[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3583-S3589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CHIPS ACT OF 2022--Continued
Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The Republican leader is recognized.
The Economy
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Washington Democrats' one-party
government has actually performed an amazing feat. In 18 months, they
have taken an economy that was ready to soar and completely derailed it
with $2 trillion in unnecessary borrowing, printing, and spending. Now,
9.1 percent inflation is pinching hard-working Americans every time
they visit the gas pump or the grocery store.
The Biden administration has tried their hardest to find a silver
lining amid the economic storm clouds they helped create. They have
touted the strength of consumer spending to conclude our economy is
strong. That is what they said. Well, of course, consumer spending has
only gone up because the price of nearly everything has increased. A
recent economic analysis shows the American people do spend more on
gas, groceries, furniture, and clothes than we used to, but--listen to
this--adjusted for inflation, they are actually consuming less--paying
more, getting less.
Parents of school-age kids are some of the hardest hit. Four in ten
say they won't go back-to-school shopping before the upcoming school
year. One young mother in Nevada says she will ``pick out one or two
shirts'' for her daughter ``and that's it.'' Inflation has made
everything else too expensive.
Over in Arizona, inflation forces the average household to spend over
$9,600 more a year compared to when President Biden took office. Many
families simply don't have that much wiggle room in their budgets and
are resorting to desperate measures simply to stay afloat.
One Phoenix area food bank has seen a 78-percent increase in visitors
compared with just last year--78 percent more families who simply can't
afford to live in this Democrat-run economy. A woman in line at the
food bank said she had never needed to visit one before but ``the
prices are way too high'' right now to support four children on her
husband's salary.
Colorado families are facing the highest inflation costs in the
Nation, in the whole country: nearly $10,900 in extra spending per year
compared to the beginning of the Biden administration. Not
surprisingly, Coloradans are falling behind on paying for daily
necessities. One pawn shop owner in the State has noticed a marked
increase in loan seekers at his business. For most of them, they just
need ``30 bucks, 40 bucks'' to ``pay small bills, get gas, put
groceries on the table.''
This is all happening in my home State of Kentucky as well. People
are taking out loans, cutting back spending, and relying on charity
just to cope with ever-increasing prices. But that hasn't stopped
Washington Democrats from proposing new ways to wreck our economy. As
we speak, they are batting around a new suite of tax hikes aimed
squarely at the middle class. If Democrat-driven inflation hasn't
pushed struggling families off the edge quite yet, the Democrat-driven
recession certainly will finish the job.
So what is on the menu? New taxes on small businesses already
struggling with inflation, new fees and regulations on American energy
producers that will send prices even higher at the pump, new socialist
price control schemes to stifle healthcare innovation.
Apparently, record inflation isn't enough to make Democrats realize
their reckless economic agenda is a failure, an abject failure. Maybe
tax-hike-induced stagflation will set them straight.
Ukraine
Madam President, now on another matter, I had the honor, along with
others, of greeting the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, who
greeted us here in the Capitol. Like my colleagues in the room, I was
moved by her blunt, plaintive remarks to Congress. As her country
endures the fifth month of a brutal Russian siege, Ms. Zelenska was
candid about the pain and suffering Russia's unprovoked war of
aggression was causing her homeland. She said: ``Russia is destroying
our people.''
The First Lady conveyed the incredible determination of the Ukrainian
people and echoed their simple request for the tools to fight their own
fight--``Weapons,'' she said, ``to protect one's home and the right to
wake up alive in that home.''
I hope the First Lady's visit helped steel our colleagues' resolve as
friends of Ukraine. Russia's invasion has already reminded the West
that revisionist aggressors cannot be appeased. And Ukraine's brave
resistance, equipped with the arsenal of the free world, is a further
reminder that this is a fight they intend to win.
The Senate should be proud of our work over the past several months
to get more lethal capabilities into Ukrainian hands. But at every step
of the way, the Biden administration has been a bit slow to green light
the game-changing weapons Ukraine's frontline defenders actually need.
I urged the President for more than a year to take specific actions
to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine--actually, before it
escalated. Last June, I urged him to deliver lethal capabilities to
Ukraine and other states in Vladimir Putin's crosshairs. Instead, the
administration slow-walked security assistance for months.
In December, I called for U.S. military reinforcements along NATO's
eastern flank, but the President waited until February to deploy
forces--too late to deter Putin's aggression. And even after Russia had
launched its unlawful invasion, the President has repeatedly deterred
himself from providing Ukraine the capabilities it needs.
With nearly every weapons system requested by Ukraine, the cycle in
Washington plays out like this: first, hesitation and concern; then,
excuses that Ukraine couldn't effectively use the proposed weapons or
objections that providing them would escalate the conflict; then--
then--grudging willingness to transfer the weapons; and finally, with
weapons in Ukrainian hands, self-congratulations from the Biden
administration that they are having a positive impact on the
battlefield. It is exhausting to watch this decision-making cycle
repeat itself from Kentucky. It must be exacerbating to watch it from
Kyiv.
The need for advanced, longer-range weapons to turn back Russia's
aggression is painfully obvious. Air defense capabilities to combat
Russia's continuing long-range strikes against civilian populations
across Ukraine, anti-ship weapons to combat the Russia Black Sea
blockade and the humanitarian food crisis it is causing worldwide, and
more capable, longer-range artillery to pound Russian positions in
occupied Ukraine from relative safety--this will help offset any
numerical advantage Russia has achieved by pumping so much more combat
power into its invasion force.
[[Page S3584]]
So here it is. Putin cannot be allowed to believe he can just wait
for the West to become complacent. It would do a moral disservice to
the brave Ukrainians fighting every single day for their country. But
this is not just about Ukraine's security. If Russia achieves its
objective in Ukraine, it will imperil our own security. And if we
waiver--if we waiver--on Ukraine, it would certainly send an
unmistakable signal of weakness to Beijing, which is watching the
conflict in Ukraine very closely.
For their part, so are our friends and allies in China's backyard. As
Japan's Prime Minister put it back in May: ``Ukraine might be East Asia
tomorrow.''
Russia's brutal war has cost the people of Ukraine their homes, their
safety, and their lives. But it has also reawakened the West to the
reality of long-term deterrence and competition.
It has led modern partners like Sweden and Finland to cast their lot
with the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. And it
has prompted current treaty allies to shake off years of neglect for
their own defense capabilities. All of this will result in greater
burden-sharing, interoperability, military capability, and collective
security for the NATO alliance.
The United States cannot afford to neglect this lesson ourselves. As
the leader of the free world and the No. 1 target of revisionist
adversaries like China and Russia, we have to take seriously our
obligation to maintain America's military superiority.
We need to act quickly and pass a defense authorization bill that
restores our readiness, grows our stockpiles of critical munitions,
reinforces our position along NATO's eastern flank, and lays the
foundations for a new era of credible deterrence in Asia by modernizing
and equipping our military for real competition with China.
I hope the Democratic leader will let the Senate take action on this
critical legislation without further delay.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.
Highland Park Shooting
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, we have a great number of holidays each
year in America. But is there a more perfect holiday than the Fourth of
July? We celebrate the birth of our Nation. We gather with our families
for picnics, a trip to the beach, backyard barbecues, take in a
baseball game, and go to a parade. It is just the ultimate American
celebration. We relax, pull out our American flags, gather our kids,
and thank God that we are born in this great Nation and can call it
home.
But this last Fourth of July became a different scene in one part of
my home State of Illinois. It was the first time in years that the
people of Highland Park were able to gather together publicly. So there
was a special celebration as they gathered at 10 in the morning for the
Fourth of July parade.
Oh, in addition to the usual suspects at these parades, political
candidates, there were a lot of groups just there in pure celebration:
high school bands, gatherings of veterans, all sorts of groups in a
wonderful, wonderful suburban town in the Chicagoland area of Highland
Park.
Yesterday, we held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee about
the day of the July Fourth parade in Highland Park. I wish we didn't
have to hold that hearing. I would rather it would have been some other
subject, some other place. But it was the 10th hearing during this
Congress--the 10th time--that we had held a hearing in the Judiciary
Committee on gun violence--gun violence, the No. 1 cause of death of
children in America. Let me repeat that: gun violence, the No. 1 cause
of death among children in America.
Yesterday, we focused on Highland Park and the Fourth of July parade,
and we focused on the obvious mass shooting incident that took place.
And we focused on military-style assault weapons.
The Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, IL, was the 309th mass
shooting in America this year. What is a mass shooting? When four
people are either injured or killed--309 times it had happened before
July the Fourth.
By the time of yesterday's hearing, 16 days after the Fourth of July,
that number of 309 had grown by 47 mass shootings since the Fourth of
July in America--16 days, 47 more mass shootings.
Where else on Earth is this taking place? Nowhere. Right here in the
United States of America is the only place on Earth where mass
shootings are happening on such a frequent basis.
In many of the deadliest shootings, the attacker used an assault
weapon, a combat weapon--a gun specifically designed to kill the
maximum number of people in just a few seconds; the same weapon we saw
in Uvalde, TX, where the kids in their classrooms were killed; the same
weapon we saw in the supermarket in Buffalo, NY, when early morning
shoppers on a Saturday were killed; and, sadly, the same weapon that
was used in Highland Park.
During the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a deranged gunman
perched himself on a rooftop, using a Smith & Wesson assault rifle,
killing seven people and wounding dozens more. He shot 83 rounds in
less than a minute. Let me say that again: 83 rounds in less than a
minute.
This is Aiden McCarthy. Aiden is 2 years old. His mom and dad, Kevin
and Irina McCarthy, took him to the Fourth of July parade in Highland
Park. I first heard about him just an hour or 2 after this terrible
incident. I called my friend Nancy Rotering, who is the mayor of
Highland Park, and asked her: Tell me, what can I do?
She said: I don't know. Things are happening so fast. We actually
found a 2-year-old toddler who was wandering on the street by himself.
We don't know who he belongs to. His picture is being circulated in the
community.
The conclusion was fairly obvious. Whoever brought him to that parade
was not able to look for him and care for him. And the story eventually
unfolded. Kevin and Irina McCarthy brought Aiden to the parade--his
first parade. And then when the shooting started, they shielded him
with their bodies. In a matter of minutes, Aiden lost both of his
parents. Fortunately, a grandparent was located, and Aiden is in safe
hands today.
But because of this assault weapon being fired on the crowd, he lost
his mom and dad. That is the reality when a parent has to shield a
child like this from a mass shooting.
Nancy Rotering, as I mentioned earlier, is mayor of Highland Park.
She testified yesterday about the parade. She told us that when the
shooting started, she thought the sound of bullets was actually a drum
cadence from the local marching band. That is how fast the bullets were
being fired.
When she realized there was an active shooter, she began evacuating
the crowd. She said the adults she confronted stared back at her. They
didn't understand what she was saying. But the children, the teenagers,
they understood. This was a shooter; this wasn't a drill.
Did you hear that? The children and the teens at the Highland Park
parade instinctively knew what was happening because they had been
trained in their schools to deal with mass shootings. That is how
common these mass shootings have become.
I grew up in a different era, Cold War era, where it was duck and
cover under your desk for fear of a nuclear attack--an attack by the
Soviet Union. These kids--our kids, our grandkids--are being schooled
not just in the ABCs, but they are being schooled in survival, so that
if a shooter shows up in a classroom, they know what to do to try to
survive.
Mayor Rotering told the Judiciary Committee:
Our children are expected to return to school in [about] a
month. . . . They are frightened to go back. . . . They are
frightened to play outside. Many never want to go to . . .
parade[s] again. For the rest of their lives, they will look
over their shoulders, ready for another active shooter,
thanks to the drills our society has normalized [in our
classrooms].
She continued:
Playing outside is normal. Back to school is normal. Fear
of a shooter is not normal; but now in Highland Park
[Illinois] and so many other American communities, it is [the
new normal].
It can't be said enough that mass shootings with assault weapons are
a unique American phenomenon. They are devastating--so devastating.
I want to show you another picture with Aiden McCarthy. This is
Cooper Roberts, 8 years old. Cooper and his twin brother Luke went to
the parade with their mom and dad. And in the
[[Page S3585]]
course of the shooting, he was shot, taken to the hospital immediately.
He has gone through at least seven or eight surgeries now, touch and go
for many days as to whether he would live. And, sadly, in addition to
the damage that was done to his body, his spinal cord was severed by
this same bullet.
You see, when you fire an assault weapon at a human body, it hits
that body at three times the ordinary velocity of any other firearm. It
is so powerful that it was originally designed by the U.S. Army to
achieve a single goal described to us in the committee yesterday. That
goal was to be able to shoot one of these AR-15s and pierce a metal
helmet worn by a soldier 500 yards away--five football fields--the AR-
15. It is not another firearm. It is a killing weapon. And,
unfortunately, Cooper Roberts was in the line of fire. We pray that he
recovers.
His mom and dad have kept us posted, all of us posted, as to his
progress. But if you think about the devastation that an AR-15 combat
weapon assault rifle can do to a human body, imagine what it did to
this poor little boy's body. That is the reality of the issue we are
discussing.
Many gun manufacturers, like Smith & Wesson, Mossberg, Bushmaster,
and Daniel Defense have launched ad campaigns marketing their assault
weapons like they are fashion accessories.
Let me show you a few of them. This is from Mossberg:
Engineered to the specs of freedom and independence, stand
and salute the tactical rifle. We are America's oldest
family-owned firearms manufacturer, building dependable,
hard-working rifles and shotguns since 1919. American
built, American strong. Arm yourself with a Mossberg.
That is the type of weapon that shot Cooper Roberts, that killed the
parents of Aiden McCarthy. How is it being marketed? A symbol of
independence and freedom.
Some of these other ads--want proof of your manhood? ``Consider your
Man Card reissued,'' says Bushmaster with their AR-15.
I want to make sure, as we said at the hearing yesterday, that these
weapons are properly characterized. I will tell you how I characterize
them. The manufacturers of these weapons should be ashamed of what is
happening across America. To suggest that this typifies the values of
this country is just plain wrong and offensive. It is time for us to
name and shame these companies. It is time to hold them accountable for
the devastation they made possible. How many AR-15s are there in
America? We don't really know. The best estimate is 20 million--20
million.
I want to dispel a common talking point we hear from the other side
of the aisle. We heard it yesterday. They claim our communities don't
need new gun safety laws; all they need are good guys with guns. I wish
it were that simple. It is not.
In one survey of 433 active shooter attacks, how many were stopped by
a good guy with a gun? Twenty-two out of four hundred and thirty-
three--about 5 percent. Half of those 22 were security guards and
trained law enforcement who were there present on the scene and off
duty.
The sad reality is, when the police come on the scene and someone is
holding a gun, they don't know if it is a perpetrator, a danger, or
somebody on their side. In many instances, they shoot the wrong person,
making a split-second decision in seeing a person holding a gun.
So this notion that we are going to come to the rescue of one another
and stop mass shootings is not a reality. Five percent of active
shooter attacks were stopped by a good guy with a gun--5 percent.
Imagine buying a car and being told there is only a 5-percent chance
that the airbag will go off if you need it in a crash? You wouldn't
take that car out of the dealership, and for good reason.
We heard testimony yesterday from RAND Corporation firearms expert
Dr. Kyleanne Hunter. She told us that assault weapons make mass
shootings significantly more lethal.
The evidence is clear. It is time for us to have a national
conversation about America and mass shooting.
Let me say that the manufacturers shouldn't get off the hook. They
aren't just selling you a product.
Let me show you one other thing that is particularly outrageous.
Sadly, this is in my home State of Illinois. It is a JR-15. It is
designed to look like the AR-15, the combat weapon assault rifle. It is
lighter, so it can be carried by a kid. Here are the symbols of this
JR-15. They are skulls, skulls of children. Each one of them has a
pacifier in his mouth. It isn't just on this poster, on this ad; it is
emblazoned on the gun itself. This is a kid's assault weapon. Think
about that for a second. In America, we have reached a point where that
is even thought of in light of the killing that has taken place.
The hearing yesterday showed an outpouring of people from Highland
Park in numbers I never expected. I believe there were 100 people there
who, on their own dime, came out to Washington to make sure all of us
in Congress knew what happened in Highland Park, how that village and
their lives were changed on the Fourth of July. What are we going to do
about it--shrug our shoulders and wait for tomorrow's mass shooting?
Sadly, we can expect one to come.
I listen to the defenses, but, frankly, I can't understand people
trying to defend the right to own an assault rifle in America.
One Senator argued: Well, it is just an inanimate object, you know.
Don't blame the object for the results.
I wonder if he feels the same way about a grenade launcher. Should
people have the right to own grenade launchers? I hope we can all agree
that is an incredible thought. Why doesn't this weapon fall into a
similar category, a combat, Army assault weapon that is being used by
individuals to kill so many innocent people in this country--kill them
at a concert in Las Vegas, at schools in Connecticut, at schools in
Texas, at Fourth of July parades in my home State.
Last month, we did come together--and I want to salute Senator
Murphy, who is on the floor--to pass a bill that was the most important
gun safety law we considered in three decades. I voted for it. It
didn't address this issue at all except in the background checks for
those under 21. And I am glad it did, but it didn't address the issue
of whether these guns should even be in America at this point, legal in
America. That, I think, is the critical threshold issue.
Incidentally, this shooter, who seemed to have a pretty ill-fated
life from the start, managed to buy high-capacity magazines so that he
could clip in quickly 30 rounds here, 30 rounds there, and fire off 83
times. Why in the world does anyone need a high-capacity clip magazine?
I don't understand it. It doesn't have any practical value for sport or
hunting.
We need to address the widespread, serious problem of civilian access
to military assault weapons, even for shooters as young as 18.
I thank the people from Highland Park for coming yesterday and all
the brave law enforcement and first responders whom I saw gather that
evening when I arrived at Highland Park. We owe them a lot. They are
doing an amazing job, and we should pay tribute to them and what they
did. But even they, being present and armed, could not stop this from
happening. They were up against a mighty weapon--a weapon we trust for
the military, we trust for the police; a weapon which has no place in
the hands of people like the shooter in Highland Park on the Fourth of
July.
Are we going to continue this American tradition of mass shootings?
Sadly, we will unless this body, this Senate, decides that it is worth
the fight, worth the political debate. After Highland Park, count me
in. I want to be on the record saying it is time to put an end to these
assault rifles, these weapons of war which have sadly taken so many
innocent lives like poor Aiden McCarthy's parents and five others who
died in Highland Park.
I hope for our children's sake that we don't run away from this
problem. The people in Highland Park had to run away from the Fourth of
July parade, and now they are counting on us to stand up and face it
squarely.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The Senator from Tennessee.
Biden Administration
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, America is facing a perfect storm of
inflation, unsustainable energy costs, and supply chain chaos. Russia
and Iran are circling the wagons.
Joe Biden is still finding new ways to put the American people last.
In fact,
[[Page S3586]]
when it comes to getting gas prices under control, he has chosen to
unleash a China-first policy rather than unleashing the power of
American energy.
I have spent the past 18 months laying out in great detail how Joe
Biden and the Democrats have damaged our credibility and enriched our
adversaries. They undermined our economic recovery. They abandoned the
border. They destroyed American energy independence. The list goes on
and on, unfortunately. It appears that everything they have done makes
life worse for ``we the people.''
Unfortunately, it is emboldening the axis of evil--Russia, China,
Iran, North Korea. Under normal circumstances, Vladimir Putin's trip to
Iran this week would be a cause for concern, but with the Biden
administration in charge, it appears it could be just the tip of the
iceberg because although Russia and Iran are competitors, especially in
the energy sector, they are absolutely united in their hatred of the
United States and in their desire to undermine Western interests.
When they look at the United States, they see a country whose
President got a head start undermining those interests on day 1 of his
administration, and you better believe they are ready to take advantage
of this. They are ready for it. This week, look at what they have done.
You had Gazprom, which is the Russian energy giant, and the National
Iranian Oil Company come together and announce a $40 billion agreement
to work together on oil and gas development and pipeline construction.
They are reading the writing on the wall, and what they see is
hesitation from the U.S. President to move us back to energy
independence, where we were on day 1 of his administration, so they are
making plans as to how they will work together and dominate the energy
sector.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden has also sold about a million barrels of oil
from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the Chinese Communist Party.
When I have spoken with Tennesseans about this, they are furious. They
cannot understand why he would make a choice to do this. The left has
done their best to provide cover for the President, claiming that a
million barrels is really nothing to worry about, but you know it is
something to worry about. Our SPR has about 750 million barrels in it.
We are drawing it down at about a million barrels a day. Plus, the
President is now selling to our adversaries--selling it.
We did a little bit of research into what China can get out of a
barrel of oil, and here is what we found: That gives you 20 gallons of
gasoline; 12\1/2\ gallons of distillate, which is what we use for
diesel fuel; and about 3\1/2\ gallons of jet fuel. To Tennesseans, this
makes a big difference.
I really agree with my fellow Tennesseans about this. When they look
at this picture and they think about the President's big sale to Hunter
Biden's friends in Beijing, they don't see a gallon of gas here and
there. What they see is 20 million full tanks of gas. They see diesel
fuel that our farmers need. Right now, with the price of diesel
doubling, we have farmers in Tennessee who cannot get crops planted.
They chose not to plant crops because of the cost of diesel,
fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides. They see sabotage of their hopes and
their dreams and their plans--their plans--for their family, for their
business, for their farm.
As I have been out and about around the State and talked to
Tennesseans, they have a message for this President, this
administration, my Democratic colleagues. This is more than just a
political disagreement. In their minds, and I agree, this is a national
security risk--a national security risk.
We are making ourselves vulnerable. Giving any aid or advantage to
our adversaries is wrong, and this has got to end. Joe Biden and the
Democrats must abandon this China-first energy policy and return to an
America-first policy.
Restart the Keystone Pipeline. Approve more energy infrastructure.
Hold more lease sales. Approve drilling permits that are waiting for
approval.
Let's get the regulators out of the way. Stall some of these 42
regulations that the President has put on the oil and energy sector
this year. Let's do this. Let's advantage ourselves with American
energy before it is too late.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following
Senators be permitted to speak prior to the scheduled vote. Senator
Murphy for up to 15 minutes; Senator Cornyn for up to 15 minutes; and
Senator Coons for up to 3 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Electoral Reform
Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about a
piece of legislation that was introduced yesterday by 16 bipartisan
Senators: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition
Improvement Act.
I am proud of the effort between Republicans and Democrats to put
aside our differences on other issues and to be able to put before this
body a proposal that will assure that the votes that are cast all
across this country for President in 2024 result in the winner of that
election sitting in the Oval Office.
And I come to the floor today to underscore for my colleagues why
this piece of legislation is so vitally necessary.
All across the country, we are seeing an epidemic of candidates being
nominated for Governor, for secretary of state, for Congress, who don't
believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
They instead believe these wild conspiracy theories about voting
machines that magically switched votes from one candidate to another,
Sharpies that voted for Joe Biden illegally. All of it has been
debunked, but the conspiracy theories and the support for this notion
that Donald Trump actually won the election, according to the rules of
the electoral college in 2020, continue to spread.
The Republican nominee for Governor in Pennsylvania, who appoints the
State's chief election official, was right here at the Capitol, yards
away from this Chamber on January 6, as individuals were storming the
building trying to do harm to us. He took part in high-level meetings
after the 2020 election, intended to overturn Biden's win in
Pennsylvania.
He is perhaps mere months away from being the next Governor and chief
elections officer of that State. Across the country, former President
Trump is organizing what he calls an America First Secretary of State
Coalition, and he is pretty unapologetic about what the design is. It
is to install election officers all across the country whose chief
loyalty is to Donald Trump, not the vote.
His endorsed candidate in Arizona, for instance, called for Biden's
win in Arizona to be thrown out and for the Republican State
legislature to appoint its own electors instead.
In Nevada, the endorsed Republican candidate for secretary of state,
another Trump loyalist, says if he was in office in 2020, he would not
have certified Joe Biden's win, leading to an immediate constitutional
crisis.
What is happening all across the country right now is a complete,
total rejection of democracy by Trump supporters and his endorsed
candidates.
Now, they aren't representative of the entire Republican Party, but,
unfortunately, they are winning primaries all across the country, and
they are winning elections all across the country.
And these Trump loyalists, they are not interested in the winner of
an election becoming President if that winner isn't Donald Trump. They
effectively want Donald Trump installed as a monarch, and they are
willing to just throw out democracy if that is what is necessary to
keep their leader in power.
And as I mentioned, this isn't some fringe phenomenon any longer. I
think we have a lot of Republicans in the Senate and the House who see
this danger coming and want to take steps to prevent it. That is why we
are introducing this legislation, but there are over 100 winners of
Republican primaries for Congress and statewide office this year who
believe--who have stated this belief publicly that the 2020 election
was stolen and that Donald Trump should still be President.
There is just a very well-developed and well-organized movement,
where Trump supporters are learning from his inability to overturn the
election in 2020, and they are galvanizing themselves to leave nothing
to chance in 2024.
[[Page S3587]]
The operation to install Trump in the White House in 2025, if he
runs, will be more sophisticated and better organized than 2020. The
threat that 2024 will be the last year of American democracy is real.
I know that sounds like hyperbole, but we came really close to losing
our democracy in 2020. And if a President is installed in the White
House who did not actually win the election, then I don't know how you
claim that this experiment for 250 years is still ongoing.
So we need to act, as a body, across the aisle. Those of us who
believe that our loyalty to country is more important than our loyalty
to party need to act to make it as hard as possible for a group of
traitors to install as President the loser of the 2024 Presidential
election.
And so toward that end, we have introduced a piece of legislation
that will seek to reform the way in which electors are sent to Congress
and the way in which we count those electors to put up as many barriers
as we can to these efforts to install the loser of the 2024 election as
President of the United States.
So I am grateful to Senator Collins and Senator Manchin for leading
this process. I am grateful to be a part of it, along with Senators
Portman, Sinema, Romney, Shaheen, Murkowski, Warner, Tillis, Capito,
Cardin, Young, Coons, Sasse, and Graham.
And so let me tell you, in just a few minutes, what the most
important elements--let me just tell you about some of the key elements
of the Electoral Count Reform Act. It engages to make the selection and
counting of fraudulent electors harder by both addressing efforts by
Congress to overturn valid State results but also to make it harder for
States to submit to Congress invalid State results.
Now, on January 6 of last year, we saw a handful of our colleagues
attempt to throw out the valid elector slates from States like
Pennsylvania and Arizona. And, luckily, in the end, those efforts only
got a handful of votes here in the Senate, but the majority of
Republicans voted to throw out those slates in the House of
Representatives, which just tells you how mainstream these views have
become.
And so, in two important ways, we make that attempt by Congress to
throw out valid results from a State a little bit, but substantially,
harder. Under our current law, it only takes one single Senator in
order to throw this entire Senate into a debate over whether or not we
should count or throw out certain electors.
In the end, there were, I think, 12 Republican Senators who suggested
we should throw out ballots, but really all that was needed was 1. So
what we do is we increase that threshold from 1 Senator to 20 percent
of Senators, from 1 House Member to 20 percent of House Members to
begin that debate. Ultimately, you still need a majority of the House
and the Senate to throw out an elector slate, but you can't even begin
that debate now without having 20 percent of each body. That is a
substantial and important change.
Second, we clarify the role of the Vice President. Now, some would
argue that this isn't necessary; that the Vice President's role in this
process is ceremonial, but that is not what Donald Trump thought.
Donald Trump and his cadre of fringe lawyers believed, by reading a
statute in a particular way, that Mike Pence had the ability by himself
to refuse to count certain slates of electors.
Now, that is not how the 1887 Act reads, but just to be absolutely
clear, our reform act clarifies the law to make 100 percent clear that
the Vice President's role is just ceremonial.
And then, as I said, we also take steps to make it harder for States
to send fraudulent results to Congress because that is the primary
threat in 2024. I still think that there are the votes in the Senate,
no matter what the elections look like in 2024, for the Senate to make
sure that we don't throw out valid results that are sent to the
Congress.
The bigger threat is that one candidate wins in a State like Arizona
or--depending on what happens in the gubernatorial election in
Pennsylvania--Pennsylvania and instead that State decides to send
electors for the losing candidate to Congress, making some vague, broad
claims of fraud that they can't substantiate.
So we make that exercise in fraud less likely through a number of
means. First, there is a really ambiguous provision in the 1887 law
which President Trump argued in the courts allowed for State
legislatures to appoint their own electors if they judged that the
election was incomplete. Now, what that was initially intended to mean
was if an election didn't happen because of a natural disaster, but
Trump's lawyers thought that that meant that these claims of fraud
could satisfy that incomplete criteria.
Well, we removed that ambiguity in this underlying piece of
legislation. No longer will anybody be able to claim that State
legislatures can just step in after the fact and appoint different
electors.
Second, we have a clear prohibition that State legislatures can't
change the rules of how electors are chosen after the election itself.
Now, it is up to State legislatures as to how they appoint electors.
Every State right now appoints them based upon who won the popular
vote in their State, but the Constitution does give that power to the
State legislature. It does not give them the power to change that
process after the voters have cast their vote. We make that clear in
this piece of legislation.
And then, most importantly, we clarify the process by which campaigns
and candidates can contest a fraudulent certification or a fraudulent
appointment of electors.
As we saw in the 2000 election, there is overlapping contesting
jurisdictions between States and the Federal court system. It often
takes very--a very long time for those processes to play out and
unwind. We set up in this bill a new expedited process of review by a
three-judge panel. We limit the cases that can be brought to that panel
by the campaigns themselves, just to make sure we aren't incentivizing
spurious litigation.
But that new process allows the candidates and the campaigns, if they
believe that the laws of the State have not been upheld in allowing the
majority winner of that State to dictate what electors get sent to
Washington, to make that claim before a three-judge panel in an
expedited fashion, to have that case go up to the Supreme Court in an
expedited manner as well.
Clarifying the way in which we solve for these contests, if they
arise over a valid slate of electors and an invalid slate of electors
is an important reform in this bill.
Listen, what we have built over the last 250 years in the United
States of America, it really is a miracle, and we should never forget
how much of an anomaly American democracy is when you look at the broad
scope of the governments under which people have lived.
This idea that citizens, not dictators or Kings or plutocrats, get to
decide who leads a nation--250 years later, it is still a revolutionary
idea.
And I remind my constituents all the time that democracy is really
unnatural, right? There are not a lot of other things that are
important to us in our lives that we run through democratic vote. Our
workplaces are really important places, but we don't run our workplace
through democratic vote. The boss--the CEO--makes the decisions there.
We love our sports teams, right? We follow them. We live and die for
them. But the decisions on those teams--they are not made by democratic
vote. There is a coach, a general manager who makes the decisions. I
love my kids, but they don't get an equal vote in the decisions of my
household with my wife and me. Lots of things that are important to us
in our lives don't run by democratic vote. We are very comfortable, in
fact, with hierarchal systems, with one person or a handful of people
making decisions for us, but we have reserved this idea of democracy
for the decisions that are made that govern our community, our town,
our State, or our Nation.
We need to remember that over the course of world history, almost no
one has lived in a democratic civilization. Why? Because it is natural
for human beings to want their chosen leader to be in charge, their
preferred leader to be in charge, no matter what everybody else in the
community believes. It is also natural for leaders, once they have
tasted power, to want to cling to that power and refuse to give it up,
no matter the wishes of their citizenry.
[[Page S3588]]
So we need to be constantly vigilant to protect this experiment. In
the grand sweep of world history, that is what it is--a revolutionary
experiment. We need to recognize the moments when the threats to that
experiment are new and novel and more grave than normal and be nimble
enough to respond.
So I would argue that this is one of those moments, and I am so
grateful to the group of bipartisan Senators who have worked so hard to
introduce this legislation.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
H.R. 4346
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, the business before the Senate is a
critical undertaking to shore up our vulnerability to imported
microcircuits, otherwise known as semiconductors. You might wonder why
this is so important if you haven't been following the debate over the
last couple of years.
While this legislation has taken many names, it began as the CHIPS
for America Act in June of 2020, which established a new program to
incentivize manufacturers of these tiny microcircuits, known as
semiconductors, to set up shop here in the United States.
We have tried to fund the program at different times through the
Endless Frontier Act; the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act,
sometimes called USICA; the America COMPETES Act; the Make It in
America Act. But no matter what the title is or whatever you call it,
the purpose is to eliminate this unacceptable risk that somehow--due to
pandemic, due to military conflict, due to natural disaster--our access
to the most advanced semiconductors on the planet would be cut off,
with devastating consequences to the U.S. economy and our national
security.
I know some people wonder, Why should the Federal taxpayer provide
financial incentives to semiconductor manufacturing? And that is a
perfectly good question. The reason is, we are in a competition with
countries all around the world that are providing incentives to build
these necessary and essential facilities in their country, and if we
don't participate in this competition, we will end up maintaining our
dependency entirely on semiconductors imported into the United States.
We saw big investments being made in other countries--China, the EU,
Germany, France. A number of different countries want this
manufacturing capability in their country because they understand its
importance to their economy and security.
Now, you might wonder, Why is it necessary? Well, there is a reason--
an economic reason--why these semiconductor manufacturers are almost
all based in Asia. The overwhelming majority are made in Taiwan, and
that is because it costs 30 percent less to build these facilities in
Asia than it does here in the United States.
But COVID-19 exposed a lot of vulnerabilities of supply chains,
whether it is PPE--personal protective equipment--or semiconductors,
and this idea that just because somebody could build something cheaper
somewhere else, that checked all the boxes. It does not check all the
boxes. And there are some things we must have access to, and one is a
secure source of these microcircuits that run everything from your cell
phone to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. We know that semiconductors
will get more and more important as the world competes to come up with
smaller and more powerful semiconductor chips to operate everything
from computers to our weapons systems.
When the pandemic hit, the supply chain vulnerability was
demonstrated by empty car lots, backordered electronics, higher prices,
contributing to inflation. Consumers who never needed to know what a
semiconductor was found themselves impacted by this disruption.
My State is home to companies across a full range of industries that
have been impacted, from consumer electronics to defense companies.
Last spring, an executive from Toyota told me that when he first
started with the company, he could count the number of chips in a given
vehicle on two hands. That certainly is not the case now, with almost
autonomous vehicles and certainly with all the sensors that have made
driving a lot safer and a lot more convenient added to new cars. Think
about the high-tech features in our cars--navigation systems,
Bluetooth, automatic braking, backup cameras, and parking sensors. That
is on top of standard functions like power steering, air-conditioning,
and window wipers. Today, some cars use as many as 1,000 semiconductor
chips.
So the pandemic of COVID-19 demonstrated our vulnerability to our
supply chains that made getting so many semiconductors impossible.
This wasn't just a problem for automakers; virtually every industry
was impacted. In many ways, the global chip shortage served as a wake-
up call--certainly to me and I believe other Members of Congress and
the Senate who voted consistently to eliminate this vulnerability in
our supply chains. It forced us to recognize the vulnerability of that
supply chain and then to do something about it, which we are in the
process of doing.
As bad as the chip-related shortages have been in the last 2 years,
they pale in comparison to what could be coming if we don't act.
As I said, the vast majority of the world's chips are made in Asia,
with the bulk coming from Taiwan. Sixty-three percent of the advanced
semiconductors in the world are made in Taiwan. Even more concerning is
that 92 percent of the world's most advanced semiconductors come from
that country. So 62 percent--63 percent of semiconductors come from
Taiwan, but 92 percent of the most advanced, the most powerful, the
smallest semiconductors come from that same place. None, zero, zip,
nada are made in America. None.
Taiwanese semiconductor firms make the chips used in our military's
Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, artificial intelligence, and other
military-grade devices.
Now, if you have been paying attention to what President Xi and the
People's Republic of China have been saying about Taiwan, they are
saying they are going to unify the PRC with Taiwan either peacefully or
by military action.
Again, I believe the risk of pandemic, natural disaster, or military
intervention makes this risk simply unacceptable.
Last fall, I led a congressional delegation to visit Indochina, the
INDOPACOM area of operations, to learn more about the threat of Chinese
aggression when it comes to Taiwan. One of the leaders we met with was
the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, located in Hawaii, who
described the current power dynamic rather succinctly. He said it is
not a question of if China invades Taiwan but when.
We even have a rough idea of when that could happen. President Xi has
made no secret of his desire to unify Taiwan with the mainland, saying
he wants to be ready to do that by 2027, just 5 years from now. But, as
we have learned from Putin's invasion of Ukraine, when one person makes
a decision, you can't depend on any particular timeline because it
could happen in the blink of an eye.
It is tough to overestimate the impact this lack of access to these
advanced semiconductors would have on the United States and our allies.
To be sure, our cars, televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines
would be impacted, but that is only the beginning. Those would be mere
inconveniences. How would we manufacture Javelin missiles that are used
in Ukraine? Well, we couldn't because they all run on semiconductors.
There is the Stinger that is being used so effectively by the
Ukrainians to go after Russian tanks invading Ukraine. The Joint Strike
Fighter, the F-35, our most advanced, fifth-generation, stealth
aircraft, is chock-full of semiconductors that would be unavailable if
our access was cut off for some reason.
Then just think about our critical infrastructure. Think about cell
towers. Think about the energy grid. Where would we get the chips that
are needed for modern farming equipment? Just as cars have become more
and more automated, so have tractors and other farming equipment.
What would we do for the chips that we need to treat water to make
sure it is clean and easily available?
So these aren't problems just for consumers; it is a major national
security vulnerability.
Back in 1980, President Jimmy Carter gave his State of the Union
Address in
[[Page S3589]]
which he spoke about the instability of the Persian Gulf and Soviet
threats to the movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. That was
back in the days when we depended almost entirely on imported oil into
the United States. But Jimmy Carter said in 1980 that any attempt to
gain control of the Strait of Hormuz and to block access to that
essential energy source, he said, would be ``an assault on the vital
interests of the United States of America.'' That would be a
declaration of war.
I think the same argument applies to semiconductors today. In fact,
some people have called semiconductors the new oil because it is so
essential to our way of life, to our economy, and our security.
Just as the Soviets could have blocked the Strait of Hormuz and
choked off the global oil supply back in 1980, the People's Republic of
China could seize Taiwan's supply of chips and starve the rest of the
world. Will they go into the ventilators and the other lifesaving
medical equipment or provide homes with clean drinking water? These are
important questions that many of us have been asking and looking to try
to find ways to mitigate, if not to eliminate, our dependency on
imported semiconductors.
So funding this program in this bill currently before the Senate will
shore up domestic chip manufacturing to make sure that we meet the
needs of our most critical industries. It would deliver economic
benefits to our communities through new investments and jobs. It will
strengthen our national security by providing chips that can make their
way into markets around the world. It will ensure that we have a
reliable supply of chips so we can outinnovate and outcompete any and
every adversary, and that is a point worth stressing.
We know we are in competition with the People's Republic of China,
but the way we will beat them is to outcompete them. The only way we
will do that is with access to the most advanced electronics, including
semiconductors, that are made anywhere on the planet, and we need to
make them here in America so there can be trusted supply chains and
readily available.
So I appreciate all of our colleagues who supported this legislation
for the long and winding journey that has brought us here today, and I
hope this bill will pass the Senate and the House next week and finally
make its way to the President's desk.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Nomination of Reuben E. Brigety II
Mr. COONS. Mr. President, you and I have had the blessing of
traveling to South Africa together, so I know you know, as I do, that
it is a critical nation, not just on its own terms as a country of 70
million people of a multilingual, multifaith, multiethnic democracy
working to achieve the incredible promise enshrined in its
Constitution, working to achieve the vision of a liberation struggle,
but it is also a country that is critical to regional security and for
the path of the globe and to the security and stability of democracy in
this century. This is why I stand to speak briefly on behalf of my
friend, Reuben Brigety, the nominee to be our next Ambassador to South
Africa, whose confirmation we will take up in just a few moments.
Reuben is someone I admire deeply. He attended the Naval Academy,
served in the U.S. Navy, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State both
for African Affairs and for Population, Refugees, and Migration.
I met him as Ambassador to the African Union, knew him well as dean
of the Elliott School at GW. He took on the challenge of service as the
president of the University of the South, better known as Sewanee; and
now our President has nominated him to represent us in South Africa.
As we have seen in recent votes and actions at the United Nations and
in discussions and debates around the world, African countries--in this
moment, during this war in Ukraine, in the face of Russia's
aggression--are turning away from us. They are not believing the
reality that it is Russian aggression that is causing food scarcity and
fertilizer prices to spike, and they are more than not taking Russia's
side on this.
We cannot take these relationships for granted. The United States,
for decades, has been a close development and public health partner of
South Africa. We have to send our best, and Ambassador Brigety is the
right person at the right time to advance the critical relationship
goals that we have between the United States and South Africa.
Tribute to Alexandra Davis
Mr. President, one of the blessings of serving here in the Senate is
getting to know natives of New Jersey, like yourself and like my
foreign policy adviser, Allie Davis.
I will do my best to get through these next few minutes of remarks
without being unduly emotional, but she deserves a catch in the throat
and a tear in the eye because Allie is someone who from the moment she
came to join my team 6 years ago has been a remarkable person--a person
of great spirit and character, someone who also spent time in South
Africa as a young person.
After graduating from the University of Delaware, a tour as a
Fulbright in South Africa prepared her to join my team as a foreign
policy fellow.
As she was just confessing to me in my office a few moments ago, she
knew far less about governance and politics than I imagined. She
carries herself with remarkable grace and confidence. She steadily has
risen to be a legislative aide, a legislative assistant, and now my
foreign policy adviser.
I don't have the time--but I wish I did--to detail all the pieces of
significant and important legislation she has helped shepherd through
to success. She has critically supported my leadership on the State and
Foreign Operations Appropriations team. She has been critical as we
have worked to address this moment of global hunger. She has helped get
the Global Fragility Act from concept to enactment. She has helped make
the Development Finance Corporation a powerful tool for development.
She helped shape and craft the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership
for Peace Act, and she nearly single-handedly, at a time when I was
confident this could not be done, got the Sudan Claims Resolution Act
through this Congress and fundamentally changed the arc of the search
for democracy in Sudan.
We had the chance to travel together on a Presidential mission to
Ethiopia, during which she had truly memorable encounters with its head
of state and an opportunity to see and participate and help drive
diplomacy firsthand. We traveled together to so many other countries:
from the UAE to France to Georgia to Italy and, perhaps most memorably,
to Sudan, where I was honored to receive one of their leading national
awards, which really was an award in recognition of her work on behalf
of the Sudanese people.
She goes to serve the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose chairman
I accosted last night at an event, and said: You are causing great harm
to me, and I resent deeply the fact that you are causing this most
talented and skilled and trusted member to leave the Senate and go to
the House.
But she joins as a member of their professional staff, a great team.
And I know that we will continue to work hard and to work closely
together in the years and decades ahead. A great friend, a great
colleague, and someone to whom I wish great success in the many years
ahead.
With that, I urge my colleagues to vote in support of the nomination
of Reuben Brigety to be Ambassador, and I offer my greatest thanks to
Allie Davis for her talented and skillful service on behalf of the
people of Delaware.
I yield the floor.
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