[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1632-S1635]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Nomination of Martin Joseph Walsh

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to support the 
nomination of Mayor Marty Walsh to serve as Secretary of Labor.
  Across the country, working families are really desperate for help. 
Even before this pandemic, the deck was stacked against workers and 
especially against women, workers of color, and workers with 
disabilities, thanks to an unlivable Federal minimum wage and 
subminimum wage for tipped workers and workers with disabilities that 
do leave millions of workers struggling to make ends meet; a pay gap 
that makes getting by even harder for women, in particular, women of 
color; a lack of a national paid family, sick, and medical leave policy 
and quality, affordable childcare for working families; a failure to 
protect workers from pandemics and workplace accidents and harassment 
and discrimination and more; and a wave of job loss and economic 
uncertainty that is upending the lives of workers and retirees across 
our country.
  This pandemic has laid bare the painful fact that while our economy 
might work for the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals, it 
isn't working for working families. And all of these challenges--unsafe 
workplaces, lost jobs, low wages--are even worse for people of color 
due to longstanding inequities that are rooted in systemic racism and 
are widening due to this pandemic.
  Our country cannot fully recover from this crisis unless we begin to 
change that by rebuilding a stronger, fairer economy. And that starts 
by making sure we have a Secretary of Labor who will actually champion 
workers and working families.
  As a union leader, a State representative, and as a mayor, Mayor 
Marty Walsh has done just that. He has a clear track record as a 
collaborative leader who worked across coalitions with labor groups and 
the business community to build up Boston's middle class. Under his 
leadership, 135,000 new jobs have been created in Boston.

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  He fought for a $15 minimum wage and paid leave policies to help 
ensure women, workers of color, and workers with disabilities can 
succeed in the workforce and get the pay they deserve.
  During this pandemic, Mayor Walsh has continued to show a deep 
commitment to his frontline workers who have kept this country running 
by providing funding for emergency childcare and other resources his 
essential workers needed to weather the pandemic.
  And he would bring an important perspective as the first union leader 
to head the Department in decades.
  His unwavering commitment to put workers first was plain to see 
during our confirmation hearing. In his testimony Mayor Walsh spoke 
powerfully about the importance of protecting frontline workers who do 
so much to keep our communities and our country running and rooting out 
the inequities that have done so much damage to communities of color. 
Mayor Walsh made clear he will work with Congress to help ensure every 
worker has a fair, livable wage; a safe workplace; paid family, sick, 
and medical leave; access to quality, affordable childcare; a secure 
retirement; and the right to join a union and collectively organize.
  I was impressed by his answers during our hearing, and I wasn't the 
only one. Mayor Walsh's nomination passed out of our HELP Committee 
with strong bipartisan support in an 18-to-4 vote, and I hope he will 
now be confirmed with similar, overwhelming, bipartisan support because 
even before this pandemic and even before President Trump's 4-year 
crusade against workers, we had a long road ahead to build a truly 
fair, inclusive economy that works for working families. But, now, not 
only is the road longer, the clock is ticking.
  Workers who are the backbone of our economy have been pushed to the 
brink. They need us to confirm Mayor Marty Walsh so we have a Secretary 
of Labor who will take quick action to address the urgent challenges we 
face and be a valuable partner in helping our economy come back 
stronger and fairer for all workers.
  While we made important progress in the American Rescue Plan to 
extend unemployment benefits and provide much needed tax relief for 
those benefits, provide direct payments for families, and protect the 
pensions millions of workers and retirees depend on and while President 
Biden is taking important steps to reverse Trump-era rules that 
undermined workers' rights, this road to recovery is long, and there 
are still many steps we need to take, including raising the Federal 
minimum wage to one fair wage of $15 an hour, passing the PRO Act into 
law to strengthen workers' right to join a union, and passing the BE 
HEARD in the Workplace Act to protect people from harassment, assault, 
and discrimination.
  We have a lot to do and no time to waste. I urge all of my colleagues 
to prove to families back home they understand we need a Secretary of 
Labor we can trust to stand up for workers and not huge corporations. I 
urge my colleagues to join me in voting to confirm Mayor Walsh.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 842

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, in a moment, I am going to propound a 
unanimous consent request, but before I do so, I want to make some 
brief remarks.
  As my colleagues know and as several fact checkers have confirmed 
over the past week, the Democrats' partisan reconciliation bill that 
became law last week will provide many illegal aliens with $1,400 
rebate checks paid for by the American taxpayer. By several estimates, 
millions of illegal immigrants will get these rebates.
  I offered an amendment 2 weeks ago to the Democrats' bill to close 
this loophole. During debate on my amendment, one Democratic Senator 
spoke against my amendment, saying that no illegal aliens have Social 
Security numbers, and therefore the premise of my amendment and my 
speech was, he said, ``not true.'' In fact, here are the Senator's full 
remarks from the floor 2 weeks ago:

       Mr. President, the statement from the Senator from Texas is 
     just plain false. Let me be clear. Undocumented immigrants do 
     not have Social Security numbers, and they do not qualify for 
     stimulus relief checks, period.
       And just in case you didn't notice, they didn't qualify in 
     December when 92 of us voted for that measure, and they don't 
     qualify under the American Rescue Plan. Nothing has changed.
       And for you to stand up there and say the opposite is just 
     to rile people up over something that is not true.
       It is not true, and we know what is going on [here]. They 
     want to be able to give speeches and say the checks go to 
     undocumented people. In the circumstance where there is a 
     parent receiving--

  At that point, the Senator's time expired.
  Following that debate, the Senator in question took to Twitter to 
double down. So it was not, after an all-night of no sleep, a moment of 
erroneous comment, but, rather, on Twitter that same Senator tweeted:

       Sen. Cruz's claim is only meant to rile people up over 
     something that's not true. You cannot receive a stimulus 
     check without a Social Security #. That's a fact. Instead of 
     discriminating against mixed-status families, let's 
     prioritize getting more relief to those families.

  A second tweet from the same Senator:

       We simply cannot stand by and allow outright falsehoods to 
     be propagated on the Senate floor. It's time for GOP Senators 
     like Ted Cruz to stop trying to rile people up over 
     misinformation.

  Well, as John Adams famously said, facts are stubborn things, and it 
turns out the comments from the Democratic Senator were categorically 
false and my comments that this bill would send checks to millions of 
illegal aliens were categorically true.
  Numerous fact checkers began looking at the claims. Newsweek 
initially fact-checked it, and, as is the wont with a fair number of 
media fact checkers, took the word of the Democrats for it, concluded 
my statement was mostly false.
  Following that, my staff got on the phone with Newsweek and presented 
them with incontrovertible facts--incontrovertible facts that of the 
roughly 12 million estimated illegal aliens who are here, roughly 60 
percent of them are visa overstays, people who came legally and then 
overstayed their visa, and a significant percentage of visa overstays 
have Social Security numbers and will receive checks.
  Indeed, that is why my amendment was scored at saving the Federal 
Government over $600 million, because of the checks that would not go 
to illegal immigrants if my amendment had been passed.
  When Newsweek heard these facts, they did something really quite 
impressive, admirable. They admitted they were wrong. They revised 
their fact check, and they changed their fact check from mostly false 
to true. True, period. No caveats. True. I want to commend Newsweek for 
demonstrating journalistic integrity. Correcting that fact-check, I am 
sure, was not an easy decision for them to make, but it was the right 
decision for them to make.
  So, Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that we enter this 
fact-check into the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                     [From Newsweek, Mar. 8, 2021]

Fact Check: Will Millions of Illegal Immigrants Get Stimulus Checks, as 
                             Ted Cruz Says?

                          (By Graham McNally)

       Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) proposed an amendment to the 
     American Rescue Plan that would bar illegal immigrants from 
     access to the $1,400 stimulus checks.
       His amendment was voted down after Senator Dick Durbin (D-
     Ill.) criticized Cruz for trying to ``rile people up over 
     something that is not true.''


                               The Claim

       Cruz claimed on Twitter that illegal immigrants would be 
     eligible for the $1,400 stimulus checks included in the 
     American Rescue Plan.
       On March 6, Cruz tweeted, ``When the checks go out, 
     millions of illegal immigrants WILL GET $1400 checks.''
       He wrote that many people considered illegal immigrants are 
     those who have overstayed their visas, and therefore have 
     Social Security numbers.
       Cruz argued that the possession of Social Security numbers 
     will allow unlawfully present individuals to obtain the 
     stimulus money.

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                               The facts

       Anyone who pays taxes in the United States as a resident is 
     eligible for a stimulus payment under the American Rescue 
     Plan. That includes non-citizens.
       For example, a citizen of Canada who is living and working 
     full time in the U.S. would have a Social Security number and 
     would be eligible for a stimulus payment.
       The United States Department of Homeland Security website 
     describes unauthorized immigrants as foreign-born non-
     citizens who live in the United States without legal 
     residence. Individuals who overstay their visas but pay tax 
     in the United States using a Social Security number can be 
     eligible for stimulus payments. The most recent available 
     data for the number of visa overstays in the United States is 
     from 2019, released by the Department of Homeland Security. 
     It said that 1.21 percent of visas in that year were 
     overstayed, or 676,422 overstays. In 2019, student visas 
     (1.52 percent) had a higher overstay rate than those from 
     Canada and Mexico (.75 percent, 1.27 percent, respectively).
       Illegal immigrants would not be eligible to receive a check 
     if they do not have a Social Security number.
       Immigrants who overstay their visas no longer are lawfully 
     in the country but retain their Social Security numbers and 
     therefore are eligible to receive a check.
       ``Technically, if they have overstayed their visa, they are 
     here illegally,'' a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border 
     Protection told Newsweek. ``If a visitor has not been granted 
     an extension of status by USCIS [United States Citizenship 
     and Immigration Services], then they are considered to be 
     overstays and subject to deportable status under 237 of the 
     Immigration and Nationality Act.''
       People who qualify as legal residents include those who 
     have passed the green card test (permanent legal residents) 
     or those who pass the substantial presence test. That test 
     requires taxpayers to be physically present in the United 
     States for 31 days of the current year and 183 days for the 
     past three years.
       Anyone who has a green card is considered a legal permanent 
     resident, and would be eligible for the stimulus payment.


                               The Ruling

       True.
       Cruz's claim that millions of illegal immigrants would 
     receive stimulus payments is true, given the amount of people 
     who have overstayed their visas over the years. Once they 
     overstay, they technically are considered ``illegal.''
       Correction, March 9, 4:00 pm EST: The ruling on this story 
     has been corrected to true. A statement from Customs and 
     Border Patrol has been added.

  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, it is clear and indisputable that a 
significant number of illegal immigrants will receive checks and are 
receiving checks right now. All 100 Members of this body were 
misinformed by the Democratic Senator that no illegal aliens would 
receive fact checks--would receive, rather, stimulus checks. So I want 
to give my colleagues a chance to adopt the amendment now, with the 
correct information, with the true information, with the factual 
information.
  I would note as well, in these deeply partisan times, it is easy for 
Republicans to throw insults at Democrats; it is easy for Democrats to 
throw insults at Republicans. Far too much of that occurs.
  The Senator from Illinois, who is a friend whom I served with for 9 
years, is a talented Senator. I am not here suggesting that when he 
stood up and spoke on the Senate floor and said things that were 
absolutely false, that he did so knowingly and maliciously. I would 
certainly give the Senator from Illinois the benefit of the doubt that 
he was in error rather than deliberately misstating facts, but the 
facts are now clear.
  We have a rule in this body, rule XIX, to reprimand any Senator who 
imputes the character or integrity of another Senator. I am not going 
to seek refuge in that rule, although I think there is an argument that 
I could. But I will say this, that once the facts have been made clear, 
I hope my friend from Illinois will show the same principle Newsweek 
showed--to apologize, to say he was wrong and he is sorry for calling 
me a liar on the Senate floor and then going to Twitter to do so twice. 
That would be the right thing to do, to acknowledge an error when it 
occurred. The Senator from Illinois' statement that no illegal 
immigrants will receive checks under this bill is categorically false.
  For that reason, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of S. 842, 
introduced earlier today. I further ask that the bill be considered 
read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. DURBIN. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, the exchange which took place between 
myself and the junior Senator from Texas has been analyzed from many 
different directions. The conclusion of CNN based on what he said on 
the floor and I responded to is as follows:

       Cruz said ``every illegal alien in America'' would get a 
     $1,400 check. Durbin responded that Cruz's statement is 
     ``just plain false'' because, he said, ``Undocumented 
     immigrants do not have Social Security numbers, and they do 
     not qualify for stimulus relief checks, period.''

  According to CNN:

       They were both wrong. Cruz was inaccurate when he said 
     ``every'' undocumented immigrant will get a $1,400 relief 
     check.

  Then they go on to say there are people, a discrete class of people, 
who might have a Social Security number, be undocumented, and receive a 
check. And because of the clarification and my own investigation 
afterwards, I will concede their point. I overstated my case.
  Here is what it boils down to. In this situation, people have applied 
for a work visa--not a tourist visa, a work visa to come to the United 
States. Because of that work visa, they also received a Social Security 
number. Then they overstayed their visas and still could continue--
could possibly continue--to be on the rolls with their Social Security 
number and receive a check.
  I might quickly add, this was a provision that was included in both 
of the relief bills for COVID-19 signed into law by President Trump, 
one of which the Senator from Texas voted for, one of which he did not.
  So I would ask, how many people are we talking about? Ten? A hundred? 
A thousand? Ten thousand? I can't find out. They can't give me the 
number because there isn't a calculation.
  So here is the situation. You had to apply for a work visa, be 
granted the work visa and come to the United States, get a Social 
Security number, overstay your visa, and then continue to file income 
tax returns because that is the only way you could qualify for help 
through these relief packages.
  I don't know if that group is ten or a hundred or a thousand, but I 
have carefully read the provisions that are offered by the Senator from 
Texas today, and I will tell you he basically says to the American 
Government, when it comes to cash payments: Stop the presses. Stop the 
presses. I want to know who these people are, and I don't want you to 
send them a check.
  I don't believe that is reasonable. We have sent out 90 million 
checks. To stop this while we go through this debate is, I think, 
unfair.
  I don't want these checks to go to people who do not qualify for them 
any more than he does, but I am not going to stop the issuance of 
checks to people living in Texas or Illinois in the meantime. I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. I would note several things. No. 1, the Senator from 
Illinois said he didn't know if the number of illegal immigrants 
getting checks from the Democrats' stimulus bill was in the tens or the 
hundreds or the thousands. With all due respect, he does know that. It 
is not in the tens. It is not in the hundreds. It is not in the 
thousands. JCT, the Joint Committee on Taxation, which is a nonpartisan 
organization that reports to this Senate and this Congress, scored my 
amendment as roughly 482,000 illegal immigrants are getting checks 
under the Democrats' proposal. Two outside organizations have scored it 
as millions of illegal immigrants.
  I would note what Newsweek said, when they corrected their fact-
check, and I am going to read a quote:

       The Ruling. True. Cruz's claim that millions of illegal 
     immigrants would receive stimulus payments is true, given the 
     amount of people who have overstayed their visas over the 
     years. Once they overstay, they technically are considered 
     ``illegal.''

  Nowhere in the Senator from Illinois' remarks was a word of apology 
for

[[Page S1635]]

falsely calling me a liar on the floor of this Senate and on Twitter. 
That is unfortunate.
  What the Senator said right now is also incorrect. The Senator from 
Illinois said this amendment would halt the payments that are going 
out. This amendment doesn't do anything of the sort. This amendment 
restricts sending payments to people who are here illegally. When the 
Senator from Illinois said he would love to do that, with all due 
respect, that doesn't withstand even the slightest bit of scrutiny 
because if he would love to do that, all he had to do was not object, 
and the American citizens, the people who are here legally, would all 
get their $1,400 checks, would get them on the exact same timeframe, 
but those here illegally would not.
  Today's Democratic Party supports sending checks to millions of 
illegal immigrants. They have justified it, as the Senator from 
Illinois did, by falsely claiming none of them are getting checks. 
Those are not the facts, as the Newsweek fact-check makes clear.
  I would note that a bill that Democratic Senators are trying to push, 
denominated H.R. 1, what many are calling the corrupt politicians act, 
would compound that by allowing millions of illegal immigrants to be 
registered to vote and, no doubt, to cast votes.
  This is a political decision that is far outside the mainstream. It 
is unfortunate, but sadly it reflects where today's Democratic Party 
is.
  I yield the floor.