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.
“BIDEN ADMINISTRATION” mentioning Tommy Tuberville was published in the Senate section on pages S4509-S4511 on June 14.
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:
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, Ronald Reagan said:
We maintain peace through our strength; weakness only invites aggression.
The United States of America remains a beacon of strength and freedom. Generations of Americans purchased this strength through blood, treasure, and self-sacrifice. We do not want to be the first generation of Americans to abandon that tradition, but we will unless we give our men and women in uniform the tools they need to do the job.
The President's proposed budget does not deliver for our military. In fact, it tells our military to do less every day than what they have in the past. President Biden's budget proposal cuts money from the Department of Defense when accounting for inflation. I have said before that this budget is disappointing, dangerous, and a disservice to our men and women in uniform
The President's advisers surely know the threat our country faces. Here is what the Office of National Intelligence said in its annual threat assessment: The Chinese Communist Party will continue to undercut the United States, drive wedges between Washington and its allies and partners, and foster international norms that favor the authoritarian Chinese system.
That is from the President's own Director of Intelligence. But talk is cheap, and cheap talk is what we are getting because this budget does not rise to meet that threat.
Question: Does the President not believe the dire warnings of his own advisers?
At the same time, President Biden and congressional Democrats' policies are giving us a weak economy when it should be roaring. The last two job reports fell way short of expectations. In April, economists expected 1 million jobs, but we only got one-fourth of that--25 percent.
Democrats' out-of-control spending is driving inflation to levels we haven't seen in over a decade. President Biden's own budget assumes policies will only lead to a weak 2-percent GDP growth--2 percent--when it should be double that amount.
Democrats aren't stopping at a weak military and a weak economy. They have put forth thinly veiled attempts to strip our country of what makes it so great. They want to undo our very system of federalism and local control by eliminating States' right-to-work laws through the PRO Act. They want a Washington takeover of every State's election laws through S. 1 or, as I like to call it, the corrupt politicians act. But worst of all, it is teaching our kids to hate our country. The Biden administration has embraced the divisive curriculum of critical race theory to rewrite history and paint the United States as a villain.
Question: How can we expect the Biden administration to defend America's ideals abroad if the President won't even defend them at home? This isn't Building Back Better.
Teddy Roosevelt, another successful Republican President, always said: ``Speak softly and carry a big stick.'' President Biden is certainly speaking softly all right, but he is whittling away our big stick down to a twig.
We are already seeing the results. Weakness invites aggression. President Biden and his aides seem to believe that a return to the appeasement policies of the Obama administration and a rejection of President Trump's policy of strength are the best way to ensure peace. That is going to be tough for them and for the American people. We are already seeing how these policies do not work.
Take Palestine, for example. Just 2 months ago, the President decided to send hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians. And I ask, For what reason? Why are we sending millions of dollars to Palestine at this time when we are having a tough point in our country with this pandemic?
They just took American dollars and turned around and rained terror on our No. 1 ally in the Middle East, with thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli civilians. It triggered the worst fighting between Israel and Hamas since 2014. The President's policy and millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted. They did nothing but arm Hamas. The President's policy did not work.
President Biden made no secret that he wanted to bring back the failed Iran nuclear deal that was the pride of President Obama's second term. Well, Iran responded by supplying Hamas with those rockets to kill Israeli civilians. Iran is also sending warships to help their socialist ally, Venezuela. Again, the President's policies did not work.
One of President Biden's first acts in office was to cancel the Keystone Pipeline with our northern border neighbor in Canada. Yet the President is allowing Russia to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, further isolating Ukraine from its Western friends. Russia has responded by amassing troops along the Ukraine border. Once again, the President's policies did not work.
The week after President Biden announced his skinny budget proposal with no increase to the Department of Defense, China sent a record number of fighter jets into the Taiwanese airspace. That is a clear pattern that the President's policies aren't working, and they are emboldening our enemies.
The fallout from the Biden administration's weaknesses isn't just limited to far-off countries across the sea, we are seeing the very real cost at our southern border. The Biden administration refuses to take this crisis seriously. The number of illegal immigrants crossing the border this fiscal year is already the most since 2006, and there are 4 months left to go.
In May of this year alone, Customs and Border Protection apprehended more than 180,000 illegal immigrants along the southern border. And it is not just folks coming from Central America. According to the CBP, there have been at least 59,000 illegal immigrants apprehended who were not from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, or Honduras.
They are from as many as 90-plus countries, as far away as Bangladesh, Ghana, and Nepal.
And the problem is that it is not just people seeking a better life. Customs and Border Protection reports that they have arrested 95 convicted sex offenders attempting to enter the United States since the beginning of the fiscal year, and those are just the ones that are being caught.
Biden, 2 months ago, said: ``What's wrong with 2 million illegal immigrants?''
So what the Biden administration is doing is they are not stemming the tide. President Biden threw his hands up and put Vice President Harris in charge.
Has she visited the border since she has been put in charge? No.
She thinks her words, ``Don't come,'' are enough to stop the flood of illegal immigrants. Well, they are not. Her words are too late and too little.
I remember how then-Candidates Biden and Harris pushed back against President Trump for wanting to secure the border, for wanting to enforce our immigration laws as written, and folks across the globe were listening. They heard the rhetoric. They packed their bags, and they made the dangerous journey.
They took then-Candidates Biden and Harris at their word. It is why so many illegal immigrants wear T-shirts saying: ``Biden, let us in.''
Why would they listen to her saying ``Don't come'' now?
But here is what really got me. When asked why she hasn't gone to the border to see the crisis for herself, Vice President Harris laughed and said: ``I haven't been to Europe'' either. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. We need leadership, not a tourist.
Well, Madam Vice President, I have been to the border, and I have seen how dangerous it is for these people coming here. I have actually listened to our Border Patrol agents, who talk about how the cartels really run things and how they have total control of the U.S. southern border. I have seen how many drugs are pouring across the border because our law enforcement is too busy processing illegal immigrants instead of catching the bad guys.
But I sat beside a teenager leaving McAllen, TX, on the flight to Houston. She had her new 3- or 4-month-old baby. She was being sent on a plane by the Biden administration to Houston and then on the way to Denver, not knowing what she was to expect when she got there.
It is not easy to see. It certainly wasn't for me. But that is the price of being in a position of power, to be able to do something about the problems facing the people and our country. The Vice President needs to see the human cost of the policies she and the President are supporting.
Ladies and gentlemen, peace is only possible when the United States is strong. That means a strong military, a strong economy, a strong educational system, and a strong border.
Unless we reverse our course soon, it will be too late to stop the violence and aggression President Biden's weakness has invited across the globe and here at home.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BRAUN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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