John Thune

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 Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

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, we are currently in the midst of the worst border crisis in our Nation's history. It is no exaggeration to say that the situation at our southern border is out of control. In December, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 178,000 individuals attempting to cross our southern border illegally--178,000 in 1 month--which is more than double the number of individuals apprehended by the Border Patrol the previous December. This is no isolated incident. Almost from the day the President took office, our Nation has been experiencing an unprecedented border surge. In fiscal year 2021, the Border Patrol encountered more than 1.7 million individuals attempting to cross our southern border--the highest number ever recorded. The situation at our southern border is a security, enforcement, and humanitarian nightmare. Our Border Patrol officers have done heroic work this past year, but they are stretched incredibly thin and are having to spend too much time caring for migrants and not enough time patrolling the border. This heightens the chance that dangerous individuals--from terrorists to drug smugglers, to human traffickers-- will slip across the border into the country unnoticed. Drug trafficking across our southern border is a major problem and a problem that affects our entire country. There is a massive increase of fentanyl being smuggled across the border in States around the country, with total seizures up 134 percent and as high as 1,000 percent in South Texas. Alarmingly, fentanyl overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. I have talked with local law enforcement officials in South Dakota who report that they regularly seize drugs that they can trace back to cartels trafficking them across our southern border. In other words, it is not just border States that are affected by security problems at our borders. Every State in our Union is threatened by lax border security. Addressing the situation at our southern border should be one of this administration's top priorities, but the President has been almost completely AWOL on this issue, as has his supposed border czar, the Vice President. He seems to be hoping that if he ignores this crisis long enough, it will go away. But it hasn't gone away. In fact, it shows no signs of stopping. It is hard to overemphasize the depth of the President's dereliction of duty on this issue. After all, it is the President's job to deal with national security and border enforcement. Yet the President continues to do essentially nothing to address the situation at our southern border. He can't even be bothered to visit the border. In fact, there is reason to believe that the President has never, never visited the border--not as President, not as Vice President, and not even as a Senator--beyond driving by it once on the way to a campaign rally in 2008. Of course, this situation isn't just a matter of the President being derelict in his enforcement duties. The President is partly, if not largely, responsible for the existence of this situation in the first place. Immediately upon taking office, the President took steps that weakened our Nation's border security. On his very first day in office, the President rescinded the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border. He halted construction of the border wall, and he revoked a Trump administration order that called for the government to faithfully execute our immigration laws. That was all on his first day, and that wasn't all. The President's Department of Homeland Security also issued guidelines that same day pausing deportations except under certain conditions. The effect of all this was to declare to the world that the U.S. borders were effectively open, and the administration hasn't made much of an effort to correct that impression. The President has significantly limited the ability of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to enforce immigration laws. Deportations dropped precipitously during fiscal year 2021, as did arrests in the interior of the country. And, of course, having a President who seems untroubled by the massive number of migrants attempting to cross our borders illegally hardly sends a discouraging message to those contemplating making the crossing themselves. There is simply nothing good to say about President Biden's record on the border so far. His policies are not compassionate. There is nothing compassionate about policies that invite illegal immigration and encourage individuals to undertake the dangerous journey to our southern border. He has betrayed the duty he owes to the American people who should be able to count on their President to care about security concerns, including border security. We just marked the anniversary of the President's first year in the White House, a year marked by disaster at our southern border. The President has a chance to change that record, to leave behind something other than border chaos to mark his time in office. But until we see real action from this administration, I am not going to get my hopes up. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

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. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito) and the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham).

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, the AP headline from last Thursday said it all: ``U.S. inflation highest in 40 years, with no letup in sight''-- with no letup in sight. That is life in the Democrats' America. In January, U.S. inflation hit 7\1/2\ percent--the highest inflation since February of 1982. Inflation has now been above 5 percent for the last 8 months. There are people raising families today who have never experienced this kind of inflation in their entire lifetimes. American families are hurting--hurting badly. The average American household spent an estimated $3,500 more last year as a result of inflation--$3,500. That is a lot of money for an ordinary family--a lot. Everywhere they turn, families are facing higher prices. Whether it is ground beef for the chili, bunk beds for the kids' room, or a new car to accommodate a new addition to the family, higher prices are the order of the day. The price of chicken is up 10 percent. Pork is up 14 percent. Beef roasts are up 19 percent. Eggs are up 13 percent. Citrus fruits are up 10 percent. Whole milk is up 8 percent. The list goes on. Furniture and bedding were up 17 percent. Major appliances are up almost 10 percent. Tires are up 14 percent. Used cars and trucks are up 40 percent. And then there are energy prices. Fuel oil is up 46 percent. Gas prices are up 40 percent. Natural gas is up nearly 24 percent--and on and on and on. Predictably, inflation is having its biggest impact on those least able to afford it. A recent Penn Wharton Budget Model study found that lower-income houses, on average, faced an even greater spending increase in 2021 when compared to higher-income households, as a result of inflation. It is no wonder 69 percent of Americans disapprove of the President's handling of inflation. Democrats have talked about wage growth. Here is the story on wages. Despite wage growth, Americans received a de facto pay cut in 2021, thanks to inflation. Between January 2021 and January 2022, real average hourly earnings declined by 1.7 percent--a pay cut. How did we get here? Obviously, the reopening of economies and supply chain issues have created inflationary pressures for the United States and countries around the world. But a big part of the reason things are so bad in the United States today is because Democrats decided to pass a massive so-called COVID relief bill last March that far exceeded anything the economy needed. That is right. When Democrats took office last January, inflation was 1.4 percent, well within the Fed's targeted inflation rate of 2 percent. It might have stayed there had Democrats not decided that they needed to pass a massive and partisan $1.9-trillion spending spree under the guise of COVID relief mere weeks after Congress had already passed a major COVID bill--one of five COVID bills, I might add--that passed in 2020, all bipartisan. The definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods and services. That is exactly the situation Democrats helped create with their so-called American Rescue Plan. They sent too many dollars into the economy, and the economy overheated as a result. You don't have to take my word for it. Let me just quote a recent New York Times article: ``The United States has had much more inflation than almost any other advanced economy in the world,'' said Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University and former Obama administration economic adviser, who used comparable methodologies to look across areas and concluded that U.S. price increases have been consistently faster. The difference, he said-- This is Jason Furman, former Obama administration economic adviser. The difference, he said, comes because ``the United States' stimulus is in a category of its own.'' Despite all of this, despite the fact that it was Democrats' massive March spending spree that helped plunge our economy into this inflation crisis--there are still Democrats out there who want to double down-- double down--on the strategy that helped get us into this mess in the first place and pass yet another massive spending spree that would undoubtedly make this inflation disaster even worse. ``U.S. inflation highest in 40 years with no letup in sight.'' ``No letup in sight.'' That was the headline. That is where Democrat policies have gotten us. I was actually pleased to hear this morning the Democratic leader come down here and talk about inflation. It seems to be at least--maybe because of polling or whatever--starting to be realized by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that this is an issue that is having a massive and very adverse impact on the pocketbooks of the American people, particularly low-income Americans, because, you see, inflation is a tax that hits every American, but it affects and impacts lower-income and middle-income Americans the most. The Democratic leader said that Republicans should quit complaining about inflation and start doing something about it. Well, we obviously don't have the majority. The Democrat's solution to this, as I pointed out, is another $5-trillion spending bill. Oh, yeah, that will solve the problem. Let's flood the zone with another $5 trillion on top of the $2 trillion already out there, have even more dollars chasing fewer goods, driving inflation even higher. One thing we can do, what Republicans have advocated, is let's end wasteful spending. Let's don't do crazy stuff. Let's don't massively expand the size of government and flood the economy with more dollars at a time when inflation is already raging. That is a really simple solution. Another solution is not to raise taxes, which is, again, something Democrats have proposed: raising taxes by $1.5 to $2 trillion to partially--and I say partially because the cost of $5 trillion doesn't get compensated for by $1.5-trillion tax increase but tax increases, nonetheless; all of which, of course, get passed on to consumers, raising inflationary pressures even more. They want to raise taxes massively and grow the government and spend money and add about $3 trillion to the debt, which is already $30 trillion. Those are the solutions of our colleagues on the other side. I would say, end--stop in its tracks cold--the wasteful spending. Two, don't raise taxes. Provide some certainty. Maybe even make permanent a lot of the tax relief that was put in place in the 2017 tax law. Three--how about this? How about this idea? How about we become energy independent in America, which is where we were? We were actually exporting energy in the previous administration for the first time in American history--at least in my lifetime--where we actually had energy policies that were producing American energy on a level that was keeping energy costs low for Americans and enabling us to actually export energy to other places around the world. That came to an abrupt end when President Biden came to office. Democrats got control of both Houses of Congress, and what happened? First thing, day one--day one in office, first day, first thing he did--President Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have allowed us to get energy fuel oil from where? Our friend, our neighbor, Canada, the Canadians, and move it through a pipeline to places across the United States, helping fill the demand with additional supply that Americans need to power their everyday lives-- first thing in office, first day in office. It hasn't stopped there. The administration decided that energy, evidently, is evil, at least if it comes from the ground, and decided to cancel a bunch of projects. There are all kinds of areas now that are off-limits to energy exploration, energy production in this country. There are lots of regulations and permitting things that are slowing down energy projects, making it more difficult, more expensive to produce American energy, leading us, leading Americans, to a place we didn't want to be, a place where we were a few years ago; but we are going hat in hand to Saudi Arabia, to OPEC countries, saying: Please, please produce more energy. We need more energy in this country. What has happened is predictable, and what has happened is this: The demand for energy in this country is great. We are coming out of a pandemic. People are going back to work. They need, during the winter months, to heat their homes. They need fuel to get where they need to go--transportation--to work, to travel. So the demand for energy is up, the supply is going down; so what is happening? Boom. Simple. It is really pretty simple. It is economics. The price is going up. So the price of oil in this country is now pushing $100 a barrel. Gasoline prices, as I mentioned, are up 40 percent--40 percent--over a year ago. It is simple math. It is simple economics. And there are some Democratic Senators now who are suggesting: Let's just waive the gas tax temporarily-- the gas tax which pays for all the infrastructure that we travel on in this country and which would leave a huge hole, obviously, in the highway trust fund, which is critically important to every State in the Union that depends upon the Federal Government and the highway trust fund and the fuel tax--to fund the infrastructure that enables our economy to move and keeps us competitive in the global marketplace. That is their solution. Now, it is short-term--short-term, obviously to benefit--to try to gain some political advantage at a time when people, all of a sudden now on the other side, are starting to worry. Efforts are being led by four Democrats who are up for reelection this year. No surprise there because they have understood now what we know, and that is the American people are fed up and frustrated--fed up and frustrated with policies that are driving up the cost of everything that they have to buy, from the groceries in the store, to the rent that they pay, to the gas they put in their automobiles. Everything is going up. Energy factors into almost everything we do. A pound of hamburger that you buy at the grocery store probably had to get there from somewhere, unless you live in the middle of the country where some of us do. But if you live on one of the coasts, you probably had to have transportation to get it to the destination, so it is factored in--it is baked in the cost of everything. When fuel prices go up, natural gas prices go up, when the cost of energy generally goes up, everything else goes up with it. It is economics. The solution isn't a short-term political ruse to try and provide political cover to people who are running for reelection. It is to put policies in place that encourage American energy independence, that invest in American energy. That can be done in ways now with technologies we have that are environmentally friendly. But we have to be energy independent. We can't depend upon other countries around the world that are unreliable to fuel and fund and run our economy. That investment should be here in the United States of America. And if we solve more of that, we would see less inflation, lower fuel prices. If we end the crazy spending ideas and tax ideas coming out of the other side, we could restore some sanity to this country when it comes to these out-of-control prices, which is a tax, literally, on every American and hits particularly hard those who are struggling to make ends meet. I yield the floor.

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 West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) and the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15-minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, the average American household spent an estimated $3,500 more in expenses last year as a result of inflation-- $3,500. Now, that may not sound like much to a wealthy Democrat politician, but for most American families, that is a lot of money. For a lot of families, $3,500 is the difference between putting something in savings or living paycheck to paycheck. An additional $3,500 in expenses can mean having to forgo essential home repairs or needed car work. It can mean putting off braces for a child or forgoing needed medical care. Now, the White House Chief of Staff may have the budget to regard inflation as a high-class problem, which is how she referred to it, described it, but for ordinary Americans, inflation is a very real problem--a problem that is eating up their wage increases and lowering their standard of living. We are in the midst of an inflation crisis, a supply chain crisis, and as if those weren't enough, a border crisis. Huge numbers of illegal immigrants are pouring across our southern border and have been pouring across our southern border for months, creating a security, enforcement, and humanitarian nightmare. So there is a lot for our country's leadership in Washington to be focused on right now. What is the majority party doing about these crises? Well, not much. In fact, most of the time, you can be forgiven for thinking that neither the President nor Democrat leaders even realize there is an inflation crisis or a supply chain crisis or a border crisis. The President, for one, seems to be hoping that if he ignores these crises for long enough, they will just go away. So what are the President and congressional Democrats doing with their time if they are not addressing our border crisis or inflation crisis? Well, for one thing, they are attempting to double down on the strategy that helped get us into this mess in the first place. That is right. The inflation crisis Democrats would like to ignore is actually something they helped create by flooding the economy with excessive government spending in their so-called American Rescue Plan last March. For months, they have tried to double down on that bill with another massive spending spree that would flood the economy with more government money and undoubtedly make the inflation crisis worse. The President has attempted to justify this massive spending legislation by claiming that it will help inflation. Right. So the first massive spending spree helps push us into an inflation crisis, but a second massive spending spree will fix it? I am pretty sure that the definition of ``insanity'' is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But massive inflation concerns haven't stopped Democrats. After all, why deal with a boring inflation crisis when you could be thinking up new ways to expand the Federal Government and new ways of taxing Americans to pay for it? Of course, Democrats' Build Back Better plan isn't all tax hikes. Democrats did manage to include a tax break in their tax-and-spending proposal--a tax break for blue State millionaires. If they succeed in passing it, I am sure wealthy Democrat donors will be grateful. While an inflation crisis has raged, Democrats have pushed for new ways to spend taxpayer dollars and expand the reach of the Federal Government into Americans' lives: a huge expansion of government's involvement in childcare that would disadvantage the religious providers so many Americans choose for their children; a massive increase in the size of the IRS; a proposal to allow the IRS to examine the details of Americans' banking transactions; energy policies that would drive up the cost of electricity and gasoline for American families; billions for priorities like tree equity and environmental justice programs at well-funded colleges and universities. The list goes on. But it would be unfair for me to suggest that Democrats have expended all their energy on tax-and-spending sprees. The administration has also found time to implement provisions of Democrats' original spending spree, the American Rescue Plan, including, apparently, until they got caught, free government crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia. Democrats spent a lot of time pushing election legislation that they hope will give them an advantage come November. On the COVID front, the administration struggled with testing, but it has found time for vaccine and mask mandates, some of which I believe have far exceeded the administration's authority. Fortunately, the courts have stepped in to check some of the administration's excesses, like the administration's attempt to impose a vaccine mandate on large private-sector employers or the administration's decision to impose a mask mandate for 2-year-olds--yes, for 2-year-olds. Your Democratic government at work, ladies and gentlemen. In November, the administration issued a mask mandate for Head Start programs requiring all children 2 years of age and up to be masked inside and outside--out on the playground. Now, is there scientific evidence to support this? Not really. The World Health Organization, in fact, recommends against masking for children aged 5 and under, but that hasn't stopped the administration. Democrats seem determined that nothing, including science, will pry their masks from them--or perhaps I should say pry our children's masks from them--since Democratic politicians have not always demonstrated the consistency of mask- wearing that they expect from our children. Democrats wonder why Republicans think we should be careful how much power we give the Federal Government. If Democrats really wanted to help American families, they would be focusing on our inflation and supply chain crises and addressing the security nightmare posed by our border crisis. Instead, they are busy focusing on ways to secure their hold on power and vastly expand the reach of the Federal Government into Americans' lives. I guess we will have to see how that strategy works out for them. I yield the floor.

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), and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds), 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), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).