Floor Statements

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Hoeven), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15-minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.

Mr. President, the average American household spent an estimated $3,500 more in expenses last year as a result of inflation-- $3,500. Now, that may not sound like much to a wealthy Democrat politician, but for most American families, that is a lot of money. For a lot of families, $3,500 is the difference between putting something in savings or living paycheck to paycheck. An additional $3,500 in expenses can mean having to forgo essential home repairs or needed car work. It can mean putting off braces for a child or forgoing needed medical care.

Now, the White House Chief of Staff may have the budget to regard inflation as a high-class problem, which is how she referred to it, described it, but for ordinary Americans, inflation is a very real problem--a problem that is eating up their wage increases and lowering their standard of living.

We are in the midst of an inflation crisis, a supply chain crisis, and as if those weren't enough, a border crisis. Huge numbers of illegal immigrants are pouring across our southern border and have been pouring across our southern border for months, creating a security, enforcement, and humanitarian nightmare.

So there is a lot for our country's leadership in Washington to be focused on right now. What is the majority party doing about these crises? Well, not much. In fact, most of the time, you can be forgiven for thinking that neither the President nor Democrat leaders even realize there is an inflation crisis or a supply chain crisis or a border crisis. The President, for one, seems to be hoping that if he ignores these crises for long enough, they will just go away.

So what are the President and congressional Democrats doing with their time if they are not addressing our border crisis or inflation crisis? Well, for one thing, they are attempting to double down on the strategy that helped get us into this mess in the first place. That is right. The inflation crisis Democrats would like to ignore is actually something they helped create by flooding the economy with excessive government spending in their so-called American Rescue Plan last March.

For months, they have tried to double down on that bill with another massive spending spree that would flood the economy with more government money and undoubtedly make the inflation crisis worse.

The President has attempted to justify this massive spending legislation by claiming that it will help inflation. Right. So the first massive spending spree helps push us into an inflation crisis, but a second massive spending spree will fix it? I am pretty sure that the definition of ``insanity'' is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

But massive inflation concerns haven't stopped Democrats. After all, why deal with a boring inflation crisis when you could be thinking up new ways to expand the Federal Government and new ways of taxing Americans to pay for it? Of course, Democrats' Build Back Better plan isn't all tax hikes. Democrats did manage to include a tax break in their tax-and-spending proposal--a tax break for blue State millionaires. If they succeed in passing it, I am sure wealthy Democrat donors will be grateful.

While an inflation crisis has raged, Democrats have pushed for new ways to spend taxpayer dollars and expand the reach of the Federal Government into Americans' lives: a huge expansion of government's involvement in childcare that would disadvantage the religious providers so many Americans choose for their children; a massive increase in the size of the IRS; a proposal to allow the IRS to examine the details of Americans' banking transactions; energy policies that would drive up the cost of electricity and gasoline for American families; billions for priorities like tree equity and environmental justice programs at well-funded colleges and universities. The list goes on.

But it would be unfair for me to suggest that Democrats have expended all their energy on tax-and-spending sprees. The administration has also found time to implement provisions of Democrats' original spending spree, the American Rescue Plan, including, apparently, until they got caught, free government crack pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

Democrats spent a lot of time pushing election legislation that they hope will give them an advantage come November.

On the COVID front, the administration struggled with testing, but it has found time for vaccine and mask mandates, some of which I believe have far exceeded the administration's authority. Fortunately, the courts have stepped in to check some of the administration's excesses, like the administration's attempt to impose a vaccine mandate on large private-sector employers or the administration's decision to impose a mask mandate for 2-year-olds--yes, for 2-year-olds.

Your Democratic government at work, ladies and gentlemen.

In November, the administration issued a mask mandate for Head Start programs requiring all children 2 years of age and up to be masked inside and outside--out on the playground. Now, is there scientific evidence to support this? Not really. The World Health Organization, in fact, recommends against masking for children aged 5 and under, but that hasn't stopped the administration. Democrats seem determined that nothing, including science, will pry their masks from them--or perhaps I should say pry our children's masks from them--since Democratic politicians have not always demonstrated the consistency of mask- wearing that they expect from our children.

Democrats wonder why Republicans think we should be careful how much power we give the Federal Government.

If Democrats really wanted to help American families, they would be focusing on our inflation and supply chain crises and addressing the security nightmare posed by our border crisis. Instead, they are busy focusing on ways to secure their hold on power and vastly expand the reach of the Federal Government into Americans' lives. I guess we will have to see how that strategy works out for them.

I yield the floor.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) and the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty).

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

Mr. President, one of the big drivers of our inflation crisis was Democrats' decision to flood the economy with unnecessary government money last March with their $1.9 trillion spending bill.

Another contributor to the problem has been supply chain bottlenecks. Americans are getting pretty used to long delays in receiving the goods they have ordered, to big holes on grocery store shelves, and to being unable to rely on a store to keep a product in stock consistently.

Since the start of the pandemic, keeping goods in stock has been a challenge, but, as with the larger inflation crisis, the White House has seemed largely uninterested in addressing the problem. ``The tragedy of the treadmill that's delayed''--that was a quote of the White House Press Secretary, joking in October, a typically tone-deaf comment from an administration often oblivious to the difficulties facing ordinary Americans.

In fact, supply chain issues are not a minor inconvenience; they are a real problem. It is not easy for an already overstretched mom or dad to have to run around town trying to find essential items--items they could previously rely on one store, at least, to have in stock. Businesses are struggling to maintain their profit margins and meet the demands of their customers, particularly small businesses, which have fewer resources to work around supply chain problems. Of course, supply chain problems are helping to fuel the price hikes Americans have been facing on everything from food and clothing to furniture, to used cars and trucks.

These are facts that seem lost on the administration, which has largely ignored supply chain issues and the inflation crisis in favor of focusing on pet projects: a massive tax-and-spending spree and election legislation that it thinks will boost Democrat chances in the fall.

On top of this, the administration has taken more than one action that is making or seems likely to make our supply chain problems even worse.

Earlier this week, for example, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration implemented its entry-level driver training rule, which substantially expands training requirements for drivers seeking to obtain a commercial driver's license. The new rule is likely to make it significantly more challenging for trucking companies to train new drivers, particularly for smaller trucking companies, which may struggle to afford the enhanced training costs.

The trucking industry has been hit hard by the supply chain crisis, with drivers working longer hours with fewer resources to keep goods moving across the country. They have been heroes. This makes it a very bad time to impose new burdens on truckers and tie up trucking companies with additional redtape.

The administration should have delayed the implementation of this rule until the worst of the supply chain crisis eases. Unfortunately, the administration decided to push ahead anyway, and now truckdrivers and trucking companies will face additional challenges, which will likely exacerbate supply chain problems.

The Canada-U.S. cross-border truckdriver vaccine mandate is another administration action that has created new pressures on a trucking industry already stretched thin thanks to the supply chain crisis. I am a strong supporter of vaccines, but mandating vaccines for cross-border truckdrivers has only served to worsen supply chain bottlenecks. You just need to look at the current situation in Canada to see the evidence of that. Truckdrivers do not pose a high risk of COVID transmission since they spend most of their workday alone. This mandate's main legacy looks likely to be increasing the supply chain problems we are facing.

Then, of course, there is the administration's hostile attitude toward conventional energy production. The administration might not like it, but the fact of the matter is that our economy will continue to rely on conventional energy like gasoline for a while yet. Discouraging conventional energy production, as the administration has done, is doing nothing but worsening our inflation and supply chain crisis and driving up energy bills for American families.

Energy prices have a substantial effect on prices in the store and on the availability of goods. The higher energy prices are, the more expensive it will be to produce and transport goods. The more it costs to produce and transport goods, the higher the final price of the goods is likely to be.

The administration's hostility to traditional energy production has helped drive energy prices up, which is aggravating, making worse, our supply chain and inflation crises.

Instead of imposing unhelpful new regulations, it would be nice to see the administration turn its focus to meaningful measures to address the supply chain crisis, like those in the bipartisan legislation I introduced last week with Senator Amy Klobuchar.

For some time now, I have heard reports of ocean carriers refusing to

transport certain goods--often American agricultural products, which impacts my State of South Dakota--in favor of more lucrative cargoes. Our legislation is designed to address this problem and create a more level playing field for American producers.

Our bill gives the Federal Maritime Commission greater authority to respond to discriminatory ocean carrier practices, and it provides the FMC with tools to more quickly resolve detention and demurrage disputes.

This legislation will bring greater efficiency and transparency to a process that leaves many shippers frustrated--especially small businesses--and bring long-term, positive changes to the maritime supply chain, which I hope will benefit exporters, importers, and consumers alike.

These are the kinds of measures the White House should be focusing on, measures that open up the supply chain instead of weighing it down with government mandates and regulations.

Given the administration's general lack of concern with the supply chain and inflation crises facing the American people, I don't have a lot of hope that the White House is going to do much to address either of these problems, but I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress from both parties wherever possible to advance measures that will ease our supply chain problems and help to get back to a situation where goods move smoothly around our country and around the world.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Iowa (Ms. Ernst), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt), and the Senator from South Dakota (Mr. Rounds).