Floor Statements

Mr. President, due to the current events happening in Europe, the Majority Leader and I have agreed to increase the membership of the Senate NATO Observer Group by two additional Senators. For the additional Republican Senator, I ask that Senator Moran be added to participate in the group.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, this morning, Members of Congress received an update on the situation in Ukraine directly from President Zelenskyy. His presentation was powerful and heart-wrenching. It reinforced our sympathy, our outrage, and our resolve.

President Zelenskyy's courage and leadership have earned the attention and the admiration of the entire free world. He has marshaled Ukraine's brave and defiant resistance against Russian invasion. He has steeled the resolve of his people beyond what anybody expected and offered the entire world a master class in leadership.

This morning, President Zelenskyy didn't mince words about what Ukraine needs urgently to keep up the fight: more lethal capabilities and heavier sanctions against Russia and especially the air defense systems that we should have helped Ukraine get weeks ago. His people face a long and difficult road ahead, and the entire world knows what they are up against.

The scale of Russia's aggression wasn't just foreseeable; it was foreseen. For 30 years, every step toward democracy and sovereignty in Eastern Europe has tempted the wrath of revanchist autocrats like Putin. That is why I have asked the Biden administration early and often to demonstrate America's commitment to our allies and partners most squarely in Russia's crosshairs.

Last June, 8 months before the Russian invasion, I urged the President to ``provide serious, lethal support to Ukraine and other vulnerable states on the front lines of Putin's aggressions''--8 months ago. In December, I specifically called on President Biden to deploy extra U.S. forces to reinforce NATO's eastern flank--last December. I urged his administration to expedite and expand shipments of lethal aid like anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons. But, as we know, a security assistance package for Ukraine sat down at the White House for months before being approved. Once approved, efforts to transfer the weapons moved at the speed of bureaucracy. And the President waited until February to order U.S. personnel to the frontlines.

The Biden administration had over a year to get this right. They had a year to translate rhetorical support for NATO into leading real, collective defense. But they took 5 months to even nominate an ambassador to the alliance.

On the campaign trail, President Biden called Putin a ``KGB thug.'' He was right about that. But after 1 week in office, he announced an agreement with the Kremlin to extend the New START treaty for up to 5 years, reducing our leverage to get a better deal that caps Putin's nuclear ambitions.

As the threats to Ukraine gathered, whenever an opportunity to act has presented itself, the Biden administration has hesitated until political pressure became overwhelming or balked outright.

Since Russia's invasion began, the administration has publicly shot down efforts from a NATO ally to get working aircraft to Ukrainian pilots. Last

Monday, the White House scuttled a bipartisan congressional bill to end normal trade relations with Russia, only to make a public show on Friday of calling for exactly the same action.

At every step of the way--every step of the way--the self-deterred White House has insisted its hesitation and restraint was aimed at avoiding escalation, but at every step, Putin has escalated.

Now, 3 weeks into Putin's invasion, the reality on the ground is evolving. It is harder now than it would have been a few months ago to keep the pipeline of weapons and supplies and intelligence for Ukraine's brave resistance open. Russia's air offensive in particular is hitting a deadlier, more aggressive stride. But, as I have been saying literally for months, it is not too late for the Biden administration to do the right thing. So here is what President Biden should be doing right now:

No. 1, he should use the money and authorities we have just provided him to expand the scope of our lethal aid to Ukraine to include more effective, longer range air defense capabilities. That means working with NATO allies with urgency to get Ukrainian pilots more aircraft and munitions and facilitating the transfer of weapons Ukraine's forces are most familiar with, like air defense systems from countries with stockpiles of Soviet legacy systems. President Zelenskyy specifically pleaded for these air defense systems this morning--this morning.

No. 2, President Biden should deploy more U.S. forces to reinforce NATO's eastern flank and use the new drawdown and loan guarantee authorities to help harden the defenses of our frontline allies and partners. Many of these partners are generously helping Ukraine, and we should help them backfill their inventories with more modern American capabilities that will improve NATO's interoperability and bolster deterrence at the same time.

No. 3, on a trip to Europe next week, President Biden should go beyond Brussels. He should go to countries like Poland, Romania, or Lithuania to meet with NATO eastern flank allies. He should look beyond NATO to deepen our diplomatic security cooperation with important American partners like Finland and Sweden.

Finally, if President Biden wants the United States to lead our allies by example and to keep pace with adversaries like Russia and China, the place to start is with robust investments in our own defense capabilities. The coming year's appropriations process is an opportunity to finally--finally--show we are serious.

Vladimir Putin has proven to the world that he is willing to stoop low in pursuit of power, and he has shown us exactly--exactly--how he responds to weakness. We cannot afford to stay behind the curve. America must lead and lead with strength.

A few minutes ago, President Zelenskyy reminded us that the United States is, indeed, the leader of the free world, so it is time we acted like it.

Mr. President, in 2018, we reestablished the Senate NATO Observer Group. I ask for the following Republican Senators to participate in the group: Tillis (cochair), Barrasso, Ernst, Rounds, Rubio, and Hagerty.

Mr. President, American strength is not a provocation. American strength secures deterrence and peace. It is American hesitancy and weakness which our adversaries see as an invitation. It is a simple fact. We relearned it the hard way many times in our history. It should form the cornerstone of any administration's foreign policy, but every day brings new distressing signs that the Biden administration forgets this lesson.

President Biden hesitated and waited to reinforce our NATO allies with more American troops out of fear that it might provoke Putin. President Biden hesitated and waited to send Stingers to the Ukrainians out of fears that it might provoke Putin. President Biden declined to send support and training to Ukraine in December because he feared it might provoke Putin.

Here is a headline from earlier this week:

Pentagon push to send more trainers to Ukraine was scrapped

in December amid White House fears of provoking Russia.

Last week, President Biden publicly split from our ally Poland and scrapped a plan to get airplanes to Ukraine because our administration feared it might--you guessed it--provoke Putin. Predictably, Putin has not pulled his punches as a thank-you to President Biden for pulling his punches.

American strength is not the provocation; American weakness is. We need to help get air defense systems to Ukraine without wasting another second.

But, meanwhile, the Biden administration is already replaying this mistaken philosophy with another adversary. Iran watched our humiliating, botched retreat in Afghanistan. They have watched the Biden administration squabble with our Middle Eastern partners while removing sanctions from Iran's own terrorist proxies in Yemen.

The Iranians have taken the measure of this administration. This weekend, even as the Biden administration is reportedly putting the finishing touches on an agreement deal that would massively favor Iran over America, they unleashed an audacious--audacious--missile strike into the Kurdistan region of Iraq that came very close to hitting our U.S. consulate.

How will our Commander in Chief respond? The record is not encouraging. Deterrence of Iran has steadily eroded under his tenure. The worse the Iranians behave, the more desperate the Biden administration seems to be to give them concessions.

Judging by public reports, the deal that President Biden is preparing would impose fewer, weaker, and shorter restrictions on Iran than even the deeply flawed 2015 deal, while giving them major and lasting relief from sanctions.

The deal would reportedly not even touch Iran's ballistic missile program. So Iran lobs missiles toward our facilities, and we give Iran a huge influx of cash and a relaxation of pressure.

Iran clearly does not fear that they will pay a price for threatening American interests. They must be made to think again.

Yesterday, Senate Republicans sent the administration a letter expressing our grave concerns that they are preparing once again to give away the store. Republicans stand ready to work together on a real, tough agreement that blocks Iran's path to nuclear weapons, constrains its missile programs, and confronts its support for terrorism. But if the administration

continues down the path they are on, they will find the stiff opposition that that path deserves.

Now, on another matter, there is bipartisan Senate opposition to Sarah Bloom Raskin, President Biden's radical and unacceptable nominee for the powerful Federal Reserve Board position of Vice Chair for Supervision.

Runaway inflation is hammering American families. Democrats' reckless policies have backed the Fed into a very tricky corner. Just this morning, the new ``Producer Price Index Report'' showed wholesale inflation is up 10 percent--10 percent--over 12 months, tied for the worst year ever.

At a time like this, the Fed's independence is paramount. But President Biden's nominee for this powerful seat has spent years campaigning to turn the Fed from a nonpartisan central bank into a far- left superlegislature that voters cannot get rid of.

Explicitly and repeatedly, she has called for the Fed to go about picking winners and losers in accord with liberal ideological goals completely unrelated to the Fed's core duties.

The far left cheered Ms. Raskin's nomination for the same reason that Senators from both parties oppose it. She wants to take radical policy aims that liberals can't achieve through Congress and hardwire them directly into our financial system instead.

President Biden was literally asking for Senators to support a central banker--a central banker--who wanted to usurp the Senate's policymaking power for herself.

Ms. Raskin would have been a Vice Chair who sought to raise gas prices, raise home heating costs, and undermine the very institution of the Federal Reserve in the process.

It is not surprising that there is bipartisan Senate opposition to such a radical nominee. Even before one considers the unanswered ethical questions to which the Banking Committee has not been able to get straight answers, President Biden's selection wildly--wildly-- missed the mark. It is past time the White House admit their mistake and send us somebody suitable.

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

Madam President, Washington Democrats are trying to pull off a political spin job for the ages. Everyone knows that gas prices and energy costs have been soaring sharply for many, many months. Working families know all too well that gas prices and utility costs have been rising throughout President Biden's tenure.

Just this morning, we learned that inflation set yet another modern record last month. Prices skyrocketed another 0.8 percent in February alone. That comes out to 7.9 percent inflation year on year, the worst inflation in 40 years. And it keeps getting worse, not better.

This has been a painful pattern throughout President Biden's tenure. We have now had 9 straight months of inflation higher than 5 percent. And remember, 3 weeks ago, before the crisis in Europe, Democrats were already in a political panic over gas prices and desperately talking about a gas tax holiday. Three weeks ago, before the crisis in Europe, the average price of a gallon of gas had already shot up more than a dollar from when President Biden was sworn in.

Now, you would think the Democrats would have been proud of this. Hostility to fossil fuels and homegrown American energy is precisely what President Biden campaigned on. Here is what our President said on the campaign trail in 2020--a direct quote:

No more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. No more

drilling on Federal lands. No more drilling, including

offshore. No ability for the oil industry to continue to

drill, period. [It] ends.

That was the President in 2020. Here is what he told an activist:

[L]ook at my eyes. I guarantee you . . . we are going to

end--

End--

fossil fuel.

Now, President Biden spent 2 years campaigning on hostility to American energy. Now he has spent 14 months putting that hostility right into action, and Democrats' reckless spending that has fueled across-the-board inflation has made Americans' pain at the pump even worse.

But in the last few days, the Biden administration has tried to invent some laugh-out-loud--laugh-out-loud--revisionist history. They are trying to rebrand the entire increase in gas prices on their watch--listen to this--as an effect of Putin's recent invasion of Ukraine. So they want to blame 14 months of gas price increases on the last 2 weeks of turmoil.

Washington Democrats' war on domestic energy long, long predates Putin's war on Ukraine. So let me say that again. Democrats' war on domestic energy long predates Putin's war on Ukraine.

Now, I strongly support America stopping our purchases of Putin's oil, but Democrats' 14-month war on our own production will make that necessary action more painful for American families than it had to be. If the Biden administration had spent 14 months promoting American energy instead of attacking our production and fueling inflation, we would be better positioned to push back on Putin at a less painful cost to American families.

The President's team wants to pretend this lengthy problem only started 2 weeks ago, but American families have been paying for Democrats' bad policies for a lot longer than that.

Madam President, on another matter, yesterday, the House passed a bipartisan, bicameral government funding agreement that will enable crucial investments in our national defense. Putin's war on Ukraine is just one manifestation of the major long-term threats to American security and American interests posed by major competing powers like Russia and China.

So, absolutely, we must rapidly fund the urgent assistance that Ukraine and our allies along NATO's eastern flank need right now, but we must also make the investments in military modernization that will equip America to achieve peace through strength for years and decades to come.

Our military commanders have clearly and consistently told us they cannot rebuild and modernize our military to meet the growing threats if Congress lets defense funding sleepwalk from one continuing resolution to another. The world is a dangerous place. It is growing more dangerous every day. The road to peace runs through American power. We all know it is true, so we have to budget accordingly.

Our recent negotiations put us Republicans in the surreal position of having to push a Commander in Chief's party into giving his own commanders the funding they need. But, over many Democrats' objections, Republicans made sure this deal gets the job done for our Armed Forces.

The compromise product provides significantly more money than the Biden administration had requested for defense and significantly less than they requested for nondefense.

Until 24 hours ago, this compromise was also going to reprogram money away from Democrats' wasteful spending spree that neglected COVID needs and reallocate it to vaccines and treatment for the American people, but House Democrats mutinied against Speaker Pelosi. The far left would rather preserve State and local bureaucrats' giant slush funds than fund vaccines and therapeutics for our citizens, so the COVID component has fallen out.

Overall, this agreement checks the three boxes I laid out months ago. The bill maintains parity between defense and nondefense spending growth. It maintains longstanding bipartisan policies, such as protecting taxpayers against funding abortions and being politically targeted by the IRS. And new far-left poison pills were cut out. But more urgently, amidst this war in Europe, this agreement delivers aid the Ukrainians need right now and a downpayment on our commitment to keep defending America and global peace in the years to come.

Madam President, on one final matter, over the last few days, the Biden administration's confusing mismanagement and mixed signals surrounding the Ukraine crisis and the West's response have again spilled out into open public view.

Here is the pattern. Time and time again throughout this crisis and in the months preceding it, the administration's first instinct has been to resist strong and decisive steps. The President and his team initially take a pass on strong steps when they could have been put into place proactively and had a real deterrent effect, but then, after sustained public pressure, they buckle and implement the steps anyway, often too late. This ``leading from behind'' leaves us in a lose-lose scenario.

The pattern has played out yet again with this bizarre argument over MiG airplanes that President Biden's team has carried out in public with our Polish allies.

The mere fact that Biden administration officials are contradicting not only each other but also our NATO allies in public like this evidences a severe lack of the coordination and proactive leadership that we should be--us, Americans--should be providing. This isn't limited to just these Polish planes; there are all manner of different systems, tools, and arms that our eastern flank allies and partners could be providing more readily to the brave Ukrainians. This would take American leadership and coordination and an American commitment that we will help them replace their Soviet-era stocks with American and Western military technology.

The loan guarantees we included in the supplemental appropriations bill will give the administration a tool to do just this--help eastern flank NATO partners use their own money to modernize their defensive capabilities. This would be a win for Ukraine, a win for us, and a win for NATO.

These kinds of steps should be no-brainers for a confident, assertive, and decisive American administration. Instead, it repeatedly seems like the administration's first instinct is to flinch--to flinch--wait for international and public pressure to overwhelm them, and then take action only after the most opportune moment has nearly passed us by.

Nobody wants an escalation, but if the administration keeps repeating this pattern of self-deterrence, of convincing itself that any proactive step would be irresponsible, they are just internalizing Putin's false premise and amplifying Putin's false equivalence.

Remember this: Strength is not a provocation. The world needs President Biden and his team to be leading, taking the initiative, and shaping circumstances calmly, soberly, but with confidence and decisiveness. They seem to be trapped in a cycle of passivity, indecision, self-deterrence, and then, finally, reaction. The world needs the Biden administration to be flying this plane. Too often, it feels like the plane is flying them.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, as I mentioned yesterday, Senators had the chance to hear directly from Ukraine's President Zelenskyy over the weekend. He and his constituents--the brave people of Ukraine--have won the hearts and minds of all of us all across the world.

Their pain, of course, is Putin's fault, but as I and others warned for weeks before the invasion, that pain has been compounded by the West's hesitation and sluggishness in helping Ukraine prepare for this onslaught, which we could all see coming. This crisis was not only foreseeable; it was, in fact, foreseen.

Republicans spent months urging President Biden to put more lethal aid in Ukrainian hands before Russian invasion made those deliveries much more difficult. We urged the administration to reinforce our eastern flank NATO partners before Putin escalated his war against Ukraine rather than playing catchup. We called for heavier sanctions before Putin had fully committed his forces and his pride. We warned repeatedly that the Biden administration must not let these actions be slowed down to the speed of bureaucracy. But that is, of course, what happened.

As President Zelenskyy himself said publicly last week, while he appreciates all the Western help, much of it is ultimately arriving ``too late.''

The Biden administration is now finally doing many of the things they slow-walked months ago as too provocative or too escalatory: providing Stingers, sharing intelligence, deploying more forces to NATO's eastern flank, finally, getting out of the way of sanctioning Nord Stream 2.

Now, as supplies dwindle and safe resupply and transit corridors narrow, friends of Ukraine will have to work even harder to help the citizens and their government stay in the fight.

It has been obvious for some time that Ukraine would benefit from receiving Soviet-era aircraft and air defense systems from our eastern flank NATO partners that still maintain inventories of such weapons. The United States can help these allies worried about giving up such capabilities by helping to backfill with American-made and NATO- standard weapons. I understand the administration may be finally coming around to support this but, again, at the stately pace of bureaucracy. This needs to get done and get done yesterday.

(Mr. PADILLA assumed the Chair.)

Meanwhile, the Congress is acting; that includes additional security assistance funding for Ukraine and for our eastern flank NATO allies in the supplemental appropriations bill, along with funding for loan guarantees to help eastern flank countries buy American weapons to shore up our collective defenses.

I appreciate the Democratic leader working in good faith to accommodate my request that the funding bill significantly increase the security assistance drawdown fund available to the President and to backfill our DOD stockpiles that are helping our friends in harm's way. I hope we finalize those steps soon.

This supplemental is urgent, but the fact is, the White House has, thus far, taken steps to limit their own options and made them miss the window to provide impactful assistance. This administration not only reportedly refused a request prior to the conflict to increase the number of U.S. military trainers in the country but moved the advisers we had to the far west of the country and then pulled them from the country entirely, like they also pulled out our entire diplomatic mission.

These noncombat advisers could have helped facilitate more shipments of weapons to the field and more training to teach Ukrainians how to use them. They could have laid important logistical groundwork to ensure weapons could continue to flow through the frontlines after the conflict began.

In area after area, the record shows the Biden administration pulled their punches, even though everyone knew--knew--that the war was coming, and even so, the Ukrainians are mounting an incredible and brave resistance.

Imagine where these brave people might be now if the administration had moved at the speed of necessity rather than the snail's pace of bureaucracy. Now we must commit to keep lethal aid flowing.

We have to continue strengthening NATO and deepening our security partnerships and interoperability with other European partners. We need to encourage more commitments like the German Chancellor's recent announcement that they will massively step up their investment in their own defense and in NATO. And perhaps most important of all, we cannot have Washington politicians in the business of shortchanging our own defense spending at the very time when we are pleading with Western Europe to increase theirs.

We have to lead by example and make the kind of robust investments needed for long-term competition with Russia and China.

In the meantime, the sobering reality is that Ukraine is very likely to see more and escalating brutalities in the days and the weeks ahead. The world remembers the butchery in Grozny and the cold-blooded targeting in Aleppo, and the world will remember this moment as Russia sics conscripts on Ukrainian civilians and arrests its own people when they object.

For all of the Kremlin's lies about Ukraine, about how it is supposedly just an extension of Russia and its people are really Russians, we now know for certain that Russians and Ukrainians do have, in fact, at least one thing in common: Vladimir Putin considers their lives equally disposable.

Biden Administration

Mr. President, now on a related matter, the price of gas jumped more in the past week than any week on record. This, of course, began long before Russia invaded Ukraine. Even before that, families across America were paying dramatically higher gas prices than they faced when President Biden took office. I expect our Democratic friends will now try to blame the entire increase in prices on our efforts to punish on Russia, but don't be fooled. This is more than a year in the making.

Back in November, President Biden's Secretary of Energy was asked about any efforts--any efforts--to ramp up production of our own abundant American energy, and she literally laughed at the question. ``That is hilarious,'' Secretary Granholm said.

The Secretary suggested that increasing domestic production would be futile because the market for oil is global. Well, it sure is. But right now the free world is considering making this market a little bit less global to punish Russia for its brutal conquests in Ukraine.

So it would sure be nice if America had gone into this crisis with more headroom on supply and on gas prices. Just 3 years ago, under Republican policies, we had become a net oil exporter for the first time since World War II.

But Democrats are completely committed to their ideological holy war on affordable energy. From the campaign trail, then-candidate Biden promised, ``I guarantee you we are going to end fossil fuel.'' And in office, the Biden administration has used its considerable Executive authority to actively target affordable American-made oil and natural gas.

On his first day in office, the President canceled the pipeline project that would have sped the safe transport of reliable fuel. The very next week, he suspended all new Federal leases on oil and natural gas exploration.

So Washington Democrats spent months trying to pass policies that would drive the most affordable, reliable, and abundant forms of America energy--and the jobs they support--literally into extinction.

Just yesterday, as even our Western European friends are realizing that green fantasies can't fuel their countries and are trying to turn back toward nuclear, coal, and domestic natural gas, Biden administration officials gave a press conference where they repeated the same--the very same--platitudes about renewables.

You really can't make this stuff up. The Democrats in charge of the United States of America want us to embrace the same failed strategies from which our European friends are frantically backpedaling as fast as they can.

So while the Ukrainians are fighting Russia, Democrats are trying to fight a war on the law of supply and demand. They only want to have to look at solar panel and windmills here at home. So they want to get our oil and gas from everywhere else, but many of the biggest players in the global market are countries that don't much care for the United States. And now the Biden administration's green hostility to domestic energy production has been going hat in hand begging our antagonists to increase production. After spending a year hammering America's own energy producers, the Biden administration appears to be commencing a world tour to try to buy oil from people who don't like us.

As I mentioned yesterday, the administration appears close to a deal that would help Iran enrich more nuclear material and enrich its economy by lifting oil export sanctions.

Reports also suggest U.S. officials have met with the Maduro regime with the aim of relaxing sanctions on Venezuelan oil as well. This administration wants to ramp up energy imports from Iran and Venezuela? That is the world's largest state sponsor of terror and a thuggish South American dictator, respectively.

So they would rather buy from these people than buy from Texas, Alaska, or Pennsylvania. Just let that sink in.

The administration is also apparently making similar overtures to Saudi Arabia. Obviously, the Saudis are not an adversary like these other countries, but I doubt the American people are thrilled to see President Biden trying to increase our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and OPEC while declaring America's own resources off limits.

A green light for the Arabian Gulf and a red one for the Gulf of Mexico--what sense does that make? The political left thinks that affordable energy is dirty and bad so they are happy to export the dirty work and import the oil. Let's ask our friends in Europe how that plays out.

Outsourcing even more production to dictators and theocrats is not the answer. Dumping more subsidies into solar panels and charging stations, praying everything works out, is not the answer. The answer is to let Americans produce American energy.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, the eyes of the American people and the entire world are fixed on Eastern Europe. Vladimir Putin is continuing his unjustifiable invasion of a sovereign country and his unprovoked killing of innocent people.

Over the weekend, Senators were honored to speak electronically with Ukraine's brave leader, President Zelenskyy. His courageous leadership has helped rally freedom-loving people the world over to the Ukrainians' cause. One of his main pleas was that America and our partners continue providing Ukraine with additional military assistance and to do so very quickly. Long before the invasion began, I was on this floor warning the Biden administration that we could not let assistance be trickled out at the speed of bureaucracy. I certainly hope that lesson has finally been learned.

Iran

But even while one foreign policy nightmare plays out in Eastern Europe, inexplicably, the Biden administration is reportedly poised to announce a giant, gratuitous capitulation to our principal adversary in the Middle East as well.

The nature of the Biden administration's approach to Tehran thus far has concerned not just Republicans but Members of both parties.

Our Democratic colleague, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, recently exhorted the administration and our partners to ``exert more pressure on Iran to counter its nuclear program, its missile program, and its dangerous behavior around the Middle East, including attacks on American personnel and [American] assets.''

I would note that Senator Menendez also stressed the importance of building bipartisan support for any new deal which the President's team wants to cook up with the Iranians. This is the same message I conveyed to the President and his top advisers at the beginning of the Biden administration. If he wants his policy or his deal to endure beyond his Presidency, he must bring Republicans on board.

Regrettably, President Biden appears to have ignored this good advice. Reports indicate a sequel--a sequel--to the bad 2015 nuclear deal may be imminent. Yet the administration has laid zero bipartisan framework.

Rumors of this impending deal--because rumors are all that Congress has--suggest it would be an enormous step in the wrong direction. It appears not to be a longer and stronger deal than the JCPOA, as was promised, but a weaker and shorter deal. It appears

not to safeguard and increase our leverage over Tehran and its Revolutionary Guard but instead to breezily, sort of, sign our leverage away.

President Biden appears to want to give Tehran enduring sanctions relief now in exchange for limited and short-term curbs on their nuclear program. A reminder of how bad President Obama's Iran deal was is the fact that these restrictions will begin to expire as soon as next year. That will put more pressure on Western negotiators, not on Iran.

This is extortion playing out step by step, and this administration seems prepared to sign on to it. Iran gets serious sanctions relief and expanded trade with Russia and China, their price is even fewer restrictions than the original failed Iran deal, and those restrictions begin to expire in just 2 years. This is really wildly reckless. This is an administration chasing a deal--any deal--instead of pursuing our interests.

There is some suspicion the administration is desperate for any excuse to ease sanctions on Iranian oil exports to help blunt the impact of the European crisis on American's pocketbooks. This White House seems determined to go hat in hand and beg every bad actor around the world to ramp up their own fossil fuel production but still will not stop their holy war against our own American energy production here at home.

If press reports of the deal are accurate, the President and the Democrats on Capitol Hill surely understand that it will not be accepted widely or quietly.

If the President seeks to remove sanctions on Iran, there will be votes. Democrats who now regret their recent vote to protect the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline should think twice before voting to help President Biden ease sanctions on Iranian entities that engage in terrorism, missile proliferation, or human rights abuses.

Given Chairman Menendez's concerns, I hope and would expect the Foreign Relations Committee will hold major hearings. But I know this much for certain: The next time Republicans control the Senate, vigorous oversight will take place over the diplomatic mess that is unfolding in the Middle East: the failure to consolidate the historic gains of the Abraham Accords; gigantic unilateral concessions to the most active state sponsor of terrorism in the entire world; pointless capitulation to Iran-backed Houthi terrorists that has only yielded even more violence in Yemen and increased ballistic missile and drone attacks against Saudi and Emirati cities.

It is bad enough that Democrats in Congress have spent months actively fighting against sufficient funding for our national defense and our Armed Forces, but these dynamics are made even more dangerous by a White House that is actively choosing weakness in the Middle East.

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 morning, I hosted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the President's nominee to replace Justice Breyer on the Supreme Court, in my office. I was glad to meet with Judge Jackson. We enjoyed a cordial discussion.

Like I have been saying, Republicans fundamentally believe the nominee, the Court, and the country all deserve better than the disgraceful displays that Senate Democrats have routinely visited on nominees of Republican Presidents. The Senate's process should be dignified, but it also must be vigorous, exhaustive, and painstaking. We are talking about a lifetime appointment to our Nation's highest Court.

This is a moment when issues relating to the law and the judiciary are directly hitting American families, from skyrocketing murders and carjackings, to soft-on-crime prosecutors' effectively repealing laws, to open borders. This is also a moment when the far left has declared open season on the very concept of judicial independence itself.

President Biden even bowed to the radicals and set up a Court-packing Commission.

Now, Justice Breyer has distinguished himself by loudly and proudly putting those radicals in their place. He has consistently denounced the concept of partisan Court packing and defended the Court's legitimacy.

One would hope his successor would follow suit, but curiously the same radicals who want to turn Democrats into the party of Court packing also badly wanted Judge Jackson for this vacancy. It is a matter of record that this nominee was the anointed favorite of these fringe groups. At this time last year, they were already spending dark money to raise her profile.

So I intend to explore why groups that are waging political war against the Court as an institution decided Judge Jackson was their special favorite.

Like I said, I enjoyed meeting the judge. She is clearly a sharp lawyer with an impressive resume, but when it comes to the Supreme Court, a core qualification is judicial philosophy. Our citizens need Justices who treat all parties fairly, apply our laws and Constitution as written, and leave legislating to us here in Congress.

I raised all these matters yesterday. I look forward to gaining more clarity about Judge Jackson's positions during the vigorous and thorough Senate process to come.

(Ms. ROSEN assumed the Chair.)

Vaccines

Madam President, now on another matter, our Nation faces serious challenges to our citizens' health and wellness. COVID-19 has been one of them. Abuse of illegal drugs and prescription pills is another. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are ever present. Many of these health crises hit Middle America especially hard and specifically rural America.

Data show that rural Americans are disproportionately likelier to die from a number of potentially preventable causes. That is why I have been focused on expanding local treatment centers and telehealth and fighting the drug epidemic tooth and nail.

Last week, I hosted Dr. Rahul Gupta, the administration's drug czar, in Kentucky. Opioid abuse is a staggering problem in our State and throughout the country. Last year, even during COVID, fentanyl abuse alone was the biggest cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45. That is not even all drugs, just fentanyl alone.

In short, this may literally be the worst time in American history to deliberately cut healthcare access in rural America, but that is just what the Biden administration has done. President Biden told every thinly stretched doctor's office and hospital that accepts Medicare that they had to fire workers who didn't want the COVID vaccine.

Now, I have been a consistent advocate for getting vaccinated. They offer powerful personal protection against hospitalization and death, but they do not prevent people catching or transmitting the current variant. There is no moral justification for sweeping mandates. The benefits accrue to the person who gets the shot.

What is more, the CDC's own research says that prior infection provides protection that is at least as strong as the vaccines. But the President's overreaching mandate ignores that. His policy unscientifically discriminated against people who have immunity from prior infection. They had to comply anyway or lose their job.

The President tried to force such a mandate on all kinds of workers across America. The courts slapped that down easily. But his mandate targeting healthcare workers remains in effect.

It is unfair on a personal level, but even just looking at public health, it is terrible policy for rural America. We cannot have President Biden mass firing doctors and nurses when hospitals are already short-staffed.

One hospital leader in Marshall County, KY, told me that ``this is an absolute disaster. We are a small critical access hospital with 250 employees. . . . We have begun assessing areas that may have to be [literally] shut down.''

A head of a hospital in Calloway County told me that ``I can afford to lose not one more nurse.'' He said the Biden mandate ``makes no sense''--no sense--``for rural healthcare.''

The head of a critical access hospital in Hardinsburg says that ``the mandate is devastating for Kentucky hospitals.''

Clearly, many of my colleagues are hearing similar things. Yesterday, over the objections of every Senate Democrat who voted, Republicans stood up for Americans' right and Americans' healthcare access. We passed a resolution to overturn President Biden's mandate that would drain doctors and nurses out of middle America.

If Washington Democrats could safely hobnob in the Capitol all Tuesday evening with no masks, then they ought to stop pushing mass firings on essential health workers.

Unfortunately, if we know anything about this Democratic House, this commonsense measure may well die on Speaker Pelosi's desk.

I sincerely hope our colleagues across the Capitol will see reason and pass this bill.

Mr. President, in 1822, pioneer settlers founded Calloway County in Kentucky's Jackson Purchase. Two hundred years later, in November, the residents of this community are celebrating their bicentennial and paying tribute to the adventurous forefathers who made it possible. Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring Calloway County for reaching this impressive milestone.

Like the rest of the Jackson Purchase, Calloway County was bought by the Federal Government from the Chickasaw Indians in 1818. This fertile land, bordered by the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers, was prime territory for American farmers seeking to move westward from the young Nation's eastern core. Those early settlers poured into Calloway County, on the Purchase's eastern edge, and incorporated the county in 1822, with the early settlement of Wadesboro serving as their county seat.

Calloway County developed like much of the rest of the Purchase, with large farms bolstered by easy access to Kentucky's inland waterways and the urban markets that lay beyond. Calloway's early residents built a one-room, log courthouse in 1823--the first public building constructed in the Jackson Purchase--and founded several towns, including Murray, the current county seat. Calloway quickly grew into a prosperous community with thousands of residents.

By the end of the 19th century, Calloway County formed an integral part of Western Kentucky's commerce, culture, and governance. In recognition of the county's significance, Calloway native Rainey T. Wells started the Calloway Normal College in the 1890s to train teachers. Though that school closed in 1913, Wells secured State funds to construct Murray State Normal School in 1923, now known as Murray State University. Wells became Murray State's second president in 1926 and would go on to practice law in front of the Supreme Court in 1937, before returning to his Calloway County home until his death.

Another important moment in Calloway's history came when the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed the Tennessee River and created Kentucky Lake, a vast reservoir on the county's eastern edge. In addition to supplying hydroelectric power to Calloway County residents, the lake created new recreational attractions for the local community. Today, Kentucky Lake--and the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area that governs its neighboring forest areas--is one of the largest natural attractions in the Commonwealth, bringing millions of tourists to the region every year.

Today, Calloway County is a unique Kentucky community, navigating new pathways in education and recreation while still remaining firmly rooted in its agricultural and historical traditions. Murray is a burgeoning town with nearly 20,000 residents, serving as both a host to thousands of Murray State University students and a gateway to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. The county's attractions include museums, parks, Civil War forts, and miles of beautiful rolling hills. It is no surprise that, every year, more and more families decide to call Calloway County home.

Calloway County residents will have much to celebrate in their upcoming bicentennial. They and their pioneer ancestors have built a thriving community, complete with everything prospective newcomers could desire in a new home. Their upcoming celebration will include local civic groups, nonprofits, churches, sports teams, and businesses--a colorful tapestry of every organization that makes Calloway County great.

I want to give special thanks to the Calloway County civic leaders who are working so hard to make this year's bicentennial celebration possible. Through their hard work, their community continues to prosper, even 200 years after its founding. On behalf of the Senate, I share our congratulations with every Calloway Countian and join them in honoring 200 years of proud Kentucky traditions.

Mr. President, last night, President Biden gave a State of the Union Address that might have worked OK for a popular administration that had been successfully tackling America's problems and naturally earning high marks, but that is not the reality in which we live.

Democrats spent the last 12 months making major and painful policy errors. The public overwhelmingly disapproves. President Biden didn't need to stay the course and rehash a scattered wish list; he needed to make a dramatic pivot. But he chose not to.

The President first discussed Ukraine. Everyone agrees with the sentiments President Biden expressed, but the sentiments are not enough. The President articulated no meaningful new steps, no specific plan. He made no explicit commitment to keep flowing weapons, intelligence, and advanced capabilities into Ukraine as long as the Ukrainians need them, nor did he explain why his administration was slow to provide lethal assistance in the first place. Instead, the President focused on trying to claim credit for the remarkable European and worldwide response that his administration did not foresee, let alone orchestrate.

Apart from Ukraine, the President's other remarks on our dangerous world were not just insufficient; they were basically nonexistent.

The President spoke for over an hour but only mentioned China twice. Neither time had anything to do with national security or military modernization. The President only mentioned Iran one time, and it was literally by accident. There were zero mentions of North Korea, zero mentions of the botched Afghanistan retreat the administration originally boasted was a ``success.'' Our 13 servicemembers who lost their lives were completely unmentioned until Governor Reynolds took the microphone. And there were zero mentions of rebuilding the defense budget that President Biden actually tried to cut last year.

Meanwhile, the President's speech tried to skate by the serious kitchen-table concerns that are actually keeping families up at night. The President talked about ``made in America'' but keeps fighting against energy independence. Democrats want us to ``Buy American'' but not American oil or gas. On President Biden's watch, we have set a new record for importing Russian oil, and we are begging OPEC to produce even more, and his energy vision is to dump huge subsidies into supply chains that are dominated by China--borrowing from our grandkids to build back Beijing.

The President tried yet again to revive the zombie spending plans which a bipartisan majority of Senators have already killed and buried because they would make inflation even worse. He tried to brag about fancy technology on our southern border, as if we hadn't just seen a new record for illegal crossings on his watch.

The President's address was not responsive to the country's concerns. He needed to pivot, but he didn't.

CNN conducted an instant poll. As you might expect, it oversampled Democrats. Even so, the percentage who gave the President's speech high marks was the lowest they have seen in 15 years.

Iowa's hugely successful Governor, Kim Reynolds, offered the clearest possible contrast. She spoke for the working families who are suffering under Democrat policies. She outlined a commonsense Republican vision of stability at home, strength abroad, law and order on our streets, and sanity in our public schools.

November is just months away. If President Biden does not correct course sharply and quickly, the American people may correct course for him.

Tribute to Angie Schulte

Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, one of the occupational hazards of Senate service is having to say goodbye to truly remarkable staff professionals.

I have already been through this rodeo with Angie Schulte. All the way back in 1988, this dedicated caseworker left my office for the nonprofit sector, but back in 2010, I leapt at the chance to hire Angie back as my State office manager, and her second tour of duty has been a huge success.

I have known Angie for 40 years now. I have watched her master a wide variety of roles. She is an integral part of my State office. She keeps all of us on task and on time. But, unfortunately, tomorrow, her second tour of service will end with a second farewell. Angie is retiring after decades of hard work and phenomenal public service.

For 12 years, Angie has been the steady rudder steering my instate team. If there was a complicated problem, she would fix it; a scheduling conflict, she would resolve it; a new staffer needed help growing into her role, she would provide it. Angie combines meticulous efficiency with a totally charming and cheerful demeanor.

My relationship with Angie actually predates my time in the Senate. Her mother Jeannette was my personnel director for my county administration. I was a newly elected Republican in a heavily Democratic county government who needed all the smarts and all the help that I could get. Angie's mother Jeannette proved invaluable.

In 1982, her daughter Angie came on board as office receptionist. I quickly promoted her, not once but twice. She served as office manager in my Neighborhood Response Office. When I won statewide in 1984, Angie was one of my first hires.

With the same vigor that helped Louisville residents settle property disputes and parking tickets, Angie began helping Kentuckians across the State navigate the morass of Federal Government redtape. Expertise, an eye for detail--Angie grew into the consummate public servant. Our whole team was overjoyed to welcome Angie back after her tenure with Metro United Way, one of the Commonwealth's largest nonprofits.

Angie is famous for humming and whistling while she works and for throwing extravagant birthday parties for her colleagues. She is unfailingly upbeat. She has a permanent positive attitude and, boy, does she get results for Kentucky.

As you can see, it has been an honor to have Angie's talents on our team. I am just grateful that when her sterling 40-year career concludes tomorrow, a 40-year friendship will not.

So, Angie, I wish you every happiness as you spend more time with Steve, with Kathleen and Becca, and with those grandkids, Grant, Logan, and Elizabeth.

I am eternally grateful for your outstanding good work.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.