vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: on this vote is the yeas are 82, the nays are some of the the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. under the previous order, the senate will resume legislative session. mr. king: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. mr. king: i ask unanimous consent that the senate be in a period of morning business for

debate only and with senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. graham: thank you, mr. president. i'm speak for five minutes or so, if that's okay. so as we depart for our memorial day recess and the unofficial beginning of summer and many of us in political life will go to events honoring americans, fallen heroes who have died in service of our nation, memorial day is different from veterans day. veterans day we honor all those who served. memorial day we have somber br'er brans of those who -- somber remembrance of those who failed to make it home. this is the one day that we set

aside each year to remember them. and i will do my best to rededicate myself to being a better american, appreciating the freedoms i have and trying to find a way forward for our nation as a whole. so that's what this holiday week is about. but before we leave washington, i want to make a few comments about the war in ukraine. our allies in ukraine are fighting like tigers against a russian invasion that is without foundation, that is illegal under international law, is one of the most brutal acts of war in the 21st century, maybe in any century, and i just want to let the ukrainian people know that the american people are with you in your struggle for freedom. there's been some comments made by folks that i respect talking about the need to end this war where ukraine has to recognize certain parts of their territory as actually russian territory.

i could not disagree more. any effort to impose upon ukraine a cease-fire that leads to the peace agreement where they have to give territory to russia is not ending a war, it will be starting new wars. have we learned nothing from the last century? appeasing putin in ukraine makes him want more, not less. we found that to be true in the 1930's with hitler in germany. this idea that ukraine needs to come to the table and give up ukrainian land to putin makes zero sense to me. all of the people who have been fighting in ukraine would have died in vain and that line of reasoning i reject completely. here's the state of play. due of the commitment of the ukrainian people to fight for their homeland, russia has been

delivered a mighty blow. their army is in decline. they just changed their laws so the limitation on service from 18 to 40 has been lifted. there was a 63-year-old fighter pilot shot down in ukraine. the ukrainians met their end of the body. this body, expressing the will of the american people passed a $40 billion aid package, that's a lot of money, but you pay now or later when it comes to putin. if putin is successful in ukraine, he only goes further. he wants to reconstruct the -- his words, not mine, he wants to reconstruct the soviet union, the russian empire, whatever you'd like to call it. there's other nations in his crosshairs, the battle of ukraine will stabilize europe if

it's done right. if the battle in ukraine ends where putin feels like he got away with mass war crimes and got territory by force of arms, he will not stop. china, surely as i'm speaking have a green light to -- -- green light to go into taiwan. by those thinking that we should give territory to putin, it will create a larger appetite for putin and i think you've lost the lessons of the last century. so we have much to understand about the nature of this war. we have russian diplomats resigning in protest. you have people at concerts shouting some pretty vulgar things about the war. you have a russian military that is under siege in terms of manning. the more weapons we provide ukrainians, the more lethal they

become the battlefield, the more likely this war ends on favorable terms. so i just want to remind the american people as we go into this holiday remembering those who sacrificed for our freedom, there is a hot war in europe. it's 2022. did anybody really believe after the fall of the berlin wall that we would be having war with russia in europe trying to take over a sovereign country called ukraine? well, that's where we're at. one thing to learn about mankind is that the calendar may change, but there's a dark side of mankind, powerful people trying to push the less powerful around, people trying to take things through the force of arms rather than the rule of law. i want the ukrainian people to know that i am with you. i think most americans are with you. we don't want you to entice putin to go beyond ukraine by surrendering your territory.

we stand with you. not one inch of ukrainian territory should be given to putin because he forced choice of arms. the rule of law is at stake. i hope that we'll increase your capability to inflict pain on the russian military and i do believe that people in russia are beginning to understand with putin they have very limited future. that if you continue to support putin, the world will isolate you further. that we're not going to forgive and forget the war crimes. nato is getting bigger. finland and sweden have applied to nato. i talked to turkey. our friends in turk qi, i hope we -- turkey, i hope we can resolve that. so it would be wonderful in the next couple of weeks here that the senate in fast fashion could include two more members of nato.

that everything that putin wanted has backfired. that nato still stands, that war crimes investigations move forward, they don't stall. so the international criminal court, mr. khan is doing a good job of gathering evidence against russian atrocities committed by russian military leaders and ruin forces all under the -- and russian forces all under putin. ukrainian courts convicted a russian soldier of murder, a war crime. so what i would like to see is the western world, the democratic world reinforce our commitment to ukraine, not talk about having to give putin terror trito end this war -- territory to end this war. that's not a way tond the war. that's a way to expand it. if we can end it through diplomatic means great, but what should be off the table is

rewarding putin for this invasion, what should be on the table is a commitment to ukraine, as long as they're willing to fight for their freedom and terror tri, we should -- territory, we should help them because putin won't stop if he's successful. the blood and treasure we spent since 9/11, it's been tough for our country but not one american soldier is on the ground in ukraine. they're not asking for soldiers, they're only asking for the ability to defend themselves, economic assistance, military assistance, and i do not want to let the pressure off putin. senator risch and senator menendez, the chairman, senator menendez, of the foreign relations committee, are considering marking up legislation urging the biden administration to designate russia a state sponsor of terrorism. so let's keep the pressure on piewvment let's let the -- putin. let's let the russian people know as long as putin is your

leader, you will be isolated from the international community, your economy can't grow and more and more young soldiers will die. pick a new leader. the world will embrace russia. russia is a land of many talented people with a long, rich history and i am hoping and praying that the freedom-loving world will not make the mistakes in the 2022 we made in 1932, that we made in 1978 and 19 -- 1937 and 1938 where we thought it was to -- appease a brutal dictator. i will do everything in my power to help the ukrainian people as a member of the united states senate, i will do everything in my power to hold putin accountable and i will do everything in my power to work with democratic colleagues to

isolate putin's russia. this is a difficult time for the world. if he fails in ukraine, if the russian people rise up and change course, the world will be a lot better off. if he succeeds, god help us all because the worst is yet to come. no problem here at home gets better by turning our back on ukraine and not holding putin accountable. whatever problems we had at the border with inflation, gas prices, all of the domestic violence here at home, none of those problems get better if putin wins in ukraine. here's the good news for the american people. the ukrainian people are not asking for our young men and women to die and fight in ukraine. they are asking for arms an weapons and economic -- and weapons and economic assistance. if we continue to show our

resolve, putin will lose. now is not to put on the table capitulation. to everybody, i hope you have a safe memorial day. i look forward to coming back after the break and see if we can find a pathway forward on commonsense gun reforms. and between now and then, let's keep the people of ukraine in our prayers. mr. president, i notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

>> i ask unanimous consent i be allowed to speak for up to ten minutes followed by senator johnson for up to ten minutes prior to the schedule roll call votes. >> without objection. >> thank you. well, mr. president, to this post be the last day of school in uvalde, texas. each of us can remember how excited we were as children, as

students, but especially we can remember being a parent last day of school are child attended. your child would perhaps run into your arms and recount a fun filled day with their classmates. classmates. the sling backpack on the backseat of the car and talk about how excited they were about the summer come to spend days playing with their friends and her siblings, swimming at the local pool with friends and maybe even going on a vacation with their grandparents. today, those children, those parents and those teachers in uvalde, texas, have been robbed of the excitement and normalcy that this day would normally bring. instead of celebrating the last day of school, 21 families are making funeral arrangements. earlier this week a monster viciously murdered innocent

children and their teachers at robb elementary school. so far we know that 21 people have been killed by the shooter, including 19 students and two teachers. this tragedy is absolutely shattered the tightknit community of uvalde, texas. uvalde is a town about 15,000 people about 65 miles from the u.s.-mexican border. there's one high school football team, one grocery store, and one post office. the families in uvalde have known each other and love each other's children for as long as they can remember. caused by this attack as shared by the entire community. and i join all texans in lifting

up the victims, their families and those who are struggling to make sense of this tragedy. yesterday i was in uvalde with my fellow texans in the morning. i joined hundreds people to donate blood and received an update from law enforcement both state and local community leaders. so we needed a reminder of the tightknit community with a deputy sheriff himself lost his own daughter in this attack, and two members of the mayors staff lost children as well. one of the conversations i had that really struck home was an older gentleman who responded to the call for blood donations at the activity center. as we waited our turn to donate blood he shared with me that he had lost two grandchildren in the shooting. it's not possible for us to

comprehend the pain he must be feeling. but there he was donating blood. two young lives were stolen from his family and still this man stood in line so he could sport his community in some tangible way. during a briefing from on fourth and two of the uvalde police officers who responded to the shooting shared their harrowing experience with us, and in the face of such unthinkable evil, their courage was unwavering. one of these uvalde police officers responded to the scene, and died a chance to thank him personally. but i want to thank all of the law enforcement officials, emergency medical technicians and healthcare workers who responded to this tragedy, and continue to support the survivors and their loved ones. at times like this i reminded of a quote i heard some time ago

from a county commissioner, in the face of a similar tragedy. he said, being a texan doesn't describe where you are from as much as it describes who your family is. today our entire family is morning. our hearts are broken by those who lost loved ones and the survivors who will never forget this terrifying and senseless attack. while the care of this attack away on all of us, we saw the spirit of my state on full display as resources poured out to help the loved ones of the community that were hurting so badly. from mental health counseling to food donations, there was an outflow of support from the south texas community. at times like this, words seem so inadequate. there is no good way to

completely express the heartbreak and anger of swell in your chest at a moment like this. all we can say press is that our condolences are with the families grieving such a cruel and unexpected loss. i can't fathom the pain of seeing an empty bed where your child slept the night before. knowing we can't turn back the clock to prevent this tragedy from occurring, the obvious question then is how do we prevent something like this from happening again? at this point back law enforcement is still investigating, piecing together the full story. in the coming days i expect we will have better information about the shooter and his background and the circumstances that led to this senseless, brutal act. once it does i am eager to see

whether there are any gaps that might've done something to make this attack less likely, that might have actually been prevented this attack from taking place. .. sten is en mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. cantwell: mr. president, i document floor to talk about developments this week in trying to fight to make sure american consumers aren't paying artificially more for gas to fill up their cars and trucks and take a vacation for the holiday than they should be paying.

this is an important issue for everybody in the united states, but particularly my constituents who all throughout the state of washington are paying, well seattle definitely over $5. many other parts of the state over $5. and if you're not paying more than $5 a gallon you're paying very close to $5 a gallon. so it's important that members of congress do their job in oversight and policing of these markets to make sure that there's transparency. that is a bright light to make sure that no one's taking advantage during this tight supply and artificially driving up that price for their benefit. that is why we introduced the transportation and fuel market transparency act that asks the federal trade commission to expand on authority congress already gave to them to police transportation petroleum markets and make sure that the trading that is done on indexes that have very little oversight,

those indexes have a brighter light on them so we make consumers aren't being gouged because of the kinds of practices that happen. lo and behold, just this tuesday the federal government and the department of justice and the cftc, the commodities futures trading commission, basically gave awe statement on the largest settlement in history, a civil and monetary penalty and disgorgement exceeding $1.1 billion on glen core, one of the largest commodity trading firms. it's a major participant in the global physical oil and oil derivatives market and for more than a decade it engaged in a wide-ranging scheme to manipulate oil markets, schemes to defraud other market participants by manipulating the information going to financial markets, schemes that created artificially high benchmarks so that glencorpss derivatives would settle at prices more

favorable to the company. and these were some of the same practices that were uncovered during the enron scheme. i know the presiding officer knows because she comes from the state of nevada and two of the areas most hard hit by the electricity crisis were the state of washington and the state of nevada? why? because people wanted us to continue to pay on fraudulent electricity pricing. that's why we fought along with her predecessor and others to make sure electricity markets were properly policed for any kind of manipulative practices. it really has given the federal energy regulatory commission the tools it needed on electricity and natural gas. to this date, they have used that authority to police electricity and natural gas and have had over $1 billion in fines and settlements against companies and their bad practices. these are the same sort of

practices that we're uncovering now in the commodities market and on oil market manipulation. i know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle would like to pretend that this issue doesn't exist. i ask them, go home and face your constituents and tell them you voted to do nothing, nothing to bring more transparency into the gas markets that are affecting them today and see what their reaction is. i guarantee you they are paying too much at the pump and they want to know that we are properly policing these markets. they get the dilemma that we're in, particularly given russia and ukraine. they get the issues of a changing economy coming out of covid, but they're madder than heck when they read about some company that has been doing this practice for decades and basically making money off of the back of their hard earnings. consumers could pay as much as $1,000 more for gas this year. they want to know why this company raked in over $320

million in improper gains. and while some of the record settlement involved penalties for kickbacks and foreign companies the company agreed to pay $380 million in settlements for criminal and civil investigation for various fuel oil prices. various fuel oil products that were manipulated and impacted including los angeles and their bunker fuel oil, new york harbor and low suffer fuel oil, new york harbor and high sul if you are -- high sulfur fuel oil. not sure how much consumers ended up getting fleeced, but it is clear that at least hundreds of millions of dollars impacted these markets. and as the presiding officer knows, because she's been the chief law enforcement for her state, if you don't have a policeman on the beat policing these markets, more of these fraudulent activities will exist. after the derivative crisis, i also made sure that

antimanipulation authority went to the commodity futures trading commission. when we called recently to ask about their use of this authority, they told us they had put fines and penalties against company of over $4.5 billion. that was before tuesday's announcement of clear oil market manipulation. now some of mile colleagues as we -- my colleagues as we pushed this transparency bill through the commerce committee said why, if they caught some people on tuesday, do we need to mark something up on wednesday? well, the issue is that we were talking about the futures market. as i just read, these companies are very adept at manipulating the futures market and the physical market to get their best gain. we are asking our colleagues to vote for transparency in the physical market of indexes traded after the product is refined. we know that there is a world oil price. we know that it's refined.

but what we can't figure out is after it's refined why, particularly on the west coast, is it at exorbitant rates, well over the national average and paying well over what we think market fundamentals determine. we saw at a hearing that we had before the commerce committee energy experts testify that some of these fundamentals do not make sense, that something else is going on in the market. so why turn down the opportunity for us as a federal government to get more transparency in these energy markets? why would anybody want to say that more transparency over these indexes is not a good idea? well, some of our colleagues, i'm not sure because they offered no substantive amendments to the legislation before us. in fact, those that were what i would say some improvements around the edges to the bill, we actually accepted in committee. the rest of the amendments offered were all about the

issues and discussions of more supply which were out of the jurisdiction of our committee, and i encourage my colleagues to take them up on the senate floor. so no substantive changes were offered to this legislation. nobody objected on the basis of the ideas that transparency is a bad idea. and yet people are holding on to an idea that they don't want to answer about this issue of manipulation. trust me, i was shocked when i was elected to the united states senate before i was even sworn in to find out that we were in an energy crisis, that somehow the price of electricity had gone from some of the cheapest in the united states to the most exorbitant price ever, 3,000 times the rate. i thought this couldn't possibly be a scheme. this couldn't possibly be something perpetrated because obviously we would catch that. obviously we have a policeman on

the beat. well, it turned out that the california market, what is called the i.s.o., really wasn't catching it, and there really was manipulation by enron. enron manipulated the supply of electricity by cooking up various schemes to move supply out of california to create artificial shortages and then drive up the price of electricity. they had traders who lied on the phone to people buying long-term contracts, selling them, buy the long-term contract because the price is going up and an analyst saying to a trader and the trader replying back, that's not true. and the analyst saying tell them anyway. and that is the kind of thing that we need to police. so i was shocked to find that one of my first tasks being a united states senator was going to spend two years policing electricity just so my state and the state of nevada would not pay on fraudulent contracts for more than a decade. i guarantee you not only would the lights in vegas have gone

out, but much of the washington economy would have been affected. this is so important now because these high gas prices are affecting every sector of transportation. it's affecting our airline economy. it's affecting our trucking economy. i've heard from our railroads, on the deex -- desem engine prices. it's affecting every part of our economy why we have to pay more. even if it is 50 cents, as one of the witnesses testified, it may be as much as 50 cents a gallon that is artificially being put on to the consumers, why would you not want to know the answer and simply give the federal trade commission the authority to make sure that these markets are properly policed for unfair and deceptive practices? i know my colleague who's presiding knows because we've even had suggestions from the federal energy regulatory commission that the practice is so bad among energy traders that we should consider legislation to ban energy traders who

continue to perpetrate these schemes. that's right, they go from one company to another company. they know how the schemes work. they think it's just the price of doing business. even if they get caught, they'll just pay the fine like glencore is paying now. if you think about it, it's $1.1 billion, one of the largest oil market manipulation cases ever. people probably aren't hearing about it this week because of other stories that are in the news. but trust me, this kind of behavior needs to be rooted out. so, madam president, i hope that when my colleagues return, i hope that they will spend the recess asking their constituents whether they think there needs to be more transparency in oil markets. i will be very surprised if they don't say that something's going on and we want to know what it is. that is because consumers have felt for a long time a disconnection between market fundamentals of supply and demand. and, yes, there have been some

changes in supply as it relates to what we're facing on an international basis. my constituents understand that. but we have always been an isolated market in the pacific northwest, four refineries in my state. most of the supply coming from alaska. and yet we pay the highest prices in the nation. so our constituents want to know why, so my colleague, senator wyden, senator feinstein, and i have prosecuted these issues. we have asked for more information transparency. in both instances when we were successful with electricity and natural gas, we did find behavior that needed to be rooted out. and here we have proof now in this glencore case that there is manipulation in oil markets. we're simply asking that just don't leave it to the futures market because if you want to give law enforcement the department of justice, our attorneys general, others the tools to root out bad behavior, even if it's 5 cents a gallon,

madam president, it's worth fighting for. even if it's a few cents more to uncover and drive down the costs, it is worth it to our constituents who are paying exorbitant prices. let's make sure everybody understands in a tight supply it's a lot easier to do manipulation, and that is why we need to get this done now. i wish, madam president, that the authority we had given to the federal trade commission on this issue in 2007 would have been used. but the point is you actually have to have people and the information to prosecute these cases. my colleagues at the federal energy regulatory commission built such a unit. that unit, as i said, has been successful in monitoring electricity and natural gas. i hope that they will emulate what the federal energy regulatory commission has done. i'm proud that the cftc and our attorney general merrick garland made this announcement on tuesday of this unbelievable manipulation of bribery, of schemes, of all of the work

that goes behind the scenes for people to make billions of dollars of profits when we and our consumers are being gouged at extra prices. let's find the answers. let's do something as basic as passing a law about transparency, on a product, petroleum, that is so critical to our economy. i thank the president, and i yield the floor.

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar 477. the presiding officer: without objection. excuse me, the question is on the motion. all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of defense, alice wagner of the district districtf columbia to be an assistant secretary of the air force. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. 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 477, alex wagner, of the district of columbia, to be an assistant secretary of the air force, signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. grea the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i monday to proceed to h.r. 3967. the presiding officer: clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 388, h.r. 3967, an act to improve health care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substampses and for other purposes -- substances and for other purposes. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to thesque did. the presiding officer: the -- to the desk. the clerk: cloture motion, if

we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate 3 do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the motion to proceed to calendar number 388, h.r. 3967, an act to improve health care and benefits for veterans exposed to toxic substances and for other purposes, signed by 18 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum calls for the -- be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask the ?ealt move to consider the following en bloc, 747, 743, 964, 905 and 906. that the senate vote on the nominations en bloc, without intervening action or debate, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, any additional statements be printed in the record that the president be

immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there an objection? without objection. the question is on the nominations 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 bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nominations, calendars 927 through 963. and all nominations on the secretary's desk in the air force, army, marine corps, navy, and space force. that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, that no further motions be in order to any of the nominations, and the president will be immediately notified on the

senate's actions and the senate resume legislative session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i have six requests for committees to meet today. they have approval of the majority leader and minority leaders. the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. cardin: madam president, another mass shooting. another elementary school.

19 children, ages 7 through 10, gunned down. two adults killed. they were in our schools, an elementary school, a place that parents send their children expecting it to be a safe zone where they can learn and interact with other children and be safe from things like being attacked and shot. an elementary school we're talking about. the anguish of the families that have lost their children or lost their loved ones. children that witnessed this will be traumatized for life. scarred by what happened in texas. and then last week, we saw in buffalo ten people gunned down

while shopping in a grocery store. very much racially motivated by a white supremacist. this is happening throughout our country. we've had gun violence in baltimore. a few years ago we had a gun violence at great oaks school in maryland. we're seeing this happen over and over and over again. i and all marylanders and americans are sad, we're angry, we're fearful, and we're frustrated. yes, we have to deal with the mental health issues here. there's no question about that in my mind. and let me just point out for my colleagues that i joined with senator wyden and senator crapo and senator thune in releasing of a draft on the telehealth recommendations as part of the mental health work that's being done by the senate finance

committee and the presiding officer is one of the leaders on this issue. we have to do more for mental health. we released draft discussion documents dealing with telehealth. we learned through covid-19 how important telehealth is for access to care. people who weren't able to get to health care providers were able to do that through telehealth services and we realize how important it is with regards to mental health and behavioral health. it is important to move forward on these recommendations and we're looking at ways to remove obstacles in a way for people in our community to get telehealth services, we're removing some restrictions in the law prior to covid-19. to make it easier for public and private service programs to provide for telehealth. we have other task force that are working in regards to

children's mental health needs. all of that is important. we need move forward on extending the resources and access to mental health services so we can identify people in need, give them the services they need and protect our communities. but we need to do much more than mental health services in regards to protecting americans from gun violence. let me quote from the baltimore sun's editorial this morning. it's titled, real insanity is doing nothing about assault weapons again. the terrible tragedy raises all kinds of questions from the mental health of the killer, the inadequacies of community-based psychiatric care and the bullying by classmates that might have contributed to his instability, to the future of those around him to recognize

this potential threat. but one element stands out above so many others, easy access to assault weapons. this editor qal was -- editorial was dealing with the texas tragedy that occurred this week. the united states is an outlier among the nations in the world. we stand alone on the number of guns we have per capita and amount of gun violence. madam president, that's not a category that we want to lead the world in, and we do. we've got to take action. in 2021 alone 45,000 americans lost their lives through gun violence. of that number, over 20,000 were killed as a result of murder or

homicide -- 20,000. over 300 children lost their lives through gun violence in 2021. as "the washington post" editorial noted in yesterday's editorial about the elementary school shooting in texas was one of the least -- at least 24 acts of gun violence of k-12 campuses so far this year in which at least 28 people have been killed. this came a day after the f.b.i. report showed a sharp increase in shooter attacks nationwide. in 2020, for the first time firearms became the leading cause of death for children and teenagers, supplanting car accidents. we lost our way. we need to do much more. how many children have to die

before we act? when is enough enough? congress needs to take up and pass commonsense begun safety legislation -- gun safety legislation. madam president, i want to give a few examples of legislation i hope that we can take up and consider. first, an assault weapon ban. ban the sale -- we have legislation, 736, that bans the sale, manufacture, transfer, implementation of assault weapons, including military-style weapons. the baltimore sun also talked about this. this is the paper's editorial. these are not components that one needs for self-defense, not used for target practice or a local shooting range, not an asset the average deer hunter uses. it is estimated that one-quarter

of such instances have involved individuals armed with assault weapons. the public does not need assault weapons for self-defense. they don't need it for recreational use. they don't need it. these are military-style weapons. it should have no place in private ownership. we should take action in order to make our communities safer and our children safer. we should pass the bipartisan background check expansion act, which would require checks for all gun sales, including those from unlicensed sellers. by the way, the house has already passed this action and we should enhance background check completion act, that's an act that would eliminate the so-called charleston loophole that allows for gun sales to go forward if a check is not realized in three days. these are commonsense gun safety

bills that could be passed. we should pass the keep america safe act, s. 1108, which would prohibit the transfer, possession of magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition? why does anyone for a lawful purpose need ammunition magazine that holds more than ten rounds? the mass killers use it. we shouldn't make it easier for them to carry out these atrocities. well, let me just mention the one option that should not be on the table, and that option is to do nothing. how many children have to die before enough is enough? doing nothing about the epidemic of guns across this country is killing our children. we must work together to translate our grief into collective action.

madam president, enough is enough. let us act. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

armed with an ar 15 is mine

was poisoned by online conspiracies. white supremacist conspiracies. 2 days, 19 children, eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds, kids on the verge of beginning summer, kids with their entire lives ahead of them. we saw them holding up their trophies and probably in their t-shirts and a few hours later they were gone, slaughter. in the predominantly latino town of uvalde texas. two teachers including a mother of four were killed alongside them . many more were injured and remain in critical condition. it was the worst school shooting in america since sandy hook . last night i looked at the pictures ofeach of those kids online and i went . taken from us. taken from their families. it's senseless nonviolence.

i can't stop thinking about theparents to who lost their kids . i can't stop imagining the paralyzing horror of being one of the parents showing up to the schoolafter the shooting wondering where their kid was inside . that will live with these parents forever. forced to wait hours before a dna test confirmed that their son or daughter was gone. i cannot imagine a hell worse than that. and these families, my colleagues don't want thoughts and prayers. they want their elected leaders to respond to their suffering. they don't want to be lifted up. they don't wantgood intentions . they want something to change . they want results. yet the maga republicans

don't want results. there also find in their reaction to gun safety. no matter the cost on the families nothing seems to move them. yesterday after beto o'rourke confronted the governor's press conference he gave empty platitudes about healing and hope and asked people to put their agendas aside and think about someone other than themselves. my god. how dare he. what an absolute fraud. the governor of texas is and this is the same governor abbott who tomorrow, tomorrow will go speak at the nra convention in houston. governor abbott, will you ask your maga buddies and an ra house toput aside their agendas and think about someone other than themselves like you asked the families to do ? will you ask the gun manufacturing reps who swarm over the nra convention to put aside their agendas and

think about someone other than themselves? of course not. the governor, governor abbott is more likely to outline some newplan to further loosen gun restrictions . no amount of bloodshed seems to be enough for maga republicans. this nation is enraged as well as being exhausted. it's been through this over and over and over again over the last 2 decades. people are sick of morning again and again while listening to the same string of hollow words from the maga republicans that never lead to action so madam president, in a few moments the senate will have a chance to vote on one importantcause of gun violence . the legislation before the senate today is the domestic terrorismprotection act which i scheduled for a vote earlier this week . both for what happened in

uvalde occurred. it was done to respond to the massacre ata supermarket in buffalo . the bill is so important because the mass shooting in buffalo was an act of domestic terrorism. we need to call it what it is . domestic terrorism. it was terrorism that fat off the poison of conspiracy theories like white replacement theory, terrorism that left 10 people dead. a community forever torn asunder. this bill will give the government the tool to monitor, find and arrest these evil actors before they have a chance to inflict violence on their community and i think senator durbin or championing this bill . i've been going to bed every night thinking about the families in buffalo in the aftermath of the shooting. i think about this three-year-old boy who lost his dad who went to that tops grocery score store to buy him a birthday cake for his

son. that little boywill live with that the rest of his life . and i think of all the families impacted by other racially motivated shootings over the years. buffalo certainly unfortunately wasn't the worst. charleston, el paso, pittsburgh, atlanta and so many others. the shooting ofasian americans, hispanic americans, gay americans as well as black americans . all because of this horrible white replacement theory. so today is the day we can begin to donate on how to make these shootings less likely. and there's an additional benefit today. it's a chance to have a larger debate in considering elements of gun safety legislation in general not just for those motivated by racism as vile as it is to do that. i know many members on the other side old views that are different than those on this

side of the aisle so let us move onthis bill . let us proceed. and then they can bring them to the floor. senator johnson brought a bill to the floor yesterday about school security practices. i didn't agree with the bill and i don't think it's the answer. and mass shootings we don't need more guns inschools . there were security guards at the supermarket inbuffalo. police and security of the school . so, but we can debate it. the same with senatorcruise's plan to limit school to only one door . ira marshall's and tactical experts totally and vehemently disagree. but let's debate it. there are other centers with other proposals. proposals that come from our side of the aisle. background checks, red flag laws. the charleston loophole. assaultweapons and other ideas . look, i know the chances of

getting 10 votes on this bill aresmall unfortunately. given the influence of maga republicans . many republicans have made theiropposition clear . again, there are a lot of republicans for whom no amount of gun violence whether it's domestic terrorism, school shooting, or something else will ever convince them to take any action. so madam president, if republicans obstruct debate today, we are prepared to have an honest and realistic discussion , conversation. negotiation. for a little more time to see what they can come to the table with . we are under no illusions that this will be easy. we have been burned in the past. when republicans promised to debate only for them to break their promise but evenwith long odds , the issue is so important, so raw to the

american people,so personal to countless families who are missing children that we must pursue that opportunity . we also now know the american people as many as 80 or 90 percent support gun safety legislation. we have an obligation to pursue every path and explore every realistic option to break the cycle of the suffering and inaction. not trying everything is not acceptable to the families who lost their loved ones to our nations gun activity and these beautiful pictures we see pictures of. we must notleave a single stone unturned . senator murphy who has been such a strong and valiant leader within our caucus on gun safety legislation and who has seen the suffering firsthand of the families of

sandy hook as he's become very close to has asked for space to see what progress can be done for senate republicans. neither he nor i is under an illusion this will be easy . it will not. but my view and the overwhelming view of our caucus is that we need to give it a short amount of time to try. there are others to in this caucus reaching out to our republican colleagues as we speak. senator blumenthal, senator heinrich, senator manchin and others. we've gone in conversation with advocacy groups and we all have a strong and burning desire to see something real and tangible come across, come together in the senate. again, none of us are under any illusions this will be easy. none of us want to let this drag out. we know all too well the vice grip the nra and the maga

will hold over the gop and we have been burned in the past. america has been burned in the past. after the shootings three years ago the republican leader promised that red flaw flag laws and background checks would be front and center. he didn't put them on the floor and republicans did nothing. but that's not an excuse for democrats not to try . too many families have suffered. too many kids have been lost. too many communities have been destroyed. it's too important not to explore every option. i wantto be clear. this is not an invite to negotiate indefinitely . make nomistake about it . if these negotiations do not bear fruit in a short period time the senate will vote on gun legislation, gun safety legislation. let me be. if these negotiations do not bear any fruit the senate will vote on gunsafety legislation when we return .

but our hope even amidst our deep skepticism is that during this week: rats and republicans at long last will come to agree on something meaningful that will reduce violence in oriole way in america. senator murphy and some of our colleagues believe it's worth a chance and we willget that chance . unfortunately though, republicans haven't come forward in too long a time. there they haven't been to this debate in too long of a time. but even though it hasn't happened in too long of atime we feel an obligation to give it a chance . i yield the floor. >> misterpresident today is supposed to be the last day of school in uvalde texas . each of us can remember how excited we were as children, as students but especially we can remember being a parent the last day of schoolour

child attended . your child would perhaps run into your arms and recounts a sfun filled day with their classmates. they sling a backpack on the backseat of esthe car and talk about ...

an incredible uplifting story, an epic story.ing it's a bit complicated, so you got to pay attention, if you're wanting to hear about just a remarkable course of events in alaska, and it's a particularly poignant story as we head into memorial day weekend, a time when we honor those who have made the ultimate matter sacrifice. and i'm going to tell, as i mentioned, madam president, a very special memorial day story, a complicated one but one for the history books. this story has twists and turns,

dark spots, highlights, and literally a hollywood ending. one that involves a hero who gave his life for america, what we are celebrating on monday, but who's heroism and -- but whose heroism and service was only recently acknowledged and only recently remembered. so, madam president, first i'm going to begin the story about a young man who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, an alaskan native, an indigenous man from unalaska, private george fox. the whole story i'm going to tell revives around private george fox who was killed in

action fighting nazis in world war ii in italy in 1944, and since 1949 was buried on the island of unn, alaska. that's ute on the aleutian island chain in alaska, the islands that go way out towards japan. but he was buried if -- in an unmarked grave and essentially forgotten. no record of military service, no awards for heroism, nothing, forgotten by literally almost everybody but one person. for nearly 80 years. i'm also going to talk about two very special people who are our alaskans of the week. that is mike livingston and gertrude svarny, who worked over the years to make sure that

private george fox's exceptional service is finally going to be officially recognized, and that'll happen monday, on memorial day, on the island of unalaska in the aleutian island chains, a ceremony that will take place on monday. so, as you can tell, this is actually a story of three people -- one of them a young soldier killed in action for our country in world war ii, one of them a still-living 90-year-old woman, a childhood friend of the young soldier, one of our alaskans of the week, gertrude; another, a man on a mission, a detective with a public servant's heart. it's a story of the invasion of the united states by the

japanese. many americans don't know that japan invaded parts of alaska. it's at story of racism, discrimination, service, honor, heroism. it's the story of how two people worked to keep history alive and to honor another who was forgotten for his heroism fighting and dying for our country. it is an epic of alaska, an epic of alaska, fitting to be memorialized here on the u.s. senate floor and, more importantly, madam president, memorialized monday when we honor our veterans and those who died in the service of our country. so, a little complicated, but

bear with me. let me start this remarkable story in a remarkable place. this is unalaska on the aleutian island chain. if you're looking at map, the aleutian islands go way out west. probably, the aleutian islands cross the international dateline, way farther west than hawaii. the aleutian island chain island of unalaska is a beautiful island about 800 miles southwest of anchorage in the bering sea. it's home to walruses and sea lions, tens of millions of birds migrate through the area. right now it is the largest fishing port in the country, and it is home to an incredible group of patriotic people, the native people living in an area

steeped in fascinating and sometimes very tragic history. so here's a short version of that history. first, when alaska was a colonial possession of russia, russian first seekers decimated the aleut populations through warfare, disease, even slavery. then 75 years after the united states purchased alaska from russia during world war ii, japan actually bombed unalaska june 3 and 4, almost 80 years ago today. then the japanese invaded and occupied nearby islands on alaska's aleutian island chain. many americans don't know that

history. the united states -- alaska was actually occupied by our enemy, imperial japan, eventually american forces had to drive out the japanese in a brutal campaign on the aleutian island areas. about 1,500 american servicemembers were killed in those battles, 600 missing and almost 3,500 wounds in action. so that's s -- some of the history on unalaska and the aleutian island chain during world war ii. so george fox -- george fox at about the same time partisan japanese were literally -- the japanese were literally bombing his hometown of unalaska in 1942, george fox had volunteered as a patriotic young

american alaska native to fight for his country and was sent to the other side of the world -- europe, north africa. we don't know a lot about private fox's service, but because of the work of mike livingston, our other alaskan of the week who is alive and doing great, we have basic information. here's some of what we know about private george fox. he was born january 20, 1920 in unalaska, on the aleutian island chain. when he was 22 years old, like so many patriotic alaska natives, he signed up to serve his country in world war ii. by the way, mr. president, it should be noted and cannot be overstated that throughout history, even though so many alaska natives were discriminated against, still are in some ways, alaska

natives, certainly in unalaska but all throughout the whole state, have served at higher rates in the military than any other ethnic group in the country. incredible patriotic service. so private george fox from unalaska goes to war for his country, in world war ii. at the same time his hometown is being bombed by the japanese. he was assigned to company g in the 179th infantry regiment of the 45th infantry division. his unit was first sent to fight the axis powers in north africa africa, then to italy where he landed in italy on anzio beach, very famous battle to fight the

germans in the famous battle of anzio where roughly 7,000 allied servicemembers were killed in action. he survived that and fought his way heroically towards rome, fighting the nazis the whole way. unfortunately on june 1, 1944, a nazi bomb exploded near him, and he was killed in action as a young mirn -- american serving his country, killed in italy. he is the only known alaska unungung from his region to be killed during world war ii. so about five years later after the war, his remains were removed from italy and returned to unalaska in 1949. we now know there was a small funeral at the russian orthodox

church where his ashes were buried next to his mom, but his grave was unmarked. unmarked. and it stayed unmarked for decades. now that's what we know about private fox's military service. not much else. why? because there was a fire where his military records were in the lower 48, and his service records were destroyed. so frankly, his record in the military was essentially forgotten. forgotten. now i think -- you can't prove this -- but the fact that he was an alaska native, that there was probably some discrimination here, like, hey, whatever, he's an alaska native, we're not that worried. and so nobody in authority kept his memory alive, his service

alive. it was all forgotten that he was even a soldier. so his memory and his service and his heroism -- because these are serious battles in world war ii -- all faded almost completely, to nothing, if it wasn't for our heroic alaskans of the week that we are recognizing today. so enter our first alaskan of the week -- mike livingston, also a native alaskan, unangum, and he was determined to remember this vague memory of this guy he heard about, private george fox. here's a little bit of mike's story which is another great story. he was born in cold bay, alaska, another island on the aleutian island chain. he moved to unalaska, the town

we're talking about, in 1978 as a college student to learn the art of building traditional kayaks from the native elders in the community, and he began to work as a public safety officer. from then until 2003, when he retired, he was an emergency medical technician, a firefighter, a dive rescue specialist, a police officer, a detective in various places throughout alaska, much of it in anchorage at the anchorage police department, and he's currently a captain with the alaska state defense force. along the way -- now this guy is really impressive, what mike did -- he received a master's degree in anthropology and a doctorate in education, all of which he uses as a specialist in his job also at the aleutian

pribilof island association, and he uses education and skills also as a detective and fuels his passion for helping people, helping solve mysteries particularly in his interest of genealogy and family trees that involve stories that are untold untold, mysteries, a tree nut, a family tree nut, he calls himself as to his group of friends who dig deep to solve puzzles, the kind of which involve people, historic places, lapses in historic knowledge that have faded into history, which is exactly what happened to private george fox. around 2005, mike livingstone, our alaskan of the week and his friends started to take on that mission. what happened to private george

fox? they had heard about him. a fellow alaska native who they knew from stories was killed in action fighting somewhere in world war ii, but they needed more information. where was he buried? nobody seemed to know. why was he not listed as killed in action in service in world war ii? in the u.s. military when a servicemember is killed in action, the survivors get benefits, and they are entitled to receive full military honors at funerals. and in mike's culture and in private fox's culture, the un unugan culture, when a warrior dies protecting their villages songs were written and sung.

it has always been a huge honor in the native culture to be a fallen warrior, but private george fox got none of this from america, from his federal government, and even from the amazing alaska native people. mike livingston, the detective with the servant's heart, wanted to right this wrong. he wanted to do it for private fox, for his community, for his people, for his state, for his country. so he got to work on this mystery. he began to dig deeper. he called every federal agency he could think of to try to get more information about this mysterious alaska native whose memory had faded, whose heroism wasn't recognized. but mike ran into brick wall after brick wall, calling federal agencies. he was able to get a few tidbits

like the basic information mentioned above, and he also discovered george fox's remains were returned to unalaska as i mentioned, in 1949, but nothing else, little else. the mystery of where those remains were -- in a grave, an unmarked grave where private george fox was buried -- it haunted mike livingston. as he said, quote, when you compare some of what occurred during world war ii or shortly after the war, people who are white were highly honored. he recently told a reporter, particularly if they were killed in action during the war. but not so for so many alaska natives. eventually mike heard that another resident on the island -- now we're back on unalaska -- had a piece of the

puzzle, a woman who happened to be related to mike through marriage. enter our second alaskan of the week, 91-year-old artist gertrude svarny. let me spend a time, a little bit, a few minutes, mr. president, talking about her incredible patriotic story. gertrude was born in 1930 on unalaska, the island out in the aleutian island chain, the island bombed by the japanese. she was also alaska native. her family lived next to the fox family. george fox was about eight years older than she was. george and gertrude's older brothers were good friends, so gertrude remembered george. she remembers george. sheep said the whole -- she said the whole island loved him. he was kind, funny, full of life and obviously brave.

as i mentioned, mr. president, in 1942, george fox left to go fight world war ii for our great nation, right at the time george and gertrude's village, unalaska, was bombed by the japanese. and here's another story most americans don't know about. after that happened, the u.s. government took the alaska native people on the aleutian island chain and put them into internment camps. not white people, only alaska native people. the treatment of these great patriotic american citizens in these camps is a dark spot in american history. as i mentioned, not many americans are aware of. the camps were basically

abandoned buildings, the conditions were awful, crowded, unheated, unsanitary. many died in the camps as a result of these horrendous conditions. three years later when the war was finally over, the people of unalaska, the native people of unalaska were allowed to go home to their community after being in these intern camps, but they were ransacked and burned. many of their villages on the island were destroyed, another dark spot in our country's history. remember, these were our citizens, our country. and the native people, if they weren't at home, many of them were fighting overseas in the pacific and in europe, like private george fox.

so gertrude comes home from the internment camp. she's at unalaska now, and she marries another patriot named sam svarny, her husband. he was in the army and stationed in unalaska. another patriot in this story, sam served in world war ii and later served in vietnam. gertrude became an artist, a renowned artist in alaska. she's actually very famous for her work that she makes out of traditional materials, and she's in collections all over the world. and even though her childhood, mr. president, was marked by the wrongs inflicted on her family and her by her own country, she and her husband have remained fiercely patriotic, even internment

hasn't dissuaded the patriotism of the alaska native people. and one of the ways gertrude dismayed this patriotism, which still burns in her to this day, remember, she is 91 years old, was that every memorial day they put flags on the grave sites on the island of unalaska of those who served in the military. gertrude and her husband sam always remembered when she was a young girl, the small service that she had attended, funeral service in 1949, of the young, spiritually teenager -- young teenager, george fox, a friend of gertrude's who died fighting the nazis more than 5,000 miles

away from alaska in italy. the service was in the winter, she remembers. it was very cold. after the service, the small procession walked into the frigid winds to the cemetery where george fox's mother was buried. so, mr. president, every year this patriotic alaska native woman for decades has quietly visited the unmarked grave of private george fox to place a flag on this unmarked grave to remember his service, and that is the only living memory of what this young patriotic alaska native soldier did for his country. when her husband sam passed away in 2014, gertrude continued this tradition even to this day, as i

mentioned, 91 years old, what a patriot. here's how it all comes together, mr. president. when our detective, the other alaskan of the week, mike livingston, finally learned that his own relative through marriage, gertrude actually knew where private fox was buried, he got to work. the mystery was coming together. so he felt like he had enough information to make the official case to the u.s. government to finally get private george fox this -- this american hero recognized. he wrote up an affidavit, gertrude signed it, how she had been putting a flag on the unmarked grave site for decades, but, still, request after request was ignored by the u.s. government. so what did they do? mike and gertrude? well, to all americans watching this and alaskans, here's what

they did. they called their u.s. senator. this was now in 2020 at the height of covid. and when my office heard about this, my former head of casework, rachel, got immediately on to the case. we all said this was so important to make sure private george fox got the honor and recognition he deserved. so we worked together, and i'm proud to say he's going to be getting that recognition. so here's what's going to happen, mr. president, on unalaska in the aleutian island chain this monday, 2022, memorial day for america, the top military officials in my state, so many members of private george fox's families, so many members of the community, myself, my team,

we're going to gather in unalaska and we are going to gather to honor a warrior, a hero, an unumgum alaskan on memorial day, gertrude will be there, mike will be there, our two alaskans of the peek, hundreds will it -- of the week will be there and we have now a beautiful four-foot high gravestone to be unveiled. taps will float from a bugle, there will be a 21-gun salute from the fourth brigade. and on memorial day, on -- the

memory of a man who died for his country in north africa, in italy, this american hero who has been forgotten will be recognized. because of the work of so many but in particular the work -- relentless work of our alaskans of the week, mike livingston, gertrude swarchy, -- svarny, private george fox's service and sacrifice and heroism will finally be recognized on memorial day by our government and we'll have a gravestone befitting of his incredible patriotic service. on that gravestone, which i've

seen, it's beautiful, at the bottom there will engraved three words, words that came from george fox to his family in his last letter that he wrote from anzio beach in a heroic battle a world away from alaska when he was fighting to save the soul of the world from tyranny, three words in that letter on a gravestone that meant so much then, and i would argue, means so much now for our country this very day. here are the three words on that headstone, wish all love. wish all love. the last words of a patriotic

alaska native sent home from italy to his family who on memorial day will finally be recognized due to the heroic, relentless hard work of our two alaskans of the week, mike and gertrude, thank you for all you're doing, all you've done for your community, for your state, for your country. thank you to george fox's family and to private george fox for his incredible service. i look forward to seeing you all in unalaska in a few days. it's going to be a great ceremony and congratulations on being our alaskans of the week as we head into memorial day weekend. i yield the floor.

mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that withstanding the upcoming adjournment of the president, the president of the senate and the president pro tempore and the majority and minority leaders make appointments to commission, conferences or interparliamentary conferences by concurrent action of the two houses or by order of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 347, s. 629. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 347, s. 629, a bill to amend chapter

8 of title 5, united states code, and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 349 s. 1941. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 349, s. 1941, a bill to direct the director of the office of office of management and budget to have des -- across federal programs and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the

committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 350, s. 2322. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 350, s. 2322, a bill to require a pilot program on the participation of nonasset-based third-party logistics and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the veterans' affairs committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4591 and

the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4591, an act to direct the secretary of veterans' affairs to submit to congress periodic reports and so forth. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. cardin: i ask that the bill be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following resolutions en bloc, calendar

375, s. res. 341, calendar 376, s. res. 390, calendar 377, s. res. 4 # 9, s. res. 538, calendar number 390, s. res. 615, s. res. 632. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure en bloc? without objection, the senate will proceed en bloc. mr. cardin: i know of no further debate on the resolution en bloc. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolutions are agreed to en bloc. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the preambles be greed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate, all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 654, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: is there objection? then the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution, 654, designating june 2022, as great outdoors month. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i know of no further debate on the resolution. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it it. the resolution is agreed to. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent 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. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate now proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions which were submitted earlier today.

s. res. 655, s. res. 656, s. res. 656, s. res. 657, s. res. 658. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the resolutions en bloc? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 659, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 659, honoring the memory of aiden spencer perry. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that 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. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res 660 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 660 expressing the condolences of the senate on the death of the honorable norman y. ma net take. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: 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 with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn to convene -- to then convene for a pro forma session only with no business being conducted on the following dates and times. friday, may 27, at 9:30 a.m.

tuesday, may 31 at 11:00 a.m. and friday, june 3 at 4:30 p.m. i further ask that when the senate adjourns on if i, june 3, it next convene at prosecute p.m. on -- at 3:00 p.m. on monday, june 6. following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the wagner nomination. further, that the cloture motions filed during today's session ripen at 5 be 30 -- at 5:30 p.m. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. cardin: mr. president, if there's no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the provisions of s. res 660. the presiding officer: under the previous order, and pursuant to s. res 660, the senate stands adjourned until 9:30 a.m. on

friday, may 27, 2022, and does so as a further mark of respect to the late norman y. ma net take -- mineta, former congressman and secretary of congressman and secretary of senators voted on a joint resolution by senator ron johnson to repeal biden administration asylum rule under the congressional review act.

it failed 46 -- 48 but minorities leader mcconnell entered motion to reconsider resolution. lawmakers confirmed president biden director general of the u.s. foreign service. live coverage of the senate and it returned here on c-span2. ♪♪ >> wi-fi enabled list so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything.