view of government by this companies and more, including cox. >> the syndrome is extremely rare. >> hi. >> but friend don't have to be. >> this is joe. >> when you're connected, you're not alone. cox supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> since 1979, in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has provided complete coverage of the halls of congress from the house and senate floors to congressional hearings, party briefings and committee meetings. c-span gives you a front row seat to how issues are debated and decided with no commentary, no interruption and completely unfiltered.

c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> on this tuesday, we take you live now to the floor of the u.s. senate where today lawmakers are expected to continue work on the nomination of john quezon to be a u.s. district court judge for south texas. members will vote before their weekly party lunches. and later this week, budget and foreign aid deals with funding deadlines weeks away on january 19th and another on february 2nd. you're watching live coverage here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. our father in heaven, bless the

citizens of this great nation. give them favor as they face the challenges of life's seasons, enriching their lives with wisdom and love. lord, we ask that you would also inspire our senators. make them great enough in spirit, good enough in heart, and genuine in purpose to refuse to deviate from integrity, as they strive to live for your glory. may each lawmaker become your channel for justice, courage, and peace in our nation and

world. we pray in your mighty name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, january 9, 2024. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable raphael g. warnock,a senator from the state of georgia, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, john a. kazen of texas to be united states district judge for the southern district of texas.

>> welcome everybody. it's my pleasure to welcome you here to the cato institute for foreign policy. thanks to those who are here in person. thanks to those are watching online on c-span. as always i want to thank the tech folks who denigrate job to manage make this all happen and the conference folks who make sure i shop where i'm supposed to be at any given time. for people are watching online and have questions that you want to post to our panelists, , you can use the hashtag catofp to ask a question on twitter or facebook or whatever the case may be. so it's no great mystery what we

here to talk about. but i'll just set it up by saying that we have the gop in the midst of a really meaningful debate on foreign policy. isolationism which is an ugly word but, in fact, the site of the debate argues the mania for focusing on europe comes at the expense of other u.s. interests

that may, in fact, be more important such as the u.s. position vis-à-vis asia. the other side of the debate says that as goes europe so goes the world. everything is connected to everything else so without u.s. leadership the global order would collapse. i refer of course to the present election in 1952. there's some echoes of the debate that took place during that presidential election in the contemporary gop. i think will do our best to kind of poll at some of the similarities and distinctions between these two moments in time. there are echoes of that past debate into today but i think there are number of different ways of getting at the problem. if you look at the faction that says the united states needs to play a leading role of european security, those competencies generational split on that question. if you look at the people were calling for fundamental reorientation in the senate for example, you're going to see

people like j. d. vance, like josh hawley, like rand paul. and if a look at the people who have this sort of more grand vision of u.s. providing order in the world, liz cheney was primarily come it probably is retiring, and the majority leader or mitch mcconnell is 81. so i i think there's a generational divide we may want to talk about. institutions are changing here at "the weekly standard" is no more in the american conservative has a larger role to play in the party that has historically. and we have victoria coates your from heritage foundation and that's worth talking about, always but especially today. and the president of heritage recently said quote heritage is moving toward an explicit embrace of restraint. the hawkish columnist that wrote this got the vapors although bit about that quote but it is there in an article surrounding

ukraine debate in particular titled republicans plot for an intervention pullback. the president of heritage said rank-and-file donors and heritage have generally come down firmly on restraint side of the foreign policy fight. so both as a scholar and selfishly this is very interesting moment to be working on restraint to the u.s. foreign policy. and with to make or distinguish colors to talk about both the sort of nuts and bolts of the debate as it is happening today and the broader context in which that debate is happening. the first presented this morning will be victoria coates who is the vice president of the kathryn and shelby cullom davis institute for national security and foreign policy at the heritage foundation. previous and she served as national security adviser to d.o.e. secretary in 2020. she has in 2016 join president trump's administration a special assistant to the president and senior director for strategic

communications. in 19 she was promoted to deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for the middle east and north africa which will be relevant to our discussion today. previously she had served as former secretary of defense donald rumsfeld director of research for his personal office and in 2013 she served as senior national security adviser to senator ted cruz. she holds a bachelors degree from trinity college, a masters from williams college and the phd from penn. so please don't ask me any questions about art today because i won't embarrass myself in front of dr. coates. >> i would be happy to talk about the weight pin the statute is -- >> yes. fetishes come up, yes. maybe we can get to that hopefully. we also brandan buck was a phd candidate candidate in history at george mason university. previously he worked as an intelligence geospatial analyst with in gis -- in gia, sorry.

2024, three things are true. first, there's a lot we have to do at the start of the year, including funding the government, working towards a national security supplemental, confirming more nominees through the senate, and much more. we made good progress on many bipartisan bills last year which we like to bring to the floor this year. second, the only way we're going to get anything of consequence done is through bipartisan cooperation. third, the senate is off to a good start. i announced alongside speaker johnson that leaders have reached a significant milestone for government funding. we've agreed to top-line funding numbers nor fiscal year 2024. this now clears the path for appropriators to begin drafting the 12 appropriation bills. yesterday, i spoke with chairman murray, and then i met in my office with leader mcconnell,

and we are all on the same page, that we want to move as quickly as we can to finish the appropriations process. we have only ten days until the first deadline, on january 19. so both parties must continue working together to minimize the risk of a government shutdown. now, it wasn't easy to come to an agreement on top line numbers, but democrat are very pleased with the ultimate outcome. from the beginning, democrats had one goal in mind -- our north star, to keep nondefense funding levels at $772.7 billion, the exact same number we agreed to in june last year when we avoided default. many on the hard right, particularly those in the freedom caucus, wanted to see that number brought boun significantly. -- down significantly. that would have meant devastating cuts, that would have made certain devastating cuts to all sorts of programs that help millions of americans.

but democrats, who control the presidency and have a majority in the senate, said no, no, no to draconian cuts. we told the hard right that they cannot bully or threaten their way to getting the kind of draconian cuts the vast majority of americans, and many, many republicans, oppose. you hear it when republicans go home to their districts and brag about some of the very things that the hard right people want to cut. so, we held the line, and as a result we have successfully protected vital priorities, like housing programs, veterans benefits, health care, nutrition, small business support, the nhs and the funding for federal law enforcement. hard right republicans wanted to use the appropriations process to gut democrats' clean energy investments we passed in the ira. those too will be absolutely

protected. and even though the hard right is always obsessed with starving the ira of resources, this agreement protects important funding the irs needs to hold ultra-rich tax evaders accountable. this work will not be undermined. the irs made great progress, brought in lots of money that always should have been there, but because very wealthy people are able to hire lawyers and accountants to evade taxes, they got away with it. no more. all in all, this top-line agreement is a good outcome for the country and a strong start to the year. now, certainly there's more work to do. agreeing to a top-line number is important, but so is the next step, translating that number into 12 appropriations bills that can pass the senate, pass the house, and reach the president's desk. none of us want to see a government shutdown. so we'll do everything possible to ensure we avoid one in the

coming weeks. if republicans in the house follow the approach we've taken in the senate, a bipartisan approach, where democrats and republican appropriators work collaboratively despite disagreements, we can minimize the risks of a shutdown. if house republicans bend to the insatiable whims and demands of the hard right flank and do road the process with extremist policy proposals, then they will be responsible for moving us closer to a shutdown. i hope that does not happen. but we will not be bullied by a few hard right radicals. now, on the supplemental. mr. president, as the new year begins, senate democrats remain committed to working with our republican colleagues on passing a national security supplemental package. this work has not been easy, but it's a matter ever the highest national urgency that we act.

at stake is the security of our country, the security of our friends, including ukraine and israel, and nothing less than the future of western democracy. we must address these issues. negotiators have been hard at work for weeks, and worked straight through the new year's break. the keyword has been persistence, persistence, and i remain hopeful we'll get something meaningful done. at a time when progress has been slow and sometimes -- at times, rather, at times progress has been slow, and sometimes progress has been immensely encouraging, but either way the important part is we're making progress and closer now than we have ever been to getting an agreement. congress has not acted on immigration in a comprehensive way in decades. it should surprise no one it will take time. of all the difficult issues we

face in this chamber, immigration is near the top rngs. regardless how difficulty passing this supplemental is, so much, so much hangs on our success. the world is still watching how the u.s. will respond this year to the crises in europe, of the middle east and the growing tensions in the indo-pacific. our friends are watching closely too. most of all, adversaries like vladimir putin are watching. i recently read in the press that while ukrainians remain determined to defend their country, they're running out of ammunition. according to one observer, they can fire only one salvo back for every five or so the russians fire at them. history will not look kindly on this episode if the u.s. fails to act. so getting a supplemental done is important right now, important as it has ever been. i know my friend, the republican leader, feels the same way. the negotiators are going to keep working till we get this

done. i yield the floor, and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

>> that could lead these ideas, and into politics. similarly, the institutions are not quite there. i know there's been a lot of changes since 2016 but they certainly are not as robust as they were originally. and also that much of your left. they are trying to either eradicate or redirect foreign policy apparatus to slow down. i also think that our social issues which are tangential to foreign policy which can serve

as an impediment to give the success or foreign coalitions with their counterparts on the left, immigration and trade and also the general difference and how to use sovereignty over libertarian or people on the left. whatever comes next will have echoes of the passover match your product of what's to come. >> answer helpful. one of the things but let you both know before you went live here's how to want to talk about against partly selfishly but also from the point of view of the scholar is that personal is policy. i think for my more trump friends and colleagues who say trump was in the right place on foreign policy from our point of view but at crucial junctures was undermined by people who worked in the administration. so we have, for example, james jeffrey suggest it was a shell game with the president that we were always hiding the number of troops we had in syria so they didn't know how many troops went in syria and we, in fact,

prevented the president from following through on his pledge to withdraw troops from syria. but there are many, many of these instances, and so again my more restraint colleagues will say a second trump term would be staffed by people who shared the president station, which is fill in the blank, and so you would see a more, more follow-through and more results. and, of course, the elephant in the room there is an effort to do that, to connect dispensed w. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: three months after the massacre of october 7, israel's defense minister observed that his country was fighting, quote, an axis, not a single enemy. he was talking about iran's terrorist proxies, a raid to attack israel on multiple f

fronts. but the reality of facing interconnected threats isn't unique to israel. around the world, our adversaries are colluding in new and aggressive ways. author authoritarians, who disdain the west, are arming and underwriting one another's aggression. and as the senate continues our work on supplemental national security legislation, we would do well to keep this in mind. israel reports that it has succeeded in significantly degrading hamas military capacity in northern gaza. but while the pace of operations may have slowed, israel continues to face a dug-in hamas threat in southern gaza. and their terrorist enemies continue to exploit innocent

civilians in their bid for sur survival. hamas fighters brazenly steal international aid shipments, use gazans as human shield, and hold more than 130 hostages, including americans. so israel's operations will continue because of the threats to israel remain. as i've said before, israel needs the time, space, and support to restore its security. unfortunately, that's not what the biden administration has been providing. in fact, as the left wing of the democratic party grows more loudly and stridently, anti- anti-israel, its leaders are second-guessing america's cl closest ally in the middle east. administration officials have taken to anonymously and

shamefully accusing prime minister netanyahu of seeking conflict with hezbollah for domestic political reasons. of course, reality is quite the opposite. for decades, it's been hezbollah that seeks conflict with israel and the west. it is the terrorists, with israel and american blood on their hands, who have chosen violence regardless of the current governments in israel on the united states. and hezbollah's attacks against israel have only grown since october 7. it's not prime minister netanyahu who forces tens of thousands of israelis to evacuate their homes in northern israel. it was hezbollah threats. now we all know about hamas terror tunnels. well, hezbollah has built them too. i led a delegation to israel and

we saw them in with our -- we saw them, with our own eyes, efforts to infiltrate northern israel with the same purpose hamas struck in israel's south. this is not a coincidence. it's not a myth conjured by the prime minister. it's a real and growing threat that even his leading political opponent and fellow member of israel's war cabinet also -- rather than sniping at the cabinet, the administration should tell congress and our ally how it proposes to change the murderous calculus of iran and its proxy. so, mr. president, the best way we can help our friends is to restore our own credibility in the region and take bolder steps to respond to our common

aggr aggressor, iran. the biden administration has work to do to repair the damage done by three years of retreat. the first thing they could do is admit they have a problem. instead, they are busy patting themselves on the back. last week, an administration spokesperson declared with pride that the president was taking a proactive approach to threats from iran-backed terrorists. honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. instead of aggressively targeting the launch facilities and houthi terrorists responsible for harassing global shipping and u.s. naval assets or sinking the iran spy vessel reportedly facilitating houthi strikes, president biden passive policy means the navy is

expending millioned missiles -- million dollar missiles to swat away thousand dollar drones. million dollar missiles to take out thousand dollar drones because apparently we don't have the nerve to launch facilities. rather than imposing costs on our enemy, we're allowing the enemy to impose costs on us. in response to more than 100 attacks on u.s. personnel in iraq and syria, the president has authorized isolated jabs at low consequence peripheral targets. no wonder -- no wonder iran isn't deterred. iran' strategy is actually working. if hamas' passive violence is not destroyed, palestinians and

israelis alike, including the hostages still in captivity, are going to continue to suffer. if the houthis could -- violence is left in tack, they will continue to disrupt the economy and attack ships. iran -- if iran does not -- it will continue to underwrite violence and claim innocent lives. america owes our ally israel our continued support and we owe iran' web of terror the firm deterrence and swift justice it has always deserved. now, on another matter. it's been three years since president biden put radical activists in charge of energy

policy and at three year' end, the american people continue to bear the burden of its devastating effects. it has contributed to sky-high gas prices, the cost of gasoline and home heating, gasoline has increased 45% since biden took office, fuel oil prices have increased 71%, and electricity prices have increased 24.3%. so here' one example. the biden administration worked overtime to strangle oil and gas drilling to a trickle. they offered the smallest number of oil and gas lease sales in history. this year, in fact, we'll see zero -- zero new offshore oil and gas lease sales.

from day one, americans have been suffering under the weight of a climate agenda tailored to the preferences of coastal elites. from electric vehicles to solar panels, the biden administration seems to take its cue from the gr greenest policy of the blewest states. -- bluest states. three years in they show no sign of stopping. the senate is looking to elevate the mastermind on the war on energy to a senior role at epa. you would be hard pressed to find anyone whose record more closely reflects liberal climate orthodoxy than jonathan goffman. this u.s. supreme court has given the epa a slap on the

wrist for acting outside its authority, cases such of west virginia and epa and sackett v. epa has repeatedly ruled that the agency is acting outside its congressional mandate. just before christmas, the court agreed to hear yet another case involving epa emission plans. this one brought by ohio. mr. gulpan has defied this, and has a more aggressive epa, and with the -- the power plant legal excesses, he has continued the biden administration war on affordable american energy. by one estimate mr. goffman' tenure at the epa has coincided with the elimination over half of the nation' coal jobs.

and he's continued to indulge the left' obsessive push for electric vehicles despite the fact that this push is killing american jobs and enhancing our top strategic adversary. by every measure this nominee is the exact wrong person to deserve a promotion at epa. so i would like to thank my colleague from west virginia, senator capito, for sounding the alarm on mr. goffman' nomination and i urge each of my colleagues to join me in voting no this afternoon.

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: mr. president, i listened to my friend, the senator from kentucky, and his remarks and it really brought to mind a division in the united states that most of us are aware of when it comes to the issue of climate change. you either believe that human activity is having an impact on the weather of the world or you don't. you either believe that it's not in the best interest of our

country or the world for us to continue to heat this planet to levels unheard of in history. you either believe that the extreme weather situations which we are witnessing on a regular basis are just a run of bad luck or sadly maybe the design of energy that makes a difference. you either believe that fossil fuel creates emissions that make it tougher to live in this country and this world or you don't. you either believe this generation has a responsibility to do something different try to preserve the planet that we live on for our kids and grandkids or we don't. you either believe that low gasoline prices are really the absolute pinnacle of success politically or you believe that the use of fossil fuels needs to be somehow changed if we're going to save this planet. it's just a clear difference of

thinking when a perspective candidate for presidency in the united states for reelection talks about drill, baby, drill, and has no concern, obviously, for the impact of those words on energy and the future, you really know that there's a difference coming in this election for voters to make a choice. i want to err on the side of making this a safer planet for my kids and grandkids. my wife and i have tried to make decisions, large and small, in our lifestyle that reflect this feeling. we drive a hybrid car and get 33 miles a gallon. i wish we got more. maybe the next car we buy will reach that. we put solar panels on our home in springfield, illinois. we're the first in the area to do it. i hope others will follow. those things and many others can make a little difference and if we all do them together, it can

make a big difference. i think it's our moral responsibility to do that. we can argue about the margins on the science and what i just said. and that is time well spent. with we should discuss science in honest terms. we all know something is going on in the world that we live in and it is not good. heating the planet is going to make life more difficult and create challenges. when i hear the candidate for the republicans running for president say drill, baby drill, i would like to have a planet that my darling granddaughter can have a planet she can live on. on a complete live different topic. we know what vladimir putin is

up to in ukraine. his cruelty and cynicism were on full display when he decided that he would invade ukraine and bring it back into the soviet orbit. he launched a horrific strike on kyiv. the news reports are procuring now north korean missiles to continue the launch of attacks on ukraine. he tried to silence anyone in russia who might dissent from his strategy. anyone who might have the audacity to suggest there should be democracy or freedom in that country. he sent one of his harshest critics to prison and he moves him around. his name is alexey uvalde. why is he there? vladimir putin can't allow that

man to be out of prison and speak about putin or his agenda. so he puts him in prison and silences him. mr. president, i would like to as an aside note that i have come to the floor many times to discuss political prisoners around the world. i am inspired by my staffer chris hollman who follows this carefully. he told me years ago that my speeches on the floor of the senate may not sound like they important issues to me at the time, but they are important to people around the world. particularly to political prisoners who learn secondhand and third hand that some senator in the united states of america mentioned their name or showed their photograph on the floor of the united states senate. it's hard to believe that this has any impact on history, but it does. chris hollman on my staff has shown me over and over again if i stand up, speak up and reach out to the embassies of these countries jailing their political prisoners, can -- it

can make a difference and it does. some of these prisoners after years in prison are finally released. many of them make it to the united states, come to my office in tears to thank me for a speech on the floor of the senate. it's hard to imagine in my station in life that anybody cares, but it does make a difference. certainly to them and their families, but often to the countries that are jailing them. i would like to speak for a few minutes this morning about a few of these prisoners. navalny, i have mentioned, vladmir remains in prison by putin. he came by my office. he had been in prison in russia and decided to go back after being released and protest publicly. he knew what he was getting into, but his passion for principle was so overwhelming,

he did it anyway. he sits in prison today in a country that is -- has no freedom of expression. vladimir kara-murza. i display this to show that these are real people and their families know we're doing our best to keep their causes alive. navalny has gone through living hell by vladimir putin. vladimir kara-murza went back to russia knowing he would go to prison, and he is fighting a dictatorship. we must not allow putin to prevail in ukraine. i am saddened and angered that some of my colleagues in the

united states congress have grown tired of the cause of the ukrainians in defeating vladimir putin and have decided they want to move on to other things. we cannot give up on our own values, and the ukrainians are fighting for our values today and dying in the process. to provide military assistance to them and encouragement is the least we can do for a country that is fighting for the same thing that we say inspired the united states' creation. the next poster i'll put up here is belarus. in belarus, we have the last dictator in europe. his name is lukashenko. he sold out his nation to putin, and there are more than 1,000 political prisoners, four of whom i want to mention. this man, alex ^ bialiski was

the winner of the nobel peace prize and was jailed from 2011 to 2014. he came to visit me here in the senate after he was released. then he went back to belarus, protested lukashenko's dick toerl ways and was jailed again. he has been in jailed since 2021. he has devoted his life to freedom and is prepared to live in prison to prove it. opposition leader sergey tikhanovsky jailed in 2020 for running against the dictator lukashenko. i know him, briefly we met, but i particularly know his wife svetlana. she ran in his place when he was arrested and probably won but

we'll never know because of lukashenko's distortion of the voechlt but his wife is living in lithuania and traveling across europe and the world to plead his cause and to plead the cause of the people in belarus. two jailed radio free journalists, they too are paying the price for lukashenko's dictatorial ways. in 2020, millions of belarus voters turned out to vote for a future, not the did is pope i can't -- dystopia. will the united states stand on the side of people who are giving their lives every day to fight for democracy or do we want to move on to another subject? i'm not tired of democracy.

i'm here because of it. # it isn't just putin's orbit where we see this fight for democracy. in cambodia there was a glimmer of hope that new leadership could bring some change to the country's repressive history. it already moved the new president manet would be to release jailed human rights acthear ye seng in cambodia serving a bogus sentence. last year the senate appropriations committee unanimously passed an amendment which i offered barring any cambodian official involved in her jailing from receiving or keeping a u.s. visa. the easiest way to lift that restriction is to release thear

ye seng without further delay. in algeria, ihsane is serving a sentence as part of a larger crack down on freedom and democracy, a set pback to the free press that emerged after algeria's civil war. amnesty international and the european union are among those who might join in calling for his immediate release. just a few weeks ago i traveled with a congressional delegation led by senator tim kaine of virginia to guatemala, and finally these cases i mention here came up during our visit. the troubling jailing of anticorruption prosecutor virginia laparra and the journalist jose zamora, their

incarceration occurred amid multiple efforts to derail the peaceful transition of power of the new president-elect. mr. president, january 14 may be just another day on the calendar here in washington, but it will be a major historic opportunity in guatamala to finally bring to office a man who was duly elected president of that country. we met with him. there's resistance to the transition, but we believe that he will prevail. he's the clear winner in that contest and should be given the chance to serve. i am pleased to share that ms. laparra was just released from prison to house arrest. that is a move in the right direction. it's a welcome step, but we call for her full release and dropping of charges as well as the immediate release of mr.

zamora, another journalist. mr. president, what we do here matters around the world. for the large and small battles occurring for freedom and democracy. i can only hope that in the days ahead someone somehow will get the message to the individuals that i've highlighted today that they are not forgotten, that they do not languish in prison unknown to the rest of the world. we have to speak up for these people justice not only in the united states but justice around the world. and it makes a difference. i encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle look into the issue yourself. find those people who are unjustly imprisoned for political reasons in these autocratic regimes and give them a word of encouragement yourself on the floor of the senate. amazingly, it does make a difference. i've seen many released, and i hope to see more in the future. time from us making these speeches highlighting what they're going through may seem

like a waste of time for some but it is not. it is a valuable investment in the values which we share with these amazing people around the world. i yield the floor.

mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: mr. president, is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. thune: we're not? mr. president, 302,000. 302,000, that's how many migrants u.s. customs and border protection has reported to have encountered at our southern border in the month of december. one month, 302,000. to put that number in perspective, 302,000 is equivalent to roughly a third of the population of my home state of south dakota or almost half of the population of vermont or more than half, more than half, i should say, of the population of wyoming. and that's just one month of

encounters. one month. just when you think the biden border crisis can't get any worse, it gets worse. mr. president, the situation at our southern border is unsustainable. we've had three successive record-breaking years of illegal immigration at the southern border under president biden. and if the current trend continues, we're well on our way to a fourth. the border patrol is stretched thin. the border towns are stretched thin. other major u.s. cities are struggling to deal with an influx of migrants. take new york city, for example. new york city is currently facing cuts to city services, including a massive 13.5% cut to its police force as a result of the migrant crisis. and while the practical challenges posed by this immigration crisis are massive, even more worrisome are the

national security challenges. our country cannot be secure while we have hundreds of thousands of migrants flooding across our southern border each month. frequently to end up released into the united states with court dates years into the future. and even more concerning are those who are making their way into our country without being apprehended. since october 1 alone, there have been more than 83,000 known got-aways at our southern border, and those are individuals that the border patrol saw but was unable to apprehend. that's 83,000 individuals making their way into our country without our having the slightest idea of who they are, what they're doing here, or where in the united states they're planning to travel. # 83,000.

and while some of them may simply be in search of a better life, others may be dangerous individuals who should not be entering our country. and let's be very clear, mr. president, there are dangerous individuals who are trying to make their way into our country. between october and november alone, the border patrol arrested 30 individuals on the terrorist watch list attempt to go make their way across our southern border. fiscal year 2023 saw 169 individuals on the terrorist watch list arrested at our southern border. 169. a substantial increase, i might add, over fiscal year 2022 which was itself a substantial increase over fiscal year 2021. and that's not a good trajectory, mr. president. and again i point out these numbers only refer to the

individuals the border patrol actually apprehended. there were 670,000 known got-aways during fiscal year 2023. how many of them, how many of them were terrorists, criminals or other dangerous individuals? the fact of the matter is we don't know. and that's disturbing. this is insanity. 169 that they caught on the terrorist watch list trying to come across our southern border. 670,000 last year who came across the southern border that got away. we have no idea their composition or how many, i suspect most people trying to get in here that are terrorists or some other type of -- involved in some other type of criminal enterprise probably figure out a way to get in here and not get caught. they may be quite a few of those on the gotaway list.

what we know, mr. president, however, is that we must regain operational control of the southern border, and it has to happen now. since president biden has failed to do so, and since his policies encourage illegal immigration, congress has to act. we must act. i'm pleased democrats have finally come to the table in a real way to discuss needed reforms. i want to say again, the only acceptable reforms are reforms that will actually meet the challenge at our southern border. republicans will not sign off on cosmetic measures or superficial tweaks or simply throwing more money at the problem. we owe the american people a secure border. we will not agree to anything less than real reforms. mr. president, i've said this before, i have said it many times, we're a nation of immigrants. i'm one generation removed. my grandfather came here as an

img imgrant. yet we're a nation of laws. it's fundamental. it is the foundation, the bedrock principle that distinguishes our country from so many other countries around the world. we have laws and they have to be followed. when people come to this country, and we welcome, we're a welcoming country, they need to follow the law. so, fixing the problem, mr. president, means not just additional funding for border security measures and enforcement personnel, but a meaningful reform of our asylum and patrol systems which have been abused under the biden administration. a recent cbs news article noted, and i quote, over the past few years, the u.s. asylum system has become an approximate -- proxy process for migrants to stay and work in america, irrespective whether they have valid claims or not, end quote. that is not acceptable. our asylum system is meant to be a refuge for those who face genuine danger from persecution.

it is not meant to serve as temporary de facto amness nesty for those who -- amnesty for those who simply want to live in the united states. the biden department of homeland security 's overly permissive application of parole has allowed hundreds of thousands individuals, not gramented legal status and -- not granted legal status and may not have a case for remaining in the united states to take up residency in our countries, once again providing de facto amnesty. even if temporary. the biden administration's abuse of our asylum and parole systems has to be rein the in if we hope -- rein the in to stem the tied. any acceptable border security reform must include reform of these systems. mr. president, while it may have taken them a long time to get here, i am, as i said, encouraged that at least

democrats have timely come to the table. and i -- have finally come to the table. i hope for the sake of our country, sooner than later, we arrive at an agreement. we've had three years of the biden border crisis. let's make sure we don't have a fourth. mr. president, i yield the floor, and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

there are reasons to be engaged. these producers to talk to each different systems but you can coordinate. so reasons would be engaged are

different but as we look at what happening now, the dangerous part is activity against the red state and adeno when we see this man himself but if you remember the container ship that went sideways by accident, this is going to be a problem for us at home and even more for european friends so you need to be engaged. the approach we are taking right now not using a baseball analogy this is just going to keep

happening and they are not terribly good shots but eventually they will. >> nobody seems to be a good shot they got. maybe general mckenzie "wall street journal" in the last week or two, former commander is have a grill great affinity but he had a paragraph that said if you don't want to have the policy in the middle east and seek. and there was no good and.

any talk on middle east u.s., i run? i will say conservative attitudes are criticisms and relationships in 1970s. that is going to be tough.

it ought to be the way to retract about a consensus in the panel if we talk about conservative europe and asia are easier in the middle east in a broader sense will be quite remote it is only. we do keep pull back, israel is probably going to be also minimal and is so becomes your probably not influenced they are

not engaged with israel, how long for the most. >> somebody has to try to run the middle east also china. cancel back to someone here with blinders on. >> national correspondent we go back to ukraine. those debates have largely been absent and have much more

frequently, and it should encourage ukraine. three of the current contenders. from a strategic standpoint, how do you see the next republican for natural resources, increased wheat production, how should the united states engage or promote these wars contend with shifting resources there are russia's ability to acquire them through aggression? >> the idea would be in, russia

to finland or over ukraine i misconstrued it. >> it doesn't result in ukraine so what would it be for the u.s. interest in the? let me start with the administration's entire historical approach, they said early on all of the decisions about the trade issues, initiatives on ukraine part, our all to engage, that is ukraine's

situation and national security advisor. our job is to support them so hours when they supported it publicly. early in the war asking for no-fly zone which would amount to united states shooting down russian airplanes thereby entering the work. the administration declined to do that of risk of escalation etc. so it is to decide but in practice making decisions that strongly suggest ukraine's interest is larger in ukraine which sounds insulting to moderate front of a public audience. the idea less interest in ukraine is more limited is not something anyone ever would have said. we find ourselves expressing his

view for united states government which implies it's right for the united states to outsource its policy to ukraine and if it is the case u.s. assistance to ukraine purchased ukraine survival not to make light sacrifices ukrainian soldiers fighting made but it u.s. aid has not is not the right to tell ukraine to do the right to undertake in ukraine which is more limited than ukraine's interest. ukraine can take the information and make decisions for the united states would take your and the quorum call be vitiated.

the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: i come to the senate floor to respond to a series of accusations raised by the district of the southern district of new york. this is the second indictment brought by the government. it should be noted that all of the information presented in the superseding indictments were fully available to the government since the beginning of this process. and for that at least a year prior to the bringing of this indictment. which therefore begs the question, why did the government not proceed with all of these accusations from the beginning? the answer is clear to me. by filing three indictments, one in late september, a second one a few weeks later in mid-october, and a third one last week in early january, it allows the government to keep the essential story in the --

sensational story in the press and seeks to convict me in the court of public opinion. in so doing, the government's tactics harm not just me, but each of you, my colleagues, and most importantly the electorate of new jersey. this is now c.e.o.ing a rising -- is now c.e.o.ing a rise -- creating a call for any resignation before a single piece of evidence has been introduced in a court of law. they have engaged not in a prosecution but persecution. they seek a victory, not juchlt we've seen this play out with other prosecutions of public officers. remember what happened to senator ted stevens or governor bob mcdonald. there are other examples. it's an unfortunate reality, but prosecutors sometimes shoot first before they know the facts.

it would be a shame if this venerable body does the same. for setting the stage for why this process has unfolded this way, let me deal with some of the issues, dealing with the latest accusation. i have received doing, absolutely nothing from the government of qatar or on behalf of the government of qatar to promote their image or issues. the government' principle allegation for what i supposedly did for qatar was to support a senate resolution. this resolution was sponsored and introduced by senator graham and cosponsored by 11 other bipartisan senators, posted on the senate foreign relations committee agenda and passed by voice vote. now, what was that resolution about? the resolution sponsored by senator graham and 12 of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle thanked the qatary

government for assisting the united states military in evacuating american citizens and afghan refugees from taubl rule. -- taliban rule. how nefarious is that? then they referenced some press release i made. well, the press release says in one sentence, i am glad to see our friends and allies in qatar be moral emempeculiars by seeking safe haven in the united states after being forced to escape for their lives. that's the one thing it says about qatar. the rest of it is a call for international cooperation to help protect afghan civil society, members, journalists and others at risk of taliban rule, something i heard many senators speak out for. qatar has played important roles in supporting the largest air

force base in the middle east in responding to the administration' call to supply natural gas to europe and facilitating and receiving afghan refugees that the united states government was seeking to evacuate, among other initiatives. they played a role in brokering the release of israeli hostages held by hamas. like many other countries, there are things we disagree on. during the world cup preparation, qatar' engagement with its next door neighbor iran and hamas have been points of contention, and i have criticized qatar, as i have any other country when i felt they were falling short of their international obligations and applauded them when they have led in ways the united states and the world would commend. that give and take, that carrot and stick and that cajoling and rewarding is the essence of

diplomacy. it is a job we all partake in every day as part of our duties in the senate. the government seeks to use baseless conjecture, not facts, to create the connective tissue. they have no proof of receiving any gifts. they talked about tickets to a state sponsored event, but many members of the senate often attend state sponsored events, i see members of the state department and even the justice department attend state sponsored events. the government fails to mention that they had their own purchased tickets to the event. that is not a perk and certainly not a bribe. finally, on this point, the suggestion that an introduction of a constituent to a qatari development company is legal is not only wrong as a matter of law, it is dangerous to the

important work all of us as senators do. under the government's theory, it may be a crime for members of the senate to make introductions to companies and constituents in their own states to foster developments in their state -- investments in their state to help grow the economy. indeed, if that is it a crime, advocating for boeing aircraft to be purchased by a foreign government, getting a country to buyingaal -- buy agricultural products, so many actions that many of the congress take to attract investments to their state would be a crime. let me turn to the government' other outrageous accusation of conspireing to act as a foreign agent for the government of egypt. this is an unprecedented acquisition, and it has never ever been levied against a sitting member of congress.

never. and for good reason. it opens a dangerous door for the justice department to take the normal engagement of members of congress with a foreign government and to transform those engagements into a charge of being a foreign agent for that government. i want to address the accusations as they relate to me, but i don't want you to lose sight of how dangerous this precedent will be to all of you. let me start by describing my history of taking adverse positionsto the government of egypt, my defense of human rights, democracy, frn my stinging -- and my stinging criticism of human rights issues in egypt. throughout my time in congress, i have remained steadfast on civil rights defenders in egypt and everywhere else in the world. if you look at my actions related to egypt during the

period described in the indictment and throughout my career, my career is consistent in holding each accountable for unjust attempts at egypt citizens and efforts that would have eroded the independence of the nation' judiciary, among other concerns. in 2017, i led the writing of a bipartisan letter to prum expressing -- president trump showing grave concern for human rights in egypt. i sent a letter to the appropriations subcommittee supporting assistance to egypt as long as they adhered to the camp david accords and that they follow the requirements for the assistance reform strategy outlined in the egypt resistance reform act of 2018. i asked that they focus on

humanitarian rights in egypt and that the environment of the egyptian election was not fair. in 2019 i met president elcece and pressed him on the level of repression inside of egypt, warning him that it risked eroding our security cooperation and raised concerns about egypt' intention to purchase a russian missile system. in 2020, i spoke on the senate floor for international women' day and cited the case of a human rights lawyer and e ezra adel who were unjustly detained in egypt for fighting for a free press. does any of this sound like i was on the take with egypt? of course not. but that's not all.

in 2021, during the very time period that this indictment allegation, i was an agent of egypt, i placed a hold on $1.58 billion in funding a-1 tank fleets and $125 million in security funds. i placed that hold on concerns i had with the worsening human rights situation in egypt, including the detention or harassment of family members in egypt of activists currently living in the united states. in the fall of 2021, i took an official trip to egypt where i forcefully raised all of these issues directly with president el-sisi with the staff of the senate foreign relations committee. the government references this trip in its indictment but tellingly fails to state what

actually occurred and how i confronted president el-si cinch, which they -- sisi, which they know. this leaves a bad and unfair impression. most recently on a congressional delegation trip to egypt in august of 2023, led by senator graham along with two house members, i pressed president el-sisi, each and every time i raised issues of arbitrary arrests, the expanding of nongovernmental organizations and other issues in a direct challenge to president el-sisi. when egypt has acted in conference with fighting terrorism or its peaceful relations with israel or working to improve the rights of

christians to worship as they please, i have commended them. you can't challenge the lead are of an authoritarian state in public and take actions adverse to their interests and at the same time solve serve -- time serve as an agent of that foreign government. over my 30 years of engaging in foreign policy, i don't know of any dictator or authoritarian leader who is willing to be publicly chastised or one who dares to do so as his agent. which brings me to the danger of what the justice department has done with charging a member of congress acting as a foreign agent. the definition of agent is broad. it includes anyone who engages in, quote, political activities, publicity services, or other certain acts at the order

request or under the direction or control of a foreign principal. applied to members of congress, it covers anything that could in any way influence agency or official of the united states or any section of the public within the united states as to public policy. so when members of the senate from agricultural states went to communist cuba to sell rice or poultry or sugar or beef and were told by the castro regime they would consider doing so, but the senators would need to convince the u.s. administration to change u.s. law and lift the embargo and then came back to the united states and advocated for exactly that request, did that make them a foreign aejt -- agent of cuba? i think not. when senators travel to israel and hear from their leaders requesting greater economic or

defense assistance or replenishment of iron dome, did that make them a foreign agent of israel sfl i think not -- israel? i think not. when senators travel to the middle east in pursuit of currents to become part of the abraham accords and that a mutual defense agreement and technology trvrs might be -- transfers might be prerequisites for saudi arabia joining the accords, and add advocated for that, were they agents for the saudi government? i think not. what if any of this these examples that this country bought right or meat or sugar from your state, would that be a quid pro quo? what if you got contributions from your campaign to individuals associated with those countries? would that be with a quid pro quo. what a chilling effect on the

mere engagement of these conversations and inkwirryes -- inquiries would it be if the sum of those actions taken in pursuit of your fact finding effort to inform you what your legislative actions should be can be turned into official acts in violation of the law and not within the protection of the speech or debate clause of the constitution. now, some may be alarmed by what i've described. but in this case explain it away -- but in this case there are allegations of cash and gold bars. the problem is that there is no evidence of the giving or receiving of cash or gold bars n. fact, there has been and will be at trial a full explanation of what is the truth about those issues, a truth that proves i am entirely innocent of the charges. and that is the problem. almost everyone, including play friends in the press who have reported on it, haven't read the

indictment. they've only taken the government's sensational narrative of what the accusations are as truth. they haven't sought facts of the allegations. i'm innocent and i intend to prove my innocence. not just for me but for the precedent this case will set for you and future members of the senate. i am, however, alarmed that the greatest and most ardent defenders of the constitution in this body are among the most vociferous in calling for my resignation. they would deny me the due process and undermine the principles of law that in america you are innocent until proven otherwise by a jury of your peers. members of the senate are not above the law or beneath it either. if for political expediency and indictment and accusations are now tantamount to guilt, we have

upended our system of justice in america. and when the next person or group of persons are wrongfully accused, you will not be able to claim that the constitutional guarantees of due process and innocence until proven guilty need to be observed. now, some say that a u.s. senator answers to a higher standard. but even then the question of whether that standard has been violated depends not on accusations but proof of guilt after being afforded due process beyond a reasonable doubt. finally, let me say that i understand how the government's accusations may in the most sensational and purposefully damning way possible, its misuse of the grand jury system to bring superseding indictments even though it had all the information alleged from the beginning can be a source of concern and content by some of my colleagues, the political establishment, and most importantly the people of new jersey. i get it.

and i am suffering greatly as a result of what they have done. after 50 years of public service, this is not how i wanted to celebrate my golden jubilee. but i have never violated the public trust. i have been a patriot for and of my country. now let me close by saying i understand some of my colleagues are in tough races and for them this was a political calculation. let me also say that for the administration, the political establishment, and for my detractors, it would be much easier to have me exit the scene so that an unjust deal in immigration that won't really solve our problems at the border but that would hurt the latino community would be easier to be achieved or a new deal with iran would be more possible or cozying up to the castro regime could take place or selling f-16's to turkey could be finalized. i get it. but i will not step aside and allow those things to happen in

the name of political expediency. i have never chosen the easy path, never have, never will, and will not do so now. i simply ask for justice to be allowed to work its way. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and observe the absence of a quorum the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin menendez i ask the quorum call be vitiated. immediately following the confair nation vote on the kazen nomination, the senate recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings. the presiding officer: without objection.

a senator: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent -- the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas vrlt i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lift ed the presiding officer: we're not in a quorum call at the moment. mr. boozman: i ask unanimous consent that senator cot torn and i be allowed to speak up to ten minutes followed by senator tuberville for up to ten minutes prior to the scheduled roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to recognize the harding university football team on winning the 2023 division two ncaa national championship. the school is proud to call arkansas arkansas their home and we're pleased to join all those celebrating this historic undefeated season. those of us who have ever played football or followed along as fans are familiar with the term that describes each team's time with the ball as they move down the field, drive. the griefsh is also what you

need to finish a perfect season. the harding bisons exemplified it and racked up major achievements along the way, including breaking the collegiate rushing record with more than 6,000 yards on the ground for the season. the bisons' offense tapped into a tried and true style of football. the successful run game propelled the team and wore down opponents all season long. culminating in a dominating performance in the national title game where it scored 38 unanswered points. as a former football player, i remember well how much the sport ask of young men. it's more than just a game and the preparation that goes into competing at a high level can be growling. intense practices, careful film study, strength training and much more are all key ingredients in the elite program -- and the elite program must get right. harding did just that in

addition to putting on a consistent display of athleticism and skill. winning a national championship has solidified their brotherhood and forged a bond the team and its fans will hold on to for years to come. the hard work of these -- of the players, dedication of coach paul simmons and staff as well as the enthusiastic support of alumni, fans, the searcy community were all critical in making this dream come true. great coaches can get the truly beth out of their players so it's easy to see why coach simmons was made national coach of the year. we applaud his commitment to excellence personally and for every individual involved in his team. senator cotton and aalong with so many arkansans are thrilled to commemorate harding's outstanding season as bisons players, coaches and fans are

painting searcy black and gold this weekend to celebrate them. i look forward to seeing this program reach further hiefts and thankful how it represents the university, community and our state on and off the football field. and i yield. mr. cotton: mr. president the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas arkansas. mr. cotton: i join senator boozman today in congratulating the harding university bisons for winning their first ever division two football championship against the colorado school of mines or diggers in a decisive victory 38-7. going into last month's game few could have predicted a decisive outcome. both teams were undefeated. harding had the number two dense and the number three offense in the country, the diggers had the number three defense and number two offense. it was an evenly matched game if there's ever been one but after the first quarter the bisons didn't let the ore diggers score a single point. the harding defense stopped the ore diggers dead in their

tracks. with nathanael wallace making two out of the six sacks and the sick tackles, including two for a loss. the offense charged just as well as the defense stopped. charring -- harding's offense ran for an impressive 502 yards with blake dell ra crews running for a championship record. braeden jay added 161 yards on the ground and scored three out -- three out ever the bisons' five touchdowns with jaylen spicer and the quarterback punching in the other two. it was a game those players and their families will never forget. and it's a game that harding university and seer-- searcy, arkansas arkansas will never forget. it's a culmination of years of hard work, dreaming, and especially prayer. because for those who don't know, harding university is a small christian college in the middle of our state. and harding's christian mission touches every part of the university, including the

football program. in its pre-game speech, coach paul simmons told his players the scoreboard doesn't matter and the great cloud of witnesses around them just want to see you be excellent and do things in a way that really does honor god. a great message from a great coach for a great team before a great game. and with this game coach simmons has led the bisons to 65 overall wins since 2017. the fastest accumulation of victories in harding university's history. i want to again congratulate coach simmons and his entire team for their extraordinary victory last month. i want to quon grat late them for their even -- congratulate them for their season where they scored nearly 47 points per game on average. the harding bisons should be proud of their many accomplishments. the state of arkansas certainly is.

a senator: mr. president, as a former native of the state of arkansas, i'd like to add my congratulations to harding university national champions football. being a former football coach, i know how hard it is to achieve any kind of championship but to win a national championship is special and it's special to these young men and coaches and people involved will always remember. mr. tuberville: my congratulations go out to harding. i actually 34r5id against harding -- played against harding for four years being in the same conference they were in back in the 1970's. what an honor. i guess the first time, first ever national championship. again, congratulations to the harding bisons. it's quite an honor. so, mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about the need for more american energy. we're now in the coldest time of the year.

demand for energy is going up as people try to keep warm. this is placing a strain on our power grid across this country. this administration obviously has no solution for this problem. i think they're adding to the problem. the biden administration is on a crusade to make us dependent on unreliable renewable resources like wind and solar. and i'm not against wind and solar. i think it's very good. i think it's feasible that we invest in that. there's a role that it plays in our economy, but we can't depend on wind and solar. it's not possible. the sun doesn't shine every day. and the wind doesn't blow every day. our energy grid needs to stay running for 24 hours. what a thought.

despite joe biden's best ends, most of our energy gritted today -- grid today still comes from fossil fuels and, by the way tshgs will always come from fossil fuels unless we have another alternative, which i will talk about. but when wind and solar power fail, people don't realize this. when it fails, and at one time in my life i had a huge wind turbine in my backyard, a couple hundred yards, and i noticed even if the wind didn't blow, the turbines still ran. it ran because it ran off a diesel generator better known as fossil fuels. you cannot run a modern economy without fossil fuels. it's impossible. i know we're talking about it every day and you hear all the climate gurus talking about we've got to do away with fossil fuels. we've got to be net zero which by the way if we did net zero, we wouldn't live very long.

because, by the way, we do need carbon in the air. so with wind and solar, we need an all-above approach to american energy production to keep prices low and capacity high. we have to have it. and how do we do that? we do it by investing in nuclear power. 1979 we were on the way to being an energy independent through nuclear power. we had a problem at three-mile island with a nuclear plant that went basically called in our words, in the materials of this generation, berserk. they had problems. they had leaks.

nuclear energy was going to be a disaster. at that time we were constructing over a hundred nuclear sites across the united states of america, a hundred. closer to 150 because of three-mile island and how it scared the media, actually scared the people of this country. we scratched those plans. we quit construction. we said we can't do this. we're going to kill everybody on the planet with nuclear energy. right now nuclear makes up about 20% of our energy grid which if we hadn't stopped back in 1979 it would be much closer to 70%, 80% and we wouldn't have to be burning fossil fuels. i am proud we're a leader.

we should get back to itment. we could be producing a lot more nuclear energy now but, as i said earlier, the red tape from this administration and the climate cons, it's slowing permitting and production. we actually just opened, i think, the first nuclear plant in many, many years in the state of georgia in the southeastern part of the country, which will provide energy for thousands and thousands and thousands of people for years to come because of this. with zero carbon emissions, by the way. but the biden administration is obsessed, obsessed with wind and solar, but they know deep down understand that they can't touch nuclear energy. they know that their left-wing voting base hates nuclear

energy. hate it. i think we need to go back to the education department and start learning about nuclear energy. everybody should be brought up to speed. instead of being squared of it -- scared of it, we should adopt it. this opposition to nuclear power really has no basis and no fact. it's bad economics, and it's bad environmental policy. so let's talk about the economics, and let's talk about the environmental impact of nuclear energy. first economics -- nuclear energy is the most efficient source of energy every known to man. in fact, nuclear energy is 8,000 times more efficient than fossil fuels. 8,000 times. fossil fuels are a lot more efficient than wind and solar, we know that. nuclear energy is cheap to

produce. nuclear is also safe for the environment. and i'm going to repeat that. nuclear energy is safe for the environment. my democratic colleagues are worried about carbon emissions. so why not nuclear energy? but i hardly hear any of them ever champion nuclear energy, which produces zero emissions and remains -- and removes harmful pollutants from the atmosphere. environmentalists claim that nuclear energy is dangerous. environmentalists point to a few headlines from over the last 80 years. but they don't point to the facts. the fact is that our technology is better and better every day. we have different reactors that are unbelievable. they're cheaper to build. they're more efficient.

they're almost 100% safe. they're salt-based, and they have zero possibility of any reactor that melts down or releases any radiation into the atmosphere. but what have we done? we' we'vious -- we've just disregarded it. it's not safe. we're going to get away from it. we better wake up and smell the roses. nuclear energy is safer now than it was 40 years ago and certainly 80 years ago. our scientists have learned -- i can understand the thoughts of years and years ago when we had different reactors that actually melted down. how many people died in three mile island in 1979? i think, if you're really interested, you ought to go back and look at this. you ought to go back and look at the things that were brought up by the media that never came to

fruition. so should it be clear, energy and water development -- nuclear energy is a good investment and should be a good investment ttacker for years ago for the united states. my state of alabama energy workers are keeping the lights on for our people across our country. right now, as we speak, there are thousands of alabama energy workers off the gulf coast exploring for oil and gas. i'm also proud that alabama is america's fifth -- america's fifth-largest producer of energy nuclear. we have two nuclear plants and five nuclear right-to-works, the tennessee -- the reactors, the tennessee valley authority operates brown ferry in athens, alabama, which is tva's largest nuclear plant. the plant produces one-fifth of

the tva's energy which covers a lot of the south. it directly supports 1,500 jobs and powers more than two million homes. in the wire grass of alabama, alabama power runs plant farley, which produces about a faith of the alabama power electricity. i'm deeply grateful to alabama's energy workers for keeping the lights on for all of us. it's clear we need to stop the obsession with wind and solar. we can use that, but we can do a better job of investing in nuclear energy. we need to fix the nuclear regulatory commission. right now it takes about ten years -- ten years -- to get a nuclear reactor approved in our country. there is a he no good reason that it should take so long. we also ought to support

advanced small modular reactors equaled smr's. they're safe. they're cheaper. and they're quicker to build. they're small reactors with with lower demands for fuel. and by the way, we gave this technology to china back during the obama administration. they are building them every day p -- in asia. they've taken our technology and are using it. they can bring energy costs down and also emissions down. it's time we got to work on nuclear energy. the polls show the american people are becoming more and more supportive of nuclear power. there is no doubt about that. a clear majority of the american people want and need more nuclear plants. this should be a bipartisan issue. let's look out for the american people. it's good economics.

it's good energy policy. it's good for our environment. and it's long, long overdue. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, all postcloture time expired. the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn.

ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. the clerk: ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly.

mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin.

mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray.

mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts.

the clerk: mr. risch. the clerk: mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders.

mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan.

mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren.

mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, boozeman, casey, cotton, fetterman, graham, heinrich, hickenlooper, hyde-smith, johnson, king,

blanford, menendez, padilla, peters, risch, and schatz. no senator voted in the negative.

the clerk: mr. hawley, no.

the clerk: mr. vance, no.

the clerk: mr. bennet, aye.

the clerk: mr. wicker, aye.

mr. tester, aye. mr. rounds, aye.

the clerk: mr. van hollen, aye.

the clerk: mr. marshall, no. mr. booker, aye. the clerk: ms. hassan, aye. mr. kaine, aye. mr. cardin, aye.

the clerk: mr. braun, no. the clerk: mr. thune, no. mr. cornyn, aye. mr. merkley, aye.

the clerk: mr. reed, aye.

. the clerk: mr. schumer, aye. ms. smith, aye. mr. sanders, aye. ms. hirono, aye. mr. durbin, aye.

the clerk: mrs. capito, aye. mr. mullin, no.

the clerk: mr. brown, aye.

the clerk: ms. sinema, aye. mr. kelly, aye.

the clerk: mrs. fischer, aye. mr. ricketts, aye.

ms. collins, aye. the clerk: mr. lujan, aye. ms. rosen, aye.

mrs. gillibrand, aye. the clerk: mrs. shaheen, aye.

the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye.

the clerk: mr. markey, aye. ms. murkowski, aye.

the clerk: mr. romney, aye. the clerk: mrs. blackburn, aye.

mr. whitehouse, aye. mr. tillis, aye. mr. kennedy, aye. ms. klobuchar, aye.

the clerk: mrs. murray, aye.

the clerk: mr. barrasso, aye. the clerk: ms. earns, aye. mr. sullivan, no. ms. ernst, aye.

vote:

the clerk: mr. carper, aye. the clerk: mr. crapo, aye.

mrs. britt, no.

the clerk: mr. young, aye. mr. mcconnell, aye. mr. blumenthal, aye.

the clerk: mr. budd, aye.

the clerk: mr. paul, no. mr. grassley, aye.

the clerk: ms. warren, aye. the clerk: mr. tuberville, no.

the clerk: mr. wyden, aye.

the clerk: mr. cramer, aye. the clerk: ms. lummis, aye. mr. scott of south carolina, no.

mr. rubio, aye. mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: mr. moran, aye. the clerk: mr. daines, aye. the clerk: ms. butler, aye.

the clerk: mr. schmitt, no.

the clerk: ms. cortez masto, aye.

vote: the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. mr. welch, aye.

the clerk: mr. scott of florida, no.

the clerk: mr. lee, aye.

the clerk: mr. hoeven, no. ms. duckworth, aye.

the clerk: mr. manchin, aye.

the clerk: mr. warnock, aye. mr. coons, aye. the clerk: mr. cruz, aye.

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 83, the nays are 14, and the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. under the previous order, the senate stands in recess until 2:15 p.m.

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