Congressional Record, Senate, March 9, 2021, Page S1418
Summary
A page of the Congressional Record, Senate, dated March 9, 2021, at page S1418. It opens with the end of a Senator's remarks saying he will vote to confirm a nominee to lead the Department of Justice. Under American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, Mr. Cornyn criticizes the bill, saying the minimum wage mandate would kill 1.4 million jobs and that Democrats kept a vote open for a record 12 hours. He also describes his amendments to limit State and local funding to States that apply through the Treasury Department and to improve care for unaccompanied migrant children, and says border agents detained nearly 100,000 migrants last month.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Congressional Record, Senate, March 9, 2021, Page S1418.”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2021-03-09-crec-2021-03-09-pt1-pgs1418-23f0141afb/
, SHA-256 e7b46b266910f8cd37e2d0916cd5d2b7c42326f048663c8d7511248a67aa964d.Full text
S1418 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 9, 2021
person, particularly a good person for fice said that this would kill 1.4 million and local funding was only going to
this job, to lead the Department of Jus- jobs, and then the Senate Parliamen- those States that actually need it.
tice. So I will vote for his confirma- tarian said that this was an improper What a concept. His amendment would
tion. use of the budget reconciliation proc- require States to apply for aid through
I suggest the absence of a quorum. ess. the Treasury Department. They could
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The But our Democratic colleagues want- then receive funds to help recover pan-
clerk will call the roll. ed to take this shot anyway, so they demic-related expenses, revenue losses,
The senior assistant legislative clerk voted to waive a budget point of order, or unexpected Medicaid costs. But, of
proceeded to call the roll. but it did not go well. Eight Democrats course, in a party-line vote, our Demo-
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask voted alongside all Republicans to pre- cratic colleagues blocked that amend-
unanimous consent that the order for vent this abuse of the budget reconcili- ment as well.
the quorum call be rescinded. ation process and prevent this job-kill- And it is not just State and local
AMERICAN RESCUE PLAN ACT OF 2021 ing minimum wage mandate from be- funding that folks on my side of the
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it coming part of this bill. aisle wanted us to use more respon-
doesn’t seem like that long ago—it As it turns out, there is bipartisan sibly. I offered an amendment to im-
wasn’t; it was only January 20 of this opposition to killing jobs at a time prove the quality of care for unaccom-
year—that we heard President Biden when our economy is already on a frag- panied migrant children who arrived
talk about healing the divisions in our ile footing. Who would have thought along the U.S.-Mexico border. We know
country and promoting unity. He otherwise? that these children are especially vul-
promised to restore respectful, bipar- And once Senators cast their votes, nerable and their health and safety
tisan communication and cooperation. our Democratic friends held the vote should have been addressed in this
He spoke eloquently, saying: open for a recordbreaking 12 hours as COVID package.
Without unity there is no peace, only bit- they tried to whip their caucus into Well, President Biden’s border crisis
terness and fury. shape on the most critical amendment, is shaping up to be one of epic propor-
No progress, only exhausting outrage. which was next in line. tions. Border agents reportedly de-
No nation, only a state of chaos. I am not one to tell our friends tained nearly 100,000 migrants along
It really was a fine speech. But here across the aisle how to do their job, but the southern border last month alone.
we are, 7 weeks into the Biden adminis- normally, when you have a vote, you That marks the highest total for the
tration with a lot of bitterness and know ahead of time how that vote is month of February since 2006. The
fury and outrage over the President’s going to come out. That is just legisla- numbers have now climbed so high that
first big, broken promise. On Saturday tion 101. But when you are trying to the administration is allowing facili-
afternoon, following an all-night vot- rush, at warp speed, a nearly $2 trillion ties to house children to operate at 100
ing marathon, our Democratic col- wish list to the President’s desk, I percent capacity, when our kids aren’t
leagues passed, by themselves, their so- guess you don’t have the time to do even going back to school in many
called COVID–19 relief bill. things the right way, and you certainly school districts around the country be-
Sadly, the lack of bipartisan support don’t have an interest in getting them cause of concerns for their safety. For-
was not a surprise. After all, our Demo- done in a bipartisan fashion. get that. The Biden administration is
cratic colleagues decided to abuse the But on the rest of the votes we held, now allowing these facilities that
reconciliation process for this very rea- over and over again, our Democratic house children to operate at 100 per-
son. They wanted to pass a bill they colleagues held together and blocked cent despite the COVID risk.
knew would not generate any support commonsense amendments offered by An amendment I offered would redi-
among Republicans because it really is this side of the aisle. For example, rect unnecessary funding for the Na-
a Trojan horse for their liberal wish there were amendments to stop blue tional Endowment for the Humanities
list. And the only way they could make States from receiving more than their and instead send it to the Office of Ref-
that happen would be to exclude Re- fair share of the State and local fund- ugee Resettlement. This office is part
publicans, turn down offers of biparti- ing. The Democratic proposal includes of the Department of Health and
sanship, as the President did when 10 a jaw-dropping $350 billion for State Human Services, and this extra funding
Republicans visited him at the White and local aid—more than double what would help keep these children safe and
House just a few weeks ago and decided was spent in the CARES Act last healthy. Unfortunately, for these chil-
to go it alone, which is what our Demo- March when the economic picture was dren, many of whom have endured long
cratic colleagues did. far more dire. and dangerous journeys in the hands of
Since Republicans had no say in the Unlike the CARES Act funding that human smugglers, our Democratic col-
drafting of the bill and because our was distributed based on population, leagues chose the National Endowment
Democratic friends chose to skip the this proposal separated the funds into for the Humanities instead of these
normal committee consideration, our two pots of money—one to be distrib- children in distress.
only opportunity to make any changes uted based on a population formula Well, the list of rejected amendments
to the bill came through the amend- while the second is based on the unem- goes on and on.
ment process on the floor. From rough- ployment rate. Senator SCOTT of South Carolina of-
ly 11 a.m. on Friday until 12:30 p.m. on Senator GRAHAM from South Caro- fered an amendment to ensure States
Saturday, the Senate voted on more lina offered an amendment which weren’t fudging on the nursing home
than 30 amendments, largely from would have required this funding to fol- death count totals, like the disastrous
folks on our side of the aisle, almost all low the same formula that we did in situation developing in New York that
of which were rejected in a party-line March, in a bipartisan way, rather we are just now learning about the
vote. than this new formula that favors blue magnitude of nursing home deaths that
Outside of Washington, DC, not many States. were covered up by the Cuomo adminis-
people stay up for 24 hours straight to Since the primary argument for the tration. This amendment would have
watch Congress vote on budget amend- bill was that States needed this fund- required States to certify the accuracy
ments, so I think it is important that ing because of lost tax revenues, it of COVID–19 deaths in nursing homes
we recap what the American people made sense that the largest population in order to assess funding for nursing
missed while they were sleeping. States should receive the most funding, home facility strike teams. Once again,
The first amendment vote last Fri- a per capita formula. This would elimi- a party-line vote blocked that amend-
day was a good barometer of what was nate a big windfall for blue States that ment.
dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
happening on the other side of the have largely kept their economies on One of the highlights of this long and
aisle. The first vote, teed up by the ice and shuttered, even as COVID–19 drawn-out process, which just left me
chairman of the Budget Committee, cases decreased. scratching my head, was an amend-
Senator SANDERS, would have more Then there was an amendment from ment from Senator CASSIDY, the Sen-
than doubled the minimum wage at $15 the Senator from Utah, Senator ROM- ator from Louisiana, that would have
an hour. The Congressional Budget Of- NEY, which would have ensured State prevented stimulus checks being sent
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:02 Mar 10, 2021 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G09MR6.017 S09MRPT1
March 9, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1419
to people in prison and one from Sen- pandemic relief bill with overwhelming sive wish list items for bailouts for
ator CRUZ, my colleague from Texas, support. We wouldn’t have needed to go poorly run States.
that would have stopped payments through the vote-arama or the abuse of Instead of ramming through non-
from going to people who are not even the budget reconciliation process. We COVID-related spending, Democrats
legally present in the United States. could have had a bill that supported should have worked together with Re-
Both amendments were blocked in a the hardest hit families, got kids back publicans as a team to pass a bipar-
party-line vote by Democrats. at school, and helped expedite vaccina- tisan bill that actually makes lives
Our colleague from Florida, Senator tion. better as we recover from this pan-
RUBIO, offered an amendment to But those types of policies, obvi- demic.
incentivize a safe return to in-person ously, weren’t top of mind for our We share a goal of helping the Amer-
learning at our Nation’s schools. The Democratic friends. They wanted to ican people, but the bill that was ulti-
crux of it was simple: If schools wanted have a payday for the most radical ele- mately put forward failed to do just
Federal funding, they should actually ment of their party at an absurdly high that. It is a shame. This is not how our
educate children in the classroom and pricetag, which our children and grand- country should be run.
do so safely, according to CDC guide- children are going to be saddled with. f
lines; otherwise, why do they need this They assembled a laundry list of un-
BORDER SECURITY
huge amount of extra money if they related wasteful and downright par-
are not actually going to use it to edu- tisan provisions and rejected even the Mr. President, we started to see
cate our children? Well, our Demo- most commonsense amendments of- headlines bubbling up about the build-
cratic colleagues blocked that amend- fered by this side of the aisle. ing crisis at the southern border that is
ment too. Sadly, this legislation passed the threatening to boil over. Americans
While Americans were sleeping, Sen- House without a single Republican back home are paying attention. They
ate Democrats stood in the way of nu- vote. It passed the Senate without a are watching what is going on and see-
merous commonsense reforms to this single Republican vote. And now, our ing how it is getting worse by the day.
behemoth of a partisan bill. They have Democratic friends are on track to The saddest thing is that this was pre-
proven, once again, this so-called write a $2 trillion check completely dictable and preventable.
COVID–19 relief bill has next to noth- funded by deficit spending without Protecting our border and cutting
ing to do with what is best for the even a trace of bipartisanship. down illegal immigration matters to
country and everything to do with They don’t have a figleaf to hide be- the people of Alabama and the rest of
what is best for their liberal partisan hind. This was a partisan bill inten- the country. Alabamians are law-abid-
agenda. tionally. Either the President sold ing people. We play by the rules, and
This bill includes a long list of lib- snake oil on Inauguration Day or he we expect others to follow them too.
eral priorities that are completely un- has already caved into the most radical When people break the rules, they have
related to the crisis at hand. I think elements of his own political party. Ei- to face the consequences, plain and
roughly 90 percent of it is unrelated to ther way, it is bad news for the Amer- simple. That is how our country should
COVID–19. Blank checks for mis- ican people. operate, by law and order.
managed union pension funds, funding The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. MAR- Enforcing the laws on our books can-
for climate justice—whatever that is— KEY). The Senator from Alabama. not be an option. Sadly, this type of se-
backdoor money for Planned Parent- Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, lected enforcement is exactly what
hood, an exclusive paid leave program today I am going to talk about the President Biden has done during his
for bureaucrats, those are just some of growing crisis on our southern border short time in office. President Biden
the greatest hits in the vote-arama. and how we need urgent action to ad- has put forward an immigration pro-
Even the portions of the bill that are dress the degrading situation there, posal that would completely upend our
related to the pandemic are completely but before I begin, I want to say a existing immigration policy and give
out of proportion. The legislation pro- quick word about the reconciliation out American citizenship like it is
vides $130 billion for schools when tens bill we passed last week. candy.
of billions of dollars that we have al- The massive $1.9 trillion bill was not But before that, he made sure to lay
ready appropriated last December re- COVID–19 relief; it was liberal relief. the groundwork with Executive orders.
main to be spent. Everybody and everyone needs to un- President Biden quickly reversed many
According to the Congressional Budg- derstand what this was. It was not a of President Trump’s most successful
et Office, only $6.4 billion will be dis- rescue plan. It was a heist of taxpayers’ border control policies with the stroke
tributed through September of this money. We don’t have $1.9 trillion to be of his pen. And his Secretary of Home-
year. The remaining $122 billion would spending. When we have to borrow this land Security, whose Department over-
trickle out the door through not just much money, we are digging our coun- sees immigration policy and border se-
2021 but through 2028. try deeper into debt. And with this curity, has made it clear he is not in-
Of course, there is the blue State massive spending bill, we are bor- terested in enforcing existing laws. We
bailout. Despite the fact that tax reve- rowing against our grandkids’ future have seen the dangerous effects of
nues have largely rebounded and many and are going to owe more and more President Biden’s policies already, and
States are still sitting on piles of cash countries like China. it has barely been 2 months.
from previous COVID–19 relief bills, our To keep up, the money supply will But we have also seen some mixed
Democratic friends want to send an- have to increase at such a rapid rate, it messaging. The same day President
other $350 billion to State and local could potentially spark inflation. That Biden issued an order that said build-
governments but not just on an equi- means we could see the value of Ameri- ing a border wall is a ‘‘waste of money
table population-based formula. They cans’ hard-earned dollars plummet. that diverts attention from genuine
rigged the formula to make sure blue To further underscore that point, threats to our homeland security,’’ his
States reap the biggest cash benefits. that means your money doesn’t go as Department of Homeland Security re-
We know this wasn’t the only path far. For the items you buy, it is very leased official data that tells other-
forward. We worked, time and time expensive. All of this bogs down our wise. In January 2021, U.S. Customs
again, this last year on five different economy and hinders future growth. and Border Patrol Protection encoun-
occasions to show we can unite to pro- What is more, this entire sham of a tered approximately 78,000 illegal im-
vide COVID–19 relief to the American process was partisan. It was not about migrants, a 6-percent increase from De-
people. helping Americans, businesses, and cember 2020. Within that number,
dlhill on DSK120RN23PROD with SENATE
We could have built on that record communities recover from the pan- roughly, 64,800 were single adults, a 157-
this year, which after listening to demic. That much is clear because only percent increase compared to January
President Biden’s inaugural speech, I 9 percent of the bill is going to COVID of last year. For unaccompanied chil-
had hoped we might do. The first legis- and health-related pressures and less dren, there has been a 91-percent in-
lation to pass during the Biden admin- than 1 percent is going to vaccines. The crease in apprehensions compared to
istration could have been a bipartisan remaining 90 percent went to progres- last January.
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:02 Mar 10, 2021 Jkt 019060 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 0624 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\G09MR6.019 S09MRPT1
File and source
- File
- CREC_crec-2021-03-09_crec-2021-03-09-pt1-pgs1418.pdf
- Size
- 223,578 bytes
- SHA-256
- e7b46b266910f8cd37e2d0916cd5d2b7c42326f048663c8d7511248a67aa964d
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov