and i don't think that the reflective patriotism it is for most, for most students, we need something more common than that and something more that we need to work harder. the tired brick curriculum has have an inspiring, becoming the correct and current curriculum. he has come to be filled with american greatness. the students have to know and of course they have no stonewall jackson fought for the wrong guard side. of course and they should also know jackson did and what happened to him that night. that is a story to read about apart from the moral problems here and they need everything masterpieces of american literature and

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. challenge us, mighty god, when we are too well-pleased with ourselves, when our dreams come true because they are too small, when we arrive safely simply because we have sailed too close to the shore. challenge us, mighty god, when

with the abundance of the things we possess we lose our thirst for the waters of life, and having fallen in love with life we cease to dream about eternity. as we seek to honor life and legacy of former senator carl levin, challenge us, mighty god, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery, where losing sight of land we will find your stars. we pray in your sovereign name, amen.

the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., july 31, 2021. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable martin heinrich, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: are we in a quorum? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. schumer: mr. president, yesterday, a substantial bipartisan majority of senators agreed to move forward with the debate on the bipartisan infrastructure bill. senators from the bipartisan group continue to finalize the text of the agreement. once the bipartisan group completes the legislative text, i will offer it as a substitute amendment, making it the base of the bill on the floor. and then we can proceed to the consideration of additional amendments. look, i understand that writing the text of a bill of this size is a difficult project. i have been part of many such

efforts in the past. but i urge the bipartisan group to finish their work so we can begin the amendment process here on the floor. i have said for weeks that the senate is going to move forward on both tracks of infrastructure before the beginning of the august recess. the longer it takes to finish, the longer we'll be here, but we're going to get the job done. i will update the senate on the timing of the next vote as we move forward. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

ms. warren: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. ms. warren: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session for a period of morning business and that upon the conclusion of my remarks, the senate resume executive session, as under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. warren: thank you, madam president. almost exactly a year ago today, i stood here and called for congress to take action to protect renters before the expiration of the eviction moratorium enacted during the early weeks of the pandemic.

today, like a year ago, we are only hours away from a fully preventable housing crisis. the c.d.c.'s eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight, putting millions of families still recovering from the economic fallout of covid-19 at risk for losing their homes, for losing the bedrock of their safety and stability. right now, more than 11 million renters report being behind on rent. that is one out of every seven renters. and people of color who have been hit hardest by this pandemic are disproportionately at risk. nearly one quarter of black renters report being behind on rental payments. last year, congress worked together to account for that staggering reality. we provided more than $45 billion in emergency rental assistance. that money is now finally getting into the hands of

landlords around the country. it's helping families who lost jobs get caught up on the missed payments. but the money is getting out too slowly. some states and local governments opened their assistance programs only last month. some hadn't spent a single dollar by the beginning of june. now that's starting to change. in june, states delivered more than $1.5 billion in emergency rental assistance. that money went to help nearly 300,000 households. but there are still billions of dollars to distribute and millions of families in need. we have the tools, and we have the funding. what we need is the time. look, i agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term solution, but let me be very clear. it is the right short-term

action. it's how we keep families safely in their homes while states deliver emergency aid. it's how we keep families who are starting to recover from the worst economic crisis of their life times get back on their feet. millions of jobs lost, businesses still shuttered, and child care for too many families a patchwork of uncertainty. the recovery underway in this country is historic, and it will continue, but it has not yet reached every family. but the need is not just economic. we are still in the throes of a public health emergency that is trending in the wrong direction. cases of covid-19 are rising, hospitalizations and deaths are rising. the delta variant is more contagious, threatening to spread faster among the half of the country that remains

unvaccinated. needlessly evicting families would risk escalating our public health crisis. the c.d.c. understood that reality when it issued an eviction moratorium in september. the agency was clear, and i want to quote the language they used, housing stability helps protect health. it's right. research shows that moratoriums aid in reducing infections and death due to covid-19. and research also shows that when eviction moratoriums expire, there is an associated increase in covid-19 and mortality. yesterday congresswoman corey bush sent members of congress a letter. congresswoman bush has lived through eviction. she has been unhoused. and i want to quote her letter. she said, i know firsthand the

trauma and devastation that comes with the violence of being evicted, and we have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent this trauma from being inflicted on our neighbors and communities. cori bush is exactly right. my office has heard from so many people in massachusetts who is terrified about the possibility of losing their homes. i know that each of my colleagues here must be hearing these stories in every in this country there are families sitting around their kitchen table right now trying to figure out how to survive a devastating , disruptive and unnecessary eviction. congress has a choice to make. it is a privilege for us to represent people, and we have a duty to exercise our power on

their behalf. every senator in this chamber should be grateful that they have the power right now to keep families safe. my colleagues understood the stakes in march of 2020 when congress passed the cares act eviction moratorium into law. they understood the stakes when we provided historic funding for emergency rental assistance. i urge them to join me now in continuing this lifesaving protection as states distribute assistance to keep renters housed, to keep landlords paid, and most of all, to keep families safe. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

you

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

ppp. quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. warner: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. warp warn madam president, i ask that the proceedings -- mr. warner: madam president, i ask that the proceedings of the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. warner: thank you, madam president. first, madam president, let me thank you and all of the floor staff and others who are here i think on a beautiful saturday at the end of july. we all wish perhaps we were somewhere else other than on the floor of the senate.

but for the 30 years that i have been involved in political discussions in virginia and some at a national level, we have had president after president, congress after congress talk about the generational of unmet needs in infrastructure. we've seen our roads and bridges start to crumble. the estimates are close to -- depending on the survey -- 14,000 bridges that are in decaying state. in my state, over 700 bridges. we know the potholes in many of our roads and highways. we know our airports resemble third world nation, not the united states of america. weight know our ports have not -- we know our ports have not kept up with modern technology. we no he that many of our

shorelines are dealing with the unprecedented effects of sea level. after covid, high-speed internet connectivity is not nice to have, but essential, something that the presiding officer has taken the legislative lead on. we know that it's time to get past talking about infrastructure and finally do something. that's why i've been proud to be part of this bipartisan effort, working with the white house, to produce an historic piece of legislation -- $550 billion of new spending over five years that in every category i just mentioned will make historic investments. i've been a little surprised, to tell you the truth, that some of our colleagues on the other side were mott part of the bipartisan group -- were not part of the bipartisan group, have suddenly said, no, we can't do

infrastructure now. they were all for it when president trump was in. now they find executions why not. i have -- now they find excuses why not. i've been a little by the surprised by the excuses from colleagues on my side of the aisle when the amount is twice as much as when the earlier negotiations were between president biden and some of the committee chairs -- or committee leaders. and there's been somewhat of a sense of, well, infrastructure, that shouldn't be that hard to do. if it wasn't hard to do, why has it taken us 30 years to get to this moment? i hope -- and i know we're finalizing the last couple pieces of legislative language. i hope that we will get that finished as soon as possible so we can get this bill on the floor, have amendments, have a debate, but at the end of the day pass this historic legislation and finally put our money where our mouths have been in terms of talking about the needs of infrastructure in this

country. madam president, i know that you've not had probably a lot of people rushing to the floor today, so i am going to take an extra minute or two. it doesn't mean you have to stay riveted to each moment, but i want to talk about this for a few moments in terms of of what this will do for my state. for the commonwealth of vitter. -- more the commonwealth of virginia. in virginia, investment in infrastructure has been something that has alluded us -- eluded us for years. when i was governor, i tried to find funding needs, particularly in northern virginia, hampton roads, and put forward bipartisan tax-supported referendums in hampton roads. a number of years later a subsequent governor, governor mcdonnell, managed to make a

down payment on some of the infrastructure needs in virginia but not really address on a more comprehensive way the commonwealth's needs. so i'm going to take a couple moments now and talk about section by section in the -- in virginia what this bipartisan, white house-supported, record infrastructure investment will mean to the people of the commonwealth of virginia. let me start with hampton roads. hampton roads, southeast virginia, the peninsula. it is most at risk from concerns about sea level rise and questions about resiliency. more than any other region in the whole country, with the exception of new orleans. in hampton roads, local leaders, our navy, nonprofits, businesses

have all come together and said we need to make sure that we grapple with sea level rise. it is ranked by most in those communities as the number one issue. well, we passed this legislation, $47 billion -- if we pass this legislation, $47 billion will go into sea level rise prevention and resiliency. that will mean a whole host of projects in norfolk, in portsmouth, in virginia beach, in chesapeake will all be finally addressed. we've got to make sure that hampton roads is not subject to this kind of devastating effect of sea level rise. we also know hampton roads that we need more rail. we have opened recently some rail down through the peninsula, but not enough.

we've got to make sure that rail that goes from richmond doesn't leave off as a cul-de-sac the peninsula in southampton roads. with a $66 billion investment in rail, we may soon be able to see that become a reality. hampton roads as well is home to the port of virginia. port of virginia one of the biggest ports on the whole east coast, but if we don't continue to upgrade that port, if we don't continue to deepen the channel, if we don't make the investments in the craney island expansion, if we don't stay competitive, that port which is the economic engine driver not just of hampton but in many case the commonwealth will not stay competitive. this legislation will provide $17 billion, a record amount of investment in our ports, and i can promise you the port of virginia will get a share of those resources. and finally, on just the plain old issue of roads, hampton

roads is disconnected from what's called the peninsula in virginia. we have two crossings, which oftentimes particularly during summer months to lead to backups in our bridge tunnels. if we make this $110 billion investment in roads and bridges, we could potentially see that third crossing come into reality. but we could also make sure that we could finally finish the widening of interstate 64 between norfolk and richmond. i talked about this when i ran for governor. as governor, i said wouldn't it be great if in our lifetimes we could actually finish this project. well, if we pass this bipartisan piece of legislation, the i-64 project widening from norfolk to richmond will be finished. this is incredibly important for the people of hampton roads, the eastern shore, the peninsula, the northern neck to make these investments.

let's move up the road to our capitol, richmond, and the richmond area. last week, i was looking at the mail bridge, over 100 years old. saw how decaying it was, saw the water damage that is taking place. that bridge without remediation could be forced to close if we don't make the needed investments. well, this bipartisan legislation will commit $110 billion for highway and bridge improvements, mail bridge and a host of the other 700 bridges in virginia that are decaying will get fixed. we need to make that happen. richmond as well. has got one of the most aggressive bus transit systems, not only in virginia but in the whole country. we have made huge investments of

$40 billion in transit in this legislation, and some of the richmond bus transit needs will be addressed. we also know in the richmond area and across the common wealth we have a lot of airports. one of the things we need to continue to do is invest in our airport. richmond airport is also in need of additional expansion. $25 billion to improve our airports across the country, in richmond airport, norfolk airport, the newport news airport, obviously, the roanoke airport, and others, dulles, national will be improved as long as the host of regional -- smaller regional airports across the commonwealth if we make this investment. we come up to our region here where i live in northern virginia. i'm very proud, working with tim kaine and senators from maryland. we made sure this legislation included a full eight-year reauthorization of our metro

system. we made sure that we're making record investments in transit so that we can get metro back up operating again on a full schedule and we can make the needed safety improvements that have been plaguing metro for a number of years. we also know that we have got to continue to build out additional metro stations in northern virginia. one at potomac yard that will be extraordinarily important to the innovation center and the amazon two headquarters. we've got to make sure as well because metro is moving to zero-emission buses. that's good news for our climate and for our community. the question is where are those zero-emission buses going to be built? this legislation as well makes record investment in electric and other low-carbon and no-carbon buses so they can be built here, not in china. our record investment in transit will also make dramatic

improvements for the v.r.e. for the manassas line. let's get more people out of their cars into v.r.e., whether it's the manassas or fredricksburg, needed investments will be made if we pass this legislation. another project. if we're going to open up rail in virginia, we have got to make sure we have another bridge, rail bridge across the potomac. so the longbridge project, which i have been working with governor northam and senator kaine on, this kind of investment will make that happen. and as anybody who lives in northern virginia knows, i live, as somebody who lives in alexandria, traffic is the bane of our existence. there will be a host of improvements that we will get done if we pass this legislation. let me talk about one in particular. route 1 from alexandria through fairfax into prince william county. we know how clogged and congested it has been. we have been looking for additional funding literally for decades on route 1. if we pass this legislation, it

will get done. let me move a little bit further west in our state, out towards the shenandoah valley in roanoke and southwest. for years, we have been talking about the danger on i-81. literally there have been prayer groups formed to pray for people who would travel on i-81 because there is so much truck traffic there that it has frankly impeded the safety of the traveling public. we have been talking about making improvements and expansions to 81 capacity competitor 20 years. we have been talking about how do we get the trucks off of i-81, how do we bring more rail down to southwest and south side? well, if we pass this legislation, we will see those 81 corridor improvements that we have all been waiting for. we will see rail not only go to lynchburg and roanoke but extend on down to blacksburg and

christiansburg and hopefully all the way down to bristol. this is terribly important to make sure that those communities have a multimodal form of transportation opportunities. making sure we get those trucks off of i-81, something we have been talking about for a long time. we increase the rail capacity, both freight and passenger, we'll be able to do that. we also know in south side and southwest post-covid, that high-speed internet connectivity is not a nice thing to have but an absolute necessity. a top priority of mine as somebody who spent more years in the telecommunications industry than i have in politics is to make sure that we make those connections. this legislation, historic legislation, $65 billion for broadband. that investment building on governor northam's $700 million investment from virginia, american rescue plan funds, will make sure that every household

across the commonwealth has access to high-speed internet connectivity, not five years from now or ten years from now, but in the next couple of years. and finally across southwest virginia, for that matter across all of virginia, we still have families in far southwest that don't have access to clean drinking water on a regular basis, that still have to sometimes haul their water in the back of a pickup truck up to some cistern and they don't have access to clean drinking water in 2021. well, $55 billion will go to water projects in this legislation, and whether they be accessed through clean drinking water on a regular basis or whether it be taking out the lead pipes that haunt too many of our urban communities or the storm and sewer systems that are frankly in some cases 60, 70, 80 years old and simply wearing out, we can make that investment as well. now, there are a series of other

areas in this legislation that are equally important, but at the end of the day, i can't think of a bill that i have worked on that will have more direct effect on the lives of every virginian over the next five years in terms of how you get to work, how you get to school, how you manage to take the kids out on the weekends, how our commerce moves, how we get our water, how we get our internet than this record-setting $550 billion bipartisan investment in infrastructure. it's time for the senate to take this bill up. i again commend all of my colleagues who have been working on this legislation, not just the so-called g-10 or the g-22. i want to thank leader schumer for his good work, continuing to push this legislation forward. i want to thank the white house for its constant involvement. i even want to commend leader mcconnell for voting with this

bipartisan group to move this legislation along. we have talked about this for 30 years. we are literally days away from this passing the united states senate. we've got to finish the job and get it done. with that, madam president, i hope i have kept you riveted. now you are fully familiar with all the needs of virginia. i'm sure you can address similar needs in minnesota, but i thank the presiding officer and all of the staffs who are here working on this saturday, the last day in july in the summer to get this job done. and with that, i note the -- i yield the floor. i don't yield the floor. mr. warner: i have been surprised that the presiding officer is asking me to speak for another 30 minutes.

but i will choose not to do that because i have great respect for the floor staff. so i ask unanimous consent that the senate recess subject to the call of the chair. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. story he was settled with the notion he wass an engineer mind paying attention to the tiniest detail. >> to me the most telling thing about the tennis