we'll keep this here. the u.s. senate is about to gavel in for the day in first debate the nomination of u.s. district court judge to serve on the d.c. circuit court of appeals and then 5:30 p.m. eastern about to advance the nomination. if confirmed, she would replace supreme court justice ketanji john brown jackson. lift to the floor of the u.s. senate here on c-span2. ...

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. o god, our provider, we come to you in our weakness, seeking your mercy and help. lord, give us this day the mercy and grace of your love that we may become all you desire us to be. empower our lawmakers to cherish your precepts and obey your word. lord, keep them walking in the way

everlasting. strengthen them so to run that they may reach the destination you have chosen for their lives. enable them so to strive that they may win the victor's crown. prepare them so to keep the faith that they may persevere to the very end. we pray in your merciful name. amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington, d.c., september 19, 2022. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable mazie k. hirono, a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session and resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, the judiciary. florence y. pan of the district of columbia to be united states circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit.

a national abortion ban and made it clear that the rights of my constituents and coming up to the rights of people across the country . this atrocious bill threatens the people of kansas who just voted overwhelminglyto protect abortion rights . it threatens the hundreds of

thousands of people in michigan who just signed a petition for a referendum vote to protect abortion and states like mine which already have strong abortion protections on our books. up till now republicans have tried to play down there abortion extremism. they tried to run away from the consequences of their extreme agenda even as cases have been disc denied prescriptions they need. even as doctors have been forced to wait until patients lives are in danger before they can take action. evenas healthcare crisis , they have caused spilled across state lines to disastrous effect but despite their empty rhetoric about leaving it to states the truth has been painfully clear. they think they know better than women when it comes to reproductive health care decisions . they've shown again and again they do not trust women to

have full control over their own bodies and they are also willing to go after doctors. they blocked the most basic bills like senator cortez mass does bill that would have made sure people can still travel to other states for legally available care or my bill making sure doctors and states where abortion is legal cannot be punished for doing their jobs. over and over they have stood in the way of democrats efforts to protect women's abortion rights . and it's crystal clear why. this bill shows the true republican position. they want to ban abortion for everyone in every single state. andthey want to punish

doctors. they want to put them in prisons for doing their jobs. so to anyone who lives in a blue state like mine , anyone who thinks they are safe from these attacks , here is the painful reality . republicans are coming after your rights and you don't have to take my word for it. the senator from south carolina said yesterday and i quote if we take back the house and senate i can assure you that we will have a vote on our bill. there it is, couldn't be clearer. that's the agenda for all 50 states rights stripped away, doctorsin prison . regardless of your circumstances, regardless of what is best for your health, regardless of your family plans for your hopes or your fears or your dreams for your future. republicans want to control your personal decisions. they don't trust you to have control over your own body. this is horrifying and madam president when he unveiled the bill the senator from

south carolinaalso said and i quote, i'll make a prediction . we stay on this and we keep talkingabout it , maybe less than a decade from now this will be a law. i unquote. this is the future that they want. a national abortion ban. let me tell you something, the senator from south carolina may not have been paying attention but democrats are already talking about this issueevery week, every day, every opportunity and went across the country have been with us . fighting for the right to abortion and fighting back against republicans harmful attacks. we saw it in kansas. we are seeing it in michigan. and i'm seeing it everywhere i go in washington state. i've been talking to doctors and patients and women and men across our country and they are outraged. outraged that republicans want to take away their rights. that's republicans want to put doctors in prison.

and i am too, i have never been matter. so here's my message to republicans, if you want to go after constituentswrites , if you want to go after women's bodies and futures. if you want to pass a national abortion ban like this extreme bill to have to go through me because democrats are going to standing up for women and men across the country who do not want their rights taken away. thank you madam president and i yield the floor. >>. >> madam president. >> the senior senator from connecticut . >> we are here today because republicans are seeking a national ban on abortion. and if we say it once here we should say it 10 times, 100 times because literally

months ago it would have been virtually unimaginable. first that roe versus wade would be struck down and second, that republicans would propose a national ban on abortion. women across connecticut and the country are scaredand angry . and to those who say those fears and outrage are illusory or unjustified, all you have to do is read their words. listen to what they say. they are promising the american people that there will be a nationalban on abortion . and to the people of connecticut, who think we

have a safe haven because our legislature and governor have courageously established protections for roe v wade and for women who come to connecticut seeking abortion services and for doctors who depend on our safe laws there will be no safe haven in this country. none. nowhere. if republicans go where they say explicitly they are heading. i trust women with their doctors. and their clergy and family to make decisions about when and whether to become pregnant, whether to have children and when to terminate a pregnancy short-term. i trust women. not the governor, not politicians to make these preeminently important decisions. and i promise the people of connecticut i will not back

down. i will not stand for this kind of national ban on abortion. republicans have said historically, we will let the states decide. it should be a matter of state legislature . making these decisions. this ban on abortion takes away power from women and from states. contrary to their promises over the years and years about states rights but more than a theoretical or hypothetical argument about the powers of the legislatures, or the allocation of responsibility in our federal system, this law will have destructive and catastrophic consequences for

millions of women. it will impair the everyday lives of women and families. across america. it is not just a woman's issue. it is on all of us to say we will not back down. we will not stand for our national and on abortion. it is part of a tireless and seemingly boundless campaign against women's rights. but these attacks on reproductive rights and personal freedom apparently know the limits. remember first republican-controlled state legislatures moved to outlaw abortion in entirely, forcing women suffering from ectopic pregnancies tobleed out in hospitals . and refusing to care for child rape victims.

but now republicans are moving forward with plans to ban abortion everywhere under any circumstance. and they are resting a woman's right to make her own personal healthcare decision. sometimes the decision made made during the devastating medical diagnosis out of her hands. putting those decisions into government hands. and make no mistake, the 15 months, all of the technical stuff that republicans invoke , doesn't take away from the fact it is the national ban that will eviscerate connecticut's laws. congressional republicans will decide whether or not women can access this vital health.

eliminating access to abortion services as a result of the dobbs decision has had devastating consequences. a loss of reproductive services in some states has caused a ripple effect for healthcare providers across the united states. which proves for anyone who doubts it that banning reproductive services doesn't stop women from seeking those services. it just adds additional barriers and dangers. in fact it unnecessarily puts their lives at risk. this bill would place a ban on abortion across the country. and it would include new york, massachusetts, not just connecticut. delaware, go across the country and pick those states where these rights have been protected . when i was in the state legislature andthen as attorney general , i helped write the law that incorporates and codifies roe

versus wadein connecticut statute . and now connecticut has moved beyond that back to provide a safe haven but all that would be gone. all of it. would be overwritten by this law. americans should have no doubt about where republicans stand now on this issue. they want to punish women, they want to punish doctors. they will do it at the state level. they would do it at the national level. no state, not even connecticut is safe from this threat. they're coming after our laws in connecticut. they are coming after women in connecticut and men who believe in the rights of women. as a matter of constitutional and personal freedom. to make these decisions. our laws should protect the

rights of women seeking to make their own personal decisions about their reproductive health and in consultation with medical providers. and i will buy tooth and nail fight this effort and any other effort that seeks to control criminalize and dehumanize women making this choice and that healthcare providers compassionately giving them care. the american people are in our court. american people whatever they may think about abortion and their own lives and their own families, their daughters. they support the rights of those as women to control their own healthcare decisions . it is an intensely personal decision one that has to be

made and sometimes at the threat of life. something going horribly wrong in a pregnancy is the reason for it. i will continue to fight for all in connecticut who believe in the fundamental right. it is a matter of our constitutional dna in connecticut beginning with griswold versus connecticut. which laid the groundwork for the right of privacy and which is the underpinning for that constitutional freedom. and all of us i hope will reject this effort to ban abortion in the united states. thankyou madame president . i yield the floor.

>> the senior senator from nevada. >> madame president, in june as we are hearing the supreme court struck down roe versus wade reversing nearly 50 years of law that recognized a woman's fundamental right to reproductive freedom and we also know justice kavanaugh's concurring opinion repeatedly insisted the courts decision would turn the issue to elected representatives in the states but this was never about states rights. really, to my right-wing colleagues who want to restrict a woman'sfund mental rights , we know that because now they're pushing for a national abortion ban. yesterday as we have heard senator graham introduced a strict national abortion ban with criminal penalties for doctors who provide critical care.

if it passes, this bill will preempt the laws in states across the countrywhere abortion is still legal . including my own state of nevada. in nevada our voters approved a ballot initiative in 1990 two in trying a woman's right to choose in our state laws. so what happened to my colleagues claims of respecting the rights of states to make that decision? apparently it wasn't enough to pack the court withsupreme court justices who would vote to deprive women of the rights they have held for 50 years under the guise of states rights . now when far right republicans disagree with the state's decision like mine, they plan to impose their own laws. the current legislation introduced senator graham stops the people in

pro-choice states like nevada choosing to protect the rights of women at the same time it leaves in place stricter abortion hands in 14 states. what these far right republicans are effectively saying now is anti-choice states, you're free to choose however harsh you want your abortion bans to be. but you pro-choice states, you're out of luck. whatever the voters want in your states it really doesn't matter. because were going to impose our own laws . look, nevadans as i said in 1990 we work to codifies roe versus wade because we know that it is impossible to walk in another woman's shoes. we know that each woman, this is an important decision for each individual woman to make with her doctor, with her loved ones about her health care, about her family planning.

i do not know what another woman is going to go through and i do not want to restrict access to any type of care and nor should any of us be imposing our belief, our religion on someone else. that's what this is about and that's why nevada voters voted in 1992 codifies roe versus wade and give womenthe right to make this decision . right now we're seeing some partitions once again declare that they know what's best for every family in this nation. they want to force the states of nevada and other states like nevada to limit women's freedom. even though voters in my state voted to legally protect the right to choose that nevada women have had for 50 years. i've been saying for months now that some of my colleagues would never be satisfied with just overturning roe. and that they wouldn't rest until there was a national

ban on abortion. this bill shows every american that not only are women's rights under attack, but so is the democratic process in states like nevada . if we don't have an abortion ban on the books, our state rights don't matter. that is just unacceptable. we can't let our nieces, our daughters, our granddaughters grow up in a world where they have fewer rights than we have had in the past. so i for one will keep fighting back. because this is about the fundamental right for american women and the will of people in states like nevada to make this decision and help and vote for the right of women to choose so thank you madame president and i yield the floor. >> madame president the

senator from ohio hawaii. >> when the extreme far right supreme court overturned row my republican colleagues lauded this horrendous decision claiming a woman's right to an abortion should be left to the states. but now they are admitting what we knewall along . this is never about states rights. this is always been about republicans using their power to control women and our bodily autonomy. despite the fact that the vast majority of the american public supports reproductive freedom and despite the fact that voters across the country are overwhelmingly voting to protect this freedom. republicans are pandering, i think that's a good word. pandering to the extreme megabase and have now introduced a nationwide ban on abortion after 15 weeks. why 15 weeks you asked weston

mark because that's what the senior senator from south carolina who introduced this legislation said he will feel comfortable at. so we now have a republican senator attempting to restrict the bodily autonomy of women across the country because that's what she feels comfortable at. it's not enough that there overturning of roe had created fear and confusion all across the country. we now have tradition of a nationwide abortion ban further adding to the chaos. this is not some sort of hypothetical debate or hysteria as some of my colleagues have claimed. if republicans take control of the senate we now know

what they will do they will work to pass anational abortion ban . which would mean even in my home state of hawaii which was the first state in the country to decriminalize abortion even before the roe decision, we did this in hawaii in 1970. and for voters in states who are pushing back against their radical legislators and exercising their right to bring the issue of abortion to the balance including states like kansas and michigan , this bill would overrule their efforts but of course, to add to their utter hypocrisy, it states like texas or mississippi want to be even more restrictive, even more harmful to women than a 15 week ban, that would be a okay according to the senator from south carolina and his extreme

bill. allowing republicans to regain control of congress would be catastrophic not only for women but for our entire country because when we women can't control what we do with our bodies, of course this impacts our families. our communities, our economy. and so this november people are going to have a choice. do you want to let. >> last week the american el people received another absolutely crushing inflation report. more than sa year after washingtondemocrat policies set off theworst overall inflation . in four years , the prices of some of the most essential items for working families are skyrocketing but at the fastest rates in a generation. >>

billions of dollars more, raising taxes, and making working-class americans pay off the loans of doctors and lawyers. you might think the biden administration couldn't possibly get any more out of touch. you'd think that kind of display would have to take the cake, but alas, madam president, last night on "60 minutes" president biden gave an almost comically out-of-touch interview on the inflation crisis. the president argued with a straight face that the american people ought to be grateful for last month's charitable inflation report because it could have been even worse. here is the quote -- guess where we are? we're in a position wherein the last several months inflation hasn't spiked. struggling americans are supposed to be grateful that we have plateaued at a steady, ongoing inflation rate of more than 8%?

the president wants a round of applause for steadily clocking month after month after month the worst inflation in 40 years? the inflation rate plateauing does not mean that prices themselves have leveled off. it means prices are still steadily climbing all the time at an historically fast pace, the worst in a generation. month after month after month, democrats' policy failures have continued to add inflation on top of inflation. the inflation rate plateauing above 8% does not mean that families are catching a break. it means exactly the opposite. it means that families are continuing to see prices go up and up and up all the time. simply surviving, just getting

by in washington democrats' economy costs 8.3% more than it did a year. remember the 12-month numbers now dramatically understate the damage that democrats have done because it only looks back one year, when democrats' inflation spiral was already up and running. here's the number that really matters. since the day that president biden was sworn in, since the day that that one-party democratic government took power, our country's inflation rate has been -- listen to this. and according to president biden, if you're angry about that, your parents are upset, if workers are frustrated, they just aren't putting things in proper perspective. considering the american people give president biden a 38% approval rating on the handling of his economy, it's the white house that needs perspective,

not the working people of our country. and get this, when president biden was asked how we can avoid a recession since democrat policies have forced the fed to raise your rates sharply, the president doubled down on his fantasy land. he suggested, quote, we're growing the economy. it's growing in a way that it hasn't in years and years. but of course that is complete nonsense. you measure real gdp growth after inflation. from early 2017 until the beginning of covid pandemic, republican policies had the economy humming along with robust growth, low unemployment and low inflation. a great trifecta for the american people. but now with president biden's policies in place, we've seen two consecutive quarters of real gdp actually falling. once you account for the

inflation that democrats have caused, our economy is not growing at all. it is in fact shrinking. families talk about the term shrink-flation at the grocery store or big-box store. that's not only have prices gone up but the size of the packages have gone down so you're both paying more and getting less, like the size of a bag of chips or a box of cookies or the number of sheets on a roll of toilet paper or the weight of a bag of fertilizer. higher prices, smaller quantities. and this is basically what president biden and democrats have done to the entire u.s. economy. everything costs more, even as the gdp is shrinking in real terms. just like american families have seen their real wages plummet after inflation, the same thing has happened to the country as a whole for two quarters and

counting. the president biden might want to talk to americans who are trying to survive under his policies before he sits down for his next tv interview. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: we are. mr. durbin: i i ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, two and a half years ago a native of my home state of illinois and a veteran of the united states navy, mark ferricks, was abducted by the taliban or one of its affiliates in afghanistan. he was working there as a contractor and his disappearance

was devastating to his family back in lom barred, illinois. senator duckworth and i have spent countless hours and staff hours working with his family, trying to find out what happened to mark. we spoke to his sister charlene and repeatedly raised his case with both the trump and biden administrations. we wanted to let them know we cared, and we joined the family in that chorus. well, today the family's prayers have been answered. the news was released that mark is coming home. i want to commend president biden, secretary of state blinken and their teams for never giving up on mark and ultimately securing his freedom. his sister charlene said upon news of her brother's release, and i quote, we never gave up hope that he could survive and

come home safely to us. she was right. and mark was so fortunate to have her as his steadfast champion. welcome home, mark ferriches. madam president, i listened to the comments that were just made by the republican leader about the events in washington, the state of the economy, and it was interesting the perspective he took. he was critical of president biden for calling a meeting of several,000 supporters last week on -- several hundred supporters last week to celebrate the inflation reduction act passed in the united states senate and house. you and i know there wasn't a single republican vote in favor of the inflation reduction act. some six weeks ago we did some things that, frankly, many of us

had been hoping for a long time without a single republican vote supporting. the senator from kentucky wondered what we were celebrating. well, let me tell him a few of the things that we are celebrating. after years of candidates going out on the campaign trail and telling america that the cost of prescription drugs were too high, we finally did something about it. finally, after years of negotiating the price for drugs in the veterans administration so we could afford to give our veterans the very best, we applied the same standard to medicare. what does it mean? it means that the most popular and most expensive drugs that are sold through medicare to recipients over the age of 65 were now going to negotiate their prices to come up with a reasonable amount to charge taxpayers for those drugs. well, if you wonder whether or

not the pharmaceutical industry can handle that kind of truth, i might remind people what they already know. exactly the same drugs in the same boxes are for sale in canada at a fraction of the price that we pay in the united states. the same thing is true in europe. and we said once and for all we're going to do something about it. i think that's something to celebrate. let me tell you something else that's part of it too. we said from this point forward, when this bill takes effect, no recipient on medicare will ever paid more than $2,000 a year for prescription drugs. upper limit, ceiling, $2,000. do you know what these same people were faced with when it came to cancer drugs and other therapies? thousands and thousands of dollars. and we brought it home to a

level which i wish we could have done more, but is very important as well, and that's when it comes to diabetes. millions of americans suffer from diabetes, or someone in their family does, and we said that if you're on medicare, you won't have to pay more than $35 for a dose of insulin. $35. that's a relief to a lot of people with diabetes in their family. some of those people couldn't afford insulin. they couldn't afford the doses they need. and they endangered their life in the process. in addition to all of that, we -- in this bill we did, in fact, address the tax code. the senator from kentucky earlier said we raised taxes. we did. let me tell you who will pay more in taxes. if you own a corporation that over the last three years has had a net profit -- an average

net profit of $1 billion a year -- $1 billion, i'm not asking for a show of hands, but if you had a net profit average over $1 billion over the last three years, you have to pay a minimum corporate tax of, get ready, 15%. 15%. most americans pay their taxes believing that's what the law requires. and many believe, as i do, that's the admission to the price of america for a great nation. 15%, we would all welcome that rate. there are few who can say that. to say that a corporation with a net profit over $1 million has to -- $1 billion has to pay taxes rather than escape paying taxes, guilty as charged. we did that. and you know the net result of it? the net result of it will reduce

the deficit this year by $1.3 trillion. all the talk about the big spenders in congress, the bill we put together for inflation reduction zeroed in on capping the cost for prescription drugs for medicare and making sure that profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes just like every american family. those two elements were not mentioned by the senator from kentucky. it's understandable. but what i want to make clear is we didn't have a single republican vote of what i've just given you. there is an additional section there that is controversial, but i feel strongly about it. i think we are facing in this world today obvious evidence of stream weather and changes that should alarm us. yes, it's climate change. it's global warming. and what we did in this bill was

to create incentives for american families and corporations to start taking steps toward responsible conduct. it's coming. it wasn't a federal mandate that required all of the car companies to build electric vehicles. they see the writing on the wall. they realize we have so change the -- to change the way we energize transportation in america. they want to be at front of the parade, not blind it. so -- behind it. so do we. not a single republican voted for it. that's the reality. incidentally, inflation is a burden on american families and individuals. thrses no doubt about it and -- there's no doubt about it and i'm not going to sugarcoat it. the price of gasoline stares us in the face. i did some driving over the weekend, probably put on

600 miles on the car in illinois, and i kept the eye out for the cost of gasoline. i don't know what it is in hawaii or any home state, but in missouri gasoline was selling for $3.13 a gallon in illinois. high? yes. but not $5 which we faced a few months ago. we made some progress and we need to continue to focus on the cost of goods for families that they face every week. that is part of our mission as well. the last point i want to make is this. madam president, there was a decision made by the governor of texas, governor abbott several weeks ago to start transporting people who were legally in the united states but had just arrived from foreign countries on buses to various places around the country. thousands of them were brought to washington. thousands were brought to

new york and hundreds were brought to my city of chicago that i represent. these are people who came to our borders and asked if they could be admitted as legal immigrants to the united states, and they passed the threshold test. but let me quickly add it is a threshedhold test. they still have to face an adjudication and a majority of them are not likely to win that adjudication. the problem we face is very obvious. it's a long time before that adjudication takes place. what are these families supposed to do when they are here waiting? i went over to the salvation army rescue shelter in the west side of chicago to meet some of these individuals and families who had been bussed to chicago by the governor of texas. i met one man, carlos and his family, his wife, his 5-year-old

daughter and his 8-month-old daughter as well. through the translators they told me their story. they're from venezuela. venezuela is in a disastrous situation. so dangerous that the united states warns travelers not to go to venezuela. and the economy is so weak that the cost of living has gone up dramatically. inflation there is even dramatically larger than the united states. carlos reached the point thap even working as hard -- point that even working as hard as he could, he couldn't feed his family so he and his wife decided to get to the border. it took them five months. much of it was on foot. they were robbed, beaten up. they were pushed into a jungle situation in panama where carlos

said i didn't think we were going to live through the night. it was that dangerous. they did survive. they finally made it and now they're here in chicago. i asked him what he wanted. he said, i just want to go to work. i'll take any job. when we're finding in the front pages of "the new york times" is that many of these people are wanted and needed, we have unemployment, and we have 11 million jobs that need to be filled and many are entry-level jobs and it's hard to find anyone take them. last week i had the farm bureau meet me. they talked about their need for immigrant labor on the farms of america. madam president, you probably know this from your home state, but currently half of the agriculture workers in america who are working on the dairy farms, picking crops, doing hard work, half of them are undocumented. we don't think twice about

eating the fruits and vegetables that are the bounty of their work, but that's the reality. our immigration system at this point in time is badly broken. we need to have legal immigration into the united states -- controlled immigration into the united states for work purposes. many of these people who are arriving are desperately needed for jobs that americans won't fill. had they don't want to work picking crops, for example, or on a dairy farm. a friend of mine who is a owns -- who owns a restaurant told me if you remove all of the undocumented workers, you would be closing restaurants right and left. working hard in the restaurants are undocumented workers. it was eight years ago when we put together a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

democrats, durbin, schumer and michael bennet who has come up with a good idea for ag workers and we were on the democratic side of the team of eight. on the republican part, we had senator mccain, senator graham, senator rubio and then-senator flake. we worked for months and put together a comprehensive bill, brought it to the floor of the senate and passed it with 14 republicans joining us, 68 votes on the floor of the united states senate for a bill that would have faced the issues we are facing today. the bill was sent over to the how much and the republican leader there -- house of representatives and the republican house leader refused to call it. we need to call it up again, comprehensive immigration reform. we shouldn't do it at the expense of a poor family like

carlos' family who is from venezuela. i would say what the governor of texas is doing now is jeopardizing the safety of t the -- the safety and health of these families. promising them at the end of the journey that there will be jobs waiting for them is just misleading them. if these governors were transporting these people in good faith to chicago, new york, or washington, they would have the decency to tell us who is coming and when. they don't. they put the buses on the road and they stop at a train station and turn them all loose. many of these people know no one in those cities and we found recent evidence that some of them are in a position where they are taken away from where they're supposed to legally report in this country and sent hundreds and thousands of miles

away by these governors for political reasons i can't explain. that is not who we are. i do want to commend the salvation army, catholic charities, many of the charities in our area here. ww -- wbez chicago, chicago agencies and local groups tell migrants we're so glad you're here. as we debate the politics of why they're here and why they should stay, we shouldn't do it at the expense of clear american values of caring. we're not going to allow the kids to reach a situation and be the victims of our political debates. we don't want kids in cages or forcibly removed from their parents or suffer on these bus rides not knowing where they will end up and what will happen

to them next. we're better than that as americans and we're better than that as a nation of immigrants. i've said on the floor many times and i'm proud to say again, i'm a son of an immigrant to this country. i believe my mother came here at the age of 2 from lithuania brought with me the good luck that i could be part of the united states senate and the governance of this nation. we shouldn't look beyond that. i say, the presiding officer holds a special place in the history of the senate with her immigration is that the us as well. if you look in any direction, you're going to find immigrants -- sons and daughters of immigrants -- who really have made america what it is today. let's get this right on a bipartisan basis. let's not waste any time. and, in the meantime, let us treat these people who are coming to our country and are now legally in the country with dignity and respect. i yield the floor.

the presiding officer: as if in legislative session and under the previous order, the senate,

having received from the house the returned papers with respect to s. 1198, the actions of the senate on september 8, 2022, are vitiated. the committee-reported substitute is withdrawn, the tester amendment at the desk, number 5505, is agreed to, the bill, as amended, is considered read a third time and passed, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. mr. schumer: thank you, madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: now, today my thoughts are with all our fellow americans in puerto rico and all communities across the caribbean

battered by the destruction of hurricane fiona. as of this morning, well over a million residents on the island remain without power and two-thirds remain without running water. later today i will get on the phone -- in a short while i will get on the phone with the fema administrator and urge that they be ready to provide 1 should% federal cost-share. that means covering the island's costs for distributing food and water, disaster operations, emergency medical care. right now the fema disaster relief fund has about $15 billion as of late last week, a fund we democrats fought extremely hard to secure. i will also join with my colleagues in the new york delegation to send fema a letter calling on them to be ready to support puerto rico on any upcoming requests for aid. five years -- almost exactly five years to the date -- after

puerto rico was devastate add by hurricane maria, the federal government has a responsibility to make sure we don't repeat the mistakes of the previous administration. the federal response should be swift, robust, and continue for as long as the island needs. now on judges, as we begin the third week of the work period, the senate presses ahead to confirm more of the president's -- president biden's impressive lineup of judicial nominees. this week we'll aim to confirm our sixth -- yes, sixth circuit court nominee of the month and this one is especially important. it is to move forward on judge florence pan to serve as a lifetime appointment to the u.s. circuit court for the district of columbia. after the supreme court, the d.c. court of appeals is the most important federal court in the country, with jurisdiction over cases involving congress and executive branch agencies. it goes without saying that

those nominated to serve as jurists 0en this court must be -- on this court must be individuals of the highest caliber, of impeccable credentials and must show deep fidelity to the constitution and the president couldn't have done better than judge pan, a brilliant, accomplished, and truly bipartisan nominee. the senate copped her to the d.c. -- the senate confirmed her to the d.c. court with an overwhelming bipartisan vote. i hope we can see similar bipartisan support this week. the daughter of taiwanese immigrants, judge pan graduated from the university of pennsylvania and earned her law degree from stanford where she wrote on the law review. as a judge for both the d.c. superior court and d.c. district court, she's seen practically every kind of legal dispute under the son. in short, she is a remarkably

qualified and experienced jurist. so i urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to vote in favor of advancing this nominee. a seat on the d.c. circuit deserves to be filled by a high-caller about and impartial jurist and thankfully we have that in judge pan. now you on kigali you the kigali treaty, besides working on judicial nominations, the senate will vote this week to pass a couple of measures on the floor. we'll vote to the kigali agreement tomorrow, an agreement from the 1980's that united much of the world in reducing the use of industrial chemicals harmful to our ozone layer. three decades later, this agreement has been an unqualified success. the kigali amendment is a golden opportunity to strengthen u.s. businesses and secure an edge against china in the emerging industry of next-generation

refrigerants. so let me explain. it sounds a little complicated, but it is important. the kigali amendment, which was negotiated bid both democratic and republican administrations, would build on the montreal protocols by affirming the u.s. commitment to phase out the use of a particularly dangerous chemical known as hydrofluorocarbons, abbreviated commonly as hfc's. throw used only in small amounts in household appliances like regrig rarities, they wreak havoc on our atmosphere. many on both sides have long agreed we should transition away from their use. by ratifying the kigali amendment, businesses that specialize in the next generation of emerging technologies would see new markets open to them. one study suggests that u.s. exports could increase by $ billion annually, $billion. so this is -- $6 billion

annually u combined with previous measures, the step could help create 150,000 new jobs in the uses. all the while we'd get a much-needed leg up on chinese businesses who still back behind for now in developing viable hfc alternatives. failure to ratify the kigali amendment would mean squandering billions in economic. the good news -- this measure has broad support from the business community, including the chamber of commerce, the american chemistry council, the semiconductor industry association and many others. the same support should manifest itself here in the senate. the first vote on cloture will require 60 senators to move forward and because this is a treaty we will then need the support of two-thirds of the chamber to ratify. for the sake of u.s. businesses, u.s. innovators and the sake of

our climate and american dominance in emerging markets, i urge my colleagues from both sides to vote in favor of advancing and ratifying the kigali amendment. finally, on the disclose act, madam president, today immunes noing the senate will vote this week to take up a measure critical to fighting the cancer of dark money in our elections. the disclose act. i've long promised to bring this bill to the floor, and i want to thank all my colleagues, and in particular, senator whitehouse -- he has done an amazing job documenting and pressing forward on trying to eliminate the evil scourge of dark money. he has been an amazing leader in championing this legislation. the disclose act is premised on a simple idea -- americans deserve to know who is trying to influence their elections. sadly, most americans today are largely in the dark, thanks to the abominable decision in citizens united handed down by the supreme court's conservative majority.

their ruling has waived the way for -- their ruling has waived the wait for -- their ruling has paved the way for contributionsgy super pacs. they are voices are drowned by by elites. the worst part -- much of this spending happens entirely in secret. that's not like a democracy. it is a veil cast over our democracy that must be ripped away once and for all. the disclose act is simple -- it would require super pacs and other dark money groups to report anyone contributing $10,000 or more during an election. it would likely require groups spending money on judicial nominees to disclose their donors, too. there's no justification under heaven for keeping such massive contributions hidden from the public. this week republicans are going to have to take a stand on whether they want to fight the power of dark money or allow this cancer to grow even worse. limiting the power of dark money

shouldn't be a democratic or republican view. it should be bipartisan through and through. i hope republicans will join us because americans intuitively understand that right now there's a stench taking over our campaign finance law. after all, when was the last time any of us heard voters cheer on the spread of dark money? when was the last time any of us heard voters say it is better for billionaires and special interests to buy elections in secret rather than be held accountable to the public? of course they don't think that. unless they themselves are the ones cutting the multimillion-dollar checks. so this week, all of us will go on record on whether or not we think americans deserve to know who is spending billions to sway our democracy. it will be our chance to put into practice the famous saying by judge brandeis that sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant a

-- i commend senator white house for his years of leadership on fighting dark money. i urge my colleagues to support this measure this week. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the ?ears from texas. mr. cornyn: madam president, when attorney general garland went through the confirmation process for his current job as attorney general of the united states, he made a solemn pledge to keep politics out of the justice department. i force one was encouraged by -- i for one was encouraged by his statement, having seen the disastrous politicalization of the justice department under former attorney general eric holder and loretta lynch.

attorney general garland said this, he said, quote, i will never make a decision in the department based on politics or partisanship. i took him at his word. i hoped we wouldn't see a return to the days when people saw double standards play out in the justice department based on who happened to be in office, who happened to be investigating. but clearly, under attorney general garland's leadership, the department of justice has pointed its arrows toward concerned parents, for example, who are exercising their first amendment rights to speak up about their children's education. attorney general garland sued the state of georgia and the state of texas, for example, claiming that ballot integrity measures that were within the prerogative of the states to

pass were somehow suppressing the public's right to vote. we're going to start voting in about 50 days from now. that's the main election date. in texas, we'll start voting a full two weeks before that date, where, without any reason whatsoever, you can show up and vote in person. two full weeks before general election. yet attorney general garland spins a false narrative that somehow the state of texas is suppressing people's rights to vote. and then attorney general garland i think shocked everybody by authorizing an unprecedented search warrant on a former president and a current political rival, when less intrusive means and methods would have produced the same documents that they claim to be after. time and time again, the department of justice under

merrick garland has taken aggressive actions viewed by the biden administration as politically advantageous. for everybody else, though, it's a different story, that double standard. when supreme court justices are receiving death threats, including in the interdiction of a deranged man out to kill justice kavanaugh here at the nation's capitol, the attorney general did not respond by taking appropriate steps to prevent that violence. in fact, he fanned the flames. instead of protecting the justices, he chose to criticize them and encouraged what amounts to irresponsible conduct on the part of people on the left. and now i'm concerned about the department's double standard in handling of the hunter biden investigation. the public reports are that the

president's son has been under investigation by the united states attorney's office for the district of delaware for a long time now. there's a lot, of course, we don't know, but reported leaks and evidence seem to show that hunter biden may have committed various felonies, including tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign lobbying violations. despite the severity of these concerns, recent news reports have painted an alarming picture at the department of justice's handling of this investigation. silencing whistleblowers, downplaying or discrediting inculpatory information, prohibiting the department of justice and fbi employees from communicating with members of congress. this does not look, sound, or smell like an impartial investigation guided only by the facts and the rule of law.

just across the street from here sits the supreme court of the united states. on the front of that court is the inscription equal justice under law. there's no footnote. there's no asterisk. there's no exception for relatives of the president of the united states. every american is entitled to fair and equal treatment and equal justice under the laws. the attorney general must guarantee that hunter biden receives the same treatment as any other american who is under a criminal investigation. not better, not worse, but the same. today, 32 of my colleagues and i have sent a letter to attorney general garland urging him to provide special counsel authorities and protections to the u.s. attorney david weiss,

who is leading the investigation into hunter biden. this is a critical step that the attorney general can and should take to restore faith in this investigation, and avoid even the appearance of improprietary. so i hope he will honor our request, do what he pledged to do when he was confirmed, and keep politics out of this investigation. and in the process restore public confidence to our nation's most revered institutions. madam president, on another matter, the migration surge at the southern border has been at a crisis level for a year and a half now. coming from a border state with 1200 miles of common border with mexico, we've experienced a disproportionate impact of that humanitarian surge, as well as the drugs that have found their way into the unas a result.

this, after -- into the united states as a result. this is part of a business model, or plan, by the cartels, who get rich smuggling people and drugs into the united states. but just in terms of the volume of migrants coming across we've logged more than 150,000 border crossings every month for each of the last 17 consecutive months. that's unprecedented and shocking. alarm bells used to sound when illegal border crossings topped 100,000 a month, but we haven't dipped below that level since president biden took office. last year customs and border protection has logged nearly 2.3 million, 2.3 million border crossings across the southern border. now, these records come with serious consequences for

everyone involved. our democratic colleagues and members of the news media focus their attention on how this surge impacts the migrants themselves, and there's no question that migrants endure a brutal journey to reach our country. they typically pay thousands of dollars to travel with human traffickers, or coyotes as they're sometimes called, who are known to rape, rob, abuse, and abandon for dead their customers. those who survive the perilous journey to our border still face serious daipgers. these are -- serious dangers. these are people who come not through the legal immigration process, but wants to jump ahead in the line of the people waiting, even though we naturalize about a million people a yooer in the united states -- a million people a year in the united states. in june of this year, 53 migrants, including three children, passed away after being locked in a tractor-trailer rig on a

100-degree day in texas. a horrible way to die. "the washington post" described it as the deadliest smuggling incident of its kind in u.s. history. last month, two children died attempting to cross the rio grande, and drowned in that river attempting to make their way into the united states. one was a 5-year-old girl from guatemala who was swept from her mother's arms into the river. just two weeks ago customs and border protection confirmed that another nine migrants died trying to cross the rio grande. since last october, more than 750,000 migrants have died at our border. that does not include the ones we have not yet discovered. but we will eventually discover as a rancher comes across the bleached bones of a migrant left behind by the heartless coyotes. migrants are suffering every

day, and we can't lose sight of the humanitarian crisis. but the migrants aren't the only victims of the border crisis. they've chosen to try to enter the united states irregularly, other than through legal means, and turned their lives over to people who care nothing for them, but care only about them as a human commodity and how much money that they can make smuggling them in the united states. but migration surges have a devastating impact on border communities, like the border communities in my state, in arizona, new mexico, and california. over the last year and a half i visited our border communities several times, and repeatedly i've heard of the strain of this crisis. nonprofits who try to assist in a humanitarian way, the migrants lack the space or resources to

care for the thousands of people entering our country every day. local businesses try to stay afloat amid safety concerns and significant financial losses. morgues have reached capacity due to the influx of deceased migrants. as we've discussed during a judiciary committee hearing last week, local health systems and emergency response services are stretched to the breaking. last year alone, in a small town called del rio, texas, 15,000 haitian migrants showed up under a bridge. can you imagine? a town of 35,000 people having to deal with trying to address the needs and to treat these migrants in a humane way? well, during the 2019 surge, customs and border protection reported that it was on track to

refer more than 31,000 migrants for medical treatment, compared with only 12,000 the previous year. of course, the surge in 2019 pales in comparison to what's happening now as a result of president biden's failed border policies. the number of migrants needing medical care today is much, much higher. the strain this places on local hospitals and public health systems not only impacts the migrants but also the american citizens who live and work in these border communities. we all remember the strain on our health care systems during the height of the pandemic, hospitals inundated with covid cases made it more difficult to get care in the event you were experiencing some other health emergency. as brooks county sheriff martinez wrote in his testimony in the hearing we had last week,

ambulances that ordinarily would respond to emergency calls from local citizens are now diverted to answer calls in remote areas, to answer the needs of the migrants who are experiencing a health emergency, reducing the medical services available for the local residents who actually pay the taxes that support those services. the impact of this crisis on border communities in texas is not a consideration for the biden administration. they simply don't care. or frankly, most of my democratic colleagues here in the senate. we heard from the chairman of the senate judiciary committee, the senior senator from illinois, complaining about the terrible state of our broken immigration system and what's happening now as migrants are being bussed to places all across the country, including chicago. but he's the only one who can

convene a markup of legislation. our democratic colleagues have a democrat in the white house, a democrat speaker, and a democrat majority leader in the united states senate, yet we've not seen a single piece of legislation offered or passed to try to deal with the crisis. it's always somebody else's problem, or it's just a political issue that you flail in the runup to the coming election. migrants are arriving in someone else's backyard. what do you care? inundating someone else's public health system along the u.s.-texas border, and filling up somebody else's morgue. apparently, the biden administration doesn't care. and i haven't mentioned the 108,000 americans that died of drug overdoses last year alone, virtually all of those drugs, including the 71,000 americans

who died from synthetic opioid, or fentanyl, overdoses, virtually all those drugs come from the southern border. the precursors come from china, they come to mexico, where the cartels get rich shipping their poison into the united states. and then it's distributed by criminal street gangs like the same gangs that are responsible for the tens -- i should say dozens and dozens of shootings that seem to occur in a lot of our major cities on a weekly basis, including places like chicago. these gangs who distribute the drugs that kill americans fight for market share. they fight for territory. yet, our senate democratic colleagues who are a bit in the majority now, who control both the senate, the house and the white house, have not offered a

single piece of legislation or a single response. in texas, because of our proximity to the border, we don't have the luxury of ignoring this problem. our communities are somehow expected to absorb and care for this vast humanitarian crisis, even though they don't have the resources to do so, even though it is the federal government's responsibility. international borders and immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility. yet the state of texas and taxpayers in the state have spent billions of dollars to do the job that the federal government simply refuses to do, and even then are overwhelmed. it simply is unacceptable for our senate colleagues or our members of the house who haven't lifted a finger to deal with these problems to say this isn't our problem because it's not

happening to us. well, that's why maybe, just maybe the fact that migrants are showing up in washington, d.c., in new york, and chicago seem to be getting the attention of others who previously have not lifted a finger or expressed any concerns whatsoever. by the way, the biden administration has been shipping and flying migrants into the interior of the united states for the last year and a half. you haven't heard a single people. but when they start showing up in relatively small numbers compared to what's coming across the border, the mayor of washington, d.c., declares a crisis. she asked for the activization of the national guard. since april over 4,000 migrants have arrived in washington, d.c.

2.3 million have showed up at the border. now when 9,400 migrants arrive in washington, d.c., a self-described sanctuary city, the mayor cries out for help from the federal government. she declared a public health emergency. well, i mentioned the total number, but an average of 6,000 migrants cross the southern border every day, and yet the mayor of washington, d.c., a self-described sanctuary city, is in panic when 9,400 come to her city. the border patrol's rio grande valley sector alone sees anage of almost 1,400 migrants a day. over the last five months, d.c. has absorbed the number number of migrants the rio grande valley sector sees in a single week, and the city is crying

out for help. the way the mayor really could help is to pick up the phone and call her friends in the biden administration and say we need to do something about what's happening at the border. that would be a constructive thing to do. we're more than happy to work with our democratic colleagues to come up with some solutions like the bipartisan border solutions act that i introduced last year with a democrat, a border state senator, senator sinema; tony gonzalez, republican from the 23rd yecial congressional district and henry cuellar. we offered this bill as a bicameral bipartisan beginning to come up with a solution, yet we've not heard a single peep out of the biden administration. you would think with the president's poll numbers plummeting as a result of his failure to deal with this border

crisis, they would be looking for some way out, somewhere to land that plane. but they've not reached out at all. they've not responded. and democratic leadership in the white house, house, and the senate have taken zero action. i would just like my democratic colleagues to pause for a moment and think about the communities in my state that have been operating at crisis levels since president biden took office more than a year and a half ago. we are the ones and they are the ones picking up the federal government's slack and managing a crisis, or trying to, that our democratic colleagues refuse to even acknowledge. my constituents and border communities in texas and beyond are exhausting resources paid for by their tax dollars to serve their own communities,

spending them on the federal government's responsibility. and it shouldn't be any surprise that they're exhausted, they're overwhelmed, and they're desperate for the biden administration and the democratic leadership in the house and senate to do something. maybe just maybe now that this crisis has caught the anythings of the mayors in washington, d.c., new york and chicago, maybe they'll pay attention to the mayors when they've ignored this problem so far. maybe they'll see what's happening along our border every day is dangerous, unsustainable and a problem that we need to work on together to address. madam president, i yield the floor, and i'd note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

most essential items for working families skyrocketing at the fastest rates in a generation. electricity costs and have since 1981. grocery inflations eclipsed from 1979. trying to put food on the table annual price hikes of 16.2% for loaf of bread, 17% for a gallon of milk and 40% more for dozen

eggs. the same day this news broke a few hours later washington democrats but themselves on the white house lawn to celebrate their economic policies. you really can't make this up. the official numbers confirmed american families single worst year for food and electricity inflation since the fallout from jimmy carter. democrats response, a party for spending hundreds of billions of dollars more and making working-class americans pay off loans of doctors and lawyers. my think the biden administration can possibly get any more out of touch. you think that display would

take the cake but alas, last night on 60 minutes president biden gave almost comically out of touch interview on the inflation crisis. the president argued with a straight face, the american people ought to be grateful for the terrible inflation report because it could have been worse. here's a quote. guess where we are -- a position in the last several months inflation hasn't spiked. starving americans are supposed to be grateful we have plateaued at a steady inflation rate of more than 8%? he wants a round of applause for clocking month after month after month of the worst inflation in 40 years? inflation rate plateauing does not mean prices themselves have leveled off. it means prices are steadily climbing all the time a

historically fast-paced. month after month after month democrats policy failures are adding inflation may plateau above a present does not mean families are catching a break, it means the opposite, families are continuously seeing prices go up and up and up all the time. simply surviving, getting by in washington democrats economy cost 8.3% more than a year ago but the 12 month numbers dramatically undersea the damage democrats have done because it only looks back one year for democrats inflation spirals are up and running. here's the number that really matters. since the day president biden

horse warning, is democratic government party to power, or countries inflation rate has been -- listen to this, 13.2%. according to president biden if you're angry about that, your parents are upset, workers are frustrated and they are putting things in proper perspective. considering the american people get biden 38% approval rating on his handling of the economy, the white house needs perspective. note the working people get this one president biden was asked how we can have recession since democrat policies forced that to raise rates sharply, the president doled down on his fantasy land suggesting we are growing the economy, in a way it

hasn't in years and years and that is nonsense, gdp growth after inflation from early 2017 until the beginning of the covered pandemic republican policy with low unemployment and low inflation. not only have crisis got up with the size of packages have gone down so your fourth paying more

and getting less like the size of a bag of chips or box of cookies or the number of sheets in a roll of toilet paper or weight of a bag of fertilizer. higher prices, smaller quantities and this is basically what democrats have done to the entire u.s. economy. everything costs more even as gdp is striking in real terms just like american families have seen wages plummet after inflation the same thing in the country as a whole. the president might want to talk to a couple of working americans trying to survive under these policies for his next tv interview. >> two and a half years ago my home state of illinois and veteran of the united states navy was afflicted by the

taliban or one of its affiliates and afghanistan working as a contractor and his disappearance was devastating for his family in illinois. senator duckworth and i spent countless hours and staff hours working with his family trying to find out what happened to mark. we spoke to his sister shirley and repeatedly raised his case for both trump and biden administration and wanted to let them know we cared and joined the family. today the family's prayers have been answered, the news was released that is coming home. i want to commend president biden secretary state blinken and their teams for never giving up and securing his freedom. his sister shirley released, we

never gave up he can survive and come home safely and she was right and marquis so fortunate to have her as this champion, welcome home, mark. i listen to the economists made by republican leader about the events in washington and the economy and it was interesting the perspective he took and was critical of president biden calling a meeting several thousand supporters last week and the white house line in the united states to celebrate passage of the inflation reduction act here in the united states senate and house. you and i know there wasn't a single republican vote in favor

of the inflation reduction act, six weeks ago we did some things many of us have been hoping for a long time without a single republican vote supporting. senator from kentucky wonder what we were celebrating. let me say a few things were celebrating after years of candidate on the campaign trail telling americans the cost of prescription drugs were too high, we finally did something about it, finally after years of negotiating the price drugs and veterans administration so we can afford our veterans the very best, we apply the same standard to medicare. what does it mean? the most popular most expensive drugs sold through medicare to recipients over the age of 65, we are going to negotiate prices

to come up with a reasonable amounts to charge taxpayers for the drugs. you wonder whether or not pharmaceutical industry can handle that kind of truth, i might remind people what they already know, the same drugs and boxes are for sale in canada and a fraction of the price we pay in the united states and same thing is true in europe. we said once and for all we are going to do something about it. i think it's something to celebrate let me tell you something else, we said from here on when this takes effect, no recipient on medicare will ever pay more than 2000 a year for prescription drugs, upper limits $2000. you know what the same people were faced with when it came to cancer drugs and other

therapies? thousands of dollars and we brought it home to a level which i wish we could have done more but it is important, it comes to diabetes, millions of americans suffer from diabetes or someone in the family does and we said you're on medicare you will have to pay more than $35 for a dose of insulin, $35. that's a relief for people with diabetes in the family. some of them couldn't afford insulin or doses they need and endangered their life in the process. in addition, in this bill, we did address the tax code. senator from kentucky we did. let me tell you who will pay more in taxes. if you own a corporation that

over the last three years has had a net profit of $1 billion a year -- 1 billion, i'm not asking for a show of hands but if you had net profit average over a billion dollars last three years, you have to pay minimum corporate tax, get ready -- 15%. 15% with all welcome that rate, they are very few people at that rate but the corporation within the profit on average of 1 billion a year over the last three years finally has to pay taxes instead of escaping all tax liability charged.

senator from kentucky is right. we did that. you know the net result of it? the net result will reduce the deficit this year by 1.3 trillion in all this talk about the big spenders in congress of the bill puts together for inflation reduction on those two issues cap in the cost of prescription drugs for medicare and making certain appropriations profitable corporations pay their fair share of taxes like every american family. those two elements were not mentioned by the senator from kentucky. it is understandable but what i want to make clear is we didn't have a single republican vote support of what i've given you. there's an additional section that is controversial, i think we are facing in this world today, obvious evidence of extreme weather and changes that should alarm us.

yes, climate change. global warming. what we did was create incentives for american families and corporations to take steps toward responsible conduct. it is coming. it wasn't a federal mandate that required car companies to build electric vehicles. they see the writing on the wall and realize we have to change the way we energize transportation in america and they want to be in front, not behind it. so do we. that was part of this bill as well. i supported, not a single republican voted for it. that's the reality inflation is a burden on american families, i'm not going to sugarcoat it. we seen some progress, the price of gasoline stares us in the face every time we drive down

the road. i did some driving, 600, 700 miles on the car driving around. i kept an eye out for the cost of gasoline, auto what it is in hawaii or any home state but in missouri, gasoline was selling for $3.13 a gallon in illinois grocer to 350 a gallon. hi? yes but not $5 which we faced a few months ago. we've made some progress and we need to continue to focus on reducing the cost of goods for families they face every week and that is part of our mission as well. the last part is this. madam president, there's a decision made by the governor of texas, governor abbott several weeks ago to transport people legally in the united states who just arrived in foreign

countries on buses, various places around the country. thousands were brought to washington, thousands were brought to new york and hundreds were brought to chicago in my city i represent. these are people came to the store borders and asked if they could admit as legal immigrants into the united states in the past but let me add, it's a threshold test as to whether they have credible fear for their own personal safety. they still faced adjudication and majority are not likely to winff that. the problem we face is obvious, it is u -- ed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is p on the motion. all in favor say aye. all opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i moved to proceed to calendar number 484,

s. 48822. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to s. 4822. 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 bring to a close debate on s. 4822, a bill top amend the federal election campaign act of 1971 to provide additional requirements for super pacs and other entities and for other purposes. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory ququorum call for the motion be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to proceed

to calendar number 1055 . the presiding officer: all in favor say aye. autumn opposed, no. the -- all opposed, no. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: ama did a bennett of drool to be chief executive officer. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the desks. 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 1055, amanda bennett of the district of columbia to be chief executive officer of the united states agency for global media, signed by 17 senators as follows -- mr. schumer: i ask unanimous 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 those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it.

the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: i move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 1093st 97. the presiding officer: question is on the motion. all those in favor, say aye. those 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, executive office of the president. arati bakar of california to be director of the office of technology policy. 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 1097, arati f-prabhakar of california to be director of the office of science and technologiespologies. mr. schumer: i ask consent the

reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the cloture motions be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i yield the floor. mrs. blackburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: i ask that we dispense with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. as i've talked on this floor through the past few years, i've talked about visiting each of the 95 counties in our great state of tennessee every year. and when i'm there, i spend much of the time talking with local leaders, small business owners, families, citizens that call

tennessee home, and i have seen firsthand what the biden agenda has done to them over this past two years. the out-of-control spending that started almost immediately after democrats took power and the inflation it caused has made life too expensive to afford for many individuals. the open border policy that did indeed start on day one of this administration overwhelmed border patrol and turned every tennessee town, just like towns all across this country, into a border town. the democrats' obsession with environmental radicalism and the green new deal destroyed thousands of jobs and, as a bonus, this has sent gas and

energy prices soaring. they ignored our broken-down supply chains and now economic development in rural and depressed areas has stalled out. i wish i could chalk all this up to gross incompetence, but after two years i know -- and tennesseans know -- there's a lot more to that story. joe biden and the democrats know what they're doing. they know it is wrong, and they're doing it anyway. one of the most frightening consequences of joe biden's reckless abuse of power is the rise in violent crime. the left's defund the police movement gained traction before biden and his democratic allies took power here in washington, d.c., but it was their decision to let it fester and undermine local law enforcement. instead of abiding by their duty

to keep americans safe, they have made heroes out of criminals and turned police officers into villians. the results have been disastrous. compared to mid-2019, america's largest cities have seen a 50% increase in homicides and a 36% increase in aggravated assaults. cities that caved to the radical left's demands to gut the police department have seen crime rates rise even higher. the people of memphis have had a front-row seat to this violence. i would implore my colleagues to listen to them rather than to the antipolice activists may being their phones ring because

they -- they -- are the ones who are paying the price for this little experiment. ask them how they felt as they watched a shooting spree play out live on social media. i won't use the perpetrator's name here on the floor of the senate, but he is accused of murdering three people, wounding three others, and committing not one but two car jackings. ask them how they felt when they found out what happened to the wife, mother, and teacher who never came back from a morning run. a monster with a long criminal record -- again, who's name i will not use here -- is charged with her brutal abduction and murder. and then ask them how they would

feel about living in a world without law enforcement officers. there are thousands of examples, unfortunately, that i could list, but the point is that the democrats and their reckless anti-cop, anti-law enforcement agenda destroyed the concept of law and order in this country to service a narrative about how evil america is. but in the end all they did was to empower the real evildoers. joe biden and the democrats have squandered their time in power, wasting our money and throwing cops under the bus. and now, just as they have with every other disastrous choice they've made, they're determined

to unfortunately ignore the consequences. mr. president, the democrats did not take power with a mandate to defund the police. but if they listened to the american people, they'd know we do have a mandate to undo the damage that caused and support back the blue, make our communities safe again. last week senator haggerty and i introduced the restoring law and order act, and i'm hopeful that my democratic colleagues will see reason and help us move this through congress and to the president's desk as soon as possible. the bill addresses two key priorities we should all share -- one, hiring more police officers with experience handling violent

crime and, two, cutting down the processing time that it is taking for processing rape kits. sheriffs in tennessee have confirmed for me time and again that manpower is indeed a problem. they don't have enough people to keep up with the crime wave that we're seeing. we need to change that. we're also going to give them the resources they need to target drug crime. clean all that cartel fentanyl on the streets and keep criminals locked up behind bars. i want to devote the time i have left to the issue of the rape kit backlog because this is something that we have talked about for years but haven't been able to get to the bottom of, even with the help of hundreds of millions of dollars. simply throwing money at the

problem is no longer enough. i want to use one program as an example of why we know this is the case. between 2015 sand 2021 -- between 2015 and 2021, $266 million in grants has flowed out the door to 40 states and the district of columbia as part of the sexual assault kit initiative. these jurisdictions have identified about 136,000 unsubmitted kits and tested more than 81,000 of them. let that number sink in. mr. president, as i said, they have identified 136,000 kits.

they have tested more than 81,000 of them. this has led to 13,000 codis hits, 189 convictions and 795 guilty pleas. good results but not good enough. those grantees still have 50,000 kits gathering dust on the shelves of their evidence lockers. 50,000. 50,000 kits. aggravated assaults, rapes, incidences reported. but they have not been processed even yet. so what is going on here? that's a question that is truly

in need of an answer, and this administration, the democrats, all of us in this chamber owe it to the women in this country to help local law enforcement officers get an answer. why are these kits not being processed in a timely manner? as i said, we have put hundreds of millions of dollars into this. we have made certain kits are there. we have money that has been put forward to push these through the system, but they're rang wishing. we're -- but they're languishing. we're not getting those results in a timely manner in order to lock up violent criminals. the restoring law and order act will direct some funds to state and local agencies to specifically address the backlog. it also will require the g.a.o.

to study the availability of and deficiencies in processing rape kits. congress has let this go on long enough. when i speak to women at home in tennessee, they are terrified about how far this has been willing to let go. this president's anti-justice agenda has destroyed trust in our system. it is astonishing to me that in 2022 we're still having to debate the merits -- the merits of maintaining law and order, especially considering we can see the consequences of undermining it live and on camera every single night. turn on the local news here in d.c. you'll get a taste of of what it looks like when local leadership

turns their backs on victims and empowers criminals. the restoring law and order act is an important bill that the senate should pass as soon as possible. but that is just one step. if you'd listen to the outcry from memphis or l.a. or new york and other cities around the country, and especially on the border, it is so clear. this president and the democrats have a mandate from the american people to fight crime, to empower law enforcement, and to seek justice for victims of violence. this means embracing a simple mantra -- if you do the crime, you have to pay the time. it also means hiring and electing tough prosecutors and

district attorneys, and eliminating soft-on-crime policies that allow violent offenders to roam free. if the powers that be had been a little tougher on the violent criminal to live streamed his shooting spree, the streets of memphis would have been a little bit safer. he only served 11 months of a previous three-year sentence for aggravated assault. but they let him out early, and now three individuals have lost their lives. if they had really taken their time with the other criminal i mentioned just a few moments ago, who had a past record of rape and aggravated assault, they may not have let him out of prison before his 24-year sentence was up. if the crime lab had secured the

resources to clear their rape kit backlog, they may have discovered the year-opened kit containing his dna and stopped his release. the monster would still be in jail and a wife and mother would still be alive, and one less family would be in mourning. the time for politicizing this has come to an end. tennesseans aren't worried about the midterms. they're not worried about a legislative timeline. what matters to them is restoring law and order. i would venture to guess that this president's administration and my democratic colleagues probably know this, and if they block this bill, if they stand between victims of violent crime and the justice they deserve, they do so with the knowledge that more people will die, more

violent offenders will walk free, and more families will suffer. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

the presiding officer: the senator from hawaii. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent that we vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schatz: i ask unanimous consent that we start the vote now. the presiding officer: without objection. 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 1067, florence y. pan, of the district of columbia, to be united states circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit, signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory

quorum call has been waived. the question is, is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of florence y. pan, of the district of columbia, to be united states circuit judge for the district of columbia circuit, shall be brought to a close. the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote: vote: had

vote:

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the presiding officer: on this vote the yeas are 52, the nays are 38 and the motion is agreed to. mr. schumer: 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. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today it adjourn until 10:00 a.m. on tuesday, september 20 and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour 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 pan nomination postcloture. further, all postcloture time on the pan nomination be considered expired at 11:30 a.m. and following the disposition of the pan nomination the senate recess until 2:15 p.m. to allow for weekly caucus meetings. at 2:30 p.m. the senate vote on the motion to invoke cloture on the resolution of ratification with respect to treaty document 117-1. finally, if any nominations are confirmed during tuesday'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. mr. schumer: if there is no further business to come -- is anyone else speaking? if there is no further business to come before the senate i ask h that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the the presiding officer: the

today the u.s. had advanced the nomination of district court judge to serve on the d.c. circuit court of appeals. if confirmed she would replace now supreme court justice brown jackson on that court. later this week senator's plan to debate changes to a global climate treaty. they also take up a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. watch live coverage of the senate when they next return here on cspan2. >> now available c-span shop, c-span 2022 congressional directory go there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this book as your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress including bios and committee assignments but also contact information for state governors and the biting it ministration cabinet. order your copy today at cspanshop.org or scan the code

with your smart phone. every c-span shop purchase helps support c-span nonprofit operation. oco middle and high school students it is your time to shine for you are invited to participate this year's c-span student camp documentary competition. the upcoming midterm election, picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress of. we ask this year's competitors what is your top priority and why it? make a five -- six minute video that shows the importance of your issue from opposing and supporting perspectives but do not be afraid to take risks with your documentary. be bold and pretty marks the $100,000 in cash or prizes is thousand dollars grand prize. videos must be submitted by january 20, 2023. visit our website at student camp.org for competition rules, tips, resources and step-by-step guide.

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