John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo), and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Crapo) and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, on Sunday, the President appeared on ``60 minutes,'' where he was asked what he was going to do to help alleviate inflation in light of August's continued grim inflation news and the resulting stock market nosedive. The President's response? Well, first of all, let's put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just--just an inch, hardly at all. ``Let's put this in perspective''? That might be something to say if the inflation rate had ticked up from, say, 2 percent--the target inflation rate--to 2.1 percent, but I am pretty sure that that is not the appropriate thing to say when you are talking about the sixth straight month of inflation above 8 percent and the ninth straight month of inflation at or above 7 percent and the 11th straight month of inflation above 6 percent. Even more concerning than August's consumer price index rising 8.3 percent from the same month a year ago was the increase in core inflation--a measure of inflation minus the volatile categories of food and energy. This measure increased to 6.3 percent in August, up from 5.9 percent in both June and July, suggesting that inflation is sinking its roots even deeper into various sectors of our economy--or in the words of a CNBC headline from last week: Inflation isn't just about fuel costs anymore, as price increases broaden across the economy. But, of course, you don't have to take my word for it about the mess that we are in. Here is what one of President Obama's top economic advisers had to say last week after August's inflation numbers came out: Today's CPI report confirms that the US has a serious inflation problem. Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one. ``Let's put this in perspective.'' That is what President Biden had to say? Here is the American people's perspective: Fifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of President Biden's handling of the economy, and 37 percent of voters say that President Biden's policies have hurt them personally, versus just 15 percent of voters who say his policies have helped them. These numbers are no surprise. The President may somehow still believe that he is creating an economy that will ``work for working families,'' but the reality is that, in the Biden economy, working Americans are suffering. Americans' utility bills are soaring; their grocery bills have ballooned; and they are paying $1.30 more per gallon every time they fill up their car than they were when President Biden was elected. Real wages have dropped every single month since Democrats passed their $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spending spree--the bill, I would add, that helped plunged our economy into our current crisis. And 40 percent of Americans report having difficulty paying for their normal household expenses. Americans are dipping into their savings or working side jobs to make ends meet. They are charging more day-to-day expenses on their credit cards. In too many cases, they are having to visit food banks, which are seeing huge lines thanks to continued high inflation. What are Democrats and the President doing about this? Nothing. Of course, last month, Democrats did pass a bill they called the Inflation Reduction Act. The problem? The bill will do nothing to reduce inflation--nothing. Again, you don't have to take my word for it. The nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model said this about the bill's impact on inflation: The impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero. ``[S]tatistically indistinguishable from zero.'' Or you could take the word of the Democrat chairman of the Budget Committee, who admitted right here on the Senate floor that the so- called Inflation Reduction Act would not reduce inflation. But it is not just that Democrats have done nothing to help solve our inflation crisis; they are also on track to make Americans' economic situation significantly worse. In August, President Biden announced a massive student loan giveaway that could cost anywhere from an estimated $500 billion to more than $1 trillion and that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes would ``meaningfully boost inflation.'' This is a statement from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget talking about the President's massive student loan giveaway, and they say it will ``meaningfully boost inflation'' or, as the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently put it, ``Amid 40-year-high inflation and despite the administration constantly touting its `fiscal responsibility,' these changes will recklessly add to the debt and make the Federal Reserve's job in fighting inflation even harder, which will amplify our risk of entering a recession.'' Many of us would argue we are already in a recession--two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Inflation has spent 8 straight months at 40-year highs, and the President has decided that now is a good time to implement a policy that will ``meaningfully boost inflation.'' The economy continues to show signs of weakening, driven in large part by the inflation crisis Democrats helped create. Major companies have recently announced job cuts. Sixty-three percent of small businesses are putting a hold on hiring, and 10 percent of those are cutting jobs. We have had negative economic growth, as I mentioned, for the past two quarters. So naturally--naturally--Democrats decided this was a good time to raise taxes on businesses. Yes, Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act imposes new taxes on businesses to help pay for their Green New Deal spending. I say ``taxes on businesses,'' but, of course, taxes on businesses largely fall on workers and consumers in the form of fewer jobs and opportunities, lower wages, and higher prices--in other words, pretty much the exact opposite of what we need right now, with prices soaring and wages failing to keep pace with inflation. The Inflation Reduction Act also imposes new taxes on energy that will drive up energy prices for both American families and American businesses, imposing further pain on family budgets and likely prolonging our inflation crisis even further. The President may have wanted to build an economy ``from the bottom up and the middle out,'' as he has described it; instead, he and his fellow Democrats have helped create an economy in which working families are struggling to make it from one paycheck to the next. And thanks to the additional tax-and-spend policies the Democrats have recently implemented, working families are likely to be struggling for some time to come. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last Friday, President Biden said the following during his speech: And we have a process in place to manage migrants at the border. We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and humane. ``[S]afe and orderly and humane.'' I have to ask, has the President visited the border lately? Oh, that is right, he hasn't. In fact, other than a driveby by the border when he was a candidate for Vice President--and by ``driveby,'' I mean his motorcade literally drove by--the President has never visited the border. Never. Although I have to say that even reading the news should be enough to make it clear to the President the situation at the border is neither safe, nor orderly, nor humane. In case the President isn't clear about what is happening at the border, let me just read from one news story from last week. This one was from NBC News: A new surge of migrants . . . is overwhelming the Border Patrol and shelters in El Paso, Texas, where nearly 1,000 have been released near bus stations over the past week in hope that they will find their own way to their next destinations in the U.S. Here is the title of another grim news article from last week: ``Texas border town requests refrigerators to store migrant bodies after drownings overwhelm mortuaries.'' ``Texas border town requests refrigerators to store migrant bodies after drownings overwhelm mortuaries.'' Yet another news outlet reported: El Paso County Sheriff sounds alarm over Border Patrol overwhelmed due to migrants. That article goes on to say: Sheriff Richard Wiles stated Thursday, ``This incident raises a law enforcement concern because Border Patrol is so overwhelmed, undocumented immigrants may be released into communities with minimal or no screening.'' Does any of this--any of this--make the situation at the border sound safe or orderly or humane? I don't think so. The Biden administration has been characterized by recordbreaking waves of illegal immigration across our southern border, and I mean ``recordbreaking'' quite literally. In fiscal year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 1.7 million individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally--the highest number of apprehensions ever recorded. As for fiscal year 2022, well, we exceeded last year's recordbreaking number of apprehensions in June. The final count of apprehensions for fiscal year 2022 will be well over 2 million. Those numbers only count migrants who were actually apprehended. CBS News reports that there were ``an estimated 660,000 successful unlawful border entries that did not end in an arrest in fiscal year 2021, according to unpublished [Department of Homeland Security] figures''--660,000. I don't have to tell anyone except maybe congressional Democrats and the White House that these kinds of numbers have resulted in scenes of near chaos at the southern border. Shelters have been overwhelmed. Border facilities have been overwhelmed. The Border Patrol has been overwhelmed. Who can forget the scene of 10,000 migrants camped under the bridge in Del Rio, TX, last September? Just in case anyone is thinking things at the border have substantially calmed down, here is yet another headline from this month, this one from the Dallas Morning News: ``Overcrowded processing center has Border Patrol releasing more migrants on El Paso streets: Migrants are being released from facility filled at 3 times its capacity.'' That is from the Dallas Morning News--``3 times its capacity.'' Over the past few months, the Governors of Texas and Arizona have been sending some illegal immigrants to places like New York City and Washington, DC, and there has been a predictable outcry. But what is so striking about this situation is how upset these places seem to have become when dealing with just a tiny fraction of the situation that border communities and border States have to deal with on a daily basis. Washington, DC, declared a state of emergency. The New York City mayor was outraged. While I am in no way dismissing the challenges of dealing with thousands of illegal immigrants, let me just put this situation in perspective for a minute. Washington, DC, a city of around 700,000 people, has received somewhere around 9,400 migrants over a span of 5 months. New York City, a city of around 8.4 million people, hasn't even received as many as Washington, DC. Compare that with the situation in Eagle Pass, TX, a town with a population of just 29,000, which sees 10,000 migrants a week--a week. For a party that likes to pride itself on compassion, the lack of compassion Democrats and the White House display on this issue is really astounding. Even after catching a tiny glimpse of what it is like to deal with an influx of illegal immigration, Democrats have apparently zero compassion for the border communities in States that have to somehow manage the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants on a daily basis, along with all the logistical and security challenges that involves. There are real security challenges. Certainly, many of the migrants crossing our southern border illegally are simply looking for a better life--even if they are trying to circumvent legal pathways to enter-- but there are also a lot of potentially dangerous individuals coming across our border and passing through border communities: gang members, drug traffickers, human smugglers, and other criminals. In 1 recent week, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector along the southern border arrested 21 gang members, 2 sex offenders, and 3 migrants with prior convictions for various crimes. The White House and Democrats don't just display a lack of compassion for border communities; they also display a real lack of compassion for the individuals attempting to enter our country illegally. There is nothing compassionate about an immigration policy that encourages individuals to come here illegally, with all of the risks that entails. Earlier, I mentioned a border town that was seeking increased morgue facilities because it was dealing with the bodies of so many individuals who had drowned while attempting to enter this country. Deaths at the southern border have surged under the Biden administration, undoubtedly because the administration's lax immigration policies and obvious lack of concern about securing the border have encouraged individuals to attempt to come here illegally. According to Department of Homeland Security numbers that have been reported, 748 migrants have died at our southern border so far this fiscal year. That is a lot of lives lost, Mr. President--a lot of lives. Mr. President, one illegal immigrant speaking to a news outlet this month said of the border: It's open, not closed. The border is open. . . . Everybody believes that the border is open. It's open because we enter, we come in, free. No problem. That is the message that President Biden's immigration policies have conveyed, and the longer that he continues with his de facto open- border policies, the more individuals who are going to be encouraged to attempt the dangerous journey across our southern border. Mr. President, the massive spending package, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the Democrats shoved through the Senate last month contained hundreds of billions for Democrats' Green New Deal priorities, like tax credits for wealthy Americans to buy electric cars and more than $80 billion for environmental justice priorities. There was also, of course, an $80 billion funding infusion for the IRS, a majority of it allocated for more IRS audits and increased enforcement, including the hiring of additional IRS agents. Nowhere in that bill were there any resources for addressing the crisis that has been raging for more than a year now at our southern border. During debate on the bill, Republicans gave Democrats five opportunities to vote for amendments aimed at providing resources to secure the border. Democrats rejected all of them. Apparently, Democrats are willing to spend a lot of time and effort and government money on their Green New Deal and finding new ways to collect taxpayer dollars to help fund their Big Government spending plans, but when it comes to protecting Americans and ensuring a humane situation at our southern border, Democrats just can't be bothered. I heard the Democratic whip down here, just now, talking about that there just needs to be a comprehensive immigration bipartisan approach to this and blaming Republicans for them not being able to do anything to address this issue. And I just have to say that, one, the Democrats control all of government in Washington. They have the House, the Senate, and the White House, and, to my knowledge, they have not attempted to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor of the U.S. Senate. Furthermore, the President reversed all of the policies from the previous administration that affected the border when he took office. Now we have got a situation at our southern border that is just nothing short of appalling, and if the President really had any interest in making the process at the border ``safe, orderly, and humane,'' as he said the other day, he would make securing our southern border a priority, and it is not. Unfortunately, given his record so far, I think it is more likely that we will see the scenes of chaos and human suffering continue. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), and the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), 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 North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Iowa (Ms. Ernst), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Madam President, the August inflation numbers came out this week, and they weren't good. Inflation was even higher than expected. It was very clear that soaring prices are likely to continue for quite a while, but as usual, it doesn't seem to concern the Democrats one bit. The President was asked Tuesday if he was concerned about August's even-worse-than-expected inflation report. His answer? ``No, I'm not.'' It was just one more tone-deaf moment for the President and the Democrats. On Tuesday, the President and the Democrats gathered at the White House to congratulate themselves for having passed their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that will do nothing--nothing--to reduce inflation. That is not just my opinion. That was the conclusion of the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model and of the Democrat chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who referred to the bill as the ``so-called Inflation Reduction Act'' on the Senate floor while admitting it would do nothing to solve our Nation's inflation crisis. But that didn't stop the Democrats from celebrating yesterday. For most of us, of course, it is difficult to understand what there was to celebrate. Leaving aside the issue of the 40-year-high inflation, we already know that the bill will also fall short in another respect--on deficit reduction. The Democrats' claims that the bill would provide meaningful deficit reduction were always somewhat dubious, but even granting the Democrats' rosiest assumptions, President Biden wiped out any deficit reduction when he announced his massive student loan giveaway 8 days--8 days--after the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. So no inflation reduction, no deficit reduction. Oh, one other thing: The Inflation Reduction Act will drive up energy bills for Americans. So the question is: What was there to celebrate? Well, for the Democrats, the Inflation Reduction Act marked a chance to finally push through some of their far-left, Green New Deal fantasies, things like electric vehicle tax credits to help wealthy Americans buy electric cars, more than $60 billion--$60 billion--for ``environmental justice priorities,'' including $1.9 billion for things like identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage, and the list goes on. So I think the Democrats are pretty satisfied with themselves over finally jamming through elements of their Green New Deal agenda. Then, of course, they succeeded in extending increased ObamaCare subsidies that will push Americans off of private healthcare plans and into government-run care. Then--then--there are the tax hikes. The current Democratic leader once said, ``You don't want to take money out of the economy when the economy is shrinking,'' like it has in the previous two quarters. But those days are gone. For the Democrats, raising taxes has become an article of faith. And it goes far beyond raising money to help pay for their Big Government spending. The Democrats believe raising taxes on corporations and well-off Americans is good in and of itself, even if those tax hikes have a negative effect on less well-off Americans and the economy. The tax hikes that the Democrats have included in their so-called Inflation Reduction Act will, indeed, have a negative effect on our economy and on the hard-working Americans who help support it. The Democrats' tax hikes on businesses will result in slower growth, lower wages, and thousands of fewer jobs, and the Democrats' tax hikes on conventional energy will result in higher energy prices for working families. In addition to raising taxes, the other main way the Inflation Reduction Act raises revenue is by increasing IRS audits and placing new burdens on taxpayers. The Democrats' bill contains a whopping $80 billion in increased funding for the IRS. That is an increase in funding which represents six times the annual budget of the IRS today. More than half of those funds, or $46 billion, are earmarked for increased IRS enforcement. Just 4 percent is for improving customer service, which should tell you all you need to know about where the Democrats' real priorities lie. The bill would provide for the hiring of as many as 87,000 new employees, which would more than double the current size of the Agency and make the IRS--make the IRS, if you can believe this--larger than Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard put together, combined. In the lead-up to the passage of the Democrats' bill, the Biden administration put out a statement declaring that the money for IRS enforcement would not go to the increased audits of households making less than $400,000. Because we had reason to doubt that that would be the case, the Republicans put forward an amendment to the bill to prevent the IRS from using its new money to audit those Americans. Every Democrat--every single Democrat--voted against the amendment. So, I guess, the Democrats are happy to oppose more IRS audits of middle- class Americans in theory, but they don't want to cut off the possibility of those audits in practice if they end up needing them to help fund their Green New Deal spending. I don't need to tell anyone that the IRS is notorious for mishandling sensitive taxpayer data. As recently as this month, we learned that the IRS had inadvertently posted confidential taxpayer data of around 120,000 individuals on its website--private taxpayer information that was available to the general public. Then, of course, there was last year's leak, or hack, of confidential taxpayer information that was shared with the left-leaning ProPublica and was used to advance a partisan agenda for which, I might add, neither the IRS nor the Biden administration has provided any accountability. Then there was the infamous targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny under the Obama IRS, and the list goes on. I haven't even discussed the IRS's record of grossly underperforming--some would say nonexistent--customer service. During the 2022 tax season, just 10 percent of taxpayers' calls--10 percent of taxpayers' calls--to the IRS were answered by an IRS employee. What we need to be doing is holding the IRS accountable, not setting tens of thousands of new IRS agents loose on taxpayers' accounts. Earlier this week, I joined my Republican colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee to introduce legislation to prevent the IRS from using its new funding to audit American workers or small business owners earning less than $400,000 per year. I also introduced a bill this week, along with Senator Collins, to improve taxpayer service at the IRS. Our legislation, called the Increase Reliable Services Now Act, would prevent the IRS from hiring new employees for enforcement until customer service at the IRS had reached a more acceptable level. It is unacceptable--unacceptable--that taxpayers have a 1 in 10 chance of receiving assistance when calling the IRS, and the Agency should not be allowed to increase enforcement hires until it has achieved at least a basic level of customer service. So we have 87,000 new employees, which is double--double--the size of the current IRS workforce, and we have $80 billion, which is six times the current annual budget of the IRS, with a specific focus: going after taxpayers in this country to try and get, raise--whatever--more revenue to fund the Democrats' Big Government fantasies. At the same time, 1 in 10 taxpayers is getting his calls returned at the IRS. I will continue to work to increase IRS accountability and prevent hard-working Americans from being squeezed to fund Democrats' Green New Deal spending. Like the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spending spree that came before it--which, I would add, helped plunge our country into our current inflation crisis--the Inflation Reduction Act is a bad deal for the American people, and all of the self-congratulatory White House parties in the world aren't going to change that basic fundamental fact. Americans are experiencing serious economic hardship, and Democrats are doing nothing to help. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, yesterday afternoon, Democrats and the President gathered at the White House to celebrate their so-called Inflation Reduction Act--a bill that will do absolutely nothing to reduce inflation. You don't have to take my word for it. The nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model said this about the bill's impact on inflation: The impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero. ``[S]tatistically indistinguishable from zero.'' Or you could take the word of the Democrat chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who admitted on the Senate floor right here that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act would not reduce inflation. That is right. To describe yesterday's celebration at the White House as tone deaf would be putting it mildly. Democrats had a big party to celebrate a bill that may fulfill some of their Big Government fantasies but will do nothing to fix the inflation crisis facing our country. Meanwhile, Americans were dealing with the release of August inflation numbers, which were even higher than expected and made it very clear that the soaring prices will continue for the foreseeable future. One of President Obama's top economic advisers noted yesterday: Today's CPI report confirms that the US has a serious inflation problem. Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one. That is from one of President Obama's top economic advisers, who made that statement yesterday. Yet Democrats and the President somehow thought yesterday was a good day to celebrate fulfilling some of their Big Government fantasies. I guess Americans struggling to afford their soaring grocery bills can be comforted by the fact that, thanks to Democrats' legislation, their tax dollars will now be going to fund electric vehicle tax credits for wealthy Americans, not to mention road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage--yes, provisions in the bill that they were celebrating yesterday. Meanwhile, the pain of inflation is permeating every aspect of our economy. During the month of August, I spent a lot of time traveling around South Dakota, and naturally I spent a lot of time talking to farmers and ranchers. One thing I heard over and over is the toll that inflation is taking on agriculture. In addition to the normal challenges every American is facing from inflation, like high utility bills and high grocery prices, farmers and ranchers are facing massive increases in the price of essential inputs like fertilizer and fuel. Under the Biden administration, farm production expenses will reach a record high this year. Fertilizer prices are on track to increase by 84 percent--84 percent. That is a staggering increase. Fuel prices are on track to increase 65 percent. And there is no end in sight. Farmers are facing a huge increase in interest costs thanks to a combination of higher interest rates and record-high farm debt. Gross farm income is actually supposed to reach a record level this year, but those gains are expected to be entirely wiped out by inflation--and then some. Thanks to inflation, net farm income is expected to decrease. At a time when gross farm income is expected to reach a record level--14 percent higher year over year than last year--net farm income, inflation adjusted, is actually going to go down because of the impact of inflation. Meanwhile, Democrats were at the White House celebrating a bill that will not only do nothing to address our inflation crisis but will drive up energy bills for American farmers and American families. Agriculture is the lifeblood of my State of South Dakota, and addressing the needs of farmers and ranchers is always one of my top priorities here in the Senate. While it is, unfortunately, going to be difficult to stop Democrats from prolonging our inflation crisis as long as they are in charge in Washington, in the meantime, I am doing everything I can to make life easier for our farmers and ranchers. One of my top priorities right now is preparing for the 2023 farm bill, to make it as effective as possible in addressing the challenges that are facing our farmers and ranchers. I have been holding roundtables in South Dakota to hear directly from producers about their priorities for the farm bill. So far, I have held roundtables covering row crops, conservation, and livestock. I also participated in a farm bill panel at Dakotafest and an Aberdeen Area Chamber of Commerce farm bill discussion at the Brown County Fair. I look forward to continuing to receive input from producers as the time to draft the farm bill approaches. I have also begun introducing legislation--based on my conversations with farmers and ranchers--that I will work to get included in the farm bill. In March, I introduced the Conservation Reserve Program Improvement Act, which would make CRP grazing a more attractive option for farmers and ranchers by providing cost-share payments for all CRP practices for the establishment of grazing infrastructure, including fencing and water distribution. It would also increase the annual payment limit for CRP, which has not changed since 1985, to help account for inflation and the increase in land value. In May, I joined Senator Klobuchar to introduce the Agricultural Innovation Act. Currently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture collects reams of data on conservation practices. The problem is that a lot of this data is often not analyzed and presented in a way that would be useful for farmers and ranchers. The legislation Senator Klobuchar and I introduced would provide for better processing and development of the data that the USDA collects so that farmers and ranchers can evaluate the impact of conservation and other production practices on things like soil health, crop yields, and profitability. Our bill would make it easier for farmers and ranchers to decide what conservation practices to adopt by, among other things, helping producers identify the ways that adopting conservation practices can improve their bottom line. In the next couple of weeks, I will be introducing another piece of legislation for the 2023 farm bill to improve the effectiveness of livestock disaster assistance for producers. Too often, producers find that accessing disaster relief programs at the Department of Agriculture is an arduous and lengthy process. I am working on legislation that would make it easier for farmers and ranchers to access the Livestock Forage Disaster Program and the Emergency Conservation Program so that producers can receive timely assistance in the wake of natural disasters like drought and flooding. The U.S. Drought Monitor plays a critical role in triggering USDA disaster assistance, and I am working to build on my previous efforts to improve weather monitoring and the accuracy of the Drought Monitor. This isn't a farm bill issue per se, but I am also introducing legislation today to prevent Democrats from using funding in the recently passed and misnamed, as I pointed out earlier, Inflation Reduction Act to monitor livestock methane emissions. It is very clear that elements of the radical environmental left would like to see U.S. livestock producers out of business entirely. My legislation is designed to forestall future attempts to curtail beef production by preventing the Biden Environmental Protection Agency from using funds in the Democrats' bill to monitor livestock emissions. Agriculture is a challenging way of life. In addition to backbreaking work in all weather, our Nation's farmers and ranchers have to contend with the uncontrollable whims of the weather, which can wipe out a herd or a crop in a day. And as if the actual challenges of the job weren't enough, over the course of the Biden administration, our Nation's farmers and ranchers have had to deal with soaring inflation. I am incredibly grateful for all the South Dakota farmers and ranchers and all of our Nation's farmers and ranchers who continue to persevere during these difficult circumstances. I will continue to do everything I can in Washington to make their jobs easier and to support them as they do the essential work of feeding our Nation and the world.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy) and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have noted ``nay.''

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to complete my remarks before the start of the vote.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, this morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August inflation numbers, and as every American who has been to a grocery store lately knows, August was yet another month of high inflation. Consumer prices rose 8.3 percent last month from a year earlier, holding to a near-four-decade-high--40-year-high--inflation. And Americans are feeling the strain. Even 1 unexpectedly expensive month can be challenging for many families, but at least it is actually and usually possible to recover from a single tough month. How are American families going to recover from the months upon months upon months of high inflation that have marked the Biden economy? As I said, American families are suffering. Grocery bills are out of control. Between August 2021 and August 2022, grocery bills rose at their highest rate since 1979--1979, I was a senior in high school. Even back-to-school supplies like pencils and glue are more expensive. The National Retail Federation reported in July that households were on track to spend an average of $864 on back-to-school shopping--a 24- percent increase from 2019. Utility bills have soared. Things have gotten so bad that approximately one out of every six households--one out of every six households in America--is behind on its utility bills. Unfortunately, considering the increases in the price of natural gas and electricity since President Biden took office, it is not surprising. Forty percent of households--40 percent--reported having difficulty paying for their normal household expenses. And Gallup reports that 56 percent of Americans--well over half of the U.S. population--are experiencing financial hardship as a result of inflation. The personal savings rate has plunged to its lowest levels since 2009, and many Americans are dipping into their savings to make ends meet. Others have taken up a side job or are pulling out the credit card. Still others have been forced to rely on food banks. As recently as Friday, President Biden was touting his work to ``finally deliver an economy that works for working families.'' I have to say, I don't know what ivory tower the President is living in, but the Biden economy is the very opposite of an economy that works for working families. Working families in the Biden economy are struggling. They are wondering how they can make ends meet. They are cutting back on groceries like meat or milk. They are cutting back on family trips or putting off necessary home repairs. They are, as I said, dipping into their savings or charging necessities on their credit cards or visiting food banks. A recent CBS News article discussing a new Gallup poll noted: The findings indicate that the hottest inflation in 40 years is eating into the bedrock of the American economy--the middle-class--and even eroding the financial stability of more well-heeled households. To repeat: The findings indicate that the hottest inflation in 40 years is eating into the bedrock of the American economy--the middle-class. This is not an economy that is--to paraphrase the President--being built from the bottom up and the middle out. This is not an economy that ``works for working families.'' This is an economy where living standards for working families are declining. The President has actually had the audacity to repeatedly bring up the lines of cars waiting at food banks that occurred during the height of the COVID pandemic, with the implication that things are different now in the Biden economy. Perhaps no one at the White House has read the news recently. Here is a sampling of headlines from the past few weeks: Las Vegas food banks experiencing heightened demand amid inflation spikes. Here is another one: Food banks feeling pinch of high inflation as centers juggle to increased demand for help. Another headline: New Hampshire food pantries struggle with rising costs, growing demand: Organizations say more people than ever need help. Another headline: St. Mary's Food Bank in Phoenix sees record number of families in need amid inflation. Yet another headline: Mountain West food banks are strained by high customer demand and low supply. Unfortunately, I can go on. At this point, everyone knows how we got here. Democrats took office and decided to pass a massive $1.9 trillion spending bill, the so-called American Rescue Plan Act, that flooded the economy with unnecessary government money. And the economy overheated as a result. When President Biden took office, the inflation rate was 1.4 percent, well within the Fed's 2-percent target. Democrats were warned, including by at least one noted economist from their own party, that the legislation ran the risk of overheating the economy. But they were committed to taking advantage of their new majority to push through their Big Government, Big Spending vision. And so they ignored the warnings, and their bill helped trigger the worst inflation crisis in 40 years. But perhaps the worst part is that even after Democrats saw the damage that resulted from their American Rescue Plan spending spree, they continued to try to double down on the spending strategy that helped get us into this mess in the first place. Democrats spent half of last year attempting to force through--if you can believe this--yet another partisan spending spree originally planned to cost up to $5 trillion. Fortunately for Americans, those particular far-left fantasies were foiled. But that hasn't stopped Democrats from continuing to accumulate wasteful government spending. In August, Democrats forged through a partisan tax-and-spending bill that will raise Americans' energy bills, reduce jobs and opportunities for American workers, and waste taxpayer dollars on a host of Green New Deal priorities, like electric vehicle tax credits for wealthy Americans and road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage. They called this tax-and-spending spree the Inflation Reduction Act, even though--as even the Democrat chairman of the Senate Budget Committee admitted--the bill will not reduce inflation. Apparently, the title's only function is to make the bill sound more acceptable to Americans who are sick and tired of dealing with soaring prices and economic pain. Then, a mere 8 days--8 days--after signing the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the President once again added to Democrats' record of economic malfeasance with a massive student loan giveaway that could cost more than $1 trillion and that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes will ``meaningfully boost inflation.'' That from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. I am not sure whether the Democrats are incapable of learning their lesson or whether they consider soaring prices to be a trivial issue next to implementing their Green New Deal agenda or whether they think inflation is an acceptable price to pay for Big Government. But, whatever it is, Democrats are apparently going to continue to ignore the economic pain that Americans are experiencing in favor of implementing their far-left, Big Government, and big-spending agenda. And it appears that the American people are going to have to continue to suffer as a result. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have noted ``nay.''

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 Indiana (Mr. Braun), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young) would have voted ``nay''.

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 Kentucky (Mr. Paul), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Young). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Braun) would have noted ``nay''.

Mr. THUNE

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