taxpayers and are open to the most reasonable attempts to shave down the unsustainable level of spending. mr. consider a yes vote on my amendment when the time comes. madam president.nar: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: thank you, madam president. earlier this week some republicans, i think the republican study committee, s members released their plans for governing next year. and here are some of the things on their health care wish we know it which would drive up costs and threaten care for seniors. trying again, i think we're now on to 50 attempts to gut the affordable care act, leaving tens of millions of americans without coverage overnight and e with preexisting conditions. and banning nd contraception in every single state through bills, quote designed to advance the cause of life.

if budgets are a statement of values then republicans are making no secrets of theirs. less access to quality health care and less cve personal health. there's no reason not to take them at their word other than that if we take them at their word you sort of sound like you're exaggerating. that's the problem. what they're proposing is so outlandish that it sounds like as a democrat and someone who wants my point of view to win the day, it sounds like i'm exaggerating their point of actually had to read this stuff from the republican study group, and they are way out of the mainstream. way out of the mainstream. again, no reason not to take them at their word because in congress and state houses across the country, republicans say what they want to do, then they do it cruel these policies are, how unpopular their positions are. they have not been able to show

any restraint whatsoever when it comes to enacting this extreme agenda and it is extreme. millions of americans are left to endure disastrous consequences of this crusade every day. if republicans have their way, millions of people will lose their health care seniors and people with preexisting conditions will be forced to pay outrageous out-of-pocket costs just to get lifesaving procedures andlicked off of their parents' plan immediately. women across the country will be forced to car pregnancies to term. families trying to start a family will have one less option, at ivf not even available to them. this is not what we should be fighting for. we have to work to get more people covered, because high-quality low-cost hell care should not be a luxury to some and frankly, and i believethis there's going to be a point we don't fight about health care anymore. there's going to be a point at

which republicans realize thatple's health care people's autonomy as it relates to their own bodies is just an electoral loser. we're getting there on obamacare. i thought we had gotten there after multiple attempts to repeal it. but here they are again, trying to start that again. democrats are focusing on lowering premium and prescription drug costs so gnkrupt people. even the republicans in washington and across the country, as they try to control women by dismantling reoductive freedoms democrats are fighting to codify roe into federal law. democrats have done more than speeches about health care. we've actually delivered. it was 14 years ago we passed the affordable care act, which since has helpedion americans get their coverage and improved health outcomes for so many people -- women, children ses,nior rural communities.

it's no wonder that more than a decade later, the aca continues to grow in popularity and is seords every year for enrollment. why? because people actually like having health care. republicans, democrats, independents voters everybody basically thinks we should have a system that treats you humanely if you're sick. it hasn't stopped republicans again to repeal it through supreme court cases cases, executive orders and legislation. they have failed every time. meanwhile, democrats continue to build on the aca's progress including recently with the inflation reduction act and american rescue plan because there are tax credits and other measures in those bills that enable m save an average of $800 a year on premiums. the number of uninsured is at an all time low. the reason for that is legislation that we fortunately passed but we unfortunately did not have a single republican voteoruction

act, for the american rescue plan or for the affordable care act. for the first time ever people with medicare pay less for insulin, which is now capped at $35, saving money on a whole range of other prescription drugs. this ist progress looks like. there are still millions of americans, especially in the middle class, who don't get coverage through work but make too much to subsidies. they deserve coverage too. the state public option act which i'm reintroducing today bridges that gap. it provides a public option to anyone who wants health insurancey create a program not based on income. these programs have shown to lower costs, increase consumers' choice in plans, equity in coverage. simple states include maine, minnesota, and new mexico already are exploring creating exactly t approach. the state public option act would help other states to follow suit. the bottom line is this health

care is a n luxury and it shouldn't be something that the political parties argue about. in the richest country in human history, having it should not depend on your job or your economic status. it ought to be available and accessible and affordable to the vast majority of americans agree, but there's only one party today fighting to make it a reality. i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, clearly it's an election year because we're hearing more and more political speeches from senate and precious little work doing the hard things that we actually had elected to do which is legislate. here we find ourselves dealing with appropriations bills that should have been completed last september. i don't know if people really understand that.

what we're doing today, lurching from one shutdown to the next is dealing with year's work. well you would think that understand the leadership of majority leader schumer that we would have eno rather than squander the opportunity to deal with those because we're dealing with last year's wo. i think we can do better next year hopefully with a different majority we can actually pass a budget we can take up and pass appropriation bills on a timely basis, and we can get our work done on time something tha not happened under the current leadership. i want to mention one hopeful sign where at least one branch of the legislature is actually moving things through and across the floor and allowing votes, amendments and

debate. that would b of representatives, not the united states senate sometimes called the world's greatest deliberative body. to their credit last passed a bill that made significant changes in our tax system and that's what i want to talk about for the next few minutes. this legislation was negotiated by the chairman of the senate finance committee, on which i'm privileged to wyden, and house ways and means committee, chairman jason smith. they released a framework of this agreement in mid january and our colleagues in the house immediately began work on the bill. ways and means committee, for example, held hearings actual hearings legislative hearings then a mark-up to debate the members offered and voted on amendments and ultimately this package passed the committee and the full house with strong bipartisan support.

given the polia,ization and -- polarization and partisan that grips congress advancing a bipartisan bill is no small feat especially during an election year. the bill is finished. as every high school student knows, who takes civics orhistory, they know that congress is a bicameral body the house and the senate have to work. there are two chambers two sets of members with diverse views, senators representing whole my case 30,000 -- 30 million texans. the house members represent a much smaller congressional district. but the process means that both chambers need to work through these bills to improve them and make sure they are as good as we can make them before they're signed into law. so my point i senate

is not a rubber stamp for the house, nor the house would say that they are not stamp for us and that's the way it is so be it. members of both chambers have a responsibility evaluate and shape legislation before it's sent to the president's desk. congratulations to the members of the house for doing their they september a -- they sent a bipartisan bill to the senate at the end of january. now it's the senate's turn to take a closer look at this legislation and see how it might be improved. i'd hoped that chairman wyden would schedule a mark-up i the senate finance committee and allow members to ask questions and offer amendments to the bill. i'm sure he thinks his negotiated bill with chairman smith is perfect and doesn't need any improvement, but others may have a differentew. after all, members of the house ways and means committee had that opportunity.

that's called the legislative process. that's what we are supposed to do. so you would think that chairman wyden would want members of his own committee to have the same opportunity that the members ways and means committee had. but apparently that's not the case. nearly two months have passed the house, and chairman wyden has shown zero interest in moving this bill thrgh tor of the united states senate. giving all senators a chance to participate in the process and hopefully improve the final outcome. in fact the chairman has refused to schedule mark-up, as i mentioned, and has rejected commonsense proposals by ranking member mike and senate republicans. earlier this week the majority leader virtually guaranteed that the bill through the regular order in the senate.

he took a procedural step to put this bill on the fast track for a vote here on thefloor, without any opportunity for the senate finance subcommittee that has jurisdiction overtax matters toengage. no hearing, no mark-up, just take it or leave it. i've reviewed this bill and while i will concede there are some portions that are very promising, there are problematic ar work. for example, this bill aims to incentivize research and development here at home by burden on america's innovators. cutting-edge research and development is absolutely critical to our competitiveness, and congress needs to promote new investment and capabilities that will propel our economy and our national security into the future. this legislation, to its credit restores full and immediate expensing for equipment and purchases,

which will enable small businesses to make new investments in their business and boost domestic manufacturing. i've spoken to a number of my small business constituents in texas about the need for these types of reforms, and the house-passed bill is a great starting point for full debate here in the senate. i believe there's a lotpotential here but i share ranking member crapo's concerns about some of the main provisions in the is the watered-down work requirement for the child tax credit. under thechange parents with zero earnings would still be eligible for a government chwords, historically tax credits have been tied to work and have been a credit against taxes that you would otherwise owe. but a refundable tax credit is merely a check from the federal

government regardless you worked or created any income whatsoever. under the proposal by chairman wyden and chairman smith, as long as a person worked during one of the last two years, one of the last two years, they would be eligible for the child tax credit. as i said historically the child tax credit has been tied to work. i would think we would want able-bodied people to be working, ifk is available. but change would completely undermine that basic principle. when the joint committee on taxation analyzed this bill they found that the expanded child tax credit would cost more than $33 billion over there years. you've heard my colleague, our colleague, senator rand paul talk about the fact that our national debt approaching

$35 trillion. this would add another violence. $33 billion to that. the vast majority of that cost is not due to tax relief. according to the joint committee on taxation 91% of the cost of this legislation is check. it may be called a tax credit but really it's a welfare payment, it's a transfer payment. e sent as a check to people with zero tax liability because they have insufficient income to cause them to have any kind of tax liability so it's not at credit against earnings or work it's essentially a welfare check. only 9% of that $33 billion cost is true relief for hardworking rest is a new welfare program by another name. and it's not limited to the

three years of the r&d tax credit and the expensing of interest it's permanent. and i have that our colleagues across the aisle will come back for another bite at the apple. we would be doing a great diss taxpayers by allowing the child tax credit to more of into -- morph into another welfare program. it should not be another entitlement spending. again, you heard colleague from kentucky talk about the fact that the money we are appropriating here today and we did a couple of weeks ago, a third of what the government spends the rest is on autopilot, we don't even vote on that money. it's automatic. and the proponents of this tax bill want us to add another $33 billion over three years to that number.

the truth is when it comes to the discretionary spending appropriate, we've done a much better job controlling the rate of increase of that spending but right now at 6% 7%, 8% a year, that's one reason why our national debt istrillion. well supporters of this proposal have tried to downplay concerns about the cost of the bill because only a temporary change. well that reminds me of ronald reagan's observation, that the closest thing to eternal life on erdz is -- earth is a temporary government prog ere's no such thing as temporary around here. people either come back to reauthorize it or to extend it or to grow it. once created, it doesn't go away. as soon as the temporary change expires, supporters will extended.

they'll frame anyone who opposes another extension as trying to increase taxes on hardworking families. well as i said and as the senator from kentucky said our national debt is currentlyon. a lot of that was money we spent during the covid pandemic trying to deal with the public health crisis and the economic crisis caused by that virus. and we did whatever we had to do to make doing so we added a lot of money to the national debt. we should not continuethat. the national debt is increasing by almost a trillion dollars every 100 days, and the permanent tax credid only fuel the debt crisis we're facing. some day -- some day there will be a terrible crisis as a result of the trending national debt.

already you're hearing we're sp this year on interest on the national debt than we are on our own defense. according to the committee for responsible federal budget this child tax credit expansion would cost next ten years. we need to pump the brakes on this runaway debt train, not stomp on the accelerator, which is what this proposal would mandatory spending already represents nearly two-thirds of federal spending and a permanent child tax would drive that number even higher. that's just one of the concerns that i and many of my republican colleagues have w legislation. over the last several weeks, as we've been able to analyze the text of the bill even other concerns more concerns have come to light. th would have a major impact on families and job

creators across the country. we need to be careful. we need to be deliberate. and we need to make sure we understand what the impact of this legislation would be before a vote on the senate floor, which is the reason why committees like the finance committee exists. getting is far more important than doing it fast. chairman wyden's goal is to build we do things around here he can't shut everybody else out of the process. i understand building consensus in a diverse body like this is not easy it is hard. and i think some people are positively allergic to that difficulty of that job, but that's the way we govern that's the way the senate operates. we need an ois bill and make changes at the committee level, and i'm disappointed that the chairman of the finance committee hims

has re -- himself has refused to do so. just as our counterparts in the house had ae to legitimate this and make improvement, senate tax writers need to have the same our colleagues know congress has developed a very bad habit of abandoning the procedures that were designed to givery single senator a voice in the legislative process. for too long now we've had bills cooked behind closed doors and plopped here on the senate floor facing another deadline another cliff and being told no choice. you can't change it all you can do is vote up or down or else there will be dire consequences like a shutdown. committees have been sidelined and we've moved toward a process in which a small number of members and try to bully or threaten everyone

voting yes. well ian i for one, and i know i'm not the only one, who is tired of being cut out of the process and being÷÷

participate, as i said first in the committee and then of this floor are pushing for a truncated process because the tax is already under way. they suggested that the senate should abdicate its job and rush to get the bill done. s know this tax season began before the bill passed the house and the chairman undermined the urgency argument by sitting on the bill for the last two months. the majority leader and the chairman of the finance co ram this bill through the senate without amendment or debate and republicans must not allow tha way we gain leverage and force a negotiation rather than be run over and treated as a speed bump is for 41 senators to stick together to deny cloture on a motion to proceed.

members should a chance to shape a bill before an up-or-down vote on the floor and i urge chairman wyden and leader schumer to give us that opportunity. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, we've had a lot of good news in last several months over the last year. unemployment remains at its lowest level ever for two years the unemployment rate has been under 4%. that's the longest stretch that we've had less than 4% of americans without a in 50 years. inflation has cooled to the lowest level since the start of the pandemic. the u.s. economy is booming. we've seen it grow faster than any other large, advanced economy world. crime is down. we saw a 12% reduction in urban

gun violence in3, the history of the country in one year. that's a lot of good news. if you look at the metrics that we normally look to when we assess the quality of our public policy. but here's some other striking in a report released this week we come to find that despite unemployment going ation going down despite gdp going up americans are more unhappy than any time before. this year in the global happiness rating survey the united states for thece they started doing this survey fell out of the top 20. we are now number 23 in the worrying amongst young people the united states ranks 62{l1}nd{l0}in the world. and this is reflected by other

surveys that show over the last of happiness and contentment and fulfillment self-reported by americans that the economy is growing and more people have jobs and crime is plummeting. and so i'm on the floor for just a few minutes to ask this simple question should we care about thisetween the quality of life indicators that we normally look to assess the measure of our policy and self-reported rates of happiness? my answer is pretty simple. we should care because we are happiness. i know that doesn't sound right because your comes from your personal decisions, the priorities that guide your day.

america america, our government isn't in the business of delivering the last mile of happiness, but we absolutely are in the first mile of happiness. why do we know that? because that charge that mission is in our founding document. the declaration of independence says that amongst the inalienable rights enjoyed by all the right to pursue happiness. and so that means that our job charged to us by our founders is to set up rules of the economy, society, rules of culture that give people the best shot at achieving happiness. an take a big step back as policymakers and ask if a job or rising neighborhood isn't bringing people happiness, what

does? and all i'mgeoday is that we engage in a conversation together an apolitical nonpartisan conversation to t roots of american unhappiness. because it doesn't appear that just dialling the n knobs of public policy to the right has happened under trump's presidency or to the left of biden's policy is changing this long-term dynamic of more americans reporting being unsatisfied with their life. let tease this conversation with two routes to happiness that we don't talk enough the first is connection. in fact, if you look at longitudal surveys of americans' happiness, there is a seminole study by harvard where they studied over the course of 75 years, americans of every income

bracket and every race are you happy every yeard if so why are you happy? what they found is it -- it is not a job or career or h money you make but your relationships, your connection to other human beings that actually is most indicative moss- most predictive of whether you will be happy or fulfilled in your life. it shouldn't be surprising or shocking to us that during a moment where more americans are reporting feeling deeply lonely we are also seeing more people reporting being unhappy. there has been a change this this country over the last 20 years when it to the amount of time that we spend with other human beings. and the data is particularly acute for young people but it is true of well. we spend nearly half as much time today with other human beings in personal connection

th we did just 30 years ago. that is a catastrophic decline in socialization. lots of reasons for that but many of them are connected to public policy choices that we have we decided not to regulate this transformative new technology called to dominate the smartphones, social media. that technology has facilitated this withdrawal falization, fromection from conversation. we haven't meaningfully adjusted wages in this country so that people are work # 0 hours -- 70 hours now to enjoy the same quality of life that 40 hours of work would h that mean? people are robbed of leisure time so they can't connect with friends and neighbors through socialization in the evenings or on the weekends. we've places that

people often find connections like downtowns, which are less healthy and less vibrant than ever before as we where everybody just buys stuff from a set of big monopolistic internationalalized companies. and so what we know is that feeling connected to other human beings have strong relationships is maybe most when you're going to report being happy. but we make public policy choices consistently to make connection but we don't measure it. we don't measure it. instead we just measure things like unemployment and gdp w are important but not most predictive of whether people are going to be happy. let me give you a second way that people find a root to happiness. and that is living a life of purpose purpose. knowingwhat your role -- knowing

what your role is in the world and living a life fulfills that role. let's be honest. many of the ways in which people found purpose 50 years ago are not available to them to one purpose, for instance was passing along a better life to your kids making sacrifices as an adult, -- difficult, sacrifices but knowing they would allow for your child to do better than you. well that purpose feels further away than ever before today because we have made it so hard for parents to be able to pass on thalife. college is 400% less affordable today than it was in 1980. economicore difficult than before in part because we favor legacy admissions in colleges in part because we allow for so much massive transfer of inherited wealth economic mobility is further away. so we've robbed from individuals that sense of meaning and purpose passing life to your children.

other people found purpose in serving god, living a life in accord witions securing your place in the after life. but in a very short period of time we went from 70% of people belonging to the churcho 50% of people belonging to church. i don't think there's a government solution to reverse that trend, but we need to admit that of how very quickly people have become un-moored from a place where they previously found all sorts p if we're not talkingabout trying to -- talking about trying to create alternative places where people can find that purpose or finding a way to make those institutions, like churches healthier places. we're not connecting into the roadways to the pathways to happiness, connection meaning, purpose. i get it. these are hardtopics for about. they feel more natural for philosophers or academics or

theologians. but our founders told us in theo be in the happiness business and we have made some likely wrong assumptions about what leads people to happiness. we have become such a materialistic world and we have become such a materially focused institution that we make an incorrect assumption that by changing the rules economy, we are automatically providing people a route to happiness. but it is not always economic change. it is not always economic policy that provide ss people meaning, makes people feel happy. so these are the questions i think that we should be answering. i think it's a really lovely way for us to set aside some of the policy fights that have worn this place at brings meaning? what brings purpose? what makes you feel happy?

ask those questions. and then let's let those answers guide the policies t work on together. i frankly think that we would be surprised to find out that that inquiry and the policies that that inquiry commend us to pursue might not divide us as much as the policy arguments that currently dominate this business. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank near the end of fiscal year 2024 appropriations process, i'd like to thank the vice chair collins and chair murray as well as my fellow

committee members. the labor hhs appropriations bill the largest nondefense appropris one of the most difficult appropriations bill to negotiate. and i see my chair over there. it's good to be together again. it's not say that every year when we go into appropriations season it is assumed that labor h will be one of the hardest bills to pass and many times it is. this is the first year that senator baldwin and i have been at the helm of the senate labor, hhs subcommittee. i'm pleased to say we were able to work together to present a bipartisan senate bill last summer that laid the groundwork for this final compromise bill. first, i want to thank all of my colleagues and i want all of my colleagues to know that in this continue all long-standing legacy riders such as high and high i want to make it clear that we work together to avoid any new

poison pill funding for controversial programs such as tie 10 famy planning. while we each approach this bill differently, it was important to present a bipartisan result including member priorities with greater -- such as greater investments in biomedical research pandemic preparedness mental health child care and education, efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and health. our final bill includes $190.when billion in base discretionary funding which is $12.9 billion below the 2023 enacted level. even with additional resources added, the labor-h bill represents a 1% reduction from 2k0 23 levels. the final bill ao allocates limited resources to certain programs by reducing funding by

approximately $6 million across 35 different programs. the labor hhs bill provides an increase of national institutes of health. this funding provides targeted increases for research in specific areas that are so important, such as alzheimer's, mental health and cancer including funding, one that i'm pa the childhood cancer star act. we also continue efforts to fight the growing p substance use disorder. this bill provides $4.95 billion in funding across the bill for addiction treatments prevention research and recovery programs. investments to address this epidemic include $1.57 billion for state opioid response grants to address the opioid epidemic in ways that suit individual needs. $2 billion for the substance use

prevention treatment and recovery services block grant. again, giving ourility to address their issues. and $640.5 million for the niei helping to end addiction long term also known as the nih heal initiative. additionally wec resources to telehealth and rural health care programs that help states like my state of west virginia. rural health care will receive an additional $4 million to im improve role maternity andri services and an additional $4 million for a new rural hospital stabilization program. this labor hhs billes our children starting with early childhood education to ensure children are ready to learn when they enter school and continues investments for students in high school and college to make sure they are prepared for the jobs today but for those jobs in the future.

specifically we provide a $725 million increase for the child care and development block for $275 million increase for head start, both to support our early childhood education. a increase for title 1 grants to local educational agencies to support k-12 students in schools. and a $20 million increase for idea grants to states which provides special ed ser students -- our students with disabilities. additionally a $739 -- grant pell award to support low-income students pursuing post-secondary education. the labor hhs section of this minibus isn't what any of us would have written individually. however, it reflects a four corner negotiation with bipartisan priorities.

it protects all legacy riders. and it did n funding for any poison pill programs. i stand here today to tell you that this bill can help our but i'm also happy to report that this bill will have a tremendous impact on the people of the state of west virginia. easons i'm proud to be on this appropriations committee is because of the impact that we can each have on our home states. and the priorities that i've advocated for since i started in the senate and the experiences that i've seen and learned from advocates, community leaders, patients and doctors, students teachers and parents throughout west virginia are why i wanted to help write this ll. so this bill includes ways to grow nursing programs where we have shortages, to look into addiction treatment and recovery programs. it helps with hospital expansions and improvements and workforce initiatives for medical specialities

water and wastewater tick missions. i can't list them all but my partnerships with martial university west virginia west virginia. bridge valley community and technical college, shepherd university theti initiative lily's place, charleston area medical center roan general, mini hamilton health city and county programs are evident by the millions of dollars that we dedicate to the mission and work being done right back home in west virginia. far too often the federal government overlooks what local entities can do to meet the needs and the cllenges local towns and communities. but you know what? that's where the solutions are and they know best. that's why i've been listening to them and that's why i would like to again thank vice chair collins and chair murray. i see her on the floor. and all of the members of this committee here and in the house for reaching this deal. now i'd like to thank all the

put this product together. many are in the chamber right now. lindsey sideman, ashley palmer, emily slack pfeiffer, j.t. czerski. on senator baldwin's staff i'd like to thank mike leish megan mott, katherine tumajin erin dugin and jamie delane. i would encourage my colleagues to vote positively 0en this bill. with that, mr. president, i yield back my time. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. wisconsin. sorry. ms. baldwin: no worries. no worries. well i want to start where vice chair left off, by thanking and appreciating our incredible staff for the hardor t long hours that they contributed to this product.

and then i want ton my vice chair in appreciating the heroic work of patty murray our committee chair, and susan collins, our committee vice chair, for issuing all 12 appropriations bills to the a tonight thank you, senator capito for your approach on the h.h.s.-labor appropriations bill this year. we started the process nearly eight year ago, marking -- nearly a year ago, including marking up 12 appropriations bills in an overwhelmingly bipartisan process last summer. the labor-hhs-education bill withes reported out of committee 26-2 and i'm very proud of that. the to produce bills free of extreme and partisan policies that could pass the house, pass the senate d be signed by the president.

and that is what we're here to finish today. the labor-hhs-education bill that's included in this package addresses some of our country's most pressing issues. it families and our economy, from substance use and mental health programs to child care to biomedical research, to education programs and workforce training. this bill delivers for the american people. we received 9,185 programmatic appropriations requests from programs throughout this bill. to senators who might claim they didn't have a say in what's included in this bill our doors process began last year. we've tried to reflect the priorities of every senator who has engaged in the appropriations process. balancing the many competing priorities throughout the

labor-hhs-education bill is difficult in any year but this year was especially challenging because it includes less overall funding than last year. consequently this isn't the bill i would have written alone, but it honors thems of the debt limit deal that was agreed upon last spring. the labor-hhs-eds package is very much of a compromise. but despite the challenges we faced over many months in writing this bill, i'm really proud of our finished product. it rejects proposals included in the house lar-hhs-education bill is completely eliminate critical programs. we saved programs such as those that are working to end hiv ensured initiatives that increase access to contraceptives stay alive and well in this bill and we kepthat deliver supports for moms and babies.

it rejected devastating cutsd in the house bill that would have gutted funding for educators and schools, gutted funding for biomedical research gutted funding for head start, and gutted funding for federal financial aid for college students and public health programs. so we rejected those devastating cuts. it also rejects dozens of extreme policy riders that would have restricted reproductive health care and women's freedom to control their own bodies as well as attacks on the lgbtq community and workers' rights. in doing so, this labor-hhs-education bill protects the vast majority of investments made in the last two years and in some cases builds upon them. this bill addresses some of the

most pressing i hear about when i'm travelling in my home state of wisconsin. in wisconsin right now, families are of their income on child care, on average. and that is for those who can afford and half of wisconsin is in what we call a child care desert meaning that for every open child care st available in their community, there are three or more children who need it. i hear from families and businesses andre need to invest in child care and i'm proud to have done just that in this bill. this b increase of $1 billion for child care and head start, building on our major gains in th ars. and i want to recognize our full committee chair patty murray for making this such a high priority. look i know that more needs to be done to fix our child care system so that it works for

families economy. but this is progress. this will help kids get the strong start that they deserve, get parents back into the workforce, and help our businesses get the talent that they need. i'm also proud that we are investing in -- we are investing in our future generation's health to cure the diseases that plague ouram communities. we successfully boosted life lifesaving and -changing boy boy -- biomedical research by $300 million. we're doubling down on alzheimer's disease research because we need to find new treatments preventions and ultimately a cure. and as cancer continues to devastate families of all report that we increased cancer research funding by $120 million. as we work to address the mental health crisis in our

communities, we also increased funding for mental health research. one er. my mother struggled addiction to prescription painkillers throughout her life, and, sadly my mother's story is all too common epidemic knows no bounds -- geographic or ideological. but in recent years this crisis has taken to new heights with the increased prevalence of sympathetic drugs -- synthetic drugs. this bill protects in1re689s in substance usero number of individuals, especially youth, are seeking crisis care it includes an $18 million increase for the 9- 8-8 suicide

prevention hotline that help create. with more than 100,000 individuals on the organ transport waiting list this bill invests in modernizing the organ procurement and transplantation network to better serve those families and give those families more hope. accessing health care in our rural communities is often a challenge. i know defer -- acutely experiencing this in the western part of wisconsin right now. and our bill helps -- and our bill inc increases to rural health to help turned tides. and last but certainly not least, our legislation invests in our future. it protects funding for foundational k-12 andducation programs and supports students and educators. it increases funding for career and technical education whiletments in workforce development programs to help prepare workers for

good-paying jobs in in-demand careers. this will help people find careers that provide a stable middle-class life and help grow our economy. now, i wish we could have done more. i'm disappointed that this bill isn't able to increase funding for family planning or include increases to any number of programs that truly meet the needs of families and communities. but given the handdealt, i am proud of the investments that we were able to make and protect in this bill. nearly six months into the fiscal year and nearly a year after we parted this appropriations process by every member of the senate, it is past time for us to get serious. this bill does that, and i luke forward to supporting -- and i look forward to supporting this package today a -- today. the presiding officer: the senator from washington.

mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to my staffer clean air montero. the presiding officer: -- clair monetary rhode island monetary. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i want to thank senator murray for her incredible leadership with regard to the appropriations issue and senator collins. it took a lot of work to get to us where we are now. i urge my colleagues to cooperate so we can get this vote beforeent shutdown at midnight. it's a bill that i think we all can support and be proud of. it's not everything that we wanted but i think the priorities have be thank the chairwoman o. for what she is done in that regard. mr. president, as the sudanese people took to the streets to demand change, a young woman climbed on the roof of a car. protesters captured the lady liberty moment as she pointed

her finger in the air. she read a poem that would become one of the slogans of the sudanese revolution. the bullets do not kill. it's the silence of the people that kills. it is silence that kills. mr. president, i come to the floor today because we cannot be silent about sudan. we must hold those commiin crimes accountable. i urge the biden administration to take critical diplomatic steps to end the conflict in sudan. in 2018 when protesters brought down the brutal and genocidal regime two-thirds were women. they dreamed of a sudan that was free of oppression harassment, and sexual violence. a sudan that would transition to democracy aft years of authoritarian rule. but today sudanese women face the brute force of 00 two armed factions -- the saf, the sudanese armed forces and the

rsf, the rapid support forces. both committed abuses during the civil war in darfur. in the last years of their actions have been absolutely brutal. they have killed detainees and have certainly bombed conscripted children as soldiers. they have looted supplies and attacked aid workers. and one woman they couldn't steal it they burnt it. they are targeting non-arab ethnic groups in darfur just as they did 20 years ago. last month's videos emerged of troops chanting ethnic slurs as they paraded the streets holding decapitated heads. according to the united nations, 15,000 people were killed in just one attack. more than 8 million people have fleaed their homes. 25 million, including 14 million children need humanitarian assistance. in addition, sudanese wom face the widespread use of rape as a

weapon of war. the 21-year-old survivor said i n' many times i have been raped. diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have failed. cease-fire after cease-fire has been violated. in fact, the violence has intensified. last december i called for a special envoy for sudan assistant concurrent resolution 24. i am pleased to see that the biden administration has named former congressman tom as our special representative. i strongly urge the administration to fully staff his office as quickly as possible so that mr. parelli we've lost too much time as it is. mr. parelli has four herculean tasks ahead of him. he must establish a single diplomatic forum to negotiate a cease-fire. we need one effort that involves middle eastern european partners as well as partners from multilateral organizations. he must bring warring par

the united states has imposed sanctions on the saf and rsf. we need others to join us as we pursue additional targets. we must make it clear to the parties and their foreign backers that the cost of continued conflict is higher than the cost of coming to the atbl table. in the past middle eastern nations, turkey and even russia picked sides in sudan. u.n. report find that evidence that the uae was giving warms to rsf and according to the sudanese and regional diplomatic sources egypt is helping the saf. no nation should be providing arms or supports to these groups. the special envoy must galvanize the humanitarian response. the saf is blocking er humanitarian assistance from chad and there are reports that this are obstructing assistance to areas controlled by the other side. that must end. at the same time it is a moral

stain on the international community that the u.n. appeal for sudan is just 4%. the united states is by far the biggest donor. we put our money where our mouth is. partners with interest in sudan, including and especially those in the gulf need to do the same. finally, the special envoy must start the conversation about addressing impunity once and for all. last year's criminal international criminal court announced annto war crimes and crimes against humanity. the united nations human rights council established an nonpartisan fact investigate abuses. on december 6, secretary blinken announced he determined members of the saf and rsf committed war crimes and the rsf and ally militias committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. mr. president, the sad is what is happening in sudan is a large part as a result of the lack of accountability for previous abuses.

many of those involve conflict committed war crimes in the past and were never held accountable. maybe things would beormer dictator al had been tried at the hague. maybe the rsf would not exist if the they had been for crimes in darfur. maybe general monte would not be getting flownfferent. one thing is for sure such crimes must not go unpunished. as chair of the senate foreign res committee, i will continue to fight for justice and a resolution of this conflict. so those who continue to commit war crimes in swill keep fighting to bring you to justice, no matter how long it takes. to the women and the young people across the sudan who dream of an inclusive political process with civilians in the

driver's seats, do not give up hope. and to the international community, those in the united states who value human life and dignity, now is the time to step up. now is the time to put an end to the cycle of violence that has plagued this region for generations. now is the time to end silence. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, for the first time in american history, gentleman of muslim faith has been nominated to serve on circuit court of appeals should have been a moment of pride has been stained the nominee,

adeel mangi, having been subjected to a series a campaign of baseless and gross attacks. senator booker of new jersey came to the floor yesterday and gave an rebuttal of those attacks, so i won't rehash that. but it is that my colleagues understand where these attacks came from. it's not just they were untrue. it's that the whole campaign is a these attacks are part of a coordinated campaign by the same dark money interestst helped donald trump pack our federal courts and who now want to stop president biden from confirming qualified nominees who weren't handpicked by those billionaire

special interests. you don't have to see their fingerprints all over this smear campaign and start with the main culprit, the judicial crisis network. let an overview of what the judicial crisis network is. the billionaire pack the courts had an operative who was the staff person essentially who directed it. his name was leonard leo. leonard leo runs a whole array of to obscure what's really going on sort of like a pea and shell game onlyots of shells. and this is a diagram that i use about one component of his front group armada.

and what this reflects is his own companies up here crc advisors crc strategies, and crc public relations. they are the entities through :k porate entities. what it is the real ones here the real ones here are called 85 concord fund. those are twin entities. they share office space andstaff, and they have around them this array of other entities nof real all of which are registered fictitious names, fictitious names under virginia law under which the real entities are allowed to case there are six

of them and one of them is this judicial crisis network. this thing is being run through a fake entities that bears the fictitious name of a completely different organization. and behind that are more anonymous funders and screeners of funding, and ultimately behind all of that a bunch of creepy billionaires. the story of the judicial crisis the main group that the operative, leonard leo, used to help the k the supreme court with their hand-picked justices. it spent, for instance almost $40 million opposing merrick garland's nomination to the supreme court and thereafter supporting the trump justices'

confirmations. it took in millions in dark money dollars in individual contributions as big as $15 million and $17 million. this is not a grassroots organization. this is billionaire-funded multimillion-dollar contribution outfit. and it today in the service of packing the courts. it is an organization for the billionaires to work through from behind the scenes through their operative leonard leo. it launched against m mangi, stop adeel in which a video playing saying the senate should reje anti-semite adeel mangi, and, just to make the point even more grotesque, showing a plane

flying into the world trade center.f. it has tweeted and promoted the false attacks that senator booker described at length over the months. in recent days as the attacks on mr. mangi ramped up the organization tweeted out it looks like our ad campaign worked. this ad campaign had nothing to do with truth. it was all about using secret billionaire money to derail a circuit court nominee who had blessed by this outfit and the billionaires behind them. as the billionaires' operatives has its finger infantries all over another group smearing mr. mangi, who also saw the cavanaugh side because this is a dark money group we don't know all of its donors

but we do know at least is guess who? the judicial crisis network. it's the glove in the hand -- th hand in the glove in the glove. jcn, judicial crisis network, helped get the second off the ground with more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2018 and 2019 launched its leader tweeted, excited to work hand in glove with a person named cary sev severino my other longtime friends at jcn and many others on the outdoors who understand the critical importance of the judicial fight. he means the critical importance to billionaires to be able to control the judiciary and get things done that congress would never pass through courts that

will do their bidding. the dark money ties don't stop just there with the judicialet and the front group for the judicial crisis network. the front grouporganization's vice president comes straight out of the koch brothers koch not coke the koch political dark money network. that guy helped run multiple koch political organizations, including the dark money of the koch political machine called americans for prosperity. while there, guess what? he helped oversee americans for prosperity's multimillion-dollar campaign to pressure senators to confirmustices gorsuch and cavanaugh. who's the other big donor? donald trump. earlier this week it was reported that trump's pac gave the organization $150,000 to

keep up the dirty work. the leaderisf an op-ed calling mr. mangi hamas' favorite judicial nominee and included a picture of mangi with a hamas flag edited to appear over his face. classy stuff, again, and tweeted that mangi should and i'm quoting here go serve as a judge in gaza, you anti-semite. just beautiful stuff. leonard leo and trump world are also propping up yet another dark money group attacking mangi and othervative partnership institute. "the new york times" recently called the conservative partnership institute a, quote breeding ground for the next generation of trump loyalists. it has received millions of dollars from donors' trust,as and i quote here the dark money atm of the right. it builds no product.

it offers no service. what it does is launders the identity of donors so that if you're a big donor and you want to send money into politics you send it to donors' trust first, and then the report say to the the source is donors trust and not whoever really gave it. that's what it lives to do. and hundreds of millions of ll doit. it also received $100 million from trump's pac in 2021. quite a cast of characters steve miller, mark meadows, jeffrey one of its projects has been to find bad faith way to sink qualified biden nominees. majore is just mangi is just the latest of the targets. this same group was behind the attacks on ketanji brown jackson that smeared her as lenient on sex offenders. these groups are spending millions in dark money from

leonard leo, donald trump, and -- and billionaires to keep the federal courts stacked in their favor. they want to stop president biden's nominees handpicked handpicked by them in some federalist society backroom by billionaires and their fixers. it's not just mangi who is their target. they tried to smear many other biden nominees. there is unusually concentration in their targets of people of color. they seem to have a particular fixation with people of color. they ran the ads accusing ketanji brown jackson being more concerned about the well-being of pedophiles than of children. judicial crisis network spent $1.5 million on ads attacking justice jackson during her confirmation. that's the fake group with the fictitious name that purports to be -- that actually is concord fund but purports to bejudicial crisis

network also spent more than a million dollars on a sneer campaign against vin eightha groupa vanita gupta and attacking darrell ho both extremely qualified candidates of color. jcn's president wrote numerous op-eds calling numerous qualified candidates including the first black woman on the 11th ideologues and extremist, and waged similar smear campaigns in other committees can than judiciary with other qualified nominees of color, including lisa cook at the federal reserve getting the smeat. adeel mangi is an immin qualified nominee. he's as well-trained and intelligent as any candidate who has ever come before the judicial committee. and he has been the subject of

vicious bad-fate attacks -- bad-faith at and the attacks come from this billionaire-funded right wing apparatus. it is a heit's not just a smear. it's an op. it's a covert operation designed to prevent the confirming well-qualified fair-minded judges to our courts so that they can create a vacancy so that if they can get donald trump elected in november they can then put another right wing extremist who will do what the billionaires want onto the court. with he floor. a senator: mr. president. nebraska. if mr. ricketts: i ask unanimous consent to enter into a colloquy with the senior senator from maine. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ricketts: unrwa is a completely irredeemable organization. since october 7, we have seen

how much hamas has infill drapeded unrwa, the -- infiltrated unrwa, the united nation and works agency for the palestinians. some have called unrwa a front organization for hamas. unrwa in the october 7 attacks. some participated in the attacks directly. some helped with logistics. one hostage alleges that her captor was an unrwa teacher. another unrwa staffer was actually that participated in an attack on a kibbutz that left 97 people dead and took regrettably, this does not come as a surprise because of previous u.n. investigations into unrwa we knew this was true before the october 7 attacks. we knew that unrwa was using schools to store weapons and

launch attacks on israel. we knew tha preached hate toward jews in israel and glorified martyrdom. i introduce amendment because denying an organization like unrwa that is so deeply empemted in hamas -- hamas, is wrong. our u.s. taxpayer dollars should not be going to fund an organization that is essentially a front for hamas this chamber's ultimate goal should be to permanently defund unrwa. the waye -- defund it the way the trump administration did. i have spoken with the senior senator from maine, and she and i have agreed that we will ensure that future appropriations to deny undra -- unrwa access we will will fight against future appropriations to deny unrwa access to u.s. taxpayer dollars. this underlying bill does that one year and that's a

start. ms. collins: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, i very much appreciate the comments of the senator from nebraska nebraska. i agree with him unrwa cannot be the conduit for humanitarian aid. it is clear tt it has been infiltrated by hamas and indeed israeli intelligence indicates that specific employees -- employees of unrwa -- brutal atrocities of october 7 when hamas a addition it is estimated that many other employees of unrwa sympathetic to hamas or affiliated with hamas.

so tax dollars should not be going through an organization that has been involved in some of its -- some of its employees in a terrorist attack one of the worst terrorist attacks that we have seen a terrorist attack that in the worst loss of jewish life in a single day since the how could we possibly allow american tax dollars used by this organization? now, this is not to say that there should not be aid. there's differing views on that issue. but we know that there are other organizations wu.n.

there's the u.n. high commissioner for refugees organization there's unicef there's world organization there are many other organizations. for mesident what was most compelling is when i learned that hamasor communications and command control center underneath unrwa's headquarters and there were additional hamas organizations that have locations in the tunnels underneath unrwa schools. now, tell me how could unrwa possibly n that this was occurring? how could they not have seen the tunnels being built, the air-conditioners being brought in the computers being installed

installed, their electric rate going way up? it is just not conceivable that unrwa was unaware of athis. and as my friend from nebraska has mentioned, we know that far too many of the schools that unrwa is running in gaza teach hatred in their textbooks, teach hatred not only of israel but of jews in general,ceptable that american tax dollars would go to this organization. there are alternatives. d that is why in the supplemental appropriations bill which i know the presiding officer feels so deeply about as do i, in that bill we defunded unrwa, and we said dollars from previous appropriations

could not be used by unrwa. and in the bill that and before us today, the state foreign office bill which is part of the six-bill package, we also defund unrwa. and we extended it beyond the end of this fiscal year. weit to march of 2025, to give us -- to ensure there wasn't a gap andtime. and i do pledge to my colleague from nebraska to continue to work on this issue about which i feel so strongly. so i will continue to work with him, i very much appreciate the opportunity to engage there this colloquy. mr. ricketts: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator mr. ricketts: i'm grateful for the senior senator from maine's commitment to defunding unrwa and grateful as well for her

pointing out there are other ys wa gaza. i would also like to point out that when the trump administration denied unrwa funding a few years ago, the world did not cend. i do believe, as the senior senator from maine pointed out, there are alternatives. and with her appreciate. for that reason i will no longer seek a vote on my amendment. thank you, mr. president. .. collins: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, first, let me express my appreciation to the senator from nebraska. and i will ask unanimous consent that a story from "the wall street journal" on this very issue be submitted for the record and i would note that this story estimates that approximately in gaza has links to the hamas militants. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: thank you, mr. president.

ms. collins: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: mr. president, before i suggest the absence of a quorum i do want to just briefly respond to some of the comments that were made by my distinguished colleague from kentucky senatorrand earlier.

the first is that he is correct that a lot of the increase in spending is on the mandatory entitlement side of the budget. but mr. president, t not what the appropriations committee handles. that is not under our second point that i want to make is that in this six-bill package spending in the nondefense discretionary area is actuallyt year. it is 1.7% below last year. and when you factor inflation, that means there are real cuts that these agencies and programs are going to be experiencing. there is a 3.3% increase for

defense, but that too is below the inflation rate. and when you look at the global threats that combatant commanders have identified we should be spending more for defense than that. and the final point i will make is that we have adhered to the fiscal responsibility act caps on spending in this bill the final six-bill aackage the overall bills that we have brought forth. unicef. so we have also accommodated and followed the agreement that was negotiated between the speaker of the house and democratic leader of the senate. so these bills are not big spending are wildly

out of -- out of scope. they are carefully drafted, they are conservative and they meet the requirements of the fra and the top line established by the leaders. thank you, mr. president, and i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk should quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

the democrats and republicans have about 13 hours to work together to make sure the government stays open this not

going to be easy and will have together and avoid unnecessary delays in this morning of the house will the first funding asn as they send us a bill, the senate will spring into action my colleagues on both sides let's finish the job weekend shut down let's finish the job of funding the government, for the remainder of the fiscal year printed there is a reason to delay there's a reason to drag out this process if the senators cooperated in a time agreement prioritize the working together just as we did two weeks ago i'm optimistic that we can succeed. individual senators resort to partisanship and stonewalling in the ring, those individuals who almost guarantee that we shut down. in the process could drag into saturday sunday, possibly this appropriation process has not been easy, but i'm glad after months of hard work we have arrived in funding fact sheet executive both sides we please within the funding

package will go a long way to supporting american family summa strengthen our economy and safeguarding a national security. and it increases funding childcare services, boost disease research, prevention and school mental programs and suicide prevention something we so desperately needed we are strengthening border security, with protecting our elections and most importantly we will have a and avoided month after most of the poison pills the hard right has pushed for months. and once we have fully fund the government, we will also avoided the terrible site, the temperatures has been hanging over congress since last year not done yet but i'm like to once again think mike kelly chairwoman mary, pfister: some of the outstanding work here in the senate. i want to thank all of the appropriators for their work, think all of their staffs especially my own staff as well,ly appreciate the remarkable work they do every day everything a day.

and getting things done a divided government that is hard and getting things done it this divided government is even harder. and both sides have come up with a strong funding package that ignores extremism about the needs of the country first. that accredited leadership on both sides and i think them for their work. and now on the republican study committee's budget earlier this week house republicans release a right wishlist best when he is a and the study commissions new the republican study committee's new budget, can be summarized into words dangerous disastrous. in this republican study committed budget plan is s because it doubles down danger right one women and endorses it national ban on with zero exceptions for rape or incest which remains the ultimate goal of that are right should they come to power anybody's asking what would happen in the republican skip the house.

presidency, just on abortion, just lead the republican studies budget known the national been on abortion, with zero exceptions for rape and incest and that is the goal of the republican party should they ga they're able to do it. we'll do everything we can of course come to stop them. in the budget plan also rolls back access to - a safe and reliable oddly available medicine at millions of americans have used for over 20 years pretty the rc budget plan critically major access to ivf and is much as republicans are trying to recently said the moderate on it, we have the pen to paper and say whether proposals are their radical agenda is blowing up in their faces and all you have read the budget plan to see that they have not moderated one iota on women's health weathers abortion or ivf. in the republican study

committee which represents the vast majority of house republicans, things like a hard right radical anti- woman document predict but that is not all, they are asleep budget and a stunning $1.5 trillion in cuts to social security about raising the retirement age for millions of hard-working americans and that is crazy. mr. president, remember, the republican study com not some officer to the republican party come he represents any percent of the members in the house including all other leadershipsive purposes, they are asleep budget plan represents the dark republican agenda what is the republican agenda aside from cutting back to a dramatically and women's rights national been on abortion with no exceptions coming it also is getting social security and raising the retirement age. what is republican agenda, it is

also seniors on medicare and revealing his authority negotiating cheaper drug prices what is a republican agenda and it is a trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the all throughout the trillions of dollars budget because to the children's health program in the aca. and these are just some of the terrible things in the budget plan. and it's a school but amazingly, hit is with the overwhelming of majority or house republicans endorse. and a judge shopping, mr. president, yesterday i sent a letter to the judicialce urging them to defend the new commonsense policy reforms, limiting the practice of judge shopping prayed i also sent a letter to thet of texas, with its running rampant there in urging the district to apply the reforms to the judicial conferences as quickly as possible. the bottom line is this, judge

shopping jaundice is the fairness of the entire legal system. when hard right plaintiffs, often funded by hard right groups that are just part of the lawyers when pick and choose which judge 800 here's their case, which is what is happening for incident in the northern district of texas and amarillo, where cascades of cases are being filed by right country. when this happens when hard right plaintiffs in pick and choose which judge here's a case of distortion system and cause of the american people to lose faith and of course in the judge shopping was precisely well into the terrible case the northern district of texas with our choice extremist had had picked mega judge the only one sitting to revoke fda approval - nationwide this one judge extreme right known as extreme right, before he became a judge and after guess to choose for the whole country because of form shopping.

and it is awful. and applaud the judicial conference for taking the initiative to limit the judge shopping they urge the courts across the country who apply these new reforms when my republican colleagues say that they support this, just enough for fairness of the judicial system the outcomes termination ahead of time. before the case use cases argued and unclean jobs, it is even been two years since president of biden that impressment historic investments in our infrastructure claim jobs and advanced m ribbon cuttings factory openings and a booming clean energy investments predict this wiki, the house republicansme are pushing a number of bogus and nasty bells i would undo all the hard work that we have done to create more jobs and clean energy while doubling down on away. in one go push my house republicans were forced taxpayers pay more for the massive oil and gas companies on role

requiring companies to pay their rates to lease america's resources pretty so when big oil seeing record profits, oils consolidated so there's very little competition and house republicans want to give them even giveaways for making taxpayers pick up the tab for the number of other bills for republicans are pushing without repeal many of the job creating investments i that is terrible because the working well unless you are saw $240 billion in clean energy investment triple the level of 2019 and these investments in these good paying jobs, where the republicans are trying to take away. america's leading the world in our transition to clean energy creating a lot of jobs good paying jobs along the way. the mega republicans old fatally beholden to the big oil big lobbies low pushing to kill clean jobs kill these historic extinguish years of future potential prosperity in the communities

they represent. shame on them. yield the floor not the absence of a quorum. >> that house before congress, completing annual appropriations an important work every year, in effect, some of our most basic fundamental responsibilities but not in decades have the six providing what a company fence desires they are right now. ever the first time since the cold war america faces an era defined by great power competition. and of course, this news, the presidential administrations they have completely recognized and at least on paper international security strategies in these documents

recognize the challenges from revisionists and authoritarians in russia and china have posed the greatest threat and the endurance of the american leadership is defined world politics and economics for decades. and today we fac adversaries, which nothing more than to bleed american influence.y are resolved and are credibility, fill every void that behind with the new order on fear and subrogation. we face terrorists. in rogue states, committed to help them chaos north korea

and setting thousands of trained - cars full of ammunition and fuel the russia's view brutal invasion of ukraine and the proxie russia and chinese ships will be permitted to converse the red sea but that's not us, to recognize the challenges rain check them in pol favors, the administration and congress, and to act and invest, like were willing to meet them. president biden's actions undercut any of h administrations recognition. of a great moment that we are facing for four straightears the commander-in-chief is requested the defense budget to go and they don't even keep pace with inflation.

in fact custody military funding, do not signal serious - competing our biggest adversaries. china's defense for example is growing by more than 7 percent year-over-year. presidents - and delay over equipping ukraine the capabilities needed to better defend itself against russia's aggression. and frankly was invited seems to have deep-seated discomfort she is cultivating and exercising our power unnecessary foundational part of the state graph the percepts america and preserves our interest. and congress has the say and responsibility in our work on the fiscal year 20 oh four,

defense appropriation represents a critical down payment but important requirements, will unmet even after the needed investments this defense bill will make. republicans recognize the constraints of the budget caps and works hard to ensure the national security supplemental that we passed in the senate, would make further critical investments in our own military and events industrial capabilities earlier this week, the commander of u.s. in a pacific the command the made supplemental to her house colleagues and for russia as a win for china and so what we do, is to support the ukraine problem set also providing the deterrent valve you in the indo pacific.

together the appropriations a supplemental urgent and necessary investment an american hard hour and i continue to urge the house get up and pass it without further delay. but as a sinner prepares to finish our work, and annual government funding only once again thank our colleagues on the appropriations committee for the diligent work required to get entered to this p. collins minute give them a nearly a year ago to resort much regular order to the process that is possible and to work constructively across the aisle. and i'm especially grateful to my friends his leadership aill have continued to improve the legislation on behalf of the sender republicans that every step of therocess proud of how the latest legislation before us will deliver on priorities my fellow kentuckians. in significant ways to work of

rebuilding american hard power begins right here at home. and the means good paying manufacturing jobs were hard working americans across the country. including a kentucky. and stearns in somerset, kentucky is developing cutting-edge tools and technologies to be were service members the upper hand on thebattlefield. brandenburg, where they've produced no armored systems to enhance the next generation of combat equipment. in lexington louisville spurring innovation in areas critical to our war capabilities through partnerships with the university of louisville the university of kentucky. and of course, also they put more waited behind missions even closer to home when the fighting is a substance abuse epidemic which is had a staggering

staggering impact and my home state. and more resources to be conducted enforcement has become better literally pouring over our border and directing really is tour states like kentucky slowly to promote long-term recovery anyways to treat add and serve more lives from this deadly crisis. hazard prevention, treatment and enforcenect aim at the health crisis that is hollowed out our communities and it middle america especially hard. in a work is far from finished, but am glad the reset cobbler into colleagues what if they have accomplished to close out this process is now time, to finish the job card. >> congress is to do i

know american family whenever deal pretty congress is poised to spend one third more dollars than they this is essentially equivalent into my family at home, making $45000, the spinning $60000. arican fam this but that is what is happening here the spinning that has been brought forward for spinning cleanses your link a $1.5 trillion deficits so we bring end about $4.5 trillion going to spend $6 trillion and it is reckless and new leads to inflation and it is a direct go to steal your paycheck because what happens as we borrow more money, the federal reserve just prints out more money to pay for all of the deficits created today but that he values your dollar is when you go to the grocery store in your prices have risen 20 percent, you think that people today that to give you everything you want, every program under the sun that your mother and

apple pie they want of this is what they will give you what they're going to borrow the money and this is a bait and a switch and it's like well what you want america is for you don't have to do it is bar road and when they give you stop, thereby with borrowed money they create inflation and has been going on while but it is accelerating units at an alarming pace now the covid-19 lockdowns we are borrowing $3 tri were borrowing over a trillion were still borrowing at $1.5 trillion why because this is pending proposals, take most of the spinning off limits. and two thirds of our spending is entitlement and social security medicare stamps that is two thirds of the spending at that equals all of the money you pay in taxes they've taken that off of the limits of them start their head in the not ever touch entitlements. but if you don't you're not a serious person coming if you don't, your part of the problem. and entitlement is two thirds of

the spending and do i want to do something going take joy in knowing that we have this not reform them, they are an anchor around the neck of america they are destroying us by spending money we don't have tutors of the spinning of the not even going to address and the remaining one third of the spinning of this will be going on military spending, hand on military spending over the collins discretionary spending and that remaining third they took half the that of the table so entitlement is two thirds of the spinning and that's going up at about five - 6 percent and the remaining third that we vote on his military and nonmilitary they say we have to continually expand military and is going to go up to 3 percent so when we left left with them would have tone half of one third and 16 of government about 16.6 percent going to say well for going try to read in spending their there were they do is they've almost sold down to one or 2 percent.

this bill spends the third of more than comes and lead to enter has been leading to the erosion of your paycheck and the explosion of the gas prices and the explosion of your grocery bills nothing is changing and you ask yourself, where are the republicans we have the republican majority in the house andreducing the dad we have a filibuster minority in the senate and extensively senate republicans they are taking control of the young what happens, nothing happens in the spinning goes on at a pace and the deficit grows by day. as a winded we get the spending bill they have months and months to do this and winded we get is, at 2:32 a.m. on thursday and now, rush rush rush, and we need to shovel the money out the door most of which we do not have or one third of we need to borrow quickly shovel enough nor because the government will shut it down on friday at midnight why is the government shutting down wire we have because the deadline because they did not give us the thousand page bill

until 230 the morning on thursday heard and he would think that we should read it, do you thinkhat we know what is in it. the republicans and the democrat leadership gave thi to u 32 in the morning in 1008, 12 page bill, spends over a trillion dollars no one will be able to thoroughly read and know what is in this until after his past but is rush rush rush, borrow more money and spend the money and then try tonto thinking that we gave you brought you mena from heaven we gave you all of these gifts these baubles running get a lot ofike under the sun come you want to get something for it in their but they won't tell you the truth those using borrowed leads to inflation and it is the biggest threat to our country. we are not threatened by other countries invading our country we are strong mighty to which i do not believe that we have an external threat but we have a threat internally, most

of it resides in this by most of it resides in this body and in the house spinners who are not adequate with concerned with spending what comes in. just jolly well borrowing it in jolly mother borrowing it and sending in a broad. and you know west of these are with you but my first obligation is to my country we cannot just borrow money to send it to ukraine come you know what's the worst finally the country is destroyed with bob's both sides, so many be asked to pay for it in this what you say about soccer, will be asked to pay for it. in this bill that we are looking at is 138 pages and over 1400 earmarks totaling $2 million was near mark, hit isor is not acknowledged by the constitution the constitution said the began tax and spend money for the general welfarend money appear according to the

constitution only if is for every one and so a bypass why i for people who live in one city and road island and they should tax the people of road island you don't tax everybody for a bypass and rhode island fencing the spirit of the constitution. now these 1400 earmarks are on top of the 6000 numerous we had last week. that was for $12 billion and so total, between the two bills the last three weeks we have over 77000 earmarks for $14 billion and that is a lot of pork. democrat and republican leadership what this reckless pretty well the past quickly to make sure that nobody is time to read or scrutinize the bill and likely nobody will ever have the time to review all of the 2 million-dollar earmarks before this is passedot earmarks in the spinning is not something brand-new, going on a long time

pretty there was a conservative them the name ofg time ago the old days used to be conservative democrats cared about the note. one of the programs talked about, was in a golden award to point out this and he said it was one of his favorites and he said that the government and their infinite wisdom decided to discover whether or not that if you gave jen to a sunfish versus tequila which would make the aggressive. think medic of these are addressing problems and hundred thousand dollars to sunfish engine see which one made them more aggressive and you would think that is so crazy, certainly he was went off in this what we discover this kind of waste and we made it better and he talked about this for 15 years. and throughout t he talked about income of the research money going to crazy research like this, not a penny should be spent on, and increased. in fact,

year la 30 some odd years after he was talking about this. chris:... if you give them cocaine whether or not they are more promiscuous. your tax dollars. the only time when they are about what they are doing remind them what they are spending it on. an one this one was for autism. when they got to the autism end they send it here in there and you never know where it's lined up $750,000 it went to some

let's just call them eggheads. that's the nicest thing i can to study what did the neil armstrong say when he landed on the moon? was that one small step or was it mall -- one small step step toward a man,, $750,000 studying what he said in listening to the crackly audio from the black and white moon landing in and in the end $750,000 later they couldn't decide. one step for man or one step for a man. this is the craziness that goes on but it goes on and on. even when it's something justified, so let's say i have family members who have alzheimer's my died not too long ago with a saliva great deal of sympathy for the disease and where big rich country. on alzheimer's disease but at the same time we cannot bankrupt our country so if we spend $100 million last year on alzheimer's disease that we are

saying we should spend $95 million this year? nothing ever gets smaller around here. everything gets bigger. everybody that wants something gets it. put it on uncle sam's w 4 going on 35 trillion-dollar debt. the biggest payment now and areear will be the interest on that. here's a couple of new earmarks in this bill. $2 million for the construction of a shellfish nursery and maine. you might say celts might taste really good and i like kelp. good, there's already a 15 billion-dollar private market. and their farms. i say wonderful. i'm not so sure giving it to the government or government re compete with them but i don't think it's the job of the federal

government to be involved in these perot gil surve another earmark we discovered in this bill has $1.5 million to encourage video gaming in new york. now you know i have nothing against people who play video games, but encourage kids quick sightseeing kids and i don't think they need encouragement. we might pay 1.5 million to discourage kids from playing videos but when we are in the whole 1.5 trillion that we do this. this is an add-on. these add-ons are earmarked. they are probably named for the senators in new york. they want this video gaming thing in there and maybe they industry, i don't know maybe a friend of theirs. that's why you don't earmark things. you don't just say oh here's something i'm going to give to a specific parochial interest in my state. the third item we havex $380,000 for columbia university. i'm sure the people who put this

in earmark and were saying i ju am i. public school education private school education lots of education i'm all for it but the university is a $13.6 million endowmen if you want to take a summer program to get intoqdbiv may be related to cost $12,500 for three week course at columbia. we are talking about extraordinarily wealthy people but there's no reason for the taxpayer to be giving a rich university $13 million to anybody. the next earmark we found was $249,000 for the baltimore symphony.symphony and i love music but the thing is the way government is supposed to work is if you think there's a general need for

symphony money you would have a general symphony bill and give money to all those companies that would make them part of government. instead we do something even worse. we shouldn't be in the symphony business in the federal government. we don't have any money and it'se general welfare but what happens here is the that people in the appropriations committee that have seniority bween 50 and 100 years, that's an exaggeration. let's just say 50. they rise to the top and by golly they m their symphony in their city but that's not the way government is supposed to work. there might be less if they had a surplus but they are barring it to the tune of 50 grand that we will send to the baltimore symphony is going to be borrowed from china. everybody is up in arms about china. we are becoming weaker than china because we keep spending money we don't have. the next earmark is a million dollars for cambridge massachusetts community center

to install solar panels. ll as anybody. i think it's cool to get our energy from solar panels but this is a rich community. this is where harvard this is where some of the largest most successful corporations are in boston. you think they can't pay for solar panels quick solar panels aren't for general welfare. all spending and taxing had to be for general welfare theyent one step further. in article i they laid out the powers of congress and all the things we are allowed to do and not listed is to buy solar town. you think with all the wealth that m.i.t. and harvard they'd be able to buy their own solar panels but it has no place in the budget. $1.5 trillion in the hole and it only makes it weaker. next earmark is a million dollars for martha's vineyard hospital one of the richest zip codes in the united states. i have been to martha's vineyard and it's beautiful.

the thing is if you live there that's wonderful and i'm all for wealthy people and i love that they have beautiful homes. but the thing is pay for your tal. i've little tiny hospitals with 40 in the room at community and because of all the rules and regulations are barely breaking even in kentucky and i't don of dollars in once again why did he go to martha's vineyard? somebody who has been here for 50 years are on the appropriations committee they put an earmark in and they say i wanted for martha's vineyard. nobody said needs more than arlington kentucky. they just put an earmark in there and they get it because they've been there for a long time. it's agislate in the context of this enormous debt that we are amassing. this bill is teaming with about $2 billion worth of earmarks at a time when we can afford additional debt. just days into the new y department

announced the u.s. debt has surpassed $34 trillion. it's hard to fathom. chairman of the federal reserve nd an urgent problem. jamie dimon with jpmorgan chase came out and said it was an urgent problem and people say it's an urgent problem what happens? congress rises to the occasion and borrows more money. talk about tone, completely tone we are just going to borrow another $1.5 trillion. we are spending at such a rate that right now wea trillion dollars to the debt every 90 days. if that pace continues instead of to $4 trillion in the next year. since this year the u.s. is borrowing money $7 billion a day. think about that. we are borrowing money at over $300 million per hour treat $3 million per being borrowed. we are borrowing money at

$85,000 a second. this is spinning out of control. if you look atebt amount on line you can see the numbers. just like crazy. if we are going to judge the backroom negotiations between the unit parties in congress and the white house by the results we can only conclude that they did not take their spending even republicans who talk such a good game about government spending and respect for taxpayer dollars cannot be upon when push comes to shove. our nations greatest threat comes not from abroad but from within the halls o congress. which at every opportunity looks for ways to ignore our problem and expedite our economic supply. the nonpartisan congressional budget office states will add an average of $2 trillion decade. there's a breaking point and appointed which they so much money that you can have a catastrophic lof the value. this is what happened in south

america for decades. it's what happens in central america and we don't want it or at least i d happening in our country. the cbo faces and net interest paid payments will become the largest item. over a hundred billion dollars just in interest. this reckless level of borrowing and spending is unsustain.able creasing arc that means a economy high inflation and compensatory tax rates. today's spending threatens tomorrow's prosperity. we are approaching a predictable economic crisis in the in my time in the senate by proposed spending freezes balance budgets, spending cuts to get our nation back on path but today instead of a balanced budget i would just ask this, this is what we send to the appropriations committee. senate about how to respond -- responsibly cut 5% from its

monstrosity. it would eliminate anything but everything money on grandma motherhood and apple pie would be 5% less. that's what it would take to start balancing our budget. we have to do that to everything in spending but doing it here today which show that somebody is serious about spending. my instructions leave the appropriations committee open to the term of reducing spending. this is masking that much. it's a lopsided and we can select a handful of members who wrote this bill get 95% of everything they want. that's what would realize when we vote on this that not one democrat will vote to cut 1 penny. seriously. if we offered an amendment to cut 1 penny every democrat would vote no on it. they are worried that people home -- it's more than just the democrats. no doubt mcgrath cares about the deficit and many say they care but they'll vote with the democrats as well so

this is a bipartisan problem so don't let anybody tell you it's just all about joe biden and the previous administration as well borrowed $7 trillion the covid lorrowing more than we have ever seen and we are continuing that this is a bipartisan problem. it means rather than spending $1.2 trillion quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. bennet: i'd ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding office i know my time might be short tonight because we've finally come to an agreement about a vote. but i wanted to come tonight to the floor to talk about a vietnaming against this bill and i'm going to -- voting against this bill and i'm going to vote against this bill because the house has sent it over here without f to support ukraine and i think that's -- and i think that's shameful. i think that's a complete abdication of the house's responsibility to our own national security and to democracy around the world.

it's common out here and criticize the united states senate. i've done it many times. but i was grateful to be part of the senate when we had about a six-month negotiation about whether or not to pass what was called the supplemental which was a budget bill to among other things fund ukraine. there was money in that for ukraine, there was money independent thator taiwan there was money in that for israel there was humanitarian aid in there as part of that deal as well. there's a lot of disagreement about a lot of things but over a six-month period we actually finally came to a votes. you almost never get 70 votes for anything in this place, unless it is easy. you almost never get votes for anything in this place that's hard and yet we were able to get 70 votes, we were able to coalition of democrats and republicans to

send a message to the house ukraine was very important. and that the united states senate despite our disagreements over many many things were united that we had an obligation to fulfill here on behalf of our national security on behalf of democracy, on behalf of the fight ukraine had led. we had to overcome to be isolationist voices mostly in the republican party during that debate. there were people making arguments from that isolationist wing of the republican party that we heard before world war i, that we heard before world unknown tradition in american history that people would come out and make those arguments. it's such a known tradition that theeopl advancing

those arguments are calling themselves by the same name of some of the folks that we ardent isolationists before world war ii. americacalled themselves back then and that's what they're calling themselves again. you would have thought they would have learned what the way that history shone on those last version of the american firsters that were trying to keep us out of world war ii when my mom was being born in 1938 in war saw, poland the country was about to be run over by the nazis. but all these years later you hear the same people the same wing of the same party making the same arguments once again, and the arguments just don't make any sense. one of the ones i think, is

hardest is this argument that we can't simultaneously support ukraine. we the united states of america, cannot simultaneously support ukraine and prepare for a possible conflict with china, which i'm sure nobody here would wish. i certainly don't wish that conflict m hypothetical. it's possible that someday we might be in conflict. but the idea that supporting ukraine in an actual conflict against tyranny, in an actual conflict against fascism, in the hope that we would somehow be better prepared for later makes absolutely no sense. and then when you look at the contents of the bills themselves the bills that we passed mr. president, as part of the supplemental y that's being

spent all across america, in 40 states mr. president, in 70 cities mr. president, our industrial production for our military is up 20% since russia invaded ukrain because we were not investing in our production before that happened. that was a threat to our we are doing it now all over this country, all over the united states in big cities in little cities in rural communities, in urban communities. that's what we're doing. and we're retooling our defense complex. mr. president, could you ask the folks to chance. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order, if members of the staff would remove their conversations from the floor. mr. bennet: thank you. so if i accept if i grant the

isolationist wing's view this what i would say is even based on your own arguments, you should be bills because these bills are making the united states stronger. they're refreshing our industrialse our military base and they're making us more prepared not just for what's going on in russia today but for could go on in china. i mean it's utterly self-scomplan torrey. and -- self-explanatory. that's why i think it's actually an excuse for not engaging. i think it's an isolationist tendency that we saw before. we saw it when the united states shamefully didn't get into world war ii until years after we should have. seeing it again here. but this is a different case than that because we're not talking about american troops. we're just talking about american support. talking about retooling

our industrial base. we're talking about creating jobs here in the united states. we're talking about spending t majority of money that we have that we authorized in that bill in the united states of america. not in ukraine, but here. and i suppose it would be one thing if ukraine hadn't earned our support. but on top of everything else they have. in the last two years since invaded, an invasion they did not ask for, they have done everything the worldould have asked of them more than the world could have asked of them. it's another point here too, mr. president, that we're not sending most our fanciest equipment either. we're sending them older equipment that's a lot better than the soviet-age equipment that they had. but it's allowing us to have the newest versions of this.

we're sending older versions of that equipment to ukraine. but they have used it magnificently.n the intelligence committee, and the intelligence community is telling us that the ukranian people have fought& magnificently. i've heard some of the isolationists on the other side of the aisle say, well we don't know where the money is being spent. and, therefore, we shouldn't spend any more money. i think it is safe to say, mr. president, that there is no enterprise in the world. i choosey words carefully. there is no enterprise in the world that has a better set of receipts than the men and women that have been fighting lines. i challenge any of those people to show me where they that

ukraine was going to throw putin off half the territory that he took from them but that they have been able to attack his so-called impregnable super sonic missiles. but they have. the ukranian people don't even have a navy really. i don't mean any offense, it's true. they don't really have a navy and yet they have been able to keep putin out of the black sea. and that has that wheat has been able to be transported from ukraine all over the world so people can eat. these fighters have the receipts. it's in the success that they have had. and it's important to understand this isn't just a fight forhich they have fought

magnificently. it's a fight for the west. it's a fight for nato. it's a fight they didn't ask for this fight. president zelenskyy never asked for this fight.three years ago he was cutting -- he was on a television program, and then he ran for president. and he got elected because t such concern about corruption in the country, they said we're going to put a television guy in charge. and maybe he'll do better. and then putin country thinking that he was going to be able to decapitate the regime in 72 hours, thinking that zelskyy was going to run, thinking that they wouldn't stand up to his invasion. the first invasion since settled all this stuff at the end of world war ii with the globalrder and commitment to the rule of law. my mom is still alive. i mentioned earlier, born in alive.

she can't believe she's lived long enough to see another land war break oeurope. i suppose seen from a different way, it's an incredible testament to the institutions that have been built and alliances that have been built, that it's been so long since we've had somebody who would, with the to do what putin has done. but thank god he ran into the ukrainians for all of us because we don't have to send our people there. and nato does not have to send their people there. they're willing to fight and die for democracy, and they're asking us to support them not with our people our military support. and with a little bit of money. now, as i mentioned earlier, we passed a bill with 72 votes over

here to fund in ukraine. and the house of representatives has completely ignored it. that isolationist wing that is over here that is now over there in the house of representatives is declining to fulfill our responsibilities to the rest of the world. and they have left town today without having supported y, by the way, as i stand here that there's been an incident today intoday, or outside of moscow. i'm very sorry for the theater goers that are there who lost their lives for their illustration of how complicated this world is. but let me tell you something mr. president. there is cheerful

about the house of representatives's failure to pass the senate bill than vladimir putin. he reads our newspapers. he reads our social media. he manipulates our social media. and he knows what's at and the ukrainians know what's at stake. and this is not fanciful. the questions that are at risk here. look what happened just in the last few weeks in vladimir putin got reelected by something over 95% of the vote in moscow. and of course it was compl manipulated. and he went out and said this is an endorsement for my war this, fraudulent election is endorsement of my war. look what happened in hong kong

last weekend, mr. president, where the chinese communist party from beijing has completely thrown out the rule book inhi long tradition of commitment to the rule of law, free enterprise a place that w run a business or have a newspaper, have an opposition. and then this weekend sucked out the last embers that were glowing there of the right to be able to do that stuff. so now you can get a life prison maybe even worse than a life prison in hong kong if you defy says. just like alexander navalny who was put in prison by putin, the leading opposition figure in russia put in p putin. and now, you know died of

natural causes in his early ause putin killed him while, while members of this congress were at munich during the security conference. he knew exactly what the message was he was sending. i care so little about your opinion of this that i'm going to kill alex navalny while you are all there. so i'm going to come to an end. let me just say, mr. president, contrary to what i've heard in the debate around here the ukrainians have succeeded s behind -- beyond anybody's wildest dreams. the evidence is so clear that that's true. even town that was defeated which was a

smoldering ruin by the time the russians got there, it took the russians six months 30,000 troops to get that village. and the lines have held otherwise. notwithstanding the fact that they're out of bullets, notwithstanding the fact that they're out of artillery. and n some ways they're kind of fighting with their bare hands, which is how they started in this war. we have a that is not a service to ukraine. this is a service to our national security. this isids and to our grandkids. this is a service that's the same as the one that was provided by the people before

world war ii who were able to overcome the america first crowd back then could play its unique role in the world. and this is a service to anybody on planet freedom, who cares about the ability to have a real debate and a real discussion who caresy a rule of law in place so might doesn't make right, so that you can open in your village on a corner and know that a gang isn't going to come and steal your you know your parents and grandparents ant going to be locked up -- aren't going to be locked up with the key away just because they had a different point of view than the ruler of the country. and in human history, it's been much more -- it's much more common to see a situation where might makes right than it is for people to exercise those freedomsuys that are on

the front lines to president zelenskyy and back. that's why they're fighting so hard for this freedom. that's why we need to pay attention when putin takes out his leading opposition. e need to understand the implications for us when china sweeps into hong kong and ri away people's freedoms and people's rights in front of the entire world. it's what happens when they shut down opposition this is something we should be able to agree on without respect to our political party. and i worry a lot about what's going to happen over the next two weeks because there are people out there that are not telling the truth about what the battle has been in ukraine. there are people out there, amazingly to me who think the united states can't support ukraine effectively and prepare

for what might be down the pike. there are people who don't believe that needs to be retooled. and really worried in this moment that crossing our fingers and hoping for the best is not a recipe for a good outcome here and that's why i believe it was critical for us to try to in this debate on this bill the inclusion of ukraine funding, and i've said that all funding bill that came over here six months ago, i threatened to shut the government down over that bill because it didn't include ukraine a deal had been cut behind closed doors between the then speaker in the house and others in the house allow the bill to come forward without ukraine funding. i said to my colleagues here we

have no plan to fund ukraine, we had no plan to fund ukraine. as a result of that threat we were able to get commitments from the leaders of the democratic partynd the republican party here that we keep working on it and we keep working on it. several months later, we had the same kind of mome and w to get the same kind of commitment. because we all worked together on this notwithstanding the political divisionles in our countr - e to show putin we were going to stand up aga him here against him here. and unlike some people here he knows how things are going on the ukrainian battlefield battlefield. he knows he's got real problems on the ukrainian it took 30,000 people to succeed at the last village that he was able to secure and he

knows how this nation of magyvers has shown up time and time again to fick out how to take them on with their phippses or their fists or drones or our help. i'm sorry to say this mr. president, i think it is true that the battlefield that he is trying to succeed on is the battlefield of the united states congress. he thinks he is going to win on this battlefield. he's trying to count on our dysfunction, our division our petty disagreements and the lack of understanding about what's at stake here from a historical point of view or from democracy's point of view or the message that we want to send to our allies and to our foes around the world.

tonight, he's going to sleep a little better because the house failed toit. so i'm not here to say that i'm going to shut the government down. there's nothing i can do at this point to bring the house of representatives back to washington, d.c. that's not possible. there wouldn't be any benefit todo i am going to vote against this bill because it doesn't include the ukraine funding in it. and i wolleagues who are here every sing of one of whom -- every single one of whomt came through the senate that we've got our work cut out for us over the next two weeks to make sure we persuade in the house of representatives that there's no more time left. that the ukrainians as i said are out of bullets and out of ammo and out of time and we're out world is watching us. ow the speaker,

but i'd be very surprised if he wants to go down in history as the person o who lost ukraine. who lost ukraine because he had to hold on to his job or who lost ukraine because there were people in hisotti who couldn't -- people in his party who couldn't resist the celebrity benefit of going out and raising money on a that doesn't recognize the stakes for what they are. we were able to close over that here in the senate and i believe that the house is going to have to do that as well.

and we've got to do everyth make sure they reach that conclusion because the consequence for our nation's reputation will be as severe as anything that we have ever certainly faced in the last decades around usually i would end by saying i'm confident, but i'm confident there are people of good will in this body that have worked together to get this done and who will continue to work together to make sure the united states of amaeric democracy, stands up for nato stands up for our responsibilities to our children andsibilities to this world. with that mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. espresiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: before he leaves the floor, i want to thank my colleague from colorado. he has been steadfast in his support of the ukrainian effort and it makes a difference. i think we all have to speak out

with what we're facing. we should have appropriated the money long ago, to stand behind the people of ukraine. the fact that they are now at a moment in history where their fate may be decided really underlines the importance of your statement to this senate. th b be ordered -- voted on later this evening covers so many areas, it still leaves a terrible gap, not only in in our support for ukraine but also the humanitarian assistance which was part of our effort. when we read of the terrible humanitarian tragedy in gaza and other places we realize the united states needs to help provide water and food and medicine and the basics for them to survive, just as we need to help the people in ukraine to fight this effort. let me just add parenthetically, a moment of personal pride,"60 minutes" last week highlighted lithuania and the baltics and how in small countryee

million people has become a haven for political dissidents from russia and other places. it is with some risk they've assumed this respon part of a commitment this small nation, to democracy. the united states needs to make that same commitment and p our valuationes really lie. your speech this evening high lined that and i thank you for your leadership. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: i ask unanimous consent the following staffer being granted floor privileges for the remainder of the 118th congress emily trudeau. the presiding officer: without objection objection. mr. schumer: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent -- are we in a quorum. the presiding officer: we're 6:15 the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the leon schydlower confirmation without further intervening action or debate and with all of the prefers provisions remaining in effect. the presiding officer: without obmer: i yield the floor, note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

quorum call: mz

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin. ms. baldwin: mr. president -- the presiding officer: the senate's in a quorum call. ms. baldwin: i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. the presid over the last several days and weeks i've heard a lot of discussion from some of my colleagues in in the house of representatives about what they consider to be inappropriate -- inappropriate congressionalprojects. the majority of those projects appear to be objectionable simply because the organization involved provides services to less seenbian lesbian, gay, transgender

bisexual americans, all of what is identified in the labor hhs hhs was voted out with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 26-2. second, and more importantly, i am deeply concerned about why these projects are being singled out. they're being singled out and discriminated against because they serve a particular group of americans, a groucha group of americans that every single one of us in this chamber represents. we all have gay and lesbian and bibisexual and transgender groups they should be able to get affordable housing, however the bullying campaign against

organization who help people living their true authentic wrong. one project singled out provides services for lgbtq seniors as a part of a housing project. the front is to help low-income seniors age in place. the labor hhs education bill includes multiple projects that help our seniors get the care and housing they need as they age. but this is one that's been on a list as being somehow objectionable. another is a federal -- federally qualified community health center basically one of our community health centers that provides services for individuals strug w substance use disorder. that organization has noticed an increased need among members of the lgbtq community and noted in their request that that's a

population they serve and who need service. for this the cds front was again, by some of my colleagues identified as somehow controversial. in fact several of the projects that have been identified as problematic are to provide mental health services to people in the lgbtq community, including lgbtq youth. lgbtq kid are just like any other kids. they have stressors in life they face depression anxiety appeared other chal -- and other challenges and they need help navigating it. some of this has been blatant misinformation including in my own home state, an organization in wisconsin that has for a long period of time helped kids who experience homelessness get help to get back on their feet with employment help mental health and counselinginding

housing, and more. i was proud to secure funding for a very specific and narrow program of theirs mental health support and counseling for kids experience homelessness homelessness. this would be for all kids. in he organization does such great work that it's received -- its received federal funding for years, including under the trump dmimgs but since -- administration but since the program has a program which will get exactly $0 of this federal funding, but this program to help lgbtq kids it was ruthlessly attacked and smeared. these attacks do not live in a vacuum and they have real world consequences when this body says to lgbtq community members he our help what kind of message do you think that sends? also considering that agree that the country is facing a mental health crisis why would

we be -- would we be resources that would help a certain group of people particularly those suffering from mental health. nearly half of lgbtq youth seriously considerttempting past year. nearly one in four lgbtq youth attempted suicide and nearly threefour reported persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness. but almost 60% of lgbtq youth who wanted mental health care in the past year were not able to access it. these statistics are all young people someone's child, sibling, neighbor student or classmate. and maybe one or more will occupy these seats working collaboratively with colleagues to serve their state and their can

pause to consider that when we single out a group of americans, it has a real impact. our work and our words here matter. and i hope we can rise above the bull yig and webullying and we can, as we have for months work across the aisle to deliver for all of our constituents. i yield back.

mr. manchin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, i rise today in support of 1725, which will be called up later, and my amendment is with senator crapo from idaho, my dear friend and i want to speak a little bit about the e.v.'s electric vehicle and the tailpipe emission rule that has been handed down. the administration's electric vehicle policy h been held captive by the radical advisors in the white house.

first they tried to bribe americans to buy e.v.'s by giving them $7,500 and now they're trying to mandate that we all must buym after 2032. they changed the rules, basically tried to bribe and still couldn't move them as quickly as theyw on top of that they're going to pass a law to say you don't have an option to buy another type of vehicle for transportation. mr. president, that's not the american way. that's not the way we were raised or the way this country grew. transportation is the foundation of our economy. hink about it, never in the history of our country have we had to depend on other foreign supply chains and especially unreliable foreign supply chains for our transportation cars trains and everything in between. we've been here. and now we have to rely on foreign supply chains we don't manufacture them we don't produce them we don't do

anything with them. we're trying to get up to speed. the inflation reduction act was and always will be an american energy security and a manufacturing bill. when i negotiated started negotiating after the bbb was killed and the war started in ukraine, there was one moving factor that urged me to do that internally than anything elk8se we couldn't help our allies those who fought and died with us and who needed our help now and putin weaponized energy he weaponized his gas and oil reserves. and here we are unable to help them at all. i said we better do something. that's when we started negotiating and working on some way we could be energy independent. mr. president, i'll tell you this the first time in 40 years the united statess producing more energy today than ever in the history of this country. we are producing more energy than any other country in the world. and we should be pro but my friends in the white house won't speak about it.

all they want to tell you about is the environment, environmental bill. it's the greatll. we're producing more energy with wind and solar than ever before we're doing everything and we can't accept this energy policy. we are replacing some of the dirtest in the world. venezuela venezuela, we let them back into the market. they let venezuela back in. they produce oil 80% more pollutant, more emissions than what we ever have. so anyway reduction act was an energy security and domestic energy bill. that's it. can we have energy security and basically haveng back that should have never left but we allowed it to leave, and bring it back so we don't have to rely on unreliable partners if you will for entities. the white house wanted money for e.v.'s i wanted a manufacturing secure supply chain, we were at

a stand still and we couldn't move any further. so we when to compromise and the compromise was simple. the administration would only get money to incentive people to buy an e.v. if we were making and sourcing thesenge national debted critical -- that we needed critical minerals from america or from power supply chain -- are or for our our supply chain. our main objective for this bill the ira was this we will not be doing business with foreign countries of concern, and those were mainly ch iran and north korea. there's no way we should be depending on anything coming from them who don't have our values it as a wedge. but the administration has completely liberalized it and broken the law we agreed to and tually passed and we've been having this continuously back and fords.

i cannot believe dealing in good faith we ended up with what we ended up. put but achievable standards to ensure that china and other nations that don't share our values don't benefit off the backs of taxpayers don't give xi jinping, the president of china, a geopolitical weapon to use agains us. when he -- against us. when he saw putin use energy as a weapon he was going to use all the things we depend on from china, he would have done the same thing with. i remember waiting in gas lines in 1974 to have to buy gasol i can remember those days. i can't believe the united states of america got itself into that mess we did but gout out -- got ourselves out of it too. you don't think china will use that to their advantage? i will not wait for a b come dpr china sir -- come fro china, sir. this is how desperate they are

to get more -- to the bill that we all agreed on in good faith and sign for the purpose of bringing manufacturing back but they want -- their ambition to get more e.v.'s out the door quicker than before they cut everything in half. this is exactly what is written in the bill language plain. by 2023 you should have 40% of the minerals that must be extracted or processed in u.s. or countries or recycled in north america, 40%. every year it went up. so we will be more and more dependent, building our ability to manufacture. this is exactly what they did. you think it's a coincidence they cut everything in half? from 40%? this is what they admitted what they're working with. they call it their new rules coming out. according to the treasury's proposed rules. i'll get into why they call them proposed rules, too. so this is what we intended to be self-sufficient.

this is exactly what they intended to meet their political agenda to get thesequick letter cut everything in half. the ira set deadlines. like i said before the deadlines were 2023 2024 to completely remove the countries from critical minerals and battery manufacturing. we wrote the language in the bill. if you read the ira bill it's written there this r in there that we can't do business with china, north korea -- that's the whole purpose. if you're going to go down this path we need to mhing back. now the irs is proposing temporary exemptions through at least the end of 2026. when have you heard of temporary rules would go through -- they're supposed to be basically done by december 31 2024. they put in the rules 2026 or later. or later.

there's another three years of china and another -- and other foreign nations reachin our electric vehicles battery supply chain. the longer we allow this to happen the longer we allow this to happen by basically not being more -- pushing our american energy and technologies quick remember basically all we're doing is supporting china and their grip they have on us. worse yet, the irs under this administration seems to have adopted a new legal strategy to avoid any accountable from the courts or congress. now, this is the real -- the real innovative creative way they're thinking. by issuing proposed rulehe you issue a proposed -- proposed rules like this and never finalizing them the irs can brake the law -- break the law. le the law, implement it in any way they wished. i have said this from day one. you're implementing a piece of legislation you never passed. i tell t you didn't pass this. all we passed tells you exactly

what to do. you're trying to implement something that you would like to do but you never do. they do it with proposed rules because they think that basically protecting them from any litigation. it's a breach of everything we agreed. a breechl ofverything we agreed in good faith and not the way this government and this great country of ours should ever operate. let me be clear. there's no question that the ira transformative bills in the way it was written. it was an all purpose bill. it was a balanced -- a balance between the energy we need today, fossil fuels we're going to do and cleaner and the technology and energy we want in the sedture. do. it was proposed to bring back manufacturing that we let go basically with nafta agreement, north america free frayed agreement way back in in the 80's and 9 on the -- 90's and now what we're dealing with today, we've allowed things to leave our country. we should never have allowed the manufacturing base to ever leave. let me be clear. there's no question that the ira

will go down as one of the most transformative -- transformational bill we've ever passed. it's bringing surely is. it's bringing opportunity in areas that got left behind. electric vehicle and battery makers announced $52 billion in america's supply chains before the irs even started loosening the rules. they want to come back to america. they want to build. but as long as you basically allow the foreign entities of concerns the chinas of the world to continue to flood the market with cheaper oever be able to have a foothold as far as the manufacturing in the united states. that's the problem. we knew it would take a couple of years for us to get up to speed, but we'll never get up to speed as long as they can buy cheaper products somewhere else. numbers like this show braking th get us more investment. it just makes the cost go up for every american taxpayer and sends our tax dollars overseas. we're trying to bring that manufacturing bac here not in china or russia. but even bribing the nistration because

it doesn't meet their political timetable to eliminate gas-powered vehicles. now, if they had a good enough product, a product in america, the market usually will react. the market will reject or accept. it won't do it on your timetable. but when you have t government behind you pushing you in a way to force the options you may have that's not how we built the country we have. s capitalist mentality or this entrepreneurship. it's just not who we are. so the epaposed these new tailpipe rules that force automakers to limit consumer choice and force americans to buy e.v.'s. full of part. it's exactly what's happening now. epa wants more than two-thirds of new cars be electric by 2032 when only 8% o them are electric today. they can't meet that goal unless it's buying overseas which is what we try to stop. their intentionsontinue to flood the market any way they

possibly can for their own political agenda by the extreme environmental climate at the destruction basically of our own jobs. our own economy. the only way we -- it would be get anywhere close like up said before is to do business with the other foreign countries because china has a lock on most of the other markets. cathodes 80% of that earth minerals 60% to 80% of that. they've been doing this for white a -- quite a while. need to get up to speed. xi is showing he will use critical minerals as leverage to put americans in the frisk. by implementing new restrictions on exports of several critical minerals. now he'll really start putting the choke on us. he will see we have legislation that will force us to buy a product that he has control over. can you imagine us getting ourselves into a jam to where we're going toe dependent upon china for the critical minerals and the battery components that

we need to run the vehicles that we decided to our transportation mode to before we're ready to do it ourself? i'd expect that from xi jingping and the chinese communist party but i can't believe we'd be dumb enough to play into their hands. it's unbelievable. and there's nobody that you can talk to in the industry that doesn't understand exactly what i'm saying. i never could have expected our own government to give up so easily and continue to let foreign nations control ournation's transportation. they told me about all the charging stations that we have to spend billions and billions of dollars, the i do not remember when henry ford basically was able to have the production of the model t and bring it into mass production where the average person could buy it that we said we're going to go out and start building filling stations. i don't think government built filling stations to meet the demand of the market. the market did it and will do it again. oh, no we can't do that. we can't take a chance on the market so let's go ahead and

just commit billions and billions of dollars of taxpayers' money to do what the market has always done for america. i'll do everything in my power to hold this administration accountable to the deal we made and the intent of it everybody knew about it. protect america's tax patience and secure energy supply chains. if we're going to do it let's do it and benefit from it. les b let's do what we do best. let's innovate and create and believe in the market and allow the market to force us to work as it always worked for america. i urgeport this amendment that's coming up because i can tell you one thing. we have got to send a signal to this country -- that this co able to take care of ourselves, we can compete and should not depend on unreliable foreign supply chains for the most critical building blocks country. transportation basically keeps the lights on. it keeps food on your table. it does everything necessary for us to live a quality of life in this country. and to allow and give it up because we are not in control of

our transportation mode is absolutely crim that mr. president, i would say i hope all of our colleagues will look at this amendment very seriously and see how important it is for us tremendous independence this country has always had. and with that, i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the question occurs on the confir is there a sufficient second? the clerk will call the roll. 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. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cram 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. the clerk: mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. 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. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts.

mr. risch.ey. 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.llen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker.

mr. wyden. the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, cornyn, crapo, daines duckworth graham grassley hassan heinrich manchin, merkley, ossoff reed

ricketts schatz sinemane and tillis. mr. tuberville voted in the negative. ms. collins, aye. when whitehouse, aye. -- mr. whitehouse, aye. mr. casey, aye.dé

the clerk: mr. rubio aye. mr. smith aye mr. wyden aye, mr.clerk: mrs. capito, aye.

the clerk: mr. johnson, aye.

mr. vance, mr. warnock, aye.

the clerk: mr. cramer, aye.

the clerk: mrs. shaheen, aye. the clerk: mr. brown, aye.

the clerk: ms. butler, aye. mr. mullin, aye. mr. lujan, aye.

ms. warren, aye. mr. mr. lee, aye. mr. tester, aye. mr. lankford, aye. mr. schmitt, no.

mr. carper, aye. ms. the clerk: mr. wicker, aye.

the clerk: ms. murkowski, aye. mr. paul, no. mr. sullivan, no. mr. king, aye.

the clerk: mr. cruz, aye. schumer, aye.

th marshall, no. mr. cardin, aye. ms. cortez masto, aye.

the clerk: mr. durbin, aye. the clerk: mr. booker, aye. ms. ernst, aye. kennedy, aye. erk:

mr. moran, aye. mrs. britt, no.

mr. risch, aye. mr. markey, aye. the clerk: mr.cotton, aye.

the clerk: mrs. fischer, aye. mr. welch, aye. ms. cantwell, aye. the clerk: mr. romney, aye.

the clerk: mr. padilla, aye. the clerk: ms. abenow, aye. mrs. blackburn, aye. mrs. hyde-smith, aye.

vote: the clerk: mr. mcconnell, aye. the clerk: mr. sanders, aye.

the clerk: ms. hirono, aye.n>ó!n