Unanimous Consent Requests

Floor Speech

I have been clear that until we hear from these Agency leaders, either in the Commerce Committee or in an open meeting, that I would be holding all Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce nominees from moving forward in an expedited manner.

We have had crisis after crisis due to the failed leadership of President Biden and his appointees. Just look at the inflation crisis caused by the Democrats' reckless spending that is hurting families and putting too many Americans in the position of deciding whether to fill their gas tank, heat their house this winter, or put food on the table.

Just this week, I spoke with a veteran in Land O' Lakes, FL. He is a small business owner, and he has seen prices on raw materials rise by 50 percent just this year. Even though he has seen greater demand, he is not making more money because of the rising prices.

If he tries to pass those costs on to his customers, he will lose business. On top of that, rising gas prices are making it difficult to afford taking his kids to basketball and karate practices.

I have also talked to an operator of a food bank in Osceola, FL. She used to see 15 families each day, and now she is seeing upward of 70 families each day.

Food prices have gone through the roof, making it more expensive for her to get food to give to people who are hurting at the very time demand is up. I talked to a mom in Punta Gorda, FL. Her gas costs have more than doubled, and her monthly grocery budget doesn't go as far as it used to.

Recently, she has started visiting her local food pantry once a month so she has enough to feed her kids. That is something she has never had to do before. These are real Floridians who are hurting. Thank goodness for organizations like food pantries and everyone else who is helping families who are struggling because the Biden administration has spent months doing nothing to solve this crisis.

In fact, they are actively hurting them as inflation rises to record highs and is threatening to rise even more as Biden pushes his reckless tax-and-spend agenda.

I cannot and I will not consent to allowing these nominees to move forward in an expedited manner. We should take a vote so every Senator can get on the record with their support or opposition to these nominees.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I still can't understand, if the Biden administration is doing so many things, why wouldn't they want to come brag about it? Why wouldn't they want to tell all Americans exactly what they are doing?

The reason they don't want to do it is it is not getting better. I am still hearing day in and day out from people all over my State who are hurting because the Biden administration is not doing anything to solve the supply chain crisis.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. He drove for Admiral Freight Line. My uncle was an over-the-road truckdriver. He drove for a consolidated freight line.

I watched the difficulties my father and my uncle had performing their jobs, and it was at a time when truckers weren't paid well, and, actually, most truckers were laid off by Thanksgiving because most of the goods were there for the Christmas season.

In my father's case, I don't remember a Christmas that my dad was actively working. So I think it is very, very important that we do everything we can to help truckers, and I am glad that truckers today are paid better than they were back when my father and my uncle drove.

My uncle actually died in a trucking accident. So I think it is very important that we do everything we can to support our truckers. And what I still can't understand is why the Commerce Committee does not want to hear exactly what the Secretary of Transportation or the Secretary of Commerce is doing to help our truckers. What are they doing to improve the supply chain?

You would think they would want to come down here to say exactly what they have done to make the life of truckers better so that we get more people in trucking rather than less.

So I think we should--I cannot allow these nominees to go forward in an expedited manner.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. The difference between their infrastructure bill and what we did while I was Governor of Florida is this: I actually spent our infrastructure money on roads, bridges, airports, and seaports, and, at the same time, we spent $85 billion in 8 years in one State doing that. We also cut taxes and fees 100 times, and we actually reduced our debt by a third, over $10 billion.

The infrastructure bill--the so-called infrastructure bill--had less than 50 percent of it in infrastructure. People said it was paid for, and it wasn't.

So I am glad people want to keep saying that it is a so-called infrastructure bill, but let's remember: It wasn't paid for; they said it was. And it wasn't all for roads, bridges, airports, and seaports, which is what they said it was in the beginning.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, first of all, facts are facts. Less than 50 percent of the bill had anything to do with roads and bridges, airports and seaports.

We were told all along it was going to be paid for; it wasn't. The Congressional Budget Office confirmed that.

So facts are facts.

On top of that, the majority leader could have, if these were important nominees, as my colleagues keep saying they are, they could have filed cloture and done these nominees.

I mean, think of what we have done this last 2 weeks that we have been up here. Very few nominees have come through.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, so I think my colleague doesn't understand that when you borrow money, you eventually have to pay it back.

The government doesn't produce income. It takes money from people. That means that when that bill--the so-called infrastructure bill--runs deficits, somebody's taxes are going up. Whether they go up today or tomorrow, they are going to go up.

And, by the way, it is part of why the Democrats had to raise the debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion, and that is $2.5 trillion that Americans families are going to have to pay for.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I would do what I did in Florida. I walked into a $4 billion budget deficit. I balanced the budget. I cuts taxes and fees 100 times. I paid off a third of the State debt. I never increased my State debt. I actually cut it by $10.5 billion. That is exactly what we ought to be doing here. We can't keep wasting money because somebody is going to pay for it.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Say again?

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Absolutely.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Part of it. Last year, what we did was suspend the debt ceiling.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, my experience is totally different than my colleague from Montana's experience.

My experience is you build your economy by growing jobs. You build your economy by investing in education, where you get a return. So, in my 8 years as Governor of Florida, we added 1.7 million jobs. We cut taxes and revenues grew. It allowed us to make record investments in education, in transportation, and in the environment. By the time I left office in Florida, we had the second lowest tuition of higher education in the country. According to the U.S. News & World Report, we were No. 1 in education, but we did it by getting a return on all of the dollars. We didn't do it by just spending money without getting a return.

Let's remember why I am here.

For weeks, I have been asking the chair of the Commerce Committee to invite the Secretaries of Transportation and Commerce to come tell us what they are doing to fix this supply chain crisis. We still have 100 cargo ships off the coast of California. Is it getting better? No, it is not getting better. I was on a call this week, and I did not hear one thing that has been done to solve this supply chain crisis.

When I was the Governor of Florida, we had hurricanes. We had to work hard to make sure we didn't run out of fuel. To make that happen, what we would do is we would put everybody together. I often went to the ports to make sure that we got the fuel through, and we did. We got it done.

I have not seen the Secretary of Transportation go out to the Port of Palm Beach to solve any problems at all. I have not heard of anything the Secretary of Commerce has done to go out to California and solve this supply chain crisis. On these nominees, cloture could have been filed by the majority leader. For whatever reason, the majority leader decided not to do it.

First, I want to thank my colleague from Washington for holding the hearing with the airlines, and there are two things about that.

I was surprised that I didn't get a very good answer from the airlines about, did we get a return on the--what?--$54 billion we provided the airline industry? I was extremely disappointed that United Airlines was cavalier with the employees in my State who were basically let go or laid off without pay only because they decided not to get the vaccine for religious purposes.

In coming back to this issue, I still am waiting for the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Commerce to come to a public event so all of our constituents in my State can hear exactly what they are doing to solve the supply chain problem. I can tell you that I was on this phone call, and this problem is not getting better. There are still 100 cargo ships off the coast of California. I want to hear exactly what they are doing and so do the citizens of my State.

I want to be clear. I like infrastructure. I spent $85 billion on infrastructure. With $10 billion a year, we had a dramatic increase in infrastructure. It is part of the reason we added 1.7 million jobs. I also did a lot of work to try to make sure we increased trade in Florida. We have 15 seaports. I believe in all of this.

I also believe we have a supply chain crisis right now. It is not getting better. I am shocked that my colleague does not want to ask the Secretary of Transportation and the Secretary of Commerce to explain to the American public why this is not getting better.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President.

I still also have never been told why, when I have been asking for this for weeks, these two Secretaries won't show up and tell my citizens why they can't solve the supply chain problem. Therefore, I object.

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