[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 19, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2745-S2752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PROVIDING FOR CONGRESSIONAL DISAPPROVAL UNDER CHAPTER 8 OF TITLE 5, 
   UNITED STATES CODE, OF THE RULE SUBMITTED BY THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT 
      OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION RELATING TO ``UPDATE OF COMMISSION'S 
                   CONCILIATION PROCEDURES''--Resumed

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of S.J. Res. 13, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (S.J. Res. 13) providing for congressional 
     disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, 
     of the rule submitted by the Equal Employment Opportunity 
     Commission relating to ``Update of Commission's Conciliation 
     Procedures''.


                   Recognition of the Majority Leader

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority leader is recognized.


                          January 6 Commission

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, so the Spanish philosopher, Jorge 
Santayana, is credited with the saying, ``Those who cannot remember the 
past are condemned to repeat it.''
  When it comes to January 6, we would all do well to heed that advice. 
But right now, there is an effort on the part of the House Republican 
leadership to make sure we forget that that fateful day ever happened.
  Later today, the House will vote on establishing an independent 
Commission to investigate the events of January 6, a complement to the 
investigation in the House and Senate committees. Both sides negotiated 
for months. The House Republican leader made three specific requests in 
February. All three were granted by House Democrats. Modeled after the 
bipartisan 9/11 Commission, it will have equal representation from both 
Democrats and Republicans. Subpoenas can only be issued if Members from 
both sides agree.
  It appeared we had reached a consensus with the support of rank-and-
file Republicans and, frankly, I thought the Speaker was being very 
generous because subpoena power is so important when you look into 
something, but she did that. I salute her for it. But even when she 
went that far, at the eleventh hour, the House Republican leadership 
turned tail, threw its own negotiators under the bus, and decided to 
try to sabotage the Commission. Once again, they are caving to Donald 
Trump and proving that the Republican Party is still drunk off the Big 
Lie.
  Just one week after House Republicans fired Congresswoman Cheney for 
simply telling the truth about the election, their new leadership is 
trying to kill a bipartisan investigation--a very down-the-middle 
bipartisan investigation--of the attack on our Capitol.
  At the root of both efforts is the shameful desire to protect Donald 
Trump and perpetuate the Big Lie, even though it undermines our 
democracy, because when people don't believe elections are on the 
level, that is the beginning of the end of a democracy.
  What the Republicans are doing--the House Republicans--is beyond 
crazy. To be so far under the thumb of Donald J. Trump, letting the 
most dishonest President in American history dictate

[[Page S2746]]

the prerogatives of the Republican Party, will be its demise. Mark my 
words. Whatever that means for Democrats, it is bad for America.
  We all know there needs to be a thorough and honest accounting of 
what took place on January 6, the greatest attempt at insurrection 
since the Civil War. We have to make sure such a despicable event never 
repeats itself. That is why we need the investigation.
  Getting at the truth is more important now that some Republicans are 
trying to rewrite history. It is just incredible what they are doing. 
How dishonest can they be, in abject fear of the most dishonest 
President who has ever sat at the White House, Donald Trump, who will 
tell lies at will? He doesn't care. It is only his own ego. We know 
that. One Member said it was a ``boldfaced lie'' to call it an 
insurrection and likened the mob to a ``normal tourist visit.'' Give me 
a break.
  Several Members have spread the lie that it was actually Antifa that 
stormed the Capitol and so have some commentators on one of our leading 
news networks--shamefully, shamefully.
  One Republican went so far as to say the mob, not the police, were 
the real victims of the violence that day. Can you imagine being in the 
family of one of the police officers who died or was injured? It is bad 
enough, but hearing that? How far will they go in obeisance to the 
lying President Donald Trump? How far?
  These are dangerous lies rooted fundamentally in the Big Lie that has 
seemingly enveloped the Republican Party. Shame on them. Shame on the 
Republicans for choosing the Big Lie over the truth--not all 
Republicans, but the majority who seem to be doing it. Shame. Shame on 
them for defending the mob over our Capitol Police officers. And shame 
on the House Republican leadership for punishing Republicans who tell 
the truth, instead of those who poison faith in our democracy.
  Here in the Senate, we will have a vote on the January 6 Commission. 
The only way to stop these lies is to respond with the truth, with 
facts, with an honest, objective investigation of what happened that 
day.
  An independent Commission can be the antidote to the poisonous 
mistruths that continue to spread about January 6. That is what our 
Founding Fathers believed in. They believed in a fact-based nation, and 
they believed the facts will come out. People will have different views 
when they see those facts and assemble those facts, but they believe in 
the truth.
  I can't think of a time when a political party has been so abjectly 
far away from the truth than the perpetuation of the Big Lie.
  So again, the Senate will vote on the January 6 Commission. It ought 
to gain bipartisan support. There are reports--sad, unfortunate 
reports--that the Republican leader here in the Senate might be 
following his House colleagues down the rabbit hole and will oppose the 
Commission. I hope that isn't true.
  But the American people will see for themselves whether our 
Republican friends stand on the side of truth or on the side of Donald 
Trump's Big Lie


                             Voting Rights

  Mr. President, on voting rights, the Texas State Senate recently 
passed a bill that repeals all requirements for carrying a handgun, 
including a valid license, registering fingerprints, and 4 hours of 
training. Texas would be the sixth State to pass a permitless carry 
law, with Louisiana waiting in the wings. If both Texas and Louisiana 
pass these laws, fully a third of Americans would live in States where 
it was legal to carry firearms without training or a license.
  Just one week after the Texas legislature advanced that law to make 
it as easy as possible to carry a handgun, it advanced another law to 
make it harder to vote. You need stringent identification to vote and 
no identification to carry a handgun. What the heck is going on in 
Texas?
  Just think about that for a moment. Across the country, Republican 
legislatures are removing all barriers to carry firearms, while at the 
same time putting up barriers around voting. The political right wants 
to make it easier for felons to get a gun but harder for younger, 
poorer, and non-White Americans to vote. It is hard to think of a more 
reactionary vision for our country, a more backward-looking vision, a 
vision that eventually will be repudiated not only in the history books 
but in our Nation's politics.
  Sadly, as voter suppression laws sweep through Republican State 
houses from Florida, Montana, and everywhere in between, the political 
right is actually bragging about how successfully they are restricting 
the franchise.
  Last week, a spokesperson for Heritage Action, the lobbying arm of 
the far-right think tank, told a group of Republican donors that 
Heritage Action was drafting new voter restrictions and literally 
handing them over to State legislatures in order to give the laws 
``that grassroots feel.'' She went on to crow about how ``quickly and 
quietly'' her organization managed to get new limits on voting passed 
in Iowa. She told the donors that she looked at her team of rightwing 
lobbyists and said: ``It can't be that easy.''
  That is how the far right is talking about making it harder for 
Americans to vote. Behind closed doors, with well-heeled donors, they 
are laughing about how easy it is to limit American voting rights, and 
that is because Republican legislatures, from one end of the country to 
the other, are eagerly and willfully going along. It is despicable.
  In this country, in a democracy, when your side loses an election, 
you try to win more voters over. You don't try to stop the other side 
from voting.
  But seizing on that Big Lie that the election was stolen, Republican 
legislatures are orchestrating the greatest contraction of voting 
rights since the end of reconstruction and the beginning of Jim Crow.
  These laws cannot go unanswered. Senate Democrats are moving forward 
with legislation, S. 1, to combat this rash of voter suppression laws. 
It has gone through the Rules Committee, and it will receive a vote 
here on the Senate floor.
  Our Republican colleagues need to decide if they are going to stand 
up for democracy or not.


                         Clean Cars for America

  Mr. President, on one final matter, clean cars, yesterday, at an 
event in Michigan, President Biden declared that the future of the auto 
industry is electric. He is absolutely right.
  But even though the transition to electric vehicles has already 
begun, it is progressing too slowly. China is outpacing the United 
States in the electrical vehicle market, and the only way we are going 
to meet our ambitious climate targets is to accelerate the transition 
to zero-emission vehicles.
  That is why I was so glad to hear President Biden get into the 
specifics and talk about the many ways that government, industry, and 
labor can partner up to put more electric vehicles on the road and 
create more jobs in the process.
  At the heart of that effort is legislation called Clean Cars for 
America. It is a proposal I drafted and introduced several years ago, 
and now it has become a central component to the American Jobs Plan and 
President Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
  Through a mixture of point-of-sale incentives for consumers, charging 
infrastructure investments, and support for American manufacturing of 
electric vehicles, it would make electric vehicles affordable for all 
Americans and create thousands and thousands and thousands of good-
paying union jobs in automaking, construction, and battery 
manufacturing.
  We need a large-scale effort to achieve an electric vehicle future. 
Clean Cars for America is the way to get there.
  I yield the floor.
  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. Mr. 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.


                                 Israel

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 2 years ago, I spoke to a gathering of 
friends of Israel. At the time, I was working to advance pro-Israel 
legislation to combat the BDS movement.

[[Page S2747]]

This was a far-left effort to create worldwide anti-Israel boycotts. I 
was struck, at the time, by the opposition to the bill from the far 
left, and I said the Democrats had to stand up to the growing chorus of 
anti-Israel voices in their own ranks or we would all come to regret 
it.
  Well, fast-forward to today. Our friends in Israel are now in their 
second week of a difficult counterterrorism campaign. They are 
responding to unprovoked rocket attacks raining down on their people. 
Predictably, the radical fringe has leapt to excuse the acts of terror 
and, of course, blame Israel, as usual. But, now, disproportionate 
pressure is not only being placed on Israel by far-left activists. Now, 
sitting Members of Congress are actually joining in. One Democratic 
House Member has lately called Israel an ``apartheid state.'' Another 
said it is guilty of ``terrorist acts.''
  For a long time, Republicans and Democrats have stood together in 
standing with Israel. I am proud of all of the work we have 
accomplished together, like improving Israel's Iron Dome defenses, 
providing precision-guided munitions and Joint Strike Fighters, and 
collaborating on counter-tunneling technology to thwart terrorists. 
These bipartisan efforts have paid dividends for Israel and for the 
United States.
  As recently as 2014, during the last major conflict between Israel 
and Hamas, most Democrats stood unhesitatingly with Republicans to 
unequivocally condemn Hamas and support Israel. But, now, rather than 
having Israel's back, senior Democrats have actually pressured Israel 
to end its defensive operations. They have called for a ceasefire and 
urged leaders to strive for peace through a negotiated two-state 
solution--as if Israeli Prime Ministers from across the political 
spectrum haven't made good faith efforts in the past toward peace.
  Of course, in this case, Israel is not fighting the Palestinian 
Authority. They are not up against the Palestinian Authority. They are 
not at war with the Palestinian people. They are fighting Hamas. 
Everybody around here surely knows by now that Hamas is a terrorist 
group that opposes a two-state solution. They want Israel destroyed. 
That is who this fight is between--Israel and Hamas--not the 
Palestinian Authority, not the Palestinian people. It is between Israel 
and Hamas, Israel versus terrorists.
  So let's dispense with this ``both sides'' nonsense. Only one side 
has taken credible steps toward peace, and even when rocketed by 
terrorists, Israel takes extraordinary pains to avoid harming 
civilians. This includes giving advance warning to Palestinian 
civilians in the places they are about to strike. It calls them up in 
advance and says: Get out of there. We are about to strike.
  Frankly, Israel is taking more care to protect Palestinian civilians 
than is Hamas, which intentionally hides behind innocent people in 
violation of the laws of war and then exploits their deaths to advance 
the cause. Hamas doesn't represent Palestinians any more than it 
represents the rest of the region's Arabs, which is to say, not at all.
  For decades, administrations mistakenly assumed the road to Middle 
East peace led through agreement between Israel and the Palestinians 
and that nothing else could be addressed until this was resolved. In 
reality, the previous administration facilitated the Abraham Accords--a 
historic step that helped Israel normalize relationships with majority-
Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan. 
Morocco normalized its relationship as well. This progress toward 
peace, based on shared geopolitical and economic interests, came in 
spite of intransigence from leaders in Gaza.
  Now the Biden administration wants to deny this historic progress. A 
few days ago, the President's spokeswoman argued incredibly that with 
respect to the prior administration, ``We don't think they did anything 
constructive''--really?--regarding ``the longstanding conflict in the 
Middle East.'' Really? The recognition between Israel and four Arab 
countries is not progress? Give me a break.
  Now, as Israel battles terrorists, the Democratic chairman of the 
House Foreign Affairs Committee indicated this week that he might try 
to obstruct the supply of precision technologies that helps Israel 
avoid civilian casualties. How does that make sense? And remember that 
Chairman Meeks only chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee because the 
far-left primaried the previous chairman--a staunch Democratic 
supporter of Israel--right out of his seat in Congress. You can see 
where the far left is trending. This effort to block arms sales is 
basically the same play that some Democrats ran with Saudi Arabia and 
the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen. Let's just think about that. 
Fortunately, the latest reports suggest the chairman may be backing 
down from this. I certainly hope so.
  Yet the White House still can't give a straight answer on whether and 
when we will help Israel replenish the Iron Dome system that protects 
its citizens. Leading Democrats are even talking about easing sanctions 
on the Iranian regime, which helps fund terrorist proxies like Hamas 
and keeps their rocket arsenals full. They come from Iran--and the 
administration still proposes to cut our own U.S. defense funding after 
inflation.
  So, listen. Israel's enemies are watching--make no mistake--not just 
Hamas but Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. We 
cannot send the signal that terrorist attacks on American allies will 
be met with mealy-mouthed attempts to blame both sides


                                Abortion

  Now, Mr. President, on a completely different matter, when President 
Biden nominated Xavier Becerra to run the Department of Health and 
Human Services, it was clear what the Nation was getting--a hardened 
culture warrior with no health or medical expertise. Where Secretary 
Becerra did have experience was in trying to impose a far-left social 
agenda.
  He fought and fought in Federal court to make religious nonprofits 
pay for things that violated their consciences until he finally got 
creamed in the Supreme Court by a ruling that was 7 to 2. Before that, 
he had fought and fought to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise 
abortion, trying to coerce a certain kind of leftwing speech out of 
private groups. The Supreme Court slapped him down then as well. That 
was the resume Secretary Becerra brought to his current position.
  Last week, in a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce 
Committee, the Secretary either forgot about Federal law on abortion or 
revealed that he just didn't care what was on the books. When a Member 
of Congress used the common term ``partial-birth abortion,'' the 
Secretary coyly suggested he didn't know what that meant. He tried to 
get the Congressman to use the more clinical verbiage that helps the 
far-left conceal this grotesque subject. Then, when pressed, Secretary 
Becerra claimed ``there is no law that deals specifically with the term 
`partial-birth abortion.' ''
  Well, the Secretary may wish that were the case, but it isn't. That 
is completely false.
  U.S. Code, title 18, section 1531 is the Federal ban on partial-birth 
abortions. It uses the exact term seven times. It defines the banned 
practice in all of its barbaric detail. Back in 2003, I was proud to 
join with almost two-thirds of the Senate when we passed this 
mainstream law. Our Federal ban on this awful procedure remains widely 
popular with the American people. It is the bare, bare minimum. Yet 
President Biden's HHS Secretary is either ignorant of the Federal law 
or wants to pretend that it actually doesn't exist.
  Remember, the far left has kept America one of just seven countries--
seven--in the world that allows elective abortions on demand after 20 
weeks. Countries across Europe, like France, Spain, Germany, Norway, 
and Denmark, all limit elective abortion to before 20 weeks. The far 
left wants America to be an outlier on the global fringe, and President 
Biden's HHS Secretary either doesn't know or won't admit that the 
phrase ``partial-birth abortion'' even appears in Federal law. A 
misstatement like that is embarrassing enough, but the radicalism that 
lies behind it is even worse.


                                Protests

  Mr. President, on one final matter, after careful consideration, I 
have

[[Page S2748]]

made the decision to oppose the House Democrats' slanted and unbalanced 
proposal for another commission to study the events of January 6.
  As everybody surely knows, I repeatedly made my views about the 
events of January 6 very clear. I spoke clearly and left no doubt about 
my conclusions. Federal law enforcement has made at least 445 arrests 
and counting relating to crimes committed that day. Hundreds of those 
people have been charged. Law enforcement investigations are ongoing, 
and Federal authorities say they expect to arrest at least 100 or so 
more. Bipartisan investigations are also underway and have been for 
months at the committee level here in the Senate.
  There is, has been, and there will continue to be no shortage of 
robust investigations by two separate branches of the Federal 
Government. So it is not at all clear what new facts or additional 
investigation yet another Commission could actually lay on top of 
existing efforts by law enforcement and Congress.
  The facts have come out, and they will continue to come out. What is 
clear is that the House Democrats have handled this proposal in 
partisan bad faith, going right back to the beginning, from initially 
offering a laughably partisan starting point to continuing to insist on 
various other features under the hood that are designed to centralize 
control over the Commission's process and its conclusions in Democratic 
hands.
  I have been an outspoken critic about all of the episodes of 
political violence that our Nation has seen over the past year. I 
support the strong existing investigations and justice for any 
American--any American--who has broken the law.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican whip.


                         American Families Plan

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, a couple of weeks ago, President Biden 
unveiled his so-called American Families Plan, which one might 
summarize as free stuff--free preschool, free community college, lots 
of government subsidies. It sounds great, but the problem, of course, 
is that none of that is really free. The government may not send 
individuals a bill for any of those items, but that doesn't mean they 
don't have to be paid for by someone. So President Biden proposed a 
raft of tax hikes to at least partially pay for his proposals--a hike 
in the capital gains tax, an additional new death tax to add to the one 
we already have, and a hike in the top income tax rate.
  Now, President Biden is selling these tax increases as tax hikes on 
wealthy Americans, whom Democrats view as a bottomless source of 
funding for new government programs, but there are two problems with 
that.
  In the first place, there is no question that some middle-class 
Americans will be hit by President Biden's new death tax. While he 
provides an exemption for gains of $1 million or less, the truth is 
that it is possible to die with an estate whose value has increased by 
more than $1 million over the course of your life, while never breaking 
out of the middle class. We are not talking about individuals with a 
yearly income of $1 million; we are talking about the lifetime gains on 
assets an individual has at his or her death.
  Then, of course, there is a good bet that many of those individuals' 
heirs--the ones whose inheritance will be diminished by this tax--are 
thoroughly middle class. Your parents might die with an estate that has 
gained $1 million-plus in value, but you yourself might be earning just 
$40,000 or $50,000 a year.
  All this is especially true in the case of family farms and 
businesses. Farming is a cash-poor business. Farmers might have land 
that has appreciated over decades by substantially more than $1 million 
even though the farmers themselves may at times struggle even to break 
even. Levying President Biden's new tax at death could permanently 
destroy a family farm or business.
  Now, President Biden has suggested that he will carve out an 
exemption for family farms and businesses if the next generation 
commits to running them, but it remains to be seen what that exception 
looks like and whether it truly protects family farms. He has not 
pledged to carve out an exception for middle-class Americans whose 
inheritance will be hit by this new tax.
  Then there is the fact that President Biden's new income tax hike 
will also hit small businesses, many of whose owners pour a substantial 
part of their profits back into the business instead of raking in a 
large salary.
  But even leaving all that aside and supposing that President Biden's 
new taxes will be levied only on wealthy Americans, there is still a 
problem. Sure, if you are in the middle class, the government might not 
be sending you a tax bill, but that doesn't mean you won't be 
negatively affected by these taxes.
  You see, Democrats operate under the entirely false assumption that 
you can tax higher earners without consequences, that you can tax 
investments without consequences, and that you can tax businesses 
without consequences. In Democrats' world, you can heavily tax 
something, but no one will behave any differently. No one will reduce 
his or her investments. No business will flee high tax rates by moving 
overseas. No business will pass on higher tax bills to consumers in the 
form of higher prices at a time when inflation is already on the rise.
  But, of course, in the real world, people do respond to tax hikes. 
Businesses raise prices on their products, they limit wage growth to 
their workers, and they create fewer jobs. In fact, studies suggest 
that 50 to 70 percent or more of the burden o corporate tax hikes is 
borne by workers in the form of lower wages and fewer job 
opportunities.

  Corporations also move overseas. Before Republicans lowered the 
corporate tax rate to make American businesses more competitive in the 
global economy, a significant number of American companies were moving 
their headquarters overseas.
  Small businesses hit with big tax hikes cut jobs or limit their 
creation of new ones. They raise prices. They decide not to expand.
  Investors hit with major tax hikes decide not to invest as much. 
Since investment fuels jobs and innovation, both of those suffer as a 
result.
  In every one of these cases, ordinary Americans are affected--not 
just the rich; not just millionaires; ordinary, middle-class Americans. 
After all, most Americans, if they are not self-employed or working for 
government, are employed by businesses. If the business they work for 
isn't doing well, their prospects are going to be significantly 
affected. If businesses hold down wages to deal with the impact of tax 
hikes, for example, ordinary Americans' long-term earning potential 
will be diminished. These effects may not sound as concrete as being 
handed a tax bill, but they have just as real of an impact on 
Americans' income and Americans' lives.
  Democrats talk a lot about making the rich pay their fair share. We 
hear it constantly. From the way Democrats talk, you would think that 
rich people rarely pay any taxes. That is not even close to being the 
case.
  The fact is that our tax system is highly--highly--progressive, the 
most progressive in the world, and the tax relief Republicans passed 3 
years ago actually made it even more progressive.
  In 2013, individuals making over $1 million paid twice as much per 
dollar in taxes--I should say in 2018, individuals making over $1 
million paid twice as much per dollar in taxes as individuals making 
between 75,000 and $100,000 or more than 10 times--10 times as much per 
dollar as individuals making between $20,000 and $30,000.
  It would be interesting to know what exactly Democrats consider to be 
a fair share. When financially successful Americans are paying half of 
their income in taxes, is that when it is fair? Seventy-five percent of 
their income? Ninety-five percent of their income? And when they are 
paying that much, what happens then? Well, I have already indicated 
what happens. Investment declines, wages stagnate, prices go up, job 
creation goes down, and ordinary Americans start feeling the 
consequences. But, unfortunately, Democrats are so used to viewing the 
wealthy as an inexhaustible source of money that they refuse to admit 
that hiking taxes on wealthier Americans will have consequences.
  It even goes further than that. It is not just that Democrats view 
wealthier Americans as an inexhaustible source

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of money; it is that Democrats are well on their way to a kind of 
Marxist-style class warfare that demonizes success.
  Nowhere is that more evident than in the fact that Democrats are 
proposing a capital gains tax hike on the wealthy that will fail to 
maximize government revenue. That is right. Democrats could actually 
get more revenue to pay for their social programs if they raised the 
capital gains tax less. Democrats are proposing a capital gains 
increase so substantial that it will actually return less government 
revenue--thanks to the resulting decrease in investment--than a lower 
rate hike would return.
  At the level of tax hike Democrats have proposed, the tax hike 
becomes less about raising government revenue and more about punishing 
more prosperous Americans for being successful, which is a pretty un-
American way of looking at things. Democrats like to portray the 
wealthy as a bunch of billionaires sitting on inherited piles of money 
and not doing a day's work. But the truth is that a lot of prosperous 
people in this country are, A, not billionaires, and B, only wealthy 
because they worked hard, saved, and made prudent financial decisions 
and took advantage of the opportunities they were given.
  Focusing on punishing successful Americans for being successful 
instead of focusing on how we can create opportunity and remove 
obstacles to success for everyone else is counterproductive because it 
has a negative effect on our economy. It fosters an atmosphere of envy 
instead of possibility, hostility instead of determination. Rather than 
focusing on how we can lift everybody up, the focus becomes on how we 
can drag part of society down.
  Rather than counterproductively hiking taxes to punish the successful 
or pay for an ever-increasing array of government programs, we should 
be focusing on creating an economy that gives every single American the 
chance for success and that reduces the need for government programs by 
increasing economic opportunity for all Americans. Unfortunately for 
the American people, Democrats' tax hikes will have the opposite 
effect.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.


                          January 6 Commission

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, it has been my good fortune to serve in 
the U.S. Senate for several terms and in the House before. I can 
remember this Chamber from my first visit when I sat in that Gallery as 
a college student and watched the proceedings of the U.S. Senate, and I 
can remember so many historic days that I have been blessed to have a 
front-row seat to observe great memories. But in addition to those 
great memories, there is one sad memory--no, it was more than sadness; 
one memory that brings sadness and anger--and it is related to January 
6 of this year.
  I remember that day so well. The Vice President of the United States, 
Michael Pence, was presiding over the U.S. Senate. We were counting the 
electoral votes to determine the official outcome of the previous 
election. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was holding 
a rally near the White House, not far from Capitol Hill. The 
demonstrators who came to his rally then marched on this Capitol, and 
what transpired after that was historic and shameful.
  I remember the moment when the Vice President of the United States 
was spirited off that platform, yanked by his arms out that door. 
Clearly his security detail felt that his life was in danger, and they 
removed him.
  I remember a member of the Capitol Police coming, standing on the 
podium in front of the Senate, and saying that we should remain in our 
seats, that this was going to be a safe place, this room, the Senate 
Chamber. Then they started bringing in the staff, who were gathered 
around the Chamber, to stand along the walls because of the safety of 
this circumstance. So we knew there was something happening in the 
Capitol.
  Minutes later, just minutes later, that same Capitol policeman 
announced: ``Evacuate this room as fast as you can. As quickly as you 
can, move off this scene and go to another place.''
  I never thought that I would see that in the U.S. Capitol Building, 
nor in the Chamber of the U.S. Senate, but it was a reality.
  As we quickly moved out through the exits, all the Senators and 
staff, I remember looking out the window and seeing hundreds of people 
descending on the Capitol. That was the snapshot in my mind as we 
quickly escaped the danger in the U.S. Capitol Building.
  We know at the end of the day that at least five people lost their 
lives. We know that 140 law enforcement were assaulted by this mob who 
tried to take control of the Capitol during the electoral college 
count. Of course, there is ample historic evidence of what happened--
videotapes galore, videotapes from every angle, information gathered.
  That is why I was skeptical when they suggested creating a Commission 
to chronicle what happened on January 6. We saw it. We lived it. 
America watched it, many times on live television. The videotapes have 
been played over and over and over again to dramatize what was 
happening as people were spraying so-called bear spray in the faces of 
law enforcement, beating them with poles, crashing through the windows 
of the Capitol and breaking down the doors to come inside.
  We know what happened after we evacuated this Chamber. The mob took 
over. Oh, they had their glory as they were taking pictures of one 
another going through our desks here, acting like this was a holiday 
and that they were somehow patriots in that shameful moment.
  I questioned whether we needed a Commission to establish this. It is 
there. But then last week, there was a vivid reminder that, despite 
reality and despite the evidence, there are people who want to rewrite 
history. Let me note one in particular.
  Congressman  Andrew Clyde, Republican of Georgia, at a House 
Oversight Committee hearing on the January 6 riot, said that the House 
floor was not breached, that supporters of former President Donald 
Trump who stormed the Capitol behaved ``in an orderly fashion.'' 
Congressman Clyde went on to say that if you looked at the videotapes, 
you could see that ``there was an undisciplined mob. There were some 
rioters, and some who committed acts of vandalism.''
  Then he went on to say:

       Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol, 
     and walk through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly 
     fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes taking 
     videos and pictures, you know.

  That is what the Congressman said. He said:

       If you didn't know that TV footage was a video from January 
     the sixth, you would actually think it was a normal tourist 
     visit.

  End of quote from Congressman Clyde.
  This is a quote from Congressman Paul Gosar, Republican from Arizona. 
The law enforcement officials in the Capitol were ``harassing peaceful 
patriots.''
  So far, more than 440 people have been charged by our government with 
participating in this attack, 440 of Congressman Clyde's orderly 
tourists. Many have ties to rightwing extremist groups, the FBI said. 
They recounted that five people died in the events that led up to the 
attack. It is outrageous.
  We know President Trump and his followers have been pursuing the Big 
Lie when it comes to the results of the election. The President has 
finally embarrassed even some Republican followers with his extreme 
statements in that regard. But now his loyalists are turning on the 
facts and the videotapes and the reality of January 6.
  This has to come to an end. The truth has to prevail. This 
Commission, which I understand Senator McConnell has now said he 
opposes, is absolutely necessary--a bipartisan Commission to establish 
once and for all what did occur, as if we have to, but we do. 
Otherwise, Congressman Clyde, Congressman Gosar, and others will set 
out to rewrite history and blame other forces for being at work that 
day.
  I join Senator Schumer in calling for the creation of this Commission 
and demanding a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate for its creation 
so that we can establish once and for all what did occur on January 6 
and must never happen again


                          Endless Frontier Act

  Mr. President, years ago, I traveled to Israel with then-minority 
leader Senator Harry Reid. We met with Shimon Peres, and something 
happened that I have never forgotten.

[[Page S2750]]

  Senator Reid asked: ``What do you see as the greatest threat in the 
world to the United States?'' That was just a couple of years after 9/
11 when that question was posed. I thought Peres might cite terrorism 
or loose nukes. Instead, he said without hesitation: ``China. Don't you 
see that?''
  Economically, strategically, diplomatically, China was already 
focused like a laser on advancing its position as the world's most 
powerful nation, and that was 16 years ago.
  Five days ago, China launched a spacecraft safely and landed it on 
Mars, becoming only the second nation in history, after the United 
States, to land on the Red Planet.
  In 1957, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union became the 
first nation to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite into space. That 
launch shocked the world and caught us off guard. Our response was an 
unprecedented commitment to reclaim America's dominance in the world as 
a leader in scientific and technological discovery and innovation. The 
effort became known as America's Sputnik moment. Twelve years later, 
America put a man on the Moon.
  You might say that now, instead of a Sputnik moment, America is going 
through a Zhurong moment. That is the name of the Chinese Mars rover, 
Zhurong.
  Let me be clear. While China is our fastest growing competitor, the 
United States has lost some ground globally as many nations recognize 
the importance of R&D investments to their industrial innovation and 
competitiveness. In 1960, just 3 years after Sputnik launched, the 
United States accounted for approximately 69 percent of the world's R&D 
funding. By 2018, 58 years later, this percentage had dropped from 69 
percent to 28 percent. Others were joining in the pursuit of technology 
and innovation at a record clip.
  The question is, Can we come together, as Americans did in the last 
century, to make investments in science, technology, and 
competitiveness to guarantee that America's economy remains the world's 
largest and most innovative?
  Some Members of Congress and the Senate--and we have heard their 
speeches on the floor--say: Go slow. No hurry. Well, I think they are 
committed to a solid second-place finish for the United States of 
America, and I don't want to be a part of it.
  The Endless Frontier Act, which we are going to consider, gives us a 
reason for hope. It is broad-based. It is bipartisan. It shows 
leadership by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer; Senator Todd Young, 
Republican of Indiana; along with Commerce Committee Chair Maria 
Cantwell of Washington and Ranking Member Roger Wicker of Mississippi.
  Like America's response to Sputnik, the new era of scientific and 
technological discovery will be driven by seed money from the Federal 
Government, but this effort is not limited to government spending. 
America is home to the world's best research colleges and universities 
and laboratories, like the Argonne National Lab in my State of 
Illinois. They are part of this effort too. We will harness the 
combined efforts of America's best scientific and technological minds 
in the public sector and the private sector.
  The Endless Frontier Act and broader competitiveness package 
represent the largest investment in U.S. science and technology since 
the Apollo era. It will authorize more than $100 billion over 5 years 
to support breakthrough scientific discovery and technological 
innovation in 10 key areas vital to building an innovation economy for 
the 21st century and creating good jobs in the process. These key areas 
include fields such as advanced energy, semiconductors, artificial 
intelligence, biotechnology and genomics, quantum computing, robotics, 
materials science, disaster prevention, and, of course, cyber security.
  If you need a reminder of why it is urgent that we improve U.S. cyber 
security, look at how the ransomware attack last week by Russian cyber 
criminals on a major American oil pipeline caused long gas lines and 
panic buying throughout the eastern half of our country.
  Investing strategically in these 10 key innovation areas will enable 
the United States to protect America's position as a leader in the 
global economy and protect our national security. It will reinvigorate 
and expand our industrial and manufacturing base, and it will create a 
stronger middle class in our country.
  The Endless Frontier Act will also strengthen the security of 
essential supply chains and our ability to solve disruptions caused by 
crises. Remember those fearless doctors and nurses working in COVID-19 
wards last year, when they had to dress in garbage bags because of a 
nationwide shortage of PPE? A nation as wealthy and powerful as ours 
should never be caught so dangerously unprepared. This bill will make 
sure that we aren't.
  Here is another cautionary tale about supply-line disruption. In 
Belvidere, IL, which is in the northern part of our State, workers at 
the Stellantis plant are proud of their work assembling Jeep Cherokees.
  In late March, that plant was forced to shut down because of a global 
shortage of microchips. The plant is scheduled to reopen as soon as the 
end of this month. But late last week, the company announced that the 
plant will be forced to shut down one of its two production lines in 
late July, again because of microchip shortages. As many as 1,600 
employees could be laid off.
  You can't build a prosperous economy and stable middle class if you 
can't secure your supply lines. We know that American workers can build 
cars and trucks for the future because they are already doing it, and 
they are going to be launching it in many places around our Nation. 
Just this week, President Biden visited an electric vehicle assembly 
plant in Michigan. And they are doing it today as well in Normal, IL, 
where a company called Rivian--remember the name: R-I-V-I-A-N, Rivian--
repurposed and expanded a former Mitsubishi assembly plant to produce 
the company's first assembly plant for electric cars and trucks. Is 
this going to work? Will it actually have a demand for electric 
vehicles?
  Remember this one too. Amazon has already ordered 100,000 delivery 
vans from this plant. By the end of the year, Rivian expects to employ 
2,500 people at the Normal assembly plant, 2,500 workers in good-
paying, middle-class jobs in America. The Endless Frontier Act and 
President Biden's American Jobs Plan provides the leadership and 
resources to make sure that America remains the world leader in the 
21st century.
  On another critical issue, let me say that we need to get serious 
when it comes to combating intellectual property theft and 
counterfeiting. The previous administration's policies were haphazard. 
We can do better. The Endless Frontier Act will impose tough sanctions 
on entities that violate U.S. intellectual property and trade 
protections.
  I am working with Senator Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, and 
others on a bipartisan bill that provides additional safeguards to 
combat the sale of counterfeit goods, especially on the internet.
  As I said, the Endless Frontier Act and competitiveness package will 
invest more than $100 billion over 5 years to support breakthrough 
technologies. Now, $100 billion is a big investment, but it is 
dramatically less than what China is now spending in the same areas. 
And it is far less when adjusted for inflation than what we spent on 
the race for space.
  If we contributed the same share of our GDP to science and technology 
today as we did in the early 1960s--1 percent of our overall economy--
we would have to spend $900 billion, not $100 billion, in this effort.
  My support for the Endless Frontier Act builds on my commitment to 
securing steady, predictable funding increases for so many research 
Agencies of the Federal Government but especially for NIH. They 
provided the lifesaving vaccines that allow us to take off our masks 
and resume our lives.
  Monday, I went out to NIH with several of my colleagues. Senator 
Blunt led a group from the Appropriations Committee. We met with NIH 
Director Francis Collins, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and scientists who are 
working on breakthrough discoveries.
  It was 6 years ago that Senator Roy Blunt, Republican from Missouri, 
and I made an informal pact. We worked together to increase the NIH 
budget by 5 percent a year over and above inflation. With the help of 
Senator Patty

[[Page S2751]]

Murray and Lamar Alexander, we increased the NIH budget more than 40 
percent.
  Because of those modest investments and the genius of NIH-funded 
researchers, we have a real chance of developing better treatments and 
cures for terrible diseases, including cancers, sickle cell, and 
Alzheimer's.
  The race for the future isn't an either-or deal--either we invest in 
science or breakthrough technologies. We have to invest in both. I will 
continue to work with Senators from both parties to preserve steady, 
predictable funding increases for research.
  No one bill will safeguard our national security or resolve all of 
our outstanding issues with China. We still have a lot of work to do, 
both in Congress and diplomatically. We still have to strengthen our 
immigration system so that America continues to welcome immigrants who 
want to put their genius to work for the good of America, as Nikola 
Tesla and Albert Einstein did in the last century, as did Katalin 
Kariko, the Hungarian-born Nobel laureate whose NIH-funded research 
paved the way for today's COVID vaccines.
  Strengthening America's role as a global leader in science and 
technology is an essential piece of our effort to preserving our 
leadership in the world. For that reason, I support the Endless 
Frontier Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Wyoming.


                                 Israel

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, on the way over to the floor, I received 
a CNN news alert, and the headline is: ``Biden dramatically scales up 
the pressure on Netanyahu.''
  So I come to the floor to tell you and to tell the Nation that I 
stand with Israel. Like millions of Americans, I have been disturbed to 
see the Biden administration make a false equivalence between Israel 
and the terrorist group Hamas. There is no equivalence here.
  Hamas is a terrorist group funded by Iran. These terrorists have 
fired over 3,000 missiles into population centers in Israel. Israel has 
every right to defend itself. If Hamas stopped fighting, there would be 
peace. If Israel stopped fighting, there would be no peace. Hamas would 
continue to attack Israel.
  President Biden's readout of his call this morning with Prime 
Minister Netanyahu stated:

       The president conveyed to the prime minister that he 
     expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a 
     ceasefire.

  President Biden doesn't get to tell Israel what to do. We all want 
peace. We all want a cease-fire. A cease-fire happens when Hamas stops 
its terrorist campaign. Until then, Israel has every right to the 
proportional response it is making right now. Israel has every right to 
take out the terrorist leaders that are directing the attacks on its 
citizens


                           Economic Recovery

  Mr. President, I would like to move now to a separate topic, and the 
one for which I originally came to the floor, and I came to the floor 
to talk about our economy.
  In April, the unemployment rate went up. Surprisingly, it went up. It 
was supposed to go down. It went up, and so are prices all around the 
country. The experts in the White House actually thought that we were 
going to add 1 million new workers in America last month. In reality, 
only about 266,000 Americans went back to work. So the so-called 
experts at the White House were wrong, and they were wrong by three-
quarters of a million workers.
  Now, 40,000 of those people who went back to work went to government 
jobs, which means the cost of government continues to grow. The private 
sector was able to only hire 220,000 people rather than 1 million. It 
was the most disappointing jobs report in over 20 years.
  There has also been a slowdown in the middle of a recovery, which is 
surprising to many. You know, before Joe Biden took office, we saw a 
fantastic economic recovery, and it was the fastest one in American 
history. We were bouncing back from the coronavirus shutdown. It is a 
very different story now. It is no coincidence that this is a direct 
result of President Biden's policies.
  And the policies--the Democrats all voted for this, and the 
Republicans all voted against it. The Democrats and President Biden, 
party-line vote, voted to extend a bonus payment for workers to stay 
home, paying people more to stay at home than they could make at work, 
in many cases. People aren't lazy. They are logical, and it is a 
perfectly logical thing to do; that they took up the President on his 
offer to stay home when they were paid more to stay home than they 
could make at work.
  So, as a result, job openings right now are at an alltime high. 
Businesses can't find workers. Everywhere I go in Wyoming, I see ``Help 
Wanted'' signs. The president of Delta Airlines reported they canceled 
100 flights last month because they couldn't find enough people to 
work. They had people ready to fly. They didn't have people who were 
ready to work.
  People want to work. People want to hire others. The incentives 
coming from government are absolutely wrong. Joe Biden and Big 
Government are getting in the way of people returning to work.
  There is another big problem I heard about. I heard about it this 
past weekend in Wyoming. The business owners I heard can't find workers 
because of incentives coming out of this administration--``Help 
Wanted'' signs up--and from other people asking me: Why are prices 
going up? Why is inflation back?
  You know, under the Obama-Biden administration, we saw the same 
thing. It is called the middle-class squeeze, where prices are going up 
faster than wages are going up. April was the worst month for inflation 
since the great recession 13 years ago.
  In effect, inflation means that the money in your wallet buys less. 
So, in a sense, you have a pay cut. Inflation is a regressive tax. It 
means the poorer you are, the more it hurts and the fewer things you 
can buy for the money you have. The big donors in the Democratic 
league, they are going to be just fine. They won't even notice rising 
prices. They don't notice when gas prices go up. The Silicon Valley 
hotshots and the masters of the universe in Manhattan, they are going 
to be just fine.
  It is families--working families in Wyoming and New Mexico and across 
the country who are struggling to get by. They are the ones who are 
going to get hurt the most. Just look at the cost of a trip to the 
grocery store. First, you have to go to the grocery store, and to you 
get there, you have to drive. Well, the price of gasoline is going up. 
Across the Nation now, the price of a gallon of gasoline is over $3 a 
gallon. A year ago, it was about $2 a gallon.
  Since Joe Biden took office, it has gone up nearly 70 cents a gallon. 
That hits people when they fill up because they have to drive getting 
back to work. In Wyoming and New Mexico, people drive long distances, 
and we use more gas than most. So people in our States are paying more 
than many other places.
  And I don't think it is a coincidence that the price of gas has gone 
up. Joe Biden's first action in office was to draw a target on the back 
of American energy and pull the trigger. He shut down the Keystone XL 
Pipeline. He banned new oil and gas leases on Federal lands. He has 
restricted the production of American energy. We need energy. We need 
it now.
  Gas prices affect the price of everything else. It costs more and 
more to transport things across the country, and that is why we are 
seeing prices go up at the grocery store. Working families are getting 
squeezed. And this is a direct result of the policies of the Biden 
administration.
  One reason this is happening is because President Biden is flooding 
the country with so-called easy money. We are finding out it is not too 
easy. In the month of March, President Biden signed into law a $2 
trillion slush fund for basically liberal spending. It was described as 
a coronavirus relief package but, in fact, when you take a look at it, 
less than 9 percent of the money, a very small percentage of the money, 
actually went for medical care.
  He crammed it through Congress--party-line vote, absolutely no 
Republican support--put the bill on the Nation's credit card, and the 
Federal Reserve started to print more money. Now, money doesn't grow on 
trees, doesn't come from a printer, and you

[[Page S2752]]

cannot print your way to prosperity. The money has to come from 
somewhere.
  History shows that this is a strategy that eventually backfires. 
Nations try to print free money, and they end up poorer than ever. Get-
rich schemes don't work, never have, and they aren't going to this time 
either. Inflation is going up every single month since the election.
  Now, the White House experts tell us not to worry. These are the same 
experts that predicted there would be 1 million new jobs and people 
working last month and that the unemployment rate would drop. But much 
of the $2 trillion that President Biden signed into law hasn't even 
gone out the door yet, and the President is asking for trillions and 
trillions more.
  The House of Representatives, the other night, put out a proposal 
related to the infrastructure bill, one that I am trying to work with 
the administration on. They are requesting $7.1 trillion, an 
astonishingly high amount of money. If the President gets his way and 
we keep spending like this at the request from the House, inflation is 
only beginning.
  You don't have to take my word for it. Listen to the liberal 
economist Larry Summers. He was in the Clinton administration as well 
as the Obama administration. He was Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury 
and played an economic role in the Obama administration.
  He warned against President Biden's spending spree. He called that $2 
trillion slush fund the least responsible spending bill he has seen in 
four decades--the least responsible spending bill in four decades. That 
is before all this additional spending may be coming.
  Well, this is what he said after April's inflation numbers came out. 
He said:

       I was . . . worried . . . about inflation . . . [yet] it's 
     . . . moved much faster, much sooner than [even] I . . . 
     predicted.

  That is Larry Summers--Clinton administration and Obama 
administration--commenting on the Biden policies.
  People who save money their whole lives for retirement are now 
watching their hard-earned savings go down with a stroke of Joe Biden's 
pen. Their buying ability is shrinking. People who did the right thing, 
who worked hard, and saved their money are now being punished by Biden 
policies.
  Under President Biden, we are seeing more government, more taxes, 
more spending, and, as a result, the American people are suffering. 
They are seeing flat wages, higher prices, and disappointing job 
creation. We see gas lines. We see people hoarding gasoline. It sounds 
like it was in the 1970s. And President Biden should remember those 
times because he was still a Member of the Senate back then.

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to continue and finish my 
remarks with an additional 60 seconds.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Thank you, Mr. President.
  President Biden should remember that by 1980, the American people had 
had enough. We changed course. We thought it was enough of Jimmy 
Carter, and we elected Ronald Reagan President.
  It is time to change course again. Let's create more American energy. 
Let's set down the taxpayer's credit card. Put it away. Cut up the 
credit card. Stop the reckless spending.
  American families have been paying the price. The people in the 
middle are being squeezed. The American people expect and deserve 
better.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.


                          Vote on S.J. Res. 13

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. All time has expired.
  The clerk will read the title of the joint resolution for the third 
time.
  The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading 
and was read the third time.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The resolution having been read the 
third time, the question is, Shall the joint resolution pass?
  Mr. PADILLA. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Alaska (Ms. Murkowski) and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio).
  The result was announced--yeas 50, nays 48, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 195 Leg.]

                                YEAS--50

     Baldwin
     Bennet
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Coons
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Hassan
     Heinrich
     Hickenlooper
     Hirono
     Kaine
     Kelly
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Lujan
     Manchin
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murphy
     Murray
     Ossoff
     Padilla
     Peters
     Reed
     Rosen
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Shaheen
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Tester
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Warnock
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                                NAYS--48

     Barrasso
     Blackburn
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Burr
     Capito
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hagerty
     Hawley
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Lankford
     Lee
     Lummis
     Marshall
     McConnell
     Moran
     Paul
     Portman
     Risch
     Romney
     Rounds
     Sasse
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Tuberville
     Wicker
     Young

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Murkowski
     Rubio
       
  The resolution (S.J. Res. 13) was passed as follows:

                              S.J. Res. 13

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That Congress 
     disapproves the rule submitted by the Equal Employment 
     Opportunity Commission relating to ``Update of Commission's 
     Conciliation Procedures'' (86 Fed. Reg. 2974; published 
     January 14, 2021), and such rule shall have no force or 
     effect.

  (Mr. HICKENLOOPER assumed the Chair.)

                          ____________________