it, determined he achieved that goal. and when he did in 1957, that was the fifth filibuster in the history of the senate in the previous five decades. in other words, if you went back to 1919, all the way to 1957, strom thurmond was the fifth filibuster in history. once every decade a filibuster emerged on the senate floor. well, that world has changed dramatically changed. we can now have five filibuster in a couple weeks. we now have on average 80 filibustersea a year because of the urging and direction of the senator from kentucky, senator mcconnell.li >> we will leave this part of theor program to keep our long-term commitment to gavel to gavel coverage of congress. the u.s. senate is about to gavel in today. members at 11:30 a.m. eastern will hold a confirmation vote

for katherine tai to the u.s. trade representative. they've also also work on the nomination of xavier becerra to be health and human services secretary. and now live to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain dr. barry black will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. father in heaven, bless our senators. may they strive to act with integrity. guide them to listen to the voice of conscience, seeking to please you

with their motives as well as their actions. give them such ethical congruence that their word will be validated by laudable actions. lord, test their hearts with your unfailing love, empowering them to become instruments of your peace. mighty god, keep their feet on solid ground. we pray in your great name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c., march 17, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable martin henrich, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. schumer: thank you. first, mr. president, in a second i will move the p.p.p. bill to the floor. i hope and i would ask our republican colleagues to cooperate, that we can move this bipartisan p.p.p. proposal without delay. it passed the house overwhelmingly. a vast majority of democrats and republicans voted for t. i hope we can move quickly here in the senate. it expires on march 31. and there are some changes that were made in the arp that we need that people need time to

adapt to and implement. to allow an elapse would not be the right thing to do for many of our small business people across the country. so i'm hoping that our republican colleagues will move the bill with the same alacrity it passed in the house with an overwhelming bipartisan -- with that, mr. president, i understand there's a bill at the desk and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: h.r. 1799, an act to amend the small business act and the cares act to extend the coverage period for the paycheck protection program and for other purposes. mr. schumer: i now ask for a second reading and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will receive its second reading on the next legislative day.

mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. now let me proceed to my remarks. first, on the terrible tragedy in georgia. the people of atlanta, georgia, and surrounding communities were just shocked last night by a series of shootings that left eight people dead, six of whom, six of whom were of asian descent. the motivations behind this devastating tragedy are still unknown. but there's a legitimate concern that these killings may have been racially motivated. over the past year, the asian american community has faced a rising tide of abuse and violence in the wake of covid-19. driven by ignorance, by misinformation, and by age old prejudices against the asian american community. tragically hate crimes against asian americans have skyrocketed. mr. president, there is bigotry in the land and far too much of it. these dark forces have always

existed in america, but recently they seem to have been unleashed. the sort of super ego that puts these things down seems to have weakened and the eid seems to have strengthened. we can't lose for a moment our vigilance against hate, bigotry, and discrimination. i love the asian american community. they have done so much for america. i see it in my borrower owg of brooklyn, in my city -- borough of brooklyn, in my city and state. they are hardworking people, people who do so much for our country at every level. they are welcome here. that's america. and yet the bigots have increased hate crimes and maybe even possibly led to the deaths of these people.

so i hope that all americans first will realize that there is too much hate in the land, that hate against one group is hate against any group, and we should all, americans of every background and race and creed and color and religion and gender and sexual orientation ban together against the haters. it's so unherndon. e pluribus unum. out of many, one. that's with a america has always been. that's what america must continue to be, and our voices must speak out. second, on nominations. the senate is once again making excellent progress this week confirming president biden's nominees. we began the week by confirming a history-making cabinet member, interior secretary haaland. yesterday, we confirmed isabel guzman as the s.b.a. administrator. today we will confirm another consequential administrative

appointment, the united states trade representative. president biden has named katherine tai, the daughter of proud immigrants from taiwan, a veteran of the office of the trade representative under president obama, and one of our country's most seasoned experts in international trade. that, ms. tai, is what america is all about. we welcome her. we give her a great position of authority because of her expertise. and maybe -- i'll leave it at that. it's a great contrast with the tragedy i was talking about a few minutes ago and the ascension of another proud american of asian ancestry here. as u.s. trade representative, ms. tai will play a crucial role in enforcing existing trade deals and making sure that american workers, businesses, and researchers can compete on a

level playing field. she will be an essential player in restoring america's credibility with our trading partners and promoting international cooperation to tackle some of the world's biggest problems from the global pandemic to climate change. i have not a single doubt that ms. tai is the right person for the job, and i look forward to the senate giving her a well-deserved promotion later today. now, on s. 1, democracy reform, today senate democrats are introducing the number one bill of the 117th congress, s. 1, to stand up to voter suppression, to end dark money in politics and reinvigorate american democracy in the 21st century. make no mistake, democracy reform must be a top priority of this congress, and i will put s. 1, the for the people act, on the floor of the senate.

for too long, we have let really important parts of our democracy wither. unlimited dark money flows into campaigns. special interests have way too much influence in washington. and worst of all, there is a concerted nationwide effort to limit the right of american citizens, particularly people of color, to vote. throughout america's history, we've seen a continuous cycle of expansions in our democracy being met all too often by vehement backlash against those who wish to maintain an exclusionary status quo. earlier this year, we witnessed only the latest example in the form of a violent insurrection right here in this chamber, right here in this capitol, an attack fueled by the insidious lies of the former president aimed at overturning the results of a free and fair election.

in the wake of the november election, one of the safest and most secure in american history, dozens of republican-led state legislatures have seized on the former president's big lie and introduced hundreds, hundreds of bills aimed at tightening voting rules under the nasty guise, the nasty, malicious, and false guise of election integrity. these bills, sadly, are aimed at americans of color. black americans, latinos, native americans. despicably, efforts to target these historic disenfranchised communities have become a central component of the electoral strategy of one of america's major political parties. shame on them. shame. it is infuriateing. infuriating.

if you lose an election, you are posed to win over the people you lost, not stop them from voting. that is un-american, autocratic. it is against the fundamentals of our democracy. but this is happening in states all across the country, all across the country. maybe the most reprehensible effort is under way in georgia where state republicans are trying to limit absentee and mail-in voting, make it harder to post a ballot by drop box, and disallow early voting on sunday, a day when many church-going african americans participate in voter drives. does anyone on the other side of the aisle think taking away sunday voting in georgia is not bigoted? what's the rationale? stop it. if you want to stand for equality and justice. our country has 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 vote, but some of these voter suppression laws in georgia and other republican states smack of jim crow, jim crow in the 21st century, rearing its ugly head once again. these laws and their various cousins in state legislators, republican state legislators across the country are collectively one of the greatest threats to modern american democracy. according to a recent report in "the washington post," these laws could strain every available method of voting for tens of millions of americans, potentially amounting to the most sweeping contraction of ballot access in the united states since the end of reconstruction. when southern states curtailed the voting rights of formerly enslaved black men. if one party believes heads we

win, tails you cheated, if one political party believes that when you lose an election, the answer isn't to win more votes but rather to prevent the other side from voting, then we have serious and existential threats to our democracy on our hands. this is no political dispute. it goes way beyond that, to the core, the core of what america is all about. that's why we need s. 1 so badly, a bill that would combat all of these voter suppression efforts by restoring critical parts of the voting rights act, a bill that would make it easier, not harder to vote by automatically registering american voters when they get a driver's license, a bill that would limit dark money and corruption in our politics and much more. there are a lot of problems in our country -- health care and climate change and income inequality, but we designed a democracy that would allow competing interests in our country to come together and

agree on solutions. if our democracy doesn't work, we have no hope, no hope at solving any of our other problems. s. 1 is going to be a top priority this congress. we will fight and fight and fight to get this done legislatively. failure is not an option. too darned much is at stake. now, on the american rescue plan. i'd like to continue shining a spotlight on different aspects of a.r.p. the legislation helped so many people in so much of the country, it's easy to forget much crucial parts of the bill. so later today, i will be joining my dear friend, representative velazquez from new york to talk about the -- how the american rescue plan helps puerto rico, which is too

often an afterthought in federal legislation. the american rescue plan will do three historic things for the people of puerto rico, american citizens all. first, it will deliver federal dollars to the island's earned income tax credit for low-wage workers for the first time ever. second, it will expand eligibility for residents to claim the child tax credit prior to the a.r.p. only families with three or more children in puerto rico could claim the child tax credit. why those american citizens were treated differently than all the others was beyond me and sounds -- strikes me as nasty. but now, every family can. third, the a.r.p. bill will add add $1 billion, $1 billion in food assistance. residents of american territories don't receive traditional food assistance programs like those in the u.s., such as the snap program, but instead their governments receive block grants that have

been capped by the federal government. the american rescue plan makes sure that puerto rico, which suffers devastating rates of poverty -- 43%, especially childhood poverty, an unacceptable 57% of all the children in puerto rico live in poverty. so we want to make sure that puerto rico receives its fair share of federal food assistance. the american rescue plan may be the greatest antipoverty effort in a generation, and we make sure that puerto rico is part of it. now let me turn my attention to schools. one of the most enduring images of the covid-19 pandemic will be the empty classroom. for 12 months, teachers have done their level best to keep their students engaged with remote learning, but there have been incredible difficulties. too many students don't have reliable internet.

too many parents can't be there to help young kids log on and keep up with their work. simply put, there's no replacement for having kids in the classroom. we need to get our schools to reopen as quickly and as safely as possible. now, my republican colleagues have made a lot of noise about reopening our schools, but they don't want to dedicate any resources to actually getting it done. we need money to do this. there are many more expenses under covid. through the american rescue plan, senate democrats delivered the single largest investment in american education ever. we are proud of that. proud. let me say it again. through the american rescue plan, senate democrats delivered the single largest investment in american education ever. ever. $1,770,000,000,000 to repair the damage caused by this pandemic. three quarters of which will go directly to k-12 education,

prioritizing school districts that need it the most. this will help schools update ventilation, hire more nurses and janitors, make classroom sizes smaller, and make getting kids to and from school safer. in short, the american rescue plan will greatly accelerate the safe and effective reopening of schools. and once kids are back in the classroom, the american rescue plan will help make sure they can stay there and succeed. after what has been a lost year for too many students, this bill provides significant support for learning recovery programs, after-school programs, summer school programs, and other resources to help kids catch up and get back on track. through the american rescue plan, we have made a life-changing investment in our students. it's one of the many ways this bill will help us recover from the crisis and come back stronger than ever before.

i yield the floor, madam president. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: last week our democratic colleagues had to resort to a rare tactic to rescue the stalled nomination of xavier becerra to run the department of health appeared human services. the distinguishing feature of this nominee's resume is not his expertise in health, medicine,

or administration. that part of the resume is the very brief. what stands out are mr. becerra's commitment to partisan warfare and his far-left ideology. he's supported the sweeping government takeover of health care they call medicare for all, which would actually end medicare as we know it and would rip away families' private insurance plans. as the administration's policies continue to create a border crisis, mr. becerra is someone who believes we should not just have blanket amnesty but that entering the country illegally should not even be a crime. and even amid a global pandemic, the most significant health-related experience on the nominee's record are his efforts to wield the legal system against religious sisters to

make them violate their faith and conscience. up until now, every nominee for health and human services has been discharged by unanimous consent. i continue to urge a no vote. fortunately, however, the senate will be confirming a thoroughly qualified nominee to be the administration's new top strayed official. katherine tai is just the kind of qualified position to serve president biden and the country quite well. that's why she received broad bipartisan support from the finance committee and why the vote to advance her nomination yesterday was 98-0. i look forward to working with ms. tai to embrace trade and push back on abusive practices from china and other anticompetitive countries.

trade is a huge strength of america. it drives job creation and economic growth. just look at my home state, for example. exports support more than 140,000 jobs in kentucky. kentuckians supply countries with everything from agricultural goods, to medicines to aerospace parts and motor vehicles. in the last congress we modernized our trade with our neighbors to the north and south through the usmca. we gave kentucky farmers, workers, and consumers a long awaited boost. but our job creators still face unfair barriers including those targeting american spirits. the bluegrass is proud to craft 95% of the world's bourbon but tariffs put kentucky distillsers at a disadvantage in a their largest export markets. ms. tai should address these international head wince

confronting kentuckians, reducing barriers for products and services from all 50 states. americans would welcome the growth and opportunity and prosperity. if you ask me, the whole world could benefit from a little more kentucky bourbon. tomorrow the secretary of state and the president's national security advisor will have their first face-to-face meeting with chinese officials. i'm glad our officials met with regional allies like japan and south korea right beforehand and have been in touch with australia and european allies as well. it's essential that we and our friends present a united front. now the united states and the whole world need the president's team to deliver a strong message tomorrow. during the campaign, president biden spoke dismissively about the threat from china, but thus far in office his team has shown signs they understand that communist china threatens america, our allies, and the

pre-vialing international system. the world spent years presuming that welcoming china into the international community would inevitably cause its rulers to play by the rules. twenty years ago president clinton said economic innovation and political empowerment will inevitably go hand in hand. since then, rather than the rest of the world exporting liberty and transparency into china, beijing has found more success exporting authoritarianism and corruption beyond its borders. in japan on tuesday, secretary blinken called out the coercion and aggression that china deploys at home and abroad. he said this administration will push back on beijing. that clear-eyed talk is certainly welcome. but it's just the first step. walking the walk will mean responding in tough ways to espionage and cyberattacks, to violations of human rights, to military bullying, to stealing

intellectual property, and cheating on trade. if the administration is up to the task, they'll find strong partners in this republican conference. here's what big test -- are they willing to keep investing in our own defense? our financial commitment to defending america is our most important policy lever in this competition with china. our allies and adversaries do not need american presidents because they are tea charming or good -- because they're charming or good-looking. the world has respected america for our military and economic superiority. when that edge erodes, we invite trouble. as a share of our economy, america's defense spending has fallen significantly -- not just from the cold war era heights but even just recently. meanwhile, china used its growing prosperity to modernize its military, develop new and

longer-range weapons to hold the u.s. away and turned a particular eye towards space and entire space. defense spending is about protecting our homeland. it is about projecting power. it is about preserving global influence, supporting our allies. it's really a barometer of our national will. it's also about innovation and the future. many life-changing innovation throughout our economy were first rooted in military r&d. unfortunately, reports suggest the biden administration may plan -- may -- to freeze defense spending. of course, that means a reduction after inflation. dozens of democrats are pressuring the administration for even steeper cuts than that. if the administration is serious about competing with china, deterring russia, and preserving american leadership, the most

important test will be in the president's budget submission. some of our senate democrat colleagues have expressed interest in crafting bipartisan legislation related to china. if any issue is ripe for regular order in bipartisan process, it would be that one. defense spending is the crucial first step but there are a whole variety of subjects that could benefit from a serious look. there's bipartisan support for improving security reviews of foreign investment and protecting against forced technology transfer. but cracking down on chinese espionage and political influence campaigns, we're supporting the people of hong kong and human rights and deterring aggression against taiwan. there's bipartisan support for fostering specific industries of national security importance such as semiconductors and for broadly strengthening american's r&d. there is an opportunity for a

discussion here. certainly this is an area where bipartisanship will be especially crucial, so strategies don't change schizophrenically with every election. as one of our democratic colleagues said yesterday, the u.s. will not outcompete china with never-ending uncertainty. that's another argument for not trashing the legislative filibuster. imagine if every action the senate took was constantly subject to being wiped clean. while china plans years and decades at a time, our federal legislation would reduce to a shelf life of a couple of years. these issues need to be addressed thoughtfully and deliberately. identifying critical technologies and the best ways to promote and protect advancements need to be a smart, fact-based process, not a political guessing game or throwing cash at industries with the right connections.

our work on this front should strengthen our ties with our allies and partners, not try in vain to simply go it alone. and the democratic majority must resist the temptation to pile a long list of unrelated policy wishes into a big package and try to label it china policy. it would be quite a remarkable coincidence if our democratic colleagues' vision for a show of called china bill -- for a so-called china bill becomes indistinguishable for a list of things that just so happen to delight liberal interest groups. getting america on stronger footing will not require some sweeping far-left transformation of our economy. it will mean continuing to complement the principles and ideas that are our greatest strengths, and it will mean working on these issues the right way across the aisle.

the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, executive office of the president. katherine c. tai of the district of columbia to be united states trade representative. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. mr. peters: madam president, i rise today to pay tribute to an extraordinary public servant and a michigander, eric feldman. since my first day serving in the united states house of representatives, eric has served as my chief of staff. i still remember him coming to my home just a couple weeks

after my election to interview for the chief of staff position. i was immediately impressed by his extensive knowledge of american politics and his passion to serve the people of the state of michigan. but to fully know eric is to know his family's story and how it shaped the man he is. all four of his grandparents survived the h holocaust. his maternal grandmother was imprisoned in auschwitz and others. his maternal grandfather was in a forced labor camp and plow shop. his grand pairntszs met and married in -- parents met and married in a concentration camp. they were liberated from there and remained after it was converted to a displaced persons camp following world war ii. that camp is where eric's mother was born. his grandparents and mother immigrated in 1949 to detroit

where his grandfather worked as a janitor at ford motor company during the day and worked as a taylor -- tailor at night. his mother won a full scholscholarship as part of a pm for employees. eric's paternal grandparents fled poland on the eve of the nazi german invasion. they survived the war as slave laborers in siberia where eric's father was born. following the war they immigrated to israel before settling in detroit. eric's father went to wayne state university thanks to the g.i. bill after serving honorably in the united states air force. after immigrating to detroit, eric's family worked hard and they were able to achieve the american dream. there is no question that their life experience and their journey instilled in eric a

sense of service and devotion to country. as a freshman member of congress, i was fortunate to have eric on my team. he brought with him extensive political and policy experience having worked for congresswoman nita loy, leader nancy pelosi, and rah rahm e-- emanuel. he ran the office with brilliant leadership and wise counsel. through four reelections including any election to the senate and reelection last year and many crises impacting michigan and my country i entrusted eric to help ensure we were able to come together, solve tough problems, and ultimately deliver results. he never flinched. i could always count on eric to work with our team to develop creative ideas, to tackle

challenges, or empower staff to make sure we were on the leading edge of issues critical to michigan. he has guided my office through countless high profile events and crises. the great recession and auto crisis, the flint water crisis, several government shutdowns, the covid-19 pandemic, the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol and two impeachment trials. through it all, eric has provided stability and focus, a focus on working in a bipartisan manner to pass important legislation and to make progress for michigan and for our entire country. last week i was humbled to be recognized by the center for effective law making as the most effective senator in the 116th congress. recognition of this sort does not happen without having an incredible team. eric played a critical role in

helping me enact ten bills into law, the most of any senator from either party over the last two years. and i know that eric would tell you without a doubt that there is no i in team. as a letter, eric has focused on hiring talented staff both in d.c. and across michigan, staff that humbly, selflessly, and effectively served the people of michigan each and every day. with eric's laser focus on what's best for michigan, together with our team, we have secured record funding to protect the great lakes, worked to increase security at our nation's borders, expanded apprenticeships and skills training, saved taxpayer dollars and made the federal government more efficient all the while standing up for michigan workers, including those working in our auto industry. eric is always on the leading edge and he has distinguished himself through his work with

michigan's auto manufacturers and automotive stakeholders. in particular, eric has helped drive policy efforts focused on innovation and emerging technologies so that in the near future, self-driving vehicles will not only be safely deployed and save thousands of lives on our highways, but also be developed and built in michigan and in the united states creating good-paying jobs for the next generation of workers. at every step of the way through all of his hard work, eric has carried himself with his characteristic enthusiasm and passion. it is only fitting as an alum of the university of michigan and a fervent, very fervent wolverine fan, he has, and i quote, an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. whether it's policy, politics, case work, or an issue important

to constituents, there is no doubt that eric approaches it with a keen interest and with high energy and that he will think through every single possible angle. but eric has been much more than just a chief aid. colleen and i feel incredibly fortunate not only for all that eric has done to lead my office and deliver for the people of michigan, we count on him as a confidant and a dear friend. eric, you will be missed dearly as you depart for your next endeavor in the private sector. but i'm grateful for what you have built, and i know that it will endump. -- endure. a culture of teamwork, hard work, productivity, and a commitment to what is best for michiganders. eric colleen and i know that you have devoted countless hours to a job that you love while balancing the two most important roles in your life, being a

loving husband and a father. i have been proud to watch you celebrate many life's milestones over the years, including the birth of your two beloved sons. and i will certainly never forget your eldest son's birthday on november 4, 2014, the day michiganders elected me to the united states senate. eric, colleen and i wish you much success, and we hope you enjoy this next chapter with dina, avie, and ethan. know that colleen and i will always be thankful beyond measure for your service and for your leadership and that you forever be part of team peters. madam president, i yield the floor.

mr. thune: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune madam president, i ask unanimous consent that i be able to complete my remarks before the vote. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, social media platforms have become a pretty significant part of americans' lives. we use them to stay up to date on news from friends and family, something has become especially essential during the pandemic, to communicate with relatives and friends, for entertainment, as a shopping resource. social media sites provide ways to network, to connect with like-minded individuals from fellow theater lovers to fellow basketball fans, to advocate for causes that we believe in, to conduct business even to date

and more and more we rely on social media sites as a primary source of news and information from presidential election news to updates on covid vaccinations. social media offers a lot of benefits and opportunities, but the increasing dominance of social media, particularly in the news and information space has always raised concerns. consumers have become increasingly troubled about the way their information is used by social media platforms and how these sites decide what news and information we see. and they're -- there are increasing numbers of anecdotes to suggest that some social media platforms are moderating content in a biased or political way. madam president, currently content moderation on social media platforms is governed by section 230 of the communications decency act which was enacted into law 25 years ago. section 230 provides internet sites that host user-generated

content, sites like youtube or twitter or facebook with immunity from the content they post on their sites. if somebody posts a video on youfiewb that contains illegal content, youtube is not held legally responsible for the content. section 230 has been critical to the development of the internet as we know it today. without section 230 protections, many of the sites we rely on for social connection or news or entertainment would never have come into being. but as the internet and social media has grown and developed, it's also become clear that some changes need to be made. in particular, it's becoming increasingly clear that sites need to provide greater transparency when it comes to their content moderation practices and decisions. social media sites are for longer just providing a platform for user-generated content as they did in their infancy. they're now making a lot of decisions about that content and

carefully shaping our social media experience, what ads we see, what posts we see, what news stories we see. and currently, federal law does not require that social media sites be at all accountable to consumers for those content moderation decisions. that's why today i am producing -- introducing the platform accountability and consumer transparency act or the pact act along with my colleague senator schatz. our bill would preserve the benefits of section 230 like the internet growth and wide dissemination of free speech it's enabled while increasing accountability and consumer transparency around content moderation. now, madam president, content moderation is certainly not all bad. for example, most of us are happy to have youtube or instagram suggest additional content that matches the music that we like to listen to or the hobbies that we're interested in. the problem is that content

moderation has been and largely continues to be a black box with consumers having little or no idea how the information they see has been shaped by the sites that they're visiting. the pact act would address this problem by increasing transparency around the content moderation process. sites would be required to provide an easily digestible disclosure of that ircontent moderation for users. they would be required to explain their decisions to remove material to consumers. until relatively recently, sites like facebook and twitter would remove a user's post without explanation and without an appeals process. and even as platforms start to shape up their act with regard to transparency and due process, it is still hard for users to get good information about how content is moderated. under the pact act if a site choose to remove your post, it has to tell you why it decided

to remove your post and explain how your post violated the site's terms of use. the pact act would also require sites to have an appeals process. so if facebook, for example, removes one of your post, it would not only have to tell you why but it would have to provide a way for you to appeal that decision. we've seen increased concern lately about news articles being removed from social media sites. under the pact act a newspaper whose article was posted on facebook or twitter and then removed by one of those platforms could challenge facebook or twitter which would have to provide a reason for removing the article and allow the newspaper to appeal the decision. the pact act would also help us develop the data necessary to demonstrate whether social media platforms are removing content in a biased or political fashion. and as i said earlier, there's been increasing concern about bias content moderation on social media sites. the pact act requires detailed

transparency of reports every six months from large social media platforms like twitter and facebook which will provide the data needed to determine whether and where biased moderation exists. the pact act would also bolster efforts about i state governments to hold social media platforms accountable. the bill would allow state attorneys general to bring civil lawsuits against social media platforms when these platforms are violated federal civil laws. the pact act would also require companies to remove material that has been adjudicated as illegal by a court. internet platforms would be required to remove illegal content within four days. failure to remove illegal material would result in the platform's losing its 230 protections for that content or activity, a provision that matches a recommendation made by the trump department of justice for section 230 reform. madam president, i'm grateful to senator schatz for partnering with me on this legislation. our bill is a serious,

bipartisan approach to the issue of section 230 reform. and it would go a long way toward making social media platforms more accountable to consumers and increasing transparency around the content moderation process. i invite our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join us in advancing this legislation. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent to complete my remarks before the vote is called. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. murray: for the information of senators, i will speak for about seven minutes. madam president, i'd like to start by taking a moment to address the awful violence we saw in georgia yesterday. everyone, especially elected officials, needs to not just speak out, but to act against this deadly display of hate. to the victims and their families and to the asian american and pacific islander

community in washington state and nationwide, my heart is with you, not just today but going forward. i will continue sending a strong message that hate against you must stop, and i will keep working to ensure your safety in light of the terrible surge in hate crimes we have seen in our state and across the country. now, madam president, i rise today to voice my strong support for attorney general becerra to serve as secretary of health and human services. after four years of attacks on families' health care from president trump, after a year of this pandemic ravaging our nation, the challenges that lie ahead of us, especially when it comes to health care, are numerous, they are enormous, and they are absolutely urgent. the uninsured rate, the drug prices, and health care costs have all skyrocketed. confident in our public health -- confidence in our public health agencies have plummeted. already painful health

inequities have grown deeper. and this pandemic has absolutely devastated communities and pushed our health care system to the brink. covid-19 has killed over a half a million people, and that number continues to rise. when it comes to the hard work ahead to not only end this pandemic but rebuild a stronger and fairer country, it is clear we need an experienced leader at the department of health and human services. it's clear we don't have a second to waste, and it's clear attorney general becerra is the right pick for this job. his track record shows he has the conviction and the qualifications for the task at hand. as a member of congress for over two decades, he has proven himself a skilled legislator who understands health care policy. as attorney general of one of the nation's largest justice departments, he's proven himself as a leader capable of heading a complex department like h.h.s.

and throughout all of his work, he has proven himself as a champion for patients and public health. in congress, he worked to help more people get quality affordable health care by passing the children's health insurance program and the affordable care act. in california, he has fought in court to defend the affordable care act. and time and time again has gone to court to fight for patients. like when he won a $70 million settlement from pharmaceutical companies for blocking cheaper generic drugs from market. when he won a settlement from opioid manufacturers behind the addiction crisis and joined bipartisan investigations into whether opioids were unlawfully marketed. when he sued e-cigarette companies from marketing tobacco products to children and led a bipartisan effort with the republican attorney general of nebraska to protect kids from tobacco imagery. or when he worked to investigate companies and hold them

accountable for putting workers at risk by failing to follow covid-19 safety measures. attorney general becerra has also worked to acknowledge and address issues driving inequities in health care. as leader of california's department of justice, he fought in court against the trump administration rule that undermined care for the lgbtq community against the administration's constant efforts to undermine reproductive health care and against his blatant disregard for the well-being of migrant children. attorney general becerra also established a new bureau of disability rights at his department, as well as a new office focused on environmental justice, including how pollution and public health hazards disproportionately hurt communities of color. overall, his record tells a story that is clear, compelling, and persuasive. he's fought against pharmaceutical companies, opioid

manufacturers, tobacco companies, and polluters, and four more affordable quality health care for education. i have no doubt as secretary he will be able to put special interests on notice and put patients and public health first and put science, data, and experts back into the driver's seat. and he would also bring an important perspective to this role as a first-generation college student and the first latino secretary of health and human services. he's exactly the kind of leader we need to make sure we make good on the promise of the historic investments we made in the american rescue plan to end this pandemic, investments to rapidly scale up testing and tracing and sequencing so we can identify new strains of covid and slow the spread, investments to quickly and equitably get vaccines into arms, an effort that requires not just making vaccines available but breaking down barriers to access, promoting vaccine confidence,

fighting misinformation, and engaging community partners, investments to build our public health infrastructure and recruit and train 100,000 public health care workers. he will also be a valuable partner to congress as we work to address challenges that predate this pandemic that have made -- been made all the more urgent like rooting out systemic racism and addressing inequities in our health care system which have made this pandemic so much more damaging and deadly for communities of color. like addressing the mental health care crisis which the trauma of this pandemic has made so much worse. like fighting the opioid epidemic, a crisis which was deadlier than ever this past year. and like expanding access to quality affordable child care which has become more difficult for families to get during this pandemic. when this pandemic is over, we will need a strong leader at the department to deal with the aftermath and with so many other

outstanding issues, bringing down prescription drug prices, making sure health care in this country is truly a right, not a privilege, undoing four years of attacks on reproductive rights, and ensuring every woman can get reproductive help, regardless of their race or income or zip code or disability. lowering our unconscionably high maternal mortality rate, reversing the alarming trend of rising youth tobacco use, and ensuring the office of refugee resettlement is upholding its welfare mission by prioritizing the well-being of every child in its care, ensuring they are treated with decency and humanity and kindness and working to place children with suitable sponsors quickly and safely. we have our work cut out for us, but in attorney general becerra, we have a secretary of health who's up to the job. he has the support not only of democrats but of republicans. as the republican attorneys general of both louisiana and

tennessee have spoken while of their experiences working with him. i urge every senator to wants the biden-harris administration to succeed at ending this pandemic quickly, keeping our families safe, and ensuring everyone can get quality affordable health care, join me in voting to confirm. thank you, madam president. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the tai nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas

are 98 -- the yeas are 98, the nays 0. the nomination is confirmed. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i ask unanimous consent that the the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. 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 the nomination of executive calendar number 37, xavier becerra, of california, to be secretary of health and human services, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of xavier becerra, of california, to be secretary of health and human services, shall be brought to a close?

the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: are there any -- are there any senators in the room wishing to vote or to change their vote? seeing not, the yeas are 50, the nays 49. and the motion is greed to. the clerk will report the nomination.

the clerk: nomination, department of health and human services, xavier becerra, to be secretary. mr. warnock: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia.

mr. warnock: mr. president, before i begin my formal remarks, i want to pause to condemn the hatred and violence that took eight precious lives last night in metropolitan atlanta. i grieve with georgians, with americans, with people of -- love all across the world. this unspeakable violence visited largely upon the asian community is one that causes all of us to recommit ourselves to the way of peace, an active peace that prevents these kinds of tragedies from happening in the first place. we pray for these families. mr. president, i rise here today as a proud american and as one of the newest members of the senate and all of the journey that has brought me to these

hallowed halls. and with an abiding sense of reverence and gratitude for the sacrifice of ancestors who paved the way i am a proud son of the great state of georgia, born and raised in savannah, a coastal city known for its koablstone streets and town squares, towering oak trees, centuries old and covered in gray spanish moss, beckon to the city of agriculture. i was educated at morehouse college and i serve in the ebb kneeser baptist church, both in atlanta. and so like those oak trees in savannah, my roots go down deep and they stretch wide and the

soil -- in the soil of waycross, georgia, and burke county. in a word, i am georgia, a living example and embodiment of its history and its hope, of its pain and promise, the brutality and possibility. mr. president, at the time of my birth, georgia's two senators were richard b. russell and herman e.talvich, both -- after the supreme court's landmark brown v. board ruling, talvich warned that blood will run in the streets of atlanta. his father, former governor of

our state famously declared the south loves the negro in his place, but his place is at the backdoor. when once asked how he and his supporters might keep black people away from the polls, he picked up a scrap of paper and wrote a single word on it. pistols. yet, there is something in the american covenant, in it's charter documents and its jeffersonian ideals that bend toward freedom and led by a preacher and a patriot named king, americans of all races stood up. history vindicated the movement that sought to bring us closer to our ideals, to lengthen and strengthen the cords of our

democracy and i now hold the seat, the senate seat, where herman e.talmadge sat, and that's why i love america. i love america because we always have a path to make it better, to build a more perfect union. it is a place where a kid like me who grew up in public hou housing, first college graduate in my family can now stand as a united states senator. i had an older father. he was born in 1917. serving in the army during world war ii, he was once asked to give up his seat to a young teenager while wearing his soldier's uniform. they said making the world safe for democracy.

but he was never bitter. and by the time i came along, he had already seen the arc of change in our country. and he maintained his faith in god and in his family and in the american promise, and he passed that faith on to his children. my mother grew up in wait cross, georgia. you know where that is? it's way across georgia. and like a lot of black teenagers in the 1950's, she spent her summers picking somebody else's tobacco and somebody else's cotton. but because this is america, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else's cotton went to the polls in january and picked her youngest son to be a united states senator. ours is a land where possibility is born of democracy, a vote, a

voice, a chance to help determine the direction of the country and one's own destiny within it. possibility born of democracy. that's why this past november and january my mom and other citizens of georgia grabbed hold of that possibility and turned out in record numbers, five million in november. 4.4 million in january. far more than ever in our state's history. turn out to a typical runoff doubled. and the people of georgia sent their first african american senator and first jewish sen senator, my brother jon ossoff to these hallowed halls. but then what happened? some politicians did not approve of the choice made by the majority of voters in a

hard-fought election in which each side got the chance to make its case to the voters. and rather than adjusting their agenda, rather than changing their message, they are busy trying to change the rules. we are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we've ever seen since the jim crow era. this is jim crow in new clothes. since the january election, some 250 voter suppression bills have been introduced by state legislatures all across the country from georgia to arizona, from new hampshire to florida

using the big lie of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression. the same big lie that led to a violent insurrection on this very capitol the day after my election. within 24 hours we elected georgia's first african american and jewish senator and hours later the capitol was assaulted. we see in just a few precious hours the tension very much alive in the soul of america, and the question before all of us at every moment is what will we do to push us in the right direction? and so politicians driven by that big lie aim to severely

limit and in some cases eliminate automatic and same-day voter registration, mail-in and absentee voting and early voting and weekend voting. they want to make it easier to purge voters from the voting roll altogether. and as a voting rights activist, i've seen upclose just how draconian these measures can be. i hail from a state that purged 200,000 voters from the roll one saturday night in the middle of the night. we know what's happening here. some people don't want some people to vote. i was honored on a few occasions to stand with my hero and my parrishier -- parrisher john lewis. i was his pastor but i'm clear he was my mentor. on more than one occasion we

boarded buses together after sunday church services as part of our souls to the polls program encouraging the ebenezer church family and communities of faith to participate in the democratic process. now just a few months after congressman lewis' death, there are those in the georgia legislature, some who even dare to praise his name, that are now trying to get rid of sunday souls to the polls, making it a crime for people who pray together to get on a bus together in order to vote together. i think that's wrong. as a matter of fact, i think that a vote is a kind of prayer for the kind of world we desire for ourselves and for our children. and our prayers are stronger when we pray together. to be sure we have seen these kind of voter suppression

tactics before. they are part of a long and shameful history in georgia and throughout our nation, but refusing to be denied georgia citizens and citizens across our country brave the heat and the cold and the rain, some standing in line for five hours, six hours, ten hours just to exercise their constitutional right to vote, young people, old people, sick people, working people already underpaid forced to lose wages to pay a kind of poll tax while standing in line to vote. and how do some politicians respond? well, they are trying to make it a crime to give people water and

a snack as they wait in lines that are obviously being made longer by their draconian actions. think about that. think about that. they are the ones making the lines longer through these draconian actions. then they want to make it a crime to bring grandma some water while she's waiting in a line that they're making longer. make no mistake, this is democracy in reverse. rather than voters being able to pick the politicians, the politicians are trying to cherry-pick their voters. i say this cannot stand. and so i rise, mr. president,

because that sacred and noble idea, one person, one vote is being threatened right now. politicians in my home state and all across america in their craven lust for power have launched a full-fledged assault on voting rights. they are focused on winning at any cost, even the cost of the democracy itself. and i submit that it is the job of each citizen to stand up for the voting rights of every citizen and it is the job of this body to do all that it can to defend the viability of our democracy. and that's why i am a proud cosponsor of the for the people act which we introduced today.

the for the people act is a major step in the march toward our democratic ideals making it easier, not harder for eligible americans to vote by instituting commonsense pro-democracy reforms, like establishing national automatic voter registration for every eligible citizen and allowing all americans to register to vote online and on election day, requiring states to offer at least two weeks of early voting, including weekends in federal elections, keeping souls to the polls programs alive, prohibiting states from restricting a person's ability to vote absentee or by mail and preventing states from purging the voter rolls based solely on unreliable evidence like someone's voting history, something we've seen in georgia and other states in recent

years. and it would end the dominance of big money in our politics and ensure our public servants are there serving the public. amidst these voter suppression laws and tactic including partisan and racial gerrymandering and a system awashed in dark money and the dominance of corpitus interests and politicians who do their bidding, the voices of the american people have been increasingly drowned out and crowded out and squeezed out of their own democracy. we must pass for the people so that the people might have a voice. your vote is your voice and your voice is your human dignity, but not only that, we must pass the

john lewis voting rights advancement act. you know, voting rights used to be a bipartisan issue. the last time the voting rights bill was reauthorized was 2006, george w. bush was president. and it passed this chamber 98-0. but then in 2013 the supreme court rejected the successful formula for supervision and preclearance contained in the 1965 voting rights act. they asked congress to fix it. that was nearly eight years ago. and the american people are still waiting. triple protections, voters in states with a long history of voter discrimination and voters in many other states have been thrown to the winds.

we americans have noisy and spirited debates about many things and we should. that's what it means to live in a free country. with access to -- but access to the ballot ought to be nonpartisan. i submit that there should be 100 votes in this chamber for policies that will make it easier for americans to make their voices heard in our democracy. surely, there ought to be at least 60 in this chamber who believe as i do that before most powerful words uttered in a democracy are the people have spoken. therefore, we must ensure that all of the people can speak. but if not, we must still pass

voting rights. the right to vote is preservative of all other rights. it is not just another issue alongside other issues. it is foundational. it is a reason why any of us has the privilege of standing here in the first place. it is about the covenant we have with one another as an american people. e. pluribus unum, out of any one. each of us must be protected. so let's be clear. i'm not here today to spiral interest the -- into the procedural argument regarding whether the filibuster in general has merits or has outlived its usefulness. i'm here to say that this issue is bigger than the filibuster. i stand before you saying that this issue, access to voting and preempting politicians' efforts to restrict voting is so fundamental to our democracy that it is too important to be

held hostage by a senate rule, especially one historically used to restrict expansion of voting rights. it is a contradiction to say we must protect minority rights in the senate while refusing to protect minority rights in the society. no senate rule should overrule the integrity of our democracy. we must find a way to pass voting rights whether we get rid of the filibuster or not. and so as i close -- and nobody believes a preacher when he says as i close -- let me say that i, as a man of faith, i believe that democracy is the political

enactment of a spiritual idea. the sacred worth of all human beings. the notion that we all have within us a spark of the divine and the right to participate in the shaping of our destiny. humanity's capacity for justice makes democracy possible but humanity's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. john lewis understood that and was beaten on a bridge defending it. amelia boynton, like so many women not mentioned nearly enough, was gassed on that same bridge. a white woman named viola luiso was killed.

medgar evans was killed in his own driveway. two jews and an african american standing up for that sacred idea of democracy also paid the ultimate price. and we in this body would be stopped and stymied by partisan politics? short-term political gain. senate procedure. i say let's get this done no matter what. i urge my colleagues to pass these two bills, strengthen and lengthen the cords of our democracy, strengthen our credibility as the premiere voice for freedom-loving people and democratic movements all over the world, and win the future for all of our children. mr. president, i yield the floor.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. boozman: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: no, we are not. mr. boozman: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, we can be proud of the bipartisan work the senate has accomplished in recent years to expand veterans' benefits. last congress, we made significant progress with passage of legislation to

enhance education, pensions, burial, compensation, and landmark improvements to department of veterans' affairs care and services for women veterans in addition to a ground-breaking initiative to prevent veteran suicides. i'm hopeful we can use this momentum to continue turning legislation into law to ensure we fill the promise our country made to the men and women who served in uniform as well as their families. we know too many veterans are being left behind because of current v.a. policies that prohibit them from accessing benefits and health care services they have earned. veterans like bill rhodes of mena, arkansas, a marine who served in thailand during the vietnam war era, are pleading with congress to help them get needed medical care and support. after developing illnesses linked to herbicide exposure, mr. rhodes turned to the v.a. for help. his claim was denied.

he did his homework. he spent time looking for documentation to support his claim and realized this is a problem that needs a legislative fix because of the department's policies limit benefits for vietnam war-era for thailand service. i'm proud to join with my colleague and chairman of the senate committee on veterans' affairs, senator tester, to introduce legislation to help mr. rhodes and veterans like him who are exposed to agent orange and other herbicides while serving in thailand during the vietnam war. the v.a. accepts that herbicides were used on fenced-in perimeters of military bases in thailand, but its current policy is too restrictive. among other things, it prohibits veterans who worked in security-related specialties. it's reasonable to believe that veterans on thai bases were exposed to agent orange, no matter what their jobs were or where their duty stations were.

in an article published in "the dayton daily news," one veteran who served in thailand said his barracks were along the perimeter, and at the time of the interview, he still hadn't received benefits for his v.a. claim. the arbitrary limits on consideration of the veteran's claim of toxic exposure are simply wrong. these misguided technicalities and bureaucratic hurdles need to be addressed. our bill would eliminate the unreasonable burden placed on veterans to prove toxic exposure. no veteran should be denied benefits due to red tape. these americans who served our country and to this day are paying a high price as a result have been carelessly hindered by the current limitations on the presumption of toxic exposure to agent orange, but they aren't forgotten. we have an obligation to ensure they get the benefits they are due, and i am committed to supporting their cause.

i appreciate the determination and tireless effort of mr. rhodes. he said this legislation gives him some hope, but he won't be proud of his work until the bill is passed. i encourage my colleagues to support our legislation. i look forward to working with members of the senate v.a. committee to eliminate the barriers that prevent veterans from getting the care and resources they have earned. and with that, mr. president, i yield back. mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, the senate will soon vote on the nomination of california attorney general xavier becerra to lead the department of health and human services. moving this nomination forward required an additional

procedural step and more floor debate than others, so i will make just a few quick points this afternoon. first, in our lifetime, america has never faced a greater public health challenge than the pandemic we face today. the department of health and human services is our point agency, the leading agency to coordinate the effort to end the pandemic as soon as possible. right now, for example, it's coordinating the distribution of vaccines. it's working to get p.p.e., the critical protective equipment, into the hands of nurses and doctors and all those providers who desperately need more of it. the department supports rural hospitals, keep them afloat so that rural patients have access to care. the department's work includes

the centers for medicare and medicaid services, the centers for disease control, the national national institutes of health, the national guard, all 50 states and the district of columbia, as well as private health care systems, doctors, and many individuals across the country. the american people we all know are ready for this pandemic to end. they certainly understand that having a person to coordinate the critical efforts of the department of health and human services confirmed and on the job is part of that effort. there simply is no argument for delaying this confirmation any longer. attorney general becerra has the right leadership experience and the right health policy experience to succeed in this critical job. he currently heads the nation's

second largest department of justice. he is in charge of a billion-dollar budget and more than 4,000 employees. he's the top law enforcement official in what would be the fifth largest economy in the world. in terms of health policy, which is in the area i have tried to specialize in, i can tell senators that xavier becerra has spent years and years on these issues at the ways and means, the key committee in the other body with jurisdiction over health care. he has been through major policy debates, including the affordable care act. as california's attorney general, he defended the act in court. when the pandemic hit, he fought to protect the health and well-being of all californians, particularly nurses and doctors and those workers who found themselves in harm's way.

attorney general becerra has the health policy savvy and the leadership savvy and the experience in both areas to run this department, no question about it. attorney general becerra made it clear to members of the finance committee that he will follow the law. a quaint idea. he said it again and again in response to a barrage of questions. he's going to be accessible to senators. he's going to work to find common ground on key health care issues. and i was glad he said it because that's heavy lifting. most of the time that's really all you can ask of nominees of the other party. health care is oftentimes a divisive subject. i think every senator understands that. it's particularly true when it comes to women's health care. but it's clear to me that

attorney general becerra wants to bring the two sides together. that's a great place to start after the last four years of knock-down, dragout battle over health care issues that clearly took america in the wrong direction. i'm going to close with just one thought about why this position is so important. i don't know of any prospect more unifying among americans than ending the pandemic and getting life back to normal as quickly as possible. parents want their kids back in school. grandparents want to hug their grandkids. everybody wants to feel safe and get out in their community. getting our country to that point is the essence of what this job is all about. heading the department of health and human services focuses

exactly on those things people want to have the country come together on, what we need to come together on to beat the pandemic and the department needs its leader confirmed and on the job now. i was pleased that there was bipartisan support for discharging attorney general becerra's nomination from the finance committee. i hope the senate gives his nomination bipartisan support once again. when it's time to vote on his confirmation, i look forward to working with him in the months and years to come. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. moran: mr. president, i oppose the nomination of california attorney general becerra to be the secretary of health and human services. our future h.h.s. secretary will be at the helm of rebuilding our country towards normalcy and preparing to address the weaknesses in our health care infrastructure brought to life by the pandemic. it will be no small task, and it's handling will have an impact on america for years to come. it will requires a leader at h.h.s. who has the trust of the public and the requisite health care experience. unfortunately, those two factors

are missing from the nomination of attorney general becerra. in recovering from a once-in-a-century public health crisis, america needs to know that the secretary understands the future and protects future generations from experiencing similar pandemic situations. while attorney general becerra served on a health care-focused subcommittee as a united states representative, he has no further experience in public health or medicine. he also lacks the executive experience that would be useful in running a complex executive branch department like h.h.s., which is involved in the nationwide vaccine rollout and now the regulatory implementation of the recent $1.9 trillion package. the american people need to trust that their h.h.s. secretary will work for them regardless of disagreements over ideology. like a president, cabinet officials work for the entire

country, and broad public trust is essential. as attorney general, attorney general becerra was -- excuse me, attorney general becerra was serving his current role in california as attorney general, the trump administration was making significant regulatory changes to protect the sanctity of life. attorney general becerra then spent much of his time attempting to overturn or ignore those changes. most recently he actively ignored a law for insurance plans covered by churches. the office ruled on january 24, 02020, the mandate violated law but attorney general becerra refused to apply. americans need to know their government is working to find a common ground that will protect all strongly held personal and religious beliefs, including the belief in the sanctity of life. thoughtful health care policy matters to kansans and americans now more than ever. we need a leader at h.h.s. who

is eager to serve all the country, even in the face of disagreements, one who has the necessary health care expertise to be successful in this position and will be an asset to our country in this time of rebuilding. i oppose this confirmation and urge my colleagues to join me. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the following remarks be placed in a different place in the journal. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. moran: mr. president, today the senate judiciary committee is considering a grave threat to the right of conscience. the house recently passed the equality act, which would demolish religious liberty protections, ironically making americans of certain beliefs decidedly unequal under the law. in other words, something called religious protections equality act would diminish the capability to be considered equal under the law. it is not an accident of careless drafting that permits this outcome. the language is both so expansive and so explicit that it must be intentional and it must be intentionally hostile to

people who hold beliefs. the language expands the definition of public accommodations to include prohibiting discrimination by, quote, any establishment that provides a good service or program, including a food bank service or care center or shelter and any organization receiving federal funding. religiously-affiliated entities seeking to put their beliefs into action outside their church, mosque, or synagogue must comply. this legislation would explicitly deny recourse to the religious freedom restoration act or rfra, a bill that was passed with overwhelmingly bipartisan majorities in both chambers of congress before being signed by president bill clinton in 1993. this denial cuts off two legal paths for people of conscience. one, an individual or institution cannot sue the federal government to prevent

enforcement of this act without statutory -- explicit statutory authority of rfra. and, two, the individual or institution that is sued for discrimination under this bill cannot rely on rfra as a defense. it is not an exaggeration to say that the five lines related to rfra in this bill -- the effects will be damaging to communities in kansas and across the country. if passed, people of faith must decide whether to adhere to their deeply held beliefs or to the law. this law effectively says it is better to the have fewer doctors in rural kansas that desperately need them than it is to have doctors of moral conviction, that it is better to shutter social services administered by faith-based groups that fill gaps in our safety net than a how them to remain true to their mission, or that it is better to force the closing -- the closure

of schools than to allow them to remain open. in respoons to the barack obama kwon tra ception mandate, i warned that if an individual can be -- the government can compel an individualed to -- that remains true not nearly ten years later and it remains true into the future. i oppose the use of such government power to infringe on matters of religious belief and conscience and i stand in opposition of the equality act. mr. president, i yield the floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: thank you, mr. president. it appears that our friends across the aisle are experiencing an existential crisis when it comes to deciding how to manage their newfound

powers in the majority. we're just two and a half months in this new congress, and already we're hearing the majority leader and many on the other side of the aisle threatening to blow up the rules of the senate. after decades as a senate -- as a senator, president biden even yesterday relented and threw his support behind the plan. the filibuster has been called into question a number of times over the past few years. that's to be expected. but it's just that our democratic friends used to be on the other side of the argument. they took one position when they were in the minority, where the filibuster protected their rights, and now they're in the majority, many of them are looking to eliminate any minority rights and to fundamentally change the senate. in to 18 our democratic -- in 2018 our democratic colleagues

were afraid the republican senate majority would blow up the filibuster. i'm not really sure why they were concerned. after all, senator mcconnell and republican senators have consistently defended the rights of the minority by use of the legislative filibuster, even when president trump called for it to be eliminated. but our democratic friends keep piling on. senator durbin, the senator from illinois, chairman of the judiciary committee, was asked about president trump's call to end the filibuster. that was when president trump called to end the filibuster. and he said, that would be the end of the senate as it was originally devised and created going back to the founding fathers. that would be on the righthand side of this chart. just to repeat, he said, that would be the end of the senate as it was originally devised and

created going back to the founding fathers. i agree with senator durbin. i agreed then and i agree now. the senate filibuster was designed to ensure that the two political parties would actually have to work together, which i think the american people believe is a good thing, and it should be hard to do the work of building consensus in a country as big and diverse as the united states. but the filibuster was designed to make sure that the majority just couldn't jam things through and deny the rights of the minority to be heard. well, when you get 60 senators to agree on something, it becomes all but impossible for ultra partisan proposals to become law. that's the nature of the consensus-building process, and that's a good thing. -- for the country. imagine the instability and unpredictability that would occur if laws changed as quickly

as presidents and senate majorities do. just four years ago, republicans controlled both chambers of congress and held the white house. 12 years ago our democratic colleagues controlled all three. the filibuster was designed to encourage, again, consensus-building on a bipartisan basis and to provide some stability between those transitory majorities and changing presidents. and that is a good thing, like i said, in a country where a political party in control is constantly changing and ensure that a minority viewpoint cannot be steamrolled. our senate democrat friends have certainly benefited from the protections of the filibuster over the last six years. they filibustered countless bills, on everything from pandemic relief to police reform. but now it appears that our

democratic colleagues -- at least their leadership -- have flip-flopped. the political tides have shifted. and since the radical left wants to get rid of the filibuster, so do they. in a floor speech earlier this week, this same senator, senator durbin, our friend from illinois, said the filibuster is not the guarantor of democracy. it has been the death grip of democracy. pretty dramatic conversion from 2018 to 2021. what's changed? well, the majority has changed. republicans controlled the majority when he thought the filibuster was a good thing. now when democrats control the majority, he thinks it's a bad thing. apparently the countless filibusters of our democratic colleagues were not a mockery of democracy. they certainly wouldn't be guilty of that.

but now that the shoe is on the other foot, democrats are ready to hit the big red button and go nuclear. and i must say, mr. president, once you go nuclear around here, you certainly don't go back. but senator durbin's views aren't the only ones that have changed on this matter. as i mentioned, former senator, now president joe biden finally changed his views as well. for decades he was a staunch defender of the institution. when he was asked about removing the filibuster going nuclear, he said this nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power. it is a fundamental power grab by the majority party. well, that's certainly not mincing your words.

and this isn't some long-ago abandoned view of his. in january of this year, president biden was asked if he could move his agenda with the filibuster rules intact, and he answered yes and explained the opportunities to work together on shared priorities, as he did throughout his career as a united states senator. he went on to add, i think we can reach consensus on it and get it passed without changing the filibuster rule. but now the pressure has been put on both president biden and the democratic leadership in the senate to endorse a rules change not by the ordinary course of rule changes, but by the nuclear option. we know that there are unpredictable consequences of changing the rules and a place where your power, where your majority is never guaranteed. chipping away at the rights of the minority may help you

today, but you'll live to regret it when the shoe is on the other foot. but it won't take a shift in the majority for our democratic colleagues to see the disastrous consequences of going nuclear on the filibuster rule, because if anybody needed a reminder, we have a 50-50 senate, 50 democrats and 50 republicans. yesterday senator mcconnell, the republican leader, somebody who's been around this institution a long time and understands it better than almost anybody i know, he reminded our colleagues, this is an institution that requires unanimous consent to turn the lights on before noon. unanimous consent is literally the grease that helps the machine run. in order to accomplish even the most mundane tasks in the senate, you need an agreement,

and most of the time it's easy because it's not controversial, it's the right practical thing to do. but you need compromise. and, mr. president, you need a quorum. this rules change being floated wouldn't clear a path for productivity in the senate. it is an invitation to futility. if our democratic colleagues take the unprecedented step of blowing up the filibuster, they can expect to be met with an unprecedented response. republicans will not sit idly by while democrats take an ax to the rules in order to advance a partisan agenda. if democrats go down this road, they will have no one to blame but themselves for the consequences of a horrible miscalculation. mr. president, on another matter, as we know, it's been

more than a year since the term covid-19 became a part of our daily vocabulary. over this last year, families have lost loved ones, millions of workers have lost their jobs, main street businesses have shuttered, and our health care workers have endured unimaginable stress and heartbreak. one year ago the american, majority of americans were hunkered down at home in order to stop the spread of this deadly virus. and today, while we continue to follow the commonsense public health guidelines to stop the spread of the virus, we're finally experiencing some hope. with three successful vaccines now being administered throughout the country, the light at the end of the tunnel gets bigger and brighter every day. and i know we're all grateful for that. more than 27% of americans 18 and up have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

that includes nearly two-thirds of people over the age of 65, one of the most vulnerable cohorts. we have every reason to be optimistic that brighter days are ahead, but we are not out of the dark yet. in the coming months we need sound leadership from public health officials who have the experience and the expertise to guide us through these final critical months. unfortunately president biden has nominated someone who is unprepared to lead that charge. the president has chosen xavier becerra to be his secretary of health and human services. as we know, the secretary of health and human services is one of the top generals in the war against covid-19. the department coordinates the health care providers, state and local officials, researchers, and the american public to respond to a crisis like this.

for everything from covid-19 testing to treatment and therapeutics, to vaccinations, h.h.s. is actually in charge. the department disburses funding, determines how many vaccines go to each state, leads efforts to boost confidence in the vaccine and so much more. but that's not even including the long list of nonpandemic responsibilities for the department, including everything from overseeing medicare and medicaid to regulating prescription drugs. so what life experience does mrm qualified to lead these efforts? well, he's not a doctor. he's not a public health expert. he's never even worked in a role that's remotely related to health care. in fact, his only semirelevant experience is the range of lawsuits he's filed as attorney general of his home state of california. mr. becerra led a group of attorneys general in opposing

the texas lawsuit in texas vs. azar, the case attempted to reinstate the individual mandate penalty which was removed by the tax cuts and jobs act. he also led a case attempting to overturn protections for religious groups such as the little sisters of the poor, that don't offer coverage for contraceptives in their group health insurance plans. he sued them. well, no surprise, the supreme court ultimately ruled 7-2 in favor of the little sisters of the poor. and as we know, mr. becerra's radical policy objectives date long before his time as attorney general. remember the house, he took extreme views on abortion. he opposed legislation that would ensure that babies who were born after a botched abortion would receive medical treatment just like any other patient. he opposed a bill to prevent taxpayer dollars from being used for abortions, the hyde

amendment, which has been the bipartisan consensus for at least the, since late 1970's. he even opposed legislation to make it a crime to harm or kill an unborn child during the commission of a violent crime. in 38 states, including his state of california, they already have similar protections. but he opposed legislation to do it. unlike the majority of president biden's nominees that receive bipartisan support by both the committees of jurisdiction and the full senate, there's no bipartisan chorus singing the praises of mr. becerra. put simply, he is a partisan warrior who lacks the experience to lead h.h.s. during normal times, let alone during a pandemic. we are at the ten yard line in the pandemic. now is not a time to give the punter a chance to try out his

quarterback just because he happens to be friends with the coach. mr. president, i will oppose the nomination of mr. becerra and encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do so as well. the american people deserve an experienced health and human services secretary, and this nominee does not fit the bill. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: thank you, mr. president. it's been a year now since the outbreak of a novel coronavirus in wuhan, china. it put the world into an unprecedented global lockdown,

and we are still in the dark about how the pandemic even began. and, folks, that isn't entirely an accident. the virus emerged in one of the world's most closed societies ruled by a ruthless authoritarian regime with no tolerance for truth or transparency. and even today, after two and a half million people around the world have died, the communist party of china refuses to fully cooperate with efforts to learn how covid-19 made the cross-species jump from bats to humans. finding the source isn't about assigning blame. it is about understanding the cause and preventing a similar occurrence from happening again.

here is what we do know. covid appeared in the vicinity of the wuhan institute of virology, a laboratory where studies were being conducted on bat coronaviruses. after the outbreak began, chinese officials ordered the destruction of coronavirus samples. in the months just prior to the first case of the new pathogen being publicly identified, researchers at this state-run lab reportedly became sick with covid-like symptoms. years ago u.s. officials who visited the institute sent warnings back to the state department that studies were being conducted on dangerous coronaviruses from bats that

could be transmitted to humans in a lab which had, quote, serious safety problems. some of that research was even being subsidized by u.s. taxpayer dollars, including a study published less than two years before the pandemic that found the first evidence that humans could be infected with coronaviruses from bats. you heard that correctly, folks. your tax dollars were paying for dangerous studies on coronaviruses in a lab in china that our own government officials had warned was unsafe. this all raises many questions,

the first being how much were we actually paying for this endeavor, and that should be relatively easy for anyone to discover since a law renewed by congress every single year requires all projects supported by the department of health and human services to include a price tag disclosing the cost paid by taxpayers. but noticeably absent on the study from the wuhan institute institute -- the cost. a review of numerous other projects supported by h.h.s. found the cost information was missing from all of them. all of them. covering up information that the public has a right to know about might be how things work in communist china, but it isn't how it should work here in

america. this isn't china, folks. our laws aren't optional, especially for those who are supposed to be enforcing them. maybe we can't force china to become more forthcoming, but we should be able to expect our own government to be open and transparent. that is why i am asking the h.h.s. office of inspector general to launch an investigation to compel the department to comply with the law. i am also introducing legislation to require every project funded with your taxpayer dollars to disclose the cost paid by you. this is just one of the bright ideas to shine some light on how your money is being spent that i will be unveiling this week to

commemorate sunshine week, the annual celebration of open government. a transparent government is one of the most fundamental principles that makes our government of the people, by the people, for the people work. decisions are made every day in washington that impact families and communities in iowa and across the country. we all benefit when we bring this information to light, especially when it involves how our tax dollars are being spent. that is why i'm also working to create an alert system to notify the public whenever a project goes $1 billion or more over budget or falls five years behind schedule. and some good news. my bipartisan bill was just

reported out of committee this morning. so boondoggles, you better beware. another bill i'm supporting will require hospitals and insurers to reveal rates to patients before they receive their medical care. this commonsense effort would allow patients to know the costs associated with their health care in advance so that they can make informed decisions for themselves and their families. and, finally, i'm calling for more transparency from the department of education when it comes to covid spending. taxpayers should be able to see clearly how well states and school districts are doing at spending tax dollars provided to help schools safely reopen. knowledge is the power that

allows every citizen to hold those entrusted to make our decisions accountable. afterall, the -- after all, the only reason to keep taxpayers in the dark about any of these decisions is because they can't withstand the scrutiny that results when all of the facts come to light. and with the sun now setting anr later as a result of daylight saving time, we're all reminded just how much a difference can be made with a little extra sunlight. after all, sunshine is the best disinfectant because to stop waste, we first need to be able to spot it. and with that, madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. braun: i've come to the

floor several times in a little over two years i've been here, and a common theme, and i think we all know it as senators, is that our health care system is broken. it's driven by a misaligned industry incentives that promote opaque, behind the scenes pricing, maneuvers at the expense of patients and health care consumers. increased transparency is the key to fixing our broken health care system. it will allow americans to have skin in the game and deal directly with their health care providers to make informed decisions. they cannot do that very well currently. pulling the curtain back on a health care system to restore market forces, which aren't really there now, to increase innovation and competition, particularly in regard to price, quality, and service, you do

that with anything else. a consumer is engaged, they are informed, and you've got many competitors competing for their business. in order for americans to regain their sovereignty in a health care system, you need the ability to be able to navigate accordingly. and congress must act to provide americans with these tools before we try to throw more government at a broken health care system. government pays for a portion of health care, more is paid through the private sector. if we reform it, it makes it less expensive for both payers. i'll give you an example. sometimes what you hear here sounds like it's theoretical, hypothetical. i took on the cause roughly 12, 13 years ago in my main street enterprise. it was just starting to grow, doing the things that it was supposed to do, and that's

transportation distribution, and then you will of a sudden health care becomes a subset of your business and about the only solution you'd get each year is, well, you're lucky it's not going up more than 5% or 10%. i heard that too many years in a row. i was sick and tired of that being what i'd have to live with as a c.e.o. that had a healthy, successful business, other than the health care component. what did i do? health care plans are basically made up of three or four features. you've got your deductible, ours had risen more than i was willing to take it up any higher. the only way you could buy premiums down would be to do that or change underwriters every two or three years. that gets to be a hassle as you become a larger company and the profits were so great then for people that did it, you could end up bringing your costs down.

well, then you were right back in the old groove, you're lucky it's only going up 5% to 10% on the next year on renewal. you also have coinsurance. most people don't worry about that until they get significantly ill or have a bad accident. that's a percentage you have to pay once you exceed your deductible. and when you've got those variables, you've got one other item that almost everyone loves in their plan, and that's a low he could payment. those -- copayment. those copayments are paid for in the high premiums, but because they constitute 25% of most health care plans, and that's to keep skin out of the game for the people that use the system. well, i was going to do something different and decided to limit that expense when you really get sick or have a bad accident, covered coinsurance through the company, asked my

employees to engage from dollar one in shopping around and see if that would work. lo and behold, it's now been 13 years, i've been able to keep a good plan in place, lower family health care premium contributions, have not had a premium increase. what is it based upon? it's finding the meager transparency that is out there, 12, 13 years ago, enhancing it over time and to give you an example, if you pick up the phone, you get on the web, you will find anywhere from 30%, 50%, 60%, 70% savings, procedures like m.r.i.'s, cat scans, colon kos copies, your insurance companies get you to the most expensive one, huge discounts. when the consumer gets engaged,

you will see prices start to come down. lasik surgery is the best example. 10, 15 years ago it could be $10,000 to $15,000 an eye, and now you can probably get it done for as much as $250 to $500 an eye with better quality. that sounds like a lot of other areas of economy that actually work. the last congress i put health care transparency at the forefront of my agenda, have definitely been the most outspoken senator that we've got a broken system. put almost all the blame on the industry itself because it does not give us transparency. it does not want to compete, the health care customer is somewhat to blame because they don't want to pay for anything and i don't think the answer is bringing more government into it until you reform the system.

need to shine light on the dark corners and misaligned incentives embedded in the system. among the bills i will reintroduce this congress is the health care price transparency act. every senator should want to be on that bill to hold the industry accountable. this will empower patients through transparency, it will drive competition among hospitals and insurers by requiring them to publicly disclose their prices so patients can compare between providers and insurers. the last congress, a number of colleagues joined in my effort to bring more transparency and affordability to health care consumers. i'm excited to reintroduce the health care price transparency act soon and hope all of my colleagues will join in so that we can collectively lower health care costs before we try to get

more government involved. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: madam president, i'm proud to join my colleagues in celebration of sunshine week and promote government openness and transparency. transparency isn't something you see too much here in washington, being accountable to the american people should be a basic function of government.

in florida, we have sunshine laws to promote openness and build ours citizens' trust in government. when i came to washington, i made it my mission to bring the success and transparency we had in florida to the federal government and make this dysfunctional place work for the american people. unfortunately my democratic colleagues have blocked nearly every single one of my efforts for transparency and for request for information to help make congress make the best decisions for families. i asked any -- requested for any documents for enacted but unspent covid stimulus funding. the response, none. total silence. in this month as we considered the $1.9 trillion covid spending package, i introduced a resolution calling for president biden to require the senate and american people on how much funds were left over from the previous spending bills.

democrats blocked it. when my colleague senator johnson asked for the bill to be read on the floor, democrats complained and called it a waste of time. let me be clear, being transparent, open and accountable to the american people is never a waste of time. it's our job. that's why i have worked on several measures to bring sunshine transparency to worker, including my bill to make sure members of congress work for the american people and actually read bills before casting their votes. and my stop covid-19 act to set vaccine distribution reporting and transparency standards for states and cities and counties to increase funding and contact tracing to reduce the spread of covid. i'll never stop fighting to bring sunshine to washington and making sure our government and the biden administration is transparent, open, and accountable to the american people who elected us to serve. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: madam president, i want to start by thanking senator ernst for setting up the sunshine week event and to my colleague from florida to ensure taxpayers know where the money is going. this includes the $150 billion that the u.s. government distributes every year in taxpayer funds for research grants. more transparency will help ensure that research isn't stole bin china and other -- by china and other countries. in 2019 as the chairman of the p.s.i., i led an investigation with ranking member senator carper with u.s. research at our u.s. research institutions and college campuses, china has made no secret that its goal is to

surpass america. this is during the covid-19 pandemic as china attempted to get information in the united states to help produce their own vaccines to rival ours. what most don't know is that china has been using our this, china uses talent recruitment programs, most notably, it is to recruit researchers at american universities using taxpayer funded grabts do the same research at shadow labs in china or send it back to china, research used over the past two decades to strengthen china's military and own economic rise. along the way they've been aided by lack of transparency that has allowed researchers to receive taxpayer funding without disclosing their ties to foreign government. what's worst, law enforcement firms at the fbi new this and

admitted it and said we wish we would have taken more rapid and comprehensive action in the past. i wish they had. since our report prosecutors have charged at least 13 researchers here in the united states for failing to disclose their ties to the chinese government and the chinese communist party. researchers at prestigious institutions like harvard, ohio state university, many of our colleges and universities around the country have been part of this. the biden administration must stand by the promises made on the campaign trail to keep the pressure on china and that includes on this issue. we can also help here in congress by shining a light on the grant-making process and passing laws to help us keep track and protect these important investments in our research. in coming weeks i'll be reintroducing bipartisan legislation called the safeguarding american innovation act that uses the key findings from our bipartisan p.s.i. investigation and report to protect the research enterprise in part through more

transparency. first our bill creates a cross governmental counsel of the office and management budget to coordinate and streamline unauthorized access and grant-making processes between federal agencies so that there's greater transparency in where the money is going and how it's being used. second, the safeguarding american innovation act makes it illegal to lie on a grant application about ties to foreign governments like china. transparency here will make it clear that researchers are liable for attempting to mislead the government when trying to receive u.s. taxpayer funds. third, our legislation closes loopholes exploited by china and other foreign actors and empowers the state department to deny visas to foreign researchers who are aiming to steal u.s. intellectual property and research. fourth, the safeguarding american innovation act requires research institutions and universities to safeguard against unauthorized access to sensitive technology and to be transparent with the state department about what technologies a foreign researcher will have access to on campus.

finally, the act requires transparency from our colleges and universities as to what money they're getting from foreign sources. they'll have to report any foreign gift of $50,000 or more and it empowers the department of education to fine universities that repeatedly fail to disclose these gifts. current law requires reporting $250,000. we found that nearly 70% of u.s. universities consistently fail to do even that. lowering the threshold increases transparency and adding the penalty ensures the schools will report. the american council on education has supported our p.s.i. reports recommendation that research institutions should establish a no your collaborator culture. greater transparency in our federal grant-making process, greater transparency from researchers, and greater transparency from research institutions and universities. these are the steps we need to take to ensure there's proper accountability in place for the $150 billion that taxpayers and trust -- entrusts with the government for federally-funded research every year while still

keeping our fundamental research open and collaborative. the safeguarding innovation act will shine a light on federal grant-making processes and allow us to maintain our world class lead in innovations while protecting our investments from foreign theft. again, i want to thank my colleagues, senator ernst in particular for this event today to talk about transparency and i urge my colleagues to support this important legislation that will provide long overdue transparency in our federally funded research enterprise. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. a senator: about four weeks ago it got cold in oklahoma, really cold. mr. lankford: my house was negative 14 degrees. now, steve daines from montana is used to that but in oklahoma, we're not used to negative 14 degrees. it was overcast, snowy, cold.

and then the sun broke through and we had a day that it got up to 30 degrees and it was like everyone was going to park, it felt so nice because the sun was out even though it was cold. sunshine has a great way of making everyone lift and look around and go where has that been? i think that happens in the federal government as well. i think senator -- i thank senator ernst for hosting what she's calling sunshine week to be able to say what are we doing to put a little light into the federal process to be able to make sure people can see into some of these programs. because all the time i hear from people when something comes on the news and they'll say where did that come from, and i'll say that was poked in some bill that probably no one read. let me give you an example of it. two weeks ago when the quote, unquote bill passioned for almost $2 trillion -- passed for almost $2 trillion in spending, i have had folks come back to me

and say i'm gratful for the $-- grateful for the $70 million for the small business administration to increase loans by $70 million. i say great. you know what the administrative cost was on that $70 million program? the answer is bdz 390 -- $390 million in administrative costs, $70 million in loans. that's in the bill. and everyone looks at me and says, oh, didn't know that. lots of states around america right now, their legislatures are meeting including mine in oklahoma and they're suddenly finding out that bill that was for, quote, unquote covid-related mandated that no state in america could reduce taxes on anyone. and lots of states are going wait a minute, we were planning on reducing taxes on working families and -- in certain targeted areas and they're finding out, no, you can't do that. and they'll say things like, i didn't know that was in the bill because there wasn't any sunshine on take bill. i worked for years to takes -- that bill. i worked for years for taxpayers

right to know. it's a -- it asks the simple question. this body has heard me talk about it year after year. contrary to popular belief, it's not actualley easy to move a bill in this place. and some things that are very common sense take forever. this was my simple bill. the federal government, every agency has to list every program that they do, how many employees they hire to do that program, what is the cost of the program, and is the program evaluated. if it is, just put the evaluation numbers with the program. why would i say that? because i talked to agency heads that start a new program and they get two years down the road from starting a new program. then they find out a different agency has already done that for five years. then we get together and find out a third agency started that ten years ago. and flun of them knew -- and none of them knew about the other program. before you think that doesn't happen, oh, yes it does. it happens all the time. not only that, when i want to

ask a simple question to say how many options do we have for whatever it may be, how many programs do we have for stem education, for instance, how many different incentives have we put out there and how many agencies are helping provide greater stem education? the agencies can't tell me. they can eventually tell me what's in their agency but don't know what other agencies are doing. and when i go to the g.a.o., the government accountability office and ask them, their answer is i'll get you an answer back in about 18 months, months, 18 months before they can tell me how many stem programs we have in the federal government. i should be able to do an internet search and get that in 18 seconds, not 18 months. the taxpayers' right to know bill requires the office of management and budget to actually work with every agency to get a master list of every program across the federal government, how many employees they have, if it's evaluated, and what it does. it's pretty simple. it's basic transparency but it

allows any american and all members of congress to be able to see what do we do and do we have duplication in government. now, again you may think that's simple and straightforward. it is. but it took years to actually pass, but we finally got that passed and signed into law last december. and when i met with gene dedarro who heads up g.a.o. and asked him about that because he's been an advocate of that for years, he said we need an unqirval commitment from the office of management and budget to implement this properly because we have to actually get this done. sunshine helps. we can see how many is spent. we can see how duplication actually functions. we can't reform what we can't see. and the american people perpetually get frustrated with what they didn't know was in a bill and find out later and they don't like it. in the days ahead i'm going to release my annual federal fumbles book. as we do every year.

and in that federal fumbles book this year, we'll outline where our debt comes from. because i run into so many people that say we have debt. who is our debt? is it all china? and i'll say well, actually, $1.6 trillion of it is from china. and we're paying them interest every single year on that debt. but it's in a lot of other places. a lot of people misunderstand what government debt really is. this needs some sunshine because if we're going to solve this, the american people have got to be able to see it and so do we. with that i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from montana. mr. daines: madam president, i rise to say my objection to the nomination of xavier becerra to be secretary of health and human services. with $1.3 trillion of spending in health and human services, that department has the largest budget of the entire executive branch. in fact, if we were to compare the budget, the budget just of h.h.s. to other nations' g.d.p.'s, h.h.s. would rank among the top ten in the world. the size of this department is significant and their responsibility is even greater. whoever sees this -- oversees this department has a big impact on our country, our economy, the lives of all americans, including those of the unborn. this is exactly why i'm deeply concerned with president biden's pick of attorney general xavier becerra to lead h.h.s.

mr. becerra has spent his career supporting divisive policies that don't resonate with the majority of americans. the secretary of h.h.s. has massive authority to steer the future of health care in our country and someone who has made a career out of defending the abortion industry and promoting other liberal policies like free health care for illegal immigrants should not be at the helm of this department. i'm concerned that the attorney general becerra will use the power of this agency to overstep and impose his radical, liberal agenda on millions of americans. this administration decidedly, intentionally chose a nominee who has repeatedly attacked the religious freedoms of so many americans. a nominee who has aggressively pushed a very pro abortion agenda, a nominee that supports a complete takeover by the government of our health care, a nominee that advocates for

illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded health care. now, how do these qualities make attorney general becerra the right person to head health and human services? it just doesn't make sense to so many in our country. it's just another sign that this unfortunately is a far-left administration that is outside the mainstream. especially now during a pandemic, it's critical that all americans can trust whoever holds this position. it's critical the leader of this massive department will operate as a good steward of federal health programs, not use his post to impose a government takeover of health care that will eradicate job-based coverage for millions of americans. xavier becerra is unfortunately not that person. he's built his career defending some of the very most extreme stances in our society, and we can expect he will only take

things further at h.h.s. when it comes to i a borgs, attorney general -- abortion, attorney general becerra doesn't believe there should be any restrictions, not one. in fact, i had the chance to ask mr. becerra some questions a couple of weeks ago at a hearing. i asked if he would support a ban on the lethal discrimination of babies diagnosed with down syndrome. or perhaps what about banning sex collective abortions. or at least a ban on partial birth abortions. his refusal to answer spoke volumes. his inability to name even one restriction you might think about putting on abortion is chilling. and mr. becerra's views on abortion even go a step further. he has repeatedly bullied and harassed americans that respect the sanctity of life like the little sisters of the poor. this order of nuns has dedicated their lives to serving the less