in the white house and who is in congress. it's just not our job and it's something we avoid pretty asiduously. >> thank you, mr. chair. thanks, everyone. ♪♪ and we take you live now to the u.s. capitol where the senate is about to gavel in for legislative business. today senate lawmakers are considering executive and

unusually nominations. and wednesday, chuck schumer filed cloture on nominations. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, you have brought us to this season of great expectations, as we prepare our hearts to welcome your intervening in human affairs. lord, use our senators to bring peace and unity to our nation and world. inspire them to embrace optimism as they serve you and humanity. help them yield to the inflow of

your insight, vision, and guidance. lord, we also pray for the millions who live in constant deprivation, the homeless and hungry, the oppressed and persecuted. teach us how to share our more than enough with those who rarely have enough. we pray in your loving 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.

the president pro tempore: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. the senator from nevada. ms. rosen: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the president pro tempore: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, pursuant -- the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, united states agency for international development. atul atmaram gawande to be an assistant administrator. mr. schumer: madam president, pursuant to senate res. 27, the judiciary committee being tied on the question of reporting, i move to discharge the senate judiciary committee from further consideration of the nomination of holly a. thomas of california to be united states circuit judge for the ninth circuit from

the judiciary committee. the presiding officer: under the provision s. res. 27, there will now be up to four hours of debate on the motion equally divided between the two leaders or their designees with no motions, points of order, or amendments in order. mr. schumer: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. schumer: now, madam president, i want to begin today with some celebrations. recently our dear colleague and friend, senator jack reed of rhode island, cast his 8,000th vote as a senator, a remarkable milestone from one of the most beloved and respected members of this body. a lifelong rhode islander, a graduate of west point, and the dean of the rhode island congressional delegation, senator reed is one of america's best examples of doing politics and public service the right way -- no fuss, no nonsense, just results. over the years, he's been a

mentor, a friend, an an invaluable resource for his countless members on both sides of the aisle. few in this chamber can match his expertise on matters of national defense, veterans affairs and the military. i'd also add the same can be said about matching his attendance. over the years, he's missed just 38 votes on his way to 8,000. good for an attendance percentage of 99.5%. wow! as the as soon as has undergone change over the years, senator reed has remained the same, focused on rhode island, focused on our country, focused on keeping the chamber working on behalf of the american people. we are lucky to call senator reed our colleague and friend and so congratulations, jack, on this milestone. and here is to 8,000 more votes to come. now, madam president, last night i filed cloture on 22 of president biden's nominees that

to date have been pointlessly stalled by republican obstruction. 22. we're going to work until they're all confirmed by this chamber, and we may need to add more. in past years many of these nominees would have sailed through with consent and cooperation, but this year a handful of republicans have hijacked the rules of the senate to slow the process down. it's cynical. it's entirely pointless and, worst of all, it is damaging, seriously damaging, to our national security. this is the consequence of republican obstruction. we're going to work on getting these nominees confirmed as long as it takes, and we could be back here in the near future doing this whole thing over again. for all the tortured logic we hear coming from the other side for why these nominations remain frozen, the fact is that my republican colleagues who are holding these nominations up are

deliberately making the american people less safe and making it harder for the administration to address the national security and economic challenges that face our nation. it's unacceptable, and we are going to work to confirm these important nominees. now, on voting rights, madam president, as we continue working to bring the senate to a position where we can move forward on build back better, senate democrats have spent the past few weeks engaged in a separate discussion on addressing another critical and urgent priority, protecting the right to vote and safeguarding our elections. yesterday, i joined with a number of my colleagues in detailed conversations about how the senate will get voting rights done in time for the 2022 elections, including advancing the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights act. in state after state, republican-led legislatures are approving the most draconian voter laws since segregation,

and doing it on an entirely partisan basis. let me repeat that. republicans at the state level are passing the most egregious restrictions on voting rights we've seen since segregation and they're doing it on an entirely partisan basis. senate democrats are working to find a path forward to respond to these attacks by passing legislation like the freedom to vote act and voting rights advancement act. part of that conversation involves finding ways to restore the senate so it can once again work as it's supposed to, as it has worked for generations before the gridlock of past decade or so. these conversations are ongoing. the fight to protect voting rights is far from over in the senate. just because republicans will not join us to defend democracy does not mean that democrats will stop fighting. this matter is too important not to act, even if it means we must act alone to get the senate working. and finally, a farewell.

as anyone who's been here for a while knows, the u.s. senate is more than just the sum of its elected members. making this institution work is a daunting and awesome responsibility, and while the spotlight often falls on the men and women who stand hines these desks, this place would quickly unravel without the staff who work their magic behind the scenes. today, we say goodbye and thank you to one of those incredible staffers, sara schwartzman, who will soon leave the senate to pursue an opportunity with nasa. i join with all of my colleagues and with the rest of the senate staff in saying thank you, sara, best of luck on the road. 13 years ago sara came to the senate as a legislative support clerk with the executive check's office. over the year, she climbed up the rank, thanks to her skill and her dedication. eventually, becoming bill clerk in 2015. and for those who don't know, the bill clerk is one of the first gatekeepers for all new

bills and resolutions introduced to the senate. it is the bill clerk who brings order and sequence to the actions of this body, recording the senate's legislative activities, assigning numbers to every bill and resolution, cataloguing the status of each. in good times, this is a difficult and -- this is difficult and precise work. but over the last few years as we all know, sara fulfilled her duties in the midst of a global pandemic and has had to adapt in unprecedented ways. through it all, she never missed a beat. after 13 years, sara deserves her gleaming send-off as she pursues her next adventure in life. as we say goodbye, we hope she knows she can always call this place home, and we will forever be grateful for all she has done to make this chamber come to life. to sara, thank you. thank you for everything. we'll miss you, and we can't wait to see what the future has in store for you. i yield the floor.

mr. mcconnell: madam president it. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: western kentucky is still reeling from last weekend's devastating storm, but support is rolling in from around the commonwealth, our region, and the country as well. yesterday, i spoke with a c.e.o. of lifepoint health. they operate ten hospitals in kentucky, including one in hard-hit mayfield. miraculously, their medical center survived the tornado, mostly intact. now, it is offering much-needed medical services right there in

mayfield. nurses and doctors have worked literally day and night. lifepoint health shipped water tankers to their facility to boost their local supply. and the company has pledged a million dollars to help kentucky rebuild. across our region, individuals and companies are opening their hearts, homes, and wallets to help. we've received important assistance from here in washington as well. yesterday, the president announced the federal government will fund the entire cost of debris removal and mnl protective -- emergency protective measures in the eight counties hardest hit by the storm for the next month. local officials won't need to worry about overstretching budgets. they can just focus on rebuilding. my team and i are working hard to continue connecting kentuckians with the resources they need. i've set up a portal on my senate office website to help my

constituents access government assistance. it has the full list of services provided by our disaster response agencies. because of the federal government's swift action in the past week, victims of these tornadoes can access housing assistance, legal aid, crisis counseling, and more. i recommend every impacted kentuckian take advantage of these resources, and my office is here to help you navigate. i'll travel back to kentucky tomorrow to visit several of the communities that were hit hardest and meet with local leaders who were spearheading recovery efforts. i'll listen to their concerns, bring their stories back to washington to ensure that they get the help they desperately need. the scene on the ground in western kentucky is still devastating and quite discouraging. far too many families this christmas will be tragically abnormal. but we'll continue to work

together to provide kentucky with the resources it needs to recover, bigger and better than before. now, madam president, on an entirely different matter, two in three americans want the federal government, quote, to cut back on spending and printing money, end quote. that's two out of three americans. want the federal government to cut back on spending and printing money. but our democratic colleagues spent the last several months trying as hard as possible to do just exactly, exactly the opposite. washington democrats have spent months trying to borrow, print, and spend trillions more dollars right into the teeth of the worst inflation in almost 40 years. they've sought too turn their monthly welfare entitlement with no work requirements from a temporary covid measure into a permanent policy. cash welfare with no work

requirements, literally forever. 76% of americans say these handouts haven't helped their families at all. yet democrats want to dump many billions more. just step back and look at all the ways their left wing wish list could hurt a young family in middle america. first, they'd need to cross their fingers that the private or employer-sponsored insurance they chose to meet their family's specific needs isn't shoved off a cliff in democrats' latest lurch toward more socialized medicine. and they'll have to hope their war on the medical innovation sector doesn't prevent the development of life-saving cures their family might have relied on some years down the road. say the family got one or two young kids, maybe their ideal arrangement is a church-based day bear.

they'd -- day care. they'd need to say a prayer they're not sued and rushed out of business thank to the democrats' toddler takeover. their plan gives nothing to full-time parents, grandparent caregivers, nanny shares, or neighborhood coops. it would push faith-based providers out of the public square by design, and it could inflate day care costs -- listen to this -- by up to 12 $1,000 or $13,000 per child, per year. if democrats get their way, let's hope neither parent is one of the many americans who work in our domestic energy sector. our colleagues' bill has a huge pile of new red tape aimed at putting their industry literally out of business. no matter where they work, they'll face inplated prices to -- inflated prices to heat their homes and fill up at the gas putsch. for all of these bad cdz, and many more, or -- bad ideas, and many more, our colleagues wanted

to spend trillions of dollars into the deet of run away -- teeth of runaway inflation they've already caused. yesterday, we got indications that the far left's slapdash sprint may be hitting the pause button. well, that would certainly be great news for the american people. the best christmas gift washington could give working families would be putting this bad bill on ice. now, on another matter, as cracks keep forming in the democrats' reckless taxing taxing-and-spending spree, some of our colleagues seem to channel their frustration into even more radical attempts to attack our government institutions. in the span of a few hours, one one -- once senate democrats renewed calls to nuke the senate and break the rules. another published a national op ed saying the democrats should

attack the rule of law and pack the supreme court. two frontal assaults on two branches of government proposed in the space of about two hours. entire generations of statesmen would have seen either one of these unhinged proposals as armageddon for our institutions. but apparently today's democrats try both at once. we've heard false claims that senate obeying our rules to address the debt limit somehow paves the way for radicals to break the rules. so, madam president, i'd ask consent that an additional statement on that subject appear at a different place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: so, look, we have discussed over and over again why democrats will not be allowed to federalize our elections and lord over like self-appointed on steroids.

my colleagues would do absurd things like neuter voter i.d. laws, turn the federal election commission into a biased, partisan body and even send taxpayer money to political campaigns. it isn't about quote, unquote voting rights. it's a naked power grab. democrats have been pushing the same kinds of bills literally for years, even as their stated justifications have changed wildly. when republicans win elections or start polling well, democrats and the media say our democracy is badly broken, on death's door, and needs a radical overhaul. the answers presented are these policies. when democrats win elections, democrats and the media say our democracy is sterling, beyond reproach, and just needs some modest safeguards to protect the status quo. but, again, the answers presented are the very same policies. lately their pretext has been

demagoguing attacks on reasonable state voting laws and proposals. if any state scraps any of the typical pandemic procedures that democrat operatives favor, the radical left says the sky is falling. but outside the liberal bubble, nobody buys this nonsense. the country is not buying the hysteria. on election day last month -- listen to this -- even in deep blue new york, voters rejected liberal ballot measures that would have liberalized no-excuse absentee voting and loosened up the rools on voter registration. both of those were voted down in new york. not even blue new york wants these policies to weaken their elections, but some democrats want to break the senate and trash its rules to force these sorts of things on all 50 states. it's beyond absurd. i understand my colleagues are frustrated they may not get to

spend $4.9 trillion on their way out the door for christmas, but believe me, lashing out at our democracy, at the supreme court, and at the senate itself is not going to solve anything. now on one final matter, when the senate does adjourn for the holidays, we'll also bid farewell to a talented senate staff leader who has kept our institution running. sara schwartzman is one of the senate's finest. she has been a familiar face around the senate on the dais for more than a decade. and the most visible parts of her work as the senate's bill clerk have certainly made her c-span famous. for years she was among the foremost experts on the pronunciation of mr. alexander. more recently she's become well practiced in the delivery of ms. but her speaking role barely scratches the surface of her

crucial responsibilities as bill clerk. day in and day out she and her team are the traffic cops for mountains of legislative texts and amendments. sarah tracks the paper and the records before the senate can formally pass anything it has to make a stop at her desk. and as if these core duties weren't enough to keep the most meticulous multitasker bst, sarah has made herself available to folks throughout the institution for bill status, procedural hurdles. her he encyclopedic expertise hs been a phone call away. it's safe to say colleagues will miss this other sort of senate hotline. as for sara, one might worry that someone whose job is a part of every late-night vote and weekend session would struggle to fill her newfound free time.

but i understand in this case the senate's loss is another storied institution's gain. sara is leaving washington but staying in public service working in an exciting role with nasa. so, sara, thank you for your years of service and good luck in the exciting chapters ahead. mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: madam president, let me first echo the comments of senator mcconnell as well as senator schumer earlier in wishing sarah -- sara schwartzman the very best in her next undertaking. whatever it will be i hope the hours be better because i know

efforts made by you because of our peculiar hours in the senate have caused strain and hardship. but thank you so much for making the senate better with your service every single day. madam president, i ask consent the following remarks be placed in a separate part of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, i tried to visualize this -- i've tried to visualize this experience so many times, but it was in july of 1911, and a ship arrived in baltimore from germany, and a family came down the gangplank. one of the members of the family was my grandmother, and she brought her three children. one of them was a two-year-old little girl, blonde hair, named ona, my mother.

how they managed to navigate their way through baltimore and catch a train to east st. louis, illinois, i'll never know because virtually there were virtually none of them able to speak english. but they did. and they arrived, and i grew up the son of a lithuanian immigrant who is proud of what her family left behind and prouder still of what they found in this great country as lithuanian americans. so i've had a special attachment and interest in the baltic states and particularly lithuania ever since, and it's been my good fortune to follow their history from soviet occupation and oppression to freedom and democracy today. madam president, if you go on a search engine on your computer and type in the word fearless, don't be surprised if the map of lithuania pops up. this small nation, 2.6 million population, has done some

remarkable things in history and remarkable still in modern history. for half a century, millions lived under the tyranny and repression of the soviet union. before i was elected to public office, i went to visit lithuania in 1978 and i saw soviet rule firsthand. i'm glad i did because it is such a sharp contrast to lithuania of today. in the late 1980's things began to change, particularly in the baltic states of estonia, latvia, lithuania. who can forget when two million people, two million people joined hands across these three nations to form a 420-mile baltic chain of freedom in august of 1989. and not long thereafter, in february the following year, lithuania held its first free election since world war ii voting for the country's first

postwar noncommunist government. immediately thereafter the new parliament voted to make lithuania the first occupied soviet republic to declare independence. lithuania's bold move was followed later that year by latvia and estonia. these brave efforts culminated a year later in february of 1991 when the ligget -- lithuanian people voted for independence. those brave lithuanians 30 years ago, including my friend, music professor and national leader vitados landsburrgess led that country back to democracy. and that lithuanian effort three decades ago is still alive today. as a vibrant and vital member of the european union and nato this small nation sl standing firm against renewed russian

aggression and now chinese economic intimidation and defending heroic efforts to end tyranny in belarus. it is one of the most vocal countries on earth in defending democratic values and norms. is it because they have a nuclear stockpile? no. a massive army? no. just determined, principled people who are courageous. some years ago i visited the lithuania town of rukla where german forces were routing through aimed at keeping the baltic safe from russian aggression. there was good reason for it. they knew that they had to take seriously what putin might do against them. russia under vladimir putin has undertaken regular military, cyber, and political efforts to destabilize lithuania and the baltic states but lithuania will not be bullied. and i'm glad in the just-passed national defense authorization act that we reaffirmed our commitment to baltic security in

the amendment that i offered. lithuania is also standing firm against the giant nation of china, which is trying to cut off supplies and punish the lithuanian economy simply because lithuanians have established trade ties with taiwan. yet again lithuania will not be bullied. and on lithuania's border there is a struggle to end the last dictator in europe, luke is shen coin belarus. most of us remember last year when this belarusian dictator lukashenko, once again after the bogus election results were announced proceeded to jail those who had the temerity to run against him in the election. that's become normal with this man. this dictator, if somebody shows the nerve to run against him, will announce that he's beaten them by 80%-plus and then put them in jail. when popular social media personality tykanokofsky, his

wife courageously stepped in to run in his place. she probably won that election, but of course lukashenko would never allow those results to be announced. so what did she do after the election? her husband in jail, she fled belarus. and where did she go for safety for herself and her children? h lithuania. not surprise willlikelyy. she found a welcoming nation next door. belarus and russia have retaliated against lithuania with cruel and manufactured migrant flows and other intimidation, but once again lithuania will not be bullied. secretary of state blinken understands the importance of this lithuanian nation and continues to make sure they know they have friends in the united states. he recently hosted lithuanian

foreign minister and grandson of burgess at the state department. blinken said at the state department that the foreign minister, quote, has been such a strong voice for democracy and human rights not just in lithuania but around the world. i couldn't agree more. i couldn't be more proud. so let's use this 30th anniversary of lithuanian independence to stand firm with our brave ally and recommit our continued support for our baltic allies for economic and security cooperation. doing so will help ensure the next 30 years of the long-standing u.s. baltic friendship are long and fruitful. in 2011, a trip through these same baltic countries gave me one more experience in my senate career. i went on a road trip from free democratic lithuanian back in time to the closed totalarian

nation of belarus. it was like driving on to a hollywood movie set. i looked along the roads for telephone poles and evidence of electricity and found none. it looked like a bucolic, rural village mile after mile after mile, indicating how economic development has still yet to arrive in belarus. you see this last dictatorship of europe held a presidential election in december of 2010, and i wanted to be there in 2011 to meet with families of those who had the temerity to run against lukashenko and were in jail. so i drove from valus to minsk. it was a sobering meeting. many tears were shed. fortunately over time, by working at it doggedly we eventually saw the release of

all the brave belarus people who had been jailed at that time. tragically the belarusian people found themselves in this same outrageous situation last year when lukashenko jailed these candidates with the courage to run, including tikanovsky. some of you may have read the profile about his wife in this months' "new yorker." it's entitled the accidental revolutionary. it describes how her campaign speeches galvanize boisterous crowds. she had a simple message to the belarusian people and courage to say it. she said she was fed up and living in fear in belarus. lukashenko didn't have the courage to debate this woman. we'll never know the official outcome of the election because lukashenko wouldn't allow it. i was proud to host her he

recall whyer in year for my senate colleagues, senator shaheen and sullivan to meet with in my office. and i am glad to see that president biden met with her as well. she is a brave woman soldiering on despite the fact that the belarusans announced just a week nag her husband has now been sentenced to 18 years in prison. tragically, lung schenck co-has continued to double down on his behavior including forcing down a commercial airline to arrest the belarusan activist. just in last month after months of closed hearings, that 18-month prison sentence for her husband. a journalist from rye free europe received an equally outrageous sentence from lukashenko. what a waste. what an outright theft of the belarusan people's future.

these people must be freed and we must continue to support her effort and her husband and the thousands upon thousands who peacefully protest on her behalf. this morning i was listening to the news as i came in on national public radio, and i'll close by noting that the most recent report led me to make this statement on the floor today. it seems that the lithuanians have been compelled to close their embassy in beijing. the chinese government will no longer promise the most basic tenet of ambassadorial representation -- diplomatic immunity. they're still angry because this little country of 2.6 million people is establishing trade relations with taiwan. the chinese have said they're cutting off all exports and imports to lithuania, putting pressure on them for their political courage. it won't work, i might say to

minister xi. these people will not be bullied. i hope all the world, particularly their great allieser in in the united states -- allies here in the united states, understand that these baltic states are standing up for values which we all treasure as americans. madam president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: is the senate in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we

are. mr. thune: i would ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: madam president, democrats pushed to pass their tax-and-spending spree continues to show the difference between the republicans and democrats' vision of government. it is about more than just the amount of money we want to spend. it's also about what the money represents. in the general, more money means more government, and more government usually means less freedom. republicans don't oppose democrats' tax-and-spending spree because it would cost more money or drive up our debt. it would do both of those things. and the negative economic consequences alone are a sufficient reason to oppose democrats' build back bankrupt plan.

but it is about a lot more. with their build back bankrupt plan, democrats envision a society in which government is involved in nearly every aspect of americans' life, from to quote a "new york times" article, cradle to grave. that's not a vision republicans share, primarily because a government that is involved in nearly every aspect of your life is a government that's going to exert control over your life. more government inevitably means more government control. take democrats' child care plan in their build back better legislation. to hear democrats talk about it it you might think this plan involves nothing more than cutting checks to american parents to help with their child care bills. but that's not the case. first, of course, democrats take the opportunity to add a lot of new child care mandates and regulations. according to one estimate, democrats' child care subsidy measure could drive up the cost of date care by somewhere around

$13,000 per child. good luck working that into your family budget. democrats' government subsidy program is set up to favor certain kinds of child care and child care providers. it's set up to favor institutional child care rather than home care or other models like neighborhood co-ops and its set you want to place religious -- and it's set up to place religious providers at a disadvantage. that's right. despite the fact that a of the jo of working families -- despite the fact that a majority of working families who use center-based care opt for faith-based providers, democrats' plan is set up to deny them advantage. and it could disqualify many providers with traditional religious beliefs like those

shared by millions upon millions of catholic, profit stant, jewish and -- protestant jewish and muslim families. it could even disqualify a provider because the provider gave placement preference to families of its own faith. so if you're a catholic church with a child care program and you give preference to families tend your church, you can be accused of discrimination and disqualified from receiving government subsidies. and if you're parent who can't afford that program without those subsidies, thanks to government mandates and regulations that have hiked up the child care bill, you're out of luck. if you need those government subsidies, you'll have to send your child to one of the providers the government prefers. madam president, child care program in the democrats' tax and spending spree provides a perfect example of what happens when government gets involved. it is about a lot more than how

much money the government is spending. with government money comes government control. the more substantial the government involvement, the larger the government's role in decisioning make is likely to be. whether the issue is child care, health care, education, or anything else. madam president, in his 1967 inaugural address as governor of california, ronald reagan said, and i quote, freedom is a fragile thing. and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. it is not ours by way of inhere tans. it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation for it comes only once to a people. end quote. freedom is a fragile thing, madam president. here in the united states, we've enjoyed an unprecedented degree of individual liberty, a liberty that it is very easy for us to take for granted. but that liberty is not

guaranteed. it is something that must be fought for and protected and that doesn't involve simply safeguarding our liberty from external threats from foreign powers. it involves ensuring, making sure that our government doesn't start to exceed its proper role. the loss of freedom can come dramatically or it can come quietly through a steady increase of government encroachment. and it's important to remember that freedom can be eroded or taken away by the well-meaning and not just those who are actively hostile to it. i believe that my democrat colleagues likely do not see their ideas for dramatic government expansion as threatening americans' personal freedom. the problem is that when you expand the reach of government, the diminishment of liberty is inevitable. expand the reach of government into americans' lives and it is inevitable that you are going to transfer some of americans' decision-making power over to

politicians and bureaucrats in washington. madam president, democrats' tax and spending spree and its expansion of government is far from the only threat to americans' liberties this we're seeing from the democrat party. i am increasingly disturbed by democrats' tendency to play fast and loose with religious liberty in the first amendment whether that involves disadvantaging religious child care providers, threatening individuals' rights to live according to their conscience, questioning judges' fitness for office based on religious beliefs or as we learned recently from a courageous whistleblower f.b.i. agent, even opening the door for the f.b.i. to collect information on parents voicing their opposition to local school policies during school board meetings. i'm also disturbed by democrats' clear belief that americans should defer to government and democrat-approved experts as spectacularly evidenced in the virginia governors' race which

was unquestionably decided based on the democrat colleague's repeatedly expressed beliefs that parents shouldn't be involved in the content of their education. i'm puzzled as to why democrats are so convinced, so convinced that washington elites or democrat-approved experts are better at making decisions than ordinary americans. as ronald reagan said in that same speech, and i quote, it's hard to explain those among us who even today would question the people's impassety for self-government -- capacity for self-government. i've often wondered if they will answer, those who subscribe to that philosophy. if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else, end quote. i believe that the american people are capable of governing themselves, of making their own decisions and that they're actually going to be better at it than a bunch of bureaucrats in washington.

and i strongly oppose effort to substitute the judgments of washington bureaucrats or democrat politicians for the judgment of individual americans. madam president, it states in the declaration of independence that governments are to protect our rights. reserving liberty is a fundamental purpose of government, but of course before you can enjoy liberty, you have to enjoy the right to life. for a long time now the democrat party has consistently denied the right to life to a whole -- of a whole segment of the population. unborn americans. and there's no better example of their aggressive pro-abortion extremism than so-called -- the so-called women's health protection act that democrats in the house passed in september. this legislation, which would more accurately be termed the

abortion-on-demand act, would eliminate almost every democratically passed a state abortion restriction, no matter how mild. it would endanger the lunls and conscience rights -- the religious and conscience rights of doctors and nurses, and ignores the clear majority of american people, a strong majority of whom support restrictions on aboringings the -- abortions. democrats are not content with joining china and north korea to allow eleckive abortion past 20 weeks of pregnancy. no, they want to remove even the mildest and most widely supported restrictions on abortion. yet another example of democrats' tendency to think that they know better than the american people. madam president, the republican vision, the conservative vision, the vision that i share is a vision that foregrounds liberty,

not government, that believes that individuals acting freely generally tend to do a better job of making decisions than a small handful of politicians and bureaucrats in washington. we believe in government as back stop, not big brother. a system of permanent government dependence erodes individual liberty, to say nothing of the was is in which it undermines prosperity and robs individuals of the purpose and pride that comes with work and achievement. government should create the conditions in which freedom, opportunity, and prosperity can flourish, not attempt to secure particular outcomes or to dictate the paths that americans should take. we are privileged to live in the freest country the world has ever known. it is not a privilege we can or should take for granted. and it's a privilege that we can all too easily lose. our liberty is, as ronald reagan

said, ever only one generation away from extinction. i will continue to make safeguarding that liberty that we've been given one of my most cherished priorities, whether that involves fighting for the right to life of unborn americans, opposing attempts to restrict religions liberty -- religious liberty, or fighting against an expansion of government that would push out parents and put the government in the driver's seat on way too many issues. madam president, i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. if. the presiding officer: the senior senator from maryland psm mr. cardin: thank you, madam president. on march 3 of this year, over nine months ago, president biden nominated the deputy

administrator of the small business administration. mr. sayed has spent decades building and scaling successful businesses, as well as advocating for struggling entrepreneurs and small business owners in underserved areas. it is clear that he is eminently qualified to help lead the s.b.a. at a time when the agency's providing unprecedented assistance to help small businesses survive and recover from the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. last april, during mr. sayed's hearing before the senate small business and entrepreneurship committee, my republican colleagues raised concerns about p.p.p. and idle loans received by lumiata, the company from which mr. sayed served as c.e.o. as chairman of the committee, i gave a commitment to work in a bipartisan manner to secure additional information from the

s.b.a. about these loans. i kept my word. on june 8, the s.b.a. made materials on the loans available for my review for the ranking members' review, and for the review of every member of the committee. the materials proved there was absolutely nothing irregular about these loans. in fact, the company did the right thing and repaid the forgivable p.p.p. loan after its lenders determined that the company did not require the level of government assistance. we wish more companies would have followed the lead that this company did. but then a week later, a new issue arose, republican members accused mr. syed of having anti-israel bias because of his involvement with the emgage, a nonprofit organization that supports the muslim american community. this accusation was completely unfounded. as the american jewish committee wrote, the unsupported

accusations that somehow jewish businesses or those with ties to israel main fare well under mr. syed's leadership in the small business administration has no factual ground. indeed, he has specifically disa vowed support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, which seeks the dissolution of israel. the a.j.c. went on to say that republicans' accusations against mr. syed were un-american. two weeks later, after the a.j.c. released its statement, republicans in committee con concocted yet another reason to block mr. syed's mom nation. this time, it was -- nomination. this time it was planned parenthood. they announced they'd boycott all votes on the nomination because planned parenthood affiliates received loans under the paycheck protection program, despite the fact these loans were made during the trump

administration and had nothing to do with mr. s.yed. in response to republicans' demands, on november 24, administrator guzman sent the committee a detailed four-page response that gave a full explanation of s.b.a. policy on provided p.p.p. loans to nonprofits, including planned parenthood. the s.b.a. provided the specific data on the number of loans to planned parenthood affiliates, as well as the total dollar loans and forgiven. the administrators' letter makes clear the s.b.a. is putting in place -- implementing standards here the same as for other nonprofits, such as united way, boys and girls clubs, girl scouts, boy scouts,ed a goodwill. then there was another request for information. the s.b.a. sent another detailer

committee, to the ranking member, senator rand paul. dated december 15, 2021. that letter spells out the specifics on every loan given out by the s.b.a., again, under the trump administration initially, to the planned parenthood affiliates. the numbers that apply for p.p.p., the number that withdrew those applications, the total dollar amounts, the loans that were forgiven under the original p.p.p. amount and the total dollar apples, the -- dollar amounts, the amounts of p.p.p. number 2 loans requested by planned parenthood, the number withdrawn, the number given out and forgiven. all of that has been made available to our committee by the small business administration. quite frankly, i don't know what else we can do. the s.b.a. is required to carry out the laws that congress passed. we made it clear we wanted

nonprofits eligible for the help under the small business loan programs that we created. we made it clear that it the affiliation rules would be applied. and the affiliation rules were applied. the same way they were applied to all nonprofits that have a national affiliation. and the initial determination made under the trump administration was reviewed under the biden administration to make sure that those affiliate rules were applied. and they were applied, fairly to all nonprofits. thanks to the hard work of the s.b.a. personnel, tens of millions of small businesses and nonprofits have received federal assistance to keep their doors open and their employees on staff. the s.b.a. has provided relief through multiple roads of paycheck protection programs, the eidl loan program, the shuttered venue operator program and restaurant revitalization

fund. unfortunately, the s.b.a. has had to implement these programs without the benefit of the deputy administrator, the person whose job it is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the agency and gives us an opportunity to have a confirmed person at s.b.a. that is answerable to congress and the american people. many nonpartisan small business organizations support the nomination of mr. syed, including the u.s. chamber of commerce, the small business investor alliance, and the small business entrepreneurship council. i can read into the record numerous recommendation letters from the whole gamut of the stakeholder community. in april, the chamber of commerce wrote to the committee, stating, the u.s. chamber of commerce supports the nomination of dilawar syed to be deputy administrator of the small business administration. we believe it is essential for

the s.b.a. senior leadership team to be in place to dlimp on the agency's -- to deliver on the agency's covid-19 emergency relief responsibilities, and we believe there srchlts yed is -- mr. syed is well qualified for this position. madam president, i agree. that is why, again, i'm going to be asking that the nomination be discharged from the small business committee and that mr. syed receive an up or down vote on hissen nomination. i might tell you that we have had action in our committee, so this is not inconsistent with the action of our committee. i ask unanimous consent that the small business committee be discharged and the senate proceed to the following nomination, it p.n. 231, dilawar syed of california to be the deputy administrator of the small business administration, that the nomination be confirmed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate,

that no further motions be in order on the nomination, and the president be immediately notified on these actions, and the president be immediately notified on these actions. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: madam president? mr. schumer: the junior senator from kentucky. mr. rand: reserving the right to objects. the hyde amendment was passed in 1976. this amendment prohibits federal funds from going directly to pay for abortion. for 40-some-odd years this has had some effect on trying to prevent money directly going from the taxpayer to fund abortion. the reap for this -- the reason for this amendment was many people have profound religious beliefs that their money, their taxpayer dollars, shouldn't go to kill the unborn. this is a big deal, the hyde amendment. right now, currently, appropriations for the last 40 years have always had hyde amendment protections. now we discover, under duress, the small business administration admits that $100

million has been given to planned parenthood without hyde protections. so this $100 million, which is essentially about a third of what they get every year from the federal government, has no hyde prescriptions, no hyde restrictions, and this money can go directly to those performing abortions. so the abortionist that does thousands of abortions each year is getting money directly from the federal government to pay his or her salary. this is a first in 40 years, and it's not a small matter. of this is an extraordinary thing that the federal government, for the first time in 40-some-odd years, is directly paying for abortions. this shouldn't happen. this is worth the debate, and we only discovered this because of holding up a nominee to try to get information. the small business administration has steadfastly hidden this information, tried not to reveal it, is slowly, little by little, giving some, with i they gave yesterday -- which they gave yesterday a little bit more, but they've

been resisting, and resisting, and resisting. the small business administration is originally ruled that planned parenthood was a big business, an extraordinarily big business, a business with 16,000 people. planned parenthood themselves calls them affiliates. they count their income altogether, they pool their income and put out documents saying this is how much we have altogether. -- how much we have all together. 38 of these planned parenthoods were sent a notice saying you have illegally obtained this money. you are not a small business, and you should return it. supposedly, these entities then protested and appealed the process. the small business administration, after months and months and months, still refuses to reveal the appeals process, or what the complaints were. we have not gotten those documents, although we've asked repeatedly for these documents.

this nomination does directly have to do with this, because whoever is in charge of p.p.p., you would want a honest broker who says by golly, this looks suspicious. how come this information is not being revealed to congress? how come congress is not allowed to see this? the small business administration will say it's confidential. that does not apply to congress' oversight. that might apply to releasing it to the public, but that doesn't apply to congress' oversite of -- oversight of the small business administration. this a an extraordinary thing that's happened, $100 million given directly to people to do abortions. it's outside the scope, contrary to the sceap of -- scope of the hyde amendment. it's worth a significant, long, protected battle until all the documents are revealed. madam president, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the senior senator from maryland. mr. cardin: thank you. i certainly regret that the

objection is made. let me at least correct the record. p.p.p. money, paycheck protection money, does not go to healthcare services. it goes to personnel costs, it goes to related expenses. it does not go to health care services. the law that we passed is the law that the administration implemented. there were no restrictions reference to what senator paul is referring to included in the paycheck protection program. the restrictions on a nonprofit dealt with affiliation rules. those affiliation rules were applied to planned parenthood as they were applied to similar organizations that i already put into the record. what senator paul is complaining about could have been taken up during the debate of the paycheck protection program, but it was not. the bill was passed with republican majorities in this body and with president trump signing it into law. it would have been against the

will of congress for the trump administration under the s.b.a. or under the biden administration under the s.b.a. to use its own judgment and not the judgment of the policymaking branch of government, the legislative branch of government. so i just want to put on the record that the response by senator paul is not the factual circumstances that we're dealing with. we're dealing with a qualified person who should be confirmed by this body, and the administration is carrying out the will of congress and the way that it has implemented the paycheck protection program. with that, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cornyn: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from texas? mr. cornyn: madam president, are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. corn i'd ask consent --. mr. cornyn: i'd ask consent that the call of the conform be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cornyn: the eyes of the world are on russia. russia could literally invade ukraine at any time, and the united states and the international community need to take strong, decisive action to dissuade a russian offensive from invading ukraine. i was glad to see the secretary general of the north atlantic treaty organization, nato, denounce russia's action earlier

today, but clearly words are not enough. statements of support are not enough to counter an invasion. the united states and our nato allies must provide additional support as they defend their borders. senator durbin, the senator from illinois and i, have introduced a resolution to provide complete clarity on the united states position on this imminent conflict. our resolution affirms the united states' unwavering support for a secure, independent, and democratic ukraine. it also asserts the need for action. our legislation calls for the biden administration to provide additional leetdz -- lethal aid. searnd durbin and i have been proud to notch a long list of

bipartisan cosponsors and i hope the senate will pass this legislation before we break at the end of the year. on another matter, madam president. the first year of the biden presidency and -- and the democratic majority-controlled congress is quickly coming to an end. looking at everything that's happened so far this year, it's tough to imagine the american people are happy with how things are going. president biden raised all of our hopes and expectations during his inauguration as he builds his campaign and then spoke at his inauguration on a simple theme, unity. he talked about the need for people across the country to come together and empathize with one another and to work together. he promised to be a uniting force in washington, d.c., and pointed to his service in the united states senate as evidence

of his ability to work across the aisle to broker bipartisan deals. clearly this message was welcomed by the american people. after all, they gave him the job in the first place. but just because voters picked a democratic president doesn't mean they signed off on a radical transformation of our country. the american people elected a 50-50 senate and less than the democratic majority in the house. in short, americans selected a president who promised to work across the aisle and a closely divided -- and gave us a closely divided congress to ensure us that he kept his word but the american people have not gotten what they expected. right from the start there were clear signs of where things were headed. at the beginning of the year, the two party leaders negotiated

a statement to determine how the 50-50 senate would function. in light of the far-left's newfound obsession with eliminating the filibuster, leader mcconnell asked for assurances from leader schumer that the filibuster would remain in tact. it is not insurance to ask your partner to not commit to breaking the rules. even though senator schumer said we should build a firewall around the filibuster, he refused to leave it alone, which was not very encouraging. fortunately two of our democratic colleagues have committed to protecting the filibuster, which ensures that there will be something that maybe is a little unnatural for human nature to try to force us to try to work together to build consensus, to do things like we did yesterday, pass the national defense authorization act. that's not necessarily our first

instinct. but protecting the filibuster is important. it provides stability and continuity and predictability in our nation's laws and to make sure that we don't add to the chaos by every two years after every election reversing everything that had been done the previous two years. we saw how tempted our democratic colleagues were to use their newfound powers in the majority. that meant, unfortunately, forget working across the aisle or striking bipartisan deals. senator schumer made clear he wanted an easy path for purely partisan legislation. the first item on his agenda was a $2 trillion liberal wish list unconvincingly disguised as pandemic relief. it included things like backdoor

funding for planned parenthood, a blank check for mismanaged union pension systems, money for climate justice. this had very little to do with covid-19 and the pandemic, which is how it was sold. the democratic leader got a taste of partisan legislating and decided he wanted more of it, so he tried to break the two democratic members on his side of the aisle who were protecting bipartisanship and consensus building. he lined up votes on some of our colleagues' most controversial bills, all of which were designed to fail. there was a bill to exploit the cause of paid fairness. it did not past. senator schumer forecasted bills so unpopular among democrats it didn't make it to the senate floor. one was to erode the american

people's second-amendment rights and another would punish schools an hospitals who would refuse to comply with woke social norms. without a doubt the most dangerous legislation democrats have pushed is to overhaul america's election system. the version of the bill we voted on this summer was so bad that i was surprised democrats had the gall to hold a vote on it. it would turn the voting system into a democrat-controlled body, it would have them draw their own congressional districts instead of handing the power to independent redistricting commissions, it would vacuum up ballots and deliver them to a paid campaign staffer and political operatives who had a stake in the outcome of the election. the only thing it would have

done for the people is decide the outcome of virtually every future election, and spoiler alert, make sure that democrats would never lose. if this bill weren't so dangerous, it would have been laughable. it's no surprise that the only bipartisan thing about this bill was the opposition. in both the house and the senate, republicans and democrats joined together to defeat this bill. still our democratic colleagues refused to throw in the towel. they rewrote the bill, tried to rebrand it, and brought it up for another vote in october. once again it failed. the democratic leader has said this partisan legislation will resurface again sometime before we -- before the end of next year, but i don't expect the outcome to change. of course amid all the partisan jockeying there's been a large,

dark cloud looming overhead, known as the build back better or rather more accurately the build back bankrupt bill. it would drive up the cost of child care for families and cut health care for the uninsured. it would hurt our energy security and increase the already sky-high energy costs, and it would put taxpayers on the hook for massive handouts to blue state millionaires, organized labor, trial lawyers, wealthy media corporations and a host of powerful friends of the democratic party. our democratic colleagues have used every trick in the book to make the price of this spending spree look as small as possible. one of our democratic colleagues even acknowledged the disingenuous advertising. fortunately, the congressional budget office and the joint tax committee have provided an honest score of the bill that

passed the house and that's been proposed here in the senate, one which ignores the gimmicks our colleagues initially tried to use. the congressional budget office says that this bill would cost $4.9 trillion in the first ten years alone. not zero, as president biden has disingenuineusly claimed, not $1.57 trillion as our democratic colleagues have claimed, but $4.9 trillion, nearly triple the price democrats have been previously willing to acknowledge. and deficits, money that would have to be paid by the next generation and beyond, would increase by a staggering $3 trillion over the next decade. as it turns out, spending trillions of dollars on unnecessary programs and dolling out -- doling out handouts for the wealthy is not an easy sale.

senator schumer apparently can't convince all 50 democrats to vote for the bill. while our democrats have focused on the wholly partisan endeavors, they've ignored clear opportunities to work together in a bipartisan effort. for example, members of both parties agree that something must be done to bring down prescription drug prices for the american people. this is a major focus last congress and there are a range of bipartisan bills that support this goal, including one i've introduced with senator blumenthal from connecticut. so far we've made no progress for the american people on high-prescription drug costs. then there's the crisis at the border. on president biden's watch annual border apprehensions have hit an all-time high. for most of the year, though, democrats refused to acknowledge that any sort of problem actually existed at the southern

border. they adopted the same rules as fight club. they just didn't talk about it. vice president harris, named border czar by the president didn't visit the border until late last june, and even then she stayed away from the hardest-hit sectors. senator sinema, the democrat from arizona, and i have introduced legislation with commonsense reforms to address the crisis, but the chairman of the judiciary committee, senator durbin, has declined to mark up the bill or even convene a hearing of the judiciary committee to investigate the border crisis and explore possible responses to it. democrats and republicans have shown a willingness to work together to put daca recipients on a strong legal footing, these

are young people known as -- referred to as deferred action for childhood arrivals which was the name used by the obama administration to provide them some legal standing in which to stay in the country. but they have been embroiled in ten years of unnecessary litigation, and they are uncertain about the outcome of their case. and i think this is an area where we could work together to provide them some certainty and some finality. there are other things we could and should be doing, like securing our most critical supply chains, encourage innovation in the energy sector and to solve many of the challenges american families are facing every day. but rather than work across the aisle to address these bipartisan priorities, our colleagues have wasted a year on

purely partisan exercises. again, this is not what the american people thought they were getting when they elected joe biden president, and when they gave the senate a 50-50 split. the 2020 election wasn't an invitation to codify a liberal wish list. it was a call to work together, and there's no better place for the work that can be done than in the united states senate. there's a lot we can and should accomplish next year, but this sort of partisan, unilateral approach to governing has made that nearly impossible. you can only hope for better next year. our colleagues on the other side of the aisle got what they wanted, which was a democrat majority, given the tie-breaking vote of the vice president. they've been given the keys to the kingdom and now next year we'll see how long they can hold on to them or perhaps they can

change course and return to bipartisan legislating and consensus building for the benefit of the american people. madam president, i yield the floor. and i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. barrasso: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: thank you, madam president. madam president, i come to the floor today to talk about the rising crime in america and specifically in democrat-run cities. this year 12 american cities have already broken records for murder. and the year isn't even over. every one of those cities is run by democrats. last summer democrat cities adopted a rallying cry, and that cry was defund the police. joe biden said america was systematically racist.

he said police funding should be redirected. nancy pelosi talked about shuffling money around. kamala harris, our vice president, said america should reimagine public safety. lots of democrat cities put those slogans into practice. bill de blasio, the mayor of new york city, cut new york city's police department by $1 billion. the los angeles city council voted to cut police funding by $150 million. san francisco cut $120 million from police over two years. nearly two dozen cities across the country defunded the police. again these are all cities run by liberal mayors and administrations. as a result, last year america experienced the largest surge in

homicide ever recorded. according to the major city police chiefs association, 63 of america's 66 biggest cities saw at least one category of violent crime go up last year. minneapolis cut police funding and homicide nearly doubled. new york city police funding and homicide went in opposite directions. funding for police went down. homicide went up by half. last year's historic increases in homicides was evident. this year homicide has gone up even more. the number of police killed in the line of duty is also up. here in washington, president biden has effectively endorsed the defund the police movement. he did that by stacking his administration with supporters

of defunding the police. the secretary of labor of the united states confirmed by this senate cut funding for police when he was mayor of boston. the number three official at the department of justice confirmed by this senate, the democrats in this senate testified that she supports, quote, calls for black lives matter. activists to decrease police budgets and the scope, role, and responsibility of police in our lives. joe biden's secretary of treasury called for an economics professor to be fired because the professor said he opposed defunding the police. it had nothing to do with what he was teaching. it wasn't because of a problem with his work in the classroom. but janet yellen said his comments against defunding the

police were extremely troubling. she went on to say it would be appropriate for the university of chicago to review that professor's performance and suitability. well, janet yellen is not known for being a crime expert. she is a well connected, well known liberal, but the university bowed to janet yellen and put the professor under investigation. this is janet yellen who is conconfirmed to be secretary of treasury under joe biden. in october joe biden was asked for police officers should be fired if they weren't vaccinated. he didn't hesitate. he immediately said yes, fire them. these are officers who have been putting their lives on the front line every day since day one of the pandemic. joe biden's mantra for the police, vaccinate or terminate.

this is happening all across america. for example, more than 150 massachusetts state police have resigned over the vaccine mandate. joe biden would rather see unvaccinated police sit at home than let them continue doing the job they've done all through the pandemic. the last thing we need to do right now is reduce the number of police officers on our streets. last week democrats in this body gave another promotion to an antipolice liberal. every democrat, every democrat in this senate voted to conconfirm rachael rollins as the top prosecutor in the state of massachusetts. why does this matter to anybody outside of massachusetts? well, because rachael rollins is the face of the rogue prosecutor movement. this is the movement led by george soros and other powerful

liberals. they have invested millions of dollars in electing radical prosecutors. they've succeeded in major cities. we've seen it in los angeles, san francisco, and philadelphia. and once these prosecutors get into office, they impose radical left-wing policies. the result has been chaos and carnage from coast to coast. as the district attorney in boston rachael rollins announced that she would not prosecute 15 different crimes. laws on the books. she would not prosecute 15 different crimes, including shoplifting, trespassing, and resisting arrest. rachael rollins is supposed to be a prosecutor. her job is to enforce the law. instead she has nullified the law. joe biden saw this lawlessness,

and he was so impressed, he gave her a big promotion. every single democrat in this senate has given her their stamp of approval. so has vice president harris. every republican voted no on this radical nominee so the vice president was needed to come to the senate to break the tie. and there's already talk of rachael rollins getting even more promotions in this very radical, extreme, dangerous, and scary democrat party. mark my words. rachael rollins is the first rogue prosecutor given a federal job. she will not be the last. with democrats in charge in washington, rachael rollins' policies are coming to a neighborhood near you. so it's worth asking how are these policies working out in liberal big cities. not well. no, san francisco followed the

rachael rollins model. they tried legalizing shoplifting. how about that? now san francisco looks like a city if the dark ages -- from the dark ages. here's ow the associated press described it last week. the associated press, san francisco residents and visitors scurry past scenes of lawlessness and squaller. in august san francisco broke city records with 3,700 reports of retail theft. now there's a mass exit of the retail stores from san fran francisco. last year twice as many people in san francisco died from drug overdoses than from coronavirus. local news reported this week about people leaving their cars unlocked in san francisco to prevent their windows from getting smashed out. even the democrat mayor spoke

recently about the rein of criminals who are diswroiing our city. san francisco is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. it is the hometown of the speaker of the house and is now a homicide haven on the west coast. in just a few years, liberal policies had turned what had been a beautiful city into a war zone. nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house, admitted just yesterday, there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country today. then she added, it springs from, as she said, i don't know where. well, nancy pelosi should look at her own city. it is painfully obvious. the fact that roars out from liberal city to liberal city is this, the lawlessness comes from the policies of the democrat

party. criminals seek opportunity, and when criminals see that opportunity, they pounce. look at loss loss ang -- a lotters stole $430,000 worth of goods from stores and police arrested the a lotters and then what happened? they were -- a lotters and then what happened? they were released. austin, texas, made some of the largest police cuts, this year austin has seen a 70% increase in murder. it's one of the largest increases in homicide in america had in kamala harris's hometown of oakland, they promised to defund the police in june. now murder in oakland, the vice president's hometown is up by two-thirds since 2019.

last month a toddler was shot and killed while he slept in the back of his mother's car on the oakland freeway. even left-wing oakland has now had enough. the city is now planning to reverse the cuts to police. for the toddler, it's too late. the damage that took that innocent life from that family can't be undone. it can't be repaired. the family will never be reunited. it's time for the democrats to wake up -- to wake up before it's too late for so many others. democrats have controlled the senate now for noantsds -- for ten months, yet, they've done nothing to improve law enforcement in america. they've done nothing to reduce crime. in fact, senate democrats have only tried to reward criminals.

49 senate democrats sponsored a bill to give voting rights to felons as soon as they walk out of their jail cells. the american people reject this bill and democrats' entire agenda. voters are speaking out. just last month voters rejected defunding police in the cities of buffalo, new york, and even in minneapolis. new york city just elected a former police officer as its mayor who used the issue of climb and law and order as a winning issue in the campaign. people are tired of what the democrats are force feeding the american people. the lessons should be screamingly obvious. the american people don't want to be soft on crime. americans want safe communities. they want americans to stop coddling criminals, to stop this

reckless democrat war on police. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. ms. hirono: mr. president, the foundation of american democracy -- the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. ms. hirono: i ask unanimous consent to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. hirono: thank you. mr. president, the foundation of american dmtion is built upon the sacred right to vote. there is no doubt that right is under attack today. this year alone 550 voter suppression bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the country. in texas it is now illegal to compensate workers who help voters who don't speak english. and for election officials to encourage eligible voters to apply to vote by mail. in georgia, a county that historically votes democratic, the number of ballot boxes has been reduced from 38 to 8. that's one ballot box for every

100,000 voters. in florida ballot dropoff boxes can only be utilized during early voting hours and boxes must be located at either a county's elections office or early voting sites. before president trump, republicans at least tried to pretend their laws weren't blatantly discriminatory. but now they aren't even attempting to hide the fact that they are purposefully trying to make it darn near impossible for black people and other people of color, elderly individuals, students, working families, and people with disabilities to vote. the fact that republicans continue to claim that these voter suppression tactics are necessary to protect election integrity would be laughable if it weren't so deeply dangerous

to our democracy. we all know that countless investigations have uncovered absolutely no evidence of systemic or widespread voter fraud. we all know that the 2020 election was the most secure election in our country's history. and we certainly all know this is not about voter fraud. it's about advancing a political agenda by denying large swaths of americans their fundamental right to vote. if this isn't un-american, i don't know what is. which is why voter suppression is the most urgent crisis facing our country today. and which is why it is the single most pressing issue the senate must address. yes, we need to pass build back better and we need to fight against attacks on a woman's

right to make decisions about her own body, attacks on the lgbtq community, attacks on unions and much more because battles for rights that we thought we had won don't stay won. but we won't succeed in preserving these hard-won rights if we don't protect the right to vote. to quote my friend and colleague, senator warnock, quote, voting rights are preservative of all other rights, end quote. we are nearing the one-year anniversary of the attack on the u.s. capitol. this violent insurrection and mob violence was the direct result of blatant lies told by the former president and his supporters about systemic fraud and a stolen election. we're still learning the consequences of what happened that day, but we know for certain this act of domestic terrorism was an attack on free

and fair elections in this country. yet republicans continue to spread the same lies about election fraud and continue to push through legislation at the state level to silence americans across the country. congress must take action to restore the integrity of our voting system and make sure every american's voice is heard and counted, and we've tried. we've tried four times to stop these unconstitutional state-level laws from undermining our elections. we've tried to pass commonsense reforms that would, for example, allow all eligible voters to vote by mail, make election day a federal holiday so all working families can vote, and establish federal criminal penalties for deceiving voters with false and misleading information about voting. and, most importantly, we have tried to pass the john lewis voting rights advancement act,

which would give the department of justice the tools to keep these blatant voter suppression laws from being enacted in the first place. only one republican joined us in voting for this bill, the same bill that was being touted as bipartisan. it's crystal clear by now that republicans have absolutely no interest in protecting the right to vote. for republicans, voter suppression and gerrymandering is their path to victory. democrats cannot sit back and allow a political party to maintain power by denying americans their right to vote. i want to the quote senator warnock again. he said, quote, as we cast that vote to begin addressing the debt ceiling, the same chamber is allowing the ceiling of our

democracy to crash in around us, end quote. we figured out a way to save our economy. we can surely figure out a way to save our democracy. mr. president, filibuster reform is a path democrats need to take to fight back against the republicans' all-out voter suppression assault on our democracy. i call on my democratic colleagues to act. mr. president, i yield the floor. ms. hirono: mr. president? i yield.

mr. lankford: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: thank you. there are so many problems going on right now in the country. in oklahoma, they're frustrated with where things are going with the economy. the rising inflation, literally inflation we have not seen for 40 years. people that are 40 years old and younger have never experienced an economy like we're experiencing right now. but the for those who lived at the time of jimmy carter, they know what it was like, what it was like every single week at the grocery store for prices to be higher, to watch prices accelerate month after month after month. the policies that have been in place this year by the biden administration and folks in this body have led directly to rampant inflation across our

nation and is causing a major problem. the debt ceiling was just voted on days ago in this body. it was $2.5 trillion. $2.5 trillion is a set-aside for the next 13 months or so. there is an enormous gathering of debt to be able to see the inflation continue to rise. in the middle of it is a conversation about this bill that's called build back better. now, we haven't seen all the bill yet. it's 2,000-plus pages. but the pages change every week, and they have for weeks and weeks. we still have large sections of the bill that's being dropped out that just says, we'll add in more information here later. but the sections that we do have that have been scored, there are major problems here. this is not just a republican-democrat conversation. this is a direction of the country conversation. is this really what we want to do and the direction we want to

go? this bill, as it was scored independently by c.b.o., looked at this bill and says if it looks out over ten years with these policies in place would add $3 trillion more in debt. now, as it's written with all the budget gimmicks in it, well, it will only add $365 billion in debt. though the white house says it's all paid for, it's all paid for, it's free, it's free, it's free. the more we look into it, the more problems we see. this bill changes what has been entitlements in the past. entitlements have been connected to actually work. people don't grow out of poverty by constantly getting government benefits. work is what helps people escape out of poverty. that's what bill clinton talked about often, about changing welfare as we know it. this bill changes it back to welfare as we knew it and says,

you don't actually have to be working to receive all these government benefits. this bill actually says, you don't even have to be an american citizen to receive all these benefits. that if you're illegally present in the country, you get thousands and thousands of dollars in government benefits. if you're not working but you're able to work and you choose not to, you get thousands and thousands of dollars in benefits. i have to tell you, for the folks that i know that leave for work at 6:00 a.m. and head to work, they're a little frustrated that their tax dollars are going to people still in bed that are not engaging. but that's what this bill does. it changes us from a situation where we incentivize work to we incentive not working. part of that is in the child tax credit that's being discussed. me and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted to change the child tax credit for this year that was already in place that already incentivizes work, that helps individuals

with small children that need help. republicans have also voted for that in the past with a work incentive. that was changed in march of this year in a straight partisan vote and it was done for a temporary basis because of covid to actually allocate dollars to families regardless if they're working or not during the time of covid. now the conversation is, that needs to be extended not just through covid but to just keep extending it, to take away the work requirements, to take away the requirement to be a citizen of the united states to receive these dollars, and to actually make it where you're getting a monthly check rather than just a tax incentive at the end of the year based on if you were working or not. and the working requirement is not high. it's literally if you worked and earned $2,500 in a year, you qualify for the tax credit. but they take away even that requirement for your family. the child care piece has been interesting because i've heard a lot of my democratic colleagues

talk about, well, we're going to give free child care to folks. the problem is a multiple of issues with this. one is if you're a faith-based institution, you're concluded from this, which about half of the child care facilities around the country are run by churches and nonprofits. they are a a all cut -- they're all cut out. while they talk about free child care, a very liberal think tank just did the math on this what it would mean for middle-class families that actually do child cared at that same facility. middle-class families that are paying right now for child care after this bill is put in place, they estimate it would cost $13,000 more a year for child care if you're not getting the subsidies. so if you're getting the subsidies, it's free. if you're a dollar past the

subsidies, you're going to pay $13,000 more for your child care. i hope you're tracking the cost of natural gas as it is raised. because it is about to go up again. if what i call the build back broke bill passes, the cost of natural gas and the cost of heating across america will go up because there's a new fee on methane. i could go on and on and on with the issues that are in this bill that are constant, that are philosophical issues, issues that affect people that live in my state and will raise the cost for them. some people ask me, who are the folks that actually like this bill? well, there's quite a few folks that like this bill. the folks that are in wealthy democrat states, they love this bill because the wealthiest individuals in the highest-taxed states -- and those are the blue states -- they get a huge tax break in this bill. for the wealthiest individuals, they get an $80,000 a year tax

cut. if you're in new york or new jersey or illinois or california and you're in the top one percent, you get an $80,000 cut in your taxes. they like this bill. somebody else that likes this bill are the wealthy that actually buy electric vehicles. incredibly expensive, beautiful vehicles many of them. but they got $12,500 off of their vehicle based on this bill. the environmental activists love this bill because billions of dollars actually go directly to these environmental activist groups, many of them that were very active in the biden campaign. there's bills of dollars to create a new civilian citement corps, a group of young people that will travel around the country promoting environmental issues. they like this bill. unions like this bill because currently if you donate to a

nonprofit, you're able to take some of that off of your taxes. but under this bill, that goes away and it's replaced with if you pay union dues you get to write that off your taxes. so unions definitely like this bill. and the folks that really, really like this bill? reporters and journalists. reporters and journalists love this bill. some of them are not talking about the content of this bill. the reason i say that is because this bill pays half the salary for reporters and journalists across the country. this bill puts in place that half the salary of reporters and journalists across the country in every city will get half their salary paid for by tax dollars. government-paid reporters and journalists? what could go wrong with that? there are a lot of issues in

this bill. as we talk through this bill and thankfully this bill is slowing down dramatically so that people are able to see the contents of this bill, i have more and more people who catch me and say, i have a major concern with this bill. and i have to tell you, i have had for months, and we continue to be able to speak out on the issues that change the direction for our nation that are actually built into this bill. mr. president, i'd like to do a separate speech to be put in a separate part of the record. officer without objection. -- the presiding officer: without objection. mr. lankford: thank you. mr. president, it is the middle of december, and we're still hanging out in d.c. we're actually past the date that we were supposed to not be here any longer, according to our official calendar, but there's work to be done and we continue to do the work. it is a contentious body.

at times a contentious nation. i was with a group of folks yesterday for an early morning breakfast. as we prayed together, one of them looked at me and said, i need a little prince of peace right now. so can i just for a moment in this chamber pause and just do a quick reminder of what's coming over the next couple of weeks, not about the heat of battle in this room but where we are in this season. reading from the book of isiah, isiah chapter 9, verse 6, says, for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty god, eternal father, prince of peace, and there will being no end to the increase of his government or of his peace. sounds like in this luke chapter

2, now in those days the decree went out that a census should be taken of all the inhabited earth. everyone was on the way to registered for the census, each to his own city. joseph went ul from gal imp leah to judaha, which is called bethlehem, he was from the house and family of david. in order to register, along with mary, who was engaged with him and with child. while there, the days were completed for her to give birth and she gave birth to her first son. a -- first born, a son. she wrapped him in cloths and laid nim in the manger. in the same reasonable i don't believe, shepherds were in the fields keeping watch on the flock. an angel of the lord stood before them, the glory of the lord shone around them, and they were terribly frightened. the angel said, do not be afraid, for behold i bring you good news of great joy, which

will be for all people, for today, in the city of david, there has been born for you a savior, who is christ the lord. this will be the sign for you. you will find a baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a manger, and suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude praising god, saying glory to god in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased. when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go straight to bethlehem and see that that has happened, which the lord has made known to us. so they came in a hurry, found their way to mary, joseph, and the baby in the manger, and when they had seen this they made known the statement which had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it wondered at the things told them by the shepherds. but mary treasured these things, pondering them in her heart. the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising god, for

all they had heard and seen, because it was just as had been told to them. a little peace on earth. it would be helpful to this body, and to our nation on this day. merry christmas to you. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. roip we've come to the floor multiple times for the past few weeks, trying to push the bipartisan uighur force protection act. mr. rubio: it basically sales that you can't import products into the united states made by slave labor in shing jiang or from entities associated with the government of that region. if you're a company manufacturing in that area, you need to prove that slaves didn't make it. the pre-- it's illegal, by the way, to bring goods made with slave labor. it's been that way since the 1930s, yet it's still

happening. we know it's happening at an alarming, horrific rate with the genocide we witness carried out by the chinese government in the xinjiang region. this bill, which we hope passes today, will pass to the president, become law and help tremendously in stopping that from happening. many companies have taken steps to clean up their supply chains. frankly, they should have no cerps about this law. for -- have no concerns about this law. for those who have not done that, they'll no longer make americans, every one of us, frankly, unwitting accomplices in the atrocities, in the genocide being committed by the chinese communist party. so, as if in legislative session, ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of house resolution 6256, received from the house, the bill being considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: resurfing the right to object, first let me thank the senator from florida for doing great work, along with senator merkley and others on this incredibly important piece of legislation. we're going to be in a few moments, speak together, republicans and democrats, on our commitment to ending genocide in china. and i want to thank the senator for working with me to make sure that as part of his unanimous consent request we're going to be able to make sure we have the personnel in place to properly implement this policy. listen, we have dozens of state department and department of defense nominees pending on this floor, more so than we have ever had at the end of a first term, first-year presidency, and we will hopefully, before we leave, we have to before we leave, make substantial progress on that list in order to adequately protect our country. at the very least, as we put forward this important new

policy, it does make sense to accompany it and its passage with three key personnel who will be in charge of implementing it. i believe we're going to be able to modify this request in the following manner. i would formally ask senator rubio to modify this request that he has made to include the following request, ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding rule 22 if applicable, at 4:30:00 p.m. today, the senate proceed to the following nominations, executive calendar number 525, nicholas burns of massachusetts, to be ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the united states of america to the people's repub click of -- repub click of china. 626, ramin throughy of iowa to be assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. calendar 619 rashid hussein.

ten minutes of debate equally divided, upon the use or yielding back of that time, the senate both, without intervening action or debate on the nominations listed. the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order on the nomination, and the president be immediately notified on these actions. the presiding officer: is there objection to the modification? mr. rubio: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. rubio: no objection to the modification. the presiding officer: is there objection to the request as modified? a senator: without objection. the presiding officer: without objection.

the presiding officer: the previous order, the senate stands in recess until 2:00 stands in recess until 2:00 >> do you think this is just a community center? comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to provide wi-fi enabled lift zones substance from the income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. comcast support c-span along with these other television

providers giving you a front-row seat to democracy. >> next, senator bob casey discussed supply chain -- from hudson institute this is 45 minutes. >> welcome ladies and gentlemen. i'm tom duesterberg, senior fellow at the hudson institute and are pleased to be joined today by two distinguished senators who are leaders in the congressional effort to address supply chain vulnerabilities which have been accentuated by development in recent years, one obvious he the pandemic, and the consequences of the pandemic on the overall economy and the othernd is perhaps the challenge of the economic behemoth in china. so we are going to