[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 163 (Tuesday, September 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6566-S6567]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about the 
growing list of disasters that is occurring in this country and around 
the world as a result of the actions of President Biden.
  The most recent disaster is President Biden's surrender of 
Afghanistan to global terrorists. For two decades, Americans fought and 
died in Afghanistan, and they did it to keep our country safe and free. 
On Thursday, August 26, the United States lost 13 servicemembers in 
Kabul, Afghanistan. It was the deadliest single day for our military in 
more than a decade. One of those fallen heroes, 20-year-old Rylee 
McCollum, was from Wyoming.
  Despite heroic sacrifice by our servicemembers, the Taliban, today, 
is stronger than ever. The Taliban controls more territory than it did 
on September 11 of 2001, 20 years ago. Afghanistan is, once again, a 
safe harbor for terrorists.
  This disaster happened because President Biden paid more attention to 
the calendar on the wall than he did to the conditions on the ground. 
President Biden wanted symbolism. Well, we got symbolism. We got the 
symbol of terrorists. It is the one they wanted. It is the symbol of 
helicopters flying, leaving the roof of the U.S. Embassy in 
Afghanistan--something that President Biden promised the American 
people they would never see, but there it was for the world to see.
  The entire world also witnessed desperate Afghan citizens. They were 
plummeting to their deaths as they tried to hang onto planes that were 
leaving from the airport. President Biden was so eager to pull our 
troops out of Afghanistan by an arbitrary date that he left hundreds, 
if not thousands, of American citizens trapped--hostages behind enemy 
lines. President Biden abandoned the strategically located Bagram Air 
Base. It is the one base that could have evacuated people safely.
  The Biden administration even gave the Taliban a list of American 
citizens. I mean, can you imagine that? The administration gave the 
Taliban--the terrorists--a list of American citizens, green card 
holders, Afghan allies, people we wanted to get out of the country. To 
me and many Americans who heard that this happened, we saw it as a kill 
list--a list that the terrorists would use against American citizens 
and our allies on the ground--and we may never know how many are 
captured or tortured and are killed.
  We could have left Afghanistan with our honor intact. Instead, our 
enemies are now emboldened, and our friends are furious--furious at us. 
Billions and billions of dollars' worth of American military equipment 
and military secrets are now in the hands of the Taliban. Joe Biden has 
armed the Taliban beyond its wildest dreams. The Taliban has seized 
more than 600,000 American weapons. This includes over 2,000 armored 
vehicles, like Humvees, MRAPs, and even American tanks. They also have 
at least 40 aircraft, including Black Hawk helicopters and drones. The 
Biden administration has no plan either to get these weapons back or to 
destroy them where they sit on the ground.
  President Biden has surrendered America to the terrorists, and now I 
believe they are coming for us.
  Yet Afghanistan is just one of President Biden's many failures. On 
issue after issue, this President has displayed complete incompetence.
  For instance, President Biden has displayed gross incompetence and 
mismanagement at our southern border. On President Biden's first day in 
office--on the very first day--he flipped on a green light at the 
border, and he laid out the welcome mat. He shut down the construction 
of the border wall even though it had been fully paid for. He illegally 
ended the very successful ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, and he stopped 
all deportations. Ever since then--ever since that day 1 of his 
administration--illegal immigration has been at an alltime high.
  Over the last week, we have seen more than 10,000 illegal immigrants 
crowding under a single bridge in Del Rio, TX. Since President Biden 
became President, more than a million illegal immigrants have crossed 
into our country. That is more than twice the population of Wyoming. 
Some of these illegal immigrants carry deadly disease; others carry 
illegal weapons. Since Joe Biden became President, our border agents 
have seized enough fentanyl--it is a deadly drug--to kill every 
American man, woman, and child.
  The Joe Biden border crisis is--and the word is important to hear 
here--``unprecedented.'' That is not my word. It is a direct quote from 
the Secretary of Homeland Security. Joe Biden's Secretary of Homeland 
Security, a few weeks ago, was caught on tape. He told our Border 
Patrol officers that the border situation ``cannot continue.''
  He went on to say:

       If our border is our first line of defense, then we are 
     going to lose. . . . This is unsustainable.

  Again, this is coming from President Biden's Secretary of Homeland 
Security.
  Yet Democrats in Washington want to double down on this open border 
policy. Senate Democrats have tried to give amnesty to over 8 million 
illegal immigrants. Now, they have failed, but if they had been 
successful, it would have been the largest amnesty for illegal 
immigrants in our Nation's history. Well, that sends a very loud 
message to people all around the world. It says, if you come here 
illegally, the Democrats are sure going to try to give you government 
benefits and maybe even citizenship. This message from this White House 
and the Democrats only strengthens the magnet for people to come here 
illegally.
  Under President Biden, we have chosen chaos on the border, and we 
have chaos also in Democratic-governed cities. Over the past year and a 
half, we have seen an unprecedented rise in murders, in shootings, and 
in violent crime in Democratic-run cities. Last year, the murder rate 
went up by a third. This year, it is up again. Nearly all of the 
increases are in cities run by Democrats.

  Last year, in Democratic cities, what did they do? Well, they cut 
more than $1 billion off the funding for our police, for law 
enforcement--for the people who are there to keep the cities and the 
streets safe. As a result, crime is out of control, and working 
families are scared.
  There is also something else that is worrying families all across 
America, and those are the skyrocketing costs they have to pay every 
time they fill up their tanks or when they go to the grocery stores. At 
a time when our economy should be booming, the purchasing power of 
people's paychecks is getting eaten away. Gasoline is now nearly a 
dollar more a gallon than it was when Joe Biden took office. Now it 
costs about $25 more to fill up your vehicle. It costs about $25 more 
for a weekly trip of shopping at the grocery store. So $25 for gas and 
$25 for groceries is $50 a week. That is over $2,000 a year in lost 
buying ability--lost power of the paycheck--for American families.
  Inflation is happening because of excessive Democratic borrowing and 
spending. Gas prices are also rising because President Biden is 
restricting American energy. He has killed thousands of good energy 
jobs. He took an ax to the Keystone XL Pipeline. He stopped all new oil 
and gas leases on Federal land. It is no surprise to Americans that the 
price of energy is going up.
  And what is President Biden's solution to this? Well, he wants to 
raise taxes on energy produced in America. He doesn't want Americans to 
explore for energy and oil in the United States. No. His National 
Security Advisor, last month, actually asked foreign oil-producing 
countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia--this is the National 
Security Advisor--to pump more foreign oil to lower the price of gas. 
And you say: How do you know that? Well, it was on the White House's 
website, right there for the world to see. The

[[Page S6567]]

President would prefer for us to buy energy from our enemies rather 
than produce it here at home.
  Under the last President and the previous administration, the United 
States became energy dominant. President Biden seems very determined to 
make us energy dependent once again.
  I could go on. There are so many failures of the Biden administration 
to discuss. Every single one of these crises could have been avoided. 
Each one was predictable and could have been preventable. They could 
have been avoided with competent leadership in the White House. They 
could have been avoided if Democrats had stopped their mad dash to the 
left.
  The American people gave us a 50-50 Senate. They didn't ask for a 
leftwing agenda. No wonder recent polls show Americans, overwhelmingly, 
say the country is headed in the wrong direction. The American people 
know what they want: safe communities, secure borders, higher wages, 
lower prices. It is what I hear in Wyoming, and it is what I heard this 
past weekend. The incompetence of this administration over the last 8 
months cannot be allowed to continue. The American people deserve 
better.
  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. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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