Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, the Biden administration has made a name for itself in attacking the very institutions that they were sworn to protect. If you look at what is happening outside Washington right now, you can see the ripple effects of this institutional sabotage. There is inflation; there are shortages; there is crime; and there are drugs flooding our communities.

This weekend, I was chatting with one of my politically independent- minded friends back home, and here is what she told me.

She said:

Everything the Democrats are doing is making my life harder. It makes things worse.

Last Tuesday, I held a telephone townhall with a few thousand Tennesseans, and they told me the same thing.

I spoke to a dad from Chattanooga, and something he said really struck me. He was telling me about how worried he was about his children's futures. He said the only common thread he can see tying all of this together is suffering.

Think about that. Here is a dad--a dad--who is looking at the actions of the Democrat-controlled House, Senate, and White House, and to him, he is perceiving the intent as being to inflict suffering.

He asked me what the goal was of all of this--referring, of course, to Biden's agenda. He couldn't figure it out, and I really don't blame him. No reasonable person can look at what the Biden administration has done and say that they feel like the administration has our best interests at heart or that they have a vision for the future of the country. What they do have is an agenda, a ``to do'' list, and it seems sometimes they struggle with that.

To Tennesseans, this government, under this administration, with this leadership, is all broken. It is broken. Nowhere has this been more pronounced than in President Biden's refusal to support law enforcement, both down on the border and in our local communities.

Since day one, the President has done everything in his power to sabotage the tens of thousands of people the Department of Homeland Security employs to secure the homeland. He has done this knowing full well that international criminal organizations, terrorists, and cartels are taking advantage of his lack of action. In fact, business has never been better for the drug dealers and the human traffickers. At times, they are raking in as much as $100 million a week. That is right. Who is profiting? It is the cartels that are pushing drugs, that are pushing fentanyl, that are pushing gangs, that are pushing sex trafficking; the cartels that have turned themselves into global organizations, bringing in people last year from 160 different countries to our southern border. To do what? It is to enter illegally, to claim asylum, to ask the U.S. taxpayer to finish the journey for them to wherever they are wanting to go. This is what the people are seeing.

Now take a look at what is happening in our own backyard, if you will. In 2021, almost 108,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. About 4,000 of these were Tennesseans--all tragic losses. Law enforcement in Benton County, TN, told me recently that about 80 percent of the drugs they seize contain fentanyl, which, as we all know, is deadly even in very small amounts. Ask any law enforcement officer where these drugs are coming from, and they will tell you that the majority of this is coming across the southern border. The cartel mules are smuggling it right across that border.

Our Border Patrol is overworked; they are underfunded; they are understaffed; they are working overtime. They are doing their best, but they can't get it all. They look at the surveillance cameras. They see the ``got-aways.'' They know that they are coming.

If the Biden administration abandons their title 42 authority at some point in the future, it is going to get worse. We will have the equivalent of the population of a small town in Tennessee coming right across that border.

In Tennessee, we have got 345 towns, and 90 percent of those are 18,000 in population or fewer. When you look at Connecticut, you have got 215 towns, and 87 percent of those are--you have got it--18,000 or fewer in population. If you look at the State of Maryland, there are 536 towns, and 458 of those are 18,000 or fewer in population. That is 85.4 percent. Now think about that number of people crossing the border every single day, and all that the traffickers--the drug traffickers, the human traffickers--and all of the gangs have to do is blend in. Come on in.

I would like to say, until the Biden administration wises up and secures the border, every town will be a border town, and every State will be a border State.

The problems associated with drugs and criminal activity don't stay in New Mexico or Arizona or Texas or California. They bleed into the rest of the country and into the hands of local law enforcement. They have enough to be dealing with.

Here are some stats for you. In 2021, homicides in U.S. cities reached a near-record high. The number of law enforcement officers intentionally killed on the job was the highest since 9/11, and ambush- style attacks on police increased 115 percent.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, the Biden administration floated the idea of using yet another Executive order to limit law enforcement's access to resources and Federal grant money. Between the ``defund the police'' movement and this halfhearted support from their President, it is no wonder that law enforcement officers are resigning or quitting or retiring in record numbers.

I would ask the President and Secretary Mayorkas and my Democratic colleagues to listen to what those who have sworn to protect and serve are telling them, because they know what the Biden administration needs to do.

This administration would be well-served to keep title 42 until we have a plan to replace it. Embrace the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy and do what law enforcement has asked for decades: build a wall. They need that barrier. Give them technology, better technology, and more officers and agents. That is what they need. They continue to ask for it. Give them what they need to do their job to protect this country.

As it stands, Democrats have abandoned Border Patrol, abandoned local law enforcement, and according to my friends in Tennessee, they have abandoned we, the people. And the people are losing faith. They look at the White House and they have no idea who is in charge. They don't see their concern for the future reflected in the actions of the President or his staff who repeatedly corrects him. They don't see a vision for America. All they see is a to-do list, an agenda, that will fail them over and over again because it leads to more government control and less freedom for we, the people.

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