[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 138 (Tuesday, August 3, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5683-S5685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

                                 ______
                                 

       INVESTING IN A NEW VISION FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND SURFACE 
                     TRANSPORTATION IN AMERICA ACT

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 3684, which the clerk will 
report.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3684) to authorize funds for Federal-aid 
     highways, highway safety programs, and transit programs, and 
     for other purposes.

  Pending:


[[Page S5684]]


  

       Schumer (for Sinema) amendment No. 2137, in the nature of a 
     substitute.
       Carper-Capito amendment No. 2131 (to amendment No. 2137), 
     to strike a definition.
       Schumer (for Lummis) amendment No. 2181 (to amendment No. 
     2137), to require the Secretary of Transportation to carry 
     out a highway cost allocation study.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Maine.


                               January 6

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, while we are awaiting others to come to 
the Senate floor, let me express my deep sorrow about learning of the 
deaths of two more police officers who responded to safeguard all of us 
in the Capitol on January 6.
  My heart goes out to their families and their fellow officers, both 
here on Capitol Hill and also in the District of Columbia police force.
  I am wearing a button that was given to me several years ago after 
the Capitol Police, once again, acted heroically. It says: ``Thank you, 
Capitol Police.''
  I hope each and every one of us will take time today to thank these 
courageous men and women who are working so hard to keep us safe and 
many of whom still bear the physical injuries and the emotional trauma 
of that dark day in our Nation's history.


                               H.R. 3684

  Mr. President, I would like now to turn to briefly speak about the 
broadband provisions that are included in the infrastructure package. 
My friend and colleague Senator Jeanne Shaheen, from New Hampshire, and 
I worked with a number of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
craft this package.
  The pandemic that we have endured for more than a year laid bear the 
disparities in access to high-speed internet. It made it difficult for 
children to be educated online, impossible for some individuals to work 
at home, and removed the possibility of telemedicine consultations for 
some of our sick and seniors.
  The fact is that approximately 19 million Americans still lack access 
to high-speed internet. We talk a lot in this bill about bridges and 
building bridges, and we do need to do that. Well, it is time for us to 
bridge America's digital divide and build a 21st-century broadband 
infrastructure that will meet our country's needs not only today but 
for years to come, to be future-proof, if you will.
  The bipartisan infrastructure plan invests $65 billion to address our 
Nation's digital divide once and for all, and I would note that that is 
in addition to the previous funding that we provided in the COVID bills 
to help bridge the digital divide.
  Also, in the March $1.9 trillion bill, there is language that was 
authored by Senator Manchin that allows States to use some of the 
allocation that they receive to invest in broadband. In addition, I am 
hopeful that we will consider and adopt an amendment that Senator 
Cornyn has authored that will give more flexibility to States to invest 
in broadband, using some of the allocation that they received.
  Our bill, the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 
would provide more than $42 billion in grants to States for deployment. 
It does not favor particular technologies or providers, and projects 
would have to meet a minimum download-upload build standard of 100 over 
20 megabits per second.
  The funding includes a 10-percent set-aside for high-cost areas, and 
each State, territory, and the District of Columbia would receive an 
initial minimum allocation, a portion of which could be used for 
technical assistance and supporting or establishing a State broadband 
office. In my State of Maine, the Governor has used some of those COVID 
funds in order to establish a new Maine Connect Authority that will be 
very helpful.
  States would be required to prioritize deployment in unserved areas 
first. That is so important. Then they could move to underserved areas.
  I talked to a selectman recently from Swans Island off the coast of 
Maine. They desperately need access to broadband services, and they do 
not have it. I am thinking of what a difference it would make to the 
lives of the people who live on that island. I have also talked to 
people in Northern Maine, for example, in the town of Easton, ME, where 
one family told me that it would cost $15,000 for them to be connected 
to the internet. They don't have that kind of money. Few people in 
Maine do.
  That is why there is another part of our bill that speaks to 
affordability, and in this provision, we plussed up to $14.2 billion. 
Additional funds would be devoted to subsidize broadband service for 
eligible households that meet needs-based criteria. An example would be 
eligibility for school lunches. This allocation of funds is so 
important to rural America as well as unserved areas in our inner 
cities.
  The bill that we have before us includes $2 billion to support 
programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including 
the ReConnect Program that provides loans and grants or a combination 
to fund the construction, acquisition, and improvement of facilities 
and equipment that provides broadband service in rural areas.
  Supplementing that are private activity funds, where $600 million has 
been allocated. This is based on a bill that was introduced by Senator 
Hassan and Senator Capito, another bipartisan bill that is called the 
Rural Broadband Financing Flexibility Act. It would allow States to 
issue private activity bonds to finance broadband deployment, 
specifically, for projects in rural areas where a majority of the 
households do not have access to broadband.
  We also included an additional $2 billion for the Tribal Broadband 
Connectivity Program, which was established by the COVID bill that we 
passed in December and is administered by the NTIA in the Department of 
Commerce.
  Grants from this program will be made eligible--will be made 
available to eligible Native American, Alaska Native, and Native 
Hawaiian entities for broadband deployment as well as for digital 
inclusion, workforce development, telehealth, and distance learning.
  Our bill also includes $2.75 billion for the Digital Equity Act, 
which was introduced by Senators Murray, Portman, and King.
  It establishes two NTIA-administered grant programs that would help 
communities that have not yet secured the skills, technologies, and 
support needed to take advantage of broadband connection.
  In that regard, I would note an article that appeared this morning in 
Roll Call that is entitled ``Industry groups, equity advocates applaud 
infrastructure bill's broadband provisions.'' I am proud of that. We 
worked very hard to make sure that there was widespread support for 
this legislation, particularly the broadband provisions.
  We also included additional funding, $1 billion, for the so-called 
middle mile. This would create a State grant program for the 
construction, improvement, and acquisition of middle mile 
infrastructure.
  And I would note that eligible entities include telecommunications 
companies, technology companies, electric utilities, utility 
cooperatives, a wide range of businesses and organizations that could 
help us with that middle mile.
  And that refers to the installation of a dedicated line that 
transmits a signal to and from the internet point of presence.
  Competition of middle mile routes is necessary--completion of those 
middle mile routes is necessary to serve areas and reduce capital 
expenditures and lower operating costs.
  So originally we had $500 million for this; the final package has $1 
billion, at the request of certain Members from the Presiding Officer's 
side of the aisle.

  So my point is that the broadband provisions in this bill are going 
to make such a difference. We are in an era where, I think most of us 
would agree, that access to high-speed internet is another way that we 
connect, just as roads and bridges are ways that we connect. We connect 
to family members; we connect to friends; we connect to our colleagues 
at work; we connect to healthcare providers; we connect to educators; 
and it is absolutely essential that we make this investment, and it is 
a generous investment, so that we can eliminate the disparities that 
were laid bare by the pandemic and bring high-speed internet to every 
section of our country.
  The technologies may differ, the providers will certainly not be the 
same,

[[Page S5685]]

but this investment will make a real difference to so many Americans 
who today still lack access to high-speed internet.
  I see the Republican leader has arrived on the floor.
  I yield the floor.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

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


                          Biden Administration

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it has been a little more than 6 months 
since the Biden administration and our Democratic-led Congress were 
sworn in. So let's zoom out from the daily political drama and ask the 
simplest possible question: How is it going? How is the leadership 
working out for middle-class families? Or put more directly: What big 
aspects of our national life could Democrats even claim are headed in 
the right direction on their watch?
  In January, our Democratic friends inherited the most favorable trend 
lines that any incoming administration could possibly ask for. Three 
safe and effective vaccines had been discovered, developed, and were 
already spreading across our country. Our economy was packed with dry 
powder and ready for a historic comeback. It was already morning in 
America when this Democratic government showed up. Mostly what they had 
to do was not get in the way.
  So where are we 6 months in? The U.S. economy has broken some recent 
records, mostly the wrong ones. Inflation just clocked its steepest 12-
month increase in more than a decade. The month before, a separate 
measure of core inflation rose at its fastest rate since 1992--higher 
gas prices, higher grocery prices, soaring costs for everything from 
household purchases, to automobiles, to housing itself.
  Inflation is painful enough, but it isn't the only problem. 
Employment growth has not been fast enough. Last quarter, GDP grew much 
more slowly than anticipated. Six months and trillions of dollars of 
government spending into the Democrats' efforts at a recovery, and 
Gallup says America's economic confidence is still only neutral. We are 
not--we are not--where we need to be.
  What about the rule of law? There is still a historic surge in people 
trying to come across our southern border, but administration officials 
have spent far more energy denying responsibility for the problem than 
trying to fix it. Catch and release is still the name of the game.
  According to news reports, out of tens of thousands of illegal 
immigrants who have simply been released into the interior of our 
country without a court date--now listen to this--just 13 percent--13 
percent have shown up at their mandatory meeting with ICE afterward.
  So the border is functionally open--especially absurd at a time when 
many leaders are asking American citizens to step up various COVID 
precautions. Not much testing, social distancing, or mask wearing is 
happening in the Rio Grande Valley.
  Meanwhile, a surge in violent crime, including recordbreaking murders 
in many places, has too many citizens afraid of their own city streets.
  Perhaps our Democratic friends think foreign policy is going well. I 
sure wish it were. The President's rushed pullback from Afghanistan has 
left our friends and partners in the lurch and rolled out a red carpet 
for a Taliban takeover that is already underway. Its approach to Iran 
appears to be promising big concessions to our adversary for no reason 
even as their terrorist proxies continue to attack U.S., Israeli, and 
Arab interests all across the region.
  While I appreciate the administration's tough talk on Russia and 
China, those words ring hollow when they fail to impose real 
consequences on cyber attacks and propose to cut our defense spending 
after inflation.
  So what about COVID-19 itself? Certainly, the pandemic is not the 
fault of any administration or any political party, but this 
administration boasted with great confidence they had a playbook that 
was guaranteed to crush the virus. They have continued to roll out the 
vaccines the prior administration developed, and for that, they 
certainly deserve some credit. But, especially recently, Americans have 
received far too many mixed messages and muddied communications about 
masks, vaccines, and what risks remain and for whom.
  Meanwhile, the Democrats' allies in the teachers unions continue to 
speculate publicly that perhaps schools may not remain open this fall 
after all. They are flirting with another lost year for our kids even 
when there are safe and effective vaccines that can reduce adults' risk 
of grave illness to almost nil and when we know that, mercifully, this 
virus has mostly spared children from serious illness the whole time.
  So, look, everyone is rooting for America; everyone is rooting for 
the recovery that middle-class families deserve; but that is not what 
the Democrats' decisions and policies are delivering. No wonder 
America's optimism has been in free fall the last few months. One 
survey found that a majority--55 percent--are pessimistic about where 
the country is headed in the coming year. That pessimism has increased 
almost 20 percentage points since just this spring.
  The soul of America has not been restored. It is anxious, it is 
uneasy, and in too many cases, the more the Democrats' policies have 
taken effect, the more problems American families have faced.
  Now, certainly, the 6-month mark still provides plenty of time for my 
Democratic colleagues to recalibrate. We have already notched some 
bipartisan wins here in the Senate. Our colleagues could put away the 
partisan approach that has already supercharged inflation, slowed 
rehiring, and is setting back our national security. But, alas, our 
Democratic colleagues are signaling they are still addicted to going it 
alone.
  My friends on the other side are signaling that a few days from now, 
just a few days from now, they will begin the process of ramming 
through a reckless, multitrillion-dollar taxing-and-spending spree that 
will stick middle-class families with higher costs, more inflation, 
fewer jobs, and lower wages.
  It is not the strategy that will turn around Democrats' lackluster 
report card; it will do just the opposite. It almost seems designed to 
make every problem that families are facing considerably worse. It 
would meet significant inflation with another massive avalanche of 
printing and borrowing. It would hammer a tenuous economic recovery 
with historic tax hikes and job-killing Green New Deal regulations. It 
would, for some reason, respond to a live border crisis with a big 
amnesty to lure even more people here illegally.
  No working American in Kentucky or anywhere else would look at a plan 
like this and get on board, and neither will a single Republican. If 
Washington Democrats really want to take the remarkable head start they 
inherited at the dawn of this recovery year and squander it through bad 
policy, they will need to do it all alone.
  Ms. COLLINS. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________