[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 127 (Tuesday, July 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4958-S4959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Infrastructure

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, yesterday, the majority leader teed up the 
first procedural vote on an infrastructure bill that no one has seen 
yet.
  Our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have been hard at work for 
weeks negotiating in good faith to get a balanced agreement on an issue 
that virtually everyone supports. Infrastructure is not a partisan 
issue.
  But at this time, we have no details about how this deal would 
achieve our common goals. There is no bill text. We don't know what is 
in and what is out, no information about how it will be paid for and no 
score from the Congressional Budget Office to tell us whether the 
proposed pay-fors are credible.
  Now, we have been through an extraordinary pandemic, during which we 
have done some pretty extraordinary things when it comes to spending at 
the Federal level.
  I think the closest equivalent to the pandemic is World War II. Of 
course, this was a domestic war or battle against the virus, trying to 
deal with the public health consequences and the economic consequences 
as well.
  I voted for trillions of dollars of Federal spending, something I 
never thought I would do in the face of an emergency, a global 
emergency.
  But there is no emergency that exists for an infrastructure bill. 
This is part of the bread and butter of what governments do at the 
local level, the State level, and at the Federal level, and it is 
simply irresponsible and reckless to borrow more money from future 
generations and to throw gasoline on the fire that is already burning 
when it comes to inflation in pursuit of a bill

[[Page S4959]]

that everybody will probably, ultimately, if given enough and 
opportunity, will ultimately come up with a negotiated bipartisan 
outcome.
  I also am not going to vote to proceed to a bill that my 
constituents, the 29 million people I represent--they don't know what 
is in the bill either.
  Well, all this doesn't sound like a recipe for success. These are the 
types of things that typically would be ironed out before you bring a 
bill to the floor. It is obvious this legislation is not ready for 
prime time, not even close.
  As I said, the specifics of the bill are still being negotiated by 
our colleagues, of course, with the White House. We are days away from 
having the opportunity to read a bill, let alone provide the 
Congressional Budget Office the opportunity to calculate the cost.
  Republicans and Democrats may disagree on a lot these days, but I 
hope we could all agree that it is not wise to advance legislation 
before you know what is in it.
  That is why it is so baffling to me that the majority leader, the 
Senator from New York, is forcing a vote on this bill before it is even 
ready.
  Of course, that raises a very significant question. Why in the world 
would he do that? Why is he rushing through with the final stage of 
what has been a productive bipartisan process?
  The only logical conclusion I can come up with is he wants this bill 
and this bipartisan effort to fail.
  Why else would he push forward with a vote when he knows it is doomed 
from the start?
  I believe the Senator from New York wants this vote to fail because 
he really wants to go the partisan route; namely, the big, ugly, 
multitrillion dollar spending spree that Bernie Sanders and others have 
been advocating.
  He doesn't need Republican votes to do that, and he can implement 
some of the most radical policies on the far left's wish list, things 
like the Green New Deal, massive tax hikes, crippling new economic 
regulations.
  It is pretty obvious that has been the goal all along. Why else would 
the President himself say, once he negotiated a bipartisan deal: Well, 
I am not going to sign this bipartisan deal until we pass our partisan 
wish list. There is now $3 trillion proposed. It is for the same reason 
Nancy Pelosi said she is not going to let the bipartisan bill, even 
were we to pass it, see the light of day until she knows that the $3 
trillion tax-and-spending spree is successful, which will require all 
50 Democratic Senators plus the Vice President.
  It is just strange to me to see a designed-to-fail strategy, unless 
it is for some political purpose.
  So, Senator Schumer, if you are listening, please don't do it. Call 
off the vote. Let the bipartisan group finish their work. Don't set up 
a vote that will fail just because you want to appease the far left of 
your party, because if the vote happens and we don't have bill text or 
a cost estimate by the time it rolls around, it will necessarily fail.