[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 144 (Thursday, September 7, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4258-S4261]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              The Economy

  Mr. President, I want to take a moment today to talk about what is 
going right. We have a lot of challenges to work on. At the same time, 
I am really excited about the fact that we are seeing evidence of the 
right policies, the right funding, that are actually creating jobs in 
my home State of Michigan and across the country.
  All across our country, manufacturing facilities are opening. We are 
seeing a lot of those in Michigan. I have always said we don't have an 
economy unless somebody makes something and somebody grows something. 
That is what we do in Michigan. That is what we have traditionally done 
in America; but we have lost, over decades, so many of those jobs going 
overseas for a number of reasons.
  Now we are bringing them back, and that is exciting to see. Last 
month, 187,000 jobs were created just in August, 13.5 million jobs 
since President Biden has taken office. This is good news. Over 800,000 
of those are in manufacturing. In fact, we are witnessing a rebirth of 
American manufacturing, and this is part of how we are going to also 
tackle the climate crisis, with the clean energy efforts and the new 
opportunities for us in good-paying jobs that also address clean 
energy.
  Unemployment has been under 4 percent for 19 months in a row. I am 
not sure when else I could have stood on the floor to say, 19 months in 
a row, unemployment under 4 percent, the longest stretch in over 50 
years. We are seeing the lowest unemployment rate for American women in 
70 years; and as a caveat, I would say that if we addressed childcare 
costs, unemployment would be even lower for women who want and need to 
work in the workplace. And the highest share of Americans aged 25 to 54 
are now in the workforce. It is the highest share since May of 2002--
quite a while ago.
  So wages are up, and costs for the things people need continue to go 
down. We have got more work to do. I am not saying we are done by any 
stretch of the imagination, but things are moving in the right 
direction.
  And, certainly, in lowering costs, I am so proud of what we have done 
regarding prescription drugs: a $35 cap on insulin for seniors and 
others on Medicare, $35 a month--not $600, not $800, not $1,000, like 
many people have experienced, but $35. And we are seeing a cap on 
overall out-of-pocket costs for seniors. In another year, next January, 
it goes down to a $3,200 cap altogether; and then, after that, $2,000 
for everything--not the $14,000 that is the average right now in 
America but a $2,000 cap for a year of prescriptions--huge difference; 
huge, huge difference.
  And I have to say, I am proud of the fact that we have taken on one 
of the most powerful special interests in our country, Big Pharma--
pharmaceutical companies--and made sure that we are lowering prices for 
people in our country. There is more to do. It is disappointing for me 
to say that not one of our Republican colleagues joined us in that 
effort. Not one. But we are continuing to push forward and lower costs.
  I would also say none of this is by accident. It is a very different 
way of viewing the economy and what is good for Americans. Democrats 
are growing our economy from the middle out, the bottom up, not the top 
down. It is the opposite of trickle-down economics that, for decades, 
we have been hearing that if we only give it to the top--wait, wait, 
wait, wait--it will trickle down. People in Michigan are still waiting 
for that to trickle down.
  We are doing something different. We are aiming at the middle class 
of our country, making smart investments in America, bringing jobs home 
from overseas. We are empowering workers with higher wages and better 
training, more support for unions that can do collective bargaining, 
that can make workplaces safer, and raise wages as well.
  And it is so interesting to see that job satisfaction surveys are 
saying they are at the highest ever recorded. Right now, we are 
enjoying one of the strongest job-creating periods in the history of 
our country--not by accident. It is a different view.
  For our friends on the other side of the aisle, basically, if the 
economy is

[[Page S4259]]

up, we need a tax cut; if the economy is down, we need a tax cut. 
Whichever problem there is, a tax cut for the wealthy will solve it. It 
has not worked, and what we are saying is: No, why don't we actually 
directly address the costs that families are feeling, take on the 
special interests and bring those costs down and invest in the 
opportunity to rebuild America, create a manufacturing renaissance, 
bring jobs home. That is what is happening right now.
  It is a lot of hard work, and certainly we are not done, but I am 
excited that we are moving in the direction that we are with 13.5 
million new jobs coming out of a worldwide pandemic, 13.5 million new 
jobs since President Biden took office.
  That is why it is so incredibly important that we work together, 
Democrats and Republicans, to keep our government running, to keep our 
government open. As a reminder, government funding runs out on 
September 30. That is not very far away.
  I am so proud of the bipartisan work in the Senate, the effort to put 
all 12 appropriations bills out of committee, most of them unanimous, 
very few with a single ``no'' vote.
  I have to give a particular shout-out to Senator Murray and Senator 
Collins. You know, again, not by accident, I would say this is the 
first time we had two women leading that effort--just saying--and it is 
on time and on budget. So I am very proud of their leadership and their 
work.
  But what is so worrisome is what the House Republicans are doing. 
Well, actually, they are not doing anything this week because they are 
still in recess. But when they get back, keeping the government open is 
not on their to-do list, and that is really terrible news for American 
families.
  In fairness, I am not sure Speaker McCarthy wants the government to 
shut down. In fact, he and President Biden shook hands and made a 
commitment to move our country forward with agreed-upon spending 
levels, which we in the Senate, on a bipartisan basis, are abiding by. 
But while Speaker McCarthy is Speaker, it is the fringe of his caucus 
that seems to be doing all of the talking. They are making all sorts of 
ridiculous and radical demands that will go nowhere in the Senate and 
certainly are not things the American people want to have happen.
  Meanwhile, we know what will happen if these extremists win and the 
government shuts down. It will take us in the exact opposite direction 
of the good news I have been talking about today. Seniors will worry 
about receiving the services they depend on. Members of our military, 
who put their lives on the line to defend our country, will go without 
pay. Millions of hard-working public employees will worry about paying 
their bills and providing for their families. Small businesses may 
struggle to get loans or help with redtape and other issues. Food 
safety and rail safety inspections will happen less frequently, making 
us all less safe. Air travel may go from a hassle to a nightmare. 
Michigan families who are getting away for one last weekend while the 
weather is still nice will find that the national park they plan to 
attend is closed down.
  Beyond the individual pain--and I could go on and on and on about 
what this means for individuals, for Americans--but beyond the pain 
that would cause, the cost of the government shutting down is enormous. 
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the last time the 
government shut down, it cost our economy $11 billion.
  Now, I have to tell you, I am in the middle, as the chair of the 
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, of negotiating the farm 
bill, and I think my ranking member, Senator Rosen, would join me in 
saying that $11 billion we could lose in the economy we sure could use 
to invest in our farmers in rural America to be able to get this done.
  A Republican government shutdown will completely undermine our 
government's and our country's progress. We are moving. We are out of 
the pandemic. We are moving forward. We are creating jobs. We are 
creating new opportunities. We are moving in the right direction. And 
this will completely undermine it. You have to wonder if that is 
exactly what those folks are aiming to do, actually.
  It is time to come together on a bipartisan basis like we are doing 
in the Senate. Keep our government open, and build on the progress we 
have already made.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I find it ironic that we are talking about 
government shutdowns when it is as a result of Senator Schumer's 
handling of this matter that we find ourselves here 2 weeks before the 
end of the fiscal year without having a chance to vote on 
appropriations bills. This is by design. This is not a bug. This is a 
feature of his strategy.
  These bipartisan appropriations bills were passed out of the Senate 
Appropriations Committee weeks ago, and then Senator Schumer put the 
Senate in a 40-day recess during the month of August. Now, with the 
clock ticking, September 30 just right around the corner, we will start 
with a minibus appropriations bill next week, but we won't able to 
finish. We won't be able to reconcile the House and the Senate versions 
before the end of the fiscal year, so we will be forced to do some form 
of continuing resolution.
  You might ask, why would the majority leader of the Senate sabotage 
the normal, expected procedure by which the appropriations process 
should work? Well, one, it maximizes his power because he knows that 
only a handful of people will ultimately negotiate the final product, 
and it will disempower 98 other Members of the U.S. Senate, rank-and-
file Members who will not have a chance to debate, vote, and amend 
various appropriations bills as they come across the floor.
  So this is a part of Senator Schumer's strategy. His political 
strategy is to create this crisis and then to blame somebody else--
namely, the House of Representatives. And you heard it from our friend 
from Michigan, the Senator from Michigan. This is all about talking 
about shutdowns. Well, we tried that before, and we figured out it 
doesn't really work because when you reopen, the same problems that you 
found difficult to deal with beforehand are still in front of you.
  So we need to do our work here, but we need to do it on a basis where 
we can actually have an opportunity to shape these appropriations bills 
and not go through this unnecessary but entirely predictable drama 
because the majority leader refused to give us an opportunity to put 
these bills on the floor and to go through them in an orderly and 
transparent way.
  Our national debt is about $38 trillion. Excuse me, I forgot what the 
exact number is, but it is at a historic high. One reason that spending 
is out of control is because of this gamesmanship. So we need to do 
better.
  With the government funding deadline just a few weeks away, the Biden 
administration has adopted a puzzling messaging strategy.
  This week, the White House launched an attack against House 
Republicans, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the fentanyl 
crisis. Well, it is tough to peel back the many layers of irony and 
hypocrisy in that accusation. After all, this administration has been 
asleep at the wheel for more than 2\1/2\ years as fentanyl has 
continued to pour across our border.
  Last year alone, 71,000 Americans died of fentanyl poisoning. We know 
where it comes from. We know what we need to do to stop it. But the 
administration has done none of those things to try to save the lives 
of Americans and now has the temerity--audacity, really--to blame House 
Republicans for its own failure. How hypocritical is that?
  In the last 12 months, Customs and Border Protection has seized 
nearly 28,000 pounds of fentanyl. I know occasionally you will see it 
in social media where people will say: Well, good for them; they got 
it. And I agree--good for them--but that is only a fraction of the 
fentanyl that has come across the border.
  We know--because 1\1/2\ million migrants got away from law 
enforcement, ran away from law enforcement, we will never know what 
they were carrying on their persons. This fentanyl powder is so 
powerful that even small amounts that can be contained in a backpack or 
in some similar carrying case can kill hundreds of thousands of people.
  We know from the sad fact that 71,000 Americans died of fentanyl 
poisoning

[[Page S4260]]

last year that, notwithstanding their heroic efforts, Customs and 
Border Protection is unable to stop all of it. A lethal dose of 
fentanyl, after all, fits on the tip of the sharpened end of a pencil. 
So when you consider the fact that Customs and Border Protection has 
seized nearly 28,000 pounds, it is enough to wipe out the entire U.S. 
population 20 times over.
  I have been in too many sad meetings with too many grieving parents 
who lost their teenage son or daughter to fentanyl poisoning. One of 
those fathers gave me this wristband that I still wear that he has 
handed out to others in memory of his daughter. It says: ``One pill can 
kill.''
  These kids don't know they are taking this deadly drug. They think 
they are taking something like a Xanax or Percocet, something 
relatively innocuous, but, in fact, it is a counterfeit pill 
contaminated with this poison that kills them.
  I am grateful to the brave men and women who work hard to stop these 
drugs every day. We know they aren't able to interdict all of the 
contraband that comes across the border, but thanks to President 
Biden's border strategy--otherwise known as the Biden border crisis--
their already-tough job has become even more challenging.
  Over the last couple of years, the unprecedented border crisis has 
affected all of our missions at the southern border, even those that 
have nothing to do with immigration. Law enforcement has been shifted 
from the frontlines in order to process the migrants who continue to 
come in the millions. Instead of stopping dangerous drugs and 
criminals, many agents are now pushing paper, changing diapers, and 
arranging for transportation, so they are not able to be on the 
frontlines to stop this scourge of illegal drugs, including fentanyl.
  Of course, no one profits more from the status quo than the drug 
cartels. With fewer agents on the frontlines, these cartels have a 
clear and easy path to move fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and 
other deadly drugs into the United States.
  Our communities are being ravaged by this overdose epidemic, and the 
Biden administration apparently does not care, because if they did 
care, they would do something different.
  By ignoring the border crisis for more than 2\1/2\ years, President 
Biden has given the cartels a clear and easy pathway to move drugs into 
the United States. The fact that the White House has decided that the 
best defense is an offense and to turn around and try to attack House 
Republicans isn't just dishonest, it is completely incoherent. It is 
cynical, and it is wrong.
  In its memo, the White House cited a Morning Consult poll that found 
that nearly 60 percent of voters want Congress to make fentanyl 
trafficking a top priority. This may have surprised the White House, 
but it isn't news to anybody else in America who has been keeping track 
of the fentanyl epidemic.
  As I said, the fentanyl epidemic is terrorizing our communities. No 
one, no community is safe. This doesn't respect how rich you are, how 
poor you are, the color of your skin, your ethnicity. All of our 
country is being affected.
  Since President Biden took office, he has made every effort to 
ignore, underplay, or misrepresent what is happening at the border.
  Over the last few months, we have seen another effort to try to 
downplay his failure to meet the challenge at the border. When title 
42, for example--the public health title that allowed the Border Patrol 
to expel people for public health reasons--when it expired, the Biden 
administration tried to assure the American people that it had a plan 
to manage the crisis, and there is no reason to worry. And for the 
first few weeks, we saw a drop in border crossings, and the 
administration was quick to declare victory. The Department of Homeland 
Security bragged that the Biden administration border plan was 
``working as intended.''
  Well, as I and others pointed out at the time, the dip was likely to 
be only temporary. There was a lot of uncertainty how cases will be 
handled in a post-title 42 world, and it made sense that migrants--but 
even more so the criminal organizations that smuggle these migrants--
would take a wait-and-see approach, sort of get the lay of the land 
before they decide the next method they would use.
  And as an added deterrent, the growing summer heat made the journey 
to and across our border even more dangerous. Either way, it was tough 
to tell how much things had really changed as a result of the 
administration's gimmicky accounting.
  Earlier this year, the administration stood up a new program that 
allows migrants from four countries to enter and remain in the United 
States for up to 2 years and to receive work permits. All they have to 
do is submit their information online and wait for the administration 
to give them a green light. Now, this is not a small program. You would 
think after the 7 million migrants who have crossed our border since 
President Biden became President, that he would try to tamp down the 
flow of even more migrants across the border. But this program is open 
to up to 30,000 individuals a month. That is 360,000 migrants a year.
  Until recently, the American people had a pretty good idea about the 
number of migrants who crossed the border each month. The 
administration is required to report the number of apprehensions each 
month, and this data provides a great snapshot of what the facts 
actually are.
  By standing up a new program, the administration effectively opened 
an additional loophole that allows it to hide the true scale of this 
crisis. They just basically quit counting some people. They said: Well, 
we are creating a program where 30,000 people a month can come across 
under this program so we are going to cut them from the total so that 
makes us look like we are doing better.
  We do not know the full extent of the administration's programmatic 
use of parole to hide the effects of their immigration nonenforcement 
policies. What that means is even if people do not claim asylum when 
they come to the border, the Biden administration is simply waving them 
through, granting what is known in immigration law as parole--not based 
on individual circumstance but by the hundreds and thousands. They 
simply are refusing to enforce the immigration laws that Congress 
passed on the books.
  Despite the smoke-and-mirrors accounting and a range of other factors 
that contribute to the post-title 42 decrease, the administration had 
the temerity to declare victory.
  But it is becoming clear there was no reason to celebrate. 
Preliminary data published in the Washington Post shows that last 
month, a record number of families illegally crossed the southern 
border--a record number. In August alone, Border Patrol detained more 
than 91,000 migrants who ended up in the United States as part of a 
family unit. This is the highest number we have ever seen in a single 
month.
  But it is not just what is called family units. Apprehension numbers 
increased dramatically over the past couple of months. We have gone 
from just under 100,000 in June to 132,000 in July, to more than 
177,000 in August. To be clear, these are not overall encounters. These 
are just the arrests by Border Patrol.
  I already mentioned that since President Biden became President, 
there have been 1\1/2\ million ``got-aways,'' people who were evading 
law enforcement--up to no good, I am sure. We won't see the full 
picture until the administration releases its data later this month. 
But the Washington Post is estimating roughly 230,000 migrant 
encounters in August when you include migrants processed through the 
land ports of entry. This would make it the busiest month for border 
crossings this year.
  Time and time again, the Biden administration has refused to accept 
responsibility. The administration has cooked the books, manipulated 
the numbers, in order to hide the pace of border crossings. It has 
ignored frontline officers' plea for support. It has attacked States 
like mine for providing transportation to migrants to help them reach 
other States rather than to have them settle in our States. And now, it 
is trying to blame House Republicans for turning a blind eye to the 
fentanyl crisis. This is a new low, a new low even for the Biden 
administration.
  The reason so many Americans see, understand, and care about fentanyl 
is because the crisis has ballooned under

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President Biden's watch. It is going to continue to get worse, not 
better. Under this administration, fentanyl has poured across the 
southern border and into our communities across America. If anyone 
should be named and shamed for ignoring this crisis, it is not the 
House of Representatives, it is the gentleman sitting at 1600 
Pennsylvania Avenue.
  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. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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