Floor Statements

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), and the Senator from Nebraska (Mr. Sasse).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) would have voted ``yea.''

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Mr. President, June is Great Outdoors Month. It is a theme

that definitely speaks to me. I am an outdoors guy through and through. I love pheasant hunting, boating, swimming, running. I will shoot hoops whenever I get the chance, indoors or outdoors, but this is nothing better than doing it outdoors.

When I was a kid, my dad attached a basket to a pole in our backyard, and there was nothing my siblings and I liked better than spending long summer days and sometimes fall days and spring days shooting hoops in our backyard in Murdo.

The outdoors was a huge part of my life as a kid. We spent the long summer days outside, barring the hour every day my mother made us come inside to read. On summer evenings, my dad would take us to get ice cream cones, and then we would drive down to the White River to watch the sunset.

Another outdoor pastime we embraced was hunting. My dad taught my siblings and me to hunt, and I loved going out with him. Pheasant hunting remains one of my favorite outdoor activities, and I get excited every year as the third Saturday in October--the official start to pheasant season--rolls around.

It is a tradition that I am happy to be able to share with the next generation, as my dad shared it with me. There is nothing better than a day spent outdoors with friends and family, followed by a communal meal, sometimes involving pheasant.

Being in the outdoors isn't just enjoyable; I think it is a part of the good life. The health benefits of time spent outdoors are well- established, and I know a day--or even an hour--out in the fresh air always clears my mind and refreshes my spirit.

With more and more of our life spent in front of screens, I think time spent outdoors and disconnected is even more important than ever. I am grateful for all those hours we spent as kids running around outside and for family activities outdoors, like our summer trip to the Black Hills. We used to go out there for Labor Day, stay in this little non-air-conditioned cabin and just enjoy the outdoors.

We would hike, and we would visit caves. We would go to Mount Rushmore, head to the lake--I loved and still love visiting Sylvan Lake in South Dakota.

I loved being there with my parents and siblings, and I loved taking my daughters there on trips like the ones I took growing up. Nobody who visits South Dakota should miss the Black Hills.

I am not sure there is a more beautiful place on Earth--the interplay of light and shadow on the trees and rocks late on a summer afternoon, the endless South Dakota sky reflected in the blue of Sylvan Lake and other lakes in the Black Hills, the Milky Way carpeting the night sky with millions of diamonds. There is no better place to spend time in the great outdoors than South Dakota.

Our State is filled with natural wonders, the Missouri River, Jewel Cave and Wind Cave, two of the longest caves in the world. Together, they offer hundreds of miles of underground passageways to explore, filled with glimmering crystals and remarkable rock formations.

We have the magnificent Black Hills National Forest in Custer State Park, rolling prairies, and, of course, the Badlands. If you haven't experienced the rugged beauty of the Badlands, you are missing out-- extraordinary layered rock formations that look like they might have come from another planet, a wealth of fossils.

Everybody should see the sunset over the Badlands at least once in their life, turning the tops of the rocks to a sea of fiery orange.

And, of course, no mention of South Dakota's great outdoors would be complete without a mention of Mount Rushmore, one of our national treasures. Nature got a little help from man here, and the result is magnificent. You can't help but be awed when you see Mount Rushmore soaring up in front of you. And you can't help but feel a little prouder to be a citizen of this great land.

Our Nation's great outdoor spaces need to be cared for so that we can preserve them for future generations--from wildlife enthusiasts to hikers and runners to farmers and ranchers. I am a longtime supporter of the Conservation Reserve Program.

Agricultural producers are familiar with the Conservation Reserve Program, or what we call CRP, which provides incentives for farmers, ranchers, and landowners to take environmentally sensitive land out of production for 10 to 15 years.

The Conservation Reserve Program helps the environment by improving soil health and water quality and providing habitat for wildlife, including endangered and threatened species. I pushed for an increase in the CRP acreage cap in the 2018 farm bill, and the final bill raised that acreage cap to 27 million acres.

Currently, I am working on further improvements of CRP that I will work to get included in the 2023 farm bill. Based on my conversations with farmers and ranchers, I developed the Conservation Reserve Program Improvement Act, which I introduced in March. This legislation would make CRP grazing a more attractive option by providing cost-share payments for all CRP practices for the establishment of grazing infrastructure, including fencing and water distribution.

It would also increase the annual payment limit for CRP--which has not changed since 1985--to help account for inflation and the increase in land value.

This would enhance the appeal of CRP for farmers and ranchers, improving their bottom line while helping to protect the environment and increase wildlife habitat.

Another priority of mine is improving forest management in the Black Hills National Forest to reduce the risk of wildfires and damaging insect infestations.

I have introduced two pieces of legislation during this Congress to help improve management of our national forests, including the Black Hills. Currently on-the-ground management activities, including timber thinning, are significantly lagging in the Black Hills National Forest and other forests throughout the country.

My Expediting Forest Restoration and Recovery Act would require the U.S. Forest Service to expedite treatment of more than 70 million acres of National Forest System lands to reduce the threat of insect and disease infestations and catastrophic wildfires.

My Black Hills Forest Protection and Jobs Preservation Act is also designed to help expedite forest management projects in the Black Hills and elsewhere. The bill, which I introduced with my Wyoming colleague, Senator John Barrasso, would require the U.S. Forest Service to quickly issue National Environmental Policy Act decisions that are necessary to carry out forest management projects, including thinning of overly dense timber stands in the Black Hills National Forest.

Our bill would also expedite timber production projects in the Black Hills National Forest and neighboring national forests to help maintain the timber sale program that plays a critical role in keeping these forests healthy while also supporting the regional economy.

I am grateful to live in a State that has so much to offer when it comes to the great outdoors. And I will continue to work to protect and preserve our national treasures, and I hope every American will take advantage of Great Outdoors Month to get outside and enjoy our natural world.

I yield the floor.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), and the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) would have voted ``Yea.''

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton) and the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer).

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

Mr. President, I just want to echo what was said by my colleague from Alaska because what we are now hearing from the administration are ideas that they think will help ease the pressure on gas prices in this country, but they are all gimmicky. I mean, it is all rebates--gas card rebates or doing away with the gas tax temporarily until September, like that is going to do anything meaningful long term to address this supply-demand crisis that the Senator from Alaska just alluded to.

I have to say that this administration, from the time they came into office, has demonstrated an open hostility to oil and gas production in this country--energy production, more generally.

The Senator from Alaska was talking about the oil pipeline. We have one in South Dakota--that was going to run through South Dakota--the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was killed the first day in office by the Biden administration and, again, sent signals to those who produce energy in this country that we are not interested in what you have to offer. We want to move in a different direction. And that different direction, of course, is electric vehicles, which I am not against. Everybody might want an electric vehicle. It is a free country. But the fact of the matter is, we will be dependent upon liquid fuels in the foreseeable future. Since that is the case, we ought to produce it right here in Alaska. We have vast resources.

It is an issue, fundamentally, of supply and demand. As the Senator of Alaska pointed out, you look at Alaska, now we are talking about getting oil from Saudi Arabia, from Venezuela, from countries, other places around the world--in some cases run by dictators--instead of producing it right here in the United States of America. That is just tragic. It is just tragic, and the American people are paying the price for it.

Why? Because in places like Alaska where we have abundant resources, they shut it down. They shut down

Federal lands. They started denying permits to drill, and they killed the infrastructure that supports, in many cases, energy production in this country.

A pipeline, for example, is not only the most efficient, but the safest way to transport liquid fuels in this country. We need liquid fuels. We know that. It is a fact, and we have the supply--abundant supply is right here in the United States. All we have to do is simply access that. Instead, we are talking about gimmicks like rebates, gas card rebates or temporary suspension of the fuel tax in this country which, by the way, would rob the Highway Trust Fund of the resources that we need to build out the infrastructure in this country and to maintain it.

There are just so many reasons and on so many levels why these are bad ideas--so bad, in fact, that Speaker Pelosi in the House of Representatives has previously referred to this kind of idea that the administration is now proposing as a gimmick and something that isn't going to provide long-term relief.

It is fundamentally an issue of supply and demand, and all we simply have to do is turn it on. We have to get the energy producers in this country off the sidelines, back into the game, producing oil and gas in America in a way that will meet Americans' daily needs when they fill up their cars and trucks with gasoline at the pump, which right now they are being punished unnecessarily by an economy where we have constantly rising gas prices. The average price is around $5 nationwide, literally a doubling of the gas price since this President took office. There is a direct correlation--direct correlation--connect the dots--to policy decisions this administration has made, which they are now realizing and trying to come up with these gimmicky ideas to try to deal with an issue that fundamentally could be fixed simply by sending the right signals and encouraging and incentivizing the type of energy production in this country that we ought to be encouraging.

And the energy producers in this country are up to it. They will meet the demand if we simply give them the opportunity. That is what needs to change. That is what this administration needs to be focused on, not on shutting down gas and oil and energy production here in the United States.

Pro-Life Movement

Mr. President, the Dobbs case will be decided by the Supreme Court in a matter of days now. I pray that it will be decided in favor of life and that Roe v. Wade, a case that even pro-abortion constitutional scholars criticized, will be overturned.

But however Dobbs is decided, the work of the pro-life movement will continue. That work, of course, includes advocacy--attempts to change laws that ensure that human rights of unborn human beings are protected.

But perhaps most of all, it includes the daily work of providing help to moms in need. Helping moms and their babies are central to the pro- life movement. Pregnancy resource centers and other pro-life organizations provide a variety of resources to help women in challenging circumstances. They provide supplies for moms and their babies. They offer prenatal and parenting classes. They assist moms with housing. They help them connect with State and local resources, and they provide friendship and support and a listening ear to mom going through a difficult time.

They provide agency referrals for mothers who choose to make an adoption plan for their babies. They provide places for moms and their babies to live while they complete their education or get back on their feet.

During the current formula crisis, pregnancy resource centers have helped moms struggling to find what they need to feed their babies by providing them with free formula.

You would think that helping out moms would be pretty uncontroversial. You would think that everyone, including individuals who are pro-abortion, could get behind helping a struggling mom find housing or access to prenatal care. But apparently the pro-abortion movement finds providing material help to moms in need and letting them know they have alternatives to abortion somehow to be pretty threatening.

Pregnancy resource centers have frequently been a target of pro- abortion politicians in the pro-abortion movement, which have sought to undermine their work. But things have gotten very serious in recent weeks. Since a draft of a possible opinion in the Dobbs case was leaked in May, pro-abortion extremists have conducted a campaign of vandalism and violence against pregnancy resource centers and churches. Just a few blocks away from here, one pregnancy resource center was egged and graffitied and had its door covered in red paint. A number of others have faced similar vandalism, and multiple pregnancy resource centers have been the victim of arson.

A group claiming responsibility for a number of the attacks, Jane's Revenge, released a chilling letter last week in which it declared ``open season'' on pregnancy centers and stated:

We promised to take increasingly drastic measures against

oppressive infrastructures. Rest assured that we will, and

those measures may not come in the form of something so

easily cleaned up as fire and graffiti.

Well, perhaps it is not entirely shocking that some members of the extreme abortion movement have responded to the possibility of Roe being overturned with vandalism, arson, and threats of further attacks.

This wave of violence is deeply troubling, and these attacks need to be taken seriously. I hope Attorney General Garland is developing a strategy to confront this wave of vandalism and violence and to prevent future and more serious attacks.

Earlier this month, I joined a number of my Republican colleagues in sending a letter to the Attorney General asking about his plans for dealing with these attacks and preventing future ones. I am disappointed that we have yet to receive a reply to our letter. And the President--not merely his spokesperson but the President himself-- should be out there strongly condemning these attacks and letting everyone know that violent responses to the Dobbs decision will not be tolerated.

After one pregnancy resource center was vandalized, its director said:

We are not going to let intimidation change what we are

doing. It failed. It was pretty unanimous from the volunteers

and staff here that this is not going to change how we will

do business here one bit at all.

I know that attitude is reflected at other pregnancy resource centers, and I know that, despite threats of violence, the work of helping moms and their babies will continue.

The work of the pro-life movement represents the best of our American tradition: providing a voice to the voiceless, standing up for the human rights of those who have been denied them, and providing a helping hand to neighbors in need. I am grateful to all the pro-life Americans standing up for the human rights of unborn human beings and helping moms and their babies get the resources they need, and win or lose at the Supreme Court, I know that work will continue.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Alabama (Mr. Shelby), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Mr. President, June 2022 marks the 85th annual Dairy Month, and today I wish to recognize the hard work of South Dakota's dairy industry.

Our dairy producers and processors work tirelessly to provide high- quality, safe, and nutritious products for people around the world. The 2020-2025 U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans highlights that dairy consumption is a critical part of a healthy, balanced diet and is the leading source of calcium and vitamin D, critical components of bone strength and heart health.

In 2021, the U.S. dairy industry contributed approximately $753 billion to the U.S. economy, and it supports 3.3 million jobs. South Dakota's dairy industry is experiencing exciting growth, as seen by the doubling of milk production between 2000 and 2020. In 2019, South Dakota produced more than $563 million in milk and dairy products. South Dakota is home to more than 170 dairy farms and nearly a dozen processing facilities that support more than 6,000 jobs in our State. Each dairy cow brings an estimated $26,000 of economic impact to communities every year.

Our Nation's producers are also leading the way in sustainability and efficiency. Between 2007 and 2017, they decreased their carbon footprint by 19 percent. The industry has also successfully lowered the water input in a gallon of milk by 30 percent. These increased efficiencies are a window into the incredible innovation of the agriculture industry as producers continue working to feed to the world.

I commend the hard work and dedication of our State's dairy farmers and processors and all that they do to continue to supply the world with nutritious dairy products. I wish the dairy industry continued prosperity in the years to come.

Mr. President, today I recognize John Abdallah, an intern in my Washington, DC, office, for all of the hard work he has done for me, my staff, and the State of South Dakota over the past several weeks.

John is a graduate of O'Gorman High School in Sioux Falls, SD. Currently, he is attending the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, SD, where he is pursuing a degree in business administration. He is a hard worker who has been dedicated to getting the most out of his internship experience.

I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to John for all of the fine work he has done and wish him continued success in the years to come.

Mr. President, today I recognize Andrew Law, an intern in my Washington, DC, office, for all of the hard work he has done for me, my staff, and the State of South Dakota over the past several weeks.

Andrew is a graduate of Wall High School in Wall, SD. Currently, he is attending South Dakota State University in Brookings, SD, where he is pursuing degrees in business economics and agriculture business. He is a hard worker who has been dedicated to getting the most out of his internship experience.

I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to Andrew for all of the fine work he has done and wish him continued success in the years to come.

Mr. President, today I recognize Jonathon Sundet, an intern in my Washington, DC, office, for all of the hard work he has done for me, my staff, and the State of South Dakota over the past several weeks.

Jonathon is a graduate of Brookings High School in Brookings, SD. Currently, he is attending South Dakota State University in Brookings, where he is pursuing a degree in political science. He is a hard worker who has been dedicated to getting the most out of his internship experience.

I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to Jonathon for all of the fine work he has done and wish him continued success in the years to come.

Mr. President, today I recognize Luke Wickersham, an intern in my Rapid City, SD, office, for all of the hard work he has done for me, my staff, and the State of South Dakota over the past several weeks.

Luke is a graduate of Brandon High School in Brandon, SD. Currently, he is

attending the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, SD, where he is pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. He is a hard worker who has been dedicated to getting the most out of his internship experience.

I extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to Luke for all of the fine work he has done and wish him continued success in the years to come.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer ) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).