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Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

Date: March 25, 2021
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Executive Branch Finance and Banking

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I rise in opposition to the nomination of Wally Adeyemo for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury,

The U.S. Treasury Department plays a significant part in enforcing American foreign policy through economic sanctions. We know that sanctions work and that the strong application of these measures against adversaries, including Communist China, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, are essential to holding the brutal dictators and their enablers who hold power in these nations accountable.

Communist China is the biggest threat our Nation faces. Communist China is committing a genocide against the Uyghurs, stripping Hong Kongers of their basic rights, and continues to threaten to take Taiwan by force. I am concerned that Mr. Adeyemo does not understand the risk Communist China poses to our national and economic security and to our allies. Communist China is not a strategic competitor; they are an adversary and must be treated as such. Any U.S. official who thinks that Communist China can play a positive role in the world is mistaken.

I am also concerned that Mr. Adeyemo will not be strong when standing up to Castro's Communist regime in Cuba. I cannot support anyone who will back a return to the failed Obama-Biden appeasement policies, which did nothing to help the Cuban people and allowed Havana to extend its reach and expand its control, giving power to other ruthless dictatorships in Latin America.

Currently, our Nation is on track to reach $30 trillion in debt. We have to get serious about Federal spending and the impacts it will have on our children and grandchildren. President Biden's massive spending policies are already causing the cost of living in America to rise. I cannot support candidates who think the solution to America's economic woes is more government, more taxes and more regulation, not more individual opportunity. That is wrong and will only send us further into debt and our families further into despair. We need to focus on growing the economy and growing jobs in order to preserve the American dream.

For all these reasons, I oppose Mr. Adeyemo's nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same.

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