build back better would actually make a difference. it's not going to deal with inflation in the next few months in the next n few years as one f the major things generationally for young people and it's just a major cost for so many people. the senate has returned from her recess. now back to the senate floor for more live coverage here on c-span2. be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: herrnstadt.

vote:

vote:

the presiding officer: the years are 50. the nays are 45. 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. 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 908, kate elizabeth heinzelman of new york to be general counsel of the central intelligence agency signed by 16 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the morning the mandatoryquorum has been wa. is it the sense of the senate that kate elizabeth heinzelman shall be general counsel of the central intelligence agency. the yeas and nays have been order. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

vote:

vote:

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the presiding officer: the yeas are 51. the nays are 42. and the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the

nomination. the clerk: central intelligence agency, kate elizabeth heinzelman of new york to be general counsel. the presiding officer: the senator from alaska. ms. murkowski: on it 52 i voted no. it was my intention to vote aye. i ask unanimous consent that i be permitted to change my vote since it will not affect the outcome. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from west virginia. mr. manchin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that privileges for the floor be granted to the following fellows in my office. kerry libel through july 31, 2022 and sean denowski through december 31, 2022. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. manchin: mr. president, i rise today to speak on a life and legacy of my dear friend, the last surviving world war ii medal of honor recipient, west virginian, and one of the last greatest generation woody williams of west virginia. before i begin today, i want to recognize members of woody's family who is here today with us

in the gallery, recognizing all of them. i want to say thank you. thank you for being here and thank you for sharing woody all those years with me and shellie and all of our west virginians. we're here to respect his wishes honoring all veterans and their families and to pay respects to our nation's last living world war ii medal of honor recipient. and to the family, i want to say this. you're the legacy he was most proud of, all of you. and i'm honored to welcome and senator capito, both of us are welcoming you which is woody's legacy still here. and thank you. but we're going to respect his wishes and his wishes basically were all veterans and their families and to pay respects to the nation's last living world war ii medal of honor recipient. it's been 77 years since woody williams quieted those machine guns on the sands of iwo jima.

while he's now sadly gone, the ie zeals i lived by are not. the love of his family, faith, and friends and service to country above all. george wattton -- patton once said it's foolish to mourn the men who died. rather we should thank god that such men lived. he lived every day as if he were give given a second chance and we are you a all so much better for t. boy, did woody live for a long time. his grandson casey passed along his recipe for a long life. i hope i got all this right. he would say when asked, its brags, apple cider vinegar and it has to have the mother and you know the cloudy stuff in the bottom of the bottle, mixed with local honey and six ounces of warm water. you can add some pure maple syrup for extra flavoring if you'd like. and woody said i've been drinking it every morning since the early 1960's. about three years ago he got it

printed on a business card because he said he was so tired of reciting it every time someone asked. and he handed out quite a few of those cards, too. one of my favorite woody quotes is the one he cited when his grandson cedar graduated from marine boot camp. when woody was asked what it meant to be a marine, he said by taking that oath, you can take my life but you cannot take my country or my freedom. you cannot take my country or my freedom. that says it all about woody. during the ceremony in west virginia last weekend, woody's grandson chad said we must remember what woody taught us. there are few things in the world that we can do alone. it is only through the support of others that we can truly reach our goals. so look to your left and look to your right. we are all a part of his legacy. and it is up to us to carry forward. in the words of woody, the cause is greater than i.

one of the woody's last wishes was lying in state at the united states capitol. it wasn't for himself. we spoke about this years ago. it wasn't for himself. but he wanted to make sure we represent all medal of honor recipients from world war ii. and there were only 472 of the whole war, 472. tomorrow that the west virginia farm boy will lie in honor in the u.s. capitol r rotunda layig to rest the sacrifices of a generation of heroes. that's what we do tomorrow. woody can rest in peace knowing his mission is complete. i will miss woody because he was my wingman or may i say n. we may be -- we're all his wingman. i think that's what he would have preferred. he always had a project for everyone around him. everyone setting up there, he had projects for you. he had projects for me and projects for shellie. he made sure we understood

exactly what he wanted done. as his grandson brian casey said, if you met with woody, you know he always had a project for everyone. he would magically produce napkins and sharp pistol associations in his -- sharpies is with his projects. he would diagram while we watched and listened. they were not always unused napkinnings but they became works of art. he came to me and said we needed to help the gold star families across the country. we started a motorcycle ride for fallen heroes. we did six of those rides and woody was in his 90's and he was there every time in that sling shot, just giving it all he had. and he stayed right with us. we raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the gold star families, some of those funds as you know went into monuments across the nation, including the one that sits at the capitol we hon oord -- honored also with the laying of the wreath. i know many good things we

worked on together. if you multiply that by all the other people he worked with, you will fully realize woody's incredible impact west -- on west virginia and the entire country. that's why he got his ship, a v.a. hospital and national guard reserve center named after him. most recently because of woody, our v.a. medical centers were saved. his testimony ended the air commission which would have turned three of our four west virginia v.a. medical centers into urgent care centers as well as countless others across the nation. and really in rural america. rural veterans would not have been served. every veteran in the nation can thank woody for saving their v.a. hospital. woody was with me when i was governor and helped so much as we stood up to the cabinet secretary for veterans affairs. then he was the founding member of my senate veterans advisory group where he led efforts to clean up the clarksburg and beckly v.m.c.'s. he helped get the first fisher house. i remember we called ken fisher.

ken came in, met with woody and it was over. it was going to be done. it was that quick. it was unbelievable. and i know it gave so much solace to the family when you got to spend a few moments in that beautiful place. it was really something. very, very special. woody has been there ever step of the way from making sure that families of the fallen receive gratuities during government shutdowns. that was the time that he said joe, we have to do something. the shutdown is preventing us from giving the gratuities the families need. that's when we called ken fisher. that's when we all became very good friends at fisher house. ken was the leader of that. that's how that all began. ken was happy to step up. named the first gold star children's day was august 1. he was instrumental in that. also amazing that so many people from across the country and each of our states that we represent in this great deliberative body

have so many good things to say about woody because his legacy runs further than just west virginia as you know. i didn't realize the magnitude of the impact until i traveled with him to california and also in virginia when his ship was commissioned and it was crist tended and when that happened, i mean from the brass all the way down to the ensigns on the ships, the marines lettered about being a marine because of studying woody williams. and i just -- i didn't realize the impact that he had. it was unbelievable. and i'm there and i have all these people coming to me, telling me the impact that he had on them. and how much that they admired him. but i'm always remembering the one general telling me how they studied woody williams in the marine corps. i never forgot that. he said, let me tell you. i know you know him as your friend. i know you know him as representing your state. let me tell you how you represented the marine corps. that's the man we studied. so when marines learned how to

be marines, they learned about woody williams. i always newest virginia had a treasure in woody. what i didn't know was that he was there treasure also. i will forever be thankful that woody and his family gave me the gift of spending time with him in huntington and when i was able to go down that sunday morning before he passed, it was such a special day and he was as bright as ever, you know. you would not think that anything was really that much different. and i said, woody, i think someone wants to speak to you. it was denis mcdonough, who is the secretary of the v.a. for the united states of america. and he wanted to speak to woody. woody was so thrilled and it was a great conversation. and just -- its -- as true form as woody, mr. secretary, i have to tell you a couple of things and he went into exactly what needed to get done. it was just classic. dennis called me afterwards to explain the conversation.

he was so tickled. and it took -- tickled woody also to be able to have that conversation. he was just full of life. he was still full of life. he was still full of ambition to get things accomplished. in his final days he stayed the same as i always knew him. he causes quick as a whip. he was kind, selfless and concerned for his fellow veterans and the families and all of you. he was concerned about everybody. and he was ready. i will cherish being able to spend a little bit of my mine at the end there. woody gave me marching orders that day. he said, one of his last wishes was in closing the shelter at the donald c.canard facility. it is on our to-do list.

it will get done. the families will be protected. it is something that should be done in every shelter in every v.a. burial ground and every v.a. cemetery. this project was bigger than just west virginia. it will probably lead to the national effort. i can promise you this, that we are going to get that done. that was a commitment we made to woody and it'll happen. as president biden said upon woody's pass, i don't throw the wood'd word hero around lightly. but if i'm going to use it i would use it for a guy like woody. heroism, like it did for woody, can come in all different shapes and sizes. woody was far who are than just a hero. it was the greatest of the greatest generation and model for future generations. from what i know, woody's greatest wish was for all of us to continue his mission, to give back to each other and to love our country. and his grandson bryan said last week, i have the project that he wants each of you to work on. a couple of them actually. and today i will ask each of you

to work on these projects, too. if gold star families in your area are traveling more than an hour to one of the gold star family memorial monuments, they are traveling too far. your project is to get a project working in your backyard. second, if you have a monument in your area, your project is to ensure the leaguecy that woody helped create by working to recognize these families, become part of the project, become part of the process to bring people back to that monument. least we never forget these gold star families. as we celebrate the life and legislatecy of woody williams and all our veterans in world war ii, this evening and tomorrow, let us all do our best to continue woody's mission. may god rest the soul of our dear friend, our leader, our national hero, woody williams. and i yield the floor to my colleague, senator capito. mrs. capito: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia.

mrs. capito: thank you, madam president. thank you, senator manchin, for such a gracious tribute to our good friend, woody williams, and his family, to his generation, and to his love of our country and a love of freedom, and thank you for the leadership that you showed to make sure that tomorrow could happen. i know we worked on this together, but it was -- this is not an easy lift to lie in honor, as you know, in the united states capitol. but, to me, it's so symbolic of a generation. and i have encouraged everybody that i've seen to please come and pay their respects to woody or to that greatest generation that woody symbolizes in his passing. i also want to thank the family -- i can't see them from where i sit over here -- i'm right underneath you guys -- woody had two daughters and five grandsons and three great-grandchildren, one of which is is daughter, a

great-granddaughter. and i have had the pleasure of spending time with them over the last several days. so i rise today to honor and celebrate the legacy of a hero and proud son of west virginia. he was always a proud son of west virginia. on june 9, woody williams passed away at the grand age of 98. tomorrow rightfully he will become just the seventh american and the first west virginian to lie in honor in the united states capitol rotunda. it's a well-deserved recognition for a man from humble division. woody was the youngest of 11 children. i am going to tell one of my favorite encounters that i had with woody. he traveled everywhere. i mean, we would get on planes and woody would be on the plane coming to d.c. and you ask him, where is he going? oh, he is a he going to san francisco or he's going to seattle to do something for gold star families.

or flip the coin in the super bowl. he had more energy than all of us put together. but he told me a lot of stories from his early life when i sat on the plane with him. he told me during world war ii when he was very anxious to sign up, as so many of them were at those young ages of 18, 19, and 20, he had a problem because he didn't real lay have a birth certificate. he was born in quiet dell, a little spot in the row on a farm, but he told me that his mother had a really good friend and his mother's really good friend would come over and help her deliver her 11 children and then woody's mother would go over and help a friend deliver her seven or eight children, or however many she had. i think he told me in the end -- i will have to make sure i'm telling this right -- he told me that they had to drag his mother's friend down to the pure in the county to make sure when he wanted to sign up to join to

make sure he was actually as old as he said he was. so being the youngest of 11, he made a lot of sacrifices for his family. but his acts of heroism would actually help the united states capture the pivotal island of iwo jima. many americans recognize the iconic image, raising the united states flag over mount suribachi. patriotism, triumph. on the same day that photo was taken, a young marine corporal by the name of hershel woody williams was on that island risk risking his life. every time i heard him tell the story, i mentioned the folks that had his back and some of them didn't make it.

woody, who was a member of the marine division alone stormed multiple enemy pillboxes neutralizing one after another, saving countless american lives behind him. he went on to fight throughout the entire five-week campaign on iwo jima until our forces finally took the japanese stronghold marking a key turning point for the allied cause. his actions that day and throughout the war are the reason why when west virginia's think of the greatest generation, we think of woody williams. but what would set woody apart more than those acts of valor on the battlefield, it was what he did after that. how he carried himself in the more than 75 years since the second world war. through the hershel woody

williams foundation, he worked to ensure that the memories of loved ones lost would go on forever. to date woody and his foundation have installed 104 gold star family monuments across this country with about 70 additional monuments under way in every state. through public appearance and his seemingly unending energy and passion, woody shared his story with the world. he was quite the speaker. i mean, i think senator manchin would agree with me. that guy could give a speech. and it was always very captivating whenever woody was on the program. his mission was to inspire those, especially younger americans, to answer that same call to service that he did as a teenage boy. as he said years later, the people need to remember if we ever lose our freedom, we'll never be able to regain it. he believed that to every core of his body. there's no doubt in my mind that

because of woody, there are more people who answer the call and chose to serve the united states in some way, shape, or form. what an incredible legacy to leave. he also never forgot his fellow veterans, serving as a veterans service rep for 33 years at the v.a. and i'm proud that that legacy of care lives on forever in the hershel woody williams v.a. medical care facility outside of huntington, west virginia. senator manchin told me that that was one of woody's request, a is that he needs another exit for that hospital. joe, could you arrange that? woody did all of this with the same trademark humility we came to know and love about him. for instance, several years after president truman awarded him the medal of honor, woody says he remembers asking himself in that moment, why was i selected to receive our nation's

highest award when marines right beside me didn't make it home? and that just tells you everything you need to know. that shows you the kind of man that woody williams was, always putting his country, his comrades first and never concerned with who got the credit. i counted among my life blessings to have had that close contact with him. but also that i was able to learn from him, laugh with him i asked him, why the marines? why not the army? he said he was walking down the street. he saw a guy walking down the street and, man, did he look great in that uniform. he goes, that's what i want to be. i want to be a marine. but one of his family members told me at the funeral in west virginia several days ago that you need to add on there that he thought it would attract more

women at the time. so he was thinking ahead. he was thinking ahead. i have to agree. that marine uniform is something quite special and so are the marines. the last thing i'll say son a personal note is -- say son a personal note is the many times that i saw woody being born in 1923 was a reflection of not just him. in his eyes and in the way he carried himself, i saw that whole greatest generation, from my dad who was also born in 1923 who served in world war ii, who left in country for a cause greater than themselves, who believed in protecting our freedoms, who went and fought for people they had never met, known, or seen. and when you think about it in the context of where we are today, you think, how special that was for our nation, for that greatest generation. so when i say goodbye to woody

tomorrow when we have the ceremony tomorrow, we're saying goodbye and thank you to that greatest generation that my dad was a part of. and so it has a lot of, i think, nostalgia and remembrance in all of our hearts and admiration for their passion and love of our country. so tomorrow, as we honor a great man and tell his story, woody will still be doing what he's always done, and that is inspire us. so here's to a well-lived life and a country well served, even long after he wore the marine uniform he loved so dearly. hoorah, woody. rest peacefully. thank you. mr. manchin: madam president, i no he that both of us want to thank speaker nancy pelosi and majority leader chuck schumer and ranking member of the

republican party, mitch mcconnell, and all of the people who were so instrumental in making this happen. there's only been 35 people lying in state in this capitol. 35. out of millions and millions and millions. and it's a tremendous tribute for us, coming from our wonderful patriotic, beautiful state of west virginia, to have the greatest generation being represented. and as woody would say is it's not him. it's for everybody. i hope all the families and anybody who had anyone who served -- shelly's dad was wounded in world war ii, purple heart, became our governor three times and he's a friend of mine. and my father and all my family served in world war ii. but to have so many people --

but woody is doing is that for them. tomorrow is for every person who has sacrificed and given their all and the families who've sacrificed also. so we want to thank them for making that happen. it was a great tribute and a great honor, i know, for the family and all of us. god bless you all and thank you for coming. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: before i turn to other business, let me just say how grateful i am to have been here to hear the west virginia senators discuss this distinguished gentleman and join them in welcoming his family to the united states senate. my father, too, was a world war ii marine, and it is a sad

thing, as the tides of time sweep that generation through its dying years. madam president, i rise today now, for the 16th time to call out the dark money scheme, to capture and control our supreme court. the last time i rose to shine a light on this scheme, i shined a light on a case pentagon at the supreme court, called -- case pending he can supreme court, west virginia v. f.d.a. it was primed to weaponize fringe legal theories to deliver for the scheme's big donors. i am sorry but not surprised to report that the supreme court's federalist society six did exactly what the polluters asked. not only did the court deliver for polluters, it delivered big.

before we dive into that, let's recap what we knew going into this case. first, the case never should have made it this far in the first place. a handful of states with fossil fuel funded attorneys general and ar madda of right wing groups propped up asked the supreme court to strike down an e.p.a. rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. the problem was that rule no longer existed. is so there wasn't actually an operating e.p.a. rule to challenge. meaning there was no constitutional case or controversy and no reason for a legitimate court to entertain the industry's invitation. but this is the court that dark money wilt, and it -- dark money built, and it wasn't going to let this constitutional guardrail stand in the way to pleasing the big don't nors who

packed the court. supreme court precedent -- the polluters argued that congress, not the e.p.a. and so-called administrative state, needed to do the regulating here. but it's a matter of common sense that congress delegates authorities to the e.p.a. and it's also well-known that polluters want to no the question -- knock questions away from expert regulators, over to congress, where their dark money political power, also a creature of the court that dark money built, can be brought to bear, to buy delay and obstruction. the power of congress to legislate broadly and let agency experts fill in the gaps has been upheld for decades, against persistent attacks from regulated industries. well, no more. no matters of law or fact had changed since the last time similar questions were answered by the court. the thing that changed is who is on the court.

a majority selected by polluters, using hundreds of millions in dark money. which brings us to the decision itself. there's good news and there's very, very bad news. the good news is that the court's ruling is actually very narrow as to e.p.a.'s authority to regulate greenhouse g gassesn the power sector. it's limbed to deliberate shifting. so there's lots left to work with, and e.p.a. needs to pull up its socks and get to work on regulating carbon emissions and other forms of air pollution. so far, in 18 months of the biden administration, e.p.a. has managed to produce one carbon emissions regulation, and not a very strong one at that. e.p.a. needs to move now, as fast as possible. there is not a second to waste. that's the good news. stt bad news, however, is -- the

bad news, however, is grim. the federalist society justices loaded up their opinions with polluter talking points and hot house-grown polluter legal doctrines, paving the way for polluters to block or delay regulations for years to come. start with the polluter talking points rife throughout justice gorsuch's concurrence, which spends 20 pages decrying the dangers of government regulation. he calls regulators a, quote, ruling class of largely unaccountable ministers. this is not even remotely true. if there is an unaccountable ruling class in america right now, it's the court that dark money built and the dark money forces behind it. compare that to e.p.a. e.p.a.'s leadership is selected by the president, approved by the senate and can be fired at will, should they deeiviaity from the -- deviate from the

elected president's priorities them are all directly accountable. the white house office of management and budget reviews every e.p.a. regulation to make sure it's consistent with the elected president's priorities. congress retains complete control over the e.p.a.'s funding, and has entire committees dedicated to oversight. it's congress that provided e.p.a. with its instructions through laws like the clean air act and clean water acts. congress also created the administrative procedures act to assure that agencies like e.p.a. carry out their duties fairly, according to the facts, under proper procedure, and under rigorous judicial supervision. and we passed the congressional review act so congress is a able to swiftly undo any rules it doesn't like. so in actuality, in the real world, there is direct accountability and oversight over e.p.a. by all three

branches. by all three branches, over the supposedly unaccountable ruling class. by comparison, justice gorsuch and his colleagues wield their unaccountable power without even the bare minimum of -- the bare minimum of enforceable ethics code. this argument by justice gorsuch may not be founded in fact, but it has a foundation. yeted that the biggest athlete -- the idea that the biggest threat to freedom is an administrative state full of unaccountable bureaucrats is a long-standing talking point of the fossil fuel industry. constantly trotted out by republican politicians and fossil fuel fronts groups of here's just a taste of what i mean. the heritage foundation, a key pos ill fuel front group, quote, administrative state's functionaries are powerful. they're unelected, unknown, and for all practical purposes often unaccountable. sound familiar? here's the minority leader himself responding to a speech

by a republican senator decrying unelected bureaucrats -- the minority leader called this the single biggest problem confronting our country. the single biggest thing holding this country back from reaching its potential. in the wake of this very decision, he went back to their go-to talking point, unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. it just is not true. the foundation of gorsuch's screed is not fact, it's political fossil fuel talking points. and we should not be surprised that those talking points made their way into an opinion by a supreme court justice. that is telephone what the court that dark money built was built for. aside from the talking points are legal doctrines hatched in pliewr-funded hot house doctrine factories, a web of phony think

tanks, scheme-friendly scholars and conservative conferences designed to cultivate and legitimize fringe legal theories, reverse engineered to produce the results polluters want. one of these is the so-called major questions doctrine, which, guess what, made its maiden appearance in west virginia v.e.p.a. let's look at who you it traveled from the doctrine factories into a supreme court decision. the trump administration fully in tow to the fossil fuel industry took this rare specimen of legal theory and pumped it up into a powerful weapon against the functioning of the federal government. from day one, trump's top adviser said it would carry out the deconstruction of the administrative state. don mcgahn, the same don mcgahn who oversaw the schemes of the hand-picked justices, i'm

quoting him here, the judicial selection and the deregulation effort are really the flip side of the same coin. think about that. in his own words, the trump white house had a, quote, larger plan to wipe out government regulations using judges. for four years trump lawyers argued in court for this major questions doctrine, previously unmentioned in any supreme court decision. the trump team urged courts to deploy the doctrine to strike down agency laws, including in this case, west virginia v. e.p.a. while the court never mentioned the doctrine, it had been mentioned. brett kavanaugh on the d.c. circuit did while auditioning for a seat on the supreme court. to catch the eye of the scheme donors and to telegraph to them how eager he was to do their

bidding. kavanaugh wrote a dissent in a case about net neutrality, a case with many of the scheme's dark money front groups -- cato, competitive enterprise industry, pacific legal foundation, present as amici. they were the right audience for kavanaugh's major questions audition tape, and he aimed to please. and the payday for scheme don't course came in west virginia v. e.p.a. at least 14 polluter front group amici showed up to push in chorus for their major questions doctrine. the usual suspects, funded by fossil fuel dark money, like cato, the koch flagship americans for prosperity, and competitive enterprise institute. justice gorsuch's concurrence is rife with citations legitimizing doctrine factory scholarship. he cites articles written by the founder and president of the

free state foundation, a member of the dark money state policy network. by a member of the dark money federalist society's administrative law group executive committee. and by the former president of the koch-funded american enterprise institute u. the scheme is all about boosting corporate power and rolling back government regulation. and it's not just about building a dark money court. it's about front groups by the dozen, which operate in coordinated flotillas. it's about faux scholarship, reverse engineered in a parallel university to give power over government. it's about more than half a billion dollars in dark money spent to set up and run the whole sham enterprise. the attack on regulation began with an effort to revive the so-called nondelegation doctrine, discarded by the supreme court almost 100 years ago. like the major questions

doctrine, this allowed courts to strike down agency rules when congress wasn't explicit enough in delegating power. polluters loved it. scheme front groups like cato, propped up by the dark money from the fossil fuel billionaire koch family and why exxonmobil, sponsored research that argued for reviving the nondelegation doctrine. they organized conferences and seminars, lobbied legislators and funded law groups designed to spread the idea far and wide. but major questions had one advantage -- years oorg, on the d.c. -- years ago on the d.c. circuit court of of appeals, justice breyer used those two words once in a lengthy law review article. they could siege that camouflage. guess what -- major questions is just nondelegation in disguise. if you don't believe me, with let's go back to justice gorsuch in a concurrence from another

case earlier this year. i quote, the major questions doctrine is closely related to what is sometimes called the nondelegation doctrine. indeed, for decades courts have cited the nondelegation doctrine as a reason to apply the major questions doctrine. whichever the doctrine, the point is the same, end quote. indeed. the point is that a court captured by polluter interests will find any way it can to import polluter doctrine cooked up in polluter-fubded doctrine -- funded factories into the law of the land, and that's just what they just did in west virginia v. e.p.a. for the polluters, mission accomplished. the court that dark money built had already reekd havoc in our law. even before six, they had run up 80 5-4 partisan decisions

benefiting big republican donor interests. now, with six justices, they have set about destroying precedent left and right, taking away the constitutional right of women to control their own reproductive decisions, blocking efforts to reduce gun violence, and now adopting new theories to empower polluters against public health regulation. the fed six's hatred for regulation isn't shared much outside the polluter-funded parallel universe. most americans appreciate regulations. they appreciate regulations that help make sure food and water are safe, that their air is clean to breathe, that medicines work, that markets operate honestly, that investors have real information, that car seats protect your in a car wreck. the american people are right to

sense that something is deeply amiss at the united states supreme court. a captured court presents an unprecedented challenge to the other branches of government. but we aren't helpless. first we need to start telling the truth about what is going on. the pattern is unmistakable. and people across the country need to understand this is not right. this is not normal. we can also passion laws like my disclose act which i hope will be coming up for a vote shortly to shine a light on the dark money donors who captured our court in a long scheme. we can require real ethics requirements for supreme court justices just like all other federal judges already have. remember the ongoing ethics investigations against judge satkavanaugh? they were dropped. not because they were resolved,

not because they ended, not because he was found not culpable. they were dropped against judge kavanaugh because he escaped to the supreme court where ethics investigations don't exist. so they had to shut down the ongoing investigations. that's a terrible signal. we can also require justices to report gifts and hospitality as all other judges do. and all senior government officials do in the executive and legislative branches. there are many ways to push back against the new ruling class of unaccountable ministers occupying the captured court. and to assure the american people that fairness and justice and not the court's deep pocketed special interest

friends are what drives court decisions. there is a lot to be done, madam president, and we need to begin. to be continued. i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent that 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. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 384, s. 3470. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 384, s. 3470, a bill to provide for the implementation of certain trafficking and contracting provisions and for other purposes.

the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection. mr. whitehouse: i ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: madam president, i now ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 413, s. res. 638. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 413, s. res. 638, resolution condemning the government and people of the republic of moldova for their heroic efforts con-- the people of republic of moldova for their heroic efforts to support refugees. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. whitehouse: i further ask the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. whitehouse: i know of no further debate on the resolution as amended. the presiding officer: is there further debate?

if not, the question is on the resolution as amended. all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolution as amended is agreed to. mr. whitehouse: i ask that 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. whitehouse: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on thursday, july 14. and that 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 heinzelman nomination postcloture, that all postcloture time be considered expired at 11:45 a.m. and the senate vote on confirmation of the nomination.

further, that following the vote, the senate resume consideration of the childs nomination and the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the nomination at 1:45 p.m. further, that if any nominations are confirmed during thursday's session, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. so ordered. mr. whitehouse: for the information of the senate, the first roll call vote of the day will begin at 11:45 a.m. on confirmation of the heinzelman nomination to be general counsel of the c.i.a. with another vote at 1:45 p.m. on the motion to invoke cloture on the childs nomination to be u.s. circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit. if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order following the remarks of senators portman and wyden. the presiding officer: without objection.

the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, this is an exciting time for my home state of oregon. the eyes of the sports world are turning to the city of eugene where thousands of elite athletes have arrived for the world athletics championships that start friday. for those who may not have been paying attention, eugene, oregon is known in track and field

circles as track town, u.s.a. . eugene has fewer than 200,000 residents, but it punches far above its weight as one of the athletics capitals of the world, particularly the newly rebuilt heyward field on campus at the university of oregon. my view is you're not going to find a better track and field venue anywhere else. and that is not only because it's where the oregon ducks routinely fly past the competition. it's the home of track and field in the united states dating back decades to when bill heyward first had his vision for the sport in eugene. it's a vision that picked up

speed when oregon's own steve prefontaine provided thrills for me when i was a law school student at the university of oregon as well as millions of running fans the world over. and of course, heyward field has been home for olympics trials and greatness as well as dominance by my fellow ducks in college meets. the legacy of athletics in eugene is a big reason why it is the first ever american city to host the world athletics championships. this year the games are known as oregon 22. 2,000 top olympic-level athletes are going to compete. they come from nearly 200 countries. they're the best of the best, ready to break records and make their home countries proud. a little bit ago i was home and

i talked with the fantastic team of workers that have been working for years on this event. it's been a colossal team effort carrying the baton over the line, but now the games are about to start. and i can tell you an awful lot of oregonians are thrilled at the prospect of witnessing this level of elite competition in person at heyward field and across the river in the streets of springfield. this is also a spectacular showcase for my home state. not only is eugene playing host to thousands of athletes, organizers, staff, media, and fans, mr. president, the games will be broadcast to an audience of a billion people around the world. let me repeat that.

a billion people who are going to learn something about what makes my home state so special and different. london has hosted this competition. paris has hosted this competition. tokyo has hosted this competition. now it's our turn in eugene, oregon, and i could not be more proud. so, mr. president, i would just say, everybody ought to tune in from june 15 to june 24. the athletes are going to put on an amazing show, mr. president, and so is my home state of oregon. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. portman: mr. president?

the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i'm on the floor today to talk about border security, a humanitarian, a national security, a community safety issue with direct connection to the drug epidemic we see in communities all around the country, including my home state of ohio. i'm also here to talk about legislation i introduced today with senator jim risch to address this crisis. so we're in the middle right now of what is the biggest border crisis in the history of our country, if you measure it by the number of people who are coming to the border unlawfully and, as the biden administration says, people who are encountering the border patrol. the biden administration claims they have the border under control and that they are -- and i'm quoting -- doing a good job. this chart, though, tells a really different story. it shows that, as of may, a which is the last month that we have records for, we had the

highest number of border encounters on record. the second-highest, by the way, was the month before, april. so you see this goes back to 2019. there was a surge here, 144,000. here we have the inauguration of president biden, and then we've had big increases, again to the point that over the last couple mounts we've had -- months we've had record numbers of people who have come unlawfully to the border and been stopped by, apprehended by the border patrol. this includes 239,000 total encounters at the border in the month of may. 165,000 were single adult migrants. this does not include those who were not encountered. in other words, those who slipped past the border patrol. we haven't been able to find a precise number for these individuals. the border patrol calls this group of people got-aways. but using a conservative estimate from the border patrol of 300,000 people who they think

got away in the last fiscal year, you would then put the total number of unlawful entries at 286,000 people in one month. if you annualize that, that would be 3.4 million people a year. any those numbers. -- think about those numbers. almost 3.5 million people a year coming to our border and attempting to gain entry unlawfully. today not all of those who were apprehended are allowed to come into the united states and that's because under so-called title 42, roughly half of those individuals who are being apprehended, who are being encountered, are turned back if they live in mexico, they're sent back across the border. if they live in a country -- say, ecuador, gut guatemala, they're thrown back to their country of origin. but these are people who are being turned away because of

title 42. so what is this title 42? it is the public health authority. it is an attempt by our government to limit migration in order to prevent the spread of communicable diseases, in this case covid-19. it allows customs and border protection officers and agents to tell unlawful migrants, you can't come to the united states for these public health reasons. it only applies, by the way, now to single adults. but as i said earlier, that's the single biggest group. it comprises about 48% to 52%, about half at people who are coming up to the border. so even with the use of title 42, which is acting to discourage people from coming to our border, we are experiencing these record levels. also experiencing these record levels in these hot summer months. normally, when you get into the summertime, where itest goes really hot -- look here, may, june, july, august -- the number

of people goes down, not up. it is over 100 degrees in the desert and in the rio grande at most all of these border crossings alongs the border. and yet we have more, not less. there's anecdotal information. this is because people are realizing that the administration wants to end title 42. they have proposed to do that. that's now in the court system. but the cartels are spreading the message, which is -- now is the time to come. because before you are turned away by title 42, now, like everybody else, you can come to the united states and stay. we'll talk in a in a moment about what that means. i think title 42 has something to do with t but i think also had has something to do with if they do come to the border an don't get stopped by title 42, they'll have a chance to come into the united states and live in the united states with their families perhaps, if not maybe bringing their families later,

and everybody wants to come to america. you know, we are a great country. we have our challenges, as we talk about on the floor here all the time. but still, we're a country with so many opportunities for people. and folks want to come, and i don't blame them. i don't blame them. we want them to come legally. we currently have the most generous legal immigration system of any country in the world. about 900,000 people a year, almost a million a year, come legally to the united states. most as legal immigrants, some as refugees. and so we encourage that, and we should. in fact, i think we should bring more people in legally, particularly to fill some of the jobs that we need filled, the stem disciplines we talk about a lot. we need people with the kind of training and back frowned with to help our economy -- background to help the economy grow. we need people at every level of training, but we want them legally, and through an orderly process that's more humane, that

doesn't have all the issues we'll talk about tonight, the humanitarian issues at the southern border. in terms of title 42, we all hope that this public health emergency isn't necessary going forward because covid-19 ends. but in the meantime, this border crisis means, to me, that we've got to keep title 42 in place until we make changes in policy. otherwise, it will be not just a crisis, but totally overwhelming. as the border patrol said to me, they'll lose control of the border. some argue that has happened. often. border patrol is distracted, another group comes in, i a you this in el paso, and anybody who has been down at the border has seen this. they're already in tough shape. but imagine if 48% of the people here, who are now, turned away

by title 42, not turned away, and the number of other people who come knowing that that avenue is now open to them. this will be overwhelming. it's very difficult right now with the laws and the way the laws are being implemented to keep that from happening. that's why we need a change in policy. doesn't have to happen here in congress. i think we should change the laws, introduce legislation to do that. but the administration can make the changes. in the last administration, as you can see, the number of people coming across the border unlawfully was very low. but the same was true in the obama administration. after they had a surge of unaccompanied minors, they made changes in the law and reduced the number of people coming unlawfully to the border as well. it can be done. but there has to be the will to do it. i'm the ranking republican on the senate committee that has oversight responsibility for the department of homeland security. presiding officer is also on that committee.

this department of homeland security is preparing, they tell us, for a huge increase in migrants after title 42 has ended. although they want to end it, they know if they end it there will be a huge surge, because they're preparing tore that. the way -- preparing for that. it's not so much keeping people from coming into the united states as expediting their flow into the united states. instead of processing people at the border, their recommendation is put people on buses or other forms of transportation, then do the processing later, perhaps on the buses or where they're going in the united states. it's a way to move people through the process rather than come up with a way to discourage people from coming across the bodder illegally. d.h.s.'s plan then will facilitate travel throughout the country, rather than figuring out how to keep people from coming, by telling them come legally, but please don't come to our border illegally. by the way, i think most americans are very supportive of legal immigration. it's an important part of who we

are. with very few exceptions, of native americans, we all came from someplace else. all of us have proud stories of our immigrant forebearers, our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and it's enriched our country. it makes us special. that's legal immigration. it's not what we're talking about here. who bears the brunt of this crisis? well, at the outset it's the border patrol. we've got to provide them with the personnel and resources they need to complete their mission, as difficult as it is. when you meet with these people, the men and women of the border patrol, you come away so proud of what they try to do every day. they are a combination of border agents trying to enforce the law, social workers helping people with problems, health care workers trying to help when people get hurt.

unfortunately, as we have seen, a lot of people are getting hurt in this process. that journey north is dangerous, and with the cartels so involved and right there at the border what happens in the desert, what happens on these trains, what happens in these trucks, we just saw this horrible incident of these migrants who were jammed into a semitruck and more than died, i think than any other accident of that kind, incident, in our history. but this is inhumane, and this is part of what happens when you have these cartels involved in this process. we also got to provide the border patrol with the ability to help control things at the border by finishing the border fence and putting the technology with the fence that was always intended. the technology tends not to be very partisan around here. democrats, republicans alike, i believe, mostly think that we

ought to have cameras,ps censors, know what is going on at the border. when the orderer came down, the first day of the obama administration to stop the wall, and to end what the trump administration had started with congress' approval and funding, they also said stop the technology. in the el paso sector, the wall is about 80%, 90% completed. unfortunately, there are gaps in the wall where you need border patrol 24 hours a day, which makes their job really hard. they want to have the wall to slow people down, and the technology enables them to deal with situations as they occur. but only 20% of the technology had been completed. you've got more wall than technology. the wall is not that useful without the technology. i think the technology is the key. that's what's happening. to the taxpayers listening, which is pretty much all of us, we paid for that wall. we actually paid for the fencing

to be put up. congress appropriated the money, then the administration stopped it. so you literally see the steel beams and the pieces of concrete for the wall lying on the ground. as one agent told me in one of the sectors, i was in the nogales sector, he said this is really bad for morale. our border patrol agents look at this, they say we've already paid for this. can't we finish the wall and put these fences up, the gates up to keep these openings from attracting the cartels and the drug smugglers and the people smugglers? that's where we are. that's one thing our legislation does to correct that problem and stop this crisis. it also says, title 42, won't be lifted, until the covid-19 emergency is over. i think it ought to be lifted when we have policies that make place. but a lot more is needed.

the bill mandates that the program that the biden administration ended, which said that as you come to ask for asylum you should wait at the border. it's called the migrant protocols. it was just an agreement with the president of mexico and president biden a couple days ago about more funding for the border area, and that's good, to provide more humane living conditions. but this was working, to tell people if you want to come for asylum apply, and while waiting for asylum you can remain in mexico. as you get asylum, you come across. if you don't, you go home. what happened, a lot of people just went home. the asylum process, which we'll get into in a minute, is kind of a complicated issue, but it's pretty simple, and it's the main reason for this. which is that people know if they come to the border and they claim asylum, which most people do, they have an immediate

credible fear interview, sometimes over the telephone now, partly because of covid, and that's a very low bar, and so people say what their issue is, back home where they feel persecuted, then they come in. once they come in, then they are told, okay, you can go to wherever you're going in america, let's say cincinnati, my hometown, or columbus, or chicago, or denver, wherever it is, and you need to check in with the i.c.e. office, the immigration office in the interior of the united states, within 90 days. some people do check in, some don't check in. the point is there is now a wait of somewhere between six to eight years before your ca is is heard. why? they're -- because there are 1.6 million, let's say 1.5, that's high enough, 1.5 million people waiting in line. that's what the backlog is.

it just makes no sense. to anybody. including, by the way, the secretary of homeland security, who i've talked to about this. these long waits mean you're there embedded in a community in america, getting to know your community, you're joining your church, then your kids go to school, you're having children, you're part of the community. then you're told, after six to eight years, by the way, your asylum application is being denied because you're an economic refugee, not an asylee. in other words, you haven't demonstrated a fear of persecution. you have come to this country, understandably, because there's great opportunity here. again, we should be encouraging people to come legally, like so many other immigrants have over the years. only about 15% to 20% of those people who apply for asylum today are getting asylum. think about it, if you're part

of the 80% to 85% who are not going to get asylum, there's sometimes not much incentive to go through the hearings and so on. the consequence if you don't go through the hearings is that you are then subject to removal. however, we're just not removing people today. so, this past year we had the latest numbers are that 59,000 people were deported or removed from america. about 66% of those people had criminal background. but remember, this is outs of -- out of a couple hundred thousand people going through the process. so there's a very small chance that you will ever be removed or deported. even though you went through the process, you were denied asylum. you stay in the united states. and the next administration could change that, this administration could change that, but right now this asylum

process, which was created to give lawful presence to people who are unable to be in their home country because of persecution is not being used properly. it's being exploited by people who know that because of our system and our huge backlog, if they say that they are part of a group being persecuted, they can come in, and even when denied asylum they can stay. that's the way it's working. what we have found is that folks who come here are almost entirely focused more on the economic side. there was a survey conducted by the migration policy institute recently, which by the way is a pro-migrant institution, it found that 90% of the central americans making the journey to our intowsh are coming for -- to

our southern border are coming for work, because they come from poor countries. they don't have a lot of opportunity in their country. i don't play them. if i was a father living in honduras and couldn't find a job or i was a subsistence farmer just barely making it, i had a few kids and want them to have a better life, i'd come too. but that's not what immigration is all about. it's a system where you come legally, yes. but if you come illegally, you've got to be told to go back and apply like everybody else. otherwise, america would be overwhelmed, and is being overwhelmed, and will be more overwhelmed if title 42 is taken away. because there are hundreds of millions of people, maybe billions of people, around the world who would love to come here, to this country. we take for granted our opportunities, our freedoms, but others don't. we have to have a system. we have to have some sort of a

border. really, that's the question that is before us today in this body, is are we going to have a system that makes sense, or one where, again, you have a million and a half people waiting for a hearing, when they have a hearing on asylum, they're denied, they still aren't removed so they can stay. again, meanwhile, they've got family and kids and connections to the community. it's really not fair to them. a much better system would be to say okay, apply for asylum in your country, or if you don't feel comfortable there apply from a third country. ththen you will know, yes or no, before you come to the border, don't make the dangerous journey north, don't put yourself in the clutches of these coyotes, these human smugglers, these traffickers who are heartless. what they're doing is going down to central america or latin america or really all over the world now, people are coming from hundreds of countries now, and they're saying, you know, give me money, give me $10,000.

i'll get you to the border, and you can just walk across. people are signing up, sometimes with their life savings, and sometimes as again we talked about earlier there assaults along the way. there are all kinds of horrible stories how women particularly are mistreated on the way up. it's a dangerous and inhumane process. at the end of the day our system is pulling these people to the border. the administration is now implementing a new asylum rule recently to try to deal with this problem because they realize it's just not working. however, the new system that they're putting in place isn't working either, and there's a reason for that. their theory is we should adjudicate the cases at the border. i agree with that. i would rather adjudicate them outside the border or the country of origin or third

country. another is to have the adjudication right at the border. make the decision, yes or no. let people know. the problem is what they are doing right now is they are putting asylum officers at the border making a decision, adjudicating as people come across, and if it's a no, people are not being sent home but rather people are being told if it's a no, you can appeal it to the regular system. so get back in line with the 1.5 million people. so what we're learning is that, of course, people are smart. they're talking to the asylum officer. they're getting a yes or a no. if they're getting a yes, that's great. they're getting in. that's a small percentage. if they're getting a no, they say that's fine, i'm going to appeal it to the regular system. so it really isn't an answer to the problem. if you want an answer to the problem, what you would have is processing centers along the border. it would be expensive because

there's so many people coming over now and so many people applying for asylum. but have a process where quickly you can adjudicate these cases. in the meantime, not have people be released into the interior but have them stay there to find out what the outcome of the case is. this pool system is bad for everybody except the smugglers. they're the ones who profit. they're the ones that are going to folks in places like honduras or ecuador or again far flung places, places in eastern europe, places in asia, and telling people give me a bunch of money and i'll get you into the united states. we recently had this tragedy i mentioned in san antonio. 53 migrants were left for dead in the texas heat in the back of a tractor trailer. they were just abandoned by their smuggler.

they left them locked inside of this tractor trailer. it's not the first time it's happened but as i said earlier, 53, it's probably the worst smuggling tragedy in our history. i went to latin america last year. i met with the presidents of mexico and guatemala and ecuador and colombia. it's interesting. they all said the same theme. it might surprise you. people think they must enjoy this process because so many of their citizens are going to america. they can then send money back to their family and it must be good for everybody. it's not. they're losing some of the best and brightest in their country. and these people are going through, again, this arduous process to get to the border and the inhumanity of that troubles these presidents. they all told me basically the same thing which is why don't you fix your laws and stop this pool factor. you talk about the push factor in poor countries. i mentioned honduras earlier. that's certainly true. and by the way, we spent over

the last five years about $3.6 billion of american taxpayer money to help, the economics of the so-called northern triangle, central american countries. i'm for spending money in these countries to try to help with their economy, but with the corruption, with all the issues they have, it's very difficult to imagine those countries in a short period of time having any kind of economic opportunity that equals what we have right here in this country. so it's going to continue to be that push. we should try top alleviate it but it will continue to happen. but the pull, this policy that we have is just pulling people north. so what they said to me, these presidents of these countries, was you have a legal immigration system where people know they can just get in, get into your country. why don't you change that? why don't you change that? again, it's not just people from mexico and central america. it's people from all over the

world. by the way, for some of these people the border patrol is increasingly concerned because they come from countries where a lot of people want to do us harm. so increasingly we're seeing people coming to our country who are, as an example, on the terror watch list. back in 2007, two people. 2018 six people. 2019 none. 2020 there were three. 2021, 15. this year, 2022, already 50 people on the terrorist watch lists. why? they know when they come to the u.s. border, they can get across. i'm sure this number is higher. that's what we know because again a lot of people are so-called got-aways. let's say 20%. and who are these people? well, some of them are probably pretty smart individuals who know how to get away from the border patrol, do the distraction and sneak in. that worries me. and it worries me because we are

allowing people to come into our country who we would not otherwise allow. we've seen this increase of people coming into the country who are on the terror watch list, but we've also seen again a lot of people coming in who we just don't know anything about because they don't encounter the border patrol. we've seen more caravans and we see more migrants are on their way. why? i think it's because of this general pull factor. you know, the fact that people know if they come here, they're going to be able to get in. but i think it's also because of title 42 because the smugglers are using that, the cartels are spreading the word. title 42 is on its way out. read about it in the front page of your paper because that's where it is. because this administration wants to end it so they're saying now you can go to the border and you'll be let in

under the policies like the asylum policy, and the single adults who 48% whom roughly have been turned away, 40% of the total by title 42 will no longer be turned away. that's why i think we're seeing this. it's giving the coyotes. the traffickers and smugglers the opportunity to make lots of money. by the way, that's hurting all these countries, too. if you talk to the presidents of these countries, including the president of mexico, what he'll tell you is the cartels are taking over more and more of his country because they're making more and more money because of this. and significantly because of the drug issue we'll talk about in a second. we know that the cartels are involved in human trafficking. we know they're involved in drug smuggling. we know they're involved in smuggling people. i was with the border patrol in

el paso last year. we were out at night. we saw a group of migrants coming. and the border patrol was going to that location to stop them and question them. and meanwhile we heard on the radio the drug smugglers had come across. they could see it. they knew it. they could tell by the backpacks they were wearing and the clothes, young men, that they were smuggling, but they couldn't do anything about it because the border patrol were processing the migrants who would come in. so i'm watching the migrants coming in, actually talking to some of them and the border patrol and meanwhile on the radio they're saying you've got to go to this other sector, this other area to stop the drug smugglers. you can't. we're distracted. the processing takes some time. so the other big issue in addition to the unlawful entry into the united states, the smuggling, all the inhumanity that surrounds that is this drug

issue, and i have spent a lot of time working on this issue on the prevention side so helping treatment and recovery options and doing more on prevention, we're making some progress until unfortunately we were hit with this pandemic. and during that time and since drug use has gone up again. but we were making progress in part because we were helping on the demand side of the equation, but also on the supply side we were keeping some of these drugs out of the country and we did it primarily through stopping the deadliest of all which is the fentanyl which is a synthetic opioid from coming in through the u.s. mail system. we passed a law called the stop act. it kept china from poisoning our communities by sending the stuff through the mail system which was happening. it was the primary way it was coming in. but what has happened? during the pandemic and kind of coincidental with the pandemic, we had more people isolated, more people losing their jobs, more people turning to drugs.

you had mexico begin to take the central role in terms of fentanyl. a lot of it is from precursors from china. so china sends the precursors to mexico but mexico is now making the fentanyl. often into pills. so zanax or a atirol or percoce, if you buy any drugs on the street, know that those drugs could kill you. don't be fooled. there are so many counterfeit drugs out there now. and that is one of the preferred ways that the mexican cartels are bringing these drugs in. again, fentanyl is of course the deadliest of the drugs. about two-thirds of the overdose deaths in america are occurring because of fentanyl. we now have a record level of overdose deaths every year in america. over a hundred thousand last year. there's no reason to believe that it will be less than that this year based on the early data we have, sadly.

in my home state of ohio, it's the number one killer by far. and look at what's happened with the seizures of fentanyl. this is the fentanyl that is -- has been seized. here's the projections for the rest of this year if they continue as they are. obviously record levels. when you have this huge surge of fentanyl coming in, what happens is you have a lower cost of the drug. supply and demand, right? so a huge supply. and the demand for these drugs continues. so on the streets of columbus or cleveland or cincinnati or dayton or your town, wherever it s. it's likely that this -- it is, it's likely that this cheap but really deadly fentanyl is something that people are being exposed to. some people are falling prey to it. again, often thinking they're taking another drug. there were a couple of students at ohio state university who

overdosed and died just before i gave a talk there at graduation earlier this spring. and they were taking what they thought were study drugs, apparently, . aterol. a third student lived but was in critical condition. this is the deadliest of drugs. in 2021 we seized double the fentanyl from the previous year, four times from the year before that. again so far this year we are on track to match the most fentanyl seized ever. in may, just one month, in may there was enough fentanyl seized at the border to kill 200 million americans. more than half of our population. one month. so people say well, gosh, why are you so worried about the border. let people come across, open

border, whatever. here the consequence. again, it's hurting mexico, too, and it's hurting lots of other countries. in terms of mexico, this gives cartels enormous power and money. and, yes, ultimately i think the most important think to do is to reduce demand. i do. and i think again we're making progress. we had about a 20% rawx in 20 -- reduction in 2018. we need to get back to that and this congress took a lead on much of that. but we also have to deal with the supply side and stop this enormous surge of drugs that's coming over and poisoning our communities. and that's part of what's happening on the border. a few months ago i was in nogales south of tucson to ride with the border patrol and go to the port of entry. they're doing a good job with what they have but they need better equipment. this is one thing congress could do. they need help. they need more resources. they need better technology. they need to be able to scan trucks and cars that are coming in, particularly for these drugs we talked about.

a relatively small package of fentanyl this size can kill a thousand people. a few specks can kill you. so it's easy to hide it in a car or a truck. we now know that less than 2% of passenger vehicles and less than 20% commercial vehicles coming into the united states are scanned for these illegal drugs like fentanyl. this is just unacceptable. congress has appropriated more funding for this. that's good. let's get it moving. we should be scanning all vehicles in my view. a smuggler with multiple pounds of fentanyl concealed in a hidden compartment might be worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars. they know they have a good chance of getting across without a search. so they take the risk. it's not just a gap in our security. it's a gaping hole. and again it leads to this flood of cheap fentanyl and other dangerous drugs.

the southern border has faced the worst unlawful crisis that we've ever had, going back to the first chart. this tells the story in red. the men and women of the customs and border protection that if i've met over the years are doing the best they can. they're doing the best at the ports of entry. they're doing the best as border patrol between ports of entry. but they need help. that's what our legislation does, provides them the help they need to be able to respond to this crisis. we welcome legal immigration. we always should. they enrich our country. and we are a nation of immigrants, and we're proud of that. but we're also a nation of laws, and we're also a nation that cares about the inhumanity of the current system and the flood of cheap, deadly drugs coming through our border. i urged biden administration to change course, to fix this broken system, to follow the

law, including the law on detaining people, to reform the asylum process to truly help those who are seeking asylum for the right reasons. to stop these policies that send a green light to the smugglers, to the cartels, to the drug traffickers, and that is causing so much human suffering. -- along our southern border. i urge the administration to act. in the meantime, again we're introducing legislation. i urge my colleagues to help us with that. there's no reason that we can't work in a bipartisan way to deal with what everybody has to acknowledge is a huge crisis at our southern border. i yield back my time. the presiding officer: the senate now stands adjourned senate now stands adjourned

and as vice chair supervision. votes on more of the present executive nominations expected tomorrow. as always, public coverage of the senate on c-span2. moco c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more, including media. quicksilver and change the reality we are felt to keep you ahead. the income support c-span as a public service. these are the television providers giving a front row seat to democracy.

marine corps veteran herschel what he will soon it will honor at the u.s. capitol. he was the last living medal of honor recipient from world war ii before his death last month at the age of 98. mr. williams received the medal of honor from president. truman in 1945 for his heroic actions at the battle of iwo jima. here's what west virginia senator joe manchin had to say about mr. williams and attribute from the senate floor. >> mr. president, i read today to speak on the life and legacy of my dear friend, the last surviving world war ii medal of honor recipient with anyone before your gallery and recognizing all of them i want to say thank you, thank you for