[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 188 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7356-S7357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Nominations

  Mr. COONS. Madam President, I also want to extend my congratulations 
to four individuals, four friends, both former colleagues and folks I 
have known for a long time, who have just been confirmed by the Senate 
of the United States. Their confirmations will be conveyed to the 
President, and they will begin their service.
  I wanted to briefly thank the Members of this Senate for acting 
quickly and appropriately to confirm the nominations of Senator Flake 
to represent us in Turkey, of Senator Udall to represent us in New 
Zealand, of Vicky Kennedy to represent us as Ambassador to Austria, and 
of Mrs. Cindy McCain to represent us at the U.N. agencies in Rome. All 
four of these incredibly talented individuals are deserving of 
confirmation, and I am encouraged by this progress.
  I remain gravely concerned, however, at just how many nominees await 
action here. There are dozens of countries where there is no confirmed 
American Ambassador, and I hope that this moment of progress will be a 
predictor of other progress to come soon in terms of other 
confirmations.
  (The remarks of Mr. Coons pertaining to the introduction of S. 3075 
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills 
and Joint Resolutions.'')
  Mr. COONS. I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Murphy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2841

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I will be delivering remarks in a moment 
regarding the unanimous consent request that I am about to make. In 
deference and as a courtesy to my colleague from Washington, I will 
make the request first rather than speaking first.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, as if in legislative session, 
that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions be 
discharged from further consideration of S. 2841 and the Senate proceed 
to its immediate consideration. Further, I ask unanimous consent that 
the bill be read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I do have 
good news for my colleague and everyone looking for information about 
the safety of vaccines: The CDC already collects and publicly releases 
data like what this bill proposes. So anyone who is curious about 
whether they should get a COVID-19 vaccination can go to the CDC 
website right now at cdc.gov.
  And some more good news: The data overwhelmingly shows these vaccines 
meet FDA's rigorous standards of safety and effectiveness.
  So now that that has been cleared up, I hope instead of wasting any 
more time on bills like this--bills which threaten to undermine public 
confidence in vaccines and trust in our public health experts by 
ignoring the thorough work they already do to provide clear, scientific 
data--we can instead focus on what we can all do to finally end this 
pandemic, which has now killed over 730,000 people and counting, and 
rebuild our country stronger and fairer.
  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, in recent years, particularly those on the 
other side of the aisle have called for, declared, and demanded that we 
rebuild what they call trust in government. While I believe that 
Americans must have a healthy distrust of the idea of government and 
any expansion of the necessarily limited powers of the Federal 
Government, that does not exempt government from the obligation of 
being trustworthy. That is why I find the position that so many of my 
colleagues across the aisle are taking to be so confusing: trust, but 
verify; trust your neighbor, count the cards.

  People need information with which to analyze the faithfulness of 
government and to accept the facts as they deem appropriate. Now they 
claim that Americans must be forced, coerced, prodded, cajoled, 
threatened into making the government-approved medical decision. But 
heaven forbid if someone resists, objects due to moral or religious 
beliefs, or opts out of being vaccinated due to specific unique health 
concerns, she is derided and ignored, and--if the current Presidential 
administration has its way--forced out of her job.
  All of this is supposed to build a safer and more trusting society?
  This argument is totalitarian, and it is wrong. The United States is 
an open society, and the only way by which government can build trust 
with the American people is to earn it. The government will earn that 
trust only through transparency.
  I have come to the Senate floor now nine times to oppose President 
Biden's immoral, unwise, and damaging vaccine mandate. I am committed 
to keep this going for as long as it takes to beat the mandate. I have 
introduced, now, a dozen bills to counteract, restrict, or limit the 
mandate. I do all this because I have heard from over 300 Utahans from 
one end of the State to the other, who are at risk of losing their 
livelihoods due to this aggressive government overreach.
  Overreach of the government is staggering in here. It is an overreach 
the likes of which we haven't seen in this country in a long time; the 
likes of which we arguably haven't seen since April 8, 1952, when 
President Harry Truman seized every steel mill in America in order to 
support the Korean war effort. Fortunately, within a couple of months, 
the Supreme Court of the United States acted and invalidated that 
maneuver as unlawful, unconstitutional, which, of course, it was.
  In this instance, that hasn't happened because, with respect to the 
OSHA mandate, the employer mandate--one saying all employers with more 
than 99 employees have to comply, have to fire people who aren't 
vaccinated--there is nothing there because the authority doesn't exist. 
But, in the meantime, corporate America is picking up the slack and 
doing the President's dirty work for him.
  But it is a government overreach, and it is an overreach that is 
harming good people, people who are not enemies of the United States. 
No, they are not enemies to anyone. They are our neighbors, our fellow 
citizens, and our friends. Their stories are as tragic as they are 
moving, yet this administration seems bent on assuming that they have 
no voice, on giving them no voice.
  Don't get me wrong, I am not against the mandate--I am against the 
mandate. I am not against the vaccine, not in any way. I am fully 
vaccinated. My entire family has been vaccinated. I have encouraged 
people to get vaccinated for the specific reason that I see the 
vaccines as miracles and miracles that are protecting many, many 
millions of Americans from the harms of COVID-19.
  But if government is trying to encourage Americans to get vaccinated, 
hiding information about their concerns with the vaccine is the worst 
possible way to build trust. It has the exact opposite of what they 
claim they are trying to do. Existing concerns, make no mistake, are 
not just going to evaporate if they are ignored.
  And the government's lack of transparency should be just as 
concerning to Americans who aren't worried about the vaccine as it is 
to those who are. Government should never be in the business of hiding 
information about the adverse effects and risks involved, no matter how 
infrequent or uncommon they might be.
  And the government has--let's face it--been less than forthright with 
information about vaccine complications. Adverse reactions to the 
vaccine have been documented since the COVID-19 shot became available. 
The administration's message has been: Get the vaccine; it is safe, 
period.
  If individuals pose questions about possible risks, about its 
interactions

[[Page S7357]]

with other medical treatments, or about rare reactions seen directly 
after its administration, they are often pushed aside, denied proper 
care, or deemed crazy conspiracy theorists for trying to scare the 
public away from the vaccine.
  Sadly, this breeds distrust and it threatens the ability of those who 
experience rare vaccine injuries, the ability to access the proper 
treatment, care, and respect they deserve.
  We should all be able to agree this type of governmental deception 
has no place in the United States. That is why today I came to the 
floor to offer the Transparency in COVID-19 Vaccination Act.
  This bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to 
publicly disclose all information regarding adverse effects of the 
COVID-19 vaccines. This sunshine would help clear the air and allow 
individuals and the medical community the opportunity to make informed 
decisions.
  This clarity would also be an important step toward building trust 
with the American public. Americans have the best, most accurate 
information when they make medical decisions--at least they try to. 
They deserve to have the best and most accurate information when they 
make medical decisions. This bill would ensure that happens. That is 
why I came to the floor to offer it today, offer that we pass it and 
offer the protections.
  My friend and distinguished colleague, the Senator from Washington, 
regrettably objected to it. In doing so, she argued that it is not 
necessary because, according to the Senator from Washington, all the 
information that they need is now available. In many instances, it is 
not. This bill would require that be made available--all of it.
  The CDC does collect information on it, but the American people don't 
have full access to that information, and they should.
  That begs the question: Why? Why would anyone want to do that?
  I don't know why. To me, it doesn't make sense, especially if one 
wants to increase the number of people getting the vaccine as I do.
  I would like to see more people getting vaccinated because I think 
the vaccine is something of a medical miracle and it is protecting 
many, many millions of Americans from the harmful effects of COVID-19. 
That is a good thing.
  We want them to be protected. To be protected, we want them to get 
vaccinated. It doesn't mean government should force it on them, and it 
certainly doesn't mean that government should be perceived in any way 
as being less than forthcoming with information that it gains access 
to.
  That is all this bill would require. It is not hard. There is nothing 
wrong with doing that. In fact, my colleague from Washington insists 
that it is already done.
  If that is the case, what is wrong with putting that into law?
  There isn't anything. We should do it.
  I will be back on this and other topics related to the COVID-19 
vaccine mandates.
  All this is unfortunate. No one is happy about the fact that COVID-19 
has touched our country in the way that it has. It has been painful. It 
is devastating. The 730,000 Americans who have died with COVID are 
tragedies, each and every one of them.
  There is nothing about government overreach that will bring them 
back. There is certainly not anything about government overreach that 
is going to have a proper influence than the American people. There is 
certainly not anything about government hiding the ball when it comes 
to data that the American people deserve and want to have access to 
that is going to make people better.
  We want more people to get vaccinated. Because of that, we want them 
to have the facts. We should do that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.