the presiding officer: the senator from ohio is recognized. mr. portman: i'm here on the senate floor today to talk once again about the so-called build back better legislation that democrats are trying to force through the system on a purely partisan basis on what is called reconciliation. i believe this tax and spend bill is the wrong way to go especially around the new covid concerns and record levels of debt. this is the ninth consecutive week that the senate's been in session that i've come to the senate floor to talk about specific reasons that i believe the build back better legislation is a bad deal for america. as we talked about before, this massive new spending bill represents the largest amount of spending ever passed by the u.s. congress. the official score is something like $1.7 trillion. you could argue the one that passed in march, $1.9 trillion

is the largest, this is the second largest one, but a lot of the spending has been camouflaged as has been said by the folks at penn wharton when analyzing this, when you take into the programs that will be popular like the child tax credit will likely continue and are sunsetted into the legislation. if not sunsetted, this would go from $1.5 trillion to $4.5 trillion. one analysis is a little higher than that. let's say 1 point -- much of the spending is what's called stimulus spending, adding to the demand side of the economy, adding to inflation. remember inflation is demand chasing supply. if there's not enough supply, there is inflation.

that's what many predicted with the $1.9 trillion legislation, that's what happened. with the high inflation already, record debt and so much uncertainty on covid and the possible need for so many federal resources there with regard to covid, massive spending, it seems to me right now, is the wrong thing to do. on the revenue side, the massive spending is not well thought out. i would like to focus on one new tax increase proposal in particular and this is the democrats' plan to impose a new 13% minimum tax on the domestic side, they call it a book tax. it's a tax on companies and workers and pensions, as we'll talk about, based on the financial statement. it's not based on income as we traditionally think about it as the tax code traditionally defines it, but it relies on

book value and it has negative consequences. the new book tax if put in effect would drive inflation higher and discourage key sections of the economy and jeopardize businesses that priefl pension funds for their employees. it is a new corporate alternative tax, but again the adjust -- adjusts the financial income of large corporations and not the i.r.s. tax. that would be reported to the s.e.c. through a form 10-k. this makes it different than the existing corporate income tax which is determined on income that these companies report to the i.r.s. because these two taxes are calculated using different base amounts, the 15% book tax can end up being larger for companies than the 21% income tax. the line you will likely hear from my colleagues is that it

will make big companies pay their fair share of taxes because it will apply to companies with a three-year average adjusted book income of more than $1 million, but the tax foundation and more show that it's actually the whoarks bear the brunt of these types of taxes in the form of lower wages, lower benefits, lost jobs, higher prices. i am also hearing about a number of specific unintended perhaps consequences and i'm certain there will be others as well. let's start with its effect on workers' retirements. under this proposal, a qualifying company ends up paying a certain tax on investment gains perhaps due to a change in interest rates on the employ pension funds. this is a new tax. right now if the pension fund has an income gain, that would not be taxed, but under this proposal it would be under the books tax proposal. so it's basically a tax on the

pensions. first, these gains shouldn't result in a tax to the company at all. companies do not have access to these pension investments. they sit in a segregated account, companies can't touch them nor should they be able to touch them and they make money for the retirement accounts for employees, that's the whole idea and for good reason investment funds should be invested and grow over time and that strengthens benefits for workers for their retirement. they would make more on pension gains than what the company makes in actual profits. some companies have contacted us with specific examples of this. they tend to be companies with big pension plans. if you have a large company with a large pension plan, let's say the company makes a profit of $100 million in a year, they could see their long-running pension fund gain a lot more than that, say $2 billion over

that same period. so under this tax plan that company would have to pay a 15% tax on that $2 billion in pension income or about $300 million on top of any normal income taxes. that business then has to make a tough choice because remember the base has only made $100 million in profit, you have a tax bill of $300 million because of the pension income. are you going to go bankrupt or take out loans to pay taxes? this is money that would otherwise be invested in people, in plant, in equipment, in our economy. but instead it's going toward paying a potentially large tax that is entirely counterproductive. third, of course, it discourages companies from investing in their workers' retirements. having more invested in pension plans is good for workers. i think we should encourage employers do the right thing and that's to have a defined benefit plan. there are few of them these

days, those that are left we don't want to drive employers out of them in my view. that's that's the view of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. certainly, a lot of union members who have these pensions. let's not forget that this tax could threaten the retirement of tens of thousands of union and nonunion workers alike. this tax proposal doesn't just jeopardize pensions. it could have a significant negative impact on how industries, particularly manufacturers, invest in growing their operations. according to data from the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation, the manufacturing sector leads all other sectors in the economy when it comes to the use of bonus debreerks, where you get to have -- de dede appreciation, where you get a immediate writeoff, that is part of the 2017 tax legislation, very important to retailers, hospitality and manufacturers who lead the way in terms of taking this

deduction. so it allows them to quickly and affordably invest in equipment, in new machinery, leading to higher productivity, leading to more jobs, what economists think is the most important thing we can do right now in our economy, which is to grow the supply side of the economy. under this new book tax, the democrats are proposing that deduction would not be able to be paid as it is now immediately, as bonus depreciation, but rather it would have to be paid over a longer period of time. making these critical investments a lot less likely to and leading to fewer hyers and lower productivity. this puts more pressure on inflation, because it increases on the demand side of the economy, if you don't do it. if you do it, it would increase on the supply side. you want to encourage investment in capital assets. that's good because it helps in terms of the supply side.

so, this bill has stimulus spending as we talked about, on the spending side, and more demand and lower investment is exactly the opposite of what we ought to be doing in terms of counting inflation. taking a broader view, both of these immediate negative impacts on the economy and workers, the taxes on pension funds and less financial incentive for investment, is going to lead to higher prices for consumers, which also increases inflation. it's even worse. from what i'm hearing, some of the biggest sponsors of pension plans are logistics and delivery companies, and i hope my colleagues are talking to these same companies that are reaching out to talk to us, but to pay for these additional costs, particularly the pension cost, they've told us they're likely going to have to increase costs, recuse customer services and suspend investment in new technology. at a time when many americans are already experiencing inflation and supply chain bottleneck, this is exactly the wrong prescription. the book tax proposal is one of the a lots of policies in this

reconciliation by that i think would be bad for the economy and for workers. maybe these specific problems we talked about today were just overlooked in the rush to produce a bill without going through any of the normal committee processes, including the finance committee, which hasn't looked at this. those issues would have emerged, i'm sure, had the ways and means committee and finance committee had the opportunity to review it and analyze it. or maybe the plan is to just overwhelm the american people with so many dramatic changes to our tax code that they won't notice how irresponsible any single one might be. whatever the case, it's clear that this book tax has not been properly vetted. it's time for congress to slow down this process so that we can properly understand the consequences of these policies on the american people, these massive tax-and-spend proposals are wad bad for -- bad for the economy, certainly bad for inflation, bad for business and most importantly bad for workers and their jobs. i yield back my time.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri is recognized. >> mr. blunt: mr. president, this is always a very busy time of the year if we're still here. it's been years in the last couple decades where we actually got our work done fairly close to the time that the spending year started. we're not close to doing that now, and in fact the apparent best-case scenario is we'll need to extend this year's spending, the spending that ended on september 30, through most of the month of february before we really can get down to the work that you and i would like to see happen, as we serve on the appropriations committee.

so we're here a lot of times in december, but we're seldom here in december without having made a real start on the work that has to be done, instead of the work that has to be done we seem to be down to the work that our friends on the other side really want to do, and of course, that means the trillions of dollars of spending beyond what we would normally spend. that's been described by people as transformative, as once in a century, as f.d.r.-like. the one thing it is for sure is it's 100% partisan. nobody expects a single member of the senate on the republican side to vote for this reckless tax-and-spending bill. you can tell, if you listen to the description of the bill, that there's beginning to be more and more worry about what the american people are thinking that this bill might really wind

up doing to their families and to the country. when they hear that it's going to be transformative, when they hear that the entire economy will be different and people's problems will change in dramatic ways, people really begin to have to wonder how that happens, particularly when we hear that this won't cost anything. well, of course it's going to cost something, and you can say all you want to, the cost is zero, but the cost can't possibly be zero of something that's going to transform the economy and solve people's problems. somebody's going to have to pay for that. at one time, it appeared that, well, maybe we'll just raise every bit of those extra spending dollars on new tax dollars. that hasn't happened yet in any bill that's been brought forward. in fact, the bill that the senate is going to receive from the house has a actual deficit,

even by the congressional budget office standards of about $350 billion. you know, in 2019, we almost decided that we couldn't move forward on the debt ceiling because the speaker of the house said we're not going to help on the debt ceiling unless there's another $19 billion of domestic spending. this is 2019. we spent weeks fighting about whether we'd spend another $ 19 billion. the secretary of the treasury, secretary mnuchin was down here about once or twice every week in the negotiations that it would take to decide if we're going to spend $19 billion. now we're talking about a $ 350 billion adirks to the -- addition to the national debt.

and that's even if you accept all the gimmicks in the bill. now, there are other negative effects as well. one of those big negative effects will be, of course, the impact of inflation on families, and we're already seeing both the impact of the big spending bill, in march, the $ 1.9 trillion of spending that out of nowhere came not economy, totally unpaid for, totally partisan. last year, we had five bipartisan bills that both sides worked hard to do what we needed to to respond to covid, to try to stabilize the economy. this year, we started off the year in march with a almost $2 trillion totally partisan bill, and that partisan bill is beginning to have the kind of effects you would expect it would have. costs are going up. there's more money out there. and mostly, mr. president, there's just money that's just made up out of thin air.

it's borrowed, where the government's borrowing from itself. we're issuing bonds and buying the bonds at the fed, and then sending money to people and they're spending that money. and of course, that has has impact on costs. and then there are energy policies that have impact on costs as well. the immediate decision to not move forward with the significant energy pipeline that was being built, the immediate decision to do what we could to reduce domestic production of energy. and that's had exactly the results you would expect it would have, just like putting this money into the economy has had the results. so, you know, everything from home heating costs, which are estimated to go up as much as 50% this year, if the weather is no worse than last year, to filling up your gas tank, where you have a chance of setting a new personal record every time

you pull up to the gas tank and wonder how much money you can put in that empty gas tank today, to buying groceries, to even getting people together for the holidays. now, independent analysis of the big tax-and-spending spree say that the number isn't 191 ps -- $1.7 trillion, but about three times that, about $4.8 trillion. now, how could you go from 1.7 to 4.8 just like that? you do it by assuming, as our friends who are sponsors of the bill do, that the spending in the bill will actually be spent over the entire ten years. there's one program where families with kids at home get a check every month from the government. that program costs about $450 billion a year, and it's in the bill for one year.

well, nobody on the other side believes it's going to be in the bill for one year, and nobody voting against the bill is at all certain that it's going to be there for one year, and most of the analysis say no, that's going to be there for not one year but all ten years. so, you add another $450 billion times nine and suddenly you've added trillions more in spending to the bill. our other programs last two years, and some programs last four years. almost none of the programs that are to be paid for in ten years, and even with a $350 billion deficit, almost none of the programs to be paid for in ten years last ten years. they are just in there to get the program started, to get people convinced that they really need the government to do something for them that the government hasn't done before, and then see if we can extend that. you know, as i mentioned back in march, we've already done this

once with a totally partisan, $ 1.9 trillion spending bill, and what happened after march? we got inflation to a 30-year high in the august numbers, and consumer confidence to a ten-year low. you got to work pretty hard to get inflation at a 30-year high and consumer confidence at a ten-year low, but that's what happens when you put $ 1.9 trillion in the economy that wouldn't have been there otherwise. so what would happen if you put $4.8 trillion in the economy that wouldn't be there otherwise? the people that are most impacted by the results of that are the very people that the bill purportedly is designed to help. we're going to solve all your problems. well, first of all, the government's not going to get that done. we're going to solve americans' everyday problems. but if you do that by raising

their costs higher than their pay can go up, you haven't done anybody a favor. you know, president biden campaigned on a return to normal, but he's governing on what his self-described allies say is radical change. well, sure, those two things seem to me to be in pretty big conflict. you can't have return to normal and radical change at the same time. and mr. president, there was no mandate in the last election. the senate is as evenly divided as it could possibly be, 50-50. in the house, democrats have the closest margin that they've had in 170 years, and one of the closest margins that anybody has had in decades. you know, americans wants their elected representatives to stop selling every crisis as an opportunity to impose another one-sided view of how the country needs to move forward.

you hear and i hear at home and even from the press, when is the congress going to work together? well, we worked together last year to do five bills to respond to the covid and economic crisis, and we did that together. that was a pretty good model. and frankly, i think it was the model that the american people were thinking about when they sent this closely divided congress and a fairly closely divided presidential race to the conclusion of the election. families need real solutions to the challenges they face. reckless tax and spending driving inflation, sending gas prices to all-time highs and home heating prices to all-time highs, and increasing the costs at the grocery store, if there are things to buy at the grocery store, by 15% or 20%, surely isn't what we want to pass on to our children, our grandchildren,

our people, hard-working families out there today trying to make things happen and make things better for their families. and i would yield back.

the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts is recognized. mr. markey: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i want to spend a quick moment saying a fond thank you and farewell to a staff member of mine who is leaving. my deep gratitude to ashley harrington, who is off to great adventures, our sadness of her leaving is matched only by our excitement for her as she starts

her next chapter. thank you for your dedication, your humor, your invaluable skills. we are going to miss thank you throughout our entire office. i come here, mr. president, today to speak in support of suffolk county district attorney rachael rollins to serve as district attorney for massachusetts. i'm saddened that i have to come to the floor to talk about this person is a testament to the partisanship of my republican colleagues. before i share more of district attorney's rollins record, the record that my colleagues have mischaracterized, i want to talk

about how partisan this has become. the judiciary committee held a roll call vote on rachael rollins nomination to serve as u.s. attorney for the district of massachusetts. she was voted out of committee on an 11-11 vote. all democrats voted aye, all republicans opposed the nomination. with this vote, judiciary committee republicans eviscerated a three-decade precedent of voice votes for u.s. attorney nominees for all 50 states every single time. the committee had last held a roll call vote on a u.s. attorney nominee in 1993, and based on a review of available materials before the 117th congress, the judiciary committee had only ever held a roll call vote on three u.s.

attorney nominees in 1993, 1982, and 1975. the senate last required cloture on a u.s. attorney nominee in 1993 but ultimately confirmed that nominee by voice vote, and, listen to this, the senate last held a roll call vote on the floor of the senate on a u.s. attorney nominee in 1975. we've held more impeachment votes on the floor of the senate than votes on u.s. attorney nominees since 1975. this obstruction of district attorney rollins nomination is unwarranted, unfounded, and unprecedented. let me underscore that last point. during the trump administration, judiciary committee democrats

agreed to voice vote all 85 u.s. attorney nominees who came before them despite disagreements with multiple nominees' records and ideology. all 85 of those u.s. attorneys in the trump era were processed by the judiciary committee and received a voice vote with no recorded opposition. and the senate, likewise, confirmed all 85 by unanimous consent on the senate floor during the donald trump era. the opposition to rachael rollins is nothing more than a deeply partisan ploy to score political points at the expense of the record of a respected, qualified, courageous, black female, progressive district attorney. it is offensive and it is not in service to public safety in

massachusetts or across our nation. let me tell you about district attorney rachael rollins and why her record has garnered support from all corners of the law enforcement community in massachusetts and new england and from republicans and democrats alike. district rollins has public safety in her blood. her father, a second-generation irish american, fought in the vietnam war and later worked as a corrections officer many her maternal grandparents are from barb ados and her mother is a first-generation american. she represents the very best of what this country is about, opportunity, public service, and plain, old hard work. as the district attorney for the county emcompassing boston and surrounding cities, district

attorney rollins has success as a prosecutor. she leads ans office of 300 employees, including more than 150 lawyers who handle 25,000 new criminal case filings and a thousand criminal investigations annually. she leads a very busy office efficiently and effectively. on the most serious crimes her record is unassailable. in 2019, rollins first full year in office, the homicide unit's number of completed trials increased by 21%. boston homicides declined by 31% in 2019, making it the lowest number in decades and she aggressively prosecutes drug trafficking. between january 1, 2021, and october 12, 2021, just this year, the suffolk county d.a.

office has prosecuted 147 trafficking cases. of those cases 98 involved charges of trafficking fentanyl, accounting 67% of drug trafficking prosecutions. district rollins has prosecuted more drug traffickers than her predecessor. i have personally met with and talked with district rollins on multiple occasions, about the opioid epidemic fueled by fentanyl. there is no one more dedicated to ending that scourge than she is. she is committed to using the d.a. office to hold fentanyl drug traffickers wholly accountable and her record proves that. her record on investigations is equally remarkable. in 2020 the homicide unit expanded its investigations by 44%. the major felony unit increased its by 22%. the human trafficking and exploitation unit by 19%, the

special prosecution's unit by 33%. under district attorney roll inns -- rollins leadership, her office has been the most successful in going after crime in it doesn't end there. district rollins has demonstrated a commitment to working with law enforcement and build community safety and build trust between the community and law enforcement officers. she and her office are a true partner for her colleagues and it is reflected in the coordination that they prioritize. in june of 2020, she organized a key discussion with law enforcement executives from greater boston to have an open dialogue about policing practices in light of the racial reckoning that followed the murder of george floyd.

with her leadership, district attorney rollins and the law enforcement executives signed a letter committed to change and ensuring that there would be open communication on that topic. district attorney rollins recognized an historic moment law enforcement was confronting in the wake of the floyd murder and she reached out to her law enforcement partners to show a united front in their commitment to justice. rachael rollins is proof that you can enforce laws and promote justice and that the community wants both. as a result of this leadership, the suffolk county law enforcement executives wrote a letter in support of her nomination to serve as u.s. attorney for the district of massachusetts and in that letter they highlighted the respect she has for the work they do to keep communities safe. and in the wake of two incidents of hate against the jewish

community that occurred this summer, district attorney rollins led the response using the resources of her office to investigate the incidents transparently and fully. she personally ensured that there would be a focus on this issue. she attended vigils for both events to ensure that there would be a commitment that was heard that the safety of the communities that had been directly impacted would be protected. in a letter from the antidefamation league of new england, it said of her actions, quote, in the aftermath of the incidents she demonstrated true solidarity with the effected communities. the commitment to this ideal cannot be overstated. rachael rollins is a prosecutor

at her core, but she also believes in restorative justice and is one of massachusetts' greatest advocates for victims of crime. the local organizations that advocate for the rights of victims and their families, including mothers for justice and equality, the children's advocacy center, the rape crisis center and the boston medical center violence center advocacy, all wrote letters supporting rachael rollins. they said her determination to bring to justice those who commit crimes against community is needed at the highest levels of federal prosecution. the children's advocacy center of suffolk county described her as a leader who clearly prioritizes the needs of children and families, bringing an approach that is both victim centered and squarely focused on

offender accountability. district attorney rollins is clear eyed in her commitment to justice. justice for victims, justice for families, justice for children and justice for the communities that have not historically benefited from a system that has punished color, class, and creed. she is working to restore faith in the system by building a system that works for everyone. before she was district attorney from 2007 to 2011, she served as assistant united states attorney for the district of massachusetts. there she prosecuted civil and criminal cases, defended the federal government an agencies in civil -- and agencies in civil suits and recovered damages for fraud and false claims submitted to the congress. based on this record, she has the support of many law enforcement agencies and

political leaders. about district attorneys rollins, a group of current and former major city police wrote, we do not always get along, we in fact, we have disagree strokly on issues. we can say that she respects us in the work we do to keep our communities safe. she can admit when she is wrong. she can also be incredibly persuasive when she is right. the constant throughout every encounter we have is a mutual respect and a willingness to learn from each other. so, for my republican colleagues, let let me share the bottom-line statistic: crime is down in boston. despite the continued rise in crime nationwide in 2021, murder in boston, murders in boston have dropped by one-third so far this year. according to data from the boston police department, there have been 32 homicides in the

first nine months of 2021, down from 45 homicides this time last year. murder is down in boston. the city also saw a decrease in many types of violent crime, including domestic assault, property crimes, such as auto theft and burglary are also down in the city of boston during her tenure as our district attorney. we know there is much more work to be done to ensure public safety and to promote justice, but under district attorney rollins' leadership boston is on the right trajectory. most of what we have heard from my republican colleagues in the committee hearing and out here on the floor is simply untrue. suffolk county district attorney rachael rollins is a strong black woman committed to racial racial justice with a better record on crime than other

old-school prosecutors, and it just plain scares them. her approach scares them because it's working in boston. it can be a model for the rest of the country. rachael rollins is not soft on crime. she is smart on crime. yes, district attorney rollins is a progressive prosecutor, but more importantly she is an effective prosecutor. her extensive law enforcement credentials and proven track record on reducing crime and supporting victims is clear, and it is undeniable. she is the right candidate for u.s. attorney in massachusetts, and senator warren and i deeply and proudly recommend her to the senate for confirmation. i have known district attorney rollins since she baby sat for

my brother's family. she is a dear friend and a love friend, and i have been so fortunate to know her. and massachusetts has been so fortunate to have her as one of our top law enforcement officials. she is one of the smartest, most effective, most respected leaders in the commonwealth of massachusetts, and her record proves that unequivocally. despite the republican effort to politicize her nomination and mischaracterize her record, i am confident that she will be confirmed as our next united states attorney. i urge all of my colleagues to vote yes on this discharge motion as unnecessary as it should be, and to support the confirmation of rachael rollins as the next attorneys attorney -- united states attorney for the district of massachusetts. thank you, mr. president, and i yield back.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah is recognized. mr. lee: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are

not. mr. romney: i come to the floor to echo the sentiments of my colleague,. mr. rubio: . are refusing to allow a vote on a provision, the uighur forced labor provision act that prevents chinese goods made with forced labor, slave labor, from entering the united states. this bill was previously passed by the senate. mr. romney: on a unanimous vote. the chinese communist party's atrocities against its minorities, particularly the uighur people, include genocide and crimes against humanity. these are well-known. uighur women are forcibly sterilized and impregnated by han chinese men. adults are ripped from their families, sentenced into concentration camps and carry out slave labor. it's estimated that nearly one million uighur people are being treated this way and held in these camps. there's no question that it

should be u.s. policy to hold accountable those responsible for the forced labor of the uighurs and ensure that companies, our companies, are monitoring their supply chains and circumstances of workers making products in china to make sure those products that are made by slave labor against the uighur people are not brought into this country. that's the feeling of the unanimous vote of the senators, which we already expressed. congressional democratic leadership is claiming that the problem with including this amendment is a technicality. but let's be clear that what's really happening here is there are some corporations the democrats don't want to offend. for example, democrats want cheap batteries for their so-called build back better agenda and nearly 80% of the rare earth's including other materials like lithium and cobalt and the like used to make those batteries come from china.

let's underscore this -- when companies and politicians avert their eyes from china's predations, from china's slavery , they're effectively paying the cannibals to eat them last. china is coming for them, and it's coming for us. now, we have in this year's national defense authorization act the opportunity to strike a blow against china's slavery. i implore speaker pelosi and leader schumer to move past procedural roadblocks and send a clear, convincing message to china and the world at large that goods produced with slave labor are not allowed in the united states of america.

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from indiana is recognized. a senator: madam president, i rise today in prib butte to reverend melvin girten, dean the pastors and servant of god and great hoosier. his death on october 29 has left a terrible absence, one that cannot be filled. for over half a century from 1964 to 2015, dr. guertin was pastor at the christ missionary baptist church, the same indianapolis church, home where he was baptized as a young boy. the number of years dr. guertin shepherded his flock is astonishing. the number of lives he touched and bettered among and beyond it is incalculable. mr. young: he made his church a

family. he walked with his congress gants -- congress gants through their lives and challenges. in difficult times he reminded them to look up because brighter days were ahead. when one of us -- his congregants needed surgery, he arrived at the hospital to find dr. guertin waiting there to reassure her everything would be report -- reassure her everything would be all right and it was. he blessed their marriages, welcomed their children and even taught them to buy cars and homes. and he prepared and opened the doors for countless other pastors to follow him. drl guertin was also a great lover of history which is fitting since he made a great deal of it himself. during the civil rights sphrugle he led from the pulpit, on the picket lines, during the marches to the governor's mansion. and he worked with hoosiers from

all walks of life. his work made great strides for equality and pushed americans to realize our founding promise. it was a time when indianapolis' restaurants and theaters were segregated. its neighborhoods closed to black citizens. if rising generations of hoosiers have no memory of this shame, it's because men like dr. guertin ended it. he fought to open up the city's businesses, to make access to housing equal. on april 4, 1968, dr. guertin sat all night with robert f. kennedy in his indianapolis hotel room after the senator told a heart broken crowd of martin luther king junior's murder. the next day he organized a memorial to dr. king at the

soldier and sailors monument at the city's center. now, indianapolis is one of the few metropolitan areas in america that did not erupt in violence after dr. king's death. senator kennedy's beautiful and conciliatory speeches often credited for this, but the work of dr. guertin and other city leaders played just as important a part. long after the civil rights movement he preached kindness and love and labored to advance opportunity. he served as vice president for the indianapolis branch of the naacp. he was twice the vice president of the billy graham crew side and regularly hosted the emancipation proclamation service, an annual celebration of that document of freedom. always searching for ways to help his neighbors and the late 1990's.

dr. guertin transformed a boarded up indianapolis strip mall into a community center providing job training, employment opportunities, a laundromat, a senior senator, and even an ice cream -- senior center and even an ice cream. when he reached christ mission-year, he called it a short 50 years. no wonder. five incredible decades in a life of great purpose. now, he wasn't entirely comfortable with the term legend, but that's what he was. his passing deprives not just his community but his country of a pillar. despite the grief, it's hard not to be encouraged by such a wonderful life. full of years, lasting achievements, courageous stand, admiring friend, and many loving

children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, dr. guertin would often say god is with me. god is in me. god works through me. he was and he did. thank you, madam president.

mr. cotton: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas is recognized. mr. cotton: a couple of hours, senator schumer is bringing to the floor one of the most dangerous pro-crime anticop u.s. nominees in american history. the senate floor leader wants to ram through president biden's extreme nominee to be the u.s. attorney for massachusetts, the current suffolk county district attorney racheal rollins.

in doing so the democrats are showing they don't care about crime as a crime wave crashes across the country. they do not support law enforcement. and they have a wanton disregard for the safety and security of americans. now, it is true that we rarely have record votes on u.s. attorneys in the senate. in fact, i think it's been 28 years. it's also true that racheal rollins is so radical that she is without precedent as a nominee to be the u.s. attorney. racheal rollins is the very epitome of a sorrows prosecutor but it's generous to call her a prosecutor at all. for those of you who don't know the term soros prosecutor refers to the wave of so-called progressive, political activists backed by wealthy liberal mega donors like george soros who have run for local district attorney and state attorney positions throughout the country with the express purpose, the express purpose of igniting revolution and destroying our

criminal justice systems from within. they have left at trail of death, pain, suffering, and misery in their wake. chicago has already had more than 1,000 murders this year -- 1,000 murders -- with a month to go. philadelphia has already had more than 500. already an all-time record. crime is so bad in san francisco that they closed down town on black friday to avoid gangs of armed robbers smashing into resale stores and stealing everything in sight. they closed it on black friday because the radical s some of the s -- because the radical soros prosecutor in san francisco has destroyed the city so much that the city officials have already announced a recall petition against him. and just last weekend in waukesha, a career criminal with

a rap sheet as long as your arm committed mass murder, one of the deadliest murders in recent years while he was out on a thousand-dollar bail. consistently committed violent crimes for 20 years, and the soros prosecutor said it may have been admitted lid low but that is not the unintended consequence of these prosecutors. that is the intended consequence of to destroy our criminal system from the inside, to let violent repeat felons out immediately and not keep them on bail and then to not charge them with the appropriate crimes and then to reduce their sentences when they're convicted. with a do they all have in common? they were all pro-criminal soros

prosecutes. she is he's one of the most preeminent legal arsonists in the country. she is a founding member of an organization of soros prosecutors called the truth in justice and reconciliation commission which claims that the attorney justice system -- this is a quote, that is direct quote -- has been a cruel and oppressive force of injustice for all marginalized communities. she also claims -- this is again a direct quote -- this isn't a bug in the system; a feature. it's operating exactly the way it was designed and built to function. that's her view of our criminal justice system. that it is a cruel and oppressive force for marginalized communities. that is critical race theory. she believed that it is rotten to its core. the democrats want to put her in

charge of prosecuting criminals in the largest state in new england. rollins hopes to destroy the criminal justice system from within. that's not hyperbole. until he was nominated for this office, of course, when asked why she became a prosecutor last year, she answered -- again, this is a direct quote; i am not making it up. you may find it hard to believe. these are her own words, why she wanted to be a prosecutor. quote, i chose to jump into this job to dismantle the system from the inside. soon after being sworn in as the district attorney of suffolk county, she declared that she was going to battle, going to battle, against the u.s. attorney on offenses like opioids, marijuana, and immigration. just think about that. a newly elected prosecutor in the largest city of a state

decided that her mission was not to stop criminals, not to protect innocent civilians, but to stop the u.s. attorney in that state from prosecuting criminals and now she wants that job for herself. i don't think so. mrs. rollins also published a list of 15 crimes that she would refuse to prosecute except in special cases, sending the clear message to criminals that it was open season to commit these crimes. among the crimes on rollins' presumptive do not prosecute list are not just things like jaywalking, but things like drug trafficking with intent to distribute, including fentanyl; malicious destruction of property; criminal threats, break and entering; frees passing; resisting arrest and more. this isn't an exercise of

prosecutorial discretion in a case with exceptional circumstances. this is prosecutorial nullification, the legislature of massachusetts passed criminal laws that prosecutors are elected to enforce, and she refuses to enforce them. what do you think she will do to our federal criminal laws? what do you think she will do to you if you are a homeowner in if you have folk county and -- in suffolk county and someone trespasses and walks up to your window. you won't be prosecuted. if you are home, they will just walk off the lot and wait until you leave. you dial 911 and the police won't even answer because they know rachael rollins won't answer. this is the woman joe biden nominated to be a u.s. attorney in this country. i don't think so. rollins has tarred police officers has murderers, causing the boston police patrolmen's association to condemn her for, quote, undoubtedly inciting

violence against the proud men and women of the boston police department. her response naturally was to accuse the boston police of white fragility. that's not a summary. that's an exact quote. she accused the boston police of white fragility. there's a word for what mrs. rollins trafficks in. and that word is racism, presuming that every officer in the boston police department is illiterate go of white fragility, presumably the black and the hispanic and the asian ones, too. the truth is that rollins has nothing but contempt for the rule of law. if she is confirmed, the citizens of massachusetts and new hampshire and all of new england will suffer the dangerous consequences. we've already seen these consequences in her own county. in 2020 the first school year in which her policies have been enforced, boston's violent crime rate surged and the number of

murder skyrocketed by 38%. when rollins took office, suffolk county has the fifth highest numbers of opioid deaths. by the end of 2020, suffolk county's opioid deaths had increased by 32%. suffolk county had become the second deadliest county for opioid overdoses. if rollins' abysmal record is brought to massachusetts, it also poses a significant threat to the health and safety of the people of new england, especially new hampshire, a threat that extends beyond the 100,000 granite staters who work in massachusetts. rollins' insane drug policies would worsen the drug epidemic which is already ravaging new hampshire. the opioid crisis, which is fueled by narcotics smuggled from massachusetts, is responsible for over 80% of drug

overdose deaths in new hampshire. cartels and traffickers use boston to smuggle vast quantities of heroin and other drugs into new hampshire. rollins' failure to vigorously enforce federal drug laws in massachusetts will severely harm families and communities not just in her own state but in new hampshire and across new england. rollins' appalling statements, actions, and records cause republicans on the senate judiciary committee to unanimously -- unanimously -- oppose her nomination. that is a nearly unprecedented action for a u.s. attorney nomination. it's not one that we took lightly. by contrast, for example, republicans have allowed president biden's other 15 u.s. attorney nominees across the country to go through committee a simple voice vote. it goes to show that mrs. rollins is uniquely unfit for the role of u.s. attorney and deserves no deference from

the senate and no confirmation. if the democrats vote to confirm rachael rollins, they will be responsible for every action she takes. it's not a secret. it's right here in her record. and when crime spikes in massachusetts and crime spikes in new hampshire, democratic senators who are on the ballot next year are going to answer for it, and i promise, i will be there to make you answer for it if you vote for her today. and if you are a soros prosecutor around the country watching in nomination today and you think maybe you're next in ms. rollins is confirmed, maybe you can be the u.s. attorney, maybe you can be the attorney general in your state, i promise you -- this will not be the start of a trend. i will stop at nothing to make sure that none of you, ever, achieve higher office and none of you get react willed because you are a danger -- get reelected because you are a danger to the families and communities of this country. president biden should

immediately withdraw mrs. rollins' nomination and consider submitting someone who would actually be a prosecutor rather than a pro-crime defund-had the -- defund-the-police activist. madam president, i yield the floor.

ms. warren: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from mass a mass is recognized. ms. warren: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. ms. warren: all right. i rise today in support of rachael rollins, the u.s. attorney nominee for the district of massachusetts. rachael grew up in massachusetts. her dad fought in vietnam and then returned to massachusetts to become a corrections officer. he sent his oldest daughter to college, umass amherst and then to law school at northeastern. she went on to get a masters in law from georgetown. she's had experience across a broad range of public service

jobs. in 2018, she decided to run for district attorney of suffolk county, which includes the city of boston, and in that race, she promised to decriminalize certain low-level offenses such as shoplifting or drug possession. the people of suffolk county embraced her and embraced her ideas, giving her 73% of the vote. she is the first woman of color to be elected as d.a. in massachusetts, and if confirmed by this body, she will be the first black twom serve as u.s. attorney in massachusetts. she has the enthusiastic support of my partner ed markey and myself. rollins devoted her career to transforming the criminal justice system so it actually reduces crime and provides equal justice for all. her reform efforts have frequently focused on the root

causes of crime and have taken aim at poverty, substance use disorders and racial disparity. since her nomination was announced, dozens of prominent massachusetts republicans, democrats, and nonpartisan law enforcement officials, numbers of community advocates and members of the legal community have written in support of her nomination. among those who have spoken out publicly on her behalf are massachusetts former republican governor bill weld, former u.s. attorneys, and the suffolk county law enforcement executives, and many, many others. these are the people who know her best, the people who have worked with her, the people who know her record of success as a prosecutor. now, rachael has implemented some innovative policies exactly as she promised to do when she

ran for district attorney. those policies may not be the preferred policies of some senators, but the facts speak for themselves. these policies are designed to improve the administration of justice and to reduce crime, and they work. in the months following her start as a d.a. in 2019, homicides in suffolk county reached a 20-year low. and while homicides increased in 2020 as part of a nationwide trend following the start of the pandemic, a trend that was also seen in states like arkansas and texas, recent data from the boston police department shows that homicides in boston declined by nearly a third in the first nine months of 2021. that drop, a drop of nearly a third in homicides, stands in stark contrast with nationwide

crime statistics. it's not just violent crime either. the city saw a decline in property crimes like thefts and burglaries this year as well. rollins has demonstrated that progressive policies can be effective in cutting serious crimes, which seems to frustrate her opponents. the policies that rollins has pursued has helped drive down crime in our state, but it is also the strong partnership she has built with law enforcement leaders from suffolk county that have been crucial. in fact, leadership from the boston police department, the massachusetts state police, the revere police department, the chelsea police department, the mbta transit police department and winthrop police department wrote a joint letter to the senate to express their strong

support of rachael rollins to be u.s. attorney. while they admit they have not always seen eye to eye with her, they also note that rollins, quote, respects us and the work we do to keep our communities safe. she can admit when she is wrong. she can also be incredibly persuasive when she is right. they add, each of us has worked closely with d.a. rollins on pressing and significant issues within our respective jurisdictions. she is responsive, attentive, and diligent. her focus is on victims and how the community is impacted by violence and harm. nobody should be surprised that rollins' approach to prosecution is yielding reductions in crime. nonpartisan research published by the national bureau of economic research confirms why this is the case.

after an analysis of 17 years of data and over 67,000 cases from suffolk county's d.a.'s office, the study found that defendants whose misdemeanors charges were dropped before arraignment were 58% less likely to return to the criminal justice system in the next two years. and they were more likely to avoid charges for any serious violent crimes. by pursuing these policies, rollins has freed up limited resources in her office to focus on the people and the crimes that actually pose the biggest threats to the community. now, critics are quick to distort these statistics, and rollins record and the details of her approach. this partisan sniping here in washington bears no relationship to the reality on the ground in

suffolk county, massachusetts. for example, even with her reform policies in place, rachael has prosecuted more drug traffickers than her predecessor between january 1 and october 12 of this year the suffolk county d.a.'s office prosecuted 147 trafficking cases. of those, charges of traffic in fentanyl accounted for 67% of the total drug trafficking prosecutions. just by comparison, her predecessor prosecuted only 130 trafficking cases during the entirety of 2018, of which only 40% involved fentanyl trafficking charges. now look, it is no surprise that some right-wing voices have sought to make an issue out of rollins' nomination, and it is

unfortunate that many republicans who should know better have fallen in line behind this campaign of fearmongering. when a roll call vote on her nomination was forced in the judiciary committee in september, republicans quickly tossed out three decades worth of precedent and attempted for the first time in over a generation to override the president's choice of a u.s. attorney nomination. i want to remind my colleagues that every single one of the 85 u.s. attorneys nominated by trump, every single one was moved by voice vote despite significant disagreements about the policies, views, and records of several of those nominees. every single one of them. but rachael rollins and president biden couldn't get that same kind of consideration.

this kind of political grand standing has unjustly deferred the confirmation process not only for rachael rollins, but for many other well-qualified nominees who just want to get to work serving the people of this country. it is also extraordinarily disrespectful to the scores of on-the-ground law enforcement leaders in massachusetts and others who support this nomination. our police chiefs, our prosecutors, our former u.s. attorneys, our former governors, republicans and democrats, do not need to be told by national politicians, who know nothing about our communities, that their support and their understanding of what we need just really doesn't matter. they do not need to be told that the personal political benefit of attacking this well-respected

prosecutor is somehow more important than what all of the data and all of their own experiences tell them about what actually reduces crime and improves the administration of justice in massachusetts. what our law enforcement professionals need, what the entire commonwealth of massachusetts needs is for the senate to confirm this highly-qualified nominee. now, i have every confidence that rachael rollins will continue her partnership with law enforcement, with community advocates, and with other key members of the legal community to ensure the safety and the well-being of all of the people of the commonwealth in her new role. i look forward to the renewed energy and innovative vision that she will bring to the u.s. attorney's office. senator markey and i want to publicly thank or massachusetts bipartisan advisory committee for all of the work they did to

identify and recommend candidates like rachael rollins to the role of u.s. attorney. and i want to thank president biden for nominating her to this position. i urge my colleagues to set aside nasty, personal attacks on a supremely well-qualified woman and to support the discharge and ultimate confirmation of rachael rollins, a supremely qualified candidate who is ready to serve on day one as the next u.s. attorney for the district of massachusetts. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan is recognized. ms. stabenow: thank you, madam president. first i want to thank my colleague from massachusetts for her important comments about a very important, well-qualified nominee. and secondly, i have four requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. ms. stabenow: thank you, madam president. today i rise to peek about a heartbreaking tragedy that far too many american families and communities are familiar with. americans have learned that gun violence can happen in anyplace anyplace, at any time, in any state, and any town. this time the community is

oxford, michigan, home to about 20,000 people in northwest oakland county. it's a place with beautiful lakes and bike trails. it's a place where people know each other it's the kind of place where neighbors might drop off some christmas cookies or clear your sidewalk after a snowstorm since they were doing theirs anyway. and now it's the kind of place that has been needlessly, senselessly shattered by unspeakable violence. it was a typical tuesday at oxford high school, home of the wildcats. the oxford band and orchestra recently returned from the trip of a lifetime, performing at disney world. student leaders were celebrating a successful thanksgiving food drive. almost 5,500 cans of food collected for the local food

pantry. and athletes in winter sports were getting ready for meet the teams night. but in an instant everything changed. everything changed. we're still learning the details and, frankly, that's not what's important. what's important is that tharntions to the -- thanks to the cold efficiency of modern weaponry it took mere minutes for a gunman to shatter a community. thankfully law enforcement officers showed up within minutes, but still 11 people were shot. tragically, four students have died. and we hope and pray that there are not more deaths. but several other oxford students remain in the hospital in critical condition.

a typical tuesday in a typical high school in 2021 in america. madisyn baldwin was a 17-year-old with a beautiful smile. according to her grandmother, she was a kind and patient big sister and an artist. she had already been accepted to a number of colleges. justin shilling, also 17, was cocaptain of the school's bowling team and also loved to golf. he worked at anita's kitchen, a lebanese cafe in nearby lake orion where his boss said everybody loved him. tate myre, age 16, and a tight end and running back on the oxford football team, had recently been honored by the

michigan high school football coaches association. he was also an honor student who was known as a leader both on the field and in the classroom.. and hana st. juliana was just 14 years old. she was passionate about volley volley -- volleyball and basketball. her teammates said they will never forget her kind heart, silly personality and passion for the game. she dedicated their upcoming season in her memory. madison, justin, tate, and hana, four lives that were just beginning, four losses that have

left their families and the community struggling -- struggling to understand. and we certainly know that oxford is not alone. this year alone there have been shootings at 29 schools in our country -- 29 schools from rigby middle school in rigby, idaho, to timberland high school in arlington, texas, to the shooting in newport news, virginia. no community is immune. just ask the grieving residents, the grieving parents of oxford. this community will come together -- they already have. they will hold prayer vigils and deliver casseroles and wrap their arms around these

shattered families. but in god's name, why should i- why should they have to? high school students should be sharing memories of last year's band trip or celebrating a successful food drive or looking forward to the spotlight of meet the teams night. they shouldn't be ducking for cover in their classrooms or fighting for their lives in the i.c.u. because they just happen to be in the wrong hallway at the wrong time. and they certainly shouldn't have their names mentioned during a speech on a floor of the united states senate after yet another school shooting in 2021 in america.

madisyn, justin, tate, hana, and the more than 100 americans killed by gun violence every day deserve more than thoughts and prayers. they deserve action to keep them safe and we certainly will focus on this in the days ahead. what i know for sure right now, though, is that we must refuse to settle for a world in which a typical tuesday turns into such tragedy. my deepest heartfelt sympathies to everyone in oxford and throughout our state. i share in their grieving of this senseless, senseless tragedy.

i yield the floor to my partner and colleague in the united states senate, senator peters. mr. peters: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan is recognized. mr. peters: madam president, there is no words that can capture the terror and tragedy of the horrific events that unfolded at oxford high school on tuesday afternoon. in a matter of minutes, a routine school day was twisted into scenes of chaos, shattering the safe environment that oxford high students and teachers and families trusted in. the shocking event will change their lives forever, my heart breaks for every michigander who

continues to be affected by this tragedy and so many like it. it was a scene that has become all-too familiar in america. a gunman opened fire in a public school take four young lives and wounding seven other people. four students went to school that morning with bright, exciting futures ahead. they never made it home. hana st. juliana, the youngest victim, was only 14 years old. a freshman who was a promising athlete on the volleyball and basketball teams. her teammates remember her as a kind heart, a silly personality and an absolute passion for sports. her father remembers her as the happiest kid who had a full life aced head of her before -- ahead of her before it was tragically cut short.

madisyn baldwin, a senior, the oldest of three siblings, was preparing to graduate this spring. an aspiring artist and talented student. she recently celebrated acceptances at several colleges, including some under a full-ride scholarship. she will always be remembered by her family and friends as a kind, smart, and loving girl. tate mrye, was number 42 on the football team and he was a star student athlete and recently honored with an all-region award from the michigan high school football association. he had started college recruitment visits and was looking forward to many more until the unthinkable happened. his friends, his family and his fellow students remembered him as someone who always put his

full heart into everything that he did. and justin shilling, a 17-year-old senior was cocaptain of the school's bowling team. his colleagues called him an exemplary employee, devoted friend and coworker and a pleasure to be with. as we mourn hana, madisyn, tate, and justin, we must remember those injured during this attack. at this very moment dedicated doctors and nurses are working around the clock to ensure that the wounded can swiftly recover. we're all thinking of them and wishing them well, along with those who were wounded, treated, and have now been discharged from the hospital. as a parent, i just simply cannot imagine the grief, the anguish that these families are

forced to endure and the unimaginable pain that parents are feeling knowing that they can never -- never, ever hold their loving child again. yet, i'm grateful for the brave first responders who quickly responded to this harrowing scene, thanks to their swift and brave actions, the suspect was apprehended within minutes, preventing even more unspeakable carnage from unfolding. there's no question that the heroic actions of first responders, law enforcement officials, and emergency medical technicians saved lives on tuesday. we cannot thank them enough. we certainly can't thank the brave men and women for all that they do each and every day to keep our communities safe. and for the students and the

educators who lived through this horrific act, i can only imagine the trauma and the fear that they will spend the rest of their lives with. children who should have been focused on their math homework, on their reading assignments spent terrifying moments fighting to survive and to keep one another safe. reportedly, as bullets pierced classroom doors, students grabbed scissors and calculators, anything they thought they could use to defend themselves. parents, many of whom received text messages from their children that there was a shooting, frantically searched for their children in the parking lot in the aftermath praying that they would be reunited. the panic, the fear, and the helplessness of being trapped in this nightmare scenario is something that no child, no

teacher and no parent should ever, ever have to face. now these survivors need our support as they work to process and heal from the shocking and horrific ordeal. to the oxford high school community, please know there are millions of americans who are lifting you up and share in your sorrow. in the days and weeks ahead, we may learn more about the heroic actions that students and teachers and first responders took that stopped this tragedy from being even worse, but the most heartbreaking fact is that this should have never, ever happened in the first place. a school should be a safe place. i was struck by the words of so many students who said that they had been training for a day like this since elementary school. these students and their teachers had participated in

active shooting drills. they knew to lock and barricade doors, to hide, stay silent, and to run. they had heard about other school shootings where the assailants tried to trick students into their sights and they stood strong until they knew they would be safe. while i'm so grateful that these lessons undoubtedly saved many, many lives this week, i'm also heartbroken that our children and our educators have to bear this burden. there is no easy answer, but it is clear that we must take action. far too many communities have been devastated by these attacks and we cannot wait for yet another community to suffer without having tough conversations on what actions congress should take. the unsettling reality is that our children's lives are at risk when they enter into a

classroom, and that is something that we simply cannot tolerate. i know the members of this body have different policy views, but surely we can agree that a school should be a safe place. surely we can agree to listen to the students in every single one of our states who say that they live in fear that they could be killed at their desk and have a serious discussion of what needs to change. there is no single solution that would have prevented this tragedy like so many others, but let's have a serious discussion about what needs to change to ensure that warnings reach the right officials and that those officials know what actions to take. let's have a serious discussion about gun safety issues, background checks, reasonable limits on how-capacity -- high-capacity magazines and closing loopholes that allow dangerous weapons get in the

wrong hands and let's have a is serious discussion about what our schools, teachers, and students need to stay safe, whether it's more counselors, threat assessments or more resources, we have to find common ground that will keep our school safe. we cannot stand by when we know it is only a matter testify time before the next -- matter of time before the next school, the next community is shattered. for hana, for tate, for justin, for madisyn, for the teachers, students, and family at oxford high school and for every teacher, student, and family in the united states, we must act. the time is now. madam president, i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the junior senator from alaska. a senator: madam president, is the senate? a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are not. mr. sullivan: thank you, madam president. madam president, it's thursday,

and it's usually the day i get to come down to the senate floor, usually the senate's kind of wrapping up things. we're still pretty pissy right now, but it's -- busy right now, but it's the day i like to talk about somebody in my state, the great state of alaska, making a big difference either for their community, for their state, for their country, you name it, we call this person the alaskan of the week. we've done it a lot, and i usually like to give a little bit of an update. the pages typically really like this time of the week because we get to tell stories about alaska, about the adventure of alaska, but also about typically a little update about what's happening in the state. so right now, we're in a bit of a cold snap pretty much throughout the state. get getting a lot of snow throughout the state. we've seen some record low temperatures all across alaska, from homer, king salomon, bethel. monday in fairbanks, this is not

even into december yet, it was 26 below zero. they're tough in fairbanks. very tough. you get down 50, 60 below in fairbanks. my wife's from fairbanks. she's a wonderful volunteer for this organization called covenant house. they did their annual sleepout. it's a homeless shelter for teenage youth. this is in anchorage, this a couple weeks ago. 15 below for the sleepout. you get a cardboard box and say good luck. so, boy, she's tough. and alaskans across the state are rugged, tough, individualistic, and we bond all the more for it. we're in it together when it's that cold and it frequently is. like one big community, one of the many things that brings us together, actually, one of the many things that brings americans together is bonding

over sports. local sports, state sports, national sports, and your local newspaper as it relates to sports reporting. it's actually a universal instinct, one of our most famous supreme court justices, earl warren, said it best, quote, i always turn to the sports section first in the morning. the sports page records people's accomplishments. the front page usually has nothing but people's failures. i'm not sure that's always true, but it's a good anecdote in terms of what bienldz us with regard to -- binds us with regard to sports. you know, over the holidays in particular, everybody in america watches great football, other sports activities, had a good

chat over lunch today with coach tuberville about the really incredible alabama-auburn game. it just happened last week. but sports is also the place in our local papers where we see the names of our children, our loved ones, our neighbors, our friends. in fact, it might just be the only time their names appear in the paper at all, when you think about it. so, our alaskan of the week this week is somebody who knows sports and sports writing in alaska better than anybody. we're talking about beth bragg, who recently retired after 35 years as a sportswriter for the "anchorage daily news" and she understood all of these attributes about sports writing better than anybody. during her 35 years at the paper, beth always told cub reporters there was one rule

they must always follow, no matter what, even if the person's name is something like cindy jones, ask that person for the spelling. it might be the only time their name appears in the paper and it's very important that name is spelled correctly, she said. now, let me talk about beth, about her reporting, and about her work and how it's added to our communities across the great state of alaska. beth grew up in billings, montana, and her father worked for the "billings gazette" and she too, while still in high school, joined the paper as a sports clerk. so this is in her blood. now, it wasn't so much that she was crazy about sports back then, but it was a job, a good job, and then she said she began, bit by bit, to fall in love with newspapers and sports

reporting. she liked the irreverence, the strict deadlines, the energy. importantly, and it's almost counterintuitive, covering sports allows more fun in the writing, the opportunity as a writer to take a little bit more in terms of chances, and to be more creative than maybe on other beats. and throughout the years, beth has brought so much of this kind of creativity, so much heart to her stories. without looking at a byline in alaska you always knew when you were reading a beth bragg story. so, in 1986, when she was 27 years old, she came to alaska to write for the "anchorage daily news." that's our state's biggest paper. she thought she'd stay for a few years, then move on. her dream was to cover professional sports, maybe even major league baseball in a city that's got a major league baseball team.

but as the years progressed, she stayed in alaska, she fell in love with alaska, and her ambitions as a sportswriter changed. but in some ways they got even bigger. she discovered that in her words, quote, the real reward, the real challenge is to find stories that resonate with everyone. and you don't have to be at the superbowl to do that. in fact, beth said she found more interesting, more unique stories to cover in alaska than probably anywhere else. now, we don't have big-time professional sports teams in the great state of alaska, but we do have sports, loads of sports. and just like so much about alaska, we've expanded the meaning of what it means to partake in sports. let's take one very famous sport

in alaska, the iditarod, the famous 800-mile sled dog race as one big example. there's also halla skiing, ice climbing, curling, snowboarding. didn't get its start in alaska, but it reached its apex in valdez, for those who participate in that incredible sport. beth is likely one of the few, if only, reporters in the country who reported on this incredible sport in alaska, at 3:00 am -- seal skinning. yes, that's a sport. it goes along with the ear pull and other sports in terms of competition at the world eskimo eskimo-indian olympics, which are incredible to go to and watch in alaska. great athletes, by the way. she covered seal skinning, the

competition at 3:00 a.m. she was tired, but the excitement and the smell of the seals, first frozen, then thawed for the competition, kept her wide awake. we may not have professional sports teams, but we certainly have athletic stars galore in alaska. for 35 years beth has written some about these stars and some of the toughest athletes anywhere in the world. let me give you a couple of examples. she wrote about athletes running marathons. i gave an alaska of the week speech several months ago about mount marathon. it's what outside magazine calls the toughest 5k on the planet. straight up a mountain and straight back down. we always do it on july 4 in seward. she wrote about the alaska wilderness classic, the 150 or

sof-mile secret -- or so-mile secret race up mountain, across rivers in the alaskan wilderness. here are the rules. no outside support. nothing human powered. leave no trace. and rescue is up to the racer. pretty tough. pretty tough. about the arctic man, another incredible alaska event. that's been described, quote, as the world's toughest downhill ski races and an exciting snow machine race all combined together. you want to see something amazing, go to the arctic man. she's written about swimming heats and cross-country and track and field matches. skiing, lots of stories about skiing in alaska. ice hockey, high school football, basketball games. as i mentioned, the world eskimo

indian olympics with the ear pull and the blanket toss. she wrote a great story about a mother and son literally tied by rope together for two weeks climbing denali, north america's tallest peak in alaska. there was a story about a sled dog who was cut loose and ran away from her iditarod sled dog pack and miraculously this dog found her way home to her kennel through mountain ranges and hundreds of miles of tundra in the dead of an alaskan winter. pretty amazing. she wrote a great story about an event i attended this past june, an inspiring u.s.a. patriots amputee softball team event where almost every player on that team were some of our

greatest american here rows. almost all of them had lost a limb. all of them had lost a limb, mostly in combat. always at the center of beth's stories are the people. even when those people are sled dogs. she's written about their victories, their struggles, their heart for the game, for their teams, for their communities, for their state, for their country, and for life itself. thinking back on her long career, a few events stay with her. she talked a lot about what it was like to watch alaskans compete in the olympics. four of which she attended, olympic games. now, we're a huge state. i talk about that a lot. we have a pretty small population relative to other states, 730,000 people. but alaska is really good in terms of olympic athletes. we punch way above our weight

sending some of the top american athletes to the winter -- especially the winter olympics but also the summer olympics. beth remembers, for example, the electricity in the olympic stadium in norway in 1994 when a little known alaskan named tommy moe shocked the world by winning the gold in the downhill. and then four days later a silver, becoming the first american skier ever to win two medals at the same olympics. she remembers writing stories about the legendary and beloved cross-country skier from alaska keycan randal. when he was just 13 years old, then like so many alaskans, beth swelled with pride and cried when keycan randal won the gold in 2018.

and beth said she also cried just this summer when 17-year-old lydia c kachobi from seward, alaska, shocked the world by winning the gold medal this summer in tokyo by swimming the hundred meter breaststroke. lydia is the only person in u.s. history to be alaskan of the week in the u.s. senate twice. that's unbelievable. so, of course, their heart breakings, too. the losses, the illnesses, the injuries, and sometimes the deaths all of which beth has handled with the utmost sensitivity. because she was at it for so long and so much history with the alaskan athletes, she understood something about them that a newspaper -- a new reporter might not. it takes a certain kind of grit to be an athlete in alaska, to

wake up at 6:00 a.m. and head off into the dark, disub zero -- subzero weather to train. it takes a certain kind of grit to travel outside of alaska for competition, often thousands of miles away from your home to get noticed. as beth said, you have to work hard to make it big in alaska. as a result she thinks alaska athletes have a sense of home in a way a lot of other athletes don't. madam president, as i said, beth recently retired. she's going to clean her home, maybe travel some, of course watch some sports as a fan now, not as a reporter. she leaves behind a great le legacy. thousands of stories charting some of our state's greatest moments in athletics, times when we all cheered and cried and came together to support the best of our people and competition and grit and

determination. the reason americans across the country love sports so much. so beth, thank you for your great job. congrats on an incredibly stellar career and of course, i'm sure one of your biggest honors ever, congratulations on being our alaskan of the week. madam president, i ask that my following remarks be inserted in the record in a different location than the previous remarks. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sullivan: madam president, we're working on the ndaa. as anyone watching what's happening on the senate floor right now, it's been stalled in terms of amendments. and it's been stalled reportedly because of an amendment, a

simple amendment that i think the vast majority of americans would agree on that senator rubio is trying to get a vote on. but, madam president, as -- there are with so many stories in the last six months, there's something about the climate enjoy john kerry who keeps coming into different stories. and he's in this story as well. and he seems to show up everywhere always when somebody in this administration is doing something to undermine american interests. there's something about john kerry. let me give you the latest. senator rubio is trying to move forward with regard to an amendment on his bill, uighur forced labor prevention act. it's essentially a pretty simple

bill, human rights communities agree with it. i think everybody in the senate agrees with it. and it in essence just says that we shouldn't be importing solar panels and other products made in china that are produced with forced labor or slave labor. what american wouldn't agree with that? what american wouldn't agree with that? i think every senator agrees with that. but evidently there's one american who disagrees with that. here's an article today, madam president, from the freebie conthat talk -- from the free beacon that talks about senior biden officials are worried that

this bill, stopping slave labor products from china coming into america will, quote, undermine the white house' climate agenda and unfortunately limit solar panel imports from china, end quote, presidential climate envoy john kerry and others has been lobbying congressional members against the bill. wow. wow. that's remarkable. why would he do that? why would he do that? someone needs to ask john kerry that. that's just one example. something about john kerry always in the mix undermining american interests. this is an article from "the washington post" just about a month ago. in advance of climate summit, tension among biden aides on china policy.

in essence it said john kerry was in beijing, a very dangerous proposition, by the way. you want to talk about selling out american interests. and he was begging the chinese to cooperate on climate change, but they said they're not going to commence. i'm reading from "the washington post." cooperation until the united states tones it down on human rights, hong kong, taiwan, and trade. so the chinese are saying hey, we're not going to do anything on climate. john kerry, unless you go tell the president to tone it down on hong kong, taiwan. human rights, slave labor probably, and dutifully john kerry came back to d.c. and delivered the message. it's all in "the washington post" right here, october 25. to their credit jake sullivan and others were pretty furious, according to this article, about john kerry undermining u.s.

interests. but, hey, there he goes again. remarkable. i mean, whose side is this guy on? i'll give you another example. one of the great things that's happened in america over the last two decades is this incredible revolution in terms of american energy. for decades it's been the bipartisan policy of every administration, pretty much every senator for america to become energy independent. and until the biden administration came into office, we've achieved that. again, every administration since world war ii, democrat or republican, being energy independent would be good for us. one of the ways we've done this, this incredible revolution in the production of american natural gas. it's made us the leader in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions in the world by far.

since 2005 to present, the united states has reduced emissions by almost 15%, more than any other major economy in the world. china's emissions have gone like this. so you would think the export of american energy all around the world which is happening would be great for our workers. it is. great for our national security. it is. and really good for the environment. it is. heck, we're even exporting to india and china. that will help them reduce emissions. this is a win, win, win, win, win. imagine my surprise when i met with foreign officials. i won't name them. who have said to me john kerry is telling us in our country and asia and in europe don't buy american natural gas. what? don't buy american in gas -- american natural gas. why? i don't know.

but there he goes again. undermining u.s. interests, undermining american workers. by the way, undermining the global environment on that one. you don't buy american natural gas, you're going to be producing coal in china. this is what i heard. and then let me give you one more, madam president. i came on the floor several months ago, about five months ago, called for the resignation of john kerry after the interview of his friend, the foreign minister of iran, the largest state sponsor of terrorism, foreign minister zarif who was recorded in an interview that was leaked that said john kerry told him a couple of years ago when zarif was the iranian foreign minister about covert israeli actions against israeli interests in syria. think about that. according to news reports, zarif

is heard saying and we all heard the video, it was former u.s. secretary john kerry who told me israel had launched more than 200 attacks on iranian forces in syria. selling out and betraying our biggest ally in the middle east, israel. there's something about john kerry. and every time that guy goes on a mission, you can assure that american national security interests are being undermined. so here's a christmas present i think the whole country would benefit from. the good of this country, this former secretary of state, former u.s. senator, needs to ride off into the sunset in his private jet and retire or resign or maybe the president can just fire him. we don't need him undermining american interests anymore. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wisconsin is recognized. ms. baldwin: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. baldwin: and i ask unanimous consent that all remaining time be yielded back. the presiding officer: without objection. the question is on the motion to discharge. ms. baldwin: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll.

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 50, the nays are 47. the motion is agreed to. the nomination is discharged and will be placed an the calendar.

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from new hampshire is recognized. mrs. shaheen: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that my defense fellow, ashley carline, and megan tettrick be given floor privileges for the

remainder of the 117th congress. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. shaheen: i originally planned to come to the floor this afterintoening to ask unanimous consent to support the nomination of mark gitenstein to be u.s. ambassador to the european union. he is a most qualified candidate. he has already served is our nation as u.s. ambassador to romania. he's deeply familiar with the geostrategic needs of our allies and has spent over 25 years working on energy issues. this experience is going to be critically important in responding to russia's weaponization of gas flows to europe. as the u.s. confronts challenges around the world, we need to convey our firm commitment to our partners and our alliances. now, unfortunately, i'm not going to be able to move forward

with this unanimous consent request because our colleagues on the other side of the aisle can't seem to muster anyone to come down and object to my unanimous consent request. it's hard for me to understand why they have an objection to mr. gitenstein when they're not even willing to come to object, and we know they're here. his confirmation would be important to advance our bilateral conversations on shared national security interests, such as this week's dialogue between the united states, the e.u., on china. but for these conversations to make meaningful progress in addressing our national security interests, we need our diplomats and state department officials at the table. i had the privilege of leading a bipartisan delegation to the halifax security forum weeks ago. we had three republicans and three democrats. one of the things we heard from

our allies was that there is a real impact by having the lack of ambassadorial confirmations in countries, particularly in our allies' countries. in the absence of u.s. representation, they're really questioning our commitment to our bilateral relationship. in addition to mr. gitenstein, there are over 50 other state department nominees waiting confirmation on the floor. now, if our colleagues on the other side of the aisle really shared the concerns about russia and china's growing maligned influence in the world that threatens the values we've fought so hard to advance, they would lift those holds without delay. they would understand that it is upon for our national security to -- that it is important for our national security to have

ambassadors in these critical posts around the world. i'm diplomatly disappointed that our republican colleagues have opposed the confirmation of mr. gitenstein's appointment to the european union. and i find it strange that at a time when we should be swiftly confirming our ambassadors so that we can engage in our allies and address challenges like china and russia that what we're hearing from our colleagues on the other side of the aisle is they want to hamstring our national security and play into the hands of our adversaries. now, i understand that some of my republican colleagues have decided to hold up dozens of ambassadorial nominees because of this administration's handling of nord stream 2. i don't think i need to remind anybody that i have long been opposed to nord stream 2. but this opposition is precisely

the reason that we should be appointing an ambassador to the european union because without an ambassador we have an absent in critical conversations on sanctions, on trade, and on energy. without an ambassador, we are limited in our ability to push for further sanctions to address russian aggression, especially with our european allies. without an ambassador, we can't effectively engage our allies. we are actively playing into putin's hands by creating opportunities to sow division and discord within the trans-atlantic community. mr. president, partisan politics should end at the water's edge, as it has for decades, in the united states. i urge those few republicans on the other side of the aisle who are holding things up to stop

this needless obstruction. the u.s. is stronger and safer when our diplomatic corps, those individuals who support americans and u.s. foreign policy around the world, are supported by capable senate-vetted and confirmed ambassadors. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president, parliamentary inquiry. and this is i am promty because i -- this is impromptu because i wasn't aware of this until the senator from new hampshire just spoke. mr. kaine: is it the case that a senator making a live u.c. on the floor to advance a nomination can be blocked from making a live u.c. by someone who will not even agree to appear on the floor of the senate?