Floor Statements

Madam President, on March 3, 2022, I missed vote No. 68, on S.J. Res. 38, a joint resolution relating to a national emergency declared by the President on March 13, 2020. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, on February 16, 2022, I missed vote No. 56, cloture on Executive Calendar No. 692, Celeste Ann Wallander, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 16, 2022, I missed vote No. 57, cloture on Executive Calendar No. 476, David A. Honey, of Virginia, to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 16, 2022, I missed vote No. 58, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 692, Celeste Ann Wallander, of Maryland, to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 16, 2022, I missed vote No. 59, confirmation of Executive Calendar No. 476, David A. Honey, of Virginia, to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 17, 2022, I missed vote No. 60, motion to invoke cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 6617; a bill making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 17, 2022, I missed vote No. 61, on the amendment S. Amdt. 4929: Lee Amdt. No. 4929; to prohibit funding for COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, on February 17, 2022, I missed vote No. 62, on the amendment S. Amdt. 4927: Cruz Amdt No 4927; to prohibit the use of Federal funding for schools and early childhood development facilities that enforce COVID-19 vaccine mandates on children in order to protect the rights of parents to make medical decisions that affect their child. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted no.

Mr. President, on February 17, 2022, I missed vote No. 63, on amendment S. Amndt. 4930: Braun Amndt. No. 4930; to strike the Statutory PAYGO exemption and require balanced budgets in concurrent resolutions on the budget. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, on February 17, 2022, I missed vote No. 64, on passage of the bill: H.R. 6617; a bill making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to executive session and consider the following nomination: Executive Calendar No. 476, David A. Honey, of Virginia, to be Deputy Under Secretary of Defense; that the nomination be confirmed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action; and that the Senate resume legislative session.

Mr. President, the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is a critical position that helps lead and manage our military's science and technology work. This includes work on disruptive, cutting-edge technologies like quantum science, hypersonics, and artificial intelligence. Maintaining our competitive edge over China in these areas has been a focus of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, which I chair, and I know that all of us--all of us--here understand how important it is.

We worked on a bipartisan basis to include investment and policy changes for these priorities in the NDAA that we are hoping to pass this week. The Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering is tasked with carrying out many of these changes. Yet the nominee for this post has yet to be confirmed.

Dr. David A. Honey is qualified. He brings decades of experience, including as an Air Force pilot, an intelligence officer, and in leadership roles at DARPA, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and within the intelligence community. Reflecting his qualifications, Dr. Honey's nomination has bipartisan support and was voice-voted out of the Senate Armed Services Committee in October.

At a time when our adversaries are investing heavily in an attempt to outpace the United States, we need all hands on deck and confirmed leadership in this post, so I am very disappointed that we could not do that today. This is a matter of national security.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I able to complete my remarks prior to the scheduled votes.

Mr. President, today, I rise to honor one of Southern Arizona's own--known to many here as former Congressman Ron Barber--for a long and impactful tenure in public service. Ron has been a pillar of Southern Arizona for decades. He is also a close friend and trusted adviser to both me and Gabby.

Ron has deep roots in Tucson. His dad was stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base when Ron was a teenager. Ron attended Rincon High School and graduated from the University of Arizona. He married his high school sweetheart, Nancy, who is here today, and built his family and his home and his career in Tucson, AZ.

Safe to say, Ron embodies what it means to be a Tucsonan. It is written everywhere, from the art that hangs in his house to the bumper stickers on his car, and there are a lot of them. His love of Tucson is something that rubs off on others--myself included.

I first met Ron at a meeting when Gabby was hiring folks to begin launching her first campaign for Congress. At the time, Ron had just retired from his senior post at the Division of Developmental Disabilities. He had spent decades serving as an advocate for families and vulnerable populations.

For almost anyone, that would be a sufficient career in public service but not for Ron Barber. Ron was moved by Gabby's commitment to serving others. Now, he may not have had any experience in politics, but he showed up ready to help send Gabby to the U.S. Congress. Now, I wondered ``Who is this guy?'' but never really had to wonder again. He believed in her, and he did it early on. That is what makes Ron who he is--always believing, always early. And this is still true today. Really, Ron is literally always early to each and every event that he has staffed me for, and I am pretty sure that is the case with every person he has served alongside.

His punctuality is matched by his generosity and his knowledge of Southern Arizona. That is why when Gabby was elected, she wanted him on her team. He joined as her district director, her eyes and ears back home.

On January 8, 2011, Ron was doing that job when a gunman opened fire at the Congress on Your Corner event. He was standing next to his boss. Gabby was shot in the head. Ron was shot in the face and the leg. Eleven others were injured. Six died. We could have lost him that day too.

Those events rattled the Tucson community that Ron loves so much, and there was so much grief. But in the days, months, and years that followed, we found out just how strong our community was because of people like Ron Barber. Southern Arizona needed Ron, and Ron needed Southern Arizona.

Even through his own injury, he was there for me and Gabby and our family and countless others, as selfless as always. It is that exact selflessness that meant Ron never thought of himself as the right person to run for Gabby's seat after she stepped down.

I remember sitting in a room with Ron and Gabby during her recovery. We were discussing what was next for Gabby and who would run for her seat in the House of Representatives. There was a long list of names that was thrown out, and at the end, Gabby said that it should be Ron. He was sitting right there, and I think he was probably pretty shocked, but, you know, he wasn't exactly in a position to refuse, either. He was reluctant at first but eventually rose at the chance to continue serving the community he loved in a way that he never imagined--in the U.S. Congress--and he did that job with grit and independence.

Ron fought to protect our military installations. He worked on lowering healthcare costs and to get mental health services to Arizonans and Americans across the country. He was a public servant through and through or better yet, a ``citizen legislator''--a term he used to describe his vision for Washington lawmakers.

After leaving Congress, Ron continued finding ways to serve. When Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick was elected to his old seat, Ron went back to work as her district director for nearly 2 years. For Ron, it is never about ego; it is only about helping in whatever way he could and wherever he could.

Then, the day after my election last year, I called Ron and asked him to serve on my transition team.

And then I asked him to join my office as our southern Arizona director, and he signed up for that as well, once again delaying his retirement to go back into public service one more time.

I can't tell you what an asset it has been for our office and for the people of Arizona in that role.

Now, we are going to miss Ron, but we also know that he is not really going anywhere either. While Ron might be retiring from his day job, he will still volunteer his time at several

organizations in Tucson that impact his neighbors in ways that are unique to them and to him. In fact, a couple weeks ago, I saw Gabby trying to sign him up for something. And our southern Arizona community will be better for it.

On top of being an extraordinary leader, Ron is a family man; a supportive and loving husband to Nancy, father to Jenny and Crissi, and grandfather to Kieran, Tillie, Ailsa, Elliot, and Emmy.

And now that he is going to have some more time on his hands, I know that his family is going to be glad to see a lot more of him.

So, Ron, happy retirement to you, but let's make it for real this time. I mean, it is true that you have been saying ``I will retire next year'' for well over a decade now, I think, but I think this time it is going to stick.

But the fact is, you know, we have all really needed you on our teams. It was so important and so critical and it was critical to Gabby and it was critical to the success of my team, and I am sure Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick feels the same.

So on behalf of the State of Arizona and our Nation, thank you, Ron, for your lifetime of hard work and service.

And thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to dedicate a few words to my friend.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, as you know, in Arizona, we have always admired Cindy McCain's dedication to service and to our country. I know she believes deeply in the power of America to promote peace, security, and health around the world, which will serve her and our country well in her next position.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate consider Calendar No. 457 and that the Senate vote on the nomination without intervening action or debate.

I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all without intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that any statements related to the nomination be printed in the Record; and that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.

Mr. President, on October 4, 2021, I missed the vote No. 403 on confirmation of Jonathan Meyer to be General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes on his confirmation.

Mr. President, it is an honor to rise today to deliver my maiden speech.

Nine months ago, the people of Arizona trusted me with a great responsibility: to represent them in the U.S. Senate; to do so during a pandemic that has challenged every one of us, taken loved ones too soon, and battered our economy; and to fill the remaining years of Senator John McCain's sixth term.

Each day since then, I have gone to work for the people of Arizona, striving to fulfill that responsibility, undeterred by the challenges we have in front of us because that is what Arizonans have done over the last year and a half--protecting their families from this virus, keeping themselves and their businesses afloat, and looking out for their neighbors.

Arizonans have faced down this virus and the economic fallout that came with it with determination. And I came here to have their backs and to work towards a brighter future for our growing State because we can't just rebuild our economy the way it was before. We have to reinvent it and create the jobs of the future, good-paying jobs that you can actually raise a family on. It is a long to-do list. But, hey, I am used to those.

The checklist for flying the Space Shuttle stands about 6 feet tall. The Senate, though, is not NASA. It doesn't move as fast. And it is not the U.S. Navy, either, where everyone works together toward a common goal.

But my wife, Gabby, taught me a thing or two about how to listen and how to find common ground. Now, she loved representing Arizona in Congress, and no one works harder than she does. Now, neither of us expected that it would be me serving here in the U.S. Senate. I might have been the astronaut, but it turned out that she is the one who would nearly lose her life serving our country.

I am so proud of her and of her relentless positivity that she brings to her continued rehabilitation. It inspires me each and every day. I could not do this without her support or the support of my daughters, Claudia and Claire, or my first grandchild, Sage, who was born in May. Maybe, I am not so sure about her support; she is only 2 months old.

But in my first days here, I spoke to Republicans and Democrats to work on emergency COVID relief. For so many Arizonans, the relief we got passed was a lifeline--the difference between bankruptcy and keeping the lights on, between losing their small business and paying their employees. I have heard that countless of times as I have traveled across the State.

In March, on my 100th day in the Senate, I spoke with a group of Arizonans to understand how COVID-19 was impacting them and their families. One of those conversations really stuck with me, and I want to take a second to tell you about Susana Andrade.

Prior to the pandemic, Susana worked in a school cafeteria in South Phoenix. Her husband worked as a landscaper. When the pandemic spiked in Arizona, her husband's work slowed down and the school closed. But Susana and her coworkers kept going to work. The school was continuing to offer meals for pickup for students and families who needed them, and a lot of them needed these meals. She told me that they initially were just offering breakfast and lunch, but then they added dinner and a snack because the demand was just so high.

Susana and her coworkers knew how hard the pandemic had hit the community, how many folks were out of work. There were students who wouldn't eat if they weren't there to make the meals. So she kept going to work, making and packing meals for students and their families.

And, then, in February, she and her entire family got sick with COVID. She couldn't go to work for weeks, and she and her family struggled to pay their bills that month while they tried to recover.

Now, Susana's story has stuck with me over the last year. Here is a hard-

working Arizona family doing everything right, who just got knocked off their feet. At the same time, Susana embodies the best of what we saw during this awful pandemic: neighbors and parents making tremendous sacrifices to help one another get through this.

I spoke to Susana recently. She told me that days after we spoke in March, she and her family received their stimulus checks, and it made such a big difference in their lives. But she is still now living paycheck to paycheck, working two jobs, trying to provide for her family to just get ahead.

I understand that. Growing up, my mother worked both as a secretary and a waitress at the same time. When my brother and I were in middle school, she decided to become a police officer, like my dad. But she had to pass this physical fitness test, which was designed for men. But my mother was not discouraged. She wasn't discouraged by that or by the fact that, if she would pass, she would become one of the first female police officers in our home town. In fact, I think she liked that. That was my mom for you.

But I knew that she believed that the increased and steady salary would help our family. My mother wanted to give my brother and me every opportunity to succeed. She showed us what we could achieve by having a goal and a plan and working hard at it.

I am here because of a good public education and because of the opportunity that my parents created for me to serve our country and pursue my dreams. But for so many families, it is becoming harder to get ahead, and the pandemic only made this more difficult. Businesses shuttered, savings drained, and debt and bills piled up.

What every parent wants--what my mom wanted--is to be able to work hard and give their children a future filled with opportunity.

That is why the most important responsibility we have here is not just to rebuild our economy but to reinvent it for the future. And doing that starts with infrastructure: roads, bridges, water, the power grid, high-speed internet. And it is not just in big cities but in rural and small towns, in smalltown Arizona and Tribal communities. That is the item on our checklist now.

Arizona is facing a severe drought that requires us to improve our water infrastructure and increase or resiliency.

Schoolbuses on the Navajo Nation cost three times as much to maintain because so many of the roads are unpaved.

I-10, which runs through the center of our State, between Tucson and Phoenix, has not been expanded in years. A signal accident can cause delays for hours. That happens almost every day.

It is clear that Arizona will benefit from upgrading and modernizing our infrastructure. That is why, for the past few months, I have been working with a group of Republicans and Democrats to come to an agreement on a historic investment in our infrastructure. I advocated for Arizona's priorities, and we worked together to find common ground and work out our differences. And now we are on the verge of passing it

This is going to fix roads and bridges, improve Tribal water and transportation infrastructure, expand affordable high-speed internet access, and make Arizona more resilient to drought and wildfires.

I have been determined to deliver these infrastructure investments that Arizona needs to continue to grow. We want to grow, and we want to attract new and innovative companies to our State because Arizona's prosperity depends on continuing to create new, high-paying jobs, including growing our tech sector.

Now, one of the biggest success stories of our growing tech sector is an industry that actually produces something physically small, microchips.

Microchips go in everything, from our phones and appliances and cars to computers, but also the most sophisticated fighter jets and missile systems.

There is currently a global shortage of microchips, and the truth is, today, just 12 percent of them are manufactured here in the United States. It used to be 40 percent. Many foreign competitors, including China, are investing heavily to try to dominate this industry.

Now, Arizona does manufacture a lot of microchips. It already employs about 30,000 people in good-paying jobs in this industry, and it is poised to grow. We recently announced investment plans from Intel and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Arizona can lead the way as we restore more microchip manufacturing and development to American soil.

That is the goal of this $52 billion plan that I spent months working on with Senators Cornyn and Warner, to create new advanced manufacturing facilities, or fabs, in places like Arizona. I made it my mission to get this passed through the Senate because it is important. It is important to our economy, and it is important to our national security, ensuring that our supply chain for something so critical does not depend on adversaries like China.

Transformational investments such as this will create thousands of high-paying jobs, and we got it passed through the Senate, Republicans and Democrats working together.

Now, we must continue working on this checklist, getting Arizonans the skills they need for these new jobs. For some, that will mean getting a college degree in science or engineering.

Arizona is home to three world-class universities that are leaders in research and innovation. We must continue to educate the best scientists and engineers in the world. That is the only way we are going to stay ahead.

At the same time, we know that about a third of students who graduate from high school will not pursue a 4-year degree. Now, that doesn't mean that they can't be set up for success in the 21st century economy, and we need to make sure that they are.

Advanced manufacturing facilities, like the microchip fabs that I mentioned earlier, for those we need well-trained semiconductor processors, and we need electricians, and we need HVAC technicians. These are good-paying careers for those who get the skills and training that they need.

And right now, a lot of young Arizonans are getting those skills through our community college system.

At Pima Community College's downtown campus in Tucson, they have a new Automotive Technology and Innovation Center that I visited last month. Their students are learning how to operate the software that automatically controls drills and lathes and milling machines and 3D printers and other tools. They can be trained not just in traditional automotive technology but in electric vehicles as well.

Arizona is becoming a center for innovative electric vehicle manufacturers. So why shouldn't we be getting these students the skills they need for this technology right now?

Pima Community College's chancellor, Chancellor Lambert, calls this much needed approach ``moving at the speed of business.'' What he means is our education system must meet the demands of today's workforce, and that has to be the case not just in major metro areas but in rural Arizona, as well, and in rural America.

At Yavapai College in Northern Arizona, they just opened a new Skilled Trades Center in Clarkdale, where they will train a new generation of construction workers and plumbers and electricians and HVAC technicians.

I could not be more impressed with Arizona's community college system.

Yavapai College is also taking advantage of partnerships with companies to set students up with opportunities that prepare them to immediately enter the workforce in industries like mining.

Moving at the speed of business, that is how we are going to prepare hard-working young students to get these good-paying jobs. It is also how we are going to outcompete and outinnovative other countries like China, having a talented workforce that can fill the jobs of the future and develop cutting-edge technologies that are critical not just to our economy but to our national security as well.

Now, these are issues that I know Republicans and Democrats agree on.

And even on tough issues, I believe that we can also find common ground. We have had crisis after crisis at our border, each a result of decades of failure in Washington to adequately address border security and fix our broken immigration system.

Senator Portman and I have introduced bipartisan legislation that would require the Department of Homeland Security to finally develop a plan to

handle increases at the border, to take the politics out of this, no matter which party controls Congress or the White House, and to provide dedicated funding to carry out that plan and ensure a secure, humane process at the border. Finding common ground on issues like this is hard, but it is important.

Like many of you, like many of my colleagues, I spent years admiring the way the late Senator John McCain represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate. But my first impressions of John McCain were not of him as a Senator but of his service in the Navy. He was a hero of young naval aviators like me--an example of how to serve your country honorably and bravely, including in the impossible circumstance of being shot down and captured.

His legacy means so much to the State of Arizona, and it lives on through his children and his wife, Cindy, whom I am so grateful to have here today in the Gallery.

Thank you.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

His legacy, it is something that cannot be matched, but it is what inspires me serving in this Senate seat. And it is his example of bipartisanship, of independence that continues to demand more of us. So I am going to continue focusing on delivering results, on beating this virus, and reinventing our economy for the future so that hard-working Arizonans have every opportunity to succeed.

Arizonans sent me here to have their backs, and that is what I intend to do.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

(Applause, Senators rising.)

Mr. President, as we work to pass this bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to upgrade and modernize our country's infrastructure, I am glad to be here joining Senator Lummis to introduce this amendment to include our Highway Cost Allocation Act.

As a former engineer and astronaut, my career has taught me about the importance of having the data to tackle a complex issue.

This bipartisan amendment would require the Secretary of Transportation to conduct the first comprehensive study of vehicle highway usage in nearly 25 years. This information would inform decisions to address the Highway Trust Fund's revenue shortfalls during its next reauthorization cycle.

That is important for growing States, like Arizona and other Western States, and for our entire country, so I urge my colleagues to support our bipartisan amendment.

I yield back.

Mr. President, on July 19, 2021, I missed rollcall vote No. 267 on confirmation of Tiffany P. Cunningham, of Illinois, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit. Had I been in attendance, I would have voted yes on her confirmation.

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

Mr. President. In America, we have fair elections and peaceful transitions of power. In America, democracy prevails over chaos. And in America, those who commit violent acts against our government are held accountable. These are the values that I served to defend in the U.S. Navy and that I have sworn an oath to uphold in the Senate, and they have not failed us.

Our democracy was tested today--first, by a baseless objection to Arizona's electoral votes, despite the fact that Arizona's elections were fairly administered and certified by a Republican Governor, a Democratic Secretary of state, and public servants at every level of government and representing both political parties; and then again when individuals, spurred on by the President, stormed the Capitol in an unpatriotic attempt to overturn our election. They will fail. Tonight we will count Arizona's electoral votes and those of every other State.

For centuries, our democracy has thrived because after elections we have come together to find common ground and solve our challenges, and that is the work we begin tonight. My focus will continue to be on representing Arizonans by working with Republicans and Democrats and the incoming administration to beat this virus and rebuild our economy.