>>. [inaudible] senate today expected to work on more of president biden's judicial nominations. at 3:30 eastern lawmakers expected to vote to limit debate on the nomination of sherilyn barnett to be us district judge for the district of california and

able to nominate juliette gordon to be assistant secretary of urban development and head of the federal housingadministration . live now to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. >> n,

o god, our help in ages past our hope for years to come; still be our guard while troubles last and our eternal home. and lord, we thank you for the life and impact of former secretary of state madeleine albright. we pray in your great name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the 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 presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c, april 27, 2022. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable jacky rosen, a senator from the state of nevada, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved.

the presiding officer: morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary, sherilyn peace garnett of california to be united states district judge for the central duct -- for the central district of california.

>> things getting off to a slower start because many senators are attending the funeral for former secretary of state madeleine albright today,

took place at the washington national cathedral. today the senate will be working on more of president biden's executive and judicial nominations and at 3:30 p.m. we believe lawmakers will vote to limit debate in advance of cheryl and garnet to be u.s. district judge for the central district of california also expected today about ted nance the nomination of julia gordon, the assistant secretary of housing and urban development and the federal housing a administration. you are watching live coverage of the u.s. senate on c-span2. >> mr. webster explained the mission and how you go about doing it. >> our mission is to conduct

research on one of the biggest public safety and health problems in our country, gun violence. we were established in 1995 at the johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. period into reduce all the forms of gun violence. we are joined with colleagues are taking a research and communicating that effectively to policymakers. >> one form of gun violence, mass shooting in this country, the washington post with this set of statistics. 151 mass shootings in this country that is shooting that involve four or more people.

four or more victims. 151 to april 23 of this year, that compares to 156, that is significantly higher than recent what is your reason. >> most of the mass shootings that are being counted by gun violence. other shootings that involve fewer victims. mass shootings can include two sets of individuals who are in an opposing street cruise and can be domestic violence scenario in which it in strains a boyfriend or husband going after his former partner in children and family members. then sometimes it takes the form of the thing that gets more of

the headlines. someone takes the gun into a school, movie theater or a mall or something like that. most mass shootings really look like other forms of gun violence that we study and occur on a regular basis. the general pattern is following the overall rates of gun violence that we are seeing. >> the patter that we see overall and gun violence, is also seen en masse shootings. >> is there a way to regulate our way out of the gun violence problem? >> there is no one solution that is going to be fully effective. based on our research we have found that certain regulations, not all regulations translate

into lives saved. but many key gun laws do save lives. that's what our science is set out to do, formally examine how laws differ across states, and how rates of gun violence change when gun laws change, what we find from that, what we think about whether federal laws, there is huge gaps that are exploited by people who should have guns and the people who profit from selling them, the state laws vary in some states try to address the gaps. when they do we find when you send bs to private transfers you have less gun trafficking.

>> divided a administration can't seem to decide on the status of the pandemic or the status of the economy, on the one hand were being told we are no longer need. make arab border restrictions intended to help limit illegal immigration and prevent the spread of coping, covid, on ther hand the biden administration is urging congress to wear masks on plan and to support funding. americans know the pandemic can't simultaneously be over for migrants at the border but make it too dangerous for a south dakotan to fly without a mask. and there is the issue of the economy and the student loans. the president is proudly touting record job creation and economic growth even though most of what he's taking credit for is a national consequence of economic recovery from the pandemic.

but on the other hand, the president recently announced that he is extending the moratorium on federal student payments interest and collections for another four months until august 31, because americans are still suffering economically as a result of the pandemic. madam president, which is it? is our economy thriving or are americans economically dispersed. madam president, the student loan moratorium and interest free at the beginning of the pandemic made sense. our economy was starting to shut down and americans' jobs were in jeopardy. but it made sense as a temporary measure for a genuine emergency. we are no longer having double-digit unemployment as we did during some of the worst moments during the pandemic. in fact, our current unemployment rate is a low 3.6%

of for college graduates, the unemployment rate is a staggeringly low 2%. to paraphrase "the wall street journal's" editorial on the subject, it student borrowers aren't ready to return to making payments now, they'll never be. even the "washington post" had an editorial. i quote, what was needed as an emergency measure at start of the pandemic is no longer justified. it is hard to make an argument that college graduates are struggling right now. the unemployment rate for those with a bachelor degree or higher is 2%, there is a near record number of job openings. that is from "the washington post." it is true that americans are facing economic challenges as a result of inflations that president biden and democrats created with their ill

considered rescue plan act. if anything president biden's latest student loan pause could help prolong our inflations problems, and importantly, it will have the biggest benefits for those who are most able to deal with price hikes from inflation. this clearly regressive policy benefits high debt, high income borrowers significantly more than low debt and low-income borrowers. again, to quote "the washington post" once more. rising prices of gas, rent, food, and cars are a hardship. but forgiving interest on student loans for four months is a benefit for those who earn a degree in medicine and law. meanwhile the 64% of americans who do not have a college degree

do not benefit from biden's pause on loan repayments. that, again, from "the washington post." and subsidizing all those doctors and lawyers ends up being pretty expensive. the student loan repayment moratorium has cost the federal government $100 billion. by the time the latest extension of the president's moratorium is up, it will cost billions more. after a huge increase, the government does not need to forgo billions of dollars more with americans with some of the highest earning potential which is why this morning i introduced stop reckless student loan actions act to end the current deferment and limit the

president's ability to pause student loan repayment. senators braun, cassidy, and marshall also cosponsored of. it would extend loan suspensions during another national security, but it would limit it to 09 days and -- 90 days and subject them to congressional approval. and relief will be targeted by suspending payments to liar -- higher income individuals. it would prevent the president from using a national emergency to excuse student loan debt. it leads me to my biggest concern. deferring student loan payments is a bad policy is costing the federal government money it doesn't have, but it pales in comparison to the ultimate goal.

for many democrats, and that is canceling student loan debt entirely. days ago the president's press secretary, referring to the payment deferment sent and i quote between now and august 3 1, it will be extended again or we will make a decision about canceling student debt, end quote. that from the president's press secretary. her statement made it alarmingly clear that the president isn't just temporarily deferring loan payments but seriously considering canceling -- canceling a significant portion of federal student loan debt. and she doubled down on that idea on monday noting that, and i quote again, what i would tell you is that not a single person in this country has paid a dime on federal student loans since the president took office. end quote.

my gosh. canceling student loan debt, mr. president, -- madam president, i should say, is a bad idea for so many reasons. in the first place, it's money the federal government simply doesn't have. democrats often speak as if the federal government were able to draw from an unlimited pot of money, but, of course we know that's not true. government funds aren't anywhere close to being unlimited and coffers are not filled with a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. they're filled by taxpayer dollars. sooner or later it will be taxpayers who foot the bill for any loan forgiveness program, including the many taxpayers who opted not to attend college or chose a debt-free way of doing so. i can scarcely think of anything more unfair than forcing americans who incurred no

college debt to shoulder the bill for those who did, especially when a substantial portion-that debt is incurred by those with the greatest earnings potential. danceling student debt -- canceling student debt would be unfair to students who worked for years to pay off their loans. an american who paid off his or her higher education debt would get nothing -- nothing from such a cancellation, while a recent graduate who made a month or two of payments could see his or her debt i did appear in --appear entirely. canceling student loan debt would do nothing. in fact, it would make problems worse. not to mention the fact that student loan cancellation would

take a bad inflation situation and almost undoubtedly make it much worse. we think 8.5% inflation is bad, and it is. but canceling student loan debt this fall could take inflation to new even more painful heights. now, madam president, i strongly support finding ways to drive down the cost of higher education and educate students about the dangers of excessive debt. i also support measures to help students pay off their student loans without putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dlas or more and i will -- dollars or more. and i will note that in the cares act employers would be able to make tax-free payments on their employees' student loans. but unnecessarily deferring student loan payments, or worse,

canceling a significant portion of student loan debt entirely, is an -- as i should say is a pecial idea for many reasons -- is a terrible idea for many reasons. and i hope colleagues from both sides of the aisle will join the student loan bill that i introduced earlier today to end these endless and unnecessary loan deferment extensions and i hope some of my democratic colleagues will realize the unwisdom of canceling student loan debt and unfair to those who paid off their loans or never went to college and the negative effect it would have on our inflation. madam president, i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

>> that really is not discussed. what is not discussed is why is it happening in these communities more even though the gun control laws might be the same than others.

i don't see how that is just left out and why is it proponents of gun control. i am mutual i'm anti-gun but having lots of incarceration which is what the law leads to let's not pretend you pass these laws and they don't have implications for people. why does it seem to be pro-gun control when i said the russia example and what have you. >> i would like to respond to that, it is a good question. a lot of background had to do with comparing different countries be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: so, madam president, earlier today leaders past and present from around the world joined together to celebrate the life of madeleine albright. while secretary albright may

have been small in stature, she was a tighten. she was a -- her brilliance and sharp wit made her a form formt i haddable -- formidable presence. today was a wonderful celebration of her life. my thoughts are with secretary albright's family as our nation remembers her life, and her great legacy. now, madam president, on the f.t.c. as we've done all along this year, democrats are continuing to focus on lowering prices for the american people. yesterday i met with speaker pelosi to discuss how both chambers can work together to address the terrible burden of rising gas prices. it's one of the most vexing issues for the american people, the disturbances from the pandemic and the war in ukraine has caused gas prices to spike and working americans are

hurting. you know who are not hurting? the largest oil and gas companies who reported over $205 billion in profits in 2021 even while americans pay more at the pump. solving this issue is a top priority for democrats. a top priority. unfortunately, the other side seems content with bemoaning rising costs day after day without expressing any interest in actually offering solutions to the problem. senate democrats are actually working to solve the problem and will continue talks with our house colleagues on legislation that can bring gas prices down. there are several options we can take. now there's a growing consensus that the federal government, especially the f.t.c., should investigate possible price gouging and price manipulation, market manipulation that might be happening among the largest oil and gas companies in the country. this is one step we're working on out of many. of course any solution involving

the f.t.c. requires that the f.t.c. have full membership to begin with, so we're also going to keep working to confirm mr. bedoya as commissioner to break the 2-2 deadlock that lasted for over a year. it's important to note republicans unanimously are not voting for mr. bedoya, and that has paralyzed the f.t.c. even though its leadership would love to go after price gouging and manipulation. we've had a few health issues but i want to assure you that health issues will not deter us from getting mr. bedoya and other important nominees like lisa cook confirmed. i ask republicans to drop their senseless objections to getting mr. bedoya confirmed. it seems it's only covering up for the oil companies and preventing a really sharp,

piercing investigation of market manipulation and price gouging. there is something deeply wrong about seeing the largest oil companies rake in record profits while asking americans to pay more at the pump. that's why we need an f.t.c. with full membership so it can look under the hood of america's energy sector and drill down into why big oil is pumping out record profits as consumers struggle. again i repeat to my republican colleagues, if you care about lowering gas prices and care about looking at what the large companies, oligopolies are doing, join us in voting mr. bedoya on the f.t.c. a vote against him is a vote for big oil and against the american driver and consumer. now on student debt, for over a year one of my top priorities as majority leader has been urging president biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt for each student loan borrower.

right now as discussions continue within the administration about the future of student debt, i again call on the president to take action, which he can do on his own, and hit the financial reset button for millions and millions of americans. president biden has done the right thing by continuing the moratorium on student loan payments. his actions have saved millions from financial ruin during the covid crisis. but borrowers don't just need their debts paused. they need them erased. these extensions have been crucial, but borrowers can indefinitely plan out their financial futures three months at a time with the fear hanging over them that payments will resume down the line. with the flick of a pen, president biden could provide millions upon millions of student loan borrowers a new lease on life, and he can do it without congressional action because we know so many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are opposed to it. he can do it without congressional action. it's the right thing to do for

our country. for generations higher education has been a ladder up for getting into the middle class, especially for black, latino, asian americans. unfortunately student debt has become not a ladder up but an anchor down, weighing americans down. it makes it harder for borrowers to start a family, buy a home or car or live with financial independence, and for borrowers of color the anxieties are magnified. take this for example, the white median borrower will owe an average of 6% of their student loans 20 years after starting college. meanwhile the median black borrower will owe a staggering 95% of their student loan debt in that same time span. imagine being closer to retirement than to college and realizing you've only made a dent in your student loans. millions of borrowers of color, millions more borrowers in

general live with this reality. once again borrowers don't need their debts paused. they need them erased. this isn't just the right thing to do for our economy. it's the right thing to do for racial equity. and i'll keep urging the president to take this important step. and i say to my colleagues, i think the president is moving in our direction. my talks with him and his staff have been very fruitful over the last little while, and i am hopeful that he will do the right thing. we're getting closer. we're getting closer. on ukraine and covid funding. in the immediate future there are two different issues that demand swift and bipartisan action from the u.s. senate -- passing another ukraine supplemental package and approving another round of covid funding. in the coming days, the president's is expected to send to congress his request for action on ukraine. we're going to make passing ukraine funding a priority in the senate, and i expect both sides to work together. as we've seen over the last two

months, american support has gone a long way helping the ukrainian people resist and even push back against putin's savage and immoral war. but the fight is far from over. ukrainian people are fighting for survival in a contest that's much about democracy versus tyranny. there should be no question, no question whatsoever about which side america stands on. we have a moral obligation, a moral obligation to give the ukrainian people the tools they need for as long as they need them. for this reason, i expect both sides to work in the same bipartisan way we did a few months ago to get a ukrainian supplemental done. we also need bipartisan cooperation as soon as we can to pass another round of covid health funding. i urge my republican colleagues to work with us to pass covid funding asap. it's very risky for the health of the american people, for republicans to play political games at a time when we need more health funding.

let's be clear, this is an exceedingly time-sensitive priority. according to the white house, countries like japan and vietnam and the philippines are already ahead of the u.s. in placing orders for treatment for medications, for vaccines. the u.s. is largely unable to follow suit simply because senate republicans have blocked any new round of funding required to make these purchases. the longer senate republicans hold out on supporting new covid funding, the greater the risk of other nations buying out all of the available supplies of vaccines and tests and lifesaving therapeutics. and if they run out, it will take manufacturers months to make new doses. again to my republican colleagues, work with us to pass covid funding asap. our country can't afford delays or political games that stand in the way. i yield the floor. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. mcconnell: i ask further proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, i along with others had the opportunity to say goodbye to madeleine albright this morning, a truly remarkable life. first woman secretary of state, remarkable diplomat, and a friend. we had an opportunity to bond

over an issue i'm about to discuss -- the people of burma and the plight that they have had to endure over the years. regretfully, as her life came to an end, things did not go in the right direction in burma, at least not yet. and i know she would not have given up hope, nor have i. with regard to the current situation in burma, aung san suu kyi was handed yet another outrageous sham sentence by the military junta in burma. for the past year the leader of burma's democracy movement and thousands of her fellow citizens have been detained while the at the time -- while the tet man

dau, the army, drives her country backward. the generals responsible for last year's coup met a ground swell of popular protest with brutality. as burma's diverse ethnic minorities have found historic unit why i in the cause of democracy, the junta has stoked violence and division. the tat man dau is holding countless citizens of burma in prolonged attention, -- detention, along with foreign nationals like shawn turnell. its political prisoners report reportedly include dozens of children under the age of 15. and its baseless prosecution of aung san suu kyi illustrate how long the road ahead is for burma's democracy advocates. the military's latest ruling against my friend is just one in

an absurd list that could carry a total sentence of up to 190 years. with every passing day, the junta's rulings generals are showing the world exactly what they're afraid of. they fear that people will -- the people of burma, their unity, resolve and devotion to a democratic future. i've been proud to stand with burma's democracy movement throughout my career. i've been paying close attention to their plight this past year. i'm looking forward to hearing soon from the biden administration about their efforts to help. what sanctions? what sanctions will the administration apply to ratchet up the pressure? what additional support will they try to provide to the true representatives of the people of burma? what will they do to ensure the restoration of democracy in

burma is a top priority for the upcoming summit? the leaders and supporters of this brutal coup must be held accountable. now, on another matter, last week in my hometown of louisville, i sat down with law enforcement officials and local leaders to discuss our skyrocketing rate of violent crime. the participants came from a wide variety of backgrounds, but everybody agreed that murders, shootings, robberies, carjackings and overdoses are simply out of control. louisville recorded 188 homicides in 2021, an all-time record, 24 of the victims were children. just recently, an antigun, antipolice activist made national headlines when he tried to assassinate a jewish

democratic louisville mayoral candidate. jefferson county saw more than 500 drug overdose deaths last year, hundreds more than in years before the pandemic. these problems are literally overwhelming the city's coroners. one expert i met with said the violent crime has stolen more years of potential life from louisville than the pandemic. car jackings are up over 200% in the last two years. we now average more than one car jarking every 48 hours. the -- carjacking every 48 hours. the folks on the ground have seen nonfatal shootings and gang activity increasing. this crime spree is coming from a tiny minority of louisville residents. one half of one percent of the population manages to commit an outright majority of all the

city's violent crime. that is possible in large part because many are let back on the street within days of their arrest. of course, this isn't just a louisville problem. we've seen violent crime soar nationwide since the far left's national antipolice and anti-law enforcement campaign that began back in 2020. cities everywhere are under siege. here in washington in broad daylight just yesterday there was literally an armed robbery right outside the headquarters of the f.b.i. polls show 69% of louisville residents oppose the defund the police movement, and 66% want more police in their neighborhoods. but many democrats are still unwilling to openly call for law and order in our streets. as a result, police officials say their officers feel under siege, they're worried politicians will not have their

back. another huge factor is president biden's failure to secure our borders. i was told at last week's roundtable that every bit of deadly heroin and fentanyl on our city streets now comes across our southern border. as long as this administration neglects to enforce our laws, every state becomes a border state. we need to secure the border and stop narcotics flooding our neighborhoods. we need officials at all levels to back the blue, crack down on crime and reestablish law and order. but the biden administration gives us just the opposite. they nominated and confirmed a supreme court justice who argued that covid justified early release for every single prisoner in washington, d.c. just yesterday, the president issued a giant catalog of pardons and commutations, cutting sentences after sentence

after sentence, particularly for convicted drug criminals. they never miss an opportunity to send the wrong signal, and until federal, state, and local democrats get with the program innocent people in louisville and across the country will continue to suffer. now, one final matter, the institution of the united states congress relies on a whole army of diligent and dedicated people who work tirelessly behind the scenes. today it's my pleasure to turn the spotlight on one such public servant retiring after a sterling career. david hakwe's time on capitol hill started on the senate side more than 30 years ago. he served as an elevator operator while he finished graduate school. dave thrived and impressed everybody. before long he was the direct

director of of the office of accessibility services. this is a small team whose work often goes unheralded but right to the heart of the american people. the ocss ensures the capitol complex is a accessible and welcoming place for everyone, including americans with different abilities or disabilities. there is a physical component with this. dave's work with the architects to honor our historic buildings, while at the same time making them accessible. ramps, elevators, wheelchair options, the new lift here on the senate floor, dave's tackled everything from big infrastructure questions to the smallest details. before any big event, like a joint address or inauguration or just on a normal work day, you can run into dave walking around or across the entire campus, searching for obstacles that less keen eyes might have missed

but physical accessibility is just one part of what dave and his team do. the ocas also provides crucial services, they supply american sign language interpreters for our meetings, they translate letters into braille, they'll consult with offices to ensure an intern or staffer has the tools that they need. it's a vital team, and for decades their quarterback has been famous for his cheerfulness and humor, his dedication and the thousand ways he's gone above and beyond the call of duty. dave has spent decades in the business of unlocking opportunities, the opportunity to visit here, to meet with your senator or your congressman, to take a job here. his excellence and dedication have unlocked door after door after door. dave, the senate congratulates you on your well-earned

retirement. thank you for your devoted work to keep our government by the people and for the people.

the presiding officer: the senior senator from ohio. mr. brown: thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent -- i appreciate senator cotton joining me on the floor, and his work with senator mcconnell on this. i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nom nations en bloc, calendar number 660, 661, 663, 739, 740, 741, 742, numbers 804, 805, 859, that the senate vote on the nomination en bloc without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, without intervention action or debate, it and the president be immediately notified on these actions, and the president will be immediately notified on the senate's actions. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cotton: madam president. the presiding officer: the

senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: reserving the right to, to, -- to object, i want to say a few words. i september a letter to the attorney general asking about they were hanging out to dry deputy marshals who defended the portland courthouse against left wing street millionishas in 20 -- millitiias in 2020. putting them at risk of bankrupt, and perhaps most alarming, it wouldn't tell them why. now, the department still hasn't provided definitive answers, and after i raised this alarm they took another -- another step and put the marshals on limited duty, telling them that after 20 months of active unrestricted duty, they're now under investigation for the events in portland. that's despite the fact that they received and i award for their actions in portland, received outstanding and excellent performance evaluations for 2020, and were again deployed to some of the most dangerous, high-risk

missions our law enforcement officers can undertake. so, call me crazy, but i have to say, this seems like a case of potential retaliation. but it does in a way give the marshals the information we were seeking and helps them understand their status. i also understand that at least one marshal has filed a complaint for retaliation against vanita gupta, the assistant attorney general. so the facts will come out, one way or another, in my message to the department of justice today is this, you will be held accountable for your actions against these law enforcement officers if they are inappropriate or even unlawful. if not this year, it will happen next year, because i also want to add that yesterday i and several of my colleagues, including the judiciary committee's ranking member, senator grassley, and the former judiciary committee chairman, senator graham, sent a letter to the department about this investigation. we intend to get to the bottom of it. we're committed to an oversight

investigation in the 118th congress if one doesn't occur in this congress. i've also spoken to our republican colleagues on the house judiciary committee who have today issued a request to the department of justice to preserve documents in this matter. is so, now that i'm confident the department will receive the oversight that it deserves in this matter, it i will no longer object to these nominees. therefore, given these developments in this matter, i will withdraw my objection to the confirmation of today's nominees. mr. brown: madam president. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. brown: madam president, i know of no future debate on this. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, the question is on the nominees en bloc. all in favor say aye.

all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nominations are confirmed en mr. brown: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from ohio. mr. brown: i thank senator cotton for working together on this, these nominations are very important to our states. i heard senator mcconnell earlier talking about crime on the streets and getting these people in place is really important. it's been 473 days since the people of ohio last had an attorney general. the u.s. attorneys office has experienced its highest caseload in 30 years filings 486 indictments. last year there were 170 homicides in the city i live in, the city of cleveland, another

30-year record, not to mention a surge in carjackings, filling this important law enforcement position is essential. i hear from police officers who need more resources, whether it's bulletproof vests or getting u.s. marshals and u.s. attorneys on the job and today with senator cotton, we're able to do that. we have a qualified nominee ready and eager to serve. marissa darden has been a lead attorney in criminal and civil cases. nobody has any objections to her and about her accomplishments. she was assistant u.s. attorney in the northern district recognized for her work on complex legal cases. she received the national high-intensity award. she received the award for

outstanding investigative effort, a different one in 2019, significant management experience, a record of strong leadership, federal judge ms. pierson said that ms. darden will enforce the law while trusting -- by treating all with respect and appropriate sensitivity. former u.s. acting attorney, the last confirmed u.s. attorney in the northern district described her as an attorney of unquestioned integrity. jacqueline johnson wrote her first recommendation for a u.s. attorney in 38 years, says she possesses the intellect, vision, temperament, and judgment needed to lead this office. d.e.a. special agent in charge keith martin echoed those remarks saying she's one of the best he's encountered. senator portman joined me in

supporting her nomination. she will be the first african american to serve as a u.s. district -- to serve as -- as u.s. attorney for the northern district of ohio. today we come together to get qualified and talented law enforcement professionals on the job. i thank senator cotton for his cooperation on this and i thank the presiding officer, senator baldwin for her work. i yield the floor. mr. cotton: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to complete my remarks before the scheduled vote at 3:30. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cotton: 200 years ago today one of our greatest heroes was important, ulysses s. grant stood as one of america's indispensable men.

he crushed the darkest forces of this union, bandaged our deepest national wounds. he was an unshakable pillar of strength upon which this nation's future rested on time and again. no one saw grant's rise to greatness. he graduated from west point, distinguished himself as a soldier in the mexican-american war, he later stumbled from one failure to another in business. in 1861, grant was bent by humiliation and ridicule, but unbroken after the attack at fort summitter, he -- summitter, he marched into the history books. he fought on the western front. after grant's first great victory, his confederate

counterpart sued for peace and asked what terms he would give them. grant responded that he would accept no terms accept an unconditional and immediate surrender. this earned him the nickname, unconditional surrender granted and resulted in the largest capture of enemy troops in the history of the western hemisphere up to that time. grant waged a relentless form of war fare. he knew that the art of war is simple enough. find out where your enemy is, get at him as soon as you can, strike him as often and as much as you can and keep on moving. his warrior spirit moved president lincoln to declare, i be cannot spare this man, he fights. when grant's enemies spread the rumor he was an alcoholic and should be dismissed, lincoln responded, if he found out what

brand of whiskey grant drank, he would send it out to him. shilo, was one of bloodiest battles, the con fed ri's most competent general at the time. william sherman approached grant that rainy night beneath a great oak tree and said, well, grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we. grant replied, yes, lick them tomorrow, though. he made good on this promise. threw back the federal forces and won the battle. sidney johnson was killed in the fighting, jefferson davis later wrote, it was the turning poibt of our fate. this -- point of our fate. it was commonplace for young

officers in the iraq war to conclude a day by borrowing grant, lick them tomorrow. grant continued his brilliant victs on the 82 d signing of the -- 82nd signing of the declaration of independence, he split the confederacy in two. this was perhaps the greatest strategic victory of the war and combined with the victory at gettysburg, grant's seizure at vicksburg put the union on pack to victory. soon after the victory of the battle of chattanooga and missionary ridge, lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general, a position no one held since george washington. a few days later, lincoln also named him commander of union forces. in his new command grant quickly

turned eastward and confronted robert e. lee, someone who ran circles around the army of the poe tam being a for years. -- potomac for years. lee spooked many for so long, but not grant, he said, i'm hardly tired about hearing about what lee is going to do. some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault and land in a rear and in -- arrear and both flanks at the same time. go back to your command and think what we are going to do ourselves instead of what lee is going to do. what grant did was pursue lee's army ruthlessly. as he marched into the confederacy, if you see the president, tell him for me whatever happens, there will be no turning back. in the following weeks, lee

attacked grant's army again and again. grant continued to advance deeper into the confederacy. grant's army fought in the burning forests and the muddy trenches of the petersburg, and never allowed lee to regroup his shrinking army. less than a year after grant began his overland campaign, the union forces finally took the capital of richmond and broke the back of federal resistance. but u.s. grant wasn't a great leader simply because he won the war, he was also great because he never lost sight of the goal of the war, to reunite the shattered republic and restore the bond of affection and mystic cords of memories between the north and south. grant offered lee generous and honorable terms. uncompromising the war, grant

was magnanimous in peace. he allowed confederate officers to keep their side arms and horses, he did not demand lee's swords and did not prosecute rebels who laid down their swords. grant and his staff took off their hats in respect to the defeated confederates. grant remained in the army and continued to be a fowrs for reconciliation -- a force for reconciliation and union. he didn't allow vengeance or anger to overwhelm prudence or wisdom. he defended his former antagonist robert e. lee. when johnson asked grant, when can these men be tried? grant replied, never, not unless they break their parole. he went so far as to tell his staff that i will not stay in the army if they break the

pledges that i made. to grant his word was more important than any office. thanks to his principled stand, johnson backed down and our nation avoided cycles of fruitless recrimination. at the same time grant also opposed johnson's attempts to weaken reconstruction and lee -- leave newly free slaves exposed to -- grant wanted neither excessive punishment or leanians. he wanted justice -- leanance. grant acquiesced to popular demand and ran for president in 1868 on the simple platform, let us have peace. although his administration was imperfect, he fought to make good on his promise. he continued his work to bring the south back into the union, restoring the rights of

citizenship to 150,000 former rebels and bringing robert e. lee to the white house as a symbol of reconciliation. grant was one of the greatest civil rights presidents in our history, protecting freed slaves with laws and when necessary with force. when the first k.k.k. terrorized south, grant empowered the department of justice and the army to destroy it and it was destroyed. grant also healed the wound that the civil war inflicted on other nations. he settled a spiraling diplomatic crisis with great britain, allowing ships to be built in its ports. after years of negotiation, the united states and great britain signed the treaty of washington, in which great britain apologized. they further established a

committee that ordered the british to pay our country over $15 million in damages. grant also worked to settle outstanding concerns in the treaty, paving the path to strong relations to great britain in the future. after his presidency, grant fell deeply into debt, but even as he lay dying of cancer, he resolved to provide for his family. a week before his death, he completed his memoirs, a monumental lit ri achievement to -- lit ri achievement that is the greatest of any statesmen. he saved his family from debt, demonstrating one last time his will. grant's funeral possession was the largest public demonstration in american history up to that point with an estimated 1.5 million americans in attendance.

frederick douglass described grant as a man too broad for prejudice, to humane to despise the humblest. douglass saw in grant a protecter for freed blacks, a friend to indians, a brother to vanquished foes and the savior for an imperiled nation. progressive historians, a partisan press and political enemies tarnished his record from the beginning they maligned him as being ill-suited to politics. this is a slander against a great american. as a deeply honest man and a washington outsider, grant wasn't always astute in spotting the swindlers and grifters. as president he trusted some who

didn't deserve the trust. his critics saw this as a mortal sin and using his honesty to besmirch the record of a good and great man, but douglass was right. grant was a savior of the public and grant's countrymen agreed, electing him twice by historic landslides. i have four photos hanging on the senate wall of my office. he was a great statesman who saved the west in our hour of crisis. abraham lincoln, winston churchill, ronald reagan and u.s. grant. throughout his life u.s. grant embodied a profound patriotism and sesmlessness that our nation should remember with all in -- with awe and reverence. on this bicentennial of his birth, we should restore him to

the pannion of american heroes, first among americans. madam president, i ask that the following remarks be entered in a separate portion of the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cotton: america's retreat from afghanistan was a dark chapter for our country. we all remember the terrible scenes of desperate people clinging to the undersides of planes, of taliban thud be beating innocent people. most tragically of all, 13 flag-draped remains of brave american service men and women killed by an isis suicide bomb. we'll never forget those tragic events. they're grim reminders about the wages of weakness in washington. but for every act of cowardice in washington, for every act of evil by our enemies, there was an act of even greater bravery by our troops.

as they always do america's heroes redem through extraordinary action. i would like to recognize one of our nation's heroes today. navy llt kristin trendle is a member of my team in the senate where she does excellent work as my deputy national security adviser. after starting six years ago as my intern, i know that lieutenant trendle would be too humble to sit beside me today if she had any idea of what i'm going to say. but last year she took a leave of absence from her senate duties to deploy with the navy reserves. it took her to kabul, the eye of the storm. lieutenant trendle served to the general in charge of the evacuation. their mission? to save as many americans and afghan allies as possible from the advancing taliban. lieutenant trendle immediately proved her worth. for weeks she was everywhere at

once creating on-the-fly event, coordinating evacuation efforts with four country, even helping orphans in the chaos of the kabul airport. those actions alone would have been worthy of commendation but lieutenant trendle went above and beyond the call of duty. she volunteered to leave the relative safety of headquarters to lead a clean desitin team charged with finding and recovering americans and afghan allies. these dangerous rescue missions often required lieutenant trendle to go outside the wire to rescue highly vulnerable evacuees. she executed these missions in the dead of night despite confirmed threats within sight of the enemy. armed taliban fighters were regularly within 100 yards of her position beating and whipping civilians. lieutenant trendle was unfazed

by this danger. she carried on with her mission. lieutenant trendle and her team rescued and astounding 961 americans and afghan allies. that group included young kids, pregnant women, injured civilians as well as high ranking generals, helicopter pilots. suffice it to say many of those evacuees would be in jail or worse if lieutenant trendle and her team hadn't been there. at this time my staff in washington and arkansas were working around the clock to evacuate american citizens. two of those americans, a married couple, had visited afghanistan for a wedding right before being trapped behind enemy lines. they made a harrowing journey through taliban check points to reach kabul where they got stuck for days unable to get to the airport. they called my office's evacuation hot line for help and we got them as far as we could to the across of the airport

gate while we updated the coordination just beyond the barricade. suddenly lieutenant trendle appeared. you can find the cell phone videos of that nighttime respect could online. the americans were screaming for help. taliban fighters were savagely attacking civilians nearby. then came the calm, resolute voice of lieutenant trendle saying she's with me. that couple is now home in america and safe. lieutenant trendle was with them. the nation has awarded lieutenant trendle the bronze star for her actions during the evacuation. i had the great honor of presenting that medal to her earlier today. as the official count of lieutenant trendle's actions note, she achieved 100% mission success in the face of unparalleled chaos. i would add that lieutenant trendle met unparalleled chaos

with unparalleled courage. she deserves every bit of this high honor and she deserves her country's sincere gratitude. thank you very much, kristin. i yield the floor. mr. brown: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from ohio. mr. brown: i thank both her and senator cotton for their service to our country. i know the vote is imminent but i wanted to also echo his words on ulysses s. grant. history was not always kind to grant as a general and as a president. with the powb indication of ron chur know's -- with the pun indication -- publication of ron churnow's book, it changed many views on a very important president would did mostly the right things on race after the civil war, and if he could served another term or two, our country would look very different in terms of race and in terms of the structure, in

terms of the black codes and jim crow and structural racism that we have seen in this country. i just wanted to call to the senate's attention senator blunt and i have a resolution that may be hot-wired -- might be hot lined later today, i believe. and commendation thanking -- thanking president grant, honoring the life and legacy of ulysses s. grant on the commemoration of his birthday. i wanted to add those comments. madam president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: thank you. madam president, we've just gotten some very good news and that is that the senate has confirmed the u.s. attorneys and u.s. martials that had been blocked -- marshals that had been blocked for quite a long time. it's a good thing that our

republican colleagues stopped their obstruction of qualified u.s. attorneys. they're vital to keeping our community safe and secure and they should never have been held up for leverage in partisan games. the nominees are vital to keeping our communities safe and secure. after months of waiting, communities in georgia and ohio and nevada and minnesota and new hampshire and other states are finally getting the security they need with confirmed u.s. attorneys. so i'm very glad that this is finally, finally happened. it took too long but now it's done. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion, we, the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of executive calendar number 800, sherilyn peace garnett of california to be united states district judge for the central district of california signed by 17

senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the majority quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of sherilyn peace garnett of california to be the united states district judge for the central district of california shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule of the the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 64, the nays 34, and the motion is agreed to. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from wyoming. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i come to the floor today to talk about the need for more american energy. since his first day in office, joe biden has been on a war, an all-out war against american energy. in his very first week in

office, he stopped all new leases of oil and gas on public lands. it was completely illegal for the president to do that. a few months later a federal court told the president that what he had done was illegal. the law states that the american people may explore for energy on federal lands, and the law calls for ways that it can be done. so here we are now 15 months into the biden administration, and finally joe biden has grudgingly agreed to follow the law. he's going to sell a bare minimum of leases to obey the court order. so how much is a bare minimum? well, for the entire state of utah, my neighboring state, they are only offering one single partial -- parcel for the entire state. at the same time joe biden is raising the cost of american

energy production to the point that he is raising federal royalty rates on the energy produced on that federal land by 50%. when we produce less american energy, the american people end up paying more for the energy they use. this is joe biden's economy in a nutshell, the economy that has given us the highest cost inflation in 40 years. in the last 100 years, no president has ever raised these royalty fees for producing american energy, until joe biden. it just shows that when it comes to energy, joe biden is further to the left of any previous american president. so who's going to pay for these higher fees on joe biden's attack on american energy? people understand it, they know that they're going to be the

ones who are going to have to pay for it, and often it is the people who can least afford it in our home states and across the country. these higher costs for american energy, thanks to joe biden, are going to be paid for by working families, people who are already struggling to keep up and falling further behind in joe biden's economy. producing less, raising costs, it is the perfect recipe for more inflation. as i was coming down to the floor, i walked by a tv screen. the screenshot said joe biden's approval rate hits an all-time low. it seems to be happening all the time, week after week, month after month, continuing to fall in the polls because the american people are distressed and in pain over what this president and what this democrats in the house and senate are doing to this great country. doing the bare minimum.

this president may satisfy the courts, but it's not enough to satisfy or save struggling families. to stop this inflation nightmare, we need a long-term commitment to producing more american energy. energy companies aren't going to invest if they think if joe biden tells them and threatens them that he wants to shut them down tomorrow. that's exactly, though, what he continues to talk about doing. so just last week, after the president gave a speech and said we need to at least do these leases, his climate czar, gina mccarthy, i guess she must really be the one who's running the show down there in the white house, this is after the president of the united states made a speech about what he says we're going to do, pay no attention, she says, to the president. she said he's absolutely

committed to not moving forward with additional drilling on public lands. who's calling the shots? she said we have no choice but to follow the court ruling. then they asked the press secretary. she said last week we're going to continue to fight this court ruling. continue to fight. it is forcing our hand. they're going to continue to fight the american people all the way to the ballot box in november when the american people say we've had enough of this stuff. and then there's joe biden's climate czar, john kerry, a former member of this body, former secretary of state. here's just a couple of things that he's had to say recently. he said we have to put the natural gas industry on notice. he said you've got no more, six years, eight years, no more than ten years he said. he said by 2030 in the united states, we will not have coal

plants. he says we will have to be phasing out coal plants five times faster than we're doing it now. these are people that are not committed to affordable energy. these are people that are not committed to the fight against inflation. these are people who are not committed to the american people and the american families, who go to work every day, try to put food on the table, try to get their kids to school. oh no, and what does john kerryo praise? he praise the energy policy to the state of california. which state has the highest energy costs in america? california. that's the biden administration telling the american people we want you to be like california. we want you to pay even more than you're paying now. joe biden and the environmental extremists, whom the president obeys, are doing everything they can to undermine investment in american energy. it's time for this white house to stop this war on american

energy. the white house cannot get by, this country cannot get by when a white house does the bare minimum. this white house should be doing everything that we can to produce more american energy, bring down the costs for american families. joe biden needs to open up public lands for energy production. the federal lands are the property of the american people. we have the resources. we have we have it in our count. we have the it in the ground right now. this is the solution to the inflation crisis that is hitting families all across the country. there is no excuse for this administration to continue to block the american people from developing the resources that we have in order to bring down the costs, improve their lives. joe biden needs to approve the 4,600 drilling permit applications they currently have sitting on his desk. he needs to speed up the process

for pipeline permits, not crush them. and he needs to stop attacking american energy workers. these workers, these are the people that keep the lights on in this country. these people are those who keep the economy running. these hard workers deserve our support. they deserve our gratitude. they don't deserve the way they're being treated by this administration and this president. these are the people that can help us get out of this crisis that joe biden has created. the american people are fed up with joe biden making excuses and dragging his feet. it's what i saw while walking here to the senate floor on the fleftion -- on the television screen today. joe biden's approval rating hits an all-time low. the american people want and demand real solutions.

what they deserve is more american energy. unless this administration wakes up and delivers that, those all-time low approval ratings of this president are going to get even worse. thank you, mr. president, and i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. scott: the president is considering several of president biden's picks to sit on the board of the federal reserve. i've voted against two of these nominees. i believe they all should be voted down by the senate. under its leadership, the fed lost the trust of the american people and failed to uphold control as an independent body. i've been it clear about my disapproval of the fed's policies especially its massive and still growing balance sheet. both now and throughout recent history the federal reserve has been behind the curve and far too late in taking action to keep america's economy stable.

its policies to sustain a growth such a massive disproportionate growing balance sheet are aing perfect example of its failure to properly manage the economic needs of our nation. four years i've asked, i have asked chair powell and members of the federal open market committee to reduce the fed's unprecedented balance sheet. nothing has changed. month after month we've watched the fed continue to purchase billions in treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. there is still no plan to wind down and right size the fed's balance sheet which today sits at nearly 40% of g.d.p. before the pandemic in 2019, the fed balance sheets assets totaled just under $4 trillion. today it's more than double to nearly $9 trillion. that's more than ten times the assets the fed held in 2007 when the balance sheet was under $1 trillion. mr. president, the federal reserve's massive balance sheet

has become a massive problem. when the fed buys up treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, it holds them like this, it is distorting the credit markets and allocation of capital, ultimately hurting our poorest families and americans on fixed incomes. look at how the fed's policies have made homeownership unattainable for young people. these policies helped drive up home prices, putting the purchase of a home further out of reach for young families across our nation. iladmit the covid-19 pandemic presented our nation with historic challenges but the federal reserve's overreaction and then refusal to react to changing economic circumstances over the last year is unacceptable. the fed's mismanagement and their management failures have been especially disastrous during the biden administration. instead of fighting for the interest of american families it has chosen to appease an administration hellbent on reckless inflation fueling and spending. it's clear to me the raging inflation crisis we are seeing across america is the fault of joe biden and joe biden alone.

but the fed's weak appeasement helped grease the wheels of the spending agenda. this isn't juster my opinion. the fed knows this is true. weeks ago the san francisco fed wrote the spending packages actually fueled inflation. i've written letters, held meetings and had phone calls with chair powell and members of the federal open market committee to express my concerns and demand action to shrink the balance sheet. again chair powell and the federal reserve has chosen to do nothing. not one member of the board of governors has been able to explain to me why the balance sheet is so big and what size it should be. at every turn when the fed could have been fighting for american families by mitt ghaith the -- mitigating the long-term rifng of rifng -- risk of the massive balance sheet instead chose to appease joe biden, wall street and the democrats running washington all at the expense of american families.

fed? by turning chair powell into his inflation scapegoat. earlier today in the senate committees committee, after i asked the administration when inflation would come back down, secretary rim ono deflected and blamed chair powell and the fed. if the federal reserve really believes -- if the biden administration really believes the fed bears responsibility for inflation, why are they renominating these officials? why aren't they putting people in who can solve the problem? it makes no sense. but that's the endless blame game the biden administration likes to play. americans are sick of weak policy in washington. it's time for the federal reserve to start fighting for real americans, not washington politicians. it's clear that the fed needs new, it independent and courageous leadership to truly address our nation's economic problems. weakness in fed leadership has produced unsustainable monetary policy that threatens the long-term economic health of our country. it's a very thing i've warned about for months.

it's clear that the current leadership of the fed doesn't care. they don't deserve to hold these seats. they've lost the trust of the american people. they should be replaced with individuals who will stand up for american families and protect the american economy. mr. president, i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from massachusetts. ms. warren: mr. president, for more than 50 years, the title ten family planning program has provided family planning, h.i.v. tests and other essential tests to millions of americans. this program primarily serves patients who will are already face many barriers to accessing healthcare. six in ten women who rely on the program for contraception say that a title ten provider is the only healthcare provider they see all year. is and yeah, republican politicians, like senator rubio, are now using this crucial

program, which is historically enjoyed -- has historically enjoyed bipartisan support, using it for political theater. this vote is only one part of a broad and sustained assault by republican politicians on americans' healthcare, including patients' rights to make decisions about their own bodies. through repeated efforts to limit birth control access, to defund planned parenthood, and to restrict abortions republicans are chipping away at americans' health, at americans' safety, and at americans' economic independence. in 2018, the title 10 program served nearly four million people annually. but in 2019 the trump administration issued a radical gag rule that decimated the title 10 provider network, causing more than a thousand healthcare centers to leave the

program and severely restricting access to basic, primary and preventative healthcare services. the covid-19 pandemic only made access to these services even more difficult, disproportionately harming low-income community and people of color. by 2020, with the combined effects of the trump administration's awful policy and the covid-19 pandemic, the program was only able to serve 1.5 million people, less than half the number of people it had served in 2018. in massachusetts, by january january 2021, only one title 10 grantee remained, and six states had no title 10 providers at all, even though the need had grown. now, fortunately last october

the biden-harris administration reversed trump's radical assault on the title 10 program. that was an important victory, which prioritized patients' needs, patients' health equity and access to a broad range of services provided by title 10 providers. now, however, senator rubio is once again trying to turn back the clock on healthcare and reproductive rights in what is just the latest attempt to deny people access to critical healthcare. if enacted senator rubio's resolution would harm millions of americans, people who rely on title 10 providers like planned parenthood, local health departments, and community health centers for family planning and sexual health services. healthcare is a basic human right.

everyone deserves access to affordable family planning and sexual health services, from birth control to s.t.i. treatments to pregnancy tests, no matter their zip code, no matter their income. people of color, people living in rural areas, people living in medically underserved areas, and people with low incomes already face immense disparities in healthcare access and in health outcomes, and if we return to this radical trump era policy and cut back on basic healthcare services, the effects will disproportionately harm communities of color, uninsured people, and low-income people, exacerbating existing health disparities. this vote couldn't come at a worse time. the united states is facing surging rates of sexually

transmitted infections. on top of that, americans are facing rampant attacks on abortion and reproductive rights all across this country. abortion has been virtually inaccessible to millions of texans for several months now, and even though the majority of americans, the majority of americans agree that roe v. wade should remain the law of the land, the supreme court is poised to overturn the decision in just two months. meanwhile, republican-controlled state legislatures emboldened by our extremist supreme court have passed over 500 antiabortion bills this year alone. and just this month three more states enacted clearly unconstitutional attacks on abortion, counting on an extremist supreme court to back

them up later on. and that is why now is the time to strengthen and expand access to critical birth control and other essential healthcare services that the title 10 program provides. that means not just defending title 10, but increasing funding for the program so that h.h.s. can rebuild the title 10 provider network and adequately fund the providers, many of whom have already been approved for grants but who haven't received a single dollar because there simply isn't enough funding to meet the need. and let's be clear -- this is not just about healthcare. it is yet another right wing attempt to deny people, especially people of color, especially lgbtq plus people, especially low-income people,

the right to control their own futures. this is about economic justice. people who can't access basic reproductive and healthcare services cannot fully participate in our economy, and they have fewer economic opportunities going forward. an unplanned pregnancy can derail an education or the early steps of a career. so, today, i'm fighting to defend title 10, a program founded in 1970 with bipartisan support. i'm fighting to defend it from radical right wing attacks. republican politicians may think that they will win by dividing americans, but when it comes to the fight for reproductive rights we will fight to ensure that every person gets the care they need. thank you, mr. president.

i yield the floor. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. romney: i rise today to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of an extraordinary man, a giant among senators, and a dear friend, senator orrin hatch. he was a man of vision and unparalleled legislative accomplishment. as the longest serving senator in utah's history, he is un-- his unwavering dedication to our state and country during four decades of public service will

be remembered for generations to come. few individuals have left such an indelible mark on the united states senate. he did this through his legislation, he did it through the relationships he had with other senators, he did it through bipartisanship, he did it through his relationship with presidents of both parties. like his good friend ted kennedy he was a lion of the senate. now, i know that there have been a number of senators who take responsibility for accomplishing many things, but i don't think there's ever been a legislator that's got more done legislatively than orrin hatch. our judiciary, the fluments of our economy -- fundamentals of our economy, even the national character are more elevated and more secure thanks to his leadership, thanks to his undaunted capacity to plow

ahead. sponsoring and cosponsoring more legislation than any other member at the time of his retirement, he used his time in this chamber to work tirelessly to help people who sometimes were overlooked. he reached across the aisle to forge strong bipartisan relationships that allowed him to pass landmark legislation. now, orrin hatch and ted kennedy were once signing a bill together, celebrating the same bill, and president reagan turned to orrin hatch and said, how is it that you and ted kennedy are celebrating the same piece of legislation? and orrin turned back and looked at him and said, well, it's very simple, mr. president. it's clear that one thing is obvious -- one of us didn't read it. his sense of humor was well-known in this chamber and throughout our state. his friends often remarked that

orrin could have been a standup comic if he wanted to, but he had too many important things to do to take that job seriously. he put friendship above politics. he called me in 1994. i was then running for a senate seat against ted kennedy, kind of a tall task for a guy from massachusetts to go up against ted kennedy, but i figured someone needed to do it. and wanted to see if i couldn't get ted kennedy on the right track. but at that time, orrin hatch and i hardly knew each other. we were distant acquaintances. but he was a close friend of ted kennedy's. he called me and said mitt, you know, i'm a republican too. i'm responsible for helping get a lot of republicans elected. but i'm not going to come campaign for you. and he said because ted kennedy is just that good of a friend. orrin put friendship above politics. now, in addition to his

legislative accomplishments, orrin hatch played a pivotal role in several landmark confirmations while serving as one of the longest chairs of the senate judiciary committee. his positive impact in the state of utah and the nation's federal judiciary cannot be overstated. now, when i was asked to run the 2002 olympic winter games in salt lake city, i met with orrin hatch and said i'm going to need your help. he made it very clear that the success of the olympics, come as they were going to do to our state, would be a high priority for him, and he would do whatever is necessary to support our effort. and then came the crisis of 9/11 and 2001. i knew that i could not invite the people of the world to come to salt lake city unless i was 100% confident that everything that could be done would be done to keep them safe.

and without the help of the federal government, there could be no secure provision for the games and no certainty that we could be protected. the morning after the attacks of 9/11, i happened to be in washington, and i called senator hatch on the phone. he at the time was in his senate office. i asked if we could get together at some point to talk about how we could move forward and provide the security funding that might be necessary to protect our games. without hesitation, he said, come over to the office right now. i did so. when we got there, we sat down. he said what do you think you need? i described the need for fencing and personnel to evaluate the security threats that might exist, a military air capacity to secure the skies over salt lake city during the games. and he said, well, what's the biggest challenge you'll face?

i said, well, senator, john mccain of arizona has not been a fan of providing support for olympic games. he thinks that money's been misused in the past. he said, well, it wouldn't be misused now, given what's happened in 9/11. let's go see john mccain right now. he picked up the phone and called senator mccain. he said he would be happy to see me and senator orrin hatch. we went over to his house and orrin hatch proceeded to describe how important it was we host the games and senator hatch would give the support he needed and senator mccain made it clear he would not stand in the way of doing anything that would be needed to secure the games in salt lake city. so i owe orrin hatch a great deal of credit to help us to host games in salt lake city successfully and to do so without security incident. now, i think everyone knows that

orrin hatch was a man of tremendous faith. he was an advocate to protect religious freedom and legislation that he authored in this regard still stands in protecting the rights of people of faith in our country today. he dedicated his life to a commitment to jesus christ and to the principles of christianity, he did so in my own faith by accepting calls in the church of jesus christ of latter day saints as a missionary and later as a bishop of a congregation. orange hatch enjoyed -- orrin hatch enjoyed life and appreciated all it had to offer. you may know he was a composer and has a number of songs and musical performances to his credit. he wrote poet -- he was a poet

and he wrote jokes. he sent me a whole page of jokes to use when i was running for president. i looked at them one by one and i didn't think they were that funny but i read them to the folks on the bus, and the more i read to them, the more they laughed. the man had an extraordinary capacity with humor, with legislation, with friendships, really one of a kind. he really also was pretty good at self-deprecating jokes, he told me to lighten up and be more free with my language so i let heck and dang drop into my words from time to time. his affinity for buffets and bacon were not to be forgotten as well. in his words, we should choose

to live every day like it's bacon lover's day. orrin hatch believes the people you love and the friends you have are the real currency in life. i believe that deeply. he had a lot of friends, not just in this room, but friends throughout these buildings, friends throughout our state. i remember walking through the capitol with orrin hatch and from time to time someone would come up to him and want to ask him a question or ask for help on some issue of theirs, instead of doing like most of us do, putting our head down and rushing out and pretending to have important things to get to, he would stop and bend his very tall physique down to listen to what the person had to say and listen attentively and see he would do what he could to help.

i saw that again and again with orrin hatch. he served all the people of the united states america. not surprisingly he had and still has a lot of friends. of course, when you think of people he loves, first on that list would be his wife elaine and their family. they together raised six children and 23 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren. he and elaine were married for more than six decades. she has been by him every step of his career and his political involvement in our country. ann and i send our deepest condolences to elaine and to the entire hatch family. god be with you until we meet again orrin, and i hope you feel i haven't let you down taking your place in this great chamber.

mr. lankford: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. lankford: about six years ago i came to this floor and presented an idea. how do we get on top of our debt and deficit? are we going to get on top of our debt and deficit? interestingly enough, for each of us and our own families, we can all tell a story about a season in our life where we really hit hard times. i've hit several where the money was really tight and our family was very attentive to what we were spending. very. those moments when we would literally make sure that every time we went to the grocery store, we only spent this much

because we knew we had an electric bill coming in, we knew we had our rent coming due. our family has definitely been there. my wife and i when we first married, we had a rule that we couldn't ever spend more than $25 without the other person knowing it because our fear was when we were first married that one of us would spend $30 and the other would spend $35 that day and we would blow up our bank account because we were living that close to the edge, and just getting by while i was in school and we were just getting started. a lot of families have been that way. but you can tell how serious a family is about them dealing with their debt but how seriously they take their expenses. there's some individuals that have massive debt that still keep running up their credit card. they still keep buying more and more product. they still use their credit card and go get additional electronics and get more stuff

and thinking i will max out this card and then another not with essentials, just with fun, not paying attention to the fact that some day it will come due. my concept was simple, where is the federal government's drop in the ball where we don't pay attention to the areas in our spending. it is a well-known fact that we have trillions in debt. as a nation, we have now crossed $30 trillion in total debt. it's interesting the conversation doesn't seem to be serious. we don't seem to be in a dialogue about how we're going to actually try to bring our debt down. we're still spending on other things and still saying not we're limited in what we can do, we seem to be adding more to the mix. it's not necessarily on

essential things. it just seems to be on things. the federal fumbles book that i released this week put on our website just details of several different items, one is where are we on our debt and how did we get here? but also walk through some of the trust funds on this because i think it's important. where are we on medicare trust funds? by the way, we're four years away on insolvency on medicare, four years. where are we on social security? we're 12 years away from insolvency on social security. 12. where are we on the highway trust fund? we're well past insolvency on the highway trust fund and we've been accelerating borrowing to cover more and more, in fact, that was don't even recently. i laid out a set of ideas of how do you actually solve some of these and how to address it. but also laid out some of my frustrations that said at some point this body will be serious

about dealing with debt and deficit, but apparently we're not yet. i laid out some areas and talked about some of those through the book. i encourage those to look at the book and everyone is it free to disagree with me on it. we spent $2 billion this last year not building the border wall. the contracts had already been let out, the steal was already purchased. the steel, in fact, is -- is laying on the ground. people were hired and individuals were on the ground ready to do installation, because career professionals at the department of homeland security made it clear that certain areas needed fencing. those career professionals had worked with contractors and had a contract in place to put

fencing in those areas. and they were under way until the biden administration stepped in on day one to stand it all. though the contracts had already been let out. we spent $2 billion not building border fencing. $2 billion. now, i asked the simple question, what would it hurt to go ahead and finish those contracts out that career professionals had signed off on and that career secure individuals from the department of homeland security had said was desperately needed in those areas, what would it murt to fin -- hurt to finish those contracts out? instead we sent messaging that we're not going to build a fence and spend $2 billion not to do it. what did we do instead? we built robot dogs.

they are were -- they were supposed to help border folks and border patrol. so instead of border fencing, it's robot dogs. what else? of the trillions of dollars of debt, recently we put $2.6 million into china to help pay for some of their health programs. now, follow the irony of this. we actually borrow a trillion dollars from china to pay our bills so we borrowed money from china to be able to then send money to china help pay their medical expenses. does anyone else think this is a bad idea, that if we were serious about dealing with debt and deficit, we would start going line by line through all

of this and be able to identify, maybe this is not a good idea if we have $30 trillion in debt, maybe we could cut back in some areas. we could cut back on that or maybe cut back on the grant that was given out to write about russian screen writers that we actually paid someone to do research on russian screenwriters to be able to release this project out so that people could study russian directors and screenwriers. i'm -- screenwriters. i'm fine if anybody wants to do this, but if we do this, it should be a private project, not have a federal government project when we're dealing with $30 trillion in debt. what else did we do with the money? how about lobster pot removal. yep, we spent half a bhldz in a

special -- billion dollars in a special earmark to do this. it was listed in the bill as derelict lopster pots. i understand it is lobster pots that someone abandoned. if you told me there was a lobster trap and you could keep the track and lobster if you get it, we would go get it. instead, we are paying a half million dollars in federal dollars to pick up derelict lobster pots. when we have a derelict oil and gas well in oklahoma, oil and gas companies all pool money together and put a little bit in to be able to go clean that sight up -- that site up and year by year we're cleaning up abandoned well sites because our companies actually kick the money in to go clean up their own messes that are out there.

i don't understand how the state didn't do this or a city didn't do this or the industry didn't take it on. now, i do have some frustration because there was some money set aside for parks as well. i'm a big fan of parks. my kids go to the park. we're glad to be able to go to the park. i went to the park a lot. there was a project of $2.3 million in federal money to be able to renovate a pool, a swimming pool in rhode island. now, i'm not opposed to swimming pools and i'm not opposed to rhode island having swimming pools. i'm just trying to figure out with federal dollars why the federal government is paying to fix a swimming pool in rhode island. shouldn't this be the state of rhode island if it's a state park? shouldn't it be the state of -- or the community or the city to be able to take this on? cities in my state, if they have problems with their pool, the city pays to be able to fix the pool. or the community pays to be able to do that rather than the federal taxpayers pay to do it.

with the same issue actually with a ski jump, that there was a state park that it needed a renovation for a ski jump and so instead of the state actually paying for their state park, people in my state are paying for our state park and we're paying to fix the ski jump in this state park as well. why are we paying for both? why don't the people of oklahoma pay for our state parks and the people in other states pay for their state parks? again, i have nothing in opposition to ski jumping other than it seems like a particularly terrible thing for me to do. but if somebody wants to be able to do it and they want to pay for that, that's fine. just why should oklahoma taxpayers do that? as we were digging through the different pieces that were actually done, i would tell you it was painful the moment when we ran across the monkey opera.

we spent federal tax dollars on something called a monkey opera. now, i'm not sure why we spent federal tax dollars on a monkey opera. i'm not sure what a monkey opera sounds like, but i would tell you i think i've listened to a monkey opera on peoples on hold music before when i called certain companies. i think the hold music they had was actually monkey opera. i have to ask the hard question is this national defense? is this educating our children? is this health care? with $30 trillion in debt, at some point we as a nation have to stop and say okay, let's do what's essential and not what's not. two weeks ago a staff member called me and said she was in line at the grocery store, and

the woman in front of her with her kids pulled out all the stuff in her basket and put it on the scanner area and said to the lady that was going to be the cashier, hey, tell me when it gets to $150 because i can't spend any more. that's all i have. so the cashier kept ringing things up. she held things back that she thought were the nonessentials at the end because she knew this is all i have, and though i'd like to get more, i can't. it sent me two messages. one is every family knows how to do this. why we can as a family government look at it and say with $30 trillion, maybe the monkey opera is not one of our essentials. i don't know. the second thing it reminded me of is every family is dealing with the real effects of inflation right now. it's very real for them.

they're saying to the cashier at the grocery store, tell me when it gets to this dollar amount because that's all i have. when we continue to spend more and more and more as a federal government, it drives inflation higher and higher. i am very aware there are a lot of folks in this room that are just trying to help. but we're causing real problems with inflation, with overspending as a nation. that's got to pull back. and we've got to get serious about what we're spending on because this kind of stuff drives the american people crazy when they're saying to the cashier i can only do $150. please tell me when it gets there because everything else i can't do today.

and we borrowed more money from china so we could do this. we put out the federal fund book for a reason. i want to remind everybody in this body that debt is still a problem. this is still an issue. wasteful spending whether it's in the billions or whether it's in the thousands is wasteful spending. and at the end of the day, we need to understand the american people are counting on us to make hard decisions and there are lots and lots of hard decisions. but currently as a body, we're not even discussing $30 trillion in debt. so i bring it to us again. we have $30 trillion in debt. let's start working on this. with that i yield the floor.

the biden administration can't can decide on the pandemic or on the economy. on the other hand the administration is still fighting to require americans to wear masks in public transit airplanes and is urging congress to pass an administration

believes it's over at the border. it's a confusing message to say the least. americans know the pandemic can't simultaneously be over for migrants of the border and make it too dangerous for us to sift fly from sioux falls to south dakota. the administration's messaging is similar on the economy. on the one hand the present is proudly touting record job creation and economic growth even though most of what he's taking credit for is the national consequence of economic recovery from the pandemic it on the other hand the president recently announced he is extending the moratorium on federal student payment interesting collections for another four months until august august 31 because americans are still suffering economically as a result of the pandemic. madam president which is that? is our economy thriving or are

americans economically distressed? madam president the student loan repayment moratorium miniatures to freeze including the care act at the beginning of the pandemic archon are you starting to shut down an american jobs are in jeopardy. it made sense as a temporary measure for a genuine emergency. we are no longer having double-digit unemployment as we did during some of the most moments -- the moments of the pandemic in effect the current rate is below 6%. for college graduates the unemployment rate is a staggeringly low 2%. to paraphrase "the wall street journal"'s editorial board on the subject is student loan borrowers are ready to return to making payments now they will never be. even the "washington post" editorializing the president's latest extension noting and i

quote within needed emergency measure at the start of the pandemic is no longer justified. it's hard to make an argument that college graduates are struggling right now. the unemployment rate for americans with the baxter's degree or higher is amir 2% and they are is a near record number of job openings end quote. that is from the "washington post." madam president it is true that americans are facing economic challenges as a result of inflation. that president biden and democrats helped. with the american rescue plan act. if anything president biden's new pause could help the law are inflation problems and importantly it will have the biggest benefits for those who are the most able to deal with price hikes from inflation. this clearly regressive policy benefits hide debt, high income

borrowers significantly more than low debts, and low income borrowers. again to quote the "washington post" once more, rising prices of gas, rent, food and cars are hardship. forgiving interest on student loans for four more months offers the biggest benefits to people who have earned degrees in medicine and law. these people do want to have lucrative careers. meanwhile the 64% of americans who got a college degree don't benefit at all from the pause on loan repayment end quote and again madam president back from the "washington post." and subsidizing all those doctors and lawyers will end up being expensive. the student loan repayment moratorium has cost the federal government more than

$100 billion. by the time the president's latest extension of the moratorium is up it will cost the federal government billion's more. after huge increase in international debt thanks to the pandemic and reckless democratic spending the government does not need to be forgoing billions of dollars by providing student loan relief to americans with some of the highest earning potential. which is why this morning i introduced legislation to stop reckless student loan action to end the current deferment on student loan repayments and limit the presence authority to pause payments for the future. my legislation which introduces my colleague senator richard burr would continue to allow to temporarily suspend student loan payments during a future national emergency but would limit those suspensions to a period of 90 days and subject them to congressional disapproval. it would also ensure that we

reach the target to those who need it most by preventing the president to suspend payments for higher income individuals and importantly would prevent a president or secretary of education from using a national emergency to cancel student loan debt. which leads me to perhaps my biggest concern in all of this. differing student loan payments is it that policy costing the federal government's money it doesn't have. but the case pales in comparison to the ultimate goal for many democrats and that is canceling student loan debts entirely. years ago the president's press secretary was going to the payment deferment and i quote between now and august 31 it's either going to be extended again or we are going to make a decision about canceling student debt end quote.

that is from the president's press secretary. her statement made it alarmingly clear that the president isn't just temporarily deferring loan payments but is seriously considering canceling, canceling a significant portion of the student loan debts. and she doubled down on that idea on monday noting that and i quote again what i would tell you is that not a single person in this country has paid a dime on federal student loans since the president took office end quote. my gosh canceling student loan debt mr. president, madam president i should say is a bad idea for so many reasons. democrats often speak as if the federal government were able to draw from an unlimited pot of money and of course we know that

is not true. government funds aren't anywhere close in government coffers are filled with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. they are filled by taxpayer dollars. sooner or later there will be taxpayers who foot the bill for any loan forgiveness program, including the many taxpayers who opted not to attend college or chose a debt-free way of doing so. i can scarcely think of anything more unfair than forcing americans who incurred no college debt to shoulder the bill for those who did, especially when a substantial portion of that debt is incurred by those with the greatest earning potential. canceling student debt would be unfair to the americans who worked hard for years to pay off their bills and americans who

had just finished paying off his or her higher education debt would get nothing nothing from such cancellation while a recent graduate who made a month or two of payments would see his or her debt disappear entirely. canceling student debt would do nothing to address the real problem which is the out-of-control cost of higher education. in fact it would likely make that problem. not to mention the fact that student loan cancellation would take an already bad inflation situation and almost undoubtedly make it much. we think a .5% inflation is bad and it is. canceling student loan debt this fall would take inflation to a new and even more painful heights. madam president i strongly

support finding ways to drive down the cost of higher education and to educate students about the dangers of excessive debt and i also support measure to help students pay off their student loans without putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of going to dollars or more and i would note the measure that is included in the cares at would allow employers to make tax-free payments on their employees loans. unnecessarily deferring student loan payments or, canceling a significant portion of the student loan debt entirely is a idea for many reasons. i hope that colleagues from both sides of the aisle will join the student loan bill that i introduced earlier today to end this unless an unnecessary loan deferment extension.

i hope at least some of my democratic colleagues will recognize the wisdom of canceling student loan debt and its blatant unfairness to individuals who have already paid off their student loans or never went to college and the negative effect it would have on our inflation and the economy. madam president i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of the quorum. >> madam president earlier today leaders past and present from around the world join together to celebrate the life of madeleine albright. while she may have been small and stature she was a titan of american history one of a kind of first of a kind mentor natural leader as well as a grandfather and her formidable presence on the world stage and her story inspired women and girls all across the lobe. today was a wonderful celebration of her life.

my thoughts are with secretary albright's family as a nation remembers her life integrate legacy. now madam president on the ftc democrats are continuing to focus on lowering prices for the american people. yesterday i met with speaker pelosi to discuss how the vote chambers can work together to address the terrell burden of rising gas prices. one of the most pressing -- pressing issues of the american people and disturbances of the war and ukraine in the pandemic have caused gas prices to spike and working americans are not hurting but you know who's not hurting the largest oil and gas companies who reported over $205 billion in profits in 2021 even while americans are paying more at the pump. solving this issue is a top priority for democrats and the top priority and unfortunately the other side sees -- seems

intent without expressing any interest in offering solutions to the problem. many democrats are working to solve the problem and will continue talks with our hearts colleagues in in and legislation that can bring gas prices down through there are several options we can take now. there's a growing consensus that the federal government especially the ftc should investigate possible price-gouging and price manipulation that might be happening among the largest oil and gas companies in the country. this is one step we are working on. of course any solution involving the ftc requires the ftc have full membership to begin with so we we are going to keep working to confirm the fifth ftc commissioner in a position that's lasted over year. it's important to note republicans unanimously are not voting for him and that has paralyzed the ftc even though

its leadership would love to go after the price-gouging and market manipulation. with. the presiding officer: we are not in a quorum call. the senator is recognized. mr. schumer: madam president, i ask unanimous consent to withdraw the cloture nomination with respect to the gordon nomination. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. schumer: i yield back all time. 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: ÷xp

vote:

test test test test. vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 62. the nays be 33. the nomination is confirmed.

under the previous order, the motion to reconsider can considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's actions. mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from florida. mr. rubio: for too long taxpayers have been used in a back doorway to promote abortion. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. mr. rubio: president trump put a stop to this in 2019. he barred the federal government from providing these funds, the funds through the title 10 family planning program from going to entities that refer or provide abortions. organizations such as the big business that is known as planned parenthood. now, understand this didn't cut one penny of funding. it directed it to organizations that do not perform and do not promote the taking of innocent

life. last year unfortunately the biden administration as was to be expected pulled the plug on this vital protection. and now we see taxpayer money flowing once again to these abortion providers and to their refers. this has to stop. that's why i've worked with representative tony gonzalez in the house to introduce this congressional review act, title ten, to ensure not one more taxpayer dollar is used to fund the abortion industry. by reversing this administration's ruling, abortion clinics will once again be excluded from receiving this taxpayer money and it would put more money towards improving and saving lives instead of ending them. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: mr. president, i want to be really clear about what this vote is actually about. this vote is about birth control. this is about life-saving pelvic and breast exams to detect cancer early. and it is about s.t.i. testing

and treatments that is the basic reproductive health care that title 10 providers deliver to communities, especially to women with the tightest budgets. republicans are here tonight fighting to undermine health care. it's really that simple. we are here fighting to protect it. i fought long and hard against president trump's disastrous gag rule. it was a rule that cut title 10 provider network in half, forced entire states including my home state of washington out of the title 10 program. it forced doctors and nurses to withhold information from their patients on all the options they have, including abortion, and ultimately resulted in patients traveling further, paying more, or going without care. in short, it made it harder for women to get birth control and other critical reproductive health care. and that too me is -- to me is

unacceptable. that's why i was really relieved when after years of fighting back against republicans' extreme agenda, president biden acted quickly to reverse that dangerous gag rule and we could finally start rebuilding the title 10 network and providing patients with critical reproductive health care. and i know that patients and providers in my state were relieved, too. i heard from them firsthand earlier this month about what this means for our communities. it means that patients in washington state and across the country can get the birth control they need to plan a family on their own terms. breast and pelvic exams to detect cancer early. testing, treatment, and more. but as has been so often the case, most republicans were not listening because tonight they are leading a resolution to bring back the gag rule and deny women a i cross the country --

across the country access to services made possible by title 10. we are talking about basic lifesaving health care like cancer screenings. we're talking about s.t.i. screenings which by the way is especially important as cases which had already underreported due to decreased screenings have been spiking now. we're talking about birth control that so many patients depend on to stay healthy, to treat health conditions, to plan their families, and control their own reproductive health. plbs, the senate is -- mr. president, the senate is not order. the presiding officer: senators will take their conversations off the floor. the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, talking about these issues, it is just unthinkable to me that anyone would not support this program. what are republicans here talking about? they're talking about once again taking this health care away from millions of patients and tonight they're forcing a vote on it. and some extreme republicans, by the way, are even talking about

how they think griswold v. connecticut, that's the u.s. supreme court case that first struck down a ban on birth control might have been wrongly decided. this is chilling. the message republicans are sending tonight with this vote loud and clear is that they won't just stop at banning abortion with cruel laws like the ones we have seen in texas and oklahoma and across the border from washington state and idaho. they are determined to restrict access to all kinds of reproductive health care, from abortion to birth control to s.t.i. testing and treatment. well, mr. president, we should not stand for this. we can't just let republicans rip away health care again from women and families. patients, providers, and families across my state and across the country have spoken out loud and clear on this. and i'm going to make sure that they are heard here in washington, d.c. i will work hashed to make --

hard to make sure we protect title 10 from these attacks, and i'm going to make sure everyone who supports this resolution owns what this vote means. and who they're voting against. women who want birth control. that is, by the way, two-thirds of women in this country. patients who are seeking s.t.i. screenings, patients who need a cancer screening, people who are just looking for affordable health care and information from providers that they trust because you know what? women are not going to forget this, which party is fighting to protect birth control and which party is doing everything they can to rip your birth control away. i urge every single one of my colleagues to join with me in voting against this resolution. thank you, mr. president. mr. rubio: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senators are asked to take their conversations off the floor. the senator from florida is

recognized. mr. rubio: i move to proceed to calendar number 355, senate joint resolution 41. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to s.j. res. 41 providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 78 of title 5 united states code and so forth. mr. rubio: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the question is on the motion to discharge. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the yeas are 49. the nays are 49. the motion is not agreed to.

mr. schumer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate in a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i have seven requests for committees to meet during today's session of the senate. they have approval of the majority and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the finance committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 895 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. l 95, a bill to amend the internal revenue code

of 1986 to provide an exemption from gross income and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate la proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read add third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. con. res. 36. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. con. res. 36 honoring the life and legacy of ulysses s. grant in commemoration of his 200th birthday. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. sure schumer i ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: and i'm just going to say a word about this resolution. ulysses grant was an amazing human being. i became acquainted with him when i read the biography of him

about mr. chernow, a brooklyn resident who is very eager for us to pass this. one of his crusades in life was to undo the smears against ulysses grant often perpetrated by southern historians after he won the civil war for the union, and i commend to everybody mr. chernow's book. it is an amazing book. and now, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate proceed to s. res. 588. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 588, designating april 2022 as financial literacy month. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 597 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 597, recognizing the hispanic association of colleges and universities national internship program and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to consideration of s. res. 598 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 598 congratulating the glennville state university women's basketball team for winning the national collegiate athletic association division ii women's basketball championship

and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 599 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 599, honoring military children during the national month of the military child. the presiding officer: without objection, senate will proceed to the measure. mr. schumer: i further ask the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i understand that there is a bill at the desk that is due for a second reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title for the second time. the clerk: s. 408, a bill to prohibit the secretary of health and human services from

lessening the stringency of and to prohibit the secretary of homeland security from ceasing or lessening implementation of the covid-19 border health provisions through the end of the covid-19 pandemic and for other purposes. mr. schumer: mr. president, in order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule have, i would object to further proceedings. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. schumer: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: quorum call:

>> be had an issue to discuss. the people of burma and the plight they have had to endure over the years. and as her life came to an end, things did not go in the right direction and burma at least not yet. she would not have given up hope, nor have i with regard to the current situation and burma

was handed yet another outrageous sham senate by the military and burma. the past year the leader of the democracy movement and thousands of her fellow citizens have been detained while the army rags their country violently backwards. the generals responsible for last year's coup have met a groundswell of popular protest with brutality. as a burma's have found the energy and democracy, has stoked violence and division. his holding countless citizens of burma and tension along with

with the economist its political prisoners, reportedly include dozens, dozens of children under the age of 15. it's a baseless prosecution illustrates how long the road is ahead for burma's democracy advocates, the military's latest ruling against my friend is just one of an absurd list of up to 190 years. but every passing day the ruling general ensures exactly what they are afraid of it. i'm proud to stand with burma's democracy movement throughout my career been playing close attention to their plight this past year i'm looking forward to

hearing soon for the biden administration about their efforts to help. what sanctions? what sanctions? the administration ranch up the pressure what additional support will they provide to the true representatives to the people of burma? what will they do to ensure a restoration of democracy and burma is a top priority for the upcoming summit. the leaders and supporters of this coup must be held accountable. now, and another matter at last week in my hometown of louisville i set out law enforcement officials and local leaders to discuss our skyrocketing rate of violent crime. the participants came from a wide variety of backgrounds but

everybody agreed the murders, shootings, robbers, carjackings and overdoses are simply out of control. louisville recorded homicides in 2021 an all-time record, 24 of the victims were children. just recently a police advocate made national headlines when he tried to assassinate a jewish democratic mail real candidate. jefferson county saw more than 500 drug overdose deaths last year, hundreds more than the pandemic. these are literally overwhelming these cities corners. one expert i met with said the violent crime has stole more potential life from louisville than the pandemic. carjackings are up over two 100% in the last two years, we now average more than one

carjackings every 48 hours for the folks on the ground said they are also seeing it non- fatal shootings and gang activity increasing. this crime spree is coming from a tiny minority of louisville residents. one half of 1% of the population manages to commit an apps right majority of violent crime that is possible in large part because many are let out back on the street within days of their arrest. of course this is not just a louisville problem. we have seen violent crimes sore nationwide and tight law enforcement campaign have began back in 2020. cities everywhere are under siege here in washington in broad daylight just yesterday there is literally an armed robbery right outside of headquarters of the fbi.

polls show 69% of louisville residents oppose, oppose the defend the police movement. 66% one more police in their neighborhoods. but many democrats are still on able to open the call for law and order in our streets. as a result police officials say their officers feel under siege, they are worried politicians will not have their back. another huge factor as president biden's failure to secure our borders. as told last week's roundtable that every bit of deadly heroin and fentanyl under city streets across our southern border. as long as this administration neglects to enforce our laws, every state becomes a border state. we need to secure the border and start narcotics flooding our neighborhoods. we need officials at all levels crackdown on crime and reestablish law and order.

but the biden administration gives us just the opposite. at nominated and confirmed a supreme court justice who argued that covid justified early release for every single prisoner in washington d.c. just yesterday the president issued a joint catalog of pardons and commutations, cutting sentences after sentence after sentence, practically for convicted drug criminals. they never miss an opportunity to send the wrong signal. and until federal, state, local governments go with the program innocent people louisville across the country will continue to suffer. now, one final matter by the institution of the night states congress relies on a whole army of diligent and dedicated people who worked tirelessly behind the scenes. today it is my pleasure to turn

the spotlight on one such public servant who is retiring after a sterling career. david on travel hill started here on the senate side more than 30 years ago. he served as an elevator operator while he finished graduate school. impressed everyone, before long he was named the founding director of the office of congressional accessibility services. this is a small team his work often goes unheralded. because right to the heart of our duties to the american people. they owe cas ensures capitol complex is an accessible welcoming place for everyone including americans with different abilities or disabilities. i was there is a physical component to this, work with the architect to honor our historic buildings. while at the same time making them accessible.

wheelchair options, the new lift here on the senate floor, davis tackled everything from big infrastructure questions to the smallest detail for before any big event likely joint address or inauguration or just on a normal workday, you could run into dave walking around across the entire campus searching for obstacles but less keen eyes might have missed. physical accessibility is just one part of what dave and his team do owe cas also provides crucial services, they supply american sign language interpreters for our meetings, they translate letters into briella they consult with offices to ensure an intern or staffer has the tools that they need it is a vital team and for decades their quarterback has been famous for his cheerfulness, his humor come his dedication and the thousand ways he's gone above and beyond the call of duty.

dave has spent decades in the business of unlocking opportunities. opportunity to to visit here. to meet with your senator or your congressman. to take a job here. excellence and dedication have unlocked door, after door, after door. dave, the senate congratulate you and your well earned retirement. thank you for your devoted work to keep our government by the people and for the people. >> out madam president, earlier today leaders past and present from around the world joined together to celebrate the life of madeleine albright's. while secretary albright may have been small in statue she was a titan in american history but she was one of a kind, a first of a kind, a mentor, a natural leader as well as a mother and grandmother britta brewington sharp wit made her a formidable presence on the world stage understory inspired women and girls all across the globe.

today was a wonderful celebration of her life. my thought was secretary albright's family, and remembering her life and her legacy. now, madam president on the ftc, as we have done all along this year democrats are continuing to focus on lowering prices for the american people. yesterday it met speaker pelosi to discuss how both chambers can work together to address the terrible burden of rising gas prices. it is on the most vaccine issues for the american people. the disturbances from the pandemic and were in ukraine have because gas prices to spike in working americans are hurting. but do you know who are not hurting? the largest oil and gas companies he recorded over $205 billion in profits in 2021. even while americans pay more at the pump. solving this issue as a top priority for democrats. the top priority on the other

side seems content promoting rising costs day after day without expressing any interest in actually offering solutions to the problem. senate democrats are actually working to solve the problem and will continue talks with our house colleagues on legislation that can bring gas prices down. there are several options we can take. now, there is a consensus the federal government especially the ftc should investigate possible price gouging and price manipulation, market manipulation that might be happening among the largest oil and gas companies in the country. this is one step we are working on out of many. of course any solution involving the ftc requires the ftc have full to begin with. or also to keep working to confirm pretoria as the fifth ftc commissioner to break the to to deadlock but is lasted for over a year. it is important to note, republicans unanimously are not

voting and that has paralyzed the ftc. even though its leadership would lope to go after price gouging and market manipulation. we have had a few members absent because of health issues this week but i want to be clear the health issues will not deter us from getting other important nominees like lisa cook, confirmed. i urge any republican who is truly worried about rising gas prices to drop their senseless objection to getting confirmed. it seems it's only covering up for the oil companies and preventing the really sharp piercing investigation of the market manipulation and price gouging. there's something deeply wrong about seeing the largest oil companies while breaking record profits will asking americans to pay more at the pump. that is 5 million ftc with full membership so we can look under the hood of america's energy

sector and drilled out into a big oil is pumping out record profits as consumers struggle part again i repeat to my republican colleagues, if you care about low-end gas prices, if you care about looking with the large companies are doing, join us and voting on the ftc. a vote against him as a vote for big oil and against the american driver and consumer. now come on student debt. for over a year one of the top predators as majority leader has been urging president biden to cancel $50000 in student debt for each student loan borrower. right now as discussions continue on this administration the future of student debt again called the president to take action to do on his own and hit the financial reset button for millions and millions of americans. and president biden is on the

right thing by continuing the moratorium on student loan payments. his actions have saved millions from financial ruin during the covid crisis. but borrowers do not use either debt because they need them erased. these have been crucial borrows cap and definitely plan out their financial futures three months at a time with a fear hanging over them that payments will resumed on the line. for the flip of a pin president biden could provides millions upon millions of student loan borrowers and he can do it without congressional action. because we know so many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are opposed to it. he can do it without congressional action. it is the right thing to do for our country. for generations higher education has been a ladder up for getting into the middle class. especially for black, latino, asian americans unfortunately student debt has become not a ladder up but an anchor down, weighing americans down.

it makes it harder for borrowers to start a family, but a home or car, and live financial independence and for borrowers of color the anxieties are magnified often tenfold. take this for example the white medium borrower only owed an average of 6% of their student loans 20 years after starting college. meanwhile that median black borrower will still owe a staggering 95% of the student loan debt in that same time span. imagine being closer to retirement than to college and realizing you have only made a dent in your student loans. millions of a borrowers of color, many more borrowers in general live with this reality. again, borrowers do not need their debt because they need them erased. it's not just the right thing to do for our economy, it's the right thing to do for racial equity i will keep urging the president to take this important step. and i say to my colleagues, and

the president is moving in our direction. my talks with him and his staff have been very fruitful over the last little while. and i am hopeful he will do the right thing. we are getting closer, we are getting closer. on ukraine and covid funding in the immediate future they're two different issues that demand a swift and bipartisan action from the u.s. senate. passing another ukraine supplemental package and approving another round of covid funding. in the coming days the president is expected to sent to congress' request for action on ukraine. we're going to make passing ukraine funding a priority in the senate i expect both sides to work together. as we have seen over the last two months american support has gone a long length helping the ukrainian people resist and even push back against putin's savage and immoral war. but the fight is far from over. ukrainian people are fighting for survival and a context that is much about democracy versus

tyranny. there should be no question, no question whatsoever about which side america stands on. we have a moral obligation, a moral obligation to give the ukrainian people the tools they need for as long as they need them, for this reason i expect both sides to work in the same bipartisan way we did a few months ago to get the ukrainian supplemental done we also need bipartisan cooperation as soon as we can to pass another round of covid health funding. i urge my republican colleagues to work with us to pass covid funding asap. it's very risky for the health of the american people, for republicans to play political games at a time but we need more health funding. let's be clear, this is an exceedingly time sensitive priority coming according to the white house countries like japan in vietnam and the philippines are already ahead of the u.s. and placing orders for treatment, for medication, for vaccines. the u.s. is largely unable to

follow suit simply because senate republicans have blocked any new round of funding required to make these purchases. the longer senate republicans hold out on supporting new covid funding the greater the risk of other nations buying out all of the available supplies of vaccines, tests, life-saving therapeutics. and if they run out they'll take take manufacturers months to make new doses. so again, to my republican colleagues, work with us to pass covid funding asap. our country cannot afford delays or political games that stand in the way. i yield the floor and note the absence of a corn. >> madame present the biden administration cannot quite seem to decide on the status of the pandemic or the status of the economy run the one hand we are being told we are no longer needed pandemic era border restrictions intended to help limit illegal immigration prevent the spread of covid, on the other hand the administration is still fighting to require americans to wear

masks and public transit, near planes it is urging congress to pass additional covid spending despite the administration seems to believe us over the border. it is a confusing message to say the least. america still the pandemic cannot simultaneously be over for migrants of the border but make it too dangerous for south dakota to fly from sioux falls to minneapolis without a mask. the administration messaging is similarly modeled on the economy in student loans. on the one hand the president is probably touting record job creation and economic growth although most of what he is taking credit for is a national consequence of our recovery from the pandemic. on the other hand the president recently announced he is extending the moratorium on federal student payments, interest and collections for another four months until auguse still suffering economically as a result of the pandemic.

while at madam president, which is it? is our economy thriving? or are our americans economically distressed? better present the student loan payment moratorium and freeze up ^-caret back to the beginning of the pandemic made sense. our economy was started to shut down and american jobs were in jeopardy. but it made sense as a temporary measure for a genuine emergency. we are no longer having double digit unemployment as we did during some of the worst moments of the pandemic. in fact our current unemployment rate is low 3.6%. for college graduates, the unemployment rate is a staggeringly low 2%. to paraphrase the wall street journal editorial board on the subject the student loan borrowers are not ready to return to making payments now, they will never be.

even the "washington post" editorialized against the president's latest extension noting and i quote, but was a needed emergency measure at the start of the pandemic is no longer justified. it is hard to make an argument that college graduates are struggling right now. the unemployment rate for americans with a bat bachelor's degree or higher is amiri 2%. there is eight year number of job openings". that from the "washington post". madam president, it is true americans are physic economic challenges as a result of the inflation. president biden democrats with their ill considered rescue plan act. but if anything, president biden's latest student loan pause could help prolong our inflation problems. and importantly you have the biggest benefits for those most able to deal price hikes from

inflation. this clearly regressive policy benefits high debts, high income borrowers, significantly more and low debt and low income borrowers. so again, quote the "washington post" once more. our a hardship the biggest benefits to people with earned degrees in medicine and law. these people go on to have lucrative careers. main whatley 64% of americans who do not have a college degree do not benefit at all from biden's a pause on loan repayments" and again that madam president that from the "washington post". subsidizing all of those doctors and lawyers ends up being pretty

expensive. more than $100 billion. by the time the presence latest extension of moratorium will be up it will cost the federal government millions more. the government does not need to be forgoing billions of dollars highest earning potential of that stopped to end the current deferment on student loan to pause student loan repayments in the future. to allow a president future national emergency limit those

to 90 days and subject them to congressional disapproval. they would also ensure relief is targeted to those who need it most by preventing presidents for suspending payments for higher income individuals. and importantly it would prevent a president, or secretary of education from using a national emergency to cancel student loan debt. which leads me too perhaps my biggest concern in all of this, deferring student loan payments is a bad policy that is costing the federal government many it doesn't have. but it pales in comparison to the ultimate goal, for many democrats that is canceling student loan debt entirely. days ago the president's press secretary returned to the payment deferment said and i quote, between now and august 31 is either going to be extended

again for we are going to make a decision about canceling student debt". that from the president's press secretary peter statement made it alarmingly clear that the president is not just temporarily deferring loan payments but is seriously considering canceling, canceling a significant portion of student loan debt. and she doubled down on that idea on monday and i quote again, what i would tell you is not a single person in this country is paid a dime on federal student loans since the president took office". my gosh, canceling student loan debt, mr. president, madam present i should say, is a bad idea for so many reasons. in the first place so the government federal government

simply doesn't have. democrats often speak as if the federal government were able to draw from an unlimited pot of money of course we know that is not true. government funds aren't anywhere close to being unlimited and government coffers filled smoke pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, they are feel by taxpayer dollars. and sooner or later the roby taxpayers who foot the bill for any loan forgiveness program including the many taxpayers who opted not to attend college or chose a debt-free way of doing so. i can scarcely think of anything more unfair than forcing americans, who incurred no college debt to shoulder the bill for those who did. especially when a substantial portion of that debt is those with the greatest earnings potential.

canceling students that would also be grossly unfair to the americans who work hard for years to pay off their loans. an american who just finished paying off his or her education that would get nothing from such a cancellation while a recent graduate who had made a month or two of payments could see his or her debt disappear entirely. canceling student debt would do nothing to address the real problem which is the out-of-control cost of higher education. in fact, we would like to make that problem worse. not to mention the fact student loan cancellation would take an already bad inflation situation and almost undoubtedly make it much worse. we think eight and half% inflation is bad and it is. but canceling student loan debt this fall could take inflation to new and even more painful

heights. now madam president, i strongly support finding ways to drive down the cost of higher education and educate students about the dangers of excessive debts. i also support measures to help students pay off their student loans without putting taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars or more. and i would note the measure he got included in the cares act and extended later that year to allow employers to mixed tax free payments on their employees student loans. but, on on necessarily deferring student loan payments or worse, canceling a significant portion of student loan debt entirely is as i should say a terrible idea. that is for many reasons. and i hope colleagues from both sides of the aisle will join the

student loan bill that i introduced earlier today to end these endless it unnecessarily loan deferment extensions. and i hope at least some my democratic colleagues will recognize the unwisdom of canceling student loan debts it's a blatant unfairness to individuals who already paid off their student loans or never went to college. and the negative effect it would have on our inflation ridden economy. madam president i yield the floor and i suggest the absence of a quorum. >> i rise today to honor and celebrate the life and legacy of an extraordinary man, a giant among senators and a dear friend. senator orrin hatch. he was a man of vision and on parallels accomplishment as the longest serving senator in

utah's history, his unwavering dedication to our state and country during four decades of public service will be remembered for generations to come. few individuals have left such an indelible mark on the united states senate. he did this through his legislation, he did it through the relationships he had with other senators, he did it through bipartisanship, he didn't through his his relationship with presidents of both parties. like his good friend, ted kennedy, he was a lion of the senates. now, i know there have been a number of senators who take responsibility for accomplishing many things. i don't think there's ever been a legislator that is gotten more done legislatively than orrin hatch. our judiciary, the fundamentals of our economy, even our

national character are more elevated and more secure thanks to his leadership. thanks to his undaunted capacity to plow ahead. sponsoring and cosponsoring more legislation than any other member at the time of his retirement, he used his time in this chamber to work tirelessly to help people who are sometimes overlooked. he reached across the aisle to forge strong bipartisan relationships that allowed him to pass landmark legislation. now orrin hatch and ted kennedy were once signing a bill together celebrating the same bill. and it president reagan turned to orin hatch and said how is it that you and ted kennedy are celebrating the same piece of legislation? and orin turned back and said it's very simple mr. president, it is clear that one thing is obvious, one of us didn't read

it. [laughter] 's sense of humor was well-known in this chamber and throughout our state, his friends often remarked or it could have been a standup comic if he wanted to but he had too many important things to do to take that job seriously. he put friendship above politics. he called me in 1994 i was then running for a senate seat against ted kennedy, fate tall task for a guy from massachusetts to go up for ted kennedy but i figured somebody needed to do it. it wanted to see if i couldn't get ted kennedy on the right track. but at that time or in hatch and i hardly knew each other. we are just distant acquaintances. he was a close friend of ted kennedy where he called me and set met, i am a republican two. i am responsible for helping get a lot of republicans elected but i'm not going to come camping for you. and he said because ted kennedy

is just that good of a friend. lord put friendship above politics. now in addition to his legislative accomplishments, orrin hatch played a pivotal role in several landmark confirmations while serving as one of the longest shares of the senate judiciary committee. his positive impact on the state of utah and the nation the federal judiciary cannot be overstated. now, when i was asked to run the 2002 olympic winter games in salt lake city i met with orrin hatch and said i'm going to need your help. he made it very clear that the success of the olympics coming as they were going to do to our state would be a high priority for him he would do whatever was necessary to support our efforts. and then came the crisis of 911 and 2001. i knew i could not invite the

people of the world to come to salt lake city unless i was one 100% confident that everything that could be done would be done to keep them safe. without the help of the federal government, there could be no secure provision for the games and no certainty to be protective for the morning after the attacks of 911 i happen to be in washington and i called senator hatch on the phone. he at the time was in his senate office for the asked if we could get together at some point to talk about how we could move forward and provide the security funding that might be necessary to protect our games. without hesitation he said come over to the office right now. i did so, i got there we sat down he said what he think we need? i describe the need for fencing, personnel, to evaluate the security threats that might exist, a military air capacity

to to secure these skies over salt lake city during the games. and he said well, what is the biggest challenge you will face? let's not been a fan of providing support thanks the money has been misused in the past. so there won't be misused now given what's happened 911 let's go see john mccain right now parts are picked up phone and called senator mccain. senator mccain said he be happy to see me and his friend orrin hatch we went over to senator mccain's office we sat down and orrin hatch proceeded to describe how important it was that we host the games and senator hatch get the support he needed. in fact senator mike kain made would not sent and the way of anything that needed to secure the games and selleck city. so i oh orrin hatch a great deal of credit for helping us be able

to host games and selleck city successfully and to do so without security incident. think everyone knows or in hatch was a man of tremendous faith. he was an advocate to protect religious freedom and legislation he authored still stands and protecting the rights of people of faith in our country today. he dedicated his life to a commitment to jesus christ and the principles of christianity. he did so in my own faith by accepting callings in the church of jesus christ of the latter day saints. both as a missionary of young man and the bishop of congregation. i went hatch life and appreciated all it had to offer. you may know he was a composer and has a number of songs and

musical performances to his credit he wrote poetry he wrote jokes i was running for and i must admit i looked at them one by one i did not think they were that funny i read them to the people on the bus and they listen to them one by one and the more they listen the funnier they got there howling with laughter the man had an extraordinary capacity with music, with humor, with friendships really one-of-a-kind. he also was pretty good at self-deprecating jokes for he told me too lighten up a little bit and be a little more free with my language.

his affinity for buffets and bacon were not to be forgotten as well in his words we should choose to live every day like it is bacon lovers day. and i hope we will save her life as he did. orin hatch believe the people you love and the friends you have are the real currency in life. i believe that deeply. and a lot of friends not just in this room friends throughout our state. i remember walking through the capitol with orrin hatch and from time to time someone would come up to him who to ask a question or help but instead of like what most of us do we have important things to get to, he would stop and bend his very tall physique down to listen to what some i would have to say.

he listened attentively and say what you do to help. i've seen that time and time again with orrin hatch she always had time for the people he served. and he believed he served all the people of the united states of america. not surprisingly he had and still has a lot of friends. of course and you think of people he loves first on that list to be his wife, elaine and their family. they together raise six children and 23 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren he and elaine were married for more than six decades she has been by him every step of his career. his political involvement in the country. and an ice in our deepest condolences to elaine and the entire hatch family. god be with you until we meet again, orrin. and i hope you'll feel i have not let you down taking your

place in this great chamber.

>> we continue our conversation with guns in america serves up the john hopkins center for gun violence solution. explain the center's mission how do you go about doing it? courts are sure our mission is configured act research over the biggest public safety and health problems in our country, gun violence. we were established in 1995 at johns hopkins bloomberg school of public health. we are interested in all forms of gun violence setting the best ways to reduce all of those forms of gun violence. we also are committed to evidence-based policy. so we recently joined with colleagues who also are adept at taking our research and

communicating that effectively to policymakers. >> one form of gun violence mass shootings in this country. 151 mass shootings in this country that's four or more people -- like four more victims 151 through april 23 of this year that compares to 156 last year that is significantly higher than in recent years throughout the 2010. what is your reason in your mind for mass shootings? >> most mass shootings are being counted by gun violence archives are like other shootings that involve fewer victims. mass shootings can include two sets of individuals who are an

opposing street cruise. it can be domestic violence scenarios in which a boyfriend or husband is going after his former partner and children and family members. and then sometimes it takes the form of the things they get more of the headlines someone takes a gun into a school eight movie theater, a mall or something like that. most mass shootings look much like other forms of gun violence that we studied. on a regular basis. the general pattern is following me the overall rates of gun violence that we have been saying that have increased very substantially from 2019 -- 2020. actually the largest one-year increase in the nation's

history. this pattern that we see overall and gun violence the seed a mass shooting spree. >> is there a way to regulate our way out of this gun violence problem? >> based on our research we found certain regulations not all regulations translate into many key gun laws do save lives. that's what our science is set out to do. is to formally examine how laws differ our cross states. and how rates of gun violence changed when gun laws changed. what we find from that is that -- we think about our federal laws there are some huge gaps exploited by people who should not have guns of the people who profit from selling them.

or say it was a very some states try to address those gaps when they do we find that for example when you extend background checks to private transfers you have less gun trafficking. you have a large impact on reducing homicides suicides mass shootings when you couple the background requirements to purchase a handgun were going to get a license if are to drive a motor vehicle. some states have decided the same applies if you are going to purchase a handgun. those are quite effective in reducing all forms gun violence between and civilian spree. >> you have to have a license to drive a car pretty also the insurance to drive a car.

to meet mandate gun owners carry insurance with that increase gun violence? what that increase gun violence customer i can't see if it would or would not. we need to study it. while i think a very irrational idea and concept, i think probably there are other things we can do to reduce gun violence. obviously, what is going on who think about policies to address gun violence how much are we going to gain from less gun violence how much a bird and are we to put on gun owners? then again, well i think there is a rationale common economic rationale for requiring insurance, right now i think it is going to be hard to do

politically with uncertain outcomes. proximate to join this conversation john hopkins center for gun violence solution it is a phone line as it was last segment gun owners 202748 set 8000. quite insert calling and he's with us until the top of the art 9:00 a.m. eastern joining us via zoom this morning from johns hopkins. and we get to the heart of the question we've been talking about for the past 40 minutes think why is the u.s. the only developed country with the level of gun violence that we are experiencing? >> yes. well, there's not one factor that explains that, but clearly an important factor is that our gun laws are radically different from our peers other high income western democracy peers. those other nations have a much

more comprehensive regulation of firearms. and there's been some really interesting studies that when you prepare estimate compare other forms of violence anything from bullying in schools, two robberies and aggravated assaults, the united states really does not stand out as an outlier at all. the only metric by which we are quite abnormal is lethal violence. our violence is far more lethal than in other countries. that is explained not exclusively but principally because it's far more likely to involve a firearm. with the previous guests that oh what's the difference they don't get you with the gonna get you with a knife.

it's incredibly clear it's far easier to survive an attack with a knife that a gun very well known we don't knife attacks of course. happy if there's some weapon substitution is far, far less lethal. >> what about magazine substitutions? their states have tried to reggae the high-capacity magazines, would that have an effect? >> we have published a study in criminology and public policy state and federal laws the degree to which they are or not associated with fatal mass shootings but one of the policies was found most effective i already mentioned which is handgun purchase or licensing. the other policy shown to be protective was bans on large capacity magazines.

so at least in the context of mass shootings, it is a policy that is rational and evidence-based. most of our shootings do not involve high-capacity magazines. but it is a factor. and probably other research that says the type of gun that you are shot with can determine how many people get shot and whether they survive or not. >> this is out of marquette, michigan on the line for non- gun owners, good morning. >> hi. mr. webster, the subject is really a good subject for saving lives. but something that has affected my family, my extended family is something that kills a quarter million people every year that

we should put our money and especially johns hopkins should putting our money is death by medical errors. it trumps and stomps on gun violence or could he address something like that? >> the focus we are talking about is gun violence solutions in this country. mr. webster from the center for gun violence solutions stating that pretty deeply were going to keep the focus on that topic this morning. jean in syracuse, new york on the line for gun owners good morning. >> good morning. your previous guests gave a very well researched answer for gun violence deaths in the country. it is pretty clear from every available way of counting deaths and causes people having guns

legally exercise their second amendment is the best way to take care of that problem. he did not mention that. he mentioned less guns is less of violence, which is wrong. he did not mention taking away people's rights to a god is taking away a rights, it is a right not something you should have to earn by getting a license. it is in the constitution preexisted the constitution according to the people who wrote the constitution. >> mr. webster. cooks well, lots of factual errors there. they are simply data that supports that general idea the more guns we have, the less violent crime we have. it is not borne out in the data at all. it is actually the reverse at least in respect to lethal forms of violence. as it relates to the general

question about whether a licensing requirement violates the constitution second amendment right, no court has decided gun purchasing licensing agreement violates the second amendment. so, it's fine if somebody wants to have their own thoughts about what the constitution says or doesn't say the way our government works is the courts decide that. thus far no court has determined a purchase or licensing acquirement for firearms violates the second amendment too. >> question from sheila on twitter following up on legal and illegal guns, what percentage of crimes or mass shootings are committed by legal gun owners? >> that is a good question.

i am sorry to say the data to answer it is not so good. what i will refer to as the every day shootings we have an incredibly high rate of shootings in our communities throughout the united states. the data they're collected about those we don't have the criminal history and the background on individuals who commit those. and how many were illegal to possess the guns and how many were not. we did a study looking at people who were incarcerated in state prisons for committing violent crimes with guns and based upon their survey responses of their histories and their ages and things like that, we were able to look at what share of the people who were incarcerated for violent crimes with guns were legal possessors they could gone to the show gone to a gun shop

and got the firearm that they used. and that varies tremendously across states because the standards for legal gun ownership were different. any states with the weakest standards for gun ownership actually the majority, 60% were legal gun owners before they committed the violent crime with a gun. there is a lot of her rhetoric around legal and illegal guns possessors. the data around it are not as clear as what some of those arguments suggest. we do know a little bit more about the backgrounds of people who commit fatal mass shootings and they are, most of the individuals who commit those acts could legally purchase the firearm that they used. >> to new york city this is paul on that line for non- gun owners, good morning. >> hey good morning. my question is surrounding the

issue of gun control laws and the level of gun homicides that i've simply seen on the internet. it seems that places like russia, latin america, and africa have very high gun murder rates, homicide rates. and if you look at places like bangladesh and vietnam which in many cases have lower income per capita but also have gun control laws it is much lower. it doesn't seem to be poverty oriented number one. number two if you look at the u.s. which has lower gun deaths per person and you compared to latin america, russia, you find fact russia, latin america have more stringent gun control laws on average. also, when you are discussing this state has a higher gun --

it's more than the states just look at neighbors in new york city very specific areas there is a higher homicide rates and for some strange reason that really is not discussed. what is not discussed his hey, why is it happening in these communities more evening of the gun control laws might be the same than in others. i do not see how that is just left out and why is it proponents of gun control. again i'm really kind of neutral on an anti- gun but i think people having lots of incarceration switches let's be real here let's not pretend you pass these laws and they don't have implications for people. white is it seemed to be oriented or pro-gun control the russia example and what have you. >> a daniel webster.

>> guest: i like response that that's actually good question. a lot of background there had to do with comparing different countries and racial environment for that's a whole different conversation. what i like to focus on is the last part. we know whatever city we are looking at whether it's new york, chicago, baltimore, philadelphia, louisville, and violence is not equally distributed. it's actually been a lot of really good research on that it's been clear from that research structural racism place and a normal's role and how gun violence is -- the geography in our cities. look, if you put guns in the safest context with lots of resources, low stress i don't

expect a lot of harm to occur. but when you compound the many stressors and problems of historical racism in our country with free-flowing unregulated gun laws that we tend to have, the violence that occurs in the stressors that occur within those communities are more likely to lead to gun violence. with respect to the question of are these laws just going to lead to more incarceration? well i think it's really important is actually essential not to just say gun laws. they're all all kinds of gun laws. the laws that are designed to address the flow of guns from legal to illegal contacts or to underground markets those are upstream laws. there's not much of data at all

that suggests lots of people going to jail for violating those crimes. they are more of what i would refer to as primary prevention in the area public health. other laws do lead to more incarcerations read having more to do with illegal gun possession and use. i think generally what we know is that you do not need long prison sentence in order to have an effect to deter crime pretty just need to have some response so there is some deterrent value. so it's not just the laws it's how they were applied. and what we know generally about gun law enforcement, like so many other ways we addressed gun violence. the more highly focused that is, the more effective and fair it

is. so you do not need broad stop and frisk all overt neighborhoods, you simply need to know we close it up to the communities to know who is behind the gun violence. and have your resources focus on those individuals for. >> baltimore, maryland this is michael on the line for gun owners good morning. >> good morning sir how are you question her. >> go ahead you are on with daniel webster. >> yes, sir. i am a former police officer and law enforcement officer, i used to do analysis of let's be clear. the biggest thing is a lot of these weapons being placed on the streets the criminals out here they break into people's houses, they still the weapons but once they stilled the weapon it is not that the people actually obtain the guns legally

but the ones who are killing each other. if you have large portions of individuals break and homes constantly stealing weapons or when have the chaos and not only that in baltimore let's be honest. for any crime there. they barely prosecute anything such as are anything like that. they got a repeat offender when you're an officer you get close to the guys on the street when you talk to them, going to jail is lit almost like going on a family vacation like you putting people in jail for ten or 20 years when it is a resort for them does not do anything. you have to find another way to make it harder for them.

make them not want to go to jail. but when you've got them guys going and asking cousins, uncles, aunts, things in jail, you basically create a family reunion. >> mr. webster. >> let me just address a couple of things, gun theft. it's a very important problem. we should be more intentional about ways to prevent gun theft. in part by promoting gun storage. we have many cities around the country vertically and states that it made it more and more guns are being stolen out of motor vehicles because again more guns are available not only from homes but motor vehicles as well. we need to be intentional the

people committing violent crime are not really concerned about the potential of going to jail. they may say that but i honestly don't think in the individual who is free would prefer to be behind bars. so i do think that our strategies to support gun violence, the most important approaches don't rely solely on law enforcement. on a very small proportion of any city in any particular neighborhood. newt get the best impact when you complement that with intervention that try to steer people away to expand their

capacity to respond to provocation and conflict by alternative methods and open up opportunities that were not there before. this is very complex problem. as a host of things we can do that will make a difference. we need to have our law enforcement be fair and focused. we need our community violence intervention invested in there and actually creates a true system and infrastructure to make those programs work. >> will new regulations on most guns make a difference? >> absolutely. ghost guns to people that we are talking with is a privately made

firearms that are either sold through kits you can get online and make yourself, or some individuals can do this with 3d printing. the rate at which these guns are showing up in the hands of criminals and crime is going up dramatically. if we do not do something that problem will grow much, much bigger than it is now. ghost guns and our lack of regulation of them is benefiting no one except people who are violence in the people who are selling them. they are a threat we have to respond to that. >> last call christian is awaiting in south carolina for gun owners good morning. >> good morning. rex i'm wondering if the solution to gun violence seems like it's a water effects.

as gun violence and not not surrounded by drugs it seems as though there are have never been violent or harmful with their weapons. but we need to at least control drug usage and drug usage seems to be the cause of violence with guns. >> i will respond briefly to that. one differed from a statement you made that which is people who own guns are not violence. that is absolutely true. this is all about drugs? it takes very careful consideration of the shootings