Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I wanted to come down to talk about a topic that a number of Senators have been talking about and that a number of Senators have been focused on. That is the topic of Taiwan and potentially the defense of Taiwan and the support for Taiwan.

As this body knows, in 1979, the Senate passed a very important bill called the Taiwan Relations Act--a very bipartisan bill. From that time on, the Senate has played a very important oversight role in U.S. relations with Taiwan, and it has always been very bipartisan.

Recently, a bipartisan codel, led by the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Menendez, with many other Senators-- Senator Graham, Senator Portman, Senator Sasse--traveled to Taiwan. I just got an out-brief from some of those Senators--a very good meeting. I was part of a bipartisan codel about a year ago, with Senator Coons and Senator Duckworth, also to Taiwan.

So there is a long tradition in the U.S. Senate, in a bipartisan way, with all of us working together, of addressing this question: To what degree should we be supporting and defending Taiwan against a very aggressive Chinese Communist Party, led by the dictator Xi Jinping? Why does it matter? Why should we all be working together, as we have done for decades here in the U.S. Senate, Democrats and Republicans, to deter a military invasion of Taiwan?

What will be happening in the next few weeks I want to talk about because I am concerned about the direction of the Biden administration, and I think every Senator here should be concerned. So I am going to ask my colleagues to lift up their voices when they talk to the Biden administration on a topic I am going to mention here in a minute. But why does it matter? Well, this issue of the potential invasion of Taiwan could take place in a few years.

The INDOPACOM commander, a little over a year ago, in front of the Armed Services Committee, opined that the threat of an invasion of Taiwan by an aggressive Chinese Communist Party would manifest itself during this decade--``in fact, in the next 6 years.'' That was Admiral Davidson, former INDOPACOM commander, and that is not a lot of time.

Here is why I think it matters: Right now, Taiwan is on the frontline of freedom in Asia. It is not some peripheral sideshow; it is, in many ways, central to freedom in that part of the world like West Berlin was during the Cold War. A violent military takeover of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party would be a sea change in how the entire world is ordered. It would change the history of the 21st century in the way that the Guns of August of 1914 changed the 20th century.

Now, some see the defense of Taiwan and the support that is required from the United States because of the Taiwan Relations Act--again, led by this body--some see the defense and support of this island democracy as a luxury that we can't afford in an age shaped by great power competition.

I actually believe--and I believe many Senators, Democrats and Republicans, believe the opposite--that a Taiwan under China's control would decisively advance Beijing's campaign to export its authoritarian model around the world; to separate the United States from our democratic allies; and it would certainly be part of Xi Jinping's goal of excluding the United States from the INDOPACOM theater.

Taiwan--a thriving, prosperous Chinese democracy that holds free election and bounds its power by the rule of law--is central to the free world and its future.

By the way, if you are an American citizen, regardless of political party, you should take pride in the fact that this country--or this island democracy--is free because it wouldn't have happened without the sacrifice and resources of the United States and our military, and that is a fact.

A few months ago, I gave a speech on this topic, and I talked about how, when you think of the defense of Taiwan and deterrence, which is what we all want--deterrence; nobody wants a war in the Taiwan Strait-- there are really three layers of deterrence for the island of Taiwan.

The first is Taiwan's ability to militarily defend itself, the so- called hedgehog approach or porcupine approach. Right here, they are defending themselves in the way the Ukrainians are defending themselves. Senator Roger Wicker had a very good op-ed in the Wall Street Journal just today on that very topic. We need to make sure Taiwan has that capability--it is in the Taiwan Relations Act that we have that responsibility--so that it can defend itself, and they are undertaking the right approach with regard to the military weapons they are buying from the United States and other places.

The second level of deterrence that you see here on this chart would be America's capability to defend Taiwan militarily should the President of the United States decide to do so if there is an invasion by the Chinese Communist Party. Over several decades, through many different crises in the Taiwan Strait, this layer of deterrence, wherein the United States has shown up with military force, has proven to be decisive in keeping the Taiwanese people free, and our deep network of allies in the region augments this second level of deterrence.

But there is also a third level of deterrence. The third level of deterrence is often not discussed, but in many ways, particularly now, it could be more powerful than the first and second levels, and that is the level that relates to bringing in the instruments of American power beyond our military, such as our global economic and financial strengths, to deter China from an invasion. You see this third level: economic and financial sanctions.

This is exactly what my bipartisan bill, the STAND with Taiwan Act, would do. I am working with several Senators on this bill right now. We

have introduced it already, but we are going to recalibrate it, particularly with regard to the lessons learned from Ukraine.

One of those lessons that we learned from the brutal Ukrainian invasion by the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Ukraine is that comprehensive economic and financial sanctions have the best chance of deterring a conflict when they are clearly articulated and ready to go before the conflict begins. That wasn't the case in Ukraine, and we will never know, had sanctions already been teed up and ready to go, if they could have deterred that conflict.

With the STAND with Taiwan Act, which stands for Sanctions Targeting Aggressors of Neighboring Democracies--STAND--the whole point of this would be to deter Xi Jinping from making the decision. That third layer of deterrence is saying: OK. If you militarily invade Taiwan, here are the massive sanctions that we and our allies are going to hit you with, and they will be devastating.

This bill makes it clear that we should be engaging with Taiwan economically, across the board, in many sectors. And this is where I have deep concern--and I believe many of my colleagues here in the U.S. Senate have deep concerns--about the direction that might be happening with regard to the Biden administration.

Now, look, I am somebody who, you know, will be critical of the Biden administration when I think they are not doing a good job on certain things. And I do that a lot, particularly on a topic I am going to talk about here in a minute, energy. But in other areas, particularly as it relates to the Biden administration's relationship with regard to our allies and Taiwan, I have been supportive of a number of their initiatives vocally because I think they have strengthened American interests in the INDOPACOM theater. What are those?

Well, for example, the Biden administration took this initiative from the Trump administration--it actually started in the Bush administration--called the Quad. That is the biggest democracies in the INDOPACOM theater: us, Japan, Australia, and India. They have taken that grouping, which, during the Trump administration, was reinvigorated, particularly by Secretary Pompeo, at the minister level, and the Biden administration has taken that to the leader level. The President of the United States meets with the leaders of Japan, Australia, and India on a regular basis. That is good. That is smart policy.

They have also launched another very innovative policy, the Australia-UK-U.S. agreement to work together on military and defense issues: submarines, nuclear subs, AI, quantum computing. It is called the Arcus initiative. I think it is a really innovative initiative, and I have been very--one of the most vocal supporters of it in the U.S. Senate.

The Biden administration has also been pressing the G-7 to do more as it relates to Taiwan--the first time ever in the G-7. That is a good initiative.

In a lot of these areas, I have been supportive. So what am I concerned about?

This is a concern I have, but it should be a concern that every Senator has. The administration is getting ready to announce what they are calling the Indo-Pacific economic framework. This is going to focus on more economic engagement with our allies in other countries in the INDOPACOM theater. OK. I support that in general. We will see what the details are. But right now, that initiative, which we need in terms of an initiative with regard to economics and other elements of connectivity with our allies in the region, appears to be on the verge of missing two critical factors.

No. 1, and the real purpose of what I wanted to talk about, right now, we are hearing from administration officials that the Indo-Pacific economic framework is going to exclude Taiwan. Whoa. Whoa. That would not be a good thing, and I don't think many U.S. Senators--Democrats or Republicans--would agree that the Biden administration's first big economic initiative is going to exclude Taiwan, a very important economic player, very important technical player in terms of chip fabrication. Why would they do that? Well, it is not clear.

I have been pressing a number of Biden administration officials saying, you can't make that move. A, the Senate is not going to like it. And we have had a lot to say about U.S. relations with Taiwan for decades. And, B, it just doesn't make sense.

Some of the things I have heard is, well, there is this argument that trade is really not national security, so it doesn't relate to Taiwan. Well, that is not correct. Trade and economic issues are clearly national security issues as it relates to our country, as it relates to our allies.

The other thing I have heard is that, well, some of the other countries in the Indo-Pacific framework don't really want Taiwan in it. Again, we are the United States. We are the leader in that part of the world. If another country is saying, hey, I don't want Taiwan in it, you know, I think we need to politely tell them that, too bad. They are going to be.

So I am primarily giving these remarks right now to let all of my Senate colleagues, many of whom--Democrats and Republicans--I know care about this issue.

I have been trying to raise the alarm with the administration, saying, bad idea if your big, first economic initiative for the INDOPACOM theater is not going to include Taiwan. I hope other colleagues of mine will do the same.

Let me give you one final area that this administration should be focused on as it relates to our partners in the region, and that is energy--that is energy. We have so many opportunities to do more with our allies--of course, in Europe but also in Asia--as it relates to energy.

I put forward legislation called the Quad energy initiative that would be an initiative dealing with the export and importation of LNG. Think about the Quad: the United States and Australia, two of the biggest exporters of LNG; Japan, probably the world's biggest importer; and India, who wants to be to help their economy, to help their environment. This is something else I have been pressing this administration on.

It will help our trade deficits, it will help our energy security, and--you know I have talked about this a lot--it will help global emissions. The United States right now, since 2005, has been the leader in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, right there. The climb- down was 15 percent since 2005. India, China, everywhere else, significant increases; more American clean burning LNG to our allies in the region, the Quad. But, heck, even China would help us, our national security, our workers at home, and our environment and the global environment.

I just want to end with this: I hope all of my Senate colleagues in the next couple of days can reach out to the Biden administration and say: Look, on a number of initiatives--the Quad, Arcus--you have been going in the right direction, and you have strong bipartisan support. But the INDOPACOM economic framework led by the United States, if it is leaving out Taiwan, that is going to be a huge problem, and I don't think many U.S. Senators think that that would be a good idea.

Given our long history of leading in a bipartisan way on issues related to Taiwan, I am asking my colleagues to also reach out to the administration and say, there has to be a better way. We cannot economically isolate and forget about Taiwan when we need to be supporting them now more than ever.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, it is Thursday, and it is my favorite time of the week. And I can see the pages are getting all excited about another edition of the ``Alaskan of the Week.'' We get to talk about someone who is making a big difference in Alaska, someone whose spirit is helping others.

We always like to end the week on a positive note here in the U.S. Senate, usually with an ``Alaskan of the Week'' speech. So before I get to talk about our special Alaskan, an incredible woman named Alison Kear, I am going to give a little update about what is going on in Alaska.

So, as I mentioned last week, winter is no longer coming; winter is on the run. The sun is out longer and longer every day. Let me give you a real cool example. In Utqiagvik, known as Barrow--the northernmost city, community, in North America at Point Barrow--the sun is getting out longer and longer each day.

Now, remember, just 3 months ago, Utqiagvik had no sun--zero, zilch. Utqiagvik gained more than 17 minutes of daylight from yesterday. Isn't that cool? It is kind of amazing. The sun rose at 4 a.m. and will set tonight after midnight. Four months ago there was no sun. So a lot going on.

In Anchorage, the home of Alison, our Alaskan of the Week, it is in the 50s, balmy this weekend. So it is a great time to be in Alaska. There isn't a person who doesn't long to visit the great State and join us up there. So please come and join us.

So let me go back to Alison Kear, who is doing a great job in Alaska, our Alaskan of the Week. She runs a very special organization called Covenant House, one of 33 Covenant Houses in the United States, Canada, and Latin America.

Covenant House's mission is to help with youth homelessness. That means, of course, helping provide short- and long-term housing for young people who are experiencing homelessness. But to really help our young people--all people--get into a stable situation, whether that means to reunite with family or get into a permanent home, what Covenant House does involves so much more.

At Covenant House Alaska, they offer so much more, and that has been Alison's incredible legacy. So let me talk about Alison, who started with Covenant House in 1997. So she is celebrating 25 years with the organization, a silver anniversary. Way to go, Alison. We are so proud of her.

She was born and raised in Florida. She went to college in Texas. She arrived in Alaska in 1994 armed with a graduate degree in healthcare management, a job at a local hospital in Alaska, and big ideas about where her life would lead her. Initially, at least, those plans did not involve Covenant House. In fact, according to Alison, they didn't involve Alaska for too long. She arrived--as she said recently to some of my team as we were putting this together--in the last frontier with big hair, a couple of fancy suits, and a plan: If she spent 3 years in Alaska

working at a hospital, she would probably get transferred to a big city of her choice in the lower 48 to run a hospital of her own.

So that was the initial plan, Madam President. But like so many before her, her plans started to change. And like so many before her, the change of heart toward Alaska started making her think: Hmm, maybe I am going to stay here. Maybe I have a great life ahead of me in the great State of Alaska.

Now, it happened a bit slowly. Alaska grew on her, as it does for so many people. She moved into a house with a great group of people her age. She began to ski, enjoy the great outdoors, have fun, make friends, friends who eventually turned into her extended family.

Slowly, Alison began to question that earlier plan she had that she was so committed to, and that started to lead to her thinking: I think I am going to have a great life here in Alaska. Her best friend was the executive director of Covenant House Alaska. Then--25 years ago--it was a crisis shelter that offered few services and, to be honest, was struggling to actually stay open.

Her friend asked Alison if she could volunteer a few hours of her time helping with grant writing. So Alison said: Sure. I will do that, a little bit of time.

And when her 3 years were up, that same friend said to her: You know, Alison, I think you should stay. I think you need a mission right here at Covenant House.

Something about that rang true for Alison. So in 1997, she started work at Covenant House in development for $9 an hour--with no health insurance, by the way. So she started kind of at the lower levels of Covenant House and started to work her way up.

And then the mission that she never knew she needed found Alison. She tells a story about a Thanksgiving celebration they were having at Covenant House. There was a boy sharing the meal with them, someone whose own story was filled with unspeakable trauma, even horror. He talked about his family: ``I don't think my mom ever loved me,'' he told the group, ``but I am glad that she had me because you guys here at Covenant House love me.''

That is powerful. That is very powerful. That simple statement hit Alison. She called her mother, Mary Whittemore, that evening, crying to her mom. You always loved me, Alison told her mom. When she internalized that and realized how important that love is, the concept of who she was and what she could be changed forever.

And I would say it changed Covenant House forever. Because of the love her mom gave her, she realized, too, that she had a big enough heart for love, especially at that wonderful organization. And Alison has spread that love, that devotion and commitment to thousands of Alaska's youth since that time, she and her team--her ``rock stars,'' as she calls them--at Covenant House.

When she started--get this in terms of progress--Covenant House, as I mentioned, was a crisis shelter with a budget of about $900,000. Under Alison's leadership and the hard work of so many others, it is now an organization with a budget of about $15 million, with a new job training center and more education and employment services than ever before.

Great job, Alison.

And it has also become a nationwide model for helping youth. Through sheer tenacity, determination, and grit and through deep partnerships throughout the communities--not just in Anchorage but even beyond-- Alison has led that effort. Roughly 200 kids a day from all over our State--thousands a year--are served by Covenant House Alaska.

So how do they do it? Let's say you are a teen. I know our pages can't imagine being a teen. Let's say you are a teen and you can't stay at home any longer. Maybe there is abuse or family addiction or you have aged out of foster care, and you don't have a place to sleep. Think about that. Unfortunately, a lot of teens have that problem in America.

And in Alaska, remember how cold it is--often below zero in the winter--and how horrible it is to sleep outside. So many of these kids are from rural parts of our State and have had to travel hundreds of miles to get to Anchorage. So now they are in the big city. They are likely to be traumatized, confused, lonely. It is bitterly cold outside. They have no place to go.

These are children, and it is heartbreaking whether you are in Alaska or anywhere else in the lower 48. So imagine that.

Now imagine this. Enter Covenant House Alaska. Covenant House has an outreach program, an incredible team of dedicated employees and servants to the people, to the kids, who walk the streets, go to malls, to homeless camps, wherever the kids might be. They give them some food, basic essentials, and tell them about Covenant House. That is what Alison's team does. They begin developing a relationship of trust because most of these youth have actually never had a trusting, stable adult in their lives.

What do the youth find when they get to Covenant House? First, there are people who welcome them, who smile at them, who treat them with kindness, who treat them with respect. If they are hungry, they get a warm meal, and they get shelter. And if they are dealing with trauma, they get counseling.

Eventually, if they decide they need to finish school or earn their GED, there is a classroom there. If they are pregnant or already have a baby, they will learn positive parenting skills.

Covenant House Alaska partners with several other amazing Alaskan organizations onsite--this is a big deal--what they call wraparound services, so the kids don't need to go back on the streets. These different partners who work with Covenant House offer everything a teen needs to learn about in terms of life skills that so many of us take for granted.

And what is so amazing is that someone at Covenant House will stay with you for as long as you need it. They provide those services, even--this is really important--even after you leave the shelter, to help these teens navigate the system, apply for jobs, get an apartment, get transportation, get them through a crisis that they might be having.

All the things that we as parents do for our own kids, Covenant House does in so many ways for these kids--almost everything they might need to have a chance, an opportunity, a bright future.

Now, of course, Madam President, it is not that easy. It sounds easy, but it is not easy at all. Some of these youth have experienced unspeakable trauma. And I am going to talk a little bit about a tough subject, but it needs to be spoken about. For far too many of these youth, especially the young women and even some of the young men, they have been trafficked by bad people.

And the statistics are horrific. A 2017 study from Loyola University found that 28 percent of the young people being served at Covenant House Alaska identified themselves as survivors of human trafficking-- 28 percent. A disproportionate number of these teenagers are Alaskan Native--young women, many of whom who have been lured out of their villages with a promise of a better life, and they have been lured into trafficking.

At Covenant House, the leadership has not shied away from these statistics, and I think that is a testament to Alison and her leadership. Instead, they talk openly about it. They have studied it. They work tirelessly and diligently with law enforcement and other agencies in Alaska to address this scourge, which, of course, we have in Alaska, and we have throughout America.

Importantly, they make these survivors--and all the young people who come to Covenant House--feel safe. They call it ``creating sanctuary'' for the youth at Covenant House, and it works. It works. Alison said there are countless stories of young people who walked into Covenant House Alaska in crisis--traumatized, scared, lonely, very hurt--who are now happy high school and college graduates, working, with their own families, doing great things for the State. Some have even come back to be staff at Covenant House. I have had the honor of meeting a number of these young Alaskans who are contributing so much.

Alison is the key reason why this has all happened successfully. She is tenacious. She is smart, stubborn--that is not my language, by the way; that was

her own language--ambitious and loving for her kids. Joe Hemphill, Covenant House Alaska's chief development officer, calls Alison a ``visionary for kids.'' He has known her for 25 years, and Joe said this about Alison:

One thing . . . hasn't changed [in over 25 years]: she has

never taken ``no'' for an answer and she still doesn't.

But her heart leads. When you talk to her, she will tell you that love is truly the answer for all that ails our communities and certainly for all that ails our young people in them.

``How great it is to create a space where someone can . . . feel love,'' Alison said, ``to take it and to give it.'' She continued:

It's the only thing that has truly changed communities

[when you think about it]. Homelessness is not a singular

experience. It's about a void in relationships, it's about a

void of love.

Again, Alison credits her mother--that is very sweet, especially as we are approaching Mother's Day--for helping her understand what love means and how she can give it to others and how it can make a huge difference in all of our communities.

So I want to thank all the staff at Covenant House Alaska for doing such great work, day in, day out, 24/7, 365 days a year. As I mentioned, I want to thank you. My wife Julie also wants to thank you. Julie has had the honor of working at Covenant House for several years as staff and on the board and she has seen firsthand all the great work that Alison and her team have done for our youth in Alaska.

Again, to all of Covenant House, thank you for walking alongside our youth who have not had love in their lives and yet who are resilient and working hard to find a positive path in life. The Covenant House team is making that happen.

And, of course, thank you to Alison for leading this exceptional team. By the way, Alison, I know your birthday is coming up, so happy birthday. And most importantly, thank you, again, for being our Alaskan of the Week.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I call up my motion to instruct conferees, which is at the desk.

Madam President, as recently as the early 1980s, our Nation produced the vast majority of the critical minerals and renewable energy technology we use in America but not anymore. Unfortunately, Russia and particularly China have a stranglehold on most of these critical minerals and clean energy technology that our Nation needs.

To make matters worse, Madam President, some of these critical minerals and materials we are importing, like solar panels and EV batteries, are processed and manufactured in China using forced labor in some of the worst environmental standards in the world.

Madam President, may I have 30 seconds to complete my statement?

We can change this, Madam President. We must change this.

My motion to instruct is simple. Any renewable energy project receiving Federal funds cannot use materials, technologies, or critical minerals from

China or Russia--simple, commonsense, humane, and in the interest of America's workers and our national defense.

I urge my colleagues to vote yes.

Madam President, I want to say that it is Thursday, and it is my favorite time of week, 6 years' strong--almost 7 years--we have been doing our ``Alaskan of the Week'' series, and we love to do this because we get to recognize a special Alaskan, someone who makes the State very special.

Our pages, I think they don't always admit it, but it is probably the best speech of the week because it is interesting and we have got some cool stories. I know some of the reporters here like the speech because it means we are at the end of the week so that is good.

Today, we are honoring a really amazing Alaskan. Her name is Teresa Gray, of Anchorage, who was, by the way, recently featured by CNN as one of their heroes for the work her organization does that Teresa founded to provide medical help to people all over the globe.

So, before I talk about Teresa and her amazing work, I always like to give a little update of what is going on in Alaska right now. I was home the last couple weeks traveling all over the State, and it didn't seem like too long ago when I had said: Hey, winter is coming. Winter is coming. Well, here is the good news. Well, I love winter, but winter is now leaving. It is leaving Alaska.

Now, it is cold in many places. My house in Anchorage still has snow on the ground, but the Sun is now up high in the sky, staying up longer and longer every single day--although I was in Fairbanks and we had northern lights going. So that was awesome just last week. But today, in Anchorage, the Sun rose at 6 a.m. and set around 10 p.m. So it is getting long. It is gaining. We gain about 5 minutes a day during this time of the year. Birds are migrating back by the tens of thousands. The excitement of spring is everywhere.

So to everybody watching, if you are thinking about great summer travel plans, Alaska is the place to be. So come on up. We would love to have you.

So, now, let me talk about Teresa Gray and the organization she founded called Mobile Medics International, which is doing great work across the globe, even as we speak.

Teresa is originally from Michigan. As a paramedic, she moved to Alaska in 1999 to be with her then-husband who was from Alaska. And like so many do when they come to Alaska, she fell in love with Alaska. Now, she wasn't really an outdoorsy type, but she said:

I just felt at home.

It is the people that she loves. She said the State has such a unique group of individuals.

We [all] share a kindred spirit. We're all committed to

living the Alaska[n] way.

That is what Teresa said. And for Teresa, the Alaskan way has been to put her medical skills to use. Now, initially, she worked as an instructor at the only paramedic school in the State, but within 6 months, she bought the school and created two additional schools, one in Fairbanks and one in Wasilla, and made these very successful. Eight years later, she sold those to the University of Alaska.

Then she became a flight medic for AeroMed, now known as LifeMed. She was a medical trainer for the Alaska Air National Guard unit, the 210th Rescue Squadron. These are very brave, intrepid PJs who do amazing work all over the State. And she also helped out with the Anchorage Fire Department.

When they again adopted a child, their second adopted child, Teresa decided it was time to retire. An aside here--one of Teresa's children, Boyd Jorgensen, was a U.S. marine under my command, with the great unit ECHO Company 4th Reconnaissance Battalion up in Anchorage. So Semper Fi, Staff Sergeant. I hope you are watching.

Let's talk about your mom.

That retirement for Teresa didn't last long. One day, she was watching the news, and she saw the image--and I think a lot of us remember this image--of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee on the beach of Lesbos, face down in the water. It was very powerful. People all over the world saw that really ghastly image. She thought: Why isn't anybody doing anything about this?

She realized, well, she should and she could. So she volunteered for an Irish medical nonprofit which took her to Greece and then to other places across the globe.

It didn't take her long to see a need that wasn't being filled. There are a great many medical nonprofits, but the general model is that the doctors and other medical professionals arrive at a place and set up shop. The people in need of care come to them.

But there are so many times Teresa witnessed people who couldn't leave their communities. In the case of Puerto Rico, there was a mudslide with limited access to a road that led to a village which hadn't received medical or any kind of help in over a week. People couldn't get a doctor there.

So, back in Alaska, she put a call out on social media, and soon, Mobile Medics International was born. The group is focused on mobility, on getting to the barrios, to the villages, up in the mountains--hard places to get to, where she said that ``[s]o many places are lost or forgotten in disasters'' because they are so hard to get to.

Roughly, 5 years later, the group now has roughly 120 volunteers from across the globe, including from Alaska, on nearly every continent. They have been on over 30 missions. They are agile. They are expeditionary. They are like the Marines. When they go to a place that has been hit by disaster or to a place experiencing a refugee crisis, everything they need is in a backpack.

Teresa said:

We can bring our own food, our own water, our own sleeping

accommodations. We try to take basically an ambulance in the

backpack.

Great image. Great idea.

If someone requires more extensive care, then they help get that individual to a medical facility, maybe in another part of the country.

In addition to natural and humanitarian disasters, Mobile Medics International also trains people in medically underserved villages to provide treatment to others in their communities. So it is train the trainer. Teach someone to fish.

They find people in those communities who are willing to commit to 5 years to build their own program in that community, and they support them during that time. They visit a few times a year, get them equipped, get them supplies, get them training,

and then, all of a sudden, you have people in those communities who have these medical skills.

Teresa talked about her team once going to a remote island in the Philippines where, because of a lack of nutrition, this remote island and the population had a really bad problem with cleft-palate babies. ``Within three years,'' she said, ``we eliminated cleft-palate babies on that island by giving out prenatal vitamins.''

Think about that. That is incredible work--one American with a vision making a huge difference in a place like the Philippines. Great work.

So let's fast-forward to today. Where do you think she is? Where do you think they are?

Well, they are on the frontlines in Ukraine and Romania to help with the refugee crisis there. They have four teams there. They are providing a 24-hour clinic in Romania and go person-to-person to help with medical care. They have organized a warehouse of donated goods. They have delivered supplies into Ukraine, and they are providing emotional support to people who really need it because of the barbaric invasion that has happened there.

For Teresa and her group, helping during a refugee crisis is particularly emotional and wrenching. She said:

Natural disasters can be horrific. A refugee crisis is even

more emotionally difficult.

These are people who have lost everything, including their country, their heritage, and their language.

She talked about how the Ukrainian refugee crisis is particularly challenging. ``All the men have been left behind,'' she said. You just have mothers, older men, young girls, and women whose entire life in Ukraine is now gone.

Her people do more than just medical care. They provide emotional support as well. When she traveled to Romania, there was an elderly woman whom she was treating for health issues. The woman asked for a different kind of help. She asked that she and her son be driven to the border so she could see Ukraine for the last time--a Ukrainian woman just wanting to see her country--and Teresa did that.

``She asked for help, so we gave it to her,'' Teresa said.

This is a great example of the drive, determination, vision, and hard work of just one person. Think about it. One person, Teresa Gray, with a vision--and how that vision and drive can change lives--hundreds of lives, thousands of lives.

So, Teresa, thank you for providing so much help to so many. Congratulations for being chosen as a CNN hero; but more importantly, much more importantly--sorry, CNN--congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week. You have really, really deserved it and made us all proud.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Today's opening prayer will be offered by our guest Chaplain, Rabbi Mendy Greenberg, Director of Mat-Su Jewish Center, Chabad-Lubavitch, in Palmer, AK.

The guest Chaplain offered the following prayer:

Almighty God, Master of the Universe, we stand before You in prayer in these troubling times when innocent men, women, and children have lost their lives and millions fled their homeland due to the catastrophic war in Ukraine. In the words of King David, Psalms, Chapter 121:

I lift my eyes to the mountains--from where will my help

come? My help will come from the Lord, Maker of heaven and

earth.

May You, Almighty God, grant the Members of this honorable body wisdom and understanding that the ultimate way to eliminate the cause of war and bring true peace to the world is by embodying the universal values of the seven commandments issued to Noah after the great flood, foremost of which is not to commit murder.

Almighty God, I beseech You to bless the U.S. Senate assembled today to fulfill one of Your seven commandments to govern by just laws and in the merit of the global spiritual giant and leader, Your servant, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, whose 120th birthday will be celebrated this coming month on the 11th day of Nissan, Tuesday, April 12.

In 1978, this honorable body established the Rebbe's birthday as Education and Sharing Day USA and is proclaimed annually by the President of the United States in recognition of the Rebbe's global campaign to bring awareness and educate our youth about these ethical values of the Seven Noahide Laws as the basis for a just and compassionate society.

Almighty God, may it be in the merit of realizing the Rebbe's vision for humanity, we speedily see the fulfillment of Isaiah's promise:

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither

shall they learn war anymore.

With the coming of Moshiach, Amen.

Madam President, thank you for allowing me to open the Senate with you. It was a true honor to have Rabbi Mendy Greenberg, who is doing amazing work in Palmer, AK, open the Senate with his very powerful and meaningful prayer and very appropriate prayer for what is happening in the world.

I just want to say a little bit about our incredible Jewish community in Alaska. Rabbi Greenberg's parents are actually up in the Gallery watching--his father, Rabbi Greenberg and his incredible wife, Esti.

I just want to say what they do for our--community--communities throughout Alaska--is so powerful, so meaningful, and touches so many lives way beyond the Jewish community of Alaska--way beyond that community. I love the phrase referring to our wonderful Jewish community of Alaska, the ``frozen chosen,'' because it is a little cold in our State, as most Americans know.

But here is the thing about this community: They are incredible in terms of

bringing all Alaskans together. We have this annual event called the Jewish Gala that has hundreds and hundreds of Alaskans of all faiths who participate in this every year. It is one of my favorite things to do as an Alaskan, to come and celebrate not just the Jewish community, but the spirit of togetherness, the spirit of faith, and the spirit of taking care of one another. That is what this incredible community does, led by both Rabbi Greenbergs, who we saw the younger today give this very powerful prayer.

I want to thank him and his parents for being here today. It is not always easy to get to DC from Alaska--a couple of thousand miles at least. To our Jewish community back home, to the Greenbergs for all they have done, I just want to, on the Senate floor here, offer my deepest thanks for the example they set for the entire State of Alaska. It is great having them here, and what they do for our State is really powerful, really important.

Thank you, Madam President, for allowing me to participate in the opening and the prayer this morning.

I yield the floor.

Recognition of the Majority Leader

Mr. President, like my good friend and colleague Senator Murkowski, I rise today to recognize a giant, a larger than life man, certainly a legend in our State, and certainly a legend in the House of Representatives, Congressman for all Alaska, Donald Edwin Young.

As Senator Murkowski mentioned, we lost this great Alaskan, this great American, while flying home with his beloved wife, Anne, by his side just this weekend. He was flying back home to Alaska, the State he loved so much and served so well. It is a State that loved him back and showed him that love by electing him to office every 2 years since 1973. Think about that. Unbelievable. He was the longest serving politician in Alaska's history, the longest serving Republican Member of the House in U.S. history, our North Star, Don Young. As Senator Murkowski mentioned, he was 88 years young.

I just want to say, like all Alaskans, my wife Julie and I, when we heard the news, we were saddened, shocked, devastated by the sudden passing of Congressman Don Young. And we heard this from so many people over the weekend: his spirit, authentic, tenacious, indomitable, a man of the people--a true man of the people--epitomized our State to such a degree that there was this sense that he would always be there, that he would live forever. There was this sense, and the shock back home is so palpable because of that. Think about, almost three-quarters of our State's history, Don Young was our Congressman.

So I, too, want to spend a little bit of time talking about this incredible man, this life in full, as Senator Murkowski mentioned.

A lot of stories about being raised on a small ranch in Central California, where he began the hard work of ranching as a young, young boy. Don Young once said: My dad was a good man, but he believed when you turned 7, you became a hired man. So he was working at the age of 7, Sun up to Sun down. It was hot, riddled with snakes and poison ivy. Evidently, Don Young did not like snakes or hot weather because he mentioned often about his father reading him Jack London's ``The Call of the Wild,'' a book about a dog, a man, the harsh conditions of the Yukon, and loyalty.

Senator Murkowski already mentioned that one of the things--and I love this man so much--but one of the things about him that you always knew was loyal, loyal, loyal. What a great quality. What a great quality.

Then, of course, Alaska captured his imagination--no snakes, no poison ivy, snow. Those of us, all of us who saw Don Young over the years carry around that battery-powered portable fan, we knew that, well, Don Young ran hot with that fan.

So, as Senator Murkowski mentioned, he got his associate's degree from Yuba Junior College in 1952. He served in the Army--I always loved to give him a little grief about his Army service as a marine--Chico State, and then at an Elks Club in Chico, he heard then-Alaska Territorial Governor Mike Stepovich give a speech about Alaska, talking about the wonders of Alaska, and Don Young was hooked. In 1959, the year we became a State, he heeded the

call of the wild, headed up the Alcan--much of it still unpaved--in a brandnew Plymouth Fury, and the great State of Alaska would never be the same.

According to Don Young, in Alaska, you could ``do anything you wanted to,'' so he did. As Senator Murkowski mentioned, he fought forest fires. He owned a skating rink for a short time. I would have loved to have seen that, by the way. He owned a movie theater, tried his hand at commercial fishing, trapping, prospecting for gold. Of course, he was a tugboat captain, teacher at a BIA school, importantly, in Fort Yukon, and that is where he always called home. In fact, he still has a home there. He used to joke he is the only Congressman who, when he goes home, uses an outhouse when he goes home.

He eventually met Lu, his wife--incredible Lu, who stayed by his side for 46 years until she passed in 2009. Since that time, Don found another wonderful partner in Anne. So, Anne, thank you and the family for sharing him with us.

Don, with Lu's prompting, caught the political bug. He served in the State house in Alaska and the State senate. Now, he discovered that he didn't like the senate much. ``All they did was stand around with hands behind their back and talk''--that is what he said about the Alaska State Senate.

Well, guess what. His attitude about the U.S. Senate wasn't that much different. ``You Senators are always late,'' he would often growl at me and Lisa--and we were when we had our frequent Alaska delegation meetings. But even as Senators, we always knew our place with Congressman Don Young, dean of the House. All those Alaska congressional meetings were over in his office--were over in his office.

One of my favorite things I did with Don Young, as dean of the House, wherever I saw him--particularly in public in Alaska--the first time I would see him at an event or something, I would say, ``It's the dean of the House.'' I would grab his hand, take a knee, and kiss his ring. Now, he always said, ``Stop that. I hate it when you do that.'' But do you know what? I think he actually kind of liked it. I actually think he kind of liked it.

So he didn't like the Senate; he liked the House, the place where bills move fast, where elections are right around the corner no matter what--think about that, 25 elections. Jeez Louise. I could never think about that--and where the action was. Mostly, he was a man of the people, and he belonged in the people's House.

Along the way, he had two wonderful daughters, Joni and Sister, whom he loved fiercely. He always said the most important thing in his life were those two daughters.

Lu was nothing if not persuasive. She was no doubt the boss in the family, and so when she told him he needed to run for Congress, he did. And with the help of many people--and I would like to say my wife's grandmother, her Sitsoo, was an avid Don Young supporter, flew all over interior Alaska during those early campaigns to help him introduce himself to a wider audience.

So when Don was appointed to his seat in 1973, the original knock against him, he said back then, was that he didn't know anything about DC. People said: You don't know anything about DC; it is going to take you 2 years until you can find the bathroom in your office building.

I am sure some of you heard the story that the first day in office, he combed the Rayburn Building looking for the bathroom, when someone finally said, ``Congressman, why don't you use the one in your office?'' which I don't think he had noticed. So he was learning.

But on a more serious note--and I love this story. The day after he was sworn in, there was a hearing on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act.

After being held up for years by litigation and studies--imagine that; sound familiar, America?--Don successfully pushed through an amendment--to me, one of the most brilliant amendments ever conceived in the Halls of Congress--that said: No more studies and no more litigation. We are done. We are building the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System now.

He said:

It was a hard fight. Half of my side was [initially]

fighting against me.

But when the vote was called, he prevailed. His amendment prevailed by four votes, and Alaska's history was changed forever. America's history was changed forever.

And, by the way, what a great idea: Stop endless litigation. Stop studying things. Build infrastructure. The country and the State of Alaska need energy. Practical, commonsense, get it done--this is why Alaskans loved Don Young so much.

The day of that vote, when it was successful, 1973--remember--Ralph Nader stood outside the hall and declared Don Young the most powerful Member of Congress--brandnew, baby freshman from Alaska, Don Young. Now, you can say a lot of things about Ralph Nader, but he knew power when he saw it, and Don Young had it, kept it. He went on to win every election after that.

And, as Senator Murkowski mentioned, more than 90 bills that he sponsored became law, thousands more that he cosponsored--mostly to help Alaska but to help our whole country. And he became a fierce advocate for helping people--thousands and thousands of Alaskans and Americans.

Every 2 years since 1973, Alaskans could count on Don Young, during 1 of his 24 elections, standing on a corner with his supporters--many here today--waving signs in the cold in November back home, wearing his old winter coat. And if you didn't know it then--and few Alaskans didn't know--you wouldn't guess that the man in those clothes had so much power and had done so much to help his fellow Alaskans and fellow Americans. Nearly everything--and I mean everything--that has advanced to benefit our State in the Congress has Don Young's fingerprints on it. The Alaska we know today is only possible because of Don Young.

As I mentioned, there is, of course, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which transformed our State and our Nation, as well as many of the victories that Senator Murkowski just mentioned.

I always like to talk about the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which, of course, transformed America's fishing industry. Among others things, it created a 200-mile limit to keep foreign fishermen from plundering our fish and sustained our fisheries. It used to be just 3 miles. Now, we all know it is the Magnuson-Stevens Act, but, of course, Don Young moved it in the House with Congressman Gerry Studds of Massachusetts. So I used to like to say, in events with Don Young: Magnuson-Stevens, or maybe a better name would have been the ``Young-Studds Act,'' which, of course, he loved that idea. So I kind of liked calling it the ``Young-Studds Act.''

But here is the thing, the story that is such a great story that a lot of people don't know: The executive branch wasn't thrilled about this bill, wasn't thrilled about it at all, to such a degree that President Ford was considering vetoing it. Why? Because he had a really smart, clever Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who thought it would raise tensions with our allies--the Koreans and the Japanese in particular--who loved fishing off the coast of Alaska, taking our fish. Two hundred miles off, they were going to lose out. They were mad. So he was encouraging a veto.

Whether it was on the racquetball court, in the Halls of the Capitol, or a potlatch in rural Alaska, Don Young knew where to be to get things done for Alaska. And he knew that the President and Kissinger were heading to Asia, stopping over in Alaska. So Don and his two daughters and Lu got a ride on Air Force One. A few martinis later, Don Young, the new Congressman from Alaska, was debating one of the most brilliant men in America--the Secretary of State, former Harvard professor Dr. Henry Kissinger--on Air Force One in front of President Ford: Veto the Magnuson-Stevens Act or not.

Well, guess who won that debate: the Harvard professor or the tugboat captain? It was the tugboat captain. Now, Don jokingly credits the martinis, but we all know that he was the one who got that done. And, again, our State and our country's history wouldn't be the same. And, by the way, Henry Kissinger and Don Young were great friends ever since.

Mr. President, that is just one example of many, as Senator Murkowski mentioned. Don Young served with 10 Presidents, and he knew them all. President George H.W. Bush called him ``Moose.'' They played racquetball often. He had Dungeness crab flown in to eat with President George W. Bush.

He and President Clinton were at the White House together one night when the vote was called. They were having so much fun that President Clinton said: I don't want you to leave, Don.

Don said: Well, Mr. President, I will need a hall pass.

So he got a handwritten note from President Clinton, writing to the Speaker of the House: Dear Mr. Speaker. Please excuse Don Young from voting tonight. We are having cigars at the White House.

And when Don Young went to the White House to sign the ANWR legislation that we had been working on and that he had been working on for over 40 years and were able to pass--again, our small and mighty team working together, 2017, with President Trump--he turned to President Trump and said: So you are the other Don in this town.

So Don Young has been great friends with Presidents, world leaders, but what really motivated and moved him was helping people, especially Alaskans. It didn't matter their title, their political affiliation. He just wanted to help people.

He said: As long as you respect the other person and their beliefs, you can be successful. Whether in the majority or the minority, I try to work with people to solve problems. My job is to listen to what they want and how I can then help them get it done.

Like I said, commonsense, practical--no wonder so many Alaskans loved Don Young. And we all know he could tell a story, holding court.

As we know, in the House there isn't assigned seating, but there was one seat in the House that nobody sat in: Don Young's. And, by the way, if you did, you may be taking your life into your own hands.

He sat, and Members gathered around him, listening to his stories. The story of the oosik might come up, how he used that in debates, how he sat during a committee hearing with his fingers caught in a bear trap to make a point, and his legendary office Christmas parties. Young staffers and Members from all over the Congress stood in a long line that snaked into the hallway just to have a few minutes to hear him holding court.

But his true love was always Alaska. He could have done anything, been anything, but he chose to stay and work for the people up until the last moment of his life.

You can make all the money in the world. But if you aren't happy, it doesn't count for anything.

And Don Young was a happy man.

When we lost Don Young, we lost a piece of Alaska, a piece of ourselves, a piece of his indomitable, irascible spirit. But it will live on forever, and I know that he has an army of loyalists he has amassed through the years in the Gallery, in addition to family, his wonderful family.

Dozens of staffers are here to pay tribute. Some of them now work for my office. In fact, early on in my Senate career, I learned something very smart. I frequently stole Don Young's staff to come work for me: well-trained, smart. I still do it. And he never minded. As a matter of fact, he always said: I just want what is best for my people.

Larry Burton, Erik Elam, Chad Padgett, Liz Banicki, Scott Leathard-- so many are still here with me. So many cut their teeth at Don Young's office. And like so many who know Don Young, they are intensely loyal to this great Alaskan.

His spirit will live on in the House of Representatives and the people's House, and his spirit will live on in everything he has done for our State and every Alaskan from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, to the Ketchikan shipping yard, to the many, many land exchanges, the health clinics dotting our State, the state-of-the-art Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.

And his spirit will live in his wonderful family: Joni and Sister, his 13 grandchildren, Anne, and so many others. Don was a dear friend and mentor to me, to Senator Murkowski, to my wife Julie, and so many others. He was truly a man of the people, a great man of the people.

We miss you, Don. Rest in peace.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, the American people--the world--is watching a really horrendous, barbaric, horrible situation in Ukraine; and we are all praying for the people there, trying to do as much as we can to support them. And this barbarism we are seeing from Vladimir Putin is something I don't think anyone is ever going to forget.

We can't let it stand. We need to use all instruments of American power--with our allies--to work to address this long term because this is a long-term problem--the new era of authoritarian aggression led by Putin, led by Xi Jinping--and we need to be able to address it.

One of these instruments of American power that we have had until recently, in a bipartisan way--every President has supported being an energy producer, being an energy superpower, being a country that is energy independent.

And I don't have to tell the Presiding Officer, but this has been highlighted by the current crisis. What has happened is the American people--really, the world--have awoken to the fact that the Biden administration came into office and, instead of building on what they inherited from the Trump administration, which, again, was a bipartisan goal of American foreign policy, American energy policy, American domestic policy--for decades, every President--every President--wanted America to be energy independent.

President Obama used to talk about this, all-of-the-above energy: oil, gas, renewables; Jimmy Carter, of course; Donald Trump; George W. Bush. I mean, it dates back for decades, until the Biden administration.

And, of course, they came in and on day one said: We are going to start shutting down the production of American energy. That is a fact. I am going to go through a lot of the facts. I am going to go through some detailed memos that are still in existence that show that this is exactly their policy.

Now, what has happened in the last 2 weeks? The American people have started to realize: Oh, my gosh, my own government is trying to make it harder for us to produce American energy. How does that make sense? In what world does that make sense?

And the average American--always very smart, by the way, much smarter than the people in DC--is raising the alarm bells, saying: Wait a minute. Why would we do that? It hurts us at home. It drives up energy prices.

The President is calling it Putin's energy increases. That is ridiculous. Energy prices have been going up since this administration got into office because of this administration's policies.

Good try, Mr. President. That is not going to work.

So the American people are saying: It is hurting us at home. It is raising costs on my family.

But they are now realizing: Whoa, this is really bad for our foreign policy and national security too, when you have a war like what is going on in Ukraine.

So all of a sudden, you see the Biden administration--from the President on down and his whole team--starting to scramble. They are starting to hide their policy that has been driven by a far-left radical agenda and is really hurtful to everybody. By the way, it doesn't help the environment one bit, not one bit. I will come down here in another speech and talk about how it hurts the environment.

And it is almost funny to watch this happen if this weren't such a serious topic. It is almost funny. As a matter of fact, to one Cabinet official, it was funny. Go Google the Secretary Granholm interview-- I forget which news station--when she was asked, ``Hey, are you going to help produce more oil for America?'' She literally starts cracking up, laughing. She is laughing.

It is not funny, Madam Secretary. So now, the White House is scrambling with made-up stories, made-up rationales. You see the Press Secretary kind of trying to talk about this issue. No offense to her. She is pretty talented, but she doesn't know anything about energy.

But they are scrambling because no one is laughing. No one is laughing. The Secretary of Energy might be laughing about this topic, but no one is laughing. Working families in America aren't laughing. The energy workers that this administration has moved to hand pink slips to aren't laughing. Our allies in Europe aren't laughing. Ukrainians aren't laughing.

The only ones who might be laughing are the Venezuelans and the Iranians who this administration is now going and begging for oil from. They might be laughing.

So it is a really serious topic. And, as I mentioned, the energy price rise that we have seen across the last year--gas prices were almost up 50 percent prior to the invasion of Ukraine by Putin. So we know what is going on because it is no secret.

When the President was campaigning--again, I don't think these

were really his views but driven by the far-left that he had to get their vote on--he vowed that he would do exactly what he did on day one. Here is the President in a debate in 2019: I have argued against any more drilling. No more drilling--oil or gas drilling on Federal lands. I will not allow it anymore.

That is the President of the United States.

Now, on day one, he did just that. He did just that. He started out to keep these campaign promises. We know he canceled the Keystone Pipeline. They put a ``pause''--I am going to talk about that--on Federal leasing and permitting, something that really impacted my State. He signed an Executive order to crack down on oil and gas production. He canceled the legally acquired leases that my State has in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because this body voted for it, signed it into law. The President, in a blatantly illegal move, said: I am not going to allow these leases, even though the Congress of the United States and the President of the United States previously passed a law saying they had to be executed.

And just 2 weeks ago, the administration froze new drilling permits and stopped issuing new leases on Federal lands because they continue to be driven by a far-left agenda that nobody in the United States is supporting right now.

(Ms. SMITH assumed the Chair.)

Well, Madam President, I want to dig a little deeper into what happened on day one.

So what happened here--I have an order. This is an order--order No. 3395 from the Acting Secretary of the Interior, a guy by the name of Scott de la Vega. I have never heard of him. Never heard of him. Who in the heck is that?

It was dated January 20, 2021, so that is day one. That is day one. Some guy named Scott de la Vega--I don't know who he is, but I guess he was Acting Secretary of the Interior--and he lays out in this memo everything that should be suspended, everything in America, to stop producing any natural resources for 60 days. OK?

That is your government at work, America, right here: Scott de la Vega hereby temporarily suspends--and then they have a whole list of things that deal with oil, gas, minerals, rights of way--anything on Federal lands--all stopped. If that is not a far-left radical agenda, I don't know what is.

It says that people above him--the Secretary, Deputy Secretary--they can rescind that after 60 days. But there is no one above him. This is day one. There is nobody even confirmed. That is why Scott de la Vega was Acting Secretary of the Interior. Don't be fooled. This is an order on day one from the Biden administration to shut down the production of American energy. Your government at work, America.

What happened across the country? I can tell you what happened in my State. This set up a mad scramble in Alaska. I was getting phone calls, literally, from this memo. I didn't know anything about it.

Why?

What was happening here?

In my State, because we have the highest environmental standards in the world on oil and gas development, on mineral development, we do our exploration only in the winter--only in the winter. About a 3-month period--January, February, March, April--4 months, because we create ice roads and ice paths. These are giant roads of ice and giant paths of ice that can take out giant drill rigs on the tundra. We do our exploration then, and then we bring it off in 4 months. The ice roads melt, and there is zero impact. It is called zero impact exploration. OK? It is expensive, but we do that in Alaska because we really care about our environment. We know how to do both: protect our environment and develop our resources. We only have about 3 to 4 months to even do this work every winter.

So I had a bunch of Alaskans--hundreds, thousands--out doing the work of America--oil and gas development. Old Mr. de la Vega comes out day one of the Biden administration and says, We are going to suspend any lease or permit.

When you are in the oil and gas industry, you are constantly having to get additional permits--what they call ATDs, applications to drill-- to build an ice road, to do other things that are way beyond leases-- Jen Psaki--way beyond leases. You have to get these permits reviewed and updated very frequently.

They said: No issuing of anything.

I get a call--I will give you one example--from a company that almost 300 people do an exploration for. They were just told: You are not going to get anything else for 60 days. They couldn't do anything. They are going to fire all 300 people.

We scrambled. We made phone calls. We tried to get this order lifted--tried to get an exception. This was happening all across America. The Federal Government came in--the Biden administration. That was day one, and Mr. de la Vega--again, don't know who he is--issued this order: 60 days and stopped everything.

Joe Biden is out there saying: Oh, no, we really care about energy production.

No, you don't. You are trying to kill it. That was the mad scramble. Many people were laid off. This is way beyond Keystone--10,000 laid off.

Let me go into a little more detail. After 60 days, what happened? This is really important. I really want our friends in the media to dig into this. Again, you have these things called applications to drill on Federal leases. OK? All of that was stalled for 60 days. You couldn't do a thing. This is just a year ago, right--just a year ago from this administration that is now telling the American people: Oh, no, we are fully for energy development.

They were trying to kill it.

OK. Normally, when you have a lease on a Federal land, you have Federal managers. I will give you the example in Alaska. In the Bureau of Land Management, they will have a field manager, right? So let's say there is a field manager for BLM in Fairbanks, AL. That man or woman has a fair amount of authority. They can issue these applications to drill, to move forward. This is a government that is not centralized, right? You want the decision-makers--who, by the way, are almost all professional career staff--to make science-based decisions--not political decisions--on these applications to drill. That is the way it works. That is the way it has always worked.

So you have a field manager, say, in Fairbanks. You will have a district level manager in the interior part of Alaska. Then you will have one State director, the BLM State director, OK? So they usually-- not even the State director. The lower-level Federal officials can issue these permits to keep the country moving, producing oil, gas.

What happened after 60 days? After 60 days in 2021--so you have the Biden administration--Mr. de la Vega shutting down all energy production for 60 days in America. That is this order. So after 60 days, what happened? Well, there was another order issued. This was issued by a woman, an official named Laura Daniel-Davis. She is the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Land and Mineral Management. OK. Sounds kind of important. Actually, it is really important. That is the Assistant Secretary of the Interior in charge of all oil and gas and mineral development for America. It is a pretty important job.

In the Trump administration, we had a really great Alaskan, Joe Balash. He had that job. Did a great job, by the way. So after 60 days, Acting Assistant Secretary for the Land and Mineral Management--oil and gas, mining--she issues a memo. I have it right here. I will quote from some of it. She issues a memo. What her memo says was: Hey, you have that Executive order--60-day delay by Mr. de la Vega. OK, that is running out in 2 days. This is March 19, 2021. It is not even a year old.

What she says in her order is that: You know how you guys in the Federal agencies--a field manager, the district level manager, the State director, all across America--I am giving you one example in Alaska. You know how you all have authority to issue permits to drill, things like that? That is the way it has been going on for decades and decades. Well, I, Acting Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis, I am taking that away from you. I am taking that away.

Her memo says every decision--she lists a bunch--a bunch--OK? Every decision--now, remember, nobody was able to do anything for 60 days. Now, we are saying the 60-day delay is over,

but any decision you lower-level people--BLM and others--had to make on applications to drill and permits like that--hundreds and hundreds across the country--she says--I am going to quote from her:

For those matters that have been submitted in accordance

with S.O. 3395--

She is referencing the Executive order that says stop everything. She now says: If you haven't received any kind of approval for that stuff-- ``If you have not received the final ASLM''--that is her decision-- ``you may not proceed [on any of these permits] without approval from ASLM,'' meaning her.

Think about that. This is an administration saying they really care about moving oil and gas on Federal lands forward. In the first 60 days, they say everything stopped. Then they say: All right. You are going to move forward the way it used to work--field managers, district level managers, State directors, in every State in America--no, no, no, you don't have that authority. Me, Assistant Secretary Acting--by the way, she is still not confirmed by the Senate--every one of those has to come to me for my approval--every one. Every one in Alaska, every one in New Mexico, every one in North Dakota--anywhere--by the way, all on the offshore, Gulf of Mexico--anywhere that at the lower levels in the Federal Government you had professional staff who had the authority to grant these applications to drill and other Federal permits, this memo says: No. That will be centralized under me--for America--for America--every darn decision for oil and gas production and mineral production in the country has to be approved by this Acting Assistant Secretary.

Guess what? This memo is still in operation right now--right now. When the President of the United States looks at the American people and Jen Psaki: Oh, we are doing everything.

No, you are not. You have one person and this order. I am not going to go into her background much, but let's just face it. If you look at it, she spent her whole career trying to take out the oil and gas industry. Now, she is in charge of every decision for every permit on every Federal lease for the production of American energy in the country, and she is still in charge. You have one person.

By the way, this is a political appointee. I don't think she is going to get confirmed because I am going to block her; that is for sure. But even some of my Democratic colleagues are like, this is going on right now, OK? My friends in the media, I hope you take a look at this.

What is really interesting here is you have someone who is a political appointee--a career trying to take out the oil and gas industry--and none of this is based on science. This is all political. They are removing the career staff, the scientists, saying: Hey, it has to be up to me. One political appointee is in charge of issuing all permits in the United States in the energy sector. It is still going on.

This would be like if you wanted to get a loan--right--and you went to your local bank in your hometown. Let's say it was Bank of America. There was a local bank, Bank of America in your hometown. This would be like having to go to headquarters on Wall Street to get approval for your loan. Think about it. That is going on right now.

And the President has the audacity to look the American people in the eye saying: Oh, we are trying to do all we can.

No, you are not. Why don't you rescind this order? This is part of the Biden administration's obsession from day one with stopping the production of American energy and politicizing it with a political appointee--who, by the way, doesn't know much about the industry either.

But there is more to this memo. It gets quite interesting because there is this kind of doublespeak in it. I am going to read from a little bit of it. She says that for matters that have been submitted in accordance with the shutdown--60-day shutdown--but for which you have not received approval from me, you are still not allowed to move forward. You have to come through me, the one political appointee who doesn't like the energy sector.

But here is the interesting thing. She says: ``Please [also] provide early notification.'' So flag it if it is an item coming up to me that is part of the administration's priorities. I am quoting right now: ``For example, renewable energy projects [those will go to the front of the line] or other climate related milestones, `30 by 30' initiatives''--that is shutting down 30 percent of all Federal lands.

That is not a law by the way; just another radical thing they are doing--``or actions related to racial equity, environmental justice.''

OK. This is in her memo. She is saying: Hey, I get to approve everything--all applications, drill, any permits on any Federal land, anything--one person. But if it is part of a far-left radical agenda, by the way, that has nothing to do with energy production, give me a heads-up.

Then she says:

As well as early notification on items that are of high

local, state, or regional interest.

What does that mean, ``early notification''? Make sure she knows items that are of ``high local, state, or regional interest.'' What does that mean? I don't know. It is kind of code for something.

Let me give you one example of what I think it is code for. Remember, she is in charge of issuing all these permits, and there have been a flood of oil and gas production permits. Guess which State in America in the first year of the Biden administration has had close to half of all oil and gas drilling permits issued by the Department of Interior approved? Remember, she is approving them all. She doesn't really like oil and gas, but if she has to approve some, it might be related to items that are of ``high local, state, or regional interest.'' I wonder who that is.

Who is it? Is it Alaska? No, I don't think so. Trust me. They are delaying us as much as they can. They don't like us. Twenty-two Executive orders and Executive actions solely focused on Alaska by this administration, they really don't like us.

Is it Texas, North Dakota? The State that has got close to half of all oil and gas drilling permits that this Acting Assistant Secretary, who is in charge of granting--because, remember, she centralized everything--is New Mexico. New Mexico. Whoa. New Mexico? New Mexico.

Do you think New Mexico would be a high State or regional interest if you are her and your boss is from New Mexico? Probably. How about if you have a Senator from New Mexico calling all the time? Probably.

All right. So I really wish the media would look into this, right? Because right now you have the President of the United States, Jen Psaki, and others, saying: Oh, we are trying to do everything we can here. You have got this memo that is still in effect by an Acting Assistant Secretary, saying: I am going to control every permit issued in America on Federal lands. It is right here. Read it. And you can't move, you regional directors in BLM, you know, in Fairbanks, AK, you State directors--no, no, no. I am in charge, and I am going to approve them. You can't move without me. But give me a heads-up. If it is regional interest, Deb Haaland might care about the New Mexico ones or climate change or racial equity or whatever else she listed.

So if this administration really wanted to do all it could to produce energy--which is what every American knows we need to do and what our allies know we need to do and what Putin hopes we don't do--I think one thing they could do is to get Acting Assistant Secretary Laura Daniel- Davis's boot off the neck of the American energy sector because, right now, she is in charge.

Every permit on Federal lands listed in her memo of March 21--I am sorry, March 19, 2021, she is in charge of: final resource management plans, records of decisions, coal leasing, mining operations, R.S. 2477, land sales, exchanges--what else do we have here--applications for permits to drill, oil and gas leases, applications for royalty relief. She is in charge of all of that right now.

In this administration, the President, Jen Psaki, and others have the audacity to look the American people in the eye and say: We are trying to do everything we can in our power to produce more. If you were, you would rescind this memo--rescind this memo.

So the next time the President or some of his staff or Secretary of Energy or Secretary of Interior try to spin the American people and tell them they are trying to help, I hope my friends in the media go, well, what about this memo? Come on, that is like basic Federal Government 101. If you are telling everybody, stop, halt, and everything in the country has to be approved by her, that is not the way it works normally. But because of their anti-energy agenda, she is making the calls--but make sure that you give her a heads-up, if it is related to some of the far-left agenda that she literally lays out in the memo.

I hope my friends in the media ask some questions. I hope they ask the question: Is it related to this memo that New Mexico is getting all the drilling permits? It would be a good question to ask, I think. Don't you think? I think so. Alaska's not getting a lot, but New Mexico is. I wonder why. Maybe that is related to making sure she gets, ``early notification of items that are of high local, State or regional interest.''

This is not a laughing matter. There is so much that we have to focus on in the world today, in America today, and one of the things this administration needs to do is they need a major course correction on their energy policy.

You can't let energy be dictated by the far left of the Democratic Party. You can't let national security of America be dictated by the ``woke'' elements of the Democratic Party. And if you really are serious, Mr. President of the United States, you need to call Deb Haaland and say: Rescind that memo. Let the officials, the professional staff of the Federal Agencies, which the President has charged to do their job that they have done with every other administration--rescind this memo and start helping our country produce American energy again.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, obviously, the images coming out of Ukraine and the heroism that we are seeing is inspiring people all across America, all across the world, and it is spurring governments to action, appropriate action.

Just the other day, there was a world leader in charge of one of the world's most important countries who was spurred to action. Despite his country and his government having a leftwing leaning, he made announcements--historic, remarkable announcements--that not only stunned his country but stunned his world about the importance of a strong defense, military defense, about the importance of being realistic about energy policies. No, I am not talking about President Biden, unfortunately. I am going to get to that. He missed a huge opportunity to do just that. I am talking about the world leader German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who in the last 2 days has said Germany, because of the current crisis, is going to almost double its defense budget to achieve its 2 percent GDP portion of national defense within the next year or two--a huge, stunning announcement by the Chancellor.

A country that is addicted to Russian natural gas is now saying we are not going to have any and we are going to stop the Nord Stream 2 gas line--a huge, stunning announcement. That is global leadership.

And, unfortunately, President Biden missed the opportunity last night at the State of the Union to do exactly the same on exactly the same issues.

Let me talk about this a little bit more. I think we are starting to fully understand the implications as a nation and as a world of what is happening in Ukraine. We have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression, led by Russia's and China's dictators who are increasingly isolated and dangerous, who are driven by historical grievances, who are paranoid about their democratic neighbors and are willing to use military force and other aggressive actions to crush the citizens in countries like Ukraine and Hong Kong and Taiwan.

These dangerous dictators--Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping--are increasingly working together to put forward and implement their vision for the world: spheres of influence that revolve around them.

If you saw and read, they joint communicated just a few weeks ago before the Beijing Olympics, Xi Jinping and Putin. It is a wake-up call to the world. It is a scary, darn document. That is what is happening.

Again, we need to wake up; this administration needs to wake up to this new era of authoritarian aggression because it is going to be with us, unfortunately, in my view, for years, if not decades.

The President had the opportunity to do what the Chancellor of Germany did in the last few days, and he didn't. My view of this situation is that we need to face it as a country with strategic resolve and confidence and recognize that our country has extraordinary advantages, particularly relative to China and Russia.

If we are wise enough to utilize and strengthen these advantages, what are they? They are our global network of allies, our lethal military, our world-class supplies of energy and other natural resources, our dynamic economy, and, most important, our democratic values and commitment to liberty.

We must always remember that Putin and Xi Jinping's biggest weaknesses and biggest vulnerabilities are that they fear their own people. They fear their own people. We need to remember that and exploit this vulnerability in the months and years ahead.

But what happened last night? Again, it was a missed opportunity because the President could have--should have--followed the lead of the Chancellor of Germany, and he didn't.

He put forward a few good ideas that, I think, drew bipartisan support in the Chamber, certainly, talking about the brave people of Ukraine. That was something that all Americans are seeing and supportive of. Also, the President's commitment to defend every inch of NATO territory, I think, is an important redline that he drew last night that, again, all of us support, but it was important for him to articulate it. Other topics--opioids, mental health, helping our veterans--count me in on those.

But what he didn't do was step up in front of the American people and, like the Chancellor of Germany, say: It is a new world, and we need to recognize it, and the Biden administration is going to make a course correction on some critical issues.

What were those critical issues? Well, they are the exact issues that the Chancellor of Germany announced to his people.

Yesterday, 23 Senators--we sent a letter to the President respectfully imploring him to address the same issues that the Chancellor of Germany just did in this new era of authoritarian aggression. We need a much stronger, robust military budget that can ensure the lethality and readiness of our

forces. If you don't believe that, you are not watching what is going on in Ukraine.

What we don't need is another Biden budget like he put forward last year that increases, by double digits, the budgets of literally every Federal Agency in the Government of the United States, with the exception of two: Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.

The Biden budget last year cut those, and I guarantee you the dictators in Beijing and the dictator in Moscow noticed. You can't do that. He didn't even mention it last night--didn't even mention it last night. And I guarantee you the dictators in Moscow and Beijing noticed and so did our European allies, which is, again, why what the Chancellor of Germany did was so extraordinary. He announced a budget doubling the budget of the German military--stunning.

But the other area that we suggested strongly to the President of the United States to address to the American people in this new era of authoritarian aggression is energy.

In our letter to the President yesterday, we respectfully called out the President and said: With respect, Mr. President, you recently told the American people in a press conference that your administration was using ``every tool at our disposal to protect American families and businesses'' from rising energy crisis, but that is not true. It is not true, and the whole world knows it. Heck, the administration knows it.

So we suggested 12 actions that the President of the United States could take and announce at the State of the Union that would help us with regard to energy: bring down costs, put American energy workers back to work, and not let Putin blackmail European allies of ours with energy and continue to use it as a weapon.

We asked for a course correction on the Biden administration's energy policies, which, from day 1, have focused on restricting, delaying, and, indeed, killing the production of American oil and gas.

All of this has had the predictable result, the catastrophic result of driving up energy prices at the pump and in home heating for American citizens--enormous increases, hurting working families, increasing pink slips for American energy workers like those in my State, the great State of Alaska, and again in the current crisis, significantly empowering our adversaries, especially Vladimir Putin, who has used energy as a weapon against our allies for decades.

So I am not going to go into each one of the topics or the actions that we suggested the President of the United States take, with the exception of one because it is so apparent that we need to do it and so apparent that the President should have announced it last night that I want to just briefly mention it again here.

We called on--and today in a press conference many of us called on-- many Republicans and some Democratic Senators now have called on the Biden administration to undertake sanctions and an embargo against Vladimir Putin's strongest weapon, his export of natural gas and oil.

Now, many people are saying: Well, you can't do that as it relates to our European allies. What we are saying is, we understand there are challenges there. We are not talking about Europe. We are talking about the United States of America.

I want you to understand these numbers. Right now, we are buying an average of almost 700,000 barrels a day of Russian oil. By the way, that number has increased 35 percent--actually over 35 percent during President Biden's first term. At the same time, the Biden administration is going to States like mine and saying, We are going to try to shut down Alaskan oil production.

Does anyone in America, does anyone in the U.S. Senate, does anyone in the Biden administration think that that makes sense--increase imports of Russian oil to the United States while shutting down the production of American energy?

They are doing it. We all know they are doing it. Heck, they know they are doing it. It makes no sense.

In the last year, imports from the United States paid for that went back--oil imports of Russian oil, paid for in the United States going back to Russia--put $17 billion into Putin's war chest--$17 billion.

So a number of us--like I said, Republican and now Democratic Senators--have been saying: This is nuts. We are trying to sanction Putin. We are trying to isolate Russia from the global economy, and there is this giant loophole, and it is coming right to the United States. We are paying for hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of Russian oil going back to Putin, and they are still trying to shut down American energy production. Come on.

Of course, some of this is driven by the far left that the Biden administration listens way too much to. Come on, Mr. President, my colleagues here, this is insane, and everybody knows it. Everybody knows it.

What are we doing right now? We are subsidizing this war. We are subsidizing--by the importation of 7,000 barrels a day of Russian oil in the United States, we are subsidizing Putin's war on Ukrainians.

By the way, our friends in Canada, they just announced that they are not going to import any more Russian oil. Prime Minister Trudeau, well done, sir.

By the way, had the Keystone Pipeline not been killed by the President of the United States a little over 12 months ago, we would have up to 700,000 barrels of oil from Canada. I would much rather be getting oil from Canada than Russia right now.

If you think that this is an issue that is not impacting Ukraine, here is what the Foreign Minister of Ukraine recently said about this topic:

We insist on a full embargo for Russian oil and gas around

the world. Buying Russian oil and gas right now means paying

for the murder of Ukrainian men, women and children.

That is the Foreign Minister of Ukraine. What he is asking for is something we can easily do--block any more Russian oil, Russian natural gas coming into the United States of America. People say: Well, where would we get it, then? I will tell you where we would get it. We would get it from the United States of America.

The only thing that the President mentioned last night on this topic in a glancing manner--to be honest, it was a lame glancing manner. It was almost a pathetic attempt to just barely recognize that this giant issue had to be touched upon. He said we are going to briefly release oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. We are not going to produce more, which we could. We are just going to release a little more oil out of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Here is my answer to that: Mr. President, there is a much better Strategic Petroleum Reserve than the one you referenced last night. It is called the great State of Alaska. That is America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And you need to let us, as your fellow Americans, help our fellow citizens and the rest of the world by producing. So it was a missed opportunity last night.

We have world leaders who, right now, the Prime Minister of Canada on the imports of Russian oil, the Chancellor of Germany on significantly recognizing the new era in which we are all in, saying: I have got to be serious about national defense and our military, and I have got to be serious about energy.

We had respectfully asked the President of the United States last night in the State of the Union to do just the same--just the same. The American people were watching, and he had an opportunity to talk about the consequences, long term, of this new era of authoritarian aggression and say: ``And I am going to make some course corrections as the President of this administration because it is going to be what is good for the American people and our allies,'' and he didn't do it. He didn't do it, and it was a big missed opportunity for our country and for the world.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to come down to the floor and talk about the issue that is certainly the focus of America and the world right now, and that is Ukraine, and that is the President's State of the Union Address, which will be a very important one tonight.

And I know that Americans all across our great Nation are glued to their televisions, social media streams. And what we are seeing in Europe is quite remarkable, quite unsettling--another major war on the European continent. We are seeing children in bomb shelters singing the Ukrainian national anthem. We are seeing brave young men and women on the front lines taking up arms to defend their country. We are seeing grandmothers take to the streets, foisting upon Russian conscripts the seeds of their country's flower. One of the most effective acts of resistance I have ever witnessed.

Mr. President, you and many of us were over in Europe just about a week ago at the Munich Security Conference, where we had the opportunity to meet with many of these brave Ukrainian ministers, the mayor of Kyiv, parliamentarians, young parliamentarians. And our message--my message certainly was a hard one. At the time, the war had not started, but we were seeing increasing intelligence that it would any day.

And the message was, if war comes, it will be important for the Ukrainian people, the leaders, to fight. And we are seeing that. All across the country, the people in Ukraine are fighting and willing to die for freedom, for their country.

I want to say I think I speak for the whole Senate: Watching these acts of courage and heroism has been truly inspiring, and we all applaud the courage and heroism that we are seeing in Ukraine, and we stand with the people of Ukraine.

Given the circumstances in Ukraine and across the globe and in our country, where working families are struggling under increasing energy costs and inflation, I want to talk a little bit about the President's State of the Union tonight and what I certainly hope he is going to tell the American people.

I and several of my colleagues here, Republican colleagues in the Senate, will be sending a letter to the President very soon, urging him to announce specific actions that relate to an entirely new world with this invasion of Ukraine by Russia and start to announce a course correction on issues under which the Biden administration has been going the wrong way on two key, key areas.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the letter to the President.

Mr. President, let me begin with one of the areas of course correction that we are urging the President to undertake, and that is in the area of national defense.

There are many lessons that we are going to learn from this Ukrainian invasion, but one of them is certainly that we have entered a new era of authoritarian aggression, led by the dictator in Russia--that is Putin--and the dictator in China--that is Xi Jinping. When they sense weakness, particularly military weakness, they are acting.

As I mentioned, this new era of authoritarian aggression is something we need to be ready for. It is led by the dictators of Russia and China, who are increasingly isolated and dangerous. They are driven by historical grievances, they are paranoid about their democratic neighbors, and they are more than willing to use military force and other aggressive actions to crush the citizens of such countries on their periphery. These dangerous dictators, Putin and Xi Jinping, are increasingly working together to achieve their aggressive goals.

We must wake up to the fact, and that is what we are calling the President to do--hopefully he does in his speech tonight--that this new era of authoritarian aggression is likely to be with us for decades.

What are the areas which we should focus on and which we are respectfully requesting the President to focus on and announce tonight? Well, first, as I mentioned, our Nation's national defense. Now, unfortunately, this has not been a priority of Democratic Presidents. That is a fact. This has not been a priority often of my Democratic colleagues--some; not all but some.

Let me just give you some of the numbers. In the second term of the Obama administration, the Pentagon's budget was slashed by 25 percent-- 25 percent. Our military readiness plummeted.

When I got elected to the Senate--in many ways, I ran because of these issues in 2014. When I was elected in 2015, I was on the Readiness Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee. The numbers at the time were classified because they were so horrendous in terms of our military's readiness. Three out of fifty-eight brigade combat teams of the U.S. Army were at the tier 1 level of readiness needed for deployment--3 out of 58. The Air Force was the smallest and oldest in terms of aircraft age ever, and less than half of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps' aviation fleet could fly. That was the U.S. military during the end of the second term of the Obama administration. When you gut defense spending, you gut readiness, you gut lethality.

During the Trump administration, when the Republicans had control of the Senate, we worked to reverse this dangerous hollowing out of our military by dramatically increasing funding. Many of the areas I talked about involving readiness and lethality returned back to the levels that the American people expect of their military.

Unfortunately, when the President, President Biden, was elected, he reverted back to what Democratic Presidents always do: He submitted a budget that cut defense spending in real terms, inflation adjusted, about 3 to 4 percent cuts.

What was remarkable, if you looked at the Biden budget, everywhere else, it was double-digit increases. You name the Agency, it got a double-digit increase, with the exception of two: Department of Defense and Homeland Security. Budgets are an indication of priorities, and this President was not prioritizing his own armed services.

So what we are doing with regard to the letter today is asking the President of the United States: You can't do that anymore, Mr. President. We are in a new era.

We had a hearing in the Armed Services Committee today. I asked both the witnesses what they thought Xi Jinping and Putin thought when the President of the United States put forward a budget to cut his own military. The witnesses answered today in this hearing: Undoubtedly, it helped embolden Putin and Xi Jinping.

So the first thing we are asking the President to make clear in his speech tonight is that he needs to put forward a robust, real increase in defense spending to make sure we have current and future readiness and lethality of our military forces. Obviously, if you turn on the TV and see what is going on around the world, this needs to happen.

The President also needs to continue, as every President has done before him, to call out our NATO allies, whom we are acting closely with right now, to meet their obligations that they have committed to for years, which is to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense spending.

The good news is, Germany just announced that it was going to do this, that it was going to double its budget. That is remarkable. That is great news. But we can't have Germany leading on the calls for increasing defense spending and lethality. The President of the United States needs to do it, and he needs to do it tonight.

The second issue that we raised in our letter on the critical need for a strategic course correction with this administration is with regard to energy. Everybody knows it. Everybody feels it. Everybody understands it. Yet, for some reason--I think driven by the far left of the Democratic Party--this administration won't get real on energy.

Let me talk about that for a minute because it is a topic I care deeply about and, by the way, have been pressing the Biden administration on since day 1, that this is bad for our economy, bad for working families, and bad for national security.

What am I talking about? Well, first, it is important to understand what President Biden inherited. Over the 4 years of the Trump administration, with Republicans in control of the Senate, we were able to achieve a bipartisan goal of American foreign policy and energy security that we collectively as a nation had been seeking for decades: American energy independence.

Before the pandemic hit, the United States was the largest producer of oil in the world, bigger than Saudi Arabia; the largest producer of natural gas in the world, bigger than Russia; and a leader in producing renewables--all-of-the-above energy.

At the same time, and I really want my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to listen to this, we led the world in terms of major economies on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2005, we have reduced these by almost 15 percent. No other industrialized nation in the world has a record like

that, including our high standards on producing energy. In China, the emissions are going through the roof. In the United States, they are coming down dramatically because of the American energy revolution. Millions of jobs were created because of this revolution in energy, in U.S. manufacturing, in energy sectors, and our energy independence significantly enhanced our Nation's national security.

I often recount this story. In a meeting about 4 years ago I had with Senator John McCain--a close friend of mine and mentor in the Senate-- and a very senior level Russian dissident. At the end of the meeting, I asked this brave Russian dissident: What more can the United States do to undermine the Putin regime and to undercut Vladimir Putin's malign influence in Europe and around the world? Without hesitation, this Russian dissident said: It is easy, Senator; America needs to produce more American energy. That is exactly what we did, and our country and our allies benefited enormously.

So what has been the policy of this administration? From day 1--and I mean day 1--1 hour into his administration, President Biden has intentionally done the opposite. We are not going to produce more American energy, as that Russian dissident told me and Senator McCain to do to undermine Putin. To the contrary, the Biden administration made the conscious decision: We are going to undercut the production of American energy.

Since taking office, this administration has shut down energy production, has made it hard to produce on Federal lands, has killed energy infrastructure like pipelines, has strong-armed American financial institutions and not invested in energy here and particularly in places like my State, the great State of Alaska.

All of this restricting, delaying, killing the production of American energy, driven by a far-left agenda that makes no sense, has had the very predictable result of what? Catastrophically driving up energy prices for American working families--we are seeing that every day; my colleagues know that--increasing pink slips for American energy workers. Keystone XL laid off 10,000 workers, a lot of laborers. First day on the job--that was the President's call.

Here is the thing that matters right now: This war on American energy has significantly empowered our adversaries, especially Vladimir Putin, who has used energy as a weapon for decades.

Again, I see this every day. Think about this statistic if you are an Alaskan citizen. This administration comes up to Alaska and tries to delay and shut down the production of American energy. Guess what. At the same time, year 1 in the Biden administration, we are now importing 700,000 barrels a day of oil from Russia--almost a 40-percent increase in year 1 from the Biden administration. Does any American or any U.S. Senator think that makes sense--killing American energy production in our great Nation and importing hundreds of thousands of barrels more from Vladimir Putin? Because if you do--well, actually, I don't think anyone thinks that makes sense. But that is what is happening right now. In effect, the United States, in many ways, along with countries in Europe, is funding the very war that Putin has launched.

The United States still is the world's largest producer of natural gas, but, again, due to the irrationality and hostility toward pipelines, we can't get enough natural gas to the Northeast. So you see places like Boston importing LNG from where? Russia.

This is insane. This is insane. This is a colossal, strategic mistake. It is clearly harming American working families. I am sure every Senator hears about it when they go home. But it is also national security suicide.

It is being done, supposedly, to lower carbon emissions, but I want to be clear about that, too, because it isn't. In fact, oil produced in the United States has lower emissions than oil produced in most other countries. LNG shipped to Europe from the United States has a 41- percent lower carbon emission footprint than gas piped in from Russia, and we also have some of the most rigorous environmental standards anywhere on the planet in terms of production.

So, again, the Biden administration's energy policies are strengthening Putin, increasing costs and hurting Americans, and are actually doing zero to address global emissions. The only conclusion I can come up with is the far left has undertaken some kind of holy war against the production of American energy, and it makes no sense.

So here is what we are asking the President. He gave a speech to the American people the other night where he said that he is using all available tools to address these energy challenges. With all due respect to the President of the United States, that is not true. The President knows it; his team knows it; every Senator here knows it, and the American people know it.

So in our letter today that we are sending to the President, we are saying, President Biden, if you want to keep your word to the American people on what you just told them, ``all available tools,'' here is what you can actually announce tonight at the State of the Union that will have very significant, real impacts on lowering energy costs in America and increasing our national security relative to Putin.

Some of the actions we requested the President to take in the letter we are sending him before the State of the Union.

Simple, rescind your decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline and fast-track other similar energy infrastructure projects around the country.

Work to rescind the recent decision by the Biden administration's Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, that makes it much more difficult to actually approve natural gas pipelines. My understanding is my good friend from West Virginia Senator Manchin is holding a hearing on this very issue on Thursday because he knows that this is national security suicide.

Commit to fast-tracking and producing American energy on American lands, particularly where the Congress has told you to do so, like ANWR in Alaska, like the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska--Congress has said produce there; that is the law--like the Gulf of Mexico. We have decades in our great Nation of abundant proven reserves of oil and gas. So why are we importing so much from Putin right now?

This brings me to another request. And this is a request of many Senators, and I believe Democratic Senators also. We should be banning the importation of Russian oil into the United States. Canada just announced it was doing it yesterday. Why would we be importing 700,000 barrels a day of Russian oil when we have millions and millions of barrels in Alaska? Can somebody answer that question?

I hope the President of the United States looks at our letter and recognizes these are commonsense approaches that are going to be needed to address this new era of authoritarian aggression, not just with Vladimir Putin but with Xi Jinping as well. When you look at what the Communist Party fears more than anything, it is American energy dominance. And yet this administration has come in, in year 1, unilaterally disarmed one of our most important strategic advantages in the world.

One other thing we mention in the letter, which makes so much sense, is to issue all pending export licenses and announce an initiative to help surge American liquefied natural gas to our allies in Europe and partners in Europe who right now are being blackmailed and trapped by Vladimir Putin's use of energy.

Again, you would think that would be a no-brainer.

And we hope the President looks at the American people tonight and goes through this list of good energy ideas that we have given him and says he is going to do it--says he is going to do it.

The world is reeling right now. Our country certainly is hurting, in terms of inflation and many other challenges, many of which are self- inflicted like the energy challenges. We can take steps to strengthen our country. And a strong United States, of course, strengthens the world.

We have seen this time and time again throughout history. Our country is the beacon of freedom and hope, and the light of that beacon can only shine brightly, can only cast light on all corners of the globe when we are strong. And it shines most brightly when our

citizens are not struggling, but when we have strong communities, strong families, bolstered by good-paying jobs that provide dignity.

Our light of freedom shines most brightly when our country is on a common mission, and I think the President can call us toward a common mission tonight by listening to some of the things that we as Republicans have implored him to talk about and focus on in his speech.

As I mentioned, as a country, it is important that we wake up to the fact that this new era of authoritarian aggression will likely be with us for decades. We need to face it with confidence and strategic resolve.

Our country has extraordinary advantages relative to the dictatorships of Russia and China if we are wise enough to utilize and strengthen them. Our global network of allies, our lethal military, our world-class natural resources and energy resources, our dynamic economy, and most important, our democratic values and commitment to liberty.

Xi Jinping and Putin's biggest weakness and vulnerability is that they fear their own people. We should remember and exploit this vulnerability in the months and years ahead.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to urge my colleagues--I think they are all going to do this--to support S. 3614. That is the United States-Russian Federation Seafood Reciprocity Act of 2022, a pretty simple bill that will require reciprocity between Russia and the United States of America as it relates to our seafood industry and seafood trade.

Now, let me give you a little bit of background on this because it actually relates to what is going on in the world today. All eyes are currently on the Russian aggression toward Ukraine right now and for good reason. We have seen the stories that the authoritarian dictator Vladimir Putin is going to invade Ukraine. We hope, and I think every one of us hopes, that doesn't happen, but it is looking like it may.

But what is less talked about is the last time there was an invasion by Russia of Ukraine, what ended up happening in terms of sanctions and, in particular, American seafood sanctions, and the ramifications of the last Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Here is what actually happened. In 2014, when Putin invaded the Crimean Peninsula and eastern Ukraine, President Obama put sanctions on Russia. Now, I wasn't here as a Senator then, but I supported them. Russia then retaliated in terms of sanctions in 2014, and here is one of the things they did. They banned all seafood exports from America-- whether it is Alaska, Massachusetts--into Russia. So that was about 9 years ago. That ban still exists today.

Let me repeat this. If you are a big fisherman in Massachusetts or the great State of Alaska, as the Senator from Massachusetts knows, we both have thousands of great fishermen, you cannot export one fish to Russia. Nine years of a ban, and guess what. The United States lets Russia's seafood into America almost duty-free.

Let me repeat that. A ban on American exports to Russia, a 9-year blockade, not one Massachusetts fisherman or Alaskan fisherman can export his great American seafood product to Russia. Russia gets to import Russian seafood into America duty-free. That is called unfair by any measure--by any measure. And it certainly is unfair to the great fishermen of my State as well as the fishermen of Massachusetts.

Now, I have talked about Alaskan fishermen for--well, as long as I have been a Senator. About 66 percent of all seafood harvested in the United States comes from the great State of Alaska. So we are big exporters.

What has happened, though, in this regard, is that as we export--we Alaskans, fishermen from Massachusetts--as we export seafood around the world, we have not been able to export anything in that market, the Russian market, for 9 years, and at the same time the value of Russian seafood imported into the United States--surprise--has skyrocketed because there is no tariff on it. It skyrocketed 173 percent since 2013. That was the year before the embargo was imposed--again, directly competing against American seafood producers, American fishermen.

As a matter of fact, the Russians are actually starting to steal market share from American fishermen, whether Massachusetts or Alaska, and we are talking hundreds of millions of dollars. This is unfair by anybody's definition.

So my bill is very simple. It says, like we need in all trade around the world, we need just straight-up reciprocity. Right now, we can't export a thing to Russia, and they export their fish to America duty- free.

So the bill is simple. It just says, until we can export into the Russian market, they shouldn't be able to export into our market.

I can't imagine any U.S. Senator objecting to this. It is called reciprocity. It is called fairness. And it is righting a wrong that has been in the works for 9 years now, whether you are a fisherman in Massachusetts or a fisherman in Alaska.

I have raised this issue with the Obama administration, the Trump administration, now the Biden administration. We are still waiting on reciprocity. So it is time to act. The U.S. Senate can act, and I am hopeful that we are going to act on this today. As a matter of fact, I checked with all my Republican colleagues, and every single one of them is supportive of basic reciprocity for fishermen.

So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Finance Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 3614 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, I appreciate my friend Senator Markey, his offer to work through this.

He and I have worked together on a number of issues, actually a number of issues particularly related to America's fishermen. As he mentioned, Massachusetts has a lot of fishermen, and I have tens of thousands of my fellow Alaskans involved in the industry. And, again, I think he and I certainly agree with this concept. I think every U.S. Senator agrees with the concept of basic fairness in trade, basic fairness, in terms of reciprocity, in trade--all trade but especially the seafood trade. We have had 9 years of no reciprocity from Russia-- Putin, the thug. We shouldn't have to take it anymore, and it is hurting my constituents.

Now, my understanding of the issue raised by Senator Markey is that it is primarily Russian pollock that is imported into Massachusetts. As Senator Markey knows, in Alaska, we have a huge number of fishermen engaged in that fishery. So maybe what we should look at is making sure Massachusetts' workers are actually processing American--Alaskan-- pollock, not the authoritarian pollock in Russia. That would be a fair way to resolve this.

I appreciate the offer to work together on this, but I will tell the Senator we need to work quickly because it has been 9 years of nonreciprocal seafood trade. I am almost certain that Massachusetts fishermen who once exported to Russia have been hurt by this seafood blockade as well as my fishermen. I take Senator Markey's offer and suggestion in good faith. Hopefully, we can work over the work period in the next couple of weeks and get to a result on this.

Alaskans will supply Massachusetts' workers pollock or cod or whatever you are processing, and then we will bring reciprocity in terms of trade, which currently does not exist, between Russia and the United States. It is wrong. It is unfair. It needs to be fixed by us, and it needs to be fixed by the Biden administration as well.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I want to commend my colleague and friend from Kansas. He said very, very eloquently that the administration's policies right now, which are anti-energy--they are driving up energy prices on working families. And it is national security suicide to unilaterally disarm energy when Putin uses energy as a weapon. We all know that.

Some of the window dressing here on these bills lately from my Senate Democratic colleagues is just that--political window dressing. We all need to go to the White House and say: Get your act together, Mr. President, your team. Produce more American energy.

That is what we all need. It will help with inflation and will help with national security.

So to my colleague from Kansas, thank you very much. We all come from States that produce energy. And these are great American workers, too, by the way, who sometimes get maligned because they produce energy. Imagine that.

Tribute to Doug Keil

Mr. President, I want to move on to my favorite time of the week. It is Thursday, so I usually come down on the Senate floor and talk about the Alaskan of the Week.

Now, we all believe our States are the best. Each State loves to brag a little bit about their own State. That is great. It is what makes our country competitive, a little bit of competition here in the Senate. But I happen to speak the truth when I talk about how Alaska is the best State, and it is because of the people.

I am going to talk a little bit about Doug Keil, who is today's Alaskan of the Week. I always like to start--you know, the pages enjoy this speech a lot because we get to talk a little bit about Alaska and the adventures and what is happening in the great State of Alaska. So I will give a little update on that.

On January 22, that was the polar night in Utqiagvik, AK, the northernmost town in all of North America. What happened on January 22 is that polar night--as they call it there--finally ended. That is 65 days of darkness finally ended. That is 65 days of darkness.

On January 22, the Sun crept a little over the horizon briefly. Like a long lost friend, the community gathered to say hello to the Sun. It has been cold up North. It has been a cold winter. It is about 20 below in Utqiagvik today. It has been relatively balmy in Anchorage where our Alaskan of the Week lives--warm enough to be sleeting right now.

But in all weather, all around the State, people are getting out, gathering, enjoying the Sun that stays in our skies a little bit longer each day. They are dogsledding--training for the Iditarod. They are snow-machining, playing hockey, skiing, snowboarding--so many winter sports.

We, in our State, are chockful of excellent winter athletes--great winter athletes. We punch way above our weight in terms of Winter Olympics. Many Alaskans are competing now in Beijing, as we speak, and we are rooting for all of them. Of course, we are rooting for all of America's athletes.

We are also preparing to root for the amazing athletes who will be competing in the Paralympics, also in Beijing, starting March 4. Again, many Alaskans will be there competing: cross-country skier, Grace Miller; snowboarder, Katy Maddry, a former Alaskan of the Week alum; and former gold medal Paralympian, Andrew Kurka. He will be competing in Beijing in the sit-ski events.

Now, I am mentioning all of this because our Alaskan of the Week, Doug Keil, says every one of these athletes--both in the Olympics and in Paralympics and all of our amateur athletes across the State--are there because of athletes who have gone before them. I think that is true.

Paving that path, of course, has been all the more challenging for America's Paralympian athletes. But it is a path that Doug, our Alaskan of the Week, has really paved for Alaska--for America--a deep one. And he has done it through grit and pain and determination.

In 1980, Doug Keil brought home two gold medals from the 1980 Paralympic Games in Norway. That was the second-ever Paralympic Games. He was the first American male to bring home gold in those games, and he spent the next 30-plus years building not only the structures and the organizations but, importantly, the culture in Alaska and in America to make sure other athletes with disabilities could come after him.

Let me tell you a little bit about our Alaskan of the Week, Doug Keil. Doug was born in Beirut, Lebanon. His parents Don and Margaret, who went by ``Midge,'' were adventuresome. From New York, they were on a 4-year overseas trip. Don, the father, was teaching high school physics and Midge was working at the United Nations in the Palestinian refugee camps when they had Doug, the oldest of what would be five children, four girls and Doug. I know one of the girls really well, Carrie, Doug's sister, who works as part of my team in Anchorage doing constituent casework. She recently hit the milestone of successfully helping 2,000 different Alaskans. Carrie, great job. You are amazing-- just as amazing as your brother Doug. Her success rate is off the charts. I see it every day.

When Doug and Carrie's family came back to America, they moved to Alaska. Don's brother--that is the dad, Don--built houses, and Don helped him for a while. Eventually, Don the father--Doug's father--got a senior job with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Doug, our Alaskan of the Week, was an active kid. He loved sports, mostly baseball and skiing. His plan was to follow in his father's footsteps and go to Springfield College in Massachusetts. He wanted to be a physical education teacher and to play baseball, but he had some tragedy. When Doug was 15, he took a trip to Juneau to visit a school friend. And on August 28, 1968, he and his friend were exploring an old gold mine in Juneau. Doug got struck by 24,000 volts of electricity-- 24,000 volts of electricity. In the process, he lost an arm and lost a leg. As we can all expect, the next few years were very difficult ones for Doug and his family. As he said, ``When you get hit by 24,000 volts of electricity, it messes you up physically. Mentally, my whole world was gone.''

Talk about grit and determination. He spent about 2 years in the hospital and his dreams, he thought, had died. To make it all the more difficult, his father had to move the family to the DC area for a job with the FAA when Doug was just a sophomore in high school, still learning how to use an artificial arm and artificial leg. But the family stuck together. They had faith, and they pulled through.

Back in Alaska, though, something remarkable happened. At this point, Doug hadn't tried to ski again because he thought those days were over without an arm, without a leg. But someone in their church told his parents about a program in Colorado--in Winter Park, CO--where they were training athletes to ski with disabilities. The first day he was there, Doug went to Winter Park. It coincided with the first day of what was then called the National Handicapped Championships.

Doug said:

I saw amazing athletes. I saw men and women who had come

back [many disabled veterans from Vietnam]. . . . I saw them

skiing and it opened up my eyes to a completely different

world.

Doug was inspired in many ways by our disabled Vietnam veterans who helped train him, helped inspire him. He came back to Alaska to train in this area and went back to Winter Park in 1977 to race in the Nationals in the slalom event and did so again in 1979, both of which qualified him for the 1980 Paralympics.

Along with two gold medals from those Olympics, he brought a mission back to Alaska: starting a skiing program for people with physical disabilities. He said at the time that skiing was amazing. It would give him a ``feeling of motion. It's like running again. It can be fluid. When it feels good up through your body, your body smiles and when your body smiles, you smile.'' And he wanted others to have that experience.

In the 1980s, of course, Alaska had mountains and snow and landscape begging to be played in but did not have a culture that encouraged people with disabilities to be part of those winter activities. Doug explained to a reporter in 1980 that as a one-legged skier, he was an anomaly in Alaska.

He said:

I've been skiing [there] for 5 years by myself. Up . . .

[in Alaska]--

Someone with disabilities--

[T]hey see me coming down the slopes and they say ``What the

[heck] is that?'' People just [weren't] used to [seeing] it

[in 1980].

And this is where the story moves from one individual, Doug, to thousands. Doug and a handful of others got busy. They formed a nonprofit called Challenge Alaska, and they hit the road. Doug, who had a full-time job in cable, still made the time for starting this great organization, Challenge Alaska. They got people out on the slopes. They trained them. They gathered all the adaptive equipment they could get their hands on, and they dug in.

Forty years later, with an expanded mission now including all outdoor activities, including summer activities--kayaking, cycling, wheelchair Frisbee, fishing, camping, and so much more--Challenge Alaska, started by Doug Keil, has helped over a thousand people in Alaska get out into Alaska's great outdoors in winter and summer. Some of the most incredible athletes you have ever met started their careers in athletics with Challenge Alaska.

Just two weekends ago, my wife Julie and I had the opportunity to attend Challenge Alaska's 40th anniversary gala dinner. Now, I know a lot of my colleagues here--we go out to a lot of events when we are back home. This was one of the most inspiring events I have attended in a long, long time. Julie and I got to sit with the current executive director of Challenge Alaska, Nate Boltz; his wife, Leah; daughter, Anna; his parents, Jim and Laurie; his grandmother, Adeline. There were amazing speeches. One young man named Ryan Johnson, a recent high school graduate with cerebral palsy, spoke. Incredible. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

And, of course, Doug was there. Doug was there, the founder of Challenge Alaska--40 years of work--and he was honored for this great life achievement.

In that 1980 article I mentioned earlier, I talked about when he was talking about skiing on the slopes alone as someone with one leg, he said that if he could have a plaque that said he was instrumental in starting a program to help other people with disabilities in Alaska to learn to enjoy the outdoors--skiing, winter, summer--he would be a happy man. That was 40 years ago when he said that. Well, he should be happy. He has done that and so much more. Thousands of people have been positively impacted by what he has done.

Here is another remarkable thing. His inspiration went far beyond Alaska. It has literally touched the globe. He tells the story about how in the nineties, 13 people with disabilities from Japan came to ski with and learn from the people in Challenge Alaska. Doug was working at Challenge Alaska. He, unfortunately, wasn't able to ski with our Japanese visitors. But when they were leaving town, he met them at the airport to say goodbye. One of them, who was also missing an arm and a leg from a construction accident, stepped forward and, through an interpreter, told Doug that after his accident, he thought about taking his own life. Then this young Japanese man said to Doug that he saw a documentary about Doug. And he said to Doug:

I vowed that I would learn to ski, [I would] come to Alaska

and ski with [Challenge Alaska]. Thank you [Doug] for saving

my life.

That is pretty powerful stuff right there--one person in Japan whose life was saved by Doug Keil and all the great people at Challenge Alaska.

So, Doug, thank you for saving lives. Thank you for your inspiration to so many. Thank you for what you have done for Alaska, for Challenge Alaska, for the State, for the Paralympian athletes we are going to watch and cheer on here in a couple of weeks. And congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, reserving the right to object, I would like to talk a little bit about not just Ms. Williams--who as my friend from Montana has mentioned--I actually think she is qualified--but the issues that are in front of the Fish and Wildlife Service, as we speak, that relate to my State, the great State of Alaska.

Unfortunately, it has been one Executive order, Executive action, delay targeting Alaska--some from the Fish and Wildlife Service that has had an enormously negative impact on my State.

I agree with the Senator from Montana. Fish and Wildlife Service is important. He mentioned that it manages 89 million acres nationwide. Well, 77 million acres of that 89 are in Alaska. Eight-five percent of Fish and Wildlife Service land that is managed is in one State, the great State of Alaska, a size bigger than the State of New Mexico, just for Fish and Wildlife Service land control.

So this Agency, this nominee will have an enormous impact on my constituents and, indeed, right now is having an enormous impact on my constituents, and I can't get them to do anything constructive for the people I represent.

Let me give you two, and perhaps my colleague from Montana can help me out with this. These are two directly--directly--in the jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife Service that we have been asking for support on and haven't gotten it. One is the Russian River land exchange. This is a vital exchange that needs to happen for a highway project on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

Here is the thing about this land exchange. It has been in the works since 1975--44 years, to be exact. We believe it is the longest running federally led environmental impact statement in the history of America, which is actually what happens a lot in the great State of Alaska. Groups come up; they don't want any resource development; they don't want any access to land and they sue and they stop and they try to delay things. This one has been delayed, in one form or another, for 44 years.

Now, the previous administration, to its credit, heard the voices of Alaska, responded to the input from different stakeholders, and actually put forward a reasonable land exchange that was approved by the Federal Government. The regional office of the Fish and Wildlife Service sent the approved package to headquarters in Washington, DC, in November, where it sits--where it sits.

So one thing I would like to do before this nominee moves forward is get a commitment to approve that. It is very simple--44 years. I don't think we are asking too much, but it is delayed.

Let me give you another one. Many of you have heard about the King Cove road. You are going to hear about it again because it is an issue that every Alaskan, even those who don't live out on the Aleutian Island chain, are passionate about. Only in Alaska could this happen. It is an 11-mile, single-lane gravel road that will save lives for people in the community of King Cove--primarily Alaska Native--and they need approval of that through another land exchange. We have been working on that for over 40 years--40 years. People in my communities in that part of the State have died because there is no road to access an airport. There are a lot of storms in that part of the world, the Aleutian Islands. When they need access to get out on a plane, they often don't have it because we can't build a single lane, 11-mile gravel road.

We have a land exchange approved by the previous administration. This administration has said they are looking to approve it too. That is great news, but the Secretary of the Interior has said she is not going to fully endorse it until she goes out to King Cove and sees it herself. OK. We have been waiting for that visit for a year--for a year.

There is a theme here. With the new administration, if there is something that has been helpful to my State, primarily by the previous administration, the Trump administration, on so many issues, bipartisan issues for Alaska, which has helped us in historic ways--on those helpful things, the new administration comes in, and they say: We are going to delay it. We are going to delay it. We have to relook at it. We don't know. If the Trump administration did it for Alaska, it must have been bad. That is their thing.

But on things that harm my State, this administration on day 1 has expedited so many things. Day 1, the President is in office for 1 hour, and he issues an order dealing with ANWR, which this body approved in 2017. If it helps Alaska, they delay it. If it hurts Alaska, they are all over it.

What we have in the first year of the Biden administration--first year--are 21 Executive orders and Executive actions negatively impacting my State across the board on every topic you can imagine: access to lands, tourism, fishing--21 Executive orders or actions.

I gave a speech on this before the holidays, and it was 20--now it is 21--solely focused on Alaska. There is no other State in the country that is getting this kind of attention from this administration. I am sure the great State of Montana isn't.

It is not just about resource development. These actions are hurting the ability of my constituents to put food on the table, lights on in their homes, jobs, cultures.

And one area that doesn't nearly get enough attention, these actions, so many of them, are actually negatively impacting the Alaska Native community of the great State of Alaska. The Native people of my State are targeted. Let me give you one example. The previous administration, working with this body in a bipartisan way, finally passed a bill that provided justice to Alaska Native Vietnam veterans who served their country during Vietnam. The Alaska Native community is one of the most patriotic communities in the country. They serve at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic group in the country.

When many of them went to fight in Vietnam, they came home, and a law that had been on the books since 1906--the ability to get a Native allotment--had expired. They came home and said: Wait, I can't get my native allotment? So we finally fixed that almost a half century later. Of course, a lot of radical enviros hated it because it is giving land in Alaska to people.

The No. 1 issue I raised with Secretary Holland during her confirmation process was to make sure the Executive order to get these lands to Vietnam veterans--Alaska Native Vietnam veterans--stays on track. The Trump administration did all they could to make it happen. All they had to do was hit ``send.'' She delayed it for 2 years-- delayed it for 2 years. She wasn't even going to tell the delegation. I guarantee you, in the next 2 years, as this is being delayed, a lot of these Vietnam vets--Alaska Vietnam vets--will die before they even get their lands. So we are starting to hear it.

I want to make one final point. This is very important. This administration talks a lot about racial justice, environmental equity. They talk about it all the time, but it comes with a caveat. They say they want to help disadvantaged communities, minority communities. I think that is a good goal, but it comes with a caveat--racial justice, environmental equity, unless it is for the indigenous people of Alaska, and then they get targeted.

A lot of these Executive orders are targeting them. I have a whole list where some of the most disadvantaged Americans in the country are being targeted--in my view, because of their race--by this administration.

I have submitted these before, but I am going to submit them again for the Record, several letters from Alaska Native groups talking about this unwarranted lack of consultation and targeting of their interests in my State.

I ask unanimous consent to have one of these letters printed in the Record.

Here is one. It is from the president of the Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, John Hopson, Jr.

In terms of equity [racial equity] we understand that the

Biden Administration has made promises domestically and

internationally to curb this country's emissions and we, as

Inupiat people whose homelands are on the front lines of

climate change, can understand the need to move in that

direction when it comes to address government policies. What

we cannot support, however, is that those efforts are [often]

made on the backs of indigenous peoples in Alaska without

even a conversation, that is not how more equity is achieved.

The federal government must allow us time and resources for a

thoughtful, deliberate, and sustainable transition of our

economy but instead we have seen secretarial and executive

actions [from this administration] that threaten our way of

[life and] economic sustainability and therefore our [entire]

way of life [in America's Arctic].

Another group: Apparently, consultation with all indigenous groups in the country, except for those in Alaska, is this administration's policy.

So, bottom line, I need commitments from the Fish and Wildlife Service on these issues: the Russian River land exchange, the King Cove land exchange. More broadly, I need the administration to end its war on Alaska and our working families.

I am happy to discuss with the Senator from Montana on these issues and maybe get his help, but for right now, I object.

Well, to my colleague, I look forward to working with you on that and those amendments and look forward to moving her nomination forward in that light.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, today I introduce the S.T.A.N.D. with Taiwan Act of 2022, which would mandate comprehensive and devastating economic and financial sanctions against the Chinese Communist Party, key sectors of China's economy, and leaders in the Chinese Communist Party, if the Chinese People's Liberation Army initiates a military invasion of the island democracy of Taiwan. Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin introduced an identical bill in the House today as well.

I am hopeful that when my colleagues come back from recess, the vast majority of Senators here, Democrats and Republicans, will end up joining me in supporting this important bill.

Last March, in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, I posed this

question to the INDOPACOM commander, Admiral Davidson:

Given the Chinese Communist Party's recent but long list of

coercive and even violent actions--a hostile suppression of

freedom in Hong Kong, threatening nuclear war with Japan,

hand-to-hand combat with Indian soldiers in the Himalayas,

economic blockades of Australia, genocide in its own Xinjiang

province, [and aggressive naval actions in the South China

Sea]--how do such actions impact your analysis [Admiral

Davidson] on if and when China would invade Taiwan?

His response to me in this hearing made news around the world. He called these recent actions by President Xi ``alarming,'' and then he said:

I think the threat [of an invasion of Taiwan] is manifest

during this decade, in fact, in the next 6 years.

Six years--that is not a lot of time. The Senate needs to focus on this issue much more. Indeed, this issue is not unrelated to the actions of another dictator--Vladimir Putin--who is right now threatening and likely to invade one of his neighbors--Ukraine.

Now, some see the defense of Taiwan as a luxury we cannot afford in an age of sharpened and great power competition and China's global economic strength. I reject that view. Importantly, so does American law, particularly the Taiwan Relations Act, which this body passed in 1979 by a vote of 90 to 6. Among other things, it states the following:

The United States will consider any effort to determine the

future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means . . . a threat

to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area and of

grave concern.

The free world cannot be neutral in the contest between freedom and authoritarianism that is once again underway around the world, especially in the Indo-Pacific region.

American alliances, power, and ingenuity helped build a world that provided more freedom and prosperity to more people than ever before. Think about this fact: The U.S. democracy, bolstered by our strong military, has done more to liberate humankind from oppression and tyranny--literally hundreds of millions of people--than any other force in human history.

The Chinese Communist Party knows exactly what it wants to accomplish--to make the world safe for its authoritarian government, to export its dictatorship model to other countries, to separate America from its democratic allies, and to erode U.S. leadership around the world.

A world governed by Xi Jinping's totalitarian vision would be a world unsafe for America and other democracies around the world. That is why Taiwan is so central to the free world and its future. It is a thriving, prosperous Chinese democracy that holds free elections and bounds its power by the rule of law. For that reason, it threatens the CCP's central premise, which is that one man ruling in perpetuity by crushing all dissent knows what is best for 1.4 billion people.

The Chinese Communist Party has already crushed Hong Kong, once a bastion of liberty, and the free world barely raised its voice in protest. Should America and the world stand by as China does something similar to Taiwan, a peaceful democracy of 25 million people who have voted for an entirely different future, that would not simply undermine the security of the Western Pacific, as the Taiwan Relations Act says. A violent military takeover of Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party would be a sea change in how the world is ordered. It would change the history of the 21st century in ways that the guns of August of 1914 changed the 20th century.