Eb-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 4989 and ask that it be reported by number.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, a few short months ago, President Biden issued a series of Executive orders. These Executive orders issued by the Biden administration proposed some pretty sweeping mandates on the American people, mandates insisting that covered persons, including for our purposes today military employees, Federal workers, employees of businesses with government contracts with the Federal Government, and medical professionals who contract with CMS--basically anyone involved with the provision of services through Medicare or Medicaid must get the COVID-19 vaccine on condition of termination.

The way these mandates work is particularly nasty, especially if they work for one of the private companies, as is the case with CMS and independent contractor mandates. If they don't fire all their workers who don't get vaccinated, then they basically are rendered out of business.

Yes, the Federal Government was going to just impose these crippling costs that no corporation could afford to carry. They knew that this was creating a big issue and that this would force people into getting vaccinated.

Here is the problem with that. Now, I want to be clear. I have been vaccinated. My family has been vaccinated. I believe that vaccines have made things safer and healthier for hundreds of millions of people. I also believe that, like any medical procedure, it is not without risk, particularly to some people who might have extreme sensitivities, who might have an idiosyncratic response to the vaccine. So it is not right to force this on everyone and to render those who refuse to get it not only unemployed but unemployable.

I have received communications from countless people--for example, military professionals, military officers, and enlisted personnel who have worked for the U.S. military for nearly two decades, who are actually coming up on retirement, who are saying that, for one reason or another, they don't want to get the vaccine. Sometimes, it is religious; other times, it is based on a history of poor reactions to other vaccines or a prior medical condition that they believe would cause them to respond poorly or based on natural immunity.

They don't want to get the vaccine, and they are being told that, in the case of military personnel, if they don't get it, then they will not receive an honorable discharge. This could render them not only unemployed but unemployable, and that is the case for many, many others subject to these overreaching mandates.

Look, if we decided as a country that this was good policy, good policy, like all good policy, should be embodied in law. In my copy of the Constitution, the very first clause of the very first section of the very first article says that ``all legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.'' Article I, section 7 makes the point even clearer. It says that in order to pass a law within the Federal system and have it be a Federal law, it has to be proposed in one body or the other, but it has to be the same legislation passed by both Houses prior to its presentment to the President for signature, veto, or acquiescence.

In this case, we have had none of those things. No, instead, you have unilateral Executive action taken by the President and those working within his administration. In the process, they have bypassed that this set of mandates is largely unnecessary, dramatically overreaching, not within the executive power granted to the executive branch of government by the U.S. Congress, and is fundamentally immoral, in addition to being wildly and increasingly unpopular.

You see, the little secret is, people don't like the government doing things that are immoral. And all of us understand that you don't render someone unemployed, unable to put bread on the table for their children, simply because they won't bow to Presidential medical orthodoxy. That is not right, it is not American, and it is not constitutional, but more than anything, it is not moral.

We all know deep down that this is not right. This is not something any of us would want to do. Not one of us would want to show up and tell our own employees: You know, if you don't do what I say with regard to a medical procedure you may not want and as to which you might have legitimate, sincere religious objections or that might be unnecessary because you have natural immunity, which, by the way-- recent studies have confirmed natural immunity is at least as good as and, according to many studies released by many countries and studies in possession of our own government, is indicated to be at least as powerful as and in many cases more powerful than the immunity achieved through the vaccine. None of us would do that to a friend, a neighbor, or our own employee because we know it would be wrong; it would be mean; it would be unkind.

You can't atone for the unkindness and the immorality in that by claiming it is OK because it is through the government, especially not when the President of the United States is flouting circumventing the Constitution of the United States.

We have a chance to make this right. Yes, over time, sadly, Senates and Houses of Representatives and White Houses of every conceivable partisan combination have contributed to this because, yes, we have given Executives too much power. I complained about it during the previous administration in response to specific actions taken by the previous President--who was a Member of my own party--sometimes at great personal expense because I believe Congress has given the Executive too much power. It is bad. It is harmful. It is dangerous. We have to stop it somewhere.

We have a chance right now. We have a shot with something that is wildly unpopular and inherently immoral, and that shot exists with not funding it. We don't have to fund that part of government that goes to fund these dangerous, immoral, unconstitutional vaccine mandates. We shouldn't do it. I encourage all of my colleagues, all within the sound of my voice, please end this madness now.
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, it is unkind for us to tell Americans--just moms and dads, ordinary people who are trying to live their lives and put food on the table--that they can't put food on the table and that they are going to be rendered unemployed and unemployable unless they defer to Presidential medical orthodoxy. It is not who we are as Americans. It is especially not who we are as is the case with these mandates. There are not adequate provisions made for those with preexisting medical conditions, for those with religious objections, and for those with natural immunity. That is what we are dealing with here. It is illegal; it is immoral; it is unkind; and we should not fund its enforcement.

I plead with my colleagues to support my amendment to defund the enforcement of these mandates.
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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, it is not helpful to American families to threaten the breadwinner--the mom or the dad or, maybe, both of them in some cases--with being rendered unemployed and unemployable and unable to put bread on the table.

This is not about being anti-vaccine. I am not that, and neither are any of the Senators who are supporting this effort. This is about supporting American families. It is not supporting them to order them fired. Vote on Amendment No. 4989
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