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Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. 547, Maria L. Pagan, of Puerto Rico, to be a Deputy United States Trade Representative (Geneva Office), with the rank of Ambassador; that there be 10 minutes of debate, equally divided in the usual form on the nomination; that upon the use or yielding back of time, the Senate proceed to vote without intervening action or debate on the nomination; that if the nomination is confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with to intervening action or debate; that no further motions be in order to the nomination; that the President be immediately notified of the Senate's action and the Senate then resume legislative session.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, there has been an objection. Let me be very brief. We have a lot to do still tonight.

As the new COVID variant surges around the globe and threatens Americans here at home and millions around the world, the United States needs to do everything possible to get shots in arms, including having the right people in Geneva to find solutions to the availability and distribution of vaccines.

COVID continues to be a deadly crisis, and we should be working in every way possible to make sure that the Biden team has a group that can reach agreement on a TRIPS waiver and any other trade-based solutions.

I look forward to continuing efforts to talk with my colleague from Utah. This is urgent business. We have to get it worked out.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, let me just say at the outset, I strongly, strongly, strongly agree with my colleagues--Senator Rubio and my friend from Oregon Senator Merkley--that the United States has to fight genocide and the scourge of forced labor taking place in Western China and elsewhere around the world.

As the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, one of my special priorities--one that we worked on for quite some time--has been to tackle this issue of forced labor. It goes back to work that Senator Brown and I did in 2015 to close an unjustifiable loophole that allowed an exception to the ban on products made with forced labor. Not only is it morally abhorrent, it is also a major trade rip-off that undermines American workers.

On the Finance Committee, we believe that the Senate needs to look at every opportunity to protect good-paying American jobs and help workers and their families get ahead. That means that the Senate has got to be prepared to tackle multiple challenges at once.

Right now, the urgent issue for so many American families is the potential expiration of child tax credit payments on January 1. Families received their sixth child tax credit payment today. It could be the last if this body does not act.

Families have come to depend on these payments to cover the essentials like rent, groceries, heat, and clothing for their kids.

Just recently, I was home in Oregon, and I asked people what they spend the child tax credit on, and they said: ``Ron, we spend it on things like shoes.''

And in our part of the world, it gets cold; it gets wet. We are not talking about luxury; we are talking about shoes for children.

Food insecurity among families dropped by about 25 percent since these child tax credit payments began. Child poverty has been cut nearly in half.

This program, in my view, is like Social Security for kids and vulnerable families. We never let Social Security checks for vulnerable seniors lapse.

For anybody who questions how valuable this program has been to American families, I want to just very briefly touch on a few messages that we have gotten from parents in a cross-section of communities across the country about how the child tax credit has helped them:

A parent in Kentucky: ``It helped me with fuel for my car and provided me enough to buy my daughter a few things she needed.''

A parent in New York: ``It's helped take the burden off our family. My husband lost his job during COVID but since found another job, but the gap of the job loss was heavy.''

A parent in Alabama: ``I was able to buy my daughter her school clothes.''

A parent in New Hampshire: ``It has helped me tremendously especially when school was starting.''

So the message from American parents, from sea to shining sea, is the child tax credit has been vital to so many American families and lowering the cost of raising a family, ensuring they can provide that basic level of security all children deserve.

So at this point, I would ask, would the Senator from Florida modify his request to include the adoption of my amendment that is at the desk to extend the child tax credit for 1 year and pass the bill as amended?
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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, I listened carefully to my colleague from Florida, and because of his objection, there isn't going to be an opportunity for the Senate to take two bold steps tonight.

I already indicated--made it very clear--that I am completely sympathetic to my colleague from Florida, my colleague from Oregon, to the fight against genocide and forced labor. They got me at ``hello'' on their proposition.

I also feel incredibly strongly--incredibly strongly--about our vulnerable children and our vulnerable families who are going to be cut off from an essential lifeline unless the U.S. Senate acts.

And, unfortunately, because of the objection from my colleague from Florida, we are not going to have a chance to take two bold steps tonight. That is what I am for. That is what I believe the American people are for.

You bet we are against forced labor. You bet we are against genocide. But we also have had a long tradition of standing up for vulnerable kids, vulnerable families, and tonight we could have obtained two bold objectives here in the U.S. Senate.

I think it is unfortunate that my colleague from Florida is unwilling to do that. Vulnerable families are going to be hurt as a result of the objection. I just want the Senate to know there was another way. There was another way we could have stood with the effort to deal with genocide and forced labor and protected families. They weren't mutually exclusive. We could have done both. I think it is unfortunate the Senate is not doing it.

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Mr. WYDEN. Madam President,

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