Floor Statements

Madam President, I rise today to recognize the distinguished career and retirement of Lori Housman after 20 years of service at the Congressional Budget Office. Throughout her time at CBO, Lori has been a cornerstone of the Medicare unit. Her expertise in Medicare's payment policy for physicians, as well as her patience and good humor, has been essential to the Congress as it has developed legislation in this complicated area.

During her time in public service, Lori has worked on legislation that dramatically changed how Medicare operates, including the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, commonly referred to as MACRA. Lori's tireless dedication to providing the Congress with objective analysis embodies the best of CBO's commitment to serving both sides of the aisle with expertise, professionalism, and fairness. Her exemplary work in analyzing legislation is matched by her warmth toward and genuine interest in others, earning her the admiration of congressional staff. Her efforts over the years have surely helped to make the Medicare Program better for tens of millions of Americans.

To her colleagues, Lori is a constant source of knowledge, support, and kindness. She has trained many groups of CBO analysts and managers throughout her tenure, teaching them to think critically about how legislation can be translated into analytical models and how to explain how legislation can be clarified to better reflect the intent of the Congress. In addition to her contributions to CBO's analytical work, her colleagues at CBO congressional staff are grateful for her patience and generous spirit, especially in extraordinary circumstances.

As chairman of the Finance Committee, I, along with Ranking Member Crapo, thank Lori for her service, and we wish her a relaxing, well- deserved retirement with her husband Van on their boat, Pigs Flew.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print the following letter in the Congressional Record.

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise today, on behalf of Oregonians in every nook and cranny of our wonderful State, to thank my friend Chris Maier for more than three decades of stellar public service.

Chris is retiring this month as a superhero who has been cutting through redtape and defeating bureaucracy for so many Oregonians who turned to her nights and weekends and all hours. She helped with emergency immigration and State Department needs, passports, visas, immigration questions, and so much more.

As a casework manager and constituent services representative in my office for more than a decade, Chris brought an unfailing professionalism, determined follow-through, and ``Oregon Way'' focus on smart solutions when tackling all of those duties.

Chris came to our Portland office in 2009, after a decade of working for my friend Senator Gordon Smith. Before that, she had worked a total of 11 years in the offices of Senator Mark Hatfield, Congressman Denny Smith, and State Representative Chuck Carpenter. If those names that I just mentioned were an answer on jeopardy, the question would be: Who are four prominent elected Republicans in Oregon history?

The Senate heard that one right. Chris is retiring after a career of working for elected officials from both political parties. On one level, she worked for all of us as elected officials, but on a larger level, she worked for everybody in Oregon, regardless of their politics. And on that larger level, Chris epitomizes so many other public servants in Oregon and our country whose names just never get celebrated in headlines or tweets or news coverage.

The word ``bipartisan'' gets tossed around a lot, but Chris lived that ethos every single day of her public service career. When she was responding to the uncounted number of calls and email inquiries she got over the years, she never said: So tell me a little bit about your politics. Her response was always: How can I help? And she always applied her common sense and the deep reservoir of good will she earned nationwide to move the levers of government quickly and successfully. And as I alluded to at the outset, those queries and her responses never corresponded to an 8-to-5 schedule because she was always on the phone to a U.S. Embassy somewhere thousands of miles away.

Chris's duties went into overdrive in the first few weeks this past year during COVID. Oregon parents called Chris frantic to get their kids home from overseas study programs. Oregon families and friends would email Chris desperate for information about family members abroad on travel that they had saved a lifetime for. And we had businesses from all over Oregon text Chris about their U.S. employees who were working in other countries.

On the other end of all of those calls, emails, and texts was Chris Maier, always responding with her experience and empathy to figure out solutions. I can't even begin to calculate the number of times Oregonians would come up to me in our iconic ``Fred Meyer'' stories, and they would say: Ron, let me tell you about how Chris Maier went to bat for me and my family.

So today we are very grateful for her ``Chris Maier'' brand of tenacity with a smile, because she was steering so many Oregonians through the unprecedented trials of the past year.

I have been thinking about all the challenges she has been helping Oregonians with over her entire career, and she was helping all those people when she was in our office every single day, bringing relentless good cheer, an overflowing candy bowl, and a love bordering on obsession for University of Oregon football. We Ducks take our football seriously, but certainly nobody more than Chris Maier.

I am going to close with a final thought as I send Chris off to a very well-earned retirement with her husband Brad and their daughter Katherine, back home on the east side of my hometown, Portland. As Chris's fellow Oregon football fans know, the pregame pageantry at home games in Eugene always included the tradition of one joyful shout in unison: ``It never rains in Autzen Stadium.''

If I may paraphrase that thought today in talking about my friend. Her optimistic outlook and legacy of success means that all of us are joyful because ``It never rains in Chris Maier's world.''

So, Chris, on behalf of Oregonians and communities small and large, we are so grateful for all the time you went to bat for the people of our State and for the people of this country. For that we say thank you.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I have 11 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 Armed Services

The Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 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, April 21, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

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, April 21, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Foreign Relations

The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Foreign Relations

The Committee on Foreign Relations is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 2 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 12 p.m., to conduct a hearing on nominations.

Committee on the Judiciary

The Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 10 a.m., to conduct a hearing.

Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship

The Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing on a nomination.

Select Committee on Intelligence

The Select Committee on Intelligence is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 2 p.m., to conduct a closed briefing.

Subcommittee on Personnel

The Subcommittee on Personnel of the Committee on Armed Services is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights

The Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary is authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on Wednesday, April 21, 2021, at 2:30 p.m., to conduct a hearing.

Mr. President, 30 seconds' worth.

First of all, we are protecting the lifeline for senior citizens by delaying the sequester cut to Medicare. We would have extraordinary problems if this cut were to be allowed to take effect.

Second, we have defeated the Scott amendment which, if adopted, would have set a horrible precedent by refusing to fix Congress's mistake and forcing hospitals in one Senator's State to take on draconian Medicaid cuts.

I urge an ``aye'' vote.

Vote on H.R. 1868

Mr. President, the Senate is debating the nomination of Wally Adeyemo to serve as the next Deputy Treasury Secretary. I expect his nomination is going to pass with a big, bipartisan margin, but I want to take a few minutes to lay out a few reasons why every Senator ought to support this nominee.

First, you hear a lot these days about how Members of the Senate are looking for unity. Three weeks ago, the Finance Committee approved the Adeyemo nomination unanimously by voice vote, and you can't get more unified than that.

That unanimous vote followed an excellent hearing, in which Mr. Adeyemo demonstrated his command of all the various issues the Treasury is confronting today. A severe jobs crisis. Worsening inequality. A dangerous shortage of domestic manufacturing in critical areas of our economy. Intense economic competition with China, including job rip- offs and trade cheating that have undermined American workers for too long. And many other big challenges.

Members understand that there will be policy disagreements with the other party, but Mr. Adeyemo made it clear that he wants to work on a bipartisan basis to confront these challenges. Members take him seriously on that and trust him because he has done it before at the Treasury as a member of the Obama administration.

Second, the pandemic economic crisis is far from over, and it is essential that the Treasury Department has its leadership team in place. COVID cases and deaths are still tragically high. Jobless claims are still incredibly high--they spent an entire year above the previous peaks. So millions of families in Oregon and around the country are still walking an economic tightrope, and that is one of the key reasons why Senate Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan earlier this month.

The Treasury is right at the center of the enormous effort to implement that legislation. It is extraordinarily challenging work. Getting relief payments out to tens of millions of Americans in a timely way. Saving millions of jobs at the State and local level, particularly teachers, firefighters and municipal workers. Launching a landmark expansion and reinvention of the child tax credit to cut child poverty in half. This is difficult work. It requires the kind of strong and committed leadership that Wally Adeyemo will bring to the Treasury Department.

I am also looking forward to working with him on the issue of shell companies. Late last year Congress passed landmark legislation to end the use of anonymous shell companies in the United States. Several members of the Finance Committee had spent years working to get that legislation passed. Now that it has become law, it is up to the Treasury Department to write strong rules and implement it. This is a vital challenge, and it is a long time coming. So I am very much looking forward to working with Mr. Adeyemo once he is confirmed. He is as highly qualified as they come. He is also a history-making nominee because he will be the first African American Deputy Treasury Secretary.

I support his nomination 100 percent. He got 100 percent of the Finance Committee's support a few weeks ago. I believe he will have strong bipartisan support from the Senate, and I urge all Members to vote to confirm this nomination

Reserving the right to object.

Madam President, the Senator from Florida claims to be looking out for gig workers and freelancers. The reality is very different.

What is in the bill, which the Senator from Florida apparently opposes, is a way to make sure that these workers can get the information they need to help meet their existing tax obligations. Without this information, for example, workers may lose out on benefits that would help them pay rent and buy groceries. They could inadvertently lose out on important tax benefits, like the earned income tax credit. The rescue plan, of course, expands the earned tax credit. We want to make sure that every eligible worker can get that financial help.

Finally, without reporting, workers might jeopardize the size of their future Social Security benefits, putting their retirement security at risk.

So what the Senator from Florida is up to here would deprive American entrepreneurs of the information they need to keep business records, comply with tax requirements, and claim important Federal benefits. For these reasons, I strongly object to this request for unanimous consent.

I yield the floor.

Reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, just two quick points. First, this is not really about prisoners. This is about disrupting payments to families all across the country who need the money to make rent and pay for groceries.

Here is why. The IRS administers the tax system for millions and millions of Americans. The Cruz amendment has the practical effect of keeping these folks who are hurting from getting that check that they are going to use to pay for essentials. That is because their check would be on hold while the IRS sets up the system envisioned by this amendment.

Now, I guess that is what my colleague from Texas wants. After all, he opposed the bill. He opposed these payments from the get-go. So if he passes this amendment, he gets what he wants, but for all those folks who are hurting, their checks are on hold.

The last point I want to make is that it wasn't always this way for Republicans and our colleague from Texas. Republicans were for these payments before they were against them. They voted for two rounds of relief checks going out to all the people who are being discussed here when they controlled the White House and the Senate.

Senator Cruz voted for the CARES Act. It passed unanimously. There were 44 Republicans for the December relief bill, with no exception like the Senator from Texas wants.

Donald Trump was so happy with the checks going to prisoners that he put his name on them. The only difference between the CARES Act relief checks that Republicans unanimously supported and America Rescue Plan relief checks is the party in the White House.

Mr. President, I object.

Reserving the right to object.

Thank you very much.

Mr. President, there isn't information about this crime or these crimes at the Federal, State, and local levels. So, again, we are back in exactly the same place.

The Senator from Texas wants to hold up the checks to millions and millions of people in spite of the fact that he voted--he voted earlier--for a system that got the checks to everybody in a timely way. And when you don't have the information about the specific crimes at the Federal, State, and local levels, it becomes impossible to carry out what the Senator from Texas seeks to do. And the net effect is, again, that millions and millions of Americans aren't getting the funds that they need to pay for essentials, rent and groceries.

I object.

Reserving the right to object.

Mr. President, I want to read, specifically, what the IRS has told us, because I gather my colleague would like to just continue this for some time. But here is what the IRS says:

In the information the IRS receives from the Bureau of

Prisons and State prison systems, we do not get the crime for

which the person is incarcerated.

So we can have a host more of these amendments, if my colleague wants to do it. But I get why he is so anxious to have his amendment passed-- because he was always for keeping people from getting checks, and his amendment, if passed, would put those checks on hold. So that is why I have objected, and we will put this into the record as well.

I object.

Reserving the right to object, Mr. President.

Mr. President, once again, our colleague from Texas is offering an idea that would disrupt the system in a way that would keep millions and millions of Americans who are hurting from getting help in a timely way. He has come back with, essentially, one version after another because he thinks that, somehow, this is the kind of sensational idea that will cause people to rally to his side.

I believe what he has been proposing--now, I gather, four times--is so disruptive, so unworkable that it is going to hurt the millions of people whom this Congress wanted to help, and that is what the Senator from Texas has sought to do from the very beginning. I object.

Here is what we are for. We are for making sure that needy people get help to pay for groceries and make rent rather than have one of our colleagues come out with something that is unworkable and disruptive and is going to keep those people from getting help. That is what this debate is all about, something that is unworkable.

I read the direct comment from the IRS with respect to not having the information or getting help to people who are hurting.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President and colleagues, very shortly, the Senate will have the opportunity to confirm Attorney General Becerra to be the next Health and Human Services Secretary, and what this means is, after 4 years of going in reverse on health policy, it will be possible to drive and actually make progress for the American people in addressing their healthcare needs--progress in terms of lowering the cost of healthcare. We spent $3.8 trillion last year. So we have to lower costs, and we have to do it in a way that enhances quality, and Attorney General Becerra is going to be laser-focused on the key priorities for the days ahead. We all know that at the heart of that agenda is making it possible to end this pandemic.

Now, central to his agenda is going to be the distribution of vaccines because there are a lot of pieces to the challenge of beating the pandemic, but right at the heart of it is distribution of those vaccines and PPE and bringing together all the people at Health and Human Services and in our country to have a coordinated strategy for dealing with the pandemic.

We didn't have that in the past. I remember--and I am sure the Presiding Officer remembers--at one point, we didn't have any idea who was in charge. One day it was going to be the States. The next day it was going to be Jared Kushner. There was just bedlam for weeks and weeks with respect to who would even coordinate this country's strategy against the pandemic. With Xavier Becerra there, that will not be the case.

I just want--because I see colleagues also wanting to speak--to talk about another crucial aspect about having Xavier Becerra at the Department of Health and Human Services. What he is going to have to do is move quickly to reverse some of those flawed policies of the Trump administration, like junk insurance, barely worth the paper it was written on, the mindless restrictions that were placed on coverage. For example, that made it harder for people to get access to Medicaid. And some of what they did just defied common sense, making it tougher for people to enroll in the Affordable Care Act, and having modest efforts in New Jersey and Michigan and elsewhere to do outreach and to tell people about the availability of coverage.

What in the world is healthcare about? It is about getting coverage out to people, not inventing barriers to their getting care.

Finally, I just want to mention some of the exciting things from the recovery legislation that he will be able to focus on. I am sure my colleague from Michigan is going to be talking about these issues, as well, in the days ahead. But what is going to be done in terms of delivering postpartum care, an area where there has been enormous racial injustice, is going to make a huge difference--a major part of the recovery plan--the home and community-based services, which build on some of the work being done in the community. I remember from my days when I was director of the Gray Panthers, helping seniors and the disabled. And we are so excited about mental health officials and law enforcement officials coming together for what is known as the CAHOOTS Program from my home State, dealing with the racial tensions on the streets.

So Xavier Becerra has been running this mammoth agency in his State. You know, people say: What is his experience? He was on the Ways and Means Committee for years and years, the committee of jurisdiction as it relates to these issues, and then has been in California taking on monopolies, fighting those who would rip off the healthcare system, sticking up for the Affordable Care Act. So he has had frontline experience on these issues.

He should have been confirmed a long time ago, but now we are on the precipice of finally getting somebody who is going to take us forward in that key Agency in terms of meeting the healthcare needs for our colleagues.

When we have this vote shortly, I urge in the strongest possible way for the Senate to vote to confirm Attorney General Xavier Becerra for this crucial position.

I yield the floor to my colleague.

I thank my colleague.

Mr. President, I rise in support of legislation developed by our colleague, Senator Brown, and me to protect $1,400 relief payments from being garnished by predatory private debt collectors.

We know that millions of American families are hanging on by a thread. They are counting on these payments to make rent and pay for groceries and medicines.

Now Senator Brown and I want to include these protections in the American Rescue Plan. We wanted to include them, just like we had done in the December relief bill, but the problem was that Senate rules didn't allow Senator Brown and me to include these protections in the American Rescue Plan, just like we had done earlier.

If the Senate doesn't pass this bill, predatory debt collectors will continue to seize relief payments for everything from credit cards to medical debt.

And as we talk about this right now, I would like to give an example of what this really means. If you have two parents who have lost their jobs, through no fault of their own, and they can't pay the rent because their relief check has been seized to cover a child's outstanding hospital bills--that is what is going to happen if you don't pass the legislation Senator Brown and I are advocating.

So I think this one is cut and dry. The Senate will either stand today for the working families who desperately need this help, like that couple who are hurting, through no fault of their own, or the Senate is with private debt collectors reaching their hands into those families' pockets.

Now, these protections that we are talking about were included in the December package, with Republicans fully supporting it. Families' financial situations haven't changed so I hope that Republicans will allow for the passage of this measure offered by Senator Brown and me. It is just common sense.

And I am going to yield now--the minority is aware--to Senator Brown. He, too, will have short remarks, and then we will engage with our colleague on the other side.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 823 introduced earlier today. The bill would provide for protection of recovery rebates. I further ask that the bill be read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, just briefly. I think the key kind of question--and the checks are still going out, and we want them to get out as quickly as possible, but the key issue here is the Republicans, back in December, wanted to help that couple that I was talking about, the person laid off, through no fault of their own. They wanted to help those folks to make sure their relief check wouldn't be seized to cover a child's outstanding hospital bills.

So what we heard are discussions about all kinds of, you know, other issues, but the fact is, in December, just a few weeks ago--just a few weeks ago--Republicans were supportive of the families Senator Brown and I are seeking to help today. That is what the question is all about. Will the Senate today help the folks who are hurting that Senator Brown and I have been talking about?

In December, Republicans said: You bet we are going to be there. Now it is a question, really, of whom the Senate is for. Senator Brown and I are for those folks who are hurting, and they have been laid off through no fault of their own, and Republicans, unfortunately, with checks still going out--still going out--have decided they are for the private debt collectors.

I think it really shows whose side you are on, and Senator Brown and I and members of our caucus are on the side of the people who are hurting, through no fault of their own, and we especially care about them at this time when checks are still going out.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action.