this afternoon hurricane ian is now making landfall in southwest florida with winds at 155 miles per hour and that is just shy of a category 5 hurricane. 155-mile an hour winds are incredibly dangerous. there'll be debris in the air flooding powerful enough to move cars around so please do not the outside during the storm. if you're in the southwest florida counties you need to be sheltering in place.

don't forget it will hurricane-strength winds and massive flooding not just where it makes initial landfall. throughout the state of florida the central and northeast florida will also feel the impact. while most people in the evacuation did leave there were some that chose to stay. i was speaking with the sheriff in charlotte county and while most people did leave they had some people do want to hunker down and at the end of the day that's the decision they made knowing they have the ability to evacuate and knowing what the stakes were. nevertheless life safety operations will commence as soon as it's safe to be able to identify people who may be in harm's way and who are in need of assistance. i'll say a little bit about that but the captain will say more and we'll hear from the wc about their efforts that they have staged and ready to go. if you're in southwest florida

stay inside until the storm passes. it may appear to be calm at some point and you may just be in the eye of the storm in the backside of that will be very. the storm is expected to move across central florida and hit take on the beach sometime on thursday. the party scene around the state tourney to warnings issued far from where the hurricane is in southwest florida and those warnings will likely continue until it reaches -- leaves her stay. if you are in the direct path of the storm you need to take all of tornado warnings seriously and take appropriate precaution if that's happening in your area. the department of transportation has announced that new creek in turkey lake service plaza on the florida turnpike are now closed. obviously they will get those open as soon as they can but we have 200,000 power outages reported throughout the state of florida that outside of the southwest florida crews are working to restore power.

200,000 is a drop in the bucket for what's going to happen over the next 24 to 48 hours. will have widespread power outages particularly in southwest florida. we have over 100 portable cell towers ready to be deployed into the area once it's safe to enter and once the storm has passed and it's safe to go outside you still need to be cautious avoid downed power lines, standing water stay clear of downed trees and don't drive in standing water if you are going to use a generator for your home do not allow that to be inside. the exhaust needs to be out doors. stay out of the way of emergency crews out of floodwaters in way from downed power lines. stay off the roads there's no need to rush back. you'll have a massive surge of people that are going to be going in to provide life saved the help for those who may have stayed in some of the more hazardous areas and you're also

going to have power workers going in. lake city they had all these power workers and line workers from all these different states from texas louisiana and all these different places staged in a massive mobilization. their job is to get in there and help to restore services. you are also going to look springy and things like food and water so there's no need to rush back in. there's going to be a lot going on in the immediate immediate immediate aftermath in a lot of people's safety depends on that. if you're on in the roads are putting yourself in danger and the emergency crews to restore power and clean debris. we don't know how much debris there's going to be. there's going to be debris and that will make it difficult to navigate these roads. that's why fdot's mission is to clear the roadways of people are able to go in and access that to help deliver services for people. in 2019 we were projected be

hidden by hurricane gloria which is a category 55 storm unfortunately the last last minute to and took a northward turn in miss the coast but we did have a massive mobilization in this mobilization exceeded that. this is a really significant effort at the county level, state-level federal it's been impressive to see. director guthrie has asked for additional airlift and high water vehicles from d.o.t. in court nation with fema. the secretary of defense has approved florida's request for status of our national guard forces under title x to provide additional forces. we very much appreciated and we have been suspending momentarily at disaster declaration for all the southern counties and requesting the federal government reimburse 100% of the upfront cost over 60 days to ensure they can quickly recover and move forward into the response and recovery part. if you think about the storm

that we had storms that have been the strongest visit us at florida hurricane andrew many decades ago yes and we had big storms that left a lot of water and flooding. we had irma recently practices bringing it to the table. you'll have massive amounts of power hitting the coastline with really strong winds. that's going to do a lot of wind damage and we also have the storm that is so massive people are comparing this to the track that charlie took in 2004. charlie was like this expected to hit tampa bay in the turned and charlie was strong but it was a fraction of the size of what we are dealing with here with hurricane ian. the effects of this are going to be brought and we appreciate the biden administration's consideration for the people of florida during this time of need. when i was in lake city we had massive numbers of linemen from

all over the state and now there were 42,000 linemen and other personnel ready to restore power in 30 different areas across the state and those linemen and other associated personnel hail from many from florida from 27 different states. our department of transportation does have personnel on standby to perform cutting cost operations understanding how important is to get the roadways clear as soon as possible. they will be brought in by plane bo and high water vehicle. airports in southwest florida are going to work to clear those runways as soon as it passes. appreciate the florida national guard's impressive mobilization of over 5000 boats as well as guardsman from other states. they have nine chinook helicopters ready to go and helicopters will come in after landfall that will be here within the next 24 hours.

kevin will talk more about that. we have urban search-and-rescue teams and we'll hear from fwc about what they are doing. high water vehicles from florida highway patrol and our coast guard partners. they are is going to be massive effort as soon as it passes southwest florida to be able to get out recon the area and identify areas where there may be in need for rescue services and in some of these counties obviously no where residents decided to hunker down so they'll look there first. this is going to be really important to be able to get -- and hurricane michael it took a few days to be able to get into mexico beach read we got the recon and no where the response effort needs to go. in total we have nearly 250 aircraft more than 1600 high water vehicles and 300 boats of all sizes including 250 already

in the majorly impacted areas and nearly 50 staged event to come in as needed. these include smaller rescue oriented boats air boats that will deliver by water if need be. i want to thank the 26 states states that have sent a support including tennessee virginia montana new york colorado indiana and georgia prodigious poke with kay ivey from alabama and she is sending lack of helicopters down to. governor bill lee in tennessee fast-tracked of requests that we had for tennessee and we appreciate that. and john bel edwards from louisiana they said hey we have a lot of experience with hurricanes recently so these guys are good assets. we want to send more so we really appreciate that consideration and we certainly will do that. we also understand people that are displaced are going to need assistance in the department of economic opportunity has

deployed funding and guidance to community action agencies to help with short-term support like utilities hotel bills and transportation if they have been displaced by this storm. please continue to monitor local reports, weather reports and be very cautious about going out into hazardous conditions and once the storm passes your area make certain you are careful because there will be a lot of hazards that will be down on the ground. i know there a lot of people that have reached out and first of all i want to say thank you but a lot of people have offered thanks and prayers to folks in the eye of the storm. that means a lot to us and their people to want to do their part through volunteer florida to activate the florida disaster fund where people can donate but it's much better to donate financially rather than sending items. we have everything we need in terms of the immediate response that there will be thousands of floridians who will need help

rebuilding and contribute to the disaster fund visit www.florida disaster fund.org or text, it to 0222. text disaster, 20222. for those who want to come and volunteer we have an official portal volunteer florida and that's a www.volunteer florida.org, www.volunteer florida.org and you can see the volunteer opportunities. this is going to be a rough patch here for the rest of today and into tomorrow. we understand how significant the storm is. yes there'll be things that happen in recovery. eventually there won't be much media attention on this as the weeks and months go on. winter stand the storms magnitude will require an effort over period of time. the art good folks in southwest

florida with thriving communities. this is not anything anyone wants to deal with and so certainly not something we asked for but we will step up and we will make sure that folks get back on their feet and southwest border comes back that are then never. kevin guthrie. >> thank you governor. the governor said hurricane ian is approaching landfall r: we are not. r: we are mr. durbin: thank you, madam president. it's been a little over 11 months since russia launched strikes against ukraine. we have seen the brutality of russia's invasion, as ukrainian cities have been reliberated. mass graves were discovered, filled with hundreds of bodies,

including children. some of the bodies had their hands tied behind their backs and their skulls krawrnd -- crushed and showed signs of torture. the mountain of evidence of russian war crimes is sky high. these photos illustrate what the ukrainians are finding on recaptured territory, sending out people to redig mass graves -- redig mass graves to find out what happened to their families, neighbors, friends. the same thing is illustrated by this photo as well. in the shadow of this beautiful church, they're finding mass graves left behind by the russians. today i had the honor of presiding over a hearing in the senate judiciary committee, focusing on the role we must play in the united states in holding putin an his thugs

accountable for these heinous war crimes. the message was clear. our nation must continue the legacy we began with the in your emburg trials, and a critical step in doing that is to make sure that the perpetrators of these atrocities find no safe haven anywhere in the world, let alone the united states, that's why i introduced the victims for justice war crimes act, it closes a shameful loophole in american law that has allowed war criminals to escape justice. our legislation updates the war crimes act so foreign war criminals who try to flee to america can be prosecuted, even years after their crimes were committed. it's only a starting point and i hope we can build on it to finally enact a law in this country prohibiting crimes

against humanity. this is an opportunity to send a clear signal to war criminals like those in russia today whoistickicly a -- who systematically attack civilians, america is going to hold you accountable for your crimes. in a related topic, in our brightest moments, america has not only held tyrants accountable, we have provided refuge for their victims. many in congress can attest to that. in fact, it's how my family arrived in this country. back in 1911, my grandmother left lithuania in search of freedom. she boarded a ship carrying two things in her arms, a bag with the catholic prayer book and her 2-year-old daughter, my mother, ona. the moment my grandmother stepped foot on american soil, her life changed. from that moment on, she and my

mother were protected by an incredible shield, the united states constitution, along with the rights and protections that -- it guarantees. but for lithuanians, it has not been so easy. even after the lithuanian people reclaimed independence in 1990, their liberty wasn't guaranteed. in january 1991, nine months after lithuania held their first free election, russians rolled into a city. i would like to think it was a sacrifice testify those 13 lithuanians and millions who also suffered under communism that inspired the current governor of florida to establish a new holiday earlier this year, it was entitled victims of communism say. in his own words governor

desantis has named this holiday in honor of victims. and he has said that florida will remain a beachhead for freedom. this is something that the governor of florida has failed to live up to. when it comes to standing up to ruthless dictators of our time, governor desantis and his allies are nowhere to be found. instead of offering safe harbor to the himself of miew did youro's -- muduro's regime, they have abanded the victims -- abandoned the victims. it is a would you wardly -- when news first broke that the governors of texas and the governor of florida were using refugee families fleeing

desperate conditions in venezuela, i couldn't help but wonder what if it were my own family. the families fleeing venezuela are facing the same menace that others did years ago. venezuela is awash in human misery. it is so dangerous the state dcht warns americans from traveling to that country. and the people of venezuela suffer every day under rampant corruption, human rights violations, hunger. i saw it for myself when i visited venezuela a few days ago before muduro's latest election. kids and parents are too hungry to go to school or work and the regime is being propped up by some of the most repressive powers of the world like russia and cuba. a recent un united nations repot

found that they have been torturing their political opponents. these horrors have driven nearly seven million venezuelans to leave that country in des pa ration and fear. that is more than the number of syrian refugees fleeing active wars in those countries. so despite what some republicans have claimed, the families fleeing venezuela are not illegals or invaders, they're victims of the same ruthless tactics that once defined the soviet union. governor desantis and governor abbott has chosen to exploit their fear and confusion. i met with a few of the families who were placed on migrant buses by governor abbott. one of those i met was carlos,

he and his wife and two little girls were sitting at a table and we were able to talk to them and ask questions. carlos was a hard worker in venezuela, but the economic crisis was so severe his job couldn't keep food on the table. his family was on the brink of starvation, so on may 15, carlos and his family decided to flee for their lives. they embarked on a five-month journey, much of it on foot, to the texas-mexico border. carlos told me at one point he thought he would die while spending nine nights in a panama jungle. by the time they were rescued by a military force, they were penniless, but they pressed on and eventually made it to america. they filed their claim for asylum. we're honored that they were brought to chicago where the circumstances were not good.

to me carlos is living proof that we have more work to do to rid the world in violent oppression. she's evils -- these evils didn't fall with the fall of the soviet union. america needs to stand in contrast to dictators by maduro and putin. it is one thing to speak out against the evils of communism or voice opposition to maduro, but talk is cheap. the real test for our values begins when the victims of tyrants like maduro arrive at our doorstep in search of freedom. governor desaptd is and -- desantis an abbott have wasted taxpayer dollars on a political stunt that made us as a nation

look weak, to some of the world look cruel. the most powerful way to stand up to dictators like maduro is to honor america's legacy as a beacon of freedom. that means helping family applying for asylum and seeking a fair shot in america like our own families once did. in fact, we need woarks, we have -- workers, we have 11 million unfilled jobs and five million unemployed americans, let's put young people like carlos to work. let's get them on the book and give them their fair shot so they can finally enjoy security and safety to their families denied to them and their home countries. time and again immigrants have shown us they rise to the occasion, work harder than most and achieve things unimaginable. let's prove that america is

better than the cold, iron first of totalitarianism. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: madam president, i was scheduled to come to the floor today to offer live u.c.'s to bring up two biden nominees, very important nominees to assume diplomatic posts in the western hemisphere. senator scott of florida was scheduled to be here to oppose my u.c.'s and have a dialogue, the hurricane in florida has pulled him away and so he is unable to be here. so i am left with the case where there is an objection but the objector can't come for a reason that i understand. senator scott's team has indicated that he will likely be here tomorrow and we might be able to repeat this tomorrow, but what i thought i would do, having the floor, is say a little bit about these two

countries and these two nominees because i hope senator scott might watch this or his staff might give him the transcript, if he does, he will see they are highly qualified individuals. i will not make a comment with respect to the unanimous consent. michelle kwan who was nominated and marie are both highly qualified individuals. belize has not had a confirmed ambassador for five years and the theme for both of these, why punish good behavior? these are great allies of the united states, both belize and panama, they are both doing

great work with us and they deserve to have a confirmed ambassador, if we don't confirm an ambassador, it has a way of sending a message to these countries, wow, we say you're great allies, but not enough to have a confirmed nominee. let me talk about michelle kwan, to be ambassador of belize. it is a partner in caribbean america, and it is a country of significant distress, but they have been a bright spot as far as closeness to the united states. no u.s. ambassador has been confirmed there more than five years. they are facing significant threats from organized crime, human trafficking and democratic backsliding in the region. we have worked hard to deepen our relationship with their leadership and we -- and to

engage with them at this senior level is crucial. in particular with belize, there is something fairly unique about this country. in this hemisphere that is important to the united states, it is also of growing importance to china and we see beijing active all over the america often outstripping our efforts to pay attention to these countries. belize has been willing to be a stalwart partner to taiwan. there are only 11 nations in the world that recognize taiwan and china is going after each one of them and putting pressure on them to strip away their recognize taiwan. very few are able to hold out against the chinese onslawt. -- onslaught. belize has been willing to do that. that is good behavior. by leaving this position vacant, as beijing builds more and more

momentum, it is nothing less than diplomatic malpractice. having a sitting u.s. ambassador is important. how about michelle kwan? she has had an incredibly distinguished career. she is the most decorated figure stator in u.s. history having won 43 championships, including five world championships, nine national titles and two olympic medals. michelle became the united states' first ever public diplomacy envoy in 2006, 16 years ago for the following decade and a half under presidents and secretaries of state of both parties, she has traveled extensively on behalf of the state department all around the world to engage youth and especially young girls on social and educational issues. she would be an extraordinary champion for the u.s. with this

close neighbor and our global profile will say to belize hey, we value you because we're sending an accomplished and well known athlete, inspiration and diplomat to be our representative there. so i was going to ask today that she be confirmed by unanimous consent, and i will return hopefully to successfully see her advance by the senate in this position. now let me talk about marie aponte who is president biden's nominee to be ambassador to panama. first, panama. panama is one of our strongest partners in the america comes, a critical ally on a wide range of u.s. priorities and, madam president, you and i remember when we had major problems with panama, major problems. it's been a success story of turning an adversary into a great ally and even partner and yet panama has now been without a u.s. ambassador for more than four years. my friends across the aisle

frequently cite migration as a top foreign policy concern. they have a point. the venezuelan refugee crisis is now the second largest displacement in the world. the size and scope of this crisis. and the humanitarian impact on the region and the venezuelan people is worsening by the day. i agree this issue needs much more attention. panama is on the front line of this crisis. their border with colombia, the darian gap in that border is the primary route by which people migrate from south america, especially venezuela north. they have a crucial role to play in a cohesive regional response. panama is also critical to narcotics interdiction efforts and in promoting democratic values that are increasingly under threat in the region. they're also the subject of intense chinese investment in the panama canal. china has a new embassy built right on the canal. we are not competing in a vacuum here. we are competing in a highly

competitive world where china is making more investments than we are, and yet panama still desires to have a very close relationship with the united states. and there's more. recently panama, costa rica, the dominican republic, ecuador noticed democratic backsliding in the americas and announced the formation called the alliance for democracy and development. they want to ban together four democratic nations and be proudly pro democracy in a region where we see too much backsliding. they can punch above their weight. they can do work within their own nations but also be an influence throughout the region and indeed the world. this is something the u.s. has celebrated and recognized. so again why punish bad behavior if they're doing these things to help us with migration, if they're stepping forward to be pro-democracy in a region that's backsliding, why wouldn't we want a confirmed ambassador. let me tell you about mari

carmen aponte. she previously served with distinction as ambassador to el salvador during the obama administration. she was confirmed in this body with bipartisan support. she's been the acting assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere. it's hard to imagine a more qualified nome. she'll have impact from the moment she hits the ground. she was nominated for this role in october 2021. her senate foreign relations committee hearing was in may and she's been pending consideration by the entire senate since june. let's get a proven ambassador in the field and put her to work in a nation that's critical to the u.s. and the region. finally, i'll just note panama is home -- the pan -- home to the panama canal, second largest free trade zone, as financial operations hub, there are billions in direct foreign investment and we need to be there to counter the significant chinese interest in this country. so again i had planned to make a

motion on behalf of mari carmen aponte in deference to my colleague from florida and the challenge there, i will not. his team has committed to me that they'll pay attention to my description of both the importance of these nations and the qualifications of these nomes. i will return in the hopes that we may soon be able to act as a senate and forward these highly qualified nominees to the field where they can do good work as representatives of the united states. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

i'm i'm pleased to be joined by gamma governors was the nationals weather service director candygram. they will be sharing some of their their separation and response activities and efforts underway right now to support floridians and they are already experiencing the impact from hurricane ian. i'm going to begin by providing a little bit of an update on themis mission and some of the preparedness actions individuals can take right now. first hurricane ian is and will continue to be a very dangerous and life-threatening storm. this is going to be for the days

ahead. floridians up and down the coast are already feeling the storms painful impact and we have yet to experience landfall. however i spoke with my leadership team this morning and i can confidently say that we have the right team and we have the right resources in place and ready to meet the changes or the needs of those that we are charged with. as with any storm the most important work starts at home. that means we need everyone to heed the warnings of their local officials before during and after the storm. there are lifesaving -- these are lifesaving messages that simply cannot be ignored. when it comes to hurricanes, water, water is dangerous period. from coastal storm surge to inland flooding the majority of the fema florida is in these crosshairs. i'd like to share a few key

safety messages that will help keep you and your family safe. first never drive through standing or moving water as it takes only a few inches of water to carry away a vehicle. second if you are taking shelter in an area with rising water levels quickly find higher ground. and third never operated generator in your home. too many lives are lost each year with carbon monoxide poisoning and it's incredibly important that you only run a generator outdoors. now i will give a brief update operational update on personal commodities and resources that we have deployed in the storm's response. as i said yesterday search-and-rescue remains a top priority. our search-and-rescue coronation teams remain engaged in miami to include fema urban search-and-rescue programs to coast guard, cdc, the department

of defense the department of the interior and the state of florida. these teams will coordinate search-and-rescue efforts by land, air and sea. we have 128,000 gallons of fuel remaining ready for rapid deployment. we have moved in a variety of generators of all sizes and types to restore power to critical infrastructure and medical facilities as needed. the army corps of engineers is pre-staging 350 personnel to conduct power and fuel assessments as soon as the storm passes and just yesterday i spoke with the president and ceo of the american public power association to discuss some of their emergency preparedness actions and mutual aid agreements that they have in place. we have 3.7 million meals and 3.5 million liters of water stage in alabama and their multiple volunteer agencies that

are staged and prepared to perform beating operations as soon as it's safe to do so. we have provided florida with 300 ambulances as well as expert medical teams. these are the same teams come the same brave first responders that we use to help communities during covid-19. we are also tracking medical needs across florida hospitals health care facilities and dialysis centers. those are facilities that have evacuated. more importantly for those that have not. finally as i told the president yesterday this level of interagency coordination will not stop. as we prepare for the historic and catastrophic impacts that we are beginning to see. now with every emergency response we would not be successful in meeting our mission without our partners at the american red cross. the red cross has done an incredible amount of work in preparation for hurricane ian is

my pleasure to welcome the american red cross ceo. >> thank you so much administrator criswell for inviting me to join you in fema are wonderful partners and i want to thank you both. on behalf of the american red cross our hearts are with everyone that is in the path of hurricane ian. please listen to your local officials and evacuate if they tell you to do so. grab your medications, your classes in your important documents, prescription drugs and the like. check on your neighbors and please don't wait up a storm if you've been told to evacuate. it's dangerous. we are working closely with our partners and local officials in the affected communities to make sure they have the help that they need. since last week the american red cross has been moving hundreds of trained volunteers from across the country and tens of

thousands of relief supplies to florida in preparation for ian. everyone's safety is our top concern. we have dedicated and very compassionate teams of experienced red cross leaders in florida, georgia, south carolina and north carolina. they are in contact with state, local and tribal officials and we will be ready to support the evacuation centers. .. they are preparing now to deliver critical after the

hurricane passes. after landfall by the end of this weekend over 2500 red cross responders would be deployed to florida and other affective states. we will work with our government and nonprofit partners and provide shelter, food, emergency supply, care, comfort and hope to the tens of thousands of people in the path of the hurricane. also if people want to help their neighbors, we can always use local volunteers, go to our website redcross.org and there are a lot of ways to find where there are shelters, anyone who needs to take place to go to find information for open red cross shelters at redcross.org were you can use call off the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. marshall: madam president, i rise today in order to ask for unanimous consent to pass s.j. res. 63, a resolution to

terminate the covid-19 national emergency declaration. it's been more than two and a half years since the national emergency concerning the coronavirus disease outbreak was declared. and it's been extended now twice already by president biden since the initial proclamation most recently in february of this year. it is this declaration, coupled with other additional emergency powers currently invoked by the president, which this administration suing to supersize government in order to continue their reckless inflationary spending spree and enact their partisan agenda. in fact, the white house uses these emergencies to justify their inflationary out-of-control spending, their unconstitutional vaccine and mask mandates and to forgive student loans. this is not the first time i've come to the floor to terminate this emergency declaration. in march i brought an identical

resolution to the floor under the expedited procedures contained in the national emergency act that passed this body by a vote of 48-47. at that time, the status of the virus in this nation had greatly improved since the dark, emily days of the -- early days of the pandemic. everyone ages 12 and older were eligible for a booster shot if they wanted further inoculation. now more than 550 million shots have been administered in the united states with 215 million people being fully vaccinated. two oral antivirals have been made available for certain patients and monoclonal antibiotic treatments were available for those at serious risk of becoming i'll. fast-forward to today, six months later, and the status of our ability and ability to fight the virus in the united states has improved further still. more than 616 million doses have been administered and 225 million people are fully vaccinated, nearly 70% of the

population. if you include natural immunity, immunity gained through natural infection, the cdc stated that 95% of americans over the age of 16 have some acquired level of immunity. everyone ages 12 and older can receive omicron-specific boosters and we have a growing roster of drugs and antibiotic that are helping vulnerable populations avoid life-threatening up fections. now, this is not the too i am to ignore the individuals still struggling with covid or those that are tragically dying with the virus, but it does demonstrate that we've made major advancements in our fight against covid-19 and there no-less dire phase. even as president biden recently acknowledge during a "60 minutes" interview, the pandemic is over. of course, the president's handlers immediately walked back this claim to argue that the

pandemic is not over. but why? why would the federal officials calling the shots in the executive branch not want to declare this pandemic over? because it's the fearmongering and the robust authorities provided by the emergency declaration that allow this administration to justify infringing upon your rights and validates their continued expansion inflationary government spending and social programs. it was this government-imposed state of emergency that justified their continued lockdowns of small businesses and schools. it was this government-imposed state of emergency that justified their vaccine and mask mandates, that continue to this day in too many instances. it was this government-imposed state of emergency that justified president biden and congressional democrats' inflationary spending binge starting with the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan last year and their inappropriately named inflation reduction act this

summer. and most recently it was the national emergency declaration that allowed the president to extend the payment pause and cancel up to $10,000 in outstanding federally held student loan balances and $20,000 for pell grant recipients. this rallying cry of the far left that the president is pandering to will cost the government $420 billion. $420 billion according to the congressional budget office. "the wall street journal" called the move, and i quote, an unprecedented act of peacetime fiscal recklessness. and every american knows -- every american knows this is inflationary. this is exactly the problem the biden administration is keeping americans under the strings of the national emergency declaration as if we're not living in a time of peace. as if it were living in a time of war that requires the full force of the federal government. rights and scale responsibility be damned. in order to respond to this

crisis, in order to rein in this massive expansion of government, to slow down inflation and restore americans' fundamental rights, we must take the important step of terminating the covid-19 national emergency declaration. i encourage all my colleagues to join me in supporting doing so. thank you, madam president. i ask unanimous consent that the finance committee be discharged from further consideration of s.j. resolution 63 and that the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. i further ask the that the joint resolution be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. wyden: reserving the right to object, madam president -- the presiding officer: the senior senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, i just went over to our colleague from kansas and told him i would much rather be on the floor this afternoon working in a bipartisan way on something like this, and i hope that can be part of senate proceedings in the future.

here's what i think is important for the public to know about this proposal. it is in the real world, the marshal proposal is a prescription for less flexibility and more red tape in american health care, and i want to be very specific. every member of this body understands that america has a serious shortage of nurses and health care providers. every single time we go home -- i'm sure this is the case for our colleague from kansas, a physician. he hears from physicians and providers. every time we're home, we hear from health care providers -- i see the president of the senate who's been a very strong advocate for health care improvements, for patients and providers -- every time we're home, we hear about the need for

more health care providers. now, right now there are requirements in medicare for a lengthy process that must be completed before it's possible to hire health care providers to serve medicare patients. if the marshall proposal goes into effect as written, health and human services could not waive this complicated process to take care of patients. so that would leave our country short of health care providers when there's an acute, even more serious need for them. so i'm just going to close with this. because we're all hoping to be home over the next week or so. when i'm home, i always do these

open-to-all town hall meetings. gy to it every one of my counties -- i go to every one of my counties every year. i've had more than 1,020 of them, open to all, ask what you want. i have never had a constituent at home, oregonians say, ron, what we need is more complicated processes and red tape in american health care. usually they're talking to us about waiving things. so for had those reasons -- so, for those reasons, madam president, i object. the presiding officer: objection is is heard. mr. marshall: madam chair -- madam president? the presiding officer: the junior senator from kansas. mr. marshall: i certainly appreciate the gentleman's comments. we certainly share some of the same goals. practicing medicine in rural kansas for 25 years, we've been faced with physician shortages for decades, for nursing shortages for decades. and we both agree that that's a problem.

but the difference is, i don't think the government is the solution to the problem. i think the government has created the problem. that physicians and nurses are so tired of dealing with all the red tape, all the continuing burden that the aca has put on us. i'm so proud of doctors and nurses. when this country called for them in an madge, we -- in an emergency, we, including myself, rushing to the front lines of the emergency rooms to take care of patients. now this congress is is going to reward them with a paycheck, by the way. now, this is not the solution to the doctor shortages or the nurse short annals. the solution is to respect the profession, to remove some of the red tape, allow us to be doctors and nurses. we appreciate your work. certainly what i do have people that come to my town halls and like you we've been to 100 counties in the last two years.

we have five left to go. and what people ask me is, why do our kids in the head start programs still need to wear a mask? do they even do any good? why are there still vaccine mask mandates out in? why is this government continuing inflationary spending? and it's my feeling that this emergency declaration allows the president and the white house to expand those powers, to take our constitutional rights away from us. you know, again, i have encouraged people to take the vaccine and do all the right things. but i still think that it's time to end the emergency, give us our god-given constitutional rights back and think that we should support ending this declaration of emergency. thank you, and i yield back.

mr. cotton: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: the united states is in the midst of the deadliest drug epidemic in our nation's history. caused by some of the most lethal drugs ever created.

more than 108,000 americans died last year from drugs. more than 108,000, almost double the number of americans killed in the entire vietnam war. that is the worst slaughter of american citizens by drug dealers and traffickers on record. the biggest killers, by far, were lab-made opioids, most notably fents nell, which are -- fentanyl, which are cheap to produce and easy to mix with other street drugs. these lethal cocktails devastated countless communities and families across our nation. too many parents have come home to a dead child who miss ps taken -- who mistakenly took a prescription pill or so-called party pill laced with fentanyl. indeed, almost no one dice of a fentanyl -- dies of a fentanyl overdose thinking they took fentanyl. it is laced into other drugs.

that's why repeatedly over the past two years i and my colleagues have offered a mesh tower keep it illegal to traffic new variants of fentanyl, but each time a democrat has blocked that measure. later today, they will do so again. but perhaps we can at least agree on one thing -- we should have no tolerance for people who willingly trick addicted drug users or other innocent persons into taking deadly fentanyl by telling them it's really something else, and this happens every day, with heartbreaking consequences across the country. for example, just two weeks ago, a drug trafficker was sentenced to life in prison for his role in distributing fentanyl to unsuspecting users in minnesota. 11 people died. they thought they were buying illicit at roll -- attar ol. when he heard about the deaths, the dealer asked his chinese

suppliers for a discount on his next shipment. that same week, another drug dealer was arrested just minutes from the capitol building where we stand in silver spring, maryland, for killing a child with a fentanyl pill, which he said was percocet. he was hiding the fentanyl-laced fake percocet pills inside small bags of marijuana. last week a few minutes in the other direction, a trafficker was tried in northern virginia for distributing cocaine laced with fentanyl at a party. six partygoers overdosed, one died. these cases happen every day. drug addicts are especially lulled into a false sense of safety by fake prescription pills, believing them to be medicine for which they have some past experience. that's why fake prescription drugs are on the rise. federal law enforcement encountered as many fake prescription pills in 2021 as in

the previous two years combined. if democrats refuse to help republicans keep all fentanyl variants off the streets, heisman we can at least agree on keeping deceptive fentanyl traffickers behind bars. my bill will establish any drug trafficker who knowingly misrepresents fentanyl as though it is something else would be subject to 20 years in prison. if the criminal has a priority felony prison record, or if misrepresentation kills someone, the criminal will be subject to life in prison, or even el jible for the death -- eligible for the death penalty. there can simply be no lean sency for people who trick unsuspecting users into taking deadly fentanyl. madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of senate bill 4984, which is at the desk.

i further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: madam president, reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: madam president, i learned this morning that the senator from arkansas was going to offer this i ask unanimous consent consent on the floor of the senate this afternoon. i was a little bit surprised. i wasn't aware of this bill. we've been members of the same committee, the judiciary committee, for 21 months, and the senator from arkansas has not raised the bill during that period of time. but it's his right to come to the floor today and ask that it be considered. i'd like to tell you why i'm going to object to this. if you serve in congress any period of time, you become a student of the terrible drug problems of america. i recall a period of time in the

house of representatives when we had crack cocaine appear in the united states for the first time. it scared us, because it was cheap, it was deadly addictive, and women who were pregnant and took it did harm to the baby they were carrying. so we decided to make sure that we were going to do the right thing in our war on drugs, and what we said was, listen closely, that the penalty for crack cocaine would be 100 times the penalty for use of ordinary cocaine. 100 times. and the penalty for using cocaine in general was already serious. a hundred times, war on drugs. i voted for it. and i thought finally, a message will come from the congress that if you touch crack cocaine you're going to be in for it. and we expected that fewer people would do it because of the fear of that criminal sentencing, and that the price

of crack cocaine would go up because the demand was limited. guess what happened -- exactly the opposite. exactly the opposite. more and more people used crack cocaine, and the price on the street went down to dirt level, and the result was we started filling our prisons in a way that we'd never seen before in the history of the united states. 500% of the prison population of just 20 or 30 years ago increased in that period of time. and we learned the hard way that getting tough wasn't always the smart way to deal with drug addiction. we thought about it, and we changed the law several times. i've been party to changing it. i voted for the original version, and it failed, and we had to do better. and then something happened that

was dramatic, opioids. out of nowhere came opioids. and what used to be a problem with drug addiction and death in the inner cities of america became a problem of drug addiction and death in the suburbs of america, in the farm towns of america, all over america, and interestingly enough america started looking at our drug laws and our drug addiction and saying what are we doing wrong here? what's wrong with this situation? as a consequence, a lot of attitudes changed. people got away from the old just say no routine and started asking serious questions. how do we deal with drug addiction? how do we stop this addiction? it's not easy to stop it, and god knows we need to. so we've seen a transformation with the arrival of opioids. now, the is that correct from arkansas is correct. people are lacing these opioids with fentanyl, and fentanyl is deadly, no question about it.

we should take it seriously, and we do. as a matter of fact, each judge when imposing a sentence for crimes already involving fentanyl are pretty serious about it. i just heard the senator from arkansas describe a situation where someone in minnesota got life in prison for the sale of a fentanyl product. so it's clear it's not being ignored, nor should it be. intentionally selling fentanyl is already a crime all over the united states. representing that fentanyl is something else is exactly the kind of aggravating factor a judge takes into account in sentencing. i don't believe this bill is a serious effort to deal with the problem in light of what we know today. start with it creates a new federal death penalty offense. well, i have to tell you, i have watched a lifetime, political lifetime, of death penalty cases and seen the result, and i have my serious doubts that that is

the best way for america to go. i think the gentleman from arkansas realizes that. i'm the lead sponsor, along with 20 others, of the federal death penalty prohibition act to repeal it once and all. so i'm concerned about any lotion that imposes the death penalties. it also creates mandatory minimum sentences that don't allow judges to consider the individual circumstances in a case. that is straight out of the failed doctrine of the war on drugs, mandatory minimum, tie the judge's hands, put people in jail and basically say unlimited amounts of time that they'll spend there. people were getting 20 and 30-year sentences for the sale of narcotics like crack cocaine, and we soon realized it didn't make sense over the long haul. 20 years for a single drug sale that goes up to mandatory life in prison if the defendant has any prior felony conviction, no matter if it has zero

relationship to drugs or based on a defendant's immigration status. i don't believe that is the right was i to go. it wasn't with the war on drugs. we learned the hard way. i want to get tough on the drug salesmen. i'm sure the senator from arkansas feels the same way. we approach it differently. i have the experience of trying to take the hard position on this issue and seeing it failed us when it came to crack cocaine. for that reason, i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. cotton: madam president, what we heard -- the presiding officer: the junior senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: we heard a lot of the same excuses dems have made -- democrats have made about soft on claim, mass incinincarceration or racism. no one is in federal prison for mere drug possession. it is a myth that there are low level nonviolent offenders in prison because they're addicted to drugs. we're at a 21-year low in the number of fed inmates we have.

you know what we're not at? 21-year low in drug deaths, the highest on record. every year, year after year, almost twice as many died in the vietnam war, almost 24 times as many died in the iraq war, almost 35 times as many died on 9/11. democrats repeatedly refuse to crack down on deceptive fentanyl dealers. i've also offered bills that permanently add fentanyl to the controlled substance act scheduling. the democrats refuse to do so. they'll do it temporarily from time to time, but they want a trade. they want to get a trade for something. they want to reduce sentences or let prisoners out, whether they're democratic senators or democratic governors in places like illinois, eliminating the bail system, democratic mails and democratic prosecuting attorneys in places like chicago. as a result, we have a crime wave and drug epidemic all across america. let me reiterate, the bill i

offered, the senator from illinois blocked, it would simply say you cannot sell another drug and not acknowledge that fentanyl is in it. you cannot misrepresent what you're selling. it's not just opioids. it's not heroin. it's eanes marijuana. -- it's even marijuana, pills passed off as prescription drugs. adderall, oxycontin, percocet, that people all across america are dyingm. well, let's take another angle on this problem. almost all of these drugs come from mexico. almost all the drugs in america today come from mexico. they almost all come from a handful of vicious, depraved cartels in mexico. cartels that have taken on the powers of a quasi state,

cartels that the mexican government either cannot or will not crack down on. so let's look at it from that perspective. it's past time that we bring the full weight of the united states government to bear on these cartels and to destroy them for what they're leashing on our streets. imagine if isis or al qaeda set up shop across our border and was responsible for more than 100,000 american deaths every single year. what would we do? what would you do? i know what we wouldn't do. we wouldn't hesitate to act, and that's exactly what we should do with these mexican cartels. unfortunately president biden has done the opposite. since the day he took office, he has flung open our borders, created a border crisis and made it easier than ever to smuggle massive amounts of illegal drugs into the united states. already this year the border patrol has found over 12,000

pounds of fentanyl being smuggled over our border. 12,000 pounds. may not be able to put that into perspective. let me put it into perspective for you. it is enough to kill every man, woman, and child in america many, many times over. that doesn't even include any fentanyl brought in by the hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens who the dhs calls got-aways. president biden could declare the fentanyl peddling cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations but he has refused to do so. so the bill that i'm about to bring up would give him additional tools short of labeling these cartels terrorists. my bill would create a new designation called a significant transnational criminal organization, and it would enable the federal government to impose many of the same sanctions and use many of the same tools against cartels that it already does against terrorist organizations like al

qaeda and isis. those would include barring cartel members and their immediate family members from entering the united states, and keep them from profiting off of death and destruction and enabling civil and criminal penalties for anyone who provides material assistance or resources to cartels. the democrats have just blocked my bill that would keep new fentanyl variants illegal. they've just blocked another bill that would target -- or i should say they're going to block a bill later today that would keep new fentanyl disprairnts -- variants illegal. i hope at least democratic senators would be willing to say that we should give the biden administration more tools to use against the mexican cartels, some of the worst and most depraved criminals on earth. therefore, madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further

consideration of my bill, senate bill 621, the significant transnational criminal organization defgation, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: reserve the right to object. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: the senator from arkansas' views on immigration are well known. he's been consistent in opposing immigration. but it's interesting to me that people like him who oppose immigration always at the end seem to go after the same peopl. we saw it with the cages that kids were kept in. we saw it when kids were forcibly removed from their parents at the border during the trump years. we've seen it time and again. nowp we see it with the governor of florida and governor of texas putting mothers and children on buses and busing them off hundreds of miles away from where they were picked up, whether there's any contact there or not.

mothers and children are always a focal point of anti-immigration rhetoric, and once again this bill does that. i agree completely when it comes to stopping transnational criminal organizations, but to focus the bill on innocent spouses and children, including minor children, and make them the target of the bill seems to me going beyond any reasonable law enforcement. there is a narrow exception in the bill that allows a spouse or child to be admitted to the united states if they can somehow convince the counselor or officers that they did know or could not have reasonably known their parent or spouse member in a criminal organization. but there is no exception for battered spouses or children who are often victims of these organizations themselves. the bill gives what appears to be unrevealable discretion to decide whether an innocent spouse or child hasrenounced the organization.

these transin the criminal organizations must be stopped but this is not the way to do it, going after mothers and children. i want to make a point since the senator concluded after my last statement that i am somehow soft on crime. can i go through a short list here of bills that i voted for to get tough on crime? let's take a look at this bill, the american rescue plan. that american rescue plan passed in the united states senate and provided billions, billions of dollars to state and local communities for police and crime protection, more money for police and crime protection from this senate to those communities. i voted for it. the senator from arkansas voted against it. then the congress passed the infrastructure investment and jobs act. in that bill was $434 million investment in our ports of entry, helping dhs to screen vehicles for fentanyl. you see these drugs come through ports of entry. this idea of a backpack full of drugs being hiked over the border by someone in the middle of the night, that's not where

the bulk of these drugs come from. they come through the port of entry. we put $430 million investment to make those ports of entry even stroarng and tougher -- stronger and tougher -- and i agree with that completely, helping the department of homeland security to screen vehicles to stop fentanyl from coming in. i voted for that. the senator from arkansas voted no. who's soft on crime? we passed the march omnibus appropriations bill, tens of millions of dollars in increased funding for hiring police officers and technology upgrades at the border to deep text and seize fentanyl -- to detect and seize fentanyl and other illicit cargo. i voted for that. the senator from arkansas voted against it. who's soft on crime? when we passed the bipartisan safer communities act, the most serious bipartisan step congress has taken to end gun violence in 30 years, i voted for it. the senator from arkansas voted against it. who's soft on crime? the american people can see which party is passing

legislation actually funds law enforcement, addresses crime and violence in a thoughtful way. they can see when the bills come up on the floor, one party gives the speeches, the other party gives the votes. i'm glgt continue to -- i'm going to continue to vote to support the police and put an end to the drug crisis in america in a thoughtful and sensible way. i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. cotton: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: i think we know who's soft on crime. i think i hit a nerve. i didn't stand up and say i'm soft on crime five or six times in a row like the senator from illinois has been saying, like the democrats have been saying for the last several months, like their candidates have been saying. the american rescue plan, you know what that is? that's their $2 trillion wasteful spending bill from last spring that's responsible for 13% inflation. you know what's also included in it? a measure that would give stimulus checks to prisoners. that's right, depraved,

violent felons, murderers and rapists and drug traffickers across america, people like the boston marathon bomber got stimulus checks last year because the democrats believe that criminals are really at heart victims as well, victims of an oppressive society and system. if i'm not mistaken, when i offered my amendment to prevent prisoners from getting stimulus checks, i think it was the senator from illinois who stood up and blocked it. i know that he voted against it. i know that he wanted prisoners to get stimulus checks. that's what he's talking about. or about his objection to this bill that it's going to target mothers and kids, the poor, the poor mothers and children of drug kingpins. a very common feature of american sanctions efforts. in fact, sanctions efforts that we're doing exactly against russian oligarchs and regime figures, which i support, by the way.

i support. no, the wives and the children of russian oligarchs and mexican cartel kingpins should not benefit from their ill-gotten gains. but i care more about the lives of american citizens, the 100,000-plus american citizens that we lose every single year than anyone else in the world. so the biden administration's policy is that we'll use this tool against russians but we're not going to use it against mexican cartel members. i think that goes to show you where their priorities are. so again, just to recap, we tried to pass legislation that would have imposed heightened penalties on drug traffickers who misrepresent their drugs and say they don't contain fentanyl. the senator from illinois blocked it on behalf of the democrats.

just now we tried to give the biden administration more tools to target the cartels that are smuggling these drugs into our country, that are killing 100,000 of our fellow citizens. again, on behalf of senate democrats, the senator from illinois blocked it. i say again, over 108,000 americans were killed by drugs last year. yet, the democrats continue to refuse to crack down on drug traffickers and cartel kingpins. so some of my other colleagues are going to offer similar bills. i'm going to offer yet again my permanent fentanyl scheduling bill that would stop the annual kabuki dance here of the democrats demanding some procriminal law just so we can permanently add fentanyl to the controlled substance act schedule. at a time when 108,000 americans are dying every single year. that's not an aggregate number.

every single year. the democrats refuse to act if they don't get something in return on behalf of criminals. if they can't reduce drug sentences for hardened criminals, if they can't let more felons out of prison. this shows a depraved indifference to the lives of our people. madam president, i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the democratic whip. mr. durbin: passing legislation is difficult at any stage in american history. it's increasingly difficult when it's a 50-50 senate. you have to work it. you have to be willing to sit down with someone on the other side of the aisle and find a cosponsor so that you have a bipartisan bill. i've seen that work. in fact, i was part of it. it was senator chuck grassley and i that put together the first step act which was part of prison reform in this cufnt. who signed the first step act? president donald trump. soft on crime? what we did was work out

something that was bipartisan, sensible and really makes a difference and making certain that people currently serving in prison will one day be released -- most will -- and not return to crime when that happens. i think that was time well spent but it took a bipartisan effort. i could have come to the floor every day of the week and offered my best idea on how to fight crime but if you can't pass it on a bipartisan basis in the senate it doesn't work. it takes hard work and compromise to make a real change in the law, even if you think you have the best idea on work, you've got to work at it. i yield the floor.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from nevada. ms. cortez masto: madam president, five years ago this saturday, my hometown of las vegas endured one of the darkest days in its history. on a beautiful autumn evening,

the route 91 harvest music festival was interrupted when a gunman showered the concert with bullets from a high-rise hotel room. those who were at the festival, including my niece, at first thought the gunshots were fireworks, but they soon realized that something much more deadly was unfolding. 58 people lost their lives that night and two more have died in the years since the attack. over 850 people were wounded. and tens of thousands who attended the concert or helped respond to the shooting bear the visible and invisible scars of that night. it's hard to overstate the scale of the devastation of that night, and it remains the worst mass shooting in modern american history. as soon as the gunfire broke out, first responders sprang

into action as did ordinary citizens turning concert bar barriers -- doctors and nurses rushed to hospitals and thousands of people lined up all over the state to donate blood. individuals and businesses contributed food, blankets, airline tickets home, or whatever survivors might need. at the worst of times, nevadans came together to support one another. and they have worked to help each other ever since. local businesses have supported the construction of a healing garden. the commission working on a permanent memorial continues to make progress, and this summer it invited the public to participate in its planning. and scholarship funds and activity groups continue their work to support the children of victims and survivors. and this weekend in las vegas, thanks to the work of the vegas strong resiliency center,

bereaved families, survivors, first responders, and community members will light lanterns together to honor the strength, the light, and resilience of the las vegas community. the fact is, though, that trauma leaves its marks. many of those touched by the route 91 attacks say the shooting created a permanent before and after for them. it fundamentally changed their lives. and america has seen far too many of these mass attacks from orlando to san jose, parkland to buffalo. more recently, of course, this summer saw the horrific shooting in uvalde, texas, of 19 students and two teachers. in the wake of uvalde, route 91 survivors gina and marissa more ron know -- morono came to see

me. they work for change. they told me that knowing how difficult it had been for them as survivors of a mass attack, they could not imagine what children who survived uvalde were going through. and so they were in washington to call once again for change. this time they succeeded. over the summer congress passed and the president signed the bipartisan safer communities act which contains a range of commonsense provisions to reduce gun violence in america. i can't emphasize this accomplishment enough. people thought that passing bipartisan gun safety legislation was impossible, but because of the work and the dedication and advocacy of so many, including route 91 survivors like marissa and gina, we got it done. i'm especially proud that i was able to help secure enhanced background checks for those

under 21 years of age as well as additional mental health funding that is needed in our schools. many survivors will be the first to say the work isn't finished yet. that was a first step. we still have more to do. and i agree with them. they're going to continue to push for commonsense reforms and i will support them as i always have. because these shootings are just devastating for whole communities, we have to do something. i know for many in las vegas and all over nevada, this week especially, will bring difficult reminders of that dark day five years ago. but it will also bring al renewed determination to heal, to memorialize, to honor those who were affected, and to work toward a safer future. madam president, i will continue to stand with my hometown and with those survivors not only in nevada but across the country and to do everything that i can

to work for the same goals that they care about. thank you and i yield the floor. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from iowa. mr. grassley: thank you, madam president. as the leading advocate for lower drug prices in the senate, number one i've hold big pharma and executives before my committee of congress. second, i led a two-year bipartisan investigation into insulin price gouging. and three, introduced bipartisan reforms to lower the cost of insulin and many other prescription drugs. in the past few years, legislation i've championed into law has saved the taxpayers nine

and six-tenths billion dollars. right now the senate is not acting on bipartisan legislation to lower drug costs. i support a bipartisan plan by senators collins and shaheen that establishes a $35 out-of-pocket cap on insulin for patients with private insurance while also this bill also reforms pvm's, the powerful middlemen who are behind rising drug prices because if you don't address pbm reform, a cap on out-of-pocket costs will only result in shifting patient costs somewhere else. in my two-year bipartisan insulin investigation, we found that a drug's list price is tied to rebates and other fees that

drug companies have to pay the pbm's. the scheme encourages drug makers to spike the list price of the drug to offer a greater rebate and then you know what happens. in turn secure priority placement on the health plan's list of covered medications. we have to hold pbm's accountable then if you really want to lower prescription drug costs. in 2018 i called on the federal trade commission to assess consolidation in the pharmaceutical supply chain and its impact on drug prices. but i didn't wait for the ftc to act. i introduced prescription pricing for people with senator cantwell and it was approved out

of the judiciary committee unanimously last year. a few months ago the ftc agreed to conduct a study of pbm business practices. this is very welcome news, but the ftc needs to complete this study and do it in a timely way. last week i asked ftc chair about when the pbm study would be completed. chair khan didn't commit to a date. while we need more sunshine on the pbm's, we don't need to wait to take some action. senator cantsz -- senator cantwell and i have introduced the pbm transparency act and it's been approved by the committee she chairs, the commerce committee on a 19-9 vote. the bill prohibits pbm's from

engaging in spread pricing and clawbacks. both spread pricing and clawbacks are actions that game the system and hurt consumers. when the majority party pursued a partisan reckless spending and tax package that they called the inflation reduction act, i filed a grassley-wyden prescription drug pricing reduction act as an amendment that had ten republican cosponsors. following -- i did that in order to show that the majority party could have chosen a path -- two paths, drug pricing reform on a bipartisan basis if the majority wanted to do that. the bill establishes pbm

accountability and transparency, something missing from the inflation reduction act. so, madam president, we have bipartisan prescription drug legislation awaiting action. we don't have to wait until 2026 for what happened in august in the inflation reduction act to get anything done because that doesn't take effect until 2026. this includes the bipartisan plan to lower insulin prices and my two bills to hold pbm's accountable. that's what we need bipartisan action in the united states senate on. i've also led out of the judiciary committee three bipartisan bills to establish more competition to lower prescription drug prices. they save taxpayers a combined one and nine-tenths billion dollars. so, madam president, the senate

must act on six bipartisan bills collectively they lower insulin costs. secondly, hold pbm's accountable and lastly, establish more competition to lower prescription drug prices. i yield. a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from tennessee. mrs. blackburn: thank you, madam president. last evening i had the opportunity to get on a phone in a telephone town hall with citizens from shelby county in tennessee and crime was the number one issue that people were talking about. and one of the points that came

up several times was why is it some of our colleagues across the aisle have stuck with this prepackaged, zero consequences crime narrative that they are still trying to sell to the american people. crime is an issue. and tennesseans aren't buying the message. i don't think the american people are buying it because they are living with the real world consequences of the democrats' refusal to work to get crime under control. now, a few days ago i was watching the news, and i could not believe what i was seeing. young people ransacking a convenience store. they were doing this in full

view of the cameras, continuing to talk to one another, just going through ransacking that store. now, i know i would like to say that was an isolated incident, but we all know that this is not an isolated incident. what is happening is this has become a trend in many of our cities. the numbers aren't working in our favor. when we talk about this trend, whether you're talking about theft or vandalism or something much worse. and here are some stats. since 2019, homicide rates in our largest cities are up 50%. that is since 2019. aggravated assaults are up 36%.

last year, 108,000 americans died of a drug overdose. 4,000 of those were tennesseans. now, we can continue to engage in a cable news proxy war, or we can do something about this. we, as lawmakers, cannot control what the pundits and the activists say, but we can do something to help the millions of americans who have become or are at risk of becoming a victim of violence. back home in tennessee, the sheriffs and other local officials that i talked to, as i have done my 95-county tour visiting with every county, these sheriffs, these local officials, parents, principals,

they're all telling me exactly why they're struggling to get this crime wave under control. go talk to a police chief who are a captain, go talk to a sheriff or a deputy. they will tell you lack of manpower, lack of funding, and the democrats' soft-on-crime agenda. we can help with the first two things right now, without spending an additional dime of taxpayer money. that lack of manpower, that lack of funding -- yes, this is something that we could take action on today, if we chose to. this month, senator hagerty and i filed a bill called the restoring law and order act, that would establish a grant program to help state, local,

and tribal law enforcement officials do the work that obviously our president and the democrats have chosen not to do. first and foremost, here's what the bill would do -- our local law enforcement officers would be able to use these grants to hire more officers and to train them to deal with violent criminals. they'll also be able to pull in more resources to combat interstate child trafficking between the open border and the ease with which criminals are using technology to target kids. this was something we could not afford to leave out of the restoring law and order act. these grants would help communities prioritize tough sentencing for repeat offenders and use responsible bail

practices and pretrial detention to keep dangerous offenders behind bars. if housing is a problem, they'll be able to address it. if food -- and food problems are a problem, then there would be a way to address that. we're also going to make these grants available to departments that need help targeting drug crime and getting fentanyl off the streets. sheriffs in tennessee tell me, mr. president, that around 80% of the drugs that they are seizing -- 80% -- contain fentanyl, which means there are a lot of people out there who are ingesting fentanyl and dying without ever knowing that they were taking something laced with fentanyl. this is also putting law

enforcement at considerable risk. at least one tennessee officer is lucky to be alive after accidentally coming into contact with fentanyl, and last but not least we're going to encourage law enforcement to make use of these grants to clear the investigatory backlogs and get evidence processed as quickly as possible. so much of our focus has been on urban areas because cities like philadelphia, washington, d.c., and memphis are struggling when it comes to controlling homicides, carjackings and other crimes that are really frightening to people. but rural areas of my state are also seeing unprecedented levels of crime and drug overdoses. so to help these communities rise to the challenge, this bill

commits no less than 25% of its total grant allotment to rural and depressed counties. now, as i said, this grant program won't spend an additional dime of taxpayer money. the big irs payday my democratic colleagues snuck into the so-called inflation reduction act will be put to better use. here's how you do it. instead of using that money to hire more bureaucrats to attack small businesses and independent operators, we're going to use it to keep the communities where they work safe from violent criminals. we also found that joe biden and the democrats have left a lot of their so-called emergency covid funding lying around, so we're going to put those funds to work hiring more officers and forensic examiners and clearing

the rape kit backlogs. tennesseans are spending $616 more per month now than they were last year just to keep themselves fed and their cars running. they can't afford to maintain a slush fund for far-left priorities when that money could be put to use actually helping clean up our streets, helping keep our communities safe, helping to apprehend drug dealers and keep them in jail. that is where these dollars should be used. the final element of this bill would help us get to the root causes of the rape kit backlogs. in 2021, the u.s. government spent $251,975,000 through six

separate programs to help law enforcement conduct rape and sexual assault investigations. here's that breakdown -- and yes, indeed, mr. president, $251 million, a lot of money. you're right. more than $24 million was spent on advocacy programs. almost $34 million to train forensic examiners and their staff to collect and preserve úpr. $4 million to train and provide resources to medical personnel who treat victims of sexual assault. almost $90 million to get first responders and forensic testing capabilities in rural areas up on par with urban areas.

and $158 million just to address the backlog. hundreds of millions of dollars investing, and still it seems we cannot get these rape kits processed. sometimes it takes a full year to get these results. i want to use one grant program as a case study to demonstrate the problem that we are seeing. an audit of the sexual assault kit initiative found that between 2015 and 2021, we sent $266 million to 75 grantees in 40 states and d.c. to process these kits, to process and attain this evidence.

in that time, they only managed to clear a little over half of a 136,000-kit backlog. now, bear in mind, these kits are the kits that contain the dna evidence of violent offenders. these are individuals that have committed violent sexual assaults. every one of these should be processed as a rush order. but, no ... from 2015 to 2021, with $266 million being sent to 75 grantees in 40 different states and the district of columbia, they managed to clear a little over half of

136,000-case backlog. so you still have tens of thousands of kits that are gathering dust, and that's just the ones in the custody of grantees from one single program. now, this represents over 50,000 violations of trust and bodily autonomy. 50,000 worst nights of an innocent man or woman's life. and 50,000 times the scum of the earth thought they committed a crime and they a way with it. but they also represent 50,000 opportunities for us to take that rapist or that violent offender and put them in jail for the rest of their life. the restoring law and order act will give the gao a year to

conduct a study and prepare a report to explain why we haven't been able to clear the backlog. why is it we cannot get these kits processed? they're going to look for deficiencies in processing and also let us know where and to what extent rape kits aren't available at all. this month, tennesseans, especially the people of memphis, have been stuck in a vicious cycle of grieving and asking, what more could have been done to spare the victims of two of the most notorious killers in recent memory? we already know that at least one brutal murder could have been prevented if the crime lab had been able to reduce their processing time for rape kits. three more may have been prevented if the people

responsible for keeping criminals in jail had done their jobs and forced a repeat violent offender to serve out a full sentence. that didn't happen. four innocent people in memphis are dead. the community is heartbroken, and they are grieving. and last night on our telephone town hall, mr. president, they talked a lot about this. they talked about how it has affected them and their community. of now, the left has -- now, the left has spent two years screaming at congress to defund the police, pull law enforcement out of neighborhoods, and eliminate consequences for violent behavior, and it is just plain frightening to see so many of my colleagues continue to go along with that rhetoric.

tennesseans agree, and i think the american people agree also. they don't want an unfair system. they don't want innocent people to be behind bars. they want a system that works. they're tired of hearing that they're the problem. at least, according to the democrats' zero consequences narrative. that narrative has turned criminals into victims and innocent people into villians and has left true victims wondering who was there for them. there's nothing just or equitable about that, and i would ask my democratic colleagues to abandon the echo chamber and get on the phone, go see and visit and listen to and hear from your sheriffs and your

mayors and other law enforcement officials back home. listen to what they have to say. they need your help. and senator hagerty and i would love to have their help and support in passing the restoring law and order act. we need to move this legislation. we need to vote on it now before the crime wave gets even worse. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from georgia.

mr. ossoff: mr. president, i ask the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ossoff: mr. president, i rise this afternoon in pursuit of justice for the black men and black women abducted, beaten, and killed during the segregation era in the american south and in retaliation for their participation in the civil rights movement. i rise today, mr. president, to ask that the senate pass the civil rights cold case investigations support act to secure justice and pursue truth for the victims of those

atrocities, for the victims of civil rights cold cases, and for their families. justice for folks like alfonso harris, a member of the sclc who was murdered in albany, georgia, in 1966. justice for earnest hunter, who was killed in a physical altercation at the camden county jail in st. mary's georgia in 1958. justice for caleb hill jr., dragged at night from a county jail in georgia in 1949 and shot to death by a lynch mob. decades may have passed, but the pursuit of justice cannot and will not end, mr. president. i sat down in wilkerson county a few months ago with caleb hill

jr.'s descendants, and in his name they demand justice. by passing the civil rights cold case investigation support act and by doing it with the support of democrats and republicans in the united states senate, we will demonstrate that the united states will never rest in the pursuit of truth and justice for those who were lynched, abducted, beaten, killed and assaulted in the segregation-era south and during the civil rights movement. i thank senator cruz for his original cosponsorship of this bipartisan legislation and all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for bringing us now to a point where after much work, i hope that we can pass this legislation with bipartisan support. so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate

consideration of calendar number 451, s. 3655. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 451, a bill to amend the civil rights cold case records collection act of 2018 to extend the termination date of the civil rights cold case records review board. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. ossoff: i further ask the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ossoff: thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor.

front and center to take the case for the american people, inflation is outrageous.

is open and crime is rampant that will be most of our campaigns principal message taken to the american people this november. >> one of the defining features of the biden presidency is his willingness to sacrifice security for political gain. our economy is less secure today because of his reckless spending which has given us 40 year high inflation everybody is dealing with on a daily basis. our nation's finances are less secure because of student loan bailout racking up up to $1 trillion of additional debt in this country. our nation's energy supply is less secure because of the

president's willingness to rely on foreign countries and resistance to creating homegrown sources of energy in american energy independent plan. to put a fine place on this, look at the petroleum reserve which is supposed to be for emergencies has been used by this administration to try to score political points of the american people to the tune of strategic petroleum reserve at its lowest level since 1984. if you look at the border, the country is less secure. this fiscal year the numbers up until the final month of this year has the number of apprehensions of the border over 2 million which is historic record, never seen anything like that and it doesn't count the getaways the don't get counted. what's probably even more

disturbing is of all the folks they apprehend, there have been 78 people apprehended last year on the terrorist watch list, five times the amount in the last five years combined. these are historic problems this administration and leadership here in congress have created. we need in america more secure when it comes to our economy, energy security and more secure when it comes to national security. i can assure you if republicans get the majority here in the senate after this election we will -- the agenda this administration put forward and hopefully get joe biden become the moderate he promised to be in the first place.

>> we are 20 months into this. where the democrats have been in complete control in washington d.c. where are we? the worst inflation in history in 40 years in the great majority of americans saying the country is on the wrong track and it's coming off the rails. twenty-five year high of murder and states across the country. disgraceful that the evacuation from afghanistan so where were we when joe biden came to office in january of 2021? gas prices were $2.35 a gallon, inflation was negligible. under joe biden prices are now up over 13% since the day he came into office. the families cannot afford to fill grocery carts and gas tanks

in the same week. people are hurting and struggling as they there savings, retirement melting away and kamala harris goes on tv it says the border is secure. millions and millions of illegal border crossings have occurred since they've been in office. she's either lying or she's clueless. if you look at the amount of fentanyl coming across the border and desk, 100,000 americans dead from federal brought in by drug cartel and the vice president everything is fine as the border. the democrats on this reckless tax and spending spree, couldn't spend on issues that were important to the american people, they ignored inflation affordable energy, ignore crime and the border. the money they poured onto the

economy and spending out of to make inflation worse. there are democrat economists well respected and said to the house and set it in the white house do not do this. this will be bad for the economy and for inflation and the democrats in the house and senate and white house ignore them. joe biden goes on television 60 minutes and is dismissive of the inflation hitting the american people because he's that far out of touch so here we are 20 months later, this is the nation for people across the country feel they've been forgotten, ignored and betrayed by the democrats. democrats in the house senate fails the american people and voters will have the chance to express their opinion on this in

six weeks. >> folks, and one county shy of completing my 99 county two or so one remaining county. this last monday i was able to start with a group of law enforcement officials in northwestern iowa in o'brien county law enforcement officials came together wanted to talk mostly about drug trafficking so we started with the normal conversation centering around of amphetamine, still the number one drug of choice in iowa. however, what was new to this recurring conversation is we see more fentanyl in iowa and it's a real issue, they are worried about what it's doing to our communities so i asked them, okay, where is it coming from? you know where i'm going with

this. a wide open southern border and they said this administration's is an inability to stop flow coming inpr from our southern border poisoning i will communities -- n: mr. president,i rise today to tell a story of one family's tragedy but also of two wonderful people who turned that tragedy into helping others and finding solutions. on may 15, 2014, a 19-year-old wisconsinite died of a fentanyl overdose. two years later, i met his mother, lori bodera, who testified before a field hearing i held in wisconsin, together with an emergency room doctor

named dr. tim westlake, who testified about the growing problem that he was seeing in his emergency room with overdoses. and in particular overdoses with, i think a drug we all heard was somewhat new, fentanyl, a schedule 2 drug, one used in medicine but one that had been altered. the molecule change and produced in china and shipped through our postal service and were killing people like archie bodura. it was the first time i heard of what was happening to fentanyl and so dr. westlake, because he was seeing the tragedy first hand, was developing a piece of legislation he was proposing in

wisconsin, as well as on a national level. the piece of legislation i introduced in 2017 was called the sofa act. the reason i called it the sofa act, and that stands for stopping overdoses of fentanyl analogues, because lori badura, who lost her 19-year-old son, turned her tragedy into helping others. she started an organization called saving others for archie, the acronym was sofa. i thought it only appropriate when working with dr. tim westlake on this piece of legislation that would recognize the growing problem of these analogues of these fentanyl-related drugs killing

our citizens and i thought it only appropriate to come up with a piece of legislation named after that organization with that same acronym sofa. so on july 13, 2017, i introduced sofa for the first time here in the united states senate. on november 9, 2017, because of tim westlake and lauri's legislation, a piece of legislation was signed into wisconsin. what this law does, it's a pretty simple law, it allows law enforcement, the dea, to view these fentanyl-related substances as a class under schedule 1 of the controlled substance act. prior to this bill, prior to these regulations, law enforcement had to view each new molecule, each now analogue as a

separate drug and they couldn't arrest, they couldn't put people in jail for poisoning these and putting them in our cities and dr. tim westlake recognized that problem. i recognized that problem. so we introduced the sofa act. and one dea saw it, they thought this was a pretty good idea and they utilized their regulatory authority and passed a regulation on february 6, 2018, they issued a temporary scheduling order that placed, quote, certainly fentanyl-related substances in schedule 1 for two years. the text of that regulation was identical to the text of the sofa law that i had introduced earlier in 2017. now, unfortunately, they could only issue that regulation and have it in effect for two years.

so it was about ready to run out, congress extended that regulation in an act of congress and we extended it six times. president biden has signed that extension five times, but the problem is the extension of that regulation runs out on december 31 of this year. now, the biden administration, i think it's important to understand, in its 2021 budget proposal called for a class-wide fentanyl schedule. the dea said that this is critical -- is critical to the safety and health of our communities. she added, quote, class-wide scheduling provides a vital tool -- a vital tool to combat overdose deaths in the united

states. now, why have we extended this regulation six times? there's no need to it. we could pass the law, which we've tried to do a number of times, but the reason we keep extending it is because it's worked. it's helped stop the flow of these precursor chemicals coming out of china. china's actually cracked down on these analogues within china. so the regulation worked. the sofa act is vital, according to ann milgram. something else i want to point out about the sofa act is in an almost unprecedented -- this is very rare. in 2018, all 50's -- all 50 states attorneys general, plus the attorney general from the

district of columbia, including current hhs becerra signed a letter to congressional leadership urging congress to act expeditiously and pass the sofa act. mr. president, this is such a commonsense piece of legislation. it works. it reduces the number of types of fentanyl on the streets killing our citizens, killing our youth, killing people like archie badura. again, the dea had a regulation for two years, congress has extended that regulation six times. all i'm asking is for the senate to pass this commonsense lifesaving piece of legislation by unanimous consent.

and, so, mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of s. 1006, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration, further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. i ask this in the name of archie badura and on behalf of dr. tim westlake and his mother. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: reserving the right to object. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i took chemistry in high school, i wasn't very good at it, but i think i got a b and was happy with it.

the question that the senator from wisconsin puts before us today is a complicated question. it seems easy. do we have a drug crisis in this country? yes. is fentanyl dangerous? yes, is fentanyl under the highest criminal code? yes. what is this discussion about fentanyl? why are we at this again? i don't know the senator from wisconsin's background in chemistry and the like, but here's how i understand it and why it is not as simple as paying tribute to this young man who lost his life to fentanyl, and i can come up with examples that i've run into as well. it's heartbreaking what's going on. there are certain elements that contain fentanyl that have other chemical structures, not simple fentanyl, which is already prohibited narcotic under american law.

and these so called analogues of fentanyl have different variations, it turns out some are deadly dangerous, some are not. some are deadly dangerous and others may have the promise to be the next narcan for the researchers. so we have been struggling, literally for years, with the research community that says when it comes to fentanyl analogues, don't sweep them all into category 1, some may be lifesavers, as odd as that sounds, it can happen. i have been saying it is a reasonable argument, but how long will this investigation go on? how long will this research continue? we are told it is sincere and real, it's happened in previous administrations and this administration, and to sweep all of these chemical analogues of fentanyl into this category would be, frankly, counterproductive. we may be walking away from

something that is a lifesaver rather than a life taker. because of that, we have been temporarily extending the decision to put fentanyl and its analogues on category 1 so that this research can establish qhert in fact there is a lifesaver -- whether in fact there is a lifesaver in some form of fentanyl. i gave you my understanding of this issue. i didn't major in chemistry and barely got through it in high school. i don't think there it is any disagreement with us in that fentanyl is dangerous. when it comes to analogues, they say to me, durbin, you're a liberal rights lawyer. mr. johnson: there is nothing in the sofa act that would prevent that research from continuing and if a molecule is fund that

is helpful, it can be scheduled separately. this is targeting the drugs that are harmful. this is why -- congress has extended this six times and -- and the administration, the biden administration supports this. they say it's vital that we're able to class all of these fentanyl-related molecules together so we can enforce our laws and prevent death. so, again, there is nothing in here that would prevent research, which i would support. the molecules are important things and change characteristics, but we have to recognize how dangerous fentanyl is. we have gone from slightly 215,000 fentanyl deaths to over 107,000 deaths last year. we're on a path to break that again this year.

this has been supported on a bipartisan basis, we have extended this. the research argument doesn't hold water. mr. durbin: there's an element the senator from wisconsin may not be aware of. when a drug is on title 1, it is prohibited to do research on it. that is the reason we're running into problems with can business, now -- cannabis, now legal in my state and may be in your state as well and i've asked whether it is safe or not? the problem is if we put all of these analogues on the list, it will stop the research. it's a catch 22, we tried the temporary extensions saying, give us the final word. i do not quarrel with you in any way about the danger of fentanyl, but the people who do this for a living, and i can't keep up with their conversations by and large, explain to me that we are trying to find a good use

of a fentanyl analogue and don't slam the door by putting it on title 1 because the research stops. mr. johnson: will the gentleman yield? mr. durbin: yes. mr. johnson: they can do the research off of schedule 2. there's nothing preventing that. nothing whatsoever. mr. durbin: i would just say that my information is a little different. and i respect the senator from wisconsin and his tribute to this poor, young man who lost his life. bullet we're trying to do the -- but we're trying to do the sensible thing. fentanyl is is going to to into be branded a dangerous drug, category one. but fentanyl analogues is a variation. for reasons that i'm trying to bow to the experts and science and research on a temporary basis believing if they've going is, we want to see it. if not, we're going to categorize them as schedule p 1.

so i'm going to object. mr. johnson: mr. president, i find that unfortunate. i would hope that the senator from illinois would not at least object to -- i think senator grassley came on the floor looking for another extension of this. the dea administrator says this is vital. so i hope at a minimum we can extend this for a seventh time and then come back and finally pass sofa possibly in the next congress. but, again, mr. president, i yield. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

mr. grassley: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from iowa. mr. grassley: home should be the safest -- the presiding officer: senator, we're in a quorum call call. mr. grassley: sorry. i'm sorry, mr. president. i ask for the waiving of the quorum. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. grassley: home should be the safest place in the world for a child. it used to be that parents could breathe a little easier once they locked the front door, knowing that their child was safe on the inside. for some reason or other, not anymore is that the case. drug dealers have found ways into our homes through social media. now, more and more children are dying alone at night in what

should be the safest place for them, in their own bedrooms. that's where derrick and kathy kidd found their son, sebastian, unresponsive on the morning of july 30, 2021. he was slumped on his bed still in his street clothes. sebastian was a high school senior in des moines, iowa. he took half of what he thought was a pain pill. it was actually fentanyl. sebastian's parents should have had the rest of their lives with him. instead, they buried their 17-year-old son. congress has responded in the worst possible way to parents like the kidd's family.

we've responded with inaction. i'm disappointed that my democrat colleagues have tried to block fentanyl analogue scheduling. under this democrat-led congress, reauthorization periods of fentanyl analogue scheduling keeps getting shorter and shorter. and bipartisan talks about permanent scheduling have all dropped. and if you don't have bipartisan talks, nothing happens in the united states senate. that's what it takes to get things done in a body that takes a supermajority of 67 to stop debate to get to finality. it doesn't matter if you're ranking-and-file democrat or a republican. fentanyl is a problem for all of us. it's time that we start treating it like the problem it is.

we can't keep ignoring law enforcement's request for fentanyl analogue scheduling. police are the folks responding to fentanyl poisoning. police are the ones putting their lives on the line, facing off with cartels, and police are asking us to extend classification of fentanyl analogue as schedule 1 substances. who are we to deny the police when they say what they need? we all agreed that fentanyl analogue scheduling was necessary in 2020 when we unanimously extended it by 15 months. even career officials in the

biden administration agree that fentanyl analogue scheduling was necessary when they asked congress -- the biden administration asked congress to permanently schedule it. but here we are on the brink of fentanyl analogue scheduling, the expiration of it. families and law enforcement alike are panicked that we let this authority disappear. temporary fentanyl analogue scheduling cannot lapse while we hash out more permanent solutions. we've all voted this provision into law before. we've been warned that more parents will have to bury their children if we do not pass it. so i have this motion,

mr. president -- i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 45, s. 1216, further, that the grassley amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and the the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. durbin: mr. president, reserving the right to object -- the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i believe the senator from iowa sincere and being -- and accura. he tells the story of losing a young iowan. sadly, i can tell a similar story about my own home state of illinois. we currently have a temporary

answer to this situation that extends until december 31 of this year. admittedly, it is coming on us, but it isn't tomorrow. it will be in just a few months. one of my colleagues on the committee, senator cory booker of new jersey, has a particular expertise and interest in this issue, but unfortunately could not be in the senate at this moment when the senator from iowa made his motion. on his behalf -- and so he has an opportunity to discuss this with the senator from iowa and perhaps find a path through our differences -- i object. mr. grassley: mr. president -- the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. grassley: mr. president, i appreciate the chairman's right to do that. i appreciate his position on this whole problem that we're trying to deal with. i'm just sorry that senator booker had to have people object for him. it's not right. how many people have to die

before we do something about it? last year out of 104 drug-abuse overdose deaths, 70,000 of that 104,000 were fentanyl-related, 200 in the state of iowa. somebody has got to wake up around here and realize that we can do something about it. the biden administration want us to do something about it. and one person, not chairman durbin, but other people standing in the way, just not right.

20 months into the democratic majority i just want to take a moment to highlight the many many accomplishments we have secured in this chamber under democratic leadership, the most in recent memory. the american rescue plan, bipartisan infrastructure bill, the chips and science act, the gun safety bill, the inflation reduction act an omnibus package and many other bills in between. senate democrats have worked hard every step of the way to improve the lives of the american people to help those in the middle class and those struggling to get into the middle class making it easy to get there and we will continue to do our work for the american people this week by passing a cr to keep the government open until december 16 and avoid a needless government shutdown. we will work quickly and work

fast to finish the process here in the senate and send it to the house so they can send it to the president's desk. the cooperation from our republican colleagues the senate can finish its work as soon as tomorrow. yesterday's vote shows the cr has drawn support and i my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with us together to finish this bill quickly since the cr contains things that many people on both sides of the aisle support. billions of dollars in disaster aid to help target communities in kentucky louisiana and alabama and texas alaska and puerto rico battle -- battered by floods and disasters over the past year as well as help for mexico to recover from its wildfire in the state's history. we authorize the fda usury for another five years to prevent -- $12 billion in emergency aid for

the people of ukraine a waging a heroic fight against the dishes evil dictator putin and the russian army. and america's contributions to help the people of ukraine have made an enormous difference to help ukraine defend itself and joe biden has done a fabulous job there deserves a lot of a lot of credit for the one ukraine is far from over and america must continue to do all we can to help the ukrainian people beat the brutal putin and the priority for me and others senator jack reed in particular was the funding for the liheap program. this year includes a billion dollars that will help americans most at risk this winter to keep the heat on. with rising energy prices due to covid

i write honor those who were impacted the lives lost in las vegas october 12017. five years ago nevada experienced tragedy on an unprecedented scale. take 10 minutes, 10 minutes, 58 innocent lives were taken, hundreds of people were injured by gunfire and hundreds more were injured in the chaos that followed. sadly in the year since two more victims of that attack died because of injuries they

received during that shooting bringing the death toll up. during the attack scores of heroic first responders of heroic first responders of heroic first responders, police officers firefighters paramedics and others arrived at the scene in an attempt to neutralize the threat to provide aid to the victims. hundreds of doctors nurses and other meta professionals worked nonstop to save the lives of those on the scene. that day the attack on the route route 91 harvest festival became the deadliest mass shooting in american history and let me repeat that, the deadliest mass shooting in the american history and to this day sadly even with all the mass shootings we have endured over the past few years since then one of over still remains the single deadliest mass shooting in american history.

and all it took, all it took was just 10 minutes, 10 minutes. thousands of lives cut short in hundreds injured and traumatized with emotional and physical scars dealt kerry with them for the rest of their lives. these were friends and these were neighbors and they were our family. now there are 60 families that will never be the same. 60 families that will forever have an empty chair and every night. one october changed change their community and the history of our state forever. it left a hole which will never be filled. we are united for those who we lost and in our gratitude and admiration for the heroes that day who works to rescue and give aid. this dark day put on full

display in the tightknit community of southern nevada that we all know and love. we came together to celebrate and thank the heroism, for those who helped, our law enforcement officers are first responders and medical professionals in so many everyday people. they just ran towards danger they ran towards danger to help get people to safety. hundreds lined up to donate blood they offered cars for people who were displaced by the chaos. a community that rally together not just in the aftermath but in the days, weeks and months and years after. we are vegas strong. we are nevada strong. today as we reflect on the five-year anniversary of this event i stand here to honor the

60 individuals who lost their lives and the hundreds of survivors and all of those, all of those who experienced that dramatic events. i stand here today to honor the heroes, are first responders and community members those who risk their lives for others. in nevada the vegas strong resiliency center supports those affected by the tragedy while they launched a wide array of efforts to help people heal and cope with the trauma can and take action to honor the victims. i have a floor chart here and i know it's hard to see that one of the project of resiliency center is organizing on this fifth anniversary is the picture of the lantern and an outline of the las vegas skyline. the lantern is a sign of solidarity and respect for

victims, survivors and responders of the tragic shooting lighting up the night with hope. the lantern is a symbol representing the fact that out of darkness of that night came the strongest light shining on countless examples of heroism big and small by nevadans. we have to remember the fifth anniversary and we must recommit ourselves to action. in the nearly five years since october 1 the epidemic of gun violence has impacted even more communities and broke more families hearts all across our nation. finally after the recent mass shooting in an elementary school in uvalde texas congress was able to finally come together. we passed pass the most significant gun safety legislation in almost 30 years. it was a breakthrough and we

know it will save lives keeping the guns out of hands of dangerous people but it cannot be an endpoint. we can and must do more to prevent the shootings and i know we can do this while also respecting people's constitutional right. we can take commonsense bipartisan action like permanently banning up stocks high-capacity magazines which allows the one october shooter to fire so many rounds and cause so much carnage. bump stocks in particular modifications to that only make guns more deadly. the administration to greater. action to address this issue but the move to ban bump stocks faces troubling legal challenges that threaten that progress. that's what i call in this chamber took on the pass legislation that will permanently ban bump stocks permanently ban on stocks and cut off access to the deadly and

unnecessary weapons. remember that these devices a shooter can fire hundreds of rounds to and are damaged lives to like on one op tovar. one october. we owe to those who experienced the pain of gun violence to do more and we owe it to future generations to keep up our efforts. at the end of the day this is all about keeping communities safe. we must continue working to prevent or tragedies like the one that brought so much heartbreak to my hometown. mr. president i ask all my colleagues in this chamber to remember and honor the memories of the 50 victims of one october at the five-year anniversary. thank you.

>> madam president five years ago on this saturday my hometown of las vegas endured one of the darkest days in its history. on a beautiful autumn evening the route 91 harvest music festival was interrupted when a gunman showered the concert with bullets from a high-rise hotel room. those who were at the festival including my niece at first that the gunshots were fireworks but they soon realized that something much more deadly was unfolding. 58 people lost their lives that night and two more have died in the year since the attack. over 850 people were wounded and tens of thousands who attended the concert for help to respond to the shooting they are the visible scars of that night.

it's hard to overstate the scale of the devastation of that night and it remains the worst mass shooting in modern american history. as soon as the gunfire broke out first responders sprang into action turning concert barriers into structures and trucks and cars into makeshift ambulances. doctors and nurses rushed to hospitals and thousands of people lined up all over the state to donate lead. individuals and businesses contributed food blankets airline tickets home or whatever survivors might need. at the worst of times nevadans came together to support one another in they have worked to help each other ever since. extending my prayers to all those in florida and those with loved ones and family there who are in the hurricane ian's

dangerous path. i come to the floor tonight to talk about ukraine. this is the 24th week in a row i have come to bring to the attention of my colleagues what is happening in this part of the world where russia has attacked a sovereign and democratic country with brutality. i come to talk about the latest news of russia's illegal and unprovoked war on ukraine and to ensure that my colleagues know how important it is that we do follow up with our commitment to ukraine and pass the legislation that's on the floor this week to provide supplemental funding to the ukrainian government, the military and human tairn effort. i will -- humanitarian effort. i will highlight the counteroffensive here in the upper part of ukraine where there's been a great deal of success.

the light blue is where ukraine has been liberated in the past few weeks, it's about 3,000 square miles, the rest is still with russia. i will talk about the recent decision by russia to draft an additional 3,000 troops and vladimir putin threatening once again a nuclear attack. i will discuss in this body again this week because we in the next couple of days are going to decide whether to provide additional funding for ukraine. it's so important we provide support for ukraine at this crucial juncture, as ukraine is pushing back against russia's war of aggression. last week i touched on the extraordinary success of this counteroffensive. as you will recall, ukraine launched a counteroffensive in the northern part of the country and in a matter of days, ukraine

liberated over 3,000 square miles of territory and sent the invaders rushing back to russia, back to eastern parts of ukraine. to the north, russian forces have been pushed back to the international boundary here and over into ukraine or some into belarus. along this front line is a river, and it's -- it's the oskul river, which many thought would be a barrier to block ukraine from making further gains and as we have seen ukrainian forces have been able to cross the bridge, including here, right here, and also one here east of isum where there were all sorts of atrocities discovered, but there's been

additional ukrainian success here and progress in crossing the river to the east. as you will see from the map, a key city called lemon will be surrounded by three sides and when it is surrounded by three sides, it will be very difficult for russia to defend it. the sense is the invaders there will be forced to surrender or retreat. clearly ukraine continues to have the momentum here in the northeast and therefore exactly the time for us to continue to support ukraine. u.s. funding has made a huge difference and the actions of this body and the house of representatives and the administration in providing this help to ukraine has allowed for successes that were unimaginable seven months ago when russia initiated this latest invasion. they stopped and are pushing back a russian army much larger and with a lot more heavy equipment. our support along with that of

over 50 countries around the world. let me underline that, 50 countries or more around the world have provided military assistance to ukraine. that has enabled the survival of this country as a free and independent ukraine. yesterday i had the privilege to host ukraine's ambassador to the united states, along with members of ukraine's parliament. we heard first hand from them how the weapons we're providing are making a huge difference on the battlefield. one of the parliamentarians returned from the northeast region. she was in the area of c c cherv because the weapons, particularly the himars are making such a difference. the himars are long-range -- to

ensure the end use is being monitored. the end use monitoring is the term the 101 airborne used when talking about poland. this is an example of himars. there are 16 himars from the united states. there's also some from u.k., also some from germany, those 16 remain undamaged, which is extraordinary and they've been incredibly useful. but we need to ensure that all of this equipment goes to the right place to ensure there's no fraud, no diversion of weapons. in my visits to the region, including a month ago, i did speak to u.s. military officials, both in poland and in ukraine, who provided details on how they were tracking u.s. and other weapons to ensure they are not diverted from the ukrainians and from the front lines.

this end-use monitoring is being implemented in ways that have never been done before and the ukrainians are full partners. i heard that from the president of ukraine, president zelenskyy and i heard it also from the parliamentarians, they think it's in their interest as well. is trying to convince media. over the weekend a bbc investigation revealed allegations from russia media sources that were picked up, frankly, by some u.s. and european media which is a warning, i think, to our own media to be careful and check your sources. but the reports from the russian media was that u.s. supplied weapons were being sold on the black market in ukraine. bbc determined that was entirely false. russians had posed as ukrainians on the dark web pretending to sell these weapons in order to undermine american and european

confidence in ukraine's ability to control these weapons. turns out it was a totally false narrative peddled by the russian government in order to sow division -- sow division. our military aid to ukraine is getting into the right hands and is not being diverted for malign purposes. a specific example of what we have provided making a difference are these himars we talked about. by all accounts ukrainian forces have used these creatively to be able to disrupt the logistics of the russian armed forces. they've been striking behind enemy lines to destroy russian ammunition depots, logistic hubs, command and control outposts. prior to the himars, only the russians had long range artillery and they could fire on ukrainian civilians and military with impunity. finally they have the ability to push back. these weapons have enabled the spectacular counteroffensive we saw in the northeast to be able

to succeed. so when we give the ukrainians weapons they've actually been asked for and need, they use them effectively and it's working. in the clearest sign yet that russia is feeling desperate, last week president putin announced a new draft, at least 300 soldiers to support his troubled war in ukraine. remember, president putin promoted his special operation in ukraine as a special military operation that would not touch the lives of ordinary russians. it would be quick. it would involve minimal casualties and bring great glory to russia. now after seven months, tens of thousands of casualties, a substantial part of their military equipment being lost on the battlefield and global outrage with what russia is doing, president putin is being enforced to implement the first mass mobilization since world war ii to bolster his failing war effort. this is an act of desperation and unpopular to the people in russia. antimobilization protests in 38 russian cities saw more than

1300 people arrested just last week. here of some of the demonstrations. the punishment for many of those detained, by the way, if they are males between the ages of, say, 18 and 50 is to be forcibly conscripted. several russian enlistment offices have been burned down by citizens armed with whole to have cocktails who want nothing to do with vladimir putin's war in ukraine. the announcement of the mobilization has caused many thousands of military-aged men to flee russia to avoid being sent to wamplet it's report -- war. it's reported airline tickets out of moscow have reached $5,000 or $10,000 or more and flights are totally sold out. car traffic at the international borders have caused massive traffic jams as though who can't fly out of russia try to drive out to get away from the conscription. here's an example with the border with georgia. you can see these cars lined up for miles. russia is so desperate that they're recruiting just about

any able bodied man to get bodies in to fill their ranks. these are not military-trained individuals. they're letting prisoners out of jail if they promiseo fight. despite the official policy that this mobilization will only draft men with prior military experience, they will take anyone. in a region of russia, a young man shot and killed another who was trying to conscript his friend who had mo military experience. he is breaking his promise to the military -- to the people and they're responding. after numerous postpone months, moscow backed officials in several areas suddenly announced last tuesday they would hold an immediate referendum to join russia which they cleated over the weekend in typical russian fashion the so-called reverend today are not free or fair. the results have been preor zaneed in moscow and the actual conduct of the voting is just theater. there are a lot of videos

circulating. you have probably seen them of online videos of armed russian soldiers going door to door to conduct these illegal referendums. so you have an armed soldier with an automatic weapon next to an election official asking someone how they're going to vote. here's an example of one of the photographs that somebody bravely took of a russian soldier literally looking over the shoulder of a ukrainian citizen. how can any ukrainian vote against the referendum in the face of an automatic rifle. the european union, united nations, united states and others of course have caused these sham elections. it appears that russia thinks by claiming these territories as theirs, it can justify now their use of chemical, biological, or even nuclear weapons in order to defend what putin would call his own sovereign territory. of course no matter what russia says, this, all of this is ukrainian territory. it is sovereign ukrainian territory.

sham reverend dwum is only -- referendum is only a russian escalation of their illegal and unprovoked war on ukraine. the results this week are predictable. it will be 95%. it will be 98%. you can look for them. the process won't be fair and will be done with fragrant disregard to law. russian actions revealed their weak hand and the world is not fooled. ben wallace said the partial mobilization and annexation of parts of ukraine are an admission of mr. putin's invasion failing. ambassador to ukraine brink called the announced measures signs of weakness. we must make it clear the runs never recognize russia's claims to these annexed territories. president putin failed threats last week and again this week some say to use nuclear weapons to defend illegally annexed territory have received a good deal of media attention. first, it should be noted he's made similar threatening statements this the past. but he also knows that the use

of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for his own country. as "the washington post" said over the weekend, there are no military gains to be had from a nuclear atk. they didn't -- it incinerates everything in its path and leaves the hand inhabitable. the nuclear attack would also affect russia and its citizens. meanwhile if you were to act on such a threat, president putin would immediately turn his country into even more of a pariah than it is now and there would be a severe consequence as the united states has warned. nuclear weapons have not been used since world warm ii, almost 80 years ago. using them now would plunge us into a far more dangerous world and the world would never forgive president putin. the countries that have taken a neutral assistance would -- stance would quickly change their tune. the conflict has shown that when push comes to shove, the alliance actually comes together to protect ukraine. it binds together.

nuclear blackmail cannot be allowed to work. responding to vladimir putin's reckless threats by pulling back would only reward bad behavior and create a more dangerous and volatile world. appeasement does not work. in response to these threats, it is crucial that we continue to support ukraine while making clear to russia there will be enormous costs for the use of a nuclear weapon. national security adviser jake sullivan said on sunday morning that, quote, any nuclear weapon will be met with catastrophic consequences for russia, end quote. this battle for freedom transcends this congress. it transcends partisanship. we all know who the aggressor is in this fight. the people of ukraine never asked for anything other than peace and to be able to live with their neighbors, including russia in peace. the right to exist as a sovereign independent nation, russia's illegal and unprovoked war is an attack on their fundamental right to self-governance. we've all seen the evidence of war crimes, the torture, the

rape, the killings of innocent ukrainian civilians and noncombatants, the video of ukrainian soldiers being tortured with box cutters and mass grave sites. nato's response last week to the russian atrocities this past week was to reaffirm our unwavering support for ukraine's independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and for ukraine's inherent right to self-defense. allies remain resolute in providing political and practical support to ukraine as it continues to defend itself against russia's aggression. global support has increased in response to the increasing number of atrocities being committed by russian soldiers. i was able to hear about this firsthand when i met with the ukrainian prosecutor general about the ongoing global effort to hold russia accountable for the war crimes which are a clear violation of international law. we discussed ways the united states can aid ukraine in its effort to investigate and prosecute cases of war crimes conducted by russian soldiers in ukraine.

last week i talked about the mass graves that people tortured and executed in the city of izium who knows how many more are out there. the evidence of this genocide grows every day and every day the anger against russia grows alongside it. so far we believe these war crimes have resulted in the deaths of at least 7300 civilians including 391 children. the west and our allies must all recognize that these russian atrocities will not stop until russia believes the costs are too high. until there are more ukrainian victories on the battlefield and until the sanctions are more effective at cutting off funding to russia's war machine, russia needs to feel the scweeses. we talked about this in the senate foreign relations committee hearing today. that is the only way this russian brutality, this madness ends. for the sake of global freedom, ukraine must not be allowed -- ukraine must be allowed to end this war on its terms. not on russia's terms. to get to that point requires us

to continue supporting ukraine, to keep the momentum going. what would it say if we backed down now? in an address before the united nations last week, president zelenskyy said last week and quote, the world wants peace and we have seen who is the only one who wants war. end quote. secretary state blinken summed it up. if russia stops fighting, the war ends. if russia stops fighting, the war ends. if ukraine stops fighting, ukraine ends. he encourage the senate to act with a united voice in support of the people of ukraine. the battlefield -- ukrainian prosecutors can investigate more war crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice. as russia continues their ruthless attack on freedom and democracy, it's our duty to stand up for what we believe is true, that life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness will always win in the fight against tyranny and it's working.

ukrainian liberators have taken back cities across ukraine as we've seen. it's working. and unlike russia, the morale of the ukrainian people and the troops is strong. their owe their determination is strong. we must continue to let the world know we stand with ukraine. and as i've heard from multiple meetings with ukrainian officials, including some of the parliamentarians we were with yesterday, they've said freedom must be armed. and the united states must be there to lead that effort to ensure that freedom's flame is not extinguished in ukraine. thank you, madam chair. the presiding officer: the senator from sermt. a senator: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the foreign relations committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 753. the presiding officer: the clerk will report.

the clerk: senate resolution 753 urging the government of brazil to ensure that the october 2022 elections are conducted in a free, fair, credible, transparent, and peaceful manner. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the measure? without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. mr. sanders: i know of no further debate on the resolution. the presiding officer: is there further debate? if not, all in favor say aye. those opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the resolution is agreed to. mr. sanders: i ask unanimous consent the preamble be agreed to and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. sanders: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i have risen today to ask unanimous consent senate resolution 753 expressing the sense of the senate on the upcoming election in brazil. this sunday, october 2, brazil will hold its presidential election. according to many polls, it appears that the two major candidates. if no candidate receives over50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election between the top two candidates on october 30. madam president, over the past several months, brazilians from all sectors of society have publicly expressing serious concern about ongoing efforts to undermine democracy in their

country, including close to one million brazilians who signed an open letter released on july 26 defending the democratic institutions of brazil and the rule of law. and there is a very good reason why these people in brazil signed that letter. and that is the current president and candidate for reelection has made some very provocative statements which suggest that he might not accept the election results if he loses. in other words, he might attempt to destroy brazilian democracy and remain in power no matter what the people of brazil determine in a free, fair, and democratic election. and let me just quote some of

what mr. bolsonaro has been saying over the last several years. back in september 2018, before he won his election, bolsonaro stated and i quote, i will not accept an election result that is not my own victory, end of quote. on september 7, 2021, as reported by the ""financial times,"" mr. bolsonaro stated and i quote, there are those who think they can take me from the presidency with the mark of a pen. well, i say to everyone, i have three possible fates -- arrest, death, or victory. and tell the bastards, i'll never be arrested. only god can take me from the presidency, end of quote. according to human rights watch,

previously, president bolsonaro had claimed without providing any evidence that the last two presidential elections were fraudulent, including his own election in which he claimed he got more votes than the final tally showed. but it's not just bolsonaro's words that should be of concern to those of us who believe in democracy. according to a recent survey by the federal university of the state of, brazil is experiencing an increase in violence directed against political leaders in 2022 relative to 2019. last month the workers party official was shot dead by a bolsonaro supporter. yesterday ritter reported that the federal police guarding former president lula desilva

who is the current front-runner, sent a memo to senior colleagues across brazil calling for backup in order to protect lula from possible assassination attempts. it is clearly not the business of the united states to determine who the next president of brazil is or to get involved in brazil's presidential elections in any way. that is a decision to be made solely by the people of brazil through a free and fair election. but it is the business of the united states to make clear to the people of brazil that our government will not recognize or support a government that comes to power through a military coup or the undermining of a democratic election. in that regard, i have asked and

received unanimous consent today for a resolution that i introduced with senator tim kaine. that resolution is also cosponsored by senators durbin, leahy, mercury, blumenthal, and warren. i would also lake to thank senator menendez, the chair of the senate foreign relations committee, for allowing this resolution to come to the floor. this resolution, madam chair, is very simple and straightforward. it does not take sides in brazil's elections. all it does is express the sense of the united states senate that the united states government should make unequivocally clear that the continuing relationship of the united states and brazil depends upon the commitment of the government of brazil to democracy and human rights.

it urges the biden administration to make clear that the united states will not support any government that comes to power in brazil through undemocratic means and to ensure united states security assistance to brazil remain compliant with our laws related to the peaceful and democratic transition of power. this includes long-standing legal restrictions on the provision of security assistance in the event of a military coup. madam president, in my view, it is imperative that the u.s. senate make it clear through this resolution that we support democracy in brazil. it would be unacceptable for the united states to recognize a government that came to power undemocratically, and it would send a horrific message to the

entire world if we did that. it is important for the people of brazil to know we are on their side, on the side of democracy. this resolution sent that message, and i thank my colleagues for supporting it. and with that, madam president, on the state of florida as we continue to move through the state today and too much of tomorrow and there will continue to be a number of ad versus a

fax. i can tell you as soon as it moves beyond southwest florida you are going to see a massive surge of personnel and supplies to be able to help those who are in need and get people back on their feet and helped to rebuild those communities. >> thank you governor. i think everybody should know that governors extremely committed to being involved in this response and he was here with me until late last night in here with me early this morning and he has not been anywhere else the entire time so governor thank you so much for your leadership in that area. it means a lot to me and that means a lot to the leadership it is the governor said hurricane ian has made landfall this afternoon as a category 4 winds of 155 miles an hour. i'm not going to read the specifics that governors mentioned that a couple of new ones here. 1100

482, s. 3092, a bill to amend the robert t. stafford disaster relief and emergency assistance act, to improve the provision of certain disaster assistance, and for other pups. -- and for other purposes. the presiding officer: is there objection to proceeding to the resolution? -- to the bill? without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. padilla: thank you, madam chair. i further ask that the padilla amendment, which is at the desk, be considered and agreed to, the committee-reported substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. padilla: thank you, madam president. so i rise to discuss and explain

the matter on which we just took action on. it is relative to wildfires. all across the western united states, historic wildfires continue to grow both more frequent and more severe. every year in recent years, entire communities have been destroyed by wildfires in a matter of hours. we've seen this in california, in new mexico, and colorado. families are forced to flee with only the belongings they can quickly pack into their vehicles. now, last year i visited the incident command center in quincy, california, to see firsthand the real-time response to the devastating dixie fire. separately i met with local leaders in santa rosa, california, to hear about problems with recovery from previous catastrophic wildfires.

so my bill, the bill we just took action on, the fema improvement reform and efficiency act, or the fire act, will help ensure fema better addresses the unique and increasing danger of wildfires. now, fema's current procedures and requirements don't always work for post-wildfire recovery needs, and this bill will close those gaps. i give a lot of credit to fema. they've got pretty good at anticipating and responding to other types of disasters. we're seeing it as we speak with the hurricane impacting florida. they do the same with tornadoes, floods, other disasters. in all these scenarios, we know that it begins with preparation. the fire act will begin the process of allowing fema to pre-deploy resources during times of extremely high risk.

in the west we know it as red-flag warnings. when it's hot, conditions are dry and the winds kick up, it's a recipe for disaster. and so to have fema be able to deploy in advance just as they do already during hurricane warnings, as we're seeing in florida at this very moment, is a smart thing to do. then, as communities rebuild after a devastating wildfire, this bill will ensure that fema takes wildfire-specific issues into account, like melted infrastructure and burned trees. it will also help local governments work with fema to more effectively relocate critical infrastructure away from fire-prone areas. now, in the aftermath of a fire, the bill will help provide

better housing assistance, case management, and crisis counseling for survivors with a focus on equity for underserved communities and tribal governments. oftentimes these underserved communities and tribal governments suffer a disproportionate impact of these wildfires. so with the fire act, we will be able to better prepare for and respond to the unique challenges of wildfires in california and throughout the western united states. the fire act passed out of the homeland security and government affairs committee by a voice vote on february 2 of this year, and i want to take a moment to thank both chairman peters and ranking member portman and their staffs who committed to this bill, as well as our partners at fema. this is an overdue, commonsense bill to help communities on the front lines of our wildfire crisis, and i thank my colleagues for joining me in

supporting it. and with that, madam president, side of full electric vehicles coming with all the electric equipment on it and these folks will help put the power back on and we had a procession of them. he talks about 42,000 after today there will be significantly more so you're really seeing agreed with put effort to put deck in response. any and sweat stand are you getting calls from people who have not a have not admitted how

many calls are we talking about thee right now i can't give it a solid number. earlier today the report was 21 r 29, 2022. r the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cassidy: madam president, i am constantly struck that when people say there's no consensus in washington, d.c., there's often consensus. it is just a question of a different means by which to achieve the goals of the consensus. if i were to say that we would want to have increased national security, lower global greenhouse gas emissions, a booming economy, and energy security, everybody would agree. the difference is how we achieve those means. and so what this process is is

to give the american people the opportunity to judge what is the best set of policies that will allow us to achieve that which we're speaking of. clearly, there is a nexus, a connection, you put them all together between energy security, national security, the economy of our country and the economy of a family and whether or not a country is lowering or increase their contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. this talk will be about that nexus. energy security, national security, global greenhouse gas emissions, how do we decrease them, and the economy of our country and the economy of a family. i'm from louisiana. i think that's pretty well known, the senior senator from louisiana. and we are privileged to host many of the facilities of the strategic petroleum reserve. that connection between energy security and national security.

now, the strategic petroleum reserve, for those who do not know, is where we have salt domes full of oil, millions of barrels, so that if ever there is another embargo like there was in 1973, where middle eastern countries were attempting to punish the united states, we would have enough in our strategic petroleum reserve so that we could draw from and we could preserve our national security and our economic security. again, that nexus between energy, national security, and the economy of a country and the economy of a family. now, president biden has decided to drain the strategic petroleum reserve to lower the price of gasoline. i'm all for lowering the price of gasoline, but if you think about it, drawing oil from a strategic petroleum reserve is

basically the same as pumping it out of the ground if it's in west texas or off the coast of louisiana. oneis oil that's been produced d put in a salt dome and the other is being produced naturally. so rather than increasing production on federal lands, the president made the decision to just draw from our strategic petroleum reserve. unfortunately, we are now at the lowest level of reserves since 1984. to the degree -- and it's a great degree -- that our national security depends upon being energy independent, we have lowered our reserve to the lowest since 1984, which is to say that we are less secure in terms of energy, therefore less secure in terms of our economy and less secure in terms of our national security. now the president needs a plan

to refill that from domestically produced oil. period, end of story. and the swing production of that is going to be production on federal lands such as that off the coast of louisiana. now where does that leave us? unfortunately, president biden's energy plan is such that the biden administration has set the record for the fewest oil leases on federal lands in the first 19 months of his office. both presidents obama and trump approved over ten times the number of leases as the biden administration has over the same period. so while russia is attempting to blackmail the rest of the world by their energy production, where we have drained our strategic petroleum reserve down to its lowest level since 1984, where europe is paying record

prices for oil and natural gas, which may bring on a recession-depression there which of course hurts our economy, this administration has had the fewest leases on record, and obama and trump had ten times as much in the same period. this is hurting our energy security, which means it hurts our national security, which means that it is going to hurt the economy of our country and the economy of a family. my gosh, just ask what they're paying for the utility bill, what they're paying to fill up their tank, ask what they're paying at the grocery store which is very dependent upon the supply of natural oil in order to keep those prices lower. they would say they are hurting. this anti-energy policy has hurt across the board. by the way, i think the rationale for not issuing those leases is that in some way if the united states does not

develop our own oil and gas resources, magically global greenhouse gas emissions are going to decrease. that is the superstitious of those who favor that policy, except, unfortunately, logic, you can't ignore facts, a national laboratory has said that if you're speaking about oil, that which has the lowest life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions is the oil produced off the coast of louisiana, which is far lower than the oil that we import from other countries. if you are really concerned about lowering global greenhouse gas emissions, it is the environmental standards that we use in our country to produce our natural resources -- and, by the way, creating our american jobs -- that has the lowest life cycle carbon emissions. so that completes our nexus. we spoke about energy security related to national security,

which in turn creates better jobs and a better economy for us all, and actually has the effect of lowering global greenhouse gas emissions. that is our nexus. unfortunately, this administration's policy is hurting the american family as they pay more through inflation, hurting our national security as our strategic petroleum reserve is at its lowest level, therefore, our energy security, and also contributing to increased global greenhouse gas emissions as we have to import from countries, import from countries without our environmental standards. and because we're unable to increase our production and supply, say europe, they're burning coal instead of our oil or gas, and with that increasing global greenhouse gas emissions. now there are some bright spots. on a bipartisan basis, the congress just passed the kigali

amendment which recognizes, which was a form of hydro carbons used in refrigerants, and the use of this will lower greenhouse gas emissions. the united states congress just passed that. and so other countries which persist in using older technology which increases global greenhouse gas emissions will be at a competitive disadvantage because congress passed that. so in the midst of this kind of bad news, it's not working out the way it should, we actually have an example of how we can make it work better. i am an advocate for a carbon border adjustment. not a carbon tax. i think carbon tax is a wrong way to go. but let me explain. if we have a carbon border adjustment where the u.s. chemical industry using our environmental standards, using

natural gas as a feed stock, everything we've done, invested in to lower our greenhouse gas emissions, we are competing with countries in asia, specifically china, which don't use those measures, which pollute far more than we. but because they don't use their environmental standards, may have a lower cost of manufacturing. we are competing against cheaper goods, but they're precisely cheaper because they're producing more global greenhouse gas emissions. the kigali amendment tells us what to do. if we had a carbon border adjustment where we say this is the carbon intensity of our good that's produced, and if a country in asia, say specifically china, has a carbon emission profile which may be five to ten times higher, if they want to import their good, they would have to pay a fee based upon how their

carbon intensity is greater than ours. that's great. one, it's going to help us with our economy. our workers who are losing their jobs to those in china, because they don't enforce their environmental standards and we enforce ours and therefore our cost of production is higher, those jobs begin to return. it will be cheaper to produce here after all if china is forced to pay for the pollution that they're putting into the atmosphere. it creates more jobs. that's good for americans, good for our economy, strengthens us relative to the chinese who are using their profits to build a bigger army. it is good for greenhouse gas emissions. now china is actually incentivized to lower emissions as opposed to now where they had no incentive to do anything but to increase their emissions. so we begin to decrease global

greenhouse gas emissions. that's good for our national security. the stronger our economy is, the relative weakness of the chinese economy means that we're better able to invest relative to the chinese, which means that we're better able to spread western values as opposed to the chinese values which involve bribery, which involve corruption of government, which involve coercion. just look at what has happened in hong kong if someone thinks the chinese communist party is a better system of government. we're able to export our values and push back upon theirs. so, if we're trying to have a policy, as i said at the outset, which combines the best instincts of the right and the left, where we all want to have energy security, national security. we want to have a better, stronger economy for working americans, and we want to lower

greenhouse gas emissions. the kigali amendment which passed on a bipartisan basis gives us an example of how to do that. let's make a strength of our environmental regulations and let's make others pay for their ignoring those same regulations. and in so doing, we begin to attract jobs back here for americans to strengthen our economy. lowering global greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening our energy security, our economy, and therefore our national security. mr. president, thank you. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. brown: that youthank you, mr. president. i rise to ask my colleagues to join me in honoring max morrisy and ben morrisy, two brothers who went to work on september 20 at the b.p. husky oil refinery

in oregon, ohio, and never returned home and the tragic explosion at the refinery that night they were fatally injured at 34 and 32 their lives were cut short. they were loving fathered and with the union. they spent their lives serving their families, their community, their union, their country. through their dedication to these jobs and through max morrisy's distinguished service to the united states ?eaf. their work at the plant provided for our state and economy and provided for their family, and family was everything to max and ben. they shared dedication and commitment to each other, to their parents, to their wives, to their young children. on friday i visited the steel workers hall. i had the honor of speaking with the morrisy family, and max and ben steel worker brothers and sister and local 1346.

from all i learned about max and ben, i know their memories will live on. i know their legacies will be upheld by those whom they loved and who loved them. we talked about this pin i wear, a canary pin given to me years ago at a workers memorial day in lorain, ohio, honoring the workers who lost their lives working to support the economy and building a live for their family. this pin is a picture of a canary in a bird cage. i know the presiding officer knows this. the mine workers used to take the canary in a cage down in the mines. if the canary died from lack of oxygen, the mine worker got quickly out of the mine. he had no union to protect him and no government that cared enough to protect him in those days. a strong union changed that because of worker safety laws and because of the labor movement. this tragedy reminds us that our

work to protect workers and make our neighbors, and make our workplaces safer never, never ends. no worker should ever have to worry about not returning home at the end of the day. no family should ever have to be concerned about that. not steel workers like max and ben, not first responders who rush to their aid. no one. i want to recognize those first responders, the steel workers, the fire brigade, the oregon fire department, those first responders at the scene whose bravery made a difference. today we recommit ourselves to max and ben's examples of dignity of work, to the importance of family and community. our thoughts are with the morrisy family, with all those who knew and loved max and ben, and with those who worked alongside them. i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. warner: mr. president, first, i want to compliment my friend, the senator from ohio,

for always be willing to speak out on behalf of working people all across the country. i agree with him that organized labor for literally decades have always protected working people, and we need to bear that in mind as we sort through the issues that we confront on a regular basis. so i thank him for his comments. mr. president, i rise today to actually celebrate a major accomplishment for thousands of americans who have been trapped for, many times, decades, in exploitive joint student loans. this is an issue near and dear to me because i've been working on it for seven years, since hearing from a constituent way back in 2015. sarah, from northern virginia, was part of a group of student loan borrowers who entered into something called a joint consolidation loan, which

allowed married couples to combine their student debt into a single loan. truth was though that sounded good, but congress didn't allow anyone to unwind those loans in the event of a divorce or abusive relationship. finally, in 2006, congress got rid of the whole program. when they got rid of the whole program they didn't retroactively create an option for those folks who had entered into these joint consolidation loans between 1993 and 2006. when my constituent, sarah, who had divorced from her husband when she was living in texas, she was still responsible for this loan. so all of the debt that had originally been his was suddenly fell upon her shoulders. is the divorced husband stopped

paying the debt, yet she was still responsible. and she, sarah, had to continue facing the consequences. now, she was a single mom of two, public schoolteacher. sarah was financially on the hook for her defaulting husband's student debts. her credit suffered dramatically. she even thought she was going to lose her teacher's license. now, she did a lot, great researcher, and i talked to her a couple times. after looking for a way out, she found the only way to fix this problem was for an act of congress. well, she contacted my office, and we found out that this was not a one-off circumstance, but literally there were thousands of americans all across the country who'd fallen into this trap. a lot of them were domestic violence survivors who, even though they'd gotten out of an

abusive relationship, were still stuck with paying off the debts of their abuser. many of these were victims of financial abuse. again, completely responsible for a loan that, in many cases, they'd never even taken out. others were unable to save for retirement for their kids. we had a lot of teachers that were otherwise able, for the public service loan forgiveness programs, but because they entered into these joint con sol tate the date -- consolidated student loans weren't eligible. i did research, looked into it. in 2017, i introduced the joint consolidation loan separation act. to solve this problem, and find a way for oftentimes innocent borrowers to get out of these consolidations. now, starting back in 2015, i got to acknowledge, it took seven years, something that was

this much of a no-brainer shouldn't have taken that long, but i'm proud to be here today and report that we did get it through congress on a bipartisan basis. here in the senate, i'm grateful for a lot of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, grateful for the presiding officer, we actually passed it on a unanimous basis. in the house we passed with a broad bipartisan coalition. that's a testament to what critical commonsense fix this is, one that will actually change the lives of thousands of americans literally overnight. now, since we introduced this law, the first time, my office has heard from so many americans who are desperate to get this done. remember hearing from chris from indiana who said he spent over 16 years thinking about this loan every day and waking up at night trying to create a strategy to pay this loan off. he got back to us, and he said, for the first time, i may be

able to put my mind at peace. we heard from sharon, who is a seventh grade teacher whose former partner was totally unresponsive on meeting their obligations on this joint consolidation. she said, i don't have to do this anymore. i get to live my life. she gets to actually retire this year because once president biden signs this law it will immediately relief her of this obligation. or jessica, who said i am finally able to be free of one of the last ways my ex troals me. again, i can't imagine entering into this arrangement, and then getting out of a relationship, often, sometimes, an abusive relationship, and that ex still trying to control this person by not meeting their share of the

obligation. it just was wrong. or next, amy, who falls into the category of -- otherwise, she was a teacher, i believe she was able to get public service loan forgiveness, worked for something that should qualify, but if you entered into one of these joint consolidations you didn't get this benefit. amy said i've never been able to take advantage of a single debt relief program. this bill will change at that. obviously, in terms of public service loans, but also in terms of some of the proposals president biden has put forward. all these people have been asking for is a chance to not unduliy -- unduly bear the joint burden of a program that even the congress and the federal government decided in 2006 wasn't fair, that when we unwound it we didn't unwind, literally for thousands of people who had fallen into this

program between 93 and 2006. now, we're through the house, we're through the senate. we've still got to get one thing, and while the white house has indicated that the president supports this legislation, we've got to get it signed right away. because, when we think about these teachers and nurses and other folks who met their goal of what they have to qualify in critical areas to qualify for public student debt forgiveness, the truth is if they're going to get that benefit this year they've got to make that application by october 31. so before halloween these folks and countless others are waiting for them to simply apply for a right that, in many cases, they should have been granted five, ten, 15 years ago. as i said, many of the folks in this category are public

schoolteachers, they're government workers, they're nurses, they all have met the otherwise oftentimes stringent requirements for public service loan forgiveness. this law lass to be a law -- this law has to be a law in time for them to timely apply for this relief before halloween. i'm hoping, the president has indicated he supports this bill, but the president's got to sign this law as soon as possible. so borrowers can finally experience freedom from financial and domestic abuse, freedom to control their own financial future, and freedom to enjoy the exact same benefits that other teachers and public servants have across the country. i'd like to close in saying this week i actually had a chance to call sarah, who originally brought this issue to my

attention. she told me without this law, and even if she had continued making all of her monthly payments for her divorced husband, it would have been impossible for her to increase -- to get rid of this debt in her lifetime. she would literally have been tied to her ex-husband, and she left texas to get away from that ex-husband, to move to virginia, she would literally be tied to that former spouse for the rest of her life. for sarah and for the literally thousands of other borrowers impacted by this program, it's time for the president to sign this law and provide these borrowers the relief they deserve. mr. president, i yield the floor, and note the absence of a

quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

afternoon. i'm here with kevin guthrie are four. director-producer a cane ian made landfall in southwest florida this afternoon and it's battering areas of southwest florida lee, charlotte and counties beyond that. we have seen life-threatening storm surge as was predicted. we have also seen major flooding in places like call your county, sanibel fort myers beach. you are also seeing inland flooding is that the inundation you are saying of some of the counties in the interior estate seeing major water events as well. we do know that lee, hendry and laid 911 call centers are being rerouted. calls are being answered and teams and the people that are calling or being noted and those local first responders will deploy as soon as it's safe to do so.

obviously local responders can make decisions that i enlarged until the storm passes they are not going to go into a situation for rescue and put their own folks at risk so we know they are old you are in the high-risk zone a get back ration zone who did not evacuate. some have called in and those people are being logged and there will be a response but it's likely going to take a little time for this storm to move forward so that it's safe for first responders to be able to do. we are getting reports that it's going to take more time to know exactly in terms of structural damage but we are getting some reports of structural damage in lee and charlotte counties but i would say overwhelmingly it's in that surge that has been the biggest issue in the flooding that has resulted as a result of that. in some areas we think it hit

12 feet. our meteorologist view that the storm surge has likely peaked and will like he be less in the coming hours than it has been up to this point but we know that this has been a big storm and has done a lot of damage as it is. it will continue to move through the state of florida. you will see hurricane-force winds in places in central florida perhaps. clearly a very strong tropical storm all the way until it exits the florida peninsula in the atlantic ocean. there are as much as we are focused on self florida it's important obviously when you have a storm of this nature i think at landfall it's going to be behind only the labor day hurricane, hurricane andrew in hurricane michael in terms of intensity. i think we'll we will end up seeing that. it may end up being a category 5 bed at a minimum it's going to be a very strong category 4 that

will. as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. .. be prepared for impacts. you're seeing counties in different parts of the state issue evacuation orders. clay county in northeast florida at which we do anticipate some major, major flooding events in northeast florida. i think folks are familiar the st. john's river no that when you have weather like this you will see this. and so clay county is situated mandatory evacuation of low-lying areas along the st. johns river. flagler county is issued mandatory evacuations of its barrier islands. low-lying areas and mobile homes. nasa has issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas.

st. johns county is evacuating coastal and low-lying areas. including the city of saint augusta as well of the city of saint augusta beach. putnam county is recommend evacuation for low-lying areas and areas that have a history of flooding. and sumner county is advising evacuation of mobile homes. those are places that are hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the initial impact in southwest florida. and yet they are having to evacuate folks that are living in vulnerable areas. we have over 1.1 million reported power outages. there are crews that are still working outside of southwest florida. but just understand that numbers going to grow. you're going to see more power outages as storm moves to the center part of our state, into the atlantic coast. there are 100 portable cell phone towers ready to be deployed going to southwest florida once it is safe to

enter. we want to make sure people staying out of the way of emergency crews, out of flood waters and from old sound power lines. as soon as emergency crews can get in, they're going to get in. as soon as it is safe to go and clear of the roadways, for department transportation is going to go in and clear the roadways. these are all on standby. they are ready to go. they understand the importance of a really, really quick response. as i mentioned earlier today with officially sent a letter with requested biotin ministration for a disaster declaration for all 67 counties. requesting federal government do one had a% reimbursement upfront for 60 days to ensure we quickly move forward into this response and recovery phase. i know sometimes that way for different damage assessments are made. but in the situation of a massive category store form report you compared charlie to this, this is way, way, bigger than charlie.

it was the strong as charlie coming in but charlie was much smaller. so this is a big one and we all know this going to be major, major impacts. not only for 8000 linemen positioned all across the state of florida. as soon as it is safe to go those personnel are going to go into that resume power. that something that is very, very poor. in terms of rescue efforts as robust efforts and each of these counties. some of these are major counties interstate like lee county, collier county, they've got great response team is. the state of florida we are providing a lot of support station ready to go. we have almost 250 aircraft, more than 1600 high water vehicles. more than 300 boats of all drafts and sizes but including 250 already stationed in the manger impacted areas. in nearly 50 stage and immediately ready to come in.

with the water this high these operations may need to be waterborne operations. they are set on you knowing going to need to use the get the barrier islands anyway. downtown naples is flooded. it is probably going to subside as the time goes on. but they are prepared for a lot of different eventualities. we are thankful to the states that have sent us the resources. we are very, very appreciative of them stepping up and helping florida. as the storm passes your community, understand it's still a very hazardous situation. you are going to have downed power lines. you are going to have the possibility of the harms away of standing water, and misuse of generators. i asked the department of emergency management, cap and to produce for me the rundown of the fatalities through direct impact that storms versus the

aftermath. in hurricane irma there are seven fatalities directly because of the storm there were 77 that were a result of post- storm. a lot of that is standing water, downed power lines, misuse of generators. so please just take precaution. obviously a ferocious storm coming and very hazardous very ominous. we note the life-threatening nature of that. but once the storm goes, once there is an apparent calm there is still plenty of hazards out there. so just please make sure you're taking proper precautions. i'm happy volunteer florida is now activated the florida disaster fund. sometimes people say we want to help, what can we do? there's really two things you can do. one, send some donations, money. the other can be donate your time. what is not helpful as sending items and sending things to us. we have a lot of stuff

pre-position if there's a need for other stuff kevin and his team will work pretty all of these groups will work to provide that. if you provide money to some volunteer organizations and charity groups, they can make a big impact in people's lives. you're willing to volunteer time, there's going to be ways you can put to work. there's going to be a lot of people that are going to need help on the back end of the thing. so if you want to contribute go to florida disaster fund.org. or text disaster 20222. for those who want to come and volunteer we have an official volunteer portal at volunteer florida www.volunteer florida.org to find volunteer opportunities. this storm is doing a number on the state of florida. it is going to continue to move through the states today and through much of tomorrow. there is going to continue to be a number of adverse effects. i can tell you it was soon as it moves beyond southwest florida

you are going to see a massive surge of personnel and supplies to be able to help those who are in need. get people back on their feet on help to rebuild those communities, kevin. >> thank you governor. i think everybody should know the governors extremely committed committed to being involved in this response. he was here with me until late last night. he was here with me early this morning. he has not been anywhere very near me the entire time. governor and thank you so much for your leadership in that area. it means a lot to me it means a lot to the leadership. as a governor said hurricane and has made landfall this afternoon as a category four. winds of one or 55 miles per hour from not going to read all the statistics the governor has mentioned. i will bring a couple of new interior. 1100 resource requests we have received 1100 resource requests. we have fulfilled 900 of those.

again difference of 200 to stuff we just cannot get out on the road right now. we are working as quickly as possible to address those needs. we have a well over 200 shelters open. we have 42000 restoration personnel. we literally have with first responders across the state additional ones coming in as well over 10,000 responders state wide ready to do stuff. as the storm it makes way across florida i remind floridians to stay indoors if you are in the path of the storm. if you are sheltering in place in the path of the storm and you still have a power and/or wi-fi, florida disaster.org/info to fill out our shelter in place survey. we have had a lot of people answer that and give us that information.

about the demographics of your household so they can aid your family as soon as possible. please keep in mind first responders may not be able to immediately enter impact areas to assist you due to the safety hazards. we will say we are planning a three prong response to handle that specific issue. we have personal stage coming in via ground via vehicles. we have personnel stage with deployed assets. the may also have the coast guard mission while commission ready to come in by sea for those barrier islands and beachfront properties. we will have a response mechanism that will have all three of those arms. shelter in place survey again i reiterated florida's disaster.org/info. if you need immediate assistance please dial 911. that site is not a replacement

for 911. if it has -- if it is calm outside you may be in the eye of the storm for the eye of the storm continues to move inland it's getting ready to enter areas such as henry county, glades county, do not go outside if all of the sudden the wind stops. in this situation that means you are the eye of the hurricane. seek shelter immediately. get into an interior room and protect yourself. do not walk or drive through flooded areas. floodwaters can still i'm sorry floodwaters can stall your car and sweep you in your car away in a blink of an eye. the receive reports of isolated tornadoes across the east central florida. if you're in a tornado warning again seek in interior room free of windows get low and put something over the top of your head to protect yourself. if a tornado warning i'm sorry, self deployments. we do not want individuals self deploying out on their own.

that is very, very dangerous. leave that to the professionals who are trained in how to do that. do not take your personal boat out in these situations. we do not want to have to respond to yet another problem. the governor mentioned we are indirect so please, what want you to do more than anything else is stay safe. please be careful out there and again governor thank you. there are reports there on the way. objection. mr. moran: mr. president, this evening i want to highlight a community that is a model across our state and the country. it's timely because just yesterday the new york city mayor joked that my home state of kansas has, quote, no brand

and then chuckled at his joke. i planned to give this speech before the mayor of new york used this as a punchline, but now it means even more. humble is the home to about 2,000 residents. like many small communities in rural america, they were facing declining population numbers as businesses moved away and buildings on main street were abandoned. even the locally owned newspaper which began business in 1864 and the longest, continuously running paper had to close its doors. in the last couple of years, humble has defied the odds. the vacant businesses on main street have thriving businesses, since 2020, humble has a coffee shop, a microbrewery, a grocery

store, hotel and the humble union has been reestablished. even as the pandemic created new challenges for many small businesses, humble's businesses were able to persevere. in january, the travel desk selected humble, alongside places like greece, australia and argentina. the majority of growth and economic development in the community can be contributed to a civic organization called a border hum bolt. i was taken on a tour of downtown to see first hand the renovation being done today and meet the owners of small businesses reshaping the town's square. paul said and i quote, i lived in a lot of big cities and the things i loved about them was

that they had complete neighborhoods with a grocery store, dry cleaners and a bar, which is basically what a small town is or used to be. this community is looking to rebuild that ideal american small town for the 21st century. i visited a cafe owned by josh works, who is also involved. his father owns b and w trailer hitches and prioritized the care for his staff and his community. in addition the community has rebuilt ten blocks of the downtown street scape with the help from a local business, monarch cement company own and and run by walter wolf. this is a 115 yeald business and is a staple of this community. the city has also developed south wind industrial park with the latest edition of murphy, tractor and equipment company providing new jobs for locals

and new residents. humboldt has also gained fame as the hometown of babalesta, an annual festival that has been going on for six decades and features the world's largest bible theme parade. the glad yating high school seniors are addressed and presented with the mailbox's -- mailboxes with the school's coloring. each box has the student's name and humboldt, kansas stenciled in orange letters. inside there's an invitation. he appeals to students to pursue an education and new experiences but also encourages them to consider their hometown of humboldt as the place to establish their careers and raise their own families. the community of humboldt is a success story and it's a role model. it demonstrates how teamwork, creative thinking, hard work,

treating others with respect and caring about the future of your community can make a positive difference for your city, the state, and for our entire nation. that's our brand in kansas. i'm proud to recognize the efforts of humboldt with what we call the building better communities award. today in the united states senate, i offer my congratulations and my gratitude for the kind of leadership and efforts among all the residents of the community to see that humboldt is a good place to live today and perhaps even more importantly a great place to live tomorrow. mr. president, i yield the floor and notice the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

what happens today tomorrow friday are you worried about a shutdown? look, were not going to have a government shutdown. i think you saw the senate took a vote. they'll pass it later today per the probably boat on in the senate. what are the most important things to do every year on the appropriations of defense come on home land, on egg. how important it is to get this done. i would also say the house appropriations committee, we passed all of the appropriations bill. all 12 appropriation bills about half of them pass over to the senate. we've done our work were waiting for the senate and i wish we would do this on time every september 30. >> people are saying this process is broken, do not blame the house appropriations committee? >> i am saying we did our job or that's all i'm saying. we passed all 12 appropriation bills from the committee. about half of them pass from the house over to the senate.

we do need to look at this. every year we get thousands of bills. i always feel the appropriations bill broken into 12 appropriation bills, though should take priority. it should be some sort of reform. -which we would say ever september 30 we have a continuation of the same level of those congress votes on it makes a variation like we're doing on this one. we are adding some monies as you noted variation on it. >> almost variations things that are not that there's not a variation or money and therefore additional covid response of the white house wanted bread there is money in their $12 billion for ukraine to continue fighting rush on the war in ukraine. and also billions of dollars to recovery, some $20 million for

water sanitation issues in jackson, mississippi. what of those things you support and what do you not support? >> i'm gonna pass the cr prim going to vote in favor of the cr. we need to continue the government. i know there are things were not added. but that is what happens. on the senate side it's a 50/50 split between democrats and republicans. when you do have ten republicans that come over to get this done. they could not get it on some of the issues including the energy permitting that senator joe manchin which is important to streamline, keep the environmental protections but streamline the profits. but again it is give-and-take. if you do not have the 60 votes in the senate fence and things are going to stay in some things are going to be dropped. that is what legislation is all about projects house minority leader kevin mccarthy's not going to be supporting the crp he said by another democrats do not use the government funding

bill to address the border crisis immediately, i'm voting no on this bill and i urge my colleagues to do the same. you and i always talk about border issues in your district right there on the border. your thoughts on that. >> first of all if you look at the homeland security bill that we passed on committee, it adds more border patrol agents. it adds support staff it adds money for men and women in the blue. adds money for technology, were looking at doing a pay raise for homeland security employees. tsa employees also at certain levels. provides a mental health care for border patrol, provides childcare for border patrol. provides a clothing allowance for border patrol. if you look at the bill, read the bill in support there is money there for border security. >> that bill not going to be the final version here?

this just continues under the old funding, none of those changes would happen? >> that is correct. we still have the money for the appropriations we are going to keep it again, i would provide support for the appropriations bill. it will be interesting what he does on this bill at the end appropriation bill will be interesting if he would just say i am a republican i'm voting no because at the democrat majority or feel support the men and women. talking about is one thing. keeping in mind doing another thing is very different. not only did the talk but you've got to do the walk unsupported the meta- women. people go down to the border, they will spend a couple hours. after they spent a few hours they think they know the border. without due respect i live at the border i talked to meta- women in green, blue, from unsecure to put a live there, i

talked to the landowners there. we know there is a problem there. but again, we are looking at practical solutions. we respect immigration and i certainly want to see immigration reform. but at the same time we do not want the open borders down there. we want to make sure we have law and order. whoever is supposed to come and should come in. who is not supposed to be here, they should be deported. that is with the law calls just like secretary jeh johnson under president obama did. they did at the right way. they found that balance to border security. some of us that live at the border we see administrations go too far to the left. some go too far to the right. we just say at times people do not understand us at the border. >> about 20 minutes left with congressman. (202)748-8000 peter palko's (202)748-8001. and if it's (202)748-8002.

also on the line for independence in fraser, michigan. this is chris. >> good morning congressman. you are down by the border town, i'm sure your constituents are pretty upset over the way your party has treated our border. since biden has been in office, there's over 5 million illegal aliens have come across the country. which has created such an issue to the border states being overrun. and within that 5 million is over a million got a ways of people they do not even know what they're bringing into the country. if they are terrorists, what kind of issues they have. a lot of the people are coming with no identification.

you do not know actually who these people are. you are just going by what they've been told. they are saying 70% the women coming through have been raped on the way. there is all kinds of trafficking and trafficking done to these women that are being brought through. when trump was in office he went down to the border many, many times and asked the border patrol what they wanted. he told the named a barrier to help slow down the situation. we've got this mini getaways and supposedly 100 10,000 young adults between 18 and 45 are dying every year by this fentanyl. i mean something's got to be done. >> congressman i'll let you jump in. >> first of all thank you so much and good morning to you. thank you for your question.

look, i do not believe in open borders. i also do not believe separating kids from their mothers the way president trump did. we are getting two extremes, from one admits russian to another ministration. we've got to make sure we understand how people come into the united states. we have to understand that coyotes and the smugglers make a lot of money packing drugs or packing people. they charge an average of $8000 it could be less, it could be much more depending on what country they're coming from. they make billions of dollars unjust people. we have got to be able to address that. i know things we got to look at as we play defense on the 1 yard line or repay defense on the 20-yard line. making sure mexico, guatemala, the other countries do their jobs to less people are coming in. got to direct that. make sure border patrol the

right equipment, personnel. he'll cap push factors and pull factors. what happens to those countries? why are they pushed over here? what pulls him over here? we've got to be able to address that. again the got to stop them. keep in mind most drugs will come through ports of entry through the bridges. 90% of the fentanyl will come through ports of entry. so even if you put a wall it is not going to stop most of the drugs. there will come in from ports of entry. by the way a few years ago 60% of people who were here illegally and i say that because you are from michigan. illegally came through they were able to come here legal and they overstay their visa. the number one violator was it canada, your neighbor right there. so again i want to make sure that as we address the issue we know the facts.

we know the facts and we address them in the correct way. by the way on the wall it is interesting, things change over time. before 2012 the border patrol union was against the wall because they felt it was a waste of money. they would rather get that money and put it into personnel. then of course the border patrol union had a change in leadership. and after 2012 they said the wall is the solution. and after all a wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century problem. we have got to be smart on how we stop this. again i will say this, if you want to talk about deportation, who deported more people question it was not president trump. it was action president obama with secretary johnson pretty treated people with respect and dignity. but at the end of the day he said we will return you because this is what the law says. the same laws we have now. we've just got to enforce the laws we have on the books right now. thank you for your question.

>> thank you for asking. >> your question was meant. >> yes, i may not be one of your biggest fans, you're more considered a democrat the myself with immigration issue, i have completely agree with your viewpoint in this issue and democrats about the immigration. [inaudible]. and i think it's the blindness

of the bed administration myself and also met veteran in afghanistan. [inaudible]. in the second biggest is at the border not to say that trump administration sold the issue in the expanse of the trump administration. fueled by racism, the policy of trying to say that only phd's in several should be allowed in the country. and people like ted cruz and senator from florida, he came from cuba. this is america, we only the sooners, we need hard-working people. >> born are running short on time did you have a question.

>> i just wanted to say if the democratic party should be listening when it comes to immigration the more to congressman when it comes to immigration right. >> congressman. >> will thank you for your kind words and i really appreciate that number one and number two i hope that you stay safe from the hurricane this would be getting there i hope everything worked out for the people of florida but i me say this, we have to understand the border. what is happening there for example, if you think about this, right now, 60 percent of the border patrol agents that we have, the rate of sector down to the valley sector going texas and the border patrol agents are actually and the migrant processing center. 60 percent of taking care of the migrants into percent of them are actually doing

administrative work that only leaves 30 percent border patrol agents, only 30 percent some of the numbers are going up, your less border patrol agents at the checkpoint and at the border with the supposed be doing the job. with all due respect, we can provide other support staff which have been adding, and i hope the administers will move faster to be in those border processing centers and what border patrol with a blog. that is securing our border because the border patrol agents out there, it is also important to note that there hundred f from the migrants, the going out there because there's less agents out there trying to rescue them and border patrol agents, we have to give them credit, not only do they secure our border by the times it was okay into the river go out there in the desert where is very difficult terrain to save the migrants and i have saved thousands of migrants and that is why i have the back of the border patrol agents.

like you said, i've lived with them and in my community and our kids go to school together and to college and i see them at my church and i see them at the grocery store you gotta understand border patrol agents, they kept a very difficult job but we've got to be able to address the needs of border patrol agents and again, with all due respect to some of my colleagues, the last point that you mentioned about immigration, i believe in immigration for reform my father became a legal residence in the became a naturalized citizen and a lot of them took a long time to follow this legal process that i support right now seeing people about the bus, plane and jump line and this is part of the frustration for some of us feel at the border. >> illinois, honey, republican, good morning. >> good morning, mr. cuellar,

thank you very much, the border is huge huge problem. the cartel is setting up in america these days. the fentanyl and everything that is coming across the border, is killing our children. i want to say one other thing, the cages were built by president obama, they were built for a reason and it was a very good reason and he had passed down a couple of little boys and they went to pedophiles and thank goodness, somebody found that out going to sue him. so we both cages to meth quite a

jump in there, spent. >> any and greetings to illinois and thank you so much for your question. let me talk about the cages, those are not cages, what happens is the border patrol facilities for the supposed to keep people for 72 hours were set up to handle small numbers and coming from mexico they were coming over to work that's where they were set up most of those facilities and then when all of a sudden, so many that if you bring a child because it was 1998, law that allows that if you are from a - country mexico or canada as of the two countries come then you through a different process into the united states and the drug cartels emily figured that out they figured this out they didn't come up bring a child bring your family unit that has a child and you will come in they get into the united states. so then you start having large numbers of people by the way, right now, people from over 60

countries coming into the united states and so they come into those border facility, when the supposed to keep people for 72 hours and what happened is instead of just having a lot else, the run a company kids and family units, little kids and with the border patrol that was put and separated from give the kids separate away from the adults and family units had they used chain-link the only thing in the american - administration uses a plastic at the same thing except what materials you use they did it border patrol did it in an - why they're not cages, they were separating the young kids from the adults because you don't leave them like that overnight because there are some people to come in with criminal records assaulting kids so that was what was set up and fourthly, there people that

would call them cages and yes, they were there under president obama but the really separating for safety reasons, the kids away from the adults because the way the border patrol has been set up and now we do have migrant processing centers that are very different because things have changed now. >> overspent, less than ten minutes left. your last on this program back in early january, a few weeks after that appearance was headlines about an fbi rated home in your office can you exclude happened there was going on vesting of my attorney said talk to them about the target of an investigation and we will cooperate in desert and of the day will we say there was no wrong doing. >> not the target of an investigation and according to the fbi. >> according to my attorneys talking to the department. >> okay. >> mark, st. peter's missouri independent and good morning. >> right and think you for

taking my call for solid like to say that i believe in what ronald reagan has an earlier and i believe that it was him the said that the nine worst words or i'm from the government and i am here to help and also, i do believe that we have a taxi problem but i think we have a spending problem and now you were talking earlier about your washington journal about social security and medicare and things like that, one of the colors and said that the illegal aliens that are coming across the border receiving social security benefits as well as several other benefits. then american tax people are paying for. i was wondering if you could come in on that and please be specific on the exact benefit these illegal aliens are receiving it that i am paying for. it's unbelievable them having trouble even paying for my own

family my kids to get school supplies to get food and insurance and everything is through the roof and find out that possibly my tax dollars are going to support these illegal aliens. >> yes, for those benefits that you're referring to, the law said that if you are here illegally, you cannot receive those benefits, that is the pretty number one and number two, on government spending and if you look at tax presidents, and in the past you have trillion dollars within spending deficit spending, and you see under president, storm bush and then you had president bush and clinton and then by the way, clinton was the only one that had - in the last 20 or 30 years and again come a bipartisan way it was on the way but if you look at the last couple of

presidents, president trump spent almost the same thing that president obama did in eight years trump spent four years and comes to deficit spending, and involves both of them grandson the republicans and again i say that because we have to hold hands together and address the issue i know you have this discretionary spending then you have what we call the mandatory what's on automatic and on that particular point, how would say that the fastest growing area has to be the area dealing with automatic spending and so we have to do something about that. but again anytime you talk about social security and medicare and veterans benefits and all that, people will say no, you can't touch that but again, you have to look at where the spending is increasing because automatic we have to look at and i as a democrat and will say this, that we have to figure out how we

address that otherwise, budget will be on this area by the way, about deficit spending, we have to reduce out we have to reduce that because otherwise i think i know we are paying about $350 million in interest pretty $50 billion in interest every year, and if we don't do something about it will continue but again, the discretionary funding has increased but not as much as a mandatory entitlement spending that we have out there. >> one more call, pueblo colorado infected morning. >> good morning america, have a few issues. beginning with immigration. i'm disabled vietnam veteran born in mexico and went to the

university of school of social work in heaven since 1973 in active and there is say word call propaganda propaganda as misleading you information that's a certain party or group and i am referring to a number at the border, was hard worker during high school i lived 24 miles from the border. the problem with a number of arrests have the border. nobody talks about the repeat offender the person the cross of the more and gets deported, and the next day he is at the border again any gets deported. and nobody talks about that.

>> congressman come out about a have left talk about it. >> thank you hennessy you are migrant worker my parents were migrant workers also worked out of the field and i am the oldest of eight kids in my parents spoke only a few words of english so they do the hard work that you did a nice life hard work that you did when you work younger and there are repeats and if there mexicans, they will put them person the back to mexico to do that repeat but what were trying to do is in people back to the original country and what they call air, that is sitting there back in some countries in venezuela and china and other places that are playing games and they don't want to take people back so that becomes a little bit more difficult read but, they're all people they come in and we are deporting people right now under the law, title 42 entitling

people are being returned but the problem is, until the ministration have to show images of people being returned it because i guess, when was last time that you saw your pictures of me being returned you probably have not recently and we need to do a show not only have a message that you come here the right way and if you don't follow the law like president obama did then i'm sorry but we have to deport you and i believe in immigration reform i believe in the plan but at the end of the day we don't have for we don't have open borders but we want to see law and order at the border and follow the law. >> from texas, member of the appropriations committee, always appreciate your time and thank you. >> thank you and first members of congress joining us this morning republicans served on the budget, armed services natural resources committee on the budget congressman and federal spending, take us through the next 72 hours here.

we believe will happen as i push into tonight with government funding. >> like every thing is rush to finish up and get something done and push down throat for a few months and we have seen this for several decades. whenever the parties back your gets their priorities you know figured out right before the late night minute boat and then figure out whether or not to fund the government and so right now, i understand that there working its way through the senate chambers. the senate will have to figure out how to get it passed 60 vote threshold are sing my hand, opposition for some of the things thing and things that we talked about early on like this refugee portion of it. you have support for refugees but you've gotta figure out how to address the southern border and the willingness from the administration and democrats they could put enough funding to

support border patrol agents and things like that and again, is not about finding respect to the border, where we out of the migrant protection program and that policy and then disney would require the funding. why are we not enforcing policy is proven record of reducing that cartel activity so that is one of the fundamental things that the republicans will be pushing for with respect to this. >> so the senate 60 vote threshold and get to you, and you put to push this off until december, but what you do if you about not. >> yes so you know like a bill in the provisions that are put in their and were not put in there, then likely i won't vote for it and i think the strong opposition toward what we have seen so far and will see what comes out of the senate and i do like that reform that is taking

place that conversation that's pushing for that sentence pretty much the whole time in congress and for example, in utah we have over 125 projects that are very green friendly and you environmentally - that being held up because of an sing unattended class was we have to be able to address that. >> this the permitting reform joe manchin or senator manchin has focus on and that is what it looks like, like that's a democrats best chance for people to come onto board especially the centers and as of right now, when opposition and have voted for so is not like i am just a minority porsche and often times it's easy to vote no. i've tried the last few times, supportive of it because the measures and fairly

straightforward and simple. we've seen things that we just don't like in another example is instead of addressing our energy issue, just going to provide for folks struggling heating bills this winter be prepared for that instead of changes to make to our energy policy so the prices don't continue to go up and that is the candidate are standing wife so many republicans we frustrated. >> 830 eastern lusk the phone the first the composition (202)748-8000 and republik is (202)748-8001 and independence (202)748-8002 and we will chat with all of them encouragement and republican from utah, mentioned your armed services committee assignment. and also, $12 billion more for

ukraine and is that provision is? i supported the previous supplemental and majority of republicans that there was opposition towards it was not a perfect way to go about doing it was a $40 billion supplemental approximately 17 of that comes back to our own replenishment is without are still some of that supplemental we have not allocated. i didn't additional 12 will be really tough right. we have so many other things domestically that we are worried about when we still have some so much but we still have some that supplemental forcing success in ukraine using really strong bipartisan approach to the strategy there. there's been plenty of good this on a couple of the regions where

great pushback but then additional 12 without a time to specific metrics or outcomes that we want to be able to see over there, that will be a tough thank you so were. >> referendums being held in districts in ukraine by the russian government as their alluding to use of nuclear weapons and be on the monies or additional weapon systems that we should be sitting to ukraine and something there was should be. >> summa long-range well we made it a shift in providing more lethal long-range weaponry and i don't even have all this specifics of the names commitment portfolio things we have provided them and showing success. and that is good with ukrainian in the russians shooters going to be able to figure out with respect getting fidelity to

this, this cannot just going on forever and ever and becomes another endless war that were fighting a proxy predict that additional funding needs have a strong sense of here's the objective that will here's how are weaponry get us to the point that i have been thrilled to see two things for me frank take back a few of those regions and different two different strategic areas back to the river and southern border but the pushback russia putin trying to put back the reservist and pushback is good to see from the russian people i'm excited. >> mls question, sounds morning talking about which product to trustmark on social security and medicare president biden making the remark yesterday at the white house what is republican plan to take over the house come november, what is the plan on

social study medicare and with the commitment can to america on that. >> i put together a task force back in my district in utah whole entire nation second on this in the simple truth this oedipus failure you're heading down the fiscal cliff fundamentally come in and how to reform some of the stuff emerge that would have the safety net that taxpayers are going to have a safety net to continue on social security that we are going to take whatever hundred what is ever set up a half a century ago and continue to hold down that route within the fundamental changes in people are retiring having longer lifespans and we have to go

through that reform process and there's a couple things, increase the length of cash tied to longevity and the need to be supportive and limit folks 20 years younger, let me and my kids, we should not expect to have the exact same system one thing i like is been extreme we bipartisan you can look at the bottom and of unsecured to quit on now, and for something things off the ways and means committee them together on in a very bipartisan manner the best you can allow people to more easily plan for retirement and one simple example right now coming come out of college 25 is opening up student up you start to contribute to your 401k but you probably want to pay off

debt first before you give more money to retirement. we need to change other people's minds, every year plan for your retirement, is exponentially god versus bill cosby companies to contribute on behalf of the employee source of 401k even if the employee is not contributing only if employee income close you are contributing to the cummings match, it will fundamentally increase the number of people that will be able to save for retirement put less burden on the public system and social security things like that in the real estate, things that we need to address with medicare. that is why we have debt we are at aging population baby boom or population coming into the

retirement plan to figure out ways. >> colors running out of the bluegrass state, republicans, your first. >> good morning and thank you, about social security and medicare, these are pyramid schemes in order to have the base to keep it from toppling over you have to have a growing population we have two things going on in this country that's amazing that no one is answering to his you know have 21 percent of americans are homosexuals and i don't have children and you have abortions and 65 million cents and 50 year olds not been born it would have had children and grandchildren of older people now need assistance in their homes and home care or someone to look after them

because they don't have children or to when we have to have these replacements in the homosexual replacement sent the border in these things to kind of help us out with her problems that we have self-created and were not replacing ourselves so it's going to be - we do in the future to try to solve these problems like this. >> yes well we had our fourth boy ten months ago so my wife and i are doing our part but i represent estate probably the strong his birth rate in the nation. and definitely, estate that focuses on supportive families and enabling a strong workforce and things like that. no wrong, we have an issue with birthright intonation and replacing some of that we need to create that strong future we

also have a broken - system that is the pressure and the turmoil going on there, right now getting to the point where we can come up with a merit-based system would encourage productive immigration and is another area that can help alleviate that's because there is a lot of really good people want to come here who are talented that can contribute to our economy with a administration unwillingness to enforce migrant protection program, they remain in mexico policy like house the strong and compassionate policy that was keeping the cartel activity to a minimum. now we've incentivize the cartels to feed a bill applies to these individuals and their taking their life savings from venezuela northern triangle brother south american countries.

it's virtually impossible to do what we all knew it would we need to do and fix these programs we can do that and get more healthy workforce wanting to come here and we are welcome to that, there's a lot of ways to address these. >> florida, bernie lines for the democrats, as i have tampa correct. >> yes how are you guys doing in preparing for the hurricane. [laughter] we doing okay. we doing okay in charlotte. no problem. ...

$12 million, don't you think -- do you actually think he spent $12 million on one? did he put the money in his pocket? did it go to the covid relay funds? you invested $12 million? >> thank you and again good luck to you and your community. we are pulling for you and think you will be okay.

mention the jobs act. i've previously highlighted the work i have done. it is a strong area focus for me. i spent some time talking about this. the tax cut jobs act did not do as much as i would've wanted to see in the entitlement reforms, some the spending issues our nation has. but they were able to accomplish what they could accomplish during the short amount of time. what the jobs act did, you can look up any of the data that exists. you keep companies globally competitive i get make the tax code globally competitive we keep our strong workforce here. without losing that to other borders. , to neighboring nations.

when you give that type of competitiveness to our workforce you are going to see growth. he sought and wage growth. you saw it and increases with the jobs act. there is no disputing that. we did not see enormous inflation off of this particular economic policy. across the board the jobs act group wages without pushing up inflation. inflation is the biggest tax on americans we have seen in my lifetime. i was born in 1980 we have not seen this type of inflation since then. that exists, it takes away an entire month salary. if you prorated over the course of the year. that is an enormous tax on people. group wages without have the

negative out come through the plan to strengthen us, over time would grow our revenues to help us cover that if you address the spending issues we have in our nation, that the good solid plan. i want to make that something i'm involved with in congress to get to that point. we can have that strong a future. the asylum part the remain in mexico the celtics and asylum-seekers. it requires and works closely with the mexican government. those asylum-seekers remain in mexico city. and actually strengthen some of our relationships with mexico in doing this.

but it was working. what it did, valid asylum-seekers once the process quickly. we have a templates of people with claim asylum will get you in the country across the border and you can exist that you are no man's land. they are telling people we will get you there. give us your life savings. and then when you get there everything is going to be fine. what happens is you then have to wait for court proceeding but they're not even allowed to work in these situations. they cannot figure how to get themselves in sustainable position there left no persons land. does the wrong way to go about this policy. >> brings out the transfers to sanctuary cities, sanctuary areas. democrats say that's inhumane.

leave them in the middle of nowhere with no resources. >> the question was posed to many different people. i pose the comments what was was it a stunt? you could say that. the stem from the frustration abide in administration has? then download to really address what's going on with over 2 million people, over 2 million people coming to these border towns. there's 50 individuals that went to martha's vineyard, right? we are going to continue to allow so much activity on the southern border towns they are overwhelmed their overruns. we belong to the del rio air their overruns. they are trying their best to figure this all out.

there is a lack of support for the biden administration. there is an effort to bring attention to this. >> independent good morning. looks good morning. i wish there is a counterpoint to what you're saying about immigration. with all due respect. i am from california enlisted, not crafted. i wanted to the central valley by republican and conservative type agribusiness. that's the reason have such an influx. i was against immigration myself but i was against it 60 years ago. you are late to the game. second issue and it shows also

respect and ignorance of what it is like to get older. you may say people are getting older but they are not well when they're older. there is a lot of struggles, most people do not do well after 80 years old if they make it there. so to extend social security, i have never been in debt. never bounced checks. i retired 20 years ago, don't use my situation to say other people should do the same. i'm not in a position to talk about other people's lives. all i do know is what you're saying you should at least research a little bit more before you start throwing things out like we need to work longer or extend social security throughout paired to the 70. they're going to be dead in 70 years in america do want people to work forever? chris is very clear in my statement. and in my earlier comment those paid into the system need to be

reported. they've actually fallen in line with that. i really like the measures we are taking and encourage more responsible retirement savings for individuals. to become more self-sufficient with can become less of a burden what we need the government to help us do. that is what i loved about the very bipartisan house with a means it's virtually unanimous some of the measures we can take workforce companies, individuals, making sure they look out for their retirement earlier in life. that to some of solutions i have been looking for. >> a kathy at montgomery texas republican good morning. thirty-three good morning.

i had to make republicans look like the bogeyman they're going to take this away, the going to take that away. first i'm going to say most people through racism. i'm sick and tired of it. and also, the border has to be controlled. we live in texas. when the venezuelan came over they hung a venezuelan flag on the texas border. they're trying to take care of these people. biden knows what he is doing pride they're letting fentanyl kill hundreds of thousands of our kids. it is ridiculous with the governments doing right now. you're not the bogeyman i wish people would just stop this insanity, thank you. >> thank you briefly comment on it. what we're seeing seeing at the border is not humane. human and drug trafficker.

the one thing i would hope for folks to really grapple with was migrant protection program, the remain in mexico policy was one of the best deterrence giving that much power to cartels a bill of wyeth individuals mentioned in other areas. in a power to get across the border. guessing everything's going to be okay and meet up with family, get a job and all that kind of stuff. that is just not the case. the remain in mexico policy is the key piece we should be enforcing and trying. it's the most humane and compassionate way to address us all sides for the asylum-seekers, for the communities most impacted by this and frankly that is why you

see amazing people like myra florez come to converse with that message. i think texas is seeing this and other border states ready to do better. >> i went to and where we begin this morning. talk by the government funding deadline. the system itself, the system is not working right now. if republicans take over the house and are in control, the government funding system the budgeting appropriations going to work better? are we going to do anything different. >> mention a couple of times spirit have a whole section recommendations that talk about reforms we need to make. is going to be hard to take a system of government that never finishes anything on time.

if republicans take the majority the house you shall present biden the white house depending on what happens to the senate you would ultimately have split government if you will. that produces good outcomes. muscle sme balance the budget and clinton was in the white house are in control of congress. went a lot further away from that we were in 1997. given over debt, servicing and everything. it's not going to be easier and lost different types of reform that you have to do. it's a fascinating leave and have the fiscal calendar. it is a drain on resources. it is a horrible waste of money. hope we can push forward will have to see what happens.

if we win the majority in early november for the lame duck. , be a lot of work to do. >> will end it there for now but come back and talk to us about it again. congressman and blakemore republican from utah on the budget and armed services committee. thanks so much. >> appreciate it.

quorum call:

hurricane ian made landfall this afternoon in southwest florida. it is a battering areas in

southwest florida. lees, charlatan counties beyond that. we have seen life-threatening storm surge, as was predicted. we've also seen major flooding in places like collier county, sanibel, fort myers beach. you are also think inland flooding because of the inundation you are seeing. some of the counties in the interior of the state are seeing major water events as well. we do know that lee, hendry call centers are being rerouted. those columns are down. calls are being answered they will deploy it as soon as it is safe to do so. obviously local responders can make decisions. by and large until the storm passes, they are not going to go into a situation for rescue and put their own folks at risk. and so we know there are folks

who are in some have called in but it's likely going to take a little time for the storm to move forward. say for the first responders to do. were getting reports but i'll take a little more time to know exactly in terms of structural damage. we are getting some reports of structural damage in both lee and charlotte counties. overwhelmingly it has been that surge that's been the biggest issue and the flooding that has resulted as a result of that. it has peaked and will likely be less we know this is been a big

storm going to continue to move through the state of florida. you'll see hurricane force winds and places in central florida perhaps. trumps tropical storm until it exits the peninsula in the atlantic ocean. there are as much as her focus on southwest florida. important. i think at landfall it's going to be behind only the labor day hurricane, hurricane andrew and hurricane michael in terms of intensity. i think we're going to end up seeing that. it may end up being a category five but at a minimum very strong category four-point to rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. so that damage is ongoing. very, very important.

will be damage throughout the whole state. people in other parts of the state, be prepared for some impacts. you are seeing counties and different parts of the states issue evacuation orders, clay county and northern florida which we do anticipate some major, major flooding events. folks family with the st. johns river know when you have a whether it like this you will see this. so clay county has issued mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas along the st. johns river. flagler county has issued mandatory evacuations. barrier islands, low-lying areas and mobile homes. nasa has issued evacuation orders for low-lying areas. st. johns county is evacuating coastal low-lying areas including the city of saint augusta and saint augusta beach. as recommended evacuation for low-lying areas and areas that have a history of flooding.

advising evacuation of mobile homes. and so those are places that are hundreds and hundreds of miles away from the initial impact in southwest florida. and yet they are having to evacuate folks that are living in vulnerable areas. we have over 1.1 million reported power outages. there are crews that are still working outside of southwest florida. but just understand that numbers going to grow. we will see more power outages as a storm is to the center part of our state and before it exits into the atlantic coast. there are 100 portable cell phone towers ready to be deployed into southwest florida. once it is safe to enter it should not be needed. we want to make sure people staying out of the way of emergency crews and floodwaters and away from all downed power lines. as soon as emergency crews can get in, they are going to get in. as soon as it is safe to go and

clear the roadways the department of transportation is going to go in and clear the roadways. these are all on standby. they are ready to go they understand the importance of a really, really quick response. as i mentioned earlier today we've officially sent the letter with the request to the biden administration or major disaster declaration for all 67 counties. requesting federal government do one 100% reimbursement upfront for 60 days to ensure we can quickly move forward into this response and recovery phase. i know sometimes they wait until different damage assessments are made. but in this situation got a massive category four storm. if you compared charlie to this this is the way, way bigger than charlie. it was as strong as charlie coming in, but charlie was much smaller. this was a big one part think we all know there's going to be major, major impacts. not only 42000 line men, they positioned all across the state

of florida. as soon as it is safe to go those personnel are going to go into and resume power. that is something that is very, very important part is terms of rescue efforts there are robust efforts in each of these counties. some are major counties interstate like lee county, collier county, they have got great response teams. the state of florida we are providing a lot of support that is staged and ready to go. more than 1600 high water vehicles. more than 300 boats and sizes including 250 already stationed in the major impacted areas. nearly 50 that are staged and immediately ready to come in. with water at this high these operations may need to be waterborne operations. there are some will have the water get to barrier islands anyway. we look at county downtown naples is flooded.

probably going to subside is the time goes on. they are prepared for a lot of different eventualities. were thankful for the states that have sent us resources. we are very, very appreciative of them stepping up and helping florida. as the storm passes the community understand it's still a very hazardous situation. you are going to have downed power lines. you are going to have a possibility of the harms way because of standing water. misuse of generators. i asked the department of emergency management, kevin, to produce for me the rundown of the fatalities through direct impact of storms versus the aftermath. and in hurricane are met there were seven fatalities directly because of the storm. there were 77 that were result of post- storm. a lot of that is standing water, downed power lines, misuse of

generators. so please just take precautions. obviously a ferocious storm coming in. very hazardous, very ominous. we know the life-threatening nature of that. but once the storm goes, once there is an apparent comb there is still plenty of hazards out there. make sure you are taking the proper precautions. i am happy volunteer florida has now activated the floor did disaster fund. sometimes people say we want to help what can we do? there's really two things you can do. one comment sent some donations, money paid the other can be donate your time. what is not helpful is sending items and sending things to us. we have a lot of things to pre-position if there's a need for other stuff kevin and his team will work. fema will work. we provide money money to some volunteer organizations and charity groups they will make a big impact in people's lives. if you are willing to volunteer

your time there will be a way she can put to work. there's a lot of people that will need help on the back end of this thing. so if you want to contribute go to florida disaster fund.org protects disaster 20222. for those who want to come and volunteer, we have an official volunteer portal at volunteer florida ww.org to find of volunteer opportunities. this storm is doing a number on the state of florida. it is going to continue to move through the state today and through much of tomorrow. there's going to continue to be a number of adverse effects. i can tell you that as soon as it moves beyond the southwest florida you are going to see a massive surge of personnel and supplies to be able to help those who are in need that people back on their feet and helped to rebuild those communities, kevin. quick thank you governor.

i think everybody should know the governor is extremely committed to being involved in this response. he was here with me until late last night. he was here with me early this morning. he has not been anywhere but near me the entire time braden governor thank you so much for your leadership in this area. as a governor said hurricane ian has made landfall this afternoon as a category four. winds of one or 55 miles per hour for not going to read all the statistics the governor has mentioned. i will bring a couple of new interior. 1100 resource requests we have received 11 or resource requests. we have fulfilled 900 of those. again the difference of 200 is stuff we just cannot get out on the road right now. we are working as quickly as possible to address those needs. we have well over 200 shelters

open. we have 42000 restoration personnel. we literally have with first responders across the state additional ones coming in as well over 10,000 responders statewide ready to do staff remind floridians to stay indoors if you are in the path of the storm. if you are sheltering in place in the shelter of a storm and you still have power and wi-fi please visit florida disaster.org/info to fill out our shelter in place survey. we have had a lot of people answer that and give us that information. that helps us provide critical information to first responders about the demographics of your household so they can aid your family as soon as possible. please keep in mind first responders not be able to impact areas to assist you due to the safety hazards.

we are planning a three prong response to handle that specific issue. whip via ground via vehicles. personal staged to come via air with deployed assets. we have the coast guard in florida wildlife ready to come in by sea for those of barrier islands and beachfront properties but we will have a response mechanism that involves all three of those arms. shelter in place survey again reiterated disaster.org/info. if you need immediate assistance please tell 911. that site is not a replacement for 911. if it is calm outside you may be in the eye of the storm for the eye of the storm continues to move inland is getting ready to enter areas glades county, do not go outside if all the sudden

the windows stops. this situation means you are in the eye of the hurricane seek shelter immediately get to an interior room and protect yourself. do not walk or drive through flooded areas. flood waters can still i'm sorry it can stall your car and sweep you in your car away in the blink of an eye. we receive reports of isolated tornadoes across east central florida. if you are in a tornado warning again, seek an interior room free of windows. get low and put something over the top of your head to protect yourself. at a tornado warning i'm sorry, self deployments. we do not want individuals self deploying out on their own. that is very, very dangerous. leave that to the professionals that are trained in how to do that. do not take your personal boat out in these situations but we do not want to have to respond to yet another problem.

the governor mentioned there are more deaths due to indirect situations that the actual direct situation of storm surge when at the beginning of a storm. so please, but we want to to do more than anything else is stay safe. please be careful again governor thank you. cracks or reports there on the way. >> i think the cajun navy is on the way. okay, there we go. we really welcome those are some battle hardened folks. florida welcomes their support. honestly particularly louisiana they have dealt with so much. the governor has been great. look we have got a long way to go before the storm exits the state. there is going to be a lot of need to get into these communities particularly in southwest florida and offer the immediate assistance. i think the three prong strategy going in by ground, air, and by

sea means that all hands are on deck. there's going to be people in harms way. what i have said is folks were told in these areas of the hazards. they were given time to be able to make arrangements and to leave. some chose not to do that. they probably would have been better off to do that. nevertheless, people are in harms way we are going to do whatever we can to help those folks. those operations are going to commence as soon as it is safe to do so. certainly no later than first thing in the morning for a soon as it is light outside and people are able to do it. then it begins with clearing the roads, making sure electrical folks can get in there. i was able to thank a number of these linemen. we went over to lake city were a number of them are staged. these are great folks coming all across the country. i met people from alabama, from

texas, from louisiana. they're all coming to florida. her driving back from tallahassee from lake city is a beautiful sight of these electrical vehicles coming. that all the electrical equipment on. these are people going to help a people's power back on. it was a procession of them. we talked about 42000 after state is going be significantly even more. you are really seeing a great logistical effort to put all hands on deck and this response. okay any questions? >> getting calls from people of not evacuated, how when people read talking? >> right now i don't give you a solid number initial report was 21 because of 911 issues in the southwest florida area read one small rural county answering calls for larger counties saying that hundreds of calls.

so i cannot really quantify that right now. going off the words the emergency management records at the local level told me. >> i spoke with the president about getting that one 100% coverage? there's a lot of folks pushing. >> only spoke yesterday he said all hands on deck, he wants to be careful. is it ask whatever you need, ask us. he was inviting us to request response support. we think this is probably the best thing we can get at this juncture given what we are dealing with. hopefully we'll get a favorable response on that. x mentioned earlier, this is obviously a big flooding events. alt one of these places might not have flood insurance. do you have a sense how exposed these people are? >> not yet. i think the issue is significant in the sense these are not

people that necessary live in a quote flood zone. they live in the realtor says are not in the flood zone are not going to get the flood insurance i totally understand people do not do that. it's because you're not in the quote flood zone does not mean you're not at risk for catastrophic event like this. i think you're going to see some clearly, how many that remains to be seen. there are programs fema has to try to provide relief for people. it is not going to be commensurate to having a policy. this is an issue were going to have to deal with. i do think it will be something prebuilt this and other storms across the country including florida, when you have this about the homeowners policy will cover certain things. but the flooded policy covers probably the most significant risk for most homeowners in florida. given the risk of flooding we have and so me different parts of our state. we are sensitive to that. i was lavishly going to be some folks i need of support and

relief. were i was going to it as best we can. i will say people been asking about some of the overall homeowners insurance with like citizens. i think citizens right now is between six and 7 billion of surplus. their model link on paying a lot of money in claims for this they would still have between four and 5 billion in surplus. they view themselves to be able to weather this. individual carriers to go through a stress test to be able to have their policies approved. this year they had tested under direct impact on tampa bay. and what would happen part they have a policy, then reinsurance, we have art wrapped program. but for citizens they feel very strongly they're going to be able to handle us and sell pretty significant reserves. okay, thanks so much. i will see you guys.

quorum call:

mr. schumer: mr. president. and now father. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: now, mr. president, i know of no further debate on

the motion to proceed to h.r. 6833. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate, all those in favor say aye. all opposed say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the motion is agreed to. the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 389, h.r. 6833, an act to amend title 28 of the public health service act so forth and for other purposes. mr. schumer: i call up substitute amendment 5745. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senator from new york, mr. schumer, proposes an amendment numbered 5745. mr. schumer: i ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. schumer: i have an amendment at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report.

the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, proposes amendment 6830 to amendment number 6745. mr. schumer: i ask to dispense with further reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i move to commit h.r. 6833 to the appropriation committee with instructions to report back forthwith with an amendment. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion. the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, moves to refer the bill to the committee on appropriations with instructions to report back with an amendment numbered 6031. mr. schumer: i ask to dispense with further reading. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask for the yeas and nays. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the yeas and nays are ordered. mr. schumer: i have an amendment to the instructions at the desk. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from new york, mr. schumer, proposes 6032 to the ininstructions to the motion to commit. mr. schumer: i ask to comebs

with further reading. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to the substitute to the desk. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture, 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 h.r. 6833 as amended, an act -- do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment number 5745 to cleernd number 6833 an act to amend title 27 of the public health service act so forth and for other purposes. signed by 17 senators as follows. mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i send a cloture motion to h.r. 6833 to the desk. 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 h.r. 6833 as amended, an act to amend title 27 of the public health service act so forth and for other purposes. signed mr. schumer: i ask consent the reading of the names be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: finally, i ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum calls for the cloture motions filed today, september 28, be waived. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the notice of adoption of substantive regulations and submission for congressional approval from the office of congressional workplace rights be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to

the immediate consideration of calendar 440, s. 4166. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 440, s. 4166, a bill to authorize preparedness programs to support communities and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 479, s. 3875. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 479, s. 3875, a bill to require the president to develop and maintain products that show the risks of natural hazards groos the united states -- across the united states. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be withdrawn, the peters amendment

be considered and agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 7698, which was received from the house and is at the desk are. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 7698, an act to designate the outpatient clinic of the department of veterans' affairs as the captain row -- rosemary bryant clinic. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration and the senate now proceed to s. res. 765. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senate resolution 765, designating october 8, 2022, as national hydrogen and

fuel cell day. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged and the senate will proceed. shiewrnl shiewrnl schumer the -- mr. schumer: the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the en bloc consideration of the following senate resolutions introduced today, s. res. 804, 805, 806, s. res. 8 on 7. -- 807. the presiding officer: the senate will proceed en bloc. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table all en bloc. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the appointments at the desk appear separately in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i have six committees to meet during today's session of the senate.

the presiding officer: duly noted. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 278, s. 1617. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 278, s. 1617, a bill to modify the requirements for the administrator of the small business administration relating to declaring a disaster in a rural area and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: imask that the -- i ask that the substitute amendment be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on this bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill, as amended. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill, as amended is passed. mr. schumer: i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous

consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 393, s. 1687. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 339, s. 1687, a bill to amend the small business act. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment be agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill, as amended. i ask that the bill, as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i now no of further debate on the bill, as amended. the presiding officer: the question is on passage of the bill, as amended. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the bill, as amended is passed. mr. schumer: i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 395, s. 3906.

the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 395, s. 3906, a bill to improve certain programs of the small business administration and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i further ask the committee-reported amendments be withdrawn. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask that the cardin substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask further take the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. schumer: finally, i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the small business committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4877 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 4877, an act to

amend the small business act and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i ask further -- i ask -- i further ask the bill be considered read and third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there's no further debate, the question is on passage. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill is passed. mr. schumer: i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 281, h.r. 3462. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 281, h.r. 3462, an act to require an annual report on the cybersecurity of the small

business administration and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i further ask that the cardin substitute amendment which is at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amendedden considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar 280, s. 2521. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 280, s. 2521, a bill to require the administrator of the small business administration to establish an sbic working group and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. schumer: i further ask the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask that the cardin substitute amendment which is at the desk be considered and agreed to. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i further ask that the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: if

there's no further debate, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. schumer: finally, i ask that the committee-reported title amendment be agreed to and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: and finally, mr. president -- pause. i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, -- i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it george until 10:00 a.m. on thursday, september 29. that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be

deemed expired, the joirp 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 resume consideration of calendar number 389, h.r. 6833. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: if -- now, mr. president, before we adjourn, i just want to notify the members we expect to vote on the freeman nomination before lunch. and now, if there's no further business to come before the senate i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate sta several congressional reporters to it in the senate may hold a final vote of a temporary funding measure on thursday. more live senate coverage with lawmakers next meet here on

cspan2. ♪ cspan2 is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more including buckeye broadband. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> buckeye broadband supports he spent as a public service along with these other television providers giving a front receipt to democracy. >> on thursday morning the director of the federal bureau of prisons colette peters testifies on oversight of the agency before the senate judiciary committee. watch live coverage beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three-point c-span now or free mobile video app or online at