of say where should we fight? because good army's to attack and for[u allis the time if the attack in place ofac the most important and most meaningful and most important. so one of the discussions was really in this notion of civil society which kind of incorporates this kind of large expanse k of ngos and think tanks and advocacy groups in all this stuff. and somebody said no, no, no. he says you are not fighting civil society. you are fighting uncivil society. i think i would be a great title for the working group. albany kick it to you and -- >> we believe this to honor are more than 40-year commitment to covering the congress. the u.s. senate is coming in for votes on a couple of president biden's nominees to the amtrak board ofto directors. live coverage of the senate here on c-span2. the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso.

the clerk: 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. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. the clerk: mr. conditionkennedy.

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. mr. risch. 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. the clerk: mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker.

mr. wyden. mr. young. senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, bennet, blumenthal, boozman, butler brit, cortez masto, cotton cramer duckworth, durbin graham heinrich hyde-smith cain kennedy, king, lujan menendez, moran, ossoff, padilla peters reed rosen, rounds, schumer tillis van hollen warner warnock, warren whitehouse wicker and wyden. mr. mcconnell aye. ms. ernst, aye. mrs. gillibrand aye. mr. casey, aye.

ms. lummis, aye. ms. sinema, aye. ms. smith, aye. ms. hassan, aye. senators voting in the negative -- cassidy, crapo, hagerty johnson, lee marshall, paul rubio, schmitt, scott of florida, tuberville and vance. mr. coons, aye. mr. barrasso, aye. mrs. capito, aye.

mr. schatz, aye. the clerk: mr. thune, aye. mr. cruz, aye. the clerk: mrs. murray, aye.

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

ms. collins, aye. mr. cornyn, aye. ms. hirono, aye. mrs. fischer, aye. the clerk: mr. ricketts, aye.

the clerk: mrs. shaheen, aye.

the clerk: mr. sanders, aye.

the clerk: mr. hoeven,, no. the clerk: mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, aye.

the clerk: mr. tester, aye.

mrs. blackburn. mr. merkley, aye. mrs. blackburn, no. the clerk: mr. booker, aye.

ms. klobuchar, aye.

the clerk: mr. markey, aye.

the clerk: mr. daines, no.

the clerk: mr. fetterman, aye.

the clerk: mr. hawley, no. ms. cantwell, aye. vote:

the clerk: mr. risch, no.

the clerk: mr. manchin, aye.

mr. browne, aye. -- brown -- mr. brown: aye.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye. mr. mr. -- the clerk: mr. mullin, aye.

mr. welch, aye. mr. braun, no.

the clerk: mr. grassley, aye.

the clerk: mr. young, aye.

the clerk: mr. hickenlooper, aye. mr. yom, aye. -- mr. remove m /* romney, aye. the presiding officer: the yeas are 79, the nays are 18, 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. the clerk will report the next nomination. the clerk: am trek board of directors, joel matthew szabat to be a director. the presiding officer: the question occurs 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. 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. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio.

mr. sanders.

the clerk: 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 --

britt, capito carper cortez masto, crapo, durbin fisher grassley hassan hawley hickenlooper kaine, lee, lujan, mullin murray romney schatz shaheen, sinema smith, tester thune, welch, wicker young. mr. cassidy voted in the negative.

the clerk: mr. lankford, aye. mr. daines aye.

the clerk: mr. tuberville aye. mr. manchin, aye. mr. markey aye. mr. brown, aye.

the clerk: ms. cantwell, aye.

the clerk: mr. cramer aye. mr. paul no.

the clerk: mr. ossoff, aye.

ms. klobuchar, aye. mr. rounds aye. mr. heinrich aye. mr. peters aye.

the clerk: mr. moran, aye. mr. warnock, aye. mr. king aye. mr. schmitt, aye. vote:

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

the clerk: mr. cornyn, aye.

the clerk: ms. butler, aye. mr. johnson, aye. mr. menendez, aye.

the clerk: mr. budd, aye.

the clerk: ms. lummis, aye. the clerk: mr. cassidy, aye.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, aye. mr. marshall, aye.

the clerk: mr. cotton, aye. ms. baldwin, aye.

the clerk: mr. bennet, aye. mr. risch, aye. the clerk: mr. cardin, aye. mr. kennedy, aye. ms. duckworth, aye.

the clerk: ms. collins, aye.

the clerk: mr. reed, aye. mr. braun, aye. mr. booker, aye. mr. sanders, aye.

the clerk: ms. ernst, aye. the clerk: mr. boozman, aye.

cleric cleric mr. murphy, aye. the clerk: mr. murphy aye. mr. ricketts, aye.

the clerk: mr. rubio, aye. the clerk: mr. padilla, aye.

the clerk: mr. barrasso, aye.

the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, aye.

the clerk: mr. van hollen, aye.

the clerk: mr. fetterman, aye.

the clerk: mr. wyden, aye. mr. graham, aye. ms. warren, aye.

mr. hoeven, aye. the clerk: mr. merkley, aye.quelyn.

the clerk: mr. mcconnell, aye.

the clerk: mr. warner, aye.

the clerk: mr. whitehouse aye.

mr. blumenthal, aye. the clerk: mr. coons, aye. ms. hirono aye. mr. scott of florida, aye. the clerk: ms. stabenow, aye.

the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. vote:

vote: the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: ms. rosen, aye.

the clerk: mr. casey, aye.

the clerk: mr. cruz, aye.

the clerk: mr. schumer, aye. the presiding officer: the yeas are 96, the nays are one. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will immediately notified of the senate's action. majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to l the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the position is agreed to. mr. schumer: mr. president, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 471. the presiding officer: the question is on themotion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination the judiciary, kirk edward sherriff of california to be unite states district judge for the eastern district of california. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 471 kirk edward sherriff of california to be united states district judge for the eastern district of california signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. those in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. they do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 459. the presiding office the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. the ayes appear to have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination the judiciary judiciary, domestic the clerk: the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 459, joshua collar, of

and why indiana. mr. schumeg officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask that the mandatory quorum call be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i yield the floor. mrs. hyde-smith: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from mississippi. mrs. hyde-smith: mr. president, i rise to tell you the story of one of my constituents named hannah. when faced with an unplanned pregnancy, she chose life for her baby. despite coming from a long line

of single mothers, hannah was able to overcome her circumstances and create a better life for herself and her daughter. at 18 years old, hannah learned she was pregnant. her child's father drained her savings and spent it on drug abuse. disgus hopeless just weeks into her pregnancy, hannah went to her local pregnancy center women's resource center in gulfport mississippi where she began to receive weekly parenting classes. in november 2014 hannah gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named ava, a name which means life. as a single mother bringing a child into her and hannah struggled to overcome severe postpartum depression in the early months after the birth of her daughter. when she turned 21 hannah got a job at a casino an answer to her prayers.

this job gave her a sense of pride and independence. when ava turned 3, hannah met the love of her life and together they welcomed another daughter macy. after hannah got married in 2020 he legally adopted ava before she started kindergarten stepping in to be the father she had never had before. this year hannah felt god's call and now works as a volunteer at the same women's resource center in gulfpmississippi, that helped her as a client nearly a decade ago. there she uses her life experiences to give hope and help to unplanned pregnancies. hannah writes with god we don't have to be victims of our circumstances. we can be victors who will rise up from anything. hannah's story is part of the untold story of the pro-lifeve goes

on at many other pregnancy centers in mississippi and across the nation. last week the good works conducted by pregnancy maternity homes were recognized by the tens of thousands of pro-life americans who came to washington, d.c. last friday for the 51st annual march for life. they marched not only for the protection of every unborn child from the moment conception but also to support mothers. this year's march for life theme was with every for every child. highlighted the fact that no woman should ever feel alone in their pregnancy journey. the life impact of pregnancy centers is considerable and growing following the dobbs decision that allowed lifesaving loss to take effect in -- laws to take affect across america. in addition to having loved ones and communities to lean on every woman should know of the lifesaving work of pregnancy centers and maternity homes

across the country. a new study found that 2,750 pregnancy centers provided more than 16 million clients and over 358 -- $358 million in free life-affirming goods and services in these included free sonograms, pregnancy tests, diapers, parenting classes, pregnancy counseling adoption referrals, and other compassionate support and resources. despite what the radical pro-abortion left wants us to the pro-life movement is also a pro-woman movement with a lost history of empowering women during pregnancy and after. i believe congress must build on that history by promoting policies that support pregnancy centers, maternity homes and strong families so more pregnant women will have the support they need as they embark on a

beautiful and sacred chapter of their lives. every human life is a priceless gift but the cost and challenges for new parents are very real. we need to start putting our money where our mouth is. to that end i along with congresswoman carol miller of west virginia in the house introduced the pregnancy center support act. this legislation would create a first ever federal tax credit for pregnancy centers. it would reimburse 50% of up to $10,000 in donations to these centers. this would empower pregnancy centers with much-needed resources to meet the growing demands of supporting women and families in a post-roe america. my legislation would build on the work of my state of mississippi. in may 2020 a month before the dobbs decision the mississippi legislature enacted a groundbreaking state tax credit

for donations to pregnancy centers. mississippi currently spends $10 million each year on its credit and i'm glad to see other states are also considering similar credits to provide life-affirming support to pregnant women in need in their states. at this very moment when pregnancy centers are needed the most they have come under unprecedented attas, including vandalism and firebombing. according to catholic vote there have been over 88 violentcy centers and pro-life groups documented since the leak of the dobbs decision in 2022. pregnancy centers have also come under attack from pro-abortion politicians, big tech and state attorneys general, which have sought to fine censor or regulate them out of existence. in particular i am deeply concerned by the biden

proposed rules targeting pregnancy centers aiming to strip away millions of dollars through the temporary assistance to needy families that now supports these centers in several states. we must fight back against this. alongside congressman chris smith of new jersey i have introduced the let pregnancy centers serve act. this bill would block the administration's proposed action and protect pregnancy centers that are serving countless women from discrimination. the democrats' tacks on pregnancy centers are disgraceful, and we must do more to support this lifesaving work. theovement believes that every life counts every mother every father and every child, and that's why we strive for an end to abortion. we must also support families and come alongside pregnant women in need. for all -- to all the americans

who marched for life last week and to women like hannah who choose life and now works at a pregnancy center to help others choose life thank you for standing with every woman and for every child. i yield the floor.

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mr. lee: mr. president.

the presiding officer: yes the senator from utah. mr. lee: mr. president, american students are failing. reading and math scores are at historic lows nation-wide in places like baltimore. 40% of high schools don't even have a sufficient math student. not a single one. this is 40% of the schools in baltimore can't find a single math-proficient student. this must be a wake-up call because t school districts aren't alone. there are others that are fail ago. and, yes, there is a wide array of performance outcomes in school districts across the country, but this kind of trend is being seen more and more seemingly every day. so it has to be a wake-up call. it's proof that our education system has lost its way. it has betrayed its charge and lost our trust.

now, to be clear, to be perfectly clear, our students' failures are not of their own making. those failures are the unintended yet undeniable consequences and the students the innocent victims of a one-size-fits-all one-size-fits-all education system that's ventured into the business of ideological conformity forsaking our children's literacy for the pursuit of social engineering. american classrooms have become arenas where history is rewritten and parents, the rightful stewards of children's futures, are marginalized or in some instances labeled as domestic terrorists just this new order. it comes as no surprise that parents are seeking alternative ways to educate their children. in fact, "the washington post" found that since 2018 homeschooling has increased by 51% while public school enrollment is decreasing year

after year. so these parents are making a different decision and who can blame them? who can blame parents for wanting to shield their children from inappropriate school materials, inappropriate school materials that parents outraged upon discovering that these things are being shared with their students. sometimes they are hale sufficiently upset about it and may show up at a school boardill read the materials that are being given to their children in a public school and then be told that they have to stop that they have to stop reading it because it's too inappropriate. it's making too many people uncomfort accountable. well if it's inappropriate to be read at a school board meeting because makes the school board or spectators uncomfortable, then it's inappropriate to be taught in the schools. in any event, it is the parents' decision as to whether it is inappropriate and a parent who

decides that their child is be this kind of material ought to have the opportunity, without excessive difficulty created by the government toerent educational option. -- for the parents' children. who can blame parents forn into their own hands when year after year they're not seeing improvement in their children's learning. parents, you see, and not school boards and senior will i not unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats are the fundamental drivers of their children's education. this is the way it always should be. now, i introduced a bill a bill that had a call the i believe that parents endowed in innate and instinctive wisdom and an unbreakable bond with their children are the rightful

navigators of their children's educational journey. the asaic would deliver on this by fortifying the rule of education accounts as vital tools for parents. traditionally college expenses the asaic expands these boundaries to include homeschooling in a broader array of school expenses allowing parents with students to spend their hardcertained money on als, books, online resources, tuition and therapies for students with disabilities. the asaic enhances federal tax exemptions for distributions exec philadelphia doubling the annual distribution cap from $10,000 to $20,000 and introducing tax-exempt gifting provisions. these changes ensure that families can allocate more of

their hard-earned money or even a generous gift toward their children's educational journeys and to do so without the unnecessary strain of an excessive tax burden to go along with it. you have to remember that these things that parents are concerned about when they decide they need to do something different for their child's education, including these inappropriate materials to which they're being exposed in many instances, these are paid for by money that already came from the parents. it's built into their tax bill. they pay it. they're already paying for it. and so they shouldn again and again and again that they have no choice in it t -- in it, that they have no choice in it and then be penalized with no recourse at all when they decide a different educational approach is appropriate and necessary for their child.

this ought to be their choice and governments ought to do as little as possible to interfere with that. governments shouldn't be punishing parents for making that choice. and so the asaic states to embrace more school choice policies and laws. under the asaic, if states have qualifying school choice laws already enacted, they'd lose the federal income tax exemption on municipalld thus encourage the states to do the right thing, encourage more states to do what more states have already wisely done which is to give parents more choice in public education. mr. president, the guardians of our future are not in fact distant bureaucrats but, rather the parents and families who live breathe, and dream of a better tomorrow for th the asaic provides a rallying call to embrace school choice to honor categorical freedom,

and give the most responsibility to the ones who have the most at stake in it, which is families. to be driven primarily by parents. the lamentable state of our educational system is a stark indication that america's educational status quo has faltered. to correct course we've got to trust parents to discern what's best for their best for the children better than any government bureaucrat ever could or ever will. they care infin at this timely for their -- they care infinitely for their children. their love for them knows no boun detriment and understand that parents are very much inclined and incentivized in so many ways that the government never could be to look out for the best educational interests of their children. to plot a brighter course for

them so as they continue to be taxed by the state and then told by the state that they've got to send their child only to a particular institution, alternatives and some of those alternatives we can make less burdensome less onerous and less punitive to the extent they're chosen by the starntss. -- by the parents. by championing the principles of choice and freedom and education and ensuring government doesn't stand? the way of this endeavor we can foster an environment in which america's students can an education system that truly serves them. opponents of efforts like these will sometimes build a rallying cry, a rallying cry that talks about the importance of the public education system. yes, the public education system is important, and this is part of it.

this is not distinct from the public education system. schoolart of the public education system. because when you take money from someone through the tax system with the that you'll educate their children with it you owe it to them to give them options to not parliamentary inquiry -- and to not pigeonhole them. sometiissue, sometimes it is not. for many parents they're happy with their existing public school options. but more often than not it's not options. it's an option. it's just take it or leave it. some parents can afford fine making a different choice but they need to be given more options that are less punitive. because it is after allp to the parents to make sure that their children are educated that they're treated well, that they're cared for well a understand that they're not being fed parents find abhorrent.

that's why this is about so much more than just the education system. this was about freedom of speech freedom of religion, freedom of -- within a family for a parent to look out for the best interests of their having the state or the federal government unreasonably unfairly intruding on them. it's time mr. president to options, and it's time to pass the isasack. thank you, mr. president. -- pass the asaic. thank you, mr. president. mr. president i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

no woman should have sheriff quorum call:

a recent story of yours from the

boston globe called this the incredible shrinking primary in new hampshire. what did you mean by that. >> this primary is historic handed upset the apple cart of american politics. if you look at the 2024 primary calendar you need a circle of january 23. the stakes could not be higher. look at the first early primary states of bio new hampshire nevada iowa and south carolina.here they could be vulnerable there and maybe the coordination to the republican nomination may not go smoothly as you thought. consistently pulling around 42, 43 45% for much of the year. because that on the republican the first test for joe biden as president to see if democrats are enthusiastic to him if they are concerned for him. as well as here in new hampshire

concern about the age. particularly among those on the left. this is the first sort of valid test for him. he has not on the ballot. there is a right and effort here at the same time everything about this primary seems smaller the field of candidates is smaller. the number of events the candidates are doing is smaller. the crowd sizes are smaller. a few more debates but there are no debates. less enthusiasm on the g here. i took a picture last night up a pretty high-end restaurant that would normally be full on primary eve with reporters and political types. this has not been the same primary i've been you still. this has been my seventh new hampshire primary. there is structural reasons for that. specific reasons for this

campaign. >> pulling off the victory that nikki haley today in the republican primary would need a performance. what does that mean? >> the only sort of historic parallel to what we have seen in 2024 on the republican side was george w. bush in 2000. at the time, texas governor son of a president he had just won the iowa caucuses pretty candidly. if you head to the polls dominant front runner nationwide and then along came john mccain in new hampshire. polls here show him also down. a stunning 18-point win. one of the amazing primary war stories. doing it basically if you want to look at two or three different metrics. one with the deep support of these independent voters we've

been talkingsa about all morning. full request for committees to meet during the senate. having the approval of the majority and minority leaders. mr. president national gun violence gun survivors week. coming down to the floor today to share with my colleagues the meaning and the impact of this week. the meaning and impact of a national network of gun violence survivors. on the debate to change the nation's gun laws. hai also want to share with my ood news about what is happened over the course of the last year since the passage of the bipartisan safer communities act the first significant change in our nation's gun laws in 30 years. i want to start by talking about survivors.

i want to start by talking about two people that i have referenced on the floor of the senate. sam and janet shared a s a pretty remarkable young man. not without challenges but he has written up and met those challenges. on october 20, 2012, just the month before the shooting at sandy hook the victim of violence in hartford that year. in a particularly random act of violence he was fixing up cs and selling them for a small profit. he was transferring one of those cars to an acquaintance. his girlfriend wasse with him. some course words were exchanged between the two parties about

his girlfriend. a physical altercation broke out going to his car where he had a gun. an illegal gun. he took it out and he shot shane oliver. in exchange of words for when he reached the hospital he was dead twenty years old. a whole life ahead of him. network of survivorspr. also a daughter. both sam and janet went through the work of preventing gun violence. l advocates in hartford to try to create a reality in which the kind of random death that kind of random gun violence wouldty anymore in hartford and they devoted themselves to gthat work. janet joined an organization that responded to shooting

spirit trying to interrupt the cycles of violence that often happen in hartford. spending much of the last several years responding on the anightly episodes of violence will be shooting spirit she stood in her car and stood for that scene. ndas she was driving there she got a second call from her to pull over. janet, you cannot be driving when you hear this news. the young woman that was shot, that you are going to respond to is your granddaughter. shane's daughter. she died that night. a couple days i went to ouher funeral. that is what is going on out there. four sam and janet shane and a decade later they lost shane's daughter.

i wish that their story was the anomaly, but it is not. there are thousands of families in this country that have lost multiple loved ones. brothers and sisters. daughters and granddaughters. to this epidemic of gun violence and, so, on this week when we commemorate the survivors it's important to understand the depths of this strategy. it is also important to celebrate the work that the survivors have done. over the past 10 years in particular through a number of organizations in thisex country survivors like sam and janet have come together to demand the congress state legislatures, mayors and city councils do something to stop this reality in which parents and grandparents have to lose sons and granddaughters to gun violence. and, last year we finally

stepped up to the plate and did something. in part b survivors. the theory was if we make a big change in the nation's gun laws to make it a little bit harder for dangerous people to get their hands on dangerous weapons , then we can try to make a in the epidemic levels of gun homicide in this country. i have said all of this standing next to this chart. so you know the suc to tell you. last year, urban homicides in this nation fell by 12.1%. that is the biggest one year reduction in the history of the united states of america. now, is that a cause for celebration? no. because there is many people in this country that are dying at the hands of gun violence. but, we should appreciate the fact that a one-year 12%

reduction in urban homicides is proof that when you change the the country our communities get safer. i want to talk to you just for what happened over the past year. urban homicides fell by 12%. gun related injuries and deaths all across the country have falleng by 10%. again, just an absolute remarkable one year reduc. 10% reduction in gun injuries and gun deaths in a one-year period of time. and theca reason that this is happening is an parts because we change the law. one of the things that happened over theea course of this last year as we started to get a lot more careful about selling guns to young buyers. and, so we have had a number of young buyers in this country who

have been disqualified weapon. often those young buyers are in crisis and by stopping hundreds of young people from buying assault weapons, because we found out through the provisions of this bill that they were in crisisty. we have likely interrupted many mass shootings. second a lot more prosecutions of gun traffickers because we made gun trafficking a federal crime.s have been successfully completed over the last year against gun trafficking rings. that means there are less guns in our city that are being trafficked on the black market. we havele more red flag laws in this country and stronger red flag laws in part because we put money in that act to encourage states to adopt and strengthen their red flag laws. these take on temporarily for people i crisis or making threats against other community members. those red flag laws have become more important. we have put out the door

$438 million for community anti- gun violence like the work that janet rice and sam sailor dealha. there are dozens of anti-gun violence organizations in our cities that are receiving money to help them interrupt violence. we have put billions of dollars out the door for additional mental, health services particularly targeting young people who are often the primary victims in the primary perpetrators of gun crime in this country. now i cannot tell you that this 12% reduction in urban homicides is completely due to the implementation of the bipartisan sector communities. i cannot tell you that. but what i know is if you look at the trajectorye, the biggest drops alwayssu happen right after congress does a better job of regulating firearms. the two biggest drops and

violence in this country's history are right after the 1930s right after the 1990s brady bill an assault weapons ban. whether this trend continues i don't know. but if it does or even if we get a 6% reduction next year and any % reduction the next year, this could represent the third in this country 's history. if that is the trajectory act piece of that story is a bipartisan legislation that we passed. as we commemorate gun violence survivors week itemember that when you lose a loved one especially in that sudden violent way to gun violence there is no repair. there is no recovery. your life never returns to normal. after janet lost shane she not leave her house for months. would not leave her house for

months. and when she finally did start leaving her house often she would do it in this manner. often late at night when the streets of hartford were quiet. she would get in her car she would drive from her home to the site that shane was shot. she actually got to see shane alive after he was shot. she held him in her arms as he bled out. she would go to that site which is two blocks away from where i live in hartford. she would turn on her high beams and she would wait. she told me the story and i asked her what are you waiting for. what were you waiting for? she said i was waiting for shane to come back. she will go to the site where he was shot, that he bled to death in her arms. she would turn on her high beams in hopes that maybe come back. that just gives you one single

window into what life is like for her mother when they lose a son or a daughter to gun violence. survivors of gun violence, those that have lived through shooting or those that have lost loved ones in a shooting, their lives have been lost forever. we pay tribute by recognizing the work that they have done to rattle the conscious of this country, to change the gumballs of this country in a historic way leading to the one-year drop in urban homicides in this country's history. i yield to the floor.rony with a knife knife. after years of presenting themselves as sanctuary cities officials, many of them well intentioned throughout our co learned in 2023 mr. president, that the crisis at our southern border is not just a crisis for southern states

like texas and arizona, and even my state. it's an american crisis. today president biden's failed border policies have wreaked havoc in every single corner of the united states including in my state, louisiana. according to one estimate and it's not the only estimate but i think this is a very telling estimate louisianians pay an additional $4,613 a migrant. that's about a year in state taxes because of illegal immigration. now, the people of louisiana support legal immigration just like they support the rule of law. but they do not support illegal immigration. and it's not just the money.

it's a moral issue for them. it's a constitutional issue. as i said the rule of law. but it' a money issue as well. my people pay $4,613 migrant. my people have to come out of pocket -- out of pocket $604 million a year to deal with president biden's ill happening at a time when louisiana families are also having to come out of pocket an extra $800 a month to deal with inflation. $840 a month just inflation. so that $604 million we spend to deal with the illegal immigration, not legal but illegal immigration could provide a lot of relief to the families in my state who have to sell blood plasma in order to go to the grocery store. now, sanctuary cities to their credit they're finally starting to understand what louisianians

have figured out for a time. in new york city, for example -- and i love new york city. i think it's one of the most extraordinary cities in the word maybe the most extraordinary. i love it. breaks my heart to see what's happening there. in new york city elected officials just had to force -- just recently had to force thousands of students to stay home. they couldn't gol so that thousands of migrants illegal i grants that the biden -- migrants that the biden administration allowed to enter the country could have a place to stay. what have we come to mr. president? we have to send kids home so they can't learn so folks who have come to our country illegally can have a place to stay. in massachusetts governor healey asked residents to start hosting because many shelters have reached capacity. several suburban cities.

chicago recently voted to restrict buses from unloading illegal migrants in their cities. these suburban areas are outside of chicago. because the american people are compassionate people. we don't want people to starve to death and to die in the snow from hypothermia. but at the same time you don't get a free lunch. there's no free lunch and you don't get one now. costs money. we have as you know mr. president, as many as 12,000 migrants arriving at the southern border each day. secretary mayorkas confirmed that the biden administration admits more than 85 of these into our country. since president biden has been president, we have had 8.6 million people that we know of

come into our country illegally. that's four nebraskas. four nebraskas. now, no city in america, i don't care how well run or how mismanaged can handle the massive influx of illegal migrants that the biden administration continues to release into america. that's just a fact. taxpayers, students shelter providers, hotel customers, law enforcement officials in america are suffering because of these bad policies. they've got to deal with it. the white house doesn't have to deal with it. the people on our front lines do. and as you can tell mr. president, i am very concerned about the burden president biden's policies have placed on cities throughout the country, but i want to focus today on a subset of that really terrible problem. that's the national security threat. national security threat that this problem poses to every

american including my people in louisiana. president biden's border policies are not just a human rights disaster. though they certainly are. but his policies have also provided the perfect cover, the perfect cover for terrorist sympathizers for child sex offenders for cartel associates to enter the country illegally. all you have to do is mix in because nobody is checking anybody. the numbers that i'm about to give you will make you throw up. border patrol apprehended 169 members of the f.b.i.'s terrorist watch list attempting southern border illegally in 2023 alone.

169. it only takes one terrorist. that's more than ten times the number of potential terrorists that border patrol detained in the four years before president biden took office. that's just a fact. the men and women who earned eir spot on the fbi's terror list do so by associating with groups that hate america. they hate our values. they hatecountry. they hate our people. many of them want to kill us and drink our blood out of a boot. and yet they're coming across the southern border. these terrorist stifrp thesers, some -- sympathizers in some cases terrorists they may be evil but they're not stupid. they know they can blend in in the border and come in unnoticed. for example, cnn reported a few

months ago that someone who had worked as adent contractor for isis helped smuggle more than a dozen people from uzbekistan to our border. overwhelmed officials at our border processed each migrant's asylum claim without triggering a single red flag not a single red flag. and then they released the whole group, every one of them into the u.s. to among innocent american citizens while they waited for their immigration court dates. which takes -- which takes four years. you think after four years they're going to show up for their court date? the fbi finally uncovered the problem. they finally uncover eded -- after border officials released the group into the country.he fbi caught the mistake and caught what happened and it set off a mad search of course to try and track down all these

individuals. now, the men and women of isis i don't need to tell you, mr. president, are some of the most dangerous people on earth. i'm not sure they're human. they have bloodstains under their fingernails. americans unfortunately will remember that isis gleefully, gleefully beheaded our citizens. the terrorist sympathizers on the fbi watch list certainly pose a threat mr. president, to innocent americans in louisiana land other states but at least we know a little bit about it. we know they hope to bring amer tools to track them. thank goodness for that. my stomach turns, though mr. president, when i consider the thousands of migrants we know nothing about. we don't even know where they've come in. they hail from countries with millions of people who hate us. excuse me, mr. president.

customs and border protection calls these people special interestf= aliens. that's not my term. that's the term that cbp uses. in the past two years, border patrol has encountered 6,8 -- let me try that again. 6, 6,086 afghans, 538 syrians all trying to enter the country illegally. apprehended more than 24,000 chinese nationals in fiscal year 2023 alone. that's more chinese immigrants than they caught in the past ten years combined. i'm not saying these are all bad people. i am not saying that mr. president. i don't doubt that some of these special interest aliens as the

authorities call them may have good intentions may want to live the american dream. but you would be a fool you would be a fool to think that men like president xi jingping of china and the ayatollah of iran wouldn't exploit happily, enthusiastically president biden's catch and release playbook to bring obtain and terror to the american people. i mean after all, we know what mexico's cartels have done. they've been exploiting our open borders for years. their weapon of choice is fentanyl. the cartels kill tens of thousands of u.s. citizens per year by working with china to flood our communities with fentanyl. that fentanyl comes from china, and it comes from mexico. louisiana lost more than 1,300

loved ones to fentanyl poisoning in 2022 alone. the narco-terrorists flood our communities with poison and fill their coffers with as much as $1 billion a year. and that fentanyl comes -- the precursor precursor chemicals come from china and the fentanyl comes from mexico and the mexican politicians know what's going on and they let it happen. if you took mexico's cartels and turned them upside down and shook them, hundreds of mexican politicians would fall out of their pocket. and president biden does nothing. zero. zilch. nada. in addition to fentanyl the cartels make billions running -- they run human trafficking rings, they steer the unvetted

migrants to america, including many of the caravans we've seen in recent months right into the united states. and the cartels -- don't take these cartels as social workers. don't think these cartels are small business people who want to make sure people get good service for their money. these cartels, these members, they put the migrants through hell as they march them across the southern border. predators sexually assault an estimated four out of five women. it is unsurprising then that many of the male migrants the cartels ushered to the border are also known sex offenders. in just two months mr. president, just two months border patrol agents in texas caught 21 known child predators, in two months in one state, border patrol caught 21 known

child predators attempting to enter this country illegally. imagine how many we don't know about. border patrol apprehended 284 sex offenders in fiscal year 2023 alone. the southern border is an open bleeding wound. everyone suffers excepthe cartels. they make billions. and that's why i helped introduce the narcos act earlier this year. narcos act would designate mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and allow u.s. -l prosecutors to arrest those in charge a -- in charge. president biden's border contributed to the deaths of too many americans and too many louisianans.

it gives me no joy to say that. there are some things beyond politics. we can do better. we deserve better. the american people asked for better. but they keep getting worse. in march, for example a cartel smuggler struck and killed a 71-year-old american grandmother and her 77-year-old -- 7-year-old granddaughter after he crashed his vehicle after trying to evade law enforcement in texas. this illegal migrant also killed two of the migrants he was smuggling in the back of his truck. just last week an illegal migrant with four prior deportationsright, four. four times he came in he got caught he was sent back. sometime he reentered the drive drunk

and kill a mother and her son in chicago -- in colorado. this man had a very length when i criminal record of not just deportations but also alcohol abuse and wreckless driver -- reckless driving. an official of ice said this man had no regard for immigration law, none yet he was able country, drive drunk, and kill two innocent people. i'm not surprised he has noregard for immigration law. legal immigration and legal immigration laws are for suckers is the attitude of the people coming across the border. why be vetted? why wait? why fill out the paperwork when president biden and vice president harris will just let you walk across? i mean how is this possible? why c't this administration see the threat at the southern

border an open bleeding wound, poses to the american people? i've been down there at the southern border, i've talked to the agents. i know that our agents are doing the very best they possibly can. but their work goes to waste folks, when president biden refuses to address the failed policies that have created this mess. the southern border a cesspool of human suffering. that's just a fact. it's a national embarrassment. it's the biggest national security threat our country faces, and that's saying something. people in my state do not understand the president's commitment to keeping the border open to criminals, to sex traffickers, to drug dealers. but they do suffer because of his decisions.

now, i want to end this way, mr. president -- and i think i made my point. the american people support legal immigration. i do. i know you do mr. president. i don't know this year's numbers, but last year we admitted about a million people in our country illegally, our world's neighbors.this is the greatest country in all of human history, and the whole world knows it. when is the last time you heard of somebody trying to sneak into china? they want to come to america. because we're the land of opportunity, and we care about our fellow human beings whether they're born in the united states or not. sometimes people say ah the american people are selfish.

they get a little -- i get a li say that in. in other countries they'll let people die in a ditch. not in america. in our country, when you're homeless we'll house you. when you're hungry we'll feed you. when you're too poor to be sick we'll pay for your doctor. and we do welcome our world's neighbors to come in illegally and i get upset when some of my colleagues -- not all of them but some people say, well kennedy, you're racist because vetting people at the border is racist. no it's not, mr. president. it's prudent. i read this somewhere once and i'll end on this point, that it made great sense to me. the american people are not they're not xenophobic and they're plowed that wikimedia -- and they're

proud that people want to come to their country. they want to know who's coming in and who's going out of the american people see the southern border like they see the front door of their home. most americans lock their front door at night. they don't do that because they hate everybody on the outside. most americans lock their front door at night because they love the people on the inside. and they just want to know who's coming in and out of their home. and that's all the american people want in terms of immigration. they support legal immigration, but they want people to be properly vetted and they want to know who's coming in and out of their country. and for theme i don't -- i don't hate anybody, mr. president. i don't. and i certainly don't hate the president. but i do not understand his

policy on the border. i just don't. i hear him talk to us a lot about democracy and the rule of law. and those -- boy, that's important. there's not single person in this body that doesn't believe in democracy. and have respect for the rule of law. but the legal immigration laws don't have an asterisk by it. now, we could secure this border. we could secure it, i think, in six weeks. here's what we need to do -- i'm not even sure it would take legislation. there are laws on the books right now. it is a fact, if you try to sneak in our country illegally and you get caught, you're supposed to be immediately deported. we need to enforce the law. number if you claim asylum

under the 1951 u.n. resolution that we agreed to, you're entitled to have your asylum claim heard. but 70% of asylum claims fail. once youtube your a.i. -- once your asylum claim fails you're supposed to be immediately deported. president biden is deporting none of those people. number three, we need a remain-in-mexico program. it doesn't mean that people claiming asylum won't get their day in court. they just need to remain at home or remain in mexico until their day in court comes. number four, the whole purpose of our asylum policy is to keep people from being persecuted politically. that means, if you feel unsafe in your country, you can to another country, but the law says -- the u.n. resolution and treaty to which we agreed says if you you'll be prosecuted illegally in your own

country, then you have to seek safety in the first safe country that you go into. that's not for about 90% proliferate our migrants in the united states. if we had a safe third country policy, which president biden can do like that -- he could do it -- he could do it by 6:00 -- then that would solve about90% of our problem. and for the life of me mr. president i don't understand why, but i know this -- we don't have the slightest idea who these millions and millions of people are. and it only takes once -- it only takes one terrorist. i appreciate your patience mr. president. i yield the floor. mrs. blackburn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i appreciate so much hearing my colleague talk about the issues at the border, and i want to touch on some of those today

also but i want to talk some about inflation and what we are hearing at home in tennessee. and, as i talkeded to weekend -- you know we've had a terrible cold snap in tennessee. we've had a lot of snow. we have had single-digiteratures even subzero temperatures. and people have talked a lot about the priorities of this administration when it comes to energy and about how president biden said we're going to do this transition we're going to have the green new deal and he spent $ 6 trillion on this -- $6 trillion on this green new deal concept. well, that with the inflation, has caused higher prices lower wages, and really has inserted uncertainty into our economy.

now, the president has really ignored the chaos that has come about from his failed bidenomics and failed green new deal agendas. he keeps trying to say -- and he's been out giving saying that we are a -- and i'm quoting him -- story of progress. well let me tell you something. if he's talking about progress it is the wrong direction, because, as i said people are facing higherhey are facing wage stagnation; they are looking at uncertainty. when it comeso job security when it comes to economic security. the president also likes to say that he is -- and i'm quoting him again -- growing the economy from the middle out and the bottom up.

but, mr. president, let me tell you, when i talk to tennesseans, that is not happening. they talk about how the economy is shrinking, and they also talk about about how costs are just hammering them every single month. now i think so when we talk about inflation and the state of the nation's economy, we have to look at where president biden started. when he took the oath of rate in this country was at 1.4%. what he did was to run that inflation up to a 40-year high at 9.1%. now they run around saying we've gotten inflation back down to

3.4%. but still you have to look collectively at what has happened. now, under preside biden, i've got some of the headlines here that show you what is here is the reason why, mr. president. prices across the board, it's not 3.4% that people are seeing. it is 17.3%. the cost of clothing is up prices are up 19%. food prices are up 20%. gas prices when you go to the pump it's up 30%. and home heating and cooling 31%. and rates are at a two-decade high. that has led to bidenflation and it has led to some of these headlines.

analysis finds americans need an extra $11,400 a year to afford the basics the basics. that means just treading water,extra. 62% of the americans are living paycheck to paycheck as holiday spending and credit card debt rise. people are pulling the plastic out in order to try to make ends meet. and then you have another one from yahoo finance. why a record number of americans struggling to pay rent. cbs, millions of older workers are nearing retirement with nothing saved. you have cnn business inflation isn't beaten yet, and the risk of a new price shock are rising. and we also know that according to the joint economic committee,

families in tennessee spent $10,344 more last year than they did in 2021 just to meet the purchasing of the same basket of goods. that is what joe biden's economic policies have done to our pocketbooks. it is what it is doing to taxpayers. and at the same time our nation's debt has now reached a record $34 trillion. now, if colleagues have a grandchild or a baby that was born this year they can welcome that baby with $100,000 worth of federal debt. that is their share of this nation's debt. now president biden's out-of-control inflationary spending

the american people but to make matters worse, his administration has tried to regulate every single part of your life -- the car you drive, the stove that you use, the washing machine for washing clothes, the type dishwasher even what you are wanting to do with the fireplace. this is what they are doing with regulations, and these regulations are estimated to cost families another $10,000 each year because of added costs. it is not sustainable, and congress absolutely cannot keep kicking the can down the road on this. dealing with this and this debt is an imperative. now there are some things that we could do. we could return to regular order and pass spending bills that would get this house in order.

that means no more massive omnibus bills that saddle future generations with an unsustainable debt. each year in order to address problem i've bruised legislation -- i've introduced legislation that would make 1% 2% or 5% across-the-board spending cuts. that would target nondefense nonhomeland security and nonveterans affairs discretionary spending for the next fiscal year. we also need to cut down on the size of the federal bureaucracy. we have 2.2 million federal bureaucrats that cost americans billions of dollars in taxes and overbearing regulations. addressing the rising salaries and the size of the federal government workforce should be a

top priority when considering how to rein in federal government and how to control spending. this would begin the process of draining the swamp of unelected bureaucratsre not accountable to anyone and would change the decisions that they are making about americans' lives. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the next portion of my remarks be placed separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. last week after weeks of attacks on commercial vessels in the red sea, president biden designated the iran-backed houthis as a specially designated global terrorist group. now, the houthis sd never have been taken off the list of terrorist organizations.

they had been placed on this list by president trump, and then president biden decides to take them off. he was trying to appease iran. t doing this he only emboldened the ayatollah's terror proxies. we all know that hamas and hezbollah, the houthis, isis in syria, isis in iraq they groups for iran. yet, the national security spokesman, john kirby, is still defending the decision to take the houthis off the list of foreign terrorist organizations. it is difficult to unravel all the catastrophic mistakes that this administration has made on this very issue. now, we've had over 150 missile

attacks firan-backed proxies against our armed forces and also against commercial vessels. president biden has redesignated the houthis only as a specially designated designated global terrorist group. as i said he didn't designate them as a foreign terrorist organization which is what president trump had done. now here is the difference in that designation and why it is significant. this means that the houthis can still obtain u.s. visas. there is not a criminal penalty to support them. and u.s. banks are not required to seize their funds. so the houthis can still get a visa to come to the u.s. u.s. banks cannot freeze the

funds that the houthis have and prohibit them from getting to those funds. who gives them most of their money? it comes from iran who gives them about $100 million a year plus trains them plus equips them plus arms them and allows them to carry out their bad deed. now the white house also admitted this which i think is rather stunning when you consider the fact that iran through the houthis, used 150 attacks on u.s. ships and commercial vessels. so the white house said okay houthis, if you will stop your attacks and stop attacking us in the red sea and the gulf of aidan, then the u.s. will

immediately reevaluate your designation. again, practicing appeasement. terrorists only understand one thing, and that is strength. and they know that this administration is weak. in 2021 the biden administration moved patriot missile systems out of centcom to reduce our military presence in the middle east. but in october, the president was forced to return them over growing attacks from iran's terror proxy groups. our military needs to continue attacking these threats until they no longer pose a danger to the american people to our ships and commercial vehicle, vessels. one thing is clear.

we can only achieve peace through strength and our adversaries are watching a very weak nation. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. welch: thank you, mr. president. i'm here to speak about the extension of the affordable connectivity program. mr. president, covid was brutal but something good came out of it and that was a recognition by the united states congress republicans and democrats that access to high-speed internet was absolutely essential all across america. before covid, there were many of us who represented rural states republicans and democrats, who

were making the case when people were arguing for high-speed internet that we had no-speed internet and our concerns were really dismissed by many of our urban colleagues. with the effect of covid it was apparent you couldn't go to work if you didn't have internet your kid homework if you didn't have internet. and we came to a conclusion as a congress that high-speed internet is as essential to all of america today as electricity was in the 1930's. in the 1930's when the debate was whether we build out electricity, there wasn't an economic argument that was made although that was important. it was a commitment to the social cohesion of this country that we are all in it together. whether you lived on a dirt road

in iowa or you lived in manhattan on 5th avenue we needed electricity, and we allocated billions of dollars to start building out high-speed internet across the entire country. there's another matter that is important if we're going to have access to the internet. it's affordability. and the affordable connectivey program was a lifeline for so many people in the state of vermont and states and countie and cities all across this country. if you are a vermont family with 200% of poverty level income austined live in a rural area -- you make $15,000 and you have two kids -- you could have internet going right by your house, but you had to make a really tough decision about whether you could afford it.

the affordable connectivity program helped that familiar with $30 toward the cost of the monthly bill for the high-speed internet. that doesn't sound like a lot. it's a lolt to a family that's making $15,000 or $11,000. it's tough to be poor it's hard work to be poor and a lot of parents were making decision and knew how important it was to their future. that was the only chance they had to look for jobs. that program has been tremendously beneficial to folks you represent and i represent, and to my colleagues my cosponsors on the extension bill because this program will expire in months and notices will be

going out to families that the recent they've dependped on -- depended on is expiring. but that's why the bipartisan nature of this reflects how this internet program is so essential to everybody who wants and needs to have access to internet whether they're in a republican district or not,y're a republican or not. i'm happy to cosponsor with senator congressman fitzpatrick, all of us have constituents and we all need being an access to high-speed zet -- high speed bret. we -- high speed bret. we cannot allow this program to expire. in the stant where we allowed to have the government to provide high-speed

we have districts where towns have gotten together to contract to build out that internend where that community internet has a commitment not so much to shareholders or investors, but to in the community and the goal in vermont is is to medication sure that that farmer on the last mile on that dirt road in town has access to internet. it has really worked. there has been really serious community engagement. and our local communities and districts have done a tremendous amount to let folks know those who are eligible very hardworking folks, let them know about this program where the $30 will really make a difference to whether they can hook up can't. we're really proud in vermont too of one of our first internet providers that was local called set up their own program before the affordable connectivity program was established.

so we have a decision that we have to make as a congress. will we maintain this bipartisan commitment we've had to the citizens of this country to make certain that everybody, regardless of income has the best possible opportunity to have access to that high-speed internet that is as essential to our well-being our social connection our sense of working together as electricity was in the 30's. it's very popular among republicans, at least 62%, among democrats, 90%, but most importantly among rural americans, 80% of rural americans are in favor of this and they know h is. 25,000 vermont families have benefited by it 22.5 million amer have benefited by it. let us continue the program, find the $7 billion that is necessary to maintain this and

medication sure that the progress we've made working together to build out high-speed internet make it accessible to all of our citizens continues. mr. president, i yield back. sure.

mr. moran: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permit to speak therein for up to ten minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 3646, introduced earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. amend the housing act of 1949 to extend the term of rural housing site loan and clarify the

permissible uses of such loans. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. moran: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, i'm also here today to pay tribute to honor and to mourn the passing of an american farmer a kansas farmer an entrepreneur a businessman, a philanthropist and mentor cecil o'grate. he was committed to helping others succeed and he is worthy of our tribute today and into he was born in 1928 during the great depression and he became a kansan graduated from

syracuse high school in our state, and before completing college in 1948, he left school to farm 3,000 rented acres in kansas. t the time of his death, he owned and operated tens of thousands of acres of farming land including the original 3,000 he leased. through investments in southwest kansas communities, cecil and his wife -- cecil and his wife frances has transformed countless lives. he established a named -- which became one of the ggts in our state and had scholarships for those who grew up in the foster care system or level.

cecil loved to help other succeed, particularly young people. he gave generously to many charities, and i have no doubt their charity will help many kansans for years to come. i had an opportunity to speak at the charity event. despite achieving great means and influence, he remained dedicated to the kansas and midwestern values he learned on the farm fields in hamilton county and cecil conducted himself with humility. he lived in garden city for 60 years. to nearly everyone cecil met, he there it is no substitute for an honest day's work inquisitive mind an desire

to always do more. his life was a testament to those principles and he lived them each day with authenticity and purpose. in many ways cecil o'brate exemplified the american people team. he -- american dream. he became a friend of president george w. bush. i would call it the american dream. it's what we're here to make sure is alive and well for the citizens today and the citizens who follow us. i pay tribute and respect to cecil o'brate to the work and human being he was. we are praying for his wife of 46 years and his children and the entire family and the community of southwest kansas. mr. president, i yield the floor.

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we welcome bradford cook to the "washington journal" to chair the hampshire special committee on voter confidence. the committee was formed last year the commission of cao identified the root causes of voter confidence and to find ways to reverse that trend. before we talk about the causes how deep is the decline here in 2024? >> well, i think in 2024 it's not particularly deep or than it was for the secretary of state scanlan soon after he took office when our former secretary of state retired named the committee because he was concerned more nationally i think that new hampshire there was a lot of talk about the declining confidence in elections by voters and he wanted to have a broadly based committee look into the causes but also look into the reality and the people of new hampshire on friday should have confidence

in the elections which in fact we did. >> what other caucus? >> the primary cause was the constant barrage of misinformation and former president trump to be blunt. if you tell a lyne and at times people might believe so people kept hearing about busloads of voters coming into new hampshire from massachusetts which wasn't true and they kept hearing about truckloads of ballots being taken from one place to another in other states which turned out not to be churned they were told all these things were going on in if you don't look into it and you really don't understand it you might think it was true. so our incidents in every election has never been a perfect election and there is never an election when someone votes in the wrong precinct or someone votes twice are people do things they shouldn't do that least in new hampshire those are very few and far between. >> is this the kind of thing

like people like their own congressperson that they don't like congress and would people have trust in their own selection process at the local level but have more concerned about the rest of the country out there? i don't trust what's going on out there. >> i think that's a very good point. when you hear reports about what's going on in phoenix or greater phoenix and you are in new hampshire or massachusetts you don't know what's going on in phoenix so you believe whatever the most recent report you heard was in the bank that's a tough place or you think about some of the big cities in the country that notoriously were run by political -- years ago and you learned about it in school. you don't know if that's true or not true so the far are from it the more suspicious you are of it. >> was the process for voting the physical process for voting

in new hampshire and what's the process that gives people the most confidence? >> we have several elements of our elections in new hampshire on the basis for confidence. the first one is every voter has a paper ballot. so there is a trail. there's a piece of paper that can be recounted that can be looked up. it's not just up to some device. it's not up to some accounting device in the back of some kind of machine. i remember when i was a kid the voting machines that we had when my mother used to take me in by her skirt when she voted just registered like the car odometer in the back with a number and you had the feeling that someone might feel to go in there and set the odometer back or set the odometer forward. we have a paper ballot for everybody by law. we have elections run by local officials so when you go to vote you see your next-door neighbor and i'm going to vote right after this program. i know i will go into my polling place and literally see my next

her neighbor and she has known me for 45 years and she will ask me for my i.d. because that is our law. then we see our friends and neighbors and we talk to them outside. they are holding signs that they are also doing accounting at night and a half to go home and go to bed next door and that is a supervised situation. the individual polling place supervised by the clerks and the moderators who are elected. they are supervised by the secretary of state and they are monitored by the attorney general's office. so we have a very control process that's very broad-based. you know who is doing it and you know who to ask and if you have a question about it you can do a recount of a real paper ballot. >> talk about the voting process and voter confidence in the election bradford cook cochair of the new hampshire professional committee on voter confidence phone lines as usual democrats republicans independents of the numbers on

your screen and that special number for new hampshire residents new hampshire residents 2-027-488-0003. mr. cook you where a number of hats out there in the chair of the ballot law commission in new hampshire. what is that? >> gets a commission created by her legislature made up of five members and five alternates one republican and one democrat from each category. the speaker of the house elects one democrat and one republican and one alternate for each one the present of the senate for each one and the governor selects one of each that can be from either party. we meet as a group to do several things that are assigned to us by the legislature. one is to rule on people who can be on the ballot if they are qualified somebody challenges them. we get a challenge to the secretary of state's inclusion or exclusion of the ballot.

we get appeals from recounts so for election as close as recounted in the losing candidate still thinks it's questionable we get to try to discern what the voters meant and figure out who really won. people mistakenly say to me often are you picking winners and? we don't pick winners and. we try to figure out what the voters did and we also select the chemical voting devices that are used in the state commonly known as voting machines in the cities and towns that choose to use them. >> what are your thoughts on using the 14th amendment to remove donald trump from the ballot in states and those legal efforts? >> in new hampshire secretary of state with the advice of the attorney general said that that was not ripe for determination by them. my personal feeling is he may in

fact have incited insurrection but there's no supreme court decision or major court decision that gives any guidance on that and that commission to make that decision so that people can make that decision. it was a mistake so i'm sympathetic with the fact it may in fact be affable but i'm not sympathetic that the secretary of state or the commission not to make the decision. >> supreme court should make the decision and should they make it seem? >> they should give us some guidance on what it means. it's a question about whether that provision is applicable to the president and i think it probably is but that's never been determined and it's never been determined who makes the decision about it so i think they should weigh in. they are going to have the maine in colorado case and i think they have taken them so they

will rule on it and i would be surprised if they said based on the assertions of something that happened. no convictions that they exclude somebody from the ballot but it's possible and long ago i stopped predicting the results of elections. >> let me pause there and brin you chat out if millington tennessee republican. sean you are on with bradford cook. >> thank you for taking my call. i'd like to explain a couple of reasons why my confidence has dropped in the elections. number one a number of states illegally passing changing election laws like pennsylvania for example. number two, elections no longer last a day it seems like. it seems like 2024 an example seems to last days and three, a number

of states trying to ban i.d. laws which provides pathway for illegals to be able to vote or people from out-of-town voting or out-of-state voting in different states and number three banning candidates or attempting to ban candidates from ballots without being charged for the crime they are being committed of. >> i'll bring that up with bread cooks. which ones do you want to pick up? >> a body said number three twice but that's okay. well folks changing the laws after elections to try to correct what they believe are mistakes or errors in their is not illegal for sure.

in new hampshire we have an i.d. law and the new hampshire we have same-day voting and we have very limited absentee voting so they don't have optional mail-in voting for anybody who feels like it. and we have not got voting on sunday. and certainly the i.d. law we have is to trick lee applied. we don't have, i can't speak for other states and i can't speak to the callers concerns about other states that in new hampshire we don't have the issues and we don't exclude people from the ballot unless they are truly not qualified and there's an appeal process if somebody tries to exclude them from the ballot so while those may be concerns that voter has

and i'm sure he's sincere in what he says he wouldn't run into those problems in an election. >> back to the granite state -- state sylvia and independent. good morning silvio. >> good morning. i think one of the things that was mentioned and i want to be sure it hasn't changed if you are an independent and you go into vote you can pick up ballot republican or democrat and dylan secretly vote your desired person and then on the way out the door you can stop and return to your independent status so that means you don't stay on the rolls as a republican or democrat that you go back to being an independent. >> mr. cook? >> we don't have independence in new hampshire. technically we have a undeclared

voters in either party. that has not changed. there's a misnomer out there or an impression out there that democrats can vote in the republican primary or republicans cate primaries. they can't in any state. the democrat can turn to the other party so we are no different from any other state in that regard by the voter can go to the polls take the ballot and that makes him a member of the party before they count the ballot they cast the ballot if they so choose they can find a list for sign a postcard or something on their w undeclared so they don't have the worry about that. >> one of our viewers and callers often on the "washington journal". little elm texas a democrat, good morning. >> good morning. stuxnet was a computer virus

that broke into the iranian nuclear program and they shut it down in 2005. with all due respect i feel feel like a lot of the officials who deal with so-called voter confidence talk to voters into thinking it infallible that the machines they have an internet connection for tabulation are beyond reproach and i just feel like it's a responsible and i think what they have got going on with the paper ballots in new hampshire i think that should be across-the-board and i think it should be a holiday. as a democrat i've been disappointed in the [null that go with it. minorities require voter i.d.s and i think everyone can get in i.d. and you need an i.d. to

confirm at the polls. i think there's a lot of gaslighting going on around this issue. >> brad cook all day to jump in. there was paper ballots whether how paper ballots are counted. are they fit into the machines are counted or counted by hand and then voter i.d. as well. >> will first the ballot law commission in new hampshire has set a series of requirements for ballot counting devices. we set them before we started to do review of replacement devices because the ones we use in new hampshire today are quite old and one of the first criteria was each one takes a paper ballot in the second one was they cannot be connected to the internet and they can't be networked so they are internally unique each device so they can be hacked and they can't be

networked. and if they are networks they can't be used. there are devices that are manufactured and the interaction and networking can be disabled and we have looked at some of those. so, the paper ballot as i said at the outset, that's her first rule. every polling place in new hampshire does not have too used a mechanical device so we have for 100 communities a smaller community that still just hand counts and don't have devices helping them. all of our cities use machines and that's an individual choice for the municipality and they can opt out if using the machines are opt-in. the state doesn't have them what to do and they had to buy their own devices. as for the i.d. are i.d. laws are quite specific on what kind of i.d. you have to have.

if the callers suggesting that somebody could forge an i.d. in an election i suppose that's always possible. >> less than 10 minutes left with bread cooked this morning the chair of the ballot law commission in new hampshire and cochair of new hampshire special committee on voter confidence and if you have questions about voting in new hampshire the phone lines as usual democrats republicans and independents and other kentucky this is jay a republican good morning. >> thank you for taking my call and with all due respect to the gentleman on your show from new hampshire the primary in kentucky is not until may. my question is very simple why should i care? 48 states are not going to have a say to have the same as a matter of fact this whole thing could be over tomorrow. as a matter of fact in november kentucky would never vote for joe biden so why should i bother

to care about any of this process going forward? thanks for taking my call. >> the caller points out a couple of unique things about 2024 probably and also about the process. certainly if it's over after today i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate the clerk: to bring the 2027fifa world cup competition to the united states and mexico. mr. schumer: is there objection to -- the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection u. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from

further consideration and the senate now proceed to the consideration of s. res. 528. officer the clerk will report. the clerk: raising awareness and encouraging the prevention of stalking by designating january 2024 as national stalking awareness month. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the records a if made by the choir. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally i ask unanimous consent that when the senate complots its business today, it stand adjourned until 10:00 a.m. on wednesday, january 24. that following the prayer and pledge the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date the time for the two leaders be

reserved for their use later in the day and the morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the austin nomination. notwithstanding rule 22, at 1:30 a.m. the senate vote on cloture on the austin nomination followed immediately bay cloture vote on the bringssco nomination. all time be considered expired@2:15 and the senate vote on confirmation of the nominations in the order in which cloture was invoked. further, following the disposition of the briscoe nomination the senate proceed to the lund nomination and that the cloture motion ripen at 6:15 p.m. if any nominations are confirmed during wednesday's session, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. schumer human if there is to further d. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask that it stand under the previous order.

the presiding officer: the