WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivered floor remarks regarding the ongoing protests in Cuba.

 

To watch Senator Blackburn’s speech, click below or here.

 

 

You can read the transcript below or in the Congressional Record.

 

Mr. President, now, one of the most important duties

we take on as Members of this Chamber is the confirmation of the

President's Cabinet and other top executive branch issues.

Mr. MERKLEY. Would my colleague yield for a question?

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Not until I finish my remarks, but I thank the

gentleman.

A Senate confirmation hearing is probably the world's worst job

interview, but there is a good reason for that. The various candidates

who come before our committees are asking to take on some of the most

important challenges that we face as a country. And so when the

President sends us these nominees for consideration, it is our job to

vet their resumes, to vet their records. To go through the motions is

not enough. We need to meet with them and review their history.

So imagine our shock when the Biden administration began to send us

candidates that made it clear the President expects the Senate to act

as a rubberstamp for some of the most controversial and unqualified

nominees in recent memory.

His choice for Health and Human Services, Secretary Xavier Becerra,

had no meaningful experience in healthcare before his very first day

serving as the country's chief healthcare officer. He did, however,

have quite a long history of weaponizing the full force of government

against people whose views differ from his own.

Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's choice to lead the Department of Homeland

Security, boasted a proven record of corruption from his time serving

in the Obama administration. An investigation by the inspector general

for the Department of Homeland Security revealed that Mayorkas abused

his position as the Director of USCIS to help politically powerful

friends violate immigration laws.

Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta's record as a radical,

liberal activist was so diametrically opposed to the beliefs of most

Americans that she tried to ``evolve'' her positions on drug crime and

defunding the police just to avoid scrutiny during her confirmation

hearing. Of course, by ``evolve,'' I mean she outright lied about her

position. And there have been many, many, who have stood on this floor

and have challenged her nomination.

Another, David Chipman--this is Biden's pick to lead the Bureau of

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is so anti-Second

Amendment, he has endorsed policies that would effectively ban all

sporting rifles in the United States. He has no respect for the

constitutional right to bear arms, no respect for the nearly 20 million

Americans who hold a concealed carry permit, or the 15.5 million

Americans who hold hunting licenses. President Biden chose the anti-gun

lobby over the American people when he nominated Chipman for this post.

President Biden's parade of genuinely unacceptable nominees continued

this week. Today, the majority leader has decided to move forward with

the nomination of Donald Remy to be Deputy Secretary of Veterans

Affairs. If that name sounds familiar to you, it is because you have

heard about Mr. Remy's work in other controversial context. He served

as the NCAA's COO and chief legal officer and was the architect of that

organization's restrictive policy against name, image, and likeness

compensation.

Between September 2018 and August 2019, the NCAA spent more than $26

million defending an NIL business model that the Supreme Court recently

described as ``patently and inexplicably stricter than . . .

necessary.'' It was a 9-to-0 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The $26 million, where does the NCAA get that money? From colleges,

from universities, from student athletes. That is where the money came

from, and it was used to defend this lawsuit.

But let's not focus on this one policy governing the NIL

compensation. We need to keep in mind that Mr. Remy was comfortable

using his training as a lawyer and his considerable power as a top NCAA

official to maintain the culture of exploitation that defines modern

college athletics. I am not sure what led President Biden to believe

that Mr. Remy could help lead an agency notorious for its own brand of

careless exploitation, but whatever the reason, we have a duty to get

in his way.

For our veterans, decisions can be life or death. I have objected to

his nomination since I came through the committee. And, quite frankly,

I think it is a shame that President Biden refused to nominate someone

who could demonstrate an ability to earn back the trust so many

veterans have lost in the VA system.

Our veterans who have served this Nation honorably deserve better

choices. They deserve at least that much from their Commander in Chief.

This nomination is just one more unserious shot in the dark from an

administration that is yet to focus its energy on any one of the long

list of problems they say they came to Washington to solve.

A quick scan of the morning newsletters on any given day show a

complete lack of direction on the part of the White House and the

Senate majority. Will we be working on infrastructure in the next few

weeks or are we just going to be handling nominations? Are the most

radical elements of the American Families Plan on the table or are we

going to pivot to election law? Well, we won't have to flip a coin on

that last one.

We know that over the next few weeks, we will waste time and energy

resurrecting the Democrats' failed election takeover bill. As most

everyone has seen, this week, Washington is playing host to a

delegation of Texas Democrats' intent on holding election integrity

legislation hostage in their very own State. They have come all the way

to Capitol Hill to try and convince their Federal counterparts to go

nuclear on behalf of a bill that has failed in various forms so many

times that the objections write themselves. This political stunt is

part of a larger movement within the radical American left to destroy

the concept of one person, one vote and replace it with an

unconstitutional, centralized election system that invites fraud and

encourages donor intimidation. This foolish attack on ballot integrity

has seized hold in Texas, Georgia, and other States attempting to

protect the vote for all eligible voters.

Ballot integrity is a foundational concept in our Republic. It should

be easy to vote. It should be hard to cheat. State and local officials

should feel empowered to grow and tailor elections in a way that meets

the needs of the community, not the demands of power-seeking

politicians.

I think I speak for all of my Republican colleagues when I say that

we will not legitimize this hysteria that has gripped the Democratic

Party. Instead, we will defend the constitutional prerogative of one

person, one vote through however many objections it takes to relegate

this scheme that the Democrats have been trying for 20 years to

relegate this to the dustbin of history

I yield the floor.