[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 133 (Thursday, July 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5147-S5148]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             INFRASTRUCTURE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, well, as we all know, last night, the 
Senate voted by a substantial margin to move forward with a debate on a 
bipartisan infrastructure bill. I want to commend the group of Senators 
who worked with President Biden to reach a deal. The agreement will 
ultimately dedicate over a trillion dollars to strengthening virtually 
every major category of our country's fiscal infrastructure.
  The vote last night also means that the Senate is on track to reach 
the two-track goal I laid out for this Chamber at the beginning of the 
month. The first track is the bipartisan bill focused on traditional, 
brick-and-mortar infrastructure projects. The second track is a budget 
reconciliation bill where Democrats will make historic investments in 
American jobs, American families, and efforts to fight climate change.
  In order to start work on a reconciliation bill, the Senate must pass 
a budget resolution first, and we are on track for that as well.
  It has been my goal to pass both the bipartisan infrastructure bill 
and a budget resolution during this work period. Some pundits have 
called that a tall order. I understand that. But because of the vote 
last night, the Senate is now moving forward with the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill, and we are on track to pass both elements of the 
two-track strategy before we adjourn for the August recess. It took 
some prodding and a few deadlines, but it all has worked out for the 
better.
  I want to take a step back and explain why these two bills are so 
important at this moment. For the past 2 years at the end of the Trump 
Presidency, the country was angry, divided, plagued by COVID, and our 
economy was stuck in the muck. The COVID washed over our country like a 
plague and was met by staggering incompetence from the Trump 
administration. America was sick, dying, and our economy was in 
shambles.
  The discovery of the vaccine played no small part in our country's 
recovery. We Democrats pushed early on, last February and March--not 
this past one but a year ago--to increase funding for BARDA. Even then, 
the Trump administration was sort of being stingy about that money, but 
we got the money done. And the vaccine, as I said, played no small part 
in our country's recovery.
  But elections have consequences. I say that to the American people. 
Elections have consequences. When we ran as Senate Democrats, when 
President Biden ran, we promised we would get the vaccines out; we 
would get the country's economy moving again; we would give hope to the 
middle class and those struggling to get to the middle class, where 
hope had been a distant and hazy frame on their horizon previously.
  The Biden administration came in. We came in as a Senate majority. We 
immediately set to work beating the pandemic, with a relentless focus 
on getting the country vaccinated and getting our country back to 
normal.
  Congressional Democrats swiftly passed the bold, strong American 
Rescue Plan, one of the largest Federal packages in American history, 
to keep

[[Page S5148]]

families, businesses, and workers afloat until the country could 
reopen. And we have done that. Six months into the Biden administration 
and Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, the country has 
stabilized.
  This morning--this morning--it was reported that in the second 
quarter, the U.S. economy grew at a rate of 6.5 percent, erasing all of 
the losses from the COVID pandemic. It happened a lot quicker and a lot 
sooner than many anticipated.
  Let me repeat that because it is great news. Under President Biden 
and Democratic House and Senate majorities, the economy recovered so 
fast this year that we have already erased the losses in growth that we 
experienced as a result of the COVID pandemic. That is very good news.
  It certainly doesn't mean every family is back on their feet yet. It 
certainly doesn't mean our work is complete. But the American economy 
is back. It is thriving and set for even brighter days ahead.
  Again, elections have consequences. There is such a difference 
between the bumbling, nasty, divisive last 2 years of the Trump 
administration and a new Democratic majority in the House and the 
Senate and a Democratic President.
  Vaccines are out there, as we promised to get them. There are still 
some people resisting taking a vaccine. They should. We have had some 
resistance even from ideological rightwingers, which is just awful. 
Vaccines are out there.
  Money has been pumped into the economy through the ARP, and things 
are moving forward, but now is not the time to rest on our laurels. Now 
is the time to press forward to cement these gains and build on them. 
We must continue encouraging vaccinations. We must keep a very close 
eye on the Delta variant and take necessary precautions. But we also 
must address the underlying structural economic conditions that held 
back the middle class and those trying to get there even before the 
pandemic.

  The American dream--that if you work hard, you will be doing better 
10 years from now than you are doing today and your kids will be doing 
still better than you--was fading for the last 20 years. If you look at 
the economic statistics, they show that that dimmer view the American 
people had was accurate in terms of economic circumstances.
  But now we need to get bright and sunny again. We need to return to 
the bright, sunny American optimism that has been so much a part of our 
character for more than two centuries. And how do we do it? We don't 
just sit on our hands. We don't just say: Let businesses take care of 
it. They won't. They have a different mission.
  A massive investment in public infrastructure will create tens of 
thousands of good-paying jobs. That is just what the doctor ordered. 
And we need to go beyond that to restore that bright, sunny optimism. 
We need to help American families keep up with the exorbitant costs of 
childcare, healthcare, housing, college, and more. We need to press on 
and fight to reverse climate change because, as bad as COVID was, if we 
do nothing about climate change, a few years from now, each year will 
be worse than COVID, and each year after that will get worse and worse 
and worse. If we do nothing, people several years from now--even people 
now will say: Why didn't we do more? We Democrats want to do more on 
climate. We must.
  The numbers show that the American economy has gotten back to where 
it was prior to COVID. Now is the time to go further and build back 
even better than before. We Democrats, when we can in a bipartisan way 
but on our own when our Republican colleagues are adamantly against us, 
we will move forward on both tracks--both tracks.
  I am proud of my Democratic caucus, every one of them voting 
yesterday for this bill and all pledging to go forward on the second 
track as well.

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