watch the opening day of the 118th congress tuesday, january 3rd at noon eastern live on c-span and c-span2, also on c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> the u.s. senate is about to gavel in on this wednesday morning. coming up at noon eastern lawmakers are expected to vote on a resolution offered by senator tim scott to repeal education department requirements involving grants for charter schools. also on the agenda this week, the 2023 defense authorization bill and a short-term government spending measure, current funding runs out this friday at midnight. live now to the floor of the u.s. senator here on c-span2.

the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. lord, you have been our guiding place in all generations. you laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. each day we receive the showers of your blessings. thank you for listening to our prayers and for keeping us safe.

thank you for giving us hope, even when life seems covered by shadows. lord, continue to sustain our senators. give them wisdom and courage to do their duty. keep them humble, and help them to trust you completely. we pray in your matchless name, amen. the presiding officer: please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the presiding officer: the clerk will read a communication to the senate. the clerk: washington d.c, december 14, 2022. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable ben ray lujan, a senator from the state of new mexico, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the leadership time is reserved. morning business is closed. under the previous order, the

senate will proceed to the consideration of s.j. resolution 60, which the clerk will report. the clerk: calendar number 640, s.j. res. 60, providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, united states code, and so forth.

mr. schumer: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: first, mr. president, i understand there is a bill at the desk that is due for its second reading. the presiding officer: the leader is correct. the clerk will read the title for the second time. the clerk: a bill making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2023 extending various health programs and for other purposes. mr. schumer: in order to place the bill on the calendar, under the provisions of rule 14, i would object to further proceeding. the presiding officer: objection having been heard, the bill will be placed on the calendar. mr. schumer: okay. mr. president, last night chairman leahy, ranking member shelby, chairman delauro announced that the appropriators have agreed to a framework for an omnibus agreement that will fully fund the federal government in fiscal year 2023.

this is welcome and important news. congress now has a road map for funding the government before the conclusion of the 117th congress, something the majority, the large majority of us want to see. we still have a long way to go, but a framework is a big step in the right direction. the year-long omnibus is by far the best option we have for making sure our kids, our senior citizens, our veterans, our small business, our military members, our defense, and all of the families that benefit from this don't see vital government services lapse or shrink. it means we can fully implement the investments. we fought so hard for the pact act. we fought so hard for the chips and science act. we have to fund it. a c.r. will not fund these bills, but an omnibus agreement will. and they were all bipartisan with large support from both sides of the aisle.

an omnibus is is also a balanced approach because it will wins for both sides that both sides with aens to see, like the electoral count act and funding for our friends in ukraine. if we can come to an agreement on an omnibus -- and i'm optimistic that these bills, which are so important to democrats and republicans alike, can become law. but before we pass a funding bill, we also must ensure the government doesn't first shut down, so we're going to have to pass a one-week continuing resolution asap. the house is set to ct to on a one -- to act on a one-week c.r. as soon as tonight. we should be ready to act quickly, as soon as tomorrow if we can. the appropriations process is not over. so the responsible and prudent thing to do right now is pass a one bike c.r. -- one-week c.r. quickly, without the unwelcome

brouhaha that provoked shutdowns in the past. remember, as we go through this appropriations process, the experiences of the last decades show that those who risk shutdowns in order to make political points always lose in the end. now, on speaker pelosi, later this afternoon i will have the honor, the bittersweet honor, of joining with congressional leaders, past and present, to unveil the official portrait of my dear friend and great leader, speaker nancy pelosi. every year, millions come to the capitol to learn about our democracy and put a face on the names of history. they walk these halls and see the portraits of speakers from age past -- sam rayburn, tip o'neill and so many others. after today, mr. president, after today, the faces of those male leaders will forever be joined by madam speaker. so today's a happy day, to celebrate an amazing public

servant who had an amazing career. but it's also a chance to say thank you to a dear friend and a beloved colleague. leader to leader, i will always admire speaker pelosi for the quality, an sporn quality that set her -- an important quality that set her apart -- she always keeps her caucus iewfnted behind a common -- united behind a common goal. she repeats, has for 20 years, our unity is our strength. that's what she always has said -- i have and will continue to repeat the same to my caucus. i yield the floor.

mr. mcconnell: mr. president. the presiding officer: the republican leader. mr. mcconnell: today is december 14. senate republicans have spent months, literally months, begging our democratic colleagues to stop fiddling with partisan nonsense and focus on two core things -- the ndaa and government funding. i've been talking about the need for a strong national defense authorization act all year long. all year long. i'm glad we're finally going to wrap up the basic governing duty that we have in the next few days. with respect to government funding, i was glad to hear senator shelby announce yesterday evening that negotiators have reached a bipartisan, bicameral framework

for a full-year government funding bill. long-term continuing resolutions cheat our armed forces out of the resources and the certainty that our commanders and civilian leaders need to keep modernizing our forces, investing in crucial weapons, and outcompetinge adversaries, such as china. i'm glad that our democratic colleagues finally accepted reality and conceded to the republican position that we need to prioritize our national security. republicans simply were not going to lavish extra liberal spending on the commander in chief's own party as reward for adequately funding our national defense. it simply wasn't going to happen. funding defense is a basic bipartisan duty of our government, not something that

earns democrats special treats. as senator shelby stated last night, the framework agreement doesn't mean the hard work is over. it means the hard work can finally start. it will take seriousness and good faith on both sides to produce actual legislation that follows the framework. poison pills, especially far-left demands to overturn longstanding and commonsense policy riders, will need to stay away from the process. and even then the calendar will still make this a challenging sprint. our side has made it clear that the senate has until december 22 to complete either a full-year funding bill or short-term c.r. into early next year. that's the deadline, and those are the two options. if a truly bipartisan full-year

bill without poison pills is ready for final senate passage by late next week, then i'll support it. for our armed forces particularly. otherwise, we'll be passing a short-term continuing resolution into the new year. now, on a different matter, against the backdrop of punishing 13.8% cumulative inflation since january 2021, an open borders crisis, spiking deaths and drug overdoses, and surging violent crime from coast to coast, president biden has decided his a-1 priority needs to be -- listen to this -- cracking down on charter schools and harming the educational opportunities available to millions of low-income students in the process. charter schools have long injected a huge dose of choice and competition into the schooling option available to

low-income americans and communities of color. this became especially true and especially important back during the pandemic. big labor teachers' unions spent the pandemic forcing public-run schools keeping their doors shut long after private and parochial schools were operating safely in person. during this time, charter schools became a haven. they offered an escape rope out of the learning loss for kids who would otherwise have been left behind. no wonder that, according to one analysis, charter school enrollment has surged since the pandemic started, even as public school enrollments have fallen off. but sadly, whenever kids' best interests and big labor's pocketbooks come into conflict, we know where most of today's democratic party, unfortunately, will come down. the biden administration has dutifully written a harsh, new

regulation that would intentionally chip away at the federal charter schools program and strip funding from many public charter schools. president biden and his team are trying to force charter schools to come to a new set of top-down, one size fits all that the teacher unions wants forced onto their competitors. the democrats' rule is designed to hamstring charter schools and leave them more reliant on government bureaucracies in everything from what they teach to how kids get to school in the morning. perhaps worst of all, they want charter schools' federal funding to be heavily contingent on whether the democrats' federal bureaucracy agrees there is a need for their existence. this is a plan to take options away from parents, to take opportunities away from kids, to take choice away from families, and transfer that power directly

to big labor bosses and big government bureaucrats. yet another example of democrats trying every trick to make end runs around patients' rights -- parents' rights in education, stripping power away from parents and handing it over to the bureaucrats. so i want to commend the senator from south carolina, senator tim scott, for bringing forward a congressional review actress lusion to right -- review act resolution to right this wrong. i it urge my colleagues to put families first and vote for senator scott's commonsense resolution. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. blumenthal: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. are we in a quorum call? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you.

mr. president, many of us in connecticut and throughout the nation awoke today with a heavy heart, with grief still so raw that we can almost touch it. i wish i could tell you that ten years ago to this day was a blur. i wish i could tell you that the memory of that day has dimmed. i wish i could tell you that the knife-like sorrow and pain has subsided. but the fact is it is still raw and real for so many of us in connecticut, this day ten years ago. my mind goes back to the horrors of this day, and i think that reliving it reminds us of the need to honor those 26 lives

with action. it is still searingly and scaringly vivid, the voices, the faces, the unforgettable moments of that tragedy as we stood at the firehouse in sandy hook and saw parents and loved ones emerge after learning that their children or loved ones, beautiful babies and great educators, would not be coming home that night. parents with their faces frozen in shock and sorrow struggling through tears. police and first responders bent with disbelief and grief. townspeople, loved ones feeling helpless and hopeless.

and in the wakes and funerals that followed, what we saw was a town and a state that rallied together, but still the searing sorrow of those losses and also the determination that was expressed that nightant -- night at st. rose of lima church to turn that grief and sorrow into something positive. as i recall very vividly at one of the wakes, i approached a mom who had just lost her child and said when you're ready, i'd like to talk about what we can do to stop this kind of gun violence, and she looked at me through her tears and said i'm ready. i'm ready now. that is the spirit that sandy hook and new town -- newtown

brought to the world as the world watched them. many of them, not all, but many of them turned that grief and loss into advocacy. they came here to the capitol. they asked us to do something about gun violence. they spoke to colleagues, they crusaded, they sought to improve the background check system that all too often allows people who are dangerous to have weapons, people who shouldn't have them in the first place. they were in this gallery, many of them, when the vote on this background check bill. it received 60 votes, but it failed. it received less than 60 votes, so it failed. it received a majority but not the 60 votes it needed.

and from the gallery, i heard then, and i still feel that it echoes in this chamber -- shame, shame on you. and indeed, shame on us. for the ten years afterward when no action came from this body. in the last decade they have continued that crusade. they have helped to form a movement. they have been joined by tens of thousands of others in a movement to change the law, to turn that trauma and loss into positive social change and reform. and they have helped create a movement. organizations like giffords and newtown action alliance, sandy

hook promise, moms demand action, students demand action, the newtown action alliance, connecticut against gun violence, many of them coming here and working year after year. that episode and others like it, the scourge of gun violence have given rise to that movement. and through that decade, literally 41,000 americans have died every year. one million americans in total have been shot. gun violence is now the leading cause of death among american children and teens. every day eight children and teens are unintentionally or accidentally injured or killed due to an unlocked or unsupervised gun.

but the survivors and the loved ones have become the dimps -- the difference makers, and they have been joined by law enforcement and parents, teachers, medical professionals, activists, and advocates who have said to us enough is enough. and their determination and courage, their conviction, that momentum have created a different trajectory, a different climate of opinion in this country, so that now a majority of americans want commonsense, sensible controls on gun violence. so the passage of the bipartisan safer communities act was not an accident of history. it was the culmination of a

movement that is still growing and spreading in its influence and impact. and there's no minimizing the importance of the measure that we passed with strong bipartisan support last august. it improves the background check system, it closes the boyfriend loophole, it helps stop gun trafficking, it adopts the concept of red flag statutes, intervention in crisis, separating people from guns when they are going to kill themselves or others, or at least tell people they're going to do it. and that red flag or emergency risk protection order movement is one that we in connecticut initiated. we were the first to pass that statute. and i have worked with senator graham and others in bipartisan

expansions of that proposal, and it is already helping to save lives. in florida, it has saved countless lives. in connecticut, in the 19 states where there are red flag statutes. and the act as a whole is helping to save lives. as my colleague, senator murphy, who will speak shortly, has said the reforms on the background check system alone have helped to save lives, and i credit him with his leadership in passing that measure. and yet, and yet the deaths continue. we know that that measure was not the single solution or the panacea that will solve the problem of gun violence, the scourge, the epidemic of gun violence deaths in this country. we have broken the grip of the

gun lobby, the nra is a shadow of itself. and we have a movement that is growing in importance and impact, but there is so much more to be done in the law. we need ethan's law, safe storage such as we've done in connecticut, strengthen red flag and emergency risk protection order statute, better background check systems to make them more complete and better enforceable. and, yes, ban on sexual assault -- ban on swawment weapons, ghost guns, which are the scourge of law enforcement. and so i say to the advocates and activists who are continuing this movement, we will continue that work. we will honor with action the lives that are lost not only in sandy hook but all around this country day after day in

drive-by shootings, in crimes and criminal assaults, in domestic violence. just in this past month a brave young woman was lost in connecticut to domestic violence where a protective order should have helped to save her life. and we owe our police more support and resources to enforce those protective orders and to take action against gun violence. they are unsung heroes, and in the wake of sandy hook many of them experienced trauma and mental health challenges that still linger with them. and on this day we should remember and commemorate and celebrate the service of our police, and, yes, our teemps -- teachers who also every day to do the drills and

experience the fear and apprehension for themselves and their students. they are also unsung heroes of sandy hook and afterwards. and parents who have to explain why they have that apprehension and why their children have to prepare for those drills. our medical professionals in the emergency room who see this trauma and the death and injury day in and day out, they are doing their jobs. our teachers are doing their jobs. our police are doing their jobs. parents are doing their jobs. congress is not doing its job. thank you to them for doing their job.

congress must do its job to strengthen our laws and prevent gun violence. and there is a new generation of activists and advocates coming along. the young woman who spoke at the vigil last wednesday night and introduced senator biden, a survivor of sandy hook, is just one example. march for our lives emanating from parkland. all of the young people who are demonstrating that positive energy that is so critical and important in advancing this movement, they are showing awe-inspiring hope and grace. junior new town action line,

another example. the community of sandy hook has responded with dazzling strength and courage. that community has not only rallied around the loved ones who have experienced unspeakable loss, but they have helped support the charitable and nonprofits that those families formed in the wake of those losses. they have truly chosen love. those families, many of them, have established foundations and nonprofits that benefit music, art, education, scholarships for students, animal sanctuaries. i've worked with the jesse louis choose love movement started by scarlet louis louis, the sandy hook promise organization started by the barden family.

ben's lighthouse, the emilie parker art foundation, the vicky soto memorial fund just a couple of weeks ago had a run in this stratford, a 5k, to benefit the great work it's doing on scholarships. the anna grace scholarship -- the list goes on. it is a part of this story because sandy hook is the story not only of social change and legal and legislative reform, it is also an intensely personal story about grace and grit, about courage and strength, and about a personal dedication to making good come of that unimaginable horror and evil on

that day. and sandy hook in connecticut is also the story about peacekeepers, a new generation of peacekeepers, uppeople who are dedicated -- young people who are dedicated in hartford through a collaborative, graduates of the brother carl hedrick institute, who are trying to reach out to others of their age and stop gun violence before it begins by enlisting others in peacekeeping and intervention, and that is also the result of the bipartisan safer communities act, because the investment of $15 billion in mental health and crisis intervention and community organization is at the end of the day a critical part of stopping gun violence.

the survivors club, as someone has said, is one that no one wants to join. the survivors club of gun violence is a network that no one wants to be a part of personally. and yet as long as the violence continues, there will be survivors and loved ones like the great and graceful families of sandy hook. and, as our heart goes out to them on this day, we should keep in mind in our hearts the need to honor with action, continuing action. they are doing their job -- police, teachers, medical professionals, parents, all of

the professionals are doing their job. congress must do its job. the time is for action, more action now. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor to my colleague from connecticut, who's been such a champion in in this -- in this effort, senator murphy. mr. murphy: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. murphy: thank you, mr. president. jimmy green and his wife lost a daughter in sandy hook. jimmy said this, leading up to the ten-year mark of the shooting in new town that we are commemorating today. he said, there's a saying in our culture, that time heals our wounds. but i wouldn't say that's true in my case. senator blumenthal and i have

been down here on december 14 nine years in a row. senator blumenthal and i have given hundreds of speeches on this floor in the intervening days and months between those anniversaries talking about what happened in sandy hook and trying to compel our colleagues to action. but there's nothing that we can say that explains through words the feeling of cataclysmic loss when you lose a child, a 6-year-old or a 7-year-old or an 18-year-old or a 19-year-old. senator blumenthal and i were there at that firehouse in sandy hook that day. there were a lot of days where i wish i hadn't heard and seen the things that i saw and heard that

day. but we were vowiers. we were interlopers. there's no way that we can understand what those families are going through today, as the pain still feels for many as acute as it did ten years ago. and so senator blumenthal, i think it's important to come down here and honor the memory of those children and those six educators every year on december 14. but i also know that there's nothing that i can do with words to explain you to how different the community of sandy hook is and how those lives will never, ever be the same. and i guess i come to this day every year with two emotions, right -- one of just deep sorrow, just to think about who

those kids were going to become. senator blumenthal and i have gotten to know so much about these kids. i know more about those 20 6-year-old kids than i probably know about any other 6-year-olds over my lifetime. i think love those kids. i see the genius in them. they were always doing such miraculous things, showing such kindness, showing such talent. to think that those kids would today be preparing for college, deciding where they wanted to open up their next chapter, to think of what has been stolen from this world. my sorrow is also due to the fact that while this nation is

different today than it was before sandy hook, while the country now compels us to action -- there are groups all over the country dedicated to trying to change the laws of this country to make sandy hook less likely -- this was happening before sandy hook. sandy hook was the first shooting of little kids in school of this size. but a few weeks ago sandy hook happened, senator blumenthal and i went to do a community meeting in the north end of hartford. and there we met parents of children who had been killed on the streets of hartford that were furious, and even more furious after sandy hook. they told us, nobody can relate to those families in sandy hook more than we can, right? we lost children just like they lost chip -- children.

but why did this country wait until sandy hook to open their eyes to the violence of gun violence. my sorrow is for what we lost ten years ago today, those kids and those educators, those teachers. but also my sorrow today is for the fact that it took sandy hook to wake this country up to what had been happening in front of us every single day, and to really understand the gravity of sandy hook, you can't just think about those kids. right? that's at worst part of this by leaps and bounds. but there are survivors, there are children who witnessed those shootings, there are family members that experienced deep

trauma. there are first responders who will never be the same after having to sort through that carnage. and sandy hook is a window into the particular grief that comes with losing someone to gun violence, especially someone young, but also the broad, sweeping trauma that comes with a shooting of 20 or one. and that's the important thing to understand today as well, that our love needs to go to those families, first and foremost, but also to the entire community of new town. but so must it go to the broader experience of gun violence. i live in hartford, connecticut, i live in the south end of hartford, a neighborhood adjacent to the south end of hartford. i hear every night the whizzing of ambulances and police cars by

my house. i met with middle schoolers at this school just a few weeks ago just to kind of talk with these kids about what they wanted to change about the neighborhood that we live n you know what they wanted to talk to me about? they wanted to talk to me about their walk to and from school. they wanted to talk about how dangerous it is for them to walk from their house to the school that they go to. and how every single day they are experiencing a trauma that many people that grow up in the suburbs or rural areas of this country will never experience once in their life these kids experience every single day. that's the true story of american gun violence, not just those that lose their lives but this much bigger universe of millions of individuals who experience trauma either through the loss, through the firsthand experience of gun violence or through the daily threat of gun violence.

and so my pain is for what we lost that day, my pain is for the delayed reaction of this country in waking up to this epidemic, my pain is for the broader community of kids and individuals who have to live with the consequences of our inaction, but i just simply want to underscore something senator blumenthal said as well. i also come to this day with a lot of joy, a lot of joy for what we have found that lies inside each of us, right? out of sandy hook came kindness and grace. senator blumenthal rattled off a list of not-for-profit organizations, charitable causes that have sprung forth from those families in sandy hook, the amount of money that's been

raised to try to make people's lives better in big ways and small ways. i come to this day with a lot of gratitude for the community of sandy hook for deciding to take that awful tragedy and turning it into something wonderful. there are small little charities that started out of sandy hook based upon the passions of those kids, kids who loved art or loved animals. there are now charitable organizations that give more kids, especially more underserved kids, access to art and experience with animals. there are big organizations that are, you know, seeking to change the culture of schools, to make sure that you don't have situations in which individuals who are going through mental illness or trauma find themselves isolated and ostracized in the way that many

mass shooters become. so there's so much important work that is happening based off of that loss. i have joy for that, i do. i do. i also have gratitude for all the people who have stepped up and been part of this movement to change the laws of this country. i get it that people didn't see results here for ten years until this summer. but senator blumenthal and i and others, senator durbin, that have been working this issue for a decade, we saw that small but meaningful progress every single year. every single year a couple more partners, especially on the rblg side, were -- on the republican side were willing to talk to us about change. it became more likely we'd finally pass something. then finally, this summer, almost ten years to the day of the tragedy at sandy hook, we passed the most significant anti-gun violence measure in congress in 30 years. i got a briefing from the

department of justice, as did senator tillis and senator cornyn, just a few weeks ago, and we were shown evidence that this law that we passed collectively is already saving lives. we were given cases in which individuals who would have gotten a gun, who were in crisis, who were contemplating violence, did not get a gun because of the law that we passed together. so what we have done isn't enough, it doesn't be a solve us of the responsibility to do more, but it is saving lives. and this day for me comes with gratitude and joy for all of the people all across this country, especially those people in new town who decided to be part of this movement, which allowed us to pass legislation this summer, which is as we speak saving lives all around this country. my sorrow and my joy that i

bring to this day, it's through my perspective as the representative of newtown. i was the congressman from newtown for six years. i had just been elected to the senate about a month prior, when sandy hook happened. but it is also due to my perspective as a parent. my kids are amongst this generation that has grown up knowing nothing except for the threat of a mass shooting. i'll never forget my kindergartner, who's now a fifth grader, coming home and telling me about his first active shooter drill. he didn't exactly know what it was, right, he was 5 years old. he said, dad, my teacher told us all to go to the bathroom today, all of us, all 26 of us. she packed us into the bathroom. he described the fact that they were standing in the bathroom,

all tight together like sardines. and he said she told us we were practicing for what would happen if a bad man came into our building, and she told us to stay there and be quiet for as long as we could. he didn't really know what it was, but he knew enough to say to me this, he said, daddy, i didn't like it. my older son texted a few weeks ago to tell us that his school was in a lockdown because of a shooting outside. two hours those kids sat in that school until they were released. and my kids, i think, are proud of fact that their dad comes to work every day trying to solve for this pandemic, but there's no way to really calculate what this generation of kids is

losing, every single day, by living in fear. i think what we did this summer really helped, though. i say that honestly. some people said it's not enough, right? you have to go further. what we communicated this summer to those kids, and to parents, is that we care. our answer isn't nothing. right? so as much as i experienced this as a father, i also know that we've made progress, and that progress has been logistical and practical, but it's also been metaphysical, it's been emotional. what we did this summer just gave kids in this country, parent in this country, a little bit of a feeling that we're going to be there for them, and hopefully more in the future. i'm grateful to be on the floor with my colleague today,

commemorating everything that we lost in sandy hook, thanking the community members in sandy hook for standing up and showing the world the best part of that community. i'm grateful to my colleagues this year for turning a page, turning a corner in our obligation to keep our kids safe. and senator blumenthal and i will be here for the 11th anniversary, and the 12th, and the 13th, and hopefully we will have more progress to discuss, we'll have more positive change brought to this country by the families of sandy hook. robby parker and his wife lost their little daughter, emilie.

emilie was so cute. 6 years old when she died. robby said this, robby said, we've learned how to hold on to two things. we can enjoy the things that make us happy, robby says about his family, the parkers, and we can also carry the pain of losing someone and the sorrow that comes with that. it's okay to feel both things today. it's okay to feel pain for what happened in sandy hook, but don't let that consume you. because the parkers aren't letting it consume them. jimmy greene will tell you that time has not healed his wounds. but i know melba and jimmy. i know that they bring a lot of joy every day. so, feel pain today, feel sorrow, think about those families, but, man, bring some

life and some grace. make a decision that in your world you're going to honor those kids and those adults' memories with some action, because i guess that's what i think about most today. i'm sad for what we lost, but i'm also inspired and hopeful for all the grace and kindness that has grown out of this tragedy. i also realize, maybe more than anything else today, we should recognize that nothing in our life that we love should be taken for granted. it can all disappear in an instance. so show that daily grace and kindness necessary to communicate to your loved ones, to your friends, to your community that you don't take them for granted. i yield the floor.

mr. murphy: mr. president, i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

mr. cardin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. mr. cardin: i would ask consent that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. cardin: mr. president, in 2022, america approaches its semisesquintennial. the united states of america stands at a crossroads. disturbingly, after the

janujanuary 6 insurrection of te capitol, which sought to block the transfer of power after a free and fair election, a growing number of americans believes violence against government can be justified, according to polling. we have witnessed the disturbing rise of threats again law enforcement officials from various domestic violence extremist groups, as well as against public officials, such as school board officials and election workers that are simply doing their job. we must condemn acts of violence from all corners and prosecute those who seek to harm public officials to the fullest extent of the law. we've also witnessed the rise of election deniers. in the 2022 midterm elections, which repeat the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and they pledge their loyalty to a particular candidate or ideology instead of the rule of law. mr. president, we've seen a rise

of violent actions, rise of anti-semitism, a rise of hate crimes, and it is very much connected to the assault on our democratic institutions. all of us must be defenders of the democratic institutions that are the bedrock of america. as we saw in the 2022 elections, different interpretations of the electoral count act of 1887 can lead down a dangerous path, such as when former president donald trtrump and his enablers attempd to overthrow the election won by joe biden. we were there. we were in harm's way. we know exactly how violent that group of insurrectionists were. president trump's latest outrage is to talk about sus pentagon the constitution because he lost the election. free-and-fair elections and the

peaceful transfer of power are fundamental to who we are as a nation. for this reason, several months ago i joined a bipartisan working group of roughly 20 senators to make urgent changes to our presidential election processes. i am pleased that in july of 2022 our group reached a bipartisan agreement to modernize the electoral count act, eca, of 1887, and make other needed changes to improve the presidential transition process. our bipartisan working group legislative proposal, the electoral count referral act, clarifies the appropriate state and federal roles in selecting the president and vice president of the united states. it makes it easier for congress to identify a single conclusive slate of electors from each state, in part by requiring states to follow the rules they set before the election, when designating their electors.

we reiterate that the vice president has a purely ceremonial function in the mandatory joint session of congress to count the electoral votes. this was in direct response to president trump's pressure campaign against vice president mike pence to throw out the electoral votes from certain states, which enabled and led to the january 6 insurrection and attack on the capitol. we also increased the threshold needed to lodge objections against electoral votes to lessen the chance of frivolous objections in the future. and our legislation has a strong provision for expedited federal judicial review to involve legal challenges more feecially before the lech toacial college -- electoral college meets. i want to thank joe man comin for leading this effort as well as other working group members, senator portman, romney, shaheen, murphy, capito,

young, coons and sasse. this is how the senate should operate. our working group made several additional useful recommendations as part of the presidential transition improvement act and enhance election security and protection act. this legislation will strengthen presidential transition, improve the u.s. postal services handling of election mail, stiffen criminal penalties for those who intimidate election officials and reauthorize the election assistance commission. the election assistance commission helps administer grants to state that provides the best practices for election officials in various areas, including cybersecurity, election audits and voting accessibility. i'm pleased that the senate rules committee promptly held a hearing on our legislative proposal and that our legislation has been endorsed by a broad and diverse coalition of public interest groups. in particular, i want to thank chair klobuchar and ranking member blunt for making this

proposal earlier this year and marking it up in their committee. i am pleased that the senate rules and administration committee-reported out the legislation by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 14-1 in september of 2022. the committee made improvements in their legislation. again, that's how the process should work under the leadership of senator klobuchar and blunt. i'm also pleased that the legislation has been cosponsored by our leaders, leader schumer and leader mcconnell. it's now time for the senate to act. our legislation s. 4573 now has a strong bipartisan mix of 37 cosponsors. we must enact these reforms this month before the 118th congress convenes in 2023. we all know that the presidential election cycle starts early, and we must make sure that this law is enacted before we start in 2023.

as my dear friend, the late congressman john lewis said, democracy is not a state. it is an act, and each generation must do its part. i urge every marylander and american to get involved, stand up for our democratic system of government and the rule of law. congress should act now to make sure that the lawful and rightful winner of the 2024 election, presidential election is ultimately certified as the winner by the states and congress. we cannot fail in this solemn duty to do everything we can to prevent another insurrection like we saw on january 6. we should have -- it showed how fragile our democracy really is. we have an obligation to defend it together as we continue our great american experiment with a democratic republic that serves as a beacon of freedom and human rights throughout the world. with that, mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. durbin: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: it was ten years ago today. when i first heard the news i couldn't believe it. and then as i heard the details and learned of what had happened in connecticut, i thought to myself this is the moment. this shooting is so outrageous and horrible, this is the moment when finally america will come to grips with the reality of gun violence. what i'm referring to of course was the sandy hook elementary school. it was ten years ago today, 20 beautiful little children and

six teachers and staff murdered in the classroom at this grade school. i thought this was it. all of the gun violence and all the gun deaths notwithstanding, this will do it. it's the tipping point. america will come to the honest reality that gun violence is unacceptable and will do something about it. other nations have done something. other nations that have had incidents like this, maybe even fewer victims, have decided to change their nation's laws, and they've done so, and they made their nation safer because of it. we're with -- we're gathering here this morning at the request of senator chris murphy of connecticut to remember what happened ten years ago. senator murphy was with the families of sandy hook, as was senator blumenthal, when they learned of the children's fate.

can you imagine being the parent of one of these little kids and being asked to wait in a building across the street while they looked at the remains of these children and tried to identify them with their parents? i don't know if i'd ever recover from that as a parent or a grandparent. senator murphy and senator blumenthal tried to give the families comfort. i can't imagine that assignment. they both have brought much more than sorrow to this cause. since that shooting ten years ago, they have brought a fierce resolve to do something about it and to end the horrific carnage of gun violence in america. this has been an important year for gun safety in this congress. after the racism-fueled mass murders in a grocery store in

buffalo, new york, after the slaughter of 19 little children and 2 teachers in their elementary school in uvalde, texas, congress passed the most significant gun safety law in 30 years, the bipartisan safer communities act, and the senate did something that hadn't been done for seven years. we actually confirmed a director for the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives. that's a position the gun lobby had fought to keep open and unfilled for seven years. we have a man on the job now. so we made some progress, but we have a lot more to do. the american people want us to do more. mr. president, it's hard to say in this great nation that we've been blessed to live in that we are the only, only nation on earth that accepts these

horrifying levels of gun violence on a daily basis and mass shootings. a mass shooting is a shooting where at least four and sometimes more people are shot or killed. many times because of the repetition of this horrific conduct, we think it's inevitable, unpreventable, in america shrug our shoulders and say that's what happens in the united states of america. just in the category of fatal shootings in schools, kindergarten through 12th grade schools, how many fatal shootings have taken place in america in those schools in the ten years since sandy hook? 189. 189 school shootings since sandy

hook in america. gun violence is now the leading cause of death of american children. think about that for a second. the leading cause of death. every year more than 3,000 children and teens die by firearms. 3,000 a year. another 15,000 are wounded. and more than three million american children are exposed to gun violence every year. for many of these kids, the trauma of seeing friends, parents, siblings, classmates shot may result in lifelong damage to their physical, mental, and emotional health. that's what trauma does to the survivors. this past june, two weeks after their ten-year-old daughter lexi was murdered at rob elementary school in uvalde, kimberly and

felix rubio testified in the house committee on oversight and reform. in their testimony, lexi's mom kimberly issued a prophetic warning. she said there's a mom listening to our testimony thinking i cannot imagine the pain that family is going through, not knowing that our pain will one day be their pain unless we do something. and while school massacres and other mass shootings tend to capture the nation's attention, there are tens of thousands of americans who die every year from the daily toll of gun violence, and many of these deaths barely make the news, they're so commonplace in modern america. they die in suicides, gun accidents alone, small groups, domestic disturbances, gang disputes crossfire. there is no other corner of the country, no corner of the country that hasn't been impacted by gun violence epidemics. some of the politicians like to point and say, oh, chicago has

got all the problems. sadly, that's not the case. we all face these problems. there are many so-called red states who vote on the other side politically that have terrible gunshot and violence statistics. it affects red states and blue states, big cities, suburbs, small towns, you name it. america is awash in guns and gun violence. so far this year in the city of chicago, so far 2,718 shootings have taken place. according to the "chicago sun-times" tracker, 88 of those killed by guns in chicago this year were children. last sunday i was at a vigil in hyde park, a section of chicago, at a lutheran church. we come together each year to pray for an end to this gun violence. but we know in our heart of

hearts prayer is not enough. i believe the good lord expects us to pray but expects us to take action too. the senate judiciary committee, which i chair, has held 11 hearings on gun violence in these last two years. we've heard from a lot of witnesses. one i remember was earnest willingham from the west side of chicago. after the cabrini greenhousing project towers were tender down, earnest and his family moved to the west side of town. before he was 17 earnest's father, brother, and cousin had all been shot. a few years ago he lost his best friend to a stray bullet. despite the horror around him, earnest became the first in his family to go to college. he's now a premed student at northeastern university in boston. he's been accepted to medical school. earnest said that when he grew up, young people, quote, attend

a lot more funerals than weddings, and parents live in constant fear that their kid will be the next victim. since sandy hook, millions of americans have advocated to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and people with mental instability and to protect their kids, but the gun lobby has worked to put more guns in more hands across america. many gun manufacturers and sellers have launched aggressive marketing campaigns for their deadly guns. one of the more notorious ads showed a photo of an assault weapon. that's a military-sometime weapon, with the words under -- a military style weapon with the words under it consider your man card reissued. it was a bushmaster, the same kind of semiautomatic assault rifle used to commit that mass murder at sandy hook elementary school. consider your man card reissued.

another ad showed soldiers in combat with the words use what they use. use the same weapons that soldiers and marines use in combat, but use them here in america. the ad came from a company called daniel defense, the manufacturer of one of the semiautomatic assault rifles used to murder those 19 little kids and teachers at uvalde. it gets worse. ar-15's and ar style weapons have become the weapon of choice for mass shootings. this is an ad for a jr-15, a junior model of the ar-15. 20% smaller and lighter. it's designed for children, children under the age of 18. look at the logos in this ad.

i hope you can see them. they are also on the weapon. this gun manufacturer uses cartoon skulls sucking on pacifiers to try to hook children on using military-style assault weapons. if i made that statement without this ad, you'd say durbin is making up a lie, that can't be true. they really want to sell these guns to little kids? and they have them festooned with these images that children will find interesting. 6 on july 4, this year, a 21-year-old with a smith & wesson ar-15 military-tile rifle, -- style rifle went up on a roof rooftop in highland park, illinois.

this is an idyllic place, a great community and a 4th of july parade is like a rite of passage. you are there to enjoy the bands and enjoy every single moment of it. this 4th of july that we just witnessed was different. up on top of the roof, he pulled out his ar-15, he fired off 83 rounds in less than a minute. don't tell me about good shooters with guns that stop bad guys, there were good guys with gun all over the place in uniform with firearms by their side. what could they do in the 60 seconds he fired off 80 rounds? nothing to stop him. that gunman killed seven people and injured dozens more. he left a 2-year-old boy, aiden

mccarthy, an orphan. he killed his mother and father. he paralyzed an 8-year-old boy that severed his spine. this was the 309th mass shooting in america in 2022. do you know how many we've had since the 4th of july? we had gone with 30 the 9 -- 309 on the 4th of july to 620 mass shootings in the united states of america this year. not every shooting is committed with an assault weapon, but if a gunman wants to cause mass harm, assault weapons are the weapons of choice. and you ought to see, if you haven't already, the "60 minute" segment of what happens to the human body when it is hit by a

bullet from one of these guns. it doesn't pass through cleanly and neatly, it does damage which is almost impossible to repair. doctors know the harm these bullets cause when they tear through the flesh. they don't just tear bones and organs, they pull varrize them. i support banning assault weapons except for military use. it is time to ban them again. military-assault weapons belong in the hands of the military, not in the hands of an 18 or 19-year-old on a roof in highland park firing off 83 rounds in less than 60 seconds. one other point. federal law gives the firearm industry broad and unjustifiable liberty. i am embarrassed to say that the laws of the united states protect the manufacturers of

these weapons from liability. there may be a way around that, and i hope there is. firearm manufacturers should not have a license to recklessly peddle high-powered killing machines to those who shouldn't have them. they should be held accountable. every other product in america is held accountable. why do guns get off the hook? the brave families of sandy hook took assault weapon manufacturer to court for their marketing practices. the families prevailed, leading to a landmark settlement earlier this year. congress should do more to allow victims of gun violence and netion to seek justice -- nelings negligence in our court, if naming and shaimg doesn't work, a day in court might. as we mark that grim day ten years ago in newtown,

connecticut, we need to do more to protect our kids, more to prevent mass shootings, more to reduce the shootings in our homes and neighborhoods. our work is not done, families in america are counting on us. let's do something. let's stop this carnage in america. mr. president, i yield the floor.

mr. wyden: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: mr. president, in a moment i intend to put forward a unanimous consent request to pass my bipartisan bill with our colleague from utah, senator lee, entitled the protect reporters from excessive state suppression act, also known as the press act. before i make the unanimous consent request, i want to take just a few minutes to talk about why our colleague from utah, senator lee, and i feel this legislation is so important. and i'll start with the basic

proposition behind the legislation. if you don't have a free press, you don't have a democracy. my dad was a journalist after fleeing the nazis he came to this country. he taught himself english, worked in our army developing propaganda we dropped on the nazis, and you believe deeply in individual freedom and press freedom and would always tell me, ron, they go hand in hand. if you want to see what happens when government undermines and limit the free press, look at russia, look at saudi arabia, look at iran. information became a tool of power, abuse, and manipulation. that's what governments do when they want to keep freedom from breaking out in their countries.

and so abuse power rather than promote education, expression, and enlightenment among the countryside and the people. so let's be clear, the threat of government overreach interfering with the free press of the united states is not some distance, far-off hypothetical idea. it happened very recently. the trump administration spied on several journalists at outlets that disgraced the ex-president disliked and attacked phones and e-mails. this has come out in shocking revelations over the last few years. let me emphasize, the trump administration was not the first to do this sort of thing. both the trump administration and the obama administration went too far in prosecuting

journalists just for doing their jobs. members of the senate talk pretty frequently about their interest in protecting journalism in america. my view is the bipartisan press act is the best opportunity we have to make progress on that goal before the congress ends and we all hope that that is fairly shortly. the press act would protect the free flow of information by she woulding -- shielding journalists by the court to give up their sources. it does have key exceptions, such as when that information is necessary to prevent an act of terrorism against of united states or necessary to prevent the threat of imminent violence. those exceptions are very important to senator lee and i. i see our colleague here from arkansas. he and i serve on the select

committee on intelligence, so we know about the importance of protecting our country against terrorism. this legislation is very similar to legislation already on the books in several states, including my home state of oregon and senator lee's home state of utah. it's our view, though, that these protections should extend from sea to shinning sea in our great country. now i'll close by saying this is a proposal that brings both sides together. the house passed the press act a few months ago unanimously, and i think our colleagues would agree that sometimes these days it seems you can't get every member of the house to even agree that there are 24 hours in a day and seven days a week. yet, they passed our bill unanimously. this is a can't miss opportunity

to protect the free press in america. it's good for the free flow of information, it's good for holding government athe accountable, -- government accountable and it's good for the democratic ideals on which this country was founded. i'll just close by saying, if you read the writings of the founding fathers, it was almost as if they thought a free press was as important, if not more so, than government. that's how strongly they felt. so let's pass the unanimous consent request when we make it. let's send the press act to the president's desk today, and i will now ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 4330, the senate proceed to it's immediate

consideration, further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? mr. cotton: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas. mr. cotton: reserving the right to object. and i will. i want to make a few brief remarks about why i object to the passage of this bill, the so-called press act, which would open up a flood gait of -- floodgate of leaks. the press has a long and sorted history of publishing information from inside the government that damages our national security. during the vietnam war the pentagon papers were printed in an effort for the to turn the american people against the war effort. during the wars in iraq and afghanistan, there were details about efforts to hunt down terrorists, which helped our enemies cover their tracks. these leaks were reckless and

harmful. the press act would keep the journalists from scrutiny and consequences. this bill would prohibit the government from compelling any individual who calls himself a journalist from disclosing the source or substance of such damaging leaks. this effectively would grant journalists special legal privileges to disclose sensitive information that no other citizen enjoys. it would treat the press as a special cast of crusaders for truth who are somehow set apart from their fellow citizens. but that's not how the law historically has treated journalists. our laws have always made clear that journalists can be held criminally liable for what they publish. in the pentagon's -- in the pentagon paper's case itself, a

kind of holy grail for the liberal media, justice white wrote, the press is, quote, on full notice of the position of the united states and must face the consequences if they publish material damaging to our national security. so while prior restraints were ruled out, consequences for violating the laws of our country remain necessary. and they remain necessary today as well. because moreover if recent history has taught us anything is that too many journalists are little more than left-wing activists who are at best ambivalent about america and who are cavalier about our security and about the truth. for instance, as the publisher of "the new york times" during the pentagon's paper case, arthur punch saltzberger wrote, i'm not sure what we offer the

vietnamese peasant or what their own leaders offer them is any better than what the communists offer. think about that for a minute. the publisher of "the new york times" whose family still controls it today couldn't see a difference between us, the united states, between democratic presidents, john fcht kennedy and lyndon baines johnson a and a murderous communist butcher. this is the kind of person we'd be giving special legal privileges to that no other citizen enjoys. supporters of this bill insists it's necessary to grant journalists this special kind of immunity in order to, quote, preserve the free flow of information to the public. but, of course, there are many legal avenues that whistle-blowers can use to ear

their concerns about potential misconduct. in the executive branch, they can go to their agencies' inspector general. they can also go through the office of special counsel and of course they can go to the proper oversight committee here in congress but differently there's no shortage of legitimate and legal avenues for whistle-blowers to unveil potential government misconduct. but this bill would allow any disgruntled bureaucrat totally unaccountable to democratic processes to circumvent these legitimate channels and go straight to the press relying on the highly questionable judgment and unaccountable judgment of these bureaucrats and reporters alone to determine whether america's most sensitive secrets should be revealed. finally, quite aside from all these grave concerns, this bill

hasn't been through the senate's usual process for debating and refining legislation and as i explained, it shows. it hasn't been through regular order. there have been no hearings, no markups, or even a previous effort to pass the bill on the floor to my knowledge. this bill needs to be thoroughly vetted before we take such a drastic step to ensure that we don't open a floodgate of damaging leaks to our national security. therefore, mr. president, i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from oregon. mr. wyden: i think the fact there's been an objection here is very unfortunate. i'm going to briefly respond. our colleague from arkansas has talked about the exceptions that are made in this bipartisan bill. and i would only say that the exceptions to make sure we could protect our country to deal with national security in this bill

were strong enough to get the support of 435 members of the house of representatives. and i said sometimes -- i look at the -- he and i were in the other body. sometimes you couldn't order a sef 7up but it got the support of every member of the house of representatives, all -- because they thought the exceptions made sense. secondly, my colleague from arkansas said this was somehow giving special status, special protection to the press in america. that's not accurate. this gives the press the kind of protection i believe the founding fathers would have supported because i've read their writings and saw what they had to say about the press and i've already noted it.

and then our colleague seemed to make the case that this was somehow for liberal journalists, not for journalists for moderate and conservatives but for liberal journalists. the legislation extends to people in the press across the political spectrum. there are no special fast-track arrangements for people of one philosophy or another. and that was something that was especially important to me, mr. president. i mentioned in my remarks my dad who fled the nad decides, taught -- nazis, taught himself english, served in our army. and he worked particularly after his service writing historical nonfiction. he wrote a very important book about the bay of pigs where he highlighted what really happened. and what i enjoyed so much about

my dad's book and what happened afterwards, the first person to call my dad because he said peter -- my dad was peter wyden -- you're writing the truth about what happened was the late congressman henry hyde of illinois, one of the most conservative members of the other body. and he and my dad struck up a fast friendship over the phone because they were interested in the facts. and that's what journalists do. they get the facts out. so i think it's unfortunate there's been an objection here on all of these points, these issues were considered by the other body. and 435 members of the other body said this is important for our country. this is important for getting

the facts out to the american people. unvarnished information, not information from the left, center, or right. unvarnished information. i just want to close, mr. president, by saying we're going to be back on this floor. we're going to push this again and again and again because at a crucial time in america where -- and i mentioned this has not been relegated to one administration or another. this has been happening too often. it happens in any kind of administration, any philosophy. it's time to end it. it's time to make sure that our free press is in a position to get the facts to the american people. we need this particular bipartisan effort, senator lee and i. and we will be back on this floor until we get it passed. i yield the floor. i'd note the absence of a qu

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

a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from south carolina. a senator: i'd like to vitiate the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. scott: thank you. my cra public charter schools is a simple vote today, is a vote for common sense. it's a vote for parents and it's a vote for kids. here's the truth. everywhere in america except for washington, d.c., this is an 80% issue. literally 68% of democrats, 67% of independents, 68% of african

americans, 72% of hispanics all agree with some form of school choice. this is simply a public charter school issue, stopping the biden administration from destroying one of the most important vehicles for human prosperity for the kids of our country. i urge my colleagues to vote yes. thank you, mr. president. mrs. murray: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from washington. mrs. murray: thank you, mr. president. i do know that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle support high quality charter schools because they are an important part of many states' public school system which is why i come to the floor today to urge my colleagues to vote against this resolution. i want to be clear. this resolution will cause unnecessary chaos, undermine simple accountability measures to ensure our federal funds are well spent, and delay funding from supporting new, high

quality charter schools and the students that they would serve. earlier this year after responding to over 25,000 comments from charter schools, parent organizations, and others, the biden administration issued their final rule laying out various criteria for federal charter school grants. this is a common step in administration traiting the charter school program, one the previous administration took as well. the latest rule included some commonsense ideas to increase community and parent involvement, to strengthen the fiscal transparency to make sure taxpayer dollars are being used properly.the goal is simple, to help make sure our federal dollars support high-quality charter schools. this would upend a balance rule that is the result of months of careful work from the department of education, and the biden administration has already used this rule to issue 12 awards

now, totaling $65 million across 11 states and it is currently now in the middle of a grant competition which charter school management organizations are now applying for. let's not disrupt the plans of mississippi, tennessee, and georgia and the other states who have already received awards under this new rule and who are counting on the funding. that is not fair. it's not good for schools, teachers, parents, or students. so, mr. president, i hope no one here wants to see our schools disrupted, accountability weakened or learning undermined. which is why i'm here to urge everyone to join me in voting against this resolution and to work with me and the department of education to continue to support high-quality charter schools while improving oversight and transparency of our federal funds. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. scott: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent for another 30

seconds. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. scott: thank you, sir. this issue is an issue of america's future and america's now. today our kids desperately need quality education from sea to shinning sea. this cra provides a -- [no audi] mr. scott: i urge my colleagues to vote yes. the presiding officer: under the previous, s.j. resolution 60 is considered read a third time. the question is on passage of the joint resolution. is there a sufficient second? there appears to be. the clerk will call the roll. vote:

vote:

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the presiding officer: on this vote, the yeas are 49, the nays are 49. the joint resolution is not agreed to. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination, which the clerk will report. the clerk: nomination,

department of state, francisco mora, of florida, to be permanent representative of the united states of america to the organization of american states with the rank of ambassador.

mr. booker: mr. president.

the presiding officer: the senator for new jersey. mr. booker: i ask unanimous consent that the senate consider the following nomination, calendar number 12 # 5, elizabeth frawly bagley to be ambassador of the united states of america to the republic of brazil. that the senate vote on the -- that the president be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: is there is objection? is there objection? without objection, the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: nomination, department of state, elizabeth frawly bagley, of florida, to be ambassador to the republic of brazil. the. the presiding officer: the question occurs on the nomination. all in favor say aye. opposed, no. the ayes appear to have it. the ayes do have it. the nomination is confirmed. the president will be notified

of the senate's action. mr. booker: thank you for that, mr. president. mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: i ask as if in legislative session, i ask unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged -- from further consideration of h.r. 2216, and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration and the bill be considered read a third time and passed on the motion. before i do this, i would like to read a brief statement, if i may, mr. president. the presiding officer: proceed. mr. booker: i'm really proud to be new jersey's junior senator, even more so i'm proud that i've called nuclear my home for most -- newark my home. i know that the president and presiding officer heard me talk about newark, we do not mistake

wealth with worth, with we know the value of goodness and decency. and a lot of my members of my community in the city of newark are black and brown folks and the special relationship they have to their hair denotes deep cultural traditions. if you go to my city, you will find different types of high styles, twists, braids and once -- what i once had afro, you will find barber shops aplenty dedicated to the beautiful upkeep of these hair styles. i love to go to a barber shop and sit with communities there and connect. i could talk about the role of barber shops in black and brown communities, they are incredible. i also want to say it's not always a source of joy.

at times the conversations turn to a deep source of hurt and pain. there's a decades long problematic practice of discrimination against natural hair in this country. it was brought to the forefront in 2018 when a new jersey student named andrew johnson was forced to cut his dreadlocks in the middle of a wrestling match. the entire ordeal was caught on camera, and as the scissors are brought out to cut andrew's hair, you can see the deep hurt and pain on the face of this young man. it's the pain felt by many. traumatic at times. hurtful experiences that make you question your very belonging in a community. the beauty of your hair, its natural style, your immutable character ritionics, your cultural beliefs, your connection to your heritage. no person in america should have to deal with this pain. that's why i stand here today urging this body to pass

legislation that is dear to my community's heart, dear to communities all across the country. it's named the creating a respectful and open world for natural hair act otherwise known as the crown act. this bill is ultimately a matter of justice. hair discrimination is real. it's continuing and a pernicious problem for black and brown people in our country. it can lead to loss employment opportunities. it can lead to violations of students' civil rights. in short it forces people to change parts of their very being so as to avoid harassment or punishment. a recent study from michigan state university found that black women are 50% more likely to be sent home from the workplace because of their hair. and 80% of black women feel the need to change their hair from its natural state to fit in at the office. another study from duke university found that black women with natural hairstyles

are less likely to land job interviews than white women or black women with straightened hair. many students other than andrew have had their civil rights violated. they've had -- there have been cases in schools which have changed their dress code midyear to place restrictions on hairstyles targeting black students with locks and expelling them from school when they refuse to cut their hair. although existing law prohibits some forms of hair discrimination as a type of racial or natural -- or national origin discrimination, federal courts at times have narrowly construed this protection in a way that has allowed schools, workplaces and other federal institutions to discriminate against people of african descent who wear certain types of natural or even protective

hairstyles. that's where the crown act comes in. this problematic piece of legislation is necessary. this legislation just clarifies the discrimination based on a hair texture or hairstyle that is commonly associated with a particular race or natural origin, including hair that is tightly coiled or tightly curled, locks, corn rows, twists, braids, knots, and afros is a prohibited form of discrimination. since the moment i first introduced the crown act with members of the congressional black caucus, while i'm grateful for their work and leadership, we've worked to build more support. the house passed in the house with broad bipartisan because of the strength of the lead of my colleague and friend from new jersey congresswoman bonnie watson coleman. here in the senate, senator collins has signed on to the bill making it a bipartisan effort. and it's an effort that

replicates what has already been done in 19 states, so-called blue states such as mine or california to so-called red states like nebraska, tennessee, and louisiana. at its core the crown act is a commonsense policy. it is legislation that further protects the civil rights of americans, but on a more profound and deeper level it is a celebration of what makes up the wonderful fabric of our nation, the rich cultural diversity and the connections people have to their very identity. we know the significance that hair plays for the communities that make up the diverse american fabric. for black folks hair is rooted in stories of strength and resistance. during the time of slavery in colombia, hair braiding was used to relay messages, including as a way to signal that one wanted to escape the lash of bondage. as one person eloquently

described, the hair of black women is a crown that tells a story, a story of struggle, triumph, pain, pride, and comfort. the crown act is a chance for us to make sure that story and the stories of so many other cultures are told, a chance to make sure that those stories aren't punished but become more of an integral part of the larger american story. it's a chance to make sure that those stories aren't stigmatized to the point that some have to make the difficult decision to change their natural hair just to have a chance to land a job, to succeed at school, or to escape discrimination overall. this is a chance for us to make for a more perfect union, to bend the arc of the nation just a little bit more towards justice, to end another chapter, another area of deplorable discrimination, which is why

today i ask for unanimous consent to pass the crown act. and so i guess as in legislative session, i now ask for unanimous consent that the judiciary committee be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 2116 and the senate proceed to its immediate consideration. further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. the presiding officer: is there objection? a senator: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from kentucky. mr. paul: reserving the right to object. we all agree that racial discrimination is not only wrong but illegal. the civil rights act of 1964 and other federal statutes prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. the supreme court found in the 1973 case mcdonald douglas corps s. res -- corporation vary

says greene that using a reason as a cover for discrimination is a violation of civil rights law. subsequently the protections sought by this bill are already provided for in federal law. using hairstyle as a pretext for racial discrimination is already illegal. but there is reason to believe that this bill is not ready for enactment. when the house judiciary committee considered this legislation, some members questioned whether this legislation would prevent certain hairstyles and lengths out of concern they may hinder a workplace safety or the ability to perform certain critical functions of the job. employers may require certain hairstyles so that personal protective equipment properly protects the wearer. many questions remain unanswered about whether this bill would prevent employers from imposing race neutral standards such as maintaining a hairstyle that makes it difficult to become caught in machinery on a factory floor or the ability to properly wear a helmet at a construction

site. this bill would make workers less safe, make it more difficult to start a business and provide jobs, and almost certainly result in experiencive litigation and overburdened courts. i object. the presiding officer: the objection is heard. mr. booker: ifd' like to say a couple of things. the presiding officer: the senator from new jersey. mr. booker: thank you very much for the recognition, mr. president, the presiding officer. i heard the point about workplace safety. this bill does not prohibit employers from addressing safety concerns. instead it accounts for employers' legal obligation to ensure workplace safety. written in the bill, section 6b of the bill expressly prohibits that the employment nondiscrimination provision shall be enforced in the same manner and by the same means, including with the same jurisdiction as if subsection was incorporated into title 7 of the civil rights act of 1964. in other words, employers will be no more burdened by this bill than they are under the current employment discrimination law.

under the long-standing burden shifting scheme applied by the courts in title 7 cases, the employer may defeat a discrimination claim bill asserting the workplace safety as a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for taking action against an employee with the burden then shifting to the employee to prove that the asserted reason was a pretext for discrimination. so this is addressed. and i appreciate that, but as was passed in a boldly bipartisan way, it was shown to be incorporated that certain in the bill itself. again, this is something that has been passed in states like tennessee and louisiana. this has been shown to have wide bipartisan support. it's shown to be needed in the federal context, and i'm hoping that we through continued deliberations can actually get that passed. mr. president, if i may have a leave to say one more thing.

thank you very much, mr. president. i'd like to just wish you a very merry christmas to the presiding officer. i appreciate the cheer and goodwill that is in this chamber. i look forward to happy holidays for everyone. thank you. the presiding officer: -- returns the greetings.

mr. burr: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from north carolina. mr. burr: mr. president, i rise today in the at the same time-honored tradition of giving my farewell remarks to the united states senate. this is an opportunity to thank my friends, my colleagues, the voters of north carolina who have supported me for 28 years through eight elections for the opportunity to serve and the ability to make a difference for my state and my country. 30 years ago i was a businessman with a happy family in winston-salem, north carolina, who decided things in washington, d.c., weren't working exactly right. so i decided to run for congress in an effort to help make that

change for that better. my reason for running was a concern for the future for my two young sons and others of their generation. i lost that first race for the house in 1992, and i took it in stride thinking i've done my best shot. it was meant to be. not a politician. i'd never run for office before or been involved in politics except to vote. but by 1994, as congress was still raising taxes and increasing the deficit at the same time, i decided i had to try again to bring some common sense to how things were being decided in our nation's capital. so i threw my hat in the ring again. i was elected to the house of representatives. i was surrounded by 73 other new members with a new majority and an opportunity to make new friends. i met three people who are now some of my closest friends --

john boehner, system of axby chambliss. every year since they've left, their wives, debbie boehner, julie ann chambliss and kathy have traveled in friendship. i'm grateful and proud we're so incredibly close, and i thank all of them today. you suppose boehner is crying by now? [laughter] mr. burr: we have all made new friends in congress. not a day goes by, not a day, that i don't miss my good friend, tom coburn. i have his nameplate in my office from the intel committee to remind me the lessons that tom gave all of us and for the example he set as a member of

the senate. now, from that class of 1994, only three of us are left -- roger, lindsey, and me. and my time is short. the contract with america created a new majority. newt gingrich and frank luntz crafted our message to the american people. we came with a commitment not to leave for 100 days until we started to change the course of american government. then this seemed like a small sacrifice fora transformation -- for a transformation i saw as imminent. we worked day and night before we found the bathroom or permanent housing. every member had a different story and reason for running but we were elected to fix congress. being one out of 435 members has a sobering impact. for many, our new committee

assignments taught us that we weren't quite as smart as we thought. winning elections was hard. thoughtful policymaking was even harder. i decided early on that the energy and commerce committee is where i'd spend the majority of my time and focus. much can be said for the value of institutional knowledge, but there weren't any republicans who knew what to do in the majority since none of us had ever served in the majority. john dingell was the outgoing chair of the committee and, quite honestly, john could have ignored the new republicans and been upset about the new election taking his gavel away. instead, he took me under his wing. john taught me many lessons about hearings, about oversight, about how to focus on important topics and, more importantly, how the work in washington really gets done. he advised is me to spend my time listening, so i did. i came to the committee hearings and i learned from the experts.

i was doing so much at one time, i realized that family time was too often ignored. i cannot express how much appreciation for the love and the support of my family to let me have this incredible experience. brook and i have lived apart for 28 years. outside of the congressional recesses or a few trips every monday i have had to wake up just like you and know i had to fly back to washington to cast a vote. i look forward to being home with the lost of -- with the love of my life. our country went through some major events including 9/11, the wars in afghanistan and iraq which still ripples through our foreign policy and domestic policy today. the anthrax attacks which opened my eyes as to how unprepared our

country was for the threat of bioterrorism and inspired my work to create the national preparedness and response framework. the impeachment of president clinton -- only the second time a president had been impeached in the history of our country in the house. i had the opportunity to work on a lot of legislation, but issues i'm most proud of is bipartisan legislation to end the tobacco quota, the start of my biodefense work with the national defense medical system and the smallpox vaccine program when we created the department of homeland security. especially the food and drug modernization act, or fodama, as many of us know. guarding our nation's freedoms was as important then as it remains today. standing at ground zero just a few days after the awful attacks in new york, washington, and pennsylvania made it clear to me that we could never let down our

guard against those who hate our country and hate our freedoms. serving on the house and senate intelligence committee has made me guarded -- committed to protecting the country. when i decided to run for for the senate, little about i know how grueling the campaign would be. running a statewide race against erskine bowles was never going to be easy. erskine had experience, money, and a built-in network. i had a lot of energy and determination to win. our campaign was downright civil compared to what we've seen in this recent years and after the election erskine and i came lifetime, longtime friendsment. we remain that way today, and i appreciate erskine bowles for his continued service to our state of north carolina and to the country. in my 18 years in the senate, we've lived through some major events as well. the financial crisis of 2009,

the ebola outbreak of 2014, a global pandemic, and i might say the third and fourth impeachments of a president of the united states. the illegal and the immoral invasion of ukraine. in the senate, any senator can work on any legislation they want, but in particular i'd like to mention just a few -- the pandemic and all-hazards bill, the able act to help families with children with disabilities save for the future, the child care development block grant reauthorization to help families afford quality child care, the veterans choice act to help veterans get the health care they deserve, making permanent the funding for the land and water conservation fund, the ryan white care act to make the successful program more equitable for americans living with hiv-aids. the emmett till unsolved civil

rights crimes bill which helps investigators work to discover the truth and seek the justice for families of victims of civil rights-era cold cases. and years' worth of annual intelligence agency authorization bills, usually the most bipartisan bills that move through this body are often misunderstood and mischaracterized. far from being a congressional blank check to the intelligence community, they represent an annual congressional exercise to guide and direct the intelligence committee. -- intelligence community. these bills are the most bipartisan products of ongoing, rigorous oversight. those who block or obstruct or otherwise delay these bills are not empowering the people they think they are. while i'm proud of all these bills and more, i want to highlight the work that i've done to build the architecture of the nation's pandemic and biologic preparedness system. in particular, the creation of

the biomedical advanced research development authority, barda. accelerating the development of medical countermeasures helps us all meet the oath we swore to protect the safety and security of the american people. without barda, we wouldn't have had the tools to deal with anthrax, smallpox, radiological or nuclear threats. we wouldn't have developed the covid vaccines as rapidly. we wouldn't be on the leading edge of science, and we would instead be falling further and further behind. this infrastructure works because we made it flexible, we made it adaptable to whatever the current threat may be. my greatest frustration is that administration after administration seems to think they need to reinvent the wheel instead of picking up the tools that congress has already laid on the table and built to handle emergencies. i hope one lesson we've learned

from covid is exactly how valuable barda is. i've been especially fortunate to serve on three of the most consequential committees in the united states senate -- intelligence where i continue to my service from the house and the senate eventually becoming chair; finance which governs or tax code and much of our health care programs; and the health, education, labor, and pensions committee where i currently serve as the ranking republican and have focused on our public health threat preparedness and response infrastructure in modernizing the fda, cdc and nih. i thank my chairman, senator murray. i've developed a deep friendship with mark warner and so many of my colleagues. we were great partners during our investigation of russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and our shared passion

for oversight of the intelligence community has made them better, more responsive, and our country safer. mark, i'm going to miss that work with you. i'd also like to offer my deepest thanks and proud affection for the men and women of the intelligence community. from the junior analyst to the station chiefs in d.c. and around the world, the thing that has always stood out is there love of country, their commitment to mission, to keep the american people safe and our country secure. it's easy to focus on their so-called intelligence failures, which are more actually policy failures, and we don't get to talk about their successes, but that's what enables them to keep doing the work they do successfully, to keep us safe. it's a rare opportunity to praise them for a job well done. so to all of