Floor Statements

Madam President, it is a privilege to extend my congratulations to Jolene Molitoris as APTA honors Jolene for her extraordinary career and achievements for the public with APTA's Lifetime Achievement Award.

My partnership with Jolene goes back decades, to our early work together in State government in Ohio when Jolene served on the staff of the Ohio Rail Transportation Authority. I introduced Jolene at her Senate confirmation hearing in 1993 for Federal Railroad Administrator, the first woman ever to head that Agency. Jolene went on to become the longest serving FRA Administrator. Jolene blazed more firsts when in 2009 Ohio Governor Ted Strickland appointed her as the first woman to lead the Ohio Department of Transportation, and in that role, she also chaired the Ohio Rail Development Commission.

Recognized by WTS as Woman of the Year in 1995, Jolene has helped boost the women transportation stars who shine today, in addition to her own achievements. While at FRA, she served on the Amtrak board of directors when Amtrak launched the Acela in the Northeast Corridor, promoted rail revitalization with innovative new investment programs, and expanded the number of contracts her agency awarded to women-owned businesses to new Federal highs. At ODOT, Jolene oversaw ODOT's largest construction budget ever to that time and secured $400 million to bring robust rail service back to Ohio.

Jolene's absolute passion for safety has meant the most. As recent tragic events in Ohio have again unfortunately demonstrated, safety demands unwavering commitment. At FRA and ODOT, Jolene urged Vision Zero, that we must passionately pursue zero incidents and zero casualties. She focused her agencies on safety root cause, expanding focus beyond mere blind compliance by the regulated community. During her FRA tenure, the railroad industry achieved 7 of the safest years to that time.

Nearly 30 ago in 1996, Jolene brought together rail labor, rail management, and other stakeholders to form the FRA Railroad Safety Advisory Committee to develop new regulatory standards through a consensus process.

RSAC continues to operate to this day as one of the few standing negotiated rule-making committees in the Federal Government, offering an elevated voice for rail labor and other advocates in our unceasing pursuit of safety.

Jolene's promotion of Transportation safety excellence, rail passenger, and freight investment, of equity and inclusion--her vivid passion to do the right things for the people of Ohio and for our Nation--drive this APTA honor. I am proud to count Jolene as my partner and my friend, and I salute APTA for presenting this Lifetime Achievement Award to a most distinguished leader: Jolene Molitoris.

Madam President, it is an honor to join my colleagues of both parties on the floor today to read one of the greatest pieces of writing of the 20th century, Dr. King's letter from the Birmingham jail.

I thank Senators Warnock, Tillis, Casey, Capito, Boozman, and Rosen for joining me.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that after I speak briefly, you will recognize, in this order, Senators Warnock, Tillis, Casey, then me, then Capito, then Boozman, then Rosen.

Mr. President, our former colleague, Doug Jones from Alabama, began this bipartisan tradition. It happened in his State, and it is an honor to carry it.

Today, we recommit to Dr. King's mission--equal rights for all--to ensuring that every voice is heard and to the dignity of work.

On Friday, we marked Workers Memorial Day, when we honor workers killed on the job over the past year and throughout our history. People don't talk enough about what Dr. King was doing when he was assassinated. He was killed in Memphis while fighting for sanitation workers, AFSCME Local 1633, some of the most exploited workers in our country.

He traveled there following the death of two sanitation workers on the job. Not only was it a segregated neighborhood in Memphis, but, of course, even the garbage truck was segregated. Two White workers worked in the cab, and two Black workers worked in the back of the truck. They were killed when the truck malfunctioned and crushed them.

Dr. King understood the deep connection between workers' rights and civil rights. Speaking to those workers, he said:

[W]henever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and

is for the building of

humanity, it has dignity and it has worth. . . . All labor

has dignity.

Until we have equal rights for all and dignity for all workers, our work here remains unfinished. We have a long road left to travel. It is up to us to push our country further along the road. That is the message to me in Dr. King's words in the letter we read today.

Just a quick preface of what this letter was about and then we will turn to Reverend Warnock. In April 1963, Dr. King was held in a Birmingham, AL, jail for the supposed crime of leading a series of peaceful protests and boycotts. The goal was to pressure the business community to end discrimination in their hiring for local jobs.

Some White ministers from Alabama had taken issue with the boycotts. They told him: Dr. King, slow down. We are supporting you. We are for voting rights, too, but slow down. Don't move too fast. Don't demand too much all at once.

Dr. King rejected that premise.

It is up to all of us--as citizens, as leaders, as members of our churches in our communities--to get to work to demand justice and equality now, not at some hazy, far-off point in the future that never seems to get here.

Dr. King made that point more eloquently and persuasively than any of us ever could. So I will turn to my colleague, the Reverend Senator Warnock.

Mr. President, I will continue.

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 good will 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 to 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 and

a 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.

Thank you, Senator Rosen.

Thank you to my colleagues who joined us today to read these powerful words: Senators Warnock, Tillis, Casey, Capito, Boozman, and Rosen.

This is a diverse group on the floor today whose States reflect the vibrant

and wonderful diversity of our great Nation, from the Deep South to the Mountain West, to the Industrial Midwest. We represent different places. We may disagree on many things, but we love this country. 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 to make the dream of America real for everyone. Protesting, working for change, organizing, demanding our country do better--those are some of the most patriotic things all of us can do. That is Dr. King's charge in this letter.

My favorite single line certainly in this letter and maybe in all of Dr. King's preachings and teachings and writings: ``Progress never rolls in on [the] wheels of inevitability.''

``Progress never rolls in on [the] wheels of inevitability.'' It rolls in because we make it so. That is our charge.

Think about that campaign Dr. King was waging when he was martyred in Memphis. Think about who he was talking to--a union, Sanitation Workers Local 1613, AFSCME. Think of the circumstances. This was a very segregated Memphis. He was in a segregated, White neighborhood. Even the sanitation trucks where these workers were working were segregated. The cab of the truck was two White workers; the back of the truck was doing the actual lifting and picking up garbage--two Black workers.

In February, before Dr. King first visited, the garbage truck--there was a torrential downpour in this White, segregated neighborhood. There was nowhere for these Black sanitation workers to go. They crawled in the back of the truck. It malfunctioned and crushed these two workers. That is why Dr. King was in Memphis the first time and the second time.

As he wove together worker rights and civil rights and labor rights, he told these workers:

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?

Those workers were vital to their community. They worked hard to provide for their families. They were denied fair pay, denied political rights, denied basic safety on the job.

Now, the Presiding Officer today is Senator Cortez Masto from Nevada, who has joined in so many efforts on the Senate floor to fight for workers, to fight for the dignity of work, to fight for safety and civil rights and worker rights. It is not a coincidence that the workers who are so often the most exploited are low-income workers, especially Black workers.

Until all workers have the dignity they have earned, Dr. King's work will remain unfinished. It means paying all workers a living wage. It means giving them power over their schedules. It means providing good benefits and safety on the job. It means letting them, if they so choose, organize a union. It is about the dignity of work. All workers get a fair share of the wealth they create. When we empower workers, we bring us closer to the society Dr. King envisioned where all labor has dignity.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 152 and S. Res. 185 and that the Senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res. 152, S. Res. 185, S. Res. 192, S. Res. 193, and S. Res. 194.

I know of no further debate on the resolutions en bloc.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the preambles be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Madam President, I will speak briefly. I know we are expecting a vote at 5:30. I will not speak nearly that long, but I know we are about to vote on the Congressional Review Act on an issue that I happen to disagree with the President on.

My whole career has been standing up for workers. My whole career has been standing up for, sometimes, the Presidents--the Presidents of both parties.

I think, if you look at the history of trade in this country and what we have done, we have seen, frankly, that this body, that down the hall in the House of Representatives, and that the White House have historically not stood up for workers.

I grew up in Mansfield, OH, in a small, industrial city of about 50,000 people. It was a very industrial city, less so now. I went to Johnny Appleseed Junior High School, and I remember walking the halls with the sons and daughters of machinists who worked at Tappan Stove and rubberworkers who worked for Mansfield Tire and steelworkers at Empire in Detroit. ``Empire-Reeves,'' I believe, was the company's name then. I remember the autoworkers who worked at General Motors, a number of electrical workers at Westinghouse, and also the sons and daughters of people in the trades, who were electricians and carpenters, insulators and pipefitters, plumbers and operating engineers and laborers--people highly skilled who built America.

Companies and corporations--particularly in my part of the country but also in Nevada and everywhere--began to shut down plants in the industrial Midwest. They moved those plants to low-wage areas--Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, North and South Carolina especially. Because those wages weren't quite low enough to satisfy the greed--I think there is no other word other than the ``greed'' of corporate America--then those same companies began to lobby Congress.

One of my first votes as a Member of Congress many years ago was in opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Those of us who opposed NAFTA predicted with almost certainty what was almost certainly and inevitably going to happen. Once you pass a trade agreement giving these companies the opportunity to go to Mexico and then to China with no tariffs and to go for very low wages to exploit workers in those countries, which is what they did, you begin to see plants shut down.

We know what happened. We know that far too many of our colleagues in the House and Senate were willing to pass these free-trade agreements, like NAFTA. We also know that, down the hall, the House of Representatives did the same thing; the Senate did it; and, frankly, we had Presidents of both parties who sold out American workers. The lobbyists were here, pushing for NAFTA and pushing later for the PNTR with China, weakening the rules there so that these companies were up and gone. They left. They left Ohio. They left Indiana. They left Illinois. They left so much of the industrial Midwest because this Congress and the Presidents of both parties, from Trump all the way back to Clinton--I would include Obama and both Bushes and

Clinton and Trump--were willing to sell out American workers to the lobbyists who pushed for these trade agreements as they could seek cheaper wages in China.

There is another thing that happened with China. What we did when we moved all of these jobs to China was we built up the Chinese military because we provided the technology and the wealth to the Chinese Communist Party that then was able to build up a high-tech military-- not quite rivaling ours, but it was certainly dangerous enough that we paid attention.

My vote against NAFTA was one of my proudest votes and my vote against the PNTR with China, the most favored nation status with China. So we are seeing what that has yielded.

In the end, it is a simple choice: Whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the Chinese Communist Party or are you on the side of American workers? That, to me, is what this vote is about today with the Congressional Review Act about solar tariffs.

I would add full disclosure. One of the biggest solar manufacturers-- I believe still the biggest single solar manufacturing plant in America--is near Toledo, just south of Toledo, in Northwest Ohio. Those workers will benefit if we vote yes and then override the President's veto.

It is what I urge my colleagues to do today--to pass this simple resolution to continue these tariffs on China--because as long as they keep cheating, as long as American companies are willing to take the products from slave labor and underpaid labor and exploited labor and bring them into this country, these problems will continue for our industrial base.

I heard the President of the United States down the hall, I believe, in his last State of the Union, saying the term ``Rust Belt'' and that we are burying the term ``Rust Belt.'' I have talked to the President about burying that term. He mentioned it that day, in the State of the Union that evening.

Mostly, we are starting to see in this country a reindustrialization of America. We are seeing chips now. Chips were invented in the United States, but 90 percent of them are made mostly in Taiwan and China. The light bulb was invented by an Ohioan, Thomas Edison. He grew up not far from where I grew up. Now 100 percent of LEDs are made overseas. So if we are going to reindustrialize this country and bring these jobs back, that is what the CHIPS legislation is all about, and that is what we are doing with Intel in Columbus.

This sets us back. The President's veto of this bill sets us back a couple more years in redeveloping and bringing these jobs back and doing the kind of in-sourcing that Senator Casey and others have fought for here.

As I wrap up, I am asking my colleagues to vote yes on this Congressional Review Act on solar tariffs because, again, whose side are you on? Are you on the side of the Chinese Communist Party or are you on the side of American workers? To me, it is as clear as day which side to be on.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. President, I rise in support of the CRA that we will be voting on soon. This vote presents a pretty simple choice: Do you stand with American manufacturers and American workers or do you stand with China and do you stand with our continuing to lose our industrial base?

I fought my whole career for fair trade. One of my first and proudest votes was against the North American Free Trade Agreement, as a Member of the House. We saw what that agreement did to Vermont, did to Ohio, and did to Kansas--and Senator Moran just spoke. We saw what NAFTA did.

These trade fights are not a new fight. Some years ago--about 20 years ago--when I was a Member of the House, I wrote a book called ``Myths of Free Trade.'' The book wasn't exactly a bestseller. I can live with that. But telling the truth on trade has not been popular in this town--by Presidents of both parties, majorities in Congress, and corporate leaders and CEOs who were lobbying Congress.

Essentially, these trade agreements sold out American workers. These trade agreements were signed or, at least, negotiated by American Presidents and voted for by far too many Members of Congress, lobbied by the most powerful interest groups in Washington.

I remember that during NAFTA--there were two things during NAFTA, particularly. One was that someone said that there were more corporate jets at National Airport than they had ever seen, because CEOs were all flying in to push for NAFTA--to get us to vote for NAFTA--because it was more money in their pockets because it was fewer dollars in workers' pockets. The other thing I remember was one of the--this was a two-party thing. Democrats were pretty bad. Republicans were actually slightly worse. But both parties were guilty, and Presidents from both parties--from Trump and all the way back to Clinton, since I came here.

One of the Democratic leaders on this issue in the House said to me: You know, I hate these congressional recesses because when our Members go home and go to county fairs and start meeting with people, they decide that they don't think NAFTA is such a great idea.

So every time we went home, this guy, who was a Member of Congress who was pushing for NAFTA, had more work to do because the more the public heard from workers--the more that Congressman heard from workers and

from the public--the less they liked this agreement. Workers from Ohio and around the country watched the people who are supposed to represent them and stand up for them sell out to corporations again and again.

Let me tell you a real quick story. I grew up in Mansfield, OH, an industrial city at the time that was roughly halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. I worked on a family farm nearby through most of my teen years. But I remember walking the halls at a school called Johnny Appleseed Junior High. In Johnny Appleseed Junior High, I walked the halls with the sons and daughters of electrical workers at Westinghouse, autoworkers at General Motors, rubberworkers at Mansfield Tire, and machinists at Tappan Stove; and with the sons and daughters of trades people, laborers, electricians, insulators, sheet metal workers, plumbers, pipefitters, and operating engineers.

Those kids had a chance in life. Those kids had a pretty good solid middle-class life because their parents carried a union card. They had that advantage. We were a country where management would sit down with workers, and they would negotiate. Management would do well, not the kind of $10 million-a-year CEO salaries as today, but they would do well. But workers would do well and be able to buy a car and a decent home and send their kids to Mansfield OSU or North Central Technical College or whatever.

By the time I got to Mansfield High School, you could see those jobs starting to be lost. By the time, years later, when I represented Mansfield in the legislature, so many of those jobs were gone because those companies were using words like--first, they moved south for cheap labor. Then they moved to Mexico. Then they moved to China.

Those companies were moving their production overseas in the name of ``efficiency.'' Efficiency is always business school speak for lower wages: We want more efficiency. Actually, we really want lower wages, but we can't say that in public.

Corporations searched the globe for cheap labor. First, they shut down production in Mansfield, OH, and Toledo and Dayton. Then they moved to Alabama and Mississippi. Wages were low, and the unions were not particularly active there because the governments in those States kept them out, and the businesses kept them out. Then those wages weren't cheap enough, and that is when they started going overseas.

They lobbied for tax breaks and bad trade deals always in search of lower wages. And, you know, Wall Street would reward them over and over.

Norfolk Southern I pay attention to because of their irresponsibility and greed and what they did to a community in my State. Every time they lay off workers--Norfolk Southern laid off a third of its workforce in the past 2 years. Every time they lay off workers, their quarterly earnings report gets a little better, and their profits get a little better.

What does Wall Street do? Wall Street rewards them with a higher stock price. Then what happens is those CEOs and top executives are able to cash in, in a bigger and bigger way, with stock buybacks and other ways.

So look at where we have ended up because of this corporate- dominated, corporate-ridden trade policy. An Ohioan invented the light bulb. Today, 99 percent of LED bulbs are made in China. On the west coast, an American invented the semiconductor. Today, 90 percent of them are made overseas. We cannot and will not make that mistake again with the technologies that power our economy over the next century.

We have heard a lot of talk in the Senate over the past year about supporting manufacturing and innovation so we can better compete with China. Senator Cornyn is on the floor. He and Senator Casey are working on a really important bill on corporate outsourcing that I hope we pass, and it will absolutely matter. It is why, in the end, we passed the CHIPS Act, to bring semiconductor production back home where it belongs.

We passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill. I worked with Senator Portman, the other Senator from Ohio, on that and on a number of other bills that rebuild our bridges and roads.

We passed the Inflation Reduction Act to make sure we lead the world in new renewable energy technologies, like solar.

But, now, suspending those solar tariffs is antithetical to the good work we did. We take four steps forward and, today, move three steps backward. That is not the progress we need.

President Biden has talked about how we are essentially--and I have been talking to him about this, and he has been repeating it--that we are burying the term ``Rust Belt'' in my part of the country. You can't say you want American manufacturing to lead the world and then allow Chinese companies, subsidized always by their government, to skirt the rules and dump solar panels in the United States.

We have in my State--I believe it is still--the largest solar manufacturing company in America. First Solar employs 2,000 workers in Northwest Ohio. These workers are ready to lead the world in this industry. They just need a level playing field.

We know China cheats. The Chinese Government, as they have for generations--unfortunately, American politicians helped them do it, and American corporations helped them do it, and we build up the Chinese military that now we are concerned with.

China illegally subsidizes industry, from steel to solar. They have been doing it for years. They are always coming up with new ways to cheat. It is sort of a Whac-A-Mole problem, where we stop this cheating, and then it goes somewhere else. We stop that, and it goes somewhere else.

We put tariffs on their illegally dumped products, and they move some aspect of production to other nearby countries to get around those rules. They move to Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, and wherever they can find to cheat and to ignore the rules.

Blame them--and I certainly do--but we have allowed it. We have allowed it because American politicians, Presidents of both parties, and far too many people in this Chamber--I would certainly say the Presiding Officer is an exception to that--far too many people in this body have gone along with it as corporate America has lobbied and lobbied and lobbied aggressively.

This isn't just a guess. The administration's own Commerce Department conducted an independent investigation. They released preliminary results in December. And surprise, surprise, they found that, yes, four leading Chinese solar cell manufacturers are dodging U.S. tariffs by routing some of their operations through Southeast Asia.

We can't let them keep doing it.

That is what this vote today is about. It has real consequences for our leadership in my State in manufacturing and for American leadership in one of the leading energy industries of the future.

To my colleagues who say we must allow these Chinese imports for the time being in order to fight climate change, I disagree. Nobody in this body is more concerned and more active in terms of understanding environmental issues. As a senior in high school, I started the first Earth Day in Richland County in 1970. My commitment is absolute.

But when people say this is about climate change, surely, it isn't. It is about ceding our leadership to other countries, and it will not result in long-term success.

American workers must know we have their backs. They need to know they aren't a little side issue: We are for workers, except when we are doing this; we are for workers, except when we are doing that.

If you believe in the dignity of work, if you put workers at the center of our economic policy, it makes things better. We have seen how dangerous it is when we cede American leadership to other countries in key industries like semiconductors. Now we play catch up.

American workers have proven they can make these solar panels. It is not a hypothetical. Americans are manufacturing solar panels that can power our economy right now, today. They need a level playing field.

How are businesses going to expand and scale up production if they are constantly dealing with a flood--I mean a flood, one after another after another wave--of illegally subsidized imports? It comes down, as the Presiding Officer knows, to whose side are you on? Do you stand with workers in Ohio or stand with the Chinese Communist Party? Do you stand with the American solar industry or do you stand

with the solar industry in a country that cheats time after time?

It is that simple. If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work.

I ask my colleagues to join me in standing up for workers in Ohio and around the country.

Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Linda Robertson in honor of her storied career in public service, including as a key member of the Federal Reserve's staff for over 13 years. Her career has touched many of the most important economic events of the past 40 years.

Originally from Oklahoma, Linda first came to Washington to work for Congressman Jim Jones. She quickly made her mark working on taxation and finance matters both in his office and for the Committee on Ways and Means. It was in this job that she had a front row seat to the 1986 tax reform effort made famous by books like ``Showdown at Gucci Gulch.'' While continuing her work in Congress during the day, she attended classes at night to earn her master of laws in taxation.

Based on her exceptional congressional experience and knowledge of policy, Linda was later nominated and confirmed to serve as Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs and Public Liaison at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Following her service at the Treasury Department, she worked as the top public advocate for Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Linda returned to public service in August 2009 as an assistant to the Federal Reserve Board and head of its congressional liaison office. She began this position at a time of immense challenge for the country and as Congress and our regulatory Agencies worked to stabilize the financial system following the great recession of 2008.

From the global financial crisis through the pandemic, Linda has served as a trusted advisor to the Federal Reserve Board and has played an invaluable role in keeping Congress and the public apprised of the Federal Reserve's work to fulfill its mandates on behalf of the American people. Federal Reserve Board Chairs Bernanke, Yellen, and Powell all benefited from Linda's experience and dedication to public service.

Linda also returned to Treasury in 2021 to advise Secretary Yellen as she became the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary. Linda's work was vital last year when we confirmed President Biden's slate of Federal Reserve Board nominees. With her countless hours of hard work, we were able to confirm a full Federal Reserve Board, something that had not been done in nearly a decade.

Linda's lasting legacy also includes those that she worked with and mentored throughout her career. Those that had the privilege of learning from her wisdom have gone on to fill positions throughout Washington. One of Linda's former interns from her time at the Treasury Department is my scheduler, Diana Baron, also from Oklahoma, who has been with me on my staff for nearly 25 years. I am sure many of my colleagues have similar stories.

Her commitment to public service, formidable talent, and immense knowledge will be missed by those at the Federal Reserve and many of us on Capitol Hill, particularly those of us on the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. I wish Linda much success in her next chapter which--without hearings to prep for or bills to review--I expect will include ample time spent with family and friends.

Madam President, I thank Senator Rubio for his comments.

Whenever I hear my colleagues rail against China--and I agree with that 95 percent of the time. Whenever I hear them say things like that they want to be the world's most powerful country, the most powerful government, I agree with that.

But, as Senator Rubio said--this isn't a debate between him and me. I just want to make a couple of comments. I want to talk about worker safety, in a moment, which I know the Presiding Officer cares so much about.

I go back half a generation. Senator Rubio wasn't here then, but many of his ideological soulmates were here then. This Congress couldn't stop itself, from Presidents Clinton and Bush 1 and Obama and Bush 2 and Trump--couldn't help themselves--from giving all kinds of breaks to American corporations and incentives to American corporations to go to China, to move to China.

So they shut down production in Duluth, MN. They shut down production in Mansfield, OH, my hometown, and Toledo and Youngstown.

As corporations were lobbying Congress, I worked and I teamed up with Lindsey Graham, a Republican, against that. We were unsuccessful, as corporations lobbied Congress to give China something called permanent normal trade relations.

So they shut down production in Ohio. They moved that production to China. And what happened? They taught China a whole lot about manufacturing, and they created a whole lot of wealth in China.

Now we are surprised about TikTok. We are surprised that the Chinese military is as powerful as it is. I just think it is important that we remember, when we listen to corporate interests in this body who lobby here to weaken, to push jobs overseas, that these are the kinds of things that happen. And I hope we learn from that, and I hope we take a lesson and apply it to TikTok into the future.

So, Senator Rubio, thank you for raising the issue.

Worker Safety

Madam President, I want to talk about worker safety for a moment. On Friday, seven American workers went to work in West Reading, PA, at the RM Chocolate Factory to provide for their families.

I spoke to Senator Casey about this, who is the senior Senator from Pennsylvania and who is one of the leaders in fighting for worker safety in this body. I spoke with him about it a few minutes ago.

Those seven workers never came home after an explosion leveled the plant. Our thoughts are with the families who lost sons and daughters, workers who were paid decent wages, not exorbitant wages--decent wages--and never returned home to their families.

We will learn more about what went wrong. I know Pennsylvania workers will always have an ally with Senators Casey and Fetterman on this issue and so much more.

This struck me in a more emphatic way because I believe it was 1 day before the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. That

tragedy woke up the Nation to the dangers that workers face in their jobs--dozens of workers, because the management had locked the factory doors because they were afraid that some of these low-paid, mostly women, some of them very young, workers might steal a blouse or two. They locked the factory doors. So when this fire broke out in a very flammable environment, workers jumped out the windows to their deaths-- dozens and dozens of workers.

That made a huge difference in Congress finally dealing with worker safety.

In fact, a woman who was nearby, heard the sirens, and came to the scene was named Frances Perkins. She became the first female Secretary of Labor, under President Roosevelt. She stayed with him his entire 12- plus years in office and played a big role, with Senator Wagner, in writing the most pro-worker legislation in this Nation's history, especially on worker safety.

Now, Madam President, I wear this pin on my lapel. I have worn it since it was given to me 25 years ago, at a workers' Memorial Day rally, by the steelworkers. It is a picture of a canary in a bird cage.

The mine workers, 120 years ago, used to take a canary down in the mine. If the canary died from toxic gas or lack of oxygen, the mine worker got out of the mine. He had no union, in those days, strong enough to protect him. He had no government, in those days, that cared enough to protect him.

We changed that because of worker safety laws. We changed that because of unions. This tragedy in West Reading, PA, reminds us that our work to protect workers and make workplaces safer never ends.

I think about those steelworkers who lost their lives near Toledo in an explosion in a refinery in Oregon, OH, last year. Max Morrissey and Ben Morrissey were brothers who died in that accident.

I think about the Norfolk Southern worker who worked for Norfolk Southern, and, because of its culture of laying off workers and compromising safety and paying big compensation bonuses to executives, the worker at Norfolk Southern lost his life earlier this month.

No worker should have to worry about returning--kissing her husband goodbye, kissing his wife goodbye, kissing his or her children goodbye, they should not have to worry about returning home. That is why we should stand up to corporate lobbies that always want to cut costs-- worker safety be damned.

We know what happened. We saw in East Palestine what happened because the railroad laid off a third of its workers and then they compromised on safety. We saw what happened in Silicon Valley Bank when they didn't pay attention to consumers and regulators and the public interest.

And, again, workers always pay the price. We know what will happen. Every time there is an industrial accident, people are upset; they worry about it.

But the companies continue to lobby regulators for weaker laws. We see it here with corporate lobbyists. We see it in the regulatory Agencies, when they always want to weaken consumer laws, they always want to weaken environmental laws, they always want to weaken worker safety laws, and communities always pay, and workers always pay.

That is why a union card is so powerful. It means higher wages, better benefits, and a safer workplace. If you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work, whether they punch a clock or swipe a badge or whether they work for tips or whether they work on salary. You fight to keep people safe on the job. That is our job here, to make sure we do that better than we have in the past.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I, first, want to compliment the President pro tempore of the Senate and her leadership here for now 30-plus years and her courage.

She saw January more up close than most of us did. I say to the Senator: I believe you were with your husband in your office and heard those sounds and, I assume, had those fears. I appreciate your courage then and how you have talked about it in specific terms. Your genuineness really matters. So thank you for that.

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

Mr. President, I understand there are three bills at the desk, and I ask for their first reading en bloc.

I now ask for a second reading, and I object to my own request, all en bloc.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it stand adjourned to convene for a pro forma session, with no business being conducted, at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, March 17, and when the Senate adjourns on Friday, it stand adjourned until 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21; that, on Tuesday, following the prayer and 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 following the conclusion of morning business, the Senate resume consideration of the motion

to proceed to Calendar No. 25, S. 316, postcloture; further, that the postcloture debate time on the motion to proceed be considered expired at 5:30 p.m.

Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of Senator Cantwell.

Mr. President, it shouldn't take a train derailment for elected officials to put partisanship aside and work together for the people whom we serve--not work for corporations like Norfolk Southern.

That is why, this morning, I introduced bipartisan legislation with Senator Vance, my new Republican colleague, who has been here only about 2 months, and our colleagues Senator Rubio, Republican from Florida; Senator Casey, a longtime friend and Democrat from Pennsylvania; Senator Fetterman, also a freshman who has been here a couple of months, from Pennsylvania; and Senator Hawley from Missouri, to make trains safer as they go through places like East Palestine, OH.

Railroad company lobbyists spent years fighting every effort that we could make to make our trains and our rail lines safer. Now Ohioans have seen it, and Georgia has seen it, and the Presiding Officer, the senior Senator from Georgia, has seen it in his State. Ohioans have seen these rail crashes, these derailments, just in the last 4 months. The one in East Palestine is the best known because the damage was the greatest. But there was also one in Sandusky, on Lake Erie, the greatest body of fresh water in the world, in the Great Lakes; and also in Steubenville, on the Ohio River. Those are the two greatest natural resources that our State has, the Ohio River and Lake Erie. It affects drinking water and all kinds of things--recreation for so many people. We have seen that all three of these communities are paying a price.

Over the past month, I have been in East Palestine multiple times, talking with residents, the mayor, the fire chief, business owners, parents. I have heard their fears for what this means for their town, for their futures.

I met with Melissa Smith, who runs a company, a candle-making company. I learned something from her and from my wife--that the best candles now are made from soy, not wax. They smell better and burn cleaner. Thank you for acknowledging that. Perhaps, it is better for the environment. But she owns this candle company that she and her daughter run.

She and her husband, about 4 miles away, have a small farm. They have 25 beef cattle. I think she said 25. She has regular customers. This isn't some huge stockyard. She has regular customers, and these customers, whom she sells to every year, buy a side of beef or a full beef and she tells me she is getting calls from these customers saying: I don't know if I am going to buy this year. Is your beef safe?

She can't promise that, and they don't know.

We agree we need to do everything in our power to make sure an accident like this never happens again and make sure these residents-- the 4,500 residents of East Palestine and the township, Unity Township, around it; and east of Unity Township, the township east is in western PA, Darlington Township--to make sure people's lives return to normal.

Our bill would do a few key things. It includes new safety requirements for trains that carry hazardous materials. Governor DeWine, who served in the Senate before he was Governor, is particularly upset that these trains--these tanker train cars--can come in that are carrying hazardous material and not tell the State or local governments or, more importantly, not tell firefighters and people who are not trained to fight hazmat kinds of fires.

The bill would also mean new rules to prevent wheel bearing failures like we saw in this crash. We know wheel bearing failures are the No. 1 mechanical cause of derailments.

It would require two-person crews on every train.

Think about this. This train was more than 150-cars long, more than a mile. It has one locomotive at the front, then a locomotive about two- thirds of the way or halfway back to help pull the train. There were only two employees. There were three this time: two employees and a trainee. But the railroads want there to only be one human being riding these trains--one human being on a train a mile long, 150 cars.

We require a minimum two-person work crew on every train. It is a good first step toward making train and rail lines safer and protecting rail workers.

It means real accountability when accidents happen.

It raises the fines that, right now, are so low that they don't even make a dent in the profits of these big companies; it is just the cost of doing business.

We have seen what happens: dangerous derailments over and over. There were three in Ohio just in the last few months.

As Norfolk Southern's profits have gone up, accidents have gone up. That is not exactly shocking. They don't care about these communities and the damage they do, as long as they still bring in enough to do billions in stock buybacks to reward their executives. Last year, they did $3 billion in stock buybacks. This year, they were planning to do several billion more. They backed off after the train derailment, of course.

In the last 10 years, Norfolk Southern laid off one-third of their workforce. You know what that means? It means track inspections by Norfolk Southern employees are more cursory, not as thorough, not as safe, not done as well. They can't be because these workers are so harried and have so much work to do.

The rail companies cut costs by cutting corners and, as I said, cutting workers, leaving crews overworked and unsafe. It happens quarter after quarter.

They report every quarter back to their Wall Street analysts all the ways they have cut costs, cut costs, cut costs. Communities like East Palestine be damned. These are the places that are so often exploited by corporate America.

When I talk about the dignity of work, I understand that my job is to fight for those workers and fight to make sure this never happens again. I will work with anyone to do this.

I am thrilled that Senator Vance, my freshman colleague in his second month in the Senate, a Republican--we don't agree on the big issues, but we have listened to the same people and sure as heck agree that we need to do this.

I will work to get these reforms passed that hold Norfolk Southern accountable to make sure they pay for every cent of the cleanup.

As I said, Senator Vance and I come from different parties, but we come together for the people in our State, as I did with Senator Portman. Again, we have major differences on the big issues, but we are working together for Ohio. We pressed Federal officials to take legal action. We pressed for monitoring of potential long-term health effects.

That is how you get things done. You listen to the people whom you serve and you find common ground with the elected officials, who should be your partners, regardless of party.

As I said, it is what we did with Senator Portman again and again. We found agreement wherever we could and got things accomplished.

Right after Senator Portman left office--he was maybe out of office for 2 days in January--he and I and Senator McConnell, who sits at this chair and is the Republican leader, with Governor DeWine, a Republican, and the Governor of Kentucky, a Democrat, and the President of the United States stood at the Brent Spence Bridge, a project we have been working on for 10 years. Three percent of GDP crosses over that bridge, connecting Senator McConnell's State and Cincinnati in my State.

Senator Portman and I worked together to come up with the strongest ``Buy American'' laws ever; to strengthen our trade enforcement laws to protect Ohio workers and Ohio businesses, like Whirlpool; expanding access for opioid addiction; the PACT Act, taking care of veterans exposed to those football field-sized burn pits and, maybe 2, 3, 5, 10 years later, develop a cancer or bronchial illness. They need treatment and they show up at the VA, and because of the PACT Act that Senator Tester, my colleague and the principal writer, and I, who also helped write--which is named after an Ohioan--the PACT Act will save lives.

I am hopeful that we continue that bipartisan Ohio tradition with Senator Vance, starting with these commonsense reforms to prevent other Ohio communities from facing another disaster.

As I told the residents of East Palestine, I am here for the long haul. The last time I was there, I said to the mayor: I am going to keep calling you on the phone. I am going to keep calling the fire chief. I am going to keep calling Melissa Smith, who owns that candle company. I am going to show up. I am not going away until this is fixed, until people's lives are back to normal, and until Norfolk Southern is held accountable. When people who don't live in Ohio pack up in a week or two, we are still going to be there for months, for the next year--for the next 10 years, if that is what it takes to make this right.

I hope my colleagues of both parties will show that same commitment that Senator Vance is saying and Senator Rubio and Senator Casey and Senator Fetterman and Senator Hawley. Join us to get something real done for the people whom we serve.

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.