Chris Van Hollen
Senator for Maryland · Democratic · United States
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 115 (Wednesday, July 15, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 15, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4105] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRIBUTE TO COLONEL YOLANDA D. GORE Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr.”
“Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 115 (Wednesday, July 15, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 15, 2026)] [Senate] [Page S4105] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] TRIBUTE TO COLONEL YOLANDA D. GORE Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr.”
“She brought modernization to Fort Meade and the surrounding community by implementing a barracks renovation project, helping break ground on a child development center, and reforming physical security across the installation.”
“She brought modernization to Fort Meade and the surrounding community by implementing a barracks renovation project, helping break ground on a child development center, and reforming physical security across the installation.”
“She earned a bachelor's degree in family and consumer science business and later went on to earn a master of arts in leadership and management from Webster University and a master of arts in strategic studies from the Army War College.”
“She earned a bachelor's degree in family and consumer science business and later went on to earn a master of arts in leadership and management from Webster University and a master of arts in strategic studies from the Army War College.”
The complete record
Every one of 361 lines we hold for Chris Van Hollen, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 8.
“More than two decades ago [I pointed out to him] I helped establish a regional anti-gang task force to combat MS-13 and other gang violence in the Maryland-Virginia-D.C. area. We have made substantial progress in this fight, but there is more that can be done. But that is not what you and your Administration are doing. You are engaged in gross violations of the Constitution and due process rights. I then, in this letter, cite Judge Harvie Wilkinson, who wrote on behalf of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit the following. I am going to quote him, and I have this in my letter to President Trump: It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all.”
“Apparently, no one informed the President of this, or he just decided to pretend he didn't know. In this interview, he said: He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattooed. The reporter said: That was photoshopped. And Trump's response was to the reporter: Terry, they are giving you a big break of a lifetime. I picked you, but you are not being very nice. Well, my point here, again, is whatever evidence there may be, the proper form to submit it is in the courts of the United States. And at least today, judges in those cases have made clear that the declaration has not relied on such evidence. I went on in my letter to President Trump to say this: It is also dangerous for you to suggest that we cannot fight gang violence without trampling over constitutional rights.”
“Yet the federal district court judge in this case said your Administration had presented the court with ``no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any terrorist activity.'' So your Administration should put up or shut up in court. I am not vouching for the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, I am vouching for his rights. I am going to take a little departure here. I don't know if my colleagues witnessed the interview that President Trump had with an ABC reporter, Mr. Moran, yesterday, but it is all over social media because it turned out that, you know, President Trump had taken a picture of what was Abrego Garcia's fingers, and he had superimposed--or someone in the administration put an ``MS-13,'' written that on. That had been photoshopped or otherwise falsely there.”
“Instead of fixing the egregious ``administrative error'' that the Administration conceded has wrongfully deposited Mr. Abrego Garcia in a prison in El Salvador, your Administration chose to attack and punish the lawyer who told the court the truth. That is shameful. I went on to write to the President--I think this is important. It is also shameful that you and your Administration continue to try to change the subject in this case. You-- Referring to President Trump-- [[Page S2685]] continue to put out information on social media asserting that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and Vice President Vance falsely asserted that he has been convicted of crimes in the United States.”
“My conversation with Vice President Ulloa shows that your Administration's claim that El Salvador is exercising its ``sovereign'' decision to continue to hold Mr. Abrego Garcia is a farce. The Government of El Salvador is imprisoning him because your Administration is paying them to do so and they claim to be contractually obligated. Obviously, your Administration could say El Salvador was no longer contractually obligated to imprison Mr. Abrego Garcia. Then El Salvador can release him, and Attorney General Bondi can, as promised, send the plane. I went on to write to President Trump that: It is outrageous that Mr. Abrego Garcia and his family have been forced to suffer through this trauma because your Administration has, to date, refused to follow the requirements of the Constitution and the orders of the federal courts.”
“Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in a plane, and Attorney General Bondi has said the United States could send a plane to pick him up. And the U.S. government can certainly provide him with the papers necessary to return.'' I went on in my letter to President Trump to say this: My conversation with [the] Vice President. . . . clearly demonstrates that the Government of El Salvador has no independent legal basis for imprisoning Mr. Abrego Garcia; that, as they readily concede, the only reason for keeping him in prison is that they entered into an agreement with your Administration to be paid by the United States. This also reveals that your Administration could easily facilitate his release by letting El Salvador know that--given his wrongful detention--they are not contractually bound to continue imprisoning Mr. Abrego Garcia.”
“We don't have it.'' So I continued to report on this conversation in my letter to President Trump, and I said: I repeatedly pointed out that neither I nor anyone else was asking El Salvador to ``smuggle'' Mr. Abrego Garcia back into the United States. That argument is, of course, a red herring. I repeatedly pointed out that Attorney General Bondi had said, when President Bukele was in the Oval Office with you-- Referring to the President of the United States-- that the U.S. would send a plane to pick up Mr. Abrego Garcia. So, I was not asking the Government of El Salvador to ``smuggle'' him into the United States, only to release him from prison. And I pointed out to President Trump that ``Your Administration illegally took Mr.”
“And that's it.'' When I asked the Vice President why El Salvador cannot release Mr. Abrego Garcia from prison when the U.S. government conceded in court that he was wrongfully abducted--and whether he is being charged under El Salvador's law--he responded, ``What is your recommendation to El Salvador's government? We can take him to the airport and ask an airline to take him to the States? Are you saying the airline would take a person without a passport? What kind of visa should we carry?'' He went on to say--this is the Vice President of El Salvador: President Bukele said we cannot smuggle a person to the United States. Because if we send a person without a visa, tourist visa, working visa, student visa, what kind of reason can we call to get legally into the United States?'' Regarding his papers, he asked, ``Who will provide that?”
“whether El Salvador had any evidence that Mr. Abrego Garcia had committed a crime, his response was, ``how can I have it?'' He said the Government of El Salvador does not ``qualify those persons who are there, we just take them.'' I asked if El Salvador is imprisoning Mr. Abrego Garcia simply because the United States is paying to keep him and others there. His response was, ``exactly, that's it.'' He also said, ``I mean, if the person that you send is not a criminal, is not whatever, I mean it is up to you, that's what I'm saying. I don't want to express any opinion . . . I think it is up to you . . . The ball is in your court.'' And the Vice President of El Salvador ``made it clear that they did not review the file of Mr. Abrego Garcia.'' He said, ``we have a deal with the U.S. government. They send people. We host them. They pay.”
“We have not expressed, we cannot express any opinion on that case, because it is up to you.'' Again, this is what the Vice President of El Salvador told me and what I reported to President Trump in this letter. I went on in my letter to President Trump to say: All of this makes crystal clear that, even though your Administration's lawyers admitted in federal court that Mr. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully detained in Maryland and sent to prison in El Salvador and despite the Supreme Court's order to ``facilitate'' his return, your Administration has not lifted a finger to comply with the court order. As [the] Vice President. . . . indicated, ``the ball is in your court.'' When I asked-- And I am continuing to report this to the President of the United States. When I asked [the] Vice President. . . .”
“and usually we do not express any opinion on domestic affairs.'' He went on to say-- I quoted him again-- I mean, the ball is in your court. Meaning the ball is in America's court, and he used that expression multiple times during our conversation. I went on to tell President Trump that the Vice President of El Salvador: . . . made clear that ``once the case will be resolved definitely and there will be clear instruction regarding this case . . . El Salvador's government will apply [our] principles . . . of course we will act accordingly.'' He indicated that, ``at this current moment we cannot take any actions because the case is still in the United States' situation.'' He reinforced this point throughout our conversation, saying the ``bottom line is this is an issue that has to be solved in the United States.”
“Abrego Garcia's return to the United States and revealed that the Government of El Salvador is holding him solely at the request of your Administration and, specifically, because you are paying them to imprison him. While I had expected a private meeting with Vice President Ulloa, when I arrived at his office there were several cameras rolling-- I think they were probably his own private cameras. I don't know, but they were rolling to record the conversation. [So] I agreed to have our conversation on the record. And then I write: [Mr. President,] I want to report some important details of our [conversation]. Vice President . . . told me that, ``El Salvador is not able to take any action regarding the case because the case is in the U.S.”
“Abrego Garcia's constitutional and due process rights--and when you deny the due process rights of one person, you threaten them for everyone in America. The American public knows this. Recent polling shows that a majority of Americans reject your trampling over constitutional rights in this case. I went on to write this: During my visit to El Salvador, I had the opportunity to meet with [the] Vice President. . . . My conversation with him revealed the extent to which you and your Administration are violating the orders of the federal courts and the Constitution of the United States. Our discussion-- Again, referring to my discussion with the Vice President of El Salvador-- showed that your Administration is doing nothing to comply with and implement the Supreme Court order to ``facilitate'' Mr.”
“Here is what I wrote in that letter: Dear President Trump, I read with great interest your interview with Time Magazine regarding the Supreme Court's 9-0 decision ordering you and your Administration to ``facilitate'' the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who your lawyers admitted in federal court was wrongfully seized and deported to prison in El Salvador. You conceded in that interview-- This is the interview he had with Time magazine just a short while ago. You conceded in that interview that you have not asked President Bukele-- That is the President of El Salvador-- to return him. You also said, regarding this case, that you ``don't make that decision'' because your lawyers do. Your comments and the actions of your Administration clearly demonstrate your failure to comply with court orders as you continue to violate Mr.”
“[[Page S2684]] And now the Trump administration is ignoring orders from the Federal district court, the Fourth District Court of Appeals, and a 9-to- nothing order from the Supreme Court. We don't get 9-to-nothing decisions out of the Supreme Court very often. But that is what all those courts ordered the Trump administration to do with respect to facilitating the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia, to facilitate his return. This is not just trampling over his rights. And, again, I want to emphasize: If you allow the President to trample over the rights of one person, you do threaten the rights of everybody who lives in America. That is why yesterday I wrote to President Trump about this case, and I am going to read that letter to the Senate so no one can say they don't know what is going on in this matter.”
“He was denied the opportunity to make that phone call. He was then shipped to the State of Texas. From there, his feet were shackled. He was handcuffed. He was put in a plane where he couldn't see out the windows, and he didn't know where he was going, and he landed in El Salvador and was taken to one of the most notorious prisons in our hemisphere, a place reserved for the worst of the worst, for terrorists. Now here is the thing: There was a standing court order not to deport him to El Salvador because doing so could put his life in jeopardy from gangs. Indeed, the Trump administration admitted in Federal court that Abrego Garcia was wrongfully seized and shipped to this prison in El Salvador. But instead of fixing the problem they admitted to in court, what did they do? They punished the lawyer who told the truth in court.”
“As I have repeatedly said, this case is not about one man alone. It is about all of us. I am not vouching for Mr. Abrego Garcia, but I am vouching for his constitutional right to due process--because, if Donald Trump can ignore court orders and trample over the rights of one man, he threatens the rights of everyone who lives in the United States of America. Mr. Abrego Garcia had legal status in the United States. He lived in Maryland with his family. He had a work permit. He was an apprentice with the sheet metal workers, SMART Local 100, where he worked full- time to help support his family. He was driving in his car with his 5- year-old autistic son when he was pulled over by Federal agents. He was taken to some facility in Baltimore where he asked to make a phone call to let folks know what was happening.”
“I want to cover four categories: his violations of constitutional due process rights; his violation of First Amendment rights; his illegal withholding and impoundment and freezing of public funds that benefit communities all over America; and fourth, exceeding his authorities, claiming emergency powers that he doesn't have in the area of tariffs, making sham claims to justify his tariff chaos that is sabotaging our economy as we speak. I want to start with Trump's violations of the constitutional right of due process--a bedrock American principle. As we speak, President Trump is violating the due process of many, many individuals, including the rights of a man by the name of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was snatched off the streets of Maryland and illegally shipped to one of the most notorious prisons in Latin America, called CECOT.”
“The only people who don't seem to get it are some of our Republican colleagues here in the Congress who apparently live in constant fear of being on the wrong end of a tweet from Donald Trump or Elon Musk and want to look the other way in the face of this massive lawbreaking and ripping up of the Constitution. So I want to take a little inventory, just a small sampling of the actions of this lawless President.”
“He is violating the First Amendment by cracking down on students at colleges and universities for their exercise of free speech and right to assemble and also violating another vital constitutional provision: the constitutional right to due process for those who live in America. It is a staggering amount of lawbreaking in just 100 days. That is why all of us should fight back--in the courts, in this Congress, and in communities all over America. We know that the American people don't like what they are seeing, what they are experiencing. They are rising up in communities all over America to voice their disapproval with President Trump's performance. They are giving him a big fat F for the first 100 days--total, miserable, failure.”
“Over 200 lawsuits have been filed in Federal courts around the country because we are watching this President break laws on every front, on everything from his illegal freezing and impoundments of taxpayer funds for important public programs that benefit communities all over the country, to his illegal firing of patriotic Federal employees, including many veterans who provide critical public services, to letting Elon Musk loose on Federal Government programs with a chain saw--not to make government more efficient but to rig government for the already rich and powerful like Elon Musk at the expense of everybody else. President Trump has also been abusing his authority to create tariff chaos that has sent consumer confidence plummeting, badly damaging our economy.”
“He has thrown the Ukrainian people under the bus, and in Gaza, the hostages have not been released, and we are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe. Over the last 100 days, Donald Trump has embarked on a lawbreaking spree that has torn up our Constitution, torn apart our government, and torn down our economy.”
“Mr. President, yesterday marked 100 days since Donald Trump was sworn in as President. It happened right down that hallway. He promised a golden age for America. He has not delivered that golden age. In fact, in that 100 days, all he has delivered is chaos and destruction. Consumer confidence is plummeting, and today we learned that our economy is shrinking. This is all a totally self-inflicted, Trump- inflicted wound on America and American families. That is here at home. On the world stage, Candidate Trump promised to be the great peacemaker, to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza on day one, but he has nothing to show for that other than distrust from our allies and smiles from our adversaries.”
“HUSTED assumed the Chair.) The VICE PRESIDENT. On this vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 49. The Senate being evenly divided, the Vice President votes in the affirmative. The motion to table is agreed to. The motion was agreed to. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Husted). The majority leader. ____________________”
“226 Leg.] YEAS--49 Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Mullin Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NAYS--49 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Collins Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Fetterman Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murkowski Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Paul Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Wyden NOT VOTING--2 McConnell Whitehouse (Mr.”
“Res. 49) was rejected. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Justice). The majority leader. Motion to Reconsider Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote. Motion to Table And I move to table the motion to reconsider. Vote on Motion to Table The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion. Mr. THUNE. I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll. Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell). Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent. The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 49, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No.”
“225 Leg.] YEAS--49 Alsobrooks Baldwin Bennet Blumenthal Blunt Rochester Booker Cantwell Collins Coons Cortez Masto Duckworth Durbin Fetterman Gallego Gillibrand Hassan Heinrich Hickenlooper Hirono Kaine Kelly Kim King Klobuchar Lujan Markey Merkley Murkowski Murphy Murray Ossoff Padilla Paul Peters Reed Rosen Sanders Schatz Schiff Schumer Shaheen Slotkin Smith Van Hollen Warner Warnock Warren Welch Wyden NAYS--49 Banks Barrasso Blackburn Boozman Britt Budd Capito Cassidy Cornyn Cotton Cramer Crapo Cruz Curtis Daines Ernst Fischer Graham Grassley Hagerty Hawley Hoeven Husted Hyde-Smith Johnson Justice Kennedy Lankford Lee Lummis Marshall McCormick Moody Moran Moreno Mullin Ricketts Risch Rounds Schmitt Scott (FL) Scott (SC) Sheehy Sullivan Thune Tillis Tuberville Wicker Young NOT VOTING--2 McConnell Whitehouse The joint resolution (S.J.”
“Under the previous order, the clerk will read the title of the joint resolution for the third time. The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading and was read the third time. Vote on S.J. Res. 49 The PRESIDING OFFICER. The joint resolution having been read the third time, the question is, Shall the joint resolution pass? Mr. WYDEN. I ask for the yeas and nays. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to be a sufficient second. The clerk will call the roll. The bill clerk called the roll. Mr. BARRASSO. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell). Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Rhode Island (Mr. Whitehouse) is necessarily absent. The result was announced--yeas 49, nays 49, as follows: [Rollcall Vote No.”
“President, this resolution presents Republicans with a choice: Stand with Donald Trump or stand with American families hurt by the trade war. The dismal GDP numbers today should be a wake-up call to Republican Senators now more than ever. Donald Trump is doing with the economy and tariffs what he did with his own business: Drive them under. It is terrible. We hope that Republicans will join us because the devastation of the tariffs is apparent. Families are paying more. IRAs are going down. The country is on the edge of a recession because businesses are paralyzed. The only solution: Pass our legislation, have Johnson pass it in the House, and tell President Trump his tariff policies are chaotic and plain dumb. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER.”
“The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon. Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 1 minute to conclude, and Senator Schumer will ask for an additional minute as well, and we would wrap up. But I ask unanimous consent to speak for 1 minute. The PRESIDING OFFICER. That order has been granted. S.J. Res. 49 Mr. WYDEN. Thank you, Mr. President. Senators, the devastating economic news we got this morning should be enough for Senators to vote yes tonight. The only winner from the tariffs is China, which is scooping up markets and allies Donald Trump has left in the dust. Senators, vote yes. Reclaim American trade policy, and end its outsourcing to Donald Trump. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The minority leader. Mr. SCHUMER. Mr.”
“We need to take every opportunity available to rightsize regulatory requirements prohibiting our ability to revitalize American manufacturing and achieve energy dominance, while taking steps that reduce emissions through innovative technologies that I have advocated for alongside my colleagues across both aisles of this Chamber. We need to remember that our manufacturing, energy, and environmental policies do not need to be at odds with one another. A robust manufacturing sector, energy reliability, and a clean environment are not mutually exclusive. I am proud to join in this effort alongside Senator Curtis, my colleague on the Environment and Public Works Committee. This is an opportunity to return to commonsense environmental policy, and I encourage my colleagues to join us in supporting this resolution. I yield the floor.”
“Giving our private sector the ability to innovate on a sensible timeline is a different approach than the inflexible, top-down mandate that became accustom over the past 4 years. The good news is, every Member of this Chamber now has the opportunity to right this wrong and reinstate the rule in place before that, which allowed for reclassification of these sources. [[Page S2708]] The former rule, which was put into place by President Trump's first administration, encourages industries to take proactive steps to reduce emissions without increasing regulatory burdens. The results during President Trump's first term were overwhelmingly clear: Source reclassification reduces hazardous air pollution in our communities.”
“Under this rule, once you classify as a major source, you are always considered a major source even though--you would even be prohibited from ever achieving an ``area source'' status again even if your emissions output decreased below the applicable threshold. This tells American manufacturing and energy leaders that no matter what you do, you will always operate under the strictest regulatory standard available. We should instead provide incentives for industries to lower their emissions and keep alive the option of returning to an area source once emissions are reduced. Over the last 20 years, no other country has reduced its emissions like the United States, and we do not need overly restrictive regulations to continue this.”
“President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 5 minutes, followed by Senators Wyden and Schumer for up to 1 minute each. The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. S.J. Res. 31 Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I rise today in support of my friend from Utah, Senator Curtis, and his Congressional Review Act resolution to overturn the final rule of the Biden Environmental Protection Agency's review of final rule reclassification of major sources as area sources. This misguided rule would remove a major incentive for dozens of industries to reduce emissions. It would further saddle American energy producers and manufacturers with regulatory costs and burdens and, simply put, operates under a premise that is purely unfair.”
“I know that something has to change and that President Trump is the first politician in a generation to even care enough to try. The 77 million ``deplorables'' who cast their lot with Donald Trump last November were the forgotten Americans--the blue-collar patriots, the conservatives of the heart, miners, mechanics, tradesmen, and farmers; men and women who worked with their hands, grew our food, built our homes, and drilled our fuel, whose labor powered our country, whose taxes sustained our government, and whose children served and sacrificed in our wars. They stand with this President because he stood with them when no one else would. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia. Mrs. CAPITO. Mr.”
“The people in power who allowed them to do it. I blame the corporate bosses, the special interests, and, yes, the politicians who sold our country out for a seat at the table of the globalist banquet. I blame the ideologues of the status quo, the international elites, the so-called citizens of the world who see our country as a global economic zone, a giant shopping mall with an airport attached. I blame the people in cities like this one, who seem to have forgotten the men and women in towns like Boonville and New Madrid or their brothers and sisters, because ``American'' is not just a box you check on a tax form but a sacred responsibility that binds us to one another, an unbroken chain between our past and our future. I do not know what the future holds, but I do know what the past has meant.”
“At home, our factories and the towns that once sustained them lie in ruin, razed by the ruthless logic of the new global economy and cost-efficiency. The Americans who once worked there were replaced by foreign labor overseas. The Americans who once held on were now being replaced by foreign labor here at home. Their children will graduate into a workforce where nearly 1 in 10 workers doesn't even speak their own language. The twin horsemen of globalism--unprotected trade and unprotected borders--have been a catastrophe for our civilization. But, in many ways, I don't blame the illegal immigrant who wants to come here in search of work, but we do have a country of laws, and there are consequences. I don't blame the factory laborer in Vietnam who takes the job that once belonged to an American. Do you know who I blame?”
“The post-war order has given birth to a shallow morality of materialism that measures values strictly in terms of consumption. This is a poisonous new idea, utterly alien to the traditional American way of life. Our trade policy, like our foreign policy, failed to adapt to the new reality of the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The consequences were nothing short of devastating. At the dawn of the 1990s, as America looked forward to the new millennium, the architects of globalism beamed about the promise of the open society--a world without barriers or borders where all nations and cultures and economies would meld into one global economic zone. Thirty years on, what do we have to show for it?”
“But over the past three decades, we punished the companies that were loyal to America while rewarding the ones that weren't. The businesses that were eager to offshore got big bonuses at the American workers' expense. The businesses that wanted to stay here found themselves struggling to stay alive in conditions where they couldn't compete. Now, some might argue that Americans don't want to make shoes anymore, but we did a generation ago. The American workers of that age knew that there was something meaningful in creating and producing. Today, we have been taken by the idea that our social status is not what we build or create but what we can afford to buy or consume. It is going to take generations to reverse this thinking.”
“The local school district lost a $3.1 million tax payment, which forced their own layoffs and saw a 10-percent drop in enrollment as families left the area. People lost homes, the mayor of New Madrid said. People got divorced. An American town, filled with American families, left for dead by their own country. What did we do to our own people? This is not to say that Missourians don't want fair exchange, one where they can trade and grow with the rest of the world, but the ``free trade'' that transpired was not free trade at all. The double-edged tragedy of the system is that not all these companies wanted to leave. Some--perhaps many--wanted desperately to stay. These people were their neighbors, their friends, their family.”
“I will tell you one more story from the Bootheel in Missouri. For decades, the Noranda Aluminum smelter there was a lifeline employer for the folks in New Madrid, Marston, and surrounding communities. These were good, decent, hard-working, salt-of-the-Earth folks. I visited with them. The smelter was the engine for their way of life, but in 2016, Noranda filed for bankruptcy and shut down. Why? Because China's cheap, state-subsidized aluminum had flooded the market, causing global aluminum prices to plunge. In New Madrid--a town of less than 3,000 people--about 1,000 people had gone to find new jobs, usually at much lower pay. The county government went in the red. Local police and ambulance budgets were cut.”
“In 2013, Nordyne, which manufactured air and heating products, announced it would be moving production from Boonville to--guess where--Mexico, taking out another 250 jobs. ``From a moral standpoint, it was kicking somebody while they were already down,'' the head of the local chamber of commerce said as he talked to a local newspaper. This is not the distant past, folks. This is the reality that millions and millions of our fellow Americans in Missouri and across the country live this very day. Haldex, a brake manufacturer, packed up and left for Mexico in 2020, eliminating the last 154 jobs left at the facility in the suburbs of Kansas City. Layoffs began 2 weeks before Christmas. They will save millions of dollars a year paying Mexican workers a fraction of what they paid back home.”
“By 2001, every Toastmaster plant in our State was gone, shipping hundreds of jobs from rural mid-Missouri to China. The last one to go, in the town of Macon--near where I went to school--had been in operation since the 1950s. All that remained was a toxic waste cleanup site for the 5,500 people in the town it left behind. Although Toastmaster continued production in certain areas of the United States, Missouri wasn't so fortunate. [[Page S2707]] Boonville, a town where my grandmother went to high school, was another place that lost a Toastmaster factory. In 2011, the town of about 8,000 people lost its modular home manufacturing factory to the housing crisis too. In 2012, its bread factory filed for bankruptcy.”
“Five years after Zenith shut down, laid-off workers saw an average pay cut of more than 10 percent. More than half of them had held multiple jobs since being laid off, two-thirds of them with worse benefits. Even the workers who enrolled in job retraining programs fared no better than the ones who didn't. ``Those people had worked there for 20 or 25 years,'' one laid-off worker recalled. ``They were at the top end of the pay scales, and there weren't any more TV repairman jobs out there.'' Toastmaster is a household name. Well, they were headquartered in Missouri, and they made their stuff in Missouri, too, with factories in small towns all across our State; but as we welcomed China into the world economy, Toastmaster began to feel the squeeze of cheap Asian imports.”
“Zenith Electronics--the last major American TV maker--had a large assembly plant in Springfield, MO. It had been in operation since just after World War II, and at one point, it employed 3,300 Missourians; but those jobs, too, had started moving to Mexico in the late 1990s. In October of 1991, Zenith shut down its plant and shipped its operation down to Mexico, taking out 1,500 Missouri jobs in one blow. In Springfield, the average worker made between 5 and 10 bucks an hour. Down in Mexico, it was just 83 cents. The high priests of the global economy tell us that this is merely creative destruction and that other, better industries will arise to take their place of the ones that were lost. It is true that some of the workers in Springfield went on to find new jobs, but they were often much worse than the ones that they had before.”
“You get mad, and then you get hurt, and you think about all the jobs leaving the country and all the people losing their jobs. Tri-Con Industries, which makes car seat parts, shuttered its factory in Cape Girardeau, too, and moved its production to Mexico. That was another 200 jobs gone. There are patriotic shoe companies that still want to build in America. Belleville Boots took over a factory in Carthage, MO, in 2020. There are businesses that still love America, and they want to build on the generations of skilled craftsman in places like southeast Missouri, but for decades, our political class has rigged the rules to punish rather than help companies that put America first. This pattern repeats again and again and in every industry. Up until the end of the 20th century, Missouri still had a major electronics assembly operation.”
“The last shoe factory from that era closed for good in 2005. It had begun as a five-story, 92,000-foot international shoe plant in Cape Girardeau, nicknamed ``the Pride of Southeast Missouri.'' At one point, it employed 1,200 workers, but cheaper imports from low-wage countries began to flood the market, and by 1990, the old factory was razed and replaced with a one-story plant of, roughly, 300 to 500 workers. By 2001, that had dwindled down to just 50. Here is what one former employee told a local paper after the plant closed for good: Now I am working at the Lutheran Home, driving a van, and making a third of the amount of money I made before. My wife also has to work, and, together, we are making two-thirds of what I made alone at the shoe plant. It is very upsetting.”
“Let me tell you what 30 years of so-called free and fair trade has meant for the folks where I am from. In the 1990s, our political class embraced a new line of thinking: that America could become more prosperous by opening all trade barriers regardless of how other countries treated us. The result was swift and devastating. By 2004, according to some estimates, Missouri had lost well over 31,000 jobs to foreign trade. By 2010, our trade deficit with Mexico had cost us 12,600 Missouri jobs. By 2013, we had shipped 44,200 Missouri jobs off to China. By 2018, Missouri had lost more than 90,000 jobs in manufacturing alone--over 25 percent of our industrial base. Until a few decades ago, southeast Missouri was a national hub for garment and shoe manufacturing. In the 1970s, southeast Missouri was home to as many as 90--90--shoe plants.”
“We forget that every job lost to China and every factory moved to Mexico belongs to a real, flesh-and-blood American, with a life and a family and a home. Each and every data point is a fellow citizen, a neighbor, a son or daughter of this great Republic. Since NAFTA, 90,000--90,000--factories in our country have closed. Think about that and what it means to those families. For the people who benefited, this was just an abstract externality. For the workers, the heartland Americans, it was everything. I know these people. These are my people--these are our people--and for too long, they have walked alone. There is no memorial for their sacrifice, no national outpouring of grief for their loss, no powerful interest group to represent them in the halls of power.”
“By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio, more Americans now work in government than in manufacturing. Nearly half of our cars, more than 60 percent of our machine tools, 80 percent of our pharmaceuticals, and nearly 90 percent of the semiconductor chips we need for everything from phones to fighter jets are foreign made. That is why the crisis that confronts us today is not merely economic. It is about communism and slave labor versus freedom. It is about who will win the 21st century. The stakes are high. It is about the survival of our civilization. It is about the kind of Nation and people we are and will be: one that creates and builds or one that simply consumes. In this city, we tend to speak of big, sweeping abstractions--jobs, wages, deficits, growth. We talk as if these things are numbers and graphs.”