[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 85 (Wednesday, May 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2567-S2570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Indo-Pacific Region

  Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, with the President of the United States 
soon to be departing on his first Asia trip, I rise to speak today 
about U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific, an area of the world that I know 
very well, having served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan prior to joining 
the U.S. Senate.
  While U.S. foreign policy in recent months has focused largely on 
Eastern Europe, we cannot take our attention away from our Nation's 
greatest strategic adversary, namely, the Chinese Communist Party. 
Confronting communist China is the essential responsibility of our 
time, as the China challenge--and how the United States and

[[Page S2568]]

our allies respond to it--will determine whether freedom or autocracy 
defines the 21st century. That is why I am pleased to see President Joe 
Biden investing the time and energy to travel to South Korea and to 
Japan this weekend.
  I can tell you just how critical I believe this trip is because I 
made a trip similar to this just last month. In April, I led the first 
congressional delegation to visit Japan since the pandemic began. I was 
joined by my colleagues Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and Senator John 
Cornyn of Texas.
  During our 6 days in Japan, our bipartisan delegation met with the 
country's top leaders, including the Prime Minister, his Cabinet 
members, Parliamentarians, and top leaders from Japanese industry. I 
think it is fair to say that our delegation returned with a great sense 
of optimism--optimism about the opportunities that lie before our two 
nations to increase our cooperation diplomatically, militarily, 
economically, and technologically and, by so doing, strengthening our 
alliance.
  While I certainly have policy disagreements with the current 
administration, I am hopeful that this is one area in which we can find 
common ground. The fates of our Nation and the world depend on it. This 
challenge, quite frankly, is just far too important to get wrong. So I 
am hopeful that President Biden will seize upon the opportunities 
presented to him in the Indo-Pacific region to confront the China 
challenge head-on and that this trip will provide him with a greater 
perspective to do so.
  I am pleased to see this administration maintain a focus on the Indo-
Pacific region, a focus that President Trump began and that I 
personally was proud to help lead from my diplomatic post in Tokyo. I 
also applaud President Biden for the actions that he has taken to 
engage the Quad at the leader level. Much more can be done.
  In terms of strengthening our diplomatic cooperation, the United 
States should warmly welcome Japan's proactive leadership in response 
to recent international crises. Japan is the world's third largest 
economy and a major financial player on the world stage. Japan is a 
member of the G7.
  In the days after Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of 
Ukraine, the Government of Japan joined by imposing strong, 
multilateral sanctions against Vladimir Putin's war machine.
  Japan's support on sanctions is as important as it is necessary. I 
saw this firsthand when, as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, I worked with 
then-Prime Minister Abe and his administration in complying fully with 
U.S. secondary sanctions to end Japan's purchases of Iranian oil in 
2018. With Japan's help, we dramatically reduced Iran's revenue stream 
and its ability to fund terror at that time. We see Japan's importance 
today with regard to multilateral sanctions against Russia.
  Going forward, the United States must do its utmost to ensure that 
Japan always has a seat at the table on major international issues.
  Indeed, I was very pleased to see Foreign Minister Hayashi become the 
first Japanese Cabinet member to attend a NATO ministerial when he 
traveled to Brussels last April. And I am even more pleased to learn 
that Prime Minister Kishida is considering attending the NATO Summit in 
Spain next month.
  Here, I see an opportunity for the United States to engage further 
with Japan and NATO by exploring new ways to expand high-level 
diplomatic interactions and information sharing.
  When I made the suggestion to Secretary of State Antony Blinken 
during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in early May, I was 
glad to see that my suggestion was well received.
  The second opportunity that I see is in the area of improving defense 
and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. The United States and Japan must 
further increase coordination on defense planning and procurement as 
Japan looks to significantly boost its spending on defense.
  Japan has already begun the process of rewriting its national 
security strategy and its related national defense strategy. At the 
same time, leaders in Tokyo see growing support from the Japanese 
people to roughly double Japan's defense spending to 2 percent of GDP.
  These developments come at a critical moment. Xi Jinping and the 
Chinese Communist Party have their eyes set on Taiwan, and they are 
surely learning lessons from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. At the same 
time, North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un continues to develop nuclear 
weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles as he poses grave and 
gathering threats to the United States and to our allies in the region.
  Our nations, therefore, must act with great urgency to strengthen 
defense and deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. In particular, the United 
States must encourage Japan to use their increased spending to field as 
rapidly as possible new defense capabilities that are mobile, lethal, 
and interoperable.
  Japan must also significantly improve its cyber security capabilities 
and its ability to share intelligence and information with its allies. 
And it is critical that the American and Japanese militaries expand 
joint training exercises with one another.
  I have had the honor of witnessing firsthand the success of our joint 
training exercises, and I encourage our nations to expand this 
invaluable training.
  The third area where I see an opportunity is on energy security, an 
area in which we should be working together. This was the message that 
I heard last month in Japan as leaders expressed concerns with 
America's current energy policies.
  Several years ago, I worked hard to encourage Japan to make 
significant investments in LNG infrastructure to allow greater LNG 
imports from the United States in order to strengthen our two nations' 
energy security and our national security.
  I hope President Biden's visit will underscore the significance of 
American strength as an energy exporter to enhance the security of our 
allies. But all members of the Quad must engage in the critical topic 
of energy security.
  India is the world's biggest democracy and now has an opportunity to 
decrease its energy and military reliance on Russia, and Australia is a 
significant energy exporter.
  When Secretary Blinken recently testified before the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, I pointed out to him that the Quad already has 
high-level working groups working on COVID-19 vaccines, infrastructure, 
critical and emerging technologies, space, cyber security, and 
environmental matters. But my argument to him was that adding a new 
working group in the Quad--one focused specifically on energy 
security--makes strong strategic sense, as energy security is 
inextricably linked to economic security and to our national security. 
Frankly, it is surprising to me that the Quad hasn't already made this 
issue a primary focus.
  Secretary Blinken appeared to appreciate the suggestion, and I 
emphatically urge the administration to take this idea to heart and 
dedicate time and energy to discussing energy security in our Quad 
strategic grouping.
  The fourth area of opportunity that I see is in technology. The 
United States and Japan already cooperate closely in this space. That 
was a point that I sought to underscore in many of our meetings with 
Japan's private sector leaders.
  I see growing opportunities for our Quad partners to ensure our 
respective technology sectors continue to work together and to generate 
trusted alternatives in 5G, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 
and in other strategic technologies.
  When I served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan, I helped the United States 
and Japanese Governments coordinate closely to counter Huawei and 
China's other heavily subsidized companies and to clear them from the 
5G markets of our representative economies. This was important 
because Chinese companies like Huawei pose grave and growing national 
security and espionage risks.

  Our U.S.-Japan strategy prevented Huawei and other Chinese Communist 
Party-directed technology firms from obtaining the global scale that 
they sought in their effort to dominate international markets.
  It also created openings for firms in the United States, Japan, and 
partner countries to pursue trusted 5G alternatives in supply chains, 
including software-defined networks and ORAN technologies.

[[Page S2569]]

  With each passing year, the technology competition with China is only 
intensifying. It is, therefore, imperative that the U.S.-Japan alliance 
and the Quad increase coordination and innovation in response to 
technological competition.
  The fifth opportunity is in economic leadership in the Indo-Pacific. 
When President Biden visits the region, I expect him to speak more 
about the Indo-Pacific economic framework. It is clear that many of our 
allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific are eager to see more U.S. 
economic leadership.
  As a next step, the United States should take the Indo-Pacific 
Economic Framework's data provisions and turn them into a stand-alone, 
sector-specific free-trade agreement.
  The executive branch should look closely at the U.S.-Japan Digital 
Trade Agreement of 2019 as a good starting point. This is the most 
comprehensive and high-standards agreement addressing digital trade 
barriers.
  I was proud to help then-U.S. Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer 
negotiate this and other bilateral agreements with Japan. Our efforts 
brought about a more fair and reciprocal trading relationship between 
our two nations, helping not only our economies but also our workers.
  The Biden administration has rightly maintained the Trump 
administration's tariffs on China as important leverage to uphold fair 
and reciprocal trade. This is a critical tool in our arsenal, and I 
hope the current administration continues to use it.
  There certainly are other areas where the administration must hold 
the line against China. The administration could do more to hold 
communist China accountable for unleashing the COVID-19 pandemic upon 
the world. It also needs to press Beijing to stop the deadly flow of 
Chinese-origin fentanyl and fentanyl precursors from flowing across our 
southern border and killing more than 100,000 Americans a year through 
overdoses.
  And we also know what is at stake when it comes to China's growing 
military threats against Taiwan. The last administration set a high 
standard on countering China, and I hope the current administration 
builds on that success.
  I believe there is strong bipartisan consensus in Congress when it 
comes to the Indo-Pacific and when it comes to the rising opportunities 
that we see before us to further strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance and 
the Quad. So I urge President Biden to seize these growing 
opportunities that I have outlined when he travels to the Indo-Pacific. 
As the only former American Ambassador serving in this body and as a 
member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I stand ready to work 
with him as he does.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The Senator from Maryland.


                Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, I take this time to review with my 
colleagues S. 4008, the Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022--
legislation that Senator Schumer has set up for action tomorrow.
  I want to start by saying that this bill--and the underlining bill 
that it deals with, the Restaurant Revitalization Fund--was a 
bipartisan product in which Democrats and Republicans worked together 
to help an industry that was in desperate need, the restaurant 
industry. It provided relief for their revenue losses, and we were 
proud that we were able to get that passed.
  The challenge was that after it was enacted, we provided $28 billion 
for the restaurants under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. In 
reality, that was not enough money to cover the demand, and we found 
that where close to 100,000 restaurants were able to qualify and 
receive funds under that program, 170,000 were shut down through no 
fault of their own.
  So we went to work, Democrats and Republicans, in an effort to 
rectify that inequity and help an industry that was in desperate need.
  We filed legislation in August of last year. And I am proud that it 
was bipartisan, joined by many of my Democratic colleagues and 
Republican colleagues. I want to single out Senator Roger Wicker, who 
has been the real champion on making sure that we worked in a 
bipartisan manner. We were joined on the Republican side by Senator 
Murkowski, Senator Ernst, Senator Cassidy, Senator Hyde-Smith, Senator 
Collins, and Senator Blunt. And others have joined us during the 
process.
  But I want to take you back a little bit before we filed that bill in 
August of last year. There was legislation filed that would replenish 
the funds at $60 billion because we thought $60 billion was going to be 
needed in order to complete the funding. I think Senator Sinema led the 
effort in filing that legislation.
  The difference between the bill that was filed for $60 billion and 
the bill that we are going to be considering tomorrow is the bill 
tomorrow is $48 billion less. We were able to reduce the amount of 
dollars that were needed in order to carry this out. Some restaurants 
have closed. We have tightened up the rules.
  And we can not only do that for $12 billion less than it was 
initially thought was going to be possible when we had bipartisan 
support last summer, but we are now able to expand it to other related 
industries--all of which have had bipartisan legislation in this body--
to provide relief. These are industries that were shut down as a result 
of COVID-19. They had tremendous revenue losses and incurred tremendous 
debt in order to stay in business.
  So we provided in this bill--for the same $48 billion, we include 
help for our gyms. We include help for Minor League Baseball, 
professional leagues. We provide money for music venues. We provide 
money for border businesses. We provide money for the bus industry. We 
were able to do all that, and we are still less money than the original 
bill that was filed last summer.
  We did a couple more things in order to make sure this was done in a 
very fiscally conservative way. We were able to find some offsets. 
There were no offsets in those other bills. We found about $5 billion 
of offsets that we put in this bill.
  We did something else that was not in the original act. We required 
the SBA to bring in all the applications before they allocate any 
money. Now, we had them already in the restaurants. These are ones that 
qualified before. But in the other areas they will receive all the 
applications, and before they issue any checks, they have to make sure 
they have adequate resources. If they don't, there is a pro rata 
reduction so there is no further need for us to be concerned about 
replenishing the funds.
  All those are improvements that were made on the original bipartisan 
legislation that was filed that is more considerate of the needs, less 
costly, and more efficient.
  Now, we have other protections that are built into this legislation. 
A restaurant cannot double dip. They have to subtract the moneys that 
they received under the Paycheck Protection Program, either first or 
second round of funds, from what they would otherwise be qualified to 
receive. They have to have a revenue loss that they can document. So 
there are protections in the bill.
  But I want to go to what is the major issue why we really need to 
make sure we get this done. Because of the way that this was 
administered, partly as a result of a court action, you had two 
restaurants side by side, identical in their needs, filing their 
applications on the same day. One was funded; one was not. The 
restaurant that was not funded, if it is still in business today, it is 
very likely that that restaurant owner is taking out loans in order to 
stay in business and is still trying to be competitive to that 
restaurant that is next door.
  It is very possible that restaurant is having trouble getting help, 
as all restaurants are having trouble getting help, but cannot compete 
in salary with that restaurant that got the help and now has to compete 
and try to get workers, even though they didn't get the same financial 
assistance. So it is a matter of basic fairness.
  I want to go one step further. We in the Congress tried to prioritize 
those restaurants in underserved communities and traditionally 
underserved small business owners. We set up a priority line for them 
to be able to get their help under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. 
The court blocked

[[Page S2570]]

that line, and we now have small business owners who are literally 
discriminated against because they were veterans or in underserved 
communities.
  So as a matter of fairness, we really need to get this done. The need 
is there. We all know how restaurants are operating at less than full 
capacity today. They are still hurting as a result of COVID-19. This is 
going back and helping them in regard to their first year of losses--
something we should have done a long time ago but something that is 
desperately needed to get done. So I just really wanted to explain that 
to our colleagues, why we need to get this done. We finally have an 
opportunity.

  Now, what are we going to be doing? We are going to be working on the 
motion to proceed. Now, this is not unprecedented. Let me remind my 
colleagues that the original bill that funded the restaurant fund was 
emergency funding. So it patterned itself after the relief we gave to 
the general small business community under the Paycheck Protection 
Program, which was also emergency funding.
  The original bill, under the Paycheck Protection Program, was also 
underestimated by hundreds of billions of dollars. And we came back--
Democrats and Republicans--in a bipartisan way and replenished that 
fund literally overnight--hundreds of billions of dollars--as emergency 
funding without offsets.
  And now we are trying to finish what we started in regards to the 
restaurants. It should be--no question about it--emergency funding; but 
we are, again, trying to be as careful as possible, so we have even 
found some offsets in order to make this easier for our economy.
  There are some who say they worry about what impact it is going to 
have on our economy. I think keeping small businesses open is pretty 
important for our economy. But we can tell you the Restaurant 
Association has informed us that a large part of these funds are going 
to be used to pay off debt that small business restaurants had to take 
out in order to stay afloat. So we are going to keep restaurants open. 
And they are going to be able to pay off their debt, and they are going 
to be able to add to our community. That is what is at stake here, and 
that is why we are so protective of making sure we try to get this 
done.
  Now, this is a motion to proceed. I have listened to debate on this 
floor about how we have to have the Senate work. This is a bipartisan 
bill dealing with small business on a motion to proceed that will allow 
us to have the debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate. I don't 
understand any of my colleagues believing that this is appropriate to 
filibuster and not give us the 60 votes we need on a motion to proceed. 
There are a lot of my colleagues who are always talking about reforming 
the rules in this place. OK. I understand, when we are getting to an 
emotional issue, it gets difficult for us to work together; but if we 
can't work together on a small business bill that was developed by 
bipartisan Members--Democrats and Republicans--that is consistent with 
what we have been doing in helping small businesses generally, and we 
now have an opportunity to bring it to the floor for a debate--it will 
be open to amendment. Those who say: Well, gee, are there other ways we 
can make this more affordable? Well, come forward.
  We have been working on this for a year--close to a year. And, yes, 
that is why we have gotten good suggestions from Democrats and 
Republicans in order to try to make this work. But if you don't allow 
us to debate the bill on the floor of the U.S. Senate, I really don't 
understand that. If you profess that you want to see this place work 
and there is not a philosophical problem here of helping small 
businesses, why can't we move forward?
  I don't even know why we need a cloture motion. We should be able to 
pass a motion to proceed on this bill and have a debate and go to 
amendments. And Senator Wicker and I have made it clear that we will 
act as traffic cops; we will try to figure out the best way to consider 
this bill in order to make it work for all.
  Madam President, small businesses have a special way of filling our 
cities and towns that make them irreplaceable when they are gone. I 
think we all recognize that. They drive our local economies. They give 
our neighborhood character. They make us proud of where we come from 
and where we live. If we allow them to disappear through inaction, they 
will leave holes in our community that we cannot easily fill.
  If we cannot pass one last round of aid, it will mean certain 
restaurant owners who have pending loans are going to close their doors 
forever. Those holes will exist in our community, and we will not be 
able to fill them.
  I ask my colleagues--all of us understand the importance of small 
business. We understand they are the growth engines in our community 
and innovation engines in our community. We made a commitment to help 
them through COVID-19, and we have honored a large part of that 
commitment. This is the last chapter to complete that commitment, and I 
hope my colleagues will join us in allowing us to have this debate on 
the floor and support the help for our small businesses that are in 
desperate need.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.