i think russia was a menace before and after. but for too many senate democrats, it's purely political. russia, russia, russia was a stick to beat up on donald trump, and the substance of it didn't matter. and so the senator from connecticut said, well, gosh, donald trump, he thinks, was terrible on russia. here is a simple fact -- under president trump, we stopped the pipeline. the day this sanctions legislation was signed into law. under president biden, putin began building the pipeline again. those are facts. you want to talk about who's weak on russia, those are simple facts. and those facts are dangerous. because joe biden's giving a

multibillion-dollar gift of vladimir putin was a generational geopolitical mistake because it strengthens russia and it weakens america because it endangers suft national security -- u.s. national security interests. i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, because america national security is gravely compromised by the inability of a president to have his national security team in place at a time of crisis, i would ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar number 328, an witkowsky. mr. cruz: mr. president, reserving the right to object, just a few moments ago the senator from connecticut said something bad is going to happen. he's right. something bad is going to happen, and there's a reason for it. the biden foreign policy in just

seven months has been the most disastrous foreign policy we have seen of any administration since jimmy carter. to every enemy of america, they have projected weakness. on russia, joe biden has given vladimir putin what he wanted most, a multibillion dollar pipeline to let him extort europe. on china, the biden administration has been projecting weakness over and over and over again, including kowtowing to china and reversing the state department policy on taiwan, prohibiting taiwan from displaying their flag or wearing military uniforms on u.s. government property. kowtowing to the communist party in china. on iran, the biden administration has said as their top foreign policy objective is sending billions of dollars to the ayatollah even as he's the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world and chants death to america and on

hamas, the biden administration has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to the palestinian authority, much of which has found its way to hamas and has been materialized in rockets raining down on israel. is something bad going to happen? yes. because when you show weakness to our enemies, it encourages our enemies and they get more and more aggressive. where i differ with the senator from connecticut is i don't think the way to avoid something bad is to keep showing weakness and give putin what he wants. the way to stand up to our enemies is to demonstrate strength, not weakness. i believe in peace through strength. and i think appeasement invites conflict. because joe biden's multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin is a generational geo political mistake because it strengthens russia at the expense of america and because it undermines u.s. national security interests. i object. the presiding officer:

objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: every single day that the president doesn't have his team in place to protect this nation, our nation is under more serious threat. i ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to calendar number 329, mary catherine phee, a career member of the senior foreign service to be a member of the board of directors of the african development foundation for a term expiring september 27, 2026. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. i would note one of the efforts that the state department has endeavored to do to try to force these nominations through is planning a whole series of articles and papers which they somehow believe would pressure me. the most amausting of -- amusing of which was an article in i believe "politico" if i remember

correctly that began ominously the mansions in europe where ambassadors reside are sadly empty due to this one senator's objections. i will confess my heart is not broken that some rich democratic donor is not whining and dining people in a grand ambassadorial mansion. i'm sure that's an enormous crisis in georgetown. what i think is a crisis is making putin stronger and russia stronger and weakening europe, weakening our allies, and weakening america. and because biden's multibillion dollar gift to putin weakened america, strengthened russia and undermined our u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, because china is absolutely celebrating every single day

that our corps of diplomats is dramatically and dangerously understaffed because of these holds on the president's nominees, i ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar number 330, mary catherine phee, a career member of the senior foreign service to be a member of the board of directors for a term expiring september 27, 2021. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. i would note there is some irony in the senator from connecticut expressing his deep concern about china. just an hour or two after this chamber voted on around amendment i introduced that said we should not be importing electric vehicles that were made in china using slave labor in concentration camps and the senator from connecticut and every single democratic senator, save one, voted to reject that

amendment. the consequences of that, the biden administration is preparing to import millions of dollars of electric vehicles that were built or parts of them were built using slave labor in concentration camps in china. you want to talk about what is encouraging, empowering the chinese communist regime. it is the willingness of the democratic party to overlook their murder, torture in concentration camps because of their commitment to the green new deal. because joe biden's giving a multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin strengthens russia at the expense of america and it undermines u.s. national security interests, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, similarly, because without an ability to have u.s. diplomats

on post, to have our most important leadership positions staffed, we make ourselves intentionally and deliberately unable to be able to manage crises across the world, i would ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 331, mary catherine phee, a career member of the senior foreign service to be assistant secretary of state for african affairs. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. because of joe biden's multibillion dollar gift of this pipeline in defiance of u.s. law and contravention of the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of congress, because it strengthens russia at the expense of america and it undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, i would ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar number 332, lee satterfield to

be assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object because joe biden's multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin is a generational geo political mistake, that strengthens russia at the expense of america and that undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. president. i would ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 333, karen don feed to -- d donfried. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. because joe biden's multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin is a generational geo political mistake, because it strengthens russia at the expense of america and undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard.

the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you. i ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 334, jessica lewis to be assistant secretary of state for political military affairs. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. because of joe biden's multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin is a generational geo political mistake, because it strengthens russia at the expense of america and it undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, i ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 335, donald lu, a career member of the senior foreign service to be assistant secretary of state for south asian affairs. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object. because of the multibillion dollar gift of vladimir putin is a geo political mistake, because

is strengthens russia at the expense of america and undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, i ask that it be norpd to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 336, paloma adams-allen to be deputy administrator of the united states agency for international development. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object, because joe biden's multibillion-dollar gift to vladimir putin is a generation algae owe political mistake, because it strengthens russia at the expense of america and undermines national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president, i ask that it be in order to make the same request with respect to executive calendar 337, isobel coleman to be deputy administrator of the united states agency for international development. the presiding officer: is there objection?

mr. cruz: mr. president, reserving the right to object, because joe biden's multibillion-dollar gift to vladimir putin is a generation algae owe political mistake, because it strengthens russia at the expense of america, and it undermines u.s. national security, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president, i am at the final unanimous consent request. i will make it in a moment. just to note as we're wrapping up here, this has taken a while. and this list of pending nominees is going to grow. it's going to get longer and longer. there are going to be more key posts that are going to go unfilled. and i understand senator cruz's desire to use his power to hold these nominees in order to get a

change in policy from this administration. i -- i doubt that the administration, which has already set a clear direction, it has executed an agreement with the germans is going to abide. my worry, though, is that this won't be the end. this is not going to be the last foreign policy decision that the senator from texas or other republican senators disagree with. nor will it likely be the last decision that any high-profile cabinet member makes that finds disagreement from my republican colleagues. and so i end where i began, which is to say that senator cruz and i have a difference of opinion with respect to nord stream. and the gravity of the moment that we find ourselves in. but this place just becomes

unworkable if every single senator holds up this many nominees over one particular policy disagreement. and this tactic will be utilized by democrats when there is a republican in the white house. it might not be me, because i find this objectionable, but it will be copied, and you will find the same thing happening to a republican president, their administration grinding to a halt in whatever department finds itself the object of this tactic. and so i continue to express this deep worry about what it means to not have individuals in place in somalia overseeing the western hemisphere, to not have someone overseeing our counternarcotics operations, but this list will get longer and longer and longer, and the risk to american security will be greater. again, i will just suggest that

the harm being done here to u.s. security is much greater than the benefit that the senator believes will be gained through a negotiation over these posts with the administration. and so at the risk of inspiring another very long speech from the senator from texas, i make those remarks and i ask finally that it be in order to make the same request as i have, as senator menendez has, with respect to executive calendar 150, brett holmgren to be assistant secretary of state for intelligence and research. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cruz: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cruz: reserving the right to object, you know, the senator from connecticut is correct. if a senator were to halt a large number of nominations for an ideosin accurate i can -- an

ideosyncratic concern, for a concern not widely shared, that could constitute an abuse of power. i will suggest some aspects of this situation that make it quite different in a subsequent situation if there were a comparable situation would make these same levers appropriate. number one, the biden administration is defying three separate federal laws. two different nord stream 2 sanctions, both of which i authored, along with democratic senator jeanne shaheen, both of which passed the senate and the house that were signed into law, both of which enjoyed massive near-unanimous bipartisan support. in addition to that, strong russia sanctions that are mandatory, that are designed to force a president to sanction russia, even if they are reluctant to do so like joe biden is. right now, the administration is defying the law, and so the message that i have conveyed to

the administration repeatedly is follow the law. i'm not asking for a change in the law. i'm saying follow the law. that's number one. if you have an administration that is openly defying the law. but number two, that is openly defying an overwhelming bipartisan con veterans of congress. this is not a narrow partisan issue. and i would note after joe biden waived the sanctions on nord stream 2, in the senate foreign relations committee, i introduced an amendment to reverse his decision. every single senator but one on that committee voted in favor of my amendment. the senator from connecticut voted in favor of my amendment. the senator from new jersey voted in favor of my amendment. the biden administration is telling all of congress essentially jump in a lake. we don't care that every democrat and virtually every

republican has a dramatically different assessment of this situation than they do. third, the national security magnitude of this issue, this was a major national security victory. when i met with the biden administration, with each of their successive national security officials, i said look, i understand the instinct of any new administration to say whatever the old guys did must be wrong. i guess the biden guys want to say whatever trump did must be wrong. and by the way, the trump guys by and large said whatever obama did must be wrong. that's not a new thing. whenever you have a change in administration, that tends to be a default position. but what i urge them to do is just because that's your knee-jerk instinct, this was a massive bipartisan victory for america, a national security victory that we won that joe

biden is on the verge of throwing away. and the secretary of state sat in my office and promised to fight the -- to sanction nord stream 2. the deputy secretary of state sat in my office and promised to fight to sanction nord stream 2. the under secretary of state sat in my office and promised to fight to sanction nord stream 2. they did, in fact, fight to sanction nord stream 2, but unfortunately they were overruled by the white house, which made a political decision to give in to putin. in those circumstances, when you are defying explicit u.s. law, when you are defying the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of congress and when you are endangering u.s. national security and indeed turning a victory into a loss, i think it's inappropriate to use the -- i think it is appropriate to use the tools we have in front of us. that being said, i have engaged

in active negotiation with the biden administration. in the past week, i have had conversations on this topic with the secretary of the treasury, with the deputy secretary of the treasury, with the national security advisor. i have had conversations with multiple democratic senators about a path forward. but i'll tell you what the path forward is not going to be. it's not going to be let's roll over, give putin his pipeline, and accept a massive national security loss for america. if that's where joe biden and kamala harris want to go, they can go there, but they're not going to go there with my acquiescence, and i'm going to use every tool i have as a senator elected by the people of texas to prevent that outcome. accordingly, because joe biden's decision to defy u.s. law, to defy the overwhelming bipartisan consensus of congress, to

surrender to vladimir putin, to give him his number one priority, a multibillion-dollar pipeline that will provide billions of dollars of rewards for russia for decades to come, because that decision is a generation algae owe political mistake, on the order of magnitude of jimmy carter's giving away the panama canal, that even 50 years later the consequences of that geopolitical mistake still reverberates, 50 years from now, russian dictators will benefit from joe biden's weakness on russia. because that strengthens russia, because it empowers russia to attack our enemies to, to extort our enemies, to engage in blackmail against our allies, because our allies are

begging us not to do this -- i met with senior officials of the ukraine. the ukraine is begging us not to do this and the biden white house is threatening ukraine keep your mouth shut because we have a political objective here, because that strengthens russia at the expense of the united states, at the expense of europe, at the expense of our allies, because it destroys jobs in america and because it endangers u.s. national security, i emphatically object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: mr. president, i understand the senator believes he has such a serious objection to administration policy that it merits this exceptional tactic. i would submit as i move into closing business that it is not the biggest disagreement that a

senator has had with an administration. it is not the biggest disagreement that a group of senators has had with an administration. to believe that would be to elevate this dispute beyond its merit. i'm not suggesting it isn't significant but it's not the most significant the disagreement a senator has had with an administration. what is exceptional with this tactic, never before has a united states senator used their power in this way to hold up this many nominees at such a critical moment. that is what's exceptional. that's what makes this moment so dangerous. that's why senator menendez and i came down to the floor to try to unlock some of these nominees towards confirmation, because it is the tactic, not the disagreement, that is the exception. mr. president, i would ask

unanimous consent that the senate proceed to executive session to consider the following nominations en bloc -- calendars 268, 321, 189, 247, 267, 270, 344, 301, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, that the is not vote on the nominations en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that any statements related to the nominations be printed in the record, that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action, and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, the question concerns nominations en bloc. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the nominations are confirmed. mr. murphy: mr. president, i would ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 353, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 353 designating august 2021 as national catfish month. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. murphy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: mr. president, i'd ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 354 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 354 celebrating the 100th anniversary of military aviation

in indiana. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. murphy: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: mr. president, i'd ask now unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn to then convene for pro forma sessions only with no business being conducted on the following dates and times and that following each pro forma session the senate adjourn until the next pro forma session. friday, august 13 at 9:30 a.m. tuesday august 17 at 9:30 a.m. friday august 20 at 9:00 a.m. tuesday august 24 at 8:30 a.m. friday august 27 at 9:00 a.m.

tuesday august 31 at 10:30 a.m. friday september 3 at 1:30 p.m. tuesday september 7 at 1:00 p.m. and thursday september 9 at 12:00 noon. i further ask that when the senate adjourns on thursday, september 9, it next convene at 3:00 p.m. monday, september 13. further, that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. further, that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the kvaal nomination. finally, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5:30 p.m. on monday, september 13. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection,so ordered. mr. murphy: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until their programs anytime atntil

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