[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 39 (Thursday, March 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S961-S965]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE SESSION
______
POSTAL SERVICE REFORM ACT OF 2022--Resumed
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the Senate will
resume consideration of H.R. 3076, which the clerk will report.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 3076) to provide stability to and enhance the
services of the United States Postal Service, and for other
purposes.
Pending:
Schumer (for Peters) amendment No. 4955, to modify the
deadline for the initial report on the operations and
financial condition of the United States Postal Service.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). The Senator from Vermont.
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant 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for the quorum call be rescinded.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. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Majority Leader
The majority leader is recognized.
Coronavirus
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, as spring begins, daily new cases of
COVID-19 have dramatically decreased since the height of Omicron.
Hospitalizations, thank God, have steadily declined. Across the
country, Americans are able to remove their masks as the spread of
disease seems to be lessening. Crucially, schools are open, and we need
to do everything we can in our power to make sure they stay open.
All of these signs point in a positive direction. The country is
turning the corner on the COVID pandemic. We are in a new moment of the
fight.
But we also are at a crossroads. Either we act now to secure the
progress we have made, or we risk backsliding if another contagious
variant emerges in the fall and winter. Just as we cannot allow COVID
to rule our lives, neither can we fall into a false sense of
complacency.
That is why the White House has requested that Congress include $22.5
billion in additional COVID relief funding in the upcoming spending
bill, and Congress should follow through with this request over the
coming days. If not, we risk sliding back if another variant occurs.
This morning on CNBC, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb reminded
viewers of the key aspect of this disease. To paraphrase him loosely,
cases can drop in the spring and summer, but the risk still exists for
another wave to surge in the fall or winter. He is right. We all know
this from sad experience.
We also know what we must do to be ready. We know a lot more now what
to do to be ready than we knew a year ago. If we want to keep our
schools open, if we want to keep life as close to normal as possible,
if we want to be ready for the possibilities of future variants,
Congress must provide the resources needed before a new variant
arrives. That is the surest way to minimize cases, hospitalizations,
and deaths in the future.
Let me repeat. To keep schools open, to keep life as normal as it can
be, we need additional COVID investments now, not after a possible new
variant arrives.
Remember, by now, all public health funding provided by the American
Rescue Plan has run out. If Congress waits until a new variant arises
to pass new funding, it will be too late.
And we are happy to make clear with our Republican colleagues about
how this money is dedicated. The White House has already provided an
explanation about how COVID money has been spent over time. Some
Republicans may think it should have been spent differently, but the
point is that
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it has been spent. We can't pull those dollars back, and we need to
provide new funding for possible variants.
Where has the COVID money been spent thus far? It has gone to
vaccinate 215 million Americans. It has been used to keep schools open,
to expand treatment, and to provide 1.2 billion vaccines to other
countries.
Last night, Acting OMB Director Shalanda Young sent Congress a 12-
page letter detailing what the new funding would do: more vaccines for
children, bolstering our testing supply chain, therapeutics, and more.
If there is one thing both parties should be able to agree on it is
that we should not shortchange the American people on vaccines, on
testing, or on therapeutic medicines that greatly reduce the severity
of the illness if you are able to take them and if we have the supply.
Again, Congress must include new funding for COVID relief to ensure
our schools and our communities face minimal disruption in case another
variant comes, and we should do it ASAP. The most logical place
immediately to do it is in the upcoming omnibus bill.
Inflation
Mr. President, on another matter, on costs to the American people, in
the coming months and beyond, Senate Democrats will maintain a focus on
one of the most vexing issues facing American families: lowering costs
while building on the wage and job growth we have seen over the past
year.
The American economy is booming compared to a year ago. The number of
new jobs added to the economy is staggering. We have added more than 6
million new jobs in a single year, including the most--the most--new
manufacturing jobs in decades, but at the same time, we must fiercely
confront the wave of rising costs resulting from COVID's worldwide
disruptions. This is the biggest economic challenge that our country
must focus on right now.
Later today, at our DPCC lunch, at the request of Chair Stabenow, FTC
Commissioner Lina Khan will join us to shine a light on the troubling
pattern of corporate price hikes in the areas of oil and gas,
prescription drugs, and other goods.
This dimension of inflation cannot be ignored. Americans are being
asked to pay more at the grocery store, at the pump, and for basic
goods even as they watch incredulously as some of the Nation's biggest
corporations post their most massive profits.
In many instances, these profits resoundingly exceed prepandemic
figures. Last fall, Bloomberg noted that U.S. corporations outside of
the financial industry reported the biggest margins since 1950--since
1950--71\1/2\ years ago. It appears corporate profits are far outpacing
inflation, and they are spending much of the profits on things like
corporate buybacks, which are hitting record levels. So Americans are
being asked to pay more, but many mega corporations are making a
killing. That is a twisted thing to see as we recover from COVID.
Democrats are working right now on a number of proposals and ideas
that would ease the pressure Americans are feeling from rising costs.
We must lower the cost of insulin to $35 a month. We must make all
prescription drugs cheaper. We need to help make groceries more
affordable. We need to look at fixing ocean shipping bottlenecks.
I will also add that one of the best things we can do to fight
inflation is to confirm President Biden's nominees to the Federal
Reserve. I urge in the strongest terms possible for Republicans to drop
their holds on these members. The Federal Reserve is so crucial for our
economy right now, and to intentionally delay their confirmations is
irresponsible.
Most importantly, we must boost manufacturing, American
manufacturing, and decrease our reliance on overseas producers. The war
provoked by Putin is an illustration as to why this example is
important.
President Biden's State of the Union made clear that the United
States remains strong and ready to face the immense challenges of our
time, but to maintain that edge, we must focus like a laser on
addressing costs. That is what Democrats will keep doing.
Another thing we are doing today, that is happening today, is a
hearing in the Commerce Committee on shipping costs and a bipartisan
bill by Senators Klobuchar and Thune that will help reduce those costs.
Shipping costs affect every American. Any good that comes from overseas
has to be shipped here.
H.R. 3076
Mr. President, on the post office, Democrats have been working all
week with Republicans to push the biggest postal reform bill in years
over the finish line, and, today, we are close. Today, we continue
negotiations with the other side on their proposed list of amendments
to the bill.
As we continue to work on a deal, I filed cloture last night on the
postal bill in order to keep the momentum going. At the end of the day,
the vast majority of Democrats and Republicans wants to see this bill
sent to the President's desk quickly, so I hope we can arrive at an
agreement to finish before the weekend.
I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their
continued work, especially Chairman Peters and Ranking Member Portman.
This postal reform bill has been a long time coming, and when passed,
it will ensure that tens of millions of Americans who rely on the post
office every single day for medicines, Social Security checks, and
other goods can make sure that the post office remains in good hands
and is strengthened.
Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act
of 2021
Mr. President, finally, I want to close by noting, this afternoon,
President Biden will sign into law bipartisan legislation ending forced
arbitration for sexual assault and sexual harassment.
All of us have heard the searing testimonies--searing--of those who
have faced harassment or abuse at work, only to discover their jobs
offered precious little in accountability. Countless careers have been
derailed or undone. Worse still, countless lives have been forever
damaged. For decades, workplace practices like mandatory arbitration
have perpetuated cultures of abuse and unaccountability.
We can't ignore a basic reality of these clauses: They deprive
victims of sexual harassment and assault of their basic rights by
mandating that they seek remedy only behind the closed doors of private
arbitration, with no other alternative. With the President's signature
today, that will come to an end.
I want to thank Senator Gillibrand for leading the fight for years,
and I am glad I was able to work with Senators Graham and Ernst to push
this bill over the finish line.
By the end of today, we will be able to say: The Senate acted; the
House acted; the President acted; and now forced arbitration reform is
law.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Recognition of the Minority Leader
The Republican leader is recognized.
Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday morning, I hosted Judge
Ketanji Brown Jackson, the President's nominee to replace Justice
Breyer on the Supreme Court, in my office. I was glad to meet with
Judge Jackson. We enjoyed a cordial discussion.
Like I have been saying, Republicans fundamentally believe the
nominee, the Court, and the country all deserve better than the
disgraceful displays that Senate Democrats have routinely visited on
nominees of Republican Presidents. The Senate's process should be
dignified, but it also must be vigorous, exhaustive, and painstaking.
We are talking about a lifetime appointment to our Nation's highest
Court.
This is a moment when issues relating to the law and the judiciary
are directly hitting American families, from skyrocketing murders and
carjackings, to soft-on-crime prosecutors' effectively repealing laws,
to open borders. This is also a moment when the far left has declared
open season on the very concept of judicial independence itself.
[[Page S963]]
President Biden even bowed to the radicals and set up a Court-packing
Commission.
Now, Justice Breyer has distinguished himself by loudly and proudly
putting those radicals in their place. He has consistently denounced
the concept of partisan Court packing and defended the Court's
legitimacy.
One would hope his successor would follow suit, but curiously the
same radicals who want to turn Democrats into the party of Court
packing also badly wanted Judge Jackson for this vacancy. It is a
matter of record that this nominee was the anointed favorite of these
fringe groups. At this time last year, they were already spending dark
money to raise her profile.
So I intend to explore why groups that are waging political war
against the Court as an institution decided Judge Jackson was their
special favorite.
Like I said, I enjoyed meeting the judge. She is clearly a sharp
lawyer with an impressive resume, but when it comes to the Supreme
Court, a core qualification is judicial philosophy. Our citizens need
Justices who treat all parties fairly, apply our laws and Constitution
as written, and leave legislating to us here in Congress.
I raised all these matters yesterday. I look forward to gaining more
clarity about Judge Jackson's positions during the vigorous and
thorough Senate process to come.
(Ms. ROSEN assumed the Chair.)
Vaccines
Madam President, now on another matter, our Nation faces serious
challenges to our citizens' health and wellness. COVID-19 has been one
of them. Abuse of illegal drugs and prescription pills is another.
Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are ever present. Many of these
health crises hit Middle America especially hard and specifically rural
America.
Data show that rural Americans are disproportionately likelier to die
from a number of potentially preventable causes. That is why I have
been focused on expanding local treatment centers and telehealth and
fighting the drug epidemic tooth and nail.
Last week, I hosted Dr. Rahul Gupta, the administration's drug czar,
in Kentucky. Opioid abuse is a staggering problem in our State and
throughout the country. Last year, even during COVID, fentanyl abuse
alone was the biggest cause of death among Americans aged 18 to 45.
That is not even all drugs, just fentanyl alone.
In short, this may literally be the worst time in American history to
deliberately cut healthcare access in rural America, but that is just
what the Biden administration has done. President Biden told every
thinly stretched doctor's office and hospital that accepts Medicare
that they had to fire workers who didn't want the COVID vaccine.
Now, I have been a consistent advocate for getting vaccinated. They
offer powerful personal protection against hospitalization and death,
but they do not prevent people catching or transmitting the current
variant. There is no moral justification for sweeping mandates. The
benefits accrue to the person who gets the shot.
What is more, the CDC's own research says that prior infection
provides protection that is at least as strong as the vaccines. But the
President's overreaching mandate ignores that. His policy
unscientifically discriminated against people who have immunity from
prior infection. They had to comply anyway or lose their job.
The President tried to force such a mandate on all kinds of workers
across America. The courts slapped that down easily. But his mandate
targeting healthcare workers remains in effect.
It is unfair on a personal level, but even just looking at public
health, it is terrible policy for rural America. We cannot have
President Biden mass firing doctors and nurses when hospitals are
already short-staffed.
One hospital leader in Marshall County, KY, told me that ``this is an
absolute disaster. We are a small critical access hospital with 250
employees. . . . We have begun assessing areas that may have to be
[literally] shut down.''
A head of a hospital in Calloway County told me that ``I can afford
to lose not one more nurse.'' He said the Biden mandate ``makes no
sense''--no sense--``for rural healthcare.''
The head of a critical access hospital in Hardinsburg says that ``the
mandate is devastating for Kentucky hospitals.''
Clearly, many of my colleagues are hearing similar things. Yesterday,
over the objections of every Senate Democrat who voted, Republicans
stood up for Americans' right and Americans' healthcare access. We
passed a resolution to overturn President Biden's mandate that would
drain doctors and nurses out of middle America.
If Washington Democrats could safely hobnob in the Capitol all
Tuesday evening with no masks, then they ought to stop pushing mass
firings on essential health workers.
Unfortunately, if we know anything about this Democratic House, this
commonsense measure may well die on Speaker Pelosi's desk.
I sincerely hope our colleagues across the Capitol will see reason
and pass this bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
Federal Reserve Board Nominations
Mr. COONS. Madam President, since President Biden took office, we
have seen historic job growth and a dynamic economy. Wages are rising,
and they are rising fastest for working-class Americans.
But despite this significant economic progress, today, too many
American families are still facing pressing economic challenges: a
global pandemic now entering its third year, ongoing disruptions to
international supply chains that result in rising prices, and now the
economic shocks caused by Putin's aggression, his invasion of Ukraine
and the response by the West--a united effort to impose sanctions on
Russia, which will also have consequences for the global economy.
The Federal Reserve exists, in part, to address issues just like
these. The Fed doesn't just set interest rates and control our money
supply; it oversees banks, ensures efficient and reliable payments,
promotes consumer protection and community development.
When our economy is facing such foundational challenges like the ones
we are up against right now, it is crucial our institutions are at full
strength.
The Fed is at its strongest with a full Board of Governors, and
President Biden has nominated five of the finest economic and legal
minds our country has to fill its vacancies: Jerome Powell, to serve as
chair; and Lael Brainard, to serve as Vice Chair--both folks who have
ably guided our economy in the years they have served at the Fed; Sarah
Bloom Raskin, whom I know from college, has been nominated to serve as
Vice Chair for Supervision and has demonstrated through a long career
in public service at both the State and Federal level to be a highly
competent regulator who has advanced the financial system that would
work for all Americans; Philip Jefferson, nominated to serve as a Board
Governor, has deep expertise in how monetary policy impacts employment
and economic growth and an important understanding of inequality and
poverty in America today; last, my good friend, Lisa Cook, whom I have
known for decades. We knew each other as young Truman Scholars, folks
who were volunteering a week of our time to help mentor and encourage
younger Truman Scholars--a federally funded memorial to President Harry
Truman.
I have known her since a stage in her life where neither one of us
might have guessed that someday I would be on this floor speaking as a
Senator, and I would be speaking in support of her nomination to the
Federal Reserve.
She would bring a valuable new perspective to the Fed Board. Lisa,
from her time growing up in a small rural town in Georgia, going on to
earn advanced degrees from our Nation's finest institutions, and now as
a teacher at one of our great public universities, she has built world-
class expertise in economics, innovation, and banking. She understands
not just abstract economic theory but how those theories impact
Americans and their families in all walks of life.
Lisa served under President Obama at the White House Council of
Economic Advisers, where she dealt with financial crises both here in
the United States and abroad, and she has studied the macroeconomics of
foreign markets in Europe and in Africa, including the way central
banks have dealt with
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high inflation--one of the issues right before us.
She has expertise in an emerging area of the economy that is
increasingly important for our central bank regulators to understand:
digital currencies and financial technology. She has supported sensible
regulation of cryptocurrencies that enables innovation and allows more
people to access secure and low-cost financial services.
Her data-driven approach would help the Fed navigate our continued
economic recovery, and her focus on financial inclusion will be a
critical perspective on the Fed Board that would help ensure all
Americans can see the benefit of continued economic growth and job
gains.
Overall, these are five nominees to the Fed Board with sterling
credentials and strong character. All of them, on their merits, deserve
the seats to which they have been nominated.
I respect the desire on the part of my Republican colleagues to
conduct a full evaluation of these nominees, and all five of them have
responded repeatedly, fully, and with transparency to the hundreds of
questions that have been pressed to them. They have answered all the
questions put to them.
The time has come to advance and confirm these nominees, and I call
upon my Republican colleagues to allow a vote to proceed. To block a
vote in the Banking Committee of this Senate by simply denying a quorum
is no way for this allegedly greatest deliberative body in the world to
conduct itself. If we are, in fact, facing the crisis of inflation and
rising prices, the Federal Reserve Board must have its full membership.
So my colleagues, please, stop blocking these capable and qualified
nominees and allow them to proceed.
Nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson
Madam President, I serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And in my
dozen years here, I have had the honor of participating in, and even
presiding over, confirmation hearings for Federal District Courts,
Circuit Courts, and the Supreme Court.
We have before us now President Biden's first nominee to our Nation's
highest Court. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is an exceptionally well-
qualified jurist whose experience, whose credentials, and whose
evenhanded approach to the administration of justice make her an
outstanding nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court.
This is an important step forward toward making our Supreme Court
look more like and reflect more the diversity of people in our Nation
and the diversity of experience of those who serve in the bar.
Last year, Judge Jackson was confirmed by this Senate on a bipartisan
basis to serve on the DC Circuit Court, one of the most complex and
significant of the circuit courts of the United States. Before that,
she was unanimously confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia where she has honorably served for 8 years. She
has issued over 500 opinions, so we have a very clear idea of her
approach to judging and her interpretation of the law; and she brings
great professional diversity of experience to the Bench as well.
If confirmed, she will be the only Supreme Court Justice to have
served as a Federal public defender. That kind of perspective on our
highest Court is critical. Her work as a public defender is just one
example of the breadth of experience Judge Jackson will bring to the
U.S. Supreme Court.
She has also served as Vice Chair and Commissioner on the Sentencing
Commission that interprets and applies criminal law and as a lawyer in
private legal practice for some of our Nation's leading law firms. And,
most importantly, she clerked for the Justice for whom she has been
nominated as the successor, Justice Stephen Breyer.
Our President has promised to nominate someone in the mold of Justice
Breyer; and Judge Jackson--in temperament, in ability, and approach--
certainly fits that bill. It is my hope, it is my expectation, that
this Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee will meet this historic
moment by swiftly, appropriately, and respectfully questioning this
nominee in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, bringing her to a
vote on the committee, and then voting to confirm her nomination here
on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
Executive Calendar Nominations
Madam President, if I might, the last topic I come to speak to on
this floor today is the critical need for us to be as attentive to the
advice and consent role for nominees as ambassadors, as senior members
of the State Department, and USAID positions.
There are so many positions that have been held for months and
months; and many of them are being held by my colleague from the State
of Texas because of a disagreement over sanctioning the Nord Stream 2
pipeline. Today, finally, we stand in a place where the policy of this
administration, the policy of our close and valued ally in Europe,
Germany, and the positions of folks in the Senate are all aligned.
There are now sanctions on Nord Stream 2. It has been stopped.
Thankfully, my colleague has lifted his holds. Yet there still remain
holds from other Members of this body on other nominees, all of them
well-qualified. Eight of them would serve under the jurisdiction of my
Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee on economic and energy policy
multilateral organizations.
So while I respect the right of my colleagues on both sides of the
aisle to hold a nominee for a specific, relevant policy issue, we have
to provide advice and consent in a timely and respectful manner of the
President's nominees.
President Biden has been President more than a year now. We have
crises all over the world--whether it is in Ukraine, the violence and
the aggression carried out by Putin's Russia or its competition with
China or its dealing with North Korea or its advancing our interest
with respect to Iran and their proliferation--we have places all over
the world for which we need qualified nominees.
That is why, in a few moments, I hope to take action on the floor;
but I am not yet going to take that action unless it is clear we are
all prepared.
Let me briefly, in conclusion, if I might, speak to some of the folks
who should be confirmed.
The Ambassador to Botswana, Howard Van Vranken, career foreign
service officer in a country I have visited, a country that is an
important partner to allies in Southern Africa, and where the absence
of an ambassador means an absence of American leadership.
Eric Garcetti, mayor of Los Angeles, ready to serve as our Ambassador
to India, a country that is a continent-wide, multifaith, multilingual,
multiethnic democracy--a vital partner and ally to the United States
where we currently have no ambassador.
Marcia Bernicat to be Director General of the Foreign Service. If we
are to recruit, retain, motivate, and place the greatest diplomats
possible in the world, we need a Director General--a DG--who leads the
Foreign Service from a human resources perspective.
Julieta Noyes to be Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees, and
Migration. A million refugees have fled the violence in Ukraine; and
yet PRM has no Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary. Think about that
as a dereliction of duty by this body.
Oren Whyche-Shaw to be Ambassador to the African Development Bank. If
we want to see inclusive development on the continent of Africa, how
can we have no ambassador for this multilateral development bank?
Enoh Ebong to be Director of the United States Trade and Development
Agency, the USTDA. TDA plays a critical role in bringing into the
United States opportunities for trade and development--again, a
critical vacant seat.
Christopher Hill to serve as Ambassador to Serbia. There are
developments in the Balkans too complex and concerning for me to take
this body's time with right now. But let me simply say, any seat, any
ambassadorial post in the Balkans vacant is a missed opportunity for
American leadership.
Laura Holgate to be Ambassador to the Vienna Office of the United
Nations and Representative to the IAEA. We are engaged in critical
final-stage negotiations, I am told, in Vienna about whether or not we
will be able to further constrain and better understand Iran's
dangerous conduct with regards to enrichment. We have no ambassador to
the IAEA. Think about how irresponsible that is.
If I might, we cannot confront our global challenges alone, and we
need these diplomats in place so we can successfully address these
threats from
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Russia, climate change, COVID-19, from Iran, from terrorism.
It is my hope that my colleagues who have holds reportedly on many of
these nominees will relent, and I look forward to continuing to press
that case today.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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