senator vance. he has an impressive background in the military and private sector. i know he wants to make a difference in the lives of ohio workers and families and i look forward to watching him in action here in the senate. i know what it's like to be in public service with young children so i want to wish jd, his wife and their three kids well. jane and i support you both. thanks to everyone who has served on team portman throughout my career. the first bush white house, the house of representatives, the ustr, omb, and here in the senate. we're having an alumni event tonight with a couple hundred of some of the best public servants ever assembled. jane and i are looking forward to seeing you there. i have an amazing senate staff who stuck with me to the bitter end. thank you. both in ohio and in washington, d.c., many of them are here in the chamber today. i want to thank them for their hard work and dedication to getting things done. they work really hard for the people of ohio and for our country.

and have enabled us to be so much more effective. nothing we accomplished would have been possible without you. i want to thank everyone who works in the senate and makes it function well, whether it's the cloakroom staff, the door keepers, the capitol police, the cafeteria workers, subway drivers. democracy functions because of you. so thank you. i hope many of you can join us at our thank you reception for you on friday afternoon. special thanks to leader mcconnell. mitch, i appreciate your encouragement over the years, your trust in me to take on a leadership role on some important assignments and for your exitment and devotion to this discussion -- commitment and devotion to this decision. none of this works without having a loving and supportive family. all of you know that to my wife jane and three people in the world i'm so -- most proud of, jed, will, and sally, thank you for your unconditional support and sacrifices you've made. i'm looking for -- looking forward to being back

in ohio, it the gold been lav -- the gold at any lamb, our restaurant. finally, thanks to my senate colleagues who made coming to work every day enjoyable and productive. thanks for reaching out to me to work together and accepting my offers to work with you. relationships matter in this place. i'll miss my colleagues. one consolation is that our retiring class consists of good friends i hope to cross paths with in the reeled world. senators blunt, burr, inhofe, leahy and toomey all made impressive contributions here. i think we should start a post-senate support group. and come january, this place loses a great intellect, and a great friend, ben sasse. i think, ben, you should hold the meetings at the university of florida, if it's okay. okay, done. so to my colleagues, i've worked

with every one of you in one way or another. thank you for that privilege, and god speed as you continue to serve your constituents and continue to carry that torch of freedom forward. thank you.

the presiding officer: the senator from south dakota. mr. thune: madam president, we all just had the opportunity to hear from our colleague, somebody who i'm really going to miss, with his final remarks here on the senate -- not final remarks, but certainly his, i guess you call it, going-away speech. but i just appreciate so much having had the opportunity to work with senator portman. i know that as he pointed out the staff, not only here in the chamber, around the capitol, his personal staff, all people who made profound contributions to that incredible record of accomplishment that he just talked about. that doesn't happen.

anybody who works here for very long realizes the incredible contributions that staff make to getting things done around here. so i express my appreciation, as he did, to all of them for all you did to make senator portman's time here so productive. and great to see his wife, jane, daughter, sally, here as well, who are all part of this partnership and this team that all of us know are so critical to being able to make a difference here in the senate, and the many sometimes sacrifices, contributions that they make on a day in and day out basis. but madam president, i -- rob is someone i got to break bread with during our years here in the senate. we became really good friends. i'll miss having him here. rob spent a lot of years in public service, serving this country. 12 years in the house of representatives, where i first got acquainted with him, u.s.

trade representative, director of the office of management and budget, and finley 12 -- finally 12 years here in the united states senate. i've served with him on the senate finance committee for nearly ten years, and his going, i will tell you, is a huge loss. he played an pin -- indispensable role in the historic tax reform legislation in 2017, particularly with the modernized international tax system. our outdated rules left our businesses at a competitive disadvantage in the global economy. one of our priorities was ensuring american businesses could compete on a level playing field with their foreign counterparts. between his time in congress and as director of omb and u.s. trade representative's office, rob has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to american economic competitiveness and the international tax system, and he quickly became the lead on that

aspect of tax reform and not just on that, but on so many aspects on that very complicated piece of legislation. our final legislation brought the united states international tax system into the 21st century by replacing our outdated worldwide system with a modernized territorial tax system so american businesses are not operating at a disadvantage next to their foreign competitors. we saw an almost immediate positive effect for american businesses, which of course means we saw positive results for american workers. and that is really in large part thanks to rob. it's an important legacy, and it joins rob's long list of achievements in public service, some of which he mentioned, from restraining unfunded mandates on states to securing resources for addiction prevention and treatment to advancing a pro-growth trade agenda good for american workers and businesses alike. he's also been a strong voice

for american leadership and values on the global stage, especially as he mentioned as a cofounder of the senate ukraine caucus. it madam president, it's sad to see rob leaving the senate, but he spent a lifetime helping to build up our country, and i know his contributions won't end here. i'm also happy that he will have more time to spend with his family and his wife, jane. jane is terrific. like me, rob married up, and i know rob is looking forward to having more time to spend together. i also know rob is planning to get more involved in the family business, the golden lamb in and restaurant in lebanon, ohio, which has played host to at least a dozen u.s. presidents over the years. as i said, while rob's time in the senate may be coming to a close i know that he fully intends to continue doing what he's been doing throughout his career, and that is working to make our country a better and

more prosperous place. rob, congratulations on your years here in the senate. i hope you get some very well deserved rest in the coming months, and i like everyone else here looks forward to seeing your next chapter. ms. stabenow: madam president. it. the presiding officer: the senator from michigan. ms. stabenow: request thank you, madam president. i also rise today to pay tribute to someone who is literally a friend across the aisle and across state lines. now, you might not think that the senior senator from michigan, a democrat, and the junior senator from ohio, a republican, would be friends. after all, our states share a long and passionate rivalry, particularly on the football field. this rivalry is especially intense on game day. like recently, when the michigan wolverines defeated the ohio state buckeyes 45-23.

i'm just saying. i particularly, senator portman, wanted to say this out loud, to make sure senator brown heard it also. of course, my friend rob portman may have been cheering, and he may never really say this, but i'm often wondering if behind the scenes you're sort of cheering both sides on that, because he's never advertised it, he has never said it up to this point, but let me say today that he is a graduate of the university of michigan law school. now that he's retiring, maybe you can say it out loud. we're glad to have you there. senator portman has been a wonderful partner on issues important to both of our states, both great lakes and trade. we've served as cochairs of the senate great lakes task force since 2017, and we've gone to bat together on behalf of our beloved lakes, time and time again. we've introduced and passed

legislation to stop invasive species from reaching and destroying our great lakes. when the trump administration tried to slash nearly all the funding for the great lakes restoration initiative, we fought back together and won. since then we've reauthorized the program and celebrated when we secured $1 billion through the bipartisan infrastructure investment and jobs act. the single largest very much ever for the great lakes, and it would not have happened without senator portman. i've always said that the great lakes shouldn't be a partisan issue, and thanks to rob they have not been. we found ways to work together on the issue of trade as well. we fought for american workers when we served together in the house, and then continued a strong working relationship when senator portman left to become the u.s. trade representative under president bush. in the senate we partnered to

ensure that american workers have a level playing field. that included a great congressional delegation trip to vietnam and south korea, where we met with trade officials, senator portman and i, and i got to see, madam president, how much he is respected by these world leaders. from strengthening our supply chains to securing funding to revitalize communities to promoting recycling to planting trees to funding our community health centers to keeping plastic pollution out of the great lakes, there is no end to the number of issues we've worked on together. rob, i'm going to miss you. i've so valued your friendship and working relationship here. you have made a real difference. you about i know you're going to enjoy spending more time with jane, jed, will and sally, and watching more michigan games that you can finally admit you

enjoy. i wish you the best of everything, and hope we're going to continue to see you. i yield the floor, madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from utah. mr. romney:madam president, i have had both the good fortune and the misfortune of working closely with senator rob portman. i had the misfortune of debating him in 2012. he was kind enough to play the part of president obama in my debate practice sessions. he was relentless, determined, unforgiving, and anxious to delve into the most minute facts and figures in order to defeat me and to knock any complacency i might have had out of my heart. he more than made up for my debate whupping by tirelessly and repeatedly accompanying me across ohio and other states drumming up support for my campaign, raising money, and

jousting with the wing nuts that tried to derail my campaign. when i came to the senate i found that many of those same qualities, his relentlessness, determination, tirelessness, and ability to dig into the details, have made him a singularly successful united states senator. i worked alongside him on several bills. on each occasion they became law because he dug into them, negotiated the most thorny of issues, drove the process to a result, and never, ever gave up. we formed eight working groups on the bipartisan infrastructure bill because there were too many conflicts, too many subjects, too many obstacles for our entire group of ten to resolve without dividing it into parts we could deal with one by one. he then decided that he would be a member of every single one of those subgroups, knowing that he

would be needed to actually drive each of us to a conclusion and a result. you see, there are some people in politics who believe that a fiery speech or a bold appearance on a cable show and a reputation for fighting the opposition, that that's the measure of success. not so robert portman. he came here to pass bills and actually shape policy that would help the american people and strengthen our country. he came to fight and win, not just to fight. and he has won for america time and time again. but more important to me personally than all his winning is his friendship. his honor, and his character. he is a genuinely good man, and he is blessed to have married and even better woman. i will miss rob portman in the

senate, as i think many of my colleagues know. he's been a bit of a stabilizer for me here. i will miss him and jane in the neighborhood of our lives. god bless you, rob portman. mr. coons: madam president, i rise to also offer my thoughts on the career and the service, the personality, the values of senator rob portman, one of a number of retiring colleagues whom i will dearly miss. i was somewhat surprised by the timing of senator blunt's farewell address and missed the opportunity to also speak to his departure. they have in common an important shared characteristic -- a passion for getting things done, for being a senator who serves their state and nation, who works across the aisle and delivers real solutions.

stop taxing death and disability. that's the first bill that rob and i got to the president's desk and signed into law under the previous administration. it had a very catchy name, and it was a simple solution to a problem most of us had never heard of, which was if someone who had taken out student loans died and, thus, was unlikely to repay them and those student loans were discharged as a result of their permanent disability or death, that benefit was taxed, and the tax ataxed, in the case of one of my constituents -- was taxed in the case of one of my constituents, to the child of the deceased constituent. from that simple germ grew a dozen different legislative initiatives. before we congress ends, we will get the reauthorization of the end wildlife trafficking act and the reauthorization of rob's

work on tropical rainforests to the president's desk. we had a remarkable trip, as did senator klobuchar, to ukraine, although i think our trip was a little bit more comfortable on the train than yours was. it was a privilege to present the liberty medal from the national constitution center to president zelenskyy. and i'm also, i must say, grateful for your leadership on the respect for marriage act which is today going to otopresident's desk. but it was in august as we traveled to five countries in africa as we traveled with our spouses and a great bipartisan group, you helped pull together to look at how human development can be the key to wildlife conservation in countries across a continent where too often there's instability that leads to the loss of biodiversity and to an increase in lawlessness

and terrorism, and we found a way to craft together a potential legislative solution that i look forward to carrying in the years ahead. to jeb, to will, to sally, you have a remarkable dad, and to jane, thank you for being such a delightful and supportive partner. my wife and i will deeply miss you, as colleagues here in the senate, as a legislative partner and as a friend. god bless you on the next chapter of your life, and we look forward to staying in touch. with that, i yield the floor. mr. hoeven: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from north dakota. mr. hoeven: thank you. you know, listening to senator portman's speech, i don't know how you cannot be impressed with his incredible record of accomplishment, and it's a record of accomplishment that will stand the test of time. and it's not surprising because all you have to do is look at all the things he accomplished

before coming to the united states senate. so it's certainly no surprise that he has done incredible work over the last 12 years. he was 14 years, i think you in the house -- i think, in the house, and had a tremendous record of success over there. he was u.s. trade ambassador for president bush, and that has the same status as full ambassador. so for all this time here in the senate, he didn't want me to call him senator portman. he always wanted knee call him ambassador -- he always wanted me to call him ambassador portman. instead, i call him 'em grantoro -- but that's another story i'll get to. and he was omb director for president bush. so when you look at his incredible experience and track record of accomplishment that he

brought here, it is no surprise that in his speech he talked about a lot of incredible accomplishments, but there's a lot more that you didn't talk about. you could have talked for a long, long time because you truly did accomplish so many things, so many things that are important not just for the buckeye state but for our country. and i'm just pleased to have had the opportunity to work with you. you mentioned some is the things we worked -- you mentioned some of the things we worked on. it's interesting, because as you were talking about the things you worked on and the members you worked with, i just took a quick count -- there were more than 20 senators sitting here and you mentioned every single one of them and many, many more. i kind of got the feeling that you probably -- if all 100 senators were here, you probably could have mentioned every single one of them and something that you accomplished with them. think about what that says. republican and democrat -- i

think you could have had every single senator on the floor and he could have gone around and talked about, hey, remember we worked on this and we worked on that. and not just worked on it but passed it into legislation. and in every case, something that had a meaningful impact for our country and for our respective states. senator portman and i came here together, so we -- and we've been close right from the start, probably a little bit of our shared heritage from college. we have worked together, we've traveled together you know around the world, places -- you know, india, south korea, obviously mexico, central america -- and invariably learned an incredible amount on those trips. but whether it was on those trips or almost any other time, i always learned from rob. i mean, the guy is -- i mean,

incredible experience and a lifetime of learning, but such a keen intellect. such a keen intellect. and somebody who imparts that knowledge to you in the best way possible, never coming across with any kind of ego or i know something and maybe you don't or anything like that. but in just a friendly, helpful, great way. and the other thing -- his ability to work with him i've observed and tried to learn from it as well. i mean, it doesn't matter where you're going or what you're doing, he talks the time to talk to people and really talk to them, not just talk at them but actually connect with them, get a smile on their face. that's one of the things -- one of the reasons that i said, hey, rob, why don't you teach me some spanish because we would go to a

restaurant and he would start speaking spanish with somebody and you could just see them. their face would light up. he'd make them feel welcome and warm and always genuine, always genuine, not doing it like a politician would do it but the way a person would do it to another person, somebody who actually cares about people. and that's maybe where i kind of want to go as i wrap up here is that, you know, all the work he talked about, all these accomplishments, these things are important. they're important for ohio. they're important for our country and beyond. but his motivation in doing it was always because he does care about people. he recognized that the things he's doing -- and, you know, you have to compromise here or you don't get things all your own way or the way you think would be absolutely the best outcome. you have to work with people. you have to compromise to get a result.

but he always was guided by the fact that he knew what he was doing did make things a little bit better for other people. and that's the right motivation. that's the right reason to be here and do this work. and so we will truly, truly miss rob and jane and their wonderful family -- and i've gotten to know them all. we're going to miss you a lot. but i do know this -- we're going to continue to see you. we're going to continue to work on things with you. and i'm not sure what he's going to do next, but it's just like i started out talking about, his incredible record of accomplishment before he got here, his incredible record of accomplishment here both in what he's done and the relationships and the friendships he's built leaves no doubt, no doubt whatsoever, that he's going to continue to do some wonderful and amazings things.

and i look forward to seeing what those things are. rob, we're going to miss you, and thanks for all you've done. thanks for being such a good friend. i yield the floor. ms. klobuchar: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from minnesota. ms. klobuchar: i'll take over where senator hoeven left off. i was thinking, what are we going to do, john and me, without rob here to give us grief about our joint events we do between fargo, north dark, and moorehead. several times we've told rob that we were headed out to do some esoteric event together. he would give us grief but then we would send him actual photos of the event. i was thinking about that when i heard our colleagues talk about how rob always teaches. he always passes on the torch. and my favorite example of that

-- and you're going to remember this story, rob -- was when my daughter started college and senator portman was going to speak at the college because his son was there and he figured out that she was there and he personally invited her to his talk at a residential college. she was a brand-new freshman. she went in there and sat down. she told me how nervous she was. two hours later she comes back and calls me. rob has spoken in his typical way in a very, very authoritative manner, but in a very nice way. maybe a little critical of the then-president, president obama, where he didn't agree with him. my daughter, freshman in college, calls me and says, you know, marks president portman said this. why didn't president obama do this? why did this happen that way? i said, honey, i said, abigail, you have lived with me for 18 years and i would hope that you

would give some credence to what i said. you have been with rob portman for an hour and a half. and she says, but, mom -- i will never forget this -- senator portman is is really distinguished, mom. senator portman just has a lot of dignity, mom. anyway, this was a family story for a long period of time. and i think part of that was he was able to reach out to students at a school, be able to make his case, make the world bigger for my daughter in that way, just as he has made the world bigger for all of us. for me it started with our work on human trafficking under both democratic and republican presidents, extended into, i remember, the work on the usmca and there was a moment where we feared canada was not going to be -- it was justing to -- just going to be usma, and the head of the group reached out to rob

and many other senators. rob was incredibly helpful in working with the previous administration to work out some details and get that done. you mentioned in your speech, rob, fentanyl, our work together on that. you've just been tremendous in understanding that it's two sides of this -- prosecution, going after the bad guys, doing everything we can to deep drugs out of the hands of -- keep drugs out of the hands a of people that don't deserve to get addicted to them, but also the treatment and what we did along with sheldon white house and back then kelley ayotte with the first step act and your understanding of the need to work on addiction. for me last, i'll just say, there's no better sign of you or someone that wasn't just, as senator blunt was saying, wasn't just kind of ending your time with doing nothing. far from it. everything from the infrastructure bill, as i see senator sinema here, to the work that you've done with so many.

for me it was your devotion to ukraine. people who will never know your name, who will never know how many times you went there to stand up for the people of their country against the inhuman elbaradei i am of vladimir putin. i -- the inhugh man barbarism of vladimir putin. i remember you standing at the burned outings. the thoughtful way the people at our embassy. i remember one of the top names for new babies in ukraine was himar and the smile on your face. rob, we're going to miss you so much, but just as john said, i have a feeling that this is not your last act and that along with jane and your wonderful family will be much more to come. thank you, senator portman. mr. blunt: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. blunt: you know, it's often

said that everything's been said but not everybody's said it yet. this is actually a case where everything can't be said today, can't be said. the remarkable legislative accomplishments that rob's made are truly that. they're just remarkable. when he and i were serving early in the house together, there was this big retirement bill, i thought then senator portman, i thought his name was -- cardin's first name was portman. i had a case in it called the simple plan. maybe that's because all i thought it was, the simple plan, and we probably wouldn't have gotten it done if rob didn't make legislative things happen that he makes happen. i never served on a committee,

but probably spent more time with him in meetings than i have almost anybody else, the house leadership meetings, the senate leadership meetings. i knew so much about rob, not only did abby and i appreciate the friendship with he and jane, there was a while i knew the name of both of their dogs. that shows you spend a lot of time with somebody if you know the name of both of their dogs, and i did that with rob. he has done so well here. i was the whip in the house when rob was the u.s. trade ambassador, and those trade bills are always hard to get done, no matter how easy it seems like. i remember the central american trade deal, we took to the floor, like so many the case, we said, now's the time to go. i think we'll get it done today. the work is good, now we have to get the members willing to go

home and admit that they did this. trade agreements are good for the country, but often members don't want to talk about them when they got home because you can always find somebody somewhere in your state thats thinks you could have done a better job negotiating part of this. and then the other thing i think rob and i had in common and understood, i just heard today on a news radio driving in this morning talking about the new highly competitive states, and they mentioned for decades missouri and ohio were always considered the two bellwether states. those were the two states in our state, for 100 years, we voted for the presidential winner every time but one. ohio had about that same record. we've also seen a political transition in our states where they've gone from highly competitive where you were really out there in so many ways on your own running for office to where just the parties have

changed in ways that we may appreciate more than a lot of other people here would. i hadn't thought about the support group. i hope i don't need that, but i sure do need and hope to have the additional times to continue our great friendship, times to talk, and as several people have said, you always listened when rob talks because he knows what he's talking about. that's a relatively rare occurrence anywhere, even in the united states senate. i hope -- we're going to spend enough time together that we won't miss each other, but i will miss the time that we worked together on both sides of the building. sometimes when you were in the administration and i was here, but congratulations on what you've done for america and what you've done for your family and the future of the country. i yield back.

a senator: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. ms. sinema: madam president, thanks for letting had me be in here, i'm not even on the list. i wanted to say a few comments about my friend and colleague, rob portman. i'm not one to give a lot 0 of speeches on the floor so this is a big deal, and a lot of people have stood up today to talk about rob's accomplishments, of which they are numerous. but i want to talk about rob who's my friend. rob and i worked together for six months straight on the infrastructure package last year, which, as rob mentioned in his comments, we built from the center out, which i am inordinately proud of. it is the model for how the legislative process should work in this country. i couldn't be more proud of that. i think over the course of six months, i shared more meals and

more glasses of wine with rob than anyone in my personal life ever. and so for that, i say to his wife and his children, i'm sorry because rob and i spent more time together poring over spread sheets in the capitol than i ever spent with anyone. i couldn't be more grateful for every one of those minutes. rob, in addition to being incredibly smart, incredibly focused, incredibly committed to outcomes is also a delightful human being, and i consider him one of my closest friends in the world. rob, i'm going to miss you so much, and i can't wait to go ride bikes together. i don't want to come to the support group. i have no interest in that. but what i do have an interest in is spending time with you for many years to come. you've been an incredible friend

and an incredible team you assembled and i couldn't be more honored than to consider you a lifelong friend. i yield back. mr. durbin: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: i'm sure anyone who tuned into c-span 2 might be thinking they're watching something out of this world because you see democrats talking so highly of a republican. one of the highlights i've had is working with rob on the ukrainian caucus. i know you have been there more than i have, but also your commitment to this issue has been personal, real, human. you can feel it. and rob is the type of person, the type of senator who takes his job so very seriously. he put me to shame with the map that's you brought to the floor of the senate on a regular basis to chart the course of the bravery and courage of the

people of the ukraine as they fight for their freedom and their future an resist the invasion of vladimir putin and his thugs. i know you have been there to meet with mr. zelenskyy to heads up the ukrainian effort. i know as we met this week and many weeks before, that when the ukrainian parliamentarians come to town, they look forward to meeting our caucus and in particular the senator from ohio because they know he understands their plight and is a voice for them. it must be difficult to be a native of a small country, something so distant from the united states it is under constant attack where people are leaving, their lives are being turned upside down and innocent people are being killed every day. counting on the nato alliance and the united states of america, they find their way to this capitol building and sit

down and talk about the state of the war. so many times they look to you, rob, and they look to our caucus for a message to take back home, a message of hope. that they are not in this alone. of all of the different things i have worked on in my senatorial career, this is one of the most important to me. my mother was born in lithuania and my feelings about the oppression of russians and the soviets over the years has been strong. that is being played out today in the course of the war in ukraine. i thank president biden for his leadership, but i thank you, rob, for making this bipartisan. that's why it's strong, that's why it's credible. that's why it's the cause that many of us in the senate take so very seriously. you have made that commitment. i would like to mention one other issue. i know you take pride in your

legislative legacy and you should, but back in 2013, you made an announcement that sent shock waves throughout washington. you were the only sitting republican senator to acknowledge equal marriage. you said that your son's courage, allowed me to think about this issue from a new perspective and that as a dad so loves his son so very much. that evolution came full circle when you joined 11 of your republican colleagues in supporting the respect for marriage act, which protects marriage equality under federal law. it was one of your final votes in the chamber, and a fitting coating to your proud legislative career. loretta and i wish you and jane and your children all the best and welcome back to cincinnati

or wherever your life will take you next. it has been an upon hor to -- an honor to serve with you. the presiding officer: the senator from ohio. mr. portman: i want to say thank you to all of my colleagues, the colleague from illinois who spoke and all of the comments. as i think my mom would have believed it and my dad would have liked it. but you can see why i will miss this place and why my colleagues talk about the need to find common ground to make a difference for our constituents are people i have looked -- i have enjoyed working with and i look forward to getting back to ohio full time and family and friends and the private sector, but i have a deep respect for my colleagues and i thank them for being on the floor today even though the jet fumes can probably be smelled and people

are heading back to their important meetings back home. with that, madam president, i yield back the balance of my time. ms. klobuchar: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. ms. klobuchar: -- mr. murphy: madam president, i thank senator portman for his tremendous work here. i wish him the best in his future as well. madam president, i come to the floor today to talk about a very important issue. our country has made great progress in the fight against covid-19. families have been getting their -- getting back to their daily lives and what i hear from people in my home state is they want to keep it that way. they want to keep moving forward and make sure we never find ourselves in a situation like that again. i couldn't agree more. but that means actually taking action. it means not letting this moment, this congress pass us

by, and instead actually delivering the public health reforms families need, which is why i'm here today urging my colleagues to ensure that any end of the year package includes our bipartisan prevent pandemics act. senator burr and i have led the help committee this congress, and from day one it was clear to us that pandemic preparedness had to be a priority because the next time there is a crisis like this, we cannot have people asking, why can't i get a test? where can i get reliable information? how can we be so unprepared for this? and that means we must learn the lessons of the pandemic and ensure that our government actually works better and smarter in preparing and responding to public health threats, which is exactly why senator burr and i set out to do when we crafted the prevent

pandemics act, which passed out of our help committee in an overwhelming 20-2 vote earlier this year. our bill improves our public health system by learning from what worked and what did in notn our covid response. a big piece of that is establishing the office of pandemic preparedness and response policy at the white house to serve as mission control so that we have a team in place ready to go 24-7 to guide our federal response to new and emerging threats. we have also seen how dangerous shortages have been throughout this crisis, which is why the prevent pandemics act strengthens our stockpiles and supply chains for drugs, ventilators and testing and components and masks and other lifesaving medical supplies. and, of course, with a new threat the issue isn't just a

shortage of tools, it's that the tests and the treatments and the vaccines may not even exist yet so our bill establishes erpah which is a new agency focused on cutting-edge medical research like the kind that made it possible for us to develop a safe, effective covid-19 vaccine in record time. our bill also supports potentially lifesaving research on issues like antivirals for pathogens, antimicrobial resistance, better coordination in our blood supply, best practices for emergency preparedness and response and long covid, which many people are still struggling with. this pandemic has put a spotlight on how inadequate data from outdated and often incompatible systems can make it very hard for our health experts to do their jobs.

in the 21st century, the cdc should not be collating data sent to them from fax machines. an incomplete demographic data should not hinder our experts making lifesaving decisions. so put simply, our government can work better and faster than this. that is why the prevent pan pandemics act will help modernize and standardize our public health data practices. everyone should understand without some really commonsense reforms we can make our public health system work better for everyone. by the way, including our communities of color, tribes, people with disabilities, rural communities, and others who have really, as we have seen, borne the brownts of this crisis. we're talking about really basic, bipartisan steps like making sure tribal access to medical supply stockpiles, better practices for demographic

data collection, and improving diversity in clinical trials. and that's especially critical. in fact the fred much cancer research center in my home state of washington just published a new study showing how black communities, asian communities, women, and others were underrepresented in many of the u.s. covid clinical trials. we have to do better for all of our communities. and we have to do better for parent, too. i've heard from too many moms and dads throughout this pandemic who felt like no one was listening to them about the challenges that their kids and their families were facing. as a mother and a grandmother, i pressed for this bill to make sure the national advisory committee on children and the disasters which directly advises the secretary of health must include parents and caregivers and teachers as members. of course, in addition to all those commonsense steps to strengthen our public help system for future health

emergencies, there's more work to do in we are to fully reckon with the lessons of this pandemic, which is why senator burr and i worked with our other members to include a bipartisan proposal for an independent task force modeled after the 9/11 commission to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the u.s. response to the covid-19 pandemic and issue recommendations. while there's more to do to strengthen our public health system beyond these reforms, and i will keep pushing on this issue no matter what, the prevent pandemics act represents meaningful, bipartisan progress carefully negotiated between republicans and democrats over nearly a year. i should say it also reflects senator burr's long-standing focus on pandemic preparedness. this has been a life passion for him, even before this pandemic. his thoughtful expertise and his

tireless work have been critical to crafting a strong bipartisan bill. i could not have asked for a better partner across the aisle to work with over the past two years. madam president, earlier this week i listened to senator blunt's farewell speech and in his address to this body, he said, we don't have to agree on everything. we just have to agree on one thing. that's how we help people and solve problems. madam president, in our prevent pandemics act, republicans and democrats agree on a lot of things. families across the country are watching closely. let's show them that we are taking the lessons of this pandemic seriously. let's show them that we are taking action so we never go through a crisis like that again. let's make sure that the prevent pandemics act is part of our year end package. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor and suggest

the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. murphy: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: yes, we are. mr. murphy: i ask we dispensed with the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. murphy: thank you, madam president. madam president, 847 -- $847 billion is a lot of money to spend on anything in one year, even in washington terms. it's enough money for instance to make sure not a single child goes hungry anywhere in the world ever again. it's enough money to end homelessness in america, provide free preschool and college for every american, build high-speed rail between every american city, make child carefree for families. -- child care free for families. frankly, come up with five problems that plague parts of the world or parts of the country, design a solution and you could probably solve all

five for a year for $847 billion. here's another number that's big. $80 billion. that's smaller than $847 billion but it's still a lot of money. for $80 billion, you could build a high-speed railroad from new york to washington. you could build 4,000 brand new state-of-the-art high schools in underserved communities or you could hire -- wait for it -- a million new public school teachers. here's why i tell you this. next week likely this body is apparently going to be on a glide path to pass an $847 billion defense budget authorization for the current fiscal year. that is an $80 billion increase over last year. that's a 10% increase in just one year. mr. murphy: and there has been very little public debate, and there's going to be very little debate on this floor over whether this is a good idea.

about whether we should spent $80 billion on this or whether that $80 billion would be spent better on something else. there's no debate and there's going to be little debate here in part because the process of passing this bill is pretty broken. thanks to senator reed, the armed services committee is a functioning committee. the democrats and republicans on that committee write this bill together with an open amendment process. if you're a member of the armed services committee, thanks to senator reed and senator inhofe's leadership, you have a lot of opportunities to weigh in on the size and scope of the u.s. defense budget. but the problem begins once the bill leaves the armed services committee. then the bill kind of disappears and gets changed. that's not chairman reed's fault. that's our collective decision

to endorse that process. the first thing that happens, particularly this year, is that many, many big, important pieces of policy get added to the defense bill. some of them are good policy, but some of them aren't of the but there is no -- arnts. but -- arent. but there is no democratic process in which members get to review what's added to the defense bill. there's no notification of rank and file members so we can provide input. again, as i understand it the armed services committee doesn't want to be in this position. they'd rather just have a vote on their original bill as we did for decades until just recently when all of this extra policy got added to the defense bill. but because today there are so few avenues for that other legislation to find a path through the floor in large part because republicans are using the filibuster to clog up the floor of the senate, the defense bill becomes this kind of evacuation helicopter carrying

all the passengers that can fit in it. for the first time this year there are more pages in the defense bill dedicated to nondefense items than to defense items. now, this might be acceptable if senators could offer amendments on the floor, remove parts of the bill we don't like, make other parts better. at least have our day. but the other new normal here is that there's going to be zero amendments, amendment votes likely in the senate debate. now, it's the same problem. there's a handful of republicans here who don't want to legislate and so they are likely going to refuse to give consent to vote on amendments. and plus, as i mentioned, they clog up the floor with filibuster votes which means that you can't get big,

important pieces of legislation done so they all find their way on to the defense bill. but i just want to plead with my colleagues for a moment that there is a better way to do this. we don't have to look too far in the past to see what a real debate on a defense bill could look like. i just want all of my colleagues to think about how much more interesting this place would be, how much healthier the senate would be if we could have debates on defense bills that look like they did just 20 years ago. so i was just curious. so i literally swrution picked a year -- literally just picked a year out of a hat from a slightly different generation of the senate. i didn't cherry-pick the year. i went back to the year 2000, nice, convenient date. for the fiscal year 2000 defense bill debate, which by the way happened in may, not in december, the senate took roll call votes on 13 amendments. there were many amendments, uncontested controversial policy

that got full debate and full votes. there were a whole bunch of other amendments that got voice votes in the senate. but on the amendments that got full debates on the senate floor and roll call votes, there was an 87-12 vote on the legality of a new nato strategic plan, a 49-50 vote to compel information from the secretary of health and human services on welfare reform. 48-52 on a war powers resolution for the war in the balkans. 90-0 on a measure to encourage balkan war crimes prosecution. 52-47 on a contested military promotion case. 40-60 to authorize a new round of base closures. 44-56 on nuclear weapon retirement policy. 49-51 and then 51-49 to remove restrictions on prison labor products. 49-51 to remove restrictions on abortions, on d.o.d. property. 21-77 to eliminate funding for the balkan war.

11-87 to limit the cost of the f-18 program and 98-0 to support sanctions on libya. that's a lot of debate on really important foreign policy and national security policy on the floor of the senate. and that is virtually unthinkable in the modern senate. we're all poorer for it. back then every senator, not just leadership, saw themselves as having a coequal responsibility to set u.s. defense policy. and they required the process on the floor to reflect that belief. in just that one year, 2000, senators took three votes on the balkan war, a vote on costs, voter on base closures, sanction, military promotions. i go through this exercise just to explain to my colleagues it just doesn't have to be like this. those of us not on the armed services committee or not in leadership don't have to be relegated to 70 rubber stamps with virtually no ability to

have meaningful real time impact on the bill once it emerges from committee. but i make this point for another reason as well. when there is limited debate and limited input from rank and file members on a bill this big, on policy this important, i would argue that we miss the opportunity to be able to step back from this year-to-year creep of existing policy and ask ourselves, are we doing it right? are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars in a way that actually pockets this country and -- protects this country and our national interests? or are we simply continuing down a path, continuing to invest and overinvest in weapons of war and underinvest in the tools that are necessary to prevent war? $847 billion is a ton of money

but so is $80 billion, this year's increase in authorized defense spending. let me say this, there is no doubt that there are legions of meritorious programs in this defense budget. frankly, i publicly and proudly support many programs that are built and constructed in connecticut, our submarine fleet, our helicopters, our fighter engines. why? because i really do believe that the united states is the world's defender of democracy, the defender of the rule of law, the defender of international norms and free navigation. we have to be the world leader in kinetic hard military power. ukraine is an example of why conventional military might still matters. big nations like russia and china are not content any longer to stay inside their boxes. their like preworld war ii times, seeking to revise their borders through invasion. while the united states is currently at no risk of being invaded ourselves, we have a responsibility to step up and help others, to help reinforce

that postworld war post world war ii order to ensure wars of aggression do not become normalized. but that post world war ii order is under threat not just because countries like russia and china are using and threatening to use their militaries with alarming new frequency, the lion's share of threats to the united states and threats to world stability are often referred to not as conventional military threats, but what is commonly referred to as asymmetric threats. this generally means they are threats that cannot be addressed just through military power, air power, armies, nuclear weapons, the kind of things that are funded in this defense bill. let me give you some examples. thousands of pages of think tank reports and endless hours of congressional testimony are dedicated to this lament that china's influence around the world is growing due to its willingness to aggressively invest in developing economies,

critical mineral supplies and sliech routes. for instance -- and supply chain routes. for instance, today china owns over 100 different international ports. they own 100 ports outside of china in 60 different studies. a new study revealed that china's development bank lent more money in sub-saharan africa than the banks in the united states, germany and france combined. to fix this we need to be growing the size of u.s. development finance but it is like growing teeth to get congress to extend authorities of the u.s. development finance corporation. last year dnc announced it lent more money than any year before, $7.4 billion. that's a lot of money, $7.4 billion. this july china's largest development bank announced that its six-month total for a targeted set of urban infrastructure loans in the developing world, just a tiny

piece of their overall portfolio, was $27 billion. u.s. development finance isn't eeb playing in the sail baw pars chiebs vet filibusters of the here's another measure. it's cliche to remight bed -- remight bed policymakers that information is power. it is also under attack from misinformation. china, russia, iran, nonstate actors, they are spending billions of dollars all over the world spreading messages into democracies to try to create division and undermine faith in the rule of law. that controversy around colin kaepernick's protests, that was mostly a creation of 500 russian internet bots who posted an incredible 12,000 tweets inflaming public opinion.

china's global disinformation campaign is equally robust. for instance, the largest backer of philippines president, former president rodrigo due tear -- duter's e -- duter's assassination campaign. here's an example. the budget for r.t., just one of putin's international television and online news operations, $2.8 billion. the budget for the u.s. agency for global media which funds all of our overseas broadcasting, $1 billion. how do you compete with those kind of funding did is cre sister? here's -- did is cre pab is is? a few years ago i was in dub lib at the say tieb of a major comiewks -- communications contractor in ireland, to award

to a european firm or huawei. i was told by a competent but very overwhelmed defense attache assigned to our irish embassy that over the prior few months the chinese embassy had grown by leaps and bounds as dozens of chinese diplomats and provocateurs arrived in town to try to help sway the award for weigh weigh. matched up against -- for huawei. matched up was this one guy, our single defense attache, maybe supported by a couple of diplomats in the inte. -- in the embassy. he was competent but had no background and frankly nobody else did either and no extra help was on the way. the same phenomenon plays out with energy projects. other nations integrate energy resources with diplomatic and

national security efforts. there is no separation between the middle east oil and their foreign politics. the same for russia, iran, or venezuela. but u.s. energy executives are not representing the u.s. government, which means our diplomats are on their own in conducting energy policy. which means they have an enormous amount of catching up to do against these other petro powers. but for the first time today the u.s. is not the leading country when it comes to diplomatic posts around the word of the that did is ticker should be noe now blocks to chieb of the as adversaries try to yubd might be democracy's really and use energy and technical resources to win allies, we simply don't have the means to keep up another asymmetric advantage for our competitors. we have no dedicated anticorruption or technology or energy policy corps within our foreign service. it's not because we don't need

this capacity. it's because we can't afford it. we lament this asymmetric advantage that other countries have on nondefense capabilities but it is just a choice. it's a choice because we pass year after year these massive defense bills, and then we choose not to increase the capabilities that would actually protect us, the investments in nonmilitary capabilities. i get it. i know this bill is going to pass. but why on earth aren't we specked more tie asking the tough questions about whether the balance of our specked object -- spending on national security is right sized. yes, the ukraine war is worth fighting, and it is expensive of the but does it really make sebs to -- make sebs to spend 84 ties more moab object qeks

tools that be on the information war? does it plaik sebs to add teb percent to the dwebs become? do we can we are respobding to the array of threats posed tock -- posed tock cubt and 12 thousand complees employees. mesh -- mesh -- american leaders refuse to acknowledge asymmetry exist because we refuse to pass ab$847 billion dwebs become with a tebs percent wub year increase and do nothing to bid the real capacities necessary to key you with our

adversaries. we could decide could build a massive, mo desh -- modern bank of the we could decide, this congress, to have enough diplomats to fight the fights that matter to us. we should imagine this world in which we fight toe to toe with adversaries in the development, information toiblg -- and technology. a sill try is a choice for adversaries and for us of the it is a cobs -- consequence for us , humanitarian and diplomacy being the same size as the one

year increase in the defense budget. $847 billion is a lot of money to spend without a real debate on the senate floor, without the ability to offer amendments. i think this country would be better off, security would be better protected if we took a step back, asked questions about how we allocate money within our national security budget and took the time to have a real floor debate with real input about it all. i yield the floor. mr. murphy: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll.

quorum call:

quorum call:

he quorum call:

add a sense of what i thought it was possible to achieve for my constituents having served in the house for 12 years and into cabinet jobs in the 43 administration and in that speech i talked about my interest in solving problems and working across the aisle to tackle big issues . that's what we tried to do. we've had some successes and

disappointments but through it all i've alwaysconsidered it a great honorto be able to represent my neighbors , the people of ohio . we done all we could while we had this temporary privilege. our commitment was to the ball forward wherever possible our great country and the family to represent and through our legislative results i believe we've pledge . it's been a team effort . i've been blessed with an awesome staff eating behind me today, amazing senate colleagues on both sides of the aisle willing friends in every part of ohio input helped me represent our diverse state and most importantly understanding family and a partner in all things in janeportman . what started you to get certain started in public service in the first place? my mom taught by her example that serving otherswas our duty . we had no choice and through their volunteer work my brother and sister felt change lives and i respect

all the caring and giving all iowans that do that. i chose to serve in a different way which involved the rough and tumble of politics. it's not for everybody but also a way to help others. another impetus for getting involved in politics was my father fill portman. even though he's a small business guy he thought i was crazy to get into this line of business . when i was a kid he gave up his job as a truck salesman for a bigger company to live up hisown american dream and start his own business . he took a big risk, gave up healthcare and retirement plan and five people, my mom was the bookkeeper started portman equipment company with lots of debt. they actually lost money the first two years but he never gave up on his dream and eventually through hard work and integrity down his niche. my brother sister and i worked at portman equipment company and by the time my dad required my retired my

brother took over the company and there were 300 people working there. keeping the american dream alive and creating the conditions to allow that next bill portman to build his or her dream and in doing so help so many other communities has been my north star. that's what's guided me. god also played a special role in my decision to run for senate. as you'll recall a couple years before 2010 we had the greatrecession . our country went through times in a public service sector and run again my friend and mentor surprised you as well is in ohio with his desire jane began. while real of the policy is in and i remember in early 2009 asking my usually in. at risk and start / his

answer was troubling. he said he just wasn't sure that he listed higher taxes that were being or healthcare costs, more regulations. he said i just don't know if it would be worth it. that conversation was part of what brought me is. i believe that continued leadership to drive in the opportunity to help more people to achieve your dream. not a people these days as a politics is an honorable profession. is also just as job progress is doing is all people resisted: we seem to partisan gridlock keeps us from solving problems i was having on our southern border. moses 's desk candy honorable . is not finding common ground.

we all responsibility to elect our state but i think sometimes we forget we were hired to do our best to find a common ground and achieve results that's what we were hired to do. when i need to be reminded about that i think about my political mentor george hw bush gave me my first job in politics on the campaign trail and in his white house . to him look service was a noble calling. a way to serve and he helped young people like me see that by his example. in working for his son george w. bush i witnessed that same commitment. in my senate office as those behind me can recite wehave a mission statement and we developed it together and it says the following. our mission is to deliver bipartisan results through effective leadership with integrity , selflessness and excellence so all ohioans can reach their god-given

potential . what is servant leadership? it begins by listening them understanding their concerns whenever possible delivering those answers is worth two legislative work. during my time is on how by falling. by my staff today this week over the past 12 years bills i have authored or co-authored and son-in-law. all all our is the promise leads to that common ground. not all these bills monumental. judgments will never hear the vast majority of them there were the. okay. senator hassan is 's desk and properly hearing protection, not the most pressing issue to the ohio family was hearing loss will be diagnosed it will be life-changing.

these are members. . i see usual is five is you. is discuss we see on. all. 95 of you. bob and rich bills including i will probably rise of visit . thanks to the leaders of the finance committee chairman one ranking member working with my friend then working for being my partner on successfully standing on others from office in israel,

the irs week one 2000 or will a number of the last three and a holly sharon. in a space and that he is at ohio state we are friends and a lot last year houses of worship to that were, the lifers in your body and the center of websites they german online. i also ensure that all is changing her the influx of mind were. our life is of the city on the children were federal agency or to ensure the

safety and security of the fall. five as he he her specialist will easily shift today is life as the united states postal service went to the successful vision of the period, my us research and intellectual programs is only parking lot military on days. while federal agencies have done little to stop it. senator carter i is action our intellectual property, our intention, our research. the same is within certain market and i urge my colleagues in congress.

is reviewing china's malign influence to undermine the us federal reserve. we must do more to safeguard our land on. i appreciate senator heinrich for launching the artificial intelligence caucus with me to ensure the whole bipartisan policymaking on ai . to ensure safe and coordinated use of artificial intelligence has become law. since 2015 when my bipartisan permanent improvement act was signed worked job while standing and streamlining the process x .. class

soon i could have a 45 percent time saving the major cost savings and we should expand without succumbing is want to senators work with me on the historic infrastructure bill with a special thanks, to miley democratic partner center cinema, the listeners collins, ronnie cassidy murkowski and warner, and others and mansion and every present in every congress modern times has a bethany to fix our aging infrastructure but we were from the middle out different a bipartisan coalition of 69 members to kobe on the talk like some of these needed and historic and prevents donations the bills and bridges and rail have been relations broadband system and summa tomorrow pretty in the the process me was a must as important as a substance, we had by focusing on the key principles of core infrastructure only no tax hikes, and bipartisan consensus and i was proud to team up with each one of you. i think you for your willingness to find that elusive common ground.

and some people my hometown who have heard the politicians about fixing the bridge which connects ohio to sir mcconnell state of kentucky for over 30 years we have been talking about this and is it to under major interstate highway and carries many vehicles a day which is twice in many as it was ever designed it to gary and has no shoulders, unabridged because and eliminated the traffic which makes it unsafe that it still congested every rush-hour and this takeovers of never been able to come up with a way to solve this problem and the bipartisan infrastructure off finally paves the way to fix this bridge which not only travel savor but improve the movement of goods throughout the midwest and actually strengthens our national economy. there's so many people to recognize and apologies in advance for those that will mess, and now senator blumenthal, thank you for working with me on the one of the greatest humanitarian civil

rights causes of the 21st century human trafficking. we started a caucus we've enacted a number bills to address trafficking including the justice for victims and holy internet sites accountable to prevent the facilitation of trafficking income of the one time that congress has been able to successfully emanate the section 230 immunity henson white house is competing in change the way addiction is addressed by offering election recovery act. in the provides a broad response of the opioid crisis ever rides into vigils with the evidence-based treatment and recovery services, they need. i think that looking at addiction is a disease is probably the most and putting things that we did not legislation in addition to the significant funding. i think center of one who is eager role in the appropriation pretty for funding the federal government at record levels, and center capitol is right there with him. consider kobe target i, worked to pastor stop back to keep china from shipping is awful u.s. mail etc. kevin senator

manchin has passed important bills and scheduling printed all analog to make sure that it is illegal hundred deeply and personally engage in a substance abuse issue for over 25 years when i started my own antidrug p in ohio this become overtime a model prevention coalition and evers for doug entered the free community act establishment of polish around the country, the way i worked on that was senator chuck grassley, when i was in the house in effect took took me to iowa with him to set up an antidrug coalition there. and that was almost as interesting is going as his guest of the iowa state fair when i was u.s. trade representative. it senators thinking that i have looked over the years and so many foreign policy issues as well as energy efficiency and introduce our first bill in 2011 and got most of them sign into the law. having reduced energy bills for families and businesses and actually reduce emissions by using less energy that i think my colleagues classmate, senator hoban, for his leadership under

energy efficiency bill as all of the above energy approach mostly for having me improve my spanish landing north dakota accent. [laughter] and also to think bennett for successful efforts on encouraging carbon capture legislature is starting to work to do that i appreciate nurse capitol partnership is cochair of the great lakes task force in working with her and all members of the southwest and we have made a lot of progress find harmful algal blooms and other species and so many other issues to our largest water resource. i thank you to senator kane, and the culture of the technical education caucus, working with me to challenge congress to do more to address the nation's skills gap in from of the jobs act provide individuals with skills they need to get good paying jobs the skills needed out there we need to focus more on how to ensure that we are not just anybody to said young people to college but also getting them the industry recognized that they need.

and senator coons, for white house, cochairs of the conservation caucus, you been great partners over the years are legislation to combat wildlife trafficking in concert for us, and it of strategies to protect some international treasures like delta and in southern africa and i appreciate centers warmer and can come and alexander for working with me in the past restore our parks act which is finally dressing the massive different maintenance backlog parks because some of the most treasured landscapes and monuments can be enjoyed by generations to come in because of the ships and size act i worked on closely with michael x center tell us and others and until recently broke out smi connector plant outside of columbus the largest investment in the history of ohio and investment we believe will grow over time and with a chips act now and all we can reverse this trend of critical semiconductor make being sent overseas.

as we create thousands of high-paying jobs are but most importantly may help strengthen national security. in these will be into play without a reference to her work on tax reform, is a mention with them but i decided to run for the senate in 2000, ohio is losing our economy was falling behind and can't pay based on part of plan for jobs and the focus on the number of economic policies including placing our tax code and making it competitive again and for american workers and businesses. and in 2017, with the highlights and send for me was is able to work with a small group of lawmakers, pat toomey, tim scott, john clune, have developed the promise with tax cuts and jobs act in the first time congress has passed comprehensive tax reform and 31 years they cut taxes middle, families and creating more and higher wages for hire workers updated our international code to encourage employers partially bring jobs and investment back here to america and i wish it

could've been mark bipartisan but frankly what i live in the international side and absolute bipartisan bruce, i believe that it worked in the tax reform helped us in a period of unprecedented economic growth and broadly protect reform, and for the pandemic, we had 23 months of waiting 90 percent or more. well above inflation and most is wage gains by the way went to lower income the middle income workers. and the poverty rate started to keep track of it back in the 1950s the lowest on appointment rate for blacks and women and hispanics is an opportunity to economy and unfortunately, a lot of the scenes wash away the pandemic it in an avalanche of stimulus money over the last two years that fed the demand side of the economy both supply is been constructed by covid-19, but also by regulation critically in energy and contributed to the highest inflation and 40 years. evidence that it will have the opportunity to reset working without some make the economic

policy a higher priority. i don't think so many of my colleagues who have working over the years to support ukraine has ongoing fight for freedom. this is an issue near and dear to my heart and into ohio with some of you know, rhythm of many ukrainian americans and other national groups committed to the goal of a free and independent europe. one thing during the share with me of ukraine talk his republican colleagues and caucus, who are so passionate on ukraine centers greyhound, liquor, creamer, cotton, rocco english and michalski and sullivan, cortland, cotto, johnson, ernst and others. i want to thank all of those who joined me on trips since 2014 when ukraine rose up and threw off the corrupt russian backed government entered to us entered to the west is includes two recent sobering visits, to ukraine was senator kobe char and kuhn. in 2015, however the ukraine assistance initiative which has

become a key funding account that we have used to train and equip ukrainian armed forces pretty we need to continue to fund this account lead the free world carrying the torch of freedom and the original occupation of ukraine, escalated into a full-scale war every 24th of this year have now spoken this for 20 some times a week we have been in session about the unprovoked illegal and brutal invasion of ukraine. i might most - less likely won't going but except to say that we are at a critical jumped right now is more important than ever, we support ukraine so i'm going to be fighting hard for continuation of a to ukraine before christmas. we just discussed many examples of ringing from the partisan gridlock in getting things done and despite these achievements i do worry about the divisive political rhetoric intercountry that it's important that we restore the faith in the democratic institutions but for own country say can we can continue to be the beacon of hope and opportunity to the rest

of the world and we can rise above this dysfunction. and talks about how that is happening and is happened over the last 12 years in this body we certainly is on infrastructure as a valve going in so many other ways as well and there's all of us to remember that there is more that unites us, divides us and hope that one of the things we can agree on is the need to uphold this institution and what it stands for and i strongly believe, that means preserving legislative filibuster that protects the rights of the minority in the senate and is really the only thing that forces us to work in a bipartisan way. as a result, when we find coming down that will stand the test of time not be changed every time in the majority in this body. intercountry faces enormous challenges with its economy and record inflation and national debt is rubbing future generations in the absence of any real butter security number good and gracious system and

looming insolvency ever entitlement programs they will be solved by one party running on the other and imposing his will of the senate country only be solved by us working together in good faith at the start of this, serving the people of ohio's greatest honor of my life and over the past 12 years and work with my colleagues and friend from ohio center and in portage or state and we've canceled each other's boats out on the floor of the senate, we also figured out and work together in front of the work that we do not issues in portage while greatly enforcement addiction and afforded judicial nominations like the district court judge that we just confirmed afternoon despite her differences we made progress on this together and i hope she had the same type of good working relationship with my friend jenny vance and an impressive background of service and military and private sector and

i know it was to make a difference the families i look forward to watching him in the senate and i know what it's like so hard i wish him a wife and their three kids while jane i support you both. i think you to everyone, was served on team throughout my career in the first bush white house and the white and ustr and would be. here in the senate, or having alumni event tonight with a couple of hundred best public servants ever assembled and jeannie and i are looking forward to seeing you all there and i have an amazing senate staff present with me and till the bitter into thank you and mostly in ohio and washington dc many of them are here in the chamber today but i think him for dedication of getting things done and they worked really hard in the people of ohio and the people of the country and been enabled us to be so much more effective and nothing that we accomplish would be possible without you and i want to thank

everyone who works in the senate makes it function well whether it's the staff, and the keepers and capitol police and cafeteria workers in separate drivers and all of them very practical way, and democracy functions because of you thank you. i know many of you can join us at our thank you reception for you on friday afternoon pretty special thanks, tillie mccall. image i appreciate your encouragement over the years in your trust in me to take on a leadership role on important assignments and for your commitment and devotion to this institution and the health of our democracy of this works without having a loving and supportive family and all of you know that so to my wife jane and the three people in the world i am most father, thank you for your conditional support of the sacrifices you made and looking forward to be in ohio full-time is been more time with family and friends the golden lamp in a family restaurant, again the private sector can somehow hope to see involving public policy

issues that we have been talking about today. i finally thinks my senate colleagues, who made coming to work, every day enjoyable and productive pretty and thank you for reaching out to me. and to work together and accepting my offer to work with you. states senate. and i must tell you, it brought back some very fond memories over three decades of friendship between rob portman and myself as colleagues, as partners, and as friends. earlier this week, we had a chance in the senate foreign relations committee his wife jane was there and i made an observation that the sacrifice that jane has made and that his three children, we thank them for sharing, senator portman with us and with public service. i think back about three decades. i first got to know congressman

portman in 1993 when he was elected to the united states house of representatives, an introduction came from former congressman bill grattison, he was from ohio and rob portman succeeded him in the house of representatives. i knew bill from my days in the state legislature. we were friends and we had done some bills together in the house of representatives, and he told me, you know, you're going to like this rob portman. he's the type of guy you're going to be able to work with. by the way, i have an issue i'd like the two of you to take up. it was a legacy issue for bill and it dealt with hospice care. there wasn't a lot of interest in hospice care in the 1990's, but congressman portman and i got together and we worked on a bill and we followed in bill's footsteps to get that bill accomplished. that was the beginning of a

three-decade relationship the two of us had in pursuing legislation. the best money is the portman-cardin legislation. for many years people thought my first name was portman because of my association with congressman portman at the time. i must tell you, we got amazing things done to expand retirement savings opportunities. we were very proud that several bills were enacted and signed into law. but we're equally proud of the process that was used in order to put that -- that legislation together. we invited all stakeholders to join us. it was truly bipartisan. we wanted to get the best policy, and it was that process that led to the successful passage of the first portman-cardin bill that dramatically expanded retirement savings opportunities even though it was not in either the

democratic or republican leadership package. i mentioned the process because that's the process that senator portman, congressman portman has always used. he's used a bipartisan process to try to bring us together to get the very best possible solutions to problems. it's been the bedrock of his career, and that's why he has been so successful here in the united states senate and so many of our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have expressed our gratitude for his public service. now, i must tell you. he used that relationship sometimes on issues that were not necessarily his partner's top priority. as he mentioned before he got me engaged in the irs former bill that dealt with the nuts and bolts of the irs. now, mr. president, i ask you, how many people want to be known in their district for improving the irs services reflecting their taxes? but rob portman was the leader on this. he needed a democrat in the

house. and he was very persistent and we were able to get significant reform done in the irs when we were both members of the house. well, as you know, rob portman moved on to become the u.s. t. t.r. and came back to the united states senate. i was pleased to partner with him again when he returned to the united states senate. on the senate foreign relations committee, we talked about some of his major accomplishments. the two of us worked together to promote the you u.s.-israel relationship, the fight against anti-semitism and there is no stronger advocate in the united states senate for the defense of ukraine. his record has been unbelievable, the amount of accomplishments of getting solid legislation accomplished because he has that ability to work across party line. he is very engaged on the issues. he knows the issues. he knows the substance. he knows your concerns so that

we can work it out and reach a common level of agreement so we can get a bill to the finish line. so that is why he has had such a remarkable record in getting retirement legislation enacted into law. getting trade legislation enacted into law. dealing with our national park service enacted into law. fighting drug addiction, which is one of his major passions, making a huge difference on our war against drugs. as it was pointed out earlier and i want to underscore that, his values of promoting human rights. in so many cases he has been the key supporter, initiator and ability to reach the finish line on bills that affect the basic rights of americans, going against such issues as human trafficking and so many other areas. so, mr. president, i just really wanted to take this time to say to my friend rob portman, through the presiding officer, thank you so much for your many, many years of public service.

we wish jane and you and your entire family only the best going forward. you've left the legislature once again and returned, maybe you will return again, we'll see. but i wish you only happiness and success in what follows your senate career. thank you for sharing your talent with the american people. with that, mr. president. i yield the floor. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

>> we have the opportunity to hear from our colleagues in the final remarks here will certainly his i guess you would call it going away speech. but i just appreciate so much having had the opportunity to work with senator portman i know that as you pointed out from the staff finally here in the chamber butter on the capitol's personal staff, and all people who make profound contributions to that incredible record of accomplishment that he just talked about that does not happen, anybody who works or very long realizes incredible contributions to the south that

the make to getting things done around here and so i express my appreciation as a dead two of them for all you did to make center apartments time here so productive is rita seeing his wife jane donor sally here as well for all of this partnership and the team and that all of us know that are so critical to be able to make a difference here in the senate and the many sometime sacrifices and contributions and make on a day in day out basis but madam president i've gotten to break bread with a lot of times here and we become really good friends i'm going to miss having him here is a set arrondissement a lot of years in public service and serving this country, 12 years in the house of representatives first got acquainted with him and u.s. tre representative, director of the office of management and budget and finally, 12 years here in

the united states senateh him oe finance committee for nearly ten years. and his going i will tell you is a huge loss. they played an indispensable role in the historic tax reform legislation we passed in 2070, particularly the transition to modernized international tax system are outdated international tax rules that left america's global businesses in a competitive disadvantage in the global economy out of our priorities when it came time to pass tax reform is to ensure that american businesses could compete with foreign counterparts alone felt plainfield in between seven fibers as director of a wavy in the u.s. trade representative office, rob has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to american economics competitiveness and international tax system and he quickly became the lead on that aspect of tax reform and not just on that one in so many

aspects of the very comfy gated piece of legislation, the united states international tax system into the 21st century by replacing outdated worldwide system of the modernized territorial taxes, i mean, american essences are not operating at a disadvantage next to the foreign competitors and we saw an almost immediate positive effect for american businesses which of course means that we saw positive results for american workers and that is really large part thanks to rob important legacy, and it joins rob's long list of achievements in public service and some of which he mentioned unsafe in securing resources for addiction prevention and treatment financing pridgen acute for american workers and businesses alike is been a strong voice for american leadership in valleys and the goal of the global mentioned a, sending ukraine

caucus in heaven present status erupt leaving the senate he spent a lifetime helping to build up our country and i know is contributions will not it here i'm also happy we'll have more time to spend with his family and with his wife jane and jane is terrific and like me rob married up and know that rob looking forward to having more time to spend together i also know that rob is planning to give more involved in the family business and the golden lamp in and restaurant in lebanon, ohio, which is played to at least a dozen u.s. presidents over the years. as i said well rob's time in this enemy becoming because my know that he fully intends to continue doing what he is been doing throughout his career that is, working to make our country a better and more prosperous place ...

>> ...

rob portman and he would never say this. i'm wondering if i'm hearing both sides on that because he has never advertised and never set it up to this point. let me say today that he is a graduate of the university of michigan law school and now that he's retiring maybe you can say it out loud. we are glad to have you there. senator portman has been a wonderful partner on issues important to both of our states the great lakes and in trade. we serve as co-chairs of the senate task force in 2017 and they have gone to bat together on behalf of our beloved -- time and time again. we have introduced this pass legislation to stop the invasion of species from reaching and destroying our great lakes when

the trump administration tried to stash all the funding for the great lakes restoration initiative. we thought that together and we won and since then we pass legislation to rap arise the program and celebrated when we secured $1 billion for the bipartisan infrastructure and jobs act. he would not have happened without senator portman. i've always said the great lakes should not be partisan issue and thanks to rob at has not been. we have always worked together on the issue of trade as well. we fought for american workers and we put together in a house and continued a strong working relationship and tell senator portman left to become the u.s. trade represented under president bush and in the senate we partnered to make sure american partners had a level playing field.

a great congressional delegation trip to vietnam and south korea where we met with trade officials, senator portman and i and i got to see madam president how much you was accepted. from supply chain to securing funding to environmental communities to promoting recycling to planting trees to funding our community health centers, to keeping plastic pollution out of the great lakes, great lakes, there is snow and to the number of issues we worked on together. rob i'm going to miss you. i value your friendship and are working relations -- relationship here. i know you will enjoy spending more time with jane jeb will and sally. and watching more michigan games that you can finally admitted to enjoy. i wish you the best of everything and i hope we are going to continue to see you.

i yield the floor madam president. c the senator from utah. >> madam president ipads both the good fortune and misfortune of working closely with senator rob portman. i had the misfortune of debating him in 2012. he was kind enough to play the part of president obama in those sessions we was for a lot less determined unforgiving and anxious to delve into the most minute fraction figures in order to knock any complacency i might have had out of my heart. he more than made up for my debate working vicariously and immediately accompanying me across ohio and other states in support for my campaign raising money and jousting to try to derail my campaign.

when i came to the senate i found many of those same qualities whose relentless as determination and ability to dig into the details have made him a singularly successful united states senator. i worked alongside him on several bills. on each occasion they became lost because he dug into them. because she did the most 30 up -- thorny issues and drove the process their results and never ever gave up. we formed eight working groups on the bipartisan infrastructure bill because there were too many complex and too many subjects and obstacles for a group who intended to resolve the undivided and the parts we can deal with one by one. he decided he would be a member of every single one of those subgroups knowing that he would be needed to actually drive each of us to a conclusion and a

result. you see there are some people in politics who believe that a fiery speech or a bold appearance on the cable show and a reputation for fighting the opposition have brought him success. not so with rob portman. he came here to pass bills and shape policy to help the american people and strengthen our country. he came to fight. when, not justified, and he is one for america time and time again. more important to me personally than all of his winning is his friendship. his honor, and his character. he is a genuinely good man and he is blessed to have married an even better woman. i will miss rob portman in the senate as i think many of my colleagues know. he's been a bit of a stabilizer for me here.

i will miss him and jane in the neighborhood of our lives. god bless you rob portman. >> madam president i rise to offer my thoughts on the career in the service and personality in the value of senator rob portman one of the number of retiring colleagues whom i will dearly miss. i was somewhat surprised by the timing of senator blunt's farewell address and miss the opportunity to speak at his departure. the we have in common and shared characteristic of passion for getting things done, for being a senator who serves a state in a nation who works across the aisle and delivers real solutions. stop taxing death and disability. that's the first bill that rob and i got through to the

person's desk and signed into law. under the previous demonstrations under a catchy name and it was a simple solution to problem most of us have never heard of which if someone had taken out student loans fine. unlikely to repay them the student loans were discharged as a result of a permanent disability or death that benefit was taxed and the tax attached in the case of one of my constituents to the parents. the estate of their deceased child. when i talk to rob about this on the floor he said that's a thing. we should stop it and from that simple grew at a dozen different legislations. we will get the reauthorization and the reauthorization of rob's landmark work in tropical rainforests and coral reef preservation to the president's

desk. we have had the chance to travel the world together. we had a remarkable trip with senator klobuchar to ukraine although i think rob was more comfortable on the train to new york but it was a memorable opportunity to visit the ukrainian refugees with their incredible embassy staff and present the liberty medal to the national constitution center to present zelensky. i'm also grateful for his leadership on the respect for marriage act which is today going to the president's desk. in august as we traveled to five countries in africa together with our spouses and a great bipartisan group to help altogether to look at how human development can be the key to wildlife conservation in countries across the continent where too often there's instability that leads to loss of biodiversity and an increase in lawlessness and terrorism and we found a way to craft a potential legislative solution that i look forward to hearing in the years ahead.

to jed too well to sally and to jane thank you for being such a delightful engaging supportive partner. my wife and i will deeply miss you and rob as a legislative partner and as a personal friend. god bless you and the next chapter of your life and we look forward to being together and with that i yield the floor. >> madam president. thank you. listening to senator portman's speech i don't know how you cannot be impressed. his incredible record of accomplishment and it's accomplishment that will stand the test of time. it's not surprising because all you have to do is look at all the things he accomplished before coming to the united states senate. it's certainly no surprise that

he has done incredible work over the last 12 years. he was 14 years i think in the house and had a tremendous record of success there. he was the u.s. trade ambassador for president bush and that has the same status as full ambassador so for all this time here in the senate he didn't want me to call him senator portman. he wanted me to call them ambassador. and he was omb director for president bush's so when you look at the incredible experience and records of accomplishment it is no surprise that in his speech he talks about a lot of incredible accomplishments but there is a

lot more that you didn't talk about. you could have will talk for a long, long time because she truly did accomplish so many things that are important not just for the buckeye state but for our country and i'm just pleased to have the opportunity to work with you. he mentioned some of the things we worked on in it's interesting because as you were talking about the things that you work on and the members you have worked with i just took -- there were more than 20 senators sitting here and you mentioned every single one of them and many many more. i kind of got the feeling is also the -- 100 senators were here you probably could have mentioned every single one of them in something you accomplished with them. think about what that says. republicans and democrats. i think you could have every single senator on the floor and he could have talked about hey heat we remember we worked on

this maneuver combat. and not just worked on a pass it into legislation. and in every case something that had a meaningful impact for our country and for our respective states. sara portman and i came here together so we have been close from the start a little bit of shared heritage. we worked together and we traveled together around the world to india, south korea mexico and central america and invariably i learned an incredible amount. but there was on those trips or at any other time i always learned from rob. i mean the guy, incredible experience and a lifetime of

learning in such an intellect. such a keen intellect and somebody who imparts that knowledge to you in the best way possible never coming across with any kind of ego or i know something and maybe a dog or anything like that in just a friendly and helpful great way. and his ability to work with people i have observed and tried to learn from it as well. it doesn't matter where you are going or what you are doing he takes the time to talk to people and really talk to them. not just talk at them. actually connect with them put a smile on their face. that's one of the things in one of the reasons i said hey rao bought it used teach me spanish. we would go to a restaurant he would start speaking spanish with somebody and you could see them, their face would light up and they would smile.

he could make them happy and make them feel welcome and warm and always genuine, always genuine. not like a politician would do it but the way a person would do to another person, someone who actually cares about people. that's where i kind of want to go as i wrap up here is that all the work he talked about in all his accomplishments and these are important. they are important for ohio and our country and beyond that his motivation in doing it was always because he does care about people. he recognizes that the things he is doing and you have to compromise or you don't get things all your own way or the way you think would be absolutely the best. you have to work of people and you have to compromise to get a result. he was always guided by the fact that he knew what he was doing.

he made things a little bit better for other people and that's the right motivation and the right reason to be here and do this work. we will truly miss rob and jane and their wonderful family. i've gotten to know them all. we are going to miss you a lot. but i do know this we are going to continue to see you and we will continue to work on things with you and i'm not sure what he's going to do next. but it's just like i started out talking about his incredible record of accomplishment before he got here, his incredible record and achievement here both in what is done and the relationship and friendships he has built. it leaves no doubt, no doubt whatsoever that he's going to continue to do wonderful and amazing things and i look forward to seeing him. rob we are going to miss you and thanks for all you have done.

thanks for being such a good friend. i yield the floor. >> madam president. >> the senator for minnesota. >> i will take over where senator hoeven left off. what are we going to do john and me without rob here in the events we do between fargo north dakota and more head. several times we have told rob that we were heading out to do some esoteric event together and he would give us a lot of grief that we would always send him pictures of the event to verify that this actually happened and we have a lot of fun doing that. i was thinking as i heard our colleagues talk about how rob always teaches and this is something john mentioned. he always passes on the torch and my favorite example of bad and you will remember this story rob was when my daughter started college and senator portman was

going to speak at the college because his son was there. he personally invited her to his talk at a residential college. she was a brand-new freshman. she went in there and sat down she told me how nervous she was. two hours later she comes back and calls me. rob has spoken in the typical way in a very authoritative manner but in a very nice way and maybe a little critical of then president obama. we didn't agree with him. my daughter freshman in college calls me and says mom you know senator portman said this. why didn't president obama do this and why did this happen that way? i said honey and i explained everything and i said you have lived with me for 18 years and i would hope you would give credence to what i said. you've been with rob portman for an hour and a half and she said.

mom, i will never forget this, senator portman is really distinguish mom. senator portman has a lot of dignity. anyway this was a family story for a long period of time and i think part of that as he was able to reach out at the school be able to make his case and make the moral figure for my daughter and not way and made the world bigger for all of us. for me it started with our work on human trafficking and under both democratic and republican presidents and ascended into the work on the usmcj and there was a moment where we feared canada was not going to be with us in the usna it is part of the canadian parliamentarian group reached out to rob in many other other senators and rob was incredibly helpful in the previous administration to work out some details and get that

done. you mentioned in your speech rob fentanyl on our work on that together has been tremendous and understanding that there are two sides of that, prosecution going after the bad guy in doing everything we can to get drugs out of the hands of people that don't deserve to get addicted but also the treatment and what we did along with sheldon whitehouse and kelly ayotte and many others in your understanding of the need to work on addiction. there is no better sign of someone that it wasn't just a senator blunt was saying just kind of ending your time with doing nothing, far from it. everything from the infrastructure bill to the work you've done with so many. for me it was her devotion to ukraine. people who will never know your name, who will never know how many times you went there to

stand up for the people of their country against the human barbarism of vladimir putin. a member standing with you at that mass grave at those burned-out apartment buildings and the way you were able to make the case working with the state department for what the people of ukraine needed and what would work and the thoughtful and considerate way the people of our embassy in all the work they did to remember the joy we took in finding out out -- the new babies in ukraine and the smile in your face. rob we are going to miss you so much that i have a feeling this is their last act. for you and your wonderful family there will be much more to come. thank you senator portman. >> madam president? it's often said here that everything has been said that not everybody has said it yet. this is a case where everything

won't be said today and can't be said and the remarkable legislative technology meant that rob has made were truly that just remarkable. they served early in the house together and this big retirement bill. the first name was portman and the portman cardin act, portman cardin this and that. i little piece that we are able to put in called the simple plan and maybe that's because family thing understand was the simple plan that it was a helpful plan that we probably wouldn't not have gotten it done if rob wouldn't have been constantly making legislative things happen that he makes happen. i suggest to my remarks i've never served on a committee with rob portman, the house for the senate in 20 years working together but i probably more time with him since we figured out how to move forward than i have almost anybody else from

the house leadership to the senate leadership meetings are a great abby and i really know would appreciate the friendship with he and jane and i knew their kids. there was a while i get the name of both of their dogs. that shows you you spend a lot of time with somebody if you know the names of both of their dogs and died to that with rob. he has done so well here. i was the whip in the house were rob was the u.s. trade ambassador and those trade bills are always hard to get done no matter how easy it seems that they are. we took to the floor and we decided now's the time to go. i think we'll get this done today. the work is good and the members are willing to go home and admit that they did this. trade agreements are good for the country that often members don't want to talk about them when they get home because you

cannot resign somewhere somebody in your state that might think you could have done a better job negotiating part of this and the other thing that rob and i have in common and understood i just heard today on the news radio driving in this morning talking about the new highly competitive states and i mentioned for decades missouri and ohio were always considered the two bellwether states. those were the two states in our state for 100 years we voted for the presidential winner every time we won. all ohio had that same record. we have also seen a political transition are states where they have gone from highly competitive where you are out there in so many ways on your own running for office where the parties have changed in ways that we may appreciate more than a lot of other people here would.

i hadn't thought about the support group. i hope i don't need that but i sure do need and hope to have the additional times to continue our great friendship, time to talk in as several people have said you always listen when rob talks because he knows what he's talking about. that's a relatively rare occurrence anywhere and even in the united states senate. i hope we will spend enough time together and we won't miss each other but i will certainly miss the times we had to work together on both sides of the building. sometimes you renewed administrations and i was here. congratulations on what you've done for america and what you have done for your family and the future of the country. i yield back.

>> madam president. >> the senator from arizona. >> madam president thank you for letting me be on here. i'm not even on the list. onsenty comments concerning senator roby portman made a little bit lernean be placed in the part of the -- a little bit earlier be placed in the part of the record certaining him. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: i ask that all postcloture time on the douglas nomination be expired and a a vote be determined by the majority leader in consultation with the republican leader. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nominations -- calendar number 1285, 1286, and 1287 and all nominations on the secretary's desk in the coast guard and foreign service, that the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that the president be immediately notified of the senate's

actions. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nomination -- calendar 1201, shalen pbaht to be administrator of the federal highway administration. the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: without objection. the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination, department of transportation, shalen p. ba of michigan to be administrator. the presiding officer: question occurs on the nomination. all those in favor, say aye. those opposed, say no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to legislative session and be in a period of morning business with senators

permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 522 introduced earlier today by senators carden and van hollen. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: a bill to direct the joint committee of congress on the library to remove the bust of roger brook tawney in the old supreme court chamber of the capitol and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i further ask that the bill be considered read add three times 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. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. 5230 which was introduced earlier today by senator murphy u. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 5230, a bill to

increase accessibility to the national missing and unidentified person system and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i further ask that the bill be considered read three times 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. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 593, s. 2333. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 593, s. 2333, a bill to amend chapter 2205 of title 36 united states code to ensure equal treatment of athletes and so forth and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended

be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is 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. ayes do have it. the bill as amended has passed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 401, s. res. 124. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 408, s. res. 124, celebrating the heritage of romani americans. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment to the resolution be agreed to, the resolution as amended be agreed to, the committee-reported substitute amendment to the preamble be

agreed to, the preamble as amended 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. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the committee on finance be discharged from the further consideration of s. 2834 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. 2834, a bill to amend title 18 of the social security act to preserve access to rehabilitation innovation centers under the medicare program. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i further ask that the durbin-cassidy substitute at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i know of no further debate on the bill. the presiding officer: if there is no further debate on the bill, the question is on passage as amended. all those in favor say aye. all opposed no.

the ayes appear to have it. the ayes have it. the bill as amended is passed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on banking, housing, and urban development be discharged and the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 310. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 310, an act to posthumously award the congressional gold metal collectively to glen daugherty, tie roone woods, j. christopher stevens and john smith in recognition of their contributions to the nation. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, 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. cardin: mr. president, i

ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of s. res. 866 which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 866, expressing support for the designation of october 2022 as national coop month, and so forth. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i further ask that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 867, submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 867, relating to the death of the alan r. parker, former staff director and chief counsel of the committee on indian affairs of the senate. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed.

mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 868 submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 868 expressing support for the did he having -- designation of september 2022 as sickle sickle cell awareness month. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. considered i ask unanimous consent that the homeland security and governmental affairs committee be discharged and the senate now proceed to the immediate consideration of h.r. 7535. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: h.r. 7535, an act to

encourage the migration of federal government information technology systems to quantum resistant cryptography and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the committee is discharged. and the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the hasan -- hassan substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourns until 3:00 p.m. on monday, december 12 and that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day and morning business be closed. that upon the conclusion of morning business, the senate proceed to executive session to resume consideration of the montgomery-reeves nomination

postcloture. further, at 5:30 p.m. all postcloture time be considered expired and the senate vote on confirmation of the montgomery-reeves nomination. finally if any nominations are confirmed during monday's session, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table and the president be immediately notified of the senate's actions. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin. pause.

mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the immediate consideration of calendar number 457, s. 4216. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 457, s. 4216, a bill to reauthorize the north korean human rights act of 2004 and for other purposes. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed. mr. cardin: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn, the rubio substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, the bill as amended be considered read a third time. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, i know of no further debate on the bill as amended. the presiding officer: is there further debate? hearing none, the question is on passage of the bill as amended. all in all those in favor say eye. all opposed no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it.

the bill as amended is passed. mr. cardin: i ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it stand adjourned under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate stands adjourned until 3:00 p.m. on