Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, last year, Congress rallied five times around historic bipartisan legislation to meet urgent and unprecedented needs. Our COVID-19 packages reinforced the healthcare frontlines, fueled the sprint for vaccines, and cast lifelines for the workers and small businesses hit hardest by shutdowns.

Together, those bills cost about $4 trillion, but none of those measures passed the House of Representatives with less than a bipartisan supermajority of about 80 percent--completely overwhelming support.

Then, last week, House Democrats rammed through the American Rescue Plan Act on a razor-thin margin of 50.7 percent. The only thing bipartisan about their bill was the opposition to it. Their bill costs about $2 trillion. That is roughly the same size as the entire CARES Act that saved our health system and economy through months of shutdowns last year. Even liberal experts admit this is far out of proportion to what is needed now, with vaccines going into arms and the economy already primed to literally roar back.

Amazingly, Democrats managed to allocate less than 9 percent--9 percent--of their massive bill to the entire healthcare response; 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion related to the healthcare response, and-- listen to this--even less than 1 percent of the $1.9 trillion to the vaccines that will actually finish the fight.

They needed to save the other 91 percent of the borrowed money for a vast catalog of liberal spending with basically no relationship whatsoever to beating COVID-19. For example, they want to send wheelbarrows of cash to State and local bureaucrats to bail out mismanagement from before the pandemic. They are changing the previous bipartisan funding formula in ways that will especially bias the money toward big blue States. This outraged a bipartisan group of Governors, largely from middle America, who went on record this week. There are generous new benefit packages for government employees. There are provisions to let abortion providers drain money from rescue programs that were built to save Main Street small businesses. There is a strange new Acela corridor kickback where they will make Medicare send more money to just New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Delaware.

Just looking at the timeframe for all of their spending belies any notion that this is an urgent rescue plan.

Take the K-12 funding which, contrary to science, Democrats say is a prerequisite for opening schools. Ninety-five percent of that supposedly urgent money would not be spent this fiscal year but, instead, over the next 7 years. Let me say that again. Ninety-five percent of the money for K-12 is not going to be spent this year, but over the next 7 years. That is not my definition of an emergency.

Grants for rural healthcare would be on a slow drip out through fiscal 2024. Agriculture-related funds would trickle out over the next--listen to this--over the next decade. It doesn't sound very urgent to me.

What the American people need are fast-acting plans to get schools reopened now, get laid-off workers back into jobs, and finish the fight against this virus right now. The Democrats have, instead, drawn up a liberal omnibus to fund miscellaneous government spending over the next decade.

We are adding all this money to the national debt, and they have a rescue package with most of the money being spent out far in the future. That is why there was bipartisan opposition over in the House. That is why aspects of the House bill are already dropping like flies before this thing even hits the Senate floor.

A pet project for the San Francisco Bay area is gone. Special upgrades for a bridge connecting New York to Canada, gone. Even CNN had to admit these were ``controversial.'' Senator Sanders' far-left minimum wage policy that would have killed 1.4 million jobs just as we try to recover appears to be gone, too--at least for now.

According to public reports, right now, as we speak, several of our Democratic colleagues are frantically trying to trim back other crazy provisions: the runaway government bailouts, the policies that will keep workers at home when we should be focusing on rehiring.

Just a few days ago, President Biden's Chief of Staff bragged that this smorgasbord of borrowed money will add up to ``the most progressive domestic legislation in a generation.''

So that is what you get when the Democratic leader persuades all of my distinguished friends across the aisle that their first undertaking as Senate committee chairmen should be to outsource all their gavels to the House.

The Senate wrote the CARES Act. In the earliest days of the crisis, this Chamber took the bull by the horns. I personally assembled bipartisan task forces that crafted urgent solutions to help America weather the storm.

This time around, on the substance, the Senate has been largely missing in action. House Democrats are bristling and publicly pushing back if our Senate Democratic colleagues even try to make their mark on this partisan bill in small ways.

So these two radically different processes have generated two radically different pieces of legislation.

The Democrats had a choice. They chose to go it alone, tack to the left, leave families' top priorities on the cutting-room floor

Mr. President, on a completely different matter, just 6 weeks into unified Democratic government, we already have another crisis brewing on our southern border. In January, Customs and Border Protection logged more than 78,000 encounters on our southwest border, more than double the figure from January of 2020.

Last week, HHS sources told reporters we just logged the busiest February in the history of the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. The number of kids turning up on our border with no parents is soaring, and everyone expects the numbers to keep climbing.

Now the Biden administration is reportedly planning to reopen the same kinds of emergency shelters over which Democrats vilified the Trump administration a couple of years back. Both President Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security have said this week they don't think this is a crisis. Not a crisis, they say? Well, if this isn't a crisis, with unaccompanied kids pouring in and exceeding the capacity in a pandemic, I would hate to see what one looks like.

The cause of this emergency is not some mystery. It is not mysterious at all. Everybody knows exactly what happened. The new administration explicitly campaigned on weakening border security, and 6 weeks in, they have reversed the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, begun letting more people in in a haphazard way, and broadcast confusing mixed messages.

The L.A. Times says: ``Biden immigration policy stirs confusion at Mexico border.'' They interviewed one woman who crossed the Rio Grande ``on a smuggler's raft'' and was only briefly detained before being released into our country. She explained she had specifically come because of the new Biden administration: ``That gave us the opportunity to come.''

Another reporter put it this way: ``The message received in Tijuana and other Mexican border cities was

simpl[e]: Joe Biden was now letting people in.''

We are not just talking about the fine details of border policy. The big backdrop behind this whole discussion is the sweeping leftwing amnesty plan that the Biden administration unveiled before they were even sworn in. They want to fast-track 11 million illegal immigrants into temporary legal status, then green cards, and then full citizenship.

The far left loves this approach, but so does a certain cross section of Big Business. There is a whole lot of cultural power and economic power pushing the liberal vision. As for the best interest of American workers, well, that is not as trendy a cause in certain circles.

The truth is that it is not helpful or compassionate to just open up our borders. It is not fair to American citizens and workers, but neither is it fair to the people who are being lured into a humanitarian crisis in the middle of a pandemic because they believe this Democratic administration just conspicuously turned on a neon ``Vacancies'' sign.

Republicans just spent 4 years making major headway on the security and humanitarian crisis at our border. It took serious policy changes. It took international diplomacy with multiple countries, and it took border enforcement.

The American people would be better served if the Biden administration had chosen to build on this progress instead of rapidly trying to tear it down.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, earlier this year, my home State of Kentucky said goodbye to Bill Nighbert, a longtime public servant and a kindhearted friend. Both as a local mayor and a statewide official, Bill was instrumental to the achievements of communities across our Commonwealth. Today, I would like to recognize his lifetime of contributions to Kentucky.

As the Gateway to the Cumberlands, the city of Williamsburg holds a special significance not just in Southeastern Kentucky but for the entire Commonwealth. Bill worked several jobs for the city he loved before being elected mayor in 1993. For the next decade, the people of Williamsburg put their trust in him. In return, Bill worked around the clock to deliver for his community. Even in the city's top job, Bill could still be found helping plow snow, deliver goods, or any other job that needed doing. A beloved local splash park is just one tangible example of Bill's leadership and vision for his city.

As a successful mayor, Bill's reputation grew across the Commonwealth. He was elected president of the Kentucky League of Cities in 2002, using his talents to improve communities throughout the Bluegrass. Bill left city hall when Governor Ernie Fletcher tapped him to be deputy commissioner of the Department of Local Government and later the secretary of the Transportation Cabinet. Even as Bill served the entire Commonwealth in Frankfort, he still took care of Whitley County. For instance, he was a driving force in the construction of a new interchange over I-75 near Williamsburg.

Apart from his professional work, Bill was legendary for his ability to make a friend in any situation. I guess you don't become the president of the Optimists Club without a sunny disposition. He was a role model and a little league coach, lending whatever free time he could find to a variety of local organizations.

Of course, Bill's greatest achievement was the love he shared with his wife of 34 years, Susan, as well as his children and their spouses, Brad and Monica, Renee and Chris, and Benton. Anyone who was lucky enough to know Bill could see the immense pride he had in his children and grandchildren. He said they were the reasons he dedicated so much of his life to public service. On behalf of the Senate, I send sincere condolences to Bill's friends and loved ones. We are grateful they shared him with us for so many years. Kentucky was made better as a result.

Mr. President, there has been a lot of discussion about the Democrats' decision to load up their partisan spending bill with liberal items that are completely unrelated to the pandemic.

We are at a key turning point in this crisis. The Nation has just endured a historically painful year. This virus has stolen half a million American lives. It has thrown millions of children out of classrooms and workers out of jobs.

But on every front there seem to be signs we are actually turning the tide.

New cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have been declining. The CDC reports that one in five adult Americans has already received at least one vaccine dose. That is 50-plus million people. One in 10 has gotten both shots. And the supply of vaccines is continuing to ramp up with yet another authorized just last weekend.

Meanwhile, science keeps confirming it is quite safe to get kids and teachers back in the classroom with simple precautions that we can accomplish right now. All indications suggest our economy is poised for a roaring comeback for workers and for families.

This crossroads should give Washington a golden opportunity. We could get together on a bipartisan basis like we did five times last year-- five times--and pass more targeted policies to help finish the fight and get the American people their jobs, their schools, their lives, and their country back.

A number of Senate Republicans went to the White House just days after President Biden was sworn in, proposing we continue the streak of overwhelming bipartisanship that has designed the COVID-19 response all this time. Our Democratic colleagues said no; they wanted to go it alone. And when you look at their partisan bill, you can certainly see why.

Less than 9 percent of their massive proposal would go to the core healthcare fight against COVID-19. Listen to this: Less than 1 percent goes to vaccinations.

You see, they had to leave room for all the completely unrelated, leftwing pet priorities, like sending $350 billion to bail out long- mismanaged State and local governments, multiple times the expert estimate of COVID needs; things like massive expansion and ObamaCare subsidies that would disproportionately benefit wealthier people; things like handcrafted tweaks to Medicare so it pays more money to just three States: Rhode Island, New Jersey, and the President's home State of Delaware. You might call it a special kickback for the Acela Corridor.

They had to make room to bankroll things like underground rail in Silicon Valley, upgrading a bridge from New York to Canada, and giving Planned Parenthood access to taxpayer money meant to rescue mom-and-pop Main Street businesses.

Sadly, the parts that actually do relate to the pandemic aren't much better. At the same time that Democrats refuse to follow the science on in-person schooling, they want to pass a massive new set of deluxe benefits for Federal Government employees, including 15 weeks of paid vacation for folks whose children have the option--just the option--of virtual or even hybrid learning.

They want to keep schools closed and then pay a special bonus only to parents who are Federal employees because--because their schools are closed.

Now, this isn't a recipe to safely reopen America. To the degree that it even addresses the pandemic, it is more like a plan to keep it shut down.

Mostly, it is just what Democrats promised almost a year ago: taking advantage of the crisis to check off unrelated liberal policies.

Now, Mr. President, on another matter, we recently learned that Iran has balked at the prospect of direct nuclear negotiations with the United States and Europe. This sort of resistance and gamesmanship is nothing new. We have seen this before.

Iran has long flouted international restrictions on its nuclear program, played hide-and-seek with U.N. inspectors, and failed to disclose the full scope of its nuclear research. This happened before, during, and after the Obama administration's Iran deal.

Now, thanks to the firm approach taken by the Republican administration which restored much of the leverage President Obama had thrown away, President Biden inherited a much, much stronger negotiating position.

Let me make it clear. Republicans do not oppose nuclear diplomacy. We hope the administration will secure a better, stronger, and more lasting deal than President Obama's, but to do so, President Biden's team must avoid the mistakes of the JCPOA.

Here is how you do that: coordinate closely with the partners and allies who are most immediately threatened by Tehran; treat Congress as a partner to be consulted, not a problem to be managed; and, most importantly, don't give up any leverage for free.

Of course the mullahs are playing coy. They want concessions before they even come to the table. In December, after President Biden was elected, Iran's Parliament reaffirmed their intent to continue acting out if sanctions were not eased.

Well, I hope it is only the Iranians and not the administration's negotiators who need this reminder: Look, the United States holds all the cards. President Biden is the Commander in Chief of a superpower. There are no circumstances--none--in which Iran should get money for nothing. And there is no need to rush into the talks.

The administration should take care not to squander our upper hand just to spite the last administration, nor should President Biden's team discount the value of the growing regional unity against Iran that is embodied in the new Abraham Accords.

Every day, headlines remind the world of the threat Iran and its proxies pose to peace and security. For example, the Iranian journalist, Ruhollah Zam, was lured back to the region from Europe, kidnapped, and hanged after a sham trial just in December.

The Lebanese activist, Lokman Slim, was an outspoken critic of Hezbollah until he was shot dead in his car.

The regime has kept escalating its support of the Houthi rebels in Yemen, sending in deadlier, longer range weapons, and inciting terrorist threats.

The Houthis have escalated attacks on Yemen's neighbors, including in civilian areas, and launched a military offensive that jeopardizes the peace negotiations being undertaken by U.N. Special Envoy Martin Griffiths.

Just last week, an Israeli civilian shipping vessel pulled into port with gaping damage from a missile attack, and Tehran's pet militias in Iraq have fired rocket barrages against our own American diplomatic and military facilities. They are communicating to the Biden administration in the mullahs' preferred language: violence.

Like I said over the weekend, President Biden is right to respond to this threat by authorizing strikes against targets belonging to Iranian proxy groups--the right decision--and he is right to recognize the need for new binding and enforceable constraints on Iran's nuclear capabilities, but, ultimately, we need a comprehensive approach to confronting Iran. It must be built on bipartisan foundations to endure for administrations and Congresses yet to come.

To get there--to get there, the administration must continue to meet Iranian aggression from a position of strength and consult closely with Congress for the sake of our own security and that of our friends and partners in the Ayatollah's backyard.

Madam President, once again, our communities across my home State of Kentucky are enduring the aftermath of severe--very severe--weather. From east to west, heavy rains have drenched the Commonwealth. Sadly, some of the hardest hit areas were still in the midst of trying to recover from last month's dangerous ice and snow. Emergency crews, first responders, and now the Kentucky National Guard are continuing to work around the clock to prevent this bad situation from becoming entirely tragic.

An entire nursing home in Magoffin County was evacuated as a safety precaution. Feet of water submerged vehicles and caused power outages in Calloway County.

Wolfe County firefighters followed the light of a cell phone and saved a family of five who had been trapped in their car.

Once again, Kentucky's brave first responders are stepping up at a time of need. We are all grateful for their dedicated efforts and praying for their safety.

All Kentuckians can help the first responders by continuing to follow the recommendations of local emergency personnel. My team and I are closely monitoring the situation, and we will be ready to assist however we can.

On another matter, at about 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, House Democrats rammed through the bonanza of partisan spending they are calling a pandemic rescue package. Only Democrats voted for it. Both Republicans and Democrats voted against it.

Last year, under a Republican Senate and a Republican administration, Congress passed five historic coronavirus relief bills--five of them. Not one of the five bills got fewer than 90 votes in the Senate or less than about 80 percent over in the House.

Ah, but alas, this time Democrats have chosen to go a completely partisan route. Even famous liberal economists and liberal editorial boards are saying their half-baked plan is poorly targeted to what families needed.

We have gone from passing public relief with 80 percent and 90 percent bipartisan supermajorities last year to the Speaker of the House ramming this through with just 50.7 percent of the House on Friday night. The bill contains all kinds of liberal spending on pet projects with no relationship whatsoever to pandemic relief.

Remember, we are almost to the 1-year anniversary of a leading House Democrat admitting they see this whole crisis as ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.''

So, sorry to all the American families who have just been hoping to get their jobs back, their schools back, and their lives back. Democrats are more interested in some restructuring. That is why only 1 percent--1 percent--of this huge package goes directly to vaccinations--1 percent for vaccinations. That is why it proposes another 12-digit sum of Federal funding for K-12 schools, even though science shows those schools can be made safe right now. About 95 percent of that funding won't even go out this fiscal year. Ninety-five percent of the school funding in this bill won't go out this year. And this is an emergency package?

That is why they are pushing economic policies that would drag down our recovery--like the House's vote for a one-size-fits-all minimum wage policy that would kill 1.4 million jobs or continuing to pay laid- off workers a premium to stay home that would extend well into a recovery where job growth and rehiring will be pivotal.

Whenever their long-term liberal dreams came into conflict with what Americans actually need right now, Democrats decided their ideology should win out.

Well, it doesn't have to be this way. We could have built more practical policies to help the American people move forward. Some Senate Republicans literally went down to the White House and proposed that both sides work together, like we did five times last year. The administration declined. So this is where we are: a bad process, a bad bill, and a missed opportunity to do right by working families.

Now, on one final matter, last weekend brought disconcerting headlines for the supporters of freedom and democracy in Asia. In Burma the military junta's month-long coup turned bloody. Eighteen protesters have been murdered and at least a thousand civilian officials have been imprisoned on farcical grounds.

In Hong Kong, China's puppet regime arrested 47 democracy advocates, including some who helped draw millions to the streets in peaceful protests in 2019, and are now holding them without bail.

Unfortunately, in both places, this sort of repression has become a familiar part of life, and it could be a dark preview of developments elsewhere if the free world does not act.

Even as Burma's civilian government made history in 2015, the military made clear it would keep using cronyism and constitutional manipulation to obstruct real popular control. In last year's election, the people overwhelmingly demanded true democracy and economic transparency, but that also raised the risk for those working publicly to make permanent reforms.

The military's detention spree has hit Burma's civilian leaders, including people like Mya Aye, a longtime Muslim pro-democracy leader. It has also swept up some of the brightest economic reformers working to fight corruption and grow prosperity--brave men like Bo Bo Nge, who spent years locked away in Burma's Insein prison in the 1980s and 1990s, built a successful life abroad, and returned to help the civilian government craft economic reforms.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that this Washington Post article detailing Bo Bo Nge's story be printed in the Record.

Madam President, even foreign nationals have been subjected to unjustified detention. The world is closely watching the case of Sean Turnell, an Australian scholar who has spent years helping Burma's civilian leaders unlock its economic potential.

The administration has been right to condemn the junta and to consult with Congress on an appropriate response. But as Burma's protesters begin to pay the ultimate price for speaking out, the United States must make it clear that military and police officials will face crippling costs of their own. This should include the military-owned holding companies, which have deep roots in Burma's economy. It is time to lead an international effort to support the people of Burma.

It is also time to strengthen our calls for an international response to China's shameless human rights abuses, beginning with Hong Kong. Another round of arrests in the last several days has sent a new wave of student activists to prison with no due process. They join veteran pro-democracy performers like my friends Martin Lee and Jimmy Lai, who were already rounded up.

The United States cannot outsource our moral authority in championing democracy around the world. When we stay silent, the voice of the international community is channeled through forums where the most notorious human rights abusers preside over their own trials.

The ironically named U.N. Human Rights Council boasts a membership including such paragons of virtue as the Russian Federation, which has begun sending residents to prison for non-state-sanctioned religious beliefs; and Venezuela, whose rap sheet the

State Department spells out as ``arbitrary detention,'' ``forced disappearances,'' and ``extrajudicial killings''; and Cuba, whose government exports repressive tools to countries like Venezuela; and, of course, the People's Republic of China itself, where the hypocrisy stretches from repression in Hong Kong to internment and torture of the Uighur people in Xinjiang.

The Biden administration has advertised a foreign policy focused on human rights and democracy and quite publicly announced its intention to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council. Fine, let Burma and Hong Kong and Xinjiang and Belarus be tests of this administration's approach to the council. But the White House must not put much trust into this corrupted institution. We should be uniting like-minded democracies around actions that the United Nations panels are either unwilling or unable to take. With respect to Hong Kong, the prior administration took several concrete steps, from closing PRC investment loopholes in Hong Kong to opposing targeted sanctions.

Now is the time for the Biden administration to show its resolve as it confronts serious tests of its own.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, next week, House Democrats say they will try to recycle failed legislation that would have Washington Democrats grab unprecedented power over how America conducts its elections and how American citizens can engage in political speech.

For several years now, we have seen the political left grow less interested in having normal policy debates within our governing institutions and more interested in attacking the institutions themselves to tilt the playing field in their side's favor.

When their side loses a Presidential election, it is not their fault; it is the electoral college's. When they don't like a Supreme Court's decision, it is time to threaten the Justices or pack the Court. When longstanding Senate rules threaten to frustrate far-left proposals, it is the Senate rules they want to change. And now House Democrats want to try to use their slim majority to unilaterally rewrite and nationalize election law itself. They want to use the temporary power the voters have granted them to try to ensure they will never have to relinquish it.

This year's version of the House Democrats' legislation contains the same bad ideas as their efforts 2 years ago. For example, when the Federal Election Commission was created after Watergate with the sensitive job of regulating American politics, it was designed to require bipartisan consensus. House Democrats want to scrap those rules and turn the FEC from an even-numbered body, bipartisan body, to an odd-numbered partisan body so Democrats can dominate it. Then they want to hand the newly partisan FEC new authorities to scrutinize and regulate an even wider share of political speech and private citizens' activities. Or take election law itself--House Democrats have looked at the division and the disunity of the last several months and decided that what American elections really need is a one-size-fits-all partisan rewrite by one side here in Washington.

In our country, States and localities run elections. Those of us in the Federal Government do not get a stranglehold over the ways in which voters decide our fates. But House Democrats want to change that. Their bill would take prudential questions about early voting, registration, and no-excuse absentee balloting and resolve them one way for the entire Nation. They want to force all 50 States to allow the absurd practice of ballot harvesting, where paid operatives can show up at polling places carrying a thick stack of filled-out ballots with other people's names on them. They want to forbid States from implementing voter ID or doing simple things like checking their voter rolls against change-of-address submissions. They want to mandate no-excuse mail-in balloting as a permanent norm, post-pandemic. And--I promise I am not making this up--their bill proposes to directly fund political campaigns with Federal tax dollars. They want to raise money through new financial penalties, which the government would then use to fund campaigns and consultants. It is a strange idea. It takes a minute to kind of wrap your head around it. They want the Federal Government itself to send money for things like political ads that half the country disagrees with. What a bizarre concept that nobody is asking for.

This sweeping Federal takeover would be exactly the wrong response to the distressing lack of faith in our elections that we have recently seen from both political sides.

After both 2016 and 2020, we saw significant numbers of Americans on the losing side express doubt in the validity of the result. As recently as late last September, fewer than half of Democrats said they were confident the 2020 election would be free and fair. Just weeks later, however, by mid-November, once things had gone the way they wanted, Democrats' confidence in the election magically skyrocketed up to 90 percent. We cannot keep trending toward a future where Americans' confidence in elections is purely a function of which side won.

A sweeping power grab by House Democrats, forcibly rewriting 50 States' election laws, would shove us further and faster down that path. In this country, if the people who win elections want to hold on to power, they need to perform well, pass sound policies, and earn the support of the voters again. House Democrats do not get to take their razor-thin majority, which voters just shrunk, and use it to steamroll States and localities to try to prevent themselves from losing even more seats the next time. Protecting democracy cannot be a partisan issue

Mr. President, on a completely different matter, this week, the institution of the Senate is losing a talented leader who has spent 6 years as one of our top officials.

The Secretary of the Senate is a truly unique position in American Government. She or he is essentially the chief administrative officer of the institution itself. Back in the 18th century, that meant keeping the minutes and records and making sure people had ink for their quills. Today, it means managing a sprawling array of offices packed with career professionals, everything from parliamentary procedure to payroll, to public records, to the Senate Library and the page school and much more. The Secretary also fulfills key institutional functions. She or he signs every act that we pass. They carry formal messages to other branches of our government.

It takes major smarts, guts, integrity, and people skills just to survive in this mammoth job, let alone to actually thrive in it, but for the last 6 years, Julie Adams hasn't just survived, she hasn't just personally thrived; she has strengthened the entire institution of the Senate.

I first met Julie back in 2003 when we hired her to help out our press team. I was just starting my time as Republican whip. Julie was new to Washington, but she wasn't new to policy or to politics, and she knocked everyone's socks off right from the start. She combined diligence and professionalism with a heart of gold. She mastered her day job, volunteered for tasks above and beyond, and became the whole office's favorite teammate.

Of course, nobody is perfect; for example, Julie is not a Kentuckian. She is a proud daughter of Iowa. But trust me, she has become an honorary citizen of the Commonwealth many times over.

A few years later, she was stolen away to do important work for First Lady Laura Bush, but in 2009, we brought her back to coordinate operations and administration across both my personal office and my leadership office. She brought great judgment, a quick mind, stellar instincts, and a meticulous eye to a big job and made us all a whole lot better. From short-term crises to long-term relationships, Julie can do it all.

While perpetually juggling 10 tasks for herself, she always found ways to look after everyone else. She made sure each of her colleagues, down to the most junior, got the attention and the resources they needed. Everyone was included. Everyone mattered. She made sure of it.

Her talent and skills made Julie an easy choice for Secretary of the Senate after we took the majority in 2014. Now, there is always the potential for sensitivity when a new leader, appointed by a Senate leader of one party, comes in to oversee huge numbers of dedicated, long-serving, nonpartisan specialists. Not surprisingly,

Julie rapidly won the admiration, affection, and trust of the men and women under the Secretary's umbrella. She has championed the professionals who make this place go. She empowered them. She stuck up for them and made sure they were properly insulated from political pressure.

Everyone knows Julie puts this institution and its rules first. Staff trust her. Senators on both sides trust her. Leaders across other branches of government trust her. She plays everything down the middle with total integrity.

And amid all of this, she maintained the generous spirit that everyone admires. Whether she is delivering official Senate correspondence to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Secretary of State or checking in with a Senate employee on a birthday or during a tough personal time, everyone gets the same friendly ``hello'' and sincere kindness from Julie Adams.

Alas, it is customary to have a new Secretary of the Senate when there is a change in party control. Tomorrow is Julie's last day. I am really, really sorry to say good-bye to such a key player.

So on behalf of the whole Senate, I want to thank Julie's proud parents, Dr. Harold and Leah Adams; her siblings, John and Jessica; and her beloved canine companion Maggie for sharing this great friend and essential colleague with us for many years.

Julie, you made your family proud, you made me proud, and, most importantly, you have been a great credit to this institution. Thank you, sincerely, for your service.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, yesterday, I discussed the K-12 crisis facing American families. The science shows that in-person schooling can easily be made safe. Private and religious schools and schools in Europe have been open for months.

But Washington Democrats have apparently bought into Big Labor's myth that schools cannot reopen without even more Federal funding, even though their own plan would only spend about 5 percent--5 percent of the money this fiscal year.

This is just one illustration of how Democrats started with preconceived ideological goals and actually worked backward, instead of starting with the actual needs of American families.

Let's take a look at the economy. When we had to stall our economy to protect our health system, the Senate wrote the bipartisan CARES Act, the biggest rescue package in American history. It spent $2.2 trillion to save the healthcare system, find vaccines, and support families. We refilled many of those programs with another $920 billion just last December.

Today, we stand at a very different kind of crossroads. More than 13 percent of Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Manufacturers expect vaccine supply to keep ramping up dramatically in the weeks ahead.

The trillions we spent on rescue policies in 2020 had the economy prepped to come roaring back as health conditions keep improving.

Unemployment today is already lower than where, at one point in this crisis, the Federal Reserve predicted it would be by the end of the year. In some blue-collar sectors, both total employment and job openings are already higher than they were before the pandemic. Retail sales just smashed experts' predictions. Many manufacturers can't keep pace with demand.

Remarkably, even as economic output obviously shrunk in 2020, overall household personal income and personal savings actually went up. That is because of the relief Congress delivered.

There is no question that some American families are still struggling. Nobody thinks our health or economic fight is finished yet, but on a broad national scale, households are sitting on an historic pile of pent-up cash, waiting for the economy to reopen.

The former head of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers says:

We have no historic parallel with anything like this level

of excess saving.

He says we have never seen this much ``dry powder.''

Even mainstream liberal economists agree that our country does not need another massive fire hose of borrowed money. This is not April of 2020. This is a different chapter. Washington should focus on practical policies to finish this fight: accelerate vaccinations; get kids back in school; help the families and small businesses that actually need help; and get laid-off Americans matched with job openings ASAP.

Unfortunately, the Democrats' partisan proposal would not just be wasteful but, in certain ways, actually counterproductive. It would have Washington go out of its way to discourage hiring, discourage a return to work, and actually keep things shut down longer.

Take the minimum wage policy. The CBO says this abrupt, one-size- fits-all change would kill about 1\1/2\ times as many jobs as the number of workers it would lift out of poverty.

Or take their proposal for another long-term extension of a big Federal supplement to unemployment benefits. Even in the middle of last year, it was questionable policy to pay people more to stay home than essential workers were earning while actually on the job. Now another long-term, flat supplement would make even less sense.

Here is how one leading economist puts it:

In an expanding economy that is putting the virus behind

it, paying people more in unemployment than they could

receive from working is an act of substantial economic self-

harm. It would keep workers on the sidelines, stop the

unemployment rate from falling as rapidly as it otherwise

would, and slow the overall recovery.

Then there is the $350 billion bailout for State and local governments, many of whom have already seen revenues and receipts rebound. It is several multiples of any sober estimate of the actual need. Apparently, even Senators on the Democratic side are trying to pare back this absurd request--just one more way this proposal seems to be stuck back in April of last year.

I haven't even talked about the hundreds of millions of dollars for pet projects without a shred of relevance to the pandemic or the recovery--money for ``climate justice,'' transportation earmarks for the Democratic leader's home State--all kinds of liberal wish list items that would do nothing to help American families put COVID behind them. Just about 1 percent of the money is for vaccines, so either the new administration has completely taken their eye off the ball or they were not actually starting from scratch at all, like they claimed. Only 5 percent of the education funding would even go out this fiscal year. Only 5 percent of the education funding would go out this fiscal year.

Our own Senate Democratic colleagues are reportedly admitting parts

of this are poorly targeted. Liberal economists and the Washington Post's editorial board are saying Americans deserve more bang for their buck--a predictably chilly reception for a partisan bill that started with an outdated, ideological wish list instead of the current needs of American families.

Mr. President, millions of American kids in the public school system have been robbed of a year, and counting, of anything resembling a proper education. It has been a historically tough year. That is why Americans are so excited our Nation appears to be approaching a major turning point.

Here are just a few recent headlines:

A U.S. Vaccine Surge Is Coming, With Millions of Doses

Promised

Another headline:

America's vaccine rollout has been among the best in the

world

Another headline:

CDC finds scant spread of coronavirus in schools with

precautions in place

Here is one from my home State:

COVID-19 cases plummet in Kentucky nursing homes, a key

target for the vaccine

So let's take a look at the economy:

U.S. Retail Sales Surprise With Sharpest Advance in Seven

Months

Blue-Collar Jobs Boom as COVID-19 Boosts Housing, E-

Commerce Demand

Another headline:

Consumer Demand Snaps Back. Factories Can't Keep Up.

To be clear, this isn't over. The battle is not won yet. But the day is approaching when we will be able to end this defensive crouch and safely reclaim our normal lives.

Last year the Senate built the largest peacetime fiscal expansion in American history. We spent $4 trillion on five overwhelmingly bipartisan packages. The most recent became law just 2 months ago. Funding for hospitals and providers kept our healthcare system above water. The Paycheck Protection Program saved Main Street small businesses. Direct relief and extra unemployment aid helped working families endure the shutdown. Operation Warp Speed laid the groundwork for our historic sprint toward vaccinations.

These were strong, bipartisan policies, targeted to what families specifically needed to wage the war, but today Democrats are steamrolling ahead with a massive spending plan on a completely partisan basis. It did not receive a single House Republican vote in committee yesterday because their partisan plan is not targeted toward helping Americans reclaim their lives and their country from this invader. Instead, here is what it is: a combination of miscellaneous, non-COVID-related, liberal wish-list items and the kinds of bandaid policies that make a defensive crouch slightly less painful but don't help get us back on offense.

Let's take a look at K-12 schooling. Until very recently, the new administration's own scientists had been crystal clear. Earlier this month, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said:

There is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely

reopen.

A major CDC study found in-person schooling does not--not--fuel community transmission.

Last month, Dr. Fauci said:

It's less likely for a child to get infected in the school

setting than if they were just in the community.

But Big Labor special interests didn't appreciate science undercutting their political goals. The empire struck back, and the Democratic leaders who love to claim the mantle of science ran away from the science as fast as they could. Now the CDC Director admits that ``the lived experiences''--whatever that is--of government employees got between the hard science and the final guidance. It is a lot of points for candor.

The unions had spoken. The goalposts were on the move. And the White House keeps endorsing the idea that schools need the Democrats' new spending plan to reopen, when the science disagrees. And furthermore, just 5 percent--5 percent--of what they propose to spend on schools would even be spent this year. Let me say that again. In this big COVID package, only 5 percent of what they propose to spend on schools would be spent this year. In other words, the spendout is over years ahead. You would think their view is, we are never going to get over the coronavirus.

The United Kingdom just announced they will have kids back in school in less than 2 weeks--2 weeks. Countries like Spain and France have had kids in classrooms for months already. The European Centre for Disease Prevention has no problem affirming the science--that closing schools is ``unlikely to provide significant additional protection of children's health.'' Even here at home, private and religious schools have been teaching kids in person for months without causing any explosion in the spread of the virus.

Science tells us unambiguously that in-person schooling can be quite safe and that having young children spend all day staring into a laptop is a nightmare. The evidence is crystal clear. Big Labor bureaucrats keep refusing to follow the science.

In my hometown of Louisville, our union-backed school board vice chairman now asserts, with no evidence:

I think we're probably likely to see better instructional

outcomes . . . if we stay [remote] for the rest of the school

year.

Ridiculous. No facts. No evidence. Just a personal whim. These are the people controlling our kids' futures and their parents' lives.

One anonymous teacher told reporters:

We already have a schedule and a routine going. We don't

need to be babysitting for six weeks because parents are

upset.

Let me say that again.

One anonymous teacher told reporters that we already have a schedule and a routine going. We don't need to be babysitting for 6 weeks because parents are upset.

By the way, failing grades in middle schools are up 388 percent in our county. Failing grades in middle schools are up 388 percent in our county while these kids are stuck at home.

The Biden administration has a clear obligation to tackle the special interest madness head-on. Our kids are suffering, not because science says they must be--it doesn't. It is just because a small group of powerful grownups has decided they prefer it this way. Instead, the White House keeps parroting the anti-science myths. They back this notion that schools need the Democrats' new spending plan before they can reopen, except that science completely disagrees--completely; except that only a tiny fraction of the funding request would even be spent this fiscal year.

Our children's futures are literally at stake. The administration has got to stop taking orders from the public sector unions that give generously to Democratic campaigns. This is exhibit A in why relief legislation must be targeted to the actual needs we face now. American families should be the starting point, not preconceived political priorities.

Madam President, families across Kentucky are recovering from a week of punishing winter weather. As many as 154,000 Kentuckians lost heat and power, particularly across the eastern parts of the Commonwealth. Treacherous road conditions and fallen power lines made it a challenge to get help to those in need. Over the weekend, we learned that multiple lives were tragically lost in the aftermath of these storms, but as they always do, Kentuckians sprang into action.

Electric co-op linemen, first responders, and the Kentucky National Guard worked around the clock to clear debris and to restore power. Crews set up warming shelters and performed countless wellness checks. Churches, local businesses, and citizens distributed food, blankets, and other supplies.

So we are grateful for those who joined the response to help their neighbors and to help them stay safe.

Unfortunately, while temperatures are climbing above freezing, thousands remain without power. My staff and I continue to stay in close contact with local and State officials. Along with the rest of the Kentucky delegation, we are focused and ready to help in the recovery.