Floor Statements

Mr. President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 246.

Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for cloture motions filed today, Thursday, July 15, be waived.

Mr. President, on behalf of myself and the distinguished Republican leader, Mr. McConnell, I send to the desk a resolution authorizing representation by the Senate Legal Counsel and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. President, this resolution concerns a lawsuit filed in Federal court in Florida that names a range of local, State, and Federal defendants, including Senator Rubio. Plaintiff's sole allegation against Senator Rubio is that he did not respond to plaintiff's request to introduce legislation that plaintiff urges him to present to Congress. Plaintiff's claims against the Senator based on this allegation are subject to dismissal on jurisdictional grounds and for failure to state a claim. This resolution would authorize the Senate Legal Counsel to represent Senator Rubio in order to seek dismissal of the claims against him.

Mr. President, well, late last night, after a very, very, just amazing meeting--several-hour meeting--of the Budget Committee, where people spoke their minds and we came together, last night, the Senate Democratic majority on the Budget Committee reached a landmark agreement on a $3.5 trillion budget resolution, which will pave the way for historic legislation later this year called the American Jobs and Families Plan.

Very simply, this budget resolution will allow us to pass the most significant legislation to expand support and help American families since the New Deal--since the New Deal. This is a generational and transformational change to help American families, who need the help in this rapidly changing world.

Every major program that President Biden has asked for is funded in a robust way. The President will be attending the Democratic caucus lunch later today to talk about not only agreement but the next steps along the way. When you consider the American Jobs and Families Plan, in conjunction with the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which is close to $600 billion, you get $4.1 trillion, which is very, very close to the total amount that President Biden has asked Congress to invest.

Both traditional infrastructure, like roads and bridges, and social infrastructure--we mean by that things that help people and families directly, such as healthcare, family leave, and education--will receive the kind of support that the American people so need and are asking for. We are very proud of this plan.

Now, we know, the road ahead is going to be long. There are bumps along the way. This is only the first step in a long road we will have to travel and must travel, but we are going to get this done because we so fervently believe that we must make average American lives a whole lot better.

We want middle-class people to be able to stay in the middle class and breathe easier in the middle class. We want poor people to be able to climb that ladder to get to the middle class. And nothing, nothing that has been put on the floor of this Senate will do that better than this bill. Nothing that has been put on the floor of the Senate for the last several decades will do that the way this bill will. It is transformational. And, frankly, it is exciting.

The eventual legislation we are talking about is best understood in three buckets: jobs, families, climate. Instead of giving a giant tax break to large corporations and the wealthy, as our Republican colleagues did when they were in the majority, we are going to strengthen the backbone of the middle class by making critical investments in infrastructure, creating thousands upon thousands upon thousands of good-paying jobs in the process with apprenticeships and training so that people who never had opportunities to have these jobs can get them and then lead good lives for decades later.

The resolution will make sure that there are no tax increases for families under $400,000 and no tax increases for small businesses. This is about rebuilding the middle class and creating jobs. And we will change our tax policy far different than what our Republican friends did. The very wealthy, the people at the top who escaped paying all or a lot of taxes--no, no, no--they are going to pay their fair share for the first time in a long time, so different than what our Republican colleagues did. Their bill gave the top 1 percent a huge percentage, some estimated as high as 83 percent of the breaks. We are going to give it to the middle class, to the working people.

For American families, we will introduce paid family leave, as well as one important addition to President Biden's proposal, which is a robust expansion of Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. This is something that Chairman Sanders, Budget Chairman Sanders, has championed and alerted not just this Chamber but the Nation to its need. We are going to get it done.

And on climate, we must act on climate. We have seen what is going on just in the last month. We are going to invest in green infrastructure--strong, bold, green infrastructure; electric vehicles; clean and renewable power; resilient projects, housing, and more that will not only help our country adapt to a changing climate but slow climate change itself.

On top of President Biden's plans, Democrats will add other policies to significantly deal with climate, such as reducing methane emissions, one of the most potent and deadly of the greenhouse gases.

So jobs, families, climate, these are the three buckets that Democrats will be working on.

Again, let me repeat. There is a long road ahead of us. But the fact that we were able to come together last night with the diverse views on the Budget Committee was a strong shot out of the gate.

Now, I am sure my friends on the other side of the aisle are going to pan this and say one thing or another. We can predict they will label anything where we reach out to help American families. They don't want to do that. They just want to help those wealthy people. They don't want their taxes to rise. They don't want the government to help the people, so they are going to criticize it and use their usual name- calling. That is what they have been doing for years, no matter what legislation there is. I am quite sure they will raise phony concerns about the debt and deficit.

Hello, my colleagues, you raised the deficit by $2 trillion so you can give tax cuts; namely, to wealthy people and big corporations. And now you are going to claim, when we want to help middle-class families, poor families, that there is a deficit? Give us and give the American people a break. It is hypocrisy.

The American people won't buy their criticisms. Creating jobs; providing family leave; making education, housing, and healthcare more affordable; fighting climate change, no one seriously believes that these policies are the policies on the road to what they might call socialism. These are what American people want. Paid family leave, helping people go to college, come on, that is part of our democratic tradition where we build ladders up. And I mean small ``d,'' American tradition, where we build ladders up to help people climb up and live a good life.

So the goals we must pursue are goals to build back our middle class, secure our middle class, help more people get to the middle class, to bolster our economy, to lay the foundation for another century of American prosperity, just as Franklin Roosevelt did close to 100 years ago. And that is exactly what the Democratic majority is going to do

Mr. President, now on another subject, later today, on marijuana, I will join my colleagues Senators Booker and Wyden to release draft legislation to reform the Federal marijuana laws, principally to end the prohibition on marijuana at the Federal level for the first time in several generations.

Over the past decades, Americans' attitudes toward marijuana have undergone a dramatic transformation. Listen to this: Nearly 70 percent of Americans support legalizing adult use of marijuana--70. Eighteen States, plus DC, have passed laws on adult use of marijuana. Thirty- seven States and DC have legalized marijuana for medical use.

The States are supposed to be our laboratory for democracy, and by all accounts, these experiments have been a success. The doom-and-gloom predictions of the naysayers--oh, crime will go way up, drug use will go all the way up--have never, never materialized. I note that a State like South Dakota had it on its ballot in the last election. In that conservative State, the majority people voted in the same direction that we are talking about here.

For decades, for decades, young men and young women, disproportionately young Black and Hispanic men and women have been arrested and jailed for even carrying a small amount of marijuana in their pocket, a charge that often came with exorbitant penalties and a serious criminal record because of the overcriminalization of marijuana, and it followed them for the remainder of their lives. It makes no sense, and it is time for change.

Now is the time for Congress to engage in this debate, update our Federal laws to not only reflect popular wisdom but science. Marijuana, amazingly in this 21st century, is still treated by Federal law with the same hostility as heroin, despite it being far, far less dangerous.

So I greatly look forward to releasing this draft legislation with my colleagues Senators Wyden and Booker today. We will speak about how our bill will address the issues relating to updating our Federal marijuana laws, not just ending the Federal prohibition, but how it will ensure restorative justice, protect public health, and implement responsible taxes and regulations.

Mr. President, on a final matter, Myrna Perez. In a moment, I am excited to head over to the Judiciary Committee to introduce an outstanding nominee for one of the most important courts in the country, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. And the person I will introduce is Myrna Perez, one of the foremost election lawyers in the country.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Myrna graduated from Yale, Harvard, and Columbia Law School before joining the Brennan Center for Justice as a voting rights and election litigator. The Federal bench has long been occupied by former prosecutors and corporate lawyers. It is about time that civil rights attorneys, Federal defenders, and voting rights experts, like

Myrna Perez, one of the foremost voting experts in the country, join the ranks.

Especially now, when our democracy is in peril in many ways, it is crucial we elevate someone like Ms. Perez to the bench, someone we can trust to faithfully and equally apply the law of our great democracy.

I was proud to recommend her to President Biden, and I look forward to formally introducing her to the committee today. When I met her, as I did to interview candidates, she knocked my socks off with her brilliance, her persistence, and her strong and wonderful personality.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the Republican leader, the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1652, which was received from the House and is at the desk, and that the only amendment in order be the following: Toomey No. 2121; further, that there be 2 hours for debate equally divided between the leaders or their designees; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate vote in relation to the Toomey amendment; that upon the disposition of the Toomey amendment, the bill, as amended, if amended, be considered read a third time; that the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, if amended, with a 60 affirmative vote threshold required for passage; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; finally, that there be 2 minutes of debate equally divided prior to each vote in the series.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I will have my remarks, but first I will do a little bit of housekeeping.

Mr. President, I understand there are two bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc.

In order to place the bills on the calendar under provisions of rule XIV, I would object to further proceeding en bloc.

Mr. President, in a democracy, no right is more sacred than the right to vote. And yet, across the country, Republican- controlled State legislatures are conducting the most sweeping and coordinated attack on voting rights in generations, fueled by Donald Trump's insidious Big Lie that the election was stolen.

In several States, limits have been placed on voting hours, polling locations, and methods of voting. Barriers have been raised to make voting by mail, absentee voting, afterhours voting, and early voting harder.

Republican legislatures are not only making it harder to vote, they are making it easier to steal an election. They actually believe that. Donald Trump does the Big Lie, everyone knows it is a lie, and now Republican legislatures are acting on that Big Lie and saying we could steal an election. What is happening to our democracy? Stripping independent election officials of power, giving partisan election bodies more control, even firing members of county election boards, this is what Republican legislatures are doing, not for fairness, not for bipartisanship but to jaundice elections.

And if the consequence is Americans of all parties feel that the elections are not fair, what is going to happen to this sacred and wonderful democracy? Republicans are actively dismantling all the barriers that prevented Donald Trump from subverting our elections in 2020. Imagine if they hadn't been in effect. Imagine.

All of these efforts have an Orwellian logic. Under the guise of ``election integrity,'' Republican legislatures are sowing more doubt about our elections through phony audits and fact-free claims of voter fraud, lying claims of voter fraud. They are lying. I just saw on TV this morning how the Trump lawyers are being lambasted in court. And even Rudy Giuliani has lost his license to practice because they lied about the election, that they perpetrated the Big Lie in legal documents. The same thing is happening everywhere. What is happening to this Republican Party? What is happening? When Donald Trump, the biggest liar we have ever had as President, sets the tone and they follow in those lies, repeat those lies, sometimes even embellish on those lies, what is happening to that party, the party of Abraham Lincoln?

Falsely claiming that the election was ``stolen,'' Republican legislatures are making elections easier to overturn, even under the falsest and biggest

of lies. And what happens here? Our Republican friends here in Washington have chosen a path of supine compliance, refusing to stand up to the Big Lie, bowing down before it, bowing down before Donald Trump, the biggest liar that we have ever had as an American President, except when the Capitol Building is literally under siege.

And, by the way, just parenthetically, I commend to my colleagues and to all Americans--the New York Times did a video of the siege. They even had some--they showed the siege; they showed the violence; and they had some Republican Congressmen saying it was like tourists. It was incredible. I recommend everyone should watch this. And I hope-- Republican colleagues, just watch it. You were there. Just watch it. I commend the New York Times. They did a great job on it.

Anyway, the effort to fight this wave of voter suppression and Republican election rigging is strong and growing. I want to be very clear about that.

In Texas, where the Republican Governor has called a special session to reconsider one of the most restrictive voting laws in the Nation, Democrats are doing all they can to block the dangerous partisan bill. They are brave. They are bold. They are courageous, and history will show them on the side of right and the Republican Governor--I saw him on TV this morning--on the side of deep, dark, ugly wrong. Many of these lawmakers from Texas have come to Washington. I will be meeting with a group of them today to plot out strategy and to praise them for what they are doing.

President Biden will also address the issue of voting rights in a major national address in Philadelphia, using the bully pulpit to draw the Nation's attention and announce ways in which his administration can defend Americans' fundamental rights.

And next week, Senator Klobuchar--always on the ball on these issues--will lead the Senate Rules Committee to the State of Georgia-- your State, I say to the Presiding Officer--for their first field hearing in 20 years. It will be an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the consequences of the Big Lie and show the American people just how far Republicans have gone in order to make it harder--harder--for people to vote in the 2020 election.

The bottom line is this: Democrats will not stop fighting to protect voting rights and defend our democracy. As I said, the vote in June was the opening gun, not the finish line.

Last month, all 50 Senate Democrats united for the first time this Congress to move forward on a strong voting rights bill. Shamefully, shamefully, Republicans refused to even allow debate on voting rights legislation, hiding behind some of the exact same States' rights arguments, and very similar arguments, that southern Senators used in the 1960s to oppose the Voting Rights Act. How do you feel about that, Republicans and Republican leadership? How do you feel about using the same arguments that were used by some of the arch segregationists to stop voting rights in the Senate in the 1960s?

Last month, as I said, the vote represented the starting gun, not the finish line, in the fight to protect voting rights. As majority leader, I reserve the right to bring back voting rights and democracy reform for another vote on the Senate floor

Mr. President, now, on another issue, infrastructure and climate. Over the past few weeks, we have seen an awful heat wave hit Oregon and Washington. Those States in the beautiful Northwest, always known for their cool summer breezes, had temperatures like 115 degrees. It was just astounding, not just a little temperature bump but dramatically unusual.

Temperatures in the Pacific Northwest climbed so high that power cables melted and roadways cracked in two. At the same time, in the American Southwest, the lack of rainfall and depleted reservoirs have led to a historic lack of water. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, more than 77 percent of the great State of New Mexico is in a state of severe drought.

As climate change continues to worsen, extreme weather like this, unfortunately, is only becoming more common, putting our agriculture, our infrastructure, our economy, and our people's health at grave risk.

That is why I have made addressing the climate crisis in a bold way a primary focus of our upcoming debate on infrastructure. We are working with great urgency to make this happen. And we are going to do it in two ways:

First, climate change has forced us to repair and rebuild our infrastructure in a way that takes into account our new reality. Our infrastructure must become more resilient to extreme weather. In New York, I insisted that the Hurricane Sandy aid, for which New York and New Jersey got $60 billion, focus on resiliency. And as we rebuild from Hurricane Sandy using those Federal dollars, we have done it in a way that makes flooding in downtown New York City and Long Island less likely. We need to repeat that effort across the country to deal with heat waves, droughts, wildfires, more powerful hurricanes and even more.

But, second, we must use infrastructure investment to combat climate change itself, not just make ourselves more resilient. If it keeps getting worse, resiliency goes up, global warming gets higher-- resiliency goes up. We need to have this go down. That is so, so important.

And what are we doing? In President Biden's proposal and in the proposals Democrats are putting forward, we are investing in green infrastructure, clean and renewable power, electric vehicles and charging infrastructure, and retrofitting our economy to reduce carbon emissions and slow climate change in both urban, suburban, and rural areas. Investing in both elements--resiliency and green infrastructure--that will create thousands upon thousands of good- paying union American jobs in the process.

So as discussions continue on both a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution, Senators of both parties must understand that the issues of climate change and infrastructure cannot--cannot--be separated from one another.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, pursuant to S. Res. 27, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions being tied on the question of reporting, I move to discharge the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions from further consideration of the nomination of Jennifer Ann Abruzzo, of New York, to be General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, 6 months ago, the Democratic majority began this Congress by aggressively confronting the COVID crisis. We passed the American Rescue Plan--one of the largest Federal stimulus measures in history--to help bring an end to the economic downturn and prime our economy to come roaring back. Now, millions of Americans have come off the unemployment rolls, and small businesses have reopened from coast to coast. More than 150 million Americans have been fully vaccinated. We need, of course, to keep up the effort to inoculate the rest of the country, but suffice it to say, we are well on our way to bringing the country out of chaos, out of crisis, and back to normal. But the task is not done.

As our country reopens and Americans return to work, we must turn our attention to laying a foundation for the future. This upcoming work period will focus on exactly that: building a foundation for future American prosperity for years and decades to come through smart and bold investments in our Nation's infrastructure.

As I have said for weeks, the discussions about infrastructure legislation continue along two tracks. On the bipartisan track, our committees are getting closer to turning the recent agreement between the White House and the bipartisan infrastructure group into legislation. I am pleased to report

we are making very good progress toward that goal. On the second track, the Senate Budget Committee is close to finalizing a budget resolution, which will allow the Senate to move forward with the remaining parts of the American Jobs and Families Plan. The Senate must pass the budget resolution and an eventual budget reconciliation bill with or without Republican support.

The fact of the matter is, brick-and-mortar infrastructure is very important, but it is no longer the only type of infrastructure that matters in the 21st century. Human infrastructure--what many might call family support as our families come under increasing pressure in this modern society, things like childcare, family leave, education, healthcare--are just as essential to giving our citizens opportunity as building roads and bridges and railways. Both are very important. Twenty-first century investment in broadband internet, the electric grid, and retrofitting our economy to fight climate change in bold ways are just as important as roads and bridges and railways. We must do both. It is not one or the other, and we are going to do both.

Before the week work period is over, it is my intention for the Senate to hold votes on the bipartisan infrastructure bill and a budget resolution. Members should prepare for a busier work period than usual, with the possibility of late-night votes, weekend votes, and changes to the August schedule. It is not going to be easy, but it is certainly going to be worth it.

The Federal Government has not made a significant stand-alone investment in infrastructure in decades. We have the world's largest economy, and yet our infrastructure ranks 13th. America has less generous family support policies than so many of our peers who are not as wealthy as we are. It is time to rebuild our infrastructure, create millions of good-paying jobs--particularly to those who haven't been able to get good-paying jobs--and help American families keep up with rising expenses. If and when we succeed, the benefits--the benefits-- will reverberate across the country for generations to come.