The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Budget (Executive Session)” mentioning John Barrasso was published in the Senate section on pages S804-S807 on Feb. 23.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Budget
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the
$1.9 trillion spending bill that is under consideration before this Congress.
As President Biden has said repeatedly, if you want to know someone's values, look at one's budget. Well, that is what we are doing, because I believe that President Biden is right. If the American people want to know the Democrats' values, all we need to do is look at the budget. The Democrats are making clear what they stand for. It seems that they are standing for teachers unions and job-crushing mandates on American businesses. The Republicans stand for ending the pandemic, for getting people back to work, and for getting kids back to school. The differences could not be more clear.
The Senate has debated the Democratic budget--we did it a couple of weeks ago--and we voted on many amendments. Every Senator had a chance to propose and make some changes to the budget that was brought forth. Every single Senator went on record on a number of amendments and items related to the budget for the United States of America. Now we know where we stand.
I introduced an amendment that had to do with energy production in my home State of Wyoming. Wyoming feels like we are being targeted by President Biden because of his ban on oil and gas exploration on public lands. You know, those projects are a major source of jobs in my home State. They fund our schools, our roads, our bridges, our teachers, our students, and additional services for working families.
My amendment would provide funding for our public schools--schools that have been punished by this ban announced by President Biden. That amendment on this floor received 98 votes out of 100. It got the support of every single Democrat in the U.S. Senate, so I am grateful for my colleagues for that support of the amendment to protect our students and our schools and our teachers. Yet I have to say that by voting for my amendment, the 98 people in this body--specifically the Democrats--are admitting that there is a problem created by the actions of President Biden. They are admitting that President Biden's Executive order, signed on the day he was inaugurated, is hurting families all across the country.
So, to my Democratic colleagues, keep working with us to address the needs of the Nation. Stand up to these overreaching, radical proposals by the Biden administration. On issue after issue, that really has not yet happened.
Many of my Republican colleagues, on this side of the aisle, offered good ideas that the Democrats refused to support. Senator Blunt introduced an amendment to reopen America's schools. Now, that is an idea that science has supported for months. Every Republican voted yes. Every Democrat voted no. I have yet to hear one of my Democratic colleagues make the case for keeping the schools closed; yet that is how they voted when it came to the budget. Just like President Biden, they are trying to have it both ways. They say they want the schools open; yet they don't do what needs to be done.
President Biden has claimed time and again he wants the schools open; yet his Chief of Staff says there is no money to reopen them. Well, that is absolutely wrong. Last year, President Trump signed into law
$68 billion for our schools, specifically tied to coronavirus relief. Only $5 billion of that money has been spent. That leaves $63 billion still available. In the Democrats' budget being proposed right now, almost all of the money for schools is not even for this year. Ninety-
five percent of the money is for the years 2022 through 2028--after the coronavirus will be behind us.
The Democrats are still putting the teachers unions ahead of students. Joe Biden has surrendered to the teachers unions. They have written to him a ransom note, and he has been happy to pay it. Teachers are putting politics ahead of science, and so is this administration.
I joined with Senator Scott of South Carolina to introduce another amendment to the budget bill of the Democrats. It said that if we give money to States--and there is a lot of money in this proposal to give money to States: New York, Illinois, California--that the States have to give the American people accurate data about the coronavirus and specifically in their nursing homes. People want to know the answers about the coronavirus and the impact on nursing homes because there is a real problem there.
New York now admits that it gave the public false information. The numbers were not just wrong; they were nearly off by half. The Governor's top aide in New York said they were afraid of being investigated by Bill Barr's Justice Department. They were afraid that President Trump would make it a ``political football.''
Don't the people of New York have a right to know the truth about what is happening in the nursing homes in that State when people are losing parents and grandparents and when people with the coronavirus are being moved from the hospital back into those nursing homes to spread the disease to others?
The Governor of New York wanted to cover it up. People would agree it sounds like a coverup, so Senator Scott and I came to the floor and said that it was unacceptable, that States have to tell the truth. Every Republican voted yes. Every single Democrat voted no. Every Senate Democrat voted to protect Governor Cuomo instead of telling the truth to the American people.
During the budget debate, there were some good ideas that some Democrats supported. Yet, even then, in the wee hours of the morning, a number of the Democrats who had voted for those amendments flip-flopped on a later vote to head the other way. What they did is they had another amendment to strip out the amendments that had been put on.
For example, Senator Young of Indiana had an amendment so that money in the bill would go to American citizens, not to illegal immigrants. Eight Democrats voted in agreement with that. They said you shouldn't be sending checks to illegal immigrants. A few hours later, they voted to strip it out. So every Democrat in the Senate is now on the record. Every Democrat in the Senate has voted in favor of taking people's hard-earned taxpayer dollars and giving it to people who are in the country illegally.
Senator Daines brought up an amendment on a different topic. He said we should proceed with the Keystone Pipeline. Remember, President Biden, with an Executive order on the day he was inaugurated, stopped work on the Keystone Pipeline, resulting in the loss of hundreds and hundreds and likely thousands of jobs. Several Democrats voted and said we should reopen the pipeline. Let it go. Let it work. A few hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, they reversed themselves and voted to strip it out.
Senator Braun of Indiana introduced an amendment to prevent President Biden from banning fracking. Now, this is something that President Biden promised to do during the campaign. Of course, that would end millions of jobs across America, and it would put us at a disadvantage from the standpoint of energy. Seven Democrats voted with Senator Braun to protect American jobs. Hours later, they flip-flopped and took it out of the bill.
The Democrats keep trying to have it both ways. They want to look like moderates, pretend to be moderates, while still getting their leftwing spending bill through. They are not playing it straight with the American people. It is not going to work. The people in their States aren't going to be fooled. They are going to remember the votes, and they will certainly be reminded of those votes in the future.
So we have talked about what the Senate Democrats blocked. Now let's take a look at some of the things the Senate Democrats support.
The bill includes a mandate from Washington, DC, to double the minimum wage. It has nothing to do with the coronavirus. In fact, it would actually make things worse. The Congressional Budget Office took a look at this as to what the impact would be on the economy, and it said that 1.4 million people who have jobs right now would lose their jobs if the Federal Government were to come in with a mandate to double the minimum wage. It is not a stimulus.
According to one report, the new Washington mandate would also raise the cost of childcare by about 21 percent. How is that going to work for hard-working families who are trying to get back to work with the coronavirus and need daycare for their children? With schools closed in so many locations across the country, that is the last thing that working families need--an increase in the cost of providing care for their children.
The big Democratic spending bill also includes a $350 billion bailout for States and local governments. The money is especially targeted to States that have stayed closed the longest. This is money rewarding big cities and States like California and New York and Illinois that have had financial trouble due to financial mismanagement for many, many years. It has nothing to do with the coronavirus. Those States were in trouble long before the coronavirus made it to our shores.
Multiple studies show that State tax revenues are actually up in many States across the country. In some States, they fell, but on average, States are continuing to do quite well. Most States are expecting more tax revenues this year than they had before the pandemic. If a State needs a bailout, it is not because of the coronavirus; it is because of years and years of mismanagement, and this bill rewards mismanagement.
Those are the priorities of the Senate Democrats, not jobs and not opening our schools. The priorities are mandates and bailouts.
Only about $1 of every $20 in this entire proposal goes for public health, but it does contain $4.5 billion for Senator Schumer's New York City Subway system. It does provide $112 million for a subway system in Silicon Valley. It does provide $270 million in funding for the arts and humanities and $12 billion in foreign aid. This is supposed to be for the coronavirus in America, here.
So what does $1.9 trillion get for you? I am asked at home in Wyoming. What does it do for people at home--yes, the American taxpayer? Not much when you look at this Democratic shopping list. It is a wish list of liberal priorities.
As President Biden says, if you want to know somebody's values, look at one's budget. We have just done that. If the American people want to see the contrast between Republicans and Democrats, they should look no further than this bill. The Republicans are offering the American people jobs, a vaccine, and opening our schools. The Democrats are offering excuses and the liberal wish list.
We still have time to fix the final bill, so I would urge my Democratic colleagues to join with us. Work with the Republicans for real coronavirus relief. Help our small communities and small businesses keep their doors open. Get our kids back in school. Target the funding to the American citizens who need it the most. We have done five bipartisan coronavirus bills. A sixth coronavirus relief bill should be done in a bipartisan way as well. That is what the American people, with a 50-50 Senate, are asking us to do.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). Without objection, it is so ordered.
Tribute to Glynis Johns, Justan Parker Fields, and Dr. Ala Stanford
Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I rise tonight and, again, it is my privilege to come before the Senate, as I have since my very first year here, to celebrate Black History Month in a particular way by paying tribute to a number of Pennsylvanians.
I am honored again to have the opportunity to highlight the extraordinary leadership of Pennsylvanians who dedicate their lives to improving their communities and who wake up every day to rededicate themselves to that effort. This year I am grateful to be able to recognize three honorees--Glynis Johns, Justan Parker Fields, and Dr. Ala Stanford--and to recognize each of these individuals in a very personal way in terms of their work in their communities in Pennsylvania. Each of them are having a remarkable impact in their communities.
The theme of this year's recognition is ``Bending the Arc: Celebrating Catalysts for Change.'' We know that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke of ``bending the arc'' on many occasions, but, most notably, in his address at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 in March of that year, when he said:
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Our late and beloved colleague here in the Congress, Congressman John Lewis, carried that same spirit with him. He lived it, and he believed that we will get there someday, get there to a better day for justice. Congressman Lewis also said:
We will redeem the soul of America, and in doing so, we will inspire people around the world to stand up and speak out.
We know that justice, of course, takes hard work. In the face of adversity and exhaustion, to be the voice that stands up and speaks out, as John Lewis suggested, is not a decision that a person makes once and then just follows a well-worn path. It, of course, requires perseverance. It requires hope and faith.
Dr. King reminds us that justice is the--to use his words--is the
``fierce urgency of now.'' Dr. King and Congressman Lewis understood that while the arc of the moral universe does bend toward justice, this is not something to which one can attach themselves a path that you can follow passively. To bend that arc toward justice requires strenuous exertion that often gets you enemies before it makes you any friends. It does not bend on its own but bends only--only--under the weight of acts of courage and the hard work of those who have committed themselves to the struggle for justice and equality.
President Obama, as well, in his work every day of his Presidency, did work to bend the arc on issues of racial, economic, and global justice, and he continues to do so in his years as a former President. Congressman Lewis not only gave all of us words to live by and inspiration, he also gave all of himself to the cause of justice. But his example, the example of John Lewis, still serves as an inspiration for the next generation of leaders. It is why Dr. King spent his entire life fighting for racial equality, voting rights, nonviolence, and the rights of the poor. King's work for the lives of others cost him his very own. We should honor his sacrifice daily and not simply during Black History Month.
But we know that behind every man and every woman leading the fight for justice stands a multitude. Behind Dr. King, millions labored and labor still for civil rights and voting rights. We saw that this summer when millions of Americans across our Nation took to the streets to condemn the mistreatment of Black Americans at the hands of law enforcement. And we saw it just last month when African Americans voted in extraordinary numbers in the Georgia special elections to send Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff to the U.S. Senate.
For every leader who rises to national prominence--Dr. King, President Obama, Congressman Lewis, Vice President Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, just to mention a few--there are leaders and communities across the country who are themselves doing transformational work, who are doing their part to bend the arc of the moral universe, and to bend it, of course, toward justice.
Today, it is my privilege to highlight three such leaders from Pennsylvania. I will start in my home region and in my hometown, Scranton, PA, Glynis Johns.
First, I speak as a son of Scranton, the city I was born in and still live in. I was proud to honor a daughter--or I should say am proud, tonight, to honor a daughter from Scranton, Glynis Johns. Glynis is the founder and CEO of the Black Scranton Project, a nonprofit organization, a local heritage initiative and public history venture dedicated to archiving and celebrating the Black history of our hometown that too often has been overlooked and has been obscured. She received a B.A. and an M.A. in sociology from St. John's University and is currently a doctoral student at Rutgers.
Glynis did not always plan to become a local historian, but like so many, she became one because she saw a need, and she responded to it. While working on a research project during her master's program at St. John's, the stories called to her, and she knew she needed to share these stories. For her project, she investigated why the Black community is overlooked and seen as transient in a city like Scranton. She kept uncovering stories through old newspaper archives and historical memorabilia, and she knew she had to return to her hometown to share these stories and rebuild a community.
She is proud to shift local perspectives on culture, inclusion, representation, and history within the city of Scranton. As a native and as a resident, I am grateful for her work to uncover these stories for our entire community to learn and to enjoy.
I first met Glynis just last year, 2020. It was the Juneteenth Jubilee, which she organized in our hometown, along with her fellow Black Scranton board members. It was both a celebration and a call to action, and that was in the midst of a summer of Black Lives Matter rallies and marches.
From the moment I arrived at that event and saw hundreds of, at that time, socially distanced and masked attendees, I saw her dedication. I saw her commitment firsthand. In addition to events like the Juneteenth Jubilee, Glynis and her colleagues at the Black Scranton Project are hard at work on their plan to reopen the Black Scranton Project Center for Arts & Culture. The center will provide a safe, secure, and diverse environment that will lead to equity and inclusion for all residents by offering support like job assistance, career readiness training for adults, and also afterschool and summer programs for children. The plans for the center are ambitious, and I know that Glynis and her team are up for this important task. I am looking forward to walking through the doors of the center to see their work for myself as soon as it opens.
Having spaces for the community to come together to learn is necessary. It is necessary to build up and support the community, and I am grateful for Glynis's commitment to do this work in our hometown. I know firsthand how Scranton can benefit from young people like Glynis moving up and dedicating their time to making our city and region a better place to live. We are lucky to have her talents and her drive.
We know that in March of 2020, she was named one of the most
``Influential Women of Northeastern Pennsylvania'' in Happenings magazine and was also named a ``Top 20 under 40 Young Business Professionals'' as part of the 2019 honors, and that was in the Northeastern Pennsylvania Business Journal. Glynis has already accomplished so much, and I am looking forward to watching her contributions to our hometown over the years to come.
Our second honoree for Black History Month is Justan Parker Fields from the Lehigh Valley, just south of Northeastern Pennsylvania, where the city of Allentown is, and it is right on the New Jersey border. Justan is a resident of the city of Allentown.
Following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor just last year, Justan decided to gather a few of his friends in the city of Allentown, in the downtown, to bring attention to these and other injustices against the African-American community. This gathering gained attention across the city and was attended by hundreds, including the mayor of Allentown, the police chief, and elected officials from across the Lehigh Valley. This event gave the residents of Allentown an opportunity to express their thoughts and frustrations surrounding racial injustice, and from there, Justan and his colleagues founded Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley. They founded it in order to create a platform to initiate real change in their community.
Since then, Justan's activism has only increased. He worked to form a collective with other local community and nonprofit leaders in the area to brainstorm about new initiatives for racial justice, for equity, and for equality for Black and Brown residents of the Lehigh Valley, and his work is not going unnoticed.
I spoke with Justan and his colleagues shortly after their first event, and over the past year, he has remained in regular communication with my office to discuss the progress that Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley is making in Allentown and in surrounding communities. He has also provided testimony to the Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee, partnered with the city of Allentown to review their use of force policy, and he has also worked with the Allentown City Council to draft recommendations for police reform in the city.
His activism has been inspiring to me and to so many others, and I know that that same inspiration draws other young people to his work. His hope is that those who attend his rallies or follow Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley on social media are motivated to jump-start their activism and their fight for equality.
Justan lives in Allentown with his partner Kevin and children, Shyllee and Shamaer. There is no doubt that Justan's work in Allentown is creating a healthier and more inclusive community for his children and others like him.
Justan and Kevin have founded Change Now, a local nonprofit that serves families in need in the greater Lehigh Valley. They have hosted food drives, delivered emergency food relief packages to families, hosted a Friendsgiving Dinner for the city, and sponsored Christmas presents for over 100 children. Justan said that if there is anything this pandemic taught him, it was that anyone, any family was just an illness away from needing serious help.
Through his work with both Change Now and Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley, Justan continues to make Allentown and the Greater Lehigh Valley a better place to live. And I thank him, and I know I speak on behalf of so many Pennsylvanians in thanking him for the many contributions to his community and to our Commonwealth.
Third and final, going further south to the southeastern corner of our State in the Philadelphia region, Dr. Ala Stanford. As we recognize changemakers this year, I am honored to recognize the contributions of Dr. Stanford.
She is an experienced physician, board certified by the American Board of Surgery in both general adult and pediatric general and thoracic surgery. She founded the Black Doctors COVID Consortium. It goes by the acronym BDCC. So many people have heard about them in our State and beyond. This consortium is an initiative established to provide African Americans, who, of course, we know are suffering disproportionately from the incidence of and the mortality surrounding COVID-19--this consortium provides those Americans, those Pennsylvanians, with testing and education. Her work addresses not only the urgency of the present moment due to the pandemic but also a legacy of systemic structural racism that has left the Black community with significant health disparities--I think that is an understatement--and a mistrust of the healthcare system.
I have had the privilege of engaging with Dr. Stanford on many occasions. She has provided her subject matter expertise to my office countless times, and she has been an unrelenting and passionate advocate for the communities, the people, and the families whom she serves.
It is important to note that Dr. Stanford started the consortium, BDCC, with her own funds, her own money, which is a true testament to her commitment to delivering quality care to Black Americans. Dr. Stanford stepped up at an extremely volatile and uncertain time for the people of our State. This speaks volumes about her leadership and her dedication to addressing the enormous disparity in healthcare, both healthcare access and healthcare outcomes, for African Americans.
Last month, I was honored to, again, participate in the annual celebration of the life and legacy of Dr. King at Girard College, where BDCC set up a testing site, which they have done in every neighborhood throughout the city of Philadelphia. At that event, someone shared a powerful yet sobering quotation of Dr. King. Here is that quotation:
In March of 1966, at a press conference ahead of his address to the Medical Community for Human Rights in Chicago,
[Dr. King] said that--
And I am quoting Dr. King here--
``of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhumane because it often results in physical death.''
So said Dr. King about the terrible inequity in healthcare.
Visionary leaders and health experts like Dr. Stanford are on the frontlines every single day, working to fix a broken system--a system, frankly, that has been unfair to so many communities of color. However, Dr. Stanford is committed--committed--to making change happen in our healthcare system so it can better serve the African-American community.
She and her team have made national headlines and garnered the well-
deserved attention and support of many across the Nation as a result of the work of this consortium. So I thank Dr. Stanford for being an advocate, for being an anchor for the community, and, of course, a trusted leader.
As I conclude, I think it goes without saying that this year has been a long, difficult, and dark year. I have to say, though, in the midst of all of that darkness and all of the pain--we just left the front of the Capitol in remembrance of the 500,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19--despite all that pain, all that loss, all that darkness, this month of February, which just happens to be Black History Month, gives me some hope. In so many ways, I think our hope can be renewed.
While the pandemic still rages, especially in those communities of color I spoke of, we also see that with continued education and leadership and courage, such as someone like Dr. Stanford provides, and, of course, with vaccines available, COVID-19 will begin to recede, and we will once again be able to hug our friends and family members and to move on from this pandemic. So we commend and salute people like Dr. Stanford who are helping us through this difficult time, providing some light in that darkness.
Leaders like Justin Parker Fields have stood up to confront injustice and to proclaim to law enforcement and elected officials that the lives of Black men and women matter and are deserving of the same protection as any other life.
As we saw people go through the polls this fall voting, and then others voting in January in Georgia, all of these Americans refusing to be intimidated by misinformation and threats, I was more hopeful. Young leaders in communities of color have insisted on telling their own stories and writing them into the book of history that for too long has been kept hidden from them, just as Glynis Johns is doing in our hometown of Scranton.
Each of our honorees, and so many like them, have indeed bent the arc of the moral universe toward justice, and for those brave acts, for those courageous acts, we honor them today in Black History Month. May God bless their work.
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