Nominations

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I will be delivering remarks in a moment regarding the unanimous consent request that I am about to make. In deference and as a courtesy to my colleague from Washington, I will make the request first rather than speaking first.

2841 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, in recent years, particularly those on the other side of the aisle have called for, declared, and demanded that we rebuild what they call trust in government. While I believe that Americans must have a healthy distrust of the idea of government and any expansion of the necessarily limited powers of the Federal Government, that does not exempt government from the obligation of being trustworthy. That is why I find the position that so many of my colleagues across the aisle are taking to be so confusing: trust, but verify; trust your neighbor, count the cards.

People need information with which to analyze the faithfulness of government and to accept the facts as they deem appropriate. Now they claim that Americans must be forced, coerced, prodded, cajoled, threatened into making the government-approved medical decision. But heaven forbid if someone resists, objects due to moral or religious beliefs, or opts out of being vaccinated due to specific unique health concerns, she is derided and ignored, and--if the current Presidential administration has its way--forced out of her job.

All of this is supposed to build a safer and more trusting society?

This argument is totalitarian, and it is wrong. The United States is an open society, and the only way by which government can build trust with the American people is to earn it. The government will earn that trust only through transparency.

I have come to the Senate floor now nine times to oppose President Biden's immoral, unwise, and damaging vaccine mandate. I am committed to keep this going for as long as it takes to beat the mandate. I have introduced, now, a dozen bills to counteract, restrict, or limit the mandate. I do all this because I have heard from over 300 Utahans from one end of the State to the other, who are at risk of losing their livelihoods due to this aggressive government overreach.

Overreach of the government is staggering in here. It is an overreach the likes of which we haven't seen in this country in a long time; the likes of which we arguably haven't seen since April 8, 1952, when President Harry Truman seized every steel mill in America in order to support the Korean war effort. Fortunately, within a couple of months, the Supreme Court of the United States acted and invalidated that maneuver as unlawful, unconstitutional, which, of course, it was.

In this instance, that hasn't happened because, with respect to the OSHA mandate, the employer mandate--one saying all employers with more than 99 employees have to comply, have to fire people who aren't vaccinated--there is nothing there because the authority doesn't exist. But, in the meantime, corporate America is picking up the slack and doing the President's dirty work for him.

But it is a government overreach, and it is an overreach that is harming good people, people who are not enemies of the United States. No, they are not enemies to anyone. They are our neighbors, our fellow citizens, and our friends. Their stories are as tragic as they are moving, yet this administration seems bent on assuming that they have no voice, on giving them no voice.

Don't get me wrong, I am not against the mandate--I am against the mandate. I am not against the vaccine, not in any way. I am fully vaccinated. My entire family has been vaccinated. I have encouraged people to get vaccinated for the specific reason that I see the vaccines as miracles and miracles that are protecting many, many millions of Americans from the harms of COVID-19.

But if government is trying to encourage Americans to get vaccinated, hiding information about their concerns with the vaccine is the worst possible way to build trust. It has the exact opposite of what they claim they are trying to do. Existing concerns, make no mistake, are not just going to evaporate if they are ignored.

And the government's lack of transparency should be just as concerning to Americans who aren't worried about the vaccine as it is to those who are. Government should never be in the business of hiding information about the adverse effects and risks involved, no matter how infrequent or uncommon they might be.

And the government has--let's face it--been less than forthright with information about vaccine complications. Adverse reactions to the vaccine have been documented since the COVID-19 shot became available. The administration's message has been: Get the vaccine; it is safe, period.

If individuals pose questions about possible risks, about its interactions with other medical treatments, or about rare reactions seen directly after its administration, they are often pushed aside, denied proper care, or deemed crazy conspiracy theorists for trying to scare the public away from the vaccine.

Sadly, this breeds distrust and it threatens the ability of those who experience rare vaccine injuries, the ability to access the proper treatment, care, and respect they deserve.

We should all be able to agree this type of governmental deception has no place in the United States. That is why today I came to the floor to offer the Transparency in COVID-19 Vaccination Act.

This bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publicly disclose all information regarding adverse effects of the COVID-19 vaccines. This sunshine would help clear the air and allow individuals and the medical community the opportunity to make informed decisions.

This clarity would also be an important step toward building trust with the American public. Americans have the best, most accurate information when they make medical decisions--at least they try to. They deserve to have the best and most accurate information when they make medical decisions. This bill would ensure that happens. That is why I came to the floor to offer it today, offer that we pass it and offer the protections.

My friend and distinguished colleague, the Senator from Washington, regrettably objected to it. In doing so, she argued that it is not necessary because, according to the Senator from Washington, all the information that they need is now available. In many instances, it is not. This bill would require that be made available--all of it.

The CDC does collect information on it, but the American people don't have full access to that information, and they should.

That begs the question: Why? Why would anyone want to do that?

I don't know why. To me, it doesn't make sense, especially if one wants to increase the number of people getting the vaccine as I do.

I would like to see more people getting vaccinated because I think the vaccine is something of a medical miracle and it is protecting many, many millions of Americans from the harmful effects of COVID-19. That is a good thing.

We want them to be protected. To be protected, we want them to get vaccinated. It doesn't mean government should force it on them, and it certainly doesn't mean that government should be perceived in any way as being less than forthcoming with information that it gains access to.

That is all this bill would require. It is not hard. There is nothing wrong with doing that. In fact, my colleague from Washington insists that it is already done.

If that is the case, what is wrong with putting that into law?

There isn't anything. We should do it.

I will be back on this and other topics related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

All this is unfortunate. No one is happy about the fact that COVID-19 has touched our country in the way that it has. It has been painful. It is devastating. The 730,000 Americans who have died with COVID are tragedies, each and every one of them.

There is nothing about government overreach that will bring them back. There is certainly not anything about government overreach that is going to have a proper influence than the American people. There is certainly not anything about government hiding the ball when it comes to data that the American people deserve and want to have access to that is going to make people better.

We want more people to get vaccinated. Because of that, we want them to have the facts. We should do that.

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