Labor unions have empowered generations of workers to secure better wages and working conditions.

I also ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a statement from Senator Mazie Hirono, who has championed the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act in the Senate.

I was a union member and benefited from my father being a union member and helping to organize steel unions or steel mills in Chicago.

But we are different. We want to make sure that our citizens, the taxpayers, are represented well...

We are not against that, but we are saying there ought to be choice, that free citizens in a free country... want to continue.

We are endowed with certain unalienable rights given to us by our Creator, as the Declaration of Independence says, namely, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We started out as a Nation that broke away from international regulations on us that we would not accept.

We are not any other Nation in the world. There is an international community. The United States of America is separate from any other nation in the world, and it ought to be.

The differences in State government are unique and beautiful things. That is the undergirding of this great democracy...

Exactly 1 year ago, the Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME ruled that no public employee should be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment.

We had to work. It was our responsibility to educate our children.