[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 121 (Thursday, July 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3583-S3589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CHIPS ACT OF 2022--Continued

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, 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order for the quorum call be rescinded.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.


                   Recognition of the Minority Leader

  The Republican leader is recognized.


                              The Economy

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, Washington Democrats' one-party 
government has actually performed an amazing feat. In 18 months, they 
have taken an economy that was ready to soar and completely derailed it 
with $2 trillion in unnecessary borrowing, printing, and spending. Now, 
9.1 percent inflation is pinching hard-working Americans every time 
they visit the gas pump or the grocery store.
  The Biden administration has tried their hardest to find a silver 
lining amid the economic storm clouds they helped create. They have 
touted the strength of consumer spending to conclude our economy is 
strong. That is what they said. Well, of course, consumer spending has 
only gone up because the price of nearly everything has increased. A 
recent economic analysis shows the American people do spend more on 
gas, groceries, furniture, and clothes than we used to, but--listen to 
this--adjusted for inflation, they are actually consuming less--paying 
more, getting less.
  Parents of school-age kids are some of the hardest hit. Four in ten 
say they won't go back-to-school shopping before the upcoming school 
year. One young mother in Nevada says she will ``pick out one or two 
shirts'' for her daughter ``and that's it.'' Inflation has made 
everything else too expensive.
  Over in Arizona, inflation forces the average household to spend over 
$9,600 more a year compared to when President Biden took office. Many 
families simply don't have that much wiggle room in their budgets and 
are resorting to desperate measures simply to stay afloat.
  One Phoenix area food bank has seen a 78-percent increase in visitors 
compared with just last year--78 percent more families who simply can't 
afford to live in this Democrat-run economy. A woman in line at the 
food bank said she had never needed to visit one before but ``the 
prices are way too high'' right now to support four children on her 
husband's salary.
  Colorado families are facing the highest inflation costs in the 
Nation, in the whole country: nearly $10,900 in extra spending per year 
compared to the beginning of the Biden administration. Not 
surprisingly, Coloradans are falling behind on paying for daily 
necessities. One pawn shop owner in the State has noticed a marked 
increase in loan seekers at his business. For most of them, they just 
need ``30 bucks, 40 bucks'' to ``pay small bills, get gas, put 
groceries on the table.''
  This is all happening in my home State of Kentucky as well. People 
are taking out loans, cutting back spending, and relying on charity 
just to cope with ever-increasing prices. But that hasn't stopped 
Washington Democrats from proposing new ways to wreck our economy. As 
we speak, they are batting around a new suite of tax hikes aimed 
squarely at the middle class. If Democrat-driven inflation hasn't 
pushed struggling families off the edge quite yet, the Democrat-driven 
recession certainly will finish the job.
  So what is on the menu? New taxes on small businesses already 
struggling with inflation, new fees and regulations on American energy 
producers that will send prices even higher at the pump, new socialist 
price control schemes to stifle healthcare innovation.
  Apparently, record inflation isn't enough to make Democrats realize 
their reckless economic agenda is a failure, an abject failure. Maybe 
tax-hike-induced stagflation will set them straight.


                                Ukraine

  Madam President, now on another matter, I had the honor, along with 
others, of greeting the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, who 
greeted us here in the Capitol. Like my colleagues in the room, I was 
moved by her blunt, plaintive remarks to Congress. As her country 
endures the fifth month of a brutal Russian siege, Ms. Zelenska was 
candid about the pain and suffering Russia's unprovoked war of 
aggression was causing her homeland. She said: ``Russia is destroying 
our people.''
  The First Lady conveyed the incredible determination of the Ukrainian 
people and echoed their simple request for the tools to fight their own 
fight--``Weapons,'' she said, ``to protect one's home and the right to 
wake up alive in that home.''
  I hope the First Lady's visit helped steel our colleagues' resolve as 
friends of Ukraine. Russia's invasion has already reminded the West 
that revisionist aggressors cannot be appeased. And Ukraine's brave 
resistance, equipped with the arsenal of the free world, is a further 
reminder that this is a fight they intend to win.
  The Senate should be proud of our work over the past several months 
to get more lethal capabilities into Ukrainian hands. But at every step 
of the way, the Biden administration has been a bit slow to green light 
the game-changing weapons Ukraine's frontline defenders actually need.
  I urged the President for more than a year to take specific actions 
to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine--actually, before it 
escalated. Last June, I urged him to deliver lethal capabilities to 
Ukraine and other states in Vladimir Putin's crosshairs. Instead, the 
administration slow-walked security assistance for months.
  In December, I called for U.S. military reinforcements along NATO's 
eastern flank, but the President waited until February to deploy 
forces--too late to deter Putin's aggression. And even after Russia had 
launched its unlawful invasion, the President has repeatedly deterred 
himself from providing Ukraine the capabilities it needs.
  With nearly every weapons system requested by Ukraine, the cycle in 
Washington plays out like this: first, hesitation and concern; then, 
excuses that Ukraine couldn't effectively use the proposed weapons or 
objections that providing them would escalate the conflict; then--
then--grudging willingness to transfer the weapons; and finally, with 
weapons in Ukrainian hands, self-congratulations from the Biden 
administration that they are having a positive impact on the 
battlefield. It is exhausting to watch this decision-making cycle 
repeat itself from Kentucky. It must be exacerbating to watch it from 
Kyiv.
  The need for advanced, longer-range weapons to turn back Russia's 
aggression is painfully obvious. Air defense capabilities to combat 
Russia's continuing long-range strikes against civilian populations 
across Ukraine, anti-ship weapons to combat the Russia Black Sea 
blockade and the humanitarian food crisis it is causing worldwide, and 
more capable, longer-range artillery to pound Russian positions in 
occupied Ukraine from relative safety--this will help offset any 
numerical advantage Russia has achieved by pumping so much more combat 
power into its invasion force.

[[Page S3584]]

  So here it is. Putin cannot be allowed to believe he can just wait 
for the West to become complacent. It would do a moral disservice to 
the brave Ukrainians fighting every single day for their country. But 
this is not just about Ukraine's security. If Russia achieves its 
objective in Ukraine, it will imperil our own security. And if we 
waiver--if we waiver--on Ukraine, it would certainly send an 
unmistakable signal of weakness to Beijing, which is watching the 
conflict in Ukraine very closely.
  For their part, so are our friends and allies in China's backyard. As 
Japan's Prime Minister put it back in May: ``Ukraine might be East Asia 
tomorrow.''
  Russia's brutal war has cost the people of Ukraine their homes, their 
safety, and their lives. But it has also reawakened the West to the 
reality of long-term deterrence and competition.
  It has led modern partners like Sweden and Finland to cast their lot 
with the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. And it 
has prompted current treaty allies to shake off years of neglect for 
their own defense capabilities. All of this will result in greater 
burden-sharing, interoperability, military capability, and collective 
security for the NATO alliance.
  The United States cannot afford to neglect this lesson ourselves. As 
the leader of the free world and the No. 1 target of revisionist 
adversaries like China and Russia, we have to take seriously our 
obligation to maintain America's military superiority.
  We need to act quickly and pass a defense authorization bill that 
restores our readiness, grows our stockpiles of critical munitions, 
reinforces our position along NATO's eastern flank, and lays the 
foundations for a new era of credible deterrence in Asia by modernizing 
and equipping our military for real competition with China.
  I hope the Democratic leader will let the Senate take action on this 
critical legislation without further delay.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.


                         Highland Park Shooting

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, we have a great number of holidays each 
year in America. But is there a more perfect holiday than the Fourth of 
July? We celebrate the birth of our Nation. We gather with our families 
for picnics, a trip to the beach, backyard barbecues, take in a 
baseball game, and go to a parade. It is just the ultimate American 
celebration. We relax, pull out our American flags, gather our kids, 
and thank God that we are born in this great Nation and can call it 
home.
  But this last Fourth of July became a different scene in one part of 
my home State of Illinois. It was the first time in years that the 
people of Highland Park were able to gather together publicly. So there 
was a special celebration as they gathered at 10 in the morning for the 
Fourth of July parade.
  Oh, in addition to the usual suspects at these parades, political 
candidates, there were a lot of groups just there in pure celebration: 
high school bands, gatherings of veterans, all sorts of groups in a 
wonderful, wonderful suburban town in the Chicagoland area of Highland 
Park.
  Yesterday, we held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee about 
the day of the July Fourth parade in Highland Park. I wish we didn't 
have to hold that hearing. I would rather it would have been some other 
subject, some other place. But it was the 10th hearing during this 
Congress--the 10th time--that we had held a hearing in the Judiciary 
Committee on gun violence--gun violence, the No. 1 cause of death of 
children in America. Let me repeat that: gun violence, the No. 1 cause 
of death among children in America.
  Yesterday, we focused on Highland Park and the Fourth of July parade, 
and we focused on the obvious mass shooting incident that took place. 
And we focused on military-style assault weapons.
  The Fourth of July shooting in Highland Park, IL, was the 309th mass 
shooting in America this year. What is a mass shooting? When four 
people are either injured or killed--309 times it had happened before 
July the Fourth.
  By the time of yesterday's hearing, 16 days after the Fourth of July, 
that number of 309 had grown by 47 mass shootings since the Fourth of 
July in America--16 days, 47 more mass shootings.
  Where else on Earth is this taking place? Nowhere. Right here in the 
United States of America is the only place on Earth where mass 
shootings are happening on such a frequent basis.
  In many of the deadliest shootings, the attacker used an assault 
weapon, a combat weapon--a gun specifically designed to kill the 
maximum number of people in just a few seconds; the same weapon we saw 
in Uvalde, TX, where the kids in their classrooms were killed; the same 
weapon we saw in the supermarket in Buffalo, NY, when early morning 
shoppers on a Saturday were killed; and, sadly, the same weapon that 
was used in Highland Park.

  During the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, a deranged gunman 
perched himself on a rooftop, using a Smith & Wesson assault rifle, 
killing seven people and wounding dozens more. He shot 83 rounds in 
less than a minute. Let me say that again: 83 rounds in less than a 
minute.
  This is Aiden McCarthy. Aiden is 2 years old. His mom and dad, Kevin 
and Irina McCarthy, took him to the Fourth of July parade in Highland 
Park. I first heard about him just an hour or 2 after this terrible 
incident. I called my friend Nancy Rotering, who is the mayor of 
Highland Park, and asked her: Tell me, what can I do?
  She said: I don't know. Things are happening so fast. We actually 
found a 2-year-old toddler who was wandering on the street by himself. 
We don't know who he belongs to. His picture is being circulated in the 
community.
  The conclusion was fairly obvious. Whoever brought him to that parade 
was not able to look for him and care for him. And the story eventually 
unfolded. Kevin and Irina McCarthy brought Aiden to the parade--his 
first parade. And then when the shooting started, they shielded him 
with their bodies. In a matter of minutes, Aiden lost both of his 
parents. Fortunately, a grandparent was located, and Aiden is in safe 
hands today.
  But because of this assault weapon being fired on the crowd, he lost 
his mom and dad. That is the reality when a parent has to shield a 
child like this from a mass shooting.
  Nancy Rotering, as I mentioned earlier, is mayor of Highland Park. 
She testified yesterday about the parade. She told us that when the 
shooting started, she thought the sound of bullets was actually a drum 
cadence from the local marching band. That is how fast the bullets were 
being fired.
  When she realized there was an active shooter, she began evacuating 
the crowd. She said the adults she confronted stared back at her. They 
didn't understand what she was saying. But the children, the teenagers, 
they understood. This was a shooter; this wasn't a drill.
  Did you hear that? The children and the teens at the Highland Park 
parade instinctively knew what was happening because they had been 
trained in their schools to deal with mass shootings. That is how 
common these mass shootings have become.
  I grew up in a different era, Cold War era, where it was duck and 
cover under your desk for fear of a nuclear attack--an attack by the 
Soviet Union. These kids--our kids, our grandkids--are being schooled 
not just in the ABCs, but they are being schooled in survival, so that 
if a shooter shows up in a classroom, they know what to do to try to 
survive.
  Mayor Rotering told the Judiciary Committee:

       Our children are expected to return to school in [about] a 
     month. . . . They are frightened to go back. . . . They are 
     frightened to play outside. Many never want to go to . . . 
     parade[s] again. For the rest of their lives, they will look 
     over their shoulders, ready for another active shooter, 
     thanks to the drills our society has normalized [in our 
     classrooms].

  She continued:

       Playing outside is normal. Back to school is normal. Fear 
     of a shooter is not normal; but now in Highland Park 
     [Illinois] and so many other American communities, it is [the 
     new normal].

  It can't be said enough that mass shootings with assault weapons are 
a unique American phenomenon. They are devastating--so devastating.
  I want to show you another picture with Aiden McCarthy. This is 
Cooper Roberts, 8 years old. Cooper and his twin brother Luke went to 
the parade with their mom and dad. And in the

[[Page S3585]]

course of the shooting, he was shot, taken to the hospital immediately. 
He has gone through at least seven or eight surgeries now, touch and go 
for many days as to whether he would live. And, sadly, in addition to 
the damage that was done to his body, his spinal cord was severed by 
this same bullet.
  You see, when you fire an assault weapon at a human body, it hits 
that body at three times the ordinary velocity of any other firearm. It 
is so powerful that it was originally designed by the U.S. Army to 
achieve a single goal described to us in the committee yesterday. That 
goal was to be able to shoot one of these AR-15s and pierce a metal 
helmet worn by a soldier 500 yards away--five football fields--the AR-
15. It is not another firearm. It is a killing weapon. And, 
unfortunately, Cooper Roberts was in the line of fire. We pray that he 
recovers.
  His mom and dad have kept us posted, all of us posted, as to his 
progress. But if you think about the devastation that an AR-15 combat 
weapon assault rifle can do to a human body, imagine what it did to 
this poor little boy's body. That is the reality of the issue we are 
discussing.
  Many gun manufacturers, like Smith & Wesson, Mossberg, Bushmaster, 
and Daniel Defense have launched ad campaigns marketing their assault 
weapons like they are fashion accessories.
  Let me show you a few of them. This is from Mossberg:

       Engineered to the specs of freedom and independence, stand 
     and salute the tactical rifle. We are America's oldest 
     family-owned firearms manufacturer, building dependable, 
     hard-working rifles and shotguns since 1919. American 
     built, American strong. Arm yourself with a Mossberg.

  That is the type of weapon that shot Cooper Roberts, that killed the 
parents of Aiden McCarthy. How is it being marketed? A symbol of 
independence and freedom.
  Some of these other ads--want proof of your manhood? ``Consider your 
Man Card reissued,'' says Bushmaster with their AR-15.
  I want to make sure, as we said at the hearing yesterday, that these 
weapons are properly characterized. I will tell you how I characterize 
them. The manufacturers of these weapons should be ashamed of what is 
happening across America. To suggest that this typifies the values of 
this country is just plain wrong and offensive. It is time for us to 
name and shame these companies. It is time to hold them accountable for 
the devastation they made possible. How many AR-15s are there in 
America? We don't really know. The best estimate is 20 million--20 
million.
  I want to dispel a common talking point we hear from the other side 
of the aisle. We heard it yesterday. They claim our communities don't 
need new gun safety laws; all they need are good guys with guns. I wish 
it were that simple. It is not.
  In one survey of 433 active shooter attacks, how many were stopped by 
a good guy with a gun? Twenty-two out of four hundred and thirty-
three--about 5 percent. Half of those 22 were security guards and 
trained law enforcement who were there present on the scene and off 
duty.
  The sad reality is, when the police come on the scene and someone is 
holding a gun, they don't know if it is a perpetrator, a danger, or 
somebody on their side. In many instances, they shoot the wrong person, 
making a split-second decision in seeing a person holding a gun.
  So this notion that we are going to come to the rescue of one another 
and stop mass shootings is not a reality. Five percent of active 
shooter attacks were stopped by a good guy with a gun--5 percent. 
Imagine buying a car and being told there is only a 5-percent chance 
that the airbag will go off if you need it in a crash? You wouldn't 
take that car out of the dealership, and for good reason.
  We heard testimony yesterday from RAND Corporation firearms expert 
Dr. Kyleanne Hunter. She told us that assault weapons make mass 
shootings significantly more lethal.
  The evidence is clear. It is time for us to have a national 
conversation about America and mass shooting.
  Let me say that the manufacturers shouldn't get off the hook. They 
aren't just selling you a product.
  Let me show you one other thing that is particularly outrageous. 
Sadly, this is in my home State of Illinois. It is a JR-15. It is 
designed to look like the AR-15, the combat weapon assault rifle. It is 
lighter, so it can be carried by a kid. Here are the symbols of this 
JR-15. They are skulls, skulls of children. Each one of them has a 
pacifier in his mouth. It isn't just on this poster, on this ad; it is 
emblazoned on the gun itself. This is a kid's assault weapon. Think 
about that for a second. In America, we have reached a point where that 
is even thought of in light of the killing that has taken place.
  The hearing yesterday showed an outpouring of people from Highland 
Park in numbers I never expected. I believe there were 100 people there 
who, on their own dime, came out to Washington to make sure all of us 
in Congress knew what happened in Highland Park, how that village and 
their lives were changed on the Fourth of July. What are we going to do 
about it--shrug our shoulders and wait for tomorrow's mass shooting? 
Sadly, we can expect one to come.
  I listen to the defenses, but, frankly, I can't understand people 
trying to defend the right to own an assault rifle in America.
  One Senator argued: Well, it is just an inanimate object, you know. 
Don't blame the object for the results.
  I wonder if he feels the same way about a grenade launcher. Should 
people have the right to own grenade launchers? I hope we can all agree 
that is an incredible thought. Why doesn't this weapon fall into a 
similar category, a combat, Army assault weapon that is being used by 
individuals to kill so many innocent people in this country--kill them 
at a concert in Las Vegas, at schools in Connecticut, at schools in 
Texas, at Fourth of July parades in my home State.
  Last month, we did come together--and I want to salute Senator 
Murphy, who is on the floor--to pass a bill that was the most important 
gun safety law we considered in three decades. I voted for it. It 
didn't address this issue at all except in the background checks for 
those under 21. And I am glad it did, but it didn't address the issue 
of whether these guns should even be in America at this point, legal in 
America. That, I think, is the critical threshold issue.
  Incidentally, this shooter, who seemed to have a pretty ill-fated 
life from the start, managed to buy high-capacity magazines so that he 
could clip in quickly 30 rounds here, 30 rounds there, and fire off 83 
times. Why in the world does anyone need a high-capacity clip magazine? 
I don't understand it. It doesn't have any practical value for sport or 
hunting.
  We need to address the widespread, serious problem of civilian access 
to military assault weapons, even for shooters as young as 18.
  I thank the people from Highland Park for coming yesterday and all 
the brave law enforcement and first responders whom I saw gather that 
evening when I arrived at Highland Park. We owe them a lot. They are 
doing an amazing job, and we should pay tribute to them and what they 
did. But even they, being present and armed, could not stop this from 
happening. They were up against a mighty weapon--a weapon we trust for 
the military, we trust for the police; a weapon which has no place in 
the hands of people like the shooter in Highland Park on the Fourth of 
July.
  Are we going to continue this American tradition of mass shootings? 
Sadly, we will unless this body, this Senate, decides that it is worth 
the fight, worth the political debate. After Highland Park, count me 
in. I want to be on the record saying it is time to put an end to these 
assault rifles, these weapons of war which have sadly taken so many 
innocent lives like poor Aiden McCarthy's parents and five others who 
died in Highland Park.
  I hope for our children's sake that we don't run away from this 
problem. The people in Highland Park had to run away from the Fourth of 
July parade, and now they are counting on us to stand up and face it 
squarely.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Booker). The Senator from Tennessee.


                          Biden Administration

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, America is facing a perfect storm of 
inflation, unsustainable energy costs, and supply chain chaos. Russia 
and Iran are circling the wagons.
  Joe Biden is still finding new ways to put the American people last. 
In fact,

[[Page S3586]]

when it comes to getting gas prices under control, he has chosen to 
unleash a China-first policy rather than unleashing the power of 
American energy.
  I have spent the past 18 months laying out in great detail how Joe 
Biden and the Democrats have damaged our credibility and enriched our 
adversaries. They undermined our economic recovery. They abandoned the 
border. They destroyed American energy independence. The list goes on 
and on, unfortunately. It appears that everything they have done makes 
life worse for ``we the people.''
  Unfortunately, it is emboldening the axis of evil--Russia, China, 
Iran, North Korea. Under normal circumstances, Vladimir Putin's trip to 
Iran this week would be a cause for concern, but with the Biden 
administration in charge, it appears it could be just the tip of the 
iceberg because although Russia and Iran are competitors, especially in 
the energy sector, they are absolutely united in their hatred of the 
United States and in their desire to undermine Western interests.
  When they look at the United States, they see a country whose 
President got a head start undermining those interests on day 1 of his 
administration, and you better believe they are ready to take advantage 
of this. They are ready for it. This week, look at what they have done. 
You had Gazprom, which is the Russian energy giant, and the National 
Iranian Oil Company come together and announce a $40 billion agreement 
to work together on oil and gas development and pipeline construction. 
They are reading the writing on the wall, and what they see is 
hesitation from the U.S. President to move us back to energy 
independence, where we were on day 1 of his administration, so they are 
making plans as to how they will work together and dominate the energy 
sector.
  Meanwhile, Joe Biden has also sold about a million barrels of oil 
from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the Chinese Communist Party. 
When I have spoken with Tennesseans about this, they are furious. They 
cannot understand why he would make a choice to do this. The left has 
done their best to provide cover for the President, claiming that a 
million barrels is really nothing to worry about, but you know it is 
something to worry about. Our SPR has about 750 million barrels in it. 
We are drawing it down at about a million barrels a day. Plus, the 
President is now selling to our adversaries--selling it.
  We did a little bit of research into what China can get out of a 
barrel of oil, and here is what we found: That gives you 20 gallons of 
gasoline; 12\1/2\ gallons of distillate, which is what we use for 
diesel fuel; and about 3\1/2\ gallons of jet fuel. To Tennesseans, this 
makes a big difference.
  I really agree with my fellow Tennesseans about this. When they look 
at this picture and they think about the President's big sale to Hunter 
Biden's friends in Beijing, they don't see a gallon of gas here and 
there. What they see is 20 million full tanks of gas. They see diesel 
fuel that our farmers need. Right now, with the price of diesel 
doubling, we have farmers in Tennessee who cannot get crops planted. 
They chose not to plant crops because of the cost of diesel, 
fertilizer, chemicals, pesticides. They see sabotage of their hopes and 
their dreams and their plans--their plans--for their family, for their 
business, for their farm.
  As I have been out and about around the State and talked to 
Tennesseans, they have a message for this President, this 
administration, my Democratic colleagues. This is more than just a 
political disagreement. In their minds, and I agree, this is a national 
security risk--a national security risk.
  We are making ourselves vulnerable. Giving any aid or advantage to 
our adversaries is wrong, and this has got to end. Joe Biden and the 
Democrats must abandon this China-first energy policy and return to an 
America-first policy.
  Restart the Keystone Pipeline. Approve more energy infrastructure. 
Hold more lease sales. Approve drilling permits that are waiting for 
approval.
  Let's get the regulators out of the way. Stall some of these 42 
regulations that the President has put on the oil and energy sector 
this year. Let's do this. Let's advantage ourselves with American 
energy before it is too late.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following 
Senators be permitted to speak prior to the scheduled vote. Senator 
Murphy for up to 15 minutes; Senator Cornyn for up to 15 minutes; and 
Senator Coons for up to 3 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            Electoral Reform

  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about a 
piece of legislation that was introduced yesterday by 16 bipartisan 
Senators: the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition 
Improvement Act.
  I am proud of the effort between Republicans and Democrats to put 
aside our differences on other issues and to be able to put before this 
body a proposal that will assure that the votes that are cast all 
across this country for President in 2024 result in the winner of that 
election sitting in the Oval Office.
  And I come to the floor today to underscore for my colleagues why 
this piece of legislation is so vitally necessary.
  All across the country, we are seeing an epidemic of candidates being 
nominated for Governor, for secretary of state, for Congress, who don't 
believe Joe Biden won the 2020 election.
  They instead believe these wild conspiracy theories about voting 
machines that magically switched votes from one candidate to another, 
Sharpies that voted for Joe Biden illegally. All of it has been 
debunked, but the conspiracy theories and the support for this notion 
that Donald Trump actually won the election, according to the rules of 
the electoral college in 2020, continue to spread.
  The Republican nominee for Governor in Pennsylvania, who appoints the 
State's chief election official, was right here at the Capitol, yards 
away from this Chamber on January 6, as individuals were storming the 
building trying to do harm to us. He took part in high-level meetings 
after the 2020 election, intended to overturn Biden's win in 
Pennsylvania.
  He is perhaps mere months away from being the next Governor and chief 
elections officer of that State. Across the country, former President 
Trump is organizing what he calls an America First Secretary of State 
Coalition, and he is pretty unapologetic about what the design is. It 
is to install election officers all across the country whose chief 
loyalty is to Donald Trump, not the vote.
  His endorsed candidate in Arizona, for instance, called for Biden's 
win in Arizona to be thrown out and for the Republican State 
legislature to appoint its own electors instead.
  In Nevada, the endorsed Republican candidate for secretary of state, 
another Trump loyalist, says if he was in office in 2020, he would not 
have certified Joe Biden's win, leading to an immediate constitutional 
crisis.
  What is happening all across the country right now is a complete, 
total rejection of democracy by Trump supporters and his endorsed 
candidates.
  Now, they aren't representative of the entire Republican Party, but, 
unfortunately, they are winning primaries all across the country, and 
they are winning elections all across the country.
  And these Trump loyalists, they are not interested in the winner of 
an election becoming President if that winner isn't Donald Trump. They 
effectively want Donald Trump installed as a monarch, and they are 
willing to just throw out democracy if that is what is necessary to 
keep their leader in power.
  And as I mentioned, this isn't some fringe phenomenon any longer. I 
think we have a lot of Republicans in the Senate and the House who see 
this danger coming and want to take steps to prevent it. That is why we 
are introducing this legislation, but there are over 100 winners of 
Republican primaries for Congress and statewide office this year who 
believe--who have stated this belief publicly that the 2020 election 
was stolen and that Donald Trump should still be President.
  There is just a very well-developed and well-organized movement, 
where Trump supporters are learning from his inability to overturn the 
election in 2020, and they are galvanizing themselves to leave nothing 
to chance in 2024.

[[Page S3587]]

  The operation to install Trump in the White House in 2025, if he 
runs, will be more sophisticated and better organized than 2020. The 
threat that 2024 will be the last year of American democracy is real.
  I know that sounds like hyperbole, but we came really close to losing 
our democracy in 2020. And if a President is installed in the White 
House who did not actually win the election, then I don't know how you 
claim that this experiment for 250 years is still ongoing.
  So we need to act, as a body, across the aisle. Those of us who 
believe that our loyalty to country is more important than our loyalty 
to party need to act to make it as hard as possible for a group of 
traitors to install as President the loser of the 2024 Presidential 
election.

  And so toward that end, we have introduced a piece of legislation 
that will seek to reform the way in which electors are sent to Congress 
and the way in which we count those electors to put up as many barriers 
as we can to these efforts to install the loser of the 2024 election as 
President of the United States.
  So I am grateful to Senator Collins and Senator Manchin for leading 
this process. I am grateful to be a part of it, along with Senators 
Portman, Sinema, Romney, Shaheen, Murkowski, Warner, Tillis, Capito, 
Cardin, Young, Coons, Sasse, and Graham.
  And so let me tell you, in just a few minutes, what the most 
important elements--let me just tell you about some of the key elements 
of the Electoral Count Reform Act. It engages to make the selection and 
counting of fraudulent electors harder by both addressing efforts by 
Congress to overturn valid State results but also to make it harder for 
States to submit to Congress invalid State results.
  Now, on January 6 of last year, we saw a handful of our colleagues 
attempt to throw out the valid elector slates from States like 
Pennsylvania and Arizona. And, luckily, in the end, those efforts only 
got a handful of votes here in the Senate, but the majority of 
Republicans voted to throw out those slates in the House of 
Representatives, which just tells you how mainstream these views have 
become.
  And so, in two important ways, we make that attempt by Congress to 
throw out valid results from a State a little bit, but substantially, 
harder. Under our current law, it only takes one single Senator in 
order to throw this entire Senate into a debate over whether or not we 
should count or throw out certain electors.
  In the end, there were, I think, 12 Republican Senators who suggested 
we should throw out ballots, but really all that was needed was 1. So 
what we do is we increase that threshold from 1 Senator to 20 percent 
of Senators, from 1 House Member to 20 percent of House Members to 
begin that debate. Ultimately, you still need a majority of the House 
and the Senate to throw out an elector slate, but you can't even begin 
that debate now without having 20 percent of each body. That is a 
substantial and important change.
  Second, we clarify the role of the Vice President. Now, some would 
argue that this isn't necessary; that the Vice President's role in this 
process is ceremonial, but that is not what Donald Trump thought. 
Donald Trump and his cadre of fringe lawyers believed, by reading a 
statute in a particular way, that Mike Pence had the ability by himself 
to refuse to count certain slates of electors.
  Now, that is not how the 1887 Act reads, but just to be absolutely 
clear, our reform act clarifies the law to make 100 percent clear that 
the Vice President's role is just ceremonial.
  And then, as I said, we also take steps to make it harder for States 
to send fraudulent results to Congress because that is the primary 
threat in 2024. I still think that there are the votes in the Senate, 
no matter what the elections look like in 2024, for the Senate to make 
sure that we don't throw out valid results that are sent to the 
Congress.
  The bigger threat is that one candidate wins in a State like Arizona 
or--depending on what happens in the gubernatorial election in 
Pennsylvania--Pennsylvania and instead that State decides to send 
electors for the losing candidate to Congress, making some vague, broad 
claims of fraud that they can't substantiate.
  So we make that exercise in fraud less likely through a number of 
means. First, there is a really ambiguous provision in the 1887 law 
which President Trump argued in the courts allowed for State 
legislatures to appoint their own electors if they judged that the 
election was incomplete. Now, what that was initially intended to mean 
was if an election didn't happen because of a natural disaster, but 
Trump's lawyers thought that that meant that these claims of fraud 
could satisfy that incomplete criteria.
  Well, we removed that ambiguity in this underlying piece of 
legislation. No longer will anybody be able to claim that State 
legislatures can just step in after the fact and appoint different 
electors.
  Second, we have a clear prohibition that State legislatures can't 
change the rules of how electors are chosen after the election itself. 
Now, it is up to State legislatures as to how they appoint electors.
  Every State right now appoints them based upon who won the popular 
vote in their State, but the Constitution does give that power to the 
State legislature. It does not give them the power to change that 
process after the voters have cast their vote. We make that clear in 
this piece of legislation.
  And then, most importantly, we clarify the process by which campaigns 
and candidates can contest a fraudulent certification or a fraudulent 
appointment of electors.
  As we saw in the 2000 election, there is overlapping contesting 
jurisdictions between States and the Federal court system. It often 
takes very--a very long time for those processes to play out and 
unwind. We set up in this bill a new expedited process of review by a 
three-judge panel. We limit the cases that can be brought to that panel 
by the campaigns themselves, just to make sure we aren't incentivizing 
spurious litigation.
  But that new process allows the candidates and the campaigns, if they 
believe that the laws of the State have not been upheld in allowing the 
majority winner of that State to dictate what electors get sent to 
Washington, to make that claim before a three-judge panel in an 
expedited fashion, to have that case go up to the Supreme Court in an 
expedited manner as well.
  Clarifying the way in which we solve for these contests, if they 
arise over a valid slate of electors and an invalid slate of electors 
is an important reform in this bill.
  Listen, what we have built over the last 250 years in the United 
States of America, it really is a miracle, and we should never forget 
how much of an anomaly American democracy is when you look at the broad 
scope of the governments under which people have lived.
  This idea that citizens, not dictators or Kings or plutocrats, get to 
decide who leads a nation--250 years later, it is still a revolutionary 
idea.
  And I remind my constituents all the time that democracy is really 
unnatural, right? There are not a lot of other things that are 
important to us in our lives that we run through democratic vote. Our 
workplaces are really important places, but we don't run our workplace 
through democratic vote. The boss--the CEO--makes the decisions there.
  We love our sports teams, right? We follow them. We live and die for 
them. But the decisions on those teams--they are not made by democratic 
vote. There is a coach, a general manager who makes the decisions. I 
love my kids, but they don't get an equal vote in the decisions of my 
household with my wife and me. Lots of things that are important to us 
in our lives don't run by democratic vote. We are very comfortable, in 
fact, with hierarchal systems, with one person or a handful of people 
making decisions for us, but we have reserved this idea of democracy 
for the decisions that are made that govern our community, our town, 
our State, or our Nation.
  We need to remember that over the course of world history, almost no 
one has lived in a democratic civilization. Why? Because it is natural 
for human beings to want their chosen leader to be in charge, their 
preferred leader to be in charge, no matter what everybody else in the 
community believes. It is also natural for leaders, once they have 
tasted power, to want to cling to that power and refuse to give it up, 
no matter the wishes of their citizenry.

[[Page S3588]]

  So we need to be constantly vigilant to protect this experiment. In 
the grand sweep of world history, that is what it is--a revolutionary 
experiment. We need to recognize the moments when the threats to that 
experiment are new and novel and more grave than normal and be nimble 
enough to respond.
  So I would argue that this is one of those moments, and I am so 
grateful to the group of bipartisan Senators who have worked so hard to 
introduce this legislation.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.


                               H.R. 4346

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, the business before the Senate is a 
critical undertaking to shore up our vulnerability to imported 
microcircuits, otherwise known as semiconductors. You might wonder why 
this is so important if you haven't been following the debate over the 
last couple of years.
  While this legislation has taken many names, it began as the CHIPS 
for America Act in June of 2020, which established a new program to 
incentivize manufacturers of these tiny microcircuits, known as 
semiconductors, to set up shop here in the United States.
  We have tried to fund the program at different times through the 
Endless Frontier Act; the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, 
sometimes called USICA; the America COMPETES Act; the Make It in 
America Act. But no matter what the title is or whatever you call it, 
the purpose is to eliminate this unacceptable risk that somehow--due to 
pandemic, due to military conflict, due to natural disaster--our access 
to the most advanced semiconductors on the planet would be cut off, 
with devastating consequences to the U.S. economy and our national 
security.
  I know some people wonder, Why should the Federal taxpayer provide 
financial incentives to semiconductor manufacturing? And that is a 
perfectly good question. The reason is, we are in a competition with 
countries all around the world that are providing incentives to build 
these necessary and essential facilities in their country, and if we 
don't participate in this competition, we will end up maintaining our 
dependency entirely on semiconductors imported into the United States. 
We saw big investments being made in other countries--China, the EU, 
Germany, France. A number of different countries want this 
manufacturing capability in their country because they understand its 
importance to their economy and security.
  Now, you might wonder, Why is it necessary? Well, there is a reason--
an economic reason--why these semiconductor manufacturers are almost 
all based in Asia. The overwhelming majority are made in Taiwan, and 
that is because it costs 30 percent less to build these facilities in 
Asia than it does here in the United States.
  But COVID-19 exposed a lot of vulnerabilities of supply chains, 
whether it is PPE--personal protective equipment--or semiconductors, 
and this idea that just because somebody could build something cheaper 
somewhere else, that checked all the boxes. It does not check all the 
boxes. And there are some things we must have access to, and one is a 
secure source of these microcircuits that run everything from your cell 
phone to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. We know that semiconductors 
will get more and more important as the world competes to come up with 
smaller and more powerful semiconductor chips to operate everything 
from computers to our weapons systems.
  When the pandemic hit, the supply chain vulnerability was 
demonstrated by empty car lots, backordered electronics, higher prices, 
contributing to inflation. Consumers who never needed to know what a 
semiconductor was found themselves impacted by this disruption.
  My State is home to companies across a full range of industries that 
have been impacted, from consumer electronics to defense companies.
  Last spring, an executive from Toyota told me that when he first 
started with the company, he could count the number of chips in a given 
vehicle on two hands. That certainly is not the case now, with almost 
autonomous vehicles and certainly with all the sensors that have made 
driving a lot safer and a lot more convenient added to new cars. Think 
about the high-tech features in our cars--navigation systems, 
Bluetooth, automatic braking, backup cameras, and parking sensors. That 
is on top of standard functions like power steering, air-conditioning, 
and window wipers. Today, some cars use as many as 1,000 semiconductor 
chips.

  So the pandemic of COVID-19 demonstrated our vulnerability to our 
supply chains that made getting so many semiconductors impossible.
  This wasn't just a problem for automakers; virtually every industry 
was impacted. In many ways, the global chip shortage served as a wake-
up call--certainly to me and I believe other Members of Congress and 
the Senate who voted consistently to eliminate this vulnerability in 
our supply chains. It forced us to recognize the vulnerability of that 
supply chain and then to do something about it, which we are in the 
process of doing.
  As bad as the chip-related shortages have been in the last 2 years, 
they pale in comparison to what could be coming if we don't act.
  As I said, the vast majority of the world's chips are made in Asia, 
with the bulk coming from Taiwan. Sixty-three percent of the advanced 
semiconductors in the world are made in Taiwan. Even more concerning is 
that 92 percent of the world's most advanced semiconductors come from 
that country. So 62 percent--63 percent of semiconductors come from 
Taiwan, but 92 percent of the most advanced, the most powerful, the 
smallest semiconductors come from that same place. None, zero, zip, 
nada are made in America. None.
  Taiwanese semiconductor firms make the chips used in our military's 
Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, artificial intelligence, and other 
military-grade devices.
  Now, if you have been paying attention to what President Xi and the 
People's Republic of China have been saying about Taiwan, they are 
saying they are going to unify the PRC with Taiwan either peacefully or 
by military action.
  Again, I believe the risk of pandemic, natural disaster, or military 
intervention makes this risk simply unacceptable.
  Last fall, I led a congressional delegation to visit Indochina, the 
INDOPACOM area of operations, to learn more about the threat of Chinese 
aggression when it comes to Taiwan. One of the leaders we met with was 
the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, located in Hawaii, who 
described the current power dynamic rather succinctly. He said it is 
not a question of if China invades Taiwan but when.
  We even have a rough idea of when that could happen. President Xi has 
made no secret of his desire to unify Taiwan with the mainland, saying 
he wants to be ready to do that by 2027, just 5 years from now. But, as 
we have learned from Putin's invasion of Ukraine, when one person makes 
a decision, you can't depend on any particular timeline because it 
could happen in the blink of an eye.
  It is tough to overestimate the impact this lack of access to these 
advanced semiconductors would have on the United States and our allies. 
To be sure, our cars, televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines 
would be impacted, but that is only the beginning. Those would be mere 
inconveniences. How would we manufacture Javelin missiles that are used 
in Ukraine? Well, we couldn't because they all run on semiconductors. 
There is the Stinger that is being used so effectively by the 
Ukrainians to go after Russian tanks invading Ukraine. The Joint Strike 
Fighter, the F-35, our most advanced, fifth-generation, stealth 
aircraft, is chock-full of semiconductors that would be unavailable if 
our access was cut off for some reason.
  Then just think about our critical infrastructure. Think about cell 
towers. Think about the energy grid. Where would we get the chips that 
are needed for modern farming equipment? Just as cars have become more 
and more automated, so have tractors and other farming equipment.
  What would we do for the chips that we need to treat water to make 
sure it is clean and easily available?
  So these aren't problems just for consumers; it is a major national 
security vulnerability.
  Back in 1980, President Jimmy Carter gave his State of the Union 
Address in

[[Page S3589]]

which he spoke about the instability of the Persian Gulf and Soviet 
threats to the movement of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. That was 
back in the days when we depended almost entirely on imported oil into 
the United States. But Jimmy Carter said in 1980 that any attempt to 
gain control of the Strait of Hormuz and to block access to that 
essential energy source, he said, would be ``an assault on the vital 
interests of the United States of America.'' That would be a 
declaration of war.
  I think the same argument applies to semiconductors today. In fact, 
some people have called semiconductors the new oil because it is so 
essential to our way of life, to our economy, and our security.
  Just as the Soviets could have blocked the Strait of Hormuz and 
choked off the global oil supply back in 1980, the People's Republic of 
China could seize Taiwan's supply of chips and starve the rest of the 
world. Will they go into the ventilators and the other lifesaving 
medical equipment or provide homes with clean drinking water? These are 
important questions that many of us have been asking and looking to try 
to find ways to mitigate, if not to eliminate, our dependency on 
imported semiconductors.
  So funding this program in this bill currently before the Senate will 
shore up domestic chip manufacturing to make sure that we meet the 
needs of our most critical industries. It would deliver economic 
benefits to our communities through new investments and jobs. It will 
strengthen our national security by providing chips that can make their 
way into markets around the world. It will ensure that we have a 
reliable supply of chips so we can outinnovate and outcompete any and 
every adversary, and that is a point worth stressing.
  We know we are in competition with the People's Republic of China, 
but the way we will beat them is to outcompete them. The only way we 
will do that is with access to the most advanced electronics, including 
semiconductors, that are made anywhere on the planet, and we need to 
make them here in America so there can be trusted supply chains and 
readily available.
  So I appreciate all of our colleagues who supported this legislation 
for the long and winding journey that has brought us here today, and I 
hope this bill will pass the Senate and the House next week and finally 
make its way to the President's desk.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.


                   Nomination of Reuben E. Brigety II

  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, you and I have had the blessing of 
traveling to South Africa together, so I know you know, as I do, that 
it is a critical nation, not just on its own terms as a country of 70 
million people of a multilingual, multifaith, multiethnic democracy 
working to achieve the incredible promise enshrined in its 
Constitution, working to achieve the vision of a liberation struggle, 
but it is also a country that is critical to regional security and for 
the path of the globe and to the security and stability of democracy in 
this century. This is why I stand to speak briefly on behalf of my 
friend, Reuben Brigety, the nominee to be our next Ambassador to South 
Africa, whose confirmation we will take up in just a few moments.
  Reuben is someone I admire deeply. He attended the Naval Academy, 
served in the U.S. Navy, was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State both 
for African Affairs and for Population, Refugees, and Migration.
  I met him as Ambassador to the African Union, knew him well as dean 
of the Elliott School at GW. He took on the challenge of service as the 
president of the University of the South, better known as Sewanee; and 
now our President has nominated him to represent us in South Africa.
  As we have seen in recent votes and actions at the United Nations and 
in discussions and debates around the world, African countries--in this 
moment, during this war in Ukraine, in the face of Russia's 
aggression--are turning away from us. They are not believing the 
reality that it is Russian aggression that is causing food scarcity and 
fertilizer prices to spike, and they are more than not taking Russia's 
side on this.
  We cannot take these relationships for granted. The United States, 
for decades, has been a close development and public health partner of 
South Africa. We have to send our best, and Ambassador Brigety is the 
right person at the right time to advance the critical relationship 
goals that we have between the United States and South Africa.


                       Tribute to Alexandra Davis

  Mr. President, one of the blessings of serving here in the Senate is 
getting to know natives of New Jersey, like yourself and like my 
foreign policy adviser, Allie Davis.
  I will do my best to get through these next few minutes of remarks 
without being unduly emotional, but she deserves a catch in the throat 
and a tear in the eye because Allie is someone who from the moment she 
came to join my team 6 years ago has been a remarkable person--a person 
of great spirit and character, someone who also spent time in South 
Africa as a young person.
  After graduating from the University of Delaware, a tour as a 
Fulbright in South Africa prepared her to join my team as a foreign 
policy fellow.
  As she was just confessing to me in my office a few moments ago, she 
knew far less about governance and politics than I imagined. She 
carries herself with remarkable grace and confidence. She steadily has 
risen to be a legislative aide, a legislative assistant, and now my 
foreign policy adviser.
  I don't have the time--but I wish I did--to detail all the pieces of 
significant and important legislation she has helped shepherd through 
to success. She has critically supported my leadership on the State and 
Foreign Operations Appropriations team. She has been critical as we 
have worked to address this moment of global hunger. She has helped get 
the Global Fragility Act from concept to enactment. She has helped make 
the Development Finance Corporation a powerful tool for development. 
She helped shape and craft the Nita M. Lowey Middle East Partnership 
for Peace Act, and she nearly single-handedly, at a time when I was 
confident this could not be done, got the Sudan Claims Resolution Act 
through this Congress and fundamentally changed the arc of the search 
for democracy in Sudan.
  We had the chance to travel together on a Presidential mission to 
Ethiopia, during which she had truly memorable encounters with its head 
of state and an opportunity to see and participate and help drive 
diplomacy firsthand. We traveled together to so many other countries: 
from the UAE to France to Georgia to Italy and, perhaps most memorably, 
to Sudan, where I was honored to receive one of their leading national 
awards, which really was an award in recognition of her work on behalf 
of the Sudanese people.
  She goes to serve the House Foreign Affairs Committee, whose chairman 
I accosted last night at an event, and said: You are causing great harm 
to me, and I resent deeply the fact that you are causing this most 
talented and skilled and trusted member to leave the Senate and go to 
the House.
  But she joins as a member of their professional staff, a great team. 
And I know that we will continue to work hard and to work closely 
together in the years and decades ahead. A great friend, a great 
colleague, and someone to whom I wish great success in the many years 
ahead.
  With that, I urge my colleagues to vote in support of the nomination 
of Reuben Brigety to be Ambassador, and I offer my greatest thanks to 
Allie Davis for her talented and skillful service on behalf of the 
people of Delaware.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________