[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 63 (Monday, April 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1126-S1128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, just before Easter, the Biden 
administration released a report that they claim vindicates their role 
in our disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, but rather than laying 
out the facts and embracing accountability, the Biden administration 
returned to its default setting of blaming Donald Trump for their 
problems. They claim that because Trump did not provide them with a 
plan for every contingency, the Biden White House should be allowed to 
wash its hands of the mess they have made.
  Now, you would think that anyone who witnessed mothers throwing their 
children over barbed wire fences and into the arms of our soldiers 
would at least hesitate before making excuses for the terrible decision 
making that led to those images. Biden and his team are kidding 
themselves if they think we have forgotten what happened. But the 
American people are not fooled. They remember that it was Joe Biden who 
chose to close Bagram Airfield; that it was Joe Biden who set an 
arbitrary evacuation deadline even though his military generals begged 
him not to do this; and that it was Joe Biden who surrendered control 
of Karzai International Airport and handed over the names of American 
citizens, green card holders, and our Afghan partners--handed this 
information over to the Taliban.
  We saw the catastrophe unfold at the airfields and in the cities, and 
we see what the Biden administration has done. They have ignored it 
ever since. Afghanistan fell back into the Dark Ages. Twenty-three 
million people are going hungry. Twenty million Afghan women are 
subjugated under the Taliban's medieval boot.
  On the day the evacuation officially ended, there were at least 4,000 
Americans left behind--that is right, left behind--in Afghanistan. 
Today, our best guess is that there are around 175 still stranded 
there. Some of them are being held captive by the Taliban. Seventy-
eight thousand of our Afghan partners remain in hiding, many being 
hunted by the Taliban. Yes, that is the mess that this administration 
and Joe Biden made.

  And on his way out the door, Biden also left behind at least $7.2 
billion of American weaponry, including aircraft, vehicles, and guns, 
some of which have cropped up in the hands of militants in other 
countries. That is $7.2 billion of

[[Page S1127]]

equipment, part of the $80 billion investment there at Bagram Airfield.
  And what did Joe Biden do? Here you go, Bagram--the investment in 
training, the investment in the troops, the investment in 
infrastructure, and all of that equipment.
  Just imagine for a moment that you are one of our allies watching all 
of this unfold. It would cause you to be worried--and rightfully so.
  Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan damaged America's 
image on the world stage and sent once-strong alliances into a 
tailspin. Some of our most important allies now believe that the United 
States is weak, that we are unreliable, and that we are undependable.
  This is what has emboldened what I term the new axis of evil--China, 
Russia, Iran, and North Korea. They think they have got running room 
because of the way the Afghan withdrawal was conducted.
  Beijing wasted no time normalizing relations with the Taliban by 
offering multimillion-dollar investments through the Chinese Belt and 
Road Initiative. The CCP knows what it is doing here. Afghanistan has 
$1 trillion in untapped resources that communist China has already 
signed a deal to extract. Since then, they have increased their 
aggression against Taiwan and elsewhere around the globe, and the Biden 
administration has had very little to say about it--an emboldened China 
going after the $1 trillion in lithium in Afghanistan--rare-earth 
minerals, Afghanistan. That is why the Chinese Communist Party has 
inked that deal.
  Oh, what did they do with it? Let's make chips. Let's make batteries.
  Oh, what are we making those batteries for? Electric vehicles.
  How about that? How about that? This is what has emboldened the CCP.
  Afghanistan was a disaster. It was based on the decision making of 
this administration. So the CCP is encouraging Russia, Iran, and North 
Korea to join them in that axis of evil and push to global dominance.
  The CCP even let a spy balloon sashay all the way across this 
country. We know it pulled intelligence. We know it went across much of 
our critical infrastructure.
  What did my colleagues across the aisle have to say? Not much. Not 
much. They don't want to challenge the CCP and communist China, and 
Russia and Iran and North Korea. It makes you wonder.
  Meanwhile, North Korea has leaned into their ballistic missile 
program, and Iran has openly celebrated a dangerous milestone: They are 
now technically capable of building multiple nuclear weapons. That is 
right. They are pushing their nuclear development program.
  Not to be outdone, just 6 months after Biden surrendered to the 
Taliban, Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine and launched the biggest land 
war in Europe since World War II. This is not a coincidence.
  Biden knows he has no one to blame but himself and his officials for 
this. This is the mess they have made because of the decisions that 
they have made.
  But there has been no accountability. There has been no justice for 
the 13 servicemembers murdered by terrorists during those final chaotic 
days in Kabul. I think it is clear that, if things keep going the way 
they are, there won't be accountability because this administration 
will not admit they made a mistake.
  If there is any truth to be gleaned from the administration's report, 
it is that Joe Biden hasn't learned any lessons from what will 
certainly be remembered as one of the worst foreign policy disasters in 
our Nation's history.
  The Biden administration will go down in history for failing our 
allies and our partners. They are questioning--they are questioning--if 
they should be our ally and partner.
  The Biden administration will be remembered for destroying what was a 
robust economy, kowtowing to social justice warriors, and, of course, 
committing to outrageous policy proposals that insult the intelligence 
of the American people.
  The Department of Homeland Security's recent budget request is no 
exception to the rule. This year, instead of asking for more money to 
equip law enforcement and secure our southern border, Joe Biden and 
Secretary Mayorkas decided to undercut that mission by $600 million. 
That is right. The border is wide open. We have a Secretary of Homeland 
Security who does not believe in securing the homeland. So what does 
the Secretary and the President do? They cut the budget for securing 
the border by $600 million. This is something that is so unfair to our 
Border Patrol.
  We are only halfway through the fiscal year, and already Customs and 
Border Protection has recorded more than 1 million migrant encounters 
at the southern border. That is right--1 million that they have 
encountered. That is not counting the ``got-aways''--the ones they can 
see but can't get to, or the ones that later they find where they have 
been but they could not get to them, didn't know about them. This is 1 
million encounters on that border.
  They have also seized 105,000 pounds of drugs, including enough 
fentanyl to kill several cities--almost 11,000 pounds of fentanyl in 5 
short months. And get this: They caught 268 gang members, more than 
11,000 criminal noncitizens, and almost 300 terrorists trying to sneak 
into this country.
  Those are not my numbers. Those are not some pundit's numbers. Those 
are the stats that are coming from the Department of Homeland Security 
and the Border Patrol. Those are their numbers. They are telling us 
this.
  Do people agree with this? Do they think this is secure border 
policy?
  Listen to these numbers again: 105,000 pounds of drugs, 11,000 pounds 
of fentanyl, 268 gang members, and 11,000 criminal noncitizens. Those 
are people who have been convicted of crimes. These are the people who 
are being turned out of the jails in countries. Last year, 176 
different countries had people present at that southern border. This 
year, so far, you have got 11,000 criminal noncitizens and almost 300 
terrorists trying to come into this country.
  Ask yourself a question: What in heaven's name do you think they are 
coming here for? Why are they sneaking into the country? Do you think 
it is because they know they wouldn't be able to come in? Do you think 
they are coming for a job, or are they coming to do us harm?
  We should be outraged--outraged--and concerned.
  Alarms should be blaring at the Department of Homeland Security. 
Right now, the Biden administration is just rolling out the red carpet. 
They are issuing an open invitation. Indeed, they said: We have got an 
app to make it easy for you to come. Go on your iPhone. Sign in on the 
app. We will be waiting for you when you get here.
  Does that sound like securing the country? Criminal noncitizens, 
terrorists, gang members--these are the people who are coming in, 
cartel smugglers who are taking this administration up on their 
invitation: Come on in.
  Every year, in Tennessee, I visit with each one of our 95 counties. I 
am on the ground in every county in the State. And this year, without 
exception, there are mayors and sheriffs and other officials who I am 
speaking with, talking with principals, talking with citizens. And do 
you know what? Border security comes up in every single one of these 
meetings, and the reason it comes up is because of this 
administration's policies turning every town into a border town and 
every State into a border State. And now it is the local officials and 
local law enforcement officers who are left to deal with the broken 
policies of this administration.
  If you ask them what the biggest problem is, they are going to tell 
you: Well, Marsha, it connects back to the border because the drugs we 
are apprehending are coming across the southern border, and 95 percent 
of those drugs, they are fentanyl, and that drives crime in our 
communities. There are gang members coming into these communities.

  Now, here is a great example of this: Hamilton County, TN. That is 
Chattanooga, a great city. And their district attorney, Coty Wamp, and 
Sheriff Garrett there in Hamilton County were showing me some pictures 
from one of their drug busts. Well, these are rainbow fentanyl pills 
that were specifically manufactured to look like OxyContin--rainbow 
fentanyl.
  Now, officers there in Chattanooga found more than 1,000 of these 
pills in a single search. That is enough to take

[[Page S1128]]

out the entire city of Chattanooga, TN. They weren't expecting to find 
fentanyl when they were executing that warrant, but that doesn't mean 
they were surprised. This is a persistent problem in Chattanooga.
  Thank goodness, a great sheriff and a great DA working together--
great officers--they conducted this bust, and this is what they found. 
And we have great local law enforcement all across the State of 
Tennessee. And they will tell you that fentanyl overdose deaths are 
occurring at such a rate that law enforcement does not have all the 
resources they need to investigate all the cases.
  Now, this is just one story from one law enforcement entity in one 
city; but the danger is, this is occurring in every city, in every 
county, in each of our States. And it is happening because President 
Biden and my Democratic colleagues have refused to support securing the 
border, and they refuse to hold themselves accountable for the 
humanitarian crisis that this has created.
  When Secretary Becerra testified before the Finance Committee about 
the Department of Health and Human Services budget request, he betrayed 
the same disregard for basic human decency as Secretary Mayorkas had. 
He used the opportunity to push his woke agenda items rather than 
focusing on poor operations of the Agency. Frankly, it is sad that 
there is even a question about whether a Senate-confirmed secretary is 
familiar with his own job description, especially when he can't answer 
basic questions about what is happening at the Agency he, supposedly, 
controls.
  At the end of February, the New York Times reported that over the 
course of Joe Biden's Presidency, his administration has lost--that is 
right, lost--more than 85,000 children who were under the care of the 
Office of Refugee Resettlement. You heard me right. This administration 
has lost 85,000 children who were under the care of the Office of 
Refugee Resettlement. To be clear, this is the office within the 
Department of Health and Human Services that is directly responsible 
for unaccompanied children who come across the border. And now we know 
that this Agency has lost immediate contact with one third of the 
children they are responsible for.
  The Times also reported that the Office of Refugee Resettlement may 
have approved sponsors who were under investigation for labor abuses 
and that case management officers may have been aware of children in 
dangerous situations but chose to do nothing.
  During his hearing, I asked Secretary Becerra about this, frankly, 
horrifying revelation, and he did exactly what his compatriots have 
done when confronted with their failures: He feigned ignorance. He 
claimed he had never heard of those 85,000 missing children.
  Joe Biden and the Democrats might be happy to pretend that we don't 
have a problem down on the border, but the American people are not 
pretending that this is not a problem. They watched President Biden 
throw away border security policies that were working in favor of an 
open-borders agenda that benefits no one except the drug cartels; the 
sex trafficking rings that are abusing women and girls; the human 
traffickers that are smuggling people, preying on people, and 
physically, mentally, emotionally, drugging and sexually abusing them 
as they make their journey.
  It is time to put politics aside and get serious about securing this 
border, and I encourage my colleagues: Please, join us in securing this 
border. Join us in saying let's enforce the laws we have on the books. 
Join us in saying let's eliminate the policies that incentivize 
breaking the law. Let's stand for the rule of law.

  Earlier this year, I introduced the Stop Taxpayer Funding of 
Traffickers Act, which would prohibit anyone charged with drug or human 
trafficking from receiving Federal government benefits while they await 
trial. We could pass this bill today, and we should pass it because it 
would make a difference.
  When I talked to local law enforcement, when I said, ``What would be 
a way to help?'' this is the idea they gave me. It is a problem that 
they have because many of these traffickers are getting government 
benefits, and we need to stop that today.
  We should also return to the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. We should 
end catch-and-release. And last but not least, let's get back to 
building that barrier. Border Patrol has told us for 30 years they need 
a physical barrier where they can have a barrier, and where they can't, 
they need better technology, they need more officers, more agents, more 
manpower and resources so that they can do their job, so they can 
protect this Nation's sovereignty, so they can protect our citizens.
  That is it. These are the things that would be a solution to helping 
rid this country of this fentanyl crisis, to helping rid this country 
of the gangs, the terrorists that are flooding into our country, the 
criminals coming into this country. This is something that should have 
bipartisan agreement. We should do this.
  Now, the Biden administration has touted its various White House 
staff and Cabinet nominees as being the most diverse in our Nation's 
history, but they all have one thing in common: Their priorities are at 
odds with what the American people are saying they want.
  Secretary Mayorkas refuses to do his job and secure the border, even 
though local law enforcement officials are begging him for help. 
Secretary Becerra can't be bothered to offer so much as a talking point 
on behalf of 85,000 missing children. Attorney General Garland has 
weaponized the law against conservatives and created two tiers of 
justice: one for the liberal elites and one for everybody else.
  Biden's nominee to lead the FAA withdrew in disgrace. His most recent 
nominee to the FCC has dedicated her career to violating the First 
Amendment. His Transportation Secretary is perpetually missing in 
action. And the Pentagon has yet to hold anyone accountable for one of 
the worst foreign policy disasters in American history. And, yes, that 
would be Afghanistan.
  The mainstream media loves to complain that the American people have 
lost all faith in institutions, but I would ask that media to just 
stop, look at what Joe Biden's government has done to the country, and 
ask themselves: Are we safer and more secure than we were 4 years ago?
  I yield the floor.