unconventional usual -- irregular, regular, irregular, regular order such as it were, to produce a plan to come to the senate and then to be in theory passed and sent to the house. where it would seem that the speaker would hold it for a -- as is the power of the speaker and majority party -- [inaudible]. at the same time, already underway appears to be the parallel track as it were of a reconciliation bill that would tackle the democrats -- the biden [inaudible] -- what else might be in the jobs plan. >> we will leave the last ten minutes of its discussion. you can find it on-line c-span.org. take you live now to the senate floor, our long-time commitment to covering congress.

ms. hirono: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: madam president, i rise today in strong support of the nomination of julie su to be deputy secretary of the department of labor. the department of labor is an important federal agency but amidst a global pandemic that has left millions of americans out of work, the department's mission takes on outsized importance. the department needs leadership with deep experience, knowledge, and a demonstrated ability to successfully lead an organization. just as important, the department needs leadership with

an understanding of the unique challenges of this moment. as we are seeing with president biden, leadership does make a difference. at this critical time in our nation's economic recovery, we must ensure the president has the team he needs to move our country forward. julie su is a key member of that team. she is a highly qualified and proven leader. as california's secretary of labor and workforce development, secretary su oversees and protects the workforce for the state of california, the fifth-largest economy in the world. when you add her work as an attorney and a nonprofit executive, she brings a wide mix of experience to the table. coupled with a collaborative work style that gives everyone a seat at the table, secretary su has not only delivered on her agency's mission but has also

improved and transformed her agency. her success and effectiveness is best summed up in the words of her own staff at the agency she has led for more than seven years -- quote, during ms. su's seven years as california labor commissioner, she remade the agency in ways that many would have thought impossible. she increased efficiency throughout the division and broke down departmental silos that had stifled effective collaboration and caused redundancy. moreover, under her leadership, the labor commissioner's office reworked its investigative bureau into a cutting-edge labor enforcement team that dug deep into complex cases that the labor commissioner's office had previously been unable equipped to handle. high-equaled investigations that

have previously been rare, if not unthinkable, became standard operating procedure. end quote. secretary su is an excellent manager. not only does she deliver results, she invests in her own staff by providing them with the resources and environment they need to get the job done. she builds diverse teams and then empowers them to do their best work -- all while knowing who they are. i mean this literally. again, in the words of her staff. quote, she was legendary for having learned the names of every one of the more than 600 staff within the labor commissioner's office, from secretarial support staff to investigators, deputies, and legal staff. end quote. julie su will also bring diverse life experiences to the department. she is the daughter of chinese immigrants. her immigrant background shaped

secretary supernally and professionally. -- secretary su personally and professionally. segments of our economy leave people behind and even exclude them from experiencing the benefits of economic growth and opportunities. her professional career reflects this life lesson, as she has established a long and distinguished record of fighting for worker rights. from protecting low-wage workers against abuses, secretary su has worked tielessly to help people in communities who might not otherwise have access to justice. the sense of fairness and the desire to fit injustice will be critical for the department of labor, particularly as the department works to address the pandemic's disproportion at impact on -- disproportionality impact on women and minorities. given her proven track record

and commitment to worker and fair labor rights, i have every confidence that secretary su will protect all sectors of our workforce and will work to lift everyone from this pandemic. moreover, her experience managing labor policy at the executive level for the state of california over the last decked will enable secretary su to hit the ground running immediately after she is confirmed. in particular, through the covid-19 pandemic, semiconductor l. secretary su has dealt with the overwhelming demand for workers who are suffering or unemployed. she has helped her state combat the organized crime attacks and employment fraud that have affected all 50 states, including, of course, california with its large economy. and she has worked to address systemic shortcomings that bad actors have exploited during this pandemic. secretary su led an effort to

stop fraudulent actors from taking advantage of the unemployment system dating back to the beginning of the pandemic, and the state of california has already begun prosecuting these offenders. the u.s. department of labor ultimately advised all states to take the same steps secretary su took in order to cut down on fraudulent claims. despite the many challenges brought on by the pandemic, secretary su has never lost sight of her ultimate goal -- to provide millions of workers across -- access to unemployment benefits and other assistance. in these economic times, secretary su's leadership skill and proven track record of experience and effectiveness are just what we need. her nomination also proves something i believe deeply -- that when you look for the most qualified persons, you get diversity. and when you prioritize

diversity, you get the most qualified people, people who reflect all of america and who are able to serve all of america. secretary su's nomination is supported by many who see their stories reflected in hers, including labor leaders from the afl-cio and sciu, business leaders from the small business majority, and civil rights leaders from the national women's law center and the national employment law project. secretary su will be an outstanding deputy secretary of labor. i am proud to support her nomination and urge my colleagues to do the same. madam president, i yield the floor. mrs.mrs. murray:%, 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. mrs. murray: thank you, madam president. today's workers are really struggling through one of the

most unequal economic crises in modern american history. with millions out of a job, millions struggling to get by, it is clear that workers need a deputy secretary of labor who is committed to the building back a stronger, fairer economy, someone who will work diligently to make sure workers have a fair and just workplace, a lavable wage, a secure -- a livable wage, a secure retirement, safe working conditions, access toss accommodations, and are treated with dignity and respect, which is why i'm so glad to support julie su's nomination. as a labor lawyer, julie su fought to defend tied garment workers who were trafficked into the united states and forced to work under barbed wire and under armed guard and then she pushed to change the law to make sure corporations are held responsible for working conditions in their supply chains. as california labor commissioner, julie su cracked down on wage theft and launched

a multilingual campaign to help workers understand their rights and feel safe about speaking up about employers who stole their wages. and as california's secretary of labor, julie su has implemented increases to the state minimum wage, created good-paying, high-quality jobs, expanded access toss benefits for gig workers and workers who are paid low wages and protected essential workers who are bearing the brunt of this pandemic. it's clear her experience leading one of the largest state labor departments in the nation, her decades' long commitment to fighterring for workers' rights and her personal story as the multilingual daughter of chinese immigrants have given her the experience, background and values to be a deputy secretary of labor. she is the right person for the job. i urge our colleagues to join me in voting to confirm her because right now too many workers still lack crucial protections and rights and struggle to make ends

meet, especially women, workers of color, lgbtq workers, migrant workers, and workers with disabilities. to build back an economy that works for everyone, not just the biggest corporations and wealthiest individuals, it is critical that we have a fully staffed department of labor and leaders who are committed to protecting workers. so it is critical that we confirm julie su as deputy secretary of labor without delay. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. madam president, i ask that the vote that's scheduled at 2:30 begin. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question occurs on the nomination. mrs. murray: i ask for yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

christopher paul maier, christopher paul maier

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 50, the nays are 47. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: pursuant to senate res, i move to discharge the help committee from further consideration of the nomination of jennifer ann abrutzo, of new york, to be general counsel of the national relations board. the presiding officer: there will be four hours of debate on the motion divided between the two leedz or nominees with no orders, -- in order.

mr. schumer: i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. mr. cassidy: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that savannah tingis, be granted floor privileges today, july 13, 2021. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: i am here to talk about two things. and, first, let me give a heart-felt congratulations to

ziela, this incredible -- this incredible 14-year-old young lady who just won the national spelling bee. she is louisiana's first winner and the first african american winner of the spelling bee. she dominated, getting words that i don't think any of the rest of us would be able to spell. i should also note she holds the world record for dribbling. she has a video of dribbling and juggling basketballs at the same time. she shows that hard work and dedication brings success. senator kennedy and i i congratulate her. if she wants to do an internship in the united states senate, please give me a call.

i'll remember you, and if you wish to do that internship, we are here to encourage you as you embark on the rest of your life, a life that will be incredibly successful. now, madam president, i ask unanimous consent to have the next portion inserted into the record as a separate section. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: madam president, we have to talk about the white house's hypocritical and backwards energy policy that is putting a target on american workers. the biden administration is happy to cancel u.s. pipelines an kill the jobs pipelines create putting the people in louisiana out of business by saying this is how we lower greenhouse gas emissions. yet, they then green light a russian -- green light a russian

pipeline, this is keystone -- green light a russian pipeline into germany when the emissions that come from russian gas far exceed the emission profile of gas that is produced in louisiana or elsewhere in of country. by the way, it also creates russian jobs while simultaneously killing american jobs. let's look at gas prices, which are higher than they were. the biden administration is working to put a pause on oil and gas production in the gulf of mexico but they are pleaing with opec to increase opec production, saying a that we need more oil shipped to the united states to lower gas prices. last week the president's press secretary said that the administration is encourage being opec companies to reach

agreement to increase production while stymieing the u.s. production and the production that goes on with u.s. oil and gas. it begs the question, the administration is helping russians and the russian economy, they are pepping opec -- opec nations, why don't we think about helping american workers? it just cannot be understood. i am demanding, we are demanding, we are pleading, not with opec but with the administration to leave our jobs and the livelihoods of louisiana workers and american workers alone. let's just speak about the -- about the louisiana industry. the oil and gas industry in louisiana is a major economic and industrial force, a force for good, and the benefits from the environmental perspective must be stated. the u.s. is a global leader in decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, and this happened

because of increased production of u.s. natural gas, and we simultaneously became a net exporter of energy, helping other nations lower their emission profile as well. but we have seen in the last few months, you would not understand that. as i mentioned earlier, president biden canceled the keystone x.l. pipeline and 11,000 jobs with it, but, again, russian pipelines are okay. the administration removed sanctions from russia, clearing the way for the construction of the in order stream 2 pipeline, cementing europe's reliance on russian gas. the production of greenhouse gas has march for emissions than the production of louisiana and american natural gas. it's almost, if you will, a quadruple whammy.

weakening u.s. security, increasing gas prices, and killing american jobs. that's what this administration's policies have been doing. it begs the question -- why don't we green-light u.s. pipeline as opposed to green-lighting russian pipelines. americans across the country every time they fill up their tank feel these punches and they are tired of it. the average price of gallon has now been over $3 a gallon since may, clocking in at $3.15 as of today, and it's only going up. expected that gas prices will rise another 10 cents to 20 cents through the end of august. louisiana is a bit luckier. because of our position as an energy powerhouse, the gas prices here at home are still averaging about $2.75, not going down any time soon. now, while the administration is

actively trying to kill domestic energy jobs, they're working to increase production of oil overseas. again, asking the opec cartel to increase production so there's more oil to lower gas prices. why don't we just produce more oil in the united states of america? the administration says that they are killing jobs in the u.s. because of carbon emissions, but when you produce oil and gas in the gulf of mexico, you bring it to our shores, it has the lowest emissions profile of any oil and gas that we use in our country. you almost have to ask, what is it about the u.s. oil and gas worker that the administration doesn't like? in 2019, just speaking about louisiana, in 2019, oil and gas

operations supported nearly 250,000 louisiana jobs. about one out of every nine jobs in my state. the oil and gas industry provided $73 billion to the state's gross domestic product, more than a quarter. and through taxes alone, accounted for $4.5 billion going directly to coastal restoration, environmental improvement projects, schools, infrastructures, roads. you name it, making life better for the citizens of my state. it's been only six months of the biden administration, but every day, that target on the back of an oil and gas worker and on their family's future gets bigger and bigger and bigger. one more time. let's conclude. one more time, let me say in conclusion. the biden administration's --

the biden administration's working against u.s. oil and gas production is making other countries stronger. it is making us weaker. it weakens american security. it increases global greenhouse gas emissions. it increases gas prices, and it kills jobs. we need better policy for our country, for our -- for my state, for our workers. thank you, madam president. i yield back.

mr. leahy: madam president.

the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. leahy: madam president, i'd like to speak about a topic i spoke about before, and that's our policy toward cuba. and i couldn't help but think as i look at the cubans protesting in the street, especially as i i -- i see so many people in the streets in places where both my wife marcelle and i have walked and actually our granddaughter sofia have, where we know a number of the people there, and we see -- we see them protesting, it hits twice as hard. they are demanding greater freedom and economic opportunity. this illustrates a widespread hardship and hunger and the need for fundamental change in cuba.

now, human rights are universal. cuban people are no different than people anywhere in the world. they want to be able to speak freely. they don't want fear of retribution. we have been told the biden administration is conducting a review of the trump administration's policy. the trump administration's policy toward cuba which is now in effect. now, there is nothing unusual about that review. new administrations regularly conduct such reviews. but it's now mid-july, and the key question that needs to be answered is not very complicated. we have actually had profound disagreements with the cuban government. they have held power since 1959. they have held power by outlawing opposition of political parties.

-- the dissent is often political abuse and imprisonment. the government's crackdown of recent protests calling the protesters counterrevolutionaries and blaming the u.s. for cuba's ills is predictable. they have been blaming us for many years. now, i look beyond the headlines there is no doubt that the cuban people, many of whom i have met -- i know that they struggle from day to day to make ends meet. they want greater freedom, and they want a better life. they have told me that. they have told my wife, they have told the other senators, republicans and democrats that have traveled there with me. but the question now is how should we respond? and it comes down to whether you believe that we should continue

a policy of unilateral sanctions which have been in effect for decades, much of my life, and they have completely failed to achieve their objectives. they have contributed to the daily misery of cuba's people, or should we instead pursue a policy of engagement? i believe president obama got it right. one definition of insanity is to keep doing what has repeatedly and demon extraably -- demonstrably failed. cuba is worse than that. our policy does not work, has emboldened cuba's hardliners, it provides an excuse for cuba's authorities to crack down on those who dare to protest. worse than that, it's created a vacuum. guess who, guess who is

exploiting that vacuum right a few miles from our shores. well, of course the russians and the chinese. and we undercut the cuban private sector. by any measure, it's time for president biden to, quote, reverse the failed trump policies that inflicted harm on cubans and their families and did nothing to advance democracy and human rights. i feel, madam president, if we allow those trump sanctions to persist, we only undermine these principles. they restrict the freedom of movement and economic autonomy of the cuban people. they compound the suffering caused by the cuban government's own repressive policies and well-known economic mismanagement. in fact, repression in cuba

didn't decrease during the trump administration. it increased. the biden administration officials have repeatedly said that democracy and human rights will be at the core of our policy toward cuba. i have been a defender of those principles for 50 years, and human rights and political freedom should be a key element, not just of our policy but also of our engagement with cuba. but again, the question is how best to support the cuban people who see greater freedom and a better life. it is to -- is it to continue a policy which has achieved neither which is likely to be used as an excuse for those in power to further stifle dissent.

in fact, engagement of cuba will honor our commitment to human rights and the recognition american presence can be a positive force in closed societies. that's the argument that secretary blinken and others, both democrats and republicans, have rightly made in defense of diplomacy and engagement throughout the world. neither engagement nor continuation of the trump sanctions can guarantee cuba's political transformation. that's all currently a decision for the cuban people. but, but, but engagement stands a far greater chance of creating a new dynamic beneficial to the cuban people. president obama's engagement with cuba showed that u.s. travel exchanges, remittance and

business ties expand opportunities and information and income for cubans, boosting the private sector, increasing economic independence. i visited a number of these people, often young people, starting their own businesses, small businesses, private businesses, but doing it because of president obama's engagement with cuba. it also initiated working-level discussions on a wide ranges of issues, from law enforcement to property claims to public health to environmental protection. now rule castro and his -- raul castro rand his generation are in the process of handing over power. but the current leadership is rooted in the past.

but -- but they're also deep in debate how to reform the economy, how to regulate the private sector, and how do you navigate citizen demands for pluralism, something that they have not seen. and i believe american citizens and diplomats alike should participate in that debate and not from a distance -- not from washington or new york or elsewhere, but down there. cuba's private sector offers a particular opportunity because cuba's economic policies are changing in ways that enable u.s. engagement to have greater impact than was possible even during the obama years. a new law will soon greatly expand the legal scope for private business activity. another is expected to give

entrepreneurs legal status that will permit them to receive foreign investment. and the government is enabling private school businesses to enforce -- enabling private businesses to enforce -- import supplies. the agriculture industry should look at this. for the first time the cuban government is calling for foreign investment in private farm cooperatives. but for u.s. citizens and businesses to be able to engage, several steps are needed. got to remove the restrictions that limit the flow of remittances, both family assistance and donated remittances mainly used to pay and support private entrepreneurs. restore the travel religions that --

restore the travel regulations that were in effect when the biden administration left office, significantly is reducing the, quote, cuba restricted list, close quote, of business entities and end the prohibition of lodge being cuban hotels and allowing united states airlines to service cuban airports. reverse the frivolous state-sponsored terrorism designation that former secretary pompeo almost flippantly announced nine days before leaving office. suspend title 3 of the helms-burton act, as all presidents did from 1996 to 2019. republican and democratic presidents alike. these regulatory changes would permit the private sector to activate and it would be no

burden on the u.s. government. it would be the private sector activating. we don't need some grand diplomacy to do this. dialogue with with a cuba could resume at the human level. human rights advocacy on whatever level should be a key part of any policy, as it is in our relations with other autocratic governments. and there would be broad support in this country for a return to engagement. there would be vocal support from the united states agriculture, from the u.s. chamber of commerce, from many cuban americans and many in cuba whose lives have become immeasurably worse due to the covid pandemic. given time to work, engagement policies would expand the constituency for engagement in miami, as more cuban americans travel and build economic ties.

this is also how to paycheck progress with -- this is also how to make progress with cuba on human rights. you don't make this progress by making ultimatums or threats or repeating slogans that sound great but achieve nothing. -- nothing in practice. it can't be giving aid to cuba. we do to some, of course, like egypt. it can't be by canceling sales of u.s. weapons. we don't sell weapons to cuba the same way we do to some other repressive governments, like saudi arabia. it is through building relations, by making progress or ins through shared interest which create the conditions for

progress. make progress on issues where we differ, like human rights and property claims. i don't think everybody to say we're all agree on everything. let's talk about the things where we do have differences. but you don't talk about it you don't get anywhere by making ultimatums in a country away. i hope the biden administration will be counted first and foremost on what is in our national interest but also in the interests of the cuban and the american people. candidate biden was right when he pledges, and i repeat, to reverse the failed trumppologieses that inflicted harm on cubans and their families and have done nothing to advance democracy and human rights. it's time to act on that pledge. it's time to engage so many of

these young people, young students, young entrepreneurs, young business owners like those i visited and met with this cuba. it is time to say, yes, you can be part, you can be part of the world. yes, you can work with those in our country who want to to make your life better. if we do that, madam president, we will see the real change -- not slogans of change but substantive change. i see my distinguished friend and colleague from ohio on the floor, and so i will ask to put

my full statement in the record and yield the floor. mr. portman: madam chair. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i thank my colleague from vermont, the president pro tempore of the united states senate, and i was able to listen to so many of his remarks -- to some of his remarks regarding cuba. this is a truly historic time in that island country. the demonstrations, i'm told, are as large as they have been since at least 1959, and my hope is that the countries of the americas, all of whom i just visited four of them down in latin america, they believe in democracy, they believe in the ability for people to come together and gather and express their opinions, they believe in strong human rights, would come together and support the cuban people at this critical point. my understanding is there's some opportunities to ensure that internet access continues among those demonstrating. and my understanding is that there are human rights abuses occurring even now as we talk with regard to those

demonstrators. so i appreciate my colleague. he has spent a lot of time trying to take the cuban relationship, which has been a fraught one, and make it better. and my hope is is that what we're seeing right now on the streets of havana and elsewhere around that country will lead to a better day for the people of cuba. did just return from a trip to the area a i went with senators tim kaine and chris coons and others to ecuador and guatemala. i want to talk about how to help these countries and how to help ourselves in america more by changing some of our policies. not just asking them to change when they do, but changing some of the things that we do. it was an opportunity to show our support for that's countries. these are our neighbors in latinmark. all of them are allies. i understand this is the first major congressional delegation

to make the trip. they are our neighbors, at our front door in effect. i did find when we were down there that there was a lot of appreciation that we were showing up and talking about america's role in the region and talking about the role of china and russia and iran and other countries at least in the venezuela area with regard to russia and iran and cuba has been increasing at a time when sometimes the u.s. presence is not felt as acutely. so it is important for us to be there. as a country that is still a beacon of hope and opportunity for those who seek democracy and freedom and human right, it is our role to provide assistance and a way for these countries to be able to see more prosperity and peace themselves. and so i thought it was an important trip, an important opportunity to be there. we had the opportunity to meet there with the presidents of

each of those four countries. none of our meetings with the respective presidents went for less than two hours. these were very honest dialogues. we got into some depths in the issues. we discussed the covid-19 crisis. each president was appreciative that the american taxpayer has helped to provide some vehicles h. vaccines to these countries. it is not everything that they want, of course. they still want a lot more vaccines because the vaccinations rates are still lower than ours. but each country has suffered in terms of the impacts of covid-19 and each of these countries is eager to get back on their feet, to get their economy, working again, to get people back to a more normal life. we also talked about the surge of migration to the united states and the pressure on our northern border. but also here in america in the interior what's happening with regard to more and more migrants surging at the border. we are looking at 170,000, even

180,000 in may and june. many of these countries are sending their young peep and others to our border -- young people and others to our borders. by the way, the presence -- the presidents of these countries all said the same thing. they want their people to stay there to be able to help develop the economy and the prosperity that they seek in their democracies. so sometimes i think it's not understood even by american policymakers, we think with all great intentions we're opening up more and opening up more in the sense of providing a magnet really pulling people to the north and that treacherous journey north is also something that many of these presidents commented on. ecuador, you might not think of as one of the countries that sends a lot of migrants to the united states. you think of venezuela, guatemala, honduras. they want their people to stay

in ecuador, to help contribute to that country's growth. covid-19 has made things more difficult in episcopal of these countries p. so their -- in each of these countries. so their economies have weakened. they were hit even harder and longer with the lack of vaccines. we're helping with that. i support that. i think it's very important by the way, the chinese are also sell ago lot of vaccines throughout latin america and trying very hard to influence what's going on in that part of the world, which is our hemisphere. the united states needs to be there for many reasons and that is one. we also talked about the need for the continued battle against corruption in these countries and throughout latin america. and to ensure that you do have more transparency and a governing environment driven by the rule of law so there can be more investment from the united states and more trade between us. in ecuador we talked about the need for a new trade agreement

which i support. which would really hope to strengthen ties with he croix dormant a mutual benefit. with regard to colombia, guatemala, and of course mexico, we have trade agreements. we talked about how to improve those agreements. i'm a former u.s. trade representative. i helped implement the colombia trade agreement. i also helped with regard to the cafta agreement which included guatamala, and those agreements were helpful at the time. they could be more helpful and could be improved in certain respects, and we talked specifically about that. each president basically said the same thing, they prefer trade to aid. they're not against u.s. assistance. they appreciate it. and we assist those countries in a number of different ways, but what they really want is the ability to have more commerce, more u.s. investment, more jobs, therefore more economic growth and more opportunity for

their young people so they'll stay in those countries. continued support from the u.s. is crucial in all these matters. with regard to covid, we can supply more personal proaskt gear. they still need it. certainly the donations of vaccines has been helpful. in guatamala, the biden administration announced they were delivering 1.2 million doses of vaccines approximately doubling the number of guatamalans who can be vaccinated. that is still 10% or 12%, still relatively low. this is a first good step and we immediate to try to do -- we need to try to do more. once these cases are vaccinated they'll be able to get the economy back on their feet. our trip helped us see the surge of migration. in many families they leave their homes for economic opportunities so they can find a better way for their kids and their grandkids in the united states. but while we were impacted here, so were the countries,

the migrants who pass through and each told us this. our allies to the south we were there with them, are overwhelmed sometimes with providing shelters and services for those who are migrating through their country, even in the case of guatamala, having a number of migrants there from honduras and el salvador and ecuador who they're providing shelter to. we visited some of these migrant shelters, one in ecuador and one in guatamala. we saw some of the very good work that nongovernmental organizations are doing there, including those supported by usaid, they provide housing and education to migrant families. we mostly saw young women and young mothers with young children. and many of these women had been trafficked. in other words, they had been promised the ability to go north, but in effect their trafficker had put them in a situation where they had been abused. and, therefore, the shelters were there to try to protect them as much as anything else. it was very emotional. their stories were

heartbreaking. and again, i would just say that in terms of the role the united states plays here, there are a number of policies we have in place that allows these coyotes, as they call the human smugglers, allows these coyotes to go to a poor family and say pay me a lot of money, say $10 thousand, which for a family in a poor part of honduras is their life savings and their mortgage on their home and money they'll have to borrow. and we'll take your kids to the united states. and because the united states allows those children to come in as long as they claim asylum, we will commit to you that we can get those kids into the united states. and they'll go to school and everything will be good. and maybe they can bring you up later. and the coyotes can say that because of our policies. and, by the way, it's not good for many of these children, for many of these women in particular. what happens on that dangerous journey north is something that would break your heart when you

hear the stories. some are left in the desert. others are mistreated in other ways. but the point is u.s. policy contributes to this. i know this is a hard truth, and it may be that my colleagues and i can never figure this out. but it seems to me that we should not have an asylum policy that encourages people to come to the north and then to come into the country pending approval of their asylum case when in fact only about 15% -- that's 1-5 -- 15% of these migrants will ever receive an asylum claim. and yet virtually all of them stay in the united states. in 2019, the last time we had a big surge like this, it was mostly children, unaccompanied minors. virtually none of them have been deported even though only 15% of them on average have had a successful claim. what does that mean? that means that in the united states, i said earlier, it's a magnet. we are pulling people north. these countries don't want to lose their people. many of these migrants are being mistreated along the way,

including children who are placed by u.s. agencies into sponsor families that sometimes mistreat them. and we have done studies on this. we've done two studies in the subcommittee investigations, bipartisan studies where we've concluded that we do not have effective ways to place these children who are, again, brought to the u.s. border and allowed into the united states because of our poil. i know this is a tough issue, and our hearts go out to these migrants. they really do. but we have to have a policy that makes sense and a policy that allows people to come legally to the united states in an orderly way, in a humane way, and not continue this policy that effectively gives the coyote, the human smuggler, a pretty good narrative, pretty credible one, that if you pay me, i'll get you into the interior, into ohio, where i'm from, or some other state. and again, the way our system

works because there is a backlog of about 1.2 million people for these cases and only 15% at the end of the day on average are going to get the asylum claim approved, these people tend to stay in the community. i don't blame them for coming. i really don't. every family i've talked to along the border when i've been there or down there when i was in these three countries, in these four countries over the last week, they tell me the same thing. they want more opportunity. some truly do have a fear of persecution in their countries, and they should be given asylum. again, that's about 15%. the vast majority, of course, live lives that are lives of poverty and they want more opportunity, and we want to provide that opportunity. this is why there isn't an issue right now with regard to how does the united states best help in their home countries. we talked about the pull factor, which is u.s. policy. and, by the way, when title 42, which is a provision that's in place now with regard to

adults, to say you can't come into america because of covid-19, when title 42 ends, which will happen at the end of the health care emergency, the administration needs to be prepared for a further surge of individuals coming to america. this time adults. already for kids, title 42 has been ended by the biden administration. and, therefore, we see what's happening. already for most families now, title 42 has been ended, and we've seen what happens. we've seen these surges, 170,000, 180,000 people a month. when it's ended for adults, it will be even more dilt. and at -- even more difficult. at a minimum, i would urge the biden administration to be prepared, as they weren't last time. you remember the huge influx and the children who were left in border patrol detention facilities for far longer than they were legally allowed to be there under u.s. law and living side by side on the floor, on pads, in a time of covid, without any covid tests.

that was wrong just as it will be wrong if we don't prepare for the adults. my view is we should keep title 42 in place for now. we still do have a covid issue and the countries to the south have an even larger covid issue. we should put in place policies to allow people to come legally in higher numbers. i support that, temporary worker programs, in my view, is something that's good for both sides right now. we have a work shortage. we also have a need to ensure these people are coming in a legal way through proper means. but we should also have rules that work, laws that mean something. and people who wait in line for years in these countries to come legally are looking and saying why should i wait when my neighbor can just walk up to the border and come to columbus, ohio. so i do think there's an opportunity here, having been down there and talking to these countries, for us to do a better job helping these countries to develop their own economy, to provide opportunities to people in those countries. this avoids the so-called push factor.

now getting it through is not going to be easy and it's not going to be done quickly. i know many are saying $4 billion that the biden administration is promising these countries is going to make all the difference. it will start and that's good. we also need to change the pull side because it's going to take time, decades in fact, to allow people in these countries to have the economic opportunities close to the economic opportunities they would have in coming across the border. the united states is a country where there still is opportunity is for everyone, including these migrants. and that's a great thing. but we've got to be sure there's also a system that is orderly and legal to allow them to come here in a safe and humane away. so that's one thing we talked about a lot down there. the other thing we talked about a lot, as you can imagine, is the issue of venezuela. i mentioned earlier what's going on in cuba. cuba influences venezuela greatly. the fact that the maduro regime in venezuela can survive is

because of cuba and some other help, by the way, from the russians and others. there's a problem, which is the country is a basket case right now economically, and, therefore, people are leaving. they're surge out of the country as fast as they can. there are 1.7 million venezuelan refugees in the country of colombia. think about that. and colombia, to their credit, has said we're going to take care of these people. they've given them temporary protected status. they have given them places to live and shelter in, and they're taking them in as refugees. but also i saw this in ecuador, where they have hundreds of thousands of venezuelan refugees. so this is impacting not just venezuela, but it's impacting our allies in the region who are required is. again, i commend them for this, to be able to help in this crisis. it's one reason that we need to be sure that we deal with these issues in cuba and in venezuela

to try to give people the ability to live in a free and open society and with a democracy because then they will tend to stay home and develop their economy compared to what we're seeing on the streets of the cities of cuba today and seeing the misery that we see in venezuela. we talked about that a lot, as you can imagine. finally, we talked a lot about the illegal narcotics issue because the narcotics trade is devastating these countries, not just because people are using in those countries -- which they are, by the way, in increasing numbers -- but more because of the transit going through these countries and the corruption that results from the huge amount of money that's involved in the drug trade. so in a place like colombia, unfortunately, the cocaine production is up. during covid, they increased production of cocaine. not decreased, as you might think. and where is this cocaine going? i pushed and pushed on the data here with the u.s. embassy, with our colombian counterparts. roughly 90% of this cocaine they

believe is coming to the united states of america. are we helping these countries? certainly not by our drug policies. i mentioned the immigration policies earlier. they're not helping these countries. how about drug policy? if we can't do a better job of reducing demand in america, it's hard to see how these countries in latin america, all of which are affected, to transit through ecuador is their big issue and the corruption that results. in mexico, of course, the drug cartels control parts of the mexican countryside right now. there's terrible violence in mexico because of the cartels, because of the drug trade. i was impressed with every president i met with, including president lopez obrador, who is doing his best in a very difficult situation. it would be helpful to him to have less, in his case, crystal meth, heroin, and fentanyl demand in the united states because that's coming to his country and then going up north.

but it's creating huge problems in his country, including, again, higher usage in each of these countries as welling. so they're impacted also by the deadly nature of these drugs. fentanyl, as you know, is killing more people by overdose deaths than any other drug right now. our overdose deaths in the united states of america are increasing to the point that over the last 12 months from every data point we have, it looks like we had the worst year in the history of our country in terms of overdose deaths. before the pandemic we were making progress. we were actually reducing use, reducing overdoses, reducing overdose deaths. what we did here was making a difference, roughly $5 billion of additional spending, this chamber approved in a comprehensive addiction recovery act. but also another legislation to help the states provide better prevention, better treatment options, more long-term recovery. we were actually making progress, and then the pandemic hit. we've got to get back to it, folks. we have to redouble our efforts. we have legislation to do that. senator whitehouse and i called

the comprehensive addiction recovery act 3.0. we need to be smarter on what works on prevention because that's good for us as a country. but also again the devastation it is causing in every country i was in, every one of them. they want us to do a better job here so that they won't have to suffer the consequences there. when i talk to president duqay in colombia who is committed to eradicating cocaine production we commend him for what he's doing. he had to tell me the real issue is demand in your country. hard for me to solve the problem here. and he's absolutely right. so we can and i think we will as a congress begin to refocus on this issue. i hope postcovid and get back to the situation where we're rao duesing this and reducing overdose deaths and in fact helping these countries to be able to get back on their feet.

finally in terms of trade, not aid, and commerce, it's a great opportunity for us now. certainly china thinks so. they're investing in these countries. we should be too. we should be looking at these countries not just as neighbors, but as true allies, who have been with us on democracy building, on human rights, with us on international issues, with us as neighbors that really care about the relationship between our countries. my -- my hope is that our trip, small as it was with just six senators and just a few days in the region was helpful to ensure those ties are deepened and to establish new ties and perhaps with some of the followup we're going to do encourage more investment, trade, and commerce with these countries. i hope that it was an eye opener for all of us, that we have a job to do here. we need to have a policy with regard to drugs where we are doing a better job in reducing

the demand side of the equation, not that we shouldn't stop on the eradication of crops and interdiction of drugs, that all helps to reduce the issue because the price of the drug will go up if there is no supply and that is particularly true with fentanyl that is so deadly and so powerful. but the most important by far is to allow people to get into treatment, understanding this is a disease, to allow people to have longer-term recovery options, to come up with more effective ways to prevent the use of the drugs in the first place and to ensure that we are working together with our latin neighbors and with our communities here in this country to do just that. mr. president, i yield back my time. mr. romney: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah.

mr. romney: thank you, mr. president. i rise today to honor and celebrate the outstanding legacy of my dear friend dean cox. his enduring commitment to public service over the course of his life and consequential career are worthy of the highest praise. many utahans view him as a competent county commissioner, but those who knew him as a loving friend, neighbor, dad, grandfather and husband who devoted his life to helping others. with dean's passing, washington county has lost one of its county's reliable public service. the most reliable path to public and private life is an unmarked and unwavering commitment to principle and compassion. we extend our deepest sympathy to his family and his loved

ones. he is a man we will miss very, very much. dean's lifetime of public service in washington county and across southern utah cements his reputation as an indispensable expert for first responders, businesses, and state and local governments. a true son of southern utah, he was raised on the -- throughout his youth, dean learned how to fix just about anything in his father's garage and mechanic shop, mastering his trade craft in bob's garage. the course of his life would, however, change while attending brigham young university. there he would meet the love of his life, lorene loveet and they would soon dedicate their lives to raising had their four children at their home in

st. george. dean and his brother purchased bob's garage and carry on the family's decision. their shop named cuddleland sales and service allowed dean the opportunity to pass along the skills that he learned from his dad to his own children as well. dean's career in public service began as a volunteer emergency responder in washington county. as a stellar radio operator and licensed pilot since the age of 19, dean's emergency coordination efforts, through major disaster responses and other trials, earned him experience and admission from the communities he protected. impressed by his years of excellent service, washington county offered dean the critical role of county administrator, where he executed the policies set forth by the county commission. when a seat on the commission became available, he was encouraged to join the race.

his candidacy was backed by three decades of local knowledge, by his expertise and broad popularity within the community. victorious, dean then became the decision-maker. wowlt a doubt the -- without a doubt, the hallmark of his legacy is his breakthrough in securing approval for the northern corridor project. his pragmatism and willingness to reach compromise was the key to long-held disagreements between des part parties. there was a win for the wildlife conservation of its most beautiful. last year 80% of its constituents reelected dean cox to be their commissioner -- 80%. despite this incredible achievement, illness would tragically force dean to receive hospital care, including chemotherapy.

true to character, dean continued to serve while undergoing this treatment. he passed away surrounded by loved ones and he survived by his loving family. his wife lorene, his son jeffrey and tanna and matt, his dawr eliza, and quinten, ethan, his son edward and karen, emory, and everett. at every step of dean's remarkable career, his sweetheart lorene, stood by his side. his love and support sustained him throughout his years of public service and now lerene carries on his wonderful legacy. our great state owes dean and

lorene -- our hearts go out to them. we love them dearly and pray for happiness and joy in their ultimate reunion. thank you, mr. president. i yield the balance of my time. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about the crisis at our southern border. we have a humanitarian crisis there. we have a health care crisis there, and we also have a national security crisis there. over the last two weeks, as i traveled the state of wyoming, i heard from people all across the state about the condition of the southern border and, not surprisingly, the people of wyoming recognized that there was actually a crisis at the southern border and there is

chaos at our border. people across the state of wyoming are shocked -- shocked at the way that the biden administration has been acting deliberately to weaken our national security and security at our border. mr. president, we need to strengthen our southern border, leaving the border open is like leaving the door to your home open. maybe some good friends will come through the door, but sooner or later, mr. president, the wrong people will enter your home. an open border is an open invitation and it's an invitation to the whole world. now, this includes drug dealers, section traffickers, it includes gang -- sex traffickers, it includes gang members and it even includes terrorists. when president biden took office, he flipped on the green light and he rolled out the

welcome mat. he sent a message to the world, the message was received, the border is open. since president biden took office, 600,000 illegal immigrants have been arrested crossing the border. this is more than my entire population of my home state of wyoming. border arrests have gone up every month since president biden has been in the white house. last month a deputy commissioner of the border patrol retired after 27 years in that office. his name is robert perez. since leaving office, he had a few thiks to say. -- things is say. this is what he said. he said, what border patrol is seeing since february, he said, is absolutely unprecedented. he said it's a crisis unlike anything i've ever seen.

well, right now we're on the pace to two million illegal immigrants. that's what we're looking at, two million illegal immigrants crossing the southern border of the united states, that's the most in two decades, and that's the illegal immigrants that we know about. in addition tens of thousands of additional illegal immigrants are coming across the border and not being stopped. at the same time we are seizing more fentanyl at our border more than ever before. the numbers are astonishing. a fatal dose is equivalent to a pinch of salt. the border patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child in america. some experts say the amount they captured in terms of fentanyl is the small fraction of the amount getting across the border every day. this would mean a quarter

million pounds of fentanyl likely to flow into the united states this year alone and its not just staying at our southern border, it's in every state of the union. this just didn't happen. six months ago, the border was nearly secure. then joe biden was sworn into office and he undid the successful policies of the previous administration. he stopped building the wall even though it's already been paid for. under the previous administration, asylum seekers had to remain in mexico until their day in court, president biden stopped that. he ended that policy, basically saying to everyone, come in. it does seem that anything that the previous administration did that was done successfully, president biden has chosen to do the opposite. this isn't policy making, this is knee-jerk partisanship.

now, president biden has had six months to fix the crisis that we are living with today. he's only making it worse and he's doubling down on the mistakes he's already made. it wasn't enough for him to end the remain in mexico policy which was successful and which border patrol agents tell me needs to be put back in place if the goal is to actually secure the border. now the biden administration seems to actively looking for people who had to wait in mexico under president trump and let them into the united states. he's inviting them into our country and he's not stopping there. he's going further. now it seems like president biden is going to open the door even wider. last year at the start of the pandemic, the previous administration closed our borders to people from coronavirus-impacted areas. this was a decision made by the centers for disease control and prevention. they did this under title 42 of

our law. this is a section of our laws related to public health. well, it's likely to have saved thousands of merch lives. -- american lives. it protected our public health. it's also helped our border patrol. they will tell you that. they will tell you that this has helped them stem the flow of illegal immigration over the last year. but now president biden, i understand, wants to end that policy. at least that's what the white house is telling the press. it means that the crisis at the border is going to get even worse. you don't have to take my word for it. listen to what democratic congressman from san antonio, congressman cuellar had to say. he lives right on the border, lives there, knows the situation on the border and said, ending the title 42 order, as he said, going to provide another incentive. he said that the drug cartels are going to start saying, you

can come in. that's congressman cuellar of texas, and i believe he's right. president biden has removed almost all of the policies protecting our border. title 42 is the last one standing. now he's going to take this one down as well. well, if he does, it will open the floodgates. i would expect tens of thousands more illegal immigrants coming into the country. it will create even more chaos from criminals all across the land. not just from mexico, but from all across the world, coming across our southern border. as a physician, i'm concerned about this decision from the fentanyl standpoint, also from the standpoint of the disease, the coronavirus and the new variants that we're dealing with.

we know that people are coming from all over the world. when i was at the border this spring at the donna facility near mcallen, texas, the border patrol said they arrested people from more than 50 different countries coming across the southern border from mexico into the united states. this includes lots of places where the vaccination rates are much, much lower than they are in the united states, some places where vaccines aren't even available. at the same time we're seeing just variants of coronavirus rapidly spreading throughout the world, variants that are deadly, variants that the vaccines that we have here in the united states may not be as effective as we had thought or as we would hope. so the country's threat for all of us is real. since the pandemic began, more than 8,000 border patrol agents and officers have tested positive for coronavirus.

32 of these agents have died of coronavirus. when i visited the border, i saw firsthand how unaccompanied children were routinely exposed to coronavirus. when i visited roughly one in ten of these young people who had tested positive for coronavirus, and they were all together in these holding pens, crammed in like czar denies, one exposing the other -- like sardines, one exposing the other and the other after that. these holding facilities packed several thousand young people into one facility the day we were there, and they exposed everyone in the facility. and of course after the time in the holding facility, they are released. many of them are released while positive. so as new variants spread around the world, this puts our nation in serious danger. and that's why republican senators are sending a letter to president biden. our message to president biden

is this -- leave the c.d.c. protection under title 42 in place. the american people need it. we need it from a public health standpoint. it protects our public health, it protects our border agents, it strengthens our border security. mr. president, there is enough chaos at the border already, too many drugs, too many criminals. they are already crossing the border. we need to stop this knee-jerk partisanship and we need to get back to the policies that we know work, the policies that the border patrol tells us work, the policies that the border patrol told the biden transition team prior to joe biden getting sworn in and inaugurated as president of the united states, they advised him to sweep in place. we need to finish the wall that has already been paid for.

we need to bring back the remain in mexico policy. we need to enforce the law. we need to close the loopholes. we need to slam the door shut on the drug cartels. mr. president, it is time to secure our border once and for all. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: i ask that the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: every state of the nation has many infrastructure needs. in iowa, we rely on our roads, bridges, air, and freight to move our goods and people throughout iowa, throughout the united states, and eventually throughout the world. i'm encouraged that a bipartisan framework has been agreed to for moving forward on an infrastructure bill. i'll be interested in seeing more details about the policy and the way to pay for the bill, as the bill proceeds forward.

today i would like to discuss one aspect of infrastructure, and that's our inland waterways. for iowa, that's the mississippi and missouri rivers. for other states, it's a lot of other important rivers. i ask my colleagues to take this important mode of transportation into account as they work on legislation. i've also sent this request in letter to both the senate environment and public works as well as the appropriations committees. the inland and intercoastal waterways and our ports are vital to the united states and serve 41 states throughout our nation. shippers and consumers depend on the ability to move around 630 million tons of cargo each year valued at about $232 billion on

these waterways. in turn, the inland waterways system supports well over half a million jobs. now, i'm going to go into some of the information that is on the chart here. our nation's inland waterways system also provides a safe, cost-effective, fuel-efficient, and environmentally friendly way to move our bulk products. this translates into more than $12 billion annually in transportation savings to the american economy. furthermore -- and this is -- when i say "furthermore," this point is important for the environment. one gallon of fuel allows one ton of cargo to be shipped 647 miles by barge as compared to

447 miles by rail and only 145 miles by truck. in addition, the inland waterway transport generates far fewer emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide that rail and truck per million tons of miles does. as for safety, there are 21 -- let's say 22 rail fatalities compared to 79 truck fatalities for every one fatality on the waterway system that i'm addressing. by moving goods on inland waterways, we're helping to relieve congestion on the roadways and adding to the

nation's economic prosperity. moving goods on inland waterways is the most efficient transportation mode. a typical inland barge has the capacity 15 times greater than one railcar and 60 times greater than one semitrailer truck. one 15-barge tow can move the equivalent of 216 railcars pulled by six locomotives and 1,050 semitrailer tax tax struct as a comparison of this mode of transportation. if the car co-transported had to be moved by mother mode it would take -- by another mode it would

take another 16% more tonnage obstruction of justice the railroad system and 49 million truck trips annually to carry the same load. u.s. trade policy and its effects on exports and in particular agricultural exports has a major impact on the u.s. water transportation system. the united states has the world's largest agriculture -- is the world's largest agriculture-exporting country. u.s. agriculture exports in 2018, the last year we have figures more, generated more than $300 billion in economic output and directly supporting more than one million jobs. according to the u.s. department of agriculture, about one out of every three acres farmed in our country are planted for export.

agricultural exports account for about a quarter of farm cash receipts in which 73% of these exports and 65% of imports were carried on u.s. waterways. american farmers need foreign markets to sell commodities and value-added agricultural products. compared to the overall economy, u.s. agriculture is twice as reliant on overseas markets. consumers in developing countries around the world choose differentifieds to eat as their incomes rise different foods to eat as their incomes rise. as a result, thursday emerging opportunities for exporting more meat and dairy products and farm commodities. u.s. exporters need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities when with only 96%

of the world's consumers living outside the united states. obviously, the 4% of the people that live in the united states, if you want to market, you're going to spend a lot of time marketing to that 96% that lives outside of our country. as the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world, the united states delivers high-quality, reliable products to consumers around the globe. now, here at home these exports are essential to profitability in agriculture and the economic activity they generate obviously ripples through the domestic economy. we need to make sure that our current inland waterway infrastructure is maintained in good conditioning. congress has implemented policy changes that provide more

funding for the inland waterways trust fund and adjusted cost-shares of the trust fund to more efficiently fund and complete the construction projects. i ask for robust funding to support the use of inland waterway trust funds for construction. this is necessary to ensure that the inland waterways modernization replacement and rehabilitation construction projects are funded at the level supportable by the inland waterway trust fund. the u.s. army corps of engineers civil works program currently faces a large unmet needs in its operations and maintenance account. i have been encouraged that in the last several years congress has provided additional funding to help address these backlogs.

i with the as much fund -- i request as much funding be provided for these operation and maintenance activities. the investigations account is also crucial for inland waterway systems. there are currently 15 modernization projects that are waiting to begin construction. it is critically important to complete design of these projects so they can begin construction when the inland waterways trust fund dollars become available. failure to have -- failure to have the design completed will delay project delivery, ultimately leading to increased total cost of the projects as well as adding additional time to schedule project completion. i ask that the investigations

account be funded at a level to support these projects given current budgetary contrarians. on the upper mississippi river, multiple locks are well beyond their 50-year life and cannot accommodate more tows, as we have to have the barges break up their tows to get them through smaller lochs. so having to decouple the barges significantly is cellulose down traffic on the river and increases cost -- slows down traffic on the river and increases cost emissions harmful to the environment. i worked with my upper mississippi river colleagues here in the senate and a large stakeholder coalition to get initial authorization for this loch and dam modernization

called the -- in the navigation and ecosystem restoration program signed into law. we have also continued to work on receiving the preconstruction engineering design and funding that is provided for in the navigation and ecosystem restoration program. it is important for that program to receive new start funding so construction on these improvements can start taking place. loch and dam 25, which is a key feature of the navigation and ecosystems program, has received a significant portion of the $72.5 million appropriated for the navigation and ecosystem program thus far and is ready to

move to construction. that is a key priority for me and my colleagues. the state of iowa, the region and everybody up and down the mississippi river and eventually the world benefits from that increased efficiency. we need all modes of transportation to help deliver our inputs, our goodsaged commode tices, both domestically and -- commodities, both domestically and internationally. i want to see robust navigation on the mississippi river and other inland waterways flourish. i look forward to continuing to work with my congressional colleagues and the administration on these important issues as an appropriations and infrastructure legislation -- as the appropriations and infrastructure legislation is prepared to be discussed. i have one other short comment i would like to make on another subject, mr. president. it would take me about two or three minutes.

i've spoken many times about the importance of the constitution and the declaration of independence. it should go without saying that these documents are foundational to our nation. they are revolutionary text for the time that laid out our timeless founding ideals, and we still continue to strive towards those ideals as americans. unfortunately, it seems this fact can't be taken for granted anymore. so on the 4th of july, national public radio continued its tradition of sharing the text of the declaration. but something different happened this year. it began the program with what they call in colleges now a -- quote, unquote -- triggering warning, telling its audience that the declaration is, quote,

a document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies. now, instead of highlighting the american ideals that it laid out, npr decided that the most important thing to note was that it contained outdated language about native americans and that its ideals were not yet fully realized when it was written. i can think of many ways to introduce a reader to this document, but it fundamentally misses the point to focus on the flaws of the authors and signers rather than the ideals it lays out of natural rights endowed to all by our creator. the people who wrote the declaration were not perfect,

just like we aren't perfect today, but the principles they espoused remain true to this day and have changed the course of human history for the better. we need not ignore the fact that the founders did not live up to the lofty goals that they set, but it does a great disservice to focus on those flaws while glossing over the fact that our founding principals were truly exceptional in human history. they set us on a path to abolish slavery, provide the justification for women's suffrage and formed the basis of the civil rights movement. on july 4, we celebrate our nation, conceived in liberty, dedicated to the proposition

that all men are created equal, as abraham lincoln so stated. it is imperative that we do not lose sight of our founding principles which unite all americans and have been the driving force helping us achieve a more perfect union. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. sinema: i ask that all remaining time be yielded back. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. the question occurs on the motion. ms. sinema: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 50, the nays a 48, the motion to discharge is agreed to. the nomination is discharged and will be placed on the calendar. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i first ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session 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. so ordered. mr. whitehouse: and i ask unanimous consent to speak up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, this series of scheme speeches

is designed to chronicle a long-running covert scheme to capture the supreme court. regulatory agencies have often and notoriously been captured by regulated interests. there's a whole doctrine of regulatory capture found in economics and administrative law that revolves around this history of regulatory capture of administrative agencies. so if you can capture administrative agencies to serve special interests, why not capture a court? the trajectory of these scheme speeches has been through time, beginning with with the lewis-powell strategy report to

the u.s. chamber of commerce and then his enabling of that have strategy as a justice of the supreme court, and then how the right-wing fringe was brought into organized alignment by the koch brothers, and then of course the link to this regulatory capture apparatus and its willing band of mercenary lawyers and witnesses. tonight i interrupt that time trajectory to discuss two decisions just delivered by the supreme court, decisions that clearly reflect the patterns and purposes of the court capture effort. let me start by saying that the single most important goal of this covert scheme is to protect itself. the apparatus behind the scheme

may be put to innumerable political uses, but none of those political uses will be effectuated unless the underlying apparatus protects itself and stays operational. survival of this operation is job one. and a core strategy for protecting its covert operations is camouflage. to camouflage this scheme, you need anonymity, anonymity for the donors behind the operation. the scheme is blown if there is transparency. the clandestine connections among front groups become apparent and the manipulating

hands of the string pullers behind the surrepetitious scheme become visible. voters then see the scheme, understand the players & the motives, get the joke, so to speak, and the operation is blown. so an -- so anonymity, donor anonymity, is essential. voters may hate big anonymous donors, but big anonymous donors need anonymity. the term for this anonymous funding now pouring by the billions of dollars into our politics is dark money. this is a dark money operation. and if you are out to capture a court, you want to make sure

that court will protect your dark money. the camouflage for all your covert operations. that is job one. which brings us to the americans for prosperity foundation case. the americans for prosperity foundation is a central front group of the koch brothers' political influence operation. it sued to prevent california from getting access to donor information of the so-called nonprofits like itself that since citizens united have provided screening, anonymity, for megadonors behind their political efforts. for these political groups,

donor anonymity is vital for the scheme to function. now, one of the ways that the dark money operation signals its desires to the court is through little flotillas of dark money groups that show up as what are called friends of the court, amici cure rye to use the legal term, to provide guidance to the justices. little flotillas of dark money groups showed up in cedar point, in sela law, enrico v. common cause, in nick v. township of scott, in lamps plus, in epic systems, in janicev.ofsme and a host of other cases, and in each

case, the little signaling flotilla showed up. in each case, the court delivered a partisan win for the little flotilla. they usually number a dozen or so, and it's happening in plain view, except what's not in plain view is who is funding the little orchestrated flotillas. that the court helps keep secret. so these signaling flotillas that appear in these cases and generate these partisan victories usually number about a dozen but not in the americans for prosperity foundation casement, not in this case. in this case, 50 of them showed

up -- 50. i think that's a record. kind of a personal best for the dark money armada. and they showed up early on at the certiorari stage, at the stage where the court decides whether or not to take the case. this was a blaring red alert to the republicans on the supreme court how important this case was to the dark money operation. and, sure enough, just like in all the other cases i mentioned, the court delivered. the republican justices on the supreme court just established a

new constitutional right to donor secrecy, and they did so for a group -- americans for prosperity foundation -- flagrantry involved in right-wing political mischief and manipulation. flagrantly involved. the americans for prosperity foundation group's operating entity actually had even spent millions of dollars just last year to help get justice barrett confirmed. they are so brazen about this, they actually used americans for prosperity foundation as the named party, not some benign, nonpolitical entity which they could have dredged up. nope, they took the bet that the this precedent of a politically

active manipulator being the named party would not phase the republicans on the court, and they would be able with that partisan majority to gain a legal foothold for their dark money political spending. there are few things that enrage the american public more than crooked dark money political spending. if you tried to get a dark money political spending bill through the senate, you couldn't do it. if you tried to get it through the house, you couldn't do it. put the senate under -- the senate and house under republican control, you still couldn't do it. but if you've captured the supreme court and have sent 50 dark money groups in a big signaling armada telling them what you want, then a decision

that is as unpopular and enraging as this decision comes your way. and they pulled it off in plain daylight. justice barrett even declined to recuse herself. that's how brazen this is. despite the kaperton case precedent of recusing in cases involving parties who spent millions to get you on the court , not a peep about that conflict of interest, not a peep about that effective repeal of the kaperton case. so this republican majority completely ignored the assertions of the republican majority that gave us citizens united, that transparency and

political spending is our protection against corruption. that was the hook for citizens united. don't worry, folks ... we can let unlimited amounts of special interest money pour into politics and it won't be corrupting because it will be transparent. everybody will seat or hear at the end of the ad i'm exxonmobil, and i approve this message. that was the trick of citizens united. i suppose you could say that it was a safe bet that this republican majority would not be concerned about donor transparency the way the citizens united republican majority was because the republicans on the court after

citizens united turned a completely blind eye to billions of dark money dollars that poured into our politics. they had said that was corrupting, but every chance they got to impose their own decision and clean up the dark money corruption they scrupulously refused to do it. they did or pretended -- they did not or pretended not to see it. so if you are this apparatus and you think you've captured the court and you look at the blind eye that it turned to these flagrant, constant, massive violations of the of supposed citizens united transparency principle, you take your shot, and they did. what it looks like now is that it was window dressing in citizens united to pretend to

care about transparency. and what it looks like now is that this new republican majority has tossed even that window dressing into the dumpster. this americans for prosperity foundation decision looks totally outcome-driven, not applying the law but changing the law to favor dark money. and the decision was on a purely partisan basis -- all the republicans. the end result here is that this dark money empire that spends billions of dollars in our politics has just been given by the republican justices a legal tool to fight disclosure, stall exposure, and protect the

clandestine nature of its covert political operations. remember what i said, job one. this is job one. this is the dark money apparatus' pearl beyond price, and the court, at least the republicans on the court, delivered. and it's notable that this dark money-funded operation that just got this big and novel win had a big hand in putting the last three justices on the court. much of how they did it is hidden behind dark money screens. but what we do know is chilling. the federalist society took in tens of millions of dollars in dark money while it was being

used as the private political turnstile to control who got nominated to the court. the judicial crisis network took dark money donations, some as big as $17 million, to fund ad campaigns for the nominees selected by the federalist society's special interest turnstile to get them confirmed to the court. who writes a $17 million check for that? and of course floods of dark money poured into the republican party as leader mcconnell smashed and crashed his way through any rule, any precedent, or any practice of

the senate that stood in the confirmation path of these dark money nominees. truly this court is today the supreme court that dark money built, and it just delivered for the dark money interests. the dark money link to the republican party brings us to the second case. this case, better brnovich v. d. involved voter suppression laws passed to discourage minorities from voting. why would anybody want to do that? because today's republican party has settled on voter suppression as its path to power. across the country you see it,

republican-controlled legislatures have swiveled in unison to pass voter suppression laws in their states all at once, as if on signal. and guess what? dark money groups have been caught taking credit for this coordinated swivel, describe how they worked through local sentinels, describing how they drafted the legislation for the local republicans and describing how they were able to do so surreptitiously. the voter suppression fixation of republicans in all these state legislative bodies is quite plainly a coordinated activity, and equally plainly

it has the dark money apparatus behind them. here's another example. after a "washington post" expose blew his cover, the operative at the center of the dark money court-packing scheme vacated that role. the article was pretty tough. he got burned pretty good. so he fled. and where did he go? he moved straight from court packing to voter suppression. don't worry, he didn't have to go very far from his court-packing roots. the group he went to is called, in fine orwellian fashion, the honest elections project. what is the honest elections project?

it's a corporate rebranding of something called the judicial education project, which is in turn the corporate sibling of -- yup, you guessed it -- the judicial crisis network, the group that was getting the $17 million checks to run the court capture dark money advertising campaigns. the former court-packing group is the corporate kin of the honest elections voter suppression group, and the same guy just hopped from the one to the other. "the washington post" expose, by the way, chronicled $250 million in funding for this dark

money court capture operation through its network of groups. so whoever is behind this, they're not playing around. $250 million is an immense sum. so when mr. court capture shows up as mr. voter suppression in a repaint of one of his court capture vehicles, you can guess that his voter suppression effort will have plenty of dark money too. so with this as the background, the republicans on the court served up yet another blow to the voting rights act. they allowed states to pass even

more voter suppression laws. they allowed them to pass, even voting laws conceded to impede minority voting. the purpose of the voting rights act is to protect voters' rights to the polls, and particularly minorities' rights to the polls because of decades of discrimination and suppression that kept minority voters away from the polls. in this case they said, no, it's okay. if the decision is conceded to fall unfairly on minority voters, still good. the author of this partisan majority decision, even for good measure, threw in the

totally unsupported and perhaps even fraudulent republican political talking point that voter fraud is presently a big hazard demanding our attention. so it was a very big week of very big rewards for a very big dark money apparatus. when those two decisions came down, the upshot was simple. the dark money apparatus that put the last three justices on the court desperately needs dark money to function, and the court that dark money built just built dark money a new home in

our constitution. and the dark money apparatus that put the last three justices on the supreme court desperately needs republicans to win elections to work its political will, and the number-one republican strategy going into 2022 is voter suppression. and the court that dark money built just kicked into the voting rights act another hole, allowing more voter suppression. it's been said that these justices up on the supreme court are there just calling balls and strikes. yeah right, they're not just calling balls and strikes.

in case after case, over and over, in a consistent and predictable pattern, they are changing the shape of the ball field. they're tilting the ball field steeply to help one side, and they're doing grave damage to important safeguards of democracy in the process. these two cases, ignoring precedent and delivering big political wins to the dark money apparatus through a partisan republican majority, show the game in play and the republican justices as players. to be continued. mr. president, i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island.

without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 72, s. 169, a bill to amend title 17, united states code, to require the register of copyrights to waive fees and filing for applications of registration of the copyright claim in certain circumstances, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that 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? without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the finance committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 534 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 534, a bill to improve the effectiveness of tribal child support for agencies and for other purposes.

the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that 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? without objection. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee object homeland security and governmental affairs be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 26 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 26, an act to amend the consolidated appropriations act 2021 to correct a provision on the prohibition on the use of a reverse auction, and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged, and the senate will proceed. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that 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? without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it

adjourn until 10:00 a.m. wednesday, july 14. following the prayer and pledge, the morning business be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. further, upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the samuels nomination. further, that the cloture motions filed during yesterday's session of the senate ripen at 11:30 a.m., if cloture is invoked on the samuels nomination, the senate immediately vote on cloture on the nanda nomination. further, that the senate recess following the cloture vote on the nanda nomination until 2:00 p.m. if cloture is invoked on either of the nominations, all postcloture time expire at 2:35 p.m. and the senate vote on the confirmations in the in order in which cloture was invoked. finally, if any of the nominations are confirmed, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. whitehouse: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand

adjourned under the previous order, following the remarks of senator gillibrand. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mrs. gillibrand: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new york. mrs. gillibrand: i request unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. gillibrand: mr. president, i rise today to once again call for every senator to have the opportunity to consider and cast a vote for the military justice improvement and increasing prevention act. the bill would remove all serious crimes except for military-specific crimes out of the chain of command and give it to trained military prosecutors to decide whether or not to move that case to trial. making that change would end days of asking commanders who are not trained lawyers to make complex legal decisions in cases where they often know both the accuser and the accused. that change is necessary.

it's necessary because the current military justice system is simply not delivering justice, especially not to service members of color. i'm proud that our legislation has recently won the dormant of our -- endorsement of our colleagues in the congressional black caucus who have highlighted how this reform would address the systemic barriers to justice our service members of color face. i want to thank the c.d.c. for their strong support. i chair their urgency when it comes to addressing those systemic injustices. right now, black service members are up to 2.61 times as likely to face disciplinary action as their fellow white service members, and black and hispanic service members are more likely than white service members to be tried in general and special court-martials across the military services. the joint service committee on military justice began collecting data on race and court-martials last june. even in the brief period of time they have tracked, the

disparities are tragically clear. in the army, just 21.4% of active duty service members are black, but black service members account for 35.5% of the accused in general court-martial. in the air force, just 14.7% of active duty service members are black, but they account for 23 .1% of the accused. in the navy, 17.2% of active duty service members are black, but they account for 34.3% of the accused. those figures speak to an inherent bias in the system that must be addressed. congressman anthony brown who served in the military for 30 years and worked as an army judge advocate general and as a clerk for then-chief judge eugene sullivan of the u.s. court of appeals for the armed forces recently wrote in "the washington post" about the need to pass this legislation. he wrote, quote, following the police killings of george floyd, brianna taylor, and too many

more black and brown americans, there has been a nationwide call to address the disparities in our criminal justice system. but these efforts cannot overlook the criminal justice system that is not on the front pages or in the television news. that's the one in the u.s. military. the current military justice system is not serving our country's higher values of justice, equity, and fairness. it puts service members of color at a disadvantage and left them subject to a commander control system they do not trust. in a survey last year of members of the air force and special forces, special force three in five black service members -- excuse me. in the air force and the space force, three in five black service members said they would not receive the same benefit of the doubt as their white peers if they faced disciplinary action. one-third the leave the military justice system -- believe the military justice system is

actively biased against them. those fears are corroborated by the facts. our military justice system mirrors discrimination in the civilian criminal justice system, sometimes rising to a life-or-death matter. a 2012 study showed that before its last use decades ago, nearly two-thirds of service members sentenced to death were service members of color. these long-standing disparities and this unjust system demand our attention and action, end of quote. and these disparities are long-standing. a task force established by president nixon's secretary of defense this 1972 identified many of the same issues and same causal factors we see today. the task force reported that, quote, in the course of our conversations with black and spanish speaking service members throughout the world, we became convinced that the black or spanish speaking enlisted man is often singled out for a

punishment by white authority figures where his white counterpart is not. there is enough evidence of intentional discrimination by individuals to convince the task force that such selective punishment is in many cases racially motivated, end of quote. i know that some of my colleagues have called for more time to study this issue. i would point them to a 2020 review from the air force inspector general which found that for every year between 1999 and 2019, black airmen were 60% more likely to face court-martial and 74% more likely to receive nonjudicial punishment from their commanders than their white counterparts. that's 20 years of data telling the same unacceptable story. what more proof do they need? it's been nearly 50 years since the knicks administration's task

force brought this issue to light, and we have seen positive change. our service members -- excuse me. and we have seen little positive change. our service members cannot wait any longer. coppingman brown is right. this unjust system demands our attention and action. as members of congress, we have the constitutional duty to provide oversight and accountability over the department of defense. we have the job of righting and revising -- writing and revising and improving the military code of justice. this is a congressionally created code. addressing these disparities is our responsibility and no one else's. this bill will help us do that. now is the time to act. in addition to the congressional black caucus, this bill is supported by legal experts and service members. it has the support of almost every veteran group that i can

find, from the iraq and afghanistan veterans group to the vietnam veterans group to the veterans of foreign wars. this is supported by our service members and our veterans. it also has the support of a growing number of bipartisan congress members in the house. it also has the support of 66 u.s. senators, a filibuster-proof majority. if the vote was called today, it would pass. this bill should be voted on. i ask unanimous consent that at a time to be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader, the senate armed services committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1520 and it the senate proceed to its consideration, that there be two hours or debate equally divided in the usual form, and that upon

the use or yielding back of that time, the senate vote on the bill with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. reed: mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mrs. gillibrand: mr. president, i suggest an absence of a quorum. i withhold that request. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until senate stands adjourned until forward for national labor relations board after her nomination was stalled in committee bracelet bows. the floor debate will be to time and take is to be

determined as they take up other judicial nominations this week but as always you can build the senate live your and cspan2. >> see spanish unfiltered view of government, monday by these television companies and more including media. >> the world has changed in an instant. but media combos ready internet tracking sort and we never slowed down. schools and businesses went virtual and we powered a new reality. because at media, we are built to keep you ahead. >> providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer in texas are public and senator john both spoke on the senate floor about the texas democratic lawmakers who are on capitol hill today. they left their state last night to block a boat on