Congressional Record, Senate — December 14, 2022, S7180

Summary

This is S7180 of the Congressional Record, Senate, December 14, 2022, with interleaved columns. One column contains floor remarks by a speaker not named on this page, who discusses the Mountain Valley Pipeline and permitting reform, saying the speaker opposes stripping jurisdiction from the court hearing a case, and who describes legislation passed in the Senate, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the PACT Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act. The other column records the Vote on Mora Nomination, Rollcall Vote No. 391 Ex., with yeas 51 and nays 45, after which the nomination was confirmed and the motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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“Congressional Record, Senate — December 14, 2022, S7180.” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2022-12-14-crec-2022-12-14-pt1-pgs7180-2-8c2706fd48/, SHA-256 481dbda02625849749dc9e575fcb16d33635967356cd29af00d120528b5a0763.

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S7180 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE December 14, 2022
chief judge is somebody that I used to VOTE ON MORA NOMINATION ate. Democrats passed the Inflation Re-
try cases against when I was a civil The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under duction Act, which will lower prescrip-
rights lawyer before I got into politics. the previous order, the question is, Will tion drug costs, which will combat cli-
He is an esteemed jurist. the Senate advise and consent to the mate change, and which will hold cor-
Yes, the Fourth Circuit has rendered Mora nomination? porations accountable when they re-
some rulings in this case that the pipe- Mr. MENENDEZ. I ask for the yeas ward CEOs at the expense of workers.
line operator doesn’t like. I used to and nays. We worked together on a bipartisan
lose cases in the Fourth Circuit. I The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a basis, and I worked with my colleague
wasn’t always happy with them. But sufficient second? Senator PORTMAN to pass a historic in-
the people that I represented—if you There appears to be a sufficient sec- frastructure bill. Presidents of both
lose a case, you appeal; you don’t re- ond. parties promised it, and we finally got
write the Federal jurisdictional code to The clerk will call the roll. it done, starting last year, with a new
say this court can no longer hear the The senior executive clerk called the President and a new Senate. It means
case, in the middle of the case. roll. moving forward on projects Americans
If we go down this path on this Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the need, like the Brent Spence Bridge,
project, I can see it opening a door we Senator from Colorado (Mr. which is in Senator PORTMAN’s commu-
will not want to open, a door that HICKENLOOPER) and the Senator from nity on the other end of my State. It
could even lead to corruption: I am a Vermont (Mr. SANDERS) are necessarily connects my State to Leader MCCON-
wealthy, powerful corporation; I don’t absent. NELL’s State. The Brent Spence
like the way the Second Circuit is rul- Mr. THUNE. The following Senators Bridge—they say something like 3 per-
ing on derivative shareholder suits. are necessarily absent: the Senator cent of GDP crosses over that bridge
Maybe I can strip jurisdiction away from North Carolina (Mr. BURR) and every single day.
from them. I don’t like the way the the Senator from Texas (Mr. CRUZ). Senator PORTMAN and I also worked
Ninth Circuit is ruling on employment The result was announced—yeas 51, together to make sure that we had
discrimination cases. Maybe I could nays 45, as follows: strong ‘‘Buy American’’ language—the
strip jurisdiction away from them. [Rollcall Vote No. 391 Ex.] strongest ever ‘‘Buy American’’ lan-
I get it that a big company is not YEAS—51 guage. We teamed up because we know
happy because they have lost a case. Baldwin Heinrich Paul the jobs that creates in my State.
Fifty percent of our litigants are un- Bennet Hirono Peters We passed the PACT Act, again bi-
happy. Someone wins and somebody Blumenthal Kaine Reed partisan, the most comprehensive ex-
Booker Kelly Rosen
loses, but the solution is not to take Brown King Schatz
pansion of benefits for veterans who
jurisdiction away from the court that Cantwell Klobuchar Schumer faced toxic exposure in our country’s
is hearing the case and give it to an- Cardin Leahy Shaheen history.
other court. That is not the solution. Carper Luján Sinema Senator TESTER, who sits just two
Casey Manchin Smith
The solution is to improve the permit- Collins Markey Stabenow seats away from me here and who came
ting process. Coons Menendez Tester to the Senate with me—Senator
There are two elements of the first 85 Cortez Masto Merkley Van Hollen TESTER from Montana chairs the Vet-
Duckworth Murkowski Warner
pages of the bill that actually help Durbin Murphy Warnock
erans’ Affairs Committee. I will be,
Mountain Valley Pipeline. One element Feinstein Murray Warren next year, the second-most senior
would be, in the first 85 pages, that Gillibrand Ossoff Whitehouse member of that committee. We wrote
President Biden—the President, in the Hassan Padilla Wyden that bill together. I give more credit to
bill, is allowed to designate 15 projects NAYS—45 Senator TESTER, but we worked to-
of national significance and then expe- Barrasso Grassley Risch gether. It is the most comprehensive
dite them. That is in the first 85 pages. Blackburn Hagerty Romney expansion of benefits.
And if President Biden decided the Blunt Hawley Rounds I have been in 15 Ohio counties since
Boozman Hoeven Rubio
Mountain Valley Pipeline was so im- Braun Hyde-Smith Sasse
that bill passed talking to people. If
portant to make that top 15 list, that Capito Inhofe Scott (FL) you are diagnosed as a veteran with
permitting reform could help the Cassidy Johnson Scott (SC) one of the 23 illnesses this bill spells
Cornyn Kennedy Shelby out and you were exposed to these foot-
Mountain Valley Pipeline. Cotton Lankford Sullivan
And, second, there is a provision in Cramer Lee Thune ball field-sized burn pits in Iraq or Af-
the first 85 pages that would require Crapo Lummis Tillis ghanistan, you automatically will get
that on matters that come up again Daines Marshall Toomey coverage in the Cleveland VA or Day-
Ernst McConnell Tuberville
and again and again, the panels on cir- Fischer Moran Wicker
ton or Cincinnati or Chillicothe or in
cuit courts have to rotate and ran- Graham Portman Young one of the community-based clinics in
domly assign and not keep the same Zanesville or Mansfield or Parma.
NOT VOTING—4
panel. That would solve one of Moun- After decades of inaction, we passed
Burr Hickenlooper
tain Valley Pipeline’s professed con- Cruz Sanders
the first meaningful legislation on gun
cerns. safety in decades, which will help make
So because I haven’t seen the lan- The nomination was confirmed. our schools and communities a bit
guage yet, it may not still be final, and The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under safer.
I would urge those pushing it: Do per- the previous order, the motion to re- This summer—again, bipartisan, with
mitting reform, but don’t exempt a consider is considered made and laid Senator PORTMAN and others—we
project in my State from the permits, upon the table and the President will passed the CHIPS and Science Act,
don’t exempt it from judicial review, be immediately notified of the Senate’s which is already helping to reshore
don’t strip jurisdiction away from my action. semiconductor manufacturing in the
hometown court and give it to another The Senator from Ohio. United States.
court. Mr. BROWN. Madam President, it is Earlier today, I was with a number of
I was never consulted about this. My always an honor to speak on the Sen- people from Intel, the company that is
constituents feel very, very passion- ate floor, and it is especially an honor going to have a huge expansion. That
ately. Their land is being taken for when the Presiding Officer is one of my company has promised, when they hire
this. The only way you build pipelines favorite Members of the Senate and es- 5,000 workers—which they have already

SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE
is to take people’s land, and this is 100 pecially an honor when I am going to started to do the construction of the
miles in Virginia of people’s land being be followed by the other Senator from Intel manufacturing plant—that they
taken, and this body should not green- Ohio, about whom I spoke yesterday. are hiring a lot of so-called PLA, which
light a project and exempt it from per- SENATE ACCOMPLISHMENTS means they will hire union workers.
mitting rules in a bill that we are say- Madam President, I think we can And in the worst depths—and this is
ing is designed to improve permitting. agree that we had a very productive 23 what I want to talk about in more de-
I yield the floor. months in this session of the U.S. Sen- tail. Sorry for the long lead-in.

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December 14, 2022 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S7181
In the worst depths of COVID, Demo- lieve in American families and Amer- our allies—stand up for Ukraine at this
crats passed the American Rescue ican children. As part of a balanced point and provide them the military,
Plan, which temporarily expanded the package, we will make the changes the economic, and humanitarian aid they
child tax credit. It kept renters in their businesses are asking for. We have al- need.
homes and saved the pensions of more ready offered to make these changes. Over the weekend, I spoke at the an-
than a million retirees. It saved the All we are saying is that it needs to be nual holiday lunch of the Cleveland
pensions already of 40,000 Ohio work- balanced. If we are going to give huge area’s Nationalities Movement. As my
ers, and that number will grow to tax cuts to large corporations, we are colleague from Ohio knows, this was
100,000 by the time it is fully in effect. going to at the same time make sure started during the Cold War to advo-
I sat on the floor that day on March that we take care of children. This cate for freedom for the former Soviet
6. I sat next to Senator CASEY, one of isn’t just the lowest income kids. They states. The group, today, includes peo-
my best friends here, from Pennsyl- certainly are part of it. This is 90 per- ple whose families have come from all
vania, and I turned to him when we cent of children in Ohio. This is 2 mil- over Eastern and Central Europe: Po-
passed the child tax credit and the pen- lion Ohio children. It is all but the land, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slo-
sions bill, keeping renters in their wealthiest 10 percent of families who vakia, of course Ukraine, and many
homes. I said: This is the best day of get this tax cut. other countries. All strongly support
my career, because I knew what it Do you know what that means? Ukrainian freedom and the right of
would mean to do the child tax credit. Think about if this child tax credit had Ukraine to chart its own course.
The bill passed on March 6, at 12:30 in been in effect in the last year and how At the luncheon, I talked to some of
the afternoon, after a 12-hour vote. It it would have blunted the damage from my friends who were there, many of
passed by one vote two different times. inflation that inflicted so many fami- whom have family or friends in
The President signed it 2 days later. lies. If they had been getting that $250 Ukraine. We talked about some of the
I called Secretary Yellen, the Sec- hardships that their relatives and their
or $300 per child, per month, as they
retary of the Treasury. She imme- friends in Ukraine are facing today and
had gotten through calendar year
diately enlisted the head of the Inter- how, as we approach the holiday season
2021—from July until the end of the
nal Revenue Service, who began the here in America, we are thinking about
year and then the beginning of the next
process. By mid-July, checks were Christmas shopping and putting up
year—imagine how much easier their
going out to hundreds of thousands of decorations and spending time with our
lives would have been and how much
families and friends over the holidays.
families in Minnesota and Ohio and more they would have been able to
They are thinking about something
across the country. We saw in the cope with inflation if they had gotten
else. They are thinking about how they
space of about 3 months a 40-percent— that monthly $250 or $300 check.
can survive. They are thinking about
40 percent—reduction in the child pov- It is a smart policy. It is a win-win
how to stay warm, whether they are
erty rate. for every single one of our States. One
going to have running water or elec-
I heard from parents all around the in four kids who is living in rural Idaho
tricity. They are living with fear and
State—helping them afford childcare, is left out of the full child tax credit.
uncertainty in not knowing when the
groceries, rent, new school clothes, In Kentucky and Ohio, that number is
next Russian missile might strike.
summer camp. For many kids it was one in three. We can fix that. The brutal, unprovoked, and illegal
the first time ever to go to a summer Raising kids is hard work. I heard invasion of Ukraine has now turned
camp. We know what a difference this time and again, after we passed the into an outright attack on civilians
made at a time when families struggled CTC, from people who said it made it and noncombatants.
to keep up with rising costs. just a little bit easier for families. We This photo is something that we are
Unfortunately, the child tax credit got so many calls and letters—I am seeing in communities all over
expansion ended in 2021. It shouldn’t sure Senator PORTMAN did too—about Ukraine. This is some civilian infra-
have happened, and we have an oppor- how this would make people’s lives just structure. You can see the power grid
tunity now to get it going again. The a little bit easier. If you had had two here and the power lines. This was the
bipartisan work of this Congress children who were 2 and 4 years old, result of a Russian missile strike. All
doesn’t have to be done yet. you would have gotten $600 a month. If over, this is happening: drones, mis-
Here is what we need to do. you had had three kids who were 7, 10, siles, attacking infrastructure—killing
In 2017, the tax law Republicans and 12, you would have gotten $750 for civilians, by the way—and forcing peo-
passed gave profitable corporations a a period of time. ple to live in the dark and in the cold
14-percent reduction in the corporate So what are we here for in this body? as Ukraine’s severe winter weather ap-
tax rate—a huge gift. I opposed it. We are not just here to give tax cuts to proaches.
Many of us did. It was a huge gift to rich people and to corporations. We Although these merciless Russian at-
the megawealthy and corporations. should try to make things just a little tacks are meant to weaken the resolve
Part of that law changed the rules for bit easier—I have heard that term over of the Ukrainians, it is not having that
business deductions. It said: You get a and over—for the families we rep- effect, actually. I have seen this from
14-point cut to the corporate rate, but resent. my recent trips to Ukraine. It is actu-
now you have to amortize R&D, re- There is a deal to be had here. Let’s ally hardening people’s resolve. The
search and development expensing. knock out one more bipartisan victory Ukrainians know that these are des-
There is going to be more of a limit on for the American people before we go perate missile attacks to the interior
the interest you can deduct. You won’t home. Yes, let’s do the research and de- of the country. Why? Because Russia is
be able to deduct all of your invest- velopment tax break—it will help us losing on the actual battlefield.
ments in the year you make them, just grow jobs—but at the same time, let’s As this map shows, the Ukrainians
four-fifths. do the child tax credit expansion. It have shown courage and effectiveness
Now businesses are asking us to undo will help us grow our children. It will in actually pushing out Russia from all
these new rules. In exchange, are they make a huge difference. of these red areas of Ukraine. This is
offering to give back a point on the I ask my colleagues: Let’s get this where Russia was after February 24.
corporate rate? No. done. Fifty percent or more of the country
They got a huge windfall 5 years ago. I yield the floor. has now been liberated by Ukrainian
They want more now. Are they offering The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. troops. We forget about that. About 55
maybe a half point, a quarter point? OSSOFF). The Senator from Ohio.

SSpencer on DSK126QN23PROD with SENATE
percent of Ukraine has now been liber-
No, they just want another tax cut. UKRAINE ated—again, thanks to the resolve and
Here is what I want everybody to Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I the courage and the military skill of
hear: come to the floor for the 28th consecu- the Ukrainians. Ukrainian soldiers
In this body and throughout the tive week since the Senate has been in continue to advance more slowly, but
United States, the Democrats are will- session to once again discuss the war in they continue to advance, giving the
ing to do it. We believe we should in- Ukraine and why it is so important Russians no time to relax or to re-
vest in manufacturing. We should be- that all of us—the United States and cover.

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