-called Inflation Reduction Act--again filled with hundreds of billions of dollars in Green New Deal spending, partially financed by tax hikes that will raise energy prices and slow job creation. Democrats tried to clothe the bill in an aura of fiscal responsibility by claiming--dubiously, I might add--that it would reduce the deficit by $300 billion. Do you want to know how long that purported deficit reduction lasted once the bill was signed into law? Eight days. Eight days. That is how long it took for President Biden to completely wipe out any deficit reduction of the bill by implementing his massive student loan giveaway--a giveaway that not only wipes out any possible deficit reduction but will also, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, ``meaningfully boost inflation.'' Yet we are supposed to believe that the Biden administration values fiscal responsibility. When it comes to fiscal responsibility, the Biden administration has demonstrated that it could not care less. The Biden administration is interested in implementing the big-government priorities of the far left, no matter how much they cost. And, unfortunately, the American people are the ones paying the price. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Braun), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch) would have voted ``Nay.''

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, we all just had the opportunity to hear from our colleague--somebody who I am really going to miss--with his final remarks here on the Senate--well, I don't think his final remarks but certainly his, I guess you call it, going-away speech. But I just appreciate so much having had the opportunity to work with Senator Portman. I know that, as he pointed out, staff not only here in the Chamber, around the Capitol, his personal staff--all people who have made profound contributions to that incredible record of accomplishments that he just talked about. That doesn't happen. Anybody who works here for very long realizes the incredible contributions that staff make to getting things done around here. And so I express my appreciation, as he did, to all of them for all you did to make Senator Portman's time here so productive. And it is great to see his wife Jane, daughter Sally here as well, who are all part of this partnership and this team that all of us know are so critical to being able to make a difference here in the Senate and the many sometimes sacrifices, contributions that they make on a day-in and day-out basis. But Rob is someone I have gotten to break bread with a lot of times during our years together here in the Senate, and we have become really good friends, and I am going to miss having him here, as I said. Rob has spent a lot of years in public service serving this country-- 12 years in the House of Representatives, where I first got acquainted with him; U.S. Trade Representative; Director of Office of Management and Budget; and, finally, 12 years here in the U.S. Senate. I have served with him on the Senate Finance Committee for nearly 10 years, and his going, I will tell you, is a huge loss. He played an indispensable role in the historic tax reform legislation we passed in 2017, particularly with the transition to a modernized international tax system. Our outdated international tax rules had left America's global businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. And one of our priorities, when it came time to pass tax reform, was ensuring that American businesses could compete on a level playing field with their foreign counterparts. Between his time in Congress and as Director of OMB and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, Rob has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to American economic competitiveness and in the international tax system, and he quickly became the lead on that aspect of tax reform-- and not just on that, but on so many aspects on that very complicated piece of legislation. Our final legislation brought the United States international tax system into the 21st century by replacing our outdated worldwide system with a modernized territorial tax system so that American businesses are not operating at a disadvantage next to their foreign competitors, and we saw an almost immediate positive effect for American businesses, which, of course, means that we saw positive results for American workers. And that is really, in large part, thanks to Rob. It is an important legacy, and it joins Rob's long list of achievements in public service, some of which, he mentioned, from restraining unfunded mandates on States and securing resources for addiction prevention and treatment, to advancing a pro-world trade agenda good for American workers and businesses alike. He has also been a strong voice for American leadership and values on the global stage, especially, as he mentioned, as a cofounder of the Senate Ukraine Caucus. It is sad to see Rob leaving the Senate, but he spent a lifetime helping to build up our country, and I know his contributions won't end here. I am also happy that he will have more time to spend with his family and with his wife Jane. Jane is terrific. Like me, Rob married up, and I know Rob is looking forward to having more time to spend together. I also know Rob is planning to get more involved in the family business, the Golden Lamb Inn and Restaurant in Lebanon, OH, which has played host to at least a dozen U.S. Presidents over the years. And, as I said, while Rob's time in the Senate may be coming to a close, I know that he fully intends to continue doing what he has been doing throughout his career, and that is working to make our country a better and more prosperous place. Rob, congratulations on your years here in the Senate. I hope you get some very well-deserved rest in the coming months, and I, like everyone else here, look forward to seeing your next chapter.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, when it comes to the actions of a party or a Presidential administration, legislation sometimes grabs the lion's share of the attention. But it is equally important to pay attention to what a Presidential administration does with its regulatory power, and the Biden administration has been characterized by a lot of deeply troubling regulations. The so-called Inflation Reduction Act may be Democrats' most prominent Green New Deal effort, but the Biden administration's radical environmental agenda doesn't stop there. The President has also been using regulations to push through Democrats' Green New Deal fantasies, and these ill-considered, overreaching regulations could have serious consequences. Later today, I will be sending a letter to the President about the attempts to use financial and securities regulators, like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, to push through environmental, social, and governance--or what are referred to as ESG--regulations that seek to choke off investment to essential industries like oil and natural gas and American farms and ranches. Notable among these is the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed climate disclosure rule, which would require publicly traded companies to disclose information not only about their own emissions but also about the greenhouse gas emissions of their suppliers and even their customers. It would also require companies to determine the effects of climate-related risks on each line item of their consolidated financial statements. Well, to start off with, this rule is obviously unworkable. Companies have zero control over the emissions of their suppliers and customers and little to no ability to accurately gauge those emissions. But the most serious aspect of this proposed rule is the fact that it represents a clear effort to coerce companies to sever ties with certain industries--notably, of course, the conventional energy industry, but also with other industries like agriculture. It is hardly the only regulatory action of its kind proposed by the Biden administration. The Department of Labor just finalized a rule that would in practice require pension fiduciaries to consider climate change and ESG factors when making investment decisions, irrespective of their pecuniary relevance. The Federal Reserve, which I believe has zero business inserting itself into debates over climate policy, recently established a pilot program to analyze climate-related financial risks for the Nation's largest banks, something that clearly--clearly--exceeds the Fed's statutory authority. Similarly, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Fed have issued draft principles for large banks on ``climate-related financial risk management.'' And the list goes on. Private companies, of course, have the right to consider whatever factors they want when determining what companies they do business with and where they will invest, but the Federal Government should not be making those decisions for them. The President and his cronies and the far-left environmental movement may like the idea of choking off investment to the fossil fuel industry and other industries to hasten the arrival of their fantasy Green New Deal future, but reducing and limiting investment in conventional energy and other essential industries is likely to create a nightmare for American families and American businesses. I am, and have long been, a strong supporter of alternative energy, but the fact of the matter is, we are still a long way from being able to rely exclusively on alternative energy. The technology that would enable us to rely solely on green energy simply doesn't exist yet, and pretending that we can rely exclusively on alternative energy isn't going to change the reality, which is that we still need oil and natural gas and will continue to need them for the foreseeable future. Choking off investment to the conventional energy industry isn't going to bring about the Green New Deal future, but it is going to reduce essential energy supplies, and that, in turn, is going to increase energy prices. It is going to increase energy prices for American families, and it is going to increase energy prices for American businesses. If Democrats succeed in reducing investment in oil and natural gas, we could be looking at a very serious reduction in our supply of conventional energy and correspondingly serious price hikes. There is reason to be concerned that Democrats aren't just interested in choking off investment in oil and natural gas but in agriculture, as well, because of natural livestock emissions and farming inputs like fertilizer. The National Credit Union Administration published a since- rescinded strategic plan that seemed to recommend that credit unions reduce their membership and loan offerings to farming communities. And South Dakota banks and credit unions have repeatedly--repeatedly-- expressed their concerns to my office that the President's far-reaching ESG agenda could ultimately damage their ability to extend capital to their farm and ranch customers. Should investment in agriculture also drop off, we could be looking not only at higher energy prices but at higher food prices as well and possibly actual food supply issues. Between higher energy prices and higher food prices, the kind of financial hardship that Americans have been experiencing during our current inflation crisis could become a fixture for the long term. Democrats like to think of themselves as the party of the little guy, but the truth is, they have become the party of extreme special interests, and the little guy often ends up getting sacrificed as a result. Since President Biden and Democrats took office 2 years ago, ordinary Americans have faced almost nonstop financial challenges thanks to the inflation crisis that Democrats helped to create with their massive American Rescue Plan spending bill. If the President's ESG agenda continues unchecked, that diminished prosperity could last indefinitely. In the letter that I am sending to the President later today, I am urging his administration to consider the real-world effects of rules and regulations on ordinary families and American businesses, and to refrain from regulatory actions that would drive up prices even further. I hope that the President will listen, but if past is prologue, then I am worried that we are looking at 2 more years of extreme Democratic policies and 2 more years of economic suffering for the American people. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).