Ron Wyden

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider the following nominations: Calendar Nos. 376, 386, 387, and 391; that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2278, which is at the desk.

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

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 405, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. WYDEN. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it is my understanding that the House is going to send the Senate a 30-day extension of the Surface Transportation Authorization Act. The Republicans cannot clear it tonight; therefore, we will come back tomorrow and try to pass it then.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 1:30 p.m., Saturday, October 2; that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the Adams-Allen nomination.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 406, which was submitted earlier today.

Mr. WYDEN. I further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule XXII, all postcloture time on executive Calendar Nos. 264 and 159 be considered expired at 4:45 p.m. today; that the vote on confirmation of the Anderson nomination occur at 4:45 p.m. today; and that the vote on confirmation of the Meyer nomination occur at a time to be determined by the majority leader, following consultation with the Republican leader on Thursday, September 30.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, in a few minutes, I will put forward the unanimous consent request that the Senate take up and approve a highly qualified and unquestionably noncontroversial nominee. I am going to take just a few minutes to talk about Jonathan Davidson, nominated to be the next Deputy Under Secretary for Legislative Affairs at the Treasury Department. To do this briefly, there are a few key points to make about this important nomination. To start, Jon isn't just a person off the street being nominated for a new job in the Biden administration. In fact, my guess is, virtually every Member of this body, Democrats and Republicans alike, have worked with Jon at one point or another. From 2011 until he was nominated this past spring, Jon served as chief of staff to another Finance Committee colleague, Senator Bennet. He is known as somebody who is honest, who is hardworking, and who is committed, most importantly, to bringing people together to tackle big challenges, and he has been doing it a long time. Before his work with Senator Bennet, Jon served as chief of staff to Senator Paul Sarbanes. He spent time in the office of Representative John Sarbanes, and he was later chief counsel to our friend and colleague, Senator Mark Warner. You don't have to take it from me that Jon knows his way around the Congress. All of those Members trusted Jon as a right-hand man. The second issue: I can't find any controversy with respect to his nomination. He cleared the Senate's Finance Committee on a 28-to-0 vote. Let me repeat that: 28-to-0 vote. In fact, the Finance Committee reported out several nominees this Congress without any Republican opposition, none at all. Normally, that would be enough to pave the way for prompt and full Senate consideration, but I think we all understand these are not normal times here in the U.S. Senate. It used to be the case, at the end of July, the two sides would come together and look to pass a package of noncontroversial nominees by unanimous consent. My Finance Committee team thought this would be the case this year. Unfortunately, that did not take place. Senate Republicans were just in no mood to clear even the most uncontroversial nominees. This is an extraordinary level of obstruction beyond what you saw when the previous administration was staffing up. For example, let's take the previous two nominees for the same position Jon is up for. Drew Maloney was the first Trump nominee for Legislative Affairs at Treasury. The Finance Committee held a hearing on this nomination on June 7, 2017. The committee voted on his nomination a week later, favorably reported by a vote of 25 to 1. A few weeks after that, the full Senate passed his nomination by unanimous consent, along with several other nominations for roles in the Trump Treasury Department. That is how the process generally unfolds. Two years later, Brian McGuire was nominated to replace Mr. Maloney. His hearing was held July 24, 2019. The Finance Committee approved his nomination a week later. He was confirmed to serve in the Trump administration on September 24. In both cases, these two nominees, colleagues, were confirmed 2 months after their hearings. Jon Davidson has been waiting 4 months since his hearing on May 25-- nearly twice as long as Trump nominees waited for the same job. I think we all understand that it is essential to have qualified individuals heading up offices of Legislative Affairs. They help to make sure administrations follow the laws, just as the Senate passes as intended. They help Members write legislation. They make sure that all Members get responses to their questions with respect to oversight. Setting everything else aside, you would think Senate Republicans would be especially interested now in making sure the Senate can perform that essential oversight. I myself am looking for some straight answers to a number of oversight requests I had posed to the Treasury Department, and having Jon installed in his new role as Treasury would sure help to move that process along. Federal Agencies and the Congress need these legislative point guards in order for Agencies to run as smoothly as possible. This isn't a policy position, nor is Jon Davidson a nominee who raises any major concern from anybody. I have yet to hear even anything resembling a substantive reason from Senate Republicans for opposing a nominee like Jon Davidson, who got a 28-to-nothing vote out of committee to lead this office. There is no reason for delaying any longer. Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the following nomination: Calendar No. 168, Jonathan Davidson, to be Deputy Under Secretary of the Treasury; that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, let's understand exactly what is at issue here. Jonathan Davidson has been nominated to be the Deputy Under Secretary for Legislative Affairs. In that particular role, he would not be directly involved in decisions over sanctions, No. 1. No. 2, when it comes to Nord Stream 2, the Biden administration, to their credit, has recognized the threat from Russia, but also that the pipeline is nearly complete and the Trump administration failed to stop the construction. Everything my colleague from Texas is raising in his concerns about Nord Stream 2 is already happening with another pipeline--Turk Stream 2--and my colleague is aware of this. He has been briefed repeatedly. Now, for those who don't have access to the same kind of information that my colleague has, gas is already being diverted from Ukraine into Europe through Turk Stream 2 because the past administration did nothing about that pipeline either. The Biden administration has actually put a plan forward to mitigate the effects of Nord Stream 2 and has received concrete agreements from the Germans to move Ukraine toward energy independence and address Russian threats. I am just going to close with just another dose of good government. The 9/11 Commission specifically warned about the need to have senior, confirmed individuals in place to avoid a threat to the homeland. And, by the way, we did that during the Trump administration. We have far less people confirmed today than we did in 2001, before 9/11. In my view, this has got to end. For these reasons, I object to the UC.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I am going to be very brief and then make a unanimous consent request. Again, we have a difference of opinion with respect to the facts. That is what the Senate is all about--real debate. In a moment, I am going to ask unanimous consent to put into the Record at this point an article from just a few days ago from the Wall Street Journal that makes the truth about Nord Stream 2 AG very clear. In effect, in the Wall Street Journal article that we are going to put into the Record, the pipeline owner said last week that construction on the pipeline has been completed. There is no reason to object to this very talented individual, John Davidson, to head this important post after he got a 28-to-0 vote in the Senate Finance Committee. I think this article in the Wall Street Journal that I have just asked to be printed in the Record at this point in the debate, so we can make sure the facts are correct, supports our basic proposition on this side of the aisle.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, yesterday, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Jayme White to serve as a Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. Today, the Senate has an opportunity to fill another important position following a debate on President Biden's nomination, Sarah Bianchi, for that role. I am just going to speak briefly and outline a few key reasons why Ms. Bianchi is the right person for this important job and why the Senate should confirm her nomination today. She is a longtime, accomplished member of the Biden economic team. She has worked in a host of settings during her time in public service: the Office of the Vice President, the Domestic Policy Council, the Office of Management and Budget, and as a staff member here in the Senate. She brings valuable experience in the private sector to her nomination as well. She has helped build a strong Biden economic agenda that is focused on making sure that all Americans have the opportunity to get ahead. With respect to the key issue of trade, which is under the jurisdiction of the Senate Finance Committee, that means fighting for American workers and American businesses and cracking down on the trade cheats that will flagrantly try to rip off jobs and economic growth. The variety and the depth of Ms. Bianchi's experience in public service will be a big asset to Ambassador Tai and the team at USTR. When the Finance Committee voted on Ms. Bianchi's nomination, she was approved by a vote of 27 to 1. I often say that it is a struggle to get a bipartisan group of 27 Senators to even agree on buying a 7UP, but supporting the Bianchi nomination is clearly a bipartisan proposition on a vital economic position. In fact, all of President Biden's USTR nominees that have come before the Finance Committee, I am pleased to say, have gotten strong support from both sides of the aisle; for example, a longtime staffer of mine, Jayme White--80 votes yesterday, 80 votes, with strong support, I might add, from business and labor. It is because these individuals are focused on getting beyond some of the old theories about trade--free trade, fair trade, and the like. What really brings Democrats and Republicans together is trade done right. That is what Ms. Bianchi is all about. When she is confirmed, she will take on a challenging portfolio at USTR, which includes Asia, Africa, investment, services, textiles, and industrial competitiveness. The headline in that list, of course, is taking on China. The Finance Committee has worked hard on policies designed to take on China's many trade rip-offs. There is China's use of forced labor, for example, massive unfair subsidies that destroy any semblance of a level playing field, theft of intellectual property, and the Great Firewall and censorship of the internet extending beyond China's borders. These abuses, these rip-offs, directly threaten American jobs, innovations, and values from sea to shining sea. For the U.S. Senate, part of how Members must address these issues is confirming highly qualified and experienced nominees like Sarah Bianchi, whose job will include confronting China directly. The Senate simply can't afford to leave this important Deputy USTR role open any longer. Now the Senate has a top-notch nominee before us. I support Sarah Bianchi fully. Twenty-seven members of the Finance Committee supported her earlier this year during our committee's markup. I urge Senators to vote yes on the Bianchi nomination. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, today, the Senate is debating Professor Lily Batchelder's nomination by President Biden to serve as Assistant Treasury Secretary for Tax Policy. I am going to be brief, but I just want the Senate to know that Ms. Batchelder is an extraordinary individual, and I think she will serve in an extraordinary way when she is confirmed. She is not a stranger to the Senate, particularly for those of us who serve on the Finance Committee. From 2010 until 2014, she was chief tax counsel to then Chairman Max Baucus. Members were working hard, looking at ways to drive a broader economic recovery following a recession. It was also a time when Members were interested in trying to drive a little bit of common sense--and I will talk about this more in a minute--into America's broken Tax Code. Lily excelled in working with Democrats and Republicans to try to find common ground. She understood, from the time she arrived at the Finance Committee, that if you really want to tackle big challenges, if you want to come up with big solutions and make them sustainable, you have to find common ground. After her service on the Finance Committee, Lily became the Deputy Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama. She now serves as the Robert C. Kopple Family Professor of Taxation at the NYU School of Law. And one of the aspects of her scholarship that I particularly admire is her efforts to craft tax policies that bring more American workers into the economic winners circle. She understands the Tax Code inside and out. She knows the Congress. She knows how the Congress and the administration work. And that is the reason why the Finance Committee approved her nomination with such a strong bipartisan margin, a 22-to-6 margin. Members of both sides thought that she would be a great addition to Treasury. The Senate ought to vote the same way. Second, Lily's nomination has waited long enough for consideration on the Senate floor. Secretary Yellen needs a full team in place at Treasury. The country is going to be dealing with the aftereffects of the pandemic economic crash for years to come. There is a long way to go--a long way to go--before full recovery. And when we confirm her, she is going to have a chance to really bring real insight into some big areas, like dealing with the climate crisis, the nationwide lack of affordable housing, and an increasingly unfair Tax Code. And I just want to give you an example of the kind of issues she is going to have to take on. My colleagues here in the Senate have heard me talk about how it is that they are reading news stories about how billionaires all across America end up paying little or no income tax for years on end. Well, there is a little secret to how this happens, and it is because these billionaires are advised, in many instances: Don't take a wage; don't have taxable income; put your money into stocks. That was what we did see during the pandemic, and they ended up with even more financial resources than anyone imagined, while we read the news articles describing how they paid little or no income tax for years on end. As the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, a top priority of mine--and I don't see how anybody can oppose this idea--is to say that when nurses and firefighters pay taxes with every paycheck every year, that we should say that the billionaires--we are glad they are so successful--should pay their fair share every year. So I have proposed a billionaire's tax to close this loophole of unfairness. It just seems to me to be a basic question of fairness, for people in Nevada or Oregon or anywhere else, that we all pay our fair share--we all pay our fair share. And that is just one example of what Ms. Batchelder is going to be dealing with. For example, on clean energy, again, the Finance Committee wants to break some new ground. We said: Take the 44 energy tax breaks that are on the books--most of them are relics from yesteryear--and put them in the dustbin of history, and in the future have one for clean energy, one for clean transportation fuel, and one for energy efficiency. And then, going forward, we will have tech neutrality. And we will say to every company: Everybody involved in the energy area, the more you reduce carbon emissions, the bigger your savings. The Senate Finance Committee never did anything like this in 100 years. But to really carry this out, you are going to have to have really talented people like Lily Batchelder there. So she is going to understand what it means to make sure everybody pays their fair share, and that means billionaires are no longer exempt from paying their fair share. She is going to be a huge asset as we deal with climate change. And, my God, if people think about the last 6 weeks--the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, and I know my colleague in Nevada has been clobbered by these fires; the storms in the South; and what we saw in the east coast of the United States--climate change has hit this country like a wrecking ball. We are going to have Lily Batchelder confirmed, I hope, here very shortly. Those are the kinds of policy ideas she is going to be able to pursue. The Treasury Department needs a tax policy point guard, somebody who, in effect--and everybody knows I went to school on a basketball scholarship dreaming of playing in the NBA. You always admired the person who ran the floor, who was the point guard, who really made sure the work got done and didn't really care who got the credit. That is Lily Batchelder. And if ever there was a person who could really help chip away at the polarization between Democrats and Republicans, it is Lily Batchelder. I support her nomination fully. I urge my colleagues to do the same, and I yield the floor. Madam President, I have one more nomination to discuss, and I would ask unanimous consent that I could complete my remarks--and I will be brief on this nomination--before we vote.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, next, the Senate is considering the nomination of Jayme White for the position of Deputy U.S. Trade Representative. Now, Senators know that Jayme has been a longtime member of my Finance Committee staff. So I won't bury that lede today. We feel, all of us who have had a chance to work with him in the Finance Committee-- and he has been supported by business and labor and Senators who worked together with him repeatedly over the years on complicated trade issues. We all come together to make the case that Jayme will be an exemplary Deputy USTR representative. He is a topnotch advocate for our workers, our businesses, our farmers, and our ranchers. His confirmation will be a loss for the Senate Finance Committee--I can tell you that--but it is going to be the American people's gain. For a little bit on Jayme's background, he is from our part of the world, the Pacific Northwest. He is a son of union workers near Seattle. He has worked on trade policy for more than 20 years on Capitol Hill. We kind of lured him away from his old job, working for his hometown representative, Congressman Jim McDermott. And since 2014, he has been the top trade and competitiveness adviser for the Finance Committee Democrats. I have had a front-row seat watching Jayme for over a decade, and what he has always tried to do is reach across the aisle and say: Look, we know that to create more high-skilled, high-wage jobs in the private sector--and in our part of the world that is crucial. One out of four jobs depends on trade, and trade jobs pay better, often, than the nontrade jobs. You have to think about workers and the environment and good governance. And Jayme brings Members together from both sides of the aisle to make sure our trade policies in those areas are durable for the long term. He has been way ahead of the pack on the need for more aggressive trade enforcement. Years ago, when I was chairman of the Finance Trade Subcommittee--our colleague Max Baucus was chairman of the full committee--Jayme set up a sting operation, an actual sting operation, with a dummy website to show how the trade cheats, the rip-off artists, were able to launder merchandise and avoid paying customs duties. They would ship goods through other countries, slap a new label on something with different information on their products, and managed to slip them into the American market. That experience helped us write and build momentum for trade enforcement, came to be known as the ENFORCE Act, passed a few years later. When the Trump administration's new NAFTA was weak on enforcement, Jayme and Ambassador Tai worked to make huge improvements. And we all worked together in our committee. There were many of us. And, certainly, our colleague Senator Brown of Ohio, who has championed this for so many years, this effort, this bipartisan effort to strengthen enforcement, made sure that USMCA raised the bar over any other trade agreement in history in terms of enforceable commitments on labor rights and the environment. He has been a champion of transparency and accountability. And I can tell you, when I came into public life, people hardly knew anything about trade agreements that were getting ready to be voted on. I mean, you would go home for a meeting and people would ask you about some trade proposal, and you would be kind of in the dark. Jayme wanted to make sure that the days when well-connected reporters and insiders in the industry knew more than Members of Congress and the public about what was being negotiated--Jayme said: We are going to change that. And we did. There are now concrete rules giving Members access to negotiating text while the negotiations happen. Final text-to-trade agreements have to be public for anybody to see for a minimum of 60 days before the Congress can consider approving it. Those commitments to transparency, new accountability, which we had nothing like when I came into public life, come about because of Jayme's hard work. So I will sum it all up. I know we are waiting for our vote. What I have come to say--and we have all listened to the debates about free trade and fair trade and the like--Jayme understands that our challenge, for all of us, for our workers and our small businesses and to protect the rights of all concerned, we have got to have trade done right--trade done right: rigorously enforce the trade laws on the books, make sure that there is more transparency and accountability, and, particularly, make sure that foreign markets--foreign markets--are open to American products and American workers. I will just tell you, I am sorry to lose him after 12 years on my staff. I always knew that he would be going off to big things. I wasn't sure it was going to be this soon. Twenty-five members of the Finance Committee agreed with me when they voted to send his nomination to the floor. He has got 110 percent of my support. I urge my colleagues to vote yes on the White nomination. My understanding is we will vote first on the Batchelder nomination that I spoke about earlier and that a bit later in the evening, we will vote on Mr. White. I strongly urge colleagues to vote for both.

Mr. WYDEN

Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, Senate Democrats take a backseat to no one in standing up for family farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. In fact, President Biden has made it clear that any changes to stepped- up basis will provide durable protection for family farmers, ranchers, and small businesses. Speaking for myself, Senator Cortez Masto and Senator Tester, we are following through on that Biden pledge because it is both fair and common sense. Now, capital gains reform is about ensuring that the wealthiest pay their fair share. On our watch, multibillionaires cannot plant a few tomatoes and call themselves a family farmer. I will vote for the Thune amendment as well as the important Cortez Masto-Tester-Wyden amendment that will be taken up next. Vote on Amendment No. 3106

Mr. WYDEN. Colleagues, a decade of Republican budget cuts to the IRS has resulted in rampant tax cheating at the top. Tax enforcement is going to require new resources and new tools to crack down on the high- flying tax cheats. The Crapo amendment would, for all practical purposes, preserve the status quo--the status quo that has contributed to the trillion-dollar tax cap mushrooming and growing bigger. This amendment would make it harder to root out tax cheating, and it is unfair to working Americans who pay their taxes automatically out of each paycheck. Shortly--and we are going to reject the Crapo amendment--I will offer an alternative that will protect the little guy without forfeiting the chance to go after the big tax cheats, the wealthiest. I urge the vote. Vote on Amendment No. 3099

Mr. WYDEN. I call up my amendment No. 3365 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, the IRS Commissioner told the Senate Finance Committee that, in his judgment, the tax gap--the difference between taxes paid and taxes owed--is as much as $1 trillion a year. Current tax gap estimates likely miss a large number of the high flyers who clearly are driving this tax gap up and up. Taxpayers acting to conceal this income from tax authorities are going to have a much tougher time if the Congress requires that financial institutions take practical and reasonable steps to require that financial institutions report on financial accounts. Our interest on our side is to go after the big guys who generate significant inflows and outflows of cash and other assets, and we do it in a way that protects privacy and sensitive taxpayer and small business tax information. And this privacy issue has been one of the most important issues in my time in public service. And we are going to make sure that you can get the high flyers, the wealthy tax cheats, without forfeiting the rights of the little guy.