Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to execute the order with respect to Calendar No. 523, S.J. Res. 63, at 3:30 p.m. today.

Mr. President, for the information of the Senate, there will be a rollcall vote at approximately 4 p.m. today on passage of S.J. Res. 63, related to the national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, as we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we join together to acknowledge and express our appreciation for Hispanic communities across America and their innumerable gifts to our diverse Nation. Hispanic individuals have been critical in making this country a more inclusive and pluralistic union. In Maryland, Hispanics are the second-largest minority group, comprising more than 12 percent of our population, according to the 2020 Census. Hispanics in every corner of our State continue to engage in and strengthen our economy, educational and cultural institutions, and government.

National Hispanic Heritage Month, first established in 1968, recognizes these achievements while encouraging the pursuit of new ones. This year, we particularly recognize the sacrifices made by Hispanic educators, essential workers, and healthcare professionals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We also honor those Hispanic veterans who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces and honorably protected the values and ideals that we hold so dear.

While acknowledging Hispanic contributions to American history, culture, and identity, we also pledge to combat xenophobia and ignorance in all its manifestations. We support Hispanics as they seek fair access to equitable healthcare, affordable education and housing, and equal representation and in the private and public sectors. We also renew our commitment to pursuing comprehensive immigration reform and to protecting immigrant populations who call this Nation their home, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals--DACA--and Temporary Protected Status--TPS--recipients. As Americans, we all share a responsibility to treat one another with respect, decency, and compassion. Moreover, as we approach the 2022 midterm elections, we must recognize the need to address the disproportionate targeting of Hispanic voters with election-related disinformation.

During the remainder of National Hispanic Heritage Month and throughout the year, let us renew our commitments to a diverse society and mark the unique contributions Hispanics have made in every area of American life, culture, and history. Let us continually celebrate these achievements with appreciation and joy.

Mr. President, I wish to commend the adoption of the resolution of ratification with respect to Treaty Document No. 117-1, amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Adopting the Kigali Amendment, as it is better known, will formalize the U.S. commitment to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, under the global climate treaty. These industrial chemicals commonly found in air conditioners and refrigerators, insulating foams, and pharmaceutical inhalers are potent greenhouse gases. This historic achievement is the latest in a series by a Congress that will be remembered for its unprecedented action to combat climate change and future-proof our economy.

Fittingly, last week was Climate Week NYC, an event that has taken place every year in New York City since 2009. The summit takes place alongside the UN General Assembly and brings together international leaders from business, government, and civil society to showcase global climate action.

A working paper on HFCs produced for the New Climate Economy by Nathan Borgford-Parnell, Maxime Beaugrand, Stephen O. Anderson, and Durwood Zaelke of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, highlights HFC phasedown as one of the greatest opportunities to mitigate climate change quickly.

Specifically, reducing HFC use in line with the Kigali Amendment to Montreal Protocol could avoid 0.5 degree Celsius--0.9 degree Fahrenheit--of warming by 2100. That will go a long way toward limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius under the Paris Agreement and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. U.S. adoption of the resolution, which has been ratified by 137 countries, contributes to delivering on that commitment and cements the consensus on climate ambition as a complement to thriving economies.

I would like to reflect on how we arrived at this moment. Under the Montreal Protocol, participating countries

agreed to replace ozone-depleting products, such as chlorofluorocarbons--CFCs--found in refrigerants, aerosols, and solvents to help address the hole in the ozone layer. As a result, there has been a 97-percent reduction in the global consumption of controlled ozone-depleting substances, with minimal economic disruption.

Hydrofluorocarbons--HFCs--make up the majority of the ozone-friendly products being used today to replace CFCs. HFCs can now be found in nearly every home in the United States, namely in our air conditioners and refrigerators. Although HFCs were developed as an ozone-layer- preserving alternative to historical refrigerants, they are now known to be highly potent greenhouse gases--hundreds or thousands of times more so than carbon dioxide. This discovery challenged policymakers and manufacturers to keep innovating.

On October 15, 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda, more than 170 countries negotiated an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to include a global phasedown of HFCs. The goal of the Kigali Amendment is to achieve an 80 percent or greater reduction in global HFC consumption and production by 2047.

Five years and three Presidential administrations later, on November 16, 2021, President Biden transmitted the Kigali Amendment to the U.S. Senate, which was referred to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where I am proud to serve. The Foreign Relations Committee voted the Kigali Amendment out of committee by voice vote earlier this year.

Today, U.S. businesses stand to benefit tremendously from the global phase-down in hydrofluorocarbons--HFCs--and, thereby, the ratification of Kigali. This includes chemicals manufacturers such as Honeywell, air-conditioning and refrigeration companies, and major retail companies like Walmart. Honeywell, headquartered in North Carolina, has a safety product manufacturing presence in Silver Spring, MD. I applaud the U.S. businesses at the forefront of innovation and development of commercially viable alternatives to HFCs that have already invested billions of dollars in developing alternatives to HFCs, including in anticipation of U.S. ratification of Kigali. This investment in research and development and new capacity, mainly in the U.S., will advance our ability to produce next-generation refrigerants, insulation materials, aerosols, and solvents here at home, insulating our economy from supply chain disruptions.

In fact, the United States is already implementing domestic authorities to phase down the use of HFCs in a manner entirely consistent with Kigali, under the American Manufacturing and Innovation--AIM--Act that I am proud to have supported as a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. During the challenging early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee gathered information from stakeholders on legislation introduced by Senators Kennedy and Chairman Carper to establish a domestic phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons--HFCs--consistent with the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. We heard from an extraordinary range of industry and environmental stakeholder groups supporting this legislation, particularly those most directly affected.

It was through this process that I learned that a Maryland academic institution had contributed to the consensus around the economic benefits of ratification. INFORUM, or Inter-industry Forecasting at the University of Maryland, produced an analysis cited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, and many of the firms and industry associations that support the AIM bill. The University of Maryland study found that the phasedown of HFCs will create 33,000 new U.S. manufacturing jobs. When the indirect and induced effects were added to estimate the total impact, the number of jobs gained rose to 150,000.

On December 27, 2020, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 was enacted, which included the American Innovation and Manufacturing-- AIM--Act. The legislative language was nearly identical to the bipartisan legislation introduced by Senators Kennedy and Carper, which had broad bipartisan backing in the Senate, with 16 Republican cosponsors. EPA has already started implementing the AIM Act, with the first regulations issued in October 2021.

Even before the Federal action taken in the last 2 years, States were acting in their interests to reduce HFCs. In November 2020, the Maryland Department of the Environment--MDE--finalized regulations to phase out the use of HFCs and reduce methane emissions to help meet the State's aggressive climate and environmental goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

This sub-national action was designed to help Maryland meet its requirements under the State's emissions reduction target, which was subsequently made even more ambitious when the Climate Solutions Now Act become State law. The act set a new target of net zero by 2045, while continuing to have a net positive effect on the economy and job creation. Maryland participates in the U.S. Climate Alliance and is a member of the multi-State Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative--RGGI.

Maryland is also a leader for green building in the U.S., having been included in the Top 10 States for LEED list every year since 2011. The U.S. Green Buildings Council community has long shown leadership on refrigerants, with key studies issued in the early 2000s probing the balance between ozone layer and global warming.

In fact, since 2010, 63 percent of LEED-certified projects have achieved the enhanced refrigerant management credit, which is intended reduce ozone depletion and support early compliance with the Montreal Protocol while minimizing direct contributions to climate change. Embracing energy efficiency, including through the use of modern refrigerants, across these properties has a tangible impact in their home communities.

The Federal Government given its real estate footprint needs to lead by example. Fortunately, there is major new Federal funding included in the Inflation Reduction Act for the General Services Administration-- GSA--to do just that, including funding to improve the environmental performance of Federal buildings and implement emerging and sustainable technologies.

The next generation of coolant technologies is extremely energy efficient. This means the transition to HFC alternatives will generate billions of dollars in energy savings for American businesses and consumers over the next decade. In total, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency--EPA--has estimated that the economic benefits from implementing the AIM Act alone will be more than $270 billion. Clearly, phasing down HFCs in favor of environmentally safer alternatives and more energy-efficient cooling technologies benefits the climate and the economy.

Nearly 1 year ago, I returned from my trip to Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the 2021 United Nations--UN--Climate Change Conference, where the need for concerted action at every level--State and local, national, and international, and nongovernmental--was undeniable.

I was privileged to have 18 Senate colleagues join me to bolster President Biden's agenda and the U.S. leadership role on the world stage. The Glasgow Climate Pact established a clear consensus that all nations need to do much more, immediately, to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperatures. Thursday's Senate action by a comfortable margin of 69-27 is a signal to the world that together we can protect our economic interests and improve quality of life. While our work to combat the climate crisis is hardly complete, we can build on the momentum generated by this hopeful, strategic victory.

I will conclude by applauding my colleagues for their actions in support of adoption of the Kigali Amendment, and for our years' long efforts along the path to this historic moment.

Madam President, we have a 50-50 Senate, with 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats. Vice President Harris provides the Democrats with our majority. The House of Representatives has a very slim Democratic majority: currently, 221 to 212, with 2 vacancies.

When the 117th Congress began, I think most Americans were doubtful that we would be able to pass legislation to help them, their families, their communities, and our Nation. I am happy to report that, despite the odds, the 117th Congress has been a historically productive Congress. This is not a statement I make lightly, nor did I predict this many legislative accomplishments when we began the 117th Congress in January of 2021.

I knew America's doubts, but I also shared their fervent hope that Congress would somehow find a way to beat the odds. And we have, sending numerous major bills to President Biden to be signed into law. Some of our accomplishments have been genuinely bipartisan, especially the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the so-called CHIPS and Science bill. That is gratifying because I believe that Congress, especially the Senate, is at its best when it works in a bipartisan fashion.

Some of our accomplishments have been solely Democratic victories; notably, the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. I regret that we were unable to convince our Republican colleagues to join us on those bills because they advanced public policies and enjoyed broad bipartisan support among the American people. Democrats will always reach across the aisle to pass legislation that enhances our national and economic security, but we are prepared to work alone, if necessary.

Our most recent accomplishment is the Inflation Reduction Act. The Senate passed this legislation just before the August recess on a party-line vote. That legislation will make it easier for American families to afford health insurance and help seniors with prescription drug costs. Extending the Affordable Care Act enhanced health insurance premium subsidies through 2025--just this one provision of this bill-- and will save medium-income Marylander families about $2,200 annually.

For tens of thousands of Marylanders on Medicare who use insulin, the Inflation Reduction Act caps their insulin costs at $35 per month. We tried to extend that cap to Americans with private insurance. Our Republican colleagues blocked this effort, but Democrats will continue working to make that a reality.

For the more than 1 million Marylanders and all other Americans covered by Medicare, the Secretary of Health and Human Services finally will have the authority to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare Program. This will help ensure that Medicare patients get the best deal possible on high-priced drugs, saving taxpayers approximately $100 billion.

The healthcare provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act are significant, but they are only part of the bill. The legislation makes a historic investment to shift our economy from fossil fuels to clean energy. This will help us cut our carbon emissions 40 percent by 2030. The Inflation Reduction Act will lower electricity costs and emissions and will create up to 9 million good-paying jobs here in America in the growing clean energy sector.

I authored a provision in the legislation to provide production tax credits to our existing fleet of nuclear powerplants. They produce 20 percent of the Nation's electricity and over 50 percent of its carbon- free electricity.

A new analysis estimates that this legislation will lower the average household electricity bill by approximately $170 to $220 annually over the next decade. Maryland homeowners will be eligible for tax credits for residential solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass fuel improvements now through 2034. They also will be eligible for a larger tax credit for energy efficiency home improvements through 2032, as well as tax credits for the purchase of new and used clean energy vehicles, including electric vehicles.

Maryland farmers will see tangible benefits from the more than $20 billion of funds included for climate-smart agricultural practices through existing farm bill conservation programs, including the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and Natural Resources Conservation Service technical assistance for reducers. These are very valuable programs for Maryland farmers who are meeting their obligations in regard to the Chesapeake Bay Program.

The Inflation Reduction Act also bolsters resilience programs to help Maryland communities prepare for extreme storms and other changing climate conditions. We live in a coastal State so Marylanders fully understand the need to address climate change, cut greenhouse gas pollution, and protect the Chesapeake Bay. Our State and local governments will be eligible for new and expanded grant programs to improve public health, decrease pollution, increase climate resiliency, and promote environmental equity.

The legislation pays for these smart investments while reducing the deficit and without raising taxes on working families and small businesses. In fact, according to a nonpartisan analysis, many working families may actually see lower taxes on a net basis over the next couple of years as a result of the legislation.

This legislation and its targeted investments aimed at lowering costs for American families is only one of a string of positive accomplishments that we have been able to do in this Congress, coordinating with President Biden. Other major legislation in the 117th Congress includes the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, which will make America more competitive by bringing home domestic production of semiconductors and investing in innovation and science; the bipartisan Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring Our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, known as the PACT Act, which provides healthcare benefits for all generations of toxic-exposed veterans for the first time in our Nation's history and will improve access to care for all our veterans--promises made, promises kept; the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which is the first major gun safety legislation Congress has approved in decades; the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, one of the biggest, most comprehensive Federal commitments to repairing and modernizing our Nation's infrastructure in modern history; the Keep Kids Fed Act, which the Senate passed unanimously, that extended essential funding for schools, daycare providers, and communities to ensure healthy meals for children throughout the school year and summer; and the American Rescue Plan Act, which Democrats passed in March of 2021 to provide billions of dollars in relief to help Americans recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have done all this, and we are reducing the deficit by $2 trillion.

Let me talk a little bit about the CHIPS and Science Act. Semiconductors are crucial to nearly every sector of our economy. They are in our cars, our trucks, medical devices, 5G telecommunications equipment, and the list goes on and on and on. America created the semiconductor industry in the 1960s. We ceded the global leadership in the seventies. We regained it, to an extent, in the nineties but have lost it again. In 1990, the U.S. share of semiconductor manufacturing was 37 percent. By 2020, that share had declined to 12 percent.

The CHIPS and Science Act gets the United States back on track with respect to domestic semiconductor manufacturing, which is crucial for our national and economic security. This is a national security issue that provides $54 billion in grants to domestic manufacturers and another $24 billion in tax credits through the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors for America Fund.

The substitute amendment also authorizes $102 billion over the next 5 years for the National Science Foundation, the Department of Commerce, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology--a $52 billion increase over the Congressional Budget Office baseline.

These funds will be a shot in the arm for domestic manufacturing. Here is a list of some firms that plan to use the funding to expand or establish manufacturing facilities right here in the United States: Intel and TSMC plan to build factories in Ohio and Arizona; GlobalFoundries wants to expand a facility in Upstate New York; SkyWater Technology and Purdue University want to collaborate on a new $1.8 billion factory and research facility in West Lafayette, IN; IBM and State University of New York at Albany want to establish a semiconductor research center in Albany. And the list goes go on and on and on. We are preparing for America to continue to lead in manufacturing, particularly high-tech manufacturing.

I also want to highlight the science provisions in the bill. It authorizes $20 billion to the first-of-its-kind NSF Directorate of Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, which will accelerate domestic development of critical national and economic security technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, advanced manufacturing, 6G communications, energy, and material science. We are going to be the leaders in these areas. We should be.

It authorizes $9 billion--$4 billion over CBO baseline for several National Institutes of Science and Technology programs, including tripling of funding for the Manufacturing Extension Program, leveraging that program to create a National Supply Chain Database, which will assist businesses with supplier scouting and minimize supply chain disruptions; and with NASA, the Artemis Program to return Americans to the Moon as a prelude to sending humans to Mars is fully authorized and funded.

The science provisions in this bill also extend the International Space Station through 2030 and support a balanced science portfolio, including Earth science observations and continued development of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. We are the leaders of the space telescope. I am proud of all the work that is done in my State of Maryland and the images that we see from outer space.

The provisions codify the Planetary Defense Coordination Office and requires NASA to continue efforts to protect Earth from asteroids and comets. In this regard, this Monday, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test--a Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab mission--will deliberately crash a probe into a ``moon'' of a double asteroid to shift its orbit.

It is amazing that we can do this. We are the leaders in science, and we are making sure we are going to be the leaders in science and in space moving forward.

I introduced the Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act in the previous Congress and again in this Congress, and I am pleased the CHIPS and Science bill directs NASA to continue research in aeronautics, including the use of experimental aircraft to advance aircraft efficiency and supersonic flight.

The PACT Act, in addition to providing the historic relief to toxic- exposed veterans, boosts claims processing; bolsters the Veterans' Administration's workforce; and invests in VA healthcare facilities nationwide to ensure the Agency can meet the immediate and future needs of every veteran it serves, including the 300,000-plus veterans who live in the State of Maryland. I will tell you, it provides for improvements to the community health centers in Prince George's and Baltimore City for our veterans.

The Safer Communities Act closes loopholes that allowed convicted domestic violence abusers to buy firearms legally. It boosts funding for community violence intervention and prevention initiatives, and it provides hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to improve and expand mental healthcare.

On the bipartisan infrastructure package, funding is flowing right now to improve Maryland's transit, ports, roads, and bridges; expand broadband availability; and fix our aging drinking water and wastewater system. The bill provides $17 billion in port infrastructure and waterways. Congestion in American ports was a key factor in the disruption of the global supply chain. Expanding and modernizing port infrastructure will help ensure that American manufacturers and producers can move their goods to markets around the world. The bill also invests $25 billion in our airports. Modernizing our airport infrastructure will help keep people and products moving around the country and the world.

I am particularly pleased the legislation includes $238 million for the Chesapeake Bay Program. The bill also includes my bipartisan legislation to make permanent and expand the Minority Business Development Agency, which is the only Federal Agency dedicated to supporting minority-owned businesses.

The American Rescue Plan provides tens of billions of dollars to support vaccination and COVID-19 testing, driving down the death rate from the virus by 90 percent. The bill also invested in hard-hit communities and brought concrete relief to the Nation at a time of great need. I was especially proud of the investments we made to help save so many small businesses throughout Maryland and the Nation.

From the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act, and everything in between, these and other legislative accomplishments have helped address important needs across Maryland and our Nation.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, over 20 million Americans had lost their jobs. And the unemployment rate rose to 14.7 percent in April of 2020. The number of employed Americans now exceeds the prepandemic high--the second fastest job market recovery since 1981. The number of Americans working is at an alltime high. And the unemployment rate has dropped a half-century low of 3.5 percent.

Since President Biden assumed office, the economy added nearly 700,000 new manufacturing jobs. This represents the strongest manufacturing job growth since the 1950s. Manufacturing job growth in 2021 alone exceeded any other single year going back nearly 30 years.

Over the past year, the construction and new manufacturing facilities in the United States has grown by an estimated 116 percent. In recent surveys, the CEOs, 80 percent were either in the process of moving manufacturing operations back to the United States from China or were considering doing just that.

While unemployment continues at historic lows and gas prices are declining rapidly, we are still facing challenges. Food prices, rent, and other costs are still too high. The Federal Reserve has had to raise interest rates, which is painful for families and businesses alike. Most mainstream economists believe that we can avoid a recession and the economy will have a soft landing despite the supply chain challenges we continue to face because of COVID and Russia's war in Ukraine. This would be a truly historic accomplishment.

President Kennedy said:

Our responsibility is one of decision, for to govern is to

choose.

Our legislative achievements over the last 20 months demonstrate that Congress can be productive and the Federal Government is a powerful force for good.

I hope we choose to remain on that path--Democrats and Republicans alike--because there is still so much we can do and need to do to help the American people.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to mark the week beginning on September 11, 2022, as National Direct Support Professionals Recognition Week. Direct support professionals assist millions of individuals living with disabilities to perform a wide range of

essential daily tasks such as meal preparation, transportation, and medication management. Direct support professionals provide critical home- and community-based services--HCBS--that allow individuals to stay connected with their communities.

As direct support professionals stepped up during the pandemic and provided care while facing increased personal risks as frontline workers, many faced long-standing difficulties such as inadequate wages and benefits. These challenges disproportionately affect racial and ethnic minorities, who comprise 62 percent of the home care workforce, which includes direct support professionals. These issues have led to high turnover and vacancy rates, contributing to a growing shortage of direct support professionals.

Even as this shortage persists and millions of jobs in the field remain open, demand for direct support professionals is expected to increase by at least 1.4 million new direct care jobs by 2026, according to PHI. An insufficient number of direct support professionals will likely mean longer wait lists for individuals seeking assistance, force providers to turn away new referrals, or discontinue programs and services. These circumstances hurt quality of care and put further stress on family caregivers.

Under President Biden's leadership, we have taken steps to invest in home- and community-based services by building up the home care workforce and expanding access to care. I am proud to have voted for the American Rescue Plan Act, which--among many critical provisions-- included $12.7 billion for HCBS. I am also a cosponsor of the Better Care Better Jobs Act, which would build on the funding from American Rescue Plan Act by continuing enhanced Medicaid funding for HCBS for States that expand access to these services and invest in the workforce, such as the direct support professionals.

It is more important than ever that we take the time to recognize the work of those who choose to be direct support professionals. I would like to congratulate two Marylanders who were recognized this year for their work as direct support professionals: Maria Swift of Penn-Mar Humans Services received the American Network of Community Options and Resources' National Direct Support Professional of the Year Award and Tammy Wright of Consumer Direct Care Network received the Maryland State award. Maria and Tammy are making an enormous difference and I appreciate their service to others. I would also like to thank Senators Collins, Blumenthal, Brown, Casey, Kaine, King, Klobuchar, Menendez, Smith, Van Hollen, and Warren for joining me in showing our appreciation for direct support professionals across the Nation and recognizing the essential role they play in our healthcare system.

Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to Renee Cohen, a member of my staff who is retiring after more than 37 years of service to the people of Maryland. Renee has been with me since I served as speaker of the house in the Maryland General Assembly before I won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986.

W.H. Auden said, ``We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for I don't know.'' Certainly, Renee has devoted her life to helping others, and she has made an extraordinary difference in the lives of so many people and families. She is a native Baltimorean and a graduate of Forest Park High School, where she was an officer in her sorority and excelled academically. She grew up surrounded by aunts and uncles, especially the Pollakoffs on her mother's side of the family. She attended Temple University, where she earned an associate's degree that allowed her to work as a dental hygienist. She worked to help support her mother, who was widowed when Renee was a young teenager.

Renee married the love of her life, Jonas Cohen, in 1960, and they had three wonderful sons, Mark, Adam, and Ethan. Renee has been a devoted mother and grandmother. When her sons

were old enough, she returned to school, to Notre Dame College of Maryland, now known as Notre Dame of Maryland University, to earn a bachelor's degree in fine arts. She is a gifted artist.

Renee and Jonas found many opportunities for volunteer work and leadership roles through the Associate Jewish Charities. Her influence and reach in local civic life and politics continued to expand to the point where I knew I needed her on my staff as a constituent liaison. When I entered the House of Representatives in 1987, Renee became a caseworker, focusing on healthcare and senior citizen issues. She has had a special interest and insight into these issues after caring for her mother, Rose Katz, who lived to be 105, and her husband, who had a progressive illness before he passed away in 2020. Since I joined the Senate, Renee has been an indefatigable field representative for me on health and senior issues and a liaison to the Jewish community.

Try as we might, Senators cannot be in two places at once. We depend on staff to represent us. If you were to Google Renee, you would find numerous articles and pictures of her representing me in Baltimore and around the State, at healthcare fairs and other events, where she shared her knowledge, contacts, and other information with constituents who needed Federal assistance of some kind. She particularly relished helping people to understand and navigate the Affordable Care Act.

Much of what Senators do can seem ethereal or intangible. Staffers like Renee represent where ``the rubber hits the road.'' Casework and the sort of outreach Renee performed is intensely personal. Renee helped people receive their Social Security retirement, Social Security disability, and supplemental security income payments and Medicare benefits. She excelled because she is empathetic and has a passion for service, for problem-solving, and for strategic thinking. If, for any reason, she was unable to offer assistance--which was exceedingly rare--she had a knack for finding agencies that the rest of us never knew existed for a referral. She would never end a call with, ``I'm sorry, we can't help you.'' She always went the proverbial extra mile.

Another keen interest of Renee's has been science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--STEM--education. Renee was instrumental in helping to establish STEM programs for underserved students in schools across Maryland and the annual STEM Expo at Morgan State University. She calls these projects ``my baby,'' and educators affectionately refer to Renee as ``the STEM Queen.''

Renee has worked for me longer than any other member of my staff. It was inevitable that I would consider her as a member of my extended family and vice versa. I have been so fortunate to have her by my side for nearly 40 years. The positive difference she has made in so many people's lives is incalculable. She has run the race and is ready to retire--sort of. Renee is not someone who lets the grass grow under her feet so she will return to the office occasionally as a ``senior intern,'' helping answer the phones and pitching in on casework. I am grateful we will stay connected. But she will have more time to devote to her family and friends and her avocation, which is painting. Renee sees the beauty in the people she has faithfully served and in the natural world, which she captures on canvas. On behalf of my Senate colleagues and the people of Maryland, I want to express my undying gratitude to Renee for nearly four decades of exemplary service, congratulate her on her retirement, and extend my best wishes to her as she turns the page, paint brushes in hand, to a new chapter in a life well-lived.

Madam President, I rise today to pay tribute to Robert ``Bob'' Hand as he retires this week after 40 years of faithful service to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also known as the Helsinki Commission. The Commission is an independent U.S. Government agency Congress created in 1975 to monitor and encourage compliance with the Helsinki Final Act and other commitments undertaken since then by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, OSCE. The Commission consists of nine members from the House of Representatives, nine members from the U.S. Senate, and one member each from the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce. The House and Senate share the positions of chair and cochair and rotate every 2 years, when a new Congress convenes. For the Commission to function, it relies on expert professional staff who must be as nonpartisan as they are expert in their fields.

I am, during this 117th Congress, the chair of the Helsinki Commission, though for these remarks it is important to note that I have served on the Commission since the 103rd Congress, dating back to my time in the House of Representatives. When I joined the Commission in 1993, as the several Balkan Wars were unfolding in the former Yugoslavia, Bob Hand was already the go-to person on Capitol Hill for news and information--and explanations--of what was happening in the Western Balkans. I have worked with Bob for 29 years now. I have relied on him for 29 years. I have respected his intellect and his prodigious work ethic for 29 years.

This month, Bob retires as the longest serving staff person on the Helsinki Commission, with 40 years of service. Bob earned a B.A. in international relations and Russian area studies, with a minor in economics, from the School of International Service at American University in 1983 but actually started at the Commission in 1982 as an intern. After he graduated, he quickly moved to full-time staff in 1983. Throughout the years, he has shown exceptional professionalism and has always been willing to go above and beyond the call to do whatever was necessary to ensure that the Commission served mandate defended human rights. His deep expertise on the Western Balkans has made him renowned among policy professionals in Washington, and his appearances on Voice of America and TOP channel in Albania nearly made him a household name there.

Bob worked tirelessly throughout the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s to ensure that members of the Helsinki Commission had the best information and analysis of developments when formulating legislation and policy responses to address the aggression, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing which took place in Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995. He helped to document these atrocities through numerous hearings and briefings and reports. He also advised Helsinki Commissioners as they pressed U.S. leadership to use NATO assets to end the siege of Sarajevo and protect UN-designated safe havens and to lift the arms embargo imposed on Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Bob was an early proponent of the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia--ICTY--to hold those responsible for atrocities to account, including for the Srebrenica genocide, which he has ensured the Commission commemorates each year in memory of those murdered. He has also ensured that other cases stay at the forefront of policy attention, particularly the Bytyqi brothers, three Albanian-Americans whose murdered bodies were found in Serbia in 2001 and for whom Bob has never stopped seeking justice.

Bob is also an expert on Albania, and he helped organize a Helsinki Commission visit to Albania in 1990, the first U.S. Government agency visit to that nation since relations were severed in 1946. He returned to Albania numerous times over the years, observed most of the country's elections over the past two decades, and through his thoughtful and in-depth analysis of political developments in the country, became a respected commentator on Albanian radio and television.

Bob served on numerous U.S. delegations to OSCE Meetings, observed dozens of elections, and he even served as a mission member on one of the OSCE's first field missions: the OSCE Missions of Long Duration in Kosovo, Sandjak and Vojvodina, stationed in Novi Pazar in 1993. He is not just one our Nation's top experts on the Western Balkans; he is also a fount of knowledge on the OSCE itself, and especially the OSCE's Parliamentary Assembly, PA.

Bob has served for many years as the Secretary of the U.S. Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly. In that role,

he deftly ensured that our delegation was not only well-prepared both logistically and substantively, but also through working diplomatically with other delegations, he ensured that our proposals, resolutions, and amendments had the best possible chance of being successfully adopted. Most recently at the OSCE PA annual session in Birmingham, Bob worked diligently with several other delegations to ensure that a critical resolution condemning Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was adopted with the strongest possible language.

Bob has also always been a voice of reason, humanity, and fairness. He did not refrain from criticizing U.S. policy when it was warranted and several times advocated that the United States proactively discuss its own shortcomings with other OSCE countries, including after reports of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, surfaced in 2003. Among Commission staff, he was always quick to support his colleagues, but also did not shy away from debating the pros and cons of ideas. Above all, Bob has always sought to do what is right--for the Helsinki Commission, for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, for the United States, and for the promotion of human rights, democracy, and rule of law throughout the 57 nations of the OSCE.

A little over 2 years ago, I paid tribute to another Commission staffer, Erika Schlager, on her retirement after 34 years of service. It so happens that Bob and Erika are husband and wife. Bob and Erika have devoted their lives--75 years and counting--to defending and promoting human rights. They have been passionate and remarkably effective advocates for the world's downtrodden and disenfranchised.

The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, remarked, ``It means a great deal to those who are oppressed to know that they are not alone.'' For the past 40 years, oppressed people around the world, but especially in Eastern and Central Europe, knew they weren't alone because Bob Hand was fighting for them. I know I speak on behalf of my Senate colleagues, my fellow Commissioners, and Bob's wide circle of professional colleagues and admirers when I say that I will miss him. I am grateful for his stalwart service and wish him all the best for his future endeavors.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I rise today to congratulate my dear friend State Senator George C. Edwards, who is retiring from the Maryland General Assembly at the end of this year, and to thank him for a half-century of principled and productive public service to the people of Maryland, especially his constituents in what we call Mountain Maryland: Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties.

George was born in Grantsville, MD, and graduated from Northern Garrett High School in Accident, MD. He received his bachelor of science in business administration, cum laude, from Fairmont State College in West Virginia in 1970. He was the starting fullback on the football team there and earned National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-American honors. Despite playing at a small school, he was good enough that the Baltimore Colts drafted him. George wanted to be a teacher, however, and later attended what was then Frostburg State College to receive his teacher's certificate so he could teach social studies at his old high school.

I met George when he won his first election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982, where I was serving as speaker of the house. Even though he was only 33, he was already a seasoned elected official with a decade of experience on the Grantsville Town Council and the Garrett County Board of County Commissioners. He also served in the National Guard for 6 years after he graduated from college,

George served with distinction in the house of delegates for 24 years, finishing his tenure there as minority leader from 2003 to 2007, when he won election to the State senate, where he has served for the past 16 years. George won 4 of his 10 elections to the general assembly with 100 percent of the vote and another 3 with 98 percent or more of the vote. He and Delegate Sandy Rosenberg are the deans of the Maryland General Assembly; each of them started their service in 1983.

George delivered a farewell address to the State senate that reflects the type of person he is, a statement filled with self-deprecating wit, congeniality, and a gentleness too rare in politics. He said that his first task in Annapolis was to educate his fellow lawmakers that Allegany County isn't spelled with an H, that Maryland's longest border is with West Virginia, and that western Marylanders speak in a particularly folksy way. ``You speak slow and you m-m-m mumble a little bit,'' he said. He also noted that when he joined the general assembly, there were only 13 Republicans serving in the house of delegates and 7 in the State senate. ``I can count,'' he said he remembered thinking. ``I said, hmm, I need to make some friends. And I need to make some friends on [the Democratic] side of the aisle. And I think I've done that.'' George certainly has made friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, and I am proud to be one of them.

In an op-ed in the New York Times several years ago, Michael Ignatieff wrote:

For democracies to work, politicians need to respect the

difference between an enemy and an adversary.

An adversary is someone you want to defeat. An enemy is

someone you have to destroy. With adversaries, compromise is

honorable: Today's adversary could be tomorrow's ally. With

enemies, on the other hand, compromise is appeasement.

Between adversaries, trust is possible. They will beat you

if they can, but they will accept the verdict of a fair

fight. This, and a willingness to play by the rules, is what

good-faith democracy demands.

George understands this crucial distinction between adversary and enemy and has acted according to this principle throughout his entire career, which is why even his adversaries are his friends. It is why he has served as cochair of the general assembly's joint committee on legislative ethics, making him the only Republican in leadership in the legislature. It is why he has been such an effective representative for his constituents in western Maryland. It has been a challenge because, as George has noted, ``A lot of people where I live don't think people in other parts of Maryland think we're in Maryland.'' As Maryland State Senate President Bill Ferguson said, George has ``made sure every senator understood the needs of his district and always approached negotiations from a standpoint of getting to a resolution, not to obstruct.'' Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King, a former chair of the budget and taxation committee, summed it up when she said, ``You can't say no to George because he's such a nice guy.''

In 1946, Brooklyn Dodgers manager Leo Durocher famously quipped, ``Nice guys finish last.'' Durocher never met George, who has always come in first by putting his constituents first. Being nice is not the same as being obsequious. George is a true conservative, a rarity in today's politics. He and I have different points of view on some major issues like gun safety and government regulation, but that has never stopped us from working as a team on behalf of his and my constituents.

We have worked together to support and expand Federal-State partnerships such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Economic Development Administration, Community Development Block Grants, and the Department of Agriculture's Rural Development Program. We have worked together to secure funding from Maryland and Pennsylvania and the Federal

Government to complete the North-South Appalachian Highway initiative connecting I-68 to the Pennsylvania Turnpike via US-219. We have worked together to expand rural healthcare access and opportunities through federally qualified community health centers, regional hospitals, and other Federal partnerships in the region. We have worked together to support higher education and workforce development programs through Frostburg State University, the Western Maryland Consortium, and the region's three community colleges.

We have collaborated to provide State and Federal grant training for local emergency management and first responders to ensure they have the resources they need to protect their communities. We have collaborated to ensure that small businesses have access to State and Federal resources to grow their businesses. We have collaborated on casework for our constituents with State and Federal agencies related to healthcare, veterans' benefits, housing, banking and taxes, passports, and other issues.

George's legislative accomplishments are too numerous to list, so I will mention just a few. He fought to alter a State revenue formula to provide additional funding to counties, such as Garrett and Allegany, where the State owns 15 percent or more of the land. He secured changes to Maryland's Program Open Space, a land acquisition and recreation program, to give Garrett and Allegany Counties the flexibility they need to use the program without impeding economic development. He increased Allegany County's share of revenue from the Rocky Gap Casino Resort and increased the county's flexibility with respect to how it can spend that revenue. He succeeded in increasing the speed limit on parts of I-68 to 70 miles per hour, which is understandable considering that his Senate district--district 1--stretches 125 miles from Red House at the far western end of the State to Williamsport in Washington County. Earlier this year, Governor Hogan signed into law a bill George sponsored to establish the Western Maryland Economic Future Investment Board and Senator George C. Edwards Fund to provide $50 million over the next 3 years in State grants and loans for capital infrastructure and business development projects in the region. Of course, George is far too modest to suggest naming something after himself; his colleagues voted unanimously to amend the bill to be named in his honor.

When George announced his retirement, he noted that he had spent the equivalent of 10 years in Annapolis, away from his family. So I would be remiss if I failed to mention Linda, his beloved wife of 55 years, and their two children, Kristin and Paul. Paul has followed in his father's footsteps and serves as chair of the Garrett County Board of County Commissioners. All Marylanders, but especially his district 1 constituents, owe a debt of gratitude to his family for sharing him with the public. He and Linda are the proud grandparents of eight children, and I certainly understand his desire, after half a century of public service, to spend more time with his family.

In Shakespeare's play ``Hamlet,'' Polonius counsels his son Laertes, ``This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.'' This describes George Edwards and his life of public service. He has been true to himself and never false to his colleagues or to his constituents. I am honored to count George as a friend and want, on behalf of the entire U.S. Senate, to extend my congratulations and deepest appreciation to him and wish him and Linda and their family all the best as he returns home to Mountain Maryland.

Mr. President, I rise today to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden. I want to comment on the transferable tax credit provisions supporting sustainability in the bill and, in particular, the application of general limitations that already exist in current law for various tax credits. As the chairman knows, the bill includes a historic investment in tax credits and incentives to promote the development of various clean energy technologies and provides a broad regime to permit eligible credits to be transferred from the project owners to another unrelated taxpayer.

Under current law, the ability to claim general business tax credits is subject to a number of potential limitations in section 38 of the Tax Code based on the taxpayer's income tax liability. The bill language does not appear to apply the section 38 limitations to reduce the amount of the credit eligible to be transferred by the transferor of tax credits. This would be consistent with the goal of encouraging additional investment by expanding the availability of these tax credits to project owners without regard to their ability to claim the credits themselves.

I expect that the Treasury Department will develop technical guidance for these transferable credits in a manner that reflects the intent that the section 38 limitations under current law will not apply to the transferor.

I welcome the chairman's leadership and support to clarify this issue, ensuring that the amount of the tax credits eligible for transfer are not limited by section 38 so that they will, in fact, expand investment in projects that will achieve the broader climate goals of this bill.

Mr. President, I rise today to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden.

I want to ask for a clarification of the provision in the underlying bill regarding the corporate book minimum tax. Is it the chairman's understanding and intent that, because the corporate alternative minimum tax is based on financial statement income, it does not include Other Comprehensive Income?

I thank the chairman for that clarification.

Mr. President, I rise today to engage in a colloquy with the distinguished chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden.

There is some question as to the proper ordering of the calculation of

the credit under section 53 and a taxpayer's liability under section 59A, the base erosion and anti-abuse tax. Does the Treasury have authority to issue regulations dealing with potential issues with the ordering of the calculation of the credit under section 53 and the tax under section 59A?

I thank the chairman for that clarification.

Mr. President, the legislation being considered today includes a historic expansion of the section 179D commercial buildings energy-efficiency tax deduction. The deduction, made permanent in 2020, is an important tool to tackle climate change by encouraging investments in energy-efficient buildings.

I have been made aware of a discouraging trend among those who use section 179D that some entities attempt to receive payments in exchange for providing section 179D allocation letters to private sector building designers.

As I have said before, entities seeking to avail themselves of the tax benefits of section 179D cannot seek, accept, or solicit payments from designers in exchange for providing section 179D allocation letters.

The issuance of a section 179D allocation letter shall not be used as leverage to request a payment from a designer; allocation letters should be duly issued once the applicable design services have been performed.

These actions run counter to the intent of section 179D(d)(4)'s express direction to allow the allocation of the section 179D deduction ``. . . to the person primarily responsible for designing the property in lieu of the owner of such property.''

Consistent with congressional intent, section 179D allocation letters are administrative in nature and serve to formalize the allocation of the tax deduction to the eligible designer.

As section 179D is rightly expanded in the legislation being considered in the Senate, it must be reaffirmed that it is congressional intent that entities cannot seek, accept, or solicit payments in exchange for providing 179D allocation letters.

Madam President, Senate Democrats have stepped up and passed legislation that will make it easier for American families to afford health insurance coverage and prescription drugs and lower energy costs and boost domestic job creation in the growing clean energy sector. We have done so while reducing the deficit and without raising taxes on families and small businesses. The Inflation Reduction Act--IRA--tackles climate change, makes the Tax Code fairer, and invests in long-overdue environmental justice programs. This is an historic bill, and polling indicates that large majorities of Americans support its major provisions.

While a simple majority of Senators can pass a budget reconciliation bill, there was nothing to prevent our Republican colleagues from joining us in supporting this measure to lower essential costs for American families and enhance our economic and national security. These are policies that all Senators and all Members of Congress should embrace, and this legislation contains many bipartisan policies. Reconciliation does not have to be a partisan process. Just in the past year, the Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-- IIJA--the CHIPS + Science semiconductor manufacturing bill, the Honoring Our PACT Act, and Treaty Document No. 117-3, which contains Protocols to the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 on the Accession of the Republic of Finland and the Kingdom of Sweden, with strong bipartisan majorities. I regret that our Republican colleagues did not join us today in passing the IRA.

As for me, if asked to choose between the status quo or lowering health coverage costs for Maryland families and having large companies pay a minimum, fair share of taxes, there is no contest. I will choose Maryland families every day. I find it incomprehensible that anyone-- other than perhaps some billionaires--thinks it is acceptable that teachers, nurses, and mechanics and most small businesses often pay a greater percentage of their income in Federal taxes than the ultrawealthy or a company that makes billions of dollars in profits. The bill we passed today changes that calculation and holds the richest Americans and companies that make over a billion dollars accountable for paying their fair share of taxes, like everyone else in this country.

This past Wednesday, Timothy F. Geithner, Jacob J. Lew, Henry M. Paulson Jr., Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers issued the following statement:

As former Treasury Secretaries of both Democratic and

Republican Administrations, we support the Inflation

Reduction Act, which is financed by prudent tax policy that

will collect more from top-earners and large corporations.

Taxes due or paid will not increase for any family making

less than $400,000/year. And the extra taxes levied on

corporations do not reflect increases in the corporate tax

rate, but rather the reclaiming of revenue lost to tax

avoidance and provisions benefitting the most affluent. The

selective presentation by some of the distributional effects

of this bill neglects benefits to middle-class families from

reducing deficits, from bringing down prescription drug

prices, and from more affordable energy. This legislation

will help increase American competitiveness, address our

climate crisis, lower costs for families, and fight

inflation--and should be passed immediately by Congress.

The original top-line estimates from the Congressional Budget Office--CBO--and the Joint Committee on Taxation--JCT--were that the bill would raise $725 billion in revenue, invest $433 billion, and apply the balance--nearly $300 billion--to deficit reduction. These numbers will change some with the final score, but they illustrate the magnitude of what this bill will accomplish. The IRA will help to build a better America for all Americans.

Let's start with health care. The bill we passed today will lower prescription drug prices and make healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans. Finally, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will have the authority to negotiate lower drug prices for the Medicare Program, benefitting both millions of seniors on fixed incomes and taxpayers. In the private sector, no plan sponsor or manager would ever accept responsibility without the ability to decide how to negotiate. Medicare negotiation will ensure that patients with Medicare get the best deal possible on high-priced drugs, saving Medicare approximately $100 billion.

The IRA will further lower drug costs for seniors by capping out-of- pocket costs for part D prescriptions at $2,000 each year, requiring drug manufacturers to pay penalties if they raise their prices faster than inflation, and delaying of the Trump administration's drug rebate rule. Although these provisions alone will lower beneficiary costs, the IRA also lowers costs through a redesign of the Medicare Part D formula, expansion of the low-income subsidy--LIS--in part D, and Federal coverage for vaccines.

The IRA also invests $64 billion to extend ACA healthcare premium subsidies through 2025. These subsidies, first provided through the American Rescue Plan, have guaranteed millions of Americans access to affordable health insurance. Access to affordable health insurance saves lives and reduces costs because people get the care they need and they get it sooner. As Benjamin Franklin said, ``An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.'' The IRA will save Maryland families with median income about $2,200 annually.

The IRA raises several hundred billion dollars by making the Tax Code fairer through three major provisions. The first provides up to $80 billion to the Internal Revenue Service--IRS--to modernize its computer systems, some of which are 60 years old, and rebuild its workforce to ensure greater tax compliance. CBO estimates that investing $80 billion in tax enforcement and compliance will generate $203 billion in additional revenue over the next 10 years.

Since 2010, the IRS budget has been cut by roughly 20 percent, and the budget earmarked for enforcement has dropped by 24 percent. Audit rates for the largest corporations and the ultrawealthy have fallen dramatically, by 54 and 71 percent, respectively. We now have the perverse situation where the poorest American families are audited at about the same rate as the top 1 percent richest taxpayers, even though that 1 percent is responsible for 28 percent the ``tax gap,'' the difference between taxes owed and collected. According to recent polling, nearly three-quarters of Americans believe the IRS should conduct more tax audits of large corporations and millionaires.

The IRA provides 10-year funding for the IRS as follows: $3.2 billion for taxpayer services; $45.6 billion for enforcement; $25.3 billion for operations support; and $4.8 billion for business systems modernization.

These appropriated funds are to remain available until September 30, 2031, and no use of the funds is intended to increase taxes on any taxpayer with taxable income below $400,000.

The bill also makes it easier for the IRS to establish a free, direct e-file tax return system. The IRS currently outsources its free e-file program to private, for-profit tax preparers. Not surprisingly, only 3 percent of taxpayers--of 70 percent eligible--use the existing free e- file option.

The second major provision establishes a minimum corporate income tax of 15 percent of book income on fewer than 200 of the Nation's largest corporations that currently pay less than the statutory corporate tax rate, which is 21 percent. The corporate alternative minimum tax-- CAMT--proposal would impose the 15 percent minimum tax on adjusted financial statement--``book''--income for corporations with profits in excess of $1 billion. Corporations would generally be eligible to claim net operating losses and tax credits against the AMT and would be eligible to claim a tax credit against the regular corporate tax for AMT paid in prior years, to the extent

the regular tax liability in any year exceeds 15 percent of the corporation's adjusted financial statement income.

In 2020, 50 of the biggest corporations paid $0 in Federal corporate income tax, despite recording substantial profits. Some of these companies effectively had a negative Federal income tax because they received more in credits and rebates than they paid in taxes. The AMT makes the existing corporate tax structure fairer, especially for smaller businesses that often pay their taxes at higher rates than the largest corporations. Consider that many small businesses pay taxes through the individual tax code, where the highest tax rate is as much as 37 percent. Setting a baseline of taxes to be paid by the largest corporations gives small businesses a better chance to compete and succeed.

The third provision is a 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks. Corporations can choose to distribute profits either by issuing dividends or buying back shares of stock, which inflates stock prices. Stock buybacks are taxed at a lower rate than dividends and create profit gaming opportunities for companies, which have been abused over time. By levying a small 1 percent tax on these buyback transactions, it improves tax efficiency and raises revenue that will significantly contribute to deficit reduction.

The IRA's tax provisions will increase compliance and close the tax gap, which costs the U.S. $1 trillion per year in unpaid taxes, according to the IRS. That is important for the revenue they raise. It is also important that millions of hard-working Americans who play by the rules and pay their taxes believe that the system is fair and that the ultrawealthy and large corporations aren't dodging their financial responsibilities.

We need to address climate change by rapidly reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and cutting our greenhouse gas emissions. The IRA does that. It will cut our emissions by 40 percent or more by 2030 and put us on track to meet 70 percent of our Paris agreement obligations. It contains a Methane Emissions Reduction Program to reduce leaks from the production and distribution of oil and natural gas.

The IRA contains roughly $370 billion in clean energy, energy security, and climate change investments that will lower Americans' electricity bills and prices at the pump and create as many as 9 million good-paying jobs here in America in the clean energy sector over the next decade.

I am pleased the IRA includes a provision I have championed, a production tax credit for our existing fleet of nuclear reactors. They are an essential source of baseload power and provide 20 percent of the Nation's electricity and over 50 percent of our carbon-free electricity.

According to the non-partisan Resources for the Future, all told, the IRA will drive down retail costs of electricity by 5.2-6.7 percent over the next decade, saving electricity consumers $209-$278 billion. The average household will experience approximately $170-$220 in annual savings from smaller electricity bills and reductions in the costs of goods and services over the next decade. The clean energy investments will help to insulate ratepayers from volatility in natural gas prices, with electricity rates projected to decrease even under a high natural gas price scenario. More importantly, the IRA will bolster our economic and national security by strengthening our grid and reducing reliance on foreign energy supplies.

The legislation also includes a historic expansion of a tax program I have led, the section 179D energy efficient commercial buildings deduction, which provides a tax deduction for energy efficient building investments. Energy efficiency is good business and good policy. This legislation will expand section 179D, which was made permanent in 2020 under my leadership, to increase the deduction amount, improve its administration, allow more nonprofits to use the deduction, and expand its use to building retrofits.

In addition to the important steps the IRA takes to advance clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the bill delivers major Federal investments to make our communities healthier, safer, and more resilient in the face of increasing impacts of climate change. It provides Federal assistance for monitoring environmental quality, mitigating the harmful impacts of air pollution and excessive heat, and enhancing walkability in our neighborhoods. It does this through $3 billion for Neighborhood Access and Equity Grants and $3 billion for Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grants. By targeting resources to disadvantaged or underserved communities, the bill advances equity in our infrastructure planning and investments.

Climate change is happening now. We need to address its impacts on the ground. The IRA invests $2.6 billion for the conservation, restoration, and protection of coastal and marine habitats and resources, including fisheries, to enable coastal communities to prepare for extreme storms and other changing climate conditions, as well as $250 million to rebuild and restore units of the National Wildlife Refuge System and State wildlife management areas.

The bill supports America's farmers and rural communities, with around $20 billion in funds for climate-smart agricultural practices through existing farm bill conservation programs, including the regional conservation partnership program--RCPP--and $1 billion for the Natural Resources Conservation Service, to provide technical assistance on conservation to producers. Many sustainable practices such as expanding cover crops and riparian buffers that mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help farmers adapt to climate change also cost- effectively reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay.

The IRA makes investments to accelerate clean energy deployment, help achieve our climate goals, and create millions of jobs over the next decade. These investments include an expanded tax credit to support domestic manufacturing of clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries; and tax credits that will make battery and fuel cell electric vehicles--EVs--more affordable for millions of families. The bill provides over $9 billion for Federal procurement of American-made clean technologies, including $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to purchase zero-emission vehicles, helping to create a stable market for clean, Made in America products.

Researchers Robert Pollin, Chirag Lala, and Shouvik Chakraborty at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute estimate that the IRA's more than 100 climate, environmental, and energy provisions will generate an average of about 912,000 jobs each year over the next decade through combined annual public and private investments of $98 billion.

The IRA tax credits and other provisions won't just help create jobs; they will help create jobs that pay prevailing wages. The middle class has experienced wage stagnation for half a century. Income inequality has grown. The IRA will help to rebuild the middle class. Unions from the Communication Workers of America and the United Auto Workers to the National Treasury Employees Union and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers all support the IRA because it promotes union jobs and apprenticeships and because it will lower healthcare costs.

In May, the Treasury Department estimated that the budget deficit this year will decline by $1.5 trillion. As President Biden noted at the time, ``The bottom line is that the deficit went up every year under my predecessor before the pandemic and during the pandemic. And it's gone down both years since I've been here. Period.'' The IRA is fiscally responsible and will help reduce our budget deficits.

Deficits remain too high, of course, but one of the best ways to address them is by getting unemployed Americans back to work. The July jobs report released on Friday put the unemployment rate at 3.5 percent, matching the lowest it has been in 50 years. The U.S. economy added 528,000 jobs in July, more than twice the number economists anticipated. As Myles Udland, Senior Markets Editor of Yahoo! Finance, stated,

This staggering increase in employment completes a

milestone for the U.S. economy: Pre-pandemic employment is

now fully restored.

In February 2020, the last month before the COVID-19

pandemic tipped the U.S. economy into recession, there were

152.504 million people employed in the U.S.

As of July 2022, 152.536 million people in the U.S. were

working.

And despite the labor market contraction during the

pandemic being the sharpest in modern history, the bounce

back marks the second-fastest job market recovery since 1981.

In a little over two years, we've seen job losses that

topped 20 million at one point be fully erased.

This recovery stands in stark contrast to the malaise we

saw in the labor market following the financial crisis, when

it took the better part of a decade for pre-crisis employment

levels to be restored.

Inflation is also too high, but its root causes are COVID-19 pandemic-related supply chain disruptions and Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. The IRA tackles these disruptions by promoting domestic manufacturing and supply chains and reducing our reliance on foreign energy. On August 2, 2022, over 120 prominent economists wrote a letter to Senate and House leadership stating that the IRA ``addresses some of the country's biggest challenges at a significant scale. And because it is deficit-reducing, it does so while putting downward pressure on inflation.''

There is much to celebrate in this bill, but there are many priorities that we were not able to add. This ``to do'' list includes reinstating the expanded child tax credit and making child care accessible and affordable. My priority list includes legislation I have long championed to expand dental coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, as well as to Medicaid beneficiaries, along with expansions to home and community-based and maternal health services. Congress also needs to address housing supply and economic development priorities, including the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the New Markets Tax Credit, and the Historic Tax Credit. While the IRA will help create good-paying union jobs, we need to do more to protect and enhance workers' rights to form and join unions and engage in collective bargaining. And I will continue working to fund water infrastructure programs the IIJA created to address urgent affordability and resilience issues.

While that seems like a long list, we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and the IRA is so much better than good. It is transformational legislation, and I am proud to support it. I want to commend Majority Leader Schumer and so many of my colleagues who have worked diligently both in the spotlight and behind the scenes to bring us to this point. I also want to acknowledge committee and personal staff; CBO and JCT staff; Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough and her crew; leadership, floor, and cloakroom staff; the Senate legislative counsels; and others. You toil anonymously, but I hope you know how important you are. The Senate could not function without you. You are among our Nation's finest public servants, and you are making a critical difference in the lives of all Americans.

The American essayist Charles Dudley Warner famously said, ``Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it''--a quote commonly misattributed to his friend Mark Twain. Passing a reconciliation bill is like that. We all complain about the process, especially the so-called vote-a-rama, which is grueling and grinding and befuddling to just about everyone, but we don't fix it. In fact, it seems to get worse each time, not better. I know I would prefer not to go through the process again, but the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan before it have been worth it.

Dahlia Rockowitz, Washington director of Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, noted that the Senate consideration of the Inflation Reduction Act began on the Shabbat and Tisha B'Av, a Jewish day of collective mourning for historic destructions. But as she pointed out, `` . . . according to Jewish tradition, this day of despair is also the day that new hope and the potential of a rebuilt, reimagined, redeemed world is born. These investments in clean energy and transportation can help us emerge from climate-fueled disasters to a more hopeful, clean energy future for generations to come.''

Madam President, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Kim Brinkman, who will be retiring on August 11, and to thank her for her 34-plus years of exemplary service to the Senate community. Kim has spent her entire career working in the Senate Disbursing Office. Her colleagues in disbursing will miss her, but so, too, will all Senators and Senate staff and their families. We have all relied on Kim for expert advice and guidance on pay and health and retirement benefits and other issues.

Kim is a constituent, but she originally hails from Nevada, IA. She attended Stephens College in Columbia, MO, for 2 years and then transferred to the University of Iowa, where she graduated with a degree in economics. She is a proud Hawkeye.

In 1985, Kim had a summer internship working at the Federal Aviation Administration and decided she wanted to return to Washington, DC, after she graduated from college. She went to a library in nearby Ames, IA, and checked the ``Help Wanted'' section of the Washington Post's classifieds. The Senate Disbursing Office had an opening; she applied and returned to Washington to interview for the job; and she got it. She started working in the disbursing office on October 5, 1987.

When Kim started her career, the disbursing office had a staff of 43; just 10 of them were women, including Kim. The Senate had just two female Senators: Senator Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, and my former colleague, Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who had just assumed office a few months before Kim arrived. Fast forward to today, and 45 of the disbursing office's 58 staffers are women. There are 24 female Senators, plus Vice President Harris. That has been one of the biggest changes Kim has witnessed over the course of her career. The other is the advent of the internet, email, and other information technology, which has revolutionized the way we all work, including Kim.

Senators Leahy, Grassley, McConnell, and Shelby are the only Members currently serving who arrived here before Kim, and just one of her colleagues at disbursing has more seniority. Kim began her career as a staff assistant in the front office, moved to the employee benefits section, became the employee benefits manager, and later was promoted to her current position as assistant financial clerk of the Senate.

I have often said that the Senate is a family, and we are so grateful to staff members like Kim who make it function. Certainly, Kim has made the thousands of Senators and staffers she has helped over the years feel like family. She isn't just a subject matter expert when it comes to pay and benefits; she is friendly, cheerful, patient, and kind. Everyone who knows Kim has the highest regard and affection for her.

Kim will travel back to Iowa this month to visit her parents and help celebrate her father's 90th birthday. She will also travel to Kentucky to celebrate her daughter Maya's graduation from the University of Kentucky. While Kim and her sister will continue to look after their parents as needed, I know Kim's legions of friends in the DC metropolitan area are glad that she will be coming back here, where she will step up her gardening and her antique shopping in Rappahannock County. She will have more time for her artwork and playing the piano and clarinet and volunteering at her church, where she is part of the visiting ministry team.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ``To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.'' He was describing Kim Brinkman.

On behalf of my colleagues, but especially on behalf of all the Senate staffers and their family members whom she has counseled and assisted over the years, I want to thank Kim for her outstanding service and wish her all the best as she embarks on the next chapter in a life well lived.

Madam President, first of all, I want to applaud the Senator from Alaska for his comments. I agree completely with his statements, and I think his amendment making it clear that we expect the 2 percent to be honored by all member states is something that we all should welcome and agree to.

I thank you for your leadership. I also thank you for how you have articulated the importance of NATO to our national security.

NATO is a transatlantic security partnership that has served our national security interests so well for so many years since the end of World War II.

Today, we are going to have a chance to vote to expand the NATO alliance by adding Finland and Sweden. I hope all my colleagues will support that.

I will point out that Finland already exceeds the 2 percent that Senator

Sullivan is talking about, the percentage of their GDP that they are spending on defense. So I think this is another reason why we have countries that we want to add to the alliance. We have 30 strong now. This will even be stronger with Finland and Sweden being added to the NATO alliance.

But what is unique about the two countries that we will have a chance to vote on in a few moments is that they give us added value to our alliance. They make our alliance stronger. It is in our national security interest to include Finland and Sweden. They add value militarily and economically to this alliance.

The geostrategic location of these two countries is critically important to our national security. Just think for a moment about the threats to the Baltic nations that we have seen by Russia--Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Think about where Poland has been threatened because of Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

Adding Finland and Sweden will help us round out the security alliance necessary to provide the security that we need. Both of these countries are already committed to interoperability with the NATO alliance. They are already familiar with how NATO's process and procedures are utilized.

So we have two countries that are ready from day one to be active participants in the alliance. They both participate in regular participation and training exercises with NATO and U.S. forces. Both Sweden and Finland have done that. They have contributed troops. Sweden has contributed troops to NATO-led operations in Kosovo, to Afghanistan, to Iraq. So we have countries that have already stepped up to help us in security and now will be a formal part of the security alliance.

They will add, also, a dimension that is important for us in regards to winter warfare. The cold response winter warfare exercises have been participated in. Finland has the arctic capabilities that will be critically important to us as we move forward. So we are adding value to the NATO alliance as well as expanding the number of countries.

I want to mention one other area: cyber and misinformation. We have two countries that have been very active in being victimized by the misinformation campaign by Russia. Sweden has a Psychological Defence Agency that they created in 2016 that is going to be important for us. As we know, Mr. Putin uses every weapon in his arsenal, including misinformation, in order to try to bring down democratic states. We know that in Sweden's case, they are already taking decisive action to counter the misinformation. Finland has an anti-fake-news initiative, which is actually fascinating. They recognize that Russia is trying to invade their country through misinformation, and they have an active way of defending against it. So, as I said earlier, we have two countries that will add value to the alliance.

The timing here couldn't be better. We have stood up an international resolve to support Ukraine in the invasion by Russia. Expanding NATO at this moment is a clear message to Mr. Putin that we stand with the democratic countries of Europe and we are prepared to expand our NATO alliance to guarantee their protection.

So these two stalwart, democratic nations, Finland and Sweden, have been robust partners to the United States and Europe on countless fronts. They have provided humanitarian aid to many countries in need, including Ukraine during the unprovoked invasion by Russia. Combined, Finland and Sweden provided over $120 million in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine between February and June of 2022.

These two nations have also shown a commitment to democratic governance, ranking third and fourth respectively on the global Democracy Index of 2020, according to an economist group. So we have two of the leading democratic states.

Finland and Sweden have proven time and time again that they have the defense capabilities and commitment to democracy in Europe to make them essential NATO allies. The Senate must act now to bolster this global peace and security by voting in favor of Finland and Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty. I urge my colleagues to do that.

I yield the floor.