Floor Statements

Madam President, I come to the floor today to speak about unleashing American energy. Earlier this month, we saw the highest price ever for a gallon of gasoline in the United States. Inflation is over a high of 40 years. Energy costs are driving the cost of everything else, and there appears to be no end in sight. Joe Biden cannot hide from the fact that he is the President of high prices.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Vladimir Putin continues his onslaught. The Russian killing machine continues its assault on innocent people. Thousands of civilians have been killed. This includes hundreds of children.

Vladimir Putin's war crimes are all paid for with Russian energy. Energy accounts for nearly half of Putin's budget. Energy is the only successful industry in the Russian economy. If you want to defund Vladimir Putin, you have to drain his tank. You have to defund him on energy.

So what have we seen from the President of the United States? Well, Joe Biden spent all last year acting like Vladimir Putin was his ``Secretary of Energy.'' Joe Biden played right along. Putin wanted it; Biden did it, followed the ``Secretary of Energy.''

Biden decided against sanctions on Putin's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. People in this body, on both sides of the aisle, said: Mr. President, sanction the pipeline; don't allow it.

Putin said: I want it.

Biden gave it.

Actually, Joe Biden actually lobbied this body, the U.S. Senate, to not do what we knew was the right thing to do in terms of sanctioning Vladimir Putin and the pipeline. Biden caved to Putin.

Biden also caved to Putin by extending our nuclear arms reduction treaty without any conditions. He essentially gave Vladimir Putin exactly what he wanted: a permission slip to build up the military. Even after the invasion, 2 weeks in, Joe Biden was still fine with buying Russian oil. It took bipartisan Members of the House and the Senate to stop it.

He didn't ban Russian oil because of the war; it was because of this bipartisan effort in Congress. We finally forced his hand. Democrats in Congress were willing to stand up to the President of the United States and say they were willing to join the Republicans in overriding the President on this very matter. Joe Biden dragged his feet, so a bipartisan group in Congress had to drag Joe Biden.

Every Member of this body should remember what President Zelenskyy had to say to us. He said: If there had been sanctions, meaning in January, there would not have been a war. In January, I came to this floor, and I said history would not be kind to those who ran interference for Vladimir Putin. It is even more true today. History will not be kind to those who stood by as Vladimir Putin planned, prepared, and paid for the invasion.

At every step in this crisis, Congress has had to take the lead, and the President had to be pulled along. Congress had to drag Joe Biden into banning seven Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system. Congress had to drag Joe Biden into revoking Russia's trade status.

Congress had to drag Joe Biden into sending lethal aid to Ukraine. Two-thirds of this aid still hasn't been delivered. Congress signed a check for $3 billion in weapons. So far, it looks like Joe Biden has provided to Ukraine about $800 million.

So where are the weapons? Where are the weapons right now? There is no time to waste. Innocent people are being murdered. In so much of this, Joe Biden has been not just a day late but billions of dollars short, and he is leading from far, far behind.

But Joe Biden seems to be proud of himself. He went to Europe last week, bragged about the sanctions on Russia. Well, there is still a lot of work to do.

I am here on the Senate floor to tell you that we have more work to do in terms of dragging Joe Biden along. On Friday, Joe Biden announced an energy agreement with the European Union. The White House listed 14 things that they would do. Well, what was missing from that list? Well, I will tell you: the one thing that would actually work.

Missing from the list of 14 was the thing that would actually work, which is increasing the production of American oil and gas. Under the agreement, Europe will buy an additional 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year. Now, that is about 10 percent of what they currently buy from Russia. So where is it going to come from? It is a legitimate question. They don't know. On Friday, a Biden official said this. He said: We can't speak to exactly where the natural gas is coming from.

The White House also said that the United States will ``maintain its regulatory environment.'' In other words, no change to current policy. The war on American energy will continue.

And if you took a look at the budget that came out yesterday, there are 36 new taxes proposed, 11 of which are going to drive up the cost of American energy. At a time of the highest gas prices ever, 40 percent inflation, the Biden budget says we need to put more tax on the production of energy in this country.

We need to produce more energy. We need it. We will use it. Europe needs it. We have promised it to them. Joe Biden's regulators want to keep it in the ground.

Now, Secretary Granholm waited until last week to approve two pending applications for liquefied natural gas exports. She could have approved them last year; didn't. Waited until 2 weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine to finally approve two of six permits. It took weeks of bloodshed. There are still four more applications waiting on her desk. Oh, they have been sitting there for well over a year.

Time to wake up and approve the applications. Europe has woken up. They are wide awake from their addiction and reliance on their enemies for their energy. Joe Biden is still sleepwalking.

Now, Russia is still exporting energy all around the world. We put sanctions in place, but this is what the Washington Post had to say. They called the energy exports continuing today from Russia ``the loophole that's keeping Russia's economy alive.''

China is stocking up on Russian oil at a discount. None of Joe Biden's sanctions do a thing to stop China--not a one. China can continue to prop up the Russian war machine.

As Senator Toomey has said, we need secondary sanctions to stop the flow of cash to the Kremlin. Joe Biden's banking sanctions explicitly avoid hitting Russian energy. It is the key to this funding: $5 to $7 billion a week to the killing machine from exporting Russian energy.

The banking sanctions don't even go into effect until June 24. It is still March. April, May--June 24. The war may be over by then, but in the meantime, thousands of people could die.

Oh, and the President's sanctions do not include Russian uranium. They should, but they don't. As a result, our Nation, America, remains dependent on Vladimir Putin for one of the most important elements on Earth. You want to defund Putin's invasion, it is time to finish the job with banning of imports from Russia to the United States, and we must ban uranium. We need to do it now.

Now, earlier this month, I have introduced legislation to do just that. Now, I am grateful that Senator Lummis and Senator Marshall and Senator Cramer have added their strong support. Here in America, we have vast uranium supplies, and it is especially true in my home State of Wyoming. There is no reason at all that America should be buying uranium from Vladimir Putin and Russia.

Now, Joe Biden is also helping sell Russian uranium in other countries because, right now, Joe Biden is pushing our Nation into a deal with Iran that was negotiated by Russia. Yes, you heard me right: negotiated by Russia--not negotiated by the Americans, not negotiated by--no. We let Vladimir Putin negotiate with Iran on a nuclear deal.

A deal with Iran would mean billions of dollars for Russia. You don't believe it? It is true. A Russia state-controlled nuclear energy company would get about $10 billion out of the deal. More bullets, more bombs, more bloodshed paid for by Joe Biden's uranium deal.

When it comes to Iran and Russia, no deal is a good deal. Whether it is uranium, whether it is natural gas, the solution for Russian energy is American energy. We have it. We have it in abundance. This administration will not let us get it out of the ground.

Today, we are still producing 1.3 million fewer barrels of oil than we were prior to the pandemic. The administration is still sitting on 4,600 drilling permits. Joe Biden still hasn't had a single lease sale on Federal lands for oil and gas.

Just yesterday, Joe Biden proposed a $43 billion tax increase on American energy. Who pays these taxes? Clearly, the hard-working families of this country in the form of higher prices. This is the last thing the country needs now at a time of 40-year high inflation and the highest gas prices ever.

Energy security is worth a lot more than climate zealotry. Our friends in Europe who are held hostage by Vladimir Putin will tell you that today. We are much better off as a nation selling energy to our friends than being forced to buy it from our enemies.

What President Biden and the Democrats don't seem to understand is this: Energy security is national security. For ourselves, for our allies, we need more American energy, and we need it now.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the need for more American energy. When Joe Biden was running for President, he made a lot of promises that seemed to be all to the liberal left. Now, to the hard-working people of my home State of Wyoming, these promises sounded more like direct threats to their lives and their livelihoods.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about America's inflation crisis. People in my home State are noticing it every day.

This morning, the majority leader came to the floor and expressed his shock that prices have gone up, but they have been going up for over a year now. Price increases last year on energy alone cost hard-working families over $1,000 more last year--the first year that Joe Biden was President--compared to the previous year. This year, it is going to cost even more for energy--to drive, to heat, all of those things.

So I am glad that the Democrats now are--14 months into Joe Biden's Presidency--finally concerned about energy prices, but what we are seeing the Democrats offer are gimmicks.

Some Democrats want to call it a gas tax holiday. Of course, the gas tax is what is used to pay for our roads and bridges. So they want to defund--stop paying for roads and bridges but then put the gas tax back on right after the election. It is a cynical ploy.

Other Democrats say: No, no, let's not do that. Let's just send everybody more government checks.

Well, the Democrats have been doing that, and it is what has caused much of the inflation that we are facing today.

Still other Democrats say: No, no, no, let's clamp down on American energy even tighter.

These are nice sound bites. We are seeing them. We are hearing them. Those aren't solutions.

We know why prices are rising. Prices are rising because supply of American energy is down. We are actually 1.3 million barrels less energy producing now with oil in the United States than we were before the pandemic. So why is supply down? Well, the policies of the Democrats in the House and the Senate and the policies coming out of the White House. Democrats have been in charge of Washington now for a full year, and high prices are really the rotten fruit of Democrat rule.

As I said, we are at 1.3 million barrels of oil per day less than before the pandemic. People say: Well, what has caused it? Joe Biden was proud to talk about what has caused it. His first act as President was to stop oil and gas leases on Federal lands, kill the Keystone XL Pipeline, and it is one of his campaign promises. You can go back and look at the videos of Joe Biden as a campaigner saying: I promise you there will be no new oil and gas in the United States. That is actually what the video says, and that is what he says. They are his own words, his own promises. Then he went back to try to clarify that and clean it up a little bit, and he said: Well, not on public lands.

This isn't a surprise that Biden has crushed U.S. production of oil and gas. This administration still has not held a single auction for oil and gas leases on Federal lands since the day he has taken office. How does that compare to other administrations? Well, under President Obama, there were more than 30 oil and gas lease sales on Federal lands that had been conducted in the auctions in this same period of time.

So has anybody said anything about it? Actually, yes. The courts have ruled. The courts said the President's executive office on Federal land leases is illegal. That is what the courts ruled. President Biden thumbed his nose at the Federal courts. The President has stubbornly refused to open up more Federal lands to American energy production, ignoring what the courts have said.

In Western States like Wyoming, where half of our land is owned by the Federal Government, and controlled, it is devastating. Half of Wyoming is Federal land. We are sitting on a treasure trove of American energy. We wouldn't have to be relying on Vladimir Putin or we wouldn't have to be relying on Iran or going hat in hand to Venezuela. We have it here in America, and we do it a lot cleaner than they do in any of these foreign countries run by dictators.

When we keep energy buried in the ground, American families get buried in costs.

The White House says we don't need to open up Federal lands, no. The White House says there are oil and gas leases that are not being used-- another sound bite. In reality, most of the leases that aren't being used--it is because they are tied up in Democrat redtape or Democrat- run lawsuits.

There are some that aren't being used because the companies that have the leases can't get the funding to go and do the exploration. Why can't they get the funding? It is the cancel culture of the Democratic Party. We have seen it. Joe Biden's recent nominee to the Federal Reserve wrote in the New York Times that banks, she said, shouldn't lend money to oil and gas companies--shouldn't do it, period. These are businesses that get loans to do business, and she said: Nope, none for you. A lot of banks listened to her because they thought she was going to be confirmed. Thankfully, that nomination has been withdrawn.

Less investment means less production. It results in higher prices.

This morning, the majority leader, standing at that podium over there, also said gas prices had gone up ``at a time when families are already struggling.'' Well, why do you think they are already struggling? We know why they are struggling. It is because of the inflation caused by this administration and the policies that have been going on for a full year even though, month after month after month, the President of the United States said they would be transitory.

The price of gas has gone up. The price of heating in your home has gone up. The price of groceries has gone up. The price of nearly everything has gone up. Over the past year, prices have gone up 8 percent. We are at a 40-year high of inflation in this country. The average family's income cannot keep up with the price increases that we have been sustaining since the day Joe Biden took office. Just last month, some of the price increases were the biggest on record: chicken, lunch meat, baby food--things that people need to buy.

I am glad to hear that the Democrats are finally admitting the crisis is only going to get worse. Why do they say it is going to get worse? Because the cost of producing things has gone up. Energy prices are up; you use energy to produce things. The inflation cost for producing things now is actually higher based on--the price index for production is at 10 percent. So that says that prices are going to go up because if it costs more to produce things, the pricetag has to go up. Food costs continue to go up. Senator Fischer, my colleague, the senior Senator from Nebraska, pointed out that fertilizer costs have tripled.

Now Democrats want to make it worse. Democrats in the House--not in the Senate but Democrats in the House--are asking Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and tighten his choke hold on American energy production. It is going to make inflation even worse.

In yesterday's Washington Post, Larry Summers warned that we might face something, I say to the Presiding Officer, that you and I remember, something from the Jimmy Carter days called stagflation. That is where you have inflation and stagnation at the same time. It is a terrible thing to happen to an economy.

The crisis is only going to get worse. We need to change course. We need to do it now. Stop the reckless spending, and above all, unleash American energy. Don't be a country that not too long ago was asking Russia to produce more, asking OPEC to produce more, asking Iran to sell us energy, asking Venezuela. Produce it here. We have it here. Open up these Federal lands. Approve the drilling permits--the 4,600 drilling permits that are stuck in limbo by this administration.

American families cannot afford 3 more years of Joe Biden.

I yield the floor.

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

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about American energy.

Joe Biden is the President of high prices and of low approval ratings. Just yesterday, a gallon of gas sold for the highest price ever in the United States, and inflation is at a 40-year high.

Now, the American people clearly understand that radical Democrat energy policies are the cause of these high prices--the prices that people are paying every time they go to the pump to fill up.

On Thursday, the White House admitted, in terms of these high prices, that it is going to get worse. Of course, Democrats are trying to blame Vladimir Putin for the high price at the pump. Well, to me, it is dishonest, and it is desperate. Vladimir Putin didn't cause the inflation crisis that began in this country 12 months ago.

Now, Vladimir Putin has cashed in on America's inflation crisis. He has done it by selling more energy at high prices, and he has done it for more than a year. It has been his cash cow.

America's inflation crisis is specifically the result of Democrat spending and Democrat attacks on American energy. The two combined have added to the situation that we are in now, attacking American energy and massive spending.

Last March, Joe Biden signed the single-most expensive spending bill in American history. Even his own experts warned him not to do it.

Democrat economics expert Larry Summers, who had been Treasury Secretary for President Clinton, warned that this is going to cause inflation. Last February, the former Obama and

Clinton adviser wrote in the Washington Post--this is from Larry Summers:

There is a chance that . . . stimulus on a scale closer to

World War II levels . . . will set off inflationary

pressures.

He said:

Inflationary pressures of a kind [that] we have not seen in

a generation.

He is exactly right. That is what has happened. That is why we are at a 40-year high of inflation, and that is a generation.

Obama adviser Jason Furman said the same thing. He said that bill was ``definitely too big.'' He said: ``I don't know any economist''-- ``any,'' he said--``who was recommending something the size of what'' President Biden was doing.

Yet Joe Biden proved to be hard of hearing, refused to listen to what they had to say, signed the bill anyway, put $2 trillion on our Nation's credit card, and he flooded the country with government cash. Ever since then, this country has been in an inflation upward spiral.

At the same time, Joe Biden also had a stranglehold over American energy supply. He announced it during the campaign and enforced it the day he took office.

Energy is called the master resource for a reason. It powers our economy. It powers our military. It powers our Nation. It is critically important. When the price of energy goes up, so does the price of everything else.

Starting on his first day in office, Joe Biden has waged an all-out war on American energy. He shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline, and he bragged about it--no hiding from this one. He shut down oil and gas leases on Federal lands. He bragged about that as well. He shut down exploration for energy in the Arctic.

It was always interesting to see the senior Senator from Alaska, Ms. Murkowski, come to the floor and say over the last year that we are using more energy from Vladimir Putin's Russia than we are from Alaska, her home State, in terms of oil.

Those are because of Joe Biden's policies.

Now his lackeys at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission are making it almost impossible to build gas pipelines, to move gas from where it is explored to where it is needed. As a result, we are today actually producing a lot less energy than we were prior to the pandemic.

I heard the White House spokesperson. She talked about the fact that we are at record-high levels. We are not. We are at about 1.3 million barrels of oil a day--fewer now being produced in the United States than we were prior to the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, we were No. 1 in production in the world. Now we are No. 3, behind Saudi Arabia and behind Russia.

What does lower supply of American energy mean? Well, in supply and demand, lower supply means higher prices.

When Joe Biden took office, a gallon of gas was at $2.38. It went up every month. Twelve of the last 13 months, the price of gas kept going up at the pump. Twelve of the 13 months that Joe Biden has been in the White House, the price of gas went up.

Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin was laughing all the way to the bank.

Joe Biden must be patting himself on the back right now about banning Russian oil, something that took him kicking and screaming to do after bipartisan Members of the House and the Senate came together and said: You have got to stop doing this.

It took him a couple of extra weeks to come to the realization that this body and the House, in a bipartisan way, were opposed to the delays--the ongoing delays--of this administration.

Now Joe Biden has his latest excuse for inflation. He said it is Vladimir Putin. The American people aren't buying it. In record numbers, they are not buying what the President is trying to sell.

The American people haven't forgotten the past year. It has been a year of high prices. It has been a year of misery and pain for families all across the country.

For Joe Biden, it has been a year of excuses. The excuses keep changing, but they are ongoing.

First, he said that inflation was transitory. He said it month after month after month after month.

And, then, remember when he said inflation was a good thing? Then, of course, he blamed corporate greed--always looking for somebody else to blame, always trying to pass the buck. Now he says inflation, which has been crushing American families, was because of Vladimir Putin, just 3 weeks ago.

Mr. President, people have been suffering under inflation, and their wages haven't been keeping up with the rising prices in this country for well over a year, since you took office. People recognize that. They remember the pain and the suffering in trying to go through Christmas, trying to decide whether they could afford gifts for the family; families who had to decide, living on a fixed income, if they could afford to eat or to heat their homes. That was all before Putin, and they haven't forgotten, Mr. President. Even though you may not think they remember, they do.

It is now 8 months until there are elections, and I know we are going to hear a lot more excuses from the Democrats in Washington between now and November 8. I expect the excuses are going to change a couple more times. None of the excuses are going to be believable. So they will keep trying to come up with another one.

Inflation sure wasn't transitory, not for a full year, not to a point where we are now at a 40-year high for inflation.

How about that idea when the President said inflation was a good thing? Actually, we heard it from the White House Press Secretary. We heard it from the White House Chief of Staff. They said inflation is a sign of high demand.

If our economy is doing so well, why don't the American people believe it? What kind of fantasyland is the President living in?

According to the Washington Post, Joe Biden's approval rating on the economy--how well he is doing in the economy--out of 100 points, he is at 37 percent approval. These are record-low numbers.

So Democrats can use their arguments all that they want. I think it just makes Americans want to reject anything the Democrats are trying to sell.

If Democrats are right about corporate greed, then, why have Democrats done nothing about it? They have run Washington for the past full year plus a couple of months. Democrats have had the time to introduce plenty of bills: bills to raise taxes, bills to take over elections, bills to pack the Supreme Court from 9 up to 13 members, bills to make Washington, DC, a State. What can they point to as an accomplishment to actually address and lower inflation? That is what the American people want.

Just this past weekend, studies are out. What is the No. 1 concern of the American people? It is inflation. What are Democrats doing about it? Nothing. They are making it worse.

So we are living in this world where Democrats and the White House continue to spin one story after another, and Democrat spokesmen for the party continue to try to convince the American people: Don't believe your own two eyes; believe them. The American people are smarter than that.

Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. It is about a year after the inflation crisis began. It is a great human tragedy, and it is heartbreaking.

Tomorrow, Members of this body will be having a video address by President Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, a heroic and courageous individual who is leading his nation with stubborn courage, historic patriotism, fighting for freedom. To try to tie this to the inflation that the American people have been suffering through for the last year is just wrong.

And 2021 was the worst inflation in 40 years, long before Putin invaded Ukraine. By the time Putin invaded Ukraine, gas prices were up in the United States more than $1 a gallon, and America was more addicted to Russian oil because that is what Joe Biden wanted. He wanted us to need more Russian oil. But that didn't stop Joe Biden from trying to blame the whole thing on Putin.

Former adviser Steve Rattner put it this way:

This is [Joe] Biden's inflation and he needs to own it.

Over the weekend, Larry Summers said this:

The president was wrong--

He is talking about Joe Biden.

He said:

The president was wrong to blame this month's [inflation]

number on [the war in] Ukraine.

Larry Summers went on to say:

[Everyone] had been expecting, from the time before Putin

launched the invasion, that inflation was going to

accelerate.

He went on to say:

This is a consequence, fundamentally, of an overheated

economy.

He said:

And we are not going to have a full solution until we do

something about that overheated economy.

A full year has passed--one year in office, a 40-year high of inflation, and a year full of excuses by a President whose excuses do not add up. What adds up is the fundamental fact that American families spent $1,000 more on energy during Joe Biden's first year as President than they did the previous year. And it is going to be worse this year.

The time for excuses is over. There is no excuse for restricting American energy production. Democratic Senators spent 10 months denying that there even was inflation and doing nothing about it. Yet now some Democrats in this body are talking about making it even worse. They have introduced multiple bills to raise taxes. Astonishingly, one of the bills they have introduced is to raise taxes on American energy.

They already tried that last year with their reckless tax-and- spending spree. Now, it seems like some of them want to do it again. If we put more taxes on American energy, what is that going to do? It is going to raise the price even higher. Higher costs on producers are going to become higher costs on the customers.

People don't want us to raise costs; they want us to reduce costs. That is what they are complaining about. That is what we have gotten as a result of the Biden policies. We need to break this choke hold that the Democrats and the Biden administration have on American energy.

So how do we do that? Well, 2 weeks ago, I led a letter with every Republican on the Senate Energy Committee, and we sent it to President Biden on the morning after the State of the Union Address. We gave him a list of 10 specific actions that he could take today to produce more American energy and bring down the costs for American families.

Step one would be to end his Executive order on oil and gas leases on Federal lands. Half of my home State of Wyoming is Federal lands. There is an abundance of energy there. The American people need it. It will help reduce costs for families. It will actually bring tax revenue into the government, both the State as well as the Federal Government. Yet Joe Biden is not interested.

Joe Biden's Executive order has no basis in science, no basis in law. It needs to be rescinded today. The fact that some people have leases to explore for energy--a small number--is no excuse for the President's actions. Over 4,000 leases are awaiting permission to drill right now. They have a lease, but they are tied up in redtape and cannot get permission to drill from the government. So even if you have a lease, you need to then get permission from the government to use the lease. They ought to approve those leases today.

But we need to go further. We need a long-term commitment from the Government of the United States to produce American energy to help American families. Leases take years to explore and to develop. We need a commitment that is going to last long term. No one is going to make those kinds of investments if they think Joe Biden is going to shut them down again the next day.

Now, American energy companies have a lot of good reasons not to trust Joe Biden, not to trust those whom he has--the anointed ones whom he has appointed to high positions in the government.

If you just take a look at Joe Biden's nominees, they are a murderer's row of climate elitists and climate alarmists, and those are the ones that call the tune for this President.

If you took a year of Joe Biden's energy policies and take a look at what has happened over the past year that got us here today and you explain that to the American public and you say: What do you think about this? as they are filling up their tank, two-thirds of them would say: Under these Biden policies--two-thirds would say--the country is heading in the wrong direction.

That may be every Republican. It is also a lot of Independents, and it is also some Democrats as well who have buyer's remorse at what they have gotten from this President. It is going to take time to repair the damage. We need to start today. The time for excuses and blame from this administration needs to be over. The American public is demanding American energy, and we need it now.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about inflation. And one thing is sure, Joe Biden is the President of high prices.

New numbers are out today. This morning, we found that inflation remains the worst it has been in 40 years--40 years. Now, we knew that today's inflation numbers were going to be bad for Americans and bad for the administration, but the numbers today are worse than people thought.

Prices rose nearly 8 percent in just the last year. That means we are now seeing more inflation in the last 13 months under President Joe Biden than we did in the previous 4 years. And families are suffering. Prices are going up, but wages are not keeping up. Last week, we found out that wages, in terms of an escalation, had slowed down a bit, which means that people are falling further and further behind. Wages just cannot keep up with the prices that continue to go up. Month after month after month, the American people have found themselves falling further and further and further behind.

I remember when Joe Biden told all of us that inflation would be ``transitory.'' He kind of laughed about it. He

said it over and over again. And then, in December, he said inflation had ``peaked.'' Mr. President, inflation had not peaked. Joe Biden, once again, dead wrong.

Now, the American people are reminded about this every time they go to the gas station, every time they go to the grocery store, every time they go out to purchase goods.

So why is this happening? What has happened to America under Joe Biden and the mismanagement of this Democratic administration that has the House, the Senate, and the White House?

Well, there are two main things. One is Democrats' spending, excessive spending. The other, of course: Democrats' restrictions on American energy.

One year ago, Joe Biden signed the largest spending bill in American history. Democrats put $2 trillion on America's credit card. They flooded the country with government cash, and prices went up. And ever since that day, prices have been going up faster than wages. There is still no end in sight. The painful truth of all of this is energy prices, food prices all across the country are going to continue to go up thanks to the mismanagement of Joe Biden and this administration.

Today, a gallon of gas in the United States is the highest it has ever been--ever. When Joe Biden took office, the average price of gasoline in America was $2.38 a gallon; and today, it is about $2 a gallon more than it was then. Coming from my home State of Wyoming, where people drive more miles per capita than any other State in the country, people in my State are really feeling the pain of the mismanagement by Joe Biden and the Democrats.

If we think it is bad in Wyoming, let's go to the liberal paradise of California. I don't know what it is in the Presiding Officer's home State of Hawaii, but in California, it is $5.60 a gallon. Summer is coming, and people are expecting the prices to get even higher.

So what is Joe Biden's answer to this? He is blaming everything on Vladimir Putin--everything. It is a convenient excuse. It is just wrong. By the time that Vladimir Putin started to encircle Ukraine and then actually invaded Ukraine, inflation had been roaring here at home for over 10 months. Gas prices were already way up, $1.25 a gallon higher than they were on the day Joe Biden took office. So Biden's numbers just don't add up.

Russian oil amounts to about 3 percent of our energy use in the United States. Gas prices haven't just gone up by 3 percent. No, no. They have nearly doubled during Joe Biden's Presidency.

The real reason that prices are up so much for energy is Joe Biden has restricted our use of American energy. If you listen to his--go back to the tapes on the debate stage when he was running for President. He said he is going to keep it in the ground, no oil and gas or exploration or coal on public lands--none, zero. The White House Press Secretary the other day said, Oh, we are at record high production.

We are not. Mistake. Absolutely wrong. She should be fact-checked. We are over a million barrels a day fewer U.S. barrels of oil produced today than we were during the height of our production before the pandemic--actually, 1.4 million barrels a day fewer barrels today than we were at the height of our production before the pandemic.

Well, when supply goes down as a result of the mismanagement and the decisions made by this Biden administration and the refusal to allow for permits to explore for energy, prices go up; and they have. When the price of energy goes up, the prices of everything go up as well.

What are the Democrats proposing about high prices for energy? Well, the answer for Democrats seems to be anything except more American energy. Democrats have essentially floated three proposals: One is defund our roads and bridges; the second is buy more energy from our enemies, people that chant ``Death to America''; or keep prices high. Those are the options we hear from the Democrats.

We see some frightened Democrats worried about reelection talking about suspending the gas tax and then bringing it back right after election day. Well, the gas tax is what pays for the roads and the bridges, the highways of our Nation, but bring it back right after the election. Well, does that mean we are going to need less energy after election day; so it is OK to raise prices after the election? Of course not.

Even former Clinton and Obama economic adviser Larry Summers calls this proposal being introduced in this body by Members of the Democratic side of the aisle--he called it ``short-sighted, ineffective, gimmicky, and goofy.'' That is Larry Summers from both the Obama as well as the Clinton administration.

If we completely repeal the gas tax, gas prices would still be $1.75 more a gallon than they were the day Joe Biden took office. So another option the Democrats are floating is, ``Hey, let's buy more energy from our enemy.'' Wouldn't that be a great idea, says the President? So officials from the Biden administration have gone hat in hand to Venezuela last weekend as well as to Iran. Venezuela is one of the closest allies to Vladimir Putin. I understand the current man in power in Venezuela actually called to congratulate Vladimir Putin for what he is doing in Ukraine--so is Iran, in terms of the world's No. 1 sponsor of terrorism. That is who Joe Biden has chosen to talk to--Iran and Venezuela--rather than United States energy producers.

Do we want to pay our worst enemies over $100 a barrel for each barrel of oil they will sell to us? Do we want to send billions and billions of dollars of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in this country to those who hate us and burn American flags and chant ``Death to America,'' or do we want to create jobs here at home, produce more American energy? The answer is obvious to most American people. It may not be obvious to the man in the White House or his administration or those around him, but Joe Biden would rather have an enormous transfer of wealth to our enemies than tell the climate elitists who he dances to the tune of that we are going to produce energy at home.

Finally, some Democrats are just proposing: Let's keep energy prices high. The Secretary of Transportation says: Just buy an electric vehicle; that will solve all our problems. He said, You won't have to worry about gas prices no matter how high they go. It is OK if they go high as long as you buy an electric vehicle.

Talk about being out of touch. The average electric vehicle costs over $55,000. Families who are struggling in this Biden economy, they can't afford to spend $55,000. We have many, many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, falling further and further behind.

And the Secretary of Transportation says: Hey, just go find $55,000, buy an electric vehicle, and you can plug it in. Where do you think the electricity comes from? It doesn't come from the wall. Talk about an administration being out of touch. That is what we are dealing with in this country today. Two-thirds of Americans say they are living paycheck to paycheck.

This morning, we had a hearing in the Energy Committee that said, What about everybody trying to buy an electric vehicle; can we do it?

What do we hear? You have to buy a lot of things from China or Russia just to get the rare Earth minerals that are needed to build the batteries for the electric cars. What does Elon Musk, Mr. Tesla, say? He says, Produce more American energy.

It is time for the President of the United States to wake up. It is really not an option for everybody to get an electric vehicle. Even if everybody had the money, there are not enough electric vehicles to be had anywhere in the near--not just the near future--the foreseeable future and beyond that.

Another option is not to send billions of dollars to our enemies. After all, as a State Department official from this administration told us in the Foreign Relations Committee as Putin was building up--before the invasion, but building up the army around Ukraine--said that Putin's energy was the cash cow that was paying for his military aggression.

The American people deserve better solutions, rational solutions, solutions that they understand. And they understand American energy.

Just yesterday, Joe Biden said: I can't do much right now to bring down prices.

It is not true. Last week, the morning after the State of the Union address, I, along with every Republican

on the Senate Energy Committee--every Republican signed the letter, sent it to Joe Biden, offered 10 points he could do and do now to make a difference for American energy production to help the American economy, to help with jobs, to help with energy production, and to help bring down the cost of energy.

We know what we need to do. To bring down inflation, we need to stop the reckless spending here in Washington, DC. Of course, that is gone now. The Democrats, on a single party-line vote--no Republican voted for it--did that last year to spark inflation and then all the rules and regulations and limitations on Americans' use of energy has added to and contributed to, today, a 40-year high of inflation.

Above all, we need to unleash American energy. We need to use American energy. More American energy will bring down the prices. We have it. When the Secretary of the Interior makes a statement that she wants us to keep all the oil and gas in the ground, that is a statement about this administration's lack of commitment to use American energy.

We have the opportunity in America to do it right. For more than a year now, the American people have been paying and paying and paying for the Democrats' anti-American energy policies, and they are sick and tired of it. You turn on the TV, and you see what is happening out there in the world. In Ukraine, people are getting killed by Vladimir Putin--a maternity ward and a hospital bombed, people killed. And what did former Secretary of State, John Kerry, the Democrats' climate envoy say in an interview to the BBC as the Russian troops encircled Ukraine? He said: I hope it doesn't distract from our climate agenda. That is obscene, and it is absurd.

The American people realize how absolutely ridiculous the position and how untenable the position of this administration is when you have the No. 1 climate spokesman for the administration, a former Secretary of State, somebody who was a Member of this body for years, close colleague and friend of the President of the United States--it is time for Joe Biden to stand up to John Kerry and to stand up to the climate elitists who say: Oh, no, no American energy because we are so pure.

The American people know what is important to them and their lives. We all want to make energy as clean as we can, as fast as we can, without raising costs on American families. The administration seems to be happy to see the prices go up on American families at a time when their wages are not keeping up with their expenses. It is long past time that we produce American energy and do it right here. We have the resources. We have the know-how. We have the workers. We are only missing one thing, and that is competent leadership in the White House and in the Democrats in this body on Capitol Hill.

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 today to talk about our Nation's energy policy and the crisis that we find ourselves in as the cost of energy continues to go up and up and up.

Right now, gas prices are nearly double what they were the day that Joe Biden became President of the United States.

So you ask: Why is this happening? That is what consumers, that is what

people in my home State of Wyoming are asking about. What has happened? How is it that it has gone up so much?

Sure, there is the war in Ukraine, but the prices have been going up day by day by day after Joe Biden became President, and the reason, I tell people at home, is because Joe Biden has declared war on American energy--the policies of this administration, the policies of the Democrats in this body and across the way in the House.

On day No. 1, Joe Biden shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline; he shut down oil and gas leases on Federal lands; and he shut down the exploration for energy in the Arctic.

My colleague the senior Senator from Alaska, who previously had chaired the Energy Committee in the Senate, has said that we are actually, in the United States, using more energy from Russia, more oil from Russia than we are from Alaska, her home State, a State in the United States.

Now we see the President's appointees making it almost impossible to build gas pipelines. So even if you were able to explore and discover energy--oil, gas--you can't get it to market because they are blocking pipelines all across the country.

And the FERC--the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--just a week and a half ago revised its guidelines to make it even tougher.

They talk about oil and gas leases. Once you get a lease--you pay for a lease to explore for energy--you have to come to the government for permission to drill for it. You actually have to pay money to apply for permission to drill. It is actually called an Application for Permit to Drill. And the Biden administration last month said, ``We are not going to give you any more of those,'' to anybody who wants to explore for energy on public lands. And, in fact, there are about 4,600 of those stuck in limbo right now.

In my home State of Wyoming and across the country, people are asking: How can a President put such a radical and self-destructive agenda which we have to live under?

And what I tell them and what they understand is that the Biden administration is completely controlled by the climate elitists, the climate alarmists who dictate the policies of the Democratic Party in this country.

So just look at Joe Biden's climate czar. Now, that is kind of a nickname for the position, but the reality of the title is the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate. It is John Kerry. So this is a very high position in this administration.

He didn't come to the Senate for confirmation. Oh, no. They wouldn't risk putting something like that up here because then John Kerry would have to answer questions.

But John Kerry, no question about it, does speak for the administration. Joe Biden appointed him. John Kerry and Joe Biden served together in the Senate, in this body. I served with both of them on the Foreign Relations Committee. John Kerry was a previous Secretary of State of the United States at the time that Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States.

So the position of John Kerry is also the position of this administration, otherwise, why would he be the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate? When John Kerry speaks, it is Joe Biden whom he speaks for.

Well, John Kerry and this administration have a delusional obsession, and their delusional obsession is with climate. John Kerry and this administration are so obsessed with our climate that they believe it is more important than our energy security and than our national security.

Now, there are countless examples. And I just want to go through a couple of them that have occurred just within the last 3 weeks, just within the time that Vladimir Putin's soldiers have encircled Ukraine and now have attacked Ukraine, continuing to kill innocent civilians.

The night before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, with the troops at the ready, John Kerry actually told the BBC in an interview that he was worried about the carbon emissions that would result from the war--the carbon emissions, not the death, not the destruction, not the suffering; no, the carbon emissions.

He also said--I mean, it is astonishing. People listened, and they said: This can't be the position of the administration of the President of the United States. But yet it is the position of John Kerry, the President's Special Envoy, that war would be a distraction, would distract from the climate agenda.

John Kerry went on to say this. He said:

I hope President Putin will help us to stay on track with

respect to what we need to do for the climate.

Let me repeat. John Kerry, Special Envoy, speaking for the President of the United States:

I hope President Putin will help us stay on track with

respect to what we need to do for the climate.

John Kerry believes, by his statements and others that I will get to, that what is happening with the war in Europe is a distraction from the real issue of the day, the key issue--climate change.

People are being murdered in the streets, Vladimir Putin is conducting nuclear drills, and the President's key spokesman on issues affecting energy in this country is hoping that President Putin will help us stay on track, and what is happening there is a distraction.

This is absurd. John Kerry thinks that Vladimir Putin cares about the climate? It is impossible. Putin just yesterday bombed a maternity ward. Putin's forces have killed dozens of children. Yet John Kerry is desperately waiting by the phone, clinging to the hope of a phone call from Vladimir Putin.

I hope John Kerry isn't holding his breath waiting for Putin to address the issue of climate.

Now, in the very same interview, John Kerry was asked about the possibility that Russia would invade Ukraine.

John Kerry's answer is this. The former Secretary of State, former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said: ``I thought we lived in a world that said no to that kind of [thing].'' What kind of a world is John Kerry living in? Sounds like a nice place. It is not the real world--not the world we live in, not the world that is right now wreaking havoc on the people of Ukraine.

The fact that John Kerry, the President's spokesman on issues of climate, said this out loud in public just shows that John Kerry and this administration--in terms of their position on energy and energy security and national security, it must put them in the position of being the most naive people on the face of the Earth. John Kerry flying around the world in his private jet, representing the administration, worrying about the carbon emissions of a war, whereas we know as of now that thousands of innocent people already have or will lose their lives.

Then on Monday, just 3 days ago, I believe John Kerry made it worse. At that point, the tanks were in the streets, Russia was on the attack, people were dying, and millions of people have left the country of Ukraine, seeking asylum, seeking help, seeking relief, going across the border, seeking humanitarian care, and John Kerry, in a heartless statement, said the 2 million Ukrainian refugees were nothing--John Kerry--nothing in comparison to the refugees who will flee a warmer climate someday. Someday. Two million refugees--nothing compared to what may happen someday with climate change.

This is the world's largest refugee crisis in the last 70 years, since World War II. There are 2 million Ukrainians now displaced, trying to get out of the country of Ukraine, some losing their lives-- they think they are going on safe corridors--being killed by Putin as he bombs them as they think they have safe passage.

John Kerry doesn't seem to be impressed, which, to me, means Joe Biden is not impressed; the administration is not impressed because Joe Biden has allowed John Kerry to continue to this very day, to this very moment, to speak for this administration as the climate envoy.

John Kerry should be fired. If he is not, he continues to speak for the President of the United States because John Kerry--which means this administration is more concerned about a hypothetical event in the future than what is happening on the face of the Earth right now.

This is an obsession. This is delusional. And the obsession explains a lot. It explains why this White House

always puts environmental fantasies ahead of American security and American energy. That is what we are seeing. This administration puts climate ahead of jobs. It puts climate ahead of bringing prices down. It puts climate ahead of working families. The administration puts climate ahead of our allies. We have sky-high gas prices, the highest of all time. You know, we see inflation is the highest in 40 years. We got the new bad inflation numbers again today, which are hurting our families. We can't keep up. Wages can't keep up. A 40-year high inflation but the worst of all time highest gas prices ever. We have the worst prices in Europe in decades and decades and decades. And the Biden administration won't even consider--won't even consider-- producing more American energy.

Earlier today--today--Reuters reported the White House has decided not to boost exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe. They are pleading for it. They want it. We have it. We have it in abundance. Now, the administration won't let us build the pipelines to move it, won't let us explore for it, but we have plenty of it here in the United States. They are desperate, and they are trying to break the ties they have to Russia.

The report from Reuters today says: ``The White House was weighing the announcement of . . . ways to boost LNG exports to Europe . . . However''--however; wait a minute, not going to happen--``the interagency review has been shelved . . . after some in the White House argued''--some in the White House argued; not a supply and demand issue--and I see the junior Senator from Maine here, who talks about a supply and demand issue with regard to LNG. Oh, no. Those in the White House argued that ``it would counter the administration's efforts.'' Letting our friends and colleagues in Europe who need our LNG, of which we have an abundance--oh, no. ``[I]t would counter the administration's efforts to wean the U.S. off fossil fuels.''

Once again, this White House, with John Kerry the spokesman and it looks like Joe Biden the lapdog--whatever John Kerry says, we are going to do--has put climate before our national security and before our energy security.

It is time for the administration to get its priorities straight, and it is time to remove John Kerry from this position. It is time for Joe Biden to wake up and to speak up. The climate elitists have done tremendous damage to our Nation and are continuing to do damage to our allies. For ourselves and for our allies, it is time to produce more American energy.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I did listen with great interest to every word of my colleague from Maine. We spend time together on the Energy Committee. He has lots of very good ideas, and we discuss things constructively.

When we talk about supply and demand, I just find it very interesting that for something like natural gas, of which we have an abundance in Wyoming--and when I was in the Wyoming State Senate, natural gas prices were over $16. With the renaissance of American natural gas energy and the production of something called fracking, prices dropped dramatically to the kind of numbers that the Senator from Maine mentioned earlier--to about $3. It went down, way down.

That doesn't help the people in Massachusetts, where the price is $18, because they can't get permission to have pipelines to deliver the affordable gas that we produce here. I mean, it is fascinating to take a look at Pennsylvania, which is half the price than in Massachusetts; and they are not too far apart. I just went out here, as the Senator was speaking, just to take a look and see what the differentials were in the prices. The price of natural gas is twice as high in Massachusetts as in Pennsylvania when they are less than 200 miles or 300 miles apart.

It has nothing to do with the availability of gas in the ground; it has to do with the delivery to the end user. That is the result of political decisions being made on the ground, in States, to prevent the infrastructure to deliver the material, to deliver the natural gas, that those people need.

It was even an issue on the ballot in my colleague's home State of Maine to move energy from Canada down to Massachusetts, and it was blocked by the voters in Maine, which is their right to do. They have a right to make those decisions as to what they want to vote for or against. And that was on the transmission of even renewable energy. Politics and decisions by either the administration or a State or voters make those decisions. So there is an abundance of natural gas, and there is a limitation on how you can get it to people because of political decisions.

I heard my colleague mention the number of leases that are out there. There are about 9,000 leases the administration continues to talk about, saying there are 9,000 leases of which nobody is exploring or that drilling hasn't been done.

Well, that is just the first step of getting a lease. It is like leasing an apartment: You pay the rent, but you need a key to get into the building. I mean, you pay the rent, and it is your apartment, but you can't actually get in until they give you the key. That is the same thing that happens here. You need to apply for permission to drill, and we know that the administration has said: We are not going to give any of those. There is no permission. Sorry. I know you paid for the lease, but we are not giving anybody a key. And they did that to about 4,600 recent leases.

Normally, some of those decisions are made at a local level but not in the Biden administration. Oh, no. Some assistant secretary said: Every one of them has to come to me.

I can get the documentation for the Presiding Officer or for my colleague and friend, the Senator from Maine.

This is a very heavyhanded administration when it comes to exploring for American energy, and they continue that way.

The President, when he was in Glasgow for the climate conference, I think surprised many of us when he asked OPEC+--``plus'' being Russia-- to produce and sell more energy to the United States. Over the last year, we have averaged about 670,000 barrels a day of oil coming in from Russia, which is more than we get from Alaska. The Keystone Pipeline, which the President killed on his first day in office, would have brought in over 800,000 barrels a day.

It is not that the President has been shy about the fact that he has done all of these things; he has taken great credit. I mean, look at the Presidential debates when President Biden--then Candidate Biden-- said, if he got elected, there would be no oil and gas exploration on public lands--no leasing, no use. That is why they have shut down all of these applications for the permits to drill. That is why the administration has said: You are not taking it out of the ground.

This is a Presidential promise.

As of today, we continue to produce a lot less oil in the United States than we did at the height of our economic boom prior to the pandemic. We have about 1,400,000 barrels a day less in U.S. production today than we had during the height of the economy before the pandemic. So we have a lot of catching up to do.

When the administration says you can't bring it in from Canada because you are not going to have Keystone and then pounds its chest in pride, that is a political statement. When the nominee for the Secretary of the Interior says to leave it all in the ground--all of it--that is a political statement. When a local community says, ``No pipelines in here. We don't care if the people in our communities have to pay twice what they are paying in our neighboring State,'' that is a political statement. It is all based on climate because we have John Kerry and his words to prove it, as well as those of the President of the United States.

So I continue to enjoy having discussions with my colleague from Maine, and we will continue that on the Energy Committee, where he is a very productive member. There are areas we work together on and areas in which we disagree. People are entitled to their opinions.

These are the facts as to what is happening with American energy today and as of the needs of the Nation. As we have recovered and continue to recover from the pandemic, we are still very far behind in American energy needs, and it is the political activities of this administration that have limited our ability to return to our full, productive capacity.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor first to associate myself with the remarks of the distinguished senior Senator from Texas, and I agree completely with his comments regarding what is happening right now in Ukraine on the ground and what is happening with energy in America and our need to become energy independent again. To go from this current position of what had previously been energy dominance to now energy dependence--we need to return to the days of energy dominance for the United States because it is not just about our national security, it is about security for our friends and allies around the world so they don't have to be dependent on the likes of the killer and the thug Vladimir Putin.

So I come to the floor today to talk about what is going on in Ukraine and the war in Ukraine and the global implications thereof.

Right now, the world is watching in horror as Vladimir Putin continues

with his onslaught. Russia has now shelled two nuclear facilities. Russia continues to attack civilian targets. Russia has allegedly used cluster bombs near schools and hospitals. We know that dozens of children have been killed. Russian troops have even attacked an orphanage and a kindergarten. It is heartbreaking, and it is also barbarism straight out of Hell.

The world is right to be outraged by these vicious attacks, and we know how these attacks have been paid for. We know how Vladimir Putin has funded his aggression. These atrocities were all paid for through Russian energy. Energy is the reason that Vladimir Putin can afford to invade Ukraine. It is the cash cow that drives his military--oil and gas from Russia. Half of Russia's economy is based on energy, and nearly half of Europe's imports of energy come from Russia. So, as I said, energy is the cash cow that has funded the war.

Russia is the No. 2 producer of crude oil in the world, and Putin is the No. 1 rival to the United States in terms of energy production. Well, under Joe Biden as President, there has been a lot less competition for Vladimir Putin. It is not for lack of American energy resources, and it certainly is not for lack of American energy workers. No, it is because of the reckless policies of President Joe Biden and this administration.

On Friday last week, I was in Cheyenne, WY, at the State capital, where I spent 5 years as a State senator prior to coming to the U.S. Senate. Every member of the Wyoming Legislature, Republican and Democrat alike, understands fully that the resources we need to power our country are here in the United States. We have the energy in the ground. Yet this administration is not allowing us to use it. We have the workers ready to go, plenty in Wyoming and around the country. The Biden administration continues to block us from producing more American energy.

Those legislators I talked to on Friday--they know. Every one of them knows that on Joe Biden's first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline. They know because they follow the news, and they know because Joe Biden bragged about it. He said: Look at me, I am going to kill the Keystone XL Pipeline. And he did with an Executive order on day No. 1.

Since then, he has blocked oil and gas leases on public land. Quarter after quarter after quarter--we are now in the fifth quarter in a row where he has blocked all oil and gas leases on public land. No auctions for those leases have been held.

He also stopped exploration in the Arctic. The Russians are exploring for energy in the Arctic, but, no, not Joe Biden. Nope. After you, Mr. Putin. You go get it and sell it. And we know how he is using the money. So Joe Biden decides he wants to handcuff America from doing the same thing--exploring for energy in the Arctic.

At the same time, it has become nearly impossible to build a natural gas pipeline in the United States. You say: No, it can't be possible. Well, the President's lackeys--lackeys--on the Federal Regulatory Commission recently decided to change their approval process for natural gas pipelines. As Putin's army surrounded Ukraine, Joe Biden's lackeys on the FERC changed the way they approved pipelines. They did it as inflation hit record-high numbers, with war looming in Europe. It is astonishing. Joe Manchin called them, as did I, as the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee--called them in front of the committee last week, a hearing last Thursday--and asked them to explain themselves, why this attack on American energy.

You know, our country produced lots of oil before COVID. We are producing some now, but we are still a million barrels a day below where we were during the peak prior to COVID. So when supply and production at home is down, prices go up.

Earlier today, gasoline prices hit the highest price ever--ever--but prices were way up even before Russia invaded Ukraine. The day Joe Biden took office, gas prices were $2.38 per gallon nationwide. Today, the average is $4.17. It cost more than $5 a gallon in leftwing California. They may be happy to pay the price. People in Wyoming are not, where they drive lots of miles to and from work. In Wyoming, the number of miles driven is the highest per capita anywhere in the country.

We know what happens to families when gas prices go up and they have to put more money in the tank that could have otherwise been used for food, for clothing, for school supplies for the kids.

I understand that a gallon of gas in Los Angeles now is at $7.

Last year, a typical working family paid about $1,000 more to fill their tank over the course of the year than they did the year before Joe Biden became President. It is a direct result of the policies of this administration. And this year, it is likely to be a lot higher because this administration's policies, environmental-extremist driven, are making energy at home much more expensive.

So today, after 2 weeks into the war, Joe Biden has announced a ban on Russian oil. It is about time.

On Saturday, a number of us were in a Zoom call with President Zelenskyy, the brave, heroic, courageous President of Ukraine. He said:

If [we] had started sanctions months ago, there would not

have been a war.

Now the question is, What is going to replace the Russian oil? Because up until today, Joe Biden was eager to buy Russian oil--eager. So the question is, What is going to replace the Russian oil? Well, it darn well ought to be American oil. Democrats have basically floated a couple of proposals. Buy it from Iran, they say; buy it from Venezuela, they say; or don't buy any at all.

On Thursday, the Secretary of Transportation said a possibility was ``working out something with Iran.'' Remember those people? They are the ones who every Friday have a demonstration where they chant ``death to America'' and burn the American flag. He wants to work something out with them.

Let me remind the people who are watching that Iran is the No. 1 state sponsor of global terrorism. Iran is on the verge of a nuclear weapon. Now Democrats want to give Iran a windfall of American dollars.

The last time Democrats bribed Iran, the Secretary of State was John Kerry. He admitted right out that some of the money would go to terrorists, and we know that some of it did. Democrats signed the check anyway. Pallets of cash were delivered to Tehran. Now Democrats are talking about doing it all over again.

Oh, and think about John Kerry. What did he say in an interview with the BBC just a week and a half ago, as Russian troops were on the border surrounding Ukraine? He said he hoped that what was happening there ``did not distract''--``did not distract''--from the climate agenda. Oh yeah, we wouldn't want the death of all those people to distract from your agenda, Mr. Kerry, former Senator Kerry, former Secretary of State. But he is not just the former, he is the current climate spokesman for this administration. He is the voice of climate in this administration. So that must mean that Joe Biden doesn't want it to distract from his climate agenda either.

It is time to wake up.

Over the weekend, the Biden administration officials went to Venezuela. According to media reports, they discussed easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil.

Nicolas Maduro is one of the world's biggest cheerleaders for you know who? Vladimir Putin. He supports Russia's war in Ukraine. He apparently called the Kremlin to say that just this past week.

This means that the Biden administration is actually actively considering and pursuing, as they were on Saturday, replacing oil from Russia with oil from a Russian client state in our own hemisphere. It is bad energy policy. It is bad foreign policy. It almost seems to be something out of ``Alice in Wonderland.'' Yet, it still makes more sense than the third idea that Democrats are floating: Let's just let energy prices go higher and higher.

The White House Press Secretary said that we should just stop using oil altogether. She says the solution to high gas prices and war in Europe is just stop using gas. This is delusional. The idea that we can immediately transition away from oil and gas is a fairy tale. It is a dangerous fairy tale at that.

None of these three solutions proposed by the Democrats is in the best

interest of our Nation, our Nation's energy security, or our Nation's national security. Oil from Iran and oil from Venezuela is just as dangerous as oil from Russia. Changing our entire economy overnight is not an option in the real world.

There is only one answer that works, and that is the answer that the American people are pleading for. The solution to Russian oil is more American oil. We must replace Russian oil with American energy. To do that, we need to produce more. We have the resources. We have the workers. We have the expertise. What we need is the leadership out of the White House in Washington, DC, and we are not getting it.

We ought to produce enough American energy to supply our allies and, above all, to bring down prices for people here at home. That is why I have introduced legislation called the ESCAPE Act, to escape what is happening with this control of our energy and the increase in prices. It stands for Energy Security Cooperation With Allied Partners in Europe. This bill expedites the sale of American natural gas to our NATO allies.

I also led a letter with every Republican on the Energy Committee and sent it to President Biden the morning after his State of the Union Address. Our letter details 10 specific plans, 10 specific actions the President can take today to produce more American energy.

We are much better off producing and selling energy to our friends than being forced to buy it from our enemies.

What President Biden and the Democrats don't seem to believe is the undeniable truth that energy security is national security. For ourselves and for our allies, we need more American energy.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the war in Ukraine. One week ago, Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine by land, by sea, and by air. Now we know that thousands of people are dead.

Vladimir Putin prepared for this invasion, and he prepared over the course of at least 3 months. Month after month after month, he moved troops, he moved weapons, and he moved them to the border with Ukraine. Now, many of these troops are attacking the capital city of Kyiv. The Ukrainian people are fighting bravely. Their example is an inspiration to the world. They are outnumbered, they are outgunned, and yet they continue to fight for their freedom.

Make no mistake, Vladimir Putin has caused this war. He alone is responsible. He is responsible for the death and the destruction that the world is witnessing now. Yet, it is undeniable that the Biden administration's so-called deterrence and diplomacy have failed.

Joe Biden ran for President on competence and on his foreign policy expertise. As a candidate for President, Joe Biden said Putin's days of tyranny would be over if he became President--Putin's days of tyranny would be over if Joe Biden were elected President. The opposite has occurred under this administration.

Vladimir Putin has become emboldened like never before. Putin is cunning, he is opportunistic, and he is aggressive. When he sees an opportunity, he takes it. He can smell weakness, and he views Joe Biden as weak and ineffective. Clearly that has become even more so after Joe Biden's disgraceful and deadly surrender from Afghanistan. Enemies of ours around the world have become emboldened.

After Afghanistan fell, Vladimir Putin increased his weapons testing.

Just a few months later, Vladimir Putin put 100,000 troops on the border of Ukraine. How did the President of the United States, Joe Biden, respond? He lobbied this body, the Senate, against imposing sanctions on Vladimir Putin.

In January, this Senate voted on sanctions for Putin's Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. I came to the floor; I argued that the Senate needed to act quickly. Almost every Democrat in this body had previously supported sanctions. Under pressure from the White House, the Democrats reversed course. They buckled to the demands of the President of the United States, who had a different view than this body in a broad, bipartisan consensus had had previously of sanctioning the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline between Russia and Germany. Senate Democrats blocked the sanctions.

Look, energy is the reason that Vladimir Putin is flush with cash. He has hit the jackpot. His energy revenues are up, and more than $1 out of every $3 that Vladimir Putin has in Russia's treasury is energy- related. High energy prices today that Americans are paying at the pump and people around world are paying are the reason why Putin can indefinitely--how he can afford this invasion.

So who is Putin's No. 1 rival for energy production? Well, it is the United States. But under Joe Biden, American crude oil production is down--down more than a million barrels each and every day from what it was prior to the pandemic.

It is not a lack of American energy resources, and it is not a lack of American energy workers. They want to work. The energy is in the ground. This is a direct result of the far-left driven anti-American energy policies of the Joe Biden administration.

On Joe Biden's first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, and he bragged about it. So how much energy would be coming across from the Keystone XL Pipeline? Well over 800,000 barrels a day. But that number today is zero.

How much energy are we bringing in from Russia each and every day into the United States, imported from Russia, sending money to Vladimir Putin? Well, 670,000 barrels a day. If he hadn't killed Keystone, we would be bringing more energy in that way, and we are now buying and sending money to Vladimir Putin. And the President bragged about it, thumped his chest: I killed Keystone.

He also blocked new oil and gas leases on public lands, stopped American exploration for energy in the Arctic. Joe Biden approves of Vladimir Putin producing energy; it seems he is only opposed to American energy production.

Just days before he surrendered in Afghanistan, Joe Biden sent his National Security Advisor to beg Russia to produce more oil to sell to us. It is hard to believe. People watching said that can't be true, and I would say: Go to the White House website. Go right now; see if it is still there. It was there two nights ago--the National Security Advisor saying: We are asking OPEC+--and the ``plus'' is Russia; it is Putin-- to produce more energy to sell to us.

Why should we depend upon people who are our enemies, whose intentions are not kind or caring for us, and who is now--Vladimir Putin is attacking his neighbor in a bloodthirsty way--rather than allow us to produce American energy that we have today in the ground in this Nation?

So it is no wonder that Putin can now afford another assault. Oil hit over $100 a barrel last week--the highest in 7 years, and it is even higher than that today.

Today, American families in every State are paying $1 a gallon or more for each additional gallon of gas that they put in the tank than they were the day Joe Biden became President of the United States, and that is soon going to be even a higher number, a higher amount that people are going to be paying as a result of this President's policies. The situation is getting worse.

President Biden's response to the buildup to the war in Ukraine has been mismanagement and weakness. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Joe Biden issued sanctions on Russia that are far too little too late. The Biden deterrence was after the fact. That didn't seem more like punishment than deterrence. It reminds me when President Obama said he was going to be leading from behind. Deterrence after the fact is the same thing as no deterrence at all. Try to deter someone from doing something.

Even after the invasion has occurred and even after we see the tanks lined up heading into Kyiv, Joe Biden is not yet ready to sanction Russian energy and clearly not ready to produce American energy to make up for what we buy from them.

His Deputy National Security Advisor went to the podium and said our sanctions are not designed to cause any disruption to the current flow of energy from Russia to the world. This administration has caused plenty of disruption in the flow of energy from America, from our homeland. We are not going to disrupt energy from Russia, oh, no. It was actually Germany that stood up and finally stopped Putin from getting the pipeline. Joe Biden won't touch the one industry that is propping up Vladimir Putin. Yet he seemed to be happy--Joe Biden seems to be happy with his continued war on American energy. He has effectively put harsher sanctions on American energy workers than he does on Russian energy thugs.

The war in Ukraine is going to lead to higher energy prices in this country; there is no doubt about it. But we have seen no change in Joe Biden's energy policies in spite of the abundant energy resources we have in this country. The White House Press Secretary was asked recently if Joe Biden was considering allowing more energy production here at home in the United States. We have the resources; we have the workers; the jobs are necessary; and, effectively, she just said no. We heard nothing about it in the State of the Union last night--not a thing.

Over the weekend, actually, the President's Press Secretary went on television and doubled down. She said she refused to rule out importing oil from Iran. Oil and gas leases on Federal lands are still in limbo.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC--and there will be a hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee tomorrow--recently decided, in a 100-percent partisan 3-to-2 vote, to make it even harder to build natural gas pipelines in America. Harder.

The day after Russia invaded Ukraine, this administration, the Biden administration, said uranium was no longer a critical mineral for the United States--no longer a critical mineral. American businesses get half of the uranium we use from Russia and its partners. It is a critical mineral but not according to the Biden administration. Now we are going to become even more dependent on Russia, and Putin will get even wealthier.

It seems like Joe Biden and his advisers want to turn our energy sector into what we have seen over the last number of years in Germany--dependent on other countries, begging enemies to help us keep the lights on.

And just before the Russian invasion, John Kerry, the President's Climate Envoy, said in an interview with BBC--this is the former Secretary of State of the United States--said he was concerned that the war in Ukraine would distract people from his climate agenda. You can't believe it. This is very disturbing to people all around my home State, and I would think all around America. This is a delusional obsession, distracted from the reality of the world and of our Nation.

Innocent people are being slaughtered. Vladimir Putin is conducting nuclear drills. People around the world are terrified. People are looking to the United States for leadership, and we have a high official of this administration concerned it is going to distract from this White House's and this administration's climate agenda.

The American people know what we need to do. We need to continue to support and send lethal weapons to our friends in Ukraine, and clearly we need to produce more American energy. We have it. We have it in the ground. This administration will not let us get it out. More American energy will help us at home. It will help bring down prices at home. More American energy will help us defund Putin's military aggression. It is our energy dollars that are paying for Putin's killing machine.

More American energy will help our allies from being held hostage by

Vladimir Putin. This is why I have introduced legislation called the ESCAPE Act, Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe. It expedites the sale of natural gas from America to our NATO allies so they don't have to buy it from Vladimir Putin. I brought it to the floor yesterday, and Democrats objected to a unanimous consent to pass it.

I sent a letter to the President today with every Republican on the Senate Energy Committee as well as Senator Lummis--sent a letter to the White House today detailing 10 specific actions that the President of the United States can take right now to produce more American energy and undermine Vladimir Putin and help other NATO allies and help the people of Ukraine. We as a nation are much better off selling American energy to our friends than for us as a nation to have to buy energy from our enemies. More American energy means more American strength and more American security.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I am going to join a number of my Republican colleagues on the floor today to talk about the State of the Union.

Tonight, President Biden will come to Congress to give his annual State of the Union Address. He is going to try to do his very best to paint a rosy picture of the status quo. No matter how hard the President of the United States tries tonight, Joe Biden cannot hide the fact that his policies have put America in crisis. There is a war in Europe. We have the worst inflation in 40 years, the worst violent crime in 25 years, the highest prices at the pump for gasoline in 7 years, and the most illegal crossings into the United States ever. So no matter what Joe Biden says tonight, he is the one who has created these crises. We are less secure at home and abroad than the day Joe Biden took office.

Over the last 10 months, the American people have said loud and clear

that inflation is a top concern, and Joe Biden has only poured fuel on the fire. He told us that the fire would burn itself out quickly. Yet inflation has only burned hotter.

Yesterday, the Associated Press put it this way. The Associated Press said: ``On cusp of Biden speech, a state of disunity, funk, and peril.'' The article goes on to say: ``Today's national psyche is one of fatigue and frustration.'' They go on to say it is ``the malaise of our time.''

In March of 2021, Joe Biden signed the single largest spending bill in American history. He put $2 trillion on America's credit card, flooded the country with cash, government cash. Since then, prices have gone up faster and faster than wages.

Joe Biden repeatedly said inflation would be ``transitory.'' He said it month after month after month as people felt their paychecks being eaten away. In December, Joe Biden said inflation had ``peaked.'' Joe Biden has been dead wrong again and again and again. The American people are reminded of this every time they go to the gas station, every time they go to the grocery store, and every time they pay their heating bill. It is no wonder Joe Biden's approval rating on handling inflation, which is the No. 1 concern of the American people, is just 31 percent. That means Republicans don't approve, Independents don't approve, and a lot of Democrats don't approve of how the President has handled their No. 1 concern.

So tonight I expect President Biden will once again ask Congress to pass another reckless tax-and-spending spree. He will call it Build Back Better or, more accurately, ``Break Your Back'' bill. I am not sure what he is going to call it. It is going to be Build Back Better part 2.

No matter what the President says tonight, the American people are going to continue to say, ``No, thank you,'' to all this additional government spending.

The American people do not trust this President or the Democrats to tackle the issues that they care about. Inflation is eating away their paychecks and has been doing so now month after month after month.

Millions of people are entering this country illegally. Shelves are going empty. No whitewashing by this President can cover up this painful reality for the American people.

So tonight I will listen carefully to what the President has to say. The American people don't want to listen to a fairytale tonight. They are not looking for a bedtime story from the President of the United States. The American people are looking for real answers.

Joe Biden can brag if he wants. The American people know the truth. America is in crisis. The American people understand that. And the American people know that the person to blame for all of this is squarely right there, the man behind the podium, the President of the United States.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, Russia continues to engage in ruthless and unprovoked attacks against the democratic and independent nation of Ukraine. I strongly condemn Russia's dangerous aggression against the people of Ukraine. Putin is responsible for the death and destruction in his wake, and he must be held accountable.

The one sledgehammer that we can use against Putin is American energy resources. Reducing the amount of Russian energy going to Europe would hurt Russia's economy. The oil and gas revenues made up about 36 percent of Russia's national budget last year. In 2021, Russia sold $100 billion worth of oil and natural gas to Europe.

Russia is Europe's main supplier of energy. The European Union received over 40 percent of its gas imports from Russia. Russia also has significant ownership in Europe's energy infrastructure, including pipelines, distribution centers, and storage facilities.

With natural gas prices increasing and oil surpassing $100 a barrel, more of our allies' money will be lining the pockets of Vladimir Putin. Due to high energy costs, Russian oil and gas revenues exceed initial plans by 5 percent this past year, totaling $119 billion. In 2021, revenues from Russian oil and gas were almost $500 million each and every day. It is a windfall for Vladimir Putin. As a result, the amount of Russian energy going to Europe is a major problem.

We must help our allies escape Russia's energy trap. American energy resources can allow Europeans to meet their energy needs and deprive Russia of the revenue it uses to fund its military aggression. Due to technological advances and an abundance of natural gas, the United States can be a strategic energy supplier to Europe. Our Nation has more than enough gas to meet America's needs and to export to other countries. We must speed up the process of getting American liquefied natural gas to our allies.

That is why I introduced S. 819, the Energy Security Cooperation with Allied Partners in Europe Act, commonly known as the ESCAPE Act. It currently has 23 sponsors. The bill, as amended, does three things: It deems it in the public interest to export U.S. liquefied natural gas to NATO countries and defense allies. It creates a transatlantic energy security strategy focused on increasing American energy exports directly to Europe. And it directs our NATO representative to help our allies and partners improve that energy security.

So, Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. 819 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I further ask that the Barrasso amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Madam President, just to point out, Members are clearly entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.

The facts of the matter are that this bill that I have at the desk right now includes no sanctions, none whatsoever--none, zero.

This bill that we have at the desk is something that our European allies have asked for. It is not to divide them or us. They have asked for this to help them divide away from Putin. They need the energy; they need the liquefied natural gas. Some of the countries have built or are building what are called gasifiers so they can turn the liquefied natural gas, which comes in at a very low temperature, and turn it into gas that they can use for energy so they don't have to buy it and be held hostage by Vladimir Putin.

This is a bill that has previously gotten bipartisan support, in this very body, with Members of both sides of the aisle supporting efforts to help our European allies--our NATO friends--break the dependence from Russian energy. Those are the facts of the matter. People are entitled to their opinions. These are the facts.

Russia's actions against Ukraine emphasize just how important it is for nations--and specifically for America--to be energy independent.

Under the previous administration, America was energy dominant. We became the world's largest producer of oil and gas. It was the first time we had been energy independent in nearly 70 years; yet this administration has reversed course. It has made it harder for us to use American energy, and that has empowered and emboldened Vladimir Putin. We have moved from energy dominance to energy dependence. We have American energy in the ground that this administration won't let us get out of the ground. We have energy resources that would help lower the cost and help lower the pain at the pump that the American public is living with. It would help break the dependence of our European allies and the people of Ukraine from Vladimir Putin.

We were much better off as a nation when selling energy to our friends than having to buy it from our enemies. We need to expand our energy production to bring down prices for working families in this country whose paychecks can't keep up with the inflation, and we need to sell it to our allies so they can remove themselves from the clutches of Vladimir Putin.

Freeing Europe from Russian energy dependence is going to strengthen both our allies and our NATO alliances. We must provide American energy resources to those countries as quickly as possible. They are asking for it; they want it; they need it. It strengthens our national security and takes money directly out of Vladimir Putin's pockets.

It is this administration's energy policies that have driven up the cost of energy and driven down the production of American energy, which is what has provided a jackpot for Vladimir Putin to fund his war machine. Energy security is a critical part of our shared defense. There is a national security problem for the United States when our allies are more and more dependent on Russian gas.

The world knows Vladimir Putin uses energy as a weapon. Energy is called the master resource for a reason. It powers our country--our economy, our military. It powers the world. Vladimir Putin uses his energy as a weapon to intimidate, to influence, and to coerce other nations. Energy funds Vladimir Putin's aggression, and it has been the cash cow for his invasion of Ukraine.

Look, we have abundant natural gas supplies. My home State of Wyoming has amazing energy resources. We just need to be allowed to produce it. Europe's reliance on Russian gas undermines our national security. Our national security is increased by reducing the leverage that Russia holds over our allies.

It is time for Congress to provide our NATO allies and defense treaty partners a better energy option than they have had under this administration, and the Senate should start by passing S. 819.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to highlight the 150th anniversary of Yellowstone National Park.

When it was established on this date 150 years ago, Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. Today, it is still one of the most popular parks on Earth. One-hundred-fifty years ago, it was a new idea to set aside public land for public enjoyment. With the establishment of Yellowstone, Congress set the gold standard.

Based on Yellowstone's success over the past century and a half, hundreds of additional national parks have been created for Americans to enjoy. Many

other countries have followed our lead and have established their own national parks.

Yellowstone spans over 2 million acres throughout Wyoming, as well as parts of Montana and Idaho. That is more land than the entire State of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Yellowstone's vast and varied landscapes provide some of the most spectacular views in the world, and this is just one of them. Cascading waterfalls, steaming geysers, and gaping canyons often leave visitors speechless. Many generations of Americans have enjoyed these same views.

That is what Congress intended 150 years ago when it established the park, as they said, for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Millions of people come from all across the world to experience the park's beauty. From hiking and biking, to boating and wildlife viewing, Yellowstone offers some of the best outdoor recreation opportunities all around the world.

It also has iconic natural wonders like Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Lake. It has 25 square miles of geysers--over half of the total number of geysers in the world. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, of which the park is a part, is one of the largest and most intact natural ecosystems in the world.

Yellowstone also has the greatest concentration of mammals among national parks in the lower 48 States. The bison in Yellowstone are part of America's largest and oldest free-range herd.

Today, we carry on a tradition at Yellowstone that goes back not just 150 years but over 11,000 years. For thousands of years, Native Americans have hunted, fished, and used the thermal waters for medicinal purposes.

The people of Wyoming are rightly proud of the culture, as well as its history. Today, the park supports thousands of jobs in Wyoming and Montana and Idaho. It contributes greatly to local economies.

Cam Sholly, the superintendent of Yellowstone, is doing an incredible job. A third-generation Park Service employee, Cam goes above and beyond the call of duty to ensure the park delivers a world-class experience to everyone who visits. Under his leadership, the park has hosted record numbers of visitors. During the height of the COVID pandemic, when the only place to go was outside, Yellowstone set the standard on how parks should operate. Health, safety, security, and public access were always a priority.

I am very grateful for the dedicated leaders and staff at Yellowstone who made it possible for people to visit and enjoy this international landmark.

Recently, the Senate passed my bipartisan resolution to honor Yellowstone on this historic day. This resolution celebrates the park's 150 years of unique cultural heritage and natural beauty. It also encourages people across America and around the world to visit Yellowstone to experience its extraordinary treasures.

I am proud to celebrate Yellowstone with my colleagues in the Senate, along with Senator Lummis, who is my colleague from Wyoming, as we celebrate with the people of Wyoming and with all Americans on this historic day.

Congratulations to all of the people of Wyoming who work to keep Yellowstone one of our Nation's greatest treasures.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about the crime wave that has hit our country and specifically hit Democratic-run cities. Over the last 20 months, Democrats have aided and abetted the most dramatic surge in violent crime in American history.

In the summer of 2020, leftwing mobs burned cities like Minneapolis and Portland, OR. Democratic mayors and Governors genuflected to the mob. They started a movement to defund the police in this country. Bill de Blasio in New York cut funding for the New York City Police Department by $1 billion. The Los Angeles City Council voted to cut funding by over $150 million.

Nearly two dozen other cities followed suit, each of them run by a liberal mayor. What followed was a historic exodus from police departments all across the country. Police retirements skyrocketed; resignations increased dramatically among police officers; and recruitment of new officers became almost impossible.

Thanks to the Democratic politicians who have run these cities, our cities have fewer police. Our police have lower morale, and these communities have higher crime.

In 2020, there was a 30-percent increase in the murder rate nationwide--the fastest increase in American history.

In 2021, the murder rate went up even higher. Sixteen cities broke their alltime records for homicide, and, of course, all 16 were run by liberal Democrats. Of course, these included the cities that defunded the police. Austin, TX, defunded the police, and the murder rate there doubled.

Last year, the national murder rate reached its highest level in 25 years. So far, 2022 looks like it may be even worse. So what are the Democrats doing about it? They have the House, they have the Senate, and they have the White House. They are doing two things: They are making it worse, and they are trying to avoid being blamed for what they are causing.

How are they making it worse? Well, just take a look at some of the nominees of President Joe Biden, people he has put in high positions in the Justice Department--radical liberals. Every Member of the Democrat body in this institution voted to confirm them. These are people who hold beliefs way out of the mainstream of the American people when it comes to their service for the Department of Justice. Joe Biden has essentially handed over Justice Department leadership to radical activists who want to defund the police. They are the people running the Justice Department. Every single Democrat voted to confirm them.

The people of America were shocked to learn that last March, Democrats, on a straight party-line vote--every Republican against; every Democrat for--gave almost $1 billion in stimulus checks to 645,000 convicted criminals. These are people either still behind bars or recently released.

Senator Tom Cotton, the junior Senator from Arkansas, and I introduced an amendment to block them from getting stimulus checks. Every Democrat in the Senate voted to block our amendment. In effect, they voted to subsidize criminals, convicted criminals. With Democrats in charge in America, criminals have hit the jackpot.

The second thing the Democrats are trying to do is to try to avoid getting blamed for this incredible spike in violent crime.

Joe Biden recently went to the majority leader's hometown, New York City.

Right now, there is a crimewave in New York City, and it is on the rise. Crime is up 40 percent in New York City so far this year; car thefts are almost double.

Joe Biden went to New York to meet with the mayor, Eric Adams. Now, of course, Mayor Adams is a former police officer and an opponent of the Democrat mantra of defunding the police. So Joe Biden was obviously very interested in engaging and in getting his picture taken with the mayor of New York so that he could pretend to be tough on crime. Voters aren't buying it. The American people know that Joe Biden has supported leftwing radicals who support defunding the police.

There was a recent poll in New York. New Yorkers were asked if crime is a ``very serious problem.'' Three out of four New Yorkers say it is. This is the most in the 20-year history of taking a poll and asking that question.

So crime is the worst now, in the minds of the people who live there in New York City, over the last 20 years.

Two-thirds of all voters say they disapprove of Joe Biden on the issue of crime. I mean, Biden's numbers are in the tank anyway. Only 40 percent of Americans support what he is doing. People think the country is heading in the wrong direction under Democrat leadership in the House and the Senate and the White House. But specifically in the area of crime, as well as in the areas of inflation and the border and others, Joe Biden's numbers drop even further. Two-thirds of all Americans disapprove of Joe Biden on the issue of crime.

While Joe Biden was in New York, he didn't say a word about the radical new district attorney, Alvin Bragg. District Attorney Bragg is another radical, leftwing prosecutor. What does that mean? Well, it is interesting, and I will get to that in a second. But who would support this district attorney? Oh, one of his top supporters for election was the majority leader of the U.S. Senate.

On District Attorney Bragg's first day in office--first day--he told the whole world he would not prosecute certain crimes. He didn't care if they were on the books or not, he wasn't going to prosecute them. In other words, a district attorney said he singlehandedly was going to legalize certain crimes in New York City. He told every criminal in New York that they could commit crimes, not be prosecuted, go home free. These crimes include trespassing, prostitution, and even resisting arrest.

Imagine being a police officer in New York City, where you know people aren't going to be prosecuted for resisting arrest, knowing resisting arrest was legal, according to the district attorney. It is no wonder so many officers are quitting, so many have retired, and why it is almost impossible to recruit.

We know what is causing today's Democrat crimewave: too few police, too many criminals walking free, and too few consequences for the criminals in Democrat cities and States. All of these are the result of Democrat liberal policies.

These are policies that the American people have continued to reject and reject again today. American people want the law to be enforced. They want prosecutors and judges who follow the

law as written. The American people are sick and tired of Democrats coddling criminals. The American people support the police.

It is long past time for the Democrats to reverse course. It is time to reverse these reckless Democrat policies before this Democrat crimewave gets even worse.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to specifically talk about Americans' need for more American energy.

For the last year, the American people have been suffering from ongoing Joe Biden inflation. They are paying the price, they are feeling the pain, and it all started on day 1 of the Biden administration, when he took out his Executive order pen, and he killed a pipeline bringing energy from Canada to the United States.

And as this war on American energy has continued, we are now at a point where inflation is the worst it has been in 40 years. So it is no surprise that the President's approval rating has dropped to a low of only 40 percent in America.

Well, this incredible rise in prices for energy, as well as all of the other components--whether it is gas, whether it is groceries--but if energy gets more expensive, we know that it costs more to manufacture things, it costs more to grow things, it costs more to transport things from where they are grown or manufactured to market.

So much of this inflation has been brought on as a result of the Joe Biden policies related specifically to American energy.

When you look at the laws that he has promoted, the executive actions that he has taken from day 1, going all the way up to a speech he gave just yesterday, this is a President who is dancing to the tune of the climate elitists and wants to keep American energy in the ground.

Energy prices are up overall about 30 cents on the dollar since Joe Biden took over. They have gone up 8 months in a row. Gasoline prices are up by about a dollar a gallon, if not more so, since Biden took office.

I was at a high school in Greybull, WY, and started talking about energy prices. I asked if they know what the cost of a gallon of gasoline was, and the student body knew to within nine-tenths of a penny how much the cost of gasoline was in their hometown of Greybull,

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the economy.

You know, right now, inflation is at a record high. At the same time, what we are seeing is that Joe Biden's approval rating by the people all across this country is at a record low. And there is a connection.

This morning, the majority leader came to the floor of the Senate and said that Democrats were going to talk about inflation at their policy lunch today--today, February 15, 2022--13 months after Joe Biden took office.

Democrats have been in power for almost 13 months. They control the White House. They control the Senate. They control the House of Representatives. Ten months into this inflation crisis, what they are doing is putting forward gimmicks, not solutions.

They want to get past the upcoming election. They don't want to get to long-term solutions for our Nation.

On Thursday, the world found out that prices in the United States had risen at their fastest pace in 40 years, and of course that was the same day that Joe Biden's approval rating dropped to 40 percent.

The American people are getting squeezed financially. They are feeling the pain, and they are furious with President Biden. Since Joe Biden became President, wages have gone up slower than prices. Prices have gone up faster than wages. People can't keep up. It is hard to even stay even. As a result, the American family today can afford a lot less than it could the day that Joe Biden took office. Over the last year, inflation outpaced wages by over $1,400. That is an over-$100-a- month differential.

So who gets hurt the worst when your wages fall behind the increasing costs of Joe Biden's economy?

Well, it is families who are struggling; it is young couples; it is people living on fixed incomes; it is people trying to go to work every day to put bread on the table. In other words, the people who are hurt the most are the people who can afford it the least. They are feeling the pain and paying the price every time they go to the grocery store and every time they go to the gas pump.

Big price increases have occurred in energy. CNBC reports that one in five American families couldn't afford to pay the energy bill over the past year. The same number, roughly, kept their homes at an uncomfortable and unhealthy temperature because they can't afford the cost of energy to heat them. Many have had to choose whether they are going to heat or to eat. Gas prices have gone up by over $1 a gallon since Joe Biden became President.

American energy production is still not to the level that it was before the pandemic. We are still producing 1.2 million fewer barrels of oil each day than we were before the pandemic. We are not producing it here, but--oh, by the way--Vladimir Putin is selling 5 million barrels a day of crude oil in the international markets. This is a direct result of the anti-American energy policies of Joe Biden and his entire administration and the Democratic Party in this country. People understand simple supply and demand. When the supply goes down and the demand stays the same or goes up, prices go up as well.

It is also what happened with America's workforce. The Democrats created the worst labor shortage in American history. We have broken records for unfilled jobs in 5 of the last 12 months.

So when did it start?

Well, it started in March of this past year, when Democrats passed their $2 trillion spending bill, which was not paid for and added to the debt, and the bill gave a bonus payment for people to stay home from work. People were getting paid more not to go to work than they were able to make had they gone to work.

What happened when the bonuses ran out?

Joe Biden imposed a national vaccine mandate, saying that if you don't get the vaccine, you lose your job. The vaccine mandate took a sledgehammer to the American workforce. According to one survey, half of America's small businesses couldn't find enough workers in just this past December. If you drive around Wyoming, you will see ``Help Wanted'' signs all around my home State. What happens when you have fewer workers? It means empty shelves and higher prices. When supply goes down, prices go up.

Now the opposite is also true. That is what we have seen with the value of the dollar. Last March, Democrats flooded the country with government cash. Now the dollar, in many people's wallets and pocketbooks, doesn't go as far as it did before.

Democrats passed the largest single spending bill in American history. They put $2 trillion on the Nation's credit card. Republicans warned: Do not do this. It will cause inflation. Democrats didn't listen. Every single Democrat in this Senate voted for it; every single Democrat voted for it; every single Republican voted against it; and Joe Biden signed it.

Since then, prices have gone up faster than wages. First, they said it was going to be temporary. Then, astonishingly, in July, Joe Biden said inflation was expected. He kind of bragged that he had seen it coming all along. Well, if he had seen it coming all along, why didn't he do something about it? All that this President has done is put jet fuel on the fire of inflation. He told us inflation would be transitory, and he said it month after month, after month, after month. He can't say it anymore. Oh, no. Inflation is here, and people are paying the price and feeling the pain.

Last week's inflation report should be a blaring siren to the Democrats in Washington, and I was so happy to hear the majority leader, this morning, saying, finally, today, at lunch, February 15, 2022, that the Democrats were going to start talking about inflation at their policy lunch today. They should all be suffering from significant indigestion.

This is a crisis, and Democrats are doing nothing about it. The Democrats borrowed trillions of dollars this year.

This week, Democrats in the House are talking about getting rid of the debt ceiling completely--of spending more. They are talking about a blank check, unlimited borrowing, and trillions and trillions more in spending, which will only mean higher and higher inflation.

Inflation will not go away on its own. Democrats need to stop the reckless spending. They need to stop the nationwide mandates. They need to stop shutting down American energy. The American people cannot afford any more records like the ones that Joe Biden is setting right now.

I yield the floor.