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.
“JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS” mentioning Tim Scott was published in the Senate section on page S2313 on April 29.
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.
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The publication is reproduced in full below:
JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last night, President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress, and today marks his 100th day in office.
President Biden is a likeable person. Many of us remember serving with him in this Chamber. But while the tone of his remarks were understated, the content was anything but. He talked at length about competing with China without mentioning that he wants to cut U.S. defense spending after inflation. Exactly what we cannot do if we want to keep pace.
He talked about immigration without taking any responsibility for the border crisis that has his administration packing unaccompanied children into facilities and releasing arrivals into our country.
And the President talked about unity and togetherness while reading off a multitrillion-dollar shopping list that was neither designed nor intended to earn bipartisan buy-in, a blueprint for giving Washington even more money and even more power to micromanage American families and build the country liberal elites want instead of the future Americans want.
Think back to the start of this administration. Remember its day one priorities: axing a pipeline project that would have supported thousands of jobs; freezing the exploration behind America's energy independence; and re-signing the climate agreement that has gotten less emissions reduction out of China, which is inside the deal, than the United States achieved on our own, outside the deal.
The approach has remained equally radical since. Even after the CDC's own experts showed months ago that schools are safe, the administration's partisan COVID bill threw money at districts without requiring prompt reopenings.
As a humanitarian crisis mounts at the southern border, the President's team has offered mixed messaging and ineffectiveness.
While Iran keeps ramping up nuclear rhetoric and financing terror across the Middle East, this White House keeps downplaying the Iranian terror. And they appear eager to squander sanctions leverage just to climb back into a failed deal from back in the Obama era.
And again, as Russia and China fast-track military modernization, President Biden turned in a defense spending proposal that would put U.S. forces behind the curve.
That was the backdrop for last night's speech. But instead of practical plans to fulfill these basic responsibilities, America heard a lengthy liberal daydream. We heard about the so-called jobs plan packed with punitive tax hikes at exactly the time our Nation needs a recovery. Ivy League experts say that it would actually leave American workers with lower wages at the end of the day.
We heard about the so-called family plan, another gigantic tax-and-
spend colossus. Instead of empowering all kinds of families with flexibility, this one would just subsidize specific paths that Democrats deem best so Washington can call the shots from early childhood through college graduation.
But wait. There was more. There was hostility toward the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. There was support for Democrats' sweeping election takeover bill that would neuter voter ID in all 50 States--oh--and, by the way, make the Federal Election Commission a partisan body--oh--and legalize ballot harvesting, where paid political operatives can show up carrying stacks, stacks of other people's ballots.
Here is the bottom line. Recall that more than a year ago, at the outset of the pandemic, a top House Democrat said this crisis provided the left ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.'' Well, last night, President Biden said much the same: that his administration intends to turn ``crisis into opportunity.''
The far left certainly gets the message. Some of the most liberal Members of Congress have gone out of their way to say they are surprised and delighted--delighted--by the President's willingness to do things their way.
Even a neutral wire report explained yesterday that the Biden agenda seeks to ``fundamentally transform and expand government's role in the lives of everyday Americans.''
Let me say that again. A neutral wire report explained yesterday that the Biden agenda seeks to ``fundamentally transform and expand government's role in the lives of everyday Americans.''
It is an attempt to continue dragging a divided country farther and faster to the left. This administration wants to jack up taxes in order to nudge families toward the kinds of jobs Democrats want them to have, in the kinds of industries Democrats want to exist, with the kinds of cars Democrats want them to drive, using the kinds of childcare arrangements that Democrats want them to pursue. These plans aren't about creating options and flexibility for Americans; they are about imposing a vision.
Instead of encouraging work and rewarding work and helping connect more Americans with opportunities to work and build their lives, this administration is working overtime to break the link--the link--between work and income. They want to break the link between work and income.
Outside observers across the political spectrum agree these Democrats are unlearning the commonsense, pro-work lessons of bipartisan welfare reform from back in the nineties.
This isn't what the American people voted for. This country just elected a 50-50 Senate, a very closely divided House, and a President who talked a big game about cutting deals, bringing people together, and building bridges. But even on subjects as historically bipartisan as pandemic relief, voting rights, and infrastructure, our Democratic friends have become addicted to divide-and-conquer.
As our distinguished colleague Senator Tim Scott put it last night:
They won't even build bridges . . . to build bridges.
It doesn't have to be this way. Republicans support actually competing with China. Republicans support actually helping working families. Republicans support actual infrastructure. Ranking Member Capito and a number of our leading Republican colleagues have rolled out a multi-hundred-billion-dollar targeted infrastructure proposal. Today, in fact, the Senate is set to pass bipartisan legislation to help States and localities to provide clean and safe drinking water.
Our President will not secure a lasting legacy through go-it-alone radicalism. He won't get much done that way. It won't be good for the country. And whatever the Democrats do get done through partisan brute force will be fragile. The American people need us to find common ground and to move this country forward, and they would like for us to do it together.
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