[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 14 (Monday, January 25, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S116-S117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Nomination of Janet Louise Yellen
Madam President, a few days after our first woman Vice President was
sworn in, we are about to confirm the first woman to step into one of
the leading roles in our economy. Janet Yellen made history when she
served as Chair of the Federal Reserve. She is about to make history
again as Secretary of the Treasury.
She will be the first person ever to have held all three of the top
positions in our economy--Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers,
Chair of the Federal Reserve, and Secretary of the Treasury--and now
more than ever, we need her leadership, her vision, and her
appreciation for what makes this country work.
As Fed Chair and as a labor economist, Janet Yellen made it clear
that she understands what drives our economy. It is not the stock
market. It is not Wall Street. It is people. It is workers. Janet
Yellen knows our economy is built by Americans who know the dignity of
a hard day's work, whether you punch a clock or swipe a badge or work
for tips or care for children or take care of your parents.
I remember in 2015 Chair Yellen came to Cleveland and toured the
Alcoa plant not far from my house. She showed the kind of leadership we
need, the kind of leaders President Biden is putting into the top jobs
managing our economy--people who will get out of Washington, who will
visit every sort of community in the heart of the country, and people
who act on what they learn from workers in Chillicothe, in Springfield,
in Youngstown and Moline, IL, where the next Presiding Officer comes
from.
There is a lot more to our economy than a quarterly earnings report.
Janet Yellen understands that. She will step into this job at a time
when the contrast between the financial health of corporations and
workers couldn't be starker.
We are in the midst of a public health crisis and an economic crisis.
You wouldn't know it if you looked only at the stock market or
corporate profits. But under President Biden, under Janet Yellen, and
under new leadership in the Senate, we are done measuring--we are just
done measuring the economy that way. We are going to think about the
economy the way workers and their families do--in terms of paychecks,
whether they can make rent or pay the mortgage this month or afford
childcare or pay for their prescription drugs. By those measures,
people are hurting.
We hear a lot about what some people call the K-shaped recovery--that
is one way of saying that the rich are getting richer while the middle
class and low-income families continue to struggle. It was a problem
before this virus, as you know. The pandemic has only made it worse,
and it is layered on top of systemic racism and inequalities that have
been allowed to fester for too long.
We have a tax code that favors the wealthy, that gives corporations a
tax break when they move manufacturing jobs out of East St. Louis or
out of East Cleveland overseas. Americans' hard-earned savings are at
risk from the financial instability of climate change. China is
aggressive, confident, and continues to threaten American jobs. The
Internal Revenue Service wastes time and taxpayer money auditing
working families, often Black and Brown families, instead of going
after wealthy tax cheats. Wall Street rewards corporations that lay off
employees and cut their pay and treat their workers as expendable.
Risky behavior on Wall Street--like it did in the last crisis--can
devastate communities in Ohio and around the country.
I have confidence that Janet Yellen understands these vast challenges
and that she will get to work immediately to take them on and to create
a better, more prosperous, more stable economy, centered on the dignity
of work. She knows we can build new, cleaner infrastructure that puts
people to work at good-paying union jobs. We can invest in the country,
including the small towns and industrial cities of Southeast Ohio and
Southern Illinois and the Black and Brown communities in our cities
that too often get left behind. We can make it easier for people to
afford housing and transportation and childcare. We can create a tax
code that rewards work instead of wealth, starting with a dramatic
expansion of the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. We
can give people more power over their lives and their own money with
options like monthly distribution of the child tax credit and no-fee
bank accounts. That is the vision Janet Yellen and Joe Biden and Senate
Democrats are committed to--one where the middle class is growing and
everyone has the opportunity to join it.
Janet Yellen has the experience, the talent, and the commitment to
service to deliver results. She is the right person for these
tumultuous times. She
[[Page S117]]
will rise to meet this moment to help our country build back better. I
ask my colleagues to support Janet Yellen for Secretary of the
Treasury.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
59th Inauguration
Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, last week, the country and the world
watched as our Nation carried out one of its most sacred traditions--
the peaceful transfer of power, which is the hallmark of American
democracy, that has defined our country since its earliest days.
Between the pandemic and heightened security concerns, this
inauguration looked far different than those of former Presidents, but
the will of the people was carried out just as it has been following
every Presidential election throughout our Nation's history.
President Biden, in his inaugural address, stressed the importance of
unifying our country. I agree, and I hope that the President and our
Democratic colleagues in Congress lead by example.