Bulk Infant Formula to Retail Shelves Act

Madam President, I want to take a moment this morning to recognize a friend and fellow Hoosier, Mark Souder, who passed away earlier this week after a battle with cancer.

Mark represented, as so many Hoosiers know, northeastern Indiana in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2010. He served eight terms. Before being elected to Congress, he spent years working as a staffer for Indiana Senator Dan Coats.

Anyone--anyone--who met Mark was struck by his intellect, his innate grasp of policy details, and perhaps most importantly, his passion for service, for serving Hoosiers in particular. You see, Mark loved northeast Indiana. He loved his constituents. He loved the land, its people, and its unique traditions. He was a strong advocate for Hoosier veterans in particular and for our national parks during his service in Congress.

He was also a man of many talents and interests. Baseball was one of them. In fact, he wrote about the game's history and connections to our own State. Recently, Mark collaborated on a book about the history of television in Fort Wayne.

More personally, I always appreciated Mark's kindness and support as I began my congressional career, and I know Mark provided similar assistance and encouragement to others.

I offer my deepest condolences to the Souder family and to all of Mark's friends and loved ones as they mourn his loss.

CHIPS and Science Act

Madam President, ``Time and momentum are on our side''--so said Xi Jingping to his colleagues in the Chinese Communist Party last year.

True, there have been some recent setbacks to China's grand plan-- corruption probes, billions of wasted government dollars--but make no mistake, these are minor distractions. You see, the CCP is as determined as ever to supplant the United States as the world's leader, militarily and economically, in order to win the 21st century. Xi and his government will subsidize any industry, spend any amount of money, take any means--even propping up manufacturing with slave labor--to bend the market to its ambitions and force America to its knees.

The CCP is confident that America is too dysfunctional and that the American people are too divided to arrest its momentum. Well, today, I am pleased to report that the CCP has made a serious miscalculation. Allow me to explain.

You see, earlier this month, I was in West Lafayette, on the campus of Purdue University. Indiana's Governor, Eric Holcomb, and Purdue's president, Mitch Daniels, were, of course, there. We were joined by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Our group saw up close the amazing work that Purdue is doing across its technology ecosystem. We met and spoke with many talented students and professors. We had a productive discussion about ways to bolster our national security and economic competitiveness. Not coincidentally, we did this in a hall named for Neil Armstrong and, not coincidentally, because our conversation focused on the CHIPS and Science Act.

This is legislation I and others in the Senate worked on for years and of which I am proud was finally signed into law in August. The CHIPS and Science Act will unleash the same enterprising American spirit that sent Neil Armstrong to the Moon aboard Apollo 11--the same spirit Beijing believes is a relic of the 20th century. This type of bipartisan economic and national security win only comes along once in a generation.

Enacting the CHIPS and Science Act sent a strong message to the world that when it comes to meeting China's challenge, here in the United States, there is cross-party consensus and a seriousness of purpose.

A thriving domestic chip industry is going to prevent future supply chain stoppages and protect our military readiness. You see, right now, Taiwan produces 90 percent of all advanced semiconductor chips, and the threat of a communist China takeover of Taiwan is real.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Government is heavily subsidizing its national security innovation base and the development of mission-critical technologies. In fact, the CCP has invested $14 trillion--$14 trillion--in the technologies that will shape our modern economy and decide the winners of future wars, technologies like quantum computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence, and technologies like hypersonics.

They have also set a strategy of dominating the global production of semiconductors. If China produces more and more of the world's supply of semiconductors, America's economy and our national security could be at the mercy of the CCP, especially in the event of another pandemic or war.

This is all part of Beijing's bet to beat America, but the CHIPS and Science Act helps America counter that bet. You see, there is a happy coincidence here. What benefits our national security also benefits our economic security, especially across the industrial Midwest, where we pride ourselves on making things--things like microchips.

Just weeks after the CHIPS and Science Act became law, its benefits began to reverberate across the heartland economy. We have already seen numerous, major economic announcements that are directly tied to this bill becoming law. In fact, a corridor of the semiconductor industry will run through the State of Indiana.

Thanks to the CHIPS and Science Act, SkyWater Technology is moving forward with its plans to partner with Purdue to build a $1.8 billion facility in West Lafayette, which will manufacture semiconductor chips and create an estimated 750 direct jobs, and there is more to come.

Further, the CHIPS and Science Act provides $2 billion for the Department of Defense to make semiconductors. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division, in southern Indiana, with its expertise in chips manufacturing, is expected to play a significant role in this effort, in turn creating economic opportunities across the southern part of our State.

The regional tech hubs authorized by the CHIPS and Science Act will launch innovative companies, help revive American manufacturing, and lay the foundation for new, good-paying jobs to jump-start our local communities.

For too long, our coastal States have been the near-exclusive hotbeds of venture capital investments and launching pads for tech startups. Only a handful of American cities account for nearly 90 percent of job growth when it comes to advanced sectors like tech, computer manufacturing, biotech, and telecom. But the CHIPS and Science Act plants the seed corns to ensure that opportunity for investors, entrepreneurs, and researchers spreads across the industrial Midwest and other areas around the country.

It will broaden and deepen our startup and tech economy. As a result, everyone will win, and our national defense will be safeguarded.

Our position as a leader in the development of feature technologies will be secure. Our ability to win the contests ahead, economically and, God forbid, militarily, will also be secured. And there will be numerous residual benefits to this law in the years to come, such as American labor providing the manpower needed to construct new fabs and facilities here in the United States.

In closing, let me reiterate that the CHIPS and Science Act will be a boost to our domestic economy, but it is not just about our economy. It will strengthen our national defense by allowing us to have the most sophisticated weapons systems and by ensuring their critical components are made in the U.S.A.

But it is not just about national defense either. You see, this is about deciding which values are going to animate these technologies in the future: The values on display from a Communist Party when it cracks down on protesters in the streets of Hong Kong? The values that enslave millions of Uighurs and Xinjiang, or threaten Taiwan?

The world's autocrats are attempting to exert their influence across the globe. They argue that the American system, with our pesky system of checks and balances, our very ideal of government of the people, by the people, for the people--they argue that can't work in the 21st century. But the signing of the CHIPS and Science Act proved them wrong.

When it comes to out-innovating China in authoring a second American century, I am confident that, in the days ahead, both time and momentum will be on America's side.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that should the Senate receive from the House of Representatives a bill, the text of which is identical to H.R. 8982, as introduced in the House and which is at the desk, the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration, the bill be considered read a third time, and the Senate vote on passage without further intervening action or debate, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, H.R. 8982 is another important fix to the ongoing infant formula shortage. When the Formula Act passed in July, it left out ``infant formula base powder.'' This bill will ensure trade barriers are lifted as we continue to address this crisis.

I thank my colleagues Senator Lee and Senator Braun for their efforts on this.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, yesterday I came down to the floor to talk about where we are after nearly 2 years of Democrat control of Congress and the White House.

We are, as I noted, in the midst of an inflation crisis with no end in sight. Our economy is weakening. Our energy security is diminished. Violent crime has increased, and we are dealing with record waves of illegal immigration and a serious security situation at our southern border. That is where we are.

The question is, How did we get here? The answer lies with Democrats' priorities.

The Democratic Party has moved sharply leftward over the past few years. Democrats, of course, have always been on the left side of the political spectrum. But over the past few years, what was once far-left ideology has become the Democrat mainstream. And Democrats swept into office determined to enact a far-left, Big Government agenda. It didn't matter to them that their majorities in the House and Senate were extremely narrow or that President Biden had been elected largely because he was considered to be a moderate.

Democrats had a grip on power, however tenuous, and they were determined to use it to enact their most cherished, far-left fantasies.

They started off with their $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, filled with unnecessary spending and payoffs to Democrat interest groups. They were warned their legislation ran the risk of overheating the economy and setting off inflation. But they ignored the warnings and dumped a lot of unnecessary government money into the economy, and the economy overheated as a result. Inflation quickly began climbing and then climbing some more.

Now, at this point, it might have seemed prudent to pull back on all those spending plans. After all, if one massive spending bill had kicked off inflation, how much worse would another, even more massive spending bill make the situation?

But Democrats were just getting started. The ink was barely dry on the so-called American Rescue Plan before Democrats were outlining plans for a new spending spree, one that would dwarf their initial spending spree and install some of the Democrats' most cherished Big Government priorities.

And even as inflation climbed and climbed again, Democrats kept pushing ahead. Even as Democrat economists warned that the American Rescue Plan had kick-started inflation, they kept pushing forward with plans for a $5 trillion spending spree, their so-called Build Back Better plan--$5 trillion.

To put that number in perspective, the entire Federal budget in 2019 was $4.4 trillion, the entire Federal budget. Yet Democrats were pushing forward with a $5 trillion spending plan on top of a $1.9 trillion spending bill earlier in the year.

Fortunately, for the American people, the Democrats' $5 trillion spending plan was foiled last December, but that didn't stop them for long.

Even as inflation reached 40-year highs, Democrats kept pushing for more spending, and they managed to jam through another partisan tax- and-spending spree in August.

We have now had 6 straight months--6 straight months--with inflation above 8 percent. The last time inflation was this bad, I wasn't even married yet. Now I have grandkids. But Democrats just don't seem to care. They are committed to their tax-and-spending agenda, regardless of the consequences for the American economy.

Their August tax-and-spending spree will hurt both wages and economic growth at a time when economic growth is weakening and Americans are experiencing a de facto pay cut due to inflation.

And just days after signing this tax-and-spending legislation into law, President Biden announced--if you can believe this--a massive student loan giveaway, which would cost more than $1 trillion and will, to quote the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, ``meaningfully boost inflation''--meaningfully boost inflation.

Yet again, Democrats' Big Government, big-spending agenda trumps the economic reality facing the American people.

No matter how bad the economy gets, Democrats are determined to enact their Big Government vision. And I suspect the reason the Democrats and the President have spent nearly 2 years ignoring the raging crisis at our southern border is similar. After all, if Democrats and the President acknowledge that there is a crisis, people might think that they should actually start solving the crisis.

They might, in fact, think that a raging security crisis deserves to be a priority--more of a priority than, say, Democrats' plans for electric postal vehicles or monitoring gaps in tree canopy coverage. In addition, of course,

acknowledging that there is a border crisis might offend some Democrat interest groups, and that might imperil Democrats' fierce determination to stay in power and enact their Big Government agenda.

Madam President, I mentioned Democrats' fierce determination to stay in power, and it is fierce, so fierce that the Democrats manufactured a voting crisis and almost succeeded in gutting the Senate's rules in an attempt to force through Federal legislation that would give their party an advantage in future elections. And it clearly doesn't matter to them that their claims of voter suppression were pretty clearly refuted by excellent election turnout mere months later. Democrats are still talking about forcing through a Federal takeover of elections to address a nonexistent crisis and give their party a leg up in future elections.

Madam President, I guess it is not necessarily surprising that Democrats' growing commitment to the biggest kind of Big Government has been matched by a growing determination to secure their party's grip on power with government action, if necessary. As government power grows, I suppose the governing party starts to think its power should grow with it. It would explain Democrats' commitment to abolishing protections for the rights of the minority party in the Senate and the Americans that it represents and the commitment expressed by a number of Democrats to packing the Supreme Court, expanding it--expanding the Supreme Court with Democrat Justices until they can be sure they will get the outcomes that they want.

Leading Democrats have been openly crowing about their plans to abolish the filibuster if they manage to gain a sufficient majority in the Senate and then force through a variety of far-left, Big Government legislation--from a government takeover of childcare to that voting bill that they think will give them a leg up in elections to some of the most extreme abortion legislation, literally, in the world.

Clearly, a raging border crisis, an inflation crisis, a weakening economy, and growing energy insecurity mean little to Democrats. Their focus, if they keep their majority, is not on solving these very real problems facing Americans; it is on growing and expanding government and implementing their far-left, Big Government, big-spending visions.

(Mr. SCHATZ assumed the Chair.)

Mr. President, Democrats' Big Government vision is clearly not a vision I share, and despite Democrats' clear belief that their narrow majority gave them a mandate for a far-left remake of our government, I suspect the American people are not looking for that. Democrats may think months and months and months of high inflation are a small price to pay for implementing their Big Government visions, but I suspect the American people disagree.

I also think the American people would like to see the party in power focused on solving problems like violent crime and the crisis at our southern border, not spending their time considering how to consolidate their hold on power or force through extreme or partisan policies. And despite Democrats' clear belief that Washington should be making decisions about most aspects of Americans' lives, I suspect most Americans are not interested in having Washington dictate their choices, whether that is the choices they make about their childcare or about their children's education.

Democrats' devotion to their Big Government, big-spending agenda has left the American people worse off economically, and it has left our country in a more dangerous position, from violent crime in our communities to the security crisis that we see on a daily basis unfolding at our southern border.

I think the American people know with painful certainty that we can't afford another 2 years like the last 2, and for the sake of our country, I hope we won't have to see what 2 more years of Democrat power would bring.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, the whole country continues our vigil for the people of Florida, who are hunkered down through Hurricane Ian.

The storm's landfall yesterday brought surging seas and sustained winds over 150 miles an hour, and 2.5 million Florida families and businesses are reportedly without power. Evacuation orders have been in place for more than 2 million residents of the gulf coast.

The extent of the damage has barely even begun to come into focus. Fortunately, the coordinated State and local response, led by Governor DeSantis and supported by Federal Agencies, is ongoing.

Yesterday, our two colleagues from Florida led the State's entire congressional delegation in asking President Biden to issue a major disaster declaration and unlock further aid. I understand the President agreed this morning.

The Senate will stand ready to provide further assistance if needed. The government funding legislation before us will make sure the Disaster Relief Fund is refilled.

Most immediately, Floridians remain at the forefront of the nation's prayers.

The Economy

Madam President, now, on a completely different matter, families across America have felt the brunt of this all-Democratic government's failed energy policies. When gas prices were skyrocketing, the Biden administration insisted up and down they had no control over them. When the prices started to level off, the same politicians asked for a round of applause--funny how that works.

Here is what working families in Kentucky know: that a gallon of gas costs a full dollar more than when President Biden took office. American families and small businesses know their electricity bills skyrocketed this spring and this summer, and they know that heating costs on Democrats' watch this fall and winter may well be catastrophic.

Just like our overall 13.2 percent inflation since January 2021 is directly--directly--traceable to Democrats' reckless spending, a lot of our energy prices are traceable to Democrats' shortsighted policies. Democrats have spent 20 years saying we shouldn't explore for American energy, that our abundant fossil fuel resources should actually stay in the ground.

Just in the last 2 years, Democrats overwhelmingly voted two separate items to let the Biden EPA ban fracking. One analysis showed that the kind of fracking ban Democrats want will quadruple household energy bills.

Democrats supported President Biden's de facto bans on both offshore and onshore oil and gas leasing. They backed President Biden's decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline. I guess it is better to import Middle Eastern crude than safely transport oil from Canada.

They voted for reckless tax hikes, including a natural gas tax that will directly drive up families' heating costs.

And this week marks the 6-month anniversary of when President Biden began his reckless draining of our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a desperate attempt to buy up his poll numbers. President Biden has already released more than 200 million barrels from the Reserve into the international market, more than all the other Presidents in our history combined. A few days ago, he promised to release an additional 10 million barrels in November.

Our country established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as a lifeline for national security crises. Until now, Presidents had only ever tapped it for armed conflicts or natural disasters. Now Democrats are emptying out our emergency reserves in a desperate attempt to save their political skins. Reckless and cynical does not even begin to cover it.

Now the Reserve sits at its lowest point since 1984. If our country were cut off from oil imports tomorrow, we would have less than 2 months' supply.

And, remember, 2 years ago, in the early COVID crisis, when markets were temporarily crashing and oil was selling for bargain-basement prices like we have never seen, Republicans tried to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the top when the prices were low. It would have been a win for economic stability, a win for national security, and a huge win for taxpayers. Oil actually was on a clearance sale, and we could have filled the Reserve right up to the top.

Oh, but Senate Democrats blocked it and bragged about blocking it. Leader Schumer boasted in writing that he had blocked a ``bailout for Big Oil''--a bailout for Big Oil, typical tired, old liberal rhetoric. But what our Democrat colleagues blocked was an unbelievably good deal for the American people. Now they are draining the Reserve they wouldn't let us refill, and when they do need to refill it, you had better believe taxpayers won't be paying March 2020 prices. I can tell you that.

Shortsighted, ineffective, and bad economics--that is Democrats' energy policy in microcosm. Working Americans pay the price every single day.

Crime

Now, Madam President, on another matter, runaway inflation isn't the only crisis keeping American families up at night. The last 2 years have seen law and order deteriorate all across our country. Public safety has eroded, violent crimes like murders and carjackings are breaking records, and our southern border has turned into a turnstile.

We have seen the violence and chaos firsthand in Kentucky, especially in my hometown of Louisville, but we aren't alone. This is a nationwide phenomenon on Democrats' watch.

Philadelphia just saw their 1,000th carjacking this year. It is not even October yet. Carjackings in Philly have quadrupled just since 2019.

In Phoenix, AZ, the first half of this year saw homicides jump up more than 25 percent compared to 2021. One woman whose brother and cousin were both shot and killed a few weeks ago said:

It's like the community has [actually] become accustomed to

it.

In 2021, Denver recorded more murders than they had seen in a single year since 1981, and the pace was 23 percent higher still in the first half of 2022.

Nationwide, robberies and thefts in big cities shot up 20 percent in the first half of this year.

So it turns out that, when an entire political party builds its brand around undermining the police, going easy on repeat offenders, and putting criminals' interests ahead of innocent families', bad things happen.

Bad things also happen when the same political party decides to stand down on border security: over 2 million illegal immigrants apprehended by the CBP this fiscal year alone, not even counting all of the people who evaded capture; an avalanche--an avalanche--of illegal drugs coming into our land.

These are massive concerns among the American people--concerns that our Senate Democratic majority has intentionally spent all year doing nothing whatsoever to address.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 8982) to amend the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United

States to suspend temporarily rates of duty on imports of certain infant formula base powder used in the manufacturing of infant formula in the United States, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to address the ongoing baby formula crisis and urge my colleagues to support the Bulk Infant Formula to Retail Shelves Act.

I raised two kids, and I know the first months of parenthood are tiring and stressful, even in the best of circumstances. But families across the country remain in a challenging position as they try to find formula that they need to feed their babies.

Nationally, 61 percent of formula shelves are still empty. In my home State of Washington, it has been hit harder, with 67 percent of formula shelves empty. While that is an improvement from the May nationwide high of 86 percent, we in Congress have an obligation to do more.

Part of the improvement we have seen over the last few months can be attributed to legislation that I led with Chairman Blumenauer, Ranking Member Adrian Smith, and my Ways and Means colleagues back in July that lifted tariffs on imported baby formula. This Chamber and the Senate passed the legislation with overwhelming bipartisan support.

There are still more actions, though, that Congress can take to support families, and that is what this legislation that we will vote on today will do.

Consider what this legislation would mean to parents. Jessie is a mom in my district who has been struggling to find formula for her 7-month- old daughter, Amara. She is not one to ask for help often, but when she was running low on her last can, Jessie joined a local social media group where other parents would post where they saw formula on the shelves. She downloaded an app that would notify her when more cans were available and made backup plans for donated breast milk if it came to that.

Jessie was able to find formula in the end but realizes that she is one of the lucky parents who had the means and the network to support her daughter. Not all parents have these resources.

The Bulk Infant Formula to Retail Shelves Act would boost domestic baby formula production and get more product on our shelves. It would do so by lifting tariffs through the end of the year on safe imported base powder. This is a key component filled with essential proteins, fats, and carbohydrates that are mixed with other nutrients and ingredients to make the formula that parents buy on store shelves or online.

Lifting these tariffs and getting more formula on physical shelves would be especially helpful for families participating in the WIC program, the Women, Infants, and Children program.

For the WIC program, parents must use those resources in brick-and- mortar retail stores, and they can't be used for online purchases currently. About half of the baby formula purchased in the United States is purchased through WIC.

This legislation has strong bipartisan support from the leadership of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, Chair Blumenauer, Ranking Member Adrian Smith, and my subcommittee colleagues, Representatives John Larson, Dan Kildee, and Drew Ferguson. In the Senate, we are supported by Senators Mike Lee, Bob Menendez, Todd Young, and Mike Braun.

Families need our help, and they need it now. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill with the same speed and bipartisan force as they did 2 months ago. We worked hand in hand with our Senate partners to ensure that this measure would pass immediately. We can't delay while parents are struggling to feed their children.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), who has been a leader on this issue and who is an original cosponsor of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade who has been an incredible leader on this issue and on the Formula Act that we passed in July.

Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for all of his support on this legislation. It is something that will impact families across the country right away. It not only will help to make baby formula more available, but also to reduce the cost of that formula, and, in particular, help the families who are using WIC across the country.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the strong bipartisan support in the House and the Senate, and it is important for us to move quickly. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 8982, which amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule to suspend tariffs on the imports of formula base powders that are used to manufacture infant formula in the United States.

The reason why this bill is so important can best be demonstrated by conversations that I had at the height of the baby formula shortage earlier this year.

This past spring, 40 percent of baby formula stock that is normally available nationwide was not available in stores.

Practically the entire country was alarmed at this because so many American families rely on baby formula, and even among those who don't, virtually every American knows some family with a young child.

As the founder and Chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus, the needs of women, families, and children are my consistent priority, and the unavailability of baby formula amounted to a crisis.

To address the shortage, in May, I hosted a baby formula give-a-way event in my TX-18th district of Houston.

At the event, I witnessed first-hand the struggles faced by mothers in need. Constituents came to me with open arms and gratitude for the opportunity to receive baby formula that they couldn't find in stores.

Many families described the stress and anxiety of not being able to properly nourish their infant children since baby formula was nowhere to be found locally or online.

Infants are put at risk of physical and mental impairment without proper nourishment.

The legislation we are voting on today will dramatically increase the availability of formula so that children are no longer at risk of these problems.

By suspending tariffs on base powders for infant formula this bill would enable us to boost the domestic production that is necessary to get infant formula back on our shelves in sufficient quantity nationwide.

The renewed, consistent output and distribution of baby formula would ameliorate the nationwide short supply of these essential products that was amplified by pandemic-related supply chain issues.

In response to these shortages, the Food and Drug Administration exercised selective enforcement of base formula regulations to amend the importation of safe infant formula from other countries.

Earlier this year, Congress passed the Formula Act, which lifted steep tariffs on baby formula until the end of this year.

While this alleviated the immediate shortage and parents began to find baby formula in stores, the Formula Act only suspended tariffs on infant formula itself and not the ingredients necessary to make it,

There are still high tariffs on infant formula base powders, a key foundational component necessary for making baby formula products.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed now because if we do not have the key components that are needed to make infant formula, then the current tariff suspensions we have are of no use in the long run.

It is imperative that we eliminate any obstacles in the way of getting formula back onto the shelves and in the hands of parents everywhere.

Tariffs are set in place to protect our trade but with the health of our country's infants at risk, ensuring that baby formula is easily and consistently available in stores must always remain a priority.