china has not just taken some of this research funded by u.s. taxpayers, but they have paid these grant recipients to take their research over to china at chinese universities, again, universities affiliated with the chinese communist party. this is not about the people of china. this is about the chinese communist party. they have been very clever. they want to make sure that congress is a stronger competitor, that china is a stronger competitor against u and so they take the research delivered from the united states to a lab in china where they try to replicate the research, provide the money to these researchers. just last week we released a fourth p.s.i. report that shows that this problem of china not playing by the rules extends to the telecommunications space as well. let me explain that situation, and then i'll go back to the thousand talents program. you may remember that in may of last year the f.c.c. prohibited

a company called china mobile, and their u.s. subsidiary from providing telecom services from the united states on the grounds of doing so was jeopardizing our national security, the first time such a ruling had been issued. the fact that this was only the first time that a foreign telecommunications company had been denied approval to operate in the u.s. on national security grounds prompted us to investigate other chinese state-owned carriers that were already authorized to operate in the united states, and we asked an important question -- why was china mobile u.s.a. any different than these other three chinese companies? we discovered in our report, which again we issued just a month ago, that it wasn't different. we conducted a year-long investigation into the government processes for reviewing, approving, and monitoring chinese state-owned telecommunications firms operating here in the united states, and we found once again over the years that the federal

government had been lax when it comes to securing our telecommunications networks against risks posed by chinese state-owned carriers. again, it's what we can do here in this country that we haven't done. in fact, three chinese state-owned carriers have been rat -- operating in the u.s. for 20 years, but it's only been in recent years that the f.c.c., department of justice, and department of homeland security have focused on the potential risks these firms bring when they operate in the united states. what we didn't know 20 years ago, we do know today. and we should use that information to protect ourselves. we now know that the chinese government views telecommunications as a strategic industry and has expended significant resources to create and promote new business opportunities for its state-owned carriers. we also learned in our investigation and said in our report that chinese state-owned telecommunications carriers are, quote, subject to exploitation,

influence, and control by the chinese government and can be used in the chinese government's cyber and economic espionage efforts aimed at the united states. this isn't a surprise. we have seen this time and time again, that the chinese government targets the united states through cyber and economic espionage activities and enlists its state-owned entities in these efforts. the chinese telecommunications firms have been part of our u.s. telecommunications industry as a result. of course, that's critical to our everyday life. it services from cellular networks to broadband internet connections, helps break down barriers between people, nations, and continents. that's good. it's helped our economy and the economies of many other countries grow immensely. it makes sense that our federal government has tafngd the f.c.c. are ensuring that foreign telecommunications companies can establish a foothold in the united states, but only if it's done in a fair and a safe

manner. again, what we've learned is that the f.c.c. and other federal agencies have been slow to respond to the national security threats these telecom companies pose in terms of cybersecurity and economic espionage. as we detail in our report, the f.c.c. which lacks the national security and law enforcement expertise required to assess these risks has turned to other executive branch agencies to assess them. specifically, the department of justice, department of homeland security, and department of defense, a group commonly known as the team telecom. but team telecom was an inform arrangement and has lacked formal authority to operate, making it overall an ineffective solution to assessing these risks. the informality has resulted in protracted review periods and a process f.c.c. commissioners have described as broken and a black hole that provided, quote, no clarity for the future, end quote. for example, team telecom's

review of china mobile u.s.a. application lasted for seven years. this points to a troubling trend we have found in all of these reports, how, frankly, our government and our institutions over a space of time, the last couple of decades, have permitted china to take advantage of lax u.s. oversight, be it on our college campuses, our research labs, or in cyberspace. at our p.s.i. hearing on the thousand talents report, the f.b.i. witnessed before -- witness before us acknowledged as much, saying, and i quote -- with our present-day knowledge of the threat from chinese talent plans, we wish we had taken more rapid and comprehensive action in the past, and the time to make up for that is now, end quote. that's our own federal bureau of investigation. again, we wish we had taken more rapid and comprehensive action in the past.

they don't say that often, but it's true, and i commend them for saying it, to hearing it, and for starting to make up for it now, because they have made a number of arrests just in the past few months with regard to the program. it's our hope that the p.s.i. has opened the eyes of the government to the systemic problems. i think that's what we have seen in the trump administration is they have taken a firmer stance to the chinese government in every one of the four areas i have talked about. as pz s.i. was nearing the end of its telecom investigation, for example, the federal agencies announced that he would review whether these chinese state-owned carriers we were studying should continue to operate in the u.s., given the national security threats. the department also issued an executive order to establish team telecom as a formal committee, which is a good idea, as well as addressing many of the issues the subcommittee report identified in team telecom's processes. again, these are good steps, and

i'm pleased to say that they were prompted by the thorough and again objective, nonpartisan inquiry that we made through p.s.i. these four investigations combined show us that china, frankly -- and again, the chinese government and the chinese communist party, not the people of china -- is not going to play by the rules unless we require it. until we start to clean up our own house and take a firmer stance on foreign influence here in this country, we're not going to see much improvement. rather than pointing the finger at china, we ought to be looking at our own government and our own institutions and doing a better job here. along those lines, i found it interesting that just last week, 54 n.i.h.-funded researchers nationwide have resigned or been fired because they had been found to be hiding their ties to foreign research institutions as part of an n.i.h. investigation

into this problem. so, again, after our p.s.i. investigation, talking about how the thousand talents program and other programs work, there are now 54 people just last week who have been fired or have resigned. of the cases n.i.h. has studied, 70% of the researchers failed to disclose foreign grant funding while more than half failed to disclose participation in foreign talent programs like thousand talents. by the way, the f.b.i. just recently warned universities across the country that china may be attempting to steal our research on the coronavirus. therapies, antiviral therapies, vaccines, other research. so this problem is ongoing. i think in a fair and straightforward manner, we have got to insist that there be a level playing field. we've got to insist that there

be fairness and accountability. again, in an objective manner and a straightforward manner. at the same time, our law enforcement officials and other federal entities that are working to hold china accountable are limited in the actions they can take. that's part of cleaning up our own house. we need to make some changes around here, including in our laws, which has to come through this body. in the case of the thousand talents plan, we have seen the first-ever arrest related to thousand talents recently. they followed our investigation, our report, and our hearings. we even sought in my home state of ohio all of the arrests in connection with the thousand talents plan, by the way, have been related to peripheral financial crimes like wire fraud and tax evasion, not the core issue of the conflict of commitment, the taking of american taxpayer-paid research. why? because amazingly, it's not currently a crime to fail to

disclose foreign funding of the same research on federal grant applications. in other words, if you are doing research and paid by the taxpayer of the united states to do the research and also being paid by china to do the same research and to have that research go to china, you don't have to disclose that under law. these arrests that have been made haven't been about that core issue. they have been about other things like tax evasion or wire fraud. kind of like they went after the gangsters in the old days on tax evasion because they couldn't get them on a rico statute. we need to change the laws so that we can give our law enforcement community the tools they need to be able to do the job that all of us expect is being done. it's incumbent upon congress to work on a bipartisan manner to pass those laws to put a stop to this behavior. this shouldn't be a partisan issue, and it isn't. it's about defending the interests of the united states, and that's something we should all agree on.

the good news is we're starting to do just that. tomorrow, we plan to introduce bipartisan legislation called the safeguarding american innovation act based on recommendations from our thousand talents report from late last year to protect u.s. taxpayer-funded research. first and foremost, our bill is going to help the department of justice go after a thousand talents participants by holding them accountable for failing to disclose their foreign ties on federal grant applications. again, it's a tool that they desperately need. our bill goes directly to the root of the problem and makes it punishable by law to knowingly fail to disclose foreign funding on federal grant applications. this isn't about more arrests. we should all agree that transparency and honesty on grant applications are critical to the integrity over the u.s. research and the u.s. research enterprise. these provisions will help promote those principles as well. our bill also makes other important changes from our report. it requires the office of

management and budget to streamline and coordinate grant making between the federal agencies so there is more couldn't new tie and accountability and coordination when it comes to tracking the billions of dollars of taxpayer grant money that's being distributed. this kind of transparency is long overdue. we have worked closely with the national science foundation, with the national institutes of health, with the department of energy, and others on this legislation, and they agree this is very important. our legislation also allows the state department to deny visas to foreign researchers who they know are seeking to steal research and intellectual property by exploiting exemptions in our current export control laws. this may surprise you, but the state department can't do that now. career foreign service officers, employees at the state department have asked us to please provide them this -- this authority. they testified before our

hearing, asking us to help them to be able to do what they know needs to be done. our bill also requires research institutions and universities to provide the state department basic information about sensitive technologies that a foreign researcher would have access to. providing this information as part of the visa process should help streamline the process for the state department and for these research institutions. this allows for college campuses to rely on the state department to do some of the vetting for these applicants and to help keep bad actors off the campus. this is why many research institutions and universities will be endorsing our legislation tomorrow because we've worked with them on this issue and others, including new transparency standards for universities. they are now going to be required to report any foreign gift of $50,000 or more, which is a lower level from the current threshold of $250,000, but it's also going to empower

the department of education to work with these universities and research institutions to ensure that this can be complied with in a way that doesn't create undue red tape and expenditures. it also allows them to fine these universities that don't disclose these gifts. we can use this as a model going forward of how we learn the lessons from the straightforward p.s.i. reports to get to the root causes of these cases. we've gotten widespread support across my home state of ohio, from research leaders, hospitals, colleges, and universities and other stakeholders who want to see us continue to have an open and transparent research system and have the united states be the center in the globe for innovation and research. but to ensure that can continue to happen, they want to be sure that we're holding china accountable.

we will now work on this legislation to codify into law some of the steps taken by the trump administration in response to our new telecommunications p.s.i. report as well. this legislation we will introduce tomorrow will be led by myself and senator tom carper, my colleague from the other side of the aisle from delaware who was also my partner on this report with regard to the thousand talents program and the hearing. we also have five other democrats who will be joining us tomorrow, all of whom have an interest and understanding of this complicated issue. we'll also have about an equal number of republicans joining us. probably six to eight republicans. so again, this is going to be a bipartisan effort, i would say even a nonpartisan effort to ensure that in a smart, sensible, practical way we can respond to the threat that we're facing. in this case, from china taking our intellectual property, our innovations, our ideas, and

taking them to china and using them in china, sometimes against the united states. in addition to the four examples we discussed tonight, the subcommittee will continue its work to shine a light on other examples for china and other -- where china and other countries aren't living by the rules, so we can ensure that with regard to china and regard to other foreign governments, we can create a more durable and a more equitable and a more sustainable relationship between our countries. again, we don't want to be enemies with china. what we do want is to have a relationship of mutual respect. and we have the right to ask them that they treat us with the same respect that we treat them. at the end of the day, that's what's going to be best for the chinese people, best for the american people, and best for all of us moving forward. i yield back my time.

mr. portman: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of mo shall with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: mr. president, i understand that there is a bill at the desk and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk read the title for the first time. the clerk: s. 3985, a bill to improve and reform policing practices, accountability, and transparency. mr. portman: i now ask for the second reading and in order to place the bill obstruction of justice the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. the presiding officer: having having been heard, the bill will

receive its second reading on the next legislative day. mr. portman: mr. president, now i ask unanimous consent that the appointment at the desk appear separately in the record as if made by the chair. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: i ask unanimous consent that the senate when it completes its business today adjourns until 10:00 a.m. thursday, june 18. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. further, following leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the walker nomination. finally, notwithstanding rule 22, postcloture time on the walker nomination expire at 1:30 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. portman: if there is to further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senator blumenthal. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. blumenthal: mr. president? the presiding officer: senator connecticut. -- the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm here to talk about the nomination of just continue walker to the d.c. circuit court of appeals, but let's start with the conner curren. justin walker actually has met conner -- not really, but i introduced him to conner through this picture during his nomination hearings in the judiciary committee. several years ago conner was diagnosed with duchenne muscular distrophy, a degenerative, life-threatening disease which presently has no cure.

most people who have the disease die by their mid-20's. conner was diagnosed at age 5. i met conner years later. there has probably been nobody who has inspired me more with his couple, his energy, his -- his courage, his energy, his strength of character than conner curren and his wonderful family who live in ridgefield, connecticut. his parents were told at the time of his diagnosis that this beautiful young, sweet child would slowly lose his ability to run, lift his arms, hug them, and he would need complex care for the rest of his life. he would need multiple

specialists that would cost tens of thousands of dollars each year. which they could not afford. but they made it possible -- or, actually, it was made possible by the affordable care act. and now, because of that act, he cannot be denied care. he's alive. he's not giving up. he's fighting for both a cure and the affordable care act. and he's not the only one. there are 1.5 million people in the state of connecticut alone, millions more around the country, living with preexisting conditions. there are 182,000 children among

those 1.5 million people just like connor living with the potentially debilitating and even deadly effects of these preexisting conditions, and there are millions more around the country. for them, for americans, the affordable care act is more than a law. it's a lifeline. each of them can get the affordable care they need because of that lifeline. and right now we all know health care has never been more important. we talk about it every day. we are full of rhetoric on the floor of this chamber about the health care crisis, which has precipitated an economic crisis and about the disproportionate

effects of that health care crisis, a pandemic of an insidious deadly disease on poor and often communities of color. at the time of this crisis, the president of the united states has nominateed justin walker to be an appellate judge. a present district court judge who has said that his main mission is to destroy the affordable care act. of course, that's perfectly consistent with the trump administration's view of the affordable care act. it is litigating in court right now against the affordable care

act. president trump has opposed it consistently, constantly, vociferously. and justin walker, at his investiture as a district court judge, pledged that he would continue to make destruction of the affordable care act a priority. he said during his investiture remarks attended by his mentor, the majority leader, senator mcconnell, quote, although my legal principles are prevalent, they have not yet prevailed. although we are winning, we have not won. although we celebrate today, we cannot take for granted tomorrow or we will lose our courts and our country.

that wasn't some law review article that justin walker wrote back when he was going to school. it wasn't some speech that he made to a local chamber of commerce. it was literally at his swearing in as a united states district court judge for the western district of kentucky. just months ago, not even a year. my legal principles are prevalent. they have not yet prevailed. so if there were new meaning to give to the word irony, this nomination would exemplify it. during a public health crisis, the president of the united states has nominated someone who wants to take health care away

from people and deny them health insurance. well, the reason connor is here is really to show that these big principles have reallife consequences -- have real-life consequences. judges have impacts. the law matters. words matter. although my legal principles are prevalent, they have not yet prevailed. although we have -- are winning, we have not yet won. what does a justin walk erwin look like? -- what does a justin walkerwin look like? it means denial of health care.

and for connor curran, his family, it could be, in effect, a death sentence. that may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't to those millions of americans who have preexisting conditions. it isn't to connor and to his family. they live with the real-life consequences of laws that we make and decisions by the courts that may strike down those laws, like the affordable care act. so the irony here is more than abstract. the outrage here should be real. justin walker, very simply, is

unfit to be a judge on the court of appeals. he was judged unqualified to be a district court judge, and i ask my colleagues to reject his nomination. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate stands adjourned until stands adjourned until the senate is gambling out ten lawmakers passed a bipartisan public land maintenance bill today. those against the nomination of justin walker to serve on the u.s. court of appeals for the dc circuit court . a number of senators also spoke about senator tim scott, police reform legislation which would introduced today earlier. following synod coverage here on

"c-span2". the federal government at work in dc, and throughout the country, the congressional director for contact information for members of congress, governors, then federal agencies in order your copy online today. a cspan store .org. pres. trump: this november we will take back the house and hold the senate and we are going to keep the white house. >> president trump returns to the campaign trail and saturday, for a rally until separated watch our live coverage during an 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. on demand at cspan.org. or listen on the go, with free c-span radio app. >> senators have been speaking on the floor about competing legislation over police reform in response to the national

protest movement that followed the death of george floyd. here's a look at some date of today's remark starting the senate minority leader and trent leader chuck schumer. on senator tim scott smell and the booker harrisville. this morning is a tale of two chambers, the house of representatives,st starting to consider of the justice and policing act led by centers booker and harris in the senate . and developed in the congressional black caucus and house democrats. the billmp represents, henson strong and enduring reform to police departments . the most forceful center change in decades. this morning in the senate, republicans have put forth a separate proposal led by the senator from south carolina. with only had the bill for a few