Raphael Warnock

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I have 18 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority Leaders. Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, today I pay tribute to the Center for Transportation and the Environment in Atlanta, GA, on their 30th anniversary. Since 1993, the Center for Transportation and the Environment has supported the commercialization of clean and zero-emissions transportation technologies that have driven the development of green energy economies in Georgia and across the United States. Using its engineering and planning expertise, the center has helped connect innovative thinkers, create jobs in emerging sectors, and foster energy independence over its long and storied history. Though the Center for Transportation and the Environment calls Atlanta home, it has an extensive national network and imprint. The center currently manages 115 zero-emission development and deployment projects across 35 States. Over the past 30 years, the center has helped more than 300 U.S. companies move their technologies into the global energy and transportation mainstream and has supported countless cities, transit agencies, airports, municipal entities, and vehicle manufacturers as they adopt these technologies and advance our clean energy future. Recently, the Center for Transportation and the Environment offered its unbiased expertise and insight in support of the development of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Public Law 117-58, and resulting Low- and No-Emissions Program at the U.S. Department of Transportation. Thanks in part to their recommendations, Congress delivered the largest infrastructure investment in our Nation's history and advanced bipartisan and transformative low-emissions transportation policies that will help keep our planet healthy for generations to come. On their 30th anniversary, I would like to thank the Center for Transportation and Environment for their monumental efforts to reduce emissions in our Nation's transportation sector and their commitment to being a good steward for our planet. I look forward to working with the center for another 30 years as we continue to develop green energy economies in Georgia and across the country.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, today I have the honor and privilege to recognize Dr. Rochelle Walensky for her unwavering dedication, service, and contributions to public health. Before her time at the CDC, Dr. Walensky's groundbreaking work in understanding the transmission, prevention, and treatment of HIV/AIDS was paramount in addressing disparities in access to care, vaccine efficacy, and distribution among underserved communities while addressing gaps in knowledge, earning her widespread recognition and acclaim. With a drive toward making a difference, Dr. Walensky began her tenure as Director of the CDC in 2021, in the midst of the unprecedented global COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this challenge, Dr. Walensky boldly stepped into the role, bringing her years of experience and perspective to the Georgia-based Agency. As evidenced by the CORE Health Equity Science and Intervention Strategy, which she unveiled within months of starting, and declaration that racism is a serious public health crisis, Dr. Walensky's passion for health equity has ensured that equity is baked into the CDC's mission. Dr. Walensky's pursuit of truth and dedication to the well-being of others has left an indelible mark on the field of public health. Her leadership during the most challenging public health crisis of this generation saved lives. She has displayed true servant leadership by prioritizing science, empathy, and public welfare during heightened times of distrust and misinformation. As we reflect on Dr. Walensky's remarkable achievements before she begins the next chapter in her career, I am proud to honor her as a pioneer for health equity. Her commitment to public health and pursuit of the idea that we all have inherent value, combined with her tireless efforts to protect and improve the lives of all individuals, will forever inspire future generations of healthcare professionals. Thank you, Dr. Walensky, for your great service to the American people.

Mr. WARNOCK

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

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I rise today in shock and sorrow and in grief for my home State. And, if I am honest, I rise really with a deep sense of anger about what is happening in our country in the area of gun violence and death. I stood here in March of 2021 after a gunman went on a rampage across Metro Atlanta and snatched eight precious souls--people with families and friends who loved them dearly. And here I am standing again, this time with the tragedy having occurred in midtown Atlanta, right in my own backyard. While this is still a developing situation, according to media reports, so far, at least five people were shot--five--on a random afternoon. There has been one fatality. The others were taken to the hospital. I want to take a moment and thank law enforcement officials for keeping us as safe as they can. I want to thank them for their work trying to apprehend this individual. I am also thankful for local media who are keeping all of us informed, and I am grateful for our first responders, the people in healthcare, the people on the front lines. We count on them every day to care for those who are injured, to respond to people in peril. That is what makes this particular shooting ironic and deeply upsetting, because it underscores the fact that none of us is safe no matter where we are. This happened in a medical facility where people are trying to find healing. So I want to underscore that, because there have been so many mass shootings--in fact, about one every day in this country this year-- that, tragically, we act as if this is routine. We behave as if this is normal. It is not normal. It is not right for us to live in a nation where nobody is safe no matter where they are. We are not safe in our schools; we are not safe in our workplaces; we are not safe at the grocery store; we are not safe at movie theaters; we are not safe at spas; we are not safe in our houses of worship. There is no sanctuary in the sanctuary. We are not safe at concerts; we are not safe at banks; we are not safe at parades; we are not safe in our own yards and in our own homes. Now, today, we can add medical facilities to that list. And, still, we have done so very little in this building to respond-- and in the American political square at large. I think there is an unspoken assumption. I think that the unspoken assumption is that ``This can't happen to me. This won't happen to me. It won't happen to people that I love.'' But, with a mass shooting every day, the truth is the chances are great. I shudder to say it, but the truth is, in a real sense, it is only a matter of time that this kind of tragedy comes knocking on your door. Then, in a deeper sense, I think it is important for us to recognize that it is already happening to you. You may not be the victim of a mass shooting. You may not know anyone who is the victim of a mass shooting yet, but in a real sense, it is already happening to all of us. Dr. King was right: We are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. This is knocking on all of our doors, and I feel this this afternoon in a very real sense--I feel it in my bones--because my own two children were on lockdown this afternoon. I have two small children, and their schools are on lockdown in response to this tragedy. They are there. I am here. I am hoping and praying that they are safe, but the truth is none of us are safe. As a pastor, I am praying for those who are affected by this tragedy, but I hasten to say that thoughts and prayers are not enough. In fact, it is a contradiction to say that you are thinking and praying and then doing nothing. It is to make a mockery of prayer. It is to trivialize faith. We pray not only with our lips; we pray with our legs. We pray by taking action. Still there are those who want to convince us that this is the cost of freedom. To them, we have to say no. This ongoing, slow-moving tragedy in our country--mass shootings as routine--is not the cost of freedom; it is the cost of blind obstinance, a refusal to change course even when the evidence suggests we must do something different. It is the cost of demagoguery--those who want to convince us that commonsense gun reform is somehow a call to take everybody's guns. This is not the cost of freedom. Dare I say it is the cost of greed--gun lobbyists willing to line their pockets even at the cost of our children. And so we must act. I am proud of the fact that we did, after 30 years, pass some gun safety legislation here in the last Congress. It was a significant piece of legislation, but, obviously, it was not enough. There are 87 percent or more of Americans who believe that we ought to have universal background checks, and still we can't get it. Think about that. In a country where everybody says we are divided--and there are deep divisions, to be sure. There is disagreement on this issue, to be sure. But in a country where there is 87-percent agreement on something, there is no movement on it in Congress, which means that that is a problem with our democracy. The people's voices have been squeezed out of their democracy, and there is a growing chasm between what the people actually want and what they can get from their government. We saw it in a stark and ugly way a few weeks ago when we had two brave, young legislators stand up in Tennessee--three, in fact. The same legislature that refused to do anything on gun violence came down on them with all of their might and expelled them from the legislature. We have to stand up against these anti-democratic forces at work in our country, and we have to give the people their voices back. If we refuse to act while our children are dying and in a moment when no one is safe, then shame on us. Shame on us if we allow this to happen, and we do absolutely nothing. Saint Augustine, the African bishop of the early church, said that hope has two beautiful daughters. He said they are both beautiful, Anger and Courage--anger with the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain as they are. I am pleading; I am begging all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to remember the covenant that we have with one another as an American people. Stand up in this defining moment, and let's do everything we can to protect all of us and, certainly, all of our children. We owe it to the people who have sent us here. I know there are those who will look at this moment and say: Politically, do you really think we can get anything done here? They will ask if this is the time given the state of politics in our country right now. I respond with the words of Dr. King, who said that the time is always right to do what is right, and that time is right now. I yield the floor.

Mr. WARNOCK. Thank you so much. I am deeply honored to participate in this great tradition started by Senator Doug Jones of Alabama during his tenure and carried out by my colleague Senator Brown. I am always honored to revisit these words from Dr. King from the letter from a Birmingham jail. So without delay: My Dear Fellow Clergymen: While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities ``unwise and untimely.'' Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my working ideas. If I sought to answer all of the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of a day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I will try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms. I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against ``outsiders coming in.'' I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. Frequently we share staff, educational and financial resources with our affiliates. Several months ago the affiliate here in Birmingham asked us to be on call to engage in a non-violent direct action program if such were deemed necessary. We readily consented, and when the hour came we lived up to our promise. So I, along with several members of my staff, am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ``thus saith the Lord'' far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid. Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ``outside agitator'' idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds. Now, you deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative. In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action. We have gone through all these steps in Birmingham. There can be no gainsaying the fact that racial injustice engulfs this community. Birmingham is probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States. Its ugly record of brutality is widely known. Negroes have experienced grossly unjust treatment in the courts. There have been more unsolved bombings of Negro homes and churches in Birmingham than in any other city in the nation. These are the hard, brutal facts of the case. On the basis of these conditions, Negro leaders sought to negotiate with the city fathers. But the latter consistently refused to engage in good faith negotiation. Then, last September, came the opportunity to talk with leaders of Birmingham's economic community. In the course of the negotiations, certain promises were made by the merchants--for example, to remove the stores' humiliating racial signs. On the basis of these promises, the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth and the leaders of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights agreed to a moratorium on all demonstrations. As the weeks and months went by, we realized that we were the victims of a broken promise. A few signs, briefly removed, returned; the others remained. As in so many past experiences, our hopes had been blasted, and the shadow of deep disappointment settled upon us. We had no alternative except to prepare for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and the national community. Mindful of the difficulties involved, we decided to undertake a process of self purification. We began a series of workshops on nonviolence, and we repeatedly asked ourselves: ``Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?'' ``Are you able to endure the ordeal of jail?'' We decided to schedule our direct action program for the Easter season, realizing that except for Christmas, this is the main shopping period of the year. Knowing that a strong economic-withdrawal program would be the by product of direct action, we felt that this would be the best time to bring pressure to bear on the merchants for the needed change. Then it occurred to us that Birmingham's mayoral election was coming up in March, and we speedily decided to postpone action until after election day. When we discovered that the Commissioner of Public Safety, Eugene ``Bull'' Connor, had piled up enough votes to be in the run off, we decided again to postpone action until the day after the run off so that the demonstrations could not be used to cloud the issues. Like many others, we waited to see Mr. Connor defeated, and to this end we endured postponement after postponement. Having aided in this community need, we felt that our direct action program could be delayed no longer.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I rise today to reflect on a dark day in Georgia. It was 2 years ago today that a hateful act of violence shook metropolitan Atlanta and reverberated across our State, our Nation, and the world. In the span of a few hours, our sense of safety and sanctuary was ripped apart by bullets born out of hate and fear--an issue, Mr. President, you know very well and have engaged on many sad occasions. Two years ago, in Georgia, eight people lost their lives--eight people loved by their families, their friends, by their children. They should never become numbers or statistics--eight souls, eight people, with their own successes and struggles, their hopes and dreams. We speak their names: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng. My heart aches for these Georgians and for their families, for whom these wounds still fester. The comfort provided by a family is still not enough to fill the empty seat at the dinner table or those times when a family member, out of routine, picks up the phone to dial and remembers in the moment that there is nobody on the other end of that call. As a pastor, I believe in the sacred worth of every human being. I believe that we are a mixture of dust and divinity, of sod and sky, beauty and possibility. That is why I ask now that everyone who is here will join me in a moment of silence. Let us remember these eight Georgians and pray for their families. (Moment of silence.) God, in Your mercy remember them and strengthen us to do the work. Amen. Importantly, I must mention, this attack was meant to harm Georgia's Asian-American community, and especially women of Asian descent. Unfortunately, this awful act that happened in Georgia is not isolated but, rather, part of the same trend of growing hate and violence which has caused pain to so many of us, especially members of the AAPI community. In recent years, anti-Asian hate crimes have increased significantly--more than 300 percent, according to media reports. And, at the same time, we have seen acts of hate rise against our Jewish brothers and sisters; against our Muslim friends and neighbors; yes, against the LGBTQ-plus community and our trans brothers and sisters; and against the sense of safety our students have felt at our historically Black colleges and universities. So I think back to how Georgians charted a path forward for our Nation 2 years ago. Two years ago, we came together and reminded each other that the only way to face the future is to love one another, to be respectful of our different histories, while focused on our shared future. Georgia's greatest son, that great American, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said it best. He said: We are tied in a single garment of destiny, caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. That terrible act of violence we witnessed on March 16, 2021, ought to remind us that we all have a stake in each other's well-being, that it is our duty to stay committed to a peace that recognizes that we are in this together. So I want to say to my AAPI sisters and brothers, I want to say to all of my neighbors that I see you, and I will continue to stand with you against hate and against violence. So let us continue working together to stop Asian hate, to stop the scapegoating that often emerges, sadly, in political speech, and to create what Dr. King called the beloved community. It is a community where everybody, no matter their skin color, their ethnicity, their sexual orientation, their religious background, or if they claim no religious tradition at all, can live a life of fulfillment and joy without the fear of facing hate and unspeakable violence. Let's keep doing the work. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled vote occur immediately.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I understand that there are two measures at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

Mr. WARNOCK. I now ask for a second reading, and I object to my own request en bloc.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, January 25; 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 the Senate be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. WARNOCK

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

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I call up amendment No. 5262, and I ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, I rise on behalf of nearly 4\1/2\ million Americans in 12 States, including 646,000 Georgians who, a decade after the Affordable Care Act became law, still do not have access to affordable healthcare. They are the working poor. They are being blocked by Governors and legislatures. But, sadly, today they are being betrayed by this body. The bill we are about to pass will rightly strengthen healthcare access for millions of Americans, but how do we justify doing that while leaving the hard-working families in Georgia who gave us this power in the first place and the other 11 nonexpansion States in the cold? My amendment would simply extend the same subsidies to them. If in this bill we can extend tax relief to hedge fund managers, then, surely, we can extend tax credits as a lifeline to the working poor. This is a moral moment. The scripture says: Woe to those who crush the poor. I am asking my Democratic colleagues to do the right thing and close this gap.

Mr. WARNOCK. Madam President, pursuant to Section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and waiver provisions of applicable budget resolutions, I move to waive all applicable sections of that Act and applicable budget resolutions for purposes of the pending amendment, and I ask for the yeas and the nays.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to honor a friend, our late Senator from Georgia, my predecessor, Senator Johnny Isakson, as we work across the aisle, just as he did, to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office in his honor. I thank my brother and fellow Senator from Georgia for leading this effort. Without a doubt, Senator Isakson loved Georgia, and he cared deeply for our country. He was a patriot, a public servant, and I am proud to say that there are members of my staff who used to work for Johnny Isakson. They will tell you that he never hesitated to show up. In my other job as a pastor, I talk often about the ministry of presence. Sometimes, it is not about what you say, because there are some situations, quite frankly, for which there are no adequate words. When someone has lost a loved one, and you are standing there at graveside or standing in a hospital at bedside with a patient, sometimes the issue is really showing up--the ministry of presence. Johnny Isakson had it. He knew how to show up. Whether it was paying a visit to an ill patient or seeing a disabled veteran, he was there. Senator Isakson, the consummate public servant, dedicated his years of service to our beloved Georgia, to veterans, to our families, and to our children. He always made it a point to show up at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Every year in January, as we celebrate Georgia's greatest son, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Johnny Isakson, without fail, was always in the house. Now, to be sure, when the King holiday rolls around, politicians do tend to show up, but what was so impressive about Johnny Isakson is that, not only did he show up for the service, he stayed for the whole service--a service which, I will admit, is long, even by Baptist standards. He stayed there the whole time. He was unafraid to work across ideological and political differences in our State, in our country. I shall never forget his example of public service. We talked from time to time. In fact, it occurs to me that the first time I stood in this Chamber, I stood not as a Senator but as Chaplain of the day, and it was at Johnny Isakson's invitation. I remember his graciousness on that day and on so many occasions. When he announced his retirement, he called me and said: Raphael, I am retiring, and I want to drop by Ebenezer and say goodbye. When he came that Sunday, he asked the members of our church who are veterans to stand. As he looked across the audience and saw all the veterans who were in our church, he said: I want to leave a special offering for the veterans ministry in this church. That was Johnny Isakson. So I am thrilled that today, with great appreciation and admiration for Senator Johnny Isakson, our bipartisan legislation honors his life and his legacy by renaming the Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office in his honor, and I am thrilled that it has passed in the Senate in a bipartisan way with unanimous support. Isn't that fitting? Johnny Isakson is doing now in death what he did in life--bringing us together. And in this moment in which we are in a debate about what to do for our veterans, isn't it appropriate that his spirit summons us to common ground--and the higher ground--so that we can do all we can for those who have our back in dangerous places all over the globe. Senator Isakson cared deeply for Georgia's veterans and for veterans all across our country. He understood that there are some things bigger than politics. So we recognize his amazing service, his incredible legacy of life and self-sacrifice by renaming the Atlanta Regional Office of the Department of Veterans Affairs in his honor. I am proud to sit in the seat where he sat, and it is my honor to help lead the passage of this bipartisan piece of legislation that will help preserve the legacy of our late and dear friend. Long live the spirit of Johnny Isakson.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, as it turns out, I rise to echo the sentiments of my colleague, the distinguished Senator from the State of Illinois. The Senate is prepared to finally begin debating a targeted version of the jobs and competition bill that many of us have been working on for more than a year, and I rise today to urge my colleagues not to waste any more time in getting this important bill across the finish line. We should not allow politics to get in the way of the people's work. As a voice in the Senate for my home State of Georgia, I cannot stress enough how critical it is for us to get this bill done for our national security and to keep our economy competitive against global actors like the Chinese Communist Party and to lower rising costs for hard-working families all across Georgia and all across our country. Now, I know that there might be disappointment from some of my colleagues that we are not able to pass the more robust package right now that we have been working on and negotiating since last April. And, honestly, I share that disappointment. As both a member of the Commerce Committee and a member of the committee that has been negotiating the final competition bill, I have been working hard to secure several priorities for Georgia in that package, and I am not about to stop fighting for those priorities. I am going to keep fighting to get investments and policies like funding for regional tech hubs, for STEM education--an education program that invests in all of our children, in all of our young people--and workforce development passed into law. But let me be clear: Passing a bill that will strengthen domestic production of one of our country's most valuable resources, semiconductors or chips, is a crucial opportunity to invest in the economy, invest in our security, and our future. And we cannot wait another minute. I want to shine a spotlight on this because I have heard from Georgians about the importance of this legislation and, specifically, investing and making more chips here in the United States. We know that chips are essential components in the products that support thousands of good-paying jobs in Georgia, not to mention things like cars, cell phones, computers, vacuum cleaners, ATMs. Chips are all around us, a host of products we rely on every single day. And we know that our chips supply chains are under significant strain, both from production limits and geopolitical threats. But what you may not know is how these issues directly affect workers and companies on the ground all across the State of Georgia--companies like Kia, which has a thriving facility out in West Point, GA, about halfway between Atlanta and Montgomery, AL, on I-85. Semiconductors are essential to the manufacturing of the roughly 340,000 vehicles Kia produces in Georgia every year. At least twice in the past year, this facility, which I have visited on more than one occasion, has had to stop work at the plant because they didn't have enough chips. They had to stop working, not because they didn't have enough customers, but because they didn't have enough chips. I visited that West Point facility, and I met with some of those workers. And I can tell you that the last thing that those workers need is to miss days off work and money out of their paychecks because we don't manufacture enough of the materials that they work with every single day. And it is not just car manufacturers in Georgia. The chip shortage is hurting our State's economy in myriad ways, big and small. For instance, Stephen Milner is the CEO of Planters Telephone Cooperative, a member-owned telecommunications provider in Screven County that does broadband expansion, as well as broadband maintenance. Stephen's company needs equipment to do that work that requires semiconductors, and as he explained recently in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, it has become harder to expand telephone and internet services to new businesses and homes in the rural communities he services because his company can't guarantee that it will get the parts needed to complete the job. So think about that. The chip shortage isn't just hurting jobs and bottom lines; it is hobbling our ability to expand rural broadband. And farmers all across Georgia will tell you that you can't even farm efficiently without a good broadband connection. And so this is devastating, especially for rural Georgians. And if we don't act soon, it will get worse. We have got to ensure that all of our citizens can take full advantage of every opportunity in our changing economy. And this is a problem we can solve. We can solve it. The only thing that gets in the way of this right now is politics. And so we have got to pass this bill. If we produced more chips here at home, it would boost domestic manufacturing, ease supply chain issues, and help begin to lower rising costs for goods that families are experiencing in Georgia and around the country. Why wouldn't we want to take steps to drive down costs for hard-working families right now? We work for them. Lastly, this bill contains provisions I fought for that will expand these tax incentives to companies down the semiconductor supply chain, supporting economic engines like the high-tech semiconductor plant being built in Covington, GA, that will create 400 new jobs. There are real economic consequences for people in my State if we do not pass this chips bill and make these investments. These are the human faces of the public policy that we would pass. But that is not the only reason we need to get this bill done as urgently as possible. It also bears repeating that passing this legislation is critical to our national security and strengthening our competitiveness against global actors like the Chinese Communist Party. Chips are used in technology critical to our national security. According to a 2020 report from the Semiconductor Industry Association, in 1990--listen--in 1990, the United States represented a 37 percent share of the world's chip manufacturing capacity. Today, that number is 12 percent--from 37 percent to 12 percent. I submit that that is unacceptable, and it is a threat to our national security. As we have heard from Defense Secretary Austin, Commerce Secretary Raimondo, and other administration officials, we are at a tipping point--a tipping point--where international companies are making significant decisions about where they are investing their capital and putting down roots. In fact, we have already seen several of these entities hesitate to invest in American manufacturing due to inaction and political gamesmanship right here in Washington. So our ability to rise to this occasion will demonstrate whether the United States is willing to cede the innovation and economic higher ground to the Chinese Communist Party or whether we will stand up to the People's Republic of China and reinvest in the manufacturing and innovation prowess that has made America a lone superpower for decades. I submit that if we fail to pass this bill immediately, we will set back America's competitiveness for a generation or more. This critical moment requires all of us to put the country above politics. Imagine that: Put the country above politics. Put hard-working American families who are doing the best they can right now above politics and strengthen our Nation's competitiveness. And so I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the strong chips legislation, and let's ensure that the next century, like the 20th century, is the American century. I yield the floor.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following letters be printed in the Record.

Mr. WARNOCK

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, I call up my motion to instruct, which is at the desk.