Higher a gallon than when President Biden took office. Diesel prices are even higher, nearly 2. 81 per gallon more than in january of 2021. In short, look, we need to unleash our Domestic Energy production, not ask for help from opec. Or venezuela. We need to unleash our oil and Gas Resources in states like my home state or the presiding officers home state. We can produce a lot more oil and gas in this country and we have the best environmental . Andz. Thats how you bring the price down at the pump. More supply, not higher taxes. More supply, not taxes that will drive prices up and reduce supply. We still have increased demand. Thats why we have inflation in the first place. The Biden Administrations policies are creating the inflation and now the stagflation, and this legislation will make it worse. Its going down the same path. We need to unleash our Domestic Energy production. We need to get our debt and deficit under control. We need to work on behalf of farmers, ranchers, the ag supply chain to continue to produce the highestquality, lowestcost food supply in the world. We need to unleash our energy resources. Those are the things that will increase supply, reduce inflation, get our economy going so we dont have recession or stagnation. Those are the things that benefit all american consumers, all american workers, regardless of their income level. This bill does none of those things. This bill makes the problem worse. And it should be rejected. With that, mr. President , i yield to my colleagues. Mr. Brown mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown i have four requests for committees to meet during todays session of the senate. They have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. The presiding officer duly noted. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. Mr. President , the men and women at the Company Delphi Technologies helped make General Motors the Worlds Largest automaker, yet those workers lost the retirement they earned through no fault of their own, when their company went bankrupt during the great recession. That was a time, some of us were here then when senator crapo and i were both here then when washington bailed out wall street, the people who caused the crisis, but left two Many Americans like the delphi retirees who did nothing wrong on their own. After years of efforts, its past time for the United States senate to do its job to restore full Retirement Benefits for the thousands of ohioans and tens of thousands nationally of delphi salaried retirees across the country. Ive been fighting for them and earning the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation to do the right thing since 2009. I thought we had this Problem Solved years ago when i blocked president obamas nominee to head the pggc. We hoped that would signal to the president that we were serious. Pbgc needed to do the right thing for delphi workers. Unfortunately delphi employees know what happened. He got the job anyway, they didnt get the help they needed. The next president , president obama didnt do. The next president , President Trump, promised, went to youngstown and dayton, promised he would take care of these workers. They voted for him. Ohioans thought President Trump would be different. Once again workers were left on their own. We kept working, these retirees never gave up. This year we reintroduced legislation with a congressman from ohio, a republican from ohio, to save these pensions. We named the bill in honor of susan muffly, a delphi worker who passed away. We have senator young on board in the senate along with 39 republicans that joined congressman turner from dayton. The white house supports it as well. The white house said by ensuring that those who put in a career of hard work will receive the pension benefits they earned, this legislation supports a secure retirement for affected workers. Thats what the white house said. So we have senator portman and senator young here. We have 39 House Republicans on board, a number of democrats are on board. The president of the United States is on board. Promises from president obama and President Trump, now is the time. These ohioans and workers across the midwest earned these pensions. Its past time to restore them. The senate has that opportunity today. I hope my colleagues of both parties will join senator portman and me. And i yield the floor to my friend from ohio. Mr. Portman i thank my colleague from ohio, senator brown. And i thank him for working with us on this Bipartisan Legislation that impacts thousands of retirees in our home state of ohio. In the summer of 2009, as the federal government took General Motors into bankruptcy, the Obama Administration terminated the Pension Plans covering thousands of delphi workers. While Union Employees were protected, these 20,000 salaried retirees ranging from shop floor supervisors, sales people, engineers, Office Managers were left out. They spent many years working at delphi, a major employer and economic engine in youngstown and sandusky. These people followed the rules. They earned their pensions the american way, through hard work, dedication and contribution. Instead of honoring the promises that had been made to these salaried, middleincomed employees, the administration terminated their pensions. People who worked hard their entire lives and played by the rules saw benefits cut by as much as 70 . Its just not fair, no fault of their own. And its devastated some of them, particularly those who have Health Care Issues in their later years who have been not been able to live the standard of living they assumed they would based on the pensions they had. Its about fairness and its very simple. It ensures these delphi retirees receive the Retirement Benefits they were promised. It would reinstate their pension plan and restore their benefits that were unnecessarily reduced and unfairly reduced. Some of my colleagues may characterize as a bailout but i must correct the record. The delphi pension was over 80 funded when the federal government terminated the pensions in twine and took over these assets. By the way, it would have been fully funded by the next year based on all the data we now have showing what happened with market conditions. It was 80 funded when the government stepped in and said that it was massively underfunded, and a year later it would have been fully funded. Despite this, the government again treated the pensions as though they were underfunded and slashed the benefits. Its simply about keeping our promises to these workers. There were 20,000 participants. Its not a lot of people. Well, to them, its really important and its really important to ohio, and about a quarter of those 20,000 live in our home state of ohio. Thats why im proud to stand with them, my colleague from ohio, with others here in this body and over in the house to ensure that fairness is what they get at the end of the day. This should not be controversial legislation, in my view. Im pleased to say that it has bipartisan support. We just saw 36 republicans support this on the house side. I encourage my colleagues in the senate to also support these workers to make them whole with this legislation so that we can make good on the federal governments promise to them. I yield back my time to my colleague from ohio. Mr. Brown i thank my friend senator portman. As if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of h. R. 6929 which was received from the house and is at the desk, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. The presiding officer is there objection . A senator mr. President. Reserving the right to object. The presiding officer the senator from idaho. Mr. Crapo reserving the right to object. I appreciate my colleagues commitment to this issue and to your constituents. As you know, this legislation has been before us for some time now, and there is controversy over it. This bill would retroactively reinstate pension benefits for a small subset of participants whose pensions have already been transferred to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, or pbgc. That would create a precedent other plans would follow. The pbgc exists specifically to cover pension benefits if a plan is terminated, so we should let the system work. This system does not require taxpayer dollars for a bailout or for whatever one would like to call it. Thats part of the reason for the objection. We also have an obligation to be delivered in how we spend taxpayer. Before we inject more money into the system, we should explore the implications of this bill, which brings me to my final point. The finance committee has not held a hearing, not a single hearing, let alone a markup, on this bill. The finance committee exists to examine proposals such as this and to provide all senators an opportunity to weigh in. Im willing to work with my chairman, senator wyden, on this and with senator brown and with senator portman and others senators who are interested in the issue so we can see if there is a need and a way that we can address this issue specifically without creating a precedent that would deal with the rest of the entire system that has been put together to address terminated plans. Because of the need for us to have regular order, deliberation and consideration of this legislation, i must today object. The presiding officer objection is heard. Mr. Brown mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from ohio. Mr. Brown i thank senator crapo. Senator crapo and i have worked together on a number of things. He was chair of the Banking Committee the last four years. I was his Ranking Member and worked with him and greg and his staff on a number of things. I take him at his word. I know that senator portman and senator crapo and i sit also on the finance committee. Im serious about this. I just had a private conversation with senator crapo. He seems serious. I know senator portman is. Weve waited too long. There are far too many people. Its not a huge number, as rob, as senator portman said. Not a huge number of people, but its awfully important to them. I know what it means to a community thats struggling like the Mahoning Valley and miami valley. Those two communities have hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these retirees. When their pension shah h rinks like this shrinks like this, it affects their buying power, standard of living and prosperity of the community. We will be back together working on it. I thank senator crapo. Im disappointed but i thank him. Mr. President , i ask that the following remarks be in the record at a different place. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Brown thank you, mr. President. I rise today on a cheerful duty, if you will, to recognize bill knell who retired this month after a long career of service not working in the senate, but sort of working around the senate. Bill was Deputy Director of the Congressional Program at the aspen institute, something not particularly known to the public. Its a nonprofit working to bring together diverse perspectives to solve challenges facing the United States and the world. Bill was the second hire when the aspen institutes Congressional Program began. Its one of the institutes longest serving employees, 35 years the a aspen. Almost every week for as long as i can remember that the senate and house were in session bill brought together democrats and republicans across the ideological spectrum for breakfast and conversation with leading policy scholars, typically on a thursday morning at 8 00, youd come and there would be 10 or 15 or 20 house and Senate Members fairly evenly divided depending on the topic plaps between the parties, and a scholar or an activist or someone that bill generally recruited came in and talked to us. It helped, it helped educate us for sure. It brought us together in ways that the public doesnt necessarily see, but helped us discuss issues with each other, and we learned, we learned in so many ways about each other and about these public issues. We learned from experts, we learned from each other. Bill helped host 636 breakfasts. We counted. Someone counted them at aspen, over his career of service. During the hustle and bustle of the workweek, these aspen breakfasts were a welcome respite where members of congress could come to listen and discuss and learn from experts, with little partisanship involved. Bill brought in these experts. We learned from them, we learned from one another. I wish everyone could sit in on those breakfasts and see the thoughtfulness of so many members of both parties in congress. It really taught me a lot about partisanship that most of my colleagues i would not say everyone, but most of my colleagues here are here for the right reasons and want to do a good job, and the thoughtfulness exhibited in those meetings was so important. Bill was diligent about bringing a balanced presentation of topics and experts. These breakfasts helped us consider other perspectives and think about things we might not have thought about otherwise. Sometimes we found Common Ground or opinion our experts share. Its how we got things down. Things done. It brings to mind one of my colleagues who is about to retire, roy blunt from missouri. He served with me in the house. I knew him actually even before that. He one time said hes a conservative republican and im decidedly not, and he said ive known Sherrod Brown for 30 years, and weve agreed exactly five times. And then he laughed and then he said but all five of those are federal law. And thats what really matters. Senator crapo and i look at the world very differently. Senator portman and i look at the world very differently, but senator portman and i put together the strongest language ever in federal law on buy america. Weve done a number of issues like that. When you may look at things different lip but you find things you can agree on, you can to town and make it happen. Back to back to bill. Hes described as one of the hardestworking people that we know. Bill was able to make his job, which was anything but this, appear effortless. His longtime colleague, former secretary congressman dan glickman recognized bill as, quote, the soul of aspen. His current boss, until his retirement last week, charlie dent, glickmans a democrat, dents a republican, called bill an antiprocrastinator, it is a title rare in a town where procrastination seems to be everyones middle name. He was kind, he made people feel comfortable, he made people heard. I have no idea what his ideology or party what, we didnt talk about that. He served and helped us understand. He seemed to have no enemies in doing his job. In retirement, bill is spending time back in his beloved montana just outside of yellowstone, one of my Favorite Places in the country where years ago i took my daughters on train to see yellowstone for a week. Hes spending time in montana with his beloved wife cindy. The aspen breakfast will continue. Bill will be missed by all of us. Blessed by his kindness, curiosity and capability. He made the place work better. He reminded us of the importance of selfgovernment, of democracy. It is up to us to uphold that legacy and keep working towards each other for a Better Future and for the people we serve. Thank you so much bill knell. We wish you the best in retirement. Thank you, mr. President. A senator mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from florida. Mr. Rubio are we in a quorum call . The presiding officer we are not. Mr. Rubio as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on health, education, labor and pensions be discharged from further consideration of s. 4394 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, further, that the bill be considered read add third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. The presiding officer is there an objection . Mrs. Murray mr. President. The presiding officer the senator from washington. Mrs. Murray thank you, mr. President. Reserving the right to object. Im concerned this bill would overrule fda experts and would do so without going through regular order. We should be setting a high bar for doing anything like this, i do appreciate my colleagues concern for growers in his state. This is an environmental issue, but skipping regular order to meddle with the longstanding process for food standards does not get to the root of the problem, so i object. The presiding officer the certainty from florida. Mr. Rubio and i regret that that is the case. I understand the argument and if i could explain a little further. The floridas identified with the Citrus Industry. People have long understood it as such. Its a big part of our state and heres the best way to describe this to people. About 60 years ago the fda created a standard for what they consider pasteruized orange juice and for it to be marked as that, no less than 5 of the weight of the juice has to be accounted for by naturally occurring sugar. This is an arbitrary number. The 10. 5 of the weight has nothing to do with the nutrition or the safety or anything to do with the quality. They had to come up with a number to define the difference between orange juice and something that is not orange juice and that that is the number they came up with. For decades the Citrus Industry