Floor Statements

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Rachelle for her hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize her efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Rachelle is a native of Casper. She attends the University of Wyoming, where she studies international relations, communications, and journalism. She has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made her an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of her work is reflected in her great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Rachelle for the dedication she has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have her as part of our team. I know she will have continued success with all of her future endeavors. I wish her all my best on her journey.

Mr. President, I would like to take the opportunity to express my appreciation to Elijah for his hard work as an intern in my Washington, DC, office. I recognize his efforts and contributions to my office, as well as to the State of Wyoming.

Elijah is a native of Sheridan. He attends Oklahoma Wesleyan University, where he studies history and political science. He has demonstrated a strong work ethic, which has made him an invaluable asset to our office. The quality of his work is reflected in his great efforts over the last several months.

I want to thank Elijah for the dedication he has shown while working for me and my staff. It is a pleasure to have him as part of our team. I know he will have continued success with all of his future endeavors. I wish him all my best on his journey.

Madam President, first I would like to associate myself with the remarks from the distinguished senior Senator from North Dakota who spoke so well about the issues that are facing the American people, both in terms of inflation and in terms of energy.

So I join my colleagues today on the floor to talk about this crisis that we are facing under the Presidency of Joe Biden and the Democrats in this body.

We found out this morning that inflation hit another record high, a 40-year high, and we are now entering a summer of suffering by the American people, suffering brought on by the Democrats and their reckless spending and policies.

The inflation numbers themselves are shocking. The impact on families is so, so disturbing. In my home State of Wyoming, the people that normally volunteer to drive meals to shut-ins on Meals on Wheels--who run some of those rural routes and drive around and drop off meals-- these are volunteers with time on their hands, senior citizens who do the driving. They are no longer able to do it because they cannot afford the gas under Joe Biden and the Democratic policies.

The day Joe Biden came into office, gas was $2.38 per gallon--plenty of volunteers paying their own gas. Today, the price has almost doubled what it was when Joe Biden came into office.

That is what the American people are seeing: pain at the pump and pain at the grocery store. And the numbers are disturbing, and people are falling further and further behind. Inflation is up 9 percent, but wages are only up 5 percent, so that gap is growing and people are hurting.

It doesn't seem the President even understands it or can conceive of it, but that is who we have representing the people in the White House today.

Over the last 4 months, working families have paid the highest gas prices in American history. The price of natural gas has also tripled since the day Joe Biden took office. In total, the average American family paid an additional $1,000 last year just for energy compared to the year before, and this year it is going to be a lot worse.

Now, it is the summer. Most Americans are facing the real possibility of blackouts. Two-thirds of Americans are likely to face energy blackouts. That is not me saying it; it is the energy specialists who analyze where the energy is coming from, how much is needed, and where it is going.

During a summer heat wave, blackouts threaten people's lives. To the climate purists and elitists and extremists who are running the administration, they don't seem to care. So why is it happening? America still has plenty of energy--the best energy in the world--and the most. We have some of the largest energy reserves anywhere. States like Wyoming, where I am from, are sitting on a gold mine of energy. The Biden energy crisis is a direct result of the administration's energy policies.

From the day Joe Biden took office, he has waged an all-out war on American energy. He killed the Keystone XL Pipeline--actually bragged about the fact that he did that on his first day in office. He stopped the exploration of oil in Alaska and bragged about it. It wasn't something he was trying to hide. No, he bragged about the fact that he was going to war with America. American energy was in his targets.

Joe Biden has raised the cost to produce energy on Federal land by 50 percent. This is the largest increase in what they call the royalty rate in 100 years--100 years. Does Joe Biden understand that? Does he know that? Does he care that people are suffering all around the country? No wonder we are still producing 1.1 million fewer barrels of oil today than we were at the beginning of the pandemic.

Joe Biden refuses to do the things that would work. He refuses to produce more American energy.

What did the administration say about it? What did the economists say? This is the cost of the liberal world order. This is the price we have to pay for the liberal world order. That is the White House's statement. I don't even know people who talk that way anymore, but that is what we got coming out of this White House and this President who today, at this very moment,

is heading to Saudi Arabia to beg for oil when we have it right here. It is more than disturbing. It is disgraceful. That is what we have with the President of the United States today.

So now what is happening? Joe Biden throwing another Hail Mary pass, hoping something will happen. His Hail Mary passes are uncatchable.

Since November, Joe Biden has released more oil from our strategic reserve than any President in American history. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is designed to be there for emergencies. He is releasing it because he is trying to bring down the cost of oil and the cost of gas. And he caused the problem. It is not an emergency. This was a Joe Biden-caused problem. Previous Presidents only used the Strategic Reserve during wartime or after natural disasters. But Joe Biden is spending down our savings to pay for his anti-American energy policy. He seems to be proud of it. Well, gas prices are still near record highs.

Let's recount: the day Joe Biden came into the White House, $2.38 a gallon; today, in many places, over $5 a gallon and on average, $4.60 a gallon. And the peak summer driving season isn't even here yet.

Today, the Strategic Reserve is at the lowest level since 1986. So what if there is a real emergency? Then what do we do? This last week, we found out that some of this energy, the oil he has reserved--a million barrels of oil--went to an energy company owned by the Chinese Government. Thank you, Mr. President. Surrender to China. Give it to them. Joe Biden is sending our oil to China in the middle of an energy crisis that he created.

So, on Monday, Joe Biden's National Security Advisor practically admitted that Joe Biden is going to beg the Saudis to sell us more oil. He left for Saudi Arabia last night, and he is going as a weakened President.

He wrote an editorial in the Washington Post about why he was going. I will tell you how he is going: He is going as a weakened President, weakened at home and weakened in the eyes of the world.

Rather than send oil to China and money to the Saudis, let us use the energy we have right here in the United States in the ground, where we do it in the finest environmental ways compared to the rest of the world and we have the energy workers who know how to do it.

What is he thinking?

At the same time, astonishingly, Joe Biden decided to spend the time around the Fourth of July tweeting threats to gas stations. For the moms and pops who are running little gas stations in our communities and our neighborhoods, this is basic economic illiteracy. Prices aren't set by the local gas stations; prices are set by supply and demand. If you want low prices, you need more supply, more American energy.

The prices may have ticked back a little bit now because people cannot afford to drive. They can't afford to fill their tanks. They cannot afford to fill their tanks.

I was at a gas station the other day in Casper, WY, and I talked to a couple.

One of them said: I have $100. That is as far as I can go. I can only fill it with $100 worth. I can't fill the tank. I will see how much gas I get.

What have we come to?

Joe Biden brags about killing the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have brought over 800,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States. He killed it on day 1 in office and bragged about it.

The Democrats in the Senate are now proposing to make the Biden energy crisis even worse. Senate Democrats in this very body, in this very room, are talking about raising taxes on energy production. This is going to raise energy prices for half of the households in America. It will raise prices for thousands and thousands of businesses. Higher prices will get passed on to customers.

If Democrats pass another reckless tax-and-spending bill--and it looks like they are all lined up to do it, save one or two--inflation is going to get much worse, and working families will be paying more. If I were one of those Democratic Senators and were on the ballot this November, I would be shaking in my boots, knowing that the people of my State are mad at me for adopting policies that are hurting them directly in their wallets.

What they are talking about is $300 billion for more of the old Green New Deal. It is going to give more power to the climate alarmists, to the climate elitists, and to the climate extremists, who run the Democratic Party and are running it into the ground. The professional climate activists will never be satisfied. The activists will never stop. You can never go far enough for them. They weren't satisfied a year ago when they started this inflation crisis, and with the liberal world order, they will never be satisfied. The professional activists want energy prices to remain high. They are happy with $5 gas. They want to punish us for using fossil fuels.

Joe Biden's advisers keep telling us about this incredible transition. They call it an incredible transition. Well, ask people around the country and in your home State. It has been a transition to a crisis: a transition to higher prices, a transition to a lower quality of life, to pain at the pump, and to pain at the grocery store. It has been a transition to stress for working people and families who feel stuck and squeezed. If Democrats don't change their energy policies, there is going to be an incredible transition. It is going to be a transition of power right here in Washington this November.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the economic crisis that the American people are living through, caused by Joe Biden.

The American people have just had the most expensive Fourth of July of all times. It is interesting what a difference a year and a half makes. Last July, 6 months into the Biden administration, the White House was insisting inflation was either nonexistent or transitory. The White House even bragged that the cost of a July 4 cookout last year had dropped 16 cents--not 16 percent but 16 cents--from the year before. Here we are, 1 year later, with 1 year of Democratic control, and the cost of that same cookout is up not just 16 cents but 16 percent. Hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad--across the board-- everything is up. This July 4, the only way to save money was to stay home.

According to one survey, one out of every three Americans changed their summer travel plans for this summer because of high gas prices. People are driving less; they can't afford gas. They are shopping less; they can't afford the food, and they are getting a lot less from their paychecks.

The New York Times says people--I was astonished by this--are even using up vacation days so they don't have to drive in to work because they cannot afford the gas. They are using vacation days so they don't have to drive because they can't afford the gas. The average American family is now paying $100 more each and every week just to buy the same things that they bought a year ago. So just to stay even is $100 more a week this year than last. Week after week after week, in the Joe Biden economy, people can afford less and less and less. One study from the University of Michigan showed the Biden era had already seen the steepest drop in disposable income since Herbert Hoover.

Who could believe it?

The savings rate right now is the lowest since the great recession of 2009. Household debt is the highest ever. People are trying to borrow or spend their savings just to keep up and to maintain the sorts of things they could afford easily last year. Consumer confidence in this country, right now, is at an alltime low. The concern, of course, is that the worst may yet be coming. More and more experts say we are headed toward a recession. A recession is when the economy shrinks for 6 months in a row.

Two weeks ago, the Commerce Department updated their estimate of economic growth for the first 3 months of the year, and the update said the economy had grown even less and had shrunk more than they had thought. The economy shrank more than the Biden Commerce Department admitted to in their first assessment, but there are already signs all around the country that the economy is shrinking. No wonder, in a national poll last week, only 1 in 10 Americans thinks the economy is heading in the right direction. Inflation plus a recession is called stagflation. I don't think we have had that since the days of Jimmy Carter, likely when the Presiding Officer was either a little boy or hadn't yet been born.

Democrats have run Washington for 17 full months now, and they are doing absolutely nothing here at home to bring down the pain at the pump or the pain at the grocery store.

Joe Biden says gas prices will remain high for ``as long as it takes.'' He says we just have to suffer through it, and he blames everything today on the war in Ukraine. He won't admit to the fact that the inflation crisis started 10 months before the war in Ukraine. Gas prices had already gone up by $1.15 a gallon before Putin's invasion.

The American people get it. They remember all of this. It doesn't matter what Joe Biden happens to say. Of course, he is off to Saudi Arabia tomorrow, looking for more oil, when we have plenty of it in the United States. The American people clearly know who to blame for the inflation that is causing them pain every single day.

It is interesting to see that even Jimmy Carter's economists blame Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress for the inflation that is hitting the country today.

Last week, the New York Times published an interview with Jimmy Carter's top economic advisers. They were asked what lessons they had learned from the miserable failures of the Carter administration. Jimmy Carter's Secretary of the Treasury, Michael Blumenthal, put the blame for today's inflation on the spending by Joe Biden and the Democrats. This is Jimmy Carter's Treasury Secretary pointing his finger at Joe Biden and the Democrats. Jimmy Carter's Treasury Secretary said that Democrats need to give up the gimmicks, turn off the money printer, and stop the reckless spending.

This is at a time when, behind closed doors, Senator Schumer and others are trying to come up with another gimmick to add more spending and higher taxes.

This article in the New York Times says:

Mr. Blumenthal urged Mr. Biden . . . to abandon his [Build

Back Better bill]--

I call it ``Build Back Biden.'' He said he should abandon that--

in favor of deficit reduction.

He said:

[F]ighting inflation comes first. . . . [B]y trying to take

half measures . . . you merely prolong the pain.

The American people are tired of the pain that has been imposed upon them by Joe Biden and the Democrats in this body and across the floor.

Well, he is right. Jimmy Carter's Treasury Secretary is right. Fighting inflation needs to come first. Yet, for Joe Biden, fighting inflation has come last or not at all--denial that it even existed, dismissing it as ``don't worry,'' and continuing today to try to avoid the reality that he is facing.

You know, the Democrats in this body could learn something from the Carter administration. After all, Joe Biden has an even lower approval rating. It is hard to believe. I would have never believed, on the day Joe Biden was inaugurated, that by the Fourth of July weekend of 2022 that Joe Biden would have earned--fully earned--an approval rating lower than Jimmy Carter had. Remember, Jimmy Carter lost his reelection bid to Ronald Reagan.

So far, Democrats seem to have learned nothing. Last March, Republicans warned the Democrats that their spending and borrowing would cause inflation. Democrats ignored the warning.

Senator Schumer even said:

I do not think the dangers of inflation . . . in the near

term are very real.

That may have been a New Yorker's view of it, but people around the country had a clear understanding that inflation was coming, and it did. It turned out Senator Schumer was wrong, and the dangers were very, very real for working families.

So the rich liberals in New York and the rich liberals in California who run the Democratic Party will be just fine. It is the working families who are trying to pay their bills every day--they are the ones who are paying the price for these reckless policies of the Democratic Party.

Democrats remain completely out of touch with American workers. It is obvious. Last March, all 50 Senate Democrats put an additional $2 trillion on the national debt. The Biden inflation crisis started, and the fire of inflation started 1 month later.

Last week's New York Times article also quotes a Carter Treasury official who warned against socialist price controls with regard to energy. So what did the House Democrats just do? They just voted for socialist price controls. Now Senate Democrats seem to be eager to do the same thing.

Democrats are ignoring the warning signs once again. It seems they refuse

to learn the lessons of the Carter years. What have the Democrats learned in the last 18 months--anything? I don't think they have learned a thing, especially with regard to American energy. Joe Biden is continuing to restrict American energy, is continuing to give speeches against American energy, and then is going hat in hand to Venezuela, to Iran, and now, this week, to Saudi Arabia, saying: Please produce more energy.

This is the first time in 64 years that there will be no offshore energy lease sales this year--the first time in 64 years. Joe Biden is now considering blocking all offshore oil and gas leases for the next 5 years--no jobs for the people, no affordable energy for the folks and the families. No. He is just now lifting his blockade on onshore oil and gas leases that has been there since day 1 of his administration. Why is he doing it now? Well, he is doing it, kicking and screaming, because the Federal court forced his hand. After 17 months in office, when President Obama was there, they had held 40 lease sales. Joe Biden's energy strategy has now sunk us to a new low.

What is he doing now? What is the President's new approach? Because he wants to just belittle people in energy who make their livelihoods that way.

I mean, it is astonishing, the President of the United States tweeting about mom-and-pop gas stations in your neighborhood and mine. It is hard to believe, but it is true. Last week, the President of the United States tweeted a demand that gas stations bring down their prices. If only it were that easy.

You wonder, what does President Biden really understand about the way the world works and about the lives that people lead?

Prices aren't set by gas stations, and prices aren't set by Presidential tweets. They are set by supply and demand. It is economics 101. Gas stations aren't the problem. Gas stations would love to bring down prices overall. They can't do it. If demand is down because people can't afford to drive, that will lower the prices a bit. Today, the average is about $4.65 a gallon. On the day Joe Biden came into office, it was $2.38 a gallon. We are still at almost double the cost of a gallon of gas today, under Joe Biden and his policies, than we were the day he took office.

If you want to really lower prices at the pump and get to where we were on the day that Joe Biden came into office, we need more American energy. We have it. We have it here in the United States, and Joe Biden and the Democrats will not let us get it out of the ground.

So what are the Democrats in the Senate doing about these repeated failures by Joe Biden?

Well, right now, they are, once again, threatening another reckless tax-and-spending spree. They are planning a repeat of what got us into this inflation crisis in the first place. It is terrible economics, and it is not even good politics. So just before the midterm elections, the Democrats are attempting to pass legislation that is going to make America's problems even worse.

They are proposing another reckless spending bill, and it is more reckless than the one last year because inflation is a lot higher now. Spending even more money is going to make today's prices go even higher.

According to media's report, the latest version of the Democrat bill includes more than $100 billion in new taxes. Nobody knows exactly what is in it. We hear up to a trillion dollars in taxes. Many of these taxes are going to fall on American energy producers. If you have higher taxes on energy producers, who do you think is going to end up paying that? The people who have to use energy, who are the men and women going to work filling up their cars with gas, trying to take their kids to school, cutting back on vacations because they can't afford the gas.

The Secretary of the Treasury says, Well, you don't like the high price of gas? Buy an electric car.

Easy for him to say. Electric vehicle prices are up because of Joe Biden's inflation. They are 20 percent higher now than they were a year ago. How many Americans can go out and afford to buy one of these very expensive electric vehicles? Very few.

We are talking about a clueless administration, a clueless President, and a clueless Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy who have promoted such policies.

Joe Biden should remember that in 2008, Senator Barack Obama said this:

[Y]ou don't raise taxes in a recession.

This is Senator Barack Obama in 2008, Presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008:

[Y]ou don't raise taxes in a recession. The last thing you

want to do is to raise taxes in a recession.

Yet that may be the party platform of the Democrats for this November.

The Democrats' attacks on American energy have been relentless. They are obsessed with stopping the use of fossil fuels, absolutely obsessed and worshipping at the altar of energy that is dependent on the weather. That is what they are proposing. The Democrats think that that is the winning sales pitch going into November.

Democrats I talk to privately admit that they expect to be stripped of power in November, Nancy Pelosi no longer Speaker of the House, her efforts to make sure that the Republicans are in the majority in the Senate. Democrats know the clock is running out on them, that they are not going to be able to do something like reconciliation to force down the throats of the American people, costly policies, tax increases, and regulations that the American people would never be in support of.

This is their last hope, their last Hail Mary pass to put into place policies of the progressives that will help their group but hurt the country. It is absolutely wrong. It is one final try of the Democrats to increase spending, increase taxes, and, of course, increase the debt.

It doesn't seem the Democratic Party nationally or those on the Hill seem to care about that and the suffering of the American people who are living through the highest inflation in 40 years. The highest gas prices of all time until recently, massive debt, massive concerns, and incompetence--that is what the American people are looking at right now, and that is why, come November, what I believe, many, many Members, elected Democrats in the House and Senate, will be heading to the unemployment line.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor tonight sharing the concerns of every Member of this body, to find the best way to protect children who go to school, so that children can go to school in safety and parents can send their children to school feeling that the children will be safe.

And after we have seen the tragedies across the country, I think every Member is here trying to find the best solution, and I think that the one that Senator Cruz and I have offered is one that will provide the kind of safety and security for our kids, for our schools, and for our communities; and that is why we have introduced this substitute amendment that we are bringing to the floor this evening in an effort to do just that. We bring this at a time when the Nation's attention is focused on what has happened at schools and communities across the country and how to best address it.

And as a physician, a doctor who served in a State legislature and now in this body, I have seen the devastating impact of mental health challenges and problems in families and how much that has contributed to what we have seen with these terrible acts. So what we bring here tonight is legislation focused on safe schools and mental health while protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

And, with that, I would turn to Senator Cruz to make a motion to that effect.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about this Joe Biden-caused economic crisis that is impacting our country.

Last week, Joe Biden said his spending is ``changing people's lives.'' Well, for once, I am in complete agreement with Joe Biden because I have been traveling the State of Wyoming this past weekend, talking to a lot of people, and Joe Biden's policies have been changing people's lives. Joe Biden's inflation is changing people's lives for the worst. It is costing American families about $5,000 more this year than it did last year just to break even. Joe Biden's inflation is driving families to the breaking point. Right now, working families all across this country are hoping for a summer break. This year's summer break might just break working families.

Inflation remains at a 40-year high. Prices are going up everywhere-- gas station, grocery store, and even paying rent. Household staples like ground beef and chicken--highest prices ever. Inflation for eating at a restaurant--highest ever recorded. Families are paying $100 a week more than they did just a year ago just to stay afloat.

According to a study from the University of Michigan, this is the biggest decline in disposable income since Herbert Hoover was President--Joe Biden; Herbert Hoover. Families' savings accounts are depleted. We now have the lowest savings rate since the great recession. Household debt is breaking records. Families are being forced to cut back in ways they didn't think possible.

The fastest inflation of all, of course, has been on energy. Overall, inflation has been nearly 9 percent, but inflation for gasoline under Joe Biden is more than double--over 100 percent. The price of a gallon of gas has more than doubled since Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office. High energy costs mean high costs for everything else. High gas prices mean it is harder to get goods to the market. Diesel prices are also at record highs. Americans depend on farmers, and farmers depend on diesel. That is just a fact of life. That is why America needs energy now more than ever, in spite of the policies of Joe Biden.

Rather than producing more energy, what does Joe Biden do? He is producing one excuse after another. He

continues to tighten the stranglehold on American energy, making it harder and harder to produce American energy, which is making American energy even more expensive.

Last week, Joe Biden, President of the United States, sent a threatening letter to American energy companies. Now, he claims he wants more energy, but his actions speak much louder than the words he writes or speaks because Joe Biden has done just about everything possible to keep American energy buried in the ground. He has blocked so many different ways to get American energy out of the ground and to refineries and to export or to production. In fact, his Secretary of the Interior explicitly made that a campaign promise when she was running for Congress. The Secretary of the Interior--confirmed by the Democrats, opposed by me--promised to keep American energy in the ground. Well, that is exactly what Joe Biden is doing and having her do.

By one estimate, Joe Biden has taken more than 100 actions, since he has been President, restricting American energy. It all started his first day in office. In the first few hours as President, Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL Pipeline--killed it flat--and then bragged about it. The Keystone Pipeline would have meant 800,000 barrels of oil delivered to this country each and every day, coming in from Canada.

But that wasn't enough, no. A few days later, Joe Biden made another announcement of his anti-American energy policy. He announced he was going to put a pause on all new oil and gas leases on Federal land. Bragging about Keystone, announcing a pause on leases on Federal land, and now here we are after 17 months in office--none. But Barack Obama by this time had done 44 Federal energy leases. Not a single one by Joe Biden--no, not one.

He has also shut down energy exploration near the Arctic. All you need to do is talk to the senior Senator, whom I share time with on the Energy Committee, Senator Murkowski, about what is going on there, and she will tell you how Joe Biden has shut down energy in the Arctic. He has kept more than 4,300 drilling applications collecting dust on his desk.

His energy agenda is far, far to the left of any previous American President. His energy agenda, amazingly, is far to the left of Hillary Clinton's agenda when she was running in 2016--further to the left than Hillary. This is the most anti-American energy agenda in American history, and Joe Biden owns it.

When he says he wants us to produce more, no one believes him. No one believes this President. You look at any poll numbers--people do not believe Joe Biden when he speaks, and people have stopped listening to him. The American people believe with their own two eyes and their empty wallets. They drive by the gas station, look at the price up there, and say: It is only going up.

If you want to know what Joe Biden really thinks, just look at what he does; just listen to the people he has surrounded himself with. His anointed climate spokesman--and I mean anointed--is one John Kerry.

John Kerry said last week: ``We absolutely don't'' need more oil, gas, and coal--``absolutely don't'' need. That is the position of this administration and the President of the United States. He is happy with high prices. John Kerry thinks we can just get rid of fossil fuels immediately.

These people are living a fairy tale. They are in a cocoon of self- delusion. That is what is going on at this White House. Joe Biden's fantasy of ending oil and gas is just that--a fantasy.

He wants every American in an electric vehicle. There are not enough batteries; don't have enough charging stations; don't have enough of these vehicles. Even the Secretary of Transportation--he bought one of these. He bought it from Mexico, according to the news reports, and it got recalled, along with 49,000 other electric vehicles, because the battery didn't work. The battery was not reliable. Pete Buttigieg-- Mayor Pete--went from filling potholes in a small town in Indiana to becoming the world's highest paid salesman of electric vehicles, but yet his own one failed him.

The Biden administration is convinced they are making an ``incredible transition.'' This isn't science; this is science fiction.

Last week, Joe Biden's Press Secretary was asked why the President wasn't going to ``drill more here at home.'' After all, that is what the American people are calling for. That is what the economists say is a problem. Why aren't you drilling more at home? She says: Oh, ``[w]e don't need to do that.'' They don't seem to care how high energy prices go, what the cost of gasoline is, because they live in a pure level of electric vehicles.

Earlier today, the President requested a pause on the gas tax until right before the election. This is the tax that funds our Federal roads and bridges. As a former member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I know how important the highway trust fund is. It helps repair roads, bridges, and builds highways. Joe Biden doesn't seem to care about that part of it. He said: Oh, let's just call a pause of 18\1/2\ cents a gallon. It is a gimmick. It is a gimmick that won't have very much effect on gas prices because gas prices would still be double what they were when Joe Biden took office even if you take off 18\1/2\ cents.

Let me remind the American public that today gasoline prices on average are $4.95 a gallon. It is more than double what it was the day he took office. We are up about $2.50 for each and every gallon, and Joe Biden thinks: Well, you remove 18 cents, and we will call it good. What a fantasy.

Democrat economist Larry Summers has called this idea by the President of the United States--and let me point out that Larry Summers was Bill Clinton's Secretary of Treasury, economic adviser to Barack Obama, and president of Harvard University, and he says that what Joe Biden is doing--he called it ``shortsighted, ineffective, goofy and gimmicky.'' That is about what we are getting from this President of the United States--goofiness and gimmicks.

Back in 2008, even President Obama said the idea was a gimmick. He ought to have credibility with the Democrats. You would think Joe Biden might have listened to him; he was his Vice President. President Obama said: This idea isn't ``designed to get you through the summer, it's designed to get them through an election.''

What about the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi? She is a big Joe Biden fan. This is what she said of the idea. The thing the President proposed today, she said, is ``very showbiz''--``very showbiz.'' She said: It looks like you are doing something, ``[b]ut it is not necessarily landing in the pocket of the consumer.''

So Joe Biden wants to look busy. It is not what the American people are seeing, and in so many ways, they have tuned him out. The American people see the price of gasoline. They see it every time they drive by a gas station. At the same time, Senate Democrats want to raise taxes on American energy. That is what we hear from the Senate Democrats.

What is your solution?

Well, we are going to raise taxes on American energy.

Oh, sounds good.

Higher taxes mean higher prices--it is that simple. Higher taxes on producers of oil and gas ultimately get passed on to the consumers. I am not sure what people don't understand about that.

Nancy Pelosi admitted that as well. A few months ago, she admitted that ``a tax on production . . . the consumers [will] pay for that.''

Look, Democrats are so desperate to try to do something, throwing one Hail Mary pass after another, they are now denying the laws of supply and demand. The Senate Democrats act like these prices come out of thin air. Prices are the result of supply and demand. Right now, the supply is too low to meet the demand of the American people. If you want lower prices, you have to increase the supply, and we can do that by producing American energy.

High energy costs are driving up inflation all across the country. It is triggering a cascade of crises. The stock market is down 20 percent. Seniors and retirees are watching their savings evaporate, melt away.

Last week, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time since March. Each increase has been larger than the last one. This latest increase is the largest increase in the Fed rate in 30 years.

Oh, there is no question this is going to slow down the economy. So why is

the Federal Reserve doing something that is going to slow down the economy? Well, there is one reason: inflation under Joe Biden and the big-spending Democrats. That is the reason inflation is running rampant. There were trillions of dollars thrown onto the fire of inflation--inflation denied by the President, ignored by the President, dismissed by the President for month after month after month, and now the American people are living with inflation they cannot escape.

So the Federal Reserve has only one choice. It is throwing on the emergency brake. It may still be too late to prevent a crash. The economy is barreling toward recession. Economists on both sides of the aisle say that, and Joe Biden the other day said, oh, he wasn't worried about that coming along.

A recession is a complete halt to economic growth for half a year. If you have a recession, you still have higher prices with lower economic growth. We would still have higher prices, and people won't have the money to pay them.

Right now, the Federal Reserve is taking desperate measures to counteract what Democrats have done. As a result, mortgage rates have already doubled this year. Mortgage applications have been cut dramatically. Older Americans are delaying their dreams of retirement. Younger Americans are giving up on their dreams of owning a home.

It is no wonder consumer confidence in Joe Biden in the Nation right now is at an alltime low. Joe Biden, who earlier had been compared to Herbert Hoover in terms of what people are saying about both of them, has an even lower approval rating on inflation than did Jimmy Carter.

Joe Biden wants to blame everybody but himself. Yet the American people are right when they point the finger and blame Joe Biden. With record inflation, record debt, and looming recession, now is not the time to do what the Democrats want to do, which is raise taxes. Democrats need to reverse course, stop the reckless spending, and above all, unleash American energy.

Joe Biden should rip up his letter to energy companies and get to work: hold energy lease sales, approve the 4,300 drilling applications still sitting in limbo in the Biden White House, approve more pipelines, speed up the approval process. The American people, right now, are feeling stuck and stressed and squeezed, and the best this President can do is say: Let's take a holiday from gas taxes for 3 months--when prices are up over $2.60 a gallon from the day he took office. And he wants to alleviate 18 cents of the pain.

It is time for the Democrats to reverse course. We will see if Joe Biden listens. The Democrats are refusing to listen. Americans are paying a very high price today, and the Democrats, across the board, are going to pay a very high price in November when people go to the polls.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor as I see my colleagues debating issues related to energy, and I come to the floor to also debate and discuss the issue of energy and, specifically, the need of the American people for more energy.

Because right now, America, in terms of energy, is running on empty. Gas prices have broken records day after day after day over the last several months. Inflation increased again last month to a new record 40-year high. Just this morning, we found out that inflation from producers is even higher than inflation for consumers. Wholesale prices are up by nearly 11 percent in the last year.

That means higher prices for people who grow our food, who build our buildings, and who work so hard to keep the lights on.

Inflation for producers means inflation for consumers tomorrow. After 13 months of this inflation crisis, there is still no light at the end of the tunnel. The average price of gasoline across the United States today is over $5 a gallon.

That is a big number. We just heard colleagues discussing big numbers. Five dollars a gallon is a big number for anyone who is driving a gas-powered car or a diesel-powered car or truck in America.

Gas prices are at an alltime high in all 50 States, and there is no end in sight. Experts tell us that the price of gas is going to continue to go higher. We may actually see $6 a gallon this summer across the country, and today, gas is already $6 a gallon in a number of locations.

Now, for most Americans, this is unthinkable. So what are families doing? Well, they are kind of buckling up for what may be a summer of financial suffering for the American people. For many, it means a summer of staying home. People are having to change the way they drive, the way they eat, the way they live. Family vacations are being canceled left and right. People are cutting back on shopping to the point that retail jobs disappeared last month, thousands and thousands of retail jobs.

Coronavirus caused one lockdown. Now we are headed into a new lockdown because people don't have the money to get out--get out to go to dinner, get out to go to a movie, get out to go on vacation. People are staying home because they can't afford to do anything else.

Many working families are being pushed to the breaking point. Savings have melted away. Household debt is now at a record high. More and more people are having to borrow money just to get through the end of the month. The purchasing power of the American people keeps going lower and lower and lower. That is providing very little relief--even for people who are getting raises, they are having a hard time keeping up and feel they are falling further behind.

Home energy costs are up and will continue to go up this summer. We hear that our energy grid is vulnerable for blackouts this summer. Democrats have been in power for over 17 months. They continue to do nothing to help the American people with this Biden-caused energy crisis.

Now, Joe Biden's Cabinet has been on tour, talking and trying to mislead the American people about the energy crisis. We saw Pete Buttigieg and Gina Raimondo. They said that Joe Biden is just an innocent bystander, just standing there, watching the world go by. Nothing he could do about it.

The Commerce Secretary last week said--and this was on a national news show--she said there isn't much that can be done to produce more energy. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Joe Biden has ``done everything he can to bring down energy prices.'' Everything he can? This is a blatant, boldfaced lie to the American people.

Joe Biden and the Democrats have caused this American energy crisis. Joe Biden seemed to brag about it at first when, on his first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, killing 800,000 barrels of oil a day to the United States--more than we would have ever gotten from Putin. Joe Biden bragged about it, proud of himself. Stopped those oil and gas leases as well. What the President has done with the oil and gas leases was blatantly illegal and brutally punished working families in my home State of Wyoming.

You know, after 16 months in office, President Obama had held 44 oil and gas lease sales. Joe Biden? Not a single one.

If the Senator from Alaska were here, she would say that Joe Biden shut down oil and gas production in the Arctic. For leases that were out there, drilling applications, thousands and thousands are in limbo because the administration just wants them to sit there.

Now Joe Biden is furthering his attack on American energy. He is not just blocking new leases, he is even going after thousands of existing leases that were sold during previous administrations, the Obama and the Trump administrations.

After just 16 months in office--and the American people know this; I am not making any news here--Joe Biden is already the most anti- American energy President in American history. He has kept our energy production on lockdown, he has kept workers on the sideline, and he has kept energy buried in the ground. As a result, today, we are still producing 1 million fewer barrels of oil today and every single day than we were producing in America before the pandemic.

So, despite what the administration claims, Joe Biden could do things right now to actually produce more energy. First, instead of blocking all Federal land, he needs to hold Federal oil and gas lease sales. He should approve the 4,300 drilling applications that he is holding in limbo. Finally, instead of shutting down pipelines, he should approve more pipelines so we can transmit energy. He should speed up the pipeline approval process. Right now, it takes a lot longer to get approval to build a pipeline than it does to actually build a pipeline. But Joe Biden refuses to change his policies. That is why I say that Joe Biden actually wants high gas prices.

Democrats keep bragging about the so-called incredible transition. It is a transition that is strangling the American people. Joe Biden went on a late-night comedy show last week. He was asked about climate change. He said right now ``there's an opportunity to move more rapidly . . . to alternative energy.'' He seems to think everything is going according to plan.

The climate elitists want prices so high that people can't afford to buy gas. The economists call this demand destruction. Democrats are working to achieve demand destruction through supply destruction, and the result is economic destruction--a destruction of the standard of living for the American people--all because they want their climate ideology.

So Democrats have kept supply slow and low. They have driven up prices. Now the American people are forced to stay home.

Well, the Transportation Secretary continues to say: Just get an electric vehicle. Gas prices are no big deal.

The average electric vehicle costs over $55,000. The American people can barely afford groceries right now, let alone an electric vehicle. CNN ran a story recently about single mothers skipping meals so their kids can eat. I would say to the Secretary of Transportation: How are they going to afford the electric vehicle, let alone find a place to charge it?

Astonishing stories have been written in the press recently. People trying to drive electric vehicles from point A to point B said: Never again. Oh, no.

I have heard stories of someone renting an electric vehicle in Wyoming, driving it from one place to another, using a regular plug-in, coming back an hour later, and it had charged the battery enough extra in that full hour that they could go an additional 4 miles. That is what Joe Biden wants for America. That is his view of America--``stay at home'' Joe.

The Transportation Secretary refuses to admit that gas prices drive up the cost of other things like food, the cost of retail, the cost of almost everything.

Democrats tell us that we just need a little more wind energy, a little more solar power, and things would be great. So what is Joe Biden doing? He listens to them, and he uses wartime Executive powers to demand that we make more solar panels.

This is another dangerous Democrat delusion. We don't have high gas prices and high food prices because of a lack of solar panels; we have high gas prices and high food prices because of a lack of American gasoline, oil, energy.

Democrats keep repeating the talking points about renewable energy. Yet they never do the math. The most affordable and most reliable energy known to man is traditional energy--oil, natural gas, coal. Electric vehicles still use energy. This energy comes mostly, in this country, from natural gas and coal.

The only way to bring the price of gas down is to bring the supply of gas up. It is the one thing the Democrats refuse to do.

It is interesting to listen to some of Joe Biden's allies in the Senate who are threatening to make the Biden energy crisis even worse. They want to talk about bringing back their reckless tax-and-spending bill. This bill is more reckless today than it was last year. You put that kind of additional spending on the economy, that kind of additional debt--inflation today is a lot higher than it was the last time they forced this kind of money onto the economy. This will be adding fuel to the fire.

Then the Democrats are talking about raising taxes and specifically raising taxes on American energy. More taxes on American energy means higher prices at the pump. It is as simple as that. Higher prices at the pump means higher prices at the grocery store. Now isn't the time to raise taxes on the American people.

Janet Yellen was surprised. She said it last week. She talked to the New York Times. She said she was surprised at how negative people's opinion was of the economy. She said she was amazed at how pessimistic people were about the economy. How out of touch can one be for the Secretary of Treasury to say that at a time when there are the highest gas prices in the history of the country, food prices at an alltime high, and inflation at a 40-year high?

Over three out of four Americans think the country is heading in the wrong direction under Joe Biden and the Democrats. The American people have seen what 16 months of Democrat rule has done to them, and Janet Yellen is surprised at the pessimism and the negativity.

Record inflation, record gas prices, record debt, disappearing savings, empty shelves, labor shortages, a looming recession--it is long past time to change course. It is time to stop this reckless spending, unleash American energy. The American public cannot afford to pay the price, but they will make the Democrats pay the price come November.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about another Biden crisis. We just had my friend and colleague from Oklahoma talk about the crisis, as he saw it, at the southern border while he was on his trip there very recently. We hear from other colleagues about the crisis of crime in our cities across the country as another failure of this administration's. I come today to talk about the Biden economic crisis, which is hitting families in all of our States, in all of our communities, and it is the thing that I heard the very most about when I was home in Wyoming last week.

Across the country, summer is almost here. It is time for barbecues, visiting friends, and family vacations for many. This year, there will be many fewer who will be able to afford what has been a natural part of their family lives.

The American people have just been through the most expensive Memorial Day ever, and it has been painfully expensive for families across this country. This is just a preview of the summer of stress that families are going to be facing all across America. Hamburger meat today is at its highest price ever; chicken, its highest price ever; a gallon of gasoline, its highest price ever.

They say inflation is up by a certain percentage, but gas prices have doubled since Joe Biden became President. There has been a 100-percent increase in gas prices since the Democrats became the majority in the Senate and Joe Biden was sworn into office. Gas prices in America, under the Democrats, have gone up 15 out of 16 months since Joe Biden came to the White House and Chuck Schumer came to be majority leader. Gas now costs more than $4 a gallon on average in every State of the Union, and we are approaching $5 on average across the country. In the liberal paradise of California, the gas price today is over $6 a gallon if you can find it at that price. Financial analysts who have looked at

this thing recently predicted that the average price of a gallon of gasoline nationwide could be $6.20 all across the country this summer.

So what do the President of the United States and the Democrats in this body have to do about that? What is the solution? Because people are looking for solutions.

The Democrats say: We run the place. We are the House. We are the Senate. We are the White House. We run the place.

Well, where are your solutions? I would say to those Democrats.

Oh, Joe Biden has a solution: I think I will go and beg for oil from Saudi Arabia. I think I will go and beg for oil from Saudi Arabia.

The Democratic policy on energy seems to be ``anything but American energy.'' The Biden administration has already been begging Venezuela, Iran, the OPEC cartel, and even Vladimir Putin to sell us more oil. We have seen that all in the last year. If North Korea had oil, I am sure the Democrats would go and try to beg them as well. This President would rather beg the Saudis to sell us energy than to let hard-working American energy workers get it out of the ground here at home.

Now, we don't need to go to Saudi Arabia. We don't need to go to Iran. We don't need to go to Venezuela. We don't need to go to OPEC. We don't need to go to Russia. We have it here at home in America, and we have an abundance of energy. Joe Biden is transferring the wealth of our Nation to the Middle East. Why? Because that is a decision by Joe Biden and the Democrats--to send our wealth to the Middle East rather than to use the wealth that we have here in America.

Joe Biden has blocked off the vast majority of Federal lands from energy exploration and production. Even on the remaining Federal land, Joe Biden continues to cancel major oil and gas lease sales. Just last week, while Members were home, the Biden administration, with none of us in Washington but all of us at home, said they are going to redo the environmental reviews of leases made by the previous administration. Now, this includes 2,000 leases in my home State of Wyoming. For every existing energy lease, Joe Biden has done what he can to stop production there. He has put 4,300 drilling permits in limbo.

What does he say about this? He said it in Japan. He said: We are going through an incredible transition.

This is Joe Biden, the President of the United States.

He said: God willing, when this is over, this incredible transition we are going through, we will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels.

What Joe Biden is saying to every American is, tough luck. Take your medicine. Take your medicine, and pay the price because we are going through an incredible transition, and God willing, when it is over, we are going to be stronger.

The real transition that is happening today is that we are going from being a nation of energy dominance to being an energy-dependent nation. We are going from prosperity to poverty and from wealth to weakness. That is what we are getting from the Democrats in Congress, the Democrats in the Senate, the Democrats in the House, and Joe Biden.

Today, we are still producing 1 million barrels of oil fewer than we were before the pandemic. So what do Democrats want to do? Once again, the Secretary of the Treasury was with us yesterday. They want to raise taxes on the American public and on American energy. Well, what do you think higher taxes on energy production are going to do when oil is already at a point at which people are paying $5 a gallon for gasoline?

For Democrats who choose to go home and listen to the people at home, I would imagine they are getting an earful from the people at home.

One Democratic Member of the Senate was on TV yesterday, bragging in a hearing. I saw it played a number of times. She didn't care how high energy prices went. She didn't care at all because she had an electric car and drove it here, from her home to Washington, DC, so it didn't matter. Oh, if you can't afford to have $55,000 to buy an electric vehicle, too bad for you. That is the Democrats' response. That is what we are seeing in this country which Joe Biden has led into crisis after crisis after crisis.

High energy prices, of course, mean higher prices for almost everything else. Higher energy prices are already driving up food costs. For any Senator who went to a grocery store--and I am not sure how many Democrats do the shopping for themselves or how many Democrats saw how high food prices are, but I certainly saw it in Wyoming this past weekend--food prices are rising at the fastest rate in 40 years. Does a single Democratic Senator make reference to that? talk about it? come up with or try to find solutions for it? Will we have a solution? Joe Biden can't blame Vladimir Putin for high food prices. The price of food has gone up every single month--every single month--since Joe Biden came into office. High energy prices. High food prices.

There is a 40-year high of inflation in this country today, so inflation has driven the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. What does that mean? Well, for the seniors and retirees who are watching their savings and their retirements melt away, it means a lot. Interest rates have gone up, and mortgage applications have dropped. Many Americans are giving up on their dreams of even owning their own homes.

Young mothers can't buy or find infant baby formula to buy. Joe Biden didn't see it coming. People saw it coming, and mothers saw it coming, but it was ignored by the administration. Once again, they dropped the ball, and the President was caught by surprise. Seven out of every ten stores in America have run out of baby formula. There have already been cases of children being hospitalized because they can't get the right kind of formula. What did the Biden administration finally say? They admitted they knew about the crisis last year; yet they did nothing.

Month after month after month, this administration did nothing. That is kind of what we have gotten with this President. The President is too slow--too slow to react, to slow to act, and too slow to respond to the needs of the American people. No wonder they are nicknaming him ``Too Slow Joe.'' That is what we have in the White House today. It is a disgrace. The country deserves better. Americans of every background and in every stage of life are being punished by the bad policies of Joe Biden's and the Democrats' in Congress.

For most Americans, this is the worst economy they have ever seen. More and more Americans are having to borrow money just to pay the bills to try to keep up. Household debt is near an alltime high, and credit card day is near an alltime high. The average car in the United States is now 12 years old. This is a record high.

I would have to say to my colleague who bragged about having an electric car and driving it here and not caring about the fact that gas prices have gone up and was actually laughing about it, it seemed to me, well, you are different than most Americans, I would have to say, because most Americans can't do what you do. They don't have that opportunity. The average car in the United States is 12 years old because that is what people can afford, but they can hardly afford the gas to go in it. They can't afford to buy a new car or a used car, let alone an electric car.

Since Joe Biden became President, prices have gone up faster than wages. That is the complaint I continue to hear about at home. Month after month after month, the buying power of the average American family keeps going lower and lower and lower. Now two-thirds of the American people are talking about living paycheck to paycheck with nothing left over--nothing. As a result, the American people are feeling stuck and stressed and squeezed.

The pessimism of the economists is only exceeded by the pessimism of the American people about the Joe Biden economy. All told, Joe Biden's economic crisis has become a perfect storm of bad economic news.

Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He warned of an upcoming economic hurricane. The economic hurricane is a perfect storm of record inflation, record debt, a shortage of necessities, higher interest rates, vanishing savings, and a shrinking economy. The Biden inflation crisis

is quickly spiraling into an all-around economic crisis. If the Democrats continue on this path, it is going to get a lot worse soon.

Inflation for producers is even higher than inflation for consumers. In fact, inflation for producers has been the highest on record. Wholesale prices for producers went up 11 percent in the last year. That means higher prices for the people who grow our food, who build our buildings, and who keep the lights on. Inflation for producers today means inflation for consumers tomorrow.

After 13 months of this inflation crisis--a crisis that the administration kept ignoring, kept denying, kept refusing to admit was here, kept saying wasn't coming--the Secretary of the Treasury said: Well, if it comes, and there is a small chance it comes, it will be manageable.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, it is because the freight train marked ``recession'' is about to hit America. Inflation is so bad that the Democrats can't even deny it anymore. So they create it; they ignore it; they deny it; they blame inflation on everybody else.

Yesterday, in the Finance Committee, the Secretary of the Treasury said: No, no. It wasn't them.

The Democrats denied it. They said: No, no. It was Putin. It was the pandemic.

But now the Democrats want to make it worse.

Well, it took about 14 months, but Janet Yellen admitted earlier this week in a CNN interview that she had been wrong about inflation. When she said there was a slight risk, she was mistaken. When she said it was manageable, she was mistaken.

She said: Now, I was wrong about the path inflation would take. This is the Secretary of the Treasury for Joe Biden, his handpicked person to run the economy. She also admitted that inflation was a matter of supply and demand and that the spending in the American Rescue Plan did feed the demand. I think she is talking about the $2 trillion that every Democrat voted for and that every Republican voted against; the $2 trillion to which even the Democratic economists said: Don't do that. It is going to make us have bad inflation. And we had bad inflation. But Joe Biden and the Secretary of the Treasury and every Democrat in the House and Senate voted in favor of pouring fuel on the fire that turned into the inflation we are facing today.

This was an enormous mistake on the part of the Democrats and the President--Chuck Schumer and every Democrat in this Senate, all the Democrats in the House and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It is costing the average American family today $5,000 more this year than last year just to stay even--not to get ahead, just to stay even.

Democrats were warned. They were warned by Republicans. They were warned by their own experts, and they ignored it; simply, flatly ignored the warnings, passed the largest spending bill in American history. And ever since that day, inflation has spiraled out of control. More than a year later, Democrats still don't have anything to offer beyond blame and excuses.

Last week, the Secretary of Commerce was asked:

Is there one specific category [of high prices] where you

think you can actually make a difference?

This is her answer. She said:

I wish.

That is what Democrats are left with: wishes, wishes--no plan to fix the crisis that they have created.

Joe Biden's so-called energy inflation plan made so many false promises. And he talked about this. He wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal. You would think that maybe somebody at the White House who wrote it would have been vetted before they gave it to the President, before he put his name on it. It got Four Pinocchios from the Washington Post which talked about what the President had to say about energy as just being a lie.

We know what we need to do. We need to stop the reckless spending. We need to unleash American energy. Instead of canceling lease sales, Joe Biden needs to open up Federal lands to American energy production instead. Instead of canceling pipelines, Joe Biden should speed up the pipeline permitting process. Instead of begging other countries to sell us oil, we should get it out of the ground right here in America.

Oh, we have the American energy skills and skilled workers to see us through this crisis. The President just needs to let them go to work.

Working families have already been pushed to the breaking point. People are spending their savings, seeing it melting away. They have run up credit cards just to get by, and now recession is heading toward us. We need to change course. The administration needs to change course because the Joe Biden economic hurricane is about to hit America.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to celebrate the retirement of Cyndy Novotny, principal of St. Anthony's Tri-Parish Catholic School in Casper, WY.

This summer, Cyndy Novotny marks her 17th and final year as principal at St. Anthony's School. The present St. Anthony's School building stands as a testament to her 45-year career in education. St. Anthony's Catholic School was dedicated on September 27, 1927, in the belief that education is one of the most important ways that the Catholic Church fulfills its commitment to God.

St. Anthony's School is dedicated to achieving academic excellence in a faith-filled community. Guided by strong religious and educational leadership, Casper students from preschool through eighth grade can learn to live enriched lives committed to Christian service.

Cyndy was instrumental in the design and fundraising for this classic, state-of-the-art building. The school is able to meet students' educational needs while keeping them connected to their faith. Her skills in fundraising also supported student tuition, making Christian education accessible for many families.

Cyndy grew up in the Chicago area, receiving her bachelor of science in elementary education from Illinois State University in 1977. After moving to Casper, she taught at several schools, including first grade at Southridge Elementary for 7 years and second grade at Sagewood Elementary for another 7 years. While continuing to teach, she earned her master's degree in teaching from Grand Canyon University in 2001.

Cyndy was a leading light in the development of the groundbreaking innovative Woods Learning Center in Casper. Cyndy taught at Woods for 14 years before accepting the principal position at St. Anthony's Tri- Parish Catholic School.

Cyndy is an accomplished academician, educator, and public servant. She worked to enhance educational curriculum and administration as a speaker at the National School Board Annual Convention and International Reading Association Annual Conference. Cyndy is also a dedicated wife, mother, and grandmother. While teaching, she met her husband, Scott Novotny, a now-retired teacher from Natrona County High School. Together, they have three children, Mick Novotny with wife Dr. Ruma Novotny, Caitlin Dixon with husband Brian Dixon, and Connor Novotny. Cyndy and Scott also have five grandchildren: Ashwin, Colter, Aubrey, Austin, and Jackson.

Cyndy's community involvement is extensive, having been awarded the Natrona County School District Significant Educator three times and the Ellbogen Meritorious Education Award She was nominated for Disney Teacher of the Year and was twice nominated for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

Children across Wyoming and the Nation benefited from her involvement with the National Education Association, National Center of Innovation Conference, Wyoming Reading Association, and Casper Reading Association.

Cyndy's accomplishments and contributions will continue to enrich the education of future generations of students. The community thanks Cyndy for her public service. We recognize her invaluable contribution to the St. Anthony's Tri-Parish Catholic School, Natrona County School District No. 1, and the development of educational curriculum across Wyoming. Cyndy is a pillar of the Casper community.

Cyndy's dedication to her faith is evident through her service as a eucharistic minister, Music Minister, and a member of the Parish Council at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. She exemplifies Christian values and the Code of the West, living each day with courage and taking pride in her work. Cyndy's joy in her work touched the lives of hundreds of children, including my own.

It is with great pleasure that I recognize this outstanding member of our Wyoming community. My wife Bobbi joins me in extending our best wishes to Cyndy Novotny upon her retirement.

Madam President, I rise today to honor the 150th anniversary of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. This organization is of incredible historical and influential importance for the State of Wyoming and agriculture everywhere.

From Wednesday, June 8, to Saturday, June 11, 2022, the Wyoming Stock Growers Association will host their annual Wyoming Cattle Industry Convention. They will celebrate their 150th anniversary with a rodeo, banquet, and parade. They will meet in Cheyenne, WY, where they can trace their beginnings back to 1872. There, a group of five cattlemen met in a livery stable to organize a group to tackle the growing threat of stock rustlers. Their organization, then known as the Stock Association of Laramie County, was only the second State cattlemen association in the United States. Wyoming, however, was not yet a State.

Over the years, members included mayors, State legislators, Governors, and congressmen. U.S. Senators Robert D. Carey, John B. Kendrick, and Cliff Hansen all served as presidents of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. My colleague Senator Cynthia Lummis is an honorary life member.

Every Wyoming student knows of the infamous 1889-1893 Johnson County War involving the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. It required intervention by U.S. cavalry troops sent by President Benjamin Harrison. The conflict has been recounted by numerous personalities ranging from rodeo champion and singer/songwriter Chris LeDoux to the fictional Rooster Cogburn.

Today, you will find members promoting the beef industry through their Young Producers Assembly, Environmental Stewardship Program, Centennial Farm and Ranch Program, and the Endowment Trust.

Local input is essential to the services provided by the Wyoming Stock Growers. On any given week, you will find a county cattlemen group meeting together to bring their issues and priorities to the State association. The Stock Growers' auxiliary, the Cow-Belles, are integral members of their communities and are fantastic promoters of Wyoming's beef industry.

Regional education events bring valuable expertise to the raising of healthy cattle on healthy lands. Information is made widely available through their various publications. The association's staff does an incredible job of serving their membership through educating and promoting their trade to the public.

The Wyoming Stock Growers of 2022 have a remarkable leadership team. Executive director Jim Magagna has lead the association since 1998 and is Wyoming beef's greatest advocate. He is joined by Olivia Sanchez and Susan Skinner in their office in Cheyenne.

The board of directors includes president David Kane, first vice president Jack Berger, regional vice presidents Kahla Mills, Dan Frank, Leif Hanson, Brad Mead, Darla Griffin, and Young Producers Assembly president Sage Askin. These steadfast individuals wear many hats in their communities and around Wyoming. Their dedication will ensure a robust cattle industry in the state and a strong organization to support them well into the future.

The mission of the Wyoming Stock Growers is an important one to the character of the State. They advocate for the cattle industry and rural life. They develop policies to conserve and best manage the vast Wyoming landscape. They work with regulators at every facet of government. The Great Seal on every Wyoming flag and our State seal displays a rancher. This is the heritage of the stewards of the land who provide the Nation with quality products and food on their tables.

Cattlemen and their families created towns and built economies around the industry starting when Wyoming was still a territory. The tenacity and principles of these hard-working people are embodied through our Code of the West, the University of Wyoming's ``Cowboys,'' and the work of the Wyoming Stock Growers. The theme of the Stock Growers centennial celebration in 1972 was ``Guardian of the Grasslands.'' They continue to serve and conserve their industry and values in an ever-changing environment.

It is a great privilege to recognize this incredible organization and their dedication to the Wyoming's cattle and agriculture industry. Bobbi joins me in extending our congratulations and deep gratitude to the Wyoming Stock Growers Association on their 150th anniversary celebration.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor today in opposition to the nomination of Dr. Asmeret Berhe, who has been nominated to serve as the Director of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Office of Science is the Nation's largest Federal sponsor of basic research in physical sciences. Its mission is to advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States. This job, this mission to advance the energy, economic, and national security of the United States is one that I view as very critical.

Dr. Berhe has been a professor of soil biogeochemistry--soil biogeochemistry--at the University of California Merced for over a decade. Now, she has focused her research on soil management and sequestering carbon in the soil. Her background and her experience have very little to do with the Department of Energy's main scientific focus.

A May 9, 2001, op-ed in the Wall Street Journal by a physicist whose expertise is theoretical physics has noted:

Ms. Berhe's research program on soil chemistry, exploring

the capture of carbon dioxide, is relevant to climate-change

policy. But her research expertise isn't in any of the Office

of Science's major programs, and she has no experience as a

scientific administrator and minimal experience with the

Energy Department itself.

So not that there is anything wrong with her underlying experience to do other things, but for this specific position, the qualifications just aren't there. Dr. Berhe is clearly not the right choice to lead the Office of Science.

Certain positions Dr. Berhe has taken or endorsed are also concerning. On February 28, 2001, she retweeted this statement:

I'm just going to propose that a nation that can land an

SUV sized rover in an ancient lake on another planet can

build an electrical grid that is not [f---ing] useless--

This is her retweeting--

because of slavish devotion to the free market.

Apparently, we are devoted to the free market, and she doesn't like it.

On May 7, 2015, she wrote in Science that ``the practice of farming'' is to blame for climate change. ``The practice of farming'' is to blame for climate change.

Dr. Berhe is not the right person to serve as the Director of the Office of Science. I rise in opposition to her nomination. I urge my colleagues to join me in voting against this nominee.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to start the vote.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to support the nomination that we are soon to vote on, and that is the nomination of Dr. Kathryn Huff. She was nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the Department of Energy.

Now, while I don't agree with her on many issues, she is a strong supporter of nuclear energy. She is well qualified for the position to which she has been nominated. She holds a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering and currently serves as a special adviser to the Energy Secretary.

Before joining the Department, Dr. Huff was an assistant professor in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma & Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has also worked in our National Laboratories.

At her nomination hearing in early March, Dr. Huff testified:

It would be my honor to help the United States bolster and

reclaim its global leadership in nuclear energy.

Now, more than ever, it is critical that the Department work diligently to make America energy-dominant again. Nuclear technology is essential to meeting America's energy, environmental, and national security objectives. We need to be looking for opportunities to expand our use of nuclear energy. Dr. Huff is ready and able to take on that responsibility.

Russia's army is funded by the sale of energy. That includes uranium. Russia accounts for one-third of the world's uranium conversion and half of the world's uranium enrichment capacity. It is our third largest supplier of uranium--for us in the United States.

Russia's brutal attack on Ukraine has opened the world's eyes. We can't be reliant on Russia. Now is the time for the United States to stop buying Russian uranium. Now is the time for the United States to ramp up our domestic uranium production. Dr. Huff recognizes that opportunity, and she is prepared to act.

The Department of Energy needs to take immediate action to establish a strategic uranium reserve. This is to ensure our existing reactors have the fuel that they need.

We also can't allow America's advanced reactor developers to be dependent on Russia. The Department of Energy needs to take immediate action to develop an American supply of high-assay, low-enriched uranium. To meet these challenges, we need experienced leadership in place at the Office of Nuclear Energy. Dr. Huff is up to that task. So I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting her nomination.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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