-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, every day, Texans reach out to my office to talk about challenges that they and their families are facing, or maybe they see something on the news or read something in the local paper that causes them concern about what the Federal Government is up to; but most often, they call and tell me that inflation continues to strain their household budgets, and they are fearful that a recession is approaching. They are raising concerns about the security breakdown at the southern border and fears about rising crime rates in their communities. They share stories about teenage students who died from fentanyl poisoning, maybe friends of their family, and they tell me they are terrified for their own children's safety.

Of course, these concerns aren't unique to Texas. People across the country--everyone--wants affordable gas and groceries. We all, presumably, want dangerous drugs off the streets and dangerous people behind bars. We all want to live in safe communities so we can pursue our dreams. In short, the American people aren't asking for a lot. All they want is to be able to live happy, healthy lives. And they are asking Congress to remove some of the burdens that are making that more difficult.

That is what we need to be doing here in the Senate. In recent months, the Republican-led House has been a flurry of activity. They passed legislation to unleash the power of American energy and reduce costs to consumers. They passed legislation to classify fentanyl as a schedule 1 substance--the most dangerous of drugs--and to give parents a say in their children's education. They have also passed legislation to improve veterans' healthcare, to stand behind law enforcement officials, and to address fraud and abuse in the unemployment insurance system.

Speaker McCarthy and the Republican majority in the House have responded to the concerns of the American people not with rhetoric but with action.

That is a sharp contrast with what we have witnessed here in the Senate. The first major piece of legislation that passed this Chamber was just last week after months of President Biden saying he wouldn't even negotiate with the House on raising the debt limit; but he finally did, up against the back of a potential default.

Before that, the Senate has passed legislation repealing the Iraq war authorization. We reauthorized grants for firefighters and we confirmed some Federal judges and other nominees. Then we passed a handful of Republican-led resolutions to overturn Biden administration executive orders, and that is about it.

Now to be clear, there were some wins in there. Less than a week ago, the Senate passed a resolution I introduced with Senator Cassidy, the Senator from Louisiana, to overturn President Biden's student loan scheme claiming to cancel student loans for people who agreed to borrow the money. But, somehow, by ``canceling,'' what he really meant was transferring that burden to the taxpayers. We were able to get a bipartisan vote overturning that decision here in the Senate.

But given the fact we are 5 months into the year, this is an embarrassingly short list of accomplishments. Clearly, the Republican- led House is doing its job, but the Democrat-led Senate is not doing a whole lot. The American people are clamoring for action--again, not just lip service. They want action on inflation, on crime, on the border, energy prices, and so much more.

But for some reason, the majority leader, the Senator from New York, Senator Schumer, seems content to just put us in neutral and coast. We haven't even had votes on Mondays. We come in on Tuesday and leave on Thursday, 3 days out of the 7-day week. The American people understand that we are coasting here. We are not giving it our best or our all. So there is no doubt we have a major productivity problem here in this Chamber. And that needs to change soon.

We have a lot of work we need to do before the end of the year. First on the docket is the National Defense Authorization Act. Each year this legislation provides our military leaders and our servicemembers with the certainty they need to prepare for the threats of today and tomorrow. And those threats are doing nothing but growing on a daily basis. Whether it is China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, an on-time National Defense Authorization Act is absolutely critical.

Senator Wicker, the Senator from Mississippi, is leading those efforts on our side of the aisle, and I am confident that he and our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee will deliver another strong NDAA. But Senator Schumer, the majority leader who is the floor leader, is the one who sets the agenda. He needs to carve out the floor time to make this a priority so we can move on to the Senate's next big task which is funding the government.

Now, as part of the debt limit agreement last week, Senator Schumer agreed to bring up all 12 appropriation bills to the Senate floor by September 30. The reason that is so important is that last year in December, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer decided, basically, that the rest of us were going to be potted plants and given the opportunity to vote up or down on an Omnibus appropriation bill rather than doing the work of passing each appropriation bill out of committee, across the floor, giving every Senator an opportunity to participate in shaping that legislation. So thank goodness Speaker McCarthy was able to negotiate an agreement to get us back to that regular order, a more transparent, more rational process. You would think that with $31.4 trillion in debt, that the majority leader, Senator Schumer, would recognize this as a priority.

But these appropriation bills do some essential things like funding our military, veteran services, border security, and so much more. Again, this is a departure--or what I hope will be a departure--from what we saw in 2021 and 2022, when the Congress and the Democratic-led Senate did not pass a single appropriation bill until that omnibus bill came up in December.

Individual funding bills are the starting point for sound financial decision making here in Washington. They allow us to cut wasteful spending and invest in our priorities. That is what a budget is all about. It is about priorities, and our No. 1 priority needs to be our national security.

Senator Collins, the Republican ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, and Senator Murray, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, are determined to restore common sense to the appropriation process, especially when it comes to defense spending. So I am glad the majority leader agreed to return to the regular appropriations process, and I hope he will stick by his word. The end of September is the deadline, and it is also the deadline for two other major tasks.

One is reauthorizing the Federal Aviation Administration. It is time to modernize the Agency and implement long overdue reforms, and I am glad Senator Cruz, the junior Senator from Texas, is leading those efforts on our side of the aisle.

Then there is the farm bill, which affects agriculture and food programs across the country. For everything from crop insurance to nutrition programs to rural broadband, passing the farm bill is absolutely vital. The ranking member, Senator Boozman, is no stranger to that process, and he is committed to passing a strong farm bill before the current one expires.

But Congress must pass each one of those bills--both houses of Congress--by September 30. If you include this week, the Senate is in session only 10 weeks before then. So we have no time to waste. As I said, in those 10 weeks, we need to pass the defense authorization bill, 12 appropriations bills, an FAA reauthorization, and a farm bill--and those are just some of the big ticket and most urgent items on the to-do list.

We also need to reauthorize section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it expires at the end of this year. This is an absolutely essential tool used by our intelligence community in order to detect threats to our Nation and our national security, and it is an absolutely must-pass, must-do piece of legislation.

Then, of course, there is the never-ending humanitarian and security crisis at the border. We need to continue our work to crack down on fentanyl trafficking. Again, unleash the power of American energy; ensure that Ukraine, together with our allies, has the tools they need to win its fight against the Russian invasion and so much more.

So I simply don't understand how the Senate can continue to coast at a glacial pace. We have a lot to do for the American people; and the majority leader who sets the floor agenda needs to make sure that we buckle down and get this work done.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source