[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 48 (Thursday, March 17, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1237-S1238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   AMERICA CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MANUFACTURING, PRE-EMINENCE IN 
    TECHNOLOGY, AND ECONOMIC STRENGTH ACT OF 2022--Motion to Proceed

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I move to proceed to Calendar No. 282, 
H.R. 4521.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       Motion to proceed to Calendar No. 282, H.R. 4521, to 
     provide for a coordinated Federal research initiative to 
     ensure continued United States leadership in engineering 
     biology.


                             Cloture Motion

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I send a cloture motion to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The cloture motion having been presented under 
rule XXII, the Chair directs the clerk to read the motion.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

                             Cloture Motion

       We, the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the 
     provisions of rule XXII of the Standing Rules of the Senate, 
     do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to 
     proceed to Calendar No. 282, H.R. 4521, a bill to provide for 
     a coordinated Federal research initiative to ensure continued 
     United States leadership in engineering biology.
         Charles E. Schumer, Patty Murray, Benjamin L. Cardin, 
           Tammy Duckworth, Mark R. Warner, Robert P. Casey, Jr., 
           Jack Reed, Tina Smith, Brian Schatz, Christopher 
           Murphy, Mazie K. Hirono, Mark Kelly, Tammy Baldwin, 
           Jacky

[[Page S1238]]

           Rosen, Ron Wyden, Margaret Wood Hassan, Maria Cantwell.

  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call 
for the cloture motion filed today, March 17, be waived and that 
following the 1:45 p.m. vote, the Senate resume legislative session.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Wyoming.


                               Inflation

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
America's inflation crisis. People in my home State are noticing it 
every day.
  This morning, the majority leader came to the floor and expressed his 
shock that prices have gone up, but they have been going up for over a 
year now. Price increases last year on energy alone cost hard-working 
families over $1,000 more last year--the first year that Joe Biden was 
President--compared to the previous year. This year, it is going to 
cost even more for energy--to drive, to heat, all of those things.
  So I am glad that the Democrats now are--14 months into Joe Biden's 
Presidency--finally concerned about energy prices, but what we are 
seeing the Democrats offer are gimmicks.
  Some Democrats want to call it a gas tax holiday. Of course, the gas 
tax is what is used to pay for our roads and bridges. So they want to 
defund--stop paying for roads and bridges but then put the gas tax back 
on right after the election. It is a cynical ploy.
  Other Democrats say: No, no, let's not do that. Let's just send 
everybody more government checks.
  Well, the Democrats have been doing that, and it is what has caused 
much of the inflation that we are facing today.
  Still other Democrats say: No, no, no, let's clamp down on American 
energy even tighter.
  These are nice sound bites. We are seeing them. We are hearing them. 
Those aren't solutions.
  We know why prices are rising. Prices are rising because supply of 
American energy is down. We are actually 1.3 million barrels less 
energy producing now with oil in the United States than we were before 
the pandemic. So why is supply down? Well, the policies of the 
Democrats in the House and the Senate and the policies coming out of 
the White House. Democrats have been in charge of Washington now for a 
full year, and high prices are really the rotten fruit of Democrat 
rule.
  As I said, we are at 1.3 million barrels of oil per day less than 
before the pandemic. People say: Well, what has caused it? Joe Biden 
was proud to talk about what has caused it. His first act as President 
was to stop oil and gas leases on Federal lands, kill the Keystone XL 
Pipeline, and it is one of his campaign promises. You can go back and 
look at the videos of Joe Biden as a campaigner saying: I promise you 
there will be no new oil and gas in the United States. That is actually 
what the video says, and that is what he says. They are his own words, 
his own promises. Then he went back to try to clarify that and clean it 
up a little bit, and he said: Well, not on public lands.
  This isn't a surprise that Biden has crushed U.S. production of oil 
and gas. This administration still has not held a single auction for 
oil and gas leases on Federal lands since the day he has taken office. 
How does that compare to other administrations? Well, under President 
Obama, there were more than 30 oil and gas lease sales on Federal lands 
that had been conducted in the auctions in this same period of time.
  So has anybody said anything about it? Actually, yes. The courts have 
ruled. The courts said the President's executive office on Federal land 
leases is illegal. That is what the courts ruled. President Biden 
thumbed his nose at the Federal courts. The President has stubbornly 
refused to open up more Federal lands to American energy production, 
ignoring what the courts have said.
  In Western States like Wyoming, where half of our land is owned by 
the Federal Government, and controlled, it is devastating. Half of 
Wyoming is Federal land. We are sitting on a treasure trove of American 
energy. We wouldn't have to be relying on Vladimir Putin or we wouldn't 
have to be relying on Iran or going hat in hand to Venezuela. We have 
it here in America, and we do it a lot cleaner than they do in any of 
these foreign countries run by dictators.
  When we keep energy buried in the ground, American families get 
buried in costs.
  The White House says we don't need to open up Federal lands, no. The 
White House says there are oil and gas leases that are not being used--
another sound bite. In reality, most of the leases that aren't being 
used--it is because they are tied up in Democrat redtape or Democrat-
run lawsuits.
  There are some that aren't being used because the companies that have 
the leases can't get the funding to go and do the exploration. Why 
can't they get the funding? It is the cancel culture of the Democratic 
Party. We have seen it. Joe Biden's recent nominee to the 
Federal Reserve wrote in the New York Times that banks, she said, 
shouldn't lend money to oil and gas companies--shouldn't do it, period. 
These are businesses that get loans to do business, and she said: Nope, 
none for you. A lot of banks listened to her because they thought she 
was going to be confirmed. Thankfully, that nomination has been 
withdrawn.

  Less investment means less production. It results in higher prices.
  This morning, the majority leader, standing at that podium over 
there, also said gas prices had gone up ``at a time when families are 
already struggling.'' Well, why do you think they are already 
struggling? We know why they are struggling. It is because of the 
inflation caused by this administration and the policies that have been 
going on for a full year even though, month after month after month, 
the President of the United States said they would be transitory.
  The price of gas has gone up. The price of heating in your home has 
gone up. The price of groceries has gone up. The price of nearly 
everything has gone up. Over the past year, prices have gone up 8 
percent. We are at a 40-year high of inflation in this country. The 
average family's income cannot keep up with the price increases that we 
have been sustaining since the day Joe Biden took office. Just last 
month, some of the price increases were the biggest on record: chicken, 
lunch meat, baby food--things that people need to buy.
  I am glad to hear that the Democrats are finally admitting the crisis 
is only going to get worse. Why do they say it is going to get worse? 
Because the cost of producing things has gone up. Energy prices are up; 
you use energy to produce things. The inflation cost for producing 
things now is actually higher based on--the price index for production 
is at 10 percent. So that says that prices are going to go up because 
if it costs more to produce things, the pricetag has to go up. Food 
costs continue to go up. Senator Fischer, my colleague, the senior 
Senator from Nebraska, pointed out that fertilizer costs have tripled.
  Now Democrats want to make it worse. Democrats in the House--not in 
the Senate but Democrats in the House--are asking Joe Biden to declare 
a climate emergency and tighten his choke hold on American energy 
production. It is going to make inflation even worse.
  In yesterday's Washington Post, Larry Summers warned that we might 
face something, I say to the Presiding Officer, that you and I 
remember, something from the Jimmy Carter days called stagflation. That 
is where you have inflation and stagnation at the same time. It is a 
terrible thing to happen to an economy.
  The crisis is only going to get worse. We need to change course. We 
need to do it now. Stop the reckless spending, and above all, unleash 
American energy. Don't be a country that not too long ago was asking 
Russia to produce more, asking OPEC to produce more, asking Iran to 
sell us energy, asking Venezuela. Produce it here. We have it here. 
Open up these Federal lands. Approve the drilling permits--the 4,600 
drilling permits that are stuck in limbo by this administration.
  American families cannot afford 3 more years of Joe Biden.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________