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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, last month I was proud to see the Senate come together in a bipartisan effort and pass a Congressional Review Act measure to overturn President Biden's unconstitutional Federal vaccine mandate on private businesses. In that bipartisan vote, a majority of U.S. Senators sent a clear message that these job-killing mandates are wrong and have no place in our country's fight against COVID-19.

Then, just days after Christmas, President Biden said something very interesting. While he was talking with Governors about the COVID-19 pandemic, he admitted:

Look, there is no Federal solution. This gets solved at a State level.

This is President Biden's message: States should be leading the effort. Now, that doesn't mean there isn't a role for the Federal Government. But what we have seen from the Biden administration is no progress, just worsening cases, and the horrible job-killing consequences of his unconstitutional mandates on private businesses.

I want to be clear: His unconstitutional mandates are job killers. Back in October, the Federal Reserve reported that vaccine mandates were widely cited by businesses as a reason for low labor supply and hiring and retention issues. It was a finding my Republican colleagues and I have been warning about for months before their report, and it is directly tied to inflation.

When the labor supply is reduced, prices go up, and families, especially those on low and fixed incomes, suffer. Restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and small businesses all have to charge more.

I heard about a restaurant owner in St. Petersburg, FL, who had to take certain items off the menu because they simply cost too much, and he can't pass the cost on to his customers. He has even seen the price of oil and to-go boxes more than double.

I talked to an operator of a food bank in Osceola County, FL. She used to see 15 families each day, and now she is seeing upward of 70 families. Food prices have gone through the roof. It is more expensive for her to get food to give to people hurting at the very time demand is up. This is the reality for families and small businesses all across America, and vaccine mandates do nothing but make these problems even worse.

I can't imagine why, just when our country is working to get back on its feet, the President of the United States would be pushing policies that kill jobs, but that is exactly what he is doing. Now lockdown- loving Dr. Fauci and President Biden want to double down on their insane mandates and are considering forcing every American who wants to fly to show proof of vaccine before boarding an airplane. This is just another Orwellian response from the Biden administration and radical Democrats that does nothing to protect the American people.

Providing information about the virus, providing tests, supporting vaccine and therapy developments, and getting the economy back on track should be the only role of the Federal Government in this pandemic.

Congress has to take a stand and protect the American people from these communist China-style policies that are meant to divide us. That is why a few months ago, I introduced the Prevent Unconstitutional Vaccine Mandates for Interstate Commerce Act. The bill would prevent Federal Agencies, like the Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce, from requiring proof of vaccination for companies trying to do business across State lines.

Importantly, it would block the Federal Government from making airline passengers show proof of vaccine before catching a flight, which is exactly what Dr. Fauci wants to do.

This bill also protects truckers and will ensure that the Biden administration can't ruin our supply chains even more. Our truckers are the key to fixing Biden's supply chain crisis, and we should do everything we can to protect them.

President Biden has continually showed us his track record of failed policies and a mandate for domestic airline passengers would only add to his growing failures and blame shifting. We saw it in his failed and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. We have seen his administration's complete failure to handle the crisis across the southern border. We see it every day in President Biden's inability to fight inflation by stopping reckless spending. We continue to see his failure and complete void of leadership in how this administration is fighting COVID-19.

Now, I am sure my Democrat colleagues will say that this legislation isn't needed because at this exact moment, there is not a vaccine mandate to fly on a plane, but they said the same thing last year when we tried to preemptively block vaccine mandates for private businesses. They claimed the President has committed not to do that. We know the President broke that promise.

The American people deserve better than politicians who continue to mislead them on the Federal Government's failures to fight COVID properly. The back-and-forth has to end.

We must end these ridiculous, unconstitutional vaccine mandates and focus on getting our economy back on track. That is why, as I mentioned earlier, the U.S. Senate passed a Congressional Review Act measure to invalidate President Biden's vaccine mandate on a bipartisan basis. The Senate, along with the majority of Americans, doesn't believe that the Federal Government should force people to choose between taking the vaccine and losing their job. That is why I am again demanding that the Federal Government stop trying to force the American people to follow draconian, job-killing mandates that hurt families.

This is the second time I have come to the floor to try to pass this bill and protect the rights of American families and businesses. I would like to thank Senators Cynthia Lummis, Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, and Roger Marshall for joining me in introducing this important and urgently needed legislation. This is a commonsense bill, and I hope all my colleagues will support it.

2895 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. First off, I want to make sure my colleague understands what this bill would do. This bill would prevent Federal Agencies, like the Department of Transportation and the Department of Commerce, from requiring proof of vaccination for companies trying to do business across State lines.

So what this bill does is say that the Federal Government is not going to mandate this. If a private business wants to say that you have to have a vaccine to come in, that is a decision that private business gets to make. But government shouldn't be in the position to tell a new business that they have to require a vaccine. I mean, that is not what you do.

What this does do is it is killing jobs. It is killing people and killing the jobs of people who worked their tail off in the prior 12 months.

Now, I don't know why this is controversial. The Senate, on a bipartisan basis, just passed a Congressional Review Act measure striking down President Biden's vaccine mandate. On a bipartisan basis we already decided we don't believe in what the President is doing.

We have got families and businesses all across this country that are struggling to keep up with the cost of inflation, and the government should be doing everything it can to reduce inflation and get the economy going.

Look, I know what it is like to go hungry because groceries cost too much. I watched my mom and my dad struggle for years. When prices rose, my mom took in odd jobs. When she struggled, we didn't have as much food on the table.

It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to improve the economy and help families get ahead. We know the vaccine mandates are absolutely causing prices to rise. When prices rise, people are getting hurt, and they are making interstate commerce much more difficult.

So instead of taking action to help families and curb inflation, the Biden Administration is taking every possible step to make it harder for them to put food on the table and afford to live in this country.

The President has already said that this must be handled at the State level. I agree. And the Federal Government can take a step in this direction by ensuring vaccine passports won't be required for interstate commerce.

They shouldn't be required to get on a plane. They shouldn't be required to carry goods across State lines.

Even our Nation's healthcare providers know that mandates don't work. They stopped doing it in most cases. Just last month we saw hospitals across this country delay or suspend their vaccine mandates because they knew it was killing jobs.

We know that Biden's unconstitutional mandates are going to make it more difficult to retain staff and deliver quality care to their patients. I don't understand why my colleague wants to give the government more power, more power, more power--upholding regulations that are causing prices to rise and forcing people to choose between keeping their jobs and getting a vaccine.

We ought to give people the freedom to live their lives, to do exactly what my colleague just said: If a business wants to require a vaccine, they should require that. But if they don't, the government shouldn't be doing that. Our government should be giving people information, and let them make the decisions they want to make.

I trust American families. I trust American businesses. They are smart enough to make informed decisions about their health. But my colleague's objection is bad for American families and bad for business owners, and I hope she will reconsider her objection.

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