Floor Statements

Madam President, it is an honor to join my colleagues of both parties, starting with Reverend Warnock and five--two other Democrats and three other Republicans on the floor today to read one of the great pieces of writing of the 20th century, Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham jail.

I thank Senator Warnock and Senators Murkowski, Republican from Alaska; Toomey, Republican from Pennsylvania; Padilla, our new colleague from California, a Democrat; Senator Cortez Masto, in her fifth year in the Senate, a Democrat from the Presiding Officer's home State of Nevada; and Senator Cassidy from Louisiana, a Republican. They will be joining me today for this annual tradition.

Our former colleague, Doug Jones from Alabama, began this reading 3 years ago. I joined him on the floor. He asked me last year after his election to carry on this tradition in the years ahead. I am honored to take that responsibility because Dr. King's words are as powerful, as beautiful, and as relevant as ever.

One of many, many, many incisive things that Dr. King said was that we live in a 10-day world where people forget about public events 10 days later. Not so for him, not so for his words, and certainly not so from the letter from the Birmingham jail.

Twelve years after Dr. King's assassination, when Cesar Chavez was thrown in jail, Dr. King's widow, Coretta Scott King, said:

You cannot keep truth in . . . jail. . . . Truth and

justice leap barriers, and in their own way, reach the

conscience of the people.

She said that is what Dr. King said, were his words.

In April 1963, Dr. King was detained at the Birmingham jail for leading a series of peaceful protests and boycotts. The goal was to put pressure on the business community to end discrimination in hiring for local jobs.

Some White ministers from Alabama had taken issues with his boycotts. They supported civil rights, they said. They told him to slow down, don't move too fast, and don't demand too much all at once. Dr. King, of course, as we know, rejected that premise.

That is what this letter is all about. It is about demanding justice now. We can't wait around and hope the problems in families' lives will solve themselves. It is up to all of us as citizens, as leaders, as members of our churches and our communities to get to work.

Dr. King made that point more eloquently and more persuasively, certainly, than I can, but we will read this note--we will read his words. Senator Warnock will begin, followed by Senator Murkowski and four other Senators.

Senator Warnock.

Madam President, continuing the reading of the letter from the Birmingham jail.

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and

Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few

years I have been gravely disappointed with the white

moderate.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the

Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is

not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but

the white moderate, who is more devoted to ``order'' than to

justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of

tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice;

who constantly says: ``I agree with you in the goal you seek,

but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action''; who

paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for

another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of

time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a

``more convenient season.'' Shallow understanding from people

of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute

misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance

is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that

law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice

and that when they fail in this purpose they become the

dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social

progress.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that

the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the

transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the

Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive

and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity

and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in

nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We

merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is

already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be

seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so

long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its

ugliness for the natural medicines of air and light,

injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure

creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of

national opinion before it can be cured.

In your statement you assert that our actions, even though

peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate

violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn't this like

condemning a robbed man because his possession of money

precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn't this like

condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to

truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by

the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock?

Isn't this like condemning Jesus because his unique God

consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God's will

precipitated the evil act of crucifixion? We must come to see

that, as the federal courts have consistently affirmed, it is

wrong to urge an individual to cease his efforts to gain his

basic constitutional rights because the quest may precipitate

violence. Society must protect the robbed and punish the

robber. I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject

the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for

freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother

in Texas. He writes: ``All Christians know that the colored

people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is

possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has

taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish

what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to

earth.'' Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception

of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is

something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure

all ills.

Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either

destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that

the people of ill will have used time much more effectively

than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in

this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions

of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good

people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of

inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men

willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work,

time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social

stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge

that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to

make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending

national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is

the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of

racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

You speak of our activity in Birmingham as extreme. At

first I was rather disappointed that fellow clergymen would

see my nonviolent efforts as those of an extremist. I began

thinking about the fact that I stand in the middle of two

opposing forces in the Negro community. One is a force of

complacency, made up in part of Negroes who, as a result of

long years of oppression, are so drained of self respect in

the sense of ``somebodiness'' that they have adjusted to

segregation; and in part of a few middle-class Negroes who,

because of a degree of academic and economic security and

because in some ways they profit by segregation, have become

insensitive to the problems of the masses. The other force is

one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close

to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black

nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation,

the largest and best known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim

movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the

continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement

is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have

absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded

that the white man is an incorrigible ``devil.''

I have tried to stand between these two forces, saying that

we need emulate neither the ``do nothingism'' of the

complacent nor the hatred and despair of the black

nationalist. For there is the more excellent way of love and

nonviolent protest. I am grateful to God that, through the

influence of the Negro church, the way of nonviolence became

an integral part of our struggle. If this philosophy had not

emerged, by now many streets of the South would, I am

convinced, be flowing with blood. And I am further convinced

that if our white brothers dismiss as ``rabble rousers'' and

``outside agitators'' those of us who employ nonviolent

direct action, and if they refuse to support our nonviolent

efforts, millions of Negroes will, out of frustration and

despair, seek solace and security in black nationalist

ideologies--a development that would inevitably lead to a

frightening racial nightmare.

Madam President, I thank my colleague from the neighboring State, Senator Toomey, for joining us. I thank all of my colleagues who were here today, Senators Warnock and Murkowski, Toomey and Cassidy, Cortez Masto, and Padilla for joining to read these powerful words today.

This is about as diverse a group as we could assemble in the U.S. Senate, a group of seven Senators who really reflect our country today: a reverend in a Black church, the son of a union electrical worker, a doctor from the Deep South, an Independent born in the Alaska country, a son of Mexican immigrants, a daughter of Mexican Americans who made this country home for a century, and a son of the Midwest whose father came from Mansfield, OH, and mother came from Mansfield, GA.

We come from different backgrounds, and we disagree on many things, but we love this country--all seven us--and we know we can do better for the people who make it work.

Dr. King and the civil rights leaders of his generation did more than just about anyone to push this country to live up to our founding ideals and make the dream of America real for everyone.

Protesting, working for change, organizing, demanding our country to do better--those are some of the most patriotic things all of us can do. That is Dr. King's charge of this letter:

Progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability.

That is our charge. I think about the campaign Dr. King was waging when he was assassinated. You can't forget he was martyred in Memphis when fighting for some of the most exploited workers in this country, sanitation workers. He understood the deep connection between workers' rights and civil rights. As he put it, ``What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter, if he doesn't earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?''

Until all Americans have the dignity they have earned, Dr. King's work will remain unfinished. That means paying all workers a living wage, giving them power over their schedules, providing good benefits and safety on the job, letting them, if they choose, organize a union. That means all workers should get a fair share of the wealth they create. It means recognizing the dignity of communities that Black Americans have built over generations.

They were denied wealth and investment. The schools were underfunded. Banks wouldn't lend. Highways tore down businesses and tore apart neighborhoods in the Presiding Officer's largest city in Milwaukee, as they did in the largest cities in my State: Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati.

In the face of all of that, Black Ohioans and people all over the country built businesses and churches and vibrant neighborhoods and loving families. But they should not have to do it on their own.

As we emerge from this pandemic and we work together to build a stronger country out of this crisis, we can't make the mistakes of the past. We learned in the Banking, Housing Committee this week that President Roosevelt's collective bargaining laws and investment in housing with the creation of housing agencies created a middle class for Americans who look like me but didn't create a middle class for a whole lot of other Americans.

Think about the infrastructure investments that we made in the 1930s and the years after World War II. Think how we created millions of new homeowners and grew the middle class. Think of how we expanded economic security, with overtime and workers compensation and Medicare and Social Security.

There is no reason we can't do that again, the same thing again, but this time we bring along everyone. We invest in all communities. We bring us closer to the society Dr. King envisioned, where all labor--as he would say, where ``all labor has dignity.''

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Toomey's comments and the spirit in which they were delivered.

I rise to urge my colleagues to support President Biden's nominee to be Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler.

In March, Mr. Gensler appeared before the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee for his nomination hearing. The committee advanced him to the full Senate with a bipartisan vote.

Mr. Gensler is an experienced public servant with a strong record of holding Wall Street accountable. He will lead the SEC at a time when it has become more and more obvious to more and more people that the stock market is detached from the reality of working families' lives. Mr. Gensler will bring the SEC's focus back to the people who make this country work. He will push to ensure that markets are a way for families to save and invest for their children's education, for a downpayment on a home, for a secure retirement, not a game for hedge fund managers, where workers lose every single time.

Mr. Gensler, as Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, led the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to bring transparency and stability to more markets. He was tough on enforcement issues. He cracked down on big banks that had manipulated interest rates for years.

Mr. Gensler is an expert on finance and markets. He previously served as Secretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Markets.

He will carry out the SEC's mission--the reason it was created--to ensure that U.S. capital markets deliver growth and investment opportunities that grow the real economy and give middle-class families the opportunity to build wealth. He understands we need to ensure confidence and stability in our markets as the foundation to grow American businesses and support the workers who make their companies successful. Mr. Gensler will listen to families saving for the future as well as professionals who manage workers' pensions and retirements. He will make sure that savers, large and small, can hold corporate executives accountable.

When it comes to enforcement, Mr. Gensler has shown the guts to take on bad actors, no matter how big and no matter how powerful they are, and he will hold them accountable.

The pandemic has reminded people just how rigged the Wall Street system can be.

About 2 months ago, I became chair of the committee that is called the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. To most in this body, the committee is just referred to as the Banking Committee or Senate Banking. This is a committee where Wall Street--it has been all about Wall Street, little about housing, and damn near nothing about urban affairs. Those days are behind us. This committee will look out for small investors. That is why the SEC is so important, and Mr. Gensler's work. It will help to expand housing, it will make a difference in communities, and it will no longer be the province of Wall Street.

If you look only at the stock market, it looks like the pandemic never happened. The market reached new highs last fall. Families and businesses continued to suffer. Workers put their health and their lives on the line to keep businesses running, and once again, hedge funds and insiders reaped the vast majority of the profits.

We know that over the last decade or so--more than a decade--we have seen profits go up, we have seen executive compensation explode upward, and we have seen workers more and more productive. Yet wages have been flat.

That is our challenge. We saw during the pandemic that was even worse. It doesn't have to be that way. We can have a market that works for everyone. Mr. Gensler shares that goal. Under his leadership, the SEC can protect people's hard-earned savings, can keep our markets stable, and can make them fair. This will let us create an economy where everyone can participate.

Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on Mr. Gensler's nomination.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, on Friday, Amazon, one of the world's largest corporations, successfully crushed the most recent union drive at one of their warehouses, where workers were organizing for a voice on the job.

Let's be clear: This was never a fair fight.

Amazon is perhaps the world's most powerful corporation. It would not be raking in profits without the hard work and dedication of its hundreds--hundreds of thousands of American workers. Yet Amazon unleashed all that corporate power to fight those same workers.

They harassed employees with anti-union propaganda. They sent misleading text messages, websites, and fliers. Workers reported they didn't even get enough time for bathroom breaks in the warehouse. That is how intense the company's pressure is. And yet, when they are able to use the bathroom during this union fight, even there workers are hit with anti-union propaganda fliers on the stall doors.

Amazon demanded the U.S. Postal Service install a mailbox onsite at the warehouse so they could monitor employees mailing their union election ballots. It is all part of a pattern for Amazon.

In 2019, Amazon fired a Staten Island warehouse worker who called for unionization.

Amazon monitors employees' online communications. Last fall we learned the company planned to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for new software to monitor ``threats'' like unions. Amazon isn't alone. This union busting is standard operating procedure for most companies.

A growing number of Americans want to join unions. A recent poll found that about half of Americans would like to join a union if they could. Millennials are the most pro-worker, pro-union generation since World War II. The Center for Economic Policy and Research reported that 75 percent of new union members are under the age of 35.

I talked to one of those union workers at the end of last month. I spoke to Kate from Zanesville, OH, who joined UFCW--United Food and Commercial Workers--not too long ago. We talked about the work she and I and others did to save her future pension in the rescue plan, how her union had helped her learn about retirement security and helped her fight for her retirement security.

So if all those workers, especially young workers, want to join a union, if they want to have a voice on the job, they want to have more control over their work lives, why aren't more union drives successful?

Pretty important question to ask, pretty obvious answer--because corporations have so much power.

One union organizer told a reporter for the Huffington Post:

When people hear there's an election, they think everybody

gets to vote, there's a secret ballot, and so on. What they

don't understand--

What the public doesn't understand about union elections--

is that the company has access to the workers 24 hours a day,

7 days a week, and has enormous influence over their lives.

If they care to use that influence, and so often they do, here is what he said:

They can threaten. They can give a raise. They can demote.

They can grant favors.

Or they cannot grant favors.

Every worker knows that.

This is what workers organizing are up against. There is nothing close, nothing at all resembling a level playing field for American workers.

That is why we need the PRO Act, Protecting the Right to Organize Act.

It is a comprehensive overhaul of our labor laws to protect workers' right to stand together and to bargain for fair wages and better benefits and safer workplaces.

It would level the playing field and finally, finally give workers a fighting chance against corporate union-busting tactics like we saw from Amazon.

We know what has happened in this country. We know we have seen--we have seen worker productivity go up. We have seen corporate profits go up. We have seen executive compensation skyrocket upward. Yet worker wages are flat.

Passing the PRO Act would strengthen the punishment against companies that violate workers' rights to organize and that retaliate against union organizers.

It would close loopholes that allow employers to misclassify their employees as supervisors and independent contractors to avoid paying their fair share and to avoid giving workers the benefits they have earned and that they deserve.

A union card is a ticket to a middle-class life when you fight for economic justice by making it available for all workers. We just need corporations to get out of the way, to be neutral, to let workers organize and take control over their careers and their futures.

We also need to empower all workers, whether they have chosen to join a union or not.

That means paid family and medical leave for all workers. It means a living wage for all workers. It means retirement security for all workers. It means power over your life and your schedule. It means overtime pay when you earn it. It means healthcare for all workers. It is, all in the end, about the dignity of work.

Remember what Dr. King said; that ``no labor is really menial unless you are not getting adequate wages.''

When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That is what union organizers do in the face of overwhelming corporate opposition, like the billionaires at Amazon, and it is what all of us must continue to do until all work pays off.

Mr. President, I would like to honor a longtime member of my Ohio staff, Matt Keyes. Matt's last day in our office is tomorrow before he moves on to a new opportunity--still in Ohio, still serving the people of my State, still serving the State that he and I both love.

Matt has been with our office for 7 years, working with Ohio reporters to inform the public, traveling the State with me to hear from Ohioans.

We have been to diners and drive-throughs. We have done press conferences in front of small businesses and schools and bridges. Before the pandemic, we spent hours in crowded union halls.

Matt has earned the respect of so many Ohio reporters. He understands how important their work is to Ohio communities. He understands reporters and their contribution to democracy, something we wouldn't even have had to have bothered saying 5 years ago.

He knows every news source in Ohio. He has built relations with the principled, dedicated journalists who run them.

He has a deep understanding of our State. Matt knows Ohio as well as anyone. He went to college here. He stayed in Ohio. He dedicates his life to making our State a place where other young people will want to stay too.

Some of the most memorable events Matt and I have been to together have been rallies and meetings with workers and retirees around my State, fighting to save their pensions.

It is fitting that Matt ends his time in our office with a huge victory for Ohio workers--literally, tens and tens and tens of thousands of Ohio families benefiting from the work we all did together as activists, that Matt did, that my staff did, the rest of my staff that we did together in the American Rescue Plan to save the pensions that Ohioans earned over a lifetime of work.

Matt got to know these leaders and these activists over the years, people like Rita Lewis and Mike Walden and Dana Vargo.

He didn't just listen to their stories about what it would mean to their families to lose their retirement security; he lifted up their voices. That is what somebody like Matt--that is what Matt Keyes does. That is what good journalists do. That is what good communications people do. They listen to their stories about what this situation means to their families. Then they lift up their voices; they share those stories with the media and with the country. It is how we got Congress to listen. It is how we finally got that done. That is the lesson of Matt Keyes for young reporters, for young journalists, for young communications directors, for young people who want to make a living doing this.

I will miss Matt on the road in Ohio. I know he will continue to serve our State. I know he will continue to fight for the dignity of work in everything that he does.

Matt, we will miss you.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business, with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until noon, Tuesday, April 13; that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; that upon the conclusion of morning business, the Senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the nomination of Polly Trottenberg to be Deputy Secretary of Transportation; further, I ask that the Senate recess from 12:30 until 2:15 to allow for the weekly caucus meetings; finally, that the postcloture time in the Trottenberg nomination be considered expired at 2:15 p.m.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Madam President, before we hear from Senator Booker and Senator Bennet and Senator Warnock on one of the best things this Senate has done in my career, that being the extension of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, I just want to say a few words about someone we just voted on at the Department of the Treasury who is so, so important, Adewale Adeyemo, who will be Janet Yellen's--one exemplary Treasury Secretary--Chief of Staff. He is a terrific public servant.

Senator Cortez Masto, the Presiding Officer, and I were talking a few minutes ago about the importance of the Treasury Department in so many things from the child tax credit, to the pension bill, to so many things that we do that matter--getting the $1,400 checks out and making sure our tax system is fair.

Senator Bennet and I serve together with Senator Cortez Masto and others on the Committee on Finance. What that means and what we are trying to do on that committee is to take away the 50-percent-off coupon from corporations that shut down production in Reno or in Boulder or in Cleveland or in Newark and move overseas. They get, essentially, a 50-percent-off coupon on their taxes. We need to close those loopholes. We need a Treasury Secretary, and we need Adewale Adeyemo, who will make a huge difference in our work there.

So I thank Senator Schumer and those on both sides of the aisle for finally confirming him today and getting him to work.

I yield to Senator Bennet, who, I think, is going to start or, maybe, Senator Booker.

Less than 2 weeks ago, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. He ushered in some of the most transformative economic policies to come out of Washington in generations.

By expanding access to and eligibility for the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, the American Rescue Plan is going to lift 10 million kids above or closer to the poverty line and put money in the pockets of 17 million American workers across the country.

I want to start out by noting that both the income--low-income and middle-income families and workers potentially qualify for these credits, and they will be issued periodically via check and direct deposit. American workers should know this was a profound change that will benefit you.

American workers also have to know that they won't have to wait until next year. You won't have to start to see advanced payments of these credits 6, 7, 10 months down--you will see them as early as July. And because of the changes that we made, if you didn't previously qualify because you didn't have a high enough income, you could be eligible now.

I am so proud to be here today alongside Senator Brown, Senator Bennet, Senator Warnock, the Presiding Officer, who are in large part responsible for this powerful lifeline to the American people and, critically, for our children.

Senator Bennet, Senator Brown, Senator Warnock, thank you. You are champions who have been fighting in and out of the Senate and understand not just the economic urgency but the moral urgency to address poverty. And that is really what we are all here to talk about--the urgency of the crisis of poverty and specifically child poverty.

In America, this is unacceptable. In the wealthiest Nation on the planet Earth, the question of poverty is not one of inevitability; it is one of policy choice. It is not if we can do something; it is will we do something.

Tonight, I am going home to Newark, driving very soon, where I have lived over the past 20 years. I am proud to call Newark home. I am proud to be a part of a community of people who take care of each other. I am proud to be part of a community that is rich with dignity, rich with activism and intellect and engagement.

But we are also a community, like so many others in America, that still struggles. According to the last census, the median income for the census track that I live in was about $14,000 per household, and that was before the dual public health and economic crises of the COVID pandemic.

And in my community, like many others, urban and rural, across America, adults aren't the only ones struggling; our kids are too. In fact, the poorest age group in America is our children, with one in six American kids living in poverty. It is nothing less than a moral obscenity that the richest Nation in the world should have the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world.

For adults, poverty has a technical definition. It is a federally defined guideline--an amount of annual income that you fall under that also takes into account how many people are in your household.

For kids, poverty is defined by what they experience every single day, by what happens to them. It is growing up being more likely to deal with food insecurity, not knowing where your next meal will come from or when it will come. It is facing housing insecurity. A quarter of kids living in poverty will have gone through an eviction before they turn 15 years old.

Kids in poverty have worse health outcomes, worse educational outcomes, and are more likely to become entrapped in our broken criminal justice system. And kids who grow up in poverty are more likely to be poor as adults.

Study after study has shown how children who live in poverty have higher levels of stress hormones. The stress of poverty literally affects their brains. It inhibits brain development. It is violence against the brain of a child.

One child poverty expert described the stress hormones that are constantly released in kids growing up in poverty as similar to the feeling that an adult would get after a car crash--every single day. This is violence.

We know that when a child experiences poverty, there are lifelong psychological and physiological effects they carry with them. Study after study after study has borne this out.

For kids, poverty is literally dangerous for their development, dangerous for their health, and they could have permanent and lasting damage to their brains.

The cruelty of this crisis is that no parent would ever choose that for their child. Poor parents do not choose for their kids to experience the daily trauma of poverty. They do not choose to condemn their kids to a life of worse education outcomes, worse health outcomes.

What we must understand is that child poverty is not a choice that low-income parents make. It is a failure of our country to take collective responsibility for the well-being of American children. This is a moral sin. It is not a sin to be poor but a sin to tolerate such poverty in our communities.

Almost 2 weeks ago, Congress and President Biden made the choice to do something about this American sin, this unacceptable reality, this moral obscenity--the violence happening to so many children. They did something about it; we did something about it in the American Rescue Plan. And now we are calling on our--really, we are on our way for a year to cut child poverty in half; for Black children more than in half, 52 percent; for Hispanic children, by 45 percent; for Native American children, by 62 percent.

That is millions of kids across the country who will not face the violence of poverty. In New Jersey, that is 89,000 kids and their families who are not just going to be lifted out of poverty but will be given the opportunities and the freedoms that come with being able to build a life and a future beyond without the trauma that comes with poverty.

That is why we are together here this afternoon--because lifting kids out of poverty is not just about ending a crisis but about beginning a new American tradition of giving every child what every child should have in America as a birthright. It is about creating freedom and liberty from the oppression of poverty. We have the power to do this. We have the tools to do it, and we know it makes good economic sense to get kids and adults out of poverty.

I love what James Baldwin wrote. He said: ``Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how . . . expensive it is to be poor.'' Well, that is also true for our country. Whether we realize it or not, child poverty is expensive for all of us, costing our country $1.1 trillion every year. But investing in ending poverty benefits us all. Every dollar spent on combating child poverty saves this Nation $7 down the road; $1 invested saves us $7 later. Other countries, our peers, have made thes kinds of investments in children and families and have reaped rewards that we are denying ourselves.

Expanding the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit and making them permanent are proven, data-driven, evidence-based, result- apparent ways to respond to some of the most morally and economically urgent challenges of the United States of America. These are the kinds of investments in our people that will change life trajectories and have a ripple effect for generations yet to come.

If you give the child--a child firmer ground on which to grow, they will blossom and reap a harvest beyond our imagination. But if you punish them in the trauma, in the violence of poverty, you decimate not just their destinies but all of our destinies.

I am so grateful to have champions that are here today alongside me in this effort, and, together, I know this is a crisis we are going to meet, and this crisis we can overcome. I am proud of the work we have done. Now we should make those changes to the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit permanent.

I am proud to pass the microphone and the moment on to a great champion of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, one of the original authors of the legislation that was pulled from for our recovery plan, and that is the Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown.

Thank you, Senator.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Warnock.) The Senator from Ohio.

Mr. President, thanks to Senator Booker. I will be very brief. I want to hear from Senator Bennet, and I know that the Presiding Officer is going to switch chairs and be out here speaking on this.

I am so appreciative of the Presiding Officer, who won his election just in--on January 5. He was declared the winner--I don't know. Georgia elections are a little different from those of us from other places, and as soon as he was named the winner of that election, he came here and has been in the Senate about 6 or 7 weeks now and is already a leader on this fight that Senator Booker talked about in the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit.

I have been here long enough to remember when the earned income tax credit was--people just didn't know much about it, including our constituents.

I used to, when I was a Member of the House, I would ask accountants--CPAs and public accountants--to volunteer their time a couple of Saturdays a month for the 2 or 3 months before April 15. They would volunteer their time, and we encouraged people to sign up for the earned income tax credit, and people making $20,000 or $25,000 a year with kids would often get $2,000 or $3,000 in a tax refund, in real dollars back, because they benefited from the earned income tax credit.

So what Senator Bennet and I have worked on for a number of years is to continue to expand the earned income tax credit and now a big expansion of the child tax credit. Senator Bennet has led on that issue, on that expansion, and we worked together with Senator Booker and now Senator Warnock to make a huge difference.

When I voted from this chair on January--I am sorry, on March 6, we had been in session all night. We had voted time after time after time. It was a partisan vote.

I mean, partisanship is not what Senator McConnell and my Republican colleagues say it is. Something that is partisan or nonpartisan is what the voters think, and the voters overwhelmingly support the earned income tax credit, the child tax credit, and the whole American Rescue Plan Act, and it will make such a huge difference in peoples' lives.

But I remember after that vote--it was 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I was walking out of the building to drive back to Ohio. I drive every week or a young man drives with me every week back home. And a reporter stopped me and said: What do you think? I said: This is the best day of my political life because we--what we did, as Cory Booker said, we are cutting the child poverty rate in half.

In my State--and I don't think Colorado or Georgia is much different. In my State, 92 percent of children in my State--92 percent of children will benefit from the child tax credit and their families often also benefit from the earned income tax credit. What is not to love about that?

That is why, like, 40 Democratic Senators are signing a letter to the President of the United States, asking--we have done this for a year, this expansion to the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. We should do it permanently, and that is what--that is the mission that the four of us Senators sitting in this room have, is to make sure this is permanent because we know there will likely be good economic growth next quarter, the quarter after, in large part, because of what we have done with this rescue act. There will be strong economic growth, but I want to make sure that growth is shared by people at the bottom.

And it so often isn't. We have seen for 20 years--30 years we have seen executive compensation explode upward. We have seen profits up. We have seen worker productivity is up, but workers' wages are flat. That is why, in the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, we are working so hard to make sure that we provide more housing for people so that people have safe, affordable, accessible housing in this country because, too often, they don't. That committee is called the Senate Banking Committee around here. It is officially Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, but for years it is all about banking and Wall Street and very little about housing and urban affairs. We are changing that. We are changing that, in part, because this body, under Senator Bennet's leadership and others--this body is actually going to do the right thing, as Cory Booker said, and make sure that America's children have greater opportunities than they have had in the past. That is why I am thrilled to be a part of this effort.

I yield to my friend from Colorado, Senator Bennet.

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

Madam President, this pandemic has made it clearer than ever: It is not corporations that drive our economy; it is American workers.

With Marty Walsh, for whom we will vote in a moment on confirmation for the Department of Labor, workers will finally have someone on their side, as the Department that is supposed to look out for them. The Department of Labor is supposed to be the voice for workers in our government. It is their job to make sure workers' rights are protected, that people are safe on the job, that everyone can organize a union and get the overtime pay they have earned.

For 4 years, we have had a Department of Labor full of corporate lawyers. In fact, the Secretary of Labor was a corporate lawyer who made millions of dollars in court attacking labor unions and getting very well paid for it. That Department was full of people who made their careers fighting for corporate boards and CEOs, trying to squeeze every last penny out of workers and skirting labor laws.

And we saw the results. The DOL stopped fighting to raise the overtime pay threshold. In my State, tens of thousands of workers and, nationally, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of workers failed to get a raise as a result.

A year into the pandemic, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA, still has not issued an emergency temporary standard to protect workers from coronavirus. When 1,300 workers last year got sick at a Smithfield meatpacking plant, they fined the company a pathetic $10 per worker.

With Marty Walsh, that corporate infiltration of the Department of Labor ends now. Mayor Walsh will put the focus back where it should be: fighting for the people who make this country work.

We know that for far too many Americans, hard work doesn't pay off. They have seen corporate profits go up. They have seen executive compensation skyrocket. They have become

more productive in the workplace, and yet their wages are flat.

Hard work has never paid off for many Americans like it should. That is why voters sent a clear message in last year's election: They are tired of corporations running our economy.

Corporations have had their chance. They failed. If corporations won't deliver for their workers and create an economy where everyone's hard work pays off, with a middle class that is growing instead of shrinking, then we have to step in and fight for workers.

That is what Marty Walsh will do as the Secretary of Labor. He can work with OSHA to finally issue the emergency temporary standard, forcing corporations to take critical steps to protect their workers on the job. He can crack down on corporations that use subcontracting and independent contractors and other tricks to pay workers less and to deny them benefits.

He can get to work on a new overtime rule so that hundreds of thousands more workers will finally get the overtime pay that they have earned. He can defend workers' rights to organize to give them power in their workplace and crack down on corporate union busting.

And, as we know, Marty Walsh has the deep experience in the labor movement to get this done. Too many people in this town don't understand what it is like not to have a voice on the job, to have no power over your schedule, to work hard at a job that doesn't even pay the bills. They don't understand collective bargaining and the power that a union card gives you over your career and your finances and your future.

Marty Walsh does understand that. At the age of 21, he joined the Laborers' Union Local 223 in Massachusetts. He knows what a union means to workers. He knows what workers are up against when they organize.

Like President Biden, he is not afraid to talk about the labor movement, and he doesn't recoil from using the word ``union.'' He is not afraid to take on corporations that exploit their workers.

We already see that change in action. President Biden and Vice President Harris have joined Senator Booker and me and so many of us in standing in solidarity with Amazon workers organizing in Alabama.

Ultimately, it comes back to the dignity of work, the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of work you do. Mayor Walsh understands that when work has dignity, people have power over their lives and their schedules--and they are paid a living wage. When work has dignity, everyone can afford healthcare and housing and childcare. They can save for retirement. They can take time off to care for their loved ones.

Mayor Walsh has lived those values. He successfully helped push his State to raise the minimum wage to $15. He cracked down on wage theft. He fought for paid family leave.

He knows how important it is for the people in the room making decisions to actually reflect the diverse workers who make our country successful. It is the job of the labor movement. It is the job of DOL to fight for all workers.

As we work to build back better with a big investment in American infrastructure, Mayor Walsh understands all of the opportunities for workers that come with that. He comes from the building trades. He understands that we can put hundreds of thousands of tradespeople to work building houses and schools and public transit, retrofitting homes and offices and schools. We have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild our economy with workers--not corporations but with workers--at the center.

If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. As Secretary of Labor, that is what Marty Walsh will do. I urge my colleagues to support him.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I thank the senior Senator from Oregon, and I thank the Senator from Pennsylvania too.

We passed the American Rescue Plan, as Senator Wyden said, to get shots in people's arms, money in people's pockets, get kids back in schools, and people back in jobs. Stimulus checks are already going out the door in Hawaii, in Pennsylvania, in Oregon, and Ohio. More than 100 million checks are already in Americans' bank accounts. We promised in campaigns, we promised in January we would do this and we would do this quickly.

Five million Ohioans are going to get a check. We know predatory debt collectors are already lining up to try to take a cut of those checks. We know it costs more to be poor in this country. So often the debt collectors come after you. Just to cash your check, there often is a fee and all the bank fees that they have.

We passed the rescue plan to put money in people's pockets so they can pay bills and buy groceries and spend money in local businesses. They can buy a washer perhaps made by American workers in Clyde, OH, or new tires for their cars made at Goodyear in Akron, OH. Maybe they are looking forward to throwing a small high school graduation party in their backyard--after they get their vaccines--with a cake and a barbecue from a local restaurant.

That is why we passed these checks, to support families, to support local economies, not to line the pockets of predatory private debt collectors. That is why I appreciate Senator Wyden's work with us on this bill to protect Americans' stimulus checks from financial predators.

We know how aggressive private debt collectors are. They harass people. They prey on workers trying to make ends meet, and now they want to take this money before it even reaches Americans' bank accounts.

Last year, as Senator Wyden said, we joined colleagues Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, and Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, to pass bipartisan legislation to protect people's money.

It shouldn't be different this time. We are still in a public health crisis. Whether you voted for or against this American Recovery Act is immaterial. We have a choice. Whose side are you on? Are you going to protect workers and their families or are you going to side with debt collectors?

I yield my time back to Senator Wyden.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I rise to speak in favor of Xavier Becerra, as Senator Menendez just did.

Like Senator Menendez, when Xavier and I came, we all were in the first class in 1992 together. I consider him a friend also and have admired the work that he did as a Member of Congress, as attorney general, and the work that he will do at HHS.

In the middle of the worst health crisis of our lifetime, we need someone leading this Department who understands the importance of public health and who will work to build a stronger, more affordable healthcare system for the future. That is what Xavier Becerra will do.

He has the experience for this job. As Senator Menendez pointed out, he ran the Nation's second largest law firm. He helped pass the Affordable Care Act, as a Member of the House, that expanded coverage to millions of Ohioans and tens of millions of Americans.

I think the Republican opposition, all partisan opposition, to Attorney General Becerra for Secretary of HHS, as Senator Casey pointed out, is all about their opposition to the Affordable Care Act, their opposition to expansion of Medicaid. I heard one Senator after another say their State isn't treated right by Medicaid, but they didn't even expand Medicaid in many of those States.

As State attorney general, he took on tobacco companies, drug companies, opioid manufacturers, and polluters. That is another reason Republicans oppose him, because he took on their biggest contributors and their sponsors and the people they come to the Senate and fight for. That willingness to stand up to big drug companies is going to be more important than ever in the years ahead.

The cost of prescription drugs eats away at the budget of seniors and families in Cleveland and Akron and Mansfield and Youngstown and Dayton. I look forward to working with future Secretary Becerra to bring down those drug prices. I also hope we can work together to expand the Affordable Care Act and to make it work even better for the families.

We started this month, and the Presiding Officer from Wisconsin was a part of this, with the American Rescue Plan. People buying healthcare in the ACA exchanges are going to have lower premiums because of the rescue plan.

Mr. Becerra will work to undo the vast disparities in healthcare in our country. This pandemic has been the great revealer. It has shown how unequal access to care and pollution and biases in the system and so much else have hurt the health of Black and Brown Americans for generations.

We need to start with getting accurate data on how different communities have been hurt by this pandemic, something I have pushed for over the past year and something I know will be a priority to the new Secretary of Health and Human Services.

I urge my colleagues to join me in confirming him so he can work to help get every American vaccinated, to expand PPE and COVID testing supplies, and to build a stronger healthcare system for the future

Madam President, for decades, Ohio workers have watched the spread of a corporate business model where companies shut down production in Toledo or Dayton or Gallipolis or Youngstown. They collected a tax break to move jobs to Mexico or China where they can exploit workers only to sell their products back into the United States. Ohioans live with those consequences every day.

Last week, 81 workers in Bucyrus, OH, had their jobs outsourced to China, where GE-Savant moved production of its high-efficiency light bulbs overseas. Now, 81 union workers are facing tough conversations at the kitchen tables: How will their families survive; will they fall behind on their rent or their mortgage; do they move away with their kids; will their kids have to change schools--all those decisions that families have to make when workers or when plants shut down and move overseas.

The Presiding Officer from Wisconsin has been involved in this fight ever since her career began in the House 20-plus years ago, and I have worked alongside with her to make sure that we have a different trade policy. But when one production line closes, the ripple effect extends, as we know, to the whole community, to other workers and communities in the supply chain.

Yesterday, people in Northeast Ohio, in the Cleveland area, woke up to headlines about yet another American corporation deciding to build things in Mexico instead of Ohio with Ford breaking its promise to invest $900 million in Avon Lake.

I got a call 2 days ago from a smalltown mayor, John Hunter, mayor of Sheffield Lake, OH, a longtime Ford--he was a Ford worker, retired, now mayor of Sheffield Village. He talked about how Ford had promised, at the bargaining table in 2019, that they would invest $900 million in this Avon Lake plant. Ohioans are tired of watching corporation after corporation abandon the workers and communities that have made their businesses successful.

We are being told that production of cheap, simple products will be shipped overseas, while innovative, high-value products will be made in the United States by American workers. We see in Bucyrus, we see in Avon Lake that that is just not true, and we are sick of it. Our trade policy has to change.

That is why today was a good day for this country. Katherine Tai was confirmed by this body 98 to nothing. She understands trade policy. She is the right leader to take us in a new direction on trade with American workers at the center. She is a serious expert. She is respected on both sides of the aisle. We saw that in that vote today. She has a proven track record of making progress for workers.

Last year, I voted for a trade agreement for the first time ever in my career because of our work with Senator Wyden to fix the Trump administration's corporate trade agreement. He said it was a new NAFTA. It was really a tired, old, mostly the same NAFTA, rebranded as USMCA. We went to work. We secured groundbreaking new worker protections. Katherine Tai was one of the key policymakers who worked with us to make that happen. She was in the negotiations. She was in the discussions. She helped Senator Wyden and I make this a much better bill that people, like a whole lot of us, as progressives, pro-worker Senators, could vote for.

Her work helped us make the first improvement to enforcing labor standards in our trade agreements enforceable, serious labor standards, since we have been negotiating them.

We know why companies close factories in Ohio and open them in Mexico. They can pay lower wages. They can take advantage of workers who don't have rights. American workers can't compete. We get a race to the bottom on wages and benefits.

The only way of stopping it is raising labor standards in every country we trade with and making sure those labor standards are enforced.

That is what Katherine Tai will do. She will enforce the laws we already have. She will stand up for American workers. She will fight for American businesses when countries cheat the rules. She will work with us to level the playing field so steelworkers and autoworkers and communication workers in Ohio and Wisconsin and all over the country can compete.

She won't allow corporate lobbyists to write trade agreements. We have seen it. Since I came to the Congress, we have seen it with NAFTA. We have seen it with CAFTA. We have seen it with PNTR. We have seen it with agreement after agreement after agreement: Corporate lobbyists write trade agreements. Workers are locked out of the room.

Now, with U.S. Trade Rep Tai's confirmation--the nominee, of course-- I asked her what she will do to start to regain the trust of Americans in trade. She said:

You start by listening.

She then talked about the Mahoning Valley, Youngstown area in my State, listening to and understanding the concerns of communities that have gotten hurt over and over.

The administration's outline for its 2021 agenda, trade agenda, which Miss Tai will be charged with carrying out, says that ``trade policy should respect the dignity of work.''

Trade policy should respect the dignity of work and value

Americans as workers and wage earners.

Imagine that; that our trade policy, never before have we seen this respecting the dignity of work and valuing Americans as workers and wage earners. That is the kind of thinking we need leading our trade policy.

As the first woman of color to ever serve as the President's chief trade adviser, Katherine Tai knows how important it is for the people in the room making trade decisions to actually reflect, to actually reflect the diverse workforce that our trade policy affects.

We know one good appointment and one good provision won't stop outsourcing, but I am always going to be straight with American workers. We have come a long, long way, but we have a long, long way to go to undo the damage our trade policies have done over the past three decades.

As the Presiding Officer, I have stood up to Presidents of both parties on trade throughout my career. That is not going to change. One of my proudest votes was one of my first votes, and that was against the North American Free Trade Agreement.

I will continue to watch closely what this administration does. If they show any hint of reverting back to the old way of doing things, of letting corporations dictate trade policy at the expense of workers, they will hear about it from me. This is going to be a constant effort over many years.

As thrilled as I am with Katherine Tai, we know we still have a job to do to reorient trade agreements and trade laws that are a priority; that our emphasis no longer is corporations, but it is American workers. It has to be coupled with real investment in the communities that have been hollowed out because of Washington's and Wall Street's past mistakes. It has to be paired with an overhaul of our Tax Code to end, once and for all, the tax breaks paid for by Ohioans and others to send production overseas.

Trade doesn't happen in a vacuum. Our policies must work together to create a global market where workers are treated with dignity; they are safe on the job; they are paid fair wages; they are able to bargain collectively; they are able to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits.

When you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work. That is what Katherine Tai will do.

I thank my colleagues for the strong vote in support of her confirmation.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise to talk about the passage of the historic American Rescue Plan. This monumental legislation will help us get this pandemic under control and help families and small businesses weather the economic crisis. It includes critical funding for vaccine production, testing, and additional PPE. It includes the resources we need to help kids get back to school safely, enhanced unemployment to help workers who are suffering during this pandemic, food assistance for low-income families, and stimulus checks to help make ends meet with hours cut and expenses rising. It also makes long-overdue enhancements to EITC and CTC that will help lift millions of children out of poverty. And it provides resources to keep families in their homes during this pandemic.

First, it provides critical assistance for renters and people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Before the pandemic, an estimated 568,000 people, many with underlying health conditions, were already experiencing homelessness. One out of four renters was paying more than half of their income in rent, leaving too many making impossible choices between essential expenses or even at risk of eviction. COVID-19 has both revealed and exacerbated these housing problems. One out of five renters reports being behind on rent, and renters were an estimated $57 billion dollars behind on rent as of January.

I am pleased that the Senate-approved bill includes new resources to assist people experiencing or at risk of homelessness through emergency housing vouchers and homelessness assistance and supportive services administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as emergency assistance for rural housing for residents of properties financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Housing Service.

In addition, the American Rescue Plan provides $21.6 billion in emergency rental assistance through States, localities, and territories, including $2.5 billion reserved for high-need grantees.

This funding supplements the $25 billion in emergency rental assistance funding provided by Congress in December, Section 501 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116-260, Section 501, but includes additional flexibilities to ensure grantees can better stabilize renters. The Biden administration should again extend the Federal eviction moratorium that expires on March 31, 2021, so that grantees have time to distribute assistance to renters in need to prevent evictions and displacement.

With the emergency rental assistance provided in this bill, renters will be able to receive up to 18 months of financial assistance, including future rent and utility payments, including pad rents in manufactured housing communities, and unpaid rent or utility bills that have accumulated. Renters can also receive assistance for

other housing-related expenses necessary to promote housing stability, such as but not limited to security deposits; relocation and rental fees for displaced households; late fees related to a former or current rental unit; and internet service provided to the rental unit. Section 3201 does not preclude grantees from continuing payment processes provided in section 501. These processes are the provisions that govern payments of rent and utility assistance either to property owners and utilities or directly to tenants and the application for assistance by landlords and owners under subsection (f). Additionally, funds can be used to provide housing stability services, such as but not limited to case management; tenant-landlord mediation; legal services related to eviction and housing stability; housing counseling; fair housing counseling; and specialized services for people with disabilities, people with chronic health conditions, seniors, or survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking. Similar to section 501, section 3201 permits grantees to use a certain percentage of their funds on administrative costs to support eligible program activities, including the provision of financial assistance and housing stability services. After deducting the amount grantees may use on program administration, grantees may also use up to 10 percent of their funds on providing housing stability services. As in section 501, funds are provided to States to assist renters throughout the State, including in rural communities, as well as cities and counties that receive a direct allocation.

Given how badly these resources are needed, the Department of Treasury and grantees must do all they can to implement this rental assistance program quickly and successfully and not create any artificial barriers to assistance. With some benefits provided by the CARES Act, documentation requirements to prove eligibility have erected artificial barriers that have cut people off from the benefits Congress intended them to receive. Indeed, diverse stakeholders, including tenant advocates, landlords, and State and local government agencies, have raised concerns that such requirements that have been applied in existing emergency rental assistance programs have prevented renters from completing applications and are overly burdensome for program staff. It is critical that any renters who are struggling to pay their rent during the pandemic are not barred from accessing this assistance due to cumbersome documentation requirements or other barriers. An applicant's simple attestation should be the only documentation required to meet program eligibility requirements. Additionally, grantees may continue the income assessment procedures pursuant to section 501 to determine eligibility.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had broad impacts on individuals, families, businesses, availability of government services and supports, and throughout our economy. It has changed where and how many people work. It has made it more difficult not just to keep a job but also to find a new job, to get enough hours, and to find childcare or someone to care for a sick loved one. All of these challenges brought on by the pandemic have made it more difficult for families to make ends meet. These effects are likely to exist for months and years to come. Given these factors, Treasury and grantees should broadly read the requirement regarding the connection between a renter's hardship and the coronavirus pandemic when determining the eligibility of the renter. As the language states, the hardship must have occurred ``during or due, directly or indirectly, to the coronavirus pandemic.'' The economic effects of the pandemic will be felt long after the virus is contained. Certain industries and communities have been particularly hard-hit from the pandemic and will likely take years to recover. Treasury should issue guidance that makes this point clear to ensure renters are not cut off from needed assistance as they try to recover from economic downturns caused by the pandemic.

Section 3201 also provides that after October 1, 2022, certain grantees may expend funds on ``other affordable rental housing and eviction prevention activities'' that benefit any very low-income renter household. Such activities can include but are not limited to affordable housing development, preservation, or acquisition, and other forms of rental assistance and eviction prevention activities targeted to very low-income renters.

To ensure continuity in monitoring funds provided by section 3201 and section 501 and ease of grantee implementation, Treasury should maintain the same reporting requirements that were included in section 501.

The committee encourages the administration to create and maintain a central public repository of information on State and local rental assistance programs, which at a minimum identifies the program's administering agency and contact information, so that renters and landlords can more easily identify available assistance.

Finally, to the extent there is any confusion with regard to the taxability of assistance, Treasury, in consultation with the Internal Revenue Service, should provide guidance to clarify this for grantees and program participants.

The American Rescue Plan also provides vital home ownership assistance to families across the country. This much-needed assistance would not have been possible without the dedication and diligence of our colleague, Senator Jack Reed, who is the author of the Homeowner Assistance Fund we have enacted. For nearly a year, he has been leading the charge to keep families in their homes and avoid another foreclosure crisis, and I am grateful to him for his leadership on this issue.

There is no question that homeowners are struggling as a result of this pandemic. In January, more than 3.3 million homeowners were more than 30 days behind on their payments or in foreclosure. More than 2 million households are more than 3 months behind, putting them at risk of foreclosure. Many of these households are in forbearance, but others are not. And the number of homeowners behind on mortgage payments doesn't account for other costs, such as utility and insurance bills, that are building up not just for homeowners with a mortgage but also for the more than one-third of homeowners who own their home outright.

Black, Latino, and Asian households are more likely to report that they have fallen behind on their mortgages. As with so much else in this health and economic crisis, the burden is falling the heaviest on the communities of color and low-income communities.

We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. We cannot allow this pandemic to become a housing crisis that exacerbates economic inequality and widens the racial home ownership gap. This time, we must give communities the tools to help homeowners weather this crisis and remain in their homes.

Many homeowners who are in forbearance have loans backed by a Federal agency or Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Throughout this pandemic, these agencies have extended forbearance and post-forbearance options to help borrowers resume making regular payments at some point or get an affordable loan modification. Many borrowers in forbearance today will also be able to get back on track with these existing options. But these options won't help all homeowners. Many homeowners do not have the benefit of the loan workout options that come with a federally backed or Fannie Mae- or Freddie Mac-backed loan, have accumulated other utility or housing costs, or have a manufactured home loan that is not a mortgage. And still other homeowners have a federally backed loan but, given the severe disruption to our economy, just need more help than is available through their mortgage program. These homeowners will need direct assistance, and they will need it quickly.

That is exactly what the Homeowner Assistance Fund will do. The American Rescue Plan Act's Homeowner Assistance Fund creates a nearly $10 billion fund at the Department of the Treasury to provide resources to States, Tribal governments, and Tribally designated housing entities to help homeowners staying in their homes. Treasury will allocate funds among the States and other eligible recipients, taking into account the number of individuals in a State who have been unemployed in recent months, as well as the number of homeowners who have fallen at least a month behind on their mortgage, regardless of whether they are in forbearance, or who are in foreclosure. States and eligible recipients

will use the funds Congress has provided in this bill for direct relief to eligible homeowners and to set up, staff, and administer the programs providing that relief.

As Congress has established in the bill, direct relief through the Homeowner Assistance Fund can include help with missed mortgage payments, financial help to make a mortgage modification viable, assistance with broadband and utility costs; and other relief that homeowners need to get back on track financially. At least 60 percent of a State or other eligible entity's funds must go to households at or below 100 percent of area median income or households below 100 percent of the national median income, whichever is higher, to ensure that help reaches those homeowners who need it most. Including homeowners with incomes of up to 100 percent of the national median income when that is higher than the area median income will ensure that funds adequately reach homeowners in Tribal areas and rural areas, where localized incomes may be lower. Remaining assistance funds are targeted to socially disadvantaged individuals, including homeowners of color, who too often are left behind in our economy and who data indicate are at disproportionate risk of foreclosure.

While Congress has authorized the program, the intent is for Treasury to play a vital role in making this program a reality by administering the Homeowner Assistance Fund prudently and flexibly to keep the greatest number of families in their homes. In the days ahead, Treasury must provide States and other eligible entities with the certainty they need to accept and distribute these funds efficiently. Treasury must set clear expectations for the types of eligible programs States can administer and the guidelines States must follow to administer these programs equitably and in accordance with the law. That includes ensuring States and other eligible entities understand up front that they can use a portion of the funds provided through the Homeowner Assistance Fund to establish and administer their programs, so that States can immediately get the systems and staffing in place to put funds into the hands of the people who need them. And if there is any uncertainty among States or individuals who might apply for assistance, Treasury should immediately clarify that any assistance received through the Homeowner Assistance Fund is not income for a homeowner.

Treasury must also establish reporting to ensure that funds are reaching the households who need them most. Both to comply with the law and to ensure funds are being used equitably, Treasury must establish periodic public reporting by State of key metrics, including the amount of funds disbursed, the acceptance rate of applicants, reasons applicants are denied, the number of individuals assisted, the number of households assisted by income range, the types of assistance provided, the average amount of assistance per household, and household outcomes. These data should also be assessed by race, ethnicity, gender, and other factors to determine compliance with all laws, including the Fair Housing Act. While Fair Housing Act enforcement remains the jurisdiction of the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice, this program and all housing programs must be developed and administered to comply with this foundational civil rights law.

States and other eligible recipients will also be vital partners in getting relief out quickly. Too many homeowners have been struggling for nearly a year. We need to get them relief now. Following the 2008 economic crisis, State housing finance agencies in select States were great partners in providing direct relief to homeowners through the Hardest Hit Fund. In my home State of Ohio, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency helped tens of thousands of people with mortgage payment assistance, modifications with assistance, and more. We need all States to be prepared to get these funds out quickly and without unnecessary barriers. Treasury can help facilitate this with clear guidance and templates that allow States to put out funds without delay.

I will continue to fight for the assistance people experiencing homelessness, renters, and homeowners need to stay in their homes. I also look forward to working to successfully deploy the historic resources provided in this bill.

Mr. President, I appreciate the candor of my colleague from Pennsylvania and the work that we do jointly on the Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs.

I ask unanimous consent to finish if I go a bit over and if my remarks continue into the next section or, potentially, the vote.

Have I said that right, Mr. President?

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting a dedicated and talented public servant and great Ohioan, my Congresswoman for the last 12 years, Marcia Fudge, to be our next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. The Presiding Officer served with her in the House of Representatives and appreciates her.

I can think no one better to lead us out of this pandemic and create strong communities for the future than Marcia Fudge. When she came before the Banking and Housing Committee, Congresswoman Fudge's knowledge and passion for service and her commitment to the people who make this country work were obvious to all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike.

After a year when Black Americans endured so many painful reminders of the yawning gap between the promise of our founding ideals and our failure to make that promise real for everyone, it is meaningful that our committee's first nomination hearing featured two African-American women who will take leading roles in our economic recovery, Marcia Fudge and Dr. Cecilia Rouse, who has been confirmed already to be Chair of the National Economic Council at the White House. The Senate confirmed Dr. Rouse with broad bipartisan support this month.

It matters on so many levels. It is important for our future that little girls, including Black and Brown girls, see themselves in our leaders, from the Vice President to Marcia Fudge, to Cecilia Rouse, to so many people in this Cabinet, including the new Secretary of the Interior from the Presiding Officer's area of the country. It matters because of perspectives and life experience these two Black women bring to these jobs.

Congresswoman Fudge will lead an Agency that supports families and communities, provides housing and safety to people experiencing homelessness, and it helps communities rebuild.

Today, HUD is grappling with a housing market where millions of families find it harder and harder to afford a decent home. New data out this week confirms that home prices are soaring around the country even while millions are out of work. Imagine that. The cost of housing is up, but wages are flat. So many workers have trouble making rent every month, with the kind of stress that brings and too often having to turn to predatory loans. The dream of home ownership is increasingly out of reach for too many families in New Mexico and too many families in Ohio.

None of this started with COVID-19. The affordable housing crisis is the product of decades of conscious policy decisions by Wall Street, corporations, and too often by government. This pandemic has exposed what millions of families in this country already knew: that for far too many people, a hard day's work doesn't pay the bills.

Before the United States ever had its first case of COVID-19, one- quarter--listen to this--one-quarter of all renters of this country spent more than half their income on housing, on rent. If one thing happened in their life--their car broke down, their child got sick, they had a workplace injury that caused them to miss work for a week-- any of those things and their life turns upside down. HUD should play an essential role in fixing that.

We know that the Black home ownership rate was nearly as low as it was in 1968 when Senator Romney's father became Secretary of HUD and the work he tried to do in opening housing in 1969. We have made little or almost no progress in the Black home ownership rate. I am confident that soon-to-be Secretary Fudge will change that. She understands the importance of expanding opportunity to every ZIP Code, allowing more families to have the peace of mind that brings.

Here is what I know about ZIP Codes. I am in Congresswoman Fudge's district. My wife and I live in ZIP Code 44105 in Cleveland. That ZIP Code, in 2007, the first half of that year, had more foreclosures than any city in the United States of America. I still see the residue, the remains of what has happened because of all those foreclosures.

Congresswoman Fudge will work to protect our kids from the lead poisoning that is still all too common in ZIP Code 44105, to restore the promise of fair housing, and to give communities the help and the resources they need to thrive.

She brings to the job critical experience, as Senator Toomey said, serving as a mayor in the industrial heartland for the kind of community that is either overlooked or outright preyed upon by Wall Street and big investors.

Even though Senator Toomey said that Congresswoman Fudge doesn't have the experience in housing, I know up close--I was the Senator during her entire time in the House. I represented her in the Senate. We live in the same community. We worked on many of the same projects. She was helpful on a number of housing issues that I worked on in the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. She understands our communities.

She will lift up the voices of all the people left out of our housing policy, people who work hard to try to keep a roof over their family's head, whose hard work never pays off like it should; people who are just trying to make rent or pay the mortgage every month who just don't feel like they can keep up. Their wages are flat. Costs go up. Pressure builds on them.

Congresswoman Fudge has the expertise and tenacity to fight back. That is why I ask my colleagues to confirm her for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.