[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 142 (Tuesday, September 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4422-S4423]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Texas

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, here we are, back in the Nation's Capital, 
after having had the opportunity to spend a few weeks back home. While 
it is still hot in Texas at this time of year--so it is nice to get a 
little bit of respite back here--we certainly have a lot of work cut 
out for us, but it is always helpful to me to sort of compare what 
people are focused on here in Washington, DC, with what folks back home 
care about the most. It is actually the best way to get some feedback 
on how we can do our jobs more effectively in representing the people 
we represent--in my case, the 29 million people who call Texas home.
  Also, people are not shy about expressing their views on what we have 
done and even about offering some input on things we are considering 
doing.
  For example, in Corpus Christi, which is on the gulf coast of Texas, 
I spoke with industry at the Port of Corpus Christi about the untapped 
potential of hydrogen energy.
  In Round Rock, which is just outside of Austin, I sat down with a 
number of sexual assault survivors, prosecutors, and medical 
professionals to talk about the need to train more sexual assault nurse 
examiners, which is a highly specialized form of nursing, to make sure 
that not only people who are sexually assaulted are compassionately 
cared for but also that the evidence that is necessary to convict their 
assailants is selected in a way that is admissible in court.
  In Austin, I met with the Texas Association of Counties. We have 254 
counties in Texas. Some of them, like in Loving County, have more 
cattle than people. But it is great to meet or to be able to connect 
with all of the elected representatives at the local level of our 
counties in one place and to hear what is on their minds--certainly 
everything from broadband development/deployment, particularly in the 
rural parts of our State, and disaster relief for places like Dallas, 
which experienced 13 inches of rain in 1 day and massive flooding.
  In the Rio Grande Valley, close to the border, in Pharr, TX, I got a 
chance to see how their local police department is partnering with 
local mental health providers to respond to individuals who commit 
offenses--maybe because they are going through mental health crises--
and how to train the officers to address those in a way that don't 
escalate that crisis and potentially cause harm to them as well as to 
the individual who is causing or is experiencing that crisis. It really 
is impressive to see a relatively small town like Pharr, TX, really 
leading the way when it comes to compassionate and effective policing 
and in providing our law enforcement officials, who are not necessarily 
trained mental health workers, the additional resources and training 
they need in order to respond effectively to those situations.
  Those are just a few examples of the sorts of folks I got to catch up 
with over the last few weeks, and I am obviously always grateful to 
those who share their input and ideas with me. Those conversations and 
that input are vital to our work here in the Senate because they shed 
light on the problems our neighbors in our communities are facing, 
which isn't necessarily the coin of the realm here in Washington, DC, 
where politics and spin infuse everything.
  For example, folks almost universally--particularly small business 
folks--told me about the strain of the labor shortage on their 
businesses. If you go to a restaurant in Texas, it may be that they are 
only operating on fewer hours or fewer tables because they, frankly, 
can't get the workforce they need to come back and help work at those 
places.
  They are obviously all very concerned about the impact of the 
spending that we have been doing here in Washington, DC--some necessary 
and some unnecessary, in my opinion--and its impact on inflation and on 
family budgets, where they have seen their standard of living reduced 
because of the inflationary pressures on almost everything, from 
gasoline to groceries to housing--you name it.
  They are also very concerned about high energy prices. I know there 
has been some talk about the reduction in the price of gasoline. That 
is primarily a feature of reduced demand because, frankly, people have 
to make choices about how to spend the money they would ordinarily put 
in the tank and how to do it selectively--whether to go on a family 
vacation or to stay at home. It certainly hasn't been because of any 
increase in supply as a result of our domestic energy policies by the 
Biden administration.
  Then I heard a lot about people's concerns about crime, particularly 
of the fentanyl crisis that we are experiencing here in America, where 
108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year alone. About 60 
percent of those were from synthetic opioids--from fentanyl--the 
precursors of which usually come from Asia, mainly China, to Mexico and 
then across the southern border.

  Then, of course, there is the ongoing Biden border crisis as a result 
of the open border policies of the Biden administration. There are 2.3 
million migrants who have been encountered along the border just since 
President Biden has taken office. Because of the catch-and-release 
policies associated with asylum seekers, even those people who 
ultimately will not be able to qualify for asylum, which is roughly 85 
to 90 percent of the people who claim it, will have melted into the 
great American landscape. They may be given a notice to appear for a 
future court hearing, but because of the backlog of the immigration 
courts, we are talking years down the line.
  These are just some of the things that I am hearing about from my 
constituents, and these are chronic problems for which, frankly, they 
do not see an appropriate and adequate response coming from Washington 
to address the very real impact on their everyday lives: what they can 
afford to buy at the grocery store; how safe their communities are; 
whether they feel safe while walking around their neighborhoods or 
sending their children out to play; whether the family will travel to 
see relatives for the holidays or whether they will have to stay home 
in order to save money to put food on the table. Those are not the 
problems that our Democratic colleagues--or the majority here in the 
Senate--seem to be focused on like a laser.
  When I travel to Texas from Washington, it often feels like I am 
visiting a parallel universe. You get here, and things don't seem that 
odd at first. The scenery is different, but the same problems Texans 
talk about are on display.
  You read headlines about the border crisis. You see that the Mayor of 
Washington, DC, is complaining and claiming there is a humanitarian 
crisis because, although it claims to be a sanctuary city, when 
Governor Abbott or Governor Ducey from Arizona provides transportation 
to these sanctuary cities, all of a sudden, the border crisis that we 
have been living with for a year and a half now seems very real.
  It is nice to see some folks in other parts of the country 
experiencing what my constituents in border communities have been 
experiencing for a long time now, together with the additional expense 
associated with things like deploying the National Guard to back up the 
Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection, all at Texas taxpayer 
expense--something that is uniquely a Federal responsibility, but when 
the Biden administration refuses to do its job, it falls to the people 
who live in those communities along the border and in those States to 
try to do the best they can.
  Despite the fact that our Democratic colleagues are reading the same 
headlines about crime, drug overdoses, inflation, and the border and 
despite the headlines here reflecting those concerns, our colleagues 
here in the Senate and in the White House have chosen to ignore them 
pretty much altogether. Our friends across the aisle have controlled 
the Senate now for a year and a half, as well as the House and the 
White House. They have the power to set any agenda that they see fit. 
They don't have to ask our permission or for our consent, and they 
certainly have had every opportunity to do so.
  What I have noticed and what my constituents have commented on 
frequently is this parallel universe in

[[Page S4423]]

Washington, DC, where the Democrats aren't using the power they have to 
address the problems working families are facing. They have chosen to 
focus on a completely different set of issues.
  For example, let's look at the recent reckless tax-and-spending bill. 
Our Democratic colleagues, although we have worked together 
constructively on bipartisan legislation, in this case decided to pass 
a partisan bill to spend $740 billion strictly along partisan lines. 
All of this money and the tax increases that go along with it won't 
address the biggest problems families are facing anytime soon. In fact, 
they are likely to make the problems even worse.
  At a time when many people are struggling to pay for gasoline for 
their cars, our Democratic colleagues decided to give well-to-do people 
who can afford $80,000 electric vehicles a taxpayer handout of about 
$7,500 at the expense of the working families who can't afford to buy 
an electric vehicle of their own at any price.
  This ensures that gas prices will climb even higher. This bill will 
revive the old Superfund tax on American energy production. It will 
guarantee families will face higher electricity prices this winter by 
slapping a new methane tax on energy producers. And that is all just 
the climate portion of the reckless tax-and-spending bill.
  Our colleagues decided that it was the smart thing to do to supersize 
the Internal Revenue Service and giving it even more manpower to 
invariably audit middle-class America and small businesses. And then 
they have doled massive handouts to some of their key constituencies 
like labor unions.
  They have chosen to impose socialist price controls on prescription 
drugs, which will stifle medical innovation and prevent new, lifesaving 
cures from being discovered. And perhaps worst of all, they raised 
taxes on the middle class.
  I know President Biden promised, and promised time and time again, to 
never raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year, and our 
Democratic colleagues still claim that this bill makes good on that 
promise. But that is simply not consistent with the facts. It is not 
true. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has confirmed it.
  The JCT found that taxpayers making far less than $400,000 at some 
point get walloped by higher prices. That includes people making 
between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. You can read it yourself, the 
distributional tables, at the Joint Committee on Taxation website.
  We know that inflation is outpacing wage growth, which means that 
workers already are receiving a silent pay cut or silent tax, thanks to 
overspending here on things that, frankly, are not priorities. And many 
of those same workers are going to pay even more in Federal taxes.
  But perhaps the most insulting part of this reckless tax-and-spending 
bill that our Democratic colleagues decided to pass unilaterally was 
they chose to call it the Inflation Reduction Act. Leading economic 
experts say this bill won't do a thing to address inflation, certainly, 
in the near term. In fact, over the next couple of years, they predict 
inflation is likely to get slightly worse.
  But that is how things work in this parallel universe known as 
Washington, DC: Democrats see that families are being battered by 
inflation, but they don't actually pass legislation that will help. Our 
colleagues just want to use the plight to come up with a sympathetic 
title for a radical, partisan bill, and they are happy to stick middle-
class Americans with the check.
  The icing on the cake came a couple of weeks ago after this bill 
became law, when President Biden made an Executive decision to cancel 
half a trillion dollars in student loans. Any family knows, you can't 
just cancel debt. There is no magic wand that will make it disappear. 
Every dollar that was borrowed will eventually have to be paid back by 
someone, but President Biden has just shifted the burden on whom that 
someone will be. Now the middle-class taxpayers are on the hook yet 
once again.
  Under President Biden's proposal, it doesn't matter if a person took 
out loans and repaid them already; in other words, did what they said 
they would do by repaying the money that they had borrowed. Whether 
they worked their way through school, whether they held two or three 
jobs, or chose not to attend college at all, their tax dollars will pay 
for someone else's college debt.
  My point is there is a remarkable divide between what Washington 
Democrats are trying to accomplish and the problems middle-class 
families are actually facing. Families are struggling to put food on 
the table, and our Democratic colleagues are spending hundreds of 
billions of dollars on climate initiatives.
  This reminds me of a few years ago, a social movement by the so-
called Yellow Jackets--a mosaic of French working-class people who felt 
disenfranchised from the urban elite who, as they said, ``can focus on 
the end of the world, while we're worrying about the end of the 
month.'' That is what average working families in Texas and across the 
country are concerned about: How do we get to the end of the month with 
enough money to put food on the table and gas in the tank?
  Workers can't afford a full tank of gas, and Democrats are forcing 
them to subsidize electric vehicles for the wealthy. People are worried 
about how much their electricity bills will cost this winter, and 
Democrats imposed a new tax that will send those costs even higher. 
These policies aren't going to make life better for the middle class 
anytime soon. They aren't going to help families or businesses that are 
trying to create jobs and opportunities for their communities. And it 
certainly isn't going to bring our economy roaring back to life.
  The fact of the matter is, since Democrats took control of the 
government more than a year and a half ago, Texans' lives have gotten 
harder, not easier. Inflation has skyrocketed, wages have fallen, our 
economy fell into a recession, and the border is on fire. And our 
colleagues--certainly, the Biden administration--don't seem to care. In 
fact, they seem to block out the concerns of middle-class Americans so 
they can pursue an ideological agenda like there is no tomorrow.
  When I am home in Texas, folks talk about the problems workers and 
families are facing every day. They don't want to send taxpayer 
handouts to wealthy people buying electric vehicles or help subsidize 
labor unions or payoff someone else's loans. The sooner our Democratic 
colleagues realize that, the better off we will all be. But then again, 
maybe it is going to take an election this November.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  (Ms. SINEMA assumed the Chair.)
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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