considering nominees to head the u.s. international development finance corporation and assistant army secretary for logistics. live coverage. senate here on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. eternal god, who teaches us obedience, show us the right path that we may glorify your wonderful name. in times of distress, restore our strength and make us more than victorious because of your great love, wisdom, and power.

today keep our lawmakers true and sincere as they strive to please you in all they think, say, and do. inspire our senators to claim your great and precious promises. may they embrace your promise in the 84th psalm verse 11 which says, you will not withhold any good thing from those who walk with integrity. continue to sustain our senators with your faithfulness. we pray in your precious name. amen. the president pro tempore: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. 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. morning business is closed. and 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, department of defense, douglas r. bush of virginia to be an assistant secretary of the army.

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the president pro tempore: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

>> lawmakers are considering nominees to head the finance assistant army secretary. later in the week we are expecting the senate to pick up the nominee for the export import, live coverage of the senate on c-span2.

the presiding officer: the majority leader is recognized. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: no, to. so ordered. mr. schumer: before i get into my remarks, housekeeping. i understand there are three bills at the desk due for a second reading en bloc. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. the clerk will read the title of the bills for the second time. the clerk: s. 3600, a bill to improve the cybersecurity of the federal government and for other purposes. h.r. 3706, an act to provide stability to and enhance the services of the united states postal service. and for other purposes. h.r. 6617, an act making further continuing appropriations for

fiscal year 2022 and for other purposes. mr. schumer: thank you, mr. president. now, in reference to some -- oh, excuse me. in order to place the bills on the calendar, under the provisions of rule 14, i'd object to further proceedings en bloc. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bills will be placed on the calendar. majority leader is recognized. mr. schumer: those are all bills that we hope to move forward, and so that's why i've rule 14'd them. okay. yesterday, mr. president, by a margin, a large margin of 342-92, congress took the first steps towards creating the most important upgrade to our post office in decades by passing a bipartisan reform package that's been years in the making. with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote in the house, it is my intention for the senate to quickly take up and pass this

bipartisan, bicameral postal reform bill. we hope to take action here on the floor and pass the bill before we go to the presidents' day recess. the post office is quite simply one of the most important institutions of american life. every day tens of millions of americans, veterans, small businesses, people living in rural communities, seniors, rely on the postal service for their medicines and prescriptions, for getting essential goods, for voting, for correspondence, for their livelyhoods, and to get close to one another on special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries and things like that. but nevertheless, our postal service has needed reform for over a decade. its budgets are severely strained. its delivery services are overwhelmed. and the disruptions unleashed by the internet have made it harder for it to meet its obligations to the american people and its own employees. every one of us has heard

objections about letters arriving far too late. in many instances, whether they be checks that people depend on for their livelyhoods or prescription drugs or whatever, this, these complaints are growing and growing and growing. the bipartisan postal reform bill offers a much needed reset. it will guarantee delivery services continue six days a week. it will put the post office on a path back towards solvency. and it will ensure that we take care of our dedicated postal workers, while also saving the post office over $50 billion. let me summarize again. this legislation is passed, it would ensure continued six-day delivery service, make deliveries more efficient and timely, and put the post office on a path to stability. i want to recognize my colleagues who have made it possible for this legislation to move forward. first, i thank my friend and

colleague senator peters, chairman of the homeland security and government affairs committee, for his leadership in bringing this bill together. i also want to thank ranking member portman for working across the aisle on this common-sense reform bill. and i thanks all my house colleagues who worked desid yu ousley for a long time pushing for this reform, both the chair and ranking member of the relevant committees supported the bill on the floor of the house yesterday. i've always said democrats will work on a bipartisan basis whenever we can pass commonsense legislation that will improve the lives of the american people. last year, bipartisan cooperation helped clear the way for such things as the historic anti-asian hate crimes bill, a much needed competition bill, and our bipartisan infrastructure package. this work period alone we've already made great progress on bipartisan priorities, like ending forced arbitration for

sexual harassment and assault, as i've mentioned we'll soon act on the post office. and i expect both sides will support pass and of the short-term c.r. that will keep the federal government open, before next week's deadline. i want to thank the appropriators from both sides of the aisle for working in good faith, and i'm optimistic that soon they will arrive at an agreement for a omnibus package, which is far more preferable to the alternative of a yearlong c.r. we're getting very, very close to many doing to an agreement on top-line numbers, and as i said, i am more optimistic than i've been in a very long time that we will get an omnibus bill done for government spending for the rest of the year. so, all these priorities -- forced arbitration, postal reform and government funding -- are bipartisan items i expect the senate will act on before the recess. as i've always said from my

first day as majority leader, that we will work in a bipartisan way whenever we can. we did it in our first year, with things like the anti-asian hate crimes legislation, the competition bill, and the bipartisan infrastructure package, and these two weeks now represent a productive continuation of that commitment. so, on this issue, i am optimistic that very soon we will see the first major reform of america's postal system in decades. it will be a win for our dedicated postal workers, for the -- and for the american people who rely on the post office every single day. on forced arbitration, before the end of the week it's my intention to have the senate take action on one of the most important workplace reforms that we've seen in decades, eliminating forced arbitration for sexual harassment and assault. yesterday, i sat down with my republican colleagues, senators lindsey graham and joni ernst, and we worked out an agreement

on a few outstanding issues that will clear the path for the senate, we believe, to hold a very very soon on this issue. i want to thank them for their good faith and cooperation, and i especially want to thank my friend and colleague from new york, senator gillibrand, for being the leader on this important issue for so, so long. for decades, mr. president, it's been common practice for employers to tuck arbitration clauses into the fine print of employment contracts. today, these clauses effectively function as preconditions for getting hired to a new job. most workers may not even realize what they've signed on to until it's too late, after the fact. today, we can no longer ignore that forced arbitration has proven immensely harmful when it comes to sexual harassment and sexual assault, when workers, almost always women, face abuse or harassment at the hands of

their employers. forced arbitration immediately limits their options for remedy. the deck is stacked against them from the start, and thus abusers rarely face true accountability. that is awful and must change. and all of it is going to change very soon. by passing bipartisan legislation tore end forced arbitration -- to end forced arbitration for sexual harassment and assault, we will ensure those who face abuse had have the freedom to exercise their basic right to pursue action against harmful employers in court this is long, long overdue, and i want to commend both sides for working together to getting us close to the finish line. i expect we will hold the vote to pass this legislation in the very near future, and the benefits of the legislation will be felt across the country and last for a very, very long time. bottom line, eng forced -- ending forced arbitration for

sexual harassment and assault is about making our wornlses -- workplaces safer, holding abusive employers accountable, and making sure every american can exercise their right to seek justice in a court of law. finally, mr. president, on senate business, concerning the activity on the floor today, the senate's going to have another busy workday as we continue confirming presidential nominations to the administration and on to the federal bench. today, three roll call votes are scheduled on the nominations of both the head of the united states international development finance corps and the president's pick for assistant secretary of the army. but tonight, we are very likely to add additional roll call votes to compete the -- complete the confirmation of several pending nominations. these votes will likely take us into the early evening, but they are necessary in order to confirm nominees. i will add that until this past year, these nominees almost always have been approved through unanimous consent. unfortunately, a few people on

the other side are holding it up and making us vote on each of these, but vote we must. once again, though, to move things along, i ask my colleagues to cast their votes quickly tonight, to remain in their seats or near the floor as much as possible, and to be flexible in order to help move things along as quickly as possible on the senate floor as we did last week. we did a good job voting efficiently last week, despite the large number of votes. so i ask everyone to continue that pace tonight as needed. and finally, off the floor, i want to reiterate a brief point i made yesterday. off the floor i want to -- excuse me. finally, i want to reiterate a brief point i made yesterday regarding stock trading and members of congress. i believe this is an important issue.

that congress should address. and it's something that has clearly raised interest from both sides of the aisle over the past few weeks. as i said yesterday, there are a number of senators with various proposals, and i've asked my democratic colleagues to come together and come up with a single bill this chamber can work on. i hope we can pass something and i want to encourage my colleagues on the democratic side to reach out across the aisle. some of the proposals, we have a whole bunch, have bipartisan support. so this is something that the senate should address. hopefully we can act on it soon and hopefully it can be done in a bipartisan way like many of the bills that we are looking at this week. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

u.s. international development corporation and assistant secretary , later in the week we are expecting the senate to take up the nominee for the export import, live coverage of the senate on c-span2.

later on we are expected the nominee of the export import. live coverage of the senate on c-span2.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, it is so ordered. mr. mcconnell: while washington democrats spent 2021 with their taxing and spending spree, violent criminals were

preying on the american people. millions of americans' neighborhoods descended into chaos. after seeing the biggest murder rate jump in 20 years, at least 12 major cities set their own all-time homicide records in 2021. rates of car jacking have -- carjacking have tripled and quadrupled in major metro areas. my hometown of louisville set an all-time record last year, 888 homicides, four were children, a staggering 65% of our homicides were going unsolved. louisville is averaging one carjacking every 24 hours. i hosted the special agent of

the louisville field office for a meeting here in the capitol. we discussed these issues at length. one survey found that americans believe violent crime is the number one major crisis facing our country. more citizens called violent crime a bigger crisis than covid. when asked about president biden's way of taking care of the crime wave -- americans know it is not a spontaneous event. it has been fed and fueled in multiple ways by the democratic party's far-left turn. liberal activists and democrats have spent almost two years trying to smear the entire profession of policing with the actions of a few bad actors. we know that antipolice culture wars invite more crime. it's a fact. a prominent scholar who was the

youngest african american professor to ever get tenure at harvard has proven that police outcries means there will be more homicides. attacks on police departments match rhetorical attacks. yesterday, a democrat said that the far left will not drop or delude their message of defund the place. our brave men and women in law enforcement are literally under attack while too many politicians take aim at our police officers in a political sense, violent criminals are taking aim at them in a literal sense. the number of cop killings shot up nearly 60% last year to a two-decade high. in louisville jefferson county

sheriff was shot and killed last summer. the streets of new york city were packed full of heroes a few days ago as fellow officers mourned two of their colleagues who had been shot and killed. it's not just regular citizens going about their normal days who need this violent crime epidemic to stop. our brave men and women in blue also need very badly for it to stop. but within the justice system, left-wing activists have insinuated themselves into the prosecutorial roles throughout america and are making soft on crime actually their official policy. the state's attorney in baltimore announced last year she intended to stop prosecuting minor drug and prostitution cases. new york city's new district

attorney said last month he would not pursue charges for marijuana misdemeanors, tress passing, and resisting arrest, among others. after a huge backlash, he tried to walk some of this back. chain stores like walgreens have had to close locations in san francisco because constant unpunished theft and shoplifting has become a fact of life in that city. another example is almost too sad and ironic for words. in wisconsin last november, a repeat offender who was out on bond drove his car into a christmas parade and murdered six people. his victims included an eight-year-old child and a group of grandmothers. well, one jurisdiction over in milwaukee county has one of the most prominent soft-on-crime liberal prosecutors in the entire country. he spent years waging a national campaign using prosecutors to

go, urging prosecutors to actually go easy on repeat criminals like this killer. a few years back he even admitted soft-on-crime policies would cost innocent lives but said he was willing to make the trade. here's what he had to say -- is there going to be an individual i divert or i put into a treatment program, is going to go out and kill somebody? you bet. guaranteed. it's guaranteed to happen. it does not invalidate the overall approach. these backwards, pro-crime attitudes aren't just infecting local d.a.'s offices. they also seem to be largely defining the biden department of justice. rachael rollins is the former massachusetts d.a. who spent her last jop trying to wipe entire

categories of crimes off the enforcement rolls. this led to her promotion from president biden which every democrat supported. there's vanita gupta, who previously advocated for sweeping drug decriminalization and expressed her support for efforts to, quote, decrease political -- decrease police budgets, end quote. there's kristen clarke, also confirmed by senate democrats to work in d.o.j. who echoed calls to invest less in police. these are president biden's picks to top jobs at main justice. i just had to place a hold on a nominee to be u.s. attorney for minnesota because the person acting in that job recommended an unusually soft sentence below the maximum guideline to a convicted fatal arsonist because the arsonist was taking part in

a far-left political riot at the time. i'll need written assurances the nominee to succeed this person will not continue this jaw-dropping practice and lessen criminal sentences so long as the political violence they commit happens to be left wing. the modern democratic party has convinced itself that order, order is actually oppression and anarchy is actually compassion. this is totally wrong. tolerating lawlessness and anarchy is not compassionate. it doesn't help vulnerable communities for politicians to passively watch them devolve into literal war zones. the actual residents of these communities know this best of all. last summer, even after months of anti-police rhetoric from the left, when a poll asked the

residents of detroit about their concerns, almost five times more people said public safety than police reform. it was even more lopsided among african american residents. they named public safety eight times more than police reform. last summer m.p.r. interviewed a man who committed terrible crimes as a young adult, served time, turned his life around, now works with young men in prison. the reporter asked how he had gotten caught up in criminal violence. where did his childhood veer off course? here was the man's explanation, a direct quote. here's what he said. it was my environment. when i go outside every day, as soon as i walk out my front door, i'm entering a war zone.

from sunup to sundown, robberies, murders and carjacking and extortion became a product of my environment. so this man's problem was not an evil justice system that was out to get him. it wasn't that his neighborhood had an excess of law and order. the problem was a lack, a lack of law and order. it is not compassionate to let vulnerable kids grow up in war zones because democrats feel bad putting violent criminals in prison where they belong. let me say that again. it is not compassionate to let vulnerable kids grow up in war zones because democrats feel guilty putting violent criminals behind bars where they belong. neither is it compassionate to make innocent law-abiding citizens across america live in fear because liberal public servants won't do their jobs.

the answer to this crime wave isn't slashing law enforcement budgets. it isn't replacing cops with social workers. and it isn't far-left gun grabbers coming after the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. here's the answer. elected officials need to drop the soft-on-crime nonsense and give innocent american families the protection they deserve. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the finance corporation. assistant army secretary for

assistance. later in the week we are expecting the senate to pick up the nominee for import export. live coverage of the senate on c-span2.

>> a much needed reset will guarantee six days a week, it will put the post office on a path and it will ensure that we take care of our postal workers, the post office over $50 billion. let me summarize again, this legislation is passed and would ensure six-day delivery service, make deliveries more efficient and timely and put the post office on a path to stability. i want to recognize my colleagues who made it possible for this legislation to move forward, first i think my friend and colleague senator peters, chairman of the homeland security and government affairs committee for his leadership in bringing this bill together. i want to think ranking member portman for working across the aisle on the commonsense reform bill. i want to thank all of my house

colleagues for a long, long time pushing the reform, both the chair and the ranking member and relevant committees supported the bill on the floor of the house yesterday i've always said democrats will work on a bipartisan basis whenever we can pass commonsense legislation that will improve the lives of the american people, last year bipartisan cooperation helped clear the way for such things as historic anti-asian hate crimes bill. a much needed competition . . .

i want to thank the appropriators from both sides of the aisle who are working in good faith. i'm optimistic that soon they will arrive in agreements for an omnibus package which is far morepreferable to the alternative of a year-long cr . we're getting very very close to coming to an agreement on a line numbers and as i said, i am more optimistic than i've been in a long time that we will get an omnibus bill done for government spending for the rest of the year so all these priorities, postal reform and government funding are bipartisan items that i expect the senate ... be dispensed with. be i rise this morning to recognize and congratulate the coffeyville community college red ravens men's basketball team on winning the 2021 national junior college athletic association division i men's championship basketball.

kansas has an unparalleled history of college athletes, and i'm proud to recognize the coffeyville red ravens' contribution to our state's many accomplishments. on april 24, 2021, the coffeyville red ravens brought whom their first national championship trophy in nearly six decades. as an underdog in the national tournament, with a number ten ranking, this accomplishment is a result of hard work, determination, and grit. during the championship game, freshman center blaze catilla had a career high of 27 points and taylor perry scored 18 points. it additionally, blaze, taylor, and lorve brn ettis were named to the all tournament team. the honorable achievement has earned them recognition for their commitment to athletics. athletics teach many skills that serve you throughout life. this fe these lessons and this

team's accomplishments were not possible without the leadership of head coach jay herkleman, an instrumental member of the red ravens' men's basketball program for nearly three decades. as a coach, who has shown dedication to his players and team, he has earned the title of kansas basketball coaches association coach of the year five times. furthermore, congratulations to coach heckleman, who is only one win away from reaching the remarkable milestone of 700 wins with the red ravens. i'm pleased to have introduced a resolution with congressman laturner and senator marshall on behalf of these dedicated student-athletes, coaches, a team and school, and have had it unanimously pass the united states senate last week. thank you to the players, to the coaches and staff of the coffeyville community college red ravens men's basketball team for bringing this win home. congratulations to all in southeast kansas, south central kansas, those who are students and those who are faculty, those

who lead this college. we are proud of their success. the coffeyville community has much to take pride in this strong program, and i look forward to their continued success. mr. president, i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the republican whip. mr. thune: thank you, prp. mr. president, i understand the senate is in a quorum call. the presiding officer: third quarter. mr. thune: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. thune: mr. president, one of the big drivers of our inflation crielings is was the democrat' decision to flood the money with unnecessary money last march, with the $1.9 trillion-dollar spending bill. another contributor to the problem has been supply chain bottleneck. americans are getting used to

long delays in receiving the goods they've ordered. to big holes on grocery store shelves. to being able to reon a store to keep product in stock consistently. since the start of the pandemic, this has been a challenge. as with the larger inflation crisis, the white house seems largely uninterested in addressing the probable he almost. the tragedy of the treadmill that's delayed, that was a quote of the white house press secretary joking in october a typically tone deaf comment from a administration often oblivious to the difficulties facing ordinary americans. in fact, supply chain issues are not a minor inconvenience. they're a real problem. it's not easy for an already overstretched mom or dodd to have to run around town trying to find essential items, items they would previously -- could previously rely are on one store, at least, to have in

stock. businesses are struggling to maintain their profit margins and meet the demands of their customers, particularly small businesses, which have fewer resources to work around supply chain problems. of course, supply chain problems are helping to fuel the price hikes americans have been facing, on everything from food and clothing to furniture to used cars and trucks. these are facts that seem lost on the administration, which is largely -- has largely ignored supply chain issues in the crisis in favor of focusing on pet projects, a massive tax-and-spending spree, election legislation they think will boost democrats' chances in the fall. on top of this, the administration has taken more than one action that is making, or seems likely to make, our supply chain problems even worse. earlier this week, for example, a federal safety administration implemented entry level driver training rule, which

substantially expands requirements for drivers seeking to obtain a commercial driver's license. the new rule is likely to make it significantly more challenging for trucking companies to train new drivers, particularly for smaller trucking companies which may struggle to afford the enhanced training costs. mr. president, the trucking industry has been hit hard by the supply chain crisis, with drivers working longer hours, with fewer resources, to keep goods moving across the country. they have been heroes. this makes it a very bad time to impose new burdens on truckers and tie up trucking companies with additional red tape. the administration should have delayed the implementation of this rule until the worst of the supply chain crisis eases. unfortunately, the administration decided to push ahead anyway, and now truckdrivers and trucking companies will face additional challenges, which will likely

exacerbate supply chain problems the canada-u.s. cross border truckdriver vaccine mandate is another administration action that has created new pressures on a trucking industry already stretched thin, thanks to the supply chain crisis. mr. president, i'm a strong supporter of vaccines, but mandating vaccines for cross-border truckdrivers is only serving to worsen supply chain bottlenecks. you just need to look at the current situation in canada to see the evidence of that. trucucucucrivers do not pose a h risk of covid transmission, since they spend most of their workday alone, and this mandate's man legacy looks likely to be increasing the supply chain problems that we're facing. then, of course, there's the administration's hostile attitude towards conventional energy production. the administration might not like it, but the fact is that our economy will continue to

rely on conventional energy, like gasoline, for a while yet. and discouraging conventional energy production, as the administration has done, is doing nothing but worsening the supply chain crisis and driving up energy bills for american families. energy prices have a substantial effect on prices in the store, and on the availability of goods. the higher energy prices are, the more expense you have to produce and transport goods of and the more it costs to produce and transport goods, the higher the final price of the goods is likely to be. the administration's hostility to traditional energy production has helped drive energy prices is up, which is aggravating, making worse, our supply chain and inflation crises. mr. president, instead of imposing ufn help -- unhelpful

regulations, it would be nice for the administration to turn to meaningful measures to address the supply chain crisis, like those i introduced last week with senator klobuchar. i've heard reports of ocean carriers refusing to transport certain goods, often american agricultural products, which impact my state of south dakota. in favor of more lucrative cargos. our legislation is designed to addresses these problems to create a more level playing field. we give american maritime greater authority to respond to discriminatory ocean carrier practices, and provides tools to quickly resolve disputes. this brings greater efficiency and transparency to a process, that leaves many shippers frustrated, and long-term positive changes to the maritime supply chain, which i hope will benefit exporters, importers, and consumers alike. mr. president, these are the

kinds of measures the white house should be focusing on, measures that open up the supply chain instead of weighing it down with government mandates and regulations. given the administration's general lack of concern with the supply chain and inflation crises facing the american people, i don't have a lot of hope that the white house is going to do much to address either of these problems, but i will continue to work with my colleagues in congress from both parties wherever possible to advance measures that will ease our supply chain problems and help to get back to a situation where goods move smoothly around our country and around the world. mr. president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania a senator: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. toomey: i rise to discuss the nomination of reta jo lewis to serve as the president of the

ex-im bank of the united states. we're likely to have a vote later on her nomination. i want to address this. let me start by underscoring why, frankly, i don't think we should have a ex-im bank. let me exp -- and let me explain why. to start with the ex-im's claim on how it does business. when it provides business on transactions they engage in, it only takes risks that private lenders are unwilling or unable to take. we ought to stop ourselves there and say, well, wait a minute. if the private sector is not willing to take these risks, why should we force taxpayers to take these risks? because the ex-im bank is supported by taxpayers. that's question number one.

it gets worse than that, the ex-im bank says it only makes safe bets, it enengages in very low-risk, safe transactions, but, of course, mr. president, it's impossible to do both. they can't do them at the same time and only do safe transactions that is a contradiction. how do they do business? the reason they do business is they systematically underprice the risk. that's why ex-im bank gets the transaction. that's why borrowers go to ex-im bank instead of other private institutions go to them. this is why, for instance, the largest, most successful, most

profitable banks in america go to ex-imfor low guarantees. they are too good to be true in the private sector. let me give you an example of just how egregious this is. in 2021, the ex-im bank guaranteed a $30 million loan made by a bank to quantity to quantas. let's think about this. we have j.p. morgan, enormously successful, all the capital in the world. we have quantas, one of the most profitable airlines in the world and general electric is one of the largest industrial companies in the world. can anybody, actually with a straight face, suggest that any

of these companies can't borrow money privately, seriously? all three of them access the capital markets every day. they have access to all the financing in the world, yet they guaranteed this transaction because it was available. they don't need any subsidy from american taxpayers, none whatsoever. but, yet, this is what ex-im does. now, one of the claims that we hear from ex-im and is parters is -- is because we depend on ex-im to export products. the vast overwhelming majority of products are done without ex-im, we looked at the data from 2007 to 2020, in that

period of time, the highest amount of exports with ex-im happened to be in 2012. do you know what that was? 2.3%, that was the amount of exports financed by ex-im bank. that was when it was fully operational. it was doing business without constraints. yet it does this little tiny sliver of american exports. the fact is we're the second-biggest exporting economy in the world, behind china. the u.s. is number two in total exports of goods. we're number one in the world in terms of value added, and we do it almost entirely without ex-im financing, 97.7% in ex-em's best

year. it gets worse. now ex-im bank wants to expand in other financing. they have developed a new domestic financing program to expand the reach of the bank. the proposed domestic financing program would expand domestic manufacturing businesses and infrastructure project as long as there it is the expectation that some arbitrary portion of the goods will ultimately be exported. can you imagine? now the ex-im bank is going to provide domestic financing. if only we had banks in america. if only we had capital markets in america so we could provide financing for these transactions. no we need ex-im bank, we need taxpayers to go into the domestic banking business on top of everything else. it's unbelievable. this is like mission spraintd of

course it completely subverts the congressional intent -- the intent was to match financing that is provided for exports around the world. this has nothing to do with that. there's no reason in the world that ex-im bank should be providing domestic financing, none, we live in the most developed capital markets in the world, we have a huge enormously successful banking system. there's absolutely no need for this and the only way to get business is to underprice the risk so taxpayers do not get properly compensated for the risks they take. let me get to the specifics of our nominee. i'm concerned that ms. lewis will not protect taxpayers from this inherently risky construct. for one example, the biden administration has suggested doubling ex-im banks statutory default cap from 2% to 4%. what does that mean?

under current statute, ex-im banks have a limit of how much of their can be in default. it's 2%. well, lately the default rate has been keeping up. in fact it's tripled and it close to 2%. so the obvious solution is to do something about the credit quality of the balance sheet. but that's not the biden administration's suggestion, they want to double the permissible amount of losses. well, i have no reason to beliee ms. louis would object to that at all. i suspect she would embrace that. i'm also concerned about the background she brings to this job. ms. lewis does have some experience in international policy but does not have the financial background that should be ra prerequisite that should be a precedent for serving on a big bank and because of that she will rely heavily on ex-im staff

and i'm concerned she will support the domestic program of this administration. so for these reasons and other, mr. president, i urge my colleagues to vote against ms. lewis as president of the ex-im bank. and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: i ask unanimous consent that senator murray and i be allowed to complete our remarks before the scheduled roll call votes. the presiding officer: without objection. cotton koonlt for the past two years -- mr. cotton: for the past two years our nation's kids have suffered academically psyche logic -- psychologically at the hands of the biden administration and their political bosses in the teachers union. though kids are at the lowest possible infection of the wuhan coronavirus, they endure extreme

and suffocating covid restrictions of any population in our country. this treatment has been nothing short of cruel. the politicians and the neurotic public health obsessessives who enforce these -- obsessives who enforce these policies should hang their head in shame. there are few things that are more important to them than school. for teacher union bosses, they become hostages. they shut down our schools while they shook down politicians for more funding and benefits and promised to open schools yet they kept schools closed and kids masked. desperate parents watched their socially isolated kids fall behind while they engaged in zoom schools. when schools opened, our kids

faced insane coronavirus protocols. they weren't allowed to play at recess and eatout side on -- outside on freezing cold days and at every moment, every day in school they were forced to wear a mask. confused and hyper kids, naturally, often rebelled and they'd been reprimanded or punished for trying to make friends or breathe a little bit easier. some think that masks work for their kids, and that's fine, if they want to they should be able to put their kids in a mask. they should be able to choose. under the forced mask policies, parents have no choice at all. tragically, not just predictably, predicted, these absurd policies have had severe psychological effects on our kids.

suicide and mental health problems have skyrocketed in the past two years. grades have plummeted while depression has surged. and is often the case, those with the least have suffered the most. when parents dared to complain on behalf of their kids, they were condemned by teachers' union bosses as antiscience and extremists. they were investigated. when attorney general merrick garland sicked the fed on parents protesting. the secretary of education threatened to withdraw federal funding from states and schools who did not have mask mandates. thankfully the tide has begun to turn. sometimes i hear the phrase, the science changed. the science hasn't changed. what's changed is there's an election coming and democrats have seen the polling on this question. now they are running scared and

they want to pretend that they didn't force your kid to wear a mask for two years. you see it in states that are run entirely by democrats. california, new jersey, new york. the president's own delaware. just yesterday, across the river in virginia, the state senate to include many democrats voted not just to allow parents a choice but to prohibit mask mandates by local schools. yet, in many places forced masking remains. kids as young as 2, 3, 4 are still being forced to a hot, restricted and ineffective mask for hours on end. yes, ineffective because almost all of those kids are wearing cloth masks that don't work. that's not me speaking, that's the c.d.c. speaking. yet they are forced to wear them

most politicians believe they don't work. look at stacey abrams or maybe i should say the governor of georgia since she still refuses to seed the election and she is somehow the shadow governor of georgia. photos showed her sitting in classrooms with kids grinning ear to ear and she's the only one out a mask. or governor newsom who was taking pictures without a mask with magic johnson and a bunch of other celebrities while he had one of the most ominous mask mandates. what about mr. garcia said that pictures with him without a mask on was fine because he was holding his breath.

i guess it's like bill clinton who didn't inhale. or barak obama standing outside on the beach without a mask while all the pee-ons were forced to wear a mask in front of him. and i'll let you in on something. the same goes for democratic senators. i was in a hearing this week. it was in a small, closed room, not a single democratic senator wore a minsk in that hearing -- wore a mask in that hearing in that room. the catch is the tv cameras weren't on so there wouldn't be video of them sitting in a closed room without a mask on. masks and school have become symbols of control and fear, they are not instruments of public health. it's past time for the mask mandates to end and for parents in this country to have a choice. that's why i'm asking the senate to pass my legislation today to require schools that receive

federal funding to give parents a simple choice on whether their kids should wear a mask. and if my democratic colleagues will join me, we can get this done now, today. that's why i urge them to support this bill and i ask, mr. president, as if in legislative session, unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 3604 which is at the desk. further, i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mrs. murray: mr. president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i have said before we all want to make sure our schools can stay safely open for in-person learning. but based on this legislation, it's not clear that's true for all of my republican colleagues. look, this is straightforward. if you want education decisions

to happen at the local level, you do not tie the hands of state and local officials when they are trying to keep their students and educators safe. and if you want schools to be able to stay safely open and bring some stability and certainty back to our classrooms, you don't cut schools off from the resources they need just because you think you know better than the parents and local officials about how this pandemic is progressing in their community or how they should use tools like masks. mr. president, i am a former preschoolteacher, parent advocate, and school board member. but let's be honest. you don't need classroom experience to see that right now the very last thing we should be doing is denying schools the tools and resources to help kids learn safely. the data is clear. we've got real work to do to help our students make up for an incredibly tough two years. now, democrats actually passed

legislation, the american rescue plan, which invests specifically in helping our students recover academically and mentally. the proposal from the senator from arkansas would put our students' recovery and safe in-person learning in jeopardy. it would take those important public health decisions which should be based on local conditions away from those communities and slash funding for students and schools right when they need us the most. now is not the time to pull the rug out from under students and schools. parents, educators, and most of all kids have been through enough. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. cotton: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: i would simply reply to the remarks from the senator from washington, she asserted that i or others who oppose these mask mandates think we know better. that's the wohl point, though, -- whole point, though, mr. president. it's not that we think we know better. i think that you as a parent knows better.

you know what's best for your child, not some democratic politician, not some liberal superintendent, not some neurotic public health obsessive. and apparently the democrats have no problem using these federal funds when it suits their neurotic policies. after all, the department of education last year threatened federal funding for states and schools that did not permit mask mandates. so the whole point of this exercise, mr. president, is it's the democrats who think they know better than parents to make the choices for the parents' kids. i'm disappointed today that my democratic colleagues want to continue to see kids forced to wear masks in schools across america. but trust me, change is coming one way or the other. it will be because democratic politicians like gavin newsome run for the hills or because the american people repudiate them all in november. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will resume consideration of the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, united states international development finance corporation, scott a. nathan of massachusetts to be chief executive officer. the presiding officer: the question is on the nomination. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 72, the nays 24. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 498, douglas r. bush of virginia to be an assistant secretary of the army, signed by 18 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense

of the senate that debate on the nomination of douglas r. bush of virginia to be an assistant secretary for the army shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

merchandise. vote: vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 95, the nays 2, and the motion is agreed to.

the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: mr. president, i have 12 requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate that have the approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. whitehouse: and i ask unanimous consent that upon disposition of the nomination, the senate vote on confirmation of the coffey nomination. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: thank you, mr. president. i am here again today to discuss the scheme by big republican donor interests to capture and control our supreme court. today i'm going to put a little spotlight on ongoing scheme

operations. as we all know justice stephen breyer will retire at the at thf the supreme court term. as the biden administration selects a nominee, the scheme is shifting gears to attack her even before she has been named. a dark money front group called the judicial crisis network has already announced a multimillion dollar ad blitz against justice breyer's unnamed replacement, and its first ad is already up. the ad's premise is that left-wing dark money is poised to capture our supreme court. i am not making that up. think of a squid.

when a squid senses danger, it squirts a jet of ink into the water. the squid ink creates confusion and distracts predators and the squid sneaks off. mr. president, this new ad from the judicial crisis network is squid ink. let's start with just a quick review of the facts. right wing donor interests captured our supreme court under donald trump. they did it with dark money. they used the front group judicial crisis network to launder off identities of big right-wing contributors. the d identified contributions

funded political campaign ads against merrick garland and four -- and for gorsuch, kavanaugh, and barrett. those are the facts. the road on to the supreme court for those three justices was paved with dark money. and, by the way, the checks were big. four of the checks to judicial crisis network were for $15 million or more. that's a big check. because we don't know who those donors are or who that donor is, it could all be one donor, we don't know what business they had before the court or why it was so worth it to them or him

to spend $60 million to influence the makeup of the court. this new judicial crisis network ad, the squid ink ad, is designed to confused those rather conspicuous facts. they can't hide who funded them but they can't hide what they did. so squid ink, distraction, misdirection. their accusations of dark money corruption are a projection of the very scheme that they themselves hatched and executed. as i've discussed previously in these speeches, this is a classic propaganda technique. you accuse your adversary of what you yourself have been

doing. yes, it is maddening to have a phony front group use dark money to capture and corrupt our supreme court and turn it into the court that dark money built. it is devilish vladimir putin-style prop ganda to do what it did, a false mirror of its own behavior. oh, and by the way, that judicial crisis network ad accusing a not-yet-chosen supreme court nominee of being a dark-money stooge, paid for with dark money. you can't make this stuff up. let's look at the judicial

crisis network. start with the fact that judicial crisis network does not exist. it is, legally speaking, a fiction. who knew, right? an entity selling fiction that is itself a fiction. judicial crisis network is actually a fictitious name, that's a term under virginia incorporation law. a fictitious name, one of several filed by an organization -- a completely different organization called the conquered fund. it gets even more tangled, as dark money schemes tend to be, they are a lot like a covert operation. so let's keep digging. the judicial crisis network

actually used to exist. it was once the 501-c-4 twin of the 501c-3, that's state of the art, a twin 501c-3 and 501-c4, the tax address is the same for both entities, conveniently an address which just happened to be right down the hall on the same floor, in the same building as the federalist society. this twinned organization trick allows donors to shift money in and out of different shady operations with zero disclosure,

and it even gives donors a tax deduction to the 501-c-3. you could pierce that corporate veil pretty easily. all of this scheme ri hides the operation and fools members of the press who don't bother to figure it out and it helps dark money operatives like leonard leo, the central organizer of the scheme, the operative for the big money donors, to hide their hands and shuffle money secretly around. leonard leo, you will recall, ran the donor turnstyle at the federalist -- turnstyle at the federalist society that picked

justices gorsuch, kavanaugh, and barrett. and then, with no more supreme court nominees likely, leo scuffled off to a new venture, c.r.c. advisors. c.r.c. advisors was designed as ac ios reported to funnel big money across the conservative movement. as an aside, c.r.c. advisors has an affiliate called c.r.c. strategies, which among other things, brought us the swift boat campaign against john kerry. classy bunch. along with the inception of c.r.c. advisors, judicial crisis network was quietly renamed the congress -- the concord fund and

the judicial education project was conveniently named the 85 fund, these became the twin 501-c-4 and 501-c-3 entities. concord would handle one -- 85 fund would provide tax deductibility. that was the original setup. the renaming. then these newly named groups loaded up with these factious names. they filed under virginia law for permission to operate under pick officials -- fictitious names. and these are the fictitious names they registered to use. first concord took its old name,

its old name, and reregistered it as its new fictitious name. and so did 85 fund taking its old name, judicial education project, and registering it as a fictitious name. go figure why that was necessary. then they stood up new voter suppression projects under other fictitious names. honest elections project action and honest elections project. those two front groups, fictitious name front groups, are part of the dark money armada, along with heritage action and others through which big right-wing donors orchestrated the antivoting laws that have spread like a virus through republican state

legislatures. that didn't just happen. that was done. and as heritage action employee admitted in a leaked video, they did it quietly through sentinels. concord also added another fictitious name free to learn action and 85 created the twin free to learn. these fronts are presumably to whip up the right wing about so-called critical race theory when the big donors want. gobbs of money pours into this propaganda machine. the 85 funds last tax filing shows $65 million in revenues,

including one 48.5 million dollar donation from a single anonymous donor. if it's the same single anonymous donor that contributed the over $15 million contributions to the judicial crisis network before, that would put one donor over $100 million into this court capture scheme. and all that money for an organization with only one employee who draws a salary of over a hundred thousand dollars per year. so no surprise then that the 85 fund channels lots of money back to the c.r.c. mother ship. its last tax filing shows over $12 million paid to leo's c.r.c.

advisers for so-called consulting advertising services. and it distributed over $34 million to other unnamed groups presumably in other areas of the scheme in a big dark money shuffle. we're still waiting for concord fund records for the most recent tax year, but the previous year's filing proves the axios reporting is spot on. concord's top independent contractor is c.r.c. advisers, paid over $4.2 million for consulting services. it's out of this p and shell game switch-a-roo that the dark

money crisis add emerges. i noticed recently, in fact as recently as our last judiciary committee markup, that republicans are currently reverting often to the same dark money line of attack as the judicial crisis network. as we watch republican senators attack democrat dark money, let's remember a few things. first, republicans created, protected, and defended and defend to this day dark money. republicans block our efforts to get rid of dark money. republicans came first to the dark money game with billions of

dark money dollars. then when we began to play by their rules, the rules they made, the rules they defend, they complained. i guess they hope that we will unilaterally disarm so they can pound us with dark money just as they did for years after the republican justices and citizens united let the big money flow. well, unilateral disarmament isn't going to happen. but that's not the only reason for the squid ink. the falsehood of this ad serves to damn us all in the eyes of the public. the right-wing scheme reckons that americans frustrated and cynical about a slimy dark money

battle purr purtedly -- purportedly involving both sides will tune out and turn away from what justice sotomayor has called the stench of bipartisanship -- stench of partisanship emerging at the supreme court. all this misdirection, squid ink, can then distract from their captured courts record for the big scheme's donors. they have a pattern now, a pattern of 80, 80 partisan 5-4 decisions all benefiting easily identified republican donor interests. an 80-0 record. it's a heck of a pattern. and now they have a new right-wing dark money

supermajority to amp it up further. it's no wonder polling shows that americans believe the six justice republican majority sf motivated mainly by politics and that the court's approval rating just hit an all-time low. so a little distraction is in order. queue the squid ink. meanwhile, the senate minority leader is reportedly urging his caucus to keep a low profile on biden's nome. i get it. -- nome. i -- nominee. i get it. when you have your burglars inside ransacking a house, the last thing you want is a noisy ruckus on the front line. one liberal justice in exchange for another isn't worth a fuss when the loot is being shuffled out the window to your gang. if there was any honest concern about dark money on the republican side, there is a

really, really easy way to show it. support legislation to clean it up. put an end to it. i have a bill, the disclose act. it will end dark money in our politics and in our judiciary. every single senate democrat has voted in favor of this disclose act. even the liberal groups that judicial crisis network complains about are backing that bill. so my republican friends support it. pass the law. end the slimy political dark money era we now live in. they could do that but i will make you a bet that they won't. dark money power is too important a weapon for

right-wing donors to abandon. so instead republicans in this chamber filibuster that legislation, filibuster it, and dark money continues to corrupt our politics. brace yourselves, folks. squid ink will flow in the weeks and months ahead for the dark money forces squirting out the squid ink, the aim is defense, defense of their mighty prize, the court that dark money built and the dances to their dark money tune. to be continued. i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee.

mrs. blackburn: thank you, mr. president. i commend my colleague for talking about dark money. i was so curious this week when i saw -- i think it was a "new york times" article -- about the amount of dark money that came from the democratic side of the aisle this year far outpacing anything that republicans had spent. so i hope he is going to be successful in dealing with some of his supporters on that side of the aisle. but, mr. president, what i want to focus on today is a meeting that i had the opportunity to have last week with the tennessee association of police chiefs. and yesterday with tennessee sheriffs who had come up. you know, one of the things that they talked about repeatedly in these meetings is the recent

crime spike. this is something on everybody's mind and for good reason. the majority of america's 40 most populous cities saw an increase in homicides last year, 40 most populous increased homicides. more officers were intensely killed on the job than in any other year since the september 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. this is why morale is low. shoplifting is surging and the thieves are getting creative. instead of stuffing merchandise in their clothing and smuggling it out the door, gangs of thieves are executing smash-and-grab raids. we're also seeing a spike in drug use. overdose deaths up 30% in 2020. this is not trivial. it's not frivolous. it is not a laughing matter.

and it is something that you cannot just overlook. it is life. and i'm sorry to say that tennessee hasn't escaped this terrible trend. in 2021 the homicide spike in memphis set a new record. we lost more than 3,000 tennesseans to drug overdoses in 2020. mr. president, law enforcement officers take this personally because they see how quickly crime can destroy a community. are they worried? yes. do they have reason to be worried? absolutely. as i said, morale is low. recruiting is hard. but here is what struck me about my conversation with the police chiefs and the sheriffs. they don't only consider the local effects. they really see the big picture

and the issue at large for what it truly is. you won't be surprised to know that the lack of security along our southern border came up more than once in these conversations. the chiefs, the officers see the ripple effects of the biden administration's absolutely demoralizing failure to enforce the law. on his first day in the white house, president biden endorsed lawlessness when he made it harder for our border patrol to secure the country. that stroke of a pen caused absolute chaos on our southern border. border patrol detained more than 1.7 million migrants between january and september of 2021. 1.1 million of those people were single adults. they were not families.

and those 1.7 million were just the ones we were able to catch. we'll never know how many hundreds of thousands of got-aways made it into the interior of the country. nor do we know what they were bringing in with them. if they were trying to evade the border patrol. people and drugs are flowing across the border. just last week i came here to the floor and told the story of the border patrol's $7 million week. between january 1 and january 28, mr. president, one week, they seized 47 pound oz of meth, 3,800 pounds of marijuana, and almost 20 pounds of cocaine. one week.

hopefully those drug mules are behind bars. but, remember -- those are just the drug mules that we caught. we do not know what the got-aways were bringing in with them or how many drug mules there were, or how many hundreds of women they were trafficking in for sex trafficking, for human trafficking, for gangs, for labor crews. we don't know. but my democratic colleagues continue to spin the border crisis as a purely humanitarian issue. but what we are seeing along our southern border is lawbreaking. in many cases, it's dangerous criminal behavior, and the biden administration is ignoring every bit of it. don't believe what you see. don't believe the border patrol. don't believe the people that are down there running videos.

oh, no ... everything is fine. just listen to them. but you know who do not believe this, mr. president? our law enforcement officers. they don't believe what this administration is saying because they see something different. every town is a border town. every state is a border state because of that open southern border. our law enforcement officers can't ignore this. they can't ignore the ripple effects because they live it every single day. they put on the belt, the badge. they go out, they do their job. they see how the democrats' desire to ignore lawless behavior when it benefits their narrative has created a perfect storm of violence, of fear, and has empowered criminals.

not quite the message you want to send if you believe in the rule of law. just yesterday i had to send a letter to health and human services demanding to know why taxpayer dollars are funding fresh crack pipes for drug addicts. that's right. and h.h.s. -- an h.h.s. spokesman has confirmed that the agency is pushing a grant program that would fund so-called smoking kits with pipes for users to smoke crystal meth, crack cocaine, and i quote, any illicit substance. every once in a while you think you've heard it all. meanwhile, the border sits wide open, crime is on the rise, and we're asking police departments to do more with less. a recent survey showed that between april of 2020 and 2021 police force retirements were up

25%. resignations were up 18% compared to the previous year. there's no coincidence there. it's time for the administration to decide whose side they're on, and they are on the side -- are they on the side of the american people? are they on the side of law enforcement? are they on the side of criminals and monsters that really are responsible for this terrible crime spike? i yield the floor.

mrs. blackburn: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. ms. ernst: mr. president, when the biden administration ordered the evacuation of families, of u.s. diplomats from ukraine last month due to the increased threats of russian military action and crime, a ukrainian official clapped back, quite frankly, these americans are

safer in kiev than they are in los angeles or any other crime-ridden city in the u.s. yes, that's what a ukrainian official said. and the comment really struck a nerve because it may not be so far from the truth. in fact, an l.a. police department detective says the out-of-control crime in the city is, quote, so violent, we're telling people don't visit, because we don't think we can keep you safe right now. end quote. the city was surrendered to criminals by the l.a. district attorney on his first day on the job in 2020 when he banned bail

and prohibited prosecuting even the most serious crimes, like murder and rape, to the fullest extent of the law. the consequences of giving get out of jail free cards to criminals shouldn't surprise anyone. flash mobs of thieves breaking into local businesses are giving new meaning to doorbusters as they ransack stories like on black friday. looters are robbing stores like it is the wild west making off with millions of dollars of merchandise, including pistols and shotguns. a union pacific railroad official says even when

apprehended, criminals boast that they will face no serious charges, and within hours they are let back out on the streets. but, most troubling, over the past two years los angeles has experienced a shocking 94% increase in homicides. the l.a. sheriff says it's probably one of the biggest jumps ever, and he lays the blame on the woke policies of both the district attorney and the county board. these senseless acts of violence aren't confined to liberal los angeles and neither is the revolving prison door approach that is allowing career

criminals to roam our streets. the u.s. murder rate hit its highest point in a quarter of a century last year. more and more felons are being released across the country as a result of permissive policies being pushed by progressive politicians and lenient district attorneys who view punishment as the real crime. democrats in new york, for example, recently pushed through a state law requiring the release of suspects arrested for stalking, arson, robbery, and other misdemeanors without bail. they require the release without

bail. and despite the dramatic increases in crime in new york city, a democrat district attorney released a list of crimes -- it i'm serious -- i'm serious about this, folks. released a list of crimes on his first day in office that would no longer be prosecuted, including resisting arrest. the d.a. claims longer sentences don't deter crime or result in greater community safety. but a former new york city police commissioner points out the obvious; that when you say you're not going to prosecute certain crimes, you're sending a strong message to criminals, and it's the wrong message to criminals. he notes, since the penalty was taken away, stealing a car has

become a game. as a result, vehicle shet is driving up -- vehicle theft is driving up the city's crime rate, and the new york post reported just last week that the big apple is becoming a live-action version of the game "grand theft auto." but the wave of crime that has been released is far more deadly than just stolen property. new york city's murder rate spiked an astounding 47% last year, and the killing spree is continuing into 2022. the latest victims include a teenager who was working at burger king and two young police officers. refusing to keep dangerous repeat criminals with a history

of violence behind bars allows anyone at anytime to become the victim of an entirely preventable crime. for example, the low bail set by wisconsin district attorney's office last november resulted in the release of a violent criminal with a very long list of charges going back 15 years, including running over a woman with a ford escape. within days of being released, he drove that same s.u.v. into a crowded christmas parade injuring more than 60 people and killing six, including a

5-year-old child and several members of the dancing grannies, who were entertaining the crowds at that christmas parade. in a split second, the joy of the season was turned into a gruesome crime scene because a violent repeat offender was set free. the democrat district attorney has since admitted the release was, quote, a mistake. folks, we cannot afford anymore of these mistakes by public officials who are putting their personal political agenda ahead of protecting our public. if letting criminals out of jail without bail isn't bad enough, progressive politicians are even -- get this -- providing perks

for perpetrators. the biden administration, for instance, is allowing illegal immigrants to use arrest warrants as alternate forms of i.d. at airports to clear security checkpoints and board airplanes. arrest warrants. seriously, folks. in some liberal cities like new york and san francisco, they have cash for criminals, programs that actually pay prior offenders in the hopes that they won't shoot anyone. great plan. that's right. the same gang calling to defund the police wants to fund felons. a california cash-for-criminals program may have allowed some

individuals to get away with murder. as long as the participants pledge to improve, they are still paid, even when caught with a gun or, worse, suspected of murder, they get paid. folks, it's one thing to give first-time nonviolent offenders a second chance, but rewarding career criminals by letting them loose and paying them allowance is itself criminal. democrats' approach to criminal justice can be summed up as take no prisoners, literally. and instead of admitting their approach has backfired, liberals keep looking for excuses, and they play the blame game.

to address the rise in carjackings in chicago, for example, progressive politicians proposed banning the video game grand theft auto. perhaps the real problem is making crime all fun and games, with no real-world penalties, and only rewards, just like the video game. a retired police officer who was carjacked in his own driveway south of the city says the carjackers know that even if they are caught, they are going to get right back out. that's because the area state's attorney promised to reduce the prison population, and by golly, she is keeping that promise by dismissing tens of thousands of criminal cases. as a result, about 100 people

charged with murder in cook county have been let out on the city streets. the chicago police superintendent is even warning that the cook county court is making this all less safe by releasing violent offenders. and the horrifying numbers speak for themselves. chicago had more murders last year than any other city in the united states, with nearly 800 homicides. that is more people than the small community i grew up near. 800 homicides. and shootings in the city are up a shocking 63% since 2019. one of the fatal victims was a seven-year-old girl who was gunned down at a mcdonald's by

a gang member who was allowed out of prison despite being charged with other crimes. the suspects in another recent shootout which left one dead and two others wounded were released without charges. public officials charged with enforcing the law, who signal that it's okay to commit crime by reducing or eliminating penalties are engaging in criminal negligence. it's time to put an end to prosecutors being partners in crime. i took the first step towards making our streets safer by introducing legislation to increase the penalties for some violent offenders and child predators, including life imprisonment for repeat offenders. folks, progressive prosecutors need to stop playing politics and start doing their job,

which is enforcing the law. criminal penalties are not just suggestions. they are put in place to protect the public. parents shouldn't have to worry about the safety of their children, and no one should feel unsafe, especially in their own neighborhood. let's get serious about crime so that the only people in america who are afraid to walk the streets are the criminals. mr. president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from kansas. mr. marshall: thank you, mr. president. i have two words for today -- crack pipes. crack pipes, not crackpots.

many of us went to bed last night, others waking up this morning, and heads are exploding across this nation as we learn that this administration is giving crack pipes to crack heads. i think when the history books are written about this president in 2020 through 2024, that will be the picture right next to the president's name, a picture of crack pipes being given out by this administration. i want to come back to that in a second, though. i have a picture of my dad today and our dog rennie. our dad, my mom and our younger sister moved off the farm when i was five, and my dad was a proud, proud police officer. and i remember the day in kindergarten when my dad and our family dog rennie came to visit, and what a proud moment it was for me. in three years my dad was head of the fire department, and two

years after that he became the chief of police. my dad was the chief of police in eldorado, kansas, for some 25 years. my dad represented law in the community. he represented right from wrong, and he applied that law equally. there was never a gray area for my dad. i remember having dinner at my grandma's house one sunday evening, and the phone ringing. we didn't have pagers, we didn't have cell phones. all i remember, my dad was saying stand down. and my grandma looked at us and said you guys better hug your dad goodbye. i said grandma, what do you mean? he said he may not come back. it was a familiar story of domestic violence with a drunk with his wife on the front porch

and it was a 12-gauge shotgun. it was always a 12-gauge shotgun. my dad was the person who would go and disarm that person. it happened way too often. but i just tell that story just to, as we reminisce, as we know how important law enforcement officers are to all of us. and i remember, you know, you sat around, you listened while you're making home-made ice cream and people asked my questions about crime. and i think to those crack pipes and my dad always saying that drugs and crime go hand in hand, like peanut butter and jelly. the more drug abuse there is, the more crimes there were in the community. and i remember somebody asking him why were the police officere police officers be so soft about petty crime? maybe it was vandalism, a broken window, maybe it was graffiti. my dad talked about you have to set an example. if you allow people to vandalize, allow people to do

graffiti, if you allow people to break windows, it's a cascade of bigger crimes. we finished up town halls in the past weekend, 15 town halls in the past two weeks, and what americans are concerned about is inflation and crime. and this is what americans, kansans are telling me that they're seeing live out every night on their television set. they're seeing two million people, maybe six million people cross our border illegally, and they see this administration reward them with an all-expenses paid vacation trip to any city in america. america has seen riots and vandalism on television, and this administration and his party applaud them. every night we see looting and shoplifting, but this administration says don't prosecute. last year america saw five tons of fentanyl cross the border illegally, cross our southern

border, five tons. think of five big semitrucks loaded with a ton. that's 2,000 pounds of fentanyl. and i remind everybody one teaspoon of fentanyl can kill 2,000 to 3,000 americans. we're seeing our law enforcement officers being told to turn their back on violent crimes, to not chase the bad guys. america sees this white house and their party turn their back on law enforcement officers. and again i go back to my dad. i remember it was probably around 2014, and my dad and i were fishing, as we often do together, probably crop pi fishing on a pond in the flint hills of kansas, my favorite place to be. and my dad saying to me, you know, son, i don't think that this president has the back of our law enforcement officers anymore. and as i visit with those law enforcement officers every time i'm back, and i appreciate them coming to my town halls and having my back, but i can tell

you that law enforcement officers across this country do not feel like they're being supported by this white house. as i think about an america today versus growing up, i do think there's been a decay in our culture, and this defund the police movement from the radical left has made that culture even weaker. we have members of this squad wanting to close federal prisons. they encourage open borders. they want illegals to use arrest warrants to get through the t.s.a. and of course they want criminals to get off the hook. there is this culture of lawlessness. and again i go back to my generation of if it feels good, do it. i remember that saying for the first time on some song, i believe, from the early 1970's. if it feels good, do it. and that's the way this country is acting right now. and what's the result?

we see crowds chanting, pigs in a blanket, fry them up like bacon. pigs in a blanket, fry them up like bacon. the next time one of those houses is burning down that one of those people live in, i wonder who they're going to call. or if they're stranded in a motor vehicle accident, who's going to be the first one on the scene? and again i go back to thinking about my dad and him carrying out one of my classmates in second grade from a fire, and unfortunately my classmate didn't make it. 346 law enforcement shot in 2021. 43 officers shot last month, a 40% increase, ambush-style attacks, increased 115%. we have never seen a crime wave like this across our nation, not since the early 1990's, anyway. the united states recently saw

the fastest increase in murder rate ever recorded. violent crimes spiked. 14 major democrat-run cities setting all-time highs for homicide records. the numbers continue to go up. as i think about advice for this administration, i know if they had the will, they could fix this problem. i know exactly what my dad would tell them. he would say treat criminals like criminals. treat police officers, law enforcement officers, like heroes. tell them thanks, reward them, respect them. it's time to refund the police, folks. it's time to secure the border. let's hold criminals accountable. it was a rare day, but i would remember my dad talking at the supper table about someone they worked so hard to convict but a judge or a d.a. letting them off easy. we need to prosecute the smallest of crimes.

we need an attorney general. where is our attorney general? where is he? in the middle of this crime spree, where is our attorney general? he needs to be tough on crime instead of labeling parents as domestic terrorists. and simply, america, it's time to get back to our values, the same values that my dad raised us on. it's time like my dad did -- apply the law equally. thank you so much, mr. president. i why -- i yield back. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: last week a member of the biden administration was confused, very confused why fox

news is talking all the time about crime. that person is the press secretary to president biden, ms. s -- ms. psaki. she said americans care more about what is happening in their daily lives than what news says about crime. how much more out of touch could the biden administration be? crime is happening in americans' daily lives all across america. thousands more people a year are being murdered. violent crime has increased for two years, and there's no sign of it slowing down. the administration's plan to fix the violent crimes spike is merely another partisan gun

control plan. that's what they think about, doing something about crime -- control the guns of people that abide by the law. it won't seriously reduce voopt crime if you do that -- violent crime if you do that. it focuses on issues that make up it only a tiny fraction of violent crimes, or maybe it doesn't contribute to the problem at all. for example, the administration wants to crack down on ghost guns, but ghost guns are involved in only a fraction of 1% of the crimes. particularly of the murders. biden administration also wants to focus on the so-called iron pipeline, and that's blaming red