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Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, every year, I meet with local leaders and citizens in all 95 Tennessee counties, and with each visit, I am more and more encouraged by the changes I see. Low taxes, pro-business policies, and less invasive government have encouraged growth that my Democratic colleagues are not seeing back in their States. But still many areas of Tennessee are hurting, and those that aren't are feeling the negative effects of inflation and broken supply chains.

What has happened over the past few years is proof that these Tennessee families and businesses are much better at spending their own money than the Federal Government is at spending taxpayer money. They have to be because if they were as reckless with their paychecks as the Biden administration is with taxpayer funds, they would have gone bankrupt a long time ago.

When they saw what the President put together in his latest budget request, they were not surprised, but they were incredibly discouraged at the idea of another year of Federal spending that leaves our southern border vulnerable and guarantees another year of unsustainable inflation.

Joe Biden and the Democrats have made it their mission to tax and spend this country into oblivion, but adding insult to injury is their commitment to ignoring the actual problems the American people are facing on a local level: inflation, drugs, crime, and continued supply chain problems.

During my recent visit with officials in Cannon County, they had a lot to say about how this failure to govern has affected their ability to follow through on even the most basic public works projects.

Like many distressed counties around the country, Cannon County received emergency funding during the pandemic. They put it toward short-term projects that, for this community, were really a once-in-a- lifetime opportunity to grow.

But here is the problem: Over the past 2 years, my Democratic colleagues have spent so much money and driven inflation so high that any progress Cannon County leaders could have made with those projects has been completely washed out by the overall effects of inflation.

For Joe Biden and the Democrats, this is something that is easily brushed aside, but for the people of Cannon County, it means that something as essential as a water project is stalled indefinitely.

The topography of Cannon County makes it pretty hard to bring water in, but with this particular project, they would have been able to install a water line from neighboring Warren County and alleviate the pressure on their water supply. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it would have provided relief.

But, now, inflation and supply chain breakdowns have turned this project into a nightmare. Local leaders are questioning the construction estimates because they change or expire before their contractors can get their hands on the right materials. This means that by the time those materials come in, the county may not be able to pay for the work, and on and on it goes. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

The White House can spin this all they want, but this is not how business normally works. Joe Biden and the Democrats have embraced dysfunction at every turn and Tennesseans--they are the ones who are suffering.

Our wide-open southern border has come up in every single county meeting I have taken since Joe Biden took his oath of office, and, over the past few years, we have watched the situation become increasingly dire.

Every town is a border town, and every State is a border State, including Tennessee.

When I was in McMinnville, earlier this year, local leaders described to me in great detail how the Biden administration's refusal to secure the border has pushed local police to the breaking point. For a town that small, the people of McMinnville should not be suffering from so much crime. But the flow of drugs is out of control, and the law enforcement officials I spoke with can trace it from their neighborhoods to the closest cartel distribution hub in Atlanta and then down to the southern border.

They find fentanyl in just about every drug that they seize--deadly fentanyl. Overdoses caused by marijuana laced with fentanyl are common now, something that just a few years ago would have been rare if not unthinkable.

The rampant availability of drugs has caused a crisis among teens and young people, who are now using at such a rate that law enforcement has nowhere to house juvenile offenders. Fentanyl, the leading killer of Americans age 18 to 45. Fentanyl, the fastest growing killer of children under 18 fentanyl. Fentanyl that is flooding across our southern border--14,000 pounds apprehended last year by Border Patrol. That is enough to kill 3.3 billion people--3.3 billion people.

This is why every town is a border State. It is why every single local law enforcement official is saying: We need help. Secure that southern border.

When I have talked to them about what they need to get a grip on the fentanyl issue, they have told me the same thing that local officials are telling other Members of this body: Secure the border and make the resources available so that we can get a grip on this. They need to hire more law enforcement officers. They need to give them better pay and training, and they need to expand antidrug programming for younger children. As sad as that is, they are the ones who are being introduced to and affected by these drugs.

You could visit any county in the United States and probably hear very similar stories from local officials who have worked hard, kept their own spending in check, and who have done their best to plan for the future of their communities. They love their communities. They are worried about crime. They are worried about drugs. They want more choice and options for education. They want security in their local streets.

Officials in the White House and here on Capitol Hill know what their policies have done to these local leaders and to the American people. They also know that the President's budget request doesn't reflect what they need or even what they want.

They are asking for relief. They are not asking for new programs. They are not asking for pie in the sky. They are not wanting to see more bailouts. They don't need more mandates.

What they need is relief--relief that will address inflation, relief that will address supply chains, relief that will address the drugs and the crime that is flowing across that southern border.

These are issues they look at as root causes of rampant, out-of- control crime and out-of-control spending that has stalled growth in many communities.

They won't be able to do that until Joe Biden and the Democrats realign their priorities with those of the American people.

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