Floor Statements

Mr. President, my hometown of Jasper, IN, sits in the county with the most veterans per capita in the State. My father was a tail gunner on a B-17 himself, and I will never forget the lesson he and my community impressed upon me of honoring those who have served so effortlessly and selflessly.

Providing for the health and well-being of the men and women who have sacrificed so much for our country is the least we can do, and it ought to be one of the things we can all agree on in this Chamber.

When the Trump administration took over, the VA had been in dire straits for many years. The passage of the MISSION Act represented a great stride toward improving access to quality healthcare services for our vets and, especially, a great step for Hoosier veterans.

A few of the valuable provisions for Hoosier veterans in the MISSION Act include these: replacing the mileage requirement with a drive time requirement; greatly expanding access to care for Hoosier veterans who report to VA hospitals in bigger cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, and Cincinnati; reducing the maximum wait times and reducing the strain on smaller VA facilities that may not have the resources or specialties available to serve patients in a timely manner; implementing a new urgent care benefit so veterans can now utilize urgent care and walk-in facilities from providers in the VA network without prior authorization; and a big win for access to care for Hoosier vets, allowing veterans to seek out community care if the VA medical service line is unable to meet quality standards.

Before this legislation, Hoosier veterans not receiving proper care would have nowhere else to turn. The MISSION Act offers Hoosier veterans better choices, better access, and better care.

As we reflect on the sacrifice of our servicemen and servicewomen this upcoming Fourth of July season, we must also remember our commitment to them once they return from the field of battle. We have made great strides in improving access and quality for veteran care in the last 2 years, and the MISSION Act is a big win for Hoosiers and all American veterans.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the talent and steadfast dedication of Purdue University's All-American Marching Band, which will be performing for the 100th time at the 103rd Running of the Indy 500.

Every year, the ``Greatest Spectacle in Racing'' attracts hundreds of thousands of fans to our State's capital. Throughout the last century, Purdue University's marching band has become an indispensable part of the annual festivities with their highly anticipated performance of traditional Indy 500 songs and other popular hits.

I commend the efforts and hard work put forth by the band's nearly 300 members. Their dedication in rehearsal is sure to pay off when they take to the famed Indy Motor Speedway this Sunday, welcoming spectators from around the world with familiar favorites, including the now customary performance of the classic ``Back Home Again in Indiana.''

I especially commend the Purdue University marching band directors, past and present, whose work make this tradition possible. This year, the band will be led by the acclaimed Hoosier, Jay Gephart, professor of music, and Al Wright, chair director of bands and orchestras at Purdue University. I am sure that under his direction, the All-American band will do Indiana proud.

I also recognize Purdue University's first marching band director, the late Paul Spotts Emrick, who initially forged the relationship between the University and the speedway. He directed Purdue's first performance at the famed 500-mile race in 1919, 100 years ago.

I applaud Purdue University's marching band for each year dedicating themselves to sharing our Hoosier traditions and heritage with millions of viewers around the world. I extend my thanks to all who ensure that the tradition endures, and I look forward to another great performance this weekend from the Boilermakers. Go Boilers.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I was asked to bat cleanup on National Small Business Week for our conference. I have been a Main Street entrepreneur my entire life.

My wife and I moved back to our hometown in 1978. She will celebrate her 41st anniversary this September with her only job--a business in our downtown selling home accessories and gifts.

I am very proud of you, Maureen.

Three years later, I had my opportunity to stake out my attempt at being an entrepreneur. As Senator Scott mentioned, it is fraught with pitfalls. There is no guarantee, when you stick your neck out and want to do some enterprise--no guarantee it is going to turn out. What a thrill it is, though, when it does, and it is what drives our great country.

Enterprise in this country, from its foundation, was built upon small businesses. We have over 500,000 of them in Indiana. Those businesses created over 38,000 new jobs in the last year, but things aren't as good as they could be because as much as the tax reform did for securing the future of small business, it is not permanent. We need to make sure that is done sometime before 2025.

Manufacturing--the biggest business in Indiana since the Trump economy has created the hottest context for business, small, medium or large. Six times more jobs in President Trump's 2 years have been created in manufacturing than the last 2 years of the prior administration.

Sometimes a little business can get lucky and become a medium-size business and a large business. Mine followed that pathway. I will give you a little detail on that in a moment.

McDonald's started with one location. This summer they will add, in the

State of Indiana, 11,000 summer jobs. International companies even come to the State of Indiana because our door is open and what a great place to have a small, medium, or large business.

Saab will add a $25 million investment in West Lafayette that will create 200 great-paying jobs.

Now back to my story. We raised a family, and I had the chance to start my business. In 17 years, it never got beyond 15 employees. That is the number of employees I started with in 1981 and that is what I had in 1998.

Perseverance, patience, reinvesting, keeping a low overhead so you can get through the scrapes that inevitably will come in an economy, and someday your day of opportunity will arise.

In the darkest hours of the great recession, when our industry shrunk by over 50 percent literally overnight, every asset I owned was a piece of commercial real estate--a warehouse. Everything I sold was an unnecessary want, not a need--auto and truck accessories. I wondered, what did the future hold?

Well, the future held the greatest opportunity I could have ever imagined because I lived my life in a way that set the stage for opportunity. I make that point because we are not doing it in this institution.

We have set ourselves up to ruin a lot of the good things that are occurring from decades and decades ago to the present if we don't get our house in order. The institution of the Federal Government should be the pride of our country. Running $850 billion deficits and $22 trillion in debt, that doesn't bode well for any of us. But the good news is, if we keep this economy going, I think it can go decades into the future, where we keep creating jobs and raising wages like have never been done before. But I mentioned earlier that some of us turn them into medium-size businesses and larger businesses, and so often, what got you there, you forget about.

I tell folks all the time: It doesn't matter what size business you have, if you are successful, share those benefits with your employees. Raise benefits through your 401(k) plan. Lower healthcare costs if you can, and certainly raise wages.

Make sure people look to the real world for what means the most and not to government. If you look to government, especially the Federal Government, you are going to be disappointed. The action in our country is on Main Streets in towns and cities across the country in our States.

My parting comments: The biggest companies in this country sometimes, in my opinion, behave most poorly. I am going to talk about two--Big Ag and Big Healthcare.

I took on the healthcare issue 10 years ago in my own company. Nobody should go broke because they get sick or have a bad accident. All small businesses want to offer good healthcare to their employees but can't. Why? Because the industry has gotten concentrated with huge corporations, from pharma to hospitals across the board and health insurance companies, which I had to tangle with.

I ask you to get with it, be transparent, and be competitive so you don't have a business partner that may only be the Federal Government down the road.

Big Agriculture--I want to end with this because in Joni's State, a high percentage of small businesses are farmers. Farmers take on the most difficult task of any business in our country--the weather, a high amount of assets for the income they generate. They have regulations like waters of the United States--great intentions but overbearing. There are farmers who now worry about ditch maintenance because ditches that don't have water in them most of the year are now considered waters of the United States. We have to get a better balance to where we have good regulations and not overbearing regulations.

I am asking folks in this Chamber, in this Congress, to look to get this house in order, and I am asking Big Industry--big companies in the agricultural arena and in the healthcare arena--to get their act in order so the doctors who participate within healthcare and the farmers who participate within agriculture can make an honest living. They are all small businesses, and small businesses drive this country.

Thank you.

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

Mr. President, I thank Senator Ernst for allowing me the opportunity to talk about opportunity zones.

So much has happened since President Trump has been elected that I think has brought opportunity. The economy is obviously booming. In the State of Indiana, for instance, we have 156 opportunity zones in 83 different cities and 58 counties. That is a lot in one State. This is investment into these areas that need jobs. Capital investment is hard to measure. Thank goodness it has come along and has been an opportunity that we in the Hoosier State have taken advantage of.

We are one of the lowest unemployment States in the Union. I am from Dubois County, from the town of Jasper, which supports the lowest unemployment rates in our State--a State of enterprise, a State of commerce. Workforce development is probably the most critical issue that faces our State, but we do a lot of other things well. We live within our means. We addressed infrastructure back in 2017 by repairing roads and bridges and by doing a lot of things well.

We have 80,000 jobs in our State that need one simple thing, and that is proper training.

When I went to school back in the seventies--it dates me a little bit--I took industrial arts. You had a shop class. You had a welding class. You had practical training that led you into good-paying jobs. Somewhere along the way, we kind of almost stigmatized that pathway called career and technical education. We have schools like Ivy Tech. When I was a State legislator, there were 19 different programs, and we were spending nearly $1 billion a year, but we were not providing proper training for high-demand, high-wage jobs.

In our State, we are shipping out twice as many 4-year degrees as we use. Something is not right. I just spoke with an online college, which is another issue I want to mention. The cost of these 4-year degrees has gotten way out of hand. Many graduates spend $80,000, $90,000, $100,000. They take on that debt and have jobs that are not marketable.

We need to pay attention to the simple things that most States need by reorienting the focus of education and providing proper training for jobs that

in many cases pay more than 4-year degrees, those that start in the neighborhood of $40,000 to $60,000 and have good benefits and potential wages of over $100,000 a year. In our State and in most States across the country, those are the jobs that need to be filled.

In my own company, 80 jobs can't be filled because, really, there needs to be a better curriculum at the high school level, one from which you get basic skills taught rather than the misguided approach of overemphasizing 4-year degrees. There is nothing wrong with that, and everyone should aspire to that, but the market doesn't necessarily need it. It will pay more for a lot less education, and you will not be walking away with the debt that so many students do in this day and age.

Tax reform then came along. As a business owner, I can clearly say that there has been nothing in the 38 years of building a little Main Street business into a national company that has catapulted our ability to do more for our employees than what has happened with tax reform.

An opportunity zone is a great idea. We need to have more of it, and we need to make sure this institution starts to set an example across this country whereby we live within our means and not create $850 billion deficits annually on top of $22 trillion of debt. We all know that is going to lead us nowhere other than into despair down the road.

Again, I am here to tout what tax relief and the JOBS Act did, as well as opportunity zones, which we have run with in the Hoosier State. We also need to fix a few things, like matching training and education with high-demand, high-wage jobs. If we do that across the country, I think we will be into decades of prosperity that will prevent us from maybe going down that trail of some of the things we have heard about recently, like the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, and a lot of things that we know we can't afford and that will not work.

Thank you.

Mr. President, you just heard the story from Senator Young. He had the benefit of knowing Richard Lugar more recently.

My story is a little different. I am going to have to think back to 45 years ago. I was between my sophomore and junior years at Wabash College. I never knew I had an interest in politics, let alone that someday I would be serving in the Lugar seat. How life drives you in certain directions.

I remember that Richard Lugar took on Senator Birch Bayh, who I think had served several terms--he recently passed away himself, another icon of Hoosier politics--and I said that I wanted to get involved. When you have a man like Richard Lugar, who took a risk, stuck his neck out to run for mayor after he had been on a school board--ironically, I was on a school board for 10 years when I decided to stick my neck out to run for State legislator--you think back about how life drives you in certain directions.

With Richard Lugar, most notably, during his entire life, he lived with character and integrity.

I think back to when I first met him. I was dressed in a white turtleneck with a blue blazer and plaid pants. Wow, I can't believe we even dressed that way back in the seventies. I found those pictures stored away in a box about 4 or 5 years ago. I pulled them out, and my high school sweetheart, my wife now--she and I were looking at Dick as he was preparing to run for Senate. The look on our faces, looking into the face of someone with his stature, really stood out.

When you get this far down the trail, I get asked: Who were your mentors who got you to run for school board, State rep, and then the Senate? Mostly, it would have been my parents and my community. I say that often. But if there was one politician I would have looked up to, even when I wasn't certain I ever wanted to get involved in politics at all, I would look back to that year, back in the midseventies, when I decided to do it.

He was in the Senate for a long time. During the entirety of his terms, he always did it to where, as a Hoosier and as an American, you were proud of him. The thing he did as well as anyone is that he was able to look across the aisle in times when we were less polarized. Now, I think that trait, more than ever, would be something we need to pay attention to.

When you close the chapter on one individual's life, one whose life was as exemplary as Richard Lugar's, it should mostly be inspiration for others to follow in his footsteps.

I know in the State of Indiana--in an op-ed that was just put out by an individual, it cites Richard Lugar as the most important public servant ever to come from our State. Gosh, I think you would have to say there was a lot of credibility to push that point of view.

All I can tell you is that for the time I am here in the Lugar seat, I intend to do what he did. On things he knew a little something about, he stuck his neck out, made a statement, and he led. In the entirety of his career here in the Senate, he was impeccable in his integrity and character. Gosh, we could sure use a good dose of that in this day and age.

It is an honor for me to be serving in his seat, and I hope to do even half as good a job in my stint here as he did over many, many years.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following letter be printed in the Congressional Record.

Mr. President, although I had prepared my remarks to address what many of my colleagues have just covered--and that would be the preposterous proposal of the Green New Deal--I want to take a little different angle.

I think there is a point where so often those of us on the conservative side of the ledger, I think, get overwhelmed by the conversation being dominated by the other side. It is a fertile ground to want to try to use a better environment to parlay that incremental way into more government.

I think what we have here is just like addressing healthcare costs. We had ObamaCare--the Affordable Care Act--which turned out to be the ``Uncomfortable Care Act,'' but there were issues that were valid. In my own company years ago, I was worried about it. I drafted a plan that was proactive, addressed high healthcare costs, and made the pledge that you should never go broke because you get sick or have a bad accident. I crafted a plan through the real world that cut costs, and my employees have not paid a premium increase in 9 years.

I want to talk about the Green New Deal. I am a conservationist, and I am a member of the Nature Conservancy, as a business and an individual. We cannot let the other side co-opt the issue and preempt it because they think the argument is on their side. I am not going to belabor the point that I think it is preposterous. I want to make the point that if you think any of that can be done--whether it is $50 trillion or $93 trillion--keep in mind that we are running nearly trillion-dollar deficits. We are $22 trillion in debt. Does that sound like anything that the Federal Government could actually solve in a sustainable way when we are in a pickle like we are currently in?

Until we change the dynamic here and get individuals who know how to do things where it works, in States like Indiana and in many States, and maybe let States have a bigger hand in the equation, where their budgets are balanced, where they have cash balances, and where it is not a false hope.

Let's look at the particulars of what the Green New Deal is supposed to do in addition to cleaning up our environment, which we have made great strides with. It is being spun as an economic argument. It is the exact opposite of that. I want to challenge folks on our side of the ledger, from the practical side, to where we generally lose out on the general argument, and, incrementally, things change against us over time.

We just had legislation pass in 2017. I want to tell this little story of what we did in our own special way. I am going to challenge enterprisers and I am going to challenge businesses across the country to think about this as a way to avoid that.

In 2017 we had, in my opinion--for enterprisers, small businesses, and farmers; and I have been involved in both--the biggest opportunity that has come along in years. We are keeping more of our own resources and not sending it here to a broken institution that has given us all of these deficits and debt, but we have to do something with it.

Back in January of 2018, my son, who is one of my three kids now in my business, said: Dad, let's take tax reform and share the benefits with employees.

That is a great idea. I didn't think it would have a bigger political meaning until he said: Hey, let's put it in the company memo that it is due to tax reform. We have taken, in my mind, the biggest thing we could do--whether you want to return the dividends into the environment, into higher wages, or into whatever you want to do--and we have had less than a year to run with it. All I know is that like many companies in Indiana, we lowered healthcare costs and flattened them for 9 years. We raised 401(k) benefits. We started quarterly bonuses instead of just annual ones.

We are doing what I think this country needs to do--quit looking to the Federal Government to solve all of our problems, even when they have an argument like that we need to further improve our environment, that we need to avoid what could possibly be a catastrophe down the road, where we do stick our head in the sand.

Don't look to this institution to do it because I don't think you can credibly say that you can do anything in the context of the product that has been delivered over the last decade or two. States, individuals, businesses, organizations--but especially businesses, because we have reaped the benefits, in my opinion, of the biggest legislation that has occurred in decades--must put our money where our mouth is, where my company's is. Invest in your employees and change the system from the bottom up, not from the top down.

Mr. President, I rise today in one of the hottest economic environments our Nation has ever seen. The last time American unemployment was this low, the Beatles were at the top of the charts and I was a starting forward on the JV basketball team back in Jasper, IN. The last time U.S. stocks had a January as good as this last month, the Hoosiers were on their way to a national championship under Coach Bobby Knight.

Last night, President Trump outlined the incredible economic success and progress our country has made in the last 2 years, and it is times like these that drive home the point that we all already know: Business is the engine that drives the American economy, not government. Entrepreneurs--from titans of large industry to mostly Main Street entrepreneurs--are the force that generates prosperity, not politicians. America's true power is held in our local chambers of commerce, not in the Chambers of Congress. Our best wisdom comes from the factory floor, not the Senate floor.

Businesspeople understand what makes the economy tick, and with someone like President Trump at the helm, the true potential of the American economy is being unleashed. GDP and job growth numbers have never been like this.

During the Obama administration, these numbers were scoffed at as not being attainable. Now it is happening. We have to keep that in mind. President Obama offered us 8 years of stagnation and cynicism. President Trump has offered optimism, bold leadership, and the deep understanding of what makes a business boom that could only come from the experience of somebody from the real world, an entrepreneur.

Like the President, I built my life in business over many years. I started back in 1981 with just a few employees. Our original office was in a mobile home on a rock lot--a very hardscrabble existence. I think of all the time invested. For 17 years, we hovered as a small business. Patience and persistence underlie everything that really works in this economy and in this world. We lived within our means, and we reinvested in our own success in good times and bad. And this story is being played out across the country.

President Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is the most significant pro- growth legislation that has come out of Washington since I have been paying attention. As I said, that has been 37 years. For my company, the Trump tax cuts were the biggest capital infusion we had ever seen.

Like the President, I have been blessed in that three of my four kids work in my business. When tax reform was signed into law, I believe back in December of 2017, one of my sons came to me and said: Dad, we need to take these savings--we are sending less to DC. Let's do something with them.

I said: What did you have in mind?

He said: I would like to share these benefits with our employees.

I said: Well, particularly, what did you have in mind?

He said: I would like to raise 401(k) benefits. I would like to start quarterly bonuses.

We always did an end-of-the-year bonus.

He said: I would like to cut family healthcare costs by $1,400 per family.

We had held them flat for 9 years.

I said: Wow, I wish that had been my idea. I like it.

He said: The other thing is, I would like to put in the company memo that this is due to tax reform.

I entered politics long ago--I was on a school board for 10 years, 3 years as a state legislator--and I knew you had to be careful when you mixed business with a political statement. I asked him to talk it over with his brother, who I thought might want to just give the benefits and not make a political point out of it.

He said: Dad, you are the CEO. What do you think?

I said: Put in the company memo that this is due to tax reform. As conservatives, we need to be proud of it.

That is exactly what we did.

Regulatory cuts and tax reform are never going to make headlines, but Americans are seeing the results in real dollars and cents in their paychecks and their 401(k)s. It is clear that when government gets out of the way of enterprisers, the rising tide of prosperity lifts all ships.

If my fellow Republicans and conservatives ever want to win again, it is incumbent upon us to make the case that this economy is due to the fact that the administration and the Republican Congress created the stage for this economic boom that we are within. It is also incumbent upon employers across the country to make sure you share these benefits with your employees. If that is not done, we are going to waste an opportunity.

The reason this is so critical is that there are a lot of folks who have a different point of view. The Democrats have a proposal that basically is this: more taxes, more debt, probably more regulations, and taking steps down the pathway, I think, to a socialist catastrophe like the daily horrors we see in Venezuela, embracing a failed ideology that has not worked anywhere else.

Promising free college, free insurance, and never being able to pay for it may be a good way to win votes in 2020, but it is no way to run a country. Sooner or later, somebody gets stuck with the bill. If we fail to confront this creeping threat to our free market principles now, our children and grandchildren will pay dearly.

Again, it is so incumbent upon us to take this opportunity and run with it as business owners so we can put it into practice where everybody is feeling the benefits beyond what they have so far. If we want to keep President Trump's economic rally going, create more opportunity for Americans to live their America dream, and make the clear choice between pro-growth policy and a dissent toward socialist calamity, more business people, as well, need to step out of their comfort zone and run.

Try to become a State legislator. Get involved. Run for Congress. Run for the Senate.

I did it out of nowhere, when nobody thought it could be done. If we want our system to work the way it should when it works best for all, we need to make sure that message is getting heard. Let's keep it booming. Let's keep this thing going. Participate. Get involved.

I yield back my time.

Mr. President, I came here mostly to support my colleagues and to actually listen for an objection to a bill like this. For the short time I have been here, what a rude awakening as to what can happen.

Everything I have heard here makes sense, and I would just ask for the citizens across this country and for Hoosiers to weigh in. Let your Senators know that this is a step too far when something like this occurs in this Chamber, when it is crystallized so simply. You are either for or against infanticide, and I never imagined I would be seeing this so early in my tenure here. I ask for the folks across this country to make their voices heard because this is a tragedy that has happened.

I yield the floor.