bill. thank you. >> i thank my colleague and senator cornyn said i i couldt take a second to add on. i think my f colleague from california has made a central point. in the west, in particular, we want to make sure that those who have been clobbered by these fires don't get clobbered again by an outdated tax code. i am strong in support of your work and we have an opportunity to get it on the books tomorrow if it passes. tamara goes to the present and get signed into law. i used the floor and i think senator cornyn for his courtesy. ♪ may not. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have in your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced unfiltered

coverage of government. taking each with a policy is debated and decided all with the support of america's cable companies. c-span 45 years and counting powered by cable. >> we take you live now to capitol hill where the scent is ready to gavel in. at 11:30 a.m. eastern the upper chamber of the confirmation vote for a deputy u.s. representative to the u.n. it they will also vote to advae the $79 billion house-passed bill that expand child tax credits and provide tax breaks for businesses. you are watching live senate coverage here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. today's opening prayer will be offered by reverend jeff simpson, associate pastor, church of the advent, washington, d.c.

the guest chaplain:let's pray together. almighty god, we give you thanks for this new day and for giving us every good gift we have, including our freedom, our communities, our families, and life itself. we thank you that you have brought these men and women here today to work for the common good of our great nation. we pray that you would grant them wisdom to navigate the complex issues they face. we pray that you would grant them patience to understand one another amid their differences. we pray that you would grant them courage; that you would strengthen them to do what is right in your eyes. may they strive to serve our neighbors who are poor, unemployed, hungry, sick, and lonely. we pray that you would use them to serve our whole nation; that

our government would lead with virtue; that businesses would thrive; that our schools would be filled with children who love learning; that our legal systems would be just; that our military and law enforcement would keep & musicians would inspire us with beauty; that our farmers would be blessed with abundance; that our land with all of its splendor and wildlife would be cared for; that our faith communities would embody grace and mercy; and that our families would be filled with nurture and love. we humbly ask you for all of these things in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy spirit. amen the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america,

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c, august 1, 2024. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable ben lujan, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patty murray, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination,

department of state, dorothy shea of north carolina to be deputy representative of the united states of america to the united nations and the deputy represent of the united states of america in the security council of the united nations.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: this is the last day before our august work

period, and so i have a lot of topics to cover and i'll go through all of them. we're going to talk about the tax bill we're doing today. we're going to talk about the supreme court and immunity to the president. we're going to talk about a.i. and what has been accomplished there, casa and coppa. we're going to talk about that. last but not least, i will talk about the veterans administration and our hospital on long island. okay, so today the senate has a chance to move forward on the tax relief for american families and workers act. democrats are ready to vote yes to advance bipartisan legislation today. the question is will senate republicans join us to give americans a tax break or will they stand in the way. the tax bill passed the house with an overwhelming vote of

357-70. it won majorities in both parties. it was led by the house, in the house by the republican chair of ways and means, congressman smith, hardly a liberal. so we know this is good bipartisan bill. for people who say this is not bipartisan, go look at the house. everyone in congress is on board except senate republicans. unfortunately it seems like senate republicans plan to vote no today. even house republicans managed to unite long enough to pass this bill. with great respect to senate republicans, it's never a good sign to be more obstructionist than republicans in the house. senate republicans love to talk about they are the party of family and business, so it's very odd to see them come out so aggressively against expanding the child tax credit and rewarding businesses with the

r&d tax credit, but that seems to be what they're doing. instead of jumping at the opportunity to get this tax bill done, some senate republicans are organizing against tax relief. you heard that right. senate republicans are organizing against tax relief. some of them were passing out leaflets at their lunch yesterday smearing the bill. here's one of the nonsensical argument senate republicans made against this tax bill. you don't dare pass it, they said, because god forbid it actually helps american families and then democrats will get some credit. can you believe that? does that sound like a pro-family party? i don't think so. instead of focussing on the election, republicans maybe should focus more on the fact that this bill actually helped families. if the bill becomes law, half a million kids would come out of poverty, 16 million kids from low-income households would see benefits increase.

business owners that invest in r&d and buy new equipment would see more money coming back to them leading to more jobs, good-paying jobs. and the housing crisis in america would ease, one of our biggest crises, housing costs, by expanding the low-income tax credit, something i deeply cared about and urged be put in the bill. i'm glad it's there. and of course communities devastated by natural disasters -- we've sooep so many of them across the country in the past few weeks -- they'd get greater relief. so thank you to all my colleagues who worked hard on this bill. chairman wyden for his leadership. everyone on the finance committee, as well as senators brown and casey and bennet and cantwell and hassan and so many others. the ball is now in senate republican court. senate republicans can either choose bipartisanship and get this done now or they can choose partisanship, leave families hanging out to dry. mr. president, just on one note,

this so often becomes the m.o. of the republicans in the house, senate and presidency, when we do something good and strong that americans support in a bipartisan way, that most republicans support, they say don't pass it because it will benefit democrats in the election. donald trump has said it repeatedly on border. we've sooep it recently on crypto. we've seen it on so many other issues. that is thought the way to help -- that is not the way to help the american people. that is not the way to govern. now on the supreme court and the immunity, their awful immunity provision for presidents, including trump. all of us in school were taught that there are no kings in america. no kings in america. but one month ago the maga supreme court effectively placed a crown over donald trump's head. they ruled that the president of the united states is in essence

above the law, that the president is immune in sweeping ways from accountability for, quote, official acts. one month ago i said i'd work with my colleagues on legislation to reverse the damage of the court's bewildering ruling on immunity. today i'm pleased to announce senate democrats are taking the next step. today, along with 33 of my democratic colleagues, i am introducing the no kings act. this legislation is as simple agos the name it -- as the name it bears. it reaffirms that presidents do not have immunity from violations of criminal law and removes the supreme court's jurisdiction to hear appeals related to the prim immunity, which the constitution explicitly empowers congress to do. the maga supreme court's decision on presidential immunity was the very antithesis

of the kind of accountability our framers envisioned. it just goes to show you what a morass the supreme court is in right now. they're in a mess. they're in an ethical morass and in a substantive morass. ethically, the maga supreme court is suffering a huge crisis of confidence with the american people because justices accept lavish gifts, vacations, cars from hard-right wealthy people who are then paying different groups and lawyers to lobby for what they want and then the judges, the justices turn around and ram through scores of hard-right decisions. the two happen sometimes all too close to one another in time. substantively, the maga court is taking rights away from americans at every opportunity, like a woman's right to choose, and others, siding with the big special interests against the

average person. again, the maga supreme court is undermining our constitution and throwing out centuries of precedents by anointing donald trump and future presidents as kings above the law. make no mistake about it, we have a very strong argument that are congress by statute can undo what the supreme court does, that it does not require a constitutional amendment. the bottom line is this, no democracy can hope to survive if it cannot ensure accountability, and if the supreme court can no longer be trusted to serve as its own check on ethics or on following precedent and helping the american people, congress must use all its tools to restore trust and accountability to the highest court in the land. on kosa and coppa, two days ago, the senate overwhelmingly passed two of the most important updates in decades to federal laws protecting our kids, the

kids online safety act, kosa, and the coppa. i repeat, it passed the senate overw overwhelmingly. this was a good bipartisan thing, 91 votes in favor. then i called on the house to take these bills up, to keep the momentum alive, to do right by parents who work so hard to get these bills done. but this morning, it's been reported that house republicans will refuse to take these bills up. i hope these reports are not accurate. just one week ago speaker johnson said he'd like to get kosa done. i hope that hasn't changed. letting kosa and coppa collect dust in the house would be an awful mistake and a gut punch, a gut punch to these brave, wonderful parents who have worked so hard to reach this point. let me repeat what i said earlier this week, when the house rushes in the fall -- returns in the fall, kosa and coppa must be a priority. these parents, the kids across

america, deserve better. i hope house republicans change course sievertly and take -- 1wi69ly and take kosa and coppa up. on artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence, it's been two months since the bipartisan a.i. working group i forked with senators heinrich, democrat, and senators young and round, republican, published our roadmap for a.i. poll system i'm happy to report -- policy. i'm happy to report the senate is making important progress drafting a.i. legislation already. just yesterday, on the -- under the magnificent leadership of chair cantwell and chair peters, both the commerce and homeland security committees marked up and improved important bipartisan a.i. bills. these bills will help american workers to be a.i. ready, while helping innovation lead the way in new technologies. yesterday, senator klobuchar also brought two bipartisan bills to the floor to protect our elections from deepfakes and political advertising. sadly, these bills were blocked. i hope we can find a path

forward. last week, the senate unanimously passed the de-fayans act, a -- the defiance act, a bill to combat the spread of sexually explicit a.i.-generated deepfakes, an awful thing afflicting so many americans, particularly young kids and young girls. in the last two weeks there are at least five very good a.i. bills that have seen some movement in the senate. all of them have bipartisan support. together, they represent a good mix of the two approaches. i've always said we need -- what we need with a.i., two things, to promote safe innovation, on the one hand, but instill commonsense guardrails on the other. this is the recipe for strong a.i. legislation -- safe innovation, strong innovation, balanced with sound guardrails. i thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for working together, and look forward to more of this in the weeks to come.

now, let me talk about the v.a. and long island's only v.a. medical center, the northport v.a. right now, long island's only v.a. medical center, the northport v.a., and many other v.a. medical centers across the country are being threatened by the maga republican plan known as project 2025. this is a picture, mr. president, of the northport v.a. ity the only v.a. on long island, serving over 100,000 vets across nassau and suffolk counties. i know how good it is because my father, who passed away two years ago, got good treatment at the v.a. he's a world war ii vet. long island has so many veterans, so many people who served their country, who are getting older now. they desperately need that northport v.a. for their health care. if republicans take power, the

project 2025 plan is just itching to become law, and it would have a disastrous impact on the v.a. and create chaos for vets, not just across long island but across america, especially those now receiving health benefits that we fought so hard to win. project 2025 has a fancy when site. it has a fancy book. it has a lot of glitter. but this plan is far from gold, far from gold. it's a pile of corroded ideas that have never become law, because of how unpopular they are, including undermining the v.a. and deep in this plan is a mandate to defund the northport v.a. on long island. it would slash -- the plan would also slash veterans benefits. it seems to repeal the pact act which we just passed overwhelmingly bipartisan, that said our veterans, who served in

iraq and afghanistan and were exposed to burn pits and got cancers and other illnesses could get help from the v.a. this project 2025, is so intent on slashing all government programs to the very -- so the very rich can pay fewer taxes. it's outrageous. outrageous. now, when faced with questions on these, republicans, maga republicans are running away, claiming they don't know anything. maga republicans even announced they fired the guy who authored all this dreck. sorry, you can fire all the people you want. these are the goals. it was put together by lots of donald trump's former employees, and has as one of its leaders somebody who wants to slash, slash all kinds of government programs up and down the line, because the very rich people that they seem to represent don't want to pay any taxes.

they don't care about the rest of us. so maga republicans, again, they can fire anyone they want. we know the goals. this revealed it. they were proud of this project 2025, until it was revealed that it had so many bad things in it. i'm sounding the alarm on this little-known project for all the members of this chamber, and pledging that under my majority the v.a. will not be depleted, veterans' benefits will be protected, and the senate floor will not consider programs and proposals that undo years of bipartisan progress on veterans affairs, health care, and on funding our hospitals. the plan would revive the effort to shut down long island's northport v.a. this is what project 2025 says, quote, the senate veterans affair committee lacked the political will to act on the white house nominations of commission members, and this ultimately led to the

termination of the air, the asset and infrastructure review. the next administration should seek agile, creative, and politically acceptable operational solutions. those here in this chamber know evident what air was, a plan, a hard right plan, to defund the v.a. system. well, bipartisan -- we bipartisanly said no way. we saved our v.a. hospitals. well, project 2025 doesn't want to just revive air, but implement it. defund the v.a. hospitals, that's what it says. look, over nine million veterans are enrolled in the v.a. health care system, meaning these proposed cuts and policy changes will affect a massive amount of people. but for northport and the vets of long island, it would be the end of care as they know it. they'd have to travel to new york city for basic care or more complex care. the waiting lines and waiting lists, veterans wait long enough, would get even greater.

as i said, it's to offense 100,000 vets, vets i stood with and launched a petition with. i will not, will not let this v.a. close or be defunded. all of you here, look close -- which one of your considerity cal v.a. hospitals -- of your critical v.a. hospitals does maga want to shutter? project 2025, a bunch of bad ideas that hurt working people, veterans, and others who serve this country. maga fired the guy who ran it, but they still are intent on the plan. still intent on decimating and closing this great hospital. make no mistake about it. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i also ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to speak for up to ten minutes prior to the scheduled roll call vote. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. mcconnell: today, as the senate prepares to leave town for the august state work period, the democratic leader has decided to squeeze in one more vote that isn't ready for prime time. to our colleagues on the finance committee, and to anyone paying attention in recent months, it's been clear that the tax relief for american families and workers act that chairman wyden wrote with the house needed some serious revisions in order to earn 60 votes here in the senate. we don't need a vote today to tell us that's still the case. colleagues on this side of the aisle have serious, unresolved concerns. they don't like how many -- more than 90% of the supposed benefits of the bill as written come as a $30 billion expansion

of cash welfare instead of relief for working tox pairs -- taxpayers. they're concerned about how it would weaken the work requirements tied to those benefits under current law. for a bill with the potential to so seriously impact working americans, one might expect its proponents to engage seriously on resolving obstacles to bipartisan support. you might have expect them to schedule a mark-up, to give them a shot at passing the senate. but alas, you'd be wrong. of course, months without progress on this front aren't for lack of effort from ranking member crapo, and i'm grateful

for his dedication to addressing republican the concerns. today's vote doesn't seem intended to produce a legislative outcome, the democratic leader himself admitted this week that losing the vote would be a political benefit for vulnerable senate democrats running for reelection. well, i'm not so certain the american people are impressed by message votes, and i don't think they give out points for incomplete work. on a different matter, today the appropriations committee is considering defense funding for the coming here. from the outset, colleagues who take seriously our obligation to provide for the common defense knew that they had their work cut out for them. this spring the president sent

them a fourth straight defense request that would cut funding for the national defense. the request was grossly insufficient when it went to print. it's even more so today. then this summer brought our closest allies and partners here to washington. underscoring the importance of american leadership by example. just a few days ago, a final report of the commission on national defense strategy put an even finer point on the stakes of the growing and inner connected threats to our national security. as i discussed earlier this week, the bipartisan expert panel behind the report delivered a grave warning. here is more of what they said. the u.s. military, quote, lacks

both the capabilities and the capacity required to be confident it can deter and prevail in combat. the american public have been, quote, again according to report, inadequately -- inadequately informed by government leaders of the threats to u.s. interests, including to people's every day lives, and what will be required to restore american global power and leadership. it went on further. very little progress will be possible without congress where a relatively small number of elected officials have imposed political gainsmanship over thoughtful and legislating and oversight. it's past time to prioritize our

national security. it's totally obvious to all of us this needs to begin. just take the pacing threat from china, for example. plenty of our colleagues from both sides of the aisle like to talk about outcompeting the prc, but not as many seem to recognize that winning this competition, preserving american, or protecting america interest is first and foremost of protecting american hard power. as the commission put it, china has, quote, largely neglected the -- negated the u.s. military advantage in the western pacific through two decades of focused military investment. without significant change by the united states, the balance of power will continue to shift in china's favor. but the vast majority of

supposed counter china policies that folks in washington like to talk about won't do much to address -- to adjust the ship. neither will pretending that this is the only threat we face. it is naive to believe we can assume away threats in other regions. anyone who believes our security and prosperity don't require investment in hard power and alliances in partnerships and alliance in our industrial base clearly don't know what they're talking about. so i'm grateful to my friend, vice chair collins, and to colleagues on the appropriations committee who recognize the urgency of the task in front of us. we're fighting hard to negate as much of the president's real

dollar cut to national defense as they could. the bill, in committee right now, exceeds the president's request by nearly $19 billion. this is less than the additional $25 billion authorized by the armed services committee. senate democrats refuse to spend more on defense without adding funding to nondefense discretionary programs. however, thanks to our colleagues' efts, to -- efforts, this addresses a number of urgent priorities. the bill includes the largest ever appropriation for shipbuilding, with hundreds of millions in new resources for growing and retaining the critical shipbuilding industrial base. it tackles maintenance bag logs head on and invests in enough spare components to bring 500 more aircraft to full readiness than the president's request

accounts for. it goes $3 billion beyond his request for overdue investments in expanding the defense industrial basin provides for modernizing ammunition and vehicle production facilities from iowa and missouri to ohio and tennessee. and delivers important downpayments on critical munitions from the long-range and precision strike capabilities need inned the -- needed in the indo-pacific to the interceptors and global commerce from terrorist attacks in the red sea. but let's be absolutely clear, when it comes to rebuilding our stockpiles and preparing our armed forces to deter and defeat threats, there is much -- much more work to be done. there is no serious reading of

post world war ii history that doesn't trace the preservation of the western peace or the growth of american prosperity to an order underpinned by american strength. the u.s. military is the reason our neighbors back home sleep in peace. it's the reason our communities reap the benefits of global trade. it's the weight behind our leader's words. we cannot afford to shortchange it, and i cannot make the stakes of the task before us any more clear. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination.

is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote: the clerk: ms. baldwin. mr. barrasso. mr. bennet. mrs. blackburn.

the clerk: mr. blumenthal. mr. booker. mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto. mr. cotton. mr. cramer.

mr. crapo. mr. cruz. mr. daines. ms. duckworth. mr. durbin. ms. ernst. mr. fetterman.

the clerk: ms. ernst. mr. fetterman. mrs. fischer. mrs. gillibrand. mr. graham. mr. grassley. mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan.

the clerk: ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla. mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina.

the clerk: mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young. vote:

the presid the clerk: senators voting in

the affirmative -- durbin, ossoff, padilla, peters, reed, rosen, schatz, sinema, stabenow, tillis, and welch. senators voting in the negative -- barrasso, blackburn, cotton, cramer, daines, and hyde-smith. the clerk: ms. hirono, aye.

the clerk: mr. johnson, no. ms. murkowski, aye.

the clerk: mrs. britt, no.

mr. warnock, aye. the clerk: ms. klobuchar, aye.

the clerk: mr. blumenthal, aye. mr. whitehouse, aye. ms. ernst, no. mr. hickenlooper, aye. the clerk: mr. risch, no.

the clerk: ms. collins, aye. mr. booker, aye.

the clerk: mr. kaine, aye. the clerk: mr. coons, aye.

mr. hawley, no.

the clerk: ms. duckworth, aye.

the clerk: mr. marshall, no. mr. casey, aye. mr. crapo, no. mr. tuberville, no. the clerk: ms. cantwell, aye. mr. rubio, no.

the clerk: mr. cassidy, no.

the clerk: mrs. capito, no. ms. warren, aye. mr. bennet, aye.

is. vote:

the clerk: mr. wicker, no. mr. rounds, aye. mr. king, aye. ms. butler, aye.

mr. cardin, aye. mr. brown, aye.

mr. mullin, no. mr. murphy, aye.

the clerk: mr. lankford, no. ms. baldwin, aye.

the clerk: mr. van hollen, aye.

mr., moran, no.

the clerk: mr. boozman, no. mr. wyden, aye. mrs. shaheen, aye.

mr. kelly, aye. mr. carper, aye.

the clerk: mr. schumer, aye.

mr. tester, aye.

the clerk: mr. ricketts, no.

vote: the clerk: mr. scott of florida, no. ms. lummis, no. mr. sanders, aye.

the clerk: ms. smith, aye. mr. thune, no.

mr. cruz, no.

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

the clerk: mrs. murray, aye.

the clerk: mr. schmitt, no. mr. grassley, no. the clerk: mr. braun, no.

the clerk: mr. paul, aye.

the clerk: mrs. fischer, no. mr. budd, aye.

the clerk: mr. cornyn, no.

the clerk: mr. young, aye. mr. kennedy, no. vote: #

the clerk: mr. merkley, aye.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, aye.

the clerk: mr. hagerty, aye. mr. mcconnell, aye.

the clerk: ms. cortez masto, aye. mr. lee, no.

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 59, the nays are 34, and the nomination is

confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. under the previous order, the senate will resume legislative session to resume consideration of the motion to proceed to h.r. 7024, which the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 349, h.r. 34724 -- 7024, an act to make improvements to the child tax credit, and so forth and for other purposes. mr. thune: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, in a couple of weeks we'll mark the second anniversary of the so-called inflation reduction act. i'm sure the white house will be celebrating, but americans shouldn't be.

democrats did the country no favors with this legislation. in fact, the bill reads like a roster of bad democrat policies. it's hard to know where to even begin. perhaps with the bills misleading really deceptive title. democrats call the bill the inflation reduction act, but before it was signed into law it was noted that the bill's inflation was, quote, statistically inkwishable from zero -- indistinguishable from zero, end quote. in other words, the inflation reduction act would do nothing, nothing to reduce inflation. president biden confirmed this fact a year later when he noted -- and i quote -- " this is president biden speaking, we put ourselves in a position where we passed the most comprehensive environmental piece of, it's called the inflation reduction act. it has nothing to do with

inflation. end quote. that's president biden. let me just repeat that, mr. president. it's called the inflation reduction act. it has nothing to do with inflation. president biden's own words. why democrats chose to name it that when it had nothing to do with reducing inflation is a good question. perhaps it was to try to convince the american people falsely that democrats were doing something to stem the historic inflation crisis they had created. or perhaps it was to disguise the substance of what democrats thought might be otherwise an unpopular bill. but moving on, mr. president, although democrats selling point for the bill was its claim that it would reduce the deficit but that claim has proved to be as hollow as the bill's title. the cost of the bill's green new deal provision has grown to such an stept that the bill with the not only not reduce the deficit,

it's now on track to add to it. that's right. a bill democrats toyotaed for its deficit reduction is now predicted to actually add to the deficit. and speaking of the bill's green new deal provisions, as the president himself admitted last year, the so-called nation reduction act was -- inflation reduction act was really a chance to impose their green new deal fantasies. it includes $1.5 billion for a grant program to plant trees. $1 billion for zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles, light garbage trucks. $3 billion for the u.s. postal service for zero-emission delivery vehicles. $1.9 billion for things like road equity, whatever that is. and identifying gaps in tree can

parliamentary inquiry coverage -- in tree canopy coverage. and climate-related political activity. yes, mr. president, climate-related political activity. because clearly families struggling with high grocery prices and high energy prices are eager to see their tax dollars going to green new deal activism. then of course there are the tax credits the bill provides for well-off americans to purchase new electric vehicles. and there's much, much more. all told, the climate and energy-related provisions of the bill are now projected to cost american taxpayers in excess of $1 trillion. mr. president, i mention tax credits for electric vehicles.

perhaps the biden administration's signature environmental measure has been attempting to force the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. the inflation reduction act tax credits are one part of this crusade. others include the final emissions rules the biden administration released this spring that will have the practical effect of forcing car and truck companies to electrify a huge portion of their sales lots. and the big problem here, mr. president, is that the president is attempting to force the adoption of his electric vehicle fantasy at a time when our electric grid is barely keeping up you current demand. an article in "the washington post" this march entitled "amid explosive demand, america is running are out of power" noted, and i quote, vast swaths of the united states are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data center

and clean technology factories proliferate around the country leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation's creeking power grid, end quote. and that's our situation right now as we speak. mr. president, without the incredible burden that would be added to our grid by a vast increase in the number of electric cars and trucks on the road. if the president is successful in imposing a rapid and widespread increase in the number of electric vehicles, we're likely to be facing a situation where there is simply not enough power available to keep up with demand. with higher prices, electricity rationing, blackouts and brownouts as the inevitable result. mr. president, i could go on for a while here about the strain the president is attempting to place on our electric grid, even as he seeks to weaken the

already creeky grid even further with burdensome new regulations. and i could go on about the inflation reduction act. i haven't even talked about the incredible amount of money that the democrats funneled through the irs for increased audits. nor have i talked about the tax hikes the bill levies on energy which are doing no favors for americans already beset by high energy bills in the biden-harris economy. and then there are the bill's price controls for prescription drugs which will curtail medical innovation and the development of new medications. when the biden administration originally proposed this policy, research from the university of chicago projected that price controls on prescription drugs and medicare would result in 135 fewer new drugs available to patients.

now we've already seen those projections beginning to come to fruition, as multiple drug companies have halt add research and new treatments as a result of the inflation reduction act. i'll stop here, mr. president. suffice it to say that democrats' so-called inflation reduction act is a catalog of bad democrat policies from unrealistic green new deal measures to costly tax hikes to irresponsible spending. unfortunately, if we end up with a president harris next year, this legislation is likely a grape preview -- likely a grim preview of more bad bills to come. mr. president, i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. warnock: mr. president, i rise today with deep antipathy and disappointment for the persistent political games being played in this chamber. and, as a pastor, i am particularly bothered when those games are played with children. today, by all accounts, the senate will fail to pass legislation with strong bipartisan support that will make a serious difference in the lives of everyday georgians and their children. we were on track to do the right thing by our children, but once

again politics, as we enter the silly season of politics, is getting in the way. extending the expanded child tax credit is not only the right thing to do morally, it is the smart thing to do economically. and i have to say that i find that often that is the case. without public policy, very often the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do. and it's politics and politics alone that gets in the way. were it not for the sin icle politics of -- cynical politics of washington, passing this bill will be a no-brainer. the moral question that we have to ask ourselves is, are we so focused on the next election that we can't focus on the next generation? it's beyond nonsensical that there are some who have previously preached about the importance of lowering taxes but

they're getting -- i recognize that the folks who are at home when they hear words like tax credit expanded child tax credit, they're engaged in their work, they may not readily know what we're talking about. it is a tax cut. that's what it is. a tax cut for middle and working-class families. and when we passed it back in 2021, it was in fact the largest tax cut for middle and working-class families in american history. but now we've got the same lawmakers who love to talk about the need to lower taxes on middle- and working-class americans, an argument i hear often. they're getting ready to vote down this tax cut.

and so the next time that i hear them talking about the need to cut taxes, i'm going to ask my colleagues, how did you vote today? how did you vote when you had an opportunity to provide tax relief for ordinary people? maybe the issue is not so much tax cuts, it's for whom. is it for those who need it the least or those who could benefit from it the most? the bipartisan tax relief bill negotiated in good faith by my friend, the senior senator from oregon, is legislation that will offer a helping hand to ordinary families because we know that when ordinary people thrive, the economy thrives. and the reason the economy thrives is because when people who do not have a lot of disposable income or virtually no disposable income, when he

get a little bit of relief, you know, they buy extravagant things, you know, like a coat for their kid for winter. some more food, an opportunity to get some after-school enrichment. so that's what ail think about. i think about -- so that's what i think about. i think about a mom i met in georgia called denise who in the weeks after we passed the expanded child tax credit, she said to me, senator, i'm so grateful that you all got this done. she said that she used those extra dollars to help prepare her daughter to go back to school and to help take care of her household as she is transferring between jobs. it was a win for her, a win for her daughter, a win for the american economy. let's be clear. the bill at that we're taking a up today would help reduce poverty for some 636,000

children in georgia and their families. and if i might, it's the kind of work that spurred me, a pastor, to get involved in politics in the first place. i put up with politics in order to do things like this. when we passed the expanded child tax credit, we literally cut child poverty 30% or more in america. because we only did it for six months, we went back and doubled it. these dollars are going right back into the economy and helping local economies to be stronger. we're hoping families, we're helping businesses, helping our economy. not only that, but we know that the smartest investment we can make is investing in our children. when we invest in our kids,

especially in getting them out of poverty, we literally save them from the trauma, the actual trauma that poverty creates. and so i stand advocating, pushing, begging my colleagues to reconsider. you know, i grew up in public housing. and i wouldn't be standing here today if it were not for good federal public policy. i worked hard. i put my shoes on every morning. i come from a family that empall sighed a strong work ethic, but i needed all of that and good federal public policy to be standing on this floor right now. i am the beneficiary of head start, which by the way project 2025 wants to go after head start, which gives poor children

access to literacy is sets the foundation for a good life. another good program called upward bound, put me on the course to college during summer. and then pell grants and low-interest student loans ensured that i could make nigh way through college. the expanded child tax credit is a part of that good public policy, centering ordinary people. we strengthen their families and we strengthen the american economy. the time to do that is now. the time now is not to focus on november but to focus on what we can do right now. dr. king was right, the time to do right is always right, and that time is right now. thank you so much. i yield the floor. mrs. capito: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the

senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 401, s. 4367, the thomas r. carper walter resource development act. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 43 much, a bill to provide for improvements to the rivers and harbors of the united states and so forth and for other purposes.of. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mrs. capito: i ask that the committee-substitute amendment be withdrawn, the carper-capito substitute at the desk be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. capito: thank you, mr. president. i would like to talk about the bill here for a few minutes with my friend and the chair of our

committee for which this bill is named after, thomas r. carper, this legislation over the last ten years has been critical to meeting the water's infrastructure needs. i'm so pleased that the senate just took the next step to continue that strong tradition by passing the bipartisan thomas r. carper water resources development act -- of 2024. it was -- there were over 1,000 requests by colleagues on both sides of the aisle. -- chairman carper and i endeavored -- the priorities are reflected in the nature of a substitute just approved by unanimous consent. i want to thank my colleagues who worked with us on this bill be supported our efforts to move the legislation -- the legislative process forward.

during the environment and public work committee's markup, i and a couple of my colleagues offered an amendment to name this bill after my friend tom carper. the chairman and i worked together over the years to advance bills that improved all types of infrastructure. it is a fitting tribute to the decades of public service that this bill is named after him. and i would like to take a few moments to highlight some of the benefits of the legislation. it authorizes critical water resource studies and projects across the country. these studies and projects would support navigation along our waterways and at our ports, protect communities from flooding and improve our environment. it involves a one-size-fits-all solution and maintains flexible ability to continue to address the unique water resources needs of all communities. it contains directives for the corps to develop comprehensive implementation plans for this

bill and prior wardas, it will fully implement this wrda and prior wrda provisions to reflect the intent of congress. i want to highlight the ways this bill will benefit my state of west virginia. almost eight years in june of 2016, west virginia experienced flooding at the highest levels leading to tragic deaths and devastation. it provides support for future projects provided by the study along the basin. it will allow the corps to carry out smaller projects for ecosystem restoration and debris and obstruction removal critical to many areas in my state. the bill directs the corps to expedite these studies for the

canal river basin and to expedite projects in militarieson and at the blue -- milton and at the blue stone dam in hilton. these are some of the benefits for my home state that the bill contains several similar wins for states all across the country. i want to take a moment to thank both my staff and chairman carper's staff as well as the staff at the corps and the senate legislative council for their work on this bill and their continued effort as we move to conference. i want to recognize the leadership of the cpw committee, mark kelly for their dedication to this legislation. again, i would like to thank my colleagues for supporting this substitute amendment to the thomas r. carp of carper -- should i say that again? thomas r. carper resource

development act of 2024. with that, i yield the floor. mr. carper: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: i don't know if my colleague from west virginia can tell how much i'm blushing here from her kind and generous comments and having offered in committee to name this bill after me. one of the joys of serving here -- almost 24 years, has been the privilege of serving as a native west virginia to serve with senator capito, whose father, her dad was governor of our state and went on to serve three terms maybe before he finished. maybe some day another one of your relatives will be governor of west virginia. you mentioned hinton and the

blue stone dam, we lived in honton and we were taught to -- hinton and we were taught to fish at the blue stone dam. that brings back wonderful memories. this day on the floor and your comments will stay with me for as long as i live. thank you. i rise today, mr. president, to discuss the water resources development act of 2024, otherwise known as wrda, which just passed the senate with unanimous consent. that's cause for celebration. in light of this wonderful news, i want to take a few moments to discuss the importance of the legislation and how it will help make life better for people across our nation from coast to coast. as our colleagues may recall, the by an -- biannual wrda legislation is an opportunity to

consider the projects and programs that are the purview of the army corps of engineers. i love the navy but i have a huge respect for the army and especially the army corps of engineers and they do amazing works. on behalf of all of our colleagues, i thank the men and women of the army corps of engineers. it can't be overstated how the army corps' work is for the communities across america. the corps is a principal steward for our nation's water infrastructure. the men and women of the army corps work literally around the clock to protect millions of americans against coastal and inland flooding. corps' projects mitigate the impacts of climate change, restoring critical ecosystems across america. it also operates and maintains 25,000 -- that's 25,000 miles of

inlan inland waterways, which is the backbone of america's trade with countries around the globe. 99% of our overseas trade moves through the channels that the corps maintains. some 99% of our overseas trade moves through the channels that the corps maintains. as a recovering governor, i say it is our responsibility to have an in your tu turing -- nurturing environment for jobs. maintaining our ports and coastal waterways does that. the passage of wrda every two years ensures that corps projects can move forward. fortunately, the environment and public works committee has maintained its two-year cycle for the puttaguntas decade now, and god willing we continue

to -- we will continue this wrda and we are moving in that direction. the environment and public works committee held its first hearing to kick off the legislative process for this bill. since then, our committee has solicited input from all 100 senators and engaged with stakeholders who represent the diverse water infrastructure needs for communities across america. along with our staffs, ranking member shelly moore capito and i considered more than 1,200 wrda requests -- i will say that again -- 1,200 wrda requests and engaged in extensive bipartisan negotiations. as a result, this bipartisan process, our committee passed the senate wrda bill unanimously two months ago and today the full senate has passed the bill

unanimously, cause for celebration. as my colleagues have said, bipartisan solutions are laughing solutions, wrda continues to be proof of that. now, i would like to take a moment to discuss what the senate's wrda bill does for communities across the nation. the bill authorizes water infrastructure projects be and perhaps -- projects and programs across all 50 states, including new construction projects that address a wide range of challenges for communities across america. for example, in hawaii, the bill authorizes a feasibility study for a project to allow maui to recover from last year's wildfires by allowing ecosystem restoration efforts. in arizona, the senate wrda bill authorizes construction of a

project in -- to restore wetlands. it will help to provide flood control in neighboring communities and improve water quality. in texas, this bill authorizes the corps to study the expansion of ship channels in the galveston bay area. this includes channels that serve port houston where expanded capacity could help regional supply chains and support economic growth throughout the nation. this bill will ensure timely implementation of prior wrda legislation as we have heard in hearings in the environment and public works committee over the last year, implementation of past wrda reauthorizations have taken a good deal longer than expected. in some cases more than a decade. in particular, the corps has significant work to do to

implement the past three wrda laws. in each of these laws significantly updated the corps' authority to consider the impacts of climate change and extreme weather and to better support underserved and tribal communities. while the corps has made some important progress, there's much more that the corps needs to do to implement past reauthorizations. we don't have a lot of time to spare. in fact, we don't have any time to spare. the effects of climate change are all around us, just as some recall hurricane barrel killed at least 36 americans and leaving millions without power for days, that's why wrda 2024 directs the corps to develop and

execute a plan to fully implement past reauthorizations as soon as possible in order to protect our communities. in closing, let me take a moment and just thank the men and women whose incredible bipartisan work has gone into crafting and enabling the passage of this legislation. on -- i won't be able to mention everybody by name on senator koovpt's -- senator capito's team or our team, but i will mention a handful. i want to recognize libby and dan and done and murphy, and especially adam. and on our side of the aisle on our team, i would especially like to recognize lana, cole, john and court any. lastly i want to thank dina

edwards and dave wethington and amy klein. to each of these men and women, i want to say how grateful we are for all of your hard work and to each of you whose names i mentioned and to those i haven't, our thanks for a grateful nation for what you have done and to strengthen our government. nangfully the house of representatives has -- thankfully the house of representatives has passed wrda by a vote of 339. and i want to thank and acknowledge our colleagues in the house for the good work that they have done and we look forward to continuing this work in the days to come to advance this critical legislation and ultimately to send it to the

desk of the president for his signature. again, senator capito, to you, to your team, everyone on our team who worked on this, our colleagues on the committee and off the committee, thank you for your great work and thank you for letting me be your partner and for the last -- all these years. thank you so much. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: today the help committee held an off the floor markup, including a new term for current national labor relations board lauren mcferran. it was directed to take place without an opportunity to hear from the nominees directly.

president biden picked her as chair in 2021. it has been ten years since she has testified before the help committee. since the help majority decided to skip a hearing to prevent an examination of her troubling record i am speak about her nomination on the floor. is to fill democrat and republican vacancies on important bipartisan boards. last september democrats reconfirmed lin wilcox without a republican counterpart. the senate should have considered joshua donaldberg as a pairing with wilcox. it is a bad faith that they would represent this as a pairing. as to

as a neutral party not favoring one party over the other. but under ms. mcferran's leadership, the board has -- at the expense simplify workers. for example,the board has overturned 50 years of nlrb precedent by renew card check during elections which exposes workers to intimidation tactics. condensed the time depriving employees of a fair chance to hear from both sides and make an informed decision. implemented new burdensome regulations preventing workers from leaving the union in the union has become ineffective or too costly. it has prevented employers from disciplining employees on the picket line who use racist or hostile language against others. the nlrb deems using racist and

hostile language as, quote, protected, concerted activity. the weaponization of nlrb under her leadership is clearly concerning. republican members of the help committee have repeatedly called on the chair to hold a public hearing to discuss these concerns directly with her. it is unacceptable that they will be denied this opportunity. nomination hearings are not just checking a box. they are a crucial part of congress's responsibility to review nominees. every senator uses information revealed in hearings to decide how he or she will vote on the floor. unfortunately, shielding democrat nominees from scrutiny has been the norm of the help committee under chairman sanders. earlier a closed-door committee vote was held on the renomination of julie su for secretary of labor. since her nomination attempt

failed last year, concerns over her leadership have grown. help committee members should have been able to raise these concerns to her directly. unfortunately, the chair blocked a public hearing from taking place. congress has the responsibility to rein in the executive branch and hold it accountable to the people and their elected representatives. last month i introduced legislation requiring each federal nominee to testify before the committee of jurisdiction prior to senate confirmation. this bill should not be controversial to anyone. frankly, it should be the standard. the chair's refusal to have public hearings on important nominees is unacceptable. it you know mines the committee's constitutional duty to advise and consent on presidential nominees. the president and his nominees are not above accountability. given the serious concerns over ms. mcferran's leadership and lack of accountability in the nomination process, i voted no on her nomination. with that, i yield.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from idaho. mr. crapo: thank you, mr. president. with election politics front of mind, doomed-to-fail show votes have become an all-too-frequent occurrence in this chamber. but there is no more obvious showboat than the one scheduled to happen today immediately before the august recess. in today's attempt to score political points, the democrats are moving to a bill, h.r. 7024, that has been languishing for six months in the hopes of fabricating a narrative that republicans don't support small business, children, or alleviating poverty. however, if my democrat colleagues were serious about delivering relief to small businesses and working families,

they would have worked out a solution with senate republicans in earnest on a pathway that would gain broad support from our members. while there are plenty of provisions in this bill that my colleagues and i support, the proponents have known this since before it was released that senate republicans would need to change the bill in order to gain substantial bipartisan support. it is now august, and it has been months since any real attempt at outreach or engagement has taken place, which suggests that my colleagues are not actually serious about passing a bill but are instead focused on election-year messaging. there is plenty of evidence that today's theatrics are clearly posturing. first, there are several components of the bill that are noncontroversial and have overwhelming bipartisan support, like disaster tax relief and

double tax relief provisions on activity between the united states and taiwan. that some democrats have chosen to block these bills, including providing needed tax relief to fire and hurricane victims, to prove a point demonstrates true cynicism. in the same vein, democrats claim that republicans are abandoning small businesses by not passing this bill. but it is democrats who have held the r&d expensing hostage for years. republicans have shown time and again their desire to pass r&d expensing, including an overwhelming 90-5 motion led by senator young back in 2022. yet democrats continue to block efforts to pass it. if democrats were serious about helping small businesses, they would stop using them as a political football. members are also aware of the

recent data on fraud in the employee retention tax credit or ertc program. senator tillis requested unanimous consent to pass a bill that would end the fraud-ridden program back in february, but the bill was blocked by the democrats. if someone is to blame for not ending the rer -- ertc fraud, it is not the senate republicans. democrats knew the bill couldn't pass in time for this tax season, but now they want to make changes long after taxpayers have filed their tax returns and received their runs. this bill would require the irs to reprocess millions of 2023 tax returns. this is an irs that still has backlogs in the millions, including identity theft case delays that the national taxpayer advocate has described as making a mockery.

if democrats were serious about providing taxpayer relief, they would not pile additional work on the irs that still cannot carry out basic taxpayer services. for all my democrat colleagues' past calls for regular order in the senate, one would think the senate republican request for a finance committee markup on this bill would have been well-received. instead, those requests, which began in january, have continued to go ignored. instead of moving through regular order and engaging my colleagues and me, the bill's proponents have used the better part of this year on a public pressure campaign littered with misinformation. that is unfortunate because the bill does get a lot of things right. however, the critical flaw with the bill is that it fails to provide meaningful tax relief to working families and instead

goes too far toward the democrats' goal of turning the child tax credit into a subsidy unat the timingered to -- untethered to work which is fundamentally contrary to what the credit was created to do. for those who accuse republicans of not chair about -- of not caring about children, i would remind my colleagues that it was the republicans who created the child tax credit. it was intended to provide tax relief to working families. yet more than $30 billion of the cost to expand the child tax credit in this bill, about 91% of the money in this bill for the child tax credit, would go to individuals who pay no income tax. that isn't tax relief. it's a subsidy. and the bill's child tax credit provisions treat working family taxpayers as an afterthought. not only do families with a federal income tax liability receive a mere 9% of the bill's

child tax credit benefits, they also would be left waiting for that tax relief until two years after the benefits accrue to those with zero income tax liability. i've raised these concerns repeatedly before the bill was released. unfortunately, by merely questioning the ratios skewed towards subsidies and asking whether working families should receive more tax relief, i and other senate republicans have been maligned for not caring about children and alleviating poverty. while senate republicans have also been accused of playing politics, the timing of today's vote, coupled with the lack of meaningful engagement since january to reach a c■ompromise, confirms that the strategy was always a take-it-or-leave-it proposition in the senate. if my democrat colleagues want to show that they are serious about supporting small businesses, providing disaster

tax relief, alleviating double taxation on activity between the united states and taiwan, and eliminating fraud in the ertc program -- all bipartisan proposals, then i call on them to separately pass senator young and senator hassan's bipartisan american innovation and jobs act that would reenstate r&d expensing. the bipartisan federal disaster relief act of 2024, the bipartisan and bicameral u.s.-taiwan expedited double tax relief act, and senator tillis' bill to end the ertc program. on the child tax credit, it bears repeating that republicans -- the ones who i've already said created the child tax credit -- doubled that child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 in 2017 for the tax cuts and jobs act and provided additional

help to low-income families by lowering the phase-in floor and increasing the refundability. credit. and that doubled child tax credit is still law. it has not expired. it is still in full force and effect. if the democrats are serious about helping these working families, i'm ready to push for an extension of those changes. beyond 2025. i've maintained a willingness to negotiate a bill that provides meaningful relief to americans now, a bill that a majority of republicans in this chamber can support, but today's senseless show vote further demonstrates that democrats are not serious about doing so. for that reason, i will be voting no on cloture and urge my colleagues to do the same. thank you, mr. preside

test: .

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that privileges of the floor be granted to my following interns and fellows for today. mckinley hosic, marlow hicks, brook davis, george porteus, prescott schmitt, connor m{l1}c{l0}laughlin and kiery wagstaff. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kelly: the last one was not an intern but a fellow. the presiding officer: without objection, duly noted.

a senator: mr. president. mr. wyden: in a few minutes the senate will vote on the tax relief for american workers and families act. there has been a lot of discussion and debate this week about it, and i'll make just a few final points. republicans are talking a lot these days trying to convince americans that they are the ones who support children and families, not democrats. republicans talk about supporting small businesses. they talk about competing with china. they talk about how terrible it is that nobody can afford a home in america. and they talk about cracking down on fraud in government programs. the bill that the senate will vote on in a few minutes helps with each and every one of these issues. now we're going to see whether

senate republicans really in fact do want to help, whether they're offering anything more than talk. over the last couple of days i read lots of comments from republican senators who say that it's really time to wait, and if republicans take control of the senate they'll write a better bill. so i would ask better for whom? one thing i'm sure of is it won't be a better bill for the 16 million kids who stand to benefit today, today, colleagues, from the proposal we are going to vote on. and it won't come as any comfort to families who are getting clobbered on rent or the small businesses that are going to fail and don't get help now. the house of representatives passed this bill back in

january. it was the product of work with republican chair jason smith and i, but it also included a year's worth of negotiations with colleagues here in the senate. that bill got 357 votes, mr. president, almost an even split between the two parties. as i said before, in the house of representatives at this point it would be hard to get 357 votes if you're just out ordering a piece of pie. the only reason our bipartisan bill didn't become law six months ago is because of the delay of senate republicans. i offered to make changes, mr. president. i met with a significant number of senate republicans personally

and talked about what their proposed ideas were for compromise, and i offered them, i offered them and said it publicly in the senate finance committee. it wasn't good enough, although they looked a plitt like the dog that caught the car. but in old-school basketball terms, senate republicans just continued the delays. it was kind of old four-corner offense, stall and drain the clock. for the millions of people who are hurting, those folks can't afford for the senate to just keep waiting. the reality is when it comes to tax policy debates, this is the easy stuff. the difficult issues don't get

agreement from 357 members of the house of representatives. the debate on taxes is sure to get a lot harder when congress is going to have to deal with trillions of dollars in tax changes coming down the pike. if senate republicans can't work across the aisle or work with a house that produced 357 votes, there will be some very, very heavy lifting next year. and i'll close with this, every senator now has a choice. the results here are not predetermined. republicans can choose to side with children and families. republicans can choose to side with people who are walking an economic tightrope, just trying to pay the rent.

importantly, republicans can choose to side with small businesses. the fact is the problems small businesses are having today to a great extent are due to the single-handed efforts of senate republicans who did nothing to mrok an effort to derail the research and development credit. in fact, they were willing to derail the research and development credit in the 2017 tax bill when everybody said we need this to compete with china. senate republicans said, nah, we're interested in giving tax parekhs to people at the -- tax breaks to people at the top rather than small businesses. so they gutted, gutted the

research and development tax credit for small business. not a single democrat voted for it. and then they promised to fix it in 2018, in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. all those years senate republicans said they get a break for small businesses on the research and development issue. now a lot of those small businesses have to go out and borrow to keep their doors open. so we offered to work that and other issues out, but republicans said, gee, we're just going to wait around until 2025. i want to say to my colleagues and i want to say to the country, a lot of these small busi businesses, research and development issue is a lifeline. i've had them come to me and say, ron, i'm not even going to

be around in 2025 for somebody like the senate republicans who wants to wait. i say we ought to help them now. and make no mistake about it, a senate that passes this legislation can allow our bill to go to the president of the united states right away, right away, and help goes out to those 16 million families, the 4 million small businesses that depend on the research and development credit, the families that got clobbered with disasters. we have a chance to help those families who after they got clobbered with disasters, got clobbered by an outdated tax code. we would fix it. we would fix it today. and because of senator cantwell, hundreds of thousands of units of affordable housing could get

on the way today. so senate republicans can do those things that i just described. the way i see it, mr. president, if you show up for work around here, you've got a chance to help 16 million kids, 4 million small businesses, scores of businesses who have been clobbered by disasters, create hundreds of thousands of units of housing, doing all that, mr. president, sounds to me like one hell of a day at the office. so senate republicans can choose to help that way or they can continue with excuses, empty talk and what are sure to be their plans for the future, lock in even more handouts to big corporations and the wealthy.

this is a thoroughly bipartisan bill. 357 votes in the house of representatives. every republican on the house ways and means committee voted for this bill. so i say let's help the kids and the families. let's help the small businesses. let's help those who need housing. let's be there for those who face these disasters. i say to my colleagues on the republican side, this is a chance to help everybody in america. everybody. i hope my republican colleagues make the right choice. i strongly urge them to vote yes and side with chern and families all -- side with children and families all over the country, and i yield the floor. mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call: the clerk: ms. baldwin.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader.

quorum call: quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: before i speak on the tax bill, unanimous consent the quorum call be disens pensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, before speak on the tax bill, i come to the floor with really good news. after years of brutal and wrongful detention in russia, at the hands of putin's regime, evgeni evan gershkovich, paul whelan, alsu kurmasheva and vladimir kara-murza are on their way

home. it's great news. i was proud to work and stand with leader mcconnell in a bipartisan show of unity. we spent many, many -- many hours working hard, sending letters, making calls, to get evan's return. i commend president biden for getting them all home. and for all other americans held hostage or unjustly imprisoned around the world, today shines as a beacon of hope that america will never give up on you, and we will continue to do everything we can to bring you home. you are on our thoughts and minds, including those from new york who are still imprisoned unjustly by authoritarian regimes around the world. now, on the tax bill, today the senate has a chance to move forward on tax relief for american families and workers act. democrats are ready to advance bipartisan -- bipartisan tax

relief today. the question is, will senate republicans join us to give americans a tax break or will they stand in the way? will senate republicans join us to give businesses a tax break, give families with children a tax break, give our housing markets a tax break, or will they stand in the way? this is bipartisan legislation if there ever was any. it passed -- the bipartisan tax bill passed the house 357-70. it won majorities from both parties. it was written, along with senator wyden, who did a great job, by the conservative republican chair of the ways and means committee, hardly a liberal. so we know this is not only a good bill, it's a bipartisan bill. if the tax break was able to unite a group as divided as house republicans, it should certainly not be blocked by republicans in the senate. it's good to talk about standing up for families and business,

but not if you turn around, then vote against them here in the senate. today's a good opportunity for both sides to show we back up good talk with strong action. so, if you care about helping families, vote yes. if you care about taking half a million kids out of poverty and giving relief to 16 million other families, so that their kids, they have enough money to give their kids clothes, books, and food, vote yes. if you care about promoting the business and getting an r&d tax credit, something that always had bipartisan support passed, so that businesses can invest in new machinery and equipment and hire new workers, vote yes. if you care about solving the housing crisis, whether it's rural, where it has become a big problem, or your p-- or urban o suburban, please vote yes. i want to give many thanks to my

colleagues, chairman wyden for his leadership, the whole finance committee, and particularly senators brown and casey and bennet, as well as cantwell and hassan who worked so long and hard on this bill. i yield the floor and ask for the yeas and nays -- no, no yeas amendment nays. i yield -- no yeas and nays. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will invoke the motion. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 349, h.r. 7024, an act to make improvements to the child tax credit and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the motion to proceed to h.r. 7024, an act to make improvements to the child tax credit, to provide tax incentives to promote economic growth, to provide special rules for the taxation of certain residents of taiwan with income from sources within the united states, to provide

tax relief with respect to certain federal disasters, to make improvements to our low-income housing tax credit, and for other purposes, shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. the clerk: ms. baldwin. vote:

mr. barrasso. mr. bennet.

mrs. blackburn. mr. blumenthal. mr. booker.

mr. boozman. mr. braun. mrs. britt. mr. brown. mr. budd. ms. butler. ms. cantwell. mrs. capito. mr. cardin. mr. carper. mr. casey. mr. cassidy. ms. collins. mr. coons. mr. cornyn. ms. cortez masto.

mr. cotton. mr. cramer. mr. crapo.

mr. hagerty. ms. hassan. mr. hawley. mr. heinrich. mr. hickenlooper. ms. hirono. mr. hoeven. mrs. hyde-smith. mr. johnson. mr. kaine. mr. kelly. mr. kennedy. mr. king. ms. klobuchar. mr. lankford. mr. lee. mr. lujan. ms. lummis. mr. manchin. mr. markey. mr. marshall. mr. mcconnell. mr. menendez. mr. merkley. mr. moran. mr. mullin. ms. murkowski. mr. murphy. mrs. murray. mr. ossoff. mr. padilla.

mr. paul. mr. peters. mr. reed. mr. ricketts. mr. risch. mr. romney. ms. rosen. mr. rounds. mr. rubio. mr. sanders. mr. schatz. mr. schmitt. mr. schumer. mr. scott of florida. mr. scott of south carolina. mrs. shaheen. ms. sinema. ms. smith. ms. stabenow. mr. sullivan. mr. tester. mr. thune. mr. tillis. mr. tuberville. mr. van hollen. mr. vance. mr. warner. mr. warnock. ms. warren. mr. welch. mr. whitehouse. mr. wicker. mr. wyden. mr. young.

the clerk: senators voting in the affirmative -- baldwin, blumenthal, booker, brown, butler, cantwell, cardin, casey, coons, cortez masto, duckworth, durbin, hassan, hickenlooper, kaine, kelly, king, klobuchar, merkley, mullin, murray, peters, reed, schatz, shaheen, sinema, smith, tester, van hollen, welch, white house, wyden. senators voting in the negative -- barrasso, boozman, braun, britt, budd, capito, cassidy, collins, cornyn, cotton, cramer, crapo, daines, fischer, graham, grassley, hagerty, hyde-smith, johnson,

kennedy, mcconnell, moran, murkowski, paul, ricketts, rounds, rubio, schmitt, thune, tillis, tuberville. the clerk: mr. cruz, no. mr. markey, aye.

the clerk: mr. wicker, no. ms. stabenow, aye. the clerk: mr. heinrich, aye.

the clerk: mr. risch, no. mr. hawley, aye.

the clerk: mrs. gillibrand, aye. mr. marshall, no. ms. lummis, no.

the clerk: mr. sullivan, no.

the clerk: mr. lankford, no. ms. ernst, no.

the clerk: mr. young, no. ms. rosen, aye.

the clerk: ms. -- the clerk: ms. warren, aye.

the clerk: mr. lee, no.

the clerk: mr. warnock, aye.

the clerk: ms. hirono, aye. the clerk: mr. sanders, no.

the clerk: mr. murphy, aye. vote:

the clerk: mr. lujan, aye.

the clerk: mr. bennet, aye.

the clerk: mr. manchin, no.

the clerk: mr. scott of florida, aye.

the clerk: mr. carper, aye.

vote:

the clerk: mr. ossoff, aye.

the clerk: mr. padilla, aye.

vote:

the presid the clerk: mr. schumer, aye.

the clerk: mr. schumer, no. the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 48, the nays

are 44. three-fifths of senators duly chosen and sworn have not voted in the affirmative. the motion is not agreed to. mr. s mr. schumer: reconsider. the presiding officer: the motion is entered. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. once again, let me repeat quickly, i'm really saddened by the fact that our republican colleagues have not voted for a bill that passed so overwhelmingly in the house, put together by a conservative republican chairman of the ways and means committee, and with -- that would do so much to help housing, help kids and families, and help businesses. it's a shame that they put politics over helping the american people. now, i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 705. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to.

the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, adam b. abelson, of maryland, to be united states district judge for the district of maryland. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture. the clerk: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 705, adam b. abelson, of maryland, to be united states district judge for the district of maryland, signed by 17 senators as follows. the presiding officer: i ask consent the reading the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all those in favor say aye. pave powe. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 652. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion to proceed. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, jeannette a. vargas, of new york, to be united states district judge for the southern district of new york. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the cloture motion. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 652, jeannette a. vargas, of new york, to be united states district judge for the southern district of new york, signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, august 1, be waived. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 430, s. 4199.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 430, s. 4199, a bill to authorize additional district judges for the district courts. and convert temporary judge ships. mr. schumer: that's as if we're in -- the presiding officer: without objection. is there objection? without objection. the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and passed and motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: well, madam president, something very good just happened. i am very happy the senate ends this busy week on another productive note. the senate just unanimously passed the judges act. the goal of the judges act is in the name. it creates 66 new federal district court judges to relieve our overburdened judiciary. and i want to thank senator

coons on the democratic side, and senator young on the republican side for their good work in pushing this bill forward. today, our federal courts simply can't keep up with the immense workload like they used to in the past. as our country kept growing and growing, our federal courts sadly have not kept pace. the last time we systematically increased federal judges in america was 1991. we have roughly 80 million more americans today than then. so clearly, our federal judiciary desperately needs more capacity. this bill provides it. specifically, the judges act adds 66 new judges over the next six congress, starting in 2025, adding 11 at a time. this bill was unanimously reported out of the judiciary committee 20-0. there's broad consensus we need more judges on the federal bench. it's not a democratic or republican issue. it also reflects the recommendation of the judicial

conference for increasing the number of judges. this is a very responsible bipartisan and prudent bill. our population is increased, and the litigousness, if you will, of our society has increased. i hope the house passes the judges act very soon, because it is bipartisan, it is prudent, it's responsible. equal justice under law can always be counted on if the federal bench is stretched -- equal justice can't be counted on if you have to wait years and years to get a verdict and so many other important parts of the process. i call upon our colleagues in the house to move this bill through their chamber, because the result will be a better functioning judiciary. right now, people have to wait far too long to hear their cases in court. this should reduce that wait. thank you to senator coons and senator young again for their excellent work in getting this bipartisan bill done. and i yield the floor.

i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i'm here for the 34th scheme speech on the right wing billionaires' covert scheme to capture and control our supreme court. and i'm here to report real progress in our work to restore the integrity of the court and arrest it from special interest control -- and wrest it from special interest control. this court, captured by right wing special interest, has imposed deeply unpopular and harmful policies on the american people. it needs reform. and good news -- commonsense reforms to take back the supreme court received a significant boost from the president and the vice president this week.

the right wing fed soc justices have done unprecedented damage to america's democratic institutions and to our government's ability to protect ordinary americans' health, safety, and well-being. mr. schumer: madam president, could i ask my friend from rhode island to yield for a brief minute? mr. whitehouse: i'll gladly yield. mr. schumer: i want to file the no kings act, which deals with the horrible supreme court decision that gave immunity to future presidents. and so, i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: as i said, this is just putting on the calendar rule 14, the no kings act, which deals with the awful supreme court decision that basically allows presidents to do what

they want, as long as they can call it official. i understand that there's a bill at the desk, and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: s. 4973, a bill to reassert the constitutional authority of congress to determine the general applicability of the criminal laws of the united states and for other purposes. mr. schumer: i now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14 i object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will receive its second reading on the next legislative day. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent to resume executive session. mr. wicker: reserving the right to object. i simply rise to ask, madam president, unanimous consent that captain edward crossman be granted floor privileges until august 2, 2024. the presiding officer: without

objection. mr. wicker: thank you. and i thank the gentleman for yielding. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will resume executive session. mr. schumer: i yield back to my good friend from rhode island and thank him once again for his courtesy. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: thank you, leader schumer. the right wing fed soc justices also took away women's right to an abortion, leaving millions of women unable to make basic decisions about their own reproductive health, and endangering women experiencing troubled perhapsies. they -- pregnancies. they overturned long-standing and overwhelmingly popular gun safety laws, leaving our communities exposed to the epidemic of gun violence. they eviscerated the government's ability to fight climate change and to protect consumers from corporate profiteering. and they invented, out of thin air, the idea that former pr