have in the private sector, coded they in a single area, classroom breakdown session or whatever, and given the specialized curriculum this needed for dyslexic, that would not be something for something for the non- dyslexics brightest of focus your resources were needed. but, if you have a child that has the concentration students in your testing to the weakness with a high-stakes test, they going to do poorly because one, they been selected for being poor readers. >> were going to leave this confirmation hearing for the nominee they entered the u.s. senate is just about to come in. then they will be voting on the nomination later today at 530 eastern printed earlier the senate judiciary committee approved the nomination of merrick garland, the u.s. attorney general now like to the senate floor "c-span2".

the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, who commands the morning to appear, we place our trust in you. lord, you keep us from

dishonor. continue to show our lawmakers the path where they should walk. point them to the right road. when they have doubts remove their uncertainty with your wisdom. when they have fears, remind them that you are their refuge and strength. when they experience failure, strengthen them to rise again. lord, lead them by your truth and teach them how to honor you. we pray in your matchless name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance

to our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the president pro tempore: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. pursuant to s. res. 29, the secretary of the senate-elect will now present herself at the desk to take the oath of office. do you solemnly swear that you will support and defend the constitution of the united states against all enemies,

foreign and domestic, that you bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which you are about to enter, so help you god? the president pro tempore: the secretary of the senate: i do. the president pro tempore: congr atulations, madam secretary. mr. schumer: mr. president. the president pro tempore: the majority leader. mr. schumer: it's a proud day

for the senate, and i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 78, submitted earlier today. the president pro tempore: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 78, notifying the president of the united states of the election of the secretary of the senate. the president pro tempore: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? hearing none, so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the president pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of senate res. 79 submitted earlier today. the president pro tempore: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 79 notifying the house of representatives of the election of the secretary of the senate. the president pro tempore: is there objection to proceeding to the amendment?

hearing none, the senate shall proceed. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the president pro tempore: without objection,so ordered. mr. schumer: mr. president. the president pro tempore: the majority leader. mr. schumer: mr. president, we begin this week on an outstanding note welcoming an outstanding individual to begin serving as the secretary of the senate, ann berry from the office of one senator patrick leahy. the position of the secretary of the senate dates back to april 8, 1789, just two days after the senate achieved its first quorum. today, one day after the conclusion of black history month and on the first day of women's history month, ann berry was just sworn in as the first black woman to ever serve as secretary of the senate.

another glass ceiling broken. it's a testament to her outstanding career as a public servant of the highest caliber. over her 40 years in washington, ann has come to know the ins and outs of the senate better than just about anybody else who works in the capitol complex. she came to washington a proud native of birmingham, alabama, and a graduate of north alabama university to work for senator howell heflin. clearly word got around about her talents because over the course of her career she went to work for senators carper, edwards, moynihan, jones, and most recently as senator leahy's deputy chief of staff where she was as indispensable resource not only to senator leahy's office, but to my team and to countless other senators. i want to thank senator leahy for parting with ann and lending her considerable talents to the full senate. he told me he regretted her going, but he was so glad that

the senate had seen her talents. and thank you, ann. thank you for accepting this incredible responsibility. congratulations on beginning your historic tenure. and we all wish you the best as you work to bring this great institution to life. as we all welcome ann to her new role, the senate bids a fond farewell to julie adams and mary jones. over the last six years julie adams and mary jones have served as secretary and assistant secretary of the united states senate with impeccable skill and unflappable professionalism. both are long-term veterans of washington. julie worked for many years under leader mcconnell and first lady laura bush while mary served in the white house under president george h.w. bush. and as i remember, because i was, i guess chairman or

ranking member -- i can't recall which, maybe both -- as staff director of the senate rules committee, rules and administration committee where she did just a great job. both of them are friendly and familiar faces around here in the senate. both have earned the respect here in the senate of just about everyone who has worked with them. of course julie and mary deserve special praise for their leadership over the last 12 months. as a global pandemic forced the senate to adapt in new ways, they kept the senate functioning in the midst of this historic crisis and in the wake of the horrific attacks on january 6. julie and mary were heroic, heroic in getting the senate back on its feet only a few hours after the violence had been quelled. to julie and mary, thank you. thank you for all you have done.

the entire senate wishes you and your families the very best, and we look forward to seeing what the road ahead holds for both of you. now on senate business, mr. president pro tempore, the senate will have a busy week ahead of it. today and tomorrow the senate will confirm two more members of president biden's cabinet -- dr. miguel a. cardona to serve as secretary of education, and governor gina raimondo to serve as commerce secretary. the senate will confirm dr. cecilia elena rouse to serve as the chair of the council of economic advisors. another history making pick will be the first black official to head that department. all three nominees are exceptionally well qualified. all have received bipartisan support in their respective committees, including a unanimous vote in favor of dr. rouse. as we continue the fight against

the pandemic on all fronts, in particular the damage it has caused our schools and our economy, these nominees will have a difficult and important task ahead of them. it will be very good news once we have them confirmed and on the job. the senate will then return to the american rescue plan. comprehensive legislation that will help us crush the virus, recover our economy, and get life back to normal. defeating the pandemic is national priority number one. getting our schools to reopen as safely and quickly as possible, helping small businesses hang on until the economy can come roaring back, keeping teachers and firefighters and other essential employees on the job, providing aid to the jobless, food to the hungry, direct cash payments to millions of americans struggling, struggling with the cost of rent, groceries, medicine and utilities, speeding the

distribution of the vaccine which is the cornerstone to ending this awfully dark chapter in american history. that's what our country needs and that's what the american rescue plan will achieve. to paraphrase franklin roosevelt, we must do the first things first. last week the legislation passed in the house of representatives. this week the senate will take up the measure. let me say that again -- the senate will take up the american rescue plan this week. i expect a hardy debate and some late nights, but the american people sent us here with a job to do, to help the country through this moment of extraordinary challenge, to end through action the greatest health crisis our country has faced in a century. and that's just what we're going to do. now on another matter entirely, madam president, voting rights. the story of american democracy

is a long and messy one, full of contradictions and halting progress. it was a century and a half after our founding before women got the right to vote, another half century before african americans could enjoy the full rights of citizenship. it took mighty movements, decades of fraught political conflicts to achieve even those basic dignities and establish the united states as a full democracy worthy of the title. but any american who thinks that today in 2021 that that fight is over, that the fight for voting rights is over is sorely and unfortunately sadly mistaken. in the wake of the most recent election, an election that the former president has repeatedly lied about and claimed was stolen, more than 253 bills in 43 states have been introduced to tighten voting rules under

the pernicious, nasty guise of election integrity. in iowa, the state legislature voted to cut early voting by nine days. polls will close an hour earlier. and they voted to tighten the rules on absentee voting, which so many -- the elderly, the disabled, the frail -- depend on. in wisconsin, republican lawmakers is proposed limiting ballot drop boxes to one per municipality. a municipality of hundreds of thousands and a tiny one get the small one. i wonder why. i wonder why. in arizona, one republican legislator wants to pass a law allowing the state legislators legislators -- listen to this, madam president -- to ignore the results of the presidential election and determine their own slate of electors. one legislator in arizona wants to pass a law allowing state legislators to ignore the

results of the presidential election and determine their own slate of electors. that doesn't sound like democracy. that sounds like dictatorship. the most reprehensible of all efforts might be found in georgia where republicans have introduced a bill to eliminate all early voting on sundays, a day when black churches sponsor get out the vote drives known as souls to the polls. we have supposedly, supposedly come a long way since african americans in the south were forced to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to be allowed to vote, but it's very difficult to look at the specific laws proposed by republican legislatures around the country designed to limit voter participation in heavily african american and hispanic areas to lower turnout and frustrate election administration in urban districts and near college campuses, to gerrymander the districts, to limit minority representation with, quote,

almost surgical precision, to specifically target and thwart black churches from organizing voting drives. it is difficult, very difficult not to see the tentacles of america's generation-old caste system typically associated with slavery and jim crow stretching into the 21st century and poisoning the wellspring of any true democracy, free and fair elections. we see a lot of despicable things these days, but nothing, nothing seems to be more despicable than this. when you lose an election in a democratic society, you update your party platform, appeal to more voters. you don't change the rules to make it harder for your opponents to vote, especially not african americans, hispanics, native americans, and other voters who have been historically disenfranchised. that response is toxic to

democracy, and indeed the very opposite of democracy. make no mistake, these despicable discriminatory, antidemocratic proposals are on the move in state legislatures throughout america. they must be opposed by every american, democrat, republican, independent, liberal, conservative, moderate who cherishes our democracy. this is just -- it's incredible what they are trying to do, incredible. we must do everything we can to stop it. i yield the floor. i don't yield the floor yet. mr. schumer: madam president, i understand there are two measures at the desk due for a

second reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. the clerk will read the titles of the bills for the second time. the clerk: s. 461, a bill to create a point of order against legislation modifying a number of -- the number of justices of the supreme court of the united states. senate joint resolution 9, proposing an amendment to the constitution of the united states to require that the supreme court of the united states be composed of nine judges. mr. schumer: madam president, in order to place the bills on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding en bloc. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bills will be placed on the calendar. mr. schumer: i yield the floor.

mr. mcconnell: madam president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: once again, n communities across my home state of kentucky are enduring the aftermath of very severe weather. from east to west, heavy rains have drenched the commonwealth. sadly, some of the hardest hit areas were still in the midst of trying to recover from last month's dangerous ice and snow. emergency crews, first responders, and now the kentucky national guard are continuing to work around the clock to prevent this bad situation from becoming entirely tragic. an entire nursing home was evacuated as a safety

precaution. a feet of water, submerged vehicles, and caused power outages in calloway county. wolf county firefighters followed the light of a cell phone and saved a family of five who had been trapped in their car. once again, kentucky's brave first responders are stepping up at a time of need. we're all grateful for their dedicated efforts and praying for their safety. all kentuckians can help the first responders by continuing to follow the recommendations of local emergency personnel. so my team and i are closely monitoring the situation and we will be ready to assist however we can. now, on another matter, at about 2:00 on saturday morning, house democrats rammed through the bonanza of partisan spending they are calling a pandemic rescue package. only democrats voted for it. both republicans and democrats

voted against it. last year, under a republican senate and a republican administration, congress passed five historic coronavirus relief bills, five of them. not one of the five bills got fewer than 90 votes in the senate or less than about 80% over in the house. but alas, this time, democrats have chosen to go a completely partisan route. even famous liberal economists and liberal editorial boards are saying their half-baked plan is poorly targeted to what families need. so we have gone from passing covid relief with 80% and 90% bipartisan supermajorities last year to the speaker of the house ramming this through with just 50.7% of the house on friday night. the bill contains all kinds of liberal spending on pet projects with no relationship whatsoever to pandemic relief.

now, remember, we're almost to the one-year anniversary of a leading house democrat admitting they see this whole crisis as, quote, a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision, end quote. so sorry to all the american families who have just been hoping to get their jobs back, their schools back, and their lives back. democrats are more interested in some restructuring. that's why only 1%, madam president, 1% of this huge package goes directly to vaccinations, 1% for vaccinations. that's why it proposes another 12-digit sum for federal funding for k-12 schools even though science tells us schools can be made safe right now. about 95% of that funding won't even go out this fiscal year. 95% of the school funding in

this bill won't go out this year, and this is an emergency package? that's why they are pushing economic policies that would drag down our recovery. like the house votes for a one-size-fits-all minimum wage policy that would kill 1.4 million jobs or continue to pay laidoff workers a premium to stay home that would extend well into a recovery where job growth and rehiring would be pivotal. whenever their long-term liberal dreams come into conflict with what americans actually need right now, democrats decided their ideology should win out. well, madam president, it didn't have to be this way. we could have built more practical policies to help the american people move forward. some senate republicans literally went down to the white house and proposed that both sides work together like we did five times last year. the administration declined. so this is where we are.

a bad process, a bad bill, and a missed opportunity to do right by working families. now, one final matter. last weekend brought disconcerting headlines for the supporters of freedom and democracy in asia. in burma, the military junta's month-long coup turned bloody. 18 protesters have been murdered and at least a thousand civilian officials have been imprisoned on farcical grounds. over in hong kong, china's puppet regime arrested 47 democracy advocates including some who helped draw millions to the streets in peaceful protests in 2019 and are now holding them without bail. unfortunately, in both places, this sort of repression has become a familiar part of life, and it could be a dark review of developments elsewhere if the free world does not act. even as burma's civilian

government made history in 2015, the military made clear it would keep using cronyism and constitutional manipulation to obstruct real popular control. in last year's election, the people overwhelmingly demanded true democracy and economic transparency. but that also raised the risk for those working publicly to make permanent reforms. the military's detention spree has hit burma's civilian leaders, including people like miah hai, a long-time smim pro-democracy leader. it has also broken up some of the long-time reformers fighting corruption. brave men like bobo ney who spent years locked away inside burma's prison in the 1980's and 1990's, built a successful life abroad and returned to help the civilian government craft economic reforms. madam president, i ask unanimous

consent that this "washington post" article detailing his story be included at this point in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: even foreign nationals have been subjected to unjustified detention. the borld is closely watching the case of sean turnell, an australia scholar who spent years helping burman leaders unlock his economic potential. the administration has been right to condemn the junta and to consult with congress on an appropriate response. but as burma's protesters begin to pay the ultimate price for speaking out, the united states must make it clear that military and police officials will face crippling costs of their own. this should include the military-owned holding companies which have deep roots in burma's economy. it's time to lead an international effort to support the people of burma. it's also time to strengthen our calls for an international response to china's shameless

human rights abuses, beginning with hong kong. another round of arrests in the last several days has sent a new wave of student activists to prison with no due process. they join veteran pro-democracy reformers like my friends martin lee and jimmy ly who were already rounded up. the united states cannot outsource our moral authority in championing democracy around the world. when we stay silent, the voice of the international community is channeled through forums where the most notorious human rights abusers preside over their own trial. the ironically named u.n. human rights council boasts a membership including such paragons of virtue as the russian federation which has begun sentencing citizens to prison for nonstate-sanctioned religious beliefs. oh, and venezuela whose rap sheet the state department spells out as arbitrary

detention, forced disappearances, and extra judicial killings. and cuba whose government exports repressive tools to countries like venezuela. and of course the people's republic of china itself where the hypocrisy stretches from repression in hong kong to internment and torture of the uighur people in xinjiang. the biden administration has advised -- has advertised a foreign policy focused on human rights and democracy and quite publicly announced its intention to rejoin the u.n. human rights council. well, fine. let burma and hong kong and xinjiang and belarus betest to this approach of the council, but the white house must not put much trust for this institution. we should be uniting like-minded democracies. panels are either unwilling or unable to take. with respect to hong kong, the

prior administration took several concrete steps, from closing p.r.c. investment loopholes in hong kong to imposing targeted sanctions. now is the time for the biden administration to show its resolve as it confronts serious tests of its own. 6 mr. mcconnell: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. mr. mcconnell: i withhold.

mr. tuberville: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from alabama. mr. tuberville: i ask unanimous consent to delete the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. tuberville: madam president, i rise today to speak on the senate floor for the first time as a united states senator from the great state of alabama. i want to share some thoughts on how we can work together as a

team to improve the lives of our constituents and to provide more opportunity for the next generation of americans. but before i begin, i want to take a moment to thank the people of alabama. for the last two years i have traveled the state from mobile to muscleshoals, from wiregrass to lake gunesville, i talked to folks from all walks of life. mostly i listened, which is something we can all do better. i listened to people's hopes and listened to their concerns. i heard what they thought was going right in our country and state and what they thought was going wrong. even after being a football coach my entire career, working day and night running for the senate was still the hardest thing i've ever done, but i enjoyed every minute. in the end, i asked the people of alabama to trust me with the responsibility of representing them here in washington, and

they did. it's humbling, it's an opportunity to serve my country that i respect, cherish, and i always honor. my staff and i will work hard every day to live up to that trust. madam president, like you, my constituents sent me to washington to represent them and to help make their lives better. i recognize we all have our differences, but we are all on the same team. we have an oofnsd defense -- offense and defense, but at the end of the day we're on the same team. one thick we can do to -- thing we can do to create more opportunity for more people. i've been an educator, coach, and mentor to people for 40 years. i recruited 18-year-old and 19-year-olds from all over the country and all walks of life. i saw how they lived. i was a father figure to hundreds of young men who had

one or no parents. i coached young people from all backgrounds, rich, poor, and everybody in between. i mentored all people -- people of all races, religions, and economic backgrounds. as someone who had a chance to travel across the country in this globe for my career, i've seen how other people lived. wung thing i learned is that education is the key to freedom. the key to freedom, freedom throif the life you want. i've seen first hand how education can give you a leg up and a way out. it's a way to achieve the american people. when we empower our young people with a quality education, we give them the gift of an opportunity, the greatest gift our country can give our citizens. what i found out as a coach when people are given the opportunity to better themselves, they usually take it.

i think i can safely say i have been in more public schools than any senator ever. too often i found that we are failing our young people by not providing the quality education they deserve. it's not about money. it's about people. it's about what we value and what we teach. improving education in this country should be one of, if not the top priorities, we have. that's why i'm proud to be a new member of the senate health, education, labor and pension. we need to work together to recognize that parents and teachers know how to best educate our young people in their community because we are all different. the federal government does not need to get in to tell parents in alabama how to teach their kids. we don't need a one size fits all education curriculum. what works in san francisco will not necessarily work in alabama.

second, we should recognize that education takes many forms. not every student in america needs to go to a four-year college or university. to ensure our country remains competitive in the 21st century, we need to promote stem education to those students who have an interest in math and science, but to remain strong this country also needs welders, plumbers, nurses, equipment operators, electricians, and craftsmen. these jobs have excellent pay and great fiewrts. if the -- futures. if the democrats want to pass a massive infrastructure bill, they must first ask who's going to build it. that's why i'll be looking for any opportunity to support career technical programs that prepare skilled workers. our goal should be to restore america to a country that makes things again.

and, number three, we've got to start teaching our young people moral values again. that starts with putting god and prayer back in our schools. our kids need structure and they need to learn right from wrong. i've watched everything that has happened in education in the past few decades from a front-row seat on the sideline as a coach, it's embarrassing, as a person who chooses to spend their career in education, i now have the opportunity to say something as a united states senator. our young people are our number one hope for this country's future. if we don't recognize that, we're going to lose our country as we know it. as of 2018, the united states is 13th in the world for reading, 18th for science, and we are 36th in the world for math. that's unacceptable. this country was built on hard work. it was built on competition,

whether it's business or individual. education and athletics teaches you how to compete, how to grit, determination, and to work together as a team. now you can learn everything you want from books but if you don't learn to per veer and compete -- persevere and compete, it's hard to succeed. some people in this country think you are owed something simply because you live in the united states of america. this country doesn't owe you a job or a paycheck. this country only owes you one thing, and that's an opportunity. what's great about this sunt is -- country is that it also gives you the opportunity to fail, and that might sound a little funny coming from a football coach that spent his entire career trying to win. but here in this country, if you fail, this country will give you a chance to get off your feet and try to succeed again and again. you don't get that opportunity in most countries on god's green

earth. that being said, i appreciate the opportunity to serve with chairwoman murray and ranking member burr. and i look forward to getting down to work and returning education to one of our top priorities. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of education, miguel a. cardona, of connecticut, to be secretary.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, back in 2017, before anyone had ever heard of covid-19, our republican colleagues could hardly vote fast enough for a $1.9 trillion tax bill. most of the benefits of that bill went to the wealthiest

people in america. $1.9 trillion in tax cuts, most of it to ultrawealthy and large corporations, and of course there is little talk about the deficit and the debt when that was going on. now we're in the midst of a pandemic and covid-19 has killed more han half a million americans. americans are hurting. our economy is hurting. millions are unemployed. and our friends across the aisle are asking how little we can get away with doing at this moment in time. they want to know how much we can cut from president joseph biden's american rescue plan. can we cut money to open schools? can't we just wait? let's just wait and see what happens. that's their question. how about cutting funds to help families from losing their homes. how about cutting the funds for vaccination sites. how low can we go?

$1.9 trillion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, no problem. a president who denies the truth about a pandemic as it rages across america, no problem. but when americans elect a new president with a mandate and a plan to finally break the back of this pandemic, get our economy back on its feet, get our kids back in schools, and actually help american families, suddenly a lot of folks on the other side of the aisle have lost interest. do you remember last year? i do. we discovered this covid-19 and started to worry about it, as we should. and in march of last year we passed a bill that cost almost $2 trillion, the largest spending bill in the history of the united states under president trump and it got 96 votes in the senate. 96 votes. every democrat and every

republican senator who voted voted for it and i was one of them. did i stop asay wait a minute, president trump may get credit for this? no. we had an american crisis, a challenge, and we needed to respond to it. and then what happened in december of last year while president trump was still in office? the second covid-19 rescue plan came through, some $900 billion. i was one of those who was part of drawing it up, and i voted for it. no questions asked. we were still in the midst of a pandemic. an the economy was flat on its back. and i didn't care that donald trump was still president. there was work to be done for america. 92 senators voted for that. 96 in march. 92 in december under president trump. well, how many republican senators are now stepping up to help us with the american rescue

plan that president biden has proposed? i'm still waiting. none so far. now it's become a partisan exercise to talk about dealing with the real pandemic and economic crisis of this country. what's going on in this chamber? have we decided now since we have a new president of a different political faith that the other side cannot support efforts to increase the amount of money for vaccines and distribution across america, to send a cash payment to families that are struggling to get by, to give unemployment benefits to millions of americans where those benefits are scheduled to run out in just two weeks? all we hear from the other side, you know, we may be overspending here. we a should have thought of this -- we should have thought of this before. yes, you should have and you didn't under a republican president. now it's become an issue.

a year ago at the beginning of the pandemic, 96-0 for a $2 trillion covid relief plan. maybe if we had had an administration that wisely panged the covid response we wouldn't have been in that mess. maybe if we had had a president who for the first year of this coronavirus wasn't making up stories that it's going to go away, it will disappear by easter, it won't be a problem if everybody would just take a shot of lie sol, -- lie sol, a new -- lysol, a new chemical my friends have discovered. remember that? remember those press conferences? what was going on while the last president was ignoring the reality that the covid-19 pandemic, america was getting sick and americans were dying. we have 5% of the world's population and 20% of the covid-19 deaths. what's going on here? and a great nation like america?

well, for a year we didn't get it together because we didn't have a president who accepted reality. now we have a president who accepts reality and wants to do something about it. he was elected to lead and he wants to lead. where is the republican support? democrats were there for the trump plan. the republicans aren't there for the biden plan. we wasted time and resowrses -- resources but now president biden wants to turn it around. the american rescue plan proposed by president biden and passed by the house of representatives last week without a single republican vote, no republican support for it, has support of 80% of the american people. overwhelming majority of democrats and independents, even republicans. it turns out the only people in america who are against this approach of taking this pandemic

seriously are the republicans in the house of representatives and apparently in the senate. every day this senate delays passing the biden america rescue plan, more small businesses close their doors. workers lose their jobs. parents turn to food banks and soup kitchens to feed their families. and more and more families face homelessness. one provision that was included in the house version of the american rescue plan will not be part of the senate plan, and that is a gradual increase in the federal minimum wage. now, i understand the rules in the senate, particularly when it comes to reconciliation as conceived by the late senator robert c. byrd are almost impossible to understand and to defend. i get it. i'm not blaming any one person for that. that's a reality. and i've been here foe a while andive -- for a while and i've seen it. so currently we cannot offer the federal minimum wage under the

so-called reconciliation bill because of the byrd rules. our senate parliamentarian ruled last week that passing a federal minimum wage increase as part of the rescue plan is not permitted under those rules. i respect the parliamentarian's judgment. i may disagree and be disappointed but i respect her judgment. our republican friends should know this, however, senate democrats aren't going to give up on raising the minimum wage. the issue is not going away. you know how long it's been since we raised the minimum wage in america? 12 years. 12 years. the presiding officer knows that. that's the last time we increased the federal minimum wage. 28 states have done something about it but 22 have not. and we don't have a change in the federal law. that is the longest that our nation has ever gone without raising the minimum wage since congress created that wage in

1938. during this pandemic billionaires, people like jeff bezos, elon musk, bill gates, mark zuckerberg, they've done pretty well. they've seen their net worth increase by billions, even tens of billions of dollars. how about middle-class families? what do they see? they see their savings dwindle and their -- they find it almost impossible to make ends meet. fortunately, as i said, many states are acting. washington does not. 29 states including illinois, the state minimum wage is higher than the federal minimum wage. the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. in illinois our state minimum wage is set to reach $15 an hour by 2025, just like the biden plan. most states that have increased their minimum wage have done so because their state legislatures have come to the rescue.

some states like missouri and arkansas wage the minimum wage by ballot measures. i see senator leahy has come to the floor from vermont. remember we used to have a colleague back there in the back row who would stand up and bellow about the minimum wage? his name was ted kenny from massachusetts. he didn't let a month go by or two months go by without reminding us that a lot of people were struggling to get by in this country and we sit here in washington ignoring it. and that's why he would push for an increase in the minimum wage. we're told that $15 an hour is exorbitant by some, that it's going to hurt the economy. the truth is just the opposite. raising the federal minimum wage gradually to $15 an hour will strengthen the american economy because minimum wage workers are most likely to spend the money they get on the necessities of life, as soon as they get it. food, clothing, housing.

last week one of our republican colleagues gave a speech and said that he worked for $6 an hour when he was a kid. and he's opposed to the $15 an hour minimum wage. well, if you took that six bucks when he was -- just matched it with inflation, it would be up over $15 an hour today. reminiscing about the good old days of $6 an hour is only done by people who don't have to live on $6 an hour. contrary to popular misconceptions, most minimum wage workers are not tabliers, according to the economy policy -- economic policy institute, 59% of workers who would benefit from the federal minimum wage are women. women. they're taking a beating in this pandemic. staying home to watch the kids who can't go to school, trying to deal with day care that's closed down, losing their own jobs. that's the reality. many mothers, two-thirds of them

are the sole or primary bread winners of their family count on the minimum wage. nearly one in four workers who would receive a raise under $15 minimum wage are black or latino women. during this pandemic america has relied on minimum-wage workers to do theard work and dangerous work in the pandemic. you want to know the real pandemic heroes? you want to reduce poverty and raise opportunity in america? pay workers a living wage. allow workers to share the economic prosperity they are creating with their dedication and labor. madam president, at this moment we may not have a path but i hope we can find one. it is time for us to raise the minimum wage, to give the american workers the real wage they need to survive and to show that we really do value the dignity of work. i yield the floor. mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the

senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i want to associate myself with the words of the distinguished deputy leader. his -- nobody has said it better. nobody could. but in the meantime, we've got to get up and vote. madam president, i'm going to put in a quorum call for just a minute and i'll take it off. i subject the absence of a quorum -- i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. leahy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i ask consent the call of the qurm be dispensed with -- of the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. leahy: madam president, earlier this month, actually for the first time in our -- or earlier last month i should say, in february, for the first time in our nation's history, the senate convened as a court of impeachment to try former president for high crime and misdemeanor. and for five days every member of the senate was here to hear presentations and arguments from

an extraordinarily talented group of congressmen and congress women represented in the house of representatives. we also heard from counsel for former president donald trump. after listen respecting to the compelling evidence presented by the house managers option i, i voted to convict president trump for inciting the capitol rye outs on january 6. i'll should have a lot more to say about my vote to convict the former president at in a later statement. today though i'm going to speak about the unique role i had in this historic trial as its presiding officer. it's unique in it the history of the senate, and i thought for my fellow senators and also for historical purposes i would let you all know some of my feelings. now, i understand why some of my

republican friends were skeptical of a democratic senator presiding over the trial of a republican former president. i note the constitution does not contemplate that the chief justice would preside over the impeachment trial of a former president, but i also note the impeachment process, no matter who presides, is intensely divisive. and presidential impeachments have historically been partisan. having a member of one particular party in the chair preside over trial could understandably give some pause. now, as my fellow senators know, i did not ask, i did not seek to preside over this trial, but i am occupying the constitutional

office of the president pro tempore. and because i am, it is incumbent upon me to do so. a court of impeachment is not a civil or criminal court. it is a constitutional court, and the president pro tempore, as a constitutional officer, has historically presided over impeachment trials of non-presidents. as president trump's term had expired before his trial began, the responsibility to preside over this historic trial fell to me, as it would have anybody who had been president pro tem. i just happened to be. and i was not going to shirk my duty. my staff and i spent hundreds of hours pouring over the constitutional background of these trials. i read transcripts, i read everything. and what i found was throughout our nation's history, each president pro tempore has almost

without exception belonged to a political party. and each has no doubt had their own personal and political views on the matters before the senate. but when presiding over the senate, as i go back through the history, i see presidents pro tempore have historically served is as a neutral arbiter issuing rules and pre-sesqui order. i consider holding the office of the president pro tempore and the responsibilities to come with it one of the highest honors but also one of the most serious responsibilities of my career here in the senate. when presiding over an impeachment trial, the president pro tempore takes an additional oath -- not just his regular oath but an additional one -- to do impartial justice according to the constitution and the

laws. this is an oath that i take extraordinarily seriously. in fact, to demonstrate my commitment to preside over the trial with fairness and transparency before the trial i wrote a letter to every single senator and the parties to the trial. in it, i made clear my intention and my solemn obligation was to conduct the trial with fairness to all. i committed to adhering to the constitution and to applicable senate rules and precedents and governing resolutions. i committed to consulting with the senate's esteemed and nonpartisan parliamentarian, elizabeth macdonough. and i committed to being guided by senate precedent should a motion or an objection or a request or application be put

before me. i reiterated that any decision i made -- any decision i made from the chair would be subject to the review of the full senate, ever democratic senator, every republican senator, every independent senator -- and i stateed i would put any matter before the united states giving all senators an equal say in resolve something issue at the outset. i also informed all senators, though, that i would enforce the senate rules and i would enforce the precedents governing decorum and do what i could to assure the trial reflected the best traditions of the senate. now, with the trial behind us, i believe i made good on those

commitments. my job wasn't to shape the trial or direct or slant it in a particular way but to make sure the rules were followed, the proceedings were fair to all parties, consistent with the will of the whole senate. and i believe it was. i did my best. i followed the advice of the parliamentarian. i enforced our rules and precedents. where objections were raised, they were ultimately resolved without a vote challenging the rulings i made from the chair. while i never faced a situation before the start of the trial, and i had informed the parliamentarian of my decision, should that should a rule of mine be appealed, i would be a stain from voting as a senator on the question of whether to sustain my own ruling.

now, i know from the constitution and in the practices and the rules of the senate the presiding officer is fully empowered to do so, to vote. it happens routine lay during legislative sessions. in going back through all the hundreds of pages beings, thousands of pages, i could not find historical precedent for presiding officers doing so during impeachment trials. and i was determined to strictly adhere to precedent, even if it limited my authority as a senator in this instance. now, i would note that on two occasions during the trial, i felt it was necessary to remind counsel -- and i did, a did chief justice roberts during president trump's first trial --

to refrain from using language that was not conducive to civil discourse. on the final day of the trial, when it got a little bit heated, i was prepared to do so in stronger terms, if needed. during closing arguments, i believe neither side gave me reason to do so. now, like those who presided over the three prior presidential impeachment trials in our history, i understood each of my decisions was important historically. it would become important precedence to guide those who preside over trials in the future, just as i read and cited the precedents of past trials. since the conclusion of the trial, both republican and democratic senators have thanked me for being fair, and i appreciate that greatly.

i may have had a prominent role for this historic trial, but i was committed to not shaping it in any way. i just wanted to give voice to our institution's precedence and rules and to otherwise let the senate determine the trial's structure and direction, to let each side present its case, let the chips fall where they may, let the senate do its job. i've now had the opportunity to sit as a judge and juror in numerous impeachment trials, including three trials of presidents. all were historic moments for the senate and this country. i owe no illusion that the senate was at its best. i have a respect for our system of government and its constitution. i was proud to uphold my oath as

a senator and as a presiding officer. my oath to do impartial justice according to our constitution and the laws during last month's trial. there are some things i consider far more important than allegiance to any person or political party. my commitment to the constitution, this great institution of the senate, are listed high among them. i have felt for the first day -- i have felt from the first day i came here the senate should be and can be the conscience of the nation. i wanted to help make sure that conscience was upheld. i appreciate the fact that my colleagues elected me president pro tempore and gave me this

opportunity. madam president, i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: does

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorumming suspend spended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: the appropriations committee is reported here in the senate to prepare to announce the return of earmarks. that's a process that around here we know, people back home might not know, so let me explain that the process of earmarks inserts individual projects designated for specific interest into a bill, most often an appropriations bill. so when i say individual projects, it means senators doing it for their, probably their district or their state.

ee -- earmarks are a practice that has become a symbol to the american people of the waste and out-of-control spending in washington. i'm strongly against the return of earmarks. the earmark moratorium was implemented as a direct result of the events leading up to the election of 2010, and there was clearly a mandate coming from that 2010 election to do away with earmarks. so people sometimes think through the elections or through contacting congress they don't have an impact. in this case, it had a very dramatic impact that has lasted at least until now, and hopefully it will last longer. and the american people spoke because they were worried at that time about the country's

growing federal deficit and ballooning public debt, something we aren't as concerned about now as we were then, and we ought to be concerned about more so now because the debt is more than doubled during that period of time. at that time, back in 2010, the debt was estimated to be 62% of gross domestic product. in 2009, president obama and congressional democrats passed a $787 billion stimulus bill that was filled with wasteful spending, special projects, and unauthorized programs that were completely violated the rules of the road for responsible governance. in september 2010.

so at the time of the election i'm talking about, the rasmussen poll, 61% of the u.s. voters said cutting government spending and deficits would do more to create jobs than president obama's proposed $50 billion infrastructure program. pretty evident then from people's opinion at that time the election of 2010 sent a clear message that the american people wanted congress to stop wasteful spending. so it didn't take long for president obama to get the message. he had a weekly address on november 13, 2010, calling upon congress to stop earmarks. he said, quote, given the deficits that have mounted over

the past decade, we cannot afford to make these investments in things like infrastructure, education, research and development, unless we're willing to cut what we don't need, end of quote. now i'm going to give you a further obama quote, and it's a fairly long one, but it's coming from a democrat president. i agree with those republicans and democratic members of congress who have recently said that in these challenging days, we cannot afford for called earmarks. those are items inserted into spending bills by members of congress without adequate review. now some of these earmarks support worthy projects in our local communities, but many others do not.

we cannot afford bridges to nowhere like the one that was planned a few years back in alaska. earmarks like these represent a relatively small portion of overall federal spending. but when it comes to signaling our commitment to fiscal responsibility, addressing them would have an important impact. we have a chance to not only shine a light on a bad washington habit that wastes billions of taxpayers' dollars, but take a step towards restoring public trust. we have a chance to advance the interest not only republicans or democrats, but of the american people, to put our country on a

path of fiscal discipline and responsibility that will lead a brighter economic future for all. and that is a future i hope that we can reach across party lines to build together. end of quote. remember president obama said in 2010, earmarks are bad. unlike 2020, today we are in even more dismal fiscal shape with even larger federal deficits and a ballooning federal debt. according to the congressional budget office, the federal debt held by the public stood at 100% of g.d.p. at the end of fiscal

year 2020 and is projected to reach 102% of g.d.p. at the end of 2021. in other words, even though we have the largest economy in the world, we owe more than the entire u.s. economy is producing in a year. if we stay on this course, c.b.o. projects that by 2031, debt would equal 107% of g.d.p., the highest in the nation's history. america cannot afford to go back to including earmarks in some ill-conceived effort to grease the wheels to pass legislation only bass it includes the pet projects of members of congress. while a small part of the budget

, and i'd have to admit earmarks are a small part of the budget, earmarks can cause members of congress to focus on projects for their districts or state instead of holding government accountable and being fiscally responsible. congress should follow regular order by authorizing funding for programs with very specific criteria. legislation including funding bills should be passed on its merits, not on whether an earmark is included. dr. tom coburn, former senator from oklahoma, said, quote, earmarks are the gateway drug to spending addiction, end of quote. there is an insatiable appetite

for projects, and this leads to large bills weighed down with spending our country can ill afford, whether we're talking about appropriations or authorization bills. a congressional research service, c.r.s. as we know it, studies showed from 1994 to 2011 there was a 282% jump in earmarks in appropriations bill. in the fiscal year 1994, appropriations bill there were 4,155 -- and can you believe this? by 2011 that number had risen for earmarks to 15,887. also according to the c.r.s.,

the total value of earmark funds increased from about $35 billion for 6,000 earmarks in 2000 to over $72 billion for nearly 16,000 earmarks in 2006. earmarks get out of control when there is no effective check, no effective check on total spending, while at the same time earmarks lead to overspending. commit chairmen kind of say to the members who have the earmarks and bills are you going to vote for this bill if we put your earmark in? that sort of thing should never be a determination whether or not a member votes for an appropriations bill or not. so you shouldn't feel pressure to support a vicious cycle of increased spending on bad

legislation just because it includes earmarks, especially in this time of the pandemic. congress should be forced on targeted spending to continue to help the american people who are suffering to recover, not finding ways then to load up a bill with sweeteners that may be problematic on its own. according to a 2016 economist group/you gov poll, 63% of americans approve the ban on earmarks. only 12% disapprove. this quote by citizens against government waste president tom schatz said -- in this publication, "just the news"

makes a strong argument for not lifting the earmark ban. he said earmarks are the most corrupt, costly, and inequitable practice in the history of congress. they led to members, staff, lobbyists being incarcerated. you know, there are people who went to jail because of how some of this stuff was handled. in the form of legalized bribery, members of congress vote for tens or hundreds of billions of dollars in appropriations bill in return for a few billion -- million dollars in earmarks for their state or congressional district. earmarks go to those in power, as shown during the 111th congress, when the 81 members of the house and senate

appropriations committees who constituted 15% of the congress, got 511% of -- got 51% of the earmarks and 61% of the money. restoring earmarks will lead to the same result. i have heard the argument that earmarks are needed to pass bills in a bipartisan manner. i have consistently been ranked among the most bipartisan senators by the georgetown university lugar center. check it out for yourself. i know from experience true bipartisanship doesn't come from voting for legislation that i might otherwise have concerns about because an earmark or a pet project are included in the bill. true bipartisanship comes from reaching out across the aisle,

to reach consensus even when there are disagreements on other issues. and those other issues, to really get things done for the american people. president biden, in his inaugural speech, called for, quote, bringing americans together, uniting our people, and uniting the nation, end of quote. he also recognized that americans have serious disagreements. everyone knows that our country is deeply divided politically. i know from his time in the senate that president biden understands that people of goodwill can have honest disagreements about policy. so he knows that unity does not mean dropping deeply-held beliefs and accepting his policy agenda.

and he said, quote, every disagreement doesn't have to be a cause for total war. disagreements must not lead to disunion, end of quote. real unity requires true bipartisanship and working together to discover what binds us together as americans even when we strongly disagree politically. earmarks are not a way to bring this unity and in fact will make this unity more difficult by attempting to paper over fundamental disagreements with window dressing while bypassing the real work of compromise. now, in a similar vein, some people argue that earmarks are needed to help pass bills in a timely manner. in 2006, at the height of

earmark spending in appropriation bills, only two appropriation bills passed on time. in the ten years prior to the earmark ban, congress never enacted more than four stand-alone appropriation bills on time. this holds true for reauthorization bills as well. most then, as you know the practice is, would just simply extend them for one fiscal year at a time. in the case of the past several highway reauthorization bills, which were notorious for earmarks before earmark moratorium, all needed multiple extensions before they were signed into law. i've also heard the argument that article 1 of the constitution says that congress holds the power of the purse and that congress has ceded its own power without earmarks.

i agree that congress now cedes its own power, but not -- but not by not having earmarks. rather, congress cedes its power by failing to follow the budget process and stick to a budget. now, the greatest sin, congress can be fairly accused of lazy legislation by drafting vague provisions granting congress -- granting authority to agency heads to work out the details, and most of those details are worked out through massive regulation writing. congress can reclaim this legislative authority by including specific guidelines for implementing programs in both authorization and appropriation bills. congress should regularly review federal programs to ensure that

funding criteria reflect the needs of the americans and engage in robust oversight of departments and agencies to ensure congressional intent is met. rigorous oversight and well-drafted legislation that clearly sets out congressional intent for how a program should be administered is the constitutional job of congress. a good example of congress not keeping the power of the purse and delegating significant authority to unelected bureaucrats at the program level is the affordable care act, sometimes called obamacare, which was rammed through congress on a party-line vote. the text was around 2,700 pages long, but the regulatory implementation of obamacare required well over 20,000 pages.

that is a bad way to implement public policy, particularly considering that the law redirected one-fifth of the u.s. economy. on top of the law are tens of thousands of pages of federal rules and regulations administered by a score of federal departments, agencies, and boards. this isn't how our founding fathers envisioned congress protecting the american people, and it's a bad way to do business. as a matter of fairness, earmarked project funding should be merit based and competitive or allocated by formula. earmarks undermine state decision-making over funds that are allocated to states through formula-based grants.

political decisions should not preempt state and regional decision-making. earmarks should not be a short cut for state and local government engageing in long-term planning and budgeting for anticipated needs. and furthermore, state and local governments and other organizations should not be spending time and money to hire lobbyists to chase after federal dollars in hopes of getting an earmark. the money spent on lobbying and travel to pursue an earmark should be applied towards a local project itself. if a federal agency or program isn't working, then members of congress should fix it instead of seeking a carveout. highway authorizations bills are a perfectly good example of the problems of the earmarks. in 1987, president reagan vetoed

the transportation bill because of -- guess what -- too many earmarks. that bill included only 152 earmarks. in 1998, the transportation bill called t-21, included 1,850 earmarks. the state of florida challenged the earmarks included for the state, arguing that the allocated funding did not address the actual transportation needs of the state. the u.s. department of transportation overruled florida's objections. in the 2005 bill -- so i'm going to another transportation bill. it was called the safety t -- safety tlou. included 3,671 earmarks. let's go over that again.

let's go back. 1987, president reagan vetoed a bill because of only 152 earmarks. ten years later, it. -21 included 1851, 1850 earmarks. and then in 2005, 6,371 earmarks. however, under the earmark ban, the last transportation bill distributed 92% of the funding to the states through formulas. and then you know that gives states and local governments control over the funding decision based on the needs of the 50 different states, based on safety, engineering, and other objective criteria, as opposed to politically directed earmark totally swept aside those criteria. it was almost a political decision where that money ought to be put.

it should also be pointed out that the majority of the earmark funds in the past came straight out of the allocated fire alarm dollars for each state, which then further erodeed merit and state and local decision-making. in other words, washington politicians were making decisions better made by the nonpartisan boards in state capitals and local communities. and when i say nonpartisan boards, i don't suppose it's that way in all 50 states, but i know in most midwestern states it's that way. i know that a lot of good has come from projects that i have helped support in iowa when we had our earmarks, and i certainly did not want iowa to miss out on funding just because of a washington dysfunction that

we called earmarks. however, i also know that many of these earmarks disrupted our state and regional planning efforts. i have no way of knowing what good might have been done had we not had earmarks -- an earmarks ban earlier. i do know that i have faith that the federal money that goes back to iowa for iowans and the iowans deciding how it would be spent is being spent thoughtfully and well and not with a lot of political consideration. any good that might come from my being able to direct small amounts of federal taxpayer dollars to some worthwhile pilot project would be dwarfed by the negative effects of restarting the mad scramble for earmarks.

so i hope my colleagues, the rumors i have been hearing about the appropriations committee wanting to reinstitute earmarks, i hope that those people would pay some attention to the history of it and particularly pay attention to what president obama said in 2010 about earmarks and not go through another process. maybe start now with just a few earmarks. but getting up into more than several years, more than 10,000 earmarks on various appropriation bills, and then all of a sudden then have a mandate that cams from the electorate like it did in 2010 and both republicans and democrats come back to these halls where we have debate and make policy, saying no more earmarks. i yield the floor.

mr. blumenthal: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i wouldn't be -- i couldn't be prouder to stand in the senate chamber today and speak on behalf of miguel cardona.

shortly to be confirmed by this body as the next secretary of education. miguel cardona is a man of deep commitment to his community, and with pride a product of the connecticut education system. i couldn't be prouder to support him because president biden couldn't have made a better choice to be the next secretary of education. miguel cardona's story is inspiring and compelling, a testament to the extraordinary support he has enjoyed from his parents, from the community of puerto rico who live in meridan,

the support he has enjoyed from the public schools and institutions of higher education in connecticut, his powerful and compelling story should be inspiring to all america because he has lived the american dream, and for anyone whose language may be something other than english as their first language, he has shown that people coming to our public schools with english as their second language should see no bounds to what they can accomplish. he came to the public schools of

meridan as a second language learner of english. he was raised in meridan to puerto rican parents. he found an early passion for education, and his skill and dedication went beyond his own life. he did extraordinarily well and attended two connecticut institutions of higher education, central connecticut state university and the university of connecticut, eventually earning his doctorate in education, but he went back to meridan. he dedicated his life to the education of others, beginning as a fourth grade teacher in meridan. and then becoming principal, the

youngest in the state, and eventually assistant superintendent before just about a year ago being appointed as commissioner of education in the state of connecticut. his climb looks meteoric and mer miraculous but it is based on hard work and a dedication and passion for others because he saw it in his own life and how it enabled him to live the american dream. for all of his accomplishments and that meteoric rise, he has remained deeply rooted in the american community, deeply committed to his roots in puerto

rico and deeply committed to his families, his parents who should be so proud of him are an inspiration to all of us who know them and who have seen their work continue as he has climbed the professional ladder, they have remained rooted and active and energetic in benefiting others in meriden. i thank his parents for sharing him with us and to thank you -- his extraordinary accomplishments have led him to this place of consummate prominence in the educational,

professional community, and now he will do great things for the cause of education in our country, not just connecticut. his service never stopped in the classroom. he brought that knowledge of what happens in the classroom to establish policy in connecticut in an enormously challenging time. he took over as commissioner of education on february 26, 2020, at a time of covid-19 lockdowns and school closures which began just a couple of weeks after he assumed that responsibility. but as he has done throughout his occasional and professional career, he consistently

reconfirmed his commitment to students and parents and teachers because they are the core of our occasional system, especially students who have been potentially left behind. his bold vision and dedication to students and their families is exactly what we need now in an education secretary, providing direction and support to our nation's public schools, direction and support after a time when leadership was so sorely lacking and commitment to public education was so unfortunately inadequate. as we know, covid-19 has challenged, educators, students, families, and school

administrators day in and day out during this painfully difficult period. disadvantaged students who lack support and resources at home have been left behind. teachers are strained and stressed by changing environments and lack of resources. parents are concerned and overwhelmed managing had their children's schooling and their own work at home. students in higher education are drowning in student debt that has left them crippled financially and unsure about their future. these challenges pose a grave threat to the future of our children and our occasional system and we need -- educational system and we need a leader just like dr. cardona, one we have lacked, one who can regain our nation's trust around

re-establish faith in the leadership of our educational community at the very top in the department of education. he is someone who will put students back on their feet in their confidence and their trust in education. he is someone who will put teachers, parents, and students first, above special interests because he has lived american education as the american dream. in connecticut he has seen first hand in his own life how education can transform futures and enable all of us through our children to live the american dream just as he has done. and he will do it in a way that

is inclusive, that respects the drive for racial justice because he has lived that movement in his own life, the movement for racial justice to end disparities and inequities is part of miguel a. cardona's agenda because it's in his life, it's in his d.n.a. and it's part of his life and his family. and that is why i am so proud of his success but also his vision and his dedication to the future of american education. i urge my colleagues to vote yes for his confirmation. you will be proud you did just as i am proud to stand here in support of him. he has lived the american dream and he will open it through his

vision an his courage for countless other young people who desperately need that faith in their country and its schools. today american public education has a future that is bright and promising with miguel a. cardona leadership. i'm proud to say he is a product of connecticut. his roots are there and so is his vision and hope and faith. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, last friday i joined governor abbott, fellow members of the texas congressional delegation and several state and local

leaders and joined president biden for his first trip to texas since taking office on january 20. we only wish it came under better circumstances. texas is still reeling from the deadly winter freeze that crippled our infrastructure and left millions without power and water. thousands of texans are still without clean water and under a boil instruction and countless others are dealing with the damage caused by burst pipes. i truly appreciate the president and first lady coming to houston to learn more about the ongoing response and recovery efforts. and i thank the president for answering the request of senator cruz, governor abbott and myself to order a national disaster declaration. during times of crisis, texans are always eager to lend a hand

to their neighbors, and the last couple of weeks have proved to be no exception. i'm always encouraged by those heart-warming stories of folks helping other in ways big and small, welcoming people into their homes, checking on their elderly neighbors, delivering hot meals to those in need and much more. so i'm glad the president and first lady were able to see the incredible work also of one of the houston area's most reliable friends and that is the houston food bank. for more than 40 years the houston food bank has fought hunger in the houston region through a variety of programs serving texans of all ages. when covid-19 hit last year, the need for that assistance skyrocketed as you might imagine. i was able to visit the food bank last summer to learn more about how they adjusted their operations to keep up their demand while implementing

cautions to keep their volunteers safe and healthy. so i was proud to join the president and first lady to learn more about incredible ways that the houston food bank has continued to serve the community in the wake of this winter storm. as i said before and as the president reiterated on friday in houston, there is no red team, there is no blue team during a time of crisis. fema officials have said that disaster response efforts work best when they are locally executed, stat managed -- state managed and federally supported, and i agree that is the appropriate formula. this structure gives local officials the ability to cater response efforts to their specific communities while tapping into the range of resources available from the state and local government. i want to assure my fellow texans that i and the entire texas delegation here in congress will do everything we

can do be responsive to the needs that they have. part of that is through rapid mobilization of resources. after governor abbott, as i said, made the formal request for the disaster declaration, senator cruz and i asked for the president to grant that request and he did so without delay. this has allowed our state to receive a range of resources to respond to the crisis, including blankets, bottled water, generators an additional fuel. these resources are vital for hospital operations and sustaining texans while power and water are being restored. senator cruz and i also wrote to the president urging him to grant the governor's request for a major disaster declaration and all types of public assistance for each of texas' 254 counties. a major declaration opened up to

help communities and individuals recover in the aftermath of an emergency like this. it can include everything from housing assistance for folks who are unable to stay in their home due to water leakage and burst pipes to unemployment assistance to crisis counseling. so far president biden has approved the major disaster declaration for 126 counties and i know state and local leaders are working with the administration to seek approval for the railing counties -- remaining counties. insurance industry leaders believe this could be the costliest weather event in our state's history and we have to do everything we can to lessen the burden on texas families. of course my staff and i are in close contact with state and local leaders who are managing and executing the response and we're constantly working for -- looking for ways to assist and move the recovery along. in the aftermath of these

widespread outages, of course two questions jump out at you. one is what happened, and, two, how do we prevent it from ever happening again? we know now, at least so far, there wasn't a single point of failure, but where it has to do with the power, this was a result of failures and equipment across the state that weren't properly winterized. nawcial gaslines -- natural gas lines and wind turbines president to cutting off our power generation capacity. the remaining generators were overloaded by the sky-high demands of the sub zero temperatures an much of -- and much of texas went through rolling blackouts and more. the storm claimed the lives of nearly 80 texans and left millions without power and water for several days. it destroyed homes and businesses and created a sense of fear across the state.

we need to do what we can now to ensure that texas' critical infrastructure will be able to withstand anything mother nature sends our way, but it's not just about texas, it's really about the critical infrastructure throughout the united states. i'm working on a measure to build grid resiliency so we can maintain reliable power through any type of extreme weather, whether it's a polar vortex or heat wave or tornado, our grids and energy sources across the country must be able to operate without disruption. this should be a bipartisan priority for folks from every corner of the u.s. in texas, we're accustomed to our infrastructure being able to withstand the high temperatures we're used to during the summer, but not the rare sub zero temperatures that paralyzed the state two weeks ago. in other parts of the country

grids may face the opposite problem, they are able to operate during freezing temperatures but not during a heat wave. i'm trying to work on a way to get funding to the states to help build grid resiliency that makes sense for each of those specific needs. our nation has had issues with grid resiliency and modernization effort. this is a good -- efforts. this is a good opportunity to make an investment in that infrastructure. my hope this will be a big bipartisan effort including fellow members of the texas delegation and colleagues on both sides of the aisle here in the senate. we need to do everything we can as americans and senators to strengthen and modernize our grid before it's tested again. team texas will do everybody we can to get our neighbors on the road to recovery and prevent us from experiencing widespread outages in the future. in conclusion, madam president, i want to thank everyone who has supported our state in ways big

and small over the last couple of weeks and would will no doubt work with us in our efforts to come back strong letter in the days -- stronger in the days that lie ahead. madam president, i yield the floor. and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from delaware.

a senator: madam president, are we currently in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. coons: i ask that the proceedings under the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coons: madam president, it's long been said that neither snow or rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays our postal carriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. these words in fact are advertiseled in granite above the entrance to the post office on 8th avenue and new york city, one of the grandest post offices in our nation. it's the adoptive creed of the faithful and hardworking letter carriers and front line workforce of our postal service. and as i've said before, i have no beef with the men and women of our postal service, but i have real and deep concerns about how the postal service is being run under the current postmaster general. president biden doesn't get to choose a new postmaster general just because he's the new president. in fact, the current office holder lewis dejoy was chosen by the board under the previous

administration. and weeks ago i joined with many colleagues and with chairman peters of the homeland security committee, the homeland security and government affairs committee that's responsible for the postal service to send a letter to press postmaster general dejoy to restore on-time delivery and stop the harmful system-wide changes that have caused unacceptable mail delays. sadly that's not the first time i've had to reach out with senators in this body to the postmaster generally. in fact, on five separate occasions, we've written the postmaster general between august and february, last year to this year. we've demanded trance transparency. we've -- transparency. we've insisted on the restoration of mail sorting machines. we've asked with assistance with vote-by-mail deliveries. and in my hometown of wilmington, delaware, last august i joined our attorney general kathy jennings,

congressman rochester and a series of union leaders for a day of action to save the postal service. a few days later i drove myself to our mail distribution center in new castle after leadership of the postal service denied my request to visit. thanks to having been alerted about i some frontline employees, i drove around back and was able to see a dism dismantled, massive piece of mail handling equipment left outside in the rain. in january and february alone, my office received hundreds of messages from constituents complaining about mail issues. since last april i've heard from nearly 5,000 delawareans, folks asking for robust funding for the postal service, wanting stronger mail -- vote bimail initiatives and hundreds and hundreds of them reporting delays in the mail. i want to take a few minutes if i might, madam president, just go through some of these concerns i've heard which i have

also heard from colleagues are being replicated across our nation. gloria leicester, down in lewis in sussex county said mail that previously took three to four days is now taking four to six weeks. her bills are due before she even gets the statement. and her husband's v.a. medication took a month to arrive from the date it was mailed. jim nichols of milford wrote concerned about the delay in getting his newspapers, his magazines, his other periodicals and jim is not alone. i've heard from local and regional newspapers that rely on the postal service to deliver to out of state and out of area subscribers. we have a beach area with a lot of homeowners who live in our nation's capital or elsewhere throughout the region and chris rousch with the cape gazette that gets mail from all over the region told me some of the out of state subscribers don't receive the paper for a month and when they do, they get a big bundle of old papers. now with papers not showing up

weeks at a time, they've had to tell subscribers this is just out of their control and offer refunds. megan stibia of the delmarva farmer, another local paper said she's been having a lot of trouble with delaware deliveries. the postal system she said in writing to me is very screwed up to me. farmers haven't received their newspapers at all in january. i've received dozens and dozens more e-mails and texts, letters and phone messages from frustrated constituents. diana boyle of magnolia, delaware, felt so strongly about the ongoing debacle of delayed delivery from the postal service that she hand delivered her own letter of concern to my dover office. richard bilsky, a gentleman with real and significant heart issues that require him to be on medication was down to his very last pill on january 25. after calling and calling and calling, turned out that his

medication had been sitting in the wilmington post office for three weeks. toby rubenstein wrote me and said i've paid any bills by check all my life and now the postal service is so unreliable, i have monthly problems paying my bills on time and i'm not alone on this. claudette richardson wrote me a note saying she mailed her sister a christmas card on december 14 and it arrived february 12. marcy ro rowman wrote me and sad our mail in sussex county as everywhere is horrible despite our great letter carriers. another wrote to tell me last month because of her passport, sitting idle at a philadelphia distribution center for ten days, she was set to travel abroad and had to delay her trip. bill powers, a former county councilman i know well from new

castle county, a long-time turkey grower who provides fresh eggs for local markets has experienced significant losses with deliveries. i want to mention one last story from trebs thompson, an egg farmer with whimsical farms. he wrote, largely our postal service has been a jewel. it handles a large volume of mail cheaply with a high degree of speed and accuracy. many of us depend on it for paperwork, medications, orders, payments, and for farmers like me, seeds and day-old chicks. the post office has been shipping day-old chicks to farms like mine, he wrote, for over a hundred years. today all 20 baby hens arrived cold and lifeless. i cried as i opened the box. the postal supervisor cried. the gentleman who normally delivers my mail apologized profusely but it's not his fault. whatever one feels about mail-in

ballots or politics, she wrote, i'm asking you to put this aside and do what you can to restore the postal service. madam president, trebs thompson is right. no farmer should have to open a box of dead chicks. no constituent should have to hand deliver a letter to their senator. our veterans shouldn't be going without lifesaving medication. postmaster dejoy appeared before members of the house last week and apologized for the slow mail delivery and said he has a forthcoming plan which i'm concerned includes further cuts to delivery service. so let me summarize. my understanding is that dejoy's plans for the future of the postal service include higher prices and slower delivery. delawareans are tired and our postal service workers are tired, too, of the constraints placed on them. how will we solve this problem? in my view we need to confirm as quickly as possible president biden's nominees to the postal board of governors. amber mcreynolds and anton

hazar, all folks who have deep experience in the postal system. they can get us back on track. we have to p prioritize investments in the postal service. congress secured $10 billion to provide the resources to maintain operation at a time when families are relying on mail service more than ever during this pandemic. i i will continue to support the postal service. i will continue to petition the postmaster general, and i won't stop until there is a solution to this critical and pressing issue. our letter carriers and our customers shouldn't suffer because of toxic leadership at the highest levels of our postal service. with that, madam president, thank you, and i yield the floor to my colleague from the state of maine. ms. collins: madam president?

the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that peter shunt, a defense fellow in my office, be granted floor privileges for the remainder of this congress. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, last week i was pleased to join my colleague from west virginia, senator joe manchin, in introducing the advancing uniform transportation opportunities for veterans act, better known as the auto for veterans act. i'm pleased that senators bozeman, hassan and blunt have joined us as original cosponsors. madam president, our bill would lessen the financial burden on severely disabled veterans who require special adaptive

equipment to drive a motor vehicle. it would do so by increasing access to the department of veterans affairs automobile grant program. now, madam president, the v.a. currently provides eligible veterans with a one-time grant of approximately $21, 400 to be used to purchase a new or used automobile and necessary adaptive equipment such as specialized pedals and switches. this grant is often used in conjunction with the v.a.'s special adaptive equipment grants which help our veterans purchase additional adaptive equipment such as power lifts, for example, for an existing automobile to make it safe and feasible for a veteran with disabilities. although veterans can receive

multiple specially adaptive equipment grants over the course of their lives, for some reason they are limited to just a single automobile grant. the current limitation fails to take into account that a veteran is likely to need more than one vehicle in his or her lifetime. in fact, the department of depaf transportation reports that -- the department of transportation reports that the average age of a household vehicle was 11.8 years, and a vehicle that has been modified structurally tends to have a shorter useful life. according to the v.a. independent budget prepared by the disabled american veterans, the paralyzed veterans of america, and the v.f.w., the substantial costs of modified

vehicles coupled with inflation present a financial hardship for many disabled veterans who need to replace their primary mode of transportation once their car or van or truck reaches its lifespan. the national highway traffic safety administration estimates that a new vehicle modified with adaptive equipment will cost anywhere from $20,000 to $80,000. these are significant costs for a veteran with disabilities to incur to replace his or her primary mode of transportation. that is why veterans should be eligible to receive a vehicle grant every ten years. and our legislation, the

collins-manchin bill, would do just that. madam president, a maine veteran whom i know well, neil williams of shirley maine, use add v.a. automobile grant in 1999 to purchase an adaptive vehicle, a ford econoline van. he also had to purchase several adaptive vehicles since 1999 with each one lasting over 250,000 miles until they simply were no longer road-worthy. his current vehicle now has over 100,000 miles and soon he will need a new one. he told me that purchasing a new van will cost him well over $50,000, which is more than he paid for his home in rural maine.

this is an enormous burden on our disabled veterans who need to purchase expensive adaptive vehicles in order to drive safely or to drive at all. madam president, i feel like i'm preaching to the choir here. our nation owes our veterans such an enormous debt. it is a debt that truly can never be fully repaid. let's honor our commitment to our veterans by continuing to support their needs, including the needs of veterans who are disabled and need this adaptive technology for their vehicles long after they have been discharged or retired from the active duty.

this is a simple bill, but it is a bill that would make such a difference for so many of our disabled veterans who need vehicles with adaptive equipment so that they can drive themselves and drive safely. the auto for veterans act is an important step that we can take to meet this need and help those who have made so many sacrifices to serve our nation. i urge all of my colleagues to join us in helping our nation's veterans by supporting this bill. thank you, madam president. mrs. murray: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, madam

president. i rise today to voice my strong support for dr. cardona's nomination to serve as secretary of education. across the country students, parents, and educators are in crisis. every day without an experienced leader at the department of education is a day that we are losing precious ground. back in my home state of washington, i heard from a mother in yakima whose children shared one iphone to learn. i heard from a father of a high school freshman in spokane worried about the social and psychological toll the pandemic is taking on his son. i heard from students at the reservation about children on a shared spotty broadband and i know there's so many similar stories from people in my state and across the country about how this pandemic is making life harder. the ways it has set back students from where they would be in a typical year, denied

them access to critical school resources, deepened long-standing inequities and so much more. from early education to higher education, we need to make sure students and their families have the support they need to not only get a high-quality education, to make sure every student can thrive. democrats want to get students safely back into classrooms for in-person learning as soon as possible, so i'm glad the biden administration put forward clear science-based public health guidance schools have long needed. there's no one solution that will ensure safety on its own as our country ramps up vaccine distribution s congress needs to pass the american rescue act to provide vital help to schools, to security adequate p.p.e. it improve contract tracing and

ventilation and take all the steps they need to do so they can safely resoap for in-person learning or provide high-quality distance learning if it is not safe to return to the classroom. and so they can assess and address the damage this pandemic has done and especially the ways it has deepened inequities that have hurt students of color, students of families with low incomes, students with disabilities, lgbtq students, english learners and students experiencing homelessness and so much more. at this moment of crisis, dr. cardona is exactly the leader we need at the department of education to tackle these challenges. during his confirmation hearing with the health, education, labor, and pensions committee, he demonstrated beyond a doubt that he has experience, principles, and a perspective that we need in this critical role that's why dr. cardona was vote out by a 17-5 margin with brought bipartisan support. dr. cardona will come to the

department as a proven leader who will work with students, parents, and educators, school administrators and state and local and tribal officials. and just as importantly, he would come to the department as a former elementary schoolteacher, an adjunct professor, a principal, assistant superintendent, and former english lerner himself who knows we have a responsibility to make sure every student has access to to high-quality public education. at our hearing, he made clear he will fight against long-standing inequities and for every student, including those who have not had a champion at the department for the last four years. he spoke about his commitment to accomplishing president biden's goal of safely reaccepting the majority of our k-8 schools for in-person learning within his first 100 days of office. and he showed he understands the challenge the department is facing is larger than just

seeing students and parents and educators through this pandemic. it is making sure we come back stronger and fairer. that means ensuring child care and early education is available and affordable to every family, ensuring every student can get a high-quality public education, no matter where they live, or how much money they or their families have is rooted out long-standing equities by tackling racism, bigotry and ableism head-on and ensuring that higher education is accessible, affordable, accountable and safe for every student. madam president, we've a lot of work to do for our schools and students. we have an excellent candidate to get it done. we have no time to waste. i urge all of our colleagues who's heard from a parent who wants to get their child back in a classroom safely -- i'm sure everyone has -- join us and vote for dr. car dough n.a.s. for

secretary of -- dr. cardona for secretary of education. i yield the floor. mr. murphy: i ask to complete my remarks prior to the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: thank you. i come to the floor to echo chairwoman murray's comments to suggest and commend to my colleagues the nomination of miguel cardona to be the next secretary of education. there is no one better suited for this job in this moment than miguel cardona amendment. i couldn't be more excited on behalf of my constituents, on behalf of meriden, connecticut, to be here on the floor to tell you a little bit about why miguel cardona makes so much sense to -- for this moment. as senator murray laid it out for us, this is obviously a moment of crisis in american education.

kids have been distance learning or in and out of classroom settings for the last year. we've had so many children fall behind, especially those with learning needs. we have a lot of kids in crisis. for a lot of kids, home is not a safe place. there's trauma today amongst america's children, and our education system is going to have to bear a lot of the brunt of making sure that these kids are taken care of. we've got a crisis in higher education, without students in the classroom, without sources of revenue flowing into institutions of higher learning, would end to make sure that we don't lose classroom slots in colleges and universities which of course is the only thing that allows us to be able to see a bright economic future for our

country, expanding access to higher education. miguel is made for this moment because he knows how important college is. he was the first member of his family to complete college. he knows how important community s he came lee right back to his community after completing college and went to work serving his community, taking a job teaching fourth grade in meriden. he proved early on that he would go above and beyond the call when it cames to the needs of his student. he was a teacher at israel put putnal elementary school, room 160. if his kids didn't have what they needed, miguel would reach into his pockets to make sure they had it. one year he spent $450 of his own money, money he probably didn't have as a first or second year teacher to make sure every kid in his classroom had a

notebook, a writer's handbook and a box of crayons. one student told a story of a classmate moving back to puerto rico and miguel organizing a packet of letters from all of his classmates to be sent to him so that he could still have a connection back to meriden. he was such an amazing teacher that he was promoted after just a few years in the classroom. he was actually connecticut's youngest principal when he took over hanover at age 28, and soon thereafter he was promoted again to help run the city's school district, promoted again to be the commissioner of education in connecticut. and it's been his work over the last year that i think caught the attention of educational policy leaders and advocates all across the country, because connecticut was one of the first states to reopen its schools, and we did it through a consensus-building exercise that commissioner cardona led.

he brought together students and parents, administrators, teachers, teachers unions to come up with a plan to safely reopen our schools, and connecticut reopened our schools faster than many people thought that we could, ahead of the curve nationally. he was able to do that because consensus building is a skill that miguel cardona has been working at for a very long time. in 2013, one of his jobs while he was helping to lead meriden school system was to implement a new teacher evaluation system. you know this can always be very, very controversial. a new system, evaluating teachers' performance. but he brought everybody to the table, and he developed a model that became used statewide. his model and his consensus approach became the standard in our state. that's the secretary of education that we need right now, somebody who has experience in our classrooms,

somebody who knows the value of college, especially to first-generation college families, somebody that knows how to bring people together. this is an incredibly important moment for america's educational system. we need to maintain and expand our commitment to equity in our k-12 systems to make sure that every single kid, no matter their level of income, no matter their ethnic background, no matter their race, no matter whether they're disabled or not, gets a quality education. this is a moment to invest in accountability in higher education, make sure that we're not wasting taxpayer dollars funding programs and degrees that don't work, that may make money for for-profit investors but don't end up in skill sets that are going to power our economy. miguel cardona is the right person to meet this moment. he's whip smart, he's a

consensus builder, he's a passionate advocate for kids and for teachers and for parents. he's the perfect person for this job and for this moment. and lastly, let me just share with you how i got to know miguel cardona which maybe will serve as a final advertisement for his unique qualifications. this was my old congressional district. meriden was part and still is part of the fifth congressional district. one of the biggest weekends in meriden has become the puerto rican heritage festival, but that festival had sort of hit hard times. there was a decade ago maybe only a couple hundred people who came to it, until the cardona family took it over. miguel cardona and his family took over the puerto rican heritage festival in meriden, connecticut, and today 6,000 or 7,000 people come to this festival.

and you can find miguel cardona on that weeblgd every hour -- weekend every hour of the festival organizing bus transportation, working on the entertainment acts, making sure that meriden is able on that weekend to be able to celebrate its puerto rican heritage, but then offer something really constructive, really fun, really empowering for the community. even as commissioner of education it wasn't beyond him or above him to invest in his community in that way. it is, i hope an education of who he is and who he will remain if the senate chooses to confirm him into this role as, i hope we will do with a big bipartisan vote today. i yield back. the presiding officer: under the previous order, all postcloture time has expired. the question is on the nomination. mr. murphy: madam president, i

ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 64, the nays are 33. 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, do hereby bring to a close debate on -- on executive

calendar number 8, gina marie raimondo, of rhode island, to be secretary of commerce. 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 gina marie raimondo, of rhode island, to be secretary of commerce 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:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or change his or her vote? if not, the yeas are 84, the nays are 15. the motion is agreed to.

the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of commerce, gina marie raimondo of rhode island to be secretary. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from georgia. mr. ossoff: i ask that the senate proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 82, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order, please. the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 82, honoring the life and legacy of john robert lewis and commending john robert lewis for his towering achievements in the nonviolent struggle for civil rights much -- rights. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. ossoff: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the

motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. ossoff: i yield. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: mr. president, from the streets of portland and seattle to right here in our nation's capitol, lawlessness has ensued all too often across our nation over the past year. i have consistently called it what it is -- anarchy. and, folks, we need to be absolutely clear on this. anarchy cannot be tolerated in our nation. the mayhem that we've seen offer the last year has put our

families, our communities, and our law enforcement in danger, and tragically it has led to death and destruction. in what will probably come as no shock to the american people, a nonpartisan watchdog organization found that the federal government has spent more than $14 billion of our taxpayer money, our hard-earned dollars, on federal contracts and grants in five major cities where civil unrest -- also known as anarchy -- goes unchecked and police are unable to do their job. $14 billion -- with a "b" -- dollars paid to local leaders

and city officials who are failing to do their jobs. and let's keep talking about these dollar figures, folks. according to recent reports by local media in oregon, left-wing protests in portland have caused roughly $2.3 million in damage to federal buildings since they broke out last summer. the near nightly standoffs with police involve graffiti, broken windows, firecrackers, as well as molotov cocktails. according to one u.s. attorney in oregon, cleanup at the courthouse and four other government buildings has cost more than $2 million, and that number could keep going up because the repairs are ongoing. last year i pushed for a review

of any federal funding that was going to the cities and states that were allowing anarchy to run rampant. it was a simple ask -- scrutinize any future federal funding that might flow into these lawless jurisdictions. specifically, i asked the office of management and budget to look into and report to the american people the amount of taxpayer dollars local officials used to either sustain these autonomous zones or the amount needed to repair the damage done during the chaos. and thankfully, last year the federal government began to do just that. but, folks, just last week, president biden reversed this effort. and i'd like to know why. now, i agree with our new

president that peaceful protests are a cornerstone of our democracy. but smashing windows is not protesting. and neither is looting. burning small businesses that are the modest nest eggs of hardworking americans and actions like these are totally unacceptable. i don't think there's anyone in the senate that would disagree. so why then is president biden reversing course and preventing this review from going forward? to simply examine the funds that are going to the very places where lawlessness continues to be unanswered. too often over the last year, local leaders have prevented law

enforcement and emergency responders from being allowed to carry out their jobs and protect the public. yet millions of our taxpayer dollars have still been dolled out to these cities. i will continue to stand strong and be a voice for the hardworking taxpayers of this country. if city and state leaders abdicate their job to protect citizens and allow anarchist jurisdictions to prevail, the federal government, iowa taxpayers, should absolutely not foot the bill. anarchy is never okay. never okay. and taxpayers should never subsidize it. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

ms. smith: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. smith: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 83, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 83, expressing support for the designation of february 20 through february 27, 2021, as national f.s.a. week, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. ms. smith: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

ms. smith: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it recesses until 10:30 a.m. on tuesday, march 2. that following the prayer and pledge, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, morning business be closed, and the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the raimondo nomination. that at 2:15 p.m., the cloture time be considered expired, and the senate vote on confirmation of the nomination, that if confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. and finally, that senator cruz be recognized at 12:15 p.m. for up to 30 minutes, and following his remarks, the senate recesses until 2:15 p.m. for the weekly conference meetings. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection.

ms. smith: for the information of senators, there will be two roll call votes at 2:15 p.m. the first vote will be on confirmation of the raimondo nomination to be secretary of commerce, followed by a cloture vote on the rouse nomination to be chair of the council of economic advisors. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it recess under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands in recess until senate stands in recess until today the confirmed to be education secretary. filling another president biden's cabinet posts. this week they will consider more nominations and be house to pass $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill. watch live coverage here on cspan2. tuesday fbi director

christopher wray testified before the judiciary committee regarding the fbi security and planning in advance of enduring the attack on the capitol on january 6. watch our live coverage at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three and c-span.org. or listen live on the c-span radio app. event tonight on the communicators washington d.c. based tech reporters talk about the current issues tasting tech in the tillich commission industry including net neutrality. spirit after emily was talking about this is a huge, huge divisive issues because democrats and republicans are in the trump administration which overruled neutrality rules of the obama administration. and now the biden administration has decided to step back from that and allow states to go ahead with their own individual new tile neutrality rules. we are likely to see if the federal government does not

act neutrality rules are popping up state-by-state again making the whole tech landscape really bizarre. smith watch the communicators tonight at eight eastern on cspan2. un ambassador linda thomas greenfield held her first press conference to outline her foreign policy priorities including u.s. relations with russia, iran's nuclear program and policy towards north korea. she holds the un security council presidency during this month. spent good morning or is that afternoon i think? good afternoon. [laughter] really it is an honor for me to it be here. i want to welcome all of you here i look f