[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 27 (Thursday, February 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S621-S624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENDING FORCED ARBITRATION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT ACT
OF 2021
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the
Senate will proceed to consideration of H.R. 4445, which the clerk will
report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 4445) to amend title 9 of the United States Code with
respect to arbitration of disputes involving sexual assault and sexual
harassment.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Republican leader is
recognized.
Inflation
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, moments ago, the country got yet
another terrible monthly inflation report under the Biden
administration. Yet again, the data confirmed what working families
already know painfully well: Rampant inflation and soaring prices are
crushing--crushing--the American people.
Experts had predicted another red-hot inflation report, around 7
percent. Even that alone would have meant we were still trapped inside
the worst inflation in 40 years, but reality turned out to be even
worse than that. It turns out inflation this past year hasn't been 7
percent; it has been 7\1/2\ percent. In other words, if you haven't
personally gotten a pay raise of 8 percent or more in the last year,
then Democrats' policies have given you a pay cut--pay cut.
To add insult to injury, reporters say the worst of this inflation
was driven by the most painful categories for working families: food
prices, energy prices, and rent.
This is not about financial inconvenience for wealthy people who can
afford to stomach it; this is about massive price increases for
essential goods that make up a huge share of working families' budgets.
Gas is up about 40 percent since this time last year. Used car prices
are up about the same. Meat, fish, and eggs cost over 12 percent more
than they did just 1 year ago. The cost of natural gas for home heating
has soared by 24 percent since this time last year. Fuel oil has shot
up almost 47 percent. The cost of essentials has absolutely exploded
since Washington Democrats took power.
To be clear, the worst inflation in 40 years is not something that
just spontaneously happened to Democrats on their watch. As a Pew
report demonstrated late last year, it is true that countries around
the world are facing inflation--they are--as a result of COVID, but
America has it worse than almost everybody else in the developed world.
This is a direct result of liberal policy choices.
Here is how Jason Furman, President Obama's CEA Chairman, explained
it recently. I will quote from the New York Times:
``The United States has had much more inflation than almost
any other advanced economy in the world,'' said Jason Furman,
an economist at Harvard University and former Obama
administration economic adviser, who used comparable
methodologies to look across areas and concluded that U.S.
price increases have been consistently faster. The
difference, he said, comes because ``the United States'
stimulus is in a category of its own.''
Obviously, he is referring to the $2 trillion so-called rescue
package last year.
The severity of this inflation was directly fueled by the reckless,
far-left spending spree that every single Democrat in this Chamber
voted to ram through at President Biden's behest last year.
Even the most prominent liberal economists knew this would happen and
tried to warn the Democrats. A year ago, Larry Summers warned that
Democrats' binge could set off ``inflationary pressures of a kind we
have not seen in a generation.'' Ah, but Democrats ignored their own
experts. They
[[Page S622]]
plowed ahead, using the pandemic as a pretext--a pretext--to dump $2
trillion into left-wing policies that were overwhelmingly unrelated--
unrelated--to the healthcare fight against the virus, and we see the
results all around us. Families are living with the results every day.
As recently as the last few days, some of my Democratic colleagues
have come here to the floor to boast about the increase in nominal
wages. They want a round of applause because the numbers on many
Americans' paychecks have gone up. But that is staggeringly out of
touch with the reality. Yes, in an inflationary spiral, lots of people
will see the numbers on their paychecks go up. The problem is that even
those bigger paychecks are buying Americans less in real terms today
than their smaller paychecks bought them before Democrats were sworn
in.
It is like this: Democratic policies have created an inflation
riptide that is forcing families and small businesses to swim as fast
as they possibly can just to avoid getting sucked out to sea, but
Democrats are trying to call this a success because of how fast
everybody's arms and legs are moving. Talk about an absurd effort to
spend your way out of reality. The truth is plain for everybody to see.
A few weeks ago, the Washington Post ran a story with the headline
``'That raise meant nothing:' Inflation is wiping out pay increases for
most Americans.'' The story explained, and this is a direct quote:
[M]any [workers] said that despite considerable pay
raises--as much as 33 percent, in some cases--they were still
struggling to cover basic expenses. Several workers said they
had taken second jobs to keep up with rising costs for
groceries, gas and rent.
So American workers are not buying the Democratic spin for 1 second.
One year after President Biden took office with massive economic
tailwinds at his back, with an economy that was primed for a roaring
comeback, 75 percent of Americans say our economy is doing badly. About
90 percent of Americans say they are concerned with inflation. Ninety
percent of Americans say they are concerned with inflation. A 60-
percent supermajority say their family's income is falling behind the
cost of living.
It didn't have to be this way. This was a policy choice. This all-
Democratic government was warned that their radical agenda would
supercharge inflation, and they pushed ahead anyway, and our country is
paying the price.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
Nomination of Max Vekich
Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, I come to the floor to talk about a
couple of items this morning. One is the nomination of Max Vekich to be
Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission and also to talk about
the very important issue of our colleagues working together on
America's innovation investment for the future. But let me just speak
first about the nomination of Max Vekich to be a Commissioner of the
Federal Maritime Commission.
The COVID pandemic has caused unprecedented congestion at our ports
and supply chain disruptions. Businesses and Americans are feeling the
pinch of the rising prices and shortages of products every day. The
news is that our colleagues can do something about that this morning.
They can do something about that this morning.
At a time when our country is in need of a strong Federal Maritime
Commission, it is important that they do their oversight role--that
they investigate, that they regulate unfair practices by foreign
shipping companies and make sure U.S. shippers, our growers, and
manufacturers get a fair deal. The Federal Maritime Commission is
particularly important when it comes to ensuring that American products
get access to markets around the globe.
While I don't agree with the conclusion of the minority leader on our
investment in helping Americans during the pandemic, I know this: Right
now, the Federal Maritime Commission should be investigating
international shippers who are overcharging U.S. exporters.
Farmers have been hard hit by congestion and shipping challenges.
U.S. agriculture exporters have experienced a 22-percent decrease in
exports. Agriculture accounts for about one-tenth of America's goods
exports, and roughly 20 percent of what U.S. farmers and ranchers
produce is sent abroad. That is why they deserve a fair deal on
shipping prices.
Many of these products move by containerized freight, and
containerized freight costs have more than doubled since the pandemic.
Washington hay producers estimate that the freight costs could be three
times more expensive by this winter.
In addition to freight costs, ships are returning to Asia with empty
containers and stranding U.S. exports at the docks. This is an
unprecedented nature of shipping and has had a major impact on American
exporters. It is important that we understand that we need to do
something about it.
The National Milk Producers Federation estimates that shipping
disruption cost the U.S. dairy industry nearly $1 billion in the first
half of 2021.
Apples are Washington's most valuable agricultural commodity, with
$2.1 billion in sales in 2020. About 30 percent of the State's product
is exported. According to the Washington State Apple Commission, port
congestion has producers concentrating this year more on North American
markets as opposed to overseas markets, cutting into their profit. For
every 1 million boxes of fresh apples shifted into the U.S. domestic
market, the price drops about 50 cents per box as supply begins to
overtake demand. These losses impact real American jobs and the
American economy.
But let's look at the other side of the equation. As Washington
growers and American growers and American manufacturers struggle,
foreign shipping companies are reporting more than $200 billion in
profits--more than double the profit they made over the last 20 years
combined. That is what these international shippers are profiting. So
it doesn't have anything to do with the fact that we helped Americans
get a paycheck during the pandemic; it has to do with foreign companies
that are overcharging U.S. producers of goods.
At this critical time in our country, we need a Federal Maritime
Commission to move decisively to put in place practices and regulations
to address port congestion and support U.S. exporters and help them not
be the target of unfair practices such as exorbitant shipping costs and
a lack of access to ships. We need a Commission that will take action
and improve the information flow at ports, investigate these illegal
practices, and take enforcement action against foreign bad actors who
are overcharging U.S. exporters and other shippers. We need a
Commission that will stand up to foreign shipping interests and protect
American manufacturers, farmers, and other exporters.
So, yes, there is something we can do about our supply chain woes,
particularly for States that have big export economies.
That is why American shippers and producers--``American shippers''
meaning the people who are actually shipping product--that is why
American shippers and producers are behind the nomination of Max
Vekich, because Mr. Vekich knows the ports, knows the shipping
community, and has spent more than 40 years working on the waterfront.
He spent his life working in the maritime industry and knows the
challenges we face in maritime, intermodal transportation, congestion,
and continuing to move forward on how we advance our ports.
If you have worked on the docks for 40 years, I guarantee you, you
know about every product, and you know what challenges we face from
this international competition.
We are on the precipice of moving important competitive legislation,
but part of that competitive legislation is getting our products on
vessels instead of being stranded at the docks and preventing shipping
companies from retaliating against U.S. exporters.
Again, the majority of this product is moved by international
shippers. It is an international business. So we need a Commission in
place that is willing to act, a Commission that is willing to use their
authority to enforce our current laws and to make sure we are
protecting American exporters.
That is why exporters like the Idaho Dairy Association support Max
Vekich, because they know he knows how to move product.
[[Page S623]]
That is why the American Association of Port Authorities, a trade
association representing more than 80 ports across the United States,
supports Max Vekich, citing his unique leadership as a longtime
maritime worker in the sector.
The Pacific Northwest Waterways Association represents ports, tug and
barge companies, steamship operators, grain elevator operators,
agricultural producers, forest products manufacturers, electric
utilities, irrigation districts, and other businesses throughout Idaho,
Oregon, and Washington. This organization does not typically endorse
candidates for these Federal offices, but today, they are calling for
Mr. Vekich to be confirmed on the basis of his ``firsthand knowledge of
maritime industry operations.''
Mr. Vekich knows what it takes to move product from the heartland. He
knows that in our Washington ports, we are helping U.S. farmers get
their products to market. So I know that whether it is wheat or
soybeans or other ag products, he knows what it takes to move them and
what it takes for us to continue to improve the efficiency of our
ports. Whether it is the Midwest manufactured products like cars and
jeeps, he knows what that takes and what it takes to continue to grow a
skilled workforce who will help us do that cost-effectively. He knows
how to work with industry, like agricultural producers and the
waterfront workforce alike.
So at a time when we are asking our dock workers and our longshoremen
to work around-the-clock to help elevate our efficiencies and improve
port congestion--and, I might say, at the loss of life. The amount of
death in the longshoreman community would break your heart. They
continued to work during the COVID-19 crisis and literally lost their
lives. This is what these people are doing. They are helping us keep
our supply chain going. So the least we can do is invest in somebody
who is going to help us understand what it takes to do that on a day-
to-day basis.
We need to make sure that we have a competitive and fair environment
for U.S. companies. So I ask my colleagues to confirm Max Vekich as
Commissioner of the Federal Maritime Commission this morning.
Madam President, I would ask unanimous consent to have printed in the
Record a list of supporters I mentioned.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
List of Supporters
American Association of Port Authorities, Idaho Dairy
Association, Darigold, Northwest Dairy Association, Pacific
Northwest Waterways Association, International Longshore
Association, Tote Maritime, Saltchuk, Foss Maritime, Pasha,
Matson, SSA Marine, Carnival, Transportation Institute,
National Pilots Association.
American Maritime Congress, ILWU, Inland Boatman's Union,
Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, National Farmers
Union, Masters Mates and Pilots, American Radio Association,
Seafarers, TTD, AFL-CIO, Local Washington state teamsters,
Local chapters of the Farm Union, Northwest Seaport Alliance,
Port of Tacoma, Port of Seattle.
United States Innovation and Competition Act
Ms. CANTWELL. Madam President, now I would like to turn our attention
to an issue that is also dealing with our supply chain, and that is the
issue of Congress moving forward on the differences between the House
and Senate bills on America's investment in R&D and innovation.
As the chart shows, our investment today equals U.S. jobs in our
economy tomorrow. So the United States Competition Act or, as we passed
it here, the United States Innovation and Competition Act is at a
crossroads because we need to get it into conference.
Other countries definitely aren't waiting--I guarantee you that. They
are making investments in innovation and technology. Where we are in
the United States is we are at a 45-year low in the amount of
investment in R&D against our GDP. So we are not keeping pace.
Many times I have been out on the floor here talking about why we are
not keeping pace. We tried. Unfortunately, we tried several years ago
and then had an economic downturn. So everybody signed up: Let's put
more into R&D investment. Then we had an economic downturn, and we
never fulfilled that promise. So the real consequences of that are we
are now behind in some very key sectors that we need to make
investments in.
The good news for us is that people are willing to make those
investments, like the Intel company, which just decided recently to
make a multibillion-dollar investment in the State of Ohio to grow chip
fabrication there. So we have opportunities if we make these
investments.
When the world presents a challenge, the American people, the people
in our State--they rise to the challenge, and the American spirit has
never ceased to amaze me. I guarantee, innovation is in the DNA of
Americans. Why? Because we live in a country where you are free to do
what you want. You are free to go and start a company and try your
skill set. We encourage it. We need to have that same spirit here
working collaboratively to get this legislation rectified and onto the
President's desk. There isn't a moment to wait for revolutionizing
science, creating jobs, and invigorating our new economic centers
around the Nation.
My colleague Senator Wicker and I worked on a very important aspect
of the bill, which is driving more innovation dollars into research
institutions in States that haven't traditionally had large research
footprints. This will be an issue of contention, I am sure, with some
of our colleagues, but my point is, innovation can happen anywhere, and
innovation infrastructure should be everywhere. So if we want that to
happen in Reno, NV, we need to make an investment in Reno, NV. I
believe in that because I am pretty sure the Sierra company is a very
big leader in the aerospace sector, and I think they are headquartered
in Reno, if I am not mistaken. This is what I am talking about. You can
build.
Guess what. Not everything has to happen in Seattle or San Francisco
or Boston or out here on the corridor here in Virginia. That is because
the innovation age means that innovation can happen at a very flat
level. It can happen anywhere.
So why would we constrict it? We don't want to constrict it. We want
to empower it. American leadership can't wait. What we need is to be
collaborative here in the U.S. Senate because that collaboration
between government, academia, and industry is what drives the next
level of innovation.
Just think about what happened with ARPA, DARPA as we made the
innovations with the internet. As the Acting President pro tempore
knows, because she is a programmer, that innovation allowed us to then
build out a commercial aspect of the internet that would not have
happened, at least at that moment in time. In 1993, it wouldn't have
happened. Look at where we are today with an internet economy, all
because we had U.S. innovation.
So technology after technology has been invented, and our U.S.
companies have continued to innovate, develop a workforce, and skill
people for the opportunities of tomorrow. But that leadership is not
guaranteed, and time and time again, history has shown us that while we
innovate here, other people are going to follow.
In aviation, the Wright brothers were the first to demonstrate this
with the Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, but the United States soon fell
behind in aviation as European governments invested and built out this
new industry. By 1913, the U.S. military had 6 planes and 14 trained
pilots. France had 216 airplanes and 171 trained pilots.
So leadership can't wait. You can't wait. I think people get this. We
do a lot of the innovation, and other people take that innovation and
implement it. That is why a major section of the bill is about
translational science. It is about taking that innovation in the United
States and translating it into faster adoption applications for
industries.
Congress finally decided to invest in American leadership in 1915 by
creating the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which worked
with academia and industry to regain America's dominance and find how
we build planes that even last today. That is what we are talking
about. That is why we feel that NASA is part of this bill. NASA is our
R&D Agency for aviation. That is what NASA is. Yes, it deserves a place
in this legislation.
A new aviation industry and new aviation supply chains sprung up
[[Page S624]]
across the country in places like Wichita, KS, and Seattle, WA. The
story would repeat itself after the Soviet Union challenged U.S.
leadership in the 1950s. Almost immediately, Congress recognized that
leadership could not wait, and that is when we did NASA. Bringing
together government, academia, and industry to create new generations
of American expertise and technical advancements is what eventually put
a man on the Moon and what will put someone--a woman this time--on the
Moon, but America had to choose to lead.
That is what we are going to be asked about with USICA in getting it
done. We have to choose to lead, to invest in technology. That
technology brought us places like Huntsville, AL, and Houston, TX. In
2020, the aerospace industry supported 2 million good-paying jobs, with
an average salary of over $100,000 per year, and generated $900 billion
in revenue. That is what the innovation economy did for us.
That is why we want to now upgrade the innovation, particularly as it
relates to semiconductors. The availability of these tiny chips is one
of the most pressing issues facing our country now. People can't get
access to them. It is so bad that, of the people who now have electric
cars or hybrids, if you have a used car, you know that your price goes
down; that it just continues to go down. Now used car prices are
actually going up. So few cars are available that the consumers want in
this area that, actually, used cars are getting more money. Prices are
going up and not down.
This shortage cost the transportation sector $210 billion last year
alone. We can't wait. We can't wait on these issues. We can't wait. The
essence of acting now--getting together, communicating with our
colleagues, working together in a collaborative spirit--is what is
going to get this legislation over the goal line and help us.
The first transistor, as part of this chip industry, was invented in
1947 in New Jersey, representing a collaboration from scientists across
physics, electrical engineering, and chemistry, but in the 1980s, the
U.S. semiconductor industry faced a serious challenge from an ally of
ours--Japan. Leadership did not wait. We did not wait. The government
set up a government-industry partnership, Semitech, with specific goals
of creating new collaborations and investing in American manufacturing.
The United States maintained that leadership role, and in the 1990s, we
produced 37 percent of the global chip supply. The semiconductor
industry now supports more than a million jobs because people didn't
stand around and wait.
But today we see overseas competitors who are investing heavily in
the technologies of the future--everything from AI, to composites, to
clean energy solutions--and they are trying to do everything from
driving their own energy independence to combating climate change. They
are investing in the resilience of their supply chains by promoting
domestic production. They are training their workforce.
So the aspects of the legislation that we passed that help to skill
and keep Americans working and trained for the workforce are very
important policies. In fact, the administration just released yesterday
another round of investment as part of what was the aerospace and
manufacturing jobs program that helped keep the aviation worker in
place or actually try to recapture some of them who were laid off
during the pandemic.
It is a very important piece of legislation that we have worked on
that my colleagues over here, for the most part, didn't support in the
final package. Some of them supported it as a concept and as an idea
but did not support the final package.
Right now, it is 30 to 50 percent cheaper to build a semiconductor
foundry in Asia than in the United States, mostly because of foreign
government investment. Moreover, as I said, we are being hard hit by a
semiconductor supply chain crisis. Car manufacturers, including Tesla,
GM, and others, are removing some of their most advanced and desirable
features from their cars just to reduce the number of chips that are
needed. Literally, we are cutting our innovation skill set just because
we don't have the chips. Ford announced last week that it will either
halt or cut production at eight plants.
Are we really going to sit around and wait to get this legislation
done? Are we really going to sit around and wait?
We have eight plants that are going to shut down because they don't
have chips, and we are going to sit around and wait for another 3 or 4
weeks before we go to conference to resolve these issues. It has been
projected that this chip shortage cost the global auto industry, in
2021, $210 billion in revenue and a loss of production of 7.7 million
cars. So leadership can't wait. It can't wait.
Fortunately, the United States is showing that we can respond, and we
in the Senate did pass legislation. Now we have an opportunity to go to
conference and work with our colleagues, but some people want to wait
another 3 weeks or 4 weeks to do that. I don't want to wait. I don't
want to wait another second. The competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers
that are competing on an international basis and that receive the
investments that we make in technology just can't wait.
Recent investments from the commercial sector from Intel show that
over 10,000 new jobs will bring a domestic semiconductor industry to
the Midwest, specifically to Ohio, and our experience has shown us
that, if we make the investments that we are talking about in USICA, in
the competitiveness act, that we will grow an even larger U.S.
semiconductor manufacturing business.
Yet foreign competitors are not sitting still. When it comes to
technology leadership, they are, obviously, going to try to do their
part. So our solution is simple. All we have to do is work together.
All we have to do is be collaborative. As someone once said,
collaboration is the next phase of innovation. You can have all the
science; you can have all the creativity, but if you can't get it
implemented because people don't sit around the table and talk and
innovate and work together, then you can't get it implemented.
That is where we are. We know we need to do this investment in R&D.
We know that we need to invest in chips, and we are not doing it
because some people don't want to move ahead and get this done.
The Senate Commerce Committee passed the legislation, and we,
obviously, got and understood the urgency of it. We got and understood
the urgency of it. Trust me. There are many other things we thought we
were going to put on our agenda. The Acting President pro tempore
knows--because she sat through the hundreds of amendments that were
marked up--the process that we went through, the regular order, the
regular order that we went through here on the Senate floor, and the
regular order we are willing to go through. So no one is asking for
anything else but for regular order.
Of the people who want to hold up and don't want to move forward, I
would ask them to think about our competition that is working very hard
at beating us on semiconductors and the issues that it represents as it
relates to the investments we should be making.
I want us to make the investments in semiconductors. I want us to
make the investments in manufacturing extension programs, in STEM
education, in tech hubs, and in making sure that the United States of
America maintains its leadership role.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.
Ms. ERNST. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators
Graham, Gillibrand, Schumer, and I be able to complete our remarks
prior to the vote on H.R. 4445.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Ms. ERNST. Madam President, I also ask unanimous consent to engage in
a colloquy with my colleague Senator Graham.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so
ordered.
____________________