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

fortunate and under their catholic faith, they do not believe in providing abortion or contraceptives. attorney becerra litigated against these nuns in court and attempted to invoke an exemption that protects religious groups from providing contraceptives and that goes against their religious beliefs. he has literally sued to impose crippling fines on catholic nuns for remaining true to their religious beliefs. crippling fines on nuns. a horrendous attack on americans' constitutional right to religious freedom. he has stated that crossing the border illegally should be decriminalized. let me say that again. he has stated that crossing the border illegally should be decriminalized. no wonder we're seeing a crisis on our southern border. he has repeatedly pushed for illegal immigrants to receive

help on the taxpayers' dime. as we are seeing biden's border crisis play out, it's even more alarming that one of his nominees would seek to incentivize illegal border crossing even more. but i guess you could say this is all part of biden's america america-last agenda. as the secretary of health and human services, xavier becerra would have the massive ability to promote pro-abortion, antireligious freedom, socialist health care agenda. his nomination highlights just how extreme -- sadly how extreme the biden administration really is. these views fail to represent the majority of americans and have no place at the head of the largest department of our executive branch. i urge my colleagues to consider the impact that mr. becerra would have as head of health and human services and vote against his confirmation. rather, we must stand up for

life, for religious freedom, an america-first agenda and against mr. becerra's nomination. i yield back my time. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. lee: madam president, the stated mission of the u.s. department of health and human services is, quote, to enhance the health and well-being of all americans. a laudable goal. the h.h.s. secretary is thus charged with overseeing all government health care and social services and protecting the health and the rights of the american people. a worthy goal, important job. unfortunately, the history of the nominee before us, mr. xavier becerra, poses grave concerns to our ability to carry out this goal and for our ability to oversee an agency with such vast, far-reaching responsibilities. first mr. becerra has repeatedly been on the record for wanting

to eliminate private health insurance for millions of americans, even at a time when families need affordable, effective and flexible health care, and when health care workers need jobs, perhaps now more than ever. what's more concerning, however, is that while in public office, mr. becerra is repeatedly, deliberately undermining americans' constitutional rights and wage political warfare on those who happen to disagree with his views. take, for example, his views on abortion. instead of supporting laws that protect and sustain the life and health of american women and unborn children, mr. becerra has supported laws that violently hurt them, endorsing legal abortion up until and even during the moment of birth. as attorney general of the state of california, he has brought 15

felony charges against a reporter for exposing planned parenthood's role in trafficking the body parts of aborted babies, a prosecution that even the "los angeles times" described as disturbing overreach. and he defended a california law that required pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for state-funded abortion clinics, a law that so egregiously violated free speech that the supreme court ruled it unconstitutional, which, of course, it was and is. not only that, but he's consistently and flagrantly taken hostile actions against the free exercise of religion. perhaps the worst example of this can be found in his legal persecution of the little sisters of the poor. now, this is a religious order of catholic nuns who care for the elderly poor.

becerra waged a lengthy, difficult battle to force the sisters -- again, this is an order of nuns -- to pay for abortion drugs and contraception in their health insurance plan, even though doing so violates their beliefs, and even ■though they're nuns. even after the supreme court ruled for the little sisters of the poor in 2016, under a separate case and after the trump administration granted them full conscience protections in 2017, mr. becerra still sued the trump administration in an attempt to pierce those protections. again, he wasn't comfortable with letting those protections stand in place with respect to the little sisters of the poor. no, he was determined, even still, to make sure that they couldn't live according to their own religious beliefs and their

teachings. during the pandemic, becerra was the legal architect of some of the country's most strident, sweeping, and brazenly unconstitutional restrictions on church and on worship services, some of which were struck down by the supreme court last month. and he even tried to prevent covid relief funds from going to religious and other private schools. madam president, our founders established the principle of religious liberty, the natural right of all human beings to freely hold and live out their religious beliefs because they understood that man is not free unless his conscience is free. they thought that this principle was so important, so fundamental that it was the first freedom articulated in the very first amendment to the constitution. in doing so, they sought to defend and preserve the space

for our deepest convictions, a space upon which the state cannot and must never encroach. in practice, that has meant that the government's job is not to tell people what to believe or how to discharge their religious duties, but to protect this space for all people of all faiths and of no faith at all, for that matter, to seek truth and to order their lives accordingly. the american people deserve a leader at the u.s. department of health and human services who will uphold and strengthen this monumental tradition. they deserve a leader who will protect their fundamental rights, not trample them. unfortunately, tragically, the record that -- of this nominee demonstrates serious threats to the rights and the health and the well-being of the american people. they deserve better. in good conscience, i cannot support the nomination of

mr. becerra. thank you, madam president. i yield back my time. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. it appears that president biden arrived at the white house prepared and willing to grant himself and his administration a mandate that american voters didn't agree to give to him. his party lost ground in the house. they split the senate. and they maintained their trailing minority of governorship. but they seem to ignore that. in his first 50 days, he did 34 executive orders. more than anyone in history. he dismantled existing immigration controls, threatened protections for small businesses against the radical climate agenda, and destroyed thousands of jobs and the potential for

greater energy security promised by the keystone x.l. pipeline project. meanwhile, my democratic colleagues got busy laying the groundwork to transform not only the senate into a maker majoritn institution, but also to radically transform the country. they used budget reconciliation to ram through a $1.9 trillion bailout bill without a single republican vote. the largest spending bill in our nation's history. and now they are reversing their own positions on the filibuster to avoid debate on radical immigration reform, the equality act, and an already infamous bill that would federalize elections. they just don't want to talk about these things. just do it. the more people learn about what the biden white house is up to,

the more questions that they have for those of us who represent them. some of my democratic friends in tennessee say to me i may have voted for joe biden, but i did not vote for this. they do not want to radically change the country. they do not want to be tied to legislation that has a nice-sounding name but does the exact opposite of what the biden administration would have you believe that it would accomplish. they have noticed that the president's cabinet picks came into their confirmation hearings ready and willing to move the goalposts away from the constitution and the rule of law to accommodate their radical agenda. last week, this body voted to discharge from committee xavier becerra's nomination to the health and human services secretary position. i voted no, and i will vote no

on his confirmation as well. not only because he is unqualified and has no experience in health care. middle tennessee, madam president, has more than 100,000 individuals who are employed in the health care industry. all, all more qualified in health care than xavier becerra. not only because his radical views shock just about everyone who speaks to me about him -- and, oh, yes, it was a topic of conversation at church on sundae and again, he has abused his power and weaponized the full force of government against people whose deeply held personal political and religious

views don't align with his own. submit, conform, or else. it is in the nature of our job as legislators to recognize that, yes, elections do have consequences, and yes, the president has a right to assemble his own cabinet, but we cannot be expected to greenlight a nominee who has so little patience for diversity. diversity of thought, diversity of opinions. and his first and only instinct is to destroy the diversity. burn it to the ground, bring it back in their own image. that's not what the american people want president biden and his administration to do, but that's what they are getting with this nominee. i strongly oppose xavier

becerra's nomination. i have from the start, and i would urge my colleagues to consider what you will be approving if you vote in favor of this confirmation. radically antilife. radically antireligion. radically antiborder security. radically antifree speech. radically unqualified to lead. i yield the floor. mr. cruz: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: madam president, i rise to oppose the nomination of xavier becerra for secretary of health and human services. there are, unfortunately, numerous nominees in the biden administration who are either extreme or unqualified for the

positions for which they have been nominated. but of all of those nominees, i believe mr. becerra is the single worst cabinet nominee put forward by joe biden to serve in the cabinet. president biden has told this country repeatedly that his top priority is defeating the covid-19 pandemic. the department of health and human services is on the front line fighting covid-19. mr. becerra, by any measure, is woefully unqualified to lead that department. mr. becerra's not a doctor. mr. becerra is not a scientist. mr. becerra has no health care experience whatsoever, has no medical experience whatsoever, has no experience in virology, he has no experience with pharmaceuticals, he has no experience running a state or

local health care agency. he has no experience in logistics. the department of h.h.s. is in the process of distributing and administering hundreds of millions of vaccines. mr. becerra has never so much as distributed french fries at a mcdonald's. mr. becerra's only qualification -- and indeed the qualification that earned him this nomination -- is he is a radical left-wipp trial attorney general -- left-wing trial attorney. madam president, a republican president had nominated as the head of the health and human services agency someone with zero health care experience, zero medical experience, zero pharmaceutical experience in the midst of a global pandemic, that republican president would have been laughed out of the room. madam president, if a republican president had done that, all of the democrats would have been

lined up here thundering, this is a president that doesn't care about science! we would have heard democrats telling us, this is a president for whom defeating covid-19 is not a priority, is not serious. this is a president, our democratic colleagues would have told us, who puts partisan priorities above defeating the public health menace of covid-19. this is a president who is more concerned about appeasing his radical base than he is about protecting the public health and safety of americans. and, madam president, had a republican president nominated a nominee as unqualified as mrs. becerra, i feel confident the democrats would have not been alone. we would see multiple republican senators standing up saying, no, we should actually have an h.h.s. secretary who knows something about science. we should have an h.h.s.

secretary who knows something about medicine, something about pharmaceuticals. i would note, by the way, president trump nominated two h.h.s. secretaries. the first, dr. tom price, was a medical doctor. the second, alex azar, was president of a major pharmaceutical company in the united states. both had years and even decades of health care experience. as best i can tell, madam president, xavier becerra's only experience with health care is suing the little sisters of the poor. frankly, it should be a joke. if a republican president did this, a republican senate would discover the backbone to stand up and oppose it. and what i would say is sad. not a single democrat is willing to stand up to joe biden and say, no, try again. it's a pandemic. over a half million americans have died. how about put someone in h.h.s.

that knows something about health care. madam president, i'll tell you right now, every senator that supports this confirmation, when we go home, should be prepared to answer to your constituents, should be prepared to answer when your constituents say, why did you vote to confirm a guy at h.h.s. who doesn't know anything about science or health care or medicine? why in the middle of a pandemic did you put in a radical left-wing trial lawyer instead of someone that could help us beat this pandemic? and for all democratic senators who love to intone gravely, listen to the science. madam president, that's actually -- that sentiment is correct. we should listen to the science, which means we should have someone leading h.h.s. who knows

something about science. madam president, my career has been as a lawyer, litigating cases before the united states supreme court. if a president asked me to lead the department of health and human services in the midst of a pandemic, i would tell that president, with all due respect, i don't have the professional experience or expertise to do that job. there are other jobs for which i would be qualified, but in a pandemic, the health and human services department should have someone who knows a damn thing about health care. instead of knowing anything about science or medicine or viruses or virology or immunizations, what mr. becerra does know about is persecuting citizens who don't share his radical left-wing ideology.

mr. becerra, as attorney general of california, has demonstrated a consistent pattern of contempt for privacy. while attorney general, he used his partisan power to overcome the individual privacy rights of california. he demanded that thousands of registered charities annually disclose to his offices the names and addresses of major donors, even though california law didn't require that; but he used government power to violate their right to privacy. then what did he do? did he keep it private for law enforcement purposes to examine irregularities? no. instead, the published the information from nearly 2,000 organizations subjecting donors and those nonprofits to harassment and abuse. madam president, health care issues are personal, they're sensitive. when you and i go to the doctor,

we don't expect our doctor to share our personal health care details with the world. joe biden has said to the american people, we're going to put someone in charge of the health and human services department who doesn't care about privacy and has a record of ignoring your right to privacy. later this year, the united states supreme court will decide whether mr. becerra's invasion of privacy violated the first amendment to the constitution. while his disregard for privacy is before the supreme court, what did joe biden do? said, let's put him in charge of health care in this country. a third reason mr. becerra's nomination is so concerning concerns conscience protections. the next h.h.s. secretary will be responsible for upholding the conscience ex-prosecutes that are written -- protections that are written in the federal law, to protect people of faith, whatever your faith, whether christian, jewish, muslim, whatever your faith might be,

the right of professionals, of citizens under the first amendment to live according to their faith. mr. becerra, as attorney general, has aggressively defend add california law that forced pro-life groups to advertise for abortion, a law that the supreme court deemed unconstitutional under the first amendment. think about that for a second. he was so radical going after and persecuting conscience rights, he wanted pro-life groups to advertise for abortion, and it took the united states supreme court to strike it down and say, that is unconstitutional. joe biden wants him to bring the same heavy-handed zealotry to the health and human services department. and mr. becerra has not shown that it's just free speech that he has antagonism to, but it is religious liberty as well. mr. becerra has defended california's targeting of

churches holding indoor services. the state of california concluded that if you go to an indoor service at a church and you pray or you sing or you worship that you are a health menace. but if you go to a protest, if you go to other secular activities where the name of god is not inadvocated, then magically this virus is not contagious. it's ludicrous. it was facially absurd. it was driven by an unconstitutional animas towards people of faith, and it took the united states supreme court to strike it down and to say the policy that mr. becerra was defending is unconstitutional. government cannot target people of faith. so you've got a nominee with no health care experience, no medical experience, no scientific experience, but a record of being a radical, persecuting those with whom he

disagrees, who has repeatedly going before the u.s. supreme court and lost over and over again for violating the first amendment, for violating free speech, for violating religious liberty. he's now currently before the supreme court for violating the privacy rights of californians. do you want an h.h.s. secretary that doesn't respect your privacy, that doesn't respect your free speech or religious liberty? do you want an h.h.s. secretary who is not qualified to draw blood or give a shot, who doesn't know how to distribute vaccines, who's never distributed anything? madam president, if nominations were based on qualification to serve, mr. becerra's nomination would be rejected by this senate by a vote of 100 to nothing. the fact that that is unlikely to happen, that every democrat will march lockstep with the

biden administration to confirm a nominee who has no health care experience whatsoever in the midst of a global pandemic shows just how profoundly partisan and radicalized today's democratic party is. i believe all of us should be united in demanding a health and human services secretary who's actually qualified to protect our health and defeat this pandemic. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against this nomination. mr. casey: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: madam president, i rise to speak this afternoon in support of the nomination of xavier becerra to serve as the next secretary of health and human services. president biden nominated mr. becerra, who currently serves as the attorney general of the state of california.

prior to his service in state government for the state of california, he served in a district in california for 12 terms representing the people. he's someone i got to know in those years, especially in the debates about health care. which i'll speak about in a moment. but when a person is nominated to be a member of any cabinet, they bring with them not just their experience but their life story. and attorney general becerra's story is a great american story. his own story and that of his family is a great american story, a stories of hard work and sacrifice, overwhelming obstacles, achieving excellence, not only in his time in school and his academic record but also

excellence in his public service, as a. discharges -- as he discharges the duties of the offices that he has held. i mention that i knew him in the years we were debating health care here in washington when he was a member of the house, but just since his nomination, i met with him and questioned him closely on matters that are important to me and to people of pennsylvania. i also asked him questions in not one but two -- two -- hearings because he just happens to be nominated to a cabinet position where the confirmation is considered by two senate committees, the finance committee and the health, education, labor, pensions committee. so i had the chance to question him in both hearings, both committees. through these conversations and based upon his long and

distinguished record of public service, attorney general becerra has demonstrated that he's the kind of leader our nation needs at h.h.s. during this challenging time. he's a proven leader who spent his career fighting to expand health care, to expand it, protecting both patients and consumers and working to strengthen both medicare and medicaid. as a congressman, as i mentioned, he was instrumental in drafting and working to pass the patient protection and affordable care act, the so-called a.c.a. as california's attorney general, he hayes led the fight to protect it. now, my view of the disagreement on the other side of the aisle is just that. this is someone who worked as a member of congress and then has worked as attorney general to pass and then uphold the a.c.a. on the other side of the aisle,

they don't like that because they've been committed as a party here in the senate and in the house or, both republican caucuses, they've been committed to two thinking on health care -- destroying the a.c.a., which means destroying all protections for preexisting conditions, and -- and it's important to add this -- and they've been dedicated to ending, not limiting, not cutting back, ending medicaid expansion which, of course, accounted for most of the health care gains. millions of americans have health care today because of the expansion of medicaid. it's the official position of the republican party to end that, to say that all those millions of americans, you don't deserve health care coverage. that's their position based upon what they have supported in bill after bill that came before the senate. we know that. that's a fact. and until they move away from that position, they will try to

take down the nomination of or oppose anyone who wants to uphold the a.c.a., uphold all protections for preexisting conditions, uphold and support the expansion of medicaid. one of the best expansions of health care in american history. not just recent history, in all of american history. so i would support attorney general becerra just based upon what he's done on health care, because it happens to be in the best interest of the american people to expand health care, in the best interest of the people that i represent. i don't come across many people in pennsylvania coming up to me saying, i want you to lessen the number of people in the united states or in my state that have health care. i want you to cut that back. i want you to cut back on the medicaid program, which folks on the other side of the aisle want to do as well. they not only want to end

medicaid expansion, end it completely, they want to cut the medicaid program by hundreds of billions of dollars over ten years. that's their official position. it's been their position for years to cut the medicaid program and to end medicaid expansion. cut it by, cut the medicaid program by hundreds of billions of dollars. so if you're against that, they're going to be opposing you, whether it's for confirmation or anything else, because they are the party that wants to cut medicaid. not by $100 billion over ten years, not by $200 billion or $300 billion. look at their budgets year after year. they want to cut it by $500 billion or $700 billion. one year they even proposed here in the debates about the budget, one year they even proposed cutting the medicaid program by $1 trillion.

that was the official position of the republican party. so if you want to oppose them on that, then they will try to take you down. the medicaid program, which, by the way, pays for half, almost half of the births in america. the babies born in america are paid for, almost half of them, those births paid for by medicaid, the medicaid program, the program they want to cut by $500 billion at least, and sometimes a lot more than that. so that's why they're against him, because they want to cut back on health care. now his leadership of this agency could not come at a more important time. our nation is facing the greatest public health crisis in more than a century, since the horror of 1918. now we're facing a similar challenge. we also have a jobs crisis.

so the faster we put this pandemic behind us, the better it is for creating a lot more jobs and lifting our economy out of the ditch that it's been in the last year. so we need a strong leader at h.h.s. we need someone who has the experience, the integrity to lead us in that agency, to help us guide us out of the crisis. i am confident, very confident that xavier becerra is that leader, and i urge my colleagues to vote in support of his nomination, and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from florida. mr. scott: the first thing i'd like to do is correct what my colleague from pennsylvania said. with regard to preexisting condition, i was here last

year. i brought to the floor a bill that would say it didn't matter what the supreme court did, we would make sure we kept preexisting condition if the supreme court declared that the affordable care act was not constitutional. the democrats blocked it. i've been up here two years, and i've never seen once my republican colleagues want to reduce spending for medicaid. what i do think is unfair is in my state of florida, what we receive from the federal government is significantly less per person than what a state like new york has. so i would like changes to the medicaid program. i would like it to be a fair program that states like florida will get treated as well as states like new york. madam president, i rise today to discuss the same issue democrat's covid bill that we need to fix. tucked into the democrats' bill is a provision to give $1,400 stimulus checks to inmates. that's right. as our nation faces a public

health crisis and a crippling debt crisis, democrats are handing out stimulus checks from your tax dollars to state and federal inmates who don't pay income taxes, have all their needs -- food, medical expenses included -- paid for by taxpayers. and they do nothing to stimulate the economy. it simply doesn't make sense. my friends and colleagues, senator bill cassidy, tom cotton and ted cruz, tried to fix think about implementing an amendment to try to strip this out of the democrats' bill but the democrats wouldn't have it. senate democrats voted unanimously chose to send $1,400 collection to inmates. let's talk about what that means to american taxpayers. there are nearly 1.5 million state and local inmates incarcerated across the united states. these are people convicted of committing serious crimes and victimizing their fellow americans. under the bill the democrats passed, american taxpayers are

on the hook for $1,400 checks to some of the most heinous criminals we've ever seen. i'm talking about people like the racist charleston church shooter dylann roof. racist and predator larry nassar terrorist muhammad baclala. convicted serial killer and rapist mark bardona. and the man who killed 17 innocent floridians at parkland high school on february 14, 2018. how could anyone possibly justify sending checks to these people? if we send $1,400 checks to all state and federal inmates, all 1.5 million, that's more than $2 billion. $2 billion in taxpayer money going to checks for inmates. that's $2 billion that could be helped -- used to help small

businesses recover, used for vaccine development and distribution to help americans get the shots they need to move us forward and away from this virus. $2 billion that could be used to help pay down some of our massive debt. there are uses for these funds that provide real returns for american taxpayers. but sending it to inmates isn't one of them. it's an unjustified expense that does nothing to fight covid-19. today i ask for full support of this body to strip this bad policy from law. we cannot forget that america is in a debt crisis. i've been talking about it for awhile and i won't stop talking about it because it's a crisis my democrat colleagues still don't seem to understand. right now our nation is headed towards $30 trillion in debt. think about that. $30 trillion. the u.s. debt will be equal to nearly $240,000 per taxpayer. that's insane. and what are the democrats doing to rein in this unsustainable

debt? absolutely nothing. in fact, the democrats' wasteful and untargetted spending bill which will raise the debt from $28 trillion to $30 trillion contains loads of handouts and provisions just like this one, that are recklessly spent on priorities unrelated to covid. that's why i sent a letter to the biden administration on monday urging him to take hundreds of billions of waste from this. it's clear democrats are living in a fantasy land where debt doesn't matter, debt has no consequences and inflation is impossible. reasonable americans know that's not true. the biden administration needs to take immediate action to request the rescission of the noncovid related liberal agenda driven and wasteful funding throughout this bill. i'll keep fighting to cut down on this liberal wish list. today we can start that important work and pass my bill to not only save $2 billion from going to inmates who have no need for the money but also show

the american people that congress is committed to remaining fully accountable to the american people for the proper stewardship of tax dollars. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of senate 798 introduced earlier today. i further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. wyden: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senior senator from oregon. mr. wyden: thank you, madam president. madam president, today the republicans are showing some real chutzpah. on this issue republicans were for it before they were against it. today they claim to want to target prisoners. the real harm they are doing is to innocent children and families. i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. scott: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from florida.

mr. scott: it's hard to imagine my colleague just rose in opposition to this good bill. let's be clear, i by objecting to this bill democrats are standing in full support of spending $2 billion to send $1,400 checks to inmates. democrats want to spent $2 billion in tax money to send checks to people in prison convicted of committing serious crimes and victimizing their fellow americans. that means democrats are saying that they want american taxpayers to be on the hook for $1,400 checks to some of the most heinous criminals we've ever seen. people like dylann roof and the parkland shooter. how can anyone just by sending -- justify sending checks to these people? let's remember, inmates, they don't pay income taxes. they have all their needs, food and medical expenses, paid for by taxpayers. they don't do anything to stimulate our economy. i hope my colleague will reconsider his objection and stand with me in putting accountability to american taxpayers over this insane policy that does nothing but

throw $2 billion we don't have out the window. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from massachusetts. mr. markey: i would ask for a vitiation of the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. markey: i thank you, madam president. and i wish you and i wish everyone a happy st. patrick's day. it's a big day for celebration up in boston, all of massachusetts, all across the

country and the world. on st. patrick's day, everyone is irish. i wish everyone a happy st. patrick's day today. and right now on the floor of the united states senate, there's a reason not to be so happy, and that's why i look forward to very soon casting my vote to confirm xavier becerra to lead the department of health and human services, one of the most qualified and forward-thinking minds that will have ever run the department of health and human services. but today republicans are using this confirmation vote to continue their agenda of obstruction, deflecting attention away from the nominee who will be the head of the chief federal agency responding to the coronavirus crisis, all to revive an unnecessary, blatantly political debate on reproductive rights. this ridiculous delay tactic

highlights how out of touch with the american people republicans are, their antichoice rhetoric is on full display here on the senate floor anded isly it is not new. they want to roll back, roe v. wade, they want to criminalize abortion care, they want the government to control women and their bodies, they want to roll back title 9 protections for women on university campuses and completely gutted title 10 program to fund health care providers like planned parenthood. there is an -- by confirming justices kneel gorsuch and brett kavanaugh and filling ruth gisburg seat with amy coney barrett. if there was a reason to abolish the filibuster, it is to ensure

we pass legislation to expand the supreme court so that it cannot overturn roe v. wade and send us back geaks in fight for -- back decades in the fight for equal access to health care in our country. here today republicans are attempting to disrupt the nomination of our secretary of health and human services with a craven political play to their base at the expense of the health of americans. they'd rather play politics than confirm president biden's cabinet nominees, they would rather remain beholden to the far-right interest groups than do the work the american people sent us here to do. for the past four years, the trump administration emboldened these groups with dangerous rhetoric and far-right policies. but in november, how did the american people respond? they voted him out and gave the democrats the senate majority. americans enthursdayed --

entrusted us to soifl them, not to fringe interest groups that want to turn back the clocks on health care and women's rights. that's why i stand on the floor of the united states senate today to say abortion is health care. we cannot stand for anymore disparities, delays, or denials of more than ever in this country, we need to stand up and raise our voices against the republicans' work to restrict access to reproductive health services. we have a fight ahead us to fight reproductive freedom to make sure that birth control is affordable and available, a fight for title 140 to ensure that low-income -- title 10 to ensure that low-income families can access family planning. to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and freedoms. to ensure that every person has

the fundamental right to make their own health care system decisions and they expect it because they want it. public support for roe v. wade is at a record high, 77% of americans support that historic supreme court decision. that goes beyond a simple majority to an overwhelming consensus. and a couple of years ago, one analysis of polling found that there is not a single state in the united states where a majority of voters support, quote, making abortion illegal in all circumstances. the american people have moved past that debate that republicans seem committed to resuscitating on the floor today. they are on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the american people. so as republicans try to hijack this confirmation vote on xavier becerra, all i can say is,

enough. enough with the era of extreme bodily discrimination. enough with outside entities taking control over what a woman can and cannot do with her body. enough with mounting barriers to reproductive services and birth control. enough with criminalization of abortion care. enough with creating roadblocks for poor women, immigrant women, and women of color to get equal access to health care. enough with this offensive debate steeped in misogyny, partisanship and tyranny. it is time to guarantee quality affordable health care regardless of status. it sl time to -- it is time to change. we must move away from the antiquated and ideological debate over women's bodies and recognize the spaces in which our government can promote

equity. we can reshape policy to reflect the constitutional rights of all people. by delaying xavier becerra's nomination to be secretary of health and human services, republicans seem more interested in denying the health rights of half of americans than in protecting the health of all americans. plain and simple, xavier becerra is exceedingly qualified to be our next health and human services secretary. he has proven that he prioritizes science and facts, believes in each person's right to make health and medical decisions about their own bodies and is dedicated to fighting for those most vulnerable in our society. his record and support for reproductive freedom reflect the will of the vast majority of americans who support legal access to abortion. he is committed to reproductive freedom and understands the importance of ensuring people have something s. to the

accurate information -- access to the accurate information they need to make the best decisions for their lives and their families. xavier becerra knows what is at stake and i have the utmost confidence that he will lead with conviction, with compassion, and with care and is ready to undo the damage that has been done by his predecessors. as america continues to battle the coronavirus pandemic, his confirmation is long overdue. i am proud to support xavier becerra today for secretary of health and human services. he will be one of the greatest secretaries that our country has ever known. madam president, i yield back. the presiding officer: the senior senator from new jersey. mr. menendez: madam president, i come to the floor today to discuss yesterday's report from

the intelligence community, public report, which confirmed what we all suspected last year, that the russian federation favored donald trump's reelection and sought to influence the outcome by amplifying attacks on joe biden and his family. and while the scale of interference appears to be less than what we saw in 2016, the receptiveness of trump's inner circle appears to have been about the same. they were open for business. i'm not here to relitigate the 2016 or 2020 elections, i am here to confirm that for two election cycles in a row, the republican nominee for president sought to normalize foreign interference in our elections, and i want to be clear, it is wrong, it is hostile, it is undemocratic, and it must stop if we want the american people to have the confidence in the legitimacy and the credibility of our elections going forward.

this is not about party. this is about the durability of democracy and everyone in this body has an important role to play in rejecting foreign interference and restoring trust in our election process. while the contents of the report came as no surprise, its findings were nonetheless breathtaking. our intelligence community is highly confident, the highest assessment they have on any given issue, in its assessment that vladimir putin was involved in the operation whereby andrii durkosh manipulated president trump's inner circle, including his personal attorney rudolph giuliani thankly the american people rejected the lies about joe biden and his family. that, however, does not diminish the fact that the russian government undertook this effort

and the former government welcomed it. the russian interference detailed in this report occurred at the very same time that the trump administration sought to downplay the role played by russia. this report was mandated by congress and for good reason. americans deserve to know exactly who is interfering in our democracy and how. as i said before, everyone has a role to play, including the american people. we have to encourage americans to practice better cybersecurity to scrutinize the information they see on the web, to carefully examine social media posts before sharing them must become the new hall marx of a patriotic and active informed citizenry. our media companies must do a better job of slapping the pro proliferation of foreign disinformation on their platforms. the kremlin will continue to attack our elections and seek to sow divisions among us, we have a responsibility to resist this

interference and not make their job any easier. we live in a media environment where donald trump and his republican allies continue to this day to promote unhinged conspiracy theories that the election was stolen. the intelligence report confirms this is not true. some republican officials have promoted wild con -- conspiracy theories that china supported democratic campaigns. intelligence reports confirm this is not true. former president trump and his allies assert that venezuela manipulated voting machines, a companion report by the departments of justice and homeland security confirm that this is not true. we must come to terms with the fact that while russia promoted disinformation in our country, the most perniciousengine of lies is cast by the former

president himself. knowing the facts sets a foundation for action. i look forward to respond to our intelligence community's findings. there should be sanctions required in response to this interference and the administration should move quickly to impose them. i welcome the approach thus far by the biden administration that calls out kremlin aggression when it happens an takes strong measures in response. the sanctions in response to the assassination attempt demonstrates that reckless behavior will not be tolerated and our efforts to hold the kremlin accountable will include close coordination with our allies. the package of sanctions announced shows how committed the biden administration is to confronting kremlin aggression, this kind of rigor is a welcomed reminder of how our government

should work. these sanctions are a good first step and i look forward to seeing the results of the administration's review of russia policy. we need a strategy that accomplishes four goals. one, limiting the kremlin's ability to interfere in our democracy as well as those of our allies and partners, this includes a plan to stop propaganda around the world. two, standing up for our friends in ukraine who are on the front lines battling kremlin aggression. they need our diplomatic support in europe, they need our security assistance to defend themselves, they need our encouragement to defend democratic institutions and i hope that president biden will speak to president zelensky. i supported the extension of the new start agreement and urged the administration to continue to advance armed control policies that advance stability

in our national security and finally our russia policy must extend a hand to the russian people, many of whom have courageously turned out by the thousands in opposition to putin and his government. their struggle for democracy is theirs, not ours, but we must make clear that our disagreements are not with them but with vladimir putin and his corrupt autocratic regime. defending our elections isn't just about strong cybermeasures, protecting the ballot box and promoting better practices on social media. it's about having a foreign policy that communicates our values and interests, one that leaves no room for debate over the openness of any president to foreign interference, it's about a foreign policy that recognizes how the kremlin's effort to weaken democracy in ukraine or other european areas. it is about a foreign policy that works with allies and

partners and not one that denigrates them at every turn. they are getting better at guarding against interference but we must remain vijt lent. russia and other foreign actors will continue to attack our democratic processes, their intentions remain the same and we need to step one step ahead -- stay one step ahead of them. the biden administration is off to a good start. as chairman of the foreign relations committee i look forward to working together to advance policies that reflect america's time-honored democratic policies both at home and abroad. madam president, parm meantry inquiry. is there a time limit that we're in the midst of? the presiding officer: in postcloture on the becerra nomination, each senator has up to one hour. men further parliamentary inquiry. is there a limit on time divided

by side or the floor open regardless. the presiding officer: the floor is open to any senator who seeks recognition. mr. menendez: thank you. switching very briefly, i want to join my colleagues to join me -- urge my colleagues to join me in support of the nomination of xavier becerra to serve as secretary of the department of the health and human services. i consider him a friend. we both came to congress at the same time, a time, i might add, where there are far fewer latinos elected to federal office than we have today. as a member of the ways and means subcommittee on health, mr. bah sarah -- becerra frequently spoke up about the many americans left behind by our health care system. patients with preexisting conditions, children in the -- and the working poor president furthermore, he played an active role in the effort to pass the affordable care act, a landmark law that since 2010 has changed the lives of millions of

americans in new jersey and across the nation for the better. as california's attorney general, no one has fought harder to protect the affordable care act than xavier becerra. if confirmed to this position, no one will work harder to protect and improve access to health care than he will. as the first secretary of health and human services of latino descent, i know mr. becerra will focus a great deal on addressing the health disparities that are harming so many low-income and minority communities nationwide, disparities we saw play out over the past year as covid-19 claimed a disproportionate number of black and brown lives. mr. becerra will also work to undo the damage wrought by the trump administration to our health care system. from weakening nursing home standards that left seniors more vulnerable in this pandemic to allowing health insurers to once again sell shoddy, skimpy plans to consumers that failed to protect them from massive

medical bills, and finally i want to address some of the criticisms i've heard from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle regarding mr. becerra's qualifications. the notion that mr. becerra has no managerial experience is laughable given that as california's attorney general, he has successfully led the second largest justice department in the nation. second only to the u.s. department of justice. and it's not lost on me that those questioning mr. becerra's credentials are the very same colleagues who claim that congressman tom price's background as a doctor qualified him to lead an agency that touches the lives of every single person in our great land. well, he was a disaster. and did not last a full year as secretary of h.h.s. and the immediate past secretary was a lawyer who did a good job at his pharmaceutical firm, dramatically pushing up insulin

prices. so i'm confident that both mr. becerra's passion for health care issues as demonstrated throughout his tenure in congress and his record as california's attorney general will serve him well as secretary of health and human services. i urge my colleagues to support his nomination. he will lead this agency with integrity and most importantly make the health of the american people his number one priority. with that i yield the floor and i thank my colleague from ohio for indulging my time. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i rise to speak in favor of xavier becerra as senator menendez just did. like senator menendez, da we wee in the first class in 1982 together. i consider him as a friend and admire the work he's done as attorney general and the work he will do at h.h.s. we're in the middle of the worst

health crisis in our lifetime and need someone to run a department would understands public health and will build a more stronger and affordable health care system. that's what he will do. he has experience for this job. he ran the nation's second largest law firm. he helped pass the affordable care act as a mechanic of the house that -- member of the house that expanded coverage to tens of millions of americans. i think the republican opposition, all partisan opposition to attorney general becerra for secretary of h.h.s. as senator casey pointed out is all about their opposition to the affordable care act, their opposition to the expansion of medicaid. i heard one senator after another say their state isn't treated right by medicaid, but they didn't even expand medicaid in many of those states. he took on as state attorney general he took on tobacco companies, drug companies, opioid manufacturers, and polluters. that's another reason

republicans oppose him because he took on their biggest contributors and their responsiblors and -- sponsors and the people they come to the senate and fight for. that willingness to stand up to big drug companies is going to be more important than ever in the years ahead. the cost of prescription drugs eats away at the budget of seniors and families in cleveland and akron and mansfield and youngstown and dayton. i work forward to working with future secretary becerra to bring down the drug prices. i hope we could work together to expand the affordable care act and make it work even better for families. we started this month and the presiding officer from wisconsin was a part of this with the american rescue plan. people buying health care on the a.c.a. exchanges are going to have lower premiums because of the rescue plan. mr. becerra will work to undo the vast disparities in health care in our country. this pandemic has been the great revealer. it's shown how unequal access to care and pollution and biases in the system and so much else have

hurt the health of black and brown americans for generations. we need to start getting -- we need to start with getting accurate data on how different communities have been hurt by this pandemic, something i've pushed for over the past year. it's something i know will be a priority to the new secretary of health and human services. i urge my colleagues to join me in confirming him so he can work to help get every american vaccinated, to expand p.p.e. and covid testing supplies, and to build a stronger health care system for the future. madam president, i ask to place the following remarks in a different place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. for decades ohio workers have watched the spread of a corporate business model where companies shut down production in toledo or dayton or youngstown. they collected a tax break to move jobs to mexico or china where they can exploit workers only to sell their products back into the united states. ohioans live with those consequences every day.

last week 81 wor workers had thr jobbings outsourced to ohio where production was moved overseas. now 81 union workers are facing tough conversations at kitchen tables. how will their families survive? will they fall behind on their rent or mortgage? do they move away with their kids, will their kids have to change schools? all those decisions that families have to make when workers or when plants shut down and move overseas. the presiding officer from wisconsin has been involved in this fight ever since her career began in the house 20-plus years ago and i have worked alongside with her to make sure that we have a different trade policy. but when one production line closes, the ripple effect extends as we know to whole communities, to other workers and companies and the supply chain. yesterday people in northeast ohio in the cleveland area woke up to headlines about yet another american corps deciding

to build -- corporation deciding to build things in mexico instead of ohio with ford breaking its promise to invest $900 billion in avon lake. i got a call two days ago from a small-town mayor john hunter, mayor of sheffield lake, ohio, a long-time -- he was a ford worker, retired, now mayor of the village of sheffield village. he talked about how ford had promised at the bargaining table in 2019 that they wine vest $900 billion, $900 billion -- i'm sorry, $900 million in this avon lake plant. ohioans are tired of watching corps after corporation ban -- corporation after corporation ban the workers that made their business a success. we're being told production of cheap, simple products will be shipped overseas like innovative high-value products will be made in the u.s. by american workers. we see in avon lake that's not true and we're sick of it.

our trade policy has to change. that's why today was a good day for this country. katherine tai was confirmed by this body 98-0. she understands trade policy. she's the right leader to take us in a new trex on trade -- direction on trade with american workers at the center. she's a serious expert. she's respected on both sides of the aisle. we saw that in that vote today. she has a proven track record of making progress for workers. last year i voted for a trade agreement for the first time ever in my career because of our work with senator wyden to fix the trump administration's corporate trade agreement, he said it was a new nafta, it was really a tired, old mostly the same nafta, rebranded as usmca. we went to work. we secured groundbreaking new worker protections. katherine tai was one of the key policymakers who worked with us to make that happen. she was in the negotiations. she was in the discussion. she helped senator wyden and me make this a much better bill that people like a whole lot of

us as progressives, pro worker senators could vote for. her work helped us make the first improvement to enforcing labor standards in our trade agreements since -- enforceable, serious labor standards since we've been negotiating them. we know why companies close factories in ohio and open them in new mexico. they can pay lower wages, they can take advantage of workers who don't have rights. american workers can't compete. we get a -- the only way by stopping it is by raising labor standards in every country we've traded with and make sure those labor standards are in force. that's what katherine tai will do. she will enforce the laws we already have. she will stand up for american workers. she'll fight for american businesses when countries cheat the rules. she'll work with a level playing field so steelworkers and auto workers and communication workers in ohio and wisconsin, all over the country can compete. she won't allow corporate lobbyists to write trade agreements. we've seen it -- since i came to

the congress, we've seen it with nafta. we've seen it with cafta, with agreement after agreement after agreement. corporate lobbyists write trade agreements. workers are locked out of the room. now u.s. trade rep tai's confirmation hearing, then -- the nominee of course, i asked her what she would do to start to regain the trust of americans on trade. she said you start by listening. she then talked about the valley in youngstown valley in my state. stating the concerns of communities that have gotten hurt over and over. the administration's outline for its 2021 agenda, trade agenda which ms. tai will be charged with carrying out says that, quote, trade policy should respect the dignity of work. trade policy should respect the dignity of work and value americans as workers and wage earners. imagine that, that our trade policy -- never before have we seen this -- respecting the dignity of work and valuing

america as workers and wage earners. that's the kind of thinking we need leading our trade policy. as the first woman of color to serve as trade adviser, katherine tai knows how important it is for the people in the room making trade decisions to actually reflect the diverse work force over trade policy -- trade policy affects. we know one good appointment, one good provision won't stop outsourcing but i'm always going to be straight with american workers. we've come a long, long way. but we have a long, long way to go to undo the damage our trade policy has done over the past three decades. i have as the presiding officer, i have stood up to presidents of both parties on trade throughout my career. that's not going to change. one of my proudest votes was one of my first votes and that was against the north american free trade agreement. i'll continue to watch closely what this administration does. if they show any hint of reverting back to the old way of doing things, of letting corporations dictate trade policy at the expense of

workers, they'll hear about it from me. this is going to be a constant effort over many years. as thrilled as i am with katherine tai, we know we still have a job to do, to reorient trade agreements and trade laws that are priority -- that our emphasis is no longer corporations but it's american workers. it has to be coupled with real investment in the communities that have been hollowed out because of washington and wall street's past mistakes. it has to be paired with an overhaul of our tax code to end once and for all the tax breaks paid for by hooians and others to -- by ohioans and others to send production overseas. trade doesn't happen in a vacuum. our policies must work together to create a global market where workers are treated with dignity. they're safe on the job, paid fair wages, able to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits. when you love this country, you fight for the people that make it work. that's what katherine tai will do. i thank my colleagues for the strong vote in support of her

confirmation. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: thank you, madam president. i rise today in strong support for the confirmation of california's attorney general xavier becerra to be the next secretary of health and human services. i'm absolutely confident that mr. becerra has the knowledge, the experience, and the skills. and just as importantly, the values and principles required of this job, a job that will play a key role in beating the coronavirus and tackling the urgent issues of equity and

affordability now facing our health care system. i'm especially confident in my assessment of xavier becerra because i have known him personally for years both as a former colleague and as a friend. i first met then congressman becerra in the house of representatives where he served for over two decades with myself and the presiding officer and others, and where he was a champion for the health care rights of the american people. working overtime to make sure that every american had access to quality affordable health care. we served together in the house democratic leadership and we served together on the house ways and means committee. so i've had an opportunity to see his legislative talents up front and also to witness his love of service to our country. we worked together to halt a

number of proposals that maybe some of our republican colleagues here in the senate were pushing for, including the proposal that continuously appeared in the house republican budget to voucherize the medicare program. one of the former speakers of the house wanted to essentially provide seniors on medicare with a voucher and send them out into more of a private marketplace. it would end up putting our seniors more at risk. and so together, we did battle that idea. we served together on what was known as the congressional joint select committee on deficit reduction, also known as the super committee, known to some as the not so super committee. and i saw him work to try to achieve agreements on some of the biggest challenges facing our country.

but like him, we both agreed that we weren't going to to do that at the expense of protecting medicare for seniors, protecting medicaid as an absolutely essential health care safety net for tens of millions of americans. and we were not prepared to provide more tax cuts to the very wealthiest of americans. it's in that last effort where xavier becerra, i think really distinguished himself in the house when it came to the issue of equity and health care. i know the presiding officer knows well the battles we all went together in the development and passage of the affordable care act. and it was that that really defined mr. becerra's legacy in the house. he championed the affordable care act from the very start. he helped to both write and pass

this landmark law that now helps tens of millions of our fellow americans. and after leaving the congress, he led the charge to defend the affordable care act against the texas case before the supreme court of the united states. now i know a lot of our republican colleagues have also spent years fighting the affordable care act. we've seen that play out here in the united states senate within the last couple years. but the reality is the affordable care act is very important to the overwhelming majority of the american people who support it and is a essential lifeline to quality, affordable health care for tens of millions of americans. and it's that that mr. becerra fought to pass and which he has fought to defend against constant attacks in the court.

there is no question, madam president, that xavier becerra fights for what he believes is right, as he should. but that has never prevented him from working across the aisle to get things done. as the attorney general of the state of california, he's repeatedly partnered with republicans to solve the pressing issues facing our fellow citizens. he builds bridges every day and has worked across party lines to expand access to covid-19 treatments, to confront the opioid crisis, and to address the dangers of vaping and smoking among our nation's youth. his record shows that attorney general becerra fights for what's important to the people he represents, not the party he belongs to. and he's demonstrated it by example time and time again with

his ability to bridge dpeep divisions even during this time of division. i know that he will fight hard for each and every one of our fellow citizens and will not look to see whether somebody's a democrat or republican or from some other party. what he cares about is making sure he's looking out for the health care of every american. and at this moment everyone in this country stands to benefit from an effective leader at the helm of the department of health and human services. our most pressing task is to contain the spread of covid-19 and to defeat covid-19. that requires clear messaging on public health measures. that requires accelerating the distribution of vaccines and treatment and testing and making sure we do all of that in an

equitable way. that means safely guiding the opening of our schools, and we all want our students to get back to school as quickly as possible and safely as possible. as the attorney general of california, he has led one of the largest departments of justice in the country, and in that capacity has stood up for strong consumer and worker protections throughout this pandemic and before. and i trust that he will continue to do so for all americans as secretary of h.h.s., if confirmed. we know that this public emergency and health crisis has been a blow to our country. it has also laid bare the fault lines in our health care system in terms of racial inequities, inaccessibility for underserved communities and underinvestment in our public health infrastructure. these issues, of course,

predated covid-19, but we must tackle them with renewed urgency as we emerge from this crisis. and mr. becerra is equipped to root out these disparities both because of his knowledge and skill and expertise, but also because of his lived experience. xavier grew up in a working-class latino family. he knows the communities that are hurting most because he has lived in those communities. he would bring to this important office not only his expertise and skill, but the empathy and the compassion needed to help those most in need. like most of us, mr. becerra is also guided and motivated by what makes him most proud -- his family. at his confirmation hearing he spoke movingly about his wife and his children who are all a part of all that he does. and he spoke about his parents

who traveled to this country from mexico, seeking a better life with nothing more than, in xavier's words, their health and their hope. it's that health and that hope that propelled mr. becerra into a life of public service. and it's that health and that hope that will animate his leadership at the department of health and human services should he be confirmed by the senate. he was brought up in a family that believed and sought the american dream, and he has spent his life fighting to make that dream real for families across this nation. he believes, as i believe, that that mission requires us to care for the health and safety of each and every one of our fellow citizens. and i have full confidence that he is up to the task.

colleagues, i urge us to confirm the nomination of xavier becerra to be the next secretary of the department of health and human services. madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from maryland. mr. van hollen: i have eight requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. a senator: this past year has been hard on hoosiers and americans across the country. mr. braun: when the economy was shut down, congress got to work. given my background as a business owner, i was involved in negotiating the paycheck protection program known as p.p.p. as part of the cares act, one of five bills that passed in 2020 with overwhelming support. i think 90 votes-plus. we worked it out. democrats and republicans together. those covid-related packages totaled $4 trillion, and we didn't have a penny saved up ahead of time to prepare for it. that's part of a deeper problem

with this institution is that we borrow anything that we spend money on, even 23% of our annual operating budget. to put that in perspective, imagine if you had a business doing a hundred thousand dollars in revenues action and you're losing -- revenues, and you're losing $23,000. and then you would go to your banker and expect them to bail you out. it wouldn't make sense. we came into 2021 with over a trillion dollars from those packages unspent, unobligated. instead of working with us like before, democrats did shut us out of the process. in fact, the senate as a whole did not work the bill through committees. it was laid to us on the senate by the house, all $1.9 trillion of it.

before this some republicans went to the white house to talk with the president about a bipartisan plan. knowing all of the money would be borrowed again but nothing came to fruition. instead we stayed up all night, finished the bill. at noon the next day, saturday. spent 29 hours on the floor and not a single republican amendment was adopted in this massive spending bill. instead of focusing on the virus and getting our economy back on track, this became an exercise in ramming something through that was a liberal wish list. only 1% of the bill, 1% of the bill went toward the vaccine. less than 9% goes toward covid-19 public health issues generally. while the congressional budget office projects the economy to

return to pre-pandemic levels by midyear, only 5% of the $130 billion for k-12 schools gets spent this year. and none of it is tied to reopening our schools, which many states had shut down early and opened up late. included in this package is a whopping $350 billion for state and local governments. i had a conversation with our own governor two, three weeks ago. a place like indiana and i believe west virginia as well probably runs balanced budgets. we do it with the guardrail of a constitutional amendment. many other states if they don't have a constitutional amendment, they have a statute. in other words, you do what households do. do you what all businesses do. you live within your means.

and here when you run your state governments in a way that in good times you can't make ends meet and you look to the federal government to bl out your bad governance, it's a whole other issue. even left-leaning economists and think tanks are worried about what this is going to do down the road because most of the time you don't feel the repercussions until later. and of course that could show up in inflation. it could show up in a way similar to what we dealt with in the late 1970's and the early 1980's. 44 states had surpluses last year when you look at covid funding. so many places like california had surpluses. and then they reconfigured how this was done not based on pro rata population but rewarded the states with the highest

unemployment levels. sounds bizarre to me. the governor in indiana has done a great job balancing the economy with public safety, and that's why our unemployment rate is now close to a full employment rate. it was the lowest in the midwest going into it because we've got a good business climate. we have a low cost of living. things work there. sadly the democrats' bill punishes states like indiana for safely reopening. the higher states unemployment rate, the more bailout money you get proportion natalie. but it goes -- proportionately. but it goes one step further and this is the part that caught my attention. and i'm interesting in hearing the explanation for it. i think it was a sneaky maneuver when you put it in such a large bill that had other doozies like stimulus checks for undocumented immigrants, for felons, all

kinds of stuff that i think when you look at it shouldn't have been in there but when it's that massive, it takes 10, 11 hours to read out loud, you're going to get some of that. what this does is if a state takes federal money, they cannot lower their state taxes in any way through 2024. first of all, i believe this is unconstitutional and coercive. second, we should never punish states for putting taxpayers first. we serve the public and should be good stewards of their money and especially in a place like this that runs the way it does day in and day out, should not be telling states that run their operations responsibly this they cannot do what they want with spending or taxation.

my bill strikes a provision that prohibits states' ability to change ref new as they -- revenue as they see fit for state's specific needs. second, my bill strips out the reporting requirement where states have to tell the federal government about every revenue source and amount of money they take in. this place ought to be doing that routinely to all the people that send it revenue. this bill has the support of over 25 groups, including the american legislative exchange council, americans for prosperity, americans for tax reform, citizens against government waste, club for growth, freedom works, heritage action for america, independent women's forum, and the national taxpayer union, among others. we expect many more to join in coming days. and i'm sure many stakeholders in indiana and west virginia,

not mentioned, will throw in support as well. lastly i'd like to thank the finance committee ranking member, senator crapo, for cosponsoring this legislation, along with other colleagues, including senators black busch, capito, marshall, rick scott, tillis, and senator young from my home state. madam president, i ask unanimous consent the committee on finance be discharged from further consideration of s. 730, and senate proceed to its immediate consideration. i further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed, that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. manchin: right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: madam president, my good friend from indiana, i'm

hoping this is a misunderstanding and i hope i can explain it because i was very much involved in this process. first of all, as a former governor, i know about the budget process, i know about balanced budgets. i used to meet every tuesday afternoon, i'd have my finance people come to my office as governor and we'd sit down and look at the revenue estimates. we had to make adjustments because we had a balanced budget amendment. isn't that a novelty, we had a balanced budget amendment that we had to live within our confines. that is something that no one who has been in state government and has run a business understands, i understand that. it is something we did very religiously. so the language in this bill, senator, the senator from indiana, the only thing this bill does or that language that you were concerned about, the only thing it did, you can cut all you want to, you can manage all your money you want, you just can't take federal money and use it if you cut your

revenue intentionally. that's all. so -- so what we try to do is target where the money had gone. so the treasury, you have to go as a state, you go to the treasury, you show the need that you have. you show the cost of what covid has cost your revenue and you're able to have money to replace that because the covid caused you that problem. you have also the ability to use in your state for three things, water, sewer, internet service. so you have infrastructure that can be done. also, what we -- also what we did in this bill, we have it going to out to 2024 so you're not going to overheat or overchacialg the economy. -- overcharge the economy. they can spread the money out. it goes in two tranches, half this year, half next year.

the money to every one of your communities, for the first time, 40% of that total money goes directly -- so your large cities -- your large cities will get money directly from the treasury. they have to show how they are using it for their back field, not basically have anything to do with what their tax revenue -- they just can't use this money to backfill tax cuts if they want to do that. that's pretty simple because there's not a need for it. if you can reduce your taxes, you don't need to backfill to show you're in good shape. but if you need it for anything else, you can use it for that. you can use it for all those things. i can tell you that every incorporated city in indiana, every county in indiana has to be thrilled. they have to be thrilled for the first time have control of their destiny. that was our intention. the first cares package, that never happened. the first cares package went

directly to the governors and if the governors were very prudent in how they did it, set up a committee, work through the legislature, some did, some didn't. there was a lot of money that never got into the basic fibers of your state or my state. so now that is not going to be the problem. also, they have the ability, if they have a water project they've been trying to do forever and never had the resources to do it, they can use their money for that. if they have a sewer project. and i said this, how do we pick water, sewer, and internet. they are not the sexy things that governors go out and cut the ribbon for a sewer line. we knew the infrastructure was falling apart by cities, and the waterlines are aged in most cities. we tried do something. they have until 2024. it's not shovel ready, it's a project you wanted to do but could not afford. we do not want to impede good

fiscal management to make adjustments with whatever they want to with their tax code. this prohibits using and the federal treasury saying, okay, i have a loss of revenue because i could the a$00 million or a billion dollars out of my state budget when i reduced taxes and now i can't pay my bills. also you can't use this money from the federal government for your pensions. that's a responsibility that we had. we called opec, other postponed employment benefits, pensions, basically health care, all the things when a person retires from their state, these are the thiks a state has a contract, an obligation for them and their retirement. that's the responsibility of the states to manage that. and that basically keeps the state either in good financial position, it keeps your credit rating up or your credit rating low if you managed your way through it. this is only to help you with

the extraordinary expenses that you incurred during the covid. that's all, sir. so i -- i don't want the state of indiana or any state to think that they can't do whatever they want to with their taxes. they just can't use the federal treasury to backfill something you've done and deliberately basically or self-inflicted, a loss of revenue. that's about it in a nutshell. the covid-19 is the greatest challenge we ever it. -- ever had. i know you mentioned a few things. my dear friend from maine is sitting here. we met quite a bit in a bipartisan way. even though the bill was not. and the bill was a lot bigger than all of my friends on the republican side could vote for. i understand that. but, please, understand there's an awful lot of things that we talked about that i did everything in my power to make sure, the tranches, spreading it out, not doing it all at one time. there was the restaurant act, it

was senator wicker and senator sinema, there was basically the homeless children's bill that senator murkowski and myself had put in there. so there was some bipartisan in that. should have been a lot more, i agree. we both know the process sometimes doesn't work the way we want it to, but you make every effort you can to make it work and i did that. and whenever i talked, i said this had bipartisan input. it didn't come out as a bipartisan vote, but there was bipartisan input in this piece of legislation, the best that we possibly could. i think it's a piece of legislation that we have -- if you have education, there's not a school in america today that should not be able to have a program where they can do their -- make the school the safest environment that a child should be in. every parent should be safe of thinking their children are in a safe place because of heating, ventilation, things that we have in this bill that will allow the education to have the resources it needs and also your higher education too.

so the money that -- that's going out, you have money going to the stimulus payment, going to all -- all of your citizens, 75,000, we put a hard cap, tried to put a hard cap at 75,000 to 150,000. we found out the first cares package, i don't think anybody on the republican or democrat side thought anyone making $100,000 or $200,000 would be making money. we didn't intend for that to happen, but that's the way the code read and that slid into that. we tried to stop that. and that came from the bipartisan group. if it wasn't for the bipartisan group talking, there were things i might have missed, i wouldn't have known some things that were a concern to all of us and some of the atrocities that we didn't want to repeat. we did all we could to try to stop it.

i'm very reluctant to object to any of my fellow senators. if i could work with you on this because i want to have a productive sit down with you and we can work on something together. but, please tell your governor, he can cut away if he wants to, he just can't go back to the federal government and say, i made a mistake, now i need your money. that's about it in a nutshell. if indiana can cut and it grows your economy, god bless you. if you have covid expenses, we'll help you. if you have projects, my goodness, just infrastructure projects, there's no impediment there. if you have internet services, if you have water services and sewer services. in west virginia, what we're trying to do is put a team together that can work, if the state has money for those three tranches, the counties have it and the municipalities have it and the incorporated towns are

going to count on the county and the state. there's so much good that can be done if you make sure they understand. they are elated to have a project they never could finish, upgrade their sewer system, finish a waterline, have the internet service they never had before. this is all unbelievable opportunities that we never had in this. so the bipartisan smart act that was filed in may 2020 included both of these guardrails plus another one requiring maintenance of effort. we have that in, maintenance of effort. we put that back then. the bipartisan and local state support and small business protection act released last december had exactly the same language. this is not new language, sir. it's the same language that's been there. they've never been able to backfill for basically discretionary cuts. it doesn't prohibit them, the same it doesn't prohibit anybody

in their state for having, and being a former governor, i'm partial to the tenth amendment of the constitution, states' rights. you have those rights. now you have the assistance also with those rights and so i hope it improves everyone's situation. i hope it does in west virginia, i hope it does in maine and i hope it does in indiana. it's all about making the emergency funds get to the right people. we're trying to target it. and, with that, it is something we have to keep an eye on. and if we do it be and we're good stewards, this will get us through the covid challenge that we have, we really don't know. i'm hope that we come out of this guns blazing in july. if the economy takes off like a rocket, sometimes when they take off, they tend to level off too. we want to make sure we're still out there for 2022, 2023, and 2024, and if they do it right, they can. they can do the projects and have the money they need for emergencies if it has a dip.

with that, we thought we had worked something, but the language is nothing new. it's not a surprise of it was not nothing anything that's been put in there, basically it's language that spells out pretty direct how you can use your money and what money you can't acquire. and that's the only thing we did. so, with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: is there objects -- objection? mr. manchin: yes, there is an objection. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from indiana. mr. braun: so my friend from west virginia explained why this won't impact governors, legislatures in terms of what they can do with their own fiscal policy. i would say that my friend from west virginia probably ought to check with governor justice and his legislature to see if they are on the same wavelength there. when we got input in bringing

this up as an issue when you're talking about the american legislative exchange council, americans for tax reform, citizens against government waste, and i won't repeat the rest of the list, i think it would get down to semantics in the sense that what do you do if you want to cut tax rates and just like precovid, we cut taxes and revenues went up for three to four years. how do you measure that complicated equation? because in many cases, when you cut rates, you find a new sweet spot where you generate more tax revenue. how would you sort all that out and then if it wasn't based upon penalizing states that are most apt to lower their tax rates because of how good their economies were pre-covid, it would be a different issue as well. so i'm willing to listen in

terms of how that does play out, but for now i'm going to view it as something i think that is not going to sit well with many states, their governors, their legislatures, and it has a possibility of being taken to court as being something that might be unconstitutional. if i'm off base, i'm willing to listen, but i'll probably have to bring some other parties in to make sure that this isn't a case of semantics and it's real according to the way you explained it. mr. manchin: would the senator yield? mr. braun: yes, i would. mr. manchin: thank you very much. i did have a conversation with the governor. we disagreed on some tax codes in west virginia but we're trying to work through that. i explained to him it doesn't do a thing. it doesn't impede. if you want to cut, go ahead and cut. he is still moving through with the legislation. i meet succeed or might not succeed on that. i make it very clear, this is

not new language. you cannot backfill. you cannot backfill. the only thing you can use your money for is for what covid expenses. basically if your revenues were down, no fault of your own, businesses dropped off, your tax collections were down, no fault of your own, that's what this is for. covid caused you a problem, an imdecision and put -- imposition and put strain on services that you're providing the people of west virginia and indiana. we want to make sure your first responders are there, your education, everything still run pg the way it's suppose -- running the way it's supposed to. that's why we passed five bills, trying to keep things afloat. and we think we've done that. it does not impede that whatsoever. and we've looked at it constitutionally. we're solid on constitution. what we're saying is does the federal government have a responsibility to backfill with treasury dollars a decision that could be self-inflicted. that's all. and you should live with that or

my state should live with it or reap the benefits if it were not penalizing -- even if your revenues went up. you still had covid expenses. you could offset. those are legitimate expenses you incurred during the covid-19 pandemic, the covid-19 pandemic. that's what we're talking about. so if your revenues went up after that, we're not penalizing you. if they have gone down, that's a whole another story because covid caused that. but you just can't cause it yourself. i think that's it in a nutshell. mr. braun: will the senator yield? mr. manchin: yes. mr. braun: i think it begs the question that by cutting tax, you're going to lower gross tax revenues. and that's been a discussion we've all had for many years. and i know in places like indiana and we just had it occur here with the tax cut and jobs act at the federal level and the

c.b.o., i was working with them, was getting close to saying that their original forecast that when you had a tax cut which was $1.5 trillion over ten years, $150 billion per year, it wasn't working out that way because there is the ten nonmom -- phenomenon called when you find the sweet spot of taxation, you can cut taxes and generate more revenues. and then you'd penalize a good fiscal move by the way you're interpreting your reading. and i'm willing to get into the nuance to see if that would muster that particular case. i don't think it would. mr. manchin: would the senator yield again. he's always been very kind and very reasonable and i look forward to sitting down with him on this. what you've said is absolutely correct. we're not penalizing. we don't tend to penalize anybody that made that decision. but you're talking about a state

that has a balanced budget amendment year in and year out. there's a time when a governor has to make a decision and go to his legislature and say hey, we're going to be x amount of dollars short so we need to cut. so they start cutting and cutting services. that's what happens in order to balance the budget usually. services are cut to the people. we're just saying in our piece of legislation here that we have that we don't want that to happen because no fault of your own. but if you've cut your taxes and you're thinking well, five years down the road we're going to have more revenue, that's fine. you just bath backfill for that -- you just can't backfill for that period of time and use it for something you've cut revenues basically in a self-inflicting way. it might be a self-ingratiations way to where it will help you down the road and you still can't backfill for that. any covid expenses you have, absolutely you can fill that hole. show them you've had covid expenses. and if you said okay, we filled

all of our holes for covid. now you've got water, sewer, and internet. and trust me, there's not a place in indiana or west virginia that doesn't need help there. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. collins: thank you, madam president. madam president, this is the time of year when people are calculating their taxes and filing their returns. there are inequities in our tax code, and the bill i'm introduce introducing today, the salty dutch and fairness act would help remedy one of these inequities. this bill would ensure that limits on state and local tax deductions also known as salt deductions do not disproportionately and unfairly penalize married couples.

currently the amount of state and local taxes that both single and married filers may deduct from their annual income taxes is capped at $10,000. single filers and married filers are treated the same. and married people who file their taxes separately are limited to $5,000 each. in other words, people would be better off not getting married when it comes to the salt deduction. my bill removes this penalty by simply doubling the deduction to $20,000 for married filers. so, madam president, this is the situation we have now. two single people can each claim $10,000 worth of state and local

income taxes as a deduction on their federal return. but if they get married, they can claim only $10,000 together. this is a classic example of a marriage tax penalty. madam president, when the senate considered the tax cuts and jobs act in 2017, i worked to keep the salt deduction in the federal tax code because of the increased tax burden its elimination would have imposed on many mainers who pay property taxes on their seasonal cottages as well as their homes, remit annual excise taxes on their vehicles, and are subject to state income taxes.

the salt deduction has been in the tax code since 1913 when the federal income tax was first established. it is intended to protect families from double taxation, from essentially paying a tax on a tax. the senate adopted my amendment which paralleled that in the house to retain the deduction for state and local taxes up to $10,000. this deduction is especially important to families living in high tax states like maine which has one of our nation's highest state taxes and where many residents own second homes like camps on maine's beautiful lakes. last year analysis by wallet hub found that maine had the fourth highest overall tax burden

behind only new york, hawaii, and vermont. yet maine's median household income ranks only 35th in the nation and is approximately $6,800 below the u.s. median household income. so maintaining this deduction provides important tax relief for those mainers who continue to itemize their deductions. but we can do better. we can make the salt deduction fairer by eliminating the marriage penalty that limits a married couple to just $10,000 where if they were not married, they could each claim $10,000. according to the u.s. census, there are more than 60 million married couples living in our nation. our tax code should be fair to

them. we should not create a situation where married couples would have been better off financially in terms of taxes had they not married. one way to accomplish this goal is to double their as to deductions for the state and local taxes they pay including from property they share such as their home. this legislation would remedy this double taxation problem and eliminate the marriage tax penalty when it comes to the salt tax deduction. madam president, it boils down to this. we simply should not be unfairly penalizing american taxpayers for being married. i urge my colleagues to support this commonsense bill to fix this marriage tax penalty. thank you, madam president.

i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. a senator: thank you, i rise in support of the brave hardworking men and women who serve as law enforcement officers in our communities across the nation. mr. tillis: men and women in law enforcement risk life and limb every day to protect public safety and preserve the rule of law. they truly are american heroes. in recognition of their remarkable service and sacrifice, i'm reintroducing the protect and serve act and i hope every senator agrees that we must do everything we can to support the men and women in blue. i also call on my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation. it's my hope that this legislation will unite us on a bipartisan basis to support those heroes who keep us safe. i can think of no better example

of why we need this legislation than the events of january 6 right here in this chamber and across the capitol. while ruthless, anarchist mobs sought to disrupt and destroy our democracy, the capitol police bravely kempt us safe from -- kept us safe from harm while they were being viciously attacked by the violent mob. and many of my colleagues saw this firsthand as they were safely getting us to a position while the events unfolded that day. because this attack occurred in d.c., though, there are only limited laws in place to prosecute those who would assault a law enforcement officer. under current law, the -- a criminal who assaults a law enforcement officer with deadly weapons or inflicts bodily injury could receive anywhere from a fine to 20 years in prison. under the protect and serve act, these violent criminals will receive an additional ten years

in prison if they assault an officer and if they murder or kidnap a law enforcement officer, they could be given a life sentence. this would apply not only to federal law enforcement on federal properties but could also be used to prosecute criminals at the state and local level who target law enforcement officers. this federal law would ensure that prosecutors have every tool available to punish those who attack the men and women in blue. nationwide in 2020, 47 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty, and over 300 were shot. three of those murdered officers were right in my home state of north carolina. so far in 2021, 14 officers have been killed in the line of duty and over 50 have been shot and countless others have been assaulted. 2020 saw the rides of radical ideas like abolishing the police which fuels distrust and disdain

for our brave men and women in blue. even while americans are calling for transparency and accountable, the idea of polishing and defunding the police only serve to deepen the divides in our country and our communities. it's sad that congress even needs to consider a bill to protect law enforcement officers. the heated rhetoric and the violent attacks on officers are having real-world impacts, beyond just the safety of our law enforcement community. across the country, recruitments are down, and retirements are up. we have cities having to increase funding for recruiting and finding people that will replace those who have left the profession or retired early. this is sad, but it's not surprising. law enforcement officers put their life at risk every single day. they leave their spouses and family every morning, and they don't know if they're going to come back. in 2018, before the antipolice

rhetoric took hold, the house passed the legislation by an overwhelming vote of 382-35. the bill that i'm reintroducing, including 220 republicans and 162 democrats. on the floor, every current member of the house democratic leadership voted in favor of this legislation, including speaker pelosi. this has been bipartisan legislation, and it should be bipartisan legislation today. which is why i call on all my colleagues, members of the republican and democratic caucus, to join us in support of this commonsense and needed legislation. congress must pass the protect and serve act right away and boldly say that there is no escape from justice for dangerous criminals who intentionally assault and kill our hardworking, dedicated law enforcement officers.

i urge the american people, call your senators, ask them to support the measure, tell them that you want this bill passed and our law enforcement officers protected. don't be silent. help me fight for the men and women in blue because they're counting on us. and along the way, when you see a law enforcement officer, thank them for their service and let them know members of congress are fighting for them. thank you, madam president.

mr. barrasso: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. last month, the american people created 379,000 new jobs across our country. the unemployment rate fell to 6.2%. our economy is recovering. we are actually on our way back to normal. in early february, the congressional budget office published a report on this. the report says that our economy will reach the same size that it was before the pandemic, and it will do it in just a few months. it says this summer, our economy would be back to normal. c.b.o. made that projection weeks before the democrats passed and the president signed

into law a $1.9 trillion wish list. in other words, our economy would be back to normal even had they never passed the bill. we would be back to normal without a dime of this incredible high amount of spending. we didn't need the liberal wish list. the country doesn't need it. yet it's obvious why democrats rushed, rushed their liberal wish list into law. they wanted to stamp their name on the recovery that was coming no matter what. i have no doubt that that's the goal, yet the truth is clear. this is not president biden's recovery. president biden inherited three vaccines, successful vaccines, vaccines that worked and are safe. president biden inherited two million tests a day for coronavirus. president biden inherited

falling coronavirus numbers. he also inherited a recovering economy. last year, we saw the fastest economic recovery in american history. the unemployment rate fell to -- by half in six months. the american people created more than 12 million jobs coming back from the pandemic. they did it in just six months. that is more jobs than were created in the eight years of the obama-biden administration. now, this was in large part because of the foundation laid by republicans before the pandemic with president trump's economic programs in the white house. republicans cut taxes on the middle class, on job creators. they cut regulations. we cut government red tape. we made a better trade deal with our neighbors. our agenda worked. just before the pandemic hit, the unemployment rate was down to 3.6%.

the american people created more than seven million new jobs under trump. we saw record low unemployment for hispanic americans, asian americans, african americans. we reached the lowest unemployment rate for women in 60 years. when america began to reopen, the success of that agenda helped us recover at a record pace. the economy is also recovering because we're making progress against the virus. with republicans in the white house and a republican majority in the united states senate, we have passed more than $4 trillion in coronavirus relief. unlike the democrats' relief wish list, all five of our bills were bipartisan. they each got 90 votes in the senate or more. operation warp speed broke records for vaccine development. a new vaccine typically takes about ten years from the lab to people's arms. the previous record for a vaccine was for months. it took four years.

last year, we received two coronavirus vaccines in ten months. we broke records, and it wasn't even close. the food and drug administration made dozens of cuts to regulations in order to make this happen. the biden administration has not played it straight with the american people about coronavirus. we remember when vice president harris said that there was no national strategy, she said, or plan for vaccinations. madam president, we were delivering millions of doses of vaccines in december. president biden said we got into office, and there was nothing in the refrigerator. nothing in the refrigerator. the biden campaign and now the biden administration has repeatedly misled the american people on the coronavirus. they have repeatedly taken credit for things for which they deserve no credit. mark my words, this summer they're going to try to take credit for our recovery. if they do, they will be flat-out wrong. our recovery was booming under the republican agenda.

it was an agenda of low taxes and fewer regulations. that's the agenda that the american people need to get our economy booming again. madam president, on another matter, i also come to the floor to oppose what i see as a radical agenda of the democrats in congress. it's not even been two months since the democrats took over the senate that they have already rolled out one of the most left-wing agendas in american history. they have already spent $1.9 trillion, $1.9 trillion, with a t, $1.9 trillion of our tax dollars. 26 democrats have endorsed amnesty for illegal immigrants. nearly every democrat has endorsed giving statehood to washington, d.c. and now senator schumer has put gun control on the senate's to-do list. democrats have proposed a radical agenda that invades nearly every aspect of american life.

yet the driving force behind this agenda is not the senate. it is still the house. house democrats have gone after our first amendment rights and freedom of religion. they have gone after our second amendment right to keep and bear arms. they have gone after our right to work. when democrats are in charge, none of our rights are safe. neither are our most cherished institutions. house democrats have gone after our police, gone after our elections. they lecture republicans about accepting the results of elections, yet they are trying to overturn an election in iowa. now, the lawyer the democrats have put in charge of that case was just sanctioned in federal court on ethics violations. yet, speaker pelosi has made it clear at her press conference on friday that she supports the effort to overturn the election. that's not all. democrats aren't just trying to change one election. they're trying to change all of our elections, pass the bill to change just about every aspect

of our election forever. a recent poll by harvard shows that 71% of voters say they don't want future elections to be like they were in 2020. if democrats get their way, every election will be a pandemic election. to change our elections, democrats still need 60 votes in the senate. that's why over the weekend, democrat allies at "the new york times" endorsed changing the rules of the senate. the paper explicitly said that that was the reason. the paper attacked members of this body, senator manchin and senator sinema, who have had the courage to oppose changing the rules of the senate. the editorial board said, quote, this is a singular moment for american democracy if democrats are willing to seize it. madam president, it's dangerous, it's scary, yet it's true. this is a singular moment. once they rigged the senate, then they can rig our elections.

once they rig our elections, then there will be nothing to stop them. then they can go after our religious freedoms, they can go after our rights to keep and bear arms, and they can spend as many of our hard-earned tax dollars as they want to. this certainly is a singular moment for our democracy. it's a moment for senators on both sides of the aisle to stand up to this radical agenda. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana. mr. young: madam president, i rise today to speak about a subject that is a point of pride and a source of passion for my constituents. you visit indiana and you're

bound to see them. a backboard hammered to an old barn. rows of asphalt courts. a lone hoop in front of a cornfield or in a clearing. steel poles standing in driveways. though basketball wasn't technically invented in indiana, indiana is indeed its epicenter. even the game's inventor james naysmaight said basketball really had its origin in indiana which remains the center of the sport. so it's appropriate that this year's ncaa will be played in its entirety in our state. now, this of course is in part because planning and hosting 68 teams in the middle of a global pandemic presents unprecedented challenges, challenges that

hoosiers in and around indianapolis are going to be able to navigate, and they will be able to work with our world class college campuses in order to host teams from around the country. it's a great source of pride for us. but it's also fitting because this sport is so important to our state. you see, it's march madness meets hoosier hysteria. the gyms where we play basketball are historic sites. the men and women who have competed and coached back home are indiana folk heroes. we know their names. they're part of our common language, the big o. catch, the general. byrd, wooden. memorabilia, artifacts and sites associated with them are preserved in museums and town halls. they're in school gyms.

they're marked by bronze plaques and other ways to memorialize those who have preceded us. streets and roads are named in their honor. we can even identify legendary teams and major moments in our basketball history with just a few almost mythic words that are familiar to the ears of hoo hoosiers. franklin wonder five. plum/shot. eight points and nine seconds and, yes, the infamous chair throw. even the color of the ball, orange of course, can be traced back to a hoosier, tony hinkle who thought it was a good idea. so for indiana, basketball is much more than just a past time. it's a source of joy, a source of joy for our communities and it brings the people in and

across them together. after all, it takes little more than a basketball and a ball to play -- a basket and a ball to play. that's why where you go in indiana, no matter the neighborhood you might be visiting or passing by, be it affluent or one hit by hard times, in the country or in the city, you're going to see basketball played. it almost doesn't matter what the time of year it is or what the weather is like, you are likely to see basketball if you hit the road for a few hours in indiana at any given time of year. you're going to hear it discussed. the basketball court in the gymnasium bleachers are great levelers. so i'm sharing this with you because there is a larger point at play. today it increasingly seems that americans have less and less in common with one another, that we're defining ourselves not as

a diverse nation united by a common set of values with a shared past and a shared future but we're instead sorting ourselves into tribes based on geography or class or even political affiliation. and this has been accompanied by the hollowing out of many of our communities and a loss of faith in the public spaces and access to these public spaces and institutions that shape our national identity and bind this vast pluralistic and beautiful country together. now, these are dangerous trends, this separation, this tribalism, ones that we're going to have to work hard to turn back. there's only so much this body can do. i'm under no illusions. only so much government can do to make america whole again.

that's why we should cherish and celebrate the institutions that do have the power to unite us. and as any hoosier will tell you, basketball is one of them. and even beyond this, as its history in indiana shows, this shared ritual that brings us joy and brings us together also pushes us to be better individually and collectively. i think of the persistence of a teenager by the name of steve arford. endlessly practicing free throws in his driveway in new castle, even in the snow and rain. and the courage of indiana university's bill garrett who fought segregation and broke the big ten color barrier. and then the faith of little ma lan high, enrollment hardly 100

beating mighty munsey central, enrollment over 1,000 for the 1954 state high school championship. the grace of success of generationals of graduates -- generations of graduates at chcrismus add r attics, a school built to sg gait but it grew -- segregate but it grew into a powerhouse whose basketball program was a beacon in the civil rights movement. and to this day remains a great source of pride not just for black hoosiers but for all hoosiers. it was also the first african american team to win a state championship in the nation. the spirit of the tiny town of ma dora -- medora, an underdog community featured in a recent

documentary who stayed by their team while its players laced up work boots because they couldn't afford basketball shoes. then they set out with grit and determination and resolve to end a season losing streak. so these scenes from indiana's history up to the present day like the game itself unite people from different backgrounds and they foster pride in our places, especially our struggling places. they teach us to draw a line between competition and contempt, to keep perspective and to have the humility to remember that defeat is never permanent and neither is victory. and they help us see and treasure what we have in common. they show us the power of opportunity and empowerment. institutions like basketball can't be taken for granted.

they bring meaning and purpose to the lives of people and places that we call home. they encourage our citizens to dream beyond limit, and i would say that they're what we need in this nation right now. so as the ncaa tournament tips off and the games begin across our stadiums, field houses and arenas, indiana's hardwood civic temples as we like to think of them i know it will be a reflection for our love for basketball and an exhibition of our collaborative ability to host such a large event during such a difficult time. but what will also be on display is the other reason that's right and proper that this event take place in indiana. we're devoted to this sport because it brings us hope and it brings us together. it instills the virt uses --

virt uses necessary to preserve many of the other features that make our country so special. it really can help make america whole again. now and then we all need to be gently reminded, i think, of the importance of these very things. and i can think of no better time or place for that than march in indiana. thank you, madam speaker. mr. durbin: madam speaker. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: let me thank my colleague from indiana. you can't do better than hoo hoosiers, one of my favorite movies, the story of a small town, indiana town beating the big city players. and if i'm not mistaken, my former colleague in the house

lee hamilton might have been one of those players on the big city team. i think he told me at one point. it's a great story and we're -- all eyes are on indianapolis and indiana with the ncaa tournament and your neighbors to the west, illinois, headed across the border, going to make a good showing i hope. i thank you very much for reminding us of that great american tradition. earlier in the day my friend and colleague from texas senator cornyn came to the floor and raised some questions about my commitment to the filibuster as a rule in the senate. he quoted me several years ago saying the filibuster was kind of an indication of what the senate was all about. and i still stand by that. the senate of course with two senators from each state regardless of their population is an opportunity for smaller states and minorities to be represented and to have a voice. and the filibuster in at least some respects was a procedural

reflection of that same value. but i would say to senator cornyn i have been moved and changed my mind somewhat on filibuster because of nothing, nothing. that's what's been happening on the floor of the united states senate. nothing. when senator mcconnell as the republican leader was in charge of the senate over the last two years, we did little or nothing. i didn't run for this office to represent the people of illinois and to help our nation to watch the ink dry on documents that are being pushed back and forth on desks here. we came here to do something. two years ago because of the filibuster, two years ago we considered 22 amendments in the course of one year on the floor of the senate. it's not counting vote-a-rama, that contraption of a procedure where we debate all of two minutes before we vote on

something. but real debate and real amendments, 22. well, the following year, 2020, dramatic increase. we went all the way up to 29 amendments in the course of a year. you see, give me some measurement in history. my wife said what does that mean. in the first year of the obama administration, we had 240 amendments the first year. now we're down to 22 and 29. why? because we've reached a point now where everyone assumes that every issue is going to be filibustered and, therefore, if you don't have 60 votes, forget it. while it's rare that that kind of supermajority shows up on anything important. that's what happens when you play out the filibuster tradition to an extreme. as one staffer said to me today, the senate is in a death spiral. no one can bring anything to the floor that might be subject to a filibuster because you can't imagine where you're going to get 60 votes.

i hope he's wrong. but i can understand his analysis. the measures that we've considered so far this year in the united states senate after two months-plus, well, the impeachment trial. that didn't require any filibuster votes. the nominations that come before us every day, not subject to a filibuster. and of course the reconciliation bill, the american rescue program for president biden. that was under a procedure where you couldn't use a filibuster. so now things are quiet on the floor of the senate again this week and next week because whatever you bring here is subject to a threat of a filibuster, and you need 60 votes. i have watched this play out on an issue near and dear to my heart. it's called the dream act. i introduced it 20 years ago. 20 years ago. it basically says if you were brought to this country as an infant, toddler, or child, your parents made the decision, you grew up here and you ought to have a fighting chance to earn

your way to legal status and citizenship. that's it. overwhelming majorities of people in all political parties support it. they think it's a good idea. and you say durbin, you came here to be a legislator, and in 20 years, you can't pass one bill? well, i tried. five times i brought the dream act to the floor of the united states senate. it was stopped with a filibuster each and every time. i got a majority. i still have a majority in support of it, but i can't get that 60 vote -- that magic 60 votes that's needed under a filibuster. well, i'm frustrated by that, and i hope my frustration is manifest by what i have said on the floor. my challenge to the members of the senate on both sides of the aisle is very simply this -- if you believe in the filibuster, if you believe it will work, show me that you can pass an important bill subject to the filibuster. do it next week, the week following. bring something to the floor, let's debate it, let's amend it, let's vote. i don't think that's unreasonable to ask. in fact, i think that's the reason we were elected to come

here. so i'd say to the defenders of the filibuster try to defend what's happened on the floor of the senate in the last two years. almost nothing. we can do better. the american people expect it of us. madam president, i ask that the next statement i make be placed in a separate part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, last night, near atlanta, georgia, a gunman murdered eight people in what appears to be an act of domestic terrorism. six of the eight victims were women of asian descent. we mourn the lives of those lost and pray for their families and loved ones. while local and federal authorities are still investigating the gunman's motives, we know that in the past year, it has been a perilous time for asian americans and those from the pacific islands, especially women. since the pandemic began last march, nearly 3,800 hate incidents targeting these americans have been reported.

i expect the number of unreported incidents is much higher. asian american women have had racist insults shouted at them from across streets, grandparents have been assaulted and killed while running errands. some asian americans have even begun carrying pepper spray wearing body cameras, walking in groups to protect themselves from wanton violence. increasingly, asian americans do not feel safe in their own neighborhoods. this palpable fear is proof of how dangerous racist stereotypes and demagoguery can be. when former president trump insists on calling the coronavirus the china virus, as he did again last night on fox news, he is not simply spouting hateful, childish rhetoric. he's granting people permission, permission to target neighbors and fellow citizens, permission

to hate. this kind of language divides and preys on fears. it offers the kind of answer to every problem that you might expect from these people. there is always somebody you can fear and someone you can hate. the sad reality is that racist fearmongering has always been a part of the american story. today we know by testimony from the f.b.i. director it is a growing danger to every american. intelligence analysts warn us that white supremacists and other far-right extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the united states. of course we look across the ocean, the threat of terrorism after 9/11. sadly, now we have to look across the street. for too long, the federal government has failed to adequately address this growing threat. we saw the lethal results of that inattention on january 6 right here in this senate chamber. groups of far-right nationalists

and neonazis provoked by former president trump stormed our capitol in an attempted insurrection. i have introduced a bipartisan bill in the senate that would give law enforcement the resources to address this threat. it's called the domestic terrorism prevention act. it would establish offices to combat domestic terrorism in the department of justice, the f.b.i., and the department of homeland security. those offices would assess the domestic terrorism threat regularly so that law enforcement can focus their limited resources on the most significant threats like those facing aapi americans today. my bill would also provide training and resources to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement in addressing those threats. i'm sure communities across this nation could use that support. and there is the issue of how these terrorist acts are committed. last night's attack near atlanta was a mass shooting, a uniquely

american threat. next week, the senate judiciary committee, which i chair, will hold a hearing on gun violence in america. too many people get shot in america, not just near atlanta but in the city of chicago, st. louis, all across our country. how many times have we seen images in those communities like we did last night of another mass shooting? america is better than this. we need to take action to reduce the number of gun deaths in this nation. we're going to get to work in the senate judiciary committee to try to find some common bipartisan ground to address it. maybe we will fail. i hope we succeed. we've got to try. it's time for the senate to stop cowering before any special interest group and pass commonsense gun safety policy. to the people of atlanta, to members of the aapi community, all across america, we are standing with you. we are grieving with you. we'll do everything in our power to protect you.

madam president, i ask the statement i am about to make be placed in a separate part in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, our nation is at a critical moment in our fight against covid-19. we see declining infections, declining hospitalizations and deaths, and thanks to three effective vaccines and perhaps more on the way, adherence to social distancing and mask wearing, this new administration has put together a comprehensive plan to address and defeat this virus. but we aren't out of the woods yet. in the united states, we have less than 5% of the world's population and 20% of the covid cases and deaths. we continue to see 50,000 to 60,000 new covid cases every day. we still have approximately 4,700 people hospitalized because of covid in the united

states. we still tragically lose 1,200 american lives each day. while access is improving greatly, we still see too many people struggling to get a vaccine. if we're going to defeat this virus once and for all, we need our top public health officials in place on the job. yet, our republican colleagues continue to block the nomination of xavier becerra to head the department of health and human services. the chief federal agency responsible for public health response to covid. their campaign to lead the top public health position in this nation empty in the midst of a pandemic is unwise. it has to come to an end. it's been three months, three months since president biden announced that he would nominate mr. becerra to serve as secretary of health and human services. a majority of senators support his nomination. i do. he's a personal friend, someone

i have known for years, extremely competent, ready for the job. yet, republican senators continue to delay xavier becerra's nomination day after day after day. their objections to him are all over the map. they say they oppose him because of his support for the affordable care act. remember that one? president obama's affordable care act. that took half of the people who are uninsured in america and gave them the protection of health insurance, many for the first time in their lives. it provided health coverage to more than 20 million americans. it's been a lifeline to families nationwide. most people would say thank goodness mr. becerra supported it. for a man who wants to be secretary of h.h.s., we would almost insist on that. and yet, republicans oppose his nomination because of that. and they also don't like the fact that he was the attorney general of california, and he enforced the state's covid-19

rules. how can defending public health rules disqualify a person who wants to be the america's top public health official? we're in the midst of a lethal pandemic that has claimed nearly 530,000 american lives. more people infected and dying every day. is this any time to play politics with the department of health and human services? i don't think so. xavier becerra is an effective manager, a smart, thoughtful, passionate leader. he's the right person to lead the department. he served in the u.s. house of representatives for more than two decades, as california's top prosecutor since be 2017. he took on the tobacco companies and the opioid manufacturers. three cheers for him in both instances. and he helped defend health care for families, women, and the lgbtq community. in his confirmation hearing, mrs commitment to serve all americans by expanding access to

health insurance, lowering prescription drug prices, improving rural health care, and addressing racial and ethnic disparities in care. would you expect anything less from a man who wants to lead our public health effort? when he's finally confirmed this week after this unconscionable delay -- and he will be confirmed -- he will be the first latino to serve as secretary of h.h.s. his historic confirmation will be especially meaningful at this moment in time when latinos are disproportionately affected by the medical and economic impact of covid. delaying his confirmation only hurts our nation still struggling to beat this pandemic, still working to get everyone vaccinated, to get our schools open, and everybody back to work. sadly, these republican senators who have led this charge against him are demonstrating obstructionism at its worst and at the worst moment.

i look forward to confirming xavier becerra to be secretary of health and human services. i yield the floor. mr. carper: while my colleague, senator durbin, is here, there is a real ironnary for the republican friends to say they are not going to support xavier becerra because of his support for the affordable care act. one of the key ingredients for the affordable care act is actually the exchanges, access for those who don't have coverages from employer, to get them in a group. but there was an idea that was introduced in -- i don't know, in 1993 by 23 republican senators. 23 republican senators. this is an alternative to hillarycare. it never got anywhere, never went anywhere until an enterprising governor from massachusetts heard about it. he said oh, here is a way to harness market forces and

provide opportunities for people to get health care coverage that otherwise wouldn't have it. they said this might work. they introduced it as romneycare in the state of massachusetts, and you know what? it worked. it made health care coverage available to a lot of people. it helped on the affordability side, too. for our republican friends to say that's a reason why his support for the a.c.a., a key ingredient of which is the exchanges, is an irony there. i hope it's not lost on our friends. i thank you for those comments. madam president, like my friend, senator durbin, i, too, rise in support of attorney general xavier becerra, a long-time public servant and president biden assess nominee to be our next secretary of health and human services. for a year now, i have been saying to anybody who will listen that the only way to really get our economy back on track, put parents back to work, get kids back in the classroom,

and life back to the normal in the u.s.a. is to do all we can to put this devastating pandemic in our nation's rearview mirror. that means vaccinating as many at-risk americans as safely and as quickly as possible. thankfully, under the leadership of our new president, america is leading the way in the production and the distribution of vaccines. how about that? leading the world. each day we are breaking records on a number of new americans that are being vaccinated. madam president, after going through one of the darkest periods in american history, we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but as we ramp up vaccine distribution throughout america and help make sure that all people, all people from rural communities to urban cities have equitable access to lifesaving vaccines, we need to make sure that the department of health and human services has the right leader at the helm going forward. for my money and my judgment, that leader is xavier becerra.

i believe he is the right person for this job at this point in our nation's history. as a key member of the biden administration, he will work with the white house, he will work with us in the congress to tackle the coronavirus pandemic and to coordinate our nation's response to it. just as he has done throughout his career, he will fight to expand affordable health care, address persistent health disparities and restore h.h.s.'s mission to protect the health and well-being of all americans. madam president, i've heard several of my republican colleagues call into question xavier becerra -- attorney general becerra's qualifications to serve as h.h.s. secretary. obviously, they're free to express their concerns. as senators, it's our duty to evaluate, to vet and evaluate cabinet nominees and make sure we believe they're going to be best able to serve the american people. i take that responsibility seriously. i know our presiding officer does as well. let me set the record straight,

if i could, on xavier becerra. i'm confident that with his decades of experience working on health care issues in congress and on -- and as california's attorney general, he will an inverbal part of president biden's administration as we work together to combat the pandemic nationally. some of the critics on the other side of the aisle say, what does he know about health care? as it turns out, he served for -- i want to say -- two decades on the house committee on ways and means. for somebody who served this long on this committee, i bet he knows a thing or two about medicare. as it turns out, he does. xavier becerra has shown an unwavering commitment to expanding health care availability for millions of american families and workers, especially those in vulnerable communities who remain

underserved. in the house of representatives, he was a senior member of the ways and means committee, which helped to make the affordable care act, which is based on a republican idea, i think out of the heritage foundation in 1993, that as i mentioned earlier mitt romney helped make a household world when he was governor. i -- we cut in half the number of people who don't have being a seas to health care coverage. and in the state of delaware, the cost of coverage is actually dropping in the exchanges. it's dropped by i think 19% over the last two years alone, as market forces are taking place and taking hold. and as attorney general of california, he led the cha remain for a coalition of states to -- charge for a coalition of states to defend the affordable care act against attempts by the trump administration to dismantle it altogether.

as the head -- i once asked him, what is is it about your experience that suggest you could run a department like the department of health and human services? he said, well, i have run the department of health in california. it is the second largest department justice in the country, second only to the federal department of justice. i forget how many thousands -- maybe tens of thousands of employees they have. but it is a huge operation in a huge state with a ton of people. xavier becerra brought together attorneys general from both sides of the aisle to hold opioid manufacturers accountable for the addiction crisis that we're still struggling with. and when the pandemic hit, he went to bat for californians on everything from protections for workers to covid-19, increasing transparency in nursing homes, to securing key safeguards for the right of frontline health care personnel. his past leadership -- his past leadership is a major reason why president biden is asking him to

do to be -- to accept the responsibilities of overseeing the responses to many of our nation's most urgent needed, including the distribution of covid-19 vaccines, restoring the public confidence in vital public health institutions, and boosting family health and financial security in the wake of the pandemic. madam president, with so much of the covid-19 response being executed at the state and local level, we're fortunate that president biden has chosen as his h.h.s. secretary xavier becerra, a leader with relevant on-the-ground, state-based experience. as a former state treasury, former governor, former chair of the national governors association, what a blessing that would be. as the head of the state -- largest state department of justice in the nation, overseeing thousands of employees, attorney general becerra has a proven track record and the management experience necessary to take on

the massive operations at h.h.s. he will also make, as senator durbin has mentioned, also make history as the first latino american to take on this role, providing important perspective as latinos and other minority communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. as we try to make sure that about a third of the american people who say they're not going to make the vaccine, they don't care, they're going to take a chance -- wouldn't it be nice to have a lot of those people are latino. wouldn't it be nice to have the secretary of the department of health and human services that could reach out to that community, literally reach out, and touch them and convince them that this is something they should do. they should that i can this chance and be glad they did. madam president, four years ago this body confirmed president trump's nominee for health and human services within just 20 days, 20 days from the start of the administration. and he -- we knew then that this role was important to fill. it took us 20 days. and now in the midst of a deadly

pandemic, one that's taken the lives of over 530,000 americans, a total that exceeds the number of american deaths on the battlefields of world war i, world war ii and the vietnam war in which i served, we cannot afford to let another day go by without confirming xavier becerra. madam president, i just want to say, colleagues, it's time. it's over time. and we need to confirm xavier. i've been convinced he'll do a good job. he'll make us proud. and we need him. the president needs him. and with him on board as the leader of h.h.s., he can go to work on behalf of the american people and put this pandemic behind us for good -- for good -- and we need that day to come soon. madam president, i don't see anybody else waiting to speak. i think maybe i should note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut.

mr. blumenthal: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. we are working today in the shadow of a truly hideous, horrific series of murders that occurred yesterday in atlanta, georgia. i want to start by expressing my sympathies to the families that are affected. families of innocent women who were gunned down heinously by a murder there. eight lives were taken by that gunman. six of them asian women.

there's an active ongoing investigation, and i have no intention of prejudging the outcome. justice must be done, and i have confidence in the law enforcement authorities of atlanta that they will ensure that justice is done. so we don't know for sure what the gunman's motivation was, but we know eight of the women were asian, and we know for sure that this horrific shooting rampage is only the latest egregious incident in a sickening, despicable trend of anti-asian american or aapi violence that has terrorized the american asian community over recent

months. we know many of these incidents were in fact hate crimes motivated by bias, bigotry, prejudice. now, hate-motivated violence, as attorney garland said at his confirmation hearing, quote, tears at the fabric of our society, makes our citizens worried about walking on the street, and exercising even their most normal rights. and he is absolutely correct. it tears at our society. it degrades our trust in each other. and in the fairness of america and the survivability of values and rights that are central to

our democracy. the increase in violence against asian americans must end, and we all know it. we all say it. but we must do it. in congress, we must do everything in our power to provide law enforcement and prosecutors with the resources and the tools they need to overcome it, to successfully fight it, which they can do. and they need the will and determination to wield the resources that we give them because they have to not only investigate, as they will this gunman, but also to effectively prosecute and assure just punishment.

we don't know for sure the motivation. we have evidence. and we can't say for sure how many hate crimes there have been against asian americans or others in our great country, but we have a pretty good idea where it all came from. the rise in anti-asian american violence started with the previous administration who failed to address and manage the covid-19 pandemic. and rather than be listening to the scientists and work to stop its spread, it sought to scapegoat part of our country. it sought to scapegoat asian americans with disen owe phobic

phobic -- with xenophobic and hate-filled rhetoric. words have consequences. we all say it, we all know it, and we must denounce the words that spur and spew hatred and cause or contribute to hate crimes. hate crimes are a growing scourge. the numbers are surging, whether it's against asian americans, muslim americans, jewish americans, black americans. when it is against americans, it is against america. words do have consequences.

stop aapi hate which tracks violence and harassment against the aapi community. asian americans receive more than 1,100 reports of covid-related harassment, discrimination, and assault in its first two operational weeks last march. and now it's recorded more than 3,800 incidents since the start of the pandemic. 3,800 incidents of harassment, discrimination, and sometimes physical assault spurred and encouraged and condoned by public officials who use that hate-filled rhetoric to cover their own failings in dealing with the pandemic. as the investigators and

prosecutors go forward, we'll learn more, and we need to let them do their job, but that doesn't mean we should remain silent nor does it give us an excuse to be inert. we need to denounce that kind of rhetoric. we need to take action, and i have proposed a measure called the no-hate act which would provide more training for investigators, more resources for hotlines because these hate crimes are typically and repeatedly unreported, and it would provide more incentives for reporting and new penalties for -- or encourage the imposition of penalties that truly fit the crime.

hate crimes are corrosive to our social fabric. they corrupt the pillars of our society. and their effect is unmistakable. they traumatize and terrorize the communities that are their targets. in this case, asian americans who have become more and more fearful as these incidents have multiplied. we all have a part to do in stopping this scourge and we know that it is rampant in part because of the white supremacists and domestic terrorism and violent extremism that showed its ugly face in this chamber earlier this year.

it showed its brutal cruel force in this building. it is the same virus and cancer that is mess tass sizing in this -- mess as it sizing in this country today and its visible forms are the assaults, harassment, discrimination that may well have been reflected in those murders yesterday. i hope the no-hate act passes, but it won't be for a child. i -- for a while. i hope we can take other action, but it will take time. and in the meantime we can all take it as a moral imperative as our duty to denounce, not condone by our silence, these

groups, and their ideologies and white supremacists that perpetuate and expand the hate crimes and hatred, hate speech, fighting words, incitement in our society. now, a bright spot for america today is the confirmation, which we hope will happen in the next 24 hours of the first latino secretary of health and human services in america -- the first. he was the first in his working-class family to go to college. he broke barriers throughout his career. xavier becerra presently the attorney general of california

will be a leader of toughness, bravery, and vision at the department of health and human services. i stand here as a former attorney general, actually for 20 years, i know well how much of that job is spent on health care policy. and i know also the management skills it takes to achieve real concrete results. attorney general becerra is deeply qualified because of his work as state attorney general, but he also enjoys a wealth of other experience, both personal and professional, that make him exactly the right person at this moment for that job. he knows the importance of health care, equitable health

care, reducing the disparities of health care in our country that afflict us now. we've been in a health care crisis for more than a year. the deepest, most painful health care crisis in our lives and maybe for a full century, a time of heartbreak and hardship when a deadly, insidious virus has threatened economic upheaval and disaster. it's a pandemic that has left no family untouched, as all of us in this chamber know, and no community unscathed. we lost more than half a million of our fellow citizens and people to covid-19, including 78 -- 7,800-plus in connecticut. while there's light at the end

of the tunnel, each day brings a new loss, and we don't know how long that tunnel may be. the biden administration has been laser focused on ending this pandemic since day one. every day more and more americans are receiving the vaccine. every day more and more americans are beginning to see the big, bold benefits of the american rescue plan that president biden signed last week and every day we're seeing strong leadership from the biden administration in addressing this deep crisis. so while there's hope at this moment, there are immense health care challenges still to be overcome from increasing health care afford ability and reducing the uninsured rate to lowering drug costs to fighting back against health care disparities

and protecting reproductive rights and i would repeat, lowering prescription drug costs. number one, lowering prescription drug costs. job number two, lowering prescription drug costs. we need to reduce the prices of medicine that americans need every day, aside from the pandemic, every day, prescription drug prices plague them, cause them worry, forced them to make tough choices between eating and using the medicine, paying their rent and buying the drugs they need to survive. attorney general becerra served as deputy attorney general in california and later as a member of the state assembly before he went to the house of

representatives here in the capitol for more than two decades. as a congressman, and i think this point it is really important, then-representative xavier becerra fought to pass the affordable care act, and then he fought to defend it against the trump administration. as california's attorney general, he was a warrior in fighting to preserve the a.c.a. and he will continue to fight for the men and women who depend on the a.c.a., and more and more of them, fortunately, are taking advantage of it because of the american rescue plan. he's also a leader on taking on

big tobacco. i sued the tobacco companies, helped to lead a multistate attorney general group, and i know it takes courage to stand up and speak out and act against big tobacco and he's done more, he's taken that fight to a new frontier. he's committed to protecting our children from this scourge of flavored tobacco and the insidious products, often they are flavored too, that are sold by vaping giants, which now include some of the tobacco company. attorney general becerra is a leader in protecting reproductive rights. he is a leader in expanding mental health services, he's a leader in the fight against the

opioid epidemic. he's a leader for lgbtq health and for ending the disparities. we are in a racial justice movement now -- a racial justice movement that is seeking to end those deep disparities causing twice as many people in communities of color to die during the pandemic and only half as many now to have the vaccine so far because we have lived through four years of dishonesty and disregard for science and four years of attacks on our health care system, particularly for the underserved. that is the challenge, among

others, that attorney general becerra will confront, he will be vigorous, brave, and tough. and he will work to lower the cost of prescription drugs. he will take on those interests that may be against the health care goals and purposes of the american people and we need him now more than ever in this critical position. i urge my colleagues to vote for him tomorrow when we have a chance to do so. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. and i -- mr. padilla: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from california. mr. padilla: i want to begin by just joining with our colleagues

throughout the country expressing our condolences to the victims of the senseless shooting in atlanta yesterday and our thoughts and prayers go out to the greater community. we're trying to understand how it happened and do the work necessary to make sure that it doesn't happen again, not in atlanta, not anywhere in the united states of america. mr. president, i rise today to speak in support of the nomination of my friend, california attorney general xavier becerra, to serve as secretary of the department of health and human services. as we all know, as we all feel, our nation is going through one of the toughest health crisis cease -- crises in our history.

the covid pandemic has taken an incredible toll on our country. every state has been impacted. every community has suffered, especially working-class communities and communities of like, like the very neighborhoods that attorney general becerra and i grew up in. these communities are hurting and people are dying at alarming rates and they desperately need someone who knows these communities to their core. now, throughout his career, xavier becerra has always fought to improve the lives of his constituents. as the first latino attorney general of california, he made it his mission to tackle the structural inequalities in our health care system. as has been referenced already,

attorney general becerra, was the leading force behind the lawsuit to protect the affordable care act. yes, he had the audacity to maintain protections for people with preexisting conditions and for those suffering from a mental illness. over the course of this past year, he has also fought to protect front line health care workers from further exposure to covid-19. xavier becerra's parents immigrated from mexico, just like my parents did, with the dream of building a better life for themselves and their family. just a few days ago, i spoke in this chamber about my family's history and journey in this country. a hardworking short-order cook and housekeeper raised a son who now serves in the united states

senate. the same is true for xavier becerra's family. he, the son of a construction and clerical worker, is on the verge of becoming the most important health official in our nation. that's the american dream. but, unfortunately, tragically, over half a million americans have had their dream cut short by covid-19. over half a million lives lost. and millions more lives upended by this pandemic. we need to act with urgency to end this crisis -- urgency. but as i rise today to address this chamber, urgency is severely lacking. while millions of americans continue to struggle, our

republican colleagues are dragging things out, playing politics with the confirmation of attorney general becerra, one of the most qualified nominees to lead the department of health and human services that this chamber has ever considered. they have distorted his record. and let me point out that many members of this senate have worked alongside xavier becerra here in congress for decades. republicans and democrats know xavier becerra is both a thoughtful leader and someone who is always willing to listen to both sides of an argument. he built an outstanding reputation in the house, both as a legislator and as a colleague. and as attorney general of california overseeing the largest department of justice in the nation, second only to the

united states department of justice, xavier shows no fear in working across the aisle. in fact, he partnered with republican attorney generals to increase access to lifesaving drugs to treat covid-19. he worked across the aisle to protect drug discounts for health centers. mr. president, i can't help but point out the obvious. in fact, i am prepared to make this abundantly clear to the american people. the cynical delays and political games that we see being played are not actually about mr. becerra's qualifications. he is just as qualified as any of his predecessors. sadly, xavier becerra is being held to a different standard, a different standard than other nominees this chamber has

supported and confirmed over the last four years, including our most recent health and human services secretary. let me also say this. as some of the first latinos in our respective positions, both xavier becerra and i are not unfamiliar with being held to a different standard. and it's a different standard today that is so stark that our colleagues are willing to delay his confirmation through the night. yes, in the middle of a global health pandemic, republicans are holding up the nominee for secretary of health and human services. they are holding up the first latino nominee to head this critical agency during a pandemic that has disproportionately devastated the latino community.

it's time to let xavier becerra get to work. i urge my colleagues to end the delay on xavier becerra's confirmation for secretary of health and human services. mr. padilla: i also, mr. president, ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: i ask unanimous consent that the committee on veterans' affairs be discharged from further consideration of senate bill 344 and be referred to the committee on armed services. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate

proceed to the consideration of senate resolution 121 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 121, honoring the 100th anniversary of the birth of george daniel crowe. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. padilla: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered and made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 1276 which was received from the house and is at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 1276, an act to authorize the secretary of veterans affairs to furnish covid-19 vaccines to certain individuals, and for other

purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. padilla: mr. president, i further ask that the tester-moran substitute amendment be considered and agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: i ask that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. padilla: mr. president, i further ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until

10:00 a.m. thursday, march 18, that following the prayer and pledge the morning hour deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the nomination of xavier becerra to be secretary for health and human services. further, that the postcloture debate time on the becerra nomination expire at 12:00 noon, that if confirmed the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. finally, that upon disposition of the becerra nomination, the senate resume consideration of the nomination of martin walsh

to be secretary of labor and the cloture motion wrn to the walsh nomination ripen at 1:30 p.m. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. padilla: finally, for the information of senators, we expect two roll call votes during thursday's session of the senate in relation to the becerra and walsh nominations. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow.cer: the

senator from georgia. senator from georgia. >> 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 agree with georgians and with americans and people of love all across the world this unspeakable violence visited largely uponsi the community is one that causes all of us to recommit ourselves to the way of peace and accurate piece that preven