[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 3, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11-S12]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             118TH CONGRESS

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, this week we start a brandnew year, a 
new Congress, and turn the page on a new chapter here in Washington, 
DC.
  After 2 years with a single party--the Democratic Party--controlling 
all levers of government, the American people voted for a change for 
divided government.
  Sometimes you will hear that divided government is actually the best 
time to do hard things, and I think that is true. And I hope we will 
rise to the challenge with the divided government that the voters in 
the midterm elections gave us. But, of course, now Republicans hold the 
majority--albeit slim--in the House of Representatives, where they will 
serve as a much-needed check on some of the governing strategy of our 
friends across the aisle.
  With a Republican House, Democrats will no longer be able to use 
budget reconciliation to circumvent the normal legislative process and, 
with it, the reckless spending that has helped to fuel inflation over 
the last 2 years. Instead, they will have to work in earnest. They will 
have to work with Republicans to find common ground and move 
legislation using the regular order.
  That is what the American people want. That is the verdict of the 
voters in the midterm elections. I am hopeful that we will embrace this 
new era of divided government to provide the opportunity to govern in a 
more responsible way.
  The start of a new Congress is always bittersweet because you are 
saying good-bye to old friends, but you are also saying welcome to new 
friends.
  While we have had to say farewell to some truly top-notch colleagues 
who have retired at the end of the year, we are happy to welcome those 
new colleagues to the Senate.
  The Republican Conference officially welcomes five new Members in our 
ranks today: Katie Britt from Alabama, Ted Budd from North Carolina, 
Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma, Eric Schmitt from Missouri, and JD 
Vance from Ohio. They have now gone from Senators-elect to full-fledged 
U.S. Senators. And I know how excited they are to get to work.
  Each of these new Senators has run the gauntlet of a primary and 
general election campaign and has come to Washington with a fresh 
perspective and a long list of ideas about how to improve the lives of 
their constituents in their States.
  I have gotten to know each of these new colleagues over the past few 
months, and I am eager to work with them here in the Senate.
  On the other side of the Capitol, there are new faces joining the 
Texas delegation. Given the explosive population growth in the State of 
Texas--now we have just reached the 30 million mark of people calling 
Texas home--we have added two new House seats this cycle, bringing the 
total House of Representatives to 38 from the State of Texas.
  Today, we officially welcome five new Texas Republicans to the House, 
and I am, likewise, eager to work with each of them.
  During my time in this Chamber, I have consistently fought to protect 
the right of Texans and create more opportunities for every family to 
achieve the American dream. Despite the partisanship that has often 
gripped this Chamber last Congress, we have managed to actually 
accomplish quite a bit on behalf of the American people.
  We have funded the CHIPS for America Act, which made an investment in 
our national security and economic competitiveness. We gave States and 
local government the flexibility to use excess COVID-19 relief funds on 
important infrastructure and disaster relief projects. And in the wake 
of the devastating shooting in Uvalde, we have passed bipartisan 
legislation to strengthen mental health resources, improve school 
safety, and strengthen the background check system without impacting 
Second Amendment rights. And it is already producing well by saving 
lives, I believe. We will hear more about that as time goes by.
  We sent more support to local law enforcement for mental health 
courts and crisis intervention teams, as well as critical deescalation 
training.
  We made major strides in combating the scourge of human trafficking 
and other heinous crimes and helped improve our support for crime 
victim survivors.
  These are just a few examples of bills that I introduced or 
cosponsored that are now the law of the land.
  While I am proud of everything that we have been able to accomplish 
on a bipartisan basis last Congress, we regrettably failed to address 
some of the biggest problems facing our country, starting with the 
border.
  Since President Biden took office, the southern border has been 
overwhelmed by unprecedented levels of migration. In the last 12 months 
alone, Border Patrol has encountered more than 2\1/2\ million migrants 
along the U.S.-Mexico border.
  It used to be considered a crisis when the Border Patrol encountered 
more than 100,000 migrants in a single month, but over the last year, 
we have averaged more than double that every single month.
  It is a gross understatement to say that frontline officers and 
agents are overwhelmed. They can't keep up in terms of staffing, so 
Border Patrol has to leave the front lines to process asylum seekers, 
unaccompanied minors,

[[Page S12]]

and others. Meanwhile, the drug cartels move the drugs across the 
border that took the lives of 108,000 Americans last year alone. And 
71,000 of those 108,000 were from fentanyl or synthetic opioids, the 
precursors originating from Asia, principally China.
  Morale is at an alltime low, and it is no surprise. If you are a law 
enforcement officer sworn to enforce the laws of the land and you are 
told by your superiors you cannot because of poor policy choices, how 
would you expect morale to be anything else but low?
  These law enforcement officers, principally the Border Patrol, are 
frustrated that the administration is actively working to make their 
jobs harder, not easier.
  As we know, the Biden administration is trying to remove one of the 
tools needed for the Border Patrol to control the border, since they 
have yet to come up with a comprehensive plan; and that would be title 
42, the public health title that the Border Patrol is able to use to 
prevent this crisis from turning into a full-blown catastrophe.
  I know I sound like a broken record, but Congress must do something. 
Inaction is not an option. I have said over and over again that I am 
willing to work with anyone--Republican, Democrat, or Independent--who 
is serious about solving this border crisis.
  The Presiding Officer, the Senator from Arizona, has been a great 
partner in this effort. Back in 2021, we introduced the Bipartisan 
Border Solutions Act to address some of the biggest strains on Border 
Patrol and our immigration court system. It is admittedly a modest 
bill, but I was naive enough to think that if things got bad enough, 
the Biden administration would be looking for a lifeline.
  We had a bicameral, bipartisan bill that at least got the 
conversation started and would make things better if it was embraced 
and enacted into law. But despite the fact that the bill had 
bipartisan, bicameral support, the Senate Judiciary Committee refused 
to even hold a hearing. Let me say that again: bipartisan, bicameral 
legislation, with the border on fire, an unprecedented humanitarian and 
public security crisis, and the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman 
refused to even hold a hearing on the bill.
  In the meantime, the Biden administration has weakened or completely 
jettisoned policies that have checked the flow of irregular migration, 
and the crisis has grown even worse. And why wouldn't it?
  Border Patrol, which are the experts who have taught me about what 
happens at the border in terms of the flow of migrants coming across, 
have educated me to the fact that there are both push factors and pull 
factors. The push factors are violence and poverty. We all understand 
that. The pull factors are the perception that there will be no 
consequences associated with illegally immigrating into the United 
States.

  The Biden administration is simply waving the white flag when it 
comes to any consequences associated with illegal immigration into the 
United States. Given the growing strain on frontline personnel and our 
immigration system as a whole, not to mention public safety, I hope the 
willful ignorance of this administration will come to an end.
  Hopefully, with the new Congress, President Biden will reconsider, 
maybe even travel to the border and talk to the same experts that I 
have learned from when it comes to how we might do a better job to 
control the flow not only of migrants but also drugs across the border. 
But, so far, the President has shown zero interest, as has the Vice 
President, whom he had named the border czar previously.
  They want to talk about root causes of illegal immigration as if that 
just emanated from Central America and Mexico. But the Border Patrol in 
Arizona and Texas will tell you that they are detaining people from as 
many as 150 different countries, which tells me that there are 
international human smuggling networks and it is just a matter of money 
whether you can get here from the Middle East, whether you can get here 
from Ukraine, or whether you can get here from the People's Republic of 
China. People of all those different nationalities and more have shown 
up at the border, which shows me it is not just about ``root causes'' 
in Central America or South America--or Mexico, for that reason.
  It won't surprise you that the border is one of the top concerns of 
the folks I represent in Texas. Because we have a 1,200-mile common 
border with Mexico, we are ground zero of this border crisis.
  Meanwhile, the Biden administration, this last year, ushered through 
trillions of dollars in unnecessary partisan spending, adding to the 
inflation rates that are crushing middle-class families who are 
struggling to keep up with high prices, particularly at the grocery 
store.
  My constituents are also worried about crime in their communities and 
the ability to keep their families safe. Of course, businesses that 
employ--particularly, small businesses that employ--the vast majority 
of Americans are facing the same inflation headwinds, compounded by 
supply chain struggles and an ongoing labor shortage.
  These are some of the biggest challenges our country is facing, and I 
hope the Senate will take these problems seriously in this new 
Congress. Of course, these aren't Republican or Democrat issues. These 
aren't issues just facing red States or blue States alone. These are 
problems that are being faced by people across the country, and it is 
time for the new Congress to act with the seriousness and urgency that 
is required.
  I am proud of the fact that I have consistently ranked as one of the 
most bipartisan Senators because I am willing to work with anyone who 
wants to deliver change. That has been the case throughout my time here 
in the Senate, and it is not going to change now. So I am eager to work 
together where we can, but I also will never hesitate to fight back 
against ill-conceived or downright dangerous proposals from some of our 
friends across the aisle.
  Calvin Coolidge, the former President of the United States, has said 
that one of the most important things a Member of Congress can do is to 
stop bad legislation, and that remains true today. But that doesn't 
detract from the fact that, where we can, where we can find common 
ground, we should work together in order to craft lasting, enduring 
bipartisan legislation, not by abusing the rules of the Senate but by 
working together to come up with good ideas that can command the vote 
of at least 60 Senators, a majority of the House, and a Presidential 
signature.
  So, yes, we will continue to oppose radical policies that the 
American people overwhelmingly oppose. We won't allow the imposition of 
government mandates that will kill energy jobs or harm our energy 
security in an effort to reach unrealistic zero emissions deadlines. We 
won't let them hamstring our police officers with broad funding cuts or 
one-size-fits-all policies. And we won't allow the packing of the 
Supreme Court or the creation of two new States out of Washington, DC, 
and Puerto Rico so that Democrats get a permanent majority in the U.S. 
Senate by getting two Senators each from each of those would-be new 
States. And we won't let our colleagues on the other side impose 
crippling tax hikes that will make it more difficult for hard-working 
Texans to put food on the table.
  So I trust that our colleagues got some good rest over the holidays, 
some time with friends and family, and we all look ahead to the need to 
do more work for the American people. We have big opportunities ahead 
of us, and I am glad to be back and eager to get to work.

                          ____________________