[inaudible]. [inaudible]. [inaudible]. the senate is about to get blamed for the nomination of u.s. district court judge from mexico. if i 30 east centers will vote on the nomination to be a u.s. court of appeals judge the tenth circuit and also lawmakers are scheduled to look ahead work on

election form and voting rights legislation. live coverage of the u.s. senate here on "c-span2". the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate with prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god who comes to us with light and life, turn the

illumination of your love upon our lawmakers, providing them with strength for today and bright hopes for tomorrow. may they feel your presence moment by moment and comprehend that you can still make the crooked places straight. lord, remind them that they are stewards of your blessings and accountable to you for their actions. help them also to remember that you require faithfulness from all who serve your kingdom. we pray in your wonderful name.

amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in 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. ms. hirono: mr. president? the presiding officer: the -- the president pro tempore: the senator from high. ms. hirono: i note the absence of a quorum. the president pro tempore: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: we in a quorum? i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, madam president, the senate begins this week with a lot to accomplish in very little time. this week and weeks to come, senate democrats will continue our work to pass historic legislation, to strengthen our economy, and renew america's middle class for the 21st century. very soon we'll also take up a

-- a continuing resolution to avoid a needless government shutdown and provide emergency funding necessary to settle afghan refugees and those devastated by this summer's natural disasters. we must also work on a bipartisan basis to extend the debt ceiling, to preserve the very important and cherished full faith and credit of the united states. the united states will -- the senate will also consider recently introduced voting rights legislation, and advancing president biden's nominees to the judiciary and to his administration. so the next few weeks will be critical weeks for the senate. members should be prepared for the possibility of working late nights and into the weekend. on the nominations front, we'll begin the week by confirming ms. veronica rossman of colorado to serve on the tenth circuit. she has spent the majority of her career in public service

representing criminal defendants who cannot afford counsel often types. she would be the -- one of the very few public defenders in the entire federal bench bringing both personal and professional diversity to our court, at a -- courts at a time we need to strengthen the public's trust in the federal judiciary. in addition to herb confirmation, senate democrats are working to confirm many other nominees for a critical number of agencies, including the departments of defense, state, and treasury. now, unfortunately some of our republican colleagues have chose ton play cheap political games and stonewall the confirmation of these uncontroversial but essential nominees. let's be clear. by blocking these perfectly qualified public servants, my republican colleagues are deliberately hindering our government's ability to protect our country and to work with our allies abroad.

these nominees should be the work of a few hours at most. many of them have been reported out of committee with bipartisan support and under normal circumstances would be confirmed without any trouble. and so while my republican colleagues won't be able to stop these nominees from reaching final confirmation, their stonewalling will drag out what would normally be routine -- a routine and easy process. the few obstructionists on the republican side who are leading this charge are deliberately derailing the confirmation of these important nominees in an all-out effort to gain the support of hard-right elements of their party, and in the process, a nasty political process they are engaged in, they are making americans less safe at home and abroad. they should stop immediately, and the republican leader should admonish them. now, on the legislative front, democrats continue to make good progress towards ending our

build back better agenda into law. last week, the house completed their markups -- the house committees completed their markups on the legislative text that underpins democrats' reconciliation bill. here in the senate, our caucus held a long and productive discussion last week about the substance of our bill. we'll continue these discussions as the week progresses. now, madam president, no one expected it would be easy to pass legislation to transform the american economy and provide the biggest tax cut for the middle class in a generation, but no one in this body was elected to do only the easy stuff. we have a lot of hard work to do, and we're going to keep at it until we get the job done. now, i just want to say something about -- about the news we received last night about the senate parliamentarian. last night's ruling was extremely disappointing. it saddened me. it frustrated me. it angered me.

but make no mistake, the fight continues. senate democrats have prepared alternative proposals and will be holding additional meetings with the senate parliamentarian in the coming days. i have been working closely with my colleagues in the senate, including judiciary chairman durbin, senators padilla, menendez, lujan, cortez masto, and we will continue our fight to find the best option available to provide immigrants with the chance at one day obtaining lawful residence here in america. the last year and a half, madam president, have shown how vital our immigrants have been to keeping our economy going during a time of crisis. so many risked their lives on the front line of this pandemic but remain excluded from the very same benefits that have kept millions of others secure during these hard times. we're short of workers from one end of america to the other. one of the reasons, the trump

administration dramatically cut back on immigrants in this country. we need them. we need them in our labor force. we need them to continue american vitality. we need them because they are part of the american dream. it's estimated in my city by some that one-third of the health care workers at the height of covid who risked their lives for us were immigrants. having a strong law that helps our immigrants is vital. the american people understand that fixing our broken immigration system is a moral imperative and an economic imperative. immigration reform has been one of the most important causes of my time in the senate, and i will not stop fighting to achieve it. finally, on addressing the debt limit. madam president, on term limit,

the republicans are doing a dine and dash of historic proportions. that hurts the american people and hurts our country. in the immediate future, both parties will have to come together to allow the federal government to continue its most important responsibility -- paying the bills and making good on our outstanding obligations. a few minutes ago, i joined with speaker pelosi in announcing that the continuing resolution that we will take up to avoid a government shutdown will also include a suspension of the debt limit through december of 2022, allowing us to meet our obligations and preserve the full faith and credit of these united states of america. suspending the debt limit through december of 2022 provides an amount of time commensurate with the debt that was incurred as a result of the $908 billion covid emergency --

covid emergency relief bill last year. that was a bill that was passed when donald trump was president. mcconnell was the majority leader of the senate. it was passed under republican leadership. that is the -- that is the debt we are paying in this bill. the legislation that funded this $908 billion in covid relief was supported by more than 40 republicans and signed into law by president trump, so anyone who says this is democratic debt is not talking fact. they're talking fiction. both sides, both sides have a responsibility to pay for the debt that we have already incurred. it's always been done in a bipartisan way. unfortunately, last week, leader mcconnell announced that the senate republicans are inclined to deliberately turn their back on their obligations. when asked if republicans would

block an extension of the debt limit, leader mcconnell amazingly and cravenly said that republicans are united in opposition to raising the debt ceiling. shame. this is the same leader mcconnell who urged democrats and republicans to support raising the debt ceiling when donald trump was president and he was majority leader. and he always comes up with some sophistry as to why it's different, but everyone knows it's not different. in fact, democrats supported three times raising the debt ceiling when trump was president, and in my recollection is right, at least one of those times was when the house, the senate, and the presidency were controlled by republicans. should republicans careen our country towards a default, our country could actually be plunged into recession, laying off millions, making it harder for people to pay for the food

on the table and their mortgages and their rents. shame, shame on the leader, the republican leader. as secretary yellen put it just days ago, failure to raise the debt limit would have absolutely catastrophic economic consequences and would precipitate a financial crisis. a default would risk sending interest rates sky high across the board, hurting consumers, small businesses, and our country's ability to borrow in the future. our economy still off the trauma of the covid crisis could slip back into recession and undo everything we've done to help struggling americans pick themselves back up. now, many on the other side, including the republican leader himself, are trying to justify their reckless position with deeply misleading talking points. they have argued over and over

again that they refuse to work with democrats because they oppose our forthcoming legislative agenda. of course, what they don't say is these two issues have nothing to do with each other. the forthcoming legislative agenda has not incurred any debt, a nickel of debt in the united states. it was the previous agenda of president trump and the republican senate and republicans in the house that created this debt. republicans ignored the analysis like the one done by "the washington post" which observed that, quote, roughly 90%, 7% of the current u.s. cumulative debt was accrued before biden took office. indeed, none other than "the wall street journal" made this even clearer. raising debt limit wouldn't facilitate future spending, it said, and, quote, congress would still need to raise the debt

limit this fall even if no major new spending programs were enacted. i want to repeat that, not just for leader mcconnell but for my republican colleagues. hopefully there are some who will rise to their responsibility and abandon this crass, craven political move with such harm to the united states that the republican leader has proffered. so i will read it again. "the wall street journal" said, quote, raising the debt limit wouldn't facilitate future spending, unquote, and went on to say, quote, congress would still need to raise the debt limit this fall even if no new major spending programs were enacted. so the bottom line is simple. let me repeat. what republicans are doing is nothing short of a dine and dash of historic proportions. they want working class american families to food the bill for

their irresponsibility, and as a consequence of their callous political games, it will be veterans and social security payment recipients who suffer most. this isn't just another partisan fight. this isn't who can be more macho. this is about the country. all too often in the press, they make it into macho, macho. that's wrong. what one party is doing here, everyone knows is deliberately wrong. at least the republican leader and all those who choose to follow it. with serious consequences for the people. it's not just another partisan fight. it's about avoiding the crisis that would undo all the progress our country has made to heal itself of the covid crisis. democrats are going to do the responsible thing and vote to extend the debt limit when the time comes. we will see which of our republican colleagues on the other side will have the

strength, the courage, to follow suit. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.

morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, margaret irene strickland of new mexico to be united states district judge for the district of new mexico.

mr. mcconnell: madam president? the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: over the past year and a half, senior democratic leaders decided the upheaval and hardship of a once-in-a-century pandemic was actually a chance to justify radical left-wing change.

this isn't just me conjecturing. it's what they keep saying. right at the start of the crisis, march 20 to, the house democratic whip said the pandemic offered, quote, a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision. just last week, president biden said, quote, this pandemic has been god awful for so many reasons, but -- but, he said, it does present us with an opportunity. so they get points for honesty at least. the reckless taxing and spending spree the democrats are writing behind closed doors is designed to leave americans with a socialist country they never voted for, a country that working families in many ways would barely recognize. last night one of those many efforts hit a stumbling block. senate democrats were reminded the rules of this institution

will not permit them to shove a massive amnesty for illegal immigrants into a reckless taxing-and-spending spree they want to ram through on a party-line basis. our democratic colleagues cannot pretend that massive policymakers are mere budgetary tweaks. no less authority than our chairman, bernie sanders, said a few years ago, quote, the function of recancellation is to adjust federal fending and revenue, not -- not to enact major changes in social policy, end quote. that's chairman sanders a few years ago. that's a lesson he and his caucus need to relearn. even with the border as insecure as it's ever been, the far left wants sweeping amnesty, and democratic democratic leaders dutifully tried their very best. it goes to show you how radical

this legislation is going to be. democrats want to tamper with americans' medicare and stretch the program even thinner while it already faces fiscal challenges. they want to interfere massively with the states that choose not to bow to obamacare mandates on medicaid. they want to use health care dollars to line the pockets of special interests with big-union give weighs and they want to impose price controls on americans' medicines that would leave us with treatments and new cures in the future. it adds up to a massive leap towards socialized medicine but somehow this still only scratches the surface. democrats are also trying to force through an unprecedented federal takeover of american families' child care options that may leave faith-based child care providers high and dry. they want an all-out assault on affordable, reliable, homegrown

american energy so the entire country can be marched toward california utility prices, california gas prices and california electricity blackouts. just what families want. look, i could go on all dame the reckless taxing and spending spree that democrats are writing behind closed doors is shaping up to exactly what they wanted. now, madam president, on a related matter, democrats have united unified control of the senate, the house, and the white house. their strategy for all this transformational borrowing, spend, and tax hikes was deliberately designed to include no republican input and to receive no republican votes. since democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get senate

republicans' help with raising the debt limit. i've explained this clearly and consistently for over two months. we do not have divided government. democrats do not need our help. they have every tool to address the debt limit on their own, the same party-line process they used to ram through inflationary spending in march and already plan to use once again this fall. now, look, this might inconvenience democrats, it might delay their next reckless taxing-and-spending spree. but democrats cannot risk the full faith and credit of our nation to serve their own partisan time lines. democrats decided to govern alone. their unilateral night democratic government must put basic government duties ahead of partisan wish lists. if they don't, the consequences for our country would be

catastrophic. senate republicans would support a clean continuing resolution that included appropriate disaster relief and targeted afghan assistance. we will not support legislation that raises the debt limit. remember, when the debt suspension lapsed in august, the debt limit was automatically ratcheted up to account for all the borrowing that had occurred up to that date. this isn't about the past. it's about the future. and democrats want to build a partisan future without our input. so democrats will not get bipartisan facilitators for their purely partisan spending binge.

democrats are fully capable of owning this step themselves. the democratic chairman of the house budget committee admitted just yesterday, we can do it through reconciliation. but leadership has said they don't want to do that, end quote. one party controls the entire government. they have the power to address this alone. and i've warned since july that is what they'll need to do. now, on one final matter, representative hal rogers once described southeastern kentuckians by saying, they're honest, forthright, they can see through a phony in a minute flat. so it's fitting his constituents just reelected him by 70 points. he is certainly honest, forthright, and no phony. for over 40 years hal has fought

for his home region and delivered unparallel support for its development and its growth. in honor of hal being abouting the longest-serving representative in the commonwealth earlier this september, i'd like to pay tribute to this one-of-a-kind kentuckian. he was a rising star when i met him in the state republican party having just been elected commonwealth attorney two years prior. as a fellow attorney and young conservative, i hooked up with -- i looked up to hal appeared watched his career -- and watched his career with considerable interest. less than a decade ago, hal was elected to the house of representatives in kentucky's fifth congressional district, the same year ronald reagan was elected president since then he's won reelection 19 times,

always by a wide margin. he loves his corner of the state and, as his repeated victories prove, i had constituents love him right -- his constituents love him right back. he quickly went to work fighting for the issues his constituents cared the most about. his hard-won legislative victories won his prays from fellow house republicans who tapped him to lead the house subcommittee on national security in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. he became chairman of the full house appropriations committee, expertly cutting spending, reducing waste, and directing funds to important projects all across the country. as a former commonwealth attorney, hal used his creditdentials to defend kentucky from a wide array of threats. before the rest of the america

was paying to the scourge of substance abuse, hal launched operation unite. the anti-narcotics initiative covers 32 kentucky counties and has been on the front lines in the fight against the opioid epidemic helping to lock up thousands of criminals and remove millions of dollars of illegal drugs from the streets. hal is the lead promoter of investment in southeastern kentucky, which for too long has suffered economic distress and even indifference from washington. he united appalachian counties. an initiative to create a concerted effort a tract jobs and development to the region. he revolutionized southeastern kentucky's water infrastructure bringing new water treatment centers to our state and championing flood protection

measures. he helped bring the fine arts to southeastern kentucky through the mountain arts center. locals are so appreciative of hal's many projects that they dub the state-of-the-art center one of his capstone initiatives as the taj mahal in his honor. that's not the only place that commemorates his service. you'll drive along the juror just hal rogers parkway, technological advances, and learn important career skills. residents were so thankful for his work that eeven named the

home of their new kentucky splash water park the hal rogers family entertainment center. in congress we're just as fond of hal rogers as his constituents are back at home. i've been proud to long alongside this premier legislator for decades. we share the same priorities for the people of kentucky. hal would not be the man he is today without the love and support of his late wife shirley and their children, anthony, allison, and john. later in life, hal met and married cynthia, a tennessean who has also come to love kentucky and its people. so as hal breaks the record as the longest-serving u.s. representative in kentucky history, let us all give thanks to this great public servant and the entire rogers family.

the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mrs. fischer: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from nebraska. mrs. fischer: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mrs. fischer: i'd ask it be vitiated please. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. fischer: thank you, madam president. i have heard so many inspiring stories about how small businesses across the country adapted to covid-19 and refused to give up, even when the odds seemed overwhelming. max creek winery in lexington, nevada, is a great example. owned by two families, this

winery and brewery has been a nebraska favorite since 1999. like so many other small businesses they were forced to shut their taifgget room stores when -- tasting room stores when covid hit but the mcfarlands found a new way. they began hosting virtual tastings through facebook live. their first event in march of 2020 attracted just a few dozen viewers, but their live streams soon grew to reach thousands of people across the country. hgtv featured them on their website, and they won best virtual event at the nebraska tourism industry awards last september. when i visited max creek earlier this year, i had the chance to see firsthand how they bounced back from the pandemic.

max creek beat the odds and they even turned last year's hardships to their advantage. but years before covid, they overcame an even greater challenge, one that threatened to destroy their entire business. in 2013, herbicide drift from neighboring farms wiped out nearly all of their 4,000 grapevines, and this accident cost them well over $1 million in lost production and set their growth back by at least five years. they couldn't just move their vineyard somewhere else, so they just did last year. they looked at what they needed to do, and they turned to innovation to find success. with help from a grant from the u.s. department of agriculture, mac's creek was able to buy

purpose filled drones to key an eye on their acres from above. these drones can help them look for early signs of herbicide drift and stop it from happening before it even starts. and they haven't suffered another incident since. this nebraska business took on a risky investment to protect their crops, and their drones are an example of what is known as precision agriculture technology, and nebraska leads the united states in its adoption. producers from wineries to cattle ranchers can use drones and other 21st century equipment to look after their life's work. for example, if a corn farmer wants to use less water, presignificance ag technology -- precision ag technology can help them calculate how much to use. they can produce the same amount

of corn using as much as 35% less water. if a rancher wants to equip their feed bunks with sensors that track feed intake, monitor animal health and even measure emissions from their cattle, precision ag can help them do that. and these technologies don't just measure inputs. auto steer and mapping technologies can also make farms more efficient, allowing producers to use less fuel to get better results. all of these things are potential uses of precision agriculture technology, and all of them help producers become more efficient with their resources. this equipment, it's been around since the 1990's, but like all technologies, it is constantly changing. as it grows more advanced, the

market for it expands as well, and we've seen a huge rise in demand in recent years. precision agriculture is revolutionizing the way america's producers put food on our tables, but these technologies aren't cheap. many farmers with small or medium-sized operations would love to have these cutting-edge technologies. the a -- adoption has been on large farms where they can generate enough to make this equipment cost effective. this equipment has the potential to transform the way producers of all sizes manage their farms, but if it only helps a small family farmer save maybe $5 an acre next season, $150,000

investment starts to look a lot less attractive. the world economic forum estimates that if just a quarter of the world's farms adopted precision ag practices, farm yields globally could increase by 15%. they've also shown that greenhouse gas emissions and water use could decrease by at least the same amount. adopting these technologies in nebraska has already helped producers reduce soil erosion and carbon output while also increasing water quality in the area around their operations. and according to a recent report about the environmental benefits of precision ag, even at the current levels, this equipment already saves 30 million pounds

of herbicide, 100 million gallons of fossil fuels and 100 million gallons of water every single year, and that's just in the united states. these technologies can help us feed a growing population while also caring for our environment. we should be encouraging more producers to turn to precision agriculture, and that's why i am joining with the senior senator from minnesota to introduce a bill to create a loan program that would help them do just that. my bill would establish the precision agriculture loan program which would offer low-cost and long-term loans for those who want to adopt the precision agriculture, but may not be able to adopt this

through traditional bank. this may be the first loan program with precision ag, instead of 5% in interest, producers could pay interest rates under 2% on loans 3 years to 12 years in length. this would include precision ag technology that improves efficiency or reduces input. my bill would help to start make sense for those who would like to adopt these technologies but they haven't been able to afford them. madam president, it is rare to find an issue that is so clearly a win-win for everyone involved. from the university of nebraska to the association of equipment manufacturers, the nebraska farm bureau and the american conservation coalition, support is growing for making precision

agriculture more accessible. another bill i introduced with senator klobuchar in april, which would help farmers connect precision ag technologies to each other through the internet of things has been met with a similar outpouring of support. that's because precision agriculture, those technologies, they really have no drawbacks. it's better for ag producers, rural communities, consumers, and the environment all at the same time. the biggest obstacle is the cost, and that burden falls mostly on the smaller farms that can't afford to take the risks. well, my bill will give smaller operations the backing that they need to manage those risks. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

i would note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader whip. mr. durbin: thank you, madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes. mr. durbin: i ask that it be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: i'd like to talk about the state of the pandemic. i'm disappointed by the parliamentarian decision. there are too many lives at stake. over the past 18 months

thousands of daca recipients and other immigrants have saved american lives as doctors, intensive care nurses, respiratory therapists. they risk their lives. the least we can do is give them a path to legal status in america. senate democrats will have a proposal. we know how essential immigrants are to america and to our economic future. during the pandemic undocumented immigrants have not only been saving lives in our nation's hospitals, they've been toiling in extreme heat on farms across the country to secure the food that we eat every day in america. they've defended our national security as members of the military. they've been working as home health aides, helping care for our parents and family members

with disabilities and they've been caring for our children as teachers and child care workers. they are americans in every way except for their official legal status. it's far past time to fix that and that's exactly what senate democrats intend to do through budget reconciliation. madam president, this is an issue which is not new to the senate, certainly not new to me. it was 20 years ooblg that i introduced -- ago that i introduced the dream act, 20 years. and, of course, many people have said, durbin, if you're such a great legislator, what are you waiting for and a lot of dreamers and daca-protected people have said the same. we have brought the daca bill to the floor only to be stopped by the filibuster, five times, during the course of 20 years. the one time it was passed during comprehensive immigration

reform, the republican house refused to consider it and it was left in the current state. i recall the previous president, donald trump, assuring me he would take care of those kids, in his own words. he certainly did. he tried to abolish daca and remove the protection which 780,000 of these young people had. you see, these are young people who came to the united states as infants and toddlers and little babies and they are brought here by their parents and grew up in america and did everything you are supposed to do, went to school, had the odd jobs, worked around the house, believed in the future of this country, but when they showed up in their classrooms every day, they pledged allegiance to their flag. and it wasn't until later that their parents told them that wasn't the case, they were undocumented, technically illegal in the words of some. i can't imagine having that

hanging over your head knowing that any day that someone in your family might be deported. they lived under that shodo their -- shadow their entire lives and they still did remarkable, courageous things. i've come to the floor of the senate 125 times to tell their stories individually with color photographs and to let my colleagues know there are people behind these numbers, real people, amazing young people. and over the years as i've told their stories, more and more of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come up and said, what can we do? we can pass legislation to give these young people a chance, to give many others a chance too. half of the farm workers toiling in farms are undocumented. we don't think twice about whether we will eat the fruit that they pick or the vegetables they deliver to the market. we take it for granted that it will be there.

they have spent a lifetime working for dirt wages that many americans wouldn't consider to give them a chance to become legal in america is a reflection on who we are. i know and my critics will say aren't you paying any attention to the southern border? i am. there is a lot to be done. we are dealing with thousands of haitians who are dealing with smugglers and other to come to that port in the hope of being able to enter the united states. that's not happening in most cases. many of them are even being returned to haiti. it doesn't solve the individual family problem but addresses immigration problems today. there are fundamentals we need in any immigration system, we won't get them with the current laws. what are they? basically we need border security. at an age of terrorism and drugs, we need to know who is coming into this country and

whether they are bringing anything with them that will hurt anyone. secondly, we should never knowingly allow a dangerous person to come into the united states and stay in an undocumented status, period. number three, america cannot absorb at any given time everyone who wants to come and live here. we have to have an orderly process, one that protects values, especially those seeking asylum and refugee status. refugees were brought home to us from afghanistan where families in that country where it turned and helped american soldiers in every way that they could and risk their own lives ask for refuge in the united states. the outpouring of support for those refugees outweighed the number of cynics and i'm glad because that reflects who we really are. in the next few hours and day we will have an approach to the

parliamentarian and hope it is not stopped again by the filibuster which has held it up in the past. i see my colleague, senator whitehouse, has arrived and i will yield the floor.

the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island.

mr. whitehouse: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: it is not. mr. whitehouse: in that case, madam president, i return to the senate floor to again discuss the scheme to capture our supreme court. in this case trks will be through the -- in this case trks will be through the lens of how recent justices got on the court and i will choose brett kavanaugh. i think we all remember the famous list, the federalist society list that donald trump promised to follow in supreme court appointments. the first interesting thing about brett kavanaugh is that he was not on the list of candidates that donald trump had offered up. this list that bought peace between house of trump and house of koch. dump had -- trump had promised he would appoint off that scheme-approved federalist society list. he didn't. and yet no one complained. that's a telltale right there.

there was no complaining because brett kavanaugh knew this terrain. he knew the central operative at the heart of this scheme, leonard leo. he had worked on judicial nomineeses in -- nominations in the bush white house with leonard leo who coordinated big donor support for judicial nominees. i've described before a judge who bemoaned to me what he called his colleagues auditioning, auditioning for higher office, auditioning for the supreme court. auditioning was a telltale word that struck -- that stuck with me. you don't audition without someone to audition to. well, kavanaugh knew the guy at the center of the scheme, and he knew that the donor t turnstileo

the supreme court was run out of the federalist society. so kavanaugh not only auditioned with leo, he auditioned at the federalist society. and no one auditioned harder than brett kavanaugh. as a circuit judge, he campaigned through 27 federalist society events. i think he set the record for auditioning at federalist society events. he knew who and he knew where and he also knew what the big donors wanted. so he made sure his circuit court opinions signaled his chops. on abortion, garza v. hargan. okay to force a teenager to wait indefinitely for an abortion as the clock ran. check. on guns, heller v. district of columbia, a dissent in the follow-up case to the supreme court heller decision, in his case one even more extreme than

scalia. check. for polluters, p.h. -- waiving the federalist society union taker executive banner, even saying that regulatory agencies are a significant threat -- i'm quoting him here -- regulatory agencies, the things that protect us from pollution and cheaters, are a significant threat to individual liberty. if you're a polluter. check. and most important to this dark money scheme, "emily's list" vfv exr where he said front groups are constitutionally entitled to raise and spend unlimited money in support of candidates for elected office because it is implausible that contributions to independent expenditure political committees are corrupting. end quote. how could that possibly be corrupting? check. so this is behavior. in nature when you see behavior, you can draw conclusions.

when you see, for instance, a vulture wealing, you can expect something dead below. it may not always be true. it may be wealing in an updraft eddy but you get a number of vultures wealing, it's pretty reliable there's something dead below. when so many judges start auditioning for advancement, that their behavior requires a name from other judges, you can be pretty sure there's an audience for their auditioning. and kavanaugh knew that audience. his relationship with leo, leonard leo, his hustling of federalist society events, his insider knowledge of the republican selection process and the big donors, and his ardent display of his w wares in all te ways big donors would want was a winning combination. so leonard leo hand walked him around the trump federalist society list and straight to the top of the judicial selection

pile, and no one with a hand in the trump-koch deal that spawned the federalist society list voiced an objection. kavanaugh had auditioned his way around the list and the scheme could not have been happier with the outcome. all of that behavior is telling. there's a scheme. and kavanaugh knew how to play it. now that the scheme had its man, they would fight for him. they did not know how hard the fight would be until dr. christine blazey ford came forward with a tale of youthful sexual assault by kavanaugh and a drunken buddy. but even before that, there were telltales of the pressure to get kavanaugh on to the court. thousands of pages of records from his white house days were withheld. blank pages stamped constitutional privilege were presented to us on the

committee. they couldn't even bring themselves to call it executive privilege the claim was so far-fetched. constitutional privilege was an invented phrase, but they knew no republican would object. the pressure was on. the play had been signaled. the money behind the scheme with the money behind the republican party so democrats could complain but the republican wall would hold. all are objections and requests -- our objections and requests would be overruled. another example of signaling from nature, you can tell a lot about the wind by looking at the water as sailors know. you don't have to feel it. you can understand the wind by looking at the water. little wavelets show where gusts of wind can be found on a still day. the water darkens where there are stronger puffs on windy days. as the wind grows, the waves grow bigger. and then white caps form.

and as the wind strengthens more, wind lines appear, circulation scientists call it, aligned with the wind's direction and a full gail -- in a full gail spin drift, foam from the tops of the waves. spindrift blows off the wave tops. in the same way you can tell a lot about the pressure of the wind by looking at the behavior of the water, you can tell a lot about the pressure of the scheme by looking at the behavior of the republicans. particularly in the gail force controversy over dr. blazey ford's testimony. by all rights in any normal world, kavanaugh would have been withdrawn. the fact that he wasn't is a telling signal of pressures afoot. allegations of sexual violence motivate domestic violence and victims group, groups which senators do not ordinarily

choose to cross. is one judge worth that? why not pick another? yet they went forward. another telling signal of the pressure. senators usually prize their chance to questions of supreme court nominees, yet republicans gave that up to a female prosecutor sent to disarm dr. blazey ford's testimony. yet another signal. of course, that didn't work. the witness' testimony was clear and credible. the female prosecutor was sent packing. republican senators were left in the touchy position of having to disbelieve dr. blasey ford without any basis for disbelieving her. yet, only one republican senator buckled. another signal. senator flake demanded some investigation, and here the gale force pressure kicked in. this could not go on. kavanaugh was too great a prize.

the f.b.i. was pressured to do a fake investigation. that is a fire alarm of a signal. and we saw many signs of things awry. for a while, early on, the f.b.i. became imper obvious to information -- impervious to information. to put it mildly, that is not the f.b.i.'s customary disposition. an f.b.i. that suddenly becomes impervious to information is quite a signal. the f.b.i. was told which few witnesses could be interviewed. the interviews were cursory and terse. other witnesses who came forward were ignored or turned away. even when dr. blasey ford and other witnesses were trolled by the flying monkeys of the far right so venomously that dr. blasey ford had to stop teaching, had to leave her home, had to hide herself under the

protection of a security detail, witnesses still tried to come forward. so ultimately under pressure, the f.b.i. announced a tip line for witnesses to contact. but the tip line was a fake. the f.b.i. has procedures for things, and it has tip line procedures. the f.b.i. did not follow its tip line procedures. it appears the f.b.i. did not follow up on any of the tips that came in on the kavanaugh tip line. instead, the f.b.i. routed the kavanaugh-related tips to the white house counsel's office for a decent burial. we on the committee were ultimately allowed in a classified setting, classified setting two hours of what you could call speed-dating with documents to look through pile after pile after pile of documents, no notes allowed, no photos allowed, no copies allowed. one of those piles, though, was tip line results, so we know the

tips came in. the f.b.i. admits thousands of tips came in. none were followed up. f.b.i. statements at the time said they were following standard procedure. what they meant by that, which they later admitted, is that in background investigations, they are agents of the white house and under white house political direction. so their regular procedures did not apply. the standard procedures they said they were following was the procedure of not following the standard procedures. if you can get around that verbal somersault. what the f.b.i. did not say is that aside from standard investigative procedures they did not follow, there are also standard f.b.i. procedures for background investigations. the f.b.i. is a procedure-bound

institution. we're still digging, and we're going to keep digging, but it looks like they didn't follow those background investigation procedures either. for apparently the first and only time in a background investigation, i believe an f.b.i. investigation was put under the operational control of the white house so that the white house could craft with the f.b.i. the appearance of an f.b.i. investigation without any real investigating. the kind of pressure it takes to do that is intense. that is gale force. that is the spindrift flying. it takes a gale of pressure to have the f.b.i. violate so many of its own procedures to meekly go along with the white house's abuse of the f.b.i.'s long-standing reputation for thoroughness and integrity. that's the kind of gale force

pressure the scheme can mount. the scheme had to have its prize. republicans even turned their guns on polite, honorable bipartisan dianne feinstein. she was accused of a corrupt plot to sandbag kavanaugh. senator feinstein is not capable of such a thing, and everyone knows it. so this attack on her was yet another signal. there was a new narrative to impose. kavanaugh becomes the victim. wicked democrats become the wrongdoers. dr. blasey ford in her testimony gets swept aside. in a well-equipped stampede of grievance, kavanaugh sweeps onto the court. another signal that i'm still seeing now is the effort in right-wing media to cover this all up. after senator coons and i pressed the f.b.i. on this bogus investigation, the national review and other right-wing

outlets immediately published articles to try and tidy things up. their main source seems to be a former republican judiciary staffer, one who tweeted and deleted unphased and determined we will confirm judge kavanaugh just a few days after the blasey ford allegations came to light, before the so-called investigation was concluded. the cover-up article suggests three things. first, hey, we had a chance to read all of the over 4,500 tips the f.b.i. received. second, there was a 400 or 600 -- it varies, depending on the article -- page f.b.i. report assessing the tips and exonerating kavanaugh that was circulated to all senators. all we had to do is read it. and third, that had there been anything wrongful or incriminating or derogatory that was found, it would have been referred for further investigation. so let's look at those three claims. first, this open access to those documents was -- that was the

two-hour window of i was talking about where we could go in and speed date with raw f.b.i. documents in piles and interview reports. again, no notes, no copies, no pictures. just piles of documents in a room we had to walk through and clear out of. oh, and if we wanted, we could return to review the documents when votes on cloture and confirmation were ongoing. i am not making that up. the supposed report, this 400 or 600, whatever, page report is actually a 28-page document compiled by republican senate judiciary committee staff. not the f.b.i. with hundreds of pages of attachments to thicken it up. those 28 pages are pure political whitewash that cast aside the credible claims offered to the f.b.i. for further investigation but altogether ignored. saying that this republican committee report, so-called, was

available to senate democrats is like saying we should have turned on fox news for the lowdown on these tips. not actual. and as to the idea that we could have referred anything suspicious for further examination, i really don't know what these right-wing outlets are talking about. that they meant the f.b.i. -- if they meant the f.b.i., that's not true. the f.b.i. and the white house had agreed that the investigation was over as far as they were concerned. and if that means the senate judiciary committee, that's as laughable as the 28-page whitewash. one last signal here. the f.b.i. continues to dodge questions about this investigation. it was over two years ago that senator coons and i asked simple, direct questions about the tip line. only this summer did we receive the first smidgen of a response. the response deflected us to an m.o.u. between the white house

and the f.b.i., which when we dug around and found it, which we had to do ourselves, proved not to substantiate what we were being told. so we repeated our questions and repeated our questions, and last week, director wray appeared in senate judiciary and promised answers in two weeks. we'll see. as a prosecutor, i know those cases where you can't go forward for a victim with the charges. there could be innumerable reasons. but sometimes you just can't. and in those unfortunate cases, it can matter a great deal to the victim that she at least got an honest and thorough investigation of her claim. dr. blasey ford was denied even

that. the f.b.i. sacrificed her to the gale force political pressure applied by the scheme to get this well-auditioned nominee into place. and let's get real. you don't apply gale force political pressure for judges who are just going to call balls and strikes. $400 million, $400 million has been spent in dark money on this court capture scheme. for $400 million, you don't want balls and strikes. you want judges who will throw the game for you. you want what you paid for, a captured court. and if you look at its track record, that's this court. it's the court that dark money built, and it is deliberate.

to be continued. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: madam president, i rise today to honor the life and legacy of a diligent public servant and proud west virginians who was recently taken from us far, far too soon. his name was john kennedy bailey. my wife and i send our deepest condolences to the members of john's beloved family. i have known john since he was a child. he grew up in fairmont, my home area, with an absolutely wonderful, loving family. i have been so proud to watch him grow into such a hardworking, compassionate person who has raised his own loving family. my heart aches for his whole family, but especially his wife holly and their children, jack, brooks, and lizette whose lives

have been changed in a tragic instant. it is in these sorrowful moments that we see how much a person meant to so many. since we lost him, john's friends have stepped forward with stories of his compassion, his kindness, and of his public service. i know that all of us who are grieving him find comfort that his last measure was giving himself through organ donation. sharing the gift of life with someone who needed it most. when i think of john, i think of a man who all of us aspire to be, a man who lives life to his fullest, makes the most of every day by giving back to those around him. i think of the words of dylan thomas, a welsh poet who describes such a man as good men, the last wave bye, crying how bright their frail deeds might have danced in a green debate. rage, rage against the dying of

the light, wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, and learned too late they grieve it on its way. do not go gent nool that good night. john lived every day by catching the sun in flight, and that is one of the many reasons that so many people loved him. it is my hope that his family, friends, and family have found peace, strength, and support in one another and in the support of our entire home state as we mourn our shared loss of this wonderful, wonderful person. that is why it is befitting that his life is forever memorialized in this "congressional record" through this speech on the united states senate floor today. john represented the very best of west virginia from a very young age. as a knight of the golden horseshoe in eighth grade, president of his senior class in high school, attended -- attendee of the mountaineer boys

state, he excelled throughout his entire scholastic career. so much so that after graduating from yale university, he joined congressman nick girahall's staff helping west virginians in washington, d.c. but the call of the mountains was strong for john, and he returned home to attend w.d. law school. while at law school, he clerked on wall street but knew his biggest impact would be in his home state, so he found his way to charleston. john was dedicated to bettering the charleston community. as the owner of his own law firm and while serving as city councilman. john was dedicated to his community, whether through his recent mission to revive charleston's recycling program, or his brilliant idea to increase the cardinal train service to charleston that he recently worked on with my office. john was not only a dedicated public servant but a talented attorney and successful businessman. he will be remembered for his professional abilities as well

as his service to his community, but most importantly, john will be remembered for his commitment to his children and family, spending much of his time at jack, brooks, and lizette's many activities. he was well known among the staff and pairnlts of capital midwestern little league, capital high school, and the montessori. he would stop by the community center often just to see how the staff and students were doing. john was so very kind and always thinking how he could make his community better. no matter how out of the box his ideas seemed to be, he never met a stranger and also also such a good friend to myself, my charleston staff and all of west virginians. what is most important is he lived a full life. i extend my deepest condolences to his wife and their children. his parents, joyce and former state treasurer, his siblings

and his many friends and extended family. we will forever keep john and his family in our prayers. so, godspeed, john. we'll miss you. i yield the floor, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, the crisis on our southern border is bad and getting worse since joe biden became president. last month more than 200,000 migrants crossed our southern border, the second month in a row that we've seen the number that high. since president biden raised his right hand and took the oath of office on january 20, customs and border protection has stopped more than 1.2 million border crossers. that's nearly triple the total number at this point in the obama administration and more

than eight times the number of migrants stopped at this point during the trump administration. these numbers have real consequences. migrants are exploited, abused, raped, and some die on their dangerous trip to our border. once they arrive, border patrol and local law enforcement and nongovernmental organizations are expected to do a lion's task with a mouse's resources. and the surge of resources to migrants leaves serious security vulnerabilities that are exploited by cartels and criminal organizations. even before this current crisis with haitians, border patrol officials tell me that just to deal with unaccompanied children and the number of migrants coming to the border, that as many as 40% of the border patrol

need to leave the front lines protecting the border. which means that the drug cartels can simply exploit those gaps and the border patrol security -- in the border patrol security line in order to move illegal drugs into the united states that last year alone took the lives of more than 90,000 americans by overdose. as though things weren't challenging enough already, the city of del rio, with a population of 35,000 people, has been flooded by a group of nearly 15,000 migrants. can you imagine? a city of 35,000 sees this huge human tsunami of 15,000 migrants, almost exclusively from haiti. by the way, this ought to

demonstrate that this is not just a regional phenomenon. i know the vice president went down to central america and said she'd talk to the president of the central american countries, the triangle countries, and said, please don't send your people to the united states. meanwhile, the green light was on at the border as a result of the refusal to face -- enforce the basic security laws that were put in place by the previous administration. in fact, it looks like the guiding principle of the biden administration was whatever the previous administration did, we're going to undo it. but they forgot to put an alternative plan in place. and so the people keep coming. 1.2 million migrants just so far since the biden administration began. well, migrants have now set up a

camp under the bridge in del rio in 100-degree temperatures. and they've been so brazen, that they literally have gone back-and-forth across the river to mexico to purchase supplies -- food, water, or whatever. but they've been able to go back-and-forth virtually at will. border patrol, state and local officials have been working around the clock to ease the humanitarian crisis that president biden and his policies created. and they're being overwhelmed. as i said, del rio isn't a huge city with unlimited resources. it's roughly two and a half times the size of the migrant group, and like other border communities, the city experienced a one-two punch in the last year and a half because of covid-19. first came the pandemic and a

full range of new expenses. then the strain was compounded by the restrictions on nonessential -- so-called nonessential cross-border travel, which has been in place for a year and a half. prepandemic, folks from mexico would, if they had the proper paperwork, would travel across the border to shop, to eat, and visit family members, and there were huge economic drivers of our border communities. the federal reserve bank of dallas estimated that prior to these restrictions, between 40% to 45% of all retail activity in laredo, for example, was attributable to mexican nationals. that's dried up completely. leaders in texas like the ones i met with in brownsville last week are struggling to understand the contradiction between the biden

administration's two different approaches. on one hand, the administration is saying it's too dangerous for mexican nationals to visit family in texas or shop in our stores because of the virus, but, on the other hand, the administration is allowing 1.2 million migrants to cross our borders, untested, unvaccinated, most of whom are simply waved on through into the interior of the united states and told to appear at a future court hearing, which most of them will never show up for. we simply don't know what kind of risk these untested, unvaccinated migrants, who are being waved into the interior of the united states, what kind of risks they could pose to communities in texas or across the country. just last week, the department of homeland security office of

inspector general found that without stronger covid-19 testing measures in place, the department is putting everyone -- migrants, border patrol agents, customs agents, and the local communities along the border -- at greater risk. still, the biden administration has refused to take any sort of serious action that would stop the flood of humanity coming across our border. yes, they've paid lip service. they said, don't come. meanwhile, the migrants are on the phone talking to family in the united states or they're simply watching american tv as the flood of humanity continues to a cross the border without any real consequences. on friday, the current surge of primarily haitian migrants became so overwhelming that the biden administration closed a legal port of entry as well as

interior checkpoints. for those of our colleagues who have actually been to the border, they know that customs and border protection checks people as they enter the country at the border. but there's also interior checkpoints because we know many people don't -- aren't identified until they're found in an 18-wheeler trailer or embedded in some sort of hiding place or the drugs that people are trying to smuggle into the united states are found, often at the interior checkpoints. but because of the flood of humanity coming across the border because the border patrol at del rio was so overwhelmed, 2400 border patrol agents were -- 400 border patrol agents were reassigned to help come deal with the masses. that created created a huge vulnerability for the drug smugglers and human smugglers. so-called nonessential travel

was already shout down, but the administration bungled the entire situation so badly that they had to shut down essential trade and travel as well. last friday i spoke with border patrol deputy chief man nepa dia -- manny padilla, someone i've known for years. he told me that the main focus at the time was trying to deal with the humanitarian crisis, getting food, water, and sanitation to these individuals. once the most urgent humanitarian needs are met, the processing and potential removal of migrants will move more quickly. so far a few thousands migrants have been moved to other border patrol sectors for processing. again, because the del rio sector was overwhelmed, they had to bus them as far away as arizona just to process people

through the border. some have already been returned to haiti and in the coming days, we can expect more flights to move some of the thousands of migrants back home. the department of homeland security has claimed that they will use title 42, a public health authority, to expel the vast majority of migrants, but the administration needs to be honest with us. will they use this title 42 authority, again to protect the public health, to expel migrant families, too, and not just single adults? if not, will the department use expedited removal authority to swiftly remove these migrant families and in doing so deter others from coming? or will they essentially is continue to wave people through, encouraging even more migrants to make their way to the border? and will these migrants that

they do have remain in custody until a removal decision is rendered? we know that catch and release simply doesn't work. it can be exploited to the point where people know that we don't detain them, we will give them this notice to appear, sometimes called in spanish a permiso, and they'll be sent into the interior of the united states, and many of whom are never heard from again. the department of homeland security and the administration need to back up their proposed plans for dealing with this crisis and their public statements with real and immediate consequences to cut off the flow and deter future immigration. there's a clear and urgent need for congress to take action, and contrary to what our democratic colleagues believe, blanket amnesty is is not the answer. rather than address the crisis

at the hand, our democratic colleagues have spent the bulk of this year figuring out how to bend the rules of the senate to grant citizenship to millions of people who entered this country illegally. their plan would have provided legal status to people who entered the country as recently as this year, as long as they were 18 years or younger when they arrived. it would have turned our ag sector on its head by legalizing unlawfully present farm workers with absolutely no provisions to ensure that our agriculture producers would have access to a stable workforce. and it would have legalized millions of people with temporary protected status without even addressing the fact that this temporary program has been in existence for three decades. there's a reason that senate democrats tried to pass a partisan bill using the arcane budget procedures instead of the normal legislative process.

these policies do nothing to alleviate the crisis that's existed on the border since joe biden became president. they fail to address the underlying reason why people are unlawfully present and living in the shadows in the first place, and they literally reward illegal immigration. and it's unfair to those immigrants who follow our laws and wait patiently in line. yesterday the senate parliamentarian confirmed what we already suspected, and that is our democratic colleagues will not be able to use budget procedures to grant citizenship to millions of undocumented immigrants in a purely partisan budget reconciliation bill. our democratic colleagues said they -- they have a plan b. while i haven't seen any details about what that might entail, i seriously doubt it will succeed.

i hope our colleagues will respect the decision made by the neutral, unbiased guidance of the parliamentarian and avoid nuking the rules of the senate to achieve a partisan political goal. in the meantime, there is are a clear and urgent crisis on our southern border and president biden has proven that he's either unwilling or incapable of addressing it. but congress also has a duty to take action. it can only be done in a bipartisan way. it's not too late for our friends across the aisle to abandon their partisan amnesty plan and work with us on this side to address the actual crisis at hand. and i have a suggestion about where we could start. last april senator sinema, the senior senator from arizona, and i introduced the bipartisan border solutions act to address

this unfettered flow of immigration. i've been proud to also work -- we've both been proud to work with two friends and colleagues in the house, congressman henry cuellar a democratic and congressman tony gonzalez a republican. it's literally a bipartisan, bicameral piece of legislation. perhaps it's because the four of us live in and represent border states, we've spent time listening and learning from the men and women who safeguard our border and those who care for migrants and those who live in these border communities that are disproportionately impacted. there are a lot of people who talk about what's happening at the border who have never even been there. they inaccurately characterize border communities as unsafe and lawless. they villainize the border patrol and other law enforcement agencies for actually enforcing the laws that congress has passed. and they propose blanket solutions to the complex

challenges that exist which would do far more harm than good. the fact is the border is a beautiful, safe, and vibrant region. the men and women who lead and protect these communities are doing everything in their power to fairly and humanely respond to the crisis, but they are simply being overwhelmed and asked to do something that is the federal government's responsibility. that's why our legislation is important. it would streamline the processing of migrants in regional prodsing -- processing centers. provide protections for children, one-third of whom have been lost, lost because they have been placed with sponsors, and when the federal government tries to follow up and find out how they are doing, a third of them never respond, and they're lost to the system.

our bill would also expedite legal proceedings and ensure that we have enough immigration judge teams, asylum officers, and staff to do things the right way. a number of groups have endorsed the bill, not partisan groups, and it constitutes a simple starting point that democrats and republicans should be able to agree on. democrats cannot continue to turn a blind eye to the humanitarian crisis on our southern border. to borrow a phrase from a sign held by one del rio resident last week, no more optics. we want action. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: first of all, i i

thank senator cornyn for his remarks, particularly the points he made about the ruling of the parliamentarian. i come to the floor to address the same issue. we received last night from the senate parliamentarian regarding the unprecedented attempt to include wide-ranging immigration provisions in the upcoming reconciliation bill. now for the public at large, when they hear the word reconciliation, it's a process by which you don't have to have 60 votes in the united states senate to get to finality on a bill. but reconciliation is something that has been used only twice, i believe, in the last five years. so it's not something that you just willy-nilly go to to get a lot of things done that you couldn't otherwise get done. but this looks like what the democrat majority is trying to do in the reconciliation bill

with the issue of immigration, and so i'm thankful for the decision made by the parliamentarian. that guidance by the parliamentarian indicated that a proposal to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants is not appropriate for inclusion in a budget reconciliation bill. as ranking member of the senate judiciary committee, my office was deeply involved in the bipartisan discussions that took place with the parliamentarian on this issue. i will say that i agree with the parliamentarian's guidance. i think it reflects an obvious truth -- changing the law to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants is a major policy change with significant impact that reaches far beyond the federal budget

and not appropriate for reconciliation. more broadly, reform of our immigration laws is an important public policy issue. it's a topic that many americans and many members of congress on both sides of the aisle care deeply about. it's an issue that inspires fierce debate, sharp disagreements, and great passion in people on both sides of the argument. it does so because at its core, the issue of immigration is about the policies that we put in place to give people from all around the world one of the most meaningful and precious gifts that we can give -- the right to legally establish your life

here and in many cases pursue american citizenship s. and whether you pursue citizenship or not, you have the right to the american dream. and you can see how important that coming to the united states is, by just the hundreds of thousands of people so far this year breaking our laws to come into this country. it shows you how exceptional our great america is and the economic and the political and the social system we have that is so endeared to people all over the world that they want to come here, even breaking their laws to get here. and of course whether it's citizenship or the american dream, that's not something that can be boiled down to a congressional budget office score. it's not something that can be

reduced to a line item in the federal budget. i think everyone here in congress and americans around the country already knew that. that's what made this most important attempt to abuse the reconciliation process by the democratic leadership even more obvious. as ranking member of the senate judiciary committee, i look forward to continue working with my colleagues on measures to secure the border and improve our immigration system, but those measures need to be pursued in a way that complies with the rules of the senate, not the subterfuge of what we call reconciliation. the recent proposal put forward by democrats in the senate clearly was not, and i hope we can engage in a more productive

legislative process moving forward on the subject of immigration. i yield the floor, and i -- yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the mr. tuberville: madam president, our country is facing several crises as we speak. we're facing a border crisis with record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants pouring into our country daily, weekly, and monthly. we're facing a political humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of a chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan resulting from a fatally flawed political decision. and we're still facing a public health crisis with the resurgence of covid putting a strain on our health care system and our entire economy. and despite the finger pointing that president biden has tried to do, we're seeing the real impact of his failed policies.

every one of these crises, from the border to afghanistan to covid, require our attention immediately. but you haven't heard much, more than a peep from our colleagues on the left. instead they're focused on jamming through a $3.5 trillion spending bill. you know, even if you spent $5 million per day, every single day of the year, it would still take almost 2,000 years to spend $3.5 trillion. think about that. $5 million a day, 365 days a year would take 2,000 years to spend $3.5 trillion. so they're either completely tone-deaf on the left or they're playing a game of hide the ball

and attempt to divert attention from these very real problems that are facing our country today. you might find yourself asking, rightfully so, how will this package help the crisis our nation is facing now, today? will it help secure the border? will it bring home americans who were abandoned in afghanistan? will it encourage folks to talk to their doctor about getting the vaccine? the answer across the board is a definite no. this reckless tax-and-spending spree will not do any of the above things. what it will do is add to inflation, which is already at the highest point dating back to at least 2010. with recording-breaking

inflation and american families feeling the squeeze, it is long past time for congress to pass some physical restraint. american families across this country, they have to. they have to have restraint. so why wouldn't we have to have it? but the real kicker, as if spending $3.5 trillion is not enough, is what they want to spend it on. if you think the price tag is shocking, wait until you hear what programs are going to be funded with your taxpayer dollars. tucked into this legislation is a laundry list of progressive initiatives to expand medicare, fund climate programs, and provide universal preschool and free college, all while inflation is going sky-high. with this bill, democrats are

painting a vision, their vision for what they think america should be. not what it is. and that is a socialist welfare state with handout programs from cradle to grave, with not one work incentive included. and remember, this bill only needs 50 votes. and because of that, they're trying to tack on everything that they know can't pass at a 60-vote threshold. that includes the illegal immigrants, which we talked about. they were actually considering this in the middle of a border crisis, which is as illogical as it is radical. if it shows you just how radical this thing is, so radical that they tried to stick a policy provision into a budget bill, which thank goodness got struck down this weekend.

democrats are also adding in parts of this disastrous proactive, including a provision to overturn 85 years of precedent enabling lawsuits from civil penalties. this would allow unions to bleed businesses dry. it would cause many companies to close up shop and move operations overseas. it is truly the kitchen sink approach to try to bypass any republican weigh-in on these important issues on behalf of the america that we all represent. and if you think these policies are bad, the taxes are worse. democrats are looking at a litany of taxes to throw at americans to cover some of the costs of the far-left agenda. top on the list is an increase in the corporate tax rate, from 21% to 26.5%.

that's higher than communist china's corporate taxes. higher than china's. president trump's signature tax cut and jobs lowered this rate. as a result we saw a surge in corporations returning to america's shores, and over $1 trillion flowed back into the country after lowering this rate. a reversal of president trump's pro-business tax policy will directly hit american businesses. the heart of this country. that is simply something we can't afford. family farms, they are going to come under assault like everybody else with increase of the capital gains tax and death tax to make matters worse for our farmers, our democratic colleagues want to increase taxes on family farms at the time of inheritance by doing

away with longstanding step up and basic pot rule. for every family across alabama, this taliban would -- this tax bill would mean more taxes, it will mean smawbles will strug -- small businesses will struggle to keep employees, and finally democrats want to increase the power of the i.r.s. we're all fired up about that. by requiring financial institutions to report any and all financial transactions of $600 or more made by their customers. presently it's $10,000. they want to drop it down to $600. they want the i.r.s. to keep tabs on how you are spending the money that you earned, not somebody else, the money that

you earned. this means that every check you write, every bill you pay, every venmo you send and every stock purchase you make over $600 will be reported to the i.r.s. why do they need this information? they don't even effectively use the data they collect now? it's going to put businesses, banks into a huge bind. turning this information over to the i.r.s. will only give the government more ability to go after taxpayers whose politics they don't like, remember loris learner from the obama administration. they have a long history of unequal enforcement. earlier they denied tax exempt status to a texas charity because according to the i.r.s., the organization's commitment

tied it too closely to the republican party. that's disgraceful. requiring financial institutions to report this data to the i.r.s. would put a huge burden on the community banks and credit unions. some of the smallest institutions would be forced to close the doors because the cost to comply would be too high. we can't allow that to happen. these businesses are the backbone of main street america and play a key role of getting capital into the hands of middle-class americans. this policy would also hurt disproportionately rural communities and those folks living in rural areas, many of whom are distrustful of big government and pushed out of the banking system. democrats say they want to help these folks get financial services, but this policy would do exactly the opposite.

our colleagues on the left want to be spend to no end and the american people are sounding the alarm. in a recent poll of americans directly point to the economic policies of this administration for their financial hardships and the rising prices of every day goods and services. when asked about the concerns of rising prices at the grocery store as a result of this administration's poor economic policies, an administration official said if you take beef, pork, and poultry, the rising prices are normal. proteins like beef and poultry make up 63% of grocery items purchased, 63%. so when prices rise, as they are now, it directly impacts american families. there's nothing normal about that. it is unacceptable. but it is not only the price of groceries that are rapidly rising. according to the national retail

federation, back to school spending is expected to increase more than $3 billion from 2020, just in one year, with the average household spending upwards of $800 on school supplies. rapidly rising prices translate to a tax on the american consumer. there is no other way to put it. inflation is a tax, one that is already weighing heavily on the shoulders of all american families. don't just take my word for how bad this bill is. even some of their own party has come out against it asking congress to take a strategic pause on spending billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars. we're not even through the year yet, but this out-of-control spending will amount to at least $6.5 trillion before the year's

over. you heard me right, $6.5 trillion. put another way, that equates to more than $50,000 for every household across the country, costing more than obamacare and world war ii combined. considering there's not an initiative in this bill that would address any of the crises facing our nation today, it begs the question, why are the democrats in such a hurry to spend so much? you know, the federal government cannot keep writing blank checks and expect future generations to foot the bill. it can't happen. this is real money we're talking about. this is not monopoly money. the federal government cannot keep turning a blind eye to legitimate crisis facing our country in order to hastily enact a partisan agenda. it was then that president biden

said, show me your budget, and i will tell you what you value. i would encourage the president to heed his own remarks because this reckless tax and spend policy is exactly the opposite of what americans want, need, and value. madam president, on another note, i rise to request that the nominations submitted by the president on september 13 to be members of the federal retirement thrift investment board be referred to the committee on homeland security and government affairs for a hearing. this board has the important task of anyone sterg the -- administering the thrift savings plan which is the retirement investment plan utilized by six million members of our federal workforce, including our nation's armed forces, this

board's decisions impacts millions of americans, this is a huge responsibility. recognizing that responsibility, the trump administration rightfully put in place a ban on t.s.p. investment in chinese companies, but that ban is no longer enforced. exposing these americans to economic risk and undermining u.s. national security interest because congress has given the board oversight of retirement investment of millions of americans and because the previous china investment plan is no longer in place, congress has a duty to thoroughly vet these nominees. our adversaries are trying to do everything possible to get a leg up on the united states. because we're the greatest country on the face of the earth, investments in companies with communist chinese party

ties is a direct threat to our national security. such investments funnel capital to companies that commonly violate u.s. sanction laws and that are actively working to facilitate china's military expansion and the persecution of religious minorities. chinese companies are notorious for their deep ties to the chinese communist party and for their support of government surveillance and espionage activities. chinese companies also have a long history of costing investors billions in losses by ma nip lating financial -- manipulating financial statements in order to artificially inflate their success. the luckland coffee incident is one of the first that comes to money that puts the retirement savings of americans in

jeopardy. this is exactly why earlier this year i introduced legislation to prohibit thrift saving plan funds from being invested in chinese companies to protect the retirement savings of our federal civilian workforce and our armed forces. protecting these americans' investments and our country's national security is a serious issue requiring serious consideration. if confirmed, president biden's nominees to the federal retirement thrift investment board would be the gatekeepers and congress has a responsibility to thoroughly vet them. i hope that my colleagues on the homeland security committee will question each nominee on their decision on t.s.p. investment in china. our civilian public servants have a right to know the nominees' views on this since

the preservation of their retirement savings hangs in the balance. i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

quorum call: the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. without objection. under the previous order, the clerk will report the rossman nomination. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, veronica s. rossman of colorado to be united states circuit judge for the tenth circuit. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the jayce -- nays are 50, -- the yeas are 50, the nays are 42. the nomination is confirmed. the senator from oregon. a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table and the senate be notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. merkley: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. merkley: mr. president, i come to the floor today to bid farewell to an individual who has not only served as a long-term staff member, but a

highly respected member of our close-knit team, jake okenberg. serving for the last ten years as my business liaison, jake has been my ambassador to oregon's business community and its leaders. and frankly, when you consider some of my positions, jake has undoubtedly developed the diplomatic skills necessary to actually be an ambassador. jake has always approached his work with enthusiasm and a positive attitude, with steadfast determination to help me build and maintain critical partnerships with the business community throughout the state and to provide their feedback on how we can write better legislation. his creative pursuit of my partnership with the business community was on full display when he organized our office's made in oregon manufacturing tour. that tour exriefd -- comprised

many trips across the state over several years to meet with business leaders, owners and managers, some of the most interesting gatherings i've ever been at were part of that made in oregon tour. it highlighted the contributions that oregon's businesses, manufacturers and workers are making to our state and to the country, and it shined a light on policies that are needed to ensure american companies and american workers stay competitive in the 21st century. over the past decade jake helped develop policies relevant to many sectors of oregon's growing economy. one such strategy has been to make oregon a global leader in mass timber, including the protection of cross laminated timber and mass plywood and the research on charring and stress loads necessary to rewrite building codes. another strategy has been to make oregon a national leader in the production of hemp or

c.b.d., building on oregon's legals cannabis industry. another strategy has been building up oregon's sustainable energy industry, accelerating the development of wind and solar and wave energy and supporting measures to increase the efficiency of the manufacturing process to use less energy. it's pretty staggering to think of all the balls jake had to juggle at the same time over those ten years, but he did it and he did it making it look easy. our team and our state saw the fruits of jake's decade of partnership pay off over this last year and a half as businesses throughout oregon faced extremely difficult dark days amid the pandemic and the economic recession. as businesses ground to a halt, workers quarantined at home,

owners and managers were grappling with issues of how to continue to pay employees or whether they had to let them go, paying rents and leases, paying subcontractors and suppliers, and facing under the threat of going out of business. so many owners and managers reached out to my office, seeking assistance to access the economic injury disaster loans and the paycheck protection program to keep their businesses and their employees afloat. jake coordinated our response, communicating not only with the business leaders, but with the local elected officials and the leaders of our business chambers. he produced guidance, he organized roundtables, he led discussions, he served as a hotline for every question. he helped owners figure out how to address unique challenges as they arose.

when business owners were getting turned away from their own banks, for instance, jake took the lead in developing alternative approaches so they could get the help they needed. and when specific sectors like the live entertainment sector, which is such a staple of life and culture in our state of oregon, was left out of the list of businesses that could receive emergency aid, jake made it his business to get that changed. i can't even begin to guess how many oregon businesses and workers were able to weather those dark and difficult days because of jake's all-out efforts. i suspect that if he was here right now and we asked him what, after a decade of service, his greatest accomplishment has been, he'd say it was simply helping to make oregon a better place for businesses and for workers.

and then he might pause, and being the huge soccer fan that he is, say that a high point was when he made a connection so that i could spend a day with the owner of our portland timbers. so jake, thank you for giving so much to the team and to the people of oregon over these last ten years. it goes without saying that it's going to be a monumental undertaking trying to fill your shoes. you're going to be missed by every member of our team. we wish you the best. we look forward to continuing to follow the great things that you will do in your next chapter for our state and for the country. and we know that in whatever form it takes, you will never stop working to build a better world. well done, jake oken-berg, and thank you.

the presiding officer: the senator from iowa.

ms. ernst: mr. president, we recently marked the 20th anniversary of september 11, a day that forever changed our nation. this direct assault on our country sparked the global war on terrorism, a war that came at great personal cost to our men and women serving in the armed forces. as a combat veteran, as the mother of a future soldier, even simply as an american, the events in afghanistan have been extremely disheartening to watch. i've heard from so many veterans and service members who served during this war, many of whom are distraught and disappointed at the haphazard way the war in afghanistan came to a close. i've also heard from too many

gold star families who lost so much during this conflict -- their spouses, their fathers, their mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. recent events have left them questioning themselves and whether their family member's sacrifice was worth it. while we can't put the genie back in the battle when it comes do what happened in afghanistan last month, we can properly memorize the service of the brave men and women who fought and died to protect and defend the united states of america since the beginning of the global war on terror. i stand before you today to ask that the senate join with me in honoring our global war on

terrorism veterans and the sacrifices they made by supporting and passing my bipartisan bill, the global war on terrorism memorial location act. in august of 2017, congress passed and president trump signed into law our bill authorizing the creation of a memorial commemorating the sacrifices of all those wonderful americans who fought in the global war on terrorism. this memorial will be 100% privately funded and will not use a single dime of taxpayer money. most importantly, it will pay tribute to our fallen service members across the country, including the 13 who perished in

afghanistan on august 26. among the 13 was iowa native corporal daegan william tyler page who gave the greatest sacrifice of all. mr. president, this memorial is going to be built. it has already become law. it's ready to go. to let's get it built on the national mall in washington, d.c., where it belongs. it is the least we in congress can do for the men and women who have given so much. we have the opportunity to unite around a common cause while providing a central location for our many veterans and their families affected by the global war on terror to reunite and reflect on their loved ones sacrifices. and this isn't a partisan idea.

earlier this month, the six surviving secretaries of defense, spanning democratic and republican administrations, robert gates, leon panetta, chuck hagel, ash carter, jim mattis and mark esberg, wrote about placing the global memorial on terrorism on the national mall. this memorial would soy as a tribute to those brave men and women their loved ones who have sacrificed in defense of our freedom. for more than 20 years, i had the privilege of serving my state and country in uniform. as a veteran of the global war on terror, i know first hand the sacrifices the millions of brave

men and women of our armed forces made in this fight against radical extremists. like many others, i have risen my right hand and taken that oath voluntarily and without reservation. that is why the effort to build this memorial in its rightful place is a personal one, not just to me but to every service member, veteran, surviving family member and civilian who has been impacted by this fight. this national memorial will provide all americans a permanent place of reflection in the heart of our nation's capital. it will serve as a permanent commitment to the mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and children who lost their whole

world. that this country is forever grateful and in their debt. it will serve as a place for healing to the thousands of veterans still carrying the wounds of war, both seen and unseen. the national mall is currently home to the memorial's honoring world war ii, the korean war, and the vietnam war. how could we put the memorial for our nation's longest war anywhere else? and, mr. president, as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on energy and natural resources be discharged from further consideration of s. 535 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. 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? mr. manchin: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, four years ago i was proud to join with senator ernst in sponsoring legislation to authorize construction of the national global war on terrorism memorial. to commemorate and honor the members of the armed armed serv. that bill passed the house and senate on a voice vote and was signed into law august 2017. a memorial honoring the men and women of the armed forces who served our nation global war on terrorism, our country's longest military conflict is the least that we can do to recognize their service and sacrifice, and especially those who gave their lives in the service of our nation. in 2017, i said that it was incredibly important to honor these men and women and it remains incredibly important today.

i want the memorial to be built as quickly as possible. in fact, i think it should be the national park service's highest priority for approving new memorials, but it should be built following the same process following all memorials and commemorative works. twins 2003, -- since 2003, memorials have been prohibited in areas called the reserve, which is essentially the national mall. there have been several prohibitions for memorials or museums on the mall, including the world war i american people and desert storm and these were in high-profile areas in compliance with the commemorative works act. this would override the provision to allow the memorial global terrorism memorial to be

on the mall. i believe this would reopen the fight to relocate other memorials on the national mall and create more controversies that would ultimately delay this memorial. while i'm in support of the global war on terrorism memorial, this would be -- others have been turned away and doing so without full committee process. our subcommittee on national parks which is charged by senator king from maine held a hearing on senator ernst's bill on june 23. at that hearing the department of interior testified in opposition to senate bill 535 as currently drafted. so i would respectfully ask my friend, senator ernst, to withdraw her unanimous consent request to discharge the bill from committee and would commit to holding a markup of the bill so that we can consider the options, the impact and a path forward for this most important

memorial. the presiding officer: does the senator withdraw her request? ms. ernst: respectfully, i do not. mr. manchin: i must respectfully object to the senator's request. i will commit to work with my friend from iowa and to find a path forward for this important memorial. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. ms. ernst: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: yes, i will continue on this path. we, again, passed this bill. it was signed into law in 2017, creating the foundation to establish the global war on terror memorial. so that was the first step in a process that has now culminated after four years of discussion and work and i am very hopeful that the committee will go through regular process. i would encourage the chair to

move forward on a markup of the bill and a vote on the bill. and if we can receive that markup and vote, then i will stop my live u.c.'s, but until that point, i think it is imperative that we continue pushing for that regular order. so i feel committed, obviously, to those that i have served with, the others that have served in the global war on terror, their families, the affected communities, our gold star families, and others. this is our nation's longest running war. it is a war that has affected more than just those service members that set foot in the middle east. so my commitment to those families, those communities, and our country is that we'll continue to proceed to make sure that this memorial is placed in prominence on our national mall. and with that, mr. president, i

yield. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: just in response to my friend from iowa. you have my commitment and we will have this markup scheduled as quickly as possible. we would encourage you to speak on it at the time. we'll have the park people there and hopefully get it resolved as quickly as possible. ms. ernst: thank you. mr. manchin: i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed

to -- i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: now i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 169. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of the treasury, lily laurence, of massachusetts, to be assistant secretary. the presiding officer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22, do hereby bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number

169, lily laurence bachelder, to be assistant secretary of the treasury. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 245. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, executive office of the president, jayme ray white of washington to be a deputy united states trade representative, western hemisphere, europe, the middle east, labor and environment. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture.

the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 245, jayme ray white of washington to be a deputy united states trade representative, western hemisphere, europe, the middle east, labor and environment, with the range of ambassador, signed by 16 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 341. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, florence of the district of columbia to be

united states district judge for the district of columbia. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 341, florence y. pan of the district of columbia to be united states district judge for the district of columbia, signed by 16 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motion filed today, september 20, be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i 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. mr. schumer: i understand there is a bill at the desk, and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: s. 2765, a bill to provide that members of congress

may not receive pay after october 1 of any fiscal year in which congress has not approved a concurrent resolution on the budget and passed the regular appropriations bills. mr. schumer: i now ask for a second reading, and in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule 14, i object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bill will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:30 a.m. tuesday, september 21. that following the prayer and the 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, morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the strickland nomination. further, that the senate recess following the cloture vote on the strickland nomination until 2:15 p.m. to allow for the weekly caucus meetings. that if cloture is invoked, all postcloture time expire at

2:30 p.m. finally, that if any 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. schumer: if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 10:30 a.m. tomorrow morning. adjourn: and of the u.s. senate gavels out for the day. during today's session's lawmakers voted on the nomination of veronica rosman to the u.s. court of appeals judge for the tenth circuit. later that week the senate will work on election reform and voting rights legislation. when the senate returns, watch live coverage here on cspan2.

c-span's washington journal every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day. talk about policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning, kaiser health news julia ruffner discusses the provision and 3.5 chilean dollar budget reconciliation package that would allow medicare to jessica cost of prescription drugs. then, "washington post" reporter maria on the biden administration immigration and border policy. watch c-span "washington journal" live at seven eastern tuesday morning. she sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages and tweets. next tuesday morning homeland security secretary, fbi director christopher wray, and national counterterrorism center director christina testify on security threats to the u.s. live coverage from the senate homeland security committee

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so while is there for our customers for speed, reliability, value and choice. more now than ever it starts with great internet. wow. >> without support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> senate majority leader chuck schumer announced on the senate floor and an increase in the debt limit would be included in a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown in ten days. minority leader mitch mcconnell responded by saying that republicans will not support raising the debt limit. >> madam president, the senate begins this week with a lot to accomplish and very little time. this week and a weeks to, senate democrats will continue our work to pass historic legislation, to strengthen our economy and renew america's middle class for the 21st century. very soon we will also take up

a continuing resolution to avoid needless government shutdown and provide emergency funding necessary to settle afghan refugees and those devastated by this summer's national disasters. it must also work on a bipartisanry basis to extend the debt ceiling to preserve the very important and cherished credit of the united states. the united states will also -- the senate will also consider recently introduced voting rights legislation and advancing present biden's nominees to the judiciary and to his administration. so, the next few weeks will be critical weeks for the senate. members should be prepared for the possibility of working late nights and into the giweekend. on the nominations front we will begin the week by confirming ms. veronica rosman of. colorado to serve on the tenth circuit missed rosman's but the majority of her career

in public service, representing criminal defendants who cannot afford counsel often times. she would be one of the very few federal public defenders and the entire federal bench bringing both personal and professional diversity to our courts at a time we need to strengthen the public's trust in the federal judiciary. in addition to confirmation, senate democrats are working to confirm any other nominees for critical number of agencies including the departments of defense, state, and treasury. now unfortunately, some of our republican colleagues have chosen to play cheap political gains and stonewall the confirmation of these uncontroversial but essential nominees. let's be clear, by blocking these perfectly qualified public servants, my republican colleagues are deliberately hindering our o government's ability to protect our country and to work with our allies abroad.

these nominees should be the work of a few hours at most. many of them have been reported out of committee with bipartisan support and under normal circumstances would be confirmed with at any trouble. and so will my republican colleagues will not be able to stop these nominees from reaching final confirmation, or stonewalling will drag out what would normally be routine and easy process. the few obstructionists on the republicanra side who are leading this charge are deliberately derailing the confirmation of these important nominees in an all-out effort to gain the support of hard right elements of their party. and in the process and nasty political process they are engaged in, they are making americans a list safe at home and abroad pray they should stop immediately on the republican leader should admonish them. now, on the legislative front democrats continue to make good progress towards ending

our build back better agenda into law. last week the house completed their -- house committees conveyed their markups on the legislative text that underpins democrats reconciliation bill. here a in the senate caucus held a long a productive discussion last week about the substance of our bill. we will continue these discussions as the week progresses. now, madam president, no one expected it would be easy to pass legislation to transform the american economy and provide the biggest tax cut for the middle class in a generation. no one in this body was elected to only do the easy stuff. we have a lot of hard work to do and we are going to keep at it until we get the job done. now, i just want to say something about the news we received last night about this senate parliamentarian. last night's ruling was extremely disappointing. it saddened me, and it

frustrated me, and angered me. but make no mistake, the fight continues but senate democrats can prepare alternative proposals it would be holding additional meetings with the parliamentarian in the coming days. i have been working closely with my colleagues in the senateme including judiciary chairman durban, senators pitt dm, menendez, cortez mastro and we will continue our fight to find the best option available to provide immigrants but the chance of gone day obtaining local residents here in america. the last year end a half madam president have shown how vital our immigrants have been to keeping our economy going during a time of crisis. so many risk of their on the frontline of this pandemic but remain excluded from the very same benefits that have kept others secured during these hard times. we are short of workers from one end of america to the

other one of the reasons, the trump administration dramatically cut back on immigrants in this country. we need them, we need them and our labor force. we need them to continue american vitality. we need them because they are part ofso the american dream. it is estimated in my city by some one third of the healthcare workers at the height of covid who risk their lives for us were immigrants. having a strong law that helps our immigrants is vital. the american people understand fixing our broken immigration system is a a moral imperative and an economic imperative. immigration reform has been one of the most important causes of my time in the senate and i will not stop fighting to achieve it. finally on addressing the debt limit, madam president the

republicansoi are doing historic proportions that hurtsd the american business people and hurts the american country. in the immediate future both parties will have to come together to allow the federal government to continue its most important responsibility, paying the bills and making good on her outstanding obligations. a few minutes ago i joined a speaker pelosi and announcing the continuing resolution that will take up to a void a shutdown will also include a suspension of the debt limit to december of 2022. allowing estimate our obligations and preserve the full faith and credit of these united states of america. suspending the debt limit through september of 2022 will provide an amount of time commensurate with the debt that was incurred as a result of the covid emergency relief built last year.

that was a bill that was passed when donald trump was president, mcconnell was the majority leader of the senate, it was passed under republican leadership. that is the debt we are paying in thisl bill. the legislation that funded this and covid relief was supported by more than 48 republicans signed into law by president trump. anyone who says it's a democratic debt is not talking fact, they are talking fiction. both sides, both sides have a responsibility to pay for d the debt we have already incurred. it is always been done in a bipartisan way. unfortunately, last week leader mcconnell announced that the senate republicans are inclined to deliberately turn their backs on their. obligations.

when asked if republicans are blocked extension of the debt limit, leader mcconnell amazingly said that republicans are united in opposition toam raising the debt ceiling, shame. this is the same leader mcconnell who urged to support raising the debt ceiling when donald trump was present he was majority leader. up with why it's different.hy it's but everyone knows it's not different. in fact, democrats supported three times raising the debt ceiling when trump was president. and if my recollection is right, at least one of those times was when the house, the senate, and the presidency controlled by republicans. should republicans careen our country to a default art entry could be plunged into a recession laying off millions making it harder for people to

pay for the food on their table, their mortgages and their rent. shame, shame on the republican leader. secretary yellin put it days ago, to raise the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences. and would precipitate a crisis, a default risk, a default would risk sending interest rates skyhigh across the board hurting consumers, small businesses and our country's ability to borrow in the future. our economy still off the crisis would slip back into recession and undo everything we have done to help struggling americans pick themselves back up. now many on the other side including the republican leader himself are trying to justify their reckless position with deeply misleading talking points. they have argued over and over

again that they refuse to work with democrats they oppose our forthcoming legislative agenda. of course but they don't say is these two issues have nothing to do with each other. the forthcoming legislative agenda does not occur in any debt, a nickel of debt in the united states. it was the previous agenda of president trump and they republican senate and republicans in h the house that created this debt. republicans ignore the analysis like that washington post. roughly 90%, 97% of the accumulated debt was accrued before biden took office. raising debt limit congress would still raise the debt

limit by this file even if no new spending were reactivated when shrews speak that hopefully there are some who arrive to their responsibility in a this crass, craven political movement. so i will read it again. the wall street journal said and went on to say congress would need to raise the debt limit this fall even if no new major spending were reenacted. so, so the bottom line is simple. let me repeat, what republicans are doing is nothing short of a diamond —-dash to foot the bills and

as a consequence of their callous political gains, will be veterans and social security who suffer most. this is not just another partisan fight is not who can be more macho it's about the country. all p too often into macho, much of that is wrong. what one party is doing here, everyone knows is deliberately wrong lease for the republican leader in all of those who choose to follow. is about avoiding a crisis is madef to heal itself for the covid crisis. democrats are going to do the responsible thing and vote to extend the debt limit when the time comes. we will see which of our republican colleagues on the other side will have the

strength, the courage, to follow suit. i yield the floor. cooks for the pastor have seen her democratic leaders decided the upheaval and hardship of it once and eight century pandemic was a chance this is not just me conjecturing it's what they keep saying. right at the start of the crisis, march 2020 the pandemic offered a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision. justid last week president biden said this pandemic has been god-awful for so many reasons. that does present us with an opportunity. so they get points for honesty at least.

the reckless spending spree their writing behind closed doors, is designed to leave americans with a socialist country they never votedd for. they would barely recognize. last night one of those many efforts hit ase stumbling block themi ruled of this institution will not permit them to shove massive amnesty for illegal immigrants into a reckless taxing and spending spree they want to ram through on a partyliney- basis. our democratic colleagues cannot pretend transformational policy changes are mere budgetary tweaks. it is no less than authority than our colleague bernie sanders had just a few years ago, the function of reconciliation is to adjust spending and revenue, not to enact major changes in social

policy that's a lesson he and his caucus need to relearn for it even with the border is the insecure is it has ever been f the far left wanted sweeping amnesty. goes to show you how radical this legislation is going to be very democrats want to tamper with medicare and they went to interfere withta the statesca not to obamacare mandates on medicaid, they want to use healthcare dollars to line the pockets of special interest giveaways. they want to impose control and medicines i will leave us with and adds up to a massive

leap toward socialized medicine. but somehow this still only scratches the surface. democrats are also trying to force their an unprecedented federal takeover of american families childcare options that may leave faith-based childcare providers high and dry. the entire country can be march forward utility prices just what families want shaping up to be exactly what they promise the temporary pandemic as a trojan horse for permanent socialism. madam president on a related matter democrats have unified

control of the senate, the house, and the white house. their strategy for the spending pack tax hikes or deliberately defined with no republican input and receive no republican votes. since democrats decided to go it alone, i explained it clearly andco consistency we do not have divided government democrats do not need our help. they have every tool to address the debt limit on theire own, the same partyline processes to ram through inflationary spending in march and already plan to use again this fall.

the next spending spree democrats go alone. they put basic governing duties ahead of partisan wish lists. if they don't consequences for our country would be catastrophic. senate republicans would support a clean resolution that includes appropriate disaster relief and targeted afghan assistance. we will not support legislation that raises the debt limit. remember when the debt suspension lapsed inbt august, the death limit was automatically ratcheted up to account for all of the borrowing that had occurred up to that date. this is not about the past, this is about the future.

democrats want to build a partisan future without our input. democrats will not get bipartisan facilitatorsity for their partisan spending bid. >> democrats are fully capable of owning the steps themselves, democratic chairman of the house budget committee admitted just yesterday we can do it through reconciliation leadership is that. one party controls the entire government. they have the power to address this alone. and since july that is what they will need to do. now on one final matter,

represented rogers once described southeastern kentucky by saying they are honest, forthright, they can see through a phony and eight minute flash. it's befitting his constituents just he's honest, forthright and no phony. forio over 40 years he's fought for his home region and delivered unparalleled support for his development and his growth. in honor of how become the longest-serving representative and history of the commonwealth earlier this september, i would like to pay tribute to this one of a kind kentuckian. first met howell during the 1971 kentucky gubernatorial election. it's a rousing start in the state republican party, having just been elected with

considerable interest the same year ronald reagan was elected president. since then he has won reelection 19 times. always by a wide margin. he loves his corner of the state's consent did she went love him. once how it got to, he quickly went to work fighting for the issues his constituents care the most about. his hard-won legislative victory earned him praise from house republicans who capped him to live the appropriation subcommittee in the wake of the 911 terrorist attacks. eight years later, he became

chairman of the full house appropriations committee expertly coded spending, reducing waste and funds to important projects all across the country. as a former attorney he uses law enforcement credentials to protect from a wide array of threats. before america is paying full attention to the scourge of substance abuse help launch operation unites. the anti- narcotics initiative covers 32 kentucky counties and has been on the front lines of the fight against epi avoid epidemic helping to lock up thousands of criminals and a number of millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs from the streets. how is a lead promoter of investment in southeastern kentucky which, for too long has suffered economic distress and seen indifference from

washington. he united kentucky's appalachian counties around the shaping of our appalachian region to create a concerted effort to attract jobs and development to the region. he revolutionized southeast w kentucky's water infrastructure bringing water treatment centers to our state and championing flood protection measures. he wrangled federal funding for the cumberland gap and cumberland county which is described as most significant significant thing that's happened there since daniel boone began to bring sellers to the gap pretty helping the fine arts, locals are so appreciative of the many projects as the taj mahal that

something on a place that commemorates review visit southeast kentucky you will drive along the gorgeous parkway study groundbreaking technical advances at the advanced technological site. and learn's career skills as part of the scholar program. whitley county residents were so thankful for howell's work they even home of their new kentucky splash waterpark the hal rogers family entertainment center. and congress were just as fond as hal rogers as his constituents are back at home. i have proud to work alongside the premier legislator for nearly four decades. we share the same priorities for the people of kentucky and the same vision for our state, a great future. their children anthony allison and john he met and married

cynthia the love kentucky and their peoples howell breaks the record is a longest-serving u.s. representative in kentucky history, let us all give thanks to this great public servant and the entire rogers family. ♪ ♪ c-span's washington journal every day we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and talk about policy issues that impact you. coming up tuesday morning, kaiser health news discusses the provision of the 3.5 actually know it reconciliation package that would allow medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs. on the biden administration immigration and border policy. watch c spans "washington journal" live at seven eastern tuesday morning and be sure to the discussion with your phone

calls, text messages and tweets. >> tuesday morning homeland security secretary, fbi director christopher wray and national counterterrorism director testify on security threats to the u.s. live coverage of the senate homeland committee begins at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span three, online@c-span.org or listen on the free c-span radio app. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more including spark light. >> the greatest count on earth is the place you call home. at spark light is our home to right now we're all facing our greatest challenge for that is why spark light is working around the clock to keep you connected. we are doing our part so it's a little easier to do yours.

>> spark light support c-span as a public service along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. correct associate supreme court justice clarence thomas spoke at the university of notre dame about how we came to be on the court and how he views it today. >> thank you. thank you. thank you all. i feel like i should quit while i am ahead. [laughter] if i lookqu like i'm squinting is because i cannot see you all very well because of the lights. before i start, i would like to thank professor munoz and the center for inviting me and making it so