Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, 12 months ago, a newly inaugurated President Biden stood on the west front of the Capitol, and here is what he had to say:

My whole soul is in this: bringing America together,

uniting our people, uniting our nation.

Yesterday, that very same man delivered a deliberately divisive speech that was designed to pull our country further apart.

Twelve months ago, this President said we should see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. Yesterday, he called millions of Americans his domestic ``enemies.''

Twelve months ago, the President called on Americans to ``join forces, stop the shouting, lower the temperature,'' but yesterday, he shouted that if you disagree with him, you are George Wallace. George Wallace? If you don't pass the laws he wants, you are Bull Connor. And if you oppose giving Democrats untrammeled one-party control of the country, well, you are Jefferson Davis.

Twelve months ago, this President said ``disagreement must not lead to disunion.'' Ah, but yesterday, he invoked the bloody disunion of the Civil War--the Civil War--to demonize Americans who disagree with him. He compared--listen to this--a bipartisan majority of Senators to literal traitors. How profoundly--profoundly--un-Presidential.

Look, I have known, liked, and personally respected Joe Biden for many years. I did not recognize the man at the podium yesterday.

American voters did not give President Biden a mandate for very much. He got a tied Senate and negative coattails in the House--the narrowest majorities in over a century. The President did not get a mandate to transform America or reshape society, but he did arguably get a mandate to do just one central thing that he campaigned on. Here is what that was: Bridge a divided country; lower the temperature; dial down the perpetual air of crisis in our politics. That is the one central promise that Joe Biden made. It is the one job citizens actually hired him to do. It is the one project that would have actually been consistent--consistent--with the Congress that voters elected. Ah, but President Biden has chosen to fail his own test.

The President's rant--rant--yesterday was incoherent, incorrect, and beneath his office. He used the phrase ``Jim Crow 2.0'' to demagogue a law that makes the franchise more accessible than in his own State of Delaware. He blasted Georgia's procedures

regarding local election officials while pushing national legislation with almost identical language on that issue.

The President implied that things like wildly popular ID laws are-- listen to this--``totalitarian.'' Totalitarian? Ironically, on the same day, Washington, DC's Democratic mayor told citizens to bring both a photo ID and a vaccine card anytime they leave the house.

The President repeatedly invoked the January 6 riot, while himself using irresponsible, delegitimizing rhetoric that undermines our democracy.

The sitting President of the United States compared American States to ``totalitarian states.'' He said our country will be an ``autocracy'' if he does not get his way--if he does not get his way.

So the world saw our Commander in Chief propagandize against his own country--his own country--to a degree that would have made Pravda blush. There was no consistent standard behind anything the President said. He trampled through some of the most sensitive and sacred parts of our Nation's past. He invoked times when activists bled and when soldiers died, all to demagogue voting laws that are more expansive than what Democrats have on the books in his own home State.

Georgia has more days of early voting than Delaware or New York. Georgia has no-excuse absentee voting, which Delaware and New York do not have. If Georgia or Texas presents Jim Crow emergencies, then so do a whole lot of Democratic-run States.

The Senate Democratic leader has gone on cable TV saying Georgia ``is greatly restricting or eliminating early voting.'' That is a lie, provably false. Georgia has more early voting than New York. The Democratic leader has tried to fearmonger about one rural Georgia county that condensed multiple voting locations into one--one rural Georgia county. Well, the county is overwhelmingly red. They were clearly not involved in trying to suppress Democratic votes--70 percent Republican in that one county in 2020.

So take a step back for a minute. President Biden's story is that democracy is on death's door, but he spent 9 months chasing a reckless taxing-and-spending spree before addressing it. It must not be that much of an emergency. Citizens are meant to believe a return of Jim Crow is on the table, but this was only President Biden's sixth priority after he was blocked from spending $5 trillion on windmills and welfare. Democrats' own behavior refutes their false hysteria.

Twelve months ago, the President said that ``politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path.'' That was just 12 months ago, but yesterday, he poured a giant can of gasoline on the fire.

Twelve months ago, the President said every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war, but yesterday, he said anyone who opposes smashing the Senate--smashing the Senate--and letting Democrats rewrite election law is a domestic ``enemy'' and--listen to this--a traitor like Jefferson Davis.

One week ago, President Biden gave a January 6 lecture about not stoking political violence--1 week ago. Yesterday, with the world's largest megaphone, he invoked the literal Civil War and said we are on the doorstep of ``autocracy.'' He talked about domestic ``enemies''-- rhetoric unbecoming of a President of the United States.

In less than a year, ``restoring the soul of America'' has become this: Agree with me or you are a bigot. Agree with me or you are a bigot--from lowering the temperature to invoking totalitarian States and the Civil War.

This inflammatory rhetoric was not an attempt to persuade skeptical Democrat or Republican Senators. This whole display--this whole display--in fact, you could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than a President abandoning rational persuasion for pure demagoguery. You could not invent a better advertisement for the legislative filibuster than what we have just seen: a President abandoning rational persuasion for pure--pure--demagoguery.

A President shouting that 52 Senators and millions of Americans are racist unless he gets whatever he wants is proving exactly why the Framers built the Senate to check his power.

This whole display is the best possible argument for preserving-- preserving--the Senate rules that extend deliberation, force bipartisan compromise, and let cooler heads prevail. Nothing proves it better than this episode. It offers a perfect case study in why Senator Biden was right about the filibuster and President Biden is wrong.

One respected scholar explained it this way:

The smallest majority we've ever seen in our politics is

trying to change the rules for how people get elected in

every [single] state. . . . That's just about the best

argument for the filibuster you could possibly imagine.

The citizens of the greatest country in the world deserve for their elected officials to treat them like grownups. The adults of America deserve to hear from the adults in Washington, DC.

I will close with some basic truths.

Obviously, our country is more divided than it should be, no doubt.

In recent years, I have vocally criticized people across the political spectrum who have sought to legitimatize elections when they win and delegitimize democracy when they are polling badly or when they lose.

I criticized the top Democrats' hysteria after 2016, when their rhetoric had 66 percent of Democrats across America falsely convinced that Russia had hacked our voting machines and changed the tallies. Sixty-six percent of Democrats thought that after 2016. I criticized Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats who spent the runup to 2020 hyping conspiracy theories and suggesting the election would presumptively be illegitimate if their side lost.

In December 2020 and January of last year, our side of the aisle defended our constitutional process despite political pressure, and we had, of course, a literal mob. But now it is President Biden and Leader Schumer and other Washington Democrats who don't like their poll numbers. So they are reversing their tune yet again. The people who spent November 2020 through January 2021 preaching sermons about the strength and the sanctity of our democracy are now undertaking to delegitimize the next election in case they lose it.

We have a sitting President--a sitting President--invoking the Civil War, shouting about totalitarianism and labeling millions of Americans his domestic enemies.

We have a Senate Democratic leader who now frequently calls American elections ``a rigged game.''

Look, this will not be repaired with more lies, more outrage, and more rulebreaking.

Unfortunately, President Biden has rejected the better angels of our nature. So it is the Senate's responsibility to protect the country. This institution was constructed as a firewall against exactly-- exactly--the kind of rage and false hysteria we saw on full display yesterday. It falls to the Senate to put America on a better track. It falls to us. So this institution cannot give in to dishonorable tactics. We cannot surrender to this recklessness. We have to stand up, stand strong, protect the Senate, and defend the country.

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

Mr. President, something disturbing is happening in Washington this week. A group of politicians are trying to set aside election results, overrule American voters, and break--break--our institutions to get a political outcome they want.

I am speaking, of course, about the Senate Democratic leader and the radical left. The Senate Democratic leader is trying to bully his own Members into breaking their word, breaking the Senate, and silencing the voices of millions of citizens so that one political party can take over our Nation's elections from the top down.

In January 2021, a mob tried to intimidate and change the Senate, and they failed. In January of 2021, the Senate stayed true to itself, and it stood strong.

But in January of 2022, some of the Senate's own Members want to permanently damage this institution from within. They want to shatter its central feature. The Democratic leader is using fake hysteria--fake hysteria--about 2021 State laws to justify a power grab he began floating actually back in 2019 and an election takeover that was first drafted in 2019.

President Biden has spread so much misinformation about the basic facts of State voting laws that he was called out and debunked by-- listen to this--the Washington Post. A sitting President of the United States who pledged to lower the temperature and unite America now invokes the brutal racial hatred of Jim Crow segregation to smear--to smear--States whose new voting laws are more accessible than, for example, Delaware. Ten days of early voting and excuse-only absentees in Delaware is just fine, but 17 days of

early voting and no-excuse absentees in Georgia is racist Jim Crow?

The Senate Democratic leader pretends it is a civil rights crisis that Georgia has enshrined more early voting and more absentee balloting than his own State of New York has ever allowed. This is misinformation. It is a Big Lie designed to reduce faith in our democracy, justify a top-down election takeover, and justify smashing the Senate itself. Some years back, a veteran Democratic Senator explained:

[The] nuclear option is ultimately an example of the

arrogance of power . . . [it] would transform the Senate from

the so-called cooling saucer our Founding Fathers talked

about . . . to a purer majoritarian body.

That was then-Senator Joe Biden. He continued:

At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee

or a bill, it is about compromise and moderation.

Now, before President Biden abruptly reversed this position he held for decades, he was actually in very good company. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the legendary Senate institutionalist, was this crucial tradition's fiercest defender. The current Democratic leader has tried to invoke Senator Byrd in support of this push to vandalize the Senate. This is more misinformation. Senator Byrd went out of his way to rebut Leader Schumer's arguments, years in advance. Here is a direct quote from Senator Byrd:

Proponents of the so-called nuclear option cite several

instances in which they inaccurately allege that I blazed a

procedural path toward an inappropriate change in Senate

rules. They're dead wrong--

Said Senator Byrd--

Dead wrong. They draw analogies where none exist and create

cockeyed comparisons that fail to withstand even the

slightest intellectual scrutiny.

That is how Senator Byrd felt about it. Down to his final public statements before his death in 2010, Senator Byrd was completely consistent:

I oppose cloture by a simple majority, because it would

immediately destroy the uniqueness of this institution . . .

minority rights would cease to exist in the U.S. Senate.

Senator Byrd, shortly before his death.

That Democratic leader knew how to serve and protect the Senate.

This Democratic leader wants power so badly he will misrepresent his own late predecessor if it helps him get it. Senator Byrd's successor, the current senior Senator from West Virginia, has eloquently restated the very same points. Our colleague Senator Manchin published an op-ed explaining why ``there is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster''--Senator Manchin.

He pointed out that finding compromise across party differences and differing regional interests was ``never supposed to be easy . . . but it is the work we were elected to do.'' He noted that current rules guarantee ``that rural and small states and the Americans who live in them . . . always have a seat at the table.''

Our colleague also pointed out that the 60-vote threshold keeps Federal law durable and predictable:

If the filibuster is eliminated or budget reconciliation

becomes the norm, a new and dangerous precedent will be set

to pass sweeping, partisan legislation every time there is a

change in political control . . . our nation may never see

stable governing again.

This has been a key point for Senators on both sides going back generations. In his farewell address before retirement, our former colleague, Lamar Alexander, put it this way: The Senate rules exists to ``force broad agreements on controversial issues that become laws that most of us will vote for and that a diverse country will accept.''

In other words, major changes need major buy-in. Otherwise, every policy would ping-pong wildly whenever the gavels change hands.

This is a point which our colleague, the senior Senator from Arizona, has explained powerfully. As Senator Sinema wrote just a few months ago, ``the 60-vote threshold . . . compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings . . . and radical reversals in Federal policy.''

Sometimes the effect of the filibuster is to block bills outright. Republicans are using the tool to stop one-party election takeovers. In 2020, Democrats used it to kill Senator Tim Scott's police reform bill. But as President Biden argued decades ago, the filibuster is about more than what gets blocked. It shapes almost everything the Senate actually does pass. It gives all kinds of citizens and all kinds of States a meaningful voice in nearly everything.

By breaking the Senate, this Democratic leader wants to silence the voices of millions and millions of Americans. He wants to throw whole regions of the country into a political power outage because those voters don't agree with his radicalism. We will see which Senators have the courage and the principle to put a stop to it.

Finally, on a more practical level, I want to make something very, very clear. Fifty Republican Senators, the largest possible minority, have been sent here to represent the many millions of Americans whom Leader Schumer wants so badly to leave behind. So if my colleagues try to break the Senate to silence those millions of Americans, we will make their voices heard in this Chamber in ways that are more inconvenient for the majority and this White House than what anybody has seen in living memory.

Last year, the Senate passed major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, on hate crimes, on government funding, on competing with China. Last year, Senators helped speed through noncontroversial nominations.

So what would a postnuclear Senate look like? I assure you, it would not be more efficient or more productive. I personally guarantee it.

Do my colleagues understand how many times per day the Senate needs and gets unanimous consent for basic housekeeping? Do they understand how many things would require rollcall votes, how often the minority could demand lengthy debate?

Our colleagues who are itching for a procedural nuclear winter have not even begun to contemplate how it would look. Our colleagues who are itching to drain every drop of collegiality from this body have not even begun to consider how that would work.

If the Democratic leader tries to shut millions of Americans and entire States out of the business of governing, the operations of this body will change. Oh, yes, that much is true. But not in ways that reward the rulebreakers, not in ways that advantage this President, this majority, or their party--I guarantee it.

Madam President, this week on this floor, we are poised to witness something that has never happened before in living memory: an attempt to attack the core identity of the Senate by a sitting majority leader.

The senior Senator from New York once said nuking the filibuster would ``turn what the Founding Fathers called the cooling saucer of democracy into the rubber stamp of dictatorship.'' He said it would ``make the country into a banana republic . . . a doomsday for democracy,'' he said. Now, he wants to trigger that doomsday himself.

When I was majority leader, some of my own party urged me to break the Senate for our own party's short-term gain. My answer was a simple word: ``no.''

Less than 4 years ago, the senior Senator from Illinois said nuking the legislative filibuster ``would be the end of the Senate as it was originally devised and created going back to our Founding Fathers.'' Now, he wants the Senate to end on his watch.

The last time Senate Democrats were in the minority, 32 of them signed a letter demanding the legislative filibuster stay in place. Now, many of them say they want to break this institution. The excuses put forward for this behavior are entirely fake. The supposed justifications are simply false. The Senate Democratic leaders are trying to use a big lie to bully and berate their own Members into breaking their word, breaking the rules, and breaking the Senate.

We are going to spend all week sounding the alarm on the radical takeovers that some Democrats want to pull off. They want to silence millions of Americans and take over the Senate so they can take over elections so they can take over America.

Leading Democrats say they want to break the Senate because of the sinister anti-voting plot that is sweeping America. Of course, this is totally fake. It does not exist. The current control of Congress and the White House were decided in 2020 by the highest turnout in 120 years. Ninety-four percent of voters said voting was easy. More Americans say current voting laws are too lax than say they are too restrictive.

Confronted by the facts, the Democratic leader says they are, of course, irrelevant. He says the entire nuclear push is occasioned by what a few States did in 2021. This is utter nonsense. The Senator from New York has been publicly laying groundwork to nuke the Senate rules since back in 2019, before the 2020 election. More than a year before the 2020 election, the Democratic leader was openly flirting with nuking the Senate rules if he got the power so he would be able to ram through bigger changes. Now, none of this was occasioned by what State legislatures did in 2021. This is actually a yearslong quest for power in search of a pretext.

Their hysterical attack on State laws are fake as well. The State of Georgia passed a voting law providing for more in-person early voting than New York provides. It allows for no-excuse absentee voting, which New York prohibits. If there was not a voting crisis in Democrat-run New York 6 months ago, there is no crisis in Georgia now. If Georgia is a banana republic today, then New York has been and still is a banana republic. There is zero logic here, zero consistency.

In the State of Texas, Democrats are hysterical because the State rolled back some unusual COVID-specific exceptions to their prior procedures, such as universal drive-through voting and 24-hour voting. So if the bar for voting rights now requires the possibility of voting in person at 3 a.m., how many blue States in America meet that bar? Neither of these things existed in Texas before 2020, and neither widely exists in blue States.

Every hysterical claim that our democracy is in crisis rings hollow. More Americans today say that President Biden's election was legitimate--now listen to this--than said the same thing about the prior President in late 2017. More Americans today say that President Biden's election was legitimate than said the same about the prior President in late 2017. Yet Democrats are trying to use their fake hysteria to justify breaking Senate rules so they can seize control of elections in all 50 States. That is what they are up to.

Historically, the Senate has taken up elections legislation on a careful, bipartisan basis. We have made sure not to trample on the rights of voters and the proper roles of local officials.

In 2002, we passed the Help America Vote Act by a vote of 92 to 2--92 to 2. Chris Dodd and I authored that bill. Interestingly enough, the only dissenting votes came from then-Senator Hillary Clinton and the current Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer. Ninety-two to two.

Well, that is how you pass election reform if there are actual issues that need tackling. You do it carefully; you do it thoughtfully; bipartisan committee work; regular order. Our colleagues aren't doing anything like that. They are trying to ram through a sweeping, partisan legislation that they first drafted and introduced in its first iteration back in 2019.

Democrats say they are concerned about efforts to disempower the appropriate local elections officials. Well, it is actually their bills that would disempower local officials, by Washington Democrats appointing themselves the entire country's board of elections on steroids.

Democrats say they are concerned about overturning election results. Well, it is their bills that would overturn election results, overruling the commonsense voting laws that citizens across the country pick for their own States.

A case in point: The Democrats' latest bill would force the entire country to adopt two practices--same-day registration and no-excuse absentee voting--that the citizens of New York State had as ballot measures last November. Deep-blue New York rejected them both. So you have to ask yourself, why are Washington Democrats refusing to accept the decision of New York voters? Why are they trying to set aside these election results and overturn the people's will?

Our Democratic colleagues also talked about a so-called voting rights bill. This is a bill to turn the partisan Attorney General into a national elections czar. The Attorney General would no longer have to sue States to win in court; he could end up doing an end run around the legal system and push States around without having to persuade a judge first. I am sure our Democratic colleagues would have reacted well if Republicans had tried to break Senate rules so that Bill Barr could micromanage elections in blue States. I am sure that would have gone swimmingly on their side of the aisle.

But, ultimately, the issues at stake this week run even deeper than this fake hysteria, even deeper than voting laws. Breaking the Senate itself and nuking the filibuster would cause a massive political power outage for many millions of American citizens, for entire States.

So the filibuster is not just about what bills are blocked; it is also the sole feature that gives millions of Americans any voice at all in the legislation that does pass whenever there is one-party control. Annual appropriations, government funding bills, the NDAA, rescue packages like the CARES Act--all of them could be done on a one-party basis, thereby eliminating the influence of every State in America represented by a Member of the minority.

For decades, both Senators and citizens have been able to take for granted that everybody gets a voice, even when they don't have divided government. If this unique feature of the Senate is blown up, millions and millions of Americans' voices will cease to be heard in this Chamber--a radical Senate takeover, for a radical elections takeover, for a radical takeover of our Nation's future.

What the Democratic leader wants to do would not protect our democracy or our system of government. It would destroy a key feature of American Government forever, and the Senators on both sides know it.

Madam President, when Jack Brammer interviewed me in 1984 for one of the first profile pieces of my political career, I quickly saw the high quality of his reporting. He was even-handed, fair, and honest--and has remained so throughout his 43 year career as the Lexington Herald-Leader's statehouse reporter. Jack has always been among the best journalists in the Commonwealth. Today, in honor of his retirement, I recognize him for standing at the pinnacle of Kentucky journalism for over four decades.

Jack Brammer is a lifelong Kentuckian. A native of Maysville, he joined the Lexington Herald-Leader in 1978 and has covered State politics ever since. We met in 1984 during my initial race for the U.S. Senate. Though many considered me an underdog, facing off against an entrenched incumbent, Jack took extensive time to interview me for his Herald-Leader profile. He even visited my parents in Shelbyville, sitting with them for hours to discuss my background and upbringing.

In today's era of journalism, when so much reporting takes place via text, tweet, and email, Jack's methods might seem startlingly old- fashioned. But he kept up his same dogged style, always going above and beyond to deliver the complete, unabridged truth to Kentuckians. He is a journalist in the best mold of the profession: unafraid to report the facts, presented without editorializing, and allowing his readers to come to their own conclusions. I will miss Jack's steadfast commitment to the truth, which can often seem sorely lacking in today's fast- paced, cutthroat media industry.

In his 43 years on the statehouse beat, Jack covered nearly every major

moment in Kentucky politics. Like me, he has a deep passion for our Commonwealth's history and has made critical contributions to the historical record through his reporting. He had a front-row seat to 10 gubernatorial administrations, dozens of legislative sessions, and countless significant political events. His deep, hard-won understanding of Kentucky politics sets him apart from nearly every other journalist in our State. I know everyone in the statehouse, from other journalists to legislators, to the general public, will miss him.

During Jack's retirement, I feel confident he will continue to share the wealth of wisdom he acquired over his legendary career. Jack has always been an enthusiastic mentor for younger journalists, taking generations of reporters under his wing to teach them the ropes of Kentucky State politics. As a graduate of the University of Kentucky and a member of their Journalism Hall of Fame, he has also spent time imparting his knowledge to the Commonwealth's future communications professionals. Even in retirement, he will continue to make a mark on our State.

I will miss Jack's reporting dearly. He represents the best of the journalistic profession, and Kentuckians have been fortunate to read his writing for more than four decades. I wish him well in his upcoming endeavors and look forward to learning what his future holds. I would like to express my personal gratitude for Jack Brammer's many years of service to the Commonwealth and encourage my Senate colleagues to join me in congratulating him on his well-earned retirement.

Madam President, Jack Brammer recently wrote an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader reflecting on his career. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

I object.

Mr. President, as 2022 gets underway, working Americans and their families are facing a steady stream of significant challenges: the fastest growing inflation in almost 40 years; violent crime rates continue to rise, with many of our largest cities setting new alltime records for murders; a southern border that remains in crisis; a new highly contagious variant of the virus that President Biden promised he would personally crush; too few tests and too slow new treatments on this administration's watch; and another rolling wave of school shutdowns, as Big Labor bosses continue to make hostages out of children's futures over a virus that leaves children largely-- largely--unharmed.

Late last year, one poll asked Americans about the most important problems facing the country. Some were most worried about the high cost of living. Others said, not surprisingly, the pandemic. One-fifth of respondents, the most by far, said the biggest issue was poor leadership--at a time when the Democratic Party controls the entire government.

But do you know what wasn't on the list of concerns? It wasn't there at all--the fictional, scary stories the liberal activists keep repeating about how democracy is at death's door. The November 2020 election had the highest turnout in 120 years. Ninety-four percent of voters said voting was easy. Only 33 percent of Americans say it is currently too hard for eligible voters to vote. And a larger number than that actually say current laws are too loose--too loose.

The American people are not buying this nonsensical talk of ``Jim Crow 2.0'' or a voting rights crisis. Everybody, apart from leftwing activists and the press, understands this emperor has no clothes at all.

A few months ago, even voters in blue New York rejected multiple ballot measures to soften up election laws the way liberal activists prefer. This fake outrage is just a predicate for Washington Democrats to do something they have sought to do literally for years: appoint themselves a nationwide board of elections on steroids.

This is the takeover that Democrats have sought for multiple years, using multiple different justifications. It is not a voting rights bill. It is a sprawling, sweeping takeover of our democracy. Our colleagues' bill would do things like forcing all 50 States--all of them--to legalize corrupt ballot harvesting. They would have the government send public funds directly to political campaigns.

The same Attorney General who has frivolously sued Texas just to placate the White House, whose Department of Justice tries to intimidate parents, would be handed new power to micromanage election law.

Some early drafts of this bill tried to literally, openly turn the Federal Election Commission into an outright partisan body. Talk about tipping your hand.

These changes wouldn't bolster faith in our democracy or in our institutions. It would do exactly the opposite. It would be a civic wrecking ball. And, listen, that is before you consider that Senate Democrats want to destroy our own institution to ram this through.

The current Senate Democratic leader once said that nuking filibuster rules would be a ``doomsday for democracy.'' Just a few years ago, more than 30 Senate Democrats joined a bipartisan letter supporting the legislative filibuster.

President Biden defended the principle in long, passionate speeches throughout his entire career. Just last year, as President, he repeated that destroying the filibuster would ``throw the entire Congress into chaos.'' He certainly was right about that.

There is no partial or limited nuclear option on the table. As the Senator for West Virginia put it yesterday, whenever you start talking about carving things out, you end up eating the entire turkey.

No party that would trash the Senate's legislative traditions can be trusted to seize control over election laws all across America. Nobody who is this desperate to take over our democracy on a one-party basis can be allowed to do it.

Finally, it is beyond distasteful for some of our colleagues to ham- fistedly invoke the January 6 anniversary to advance these aims. Washington Democrats have been trying to seize control over elections for years. Their first draft of the legislation at hand was introduced in January of 2019. The fact that violent criminals broke the law does not entitle Senate Democrats to break the Senate.

It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to justify--listen to this--to justify breaking rules to grab outcomes they have not earned.

I am going to say that again. It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to justify breaking the rules to grab outcomes they have not earned.

It is surreal to hear sitting Senators invoke January the 6th to argue that institutions can be trampled because they would like a different result.

A year ago, the Senate didn't bend and it didn't break. We held strong. It is jaw-dropping for colleagues to propose to commemorate that by breaking the Senate themselves in a different way.

A year ago, there was a lot of talk on this floor about protecting the norms and institutions of our democracy by putting long-term bipartisan traditions ahead of short-term partisan power. Someday soon, it appears, we may learn which of us, actually, really meant it.

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

Mr. President, now, on another matter, over the holidays, Russian President Vladimir Putin's insatiable and unreasonable demands only grew. So did Russia's threat to Ukraine, Europe, NATO, and our own interests. Putin cannot be allowed to use force or the threat of force to further erode Ukraine's territorial integrity. The West cannot be bullied into betraying our friends, forgetting our principles, or accepting a Russian sphere of influence.

Freedom's friends will either stand up to the bully while we have a chance or we will rue the day we did not, whether in Europe, Asia, or elsewhere. If Putin walks away from this self-created crisis feeling emboldened, he and others will run the same play again and again and again.

It is appropriate for the administration and our allies to seek to deescalate the situation, but not at the expense of deterrence and not by throwing our friends' security under the bus.

And if we don't make sure our allies and partners have a seat at the table, they may well end up on the menu. For Putin, this is not just about Ukraine. This is about breaking NATO and Europe and restoring Russian domination of its neighbors.

I support President Biden's stated desire to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine. But--but--his administration must move faster to provide emergency military capabilities to help Ukraine defend themselves and deter attacks.

Time is of the essence. Moving at the speed of bureaucracy is simply not going to cut it. Neither will waiting until Russia escalates, at which point, of course, it would be too late. Because this is not merely about Ukraine, President Biden must also work with NATO allies to reinforce our collective military position on the continent.

We have to reassure our eastern flank NATO allies and deter any threats to the alliance by demonstrating that 30 nations are both willing and able to uphold article 5. The Russians have to believe that.

The President, with bipartisan support, has threatened sanctions against Russia. European allies must show that they, too, will impose significant sanctions on Moscow for any additional aggression against Ukraine.

Even if this crisis abates, the long-term threat from revisionist powers like Russia and China isn't going anywhere. These countries literally want to redraw world maps and rewrite international rules through force or the threat of force. So this is why the United States must be as serious about modernizing our military as our adversaries are about modernizing theirs.

While the Biden administration talks a good game about competing with China, their first budget proposed to cut defense spending in real terms, especially significant given their runaway inflation. We cannot shirk on investing in our military.

And our friends and allies must also pull their weight. NATO's 2 percent pledge from 2014 is not sufficient for the threat we face in 2022. But key NATO partners have still not met even that commitment.

Europe must also reassess energy and environmental policies that have purchased a green veneer at the expense of more dependence on Russia and more leverage for Moscow. This should begin with abandoning the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The United States, NATO, and all our partners can either act now or, believe me, we will live to regret it.

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

Mr. President, a week ago, the Senate lost a distinguished former colleague and the State of Nevada lost an unparalleled advocate.

Senator Harry Reid's path to this Chamber was a quintessentially American story. His incredible path from childhood poverty, to the boxing ring, to leading the U.S. Senate took both toughness and tenacity. And in this Chamber, just like everywhere else, Harry left it all in the ring.

As leaders of our respective parties, the two of us disagreed energetically and often. We had sharply different views, goals, and philosophies on everything from public policy to the institution of the Senate itself. But through

all the heat and light, I never doubted that Harry was doing what he earnestly believed was right for Nevada and for the Nation.

Elaine and I were grateful to enjoy a joint friendship with Harry and Landra, the light of Harry's life, his beloved high school sweetheart. The Senate's thoughts and prayers continue to be with her and the entire Reid family.

Mr. President, on a completely different matter, as the Senate begins this new year and new session, millions of Americans are yet again having life disrupted by a new and surging variant of the coronavirus. Thus far, there is cause for optimism. The rapidly spreading Omicron variant seems to cause milder disease than previous iterations. By now, a huge portion of our population has some immunity through our remarkable safe and effective vaccines or through prior exposure, and our healthcare providers know much more today than they did 2 years ago.

Unfortunately, the last few weeks have also exposed big gaps between the Biden administration's promises and the reality under their leadership. In 2020, then-Candidate Biden promised he would ``shut down the virus.'' That clearly has not happened. Back when the virus had killed 220,000 Americans, then-Candidate Biden said that ``anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States.'' Now almost four times that many people have died.

Look, nobody is solely blaming this administration for this mutating virus, but nobody forced Democrats to campaign on those promises and attacks. They chose to do that, but they haven't governed accordingly.

It has been nearly a year since President Biden inherited three vaccines and a distribution operation that was already putting a million shots in a million arms every day. That was before this administration took office. What new solutions do Democrats have to show for a full year in power? Where is their 2021 equivalent to our 2020's Operation Warp Speed? What did they produce in 11 months besides angry speeches about the vaccines they inherited? Why does the pandemic in January 2022 feel so eerily similar to the pandemic in January of 2021, except that this administration happened to get lucky with an apparently less-dangerous variant?

After a year of this administration, families are still having trouble tracking down testing for work, school, travel, or even peace of mind. This administration has limited important treatments. They dragged their heels on promising innovations. They have been inexplicably slow to disburse relief funds for hospitals and providers that Congress set aside ages ago. They have used odd, alienating rhetoric around the vaccines they inherited.

And remember, last spring when our Democratic colleagues spent $1.9 trillion on a supposedly COVID-related spending bill, only 9 percent of it went to the actual fight against COVID-19--just 9 percent of the $1.9 trillion authorized last March.

So this all-Democrat government spent its first year distracted, and the country is feeling the consequences.

Mr. President, on a related matter, fortunately for the country, before Christmas, one of those far-left distractions was dealt a setback. The Democrats' wasteful spending last spring helped ignite the worst inflation in 40 years, but our colleagues spent the rest of 2021 trying to assemble yet another even bigger, even more reckless tax-and- spending spree. Their reaction to rising prices and family hardships their policies caused was to try to inflate their way out of inflation.

The experts say that when you strip away the budget gimmick, their proposal would cost almost $5 trillion. And all of that reckless borrowing and money-printing was for far-left policies that would hurt American families and actually help China.

The supposedly ``green'' subsidies would just dump money in China- dominated supply chains. America takes on massive debt to ``Build Back Beijing.''

The childcare plan was actually an unworkable and discriminatory toddler takeover that would drive up daycare costs and let woke bureaucrats drive out faith-based providers. They even wanted to distort American parents' child tax credit and turn it into an old- school cash welfare program with no work requirements at all--now, all of this paired with historic, crushing tax hikes and trillions more dollars to make inflation even worse.

It was a merrier Christmas for American families because this awful bill was actually put aside. Working Americans need it to actually stay on the shelf.

Mr. President, in eastern Kentucky, one man has been at the center of efforts to expand eye care for nearly 40 years. Dr. Jerald Combs, who passed away last month, played an instrumental role in modernizing and extending access to optometric care across Kentucky's Appalachian region. Today, I recognize Dr. Combs as an outstanding Kentuckian whose work made a vast impact on the lives of his patients.

When Dr. Combs began his practice in Martin, KY, in 1983, optometry in eastern Kentucky was an underdeveloped practice. Many residents lacked access to the eye care they needed, leaving far too many without good vision. Dr. Combs made it his mission to change that status quo and improved many lives in the process. His clinic served the entire eastern Kentucky region, attracting patients from far and wide who needed his care.

Perhaps Dr. Combs' greatest legacy will be his efforts to increase optometry training opportunities in his community. Because of his work in this area, the University of Pikeville named their college of optometry in his honor. The school's Jerald F. Combs Endowed Scholarship gives students of all backgrounds the ability to study the subject, providing expertise to those who will stay in eastern Kentucky and help develop the field further.

Throughout his life, Dr. Combs was committed to serving his community and our Commonwealth and earned many awards for his efforts. The Kentucky Optometric Association lavished him with praise, granting him both their Optometrist of the Year Award and Distinguished Service Award twice. He also served as president and a board member of the association for many years. Outside of optometry, Dr. Combs helped his community through the Knott County Youth Foundation, the Knott County Little League, the Kiwanis Club, and the Hazard Lions Club. He served on the University of Pikeville Board of Trustees, steering the school to success.

I knew Dr. Combs personally and was saddened to learn of his passing last month. Few Kentuckians play as big or instrumental of a role in their community as he did. While we all mourn his loss, we can also be confident that his legacy, expanded access to eye care among Kentucky's most vulnerable communities, will last for many years into the future. I would like to express my personal gratitude for Dr. Combs' decades of service to the Commonwealth and encourage my Senate colleagues to join me in sharing condolences with the family, friends, and colleagues.