WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding nominations:
“Unfortunately, thus far, the Biden Administration hasn’t just neglected to aggressively prosecute overt discrimination. In some cases, it’s actually trying to promote it.
“Take the massive spending package Democrats rammed through in the name of COVID relief. The spending was billed as urgent, but its authors apparently had time to bake in a provision directing relief funds to restaurants on the basis of race and sex, and another directing funds to farmers on the basis of race.
“We’re talking about blatantly unconstitutional discrimination.
“Fortunately, the independent judiciary has stepped in to stop it. Over the last few weeks, multiple federal courts have struck down these provisions, including an appeals panel led by Judge Amul Thapar from my home state of Kentucky.
“But these are hardly the only instances in which Washington Democrats have tried to impose their own radical preferences on ordinary Americans.
“Later today, the Senate will vote on the nomination of Kiran Ahuja, President Biden’s choice to serve as head of the Office of Personnel Management.
“This is the position responsible for making hiring, payroll, and training decisions that affect millions of federal employees.
“The President’s nominee has made statements expressing sympathy for the discredited, ahistorical claims about our nation’s origins that form the backbone of so-called ‘critical race theory’.
“One major organization of federal employees expressed its concern about the nominee’s capacity for, quote, ‘neutrality, fairness, and impartiality.’
“I share those concerns, and will be voting against the Ahuja nomination.
“Still elsewhere in the Biden Administration, efforts to subvert the basic understanding of our founding principles are already well underway.
“The Department of Education’s latest ‘proposed priorities’ run roughshod over existing history and civics programs – established with bipartisan support – in order to push critical race theory on public school students and keep pace with ‘woke’ sensibilities.
“American students deserve a rock-solid civics education, grounded in facts. Not divisive propaganda that tells them they’re little more than a product of their racial background.
“That’s the basis of new legislation I was proud to help introduce this week: Schools that choose to trade in fact-based curricula for activist propaganda like the 1619 Project forfeit their right to receive federal education grant funding for those teachings.
“The current Administration came to power on a promise to unify a divided nation.
“It will be judged, closely and carefully, on how that power is used.”