[Page S2105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Department of Health and Human Services

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, probably all my colleagues are very 
concerned that we have learned, over the last few months or couple 
years, that our Department of HHS is not tracking the 300,000 
children--unaccompanied children--under our immigration laws. We don't 
know where they are. And if you are one of these Senators that is 
concerned about that, I would like to say, this morning, I want to 
discuss a Department of Homeland Security inspector general report that 
everyone in the Senate or their staffs ought to be on top of.
  Last week's report confirmed alarm bells that my investigative work 
had been ringing for a decade. The Health and Human Services Office of 
Refugee Resettlement is responsible for placing unaccompanied children 
with fully vetted U.S. sponsors. And so what we are finding out is that 
children are being placed in sponsorship that has not been properly 
vetted.
  Hundreds of thousands of children were unaccounted for during the 
Biden administration. This inspector general report confirmed that the 
Biden administration's Health and Human Services failed to take 
necessary steps to protect and find migrant children.
  Last Congress, my oversight attacked these failures on behalf of 
these children. The Biden administration obstructed my oversight. More 
than that, the Biden administration also ripped up an agreement made 
during President Trump's first term allowing much more sharing of 
sponsor information with law enforcement.
  The Biden administration worried that the information would show 
sponsors were here illegally. This was the Biden administration's 
priority over the lives and health of children. To emphasize whether or 
not sponsors were here illegally was more important than protecting the 
lives of these children.
  So simply put, the last administration's conduct, to include its 
obstruction of my oversight, is a textbook example of what not to do. 
So I urge my colleagues, please, read the inspector general's report.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.