Floor Statements

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Madam President, we all just had the opportunity to hear from our colleague--somebody who I am really going to miss--with his final remarks here on the Senate--well, I don't think his final remarks but certainly his, I guess you call it, going-away speech.

But I just appreciate so much having had the opportunity to work with Senator Portman.

I know that, as he pointed out, staff not only here in the Chamber, around the Capitol, his personal staff--all people who have made profound contributions to that incredible record of accomplishments that he just talked about. That doesn't happen. Anybody who works here for very long realizes the incredible contributions that staff make to getting things done around here. And so I express my appreciation, as he did, to all of them for all you did to make Senator Portman's time here so productive.

And it is great to see his wife Jane, daughter Sally here as well, who are all part of this partnership and this team that all of us know are so critical to being able to make a difference here in the Senate and the many sometimes sacrifices, contributions that they make on a day-in and day-out basis.

But Rob is someone I have gotten to break bread with a lot of times during our years together here in the Senate, and we have become really good friends, and I am going to miss having him here, as I said.

Rob has spent a lot of years in public service serving this country-- 12 years in the House of Representatives, where I first got acquainted with him; U.S.

Trade Representative; Director of Office of Management and Budget; and, finally, 12 years here in the U.S. Senate.

I have served with him on the Senate Finance Committee for nearly 10 years, and his going, I will tell you, is a huge loss. He played an indispensable role in the historic tax reform legislation we passed in 2017, particularly with the transition to a modernized international tax system. Our outdated international tax rules had left America's global businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. And one of our priorities, when it came time to pass tax reform, was ensuring that American businesses could compete on a level playing field with their foreign counterparts.

Between his time in Congress and as Director of OMB and the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, Rob has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to American economic competitiveness and in the international tax system, and he quickly became the lead on that aspect of tax reform-- and not just on that, but on so many aspects on that very complicated piece of legislation.

Our final legislation brought the United States international tax system into the 21st century by replacing our outdated worldwide system with a modernized territorial tax system so that American businesses are not operating at a disadvantage next to their foreign competitors, and we saw an almost immediate positive effect for American businesses, which, of course, means that we saw positive results for American workers. And that is really, in large part, thanks to Rob.

It is an important legacy, and it joins Rob's long list of achievements in public service, some of which, he mentioned, from restraining unfunded mandates on States and securing resources for addiction prevention and treatment, to advancing a pro-world trade agenda good for American workers and businesses alike.

He has also been a strong voice for American leadership and values on the global stage, especially, as he mentioned, as a cofounder of the Senate Ukraine Caucus.

It is sad to see Rob leaving the Senate, but he spent a lifetime helping to build up our country, and I know his contributions won't end here.

I am also happy that he will have more time to spend with his family and with his wife Jane. Jane is terrific. Like me, Rob married up, and I know Rob is looking forward to having more time to spend together.

I also know Rob is planning to get more involved in the family business, the Golden Lamb Inn and Restaurant in Lebanon, OH, which has played host to at least a dozen U.S. Presidents over the years.

And, as I said, while Rob's time in the Senate may be coming to a close, I know that he fully intends to continue doing what he has been doing throughout his career, and that is working to make our country a better and more prosperous place.

Rob, congratulations on your years here in the Senate. I hope you get some very well-deserved rest in the coming months, and I, like everyone else here, look forward to seeing your next chapter.

Mr. President, when it comes to the actions of a party or a Presidential administration, legislation sometimes grabs the lion's share of the attention. But it is equally important to pay attention to what a Presidential administration does with its regulatory power, and the Biden administration has been characterized by a lot of deeply troubling regulations.

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act may be Democrats' most prominent Green New Deal effort, but the Biden administration's radical environmental agenda doesn't stop there. The President has also been using regulations to push through Democrats' Green New Deal fantasies, and these ill-considered, overreaching regulations could have serious consequences.

Later today, I will be sending a letter to the President about the attempts to use financial and securities regulators, like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve, to push through environmental, social, and governance--or what are referred to as ESG--regulations that seek to choke off investment to essential industries like oil and natural gas and American farms and ranches. Notable among these is the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed climate disclosure rule, which would require publicly traded companies to disclose information not only about their own emissions but also about the greenhouse gas emissions of their suppliers and even their customers. It would also require companies to determine the effects of climate-related risks on each line item of their consolidated financial statements.

Well, to start off with, this rule is obviously unworkable. Companies have zero control over the emissions of their suppliers and customers and little to no ability to accurately gauge those emissions. But the most serious aspect of this proposed rule is the fact that it represents a clear effort to coerce companies to sever ties with certain industries--notably, of course, the conventional energy industry, but also with other industries like agriculture.

It is hardly the only regulatory action of its kind proposed by the Biden administration. The Department of Labor just finalized a rule that would in practice require pension fiduciaries to consider climate change and ESG factors when making investment decisions, irrespective of their pecuniary relevance.

The Federal Reserve, which I believe has zero business inserting itself into debates over climate policy, recently established a pilot program to analyze climate-related financial risks for the Nation's largest banks, something that clearly--clearly--exceeds the Fed's statutory authority.

Similarly, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Fed have issued draft principles for large banks on ``climate-related financial risk management.''

And the list goes on.

Private companies, of course, have the right to consider whatever factors

they want when determining what companies they do business with and where they will invest, but the Federal Government should not be making those decisions for them.

The President and his cronies and the far-left environmental movement may like the idea of choking off investment to the fossil fuel industry and other industries to hasten the arrival of their fantasy Green New Deal future, but reducing and limiting investment in conventional energy and other essential industries is likely to create a nightmare for American families and American businesses.

I am, and have long been, a strong supporter of alternative energy, but the fact of the matter is, we are still a long way from being able to rely exclusively on alternative energy. The technology that would enable us to rely solely on green energy simply doesn't exist yet, and pretending that we can rely exclusively on alternative energy isn't going to change the reality, which is that we still need oil and natural gas and will continue to need them for the foreseeable future.

Choking off investment to the conventional energy industry isn't going to bring about the Green New Deal future, but it is going to reduce essential energy supplies, and that, in turn, is going to increase energy prices. It is going to increase energy prices for American families, and it is going to increase energy prices for American businesses.

If Democrats succeed in reducing investment in oil and natural gas, we could be looking at a very serious reduction in our supply of conventional energy and correspondingly serious price hikes.

There is reason to be concerned that Democrats aren't just interested in choking off investment in oil and natural gas but in agriculture, as well, because of natural livestock emissions and farming inputs like fertilizer. The National Credit Union Administration published a since- rescinded strategic plan that seemed to recommend that credit unions reduce their membership and loan offerings to farming communities. And South Dakota banks and credit unions have repeatedly--repeatedly-- expressed their concerns to my office that the President's far-reaching ESG agenda could ultimately damage their ability to extend capital to their farm and ranch customers.

Should investment in agriculture also drop off, we could be looking not only at higher energy prices but at higher food prices as well and possibly actual food supply issues. Between higher energy prices and higher food prices, the kind of financial hardship that Americans have been experiencing during our current inflation crisis could become a fixture for the long term.

Democrats like to think of themselves as the party of the little guy, but the truth is, they have become the party of extreme special interests, and the little guy often ends up getting sacrificed as a result. Since President Biden and Democrats took office 2 years ago, ordinary Americans have faced almost nonstop financial challenges thanks to the inflation crisis that Democrats helped to create with their massive American Rescue Plan spending bill. If the President's ESG agenda continues unchecked, that diminished prosperity could last indefinitely.

In the letter that I am sending to the President later today, I am urging his administration to consider the real-world effects of rules and regulations on ordinary families and American businesses, and to refrain from regulatory actions that would drive up prices even further. I hope that the President will listen, but if past is prologue, then I am worried that we are looking at 2 more years of extreme Democratic policies and 2 more years of economic suffering for the American people.

I yield the floor.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson) would have voted ``nay.''

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator

from Texas (Mr. Cruz) and the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz).

Mr. President, we will be losing several members to retirement at the end of this year, including my friend Roy Blunt.

Roy and I have served together for the majority of my time in the Senate, and I also served with him for several years in the House of Representatives.

We started in the House at the same time, and we became friends right away. Our wives have become friends as well through the years, and it has been a joy over the years to host Roy and Abby in South Dakota, along with their son Charlie, and to visit them in Missouri. On a personal level, I am going to miss Roy a lot, and the Senate

as an institution is going to miss Roy as well.

Roy is someone who aspires to be involved in doing the hard things. And throughout his congressional career, he has put himself forward for positions where he can make a difference.

He became chief deputy whip just 2 years after becoming a member of the House, and he was elected majority whip just 4 years later, winning the position earlier in his career than any member in Congress in eight decades.

It has been a similar story in the Senate where Roy was elected vice chairman of the Republican Conference in his first year. In 2019, he became chairman of the Republican policy committee which plays an important role in providing members and staff with the resources they need on the issues. And he has done that while serving as the top Republican on the Senate Rules Committee.

Roy has always been committed to doing the big things, but he is also very solutions-oriented and very clear-eyed and practical about what is achievable in a place where it is hard to get things done.

He has a saying: Never announce publicly what you won't vote for. What he means by that is that you shouldn't back yourself into a position where you can't support a good compromise. While it is not always possible to get everything you want, you shouldn't let that stop you from doing as much good as you can.

Roy has done a lot of good during his time in Congress, and one of his lasting legacies will be the bipartisan achievements in the healthcare space, including his efforts to help create and expand the certified community behavioral health clinics program to improve access to mental health care and championing medical research. The facility housing the NIH's Center for Alzheimer's and Related Dementias is actually named after Roy in honor of his longtime work to support dementia research. And, of course, no mention of Roy's legacy would be complete without mentioning his stalwart advocacy for the people of Missouri.

I am going to miss Roy, and the Senate will miss Roy, but I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve together, and I am happy he will have more time to spend with Abby and his children and grandchildren.

Roy has made a lasting impact here in the Senate, and I look forward to seeing his next chapter.

Would the Senator from Delaware yield for just a minute?

I just want to thank you for what you have said about Senator Inhofe and about our Bible study.

I would say to all of our colleagues that of all the time we spend here each and every week, that particular hour is arguably the most impactful, and I always encourage other of our colleagues to join us. We have been meeting, as Senator Tom Carper mentioned, in Senator Inhofe's office now for many, many years and have been very blessed by his leadership not only here in the Senate but his witness with regard to his faith.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).

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