Forgive them when they permit impatience to lead them astray, making them miss the wonder of and majesty of your purpose for our nation and world. Lord, renew in our senators the joy of belonging to you as they lovingly yield to your guidance. Direct their steps so that no duty will be left undone and no constructive words will be left unsaid. We pray in your great name. The presiding officer please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington d. C. , july 28, 2022. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jacky rosen, a senator from the state of nevada, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed patrick j. Leahy, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. Morning business is closed. Under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. The clerk nomination, department of state, constance j. Milstein of new york to be ambassador of the United States of america to the republic of malta. The cloture vote that just occurred shortly before the senator from rhode island sought unanimous consent agreement. As you know cloture was denied on that bill, and as you also know very well that doesnt mean the bill is defeated. Opportunity to amend it isnt eliminated. There havent been any amendments. Thats unfortunate but i want to just stress my concern about this bill has nothing to do with the purpose of the bill. Its not about the 280 billion, approximate 280 billion of new spending that is meant to be required under this bill for the v. A. To cover medicare and healthcare i should say, and of the benefits for veterans who are exposed to toxic burn pits. What i want to change has absolute nothing to do with any of that. I see the chairman of the committee of jurisdiction, i think he understands i have no interest in modifying the purpose of this bill. All the work that he and many others have done. By the way, i suspect theres 85 votes for this bill, for the underlying bill, if we fix this problem. And heres the problem. Completely unrelated to the 280 billion of new spending there is a mechanism created in this bill. Its a budgetary gimmick that has the intent of making it possible to have a huge explosion in unrelated spending, 400 billion. This budgetary gimmick is so unrelated to the actual veterans issue that has to do with burn pits that is not even the house version of this bill. The fact is we can fix this tonight. This is relatively easy fix. That might be a few technical things we would iron out and we could get this done tonight. I know the chairman of the committee very much wants to get this bill done. This is a path to do it. And if we fix this, which as i said i would recommend we fix it tonight, we could do that a unanimous consent request. We could do it any number of ways. But once thats done this bill sales through this chamber and goes to the president and gets signed into law. So i just want to urge my democratic colleagues to join him in working this out. This is not what this bill was about. We can fix it. We can do it immediately. I yield the floor. Mr. President . Senator from montana. Thank you for the recognition, mr. President. The good senator from pennsylvania is correct. I want to see this bill passed and want to see this bill passed for all the reasons i talk about many times in committee and on this floor. This is about living up to the promises for our veterans. This is about making sure that the veterans come back when you come back from exposures to burn pits or oil well fires or agent orange, that it ought to go to the v. A. And fight for their healthcare and their benefits. It impacts 3. 5 million veterans in this country. By the way, there will be a few more dying before we get this bill passed. And i would also say that as the senator from pennsylvania says i am all for the 278. 4 billion over ten years on this bill. I got no problem with that. The fact is he does have a problem with it. The fact is by doing what happened today on this floor the real issue here, and make no mistake about it, is the money that is being spent to take care of her veterans. Ive said it before and ill say it again. If you have the guts to send somebody to war, then you better have the guts to take care of them when they get back home. Or dont send them in the first place. Now lets talk about the 400 billion, okay . Because quite frankly what this is about, this is about not even trusting the people in this body. We have an Appropriations Committee and would vote on appropriation bills, and we set the levels in the accounts based off of appropriations. Let the process work. Lets not tie the hands of appropriations, appropriators. Lets make sure we let the process work. Thats what weve always done. But the good senator from pennsylvanias amendment ties the hands of the appropriators. Make no mistake about this, the American People are sick and tired of the game to go on in this body. They are sick and tired of us working for democrat working for republicans and networking for the American People. But this is bigger than that. We have an all volunteer military in this country. If you dont think young people are watching what we are doing today, that are thinking about signing up for the military, you are sadly mistaken. And if we dont take of our veterans when they come home they are going to say why should i ever sign on the dotted line . Because the promises that i made and the promises the country made only half that deal is being respected, my half. This this is a sad day in thd states senate. This is the Biggest Issue facing our veterans today. Make no mistake about it. If it wasnt come every veteran Service Organization wouldnt be out there talking to us, and theyve been talking to me for the last 15 years. So we can make up all sorts of excuses about how this is going to move money around, but let me tell you something, we are the ones that decide that. If we want to move money around we will pick if we dont we wont. In the meantime lets pass this bill. Lets give veterans the healthcare they have earned. If it isnt, its political malpractice. What were doing today with his policy by putting this policy off does nobody any good whatsoever. I yield the floor. Mr. President . Senator from pennsylvania. I would just briefly and simply reiterate my request that our democratic colleagues including the chairman who obviously is passionate about this, just engage with us to fix this problem that has nothing to do with the bill that he wants to pass. This problem that wasnt in the house version of this bill, the chairman arguments that well, its always ultimate subject to appropriations, thats really an argument, lets not have a budget at all. Its a true a future congress can always do whatever it wants. So by that logic we should have no rules, no guidelines and no budget, no procedures, no pay go, no effort whatsoever to have any management of our federal budget. Because what the hell, any congress can come along and just waited. I dont agree with that. I think a special at a time when inflation is running rampant, when we have been spending money like no one has ever imagined, if weve got an important need okay we do that. But this gimmick and the chairman said people are sick and tired of games, i totally agree. This is one of those games where youve got a bill thats going to pass and so lets sneak in this change in the budget rule so it will be easy to spend money on other things in the future. Thats ridiculous. Thats just not defensible. Again, i would stress theres a very easy path to a very big vote in favor of this bill. It could probably happen later tonight. Could certainly happen tomorrow. And if the path is, lets fix this problem. I yield the floor. Mr. President . Senator from montana. Thank you for the recognition, mr. President. Im going to reiterate what i said before. Data confirmed whar majority of americans already knew. Democrats have plunged america into a recession. According to official statistics, the u. S. Economy just shrank for the second consecutive quarter, democrats inherited an economy that was primed for an historic comeback, and promptly ran it straight into the ground. Of course, working families didnt need any experts or statistics to tell them todays Democratic Party is a walking, talking economic disaster. Democrats failures are causing working families deep personal pain on a daily basis. The americans know democrats cant be trusted. They know every time they fill their gas tank, every time they check out at the supermarket, every time parents stay up late at the Kitchen Table trying to figure out which bills they can afford to pay this particular month, because democrats spent us into inflation 90 million American Households say theyre having a hard time meeting expenses. 90 million American Households. The average household in this country is having to pay an extra 5,300 and climbing every year just to tread water. Democrats ibflation is inflation is stealing more than 5,000 from the average family per year. Like a super majority of americans already knew before this morning, it has now driven the country into a recession. A few years back, our colleague, the senior senator from West Virginia said, quote, i dont think that during a time of recession you mess with any of the taxes or increase any taxes. But alas yesterday, washington democrats announced they plan to do exactly that. The democrats who robbed American Families once with inflation now want to rob the country a second time through a gigantic, gigantic jobkilling tax hike. Apparently, our democrat colleagues do not want to be responsible for just skyrocketing prices alone. They want americans to be faced with skyrocketing prices and higher taxes, and fewer jobs, all at the same time. Democrats have outlined a giant package of huge new jobkilling tax hikes. Green new deal craziness that will kill American Energy and Prescription Drug socialism that will leave us with fewer lifesaving medicines. A reckless taxingandspending spree that will delight the far left and hammer working families even harder. Democrats are going all in on a multihundred billiondollar tax hike on american jobs that experts called the single listen to this the single most economically damaging part of their entire bbb plan from last year. Years of Research Show the burden would be overwhelmingly passed down to workers. This one tax hike alone would kill tens of thousands of american jobs. Democrats arent sticking it to the fat cats. Theyre sticking it to the same middle class families theyve already crushed with inflation. So democrats want to respond to their inflation crisis by killing jobs. They also want to respond to a Global Energy crisis by attacking American Natural Gas. This reckless taxingandspending spree includes a massive, massive new tax on American Natural Gas, our countrys single largest source of electricity. We all know when you tax something, you get less of it. And democrats want new taxes on American Natural Gas wells, new taxes on american pipelines and new gasses on american lng exporting. Higher electricity bills in the summer, higher heating bills in the winter, less Reliable Energy for our countries, and less exported to allies abroad. Doubling down, literally doubling down on inflation. Im only scratching the surface of all the ways democrats want to pick americans pockets. They want to pour new funding listen to this into irs agents so americans end up with more audits. Irs agents get new computers and smort phones so that american Small Businesses get more audits. Also democrats want to drain money out of medical innovation and leave terminally ill americans with fewer real treatments and cures as a result. The experts say this biggovernment money grab will literally cost americans their lives. But remember, democrats say all these historic tax hikes are their answer to the inflation they already created themselves. Do you hear that, america . Democrats answer to hurting you once is to hurt you again. Democrats say the response to democratic inflation is democratic tax hikes. It wasnt enough that democrats have already destroyed your familys purchasing power. Now they want to kill your job and tax your electricity as well. So the natural next question is, what do democrats want to do with all that money . What spending spree that democrats want so badly that theyll raise taxes in the midst of a recession . Ah, heres the answer Green New Deal nonsense and goodies for rich coastal elites. They want these jobkilling tax hikes so they can spend tens of billions of dollars on splush funds for slush funds for green banks and Environmental Justice. They want jobkilling tax hikes so they can finance new handouts for wealthy households earning up to 300,000 a year to buy an 80,000 electric car. Let me say that again. Tax hikes so they can finance new handouts for wealthy households earning up to 300,000 a year to buy an 80,000 electric car. They want to subsidize rich people buying electric cars that cost more, more than the median American Household earns in an entire year. They want to tax American Natural Gas. They want to tax your electricity so they can spend billions making solar and wind power look artificially ready for prime time when they are not yet. Billions of dollars so democrats can meddle in what kind of car you drive, what kind of stove, hot water heater or Clothes Dryer you can afford, and how youre allowed to heat your house. This, this is the nonsense that democrats are focused on. Not happening you put gas in your car. Not helping you afford your groceries. They want to use the middleclass economic crisis they themselves created as an excuse to raise your taxes and ram through their Green New Deal nonsense. All of this liberal waste, with no proof, none, that any of it would lead to a meaningful reduction in global emissions, much less global temperatures. America has already been reducing our emissions considerably over the last 15 to 20 years. Countries like china have just kept on emitting more and more, totally washing out our reductions, and then some. Democrats want to forbly re forcibly reengineer our entire economy out from under working americans feet while china keeps on emitting more and more. Democrats are seeing American Families, the worst inflation in 40 years, and raising them jobkilling tax hikes and, and a war on american electricity. Our colleagues across the aisle have already completely lost americas trust on the economy before this reckless taxingandspending spree. Apparently, they now want to see how much farther they can fall. Now, on a completely different matter, yesterday, the senate should have been able to clear Bipartisan Legislation expanding v. A. Benefits for millions of men and women who suffered and served bravely in our armed forces. I appreciate the work our colleagues on veteran affairs have done on the pawct pact act, i support the substance of the bill. Even on legislation this major and costly, the democratic leader tried to block the senate from any semblance of a fair amendment process. Specifically, the senior senator from pennsylvania has an amendment that would ensure we do not just apply a financial bandaid to the problem, but actually fix the underlying accounting issue. As written, the legislation would not just help americas veterans as designed, it would also allow democrats to effectively spend the same money twice and enable hundreds of billions in new, unregulated or unrelated spending on the discretionary side of the federal budget. Theres no excuse why the democratic leader should continue to block senator toomeys commonsense amendment. A bill this important and this bipartisan deserves for us to fix the accounting gimmick, and then it deserves to become law. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call quorum call quorum call can you please tell us more about the work of the office of small and disadvantaged business utilization to help grow veteran women owned Small Businesses . Absolutely but ill tell you a truly an enterprise effort because again we have the idea of diversity equity and access. We work very closely with that organization, with the center for women veterans. Theres a number of organizations involved because again its a governance effort. And weve got them by good group on at their helping us to equity assessments to underserved communities. This is a fabulous initiative. We have rich data that were starting to gather now were in the process of turning those insights into actions. Thank you, chairman. I yield back. Thank thank you very muc. I will now recognize mr. Bergman for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Lead by example, pretty simple. Marines premix everybody in the military are pretty simple. The that example. And after leadership we know when you have a task no matter what the task is you are trying to make it better. The culture of behavior that you promote, if you will, you example for as a leader, goes a long way towards compliance. Not compliance because you have to but compliance because you want to. That truly is kind of unique. However, in any organization, especially one as broad and vast as the v. A. , you in some cases get the behavior you inspect, not the behavior you expect at times, and that is what it is. Mr. Johnson, leaders do set the tone. The culture of an organization from a small office to something as large as the v. A. Is dictated what the leaders do, what behavior they allow from their staff. How do you and your office work to correct the leadership failu