Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, last week, American families' pain was confirmed by yet another round of awful statistics. Year-on-year inflation set a new 40-year high in June. The painful fallout of Washington Democrats' 2021 spending binge continues to spread. A loaf of bread costs the American consumer 10 percent more than it did a year ago. A dozen eggs will run you 33 percent more. The price of a gallon of gas, of course, rose more than 100 percent on Democrats' watch.

Across the board, the American people's hard-earned dollars are not going nearly as far as before Democrats' inflation. Even as nominal wages rise, millions of families have seen their real income decrease; a net pay cut for workers, courtesy of Washington Democrats' runaway spending. No wonder three out of four Americans--three out of four--say inflation is causing them financial hardship. Seventy-five percent of the country is in a tough spot.

Of course, it is not affecting everyone equally. The lowest earning Americans consistently spend larger portions of their incomes on the sort of essentials that are most expensive right now, from housing to fuel, to groceries. And workers in blue-collar industries are among those having the hardest time

keeping up. U.S. manufacturing workers are seeing their lowest average earnings--adjusted for inflation--since 2014, while the overall private-sector workforce is seeing wages at 2019 levels.

Unfortunately, these hardships show little sign of slowing anytime soon. Last month's core inflation, when compared to just a few months earlier, is actually accelerating. So we have got the worst inflation since 1981. The vast majority of Americans are saying it has them in a bind financially. And it is low- and middle-income families who are actually bearing the brunt of it.

This, Madam President, is the landscape as Washington Democrats keep trying to force even more party-line liberal bills with even more new Washington spending and--for a bonus--a bonus--massive new tax hikes. For the better part of a year, our colleagues have been trying to cook up legislation that would make life harder for small businesses, attack affordable American energy, and hike income taxes on families in every single tax bracket.

Apparently, for most Washington Democrats, spending the country into inflation actually wasn't enough. Now, for a second act, they want to tax us into a recession. The response for Democrats robbing American families once cannot be for Democrats to rob American families a second time.

Mr. President, after more than 50 years as a pillar of Owensboro, KY, news media, Keith Lawrence is retiring. As the Messenger-Inquirer's longest tenured reporter, Keith was his community's ever-present voice, covering stories that ranged from local businesses to U.S. Presidents. As the city's mayor put so well, Keith ``will be hard to replace.'' Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Keith in his retirement.

Keith has written for one newspaper or another since September 1963, when he first discovered his passion for journalism in high school. He cut his teeth during his undergraduate years at Murray State University writing for the Murray State News. After graduating, Keith entered the military, stationing in Fort Hood, TX. Loathe to give up any opportunity to write, he helped publish newsletters on base and worked at the post's newspaper.

Following his military service and some short stints at a series of weeklies, Keith and his wife Sandy made their way to Owensboro, where he began his extensive career at the Messenger-Inquirer in 1972. Though he has covered local, State, and national stories, community journalism always remained his top priority. Keith felt he needed to be the ``eyes and ears'' of his readers.

Keith's journalistic gifts have earned him fans both in Owensboro and across the wider Commonwealth. He recently received the Mayor's Award for Excellence for his commitment to community coverage and joined the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Throughout my time in office, Keith has been a constant at any of the events I held in Owensboro. He asked insightful questions, squarely focused on how my work in the Senate affected his city.

Though he is taking a step back from his position at the Messenger- Inquirer, Keith plans to continue his column and write news stories as a freelancer. Anyone who knows Keith shouldn't be surprised. He will always live and breathe community journalism. For Keith, his work with the Messenger-Inquirer was more than just a job; it gave him a home in which his family flourished and provided a deep bond to his city.

In honor of Keith's retirement, I would like to thank him for his service to the Commonwealth and persistent loyalty to strong local journalism. He has delivered an invaluable service to Owensboro residents for more than 50 years.

The Messenger-Inquirer paid tribute to Keith's career in a recent article. I ask unanimous consent that the article be printed in the Record.

Madam President, yesterday's CPI report told Americans what they already knew all too well: The disastrous effects of Washington Democrats' spending binge last year still have our economy in a vice grip.

Year-on-year, inflation has hit 9.1 percent for the first time since the fallout of the Carter administration. And the signs are inescapable. Price hikes on everything from food to fuel to housing are setting new multidecade highs.

A shopper out in Oregon told a reporter recently she doesn't buy beef anymore. Here is what she said:

We kind of try to eat what we have while we have it.

Yesterday, we learned exactly what she and millions of Americans are up against: the fastest rising grocery prices since 1979.

In Nevada, the owner of a local diner says:

My concerns are that my food costs have escalated

dramatically. I used to gut wrench about [raising menu

prices] 2 or 3 percent. Now it is way more than that just to

keep my doors open.

Yesterday's report says he is not alone. Nationwide prices for food outside the home haven't risen this fast since back in 1981. And this new reality is especially frustrating for those working to help.

As the head of one South Dakota food bank put it, ``The donation load seemed to lighten up. . . . When we give out food boxes, they're not as full as they used to be.''

Right as working families are struggling the most, so are the organizations trying to help them. Just one more cruel twist of Washington Democrats' runaway inflation.

One of the first and most painful consequences of the Biden administration's failed policies have been the soaring costs of energy. Remember, on their party's watch, the cost of heating a home rose by double-digit percentages last winter. Electricity prices climbed at their fastest rate since 2006. Prices at the gas pump have doubled since President Biden took office. One Pennsylvania woman said that ever since her heating bill skyrocketed last winter, she has had to scale back her spending big time. Here is what she had to say:

I need to hide under my bed and save every dollar I can.

And in Maryland, one retiree reports that ``skyrocketing gas prices mean that visits to the local library--about 5 miles round trip--no longer feel free.''

From day one, the Biden administration has worked overtime to make it

harder to produce the most affordable and reliable forms of energy that Americans rely on at home. Now, as their radical climate agenda takes its toll on domestic production, millions of Americans are facing the possibility--listen to this--of summer blackouts.

The heartland, the West, and the Southwest face the highest risks. The people of Arizona and Nevada, for example, are already at what experts call ``elevated risk'' for this summer.

Are Arizonans and Nevadans clamoring for a new tax hike on natural gas electricity on top of everything else? I doubt it. Are they desperate to double down on the very unreliable green sources that set us up for these blackouts in the first place? I don't think so.

Our electric grid is overburdened already, but Democrats apparently want to strain it even more by eliminating the most reliable sources of energy we have, all the while spending hundreds of billions on schemes that depend on Chinese minerals, components, and supply chains.

Trading American energy independence for less reliable sources that depend on forced child labor and foreign producers with questionable environmental standards--really, is this what our colleagues think will usher in a big transition to green daydreams?

Washington Democrats are the only ones who would define higher energy costs and lower reliability as a victory. Real-life Americans know that higher costs and rolling blackouts are just two more symptoms of a failed government with failed leadership pushing failed policies.

Working families are still reeling from the time Democrats decided to spend us into inflation. They have got no appetite for being taxed into recession.

Madam President, this morning, this all-Democratic government produced yet another absolutely terrible, terrible inflation report. Inflation during the month of June shattered the experts' predictions. We are now--listen to this--at 9.1 percent annual inflation; yet another fresh 40-year high, the most out-of-control inflation that American families have seen since the early 1980s. Food costs are up more than 10 percent. Energy costs are up more than 40 percent. The costs of the fuel that drives us to work, delivers our goods, and drives our economy are all up over 60 percent.

These are staggeringly--staggeringly--bad numbers. And they were fueled directly by the reckless spending spree that the Democrats rammed through on party lines just last year.

Remember, right before the $2 trillion spending spree, President Biden said:

The biggest risk is not going too big . . . it's if we go

too small.

The Senate Democratic leader said:

I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the

near-term, are very real.

These were gigantic--gigantic--unforced errors. One leading economist recently said the so-called American Rescue Plan was ``arguably the biggest fiscal policy mistake in several decades.''

Our core inflation rate here in America is more than 2 percentage points higher than in Europe. Inflation is uniquely bad here because our all-Democratic government has made uniquely bad choices. And now American families are dealing with the fallout every single day.

It is no secret how much the American people disapprove of the course Washington Democrats have put us on. They say so in poll after poll after poll. So you might think by now that our colleagues would be ready to try a different approach.

Well, guess again. President Biden and his party, fresh off of spending America into inflation, now want to tax-hike us into recession. They are behind closed doors playing around with what may amount to the single largest tax increase in American history. Tucked inside are exactly the sort of radical ideas that working families can least afford right now.

They want a giant tax hike on passthrough small businesses, a category--listen to this--that encompasses 95 percent of all businesses in the country--95 percent of them. Take it from a constituent of mine in Mount Sterling, KY, who put it this way:

Small business is already in a struggle to survive with all

the taxes and regulations we have to deal with. Adding

another tax is only making things worse.

Democrats also want a so-called ``methane fee'' that amounts to a big new tax hike on domestic natural gas, while their inflation has pushed American families' natural gas prices and electricity costs up through the roof already.

If following reckless spending and runaway inflation with a gigantic, painful tax hike sounds like a bad idea to you, believe me, you are not alone. Even some House Democrats are lighting their hair on fire over what a terrible idea these discussions are.

One House Democrat from New Jersey is telling reporters that she is ``not

for any type of legislation that raises taxes . . . especially right now, as my constituents are facing inflation, cost of living [increases] . . . [and] housing prices.''

Well, let me put it this way. When House Democrats from the Northeast start trying to sound more like Ronald Reagan running against Jimmy Carter, you know they have gotten themselves into a fix.

Too bad every single House Democrat except one and every single Senate Democrat voted for the $2 trillion mistake that brought us to where we are. The Democrats complaining about inflation today voted in lockstep for the bill that brought us here. And now their answer to picking families' pockets once is to now pick the families' pockets yet a second time. The same Democrats that spent us into inflation now want to tax us into recession.

Madam President, now on an entirely different matter, this week, I have been discussing the historic term the Supreme Court just concluded--the most consequential and pro-Constitution term since Brown overturned Plessy almost 70 years ago.

Back in 2015, in one fell swoop, the Obama-Biden administration took aim at domestic energy production, harmed the separation of powers, and attacked the rule of law.

Remember, after Americans elected Republicans in 2010 to place a check on the leftwing agenda, President Obama infamously said he would just ignore the will of the people and work around Congress. Here was his quote. He said, ``I've got a pen.'' He said, ``I've got a phone.''

Thus began a whole series of unconstitutional power grabs by the executive branch, a sort of crime spree against the Constitution. For example, when Democrats could not get harmful and unpopular environmental restrictions through Congress because the people's duly elected representatives did not support them, the bureaucrats at the Obama EPA decided to pretend that some obscure lines in an old law actually gave them enormous sweeping regulatory powers to manage our economy which nobody had ever noticed before.

The EPA effectively wrote and passed a giant piece of legislation, the so-called Clean Power Plan, as one branch of government acting alone. They tried to make law without involving actual lawmakers. The Obama EPA just up and decided they could start giving orders and issuing edicts and remake our country's electricity grid by brute force.

Of course, the pretext was simply false.

As Justice Scalia once wrote, ``Congress . . . does not alter the fundamental details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions--it does not, one might say, hide elephants in mouse holes.''

When the legislative branch actually intends to hand over giant chunks of our power to unelected bureaucrats, we make it pretty darn clear. The Obama-Biden EPA had no lawful authority to grab control of electricity generation all across America. And that is exactly what the Supreme Court affirmed last month.

The ruling was a huge win for American ratepayers and anybody who wants affordable and reliable energy; but it was also a landmark legal victory for our very system of government. The Supreme Court applied the plain text of the law and reaffirmed that the unelected administrative state is not allowed to reach way beyond the powers that Congress has actually given it. With any luck, this will be part of a sea change that has been a long time coming.

Remember a few months ago, a young district judge in Florida applied the plain, straightforward text of a statute and overturned the administration's illegal and unilateral mask mandate for public transportation. That was the Centers for Disease Control stepping way, way over its boundaries.

And this past January, the Supreme Court put the brakes on President Biden's blatantly illegal attempt to have the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, force 84 million American workers to get the COVID vaccine whether they wanted it or not.

As Justice Gorsuch wrote in concurrence back then:

The central question we face today is: Who decides? The

only question is whether an administrative agency in

Washington . . . charged with overseeing workplace safety may

mandate the vaccination or regular testing of 84 million

people . . .

Justice Gorsuch continued:

Or whether . . . that work belongs to state and local

governments across the country and the people's elected

representatives in Congress.

On issue after issue, our courts are beginning to answer that question the way the Constitution commands. ``Who decides?'' is the question. The answer: The people decide and the Members of Congress they elect.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

We all know inflation and the economy are the biggest problems facing Americans today. The New York Times released a poll just yesterday showing a full 93 percent of working-age Americans are dissatisfied with the state of our economy. We are a big and a diverse country. Ninety-three percent of Americans hardly ever agree on anything, but Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness at the dark path down which they have taken our economy.

Monmouth University released some data explaining why Americans are feeling so sour. Forty-two percent of Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially at the highest rate ever--ever--in this poll's entire history, even higher than the darkest days, the days of the COVID pandemic.

Sixty-three percent of Americans named economic issues as their chief concern. And they know who to blame for their misfortune: President Biden and congressional Democrats, who plowed $2 trillion into our economy last year and created the highest inflation in four decades.

I am sure many of my colleagues heard heart-wrenching stories from constituents struggling with inflation during the past 2 weeks' State work period. I certainly did in Kentucky, where the average household now spends more than $500 more a month than they did before President Biden took office.

At a meeting with homebuilders in Northern Kentucky, local employers told me their businesses were poised to slow down dramatically. For 2 years, they struggled as Washington Democrats' exacerbated supply chain hiccups and worker shortages with freewheeling spending policies. Now, as the Fed tries to rein in inflation by hiking interest rates, home buyers have to contend with the most expensive borrowing environment in over a decade. Homebuilders foresee their industry literally stalling out.

In Paducah, I sat down with some of Western Kentucky's barge operators. Like the homebuilders, they are concerned with ongoing worker shortages, inflation, and of course spiraling fuel

costs. They also rightly worry that power outages could hit the Commonwealth in the coming months.

Washington Democrats pursued environmental goals crafted by activists with no sense of how the real economy functions. They sidelined powerplants that use cheap, reliable energy sources without acknowledging that shortages would occur when the wind doesn't blow or the Sun doesn't shine. Independent electricity reliability experts have been sounding the alarm that two-thirds--two-thirds--of the United States could endure electricity blackouts this summer.

Then, Kentucky's ongoing labor shortage hit home during a meeting with bourbon distillers in our famous Bluegrass region. As the distillers explained to me, the programs implemented by Washington Democrats in their $2 trillion spending package last year encouraged workers to exit the workforce and stay on the sidelines. The Commonwealth still has 20,000 fewer workers--20,000 fewer workers--than we did before the pandemic. So hamstrung by a lack of employees, these Kentucky businessowners are watching apprehensively as Washington Democrats debate another dose of bad policies.

This time, our colleagues are reportedly cooking up a trillion dollars in massive tax hikes on things like small businesses and domestic energy. When you tax something, you get less of it. That is the way it works. I don't know many Kentuckians who think America needs fewer small business jobs or less American energy. I am not certain about the good people of West Virginia either.

One estimate has found that almost half of all the jobs in all of West Virginia are tied to small businesses, the vast majority of which are passthroughs. Half of all the jobs in the entire State are provided by passthroughs.

I can't imagine the people of Pennsylvania or Ohio or a number of other States are especially keen to have fewer small business jobs, higher prices passed on to consumers or less American energy either. Yet each of these States and many others have a Senator apparently keen--keen--to champion these bad ideas.

The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has proven that the policies that Democrats are floating would completely break President Biden's promise not to raise taxes on the middle class below $400,000. The JCT says their bad ideas would create a tax hike for more than a quarter of all Americans who earn between $75,000 and $100,000 and more than half of the people earning between $100,000 and $200,000. They are taking President Biden's promise not to raise taxes on anybody below $400,000 and putting it through the shredder--putting it through the shredder.

This all-Democratic government has already spent America into runaway inflation, and now--now--they want to tax us into a recession.

Madam President, since the Senate was last in session, our Nation's highest Court finished its term. It was an absolutely historic series of victories for the American people and for the Constitution--the single best Supreme Court term in nearly 70 years, since Brown v. Board overturned Plessy in 1954.

For the first time in modern history, there is a textualist and originalist majority on the Court--Justices who understand the job of a judge is to follow the law as it is written, who understand they are there to faithfully apply what our statutes and our Constitution actually say and leave everything else to the people and their elected representatives. This is the kind of judiciary that the rule of law requires, that our system of government demands, that a diverse society needs.

Last month, the Court corrected one of the most egregious legal and moral mistakes of the 20th century. Only seven countries in the entire world allow elective abortion-on-demand past 20 weeks, but until 2 weeks ago, past Supreme Courts had mistakenly decreed that the Constitution forced America to be one of them. All 50 States had to handle this issue like China and North Korea. No State was allowed to handle it even like France or Germany.

Of course, there is no command like that in our Constitution, and that is what the Court finally recognized. There is nothing in the Constitution that forces us to be a radical, global outlier on abortion. The American people finally have their freedom back to enact commonsense protections for unborn life.

Millions of Americans spent nearly half a century working, marching, and praying for this landmark day. It has been an honor to stand with them throughout the journey that led to June 24, 2022, and to continue to stand together. The Court's ruling in Dobbs is not only a huge victory for innocent life, it is a historic triumph for the rule of law itself.

Even liberal legal experts, including the late Justice Ginsburg, said the Court's abortion precedents were badly reasoned.

Liberal Yale law professor Akhil Amar, just this May, wrote:

I am a Democrat who supports abortion rights but opposes

Roe . . . In the eyes of many constitutional experts across

the ideological spectrum, it [lacked] solid grounding in the

Constitution.

Now, Washington Democrats have taken pains to ignore that. Remember, their party has become jaw-droppingly extreme on this issue. More than 60 percent of Americans support restrictions after 15 weeks. Only 19 percent of Americans want abortion on demand until the moment of birth, but 97 percent of Washington Democrats support precisely that; 97 percent of Washington Democrats are with less than one-fifth of the country on this issue. So Democrats are desperate to change the subject. Many are not even trying to argue with the decision but have pivoted to claims about all kinds of unrelated issues, but this is nonsense.

Here again is Professor Amar, the arch-liberal from Yale Law, writing, again, back in May:

Does Justice Alito's draft, as many are now claiming,

inflict collateral damage on other areas of constitutional

case law, such as the Warren Court's precedents on

contraception and interracial marriage? It does not. In fact,

the Dobbs draft reinforces these iconic opinions by

explaining why they were [actually] right.

From top to bottom, this ruling was a gigantic step forward for human dignity and for the rule of law. The Justices tuned out the mobs and attempted violence, tuned out the threats from politicians, and simply followed the law where it clearly led.

This historic achievement was just one part of the most consequential Supreme Court term in seven decades. I will have more to say on this subject this week.

Madam President, the American people do not have to choose between safer schools and the Constitution, and neither does the U.S. Senate.

The American people want their constitutional rights protected and their kids to be safe in school. They want both of those things at once, and that is just what the bill before the Senate will help accomplish.

Thanks to the leadership and dedication of Senator Cornyn, Senator Tillis, and several of their counterparts across the aisle, we are considering a bipartisan bill that will make our country safer without making it any less free. This is the sweet spot: making America safer, especially for kids in school, without making our country one bit less free.

The legislation before us would make our communities and schools safer without laying one finger on the Second Amendment for law-abiding citizens. Its key provisions are hugely popular with the American people. This bill supplies significant new funding to law enforcement and police, to school security, and to mental health treatment both in school and in the wider community.

Under this bill, if a teenager has been convicted of a crime or adjudicated to be mentally ill, even before their 18th birthday, that important information will show up in a firearms background check until they are 21. This strengthens the existing background check system without expanding it.

States will receive new money for crisis intervention programs of their own choosing, and if they choose to use the money for so-called red flag laws, those laws will have to meet a new, higher standard for due process.

This is a commonsense package. Its provisions are very, very popular. It contains zero--zero--new restrictions, zero new waiting periods, zero mandates, and zero bans of any kind for law-abiding gun owners.

Police and law enforcement support the bill strongly. The police chiefs' association and the Fraternal Order of Police say: ``This bipartisan measure is . . . one that will save lives,'' according to the FOP and the police chiefs' association.

The National Sheriffs' Association calls it:

A bill that can actually save lives . . . that allows the

States to craft their own unique answers to the questions

raised by gun violence.

After years--literally years--of liberal demands that would make war on citizens' constitutional rights, our Democratic colleagues have finally accepted that we can make schools and communities safer without impeding on the Second Amendment.

We can do more to protect innocent Americans, schoolkids especially, without--without--eroding the Bill of Rights 1 inch, and that is just what the Senate will do when we pass this bill.

Madam President, speaking of public safety, as the Supreme Court prepares to issue its final opinions of the term, far-left activists are openly calling for riots and violence in the streets.

For months, many of the country's most prominent Democrats have indulged in reckless talk and irresponsible rhetoric, fanning the flames of fear and rage among their supporters. This poisonous climate has illegal mobs assembling outside Justices' private family homes and has prompted one unhinged person to travel across the country for the purpose of committing an assassination.

The far left is promising that all of this will only be the prelude-- the prelude--to the main event if they don't like the rulings coming down the pike. One activist group is promising that our cities will be submerged in--listen to this--``a night of rage.''

Well, yesterday, the Senate unanimously passed some supplemental funding for law enforcement to protect the rule of law and to keep the Court, its staff, and the Justices safe from all this. This noncontroversial funding passed here unanimously last night--zero objections. The House of Representatives needs to pass this urgent bill without delay.

Madam President, on another matter, in 2021, on President Biden's watch, each monthly total for illegal migrant apprehensions was higher than the same month's number the previous year. The same thing is happening in 2022. Every month has topped the total from 12 months prior. In fact, this past May didn't just eclipse May of 2021; it set a new alltime record. Border Patrol officers conducted nearly 240,000 apprehensions in May, and 25 percent of them--an ``unusually high'' rate--involved migrants they had apprehended before in just the past

year.

These jaw-dropping numbers are a clear and direct symptom of failed leadership. The Biden administration is making a conscious decision--a conscious decision--to fumble the ball.

Last spring, right after apprehensions hit a 20-year high, President Biden claimed:

It's way down . . . We've now gotten control.

Look, no reasonable person could have looked at the facts and concluded that things were under control, but that is exactly what President Biden and his team insisted. Apparently, a functionally open border is how they define success. A functionally open border is how, apparently, they define success.

Senate Democrats rubberstamped the Biden nominees who are presiding over this failure. The Biden DHS swiftly issued internal guidance encouraging ICE and CBP personnel to use more politically correct terminology when referring to the border crisis. They were quicker to police employees' language than to actually police the border.

Vice President Harris spent her time as the administration's supposed border czar, staying as far away as possible from the border itself.

Just this spring President Biden submitted a budget request that would cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. He also promised to cut out the emergency authorities that border officials were relying on--in the absence of a coherent strategy from his administration--to turn away thousands of illegal migrants every single day.

Their response to a functional open border is just to hit the gas pedal.

Stable prices, public safety, and secure borders are three of the most fundamental duties of any government. Sadly, for our country, the Biden administration has swung and missed three times.

Madam President, today, I have the honor of acknowledging a longtime Senate staff member who is proceeding to a well-earned retirement at the end of this month.

Billy Walsh has been with the Secretary of the Senate's office for 19 years. He spent several years as an assistant bill clerk before moving to the Journal Clerk's office and working his way up to that top post.

As the Senate's Journal Clerk for the last 4 years, Billy has brought both good humor and professional dedication to his work in serving the Senate.

So, Billy, congratulations on your retirement, and thank you for your service.

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

Yesterday, the Senate took a big step toward an important bipartisan bill to prevent mass murders, make schools safer, and protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. The bipartisan group, led by Senator Cornyn, put together a package of commonsense and popular solutions to make these horrific incidents less likely, and it does not so much as touch the rights of the overwhelming majority of American gun owners who are law-abiding citizens of sound mind.

I have spent my career supporting, defending, and expanding law- abiding citizens' Second Amendment rights. The right to bear arms, the right to defend one's self and one's family is a core civil liberty. Among other things, Senate Republicans spent years confirming a generation of Federal judges who understand that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights actually mean what they say.

The American people know that we don't have to choose between safer schools and our constitutional rights. Our country can and should have both. But throughout recent years, our Democratic colleagues have indicated they were not interested in substantial legislation to create safer communities if they didn't get to take massive bites out of the Second Amendment in the process. There have been attempts at bipartisan talks after horrible incidents in the past, but they fell apart when Democrats did not sign on to anything--anything--that did not roll back the Bill of Rights for law-abiding Americans.

Well, this time is different. This time, Democrats came our way and agreed to advance some commonsense solutions without rolling back rights to law-abiding citizens. The result is a product that I am proud to support. It will send more direct funding to community behavioral health centers and for mental health in schools. It will send money not just to States that decide to implement so-called red flag laws, but to every State to fund crisis intervention programs of their own choosing. And States that do not use the money for red flag laws will have to build in new due-process protections that have never been required before.

The bill also removes the blinders that have prevented the NICS background check system from considering young people with preexisting juvenile records. If a young teenager has been convicted of a violent crime or institutionalized for mental illness, there is no reason why that important record should be magically wiped away on their 18th birthday for the purpose of buying weapons. That information is clearly relevant, and 87 percent of Americans agree.

To be clear, this legislation has no new restrictions, bans, waiting periods, or mandates for law-abiding gun owners of any age--no new restrictions, bans, waiting periods or mandates for law-abiding citizens of any age, including those aged 18 to 21. Someone who has never been convicted of a violent crime or adjudicated as mentally ill will not have their rights affected one iota. And a whole lot of schools and communities will receive more mental health funding to prevent crisis situations before they develop.

Judicial Security

Mr. President, now on a related matter, speaking of safer communities, it would be nice if Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice could do their jobs and enforce the Federal laws that Congress actually already has on the books.

For example, it is currently--right now--illegal to join a mob protesting outside the private family home of a Federal judge, including Supreme Court Justices. It is illegal right now to try to replace the rule of law with harassment and intimidation. What has been going on outside Justices' homes for weeks now is a Federal crime right now. But you wouldn't know it from the Justice Department's inaction.

First, the most prominent Democrats in America fan dangerous flames with intemperate rhetoric about the Court. Then House Democrats blockade a noncontroversial Supreme Court security bill for weeks-- weeks--until a literal assassination plot came to light. And all the while, Attorney General Garland still refuses to enforce existing Federal law and put a stop to these illegal pressure campaigns.

As Washington Democrats continue to stage hearings about political violence that took place a year and a half ago, their own side of the aisle is engaging in ongoing political violence as we speak.

In recent weeks, the entire country has been swept with vandalism, arson, and attacks directed at churches, pro-life organizations, and crisis pregnancy centers that serve and help women--going on all across the country. By one count, there have been more than four dozen incidents of vandalism, harassment, or violence committed by pro- abortion advocates since the shameful leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion.

The Department of Justice will not even condemn or stop illegal intimidation mobs today, leading to ask: Are they really prepared to protect the safety and civil rights of American citizens after the Court issues high-profile rulings?

Are local authorities here in Washington and around the country ready for what one far-left group is promising will be ``a night of rage''-- ``a night of rage''?

Well, they had better be. I understand, yesterday, Attorney General Garland caught a flight to Ukraine. Now, I certainly support our efforts in Ukraine and was proud to meet with President Zelenskyy myself a month ago. As a U.S. Senator, I work directly on foreign policy, but our head of domestic law enforcement ought to be a little more concerned with his day job.

Gas Tax Holiday

Now, Mr. President, on one final matter, this morning, the Biden administration announced another ineffective stunt to mask the effects of Democrats' war on affordable American energy: calling for a holiday on the Federal gas tax.

This ineffective stunt will join President Biden's other ineffective stunt on gas prices: emptying out the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we need in the event of a true national security crisis, not just a Democratic-fueled inflation crisis. This ineffective administration's big, new idea is a silly proposal that senior members of their own party have already shot down well in advance.

Earlier this year, Speaker Pelosi said President Biden's idea ``[wouldn't] even [be] going to the consumers.'' She called it ``very showbiz.''

Larry Summers, a top economist to multiple Democratic Presidents, said the idea would be ``shortsighted, ineffective, goofy, and gimmicky.'' That is Larry Summers.

Jason Furman, President Obama's former head of the Council of Economic Advisers, said just yesterday--yesterday:

Whatever you thought of the merits of a gas tax holiday in

February, it is a worse idea now . . . A gas tax holiday

would also add to inflation.

Jason Furman, yesterday.

Back in 2008, then-Candidate Obama called the idea ``a gimmick [that would] save you half a tank of gas over the course of the entire summer so that everyone in Washington can pat themselves on the back and say they did something.''

Look, a recent study of past gas tax holidays found that less than 20 percent of the amount ends up actually lowering prices at the pump. In other words, lifting an 18.4-cent gas tax would mean lowering Americans' gas prices by just 3 or 4 cents--3 or 4 cents.

The price of gas has risen $2.60 since the Biden administration took office and launched its holy war on affordable American energy. There had already been a substantial increase before the conflict in Ukraine escalated. Now the President wants to trim 3 cents--3 cents--off the top and take a bow? I don't think so.

Tomorrow, Secretary Granholm will continue the empty theater by holding an ``emergency meeting'' with domestic energy refiners. Presumably, this will involve another leftwing browbeating like the accusatory letter President Biden sent to domestic producers just last week. The same administration--the same one--that hasn't awarded a single offshore energy lease, that hasn't offered an onshore lease sale in five straight quarters, and that has taken every single opportunity to slow-walk new energy infrastructure into submission appears to have found

a convenient scapegoat for the consequences of its own actions.

Actually, I have a better idea: Democrats could stop setting off inflationary spirals, stop proposing massive tax hikes on the brink of a recession, stop waging a holy war against American fossil fuels, and stop applauding the pain that working families are feeling as part of some grand, leftwing ``transition.''

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

Mr. President, a little more than 2 years ago, with Republican policies in place, American workers and families were enjoying one of the best economic moments in a generation.

Unemployment was at a 50-year low. Inflation was very low at the same time. Our economy was growing robustly, and workers were reaping the benefits: Real wages were climbing. In fact, wages at the bottom of the income distribution were growing faster than that at the top. In other words, on our watch, working-class Americans were getting bigger percentage raises than their bosses.

Under these conditions, the American people were looking forward to the future. Satisfaction with the direction of our country was at a 15- year high. Consumer confidence was hovering near its highest level since 2000, and small business optimism had set an alltime record high.

Republican policies helped create that environment, from cutting redtape to passing the most comprehensive tax cuts and tax reform in a generation.

Now, Democrats said the 2017 tax bill would not strengthen the economy and would starve the Federal Government of money, but we Republicans knew better. And sure enough, with our tax bill in place, Federal revenues are at historic levels. The past fiscal year's nominal corporate tax receipts were the highest they have been since 2007. Individual income tax receipts just hit an alltime record high as well, and they are on pace to climb even higher this year. Overall, Treasury Department revenues just recorded their largest 1-year surge in 44 years.

So that is what has happened since the 2017 tax reform that Democrats literally predicted would be ``Armageddon": tax cuts for American families, record-setting tax revenues, and the best economy for working families in a generation prior to the pandemic. Unfortunately, most of our Democratic colleagues have a terrible track record when it comes to economic policies and predictions. The tax reform they called Armageddon preceded low inflation, high employment, and robust growth.

And what about on their watch?

Democrats setting policy on party lines decided on trillions of dollars in reckless spending. That has bought us the worst inflation in 40 years, anemic growth, and now, on top of all of that, the threat of rising unemployment and a possible recession.

Just as Senate Democrats were preparing to dump $2 trillion in reckless spending on our economy, the Senate Democratic leader said:

I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the

near term, are very real.

President Biden said:

The risk is not doing too much. The risk is not doing

enough.

Secretary Yellen said:

[T]he price of doing too little is much higher than the

price of doing something big.

Well, they were all wrong, and American families are paying dearly for it.

The Democratic leader claimed:

The dangers of undershooting our response are far greater

than overshooting.

And:

We cannot do too little. We cannot lock our country into a

long and slow recovery.

Well, if Democrats did not want a long recovery, mission accomplished. A long and steady recovery with stable prices, rising real wages, falling unemployment, and strong growth would have been exactly what the doctor ordered, but the Democrats' policies helped take that option entirely off the table for our country.

Instead, their decisions have fueled skyrocketing prices, a decline in Americans' real incomes, and cornered the Federal Reserve into having to raise rates sharply and potentially stop or reverse the recovery altogether.

So, faced with this mess, what is our all-Democratic government planning next? Are our colleagues admitting their mistakes and trimming back their appetites?

Unfortunately, not--just the opposite.

Even now, with the evidence of a historic, self-inflicted policy disaster piling up all around them, Democrats are reviving talks for yet another party-line taxing-and-spending spree this summer. Even with the economy teetering on the brink of a recession, even with families' real incomes already falling rapidly on their watch, Senate Democrats are reportedly behind closed doors, dreaming up--listen to this-- historic new tax hikes to drop on top of our economy at the very worst possible time.

The same Democrats who wanted to pass trillions more in spending last year now want to rush through huge new tax hikes. The same party that spent 2021 trying to inflate their way out of inflation now wants to spend 2022 tax-hiking their way right into a recession. You could not invent--could not invent--a worse time for Washington Democrats to pile on new tax hikes on our country.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.