[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 22 (Thursday, February 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Banning of Books

  Madam President, finally, once again on book banning, I want to 
return to the point I made yesterday about the wave of book bannings we 
are seeing in our public libraries and in our school districts across 
the country.
  We shouldn't kid ourselves about the scary nature of these Orwellian 
attacks from the far right because when far-right legislators in places 
like Texas demand their schools turn over their reading lists or when a 
school district in Tennessee bans a graphic novel that teaches about 
the Holocaust or when reactionary voices hide behind claims of 
indecency or offensiveness anytime they attack works that explore 
issues of racism or identity or social injustice, then we are not 
seeing free expression; we are seeing intimidation.
  That is what book bannings are about. They are efforts to intimidate 
educators and students away from exploring difficult issues, to obscure 
parts of our history the far right doesn't like, and to perpetuate and 
even champion ignorance of our own past. We don't need to look very far 
in history to see what happens when we go down the dangerous road of 
censorship and suppression. When free expression is weakened, the mob 
is empowered.
  These unprecedented efforts by the far right to ban books that 
explore injustice and racism are deeply disturbing and nakedly 
Orwellian. They should be opposed at the State level before more damage 
is done to our students and to our country.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.