market and the restaurants are manufacturing facilities like a trust facility and -- >> now back to the senate floor or lawmakers have returned for weekly party caucus lunges to resume voting on judicial nominees. you are watching live senate coverage on c-span2.

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. under the previous order, all postcloture time is expired. on the wiegand nomination. the question now occurs on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote?

if not, the yeas are 82, the nays are 14. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. 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 thomas t. cullen of virginia to be united states district judge for the western district of virginia. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: which unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of thomas t. cullen of virginia to be united states district judge for the western district of virginia shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule.

the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 77, the nays are 18. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture.

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 diane gujarati of new york to be united states district judge for the eastern district of new york, signed by 17 senators. 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 nomination of diane gujarati of new york to be united states district judge for the eastern district of new york shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any members in the chamber wishing to vote or change their vote? seeing none, the yeas are 94, the nays are 2. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary. diane gujarati of new york to be united states district judge for the eastern district of new york. the presiding officer: madam pre

sident. --. mr. lankford: madam president, i have eight requests for the committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. lankford: the past several weeks i have had the opportunity to be able to travel around the great state of oklahoma, have been from guyman to tallahena and talk to as many people as i could. obviously we were in smaller groups. we had masks and social distancing and doing all we could to take care of each other blu taking the -- but taking the moment to meet with school superintendents, parents, teachers, health care

providers, and hospital be administrators and employees of large and small businesses, not-for-profits and volunteers, law enforcement individuals, city managers, mayors, city councilmen, state leadership. i wanted to be able to hear what's going on on the ground in my state and to be able to know what needs to be addressed because there's been a lot of noise in washington, d.c. about what needs to be done on covid. i think many people in the national press is tracking the fact that $3 trillion has already been allocated to deal with covid-19 and a tremendous number of changes have already occurred. but in this town, there's a significant number of people that say we just spent $3 trillion. that was fun, let's do it all over again and see a way we can spend even more. my focus has been very simple. what is needed to be able to beat the virus? and what i heard all over oklahoma wasn't go do more, just go spend more, create new

programs, but how can we beat this virus back so that we can actually get to a moment where we can function again economically as a nation. people are returning to work, but they're asking some very basic questions, and the first of those is, this is a health crisis. h what are we doing? the bill that's just been released that we're voting on in the senate tomorrow has a whole series of issues tailored to work on beating the virus back and on getting our economy going and helping protect our families. that's the design of this. it's not just doing something. it's trying to be able to do the right things to actually help us get through this and to get to the other side of it. starting with money for testing, not just additional testing but new types of testing to make sure we have faster tests that are out there and that we have more testing that actually addresses the issue of how can you do it on site, get a rapid result and not wait weeks. so while we have literally

millions of tests that have been done, we still have some tests that take a long time to get back. in march we were dealing with let's get a test. now we're dealing with let's get a faster test. and that's a lot of the focus of the funding here. faster testing. vaccines. there are six vaccines now that are either in human trials or approaching human trials right now. that's remarkable thinking about the past history of vaccines and how long it's taken. but there is a significant amount of money invested in this, in february, in march, in previous bills to be able to fast-track the research, and that has made a difference. now it's a matter of moving it from the research phase to the trials to actually implementing it and getting it donationwide. so -- done nationwide. significant money for testing, for vaccines and for treatments that are out there. the second thing is how do we get our schools open again? i heard over and over again from parents and from administrators and from teachers, we want to get our schools open again.

public, private, charter, online, whatever it may be, those parents that are taxpayers and individuals, regardless of where they choose to send their child to school or if they choose to keep their child at home for school, those parents want to know what is going to be done to be able to help our kids get educated. and while the vast majority of funding and of authority for education is in the states, there is a federal connection here that we should be able to help, especially kids with special needs. they have unique challenges during the time of covid-19 and we need to be able to get those kids back in school and to be able to get them the additional care that they need during this time period. but all parents are saying to me, i want the best possible moment. i do not want my kid being written off for the future because someone didn't choose to be able to invest in them now. this bill has $105 billion towards education, public,

private, charter, homeschool. it has tax credits built in to be able to assist parents to be able to choose where they want their kids to go. it has ability for more and more schools to be able to go online to be able to help through this season. it has additional dollars that can be used for transportation because many school districts are doing multiple bus routes to be able to make sure they can keep down the number of people on individual bus. all of those things are helpful. we want to be able to help get our kids back in school and to be able to make sure that this is successful. during this moment, it's been interesting. as i talked to many superintendents and educators, they all said to me the same thing, we're working very hard to be able to get our kids back in class and do the things we need to do, and then they would pause and say for years we have talked about innovation in education but we've been stuck doing the same thing over and over and over again and been frustrated with the results. this pandemic has forced us to innovate in education in ways

that we only dreamed about years ago. we need to be prepared during this season not only to continue to educate our kids in the best way possible, but to take notes on the best innovation across the country in education, because we have said as a nation, we need to be stronger at how we're educating our kids and the end product of that and how we're preparing them for the workforce. this is that moment we should pay attention to as well. and the education invagueses that are -- invasions that are going on -- innovations that are going on in my state and around the country. there is money in this for child care because this is has been an interesting challenge. the child care facilities have fewer people allowed to be there, there's children that are able to be there but the profit margin doesn't work for them to be able to have all those employees and fewer children that are there. we want them to be able to be there and to be successful and to survive this so we add additional dollars for child care. we add additional dollars for ag

because in some areas of agriculture across the concurrent they have done well -- across the country they have done well but some struggled. if we want to be able to eat we better make sure ag survives through this. i met with business leaders and heard a lot of different conversations there. they were very appreciative of the paycheck protection program. in my state 61,000 small businesses and not for profits took advantage of the paycheck protection program and many of them told me we would hot be open today if it wasn't for that. grateful this body came together to be able to deal the with the trans-pacific partnership dust is sshes -- with the paycheck protection program. the bill we're putting on the floor on thursday deals specifically with the next round of paycheck protection limiting it to the hardest hit small businesses and nonprofits. we need them to be able to survive through this. nothing's going to make them

hole and the goal of this shouldn't be able to make every business whole. we can't financially sustain that as a country but we can try to get people through this and get to the other side of it. we're all going to have to innovate and most small businesses that i talked to told me about the innovations they were doing, how they used to do business one way and within 36 hours they figured out a way to be able to do it a different way. that is the american system. that is the free market and capitalism at its best. at the moment of struggle, you can go innovate and do things different and be successful with that. that's what we have got to continue to protect. not too much government oversight and control of everything that in the days and moments where we have to innovate, people can't innovate because they have so much government mandates on them. i was grateful to the trump administration and how much flexibility they gave to the process, not only to waivers for child lunches through the schools and flexibility there, but flexibility for businesses to be able to innovate in a very

difficult moment. but we'll need another round, smaller round, but another round for the hardest hit businesses for the paycheck protection program. our not-for-profits told me over and over again how much work that they are doing during this time period. we need to make sure those not for profits not only survive it but thrive. as i have said to this body before, we have three safety nets in america. the family, churches and not for profits and faith-based institutions, and then government is third. a lot of people look at our safety net as being all the government programs, but that's the last in this cycle. if our families aren't strong, then individuals struggle. if our faith-based institutions, our not for profits that take care of so much human need are not strong and thriving and those volunteers aren't engaged, there is no way the government can keep up with the issues. so just keeping not for profits open can't be the goal for this. we have to keep them thriving. those not for profits around the

country are taking care of the homeless, the hungry, the hurting, and we need to find ways to be able to strengthen them. the best way to do that is not to have some government programs to establish the best way to identify good not for profits. the best way to be able to do that is to allow the american people to look at what is working in their neighborhoods and communities because they will invest their own dollars to do that. in the cares act, i pushed for and we got a $300 write-off on your taxes. if every american will give $300 to the not for profit of their choice. in this proposal, that doubles for the individuals and quadruples for the family. it is a $600 tax write-off for an individual or a $1,200 tax write-off for a family if you will donate to a not for profit. why don't we choose to do that? because not for profits are way more efficient at taking care of human needs than the government is, because they have a face. they are interacting with a family. they are interacting with an

individual directly. they are not dealing with someone on the phone or online. it's not a check that you receive or a form you fill out. it's a person that you meet with face to face that says how can i help you, and it's a volunteer that's there to be able to walk through life with you. those faith-based ministries and those secular and other not for profits that are out there make an enormous difference, and the best thing that we can do to make sure they thrive in this moment is to make sure we incentivize individuals that give to them by saying you can either give this to uncle sam or give this to a local charity of your choice. either way, it's going to strengthen individuals. go engage with that. that's in this bill, and it's important that we be able to continue to walk alongside them and all those not for profits to make sure we thrive because we need them thriving, not just surviving in this moment. and there is one other thing that i want to identify. a lot of things that are in this bill, and it's liability protections. businesses and universities in my state said we desperately

need the federal government to clarify liability protections. now, there have been individuals on the other side of the aisle that have said we don't want to do that. we want to just leave that up to the lawyers in the days ahead to have lawsuits. what is occurring is there are many businesses in my state that are holding back and many schools in my state that are holding back trying to figure out what happens next for fear of what could be a series of lawsuits. they just want clarity. they want to do business where they can protect their employees, protect the consumers or individuals or students that are there that are around them, but they also want to be able to operate and function again and don't feel like they can do that without basic liability protections and liability definitions. this bill provides that. now, i have heard some in the media and some even in this building that have said this is a pared down, skinny bill. only in washington, d.c. is a

$300 billion piece of legislation considered skinny. only here. over and over again at home, when i talk to people across the state of oklahoma and i would present what has already been done in the previous acts, the $3 trillion that have already been spent on covid in the months before and the proposals that we have now that would quietly pull me aside at the end of the meeting and they would say almost exactly the same thing. where is this money coming from? people are worried about the virus, but they are also worried about what's coming next. people are used to taking out a loan if there is a major storm or a major life event, knowing i have got to take this loan out to get through it, but they also realize for every loan i take out, i have to pay that back. and people in my state are saying the same thing -- where is this money coming from? how are we ever going to pay it

back? and they are shocked that the house of representatives and many in this room are pushing a bill that is $3.5 trillion in spending on top of the $3 trillion that was already spent earlier this year, and they just gasp when they think about an additional $6.5 trillion of deficits in a single year, and they wonder what happens with that. and i respond to them so do i. that's why we're trying to be as tailored and as focused as we can possibly be to meet the needs that need to be done, but to not just throw a big number out and to say a big number we ought to go big. we have gone big earlier this year. now it's not just can we throw money out the door from washington, d.c., it is what do we have to do to be able to get to the other side of this? for health, for our students, for the basic operations of our economy and survival to be able

to get on the other side of this, because on the other side of this is a bill that has to be paid. we in this body should pay attention to that because certainly the people in oklahoma are paying attention to that, and so should we. there are things that need to be done, and i look forward to bringing this up to be able to focus on the essential things that need to be done for our economy right now and to be able to keep moving from there. with that, i yield the floor. mr. lankford: madam president, i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk

will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thank you, madam president. madam president, i ask consent that the quorum be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. alexander: thank you, madam president. this morning, our health, education committee had a hearing, and one of the members came up to me on the floor and said that was the most civil hearing i have attended in the senate in a while, and the truth is most of our hearings in the health, education, labor, and pensions committee are civil. we have senators of widely different points of view, but i thank senator murray, the senior senator -- the senator from washington state, who is the ranking member of our committee and a member of the democratic leadership, for the way she and the democratic members of the committee work with the republican members so that we

can have the surgeon general of the united states, dr. adams, and dr. francis collins, the head of the national institutes of health, as one of our country's most esteemed scientists, the man who headed the human genome project, we can have them there for three hours, we can ask questions, virtually every senator participated, and we got some good answers. and i'd like to report to the other members of the senate about that hearing. i began it by saying i have been reading -- rereading the book "guns, germs, and steel," a book by jerry diamond written in 1997. which is as relevant today, maybe more relevant today than it is when he wrote it. mr. diamond, who won the pulitzer prize as a professor of geography in california, said there is nothing new about mass epidemics that cause deaths and social upheaval that we're

witnessing today, and there is nothing new about where most of those epidemics in history have come from. diseases that cause those deaths for the last 10,000 years, he says, have -- have come mostly from animals who transmit them to humans. and during most of history, there were three ways to deal with these epidemics. one was to isolate the infected, as in, for example, leper colonies to deal with leprosy. one was to, according to mr. diamond, that over thousands of years, there have been genetic changes in the human population in response to the infectious diseases that have gone through those populations, and it has produced a resistance to the infectious disease, as in the case of smallpox.

but, of course, that didn't do much to help the native americans in this country when european settlers who had some resistance to smallpox arrived here and gave blankets to the native americans that were infected with smallpox or contained smallpox and wiped out 90% of the tribes who received them because they didn't have that resistance. and then there is a third way of dealing with epidemics. throughout most of history, the most common way was to let it run. let the epidemic run through the population until it had either killed or recovered everyone -- until everyone had been either killed or recovered and developed some resistance to the disease. diamond says that the black death killed about one-third of europe's population between 1347

and 1351 as it ran through the population, killing people. now, what's new about dealing with epidemics is modern medicine. modern medicine has given us ways to diagnose these diseases and to create treatments to make it easier to recover from these diseases, but the true miracle of modern medicine, madam president, is the vaccine. a vaccine that can prevent humans from acquiring the disease at all. the senator from tennessee and i have actually worked together on that issue two or three years ago to encourage people, in her words, talk to your doctor if you have a concern about a vaccine. and that's what we want to talk about today. today in all 50 states in the district of columbia, school children are required to take vaccinations for a series of diseases -- diphtheria, tetanus,

whooping cough, measles, rubella, chicken pox before entering school. that vaccination will protect the child from getting the disease, which in turn prevents the child if from infecting someone else, a pattern that eventually causes these diseases to disappear. americans -- means of my generation remember how polio terrified our parents in easterly 1940 and into the 1950's. many saw their children die of polio. i can remember classmates when i was very young who were strapped into iron lungs so they could preeght and were destined to say there -- breathe and were destined to say there for the -- stay there for the rest of their lives. the lucky ones were like the majority leader mitch mcconnell who was only left with a limp after having polio in the 1940's t. terrified americans until a doctor discovered the polio vaccine in

1955. after the vaccine was developed the united states undertook a large-scale vaccination campaign and polio was declared eradicated from the united states by 1979. the purpose of the hearing that we had this morning was to explore the remarkable progression that science is making toward a covid-19 vaccine. and to remind parents to have their children get their childhood vaccinations and to encourage as many americans as possible to take the flu vaccine this fall. first the progress toward the covid-19 vaccination. dr. collins, the director of the national institutes of health, talked about that. he talked about the vaccine research and development, including operation warp speed which is working to develop, manufacture, and distribute safe and effective vaccines as rapidly as possible. he told us there are six vaccines currently under

development. he reminded us that the federal government using taxpayers' money has helped accelerate this by providing money to manufacture these vaccines before they are deemed safe and effective. and that he does not necessarily expect all of the vaccines to work. and if they don't work or if they're not safe, they'll be thrown in the dumpster. they'll not be distributed to anyone to use. he pointed out that astrazeneca announced today that one person in its clinical trials which probably has 30,000 people in the u.k., had developed an illness and they had paused the trial. in other words, they stopped giving shots to the volunteers in the clinical trial until they could see if the illness is related to the vaccine. some people believe that operation warp speed means cutting corners, but it is not. it means referring to the extraordinary investment and

research, development, and manufacturing scale-up for the covid-19 vaccine. perhaps most significantly, the biomedical advanced research and development authority, we call it barda, has taken the unprecedented step as i mentioned earlier, to speed up manufacturing for hundreds of millions of doses early in the process by buying those doses in advance so they can be ready to distribute as soon as the vaccines are approved by the food and drug administration. several of our senators on both sides of the aisle asked dr. collins and dr. adams, the surgeon general, whether they intended to let politics play a role in the decision about whether a vaccine is safe and effective and ready for distribution. they answered absolutely no, that they would be no part of such a decision. the same has been said by

dr. stephen hahn who is commissioner of the f.d.a. who is charged with making that judgment. this is going to be a science-medicine data decision, he said. it's not going to be a political decision. that means if it's not safe, it won't be distributed. at the same time the centers for disease control was working on a plan to distribute the vaccine as soon as they're authorized or approved prioritizing vaccine for health care workers. c.d.c. says its plan will be a fair system informed by nonpartisan health experts from the national academy of sciences and engineering and others. now, some have suggested -- of course this is a political season. we have an election in two months -- that the reason we're rushing as a government to create the vaccine is so that it will help president trump before the election in november. or that the reason that the centers for disease control said to the states get ready now to distribute the vaccine when it's effective and safe, that that's a political move.

of course i said that if dr. collins and dr. adams had come and said it would be five years before we had a vaccine, we'd probably ask the president to fire them because people are dying and we need vaccines. we don't want the alternative which is to run the disease through millions of americans until everybody either dies or is infected and recovers. and we don't want to have happen again what happened before, with the n1 -- h1n1 virus which the sack seen -- vaccine was ready but the states weren't ready to distribute. so we were pleased to see what the response was. americans are saying that they might not take the vaccine. one, are they -- madam president, the chamber is not in order. the presiding officer: the chamber should be in order.

please remove your conversations. the senator from tennessee. mr. alexander: thank you. the first question people ask, are they safe. they're safe because they're reviewed by the f.d.a. which is the gold standard for safety. vaccines are routinely given to children. they're specifically recommended by an advisory commission that looks at it carefully, by doctors and physicians and scientists. in the 2015 article for the scientific america, the distinguished scientist wrote, quote, by age 2, most children will receive almost 30 shots designed to boost a child's natural defenses against disease. yet at the same time parents who take their children for those recommended vaccinations might be inundated with website and celebrity espoused rumors making false claims that shots aren't necessary or cause autism. at best navigating this landscape can be confusing but when weighing the risks of encountering life threatening disease against the benefits of

receiving a vaccine, there's no contest. the vast majority of children do not experience anything worse than short-lived redness or itching at the spof the -- spot of the injection. i ask dr. collins this question which i think is confusing to some people. when you take the covid vaccine, you don't get covid. there was a time in the old days when to get a smallpox vaccine you in fact got a little smallpox. but that's not what happens. as dr. collins explained it, he said the vaccines creates a sort of machine within your body in your immune system to fight the covid. it doesn't infect you with the disease. then there's the question about whether the vaccines are effective. i've talked about how polio is now eradicated. the number of polio cases since the vaccines has fallen rapidly, less than 100 in the 1960's. less than ten in the 1970's

thanks to the successful vaccination program according to the centers for disease control, the united states has been polio free since 1979. and diphtheria was a terrifying prospect for parents in the 1920's. but according to the scientific agencies and the government, there are only a few of those a year. and then there's a concern about whether the doctor's office is safe. i heard that from people but the studies have shown that the pediatricians -- and we heard that testimony today -- have gone to great efforts to try to make their offices the safest places that a parent can go with their child in order to get a vaccination. finally, madam president, i started my comments this morning with comments from jared diamond, and i concluded with a warning he wrote for "the wall street journal." he said in effect that the main thing that's different about

this disease, covid-19, is not that it's more infectious. the main thing that is different is the jet plane. the plane that can carry people all over the world, all over our country spreading whatever the infection is. and he said as a result of that, the next pandemic could be next year. that's why i've introduced in the -- into the senate legislation that would help prepare for the next pandemic. it has support on all sides. the senator from tennessee, the former majority leader, senator daschle, the former majority leader on the democratic side, many experts all say that we have a problem in this country going from panic to neglect to panic. and while we've taken some important steps as senator brrr pointed out today to create the authority for the government to build manufacturing plants, to manage stockpiles better, to be prepared for pandemics, that as

soon as we -- as soon as the epidemic is over, we move on to something else. so the time to deal with the next pandemic is now. so there is specific legislation to make sure that we sustain funding for onshore manufacturing so we're not relying on china, india, other countries to make our vaccines for the next pandemic. there's money to make sure that the stockpiles are filled with protective equipment so we don't have the kind of delays that some people experienced in this pandemic. former governor mike leavitt said to our committee that we have underfunded public health for the last 30 to 40 years. and when we underfund public health and the next pandemic comes, we're not as ready for it as we should be. so fortunately, thanks to an unprecedented effort by scientists around the world, preparation by republican and democratic administrations over the last 20 years, and several

congresses, we had done a lot to be well prepared for this pandemic. and we're moving more rapidly than we ever have to create new diagnostic test, new treatments, and new vaccines. some of the challenges that remain are how to distribute it, to whom it should go first, and how to persuade americans it's safe to take. but while we're in the midst of dealing with all this, it would be wise to remember that any legislation that we pass in congress this year dealing with this pandemic should also take steps to make sure that our stockpiles are filled, that our manufacturing plants can stay functioning, and that public health state by state is well funded. because as jared diamond said, the reason to do that now while our eye is on the ball is because the next pandemic could be next year. i thank the president.

i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. hawley: madam president, i come to the floor today to address the growing crisis in our country, in our cities and towns across our country, a crisis of law and order, yes, a crisis of the rule of law, a crisis of confidence, a crisis of solidarity. because as our cities and towns come under siege as so many of them descend into violence and lawlessness night after night, we witness before our eyes the fraying of the american fabric, the breaking of american bonds. the violence we are witnessing

is not just about the individual lives harmed or lost, neighborhoods destroyed, businesses burned and looted, families living in fear, whole neighborhoods cowering behind locked doors. no, the devastation we are seeing, the crisis we are facing is about the confidence in our society itself, in our ability to come together, to live together, to find common ground, to build this common community and pursue that more perfect union. all of that is under threat in this current crisis of lawlessness, of lack of respect for the rule of law, of the decline of due process and law and order. these are not, let's just be clear -- these are not peaceful protests that we're seeing across the country. they are violent and increasingly violent riots and attacks and looting. and i'm sorry to say that too

many in the media and my colleagues across the aisle are appeasing the mobs and the marxists to burn our neighborhoods to the ground. these attacks are occurring because they are increasingly enabled by the mainstream press and local and national politicians who are pushing an historically fraudulent version of american history. one where america is a fundamentally racist nation, one where america is systemically evil, one where police officers are cast as agents of oppression. what our leaders fail to recognize is that our police officers, the brave men and women in blue, those who choose day in and day out of their own volition, of their own accord to

go out to the streets, to put their lives on the line, to serve and protect their neighbors, their fellow citizens and to stand for our values, those police officers are an example, and exemplars, of our deepest head and cherished beliefs. because without those police officers, let just be clear, the constitution of the united states, the bill of rights, those things are just words on a page. without law enforcement officers giving their lives, risking their lives to enforce and make available the fair and equal rule of law, then our constitution is just a parchment barrier. it maikos well not exist. -- it may as well not exist. our police officers are the best among us. they are the guardians of our neighborhoods, the sentries on the streets. but too often now in the press, right here in this body, we hear

attacks on police officers, we hear rushes to judgment. these voices of criticism don't see police as human beings, as working men and women whose experience and lives mirror our own and too often these critics don't see the suffering, the suicides, the low morale that police officers across this nation face. and consequences of this mistreatment that law enforcement are facing in this country are becoming ever clearer. police departments are facing increasing retirements. they're struggling to retain the officers that they have and struggling to hire new ones. local law enforcement report plummeting morale as officers face increasing violence and police departments struggle to pay their officers a salary

that's commensurate with the would, that they do. -- with the work that they do, work that is more challenging today with the riots and looting sweeping across our cities. what our officers need is not less funding. what they need is not defunding. what they need is not disrespect. what they need is support. what they need is for the leaders of this country and the good men and women of this country to say we are with you, we support you, we will stand with you in the important and vital job that you do. they need more funding, not less. more recognition, not less. and our federal government exists to provide for the general welfare. well, i believe it's time that congress lived up to that promise. so let's make it simple. let's give our officers a pay raise. let's give a pay raise to every cop in america. and let's do it right now.

let's provide new funding for police departments across this nation to hire more cops and to put them out on the beat. let's put our money where our mouth is and stand by our law enforcement in this vital time, for them and this i think v.o.a.al time for our nation. that's why today i'm introducing legislation to back our police. my bill would authorize new funding through the department of justice to permit state and local police to raise the salaries of officers up to 110% of local earnings. that's a real wage boofed boost and it would be available under my bill right now. it would provide for new funding to boost manpower and it -- i can tell you for law enforcement and states like mine and missouri, this could mean a raise of thousands of dollars a

year, and our law enforcement deserve it. not only would this legislation help officers, it would help all americans by working to build a safer nation for our families to thrive and our communities to grow, as one people together. through safety we can have solidarity. mr. president, this bill is named in honor of david dorn, retired st. louis police captain, who was killed in june trying to protect his neighbors and his friends in his own neighborhood from violent looters. and it is dedicated to all of those officers who have been a victim of violence this year. mr. president, it's time that we rejected the false narrative that the police are inherently oppressive, that america is inherently evil, that structural

racism defines this country's past and present and future and that the police are instruments of this oppression, of this history, of this evil. it simply isn't true. instead, it is time to stand again with our law enforcement to affirm the vital work that they do, to affirm the vital role that they play in making available the rule of law for every american, in making available and protecting the vital rights of every american, and it is time by recommitting can ourselves to safe streets, to the rule of law, to due process -- it is time to work on reforging those bonds of community, of solidarity, of togetherness that are being torn apart night after night after night. -- with the burning and the rioting in our streets. it's a fundamental choice we face, mr. president. no nation can long undure

lawlessness. no nation can long undure the breakdown of the basic operation of law. and that's why the job that our law enforcement officers do night after night on that thin blue line is so vital. it's time that we stood up and thanked them for t it's time that we stood up and supported them in it. may god bless our men and women who go to stand on that line every night. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. and i'm proud to support the resolution by the senator from illinois and we'll hear from her shortly, and i very much appreciate her work. now, in his famous letter to lydia b ixbi, president lincoln praised that, quote, our heavenly father would assuage her grief, noting that solemn pride that must be yours to have

laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. according to a recent report in the atlantic, president trump complained about visiting a world war i military cemetery in france because americans who died there were, quote, suckers and losers. over the past four years, president trump has achieved some remarkable lows in the annals of presidential conduct and character. but every so often you are jolted by the sheer depravity of his comments. this president's insults about our fallen service members and the nature of military service in general fall into that category -- the lowest of the low. there's no greater sacrifice an american can make than to lay down their life for our country. no greater sorry than the sorrow felt by parents who bury their

children wrapped in the american flag. everyone who has the privilege of working in public office knows this deep truth in their bones. but not the current president of the united states. not president trump. not this man who dodged the vietnam war with bone spurs, not this man who insulted gold star families, who look the at our former colleague john mccain, a man who was tortured in a p.o.w. champ for five years and said, i prefer people who weren't captured. not this president, who doesn't understand one iota of the word sacrifice and cannot even comprehend why someone might give themselves for a larger cause. according to these reports, when president trump went to arlington national cemetery, which included a visit to the grave of general kelly's son, he

turned to him and said, i don't get t what was in it for them? everyone -- everyone -- ought to be appalled. what the commander in chief says about our service members and our veterans matters a great deal. it affects the morale of our military, our standing on the world stage, and it reveals the character -- the character -- of the man who has to make life-and-death decisions everything have our armed forces. we've heard the president and his team try to deny that the president ever made those comments. i mean, come on. the president is on individual joe saying nearly the same thing out loud on several occasions about one of our former colleagues, no less. in a short time, senator duckworth will ask this chamber to condemn the president $remarks and reaffirm our nation's steadfast and unwavering commitment to the i hads have serving? the armed forces.

i want to thank the senator from illinois for leading this resolution. and, more importantly, i want to thank her for her service, both to the people of illinois and to our country as an army aviation officer. i hope -- i pray, i plead with our republican friends mott to block this resolution. i'm already disappointed at how few of them have spoken out to criticize president trump for his remarks. are they really so afraid to say anything against this president that they would give him a pass when he despairages our own military? will they really block a resolution condemning these unequivocally disgusting comment, a resolution that reaffirms our support for the military? i certainly hope not. if you can't stand up and say the president was wrong to say these things, then what can you criticize this president or any president for? when comments like this are made

about sacrifices of our armed forces, every single elected official should understand instinctively that they are wrong, especially -- especially -- when they come from the commander in chief. let's have the entire senate -- democrats and republicans -- stand together and say so with this resolution. i yield to my colleague from illinois. ms. duckworth: thank you. mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. ms. duckworth: i have come to the floor as a senator, a veteran, and apparently according to donald trump a sucker and a loser. perhaps my presence here is uncomfortable for him. after all, according to a mum of reports, he -- according to a number of reports, he thinks nobody wants to see wounded warriors like me who have lost limbs fighting to keep other americans safe. but, unfortunately for him, i am here and i'm here because of the ethos of the united states military is the exact opposite of the selfish, craven, me-first

mentality that trump has shown every hour of every day of his life. in the army, part of our soldiers' creed was to never leave a fallen comrade leaned and the only reason i'm speaking today, the eliminate reason i'm breathing today, alive today, is because on november 12, 2004, after iraqi insurgents fired an r.p.g. through the blackhawk i was copilotting, my buddies embodied that creed. they thought i was dead and yet they risked their own safety to bring my body back home to my family, only realizing i was still breathing when they go to got me to the rescue aircraft. then these here oh, wounded themselves, refused care until the medic had tended to me first. if it had been donald trump in that dusty field with me or in other battlefield, order you understand wounded, like me, would have never made it home at all. but he never would have been in iraq that day because trump

fundamentally cannot understand the notion of saakashviliifiesing for your nation. he can't comprehend the true meaning of courage, the idea of fighting for simplifying greater than yourself, greater than our bank account or your poll numbers. he doesn't understand service, so he doesn't understand america's service members, the heroes, most of them anonymous to all but those who love him. they allowed him to sleep soundly throughout his gilded life. instead trump reportedly called those who died or wounded in battle, and i quote, suckers and losers. just today it was reported that he used the most demeaning of terms to refer to comments, to refer to the military leaders he thinks of as his generals, echoing comments he's made publicly time after time when he slandered war heroes like john mccain and gold star families like the kahns, acting yet

again as if bleeding for your nation is something to be ashamed of rather than a badge of honor. too ignorant to understand that he's the one who should be ashamed. you know, i spent this weekend reflecting on the words of another republican president who in the midst of crisis reminded those sitting before him at gettysburg the duty our nation has to those killed serving our country. in that address that we all know so well, he declared that it is for us, the living, to dedicate ourselves to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced, that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion. that cause was a new birth of freedom in this nation, the bettering of our democracy, bringing our union closer to perfection even though we know we can never achieve it. what lincoln understood and what trump never will is that to be contemptuous of american

warriors is to be disrespectful to the whole of the american people. and when those lucky enough to serve in congress or in the white house raise our right hands and swear to faithfully serve this nation in these ornate hallowed halls, it is on us to keep faith with those who have raised their right hands and sworn to serve this nation in the most dangerous war zones imaginable. there's an implicit contract between our country's leaders and our warriors. they and their families have entrusted us with their care, their training, and the decision to send them to war, and that responsibility is a grave one. they will march to do our bidding on command. they will cross the line of departure and begin killing the enemy at our behest with no regard for their personal safety or the toll on their mental health. if our leaders regard our heroes as suckers and losers, what damage will be done to america's

sons and daughters who comprise the terrible swift sword? i can tell you right now, it endangers every single one of them and it endangers our nation's safety. if you care about nothing else, if you care nothing about basic decency or troop morale, it is bad for troop readiness as well. because when a warrior goes into combat, they need to know that their buddies to their left and their right will follow that creed to never leave a fallen comrade behind, that no matter what, no matter how, their buddies, their nation will get them out of there, even if it's just bringing their body home to rest in arlington. it's because our service members uphold the values of the military in the army, those of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, integrity and

personal courage that they are willing to sacrifice everything for this country and that we have the greatest fighting force on the face of the earth. donald trump, by contrast, has shown active disdain for each of those values in his four years in office. he's shown the exact opposite of every one of those traits, displaying no sense of duty, a laughable sense of loyalty, integrity and courage? no, not to be seen. he has no respect for those in uniform, and selfishness is his trademark rather than the selflessness of our troops. but if trump's toxicity starts to break down values in the military, if we start to question why we care about those who have been wounded or killed for us, if we start leaving folks behind, then people will begin to think twice about signing up to serve. families will reconsider supporting their loved one's decisions to enlist. those few, few americans who

are ready to take on that mission, that burden will start to hesitate because they won't know if their own crew will risk their lives like mine did to carry their limp body back to safety. but this cowered -- coward in chief in the white house today is too ignorant in national security to get that, and so he doesn't deserve to be commander in chief in this military for another four minutes let alone another four years. yes, i'm disappointed that my republican colleagues will be objecting to passing my senate resolution honoring our troops, veterans, and gold star families and that they will not be condemning trump's disgraceful behavior that denigrates military service that has dishonored the office of the presidency. does any senator actually oppose affirming that part of what makes america not only great but good is the service of americans who have always placed the mission first, never asking

what's in it for them? does any member actually object to the senate resolving to always respect the sacrifices and bravery of those who became prisoners of war or went missing in action? i'm confident that no one here actually opposes the senate declaring that we'll always care for service disabled veterans who have borne the battle in defense of our nation, recognizing that wounds of war are earned by patriots who put america's interests before their own. so what's the problem? if senate republicans actually agree with everything i just listed, why would they oppose my resolution stating the same? i know some may dismiss this resolution out of hand claiming it's nothing more than just a partisan jab at donald trump. to those people i simply ask that they not rewrite recent history and stop pretending that outrage over trump's disrespect of the military is something new or that one that just originated with the democratic party.

after all, some of the very first public officials to speak out against it were republican senators who continue to serve in this very chamber today. when then-candidate trump claimed the late senator john mccain was not a war hero because trump likes people who weren't captured, it was the senator's friend from south carolina who wrote, if there was ever any doubt that trump should not be our commander in chief, this should end our doubt. and again, it was the senior senator from florida who said much of the same. i can only say that it is shameful that no one on the other side of the aisle has stood up to condemn this president for the comments he has made, for the fact that he did not make his way to that cemetery to honor those veterans of bella roads laying at rest in that foreign soil who were there not just for us, but for our

allies, that they may never even know. so today i'm here, mr. president, to ask, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of senate resolution 689 which was submitted earlier today. i further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening the presiding officer: objection a senator: reserving the right to object, mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mrs. loeffler: thank you, senator duckworth, for your service and your sacrifice. we share the goal of supporting our military and our veterans. however, the left's latest outrage against president trump is, as usual, baseless. here's the truth. the atlantic article is just one in a long line of lies and political attacks against president trump by unaccountable fake news outlets and the

so-called anonymous sources. here's another truth, one that won't be covered by the fake news. no one has done more to support our men and women in uniform including our veterans than president donald j. trump. let me share the facts with some of my colleagues and the media which they refuse to acknowledge. this president has championed a historic investment of $2.2 trillion into our military, a 3% pay raise for troops, the largest in a decade. he's personally thanked our troops on the ground in iraq, afghanistan, south korea, and germany. he spent countless hours honoring our wounded warriors at walter reed medical center and honoring our fallen service members killed in action at dover air force base. he had plans to withdraw troops honoring his commitment to end

endless wars. finally today he was nominated for a nobel peace prize for his leadership in facilitating the israel-u.a.e. peace deal a historic step toward a safer world for all. i'm proud to defend president trump against another desperate political attack, and i proudly stand with him in support of our military and our veterans. this atlantic hit piece is the antithesis of honest journalism. more than two dozen former and current administration officials have rebutted these false claims on the record. in fact, the liberal activist author who has a history of using sources that are shaky at best, he admitted that his reliance on anonymous sources was not good enough. well, what's not good enough is the media's treatment of this president and his clear track record of support of our military and their families. last week i was at fort gordon and fort stewart in georgia

visiting our active duty members. i saw firsthand the opportunities our military leaders now have to grow our safety and security on all fronts from combating terrorism to making sure our cyber domain is safer. there was a renewed sense of optimism that should bring all americans comfort. and this is a direct result of the president, of the work that he's doing every single day for our men and women in uniform. they're fighting every single day to protect us, and he is fighting every single day to have their back. here's the truth. president trump has delivered on his promises to rebuild our military, to respect our veterans, and to keep our country safe. and it is time to stop playing politics with our national security and those who provide it. for these reasons, mr. president, i object.

ms. duckworth: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois does have the floor. ms. duckworth: thank you. all i can do, mr. president, is to implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to reassert their independence, actually put principle before party and support this resolution which simply recognizes a basic reality. trump's denigration of military service is even more disgraceful today than it was five years ago, as he is now at least supposed to be our troops' commander in chief. former chief of staff of the army general wayan once wrote the american army is the people's army in the sense it belongs to the american people. when the army is committed, the american people are committed. the army is not so much an arm of the executive branch as it is an arm of the american people. he may have been talking about the army, but the sentiment holds true for every military branch, every one of which belongs to the american people. it is made up of their sons and

daughters, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, all of whom have dedicated their lives to serving the nation they love on behalf of the people they love. when donald trump mocks our troops he's mocking every american in every part of this country. when he derides wounded warriors, he's just proving, providing further proof that to him, the word sacrifice is so foreign it might as well be in another language. when he makes fun of those who have fallen in battle, he reveals not only his ignorance of national security but his own personal cowardice and insecurities as well. to him, service will never mean anything other than someone else serving him. so trump may not want to see me here today. he may not like to see visible proof of my war wounds, but he will keep seeing me here because it is my duty to honor the heroes who saved me by using my second chance, using every extra minute, every extra moment that i have to look out for our troops and veterans from

here in the capitol. i will take advantage of every extra breath of get to breathe because unlike donald trump, our men and women in uniform know what courage, sacrifice, and service truly mean. with that, i note how grateful i am for my democratic colleagues who are here with me today to show support for our troops, veterans, and gold star families. mrs. loeffler: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mrs. loeffler: instead of passing a resolution meant to politicize our military i'm offering my own resolution to honor the service and the sacrifice of the members of the united states armed forces, veterans, prisoners of war and gold star families. my resolution also recognizes president trump's strong record of supporting our troops, taking care of our veterans, and defending the american people from foreign threats. president trump and i have and always will honor the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform.

as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of my resolution at the desk. i further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? ms. duckworth: i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. ms. duckworth: i cannot support the complete senate republican resolution for a simple reason. we -- we are not honoring the service and sacrifice of members of the united states armed forces, veterans and gold star families in the republican resolution. we cannot do that. if we stay silent and meek when confronted with president trump's disgraceful denigration of military service, prisoners of wars, and military families continue. look, we can't control the offensive comments and actions of the president, but the senate can make a clear statement that our chamber rejects such disgraceful sentiments. republicans' refusal to criticize president trump speaks volumes when you remember the

outrage over donald trump's disrespect of our military is not a new concern. it actually originates with republican senators who are among the very first republic officials to speak out against his denigration of military service and prisoners of war. the senior senator from florida, i remind you, also spared no outrage when, in responding to candidate trump's claim that senator mccain was not a war hero stated, and i quote, it is not just absurd. it's offensive, it's ridiculous, and i do think it's a disqualifier as commander in chief. the republican resolution is incomplete if it does not condemn this president's comments denigrating our troops, and why i am disappointed republicans won't join me in passing my resolution that recognizes the sad truth. donald trump never changed and his denigration of military service and sacrifice is as disqualifying today as it was years ago. i see the senate -- my senior senator from -- from illinois.

the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: mr. president, let me say at the outset how proud i am to serve with my colleague, senator tammy duckworth of illinois. her sacrifice for america is nothing short of amazing. her life story, her commitment to the men and women in uniform that she served with, to the veterans and others is now well established, not just in my state but across this nation. only a small minority of americans have had the privilege and honor of serving in the military. many, like myself, count themselves as those who respect the military and understand that they deserve that respect for their willingness to volunteer to serve and even to die for this nation. what senator duckworth has done with her life is a clear indication of the spirit of the fighting women and men who keep this nation democratic and safe. i'm really disappointed. what a great moment it would

have been in the history of the senate if we had republican support as well as democratic support for the duckworth resolution. i'm sorry the senator from georgia objected. she took exception to "the atlantic" magazine article, the one that said where the president called those who died in war losers and suckers. but even that article has been accepted by fox news as being a valid comment made by the president and reported. but if you were to take "the atlantic" magazine and set it aside, there is ample evidence of this president's attitude toward our military. we all heard donald trump say publicly when he was running for president in 2015 about our friend and colleague, the late john mccain, he's not a war hero. i like people who weren't captured. five years in a prisoner of war camp in vietnam, and this president donald trump dismisses him as no war hero. john mccain suffered for this

nation. he deserves the respect of everyone, let alone the president. we also saw donald trump publicly attack a gold star family in 2016. the parents of the late uma yun kahn, an army captain killed in iraq in 2004. we heard president trump dismiss traumatic brain injury faced by service members and veterans as just headaches. we have seen this silence in the face of reports that russia offered bounties to kill american service members in afghanistan. we have witnessed his use of military officials for photo ops or for his own personal security purposes. and recalled the scene in a very stable genius by "washington post" reporters phyllis rucker and carol lenig in which trump called the service chiefs, quote, a bunch of dopes and babies and barked you're all losers, you don't know how to win anymore. president trump repeated those

claims again in a news conference again this week. these are just a few examples of not fake news but real news about this president's attitude toward the american fighting men and women. it's no surprise that he would say vile things privately if he would say these things publicly. instead of respecting our troops, president trump ridicules them. instead of bowing his head in humility, he barks insults and obscenities. no president in our history, none that i can even imagine, have been so juvenile, so abusive and so cynical in speaking of our fallen heroes. and what do we hear from republican veterans and officeholders about these sickening comments? very little, if anything, in objection. their silence is deafening. mr. president, i just want to close by thanking my colleague, senator duckworth, for bringing

this matter to the floor of the united states senate. every member of the senate, men, women, democrat, republican, we all carry the flag, proudly march in parades, and give those inspirational speeches on memorial day about the men and women who have served our nation. but where are the voices in the united states senate today to speak out against the outrages of this president? i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i'm honored to join senator duckworth in supporting this proposal, and it gives me great pride to serve in the united states senate with her. she is the living embodiment of the kind of sacrifice that our president does not understand. there are two things here, though, that are very wrong. one is a president who thinks that the soldiers, sailors,

airmen and marines who have laid down their lives for this country are suckers and losers and that it's okay to say that about them. it is beyond disrespectful. it is beneath contempt. and it is totally in character for this man. those soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines can't answer. they can't speak for themselves any longer. so when something like that is said, it is very important that in the highest offices of the country, people stand up and push back. in graves in france and belgium

and manila and around the world lie the mortal remains of men, boys, women who gave their lives and who cannot speak for themselves, and it is heart heartbreaking, heartbreaking for me to see that we cannot come together and agree on this in this body. i can promise you that if president obama or president clinton had said anything like this, the other side of this chamber would be in pandemonium. it would be a scene of hysteria. senators would be lining up through the doors to come and condemn this foul and hateful speech. we would be hearing a lot about the last measure of devotion,

and instead, we are seeing the last measure of devolution of a great party into what now resembles as much as anything a cult. i will be interested to see what my colleagues have in mind as they go through next year's veterans day and memorial day, having been unable to say one word against this against our troops today. it is frankly heartbreaking. i traveled a lot with john mccain and one of our trips took us to the philippines. i got up very early in the morning to go and have basically a dawn visit to the american cemetery in manila. the particular reason i went there is to see a name on the wall of the memorial.

george bruin whitehouse. george was 21 when he was killed. he was flying fighter planes as a navy pilot off an aircraft called the u.s.s. calpens. his body was never recovered. his plane was shot down and crashed into the wilderness, and that was the end of it. but his name was still there, carved high up in the marble, as the last memorial of his sacrifice. a president who doesn't get that is a disgrace. i yield the floor. oh, and particularly, i yield the floor to a colleague who is a -- an american combat veteran from the vietnam war to which my father dedicated five years of his life, so it is a remarkable honor for me to be able to speak in between senator duckworth and

senator carper, and i am very cognizant of that honor. i yield. mr. carper: it is an honor to follow my friend, sheldon. you could only turn out well, my friend, with the kind of bloodlines you have. mr. president, i rise today, really, for one reason. i rise today to make crystal clear that we are profoundly grateful to every american who has answered our nation's call to serve in uniform, to risk their lives and in too many instances to lay down their lives so that we might remain a free people. we are profoundly grateful to their families who have sacrificed so much while their loved ones are away, fighting to protect the rest of us and making this a better and more just world. and we are especially indebted to those families whose loved ones left for war and never came home. the sacrifice that many americans can barely remember, but one that has been all too

real for many families since the founding of our nation. mr. president, one of those families was my mother's family. i never got to meet my mom's crowdfundinger brother. his name was bob kidd patton. bobby was the youngest of five children, born in beckley, west virginia, to my grandparents. bobby was killed in action on october 26, 1944, during a kamikaze sea-tac in the western pacific on his aircraft carrier, the u.s.s. surwane. among the bodies of the ship's crew who was never recovered was that of our uncle bob. on the day of that attack, he was, get this, 19 years, 6 months, 23 days old. my grandparents were never able to see their son again or say goodbye. my sister and i, along with our

cousins, would never meet him. neither bob patton nor his shipmates who also perished that day were suckers or losers. as president trump has characterized others who answered our nation's call to uniform. they were and remain heroes. i was fortunate enough to make it home after serving three tours in southeast asia during the vietnam war, but 58,000 of my brothers and sisters never did. their names are inscribed in a black granite wall not far from here so americans will remember their sacrifice. let me add those 58,000 americans were not suckers or losers either, as president

trump has described john mccain. they were patriots. unlike john, unlike donald trump, they answered the call of duty. mike swagger and i were deployed to southeast asia for the several years that john mccain was held as a prisoner of war in the hanoi hilton, along with hundreds of others p.o.w.'s. his plane had been shot down in 1967 over hanoi. both of his arms and one of his legs were broken during the ensuing crash, and he was taken a prisoner of war. for five and a half years, john mccain was held captive, peteen, -- beaten, tortured. despite this, he refused the early release that was offered to him by his captors. far from being the loser that president trump refers to him, john mccain was the embodiment of courage, and my colleagues know it. he proved it again and again and again in uniform and right here

in this chamber, standing right over there. mr. president, a number of us in this body have been blessed to serve alongside other true patriots, both during our time in congress and in uniform. pilot dan inouye lost an arm and earned a medal of honor while serving in the most decorated army unit of world war ii. they were all japanese americans. they were despised by many americans. they were heroes, too. then there's former senator bob dole, another highly decorated world war ii hero, nearly paralyzed. lost the use of one arm after he got hit by enemy fire while happening to save the life of a fellow soldier. and then there's of course our amazing friend, amazing colleague tammy duckworth. god loves her. tammy, thank you for bringing us to this -- bringing us to the floor today. for any american to disparage heroes like them who gave life and limb for our country would

be despicable but to hear that contempt from a man, now our commander in chief who chose not to serve in the vietnam war allegedly because of bone spurs in his foot, it's worse than despicable. it's abhorrent. what is most surprising and really disappointing to me, though, is not for donald trump to use words like loser and sucker to describe heros like john mccain and others. what's surprising and disappointing is there are only democrats on this floor condemning the utter contempt donald trump has shown for our service members over too many years. there should be 100 senators on this floor today, 100, saying in no uncertain terms that we have nothing but respect and admiration for those who have served and we will not allow them to be mocked or arrived ciewled by anyone -- ridiculed

by anyone including the president of the united states. honoring those who have served this country and risk their lives for this country is among the most sacred obligations any of us have. if we can't stand up and defend those men and women that we have no business being here. let me close with this. to millions of soldier, sailors, airmen and women, marines and coast guard members who are risking their lives right now around the world and who have done so for generations, listen to this. we salute you. we thank you. we thank your families from the bottom of our hearts. god bless you. stay safe. come home. with that i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. a senator: mr. president,

listening to my colleagues i'm honored every day to be able to serve with them in the united states senate. ms. cortez masto: in 2018 in minden, nevada, i had the honor of commemorating the opening of the moving wall. this is a replica of the vietnam war memorial that travels the country so the public can pay their respects to vietnam veterans. i will tell you i will always remember the stories that veterans and their families shared with me that day. stories of coming home from a divisive war to an equally divided public. the pain of that reception was still fresh for many of them decades later. america's service members make an implicit pact with our country. they agree to put their lives on the line and in exchange they deserve our support, our care for them and their families and our respect. last week the atlantic magazine

published a story in which anonymous sources claim that donald trump doesn't demonstrate that respect. the article described a commander in chief who calls his own country's fallen soldiers losers and suckers. the story fits a pattern from other anonymous sources over the years, some of whom describe the president lashing out at generals and calling them dopes and babies. now granted, these are from anonymous sources so let's set them aside for just a moment. as the saying goes, journalism is the rough draft of history and sometimes that rough draft gets things wrong. but what do we know? what we do know from the president's public statements is that donald trump does not understand the sacrifice and heroism that americans -- america's armed forces demonstrate on a daily basis and that makes him unfit to lead them. how can a commander in chief make life and death decisions

for our troops when he doesn't understand the very nature of the sacrifice he is asking. i'm not making up donald trump's refusal to understand military sacrifice. you just have to look at the record and you've heard some of it today. but that record is part of a public record that in 1968 showed donald trump avoided military service through a medical deferment. although donald trump did not serve in the military, he's felt free to criticize others who have and their families. in 2015 we heard then-candidate donald trump said john mccain, and i quote, was not a war hero. i like people who weren't captured, he said. he's talking about a man who endured torture during the five years he spent as a prisoner, a man who upheld the highest standards of our military by turning down the release that his captors offered him in order to stay with his fellow p.o.w.'s, a man who refused to denounce his country even when his captors informed him it

could earn him his freedom. this president clearly has no conception of that integrity and that sacrifice. a president who refuses to honor men and women who were captured doesn't understand what heroism is. and in 2016 as the republican nominee for president, donald trump attacked the family of captain humayun kahn who was killed in iraq trying to stop a suicide bomber for his brave and sacrificing actions, he received a bronze star and purple heart. now, accompanied by his wife, mr. kahn spoke about his son's sacrifice at the democratic national convention and in response after seeing mr. kahn and his wife, donald trump said, well, look, if you look at his wife, she was standing there. she had nothing to say. she probably maybe -- maybe she wasn't allowed to have anything to say at all. can you imagine criticizing a

mother for not being able to articulate the pain of losing her son. a president who mocks a military family's pain doesn't understand what selflessness is. and just this monday as we've heard, donald trump said, and again i quote, that the top people in the pentagon want to do nothing but fight war so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs stay happy. a president who attacks america's generals as valuing profits over the men and women they command don't understand and doesn't understand what leadership is. and because even after three years as commander in chief, donald trump can't understand or appreciate the commitment and sacrifice of america's service members, he cannot effectively lead them. at the end of the day donald trump does not understand the very purpose of our military. he seems to believe that the military is his personal police force. he doesn't get that the

allegiance our armed forces swear is to the american nation, its people, and its constitution. we saw this when in june president trump threatened to use the insurrection act to send active duty troops to police the streets of this country. and i was in washington the day that this administration ordered police on horseback armed with tear gas and grenades to disperse protesters who were peacefully demonstrating against police violence. and also that donald trump could stage a photo opportunity in front of a church holding a bible. and that same night i could hear the noise overhead from the national guard blackhawk helicopters that engaged in a show of force display on the streets of washington. mr. president, i come from a family of service members. my father was stationed in korea after the war. my grandfathers both served in the u.s. army.

and i had a great uncle who was on the beach at normandy. my father-in-law piloted l.c.m.-3's for korea in the army. and i keep on the shelf in my senate office a photo that he took of the korean war memorial here in washington in winter. that stark image of troops in the snow moving cautiously through danger is a reminder to me of the humanity and sacrifice of our service members, including my father and father-in-law. and each year when i celebrate the induction of new nevadans to the service academies, i see the next generation devoting their idealism and their courage to our country, and i consider the weighty sacrifice by people who are so very young. you know, after reading the stories in the news and reflecting on the history of comments from our current commander in chief, i just want to say one simple thing to veterans, service members are,

and -- members, and their families in nevada and throughout this country, thank you. i will always stand with american troops who put their lives and bodies on the line to protect our country and the american people, well, they deserve a commander in chief who will do the same. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm proud to follow my colleagues who have spoken so eloquently, particularly senators carper and duckworth, and to join them today because they are in the great tradition of this body. bob dole, daniel inouye, tammy duckworth, tom carper, john

mccain. we've known our share of heroes. and i'm here to say thank you to them and to the others among us who have served. i'm proud to be here as a dad of two veterans, one a combat infantry officer in the marine corps, another a special operator in the navy, both deployed and to have served myself in the united states marine corps reserve. and i'm here to say to the other moms and dads and loved ones, donald trump does not speak for me. donald trump does not speak for us. donald trump does not speak for america. when he called those brave heros who lay down their lives suckers or losers, my first reaction was

disbelief. and then in an instant, it was totally to believe that he said it because it was so much in character for donald trump. for him it is all about donald trump. if somebody else can serve and take his place without sacrifice on his part, so much the better. but donald trump does not speak for the america that i know and love and who have given of themselves or risked their liv lives, as my colleagues who have spoken today so clearly have done.

when donald trump talked about the heroes of bela woods, he might have used a history lesson because clearly the marines at belawood were not suckers. in fact the relentless tenacity of their fighting earned them a nickname from the german soldi soldiers who were there adversaries. the germans called them toyful -toyfultoyfulhundan meaning dev. that name stuck with them all of these years and they use it in addressing each other, devil dog. that's what they were. one of their commanding officers, major thomas holcomb wrote a letter to his wife two days into the battle saying,

quote, the regiment has carried itself with undying glory but the price was heavy. there never was such self-sacrifice, courage, and spirit shown. end quote. in the three weeks of fighting, the fourth marine brigade suffered a 55% casualty rate. 55%. and his battalion alone suffered 764 casualties out of 900 marines. he became the 17th commandant of the marine corps and belleau wood became part of marine corps history. that battle was one of hundreds, thousands of battles where

soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines have distinguished themselves with uncommon valor. and for every belleau wood, there are others for each of those services. none of them fought by suckers or losers. the cost of war is unspeakably high, and we know that from our own work on the armed services committee, on the veterans' affairs committee. i have just come from a hearing of the veterans' affairs committee where we were discussing the problem of veteran suicide, 20 every day of our heroes take their own lives. and yet we hear in this body

that failed to provide effective solutions to those invisible wounds that caused those deaths. that is a national disgrace. so to the loved ones of all who have risked and given their lives, let me just say, we are here to make a point, and this resolution makes that point eloquently and powerfully. donald trump speaks for no one in this body, so far as i know. and the shame is that our republican colleagues are literally absent. they are absent without leave.

they are awol from this moment in history that calls upon them to stand up and be heard in the name of our nation's heroes. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: mr. president, in 2015, when i heard then-candidate donald trump denigrate the service of my friend, the late senator john mccain, suggesting that he was a loser and that his status as a p.o.w. was somehow cause for shame or embarrassment, i was rock-solid certain that the america i knew and loved would never allow such a man to occupy the office of president. i was wrong. the mccain attack began a slow reveal of the unsurprising moral bankruptcy of a man and the surprising willingness of

republican leadership to tolerate that moral void. the reveal reached a new level last week with jeffrey goldberg's reporting significantly verified by other reporters that president trump as commander in chief still denigrates the service of military members, calling them suckers and losers the trump campaign protested loudly against the charge that in the same instant put out a social media message ridiculing joe biden as he visited the grave of his son beau, an iraq veteran, after church last sunday. as a member of the senate armed services committee and the father of a united states marine, i find president trump's attack on our military unfuriating. in an era when thinks countrymen wereific aring their lives in southeast asia, the president dodged service with a timely and

miraculously short-lived case of bone spurs. he bragged had his own personal vietnam was trying to avoid sexually transmitted diseases at home while others were trying to avoid bullets, land mines and torture in vietnam. the selfish young man who avoided service and then equated the ultimate sacrifices of others with his sex life has now ascended into the world's most powerful office, holding on to those simple immature views. and it's not just about the president's words and attitude. solid intelligence suggests that russia has paid bounties for the killing of u.s. troops in afghanistan. the president hand his team have spent time trying to deny the news to the american public withry duck list efforts to pretend that the president was never even briefed about the matter. the president still refuses to acknowledge the gravity of the threat or hold russia to account

but, of course, he has described vladimir putin as a better leader than obama and as a friend. he must think, why risk that friendship for suckers? after watching this president for years, i conclude that the attack on the military is part of a broader hostility to the notion of serving others. the president stiffs charities, disrespects federal employees, denigrates teachers, and undercuts programs like public service loan forgiveness. he treats the office as a personal piggy bank, filling staff positions with family members and cronies, steering business toward his resorts, making his main domestic priority a tax bill that dramatically benefited his own pocketbook. the death, economic depression, deficits and social division that he has caused through his chaos hardly trouble his conscience because he has the

satisfaction of knowing that he's used the office to enrich himself. is this the exemplar that we want for our country? president trump may be unique among american presidents in that no one holds him up as an example for america's children. no parent or teacher or minister or youth mentor that i know tells children to act like him or talk like him or treat people like he does. even his supporters professing support for his judicial nominees or tax plan have an instinctive understanding that he is not an example we would want our young people to emulate. of all the critical issues on the ballot for america in november the most sportsman, is america a place beneficiary the most important is, is america a place for character matters?

do we want our young to enter the military or enter the peace corps or teach in our public schools? is service just for suckers or is it the essence of american patriotism? growing up, i was certain that i knew the answer to that question. i am less certain today, but i am infinitely more determined. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. mr. carper: will the gentleman yield for a moment? mr. kaine: i yield. mr. carper: i spoke earlier about my uncle bob. i had forgotten that we had his photo back here. this is what he looked like at the age of 19 years and six months. and this picture was framed and could be seen in the dining room of my grandparents' house until

they died. alongside it was my picture. thank you. the presiding officer: the senator from -- a senator: may i ask the senator from delaware a question? mr. tester: did the young man lose his life in the field of battle? mr. carper: he was one of a number of sailors on the u.s.s. suwannee who were killed in a kamikaze someday attack and none of their bodies were ever recovered. mr. tester: i want to thank the senator from delaware. you know, this isn't the first time. this isn't the first time the president has denigrated our military, not the first time -- it won't be with the last time -- because there is a total lack of appreciation by this president for the people who serve our country in the military. don't have to talk about the bone spurs that gave him -- how

many deferments? -- five deferments. yous found a way of not fighting in vietnam. thank god his daddy had enough money. then we think back to john mccain, decorated war hero. no, no, no -- not this president trump's mind. he was no war hero., as the former president said. everybody in this body knew john mcday. everybody in this body had a scrap with john mccain and everybody in this body had the highest amount of respect for john mccain. he truly was a war hero. and then there's the veterans who served in vietnam that agent orange got the best of them. they're now in their 70's and they're dying because of their exposure to agent orange. let me tell you.

the president denied them their benefits, denied them their benefits. if it wasn't for this body and the house, they still wouldn't have those benefits. and then there's -- there's the time that vladimir putin put a contract out on our military folks. did the president speak up? no, not to his good buddy is a'd vladimir. then there were his bud december down in mar-a-lago. it is time to say no again in a bipartisan way. this president has crossed the line. suckers and losers and our military do not belong in the same sentence, especially when you're talking about the

greatest generation in europe, that gave their lives for this country. it is time -- it is time not for resolutions that are political games. it is time to tell this president that he's screwed up, in a big, big way. and if we don't, it will affect this country's future long after he steps out of the presidency. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. jones: thank you, mr. president. i rise today in support of my distinguished colleague, senator duckworth. her resolution to honor our veterans, military service members and their families. senator duckworth knows more than anyone in this chamber about what it means to serve and to sacrifice, and i'm honored to serve alongside someone who has given so much to our country. and i might add, she got her

training in alabama, down in fort rucker where we have the training for all army helicopter pilots. so thank you for that. and i hope you enjoyed your time. and we're going to get you back. senator duckworth is just but one representative here of her many brothers and sisters in uniform and who has won the uniform throughout. you know, many in this body have served, and we've heard a lot today about senator mccain. i think few stand out as military veterans more than our late colleague john mccain, a vietnam veteran war here oh, someone who i served with but, never, unfortunately, had the chance to meet. he was still a member of the senate by the time i got back

here in january of 2018. his illness prevented him from coming to the floor. it will always be one of my great regrets to not have at least had one day on the floor of the united states senate with john mccain. he was a vietnam veteran and a war hero, but he dared to speak out against a president and who this president, to this day, almost two years after john mccain's death, john mccain finds himself a target of the president's wrath. two years later! and he still has comments about a war hero. i will tell you, mr. president, to stand on the same floor at a moment like this the same senate floor with a hero like senator mccain of arizona spoke so passionately on behalf of our military, in which senator duckworth speaks our passionate

lay about our military and veterans, it is truly an honor. today the loss of john mccain's voice in this chamber is magnified by the silence of too many who will not say what needs to be said. our military families and veterans deserve our full support. they don't deserve insults. they deserve our support every day, not just when it's politically convenient. it is the duty of this body and every member of this body to defend those who have sacrificed so much to defend and protect our nation. it's the obligation of all patriots in this country to do the same. in fact, true patriots would never think to do otherwise. it would never cross our mind, a true patriot.

it would never cross their mind to launch an insult into our military or you are a veterans, much less -- or our veterans, much less those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. what i do today and every day as a senator from the alabama, to honor our military, to honor those because i come from a state of heroes -- alabama. i worked for one of those heroes, a military hero who later became a distinguished member of this body, from 1979 to 1997. howell heflin distinguished himself as a marine officer in the brutal fighting of the pacific theater in world war ii where he was wounded twice, awarded the purple heart, the silver star for valor, retired at the rank of major. i am so honored to be in his seat today where i work for him as a young staffer so many years

ago. he, too, would rise in this chamber in support in defense of our military. i know. i was here. i watched him. i saw him over the years. i was with him in every campaign. he was a tireless proponent of a strong military and understood alabama's tremendous contributions to our nation's defense, something i have tried to carry on in his stead. as alabama senator, howell heflin may have been called many things in the heat of politics, but none would have ever called him a sucker or a loser. none would have ever questioned his patriotism, even though alabama has a strong private sector supporting our nation's military, no one would have ever accused him of simply promoting the business of defense contractors with his strong and unwavering support of defense

spending to make america safe and secure. you know, there are less than 1% of americans who have volunteered to risk their lives, to be away from their families, their loved ones for weeks and months at a time, to uproot their families every few years and move, to put themselves in dangerous training and physical and mental strain, put themselves in harm's way when they are deployed in a combat, and yet they ask for so little in return. that, folks, is the definition of selflessness. while at one time i worked directly for a military hero in this body, today, as a united states senate, i work for thousands of them, tens of thousands across america, but importantly in the state of

alabama. i say alabama is a state of heroes because it is true. our sons and our daughters enlist and serve our nation in numbers that far exceed our state's population, and i am so proud of that. in alabama alone, there are 27,000 men and women who serve either on active duty or in the guard or reserve. alabama is home to 377,000 veterans. that's a lot of folks in a state of my size. not quite 10% of the population are veterans. the point here is that families in alabama know what it means to see a loved one raise their hand and stand ready to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country. i have stood witness and nominated our best and our brightest to military academies

in the two years that i have been here, we have been able to get over 40 of alabama's best and brightest high school students into our military academies. 40. and i have watched with pride how they became members of the military, how their families were so proud of them. not ever dreaming that one day if they lost their life, that the commander in chief of the united states might refer to them as a loser. i can assure every american that the folks that i know of are no suckers. they are no losers. what every volunteer from alabama, enlisted or officer, have in common is a deep and abiding love for our country. as a member of the armed services committee, i've had the honor to meet some of these folks overseas. i traveled with my friend and colleague, senator reed here. i met with folks from alabama.

i have felt their pride at the job that they were doing in afghanistan and iraq. they feel it deep down because that's the core of a patriot. that's the core of the american values. we owe each of them not just our gratitude but our commitment to serve them as they are serving or have served us. we have a duty to uphold our promises to care for them and their families, to provide good health care, to help them get an education and transition to good jobs after service. we have got a duty to honor them with action and with humble appreciation. we should have the decency and sense of patriotism to not denigrate their service, especially if you have avoided making such a sacrifice yourself. over the past two years, i was fortunate to know a little bit better what it really means to serve and to sacrifice while i

was working on the elimination of the military widows tax. i got to know people like kathy milford from mobile, alabama, and so many others whose late spouses had served honorably. i was shocked to learn that for decades they had been denied full survivor benefits that their spouses had earned because the federal government just wanted to save a few extra bucks. that our country could allow such an injustice to occur for nearly four decades is unconscionable, so we set out to change it. kathy used to talk about she came up here every year, and she would say that every time she would argue for the elimination of the tax, it was like digging her husband up from the grave. sadie mccormack's husband passed away in a training accident in south korea some three years ago. she has two kids at auburn university, including a daughter who is a recent miss peanut for the dothan area where fort rucker is located. sadie is a gold star wife who

became a strong advocate for the military widows tax issue. she had to go back to work teaching school to pay the bills because of that widows tax. lois thompson of dothan is a widow of c.w. 4 richard thomas who retired after 35 years and one day of service. he retired in 1991 and died on march 18, 2013, suffering from a.l.s. for more than six years. he served two tours of duty where he waded into streams contaminated with agent orange. senator tester spoke about the denial of benefits to those that have suffered because of their contamination to agent orange. ms. thompson's 85 years old. she was the caretaker during his extended illness. she said, you know, my husband served two tours in vietnam, wading in streams of agent orange. the war was so unpopular, he couldn't wear his uniform home.

he was spit on upon arrival back in the states. our soldiers were often not treated right, even these days. i agree with ms. thompson. that's coming counsel from the commander in chief. so let me make this clear. the sacrifice made by these women and men and their families is incalculable. for far too many years, we have failed to do our duty and keep the promise to those heroes, and so i am so glad that in a bipartisan effort in this body and in the house, bipartisan, bicameral, we were able to correct that in last year's defense budget. unfortunately, mr. president, i cannot say that i'm surprised by reports that the president called americans who died in war losers and suckers. it seems to me just the latest in a series of comments he has made that demonstrates a lack of respect for those who serve.

that respect goes far beyond just simply putting money into our defense and our military. it goes to your patriotism. it goes to your heart. it's easy to put money into something. it's easy to do those kind of things, especially when you have got an armed services like we have here in the senate that works in such a bipartisan fashion. it's a whole different thing, to really talk in the privacy of only a few people about what you really believe. i can't say i'm sacrificed that combat-wounded veterans make him so uncomfortable that he would ban them from military events and parades. they are reminders of his own failure to serve when called upon. i'm not surprised but i am deeply disappointed. deeply disappointed. our troops deserve a commander in chief who understands or at the very least appreciates their service. as of yesterday, 52,143

americans have been wounded in operation iraqi freedom and operation enduring freedom. 6,784 americans have given their lives for those two missions. many more have been deployed, often repeatedly bringing home experiences and memories that's going to impact them for the rest of their lives. and their dedicated families have served along side them throughout every bit, every step of the way. few among us, few among us can truly understand this kind of sacrifice for a cause greater than ourselves. but what we should all be able to understand is that they deserve our respect, our gratitude, and our unwavering efforts to uphold our promise to them and their families. so as i conclude, i stand here

today and think about those sacrifices. the pain that john mccain lived with. the pain that tammy duckworth lived with, the honor with which he and she and howell heflin served and all of those have served and sacrificed over the years. all those families. and all of those who serve today, and it's stunning to me that the only sacrifice that we in this chamber may suffer for our vote today is to suffer the wrath of a president because we stood in support of them and not him. after all they have done, say what needs to be said, we have to support them and not fear a baseless tweet from the president, a baseless tweet is just simply not too high a price to pay for doing what is right by our military and our military

family. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. reed: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. reed: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i rise to express my strong support for the senate resolution sponsored by senator duckworth which condemns the denigration by president trump of our nation's armed forces and veterans. i also want to commend senator duckworth for her extraordinary and heroic service as an army aviator. she inspires all of us with her courage and her sacrifice. in a september 3 article in "the atlantic," jeffrey goldberg cataloged a list of disparaging comments president trump has made about members of the united states military and wounded warriors. such remarks are not unusual for this president, and most are public knowledge. however, we should not become numb to such behavior, so some

of the comments bear repeating. "the atlantic" article states that the president refused to visit the american cemetery in france, the final resting place of 2,289 americans who died in battle ensuring our freedom and the freedom of our allies against the march of totalitarianism, authoritarianism, fascism, and communism over the past century. he refused to visit because he said the cemetery was filled with suckers and losers. several years ago, in planning a military parade to honor himself, he refused to include wounded war veterans, stating no one wants to see that. when he visited the grave of general john kelly's son who died in afghanistan at the age of 29, is buried in arlington national cemetery, he wondered

to general kelly why his son would join the marines. what was in it for him? when impressed by a presentation by joe dunford, then a chairman of the general chief of staff, he asked his staff why such a talented person would join the military. donald trump is a man who cannot conceive of service to others before oneself. his view of the world is transactions. the only thing of value to him is money, not ideals or principles or the lives of our fellow americans. he simply doesn't understand the words of one of his predecessors, president george herbert walker bush, who said we must tell the stories of those who fought and died in freedom's cause. we must tell their stories because those who have lost loved ones need to know that a grateful nation will always remember them.

we must tell their stories so that our children and grandchildren will understand that our lives might have been had it not been for their sacrifice. donald trump does not think deeply about what it means to be in the military, did be deployed in the battle zone wondering if every day will be your last day, to be a family member waiting anxiously at home, to a young, healthy person suddenly disabled or a gold star family who waits every day, mowrching their lost son or daughter, but understanding the great cause they died for. donald trump only cares about the next win for himself, his fortune, or his popularity. donald trump deferred service in vietnam five times, including one deferment for a diagnosis of bone spurs which is remarkable given the propensity he has to

play golf given such a debilitating injury. he has said that those who served in vietnam were suckers for not fighting -- finding a way out. never able to acknowledge that his privilege of birth and race were largely responsible for being able to avoid service in that war. furthermore, president trump true to his character has doubled down and denigrated the military service of past, present military officers including as referred to repeatedly, senator john mccain, my close colleague on the armed services committee, my chairman. he referred to senator mccain as a loser when he died and wondered why the nation should honor him with flags lowered to half staff. he said he preferred those who were never captured in war. he would prefer those who never served to a man like senator mccain who survived over five

years in a vietnamese prison of war camp, who refused to leave his comrades behind when given the chance, and who endured well chronicled torture and humiliation that made him an inspiration to so many. in fact, one of the most moving moments in my life was to be in the hanoi hilton with john mccain and to have senator mccain talk about the torture, the humiliation, the degradation that he endured each day and maintained his courage and commitment to this nation. the president also does not understand the good discipline that are the hallmark of a military in a democracy, ensuring that our military men and women remain firmly tethered to our nation's moral and ethical principles in the most demanding wartime environments. that is why i saw nothing wrong with intervening in the legal

process to pardon a service member accused are war crimes. that is why i was able to stand on the steps of the white house and make comments intended to drive a wedge it the men and women in uniform, the junior officers, enlisted, and their senior leaders. impugning the motives of senior military officers who have dedicated their life to the service of the country, who have bled, in some cases, for this country. never in this nation's history has a president held a military and -- held the military and those who serve in such disdain and disregard, never. his support for the military is hollow. he touts pay raises that were scheduled to happen anyway and congressional increases in defense spending for readiness which he then defer -- diverts to build an ill advised and waste flt wall on the southern border.

he falls short about caring for men and women in uniform and their well-being and lives and things said about how they might be useful to him to further his own interest and image. donald trump cannot relate to those who serve in the armed services or understand what would motivate them to choose the harder road of a life of service, of discomfort, and arduous experience to defend this nation. mr. president, while i know that every american, especially those in unio uniform, listens to thes of the president, it is my fervent hope that our uniformed personnel do not take the president's words on this issue to heart. as a person who has the privilege to have led paratroopers, i can tell you there's no greater honor to be among those who serve and protect our nation, who sacrifice every day so that americans can live in freedom and peace. as president theodore roosevelt

famously said, the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy course who at best if he wins knows the thrills of high achievement and if he fails, at least fails daring greatly so his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory or defeat. i guess president trump would say the losers. our men and women in uniform who fight and die and are wounded for our nation and its ideals, they are in the arena. not president trump. as all public servants are trying to make our country a better place, they, particularly those in uniform, deserve all

the credit. a president who is proud that always stood on the sidelines and denigrates them does not serve such credit. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i rise today to honor our veterans and service members. i thank senator reed for his beautiful remarks and his service as well as senator carper and as well as senator duckworth who is leading our efforts today, as she has led for so long. as i listened to my colleagues, i note that many of them were couching these -- coaching their remarks. i can imagine literally john mccain right now walking up and down that aisle, crossing the aisle, working with people. slapping people on the back, how much he loved this place and how much he loved our country. i remember the silent, courageous fortitude of danny

inouye and i remember so many of those that i crossed paths with like senator dole. and i think the reason we talk about that history is because we know that this argument and this cause is based in history. our democracy is based in history. the idea that people serve is based in history. they don't serve for themselves. they serve in the words of senator mccain for a cause larger than themselves. and that's why i picture those that served before us just like our soldiers do when they sign up to serve. the brave men and women who have served in our armed forces represent the best among us, whether you served decades ago or you still wear a uniform today. we owe you a debt of gratitude for your service and sacrifice on behalf of our great nation. all service members and veterans have something in common. wherever they are politically,

they have something in common. and regardless of when and where they served, they have something in common. a deep love of our country and a very real understanding of what it means to serve and sacrifice. and they deserve a commander in chief that loves our country in the same way for the same reasons and has that same deep understanding of why those soldiers signed up to serve. unfortunately, as my colleagues have pointed out, the person currently entrusted to be the commander in chief of our brave service men and women has, according to many, many recent reports, including things he has actually said on tv, has made repeated comments denigrating their service, questioning their judgment, and belittling those who are prisoners of war, who made the ultimate sacrifice in

service to our country. yes,ly never forget what he said about senator mccain when he died, which senator mccain's friend jack reed just recalled. i, too, stood in front of that cell in vietnam with john mccain where he had been held. and when you stand there and you think about the fact that he made the decision to allow others to be released before him, that's courage. what does it say to our service members when a commander in chief cancels a visit to an american cemetery in france because, according to one report, he feared his hair would be ruined by the rain. what does it say as reported in "the atlantic" when he questions the value of paying respects to fallen americans when saying service members killed in service of this country are losers and suckers. what does it say when he expresses contempt for not just john mccain who spent years as

prisoner of war but accuses former president george r.w. bush for being a loser after being shot down as a navy pilot in world war ii. finally, what does it say to our troops when the president refuses to publicly condemn, warn, or even criticize vladimir putin following news reports that russia offered bounties for the killing of members of our armed forces and our coalition partners. our service members are always there for us. and we must be there for them. even when our nation is divided, we must still collectively, collectively reject any attempt to diminish their service. we learned that in a big way after vietnam. i remember standing at one of our serve our troochs events in -- troops events in minnesota a few years ago, and that's when our restaurants and community comes together, sometimes thousands of people, to serve the families of the troops that

are serving overseas a steak dinner, all donated, at the same time the troops are somehow getting the same dinner. it's an extraordinary event. and many of us volunteer to work on the lines. and one day when i was there, there was a vietnam vet, and he was serving up mashed potatoes. and he had a vietnam vet hat on. and i said thank you for your service. and he said, when i came home i was greeted by tomatoes. i don't want this to ever happen to another soldier again. that's why i come here every year to volunteer. and we learned back then that you can have major disagreements about war and war policy, but you do not take it out on the warriors on the front line. sadly right now we have a commander in chief who takes out everything on everyone,

including personal vendettas against people like senator mccain. rather than being silent, rather than being silent as sadly too many have been in reaction to his comments, i think we must stand up. i think the way that we honor their service and sacrifice is being very clear that we condemn the remarks that the president has made. and as i noted and i'll end with this, the last time i saw senator mccain, i was at ranch and he was in his last months of life. my husband and i went there and sat with cindy, with john, and at the very end he was getting tired and he wasn't talking much anymore. and he was having trouble talking anyway. and he pointed at one of his books. and i picked it up. and that's when he pointed without saying the words to that sentence. there's nothing more liberating than life -- in life than

fighting for a cause larger than yourself. that's what unites our troops when they sign up to serve. that's what should unite us in this chamber right now. i urge my colleagues to join in this effort so that our men and women in uniform across the united states and around the world know that we will not remain silent. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i want to start by thanking the senator from minnesota for her remarks just now. i rise with her and to join senator duckworth and our colleagues in responding to the shameful comments that president trump reportedly made about our service members. i want to begin by thanking senator duckworth for leading us in this effort and for her service to our country as i want to thank all of the members of

the united states senate and all of the staff of the united states senate who have served their country and all of their families. one of our nation's greatest strengths is the countless americans who throughout our history have been willing to sacrifice everything to keep us safe and preserve our freedom. in new hampshire we're proud to be home to a high percentage of service members, veterans, and their families. and in my experience people in my state and all across the country revere the bravery and sacrifices of those who serve and those who have served. we may disagree about policy matters, including those that impact when and where service members are deployed, but the respect that we have for service members, veterans, and their families must be undisputed.

mr. president, it's the president's duty to honor the sacrifices of our troops to care for them, to support them and their fallen comrades and the role of the president of the united states is not just limited to being the commander in chief. presidents should also lead by example and represent the values of the american people. unfortunately, president trump has yet again expressed his disdain and lack of understanding of why people sacrifice for our freedom and democracy. this is a failure of leadership, and it is a failure of basic citizenship that is out of step with most americans. mr. president, last year i

joined a bipartisan group of senators to travel to burial grounds in both grans and belgium as we paid our respects to our world war ii fallen service members. it was an honor of a lifetime. it was also deeply personal, as my dad served in the battle of the bulge. standing on those hallowed grounds was a powerful reminder of the loss of war, of those heroes who gave everything to fight against fascism and to protect freedom. we owe these heroes our profound gratitude and our deepest respect. yet when speaking of service members who were killed or captured, the president referred to these heroes as suckers and

losers. for such words to come from the president of the united states is an affront to all that we stand for, and it is beneath the office that he holds. but, unfortunately, these comments were not surprising, given the president's long line of denigrating comments against those who have served, including the late-senator john mccain, gold star families, and other american heroes. mr. president, the resolution that we are introducing today recognizes the unmeasurable debt that we owe to those who have valeantly served our country -- valiantly served our country, as well as their families. and this resolution condemns the repeated disrespect that this president has bestowed upon them. my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have seen the hurtful comments president trump has made about members of our

military. every single one of us who condemn them. mr. president, i will close with this -- my father didn't talk about his service in world war ii very often, but he did talk about his unit, a group of men who came from as diverse backgrounds as our country is large. they had their disagreements, they didn't agree on politics. but they came together every day to win that war. now, of course, they knew that their lives depended on their unity, their cohesion, but they knew something else, too. and this is what my dad always reminded us of.

sometimes at the breakfast table, he would look up at us and say, what are you doing for freedom today? and it was a question he had the right to ask. because he was remembering his unit of men from all over the country, from all different life experiences, who knew that freedom -- their country, our country, the united states of america -- is worth fighting for. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

mr. barrasso: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i come to the floor today, the day before we will be voting on a piece of legislation to deal with relief for people, for a country dealing with coronavirus. i come to the floor today as americans are looking to us, the united states senate, to provide relief in this ongoing battle against this disease. republicans, mr. president, as you well know, are offering a path forward. that's what the american people want. they want a path forward. so tomorrow the senate republicans will move a targeted bill, a bill to help people get back to work, to help kids get back to school, and to deal with and put the disease in the rearview mirror. it's interesting, mr. president, watching all of the things that

unfold in the united states senate in the chamber, that democrats continue to be playing political games. the democrat leaders, in the house as well as the senate, have held up this round of coronavirus relief, just as they held up the last round of coronavirus relief. you say, where is the roadblock? well, i will tell you. senator schumer and speaker pelosi have been the roadblocks to relief for the american public. the speaker has demanded a multitrillion-dollar blank check to pursue their liberal agenda. it's a liberal wish list. no strings attached. you can go through all of the things that she has asked for -- even "the new york times" said it was a liberal wish list, and that's "the new york times" realizing that it wasn't a serious piece of legislation -- and yet just last week when

speaker pelosi was asked about it and all of the things that are in it, she said, we're not budging. her statement -- we're not budging. at the same time you look at what's happening in the country, presidential nominee joe biden seems to be ever-so-slowly coming out of his hiding place in the basement. he just edged out of the basement just a little bit, he said he would shut down the entire country again. that's not what they want in wyoming. that's not what they want in your state, mr. president. that would be a recipe for disaster. that's what the former vice president, the nominee of the democrat party, has said he would do -- shut down the country again. mr. president, we have seen time and time again democrat leaders shrink in the face of adversity.

republicans are facing challenges head-on. it was interesting a couple of weeks ago, mr. president, during the democrat convention, joe biden didn't even mention the violence that was plaguing democrat-run cities all across the country. not a single one of the democrat speakers at their convention mentioned the destruction and the looting and the rioting and the violence. democrat mayors, democrat governors, through their words and their actions, are encouraging that's riots that are destroying our cities. they have surrendered to the left-wing mob and, as a result, violent anarchists rule the streets in a number of the cities run by liberal mayors. in portland, oregon, police officers have been viciously attacked for 100 days. innocent people have been murdered in cold blood.

we have seen small businesses looted, torched, a lifetime of work up in flames. democrat mayors are tying the hands of law enforcement, it appears to me. liberal city officials are defunding the police, calling to defund the police, voting to defund the police, and clearly they refuse to allow the police to do their job. it's an incredibly dangerous situation, mr. president, and it's a complete lack of leadership by democrats. mr. president, republicans would defend, not defund, the police. the burning, the looting, the rioting -- this must stop. people are fleeing the liberal cities, and they want to move to states like ours, mr. president. even some democrat mayors are fleeing their own homes. portland's mayor is moving out of his condo building to escape

the riots. st. louis' mayor has temporarily relocated from her home. and the merit of chicago, interestingly enough, has banned protests on her block -- on her lock -- while doing nothing to protect the rest of the constituents. -- the rest of the cities where the number of fatalities, the number of -- where there is violence and murder are breaking records, all-time high. people expect their leaders to keep them safe. but really the democrats need to get their priorities right. they don't have them right. americans need safety and security so they can get back to a normal routine in their lives. but there really is some good news to report, mr. president. that is both with regard to coronavirus and with regard to the economy. last week "the wall street journal" reported that coronavirus is starting to retreat, that positivity rates fell 40% from july, that

hospitalizations were down 60%, and the good news is researchers are reporting that they are on track to produce a safe, effective vaccine in record time. and as a doctor, i will tell you, this fuel is record time. -- this truly is record time. when i think that it's taken years and years for vaccines to be developed. we're not out of the woods yet. but we're making significant progress and moving ahead at warp speed. that's one of the things that's going object on the floor tomorrow with this vote, as we work to get people back to work and kids back to school and the virus behind us, is more money and effort for testing and for treatment and for vaccine development and distribution. but the economic news is good, mr. president. as joe biden says he was shut down the country again p, this country is opening up and doing remarkably well. the economy added nearly 1.4 million jobs in august alone, 10 million jobs in the last four months, unemployment rate fell

to below 9% -- 8.4%. that's down from a pandemic high of close to 15%. and it's interesting, mr. president, the experts had it all wrong. the experts said that the heading into the fall we'd have an unemployment rate at over 16%. it's now down to 8.4%. i compare it this to the economic recovery that took so long when president obama and vice president biden were running the economy. we had an unemployment rate of over 9% for 30 months in a row. over 9% for over 30 months. this time the unemployment rate, we are already below 9% at 8.4%. so the economy is rebounding. the virus is receding. but still there is hardship around the country and that's why we will tomorrow vote on the floor of the united states senate to deal with the needs of the american people.

yet nancy pelosi and the democrats in congress remain focused on a different agenda. and i believe their misguided priorities will hurt, not help, americans. it's interesting, mr. president, when i listen to the speaker of the house, even over 100 democrats wrote here and openly commented that they should be allowed to vote on a targeted piece of legislation. thee refused to listen to -- she refused to listen to them. but we were home for the last period listening to folks all over my state, your state. what did we hear them say? they said we still need help with p.p.p. so they can continue to make payroll. nancy pelosi says no. chuck schumer says no. they said, we want to get our kids about a being to school so we can go back to work and our kids won't fall so far behind. nancy pelosi has says no and my

concern is that tomorrow chuck schumer will say no as well. people at home said we need the vaccine, we need more testing, more treatments. it sounds like tomorrow the democrats may say no to that as well. but i look at the list of the things that the democrats are proposing. more money for sanctuary cities, direct-payment checks to illegal immigrants, issues relating to immigration and custom enforcement. mr. president, this is the tip of the iceberg. but at the same time with their misplaced priorities, they're blocking justice reform. they did that to the tim scott justice reform bill that every one of the republicans cosponsored, blocked it refused to even allow it to come to the floor for discussion. they're ignoring crime. clearly, mr. president, the left wing of the democrat party has

taken the wheel and has taken a sharp left turn and is headed right off the cliff. the democrats' misguided priorities lie in stark contrast with the republicans' forward-looking plan. targeted coronavirus relief. it is a bill that will help our students, will help our workers, will help our families, will help people with the disease. the senate legislation sensibly extends small business paycheck protection support to help keep people on the payroll. it ensures that we beat the disease with the money that we've talked about, and it gives the schools the tools that they need and continue to need to reopen smartly and safely so our kids won't be left behind. so, mr. president, i come to the floor to say the contrast is clear. what we're hearing from the opposite side of the aisle is empty democrat promises and republicans are delivering on ours. senate republicans are going to

stay focused on governing. we're going to do the job the american people elected us to do. mr. president, the choice could not be clearer. republicans on a path forward or democrats with their ongoing partisan obstruction. so i thank you, mr. president. i appreciate your time, your attention in this critical time as we move forward with a bill that the american public is asking us to pass, that we have republicans supporting, that fills the needs and responds directly to the needs of the american people, and at the same time tomorrow we'll see if the democrats continue to obstruct or work with us on the solution and a path forward for our nation. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: i ask unanimous consent that my remarks be considered as part of a floor bloc that was conducted earlier with senators duckworth and reed and others. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. menendez: i come to the floor today to express support for the resolution introduced by my colleagues, senators duckworth and reed. i thank both of them not only for acting swiftly to defend the honor of our service men and women, but for their distinguished service to our country. both of them veterans themselves. mr. president, by now, we are used to donald trump saying a lot of dishonorable, distasteful, and downright

disgusting things, but there truly is no bottom when it comes to this president, as evidenced in the despicable comments he made about our fallen soldiers, as reported last week by "the atlantic," comments that have since been confirmed by additional reporting from fox news that is normally very supportive of the president and the associated press. he called these heroes, these fallen soldiers suckers and losers. suckers and losers. "the atlantic" reports that while traveling in europe to commemorate the end of world war i back in november of 2018, president trump canceled a scheduled visit to honor those buried at the aisne-marne

american cemetery. he didn't understand why he should bother visiting such a cemetery in the first place. it's filled with losers, he said. can you imagine? can you imagine? and it was on that same trip that president trump referred to our marines who died in battle at belleau wood as suckers for getting killed. suckers for getting killed. losers and suckers, mr. president. those words are hurtful words. they are damaging words. they are words that should never be spoken by a commander in chief. it's unthinkable. it's unforgivable, and i think it's un-american. the same story also recounts the president's visit to arlington cemetery with then-secretary of homeland security john kelly,

himself a gold star father who lost his son robert in 2010 in afghanistan. there, standing over first lieutenant robert kelly's grave, the president of the united states turned to his father and said i don't get it. what was in it for them? what was in it for them? this question captures the very essence of what's so deeply wrong with this president. in other words, why would any american give their life in service to our country? why would anyone do anything if not for fame or fortune? you see, donald trump cannot fathom the idea of serving a cause greater than yourself because donald trump only serves himself. sphe cannot understand why-in

would clooz to live a life of service, why anyone would risk it all to carry our flag on the battlefield. why would anyone put their own life on the line to defend our country, our people, and all that we as americans stand for? since these despicable comments came to light, the white house has bent over backwards to deny them, but once again, too many of our republican colleagues have stood silent, instead of forcefully and unequivocally condemning the president's words, they would rather cower to the quality of donald trump than stand up to those who -- for those who have worn the uniform of the united states. the sad truth is that none of us have had to stretch our imaginations to picture president trump calling our fallen soldiers suckers and losers. because he has repeatedly denigrated our men and women in uniform, and the entire concept of military service.

this is a man who, according to a "new york times" investigation, had his wealthy father reportedly pay off a doctor in order to get a medical deferment from serving in vietnam. a man who spoke out against disabled veterans selling goods on ritzy fifth avenue in new york city. a man who said that our late colleague, senator john mccain, who i was privileged to work with on so many national security issues, was no war hero, no war hero. not something -- not someone who should be praised because he was caught, a prisoner of war, and resisted lowering u.s. flags in his honor. a man who has publicly attacked gold star families and failed to grasp the weight of their sacrifice. a man who when asked about american soldiers injured in the iranian missile attack last

january on al-assad air base in iraq shrugged off traumatic brain injuries as nothing more than a mere headache. and most recently, a man who as commander in chief has done nothing, absolutely nothing in response to revelations that the kremlin was awarding bounties to taliban terrorists for killing u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. the kremlin, russia, giving taliban soldiers a bounty, a premium, a prize, a bonus for killing u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. what message does it send to the children of fallen soldiers when they read that the president called their parents losers and suckers? what message does it send to the young people i will speak with this weekend who i host an add m.i.a. weekend with who are

considering applying to some of our nation's most prestigious military academies? what message does it send to adversaries like vladimir putin to learn that the president of the united states thinks that our service men and women on the ground in afghanistan are suckers for being assassinated by taliban terrorists? mr. president, article 2 of the constitution does not give much instruction when it says that the president shall serve as commander in chief, and yet somehow every president until now has carried out their responsibilities with a reverence for the men and women who serve our country and a sense of gratitude for those who give their lives in defense of our freedoms. let me close with the words of a gold star mother from southern new jersey, camden county

melinda cain's son jeremy cain died in afghanistan more than a decade ago. she wrote i am nauseated to think that the commander in chief of our military would even think to disparage individuals like my son who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to every american. for the parents raising children whose fathers and mothers have given everything to this country, how do they explain president trump's words? these brave americans serve with honor, integrity, and heroism, doing the things that civilians could not and would not do. that said, here we are today in a place we never thought we would be, ensuring the world knows that those who serve our country are heroes. so today i want to say to our service men and women, from the young recruit who just enlisted to the soldier patrolling distant lands to those who wore

the uniform to the loved ones of those who lost a loved one at war, you deserve an apology from your commander in chief. and because you're not likely to get one, i think it's important to say here on the floor of the united states senate, you are not suckers, you are not losers, you're heroes. your families deserve our admiration and support for their sacrifices. and the american people will always value you for bravely bearing our country's cause, even when the president of the united states will not. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: thank you, mr. president. over the past several weeks, i

have had the opportunity to visit with colorado families and businesses across the four corners of our great state. talking about the challenges that colorado faces when it comes to our economy as a result of the pandemic, talking about the health challenges that have been created for our state and so many of us around the world when it comes to the pandemic and the work that needs to be done and the work that this congress needs to do to come together, to stop the partisanship, to stop the fighting, to stop the arguing, and actually develop real solutions for the people of this country. congress has done that time and time again over the past several months. if you go back to march 6, the passage of the coronavirus preparedness and response supplemental appropriations act that was signed into law that day, that's the first action that this chamber took when it came to a coronavirus response. march 18, a couple weeks later,

congress passed the families first coronavirus response act that was passed -- signed into law march 18. these were unanimous bills, many times unanimous consent, but had the support of every republican, every democrat, the work that we were doing was so evident that we needed to do it immediately. march 27, as economies were shutting down, as restaurants were closing, as hotels were closing, congress passed the cares act, the coronavirus aid relief and economic security act, signed into law on march 27. this is when you started to see some of the partisanship that was developing as that bill's passage was delayed here in the senate, but nonetheless it passed, delivering trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars in support for the american people, support for unemployment benefits, creating new categories of help for people who had seen their jobs

eliminateed, furloughed or their hours reduced, support for farmers and ranchers, support for a vaccine, support for education, mass transit, telemedicine, and beyond, trillions of dollars, almost a year's worth of appropriations, a year's worth of funding in one bill to help make sure that we were meeting the needs of the american people. the actions that we take can be focused, at least the way i see it, through three primary lenses. number one, what we are doing to make sure that we are stopping the spread and flattening the curve of coronavirus. number two, making sure that we're helping individuals who are in need, who are worried about how they're going to meet their rent payments, how they're going to make their mortgage, making sure that they are going to be okay. the third filter, the third lens of actions that we need to take go back to our businesses, making sure that they're able to keep people employed, making

sure that they keep their doors open, making sure that our economy can snap back to its full strength and even stronger than ever once the health pandemic is over. we passed the paycheck protection program and health care enhancement act on april 24 to provide additional dollars into the paycheck protection program. we passed legislation that would extend the paycheck protection program into august that changed the way some of the payments are able to be made within that and what expenses could be utilized within that time frame. we passed the great american outdoors act which will great thousands of jobs across the state of colorado, a hundred thousand jobs across this country. and we continue to do more work. there is no alpha and omega legislation when it comes to coronavirus. there is no one single package of legislation that we can walk away from, spike the football and say that our job is done here. we passed one bill, two bills,

three bills, four bills, and we will continue to do more because the american people need it and the american people need that support. i met with a restaurant owner in pueblo, colorado, who talked about the restrictions that they're facing at their restaurant. they can only have 50 people in their restaurant regardless of social distancing. they can only have 50 people in the restaurant. they have a bar in the restaurant but because they're a restaurant, they can only have 50 people. the bar down the road can have a hundred people in it because they're a bar, but the rest restaurant can only have 50 people because they're a restaurant even though they have a bar. they're trying to figure out and understand the regulations, the guidances that they are under, making sure that their customers are safe, making sure that their employees can be paid, making sure that they survive this and get through this. that's what the paycheck protection program represents. that's what the help that we passed with unemployment

benefits means, to help people get through this so that we can get back on our feet as a country. i met with farmers in eastern colorado who were struggling to find help, who couldn't find a laborer they needed, who saw challenges to their prices before coronavirus, saw challenges because of coronavirus to their supply chains and what was happening to the markets. the cares act provided aid and relief to many in agriculture across the state of colorado. but there's more work to be do done. i met with schools across the state of colorado who are trying to open, who are trying to figure out the best way to keep their students safe and their teachers safe and make sure that they can stay open. some were doing online learning. some were doing in-person learning. all of them were trying to figure it out. the cares act and other pieces of legislation that we passed provided billions of dollars for our educational institutions

from kindergarten and 12th grade on up through higher education. billions and billions of dollars. but more work needs to be done. my wife turned to me a couple of weeks ago before our three children started school and said it's time for spring break to end. our kids have been out since spring break in march. just a week ago they did start but there are people and families across the state of colorado who are unsure about whether their classes will continue in person. maybe they never got that far. and so we have to make sure we're providing help with child care, making sure that families have a place they can take their kids while they go to work. in a country where more and more families have both pairntszs in the -- parents in the workplace, it's very difficult to continue that job, to do it effectively when you don't have child care. and we have both a supply problem where we don't have enough places for families to take their kids and we have a demand challenge where we have people who need to take their kids to day cares because our schools aren't open.

the cares act, the legislation we passed, addres addresses thad but there's more work to do i heard from my colleagues across the aisle that they support the paycheck protection program and that they support funding for businesses so that they can keep people employed, so that businesses can hire them and get them returned to work. we made a decision that it's better to have people on the job at the workplace than in the unemployment insurance office. so we passed the paycheck protection program. look at these numbers in colorado. we have a total loan amount of over $10 billion that went to colorado alone to help make sure that businesses were staying open, that they could keep people on payroll, that they could survive the orders to shut down that came from mayors and the states and the president.

we did it out of love for our community to make sure that we can stop the spread, flatten the curve, and get through this together. but we have an obligation as a result to make sure that our economy comes back and that we help those businesses and those individuals through this. to make sure our nation gets back on its feet. the legislation that we passed has done -- part of that. if you look back into may 15, you think about an economy that had lost 20.5 million jobs. unemployment rate as of may 15 was 14.7%. today just a week ago it's 8.4% with more work that needs to be done. i've heard from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle a need to support child care, a need to support education, a

need to support our efforts to get a vaccine, our need to support efforts to continue research, our need to support the post office. i've heard from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle our need to make sure that we have unemployment benefits that continue for the american people, and i completely agree. we should make sure the paycheck protection program continues. we should make improvements to the paycheck protection program, make sure we improve the paycheck protection program so that it benefits more businesses, so that unrepresented communities have better access to the paycheck protection program, that we can get more people involved in unbanked and underbanked communities, nontraditional lenders into those communities so they can get the paycheck protection program out to them so we can save more jobs and put more people to work. i completely agree. let's work together and let's pass that. there are people who aren't as fortunate.

there are people who have lost their jobs. there are people who have seen their hours reduced. and they are terrified about how they're going to make ends meet, about what they're going to do for their job and their family. the bills don't stop. they keep coming and they have to be paid. we should help them. we should pass unemployment insurance benefits. we should pass unemployment benefits to help the american people. let's vote on that. let's do that. let's make it happen. we should help people who need child care. let's make sure we're funding child care. let's pass it. let's pass it tomorrow. let's pass it tomorrow to provide billions of dollars for child care services. we don't have to wait. we can pass it now. we should provide additional assistance to our farmers and ranchers. thank goodness, thank goodness that we have the ability to produce our food in the united states. imagine what would happen if we

were rely -- reliant for 70% of our food on somebody else like china. we've seen what happens in this country when we're reliant on china for our medications, for our personal protective equipment. imagine if we relied on our food to the same extent coming from somewhere else. we're blessed that we have farmers and ranchers who wake up each and every day and work hard to put food on our table. but they're struggling right now so let's help them. we don't have to wait. we don't have to wait for another week, another month. we should pass it. we can vote on it tomorrow, $20 billion for our farmers and ranchers. we should continue our work on vaccines. i had the chance to stop at the university of colorado to visit with dr. tom campbell to learn about the trial that's taking place at the university of colorado school of medicine. they're working with the ma dern that vaccine there -- maderna vaccine there, to make sure it goes to who needs it, a best

example of how we can get the vaccine to work and into our community. we need more hem, we need more -- help, we need more work. let's vote on $31 billion for activities like vaccine developments and distribution. let's make that happen now. $16 billion for testing and related containment efforts. let's build up a personal protective equipment stockpile once again. we know we need it. let's vote on that. let's vote on that tomorrow. $16 billion. let's pass it. $105 billion, that's more money than the house of representatives had passed. $105 billion for education, for k-12, for higher ed. we've heard the need from our teachers. we heard the need from our colleges. let's pass that tomorrow in the bill that we're going to be voting on to provide that help. we don't have to debate. we don't have to delay. we can pass it tomorrow.

and, yes, the post office. i live in rural colorado and my grandfather was a rural letter carrier. a remember as a child traveling with him on country roads, county roads out in houma county delivering mail. let's provide $10 billion to the postal service to make sure they have the resources they need because it matters in rural colorado. we can pass that tomorrow. we're going to have a chance to vote on it tomorrow. let's pass it. let's make it happen. let's get it done now. everything here that we're voting on tomorrow, $105 billion to support students' safe return to in-person learning and educational opportunities, that's in the bill we're going to be voting on tomorrow. $105 billion, that's more than the house of representatives had asked for. $16 billion for testing and related containment efforts. that's in the bill. let's vote on that tomorrow. $31 billion for activities like vaccine development and distribution, $20 billion in farm assistance, $15 billion to support child care services,

changes to the paycheck protection program that will allow for a second loan. i meant with restaurateurs across colorado, in denver who said the paycheck protection program kempt them in business. i met with -- kempt them in business. i met with mother pearl, a kay january rest -- kajun -- cajun restaurant where they said this saved them. they're still struggling. they're not up to full capacity yet. let's give them a chance to get a second paycheck protection so this can he keep their employees and paid and get through this. people have $150,000 or less have certain and clarity about what is going to happen to that loan. if you look at colorado, the vast majority of the loans that represent $10.5 billion in paycheck protection loans, 95,000 loans were below $150,000

in colorado. 95,000 businesses could have certainty that their loan is forgiven. let's pass that. let's pass that tomorrow. that's in the bill. enhanced unemployment benefits of $300 per week. the state could contribute an additional $100 up to $400 per week lasting through december at the end of this year. we can pass that tomorrow. it's in the bill. $10 billion in assistance to the post office. it's in the bill. now, every single point that we have made here is supported by my colleagues. they want money for education. we're giving more money to education than the house of representatives passed. they want dollars for testing. they want dollars for vaccine and distribution. they want dollars and help and support for farm assistance. they want dollars for child care. they want dollars for the paycheck protection program. they want to keep businesses open and people employed and people hired. they want to help people and businesses have more certainty

and how their loans are going to be handled. they want additional unemployment benefits for the american people and they want help for the post office. there's not a single person who has come to the floor and said i oppose money for higher education. they haven't done that because they agree. they agree with this. they agree with the testing and the research and the vaccines. they agree with support for child care. they agree that we need to do it. now maybe somebody wants more. we've passed one, to, three, four, five, six -- this could be the fifth, sixth or seventh bill depending on how you count the various pieces of legislation that have gone toward coronavirus relief. we will do more. and we should do more. but why on earth would you vote no tomorrow and tell the people

of this country to go pound sand because you didn't get everything you wanted. tell the people who are on unemployment benefits that need it now that i'm sorry, i didn't get a tax deduction for wealthy people in california or new york so you're not getting yours. why would you tell the people who need the dollars in education to support our kids and our teachers, i'm sorry, you're not getting yours because somebody has a nice house in los angeles that needs a tax cut. why would you tell businesses that they may not be able to keep their doors open because that house in manhattan is really nice and i want to make sure they keep their big house tax deduction. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would have you believe that the american people can wait.

they can wait for unemployment benefits. they can wait for more help for businesses. they would have you believe that they don't need to vet yes on this, even though they agree with it. the american people expect us to do our jobs. the american people have the chance to see this congress work not in a bipartisan fashion tomorrow but in a nonpartisan fashion, getting back to the very beginning of the work we did together to pass legislation to benefit and help the american people who acted out of love to stop their economies because they wanted to stop the spread of coronavirus. they shut their businesses, their hotels emptied out, all because they were complying with efforts to socially distance to

end this pandemic. we have a chance tomorrow to vote on a bill that will provide unemployment benefits, that will help people in farm and ranch communities, that will provide them with billions of dollars in aid. but the they're saying no because they didn't get everything. their theory seems to be, if i can't get everything i want, you don't get anything, period. is that -- is that the message the american people are going to get tomorrow, that it's their way or the highway? you're not going to get the help that everybody agrees on because i just didn't get everything that i thought they should. look, our family business is a

farm equipment dealership. i've talked about it many times on this floor. i've never seen somebody come into that dealership and said, my tractor is broken. i'd like a republican to fix it. or my planter needs repaired, could you please find a democrat to fix it? that's not the way people come into the store, in our economy and do business. they don't go into target or walmart that way. they don't go into that restaurant in pueblo or colorado springs or denver and say, could you serve me the republican meal today made by a democrat cook? they expect us to get the job done. there are some in this chamber who argue that we just delay a little bit longer, we'll put a big, big, big package together.

vote tomorrow. bring amendments. have the debates. the don't hide behind closed doors. and argue that if we just hold out a little bit longer, then maybe my tax cuts will come for that house, that mansion in billion every hills, that place in the hamptons. because that's what they're doing. that's what they're doing to the american people. they are saying that even though we agree, because we didn't get our way, no one gets their help. no one gets the help they need because they didn't get their way on everything. tomorrow's vote isn't a final vote, by any means. and even if it were, there's more work to be done.

we would have additional pieces of legislation that we will continue to provide relief with. but tomorrow is the beginning of the debate. it's the first step in making sure that we have that for the american people. and they're going to say no? they're going to vote no? they're afraid to debate? they won't even bring amendments? the paycheck protection program has served millions of jobs -- as saved millions of jobs around the country. we have a chaens to extend it -- we have a chance to extend it to make it work for more people. unemployment insurance has expired. and, look, we worked over august to make sure we had an extension of unemployment insurance and unemployment benefits for the people of colorado and this country. the payroll tax breaks, help with rent over the last several

weeks. but we need to act to extend it. we have a chance to vote on it tomorrow. vote yes and we can provide that relief. vote no and you're telling the american people that politics is more important than policy, and that's wrong. if this chamber is interested, if this body is interested in resulting in policy -- in rums in policy, they'll -- in results in policy, they will vote yes to this legislation that everybody agrees to. the politics of pandering and partisanship some people find way too intriguing, vine i thinking, and a-- inviting and alluring. the american people find it sickening. vote yes. get on this bill. bring your amendments.

have the debate. but let the american people know that relief is on the way. or vote no and continue this shameless charade of people who posture about helping the american people but are simply interested in the electoral outcome. because this vote is going to tell us a lot about people tomorrow. this vote is going to tell us about people who are interested in finding that way to relief for the american people. the opportunity is here. or is it going to be simply a chance to provide yet one more grandstand, yet one more finger-wagging, tongue-wagging opportunity for the american people to see how embarrassing the debate has become?

mr. president, the people of colorado are strong. they're resilient, they're optimistic. they see optimism in every veil and valley, as they work to climb that next peak. but they need partners and help. and tomorrow we have a chance to vote to provide that help. do not be fooled by arguments that it does not do enough because we will do more, and we will do more. but let's start with the unemployment benefits now. let's start with the business help now to keep people employed. let's start with the vaccines and the research now. let's start with the help for education now. without delay. tomorrow i hope the outcome is a surprise, and i hope that we

will see people come together in a way that we saw at the beginning of this debate. there's always more to be done. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that a letter i wrote on april 16 with my colleague, senator bennet, and the governor asking for more to be done be entered in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: we talked about other programs including additional benefits for food nutrition. i still support that. i'm still fighting for that. i still want to do those things we listed in this letter. but i'm not going to let that stop me from voting yes tomorrow. because the american people need it. so i hope that my colleagues will stop the partisanship, stop the gamesmanship, stop the power-hungry approach to politics. put it aside for the american

people. do what's right for the american people. vote yes. i'm delivering this critically important relief for our country so that we can stand united as our country has stood for months united. to get through this together. mr. president, in the weeks before the economy shut down and we could no longer go to church in person, we were reviewing a passage in the bible that said, out of our struggles and tribulations comes perseverance. and out of that perseverance is built character. and out of that character comes hope. we can provide that hope tomorrow. the american people deserve nothing less. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. gardner: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from colorado. mr. gardner: i ask unanimous consent that is not withstanding the provisions of rule 22, the senate vote on confirmation of the jarbou, cullen and gujarati nominations tomorrow and that the cloture motion with respect to the motion concower with 2652 to the house amendment 6178 ripen following the disposition of the gujarati nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. thursday, september 10, further, following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. further, following leader remarks, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the jarbou nomination under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. gardner: if there is no further business to come before

the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the statistic? ands adjourned until

the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: anyone watching the senate yesterday saw another installment in