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NATO
Mr. RISCH. Mr. President, I rise today, colleagues, to urge the Senate to proceed quickly--quickly--to the consideration of the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Once again the Senate has been given the responsibility of offering advice and consent to ratifying the accession of two new members to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. We have been advising aggressively for quite some time, and it is time now to move to the consent portion of getting this done. NATO is the most successful political-military alliance in history. It helped bring down the Soviet Union, and it united Europe so it could rebuild economically.
The Senate has the opportunity to expand NATO and bring both Finland and Sweden into the alliance. Over the years, these countries never sought membership. They were content to just partner with NATO, but they did not join. However, Putin's attempt to rewrite the security landscape in Europe with his invasion of Ukraine convinced the people of Finland and Sweden that they should become formal members of NATO. Why wouldn't they?
After the past 2 weeks--and really the entire summer--the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has carefully considered and discussed the prospective membership of our longtime partners, Finland and Sweden.
The Senate has already shown bipartisan support for Finland and Sweden joining NATO. As my colleagues and I have laid out in a resolution of support in public statements at Senate Foreign Relations Committee meetings and hearings in June and in the committee report submitted to the floor along with the protocols, Finland and Sweden will make model members of the NATO alliance.
Once approved by all 30 current members of NATO, these two nations will become integral members of the alliance. Both have strong and capable militaries and are already net contributors to the security alliance. Although militarily unaligned for decades, Finland and Sweden have long defended Europe's high north--a region becoming even more important with the competition from Russia and China in the Arctic.
Both have already demonstrated the interoperability and commitment necessary to join the alliance. Finland already spends more than 2 percent of its GDP on defense, and Sweden laid out its plan to reach that mark shortly--both requirements for joining NATO.
These countries also bring additional capabilities to NATO. Both are intimately familiar with the north and east flank of Europe. Finland also trains U.S. forces in cold weather operations and the Finnish Navy is especially suited to operate and defend the Baltic Sea, where some Navy ships have less maneuverability, being a blue-water Navy.
They have both participated in NATO missions in Afghanistan, the Balkans, and Iraq. In fact, these countries operated with less restrictions on their militaries in these missions than other NATO members. Finland and Sweden also share our democratic values, have strong military and defense industries, and extensive experience in Russian matters.
One only has to take a look at a map to see the benefits of adding Finland and Sweden to NATO. With their proximity to the Baltic States--
the Baltic States, which are small--they are well-positioned to provide support, if needed, to our current Baltic NATO allies, just as the rest of NATO would if the Baltic States have a problem with Russia.
Adding these two nations as full members to our alliance will further deter any temptation by Russia to engage in military adventurism in the Baltic area or the Arctic regions. Although my sense is Russia has already learned this year of the ineptitude, clumsiness, and just plain inabilities of its way-overrated military, which can't even win against a small, substantially less-equipped adversary, even when Russia used barbaric medieval tactics. Russia's efforts have been pitiful and, at the same time, despicable.
Many Senators have already given firm statements of support for this succession, and we deserve the timely chance to make our support known through a vote. Let's get on with it.
There are few things more important than voting on accession for Finland and Sweden to NATO. This accession process is an important chance for the United States to demonstrate leadership in NATO and commitment to its modernization and, very importantly, NATO's future.
When the shooting is over in Ukraine, it won't be over. There is no doubt that NATO is going to take a long, hard look at what it is doing, what its priorities are, and, very importantly, hardening the eastern and northern flanks.
Since this wave of NATO enlargement was first announced, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has carefully consulted and coordinated with our NATO allies, the governments of Sweden and Finland, with the administration, and within the Senate itself to ensure this process can move as efficiently and quickly as possible. I can't count the number of meetings and conversations we have had in this regard.
We now have only one step left until ratification, and it makes no sense to dillydally at this stage. There should be no issue with moving this treaty as quickly as possible. The Senate's quick ratification of Finland and Sweden as new members of NATO will both send a strong message of transatlantic unity to a now foundering Russia and will strengthen NATO against Russia's growing threat.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
CHIPS Act of 2022
Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I rise today to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill approved by the Senate yesterday and, I am told, just approved literally in the last several minutes by the House of Representatives, a bill that I am proud to be able to support, along with many of my colleagues.
This bipartisan legislation will invest in our Nation's semiconductor industry, strengthen America's manufacturing competitive edge over foreign competitors, and reduce supply chain burdens that exist with respect to our country and our people. Yesterday's vote marked an important step in providing America the authority to set the rules of the road for a 21st-century economy.
I was pleased to join so many of our colleagues in support of this bill so that States like Delaware and like Nevada can continue to punch above our weight in the global economy for years to come.
We probably all heard the saying before: ``Today, they don't make cars like they used to.'' Well, some of my colleagues know and many folks in Delaware know I can attest to that personally. For two decades, I drove a 2001 Chrysler Town and Country minivan, a silver one, affectionately called by many the Silver Bullet. It had 600,000 miles on it.
When I went to the DMV and took with me the young man who wanted to buy it, they asked me how much I was going to sell it for.
I said: $1.
The lady there at the desk at the DMV said: Well, what you have to do, you have to turn it over and sign on the back of title ``$1.''
So I wrote ``$1,'' and I signed the document, as did the purchaser.
Then the lady at the DMV said: There is a transfer fee you have to pay for the vehicle.
I said: What is it?
She said: 3 percent.
I said: 3 percent of $1?
She said: Yes.
I pulled a nickel out of my pocket and gave it to her and said: Keep the change.
But my old minivan is more popular and famous in my little State in a lot of places than I was.
But anyway, that vehicle had seen every corner of the First State, with some 600,000 miles to her name. She carried ``Carpertown'' staffers, constituents, family members, and even a future President--
even a future President.
When it came time to retire her early last summer, through anguish and heartache, I opted for a slight upgrade: a red Tesla Y that maybe someday will have 600,000 miles on it. We will see.
Let me tell you, though, they don't make cars like they used to. They make them a lot better, a whole lot better and a whole lot cleaner as well.
On top of being fully electric--and let me just say that 2, 3, 4 years ago, our selection of electric vehicles, low-emission, no-
emission vehicles, was limited, very limited, and folks from Tesla were largely outside of the gate.
First, the people from GM had come up with a very good hybrid vehicle for a number of years, but it took a long time for us to actually get into the business--both domestic manufacturers and foreign manufacturers--of building and selling fully electric vehicles.
But on top of being fully electric, right when you step into these new cars, including the one I own, you see a world of technology in front of us--a state-of-the-art touchscreen GPS system, backup cameras, digital heating and air-conditioning controls. It is a far cry from my own minivan that drove so many miles.
The odometer actually died on me at 500,000 miles. I don't know exactly how many miles it did have, but it had a lot. But at 500,000 miles, we went to Dover Downs, the Miracle Mile, the Monster Mile, where they do auto racing and NASCAR racing. They let me drive my minivan around the track as fast as it would go. Holding the starter flag out the window, I thought it was going to rip my arm off, but it didn't. But it didn't.
One ride in a car like my new one, and it is clear, automotive technology and the American economy have drastically advanced in the last 20 years. That is thanks, in part, to the advances of semiconductor technology or, as we sometimes say, chips.
Now, folks at home might have read about chips or may have heard about some connection with semiconductors and our supply chain woes on the nightly news, but they still wonder what that has to do with their everyday lives. So here it is, a little bit of chips 101, a little bit of chips 101 before I get in my new vehicle and head for the Delaware State Fair as fast as I can go--legally, legally.
Chips 101: a semiconductor, oftentimes referred to as a chip, is commonly used material in tech manufacturing made of elements like silicon that are valued for their ability to manage the flow of electricity.
In our technology, a chip as small as a puzzle piece or even smaller than a fingernail is vital to creating the phones that we carry in our pockets or in our purses, the washing machine in our basements, the television in our family rooms, and, yes, all that technology in our new vehicles.
But more than that, the semiconductors have a vital role to play in some of the medical equipment that monitors our health and in the weapons systems that protect our country.
But after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic and economic shock, unpredictable shutdowns, along with labor shortages and logistic failures, have led to severe supply chain constraints. These supply chain issues have caused the same inflation that Americans have seen play out in empty shelves at your local grocery stores or in new technology that they have saved up for years to buy but are having a hard time finding on the market as of late.
Just last month, Senator John Cornyn and I chaired a Finance Trade Subcommittee hearing, and it was a hearing on supply chain resiliency. We did it in order to take a look at what is causing supply chain backlogs and hurting American consumers.
We heard that day from the experts about the need for greater investments in semiconductor manufacturing here at home and about the vulnerabilities we face when companies thousands and thousands of miles away--maybe on the other side of the world--can determine the economic success of entire American industries. Because our manufacturing sector relies on this technology, we are beholden to the companies that produce semiconductors and we are hamstrung--hamstrung--by the delays that slow these companies down.
That is increasingly a problem when America's share of global chips production drops from 37 percent--37 percent--in 1990 to just 12 percent today or when more than 75 percent of chips are manufactured in Asia on the other side of the world. This reliance on foreign manufacturers makes our economic and our national security vulnerable to geopolitical shocks from halfway around the planet.
And that is a problem for companies in my State of Delaware and your State of Nevada, Madam President. But one of the companies that I would mention from our State is Hologic, and they are located in Newark, DE, near the University of Delaware, the northern part of our State. They rely on a reliable stream of chips to produce mammography machines. For Hologic, a shortage of chips means not just slower production of new mammography machines but a struggle to replace and repair old machines that women across our country rely on for vital preventive care to detect breast cancer.
After more than 2 years of this pandemic and cancer screenings all too often delayed for months, that means more clinics and doctors' offices with outdated equipment will offer limited screenings, and that means more women in States like mine and like yours across America will have to put screenings that could save their lives on the back burner.
That is just one very serious, real-world example of why these investments are critical to families and they are critical to businesses up and down the ``First State'' and across the United States. So, Madam President, we can and we should take action to address some of the weaknesses in our economy and to compete with countries like China in the process.
That is why I am proud to support the CHIPS and Science Act. It is a much needed investment for the manufacturing of semiconductors and the development of other critical technologies in our country, and it will provide tax incentives to make our tech sector the envy of the world once again.
By investing in American-made chips, we can reduce costs of technology for Americans, improve supply chain reliability, and we can create new opportunities and jobs for a lot of American workers.
And by investing in the National Science Foundation and the American innovation hubs, we have an opportunity to jump-start American innovation and growth once again.
This legislation will make life a bit easier for businesses and consumers across America, from car dealerships in Delaware, on the east coast, and in your State of Nevada, out there in the middle of the great West--from car dealerships in Delaware that don't have enough inventory to meet customer demands to manufacturers struggling to access critical parts and inputs.
As Secretary of Commerce Raimondo and the Defense Secretary have made clear over the last couple of weeks, including in a briefing that they held with us, this bill will bolster both our economic and our national security--but not only that. To not act, to not invest in American jobs and manufacturing, as Secretary Raimondo described it, would cause--her words--``irreparable harm to the United States economy and the United States military operations''--because when America isn't in the driver's seat, someone else is taking the wheel, and Americans may well fall behind as a result.
So we have not just an opportunity, I think we have an obligation to American consumers and to our Nation's workforce to invest right here at home. The action we are taking should be the beginning rather than the end of our efforts to strengthen, once again, American economic competitiveness.
There were many bipartisan ideas on the table through the debate over this legislation, some ideas that didn't make it into the final bill. Many of them are worthy of our future consideration. And as the chairman of the Finance Subcommittee on International Trade that I lead with Senator Cornyn, I will continue advocating for greater economic engagement with our allies across the globe and especially--
especially--in the Asia-Pacific.
There is more we can do. I will say that again. There is more we can do--and must do--to strengthen supply chain resiliency, combat unfair trade practices, and support the American worker and innovation.
I was proud to vote in favor of the CHIPS and Science Act because, first and foremost, I serve the people of the ``First State.'' And yesterday's vote will mean investments that create jobs for Delaware workers and States around us. We have a lot of people in other States who work in Delaware even though they live in Pennsylvania or New Jersey or in Maryland.
Yesterday's vote will mean support for the technology that keeps our loved ones healthy and safe, and it will also mean more affordable goods, delivered faster, to families in the ``First State'' and every other State.
I want to commend the House of Representatives for the action that they took today in passing this legislation. And when I leave here today, I am going to go out and get in that red sports car that I drive these days. And it has incredible music, just incredible music, as you probably know. Most cars have that these days. And I think that, first, I am going to head for the Delaware State Fair, which I love. The first time I ran for office, that was sort of like where I announced it a million years ago.
I will probably pick out some music to listen to, and the first song, I think, is a Willie Nelson song. It is a Willie Nelson song: ``On the Road Again.'' And I am going to get on the road again and head for the
``First State,'' for the Delaware State Fair, and look forward to meeting a lot of people.
I wish you a great weekend. To my colleague Dan Sullivan from Alaska, the marine colonel who is about to take the floor, have at it. Danny, it is all yours.
I yield the floor.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Madam President, I want to compliment my colleague from Delaware, whom I enjoy working with very much on the EPW Committee.
Normally at this time, the end of the week, I talk about the Alaskan of the Week. So stay tuned for next week when we continue that series. It has been going on for 6 years.
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 126
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
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