A resolution requesting that the President transmit to the Senate not later than 14 days after the date of the adoption of this resolution documents in the possession of the President relating to the Administration's discussions and plans to assess, mitigate, and prevent growing inflation.

Madam President, Americans are worried about inflation. New polling shows that 87 percent of Americans are concerned about the rising costs of household items, like diapers and gas and groceries. That is up from 77 percent just last month. They have good reason to feel that way. Right now, reports show that a third of American households making less than $50,000 in annual income are buying less because of increasing prices, and more than one-quarter of all households report that rising prices on goods are causing them to purchase less.

Just this month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, over the last 12 months, food prices have gone up, and gas prices have risen 23 percent. That means, since Biden was elected, gas prices have increased about 70 cents per gallon across the Nation. Year over year, consumer prices increased 2.6 percent in March. That is up from an annual 1.7 percent increase in February. This is all in addition to statements from some of America's largest corporations, like Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark, which recently announced that they are increasing prices on a number of their products. That includes essential household goods, like toilet paper and diapers.

The evidence of inflation is right in front of us. Just look at these numbers that show the percentage change in average unit prices versus last year: groceries up 2.6 percent; household goods up 5.2 percent; baby care up 7 percent; general merchandise up 7.1 percent. Wages never go up this fast. So who does it hurt? It hurts the poorest and those on fixed incomes.

Businesses are also expecting price increases to continue.

According to data from FactSet, 47 S&P companies have mentioned inflation on their earnings calls for Q1 2021. That is more than during any other quarter in the last 10 years.

On its most recent earnings call, Procter & Gamble's chief financial officer, Andre Schulten, said:

The commodity cost challenges we face this year will,

obviously, be larger next fiscal year.

Who gets hurt the most when inflation rises? Not the rich. It is working families, especially those on low and fixed incomes.

I grew up poor and watched my parents struggle to put food on the table. I know just how much a slight rise in prices can hurt a family, because I saw it while I was growing up, and that is what is happening right now across our Nation.

We know that those in the Biden administration are worried about this. They know that rising costs caused by their massive spending are bad for Americans, but they won't say it. While they are reportedly worrying in private about the effects of their spending plans, they have had a different message in public.

On April 13, the New York Times reported that officials and aides at the White House and the Department of the Treasury have been holding private meetings for months to discuss inflation and have conducted indepth internal analyses for senior officials and President Biden.

The article goes on to read:

Mr. Biden's aides are sufficiently worried about the risk

of that spending fueling inflation that they shaped his

infrastructure proposal, which has yet to be taken up by

Congress, to funnel out $2.3 trillion over eight years, which

is slower than traditional stimulus.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record this New York Times article, dated April 13, 2021

The content and conclusions of these meetings and working groups have not been disclosed or been made available to the public.

While privately worrying about the same issue I have been sounding the

alarm on for months, the Biden administration continues to mislead the American public and ignore the threat of inflation.

Over the last 2 months, I have asked the National Economic Council about its plans to fight inflation and protect American families.

I have written a Federal Reserve member, asked him what can be done to help families who are seeing skyrocketing gas prices and increasing mortgage rates.

I have called on President Biden and Federal Reserve Chair Powell to lay out their clear plan to address inflation and rising prices that threaten American families. I have yet to get a straightforward or acceptable response. I have yet to hear them acknowledge this very real threat or propose a solution to protect families.

So today Senator Braun and I are making a simple request that the Biden administration share with the Senate all of its notes, memos, and reports regarding their discussions and plans to mitigate and prevent growing inflation.

Inflation is a very real threat to the well-being of already struggling families, and the last thing American families need is to be misled by this administration.

Right now, Democrats in Washington are living in a fantasyland where debt doesn't matter, spending has no consequences, inflation is impossible.

But the reality is that inflation does have consequences, and it is the duty of everyone here, especially the President of the United States, to be open and transparent with the American people about what is happening with inflation.

There is no reason the Biden administration should be hiding this information. Americans deserve to know the consequences of massive government spending, and they deserve leadership that will show some fiscal responsibility when it comes to their taxpayer dollars.

I look forward to all my colleagues supporting this effort to increase transparency.

Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 185, submitted earlier today. I ask unanimous consent 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.

Madam President, the decision by my colleague to block this resolution is clearly disappointing.

Let's remember what this was about. This was about transparency. They just blocked the Senate from requesting basic information that is going to help all Americans.

And just look at these numbers again. Just in the last 4 months, grocery prices are up 2.6 percent; household care is up 5.2 percent; baby care is

up 7 percent; general merchandise up 7.1 percent. We are clearly seeing inflation.

Senate Democrats just objected to transparency. That means they are against getting the facts, against ensuring accountability, and against getting the American people the information they need to make smart decisions as prices keep rising.

Eighty-seven percent of Americans are worried about the rising costs of goods. Apparently, so is the White House. So don't the American people deserve the same information about what is happening with the economy?

Floridians deserve to know the truth about inflation and so do the people of Ohio. Why does my colleague want to keep them in the dark?

This administration is telling the American people one thing but saying something else behind closed doors. That is wrong.

The American people deserve the truth. Inflation is real. It is happening. It is hurting American families. It is time President Biden does something about it, and I am extremely disappointed my colleague is actually today helping the President mislead the American people.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, reserving the right to object, no serious economists across the ideological spectrum are concerned about inflation right now. No one is hiding information at the White House.

I am in meetings all the time with White House officials talking about this package. No one believes--first of all, no one is hiding information. No one believes what the Senator, the junior Senator from Florida, is saying about this.

Perhaps some millionaire Senators want to make this into an issue, and I hear that over and over and over, but I talk to people like Jay Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve, nominated by President Trump for that position. He, of course, keeps his eye on these kinds of things, but he has expressed no strong concern about inflation.

And we even know that when some experts have been concerned, they have been wrong. We saw what happened in 2008 after too many elites worried about inflation. What we really needed was to increase wages and get people back to work. The result from 2008 was a recovery that was too slow for most people, while so many of these big costs continued to rise.

Our economy looks a whole lot better today than it did last year, but we can't compare where we are today with where we were last year. We were on the brink of a once-in-a-generation health and economic crisis at this time last year. Millions of people, mostly low-wage workers, lost their jobs. Our economy ground to a halt as we tried to stop the spread of the virus.

This year, we have made good progress with the American Rescue Plan, as the Presiding Officer from Wisconsin knows, getting shots in arms and money in pockets and kids back in school, people back to work.

But our recovery is far from over. Just moments ago Fed Chair Powell said that we are seeing some temporary upticks because things were so dire last year, but we still have a long way to go.

The bigger risk to the economy is not doing enough to raise workers' wages and to invest in the infrastructure that allows our economy to grow.

We know corporate leaders, we know millionaire Senators, we know people at the top have done very--in many cases, have done very, very well through this, but we know millions of workers, many of them hourly workers, have lost jobs. We know millions of workers, so-called essential workers--one essential worker said to me, works in a grocery store: I don't feel essential. Frankly, I feel expendable because they don't pay me much; they don't protect me at work. Those are the people we should be looking after.

I want to raise wages. I want to bring down costs. That is exactly what the jobs plan and the family plan will do--bring down healthcare costs, make childcare more affordable, create more housing people can afford, bring down energy bills, make work--getting to work cheaper and easier with better transit. These are the costs that have been rising and eating away at family budgets for decades.

If my colleague from Florida is so concerned about the cost of living and raising a family, I hope he will join me to allow Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies to bring down prices for seniors. I hope he will join us in investing in childcare to bring down the cost of childcare. I hope he will join us as we work to create more housing, bringing down housing costs. I hope he will join us to raise the minimum wage.

My first speech on this floor 14 years ago--14 years ago, my first speech on this floor was to raise the minimum wage, and we did, and it hasn't been raised since. That is what the Senator from Florida and the Senator from Indiana can help us with.

But we know most of the conservative elites in this country--most won't say out loud what this inflation alarmism is really about. They don't want to invest in the American people. They don't want to do anything to make Americans' hard work pay off. They would rather try to scare people: Can't spend this money because there might be inflation.

They don't want us to do what too many have failed to do: put money in people's pockets and raise wages and rebuild infrastructure.

I would ask my colleagues to listen to the words of a worker from West Virginia, Pamela Garrison. She testified at our first-ever work listening session, our ``Dignity of Work'' session in the Banking and Housing Committee yesterday. She said:

We're seeing corporations make billions every quarter in

profit, but then when we ask for a minimum wage raise, we're

told that ``no that will raise the cost of stuff, oh that'll

cost jobs.''

Funny, corporate executives never seem to say they will have to raise prices when they give themselves bonuses. It is just we will have to raise prices if we increase the minimum wage.

This same Ms. Garrison also said: You know, they call me part of the working poor. The words ``working'' and ``poor'' shouldn't be in the same sentence, and she is right about that.

Real expenses for most families have gone up for decades, along with corporate profits and the stock market. Executive compensation has exploded upward, and workers' wages haven't kept up.

Executive compensation--productivity is up. Executive compensation is up. Profits are up. Workers' wages are flat. That is the problem. That is what we should be working on.

I object

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to address the Senate for 10 minutes.