The Economy (Cong. Rec., Feb. 7, 2022)
Summary
Congressional Record, Senate, February 7, 2022 (beginning at page S532). The page opens with remarks on January 6 that ask whether the actions of the mob were legitimate political discourse and criticize the Republican National Committee's description of them. Under Coronavirus, Durbin says 900,000 Americans have died from COVID and cites data from the CDC that unvaccinated individuals are 97 times more likely to die of COVID than those who are vaccinated and boosted. Under The Economy, Durbin says employers added 467,000 new jobs last month despite the Omicron surge and global supply chain shortages.
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“The Economy (Cong. Rec., Feb. 7, 2022).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2022-02-07-crec-2022-02-07-pt1-pgs532-2-98f0149117/
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S532 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE February 7, 2022
get to the bottom of what happened mote the Big Lie and called what hap- end, the United States hit another
that day and who was responsible for pened on January 6 in this Capitol staggering milestone—900,000 Ameri-
it. Building legitimate political discourse. cans dead from COVID. In Illinois,
You might remember that there was Do they honestly believe that break- there have been 31,000 lives lost.
a proposal from Speaker PELOSI that ing down the windows and doors of this COVID–19 is now the third leading
we create a bipartisan Commission building to enter as an unruly mob is cause of death in the United States, be-
wherein the House and Senate Demo- legitimate political discourse? hind only heart disease and cancer. At
crats and Republicans would turn this Do they believe that spraying toxic the rate we are going, experts say it is
matter over, as we have before to a bear spray in the faces of our police- likely the United States will reach 1
group, to determine what happened men is legitimate political discourse? million COVID deaths in just a few
that day and what was behind it to Do they believe that 140 injured po- weeks.
avoid its ever happening again and to licemen and 5 people who are deceased What makes these numbers even
get one clear definition for history as a result of that mob action was more tragic is that so many of the
from this bipartisan Commission. somehow legitimate political discourse deaths could have been prevented.
The Commission idea was stopped by and that, as they came into the Cham- COVID vaccines are safe and free and
Senator MCCONNELL, the Republican ber—these demonstrators who were highly effective at preventing COVID
leader in the Senate. He refused to aping themselves in front of cameras hospitalization and death. Think about
agree on this bipartisan approach. So for their friends to take pictures—sit- this: According to new data from the
Speaker PELOSI, realizing she had a ting in the chair where the Acting CDC, unvaccinated individuals are 97
scant majority in the House, said that President pro tempore is sitting today times more likely to die of COVID
she was going to still try to put such and going through my desk and other compared to those who have been vac-
an investigation together. She invited desks here to see if there was anything cinated and boosted—97 times more
Republican participation, which didn’t they could take a picture of or steal— likely to die if you are unvaccinated.
work out well. Eventually, two stepped that that was legitimate political dis- Just last night, I watched ‘‘60 Min-
forward—Congresswoman CHENEY and course? utes.’’ There was a presentation by
Congressman KINZINGER—and said they Do they believe that incitement to nurses in Louisville, KY, the home
would participate. violence by President Trump to send State of the Republican leader. They
I know ADAM KINZINGER. He is from this mob up here was legitimate polit- talked about the devastating toll on
my State. We have worked on a few ical discourse? their emotions and even their physical
things together. I respect him for his Shame on the Grand Old Party. bodies when it comes to the deaths
political courage time and again to Shame on Mr. Lincoln’s party. They that they have to witness every day.
speak out as he has. I am sorry that he should know better. I am glad that a They are beaten down, these nurses.
was the subject of that censure. handful have stood up and spoken up. I They say that some 25 percent, if I re-
Sadly, that was not the only mistake wish more would. member correctly, have already re-
made in the Salt Lake City Republican If we are ever going to put an end to signed and have said they can’t take it
revisionary meeting. What was even Trumpism in this country and in the anymore. And to think how many of
worse, if anything could be worse, was Republican Party, only the Repub- those hospitalizations could have been
the declaration by the Republican Na- licans can get it done. They have to de- avoided if vaccinations had become
tional Committee that what happened universal across this country as they
cide that enough is enough and step
should be.
in this building—in this room—on Jan- forward.
Well, this evening, Members of Con-
uary 6, 2021, was somehow character- It is interesting to me that, when
gress will gather on the steps of the
ized by a unanimous vote as legitimate Senator MCCONNELL came to the floor
Capitol for a moment of silence to re-
political discourse. a few minutes ago, he talked about the
member the 900,000 souls we have lost
The Acting President pro tempore re- statement of some Big Ten professor— to this virus. May their families and
members that day, and I do, too. I he didn’t name his name—who was not loved ones find peace.
can’t forget it. It was when Vice Presi- respectful of our police. Of all of the We have the tools and knowledge to
dent Pence was sitting where you are things that happened in the last week bring this pandemic under control if
today, and a few minutes after 2 that were not respectful of the police, I only we would use them.
o’clock, the Secret Service came in and would certainly add the Salt Lake City
f
whisked him off the platform. We were Republican national meeting, where
told there was an attack on the Capitol the attack on our police was character- THE ECONOMY
taking place. ized as legitimate political discourse. Mr. DURBIN. Madam President,
Earlier, there had been a rally, spon- An incitement to violence was legiti- there was another set of numbers that
sored by President Trump, and he had mate political discourse. was released last Friday that testifies
incited this insurrectionist mob to America is better than that. I sin- to good news, and America needs it. It
come up to the Capitol to be heard and cerely hope that real leaders within the testifies to the resilience of the Amer-
seen. They knew why that day was cho- Republican Party will reclaim their ican people and the American spirit.
sen. January 6 was the day we were party and put an end to this madness Many economists had braced for a
counting the electoral college vote— that Trumpism has brought them. disastrous January jobs report. The
the official vote on the selection of Jo- f most optimistic among them predicted
seph Biden as President of the United that the U.S. economy might grow by
States. It was the intention of Presi- CORONAVIRUS
150,000 or maybe 250,000 jobs last
dent Trump and those who came here Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, on month. Some warned that it could
to interrupt that constitutional proc- an entirely different subject, on March show massive job losses. Here is what
ess. 26, 2020, America passed a grim mile- we learned:
It is interesting as well that last stone when 1,000 Americans died that Despite the Omicron surge and the
week, Vice President Pence, at a Fed- day of COVID—front page news. Two global supply chain shortages, U.S. em-
eralist Society meeting, spoke out on months later, after Memorial Day, we ployers added 467,000 new jobs last
the subject and said for the first time passed another terrible milestone when month—467,000. On top of that, the Bu-
that I can recall since he was chosen as 100,000 had died of COVID. As many reau of Labor Statistics shows us the
Vice President that, in fact, President Americans had died from COVID as economy added 700,000 more jobs in No-
Trump was wrong—wrong in believing from the Korean, Vietnam, Iraq, and vember and December than we initially
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that he had the power as Vice Presi- Afghanistan wars combined. By this calculated. All told, the U.S. economy
dent to change the electoral college past September, the number of Ameri- has added 6.6 million jobs in the last
vote. Pence made it clear that he did cans who had been lost to COVID hit year—the strongest first-year job gain
not have that authority. 695,000—memorialized in a heart- of any President in history.
Well, the Republican National Com- breaking sea of small, white flags that When Joe Biden took over the office
mittee went further in trying to pro- covered our National Mall. This week- a little over a year ago, he inherited
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February 7, 2022 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S533
one of the weakest and fraught econo- UNITED STATES INNOVATION AND In last year’s speech here in the Sen-
mies in generations. COMPETITION ACT ate and others that I have given over
At the start of the pandemic, the Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, last the years on this subject, I discussed
U.S. unemployment rate spiked to 14.7 year, for the first time in more than my oversight of this office dating back
percent. Last February, the Congres- two decades, America’s economy grew to 2019. I also discussed my amendment
faster than China’s. That is incredible. to the national defense bill. That
sional Budget Office forecasted that
Let’s keep that streak going by passing amendment would have done one very
the United States would not see 3.9 per-
USICA, the bipartisan U.S. Innovation simple thing: required the Government
cent unemployment for another 5
and Competition Act. We need to pro- Accountability Office to determine
years. The unemployment rate now is
mote products made in the United how much taxpayer money the Office
actually 4 percent. America’s economic of Net Assessment actually uses for net
recovery is breaking records. The States by Americans and purchased in
assessment—its purpose for existing. I
United States was the first country in the United States. We passed it in the
want to know how much we can cut
the G7 to recover all of its GDP lost by Senate last June by a vote of 2 to 1.
from their budget to save the tax-
the pandemic. Average wages were up The House passed its version last Fri-
payers money.
5.7 percent last month from a year ago. day. Let’s go to conference and get this Apparently, this type of pro-taxpayer
The increases were not all at the top; bill into law. If we negotiate in good legislation was too much to ask for.
workers in the middle and lower rungs faith, I believe we can do that. Accordingly, it appears that the Office
of the economy earned more too. I want to thank Leader SCHUMER and of Net Assessment in the Department
Senator YOUNG, a Republican from In- of Defense gets to keep operating like a
I have to say, as important as that is, diana, for their leadership. Pentagon slush fund for irrelevant and
we all know that people working in This will boost competitiveness with
this economy are also facing inflation political research projects.
China and help to reindustrialize On February 5, 2020, the Director of
and higher prices. Whether it is for gas- America, make investments in manu-
oline or groceries, they are finding it the Office of Net Assessment told me:
facturing and research, and provide We review all deliverables to ensure
more expensive to meet the basic ne- seed money to create good new jobs. they’re consistent with the statement of
cessities of life. Although this is good Importantly, it includes $52 billion for work. We evaluate each deliverable to assess
news, that is bad news that we have to research and designing and manufac- whether we should seek additional informa-
address and should address on a bipar- turing semiconductor chips—what Sen- tion or require a resubmission of commis-
tisan basis. ator CANTWELL, chair of the Commerce sioned work.
The progress that we have made was Committee, calls the ‘‘oil of the 21st Now, I am going to return to that
not inevitable; it was a product of good century.’’ Let’s agree to make those statement in a little bit, but I want to
old-fashioned American ingenuity. It is chips here in America and not be de- give you some evidence of why what he
also the result of bold and decisive eco- pendent on importing them from said doesn’t work out in reality.
nomic decisions by the Biden adminis- China. In December 2020, I asked the inspec-
tration. USICA also allows for new sanctions tor general to take a deeper dive into
against China for human rights viola- the Office of Net Assessment’s con-
The American Rescue Plan, which tracting practices. That means con-
Congress passed without the support of tions. We can stand up for American
workers and American values. necting all the dots in the contract
a single Republican Member of Con- transactions to ensure that everything
I yield the floor.
gress—all Democrats all the way— matches up. The inspector general re-
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
broke the grip of the pandemic on our viewed 20 contracts. On January 25 of
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tem-
economy. We were able to get shots in this year, the inspector general issued
pore. The clerk will call the roll.
arms, help small businesses stay afloat, its results and found these three or
The bill clerk proceeded to call the
and rush emergency assistance to peo- four points:
roll.
ple who had lost jobs or had seen their Office of Net Assessment acquisition
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I
hours cut drastically. That emergency personnel inappropriately performed
ask unanimous consent that the order
help worked in Illinois, and it worked contracting officer representative du-
for the quorum call be rescinded.
all over this country. ties for 20 contracts.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Next point. Office of Net Assessment
We also passed the bipartisan Infra- DUCKWORTH). Without objection, it is acquisition personnel and an office pro-
structure Investment and Jobs Act. so ordered. viding contract support did not main-
Let me remind those who follow, if you
f tain complete contract files, including
are wondering about the infrastructure
preawards and contract administration
bill passed by the Trump administra- OFFICE OF NET ASSESSMENT
documentation. That also included the
tion, let me put your concern to rest. Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, failure to maintain signed contracts
There was no bill. There was no legisla- on November 18 of last year, I came and modifications. Since 2019, I have
tion. There was no infrastructure plan here to speak about the Office of Net repeatedly asked for a full accounting
despite President Trump’s repeated Assessment. That is an office within of Stefan Halper’s contracts. Either
promises to deliver one. He walked the Pentagon. That office’s purpose, they never had one or they have de-
away from the table, and I was in the under law, is to produce an annual net cided to obstruct Congress.
room when he did. He wouldn’t even assessment, which is supposed to be a Next point. Office of Net Assessment
negotiate. long-term look at our military’s capa- acquisition personnel and an office pro-
We have not fixed all of the weak- bility and those of our greatest adver- viding contract support inappropri-
nesses in our economy. The jobless rate saries. I don’t think it lives up to its ately approved invoices for payments
among Black workers is still twice mission. totaling $9.8 million dollars due to the
that of White workers. Unemployment In 2018, according to the Director of lack of oversight. And that is just for
among teens and young adults is still the Office of Net Assessment, that of- the 20 contracts the inspector general
too high. Research from the National fice had not produced a net assessment sampled. So without required sup-
Women’s Law Center shows that, while since 2007. Not doing its job for those 11 porting documentation for payment,
men have recouped all job losses since years and—who knows—possibly longer the door is, obviously, wide open to
the pandemic started, there are nearly calls into question whether this office fraud, theft, and improper payments.
1.1 million fewer women in the work- should even exist. Yet a recent inspec- Next point. Without established and
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force. Daycare is part of that calcula- tor general report states that the office documented surveillance measures for
tion, I might add. If we want to reach ‘‘produces . . . highly classified net as- Office of Net Assessment service con-
our full economic potential, we need to sessments.’’ I question the IG’s conclu- tracts, the Office of Net Assessment
help families find affordable, quality sion based upon available evidence that may not have received all services out-
daycare, and we have to address the I know about, and I will give some of lined in a contractor’s statement of
issue of inflation nonstop. that evidence. work.
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