-9999
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, Florida families hear a lot of talk up here in Washington about inflation. Right now, inflation is raging over 9 percent across America.
I was warning about the coming inflation crisis back in February of last year, but now basically everyone in the Senate--Republicans and Democrats alike--have joined me in talking about just how horrific this is for families in each of our States.
In Florida, inflation is costing families nearly $800 more every month. Imagine being a family on a fixed income and having to pay double rent each month or adding a luxury car payment to your monthly expenses. That is essentially what families in my State are dealing with since Joe Biden took office.
It is a new tax on families at every income level, a tax created by the sheer incompetence of Joe Biden. It hurts our poorest families-- like mine growing up--the very most.
Now, we know what causes this inflation. It is reckless government spending. On this side of the political aisle, we aren't afraid to tell this truth, but our Democratic colleagues, with the exception of one or two, won't do it.
It is fine. You would probably imagine that, in a 50-50 Senate, we would still be able to hold the line and stop reckless spending in its tracks. Nope, not in broken Washington. Here in Washington, the only thing we can seem to get bipartisan consensus on is digging America deeper and deeper into debt. It happens again and again. And with each dollar of debt and each new round of reckless spending, we throw gasoline on the raging inflation fire burning across America.
As I speak here now, it is about to happen again. This week, the Senate will very likely pass the so-called China bill that spends $280 billion we don't have. We are not burning our savings here; we are borrowing $280 billion to do this.
This is why the American people hate Congress. They see politicians stand up in their neighborhoods and pledge to fight the waste in Washington and then watch as those same politicians become the very problem they vowed to fix. It is disgusting, and it is happening up here all the time.
So let's talk about this bill that we are set to vote on this week. Democrats and some Republicans will suggest that it will help combat the threats we face from Beijing. There is just one problem. This bill doesn't help us combat communist China at all.
On Monday of last week, this bill cost $76 billion and was 73 pages long. Two days later, Senator Schumer turned it into a $250 billion version. Now it is more than 1,000 pages, a $280 billion monster chock- full of reckless spending and bad policy that gives Joe Biden a wide- open door to push his radical policies.
The bill ballooned in size and price because Chuck Schumer--Senator Schumer--inserted massive slush funds for the National Science Foundation. This same entity has burned billions of taxpayer dollars on insane projects like creating a towel-folding robot or studying how shrimp run on treadmills. I wish I was making this up, but I am not.
This bill doubles the National Science Foundation's budget over the next 5 years and gives millions to universities that already have a problem with spies from communist China stealing intellectual property and data. Does the bill increase protections to stop this or better protect tax dollars? No.
No wonder the debt is surging over $30 trillion and inflation is over 9 percent. Washington is broken. It just can't stop wasting your money.
So what else does this bill do? A huge part of it is a massive giveaway to chipmakers like Intel. You know Intel, the world's largest semiconductor maker that saw $20 billion in profit last year and paid its CEO $180 million. They are not exactly struggling these days, but politicians in Washington want to give them billions of your money with no strings attached.
There are no requirements to see a return on investment. There are no provisions to claw back dollars if they don't do what they are supposed to do. There is nothing for accountability.
What is worse, these large chipmakers have lobbied hard to weaken the bill so they can keep doing business in communist China. And--guess what--Washington caved, and they got exactly what they wanted. Massive, multibillion-dollar corporations like Intel will get Americans' hard- earned tax dollars to build manufacturing plants, get tax writeoffs for those plants, and get a tax credit. These chipmakers are getting paid three ways with your tax money, and they will still be allowed to work and expand in communist China.
There is nothing stopping them from moving funds around to increase their business in communist China or any other market, for that matter. There is no requirement for them to build a certain number of plants here in the United States. There are no quotas that they need to hit so Americans can be sure we never have to rely on risky supply chains.
And even if communist China invades Taiwan, which supplies nearly two-thirds of all the world's semiconductors, the companies that get your tax dollars in this bill will still be allowed to operate in communist China while receiving your money.
This bill isn't anti-China; it is pro-China. It is going to cause more inflation, more debt, and create more deficits. There is absolutely no accountability. It doesn't make any sense.
Now, there is a heck of a lot we can do to reshore our supply chains and ensure Chinese spies don't steal our technology, all things this bill purports to do but doesn't.
For more than a year now, I have been fighting this bloated bill while at the same time introducing other legislation with my colleagues to economically decouple from communist China, strengthen our defense networks, and stand up to Xi Jinping's abuses.
We all want to solve problems. I want to solve problems. I am open to good investments. They have to be done with accountability to the American people. That is why I introduced an amendment to this bill to ensure that no tax dollars are going to go to benefit communist China.
My amendment would do four things. First, my amendment would eliminate all the exemptions that are currently in the bill that allow semiconductor companies who take U.S. taxpayer dollars to expand and continue their operations in communist China. Money is fungible, and we should make perfectly clear that these American tax dollars should only be benefiting Americans.
Some have called this a national security investment. If that is true, then we should make sure it builds up American security, not communist China's.
Second, my amendment will require the Secretary of Commerce to certify to Congress that the Department has completed a return-on- investment analysis of a proposed grant. That announcement must show the grant will be a net positive for taxpayers and prevent distribution of that grant until the Secretary certifies the analysis and makes it public.
In business and in government, I have made countless deals. I never want to make an investing deal when I am unsure whether I am getting a return on my money. Americans understand this. If we are going to be investing taxpayers' dollars, we need to make smart investments that will get a real return.
Third, my amendment will require companies receiving funds disbursed from the CHIPS Act to enter into a three-part agreement with the Commerce Secretary specifying that they will, one, not engage in any transaction involving the expansion of chip manufacturing capacity in communist China; two, refuse to cooperate with the Communist Chinese Government moving forward; three, commit to immediately ceasing all operations in communist China if it invades Taiwan.
As I mentioned before, the bill in its current form does nothing to stop chipmakers from expanding operations in communist China and has loads of exceptions specifically allowing these companies to keep working there. That is insane. We should not allow it.
If people want to call this an anti-China bill, then let's make it an anti-China bill and stop doing business in communist China.
Fourth, my amendment will ensure that all U.S. tax dollars are clawed back if any company breaks that three-part agreement with the Commerce Secretary, and it would require the Commerce Secretary to ensure that the company will repay the money if they break the agreement. If you break a contract, there are consequences. Everyone knows this, and it is crazy that this bill doesn't already have those provisions in it.
If we don't change this bill, a vote for this bill is a vote for higher inflation. It is a vote to help communist China and a vote to add to our already $30 trillion debt.
My amendment isn't controversial. This is commonsense stuff. It will improve the bill and add the kinds of safeguards Americans should expect from legislators handling their hard-earned tax dollars. We are a fiduciary for the American taxpayer.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the Democratic majority leader is interested in having a vote on my commonsense amendment, but that shouldn't surprise the American public. They have come to expect this sort of dysfunction under Democratic leadership.
The Democrats love to pretend that they are fighting against corporate special interests, but what the majority leader is pushing forward right now is one of the grossest gifts to corporate America I have ever seen. The families in each of our States deserve and expect better than what this delivers.
Our Nation is in the midst of a historic inflation crisis that is destroying the dreams and hard-earned savings of millions of families across our country. Our answer to that crisis cannot be to throw gasoline on the fire and walk away. We can and must do more to combat the threats posed by communist China.
Members of this body, on both sides of the aisle, have great ideas that can do that, but this bill isn't one of them. I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill or, at a minimum, join me in demanding that my amendment be adopted so we can better protect the massive amount of tax dollars being spent here.
I also urge my colleagues not to turn a blind eye to the new debt this bill creates. As I said earlier, this bill borrows $280 billion we don't have. We have to stop this.
That is why I am raising a budget point of order. When we keep borrowing and spending money we don't have, it is terrible for our country and our families. A vote to waive my point of order is a vote to approve more debt, which means more inflation. Point of Order
Mr. President, the pending measure, Senate amendment No. 5135, violates section 404(a) of S. Con. Res. 13 of the 111th Congress, the fiscal year 2010 budget resolution, as amended by S. Con. Res. 11 of the 114th Congress, because it would increase the short-term debt by more than $10 billion in one or more of the fiscal years that comprise the current budget window.
Therefore, I raise a point of order against this measure pursuant to section 404(a) of Sen. Con. Res. 13, the fiscal year 2010 concurrent resolution on the budget.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source