Richard Burr: “I will turn to you when I finish, how about that? I gave you a gracious amount of time. The PEB board determined this…”

“I will turn to you when I finish, how about that? I gave you a gracious amount of time. The PEB board determined this was a good solution. And Senator Sanders says he is here looking out for the middle class because nobody does that. Tell me this: How are you looking out for the middle class when you are risking losing $2 billion a day in economic activity? Some of those people that you are talking about standing up for, if this rail strike continues, they are going to lose their job because of you. They are going to lose their job because the President took a position and you didn't support him. I have been amazed with this administration. I find it pretty difficult sitting up here taking the President's position because the CDC today, 78 percent of the CDC workforce does not show up at the office more than 2 days a month. We are in the middle of COVID. We have a monkeypox national medical emergency, and 78 percent of CDC employees--Centers for Disease Control--do not go to the office in Atlanta. As a matter of fact, by, I think, the New York Times report, even the Secretary doesn't go into the office. At a time where you ought to have leadership, the leadership is gone. Let's give the President a little bit of credit. He is showing some leadership. He realizes this is not good for every American. It doesn't matter whether you are rich or poor or in the middle. Having $2 billion a day of negative economic impact is not good.…”