[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 70 (Monday, April 28, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2593-S2594]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 TEXAS

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, on another matter, we have just arrived 
back in the Nation's Capital following a couple weeks back home, and I 
am glad to report that I was able to put that time to good use.
  It is no secret that Texas is one of the best places in the country 
to do business, and that was certainly confirmed by my visit back home 
these last couple of weeks. I had the opportunity to visit with some of 
our most impressive businesses, from major manufacturing facilities to 
local, family-owned small businesses.
  One such visit was to Daikin Texas Technology Park in Waller County, 
a suburb of Houston. There, I had the opportunity to tour their 
facility and attend a townhall with many of their employees. It is a 
truly impressive facility, employing more than 10,000 workers in our 
State and leading the world in the engineering and manufacturing of 
heating and air-conditioning products.
  I also visited Alliance, TX, which is actually in Tarrant County or 
Fort Worth, which is now a massive, master-planned, mixed-use 
development in North Texas. Alliance is home to a number of important 
businesses, residential neighborhoods, and a thriving island inland 
port that boosts our country's supply chains. Located along an 
interstate with rail and air access, at 27,000 acres, Alliance is 
nearly double the size of Manhattan. From its inception in 1990 until 
today, Alliance has had an incredible $130 billion economic impact on 
our State.
  Now, as you might imagine, one of the major themes of my discussion 
back home was the importance of our major task at hand here in the 
Senate, which is extending the expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and 
Jobs Act. While we made an important first step by passing the budget 
resolution in the House and the Senate, now the various committees of 
jurisdiction have their work cut out for them to pencil in the details 
of the precise policies that will then require the President's 
signature.
  I spent a great deal of time back home hearing about the importance 
of these tax cuts and how they have benefited not just Texas families 
but small businesses throughout the State.
  I know most of the time when we think about job creators, we think 
about Fortune 500 companies, but the fact is, in Texas and across the 
Nation, it is our small businesses that are the primary engine of job 
creation.
  In the Dallas area, I met with Andy Ellard, the owner and general 
manager of Manda Machine Company, a third-generation, family-owned 
company in Dallas. Andy's grandparents founded the company in 1950, 
operating the business out of a back room in their house. Eventually, 
when the time came for them to retire, they sold the business to their 
daughter and her husband, who in turn sold it to their children. Now 
more than seven decades later, Andy and his siblings are the third-
generation owners of Manda Machine Company. Now, if that is not the 
American dream, I don't know what is.
  Andy told me how beneficial the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was for his 
family business. He said that over the last 3 years, he has been able 
to invest $80,000 in improving his business as a result of that 
legislation. So if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is not extended at the end 
of this year, Andy and his employees in this small business will lose 
out on these benefits that have helped his business grow and thrive and 
provide employment for other families.
  I visited another place in the Rio Grande Valley, this one called 5x5 
Brewing Company. This is a veteran-owned, as it sounds, brewery which 
is dedicated to brotherhood, tradition, and, yes, you guessed it, great 
beer. This tradition is reflected on their menu as many of their 
signature beverages have names of military significance.
  There at 5x5, we had a panel discussion of small business owners, 
including Luis Espindola, who is one of the coowners of 5x5 and a 
Marine Corps veteran. I met with other business

[[Page S2594]]

owners at that panel, like Sarah Hammond, who owns Atlas Electrical Air 
Conditioning, Refrigeration & Plumbing Services. Sarah is known as a 
pillar of her community, serving as chair of the Rio Grande Valley 
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and helping to oversee the management of 
Hummingbird Trailer Park. On top of this, she is involved with an 
organization dedicated to helping develop and empower other women 
business owners.
  Then there was Jessica Delgado, who, having worked in the restaurant 
industry since age 16, now owns multiple restaurants, and she serves on 
the board of the Texas Restaurant Association and is a former 
chairwoman of the Texas Restaurant Foundation.
  Another impressive woman small business owner was Hortencia Camargo, 
the owner of C4 Transport and Hacienda La Hortencia and a licensed 
Realtor in McAllen, TX, and she is also the founder of GRASP, which 
advocates for safe gun storage practices around children.
  I also had the chance on this same panel to visit with 
representatives of the agricultural sector, including Dante Galeazzi--I 
am going to butcher Dante's name--Galeazzi, who is president and CEO of 
Texas International Produce Association, who emphasized to me how 
beneficial the Trump tax cuts were for Texas farmers and ranchers.

  The message I heard from all of these impressive Texas entrepreneurs, 
job creators, and pillars of the community was simple: The Trump tax 
cuts helped their businesses grow and flourish, providing benefits not 
only to themselves and their families but to their employees and their 
broader communities.
  Stories I heard from my fellow Texans like Andy, Luis, Sarah, 
Hortencia, Jessica, and others show how patently false the accusation 
is of our Democratic colleagues who somehow claim that this is just to 
benefit rich people. The fact of the matter is, the Tax Cuts and Jobs 
Act is not about helping the wealthy few at the expense of ordinary 
Americans, contrary to the Democratic talking points.
  You know, I have been here working in Washington--or what I like to 
call the forward operating base in hostile territory--for some time 
now, and the truth is, you get these prevailing narratives that get 
repeated over and over and over again and written about by the press 
that simply have no basis in fact or reality.
  The truth is, if we fail to extend the expiring provisions of the Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act, 62 percent of American taxpayers will see their 
taxes go up. Obviously--on top of a 40-year high inflation, which has 
raised input costs across the board by about 20 percent or more as a 
result of the policies of the previous administration, that obviously 
would have a tremendously negative impact on our economy and the 
standard of living, like the folks I mentioned back home.
  This is really about lifting up hard-working men and women across the 
country. The tax cuts are about helping every hard-working American 
achieve their dreams. If President Trump's tax cuts are not extended, 
as I say, virtually everybody or at least a significant supermajority 
of American working families will see a tax increase. Texans 
specifically will see taxes increase about $3,000 on average. I am sure 
every single one of my constituents can think about somewhere better to 
spend that $3,000 than to write a check to the IRS. Small business 
owners like many of the folks that I met with these last 2 weeks would 
see tax hikes of nearly 50 percent, and working families could see 
their child tax credit cut in half, along with the standard deduction, 
which was dramatically increased in 2017.
  Despite these hard facts, our Democratic colleagues continue to 
peddle the myth that President Trump's tax cuts are just for rich 
folks. It couldn't be more clear that these claims are nothing more 
than just that--myths.
  So I urge my fellow Republican colleagues to never mind the naysayers 
across the aisle. The American people, on November 5, gave us a job to 
do. We took the important first step by passing the budget resolution 
just before the Senate adjourned, and now that we are back in 
Washington, it is time that we finish the job.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHATZ. Madam 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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