[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 119 (Tuesday, July 23, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S5160]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                          BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

  Mr. SCHUMER. Now, Mr. President, for as long as I have known Joe 
Biden, I have known him to be a man of one thing: a man who fervently 
loves his country. From the moment he was elected to the New Castle 
County Council to his swearing in as Delaware's Senator at age 30, to 
his elevation as our Nation's 47th Vice President, and to his election 
as our 46th President, Joe Biden's North Star has not changed: serving 
the people of the United States of America.
  This weekend, President Biden made the kind of decision only a true 
patriot can make, choosing to pass the torch and to step away from the 
Presidency at the conclusion of this term.
  I know President Biden's decision wasn't an easy one, but, once 
again, he put the needs of his country and our future first. It is a 
bittersweet moment but one that fills every single one of us who knows 
President Biden with limitless gratitude.
  On behalf of a grateful Democratic caucus, on behalf of a grateful 
Senate, and on behalf of a grateful nation, I wish to say thank you--
thank you--to President Biden for dedication to our country, and we 
will keep working with him every single day until this term is done.
  By willingly passing the torch, Joe Biden is precisely the kind of 
leader George Washington would have hoped for. In his Farewell Address, 
our first President affirmed that elected office belongs to no man or 
woman alone but to the people above all. Two hundred thirty years 
later, President Biden honors George Washington's example in a way few 
Presidents ever have.
  But to those of us who have known Joe Biden all these years, we know 
that this is who he truly is: a man of profound decency. He is, at his 
core, an honorable man, a family man, a man of faith. And he restored 
those qualities to the Presidency after 4 years of disaster under the 
previous administration.
  Now, future generations will look at Joe Biden's Presidency and see 
it was one of the most consequential in American history. It may seem 
like a lifetime ago, but when President Biden entered office, America 
was in crisis. A once-in-a-century pandemic was claiming thousands of 
lives by the day. Our economy was on life support. And in the aftermath 
of January 6, American democracy was hanging by a thread.
  Three and a half years later, America is stronger, more prosperous, 
and our future is brighter because of President Biden's leadership. And 
it has been the honor of a lifetime for me to work side by side to 
bring the Senate Democratic agenda to life here in the U.S. Senate.
  With President Biden, we have created 15 million new jobs since the 
depths of the pandemic, the most in a single term. With President 
Biden, we have lowered the cost of prescription drugs for tens of 
millions of Americans. We empowered Medicare to negotiate with drug 
companies for the first time ever. We have made insulin $35 a month for 
millions of seniors. And we expanded affordable healthcare to more 
Americans than ever before.
  With President Biden, we enacted a generational infrastructure bill 
to rebuild America, fixing her roads and bridges and highways and lead 
piping and expanding broadband to so many rural and inner-city areas 
that didn't have it. I was proud to lead these efforts in this Chamber.
  With President Biden, we passed the first gun safety law in 30 years, 
the first since the Brady bill that I led as a Member of Congress back 
in the 1990s. And I remember working then with Senator Biden on gun 
legislation, both the assault weapons ban and the Brady Law.
  With President Biden, we enacted the boldest clean energy bill in the 
history of our Nation: the Inflation Reduction Act. Because of this 
bill, our kids will breathe cleaner air, our communities will see less 
pollution, the next generation will enjoy millions--millions--of new, 
good-paying, green jobs that will last for generations--jobs with a 
future.
  With President Biden, we revived America's grand tradition of 
scientific research and technological innovation. With the Chips and 
Science Act, advanced manufacturing is coming back to America, to 
cities like Syracuse and Albany, but also in States like Arizona and 
Ohio and Idaho and Texas and so many others.
  And with President Biden, America has led the free world to defend 
democracy in its hour of need. He united the nations of NATO to stand 
with the people of Ukraine against Vladimir Putin, and NATO is stronger 
and larger today than it was when he took office.
  Incredibly, Mr. President, there is still much, much more. President 
Biden led the way in appointing the first Black woman to ever serve on 
the Supreme Court: Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. I worked with him and 
my colleagues here in the Senate--I thank so many of them--to confirm 
more than 200 Federal judges, the most diverse slate of judicial and 
Federal nominees America has ever seen. We worked with him on historic 
veterans' health reform. We expanded Federal protections for marriage 
equality--all this and more.
  Truly, President Biden's legislative accomplishments are without 
equal in our recent history.
  Of course, the work is not done. This is not a moment of culmination 
because we have a lot of work left to do. For everything that has 
transpired these past few weeks, one thing has not changed: Senate 
Democrats will continue working with President Biden and with Vice 
President Harris and with the entire Biden-Harris administration to 
make life better.
  It was so typical of the President. When he called me to tell me the 
news that he was not running again, he said: But we have a lot more 
work to do over the next several months. It shows you the commitment of 
the man to making the lives of people better.
  So we will continue to work on those issues, but, for now, I want to 
say for a grateful nation: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Joseph 
Robinette Biden.
  What an amazing legacy President Biden will leave for future 
generations. History will say of this moment: Here was one of our great 
American Presidents. He is a leader who made the most difficult choice 
at the most important moment because he believed it was the right thing 
to do. Here is someone who put country ahead of self until the very 
end.

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