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.
“Infrastructure (Executive Session)” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on pages S4991-S4992 on July 21.
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:
Infrastructure
Mr. President, now, let's get into what is happening here in the Senate this afternoon.
The Senate will hold a procedural vote to get the legislative process started on a bipartisan infrastructure bill. I have been very clear about what this vote is. This vote is only the first step in the legislative process on the Senate floor. It is merely a vote about whether the Senate is ready to begin debating a bipartisan infrastructure bill.
I have also been very clear about what this vote is not. This vote is not a deadline to have every final detail worked out. It is not an attempt to jam anyone. If Senators agree to adopt the motion to proceed, the bipartisan group of Senators will have many opportunities to make their agreement the base of the bill, even if they need a few more days to finalize the language
My colleagues are well aware that we often agree to move forward with debates on issues before we have the final text of the bill in hand. We have done it twice this year already: the anti-Asian hate crimes bill and the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. Both times, the Senate produced successful bipartisan legislation. There is no reason we can't repeat that process here on infrastructure.
We are now in the fourth week of negotiations since the bipartisan group of Senators reached an agreement with the White House on an infrastructure framework--4 weeks. According to the negotiators, spurred on by this vote this afternoon, they are close to finalizing their product. Even Republicans have agreed that the deadline has moved them far more quickly.
Given the process of the bipartisan negotiations, I believe Senators should feel comfortable voting to move forward today. I know that, since I set a date for the vote and announced it, my colleagues on both sides have worked very hard on finishing this legislation. I am grateful for their work. We all want the same thing here: to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill. But in order to finish the bill, we first need to start.
So I hope my Republican colleagues will join Democrats this afternoon in voting to move forward on an infrastructure package. As majority leader, I have every intention of passing both major infrastructure packages, the bipartisan infrastructure framework and a budget resolution with reconciliation instructions, before we leave for the August recess. That is the schedule I laid out at the end of June, and that is the schedule I intend to stick to.
Now, if Senators had any doubt about the impact of this important work, they should be assured by a new report this morning by the chief economist at Moody's, Mark Zandi. Having analyzed both the bipartisan bill and the agreement by Senate Democrats on the Budget Committee, Mark Zandi concludes that the twin legislative packages will provide a massive boost to the economy and that both--both--are essential.
Specifically, his report says that the two bills are ``designed to lift the economy's longer-term growth potential and ease''--ease--
``inflation pressures.'' Again, despite the sometimes hysterical warnings about inflation from Republicans, the chief economist at Moody's concludes that those concerns are ``misplaced,'' ``overdone,'' and that our two infrastructure bills are designed to ``ease''--his words--``inflation pressures.''
The report goes on to say that our investments in infrastructure and social programs will ``lift productivity and labor force growth'' and
``direct the benefits of the stronger growth to lower-income Americans and address the long-running skewing of the income and wealth distribution.''
In other words, it will help strengthen the middle class and those trying to get there and not have all the income, so much of the income, disproportionately flowing to the top 1 and 10 percents.
I hope my colleagues are listening to those benefits: long-term economic growth, easing inflation pressures, lifting productivity, strengthening the labor force, reducing income inequality. That is what one of the Nation's leading economists predicts our two infrastructure bills will achieve.
The report by Moody's should light a fire under all of us. I will be sending the full report to the Senate Democratic conference, and I commend it to my Republican colleagues to read as well.
It has been decades since this Chamber has made significant stand-
alone investment in our Nation's infrastructure. We are the largest economy in the world, but our infrastructure ranks 13th. You would find better infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates than in the United States. Meanwhile, middle-class and working Americans have watched the American dream fall out of reach as globalization, technology, and vicious inequalities of income have sapped much of America's fundamental promise of equal economic opportunity.
We must restore that promise, that hope, that American dream. If we want Americans to prosper in the 21st century, if we want to restore that fundamental promise, we need to invest in our infrastructure, create jobs, support families, strengthen the backbone of the middle class, help underserved communities, and rekindle the sunny optimism that has been a hallmark of the American spirit for more than two centuries.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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