Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume legislative session and be in a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, last night, before a joint session of Congress, President Biden laid out a comprehensive, thoughtful vision for the country.

First, he spoke about what we have accomplished so far, and on that front, there was plenty to talk about.

The Democratic majority in Congress passed the most sweeping Federal recovery effort in a new generation, the American Rescue Plan, accelerating the pace of vaccinations and our economic rebound. As a result, the United States administered more than 200 million shots in less than 100 days. More than half of American adults have gotten at least one shot, and two-thirds of American seniors are vaccinated. Eighty-five percent of all Americans have received a stimulus check of $1,400 through the American Rescue Plan. More than 160 million relief checks have been delivered.

Our economic recovery continues apace. The United States created more than a million jobs over the past 3 months--the most new jobs in a President's first hundred days in American history. And just this morning, we learned that jobless claims hit a new pandemic low for the third straight week. Today's numbers are an indication that our economy is back on track and should be going full throttle. America is turning the corner. America is turning the corner.

Over the first quarter, the American economy grew by 6.4 percent--6.4 percent. Under President Biden and Democratic majorities in Congress, America is turning the corner--6.4 percent growth, wow. That shows you that America is back, and that shows you that the kind of strong, active proposals that we Democrats have made are the right direction for the country and have the support throughout the country of Democrats, Independents, Republicans because it is the right thing to do--the right thing to do.

The story of the first hundred days is a story about shots going into arms, checks going into pockets, life getting back to normal, and the economy picking up a lot of steam. After one of the most difficult years in history, we have made extraordinary progress.

President Biden spoke last night about how and where we can build on that strong foundation. We can't rest. We have a lot more to do. We want to keep this country going at a strong rate of growth, creating new jobs, making America healthier. We want to continue to do that. We are not just going to stop with the ARP. We can't.

President Biden proposed commonsense investments and policies that will provide a pathway to success for working people and for America as a

whole. In particular, the President's focus on jobs, middle-class incomes, and helping families and workers succeed in a 21st-century economy was very much welcomed.

America is breathing a sigh of relief to see Joe Biden in that chair and not the previous President, who just all too often, even in those speeches where he was supposed to rise to the occasion, appealed to the worst instincts of people.

The President's plan--President Biden's plan--will help restore that once innate American optimism that has really been shaken for the last 4 years. Now the Congress must act. And, as majority leader, I intend for the Senate to take up legislation to make President Biden's vision a reality.

Truthfully, a lot of what President Biden proposed last night should be bipartisan. Just because a Democratic President proposed a jobs and infrastructure plan doesn't mean jobs and infrastructure are Democratic issues. Just because a Democratic President proposed a comprehensive plan to address childcare and education and workforce training doesn't mean those are just Democratic issues. My Republican colleagues, in one way or another, have joined Democrats on legislation in those subject areas for years.

President Biden spoke at length about the need to outcompete China. That is something our two parties have long agreed on and a topic the Senate will address in the next work period.

Even on the very difficult subjects like police reform, gun safety, immigration, bipartisan compromise--strong bipartisan compromise, strong legislation coming out of bipartisan compromise--is never out of reach.

Senator Murphy continues to discuss bipartisan safety measures with Senator Cornyn and others. Senators Booker and Durbin continue to discuss bipartisan policing reform with Senator Scott, Karen Bass, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and many others.

Just this morning, I met with George Floyd's brother, Eric Garner's mother, and Mr. Ben Crump, the lawyer for the family of George Floyd, and I told them that we are committed to getting meaningful, strong reform done--hopefully, in a bipartisan way, if we can.

Here on the Senate floor, we are proving that our two parties can work together on legislation, including on some of the issues that President Biden mentioned. Today's vote offers a great example. This afternoon, the Senate is going to vote on a bipartisan water infrastructure bill. We have agreed with the Republican minority to consider several amendments first, including three Republican amendments. I promised my caucus and the country that we would try to do things in a more open way, where amendments would be debated on the floor. We did that last week on the anti-Asian hate crimes legislation. We are doing it today on the water bill, and we hope to do it on the comprehensive America COMPETES Act when we come back next week.

So the bottom line is very simple: We are moving forward wherever we can in a bipartisan way.

I expect the Senate will pass the water infrastructure bill with a resounding bipartisan vote after the amendments are debated. So let it be a signal to our Republican colleagues that Senate Democrats want to work together on infrastructure when and where we can.

Certainly, the water bill is not the only example of bipartisan legislation this Congress. As I mentioned, a few weeks ago, nearly the entire Senate stood together to pass legislation to combat the recent surge in hate crimes, particularly against Americans of Asian descent, 94 to 1--94 to 1.

And just yesterday, the Senate passed, with bipartisan support, a measure to reinstate critical rules to reduce the emissions of methane into our atmosphere. It was the first significant action the Senate has taken to combat climate change in at least a decade, probably much more.

Even though our two parties have been divided in the past on the subject of climate change, we can no longer afford to have those differences foil our progress. The methane CRA must be the first--the first of many steps we take to tackle climate change.

So these past few months have provided a great example of what the Senate can do. The American people deserve a Congress that works and produces the kinds of change that Americans are demanding. President Biden pointed the way. He pointed the way forward on a number of issues last night. Now it is up to us, here in the Senate and in the Congress, to make progress, the progress for the American people, a reality.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 69.

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

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

Madam President, I move to proceed to executive session to consider Calendar No. 65.

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

Madam President, finally, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, April 29, be waived.

Madam President, I move to proceed to legislative session.

I yield the floor.

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

First, Mr. President, it was good when I walked in--it felt really good when I walked in a few hours ago as we were voting, and I saw Mr. Carper, Senator Carper, the chairman of the EPW Committee, sitting here and Senator Capito, the ranking member, sitting there, working together to make sure that this bill passed and working together to defeat some amendments that might have hurt the whole bill's chance of passing. That is how it used to be around here all the time, and it is good to see it. And I thank both the chair and the ranking member for doing that as well as the whole Senate as well, including Leader McConnell. We are trying to work in a bipartisan way whenever we can, and this bill is a classic example.

First, its importance, of course, is paramount--and I will get to that in a minute--but, second, the fact that we can come together on an important bill that is a part of the Build Back Better plan is something that I think Members on both sides of the aisle can be very happy about, and Americans should be happy about as well.

It doesn't mean that we will be able to do the whole thing bipartisan, but we will do as much as we can--as much as we can.

And this bill is an important one. Clean water is vital to the American people and to their health, and for too long we have tolerated lead in the water of too many. When lead gets into the water of young people, it can certainly cause health problems in later years. All too often, it occurs in poorer communities and communities of color.

This bill, in a bipartisan way, says we are going to come together and get the lead out--get the lead out of our pipes, get the lead out of our faucets, get the lead out of our water. That is an important part of this bill.

And the second part of the bill is, you know, water is very, very important to bringing businesses. Upstate New York, we are trying to attract businesses. One of the first things a business will ask is: Do you have some land available that has water and sewer? When you can say yes, you have a much better chance of attracting businesses to those communities that definitely need new jobs.

And, finally, of course, we all depend on water in our daily lives, and many of the systems are old. They are a century old. Many of our local governments no longer have the dollars to do this on their own. So having a bill that is robust, that helps them, is very, very important.

I would finally note that the bill that we are voting on today is very much--is very similar to the proposal made by some of the Republican leaders when they put together a proposal to President Biden.

So, again, closing on the note I opened with, the happy bipartisanship that marks this bill is a very good thing, and I hope it can continue.

I yield the floor, and I ask unanimous consent that the rollcall vote begin now.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Let me take a moment at the end to make a few points. First, the issue of China's predatory actions against American intellectual property is one that we must address as part of the competition bill. Second, my friends from Ohio and Delaware, Senators Portman and Carper, are to be commended for their work on this issue in the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Third, I have committed to work with Chairman Peters, Ranking Member Portman, and other relevant committee chairs and ranking members to reach an agreement on the text of the Safeguarding American Innovation Act so that it can be included in the Endless Frontier legislation.

Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 48, S.J. Res. 14, the methane CRA.

Mr. President, at the start of the year, the Senate Democrats pledged that one of our top priorities would be tackling climate change. I directed all of our incoming committee chairs to hold hearings and prepare legislation on the climate crisis. I promised that any infrastructure bill would be green and focused on creating the green jobs of the future. Both of these efforts, I am happy to report, are well under way.

And, today, as we approach the 100-day mark of this new Congress, the Senate will take the first major step in combating climate change on the Senate floor, by reinstating safeguards against methane emissions.

Specifically, today's vote will use the Congressional Review Act to reimpose commonsense regulations against methane leaks from the oil and gas industry, from production and processing to transmission and storage.

And let me note that this would be the first time that the Senate Democratic majority has used the Congressional Review Act. It is no mistake that we have chosen to use the law first on the subject of climate change.

Under this Democratic majority, the Senate will be a place where we take decisive, ambitious, and effective action against climate change. And this CRA, the reinstatement of the rule dealing with methane emissions, will be the most significant act that the

Senate has taken on climate change in more than a decade--and maybe several decades. This measure will help us address the climate crisis in a very serious way.

Methane doesn't get as much attention as CO2, carbon dioxide, but it packs a bigger punch. Over 20 years, a ton of methane warms the atmosphere 86 times more than carbon dioxide. Thankfully, methane degrades faster in our atmosphere, and curbing methane emissions is relatively cheap.

So when it comes to global warming, tackling methane delivers a huge bang for your buck. Even a little bit of methane reduction goes a long way, and it moves far more quickly than carbon dioxide reduction. So as we move on this bill, which will have its effect on global warming within a year, it gives us some time, although we don't have much, to deal with the longer term and even more difficult issues of carbon dioxide.

That is why President Obama put the rules in place nearly 6 years ago. And at the time, amazingly enough, even the oil and gas industry welcomed them. Industry doesn't want leaks in their pipelines and production any more than we do.

But President Trump, inexplicably, did away with these safeguards last September. It seems he does these things out of pique, mindlessly opposing something just because his predecessor, Barack Obama, did it. It is very possible that the President didn't even understand what he was doing. But he so often acted out of anger and vindictiveness, not out of what was good for the country, that he ended up doing this.

I am greatly looking forward to righting that wrong today, hopefully, in a bipartisan fashion. We have at least one Republican Senator who has joined us, and I hope that many more will follow suit. If the leaders of the oil and gas industry are for this, how could our Republican friends not vote for it? I won't speculate on the reasons, but none of them are good.

I want to commend my colleagues who have been leaders on this issue: Senator Heinrich, Senator King, Senator Markey. President Biden has challenged the United States to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The best way to achieve this ambitious goal is through bold action by this Congress, through legislation to reduce greenhouse pollution while creating millions of jobs and economic prosperity in the new clean energy economy.

This is the first and a large step in that direction. We have many more steps we must take, of course. The Senate begins the important work of dealing with the climate crisis today by passing these very, very significant, commonsense rules on methane.

American Families Plan

Mr. President, now on a different matter, this morning, President Biden unveiled landmark legislation designed to give American families a better chance to succeed in the 21st century economy, combining investments in education, childcare, and workforce training.

The American Families Plan, as it is called, makes exactly the types of investment our country should have been making for a very long time. In many of these areas, the United States has lagged well behind other developed countries. Governments throughout Europe dedicate a significantly higher portion of their GDP to workforce retraining and offer more flexible family leave policies.

Some say these kinds of policies are not infrastructure, but they very much are. Childcare is a necessity in the 21st century, and a lack of access to childcare can be a throttle on future economic growth because it affects millions of American families.

As technology and automation replace jobs in certain sectors of the economy, workforce training is a must. Giving our children a head start earlier in life with pre-K education has benefits that span a child's entire life and so will affect our country positively for decades to come, economically, socially, and in renewing the American spirit, which is so important to our future.

These things are just as important. The kinds of policies that deal with human infrastructure are just as important as roads and bridges, which, of course, are, no doubt, important in their own right. This is not an either/or--human infrastructure or brick-and-mortar structure. We must say yes to both. We don't want to choose one versus the other. That is like choosing between children, both of whom we love.

In the modern world, we need both infrastructure that matches a 21st century economy and human infrastructure that allows our workers and families to succeed in it. So I applaud President Biden for putting this plan together. It is just the right approach.

I would add one final comment here. All of our Republican colleagues--every single one--regrettably, chose to oppose the American Rescue Plan, despite the fact that a majority of Republican voters approved of the legislation. There seems to be a huge dichotomy between Republicans in Washington and Republicans in the rest of the country who approve of many of the policies in President Biden's plans.

Republicans in the rest of the country approved of the checks and investing in vaccines, and they approve of investing in infrastructure. I suspect many of these policies in the American Families Plan will get high marks as well. Childcare is popular. Early pre-K is popular. Early school-hood training is popular. Free community college is popular. The list goes on.

Will our Republican colleagues start to listen to their constituents as well as the rest of the country, or are they still the party of Donald Trump, a party that opposes the other side at all costs? That is no good for America; that is no good for bipartisanship; and it is not even good for the Republican Party's future

First 100 Days

Mr. President, now, tonight President Biden will address a joint session of Congress to mark the progress of our first 100 days and talk about where we, as a country, still need to go. I expect President Biden, unlike his predecessor, will lay out the facts and appeal to our better angels. That is what he has been doing over these past 100 days: restoring respective, truthful, and responsive government.

Almost as important is what President Biden is not doing. President Biden is not constantly stoking division, outrage, and racial animus. He doesn't fan the flames of every single culture war. He doesn't seek to personally dominate every single news cycle. He doesn't insult, degrade, or constantly lie. And it matters.

Newspapers are littered with firsthand accounts of Americans who feel they can finally sleep at night without worrying about what new scandal, outrage, or unhinged tweet the next morning would bring. As one Republican operative put it recently, ``Now there's a sense of relief. Imagine there's a car alarm that's been going off for a long time and suddenly it's quiet.''

Politics is an important part of American life, but it is not meant to be all-consuming. It is not supposed to keep average citizens up at night. Politics is supposed to be where we come together to solve our differences amicably, not an arena of endless partisan warfare or a bottomless pit of chaos.

So as President Biden prepares to address the Nation tonight, it is worth noting that, as much as we have accomplished in the first 100 days, the contrast in style, tone, and effectiveness between President Biden and President Trump is important too.

As we seek to repair the wounds left by January 6, as we seek to restore faith in government and in our democracy, it is important--so important--to have political leaders who act with dignity, honor, and have fidelity to the truth.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, now, as we approach the 100-day mark of this new Congress, the Senate is about to take its first major step in fighting climate change. In a moment, the Senate will vote on reinstating commonsense rules to reduce methane emissions. It will be the first time the Senate Democratic majority has used the Congressional Review Act, and it is no mistake that we have chosen to use the law first and foremost on the subject of climate change.

Under this Democratic majority, the Senate will be a place where we take decisive, ambitious, and effective action against climate change. Of course, reducing methane emissions is not the only thing we need to do to fight climate change, but it is a very significant and large first step.

Methane accounts for roughly a quarter of all the human-caused global warming that has transpired since the Industrial Revolution. Restoring these methane-reducing rules will be one of the most significant climate actions that the Senate has taken in more than a decade.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes and commend Senators Heinrich, King, and Markey for their great work on this issue.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, today, the Senate will take up a series of votes to confirm three highly qualified nominees to the Biden administration: Jason Miller for Deputy OMB Director, Janet McCabe for Deputy EPA Administrator, and Colin Kahl for Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

And then, later this afternoon, the Senate will move forward with the process to take up the bipartisan water infrastructure bill. I expect the Senate will do so with significant bipartisan support.

The water infrastructure bill is as noncontroversial as it gets. It was approved by the Environment and Public Works Committee on a unanimous consent vote--every single Democrat, every single Republican--thanks to the good work of Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Capito. This water infrastructure bill is also a core component of the Republican infrastructure proposal released last week. So I hope this legislation will serve as a starting point for our two parties to collaborate on infrastructure when and where we can. At the moment, Senators Carper, Duckworth, and Cardin continue discussions with Republican Senators about possible amendments.

But let me be very clear: The Senate must conclude its work on the water infrastructure bill before the end of the week.

This is not a controversial bill or a complicated new program. In too many communities, access to clean, safe, and affordable drinking water is not a guarantee. Surely, we can all agree that in America clean drinking water should be a fundamental guarantee.

The Senate must take first necessary steps to invest in communities with aging water infrastructure by passing this bill, and we must do so this week.