Floor Statements

Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor today with a warning for Kansans and all Americans that the inflation we are seeing, Bidenflation, as I call it, is here to stay so long as those on the left continue to jam through reckless tax-and-spend bills.

Unfortunately, the inflation we are seeing is a double whammy. You have less money to spend, and the things you want to buy cost more. It is hurting every hard-working American but none more than our seniors and young families living paycheck to paycheck. No, President Biden, inflation is not a problem of just the high class. Indeed, there is no equity in Bidenflation.

Make no mistake, inflation and all of its lingering effects rest squarely on the shoulders of President Biden's failed social policies. It is yet another crisis created by this administration.

Having personally lived through the seventies and eighties, I have seen inflation happen firsthand. I have seen it bring so many businesses down. And to put it in simpler terms, inflation is a vicious cycle, like a dog chasing its own tail and the tail is on fire. And, of course, the Biden administration has been throwing gasoline on this fire since the moment they took office.

Today's inflation crisis began with Joe Biden's boondoggle stimulus bill and the proceeding labor shortages. For months now, we are seeing ``Help Wanted'' signs everywhere, from the small mom-and-pop shops on Main Street to big hotel chains and fast-food restaurants. Employers are struggling to fill the open jobs they have despite raising wages and offering return-to-work bonuses.

This labor shortage is having a rippling effect across our economy, from slowing down the supply and logistics chains to putting an unfair burden on employees who choose to show up. This ripple has turned into a tidal wave of inflation and now a full-blown tsunami.

But the storm waves don't stop there. The cost of living has increased as a result of production delays caused by labor shortages. Higher costs at home, such as the cost of gasoline, vehicles, groceries, and energy costs caused workers to go on strike asking for higher wages just to make ends meet.

Folks, I have got news for you: Wages never keep up with inflation. All this, in turn, drives up the cost of goods and services even more. You get the point.

Inflation is a vicious cycle. This is the dog chasing its own tail.

But Bidenflation doesn't stop there now. Why? Because President Biden is throwing more gasoline on the fire with his unconstitutional vaccine mandate. I, too, have seen this firsthand. Just last week, I was in Kansas to meet with union members who are facing the difficult choice of keeping their jobs or getting the COVID vaccine.

These folks aren't just mad; they are panicked. And it is literally job or jab for them. In fact, the unions I spoke with estimate they will lose 30 to 50 percent of their workforce due to Joe Biden's vaccine mandate. This will make both our supply chain shortages as well as inflation even worse.

Mr. President, while I support the COVID vaccine and encourage folks to talk to their doctor about whether to get it, there is no doubt that President Biden's vaccination decree is an all-out assault on our private businesses, our civil liberties, and our entire constitutional system of limited government.

And it is a slap in the face to so many people who stood on the frontlines of the COVID battle last year and never stopped working: nurses, doctors, first responders, and those union workers I met with last week. Trust me, I have heard loud and clear these few weeks from Kansans about what they want, and it is not an unconstitutional vaccine mandate. It is not the socialism that is born out of trillions of dollars' worth of spending and taxing that has led to reckless inflation, hampered our economy, and killed our jobs.

The question is, Do Americans want Big Government socialism or do we want economic freedom and prosperity? Kansans agree that if you want strong roads, bridges, high-speed internet, good schools, and a strong military, we need a strong economy. That should be our focus right now, not continuing down this administration's socialist economic policies.

Pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in my lifetime. That came about because we lowered people's taxes; we lowered regulations; and we lowered energy prices. We need smart, targeted investments, not radical spending that leaves the country at a disadvantage.

Unfortunately, in the meantime, everyone better buckle up and grab your wallets. Bidenflation is here to stay as long as this administration continues its reckless taxing, reckless borrowing, and reckless spending agenda.

Mr. President, before I wrap up, I want to voice my support for Kansas City's bid to serve as host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup prior to tomorrow's highly anticipated venue visit by FIFA representatives.

Kansas is home to some of the most devoted, fanatic soccer fans in the world that are ready to cheer on Team USA, and what better place to do it than in America's heartland. The Kansas City community, alongside Sporting KC, has shown unwavering commitment to make this dream a reality, and Kansas City is no stranger to hosting major sporting events, from the Big 12 Men's Basketball Conference Championships, NCAA March Madness, and plans to host the NFL Football Draft in 2023.

We have great, fan-friendly facilities and something for everyone in the family to do. We have the lodging, public transportation, shopping and dining options needed to make the 2026 World Cup a great success. The FIFA World Cup is the largest and most prestigious single-sport event in the world, and there is no better place for it to be held than Kansas City.

Thank you.

I yield back.

Mr. President, I rise in support of our amendment to prohibit funds in this legislation to be used to promulgate, fund, or enforce President Biden's unconstitutional vaccine mandate on private employers.

As a physician, I am confident the vaccine has saved lives. My wife and I got the vaccine. My parents got the vaccine, and they are waiting to get their boosters. But whether to receive it is a personal choice between individuals and their doctor, not mandated

via unconstitutional Executive actions that the administration recently acknowledged they didn't have authority to put in place.

No precedent exists in American history for punishing private employers that don't enforce government vaccination edicts. Astonishingly, House Democrats included fines of up to $700,000 on businesses that have unvaccinated employees as a way to pay for their out-of-control spending.

Make no mistake. This vaccine mandate is not about public health or science. If it were, we would recognize natural immunity as a highly effective way to combat the virus.

Madam President, with a Democratic President in the White House, Democrats controlling the House of Representatives, and Democrats controlling the Senate, those on the left have every arrow in the quiver they need to raise the debt limit. It is their sole responsibility. They own this. It is also their responsibility, having control of all the levers of government, to ensure that government does not shut down next Thursday at midnight.

As you have already heard from my colleagues here today, we Republicans are united in the fact that we will not assist in passing another reckless, Big Government, socialism package designed to reshape the Nation and make Americans more dependent on the government from the moment they are born to the moment they die.

FDR once warned of a government dependency when he said that ``continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.''

As elected officials, we are supposed to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We are supposed to leave this country in better shape for our children and grandchildren. But the Democrats' tax-and-spending spree accomplishes neither of these things and, in fact, further promulgates the government dependency FDR cautioned future generations about.

What is shocking is that in just one generation the national debt has soared from $5 trillion to more than $28 trillion. Think about that for a second. In the first 225 years of our Nation's history, the national debt was approximately $5 trillion. In the last 20 years, we have increased it by nearly another $25 trillion, including accumulating more than $7 trillion in just the past 2 years.

Now, I said this before, but, folks, grab your wallets. Grab your wallets because the bill they want to pass for reconciliation is going to include massive spending that will put heavy debt on our country. It is going to raise your taxes. It is going to cause Medicare to run out in 2 years. And it is going to continue to drive up the cost of living.

The inflation we are seeing now is a double whammy. You have less money to spend, and the things you are able to buy cost more. It is hurting every hard-working American, but none more than our seniors and young families living paycheck to paycheck.

This looming government shutdown is just another crisis created by this administration. They created a crisis at our southern border, in Afghanistan, with a labor shortage, and now on the pocketbooks of Americans with a multitrillion-dollar socialist spending package.

While it is true America has seen a number of horrendous financial crises before, none have so quickly developed as the pending fiscal crisis President Biden created with the trillions of dollars' worth of reckless spending and reckless taxing in just the first 9 months of control.

And Democrats are now pointing fingers at Republicans, claiming that by refusing to go along with their out-of-control spending and joining them to increase the debt limit, that we are the ones who are being financially irresponsible.

Give me a break. If they were serious about getting our fiscal house in order, they wouldn't be trying to force through another partisan spending bill that is going to bankrupt our country and instead would be pursuing budget reforms and debt reduction proposals in exchange for increasing the debt.

This is not a serious political party, and America needs to recognize that we have a choice between free enterprise capitalism and a socialist economy. Trust me, I heard loud and clear this past weekend during my townhall meetings in the Kansas City area about what Kansans want, and it is not the socialism that has borne out trillions of dollars' worth of spending and taxing that has led to reckless inflation, hampered our economy, and killed our jobs.

Ultimately, if you want strong roads, bridges, high-speed internet, good schools, and a strong military, we need a stronger economy. That should be our focus right now, not continuing down this administration's socialist economic policies.

Pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in my lifetime. That came about because we lowered people's taxes, we lowered regulations, and we lowered energy prices. We need smart, targeted investments, not radical spending that leaves the country at a disadvantage.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 3797 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. President, as we all work to address vaccine hesitancy and anxiously await full approval of the COVID-19 vaccines, open border policies undermine these efforts. Americans can travel to Mexico City but not return to America without a COVID test, while an illegal immigrant has no test requirements, and in just a few days, it will be easier to illegally cross our southern border than go to a restaurant or a bar in New York City.

Some estimates would suggest hundreds or, perhaps, even thousands of COVID-positive illegal immigrants enter our Republic every day. That means we have a superspreader event at our southern border every single day, and Americans are watching this public healthcare crisis. In McAllen, TX, almost 1,500 new infected migrants were released into their communities this past week alone.

There is a healthcare crisis at our southern border, and it is unacceptable for the government to be transporting illegal migrants who pose a grave risk of transmitting COVID across our Nation.

My amendment would ensure resources are provided for testing and treatment of migrants at the border and for quarantining those who test positive for COVID as well as prohibiting the transportation of migrants who have not received a negative test.

Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mr. President, were I present during the vote today on H.R. 3237, as amended, I would have vote yea.

Madam President, America has seen a number of horrendous financial crises before, but none that have so quickly developed as the fiscal crisis this White House created with trillions of dollars' worth of drunken spending and tax proposals in just the first 7 months of control.

The most glaring, almost parody-level, example is the administration's $3.5 trillion and growing, newly labeled, human infrastructure package, which is nothing more than a rosy-sounding title for socialism.

The results of these radical tax-and-spending policies, what are they? A sluggish economy, inflation, and one of the most dramatic expansions of the welfare state in recent history. Recently, the Department of Labor reported that consumer prices climbed for the third straight month, jumping 5 percent in June, the largest increase in 13 years.

Every day, we see inflation impacting hard-working Americans. In fact, this past weekend, we held five townhall meetings in Kansas, and thanks to this administration's economic policies, runaway inflation has replaced COVID at the top of the mountain of concerns for people of my home State.

In Kansas, we are paying more than $1 more per gallon at the gas pump, 40 cents more per gallon of milk, and almost 20 percent more for a home than we were at this time last year. While wages have increased, inflation continues to outpace them by more than two-to-one. I have heard loudly and clearly the concerns from Kansans, and especially from small business owners, the backbone of our economy, about the impact of the Democrats' reckless summer tax-and-spending spree.

One tax proposal, the elimination of stepped-up basis, would be devastating to small businesses and family farms, as that provision allows them to hand down their family business from one generation to the next without paying a costly tax burden.

Under the administration's plan, the average farmer would have a new tax obligation of nearly a quarter of a million dollars, as cropland values in Kansas have risen 220 percent since 1997, not to mention the economy-killing policy of eliminating 1031 exchanges and taxing capital gains at ordinary income levels.

On the spending front, this administration continues to pursue unsustainable and irresponsible spending policies that are actually ruining our economic recovery. Further, they want to increase the debt limit without implementing any spending reforms. This is going to crush our children and grandchildren, leaving their generation to pay for the social sins of this generation.

Instead of getting our fiscal house in order and curbing back on massive government spending, this administration and Democrats in Congress are working to pass trillions more in reckless spending under the guise of infrastructure.

Pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in my lifetime. That came about because we lowered people's taxes, we lowered regulations, and we lowered energy prices. We need smart, targeted investments, not radical spending that leaves this country at a disadvantage and kills jobs.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to use a prop during my remarks.

Madam President, I rise today to join my colleagues in opposing the motion to discharge President Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Land Management, Tracy Stone-Manning.

Since Ms. Stone-Manning's first hearing in the beginning of June, members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee have gathered copious amounts of information regarding a number of controversies that disqualify her for this important role within our Federal Government.

As has been highlighted today, Ms. Stone-Manning was involved in a tree-spiking plot as a member of the ecoterrorist group Earth First!--a tree-spiking plot.

I have to tell you, I didn't know what tree spiking was until a couple of weeks ago.

Could you imagine taking this nail and driving it into a tree with the hopes it would deter that tree from ever being cut down

And the concern is, someone that would take a chain saw, cutting through that tree, when they would hit this spike, what would happen?

I, unfortunately, had to take care of more than one chain saw situation in the emergency room. Let me tell you about a chain saw accident. The chain doesn't cut the flesh; it tears the flesh apart. It tears the skin apart, the muscles apart. It grabs the tendon and literally wraps them around the chain saw, usually permanently maiming people.

So could you imagine, if a chain saw hit this spike, what would happen?

Again, I have ran a chain saw before, and I know, as you are running the chain saw and you hit something solid, something hard--a knot-- sometimes that chain saw bounces. It bounces back into your body. And that is where most of the accidents occur.

So could you imagine, if that chain saw hit this spike, the chain saw is going to bounce back, going to recoil into the person's body, and turns this spike into a piece of shrapnel?

This Earth First! Ms. Stone was a member of is a radical organization that spanned the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the peak years of what is often referred to as ``the wilderness wars.'' As described by the Wall Street Journal, Earth First! had, at the time, ``defined itself''--and I should quote here, ``defined itself as the tip of the fanatical spear,'' and Ms. Stone-Manning was referred to as ``an Earth First! spokesperson.''

Debuting in 1985, the group engaged in a number of protests over the expansion of certain campgrounds and street theater asking people to take oaths to protect the Earth. However, they graduated into violence and ecoterrorist activities, including arson, equipment destruction, and the dangerous practice of tree spiking, which mangles saws and can easily result in the death of loggers.

In 1989, Ms. Stone-Manning was involved in an incident of tree spiking herself. Despite her denial, she was aware of the act being carried out, aided those who were involved, and helped cover it up. She obstructed the investigation and, finally, traded testimony for immunity.

At a time when the Biden administration has declared domestic extremism as one of the biggest threats the United States faces today, how can the President nominate someone with a record like this to lead the Agency that governs one-eighth of the country's landmass? How can this body bring her confirmation vote to the floor?

It is reckless and dripping with hypocrisy.

Republican Members who have come to the floor today are not the only individuals who believe she is unfit for this role. President Obama's first Bureau of Land Management Director, Bobby Abbey, who led the Agency from 2009 to 2012, said last month that Ms. Stone-Manning should withdraw her nomination due to her involvement in the tree-spiking case.

Steve Ellis, who served as Deputy Director of BLM under President Obama, joined Mr. Abbey last week in expressing his concern about Ms. Stone-Manning's nomination, stating the leader of the BLM must--again, I quote--``be respected by career employees and across the landscape, in both blue and red states'' in order to be effective.

In addition to her involvement with Earth First! and this horrific tree-spiking incident, Ms. Stone-Manning had a questionable financial history during her time serving in government. During the lengthy hearing process, I was alarmed to learn that Ms. Stone-Manning received a $100,000 loan from a Montana land developer and Democratic donor when she worked as a congressional staffer. Senate Ethics rules and Federal statute prohibit Senate staff from accepting gifts greater than $250, including a loan, unless a waiver is granted.

Mr. President, in the last few weeks, I have been back home, and many, many people were finishing up wheat harvest. It is absolutely one of the joys of the entire year, when a year's work of hard work comes to fruition. Every corner of the State was speckled with combines, tractors, grain carts, and trucks, all doing their part in the harvest process. Inside those implements were fathers and sons, sisters, mothers, brothers, and my cousins, all working side by side to harvest the crop that will provide the financing for land payments, equipment loans, operating loans, and next year's inputs, like seed and fertilizer.

Now, agriculture is a capital-intensive industry, much more than I could have ever imagined. Harvesting wheat requires at least four different pieces of machinery, many costing $250,000, $500,000, or more each. It takes years for a farmer building up equity to purchase a new piece of equipment or land. And for many families, it is only by passing down the land and equipment that a family farm can remain viable. This is the only way a young farmer can truly survive.

Now, the common saying in Kansas is that farmers live poor but die rich. Across this great Nation, contrary to most people's beliefs, 98 percent of farms and ranches are family-owned--

98 percent, family-owned. Those families produce much of the food, fuel, and fiber we consume here in the United States and around the globe. These family farms, many in their fourth, like mine, fifth generation--and even sixth and seventh generation farms and ranches are out there now. They endure turbulent weather, inconsistent market conditions, and tight labor markets. It seemed like, growing up, a week never passed that my dad never looked at me and said: You know, farming has to be the biggest gamble there is in America.

In 2017, Republican-led government passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which provided sweeping tax changes to encourage private entrepreneurship and economic growth. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the exemptions for the estate tax--as we call it, the death tax--more than doubled, keeping most family farms safe from redundant government taxation.

But now, the current administration and some of my friends across the aisle want to tax hard-working agricultural producers with the financing of their roughly $5 trillion reckless tax-and-spending bill. I think President Eisenhower--or Ike, as we call him, a fellow Kansan-- hit the nail on the head when he said: ``You know, farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from a corn field.''

First, they proposed not only eliminating stepped-up basis on realized property but also on unrealized assets at the time of the owner's death. Their proposal would tax unrealized capital gains over $1 million at ordinary income tax rates, which would be levied at the top marginal rate of 39.6 percent. That means the next generation inheriting land and equipment would have to pay taxes on the increase in value, even if the property is never sold.

Secondly, the administration has proposed lowering the exemption to the death tax from $11.7 million, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to $3.5 million per person and increasing the top tax rate from 40 to 45 percent. Consequently, a family farm commonly would have to sell off a third of their land to keep going from generation to generation. And the buyers, unfortunately, will be large corporations or foreign entities.

According to a report published by Texas A&M's Agriculture and Food Policy Center, under current law only 2 of their 94 representative farms would be impacted by an event triggering a generational transfer of property--2 out of 94. To contrast this, up to 98 percent of their representative farms would see new higher tax burdens if certain parts of the administration's plan were enacted

From 1997 to 2020, in Kansas, cropland values have risen 220 percent. In some parts of the United States, they have increased over 500 percent. If there was a 20-percent capital gains tax on those valuation increases, the average Kansas farmer would have a new tax obligation of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. These numbers are simply unbearable.

I stop and pay homage to my grandfather and both of my grandfathers, who have had fourth and fifth generation family farms. These farms were bought in the early 1900s. Both farms have been in the family over 100 years. I would suppose my grandfathers paid less than $100 per acre. Today, those farms maybe are worth $1,000 or $2,000 an acre. But if you can imagine the tax burden of trying to pass down that farm and pay for that stepped-up basis, for the tax on the increase of net property, it simply isn't going to happen. None of us have brothers and sisters and cousins that have that type of cash available. We want to encourage the next generation to return home to the family farm, not tax them into bankruptcy.

America will see millions of acres of land and billions of dollars of equipment change hands over this next decade. While the current administration contests that only a small percentage of our farm families will be impacted by the proposed changes, all evidence really indicates otherwise.

The administration fails to consider the several realities of multigenerational farms, with some siblings staying on the farm and some selling their interest. Any changes to the estate tax and opportunities to pass assets from one generation to the next will lead to further consolidation in the ag industry, fewer young families returning home to their rural communities, and more rural Main Street businesses closing shop.

We can't allow this administration to saddle our hard-working farming families with the responsibilities of funding their socialist agenda. Agriculture is still responsible for 40 percent of the Kansas economy. We must all do what we can to ensure our family farms have every opportunity possible to continue their way of life and bring the next generation back to the farm and keep rural America alive and well.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, this past week, we held 12 townhalls back home in my home State of Kansas. We heard from Kansans about a variety of issues, but thanks to this administration's economic policies, runaway inflation has replaced COVID at the top of the mountain of concerns for the people from my State.

Make no mistake about it--the inflation harming checking accounts of Kansans and all Americans rests squarely on the shoulders of the socialist economic policies coming out of the White House, otherwise known as Bidenomics.

As we all know, yesterday, the Department of Labor reported consumer prices climbed for the third straight month, jumping over 5 percent in June--the largest increase in 13 years. Gas prices are up, groceries are up, cars and truck prices are up, home prices are up, paper products are up, utilities are up, and I could go on and on.

Every day, we see the Bidenomics of inflation impacting hard-working Americans. In fact, inflation is a great social injustice. Inflation is really a regressive tax. It hurts everyone but none more than our seniors and young, hard-working families living paycheck to paycheck.

So what exactly is Bidenomics? Let's look at what they did to create this crisis. Stating the obvious, they are printing money, borrowing money we don't have, and implementing quantitative easing like there is no tomorrow, like there are no generations of America for our future.

Look no further than the cost of utilities. The administration has made it hard to use affordable, clean, traditional energy, and they leveled more and more regulations on the industry.

Manufactured products? Ditto. Bidenomics is paying people more to stay at home than go to work, creating labor shortages and government- created bottlenecks in manufacturing plants. And then, to top things off, we don't even have enough truckdrivers to transport goods to market.

As for gasoline, I bring your attention, which is up 31 percent since January, and according to AAA, it is expected to rise another 20 cents this summer.

Let's think about what all the administration has done. They shut down the Keystone XL. They stopped drilling on government lands and imposed harmful rules and regulations to slow down drilling and make it more expensive. We are now importing more oil from Russia than Alaska.

As a physician in rural Kansas, I had the privilege of delivering a baby most every day, and one thing I always noticed, when that price of gasoline got above $3 a gallon, all of a sudden, those moms were missing their appointments. Today, we are at that number, and we are expecting it to go even higher, unfortunately. Kansans aren't the only ones feeling the squeeze at the pump.

Many popular items we all regularly purchase at the grocery store increased in recent months. The cost of a typical all-American Kansas breakfast--two eggs, bacon, hash browns, toast, and orange juice--is up almost 10 percent.

Pre-COVID, we had the greatest economy in my lifetime, and that came about because we lowered people's taxes, we lowered regulations, and we lowered energy prices. Now, out-of-control spending and socialist policies dictated by the White House are leading to rampant inflation that shows no signs of stopping

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I have 8 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the Senate. They have the approval of the Majority and Minority leaders.

Pursuant to rule XXVI, paragraph 5(a), of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the following committees are authorized to meet during today's session of the Senate:

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 3 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Veterans' Affairs

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 3 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, at 2 p.m., to conduct a closed hearing.

Subcommittee on Cybersecurity

The Subcommittee on Cybersecurity of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Subcommittee on Energy

The Subcommittee on Energy of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Subcommittee on Economic Policy

The Subcommittee on Economic Policy of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

I ask unanimous consent to use two scientific models as props during my speech.

Mr. President, it seems like every week, we get a new update on the timeline for the origin of the COVID-19 virus. This week, we learned that in October of 2019--October 2019--that over 1,000 soldiers from over 100 countries had gathered in Wuhan, China, for a military Olympics, if you will.

Then what we learned is that, several weeks after that event, many of our own athletes and our own military personnel became ill, as well as folks from other countries. We went back further and talked to some of those soldiers. They told us that Wuhan, China, looked like a ghost town during that event. A town of over 11 million people looked like a ghost town.

What I am frustrated about is that the CDC has not investigated this, that the military has not investigated it, and that, during the proper times, we could have tested their antibodies. When we learned of this, maybe, perhaps, in March or in April, they probably still had antibodies. Even today, we could investigate it, but we need

the FDA to do its job as well. We need the FDA to pass a T-cell test so we can go back and see if these soldiers who became ill after this event--to see if, indeed, this was from the COVID-19 virus.

Certainly, the timeline, by all accounts, is going backward every month, but I think it is time to update the American public, too, on what I feel are the lab origins of this virus. Certainly, this is just a theory, but I think we need to look into and discover and talk more about the biological origin of this virus.

This is a model of COVID-19, the virus that has killed millions of people across the world. It looks very much like the original SARS virus, with an exception, and that exception is a protein spike. The protein spike that I am talking about is composed of two units. We will call those two units S-1 and S-2, and this is a model of that COVID-19 protein spike. It is very special. It is very unique.

Let's talk about the S-1 spike just for a second. The S-1 spike looks very similar--it looks exactly like viral gain-of-function research that was conducted between a lab in North Carolina and with Dr. Shi, the ``bat lady'' from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That S-1 spike sticks to lung cells like glue. Again, this is NIH-funded research, the North Carolina lab, and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

What we did is we took the basic, original SARS virus, and we slapped a protein spike on it that made it stick to human cells like glue. Think of it as being like a key in a lock. Think about, if you have a human cell as the lock, that there needs to be a special key. So they invented a special key that would impact and go into only human cells. That was done in about 2015, but then, after that, things go dark. We don't know what happened, but, somehow, this COVID-19 virus has another part of this protein spike, and we will call it the S-2 unit.

The theory is that, in the Wuhan Institute of Virology and, possibly, in the Wuhan CDC Lab, further research was done. They developed a special part of this spike--again, the S-2 unit. This is what is so special about it: It has what we call a furin cleavage site. The furin cleavage site is--and don't take it from me; take it from Nobel Laureate Dr. David Baltimore.

Dr. Baltimore said that the furin cleavage site with its double arginine codon--and I am paraphrasing here--is the smoking gun for the lab origin of the virus in that this double arginine codon just doesn't occur in nature and that only human cells have the ability to use that furin cleavage site and break this into two separate units. That is what allows this virus to dump its genetic material into human lung cells and replicate.

As a physician, as a person who has studied virology a bit, this protein spike just doesn't look like it comes from nature. Everything about it would suggest that it was made in a laboratory. It is just too mean. It is too angry. It is just too perfect. It is too infectious. The unique thing about it is, though some would make us believe that this virus comes from bats, this virus doesn't like bats.

It only took American scientists and Chinese scientists 4 months to discover the origin of the original SARS virus, that it came from a bat and then it went to another animal, an intermediate host. It only took us 4 months to discover that virus. The MERS virus, on the other hand, it took us about 9 months. Here we are 18 months later, and we don't have any type of an intermediate host. All of the mapping that we are seeing points to this virus being made in a laboratory.

Now, the Wuhan lab could disprove me. They have the data to prove me wrong, but I am afraid that the data is now gone. It is gone forever-- most likely destroyed--unless, of course, we can find it in a cloud somewhere.

It is outrageous that a comprehensive investigation on the origins of COVID-19 has still not been carried out. Now, I am proud that this body passed a resolution that Senator Gillibrand and I put together that calls for a transparent investigation of the COVID-19 outbreak, mandated by the World Health Assembly. It unanimously passed this body, and that resolution demands a full and transparent investigation to include the United States and our allies and our partners around the world.

Now, it is time for the Senate to do our job. It is time for the Senate to fully investigate the origins of this virus as well. It would be utterly irresponsible to suffer through the worst pandemic in a century and not have the origins fully investigated.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, if H.R. 1, S. 1 were ever passed into law, it would forever be known as the ``Nancy Pelosi Power Grab Act.''

This legislation lets the Federal Government take over our elections, which is clearly unconstitutional.

Let's talk about ballot harvesting to begin with. Most Americans believe that ballot harvesting is wrought with fraud and wrong. Frankly, it dilutes your vote.

For decades, for centuries, Americans have woken up early in the morning on voting day to get to church, to vote early before they get to work.

Can you just imagine how much seeing so many show up with a bag full of ballots, which can't be vouched for--what it does to devalue your vote.

Let's talk about voter ID for a second. I think most Americans--maybe at least 80 percent of Americans--believe that voter ID brings integrity to the election process.

Certainly voter ID has worked for Kansas for years and brings about integrity to our election process. Just think about all the things that require an ID at this point in time. To rent a car today, if I wanted to check into a hotel, if I wanted to board an airplane tonight, I would need some type of identification.

And I think the value of voting is even more than any of those and thus the need for some type of voter identification. This bill takes integrity out of the election process.

Next, most Americans don't want their tax dollars going to fund any elections, especially elections of the opposite party to which you belong, and I can certainly guarantee that nobody wants to see more political attack ads with their hard-earned tax dollars being spent.

But let me tell you what I am for. I want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat. I want to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.

Ballot harvesting makes it easier to cheat. Getting rid of voter ID makes it easier to cheat. That destroys the integrity of the election process.

This bill, simply stated, is just another attempt at an unconstitutional power grab.

I yield the floor.