[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 117 (Monday, July 10, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2270-S2271]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, back in May, I was in Shelby County 
to visit with 100 members of the Tennessee National Guard. They were 
heading off on yet another deployment to the southern border.
  These are some of the bravest and most capable people that you will 
ever meet. Tennesseans depend on them to keep us safe during natural 
disasters, to rescue lost hikers in the Great Smoky Mountain National 
Park, and to defend the country from our adversaries overseas. Yet 
there they were on their way to what many would call a war zone in 
their own country to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do.
  They shouldn't have had to go, but they went because they knew that 
no matter who was to blame for all this chaos, our Border Patrol agents 
and local law enforcement needed help controlling it.
  When I think back on my conversations with those servicemembers, I 
can't help but notice the stark contrast between their focus on service 
and sacrifice and the Biden administration's lack of regard for the 
welfare of this country.
  Over the past several years, the relationship between the American 
people and their government has changed, but not for the better. At the 
beginning of Biden's term, they were just baffled by what they were 
seeing. All they could do was shake their heads in disbelief. But as 
the months wore on, that disbelief gave way to genuine fear that this 
President was digging a hole that they wouldn't be able to claw their 
way out of no matter how hard they worked.

  As it turns out, those fears were well-founded, and now, 3 years into 
this administration, that fear has given way to outrage because this 
President has made it abundantly clear that when it comes to pursuing 
his radical agenda, he simply doesn't care whom it hurts.
  The President may be happy to ignore the mess he has made, but 
Tennesseans don't have that luxury. If they ignore the problems they 
see, they suffer real consequences. If local law enforcement officers 
just ignored the drugs flooding into their communities, even more 
people would die from fentanyl overdoses and drug-related crime.
  Every year, I meet with local leaders in each of our State's 95 
counties, and the conversation turns to the border crisis every single 
time. It is an unmitigated disaster, and they just don't understand why 
the President refuses to do something about it.
  If you talk to law enforcement in East Tennessee, they will tell you 
that they are recording record levels of drug seizures. What they once 
would apprehend in ounces they now measure in pounds.
  Chief Jason Owens at the Border Patrol gave a ``week in review'' from 
June 22 to 29. Here is some of what they apprehended. They know they 
had 28,339 apprehensions. They also had an additional 6,100 ``get-
aways.'' They apprehended 116 pounds of marijuana, 50 pounds of 
fentanyl, and 2,056 pounds of cocaine. Where does much of the drugs 
that are coming across with those ``got-aways'' end up? It ends up in 
our communities.
  A judge in Rhea County told me that 80 percent of the crime he sees 
is drug-related. If they could get a handle on the drugs, they could 
take care of much of the court cases and the prison population, but 
they can't get a handle on it because the local dealers are not the 
root of the problem. For every drug smuggler the Border Patrol manages 
to catch and every pound of drugs they apprehend, you have that handful 
of ``got-aways'' who escape into the country with drugs and contraband.
  In Overton County, they said they haven't busted a local meth lab in 
5 years. Here is why. The drug dealers have outsourced their entire 
supply to the cartels because it is easier and cheaper to smuggle it in 
than it is to make it themselves. The police can trace that supply 
chain down I-75 to Atlanta and then right across the border into 
Mexico.
  Now when they respond to an overdose death, local officials have to 
implement fentanyl protocols because they know it is the likely 
culprit. The cartels add this to the drugs to make them that much more 
addictive. Everything is laced with fentanyl. It is also very lethal in 
small amounts. In Marion County, they are spending an astronomical 
amount of money on autopsies because of this. As of May, they have 
spent $80,000, and almost all of those deaths are fentanyl-related.
  These local officials are desperate for help. They know this is this 
administration's fault because the situation escalated when the Biden 
administration moved into the White House.
  Here is what the President did: He terminated ``Remain in Mexico.'' 
He terminated title 42. He terminated DNA testing at the border. And 
his rhetoric made it clear that he would rather pander to the left than 
admit that Trump-era border policies were working. Then he left local 
law enforcement to fend for themselves.
  They need our support. When title 42 ended, I introduced the Make the 
Migrant Protection Protocols Mandatory Act. That would reinstate the 
successful ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. I also introduced the End Child 
Trafficking Now Act, which would reinstate DNA testing at the border 
and thwart the child trafficking rings that President Biden has allowed 
to flourish. If we passed these two bills, we could give Border Patrol 
and local law enforcement a fighting chance against the cartels.
  But the problem goes much deeper than just preventing illegal entry 
into the country. When Joe Biden took office, he threw the rule of law 
out the window. Since then, we have watched Biden and his supporters 
ignore the

[[Page S2271]]

Constitution, attack our most important institutions, ignore the law, 
enable corruption, and slander their fellow countrymen as violent 
racists.
  Tennesseans take issue with that and with the judges and the 
bureaucrats whom President Biden has nominated to write this partisan 
rhetoric into law. Over the past several years, this body has 
considered nominees to some of the most critical positions in 
government who were little more than political activists, and that is 
putting it mildly.
  We have questioned judicial nominees who are unfamiliar with the 
Constitution, potential Agency heads with almost no experience in the 
industries they seek to regulate, and Cabinet nominees who have 
demonstrated their commitment to burning down institutions and norms 
that conflict with their radical views. But the one thing they all have 
in common is they have agreed to rubberstamp the Biden agenda.
  The local leaders I see in my county tours see the chaos this is 
causing. They see two tiers of justice at work, and they are very 
concerned about it, especially when they see administration officials 
egging on leftist fanatics seeking to undermine the rule of law at any 
cost.
  For example, Federal law makes it clear that it is illegal to protest 
outside of a judge's home with the intent of influencing a ruling. It 
is common sense. But after the Supreme Court's Dobbs opinion leaked, 
far-left protesters immediately began demonstrating outside of the 
Justices' homes. The Biden DOJ has yet to arrest a single protester, 
which means that the Biden DOJ has in effect endorsed the intimidation 
of Supreme Court Justices who refuse to rubberstamp the Biden agenda.
  Earlier this year, I introduced the Protecting Our Supreme Court 
Justices Act, which significantly increases the maximum jail time for 
any individual who violates this law. I am sure that under a future 
administration, it will serve as an effective deterrent to this 
disgusting behavior.

  But imagine being a law enforcement officer in Tennessee and seeing 
this complete breakdown of law and order in our Nation's Capital at the 
highest levels of government. How much faith do you think they have in 
this administration to help them control the flow of drugs and violent 
criminals into their communities? How seriously do you think they take 
the Democrats' promises to fight for safe streets when this body 
continues to confirm judicial nominees who promise to undermine the 
rule of law? Unlike the Biden administration, they can't change the 
rules whenever they feel like it, they can't use the bureaucracy to 
stack the deck in their favor, and they can't put their friends in 
charge to cover for them if they get caught breaking the law.
  Our local law enforcement officials deserve better. Tennesseans 
deserve better. The American people deserve better. But right now, they 
have to do the best they can fighting a losing battle on two fronts--
against criminals trying to exploit them and against a President who 
knows exactly what is happening but just doesn't care enough to do 
something about it.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The majority leader.

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